The Project Gutenberg EBook of The 2006 CIA World Factbook, by United States

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net


Title: The 2006 CIA World Factbook

Author: United States

Release Date: December 12, 2008 [EBook #27509]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 2006 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ***




Produced by Al Haines






THE CIA WORLD FACTBOOK 2006




CONTENTS


Countries and Locations

Field Listings

Rank Orders

Appendixes

Notes and Definitions

History of The World Factbook

Contributors and Copyright Information

Purchasing Information

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)



=====================================================================


What's New

- Country information has been updated as of 19 December 2006.

- There have been some significant changes to the latest edition of
The World Factbook. The successful secession referendum held in
Montenegro in May of 2006 allowed it to legally leave its union
with Serbia the following month. These two Balkan countries have now
been formally recognized and are listed separately in the Factbook.

- In the Government category, the 'Capital' entry has been greatly
expanded and now contains up to four subfields, including significant
new information having to do with time. The subfields consist of the
name of the capital itself, its geographic coordinates, the time
difference at the capital from coordinated universal time (UTC), and,
if applicable, information on daylight saving time (DST). Where
appropriate, a special note has been added to highlight those
countries that have multiple time zones.

- The Transnational issues category now has a "Trafficking in persons"
entry. Human trafficking connotes modern-day slavery and this important
new field will include information on the most egregious countries
(Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3) as listed in the US State Department's
annual report.

- A new Appendix G lists Weights and Measures. The appendix includes
information on mathematical notation and metric interrelationships,
as well as over 400 examples of standard conversion factors.

- Revision of some individual country maps, first introduced in the
2001 edition, is continued in this edition. Several regional maps
have also been updated to reflect boundary changes and place name
spelling changes.



=====================================================================



The World Factbook (2006) - Country Listing


[Transcriber's note: To search on a country in this file, prefix the
country's name with "@", e.g. "@Afghanistan".  "Afghanistan" will find
all occurrences; prefixing it with "@" will find the correct location.]




World


A

Afghanistan
Akrotiri
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Arctic Ocean
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Atlantic Ocean
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan


B

Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Baker Island
Bangladesh
Barbados
Bassas da India
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burma
Burundi


C

Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Clipperton Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the
Cook Islands
Coral Sea Islands
Costa Rica
Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic


D

Denmark
Dhekelia
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic


E

East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Europa Island
European Union entry follows Taiwan


F

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern and Antarctic Lands


G

Gabon
Gambia, The
Gaza Strip
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Glorioso Islands
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana


H

Haiti
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Holy See (Vatican City)
Honduras
Hong Kong
Howland Island
Hungary


I

Iceland
Iles Eparses
India
Indian Ocean
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy


J

Jamaica
Jan Mayen
Japan
Jarvis Island
Jersey
Johnston Atoll
Jordan
Juan de Nova Island


K

Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kingman Reef
Kiribati
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan


L

Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg


M

Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States of
Midway Islands
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique


N

Namibia
Nauru
Navassa Island
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway


O

Oman


P

Pacific Ocean
Pakistan
Palau
Palmyra Atoll
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paracel Islands
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn Islands
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico


Q

Qatar


R

Reunion
Romania
Russia
Rwanda


S

Saint Helena
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Southern Ocean
Spain
Spratly Islands
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria


T

Taiwan entry follows Zimbabwe
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tromelin Island
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu


U

Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
Uruguay
Uzbekistan


V

Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands


W

Wake Island
Wallis and Futuna
West Bank
Western Sahara


Y

Yemen


Z

Zambia
Zimbabwe



Taiwan
European Union



=====================================================================



Field Listings


[Transcriber's note: To search on a field code in this file, prefix
the code number with "@", e.g. "@2001".  "2001" will find all
occurrences; prefixing it with "@" will find the correct location.]



Code  Field Description

2001  GDP (purchasing power parity)
2002  Population growth rate (%)
2003  GDP - real growth rate (%)
2004  GDP - per capita (PPP)
2006  Dependency status
2007  Diplomatic representation from the US
2008  Transportation - note
2010  Age structure (%)
2011  Geographic coordinates
2012  GDP - composition by sector (%)
2013  Radio broadcast stations
2015  Television broadcast stations
2018  Sex ratio (male(s)/female)
2019  Heliports
2020  Elevation extremes (m)
2021  Natural hazards
2022  People - note
2023  Area - comparative
2024  Military service age and obligation (years of age)
2025  Manpower fit for military service
2026  Manpower reaching military service age annually
2028  Background
2030  Airports - with paved runways
2031  Airports - with unpaved runways
2032  Environment - current issues
2033  Environment - international agreements
2034  Military expenditures - percent of GDP (%)
2038  Electricity - production (kWh)
2042  Electricity - consumption (kWh)
2043  Electricity - imports (kWh)
2044  Electricity - exports (kWh)
2046  Population below poverty line (%)
2047  Household income or consumption by percentage share (%)
2048  Labor force - by occupation (%)
2049  Exports - commodities
2050  Exports - partners (%)
2051  Administrative divisions
2052  Agriculture - products
2053  Airports
2054  Birth rate (births/1,000 population)
2055  Military branches
2056  Budget
2057  Capital
2058  Imports - commodities
2059  Climate
2060  Coastline (km)
2061  Imports - partners (%)
2062  Economic aid - donor
2063  Constitution
2064  Economic aid - recipient
2065  Currency (code)
2066  Death rate (deaths/1,000 population)
2067  Military expenditures - dollar figure
2068  Dependent areas
2070  Disputes - international
2075  Ethnic groups (%)
2076  Exchange rates
2077  Executive branch
2078  Exports
2079  Debt - external
2080  Fiscal year
2081  Flag description
2085  Roadways (km)
2086  Illicit drugs
2087  Imports
2088  Independence
2089  Industrial production growth rate (%)
2090  Industries
2091  Infant mortality rate (deaths/1,000 live births)
2092  Inflation rate (consumer prices) (%)
2093  Waterways (km)
2094  Judicial branch
2095  Labor force
2096  Land boundaries (km)
2097  Land use (%)
2098  Languages (%)
2100  Legal system
2101  Legislative branch
2102  Life expectancy at birth (years)
2103  Literacy (%)
2105  Manpower available for military service
2106  Maritime claims
2107  International organization participation
2108  Merchant marine
2109  National holiday
2110  Nationality
2111  Natural resources
2112  Net migration rate (migrant(s)/1,000 population)
2113  Geography - note
2115  Political pressure groups and leaders
2116  Economy - overview
2117  Pipelines (km)
2118  Political parties and leaders
2119  Population
2120  Ports and terminals
2121  Railways (km)
2122  Religions (%)
2123  Suffrage
2124  Telephone system
2125  Terrain
2127  Total fertility rate (children born/woman)
2128  Government type
2129  Unemployment rate (%)
2137  Military - note
2138  Communications - note
2140  Government - note
2142  Country name
2144  Location
2145  Map references
2146  Irrigated land (sq km)
2147  Area (sq km)
2149  Diplomatic representation in the US
2150  Telephones - main lines in use
2151  Telephones - mobile cellular
2153  Internet users
2154  Internet country code
2155  HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate (%)
2156  HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS
2157  HIV/AIDS - deaths
2172  Distribution of family income - Gini index
2173  Oil - production (bbl/day)
2174  Oil - consumption (bbl/day)
2175  Oil - imports (bbl/day)
2176  Oil - exports (bbl/day)
2177  Median age (years)
2178  Oil - proved reserves (bbl)
2179  Natural gas - proved reserves (cu m)
2180  Natural gas - production (cu m)
2181  Natural gas - consumption (cu m)
2182  Natural gas - imports (cu m)
2183  Natural gas - exports (cu m)
2184  Internet hosts
2185  Investment (gross fixed) (% of GDP)
2186  Public debt (% of GDP)
2187  Current account balance
2188  Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
2193  Major infectious diseases
2194  Refugees and internally displaced persons
2195  GDP (official exchange rate)
2196  Trafficking in persons



======================================================================



Rank Orders


[Transcriber's note: To search on a rank order in this file, prefix
the rank's name with "@", e.g. "@Population".  "Population" will find
all occurrences; prefixing it with "@" will find the correct location.]



Guide to Rank Order Pages


Rank Order pages are presorted lists of data from selected Factbook
data fields. Rank Order pages are generally given in descending
order -highest to lowest - such as Population and Area. The two
exceptions are Unemployment Rate and Inflation Rate, which are in
ascending - lowest to highest - order. Rank Order pages are
available for the following 47 fields in six of the nine Factbook
categories.


Geography

Area - total

People

Population
Birth rate
Death rate
Infant mortality rate
Life expectancy at birth - total
Total fertility rate
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS - deaths

Economy

GDP (purchasing power parity)
GDP - real growth rate
GDP - per capita
Labor force
Unemployment rate
Inflation rate (consumer prices)
Investment (gross fixed)
Public debt
Industrial production growth rate
Electricity - production
Electricity - consumption
Oil - production
Oil - consumption
Oil - exports
Oil - imports
Oil - proved reserves
Natural Gas - production
Natural Gas - consumption
Natural Gas - exports
Natural Gas - imports
Natural Gas - proved reserves
Current account balance
Exports
Imports
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold
Debt - external

Communications

Telephones - main lines in use
Telephones - mobile cellular
Internet hosts
Internet users

Transportation

Airports
Railways - total
Roadways - total
Waterways
Merchant marine - total


Military

Military expenditures - dollar figure
Military expenditures - percent of GDP

Factbook fields with Rank Order pages are easily identified with a
small bar chart icon to the right of the data field title.

Not all Rank Order pages include the same number of entries because
information for a particular field is not available for all
countries. In addition, not all data fields are suitable for
displaying as Rank Order pages, such as those containing textual
information. Textual information is more readily viewed by clicking
on the Field Listing icon next to the Data field title. The other
icon next to the data field title provides the definition of the
field.

All of the 'Rank Order' pages can be downloaded as tab-delimited
data files and can be opened in other applications such as
spreadsheets and databases. To save a Rank Order page in a
spreadsheet, first click on the 'Download Datafile' choice above the
Rank Order page you selected; then, at the top of your browser
window, click on 'File' and 'Save As'. After saving the file, open
the spreadsheet, find the saved file, and 'Open' it.

Additional Rank Order pages being considered for future updates of
the Factbook Web site include:

Median age
Literacy
Population below the poverty line


This page was last updated on 4 April, 2006


=====================================================================


Appendixes


Appendix A - Abbreviations

Appendix B - International Organizations and Groups

Appendix C - Selected International Environmental Agreements

Appendix D - Cross-Reference list of Country Data Codes

Appendix E - Cross-Reference List of Hydrographic Data Codes

Appendix F - Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names

Appendix G - Weights and Measures


======================================================================



Notes and Definitions


Along with regular information updates, The World Factbook features
several new or revised fields. In the Economy category, the Factbook is
now reporting national GDP figures in US dollars converted at Official
Exchange Rates (OER) in addition to GDP at Purchasing Power Parity
(PPP) rates, since both measures contain information useful to our
readers. Traditionally, only PPP-converted GDP values had been
reported. In the Transportation category, the former Highways entry is
now Roadways, while Ports and harbors has been retitled Ports and
terminals.



Abbreviations

This information is included in Appendix A: Abbreviations, which
includes all abbreviations and acronyms used in the Factbook, with
their expansions.

Acronyms

An acronym is an abbreviation coined from the initial letter of each
successive word in a term or phrase. In general, an acronym made up
solely from the first letter of the major words in the expanded form is
rendered in all capital letters (NATO from North Atlantic Treaty
Organization; an exception would be ASEAN for Association of Southeast
Asian Nations). In general, an acronym made up of more than the first
letter of the major words in the expanded form is rendered with only an
initial capital letter (Comsat from Communications Satellite
Corporation; an exception would be NAM from Nonaligned Movement).
Hybrid forms are sometimes used to distinguish between initially
identical terms (WTO: for World Trade Organization and WToO for World
Tourism Organization.)

Administrative divisions

This entry generally gives the numbers, designatory terms, and first-
order administrative divisions as approved by the US Board on
Geographic Names (BGN). Changes that have been reported but not yet
acted on by BGN are noted.

Age structure

This entry provides the distribution of the population according to
age. Information is included by sex and age group (0-14 years, 15-64
years, 65 years and over). The age structure of a population affects a
nation's key socioeconomic issues. Countries with young populations
(high percentage under age 15) need to invest more in schools, while
countries with older populations (high percentage ages 65 and over)
need to invest more in the health sector. The age structure can also be
used to help predict potential political issues. For example, the rapid
growth of a young adult population unable to find employment can lead
to unrest.

Agriculture - products

This entry is an ordered listing of major crops and products starting
with the most important.

Airports

This entry gives the total number of airports or airfields recognizable
from the air. The runway(s) may be paved (concrete or asphalt surfaces)
or unpaved (grass, earth, sand, or gravel surfaces) but may include
closed or abandoned installations. Airports or airfields that are no
longer recognizable (overgrown, no facilities, etc.) are not included.
Note that not all airports have accomodations for refueling,
maintenance, or air traffic control.

Airports - with paved runways

This entry gives the total number of airports with paved runways
(concrete or asphalt surfaces) by length. For airports with more than
one runway, only the longest runway is included according to the
following five groups - (1) over 3,047 m, (2) 2,438 to 3,047 m, (3)
1,524 to 2,437 m, (4) 914 to 1,523 m, and (5) under 914 m. Only
airports with usable runways are included in this listing. Not all
airports have facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic
control.

Airports - with unpaved runways

This entry gives the total number of airports with unpaved runways
(grass, dirt, sand, or gravel surfaces) by length. For airports with
more than one runway, only the longest runway is included according to
the following five groups - (1) over 3,047 m, (2) 2,438 to 3,047 m, (3)
1,524 to 2,437 m, (4) 914 to 1,523 m, and (5) under 914 m. Only
airports with usable runways are included in this listing. Not all
airports have facilities for refueling, maintenance, or air traffic
control.

Appendixes

This section includes Factbook-related material by topic.

Area

This entry includes three subfields. Total area is the sum of all land
and water areas delimited by international boundaries and/or
coastlines. Land area is the aggregate of all surfaces delimited by
international boundaries and/or coastlines, excluding inland water
bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers). Water area is the sum of the
surfaces of all inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, or
rivers, as delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines.

Area - comparative

This entry provides an area comparison based on total area equivalents.
Most entities are compared with the entire US or one of the 50 states
based on area measurements (1990 revised) provided by the US Bureau of
the Census. The smaller entities are compared with Washington, DC (178
sq km, 69 sq mi) or The Mall in Washington, DC (0.59 sq km, 0.23 sq mi,
146 acres).

Background

This entry usually highlights major historic events and current issues
and may include a statement about one or two key future trends.

Birth rate

This entry gives the average annual number of births during a year per
1,000 persons in the population at midyear; also known as crude birth
rate. The birth rate is usually the dominant factor in determining the
rate of population growth. It depends on both the level of fertility
and the age structure of the population.

Budget

This entry includes revenues, expenditures, and capital expenditures.
These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in
purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Capital

This entry gives the name of the seat of government, its geographic
coordinates, the time difference relative to Coordinated Universal Time
(UTC) and the time observed in Washington, DC, and, if applicable,
information on daylight saving time (DST). Where appropriate, a special
note has been added to highlight those countries that have multiple
time zones.

Climate

This entry includes a brief description of typical weather regimes
throughout the year.

Coastline

This entry gives the total length of the boundary between the land area
(including islands) and the sea.

Communications

This category deals with the means of exchanging information and
includes the telephone, radio, television, and Internet host entries.

Communications - note

This entry includes miscellaneous communications information of
significance not included elsewhere.

Constitution

This entry includes the dates of adoption, revisions, and major
amendments.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

UTC is the international atomic time scale that serves as the basis of
timekeeping for most of the world. The hours, minutes, and seconds
expressed by UTC represent the time of day at the Prime Meridian (0º
longitude) located near Greenwich, England as reckoned from midnight.
UTC is calculated by the Bureau International des Poids et Measures
(BIPM) in Sevres, France. The BIPM averages data collected from more
than 200 atomic time and frequency standards located at about 50
laboratories worldwide. UTC is the basis for all civil time with the
Earth divided into time zones expressed as positive or negative
differences from UTC. UTC is also referred to as "Zulu time." See the
Standard Time Zones of the World map included with the Reference Maps.

Country data codes

see Data codes

Country map

Most versions of the Factbook provide a country map in color. The maps
were produced from the best information available at the time of
preparation. Names and/or boundaries may have changed subsequently.

Country name

This entry includes all forms of the country's name approved by the US
Board on Geographic Names (Italy is used as an example): conventional
long form (Italian Republic), conventional short form (Italy), local
long form (Repubblica Italiana), local short form (Italia), former
(Kingdom of Italy), as well as the abbreviation. Also see the
Terminology note.

Crude oil

See entry for oil.

Currency (code)

This entry identifies the national medium of exchange and, in
parenthesis, gives the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) 4217 alphabetic currency code for each country.

Current account balance

This entry records a country's net trade in goods and services, plus
net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net
transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and
from the rest of the world during the period specified. These figures
are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power
parity (PPP) terms.

Data codes

This information is presented in Appendix D: Cross-Reference List of
Country Data Codes and Appendix E: Cross-Reference List of Hydrographic
Data Codes.

Date of information

In general, information available as of 1 January 2006, was used in the
preparation of this edition.

Daylight Saving Time (DST)

This entry is included for those entities that have adopted a policy of
adjusting the official local time forward, usually one hour, from
Standard Time during summer months. Such policies are most common in
mid-latitude regions.

Death rate

This entry gives the average annual number of deaths during a year per
1,000 population at midyear; also known as crude death rate. The death
rate, while only a rough indicator of the mortality situation in a
country, accurately indicates the current mortality impact on
population growth. This indicator is significantly affected by age
distribution, and most countries will eventually show a rise in the
overall death rate, in spite of continued decline in mortality at all
ages, as declining fertility results in an aging population.

Debt - external

This entry gives the total public and private debt owed to nonresidents
repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. These figures are
calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power
parity (PPP) terms.

Dependency status

This entry describes the formal relationship between a particular
nonindependent entity and an independent state.

Dependent areas

This entry contains an alphabetical listing of all nonindependent
entities associated in some way with a particular independent state.

Diplomatic representation

The US Government has diplomatic relations with 188 independent states,
including 187 of the 192 UN members (excluded UN members are Bhutan,
Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and the US itself). In addition, the US has
diplomatic relations with 1 independent state that is not in the UN,
the Holy See, as well as with the EU.

Diplomatic representation from the US

This entry includes the chief of mission, embassy address, mailing
address, telephone number, FAX number, branch office locations,
consulate general locations, and consulate locations.

Diplomatic representation in the US

This entry includes the chief of mission, chancery, telephone, FAX,
consulate general locations, and consulate locations.

Disputes - international

This entry includes a wide variety of situations that range from
traditional bilateral boundary disputes to unilateral claims of one
sort or another. Information regarding disputes over international
terrestrial and maritime boundaries has been reviewed by the US
Department of State. References to other situations involving borders
or frontiers may also be included, such as resource disputes,
geopolitical questions, or irredentist issues; however, inclusion does
not necessarily constitute official acceptance or recognition by the US
Government.

Distribution of family income - Gini index

This index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of
family income in a country. The index is calculated from the Lorenz
curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number
of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the
ratio of (a) the area between a country's Lorenz curve and the 45
degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45
degree line. The more nearly equal a country's income distribution, the
closer its Lorenz curve to the 45 degree line and the lower its Gini
index, e.g., a Scandinavian country with an index of 25. The more
unequal a country's income distribution, the farther its Lorenz curve
from the 45 degree line and the higher its Gini index, e.g., a Sub-
Saharan country with an index of 50. If income were distributed with
perfect equality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the 45 degree
line and the index would be zero; if income were distributed with
perfect inequality, the Lorenz curve would coincide with the horizontal
axis and the right vertical axis and the index would be 100.

Economic aid - donor

This entry refers to net official development assistance (ODA) from
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations to
developing countries and multilateral organizations. ODA is defined as
financial assistance that is concessional in character, has the main
objective to promote economic development and welfare of the less
developed countries (LDCs), and contains a grant element of at least
25%. The entry does not cover other official flows (OOF) or private
flows. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e.,
not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Economic aid - recipient

This entry, which is subject to major problems of definition and
statistical coverage, refers to the net inflow of Official Development
Finance (ODF) to recipient countries. The figure includes assistance
from the World Bank, the IMF, and other international organizations and
from individual nation donors. Formal commitments of aid are included
in the data. Omitted from the data are grants by private organizations.
Aid comes in various forms including outright grants and loans. The
entry thus is the difference between new inflows and repayments. These
figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in
purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Economy

This category includes the entries dealing with the size, development,
and management of productive resources, i.e., land, labor, and capital.

Economy - overview

This entry briefly describes the type of economy, including the degree
of market orientation, the level of economic development, the most
important natural resources, and the unique areas of specialization. It
also characterizes major economic events and policy changes in the most
recent 12 months and may include a statement about one or two key
future macroeconomic trends.

Electricity - consumption

This entry consists of total electricity generated annually plus
imports and minus exports, expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy
between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the
amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in
transmission and distribution.

Electricity - exports

This entry is the total exported electricity in kilowatt-hours.

Electricity - imports

This entry is the total imported electricity in kilowatt-hours.

Electricity - production

This entry is the annual electricity generated expressed in kilowatt-
hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated
and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted
for as loss in transmission and distribution.

Elevation extremes

This entry includes both the highest point and the lowest point.

Entities

Some of the independent states, dependencies, areas of special
sovereignty, and governments included in this publication are not
independent, and others are not officially recognized by the US
Government. "Independent state" refers to a people politically
organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory.
"Dependencies" and "areas of special sovereignty" refer to a broad
category of political entities that are associated in some way with an
independent state. "Country" names used in the table of contents or for
page headings are usually the short-form names as approved by the US
Board on Geographic Names and may include independent states,
dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty, or other geographic
entities. There are a total of 272 separate geographic entities in The
World Factbook that may be categorized as follows:

INDEPENDENT STATES

193 Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and
Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The
Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil,
Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia,
Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kenya, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,
Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali,
Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated
States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia,
Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan,
Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

OTHER

2 Taiwan, European Union

DEPENDENCIES AND AREAS OF SPECIAL SOVEREIGNTY

6 Australia - Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos
(Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald
Islands, Norfolk Island

2 China - Hong Kong, Macau

2 Denmark - Faroe Islands, Greenland

16 France - Bassas da India*, Clipperton Island, Europa Island*, French
Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glorioso
Islands*, Guadeloupe, Juan de Nova Island*, Martinique, Mayotte, New
Caledonia, Reunion, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Tromelin Island*, Wallis
and Futuna (* consolidated in Iles Eparses entry)

2 Netherlands - Aruba, Netherlands Antilles

3 New Zealand - Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau

3 Norway - Bouvet Island, Jan Mayen, Svalbard

17 UK - Akrotiri, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dhekelia, Falkland Islands,
Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands,
Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and
Caicos Islands

14 US - American Samoa, Baker Island*, Guam, Howland Island*, Jarvis
Island*, Johnston Atoll*, Kingman Reef*, Midway Islands*, Navassa
Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll*, Puerto Rico, Virgin
Islands, Wake Island (* consolidated in United States Pacific Island
Wildlife Refuges entry)

MISCELLANEOUS

6 Antarctica, Gaza Strip, Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, West Bank,
Western Sahara

OTHER ENTITIES

5 oceans - Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean,
Southern Ocean

1 World



272 total

Environment - current issues

This entry lists the most pressing and important environmental
problems. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the
entry:

Acidification - the lowering of soil and water pH due to acid
precipitation and deposition usually through precipitation; this
process disrupts ecosystem nutrient flows and may kill freshwater fish
and plants dependent on more neutral or alkaline conditions (see acid
rain).

Acid rain - characterized as containing harmful levels of sulfur
dioxide or nitrogen oxide; acid rain is damaging and potentially deadly
to the earth's fragile ecosystems; acidity is measured using the pH
scale where 7 is neutral, values greater than 7 are considered
alkaline, and values below 5.6 are considered acid precipitation; note
- a pH of 2.4 (the acidity of vinegar) has been measured in rainfall in
New England.

Aerosol - a collection of airborne particles dispersed in a gas, smoke,
or fog.

Afforestation - converting a bare or agricultural space by planting
trees and plants; reforestation involves replanting trees on areas that
have been cut or destroyed by fire.

Asbestos - a naturally occurring soft fibrous mineral commonly used in
fireproofing materials and considered to be highly carcinogenic in
particulate form.

Biodiversity - also biological diversity; the relative number of
species, diverse in form and function, at the genetic, organism,
community, and ecosystem level; loss of biodiversity reduces an
ecosystem's ability to recover from natural or man-induced disruption.

Bio-indicators - a plant or animal species whose presence, abundance,
and health reveal the general condition of its habitat.

Biomass - the total weight or volume of living matter in a given area
or volume.

Carbon cycle - the term used to describe the exchange of carbon (in
various forms, e.g., as carbon dioxide) between the atmosphere, ocean,
terrestrial biosphere, and geological deposits.

Catchments - assemblages used to capture and retain rainwater and
runoff; an important water management technique in areas with limited
freshwater resources, such as Gibraltar.

DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) - a colorless, odorless
insecticide that has toxic effects on most animals; the use of DDT was
banned in the US in 1972.

Defoliants - chemicals which cause plants to lose their leaves
artificially; often used in agricultural practices for weed control,
and may have detrimental impacts on human and ecosystem health.

Deforestation - the destruction of vast areas of forest (e.g.,
unsustainable forestry practices, agricultural and range land clearing,
and the over exploitation of wood products for use as fuel) without
planting new growth.

Desertification - the spread of desert-like conditions in arid or semi-
arid areas, due to overgrazing, loss of agriculturally productive
soils, or climate change.

Dredging - the practice of deepening an existing waterway; also, a
technique used for collecting bottom-dwelling marine organisms (e.g.,
shellfish) or harvesting coral, often causing significant destruction
of reef and ocean-floor ecosystems.

Drift-net fishing - done with a net, miles in extent, that is generally
anchored to a boat and left to float with the tide; often results in an
over harvesting and waste of large populations of non-commercial marine
species (by-catch) by its effect of "sweeping the ocean clean".

Ecosystems - ecological units comprised of complex communities of
organisms and their specific environments.

Effluents - waste materials, such as smoke, sewage, or industrial waste
which are released into the environment, subsequently polluting it.

Endangered species - a species that is threatened with extinction
either by direct hunting or habitat destruction.

Freshwater - water with very low soluble mineral content; sources
include lakes, streams, rivers, glaciers, and underground aquifers.

Greenhouse gas - a gas that "traps" infrared radiation in the lower
atmosphere causing surface warming; water vapor, carbon dioxide,
nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and ozone are the primary
greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Groundwater - water sources found below the surface of the earth often
in naturally occurring reservoirs in permeable rock strata; the source
for wells and natural springs.

Highlands Water Project - a series of dams constructed jointly by
Lesotho and South Africa to redirect Lesotho's abundant water supply
into a rapidly growing area in South Africa; while it is the largest
infrastructure project in southern Africa, it is also the most costly
and controversial; objections to the project include claims that it
forces people from their homes, submerges farmlands, and squanders
economic resources.

Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) - represents the 145,000 Inuits of
Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland in international environmental
issues; a General Assembly convenes every three years to determine the
focus of the ICC; the most current concerns are long-range transport of
pollutants, sustainable development, and climate change.

Metallurgical plants - industries which specialize in the science,
technology, and processing of metals; these plants produce highly
concentrated and toxic wastes which can contribute to pollution of
ground water and air when not properly disposed.

Noxious substances - injurious, very harmful to living beings.

Overgrazing - the grazing of animals on plant material faster than it
can naturally regrow leading to the permanent loss of plant cover, a
common effect of too many animals grazing limited range land.

Ozone shield - a layer of the atmosphere composed of ozone gas (O3)
that resides approximately 25 miles above the Earth's surface and
absorbs solar ultraviolet radiation that can be harmful to living
organisms.

Poaching - the illegal killing of animals or fish, a great concern with
respect to endangered or threatened species.

Pollution - the contamination of a healthy environment by man-made
waste.

Potable water - water that is drinkable, safe to be consumed.

Salination - the process through which fresh (drinkable) water becomes
salt (undrinkable) water; hence, desalination is the reverse process;
also involves the accumulation of salts in topsoil caused by
evaporation of excessive irrigation water, a process that can
eventually render soil incapable of supporting crops.

Siltation - occurs when water channels and reservoirs become clotted
with silt and mud, a side effect of deforestation and soil erosion.

Slash-and-burn agriculture - a rotating cultivation technique in which
trees are cut down and burned in order to clear land for temporary
agriculture; the land is used until its productivity declines at which
point a new plot is selected and the process repeats; this practice is
sustainable while population levels are low and time is permitted for
regrowth of natural vegetation; conversely, where these conditions do
not exist, the practice can have disastrous consequences for the
environment .

Soil degradation - damage to the land's productive capacity because of
poor agricultural practices such as the excessive use of pesticides or
fertilizers, soil compaction from heavy equipment, or erosion of
topsoil, eventually resulting in reduced ability to produce
agricultural products.

Soil erosion - the removal of soil by the action of water or wind,
compounded by poor agricultural practices, deforestation, overgrazing,
and desertification.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation - a portion of the electromagnetic energy
emitted by the sun and naturally filtered in the upper atmosphere by
the ozone layer; UV radiation can be harmful to living organisms and
has been linked to increasing rates of skin cancer in humans.

Water-born diseases - those in which bacteria survive in, and are
transmitted through, water; always a serious threat in areas with an
untreated water supply.

Environment - international agreements

This entry separates country participation in international
environmental agreements into two levels - party to and signed, but not
ratified. Agreements are listed in alphabetical order by the
abbreviated form of the full name.

Environmental agreements

This information is presented in Appendix C: Selected International
Environmental Agreements, which includes the name, abbreviation, date
opened for signature, date entered into force, objective, and parties
by category.

Ethnic groups

This entry provides an ordered listing of ethnic groups starting with
the largest and normally includes the percent of total population.

Exchange rates

This entry provides the official value of a country's monetary unit at
a given date or over a given period of time, as expressed in units of
local currency per US dollar and as determined by international market
forces or official fiat.

Executive branch

This entry includes several subfields. Chief of state includes the name
and title of the titular leader of the country who represents the state
at official and ceremonial functions but may not be involved with the
day-to-day activities of the government. Head of government includes
the name and title of the top administrative leader who is designated
to manage the day-to-day activities of the government. For example, in
the UK, the monarch is the chief of state, and the prime minister is
the head of government. In the US, the president is both the chief of
state and the head of government. Cabinet includes the official name
for this body of high-ranking advisers and the method for selection of
members. Elections includes the nature of election process or accession
to power, date of the last election, and date of the next election.
Election results includes the percent of vote for each candidate in the
last election.

Exports

This entry provides the total US dollar amount of merchandise exports
on an f.o.b. (free on board) basis. These figures are calculated on an
exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Exports - commodities

This entry provides a rank ordering of exported products starting with
the most important; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar
value.

Exports - partners

This entry provides a rank ordering of trading partners starting with
the most important; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar
value.

Fiscal year

This entry identifies the beginning and ending months for a country's
accounting period of 12 months, which often is the calendar year but
which may begin in any month. All yearly references are for the
calendar year (CY) unless indicated as a noncalendar fiscal year (FY).

Flag description

This entry provides a written flag description produced from actual
flags or the best information available at the time the entry was
written. The flags of independent states are used by their dependencies
unless there is an officially recognized local flag. Some disputed and
other areas do not have flags.

Flag graphic

Most versions of the Factbook include a color flag at the beginning of
the country profile. The flag graphics were produced from actual flags
or the best information available at the time of preparation. The flags
of independent states are used by their dependencies unless there is an
officially recognized local flag. Some disputed and other areas do not
have flags.

GDP (official exchange rate)

This entry gives the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final
goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's
GDP at offical exchange rates (OER) is the home-currency-denominated
annual GDP figure divided by the bilateral average US exchange rate
with that country in that year. The measure is simple to compute and
gives a precise measure of the value of output. Many economists prefer
this measure when gauging the economic power an economy maintains vis-
à-vis its neighbors, judging that an exchange rate captures the
purchasing power a nation enjoys in the international marketplace.
Official exchange rates, however, can be artifically fixed and/or
subject to manipulation - resulting in claims of the country having an
under- or over-valued currency - and are not necessarily the equivalent
of a market-determined exchange rate. Moreover, even if the official
exchange rate is market-determined, market exchange rates are
frequently established by a relatively small set of goods and services
(the ones the country trades) and may not capture the value of the
larger set of goods the country produces. Furthermore, OER-converted
GDP is not well suited to comparing domestic GDP over time, since
appreciation/depreciation from one year to the next will make the OER
GDP value rise/fall regardless of whether home-currency-denominated GDP
changed.

GDP (purchasing power parity)

This entry gives the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final
goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's
GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of
all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices
prevailing in the United States. This is the measure most economists
prefer when looking at per-capita welfare and when comparing living
conditions or use of resources across countries. The measure is
difficult to compute, as a US dollar value has to be assigned to all
goods and services in the country regardless of whether these goods and
services have a direct equivalent in the United States (for example,
the value of an ox-cart or non-US military equipment); as a result, PPP
estimates for some countries are based on a small and sometimes
different set of goods and services. In addition, many countries do not
formally participate in the World Bank's PPP project that calculates
these measures, so the resulting GDP estimates for these countries may
lack precision. For many developing countries, PPP-based GDP measures
are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The
difference between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of
the weathly industrialized countries are generally much smaller.

GDP - composition by sector

This entry gives the percentage contribution of agriculture, industry,
and services to total GDP. The distribution will total less than 100
percent if the data are incomplete.

GDP - per capita (PPP)

This entry shows GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by
population as of 1 July for the same year.

GDP - real growth rate

This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation
and expressed as a percent.

GDP methodology

In the Economy category, GDP dollar estimates for countries are
reported both on an official exchange rate (OER) and a purchasing power
parity (PPP) basis. Both measures contain information that is useful to
the reader. The PPP method involves the use of standardized
international dollar price weights, which are applied to the quantities
of final goods and services produced in a given economy. The data
derived from the PPP method probably provides the best available
starting point for comparisons of economic strength and well-being
between countries. In contrast, the currency exchange rate method
involves a variety of international and domestic financial forces that
may not capture the value of domestic output. Furthermore, exchange
rates may suddenly go up or down by 10% or more because of market
forces or official fiat whereas real output has remained unchanged. On
12 January 1994, for example, the 14 countries of the African Financial
Community (whose currencies are tied to the French franc) devalued
their currencies by 50%. This move, of course, did not cut the real
output of these countries by half. Whereas PPP estimates for OECD
countries are quite reliable, PPP estimates for developing countries
are often rough approximations. In developing countries with weak
currencies, the exchange rate estimate of GDP in dollars is typically
one-fourth to one-half the PPP estimate. Most of the GDP estimates for
developing countries are based on extrapolation of PPP numbers
published by the UN International Comparison Program (UNICP) and by
Professors Robert Summers and Alan Heston of the University of
Pennsylvania and their colleagues. GDP derived using the OER method
should be used for the purpose of calculating the share of items such
as exports, imports, military expenditures, external debt, or the
current account balance, because the dollar values presented in the
Factbook for these items have been converted at official exchange
rates, not at PPP. One should use the OER GDP figure to calculate the
proportion of, say, Chinese defense expenditures in GDP, because that
share will be the same as one calculated in local currency units.
Comparison of OER GDP with PPP GDP may also indicate whether a currency
is over- or under-valued. If OER GDP is smaller than PPP GDP, the
official exchange rate may be undervalued, and vice versa. However,
there is no strong historical evidence that market exchange rates move
in the direction implied by the PPP rate, at least not in the short- or
medium-term. Note: the numbers for GDP and other economic data should
not be chained together from successive volumes of the Factbook because
of changes in the US dollar measuring rod, revisions of data by
statistical agencies, use of new or different sources of information,
and changes in national statistical methods and practices.

GNP

Gross national product (GNP) is the value of all final goods and
services produced within a nation in a given year, plus income earned
by its citizens abroad, minus income earned by foreigners from domestic
production. The Factbook, following current practice, uses GDP rather
than GNP to measure national production. However, the user must realize
that in certain countries net remittances from citizens working abroad
may be important to national well-being.

GWP

This entry gives the gross world product (GWP) or aggregate value of
all final goods and services produced worldwide in a given year.

Geographic coordinates

This entry includes rounded latitude and longitude figures for the
purpose of finding the approximate geographic center of an entity and
is based on the Gazetteer of Conventional Names, Third Edition, August
1988, US Board on Geographic Names and on other sources.

Geographic names

This information is presented in Appendix F: Cross-Reference List of
Geographic Names. It includes a listing of various alternate names,
former names, local names, and regional names referenced to one or more
related Factbook entries. Spellings are normally, but not always, those
approved by the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Alternate names and
additional information are included in parentheses.

Geography

This category includes the entries dealing with the natural environment
and the effects of human activity.

Geography - note

This entry includes miscellaneous geographic information of
significance not included elsewhere.

Gini index

See entry for Distribution of family income - Gini index

Government

This category includes the entries dealing with the system for the
adoption and administration of public policy.

Government - note

This entry includes miscellaneous government information of
significance not included elsewhere.

Government type

This entry gives the basic form of government. Definitions of the major
governmental terms are as follows:

Anarchy - a condition of lawlessness or political disorder brought
about by the absence of governmental authority.

Commonwealth - a nation, state, or other political entity founded on
law and united by a compact of the people for the common good.

Communism - a system of government in which the state plans and
controls the economy and a single - often authoritarian - party holds
power; state controls are imposed with the elimination of private
ownership of property or capital while claiming to make progress toward
a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the
people (i.e., a classless society).

Confederacy (Confederation) - a union by compact or treaty between
states, provinces, or territories, that creates a central government
with limited powers; the constituent entities retain supreme authority
over all matters except those delegated to the central government.

Constitutional - a government by or operating under an authoritative
document (constitution) that sets forth the system of fundamental laws
and principles that determines the nature, functions, and limits of
that government.

Constitutional democracy - a form of government in which the sovereign
power of the people is spelled out in a governing constitution.

Constitutional monarchy - a system of government in which a monarch is
guided by a constitution whereby his/her rights, duties, and
responsibilities are spelled out in written law or by custom.

Democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained
by the people, but which is usually exercised indirectly through a
system of representation and delegated authority periodically renewed.

Democratic republic - a state in which the supreme power rests in the
body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives
responsible to them.

Dictatorship - a form of government in which a ruler or small clique
wield absolute power (not restricted by a constitution or laws).

Ecclesiastical - a government administrated by a church.

Emirate - similar to a monarchy or sultanate, but a government in which
the supreme power is in the hands of an emir (the ruler of a Muslim
state); the emir may be an absolute overlord or a sovereign with
constitutionally limited authority.

Federal (Federative) - a form of government in which sovereign power is
formally divided - usually by means of a constitution - between a
central authority and a number of constituent regions (states,
colonies, or provinces) so that each region retains some management of
its internal affairs; differs from a confederacy in that the central
government exerts influence directly upon both individuals as well as
upon the regional units.

Federal republic - a state in which the powers of the central
government are restricted and in which the component parts (states,
colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government; ultimate
sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental
representatives.

Islamic republic - a particular form of government adoped by some
Muslim states; although such a state is, in theory, a theocracy, it
remains a republic, but its laws are required to be compatible with the
laws of Islam.

Maoism - the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism developed in China
by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), which states that a continuous revolution
is necessary if the leaders of a communist state are to keep in touch
with the people.

Marxism - the political, economic, and social principles espoused by
19th century economist Karl Marx; he viewed the struggle of workers as
a progression of historical forces that would proceed from a class
struggle of the proletariat (workers) exploited by capitalists
(business owners), to a socialist "dictatorship of the proletariat,"
to, finally, a classless society - Communism.

Marxism-Leninism - an expanded form of communism developed by Lenin
from doctrines of Karl Marx; Lenin saw imperialism as the final stage
of capitalism and shifted the focus of workers' struggle from developed
to underdeveloped countries.

Monarchy - a government in which the supreme power is lodged in the
hands of a monarch who reigns over a state or territory, usually for
life and by hereditary right; the monarch may be either a sole absolute
ruler or a sovereign - such as a king, queen, or prince - with
constitutionally limited authority.

Oligarchy - a government in which control is exercised by a small group
of individuals whose authority generally is based on wealth or power.

Parliamentary democracy - a political system in which the legislature
(parliament) selects the government - a prime minister, premier, or
chancellor along with the cabinet ministers - according to party
strength as expressed in elections; by this system, the government
acquires a dual responsibility: to the people as well as to the
parliament.

Parliamentary government (Cabinet-Parliamentary government) - a
government in which members of an executive branch (the cabinet and its
leader - a prime minister, premier, or chancellor) are nominated to
their positions by a legislature or parliament, and are directly
responsible to it; this type of government can be dissolved at will by
the parliament (legislature) by means of a no confidence vote or the
leader of the cabinet may dissolve the parliament if it can no longer
function.

Parliamentary monarchy - a state headed by a monarch who is not
actively involved in policy formation or implementation (i.e., the
exercise of sovereign powers by a monarch in a ceremonial capacity);
true governmental leadership is carried out by a cabinet and its head -
a prime minister, premier, or chancellor - who are drawn from a
legislature (parliament).

Republic - a representative democracy in which the people's elected
deputies (representatives), not the people themselves, vote on
legislation.

Socialism - a government in which the means of planning, producing, and
distributing goods is controlled by a central government that
theoretically seeks a more just and equitable distribution of property
and labor; in actuality, most socialist governments have ended up being
no more than dictatorships over workers by a ruling elite.

Sultanate - similar to a monarchy, but a government in which the
supreme power is in the hands of a sultan (the head of a Muslim state);
the sultan may be an absolute ruler or a sovereign with
constitutionally limited authority.

Theocracy - a form of government in which a Deity is recognized as the
supreme civil ruler, but the Deity's laws are interpreted by
ecclesiastical authorities (bishops, mullahs, etc.); a government
subject to religious authority.

Totalitarian - a government that seeks to subordinate the individual to
the state by controlling not only all political and economic matters,
but also the attitudes, values, and beliefs of its population.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

The mean solar time at the Greenwich Meridian, Greenwich, England, with
the hours and days, since 1925, reckoned from midnight. GMT is now a
historical term having been replaced by UTC on 1 January 1972. See
Coordinated Universal Time.

Gross domestic product

see GDP

Gross national product

see GNP

Gross world product

see GWP

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

This entry gives an estimate of the percentage of adults (aged 15-49)
living with HIV/AIDS. The adult prevalence rate is calculated by
dividing the estimated number of adults living with HIV/AIDS at yearend
by the total adult population at yearend.

HIV/AIDS - deaths

This entry gives an estimate of the number of adults and children who
died of AIDS during a given calendar year.

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS

This entry gives an estimate of all people (adults and children) alive
at yearend with HIV infection, whether or not they have developed
symptoms of AIDS.

Heliports

This entry gives the total number of heliports with hard-surface
runways, helipads, or landing areas that support routine sustained
helicopter operations exclusively and have support facilities including
one or more of the following facilities: lighting, fuel, passenger
handling, or maintenance. It includes former airports used exclusively
for helicopter operations but excludes heliports limited to day
operations and natural clearings that could support helicopter landings
and takeoffs.

Household income or consumption by percentage share

Data on household income or consumption come from household surveys,
the results adjusted for household size. Nations use different
standards and procedures in collecting and adjusting the data. Surveys
based on income will normally show a more unequal distribution than
surveys based on consumption. The quality of surveys is improving with
time, yet caution is still necessary in making inter-country
comparisons.

Hydrographic data codes

see Data codes

Illicit drugs

This entry gives information on the five categories of illicit drugs -
narcotics, stimulants, depressants (sedatives), hallucinogens, and
cannabis. These categories include many drugs legally produced and
prescribed by doctors as well as those illegally produced and sold
outside of medical channels.

Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) is the common hemp plant, which provides
hallucinogens with some sedative properties, and includes marijuana
(pot, Acapulco gold, grass, reefer), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC,
Marinol), hashish (hash), and hashish oil (hash oil).

Coca (mostly Erythroxylum coca) is a bush with leaves that contain the
stimulant used to make cocaine. Coca is not to be confused with cocoa,
which comes from cacao seeds and is used in making chocolate, cocoa,
and cocoa butter.

Cocaine is a stimulant derived from the leaves of the coca bush.

Depressants (sedatives) are drugs that reduce tension and anxiety and
include chloral hydrate, barbiturates (Amytal, Nembutal, Seconal,
phenobarbital), benzodiazepines (Librium, Valium), methaqualone
(Quaalude), glutethimide (Doriden), and others (Equanil, Placidyl,
Valmid).

Drugs are any chemical substances that effect a physical, mental,
emotional, or behavioral change in an individual.

Drug abuse is the use of any licit or illicit chemical substance that
results in physical, mental, emotional, or behavioral impairment in an
individual.

Hallucinogens are drugs that affect sensation, thinking, self-
awareness, and emotion. Hallucinogens include LSD (acid, microdot),
mescaline and peyote (mexc, buttons, cactus), amphetamine variants
(PMA, STP, DOB), phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust, hog), phencyclidine
analogues (PCE, PCPy, TCP), and others (psilocybin, psilocyn).

Hashish is the resinous exudate of the cannabis or hemp plant (Cannabis
sativa).

Heroin is a semisynthetic derivative of morphine.

Mandrax is a trade name for methaqualone, a pharmaceutical depressant.

Marijuana is the dried leaf of the cannabis or hemp plant (Cannabis
sativa).

Methaqualone is a pharmaceutical depressant, referred to as mandrax in
Southwest Asia and Africa.

Narcotics are drugs that relieve pain, often induce sleep, and refer to
opium, opium derivatives, and synthetic substitutes. Natural narcotics
include opium (paregoric, parepectolin), morphine (MS-Contin, Roxanol),
codeine (Tylenol with codeine, Empirin with codeine, Robitussan AC),
and thebaine. Semisynthetic narcotics include heroin (horse, smack),
and hydromorphone (Dilaudid). Synthetic narcotics include meperidine or
Pethidine (Demerol, Mepergan), methadone (Dolophine, Methadose), and
others (Darvon, Lomotil).

Opium is the brown, gummy exudate of the incised, unripe seedpod of the
opium poppy.

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is the source for the natural and
semisynthetic narcotics.

Poppy straw is the entire cut and dried opium poppy-plant material,
other than the seeds. Opium is extracted from poppy straw in commercial
operations that produce the drug for medical use.

Qat (kat, khat) is a stimulant from the buds or leaves of Catha edulis
that is chewed or drunk as tea.

Quaaludes is the North American slang term for methaqualone, a
pharmaceutical depressant.

Stimulants are drugs that relieve mild depression, increase energy and
activity, and include cocaine (coke, snow, crack), amphetamines
(Desoxyn, Dexedrine), ephedrine, ecstasy (clarity, essence, doctor,
Adam), phenmetrazine (Preludin), methylphenidate (Ritalin), and others
(Cylert, Sanorex, Tenuate).

Imports

This entry provides the total US dollar amount of merchandise imports
on a c.i.f. (cost, insurance, and freight) or f.o.b. (free on board)
basis. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e.,
not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.

Imports - commodities

This entry provides a rank ordering of imported products starting with
the most important; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar
value.

Imports - partners

This entry provides a rank ordering of trading partners starting with
the most important; it sometimes includes the percent of total dollar
value.

Independence

For most countries, this entry gives the date that sovereignty was
achieved and from which nation, empire, or trusteeship. For the other
countries, the date given may not represent "independence" in the
strict sense, but rather some significant nationhood event such as the
traditional founding date or the date of unification, federation,
confederation, establishment, fundamental change in the form of
government, or state succession. Dependent areas include the notation
"none" followed by the nature of their dependency status. Also see the
Terminology note.

Industrial production growth rate

This entry gives the annual percentage increase in industrial
production (includes manufacturing, mining, and construction).

Industries

This entry provides a rank ordering of industries starting with the
largest by value of annual output.

Infant mortality rate

This entry gives the number of deaths of infants under one year old in
a given year per 1,000 live births in the same year; included is the
total death rate, and deaths by sex, male and female. This rate is
often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

This entry furnishes the annual percent change in consumer prices
compared with the previous year's consumer prices.

International disputes

see Disputes - international

International organization participation

This entry lists in alphabetical order by abbreviation those
international organizations in which the subject country is a member or
participates in some other way.

International organizations

This information is presented in Appendix B: International
Organizations and Groups which includes the name, abbreviation, date
established, aim, and members by category.

Internet country code

This entry includes the two-letter codes maintained by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the ISO 3166
Alpha-2 list and used by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
to establish country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs).

Internet hosts

This entry lists the number of Internet hosts available within a
country. An Internet host is a computer connected directly to the
Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a
host. Internet users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an
institution with a mainframe computer connected directly to the
Internet, or may connect remotely by way of a modem via telephone line,
cable, or satellite to the Internet Service Provider's host computer.
The number of hosts is one indicator of the extent of Internet
connectivity.

Internet users

This entry gives the number of users within a country that access the
Internet. Statistics vary from country to country and may include users
who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who
access it only once within a period of several months.

Introduction

This category includes one entry, Background.

Investment (gross fixed)

This entry records total business spending on fixed assets, such as
factories, machinery, equipment, dwellings, and inventories of raw
materials, which provide the basis for future production. It is
measured gross of the depreciation of the assets, i.e., it includes
invesment that merely replaces worn-out or scrapped capital.

Irrigated land

This entry gives the number of square kilometers of land area that is
artificially supplied with water.

Judicial branch

This entry contains the name(s) of the highest court(s) and a brief
description of the selection process for members.

Labor force

This entry contains the total labor force figure.

Labor force - by occupation

This entry lists the percentage distribution of the labor force by
occupation. The distribution will total less than 100 percent if the
data are incomplete.

Land boundaries

This entry contains the total length of all land boundaries and the
individual lengths for each of the contiguous border countries. When
available, official lengths published by national statistical agencies
are used. Because surveying methods may differ, country border lengths
reported by contiguous countries may differ.

Land use

This entry contains the percentage shares of total land area for three
different types of land use: arable land - land cultivated for crops
like wheat, maize, and rice that are replanted after each harvest;
permanent crops - land cultivated for crops like citrus, coffee, and
rubber that are not replanted after each harvest; includes land under
flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land
under trees grown for wood or timber; other - any land not arable or
under permanent crops; includes permanent meadows and pastures, forests
and woodlands, built-on areas, roads, barren land, etc.

Languages

This entry provides a rank ordering of languages starting with the
largest and sometimes includes the percent of total population speaking
that language.

Legal system

This entry contains a brief description of the legal system's
historical roots, role in government, and acceptance of International
Court of Justice (ICJ) jurisdiction.

Legislative branch

This entry contains information on the structure (unicameral,
bicameral, tricameral), formal name, number of seats, and term of
office. Elections includes the nature of election process or accession
to power, date of the last election, and date of the next election.
Election results includes the percent of vote and/or number of seats
held by each party in the last election.

Life expectancy at birth

This entry contains the average number of years to be lived by a group
of people born in the same year, if mortality at each age remains
constant in the future. The entry includes total population as well as
the male and female components. Life expectancy at birth is also a
measure of overall quality of life in a country and summarizes the
mortality at all ages. It can also be thought of as indicating the
potential return on investment in human capital and is necessary for
the calculation of various actuarial measures.

Literacy

This entry includes a definition of literacy and Census Bureau
percentages for the total population, males, and females. There are no
universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless otherwise
specified, all rates are based on the most common definition - the
ability to read and write at a specified age. Detailing the standards
that individual countries use to assess the ability to read and write
is beyond the scope of the Factbook. Information on literacy, while not
a perfect measure of educational results, is probably the most easily
available and valid for international comparisons. Low levels of
literacy, and education in general, can impede the economic development
of a country in the current rapidly changing, technology-driven world.

Location

This entry identifies the country's regional location, neighboring
countries, and adjacent bodies of water.

Major infectious diseases

This entry lists major infectious diseases likely to be encountered in
countries where the risk of such diseases is assessed to be very high
as compared to the United States. These infectious diseases represent
risks to US government personnel traveling to the specified country for
a period of less than three years. The degree of risk is assessed by
considering the foreign nature of these infectious diseases, their
severity, and the probability of being affected by the diseases
present. The diseases listed do not necessarily represent the total
disease burden experienced by the local population.

The risk to an individual traveler varies considerably by the specific
location, visit duration, type of activities, type of accommodations,
time of year, and other factors. Consultation with a travel medicine
physician is needed to evaluate individual risk and recommend
appropriate preventive measures such as vaccines.

Diseases are organized into the following six exposure categories shown
in italics and listed in typical descending order of risk. Note - The
sequence of exposure categories listed in individual country entries
may vary according to local conditions.

food or waterborne diseases acquired through eating or drinking on the
local economy:

Hepatitis A - viral disease that interferes with the functioning of the
liver; spread through consumption of food or water contaminated with
fecal matter, principally in areas of poor sanitation; victims exhibit
fever, jaundice, and diarrhea; 15% of victims will experience prolonged
symptoms over 6-9 months; vaccine available.

Hepatitis E - water-borne viral disease that interferes with the
functioning of the liver; most commonly spread through fecal
contamination of drinking water; victims exhibit jaundice, fatigue,
abdominal pain, and dark colored urine.

Typhoid fever - bacterial disease spread through contact with food or
water contaminated by fecal matter or sewage; victims exhibit sustained
high fevers; left untreated, mortality rates can reach 20%.

vectorborne diseases acquired through the bite of an infected
arthropod:

Malaria - caused by single-cell parasitic protozoa Plasmodium;
transmitted to humans via the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito;
parasites multiply in the liver attacking red blood cells resulting in
cycles of fever, chills, and sweats accompanied by anemia; death due to
damage to vital organs and interruption of blood supply to the brain;
endemic in 100, mostly tropical, countries with 90% of cases and the
majority of 1.5-2.5 million estimated annual deaths occurring in sub-
Saharan Africa.

Dengue fever - mosquito-borne (Aedes aegypti) viral disease associated
with urban environments; manifests as sudden onset of fever and severe
headache; occasionally produces shock and hemorrhage leading to death
in 5% of cases.

Yellow fever - mosquito-borne viral disease; severity ranges from
influenza-like symptoms to severe hepatitis and hemorrhagic fever;
occurs only in tropical South America and sub-Saharan Africa, where
most cases are reported; fatality rate is less than 20%.

Japanese Encephalitis - mosquito-borne (Culex tritaeniorhynchus) viral
disease associated with rural areas in Asia; acute encephalitis can
progress to paralysis, coma, and death; fatality rates 30%.

African Trypanosomiasis - caused by the parasitic protozoa Trypanosoma;
transmitted to humans via the bite of bloodsucking Tsetse flies;
infection leads to malaise and irregular fevers and, in advanced cases
when the parasites invade the central nervous system, coma and death;
endemic in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa; cattle and wild animals
act as reservoir hosts for the parasites.

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis - caused by the parasitic protozoa leishmania;
transmitted to humans via the bite of sandflies; results in skin
lesions that may become chronic; endemic in 88 countries; 90% of cases
occur in Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Peru; wild
and domesticated animals as well as humans can act as reservoirs of
infection.

Plague - bacterial disease transmitted by fleas normally associated
with rats; person-to-person airborne transmission also possible; recent
plague epidemics occurred in areas of Asia, Africa, and South America
associated with rural areas or small towns and villages; manifests as
fever, headache, and painfully swollen lymph nodes; disease progresses
rapidly and without antibiotic treatment leads to pneumonic form with a
death rate in excess of 50%.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever - tick-borne viral disease; infection
may also result from exposure to infected animal blood or tissue;
geographic distribution includes Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and
Eastern Europe; sudden onset of fever, headache, and muscle aches
followed by hemorrhaging in the bowels, urine, nose, and gums;
mortality rate is approximately 30%.

Rift Valley fever - viral disease affecting domesticated animals and
humans; transmission is by mosquito and other biting insects; infection
may also occur through handling of infected meat or contact with blood;
geographic distribution includes eastern and southern Africa where
cattle and sheep are raised; symptoms are generally mild with fever and
some liver abnormalities, but the disease may progress to hemorrhagic
fever, encephalitis, or ocular disease; fatality rates are low at about
1% of cases.

Chikungunya - mosquito-borne (Aedes aegypti) viral disease associated
with urban environments, similar to Dengue Fever; characterized by
sudden onset of fever, rash, and severe joint pain usually lasting 3-7
days, some cases result in persistent arthritis.

water contact diseases acquired through swimming or wading in
freshwater lakes, streams, and rivers:

Leptospirosis - bacterial disease that affects animals and humans;
infection occurs through contact with water, food, or soil contaminated
by animal urine; symptoms include high fever, severe headache,
vomiting, jaundice, and diarrhea; untreated, the disease can result in
kidney damage, liver failure, meningitis, or respiratory distress;
fatality rates are low but left untreated recovery can take months.

Schistosomiasis - caused by parasitic trematode flatworm Schistosoma;
fresh water snails act as intermediate host and release larval form of
parasite that penetrates the skin of people exposed to contaminated
water; worms mature and reproduce in the blood vessels, liver, kidneys,
and intestines releasing eggs, which become trapped in tissues
triggering an immune response; may manifest as either urinary or
intestinal disease resulting in decreased work or learning capacity;
mortality, while generally low, may occur in advanced cases usually due
to bladder cancer; endemic in 74 developing countries with 80% of
infected people living in sub-Saharan Africa; humans act as the
reservoir for this parasite.

aerosolized dust or soil contact disease acquired through inhalation of
aerosols contaminated with rodent urine:

Lassa fever - viral disease carried by rats of the genus Mastomys;
endemic in portions of West Africa; infection occurs through direct
contact with or consumption of food contaminated by rodent urine or
fecal matter containing virus particles; fatality rate can reach 50% in
epidemic outbreaks.

respiratory disease acquired through close contact with an infectious
person:

Meningococcal meningitis - bacterial disease causing an inflammation of
the lining of the brain and spinal cord; one of the most important
bacterial pathogens is Neisseria meningitidis because of its potential
to cause epidemics; symptoms include stiff neck, high fever, headaches,
and vomiting; bacteria are transmitted from person to person by
respiratory droplets and facilitated by close and prolonged contact
resulting from crowded living conditions, often with a seasonal
distribution; death occurs in 5-15% of cases, typically within 24-48
hours of onset of symptoms; highest burden of meningococcal disease
occurs in the hyperendemic region of sub-Saharan Africa known as the
"Meningitis Belt" which stretches from Senegal east to Ethiopia.

animal contact disease acquired through direct contact with local
animals:

Rabies - viral disease of mammals usually transmitted through the bite
of an infected animal, most commonly dogs; virus affects the central
nervous system causing brain alteration and death; symptoms initially
are non-specific fever and headache progressing to neurological
symptoms; death occurs within days of the onset of symptoms.

Manpower available for military service

This entry gives the number of males and females falling in the
military age range for the country and assumes that every individual is
fit to serve.

Manpower fit for military service

This entry gives the number of males and females falling in the
military age range for the country and who are not otherwise
disqualified for health reasons; accounts for the health situation in
the country and provides a more realistic estimate of the actual number
fit to serve.

Manpower reaching military service age annually

This entry gives the number of draft-age males and females entering the
military manpower pool in any given year and is a measure of the
availability of draft-age young adults.

Map references

This entry includes the name of the Factbook reference map on which a
country may be found. The entry on Geographic coordinates may be
helpful in finding some smaller countries.

Maritime claims

This entry includes the following claims, the definitions of which are
excerpted from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS), which alone contains the full and definitive descriptions:

territorial sea - the sovereignty of a coastal state extends beyond its
land territory and internal waters to an adjacent belt of sea,
described as the territorial sea in the UNCLOS (Part II); this
sovereignty extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well
as its underlying seabed and subsoil; every state has the right to
establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not
exceeding 12 nautical miles; the normal baseline for measuring the
breadth of the territorial sea is the low-water line along the coast as
marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal
state; the UNCLOS describes specific rules for archipelagic states.

contiguous zone - according to the UNCLOS (Article 33), this is a zone
contiguous to a coastal state's territorial sea, over which it may
exercise the control necessary to: prevent infringement of its customs,
fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws and regulations within its
territory or territorial sea; punish infringement of the above laws and
regulations committed within its territory or territorial sea; the
contiguous zone may not extend beyond 24 nautical miles from the
baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured
(e.g. the US has claimed a 12-nautical mile contiguous zone in addition
to its 12-nautical mile territorial sea).

exclusive economic zone (EEZ) - the UNCLOS (Part V) defines the EEZ as
a zone beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which a coastal
state has: sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and
exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether
living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of
the seabed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for the
economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the
production of energy from the water, currents, and winds; jurisdiction
with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands,
installations, and structures; marine scientific research; the
protection and preservation of the marine environment; the outer limit
of the exclusive economic zone shall not exceed 200 nautical miles from
the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is
measured.

continental shelf - the UNCLOS (Article 76) defines the continental
shelf of a coastal state as comprising the seabed and subsoil of the
submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the
natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the
continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the
baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured
where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to
that distance; the continental margin comprises the submerged
prolongation of the landmass of the coastal state, and consists of the
seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the slope and the rise; wherever the
continental margin extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline,
coastal states may extend their claim to a distance not to exceed 350
nautical miles from the baseline or 100 nautical miles from the 2500
meter isobath; it does not include the deep ocean floor with its
oceanic ridges or the subsoil thereof.

exclusive fishing zone - while this term is not used in the UNCLOS,
some states (e.g., the United Kingdom) have chosen not to claim an EEZ,
but rather to claim jurisdiction over the living resources off their
coast; in such cases, the term exclusive fishing zone is often used;
the breadth of this zone is normally the same as the EEZ or 200
nautical miles.

Median age

This entry is the age that divides a population into two numerically
equal groups; that is, half the people are younger than this age and
half are older. It is a single index that summarizes the age
distribution of a population. Currently, the median age ranges from a
low of about 15 in Uganda and Gaza Strip to 40 or more in several
European countries and Japan. See the entry for "Age structure" for the
importance of a young versus an older age structure and, by
implication, a low versus a higher median age.

Merchant marine

Merchant marine may be defined as all ships engaged in the carriage of
goods; or all commercial vessels (as opposed to all nonmilitary ships),
which excludes tugs, fishing vessels, offshore oil rigs, etc. This
entry contains information in four fields - total, ships by type,
foreign-owned, and registered in other countries.

Total includes the number of ships (1,000 GRT or over), total DWT for
those ships, and total GRT for those ships. DWT or dead weight tonnage
is the total weight of cargo, plus bunkers, stores, etc., that a ship
can carry when immersed to the appropriate load line. GRT or gross
register tonnage is a figure obtained by measuring the entire sheltered
volume of a ship available for cargo and passengers and converting it
to tons on the basis of 100 cubic feet per ton; there is no stable
relationship between GRT and DWT.

Ships by type includes a listing of barge carriers, bulk cargo ships,
cargo ships, chemical tankers, combination bulk carriers, combination
ore/oil carriers, container ships, liquefied gas tankers, livestock
carriers, multifunctional large-load carriers, petroleum tankers,
passenger ships, passenger/cargo ships, railcar carriers, refrigerated
cargo ships, roll-on/roll-off cargo ships, short-sea passenger ships,
specialized tankers, and vehicle carriers.

Foreign-owned are ships that fly the flag of one country but belong to
owners in another.

Registered in other countries are ships that belong to owners in one
country but fly the flag of another.

Military

This category includes the entries dealing with a country's military
structure, manpower, and expenditures.

Military - note

This entry includes miscellaneous military information of significance
not included elsewhere.

Military branches

This entry lists the service branches subordinate to defense ministries
or the equivalent (typically ground, naval, air, and marine forces).

Military expenditures - dollar figure

This entry gives spending on defense programs in US dollars for the
most recent year available; dollar figures for military expenditures
should be treated with caution because of different price patterns and
accounting methods among nations, as well as wide variations in the
strength of different currencies.

Military expenditures - percent of GDP

This entry gives spending on defense programs for the most recent year
available as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP); the GDP is
calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in terms of purchasing
power parity (PPP).

Military service age and obligation

This entry gives the required ages for voluntary or conscript military
service and the length of sevice obligation.

Money figures

All money figures are expressed in contemporaneous US dollars unless
otherwise indicated.

National holiday

This entry gives the primary national day of celebration - usually
independence day.

Nationality

This entry provides the identifying terms for citizens - noun and
adjective.

Natural gas - consumption

This entry is the total natural gas consumed in cubic meters (cu m).
The discrepancy between the amount of natural gas produced and/or
imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission
of stock changes and other complicating factors.

Natural gas - exports

This entry is the total natural gas exported in cubic meters (cu m).

Natural gas - imports

This entry is the total natural gas imported in cubic meters (cu m).

Natural gas - production

This entry is the total natural gas produced in cubic meters (cu m).
The discrepancy between the amount of natural gas produced and/or
imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission
of stock changes and other complicating factors.

Natural gas - proved reserves

This entry is the stock of proved reserves of natural gas in cubic
meters (cu m). Proved reserves are those quantities of natural gas,
which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated
with a high degree of confidence to be commercially recoverable from a
given date forward, from known reservoirs and under current economic
conditions.

Natural hazards

This entry lists potential natural disasters.

Natural resources

This entry lists a country's mineral, petroleum, hydropower, and other
resources of commercial importance.

Net migration rate

This entry includes the figure for the difference between the number of
persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000
persons (based on midyear population). An excess of persons entering
the country is referred to as net immigration (e.g., 3.56
migrants/1,000 population); an excess of persons leaving the country as
net emigration (e.g., -9.26 migrants/1,000 population). The net
migration rate indicates the contribution of migration to the overall
level of population change. High levels of migration can cause problems
such as increasing unemployment and potential ethnic strife (if people
are coming in) or a reduction in the labor force, perhaps in certain
key sectors (if people are leaving).

Oil - consumption

This entry is the total oil consumed in barrels per day (bbl/day). The
discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the
amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock
changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors.

Oil - exports

This entry is the total oil exported in barrels per day (bbl/day),
including both crude oil and oil products.

Oil - imports

This entry is the total oil imported in barrels per day (bbl/day),
including both crude oil and oil products.

Oil - production

This entry is the total oil produced in barrels per day (bbl/day). The
discrepancy between the amount of oil produced and/or imported and the
amount consumed and/or exported is due to the omission of stock
changes, refinery gains, and other complicating factors.

Oil - proved reserves

This entry is the stock of proved reserves of crude oil in barrels
(bbl). Proved reserves are those quantities of petroleum which, by
analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated with a
high degree of confidence to be commercially recoverable from a given
date forward, from known reservoirs and under current economic
conditions.

People

This category includes the entries dealing with the characteristics of
the people and their society.

People - note

This entry includes miscellaneous demographic information of
significance not included elsewhere.

Personal Names - Capitalization

The Factbook capitalizes the surname or family name of individuals for
the convenience of our users who are faced with a world of different
cultures and naming conventions. The need for capitalization, bold
type, underlining, italics, or some other indicator of the individual's
surname is apparent in the following examples: MAO Zedong, Fidel CASTRO
Ruz, George W. BUSH, and TUNKU SALAHUDDIN Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Al-
Marhum Sultan Hisammuddin Alam Shah. By knowing the surname, a short
form without all capital letters can be used with confidence as in
President Castro, Chairman Mao, President Bush, or Sultan Tunku
Salahuddin. The same system of capitalization is extended to the names
of leaders with surnames that are not commonly used such as Queen
ELIZABETH II. For Vietnamese names, the given name is capitalized
because officials are referred to by their given name rather than by
their surname. For example, the president of Vietnam is Tran Duc LUONG.
His surname is Tran, but he is referred to by his given name -
President LUONG.

Personal Names - Spelling

The romanization of personal names in the Factbook normally follows the
same transliteration system used by the US Board on Geographic Names
for spelling place names. At times, however, a foreign leader expressly
indicates a preference for, or the media or official documents
regularly use, a romanized spelling that differs from the
transliteration derived from the US Government standard. In such cases,
the Factbook uses the alternative spelling.

Personal Names - Titles

The Factbook capitalizes any valid title (or short form of it)
immediately preceding a person's name. A title standing alone is not
capitalized. Examples: President PUTIN and President BUSH are chiefs of
state. In Russia, the president is chief of state and the premier is
the head of the government, while in the US, the president is both
chief of state and head of government.

Petroleum

See entries under Oil.

Petroleum products

See entries under Oil.

Pipelines

This entry gives the lengths and types of pipelines for transporting
products like natural gas, crude oil, or petroleum products.

Political parties and leaders

This entry includes a listing of significant political organizations
and their leaders.

Political pressure groups and leaders

This entry includes a listing of organizations with leaders involved in
politics, but not standing for legislative election.

Population

This entry gives an estimate from the US Bureau of the Census based on
statistics from population censuses, vital statistics registration
systems, or sample surveys pertaining to the recent past and on
assumptions about future trends. The total population presents one
overall measure of the potential impact of the country on the world and
within its region. Note: starting with the 1993 Factbook, demographic
estimates for some countries (mostly African) have explicitly taken
into account the effects of the growing impact of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic. These countries are currently: The Bahamas, Benin, Botswana,
Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras,
Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South
Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe.

Population below poverty line

National estimates of the percentage of the population falling below
the poverty line are based on surveys of sub-groups, with the results
weighted by the number of people in each group. Definitions of poverty
vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally
employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations.

Population growth rate

The average annual percent change in the population, resulting from a
surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths and the balance of migrants
entering and leaving a country. The rate may be positive or negative.
The growth rate is a factor in determining how great a burden would be
imposed on a country by the changing needs of its people for
infrastructure (e.g., schools, hospitals, housing, roads), resources
(e.g., food, water, electricity), and jobs. Rapid population growth can
be seen as threatening by neighboring countries.

Ports and terminals

This entry lists major ports and terminals primarily on the basis of
the amount of cargo tonnage shipped through the facilities on an annual
basis. In some instances, the number of containers handled or ship
visits were also considered.

Public debt

This entry records the cumulatiive total of all government borrowings
less repayments that are denominated in a country's home currency.
Public debt should not be confused with external debt, which reflects
the foreign currency liabilities of both the private and public sector
and must be financed out of foreign exchange earnings.

Radio broadcast stations

This entry includes the total number of AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast
stations.

Railways

This entry states the total route length of the railway network and of
its component parts by gauge: broad, standard, narrow, and dual. Other
gauges are listed under note.

Reference maps

This section includes world and regional maps.

Refugees and internally displaced persons

This entry includes those persons residing in a country as refugees or
internally displaced persons (IDPs). The definition of a refugee
according to a United Nations Convention is "a person who is outside
his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-
founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social group or political
opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the
protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of
persecution." The UN established the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1950 to handle refugee matters worldwide. The
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA) has a different, operational definition for a Palestinian
refugee: "a person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during
the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means
of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." However, UNHCR also
assists some 400,000 Palestinian refugees not covered under the UNRWA
definition. The term "internally displaced person" is not specifically
covered in the UN Convention; it is used to describe people who have
fled their homes for reasons similar to refugees, but who remain within
their own national territory and are subject to the laws of that state.

Religions

This entry is an ordered listing of religions by adherents starting
with the largest group and sometimes includes the percent of total
population.

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

This entry gives the dollar value for the stock of all financial assets
that are available to the central monetary authority for use in meeting
a country's balance of payments needs as of the end-date of the period
specified. This category includes not only foreign currency and gold,
but also a country's holdings of Special Drawing Rights in the
International Monetary Fund, and its reserve position in the Fund.

Roadways

This entry gives the total length of the road network and includes the
length of the paved and unpaved portions.

Sex ratio

This entry includes the number of males for each female in five age
groups - at birth, under 15 years, 15-64 years, 65 years and over, and
for the total population. Sex ratio at birth has recently emerged as an
indicator of certain kinds of sex discrimination in some countries. For
instance, high sex ratios at birth in some Asian countries are now
attributed to sex-selective abortion and infanticide due to a strong
preference for sons. This will affect future marriage patterns and
fertility patterns. Eventually, it could cause unrest among young adult
males who are unable to find partners.

Suffrage

This entry gives the age at enfranchisement and whether the right to
vote is universal or restricted.

Telephone numbers

All telephone numbers in The World Factbook consist of the country code
in brackets, the city or area code (where required) in parentheses, and
the local number. The one component that is not presented is the
international access code, which varies from country to country. For
example, an international direct dial telephone call placed from the US
to Madrid, Spain, would be as follows: 011 [34] (1) 577-xxxx, where 011
is the international access code for station-to-station calls; 01 is
for calls other than station-to-station calls, [34] is the country code
for Spain, (1) is the city code for Madrid, 577 is the local exchange,
and xxxx is the local telephone number. An international direct dial
telephone call placed from another country to the US would be as
follows: international access code + [1] (202) 939-xxxx, where [ 1] is
the country code for the US, (202) is the area code for Washington, DC,
939 is the local exchange, and xxxx is the local telephone number.

Telephone system

This entry includes a brief general assessment of the system with
details on the domestic and international components. The following
terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry:

Arabsat - Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia).

Autodin - Automatic Digital Network (US Department of Defense).

CB - citizen's band mobile radio communications.

Cellular telephone system - the telephones in this system are radio
transceivers, with each instrument having its own private radio
frequency and sufficient radiated power to reach the booster station in
its area (cell), from which the telephone signal is fed to a telephone
exchange.

Central American Microwave System - a trunk microwave radio relay
system that links the countries of Central America and Mexico with each
other.

Coaxial cable - a multichannel communication cable consisting of a
central conducting wire, surrounded by and insulated from a cylindrical
conducting shell; a large number of telephone channels can be made
available within the insulated space by the use of a large number of
carrier frequencies.

Comsat - Communications Satellite Corporation (US).

DSN - Defense Switched Network (formerly Automatic Voice Network or
Autovon); basic general-purpose, switched voice network of the Defense
Communications System (US Department of Defense).

Eutelsat - European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Paris).

Fiber-optic cable - a multichannel communications cable using a thread
of optical glass fibers as a transmission medium in which the signal
(voice, video, etc.) is in the form of a coded pulse of light.

GSM - a global system for mobile (cellular) communications devised by
the Groupe Special Mobile of the pan-European standardization
organization, Conference Europeanne des Posts et Telecommunications
(CEPT) in 1982.

HF - high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-kHz
range.

Inmarsat - International Maritime Satellite Organization (London);
provider of global mobile satellite communications for commercial,
distress, and safety applications at sea, in the air, and on land.

Intelsat - International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Washington, DC).

Intersputnik - International Organization of Space Communications
(Moscow); first established in the former Soviet Union and the East
European countries, it is now marketing its services worldwide with
earth stations in North America, Africa, and East Asia.

Landline - communication wire or cable of any sort that is installed on
poles or buried in the ground.

Marecs - Maritime European Communications Satellite used in the
Inmarsat system on lease from the European Space Agency.

Marisat - satellites of the Comsat Corporation that participate in the
Inmarsat system.

Medarabtel - the Middle East Telecommunications Project of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) providing a modern
telecommunications network, primarily by microwave radio relay, linking
Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen; it was initially started in
Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and was
known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications
Network.

Microwave radio relay - transmission of long distance telephone calls
and television programs by highly directional radio microwaves that are
received and sent on from one booster station to another on an optical
path.

NMT - Nordic Mobile Telephone; an analog cellular telephone system that
was developed jointly by the national telecommunications authorities of
the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).

Orbita - a Russian television service; also the trade name of a packet-
switched digital telephone network.

Radiotelephone communications - the two-way transmission and reception
of sounds by broadcast radio on authorized frequencies using telephone
handsets.

PanAmSat - PanAmSat Corporation (Greenwich, CT).

SAFE - South African Far East Cable

Satellite communication system - a communication system consisting of
two or more earth stations and at least one satellite that provide long
distance transmission of voice, data, and television; the system
usually serves as a trunk connection between telephone exchanges; if
the earth stations are in the same country, it is a domestic system.

Satellite earth station - a communications facility with a microwave
radio transmitting and receiving antenna and required receiving and
transmitting equipment for communicating with satellites.

Satellite link - a radio connection between a satellite and an earth
station permitting communication between them, either one-way (down
link from satellite to earth station - television receive-only
transmission) or two-way (telephone channels).

SHF - super high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to
30,000-MHz range.

Shortwave - radio frequencies (from 1.605 to 30 MHz) that fall above
the commercial broadcast band and are used for communication over long
distances.

Solidaridad - geosynchronous satellites in Mexico's system of
international telecommunications in the Western Hemisphere.

Statsionar - Russia's geostationary system for satellite
telecommunications.

Submarine cable - a cable designed for service under water.

TAT - Trans-Atlantic Telephone; any of a number of high-capacity
submarine coaxial telephone cables linking Europe with North America.

Telefax - facsimile service between subscriber stations via the public
switched telephone network or the international Datel network.

Telegraph - a telecommunications system designed for unmodulated
electric impulse transmission.

Telex - a communication service involving teletypewriters connected by
wire through automatic exchanges.

Tropospheric scatter - a form of microwave radio transmission in which
the troposphere is used to scatter and reflect a fraction of the
incident radio waves back to earth; powerful, highly directional
antennas are used to transmit and receive the microwave signals;
reliable over-the-horizon communications are realized for distances up
to 600 miles in a single hop; additional hops can extend the range of
this system for very long distances.

Trunk network - a network of switching centers, connected by
multichannel trunk lines.

UHF - ultra high frequency; any radio frequency in the 300- to 3,000-
MHz range.

VHF - very high frequency; any radio frequency in the 30- to 300-MHz
range.

Telephones - main lines in use

This entry gives the total number of main telephone lines in use.

Telephones - mobile cellular

This entry gives the total number of mobile cellular telephone
subscribers.

Television broadcast stations

This entry gives the total number of separate broadcast stations plus
any repeater stations.

Terminology

Due to the highly structured nature of the Factbook database, some
collective generic terms have to be used. For example, the word Country
in the Country name entry refers to a wide variety of dependencies,
areas of special sovereignty, uninhabited islands, and other entities
in addition to the traditional countries or independent states.
Military is also used as an umbrella term for various civil defense,
security, and defense activities in many entries. The Independence
entry includes the usual colonial independence dates and former ruling
states as well as other significant nationhood dates such as the
traditional founding date or the date of unification, federation,
confederation, establishment, or state succession that are not strictly
independence dates. Dependent areas have the nature of their dependency
status noted in this same entry.

Terrain

This entry contains a brief description of the topography.

Time Difference

This entry is expressed in The World Factbook in two ways. First, it is
stated as the difference in hours between the capital of an entity and
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) during Standard Time. Additionally,
the difference in time between the capital of an entity and that
observed in Washington, D.C. is also provided. Note that the time
difference assumes both locations are simultaneously observing Standard
Time or Daylight Saving Time.

Time zones

Ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Kazakhstan,
Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, and the United States) and the
island of Greenland observe more than one official time depending on
the number of designated time zones within their boundaries. An
illustration of time zones throughout the world and within countries
can be seen in the Standard Time Zones of the World map included in the
Reference Maps section of The World Factbook.

Total fertility rate

This entry gives a figure for the average number of children that would
be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing
years and bore children according to a given fertility rate at each
age. The total fertility rate (TFR) is a more direct measure of the
level of fertility than the crude birth rate, since it refers to births
per woman. This indicator shows the potential for population change in
the country. A rate of two children per woman is considered the
replacement rate for a population, resulting in relative stability in
terms of total numbers. Rates above two children indicate populations
growing in size and whose median age is declining. Higher rates may
also indicate difficulties for families, in some situations, to feed
and educate their children and for women to enter the labor force.
Rates below two children indicate populations decreasing in size and
growing older. Global fertility rates are in general decline and this
trend is most pronounced in industrialized countries, especially
Western Europe, where populations are projected to decline dramatically
over the next 50 years.

Trafficking in persons

Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are
forced, defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. The
International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN agency charged with
addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues,
estimates that 12.3 million people worldwide are enslaved in forced
labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and
involuntary servitude at any given time. Human trafficking is a multi-
dimensional threat, depriving people of their human rights and
freedoms, risking global health, promoting social breakdown, inhibiting
development by depriving countries of their human capital, and helping
fuel the growth of organized crime. In 2000, the US Congress passed the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), reauthorized in 2003 and
2005, which provides tools for the US to combat trafficking in persons,
both domestically and abroad. One of the law¿s key components is the
creation of the US Department of State¿s annual Trafficking in Persons
Report, which assesses the government response in some 150 countries
with a significant number of victims trafficked across their borders
who are recruited, harbored, transported, provided, or obtained for
forced labor or sexual exploitation. Countries in the annual report are
rated in three tiers, based on government efforts to combat
trafficking. The countries identified in this entry are those listed in
the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report as Tier 2 Watch List or Tier 3
based on the following definitions:

Tier 2 Watch List countries do not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant
efforts to do so, and meet one of the following criteria: 1. they
display a high or significantly increasing number victims, 2. they have
failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking
in persons, or, 3. they have committed to take action over the next
year.

Tier 3 countries neither satisfy the minimum standards for the
elimination of traffiking nor demonstrate a significant effort to do
so. Countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian
and non-trade sanctions.

Transnational issues

This category includes four entries - Disputes - international,
Refugees and internally displaced persons, Trafficking in persons, and
Illicit drugs - that deal with current issues going beyond national
boundaries.

Transportation

This category includes the entries dealing with the means for movement
of people and goods.

Transportation - note

This entry includes miscellaneous transportation information of
significance not included elsewhere.

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

See entry for Coordinated Universal Time.

Unemployment rate

This entry contains the percent of the labor force that is without
jobs. Substantial underemployment might be noted.

Waterways

This entry gives the total length of navigable rivers, canals, and
other inland bodies of water.

Weights and Measures

This information is presented in Appendix G: Weights and Measures and
includes mathematical notations (mathematical powers and names), metric
interrelationships (prefix; symbol; length, weight, or capacity; area;
volume), and standard conversion factors.

Years

All year references are for the calendar year (CY) unless indicated as
fiscal year (FY). The calendar year is an accounting period of 12
months from 1 January to 31 December. The fiscal year is an accounting
period of 12 months other than 1 January to 31 December.

Note: Information for the US and US dependencies was compiled from
material in the public domain and does not represent Intelligence
Community estimates.


This page was last updated on 19 December 2006



=====================================================================



A Brief History of Basic Intelligence and The World Factbook

The Intelligence Cycle is the process by which information is
acquired, converted into intelligence, and made available to
policymakers.  Information is raw data from any source, data that
may be fragmentary, contradictory, unreliable, ambiguous, deceptive,
or wrong.  Intelligence is information that has been collected,
integrated, evaluated, analyzed, and interpreted. Finished
intelligence is the final product of the Intelligence Cycle ready to
be delivered to the policymaker.

The three types of finished intelligence are: basic, current,
and estimative. Basic intelligence provides the fundamental and
factual reference material on a country or issue. Current
intelligence reports on new developments. Estimative intelligence
judges probable outcomes. The three are mutually supportive: basic
intelligence is the foundation on which the other two are
constructed; current intelligence continually updates the  inventory
of knowledge; and estimative intelligence revises overall
interpretations of country and issue prospects for guidance of basic
and  current intelligence. The World Factbook, The President's Daily
Brief, and the National Intelligence Estimates are examples of the
three types of finished intelligence.

The United States has carried on foreign intelligence
activities since the days of George Washington but only since World
War II have they been coordinated on a government-wide basis. Three
programs have highlighted the development of coordinated basic
intelligence since that time: (1) the Joint Army Navy Intelligence
Studies (JANIS), (2) the National Intelligence Survey (NIS), and (3)
The World Factbook.

During World War II, intelligence consumers realized that the
production of basic intelligence by different components of the US
Government resulted in a great duplication of effort and conflicting
information. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought
home to leaders in Congress and the executive branch the need for
integrating departmental reports to national policymakers. Detailed
and coordinated information was needed not only on such major powers
as Germany and Japan, but also on places of little previous
interest. In the Pacific Theater, for example, the Navy and Marines
had to launch amphibious operations against many islands about which
information was unconfirmed or nonexistent. Intelligence authorities
resolved that the United States should never again be caught
unprepared.

In 1943, Gen. George B. Strong (G-2), Adm. H. C. Train (Office
of Naval Intelligence - ONI), and Gen. William J. Donovan (Director
of the Office of Strategic Services - OSS) decided that a joint
effort should be initiated. A steering committee was appointed on 27
April 1943 that recommended the formation of a Joint Intelligence
Study Publishing Board to assemble, edit, coordinate, and publish
the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS). JANIS was the
first interdepartmental basic intelligence program to fulfill the
needs of the US Government for an authoritative and coordinated
appraisal of strategic basic intelligence. Between April 1943 and
July 1947, the board published 34 JANIS studies. JANIS performed
well in the war effort, and numerous letters of commendation were
received, including a statement from Adm. Forrest Sherman, Chief of
Staff, Pacific Ocean Areas, which said, "JANIS has become the
indispensable reference work for the shore-based planners."

The need for more comprehensive basic intelligence in the
postwar world was well expressed in 1946 by George S. Pettee, a
noted author on national security. He wrote in The Future of
American Secret Intelligence (Infantry Journal Press, 1946, page 46)
that world leadership in peace requires even more elaborate
intelligence than in war. "The conduct of peace involves all
countries, all human activities - not just the enemy and his war
production."

The Central Intelligence Agency was established on 26 July 1947
and officially began operating on 18 September 1947. Effective 1
October 1947, the Director of Central Intelligence assumed
operational responsibility for JANIS. On 13 January 1948, the
National Security Council issued Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No.
3, which authorized the National Intelligence Survey (NIS) program
as a peacetime replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before
adequate NIS country sections could be produced, government agencies
had to develop more comprehensive gazetteers and better maps. The US
Board on Geographic Names (BGN) compiled the names; the Department
of the Interior produced the gazetteers; and CIA produced the maps.

The Hoover Commission's Clark Committee, set up in 1954 to
study the structure and administration of the CIA, reported to
Congress in 1955 that: "The National Intelligence Survey is an
invaluable publication which provides the essential elements of
basic intelligence on all areas of the world. There will always be a
continuing requirement for keeping the Survey up-to-date." The
Factbook was created as an annual summary and update to the
encyclopedic NIS studies. The first classified Factbook was
published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version was
published in June 1971. The NIS program was terminated in 1973
except for the Factbook, map, and gazetteer components. The 1975
Factbook was the first to be made available to the public with sales
through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The Factbook was
first made available on the Internet in June 1997. The year 2006
marks the 59th anniversary of the establishment of the Central
Intelligence Agency and the 63nd year of continuous basic
intelligence support to the US Government by The World Factbook and
its two predecessor programs.


This page was last updated on 28 November, 2006



=====================================================================




Contributors and Copyright Information

The World Factbook is prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency
for the use of US Government officials, and the style, format,
coverage, and content are designed to meet their specific
requirements. Information is provided by Antarctic Information
Program (National Science Foundation), Armed Forces Medical
Intelligence Center (Department of Defense), Bureau of the Census
(Department of Commerce), Bureau of Labor Statistics (Department of
Labor), Central Intelligence Agency, Council of Managers of National
Antarctic Programs, Defense Intelligence Agency (Department of
Defense), Department of Energy, Department of State, Fish and
Wildlife Service (Department of the Interior), Maritime
Administration (Department of Transportation), National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (Department of Defense), Naval
Facilities Engineering Command (Department of Defense), Office of
Insular Affairs (Department of the Interior), Office of Naval
Intelligence (Department of Defense), US Board on Geographic Names
(Department of the Interior), US Transportation Command (Department
of Defense), Oil & Gas Journal, and other public and private sources.

The Factbook is in the public domain. Accordingly, it may be copied
freely without permission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The official seal of the CIA, however, may NOT be copied without
permission as required by the CIA Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. section
403m).  Misuse of the official seal of the CIA could result in civil
and criminal penalties.

Comments and queries are welcome and may be addressed to:

Central Intelligence Agency
Attn.: Office of Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20505
Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM-4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
Telephone: [1] (703) 482-0623
FAX: [1] (703) 482-1739



=====================================================================



Purchasing Information


The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) publishes The World Factbook
in printed and Internet versions. US Government officials may obtain
information about availability of the Factbook from their
organizations or through liaison channels to the CIA. Other users
may obtain sales information about printed copies from the following:

  Superintendent of Documents
  P. O. Box 371954
  Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
  Hours: Monday-Friday 7:30 AM-9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)
  Telephone: [1] (202) 512-1800; toll free: [1] (866) 512-1800
  FAX: [1] (202) 512-2104
  http://bookstore.gpo.gov/

  National Technical Information Service
  5285 Port Royal Road
  Springfield, VA 22161
  Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM-6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST)
  Telephone: [1] (800) 553-6847 (only in the US);
  [1] (703) 605-6000 (for outside US)
  FAX: [1] (703) 605-6900
  http://www.ntis.gov/

  The World Factbook can be accessed on the Internet at:
  http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html


This page was last updated on 23 March, 2006



=====================================================================



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The World Factbook staff thanks you for your comments, suggestions,
updates, kudos, and corrections over the past years. The willingness
of readers from around the world to share their observations and
specialized knowledge is very helpful as we try to produce the best
possible publications. Please feel free to continue to write and
e-mail e-mail us. When submitting corrections or updates to the
Factbook, please include your source(s) of information. At least two
Factbook staffers review every submitted item. The sheer volume of
correspondence precludes detailed personal replies, but we sincerely
appreciate your time and interest in the Factbook. If you include
your e-mail address we will at least acknowledge your note. Thank
you again.

Answers to many frequently asked questions (FAQs) are explained in
the Notes and Definitions section in The World Factbook. Please
review this section to see if your question is already answered
there. In addition, we have compiled the following list of FAQs to
answer other common questions. Select from the following categories
to narrow your search:

General
Geography
Spelling and Pronunciation
Policies and Procedures
Technical



General

Can you provide additional information for a specific country?

The staff cannot provide data beyond what appears in The World
Factbook. The format and information in the Factbook are tailored to
the specific requirements of US Government officials and content is
focused on their current and anticipated needs. The staff welcomes
suggestions for new entries.

How often is The World Factbook updated?

Formerly our Web site (and the published Factbook) were only updated
annually. Beginning in November 2001 we instituted a new system of
more frequent online updates. The World Factbook is currently
updated every two weeks.

The annual printed version of the Factbook is usually released about
midyear. US Government officials may obtain information about
Factbook availability from their own organizations or through
liaison channels to the CIA. Other users may obtain sales
information through the following channels:

Superintendent of Documents
P. O. Box 371954 Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
Telephone: [1] (202) 512-1800
FAX: [1] (202) 512-2250
http://bookstore.gpo.gov

National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: [1] (800) 553-6847 (only in the US);
[1] (703) 605-6000 (for outside US)
FAX: [1] (703) 605-6900
http://www.ntis.gov

Can I use some or all of The World Factbook for my Web site (book,
research project, homework, etc.)?

The World Factbook is in the public domain and may be used freely by
anyone at anytime without seeking permission. However, US Code
prohibits use of the CIA seal in a manner which implies that the CIA
approved, endorsed, or authorized such use. If you have any
questions about your intended use, you should consult with legal
counsel. Further information on The World Factbook's use is
described on the Contributors and Copyright Information page. As a
courtesy, please cite The World Factbook when used.

Why doesn't The World Factbook include information on states,
departments, provinces, etc., in the country format?

The World Factbook provides national-level information on countries,
territories, and dependencies, but not subnational administrative
units within a country. A good encyclopedia should provide
state/province-level information.

Is it possible to access older editions of The World Factbook to do
comparative research and trend analysis?

Only the current version is available for browsing on the CIA Web
site. In the future, the staff hopes to post electronic versions of
The World Factbook as far back as 1986. Hardcopy editions for
earlier years are available from libraries.

Would it be possible to set up a partnership or collaboration
between the producers of The World Factbook and other organizations
or individuals?

The World Factbook does not partner with other organizations or
individuals, but we do welcome comments and suggestions that such
groups or persons choose to provide.


Geography

I can't find a geographic name for a particular country. Why not?

The World Factbook is not a gazetteer (a dictionary or index of
places, usually with descriptive or statistical information) and
cannot provide more than the names of the administrative divisions
(in the Government category) and major cities/towns (on the country
maps). Our expanded Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names,
however, includes many of the world's major geographic features as
well as historic (former) names of countries and cities mentioned in
The World Factbook.

Why are Taiwan and the European Union listed out of alphabetical
order at the end of the Factbook entries?

Taiwan is listed after the regular entries because even though the
mainland People's Republic of China claims Taiwan, elected Taiwanese
authorities de facto administer the island and reject mainland
sovereignty claims. With the establishment of diplomatic relations
with China on January 1, 1979, the US Government recognized the
People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China,
acknowledging the Chinese position that there is only one China and
that Taiwan is part of China.

The European Union (EU) is not a country, but it has taken on many
nation-like attributes and these are likely to be expanded in the
future. A more complete explanation on the inclusion of the EU into
the Factbook may be found in the Preliminary statement.

Since we have an ambassador who represents the US at the Vatican,
why is this entity not listed in the Factbook?

Vatican City is found under Holy See. The term "Holy See" refers to
the authority, jurisdiction, and sovereignty vested in the Pope and
his advisors to direct the worldwide Catholic Church. The Holy See
has a legal personality that allows it to enter into treaties as the
juridical equal of a state and to send and receive diplomatic
representatives. Vatican City, created in 1929 to administer
properties belonging to the Holy See in Rome, is recognized under
international law as a sovereign state, but it does not send or
receive diplomatic representatives. Consequently, Holy See is
included as a Factbook entry, with Vatican City cross-referenced in
the Geographic Names appendix.

Why is Palestine not listed in The World Factbook?

The areas that could potentially form a future Palestinian state --
the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- do appear in the Factbook. These
areas are presently Israeli-occupied with current status subject to
the Israeli-Palestinian 1995 Interim Agreement; their permanent
status is to be determined through further negotiation.

Why are the Golan Heights not shown as part of Israel or Northern
Cyprus with Turkey?

Territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United
States Government are not shown on US Government maps.

Why don't you include information on entities such as Tibet,
Kashmir, or Kosovo?

The World Factbook provides information on the administrative
divisions of a country as recommended by the United States Board on
Geographic Names (BGN). The BGN is a component of the US Government
that develops policies, principles, and procedures governing the
spelling, use, and application of geographic names--domestic,
foreign, Antarctic, and undersea. Its decisions enable all
departments and agencies of the US Government to have access to
uniform names of geographic features.

Also included in the Factbook are entries on parts of the world
whose status has not yet been resolved (e.g., West Bank, Spratly
Islands). Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute
among countries are not covered.

What do you mean when you say that a country is "doubly landlocked"?

A doubly landlocked country is one that is separated from an ocean
or an ocean-accessible sea by two intervening countries. Uzbekistan
and Liechtenstein are the only countries that fit this definition.


Spelling and Pronunciation

Why is the spelling of proper names such as rulers, presidents, and
prime ministers in The World Factbook different than their spelling
in my country?

The Factbook staff applies the names and spellings from the Chiefs
of State link on the CIA Web site. The World Factbook is prepared
using the standard American English computer keyboard and does not
use any special characters, symbols, or most diacritical markings in
its spellings. Surnames are always spelled with capital letters;
they may appear first in some cultures.

The spelling of geographic names, features, cities, administrative
divisions, etc. in the Factbook differs from those used in my
country. Why is this?

The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) recommends and
approves names and spellings. The BGN is the component of the United
States Government that develops policies, principles, and procedures
governing the spelling, use, and application of geographic
names--domestic, foreign, Antarctic, and undersea. Its decisions
enable all departments and agencies of the US Government to use
uniform names of geographic features. (A note is usually included
where changes may have occurred but have not yet been approved by
the BGN). The World Factbook is prepared using the standard American
English computer keyboard and does not use any special characters,
symbols, or most diacritical markings in its spellings.

Why doesn't The World Factbook include pronunciations of country or
leader names?

There are too many variations in pronunciation among
English-speaking countries, not to mention English renditions of
non-English names, for pronunciations to be included. American
English pronunciations are included for some countries like Qatar
and Kiribati.

Why is the name of the Labour party misspelled?

When American and British spellings of common English words differ,
The World Factbook always uses the American spelling, even when
these common words form part of a proper name in British English.


Policies and Procedures

What is The World Factbook's source for a specific subject field?

The Factbook staff uses many different sources to publish what we
judge are the most reliable and consistent data for any particular
category. Space considerations preclude a listing of these various
sources.

The names of some geographic features provided in the Factbook
differ from those used in other publications. For example, in Asia
the Factbook has Burma as the country name, but in other
publications Myanmar is used; also, the Factbook uses Sea of Japan
whereas other publications label it East Sea. What is your policy on
naming geographic features?

The Factbook staff follows the guidance of the United States Board
on Geographic Names (BGN). The BGN is the component of the United
States Government that develops policies, principles, and procedures
governing the spelling, use, and application of geographic
names--domestic, foreign, Antarctic, and undersea. Its decisions
enable all departments and agencies of the US Government to have
access to uniform names of geographic features. The position of the
BGN is that the names Burma and Sea of Japan be used in official US
Government maps and publications.

Why is most of the statistical information in the Factbook given in
metric units, rather than the units standard to US measure?

US Federal agencies are required by the Metric Conversion Act of
1975 (Public Law 94-168) and by Executive Order 12770 of July 1991
to use the International System of Units, commonly referred to as
the metric system or SI. In addition, the metric system is used by
over 95 percent of the world's population.

Why don't you include information on minimum and maximum temperature
extremes?

The Factbook staff judges that this information would only be useful
for some (generally smaller) countries. Larger countries can have
large temperature extremes that do not represent the landmass as a
whole. In the future, such a category may be adopted listing the
extremes, but also adding a normal temperature range found
throughout most of a country's territory.

What information sources are used for the country flags?

Flag designs used in The World Factbook are those recognized by the
protocol office of the US Department of State.

Why do your GDP (Gross Domestic Product) statistics differ from
other sources?

We have two sets of GDP dollar estimates in The World Factbook , one
derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations and the
other derived using official exchange rates (OER). Other sources
probably use one of the two. See the Notes and Definitions section
on GDP and GDP methodology for more information.

On the CIA Web site, Chiefs of State is updated weekly, but the last
update for the Factbook was an earlier date. Why the discrepancy?

Although Chiefs of State and The World Factbook both appear on the
CIA Web site, they are produced and updated by separate staffs.
Chiefs of State includes fewer countries but more leaders, and is
updated more frequently than The World Factbook, which has a much
larger database, and includes all countries.

Some percentage distributions do not add to 100. Why not?

Because of rounding, percentage distributions do not always add
precisely to 100%. Rounding of numbers always results in a loss of
precision--i.e., error. This error becomes apparent when percentage
data are totaled, as the following two examples show:


                 Original Data     Rounded to whole integer

  Example 1               43.2                           43
                          30.4                           30
                          26.4                           26
                          ----                           --
                         100.0                           99

  Example 2               42.8                           43
                          31.6                           32
                          25.6                           26
                          ----                           --
                         100.0                          101

When this occurs, we do not force the numbers to add exactly to 100,
because doing so would introduce additional error into the
distribution.

What rounding convention does The World Factbook use?

In deciding on the number of digits to present, the Factbook staff
assesses the accuracy of the original data and the needs of US
Government officials. All of the economic data are processed by
computer--either at the source or by the Factbook staff. The economic
data presented in The Factbook, therefore, follow the rounding
convention used by virtually all numerical software applications,
namely, any digit followed by a "5" is rounded up to the next higher
digit, no matter whether the original digit is even or odd. Thus,
for example, when rounded to the nearest integer, 2.5 becomes 3,
rather than 2, as occurred in some pre-computer rounding systems.

Why do you list "Independence" dates for countries like France,
Germany, and the United Kingdom?

For most countries, this entry presents the date that sovereignty
was achieved and from which nation, empire, or trusteeship. For
other countries, the date may be some other significant nationhood
event such as the traditional founding date or the date of
unification, federation, confederation, establishment, or state
succession and so may not strictly be an "Independence" date.
Dependent entities have the nature of their dependency status noted
in this same entry.


Technical

Does The World Factbook comply with Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act regarding accessibility of Web pages?

The World Factbook home page has a link entitled "Text/Low Bandwidth
Version." The country data in the text version is fully accessible.
We believe The World Factbook is compliant with the Section 508 law
in both fact and spirit. If you are experiencing difficulty, please
use our comment form to provide us details of the specific problem
you are experiencing and the assistive software and/or hardware that
you are using so that we can work with our technical support staff
to find and implement a solution. We welcome visitors' suggestions
to improve accessibility of The World Factbook and the CIA Web site.

I am using the Factbook online and it is not working. What is wrong?

Hundreds of "Factbook" look-alikes exist on the Internet. The
Factbook site at: www.cia.gov is the only official site.

When I attempt to download a PDF (Portable Document Format) map file
(or some other map) the file has no image. Can you fix this?

Some of the files on The World Factbook Web site are large and could
take several minutes to download on a dial-up connection. The screen
might be blank during the download process.

When I open a map on The World Factbook site, it is fuzzy or
granular, or too big or too small. Why?

Adjusting the resolution setting on your monitor should correct this
problem.

Is The World Factbook country data available in machine-readable
format? All I can find is HTML, but I'm looking for simple tabular
data.

The Factbook Web site now features "Rank Order" pages for selected
Factbook entries. "Rank Order" pages are available for those data
fields identified with a small bar chart icon located next to the
title of the data entry. In addition, all of the "Rank Order" pages
can be downloaded as tab-delimited data files that can be opened in
other applications such as spreadsheets and databases.


This page was last updated on 23 August, 2006


=====================================================================



@Afghanistan

Introduction Afghanistan


Background:
  Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded
  Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the
  British and Russian empires until it won independence from notional
  British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a
  1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union
  invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime,
  but withdrew 10 years later under relentless pressure by
  internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A civil
  war between mujahedin factions erupted following the 1992 fall of
  the Communist regime. The Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored
  movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and
  anarchy, seized Kabul in 1996 and most of the country outside of
  opposition Northern Alliance strongholds by 1998. Following the 11
  September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and Northern
  Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama
  BIN LADIN. In late 2001, a conference in Bonn, Germany, established
  a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of
  a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National
  Assembly elections in 2005. On 7 December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became
  the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The
  National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005.

Geography Afghanistan


Location:
  Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Geographic coordinates:
  33 00 N, 65 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 647,500 sq km
  land: 647,500 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,529 km
  border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km,
  Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers

Terrain:
  mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m
  highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites,
  sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones

Land use:
  arable land: 12.13%
  permanent crops: 0.21%
  other: 87.66% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  27,200 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding;
  droughts

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of
  potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of
  the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building
  materials); desertification; air and water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping
  signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  landlocked; the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to
  southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the
  country; the highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan
  Corridor)

People Afghanistan


Population:
  31,056,997 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.6% (male 7,095,117/female 6,763,759)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 8,436,716/female 8,008,463)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 366,642/female 386,300) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 17.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.67% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  46.6 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  20.34 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 160.23 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 164.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 155.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 43.34 years
  male: 43.16 years
  female: 43.53 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.01% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk countrywide below 2,000
  meters from March through November
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Afghan(s)
  adjective: Afghan

Ethnic groups:
  Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%,
  Baloch 2%, other 4%

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, other 1%

Languages:
  Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashtu (official) 35%,
  Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor
  languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 36%
  male: 51%
  female: 21% (1999 est.)

People - note:
  of the estimated 4 million refugees in October 2001, 2.3 million
  have returned

Government Afghanistan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  conventional short form: Afghanistan
  local long form: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Afghanestan
  local short form: Afghanestan
  former: Republic of Afghanistan

Government type:
  Islamic republic

Capital:
  name: Kabul
  geographic coordinates: 34 31 N, 69 12 E
  time difference: UTC+4.5 (9.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  34 provinces (velayat, singular - velayat); Badakhshan, Badghis,
  Baghlan, Balkh, Bamian, Daykondi, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghowr,
  Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabol, Kandahar, Kapisa, Khowst, Konar,
  Kondoz, Laghman, Lowgar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nurestan, Oruzgan,
  Paktia, Paktika, Panjshir, Parvan, Samangan, Sar-e Pol, Takhar,
  Vardak, Zabol

Independence:
  19 August 1919 (from UK control over Afghan foreign affairs)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 19 August (1919)

Constitution:
  new constitution drafted 14 December 2003-4 January 2004; signed 16
  January 2004

Legal system:
  according to the new constitution, no law should be "contrary to
  Islam"; the state is obliged to create a prosperous and progressive
  society based on social justice, protection of human dignity,
  protection of human rights, realization of democracy, and to ensure
  national unity and equality among all ethnic groups and tribes; the
  state shall abide by the UN charter, international treaties,
  international conventions that Afghanistan signed, and the Universal
  Declaration of Human Rights

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  Hamid KARZAI (since 7 December 2004); Vice Presidents Ahmad Zia
  MASOOD and Abdul Karim KHALILI (since 7 December 2004); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government; former
  King ZAHIR Shah holds the honorific, "Father of the Country," and
  presides symbolically over certain occasions, but lacks any
  governing authority; the honorific is not hereditary
  head of government: President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  Hamid KARZAI (since 7 December 2004); Vice Presidents Ahmad Zia
  MASOOD and Abdul Karim KHALILI (since 7 December 2004); note - the
  president is both chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: 27 ministers; note - under the new constitution, ministers
  are appointed by the president and approved by the National Assembly
  elections: the president and two vice presidents are elected by
  direct vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); if no
  candidate receives 50% or more of the vote in the first round of
  voting, the two candidates with the most votes will participate in a
  second round; a president can only be elected for two terms;
  election last held 9 October 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Hamid KARZAI elected president; percent of vote -
  Hamid KARZAI 55.4%, Yunus QANOONI 16.3%, Ustad Mohammad MOHAQQEQ
  11.6%, Abdul Rashid DOSTAM 10.0%, Abdul Latif PEDRAM 1.4%, Masooda
  JALAL 1.2%

Legislative branch:
  the bicameral National Assembly consists of the Wolesi Jirga or
  House of People (no more than 249 seats), directly elected for
  five-year terms, and the Meshrano Jirga or House of Elders (102
  seats, one-third elected from provincial councils for four-year
  terms, one-third elected from local district councils for three-year
  terms - provincial councils elected temporary members to fill these
  seats until district councils are formed, and one-third presidential
  appointees for five-year terms; the presidential appointees will
  include 2 representatives of Kuchis and 2 representatives of the
  disabled; half of the presidential appointees will be women)
  note: on rare occasions the government may convene a Loya Jirga
  (Grand Council) on issues of independence, national sovereignty, and
  territorial integrity; it can amend the provisions of the
  constitution and prosecute the president; it is made up of members
  of the National Assembly and chairpersons of the provincial and
  district councils
  elections: last held 18 September 2005 (next to be held for the
  Wolesi Jirga by September 2009; next to be held for the provincial
  councils to the Meshrano Jirga by September 2008)
  election results: the single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system
  used in the election did not make use of political party slates;
  most candidates ran as independents

Judicial branch:
  the constitution establishes a nine-member Stera Mahkama or Supreme
  Court (its nine justices are appointed for 10-year terms by the
  president with approval of the Wolesi Jirga) and subordinate High
  Courts and Appeals Courts (note - nine supreme court justices were
  appointed in the interim in January 2005 pending National Assembly
  selection of the constitutionally mandated justices); there is also
  a minister of justice; a separate Afghan Independent Human Rights
  Commission established by the Bonn Agreement is charged with
  investigating human rights abuses and war crimes

Political parties and leaders:
  note - includes only political parties approved by the Ministry of
  Justice: Afghan Millat [Anwarul Haq AHADI]; De Afghanistan De Solay
  Ghorzang Gond [Shahnawaz TANAI]; De Afghanistan De Solay Mili Islami
  Gond [Shah Mahmood Polal ZAI]; Harakat-e-Islami Afghanistan
  [Mohammad Asif MOHSINEE]; Hezb-e-Aarman-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan
  [Iihaj Saraj-u-din ZAFAREE]; Hezb-e-Aazadee Afghanistan [Abdul
  MALIK]; Hezb-e-Adalat-e-Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Kabeer
  MARZBAN]; Hezb-e-Afghanistan-e-Wahid [Mohammad Wasil RAHEEMEE];
  Hezb-e-Afghan Watan Islami Gond; Hezb-e-Congra-e-Mili Afghanistan
  [Latif PEDRAM]; Hezb-e-Falah-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad
  ZAREEF]; Hezb-e-Hambastagee Mili Jawanan-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad
  Jamil KARZAI]; Hezb-e-Hamnbatagee-e-Afghanistan [Abdul Khaleq
  NEMAT]; Hezb-e-Harakat-e-Mili Wahdat-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad Nadir
  AATASH]; Hezb-e-Harak-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ilhaj Said
  Hssain ANWARY]; Hezb-e-Ifazat Az Uqoq-e-Bashar Wa
  Inkishaf-e-Afghanistan [Baryalai NASRATEE];
  Hezb-e-Istiqlal-e-Afghanistan [Dr. Gh. Farooq NIJZRABEE];
  Hezb-e-Jamhoree Khwahan [Sibghatullah SANJAR]; Hezb-e-Kar Wa
  Tawsiha-e-Afghanistan [Zulfiar OMID]; Hezb-e-Libral-e-Aazadee
  Khwa-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ajmal SOHAIL]; Hezb-e-Mili Afghanistan
  [Abdul Rasheed AARYAN]; Hezb-e-Mili Wahdat-e-Aqwam-e-Islami
  Afghanistan [Mohammad Shah KHOGYANEE]; Hezb-e-Nuhzhat-e-Mili
  Afghanistan [Ahmad Wali MASOUD]; Hezb-e-Paiwand-e-Mili Afghanistan
  [Said Mansoor NADIRI]; Hezb-e-Rastakhaiz-e-Islami
  Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Said ZAHIR];
  Hezb-e-Refah-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mia Gul WASEEQ];
  Hezb-e-Risalat-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Noor Aqa ROEEN];
  Hezb-e-Sahadat-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad Zubair PAIROZ];
  Hezb-e-Sahadat-e-Mili Wa Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Usman
  SALIGZADA]; Hezb-e-Sulh-e-Mili Islami Aqwam-e-Afghanistan [Abdul
  Qahir SHARYATEE]; Hezb-e-Sulh Wa Wahdat-e-Mili Afghanistan [Abdul
  Qadir IMAMEE]; Hezb-e-Tafahum-e-Wa Democracy Afghanistan [Ahamad
  SHAHEEN]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Karim
  KHALILI]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ustad
  Mohammad MOHAQQEQ]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Mili Afghanistan [Abdul Rasheed
  JALILI]; Jamahat-ul-Dahwat ilal Qurhan-wa-Sunat-ul-Afghanistan
  [Mawlawee Samiullah NAJEEBEE]; Jombesh-e Milli [Abdul Rashid
  DOSTAM]; Mahaz-e-Mili Islami Afghanistan [Said Ahmad GAILANEE];
  Majmah-e-Mili Fahaleen-e-Sulh-e-Afghanistan [Shams ul Haq Noor
  SHAMS]; Nuhzat-e-Aazadee Wa Democracy Afghanistan [Abdul Raqeeb
  Jawid KUHISTANEE]; Nuhzat-e-Hambastagee Mili Afghanistan [Peer Said
  Ishaq GAILANEE]; Sazman-e-Islami Afghanistan-e-Jawan [Siad Jawad
  HUSSAINEE]; Tahreek Wahdat-e-Mili [Sultan Mahmood DHAZI] (30 Sep
  2004)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Jamiat-e Islami (Society of Islam) [former President Burhanuddin
  RABBANI]; Ittihad-e Islami (Islamic Union for the Liberation of
  Afghanistan) [Abdul Rasul SAYYAF]; there are also small monarchist,
  communist, and democratic groups

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CP, ECO, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IDB,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (correspondent),
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE (partner), SACEP, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Said Tayeb JAWAD
  chancery: 2341 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] 202-483-6410
  FAX: [1] 202-483-6488
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald E. NEUMANN
  embassy: The Great Masood Road, Kabul
  mailing address: 6180 Kabul Place, Dulles, VA 20189-6180
  telephone: [00 93] (20) 230-0436
  FAX: [00 93] (20) 230-1364

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of black (hoist), red, and green, with a
  gold emblem centered on the red band; the emblem features a
  temple-like structure encircled by a wreath on the left and right
  and by a bold Islamic inscription above

Economy Afghanistan


Economy - overview:
  Afghanistan's economic outlook has improved significantly since the
  fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 because of the infusion of over
  $8 billion in international assistance, recovery of the agricultural
  sector and growth of the service sector, and the reestablishment of
  market institutions. Real GDP growth is estimated to have slowed in
  the last fiscal year primarily because adverse weather conditions
  cut agricultural production, but is expected to rebound over 2005-06
  because of foreign donor reconstruction and service sector growth.
  Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan remains
  extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid,
  farming, and trade with neighboring countries. It will probably take
  the remainder of the decade and continuing donor aid and attention
  to significantly raise Afghanistan's living standards from its
  current status, among the lowest in the world. Much of the
  population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean
  water, electricity, medical care, and jobs, but the Afghan
  government and international donors remain committed to improving
  access to these basic necessities by prioritizing infrastructure
  development, education, housing development, jobs programs, and
  economic reform over the next year. Growing political stability and
  continued international commitment to Afghan reconstruction create
  an optimistic outlook for continuing improvements in the Afghan
  economy in 2006. Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium
  trade may account for one-third of GDP and looms as one of Kabul's
  most serious policy challenges. Other long-term challenges include:
  boosting the supply of skilled labor, reducing vulnerability to
  severe natural disasters, expanding health services, and rebuilding
  a war torn infrastructure.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $21.5 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.095 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  14% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $800 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 24%
  services: 38%
  note: data exclude opium production (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  15 million (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 10%
  services: 10% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  40% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  53% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  16.3% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $269 million
  expenditures: $561 million; including capital expenditures of $41.7
  million
  note: Afghanistan has also received $273 million from the
  Reconstruction Trust Fund and $63 million from the Law and Order
  Trust Fund (FY04-05 budget est.)

Agriculture - products:
  opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins

Industries:
  small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes,
  fertilizer, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal, copper

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  905 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 36.3%
  hydro: 63.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.042 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  200 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  5,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  99.96 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $471 million; note - not including illicit exports or reexports
  (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and
  pelts, precious and semi-precious gems

Exports - partners:
  US 25.3%, Pakistan 20.9%, India 20.8%, Finland 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.87 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  Pakistan 23.9%, US 11.8%, Germany 6.8%, India 6.5%, Turkey 5.1%,
  Turkmenistan 5%, Russia 4.7%, Kenya 4.4% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia; Afghanistan has
  $500 million in debt to Multilateral Development Banks (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  international pledges made by more than 60 countries and
  international financial institutions at the Berlin Donors Conference
  for Afghan reconstruction in March 2004 reached $8.9 billion for
  2004-09

Currency (code):
  afghani (AFA)

Currency code:
  AFA

Exchange rates:
  afghanis per US dollar - 541 (2005), 48 (2004), 49 (2003), 41
  (2002), 66 (2001)
  note: in 2002, the afghani was revalued and the currency stabilized
  at about 50 afghanis to the dollar; before 2002, the market rate
  varied widely from the official rate

Fiscal year:
  21 March - 20 March

Communications Afghanistan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  100,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.2 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: very limited telephone and telegraph service
  domestic: telephone service is improving with the licensing of four
  wireless telephone service providers by 2005; approximately 4 in 100
  Afghans own a wireless telephone; telephone main lines remain
  limited.
  international: country code - 93; five VSAT's installed in Kabul,
  Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, and Jalalabad provide international
  and domestic voice and data connectivity

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 21, FM 23, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in Pashtu, Afghan Persian
  (Dari), Urdu, and English) (2003)

Radios:
  167,000 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  at least 10 (one government-run central television station in Kabul
  and regional stations in nine of the 34 provinces; the regional
  stations operate on a reduced schedule; also, in 1997, there was a
  station in Mazar-e-Sharif reaching four northern Afghanistan
  provinces) (1998)

Televisions:
  100,000 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .af

Internet hosts:
  22 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  30,000 (2005)

Communications - note:
  in March 2003, 'af' was established as Afghanistan's domain name;
  Internet access is growing through Internet cafes as well as public
  "telekiosks" in Kabul (2002)

Transportation Afghanistan


Airports:
  46 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 35
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Heliports:
  9 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 466 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 34,789 km
  paved: 8,231 km
  unpaved: 26,558 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,200 km (chiefly Amu Darya, which handles vessels up to 500 DWT)
  (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Kheyrabad, Shir Khan

Military Afghanistan


Military branches:
  Afghan National Army (includes Afghan Air Force) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  22 years of age; inductees are contracted into service for a 4-year
  term (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 22-49: 4,952,812
  females age 22-49: 4,663,963 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 22-49: 2,662,946
  females age 22-49: 2,508,574 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 275,362
  females age 22-49: 259,935 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $122.4 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Afghanistan


Disputes - international:
  most Afghan refugees in Pakistan have been repatriated, but
  thousands still remain in Iran, many at their own choosing;
  Coalition and Pakistani forces continue to patrol remote tribal
  areas to control the borders and stem organized terrorist and other
  illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings between Pakistani
  and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary
  encroachments; regional conflicts over water-sharing arrangements
  with Amu Darya and Helmand River states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 200,000-300,000 (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in
  south and west due to drought and instability) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  world's largest producer of opium; cultivation dropped 48% to
  107,400 hectares in 2005; better weather and lack of widespread
  disease returned opium yields to normal levels, meaning potential
  opium production declined by only 10% to 4,475 metric tons; if the
  entire poppy crop were processed, it is estimated that 526 metric
  tons of heroin could be processed; source of hashish; many
  narcotics-processing labs throughout the country; drug trade source
  of instability and some antigovernment groups profit from the trade;
  80-90% of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghan opium;
  vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through informal financial
  networks


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Akrotiri

Introduction Akrotiri


Background:
  By terms of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment that created the
  independent Republic of Cyprus, the UK retained full sovereignty and
  jurisdiction over two areas of almost 254 square kilometers -
  Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The southernmost and smallest of these is the
  Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area, which is also referred to as the
  Western Sovereign Base Area.

Geography Akrotiri


Location:
  peninsula on the southwest coast of Cyprus

Geographic coordinates:
  34 37 N, 32 58 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 123 sq km
  note: includes a salt lake and wetlands

Area - comparative:
  about 0.7 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 47.4 km
  border countries: Cyprus 47.4 km

Coastline:
  56.3 km

Climate:
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool winters

Environment - current issues:
  shooting around the salt lake; note - breeding place for loggerhead
  and green turtles; only remaining colony of griffon vultures is on
  the base

Geography - note:
  British extraterritorial rights also extended to several small
  off-post sites scattered across Cyprus

People Akrotiri


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: approximately 1,300 military personnel are on the base; there
  are another 5,000 British citizens who are families of military
  personnel or civilian staff on both Akrotiri and Dhekelia; Cyprus
  citizens work on the base, but do not live there

Languages:
  English, Greek

Government Akrotiri


Country name:
  conventional long form: Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area
  conventional short form: Akrotiri

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of UK; administered by an administrator who is
  also the Commander, British Forces Cyprus

Capital:
  name: Episkopi Cantonment; also serves as capital of Dhekelia
  geographic coordinates: 34 40 N, 32 51 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Constitution:
  Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia Order in Council
  1960, effective 16 August 1960

Legal system:
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Administrator Air Vice-Marshal Richard LACEY
  (since 26 April 2006); note - reports to the British Ministry of
  Defence
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the administrator is
  appointed by the monarch

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  the flag of the UK is used

Economy Akrotiri


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to the military
  and their families located in Akrotiri. All food and manufactured
  goods must be imported.

Communications Akrotiri


Radio broadcast stations:
  FM 1
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  and Radio 2 service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)

Television broadcast stations:
  British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides multi-channel
  satellite service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)


Military Akrotiri


Military - note:
  Akrotiri has a full RAF base, Headquarters for British Forces on
  Cyprus, and Episkopi Support Unit



This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Albania

Introduction Albania


Background:
  Between 1990 and 1992 Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic
  Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The
  transition has proven challenging as successive governments have
  tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a
  dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime
  networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made
  progress in its democratic development since first holding
  multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International
  observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the
  restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid
  schemes in 1997. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party
  and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges of reducing crime
  and corruption, promoting economic growth, and decreasing the size
  of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition
  of power, was considered an important step forward. Although
  Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the
  poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an
  inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure. Albania has
  played a largely helpful role in managing inter-ethnic tensions in
  southeastern Europe, and is continuing to work toward joining NATO
  and the EU. Albania, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been a
  strong supporter of the global war on terrorism.

Geography Albania


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea,
  between Greece and Serbia and Montenegro

Geographic coordinates:
  41 00 N, 20 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 28,748 sq km
  land: 27,398 sq km
  water: 1,350 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 720 km
  border countries: Greece 282 km, Macedonia 151 km, Montenegro 172
  km, Serbia 115 km

Coastline:
  362 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  mild temperate; cool, cloudy, wet winters; hot, clear, dry summers;
  interior is cooler and wetter

Terrain:
  mostly mountains and hills; small plains along coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Maja e Korabit (Golem Korab) 2,764 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromite, copper, iron ore,
  nickel, salt, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 20.1%
  permanent crops: 4.21%
  other: 75.69% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  3,530 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes; tsunamis occur along southwestern coast;
  floods; drought

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution from industrial and
  domestic effluents

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location along Strait of Otranto (links Adriatic Sea to
  Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea)

People Albania


Population:
  3,581,655 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.8% (male 464,954/female 423,003)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 1,214,942/female 1,158,562)
  65 years and over: 8.9% (male 148,028/female 172,166) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.9 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 29.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.52% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.67 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 20.75 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.2 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.43 years
  male: 74.78 years
  female: 80.34 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Albanian(s)
  adjective: Albanian

Ethnic groups:
  Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb,
  Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)
  note: in 1989, other estimates of the Greek population ranged from
  1% (official Albanian statistics) to 12% (from a Greek organization)

Religions:
  Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
  note: percentages are estimates; there are no available current
  statistics on religious affiliation; all mosques and churches were
  closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November
  1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice

Languages:
  Albanian (official - derived from Tosk dialect), Greek, Vlach,
  Romani, Slavic dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 9 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.5%
  male: 93.3%
  female: 79.5% (2003 est.)

Government Albania


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Albania
  conventional short form: Albania
  local long form: Republika e Shqiperise
  local short form: Shqiperia
  former: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

Government type:
  emerging democracy

Capital:
  name: Tirana (Tirane)
  geographic coordinates: 41 20 N, 19 50 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  12 counties (qarqe, singular - qark); Qarku i Beratit, Qarku i
  Dibres, Qarku i Durresit, Qarku i Elbasanit, Qarku i Fierit, Qarku i
  Gjirokastres, Qarku i Korces, Qarku i Kukesit, Qarku i Lezhes, Qarku
  i Shkodres, Qarku i Tiranes, Qarku i Vlores

Independence:
  28 November 1912 (from Ottoman Empire)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 28 November (1912)

Constitution:
  adopted by popular referendum on 28 November 1998

Legal system:
  has a civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction; has accepted jurisdiction of the International
  Criminal Court for its citizens

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of the Republic Alfred MOISIU (since 24
  July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sali BERISHA (since 10 September
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the prime minister,
  nominated by the president, and approved by parliament
  elections: president elected by the People's Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 24
  June 2002 (next to be held June 2007); prime minister appointed by
  the president
  election results: Alfred MOISIU elected president; People's Assembly
  vote by number - total votes 116, for 97, against 19

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly or Kuvendi (140 seats; 100 are elected by
  direct popular vote and 40 by proportional vote for four-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 July 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PD
  56, PS 42, PR 11, PSD 7, LSI 5, other 19

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court, Supreme Court (chairman is elected by the
  People's Assembly for a four-year term), and multiple appeals and
  district courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Agrarian Environmentalist Party or PAA [Lufter XHUVELI]; Christian
  Democratic Party or PDK [Nikolle LESI]; Communist Party of Albania
  or PKSH [Hysni MILLOSHI]; Democratic Alliance Party or DAP [Neritan
  CEKA]; Democratic Party or PD [Sali BERISHA]; Legality Movement
  Party or PLL [Ekrem SPAHIU]; Liberal Union Party or PBL [Arjan
  STAROVA]; National Front Party (Balli Kombetar) or BNK [Adriatik
  ALIMADHI]; New Democratic Party or PDR [Genc POLLO]; Party of
  National Unity or PUK [Idajet BEQIRI]; Renewed Democratic Party or
  PDRN [Dashamir SHEHI]; Republican Party or PR [Fatmir MEDIU]; Social
  Democracy Party or PDS [Paskal MILO]; Social Democratic Party or PSD
  [Skender GJINUSHI]; Socialist Movement for Integration or LSI [Ilir
  META]; Socialist Party or PS [Edi RAMA]; Union for Human Rights
  Party or PBDNj [Vangjel DULE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Citizens Advocacy Office [Kreshnik SPAHIU]; Confederation of Trade
  Unions of Albania or KSSH [Kastriot MUCO]; Front for Albanian
  National Unification or FBKSH [Gafur ADILI]; Mjaft Movement [Erion
  VELIAJ]; Omonia [Jani JANI]; Union of Independent Trade Unions of
  Albania or BSPSH [Gezim KALAJA]

International organization participation:
  BSEC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PFP,
  SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aleksander SALLABANDA
  chancery: 2100 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-4942
  FAX: [1] (202) 628-7342

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marcie B. RIES
  embassy: Rruga e Elbasanit, Labinoti #103, Tirana
  mailing address: US Department of State, 9510 Tirana Place, Dulles,
  VA 20189-9510
  telephone: [355] (4) 247285
  FAX: [355] (4) 232222

Flag description:
  red with a black two-headed eagle in the center

Economy Albania


Economy - overview:
  Lagging behind its Balkan neighbors, Albania is making the
  difficult transition to a more modern open-market economy. The
  government has taken measures to curb violent crime and to spur
  economic activity and trade. The economy is bolstered by annual
  remittances from abroad of $600-$800 million, mostly from Greece and
  Italy; this helps offset the towering trade deficit. Agriculture,
  which accounts for about one-quarter of GDP, is held back because of
  frequent drought and the need to modernize equipment, to clarify
  property rights, and to consolidate small plots of land. Energy
  shortages and antiquated and inadequate infrastructure contribute to
  Albania's poor business environment, which make it difficult to
  attract and sustain foreign investment. The planned construction of
  a new thermal power plant near Vlore and improved transmission and
  distribution facilities will help relieve the energy shortages.
  Also, the government is moving slowly to improve the poor national
  road and rail network, a long-standing barrier to sustained economic
  growth. On the positive side: growth was strong in 2003-05 and
  inflation is not a problem.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $18.87 billion
  note: Albania has a large gray economy that may be as large as 50%
  of official GDP (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $8.657 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23.2%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 58%
  industry: 19%
  services: 23% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  14.3% official rate, but may exceed 30% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.2 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.96 billion
  expenditures: $2.377 billion; including capital expenditures of $500
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets, grapes;
  meat, dairy products

Industries:
  food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement,
  chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.1% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:
  5.68 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 2.9%
  hydro: 97.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.76 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  200 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.08 billion kWh (2004 est.)

Oil - production:
  3,600 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  25,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports:
  21,600 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  185.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  30 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  30 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.832 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-416 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $650.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude
  oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco

Exports - partners:
  Italy 72.4%, Greece 10.5%, Serbia and Montenegro 5% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.473 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Italy 29.3%, Greece 16.4%, Turkey 7.5%, China 6.6%, Germany 5.4%,
  Russia 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.461 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.55 billion (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA: $366 million (top donors were Italy, EU, Germany) (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  lek (ALL)

Currency code:
  ALL

Exchange rates:
  leke per US dollar - 102.649 (2005), 102.78 (2004), 121.863 (2003),
  140.155 (2002), 143.485 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Albania


Telephones - main lines in use:
  255,000 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.259 million (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: despite new investment in fixed lines, the
  density of main lines remains the lowest in Europe with roughly
  seven lines per 100 people; however, cellular telephone use is
  widespread and generally effective
  domestic: offsetting the shortage of fixed line capacity, mobile
  phone service has been available since 1996; by 2003 two companies
  were providing mobile services at a greater density than some of
  Albania's Balkan neighbors
  international: country code - 355; inadequate fixed main lines;
  adequate cellular connections; international traffic carried by
  fiber optic cable and, when necessary, by microwave radio relay from
  the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece (2003)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 13, FM 46 (3 national, 62 local), shortwave 1 (2005)

Radios:
  1 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  65 (3 national, 62 local); note - 2 cable networks (2005)

Televisions:
  700,000 (2001)

Internet country code:
  .al

Internet hosts:
  430 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  10 (2001)

Internet users:
  75,000 (2005)

Transportation Albania


Airports:
  11 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 447 km
  standard gauge: 447 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 18,000 km
  paved: 7,020 km
  unpaved: 10,980 km (2002)

Waterways:
  43 km (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 52,987 GRT/79,863 DWT
  by type: cargo 23, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Turkey 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Georgia 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Military Albania


Military branches:
  General Staff Headquarters, Land Forces Command (Army), Naval
  Forces Command, Air Defense Command, Logistics Command, Training and
  Doctrine Command

Military service age and obligation:
  19 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 809,524
  females age 19-49: 784,199 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 668,526
  females age 19-49: 648,334 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 37,407
  females age 19-49: 34,587 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $56.5 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.49% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Albania


Disputes - international:
  the Albanian Government calls for the protection of the rights of
  ethnic Albanians in neighboring countries, and the peaceful
  resolution of interethnic disputes; some ethnic Albanian groups in
  neighboring countries advocate for a "greater Albania," but the idea
  has little appeal among Albanian nationals; thousands of unemployed
  Albanians emigrate annually to nearby Italy and other developed
  countries

Illicit drugs:
  increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian
  opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to
  a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for
  Western Europe; limited opium and growing cannabis production;
  ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and expanding
  in Europe; vulnerable to money laundering associated with regional
  trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and illegal aliens


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Algeria

Introduction Algeria


Background:
  After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought
  through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's
  primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has
  dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent
  generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the
  FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round
  success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991
  balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the
  second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared
  would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army
  began a crack down on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin
  attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections
  featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but
  did not appease the activists who progressively widened their
  attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw
  intense fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over 100,000
  deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of villagers by
  extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s
  and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in
  January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in
  confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional
  attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the
  presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality
  in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems
  continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic
  minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale
  unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water
  supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the
  continuing - although significantly degraded - activities of
  extremist militants. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based
  economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not
  been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure
  problems.

Geography Algeria


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco
  and Tunisia

Geographic coordinates:
  28 00 N, 3 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 2,381,740 sq km
  land: 2,381,740 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,343 km
  border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km,
  Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km

Coastline:
  998 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 32-52 nm

Climate:
  arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers along
  coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high plateau;
  sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in summer

Terrain:
  mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; narrow,
  discontinuous coastal plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Chott Melrhir -40 m
  highest point: Tahat 3,003 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead, zinc

Land use:
  arable land: 3.17%
  permanent crops: 0.28%
  other: 96.55% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  5,690 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  mountainous areas subject to severe earthquakes; mudslides and
  floods in rainy season

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion from overgrazing and other poor farming practices;
  desertification; dumping of raw sewage, petroleum refining wastes,
  and other industrial effluents is leading to the pollution of rivers
  and coastal waters; Mediterranean Sea, in particular, becoming
  polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and fertilizer runoff;
  inadequate supplies of potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  second-largest country in Africa (after Sudan)

People Algeria


Population:
  32,930,091 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.1% (male 4,722,076/female 4,539,713)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 11,133,802/female 10,964,502)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 735,444/female 834,554) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.9 years
  male: 24.7 years
  female: 25.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.22% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.61 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 29.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.94 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.26 years
  male: 71.68 years
  female: 74.92 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% ; note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  9,100 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: cutaneous leishmaniasis is a high risk in some
  locations (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Algerian(s)
  adjective: Algerian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%
  note: almost all Algerians are Berber in origin, not Arab; the
  minority who identify themselves as Berber live mostly in the
  mountainous region of Kabylie east of Algiers; the Berbers are also
  Muslim but identify with their Berber rather than Arab cultural
  heritage; Berbers have long agitated, sometimes violently, for
  autonomy; the government is unlikely to grant autonomy but has
  offered to begin sponsoring teaching Berber language in schools

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), French, Berber dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70%
  male: 78.8%
  female: 61% (2003 est.)

Government Algeria


Country name:
  conventional long form: People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
  conventional short form: Algeria
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash
  Sha'biyah
  local short form: Al Jaza'ir

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Algiers
  geographic coordinates: 36 47 N, 2 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  48 provinces (wilayat, singular - wilaya); Adrar, Ain Defla, Ain
  Temouchent, Alger, Annaba, Batna, Bechar, Bejaia, Biskra, Blida,
  Bordj Bou Arreridj, Bouira, Boumerdes, Chlef, Constantine, Djelfa,
  El Bayadh, El Oued, El Tarf, Ghardaia, Guelma, Illizi, Jijel,
  Khenchela, Laghouat, Mascara, Medea, Mila, Mostaganem, M'Sila,
  Naama, Oran, Ouargla, Oum el Bouaghi, Relizane, Saida, Setif, Sidi
  Bel Abbes, Skikda, Souk Ahras, Tamanghasset, Tebessa, Tiaret,
  Tindouf, Tipaza, Tissemsilt, Tizi Ouzou, Tlemcen

Independence:
  5 July 1962 (from France)

National holiday:
  Revolution Day, 1 November (1954)

Constitution:
  8 September 1963; revised 19 November 1976, effective 22 November
  1976; revised 3 November 1988, 23 February 1989, and 28 November 1996

Legal system:
  socialist, based on French and Islamic law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in ad hoc Constitutional Council composed of
  various public officials, including several Supreme Court justices;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA (since 28 April 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Abdelaziz BELKHADEM
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 April 2004 (next
  to be held in April 2009); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA reelected president for
  second term; percent of vote - Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA 85%, Ali BENFLIS
  6.4%, Abdellah DJABALLAH 5%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consisting of the National People's Assembly
  or Al-Majlis Ech-Chaabi Al-Watani (389 seats - formerly 380 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and the
  Council of Nations (Senate) (144 seats; one-third of the members
  appointed by the president, two-thirds elected by indirect vote;
  members serve six-year terms; the constitution requires half the
  council to be renewed every three years)
  elections: National People's Assembly - last held 30 May 2002 (next
  to be held in 2007); Council of Nations (Senate) - last held 30
  December 2003 (next to be held in 2006)
  election results: National People's Assembly - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - FLN 199, RND 47, Islah 43, MSP 38, PT
  21, FNA 8, EnNahda 1, PRA 1, MEN 1, independents 30; Council of
  Nations - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Algerian National Front or FNA [Moussa TOUATI]; National Democratic
  Rally (Rassemblement National Democratique) or RND [Ahmed OUYAHIA,
  secretary general]; Islamic Salvation Front or FIS (outlawed April
  1992) [Ali BELHADJ, Dr. Abassi MADANI, Rabeh KEBIR]; National
  Entente Movement or MEN [Ali BOUKHAZNA]; National Liberation Front
  or FLN [Abdelaziz BELKHADEM, secretary general]; National Reform
  Movement or Islah (formerly MRN) [Abdellah DJABALLAH]; National
  Renewal Party or PRA [Yacine TERKMANE]; Progressive Republican Party
  [Khadir DRISS]; Rally for Culture and Democracy or RCD [Said SADI];
  Renaissance Movement or EnNahda Movement [Fatah RABEI]; Socialist
  Forces Front or FFS [Hocine Ait AHMED, secretary general]; Social
  Liberal Party or PSL [Ahmed KHELIL]; Society of Peace Movement or
  MSP [Boudjerra SOLTANI]; Workers Party or PT [Louisa HANOUN]
  note: a law banning political parties based on religion was enacted
  in March 1997

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  The Algerian Human Rights League or LADH or LADDH [Yahia Ali
  ABDENOUR]; SOS Disparus [Nacera DUTOUR]; Somoud [Ali MERABET]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, BIS, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, OPEC, OSCE
  (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Amine KHERBI
  chancery: 2118 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-2800
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2174

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert S. FORD
  embassy: 04 Chemin Cheikh Bachir Ibrahimi El-Biar 16030, Algiers
  mailing address: B. P. 408, Alger-Gare, 16030 Algiers
  telephone: [213] (021) 69-12-55
  FAX: [213] (021) 69-39-79

Flag description:
  two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a red,
  five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the two-color
  boundary; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional
  symbols of Islam (the state religion)

Economy Algeria


Economy - overview:
  The hydrocarbons sector is the backbone of the economy, accounting
  for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of GDP, and over 95% of
  export earnings. Algeria has the seventh-largest reserves of natural
  gas in the world and is the second-largest gas exporter; it ranks
  14th in oil reserves. Sustained high oil prices in recent years,
  along with macroeconomic policy reforms supported by the IMF, have
  helped improve Algeria's financial and macroeconomic indicators.
  Algeria is running substantial trade surpluses and building up
  record foreign exchange reserves. Real GDP has risen due to higher
  oil output and increased government spending. The government's
  continued efforts to diversify the economy by attracting foreign and
  domestic investment outside the energy sector, however, has had
  little success in reducing high unemployment and improving living
  standards. The population is becoming increasingly restive due to
  the lack of jobs and housing and frequently stages protests, which
  have resulted in arrests and injuries, including some deaths as
  government forces intervened to restore order. Structural reform
  within the economy, such as development of the banking sector and
  the construction of infrastructure, moves ahead slowly hampered by
  corruption and bureaucratic resistance.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $235.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $85.31 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 10.1%
  industry: 60%
  services: 29.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  10.15 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 14%, industry 13.4%, construction and public works 10%,
  trade 14.6%, government 32%, other 16% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  17.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 26.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35.3 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $42.05 billion
  expenditures: $30.75 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.8
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  30.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, oats, grapes, olives, citrus, fruits; sheep, cattle

Industries:
  petroleum, natural gas, light industries, mining, electrical,
  petrochemical, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  26.99 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.7%
  hydro: 0.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  24.9 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  400 million kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - imports:
  200 million kWh (2003 est.)

Oil - production:
  1.373 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  246,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.127 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  12.46 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  82.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  21.32 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  57.98 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  4.531 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $18.79 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $49.59 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products 97%

Exports - partners:
  US 22.8%, Italy 16.2%, Spain 10.4%, France 10%, Canada 8%, Brazil
  6.1%, Belgium 4.4%, Germany 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $22.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  France 28.2%, Italy 7.8%, Spain 7.1%, China 6.6%, Germany 6.3%, US
  5.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $56.58 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $19.45 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $122.8 million (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  Algerian dinar (DZD)

Currency code:
  DZD

Exchange rates:
  Algerian dinars per US dollar - 73.276 (2005), 72.061 (2004),
  77.395 (2003), 79.682 (2002), 77.215 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Algeria


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.572 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  13.661 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telephone density in Algeria is very low, not
  exceeding five telephones per 100 persons; the number of fixed main
  lines increased in the last few years to nearly 2.6 million, but
  only about two-thirds of these have subscribers; much of the
  infrastructure is outdated and inefficient
  domestic: good service in north but sparse in south; domestic
  satellite system with 12 earth stations (20 additional domestic
  earth stations are planned)
  international: country code - 213; submarine cables - 5; microwave
  radio relay to Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, and Tunisia; coaxial
  cable to Morocco and Tunisia; participant in Medarabtel; satellite
  earth stations - 51 (Intelsat, Intersputnik, and Arabsat) (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 25, FM 1, shortwave 8 (1999)

Radios:
  7.1 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  46 (plus 216 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  3.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .dz

Internet hosts:
  1,202 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  1.92 million (2005)

Transportation Algeria


Airports:
  142 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 52
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 90
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 39
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 1,344 km; gas 85,946 km; liquid petroleum gas 2,213 km;
  oil 6,496 km (2005)

Railways:
  total: 3,973 km
  standard gauge: 2,888 km 1.435-m gauge (283 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,085 km 1.055-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 104,000 km
  paved: 71,656 km
  unpaved: 32,344 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 744,406 GRT/766,764 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 10, chemical tanker 2, liquefied gas
  9, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 5, roll on/roll off 3,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 13 (UK 13) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Algiers, Annaba, Arzew, Bejaia, Djendjene, Jijel, Mostaganem, Oran,
  Skikda

Military Algeria


Military branches:
  National Popular Army (ANP; includes Land Forces), Algerian
  National Navy (MRA), Air Force (QJJ), Territorial Air Defense Force
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  19-30 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 18 months (6 months basic training, 12 months
  civil projects) (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 8,033,049
  females age 19-49: 7,926,351 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 6,590,079
  females age 19-49: 6,711,285 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 374,639
  females age 19-49: 369,021 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Algeria


Disputes - international:
  Algeria supports the exiled Sahrawi Polisario Front and rejects
  Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; most of the approximately
  102,000 Western Saharan Sahrawi refugees are sheltered in camps in
  Tindouf, Algeria; Algeria's border with Morocco remains an irritant
  to bilateral relations, each nation accusing the other of harboring
  militants and arms smuggling; in an attempt to improve relations,
  Morocco, in mid-2004, unilaterally lifted the requirement that
  Algerians visiting Morocco possess entry visas - a gesture not
  reciprocated by Algeria; Algeria remains concerned about armed
  bandits operating throughout the Sahel who sometimes destabilize
  southern Algerian towns; dormant disputes include Libyan claims of
  about 32,000 sq km still reflected on its maps of southeastern
  Algeria and the FLN's assertions of a claim to Chirac Pastures in
  southeastern Morocco

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 102,000 (Western Saharan Sahrawi,
  mostly living in Algerian-sponsored camps in the southwestern
  Algerian town of Tindouf)
  IDPs: 400,000-600,000 (conflict between government forces, Islamic
  insurgents) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Algeria is a transit and destination country for
  men, women, and children from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia trafficked
  for forced labor and sexual exploitation; many victims willingly
  migrate to Algeria en route to European countries with the help of
  smugglers, where they are often forced into prostitution, labor, and
  begging to pay off their smuggling debt; armed militants reportedly
  traffic women for sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude, and
  children may be trafficked for forced labor as domestic servants or
  street vendors
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Algeria took no steps to assess the
  scope of trafficking in the country and reported no investigations
  or prosecutions for trafficking offenses this year


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@American Samoa

Introduction American Samoa


Background:
  Settled as early as 1000 B.C., Samoa was "discovered" by European
  explorers in the 18th century. International rivalries in the latter
  half of the 19th century were settled by an 1899 treaty in which
  Germany and the US divided the Samoan archipelago. The US formally
  occupied its portion - a smaller group of eastern islands with the
  excellent harbor of Pago Pago - the following year.

Geography American Samoa


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about half
  way between Hawaii and New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  14 20 S, 170 00 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 199 sq km
  land: 199 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Rose Island and Swains Island

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  116 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine, moderated by southeast trade winds; annual
  rainfall averages about 3 m; rainy season (November to April), dry
  season (May to October); little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  five volcanic islands with rugged peaks and limited coastal plains,
  two coral atolls (Rose Island, Swains Island)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Lata Mountain 964 m

Natural resources:
  pumice, pumicite

Land use:
  arable land: 10%
  permanent crops: 15%
  other: 75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons common from December to March

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources; the water division of the
  government has spent substantial funds in the past few years to
  improve water catchments and pipelines

Geography - note:
  Pago Pago has one of the best natural deepwater harbors in the
  South Pacific Ocean, sheltered by shape from rough seas and
  protected by peripheral mountains from high winds; strategic
  location in the South Pacific Ocean

People American Samoa


Population:
  57,794 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 34.7% (male 10,388/female 9,654)
  15-64 years: 62.4% (male 18,698/female 17,350)
  65 years and over: 2.9% (male 633/female 1,071) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23.2 years
  male: 22.9 years
  female: 23.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.19% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -21.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.05 years
  male: 72.48 years
  female: 79.82 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: American Samoan(s) (US nationals)
  adjective: American Samoan

Ethnic groups:
  native Pacific islander 92.9%, Asian 2.9%, white 1.2%, mixed 2.8%,
  other 0.2% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Christian Congregationalist 50%, Roman Catholic 20%, Protestant and
  other 30%

Languages:
  Samoan 90.6% (closely related to Hawaiian and other Polynesian
  languages), English 2.9%, Tongan 2.4%, other Pacific islander 2.1%,
  other 2%
  note: most people are bilingual (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 98%
  female: 97% (1980 est.)

Government American Samoa


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of American Samoa
  conventional short form: American Samoa
  abbreviation: AS

Dependency status:
  unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US; administered by
  the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Pago Pago
  geographic coordinates: 14 16 S, 170 42 W
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of the US); there are no first-order administrative
  divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are three
  districts and two islands* at the second order; Eastern, Manu'a,
  Rose Island*, Swains Island*, Western

Independence:
  none (territory of the US)

National holiday:
  Flag Day, 17 April (1900)

Constitution:
  ratified 2 June 1966, effective 1 July 1967

Legal system:
  NA

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Togiola TULAFONO (since 7 April 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet made up of 12 department directors
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as American Samoa, do not vote in elections for US
  president and vice president; governor and lieutenant governor
  elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 2 and 16 November
  2004 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Togiola TULAFONO elected governor; percent of vote
  - Togiola TULAFONO 55.7%, Afoa Moega LUTU 44.3%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Fono or Legislative Assembly consists of the House of
  Representatives (21 seats - 20 of which are elected by popular vote
  and 1 is an appointed, nonvoting delegate from Swains Island;
  members serve two-year terms) and the Senate (18 seats; members are
  elected from local chiefs and serve four-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2008); Senate - last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA; Senate - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - independents 18
  note: American Samoa elects one nonvoting representative to the US
  House of Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006 (next
  to be held November 2008); results - Eni F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA
  (Democrat) reelected as delegate

Judicial branch:
  High Court (chief justice and associate justices are appointed by
  the US Secretary of the Interior)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party [Oreta M. TOGAFAU]; Republican Party [Tautai A. F.
  FAALEVAO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Interpol (subbureau), IOC, SPC, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Flag description:
  blue, with a white triangle edged in red that is based on the outer
  side and extends to the hoist side; a brown and white American bald
  eagle flying toward the hoist side is carrying two traditional
  Samoan symbols of authority, a staff and a war club

Economy American Samoa


Economy - overview:
  American Samoa has a traditional Polynesian economy in which more
  than 90% of the land is communally owned. Economic activity is
  strongly linked to the US with which American Samoa conducts most of
  its foreign trade. Tuna fishing and tuna processing plants are the
  backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna the primary export.
  Transfers from the US Government add substantially to American
  Samoa's economic well being. Attempts by the government to develop a
  larger and broader economy are restrained by Samoa's remote
  location, its limited transportation, and its devastating
  hurricanes. Tourism is a promising developing sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $510.1 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $333.8 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  17,630 (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 34%
  industry: 33%
  services: 33% (1990)

Unemployment rate:
  29.8% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $121 million (37% in local revenue and 63% in US grants)
  expenditures: $127 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY96/97)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coconuts, vegetables, taro, breadfruit, yams, copra,
  pineapples, papayas; dairy products, livestock

Industries:
  tuna canneries (largely supplied by foreign fishing vessels),
  handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  130 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  120.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  4,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $445.6 million (FY04 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  canned tuna 93% (2004 est.)

Exports - partners:
  Indonesia 28.2%, India 22.3%, Australia 15.3%, Japan 11.2%, NZ 7.1%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $308.8 million (FY04 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  materials for canneries 56%, food 8%, petroleum products 7%,
  machinery and parts 6% (2004 est.)

Imports - partners:
  Australia 66%, Samoa 13.8%, NZ 10.8% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  important financial support from the US, more than $40 million in
  1994

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications American Samoa


Telephones - main lines in use:
  15,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2,377 (1999)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: good telex, telegraph, facsimile and cellular telephone
  services; domestic satellite system with 1 Comsat earth station
  international: country code - 684; satellite earth station - 1
  (Intelsat-Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2006)

Radios:
  57,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (Low Power TV); note - one cable TV station (2006)

Televisions:
  14,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .as

Internet hosts:
  1,456 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation American Samoa


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 185 km (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Pago Pago

Military American Samoa


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues American Samoa


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Andorra

Introduction Andorra


Background:
  For 715 years, from 1278 to 1993, Andorrans lived under a unique
  co-principality, ruled by French and Spanish leaders (from 1607
  onward, the French chief of state and the Spanish bishop of Urgel).
  In 1993, this feudal system was modified with the titular heads of
  state retained, but the government transformed into a parliamentary
  democracy. Long isolated and impoverished, mountainous Andorra
  achieved considerable prosperity since World War II through its
  tourist industry. Many immigrants (legal and illegal) are attracted
  to the thriving economy with its lack of income taxes.

Geography Andorra


Location:
  Southwestern Europe, between France and Spain

Geographic coordinates:
  42 30 N, 1 30 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 468 sq km
  land: 468 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 120.3 km
  border countries: France 56.6 km, Spain 63.7 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; snowy, cold winters and warm, dry summers

Terrain:
  rugged mountains dissected by narrow valleys

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Riu Runer 840 m
  highest point: Coma Pedrosa 2,946 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, mineral water, timber, iron ore, lead

Land use:
  arable land: 2.13%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.87% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  avalanches

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; overgrazing of mountain meadows contributes to soil
  erosion; air pollution; wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Hazardous Wastes
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; straddles a number of important crossroads in the
  Pyrenees

People Andorra


Population:
  71,201 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.7% (male 5,456/female 4,994)
  15-64 years: 71.4% (male 26,632/female 24,172)
  65 years and over: 14% (male 4,918/female 5,029) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 41.2 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.89% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  6.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.68 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 83.51 years
  male: 80.61 years
  female: 86.61 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Andorran(s)
  adjective: Andorran

Ethnic groups:
  Spanish 43%, Andorran 33%, Portuguese 11%, French 7%, other 6%
  (1998)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic (predominant)

Languages:
  Catalan (official), French, Castilian, Portuguese

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Government Andorra


Country name:
  conventional long form: Principality of Andorra
  conventional short form: Andorra
  local long form: Principat d'Andorra
  local short form: Andorra

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy (since March 1993) that retains as its
  chiefs of state a coprincipality; the two princes are the president
  of France and bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain, who are represented
  locally by coprinces' representatives

Capital:
  name: Andorra la Vella
  geographic coordinates: 42 30 N, 1 30 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  7 parishes (parroquies, singular - parroquia); Andorra la Vella,
  Canillo, Encamp, Escaldes-Engordany, La Massana, Ordino, Sant Julia
  de Loria

Independence:
  1278 (formed under the joint suzerainty of the French count of Foix
  and the Spanish bishop of Urgel)

National holiday:
  Our Lady of Meritxell Day, 8 September (1278)

Constitution:
  Andorra's first written constitution was drafted in 1991, approved
  by referendum 14 March 1993, effective 4 May 1993

Legal system:
  based on French and Spanish civil codes; no judicial review of
  legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: French Coprince Jacques CHIRAC (since 17 May 1995),
  represented by Philippe MASSONI (since 26 July 2002); Spanish
  Coprince Bishop Joan Enric VIVES i SICILIA (since 12 May 2003),
  represented by Nemesi MARQUES i OSTE (since NA)
  head of government: Executive Council President Albert PINTAT
  SANTOLARIA (since 27 May 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council or Govern designated by the Executive
  Council president
  elections: Executive Council president elected by the General
  Council and formally appointed by the coprinces for a four-year
  term; election last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held April-May
  2009)
  election results: Albert PINTAT SANTOLARIA elected executive council
  president; percent of General Council vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council of the Valleys or Consell General de las
  Valls (28 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote, 14 from
  a single national constituency and 14 to represent each of the seven
  parishes; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held March-April 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLA 41.2%, PS 38.1%,
  CDA-S21 11%, other 9.7%; seats by party - PLA 14, PS 12, CDA-S21 2

Judicial branch:
  Tribunal of Judges or Tribunal de Batlles; Tribunal of the Courts
  or Tribunal de Corts; Supreme Court of Justice of Andorra or
  Tribunal Superior de Justicia d'Andorra; Supreme Council of Justice
  or Consell Superior de la Justicia; Fiscal Ministry or Ministeri
  Fiscal; Constitutional Tribunal or Tribunal Constitucional

Political parties and leaders:
  Andorran Democratic Center Party or CDA (formerly Democratic Party
  or PD); Century 21 or S21 [Enric TARRADO]; Liberal Party of Andorra
  or PLA (formerly Liberal Union or UL) [Albert PINTAT]; Social
  Democratic Party or PS (formerly part of National Democratic Group
  or AND) [Jaume BARTUMEU CASSANY]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  CE, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IFRCS, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, OIF, OIF
  (associate member), OPCW, OSCE, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WCO, WHO, WIPO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Jelena V.
  PIA-COMELLA
  chancery: 2 United Nations Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 750-8064
  FAX: [1] (212) 750-6630

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Andorra; the US Ambassador to
  Spain is accredited to Andorra; US interests in Andorra are
  represented by the Consulate General's office in Barcelona (Spain);
  mailing address: Paseo Reina Elisenda de Montcada, 23, 08034
  Barcelona, Spain; telephone: [34] (3) 280-2227; FAX: [34] (3)
  205-5206

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red
  with the national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; the coat
  of arms features a quartered shield; similar to the flags of Chad
  and Romania, which do not have a national coat of arms in the
  center, and the flag of Moldova, which does bear a national emblem

Economy Andorra


Economy - overview:
  Tourism, the mainstay of Andorra's tiny, well-to-do economy,
  accounts for more than 80% of GDP. An estimated 11.6 million
  tourists visit annually, attracted by Andorra's duty-free status and
  by its summer and winter resorts. Andorra's comparative advantage
  has recently eroded as the economies of neighboring France and Spain
  have been opened up, providing broader availability of goods and
  lower tariffs. The banking sector, with its partial "tax haven"
  status, also contributes substantially to the economy. Agricultural
  production is limited - only 2% of the land is arable - and most
  food has to be imported. The principal livestock activity is sheep
  raising. Manufacturing output consists mainly of cigarettes, cigars,
  and furniture. Andorra is a member of the EU Customs Union and is
  treated as an EU member for trade in manufactured goods (no tariffs)
  and as a non-EU member for agricultural products.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.84 billion (2004)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $24,000 (2004)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  48,740 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 0.34%
  industry: 19.63%
  services: 80.03% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  0% (1996 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.4% (2004)

Budget:
  revenues: $373.5 million
  expenditures: $373.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  small quantities of rye, wheat, barley, oats, vegetables; sheep

Industries:
  tourism (particularly skiing), cattle raising, timber, banking

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  NA

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  NA kWh

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh; note - most electricity supplied by Spain and France;
  Andorra generates a small amount of hydropower

Exports:
  $145 million f.o.b. (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  tobacco products, furniture

Exports - partners:
  Spain 58%, France 34% (2004)

Imports:
  $1.077 billion (1998)

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods, food, electricity

Imports - partners:
  Spain 51.5%, France 22.3%, US 0.3% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  none

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Andorra


Telephones - main lines in use:
  35,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  64,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: modern system with microwave radio relay connections
  between exchanges
  international: country code - 376; landline circuits to France and
  Spain

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 15, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  16,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (1997)

Televisions:
  27,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ad

Internet hosts:
  14,944 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  21,900 (2005)

Transportation Andorra


Roadways:
  total: 269 km
  paved: 198 km
  unpaved: 71 km

Military Andorra


Military branches:
  no regular military forces, Police Service of Andorra

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,418 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 14,721 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 369 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France and Spain

Transnational Issues Andorra


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Angola

Introduction Angola


Background:
  Angola is slowly rebuilding its country after the end of a 27-year
  civil war in 2002. Fighting between the Popular Movement for the
  Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led by Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS, and the
  National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by
  Jonas SAVIMBI, followed independence from Portugal in 1975. Peace
  seemed imminent in 1992 when Angola held national elections, but
  UNITA renewed fighting after being beaten by the MPLA at the polls.
  Up to 1.5 million lives may have been lost - and 4 million people
  displaced - in the quarter century of fighting. SAVIMBI's death in
  2002 ended UNITA's insurgency and strengthened the MPLA's hold on
  power. DOS SANTOS has pledged to hold legislative elections in 2006.

Geography Angola


Location:
  Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between
  Namibia and Democratic Republic of the Congo

Geographic coordinates:
  12 30 S, 18 30 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,246,700 sq km
  land: 1,246,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,198 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,511 km (of
  which 225 km is the boundary of discontiguous Cabinda Province),
  Republic of the Congo 201 km, Namibia 1,376 km, Zambia 1,110 km

Coastline:
  1,600 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  semiarid in south and along coast to Luanda; north has cool, dry
  season (May to October) and hot, rainy season (November to April)

Terrain:
  narrow coastal plain rises abruptly to vast interior plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morro de Moco 2,620 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, copper, feldspar, gold,
  bauxite, uranium

Land use:
  arable land: 2.65%
  permanent crops: 0.23%
  other: 97.12% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  800 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  locally heavy rainfall causes periodic flooding on the plateau

Environment - current issues:
  overuse of pastures and subsequent soil erosion attributable to
  population pressures; desertification; deforestation of tropical
  rain forest, in response to both international demand for tropical
  timber and to domestic use as fuel, resulting in loss of
  biodiversity; soil erosion contributing to water pollution and
  siltation of rivers and dams; inadequate supplies of potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the province of Cabinda is an exclave, separated from the rest of
  the country by the Democratic Republic of the Congo

People Angola


Population:
  12,127,071 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 2,678,185/female 2,625,933)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 3,291,954/female 3,195,688)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 148,944/female 186,367) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  45.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  24.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.55 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 185.36 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 197.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 172.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 38.62 years
  male: 37.47 years
  female: 39.83 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  240,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  21,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping
  sickness) are high risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Angolan(s)
  adjective: Angolan

Ethnic groups:
  Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed European
  and native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22%

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 47%, Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15% (1998
  est.)

Languages:
  Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 66.8%
  male: 82.1%
  female: 53.8% (2001 est.)

Government Angola


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Angola
  conventional short form: Angola
  local long form: Republica de Angola
  local short form: Angola
  former: People's Republic of Angola

Government type:
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Capital:
  name: Luanda
  geographic coordinates: 8 48 S, 13 14 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  18 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Bengo, Benguela,
  Bie, Cabinda, Cuando Cubango, Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, Cunene,
  Huambo, Huila, Luanda, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Malanje, Moxico,
  Namibe, Uige, Zaire

Independence:
  11 November 1975 (from Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 11 November (1975)

Constitution:
  11 November 1975; revised 7 January 1978, 11 August 1980, 6 March
  1991, and 26 August 1992; note - a new constitution will likely be
  passed following the next legislative election

Legal system:
  based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law; recently
  modified to accommodate political pluralism and increased use of
  free markets

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS (since 21
  September 1979); note - the president is both chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS (since 21
  September 1979); note - the president is both chief of state and
  head of government; Fernando de Piedade Dias DOS SANTOS was
  appointed Prime Minister on 6 December 2002
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by universal ballot for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second consecutive or discontinuous term) under
  the 1992 constitution; President DOS SANTOS originally elected (in
  1979) without opposition under a one-party system and stood for
  reelection in Angola's first multiparty elections 29-30 September
  1992 (next to be held September 2006 or 2007)
  election results: Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS 49.6%, Jonas SAVIMBI
  40.1%, making a run-off election necessary; the run-off was not held
  and SAVIMBI's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
  (UNITA) repudiated the results of the first election; the civil war
  resumed leaving DOS SANTOS in his current position as the president

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia Nacional (220 seats;
  members elected by proportional vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29-30 September 1992 (next to be held September
  2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MPLA 54%, UNITA 34%,
  other 12%; seats by party - MPLA 129, UNITA 70, PRS 6, FNLA 5, PLD
  3, other 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court and separate provincial courts (judges are appointed
  by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Liberal Democratic Party or PLD [Analia de Victoria PEREIRA];
  National Front for the Liberation of Angola or FNLA [disputed
  leadership: Lucas NGONDA, Holden ROBERTO]; National Union for the
  Total Independence of Angola or UNITA [Isaias SAMAKUVA] (largest
  opposition party); Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola or
  MPLA [Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS] (ruling party in power since 1975);
  Social Renewal Party or PRS [disputed leadership: Eduardo KUANGANA,
  Antonio MUACHICUNGO]
  note: about a dozen minor parties participated in the 1992 elections
  but only won a few seats; they and the other 115 smaller parties
  have little influence in the National Assembly

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda or FLEC [N'zita
  Henriques TIAGO, Antonio Bento BEMBE]
  note: FLEC's small-scale, highly factionalized armed struggle for
  the independence of Cabinda Province has largely ended

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS
  (observer), SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Josefina Perpetua Pitra DIAKITI
  chancery: 2108 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1156
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1258
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Cynthia EFIRD
  embassy: number 32 Rua Houari Boumedienne (in the Miramar area of
  Luanda), Luanda
  mailing address: international mail: Caixa Postal 6468, Luanda;
  pouch: US Embassy Luanda,US Department of State, 2550 Luanda Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-2550
  telephone: [244] (222) 64-1000
  FAX: [244] (222) 64-1232

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a centered
  yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half a
  cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle)

Economy Angola


Economy - overview:
  Angola's high growth rate is driven by its oil sector, with record
  oil prices and rising petroleum production. Oil production and its
  supporting activities contribute about half of GDP and 90% of
  exports. Increased oil production supported 12% growth in 2004 and
  19% growth in 2005. A postwar reconstruction boom and resettlement
  of displaced persons has led to high rates of growth in construction
  and agriculture as well. Much of the country's infrastructure is
  still damaged or undeveloped from the 27-year-long civil war.
  Remnants of the conflict such as widespread land mines still mar the
  countryside even though an apparently durable peace was established
  after the death of rebel leader Jonas SAVIMBI in February 2002.
  Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for half of the
  population, but half of the country's food must still be imported.
  In 2005, the government started using a $2 billion line of credit
  from China to rebuild Angola's public infrastructure, and several
  large-scale projects are scheduled for completion by 2006. The
  central bank in 2003 implemented an exchange rate stabilization
  program using foreign exchange reserves to buy kwanzas out of
  circulation, a policy that was more sustainable in 2005 because of
  strong oil export earnings, and has significantly reduced inflation.
  Consumer inflation declined from 325% in 2000 to about 18% in 2005,
  but the stabilization policy places pressure on international net
  liquidity. To fully take advantage of its rich national resources -
  gold, diamonds, extensive forests, Atlantic fisheries, and large oil
  deposits - Angola will need to continue reforming government
  policies and to reduce corruption. The government has made
  sufficient progress on reforms recommended by the IMF such as
  promoting greater transparency in government spending but continues
  to be without a formal monitoring agreement with the institution.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $45.32 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $24.35 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  19.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.6%
  industry: 65.8%
  services: 24.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  5.58 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 85%
  industry and services: 15% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  extensive unemployment and underemployment affecting more than half
  the population (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  70% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  23% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  30.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $8.5 billion
  expenditures: $10 billion; including capital expenditures of $963
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  38.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, sugarcane, coffee, sisal, corn, cotton, manioc (tapioca),
  tobacco, vegetables, plantains; livestock; forest products; fish

Industries:
  petroleum; diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, feldspar, bauxite,
  uranium, and gold; cement; basic metal products; fish processing;
  food processing, brewing, tobacco products, sugar; textiles; ship
  repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  13.5% (2004)

Electricity - production:
  2.24 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 36.4%
  hydro: 63.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.9 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1.6 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  46,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  25 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  720 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  720 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  45.87 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $4.054 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $26.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, diamonds, refined petroleum products, gas, coffee,
  sisal, fish and fish products, timber, cotton

Exports - partners:
  US 39.8%, China 29.6%, France 7.8%, Chile 5.4%, Taiwan 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and electrical equipment, vehicles and spare parts;
  medicines, food, textiles, military goods

Imports - partners:
  South Korea 20.8%, Portugal 13.6%, US 12.7%, South Africa 7.5%,
  Brazil 5.6%, France 5.3%, China 5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $3.197 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $9.401 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $383.5 million (1999)

Currency (code):
  kwanza (AOA)

Currency code:
  AOA

Exchange rates:
  kwanza per US dollar - 88.6 (2005), 83.541 (2004), 74.606 (2003),
  43.53 (2002), 22.058 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Angola


Telephones - main lines in use:
  94,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,094,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telephone service limited mostly to government
  and business use; HF radiotelephone used extensively for military
  links
  domestic: limited system of wire, microwave radio relay, and
  tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 244; satellite earth stations - 29;
  fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to
  Europe and Asia (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 21, FM 6, shortwave 7 (2000)

Radios:
  815,000 (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 (2000)

Televisions:
  196,000 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .ao

Internet hosts:
  2,525 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  172,000 (2005)

Transportation Angola


Airports:
  244 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 31
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 213
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 30
  914 to 1,523 m: 95
  under 914 m: 81 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 235 km; liquid petroleum gas 122 km; oil 867 km; oil/gas/water
  5 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,761 km
  narrow gauge: 2,638 km 1.067-m gauge; 123 km 0.600-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 51,429 km
  paved: 5,349 km
  unpaved: 46,080 km (2001)

Waterways:
  1,300 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,343 GRT/4,643 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1
  registered in other countries: 5 (Bahamas 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cabinda, Luanda, Soyo

Military Angola


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (Marinha de Guerra, MdG), Air and Air Defense Forces
  (FANA) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - two years plus time for training (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 2,548,455
  females age 17-49: 2,462,601 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,282,195
  females age 17-49: 1,256,390 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 126,694
  females age 17-49: 123,586 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Angola


Disputes - international:
  many Cabinda exclave secessionists have sought shelter in
  neighboring states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 13,510 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  IDPs: 40,000-60,000 (27-year civil war ending in 2002; 4 million
  IDPs already have returned) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  used as a transshipment point for cocaine destined for Western
  Europe and other African states


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Anguilla

Introduction Anguilla


Background:
  Colonized by English settlers from Saint Kitts in 1650, Anguilla
  was administered by Great Britain until the early 19th century, when
  the island - against the wishes of the inhabitants - was
  incorporated into a single British dependency, along with Saint
  Kitts and Nevis. Several attempts at separation failed. In 1971, two
  years after a revolt, Anguilla was finally allowed to secede; this
  arrangement was formally recognized in 1980, with Anguilla becoming
  a separate British dependency.

Geography Anguilla


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic
  Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  18 15 N, 63 10 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 102 sq km
  land: 102 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about half the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  61 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds

Terrain:
  flat and low-lying island of coral and limestone

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Crocus Hill 65 m

Natural resources:
  salt, fish, lobster

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mostly rock with sparse scrub oak, few trees, some
  commercial salt ponds) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  frequent hurricanes and other tropical storms (July to October)

Environment - current issues:
  supplies of potable water sometimes cannot meet increasing demand
  largely because of poor distribution system

Geography - note:
  the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles

People Anguilla


Population:
  13,477 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 22.8% (male 1,557/female 1,510)
  15-64 years: 70.4% (male 4,878/female 4,608)
  65 years and over: 6.9% (male 412/female 512) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.2 years
  male: 31.2 years
  female: 31.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.57% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.17 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.34 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  6.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 20.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.28 years
  male: 74.35 years
  female: 80.3 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Anguillan(s)
  adjective: Anguillan

Ethnic groups:
  black (predominant) 90.1%, mixed, mulatto 4.6%, white 3.7%, other
  1.5% (2001 Census)

Religions:
  Anglican 29%, Methodist 23.9%, other Protestant 30.2%, Roman
  Catholic 5.7%, other Christian 1.7%, other 5.2%, none or unspecified
  4.3% (2001 Census)

Languages:
  English (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 12 and over can read and write
  total population: 95%
  male: 95%
  female: 95% (1984 est.)

Government Anguilla


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Anguilla

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: The Valley
  geographic coordinates: 18 13 N, 63 04 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Anguilla Day, 30 May

Constitution:
  Anguilla Constitutional Order 1 April 1982; amended 1990

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952);
  represented by Governor Andrew N. GEORGE (since 10 July 2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Osbourne FLEMING (since 3 March
  2000)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor from among the
  elected members of the House of Assembly
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Assembly (11 seats total, 7 elected by direct
  popular vote, 2 ex officio members, and 2 appointed; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 February 2005 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - AUF 38.9%, ANSA 19.2%,
  AUM 19.4%, APP 9.5%, independents 13%; seats by party - AUF 4, ANSA
  2, AUM 1

Judicial branch:
  High Court (judge provided by Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court)

Political parties and leaders:
  Anguilla United Movement or AUM [Hubert HUGHES]; The Anguilla
  United Front or AUF [Osbourne FLEMING, Victor BANKS], a coalition of
  the Anguilla Democratic Party or ADP and the Anguilla National
  Alliance or ANA; Anguilla Progressive Party or APP [Roy ROGERS];
  Anguilla Strategic Alternative or ANSA [Edison BAIRD]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), OECS (associate),
  UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Anguillan coat of arms centered in the outer half of the flag;
  the coat of arms depicts three orange dolphins in an interlocking
  circular design on a white background with blue wavy water below

Economy Anguilla


Economy - overview:
  Anguilla has few natural resources, and the economy depends heavily
  on luxury tourism, offshore banking, lobster fishing, and
  remittances from emigrants. Increased activity in the tourism
  industry, which has spurred the growth of the construction sector,
  has contributed to economic growth. Anguillan officials have put
  substantial effort into developing the offshore financial sector,
  which is small, but growing. In the medium term, prospects for the
  economy will depend largely on the tourism sector and, therefore, on
  revived income growth in the industrialized nations as well as on
  favorable weather conditions.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $108.9 million (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $108.9 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  10.2% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,800 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 18%
  services: 78% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  6,049 (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture/fishing/forestry/mining 4%, manufacturing 3%,
  construction 18%, transportation and utilities 10%, commerce 36%,
  services 29% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8% (2002)

Population below poverty line:
  23% (2002)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.3%

Budget:
  revenues: $22.8 million
  expenditures: $22.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  small quantities of tobacco, vegetables; cattle raising

Industries:
  tourism, boat building, offshore financial services

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.1% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

Electricity - consumption:
  42.6 million kWh

Current account balance:
  $-42.87 million

Exports:
  $14.56 million (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  lobster, fish, livestock, salt, concrete blocks, rum

Exports - partners:
  UK, US, Puerto Rico, Saint-Martin (2004)

Imports:
  $129.9 million (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, foodstuffs, manufactures, chemicals, trucks, textiles

Imports - partners:
  US, Puerto Rico, UK (2004)

Debt - external:
  $8.8 million (1998)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $9 million (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Anguilla


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6,200 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,800 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: modern internal telephone system
  international: country code - 1-264; microwave radio relay to island
  of Saint Martin (Guadeloupe and Netherlands Antilles)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  3,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ai

Internet hosts:
  403 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  3,000 (2002)

Transportation Anguilla


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 105 km
  paved: 65 km
  unpaved: 40 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Blowing Point, Road Bay

Military Anguilla


Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,614 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,986 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 120 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Anguilla


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined for the
  US and Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Antarctica

Introduction Antarctica


Background:
  Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was not
  confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American commercial
  operators and British and Russian national expeditions began
  exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south of
  the Antarctic Circle. Not until 1840 was it established that
  Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands.
  Several exploration "firsts" were achieved in the early 20th
  century. Following World War II, there was an upsurge in scientific
  research on the continent. A number of countries have set up
  year-round research stations on Antarctica. Seven have made
  territorial claims, but not all countries recognize these claims. In
  order to form a legal framework for the activities of nations on the
  continent, an Antarctic Treaty was negotiated that neither denies
  nor gives recognition to existing territorial claims; signed in
  1959, it entered into force in 1961.

Geography Antarctica


Location:
  continent mostly south of the Antarctic Circle

Geographic coordinates:
  90 00 S, 0 00 E

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 14 million sq km
  land: 14 million sq km (280,000 sq km ice-free, 13.72 million sq km
  ice-covered) (est.)
  note: fifth-largest continent, following Asia, Africa, North
  America, and South America, but larger than Australia and the
  subcontinent of Europe

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  0 km
  note: see entry on Disputes - international

Coastline:
  17,968 km

Maritime claims:
  Australia, Chile, and Argentina claim Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
  rights or similar over 200 nm extensions seaward from their
  continental claims, but like the claims themselves, these zones are
  not accepted by other countries; 21 of 28 Antarctic consultative
  nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory (although Russia
  and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do not recognize
  the claims of the other nations; also see the Disputes -
  international entry

Climate:
  severe low temperatures vary with latitude, elevation, and distance
  from the ocean; East Antarctica is colder than West Antarctica
  because of its higher elevation; Antarctic Peninsula has the most
  moderate climate; higher temperatures occur in January along the
  coast and average slightly below freezing

Terrain:
  about 98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% barren rock, with
  average elevations between 2,000 and 4,000 meters; mountain ranges
  up to nearly 5,000 meters; ice-free coastal areas include parts of
  southern Victoria Land, Wilkes Land, the Antarctic Peninsula area,
  and parts of Ross Island on McMurdo Sound; glaciers form ice shelves
  along about half of the coastline, and floating ice shelves
  constitute 11% of the area of the continent

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,555 m
  highest point: Vinson Massif 4,897 m
  note: the lowest known land point in Antarctica is hidden in the
  Bentley Subglacial Trench; at its surface is the deepest ice yet
  discovered and the world's lowest elevation not under seawater

Natural resources:
  iron ore, chromium, copper, gold, nickel, platinum and other
  minerals, and coal and hydrocarbons have been found in small
  uncommercial quantities; none presently exploited; krill, finfish,
  and crab have been taken by commercial fisheries

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (ice 98%, barren rock 2%) (2005)

Natural hazards:
  katabatic (gravity-driven) winds blow coastward from the high
  interior; frequent blizzards form near the foot of the plateau;
  cyclonic storms form over the ocean and move clockwise along the
  coast; volcanism on Deception Island and isolated areas of West
  Antarctica; other seismic activity rare and weak; large icebergs may
  calve from ice shelf

Environment - current issues:
  in 1998, NASA satellite data showed that the Antarctic ozone hole
  was the largest on record, covering 27 million square kilometers;
  researchers in 1997 found that increased ultraviolet light passing
  through the hole damages the DNA of icefish, an Antarctic fish
  lacking hemoglobin; ozone depletion earlier was shown to harm
  one-celled Antarctic marine plants; in 2002, significant areas of
  ice shelves disintegrated in response to regional warming

Geography - note:
  the coldest, windiest, highest (on average), and driest continent;
  during summer, more solar radiation reaches the surface at the South
  Pole than is received at the Equator in an equivalent period; mostly
  uninhabitable

People Antarctica


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants, but there are both permanent and
  summer-only staffed research stations
  note: 26 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, operate
  through their National Antarctic Program a number of seasonal-only
  (summer) and year-round research stations on the continent and its
  nearby islands south of 60 degrees south latitude (the region
  covered by the Antarctic Treaty); these stations' population of
  persons doing and supporting science or engaged in the management
  and protection of the Antarctic region varies from approximately
  4,000 in summer to 1,000 in winter; in addition, approximately 1,000
  personnel, including ship's crew and scientists doing onboard
  research, are present in the waters of the treaty region; peak
  summer (December-February) population - 3,822 total; Argentina 417,
  Australia 213, Brazil 40, Bulgaria 15, Chile 224, China 70, Ecuador
  22, Finland 20, France 123, Germany 78, India 65, Italy 112, Japan
  150, South Korea 60, NZ 85, Norway 44, Peru 28, Poland 40, Russia
  429, South Africa 80, Spain 28, Sweden 20, Ukraine 24, UK 205, US
  1,170, Uruguay 60 (2005-2006); winter (June-August) station
  population - 1,028 total; Argentina 176, Australia 62, Brazil 12,
  Chile 88, China 29, France 37, Germany 9, India 25, Italy 2, Japan
  40, South Korea 15, NZ 10, Norway 7, Poland 12, Russia 148, South
  Africa 10, Ukraine 12, UK 37, US 288, Uruguay 9 (2005); research
  stations operated within the Antarctic Treaty area (south of 60
  degrees south latitude) by members of the Council of Managers of
  National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP): year-round stations - 37
  total; Argentina 6, Australia 3, Brazil 1, Chile 3, China 2, France
  1, Germany 1, India 1, Japan 1, South Korea 1, NZ 1, Norway 1,
  Poland 1, Russia 5, South Africa 1, Ukraine 1, UK 2, US 3, Uruguay
  1, Italy and France jointly 1 (2005); seasonal-only (summer)
  stations - 15 total; Australia 1, Bulgaria 1, Chile 1, Ecuador 1,
  Finland 1, Germany 1, Italy 1, Japan 1, Norway 1, Peru 1, Russia 1,
  Spain 2, Sweden 1, UK 1 (2005-2006); in addition, during the austral
  summer some nations have numerous occupied locations such as tent
  camps, summer-long temporary facilities, and mobile traverses in
  support of research

Government Antarctica


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Antarctica

Government type:
  Antarctic Treaty Summary - the Antarctic Treaty, signed on 1
  December 1959 and entered into force on 23 June 1961, establishes
  the legal framework for the management of Antarctica; the 28th
  Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was held in Stockholm, Sweden
  in June 2005; at these periodic meetings, decisions are made by
  consensus (not by vote) of all consultative member nations; at the
  end of 2005, there were 45 treaty member nations: 28 consultative
  and 17 non-consultative; consultative (decision-making) members
  include the seven nations that claim portions of Antarctica as
  national territory (some claims overlap) and 21 non-claimant
  nations; the US and Russia have reserved the right to make claims;
  the US does not recognize the claims of others; Antarctica is
  administered through meetings of the consultative member nations;
  decisions from these meetings are carried out by these member
  nations (with respect to their own nationals and operations) in
  accordance with their own national laws; the years in parentheses
  indicate when a consultative member-nation acceded to the Treaty and
  when it was accepted as a consultative member, while no date
  indicates the country was an original 1959 treaty signatory;
  claimant nations are - Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ,
  Norway, and the UK. Nonclaimant consultative nations are - Belgium,
  Brazil (1975/1983), Bulgaria (1978/1998) China (1983/1985), Ecuador
  (1987/1990), Finland (1984/1989), Germany (1979/1981), India
  (1983/1983), Italy (1981/1987), Japan, South Korea (1986/1989),
  Netherlands (1967/1990), Peru (1981/1989), Poland (1961/1977),
  Russia, South Africa, Spain (1982/1988), Sweden (1984/1988), Ukraine
  (1992/2004), Uruguay (1980/1985), and the US; non-consultative
  members, with year of accession in parentheses, are - Austria
  (1987), Canada (1988), Colombia (1989), Cuba (1984), Czech Republic
  (1962/1993), Denmark (1965), Estonia (2001), Greece (1987),
  Guatemala (1991), Hungary (1984), North Korea (1987), Papua New
  Guinea (1981), Romania (1971), Slovakia (1962/1993), Switzerland
  (1990), Turkey (1996), and Venezuela (1999); note - Czechoslovakia
  acceded to the Treaty in 1962 and separated into the Czech Republic
  and Slovakia in 1993; Article 1 - area to be used for peaceful
  purposes only; military activity, such as weapons testing, is
  prohibited, but military personnel and equipment may be used for
  scientific research or any other peaceful purpose; Article 2 -
  freedom of scientific investigation and cooperation shall continue;
  Article 3 - free exchange of information and personnel, cooperation
  with the UN and other international agencies; Article 4 - does not
  recognize, dispute, or establish territorial claims and no new
  claims shall be asserted while the treaty is in force; Article 5 -
  prohibits nuclear explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes;
  Article 6 - includes under the treaty all land and ice shelves south
  of 60 degrees 00 minutes south and reserves high seas rights;
  Article 7 - treaty-state observers have free access, including
  aerial observation, to any area and may inspect all stations,
  installations, and equipment; advance notice of all expeditions and
  of the introduction of military personnel must be given; Article 8 -
  allows for jurisdiction over observers and scientists by their own
  states; Article 9 - frequent consultative meetings take place among
  member nations; Article 10 - treaty states will discourage
  activities by any country in Antarctica that are contrary to the
  treaty; Article 11 - disputes to be settled peacefully by the
  parties concerned or, ultimately, by the ICJ; Articles 12, 13, 14 -
  deal with upholding, interpreting, and amending the treaty among
  involved nations; other agreements - some 200 recommendations
  adopted at treaty consultative meetings and ratified by governments
  include - Agreed Measures for Fauna and Flora (1964) which were
  later incorporated into the Environmental Protocol; Convention for
  the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972); Convention on the
  Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1980); a mineral
  resources agreement was signed in 1988 but remains unratified; the
  Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was
  signed 4 October 1991 and entered into force 14 January 1998; this
  agreement provides for the protection of the Antarctic environment
  through six specific annexes: 1) environmental impact assessment, 2)
  conservation of Antarctic fauna and flora, 3) waste disposal and
  waste management, 4) prevention of marine pollution, 5) area
  protection and management and 6) liability arising from
  environmental emergencies; it prohibits all activities relating to
  mineral resources except scientific research; a permanent Antarctic
  Treaty Secretariat was established in 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Legal system:
  Antarctica is administered through meetings of the consultative
  member nations; decisions from these meetings are carried out by
  these member nations (with respect to their own nationals and
  operations) in accordance with their own national laws; US law,
  including certain criminal offenses by or against US nationals, such
  as murder, may apply extraterritorially; some US laws directly apply
  to Antarctica; for example, the Antarctic Conservation Act, 16
  U.S.C. section 2401 et seq., provides civil and criminal penalties
  for the following activities, unless authorized by regulation of
  statute: the taking of native mammals or birds; the introduction of
  nonindigenous plants and animals; entry into specially protected
  areas; the discharge or disposal of pollutants; and the importation
  into the US of certain items from Antarctica; violation of the
  Antarctic Conservation Act carries penalties of up to $10,000 in
  fines and one year in prison; the National Science Foundation and
  Department of Justice share enforcement responsibilities; Public Law
  95-541, the US Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978, as amended in
  1996, requires expeditions from the US to Antarctica to notify, in
  advance, the Office of Oceans, Room 5805, Department of State,
  Washington, DC 20520, which reports such plans to other nations as
  required by the Antarctic Treaty; for more information, contact
  Permit Office, Office of Polar Programs, National Science
  Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone: (703) 292-8030, or
  visit their website at www.nsf.gov; more generally, access to the
  Antarctic Treaty area, that is to all areas between 60 and 90
  degrees south latitude, is subject to a number of relevant legal
  instruments and authorization procedures adopted by the states party
  to the Antarctic Treaty

Economy Antarctica


Economy - overview:
  Fishing off the coast and tourism, both based abroad, account for
  Antarctica's limited economic activity. Antarctic fisheries in
  2003-04 (1 July-30 June) reported landing 136,262 metric tons
  (estimated fishing from the area covered by the Convention on the
  Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which
  extends slightly beyond the Antarctic Treaty area). Unregulated
  fishing, particularly of Patagonian toothfish, is a serious problem.
  The CCAMLR determines the recommended catch limits for marine
  species. A total of 23,175 tourists visited in the 2004-05 Antarctic
  summer, up from the 19,486 visitors the previous year. Nearly all of
  them were passengers on commercial (nongovernmental) ships and
  several yachts that make trips during the summer. Most tourist trips
  last approximately two weeks.

Communications Antarctica


Telephones - main lines in use:
  0; note - information for US bases only (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: local systems at some research stations
  domestic: commercial cellular networks operating in a small number
  of locations
  international: country code - 672; via satellite (including mobile
  Inmarsat and Iridium systems) from all research stations, ships,
  aircraft, and most field parties

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM NA, FM 2, shortwave 1, note - information for US bases only
  (2002)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (cable system with six channels; American Forces Antarctic
  Network-McMurdo)
  note: information for US bases only (2002)

Televisions:
  several hundred at McMurdo Station (US)
  note: information for US bases only (2001)

Internet country code:
  .aq

Internet hosts:
  7,757 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Transportation Antarctica


Airports:
  20
  note: there are no developed public access airports or landing
  facilities; 28 stations or remote field locations, operated by 11
  National Antarctic Programs from nations party to the Antarctic
  Treaty, have restricted aircraft landing facilities comprising a
  total of 11 runways and 22 skiways for fixed-wing aircraft; some
  stations have both runways and skiways; commercial enterprises
  operate two aircraft landing facilities at one station; helicopter
  pads are available at all 37 year-round and 15 seasonal stations
  operated by National Antarctic Programs; the 11 runways are suitable
  for wheeled, fixed-wing aircraft: three are gravel, four blue-ice,
  two sea-ice and two compacted snow; of these, five are 3 km in
  length, two are between 2 km and 3 km in length, three are between 1
  km and 2 km in length and one is less than 1 km in length; the 22
  snow surface skiways are limited to use by ski-equipped, fixed-wing
  aircraft; of these, three are equal to or greater than 3 km in
  length, one is between 2 km and 3 km in length, nine are between 1
  km and 2 km in length, five are less than 1 km in length, and four
  are of unknown or variable length; snow surface skiways are
  generally prepared and maintained during specific periods only and
  during summer; all aircraft landing facilities subject to severe
  restrictions and limitations resulting from extreme seasonal and
  geographic conditions; aircraft landing facilities do not meet ICAO
  standards; advance approval from the respective governmental or
  nongovernmental operating organization required for using their
  facilities; landed aircraft are subject to inspection in accordance
  with Article 7, Antarctic Treaty; guidelines for the operation of
  aircraft near concentrations of birds in Antarctica were adopted in
  2004; relevant legal instruments and authorization procedures
  adopted by states party to the Antarctic Treaty regulating access to
  the Antarctic Treaty area, that is to all areas between 60 and 90
  degrees of latitude South, have to be complied with (see information
  under "Legal System"); an Antarctic Flight Information Manual (AFIM)
  providing up-to-date details of Antarctic air facilities and
  procedures is maintained and published by the Council of Managers of
  National Antarctic Programs (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 4
  length unknown or variable: 4 (2006)

Heliports:
  37
  note: all 37 year-round and 15 seasonal stations operated by
  National Antarctic Programs stations have restricted helicopter
  landing facilities (helipads) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  there are no developed ports and harbors in Antarctica; most
  coastal stations have offshore anchorages, and supplies are
  transferred from ship to shore by small boats, barges, and
  helicopters; a few stations have a basic wharf facility; US coastal
  stations include McMurdo (77 51 S, 166 40 E), and Palmer (64 43 S,
  64 03 W); government use only except by permit (see Permit Office
  under "Legal System"); all ships at port are subject to inspection
  in accordance with Article 7, Antarctic Treaty; offshore anchorage
  is sparse and intermittent; relevant legal instruments and
  authorization procedures adopted by the states parties to the
  Antarctic Treaty regulating access to the Antarctic Treaty area, to
  all areas between 60 and 90 degrees of latitude south, have to be
  complied with (see "Legal System"); The Hydrographic Committee on
  Antarctica (HCA), a special hydrographic commission of International
  Hydrographic Organization (IHO), is responsible for hydrographic
  surveying and nautical charting matters in Antarctic Treaty area; it
  coordinates and facilitates provision of accurate and appropriate
  charts and other aids to navigation in support of safety of
  navigation in region; membership of HCA is open to any IHO Member
  State whose government has acceded to the Antarctic Treaty and which
  contributes resources and/or data to IHO Chart coverage of the area;
  members of HCA are Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, France,
  Germany, Greece, India, Italy, NZ, Norway, Russia, South Africa,
  Spain, and the UK (2005)

Military Antarctica


Military - note:
  the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any measures of a military nature,
  such as the establishment of military bases and fortifications, the
  carrying out of military maneuvers, or the testing of any type of
  weapon; it permits the use of military personnel or equipment for
  scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes

Transnational Issues Antarctica


Disputes - international:
  Antarctic Treaty freezes claims (see Antarctic Treaty Summary in
  government type entry); Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ,
  Norway, and UK claim land and maritime sectors (some overlapping)
  for a large portion of the continent; the US and many other states
  do not recognize these territorial claims and have made no claims
  themselves (the US and Russia reserve the right to do so); no claims
  have been made in the sector between 90 degrees west and 150 degrees
  west; several states with territorial claims in Antarctica have
  expressed their intention to submit data to the UN Commission on the
  Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend their continental shelf
  claims to adjoining undersea ridges


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Antigua and Barbuda

Introduction Antigua and Barbuda


Background:
  The Siboney were the first to inhabit the islands of Antigua and
  Barbuda in 2400 B.C., but Arawak Indians populated the islands when
  Columbus landed on his second voyage in 1493. Early settlements by
  the Spanish and French were succeeded by the English who formed a
  colony in 1667. Slavery, established to run the sugar plantations on
  Antigua, was abolished in 1834. The islands became an independent
  state within the British Commonwealth of Nations in 1981.

Geography Antigua and Barbuda


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, east-southeast of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  17 03 N, 61 48 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 442.6 sq km (Antigua 280 sq km; Barbuda 161 sq km)
  land: 442.6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Redonda, 1.6 sq km

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  153 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  mostly low-lying limestone and coral islands, with some higher
  volcanic areas

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Boggy Peak 402 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL; pleasant climate fosters tourism

Land use:
  arable land: 18.18%
  permanent crops: 4.55%
  other: 77.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes and tropical storms (July to October); periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  water management - a major concern because of limited natural fresh
  water resources - is further hampered by the clearing of trees to
  increase crop production, causing rainfall to run off quickly

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Antigua has a deeply indented shoreline with many natural harbors
  and beaches; Barbuda has a very large western harbor

People Antigua and Barbuda


Population:
  69,108 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.6% (male 9,716/female 9,375)
  15-64 years: 68.5% (male 23,801/female 23,524)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 1,020/female 1,672) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 30 years
  male: 29.5 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.55% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.37 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -6.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 18.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.82 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.16 years
  male: 69.78 years
  female: 74.66 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Antiguan(s), Barbudan(s)
  adjective: Antiguan, Barbudan

Ethnic groups:
  black, British, Portuguese, Lebanese, Syrian

Religions:
  Christian (predominantly Anglican with other Protestant, and some
  Roman Catholic)

Languages:
  English (official), local dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of
  schooling
  total population: 85.8%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Government Antigua and Barbuda


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Antigua and Barbuda

Government type:
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Saint John's
  geographic coordinates: 17 06 N, 61 51 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 parishes and 2 dependencies*; Barbuda*, Redonda*, Saint George,
  Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Paul, Saint Peter, Saint Philip

Independence:
  1 November 1981 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (National Day), 1 November (1981)

Constitution:
  1 November 1981

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir James B. CARLISLE (since 10 June
  1993)
  head of government: Prime Minister Winston Baldwin SPENCER (since 24
  March 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the governor general on
  the advice of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general chosen
  by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister; following
  legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the
  leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister
  by the governor general

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (17-member body
  appointed by the governor general) and the House of Representatives
  (17 seats; members are elected by proportional representation to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 23 March 2004 (next
  to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  ALP 4, UPP 13

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based in Saint Lucia; one judge of
  the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and presides over the
  Court of Summary Jurisdiction); member Caribbean Court of Justice

Political parties and leaders:
  Antigua Labor Party or ALP [Lester Bryant BIRD]; Barbuda People's
  Movement or BPM [Thomas H. FRANK]; National Democratic Congress
  [Tillman THOMAS]; United Progressive Party or UPP [Baldwin SPENCER]
  (a coalition of three opposition parties - Antigua Caribbean
  Liberation Movement or ACLM, Progressive Labor Movement or PLM,
  United National Democratic Party or UNDP)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Antigua Trades and Labor Union or ATLU [William ROBINSON]; People's
  Democratic Movement or PDM [Hugh MARSHALL]

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber),
  ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Deborah Mae LOVELL
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 362-5122
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-5225
  consulate(s) general: Miami

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Antigua and Barbuda (embassy
  closed 30 June 1994); the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to
  Antigua and Barbuda

Flag description:
  red, with an inverted isosceles triangle based on the top edge of
  the flag; the triangle contains three horizontal bands of black
  (top), light blue, and white, with a yellow rising sun in the black
  band

Economy Antigua and Barbuda


Economy - overview:
  Tourism continues to dominate the economy, accounting for more than
  half of GDP. Weak tourist arrival numbers since early 2000 have
  slowed the economy, however, and pressed the government into a tight
  fiscal corner. The dual-island nation's agricultural production is
  focused on the domestic market and constrained by a limited water
  supply and a labor shortage stemming from the lure of higher wages
  in tourism and construction. Manufacturing comprises enclave-type
  assembly for export with major products being bedding, handicrafts,
  and electronic components. Prospects for economic growth in the
  medium term will continue to depend on income growth in the
  industrialized world, especially in the US, which accounts for
  slightly more than one-third of tourist arrivals.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $750 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $905 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $10,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 22%
  services: 74.3% (2002)

Labor force:
  30,000

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 11%
  services: 82% (1983)

Unemployment rate:
  11% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $123.7 million
  expenditures: $145.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes,
  sugarcane; livestock

Industries:
  tourism, construction, light manufacturing (clothing, alcohol,
  household appliances)

Industrial production growth rate:
  6% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  100 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  93 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  3,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-83.4 million

Exports:
  $46.81 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%, machinery and transport
  equipment 17%, food and live animals 4%, other 8%

Exports - partners:
  Spain 34%, Germany 20.7%, Italy 7.7%, Singapore 5.8%, UK 4.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $378 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food and live animals, machinery and transport equipment,
  manufactures, chemicals, oil

Imports - partners:
  US 21.1%, China 16.4%, Germany 13.3%, Singapore 12.7%, Spain 6.5%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $427.3 million; note - data are for public external debt, not total
  external debt (2000)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.65 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Antigua and Barbuda


Telephones - main lines in use:
  38,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  54,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: good automatic telephone system
  international: country code - 1-268; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth station - 2; tropospheric scatter to Saba
  (Netherlands Antilles) and Guadeloupe

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  36,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1997)

Televisions:
  31,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ag

Internet hosts:
  2,231 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  20,000 (2005)

Transportation Antigua and Barbuda


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,165 km
  paved: 384 km
  unpaved: 781 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,011 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,452,503 GRT/9,783,309 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 40, cargo 596, chemical tanker 7, container
  321, liquefied gas 11, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1,
  refrigerated cargo 12, roll on/roll off 21
  foreign-owned: 984 (Australia 1, Bangladesh 4, Belgium 4, Colombia
  2, Denmark 14, Estonia 12, France 1, Germany 858, Iceland 8, Isle of
  Man 2, Latvia 5, Lebanon 1, Lithuania 3, Netherlands 14, Norway 11,
  NZ 1, Poland 3, Russia 6, Singapore 1, Slovenia 6, Switzerland 4,
  Turkey 8, UK 7, US 7, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Saint John's

Military Antigua and Barbuda


Military branches:
  Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscript military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,952
  females age 18-49: 18,360 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 14,859
  females age 18-49: 14,947 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 507
  females age 18-49: 494 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Antigua and Barbuda


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  considered a minor transshipment point for narcotics bound for the
  US and Europe; more significant as an offshore financial center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Arctic Ocean

Introduction Arctic Ocean


Background:
  The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after
  the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently
  delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and
  Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal
  waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes
  circumscribes the Arctic Ocean.

Geography Arctic Ocean


Location:
  body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America, mostly north
  of the Arctic Circle

Geographic coordinates:
  90 00 N, 0 00 E

Map references:
  Arctic Region

Area:
  total: 14.056 million sq km
  note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea,
  East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara
  Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Coastline:
  45,389 km

Climate:
  polar climate characterized by persistent cold and relatively
  narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized by
  continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and clear
  skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and foggy
  weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow

Terrain:
  central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar icepack that,
  on average, is about 3 meters thick, although pressure ridges may be
  three times that thickness; clockwise drift pattern in the Beaufort
  Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from the New
  Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between Greenland and
  Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas during the summer,
  but more than doubles in size during the winter and extends to the
  encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about 50% continental
  shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the remainder a central
  basin interrupted by three submarine ridges (Alpha Cordillera,
  Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
  sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules,
  oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales)

Natural hazards:
  ice islands occasionally break away from northern Ellesmere Island;
  icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland and extreme
  northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually ice locked
  from October to June; ships subject to superstructure icing from
  October to May

Environment - current issues:
  endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile
  ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or
  damage; thinning polar icepack

Geography - note:
  major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern access to
  the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic location between
  North America and Russia; shortest marine link between the extremes
  of eastern and western Russia; floating research stations operated
  by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover in March or April about 20
  to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean; snow cover lasts about 10
  months



Economy Arctic Ocean


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural
  resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.


Transportation Arctic Ocean


Ports and terminals:
  Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)

Transportation - note:
  sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes; the Northwest
  Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route (Eurasia) are
  important seasonal waterways


Transnational Issues Arctic Ocean


Disputes - international:
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Argentina

Introduction Argentina


Background:
  In 1816, the United Provinces of the Rio Plata declared their
  independence from Spain. Eventually, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay
  went their own way, but the area that remained became Argentina. The
  country's population and culture were subsequently heavily shaped by
  immigrants from throughout Europe, but most particularly Italy and
  Spain, which provided the largest percentage of newcomers from 1860
  to 1930. Up until about the mid-20th century, much of Argentina's
  history was dominated by periods of internal political conflict
  between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military
  factions. After World War II, an era of Peronist authoritarian rule
  and interference in subsequent governments was followed by a
  military junta that took power in 1976. Democracy returned in 1983,
  and has persisted despite numerous challenges, the most formidable
  of which was a severe economic crisis in 2001-02 that led to violent
  public protests and the resignation of several interim presidents.
  Successful negotiations with the IMF allowed Argentina to sidestep
  some fiscal discipline measures normally imposed in such
  circumstances. Since 2003, the government's efforts to stem the
  crisis have led to rapid economic recovery.

Geography Argentina


Location:
  Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between
  Chile and Uruguay

Geographic coordinates:
  34 00 S, 64 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 2,766,890 sq km
  land: 2,736,690 sq km
  water: 30,200 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 9,665 km
  border countries: Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km,
  Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km

Coastline:
  4,989 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in southwest

Terrain:
  rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to rolling plateau
  of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western border

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Laguna del Carbon -105 m (located between Puerto San
  Julian and Comandante Luis Piedra Buena in the province of Santa
  Cruz)
  highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m (located in the northwestern
  corner of the province of Mendoza)

Natural resources:
  fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore,
  manganese, petroleum, uranium

Land use:
  arable land: 10.03%
  permanent crops: 0.36%
  other: 89.61% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  15,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes subject to
  earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can strike the
  pampas and northeast; heavy flooding

Environment - current issues:
  environmental problems (urban and rural) typical of an
  industrializing economy such as deforestation, soil degradation,
  desertification, air pollution, and water pollution
  note: Argentina is a world leader in setting voluntary greenhouse
  gas targets

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  second-largest country in South America (after Brazil); strategic
  location relative to sea lanes between the South Atlantic and the
  South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake
  Passage); diverse geophysical landscapes range from tropical
  climates in the north to tundra in the far south; Cerro Aconcagua is
  the Western Hemisphere's tallest mountain, while Laguna del Carbon
  is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere

People Argentina


Population:
  39,921,833 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 25.2% (male 5,153,164/female 4,921,625)
  15-64 years: 64.1% (male 12,804,376/female 12,798,731)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 1,740,118/female 2,503,819) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 29.7 years
  male: 28.8 years
  female: 30.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.96% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.12 years
  male: 72.38 years
  female: 80.05 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  130,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Argentine(s)
  adjective: Argentine

Ethnic groups:
  white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo (mixed white and
  Amerindian ancestry), Amerindian, or other non-white groups 3%

Religions:
  nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing), Protestant
  2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.1%
  male: 97.1%
  female: 97.1% (2003 est.)

Government Argentina


Country name:
  conventional long form: Argentine Republic
  conventional short form: Argentina
  local long form: Republica Argentina
  local short form: Argentina

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Buenos Aires
  geographic coordinates: 34 36 S, 58 27 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  23 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 autonomous
  city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Capital
  Federal*, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Cordoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios,
  Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquen, Rio
  Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del
  Estero, Tierra del Fuego - Antartida e Islas del Atlantico Sur,
  Tucuman
  note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica

Independence:
  9 July 1816 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Revolution Day, 25 May (1810)

Constitution:
  1 May 1853; revised August 1994

Legal system:
  mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nestor KIRCHNER (since 25 May 2003); Vice
  President Daniel SCIOLI (since 25 May 2003); note - the president is
  both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Nestor KIRCHNER (since 25 May 2003);
  Vice President Daniel SCIOLI (since 25 May 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 27 April 2003 (next election to be held in 2007)
  election results: results of the presidential election of 27 April
  2003: Carlos Saul MENEM 24.3%, Nestor KIRCHNER 22%, Ricardo Lopez
  MURPHY 16.4%, Adolfo Rodriguez SAA 14.4%, Elisa CARRIO 14.2%, other
  8.7%; the subsequent runoff election slated for 25 May 2003 was
  awarded to KIRCHNER by default after MENEM withdrew his candidacy on
  the eve of the election

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the
  Senate (72 seats; members are elected by direct vote; presently
  one-third of the members elected every two years to a six-year term)
  and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats; members are elected by
  direct vote; one-half of the members elected every two years to a
  four-year term)
  elections: Senate - last held 23 October 2005 (next to be held in
  2007); Chamber of Deputies - last held last held 23 October 2005
  (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by bloc or party - FV
  45.1%, FJ 17.2%, UCR 7.5%, other 30.2%; seats by bloc or party - FV
  14, FJ 3, UCR 2, other 5; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by
  bloc or party - FV 29.9%, UCR 8.9%, ARI 7.2%, PJ 6.7%, PRO 6.2%, FJ
  3.9%, other 37.2%; seats by bloc or party - FV 50, UCR 10, ARI 8, PJ
  9, PRO 9, FJ 7, other 34

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (the nine Supreme Court judges are
  appointed by the president with approval by the Senate)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alternative for a Republic of Equals or ARI [Elisa CARRIO]; Front
  for Victory or FV [Nestor KIRCHNER]; Interbloque Federal or IF (a
  broad coalition of approximately 12 parties including RECREAR);
  Justicialist Front or FJ [Eduardo DUHALDE]; Justicialist Party or PJ
  (Peronist umbrella political organization); Radical Civic Union or
  UCR [Roberto IGLESIAS]; Republican Initiative Alliance or PRO
  (including Federal Recreate Movement or RECREAR [Ricardo LOPEZ
  MURPHY] and Commitment for Change or CPC [Mauricio MACRI]);
  Socialist Party or PS [Ruben GIUSTINIANI]; Union For All [Patricia
  BULLRICH]; several provincial parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Argentine Association of Pharmaceutical Labs (CILFA); Argentine
  Industrial Union (manufacturers' association); Argentine Rural
  Society (large landowners' association); business organizations;
  Central of Argentine Workers or CTA (a radical union for employed
  and unemployed workers); General Confederation of Labor or CGT
  (Peronist-leaning umbrella labor organization); Peronist-dominated
  labor movement; Piquetero groups (popular protest organizations that
  can be either pro or anti-government); Roman Catholic Church;
  students

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AfDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS, CAN (associate), CSN, FAO,
  G-6, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, NSG,
  OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council (temporary),
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMOVIC, UNTSO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jose Octavio BORDON
  chancery: 1600 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-6400
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-3171
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Earl Anthony WAYNE
  embassy: Avenida Colombia 4300, C1425GMN Buenos Aires
  mailing address: international mail: use street address; APO
  address: Unit 4334, APO AA 34034
  telephone: [54] (11) 5777-4533
  FAX: [54] (11) 5777-4240

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white, and light
  blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun with a
  human face known as the Sun of May

Economy Argentina


Economy - overview:
  Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate
  population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a
  diversified industrial base. Over the past decade, however, the
  country has suffered problems of inflation, external debt, capital
  flight, and budget deficits. Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.8%, as
  both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the
  government's ability to pay debts and maintain the peso's fixed
  exchange rate with the US dollar. The economic situation worsened in
  2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive
  withdrawals from the banks, and a further decline in consumer and
  investor confidence. Government efforts to achieve a "zero deficit,"
  to stabilize the banking system, and to restore economic growth
  proved inadequate in the face of the mounting economic problems. The
  peso's peg to the dollar was abandoned in January 2002, and the peso
  was floated in February. The exchange rate plunged and real GDP fell
  by 10.9% in 2002, but by mid-year the economy had stabilized, albeit
  at a lower level. GDP expanded by about 9% per year from 2003 to
  2005. Growth is being led by a revival in domestic demand, solid
  exports, and favorable external conditions. The government boosted
  spending ahead of the October 2005 midterm congressional elections,
  but strong revenue performance allowed Argentina to maintain a
  budget surplus. Inflation has been rising steadily and reached 12.3
  percent in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $543.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $182 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $13,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.5%
  industry: 35.8%
  services: 54.7% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  15.34 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  11.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  38.5% (June 2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA
  highest 10%: NA

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  52.2 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $42.63 billion
  expenditures: $39.98 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  72.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts,
  tea, wheat; livestock

Industries:
  food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles,
  chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  87.16 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 52.2%
  hydro: 40.8%
  nuclear: 6.7%
  other: 0.2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  82.97 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  2.07 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  1.561 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  745,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  450,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  2.95 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  41.04 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  34.58 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  6.05 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  663.5 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $5.448 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $40 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles

Exports - partners:
  Brazil 15.3%, US 10.8%, Chile 10.5%, China 8.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $28.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal
  manufactures, plastics

Imports - partners:
  Brazil 34.6%, US 16.8%, China 5.4%, Germany 5.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $28.09 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $118.2 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $10 billion (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  Argentine peso (ARS)

Currency code:
  ARS

Exchange rates:
  Argentine pesos per US dollar - 2.9037 (2005), 2.9233 (2004),
  2.9006 (2003), 3.0633 (2002), 0.9995 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Argentina


Telephones - main lines in use:
  8.8 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  22.1 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: by opening the telecommunications market to
  competition and foreign investment with the "Telecommunications
  Liberalization Plan of 1998," Argentina encouraged the growth of
  modern telecommunications technology; fiber-optic cable trunk lines
  are being installed between all major cities; the major networks are
  entirely digital and the availability of telephone service is
  improving; however, telephone density is presently minimal, and
  making telephone service universally available will take time
  domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber-optic cable, and a domestic
  satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network;
  more than 110,000 pay telephones are installed and mobile telephone
  use is rapidly expanding
  international: country code - 54; satellite earth stations - 112;
  Atlantis II and Unisur submarine cables; two international gateways
  near Buenos Aires (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM NA (probably more than
  1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998)

Radios:
  24.3 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  7.95 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ar

Internet hosts:
  1,612,423 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  33 (2000)

Internet users:
  10 million (2005)

Transportation Argentina


Airports:
  1,381 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 154
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 26
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 65
  914 to 1,523 m: 50
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1,227
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 49
  914 to 1,523 m: 587
  under 914 m: 587 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 29,804 km; liquid petroleum gas 41 km; oil 10,373 km; refined
  products 8,540 km; unknown (oil/water) 13 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 31,902 km
  broad gauge: 20,858 km 1.676-m gauge (141 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 2,885 km 1.435-m gauge (26 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 7,922 km 1.000-m gauge; 237 km 0.750-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 229,144 km
  paved: 68,809 km (including 734 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 160,335 km (2004)

Waterways:
  11,000 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 435,969 GRT/707,767 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 10, chemical tanker 1, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 21, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 11 (Chile 6, UK 4, Uruguay 1)
  registered in other countries: 24 (Bolivia 1, Chile 1, Liberia 7,
  Panama 9, Paraguay 3, Uruguay 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Punta
  Colorada, Rosario, San Lorenzo-San Martin, San Nicolas

Military Argentina


Military branches:
  Argentine Army, Navy of the Argentine Republic (includes naval
  aviation and naval infantry), Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aerea
  Argentina, FAA) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 8,981,886
  females age 18-49: 8,883,756 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,316,038
  females age 18-49: 7,442,589 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 344,575
  females age 18-49: 334,649 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.3 billion (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.3% (FY00)

Military - note:
  the Argentine military is a well-organized force constrained by the
  country's prolonged economic hardship; the country has recently
  experienced a strong recovery, and the military is now implementing
  "Plan 2000," aimed at making the ground forces lighter and more
  responsive (2005)

Transnational Issues Argentina


Disputes - international:
  Argentina continues to assert its claims to the UK-administered
  Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South
  Sandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly occupying the
  Falklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed no longer to seek settlement
  by force; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps UK and
  Chilean claims (see Antarctic disputes); unruly region at
  convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders is locus of money
  laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics trafficking, and
  fundraising for extremist organizations; uncontested dispute between
  Brazil and Uruguay over Braziliera Island in the Quarai/Cuareim
  River leaves the tripoint with Argentina in question; action by the
  joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in
  2001, for mapping and demarcating the disputed boundary in the
  Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur) remains pending

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Argentina is primarily a destination country for
  women and children trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation with
  most victims trafficked internally, from rural to urban areas, for
  exploitation in prostitution; foreign women and children trafficked
  for commercial sexual exploitation come primarily from Paraguay, but
  also from Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and
  Chile; Bolivians are trafficked for forced labor; Argentine women
  and girls are also trafficked to neighboring countries for sexual
  exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Argentina failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to combat trafficking particularly in the key
  area of prosecutions; government efforts to improve interagency
  anti-trafficking coordination did not achieve significant progress
  in moving cases against traffickers through the judicial system; the
  government made progress in other areas, by submitting
  anti-trafficking legislation to Congress in August 2005 and
  sensitizing provincial and municipal government officials to the
  trafficking problem

Illicit drugs:
  used as a transshipment country for cocaine headed for Europe; some
  money-laundering activity, especially in the Tri-Border Area;
  domestic consumption of drugs in urban centers is increasing


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Armenia

Introduction Armenia


Background:
  Armenia prides itself on being the first nation to formally adopt
  Christianity (early 4th century). Despite periods of autonomy, over
  the centuries Armenia came under the sway of various empires
  including the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman. During
  World War I in the western portion of Armenia, Ottoman Turkey
  instituted a policy of forced resettlement coupled with other harsh
  practices that resulted in an estimated 1 million Armenian deaths.
  The eastern area of Armenia was ceded by the Ottomans to Russia in
  1828; this portion declared its independence in 1918, but was
  conquered by the Soviet Red Army in 1920. Armenian leaders remain
  preoccupied by the long conflict with Muslim Azerbaijan over
  Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily Armenian-populated region, assigned to
  Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s by Moscow. Armenia and Azerbaijan
  began fighting over the area in 1988; the struggle escalated after
  both countries attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
  By May 1994, when a cease-fire took hold, Armenian forces held not
  only Nagorno-Karabakh but also a significant portion of Azerbaijan
  proper. The economies of both sides have been hurt by their
  inability to make substantial progress toward a peaceful resolution.
  Turkey imposed an economic blockade on Armenia and closed the common
  border because of the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and
  surrounding areas.

Geography Armenia


Location:
  Southwestern Asia, east of Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
  40 00 N, 45 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 29,800 sq km
  land: 28,400 sq km
  water: 1,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,254 km
  border countries: Azerbaijan-proper 566 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan
  exclave 221 km, Georgia 164 km, Iran 35 km, Turkey 268 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  highland continental, hot summers, cold winters

Terrain:
  Armenian Highland with mountains; little forest land; fast flowing
  rivers; good soil in Aras River valley

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Debed River 400 m
  highest point: Aragats Lerrnagagat' 4,090 m

Natural resources:
  small deposits of gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, alumina

Land use:
  arable land: 16.78%
  permanent crops: 2.01%
  other: 81.21% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,860 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasionally severe earthquakes; droughts

Environment - current issues:
  soil pollution from toxic chemicals such as DDT; the energy crisis
  of the 1990s led to deforestation when citizens scavenged for
  firewood; pollution of Hrazdan (Razdan) and Aras Rivers; the
  draining of Sevana Lich (Lake Sevan), a result of its use as a
  source for hydropower, threatens drinking water supplies; restart of
  Metsamor nuclear power plant in spite of its location in a
  seismically active zone

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  landlocked in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains; Sevana Lich (Lake
  Sevan) is the largest lake in this mountain range

People Armenia


Population:
  2,976,372 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.5% (male 322,189/female 286,944)
  15-64 years: 68.4% (male 949,975/female 1,085,484)
  65 years and over: 11.1% (male 133,411/female 198,369) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 30.4 years
  male: 27.8 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.19% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.07 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -5.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.17 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.88 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.9 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 22.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.84 years
  male: 68.25 years
  female: 76.02 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Armenian(s)
  adjective: Armenian

Ethnic groups:
  Armenian 97.9%, Yezidi (Kurd) 1.3%, Russian 0.5%, other 0.3% (2001
  census)

Religions:
  Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi (monotheist
  with elements of nature worship) 1.3%

Languages:
  Armenian 97.7%, Yezidi 1%, Russian 0.9%, other 0.4% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.4%
  female: 98% (2003 est.)

Government Armenia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Armenia
  conventional short form: Armenia
  local long form: Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun
  local short form: Hayastan
  former: Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic; Armenian Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Yerevan
  geographic coordinates: 40 11 N, 44 30 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  11 provinces (marzer, singular - marz); Aragatsotn, Ararat,
  Armavir, Geghark'unik', Kotayk', Lorri, Shirak, Syunik', Tavush,
  Vayots' Dzor, Yerevan

Independence:
  21 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 21 September (1991)

Constitution:
  adopted by nationwide referendum 5 July 1995; amendments adopted
  through a nationwide referendum 27 November 2005

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Robert KOCHARIAN (since 30 March 1998)
  head of government: Prime Minister Andranik MARGARYAN (since 12 May
  2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 19 February and 5
  March 2003 (next to be held in 2008); prime minister appointed by
  the president and confirmed with the majority support of the
  National Assembly; the prime minister and Council of Ministers must
  resign if the National Assembly refuses to accept their program
  election results: Robert KOCHARIAN reelected president; percent of
  vote - Robert KOCHARIAN 67.5%, Stepan DEMIRCHYAN 32.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (Parliament) or Azgayin Zhoghov (131
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms; 90
  members elected by party list, 41 by direct vote)
  elections: last held 25 May 2003 (next to be held in the spring of
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Republican Party 23.5%,
  Justice Bloc 13.6%, Rule of Law 12.3%, ARF (Dashnak) 11.4%, National
  Unity Party 8.8%, United Labor Party 5.7%; seats by faction -
  Republican Party 39, Rule of Law 20, Justice Bloc 14, ARF (Dashnak)
  11, National Unity 7, United Labor 6, People's Deputy Group 16,
  independent (not in faction or group) 18; note - as of 10 March
  2006; voting blocs in the legislature are more properly termed
  factions and can be composed of members of several parties; seats by
  faction change frequently as deputies switch parties or announce
  themselves independent

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Court of Cassation (Appeals Court)

Political parties and leaders:
  Agro-Industrial Party [Vladimir BADALYAN]; Armenia Party [Myasnik
  MALKHASYAN]; Armenian National Movement or ANM [Alex ARZUMANYAN,
  chairman]; Armenian Ramkavar Liberal Party or HRAK [Harutyun
  MIRZAKHANYAN, chairman]; Armenian Revolutionary Federation
  ("Dashnak" Party) or ARF [Levon MKRTCHYAN]; Democratic Party [Aram
  SARKISYAN]; Justice Bloc (comprised of the Democratic Party,
  National Democratic Party, National Democratic Union, the People's
  Party, and the Republic Party) [Stepan DEMIRCHYAN]; National
  Democratic Party [Shavarsh KOCHARIAN]; National Democratic Union or
  NDU [Vazgen MANUKIAN]; National Revival Party [Albert BAZEYAN];
  National Unity Party [Artashes GEGHAMYAN, chairman]; People's Party
  of Armenia [Stepan DEMIRCHYAN]; Republic Party [Aram SARKISYAN,
  chairman]; Republican Party or RPA [Andranik MARGARYAN]; Rule of Law
  Party [Samvel BALASANYAN]; Union of Constitutional Rights [Hrant
  KHACHATURYAN]; United Labor Party [Gurgen ARSENYAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Yerkrapah Union [Manvel GRIGORIAN]

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), AsDB, BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tatoul MARKARIAN
  chancery: 2225 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-1976
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2982
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Anthony F.
  GODFREY
  embassy: 1 American Ave., Yerevan 375082
  mailing address: American Embassy Yerevan, US Department of State,
  7020 Yerevan Place, Washington, DC 20521-7020
  telephone: [374](10) 464-700
  FAX: [374](10) 464-742

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, and orange

Economy Armenia


Economy - overview:
  Under the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia had developed
  a modern industrial sector, supplying machine tools, textiles, and
  other manufactured goods to sister republics in exchange for raw
  materials and energy. Since the implosion of the USSR in December
  1991, Armenia has switched to small-scale agriculture away from the
  large agroindustrial complexes of the Soviet era. The agricultural
  sector has long-term needs for more investment and updated
  technology. The privatization of industry has been at a slower pace,
  but has been given renewed emphasis by the current administration.
  Armenia is a food importer, and its mineral deposits (copper, gold,
  bauxite) are small. The ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan over the
  ethnic Armenian-dominated region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the breakup
  of the centrally directed economic system of the former Soviet Union
  contributed to a severe economic decline in the early 1990s. By
  1994, however, the Armenian Government had launched an ambitious
  IMF-sponsored economic liberalization program that resulted in
  positive growth rates in 1995-2005. Armenia joined the WTO in
  January 2003. Armenia also has managed to slash inflation, stabilize
  its currency, and privatize most small- and medium-sized
  enterprises. Armenia's unemployment rate, however, remains high,
  despite strong economic growth. The chronic energy shortages Armenia
  suffered in the early and mid-1990s have been offset by the energy
  supplied by one of its nuclear power plants at Metsamor. Armenia is
  now a net energy exporter, although it does not have sufficient
  generating capacity to replace Metsamor, which is under
  international pressure to close. The electricity distribution system
  was privatized in 2002. Armenia's severe trade imbalance has been
  offset somewhat by international aid, remittances from Armenians
  working abroad, and foreign direct investment. Economic ties with
  Russia remain close, especially in the energy sector. The government
  made some improvements in tax and customs administration in 2005,
  but anti-corruption measures will be more difficult to implement.
  Investment in the construction and industrial sectors is expected to
  continue in 2006 and will help to ensure annual average real GDP
  growth of about 13.9%.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $14.45 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.868 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  13.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23.9%
  industry: 34.3%
  services: 41.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.2 million (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: 25%
  services: 30% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  31.6% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  43% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 41.3% (2004)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  41.3 (2004)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $786.1 million
  expenditures: $930.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruit (especially grapes), vegetables; livestock

Industries:
  diamond-processing, metal-cutting machine tools, forging-pressing
  machines, electric motors, tires, knitted wear, hosiery, shoes, silk
  fabric, chemicals, trucks, instruments, microelectronics, jewelry
  manufacturing, software development, food processing, brandy

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  6.317 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 42.3%
  hydro: 27%
  nuclear: 30.7%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.374 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  650 million kWh; note - exports an unknown quantity to Georgia;
  includes exports to Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  463 million kWh; note - imports an unknown quantity from Iran (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - consumption:
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.685 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.685 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-118 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $800 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, mineral products, foodstuffs, energy

Exports - partners:
  Germany 15.6%, Netherlands 13.7%, Belgium 12.8%, Russia 12.2%,
  Israel 11.5%, US 11.2%, Georgia 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  natural gas, petroleum, tobacco products, foodstuffs, diamonds

Imports - partners:
  Russia 13.5%, Belgium 8%, Germany 7.9%, Ukraine 7%, Turkmenistan
  6.3%, US 6.2%, Israel 5.8%, Iran 5%, Romania 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $754.9 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.819 billion (20 September 2005)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $254 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  dram (AMD)

Currency code:
  AMD

Exchange rates:
  drams per US dollar - 457.69 (2005), 533.45 (2004), 578.76 (2003),
  573.35 (2002), 555.08 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Armenia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  582,500 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  320,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: system inadequate; now 90% privately owned and
  undergoing modernization and expansion
  domestic: the majority of subscribers and the most modern equipment
  are in Yerevan (this includes paging and mobile cellular service)
  international: country code - 374; Yerevan is connected to the
  Trans-Asia-Europe fiber-optic cable through Iran; additional
  international service is available by microwave radio relay and
  landline connections to the other countries of the Commonwealth of
  Independent States and through the Moscow international switch and
  by satellite to the rest of the world; satellite earth stations - 3
  (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 9, FM 6, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  850,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus an unknown number of repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  825,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .am

Internet hosts:
  8,163 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  9 (2001)

Internet users:
  150,000 (2005)

Transportation Armenia


Airports:
  13 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,002 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 845 km
  broad gauge: 845 km 1.520-m gauge (828 km electrified)
  note: some lines are out of service (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 7,633 km
  paved: 7,633 km (includes 1,561 km of expressways) (2003)

Military Armenia


Military branches:
  Armed Forces: Ground Forces, Nagorno-Karabakh Self Defense Force
  (NKSDF), Air Force, Air Defense Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 to 27 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript
  service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for voluntary
  military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 722,836
  females age 18-49: 795,084 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 551,938
  females age 18-49: 656,493 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 31,774
  females age 18-49: 31,182 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $135 million (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  6.5% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Armenia


Disputes - international:
  Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh
  and since the early 1990s, has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan
  - Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
  continues to mediate dispute; over 800,000 mostly ethnic
  Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about
  230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan
  into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through Armenia to
  connect to Naxcivan exclave; border with Turkey remains closed over
  Nagorno-Karabakh dispute; ethnic Armenian groups in Javakheti region
  of Georgia seek greater autonomy; tens of thousands of Armenians
  emigrate, primarily to Russia, to seek employment

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 235,101 (Azerbaijan)
  IDPs: 50,000 (conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Armenia is a major source and, to a lesser
  extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls
  trafficked for sexual exploitation largely to the UAE and Turkey;
  traffickers, many of them women, route victims directly into Dubai
  or through Moscow; profits derived from the trafficking of Armenian
  victims reportedly increased dramatically from 2005
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Armenia has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts, particularly in the areas of enforcement,
  trafficking-related corruption, and victim protection; the
  government increased implementation of its anti-trafficking law, but
  failed to impose significant penalties for convicted traffickers and
  failed to vigorously investigate and prosecute ongoing and
  widespread allegations of public officials' complicity in
  trafficking; victim protection efforts remain in early, formative
  stages and a lack of sensitivity for victims remains a problem,
  particularly in the judiciary

Illicit drugs:
  illicit cultivation of small amount of cannabis for domestic
  consumption; minor transit point for illicit drugs - mostly opium
  and hashish - moving from Southwest Asia to Russia and to a lesser
  extent the rest of Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Aruba

Introduction Aruba


Background:
  Discovered and claimed for Spain in 1499, Aruba was acquired by the
  Dutch in 1636. The island's economy has been dominated by three main
  industries. A 19th century gold rush was followed by prosperity
  brought on by the opening in 1924 of an oil refinery. The last
  decades of the 20th century saw a boom in the tourism industry.
  Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 and became a
  separate, autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
  Movement toward full independence was halted at Aruba's request in
  1990.

Geography Aruba


Location:
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela

Geographic coordinates:
  12 30 N, 69 58 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 193 sq km
  land: 193 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  68.5 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  flat with a few hills; scant vegetation

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Jamanota 188 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL; white sandy beaches

Land use:
  arable land: 10.53%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 89.47% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0.01 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
  lies outside the Caribbean hurricane belt

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  a flat, riverless island renowned for its white sand beaches; its
  tropical climate is moderated by constant trade winds from the
  Atlantic Ocean; the temperature is almost constant at about 27
  degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit)

People Aruba


Population:
  71,891 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.5% (male 7,175/female 6,849)
  15-64 years: 68.2% (male 23,894/female 25,140)
  65 years and over: 12.3% (male 3,616/female 5,217) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.5 years
  male: 36.4 years
  female: 40.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.44% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.79 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.28 years
  male: 75.95 years
  female: 82.78 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Aruban(s)
  adjective: Aruban; Dutch

Ethnic groups:
  mixed white/Caribbean Amerindian 80%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 82%, Protestant 8%, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, Jewish

Languages:
  Dutch (official), Papiamento (a Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English
  dialect), English (widely spoken), Spanish

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 97%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Government Aruba


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Aruba

Dependency status:
  member country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; full autonomy in
  internal affairs obtained in 1986 upon separation from the
  Netherlands Antilles; Dutch Government responsible for defense and
  foreign affairs

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Oranjestad
  geographic coordinates: 12 33 N, 70 06 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Independence:
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

National holiday:
  Flag Day, 18 March

Constitution:
  1 January 1986

Legal system:
  based on Dutch civil law system, with some English common law
  influence

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX of the Netherlands (since 30 April
  1980), represented by Governor General Fredis REFUNJOL (since 11 May
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nelson O. ODUBER (since 30
  October 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the Staten
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed for
  a six-year term by the monarch; prime minister and deputy prime
  minister elected by the Staten for four-year terms; election last
  held 2005 (next to be held by 2009)
  election results: Nelson O. ODUBER elected prime minister; percent
  of legislative vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislature or Staten (21 seats; members elected by
  direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 September 2005 (next to be held by in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MEP 43%, AVP 32%, MPA
  7%, RED 7%, PDR 6%, OLA 4%, PPA 2%; seats by party - MEP 11, AVP 8,
  MPA 1, RED 1

Judicial branch:
  Common Court of Justice of Aruba (judges are appointed by the
  monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Aliansa/Aruban Social Movement or MSA [Robert WEVER]; Aruban
  Liberal Organization or OLA [Glenbert CROES]; Aruban Patriotic
  Movement or MPA [Monica ARENDS-KOCK]; Aruban Patriotic Party or PPA
  [Benny NISBET]; Aruban People's Party or AVP [Mike EMAN]; People's
  Electoral Movement Party or MEP [Nelson O. ODUBER]; Real Democracy
  or PDR [Andin BIKKER]; RED [Rudy LAMPE]; Workers Political Platform
  or PTT [Gregorio WOLFF]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, UNESCO (associate), UPU, WCL, WMO, WToO
  (associate)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (represented by the Kingdom of the Netherlands); note - Mr.
  Henry BAARH, Minister Plenipotentiary for Aruba at the Embassy of
  the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Aruba; the Consul General to
  Netherlands Antilles is accredited to Aruba

Flag description:
  blue, with two narrow, horizontal, yellow stripes across the lower
  portion and a red, four-pointed star outlined in white in the upper
  hoist-side corner

Economy Aruba


Economy - overview:
  Tourism is the mainstay of the small, open Aruban economy, with
  offshore banking and oil refining and storage also important. The
  rapid growth of the tourism sector over the last decade has resulted
  in a substantial expansion of other activities. Over 1.5 million
  tourists per year visit Aruba, with 75% of those from the US.
  Construction continues to boom, with hotel capacity five times the
  1985 level. In addition, the reopening of the country's oil refinery
  in 1993, a major source of employment and foreign exchange earnings,
  has further spurred growth. Tourist arrivals have rebounded strongly
  following a dip after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The island
  experiences only a brief low season, and hotel occupancy in 2004
  averaged 80%, compared to 68% throughout the rest of the Caribbean.
  The newly re-elected government has made cutting the budget and
  trade deficits a high priority.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.258 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.258 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $21,800 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.4% NA%
  industry: 33.3% NA%
  services: 66.3% NA%

Labor force:
  41,500 (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%
  note: most employment is in wholesale and retail trade and repair,
  followed by hotels and restaurants; oil refining

Unemployment rate:
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.4% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $507.9 million
  expenditures: $577.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000)

Public debt:
  46.3% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  aloes; livestock; fish

Industries:
  tourism, transshipment facilities, oil refining

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  770 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  716.1 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  2,363 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  6,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $80 million f.o.b.; note - includes oil reexports (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  live animals and animal products, art and collectibles, machinery
  and electrical equipment, transport equipment

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 33.5%, Panama 16.7%, Colombia 11.9%, US 11.3%,
  Venezuela 10.1%, Netherlands Antilles 9% (2005)

Imports:
  $875 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and electrical equipment, crude oil for refining and
  reexport, chemicals; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  US 55.9%, Netherlands 12.9%, UK 3.8% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $478.6 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $-11.3 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Aruban guilder/florin (AWG)

Currency code:
  AWG

Exchange rates:
  Aruban guilders/florins per US dollar - 1.79 (2005), 1.79 (2004),
  1.79 (2003), 1.79 (2002), 1.79 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Aruba


Telephones - main lines in use:
  37,100 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  98,400 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern fully automatic telecommunications system
  domestic: increased competition through privatization; 3 wireless
  service providers are now licensed
  international: country code - 297; 1 submarine cable to Sint Maarten
  (Netherlands Antilles); extensive interisland microwave radio relay
  links

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 16, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  50,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  20,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .aw

Internet hosts:
  11,548 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  24,000 (2002)

Transportation Aruba


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 800 km
  paved: 513 km
  unpaved: 287 km

Ports and terminals:
  Barcadera, Oranjestad, Sint Nicolaas

Military Aruba


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; Royal Netherlands Navy and
  Marines, Coast Guard

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 16,278 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 13,219 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 520 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Transnational Issues Aruba


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transit point for US- and Europe-bound narcotics with some
  accompanying money-laundering activity


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Introduction Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Background:
  These uninhabited islands came under Australian authority in 1931;
  formal administration began two years later. Ashmore Reef supports a
  rich and diverse avian and marine habitat; in 1983, it became a
  National Nature Reserve. Cartier Island, a former bombing range, is
  now a marine reserve.

Geography Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, islands in the Indian Ocean, midway between
  northwestern Australia and Timor island

Geographic coordinates:
  12 14 S, 123 05 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 5 sq km
  land: 5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and
  Cartier Island

Area - comparative:
  about eight times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  74.1 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  low with sand and coral

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 3 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all grass and sand) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  surrounded by shoals and reefs that can pose maritime hazards

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve established in August 1983

People Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: Indonesian fishermen are allowed access to the lagoon and
  fresh water at Ashmore Reef's West Island (July 2006 est.)

People - note:
  the landing of illegal immigrants from Indonesia's Rote Island has
  become an ongoing problem

Government Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  conventional short form: Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Dependency status:
  territory of Australia; administered by the Australian Department
  of Transport and Regional Services

Legal system:
  the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia and the laws of the
  Northern Territory of Australia, where applicable, apply

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  the flag of Australia is used

Economy Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Economy - overview:
  no economic activity


Transportation Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia; periodic visits by the
  Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force

Transnational Issues Ashmore and Cartier Islands


Disputes - international:
  Indonesian groups challenge Australia's claim to Ashmore Reef;
  Australia has closed the surrounding waters to Indonesian
  traditional fishing and created a national park in the region while
  continuing to prospect for hydrocarbons in the vicinity


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Atlantic Ocean

Introduction Atlantic Ocean


Background:
  The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceans
  (after the Pacific Ocean, but larger than the Indian Ocean, Southern
  Ocean, and Arctic Ocean). The Kiel Canal (Germany), Oresund
  (Denmark-Sweden), Bosporus (Turkey), Strait of Gibraltar
  (Morocco-Spain), and the Saint Lawrence Seaway (Canada-US) are
  important strategic access waterways. The decision by the
  International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to
  delimit a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion
  of the Atlantic Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.

Geography Atlantic Ocean


Location:
  body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern Ocean, and the
  Western Hemisphere

Geographic coordinates:
  0 00 N, 25 00 W

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 76.762 million sq km
  note: includes Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait,
  Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador
  Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the
  Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US

Coastline:
  111,866 km

Climate:
  tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop off the coast of Africa near
  Cape Verde and move westward into the Caribbean Sea; hurricanes can
  occur from May to December, but are most frequent from August to
  November

Terrain:
  surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea, Denmark
  Strait, and coastal portions of the Baltic Sea from October to June;
  clockwise warm-water gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in
  the northern Atlantic, counterclockwise warm-water gyre in the
  southern Atlantic; the ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic
  Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire Atlantic basin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico Trench -8,605 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
  oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales), sand
  and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules,
  precious stones

Natural hazards:
  icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the
  northwestern Atlantic Ocean from February to August and have been
  spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands; ships
  subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from
  October to May; persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to
  September; hurricanes (May to December)

Environment - current issues:
  endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions,
  turtles, and whales; drift net fishing is hastening the decline of
  fish stocks and contributing to international disputes; municipal
  sludge pollution off eastern US, southern Brazil, and eastern
  Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake
  Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea; industrial waste and
  municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea, and
  Mediterranean Sea

Geography - note:
  major chokepoints include the Dardanelles, Strait of Gibraltar,
  access to the Panama and Suez Canals; strategic straits include the
  Strait of Dover, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound
  (Oresund), and Windward Passage; the Equator divides the Atlantic
  Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean



Economy Atlantic Ocean


Economy - overview:
  The Atlantic Ocean provides some of the world's most heavily
  trafficked sea routes, between and within the Eastern and Western
  Hemispheres. Other economic activity includes the exploitation of
  natural resources, e.g., fishing, dredging of aragonite sands (The
  Bahamas), and production of crude oil and natural gas (Caribbean
  Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea).


Transportation Atlantic Ocean


Ports and terminals:
  Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona
  (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco), Colon
  (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar (Senegal), Gdansk (Poland),
  Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands,
  Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille
  (France), Montevideo (Uruguay), Montreal (Canada), Naples (Italy),
  New Orleans (US), New York (US), Oran (Algeria), Oslo (Norway),
  Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Rotterdam
  (Netherlands), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden)

Transportation - note:
  Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two important waterways;
  significant domestic commercial and recreational use of Intracoastal
  Waterway on central and south Atlantic seaboard and Gulf of Mexico
  coast of US


Transnational Issues Atlantic Ocean


Disputes - international:
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Australia

Introduction Australia


Background:
  Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia
  about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in
  the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770,
  when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain.
  Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they
  federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new
  country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop
  agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major
  contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent
  decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally
  competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's
  fastest growing economies during the 1990s, a performance due in
  large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s. Long-term
  concerns include pollution, particularly depletion of the ozone
  layer, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially
  the Great Barrier Reef.

Geography Australia


Location:
  Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific
  Ocean

Geographic coordinates:
  27 00 S, 133 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 7,686,850 sq km
  land: 7,617,930 sq km
  water: 68,920 sq km
  note: includes Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  25,760 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  generally arid to semiarid; temperate in south and east; tropical
  in north

Terrain:
  mostly low plateau with deserts; fertile plain in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lake Eyre -15 m
  highest point: Mount Kosciuszko 2,229 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium,
  nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas,
  petroleum

Land use:
  arable land: 6.15% (includes about 27 million hectares of
  cultivated grassland)
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 93.81% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  25,450 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  cyclones along the coast; severe droughts; forest fires

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion from overgrazing, industrial development,
  urbanization, and poor farming practices; soil salinity rising due
  to the use of poor quality water; desertification; clearing for
  agricultural purposes threatens the natural habitat of many unique
  animal and plant species; the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast
  coast, the largest coral reef in the world, is threatened by
  increased shipping and its popularity as a tourist site; limited
  natural fresh water resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note:
  world's smallest continent but sixth-largest country; population
  concentrated along the eastern and southeastern coasts; the
  invigorating tropical sea breeze known as the "Fremantle Doctor"
  affects the city of Perth on the west coast, and is one of the most
  consistent winds in the world

People Australia


Population:
  20,264,082 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.6% (male 2,031,313/female 1,936,802)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 6,881,863/female 6,764,709)
  65 years and over: 13.1% (male 1,170,589/female 1,478,806) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 36.9 years
  male: 36 years
  female: 37.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.85% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.51 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.5 years
  male: 77.64 years
  female: 83.52 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  14,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Australian(s)
  adjective: Australian

Ethnic groups:
  Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%

Religions:
  Catholic 26.4%, Anglican 20.5%, other Christian 20.5%, Buddhist
  1.9%, Muslim 1.5%, other 1.2%, unspecified 12.7%, none 15.3% (2001
  Census)

Languages:
  English 79.1%, Chinese 2.1%, Italian 1.9%, other 11.1%, unspecified
  5.8% (2001 Census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Australia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Australia
  conventional short form: Australia

Government type:
  federal parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Canberra
  geographic coordinates: 35 17 S, 149 08 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in October; ends last
  Sunday in March (ended first Sunday in April 2006)
  note: Australia is divided into three time zones

Administrative divisions:
  6 states and 2 territories*; Australian Capital Territory*, New
  South Wales, Northern Territory*, Queensland, South Australia,
  Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Dependent areas:
  Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling)
  Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands,
  Norfolk Island, Macquarie Island

Independence:
  1 January 1901 (federation of UK colonies)

National holiday:
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Constitution:
  9 July 1900, effective 1 January 1901

Legal system:
  based on English common law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen of Australia ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor General Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Michael
  JEFFERY (since 11 August 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister John Winston HOWARD (since 11
  March 1996); Deputy Prime Minister Mark VAILE (since 6 July 2005)
  cabinet: prime minister nominates, from among members of Parliament,
  candidates who are subsequently sworn in by the governor general to
  serve as government ministers
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime
  minister; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or leader of a majority coalition is sworn in as
  prime minister by the governor general
  note: government coalition - Liberal Party and National Party

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Federal Parliament consists of the Senate (76 seats - 12
  from each of the six states and 2 from each of the two mainland
  territories; one-half of state members are elected every three years
  by popular vote to serve six-year terms while all territory members
  are elected every three years) and the House of Representatives (150
  seats; members elected by popular preferential voting to serve terms
  of up to three-years; no state can have fewer than 5 representatives)
  elections: Senate - last held 9 October 2004 (next to be held no
  later than June 2008); House of Representatives - last held 9
  October 2004 (next to be called no later than November 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Liberal Party-National Party coalition 39, Australian Labor
  Party 28, Democrats 4, Australian Greens 4, Family First Party 1;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Liberal Party-National Party coalition 87, Australian Labor
  Party 60, independents 3

Judicial branch:
  High Court (the chief justice and six other justices are appointed
  by the governor general)

Political parties and leaders:
  Australian Democrats [Lyn ALLISON]; Australian Greens [Bob BROWN];
  Australian Labor Party [Kevin RUDD]; Country Liberal Party [Jodeen
  CARNEY]; Family First Party [Steve FIELDING]; Liberal Party [John
  Winston HOWARD]; The Nationals [Mark VAILE]

International organization participation:
  ANZUS, APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group,
  BIS, C, CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OECD, OPCW, Paris
  Club, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNMIS,
  UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dennis J. RICHARDSON
  chancery: 1601 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-3000
  FAX: [1] (202) 797-3168
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New
  York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert D. McCALLUM, Jr.
  embassy: Moonah Place, Yarralumla, Canberra, Australian Capital
  Territory 2600
  mailing address: APO AP 96549
  telephone: [61] (02) 6214-5600
  FAX: [61] (02) 6214-5970
  consulate(s) general: Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Flag description:
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and a
  large seven-pointed star in the lower hoist-side quadrant known as
  the Commonwealth or Federation Star, representing the federation of
  the colonies of Australia in 1901; the star depicts one point for
  each of the six original states and one representing all of
  Australia's internal and external territories; on the fly half is a
  representation of the Southern Cross constellation in white with one
  small five-pointed star and four larger, seven-pointed stars

Economy Australia


Economy - overview:
  Australia has an enviable Western-style capitalist economy with a
  per capita GDP on par with the four dominant West European
  economies. Rising output in the domestic economy, robust business
  and consumer confidence, and rising exports of raw materials and
  agricultural products are fueling the economy. Australia's emphasis
  on reforms, low inflation, and growing ties with China are other key
  factors behind the economy's strength. The impact of drought, weak
  foreign demand, and strong import demand pushed the trade deficit up
  from $8 billion in 2002, to $18 billion in 2003, $13 billion in
  2004, and nearly $17 billion in 2005. Housing prices probably peaked
  in 2005, diminishing the prospect that interest rates would be
  raised to prevent a speculative bubble. Conservative fiscal policies
  have kept Australia's budget in surplus from 2002 to 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $635.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $612.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $31,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 26.2%
  services: 70% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  10.42 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 3.6%
  industry: 21.2%
  services: 75.2% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 25.4% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35.2 (1994)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $249.8 billion
  expenditures: $240.2 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  16.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits, cattle, sheep, poultry

Industries:
  mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing,
  chemicals, steel

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  237 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 90.8%
  hydro: 8.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.9% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  221 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  530,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  875,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  523,400 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  530,800 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  3.664 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  35.6 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  25.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  9.744 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.549 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-42.09 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $103 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat, machinery and
  transport equipment

Exports - partners:
  Japan 20.3%, China 11.5%, South Korea 7.9%, US 6.7%, NZ 6.5%, India
  5% (2005)

Imports:
  $119.6 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines,
  telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum
  products

Imports - partners:
  US 13.9%, China 13.7%, Japan 11%, Singapore 5.6%, Germany 5.6%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $43.26 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $323.4 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $894 million (FY99/00)

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Australia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  11.46 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  18.42 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international service
  domestic: domestic satellite system; much use of radiotelephone in
  areas of low population density; rapid growth of mobile cellular
  telephones
  international: country code - 61; submarine cables to New Zealand,
  Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia; satellite earth stations - 19 (10
  Intelsat - 4 Indian Ocean and 6 Pacific Ocean, 2 Inmarsat - Indian
  and Pacific Ocean regions, 2 Globalstar, 5 other) (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  25.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  104 (1997)

Televisions:
  10.15 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .au

Internet hosts:
  7,772,888 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  571 (2002)

Internet users:
  14,663,622 (2006)

Transportation Australia


Airports:
  455 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 311
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 133
  914 to 1,523 m: 143
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 144
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 111
  under 914 m: 15 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate/gas 546 km; gas 31,323 km; liquid petroleum gas 240 km;
  oil 4,808 km; oil/gas/water 110 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 47,738 km
  broad gauge: 4,015 km 1.600-m gauge
  standard gauge: 28,662 km 1.435-m gauge (1,397 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 14,831 km 1.067-m gauge (2,462 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 230 km dual gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 810,641 km
  paved: 336,962 km
  unpaved: 473,679 km (2004)

Waterways:
  2,000 km (mainly used for recreation on Murray and Murray-Darling
  river systems) (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 53 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,361,000 GRT/1,532,874 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 17, cargo 4, chemical tanker 3, container 1,
  liquefied gas 4, passenger 6, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 6,
  roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 17 (Canada 1, France 3, Germany 3, Japan 1,
  Netherlands 2, Norway 1, Philippines 1, UK 2, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 34 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Bahamas 2,
  Bermuda 3, Fiji 1, Hong Kong 1, Liberia 2, Marshall Islands 2,
  Netherlands 1, NZ 2, Panama 3, Portugal 1, Singapore 7, Tonga 1, UK
  3, US 2, Vanuatu 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Brisbane, Dampier, Fremantle, Gladstone, Hay Point, Melbourne,
  Newcastle, Port Hedland, Port Kembla, Port Walcott, Sydney

Military Australia


Military branches:
  Australian Defense Force (ADF): Australian Army, Royal Australian
  Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Special Operations Command

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary service; women allowed to serve in
  Army combat units in non-combat support roles (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,943,676
  females age 18-49: 4,821,264

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 4,092,717
  females age 16-49: 3,983,447 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 142,158
  females age 16-49: 135,675 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $17.84 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Australia


Disputes - international:
  East Timor and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed
  portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split hydrocarbon
  revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered
  by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor dispute hampers creation of
  a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia (see also Ashmore and
  Cartier Islands dispute); regional states express concern over
  Australia's 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime
  identification zone; Australia asserts land and maritime claims to
  Antarctica (see Antarctica); in 2004 Australia submitted its claims
  to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to
  extend its continental margin from both its mainland and Antarctic
  claims

Illicit drugs:
  Tasmania is one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate
  products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium
  poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Austria

Introduction Austria


Background:
  Once the center of power for the large Austro-Hungarian Empire,
  Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in World
  War I. Following annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and subsequent
  occupation by the victorious Allies in 1945, Austria's status
  remained unclear for a decade. A State Treaty signed in 1955 ended
  the occupation, recognized Austria's independence, and forbade
  unification with Germany. A constitutional law that same year
  declared the country's "perpetual neutrality" as a condition for
  Soviet military withdrawal. Following the Soviet Union's collapse in
  1991 and Austria's entry into the European Union in 1995, some
  Austrians have called into question this neutrality. A prosperous,
  democratic country, Austria entered the Economic and Monetary Union
  in 1999.

Geography Austria


Location:
  Central Europe, north of Italy and Slovenia

Geographic coordinates:
  47 20 N, 13 20 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 83,870 sq km
  land: 82,444 sq km
  water: 1,426 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maine

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,562 km
  border countries: Czech Republic 362 km, Germany 784 km, Hungary 366
  km, Italy 430 km, Liechtenstein 35 km, Slovakia 91 km, Slovenia 330
  km, Switzerland 164 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; continental, cloudy; cold winters with frequent rain and
  some snow in lowlands and snow in mountains; moderate summers with
  occasional showers

Terrain:
  in the west and south mostly mountains (Alps); along the eastern
  and northern margins mostly flat or gently sloping

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Neusiedler See 115 m
  highest point: Grossglockner 3,798 m

Natural resources:
  oil, coal, lignite, timber, iron ore, copper, zinc, antimony,
  magnesite, tungsten, graphite, salt, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 16.59%
  permanent crops: 0.85%
  other: 82.56% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  40 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  landslides; avalanches; earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  some forest degradation caused by air and soil pollution; soil
  pollution results from the use of agricultural chemicals; air
  pollution results from emissions by coal- and oil-fired power
  stations and industrial plants and from trucks transiting Austria
  between northern and southern Europe

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategic location at the crossroads of central Europe
  with many easily traversable Alpine passes and valleys; major river
  is the Danube; population is concentrated on eastern lowlands
  because of steep slopes, poor soils, and low temperatures elsewhere

People Austria


Population:
  8,192,880 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.4% (male 645,337/female 614,602)
  15-64 years: 67.5% (male 2,782,712/female 2,749,620)
  65 years and over: 17.1% (male 567,752/female 832,857) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.8 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.09% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.76 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.07 years
  male: 76.17 years
  female: 82.11 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  10,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Austrian(s)
  adjective: Austrian

Ethnic groups:
  Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians, Slovenes,
  Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or unspecified
  2.4% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 73.6%, Protestant 4.7%, Muslim 4.2%, other 3.5%,
  unspecified 2%, none 12% (2001 census)

Languages:
  German (official nationwide), Slovene (official in Carinthia),
  Croatian (official in Burgenland), Hungarian (official in Burgenland)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Austria


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Austria
  conventional short form: Austria
  local long form: Republik Oesterreich
  local short form: Oesterreich

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Vienna
  geographic coordinates: 48 12 N, 16 22 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  9 states (Bundeslaender, singular - Bundesland); Burgenland,
  Kaernten (Carinthia), Niederoesterreich, Oberoesterreich, Salzburg,
  Steiermark (Styria), Tirol, Vorarlberg, Wien (Vienna)

Independence:
  17 September 1156 (Duchy of Austria founded); 11 August 1804
  (Austrian Empire proclaimed); 12 November 1918 (republic proclaimed)

National holiday:
  National Day, 26 October (1955); note - commemorates the State
  Treaty restoring national sovereignty and the end of occupation and
  the passage of the law on permanent neutrality

Constitution:
  1920; revised 1929 (reinstated 1 May 1945)

Legal system:
  civil law system with Roman law origin; judicial review of
  legislative acts by the Constitutional Court; separate
  administrative and civil/penal supreme courts; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Heinz FISCHER (since 8 July 2004)
  head of government: Chancellor Wolfgang SCHUESSEL (OeVP)(since 4
  February 2000); Vice Chancellor Hubert GORBACH (since 21 October
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers chosen by the president on the advice
  of the chancellor
  elections: president elected by direct popular vote for a six-year
  term (eligible for a second term); presidential election last held
  25 April 2004 (next to be held April 2010); chancellor traditionally
  chosen by the president from the plurality party in the National
  Council; vice chancellor chosen by the president on the advice of
  the chancellor
  election results: Heinz FISCHER elected president; percent of vote -
  Heinz FISCHER (SPOe) 52.4%, Benita FERRERO-WALDNER (OeVP) 47.6%
  note: government coalition - OeVP and FPOe

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Bundesversammlung consists of Federal
  Council or Bundesrat (62 members; members represent each of the
  states on the basis of population, but with each state having at
  least 3 representatives; members serve a five- or six-year term) and
  the National Council or Nationalrat (183 seats; members elected by
  direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: National Council - last held 1 October 2006 (next to be
  held in the fall of 2010)
  election results: National Council - percent of vote by party - SPOe
  35.3%, OeVP 34.3%, Greens 11.1%, FPOe 11.0%, BZOe 4.1%; seats by
  party - SPOe 68, OeVP 66, Greens 21, FPOe 21, BZOe 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Judicial Court or Oberster Gerichtshof; Administrative
  Court or Verwaltungsgerichtshof; Constitutional Court or
  Verfassungsgerichtshof

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for the Future of Austria or BZOe [Joerg HAIDER]; Austrian
  People's Party or OeVP [Wolfgang SCHUESSEL]; Freedom Party of
  Austria or FPOe [Heinz Christian STRACHE]; Social Democratic Party
  of Austria or SPOe [Alfred GUSENBAUER]; The Greens [Alexander VAN
  DER BELLEN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Austrian Trade Union Federation (nominally independent but
  primarily Socialist) or OeGB; Federal Economic Chamber;
  OeVP-oriented League of Austrian Industrialists or VOeI; Roman
  Catholic Church, including its chief lay organization, Catholic
  Action; three composite leagues of the Austrian People's Party or
  OeVP representing business, labor, and farmers and other
  non-government organizations in the areas of environment and human
  rights

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer),
  CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM
  (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE,
  Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO,
  UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU
  (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Eva NOWOTNY
  chancery: 3524 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008-3035
  telephone: [1] (202) 895-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 895-6750
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Susan R. McCAW
  embassy: Boltzmanngasse 16, A-1090, Vienna
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [43] (1) 31339-0
  FAX: [43] (1) 3100682

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and red

Economy Austria


Economy - overview:
  Austria, with its well-developed market economy and high standard
  of living, is closely tied to other EU economies, especially
  Germany's. The Austrian economy also benefits greatly from strong
  commercial relations, especially in the banking and insurance
  sectors, with central, eastern, and southeastern Europe. The economy
  features a large service sector, a sound industrial sector, and a
  small, but highly developed agricultural sector. Membership in the
  EU has drawn an influx of foreign investors attracted by Austria's
  access to the single European market and proximity to the new EU
  economies. The current government has successfully pursued a
  comprehensive economic reform program, aimed at streamlining
  government, creating a more competitive business environment,
  further strengthening Austria's attractiveness as an investment
  location, pursuing a balanced budget, and implementing effective
  pension reforms. Weak domestic consumption and slow growth in Europe
  have held the economy to growth rates of 0.4% in 2002, 1.4% in 2003,
  2.4% in 2004, and 1.8% in 2005. To meet increased competition from
  both EU and Central European countries, particularly the new EU
  members, Austria will need to continue restructuring, emphasizing
  knowledge-based sectors of the economy, and encouraging greater
  labor flexibility and greater labor participation by its aging
  population.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $265.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $293.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $32,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 67.8% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  3.49 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 27%
  services: 70% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  5.9% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 22.5% (2004)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  31 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $148.6 billion
  expenditures: $154.5 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  65.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, wine, fruit; dairy products, cattle,
  pigs, poultry; lumber

Industries:
  construction, machinery, vehicles and parts, food, metals,
  chemicals, lumber and wood processing, paper and paperboard,
  communications equipment, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  63.69 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 29.3%
  hydro: 67.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 3.5% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  64.78 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  13.53 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  16.63 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  17,810 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  249,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  30,140 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  152,600 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  84.3 million bbl (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  1.96 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  9.01 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  7.05 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  23.2 billion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $1.467 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $122.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper and
  paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles,
  foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Germany 31.2%, Italy 8.7%, US 5.8%, Switzerland 5.2%, France 4.2%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $118.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal goods,
  oil and oil products; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Germany 45.9%, Italy 6.6%, Switzerland 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $11.83 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $510.6 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $681 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Austria


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3.705 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  8.16 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: highly developed and efficient
  domestic: there are 45 main lines for every 100 persons; the fiber
  optic net is very extensive; all telephone applications and Internet
  services are available
  international: country code - 43; satellite earth stations - 15; in
  addition, there are about 600 VSAT (very small aperture terminals)
  (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 65 (plus several hundred repeaters), shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  6.08 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  10 (plus more than 1,000 repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  4.25 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .at

Internet hosts:
  2,062,035 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  37 (2000)

Internet users:
  4.65 million (2005)

Transportation Austria


Airports:
  55 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 15 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 30
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,722 km; oil 663 km; refined products 149 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 6,011 km
  standard gauge: 5,568 km 1.435-m gauge (3,427 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 21 km 1.000-m gauge; 422 km 0.760-m gauge (109 km
  electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 133,718 km
  paved: 133,718 km (including 1,677 km of expressways) (2003)

Waterways:
  358 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,072 GRT/44,437 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, container 2
  foreign-owned: 2 (Netherlands 2)
  registered in other countries: 14 (Liberia 13, Malta 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Enns, Krems, Linz, Vienna

Military Austria


Military branches:
  Land Forces (KdoLdSK), Air Forces (KdoLuSK)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age
  for voluntary service; from 2007, at the earliest, compulsory
  military service obligation will be reduced from eight months to six
  (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,914,800
  females age 18-49: 1,870,134 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,550,441
  females age 18-49: 1,515,365 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 48,967
  females age 18-49: 46,633 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.497 billion (FY01/02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2004)

Transnational Issues Austria


Disputes - international:
  Austrian anti-nuclear activists have revived blockades of the
  Czech-Austrian border to protest operation of the Temelin nuclear
  power plant in the Czech Republic

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and South American
  cocaine destined for Western Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Azerbaijan

Introduction Azerbaijan


Background:
  Azerbaijan - a nation with a Turkic and majority-Muslim population
  - was briefly independent from 1918 to 1920; it regained its
  independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Despite
  a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict with
  Armenia over the Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh enclave (largely
  Armenian populated). Azerbaijan has lost 16% of its territory and
  must support some 528,000 internally displaced persons as a result
  of the conflict. Corruption is ubiquitous, and the promise of
  widespread wealth from Azerbaijan's undeveloped petroleum resources
  remains largely unfulfilled.

Geography Azerbaijan


Location:
  Southwestern Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and
  Russia, with a small European portion north of the Caucasus range

Geographic coordinates:
  40 30 N, 47 30 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 86,600 sq km
  land: 86,100 sq km
  water: 500 sq km
  note: includes the exclave of Naxcivan Autonomous Republic and the
  Nagorno-Karabakh region; the region's autonomy was abolished by
  Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet on 26 November 1991

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maine

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,013 km
  border countries: Armenia (with Azerbaijan-proper) 566 km, Armenia
  (with Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave) 221 km, Georgia 322 km, Iran
  (with Azerbaijan-proper) 432 km, Iran (with Azerbaijan-Naxcivan
  exclave) 179 km, Russia 284 km, Turkey 9 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked); note - Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea (800
  km est.)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  dry, semiarid steppe

Terrain:
  large, flat Kur-Araz Ovaligi (Kura-Araks Lowland) (much of it below
  sea level) with Great Caucasus Mountains to the north, Qarabag
  Yaylasi (Karabakh Upland) in west; Baku lies on Abseron Yasaqligi
  (Apsheron Peninsula) that juts into Caspian Sea

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Bazarduzu Dagi 4,485 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, alumina

Land use:
  arable land: 20.62%
  permanent crops: 2.61%
  other: 76.77% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  14,550 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts

Environment - current issues:
  local scientists consider the Abseron Yasaqligi (Apsheron
  Peninsula) (including Baku and Sumqayit) and the Caspian Sea to be
  the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe
  air, soil, and water pollution; soil pollution results from oil
  spills, from the use of DDT as a pesticide, and from toxic
  defoliants used in the production of cotton

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  both the main area of the country and the Naxcivan exclave are
  landlocked

People Azerbaijan


Population:
  7,961,619 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 25.8% (male 1,046,501/female 1,011,492)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 2,573,134/female 2,706,275)
  65 years and over: 7.8% (male 246,556/female 377,661) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.7 years
  male: 26.3 years
  female: 29.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.66% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.75 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.65 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 79 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 81.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 76.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 63.85 years
  male: 59.78 years
  female: 68.13 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,400 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Azerbaijani(s), Azeri(s)
  adjective: Azerbaijani, Azeri

Ethnic groups:
  Azeri 90.6%, Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%, Armenian 1.5%, other
  3.9% (1999 census)
  note: almost all Armenians live in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh
  region

Religions:
  Muslim 93.4%, Russian Orthodox 2.5%, Armenian Orthodox 2.3%, other
  1.8% (1995 est.)
  note: religious affiliation is still nominal in Azerbaijan;
  percentages for actual practicing adherents are much lower

Languages:
  Azerbaijani (Azeri) 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% (1995
  est.)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.5%
  female: 98.2% (2003 est.)

Government Azerbaijan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Azerbaijan
  conventional short form: Azerbaijan
  local long form: Azarbaycan Respublikasi
  local short form: Azarbaycan
  former: Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Baku (Baki, Baky)
  geographic coordinates: 40 23 N, 49 51 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  59 rayons (rayonlar; rayon - singular), 11 cities (saharlar; sahar
  - singular), 1 autonomous republic (muxtar respublika)
  rayons: Abseron Rayonu, Agcabadi Rayonu, Agdam Rayonu, Agdas Rayonu,
  Agstafa Rayonu, Agsu Rayonu, Astara Rayonu, Balakan Rayonu, Barda
  Rayonu, Beylaqan Rayonu, Bilasuvar Rayonu, Cabrayil Rayonu,
  Calilabad Rayonu, Daskasan Rayonu, Davaci Rayonu, Fuzuli Rayonu,
  Gadabay Rayonu, Goranboy Rayonu, Goycay Rayonu, Haciqabul Rayonu,
  Imisli Rayonu, Ismayilli Rayonu, Kalbacar Rayonu, Kurdamir Rayonu,
  Lacin Rayonu, Lankaran Rayonu, Lerik Rayonu, Masalli Rayonu,
  Neftcala Rayonu, Oguz Rayonu, Qabala Rayonu, Qax Rayonu, Qazax
  Rayonu, Qobustan Rayonu, Quba Rayonu, Qubadli Rayonu, Qusar Rayonu,
  Saatli Rayonu, Sabirabad Rayonu, Saki Rayonu, Salyan Rayonu, Samaxi
  Rayonu, Samkir Rayonu, Samux Rayonu, Siyazan Rayonu, Susa Rayonu,
  Tartar Rayonu, Tovuz Rayonu, Ucar Rayonu, Xacmaz Rayonu, Xanlar
  Rayonu, Xizi Rayonu, Xocali Rayonu, Xocavand Rayonu, Yardimli
  Rayonu, Yevlax Rayonu, Zangilan Rayonu, Zaqatala Rayonu, Zardab
  Rayonu
  cities: Ali Bayramli Sahari, Baki Sahari, Ganca Sahari, Lankaran
  Sahari, Mingacevir Sahari, Naftalan Sahari, Saki Sahari, Sumqayit
  Sahari, Susa Sahari, Xankandi Sahari, Yevlax Sahari
  autonomous republic: Naxcivan Muxtar Respublikasi

Independence:
  30 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, 28 May (1918)

Constitution:
  adopted 12 November 1995

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ilham ALIYEV (since 31 October 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Artur RASIZADE (since 4 November
  2003); First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas ABBASOV (since 10 November
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president and
  confirmed by the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote to a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 October 2003
  (next to be held October 2008); prime minister and first deputy
  prime ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the
  National Assembly
  election results: Ilham ALIYEV elected president; percent of vote -
  Ilham ALIYEV 76.8%, Isa GAMBAR 14%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Milli Mejlis (125 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 November 2005 (next to be held in November
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Yeni 58, Azadliq coalition 8, CSP 2, YES 2, Motherland 2, other
  parties with single seats 7, independents 42, undetermined 4

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Azerbaijan Popular Front or APF [Ali KARIMLI, leader of "Reform"
  faction; Mirmahmud MIRALI-OGLU, leader of "Classic" faction]; Civic
  Solidarity Party or CSP [Sabir RUSTAMKHANLY]; Civic Union Party
  [Ayaz MUTALIBOV]; Communist Party of Azerbaijan or CPA [Ramiz
  AHMADOV]; Compatriot Party [Mais SAFARLI]; Democratic Party for
  Azerbaijan or DPA [Rasul QULIYEV, chairman]; Justice Party [Ilyas
  ISMAILOV]; Liberal Party of Azerbaijan [Lala Shovkat HACIYEVA];
  Motherland Party; Musavat [Isa GAMBAR, chairman]; Yeni Azerbaijan
  Party; Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan or PNIA [Etibar
  MAMMADLI, chairman]; Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan or SDP
  [Araz ALIZADE and Ayaz MUTALIBOV]
  note: opposition parties regularly factionalize and form new parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Sadval, Lezgin movement; self-proclaimed Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh
  Republic; Talysh independence movement; Union of Pro-Azerbaijani
  Forces (UPAF)

International organization participation:
  AsDB, BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS (observer), OIC,
  OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Yashar ALIYEV
  chancery: 2741 34th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-3500
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-5911
  Consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Anne E. DERSE
  embassy: 83 Azadliyg Prospecti, Baku AZ1007
  mailing address: American Embassy Baku, US Department of State, 7050
  Baku Place, Washington, DC 20521-7050
  telephone: [994] (12) 4980-335 through 337
  FAX: [994] (12) 4656-671

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and green; a
  crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in red band

Economy Azerbaijan


Economy - overview:
  Azerbaijan's number one export is oil. Azerbaijan's oil production
  declined through 1997, but has registered an increase every year
  since. Negotiation of production-sharing arrangements (PSAs) with
  foreign firms, which have thus far committed $60 billion to
  long-term oilfield development, should generate the funds needed to
  spur future industrial development. Oil production under the first
  of these PSAs, with the Azerbaijan International Operating Company,
  began in November 1997. A consortium of Western oil companies is
  scheduled to begin pumping 1 million barrels a day from a large
  offshore field in early 2006, through a $4 billion pipeline it built
  from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Economists
  estimate that by 2010 revenues from this project will double the
  country's current GDP. Azerbaijan shares all the formidable problems
  of the former Soviet republics in making the transition from a
  command to a market economy, but its considerable energy resources
  brighten its long-term prospects. Baku has only recently begun
  making progress on economic reform, and old economic ties and
  structures are slowly being replaced. Several other obstacles impede
  Azerbaijan's economic progress: the need for stepped up foreign
  investment in the non-energy sector, the continuing conflict with
  Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the pervasive
  corruption. Trade with Russia and the other former Soviet republics
  is declining in importance while trade is building with Turkey and
  the nations of Europe. Long-term prospects will depend on world oil
  prices, the location of new pipelines in the region, and
  Azerbaijan's ability to manage its oil wealth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $42.99 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $10.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  26.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 14.1%
  industry: 45.7%
  services: 40.2% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  5.45 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 41%
  industry: 7%
  services: 52% (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  1.1% official rate (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  49% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 27.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.5 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  54.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.18 billion
  expenditures: $2.986 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  11.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco;
  cattle, pigs, sheep, goats

Industries:
  petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment;
  steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  40% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  20 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 89.7%
  hydro: 10.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  20.25 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  700 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  2.35 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  477,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  123,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  589 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  5.13 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  9.2 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  849.5 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $167.3 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.117 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil and gas 90%, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Italy 30.3%, France 9.4%, Russia 6.6%, Turkey 6.3%, Turkmenistan
  6.3%, Georgia 4.8%, Israel 4.5%, Croatia 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.656 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs, metals, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Russia 17%, UK 9.1%, Singapore 9.1%, Turkey 7.4%, Germany 6.1%,
  Turkmenistan 5.8%, Ukraine 5.4%, China 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.192 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.873 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $140 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  Azerbaijani manat (AZM)

Currency code:
  AZM

Exchange rates:
  Azerbaijani manats per US dollar - 4,727.1 (2005), 4,913.48 (2004),
  4,910.73 (2003), 4,860.82 (2002), 4,656.58 (2001)
  note: on 1 January 2006 Azerbaijan revalued its currency, with 5,000
  old manats equal to 1 new manat

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Azerbaijan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,091,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.242 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate; requires considerable expansion and
  modernization; teledensity of 14 main lines per 100 persons is low
  (2002)
  domestic: the majority of telephones are in Baku and other
  industrial centers - about 700 villages still without public
  telephone service; satellite service connects Baku to a modern
  switch in its exclave of Naxcivan
  international: country code - 994; the old Soviet system of cable
  and microwave is still serviceable; satellite earth stations - 2
  (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 10, FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  175,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1997)

Televisions:
  170,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .az

Internet hosts:
  880 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  678,800 (2005)

Transportation Azerbaijan


Airports:
  36 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 27
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 3,190 km; oil 2,436 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,957 km
  broad gauge: 2,957 km 1.520-m gauge (1,278 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 27,016 km
  paved: 12,698 km (including 128 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 14,318 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 84 ships (1000 GRT or over) 405,395 GRT/436,666 DWT
  by type: cargo 26, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 8, petroleum tanker
  43, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 3
  registered in other countries: 4 (Georgia 2, Malta 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Baku (Baki)

Military Azerbaijan


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces

Military service age and obligation:
  men between 18 and 35 are liable for military service; 18 years of
  age for voluntary military service; length of military service is 18
  months and 12 months for university graduates (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,961,973
  females age 18-49: 2,033,186 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,314,955
  females age 18-49: 1,676,408 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 82,358
  females age 18-49: 78,067 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $121 million (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.6% (FY99)

Transnational Issues Azerbaijan


Disputes - international:
  Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh
  and since the early 1990s has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan;
  over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the
  occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were
  driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks
  transit route through Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave;
  Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues
  to mediate dispute; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratify
  Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while
  Iran continues to insist on an even one-fifth allocation and
  challenges Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters;
  bilateral talks continue with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed
  and contested oilfields in the middle of the Caspian; Azerbaijan and
  Georgia continue to discuss the alignment of their boundary at
  certain crossing areas

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 8,367 (Russia)
  IDPs: 528,000 (conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for
  CIS consumption; small government eradication program; transit point
  for Southwest Asian opiates bound for Russia and to a lesser extent
  the rest of Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bahamas, The

Introduction Bahamas, The


Background:
  Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus
  first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492. British
  settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony
  in 1783. Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973, The
  Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and
  investment management. Because of its geography, the country is a
  major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments
  to the US, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants
  into the US.

Geography Bahamas, The


Location:
  Caribbean, chain of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, southeast
  of Florida, northeast of Cuba

Geographic coordinates:
  24 15 N, 76 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 13,940 sq km
  land: 10,070 sq km
  water: 3,870 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  3,542 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; moderated by warm waters of Gulf Stream

Terrain:
  long, flat coral formations with some low rounded hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Alvernia, on Cat Island 63 m

Natural resources:
  salt, aragonite, timber, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 0.58%
  permanent crops: 0.29%
  other: 99.13% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes and other tropical storms cause extensive flood and wind
  damage

Environment - current issues:
  coral reef decay; solid waste disposal

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location adjacent to US and Cuba; extensive island chain
  of which 30 are inhabited

People Bahamas, The


Population:
  303,770
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.5% (male 41,799/female 41,733)
  15-64 years: 66.1% (male 98,847/female 102,074)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 7,891/female 11,426) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.1 years
  female: 28.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.64% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.57 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 24.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 30.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.6 years
  male: 62.24 years
  female: 69.03 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5,600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bahamian(s)
  adjective: Bahamian

Ethnic groups:
  black 85%, white 12%, Asian and Hispanic 3%

Religions:
  Baptist 35.4%, Anglican 15.1%, Roman Catholic 13.5%, Pentecostal
  8.1%, Church of God 4.8%, Methodist 4.2%, other Christian 15.2%,
  none or unspecified 2.9%, other 0.8% (2000 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Creole (among Haitian immigrants)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 95.6%
  male: 94.7%
  female: 96.5% (2003 est.)

Government Bahamas, The


Country name:
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of The Bahamas
  conventional short form: The Bahamas

Government type:
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Nassau
  geographic coordinates: 25 05 N, 77 21 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  21 districts; Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bimini, Cat Island,
  Exuma, Freeport, Fresh Creek, Governor's Harbour, Green Turtle Cay,
  Harbour Island, High Rock, Inagua, Kemps Bay, Long Island, Marsh
  Harbour, Mayaguana, New Providence, Nichollstown and Berry Islands,
  Ragged Island, Rock Sound, Sandy Point, San Salvador and Rum Cay

Independence:
  10 July 1973 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 10 July (1973)

Constitution:
  10 July 1973

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Arthur D. HANNA (since 1 February
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Perry CHRISTIE (since 3 May 2002)
  and Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia PRATT (since 7 May 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the prime
  minister's recommendation
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; the
  prime minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (16-member body
  appointed by the governor general upon the advice of the prime
  minister and the opposition leader for five-year terms) and the
  House of Assembly (40 seats; members elected by direct popular vote
  to serve five-year terms); the government may dissolve the
  Parliament and call elections at any time
  elections: last held 1 May 2002 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLP 50.8%, FNM 41.1%,
  independents 5.2%; seats by party - PLP 29, FNM 7, independents 4

Judicial branch:
  Privy Council (London); Courts of Appeal; Supreme (lower) Court;
  magistrates courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Free National Movement or FNM [Hubert INGRAHAM]; Progressive
  Liberal Party or PLP [Perry CHRISTIE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOM,
  IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer), WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: vacant
  chancery: 2220 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-2660
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2668
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John D. ROOD
  embassy: 42 Queen Street, Nassau
  mailing address: local or express mail address: P. O. Box N-8197,
  Nassau; US Department of State, 3370 Nassau Place, Washington, DC
  20521-3370
  telephone: [1] (242) 322-1181, 328-2206 (after hours)
  FAX: [1] (242) 356-0222

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of aquamarine (top), gold, and
  aquamarine, with a black equilateral triangle based on the hoist side

Economy Bahamas, The


Economy - overview:
  The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an economy heavily
  dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism together with
  tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts for
  approximately 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half of
  the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts and
  a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences had
  led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the US
  economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in
  these sectors in 2001-03. The current government has presided over a
  period of economic recovery and an upturn in large-scale private
  sector investments in tourism. Financial services constitute the
  second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for
  about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government
  enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international
  businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture
  together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little
  growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors.
  Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the
  fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US,
  the source of more than 80% of the visitors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $6.105 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.783 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $20,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 7%
  services: 90% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  176,300 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 5%, industry 5%, tourism 50%, other services 40% (2005
  est.)

Unemployment rate:
  10.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  9.3% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: 27%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.2% ( 2004)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.03 billion
  expenditures: $1.03 billion; including capital expenditures of $130
  million (FY04/05)

Agriculture - products:
  citrus, vegetables; poultry

Industries:
  tourism, banking, cement, oil transshipment, salt, rum, aragonite,
  pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded steel pipe

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.81 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.683 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  23,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  transhipments of 29,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $469.3 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  mineral products and salt, animal products, rum, chemicals, fruit
  and vegetables

Exports - partners:
  US 31%, Spain 29.7%, Poland 9.3%, Germany 5.6%, Guatemala 4.1%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $1.82 billion (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, mineral
  fuels; food and live animals

Imports - partners:
  US 22.5%, South Korea 20.2%, Spain 7.8%, Brazil 7.1%, Italy 6.5%,
  Germany 5.4% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $342.6 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $5 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Bahamian dollar (BSD)

Currency code:
  BSD

Exchange rates:
  Bahamian dollars per US dollar - 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1 (2003), 1
  (2002), 1 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Bahamas, The


Telephones - main lines in use:
  139,900 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  186,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern facilities
  domestic: totally automatic system; highly developed
  international: country code - 1-242; tropospheric scatter and
  submarine cable to Florida; 3 coaxial submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 2 (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2006)

Radios:
  215,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2006)

Televisions:
  67,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bs

Internet hosts:
  591 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  19 (2000)

Internet users:
  93,000 (2005)

Transportation Bahamas, The


Airports:
  64 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 29
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,693 km
  paved: 1,546 km
  unpaved: 1,147 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,177 ships (1000 GRT or over) 37,743,270 GRT/50,918,747 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 253, cargo 250, chemical
  tanker 64, container 79, liquefied gas 35, livestock carrier 2,
  passenger 115, passenger/cargo 34, petroleum tanker 175,
  refrigerated cargo 114, roll on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 5,
  vehicle carrier 30
  foreign-owned: 1,093 (Angola 5, Australia 2, Belgium 13, Canada 18,
  China 3, Cuba 1, Cyprus 13, Denmark 59, Estonia 1, Finland 8, France
  37, Germany 22, Greece 232, Hong Kong 8, Iceland 1, India 1,
  Indonesia 4, Ireland 2, Israel 1, Italy 5, Japan 51, Jordan 2, Kenya
  1, Latvia 1, Malaysia 12, Monaco 17, Montenegro 2, Netherlands 24,
  Nigeria 2, Norway 259, Philippines 1, Poland 15, Reunion 1, Russia
  6, Saudi Arabia 12, Singapore 12, Slovenia 1, Spain 12, Sweden 6,
  Switzerland 2, Thailand 1, Turkey 8, UAE 16, UK 69, Uruguay 2, US
  121, Venezuela 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Barbados 1, Liberia 1, Panama 2)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Freeport, Nassau, South Riding Point

Military Bahamas, The


Military branches:
  Royal Bahamian Defense Force: Marines, Air Wing (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 73,121 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 44,309 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,804 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Bahamas, The


Disputes - international:
  disagrees with the US on the alignment of the maritime boundary;
  continues to monitor and interdict Haitian refugees fleeing economic
  privation and political instability

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for US and
  Europe; offshore financial center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bahrain

Introduction Bahrain


Background:
  In 1782, the Al Khalifa family captured Bahrain from the Persians.
  In order to secure these holdings, it entered into a series of
  treaties with the UK during the 19th century that made Bahrain a
  British protectorate. The archipelago attained its independence in
  1971. Bahrain's small size and central location among Persian Gulf
  countries require it to play a delicate balancing act in foreign
  affairs among its larger neighbors. Facing declining oil reserves,
  Bahrain has turned to petroleum processing and refining and has
  transformed itself into an international banking center. Sheikh
  HAMAD bin Isa Al Khalifa, who came to power in 1999, has pushed
  economic and political reforms and has worked to improve relations
  with the Shia community. In February 2001, Bahraini voters approved
  a referendum on the National Action Charter - the centerpiece of
  Sheikh HAMAD's political liberalization program. In February 2002,
  Sheikh HAMAD pronounced Bahrain a constitutional monarchy and
  changed his status from amir to king. In October 2002, Bahrainis
  elected members of the lower house of Bahrain's reconstituted
  bicameral legislature, the National Assembly.

Geography Bahrain


Location:
  Middle East, archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  26 00 N, 50 33 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 665 sq km
  land: 665 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  161 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  continental shelf: extending to boundaries to be determined

Climate:
  arid; mild, pleasant winters; very hot, humid summers

Terrain:
  mostly low desert plain rising gently to low central escarpment

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal ad Dukhan 122 m

Natural resources:
  oil, associated and nonassociated natural gas, fish, pearls

Land use:
  arable land: 2.82%
  permanent crops: 5.63%
  other: 91.55% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  40 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; dust storms

Environment - current issues:
  desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable
  land, periods of drought, and dust storms; coastal degradation
  (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting
  from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil
  refineries, and distribution stations; lack of freshwater resources,
  groundwater and seawater are the only sources for all water needs

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Hazardous
  Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  close to primary Middle Eastern petroleum sources; strategic
  location in Persian Gulf, through which much of the Western world's
  petroleum must transit to reach open ocean

People Bahrain


Population:
  698,585
  note: includes 235,108 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.4% (male 96,567/female 94,650)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 280,272/female 202,451)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 12,753/female 11,892) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 29.4 years
  male: 32.4 years
  female: 25.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.14 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.38 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.07 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.26 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 16.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.45 years
  male: 71.97 years
  female: 77 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bahraini(s)
  adjective: Bahraini

Ethnic groups:
  Bahraini 62.4%, non-Bahraini 37.6% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Muslim (Shi'a and Sunni) 81.2%, Christian 9%, other 9.8% (2001
  census)

Languages:
  Arabic, English, Farsi, Urdu

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 89.1%
  male: 91.9%
  female: 85% (2003 est.)

Government Bahrain


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Bahrain
  conventional short form: Bahrain
  local long form: Mamlakat al Bahrayn
  local short form: Al Bahrayn
  former: Dilmun

Government type:
  constitutional hereditary monarchy

Capital:
  name: Manama
  geographic coordinates: 26 13 N, 50 35 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  5 governorates; Asamah, Janubiyah, Muharraq, Shamaliyah, Wasat
  note: each governorate administered by an appointed governor

Independence:
  15 August 1971 (from UK)

National holiday:
  National Day, 16 December (1971); note - 15 August 1971 is the date
  of independence from the UK, 16 December 1971 is the date of
  independence from British protection

Constitution:
  new constitution 14 February 2002

Legal system:
  based on Islamic law and English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King HAMAD bin Isa al-Khalifa (since 6 March 1999);
  Heir Apparent Crown Prince SALMAN bin Hamad (son of the monarch,
  born 21 October 1969)
  head of government: Prime Minister KHALIFA bin Salman al-Khalifa
  (since 1971); Deputy Prime Ministers ALI bin Khalifa bin Salman
  al-Khalifa, MUHAMMAD bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, Jawad al-ARAIDH
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; prime minister
  appointed by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of Shura Council (40 members
  appointed by the King) and House of Deputies (40 members directly
  elected to serve four-year terms)
  elections: House of Deputies - last held 31 October 2002 (next
  election to be held in September 2006)
  election results: House of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - Sunni Islamists 12, Shia grouping 7, other
  groupings and independents 21
  note: first elections since 7 December 1973; unicameral National
  Assembly dissolved 26 August 1975; National Action Charter created
  bicameral legislature on 23 December 2000; approved by referendum 14
  February 2001; first legislative session of Parliament held on 25
  December 2002

Judicial branch:
  High Civil Appeals Court

Political parties and leaders:
  political parties prohibited but political societies were legalized
  per a July 2005 law

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Shi'a activists fomented unrest sporadically in 1994-97 and have
  recently engaged in protests and marches, demanding that more power
  be vested in the elected Council of Representatives and that the
  government do more to decrease unemployment; several small,
  clandestine leftist and Islamic fundamentalist groups are active

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nasir bin Muhammad al-BALUSHI
  chancery: 3502 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-1111
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-2192
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William T. MONROE
  embassy: Building #979, Road 3119 (next to Al-Ahli Sports Club),
  Block 331, Zinj District, Manama
  mailing address: American Embassy Manama, PSC 451, FPO AE
  09834-5100; international mail: American Embassy, Box 26431, Manama
  telephone: [973] 1724-2700
  FAX: [973] 1727-0547

Flag description:
  red, the traditional color for flags of Persian Gulf states, with a
  white serrated band (five white points) on the hoist side; the five
  points represent the five pillars of Islam

Economy Bahrain


Economy - overview:
  Petroleum production and refining account for about 60% of
  Bahrain's export receipts, 60% of government revenues, and 30% of
  GDP. With its highly developed communication and transport
  facilities, Bahrain is home to numerous multinational firms with
  business in the Gulf. A large share of exports consists of petroleum
  products made from refining imported crude. Construction proceeds on
  several major industrial projects. Unemployment, especially among
  the young, and the depletion of oil and underground water resources
  are major long-term economic problems. In 2005 Bahrain and the US
  ratified a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the first FTA between the US
  and a Gulf state.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $15.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $11.01 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $23,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.5%
  industry: 38.7%
  services: 60.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  380,000
  note: 44% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national
  (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 79%
  services: 20% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  15% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.662 billion
  expenditures: $3.447 billion; including capital expenditures of $700
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  33.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruit, vegetables; poultry, dairy products; shrimp, fish

Industries:
  petroleum processing and refining, aluminum smelting, iron
  pelletization, fertilizers, offshore banking, ship repairing, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  2% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  7.345 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.83 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  188,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  26,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  124 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  9.65 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  9.65 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  92.03 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.531 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $11.17 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, aluminum, textiles

Exports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 3.3%, US 2.6%, UAE 2.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $7.83 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  crude oil, machinery, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 36.4%, Japan 6.6%, Germany 6.4%, US 5.4%, UK 5%, UAE
  4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.432 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $6.814 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $150 million; note - $50 million annually since 1992 from the UAE
  and Kuwait (2002)

Currency (code):
  Bahraini dinar (BHD)

Currency code:
  BHD

Exchange rates:
  Bahraini dinars per US dollar - 0.376 (2005), 0.376 (2004), 0.376
  (2003), 0.376 (2002), 0.376 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Bahrain


Telephones - main lines in use:
  196,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  748,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system
  domestic: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network
  with rapidly growing use of mobile cellular telephones
  international: country code - 973; tropospheric scatter to Qatar and
  UAE; microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia; submarine cable to
  Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia; satellite earth stations - 1 (1997)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  338,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (1997)

Televisions:
  275,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bh

Internet hosts:
  2,165 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  152,700 (2005)

Transportation Bahrain


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 20 km; oil 52 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 3,498 km
  paved: 2,768 km
  unpaved: 730 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 235,449 GRT/339,728 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 1, container 2, petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 3 (Kuwait 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mina' Salman, Sitrah

Military Bahrain


Military branches:
  Bahrain Defense Forces (BDF): Ground Force (includes Air Defense),
  Navy, Air Force, National Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 202,126
  females age 18-49: 151,734 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 161,372
  females age 18-49: 125,488 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 6,013
  females age 18-49: 5,852 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $627.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Bahrain


Disputes - international:
  none

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Bahrain is a destination country for men and
  women from South and Southeast Asia who migrate willingly to work as
  laborers or domestic servants, but may be subjected to conditions of
  involuntary servitude when faced with exorbitant recruitment and
  transportation fees, withholding of their passports, restrictions on
  their movement, non-payment of wages, and physical or sexual abuse;
  Eastern European women are also believed to be trafficked to Bahrain
  for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Bahrain's efforts to address
  trafficking in persons are based largely on pledges of future
  efforts; the government did not enact a comprehensive
  anti-trafficking law extending labor protection to domestic workers


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bangladesh

Introduction Bangladesh


Background:
  Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh
  in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the
  region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan
  and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India
  (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East
  Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of
  a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km
  left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan
  seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed
  Bangladesh. About a third of this extremely poor country floods
  annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic
  development.

Geography Bangladesh


Location:
  Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India

Geographic coordinates:
  24 00 N, 90 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 144,000 sq km
  land: 133,910 sq km
  water: 10,090 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Iowa

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,246 km
  border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km

Coastline:
  580 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: up to the outer limits of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March
  to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)

Terrain:
  mostly flat alluvial plain; hilly in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, arable land, timber, coal

Land use:
  arable land: 55.39%
  permanent crops: 3.08%
  other: 41.53% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  47,250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during
  the summer monsoon season

Environment - current issues:
  many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate
  flood-prone land; water-borne diseases prevalent in surface water;
  water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use
  of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally
  occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling
  water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil
  degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing
  from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel
  of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty
  into the Bay of Bengal

People Bangladesh


Population:
  147,365,352 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.9% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)
  15-64 years: 63.6% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 22.2 years
  male: 22.2 years
  female: 22.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.09% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.16 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 60.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 62.46 years
  male: 62.47 years
  female: 62.45 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  13,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  650 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Bangladeshi(s)
  adjective: Bangladeshi

Ethnic groups:
  Bengali 98%, tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims (1998)

Religions:
  Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)

Languages:
  Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 43.1%
  male: 53.9%
  female: 31.8% (2003 est.)

Government Bangladesh


Country name:
  conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh
  conventional short form: Bangladesh
  local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh
  local short form: Banladesh
  former: East Bengal, East Pakistan

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Dhaka
  geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 25 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet

Independence:
  16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan); note - 26 March 1971 is the
  date of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December 1971 is known
  as Victory Day and commemorates the official creation of the state
  of Bangladesh

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 26 March (1971); note - 26 March 1971 is the date
  of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December 1971 is Victory Day
  and commemorates the official creation of the state of Bangladesh

Constitution:
  4 November 1972, effective 16 December 1972; suspended following
  coup of 24 March 1982, restored 10 November 1986; amended many times

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Iajuddin AHMED (since 6 September 2002);
  note - the president's duties are normally ceremonial, but with the
  13th amendment to the constitution ("Caretaker Government
  Amendment"), the president's role becomes significant at times when
  Parliament is dissolved and a caretaker government is installed - at
  presidential direction - to supervise the elections
  head of government: Prime Minister Khaleda ZIA (since 10 October
  2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the
  president
  elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election scheduled for 16
  September 2002 was not held since Iajuddin AHMED was the only
  presidential candidate; he was sworn in on 6 September 2002 (next
  election to be held by 2007); following legislative elections, the
  leader of the party that wins the most seats is usually appointed
  prime minister by the president
  election results: Iajuddin AHMED declared by the Election Commission
  elected unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote
  - NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected
  by popular vote from single territorial constituencies (the
  constitutional amendment reserving 30 seats for women over and above
  the 300 regular parliament seats expired in May 2001); members serve
  five-year terms
  elections: last held 1 October 2001 (next to be held no later than
  January 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - BNP and alliance
  partners 41%, AL 40%; seats by party - BNP 193, AL 58, JI 17, JP
  (Ershad faction) 14, IOJ 2, JP (Manzur) 4, other 12; note - the
  election of October 2001 brought a majority BNP government aligned
  with three other smaller parties - JI, IOJ, and Jatiya Party (Manzur)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by
  the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Awami League or AL [Sheikh HASINA]; Bangladesh Communist Party or
  BCP [Saifuddin Ahmed MANIK]; Bangladesh Nationalist Party or BNP
  [Khaleda ZIA]; Islami Oikya Jote or IOJ [Mufti Fazlul Haq AMINI];
  Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh or JIB [Motiur Rahman NIZAMI]; Jatiya
  Party or JP (Ershad faction) [Hussain Mohammad ERSHAD]; Jatiya Party
  (Manzur faction) [Naziur Rahman MANZUR]; Liberal Democratic Party or
  LDP [Badrudozza CHOWDHURY and Oli AHMED]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ARF, AsDB, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Shamsher Mobin CHOWDHURY
  chancery: 3510 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-0183
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-5366
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia A. BUTENIS
  embassy: Madani Avenue, Baridhara, Dhaka 1212
  mailing address: G. P. O. Box 323, Dhaka 1000
  telephone: [880] (2) 885-5500
  FAX: [880] (2) 882-3744

Flag description:
  green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist
  side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the
  sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the
  lush vegetation of Bangladesh

Economy Bangladesh


Economy - overview:
  Despite sustained domestic and international efforts to improve
  economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains a poor,
  overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although half of
  GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of
  Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as
  the single-most-important product. Major impediments to growth
  include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned
  enterprises, inadequate port facilities, a rapidly growing labor
  force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, delays in exploiting
  energy resources (natural gas), insufficient power supplies, and
  slow implementation of economic reforms. Reform is stalled in many
  instances by political infighting and corruption at all levels of
  government. Progress also has been blocked by opposition from the
  bureaucracy, public sector unions, and other vested interest groups.
  The BNP government, led by Prime Minister Khaleda ZIA, has the
  parliamentary strength to push through needed reforms, but the
  party's political will to do so has been lacking in key areas. One
  encouraging note: growth has been a steady 5% for the past several
  years.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $305.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $63.56 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 19.9%
  industry: 19.8%
  services: 60.3% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  66.6 million
  note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman,
  Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $1.71 billion
  in 1998-99 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 63%
  industry: 11%
  services: 26% (FY95/96)

Unemployment rate:
  2.5% (includes underemployment) (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  45% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.9%
  highest 10%: 28.6% (1995-96 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  31.8 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $5.993 billion
  expenditures: $8.598 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  44.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses,
  oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry

Industries:
  cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint,
  cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar

Industrial production growth rate:
  6.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  17.42 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 93.7%
  hydro: 6.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  16.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  6,825 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  84,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  28.45 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  11.9 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  11.9 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  300.2 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $37 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $9.372 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
  (2001)

Exports - partners:
  US 23.6%, Germany 13.5%, UK 9.4%, France 6.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $12.97 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles,
  foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement (2000)

Imports - partners:
  India 14.1%, China 13.5%, Kuwait 8.5%, Singapore 6.2%, Japan 4.1%,
  Hong Kong 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.825 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $20.63 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.575 billion (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  taka (BDT)

Currency code:
  BDT

Exchange rates:
  taka per US dollar - 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004), 58.15 (2003),
  57.888 (2002), 55.807 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Bangladesh


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1.07 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  9 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: totally inadequate for a modern country
  domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems
  include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some
  fiber-optic cable in cities
  international: country code - 880; satellite earth stations - 6;
  international radiotelephone communications and landline service to
  neighboring countries (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 15, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)

Radios:
  6.15 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  15 (1999)

Televisions:
  770,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bd

Internet hosts:
  469 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  10 (2000)

Internet users:
  300,000 (2005)

Transportation Bangladesh


Airports:
  16 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,604 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,768 km
  broad gauge: 946 km 1.676-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 1,822 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 239,226 km
  paved: 22,726 km
  unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)

Waterways:
  8,372 km
  note: includes 5,635 km main cargo routes; network reduced to 5,200
  km in dry season (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 42 ships (1000 GRT or over) 341,733 GRT/485,840 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 29, container 6, passenger/cargo 1,
  petroleum tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (China 1)
  registered in other countries: 10 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Comoros 1,
  Malta 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Singapore 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Chittagong, Mongla Port

Military Bangladesh


Military branches:
  Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy,
  Bangladesh Air Force (Bangladesh Biman Bahini, BAF) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 35,170,019 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 26,841,255 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.01 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Bangladesh


Disputes - international:
  discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of
  river boundary, exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in both countries,
  allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade,
  migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous
  border; Bangladesh resists India's attempts to fence or wall off
  high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint
  Bangladesh-India boundary inspection in 2005 revealed 92 pillars are
  missing; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha
  Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation;
  Burmese Muslim refugees strain Bangladesh's meager resources

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 20,402 (Burma)
  IDPs: 61,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transit country for illegal drugs produced in neighboring countries


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Barbados

Introduction Barbados


Background:
  The island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in
  1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island
  until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily
  dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production through most of the
  20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political
  reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the
  UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and manufacturing surpassed the
  sugar industry in economic importance.

Geography Barbados


Location:
  Caribbean, island in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of
  Venezuela

Geographic coordinates:
  13 10 N, 59 32 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 431 sq km
  land: 431 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  97 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; rainy season (June to October)

Terrain:
  relatively flat; rises gently to central highland region

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Hillaby 336 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, fish, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 37.21%
  permanent crops: 2.33%
  other: 60.46% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  50 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  infrequent hurricanes; periodic landslides

Environment - current issues:
  pollution of coastal waters from waste disposal by ships; soil
  erosion; illegal solid waste disposal threatens contamination of
  aquifers

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  easternmost Caribbean island

People Barbados


Population:
  279,912 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 28,160/female 28,039)
  15-64 years: 71.1% (male 97,755/female 101,223)
  65 years and over: 8.8% (male 9,508/female 15,227) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.6 years
  male: 33.4 years
  female: 35.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.37% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.01 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 11.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.79 years
  male: 70.79 years
  female: 74.82 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Barbadian(s) or Bajan (colloquial)
  adjective: Barbadian or Bajan (colloquial)

Ethnic groups:
  black 90%, white 4%, Asian and mixed 6%

Religions:
  Protestant 67% (Anglican 40%, Pentecostal 8%, Methodist 7%, other
  12%), Roman Catholic 4%, none 17%, other 12%

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.7% (2002 est.)

Government Barbados


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Barbados

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Bridgetown
  geographic coordinates: 13 06 N, 59 37 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  11 parishes; Christ Church, Saint Andrew, Saint George, Saint
  James, Saint John, Saint Joseph, Saint Lucy, Saint Michael, Saint
  Peter, Saint Philip, Saint Thomas; note - the city of Bridgetown may
  be given parish status

Independence:
  30 November 1966 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 30 November (1966)

Constitution:
  30 November 1966

Legal system:
  English common law; no judicial review of legislative acts; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir Clifford Straughn HUSBANDS
  (since 1 June 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Owen Seymour ARTHUR (since 7
  September 1994); Deputy Prime Minister Mia MOTTLEY (since 26 May
  2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; the
  prime minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (21-member body
  appointed by the governor general) and the House of Assembly (30
  seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 21 May 2003 (next to be
  held by May 2008)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - BLP 23, DLP 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Judicature (judges are appointed by the Service
  Commissions for the Judicial and Legal Services)

Political parties and leaders:
  Barbados Labor Party or BLP [Owen ARTHUR]; Democratic Labor Party
  or DLP [David THOMPSON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Barbados Workers Union [Leroy TROTMAN]; Clement Payne Labor Union
  [David COMISSIONG]; People's Progressive Movement [Eric SEALY];
  Worker's Party of Barbados [Dr. George BELLE]

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU,
  LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael Ian KING
  chancery: 2144 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-9200
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-7467
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York
  consulate(s): Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mary M. OURISMAN
  embassy: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building, Broad Street,
  Bridgetown; (courier) ALICO Building-Cheapside, Bridgetown
  mailing address: P. O. Box 302, Bridgetown; CMR 1014, APO AA 34055
  telephone: [1] (246) 436-4950
  FAX: [1] (246) 429-5246, 429-3379

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue
  with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the
  trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the
  colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)

Economy Barbados


Economy - overview:
  Historically, the Barbadian economy had been dependent on sugarcane
  cultivation and related activities, but production in recent years
  has diversified into light industry and tourism. Offshore finance
  and information services are important foreign exchange earners. The
  government continues its efforts to reduce unemployment, to
  encourage direct foreign investment, and to privatize remaining
  state-owned enterprises. The economy contracted in 2002-03 mainly
  due to a decline in tourism. Growth was positive in 2005, as
  economic conditions in the US and Europe moderately improved.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.815 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.964 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $17,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 16%
  services: 78% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  128,500 (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 15%
  services: 75% (1996 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  10.7% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.5% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $847 million (including grants)
  expenditures: $886 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, vegetables, cotton

Industries:
  tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly for export

Industrial production growth rate:
  -3.2% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  819 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  761.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.254 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  29.17 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  29.17 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  141.6 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $209 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages, chemicals,
  electrical components

Exports - partners:
  US 18.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 15%, UK 12.1%, Saint Lucia 8.4%,
  Jamaica 7.9%, Grenada 4.6%, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 4.6%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $1.476 billion (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs, construction materials,
  chemicals, fuel, electrical components

Imports - partners:
  NZ 45.9%, US 20.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 12% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $668 million (2003)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $9.1 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Barbadian dollar (BBD)

Currency code:
  BBD

Exchange rates:
  Barbadian dollars per US dollar - 2 (2005), 2 (2004), 2 (2003), 2
  (2002), 2 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Barbados


Telephones - main lines in use:
  134,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  206,200 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: island-wide automatic telephone system
  international: country code - 1-246; satellite earth stations - 1
  (Intelsat -Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and
  Saint Lucia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 6, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  237,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus two cable channels) (2004)

Televisions:
  76,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bb

Internet hosts:
  282 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  19 (2000)

Internet users:
  160,000 (2005)

Transportation Barbados


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,600 km
  paved: 1,600 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 58 ships (1000 GRT or over) 433,390 GRT/664,998 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 32, chemical tanker 7, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 2,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 57 (Bahamas, The 1, Canada 8, Greece 11, Lebanon 1,
  Monaco 1, Norway 29, UAE 1, UK 5)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bridgetown

Military Barbados


Military branches:
  Royal Barbados Defense Force: Troops Command, Coast Guard (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; volunteers at
  earlier age with parental consent; no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 71,524
  females age 18-49: 72,302 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 54,510
  females age 18-49: 54,889 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based Troop
  Command and a small Coast Guard; the primary role of the land
  element is to defend the island against external aggression; the
  Command consists of a single, part-time battalion with a small
  regular cadre that is deployed throughout the island; it
  increasingly supports the police in patrolling the coastline to
  prevent smuggling and other illicit activities (2005)

Transnational Issues Barbados


Disputes - international:
  in 2005, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago agreed to compulsory
  international arbitration that will result in a binding award
  challenging whether the northern limit of Trinidad and Tobago's and
  Venezuela's maritime boundary extends into Barbadian waters and the
  southern limit of Barbadian traditional fishing; joins other
  Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island
  sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on
  the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its
  EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics bound for
  Europe and the US; offshore financial center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Belarus

Introduction Belarus


Background:
  After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus
  attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political
  and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet
  republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union
  on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic
  integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the
  accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his
  election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Alexander
  LUKASHENKO has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian
  means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press,
  peaceful assembly, and religion continue.

Geography Belarus


Location:
  Eastern Europe, east of Poland

Geographic coordinates:
  53 00 N, 28 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 207,600 sq km
  land: 207,600 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Kansas

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,900 km
  border countries: Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 407 km,
  Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between
  continental and maritime

Terrain:
  generally flat and contains much marshland

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m
  highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m

Natural resources:
  forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas,
  granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay

Land use:
  arable land: 26.77%
  permanent crops: 0.6%
  other: 72.63% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,310 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country
  contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at
  Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of
  Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes

People Belarus


Population:
  10,293,011 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.7% (male 825,823/female 791,741)
  15-64 years: 69.7% (male 3,490,442/female 3,682,950)
  65 years and over: 14.6% (male 498,976/female 1,003,079) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 37.2 years
  male: 34.5 years
  female: 39.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.06% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.02 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.08 years
  male: 63.47 years
  female: 74.98 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  15,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,000 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Belarusian(s)
  adjective: Belarusian

Ethnic groups:
  Belarusian 81.2%, Russian 11.4%, Polish 3.9%, Ukrainian 2.4%, other
  1.1% (1999 census)

Religions:
  Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant,
  Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)

Languages:
  Belarusian, Russian, other

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.5% (2003 est.)

Government Belarus


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Belarus
  conventional short form: Belarus
  local long form: Respublika Byelarus'
  local short form: Byelarus'
  former: Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic in name, although in fact a dictatorship

Capital:
  name: Minsk
  geographic coordinates: 53 54 N, 27 34 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  6 provinces (voblastsi, singular - voblasts') and 1 municipality*
  (horad); Brest, Homyel', Horad Minsk*, Hrodna, Mahilyow, Minsk,
  Vitsyebsk
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers

Independence:
  25 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 3 July (1944); note - 3 July 1944 was the date
  Minsk was liberated from German troops, 25 August 1991 was the date
  of independence from the Soviet Union

Constitution:
  15 March 1994; revised by national referendum of 24 November 1996
  giving the presidency greatly expanded powers and became effective
  27 November 1996; revised again 17 October 2004 removing
  presidential term limits

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (since 20 July 1994)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sergei SIDORSKIY (since 19
  December 2003); First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir SEMASHKO (since
  December 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  first election took place 23 June and 10 July 1994; according to the
  1994 constitution, the next election should have been held in 1999,
  however, Aleksandr LUKASHENKO extended his term to 2001 via a
  November 1996 referendum; subsequent election held 9 September 2001;
  an October 2004 referendum ended presidential term limits allowing
  president to run in a third election held on 19 March 2006; prime
  minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Aleksandr LUKASHENKO reelected president; percent
  of vote - Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 82.6%, Aleksandr MILINKEVICH 6%,
  Aleksandr KOZULIN 2.3%; note - election marred by electoral fraud

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly or Natsionalnoye Sobranie consists of
  the Council of the Republic or Soviet Respubliki (64 seats; 56
  members elected by regional councils and 8 members appointed by the
  president, all for four-year terms) and the Chamber of
  Representatives or Palata Predstaviteley (110 seats; members elected
  by universal adult suffrage to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 and 31 October 2004; international observers
  widely denounced the elections as flawed and undemocratic, based on
  massive government falsification; pro-LUKASHENKO candidates won
  every seat, after many opposition candidates were disqualified for
  technical reasons
  election results: Soviet Respubliki - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NA; Palata Predstaviteley - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president);
  Constitutional Court (half of the judges appointed by the president
  and half appointed by the Chamber of Representatives)

Political parties and leaders:
  pro-government parties: Agrarian Party or AP [Mikhail SHIMANSKY];
  Belarusian Communist Party or KPB; Belarusian Patriotic Movement
  (Belarusian Patriotic Party) or BPR [Nikolai ULAKHOVICH, chairman];
  Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus [Sergei GAYDUKEVICH]; Party of
  Labor and Justice [Viktor SOKOLOV]; Social-Sports Party [Vladimir
  ALEXANDROVICH]
  opposition parties: 10 Plus Coalition [Alyaksandr MILINKEVICH],
  includes: Belarusian Party of Communists or PKB [Syarhey KALYAKIN];
  Belarusian Party of Labor (unregistered) [Aleksandr BUKHVOSTOV,
  Leonid LEMESHONAK]; Belarusian Popular Front or BPF [Vintsyuk
  VYACHORKA]; Belarusian Social-Democratic Gramada [Stanislav
  SHUSHKEVICH]; Green Party [Oleg GROMYKO]; Party of Freedom and
  Progress (unregistered) [Vladimir NOVOSYAD]; United Civic Party or
  UCP [Anatol LYABEDKA]; Women's Party "Nadezhda" [Valentina
  MATUSEVICH, chairperson]
  other opposition includes: Belarusian Social-Democratic Party
  Nardonaya Hromada or BSDP NH [Alyaksandr KOZULIN, chairman];
  Christian Conservative BPF [Zyanon PAZNIAK]; Ecological Party of
  Greens [Mikhail KARTASH]; Party of Popular Accord [Sergei YERMAKK];
  Republican Party [Vladimir BELAZOR]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs [Sergey MATSKEVICH]; Belarusian
  Congress of Democratic Trade Unions [Alyaksandr YAROSHUK];
  Belarusian Helsinki Committee [Tatiana PROTKO]; Belarusian
  Organization of Working Women [Irina ZHIKHAR]; Charter 97 [Andrey
  SANNIKOV]; Lenin Communist Union of Youth (youth wing of the
  Belarusian Party of Communists or PKB); National Strike Committee of
  Entrepreneurs [Aleksandr VASILYEV, Valery LEVONEVSKY]; Partnership
  NGO [Nikolay ASTREYKA]; Perspektiva kiosk watchdog NGO [Anatol
  SHUMCHENKO]; Vyasna [Ales BYALATSKY]; Women's Independent Democratic
  Movement [Ludmila PETINA]; Youth Front (Malady Front) [Dzmitryy
  DASHKEVICH, Syarhey BAKHUN]; Zubr youth group [Vladimir KOBETS]

International organization participation:
  BSEC (observer), CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mikhail KHVOSTOV
  chancery: 1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-1604
  FAX: [1] (202) 986-1805
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Karen B. STEWART
  embassy: 46 Starovilenskaya St., Minsk 220002
  mailing address: PSC 78, Box B Minsk, APO 09723
  telephone: [375] (17) 210-12-83, 217-7347, 217-7348
  FAX: [375] (17) 234-7853

Flag description:
  red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band one-half the
  width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the hoist side
  bears Belarusian national ornamentation in red

Economy Belarus


Economy - overview:
  Belarus's economy in 2005 posted 8% growth. The government has
  succeeded in lowering inflation over the past several years. Trade
  with Russia - by far its largest single trade partner - decreased in
  2005, largely as a result of a change in the way the Value Added Tax
  (VAT) on trade was collected. Trade with European countries
  increased. Belarus has seen little structural reform since 1995,
  when President LUKASHENKO launched the country on the path of
  "market socialism." In keeping with this policy, LUKASHENKO
  reimposed administrative controls over prices and currency exchange
  rates and expanded the state's right to intervene in the management
  of private enterprises. During 2005, the government re-nationalized
  a number of private companies. In addition, businesses have been
  subject to pressure by central and local governments, e.g.,
  arbitrary changes in regulations, numerous rigorous inspections,
  retroactive application of new business regulations, and arrests of
  "disruptive" businessmen and factory owners. A wide range of
  redistributive policies has helped those at the bottom of the
  ladder; the Gini coefficient is among the lowest in the world.
  Because of these restrictive economic policies, Belarus has had
  trouble attracting foreign investment, which remains low. Growth has
  been strong in recent years, despite the roadblocks in a tough,
  centrally directed economy with a high, but decreasing, rate of
  inflation. Belarus continues to receive heavily discounted oil and
  natural gas from Russia. Much of Belarus' growth can be attributed
  to the re-export of Russian oil at market prices.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $73.09 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $26.69 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 31.6%
  services: 59.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.3 million (31 December 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 14%
  industry: 34.7%
  services: 51.3% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  1.6% officially registered unemployed; large number of
  underemployed workers (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  27.1% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 5.1%
  highest 10%: 20% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  30.4 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  10.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $5.903 billion
  expenditures: $6.343 billion; including capital expenditures of $180
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk

Industries:
  metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earthmovers,
  motorcycles, televisions, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles,
  radios, refrigerators

Industrial production growth rate:
  15.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  30 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.5%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  34.3 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  800 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  7 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  36,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  252,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  14,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - imports:
  360,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  250 million cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  20.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  20.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Current account balance:
  $852 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $16.14 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals, metals,
  textiles, foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Russia 38.5%, Ukraine 7.8%, Poland 7.1%, Latvia 4.2%, UK 4.1%,
  China 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $16.94 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  mineral products, machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs,
  metals

Imports - partners:
  Russia 57.9%, Germany 9.7%, Ukraine 6.4%, Poland 5.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.215 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.662 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $194.3 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR)

Currency code:
  BYB/BYR

Exchange rates:
  Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 2,150 (2005), 2,160.26 (2004),
  2,051.27 (2003), 1,790.92 (2002), 1,390 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Belarus


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,284,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.098 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Belarus lags behind its neighbors in upgrading
  telecommunications infrastructure; state-owned Beltelcom, is the
  sole provider of fixed line local and long distance service;
  modernization of the network to digital switching progressing slowly
  domestic: fixed line penetration is improving although rural areas
  continue to be underserved; four GSM wireless networks are
  experiencing rapid growth; strict government controls on
  telecommunications technologies
  international: country code - 375; Belarus is a member of the
  Trans-European Line (TEL), Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line,
  and has access to the Trans-Siberia Line (TSL); three fiber-optic
  segments provide connectivity to Latvia, Poland, Russia, and
  Ukraine; worldwide service is available to Belarus through this
  infrastructure; additional analog lines to Russia; Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, and Intersputnik earth stations

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 28, FM 37, shortwave 11 (1998)

Radios:
  3.02 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  47 (plus 27 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  2.52 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .by

Internet hosts:
  33,641 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  23 (2002)

Internet users:
  3,394,400 (2005)

Transportation Belarus


Airports:
  86 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 41
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 45
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 5,223 km; oil 2,321 km; refined products 1,686 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,512 km
  broad gauge: 5,497 km 1.520-m gauge (874 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 15 km 1.435 m (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 93,055 km
  paved: 93,055 km (2003)

Waterways:
  2,500 km (use limited by location on perimeter of country and by
  shallowness) (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Mazyr

Military Belarus


Military branches:
  Belarus Armed Forces: Land Force, Air and Air Defense Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-27 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 18 months (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,520,644
  females age 18-49: 2,564,696 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,657,984
  females age 18-49: 2,102,793 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 85,202
  females age 18-49: 82,037 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $420.5 million (2006)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Belarus


Disputes - international:
  1997 boundary treaty with Ukraine remains unratified over
  unresolved financial claims, preventing demarcation and diminishing
  border security; the whole boundary with Latvia and more than half
  the boundary with Lithuania remains undemarcated; discussions toward
  economic and political union with Russia proceed slowly

Illicit drugs:
  limited cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, mostly for the
  domestic market; transshipment point for illicit drugs to and via
  Russia, and to the Baltics and Western Europe; a small and lightly
  regulated financial center; new anti-money-laundering legislation
  does not meet international standards; few investigations or
  prosecutions of money-laundering activities


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Belgium

Introduction Belgium


Background:
  Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830; it was
  occupied by Germany during World Wars I and II. The country
  prospered in the past half century as a modern, technologically
  advanced European state and member of NATO and the EU. Tensions
  between the Dutch-speaking Flemings of the north and the
  French-speaking Walloons of the south have led in recent years to
  constitutional amendments granting these regions formal recognition
  and autonomy.

Geography Belgium


Location:
  Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between France and the
  Netherlands

Geographic coordinates:
  50 50 N, 4 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 30,528 sq km
  land: 30,278 sq km
  water: 250 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about the size of Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,385 km
  border countries: France 620 km, Germany 167 km, Luxembourg 148 km,
  Netherlands 450 km

Coastline:
  66.5 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: geographic coordinates define outer limit
  continental shelf: median line with neighbors

Climate:
  temperate; mild winters, cool summers; rainy, humid, cloudy

Terrain:
  flat coastal plains in northwest, central rolling hills, rugged
  mountains of Ardennes Forest in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: North Sea 0 m
  highest point: Signal de Botrange 694 m

Natural resources:
  construction materials, silica sand, carbonates

Land use:
  arable land: 27.42%
  permanent crops: 0.69%
  other: 71.89%
  note: includes Luxembourg (2005)

Irrigated land:
  400 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding is a threat along rivers and in areas of reclaimed coastal
  land, protected from the sea by concrete dikes

Environment - current issues:
  the environment is exposed to intense pressures from human
  activities: urbanization, dense transportation network, industry,
  extensive animal breeding and crop cultivation; air and water
  pollution also have repercussions for neighboring countries;
  uncertainties regarding federal and regional responsibilities (now
  resolved) have slowed progress in tackling environmental challenges

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  crossroads of Western Europe; majority of West European capitals
  within 1,000 km of Brussels, the seat of both the European Union and
  NATO

People Belgium


Population:
  10,379,067 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 883,254/female 846,099)
  15-64 years: 65.9% (male 3,450,879/female 3,389,565)
  65 years and over: 17.4% (male 746,569/female 1,062,701) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.6 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.13% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.38 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.2 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.01 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.77 years
  male: 75.59 years
  female: 82.09 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  10,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Belgian(s)
  adjective: Belgian

Ethnic groups:
  Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, mixed or other 11%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 75%, Protestant or other 25%

Languages:
  Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, German (official) less
  than 1%, legally bilingual (Dutch and French)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Belgium


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Belgium
  conventional short form: Belgium
  local long form: Royaume de Belgique/Koninkrijk Belgie
  local short form: Belgique/Belgie

Government type:
  federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Brussels
  geographic coordinates: 50 50 N, 4 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  10 provinces (French: provinces, singular - province; Dutch:
  provincies, singular - provincie) and 3 regions* (French: regions;
  Dutch: gewesten); Antwerpen, Brabant Wallon, Brussels* (Bruxelles),
  Flanders*, Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur,
  Oost-Vlaanderen, Vlaams-Brabant, Wallonia*, West-Vlaanderen
  note: as a result of the 1993 constitutional revision that furthered
  devolution into a federal state, there are now three levels of
  government (federal, regional, and linguistic community) with a
  complex division of responsibilities

Independence:
  4 October 1830 (a provisional government declares independence from
  the Netherlands); 21 July 1831 (King Leopold I ascends to the throne)

National holiday:
  21 July (1831) ascension to the Throne of King Leopold I

Constitution:
  7 February 1831; amended many times; revised 14 July 1993 to create
  a federal state

Legal system:
  civil law system influenced by English constitutional theory;
  judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King ALBERT II (since 9 August 1993); Heir Apparent
  Prince PHILIPPE, son of the monarch
  head of government: Prime Minister Guy VERHOFSTADT (since 13 July
  1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers formally appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary and constitutional;
  following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or
  the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by the monarch and then approved by parliament
  note: government coalition - VLD, MR, PS, SP.A-Spirit

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of a Senate or Senaat in Dutch, Senat
  in French (71 seats; 40 members are directly elected by popular
  vote, 31 are indirectly elected; members serve four-year terms) and
  a Chamber of Deputies or Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers in Dutch,
  Chambre des Representants in French (150 seats; members are directly
  elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation
  to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate and Chamber of Deputies - last held 18 May 2003
  (next to be held no later than May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - SP.A-Spirit
  15.5%, VLD 15.4%, CD & V 12.7%, PS 12.8%, MR 12.1%, VB 9.4%, CDH
  5.6%; seats by party - SP.A-Spirit 7, VLD 7, CD & V 6, PS 6, MR 5,
  VB 5, CDH 2, other 2 (note - there are also 31 indirectly elected
  senators); Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - VLD
  15.4%, SP.A-Spirit 14.9%, CD & V 13.3%, PS 13.0%, VB 11.6%, MR
  11.4%, CDH 5.5%, Ecolo 3.1%; seats by party - VLD 25, SP.A-Spirit
  23, CD & V 21, PS 25, VB 18, MR 24, CDH 8, Ecolo 4, other 2
  note: as a result of the 1993 constitutional revision that furthered
  devolution into a federal state, there are now three levels of
  government (federal, regional, and linguistic community) with a
  complex division of responsibilities; this reality leaves six
  governments each with its own legislative assembly

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Hof van Cassatie (in Dutch) or Cour de
  Cassation (in French) (judges are appointed for life by the
  government; candidacies have to be submitted by the High Justice
  Council)

Political parties and leaders:
  Flemish parties: Christian Democrats and Flemish or CD & V [Jo
  VANDEURZEN]; Flemish Liberal Democrats or VLD [Bart SOMERS]; GROEN!
  (formerly AGALEV, Flemish Greens) [Vera DUA]; New Flemish Alliance
  or NVA [Bart DE WEVER]; Social Progressive Alternative or SP.A
  [Johan Vande LANOTTE]; Spirit [Geert LAMBERT] (new party now
  associated with SP.A); Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) or VB [Frank
  VANHECKE]
  Francophone parties: Ecolo (Francophone Greens) [Jean-Michel JAVAUX,
  Isabelle DURANT, Claude BROUIR]; Humanist and Democratic Center of
  CDH [Joelle MILQUET]; National Front or FN [Daniel FERET]; Reform
  Movement or MR [Didier REYNDERS]; Socialist Party or PS [Elio DI
  RUPO]; other minor parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Christian, Socialist, and Liberal Trade Unions; Federation of
  Belgian Industries; numerous other associations representing
  bankers, manufacturers, middle-class artisans, and the legal and
  medical professions; various organizations represent the cultural
  interests of Flanders and Wallonia; various peace groups such as Pax
  Christi and groups representing immigrants

International organization participation:
  ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, Benelux, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG,
  OAS (observer), OECD, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNRWA,
  UNTSO, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO,
  ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Franciskus VAN DAELE
  chancery: 3330 Garfield Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-6900
  FAX: [1] (202) 333-3079
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York
  consulate(s): Atlanta

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tom C. KOROLOGOS
  embassy: Regentlaan 27 Boulevard du Regent, B-1000 Brussels
  mailing address: PSC 82, Box 002, APO AE 09710
  telephone: [32] (2) 508-2111
  FAX: [32] (2) 511-2725

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), yellow, and red;
  the design was based on the flag of France

Economy Belgium


Economy - overview:
  This modern, private-enterprise economy has capitalized on its
  central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and
  diversified industrial and commercial base. Industry is concentrated
  mainly in the populous Flemish area in the north. With few natural
  resources, Belgium must import substantial quantities of raw
  materials and export a large volume of manufactures, making its
  economy unusually dependent on the state of world markets. Roughly
  three-quarters of its trade is with other EU countries. Public debt
  is nearly 100% of GDP. On the positive side, the government has
  succeeded in balancing its budget, and income distribution is
  relatively equal. Belgium began circulating the euro currency in
  January 2002. Economic growth in 2001-03 dropped sharply because of
  the global economic slowdown, with moderate recovery in 2004-05.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $322.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $350.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $31,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 24%
  services: 74.9% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  4.77 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1.3%
  industry: 24.5%
  services: 74.2% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  4% (1989 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 23% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  25 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $180.4 billion
  expenditures: $180.5 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $1.56 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  94.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugar beets, fresh vegetables, fruits, grain, tobacco; beef, veal,
  pork, milk

Industries:
  engineering and metal products, motor vehicle assembly,
  transportation equipment, scientific instruments, processed food and
  beverages, chemicals, basic metals, textiles, glass, petroleum

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  78.77 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 38.4%
  hydro: 0.6%
  nuclear: 59.3%
  other: 1.8% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  79.66 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  8.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  14.7 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  13,060 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  624,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  450,000 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  1.042 million bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  15.48 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  15.4 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $6.305 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $269.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and metal
  products, foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Germany 19.4%, France 17.3%, Netherlands 11.7%, UK 8.2%, US 6.4%,
  Italy 5.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $264.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, pharmaceuticals,
  foodstuffs, transportation equipment, oil products

Imports - partners:
  Netherlands 17.8%, Germany 17.2%, France 11.4%, UK 6.8%, Ireland
  6.5%, US 5.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $12 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $980.1 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1.072 billion (2002)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Belgium


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4.801 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  9.46 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: highly developed, technologically advanced, and
  completely automated domestic and international telephone and
  telegraph facilities
  domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; extensive cable
  network; limited microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 32; submarine cables - 5; satellite
  earth stations - 7 (Intelsat - 3) (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  FM 79, AM 7, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  8.075 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  25 (plus 10 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  4.72 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .be

Internet hosts:
  2,870,770 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  61 (2000)

Internet users:
  5.1 million (2005)

Transportation Belgium


Airports:
  43 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,561 km; oil 158 km; refined products 535 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,521 km
  standard gauge: 3,521 km 1.435-m gauge (2,927 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 149,757 km
  paved: 117,110 km (including 1,747 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 32,647 km (2003)

Waterways:
  2,043 km (1,528 km in regular commercial use) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 66 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,952,159 GRT/6,521,645 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 19, cargo 4, chemical tanker 2, container 10,
  liquefied gas 15, petroleum tanker 12, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 10 (Denmark 4, Greece 4, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 113 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Bahamas
  13, Bermuda 4, Cyprus 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 6,
  Georgia 1, Gibraltar 2, Greece 12, Hong Kong 3, Luxembourg 9, Malta
  10, Mozambique 2, Netherlands 2, Netherlands Antilles 4, Panama 11,
  Portugal 8, Russia 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3, Singapore
  12, Sweden 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Antwerp, Brussels, Gent, Liege, Oostende, Zeebrugge

Military Belgium


Military branches:
  Belgian Armed Forces: Land, Naval, and Air Operations Commands
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women comprise
  approx. 7% of the Belgian armed forces (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 2,436,736
  females age 16-49: 2,369,463 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 1,998,003
  females age 16-49: 1,940,918 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 64,263
  females age 16-49: 61,402 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.999 billion (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.3% (2003)

Transnational Issues Belgium


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  growing producer of synthetic drugs; transit point for US-bound
  ecstasy; source of precursor chemicals for South American cocaine
  processors; transshipment point for cocaine, heroin, hashish, and
  marijuana entering Western Europe; despite a strengthening of
  legislation, the country remains vulnerable to money laundering
  related to narcotics, automobiles, alcohol, and tobacco


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Belize

Introduction Belize


Background:
  Belize was the site of several Mayan city states until their
  decline at the end of the first millennium A.D. The British and
  Spanish disputed the region in the 17th and 18th centuries; it
  formally became the colony of British Honduras in 1854. Territorial
  disputes between the UK and Guatemala delayed the independence of
  Belize until 1981. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation
  until 1992. Tourism has become the mainstay of the economy. Current
  concerns include high unemployment, growing involvement in the South
  American drug trade, and increasing urban crime.

Geography Belize


Location:
  Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and
  Mexico

Geographic coordinates:
  17 15 N, 88 45 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 22,966 sq km
  land: 22,806 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
  total: 516 km
  border countries: Guatemala 266 km, Mexico 250 km

Coastline:
  386 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm in the north, 3 nm in the south; note - from
  the mouth of the Sarstoon River to Ranguana Cay, Belize's
  territorial sea is 3 nm; according to Belize's Maritime Areas Act,
  1992, the purpose of this limitation is to provide a framework for
  negotiating a definitive agreement on territorial differences with
  Guatemala
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; very hot and humid; rainy season (May to November); dry
  season (February to May)

Terrain:
  flat, swampy coastal plain; low mountains in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Victoria Peak 1,160 m

Natural resources:
  arable land potential, timber, fish, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 3.05%
  permanent crops: 1.39%
  other: 95.56% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent, devastating hurricanes (June to November) and coastal
  flooding (especially in south)

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; water pollution from sewage, industrial effluents,
  agricultural runoff; solid and sewage waste disposal

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  only country in Central America without a coastline on the North
  Pacific Ocean

People Belize


Population:
  287,730 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 39.5% (male 57,923/female 55,678)
  15-64 years: 57% (male 82,960/female 81,046)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 4,888/female 5,235) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.6 years
  male: 19.5 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.31% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  28.84 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.93 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 24.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 68.3 years
  male: 66.43 years
  female: 70.26 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Belizean(s)
  adjective: Belizean

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo 48.7%, Creole 24.9%, Maya 10.6%, Garifuna 6.1%, other 9.7%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 49.6%, Protestant 27% (Pentecostal 7.4%, Anglican
  5.3%, Seventh-Day Adventist 5.2%, Mennonite 4.1%, Methodist 3.5%,
  Jehovah's Witnesses 1.5%), other 14%, none 9.4% (2000)

Languages:
  English (official), Spanish, Mayan, Garifuna (Carib), Creole

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.1%
  male: 94.1%
  female: 94.1% (2003 est.)

Government Belize


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Belize
  former: British Honduras

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Belmopan
  geographic coordinates: 17 15 N, 88 46 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 districts; Belize, Cayo, Corozal, Orange Walk, Stann Creek, Toledo

Independence:
  21 September 1981 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 21 September (1981)

Constitution:
  21 September 1981

Legal system:
  English law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir Colville YOUNG, Sr. (since 17
  November 1993)
  head of government: Prime Minister Said Wilbert MUSA (since 28
  August 1998); Deputy Prime Minister John BRICENO (since 1 September
  1998)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; prime
  minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly consists of the Senate (12 members
  appointed by the governor general - 6 on the advice of the prime
  minister, 3 on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and 1
  each on the advice of the Belize Council of Churches and Evangelical
  Association of Churches, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry
  and the Belize Better Business Bureau, and the National Trade Union
  Congress and the Civil Society Steering Committee; members are
  appointed for five-year terms) and the House of Representatives (29
  seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 5 March 2003 (next
  to be held March 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PUP 21, UDP 8

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (the chief justice is appointed by the governor
  general on the advice of the prime minister)

Political parties and leaders:
  People's United Party or PUP [Said MUSA]; United Democratic Party
  or UDP [Dean BARROW, party leader; Douglas SINGH, party chairman]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Society for the Promotion of Education and Research or SPEAR [Adele
  CATZIM]

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lisa M. SHOMAN
  chancery: 2535 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-9636
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6888
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert J. DIETER
  embassy: 29 Gabourel Lane, Belize City
  mailing address: P. O. Box 286, Belize City
  telephone: [501] 227-7161 through 7163
  FAX: [501] 223-0802

Flag description:
  blue with a narrow red stripe along the top and the bottom edges;
  centered is a large white disk bearing the coat of arms; the coat of
  arms features a shield flanked by two workers in front of a mahogany
  tree with the related motto SUB UMBRA FLOREO (I Flourish in the
  Shade) on a scroll at the bottom, all encircled by a green garland

Economy Belize


Economy - overview:
  In this small, essentially private-enterprise economy the tourism
  industry is the number one foreign exchange earner followed by
  marine products, citrus, cane sugar, bananas, and garments. The
  government's expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, initiated in
  September 1998, led to sturdy GDP growth averaging nearly 5% in
  1999-2005. Major concerns continue to be the sizable trade deficit
  and foreign debt. A key short-term objective remains the reduction
  of poverty with the help of international donors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.778 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $908 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 14.2%
  industry: 15.2%
  services: 61.2% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  90,000
  note: shortage of skilled labor and all types of technical personnel
  (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 27%
  industry: 18%
  services: 55% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.9% (2003)

Population below poverty line:
  33% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $262 million
  expenditures: $329 million; including capital expenditures of $70
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coca, citrus, sugar; fish, cultured shrimp; lumber;
  garments

Industries:
  garment production, food processing, tourism, construction

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.6% (1999)

Electricity - production:
  120 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 59.9%
  hydro: 40.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  111.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  6,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-180 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $349.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar, bananas, citrus, clothing, fish products, molasses, wood

Exports - partners:
  US 30.6%, UK 25%, France 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $622.4 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods; fuels,
  chemicals, pharmaceuticals; food, beverages, tobacco

Imports - partners:
  US 31%, Mexico 11.6%, Russia 8.8%, Cuba 6%, Guatemala 5.6%, China
  4.6%, Spain 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $87 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.362 billion (June 2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Belizean dollar (BZD)

Currency code:
  BZD

Exchange rates:
  Belizean dollars per US dollar - 2 (2005), 2 (2004), 2 (2003), 2
  (2002), 2 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Belize


Telephones - main lines in use:
  33,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  93,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: above-average system
  domestic: trunk network depends primarily on microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 501; satellite earth station - 8
  (Intelsat - 2, unknown - 6) (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 12, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  133,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1997)

Televisions:
  41,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bz

Internet hosts:
  3,905 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  35,000 (2005)

Transportation Belize


Airports:
  43 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 38
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,872 km
  paved: 488 km
  unpaved: 2,384 km (1999)

Waterways:
  825 km (navigable only by small craft) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 285 ships (1000 GRT or over) 985,464 GRT/1,322,629 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 36, cargo 203, chemical tanker 7, container 4,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 13, refrigerated cargo 12, roll
  on/roll off 6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 225 (China 103, Croatia 1, Cyprus 2, Estonia 3,
  Germany 3, Greece 2, Hong Kong 8, Iceland 2, Indonesia 2, Italy 4,
  Japan 2, North Korea 2, South Korea 4, Latvia 6, Lithuania 1,
  Malaysia 1, Mexico 1, Norway 2, Poland 2, Russia 36, Singapore 6,
  Spain 3, Switzerland 1, Turkey 11, UAE 5, Ukraine 7, US 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Belize City

Military Belize


Military branches:
  Belize Defense Force (BDF): Army, Maritime Wing, Air Wing, and
  Volunteer Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; laws allow for
  conscription only if volunteers are insufficient; conscription has
  never been implemented; volunteers typically outnumber available
  positions by 3:1 (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 61,201
  females age 18-49: 60,048 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 44,238
  females age 18-49: 43,633 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 3,213
  females age 18-49: 3,100 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $19 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Belize


Disputes - international:
  Guatemalan squatters continue to settle in the largely uninhabited
  rain forests of Belize's border region; OAS seeks to revive the 2002
  failed Belize-Guatemala Differendum that created a small adjustment
  to land boundary, a Guatemalan maritime corridor in Caribbean, joint
  ecological park for disputed Sapodilla Cays, and substantial US-UK
  financial package

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Belize is a source, transit, and destination
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
  labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked mainly
  from Central America, and exploited in prostitution; children are
  trafficked to Belize for labor exploitation; Belize's largely
  unmonitored borders with Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico facilitate
  the movement of illegal migrants who are vulnerable to traffickers;
  girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation,
  sometimes with the consent and complicity of their close relatives;
  there are unconfirmed reports that Indian and Chinese migrants are
  trafficked for involuntary servitude in homes and shops
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Belize has failed to show evidence of
  significant law enforcement or victim protection efforts

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine; small-scale illicit producer of
  cannabis for the international drug trade; money-laundering activity
  related to narcotics trafficking and offshore sector


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Benin

Introduction Benin


Background:
  Present day Benin was the site of Dahomey, a prominent West African
  kingdom that rose in the 15th century. The territory became a French
  Colony in 1872 and achieved independence on 1 August 1960, as the
  Republic of Benin. A succession of military governments ended in
  1972 with the rise to power of Mathieu KEREKOU and the establishment
  of a government based on Marxist-Leninist principles. A move to
  representative government began in 1989. Two years later, free
  elections ushered in former Prime Minister Nicephore SOGLO as
  president, marking the first successful transfer of power in Africa
  from a dictatorship to a democracy. KEREKOU was returned to power by
  elections held in 1996 and 2001, though some irregularities were
  alleged.

Geography Benin


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Nigeria and
  Togo

Geographic coordinates:
  9 30 N, 2 15 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 112,620 sq km
  land: 110,620 sq km
  water: 2,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,989 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 306 km, Niger 266 km, Nigeria 773 km,
  Togo 644 km

Coastline:
  121 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid in south; semiarid in north

Terrain:
  mostly flat to undulating plain; some hills and low mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Sokbaro 658 m

Natural resources:
  small offshore oil deposits, limestone, marble, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 23.53%
  permanent crops: 2.37%
  other: 74.1% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  120 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan wind may affect north from December to
  March

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; poaching threatens wildlife
  populations; deforestation; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  sandbanks create difficult access to a coast with no natural
  harbors, river mouths, or islands

People Benin


Population:
  7,862,944
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.1% (male 1,751,709/female 1,719,138)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 2,067,248/female 2,138,957)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 75,694/female 110,198) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.2 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.73% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  38.85 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.67 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 79.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 84.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 74.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 53.04 years
  male: 51.9 years
  female: 54.22 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  68,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  5,800 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, yellow fever, and others are high
  risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Beninese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Beninese

Ethnic groups:
  African 99% (42 ethnic groups, most important being Fon, Adja,
  Yoruba, Bariba), Europeans 5,500

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 50%, Christian 30%, Muslim 20%

Languages:
  French (official), Fon and Yoruba (most common vernaculars in
  south), tribal languages (at least six major ones in north)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 33.6%
  male: 46.4%
  female: 22.6% (2002 est.)

Government Benin


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Benin
  conventional short form: Benin
  local long form: Republique du Benin
  local short form: Benin
  former: Dahomey

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Porto-Novo (official capital)
  geographic coordinates: 6 29 N, 2 37 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Cotonou (seat of government)

Administrative divisions:
  12 departments; Alibori, Atakora, Atlantique, Borgou, Collines,
  Kouffo, Donga, Littoral, Mono, Oueme, Plateau, Zou

Independence:
  1 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  National Day, 1 August (1960)

Constitution:
  December 1990

Legal system:
  based on French civil law and customary law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President YAYI Boni (since 6 April 2006); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President YAYI Boni (since 6 April 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president reelected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); runoff election held 19 March 2006
  (next to be held March 2011)
  election results: YAYI Boni elected president; percent of vote -
  YAYI Boni 74.5%, Adrien HOUNGBEDJI 25.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (83 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Presidential Movement (UBF, MADEP, FC, Alliance MDC-PC-CPP, IPD,
  AFP, MDS, RDP) 52, opposition (PRB, PRD, E'toile, and 5 other small
  parties) 31

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court or Cour Constitutionnelle; Supreme Court or
  Cour Supreme; High Court of Justice

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance of Progress Forces or AFP; African Movement for Democracy
  and Progress or MADEP [Sefou FAGBOHOUN]; Democratic Renewal Party or
  PRD [Adrien HOUNGBEDJI]; Impulse for Progress and Democracy or IPD;
  Key Force or FC; Movement for Development and Solidarity or MDS;
  Movement for Development by the Culture-Salute Party-Congress of
  People for Progress Alliance or Alliance MDC-PS-CPP; New Alliance or
  NA; Rally for Democracy and Progress or RDP; Renaissance Party du
  Benin or RB [Nicephore SOGLO]; The Star Alliance (Alliance E'toile)
  [Sacca LAFIA]; Union of Tomorrow's Benin or UBF [Bruno AMOUSSOU]
  note: approximately 20 additional minor parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Cyrille Segbe OGUIN
  chancery: 2124 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-6656
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1996

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Wayne NEILL
  embassy: Rue Caporal Bernard Anani, Cotonou
  mailing address: 01 B. P. 2012, Cotonou
  telephone: [229] 30-06-50
  FAX: [229] 30-06-70

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and red (bottom) with a
  vertical green band on the hoist side

Economy Benin


Economy - overview:
  The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on
  subsistence agriculture, cotton production, and regional trade.
  Growth in real output has averaged around 5% in the past six years,
  but rapid population growth has offset much of this increase.
  Inflation has subsided over the past several years. In order to
  raise growth still further, Benin plans to attract more foreign
  investment, place more emphasis on tourism, facilitate the
  development of new food processing systems and agricultural
  products, and encourage new information and communication
  technology. Many of these proposals are included in Benin's
  application to receive Millennium Challenge Account funding - for
  which it was a finalist in 2004-05. The 2001 privatization policy
  continues in telecommunications, water, electricity, and agriculture
  in spite of government reluctance. The Paris Club and bilateral
  creditors have eased the external debt situation, with Benin
  benefiting from a G8 debt reduction announced in July 2005, while
  pressing for more rapid structural reforms. Benin continues to be
  hurt by Nigerian trade protection that bans imports of a growing
  list of products from Benin and elsewhere, which has resulted in
  increased smuggling and criminality in the border region.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $8.419 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.34 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 31.6%
  industry: 13.8%
  services: 54.6% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  3.211 million

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  33% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $766.8 million
  expenditures: $1.017 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, corn, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil, peanuts;
  livestock

Industries:
  textiles, food processing, construction materials, cement

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.3% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
  69 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 14.2%
  hydro: 85.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  538.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  474 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  400 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.105 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.218 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-400 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $826.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, crude oil, palm products, cocoa

Exports - partners:
  China 31.3%, Indonesia 8.1%, India 7.4%, Niger 6%, Togo 4.8%,
  Thailand 4.8%, Nigeria 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.043 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, capital goods, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  France 21.8%, Ghana 7.1%, Cote d'Ivoire 7%, China 6.7%, UK 5.2%,
  Belgium 4.9%, Togo 4.5%, Thailand 4.2%, Nigeria 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $676 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.6 billion (2000)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $342.6 million (2000)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Benin


Telephones - main lines in use:
  76,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  386,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fair system of open-wire, microwave radio relay, and
  cellular connections
  international: country code - 229; satellite earth station - 7
  (Intelsat-Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 4 (2000)

Radios:
  660,000 (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  66,000 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .bj

Internet hosts:
  867 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  4 (2002)

Internet users:
  425,000 (2005)

Transportation Benin


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 578 km
  narrow gauge: 578 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 16,000 km
  paved: 1,400 km
  unpaved: 14,600 km (2005)

Waterways:
  150 km (on River Niger along northern border) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Cotonou

Military Benin


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  21 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; in
  practice, volunteers may be taken at the age of 18; both sexes are
  eligible for military service; conscript tour of duty - 18 months
  (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 21-49: 1,295,230
  females age 21-49: 1,301,936 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 21-49: 749,774
  females age 21-49: 751,329 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 76,661
  females: 75,068 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $100.9 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Benin


Disputes - international:
  Benin and Burkina Faso military clash in 2006 over sections of
  riverine boundary involving disputed villages and squatters; much of
  Benin-Niger boundary, including tripoint with Nigeria, remains
  undemarcated; in 2005, Nigeria ceded thirteen villages to Benin as a
  consequence of a 2004 joint task force to resolve maritime and land
  boundary disputes, but clashes among rival gangs along the border
  persist; a joint boundary commission continues to resurvey the
  boundary with Togo to verify Benin's claim that Togo moved boundary
  stones

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for narcotics associated with Nigerian
  trafficking organizations and most commonly destined for Western
  Europe and the US; vulnerable to money laundering due to a poorly
  regulated financial infrastructure


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bermuda

Introduction Bermuda


Background:
  Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists
  headed for Virginia. Tourism to the island to escape North American
  winters first developed in Victorian times. Tourism continues to be
  important to the island's economy, although international business
  has overtaken it in recent years. Bermuda has developed into a
  highly successful offshore financial center. Although a referendum
  on independence from the UK was soundly defeated in 1995, the
  present government has reopened debate on the issue.

Geography Bermuda


Location:
  North America, group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, east
  of South Carolina (US)

Geographic coordinates:
  32 20 N, 64 45 W

Map references:
  North America

Area:
  total: 53.3 sq km
  land: 53.3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about one-third the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  103 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical; mild, humid; gales, strong winds common in winter

Terrain:
  low hills separated by fertile depressions

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Town Hill 76 m

Natural resources:
  limestone, pleasant climate fostering tourism

Land use:
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 80% (55% developed, 45% rural/open space) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes (June to November)

Environment - current issues:
  sustainable development

Geography - note:
  consists of about 138 coral islands and islets with ample rainfall,
  but no rivers or freshwater lakes; some land was leased by US
  Government from 1941 to 1995

People Bermuda


Population:
  65,773 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.6% (male 6,146/female 6,098)
  15-64 years: 69.2% (male 22,562/female 22,954)
  65 years and over: 12.2% (male 3,479/female 4,534) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.2 years
  male: 39.3 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.61% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.4 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.96 years
  male: 75.85 years
  female: 80.1 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.297% (2005)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  163 (2005)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  392 (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Bermudian(s)
  adjective: Bermudian

Ethnic groups:
  black 54.8%, white 34.1%, mixed 6.4%, other races 4.3%, unspecified
  0.4% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Anglican 23%, Roman Catholic 15%, African Methodist Episcopal 11%,
  other Protestant 18%, other 12%, unaffiliated 6%, unspecified 1%,
  none 14% (2000 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Portuguese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 99% (2005 est.)

Government Bermuda


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bermuda
  former: Somers Islands

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  parliamentary; self-governing territory

Capital:
  name: Hamilton
  geographic coordinates: 32 17 N, 64 46 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  9 parishes and 2 municipalities*; Devonshire, Hamilton, Hamilton*,
  Paget, Pembroke, Saint George*, Saint George's, Sandys, Smith's,
  Southampton, Warwick

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Bermuda Day, 24 May

Constitution:
  8 June 1968; amended 1989 and 2003

Legal system:
  English law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor Sir John VEREKER (since 11 April 2002)
  head of government: Premier Ewart BROWN (since 30 October 2006);
  Deputy Premier Paula COX
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the premier, appointed by the governor
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed premier by the governor

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (an 11-member body
  appointed by the governor, the premier, and the opposition) and the
  House of Assembly (36 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve up to five-year terms)
  elections: last general election held 24 July 2003 (next to be held
  not later than July 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLP 51.7%, UBP 48%;
  seats by party - PLP 22, UBP 14

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; Magistrate Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Progressive Labor Party or PLP [Ewart BROWN]; United Bermuda Party
  or UBP [Wayne FURBERT]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Bermuda Employer's Union [Eddie SAINTS]; Bermuda Industrial Union
  or BIU [Derrick BURGESS]; Bermuda Public Services Union or BPSU [Ed
  BALL]; Bermuda Union of Teachers [Michael CHARLES]

International organization participation:
  Caricom (associate), ICFTU, Interpol (subbureau), IOC, UPU, WCO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Consul General Gregory W. SLAYTON
  consulate(s) general: Crown Hill, 16 Middle Road, Devonshire DVO3
  mailing address: P. O. Box HM325, Hamilton HMBX; American Consulate
  General Hamilton, US Department of State, 5300 Hamilton Place,
  Washington, DC 20520-5300
  telephone: [1] (441) 295-1342
  FAX: [1] (441) 295-1592, [1] (441) 296-9233

Flag description:
  red, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Bermudian coat of arms (white and green shield with a red lion
  holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship Sea
  Venture off Bermuda in 1609) centered on the outer half of the flag

Economy Bermuda


Economy - overview:
  Bermuda enjoys the highest per capita income in the world, more
  than 50% higher than that of the US. Its economy is primarily based
  on providing financial services for international business and
  luxury facilities for tourists. A number of reinsurance companies
  relocated to the island following 11 September 2001 and again after
  Hurricane Katrina, contributing to the expansion of an already
  robust international business sector. Bermuda's tourism industry -
  which derives over 80% of its visitors from the US - continues to
  struggle but remains the island's number two industry. Most capital
  equipment and food must be imported. Bermuda's industrial sector is
  small, although construction continues to be important; the average
  cost of a house in June 2003 had risen to $976,000. Agriculture is
  limited with only 20% of the land being arable.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.5 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.6% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $69,900 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 10%
  services: 89% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  38,360 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture and fishing 3%, laborers 17%, clerical 19%,
  professional and technical 21%, administrative and managerial 15%,
  sales 7%, services 19% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.1% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  19% (2000)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.8% (November 2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $738 million
  expenditures: $665 million (FY04/05)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, vegetables, citrus, flowers; dairy products, honey

Industries:
  international business, tourism, light manufacturing

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  682.5 million kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  616.7 million kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2005)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  4,658 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $1.469 billion (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  reexports of pharmaceuticals

Exports - partners:
  France 65.6%, Spain 11.7%, US 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $982 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  clothing, fuels, machinery and transport equipment, construction
  materials, chemicals, food and live animals

Imports - partners:
  Kazakhstan 51%, France 19%, South Korea 10.2%, US 7.6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $160 million (FY99/00)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Bermudian dollar (BMD)

Currency code:
  BMD

Exchange rates:
  Bermudian dollar per US dollar - 1.0000 (fixed rate pegged to the
  US dollar)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Bermuda


Telephones - main lines in use:
  56,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  49,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good
  domestic: fully automatic digital telephone system; fiber optic
  trunk lines
  international: country code - 1-441; submarine cables - 3 (fiber
  optic); satellite earth stations - 3 (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2005)

Radios:
  82,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (2005)

Televisions:
  66,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bm

Internet hosts:
  8,114 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  20 (2000)

Internet users:
  39,000 (2005)

Transportation Bermuda


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 447 km
  paved: 447 km
  note: public roads - 225 km; private roads - 222 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 132 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,873,728 GRT/8,688,692 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 25, cargo 1, container 24, liquefied gas 23,
  passenger 19, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 16, refrigerated
  cargo 13, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 116 (Australia 3, Belgium 4, France 1, Germany 21,
  Greece 2, Hong Kong 10, Indonesia 1, Ireland 1, Israel 3, Monaco 2,
  Nigeria 11, Norway 5, Sweden 14, Switzerland 2, UK 9, US 27)
  registered in other countries: 6 (Liberia 1, Marshall Islands 4,
  Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Hamilton, Saint George

Military Bermuda


Military branches:
  no regular military forces

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,151 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 12,165 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 408 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.03 million (2001)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.11% (FY00/01)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Bermuda


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bhutan

Introduction Bhutan


Background:
  In 1865, Britain and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchulu, under
  which Bhutan would receive an annual subsidy in exchange for ceding
  some border land to British India. Under British influence, a
  monarchy was set up in 1907; three years later, a treaty was signed
  whereby the British agreed not to interfere in Bhutanese internal
  affairs and Bhutan allowed Britain to direct its foreign affairs.
  This role was assumed by independent India after 1947. Two years
  later, a formal Indo-Bhutanese accord returned the areas of Bhutan
  annexed by the British, formalized the annual subsidies the country
  received, and defined India's responsibilities in defense and
  foreign relations. A refugee issue of some 100,000 Bhutanese in
  Nepal remains unresolved; 90% of the refugees are housed in seven
  United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  camps. In March 2005, King Jigme Singye WANGCHUCK unveiled the
  government's draft constitution - which would introduce major
  democratic reforms - and pledged to hold a national referendum for
  its approval. A referendum date has yet to be named.

Geography Bhutan


Location:
  Southern Asia, between China and India

Geographic coordinates:
  27 30 N, 90 30 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 47,000 sq km
  land: 47,000 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about half the size of Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,075 km
  border countries: China 470 km, India 605 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  varies; tropical in southern plains; cool winters and hot summers
  in central valleys; severe winters and cool summers in Himalayas

Terrain:
  mostly mountainous with some fertile valleys and savanna

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Drangme Chhu 97 m
  highest point: Kula Kangri 7,553 m

Natural resources:
  timber, hydropower, gypsum, calcium carbonate

Land use:
  arable land: 2.3%
  permanent crops: 0.43%
  other: 97.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  400 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  violent storms from the Himalayas are the source of the country's
  name, which translates as Land of the Thunder Dragon; frequent
  landslides during the rainy season

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion; limited access to potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategic location between China and India; controls
  several key Himalayan mountain passes

People Bhutan


Population:
  2,279,723
  note: other estimates range as low as 810,000 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.9% (male 458,801/female 426,947)
  15-64 years: 57.1% (male 671,057/female 631,078)
  65 years and over: 4% (male 46,217/female 45,623) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.4 years
  male: 20.2 years
  female: 20.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.1% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  33.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.01 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 98.41 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 96.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 100.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 54.78 years
  male: 55.02 years
  female: 54.53 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 100 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Bhutanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Bhutanese

Ethnic groups:
  Bhote 50%, ethnic Nepalese 35% (includes Lhotsampas - one of
  several Nepalese ethnic groups), indigenous or migrant tribes 15%

Religions:
  Lamaistic Buddhist 75%, Indian- and Nepalese-influenced Hinduism 25%

Languages:
  Dzongkha (official), Bhotes speak various Tibetan dialects,
  Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 47%
  male: 60%
  female: 34% (2003 est.)

Government Bhutan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Bhutan
  conventional short form: Bhutan
  local long form: Druk Gyalkhap
  local short form: Druk Yul

Government type:
  monarchy; special treaty relationship with India

Capital:
  name: Thimphu
  geographic coordinates: 27 28 N, 89 39 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  18 districts (dzongkhag, singular and plural); Bumthang, Chhukha,
  Chirang, Dagana, Geylegphug, Ha, Lhuntshi, Mongar, Paro, Pemagatsel,
  Punakha, Samchi, Samdrup Jongkhar, Shemgang, Tashigang, Thimphu,
  Tongsa, Wangdi Phodrang
  note: there may be two new districts named Gasa and Yangtse

Independence:
  8 August 1949 (from India)

National holiday:
  National Day (Ugyen WANGCHUCK became first hereditary king), 17
  December (1907)

Constitution:
  no written constitution or bill of rights; note - in 2001, the king
  commissioned the drafting of a constitution, and in March 2005
  publicly unveiled it; is awaiting national referendum

Legal system:
  based on Indian law and English common law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  each family has one vote in village-level elections; note - in late
  2003 Bhutan's legislature passed a new election law

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King Jigme Singye WANGCHUCK (since 24 July 1972)
  head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Sangay
  NGEDUP (since 5 September 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers (Lhengye Shungtsog) nominated by the
  monarch, approved by the National Assembly; members serve fixed,
  five-year terms; note - there is also a Royal Advisory Council
  (Lodoi Tsokde), members nominated by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary, but democratic reforms
  in July 1998 grant the National Assembly authority to remove the
  monarch with two-thirds vote

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Tshogdu (150 seats; 105 elected
  from village constituencies, 10 represent religious bodies, and 35
  are designated by the monarch to represent government and other
  secular interests; members serve three-year terms)
  elections: local elections last held August 2005 (next to be held in
  2008)
  election results: NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Appeal (the monarch); High Court (judges appointed
  by the monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  no legal parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Buddhist clergy; ethnic Nepalese organizations leading militant
  antigovernment campaign; Indian merchant community; United Front for
  Democracy (exiled)

International organization participation:
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OPCW,
  SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none; note - Bhutan has a Permanent Mission to the UN; address: 2
  United Nations Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10017; telephone [1]
  (212) 826-1919; FAX [1] (212) 826-2998; the Bhutanese mission to the
  UN has consular jurisdiction in the US
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US and Bhutan have no formal diplomatic relations, although
  informal contact is maintained between the Bhutanese and US Embassy
  in New Delhi (India)

Flag description:
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side corner; the upper
  triangle is yellow and the lower triangle is orange; centered along
  the dividing line is a large black and white dragon facing away from
  the hoist side

Economy Bhutan


Economy - overview:
  The economy, one of the world's smallest and least developed, is
  based on agriculture and forestry, which provide the main livelihood
  for more than 90% of the population. Agriculture consists largely of
  subsistence farming and animal husbandry. Rugged mountains dominate
  the terrain and make the building of roads and other infrastructure
  difficult and expensive. The economy is closely aligned with India's
  through strong trade and monetary links and dependence on India's
  financial assistance. The industrial sector is technologically
  backward, with most production of the cottage industry type. Most
  development projects, such as road construction, rely on Indian
  migrant labor. Bhutan's hydropower potential and its attraction for
  tourists are key resources. Model education, social, and environment
  programs are underway with support from multilateral development
  organizations. Each economic program takes into account the
  government's desire to protect the country's environment and
  cultural traditions. For example, the government, in its cautious
  expansion of the tourist sector, encourages visits by upscale,
  environmentally conscientious tourists. Detailed controls and
  uncertain policies in areas like industrial licensing, trade, labor,
  and finance continue to hamper foreign investment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.9 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $840.5 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,400 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 25.8%
  industry: 37.9%
  services: 36.3% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  NA
  note: major shortage of skilled labor

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 93%
  industry: 2%
  services: 5%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $346.6 million
  expenditures: including capital expenditures of $NA
  note: the government of India finances nearly three-fifths of
  Bhutan's budget expenditures (FY95/96 est.)

Public debt:
  81.4% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  rice, corn, root crops, citrus, foodgrains; dairy products, eggs

Industries:
  cement, wood products, processed fruits, alcoholic beverages,
  calcium carbide

Industrial production growth rate:
  9.3% (1996 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.882 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.1%
  hydro: 99.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  250.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.51 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  1,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $154 million f.o.b. (2000 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  electricity (to India), cardamom, gypsum, timber, handicrafts,
  cement, fruit, precious stones, spices

Exports - partners:
  Japan 33.2%, Germany 13.6%, France 13.5%, South Korea 7.8%, US
  7.7%, Thailand 5.8%, Italy 5.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $196 million c.i.f. (2000 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuel and lubricants, grain, machinery and parts, vehicles, fabrics,
  rice

Imports - partners:
  Hong Kong 68.4%, Mexico 20.8%, France 3.9% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $593 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $78 million substantial aid from India and other nations

Currency (code):
  ngultrum (BTN); Indian rupee (INR)

Currency code:
  BTN; INR

Exchange rates:
  ngultrum per US dollar - 44.101 (2005), 45.317 (2004), 46.583
  (2003), 48.61 (2002), 47.186 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Bhutan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  32,700 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  37,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telecommunications facilities are poor
  domestic: very low teledensity; domestic service is very poor
  especially in rural areas; wireless service available since 2003
  international: country code - 975; international telephone and
  telegraph service via landline and microwave relay through India;
  satellite earth station - 1 (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 9, shortwave 1 (2006)

Radios:
  37,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2006)

Televisions:
  11,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bt

Internet hosts:
  7,567 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  25,000 (2005)

Transportation Bhutan


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 8,050 km
  paved: 4,991 km
  unpaved: 3,059 km (2003)

Military Bhutan


Military branches:
  Royal Bhutan Army: Royal Bodyguard, Royal Bhutan Police (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 483,860
  females age 18-49: 453,683 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 314,975
  females age 18-49: 296,833 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 23,939
  females age 18-49: 21,979 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $8.29 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Bhutan


Disputes - international:
  approximately 105,000 Bhutanese have lived decades as refugees in
  Nepal, 90% of whom reside in seven UN Office of the High
  Commissioner for Refugees camps; Bhutan cooperates with India to
  expel Indian separatists


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bolivia

Introduction Bolivia


Background:
  Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away
  from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has
  consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups.
  Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have
  faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and
  illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected
  Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the
  widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule
  in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's
  traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority.
  However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have
  exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian
  populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of
  the eastern lowlands.

Geography Bolivia


Location:
  Central South America, southwest of Brazil

Geographic coordinates:
  17 00 S, 65 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 1,098,580 sq km
  land: 1,084,390 sq km
  water: 14,190 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,743 km
  border countries: Argentina 832 km, Brazil 3,400 km, Chile 861 km,
  Paraguay 750 km, Peru 900 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid

Terrain:
  rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills,
  lowland plains of the Amazon Basin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
  highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m

Natural resources:
  tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver,
  iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 2.78%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 97.03% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,320 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding in the northeast (March-April)

Environment - current issues:
  the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the
  international demand for tropical timber are contributing to
  deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation
  methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification;
  loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used
  for drinking and irrigation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection

Geography - note:
  landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest
  navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru

People Bolivia


Population:
  8,989,046 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35% (male 1,603,982/female 1,542,319)
  15-64 years: 60.4% (male 2,660,806/female 2,771,807)
  65 years and over: 4.6% (male 182,412/female 227,720) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 21.2 years
  female: 22.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  23.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 51.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.84 years
  male: 63.21 years
  female: 68.61 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  4,900 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bolivian(s)
  adjective: Bolivian

Ethnic groups:
  Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%,
  Aymara 25%, white 15%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.2%
  male: 93.1%
  female: 81.6% (2003 est.)

Government Bolivia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Bolivia
  conventional short form: Bolivia
  local long form: Republica de Bolivia
  local short form: Bolivia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: La Paz (adminstrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 16 30 S, 68 09 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Sucre (constitutional capital)

Administrative divisions:
  9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Beni,
  Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz,
  Tarija

Independence:
  6 August 1825 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 August (1825)

Constitution:
  2 February 1967; revised in August 1994

Legal system:
  based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21 years of
  age, universal and compulsory (single)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January
  2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22
  January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January
  2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 18
  December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma elected president; percent
  of vote - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 53.7%; Jorge Fernando QUIROGA
  Ramirez 28.6%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 7.8%; Michiaki NAGATANI
  Morishit 6.5%; Felipe QUISPE Huanca 2.2%; Guildo ANGULA Cabrera 0.7%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of
  Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (27 seats; members are
  elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve
  five-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130
  seats; 69 are directly elected from their districts and 61 are
  elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies - last held
  18 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - PODEMOS 13, MAS 12, UN 1, MNR 1; Chamber of
  Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - MAS 73,
  PODEMOS 43, UN 8, MNR 6

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges appointed for 10-year terms
  by National Congress); District Courts (one in each department);
  provincial and local courts (to try minor cases)

Political parties and leaders:
  Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB [Romel PANTOJA]; Civic Solidarity
  Union or UCS [Johnny FERNANDEZ]; Free Bolivia Movement or MBL [Franz
  BARRIOS]; Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or VIMA [Freddy
  ZABALA]; Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR [Jaime PAZ
  Zamora]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo MORALES Ayma];
  Movement Without Fear or MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO]; National
  Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA]; New
  Republican Force or NFR [Manfred REYES-VILLA]; Pachakuti Indigenous
  Movement or MIP [Felipe QUISPE Huanca]; Poder Democratico Nacional
  or PODEMOS [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Socialist Party or PS
  [Jeres JUSTINIANO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Cocalero groups; indigenous organizations; labor unions; Sole
  Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB [Roman
  LOAYZA]

International organization participation:
  CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMISET, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gustavo GUZMAN Saldana
  chancery: 3014 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4410
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-3712
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Miami, New York, Oklahoma City, San
  Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Philip S. GOLDBERG
  embassy: Avenida Arce 2780, La Paz
  mailing address: P. O. Box 425, La Paz; APO AA 34032
  telephone: [591] (2) 216-8000
  FAX: [591] (2) 216-8111

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with
  the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; similar to the flag of
  Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the
  yellow band

Economy Bolivia


Economy - overview:
  Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American
  countries, reformed its economy after suffering a disastrous
  economic crisis in the early 1980s. The reforms spurred real GDP
  growth, which averaged 4% in the 1990s, and poverty rates fell.
  Economic growth, however, lagged again beginning in 1999 because of
  a global slowdown and homegrown factors such as political turmoil,
  civil unrest, and soaring fiscal deficits, all of which hurt
  investor confidence. In 2003, violent protests against the
  pro-foreign investment economic policies of President SANCHEZ DE
  LOZADA led to his resignation and the cancellation of plans to
  export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large
  northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a
  controversial natural gas law that imposes on the oil and gas firms
  significantly higher taxes as well as new contracts that give the
  state control of their operations. Bolivian officials are in the
  process of implementing the law; meanwhile, foreign investors have
  stopped investing and have taken the first legal steps to secure
  their investments. Real GDP growth in 2003-05 - helped by increased
  demand for natural gas in neighboring Brazil - was positive, but
  still below the levels seen during the 1990s. Bolivia's fiscal
  position has improved in recent years, but the country remains
  dependent on foreign aid from multilateral lenders and foreign
  governments to meet budget shortfalls. In 2005, the G8 announced a
  $2 billion debt-forgiveness plan over the next few decades that
  should help reduce some fiscal pressures on the government in the
  near term.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $25.82 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.657 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12.8%
  industry: 35.2%
  services: 52% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.22 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  8% in urban areas; widespread underemployment (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  64% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.3%
  highest 10%: 32% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  60.6 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  12.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.848 billion
  expenditures: $3.189 billion; including capital expenditures of $741
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes;
  timber

Industries:
  mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco,
  handicrafts, clothing

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.7% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:
  4.25 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 44.4%
  hydro: 54%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.5% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.963 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  42,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  48,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  458.8 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  6.72 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.74 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  2.9 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  679.6 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $462 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.371 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore,
  tin

Exports - partners:
  Brazil 41.2%, US 14.1%, Colombia 8.8%, Argentina 7.6%, Peru 5.5%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $1.845 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft parts,
  prepared foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans

Imports - partners:
  Brazil 21.9%, Argentina 16.7%, US 13.8%, Chile 6.9%, Peru 6.5%,
  Japan 6.1%, China 5.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.798 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $6.309 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $221 million (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  boliviano (BOB)

Currency code:
  BOB

Exchange rates:
  bolivianos per US dollar - 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004), 7.6592
  (2003), 7.17 (2002), 6.6069 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Bolivia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  646,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.421 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties;
  most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile
  cellular telephone use expanding rapidly
  domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs
  digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic
  cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded
  international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)

Radios:
  5.25 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  48 (1997)

Televisions:
  900,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bo

Internet hosts:
  20,085 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  9 (2000)

Internet users:
  480,000 (2005)

Transportation Bolivia


Airports:
  1,084 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1,068
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 60
  914 to 1,523 m: 207
  under 914 m: 797 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km; refined
  products 1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,519 km
  narrow gauge: 3,519 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 60,762 km
  paved: 4,314 km (including 11 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 56,448 km (2003)

Waterways:
  10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 127,297 GRT/198,525 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 8, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo
  3, petroleum tanker 10
  foreign-owned: 10 (Argentina 1, China 1, Egypt 2, Iran 1, Singapore
  3, Taiwan 1, Yemen 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the
  Bolivia/Brazil border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in
  maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

Military Bolivia


Military branches:
  Bolivian Armed Forces: Bolivian Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Bolivian
  Navy (Armada Boliviana; includes marines), Bolivian Air Force
  (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, FAB) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual number
  of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is
  effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; one
  estimate holds that 40% of the armed forces are under the age of 18,
  with 50% of those under the age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12
  months (2002)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,923,234
  females age 18-49: 2,007,315 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,311,414
  females age 18-49: 1,502,177 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 101,101
  females age 18-49: 98,671 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $130 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Bolivia


Disputes - international:
  Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama
  corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but
  not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas
  and other commodities

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Bolivia is a source and transit country for men,
  women, and children trafficked for the purposes of labor and sexual
  exploitation to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, as well as to Spain;
  children are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation, forced
  mining, and agricultural labor; illegal migrants from Asia
  transiting Bolivia are vulnerable as trafficking victims
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Bolivia has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in the areas of
  prosecutions and victim protection

Illicit drugs:
  world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru)
  with an estimated 26,500 hectares under cultivation in August 2005,
  an 8% increase from 2004; intermediate coca products and cocaine
  exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to
  European drug markets; cultivation steadily increasing despite
  eradication and alternative crop programs; money-laundering activity
  related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders with Brazil
  and Paraguay


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bosnia and Herzegovina

Introduction Bosnia and Herzegovina


Background:
  Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October 1991
  was followed by a declaration of independence from the former
  Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic
  Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by neighboring Serbia and
  Montenegro - responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning
  the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to form
  a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats reduced the
  number of warring factions from three to two by signing an agreement
  creating a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  On 21 November 1995, in Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed
  a peace agreement that brought to a halt three years of interethnic
  civil strife (the final agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December
  1995). The Dayton Peace Accords retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's
  international boundaries and created a joint multi-ethnic and
  democratic government charged with conducting foreign, diplomatic,
  and fiscal policy. Also recognized was a second tier of government
  comprised of two entities roughly equal in size: the Bosniak/Croat
  Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led
  Republika Srpska (RS). The Federation and RS governments were
  charged with overseeing most government functions. The Office of the
  High Representative (OHR) was established to oversee the
  implementation of the civilian aspects of the agreement. In 1995-96,
  a NATO-led international peacekeeping force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops
  served in Bosnia to implement and monitor the military aspects of
  the agreement. IFOR was succeeded by a smaller, NATO-led
  Stabilization Force (SFOR) whose mission was to deter renewed
  hostilities. European Union peacekeeping troops (EUFOR) replaced
  SFOR in December 2004; their mission is to maintain peace and
  stability throughout the country.

Geography Bosnia and Herzegovina


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Croatia

Geographic coordinates:
  44 00 N, 18 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 51,129 sq km
  land: 51,129 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,459 km
  border countries: Croatia 932 km, Montenegro 225 km, Serbia 302 km

Coastline:
  20 km

Maritime claims:
  no data available

Climate:
  hot summers and cold winters; areas of high elevation have short,
  cool summers and long, severe winters; mild, rainy winters along
  coast

Terrain:
  mountains and valleys

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Maglic 2,386 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, cobalt,
  manganese, nickel, clay, gypsum, salt, sand, forests, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 19.61%
  permanent crops: 1.89%
  other: 78.5% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from metallurgical plants; sites for disposing of
  urban waste are limited; water shortages and destruction of
  infrastructure because of the 1992-95 civil strife; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Hazardous
  Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  within Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognized borders, the country is
  divided into a joint Bosniak/Croat Federation (about 51% of the
  territory) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska or RS (about
  49% of the territory); the region called Herzegovina is contiguous
  to Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro (Montenegro), and traditionally
  has been settled by an ethnic Croat majority in the west and an
  ethnic Serb majority in the east

People Bosnia and Herzegovina


Population:
  4,498,976 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.5% (male 359,739/female 336,978)
  15-64 years: 70.1% (male 1,590,923/female 1,564,665)
  65 years and over: 14.4% (male 265,637/female 381,034) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 37.2 years
  female: 39.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.35% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  13.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78 years
  male: 74.39 years
  female: 81.88 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  900 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bosnian(s), Herzegovinian(s)
  adjective: Bosnian, Herzegovinian

Ethnic groups:
  Bosniak 48%, Serb 37.1%, Croat 14.3%, other 0.6% (2000)
  note: Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term in part to avoid
  confusion with the religious term Muslim - an adherent of Islam

Religions:
  Muslim 40%, Orthodox 31%, Roman Catholic 15%, other 14%

Languages:
  Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.6%
  male: 98.4%
  female: 91.1% (2000 est.)

Government Bosnia and Herzegovina


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  local long form: none
  local short form: Bosna i Hercegovina
  former: People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Socialist
  Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Government type:
  emerging federal democratic republic

Capital:
  name: Sarajevo
  geographic coordinates: 43 52 N, 18 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  2 first-order administrative divisions and 1 internationally
  supervised district* - Brcko district (Brcko Distrikt)*, the
  Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosna
  i Hercegovina) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska; note -
  Brcko district is in northeastern Bosnia and is an administrative
  unit under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the district
  remains under international supervision

Independence:
  1 March 1992 (from Yugoslavia; referendum for independence was
  completed 1 March 1992; independence was declared 3 March 1992)

National holiday:
  National Day, 25 November (1943)

Constitution:
  the Dayton Agreement, signed 14 December 1995, included a new
  constitution now in force; note - each of the entities also has its
  own constitution

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age, universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Chairman of the Presidency Nebojsa RADMANOVIC
  (chairman since 6 November 2006; presidency member since 1 October
  2006 - Serb); other members of the three-member presidency rotating
  (every eight months): Zeljko KOMSIC (since 1 October 2006 - Croat)
  and Haris SILAJDZIC (since 1 October 2006 - Bosniak)
  head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Adnan
  TERZIC (since 20 December 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the council chairman;
  approved by the National House of Representatives
  elections: the three members of the presidency (one Bosniak, one
  Croat, one Serb) are elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term, but then ineligible for four years);
  the member with the most votes becomes the chairman unless he or she
  was the incumbent chairman at the time of the election, but the
  chairmanship rotates every eight months; election last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2010); the chairman of the Council
  of Ministers is appointed by the presidency and confirmed by the
  National House of Representatives
  election results: percent of vote - Nebojsa RADMANOVIC with 53.3% of
  the Serb vote; Zeljko KOMSIC received 39.6% of the Croat vote; Haris
  SILAJDZIC received 62.8% of the Bosniak vote
  note: President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Niko
  LOZANCIC (since 27 January 2003); Vice Presidents Sahbaz DZIHANOVIC
  (since in 2003) and Desnica RADIVOJEVIC (since in 2003); President
  of the Republika Srpska: Milan JELIC (since 9 November 2006)

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliamentary Assembly or Skupstina consists of the
  national House of Representatives or Predstavnicki Dom (42 seats -
  elected by proportional representation, 28 seats allocated from the
  Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 14 seats from the Republika
  Srpska; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms);
  and the House of Peoples or Dom Naroda (15 seats - 5 Bosniak, 5
  Croat, 5 Serb; members elected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's
  House of Representatives and the Republika Srpska's National
  Assembly to serve four-year terms); note - Bosnia's election law
  specifies four-year terms for the state and first-order
  administrative division entity legislatures
  elections: national House of Representatives - elections last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2010); House of Peoples - last
  constituted in January 2003 (next to be constituted in 2007)
  election results: national House of Representatives - percent of
  vote by party/coalition - NA%; seats by party/coalition - SDA 9,
  SBiH 8, SNSD 7, SDP 5, SDS 3, HDZ-BH 3, other 7; House of Peoples -
  percent of vote by party/coalition - NA; seats by party/coalition -
  NA
  note: the Bosniak/Croat Federation has a bicameral legislature that
  consists of a House of Representatives (98 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in October 2010); percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party/coalition - SDA 28, SBiH 24, SDP 17,
  HDZ-BH 8, HDZ100 7, other 14; and a House of Peoples (60 seats - 30
  Bosniak, 30 Croat); last constituted December 2002; the Republika
  Srpska has a National Assembly (83 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 1 October 2006
  (next to be held in the fall of 2010); percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party/coalition - SNSD 41, SDS 17, PDP 8, DNS 4, SBH 4,
  SPRS 3, SDA 3, other 3; as a result of the 2002 constitutional
  reform process, a 28-member Republika Srpska Council of Peoples
  (COP) was established in the Republika Srpska National Assembly
  including eight Croats, eight Bosniaks, eight Serbs, and four
  members of the smaller communities

Judicial branch:
  BH Constitutional Court (consists of nine members: four members are
  selected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's House of Representatives,
  two members by the Republika Srpska's National Assembly, and three
  non-Bosnian members by the president of the European Court of Human
  Rights); BH State Court (consists of nine judges and three divisions
  - Administrative, Appellate and Criminal - having jurisdiction over
  cases related to state-level law and appellate jurisdiction over
  cases initiated in the entities); note - a War Crimes Chamber opened
  in March 2005
  note: the entities each have a Supreme Court; each entity also has a
  number of lower courts; there are 10 cantonal courts in the
  Federation, plus a number of municipal courts; the Republika Srpska
  has five municipal courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance of Independent Social Democrats or SNSD [Milorad DODIK];
  Bosnian Party or BOSS [Mirnes AJANOVIC]; Civic Democratic Party or
  GDS [Ibrahim SPAHIC]; Croat Christian Democratic Union of Bosnia and
  Herzegovina or HKDU [Marin TOPIC]; Croat Party of Rights or HSP
  [Zvonko JURISIC]; Croat Peasants Party or HSS [Marko TADIC];
  Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina or HDZ-BH
  [Dragan COVIC]; Croatian Democratic Union 100 or HDZ100; Croatian
  Peoples Union [Milenko BRKIC]; Democratic National Union or DNZ
  [Rifet DOLIC]; Democratic Peoples Alliance or DNS [Marko PAVIC];
  Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Rasim KADIC]; New Croat Initiative
  or NHI [Kresimir ZUBAK]; Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina or SBiH
  [Haris SILAJDZIC]; Party for Democratic Action or SDA [Sulejman
  TIHIC]; Party of Democratic Progress or PDP [Mladen IVANIC]; Serb
  Democratic Party or SDS [Dragan CAVIC]; Serb Radical Party of the
  Republika Srpska or SRS-RS [Milanko MIHAJLICA]; Serb Radical
  Party-Dr. Vojislav Seselj or SRS-VS [Radislav KANJERIC]; Social
  Democratic Party of BIH or SDP [Zlatko LAGUMDZIJA]; Social
  Democratic Union or SDU [Sejfudin TOKIC]; Socialist Party of
  Republika Srpska or SPRS [Petar DJOKIC]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  BIS, CE, CEI, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), OAS (observer), OIC (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bisera TURKOVIC
  chancery: 2109 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-1500
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-1502
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Douglas L. McELHANEY
  embassy: Alipasina 43, 71000 Sarajevo
  mailing address: use street address
  telephone: [387] (33) 445-700
  FAX: [387] (33) 659-722
  branch office(s): Banja Luka, Mostar

Flag description:
  a wide medium blue vertical band on the fly side with a yellow
  isosceles triangle abutting the band and the top of the flag; the
  remainder of the flag is medium blue with seven full five-pointed
  white stars and two half stars top and bottom along the hypotenuse
  of the triangle

Economy Bosnia and Herzegovina


Economy - overview:
  Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to Macedonia as the poorest
  republic in the old Yugoslav federation. Although agriculture is
  almost all in private hands, farms are small and inefficient, and
  the republic traditionally is a net importer of food. Industry
  remains greatly overstaffed, a holdover from the socialist economic
  structure of Yugoslavia. TITO had pushed the development of military
  industries in the republic with the result that Bosnia was saddled
  with a host of industrial firms with little commercial potential.
  The interethnic warfare in Bosnia caused production to plummet by
  80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to soar. With an uneasy peace
  in place, output recovered in 1996-99 at high percentage rates from
  a low base; but output growth slowed in 2000-02. Part of the lag in
  output was made up in 2003-05. National-level statistics are limited
  and do not capture the large share of black market activity. The
  konvertibilna marka (convertible mark or BAM)- the national currency
  introduced in 1998 - is pegged to the euro, and confidence in the
  currency and the banking sector has increased. Implementation of
  privatization, however, has been slow, and local entities only
  reluctantly support national-level institutions. Banking reform
  accelerated in 2001 as all the Communist-era payments bureaus were
  shut down; foreign banks, primarily from Western Europe, now control
  most of the banking sector. A sizeable current account deficit and
  high unemployment rate remain the two most serious economic
  problems. The country receives substantial amounts of reconstruction
  assistance and humanitarian aid from the international community but
  will have to prepare for an era of declining assistance.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $23.09 billion
  note: Bosnia has a large informal sector that could also be as much
  as 50% of official GDP (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $8.495 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 14.2%
  industry: 30.8%
  services: 55% (2002)

Labor force:
  1.026 million (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  45.5% official rate; grey economy may reduce actual unemployment to
  25-30% (31 December 2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  26.2 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.4% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.373 billion
  expenditures: $4.401 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  29% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables; livestock

Industries:
  steel, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, manganese, bauxite, vehicle
  assembly, textiles, tobacco products, wooden furniture, tank and
  aircraft assembly, domestic appliances, oil refining

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.5% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  10.51 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 53.5%
  hydro: 46.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  8.849 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  2.271 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  21,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  160 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  300 million cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-2.087 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  metals, clothing, wood products

Exports - partners:
  Croatia 18.4%, Italy 17.1%, Slovenia 14.6%, Germany 12.8%, Austria
  6.5%, Hungary 5.2%, China 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $6.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Croatia 24.7%, Germany 13.7%, Slovenia 13.1%, Italy 11%, Austria
  6.9%, Hungary 5.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.531 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.116 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $650 million (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  marka (BAM)

Currency code:
  BAM

Exchange rates:
  marka per US dollar - 1.5727 (2005), 1.5752 (2004), 1.7329 (2003),
  2.0782 (2002), 2.1857 (2001)
  note: the marka is pegged to the euro

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Bosnia and Herzegovina


Telephones - main lines in use:
  968,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.594 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telephone and telegraph network needs
  modernization and expansion; many urban areas are below average as
  contrasted with services in other former Yugoslav republics
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 387; no satellite earth stations

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 16, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  940,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  33 (plus 277 repeaters) (September 1995)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .ba

Internet hosts:
  31,490 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  806,400 (2005)

Transportation Bosnia and Herzegovina


Airports:
  28 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 20
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Heliports:
  5 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 608 km (777 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 608 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 21,846 km
  paved: 11,425 km (4,686 km of interurban roads)
  unpaved: 10,421 km (2005)

Waterways:
  Sava River (northern border) open to shipping but use limited (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bosanska Gradiska, Bosanski Brod, Bosanski Samac, and Brcko (all
  inland waterway ports on the Sava), Orasje

Military Bosnia and Herzegovina


Military branches:
  VF Army (the air and air defense forces are subordinate commands
  within the Army), VRS Army (the air and air defense forces are
  subordinate commands within the Army)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service in the Federation
  of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 16 years of age in times of war; 18 years
  of age for Republika Srpska; 17 years of age for voluntary military
  service in the Federation and in the Republika Srpska; by law,
  military obligations cover all healthy men between the ages of 18
  and 60, and all women between the ages of 18 and 55; service
  obligation is four months (July 2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,119,508
  females age 18-49: 1,079,435 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 910,539
  females age 18-49: 881,446 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 32,942
  females age 18-49: 31,466 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $234.3 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.5% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Bosnia and Herzegovina


Disputes - international:
  Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro have delimited
  most of their boundary, but sections along the Drina River remain in
  dispute; discussions continue with Croatia on several small disputed
  sections of the boundary related to maritime access that hinder
  ratification of the 1999 border agreement

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 19,213 (Croatia)
  IDPs: 309,200 (Bosnian Croats, Serbs, and Muslims displaced in
  1992-95 war) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  minor transit point for marijuana and opiate trafficking routes to
  Western Europe; remains highly vulnerable to money-laundering
  activity given a primarily cash-based and unregulated economy, weak
  law enforcement, and instances of corruption


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Botswana

Introduction Botswana


Background:
  Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted
  its new name upon independence in 1966. Four decades of
  uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social policies, and
  significant capital investment have created one of the most dynamic
  economies in Africa. Mineral extraction, principally diamond mining,
  dominates economic activity, though tourism is a growing sector due
  to the country's conservation practices and extensive nature
  preserves. Botswana has one of the world's highest known rates of
  HIV/AIDS infection, but also one of Africa's most progressive and
  comprehensive programs for dealing with the disease.

Geography Botswana


Location:
  Southern Africa, north of South Africa

Geographic coordinates:
  22 00 S, 24 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 600,370 sq km
  land: 585,370 sq km
  water: 15,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,013 km
  border countries: Namibia 1,360 km, South Africa 1,840 km, Zimbabwe
  813 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  semiarid; warm winters and hot summers

Terrain:
  predominantly flat to gently rolling tableland; Kalahari Desert in
  southwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: junction of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers 513 m
  highest point: Tsodilo Hills 1,489 m

Natural resources:
  diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash, coal, iron ore,
  silver

Land use:
  arable land: 0.65%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99.34% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; seasonal August winds blow from the west,
  carrying sand and dust across the country, which can obscure
  visibility

Environment - current issues:
  overgrazing; desertification; limited fresh water resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; population concentrated in eastern part of the country

People Botswana


Population:
  1,639,833
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.3% (male 319,531/female 309,074)
  15-64 years: 57.9% (male 460,692/female 488,577)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 23,374/female 38,585) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.4 years
  male: 18.8 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.04% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  23.08 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  29.5 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  6.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 53.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 52.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 33.74 years
  male: 33.9 years
  female: 33.56 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  37.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  350,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  33,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
  adjective: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)

Ethnic groups:
  Tswana (or Setswana) 79%, Kalanga 11%, Basarwa 3%, other, including
  Kgalagadi and white 7%

Religions:
  Christian 71.6%, Badimo 6%, other 1.4%, unspecified 0.4%, none
  20.6% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Setswana 78.2%, Kalanga 7.9%, Sekgalagadi 2.8%, English 2.1%
  (official), other 8.6%, unspecified 0.4% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.8%
  male: 76.9%
  female: 82.4% (2003 est.)

Government Botswana


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Botswana
  conventional short form: Botswana
  local long form: Republic of Botswana
  local short form: Botswana
  former: Bechuanaland

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Gaborone
  geographic coordinates: 24 45 S, 25 55 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 districts and 5 town councils*; Central, Francistown*, Gaborone*,
  Ghanzi, Jwaneng*, Kgalagadi, Kgatleng, Kweneng, Lobatse*, Northeast,
  Northwest, Selebi-Pikwe*, Southeast, Southern

Independence:
  30 September 1966 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (Botswana Day), 30 September (1966)

Constitution:
  March 1965, effective 30 September 1966

Legal system:
  based on Roman-Dutch law and local customary law; judicial review
  limited to matters of interpretation; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Festus G. MOGAE (since 1 April 1998) and
  Vice President Seretse Ian KHAMA (since 13 July 1998); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Festus G. MOGAE (since 1 April 1998)
  and Vice President Seretse Ian KHAMA (since 13 July 1998); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president indirectly elected for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 20 October 2004
  (next to be held in 2009); vice president appointed by the president
  election results: Festus G. MOGAE elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 52%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Chiefs (a largely
  advisory 15-member body with 8 permanent members consisting of the
  chiefs of the principal tribes, and 7 non-permanent members serving
  5-year terms, consisting of 4 elected subchiefs and 3 members
  selected by the other 12 members) and the National Assembly (63
  seats, 57 members are directly elected by popular vote, 4 are
  appointed by the majority party, and 2, the President and
  Attorney-General, serve as ex-officio members; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly elections last held 30 October 2004
  (next to be held October 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - BDP 51.7%, BNF 26.1%,
  BCP 16.6%, other 5%; seats by party - BDP 44, BNF 12, BCP 1

Judicial branch:
  High Court; Court of Appeal; Magistrates' Courts (one in each
  district)

Political parties and leaders:
  Botswana Alliance Movement or BAM [Ephraim Lepetu SETSHWAELO];
  Botswana Congress Party or BCP [Otlaadisa KOOSALETSE]; Botswana
  Democratic Party or BDP [Festus G. MOGAE]; Botswana National Front
  or BNF [Otswoletse MOUPO]; Botswana Peoples Party or BPP; MELS
  Movement of Botswana or MELS; New Democratic Front or NDF
  note: a number of minor parties joined forces in 1999 to form the
  BAM but did not capture any parliamentary seats - includes the
  United Action Party [Ephraim Lepetu SETSHWAELO]; the Independence
  Freedom Party or IFP [Motsamai MPHO]; the Botswana Progressive Union
  [D. K. KWELE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OPCW, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lapologang Caesar LEKOA
  chancery: 1531-1533 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-4990
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-4164

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Katherine H. CANAVAN
  embassy: address NA, Gaborone
  mailing address: Embassy Enclave, P. O. Box 90, Gaborone
  telephone: [267] 353982
  FAX: [267] 312782

Flag description:
  light blue with a horizontal white-edged black stripe in the center

Economy Botswana


Economy - overview:
  Botswana has maintained one of the world's highest economic growth
  rates since independence in 1966. Through fiscal discipline and
  sound management, Botswana has transformed itself from one of the
  poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per
  capita GDP of $10,000 in 2005. Two major investment services rank
  Botswana as the best credit risk in Africa. Diamond mining has
  fueled much of the expansion and currently accounts for more than
  one-third of GDP and for 70-80% of export earnings. Tourism,
  financial services, subsistence farming, and cattle raising are
  other key sectors. On the downside, the government must deal with
  high rates of unemployment and poverty. Unemployment officially is
  23.8%, but unofficial estimates place it closer to 40%. HIV/AIDS
  infection rates are the second highest in the world and threaten
  Botswana's impressive economic gains. An expected leveling off in
  diamond mining production overshadows long-term prospects.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $17.53 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.046 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $10,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.4%
  industry: 46.9% (including 36% mining)
  services: 50.7% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  288,400 formal sector employees (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  23.8% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  30.3% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  63 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.766 billion
  expenditures: $3.767 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  6.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  livestock, sorghum, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers, groundnuts

Industries:
  diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash; livestock
  processing; textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  891 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.641 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  1.39 billion kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  16,000 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $1.584 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.68 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, copper, nickel, soda ash, meat, textiles

Exports - partners:
  European Free Trade Association (EFTA) 87%, Southern African
  Customs Union (SACU) 7%, Zimbabwe 4% (2004)

Imports:
  $3.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery, electrical goods, transport equipment,
  textiles, fuel and petroleum products, wood and paper products,
  metal and metal products

Imports - partners:
  Southern African Customs Union (SACU) 74%, EFTA 17%, Zimbabwe 4%
  (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $6.309 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $519 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $73 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  pula (BWP)

Currency code:
  BWP

Exchange rates:
  pulas per US dollar - 5.1104 (2005), 4.6929 (2004), 4.9499 (2003),
  6.3278 (2002), 5.8412 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Botswana


Telephones - main lines in use:
  132,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  823,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the system is expanding with the growth of
  mobile cellular service and participation in regional development
  domestic: small system of open-wire lines, microwave radio relay
  links, and a few radiotelephone communication stations; mobile
  cellular service is growing fast
  international: country code - 267; two international exchanges;
  digital microwave radio relay links to Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
  and South Africa; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 13, shortwave 4 (2001)

Radios:
  252,720 (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  31,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bw

Internet hosts:
  5,499 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  11 (2001)

Internet users:
  60,000 (2002)

Transportation Botswana


Airports:
  85 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 75
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 55
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 888 km
  narrow gauge: 888 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 25,233 km
  paved: 8,867 km
  unpaved: 16,366 km (2003)

Military Botswana


Military branches:
  Botswana Defense Force (includes an air wing) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 is the apparent age of voluntary military service; the official
  qualifications for determining minimum age are unknown (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 350,649
  females age 18-49: 361,642 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 136,322
  females age 18-49: 136,315 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 21,103
  females age 18-49: 21,379 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $325.5 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Botswana


Disputes - international:
  commission established with Namibia has yet to resolve small
  residual disputes along the Caprivi Strip, including the Situngu
  marshlands along the Linyanti River; downstream Botswana residents
  protest Namibia's planned construction of the Okavango hydroelectric
  dam at Popavalle (Popa Falls); Botswana has built electric fences to
  stem the thousands of Zimbabweans who flee to find work and escape
  political persecution; Namibia has long supported and in 2004
  Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana and Zambia to
  build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto recognizing
  their short, but not clearly delimited Botswana-Zambia boundary


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bouvet Island

Introduction Bouvet Island


Background:
  This uninhabited volcanic island is almost entirely covered by
  glaciers and is difficult to approach. It was discovered in 1739 by
  a French naval officer after whom the island was named. No claim was
  made until 1825, when the British flag was raised. In 1928, the UK
  waived its claim in favor of Norway, which had occupied the island
  the previous year. In 1971, Bouvet Island and the adjacent
  territorial waters were designated a nature reserve. Since 1977,
  Norway has run an automated meteorological station on the island.

Geography Bouvet Island


Location:
  island in the South Atlantic Ocean, southwest of the Cape of Good
  Hope (South Africa)

Geographic coordinates:
  54 26 S, 3 24 E

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 49 sq km
  land: 49 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  29.6 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 4 nm

Climate:
  antarctic

Terrain:
  volcanic; coast is mostly inaccessible

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Olav Peak 935 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (93% ice) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  covered by glacial ice; declared a nature reserve

People Bouvet Island


Population:
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Government Bouvet Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bouvet Island

Dependency status:
  territory of Norway; administered by the Polar Department of the
  Ministry of Justice and Police from Oslo

Legal system:
  the laws of Norway, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of Norway is used

Economy Bouvet Island


Economy - overview:
  no economic activity; declared a nature reserve

Communications Bouvet Island


Internet country code:
  .bv

Internet hosts:
  6 (2006)

Communications - note:
  automatic meteorological station

Transportation Bouvet Island


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Bouvet Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Norway

Transnational Issues Bouvet Island


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Brazil

Introduction Brazil


Background:
  Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became
  an independent nation in 1822 and a republic in 1889. By far the
  largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame
  more than half a century of military intervention in the governance
  of the country when in 1985 the military regime peacefully ceded
  power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and
  agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast
  natural resources and a large labor pool, it is today South
  America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly
  unequal income distribution remains a pressing problem.

Geography Brazil


Location:
  Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean

Geographic coordinates:
  10 00 S, 55 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 8,511,965 sq km
  land: 8,456,510 sq km
  water: 55,455 sq km
  note: includes Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas,
  Ilha da Trindade, Ilhas Martin Vaz, and Penedos de Sao Pedro e Sao
  Paulo

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 16,884.4 km
  border countries: Argentina 1,261 km, Bolivia 3,423 km, Colombia
  1,644 km, French Guiana 730.4 km, Guyana 1,606 km, Paraguay 1,365
  km, Peru 2,995 km, Suriname 593 km, Uruguay 1,068 km, Venezuela
  2,199 km

Coastline:
  7,491 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  mostly tropical, but temperate in south

Terrain:
  mostly flat to rolling lowlands in north; some plains, hills,
  mountains, and narrow coastal belt

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico da Neblina 3,014 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum,
  tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 6.93%
  permanent crops: 0.89%
  other: 92.18% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  29,200 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring droughts in northeast; floods and occasional frost in
  south

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and endangers a
  multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the area; there
  is a lucrative illegal wildlife trade; air and water pollution in
  Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large cities; land
  degradation and water pollution caused by improper mining
  activities; wetland degradation; severe oil spills

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  largest country in South America; shares common boundaries with
  every South American country except Chile and Ecuador

People Brazil


Population:
  188,078,227
  note: Brazil conducted a census in August 2000, which reported a
  population of 169,799,170; that figure was about 3.3% lower than
  projections by the US Census Bureau, and is close to the implied
  underenumeration of 4.6% for the 1991 census; estimates for this
  country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality
  due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant
  mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and
  changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would
  otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 25.8% (male 24,687,656/female 23,742,998)
  15-64 years: 68.1% (male 63,548,331/female 64,617,539)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 4,712,675/female 6,769,028) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.2 years
  male: 27.5 years
  female: 29 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.04% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.97 years
  male: 68.02 years
  female: 76.12 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  660,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  15,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Brazilian(s)
  adjective: Brazilian

Ethnic groups:
  white 53.7%, mulatto (mixed white and black) 38.5%, black 6.2%,
  other (includes Japanese, Arab, Amerindian) 0.9%, unspecified 0.7%
  (2000 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%, Protestant 15.4%, Spiritualist
  1.3%, Bantu/voodoo 0.3%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.2%, none 7.4%
  (2000 census)

Languages:
  Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.4%
  male: 86.1%
  female: 86.6% (2003 est.)

Government Brazil


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federative Republic of Brazil
  conventional short form: Brazil
  local long form: Republica Federativa do Brasil
  local short form: Brasil

Government type:
  federative republic

Capital:
  name: Brasilia
  geographic coordinates: 15 47 S, 47 55 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins third Sunday in October; ends
  third Sunday in February
  note: Brazil is divided into four time zones, including one for the
  Fernando de Noronha islands

Administrative divisions:
  26 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal district*
  (distrito federal); Acre, Alagoas, Amapa, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceara,
  Distrito Federal*, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso,
  Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Paraiba, Parana, Pernambuco,
  Piaui, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul,
  Rondonia, Roraima, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo, Sergipe, Tocantins

Independence:
  7 September 1822 (from Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 7 September (1822)

Constitution:
  5 October 1988

Legal system:
  based on Roman codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  voluntary between 16 and 18 years of age and over 70; compulsory
  over 18 and under 70 years of age; note - military conscripts do not
  vote

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1
  January 2003); Vice President Jose ALENCAR (since 1 January 2003);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1
  January 2003); Vice President Jose ALENCAR (since 1 January 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single four-year term; election last held 1
  October 2006 with runoff 29 October 2006 (next to be held 3 October
  2010 and, if necessary, 31 October 2010)
  election results: Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (PT) reelected president
  - 60.83%, Geraldo ALCKMIN (PSDB) 39.17%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congresso Nacional consists of the
  Federal Senate or Senado Federal (81 seats; 3 members from each
  state and federal district elected according to the principle of
  majority to serve eight-year terms; one-third elected after a
  four-year period, two-thirds elected after the next four-year
  period) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camara dos Deputados (513
  seats; members are elected by proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: Federal Senate - last held 1 October 2006 for one-third
  of the Senate (next to be held October 2010 for two-thirds of the
  Senate); Chamber of Deputies - last held 1 October 2006 (next to be
  held October 2010)
  election results: Federal Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - PFL 6, PSDB 5, PMDB 4, PTB 3, PT 2, PFL 1, PDT 1,
  PSB 1, PL 1, PPS 1, PRTB 1, PP 1, PCdoB 1; total seats following
  election - PFL 18, PMDB 15, PSDB 15, PT 11, PDT 5, PTB 4, PSB 3, PL
  3, PCdoB 2, PRB 2, PPS 1, PRTB 1, PP 1; Chamber of Deputies -
  percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PMDB 89, PT 83, PFL
  65, PSDB 65, PP 42, PSB 27, PDT 24, PL 23, PTB 22, PPS 21, PCdoB 13,
  PV 13, PSC 9, other 17

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Federal Tribunal (11 ministers are appointed for life by
  the president and confirmed by the Senate); Higher Tribunal of
  Justice; Regional Federal Tribunals (judges are appointed for life);
  note - though appointed "for life," judges, like all federal
  employees, have a mandatory retirement age of 70

Political parties and leaders:
  Brazilian Democratic Movement Party or PMDB [Federal Deputy Michel
  TEMER]; Brazilian Labor Party or PTB [Flavio de CASTRO MARTINEZ];
  Brazilian Renewal Labor Party or PRTB [Jose Levy Fidelix DA CRUZ];
  Brazilian Republican Party or PRB [Vitor Paulo Araujo DOS SANTOS];
  Brazilian Social Democracy Party or PSDB [Senator Tasso JEREISSATI];
  Brazilian Socialist Party or PSB [Federal Deputy Eduardo Henrique
  Accioly CAMPOS]; Communist Party of Brazil or PCdoB [Jose Renato
  RABELO]; Democratic Labor Party or PDT [Carlos Roberto LUPI];
  Democratic Socialist Party or PSD [Luis Marques MENDES]; Green Party
  or PV [Jose Luiz de Franca PENNA]; Humanist Party of Solidarity or
  PHS [leader NA]; Liberal Party or PL [Federal Deputy Valdemar COSTA
  Neto]; National Order Reconstruction Party or PRONA [Federal Deputy
  Dr. Eneas Ferreira CARNEIRO]; Partido Municipalista Renovador or PMR
  [Natal Wellington Rodrigues FURUCHO]; Popular Socialist Party or PPS
  [Federal Deputy Roberto FREIRE]; Progressive Party or PP [Federal
  Deputy Pedro CORREA]; Social Christian Party or PSC [Vitor Jorge
  ABDALA NOSSEIS]; Workers' Party or PT [Ricardo Jose Ribeiro BERZOINI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Landless Worker's Movement; labor unions and federations; large
  farmers' associations; religious groups including evangelical
  Christian churches and the Catholic Church

International organization participation:
  AfDB, BIS, CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur,
  MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roberto P. ABDENUR
  chancery: 3006 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-2700
  FAX: [1] (202) 238-2827
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Clifford M. SOBEL
  embassy: Avenida das Nacoes, Quadra 801, Lote 3, Distrito Federal
  Cep 70403-900, Brasilia
  mailing address: Unit 3500, APO AA 34030
  telephone: [55] (61) 3312-7000
  FAX: [55] (61) 3225-9136
  consulate(s) general: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo
  consulate(s): Recife

Flag description:
  green with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a blue
  celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (one for each state
  and the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the night
  sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with the
  motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress)

Economy Brazil


Economy - overview:
  Characterized by large and well-developed agricultural, mining,
  manufacturing, and service sectors, Brazil's economy outweighs that
  of all other South American countries and is expanding its presence
  in world markets. From 2001-03 real wages fell and Brazil's economy
  grew, on average only 2.2% per year, as the country absorbed a
  series of domestic and international economic shocks. That Brazil
  absorbed these shocks without financial collapse is a tribute to the
  resiliency of the Brazilian economy and the economic program put in
  place by former President CARDOSO and strengthened by President LULA
  DA SILVA. In 2004, Brazil enjoyed more robust growth that yielded
  increases in employment and real wages. The three pillars of the
  economic program are a floating exchange rate, an
  inflation-targeting regime, and tight fiscal policy, all reinforced
  by a series of IMF programs. The currency depreciated sharply in
  2001 and 2002, which contributed to a dramatic current account
  adjustment; in 2003 to 2005, Brazil ran record trade surpluses and
  recorded its first current account surpluses since 1992.
  Productivity gains - particularly in agriculture - also contributed
  to the surge in exports, and Brazil in 2005 surpassed the previous
  year's record export level. While economic management has been good,
  there remain important economic vulnerabilities. The most
  significant are debt-related: the government's largely domestic debt
  increased steadily from 1994 to 2003 - straining government finances
  - before falling as a percentage of GDP in 2005, while Brazil's
  foreign debt (a mix of private and public debt) is large in relation
  to Brazil's small (but growing) export base. Another challenge is
  maintaining economic growth over a period of time to generate
  employment and make the government debt burden more manageable.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.536 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $619.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.4%
  industry: 40%
  services: 51.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  90.41 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 14%
  services: 66% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  22% (1998 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.7%
  highest 10%: 31.27% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  59.7 (2004)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $140.6 billion
  expenditures: $172.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Public debt:
  51.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, citrus; beef

Industries:
  textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel,
  aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and equipment

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  387.5 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 8.3%
  hydro: 82.7%
  nuclear: 4.4%
  other: 4.6% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  359.6 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  6 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  37.4 billion kWh; note - supplied by Paraguay (2004)

Oil - production:
  2.01 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1.61 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  241,700 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  572,600 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  15.12 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  15.79 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  21.74 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  5.947 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  240 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $14.19 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $115.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  transport equipment, iron ore, soybeans, footwear, coffee, autos

Exports - partners:
  US 19.6%, China 7.5%, Argentina 6.9%, Germany 5.3%, Mexico 4.3%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $78.02 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, electrical and transport equipment, chemical products,
  oil

Imports - partners:
  US 19.7%, Germany 8.7%, Argentina 8.2%, China 6.2%, Nigeria 6.1%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $53.8 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $188 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $30 billion (2002)

Currency (code):
  real (BRL)

Currency code:
  BRL

Exchange rates:
  reals per US dollar - 2.4344 (2005), 2.9251 (2004), 3.0771 (2003),
  2.9208 (2002), 2.3577 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Brazil


Telephones - main lines in use:
  42.382 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  86.21 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good working system
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay system and a domestic
  satellite system with 64 earth stations
  international: country code - 55; 3 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Inmarsat
  (Atlantic Ocean region east), connected by microwave relay system to
  Mercosur Brazilsat B3 satellite earth station

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1,365, FM 296, shortwave 161 (of which 91 are collocated with AM
  stations) (1999)

Radios:
  71 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  138 (1997)

Televisions:
  36.5 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .br

Internet hosts:
  6,508,431 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  50 (2000)

Internet users:
  25.9 million (2005)

Transportation Brazil


Airports:
  4,276 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 714
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 24
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 164
  914 to 1,523 m: 464
  under 914 m: 54 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3,562
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 81
  914 to 1,523 m: 1,634
  under 914 m: 1,847 (2006)

Heliports:
  417 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate/gas 244 km; gas 11,669 km; liquid petroleum gas 341 km;
  oil 5,212 km; refined products 4,755 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 29,252 km
  broad gauge: 4,877 km 1.600-m gauge (939 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 194 km 1.440-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 23,785 km 1.000-m gauge (581 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 396 km 1.000 m and 1.600-m gauges (three rails) (78 km
  electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 1,724,929 km
  paved: 94,871 km
  unpaved: 1,630,058 km (2000)

Waterways:
  50,000 km (most in areas remote from industry and population) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 137 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,038,923 GRT/3,057,820 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 21, cargo 21, chemical tanker 8, container 8,
  liquefied gas 12, passenger/cargo 12, petroleum tanker 47, roll
  on/roll off 8
  foreign-owned: 15 (Chile 1, Germany 7, Norway 2, Spain 4, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Ghana 1, Liberia 3, Marshall
  Islands 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Gebig, Itaqui, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande, San Sebasttiao, Santos,
  Sepetiba Terminal, Tubarao, Vitoria

Military Brazil


Military branches:
  Brazilian Army, Brazilian Navy (Marinha do Brasil (MB), includes
  Naval Air and Marine Corps (Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais)), Brazilian
  Air Force (Forca Aerea Brasileira, FAB) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  21-45 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - nine to 12 months; 17-45 years of age for
  voluntary service; an increasing percentage of the ranks are
  "long-service" volunteer professionals; women were allowed to serve
  in the armed forces beginning in early 1980s when the Brazilian Army
  became the first army in South America to accept women into career
  ranks; women serve in Navy and Air Force only in Women's Reserve
  Corps (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 45,586,036
  females age 19-49: 45,728,704 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 33,119,098
  females age 19-49: 38,079,722 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,785,930
  females age 19-49: 1,731,648 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9.94 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Brazil


Disputes - international:
  unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders
  is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics
  trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations;
  uncontested dispute with Uruguay over certain islands in the
  Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada boundary streams and the resulting
  tripoint with Argentina; in 2004 Brazil submitted its claims to the
  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to extend
  its maritime continental margin

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Brazil is a source and destination country for
  women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation within Brazil and
  to destinations in South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe,
  Japan, the US, and the Middle East, and for men trafficked within
  the country for forced agricultural labor; child sex tourism is a
  problem within the country, particularly in the resort areas and
  coastal cities of Brazil's northeast; foreign victims from Bolivia,
  Peru, China, and Korea are trafficked to Brazil for labor
  exploitation in factories
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Brazil has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to fight trafficking, specifically for its
  failure to apply effective criminal penalties against traffickers
  who exploit forced labor

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis; trace amounts of coca cultivation in
  the Amazon region, used for domestic consumption; government has a
  large-scale eradication program to control cannabis; important
  transshipment country for Bolivian, Colombian, and Peruvian cocaine
  headed for Europe; also used by traffickers as a way station for
  narcotics air transshipments between Peru and Colombia; upsurge in
  drug-related violence and weapons smuggling; important market for
  Colombian, Bolivian, and Peruvian cocaine; illicit narcotics
  proceeds earned in Brazil are often laundered through the financial
  system; significant illicit financial activity in the Tri-Border Area


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@British Indian Ocean Territory

Introduction British Indian Ocean Territory


Background:
  Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the
  British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to
  the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. Subsequently,
  BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the
  Chagos Archipelago. The largest and most southerly of the islands,
  Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of
  the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers,
  earlier residents in the islands, were relocated primarily to
  Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In
  2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration
  order that had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the
  special military status of Diego Garcia.

Geography British Indian Ocean Territory


Location:
  archipelago in the Indian Ocean, south of India, about one-half the
  way from Africa to Indonesia

Geographic coordinates:
  6 00 S, 71 30 E; note - Diego Garcia 7 20 S, 72 25 E

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 54,400 sq km
  land: 60 sq km; Diego Garcia 44 sq km
  water: 54,340 sq km
  note: includes the entire Chagos Archipelago of 55 islands

Area - comparative:
  land area is about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  698 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; hot, humid, moderated by trade winds

Terrain:
  flat and low (most areas do not exceed two meters in elevation)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Diego Garcia 15 m

Natural resources:
  coconuts, fish, sugarcane

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  archipelago of 55 islands; Diego Garcia, largest and southernmost
  island, occupies strategic location in central Indian Ocean; island
  is site of joint US-UK military facility

People British Indian Ocean Territory


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: approximately 1,200 former agricultural workers resident in
  the Chagos Archipelago, often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois,
  were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the 1960s and
  1970s; in November 2000 they were granted the right of return by a
  British High Court ruling, though no timetable has been set; in
  November 2004, there were approximately 4,000 UK and US military
  personnel and civilian contractors living on the island of Diego
  Garcia (July 2006 est.)

Government British Indian Ocean Territory


Country name:
  conventional long form: British Indian Ocean Territory
  conventional short form: none
  abbreviation: BIOT

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK; administered by a commissioner,
  resident in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London

Legal system:
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Commissioner Tony CROMBIE (since January 2004);
  Administrator Tony HUMPHRIES (since February 2005); note - both
  reside in the UK
  cabinet: NA
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; commissioner and
  administrator appointed by the monarch

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  white with six blue wavy horizontal stripes; the flag of the UK is
  in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the striped section bears a palm
  tree and yellow crown centered on the outer half of the flag

Economy British Indian Ocean Territory


Economy - overview:
  All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of
  Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US defense facilities are located.
  Construction projects and various services needed to support the
  military installations are done by military and contract employees
  from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are no
  industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. When the Ilois
  return, they plan to reestablish sugarcane production and fishing.
  The country makes money by selling fishing licenses and postage
  stamps.

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by the US military

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Currency (code):
  both the British Pound (GBP) and the US Dollar (USD) are accepted

Communications British Indian Ocean Territory


Telephones - main lines in use:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: separate facilities for military and public
  needs are available
  domestic: all commercial telephone services are available, including
  connection to the Internet
  international: international telephone service is carried by
  satellite (2000)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .io

Internet hosts:
  65 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Transportation British Indian Ocean Territory


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: NA
  paved: short section of paved road between port and airfield on
  Diego Garcia

Ports and terminals:
  Diego Garcia

Military British Indian Ocean Territory


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK; the US lease on Diego
  Garcia expires in 2016

Transnational Issues British Indian Ocean Territory


Disputes - international:
  Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago including
  Diego Garcia; in 2001 the former inhabitants of the Chagos
  Archipelago, evicted in 1965 and now residing chiefly in Mauritius,
  were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation; the UK
  resists the Chagossians' demand for an immediate return to the
  islands; repatriation is complicated by the exclusive US military
  lease of Diego Garcia that restricts access to the largest island in
  the chain;


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@British Virgin Islands

Introduction British Virgin Islands


Background:
  First inhabited by Arawak and later by Carib Indians, the Virgin
  Islands were settled by the Dutch in 1648 and then annexed by the
  English in 1672. The islands were part of the British colony of the
  Leeward Islands from 1872-1960; they were granted autonomy in 1967.
  The economy is closely tied to the larger and more populous US
  Virgin Islands to the west; the US dollar is the legal currency.

Geography British Virgin Islands


Location:
  Caribbean, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean,
  east of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  18 30 N, 64 30 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 153 sq km
  land: 153 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: comprised of 16 inhabited and more than 20 uninhabited
  islands; includes the islands of Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda,
  Jost van Dyke

Area - comparative:
  about 0.9 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  80 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical; humid; temperatures moderated by trade winds

Terrain:
  coral islands relatively flat; volcanic islands steep, hilly

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Sage 521 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 6.67%
  other: 73.33% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes and tropical storms (July to October)

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources (except for a few seasonal
  streams and springs on Tortola, most of the islands' water supply
  comes from wells and rainwater catchments)

Geography - note:
  strong ties to nearby US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico

People British Virgin Islands


Population:
  23,098 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.5% (male 2,403/female 2,331)
  15-64 years: 74.3% (male 8,811/female 8,340)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 636/female 577) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.4 years
  male: 31.6 years
  female: 31.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.97% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  9.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.1 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 16.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.68 years
  male: 75.56 years
  female: 77.84 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: British Virgin Islander(s)
  adjective: British Virgin Islander

Ethnic groups:
  black 83%, white, Indian, Asian and mixed

Religions:
  Protestant 86% (Methodist 33%, Anglican 17%, Church of God 9%,
  Seventh-Day Adventist 6%, Baptist 4%, Jehovah's Witnesses 2%, other
  15%), Roman Catholic 10%, none 2%, other 2% (1991)

Languages:
  English (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.8% (1991 est.)
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Government British Virgin Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: British Virgin Islands
  abbreviation: BVI

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK; internal self-governing

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Road Town
  geographic coordinates: 18 27 N, 64 37 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Territory Day, 1 July

Constitution:
  1 June 1977, amended in 2000

Legal system:
  English law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor David PEAREY (since 18 April 2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Dr. Orlando D. SMITH (since 17
  June 2003)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor from members of
  the Legislative Council
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council (13 seats; members are elected by
  direct popular vote, 1 member from each of nine electoral districts,
  4 at-large members; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 16 May 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NDP 8, VIP 5

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting of the High Court of
  Justice and the Court of Appeal (one judge of the Supreme Court is a
  resident of the islands and presides over the High Court);
  Magistrate's Court; Juvenile Court; Court of Summary Jurisdiction

Political parties and leaders:
  Concerned Citizens Movement or CCM [Ethlyn SMITH]; National
  Democratic Party or NDP [Orlando SMITH]; United Party or UP [Gregory
  MADURO]; Virgin Islands Party or VIP [Ralph T. O'NEAL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), IOC, OECS
  (associate), UNESCO (associate), UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Virgin Islander coat of arms centered in the outer half of the
  flag; the coat of arms depicts a woman flanked on either side by a
  vertical column of six oil lamps above a scroll bearing the Latin
  word VIGILATE (Be Watchful)

Economy British Virgin Islands


Economy - overview:
  The economy, one of the most stable and prosperous in the
  Caribbean, is highly dependent on tourism, generating an estimated
  45% of the national income. An estimated 350,000 tourists, mainly
  from the US, visited the islands in 1998. Tourism suffered in 2002
  because of the lackluster US economy. In the mid-1980s, the
  government began offering offshore registration to companies wishing
  to incorporate in the islands, and incorporation fees now generate
  substantial revenues. Roughly 400,000 companies were on the offshore
  registry by yearend 2000. The adoption of a comprehensive insurance
  law in late 1994, which provides a blanket of confidentiality with
  regulated statutory gateways for investigation of criminal offenses,
  made the British Virgin Islands even more attractive to
  international business. Livestock raising is the most important
  agricultural activity; poor soils limit the islands' ability to meet
  domestic food requirements. Because of traditionally close links
  with the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands has used the
  US dollar as its currency since 1959.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $853.4 million (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $839.7 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2002 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $38,500 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 6.2%
  services: 92% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
  12,770 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 0.6%
  industry: 40%
  services: 59.4%

Unemployment rate:
  3.6% (1997)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $204.7 million
  expenditures: $180.4 million; including capital expenditures of
  $33.8 million (1997)

Agriculture - products:
  fruits, vegetables; livestock, poultry; fish

Industries:
  tourism, light industry, construction, rum, concrete block,
  offshore financial center

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  34.55 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  32.13 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $134.3 million

Exports:
  $25.3 million (2002)

Exports - commodities:
  rum, fresh fish, fruits, animals; gravel, sand

Exports - partners:
  Virgin Islands (US), Puerto Rico, US (2004)

Imports:
  $187 million (2002 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  building materials, automobiles, foodstuffs, machinery

Imports - partners:
  Virgin Islands (US), Puerto Rico, US (2004)

Debt - external:
  $36.1 million (1997)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications British Virgin Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  11,700 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  8,000 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: worldwide telephone service
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-284; submarine cable to Bermuda

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  9,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus one cable company) (1997)

Televisions:
  4,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .vg

Internet hosts:
  525 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  4,000 (2002)

Transportation British Virgin Islands


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 177 km
  paved: 177 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 1 (North Korea 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Road Town

Military British Virgin Islands


Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,410 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,295 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 201 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues British Virgin Islands


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined for the
  US and Europe; large offshore financial center makes it vulnerable
  to money laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Brunei

Introduction Brunei


Background:
  The Sultanate of Brunei's influence peaked between the 15th and
  17th centuries when its control extended over coastal areas of
  northwest Borneo and the southern Philippines. Brunei subsequently
  entered a period of decline brought on by internal strife over royal
  succession, colonial expansion of European powers, and piracy. In
  1888, Brunei became a British protectorate; independence was
  achieved in 1984. The same family has ruled Brunei for over six
  centuries. Brunei benefits from extensive petroleum and natural gas
  fields, the source of one of the highest per capita GDPs in the
  developing world.

Geography Brunei


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and Malaysia

Geographic coordinates:
  4 30 N, 114 40 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 5,770 sq km
  land: 5,270 sq km
  water: 500 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Land boundaries:
  total: 381 km
  border countries: Malaysia 381 km

Coastline:
  161 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm or to median line

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid, rainy

Terrain:
  flat coastal plain rises to mountains in east; hilly lowland in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Bukit Pagon 1,850 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 2.08%
  permanent crops: 0.87%
  other: 97.05% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  typhoons, earthquakes, and severe flooding are rare

Environment - current issues:
  seasonal smoke/haze resulting from forest fires in Indonesia

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  close to vital sea lanes through South China Sea linking Indian and
  Pacific Oceans; two parts physically separated by Malaysia; almost
  an enclave within Malaysia

People Brunei


Population:
  379,444 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.1% (male 54,411/female 52,134)
  15-64 years: 68.8% (male 138,129/female 123,017)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 5,584/female 6,169) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.4 years
  male: 28 years
  female: 26.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.87% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.79 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.09 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 12.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.01 years
  male: 72.57 years
  female: 77.59 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bruneian(s)
  adjective: Bruneian

Ethnic groups:
  Malay 67%, Chinese 15%, indigenous 6%, other 12%

Religions:
  Muslim (official) 67%, Buddhist 13%, Christian 10%, indigenous
  beliefs and other 10%

Languages:
  Malay (official), English, Chinese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 91.4% (2002)

Government Brunei


Country name:
  conventional long form: Negara Brunei Darussalam
  conventional short form: Brunei
  local long form: Negara Brunei Darussalam
  local short form: Brunei

Government type:
  constitutional sultanate

Capital:
  name: Bandar Seri Begawan
  geographic coordinates: 4 52 S, 114 55 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  4 districts (daerah-daerah, singular - daerah); Belait, Brunei and
  Muara, Temburong, Tutong

Independence:
  1 January 1984 (from UK)

National holiday:
  National Day, 23 February (1984); note - 1 January 1984 was the
  date of independence from the UK, 23 February 1984 was the date of
  independence from British protection

Constitution:
  29 September 1959 (some provisions suspended under a State of
  Emergency since December 1962, others since independence on 1
  January 1984)

Legal system:
  based on English common law; for Muslims, Islamic Shari'a law
  supersedes civil law in a number of areas

Suffrage:
  none

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Sultan and Prime Minister Sir HASSANAL Bolkiah
  (since 5 October 1967); note - the monarch is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: Sultan and Prime Minister Sir HASSANAL Bolkiah
  (since 5 October 1967); note - the monarch is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Cabinet Ministers appointed and presided over by
  the monarch; deals with executive matters; note - there is also a
  Religious Council (members appointed by the monarch) that advises on
  religious matters, a Privy Council (members appointed by the
  monarch) that deals with constitutional matters, and the Council of
  Succession (members appointed by the monarch) that determines the
  succession to the throne if the need arises
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Legislative branch:
  Legislative Council met on 25 September 2004 for first time in 20
  years with 21 members appointed by the Sultan; passed constitutional
  amendments calling for a 45-seat council with 15 elected members;
  Sultan dissolved council on 1 September 2005 and appointed a new
  council with 29 members as of 2 September 2005
  elections: last held in March 1962 (date of next election NA)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court - chief justice and judges are sworn in by monarch
  for three-year terms; Judicial Committee of Privy Council in London
  is final court of appeal for civil cases; Shariah courts deal with
  Islamic laws (2006)

Political parties and leaders:
  Brunei Solidarity National Party (PPKB) [Haji Mohd HATTA bin Haji
  Zainal Abidin]; National Development Party (NDP) [YASSIN Affendi];
  People's Awareness Party (PAKAR) [Awang Haji MAIDIN bin Haji Ahmad]
  note: parties are small and have limited activity (2005)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, C, EAS, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDB,
  IFRCS, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OIC,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pengiran Anak Dato PUTEH
  chancery: 3520 International Court NW #300, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 237-1838
  FAX: [1] (202) 885-0560

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Emil SKODON
  embassy: Third Floor, Teck Guan Plaza, Jalan Sultan, Bandar Seri
  Begawan, BS8811
  mailing address: PSC 470 (BSB), FPO AP 96507; P.O. Box 2991, Bandar
  Seri Begawan BS8675, Negara Brunei Darussalam
  telephone: [673] 222-0384
  FAX: [673] 222-5293

Flag description:
  yellow with two diagonal bands of white (top, almost double width)
  and black starting from the upper hoist side; the national emblem in
  red is superimposed at the center; the emblem includes a
  swallow-tailed flag on top of a winged column within an upturned
  crescent above a scroll and flanked by two upraised hands

Economy Brunei


Economy - overview:
  This small, well-to-do economy encompasses a mixture of foreign and
  domestic entrepreneurship, government regulation, welfare measures,
  and village tradition. Crude oil and natural gas production account
  for nearly half of GDP and more than 90% of government revenues. Per
  capita GDP is far above most other Third World countries, and
  substantial income from overseas investment supplements income from
  domestic production. The government provides for all medical
  services and free education through the university level and
  subsidizes rice and housing. Brunei's leaders are concerned that
  steadily increased integration in the world economy will undermine
  internal social cohesion, although it became a more prominent player
  by serving as chairman for the 2000 APEC (Asian Pacific Economic
  Cooperation) forum. Plans for the future include upgrading the labor
  force, reducing unemployment, strengthening the banking and tourist
  sectors, and, in general, further widening the economic base beyond
  oil and gas.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $6.842 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.486 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.7% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $23,600 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.6%
  industry: 56.1%
  services: 40.3% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  146,300
  note: includes foreign workers and military personnel; temporary
  residents make up about 40% of labor force (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2.9%
  industry: 61.1%
  services: 36% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  4.8% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.9% (2004)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.765 billion
  expenditures: $4.815 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, vegetables, fruits; chickens, water buffalo, eggs

Industries:
  petroleum, petroleum refining, liquefied natural gas, construction

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.3% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.906 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.726 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  200,800 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - consumption:
  10,770 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  192,700 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.255 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  11.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.73 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  9 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  390.8 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $4.514 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, natural gas, refined products

Exports - partners:
  Japan 36.8%, Indonesia 19.3%, South Korea 12.7%, US 9.5%, Australia
  9.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.641 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food,
  chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Singapore 32.7%, Malaysia 23.3%, Japan 6.9%, UK 5.3%, Thailand
  4.5%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $0 $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $770,000 (2004)

Currency (code):
  Bruneian dollar (BND)

Currency code:
  BND

Exchange rates:
  Bruneian dollars per US dollar - 1.6644 (2005), 1.6902 (2004),
  1.7422 (2003), 1.7906 (2002), 1.7917 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Brunei


Telephones - main lines in use:
  90,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  205,900 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: service throughout the country is excellent;
  international service is good to East Asia, Europe, and the US
  domestic: every service available
  international: country code - 673; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean); digital submarine
  cable links to Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore (2001)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2 (transmitting on 18 different frequencies), shortwave 0
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) station transmits
  two FM signals with English and Nepali service (2006)

Radios:
  329,000 (1998)

Television broadcast stations:
  4; note - including two UHF stations broadcasting a subscription
  service (2006)

Televisions:
  201,900 (1998)

Internet country code:
  .bn

Internet hosts:
  27 (2005)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  56,000 (2005)

Transportation Brunei


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 672 km; oil 463 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,525 km
  paved: 2,338 km
  unpaved: 187 km (2000)

Waterways:
  209 km (navigable by craft drawing less than 1.2 m) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 465,937 GRT/413,393 DWT
  by type: liquefied gas 8
  foreign-owned: 8 (UK 8) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Lumut, Muara, Seria

Military Brunei


Military branches:
  Royal Brunei Armed Forces: Royal Brunei Land Forces, Royal Brunei
  Navy, Royal Brunei Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Brunei) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 103,885
  females age 18-49: 93,024 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 85,045
  females age 18-49: 77,436 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 3,478
  females age 18-49: 3,342 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $290.7 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5.1% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Brunei


Disputes - international:
  in 2003 Brunei and Malaysia ceased gas and oil exploration in their
  disputed offshore and deepwater seabeds and negotiations have
  stalemated prompting consideration of international legal
  adjudication; Malaysia's land boundary with Brunei around Limbang is
  in dispute; Brunei established an exclusive economic fishing zone
  encompassing Louisa Reef in southern Spratly Islands in 1984 but
  makes no public territorial claim to the offshore reefs; the 2002
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" has
  eased tensions in the Spratly Islands but falls short of a legally
  binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants

Illicit drugs:
  drug trafficking and illegally importing controlled substances are
  serious offenses in Brunei and carry a mandatory death penalty


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Bulgaria

Introduction Bulgaria


Background:
  The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local
  Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first
  Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with
  the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the
  end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman
  Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of
  Bulgaria became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Having
  fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within
  the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People's Republic in
  1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its
  first multiparty election since World War II and began the
  contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a
  market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption,
  and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and is slated to join the
  EU in 2007.

Geography Bulgaria


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Romania and
  Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
  43 00 N, 25 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 110,910 sq km
  land: 110,550 sq km
  water: 360 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,808 km
  border countries: Greece 494 km, Macedonia 148 km, Romania 608 km,
  Serbia 318 km, Turkey 240 km

Coastline:
  354 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with lowlands in north and southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Musala 2,925 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 29.94%
  permanent crops: 1.9%
  other: 68.16% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  5,880 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes, landslides

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from industrial emissions; rivers polluted from raw
  sewage, heavy metals, detergents; deforestation; forest damage from
  air pollution and resulting acid rain; soil contamination from heavy
  metals from metallurgical plants and industrial wastes

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental
  Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Geography - note:
  strategic location near Turkish Straits; controls key land routes
  from Europe to Middle East and Asia

People Bulgaria


Population:
  7,385,367 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 13.9% (male 527,881/female 502,334)
  15-64 years: 68.7% (male 2,496,054/female 2,579,680)
  65 years and over: 17.3% (male 527,027/female 752,391) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.8 years
  male: 38.7 years
  female: 42.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.86% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 19.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.3 years
  male: 68.68 years
  female: 76.13 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  346 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bulgarian(s)
  adjective: Bulgarian

Ethnic groups:
  Bulgarian 83.9%, Turk 9.4%, Roma 4.7%, other 2% (including
  Macedonian, Armenian, Tatar, Circassian) (2001 census)

Religions:
  Bulgarian Orthodox 82.6%, Muslim 12.2%, other Christian 1.2%, other
  4% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Bulgarian 84.5%, Turkish 9.6%, Roma 4.1%, other and unspecified
  1.8% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98.2% (2003 est.)

Government Bulgaria


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Bulgaria
  conventional short form: Bulgaria
  local long form: Republika Balgariya
  local short form: Balgariya

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Sofia
  geographic coordinates: 42 41 N, 23 19 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  28 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast); Blagoevgrad, Burgas,
  Dobrich, Gabrovo, Khaskovo, Kurdzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana,
  Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Shumen,
  Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofiya, Sofiya-Grad, Stara Zagora,
  Turgovishte, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Yambol

Independence:
  3 March 1878 (as an autonomous principality within the Ottoman
  Empire); 22 September 1908 (complete independence from the Ottoman
  Empire)

National holiday:
  Liberation Day, 3 March (1878)

Constitution:
  adopted 12 July 1991

Legal system:
  civil law and criminal law based on Roman law; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Georgi PURVANOV (since 22 January 2002);
  Vice President Angel MARIN (since 22 January 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sergei STANISHEV (since 16 August
  2005); Deputy Prime Ministers Ivaylo KALFIN, Daniel VULCHEV, and
  Emel ETEM (since 16 August 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  elected by the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 22 and 29 October 2006 (next to be held in 2011);
  chairman of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) nominated by
  the president and elected by the National Assembly; deputy prime
  ministers nominated by the prime minister and elected by the
  National Assembly
  election results: Georgi PURVANOV reelected president; percent of
  vote - Georgi PURVANOV 77.3%, Volen SIDEROV 22.7%; Sergei STANISHEV
  elected prime minister, result of legislative vote - 168 to 67

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Narodno Sobranie (240 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 June 2005 (next to be held June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CfB 31.1%, NMS2 19.9%,
  MRF 12.7%, ATAKA 8.2%, UDF 7.7%, DSB 6.5%, BPU 5.2%; seats by party
  - CfB 83, NMS2 53, MRF 33, UDF 20, ATAKA 17, DSB 17, BPU 13,
  independents 4

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Administrative Court; Supreme Court of Cassation;
  Constitutional Court (12 justices appointed or elected for nine-year
  terms); Supreme Judicial Council (consists of the chairmen of the
  two Supreme Courts, the Chief Prosecutor, and 22 other members;
  responsible for appointing the justices, prosecutors, and
  investigating magistrates in the justice system; members of the
  Supreme Judicial Council elected for five-year terms, 11 elected by
  the National Assembly and 11 by bodies of the judiciary)

Political parties and leaders:
  ATAKA (Attack Coalition) (coalition of parties headed by the Attack
  National Union); Attack National Union [Volen Siderov]; Bulgarian
  Agrarian National Union-People's Union or BANU [Anastasia MOZER];
  Bulgarian People's Union or BPU (coalition of UFD, IMRO, and BANU);
  Bulgarian Socialist Party or BSP [Sergei STANISHEV]; Coalition for
  Bulgaria or CfB (coalition of parties dominated by BSP) [Sergei
  STANISHEV]; Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria or DSB [Ivan KOSTOV];
  Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or IMRO [Krasimir
  KARAKACHANOV]; Movement for Rights and Freedoms or MRF [Ahmed
  DOGAN]; National Movement for Simeon II or NMS2 [Simeon
  SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA]; New Time [Emil KOSHLUKOV]; Union of Democratic
  Forces or UDF [Petar STOYANOV]; Union of Free Democrats or UFD
  [Stefan SOFIYANSKI]; United Democratic Forces or UtDF (a coalition
  of center-right parties dominated by UDF)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria or CITUB;
  Podkrepa Labor Confederation; numerous regional, ethnic, and
  national interest groups with various agendas

International organization participation:
  ACCT, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EU
  (applicant), FAO, G- 9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM
  (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU
  (associate affiliate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Elena B. POPTODOROVA
  chancery: 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-0174
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-7973
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John Ross BEYRLE
  embassy: 16 Kozyak Street, Sofia 1407
  mailing address: American Embassy Sofia, US Department of State,
  5740 Sofia Place, Washington, DC 20521-5740
  telephone: [359] (2) 937-5100
  FAX: [359] (2) 937-5320

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; note -
  the national emblem, formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe,
  has been removed

Economy Bulgaria


Economy - overview:
  Bulgaria, a former communist country soon to enter the European
  Union, has experienced macroeconomic stability and strong growth
  since a major economic downturn in 1996 led to the fall of the then
  socialist government. As a result, the government became committed
  to economic reform and responsible fiscal planning. Minerals,
  including coal, copper, and zinc, play an important role in
  industry. In 1997, macroeconomic stability was reinforced by the
  imposition of a fixed exchange rate of the lev against the German
  D-mark - the currency is now fixed against the euro - and the
  negotiation of an IMF standby agreement. Low inflation and steady
  progress on structural reforms improved the business environment;
  Bulgaria has averaged 4% growth since 2000 and has begun to attract
  significant amounts of foreign direct investment. Corruption in the
  public administration, a weak judiciary, and the presence of
  organized crime remain the largest challenges for Bulgaria.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $71.67 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $25.79 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $9,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 60.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.34 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 11%
  industry: 32.7%
  services: 56.3% (3rd qtr. 2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.9% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP) 4% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 23.7% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  31.9 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5% (2005)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $11.18 billion
  expenditures: $10.9 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  31.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables, fruits, tobacco, wine, wheat, barley, sunflowers, sugar
  beets; livestock

Industries:
  electricity, gas, water; food, beverages, tobacco; machinery and
  equipment, base metals, chemical products, coke, refined petroleum,
  nuclear fuel

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.9% (2005)

Electricity - production:
  45 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 47.8%
  hydro: 8.1%
  nuclear: 44.1%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  25.1 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  6.8 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.3 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  98,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  85,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  15 million bbl (1 January 2005)

Natural gas - production:
  1.13 million cu m (2003)

Natural gas - consumption:
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.9 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  5.67 billion cu m (1 January 2005)

Current account balance:
  $-3.919 billion (2005)

Exports:
  $11.67 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, footwear, iron and steel, machinery and equipment, fuels

Exports - partners:
  Italy 12%, Turkey 10.5%, Germany 9.8%, Greece 9.5%, France 4.6%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $16.78 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment; metals and ores; chemicals and plastics;
  fuels, minerals, and raw materials

Imports - partners:
  Russia 15.6%, Germany 13.6%, Italy 9%, Turkey 6.1%, Greece 5%,
  France 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.695 billion (2005)

Debt - external:
  $15.32 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $475 million per year in EU pre-accession aid (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  lev (BGL)

Currency code:
  BGN

Exchange rates:
  leva per US dollar - 1.5741 (2005), 1.5751 (2004), 1.7327 (2003),
  2.077 (2002), 2.1847 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Bulgaria


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,483,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  6.245 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: extensive but antiquated
  domestic: more than two-thirds of the lines are residential;
  telephone service is available in most villages; a fairly modern
  digital cable trunk line now connects switching centers in most of
  the regions, the others are connected by digital microwave radio
  relay
  international: country code - 359; direct dialing to 58 countries;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region); 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 31, FM 63, shortwave 2 (2001)

Radios:
  4.51 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  39 (plus 1,242 repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  3.31 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bg

Internet hosts:
  184,975 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  200 (2001)

Internet users:
  2.2 million (2005)

Transportation Bulgaria


Airports:
  217 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 132
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 96 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 85
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 72 (2006)

Heliports:
  4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,505 km; oil 339 km; refined products 156 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,294 km
  standard gauge: 4,049 km 1.435-m gauge (2,710 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 245 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 102,016 km
  paved: 93,855 km (including 328 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 8,161 km (2003)

Waterways:
  470 km (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 75 ships (1000 GRT or over) 872,653 GRT/1,294,877 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 40, cargo 17, chemical tanker 4, container 6,
  passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 2 (Germany 1, Russia 1)
  registered in other countries: 41 (Cambodia 1, Comoros 1, Malta 13,
  Panama 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 17, Slovakia 7, unknown
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Burgas, Varna

Military Bulgaria


Military branches:
  Bulgarian Armed Forces: Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Bulgarian Air
  Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 9 months; as of May 2006, 67% of the
  Bulgarian Army comprised of professional soldiers; conscription into
  the Army to end as of 1 January 2008; Air and Air Defense Forces and
  Naval Forces will become fully professional by end of 2006 (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,661,211
  females age 18-49: 1,660,982 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,302,037
  females age 18-49: 1,365,126 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 51,023
  females age 18-49: 48,651 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $356 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.6% (2003)

Transnational Issues Bulgaria


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  major European transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and,
  to a lesser degree, South American cocaine for the European market;
  limited producer of precursor chemicals; some money laundering of
  drug-related proceeds through financial institutions


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Burkina Faso

Introduction Burkina Faso


Background:
  Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) achieved independence from
  France in 1960. Repeated military coups during the 1970s and 1980s
  were followed by multiparty elections in the early 1990s. Burkina
  Faso's high population density and limited natural resources result
  in poor economic prospects for the majority of its citizens. Recent
  unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and northern Ghana has hindered the ability
  of several hundred thousand seasonal Burkinabe farm workers to find
  employment in neighboring countries.

Geography Burkina Faso


Location:
  Western Africa, north of Ghana

Geographic coordinates:
  13 00 N, 2 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 274,200 sq km
  land: 273,800 sq km
  water: 400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Colorado

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,193 km
  border countries: Benin 306 km, Cote d'Ivoire 584 km, Ghana 549 km,
  Mali 1,000 km, Niger 628 km, Togo 126 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical; warm, dry winters; hot, wet summers

Terrain:
  mostly flat to dissected, undulating plains; hills in west and
  southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mouhoun (Black Volta) River 200 m
  highest point: Tena Kourou 749 m

Natural resources:
  manganese, limestone, marble; small deposits of gold, phosphates,
  pumice, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 17.66%
  permanent crops: 0.22%
  other: 82.12% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring droughts

Environment - current issues:
  recent droughts and desertification severely affecting agricultural
  activities, population distribution, and the economy; overgrazing;
  soil degradation; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked savanna cut by the three principal rivers of the Black,
  Red, and White Voltas

People Burkina Faso


Population:
  13,902,972
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.8% (male 3,267,202/female 3,235,190)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 3,513,559/female 3,538,623)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 140,083/female 208,315) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.3 years
  female: 16.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  45.62 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  15.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 91.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 99.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 48.85 years
  male: 47.33 years
  female: 50.42 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  300,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Burkinabe (singular and plural)
  adjective: Burkinabe

Ethnic groups:
  Mossi over 40%, Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande, Fulani

Religions:
  Muslim 50%, indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian (mainly Roman
  Catholic) 10%

Languages:
  French (official), native African languages belonging to Sudanic
  family spoken by 90% of the population

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 26.6%
  male: 36.9%
  female: 16.6% (2003 est.)

Government Burkina Faso


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Burkina Faso
  local long form: none
  local short form: Burkina Faso
  former: Upper Volta, Republic of Upper Volta

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Ouagadougou
  geographic coordinates: 12 22 N, 1 31 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  45 provinces; Bale, Bam, Banwa, Bazega, Bougouriba, Boulgou,
  Boulkiemde, Comoe, Ganzourgou, Gnagna, Gourma, Houet, Ioba, Kadiogo,
  Kenedougou, Komondjari, Kompienga, Kossi, Koulpelogo, Kouritenga,
  Kourweogo, Leraba, Loroum, Mouhoun, Nahouri, Namentenga, Nayala,
  Noumbiel, Oubritenga, Oudalan, Passore, Poni, Sanguie, Sanmatenga,
  Seno, Sissili, Soum, Sourou, Tapoa, Tuy, Yagha, Yatenga, Ziro,
  Zondoma, Zoundweogo

Independence:
  5 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 11 December (1958)

Constitution:
  2 June 1991 approved by referendum, 11 June 1991 formally adopted;
  amended April 2000

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law

Suffrage:
  universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Blaise COMPAORE (since 15 October 1987)
  head of government: Prime Minister Paramanga Ernest YONLI (since 6
  November 2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 13 November 2005
  (next to be held in 2010); in April 2000, the constitution was
  amended reducing the presidential term from seven to five years,
  enforceable as of 2005; prime minister appointed by the president
  with the consent of the legislature
  election results: Blaise COMPAORE reelected president; percent of
  popular vote - Blaise COMPAORE 80.3%, Benewende Stanislas SANKARA
  4.9%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (111 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly election last held 5 May 2002 (next to
  be held May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  CDP 57, RDA-ADF 17, PDP/PS 10, CFD 5, PAI 5, other 17

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Appeals Court

Political parties and leaders:
  African Democratic Rally-Alliance for Democracy and Federation or
  RDA-ADF [Herman YAMEOGO]; Confederation for Federation and Democracy
  or CFD [Amadou Diemdioda DICKO]; Congress for Democracy and Progress
  or CDP [Roch Marc-Christian KABORE]; Movement for Tolerance and
  Progress or MTP [Nayabtigungou Congo KABORE]; Party for African
  Independence or PAI [Philippe OUEDRAOGO]; Party for Democracy and
  Progress or PDP [Joseph KI-ZERBO]; Socialist Party or PS; Union of
  Greens for the Development of Burkina Faso or UVDB [Ram OVEDRAGO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Burkinabe General Confederation of Labor or CGTB; Burkinabe
  Movement for Human Rights or MBDHP; Group of 14 February; National
  Confederation of Burkinabe Workers or CNTB; National Organization of
  Free Unions or ONSL; watchdog/political action groups throughout the
  country in both organizations and communities

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU,
  WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tertius ZONGO
  chancery: 2340 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-5577
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-1882

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeanine E. JACKSON
  embassy: 602 Avenue Raoul Follereau, Koulouba, Secteur 4
  mailing address: 01 B. P. 35, Ouagadougou 01; pouch mail - US
  Department of State, 2440 Ouagadougou Place, Washington, DC
  20521-2440
  telephone: [226] 50-30-67-23
  FAX: [226] 50-30-38-90, 50-31-23-68

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a yellow
  five-pointed star in the center; uses the popular pan-African colors
  of Ethiopia

Economy Burkina Faso


Economy - overview:
  One of the poorest countries in the world, landlocked Burkina Faso
  has few natural resources and a weak industrial base. About 90% of
  the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, which is
  vulnerable to harsh climatic conditions. Cotton is the key crop and
  the government has joined with other cotton producing countries in
  the region to lobby for improved access to Western markets. GDP
  growth has largely been driven by increases in world cotton prices.
  Industry remains dominated by unprofitable government-controlled
  corporations. Following the CFA franc currency devaluation in
  January 1994, the government updated its development program in
  conjunction with international agencies; exports and economic growth
  have increased. The government devolved macroeconomic policy and
  inflation targeting to the West African regional central bank
  (BCEAO), but maintains control over fiscal and microeconomic
  policies, including implementing reforms to encourage private
  investment. The bitter internal crisis in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire
  continues to hurt trade and industrial prospects and deepens the
  need for international assistance.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $16.66 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.405 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 32.2%
  industry: 19.6%
  services: 48.2% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  5 million
  note: a large part of the male labor force migrates annually to
  neighboring countries for seasonal employment (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  45% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 46.8% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  48.2 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.033 billion
  expenditures: $1.382 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, peanuts, shea nuts, sesame, sorghum, millet, corn, rice;
  livestock

Industries:
  cotton lint, beverages, agricultural processing, soap, cigarettes,
  textiles, gold

Industrial production growth rate:
  14% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
  375.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 69.9%
  hydro: 30.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  349.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  8,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-460 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $395 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, livestock, gold

Exports - partners:
  China 38.3%, Singapore 12.6%, Thailand 5.7%, Ghana 5.2%, Taiwan
  4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $992 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, foodstuffs, petroleum

Imports - partners:
  France 24.2%, Cote d'Ivoire 23.7%, Togo 6.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $764 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.85 billion (2003)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $468.4 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Burkina Faso


Telephones - main lines in use:
  97,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  572,200 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: all services only fair
  domestic: microwave radio relay, open-wire, and radiotelephone
  communication stations
  international: country code - 226; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 17, shortwave 3 (2002)

Radios:
  394,020 (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  131,340 (2002)

Internet country code:
  .bf

Internet hosts:
  399 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  64,600 (2005)

Transportation Burkina Faso


Airports:
  34 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 32
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 622 km
  narrow gauge: 622 km 1.000-m gauge
  note:: another 660 km of this railway extends into Cote D'Ivoire
  (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 12,506 km
  paved: 2,001 km
  unpaved: 10,505 km (1999)

Military Burkina Faso


Military branches:
  Army, Air Force of Burkina Faso (Force Aerienne de Burkina Faso),
  National Gendarmerie (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 20 years of age
  for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,651,687 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,530,324 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $74.83 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Burkina Faso


Disputes - international:
  two villages are in dispute along the border with Benin; Benin
  accuses Burkina Faso of moving boundary pillars; Burkina Faso border
  regions remain a staging area for Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire rebels
  and an asylum for refugees caught in local fighting; the Ivoirian
  Government accuses Burkina Faso of sheltering Ivoirian rebels


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Burma

Introduction Burma


Background:
  Britain conquered Burma over a period of 62 years (1824-1886) and
  incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Burma was administered as a
  province of India until 1937 when it became a separate,
  self-governing colony; independence from the Commonwealth was
  attained in 1948. Gen. NE WIN dominated the government from 1962 to
  1988, first as military ruler, then as self-appointed president, and
  later as political kingpin. Despite multiparty legislative elections
  in 1990 that resulted in the main opposition party - the National
  League for Democracy (NLD) - winning a landslide victory, the ruling
  junta refused to hand over power. NLD leader and Nobel Peace Prize
  recipient AUNG SAN SUU KYI, who was under house arrest from 1989 to
  1995 and 2000 to 2002, was imprisoned in May 2003 and subsequently
  transferred to house arrest, where she remains virtually
  incommunicado. In November 2005, the junta extended her detention
  for at least another six months. Her supporters, as well as all
  those who promote democracy and improved human rights, are routinely
  harassed or jailed.

Geography Burma


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal,
  between Bangladesh and Thailand

Geographic coordinates:
  22 00 N, 98 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 678,500 sq km
  land: 657,740 sq km
  water: 20,760 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,876 km
  border countries: Bangladesh 193 km, China 2,185 km, India 1,463 km,
  Laos 235 km, Thailand 1,800 km

Coastline:
  1,930 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical monsoon; cloudy, rainy, hot, humid summers (southwest
  monsoon, June to September); less cloudy, scant rainfall, mild
  temperatures, lower humidity during winter (northeast monsoon,
  December to April)

Terrain:
  central lowlands ringed by steep, rugged highlands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Andaman Sea 0 m
  highest point: Hkakabo Razi 5,881 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten, lead,
  coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones, natural gas,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 14.92%
  permanent crops: 1.31%
  other: 83.77% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  18,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes and cyclones; flooding and landslides
  common during rainy season (June to September); periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; industrial pollution of air, soil, and water;
  inadequate sanitation and water treatment contribute to disease

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes

People Burma


Population:
  47,382,633
  note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of
  excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
  expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.4% (male 6,335,236/female 6,181,216)
  15-64 years: 68.5% (male 16,011,723/female 16,449,626)
  65 years and over: 5.1% (male 1,035,853/female 1,368,979) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27 years
  male: 26.4 years
  female: 27.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.81% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 61.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 72.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 50.38 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 60.97 years
  male: 58.07 years
  female: 64.03 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  330,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  20,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Burmese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Burmese

Ethnic groups:
  Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%,
  Mon 2%, other 5%

Religions:
  Buddhist 89%, Christian 4% (Baptist 3%, Roman Catholic 1%), Muslim
  4%, animist 1%, other 2%

Languages:
  Burmese, minority ethnic groups have their own languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.3%
  male: 89.2%
  female: 81.4% (2002)

Government Burma


Country name:
  conventional long form: Union of Burma
  conventional short form: Burma
  local long form: Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (translated by the
  US Government as Union of Myanma and by the Burmese as Union of
  Myanmar)
  local short form: Myanma Naingngandaw
  former: Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
  note: since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the
  name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision
  was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US
  Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the
  Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw

Government type:
  military junta

Capital:
  name: Rangoon (Yangon)
  geographic coordinates: 16 47 N, 96 10 E
  time difference: UTC+6.5 (11.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Naypyidaw is being established as a government center

Administrative divisions:
  7 divisions (taing-myar, singular - taing) and 7 states (pyi
  ne-myar, singular - pyi ne)
  divisions: Ayeyarwady, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing, Tanintharyi,
  Yangon
  states: Chin State, Kachin State, Kayah State, Kayin State, Mon
  State, Rakhine State, Shan State

Independence:
  4 January 1948 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 4 January (1948); Union Day, 12 February (1947)

Constitution:
  3 January 1974; suspended since 18 September 1988; national
  convention convened in 1993 to draft a new constitution but
  collapsed in 1996; reconvened in 2004 but does not include
  participation of democratic opposition

Legal system:
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council
  (SPDC) Sr. Gen. THAN SHWE (since 23 April 1992)
  head of government: Prime Minister, Gen SOE WIN (since 19 October
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet is overseen by the SPDC; military junta, so named
  15 November 1997, assumed power 18 September 1988 under the name
  State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
  elections: none

Legislative branch:
  unicameral People's Assembly or Pyithu Hluttaw (485 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 May 1990, but Assembly never allowed by
  junta to convene
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NLD 392 (opposition), SNLD 23 (opposition), NUP 10 (pro-government),
  other 60

Judicial branch:
  remnants of the British-era legal system are in place, but there is
  no guarantee of a fair public trial; the judiciary is not
  independent of the executive

Political parties and leaders:
  National League for Democracy or NLD [AUNG SHWE, chairman, AUNG SAN
  SUU KYI, general secretary]; National Unity Party or NUP
  (pro-regime) [THA KYAW] (at last report); Shan Nationalities League
  for Democracy or SNLD [HKUN HTUN OO]; and other smaller parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma or NCGUB
  (self-proclaimed government in exile) ["Prime Minister" Dr. SEIN
  WIN] consists of individuals, some legitimately elected to the
  People's Assembly in 1990 (the group fled to a border area and
  joined insurgents in December 1990 to form parallel government in
  exile); Kachin Independence Organization or KIO; Karen National
  Union or KNU; several Shan factions; United Wa State Army or UWSA;
  Union Solidarity and Development Association or USDA (pro-regime, a
  social and political mass-member organization) [HTAY OO, general
  secretary]

International organization participation:
  APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires MYINT LWIN
  chancery: 2300 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-3344
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-4351
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Shari
  VILLAROSA
  embassy: 581 Merchant Street, Rangoon (GPO 521)
  mailing address: Box B, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [95] (1) 379-880, 379-881
  FAX: [95] (1) 256-018

Flag description:
  red with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner bearing,
  14 white five-pointed stars encircling a cogwheel containing a stalk
  of rice; the 14 stars represent the seven administrative divisions
  and seven states

Economy Burma


Economy - overview:
  Burma, a resource-rich country, suffers from pervasive government
  controls, inefficient economic policies, and rural poverty. The
  junta took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after
  decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to Socialism," but those
  efforts stalled, and some of the liberalization measures were
  rescinded. Burma does not have monetary or fiscal stability, so the
  economy suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including
  inflation, multiple official exchange rates that overvalue the
  Burmese kyat, and a distorted interest rate regime. Most overseas
  development assistance ceased after the junta began to suppress the
  democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently refused to honor the
  results of the 1990 legislative elections. In response to the
  government of Burma's attack in May 2003 on AUNG SAN SUU KYI and her
  convoy, the US imposed new economic sanctions against Burma -
  including a ban on imports of Burmese products and a ban on
  provision of financial services by US persons. A poor investment
  climate further slowed the inflow of foreign exchange. The most
  productive sectors will continue to be in extractive industries,
  especially oil and gas, mining, and timber. Other areas, such as
  manufacturing and services, are struggling with inadequate
  infrastructure, unpredictable import/export policies, deteriorating
  health and education systems, and corruption. A major banking crisis
  in 2003 shuttered the country's 20 private banks and disrupted the
  economy. As of December 2005, the largest private banks operate
  under tight restrictions limiting the private sector's access to
  formal credit. Official statistics are inaccurate. Published
  statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the
  size of the black market and unofficial border trade - often
  estimated to be as large as the official economy. Burma's trade with
  Thailand, China, and India is rising. Though the Burmese government
  has good economic relations with its neighbors, better investment
  and business climates and an improved political situation are needed
  to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $80.11 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.464 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 56.4%
  industry: 8.2%
  services: 35.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  27.75 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 7%
  services: 23% (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  20.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  11.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $473.3 million
  expenditures: $716.6 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (FY04/05 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood; fish
  and fish products

Industries:
  agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood
  products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials;
  pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement; natural gas

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  7.393 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 44.5%
  hydro: 43.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 12.1% (2002)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.875 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  18,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  32,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  3,356 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  49,230 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  less than 1 billion bbl (2005)

Natural gas - production:
  9.98 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.569 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  8.424 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  283.2 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $700 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.111 billion f.o.b.
  note: official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the
  value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled
  to Thailand, China, and Bangladesh (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice

Exports - partners:
  Thailand 44.3%, India 12.3%, China 6.8%, Japan 5% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.454 billion f.o.b.
  note: import figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of
  consumer goods, diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from
  Thailand, China, Malaysia, and India (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  fabric, petroleum products, plastics, machinery, transport
  equipment, construction materials, crude oil; food products

Imports - partners:
  China 28.8%, Thailand 21.8%, Singapore 18.3%, Malaysia 7.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $763 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $6.99 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $127 million (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  kyat (MMK)

Currency code:
  MMK

Exchange rates:
  kyats per US dollar - 5.761 (2005), 5.7459 (2004), 6.0764 (2003),
  6.5734 (2002), 6.6841 (2001)
  note: these are official exchange rates; unofficial exchange rates
  ranged in 2004 from 815 kyat/US dollar to nearly 970 kyat/US dollar,
  and by year-end 2005, the unofficial exchange rate was 1,075 kyat/US
  dollar

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Burma


Telephones - main lines in use:
  476,200 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  183,400 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: barely meets minimum requirements for local and
  intercity service for business and government; international service
  is fair
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 95; satellite earth station - 2,
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean), and ShinSat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1 (2004)

Radios:
  4.2 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2004)

Televisions:
  320,000 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .mm

Internet hosts:
  42 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1
  note: as of September 2000, Internet connections were legal only for
  the government, tourist offices, and a few large businesses (2000)

Internet users:
  78,000 (2005)

Transportation Burma


Airports:
  85 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 21
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 64
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 32 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,224 km; oil 558 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,955 km
  narrow gauge: 3,955 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 27,000 km
  paved: 3,200 km
  unpaved: 23,800 km (2005)

Waterways:
  12,800 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 34 ships (1000 GRT or over) 402,699 GRT/620,642 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 20, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 9 (Germany 5, Japan 4) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Moulmein, Rangoon, Sittwe

Military Burma


Military branches:
  Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw): Army, Navy, Air Force (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service for both sexes (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 12,268,850
  females age 18-49: 12,469,771 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,946,701
  females age 18-49: 8,543,705 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 469,841
  females: 455,689 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $39 million (FY97)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.1% (FY97)

Transnational Issues Burma


Disputes - international:
  over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic groups
  with substantial numbers of kin beyond its borders; despite
  continuing border committee talks, significant differences remain
  with Thailand over boundary alignment and the handling of ethnic
  rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border activities; ethnic Karens
  flee into Thailand to escape fighting between Karen rebels and
  Burmese troops; in 2005 Thailand sheltered about 121,000 Burmese
  refugees; Karens also protest Thai support for a Burmese
  hydroelectric dam on the Salween River near the border;
  environmentalists in Burma and Thailand continue to voice concern
  over China's construction of hydroelectric dams upstream on the
  Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan Province; India seeks cooperation
  from Burma to keep Indian Nagaland separatists from hiding in remote
  Burmese uplands

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 550,000-1,000,000 (government offensives against ethnic
  insurgent groups near borders; most IDPs are ethnic Karen, Karenni,
  Shan, Tavoyan, and Mon) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Burma is a source country for men, women, and
  children trafficked to East and Southeast Asia for sexual
  exploitation, domestic service, and forced commercial labor; a
  significant number of victims are economic migrants who wind up in
  forced or bonded labor and forced prostitution; to a lesser extent,
  Burma is a country of transit and destination for women trafficked
  from China for sexual exploitation; internal trafficking of persons
  occurs primarily for labor in industrial zones and agricultural
  estates; internal trafficking of women and girls for sexual
  exploitation occurs from villages to urban centers and other areas;
  the military junta's economic mismanagement, human rights abuses,
  and policy of using forced labor are driving factors behind Burma's
  large trafficking problem
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Burma does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  remains world's second largest producer of illicit opium (estimated
  production in 2004 - 292 metric tons, down 40% from 2003 due to
  eradication efforts and drought; cultivation in 2004 - 30,900
  hectares, a 34% decline from 2003); lack of government will to take
  on major narcotrafficking groups and lack of serious commitment
  against money laundering continues to hinder the overall antidrug
  effort; major source of methamphetamine and heroin for regional
  consumption; currently under Financial Action Task Force
  countermeasures due to continued failure to address its inadequate
  money-laundering controls (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Burundi

Introduction Burundi


Background:
  Burundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated
  in October 1993 after only 100 days in office, triggering widespread
  ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Over 200,000
  Burundians perished during the conflict that spanned almost a dozen
  years. Hundreds of thousands of Burundians were internally displaced
  or became refugees in neighboring countries. An internationally
  brokered power-sharing agreement between the Tutsi-dominated
  government and the Hutu rebels in 2003 paved the way for a
  transition process that led to an integrated defense force,
  established a new constitution in 2005, and elected a majority Hutu
  government in 2005. The new government, led by President Pierre
  NKURUNZIZA, signed a South African brokered ceasefire with the
  country's last rebel group in the summer of 2006 but still faces
  many challenges.

Geography Burundi


Location:
  Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Geographic coordinates:
  3 30 S, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 27,830 sq km
  land: 25,650 sq km
  water: 2,180 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 974 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 233 km, Rwanda
  290 km, Tanzania 451 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  equatorial; high plateau with considerable altitude variation (772
  m to 2,670 m above sea level); average annual temperature varies
  with altitude from 23 to 17 degrees centigrade but is generally
  moderate as the average altitude is about 1,700 m; average annual
  rainfall is about 150 cm; two wet seasons (February to May and
  September to November), and two dry seasons (June to August and
  December to January)

Terrain:
  hilly and mountainous, dropping to a plateau in east, some plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lake Tanganyika 772 m
  highest point: Heha 2,670 m

Natural resources:
  nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper, platinum,
  vanadium, arable land, hydropower, niobium, tantalum, gold, tin,
  tungsten, kaolin, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 35.57%
  permanent crops: 13.12%
  other: 51.31% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  210 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding, landslides, drought

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion as a result of overgrazing and the expansion of
  agriculture into marginal lands; deforestation (little forested land
  remains because of uncontrolled cutting of trees for fuel); habitat
  loss threatens wildlife populations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; straddles crest of the Nile-Congo watershed; the
  Kagera, which drains into Lake Victoria, is the most remote
  headstream of the White Nile

People Burundi


Population:
  8,090,068
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.3% (male 1,884,825/female 1,863,200)
  15-64 years: 51.1% (male 2,051,451/female 2,082,017)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 83,432/female 125,143) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.4 years
  female: 16.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.7% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  42.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.46 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  8.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 63.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 70.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 55.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 50.81 years
  male: 50.07 years
  female: 51.58 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  250,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  25,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Burundian(s)
  adjective: Burundian

Ethnic groups:
  Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%, Europeans
  3,000, South Asians 2,000

Religions:
  Christian 67% (Roman Catholic 62%, Protestant 5%), indigenous
  beliefs 23%, Muslim 10%

Languages:
  Kirundi (official), French (official), Swahili (along Lake
  Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 51.6%
  male: 58.5%
  female: 45.2% (2003 est.)

Government Burundi


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Burundi
  conventional short form: Burundi
  local long form: Republique du Burundi/Republika y'u Burundi
  local short form: Burundi
  former: Urundi

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bujumbura
  geographic coordinates: 3 23 S, 29 22 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  17 provinces; Bubanza, Bujumbura Mairie, Bujumbura Rurale, Bururi,
  Cankuzo, Cibitoke, Gitega, Karuzi, Kayanza, Kirundo, Makamba,
  Muramvya, Muyinga, Mwaro, Ngozi, Rutana, Ruyigi

Independence:
  1 July 1962 (from UN trusteeship under Belgian administration)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 July (1962)

Constitution:
  28 February 2005; ratified by popular referendum

Legal system:
  based on German and Belgian civil codes and customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  NA years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Pierre NKURUNZIZA (since 26 August 2005);
  First Vice President Martin NDUWIMANA - Tutsi (since 29 August
  2005); Second Vice President Marina BARAMPAMA - Hutu (since 8
  September 2006)
  head of government: President Pierre NKURUNZIZA (since 26 August
  2005); First Vice President Martin NDUWIMANA - Tutsi (since 29
  August 2005); Second Vice President Marina BARAMPAMA - Hutu (since 8
  September 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by president
  elections: the president is elected by popular vote to a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); note - the constitution adopted
  in February 2005 permits the post-transition president to be elected
  by a two-thirds majority of the parliament; vice presidents
  nominated by the president, endorsed by parliament
  election results: Pierre NKURUNZIZA was elected president by the
  parliament by a vote of 151 to 9; note - the constitution adopted in
  February 2005 permits the post-transition president to be elected by
  a two-thirds majority of the legislature

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement, consists of a National Assembly
  or Assemblee Nationale (minimum 100 seats - 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi
  with at least 30% being women; additional seats appointed by a
  National Independent Electoral Commission to ensure ethnic
  representation; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms) and a Senate (54 seats; 34 by indirect vote to
  serve five year terms, with remaining seats assigned to ethnic
  groups and former chiefs of state)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 4 July 2005 (next to be
  held in 2010); Senate - last held 29 July 2005 (next to be held in
  2010)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  CNDD-FDD 58.6%, FRODEBU 21.7%, UPRONA 7.2%, CNDD 4.1%,
  MRC-Rurenzangemero 2.1%, others 6.2%; seats by party - CNDD-FDD 59,
  FRODEBU 25, UPRONA 10, CNDD 4, MRC-Rurenzangemero 2; Senate -
  percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - CNDD-FDD 30,
  FRODEBU 3, CNDD 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; Constitutional Court; Courts of
  Appeal (there are three in separate locations); Tribunals of First
  Instance (17 at the province level and 123 small local tribunals)

Political parties and leaders:
  the three national, mainstream, governing parties are: Burundi
  Democratic Front or FRODEBU [Leonce NGENDAKUMANA, president];
  National Council for the Defense of Democracy, Front for the Defense
  of Democracy or CNDD-FDD [Hussein RADJABU, president]; Unity for
  National Progress or UPRONA [Aloys RUBUKA, president]
  note: a multiparty system was introduced after 1998, included are:
  National Council for the Defense of Democracy or CNDD; National
  Resistance Movement for the Rehabilitation of the Citizen or
  MRC-Rurenzangemero [Epitace BANYAGANAKANDI]; Party for National
  Redress or PARENA [Jean-Baptiste BAGAZA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Celestin NIYONGABO
  chancery: Suite 212, 2233 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-2574
  FAX: [1] (202) 342-2578

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia Newton MOLLER
  embassy: Avenue des Etats-Unis, Bujumbura
  mailing address: B. P. 1720, Bujumbura
  telephone: [257] 223454
  FAX: [257] 222926

Flag description:
  divided by a white diagonal cross into red panels (top and bottom)
  and green panels (hoist side and fly side) with a white disk
  superimposed at the center bearing three red six-pointed stars
  outlined in green arranged in a triangular design (one star above,
  two stars below)

Economy Burundi


Economy - overview:
  Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an
  underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly
  agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on
  subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea
  exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The
  ability to pay for imports, therefore, rests primarily on weather
  conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi
  minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the
  coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the
  population. An ethnic-based war that lasted for over a decade
  resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced more than 48,000
  refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 140,000 others internally.
  Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in 10
  adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short
  supply. Political stability and the end of the civil war have
  improved aid flows and economic activity has increased, but
  underlying weaknesses - a high poverty rate, poor education rates, a
  weak legal system, and low administrative capacity - risk
  undermining planned economic reforms.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $5.404 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $730 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 46.3%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 33.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.99 million (2002)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 93.6%
  industry: 2.3%
  services: 4.1% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  68% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 32.9% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  33.3 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  16% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  11.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $215.4 million
  expenditures: $278 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas, manioc
  (tapioca); beef, milk, hides

Industries:
  light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly of
  imported components; public works construction; food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  18% (2001)

Electricity - production:
  141.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.6%
  hydro: 99.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  141.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10 million kWh; note - supplied by the Democratic Republic of the
  Congo (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  3,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-29 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $52 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides

Exports - partners:
  Germany 24.4%, Belgium 11.1%, Netherlands 8%, Switzerland 5.8%, US
  4.6%, Pakistan 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $200 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Kenya 12.9%, Tanzania 10.6%, Belgium 10.4%, Italy 8.1%, France
  5.4%, Uganda 5.3%, China 5%, India 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $105 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.2 billion (2003)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $105.5 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Burundi franc (BIF)

Currency code:
  BIF

Exchange rates:
  Burundi francs per US dollar - 1,138 (2005), 1,100.91 (2004),
  1,082.62 (2003), 930.75 (2002), 830.35 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Burundi


Telephones - main lines in use:
  27,700 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  153,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: primitive system
  domestic: sparse system of open-wire, radiotelephone communications,
  and low-capacity microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 257; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  440,000 (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  25,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bi

Internet hosts:
  160 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  25,000 (2005)

Transportation Burundi


Airports:
  8 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 14,480 km
  paved: 1,028 km
  unpaved: 13,452 km (1999)

Waterways:
  mainly on Lake Tanganyika (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Bujumbura

Military Burundi


Military branches:
  National Defense Force (Forces de Defense Nationales, FDN): Army
  (includes Naval Detachment and Air Wing), National Gendarmerie
  (being disbanded) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 1,676,855
  females age 16-49: 1,656,366 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 955,616
  females age 16-49: 932,767 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 91,331
  females age 16-49: 90,685 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $43.9 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Burundi


Disputes - international:
  Tutsi, Hutu, other conflicting ethnic groups, associated political
  rebels, armed gangs, and various government forces continue fighting
  in the Great Lakes region, transcending the boundaries of Burundi,
  Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda in an effort to
  gain control over populated and natural resource areas; government
  heads pledge to end conflict, but localized violence continues
  despite the presence of about 6,000 peacekeepers from the UN
  Operation in Burundi (ONUB) since 2004; although some 150,000
  Burundian refugees have been repatriated, as of February 2005,
  Burundian refugees still reside in camps in western Tanzania as well
  as the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 48,424 (Democratic Republic of the
  Congo)
  IDPs: 145,000 (armed conflict between government and rebels; most
  IDPs in northern and western Burundi) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cambodia

Introduction Cambodia


Background:
  Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of
  the Angkor Empire that extended over much of Southeast Asia and
  reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries. Attacks by
  the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam) weakened the empire
  ushering in a long period of decline. The king placed the country
  under French protection in 1863. Cambodia became part of French
  Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in World War II,
  Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953. In April
  1975, after a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge forces
  captured Phnom Penh and evacuated all cities and towns. At least 1.5
  million Cambodians died from execution, forced hardships, or
  starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. A December
  1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside,
  began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off almost 13
  years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic
  elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the
  Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some
  semblance of normalcy under a coalition government. Factional
  fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second
  round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another
  coalition government and renewed political stability. The remaining
  elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. Some of the
  remaining leaders are awaiting trial by a UN-sponsored tribunal for
  crimes against humanity. Elections in July 2003 were relatively
  peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending
  political parties before a coalition government was formed.

Geography Cambodia


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between
  Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos

Geographic coordinates:
  13 00 N, 105 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 181,040 sq km
  land: 176,520 sq km
  water: 4,520 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oklahoma

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,572 km
  border countries: Laos 541 km, Thailand 803 km, Vietnam 1,228 km

Coastline:
  443 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry season
  (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  mostly low, flat plains; mountains in southwest and north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 m
  highest point: Phnum Aoral 1,810 m

Natural resources:
  oil and gas, timber, gemstones, some iron ore, manganese,
  phosphates, hydropower potential

Land use:
  arable land: 20.44%
  permanent crops: 0.59%
  other: 78.97% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  monsoonal rains (June to November); flooding; occasional droughts

Environment - current issues:
  illegal logging activities throughout the country and strip mining
  for gems in the western region along the border with Thailand have
  resulted in habitat loss and declining biodiversity (in particular,
  destruction of mangrove swamps threatens natural fisheries); soil
  erosion; in rural areas, most of the population does not have access
  to potable water; declining fish stocks because of illegal fishing
  and overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  a land of paddies and forests dominated by the Mekong River and
  Tonle Sap

People Cambodia


Population:
  13,881,427
  note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of
  excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
  expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35.6% (male 2,497,595/female 2,447,754)
  15-64 years: 61% (male 4,094,946/female 4,370,159)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 180,432/female 290,541) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.6 years
  male: 19.9 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.78% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  26.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 68.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 77.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.84 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 59.29 years
  male: 57.35 years
  female: 61.32 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  170,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  15,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese
  encephalitis are high risks in some locations
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US citizens who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Cambodian(s)
  adjective: Cambodian

Ethnic groups:
  Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4%

Religions:
  Theravada Buddhist 95%, other 5%

Languages:
  Khmer (official) 95%, French, English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 73.6%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 64.1% (2004 est.)

Government Cambodia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Cambodia
  conventional short form: Cambodia
  local long form: Preahreacheanachakr Kampuchea (phonetic
  pronunciation)
  local short form: Kampuchea
  former: Kingdom of Cambodia, Khmer Republic, Democratic Kampuchea,
  People's Republic of Kampuchea, State of Cambodia

Government type:
  multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Phnom Penh
  geographic coordinates: 11 33 N, 104 55 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  20 provinces (khaitt, singular and plural) and 4 municipalities*
  (krong, singular and plural)
  provinces: Banteay Mean Cheay, Batdambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong
  Chhnang, Kampong Spoe, Kampong Thum, Kampot, Kandal, Kaoh Kong,
  Krachen, Mondol Kiri, Otdar Mean Cheay, Pouthisat, Preah Vihear,
  Prey Veng, Rotanah Kiri, Siem Reab, Stoeng Treng, Svay Rieng, Takev
  municipalities: Keb, Pailin, Phnum Penh, Preah Seihanu

Independence:
  9 November 1953 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 9 November (1953)

Constitution:
  promulgated 21 September 1993

Legal system:
  primarily a civil law mixture of French-influenced codes from the
  United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) period,
  royal decrees, and acts of the legislature, with influences of
  customary law and remnants of communist legal theory; increasing
  influence of common law in recent years; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King Norodom SIHAMONI (since 29 October 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister HUN SEN (since 14 January 1985)
  and Deputy Prime Ministers SAR KHENG (since 3 February 1992); SOK
  AN, LU LAY SRENG, TEA BANH, HOR NAMHONG, NHEK BUNCHHAY (since 16
  July 2004); KEV PUT REAKSMEI (since 24 October 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers in theory appointed by the monarch; in
  practice named by the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is chosen by a Royal Throne Council;
  following legislative elections, a member of the majority party or
  majority coalition is named prime minister by the Chairman of the
  National Assembly and appointed by the king

Legislative branch:
  bicameral, consists of the National Assembly (123 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and the Senate (61
  seats; 2 members appointed by the monarch, 2 elected by the National
  Assembly, and 57 elected by parliamentarians and commune councils;
  members serve five-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 27 July 2003 (next to be
  held in July 2008); Senate - last held 22 January 2006 (next to be
  held in January 2011)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party - CPP
  47%, SRP 22%, FUNCINPEC 21%, other 10%; seats by party - CPP 73,
  FUNCINPEC 26, SRP 24; Senate - percent of vote by party - CPP 69%,
  FUNCINPEC 21%, SRP 10%; seats by party - CPP 45, FUNCINPEC 10, SRP 2
  (January 2006)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Council of the Magistracy (provided for in the constitution
  and formed in December 1997); Supreme Court (and lower courts)
  exercises judicial authority

Political parties and leaders:
  Cambodian Pracheachon Party (Cambodian People's Party) or CPP [CHEA
  SIM]; National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful,
  and Cooperative Cambodia or FUNCINPEC [KEV PUT REAKSMEI]; Sam Rangsi
  Party or SRP [SAM RANGSI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, EAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador EK SEREYWATH
  chancery: 4530 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-7742
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-8381

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph A. MUSSOMELI
  embassy: #1, Street 96, Sangkat Wat Phnom, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh
  mailing address: Box P, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [855] (23) 728-000
  FAX: [855] (23) 728-600

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width), and blue
  with a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat outlined
  in black in the center of the red band; only national flag to
  incorporate an actual building in its design

Economy Cambodia


Economy - overview:
  In 1999, the first full year of peace in 30 years, the government
  made progress on economic reforms. The US and Cambodia signed a
  Bilateral Textile Agreement, which gave Cambodia a guaranteed quota
  of US textile imports and established a bonus for improving working
  conditions and enforcing Cambodian labor laws and international
  labor standards in the industry. From 2001 to 2004, the economy grew
  at an average rate of 6.4%, driven largely by an expansion in the
  garment sector and tourism. With the January 2005 expiration of a
  WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, Cambodia-based textile
  producers were forced to compete directly with lower-priced
  producing countries such as China and India. Although initial 2005
  GDP growth estimates were less than 3%, better-than-expected garment
  sector performance led the IMF to forecast 6% growth in 2005. Faced
  with the possibility that its vibrant garment industry, with more
  than 200,000 jobs, could be in serious danger, the Cambodian
  government has committed itself to a policy of continued support for
  high labor standards in an attempt to maintain favor with buyers.
  The tourism industry continues to grow rapidly, with foreign
  visitors surpassing 1 million for the year by September 2005. In
  2005, exploitable oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath
  Cambodia's territorial waters, representing a new revenue stream for
  the government once commercial extraction begins in the coming
  years. The long-term development of the economy remains a daunting
  challenge. The Cambodian government continues to work with bilateral
  and multilateral donors, including the World Bank and IMF, to
  address the country's many pressing needs. In December 2004,
  official donors pledged $504 million in aid for 2005 on the
  condition that the Cambodian government implement steps to reduce
  corruption. The major economic challenge for Cambodia over the next
  decade will be fashioning an economic environment in which the
  private sector can create enough jobs to handle Cambodia's
  demographic imbalance. More than 50% of the population is 20 years
  or younger. The population lacks education and productive skills,
  particularly in the poverty-ridden countryside, which suffers from
  an almost total lack of basic infrastructure. Fully 75% of the
  population remains engaged in subsistence farming.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $34.08 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.729 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  13.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 35%
  industry: 30%
  services: 35% (2004)

Labor force:
  7 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.5% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.9%
  highest 10%: 33.8% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40 (2004 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $559.4 million
  expenditures: $772 million; including capital expenditures of $291
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, rubber, corn, vegetables, cashews, tapioca

Industries:
  tourism, garments, rice milling, fishing, wood and wood products,
  rubber, cement, gem mining, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  22% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  123.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 65%
  hydro: 35%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  115 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  3,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-166 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.663 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, timber, rubber, rice, fish, tobacco, footwear

Exports - partners:
  US 48.6%, Hong Kong 24.4%, Germany 5.6%, Canada 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.538 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, cigarettes, gold, construction materials,
  machinery, motor vehicles, pharmaceutical products

Imports - partners:
  Hong Kong 16.1%, China 13.6%, France 12.1%, Thailand 11.2%, Taiwan
  10.2%, South Korea 7.5%, Vietnam 7.1%, Singapore 4.9%, Japan 4.1%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.145 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $800 million (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $504 million pledged in grants and concessional loans for 2005 by
  international donors

Currency (code):
  riel (KHR)

Currency code:
  KHR

Exchange rates:
  riels per US dollar - 4,092.5 (2005), 4,016.25 (2004), 3,973.33
  (2003), 3,912.08 (2002), 3,916.33 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Cambodia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  36,400 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.062 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate landline and/or cellular service in
  Phnom Penh and other provincial cities; mobile phone coverage is
  rapidly expanding in rural areas
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 855; adequate but expensive landline
  and cellular service available to all countries from Phnom Penh and
  major provincial cities; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 17 (2003)

Radios:
  1.34 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  11 (including two TV relay stations with French and Vietnamese
  broadcasts); 12 regional low power TV stations (2006)

Televisions:
  94,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kh

Internet hosts:
  1,378 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  41,000 (2005)

Transportation Cambodia


Airports:
  20 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 14
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 602 km
  narrow gauge: 602 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 12,323 km
  paved: 1,996 km
  unpaved: 10,327 km (2000)

Waterways:
  2,400 km (mainly on Mekong River) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 544 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,777,907 GRT/2,529,708 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 41, cargo 443, chemical tanker 11, container
  10, livestock carrier 3, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 9,
  refrigerated cargo 19, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 407 (Bulgaria 1, Canada 6, China 128, Cyprus 12,
  Egypt 8, Gabon 1, Greece 8, Hong Kong 15, Indonesia 1, Japan 4,
  South Korea 23, Latvia 2, Lebanon 6, Nigeria 2, Norway 1,
  Philippines 1, Russia 105, Singapore 4, Spain 1, Syria 20, Taiwan 2,
  Turkey 26, UAE 1, Ukraine 17, US 8, Yemen 3, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Phnom Penh

Military Cambodia


Military branches:
  Royal Cambodian Armed Forces: Royal Cambodian Army, Royal Khmer
  Navy, Royal Cambodian Air Force (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  conscription law made effective in October 2006 requires all males
  between 18-30 to register for military service; service obligation
  is 18 months (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,002,718
  females age 18-49: 3,108,254 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,955,141
  females age 18-49: 2,048,611 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 175,497
  females age 18-49: 172,788 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $112 million (FY01 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3% (FY01 est.)

Transnational Issues Cambodia


Disputes - international:
  Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check
  the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections of
  boundary with missing boundary markers and Thai encroachments into
  Cambodian territory; maritime boundary with Vietnam is hampered by
  unresolved dispute over offshore islands; Cambodia accuses Thailand
  of obstructing access to Preah Vihear temple ruins awarded to
  Cambodia by ICJ decision in 1962; in 2004, Cambodian-Laotian and
  Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commissions re-erected missing markers
  completing most of their demarcations

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Cambodia is a source, destination, and transit
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
  sexual exploitation and forced labor; a significant number of women
  and children are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia for commercial
  sexual exploitation and forced labor; men are trafficked primarily
  to Thailand for forced labor in the construction and agricultural
  sectors, particularly the fishing industry, while women and girls
  are trafficked for factory and domestic work; children are
  trafficked to Vietnam and Thailand for the purpose of forced
  begging; Cambodia is a transit and destination point for women from
  Vietnam trafficked for sexual exploitation; trafficking for sexual
  exploitation also occurs within Cambodia's borders, from rural areas
  to the cities
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Cambodia does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,
  it is committed to making significant efforts to sustain progress
  over the coming year

Illicit drugs:
  narcotics-related corruption reportedly involving some in the
  government, military, and police; possible small-scale heroin and
  methamphetamine production; vulnerable to money laundering due to
  its cash-based economy and porous borders


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cameroon

Introduction Cameroon


Background:
  The former French Cameroon and part of British Cameroon merged in
  1961 to form the present country. Cameroon has generally enjoyed
  stability, which has permitted the development of agriculture,
  roads, and railways, as well as a petroleum industry. Despite a slow
  movement toward democratic reform, political power remains firmly in
  the hands of an ethnic oligarchy headed by President Paul BIYA.

Geography Cameroon


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra, between Equatorial
  Guinea and Nigeria

Geographic coordinates:
  6 00 N, 12 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 475,440 sq km
  land: 469,440 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,591 km
  border countries: Central African Republic 797 km, Chad 1,094 km,
  Republic of the Congo 523 km, Equatorial Guinea 189 km, Gabon 298
  km, Nigeria 1,690 km

Coastline:
  402 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 50 nm

Climate:
  varies with terrain, from tropical along coast to semiarid and hot
  in north

Terrain:
  diverse, with coastal plain in southwest, dissected plateau in
  center, mountains in west, plains in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Fako 4,095 m (on Mt. Cameroon)

Natural resources:
  petroleum, bauxite, iron ore, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 12.54%
  permanent crops: 2.52%
  other: 84.94% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  260 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases from
  Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes

Environment - current issues:
  waterborne diseases are prevalent; deforestation; overgrazing;
  desertification; poaching; overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  sometimes referred to as the hinge of Africa; throughout the
  country there are areas of thermal springs and indications of
  current or prior volcanic activity; Mount Cameroon, the highest
  mountain in Sub-Saharan west Africa, is an active volcano

People Cameroon


Population:
  17,340,702
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.2% (male 3,614,430/female 3,531,047)
  15-64 years: 55.5% (male 4,835,453/female 4,796,276)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 260,342/female 303,154) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 19 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.04% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  33.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 63.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 67.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 51.16 years
  male: 50.98 years
  female: 51.34 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  6.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  560,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  49,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Cameroonian(s)
  adjective: Cameroonian

Ethnic groups:
  Cameroon Highlanders 31%, Equatorial Bantu 19%, Kirdi 11%, Fulani
  10%, Northwestern Bantu 8%, Eastern Nigritic 7%, other African 13%,
  non-African less than 1%

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%

Languages:
  24 major African language groups, English (official), French
  (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 73.4% (2003 est.)

Government Cameroon


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Cameroon
  conventional short form: Cameroon
  local long form: Republique du Cameroun/Republic of Cameroon
  local short form: Cameroun/Cameroon
  former: French Cameroon, British Cameroon, Federal Republic of
  Cameroon, United Republic of Cameroon

Government type:
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Capital:
  name: Yaounde
  geographic coordinates: 3 52 N, 11 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 provinces; Adamaoua, Centre, Est, Extreme-Nord, Littoral, Nord,
  Nord-Ouest, Ouest, Sud, Sud-Ouest

Independence:
  1 January 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Republic Day (National Day), 20 May (1972)

Constitution:
  20 May 1972 approved by referendum, 2 June 1972 formally adopted;
  revised January 1996

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system, with common law influence;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  20 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Paul BIYA (since 6 November 1982)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ephraim INONI (since 8 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from proposals submitted
  by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 11 October 2004
  (next to be held by October 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: President Paul BIYA reelected; percent of vote -
  Paul BIYA 70.9%, John FRU NDI 17.4%, Adamou Ndam NJOYA 4.5%, Garga
  Haman ADJI 3.7%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (180 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms); note - the president can either lengthen or shorten the term
  of the legislature
  elections: last held 23 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  RDCP 133, SDF 21, UDC 5, other 21
  note: the constitution calls for an upper chamber for the
  legislature, to be called a Senate, but it has yet to be established

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president); High Court
  of Justice (consists of nine judges and six substitute judges,
  elected by the National Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Cameroonian Democratic Union or UDC [Adamou Ndam NJOYA]; Democratic
  Rally of the Cameroon People or RDCP [Paul BIYA]; Movement for the
  Defense of the Republic or MDR [Dakole DAISSALA]; Movement for the
  Liberation and Development of Cameroon or MLDC [Marcel YONDO];
  Movement for the Youth of Cameroon or MYC [Dieudonne TINA]; National
  Union for Democracy and Progress or UNDP [Maigari BELLO BOUBA];
  Social Democratic Front or SDF [John FRU NDI]; Union of Cameroonian
  Populations or UPC [Augustin Frederic KODOCK]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Southern Cameroon National Council [Ayamba Ette OTUN]; Human Rights
  Defense Group [Albert MUKONG, president]

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, C, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jerome MENDOUGA
  chancery: 2349 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-8790
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-3826

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Niels MARQUARDT
  embassy: Rue Nachtigal, Yaounde
  mailing address: P. O. Box 817, Yaounde; pouch: American Embassy, US
  Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-2520
  telephone: [237] 220 15 00; Consular: [237] 220 16 03
  FAX: [237] 220 16 20; Consular FAX: [237] 220 17 52
  branch office(s): Douala

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), red, and yellow
  with a yellow five-pointed star centered in the red band; uses the
  popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Cameroon


Economy - overview:
  Because of its oil resources and favorable agricultural conditions,
  Cameroon has one of the best-endowed primary commodity economies in
  sub-Saharan Africa. Still, it faces many of the serious problems
  facing other underdeveloped countries, such as a top-heavy civil
  service and a generally unfavorable climate for business enterprise.
  Since 1990, the government has embarked on various IMF and World
  Bank programs designed to spur business investment, increase
  efficiency in agriculture, improve trade, and recapitalize the
  nation's banks. In June 2000, the government completed an
  IMF-sponsored, three-year structural adjustment program; however,
  the IMF is pressing for more reforms, including increased budget
  transparency, privatization, and poverty reduction programs.
  International oil and cocoa prices have considerable impact on the
  economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $39.75 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $15.35 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 44.8%
  industry: 17%
  services: 38.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  6.86 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 13%
  services: 17%

Unemployment rate:
  30% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  48% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.9%
  highest 10%: 36.6% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  44.6 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.263 billion
  expenditures: $2.705 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  65.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, bananas, oilseed, grains, root
  starches; livestock; timber

Industries:
  petroleum production and refining, aluminum production, food
  processing, light consumer goods, textiles, lumber, ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.2% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.988 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 2.7%
  hydro: 97.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.779 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  82,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  23,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  85 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m NA cu m

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m NA cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  110.4 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $39 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.236 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil and petroleum products, lumber, cocoa beans, aluminum,
  coffee, cotton

Exports - partners:
  Spain 17.2%, Italy 13.7%, France 9.4%, South Korea 8.1%, UK 8%,
  Netherlands 7.8%, Belgium 4.8%, US 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.514 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, electrical equipment, transport equipment, fuel, food

Imports - partners:
  France 25%, Nigeria 12.5%, Belgium 6.6%, China 5.8%, US 5.3%,
  Thailand 4.7%, Germany 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $964.8 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $9.168 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  in January 2001, the Paris Club agreed to reduce Cameroon's debt of
  $1.3 billion by $900 million; debt relief now totals $1.26 billion

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Cameroon


Telephones - main lines in use:
  99,400 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.259 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: available only to business and government
  domestic: cable, microwave radio relay, and tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 237; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 3 (2002)

Radios:
  2.27 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  450,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cm

Internet hosts:
  39 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  167,000 (2005)

Transportation Cameroon


Airports:
  47 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 70 km; liquid petroleum gas 9 km; oil 1,107 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 987 km
  narrow gauge: 987 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 80,932 km
  paved: 5,398 km
  unpaved: 75,534 km (2002)

Waterways:
  navigation mainly on Benue River; limited during rainy season (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 38,613 GRT/68,820 DWT
  by type: petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (France 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Douala, Limboh Terminal

Military Cameroon


Military branches:
  Cameroon Armed Forces: Army, Navy (includes naval infantry), Air
  Force (Armee de l'Air du Cameroun, AAC) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (1999)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,525,307
  females age 18-49: 3,461,406 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,946,767
  females age 18-49: 1,834,600 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 191,619
  females age 18-49: 187,082 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $230.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Cameroon


Disputes - international:
  ICJ ruled in 2002 on the entire Cameroon-Nigeria land and maritime
  boundary but the parties formed a Joint Border Commission, which
  continues to meet regularly to resolve differences bilaterally and
  have commenced with demarcation in less-contested sections of the
  boundary, starting in Lake Chad in the north; implementation of the
  ICJ ruling on the Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime
  boundary in the Gulf of Guinea is impeded by imprecisely defined
  coordinates and a sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea and
  Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River; Nigeria
  initially rejected cession of the Bakassi Peninsula, then agreed,
  but much of the indigenous population opposes cession; only Nigeria
  and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to
  ratify the delimitation treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger
  and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 39,290 (Chad) 16,686 (Nigeria) 9,634
  (Cote d'Ivoire) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Canada

Introduction Canada


Background:
  A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada became
  a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the
  British crown. Economically and technologically the nation has
  developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to the south across
  an unfortified border. Canada's paramount political problem is
  meeting public demands for quality improvements in health care and
  education services after a decade of budget cuts. Canada also faces
  questions about integrity in government following revelations
  regarding a corruption scandal in the federal government that has
  helped revive the fortunes of separatists in predominantly
  francophone Quebec.

Geography Canada


Location:
  Northern North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean on the
  east, North Pacific Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean on the
  north, north of the conterminous US

Geographic coordinates:
  60 00 N, 95 00 W

Map references:
  North America

Area:
  total: 9,984,670 sq km
  land: 9,093,507 sq km
  water: 891,163 sq km

Area - comparative:
  somewhat larger than the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 8,893 km
  border countries: US 8,893 km (includes 2,477 km with Alaska)

Coastline:
  202,080 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  varies from temperate in south to subarctic and arctic in north

Terrain:
  mostly plains with mountains in west and lowlands in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Logan 5,959 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash,
  diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural
  gas, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 4.57%
  permanent crops: 0.65%
  other: 94.78% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  7,850 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  continuous permafrost in north is a serious obstacle to
  development; cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a
  result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and
  North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and
  snow east of the mountains

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affecting lakes and
  damaging forests; metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and
  vehicle emissions impacting on agricultural and forest productivity;
  ocean waters becoming contaminated due to agricultural, industrial,
  mining, and forestry activities

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  second-largest country in world (after Russia); strategic location
  between Russia and US via north polar route; approximately 90% of
  the population is concentrated within 160 km of the US border

People Canada


Population:
  33,098,932 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.6% (male 2,992,811/female 2,848,388)
  15-64 years: 69% (male 11,482,452/female 11,368,286)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 1,883,008/female 2,523,987) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.9 years
  male: 37.8 years
  female: 39.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.88% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  5.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.69 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.22 years
  male: 76.86 years
  female: 83.74 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  56,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Canadian(s)
  adjective: Canadian

Ethnic groups:
  British Isles origin 28%, French origin 23%, other European 15%,
  Amerindian 2%, other, mostly Asian, African, Arab 6%, mixed
  background 26%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3% (including United Church
  9.5%, Anglican 6.8%, Baptist 2.4%, Lutheran 2%), other Christian
  4.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other and unspecified 11.8%, none 16% (2001
  census)

Languages:
  English (official) 59.3%, French (official) 23.2%, other 17.5%

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Canada


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Canada

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy that is also a parliamentary democracy and
  a federation

Capital:
  name: Ottawa
  geographic coordinates: 45 25 N, 75 40 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November
  note: Canada is divided into six time zones

Administrative divisions:
  10 provinces and 3 territories*; Alberta, British Columbia,
  Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest
  Territories*, Nova Scotia, Nunavut*, Ontario, Prince Edward Island,
  Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory*

Independence:
  1 July 1867 (union of British North American colonies); 11 December
  1931 (independence recognized)

National holiday:
  Canada Day, 1 July (1867)

Constitution:
  made up of unwritten and written acts, customs, judicial decisions,
  and traditions; the written part of the constitution consists of the
  Constitution Act of 29 March 1867, which created a federation of
  four provinces, and the Constitution Act of 17 April 1982, which
  transferred formal control over the constitution from Britain to
  Canada, and added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well
  as procedures for constitutional amendments

Legal system:
  based on English common law, except in Quebec, where civil law
  system based on French law prevails; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Michaelle JEAN (since 27 September
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Stephen HARPER (since 6 February
  2006)
  cabinet: Federal Ministry chosen by the prime minister usually from
  among the members of his own party sitting in Parliament
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister for a
  five-year term; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition in the House
  of Commons is automatically designated prime minister by the
  governor general

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of the Senate or Senat
  (members appointed by the governor general with the advice of the
  prime minister and serve until reaching 75 years of age; its normal
  limit is 105 senators) and the House of Commons or Chambre des
  Communes (308 seats; members elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve for up to five-year terms)
  elections: House of Commons - last held 23 January 2006 (next to be
  held in 2011)
  election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party -
  Conservative Party 36.3%, Liberal Party 30.2%, New Democratic Party
  17.5%, Bloc Quebecois 10.5%, Greens 4.5%, other 1%; seats by party -
  Conservative Party 124, Liberal Party 103, New Democratic Party 29,
  Bloc Quebecois 51, other 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Canada (judges are appointed by the prime minister
  through the governor general); Federal Court of Canada; Federal
  Court of Appeal; Provincial Courts (these are named variously Court
  of Appeal, Court of Queens Bench, Superior Court, Supreme Court, and
  Court of Justice)

Political parties and leaders:
  Bloc Quebecois [Gilles DUCEPPE]; Conservative Party of Canada (a
  merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative
  Party) [Stephen HARPER]; Green Party [Elizabeth MAY]; Liberal Party
  [Stephane DION]; New Democratic Party [Jack LAYTON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, AfDB, APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue
  partner), Australia Group, BIS, C, CDB, CE (observer), EAPC, EBRD,
  ESA (cooperating state), FAO, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC,
  NAFTA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE,
  Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), UN, UNAMSIL,
  UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNMOVIC, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael WILSON
  chancery: 501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001
  telephone: [1] (202) 682-1740
  FAX: [1] (202) 682-7701
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas,
  Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix,
  San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson
  consulate(s): Anchorage, Houston, Philadelphia, Princeton (New
  Jersey), Raleigh, San Jose (California)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David H. WILKINS
  embassy: 490 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1G8
  mailing address: P. O. Box 5000, Ogdensburgh, NY 13669-0430
  telephone: [1] (613) 238-5335, 4470
  FAX: [1] (613) 688-3082
  consulate(s) general: Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto,
  Vancouver, Winnipeg

Flag description:
  two vertical bands of red (hoist and fly side, half width), with
  white square between them; an 11-pointed red maple leaf is centered
  in the white square; the official colors of Canada are red and white

Economy Canada


Economy - overview:
  As an affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion dollar
  class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic
  system, pattern of production, and affluent living standards. Since
  World War II, the impressive growth of the manufacturing, mining,
  and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural
  economy into one primarily industrial and urban. The 1989 US-Canada
  Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the 1994 North American Free Trade
  Agreement (NAFTA) (which includes Mexico) touched off a dramatic
  increase in trade and economic integration with the US. Given its
  great natural resources, skilled labor force, and modern capital
  plant, Canada enjoys solid economic prospects. Top-notch fiscal
  management has produced consecutive balanced budgets since 1997,
  although public debate continues over how to manage the rising cost
  of the publicly funded healthcare system. Exports account for
  roughly a third of GDP. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus
  with its principal trading partner, the US, which absorbs more than
  85% of Canadian exports. Canada is the US' largest foreign supplier
  of energy, including oil, gas, uranium, and electric power.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.111 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.035 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $33,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  16.3 million (December 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 2%, manufacturing 14%, construction 5%, services 75%,
  other 3% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  15.9%; note - this figure is the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO), a
  calculation that results in higher figures than found in many
  comparable economies; Canada does not have an official poverty line
  (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 23.8% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  33.1 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $159.6 billion
  expenditures: $152.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Public debt:
  69.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy
  products; forest products; fish

Industries:
  transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed
  minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish products,
  petroleum and natural gas

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  566.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 28%
  hydro: 57.9%
  nuclear: 12.9%
  other: 1.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  520.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  22 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  33 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  2.4 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  2.3 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  1.6 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  963,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  178.9 billion bbl
  note: includes oil sands (2004 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  165.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  90.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  91.52 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  8.73 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.673 trillion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $24.96 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $364.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft,
  telecommunications equipment; chemicals, plastics, fertilizers; wood
  pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity, aluminum

Exports - partners:
  US 84.2%, Japan 2.1%, UK 1.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $317.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, crude oil,
  chemicals, electricity, durable consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  US 56.7%, China 7.8%, Mexico 3.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $33.02 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $439.8 billion (30 November 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $2.6 billion (2004)

Currency (code):
  Canadian dollar (CAD)

Currency code:
  CAD

Exchange rates:
  Canadian dollars per US dollar - 1.2118 (2005), 1.301 (2004),
  1.4011 (2003), 1.5693 (2002), 1.5488 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Canada


Telephones - main lines in use:
  18.276 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  16.6 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent service provided by modern technology
  domestic: domestic satellite system with about 300 earth stations
  international: country code - 1-xxx; 5 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Atlantic Ocean and 1
  Pacific Ocean) and 2 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 245, FM 582, shortwave 6 (2004)

Radios:
  32.3 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  80 (plus many repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  21.5 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ca

Internet hosts:
  3,934,223 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  760 (2000 est.)

Internet users:
  21.9 million (2005)

Transportation Canada


Airports:
  1,337 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 509
  over 3,047 m: 18
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 151
  914 to 1,523 m: 248
  under 914 m: 77 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 828
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 66
  914 to 1,523 m: 355
  under 914 m: 407 (2006)

Heliports:
  319 (2006)

Pipelines:
  crude and reined oil 23,564 km; liquid petroleum gas 74,980 km
  (2005)

Railways:
  total: 48,467 km
  standard gauge: 48,467 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 1,042,300 km
  paved: 415,600 km (including 17,000 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 626,700 km (2005)

Waterways:
  631 km
  note: Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint
  Lawrence River of 3,058 km, shared with United States (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 173 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,129,243 GRT/2,716,340 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 62, cargo 10, chemical tanker 9, container 2,
  passenger 6, passenger/cargo 63, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll
  off 8
  foreign-owned: 7 (Germany 3, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, US 2)
  registered in other countries: 111 (Australia 1, Bahamas 18,
  Barbados 8, Cambodia 6, Cyprus 2, Denmark 1, Honduras 1, Hong Kong
  28, Liberia 2, Malta 18, Marshall Islands 6, Panama 4, Russia 1,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6, US 4, Vanuatu 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Fraser River Port, Halifax, Montreal, Port Cartier, Quebec, Saint
  John's (Newfoundland), Sept Isles, Vancouver

Military Canada


Military branches:
  Canadian Forces: Land Forces Command, Maritime Command, Air
  Command, Canada Command (homeland security) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women comprise
  approximately 11% of Canada's armed forces (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 8,216,510
  females age 16-49: 8,034,939 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 6,740,490
  females age 16-49: 6,580,868 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 223,821
  females age 16-49: 212,900 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9,801.7 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.1% (2003)

Transnational Issues Canada


Disputes - international:
  managed maritime boundary disputes with the US at Dixon Entrance,
  Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and around the disputed
  Machias Seal Island and North Rock; working toward greater
  cooperation with US in monitoring people and commodities crossing
  the border; uncontested sovereignty dispute with Denmark over Hans
  Island in the Kennedy Channel between Ellesmere Island and Greenland

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and
  export to US; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant
  large quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; transit point
  for ecstasy entering the US market; vulnerable to narcotics money
  laundering because of its mature financial services sector


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cape Verde

Introduction Cape Verde


Background:
  The uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the
  Portuguese in the 15th century; Cape Verde subsequently became a
  trading center for African slaves and later an important coaling and
  resupply stop for whaling and transatlantic shipping. Following
  independence in 1975, and a tentative interest in unification with
  Guinea-Bissau, a one-party system was established and maintained
  until multi-party elections were held in 1990. Cape Verde continues
  to exhibit one of Africa's most stable democratic governments.
  Repeated droughts during the second half of the 20th century caused
  significant hardship and prompted heavy emigration. As a result,
  Cape Verde's expatriate population is greater than its domestic one.
  Most Cape Verdeans have both African and Portuguese antecedents.

Geography Cape Verde


Location:
  Western Africa, group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, west
  of Senegal

Geographic coordinates:
  16 00 N, 24 00 W

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 4,033 sq km
  land: 4,033 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  965 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  temperate; warm, dry summer; precipitation meager and very erratic

Terrain:
  steep, rugged, rocky, volcanic

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mt. Fogo 2,829 m (a volcano on Fogo Island)

Natural resources:
  salt, basalt rock, limestone, kaolin, fish, clay, gypsum

Land use:
  arable land: 11.41%
  permanent crops: 0.74%
  other: 87.85% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  prolonged droughts; seasonal harmattan wind produces obscuring
  dust; volcanically and seismically active

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion; deforestation due to demand for wood used as fuel;
  desertification; environmental damage has threatened several species
  of birds and reptiles; illegal beach sand extraction; overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location 500 km from west coast of Africa near major
  north-south sea routes; important communications station; important
  sea and air refueling site

People Cape Verde


Population:
  420,979 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37.9% (male 80,594/female 79,126)
  15-64 years: 55.3% (male 113,450/female 119,423)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 10,542/female 17,844) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.8 years
  male: 19 years
  female: 20.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.64% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.87 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -11.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 46.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 51.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 41.26 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.73 years
  male: 67.41 years
  female: 74.15 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.035% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  775 (2001)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  225 (as of 2001)

Nationality:
  noun: Cape Verdean(s)
  adjective: Cape Verdean

Ethnic groups:
  Creole (mulatto) 71%, African 28%, European 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic (infused with indigenous beliefs); Protestant
  (mostly Church of the Nazarene)

Languages:
  Portuguese, Crioulo (a blend of Portuguese and West African words)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.6%
  male: 85.8%
  female: 69.2% (2003 est.)

Government Cape Verde


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Cape Verde
  conventional short form: Cape Verde
  local long form: Republica de Cabo Verde
  local short form: Cabo Verde

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Praia
  geographic coordinates: 14 55 N, 23 31 W
  time difference: UTC-1 (4 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  17 municipalities (concelhos, singular - concelho); Boa Vista,
  Brava, Maio, Mosteiros, Paul, Praia, Porto Novo, Ribeira Grande,
  Sal, Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz, Sao Domingos, Sao Filipe, Sao
  Miguel, Sao Nicolau, Sao Vicente, Tarrafal

Independence:
  5 July 1975 (from Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 5 July (1975)

Constitution:
  new constitution came into force 25 September 1992; underwent a
  major revision on 23 November 1995, substantially increasing the
  powers of the president; a 1999 revision created the position of
  national ombudsman (Provedor de Justica)

Legal system:
  derived from the legal system of Portugal

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Pedro Verona PIRES (since 22 March 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose Maria Pereira NEVES (since 1
  February 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 12 February 2006
  (next to be held February 2011); prime minister nominated by the
  National Assembly and appointed by the president
  election results: Pedro PIRES reelected president; percent of vote -
  Pedro PIRES (PAICV) 51.2%, Carlos VIEGA (MPD) 48.8%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia Nacional (72 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 22 January 2006 (next to be held in January
  2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAICV 52.3%, MPD 44%,
  UCID 2.7%; seats by party - PAICV 41, MPD 29, ADM 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Tribunal of Justice or Supremo Tribunal de Justia

Political parties and leaders:
  African Party for Independence of Cape Verde or PAICV [Jose Maria
  Pereira NEVES, chairman]; Democratic Alliance for Change or ADM [Dr.
  Eurico MONTEIRO] (a coalition of PCD, PTS, and UCID); Democratic
  Christian Party or PDC [Manuel RODRIGUES, chairman]; Democratic
  Renovation Party or PRD [Victor FIDALGO, president]; Democratic and
  Independent Cape Verdean Union or UCID [Antonio MONTEIRO]; Movement
  for Democracy or MPD [Agostinho LOPES, president]; Party for
  Democratic Convergence or PCD [Dr. Eurico MONTEIRO, president];
  Party of Work and Solidarity or PTS [Isaias RODRIGUES, president];
  Social Democratic Party or PSD [Joao ALEM, president]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jose BRITO
  chancery: 3415 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 965-6820
  FAX: [1] (202) 965-1207
  consulate(s) general: Boston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roger D. PIERCE
  embassy: Rua Abilio Macedo n6, Praia
  mailing address: C. P. 201, Praia
  telephone: [238] 2-60-89-00
  FAX: [238] 2-61-13-55

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of light blue (top, double width), white
  (with a horizontal red stripe in the middle third), and light blue;
  a circle of 10 yellow five-pointed stars is centered on the hoist
  end of the red stripe and extends into the upper and lower blue bands

Economy Cape Verde


Economy - overview:
  This island economy suffers from a poor natural resource base,
  including serious water shortages exacerbated by cycles of long-term
  drought. The economy is service-oriented, with commerce, transport,
  tourism, and public services accounting for 66% of GDP. Although
  nearly 70% of the population lives in rural areas, the share of
  agriculture in GDP in 2004 was only 12%, of which fishing accounted
  for 1.5%. About 82% of food must be imported. The fishing potential,
  mostly lobster and tuna, is not fully exploited. Cape Verde annually
  runs a high trade deficit, financed by foreign aid and remittances
  from emigrants; remittances supplement GDP by more than 20%.
  Economic reforms are aimed at developing the private sector and
  attracting foreign investment to diversify the economy. Future
  prospects depend heavily on the maintenance of aid flows, the
  encouragement of tourism, remittances, and the momentum of the
  government's development program.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.99 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.128 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12.1%
  industry: 21.9%
  services: 66% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  120,600

Unemployment rate:
  21% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  30% (2000)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $328.1 million
  expenditures: $393.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, coffee, peanuts;
  fish

Industries:
  food and beverages, fish processing, shoes and garments, salt
  mining, ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  44.15 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  41.06 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  1,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-82 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $73.35 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fuel, shoes, garments, fish, hides

Exports - partners:
  Spain 38.2%, Portugal 33.2%, US 9.2%, Morocco 5.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $500 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, industrial products, transport equipment, fuels

Imports - partners:
  Portugal 41.5%, Italy 8%, Netherlands 7.3%, Spain 5.5%, France
  4.8%, Belgium 4.7%, Brazil 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $150 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $325 million (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $136 million (1999)

Currency (code):
  Cape Verdean escudo (CVE)

Currency code:
  CVE

Exchange rates:
  Cape Verdean escudos (CVE) per US dollar - 88.67 (2005), 88.808
  (2004), 97.703 (2003), 117.168 (2002), 123.228 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Cape Verde


Telephones - main lines in use:
  71,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  81,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: effective system, extensive modernization from
  1996-2000 following partial privatization in 1995
  domestic: major service provider is Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT); fiber
  optic ring, completed in 2001, links all islands providing Internet
  access and ISDN services; cellular service introduced in 1998
  international: country code - 238; 2 coaxial submarine cables; HF
  radiotelephone to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau; satellite earth station
  - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 22 (and 12 low power repeaters), shortwave 0 (2002)

Radios:
  100,000 (2002 est.)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (and 7 repeaters) (2002)

Televisions:
  15,000 (2002 est.)

Internet country code:
  .cv

Internet hosts:
  234 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  25,000 (2005)

Transportation Cape Verde


Airports:
  7 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,350 km
  paved: 932 km
  unpaved: 418 km (2000)

Merchant marine:
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 12,300 GRT/7,726 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 4
  foreign-owned: 2 (Spain 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mindelo, Praia, Tarrafal

Military Cape Verde


Military branches:
  People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARP): Army, Coast Guard
  (includes maritime air wing)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 84,641
  females age 18-49: 87,310 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 65,614
  females age 18-49: 73,662 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $7.18 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Cape Verde


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  used as a transshipment point for illicit drugs moving from Latin
  America and Asia destined for Western Europe; the lack of a
  well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cayman Islands

Introduction Cayman Islands


Background:
  The Cayman Islands were colonized from Jamaica by the British
  during the 18th and 19th centuries, and were administered by Jamaica
  after 1863. In 1959, the islands became a territory within the
  Federation of the West Indies, but when the Federation dissolved in
  1962, the Cayman Islands chose to remain a British dependency.

Geography Cayman Islands


Location:
  Caribbean, three island (Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman)
  group in Caribbean Sea, 240 km south of Cuba and 268 km northwest of
  Jamaica

Geographic coordinates:
  19 30 N, 80 30 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 262 sq km
  land: 262 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  160 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; warm, rainy summers (May to October) and cool,
  relatively dry winters (November to April)

Terrain:
  low-lying limestone base surrounded by coral reefs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: The Bluff (Cayman Brac) 43 m

Natural resources:
  fish, climate and beaches that foster tourism

Land use:
  arable land: 3.85%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 96.15% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes (July to November)

Environment - current issues:
  no natural fresh water resources; drinking water supplies must be
  met by rainwater catchments

Geography - note:
  important location between Cuba and Central America

People Cayman Islands


Population:
  45,436
  note: most of the population lives on Grand Cayman (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.7% (male 4,708/female 4,700)
  15-64 years: 70.9% (male 15,707/female 16,504)
  65 years and over: 8.4% (male 1,793/female 2,024) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 37.2 years
  male: 36.8 years
  female: 37.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.56% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  17.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: major destination for Cubans trying to migrate to the US (2006
  est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.07 years
  male: 77.45 years
  female: 82.74 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Caymanian(s)
  adjective: Caymanian

Ethnic groups:
  mixed 40%, white 20%, black 20%, expatriates of various ethnic
  groups 20%

Religions:
  United Church (Presbyterian and Congregational), Anglican, Baptist,
  Church of God, other Protestant, Roman Catholic

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 98% (1970 est.)

Government Cayman Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Cayman Islands

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  British crown colony

Capital:
  name: George Town (on Grand Cayman)
  geographic coordinates: 19 20 N, 81 23 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  8 districts; Creek, Eastern, Midland, South Town, Spot Bay, Stake
  Bay, West End, Western

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, first Monday in July

Constitution:
  1959; revised 1962, 1972, and 1994

Legal system:
  British common law and local statutes

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952);
  Governor Stuart JACK (since 23 November 2005)
  head of government: Leader of Government Business Kurt TIBBETTS
  (since 18 May 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council (three members appointed by the governor,
  four members elected by the Legislative Assembly)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or coalition is appointed by the
  governor Leader of Government Business

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (18 seats, 3 appointed members from
  the Executive Council and 15 elected by popular vote; members serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 May 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PPM 9, UDP 5, independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Summary Court; Grand Court; Cayman Islands Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  no national teams (loose groupings of political organizations) were
  formed for the 2000 elections; United Democratic Party or UDP
  [leader McKeeva BUSH]; People's Progressive Movement or PPM [leader
  Kurt TIBBETTS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), IOC, UNESCO
  (associate), UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Caymanian coat of arms centered on the outer half of the flag;
  the coat of arms includes a pineapple and turtle above a shield with
  three stars (representing the three islands) and a scroll at the
  bottom bearing the motto HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE SEAS

Economy Cayman Islands


Economy - overview:
  With no direct taxation, the islands are a thriving offshore
  financial center. More than 40,000 companies were registered in the
  Cayman Islands as of 1998, including almost 600 banks and trust
  companies; banking assets exceed $500 billion. A stock exchange was
  opened in 1997. Tourism is also a mainstay, accounting for about 70%
  of GDP and 75% of foreign currency earnings. The tourist industry is
  aimed at the luxury market and caters mainly to visitors from North
  America. Total tourist arrivals exceeded 1.2 million in 1997, with
  600,000 from the US. About 90% of the islands' food and consumer
  goods must be imported. The Caymanians enjoy one of the highest
  outputs per capita and one of the highest standards of living in the
  world.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.939 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.9% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $43,800 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.4%
  industry: 3.2%
  services: 95.4% (1994 est.)

Labor force:
  23,450 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1.4%
  industry: 12.6%
  services: 86% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  4.4% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.4% (2004)

Budget:
  revenues: $423.8 million
  expenditures: $392.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1997)

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables, fruit; livestock; turtle farming

Industries:
  tourism, banking, insurance and finance, construction, construction
  materials, furniture

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  441.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  411 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  2,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $2.52 million (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  turtle products, manufactured consumer goods

Exports - partners:
  mostly US (2004)

Imports:
  $866.9 million (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, manufactured goods

Imports - partners:
  US, Netherlands Antilles, Japan (2004)

Debt - external:
  $70 million (1996)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $390,000 $NA

Currency (code):
  Caymanian dollar (KYD)

Currency code:
  KYD

Exchange rates:
  Caymanian dollars per US dollar - 0.82 (29 October 2001), 0.83 (3
  November 1995), 0.85 (22 November 1993)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Cayman Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  38,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  17,000 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: reasonably good system
  domestic: liberalization of telecom market in 2003 reflected in
  falling prices and improving services
  international: country code - 1-345; 2 submarine fiber optic cables
  (Maya-1, Cayman-Jamaica); satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  36,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 with cable system (2004)

Televisions:
  7,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ky

Internet hosts:
  8,611 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  9,909 (2003)

Transportation Cayman Islands


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 785 km
  paved: 785 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 132 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,746,290 GRT/4,366,790 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 32, cargo 14, chemical tanker 42, liquefied
  gas 1, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 14, refrigerated cargo 23, roll
  on/roll off 3, specialized tanker 1, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 130 (Denmark 5, Germany 13, Greece 21, Italy 12,
  Japan 1, Malaysia 1, Netherlands 4, Norway 2, Philippines 1,
  Singapore 10, Sweden 9, UK 10, US 41) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cayman Brac, George Town

Military Cayman Islands


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Cayman Islands Police Force

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,703 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 8,600 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 257 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Cayman Islands


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  offshore financial center; vulnerable to drug transshipment to the
  US and Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Central African Republic

Introduction Central African Republic


Background:
  The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari became the Central African
  Republic upon independence in 1960. After three tumultuous decades
  of misrule - mostly by military governments - civilian rule was
  established in 1993 and lasted for one decade. President Ange-Felix
  PATASSE's civilian government was plagued by unrest, and in March
  2003 he was deposed in a military coup led by General Francois
  BOZIZE, who established a transitional government. Though the
  government has the tacit support of civil society groups and the
  main parties, a wide field of candidates contested the municipal,
  legislative, and presidential elections held in March and May of
  2005 in which General BOZIZE was affirmed as president. The
  government still does not fully control the countryside, where
  pockets of lawlessness persist.

Geography Central African Republic


Location:
  Central Africa, north of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Geographic coordinates:
  7 00 N, 21 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 622,984 sq km
  land: 622,984 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,203 km
  border countries: Cameroon 797 km, Chad 1,197 km, Democratic
  Republic of the Congo 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 467 km, Sudan
  1,165 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical; hot, dry winters; mild to hot, wet summers

Terrain:
  vast, flat to rolling, monotonous plateau; scattered hills in
  northeast and southwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Oubangui River 335 m
  highest point: Mont Ngaoui 1,420 m

Natural resources:
  diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 3.1%
  permanent crops: 0.15%
  other: 96.75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds affect northern areas; floods are
  common

Environment - current issues:
  tap water is not potable; poaching has diminished the country's
  reputation as one of the last great wildlife refuges;
  desertification; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; almost the precise center of Africa

People Central African Republic


Population:
  4,303,356
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.9% (male 907,629/female 897,153)
  15-64 years: 53.9% (male 1,146,346/female 1,173,268)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 71,312/female 107,648) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.4 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.53% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  33.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  18.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 85.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 78.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 43.54 years
  male: 43.46 years
  female: 43.62 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  13.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  260,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  23,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Central African(s)
  adjective: Central African

Ethnic groups:
  Baya 33%, Banda 27%, Mandjia 13%, Sara 10%, Mboum 7%, M'Baka 4%,
  Yakoma 4%, other 2%

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 35%, Protestant 25%, Roman Catholic 25%, Muslim
  15%
  note: animistic beliefs and practices strongly influence the
  Christian majority

Languages:
  French (official), Sangho (lingua franca and national language),
  tribal languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 51%
  male: 63.3%
  female: 39.9% (2003 est.)

Government Central African Republic


Country name:
  conventional long form: Central African Republic
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Republique Centrafricaine
  local short form: none
  former: Ubangi-Shari, Central African Empire
  abbreviation: CAR

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bangui
  geographic coordinates: 4 22 N, 18 35 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 prefectures (prefectures, singular - prefecture), 2 economic
  prefectures* (prefectures economiques, singular - prefecture
  economique), and 1 commune**; Bamingui-Bangoran, Bangui**,
  Basse-Kotto, Haute-Kotto, Haut-Mbomou, Kemo, Lobaye, Mambere-Kadei,
  Mbomou, Nana-Grebizi*, Nana-Mambere, Ombella-Mpoko, Ouaka, Ouham,
  Ouham-Pende, Sangha-Mbaere*, Vakaga

Independence:
  13 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 1 December (1958)

Constitution:
  ratified by popular referendum 5 December 2004; effective 27
  December 2004

Legal system:
  based on French law

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Francois BOZIZE (since 15 March 2003 coup)
  head of government: Prime Minister Elie DOTE (since 13 June 2005);
  note - Celestin GAOMBALET resigned 11 June 2005
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: under the new constitution, the president elected to a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); elections last held 13
  March and 8 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010); prime minister
  appointed by the political party with a parliamentary majority
  election results: Francois BOZIZE elected president; percent of
  second round balloting - Francois BOZIZE (KNK) 64.6%, Martin ZIGUELE
  (MLPC) 35.4%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (109 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 13 March 2005 and 8 May 2005 (next to be held
  NA 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MLPC 43%, RDC 18%, MDD
  9%, FPP 6%, PSD 5%, ADP 4%, PUN 3%, FODEM 2%, PLD 2%, UPR 1%, FC 1%,
  independents 6%; seats by party - MLPC 47, RDC 20, MDD 8, FPP 7, PSD
  6, ADP 5, PUN 3, FODEM 2, PLD 2, UPR 1, FC 1, independents 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; Constitutional Court (3 judges
  appointed by the president, 3 by the president of the National
  Assembly, and 3 by fellow judges); Court of Appeal; Criminal Courts;
  Inferior Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Democracy and Progress or ADP [Jacques MBOLIEDAS];
  Central African Democratic Assembly or RDC [Andre KOLINGBA]; Civic
  Forum or FC [Gen. Timothee MALENDOMA]; Democratic Forum for
  Modernity or FODEM [Charles MASSI]; Liberal Democratic Party or PLD
  [Nestor KOMBO-NAGUEMON]; Movement for Democracy and Development or
  MDD [David DACKO]; Movement for the Liberation of the Central
  African People or MLPC [Ange-Felix PATASSE] (the party of deposed
  president); National Convergence or KNK; Patriotic Front for
  Progress or FPP [Abel GOUMBA]; People's Union for the Republic or
  UPR [Pierre Sammy MAKFOY]; National Unity Party or PUN [Jean-Paul
  NGOUPANDE]; Social Democratic Party or PSD [Enoch LAKOUE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC (observer), OIF, OPCW, OPCW (signatory), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Emmanuel TOUABOY
  chancery: 1618 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-7800
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-9893

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires James PANOS
  embassy: Avenue David Dacko, Bangui
  mailing address: B. P. 924, Bangui
  telephone: [236] 61 02 00
  FAX: [236] 61 44 94
  note: the embassy is currently operating with a minimal staff

Flag description:
  four equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, green, and yellow
  with a vertical red band in center; there is a yellow five-pointed
  star on the hoist side of the blue band

Economy Central African Republic


Economy - overview:
  Subsistence agriculture, together with forestry, remains the
  backbone of the economy of the Central African Republic (CAR), with
  more than 70% of the population living in outlying areas. The
  agricultural sector generates half of GDP. Timber has accounted for
  about 16% of export earnings and the diamond industry, for 40%.
  Important constraints to economic development include the CAR's
  landlocked position, a poor transportation system, a largely
  unskilled work force, and a legacy of misdirected macroeconomic
  policies. Factional fighting between the government and its
  opponents remains a drag on economic revitalization, with GDP growth
  at only 0.5% in 2004 and 2.5% in 2005. Distribution of income is
  extraordinarily unequal. Grants from France and the international
  community can only partially meet humanitarian needs.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.677 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.462 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 20%
  services: 25% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  NA

Unemployment rate:
  8% (23% for Bangui) (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.7%
  highest 10%: 47.7% (1993)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  61.3 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.6% (2001 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, coffee, tobacco, manioc (tapioca), yams, millet, corn,
  bananas; timber

Industries:
  gold and diamond mining, logging, brewing, textiles, footwear,
  assembly of bicycles and motorcycles

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2002)

Electricity - production:
  106 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 19.8%
  hydro: 80.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  98.58 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  2,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $131 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, timber, cotton, coffee, tobacco

Exports - partners:
  Belgium 34.1%, France 9.5%, Spain 8.5%, Italy 7.9%, China 6.9%,
  Indonesia 6.2%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 4.6%, US 4.4%,
  Turkey 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $203 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, textiles, petroleum products, machinery, electrical
  equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals

Imports - partners:
  France 16.7%, Netherlands 10.4%, Cameroon 9.8%, US 7.4% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $1.06 billion (2002 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $59.8 million; note - traditional budget subsidies from France
  (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Central African Republic


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  60,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system
  domestic: network consists principally of microwave radio relay and
  low-capacity, low-powered radiotelephone communication
  international: country code - 236; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 1 (2002)

Radios:
  283,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  18,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cf

Internet hosts:
  10 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  9,000 (2005)

Transportation Central African Republic


Airports:
  50 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 47
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 23,810 km (1999)

Waterways:
  2,800 km (primarily on the Oubangui and Sangha rivers) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Bangui, Nola, Salo, Nzinga

Military Central African Republic


Military branches:
  Central African Armed Forces (FACA): Ground Forces, Military Air
  Service; General Directorate of Gendarmerie Inspection (DGIG),
  Republican Guard, National Police (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation is two years (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 853,760
  females age 18-49: 835,426 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 416,091
  females age 18-49: 383,056 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $16.37 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Central African Republic


Disputes - international:
  about 30,000 refugees fleeing the 2002 civil conflict in the CAR
  still reside in southern Chad; periodic skirmishes over water and
  grazing rights among related pastoral populations along the border
  with southern Sudan persist

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 19,470 (Sudan) 1,864 (Chad) 6,484
  (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  IDPs: 200,000 (unrest following coup in 2003) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Central African Republic is a source and
  destination country for children trafficked for domestic servitude,
  sexual exploitation, and forced labor in shops and commercial labor
  activities; while the majority of child victims are trafficked
  within the country, some are also trafficked to and from Cameroon
  and Nigeria
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - the Central African Republic failed
  to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in
  persons during 2005, specifically its inadequate law enforcement
  response to trafficking crimes


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Chad

Introduction Chad


Background:
  Chad, part of France's African holdings until 1960, endured three
  decades of civil warfare as well as invasions by Libya before a
  semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The government
  eventually drafted a democratic constitution, and held flawed
  presidential elections in 1996 and 2001. In 1998, a rebellion broke
  out in northern Chad, which sporadically flares up despite several
  peace agreements between the government and the rebels. In 2005 new
  rebel groups emerged in western Sudan and have made probing attacks
  into eastern Chad. Power remains in the hands of an ethnic minority.
  In June 2005, President Idriss DEBY held a referendum successfully
  removing constitutional term limits.

Geography Chad


Location:
  Central Africa, south of Libya

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 19 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1.284 million sq km
  land: 1,259,200 sq km
  water: 24,800 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than three times the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,968 km
  border countries: Cameroon 1,094 km, Central African Republic 1,197
  km, Libya 1,055 km, Niger 1,175 km, Nigeria 87 km, Sudan 1,360 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical in south, desert in north

Terrain:
  broad, arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in
  northwest, lowlands in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Djourab Depression 160 m
  highest point: Emi Koussi 3,415 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold,
  limestone, sand and gravel, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 2.8%
  permanent crops: 0.02%
  other: 97.18% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  300 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds occur in north; periodic droughts;
  locust plagues

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; improper waste disposal in
  rural areas contributes to soil and water pollution; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping

Geography - note:
  landlocked; Lake Chad is the most significant water body in the
  Sahel

People Chad


Population:
  9,944,201 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 47.9% (male 2,396,393/female 2,369,261)
  15-64 years: 49.3% (male 2,355,940/female 2,550,535)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 107,665/female 164,407) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16 years
  male: 15.3 years
  female: 16.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.93% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  45.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.38 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 91.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 100.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 82.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 47.52 years
  male: 45.88 years
  female: 49.21 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.8% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  200,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  18,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Chadian(s)
  adjective: Chadian

Ethnic groups:
  200 distinct groups; in the north and center: Arabs, Gorane
  (Toubou, Daza, Kreda), Zaghawa, Kanembou, Ouaddai, Baguirmi,
  Hadjerai, Fulbe, Kotoko, Hausa, Boulala, and Maba, most of whom are
  Muslim; in the south: Sara (Ngambaye, Mbaye, Goulaye), Moundang,
  Moussei, Massa, most of whom are Christian or animist; about 1,000
  French citizens live in Chad

Religions:
  Muslim 51%, Christian 35%, animist 7%, other 7%

Languages:
  French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more than
  120 different languages and dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write French or Arabic
  total population: 47.5%
  male: 56%
  female: 39.3% (2003 est.)

Government Chad


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Chad
  conventional short form: Chad
  local long form: Republique du Tchad/Jumhuriyat Tshad
  local short form: Tchad/Tshad

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: N'Djamena
  geographic coordinates: 12 07 N, 15 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 prefectures (prefectures, singular - prefecture); Batha,
  Biltine, Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti, Chari-Baguirmi, Guera, Kanem, Lac,
  Logone Occidental, Logone Oriental, Mayo-Kebbi, Moyen-Chari,
  Ouaddai, Salamat, Tandjile
  note: instead of 14 prefectures, there may be a new administrative
  structure of 28 departments (departments, singular - department) and
  1 city*; Assongha, Baguirmi, Bahr El Gazal, Bahr Koh, Batha
  Oriental, Batha Occidental, Biltine, Borkou, Dababa, Ennedi, Guera,
  Hadjer Lamis, Kabia, Kanem, Lac, Lac Iro, Logone Occidental, Logone
  Oriental, Mandoul, Mayo-Boneye, Mayo-Dallah, Monts de Lam,
  N'Djamena*, Ouaddai, Salamat, Sila, Tandjile Oriental, Tandjile
  Occidental, Tibesti

Independence:
  11 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 11 August (1960)

Constitution:
  passed by referendum 31 March 1996; a June 2005 referendum removed
  constitutional term limits

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and Chadian customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno (since 4
  December 1990)
  head of government: Prime Minister Pascal YOADIMNADJI (since 3
  February 2005)
  cabinet: Council of State, members appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  term; if no candidate receives at least 50% of the total vote, the
  two candidates receiving the most votes must stand for a second
  round of voting; last held 3 May 2006 (next to be held by May 2011);
  prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno reelected president;
  percent of vote - Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY 64.7%, Delwa Kassire
  COUMAKOYE 15.1%, Albert Pahimi PADACKE 7.8%, Mahamat ABDOULAYE 7.1%,
  Brahim KOULAMALLAH 5.3%; note - a June 2005 national referendum
  altered the constitution removing presidential term limits and
  permitting Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno to run for reelection

Legislative branch:
  bicameral according to constitution, consists of a National
  Assembly (155 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms) and a Senate (not yet created and size unspecified,
  members to serve six-year terms, one-third of membership renewable
  every two years)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 21 April 2002 (next to be
  held by April 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  MPS 110, RDP 12, FAR 9, RNDP 5, URD 5, UNDR 3, other 11

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; Criminal Courts; Magistrate Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Federation Action for the Republic or FAR [Ngarledjy YORONGAR];
  National Rally for Development and Progress or RNDP [Delwa Kassire
  COUMAKOYE]; National Union for Democracy and Renewal or UNDR [Saleh
  KEBZABO]; Party for Liberty and Development or PLD [Ibni Oumar
  Mahamat SALEH]; Patriotic Salvation Movement or MPS [Mahamat Saleh
  AHMAT, chairman]; Rally for Democracy and Progress or RDP [Lol
  Mahamat CHOUA]; Union for Democracy and Republic or UDR [Jean
  ALINGUE]; Union for Renewal and Democracy or URD [Gen. Wadal
  Abdelkader KAMOUGUE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mahamat Adam BECHIR
  chancery: 2002 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-4009
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1937

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marc M. WALL
  embassy: Avenue Felix Eboue, N'Djamena
  mailing address: B. P. 413, N'Djamena
  telephone: [235] 516-211
  FAX: [235] 515-654

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red;
  similar to the flag of Romania; also similar to the flags of Andorra
  and Moldova, both of which have a national coat of arms centered in
  the yellow band; design was based on the flag of France

Economy Chad


Economy - overview:
  Chad's primarily agricultural economy will continue to be boosted
  by major foreign direct investment projects in the oil sector that
  began in 2000. Over 80% of Chad's population relies on subsistence
  farming and livestock raising for its livelihood. Chad's economy has
  long been handicapped by its landlocked position, high energy costs,
  and a history of instability. Chad relies on foreign assistance and
  foreign capital for most public and private sector investment
  projects. A consortium led by two US companies has been investing
  $3.7 billion to develop oil reserves - estimated at 1 billion
  barrels - in southern Chad. The nation's total oil reserves has been
  estimated to be 2 billion barrels. Oil production came on stream in
  late 2003. Chad began to export oil in 2004. Cotton, cattle, and gum
  arabic provide the bulk of Chad's non-oil export earnings.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $13.98 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.799 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 33.5%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 40.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.719 million

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80% (subsistence farming, herding, and fishing)
  industry and services: 20%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  80% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $765.2 million
  expenditures: $653.3 million; including capital expenditures of $146
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, rice, potatoes, manioc (tapioca);
  cattle, sheep, goats, camels

Industries:
  oil, cotton textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing, natron (sodium
  carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate:
  5% (1995)

Electricity - production:
  120 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  111.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  225,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-602 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.016 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, cattle, gum arabic, oil

Exports - partners:
  US 78.1%, China 9.9%, Taiwan 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $749.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transportation equipment, industrial goods,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Imports - partners:
  France 21.1%, Cameroon 15.5%, US 12.1%, Belgium 6.8%, Portugal
  4.6%, Saudi Arabia 4.3%, Netherlands 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $297 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.5 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $238.3 million received; note - $125 million committed by Taiwan
  (August 1997); $30 million committed by African Development Bank;
  ODA $246.9 million (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Chad


Telephones - main lines in use:
  13,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  210,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: primitive system
  domestic: fair system of radiotelephone communication stations
  international: country code - 235; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 5 (2002)

Radios:
  1.67 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  10,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .td

Internet hosts:
  9 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  35,000 (2005)

Transportation Chad


Airports:
  52 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 21
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 205 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 33,400 km
  paved: 267 km
  unpaved: 33,133 km (1999)

Waterways:
  Chari and Legone rivers are navigable only in wet season (2002)

Military Chad


Military branches:
  Chadian National Army (Armee Nationale Tchadienne, ANT), Air Force,
  Gendarmerie (2004)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age for conscripts, with three-year service obligation;
  18 years of age for volunteers; no minimum age restriction for
  volunteers with consent from a guardian; women are subject to one
  year of compulsory military or civic service at age of 21 (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 1,527,580
  females age 20-49: 1,629,510 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 794,988
  females age 20-49: 849,500 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 94,536
  females age 20-49: 93,521 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $68.95 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Chad


Disputes - international:
  since the expulsions of residents from Darfur in 2003 by Janjawid
  armed militia and Sudanese military, about 200,000 refugees remain
  in eastern Chad; Chad remains an important mediator in the Sudanese
  civil conflict, reducing tensions with Sudan arising from
  cross-border banditry; Chadian Aozou rebels reside in southern
  Libya; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad
  Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which
  also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 224,924 (Sudan), 29,683 (Central
  African Republic) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Chile

Introduction Chile


Background:
  Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century, northern
  Chile was under Inca rule while Araucanian Indians inhabited central
  and southern Chile; the latter were not completely subjugated by
  Spain until the early 1880s. Although Chile declared its
  independence in 1810, decisive victory over the Spanish was not
  achieved until 1818. In the War of the Pacific (1879-84), Chile
  defeated Peru and Bolivia and won its present northern lands. A
  three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador ALLENDE was overthrown
  in 1973 by a dictatorial military regime led by Augusto PINOCHET,
  who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990.
  Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s,
  have contributed to steady growth and have helped secure the
  country's commitment to democratic and representative government.
  Chile has increasingly assumed regional and international leadership
  roles befitting its status as a stable, democratic nation.

Geography Chile


Location:
  Southern South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between
  Argentina and Peru

Geographic coordinates:
  30 00 S, 71 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 756,950 sq km
  land: 748,800 sq km
  water: 8,150 sq km
  note: includes Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) and Isla Sala y Gomez

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than twice the size of Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,339 km
  border countries: Argentina 5,308 km, Bolivia 860 km, Peru 171 km

Coastline:
  6,435 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200/350 nm

Climate:
  temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region; cool
  and damp in south

Terrain:
  low coastal mountains; fertile central valley; rugged Andes in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Nevado Ojos del Salado 6,880 m

Natural resources:
  copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 2.62%
  permanent crops: 0.43%
  other: 96.95% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  19,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis

Environment - current issues:
  widespread deforestation and mining threaten natural resources; air
  pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution
  from raw sewage

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location relative to sea lanes between Atlantic and
  Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake Passage);
  Atacama Desert is one of world's driest regions

People Chile


Population:
  16,134,219 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.7% (male 2,035,278/female 1,944,754)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 5,403,525/female 5,420,497)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 555,075/female 775,090) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 30.4 years
  male: 29.5 years
  female: 31.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.94% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.23 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.77 years
  male: 73.49 years
  female: 80.21 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  26,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,400 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Chilean(s)
  adjective: Chilean

Ethnic groups:
  white and white-Amerindian 95%, Amerindian 3%, other 2%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 11%, Jewish NEGL%

Languages:
  Spanish

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.2%
  male: 96.4%
  female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

Government Chile


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Chile
  conventional short form: Chile
  local long form: Republica de Chile
  local short form: Chile

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Santiago
  geographic coordinates: 33 27 S, 70 40 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in October; ends
  second Sunday in March

Administrative divisions:
  13 regions (regiones, singular - region); Aisen del General Carlos
  Ibanez del Campo, Antofagasta, Araucania, Atacama, Bio-Bio,
  Coquimbo, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Los Lagos,
  Magallanes y de la Antartica Chilena, Maule, Region Metropolitana
  (Santiago), Tarapaca, Valparaiso
  note: the US does not recognize claims to Antarctica

Independence:
  18 September 1810 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 18 September (1810)

Constitution:
  11 September 1980, effective 11 March 1981; amended 1989, 1991,
  1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2005

Legal system:
  based on Code of 1857 derived from Spanish law and subsequent codes
  influenced by French and Austrian law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction; note - in June 2005, Chile completed overhaul of
  its criminal justice system to a new, US-style adversarial system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Michelle BACHELET Jeria (since 11 March
  2006); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Michelle BACHELET Jeria (since 11
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single four-year
  term; election last held 11 December 2005, with runoff election held
  15 January 2006 (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: Michelle BACHELET Jeria elected president; percent
  of vote - Michelle BACHELET Jeria 53.5%; Sebastian PINERA Echenique
  46.5%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the
  Senate or Senado (38 seats elected by popular vote; members serve
  eight-year terms - one-half elected every four years) and the
  Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (120 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 December 2005 (next to be held
  December 2009); Chamber of Deputies - last held 11 December 2005
  (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - CPD 20 (PDC 6, PS 8, PPD 3, PRSD 3), APC 17 (UDI 9, RN 8),
  independent 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - CPD 65 (PDC 21, PPD 22, PS 15, PRSD 7), APC 54 (UDI
  34, RN 20), independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are appointed by the
  president and ratified by the Senate from lists of candidates
  provided by the court itself; the president of the Supreme Court is
  elected every three years by the 20-member court); Constitutional
  Tribunal

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Chile ("Alianza") or APC (including National Renewal
  or RN [Sergio DIEZ Urzia] and Independent Democratic Union or UDI
  [Jovino NOVOA Vasquez]); Coalition of Parties for Democracy
  ("Concertacion") or CPD (including Christian Democratic Party or PDC
  [Adolfo ZALDIVAR Larrain], Socialist Party or PS [Ricardo NUNEZ],
  Party for Democracy or PPD [Victor BARRUETO], Radical Social
  Democratic Party or PRSD [Jose Antonio GOMEZ Urrutia]); Communist
  Party or PC [Guillermo TEILLIER]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  revitalized university student federations at all major
  universities; Roman Catholic Church; United Labor Central or CUT
  includes trade unionists from the country's five largest labor
  confederations

International organization participation:
  APEC, BIS, CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-15, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA,
  Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA,
  RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mariano FERNANDEZ
  chancery: 1732 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 530-4104, 530-4106, 530-4107
  FAX: [1] (202) 887-5579
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New
  York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Craig A. KELLY
  embassy: Avenida Andres Bello 2800, Las Condes, Santiago
  mailing address: APO AA 34033
  telephone: [56] (2) 232-2600
  FAX: [56] (2) 330-3710

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; there is a blue
  square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end of
  the white band; the square bears a white five-pointed star in the
  center representing a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes
  the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the
  blood spilled to achieve independence; design was influenced by the
  US flag

Economy Chile


Economy - overview:
  Chile has a market-oriented economy characterized by a high level
  of foreign trade. During the early 1990s, Chile's reputation as a
  role model for economic reform was strengthened when the democratic
  government of Patricio AYLWIN - which took over from the military in
  1990 - deepened the economic reform initiated by the military
  government. Growth in real GDP averaged 8% during 1991-97, but fell
  to half that level in 1998 because of tight monetary policies
  implemented to keep the current account deficit in check and because
  of lower export earnings - the latter a product of the global
  financial crisis. A severe drought exacerbated the recession in
  1999, reducing crop yields and causing hydroelectric shortfalls and
  electricity rationing, and Chile experienced negative economic
  growth for the first time in more than 15 years. Despite the effects
  of the recession, Chile maintained its reputation for strong
  financial institutions and sound policy that have given it the
  strongest sovereign bond rating in South America. By the end of
  1999, exports and economic activity had begun to recover, and growth
  rebounded to 4.2% in 2000. Growth fell back to 3.1% in 2001 and 2.1%
  in 2002, largely due to lackluster global growth and the devaluation
  of the Argentine peso. Chile's economy began a slow recovery in
  2003, growing 3.2%, and accelerated to 6.1% in 2004-05, while Chile
  maintained a low rate of inflation. GDP growth benefited from high
  copper prices, solid export earnings (particularly forestry,
  fishing, and mining), and stepped-up foreign direct investment.
  Unemployment, however, remains stubbornly high. Chile deepened its
  longstanding commitment to trade liberalization with the signing of
  a free trade agreement with the US, which took effect on 1 January
  2004. Chile signed a free trade agreement with China in November
  2005, and it already has several trade deals signed with other
  nations and blocs, including the European Union, Mercosur, South
  Korea, and Mexico. Record-high copper prices helped to strengthen
  the peso to a 5½-year high, as of December 2005, and will boost GDP
  in 2006.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $189.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $115.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $11,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 49.3%
  services: 44.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  6.3 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 13.6%
  industry: 23.4%
  services: 63% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  8.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  18.2% (2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 47% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  57.1 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $29.2 billion
  expenditures: $24.75 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $3.33 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  7.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic,
  asparagus, beans; beef, poultry, wool; fish; timber

Industries:
  copper, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and
  steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  45.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 47%
  hydro: 51.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  44.13 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  2 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  4,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  228,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  221,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  150 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  7.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2002)

Natural gas - imports:
  5.337 billion cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  97.98 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Current account balance:
  $702.7 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $38.03 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copper, fruit, fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals, wine

Exports - partners:
  US 15.8%, Japan 11.5%, China 11.1%, Netherlands 5.8%, South Korea
  5.5%, Brazil 4.4%, Italy 4.2%, Mexico 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $30.09 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, electrical and
  telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, vehicles,
  natural gas

Imports - partners:
  Argentina 14.8%, US 14.6%, Brazil 11.7%, China 7.8%, South Korea
  4.8%, Yemen 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $16.93 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $47.45 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $0 (2002)

Currency (code):
  Chilean peso (CLP)

Currency code:
  CLP

Exchange rates:
  Chilean pesos per US dollar - 560.09 (2005), 609.37 (2004), 691.43
  (2003), 688.94 (2002), 634.94 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Chile


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,435,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  10.57 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system based on extensive microwave
  radio relay facilities
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay links; domestic satellite
  system with three earth stations
  international: country code - 56; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 180 (eight inactive), FM 64, shortwave 17 (one inactive) (1998)

Radios:
  5.18 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  63 (plus 121 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  3.15 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cl

Internet hosts:
  506,055 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  7 (2000)

Internet users:
  6.7 million (2005)

Transportation Chile


Airports:
  363 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 290
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 58
  under 914 m: 216 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,567 km; gas/lpg 42 km; liquid petroleum gas 539 km; oil 1,003
  km; refined products 757 km; unknown (oil/water) 97 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 6,585 km
  broad gauge: 2,831 km 1.676-m gauge (1,317 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 3,754 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 79,605 km
  paved: 16,080 km (including 407 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 63,525 km (2001)

Merchant marine:
  total: 46 ships (1000 GRT or over) 649,091 GRT/898,110 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 10, cargo 6, chemical tanker 10, container 1,
  liquefied gas 2, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 7,
  roll on/roll off 1, vehicle carrier 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (Argentina 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Argentina 6, Brazil 1, Marshall
  Islands 1, Panama 9) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Antofagasta, Arica, Huasco, Iquique, Lirquen, San Antonio, San
  Vicente, Valparaiso

Military Chile


Military branches:
  Army of the Nation, National Navy (Armada de Chile, includes naval
  air, marine corps, and Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine
  Directorate (Directemar)), Chilean Air Force (Fuerza Aerea de Chile,
  FACh), Chilean Carabineros (National Police) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  all male citizens 18-45 are obligated to perform military service;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months for Army, 24 months for
  Navy and Air Force (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,815,761
  females age 18-49: 3,780,864 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,123,281
  females age 18-49: 3,128,277 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 140,084
  females age 18-49: 134,518 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.91 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Chile


Disputes - international:
  Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama
  corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but
  not sovereign maritime access through Chile to Bolivian gas and
  other commodities; Peru proposes changing its latitudinal maritime
  boundary with Chile to an equidistance line with a southwestern
  axis; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory)
  partially overlaps Argentine and British claims; action by the joint
  boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001, for
  mapping and demarcating the disputed boundary in the Andean Southern
  Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur) remains pending

Illicit drugs:
  important transshipment country for cocaine destined for Europe;
  economic prosperity and increasing trade have made Chile more
  attractive to traffickers seeking to launder drug profits,
  especially through the Iquique Free Trade Zone, but a new
  anti-money-laundering law improves controls; imported precursors
  passed on to Bolivia; domestic cocaine consumption is rising


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@China

Introduction China


Background:
  For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the
  rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and
  early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major
  famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War
  II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic
  socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed
  strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of
  millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and
  other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by
  2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living
  standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal
  choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

Geography China


Location:
  Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea,
  and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam

Geographic coordinates:
  35 00 N, 105 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 9,596,960 sq km
  land: 9,326,410 sq km
  water: 270,550 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 22,117 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km,
  India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km,
  Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km,
  Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40
  km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km
  regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km

Coastline:
  14,500 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Terrain:
  mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas,
  and hills in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten,
  antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum,
  lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

Land use:
  arable land: 14.86%
  permanent crops: 1.27%
  other: 83.87% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  545,960 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern
  coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land
  subsidence

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from
  reliance on coal produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly
  in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation;
  estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil
  erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in
  endangered species

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  world's fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US);
  Mount Everest on the border with Nepal is the world's tallest peak

People China


Population:
  1,313,973,713 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.8% (male 145,461,833/female 128,445,739)
  15-64 years: 71.4% (male 482,439,115/female 455,960,489)
  65 years and over: 7.7% (male 48,562,635/female 53,103,902) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 32.7 years
  male: 32.3 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.94 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.58 years
  male: 70.89 years
  female: 74.46 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  840,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  44,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Chinese

Ethnic groups:
  Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu,
  Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1%

Religions:
  Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2%
  note: officially atheist (2002 est.)

Languages:
  Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing
  dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan
  (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages
  (see Ethnic groups entry)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90.9%
  male: 95.1%
  female: 86.5% (2002)

Government China


Country name:
  conventional long form: People's Republic of China
  conventional short form: China
  local long form: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
  local short form: Zhongguo
  abbreviation: PRC

Government type:
  Communist state

Capital:
  name: Beijing
  geographic coordinates: 39 56 N, 116 24 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: despite its size, all of China falls within one time zone

Administrative divisions:
  23 provinces (sheng, singular and plural), 5 autonomous regions
  (zizhiqu, singular and plural), and 4 municipalities (shi, singular
  and plural)
  provinces: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei,
  Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin,
  Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan,
  Zhejiang; (see note on Taiwan)
  autonomous regions: Guangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Xizang
  (Tibet)
  municipalities: Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin
  note: China considers Taiwan its 23rd province; see separate entries
  for the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau

Independence:
  221 BC (unification under the Qin or Ch'in Dynasty); 1 January 1912
  (Manchu Dynasty replaced by a Republic); 1 October 1949 (People's
  Republic established)

National holiday:
  Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, 1
  October (1949)

Constitution:
  most recent promulgation 4 December 1982

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; derived from Soviet and continental
  civil code legal principles; legislature retains power to interpret
  statutes; constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislation;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003) and Vice
  President ZENG Qinghong (since 15 March 2003)
  head of government: Premier WEN Jiabao (since 16 March 2003);
  Executive Vice Premier HUANG Ju (since 17 March 2003), Vice Premiers
  WU Yi (17 March 2003), ZENG Peiyan (since 17 March 2003), and HUI
  Liangyu (since 17 March 2003)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the National People's Congress
  (NPC)
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  People's Congress for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  elections last held 15-17 March 2003 (next to be held mid-March
  2008); premier nominated by the president, confirmed by the National
  People's Congress
  election results: HU Jintao elected president by the 10th National
  People's Congress with a total of 2,937 votes (four delegates voted
  against him, four abstained, and 38 did not vote); ZENG Qinghong
  elected vice president by the 10th National People's Congress with a
  total of 2,578 votes (177 delegates voted against him, 190
  abstained, and 38 did not vote); two seats were vacant

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National People's Congress or Quanguo Renmin Daibiao
  Dahui (2,985 seats; members elected by municipal, regional, and
  provincial people's congresses to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held December 2002-February 2003 (next to be held
  late 2007-February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme People's Court (judges appointed by the National People's
  Congress); Local Peoples Courts (comprise higher, intermediate, and
  local courts); Special Peoples Courts (primarily military, maritime,
  and railway transport courts)

Political parties and leaders:
  Chinese Communist Party or CCP [HU Jintao]; eight registered small
  parties controlled by CCP

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  no substantial political opposition groups exist, although the
  government has identified the Falungong spiritual movement and the
  China Democracy Party as subversive groups

International organization participation:
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BCIE, BIS,
  CDB, EAS, FAO, G-24 (observer), G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC
  (observer), SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador ZHOU Wenzhong
  chancery: 2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-2500
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2582
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Clark T. RANDT, Jr.
  embassy: Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, 100600 Beijing
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 50, FPO AP 96521-0002
  telephone: [86] (10) 6532-3831
  FAX: [86] (10) 6532-3178
  consulate(s) general: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau,
  Shanghai, Shenyang

Flag description:
  red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow
  five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of
  the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner

Economy China


Economy - overview:
  China's economy during the last quarter century has changed from a
  centrally planned system that was largely closed to international
  trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing
  private sector and is a major player in the global economy. Reforms
  started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized
  agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of
  prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state
  enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the
  development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state
  sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment. China has
  generally implemented reforms in a gradualist or piecemeal fashion.
  The process continues with key moves in 2005 including the sale of
  equity in China's largest state banks to foreign investors and
  refinements in foreign exchange and bond markets. The restructuring
  of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a
  more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a
  purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2005 stood as the
  second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per
  capita terms the country is still lower middle-income and 150
  million Chinese fall below international poverty lines. Economic
  development has generally been more rapid in coastal provinces than
  in the interior, and there are large disparities in per capita
  income between regions. The government has struggled to: (a) sustain
  adequate job growth for tens of millions of workers laid off from
  state-owned enterprises, migrants, and new entrants to the work
  force; (b) reduce corruption and other economic crimes; and (c)
  contain environmental damage and social strife related to the
  economy's rapid transformation. From 100 to 150 million surplus
  rural workers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many
  subsisting through part-time, low-paying jobs. One demographic
  consequence of the "one child" policy is that China is now one of
  the most rapidly aging countries in the world. Another long-term
  threat to growth is the deterioration in the environment - notably
  air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the water table,
  especially in the north. China continues to lose arable land because
  of erosion and economic development. China has benefited from a huge
  expansion in computer Internet use, with more than 100 million users
  at the end of 2005. Foreign investment remains a strong element in
  China's remarkable expansion in world trade and has been an
  important factor in the growth of urban jobs. In July 2005, China
  revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an
  exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. Reports
  of shortages of electric power in the summer of 2005 in southern
  China receded by September-October and did not have a substantial
  impact on China's economy. More power generating capacity is
  scheduled to come on line in 2006 as large scale investments are
  completed. Thirteen years in construction at a cost of $24 billion,
  the immense Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze River will be
  essentially completed in 2006 and will revolutionize electrification
  and flood control in the area. The Central Committee of the Chinese
  Communist Party in October 2005 approved the draft 11th Five-Year
  Plan and the National People's Congress is expected to give final
  approval in March 2006. The plan calls for a 20% reduction in energy
  consumption per unit of GDP by 2010 and an estimated 45% increase in
  GDP by 2010. The plan states that conserving resources and
  protecting the environment are basic goals, but it lacks details on
  the policies and reforms necessary to achieve these goals.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $8.883 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.225 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  10.2% (official data) (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12.5%
  industry: 47.3%
  services: 40.3%
  note: industry includes construction (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  791.4 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 22%
  services: 29% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9% official registered unemployment in urban areas in 2004;
  substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas; an
  official Chinese journal estimated overall unemployment (including
  rural areas) for 2003 at 20% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  10% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 30.4% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  44 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  44.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $392.1 billion
  expenditures: $424.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, apples,
  cotton, oilseed; pork; fish

Industries:
  mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals,
  coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum;
  cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products, including
  footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing; transportation
  equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships,
  and aircraft; telecommunications equipment, commercial space launch
  vehicles, satellites

Industrial production growth rate:
  29.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.19 trillion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 80.2%
  hydro: 18.5%
  nuclear: 1.2%
  other: 0.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.17 trillion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  10.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.546 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  3.504 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  6.391 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  340,300 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  3.226 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  18.26 billion bbl (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  35.02 billion cu m (2003)

Natural gas - consumption:
  33.44 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  2.79 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.53 trillion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $160.8 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $752.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, plastics, optical and medical equipment,
  iron and steel

Exports - partners:
  US 21.4%, Hong Kong 16.3%, Japan 11%, South Korea 4.6%, Germany
  4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $631.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, oil and mineral fuels, plastics, optical
  and medical equipment, organic chemicals, iron and steel

Imports - partners:
  Japan 15.2%, South Korea 11.6%, Taiwan 11.2%, US 7.4%, Germany 4.6%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $825.6 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $252.8 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  yuan (CNY); note - also referred to as the Renminbi (RMB)

Currency code:
  CNY

Exchange rates:
  yuan per US dollar - 8.1943 (2005), 8.2768 (2004), 8.277 (2003),
  8.277 (2002), 8.2771 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications China


Telephones - main lines in use:
  350.433 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  393.428 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic and international services are
  increasingly available for private use; unevenly distributed
  domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and
  many towns
  domestic: interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular
  telephone systems have been installed; a domestic satellite system
  with 55 earth stations is in place
  international: country code - 86; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region) and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean
  regions); several international fiber-optic links to Japan, South
  Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany (2000)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)

Radios:
  417 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3,240 (of which 209 are operated by China Central Television, 31
  are provincial TV stations, and nearly 3,000 are local city
  stations) (1997)

Televisions:
  400 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cn

Internet hosts:
  232,780 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  123 million (2006)

Transportation China


Airports:
  486 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 403
  over 3,047 m: 56
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 127
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 138
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 60 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 39 (2006)

Heliports:
  32 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 22,664 km; oil 15,256 km; refined products 6,106 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 74,408 km
  standard gauge: 74,408 km 1.435-m gauge (19,303 km electrified)
  (2004)

Roadways:
  total: 1,809,829 km
  paved: 1,447,682 km (with at least 29,745 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 362,147 km (2003)

Waterways:
  123,964 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,723 ships (1000 GRT or over) 21,405,633 GRT/32,411,260 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 387, cargo 695, chemical
  tanker 45, combination ore/oil 1, container 152, liquefied gas 31,
  passenger 8, passenger/cargo 83, petroleum tanker 261, refrigerated
  cargo 30, roll on/roll off 8, specialized tanker 6, vehicle carrier
  14
  foreign-owned: 13 (Hong Kong 7, Japan 3, South Korea 2, Norway 1)
  registered in other countries: 1,191 (Bahamas 3, Bangladesh 1,
  Belize 103, Bolivia 1, Cambodia 128, Cyprus 11, Georgia 2, Honduras
  3, Hong Kong 274, India 2, North Korea 1, Liberia 35, Malaysia 1,
  Malta 14, Mongolia 4, Norway 3, Panama 420, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 103, Sierra Leone 2, Singapore 23, Thailand 1, Tuvalu 23,
  unknown 33) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Dalian, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai

Military China


Military branches:
  People's Liberation Army (PLA): Ground Forces, Navy (includes
  marines and naval aviation), Air Force (includes airborne forces),
  and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force); People's Armed
  Police (PAP); Reserve and Militia Forces (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-22 years of age for compulsory military service, with 24-month
  service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service (all
  officers are volunteers); 18-22 years of age for women who meet
  requirements for specific military jobs (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 342,956,265
  females age 18-49: 324,701,244 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 281,240,272
  females age 18-49: 269,025,517 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 13,186,433
  females age 18-49: 12,298,149 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $81.48 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues China


Disputes - international:
  in 2005, China and India began drafting principles to resolve all
  aspects of their extensive boundary and territorial disputes
  together with a security and foreign policy dialogue to consolidate
  discussions related to the boundary, regional nuclear proliferation,
  and other matters; recent talks and confidence-building measures
  have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, site of the world's
  largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under
  the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and
  Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does
  not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in
  1964; about 90,000 ethnic Tibetan exiles reside primarily in India
  as well as Nepal and Bhutan; China asserts sovereignty over the
  Spratly Islands together with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan,
  Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct
  of Parties in the South China Sea" has eased tensions in the
  Spratlys but is not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by
  some parties; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction of
  facilities in the Spratlys and in March 2005, the national oil
  companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint
  accord on marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; China
  occupies some of the Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and
  Taiwan; China and Taiwan have become more vocal in rejecting both
  Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu
  Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared equidistance line in the East
  China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting; certain
  islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in an uncontested dispute
  with North Korea and a section of boundary around Mount Paektu is
  considered indefinite; China seeks to stem illegal migration of tens
  of thousands of North Koreans; China and Russia prepare to demarcate
  the boundary agreed to in October 2004 between the long-disputed
  islands at the Amur and Ussuri; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
  boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
  delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004,
  implementation has been delayed; environmentalists in Burma and
  Thailand remain concerned about China's construction of
  hydroelectric dams upstream on the Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan
  Province

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 299,287 (Vietnam) estimated
  30,000-50,000 (North Korea) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: China is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women, men, and children trafficked for purposes of
  sexual exploitation and forced labor; the majority of trafficking in
  China is internal, but there is also international trafficking of
  Chinese citizens; women are lured through false promises of
  legitimate employment into commercial sexual exploitation in Taiwan,
  Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan; Chinese men and women are smuggled to
  countries throughout the world at enormous personal expense and then
  forced into commercial sexual exploitation or exploitative labor to
  repay debts to traffickers; women and children are trafficked into
  China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam for
  forced labor, marriage, and sexual slavery; most North Koreans enter
  northeastern China voluntarily, but others reportedly are trafficked
  into China from North Korea; domestic trafficking remains the most
  significant problem in China, with an estimated minimum of
  10,000-20,000 victims trafficked each year; the actual number of
  victims could be much greater; some experts believe that the serious
  and prolonged imbalance in the male-female birth ratio may now be
  contributing to Chinese and foreign girls and women being trafficked
  as potential brides
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - China failed to show evidence of
  increasing efforts to address transnational trafficking; while the
  government provides reasonable protection to internal victims of
  trafficking, protection for Chinese and foreign victims of
  transnational trafficking remain inadequate

Illicit drugs:
  major transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden
  Triangle; growing domestic drug abuse problem; source country for
  chemical precursors and methamphetamine


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Christmas Island

Introduction Christmas Island


Background:
  Named in 1643 for the day of its discovery, the island was annexed
  and settlement began by the UK in 1888. Phosphate mining began in
  the 1890s. The UK transferred sovereignty to Australia in 1958.
  Almost two-thirds of the island has been declared a national park.

Geography Christmas Island


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of Indonesia

Geographic coordinates:
  10 30 S, 105 40 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 135 sq km
  land: 135 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about three-quarters the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  138.9 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical with a wet and dry season; heat and humidity moderated by
  trade winds; wet season (December to April)

Terrain:
  steep cliffs along coast rise abruptly to central plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Murray Hill 361 m

Natural resources:
  phosphate, beaches

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mainly tropical rainforest; 63% of the island is a
  national park) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime
  hazard

Environment - current issues:
  loss of rainforest; impact of phosphate mining

Geography - note:
  located along major sea lanes of Indian Ocean

People Christmas Island


Population:
  1,493 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA

Death rate:
  NA

Net migration rate:
  NA

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Christmas Islander(s)
  adjective: Christmas Island

Ethnic groups:
  Chinese 70%, European 20%, Malay 10%
  note: no indigenous population (2001)

Religions:
  Buddhist 36%, Muslim 25%, Christian 18%, other 21% (1997)

Languages:
  English (official), Chinese, Malay

Literacy:
  NA

Government Christmas Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Christmas Island
  conventional short form: Christmas Island

Dependency status:
  non-self governing territory of Australia; administered by the
  Australian Department of Transport and Regional Services

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: The Settlement
  geographic coordinates: 18 44 N, 64 19 W
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of Australia)

Independence:
  none (territory of Australia)

National holiday:
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Constitution:
  Christmas Island Act of 1958-59 (1 October 1958) as amended by the
  Territories Law Reform Act of 1992

Legal system:
  under the authority of the governor general of Australia and
  Australian law

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by the Australian governor general
  head of government: Administrator Neil LUCAS (since 30 January 2006)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the governor general of Australia and represents the monarch and
  Australia

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Christmas Island Shire Council (9 seats; members elected
  by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: held every two years with half the members standing for
  election; last held in May 2005 (next to be held in May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 9

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; District Court; Magistrate's Court

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  none

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  territorial flag; divided diagonally from upper hoist to lower fly;
  the upper triangle is green with a yellow image of the Golden Bosun
  Bird superimposed, while the lower triangle is blue with the
  Southern Cross constellation, representing Australia, superimposed;
  a centered yellow disk displays a green map of the island; the flag
  of Australia is used for official purposes

Economy Christmas Island


Economy - overview:
  Phosphate mining had been the only significant economic activity,
  but in December 1987 the Australian Government closed the mine. In
  1991, the mine was reopened. With the support of the government, a
  $34 million casino opened in 1993. The casino closed in 1998. The
  Australian Government in 2001 agreed to support the creation of a
  commercial space-launching site on the island, projected to begin
  operations in the near future.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

Labor force:
  NA

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  NA

Industries:
  tourism, phosphate extraction (near depletion)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  phosphate

Exports - partners:
  Australia, NZ (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  principally Australia (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Christmas Island


Telephones - main lines in use:
  NA

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: service provided by the Australian network
  domestic: GSM mobile telephone service replaced older analog system
  in February 2005
  international: country code - 61-8; satellite earth stations - one
  INTELSAT earth station provides telephone and telex service (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2006)

Radios:
  1,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0; note - TV broadcasts received via satellite from mainland
  Australia (2006)

Televisions:
  600 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cx

Internet hosts:
  2,368 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  464 (2001)

Transportation Christmas Island


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 142 km
  paved: 32 km
  unpaved: 110 km (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Flying Fish Cove

Military Christmas Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia

Transnational Issues Christmas Island


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Clipperton Island

Introduction Clipperton Island


Background:
  This isolated island was named for John CLIPPERTON, a pirate who
  made it his hideout early in the 18th century. Annexed by France in
  1855, it was seized by Mexico in 1897. Arbitration eventually
  awarded the island to France, which took possession in 1935.

Geography Clipperton Island


Location:
  Middle America, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, 1,120 km
  southwest of Mexico

Geographic coordinates:
  10 17 N, 109 13 W

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 6 sq km
  land: 6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 12 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  11.1 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; humid, average temperature 20-32 degrees C, wet season
  (May to October)

Terrain:
  coral atoll

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Rocher Clipperton 29 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all coral) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  reef 12 km in circumference

People Clipperton Island


Population:
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Government Clipperton Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Clipperton Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile Clipperton
  former: sometimes called Ile de la Passion

Dependency status:
  possession of France; administered by France from French Polynesia
  by a high commissioner of the Republic

Legal system:
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of France is used

Economy Clipperton Island


Economy - overview:
  Although 115 species of fish have been identified in the
  territorial waters of Clipperton Island, the only economic activity
  is tuna fishing.


Transportation Clipperton Island


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Clipperton Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Clipperton Island


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Introduction Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Background:
  There are 27 coral islands in the group. Captain William KEELING
  discovered the islands in 1609, but they remained uninhabited until
  the 19th century. Annexed by the UK in 1857, they were transferred
  to the Australian Government in 1955. The population on the two
  inhabited islands generally is split between the ethnic Europeans on
  West Island and the ethnic Malays on Home Island.

Geography Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, group of islands in the Indian Ocean, southwest
  of Indonesia, about halfway from Australia to Sri Lanka

Geographic coordinates:
  12 30 S, 96 50 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 14 sq km
  land: 14 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes the two main islands of West Island and Home Island

Area - comparative:
  about 24 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  26 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical with high humidity, moderated by the southeast trade winds
  for about nine months of the year

Terrain:
  flat, low-lying coral atolls

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  cyclone season is October to April

Environment - current issues:
  fresh water resources are limited to rainwater accumulations in
  natural underground reservoirs

Geography - note:
  islands are thickly covered with coconut palms and other vegetation

People Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Population:
  574 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Cocos Islander(s)
  adjective: Cocos Islander

Ethnic groups:
  Europeans, Cocos Malays

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 80%, other 20% (2002 est.)

Languages:
  Malay (Cocos dialect), English

Literacy:
  NA

Government Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  conventional short form: Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Dependency status:
  non-self governing territory of Australia; administered from
  Canberra by the Australian Department of Transport and Regional
  Services

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: West Island
  geographic coordinates: 12 10 S, 96 55 E
  time difference: UTC+6.5 (11.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of Australia)

Independence:
  none (territory of Australia)

National holiday:
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Constitution:
  Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act of 1955 (23 November 1955) as amended
  by the Territories Law Reform Act of 1992

Legal system:
  based upon the laws of Australia and local laws

Suffrage:
  NA

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by the Australian governor general
  head of government: Administrator (nonresident) Neil LUCAS (since 30
  January 2006)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the governor general of Australia and represents the monarch and
  Australia

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Cocos (Keeling) Islands Shire Council (7 seats)
  elections: held every two years with half the members standing for
  election; last held in May 2005 (next to be held in May 2007)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Magistrate's Court

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  none

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  the flag of Australia is used

Economy Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Economy - overview:
  Grown throughout the islands, coconuts are the sole cash crop.
  Small local gardens and fishing contribute to the food supply, but
  additional food and most other necessities must be imported from
  Australia. There is a small tourist industry.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

Labor force:
  NA

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: the Cocos Islands Cooperative Society Ltd. employs
  construction workers, stevedores, and lighterage workers; tourism
  employs others

Unemployment rate:
  60% (2000 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables, bananas, pawpaws, coconuts

Industries:
  copra products and tourism

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  copra

Exports - partners:
  Australia (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Australia (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  287 (1992)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  note - analog cellular service available

Telephone system:
  general assessment: connected within Australia's telecommunication
  system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 61; telephone, telex, and facsimile
  communications with Australia and elsewhere via satellite; 1
  INTELSAT satellite earth station

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  300 (1992)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .cc

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 22 km
  paved: 10 km
  unpaved: 12 km (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Port Refuge

Military Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia; the territory has a
  five-person police force

Transnational Issues Cocos (Keeling) Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Colombia

Introduction Colombia


Background:
  Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the
  collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and
  Venezuela). A 40-year conflict between government forces and
  anti-government insurgent groups and illegal paramilitary groups -
  both heavily funded by the drug trade - escalated during the 1990s.
  The insurgents lack the military or popular support necessary to
  overthrow the government, and violence has been decreasing since
  about 2002, but insurgents continue attacks against civilians and
  large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence.
  Paramilitary groups challenge the insurgents for control of
  territory and the drug trade. Most paramilitary members have
  demobilized since 2002 in an ongoing peace process, although their
  commitment to ceasing illicit activity is unclear. The Colombian
  Government has stepped up efforts to reassert government control
  throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its
  municipalities. However, neighboring countries worry about the
  violence spilling over their borders.

Geography Colombia


Location:
  Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Panama
  and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between
  Ecuador and Panama

Geographic coordinates:
  4 00 N, 72 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 1,138,910 sq km
  land: 1,038,700 sq km
  water: 100,210 sq km
  note: includes Isla de Malpelo, Roncador Cay, and Serrana Bank

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,004 km
  border countries: Brazil 1,643 km, Ecuador 590 km, Panama 225 km,
  Peru 1,496 km (est.), Venezuela 2,050 km

Coastline:
  3,208 km (Caribbean Sea 1,760 km, North Pacific Ocean 1,448 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical along coast and eastern plains; cooler in highlands

Terrain:
  flat coastal lowlands, central highlands, high Andes Mountains,
  eastern lowland plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico Cristobal Colon 5,775 m
  note: nearby Pico Simon Bolivar also has the same elevation

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper,
  emeralds, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 2.01%
  permanent crops: 1.37%
  other: 96.62% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  9,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  highlands subject to volcanic eruptions; occasional earthquakes;
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil and water quality damage from overuse of
  pesticides; air pollution, especially in Bogota, from vehicle
  emissions

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  only South American country with coastlines on both the North
  Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea

People Colombia


Population:
  43,593,035 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.3% (male 6,683,079/female 6,528,563)
  15-64 years: 64.5% (male 13,689,384/female 14,416,439)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 996,022/female 1,279,548) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.3 years
  male: 25.4 years
  female: 27.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 20.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.31 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.99 years
  male: 68.15 years
  female: 75.96 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  190,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  3,600 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Colombian(s)
  adjective: Colombian

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto 14%, black 4%, mixed
  black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 90%, other 10%

Languages:
  Spanish

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 92.4%
  female: 92.6% (2003 est.)

Government Colombia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Colombia
  conventional short form: Colombia
  local long form: Republica de Colombia
  local short form: Colombia

Government type:
  republic; executive branch dominates government structure

Capital:
  name: Bogota
  geographic coordinates: 4 36 N, 74 05 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  32 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 1
  capital district* (distrito capital); Amazonas, Antioquia, Arauca,
  Atlantico, Bogota*, Bolivar, Boyaca, Caldas, Caqueta, Casanare,
  Cauca, Cesar, Choco, Cordoba, Cundinamarca, Guainia, Guaviare,
  Huila, La Guajira, Magdalena, Meta, Narino, Norte de Santander,
  Putumayo, Quindio, Risaralda, San Andres y Providencia, Santander,
  Sucre, Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Vaupes, Vichada

Independence:
  20 July 1810 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 20 July (1810)

Constitution:
  5 July 1991

Legal system:
  based on Spanish law; a new criminal code modeled after US
  procedures was enacted into law in 2004 and is gradually being
  implemented; judicial review of executive and legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Alvaro URIBE Velez (since 7 August 2002);
  Vice President Francisco SANTOS (since 7 August 2002); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Alvaro URIBE Velez (since 7 August
  2002); Vice President Francisco SANTOS (since 7 August 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of a coalition of the two dominant parties
  - the PL and PSC - and independents
  elections: president and vice president elected by popular vote for
  a four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 28
  May 2006 (next to be held in May 2010)
  election results: President Alvaro URIBE Velez reelected president;
  percent of vote - Alvaro URIBE Velez 62%, Carlos GAVIRIA Diaz 22%,
  Horacio SERPA Uribe 12%, other 4%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Congress or Congreso consists of the Senate or Senado
  (102 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year
  terms) and the House of Representatives or Camara de Representantes
  (166 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 12 March 2006 (next to be held in
  March 2010); House of Representatives - last held 12 March 2006
  (next to be held in March 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PSUN 20, PC 18, PL 17, CR 15, PDI 11, other parties 21;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PL 36, PSUN 30, PC 29, CR 20, PDA 42, other parties 42

Judicial branch:
  four roughly coequal, supreme judicial organs; Supreme Court of
  Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (highest court of criminal law;
  judges are selected by their peers from the nominees of the Superior
  Judicial Council for eight-year terms); Council of State (highest
  court of administrative law; judges are selected from the nominees
  of the Superior Judicial Council for eight-year terms);
  Constitutional Court (guards integrity and supremacy of the
  constitution; rules on constitutionality of laws, amendments to the
  constitution, and international treaties); Superior Judicial Council
  (administers and disciplines the civilian judiciary; resolves
  jurisdictional conflicts arising between other courts; members are
  elected by three sister courts and Congress for eight-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
  Clandestine Communist Party of Colombia or PCC [Jaime CAICEDO];
  Colombian Conservative Party or PC [Carlos HOLGUIN Sardi];
  Alternative Democratic Pole or PDA [Samuel MORENO Rojas]; Liberal
  Party or PL [Cesar GAVIRIA]; Social National Unity Party or PSUN
  [Juan Manuel SANTOS]
  note: Colombia has about 60 formally recognized political parties,
  most of which do not have a presence in either house of Congress

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  two largest insurgent groups active in Colombia - Revolutionary
  Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC and National Liberation Army or
  ELN; largest illegal paramilitary group, a roughly organized
  umbrella group of disparate paramilitary forces, is United
  Self-Defense Groups of Colombia or AUC

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CAN, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-3, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur
  (associate), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carolina BARCO Isakson
  chancery: 2118 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-8338
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-8643
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico),
  Washington, DC

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William B. WOOD
  embassy: Calle 22D-BIS, numbers 47-51, Apartado Aereo 3831
  mailing address: Carrera 45 #22D-45, Bogota, D.C., APO AA 34038
  telephone: [57] (1) 315-0811
  FAX: [57] (1) 315-2197

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double-width), blue, and
  red; similar to the flag of Ecuador, which is longer and bears the
  Ecuadorian coat of arms superimposed in the center

Economy Colombia


Economy - overview:
  Colombia's economy has been on a recovery trend during the past two
  years despite a serious armed conflict. The economy continues to
  improve thanks to austere government budgets, focused efforts to
  reduce public debt levels, an export-oriented growth strategy, and
  an improved security situation in the country. Ongoing economic
  problems facing President URIBE range from reforming the pension
  system to reducing high unemployment. New exploration is needed to
  offset declining oil production. On the positive side, several
  international financial institutions have praised the economic
  reforms introduced by URIBE, which succeeded in reducing the
  public-sector deficit below 1.5% of GDP. The government's economic
  policy and democratic security strategy have engendered a growing
  sense of confidence in the economy, particularly within the business
  sector. Coffee prices have recovered from previous lows as the
  Colombian coffee industry pursues greater market shares in developed
  countries such as the United States.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $341.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $97.73 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12.5%
  industry: 34.2%
  services: 53.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  20.52 million (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 22.7%
  industry: 18.7%
  services: 58.5% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  49.2% (2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 7.9%
  highest 10%: 34.3% (2004)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  53.8 (2005)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $46.82 billion
  expenditures: $48.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  49.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn, sugarcane, cocoa
  beans, oilseed, vegetables; forest products; shrimp

Industries:
  textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and footwear, beverages,
  chemicals, cement; gold, coal, emeralds

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  50.43 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 26%
  hydro: 72.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  48.83 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.082 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  48.4 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  512,400 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  270,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.492 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  6.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  6.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  127.6 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-1.931 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $19.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, coffee, coal, apparel, bananas, cut flowers

Exports - partners:
  US 41.8%, Venezuela 9.9%, Ecuador 6.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $18 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  industrial equipment, transportation equipment, consumer goods,
  chemicals, paper products, fuels, electricity

Imports - partners:
  US 28.5%, Mexico 8.3%, China 7.6%, Brazil 6.5%, Venezuela 5.7%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $14.96 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $32.35 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Colombian peso (COP)

Currency code:
  COP

Exchange rates:
  Colombian pesos per US dollar - 2,320.75 (2005), 2,628.61 (2004),
  2,877.65 (2003), 2,504.24 (2002), 2,299.63 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Colombia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  7,678,800 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  21.85 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system in many respects
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system; domestic
  satellite system with 41 earth stations; fiber-optic network linking
  50 cities
  international: country code - 57; satellite earth stations - 6
  Intelsat, 1 Inmarsat; 3 fully digitalized international switching
  centers; 8 submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 454, FM 34, shortwave 27 (1999)

Radios:
  21 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  60 (includes seven low-power stations) (1997)

Televisions:
  4.59 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .co

Internet hosts:
  581,877 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  18 (2000)

Internet users:
  4.739 million (2005)

Transportation Colombia


Airports:
  984 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 101
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 38
  914 to 1,523 m: 40
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 883
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 35
  914 to 1,523 m: 275
  under 914 m: 572 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,360 km; oil 6,140 km; refined products 3,158 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,304 km
  standard gauge: 150 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 3,154 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 110,000 km
  paved: 26,000 km
  unpaved: 84,000 km (2000)

Waterways:
  18,000 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 17 ships (1000 GRT or over) 42,413 GRT/58,737 DWT
  by type: cargo 13, liquefied gas 1, petroleum tanker 3
  registered in other countries: 7 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Panama 5)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Muelles El Bosque, Puerto
  Bolivar, Santa Marta, Turbo

Military Colombia


Military branches:
  Army (Ejercito Nacional), National Navy (Armada Nacional, includes
  naval aviation, marines, and coast guard), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea
  Colombiana) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 24 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,212,456
  females age 18-49: 10,561,562 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,986,228
  females age 18-49: 8,794,465 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 389,735
  females age 18-49: 383,146 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.3 billion (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Colombia


Disputes - international:
  Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against
  Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary
  involving 50,000 sq km in the Caribbean Sea, including the
  Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank;
  dispute with Venezuela over maritime boundary and Los Monjes Islands
  near the Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized illegal narcotics,
  guerrilla, and paramilitary activities penetrate all of its
  neighbors' borders and have created a serious refugee crisis with
  over 300,000 persons having fled the country, mostly into
  neighboring states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 2,900,000 - 3,400,000 (conflict between government and FARC;
  drug wars) (2004)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis; world's
  leading coca cultivator (cultivation of coca in 2004 was 114,100
  hectares, virtually unchanged from 2003, but down one-third from its
  peak of 169,800 ha); producing a potential of 430 mt of pure
  cocaine; the world's largest producer of coca derivatives; supplying
  most of the US market and the great majority of cocaine to other
  international drug markets; important supplier of heroin to the US
  market; opium poppy cultivation fell 50% between 2003 and 2004 to
  2,100 hectares yielding a potential 3.8 metric tons of pure heroin,
  mostly for the US market; in 2004, aerial eradication treated over
  130,000 hectares of coca but aggressive replanting on the part of
  growers means Colombia remains a key producer; a significant portion
  of non-US narcotics proceeds are either laundered or invested in
  Colombia through the black market peso exchange


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Comoros

Introduction Comoros


Background:
  Comoros has endured 19 coups or attempted coups since gaining
  independence from France in 1975. In 1997, the islands of Anjouan
  and Moheli declared independence from Comoros. In 1999, military
  chief Col. AZALI seized power. He pledged to resolve the
  secessionist crisis through a confederal arrangement named the 2000
  Fomboni Accord. In December 2001, voters approved a new constitution
  and presidential elections took place in the spring of 2002. Each
  island in the archipelago elected its own president and a new union
  president took office in May 2002.

Geography Comoros


Location:
  Southern Africa, group of islands at the northern mouth of the
  Mozambique Channel, about two-thirds of the way between northern
  Madagascar and northern Mozambique

Geographic coordinates:
  12 10 S, 44 15 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 2,170 sq km
  land: 2,170 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than 12 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  340 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; rainy season (November to May)

Terrain:
  volcanic islands, interiors vary from steep mountains to low hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Le Kartala 2,360 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 35.87%
  permanent crops: 23.32%
  other: 40.81% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  cyclones possible during rainy season (December to April); Le
  Kartala on Grand Comore is an active volcano

Environment - current issues:
  soil degradation and erosion results from crop cultivation on
  slopes without proper terracing; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  important location at northern end of Mozambique Channel

People Comoros


Population:
  690,948 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 148,009/female 147,038)
  15-64 years: 54.3% (male 185,107/female 190,139)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 9,672/female 10,983) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.87% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  36.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 72.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 81.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 64.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 62.33 years
  male: 60 years
  female: 64.72 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.12% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Comoran(s)
  adjective: Comoran

Ethnic groups:
  Antalote, Cafre, Makoa, Oimatsaha, Sakalava

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 98%, Roman Catholic 2%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), French (official), Shikomoro (a blend of Swahili
  and Arabic)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 56.5%
  male: 63.6%
  female: 49.3% (2003 est.)

Government Comoros


Country name:
  conventional long form: Union of the Comoros
  conventional short form: Comoros
  local long form: Union des Comores
  local short form: Comores

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Moroni
  geographic coordinates: 11 41 S, 43 16 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  3 islands and 4 municipalities*; Grande Comore (Njazidja), Anjouan
  (Nzwani), Domoni*, Fomboni*, Moheli (Mwali), Moroni*, Moutsamoudou*

Independence:
  6 July 1975 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 July (1975)

Constitution:
  23 December 2001

Legal system:
  French and Sharia (Islamic) law in a new consolidated code

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI (since 26 May 2006);
  head of government: President Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI (since 26 May
  2006);
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: as defined by the 2001 constitution, the presidency
  rotates every four years among the elected presidents from the three
  main islands in the Union; election last held 14 May 2006 (next to
  be held by May 2010); prime minister appointed by the president;
  note - the post of Prime Minister has been vacant since May 2002
  election results: Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI elected president; percent of
  vote - Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI 58.0%, Ibrahim HALIDI 28.3%, Mohamed
  DJAANFAMI 13.7%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly of the Union (33 seats; 15 deputies are
  selected by the individual islands' local assemblies and the 18 by
  universal suffrage; deputies serve for five years);
  elections: last held 18 and 25 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  CdIA 12, CRC 6; note - 15 additional seats are filled by deputies
  from local island assemblies

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supremes (two members appointed by the
  president, two members elected by the Federal Assembly, one elected
  by the Council of each island, and others are former presidents of
  the republic)

Political parties and leaders:
  Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros [AZALI Assowmani]; Camp
  of the Autonomous Islands (a coalition of parties organized by the
  island Presidents in opposition to the Union President); Front
  National pour la Justice or FNJ [Ahmed RACHID] (Islamic party in
  opposition); Mouvement pour la Democratie et le Progress or MDP-NGDC
  [Abbas DJOUSSOUF]; Parti Comorien pour la Democratie et le Progress
  or PCDP [Ali MROUDJAE]; Rassemblement National pour le Development
  or RND [Omar TAMOU, Abdoulhamid AFFRAITANE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AMF, AU, COMESA, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC, Interpol,
  IOC, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Representative to the US and Ambassador to the UN
  Mahmoud M. ABOUD
  chancery: Mission to the US, 336 East 45th Street (2nd floor), New
  York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 750-1637

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Comoros; the ambassador to
  Madagascar is accredited to Comoros

Flag description:
  four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and blue
  with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered within
  the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing the
  hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a line
  between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and the
  four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago -
  Mwali, Njazidja, Nzwani, and Mayotte (a territorial collectivity of
  France, but claimed by Comoros); the crescent, stars, and color
  green are traditional symbols of Islam

Economy Comoros


Economy - overview:
  One of the world's poorest countries, Comoros is made up of three
  islands that have inadequate transportation links, a young and
  rapidly increasing population, and few natural resources. The low
  educational level of the labor force contributes to a subsistence
  level of economic activity, high unemployment, and a heavy
  dependence on foreign grants and technical assistance. Agriculture,
  including fishing, hunting, and forestry, contributes 40% to GDP,
  employs 80% of the labor force, and provides most of the exports.
  The country is not self-sufficient in food production; rice, the
  main staple, accounts for the bulk of imports. The government -
  which is hampered by internal political disputes - is struggling to
  upgrade education and technical training, privatize commercial and
  industrial enterprises, improve health services, diversify exports,
  promote tourism, and reduce the high population growth rate.
  Increased foreign support is essential if the goal of 4% annual GDP
  growth is to be met. Remittances from 150,000 Comorans abroad help
  supplement GDP.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $441 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $402 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 4%
  services: 56% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  144,500 (1996 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20%

Unemployment rate:
  20% (1996 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  60% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $27.6 million
  expenditures: $NA (2001 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vanilla, cloves, perfume essences, copra, coconuts, bananas,
  cassava (tapioca)

Industries:
  tourism, perfume distillation

Industrial production growth rate:
  -2% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production:
  18 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 90.6%
  hydro: 9.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  16.74 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-17 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $34 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  vanilla, ylang-ylang (perfume essence), cloves, copra

Exports - partners:
  France 27.7%, Singapore 16.8%, Japan 15.1%, Germany 13.7%, US 5.8%,
  Netherlands 5.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $115 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  rice and other foodstuffs, consumer goods, petroleum products,
  cement, transport equipment

Imports - partners:
  France 20.5%, South Africa 11.7%, UAE 9.1%, Kenya 8%, Pakistan 5%,
  Mauritius 4.4%, Belgium 4.3%, India 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $232 million (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $24 million (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  Comoran franc (KMF)

Currency code:
  KMF

Exchange rates:
  Comoran francs (KMF) per US dollar - 395.6 (2005), 396.21 (2004),
  435.9 (2003), 522.74 (2002), 549.78 (2001)
  note: the Comoran franc is pegged to the euro at a rate of 491.9677
  Comoran francs per euro

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Comoros


Telephones - main lines in use:
  16,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  16,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: sparse system of microwave radio relay and HF
  radiotelephone communication stations
  domestic: HF radiotelephone communications and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 269; HF radiotelephone communications
  to Madagascar and Reunion

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  90,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .km

Internet hosts:
  5 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  20,000 (2005)

Transportation Comoros


Airports:
  4 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 880 km
  paved: 673 km
  unpaved: 207 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 121 ships (1000 GRT or over) 564,882 GRT/801,238 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 10, cargo 85, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
  livestock carrier 1, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum
  tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 5, specialized
  tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 72 (Bangladesh 1, Bulgaria 1, Greece 10, India 1,
  Kenya 1, Kuwait 1, Lebanon 6, Nigeria 2, Norway 1, Pakistan 2,
  Philippines 1, Russia 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Saudi
  Arabia 3, Syria 4, Turkey 11, UAE 6, Ukraine 14, US 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mayotte, Moutsamoudou

Military Comoros


Military branches:
  Comoran Defense Force: Comoran Security Force (includes Gendarmerie
  and Army), Comoran Federal Police (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 138,940
  females age 18-49: 139,491 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 98,792
  females age 18-49: 106,415 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $12.87 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Comoros


Disputes - international:
  claims French-administered Mayotte


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Introduction Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Background:
  Established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the Republic of the Congo
  gained its independence in 1960, but its early years were marred by
  political and social instability. Col. Joseph MOBUTU seized power
  and declared himself president in a November 1965 coup. He
  subsequently changed his name - to MOBUTU Sese Seko - as well as
  that of the country - to Zaire. MOBUTU retained his position for 32
  years through several subsequent sham elections, as well as through
  the use of brutal force. Ethnic strife and civil war, touched off by
  a massive inflow of refugees in 1994 from fighting in Rwanda and
  Burundi, led in May 1997 to the toppling of the MOBUTU regime by a
  rebellion led by Laurent KABILA. He renamed the country the
  Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but in August 1998 his
  regime was itself challenged by an insurrection backed by Rwanda and
  Uganda. Troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe
  intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A cease-fire was signed
  in July 1999 by the DRC, Congolese armed rebel groups, Angola,
  Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe but sporadic fighting
  continued. Laurent KABILA was assassinated in January 2001 and his
  son, Joseph KABILA, was named head of state. In October 2002, the
  new president was successful in negotiating the withdrawal of
  Rwandan forces occupying eastern Congo; two months later, the
  Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end
  the fighting and establish a government of national unity. A
  transitional government was set up in July 2003; Joseph KABILA
  remains as president and is joined by four vice presidents
  representing the former government, former rebel groups, and the
  political opposition. The transitional government held a successful
  constitutional referendum in December 2005, and plans to hold a
  series of elections in 2006 to determine the presidency and National
  Assembly seats.

Geography Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Location:
  Central Africa, northeast of Angola

Geographic coordinates:
  0 00 N, 25 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 2,345,410 sq km
  land: 2,267,600 sq km
  water: 77,810 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than one-fourth the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 10,730 km
  border countries: Angola 2,511 km (of which 225 km is the boundary
  of Angola's discontiguous Cabinda Province), Burundi 233 km, Central
  African Republic 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 2,410 km, Rwanda
  217 km, Sudan 628 km, Tanzania 459 km, Uganda 765 km, Zambia 1,930 km

Coastline:
  37 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors

Climate:
  tropical; hot and humid in equatorial river basin; cooler and drier
  in southern highlands; cooler and wetter in eastern highlands; north
  of Equator - wet season (April to October), dry season (December to
  February); south of Equator - wet season (November to March), dry
  season (April to October)

Terrain:
  vast central basin is a low-lying plateau; mountains in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley) 5,110
  m

Natural resources:
  cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem
  diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal,
  hydropower, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 2.86%
  permanent crops: 0.47%
  other: 96.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  110 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts in south; Congo River floods (seasonal); in the
  east, in the Great Rift Valley, there are active volcanoes

Environment - current issues:
  poaching threatens wildlife populations; water pollution;
  deforestation; refugees responsible for significant deforestation,
  soil erosion, and wildlife poaching; mining of minerals (coltan - a
  mineral used in creating capacitors, diamonds, and gold) causing
  environmental damage

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  straddles equator; has very narrow strip of land that controls the
  lower Congo River and is only outlet to South Atlantic Ocean; dense
  tropical rain forest in central river basin and eastern highlands

People Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Population:
  62,660,551
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 47.4% (male 14,906,488/female 14,798,210)
  15-64 years: 50.1% (male 15,597,353/female 15,793,350)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 632,143/female 933,007) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.2 years
  male: 16 years
  female: 16.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.07% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  43.69 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: fighting between the Congolese Government and Uganda- and
  Rwanda-backed Congolese rebels spawned a regional war in DRC in
  August 1998, which left 2.33 million Congolese internally displaced
  and caused 412,000 Congolese refugees to flee to surrounding
  countries (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 88.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 96.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 80.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 51.46 years
  male: 50.01 years
  female: 52.94 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.1 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  100,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, plague, and African trypanosomiasis
  (sleeping sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Congolese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Congolese or Congo

Ethnic groups:
  over 200 African ethnic groups of which the majority are Bantu; the
  four largest tribes - Mongo, Luba, Kongo (all Bantu), and the
  Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic) make up about 45% of the population

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 20%, Kimbanguist 10%, Muslim 10%,
  other syncretic sects and indigenous beliefs 10%

Languages:
  French (official), Lingala (a lingua franca trade language),
  Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Kikongo, Tshiluba

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write French, Lingala,
  Kingwana, or Tshiluba
  total population: 65.5%
  male: 76.2%
  female: 55.1% (2003 est.)

Government Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Country name:
  conventional long form: Democratic Republic of the Congo
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Republique Democratique du Congo
  local short form: none
  former: Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo/Leopoldville,
  Congo/Kinshasa, Zaire
  abbreviation: DRC

Government type:
  transitional government

Capital:
  name: Kinshasa
  geographic coordinates: 4 18 S, 15 18 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (six hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 provinces (provinces, singular - province) and 1 city* (ville);
  Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Equateur, Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental,
  Katanga, Kinshasa*, Maniema, Nord-Kivu, Orientale, Sud-Kivu

Independence:
  30 June 1960 (from Belgium)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 30 June (1960)

Constitution:
  18 February 2006

Legal system:
  a new constitution was adopted by referendum 18 December 2005;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Joseph KABILA (since 26 January 2001);
  note - following the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire
  KABILA, on 16 January 2001, Joseph KABILA succeeded to the
  presidency; the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Joseph KABILA (since 26 January 2001);
  note - following the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire
  KABILA, on 16 January 2001, Joseph KABILA succeeded to the
  presidency; the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: National Executive Council appointed by the president
  elections: under the new constitution the president is elected by
  popular vote to a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  elections last held 30 July 2006 with a second round held on 29
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: results of 29 October 2006 elections (second
  round); Joseph KABILA 58%, Jean-Pierre BEMBA Gombo 42%
  note: Joseph KABILA succeeded his father, Laurent Desire KABILA,
  following the latter's assassination in January 2001; negotiations
  with rebel leaders led to the establishment of a transitional
  government in July 2003 with free elections held on 30 July 2006 and
  29 October 2006 where the poplar vote confirmed Joseph KABILA as
  president

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consists of a National Assembly (500 seats;
  60 elected by majority vote and 440 by open list proportional
  representation; members serve 5-year terms) and a Senate (120 seats;
  members elected by indirect vote to serve 5-year terms)
  elections: NA; members of the National Assembly were appointed by
  leaders in the factions integrated into the new government;
  elections scheduled for 30 July 2006 will establish a new
  legislature under the February 2006 constitution

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Social Christian Party or PDSC [Andre BO-BOLIKO]; Forces
  for Renovation for Union and Solidarity or FONUS [Joseph
  OLENGHANKOY]; National Congolese Lumumbist Movement or MNC [Francois
  LUMUMBA]; Popular Movement of the Revolution or MPR (three factions:
  MPR-Fait Prive [Catherine NZUZI wa Mbombo]; MPR/Vunduawe [Felix
  VUNDUAWE]; MPR/Mananga [MANANGA Dintoka Mpholo]); Unified Lumumbast
  Party or PALU [Antoine GIZENGA]; Union for Democracy and Social
  Progress or UDPS [Etienne TSHISEKEDI wa Mulumba]; Union of
  Federalists and Independent Republicans or UFERI (two factions:
  UFERI [Lokambo OMOKOKO]; UFERI/OR [Adolph Kishwe MAYA])

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL, COMESA, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO (suspended),
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF,
  OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Faida MITIFU
  chancery: 1800 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009: note -
  Consular Office at 1726 M Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-7690, 7691
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-2609

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roger MEECE
  embassy: 310 Avenue des Aviateurs, Kinshasa
  mailing address: Unit 31550, APO AE 09828
  telephone: [243] (88) 43608
  FAX: [243] (88) 43467

Flag description:
  sky blue field divided diagonally from the lower hoist corner to
  upper fly corner by a red stripe bordered by two narrow yellow
  stripes; a yellow, five-pointed star appears in the upper hoist
  corner

Economy Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Economy - overview:
  The economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - a nation
  endowed with vast potential wealth - has declined drastically since
  the mid-1980s. The war, which began in August 1998, dramatically
  reduced national output and government revenue, increased external
  debt, and resulted in the deaths of perhaps 3.5 million people from
  violence, famine, and disease. Foreign businesses curtailed
  operations due to uncertainty about the outcome of the conflict,
  lack of infrastructure, and the difficult operating environment.
  Conditions improved in late 2002 with the withdrawal of a large
  portion of the invading foreign troops. The transitional government
  has reopened relations with international financial institutions and
  international donors, and President KABILA has begun implementing
  reforms. Much economic activity lies outside the GDP data. Economic
  stability improved in 2003-05, although an uncertain legal
  framework, corruption, and a lack of openness in government policy
  continues to hamper growth. In 2005, renewed activity in the mining
  sector, the source of most exports, boosted Kinshasa's fiscal
  position and GDP growth. Business and economic prospects are
  expected to improve once a new government is installed after
  elections.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $40.67 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.328 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 11%
  services: 34% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  14.51 million

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9% (2004 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $700 million
  expenditures: $750 million; including capital expenditures of $24
  million (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber, tea, quinine, cassava (tapioca),
  palm oil, bananas, root crops, corn, fruits; wood products

Industries:
  mining (diamonds, copper, zinc), mineral processing, consumer
  products (including textiles, footwear, cigarettes, processed foods
  and beverages), cement, commercial ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  6.036 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.8%
  hydro: 98.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.324 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  22,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  8,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.538 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  991.1 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $1.108 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, copper, crude oil, coffee, cobalt

Exports - partners:
  Belgium 38.2%, US 17.9%, China 11.7%, France 8%, Finland 7.8%,
  Chile 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.319 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, mining and other machinery, transport equipment, fuels

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 16.5%, Belgium 16.1%, France 9.1%, Zambia 6.9%, Kenya
  5.7%, Germany 4.6%, US 4.5%, Cote d'Ivoire 4.3%, Netherlands 4.1%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $10.6 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.2 billion (FY03/04)

Currency (code):
  Congolese franc (CDF)

Currency code:
  CDF

Exchange rates:
  Congolese francs per US dollar - 437.86 (2005), 401.04 (2004),
  405.34 (2003), 346.49 (2002), 206.62 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.746 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poor
  domestic: barely adequate wire and microwave radio relay service in
  and between urban areas; domestic satellite system with 14 earth
  stations
  international: country code - 243; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 11, shortwave 2 (2001)

Radios:
  18.03 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (2001)

Televisions:
  6.478 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cd

Internet hosts:
  1,778 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2001)

Internet users:
  140,600 (2005)

Transportation Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Airports:
  234 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 209
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 94
  under 914 m: 97 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 54 km; oil 78 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,138 km
  narrow gauge: 3,987 km 1.067-m gauge (858 km electrified); 125 km
  1.000-m gauge; 1,026 km 0.600-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 157,000 km (including 30 km of expressways) (1999)

Waterways:
  15,000 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,004 GRT/1,640 DWT
  by type: petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Congo, Republic of the 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Banana, Boma, Bukavu, Bumba, Goma, Kalemie, Kindu, Kinshasa,
  Kisangani, Matadi, Mbandaka

Military Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18-45 years of age for military service

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 11,365,610 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,464,223 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $103.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Congo, Democratic Republic of the


Disputes - international:
  heads of the Great Lakes states and UN pledge to end conflict but
  unchecked tribal, rebel, and militia fighting continues unabated in
  the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
  drawing in the neighboring states of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; the
  UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  (MONUC) has maintained over 14,000 peacekeepers in the region since
  1999; thousands of Ituri refugees from the Congo continue to flee
  the fighting primarily into Uganda; 90,000 Angolan refugees were
  repatriated by 2004 with the remainder in the DRC expected to return
  in 2005; in 2005, DRC and Rwanda established a border verification
  mechanism to address accusations of Rwandan military supporting
  Congolese rebels and the DRC providing rebel Rwandan "Interhamwe"
  forces the means and bases to attack Rwandan forces; the location of
  the boundary in the broad Congo River with the Republic of the Congo
  is indefinite except in the Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 5,277 (Republic of Congo) 11,816
  (Rwanda) 18,953 (Uganda) 19,400 (Burundi) 45,226 (Sudan) 98,383
  (Angola)
  IDPs: 2.33 million (fighting between government forces and rebels
  since mid-1990s; most IDPs are in eastern provinces) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis, mostly for domestic consumption;
  while rampant corruption and inadequate supervision leaves the
  banking system vulnerable to money laundering, the lack of a
  well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Congo, Republic of the

Introduction Congo, Republic of the


Background:
  Upon independence in 1960, the former French region of Middle Congo
  became the Republic of the Congo. A quarter century of
  experimentation with Marxism was abandoned in 1990 and a
  democratically elected government took office in 1992. A brief civil
  war in 1997 restored former Marxist President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO,
  and ushered in a period of ethnic and political unrest.
  Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March
  2003, but the calm is tenuous and refugees continue to present a
  humanitarian crisis. The Republic of Congo was once one of Africa's
  largest petroleum producers, but with declining production it will
  need to hope for new offshore oil finds to sustain its oil earnings
  over the long term.

Geography Congo, Republic of the


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola
  and Gabon

Geographic coordinates:
  1 00 S, 15 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 342,000 sq km
  land: 341,500 sq km
  water: 500 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,504 km
  border countries: Angola 201 km, Cameroon 523 km, Central African
  Republic 467 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,410 km, Gabon
  1,903 km

Coastline:
  169 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; rainy season (March to June); dry season (June to
  October); persistent high temperatures and humidity; particularly
  enervating climate astride the Equator

Terrain:
  coastal plain, southern basin, central plateau, northern basin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Berongou 903 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, timber, potash, lead, zinc, uranium, copper, phosphates,
  gold, magnesium, natural gas, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 1.45%
  permanent crops: 0.15%
  other: 98.4% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  seasonal flooding

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from vehicle emissions; water pollution from the
  dumping of raw sewage; tap water is not potable; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber
  94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  about 70% of the population lives in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, or
  along the railroad between them

People Congo, Republic of the


Population:
  3,702,314
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.4% (male 864,407/female 853,728)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 930,390/female 945,545)
  65 years and over: 2.9% (male 44,430/female 63,814) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.4 years
  female: 16.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.6% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  42.57 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.93 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.62 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 85.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 91 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 79.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 52.8 years
  male: 51.65 years
  female: 53.98 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  90,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  9,700 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Congolese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Congolese or Congo

Ethnic groups:
  Kongo 48%, Sangha 20%, M'Bochi 12%, Teke 17%, Europeans and other 3%

Religions:
  Christian 50%, animist 48%, Muslim 2%

Languages:
  French (official), Lingala and Monokutuba (lingua franca trade
  languages), many local languages and dialects (of which Kikongo is
  the most widespread)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83.8%
  male: 89.6%
  female: 78.4% (2003 est.)

Government Congo, Republic of the


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of the Congo
  conventional short form: Congo (Brazzaville)
  local long form: Republique du Congo
  local short form: none
  former: Middle Congo, Congo/Brazzaville, Congo

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Brazzaville
  geographic coordinates: 4 16 S, 15 17 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (six hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 regions (regions, singular - region) and 1 commune*; Bouenza,
  Brazzaville*, Cuvette, Cuvette-Ouest, Kouilou, Lekoumou, Likouala,
  Niari, Plateaux, Pool, Sangha

Independence:
  15 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 August (1960)

Constitution:
  approved by referendum 20 January 2002

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO (since 25 October
  1997, following the civil war in which he toppled elected president
  Pascal LISSOUBA); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  head of government: President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO (since 25 October
  1997, following the civil war in which he toppled elected president
  Pascal LISSOUBA); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 March 2002 (next
  to be held in 2009)
  election results: Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO reelected president; percent
  of vote - Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO 89.4%, Joseph Kignoumbi Kia MBOUNGOU
  2.7%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (66 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and the National
  Assembly (137 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 July 2002 (next to be held July
  2007); National Assembly - last held 27 May and 26 June 2002 (next
  to be held by May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - FDP 56, other 10; National Assembly - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - FDP 83, UDR 6, UPADS 3, other 45

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Political parties and leaders:
  the most important of the many parties are the Democratic and
  Patriotic Forces or FDP [Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, president] (an
  alliance of Convention for Alternative Democracy, Congolese Labor
  Party or PCT, Liberal Republican Party, National Union for Democracy
  and Progress, Patriotic Union for the National Reconstruction, and
  Union for the National Renewal); Congolese Movement for Democracy
  and Integral Development or MCDDI [Michel MAMPOUYA]; Pan-African
  Union for Social Development or UPADS [Martin MBERI]; Rally for
  Democracy and Social Progress or RDPS [Jean-Pierre Thystere
  TCHICAYA, president]; Rally for Democracy and the Republic or RDR
  [Raymond Damasge NGOLLO]; Union for Democracy and Republic or UDR;
  Union of Democratic Forces or UFD [Sebastian EBAO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Congolese Trade Union Congress or CSC; General Union of Congolese
  Pupils and Students or UGEEC; Revolutionary Union of Congolese Women
  or URFC; Union of Congolese Socialist Youth or UJSC

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW (signatory), UN, UN Security
  Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Serge MOMBOULI
  chancery: 4891 Colorado Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-5500
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-1860

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Mark
  BIEDLINGMAIER
  embassy: NA
  mailing address: NA
  telephone: [243] (88) 43608
  note: the embassy is temporarily collocated with the US Embassy in
  the Democratic Republic of the Congo (US Embassy Kinshasa, 310
  Avenue des Aviateurs, Kinshasa)

Flag description:
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a yellow band; the
  upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the lower triangle is red;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Congo, Republic of the


Economy - overview:
  The economy is a mixture of village agriculture and handicrafts, an
  industrial sector based largely on oil, support services, and a
  government characterized by budget problems and overstaffing. Oil
  has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing a
  major share of government revenues and exports. In the early 1980s,
  rapidly rising oil revenues enabled the government to finance
  large-scale development projects with GDP growth averaging 5%
  annually, one of the highest rates in Africa. The government has
  mortgaged a substantial portion of its oil earnings through
  oil-backed loans that have contributed to a growing debt burden and
  chronic revenue shortfalls. Economic reform efforts have been
  undertaken with the support of international organizations, notably
  the World Bank and the IMF. However, the reform program came to a
  halt in June 1997 when civil war erupted. Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, who
  returned to power when the war ended in October 1997, publicly
  expressed interest in moving forward on economic reforms and
  privatization and in renewing cooperation with international
  financial institutions. Economic progress was badly hurt by slumping
  oil prices and the resumption of armed conflict in December 1998,
  which worsened the republic's budget deficit. The current
  administration presides over an uneasy internal peace and faces
  difficult economic challenges of stimulating recovery and reducing
  poverty. Recovery of oil prices has boosted the economy's GDP and
  near-term prospects. The Republic of Congo may be eligible for an
  IMF-World Bank heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative in
  early 2006, provided it meets the strict fiscal and monetary targets
  set out for it under a new three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth
  Facility (PRGF) with the IMF.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.585 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.694 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6.2%
  industry: 57%
  services: 36.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  NA

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.328 billion
  expenditures: $1.065 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cassava (tapioca), sugar, rice, corn, peanuts, vegetables, coffee,
  cocoa; forest products

Industries:
  petroleum extraction, cement, lumber, brewing, sugar, palm oil,
  soap, flour, cigarettes

Industrial production growth rate:
  0% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  343 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.3%
  hydro: 99.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  619 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  300 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  267,100 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  5,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  93.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  90.61 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $493 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.209 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, lumber, plywood, sugar, cocoa, coffee, diamonds

Exports - partners:
  China 38.9%, US 29%, Taiwan 11.8%, South Korea 7.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $806.5 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital equipment, construction materials, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  France 25.6%, China 11.3%, US 8.1%, India 8%, Italy 7.5%, Belgium
  5.1%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $273 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5 billion (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $159.1 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Congo, Republic of the


Telephones - main lines in use:
  13,800 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  490,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: services barely adequate for government use;
  key exchanges are in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, and Loubomo;
  intercity lines frequently out of order
  domestic: primary network consists of microwave radio relay and
  coaxial cable
  international: country code - 242; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 3 (2001)

Radios:
  341,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  33,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cg

Internet hosts:
  46 (2004)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  36,000 (2005)

Transportation Congo, Republic of the


Airports:
  32 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 89 km; liquid petroleum gas 4 km; oil 744 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 894 km
  narrow gauge: 894 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 12,800 km
  paved: 1,242 km
  unpaved: 11,558 km (1999)

Waterways:
  4,385 km (on Congo and Oubanqui rivers) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 1 (Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Brazzaville, Djeno, Impfondo, Ouesso, Oyo, Pointe-Noire

Military Congo, Republic of the


Military branches:
  Congolese Armed Forces (FAC): Army, Congolese Air Force (Armee de
  l'Air Congolaise), Navy, Gendarmerie, Republican Guard (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 688,628
  females age 18-49: 685,388 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 406,016
  females age 18-49: 394,745 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 38,464
  females age 18-49: 38,082 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $85.22 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Congo, Republic of the


Disputes - international:
  about 7,000 Congolese refugees fleeing internal civil conflicts
  since the mid-1990s still reside in the Democratic Republic of the
  Congo; the location of the boundary in the broad Congo River with
  the Democratic Republic of the Congo is indefinite except in the
  Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 53,834 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  IDPs: 60,000 (multiple civil wars since 1992; most IDPs are ethnic
  Lari) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cook Islands

Introduction Cook Islands


Background:
  Named after Captain COOK, who sighted them in 1770, the islands
  became a British protectorate in 1888. By 1900, administrative
  control was transferred to New Zealand; in 1965 residents chose
  self-government in free association with New Zealand. The emigration
  of skilled workers to New Zealand and government deficits are
  continuing problems.

Geography Cook Islands


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  21 14 S, 159 46 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 236.7 sq km
  land: 236.7 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  1.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  120 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical oceanic; moderated by trade winds; a dry season from April
  to November and a more humid season from December to March

Terrain:
  low coral atolls in north; volcanic, hilly islands in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Te Manga 652 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 16.67%
  permanent crops: 8.33%
  other: 75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons (November to March)

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the northern Cook Islands are seven low-lying, sparsely populated,
  coral atolls; the southern Cook Islands, where most of the
  population lives, consist of eight elevated, fertile, volcanic
  isles, including the largest, Rarotonga, at 67 sq km

People Cook Islands


Population:
  21,388 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 34.1% (male 2,718/female 2,388)
  15-64 years: 59.5% (male 4,531/female 4,395)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 489/female 469) (2001 census)

Median age:
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 24.7 years
  female: 25.9 years (2001 census)

Population growth rate:
  -1.2% between 1996-2001 (2001 census)

Birth rate:
  21 births/1,000 population (2001 census)

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Sex ratio:
  107 male(s)/female (2001 census)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  3.1 children born/woman (2001 census)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Cook Islander(s)
  adjective: Cook Islander

Ethnic groups:
  Cook Island Maori (Polynesian) 87.7%, part Cook Island Maori 5.8%,
  other 6.5% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Cook Islands Christian Church 55.9%, Roman Catholic 16.8%,
  Seventh-Day Adventists 7.9%, Church of Latter Day Saints 3.8%, other
  Protestant 5.8%, other 4.2%, unspecified 2.6%, none 3% (2001 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Maori

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 95%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

People - note:
  2001 census counted a resident population of 15,017

Government Cook Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Cook Islands
  former: Harvey Islands

Dependency status:
  self-governing in free association with New Zealand; Cook Islands
  is fully responsible for internal affairs; New Zealand retains
  responsibility for external affairs and defense, in consultation
  with the Cook Islands

Government type:
  self-governing parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Avarua
  geographic coordinates: 21 12 S, 159 46 W
  time difference: UTC-10 (5 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none

Independence:
  none (became self-governing in free association with New Zealand on
  4 August 1965 and has the right at any time to move to full
  independence by unilateral action)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, first Monday in August (1965)

Constitution:
  4 August 1965

Legal system:
  based on New Zealand law and English common law

Suffrage:
  NA years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Frederick GOODWIN (since 9 February 2001); New
  Zealand High Commissioner John BRYAN (since 6 September 2005),
  representative of New Zealand
  head of government: Prime Minister Jim MARURAI (since 14 December
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Terepai MAOATE (since 9 August 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister; collectively
  responsible to Parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the UK representative is
  appointed by the monarch; the New Zealand high commissioner is
  appointed by the New Zealand Government; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition usually becomes prime minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consisting of a lower house or Legislative
  Assembly with 25 seats (24 seats representing districts of the Cook
  Islands and one seat representing Cook Islanders living overseas;
  members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and an
  upper house or House of Ariki made up of traditional leaders
  elections: last held 26 September 2006 (next to be held by 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Demo 51.9%, CIP 45.5%,
  independent 2.7%; seats by party - Demo 15, CIP 8, independent 1
  note: the House of Ariki advises on traditional matters and
  maintains considerable influence, but has no legislative powers

Judicial branch:
  High Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Cook Islands Party or CIP [Henry PUNA]; Democratic Party or Demo
  [Dr. Terepai MAOATE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IOC, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (self-governing in free association with New Zealand)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (self-governing in free association with New Zealand)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  a large circle of 15 white five-pointed stars (one for every island)
  centered in the outer half of the flag

Economy Cook Islands


Economy - overview:
  Like many other South Pacific island nations, the Cook Islands'
  economic development is hindered by the isolation of the country
  from foreign markets, the limited size of domestic markets, lack of
  natural resources, periodic devastation from natural disasters, and
  inadequate infrastructure. Agriculture, employing about 70% of the
  working population, provides the economic base with major exports
  made up of copra and citrus fruit. Black pearls are the Cook
  Island's leading export. Manufacturing activities are limited to
  fruit processing, clothing, and handicrafts. Trade deficits are
  offset by remittances from emigrants and by foreign aid,
  overwhelmingly from New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country
  lived beyond its means, maintaining a bloated public service and
  accumulating a large foreign debt. Subsequent reforms, including the
  sale of state assets, the strengthening of economic management, the
  encouragement of tourism, and a debt restructuring agreement, have
  rekindled investment and growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $183.2 million (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $183.2 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $9,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 15.1%
  industry: 9.6%
  services: 75.3% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  6,820 (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 29%
  industry: 15%
  services: 56% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  13.1% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $70.95 million
  expenditures: $69.05 million; including capital expenditures of
  $5.744 million (FY00/01 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  copra, citrus, pineapples, tomatoes, beans, pawpaws, bananas, yams,
  taro, coffee; pigs, poultry

Industries:
  fruit processing, tourism, fishing, clothing, handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  1% (2002)

Electricity - production:
  28 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  34.46 million kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $26.67 million

Exports:
  $5.222 million (2005)

Exports - commodities:
  copra, papayas, fresh and canned citrus fruit, coffee; fish; pearls
  and pearl shells; clothing

Exports - partners:
  Australia 34%, Japan 27%, New Zealand 25%, US 8% (2004)

Imports:
  $81.04 million (2005)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, textiles, fuels, timber, capital goods

Imports - partners:
  New Zealand 61%, Fiji 19%, US 9%, Australia 6%, Japan 2% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $141 million (1996 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $13.1 million; note - New Zealand continues to furnish the greater
  part (1995)

Currency (code):
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:
  NZD

Exchange rates:
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004),
  1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Cook Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6,200 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,500 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Telecom Cook Islands offers international
  direct dialing, Internet, email, fax, and Telex
  domestic: the individual islands are connected by a combination of
  satellite earth stations, microwave systems, and VHF and HF
  radiotelephone; within the islands, service is provided by small
  exchanges connected to subscribers by open-wire, cable, and
  fiber-optic cable
  international: country code - 682; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  14,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (outer islands receive satellite broadcasts) (2004)

Televisions:
  4,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ck

Internet hosts:
  1,456 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  3,600 (2002)

Transportation Cook Islands


Airports:
  9 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 320 km
  paved: 33 km
  unpaved: 287 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 48,422 GRT/51,900 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 3
  foreign-owned: 5 (Norway 1, NZ 1, Sweden 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Avatiu

Military Cook Islands


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Ministry of Police and Disaster
  Management (2005)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with
  the Cook Islands and at its request

Transnational Issues Cook Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Coral Sea Islands

Introduction Coral Sea Islands


Background:
  Scattered over more than three-quarters of a million square
  kilometers of ocean, the Coral Sea Islands were declared a territory
  of Australia in 1969. They are uninhabited except for a small
  meteorological staff on the Willis Islets. Automated weather
  stations, beacons, and a lighthouse occupy many other islands and
  reefs.

Geography Coral Sea Islands


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  18 00 S, 152 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: less than 3 sq km
  land: less than 3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes numerous small islands and reefs scattered over a sea
  area of about 780,000 sq km, with the Willis Islets the most
  important

Area - comparative:
  NA

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  3,095 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  sand and coral reefs and islands (or cays)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Cato Island 6 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mostly grass or scrub cover) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  occasional tropical cyclones

Environment - current issues:
  no permanent fresh water resources

Geography - note:
  important nesting area for birds and turtles

People Coral Sea Islands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there is a staff of three to four at the meteorological
  station (2005 est.)

Government Coral Sea Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Coral Sea Islands Territory
  conventional short form: Coral Sea Islands

Dependency status:
  territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the
  Department of the Environment, Sport, and Territories

Legal system:
  the laws of Australia, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  administered from Canberra by the Department of the Environment,
  Sport, and Territories

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  the flag of Australia is used

Economy Coral Sea Islands


Economy - overview:
  no economic activity

Communications Coral Sea Islands


Communications - note:
  there are automatic weather stations on many of the isles and reefs
  relaying data to the mainland

Transportation Coral Sea Islands


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Coral Sea Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia; visited regularly by
  the Royal Australian Navy; Australia has control over the activities
  of visitors

Transnational Issues Coral Sea Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Costa Rica

Introduction Costa Rica


Background:
  Although explored by the Spanish early in the 16th century, initial
  attempts at colonizing Costa Rica proved unsuccessful due to a
  combination of factors, including: disease from mosquito-infested
  swamps, brutal heat, resistance by natives, and pirate raids. It was
  not until 1563 that a permanent settlement of Cartago was
  established in the cooler, fertile central highlands. The area
  remained a colony for some two and a half centuries. In 1821, Costa
  Rica became one of several Central American provinces that jointly
  declared their independence from Spain. Two years later it joined
  the United Provinces of Central America, but this federation
  disintegrated in 1838, at which time Costa Rica proclaimed its
  sovereignty and independence. Since the late 19th century, only two
  brief periods of violence have marred the country's democratic
  development. Although it still maintains a large agricultural
  sector, Costa Rica has expanded its economy to include strong
  technology and tourism industries. The standard of living is
  relatively high. Land ownership is widespread.

Geography Costa Rica


Location:
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Pacific Ocean, between Nicaragua and Panama

Geographic coordinates:
  10 00 N, 84 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 51,100 sq km
  land: 50,660 sq km
  water: 440 sq km
  note: includes Isla del Coco

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 639 km
  border countries: Nicaragua 309 km, Panama 330 km

Coastline:
  1,290 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical and subtropical; dry season (December to April); rainy
  season (May to November); cooler in highlands

Terrain:
  coastal plains separated by rugged mountains including over 100
  volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Chirripo 3,810 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 4.4%
  permanent crops: 5.87%
  other: 89.73% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,080 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional earthquakes, hurricanes along Atlantic coast; frequent
  flooding of lowlands at onset of rainy season and landslides; active
  volcanoes

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation and land use change, largely a result of the clearing
  of land for cattle ranching and agriculture; soil erosion; coastal
  marine pollution; fisheries protection; solid waste management; air
  pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  four volcanoes, two of them active, rise near the capital of San
  Jose in the center of the country; one of the volcanoes, Irazu,
  erupted destructively in 1963-65

People Costa Rica


Population:
  4,075,261 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.3% (male 590,261/female 563,196)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 1,359,750/female 1,329,346)
  65 years and over: 5.7% (male 108,041/female 124,667) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.4 years
  male: 26 years
  female: 26.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.32 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.02 years
  male: 74.43 years
  female: 79.74 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  12,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  900 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Costa Rican(s)
  adjective: Costa Rican

Ethnic groups:
  white (including mestizo) 94%, black 3%, Amerindian 1%, Chinese 1%,
  other 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 76.3%, Evangelical 13.7%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.3%,
  other Protestant 0.7%, other 4.8%, none 3.2%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: 95.9%
  female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

Government Costa Rica


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Costa Rica
  conventional short form: Costa Rica
  local long form: Republica de Costa Rica
  local short form: Costa Rica

Government type:
  democratic republic

Capital:
  name: San Jose
  geographic coordinates: 9 56 N, 84 05 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  7 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Alajuela, Cartago,
  Guanacaste, Heredia, Limon, Puntarenas, San Jose

Independence:
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Constitution:
  7 November 1949

Legal system:
  based on Spanish civil law system; judicial review of legislative
  acts in the Supreme Court; has accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (since 8 May 2006);
  First Vice President Laura CHINCHILLA (since 8 May 2006); Second
  Vice President Kevin CASAS Zamora (since 8 May 2006); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (since 8 May
  2006); First Vice President Laura CHINCHILLA (since 8 May 2006);
  Second Vice President Kevin CASAS Zamora (since 8 May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the president
  elections: president and vice presidents elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single four-year term; election last held 5
  February 2006 (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: Oscar ARIAS Sanchez elected president; percent of
  vote - Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (PLN) 40.9%; Otto SOLIS (PAC) 39.8%, Otto
  GUEVARA Guth (PML) 8%, Ricardo TOLEDO (PUSC) 3%; note - official
  results pending the resolution of election challenges

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa (57 seats;
  members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 February 2006 (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PLN 25, PAC 18, PML 6, PUSC 4, other 4

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (22 justices are elected for
  eight-year terms by the Legislative Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Authentic Member from Heredia [Jose SALAS]; Citizen Action Party or
  PAC [Otton SOLIS]; Costa Rican Renovation Party or PRC [Gerardo
  Justo OROZCO Alvarez]; Democratic Force Party or PFD [Vladimir DE LA
  CRUZ]; General Union Party or PUGEN [Carlos Alberto FERNANDEZ Vega];
  Homeland First or PP [Juan Jose VARGAS Fallas]; Independent Worker
  Party or PIO [Jose Alberto CUBERO Carmona]; Libertarian Movement
  Party or PML [Otto GUEVARA Guth]; National Christian Alliance Party
  or ANC [Juan Carlos CHAVEZ Mora]; National Integration Party or PIN
  [Walter MUNOZ Cespedes]; National Liberation Party or PLN [Francisco
  Antonio PACHECO]; National Patriotic Party or PPN [Daniel Enrique
  REYNOLDS Vargas]; National Restoration Party or PRN [Carlos
  AVENDANO]; Nationalist Democratic Alliance or ADN [Jose Miguel
  VILLALOBOS Umana]; Patriotic Union or UP [Humberto ARCE Salas];
  Social Christian Unity Party or PUSC [Lorena VASQUEZ Badilla]; Union
  for Change Party or UPC [Antonio ALVAREZ Desanti]; United Leftist
  Coalition or IU [Humberto VARGAS Carbonel]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Authentic Confederation of Democratic Workers or CATD (Communist
  Party affiliate); Chamber of Coffee Growers; Confederated Union of
  Workers or CUT (Communist Party affiliate); Costa Rican
  Confederation of Democratic Workers or CCTD (Liberation Party
  affiliate); Federation of Public Service Workers or FTSP; National
  Association for Economic Development or ANFE; National Association
  of Educators or ANDE; Rerum Novarum or CTRN (PLN affiliate) [Gilbert
  BROWN]

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS, OPANAL,
  OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tomas DUENAS
  chancery: 2114 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-2945
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-4795
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Hammond (temporary location
  in Louisiana), Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Juan
  (Puerto Rico), Tampa (temporarily closed), Washington, DC
  consulate(s): San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mark LANGDALE
  embassy: Calle 120 Avenida O, Pavas, San Jose
  mailing address: APO AA 34020
  telephone: [506] 519-2000
  FAX: [506] 519-2305

Flag description:
  five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double width),
  white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical disk on
  the hoist side of the red band; above the coat of arms a light blue
  ribbon contains the words, AMERICA CENTRAL, and just below it near
  the top of the coat of arms is a white ribbon with the words,
  REPUBLICA COSTA RICA

Economy Costa Rica


Economy - overview:
  Costa Rica's basically stable economy depends on tourism,
  agriculture, and electronics exports. Poverty has been substantially
  reduced over the past 15 years, and a strong social safety net has
  been put into place. Foreign investors remain attracted by the
  country's political stability and high education levels, and tourism
  continues to bring in foreign exchange. Low prices for coffee and
  bananas have hurt the agricultural sector. The government continues
  to grapple with its large internal and external deficits and sizable
  internal debt. The reduction of inflation remains a difficult
  problem because of rises in the price of imports, labor market
  rigidities, and fiscal deficits. The country also needs to reform
  its tax system and its pattern of public expenditure. Costa Rica is
  the only signatory to the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement
  (CAFTA) that has not ratified it. CAFTA implementation would result
  in economic reforms and an improved investment climate.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $45.67 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $19.38 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $11,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.8%
  industry: 29.9%
  services: 61.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.82 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 22%
  services: 58% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  18% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 36.8% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  46.5 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  13.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.722 billion
  expenditures: $3.195 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  56.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar, corn, rice, beans, potatoes;
  beef; timber

Industries:
  microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing,
  construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  7.726 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.5%
  hydro: 81.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 16.6% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  7.12 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  115 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  50 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-955 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $7.005 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples; textiles, electronic
  components, medical equipment

Exports - partners:
  US 42.6%, Hong Kong 6.9%, Netherlands 6.4%, Guatemala 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $9.69 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment, petroleum

Imports - partners:
  US 41.3%, Japan 5.6%, Venezuela 4.8%, Mexico 4.8%, Ireland 4.3%,
  Brazil 4.2%, China 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.313 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.049 billion (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  Costa Rican colon (CRC)

Currency code:
  CRC

Exchange rates:
  Costa Rican colones per US dollar - 477.79 (2005), 437.91 (2004),
  398.66 (2003), 359.82 (2002), 328.87 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Costa Rica


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,388,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.101 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good domestic telephone service in terms of
  breadth of coverage; restricted cellular telephone service
  domestic: point-to-point and point-to-multi-point microwave,
  fiber-optic, and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is
  available
  international: country code - 506; connected to Central American
  Microwave System; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean); two submarine cables (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 65, FM 51, shortwave 19 (2002)

Radios:
  980,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  20 (plus 43 repeaters) (2002)

Televisions:
  525,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cr

Internet hosts:
  12,751 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (of which only one is legal) (2000)

Internet users:
  1 million (2005)

Transportation Costa Rica


Airports:
  157 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 32
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 19
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 125
  914 to 1,523 m: 24
  under 914 m: 101 (2006)

Pipelines:
  refined products 242 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 278 km
  narrow gauge: 278 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 35,889 km
  paved: 8,075 km
  unpaved: 27,814 km (2003)

Waterways:
  730 km (seasonally navigable by small craft) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,308 GRT/743 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 2 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Caldera, Puerto Limon

Military Costa Rica


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Ministry of Public Security,
  Government, and Police (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 997,690
  females age 18-49: 968,290 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 829,874
  females age 18-49: 809,343 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 41,097
  females age 18-49: 39,243

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $83.46 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Costa Rica


Disputes - international:
  in September 2005, Costa Rica took its case before the ICJ to
  advocate the navigation, security, and commercial rights of Costa
  Rican vessels using the Río San Juan over which Nicaragua retains
  sovereignty

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 8,266 (Colombia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment country for cocaine and heroin from South America;
  illicit production of cannabis on small, scattered plots; domestic
  cocaine consumption, particularly crack cocaine, is rising


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cote d'Ivoire

Introduction Cote d'Ivoire


Background:
  Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the development of
  cocoa production for export, and foreign investment made Cote
  d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical African states,
  but did not protect it from political turmoil. In December 1999, a
  military coup - the first ever in Cote d'Ivoire's history -
  overthrew the government. Junta leader Robert GUEI blatantly rigged
  elections held in late 2000 and declared himself the winner. Popular
  protest forced him to step aside and brought runner-up Laurent
  GBAGBO into power. Ivorian dissidents and disaffected members of the
  military launched a failed coup attempt in September 2002. Rebel
  forces claimed the northern half of the country, and in January 2003
  were granted ministerial positions in a unity government under the
  auspices of the Linas-Marcoussis Peace Accord. President GBAGBO and
  rebel forces resumed implementation of the peace accord in December
  2003 after a three-month stalemate, but issues that sparked the
  civil war, such as land reform and grounds for citizenship, remain
  unresolved. The central government has yet to exert control over the
  northern regions and tensions remain high between GBAGBO and
  opposition leaders. Several thousand French and West African troops
  remain in Cote d'Ivoire to maintain peace and facilitate the
  disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation process.

Geography Cote d'Ivoire


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ghana
  and Liberia

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 N, 5 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 322,460 sq km
  land: 318,000 sq km
  water: 4,460 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,110 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km, Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km,
  Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

Coastline:
  515 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm
  and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet
  (June to October)

Terrain:
  mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt,
  bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay, cocoa
  beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 10.23%
  permanent crops: 11.16%
  other: 78.61% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  730 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors; during the rainy
  season torrential flooding is possible

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation (most of the country's forests - once the largest in
  West Africa - have been heavily logged); water pollution from sewage
  and industrial and agricultural effluents

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  most of the inhabitants live along the sandy coastal region; apart
  from the capital area, the forested interior is sparsely populated

People Cote d'Ivoire


Population:
  17,654,843
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 40.8% (male 3,546,674/female 3,653,990)
  15-64 years: 56.4% (male 5,024,575/female 4,939,677)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 238,793/female 251,134) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.2 years
  male: 19.4 years
  female: 18.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.03% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  35.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 89.11 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 105.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 71.99 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 48.82 years
  male: 46.24 years
  female: 51.48 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  570,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  47,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, yellow fever, and others are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Ivoirian(s)
  adjective: Ivoirian

Ethnic groups:
  Akan 42.1%, Voltaiques or Gur 17.6%, Northern Mandes 16.5%, Krous
  11%, Southern Mandes 10%, other 2.8% (includes 130,000 Lebanese and
  14,000 French) (1998)

Religions:
  Muslim 35-40%, indigenous 25-40%, Christian 20-30% (2001)
  note: the majority of foreigners (migratory workers) are Muslim
  (70%) and Christian (20%)

Languages:
  French (official), 60 native dialects with Dioula the most widely
  spoken

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50.9%
  male: 57.9%
  female: 43.6% (2003 est.)

Government Cote d'Ivoire


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
  conventional short form: Cote d'Ivoire
  local long form: Republique de Cote d'Ivoire
  local short form: Cote d'Ivoire
  former: Ivory Coast

Government type:
  republic; multiparty presidential regime established 1960

Capital:
  name: Yamoussoukro
  geographic coordinates: 5 19 N, 4 02 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: although Yamoussoukro has been the official capital since
  1983, Abidjan remains the commercial and administrative center; the
  US, like other countries, maintains its Embassy in Abidjan

Administrative divisions:
  19 regions; Agneby, Bafing, Bas-Sassandra, Denguele, Dix-Huit
  Montagnes, Fromager, Haut-Sassandra, Lacs, Lagunes, Marahoue,
  Moyen-Cavally, Moyen-Comoe, N'zi-Comoe, Savanes, Sud-Bandama,
  Sud-Comoe, Vallee du Bandama, Worodougou, Zanzan

Independence:
  7 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 7 August (1960)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 4 August 2000

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law; judicial review
  in the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Laurent GBAGBO (since 26 October 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Charles Konan BANNY (since 7
  December 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 26 October 2000 (next to be
  held by October 2006, after the government postponed the election);
  prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Laurent GBAGBO elected president; percent of vote
  - Laurent GBAGBO 59.4%, Robert GUEI 32.7%, Francis WODIE 5.7%, other
  2.2%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (225 seats;
  members are elected in single- and multi-district elections by
  direct popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 10 December 2000 with by-elections on
  14 January 2001 (next to be held by 31 October 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  FPI 96, PDCI-RDA 94, RDR 5, PIT 4, other 2, independents 22, vacant 2
  note: a Senate is scheduled to be created in the next full election
  in 2006

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme consists of four chambers: Judicial
  Chamber for criminal cases, Audit Chamber for financial cases,
  Constitutional Chamber for judicial review cases, and Administrative
  Chamber for civil cases; there is no legal limit to the number of
  members

Political parties and leaders:
  Citizen's Democratic Union or UDCY [Eg Theodore MEL]; Democratic
  Party of Cote d'Ivoire-African Democratic Rally or PDCI-RDA [Henri
  Konan BEDIE]; Ivorian Popular Front or FPI [Laurent GBAGBO]; Ivorian
  Worker's Party or PIT [Francis WODIE]; Rally of the Republicans or
  RDR [Alassane OUATTARA]; Union for Democracy and Peace or UDPCI
  [Paul Akoto YAO]; over 20 smaller parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-24, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC,
  OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WADB (regional),
  WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Daouda DIABATE
  chancery: 3421 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-0300
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-3088

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aubrey HOOKS
  embassy: Riviera Golf 01, Abidjan
  mailing address: B. P. 1866, Abidjan 01
  telephone: [225] 20 21 09 79
  FAX: [225] 20 22 32 59

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side), white, and
  green; similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and has the
  colors reversed - green (hoist side), white, and orange; also
  similar to the flag of Italy, which is green (hoist side), white,
  and red; design was based on the flag of France

Economy Cote d'Ivoire


Economy - overview:
  Cote d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers and exporters
  of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm oil. Consequently, the economy is
  highly sensitive to fluctuations in international prices for these
  products and weather conditions. Despite government attempts to
  diversify the economy, it is still heavily dependent on agriculture
  and related activities, engaging roughly 68% of the population.
  Growth was negative in 2000-03 because of the difficulty of meeting
  the conditions of international donors, continued low prices of key
  exports, and severe civil war. In November 2004, the situation
  deteriorated when President GBAGBO's troops attacked and killed nine
  French peacekeeping forces, and the UN imposed an arms embargo.
  Political turmoil damaged the economy in 2005, with fear among
  Ivorians spreading, foreign investment shriveling, French businesses
  and expats fleeing, travel within the country falling, and criminal
  elements that traffic in weapons and diamonds gaining ground. The
  government will continue to survive financially off of the sale of
  cocoa, which represents 90% of foreign exchange earnings. Though the
  2005 harvest was largely unaffected by past fighting, the government
  will likely lose between 10% and 20% of its cocoa harvest to
  northern rebels, who smuggle the cocoa they control to neighboring
  countries where cocoa prices are higher. The government remains
  hopeful that ongoing exploration of Cote d'Ivoire's offshore oil
  reserves will result in significant production that could boost
  daily crude output from roughly 33,000 barrels per day (b/d) to over
  200,000 b/d by the end of the decade.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $27.58 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $16.57 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 27.9%
  industry: 17.1%
  services: 55% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  6.95 million (68% agricultural) (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  13% in urban areas (1998)

Population below poverty line:
  37% (1995)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 28.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  45.2 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  8.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.434 billion
  expenditures: $2.83 billion; including capital expenditures of $420
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  64.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn, rice, manioc
  (tapioca), sweet potatoes, sugar, cotton, rubber; timber

Industries:
  foodstuffs, beverages; wood products, oil refining, truck and bus
  assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building materials, electricity,
  ship construction and repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  15% (1998 est.)

Electricity - production:
  5.127 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 61.9%
  hydro: 38.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.418 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.35 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  32,900 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  20,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  220 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  1.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  29.73 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-193 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.49 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cocoa, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, bananas, pineapples, palm
  oil, fish

Exports - partners:
  France 18.3%, US 14.1%, Netherlands 11%, Nigeria 8%, Panama 4.4%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $4.759 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuel, capital equipment, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  France 27.7%, Nigeria 24.5%, Singapore 6.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.42 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $13.43 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $1 billion (1996 est.)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Cote d'Ivoire


Telephones - main lines in use:
  257,900 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.19 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: well developed by African standards but
  operating well below capacity
  domestic: open-wire lines and microwave radio relay; 90% digitalized
  international: country code - 225; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); 2 submarine cables
  (June 1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 3 (1998)

Radios:
  2.26 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  14 (1999)

Televisions:
  1.09 million (2000)

Internet country code:
  .ci

Internet hosts:
  2,534 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  160,000 (2005)

Transportation Cote d'Ivoire


Airports:
  35 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 109 km; gas 240 km; oil 112 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 660 km
  narrow gauge: 660 km 1.000 meter gauge
  note: an additional 622 km of this railroad extends into Burkina
  Faso (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 80,000 km
  paved: 6,500 km
  unpaved: 73,500 km
  note: includes intercity and urban roads; another 20,000 km of dirt
  roads are in poor condition and 150,000 km of dirt roads are
  impassable (2006)

Waterways:
  980 km (navigable rivers, canals, and numerous coastal lagoons)
  (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Abidjan, Aboisso, Dabou, San-Pedro

Military Cote d'Ivoire


Military branches:
  Cote d'Ivoire Defense and Security Forces (FDSC): Army, Navy, Air
  Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,696,106
  females age 18-49: 3,569,967 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,973,265
  females age 18-49: 1,911,777 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 189,354
  females age 18-49: 192,600 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $246.6 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Cote d'Ivoire


Disputes - international:
  rebel and ethnic fighting against the central government in 2002
  has spilled into neighboring states, driven out foreign cocoa
  workers from nearby countries, and, in 2004, resulted in 6,000
  peacekeepers deployed as part of UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire
  (UNOCI) assisting 4,000 French troops already in-country; the
  Ivorian Government accuses Burkina Faso and Liberia of supporting
  Ivorian rebels

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 70,402 (Liberia)
  IDPs: 500,000-800,000 (2002 coup; most IDPs are in western regions)
  (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis, mostly for local consumption;
  transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin to
  Europe and occasionally to the US, and for Latin American cocaine
  destined for Europe and South Africa; while rampant corruption and
  inadequate supervision leave the banking system vulnerable to money
  laundering, the lack of a developed financial system limits the
  country's utility as a major money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Croatia

Introduction Croatia


Background:
  The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the
  Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the
  Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as
  Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal
  independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal TITO.
  Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991,
  it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before
  occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under
  UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was
  returned to Croatia in 1998.

Geography Croatia


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea, between Bosnia and
  Herzegovina and Slovenia

Geographic coordinates:
  45 10 N, 15 30 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 56,542 sq km
  land: 56,414 sq km
  water: 128 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,197 km
  border countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina 932 km, Hungary 329 km,
  Serbia 241 km, Montenegro 25 km, Slovenia 670 km

Coastline:
  5,835 km (mainland 1,777 km, islands 4,058 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  Mediterranean and continental; continental climate predominant with
  hot summers and cold winters; mild winters, dry summers along coast

Terrain:
  geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border, low
  mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Dinara 1,830 m

Natural resources:
  oil, some coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, calcium, gypsum,
  natural asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 25.82%
  permanent crops: 2.19%
  other: 71.99% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  110 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution (from metallurgical plants) and resulting acid rain
  is damaging the forests; coastal pollution from industrial and
  domestic waste; landmine removal and reconstruction of
  infrastructure consequent to 1992-95 civil strife

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous
  Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note:
  controls most land routes from Western Europe to Aegean Sea and
  Turkish Straits

People Croatia


Population:
  4,494,749 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.2% (male 373,638/female 354,261)
  15-64 years: 67% (male 1,497,958/female 1,515,314)
  65 years and over: 16.8% (male 288,480/female 465,098) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.3 years
  male: 38.3 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.03% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  11.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.58 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.68 years
  male: 71.03 years
  female: 78.53 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  200 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 10 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Croat(s), Croatian(s)
  adjective: Croatian

Ethnic groups:
  Croat 89.6%, Serb 4.5%, other 5.9% (including Bosniak, Hungarian,
  Slovene, Czech, and Roma) (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 87.8%, Orthodox 4.4%, other Christian 0.4%, Muslim
  1.3%, other and unspecified 0.9%, none 5.2% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Croatian 96.1%, Serbian 1%, other and undesignated 2.9% (including
  Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.5%
  male: 99.4%
  female: 97.8% (2003 est.)

Government Croatia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Croatia
  conventional short form: Croatia
  local long form: Republika Hrvatska
  local short form: Hrvatska
  former: People's Republic of Croatia, Socialist Republic of Croatia

Government type:
  presidential/parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Zagreb
  geographic coordinates: 45 48 N, 15 58 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  20 counties (zupanije, zupanija - singular) and 1 city* (grad -
  singular); Bjelovarsko-Bilogorska Zupanija, Brodsko-Posavska
  Zupanija, Dubrovacko-Neretvanska Zupanija, Istarska Zupanija,
  Karlovacka Zupanija, Koprivnicko-Krizevacka Zupanija,
  Krapinsko-Zagorska Zupanija, Licko-Senjska Zupanija, Medimurska
  Zupanija, Osjecko-Baranjska Zupanija, Pozesko-Slavonska Zupanija,
  Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Sibensko-Kninska Zupanija,
  Sisacko-Moslavacka Zupanija, Splitsko-Dalmatinska Zupanija,
  Varazdinska Zupanija, Viroviticko-Podravska Zupanija,
  Vukovarsko-Srijemska Zupanija, Zadarska Zupanija, Zagreb*,
  Zagrebacka Zupanija

Independence:
  25 June 1991 (from Yugoslavia)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 8 October (1991); note - 25 June 1991 is the day
  the Croatian Parliament voted for independence; following a
  three-month moratorium to allow the European Community to solve the
  Yugoslav crisis peacefully, Parliament adopted a decision on 8
  October 1991 to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia

Constitution:
  adopted on 22 December 1990; revised 2000, 2001

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Stjepan (Stipe) MESIC (since 18 February
  2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ivo SANADER (since 9 December
  2003); Deputy Prime Ministers Jadranka KOSOR (since 23 December
  2003) and Damir POLANCEC (since 15 February 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers named by the prime minister and
  approved by the parliamentary Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 16 January 2005
  (next to be held January 2010); the leader of the majority party or
  the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by the president and then approved by the Assembly
  election results: Stjepan MESIC reelected president; percent of vote
  - Stjepan MESIC 66%, Jadranka KOSOR (HDZ) 34% in the second round

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly or Sabor (152 seats; note - one seat was added
  in the November 2003 parliamentary elections; members elected from
  party lists by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 November 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; number of seats by
  party - HDZ 66, SDP 34, HSS 10, HNS 10, HSP 8, IDS 4, Libra 3, HSU
  3, SDSS 3, other 11
  note: minority government coalition - HDZ, DC, HSLS, HSU, SDSS

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court; judges for both courts
  appointed for eight-year terms by the Judicial Council of the
  Republic, which is elected by the Assembly

Political parties and leaders:
  Croatian Bloc or HB [Ivic PASALIC]; Croatian Christian Democratic
  Union or HKDU [Anto KOVACEVIC]; Croatian Democratic Union or HDZ
  [Ivo SANADER]; Croatian Party of Rights or HSP [Anto DJAPIC];
  Croatian Peasant Party or HSS [Josip FRISCIC]; Croatian Pensioner
  Party or HSU [Vladimir JORDAN]; Croatian People's Party or HNS
  [Vesna PUSIC] (in 2005 party merged with Libra to become Croatian
  People's Party-Liberal Democrats or NS-LD [Vesna PUSIC]); Croatian
  Social Liberal Party or HSLS [Djurdja ADLESIC]; Croatian True
  Revival Party or HIP [Miroslav TUDJMAN]; Democratic Centre or DC
  [Vesna SKARE-OZBOLT]; Independent Democratic Serb Party or SDSS
  [Vojislav STANIMIROVIC]; Istrian Democratic Assembly or IDS [Ivan
  JAKOVCIC]; Social Democratic Party of Croatia or SDP [Ivica RACAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), BIS, BSEC (observer), CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO,
  IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINURSO, MINUSTAH, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OIF
  (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Neven JURICA
  chancery: 2343 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-5899
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-8936
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert A. BRADTKE
  embassy: 2 Thomas Jefferson Street, 10010 Zagreb
  mailing address: use street address
  telephone: [385] (1) 661-2200
  FAX: [385] (1) 661-2373

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue
  superimposed by the Croatian coat of arms (red and white checkered)

Economy Croatia


Economy - overview:
  Before the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia,
  after Slovenia, was the most prosperous and industrialized area with
  a per capita output perhaps one-third above the Yugoslav average.
  The economy emerged from a mild recession in 2000 with tourism,
  banking, and public investments leading the way. Unemployment
  remains high, at about 18%, with structural factors slowing its
  decline. While macroeconomic stabilization has largely been
  achieved, structural reforms lag because of deep resistance on the
  part of the public and lack of strong support from politicians.
  Growth, while impressive at about 3% to 4% for the last several
  years, has been stimulated, in part, through high fiscal deficits
  and rapid credit growth. The EU accession process should accelerate
  fiscal and structural reform.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $55.79 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $34.94 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $12,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 30.8%
  services: 62.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.71 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2.7%
  industry: 32.8%
  services: 64.5% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  18% official rate; labor force surveys indicate unemployment around
  14% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  11% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.4%
  highest 10%: 24.5% (2003 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  29 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  28.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $17.69 billion
  expenditures: $19.35 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  49.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, sugar beets, sunflower seed, barley, alfalfa, clover,
  olives, citrus, grapes, soybeans, potatoes; livestock, dairy products

Industries:
  chemicals and plastics, machine tools, fabricated metal,
  electronics, pig iron and rolled steel products, aluminum, paper,
  wood products, construction materials, textiles, shipbuilding,
  petroleum and petroleum refining, food and beverages, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  11.15 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 33.6%
  hydro: 66%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  15.81 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  550 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5.99 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  20,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  90,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  93.6 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  1.85 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.99 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.08 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  24.72 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-2.541 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $10.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  transport equipment, textiles, chemicals, foodstuffs, fuels

Exports - partners:
  Italy 21.8%, Bosnia and Herzegovina 14.7%, Germany 10.7%, Slovenia
  8.1%, Austria 7.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $18.93 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, transport and electrical equipment; chemicals, fuels and
  lubricants; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Italy 15.9%, Germany 14.9%, Russia 9.1%, Slovenia 6.8%, Austria
  5.8%, China 4.7%, France 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.8 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $30.62 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $166.5 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  kuna (HRK)

Currency code:
  HRK

Exchange rates:
  kuna per US dollar - 5.9473 (2005), 6.0358 (2004), 6.7035 (2003),
  7.8687 (2002), 8.34 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Croatia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,889,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.984 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: reconstruction plan calls for replacement of all analog
  circuits with digital and enlarging the network; a backup will be
  included in the plan for the main trunk
  international: country code - 385; digital international service is
  provided through the main switch in Zagreb; Croatia participates in
  the Trans-Asia-Europe (TEL) fiber-optic project, which consists of
  two fiber-optic trunk connections with Slovenia and a fiber-optic
  trunk line from Rijeka to Split and Dubrovnik; Croatia is also
  investing in ADRIA 1, a joint fiber-optic project with Germany,
  Albania, and Greece

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 16, FM 98, shortwave 5 (1999)

Radios:
  1.51 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  36 (plus 321 repeaters) (September 1995)

Televisions:
  1.22 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .hr

Internet hosts:
  18,825 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  9 (2000)

Internet users:
  1,451,100 (2005)

Transportation Croatia


Airports:
  68 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 23
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 37 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,340 km; oil 583 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,726 km
  standard gauge: 2,726 km 1.435-m gauge (1,199 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 28,344 km
  paved: 24,186 km (including 742 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 4,158 km (2004)

Waterways:
  785 km (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 72 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,079,286 GRT/1,724,698 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 22, cargo 11, chemical tanker 3,
  passenger/cargo 27, petroleum tanker 5, refrigerated cargo 1, roll
  on/roll off 3
  registered in other countries: 36 (Belize 1, Cyprus 2, Liberia 7,
  Malta 10, Marshall Islands 2, Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 9) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Omisalj, Ploce, Rijeka, Sibenik, Vukovar (on Danube)

Military Croatia


Military branches:
  Ground Forces (Hrvatska Kopnena Vojska, HKoV), Naval Forces
  (Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica, HRM), Air and Air Defense Forces
  (Hrvatsko Ratno Zrakoplovstvo i Protuzrakoplovna Obrana, HRZiPZO),
  Joint Education and Training Command, Logistics Command; Military
  Police Force supports each of the three Croatian military forces
  (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, with six-month
  service obligation; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary
  service (December 2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,005,058
  females age 18-49: 1,008,511 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 725,914
  females age 18-49: 823,611 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,020
  females age 18-49: 27,897 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $620 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.39% (2002 est.)

Transnational Issues Croatia


Disputes - international:
  discussions continue with Bosnia and Herzegovina over several small
  disputed sections of the boundary related to maritime access that
  hinders ratification of the 1999 border agreement; the
  Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which would
  have ceded most of Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and
  several villages to Croatia, remains un-ratified and in dispute; as
  a European Union peripheral state, neighboring Slovenia must conform
  to the strict Schengen border rules to curb illegal migration and
  commerce through southeastern Europe while encouraging close
  cross-border ties with Croatia

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 12,600 (Croats and Serbs displaced in 1992-95 war) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transit point along the Balkan route for Southwest Asian heroin to
  Western Europe; has been used as a transit point for maritime
  shipments of South American cocaine bound for Western Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cuba

Introduction Cuba


Background:
  The native Amerindian population of Cuba began to decline after the
  European discovery of the island by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492 and
  following its development as a Spanish colony during the next
  several centuries. Large numbers of African slaves were imported to
  work the coffee and sugar plantations, and Havana became the
  launching point for the annual treasure fleets bound for Spain from
  Mexico and Peru. Spanish rule, marked initially by neglect, became
  increasingly repressive, provoking an independence movement and
  occasional rebellions that were harshly suppressed. It was US
  intervention during the Spanish-American War in 1898 that finally
  overthrew Spanish rule. The subsequent Treaty of Paris established
  Cuban independence, which was granted in 1902 after a three-year
  transition period. Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959;
  his iron rule has held the regime together since then. Cuba's
  Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was exported throughout
  Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The
  country is now slowly recovering from a severe economic recession in
  1990, following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies, worth $4
  billion to $6 billion annually. Cuba portrays its difficulties as
  the result of the US embargo in place since 1961. Illicit migration
  to the US - using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, air flights, or
  via the southwest border - is a continuing problem. The US Coast
  Guard intercepted 2,712 individuals attempting to cross the Straits
  of Florida in fiscal year 2005.

Geography Cuba


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, 150 km south of Key West, Florida

Geographic coordinates:
  21 30 N, 80 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 110,860 sq km
  land: 110,860 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries:
  total: 29 km
  border countries: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay 29 km
  note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the US and remains part of
  Cuba

Coastline:
  3,735 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by trade winds; dry season (November to April);
  rainy season (May to October)

Terrain:
  mostly flat to rolling plains, with rugged hills and mountains in
  the southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Pico Turquino 2,005 m

Natural resources:
  cobalt, nickel, iron ore, chromium, copper, salt, timber, silica,
  petroleum, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 27.63%
  permanent crops: 6.54%
  other: 65.83% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  8,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  the east coast is subject to hurricanes from August to November (in
  general, the country averages about one hurricane every other year);
  droughts are common

Environment - current issues:
  air and water pollution; biodiversity loss; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  largest country in Caribbean and westernmost island of the Greater
  Antilles

People Cuba


Population:
  11,382,820 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.1% (male 1,117,677/female 1,058,512)
  15-64 years: 70.3% (male 4,001,161/female 3,999,303)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 554,148/female 652,019) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 35.9 years
  male: 35.2 years
  female: 36.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.31% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.41 years
  male: 75.11 years
  female: 79.85 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,300 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Cuban(s)
  adjective: Cuban

Ethnic groups:
  mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%

Religions:
  nominally 85% Roman Catholic prior to CASTRO assuming power;
  Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and Santeria are also
  represented

Languages:
  Spanish

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97.2%
  female: 96.9% (2003 est.)

People - note:
  illicit migration is a continuing problem; Cubans attempt to depart
  the island and enter the US using homemade rafts, alien smugglers,
  direct flights, or falsified visas; Cubans also use non-maritime
  routes to enter the US including direct flights to Miami and
  over-land via the southwest border

Government Cuba


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Cuba
  conventional short form: Cuba
  local long form: Republica de Cuba
  local short form: Cuba

Government type:
  Communist state

Capital:
  name: Havana
  geographic coordinates: 23 08 N, 82 22 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  14 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 special
  municipality* (municipio especial); Camaguey, Ciego de Avila,
  Cienfuegos, Ciudad de La Habana, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Isla
  de la Juventud*, La Habana, Las Tunas, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio,
  Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara

Independence:
  20 May 1902 (from Spain 10 December 1898; administered by the US
  from 1898 to 1902)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 10 December (1898); note - 10 December 1898 is
  the date of independence from Spain, 20 May 1902 is the date of
  independence from US administration; Rebellion Day, 26 July (1953)

Constitution:
  24 February 1976; amended July 1992 and June 2002

Legal system:
  based on Spanish and American law, with large elements of Communist
  legal theory; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  16 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of the Council of State and President of
  the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from
  February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished;
  president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the
  Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of
  Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President of the Council of State and President
  of the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from
  February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished;
  president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the
  Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of
  Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the president of the
  Council of State and appointed by the National Assembly or the
  31-member Council of State, elected by the Assembly to act on its
  behalf when it is not in session
  elections: president and vice presidents elected by the National
  Assembly for a term of five years; election last held 6 March 2003
  (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: Fidel CASTRO Ruz reelected president; percent of
  legislative vote - 100%; Raul CASTRO Ruz elected vice president;
  percent of legislative vote - 100%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly of People's Power or Asemblea Nacional
  del Poder Popular (609 seats, elected directly from slates approved
  by special candidacy commissions; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 19 January 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - PCC 97.6%; seats - PCC 609

Judicial branch:
  People's Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo Popular (president, vice
  president, and other judges are elected by the National Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  only party - Cuban Communist Party or PCC [Fidel CASTRO Ruz, first
  secretary]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAM, OAS
  (excluded from formal participation since 1962), OPANAL, OPCW, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none; note - Cuba has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy,
  headed by Principal Officer Bernardo GUANCHE Hernandez; address:
  Cuban Interests Section, Swiss Embassy, 2630 16th Street NW,
  Washington, DC 20009; telephone: [1] (202) 797-8518; FAX: [1] (202)
  797-8521

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none; note - the US has an Interests Section in the Swiss Embassy,
  headed by Principal Officer Michael E. PARMLY; address: USINT, Swiss
  Embassy, Calzada between L and M Streets, Vedado, Havana; telephone:
  [53] (7) 833-3551 through 3559 (operator assistance required); FAX:
  [53] (7) 833-3700; protecting power in Cuba is Switzerland

Flag description:
  five equal horizontal bands of blue (top, center, and bottom)
  alternating with white; a red equilateral triangle based on the
  hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center

Economy Cuba


Economy - overview:
  The government continues to balance the need for economic loosening
  against a desire for firm political control. It has rolled back
  limited reforms undertaken in the 1990s to increase enterprise
  efficiency and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods,
  and services. The average Cuban's standard of living remains at a
  lower level than before the downturn of the 1990s, which was caused
  by the loss of Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies. The
  government in 2005 strengthened its controls over dollars coming
  into the economy from tourism, remittances, and trade. External
  financing has helped growth in the mining, oil, construction, and
  tourism sectors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $40.06 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $39.51 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 26.1%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.6 million
  note: state sector 78%, non-state sector 22% (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 21.2%
  industry: 14.4%
  services: 64.4% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  11.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $22.11 billion
  expenditures: $23.65 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock

Industries:
  sugar, petroleum, tobacco, construction, nickel, steel, cement,
  agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  15.65 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 93.9%
  hydro: 0.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 5.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  13.27 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  72,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  205,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  532 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  704 million cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  704 million cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  70.79 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $49 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.388 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 25.4%, Canada 20.7%, China 9.8%, Spain 6.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $6.916 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  China 14.9%, Spain 13.9%, Canada 8.6%, US 8.5%, Germany 7.4%, Italy
  5.7%, Mexico 5.2%, Japan 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.618 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $12.56 billion (convertible currency); another $15-20 billion owed
  to Russia (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $68.2 million (1997 est.)

Currency (code):
  Cuban peso (CUP) and Convertible peso (CUC)

Currency code:
  CUP (nonconvertible Cuban peso) and CUC (convertible Cuban peso)

Exchange rates:
  Convertible pesos per US dollar - 0.93
  note: Cuba has three currencies in circulation: the Cuban peso
  (CUP), the convertible peso (CUC), and the US dollar (USD), although
  the dollar is being withdrawn from circulation; in April 2005 the
  official exchange rate changed from $1 per CUC to $1.08 per CUC
  (0.93 CUC per $1), both for individuals and enterprises; individuals
  can buy 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) for each CUC sold, or sell 25 Cuban
  pesos for each CUC bought; enterprises, however, must exchange CUP
  and CUC at a 1:1 ratio.

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Cuba


Telephones - main lines in use:
  849,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  134,500 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: greater investment beginning in 1994 and the
  establishment of a new Ministry of Information Technology and
  Communications in 2000 has resulted in improvements in the system;
  wireless service is expensive and remains restricted to foreigners
  and regime elites, many Cubans procure wireless service illegally
  with the help of foreigners
  domestic: national fiber-optic system under development; 85% of
  switches digitized by end of 2004; telephone line density remains
  low, at less than 10 per 100 inhabitants; domestic cellular service
  expanding
  international: country code - 53; fiber-optic cable laid to but not
  linked to US network; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 169, FM 55, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  3.9 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  58 (1997)

Televisions:
  2.64 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .cu

Internet hosts:
  2,234 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  190,000
  note: private citizens are prohibited from buying computers or
  accessing the Internet without special authorization; foreigners may
  access the Internet in large hotels but are subject to firewalls;
  some Cubans buy illegal passwords on the black market or take
  advantage of public outlets, to access limited email and the
  government-controlled "intranet" (2005)

Transportation Cuba


Airports:
  170 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 78
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 37 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 92
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 62 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 49 km; oil 230 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,226 km
  standard gauge: 4,226 km 1.435-m gauge (140 km electrified)
  note: an additional 7,742 km of track is used by sugar plantations;
  about 65% of this track is standard gauge; the rest is narrow gauge
  (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 60,858 km
  paved: 29,820 km (including 638 km of expressway)
  unpaved: 31,038 km (1999)

Waterways:
  240 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 11 ships (1000 GRT or over) 33,932 GRT/48,791 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger 1,
  petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Bahamas 1, Cyprus 2, Netherlands
  Antilles 1, Panama 11, Spain 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cienfuegos, Havana, Matanzas

Military Cuba


Military branches:
  Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR): Revolutionary Army (ER),
  Revolutionary Navy (Marina de Guerra Revolucionaria, MGR),
  Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR), Youth Labor Army
  (EJT) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age; both sexes are eligible for military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 2,967,865
  females age 17-49: 2,913,559 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 2,441,927
  females age 17-49: 2,396,741 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 91,901
  females: 87,500 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $694 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  Moscow, for decades the key military supporter and supplier of
  Cuba, cut off almost all military aid by 1993

Transnational Issues Cuba


Disputes - international:
  US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to US and only mutual
  agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Cuba is a source country for women and children
  trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced child
  labor; Cuba is a major destination for sex tourism, which largely
  caters to European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists and
  involves large numbers of minors; there are reports that Cuban women
  have been trafficked to Mexico for sexual exploitation; forced labor
  victims also include children coerced into working in commercial
  agriculture
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  territorial waters and air space serve as transshipment zone for US
  and European-bound drugs; established the death penalty for certain
  drug-related crimes in 1999


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Cyprus

Introduction Cyprus


Background:
  A former British colony, Cyprus became independent in 1960
  following years of resistance to British rule. Tensions between the
  Greek Cypriot majority and Turkish Cypriot minority came to a head
  in December 1963, when violence broke out in the capital of Nicosia.
  Despite the deployment of UN peacekeepers in 1964, sporadic
  intercommunal violence continued forcing most Turkish Cypriots into
  enclaves throughout the island. In 1974, a Greek
  Government-sponsored attempt to seize control of Cyprus was met by
  military intervention from Turkey, which soon controlled more than a
  third of the island. In 1983, the Turkish-held area declared itself
  the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," but it is recognized only
  by Turkey. The latest two-year round of UN-brokered talks - between
  the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to
  reach an agreement to reunite the divided island - ended when the
  Greek Cypriots rejected the UN settlement plan in an April 2004
  referendum. The entire island entered the EU on 1 May 2004, although
  the EU acquis - the body of common rights and obligations - applies
  only to the areas under direct Republic of Cyprus control, and is
  suspended in the areas administered by Turkish Cypriots. At present,
  every Cypriot carrying a Cyprus passport has the status of a
  European citizen; however, EU laws do not apply to north Cyprus.
  Nicosia continues to oppose EU efforts to establish direct trade and
  economic links to north Cyprus as a way of encouraging the Turkish
  Cypriot community to continue to support reunification.

Geography Cyprus


Location:
  Middle East, island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
  35 00 N, 33 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 9,250 sq km (of which 3,355 sq km are in north Cyprus)
  land: 9,240 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.6 times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: NA; note - boundary with Dhekelia is being resurveyed
  border countries: Akrotiri 47.4 km, Dhekelia NA

Coastline:
  648 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool winters

Terrain:
  central plain with mountains to north and south; scattered but
  significant plains along southern coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Olympus 1,951 m

Natural resources:
  copper, pyrites, asbestos, gypsum, timber, salt, marble, clay earth
  pigment

Land use:
  arable land: 10.81%
  permanent crops: 4.32%
  other: 84.87% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  400 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  moderate earthquake activity; droughts

Environment - current issues:
  water resource problems (no natural reservoir catchments, seasonal
  disparity in rainfall, sea water intrusion to island's largest
  aquifer, increased salination in the north); water pollution from
  sewage and industrial wastes; coastal degradation; loss of wildlife
  habitats from urbanization

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and
  Sardinia)

People Cyprus


Population:
  784,301 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.4% (male 81,776/female 78,272)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 270,254/female 263,354)
  65 years and over: 11.6% (male 39,536/female 51,109) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.9 years
  male: 33.9 years
  female: 35.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.53% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.82 years
  male: 75.44 years
  female: 80.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 1,000 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Cypriot(s)
  adjective: Cypriot

Ethnic groups:
  Greek 77%, Turkish 18%, other 5% (2001)

Religions:
  Greek Orthodox 78%, Muslim 18%, Maronite, Armenian Apostolic, and
  other 4%

Languages:
  Greek, Turkish, English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.6%
  male: 98.9%
  female: 96.3% (2003 est.)

Government Cyprus


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Cyprus
  conventional short form: Cyprus
  local long form: Kypriaki Dimokratia/Kibris Cumhuriyeti
  local short form: Kypros/Kibris
  note: the Turkish Cypriot community (north Cyprus) refers to itself
  as the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC)

Government type:
  republic
  note: a separation of the two ethnic communities inhabiting the
  island began following the outbreak of communal strife in 1963; this
  separation was further solidified after the Turkish intervention in
  July 1974 that followed a Greek junta-supported coup attempt gave
  the Turkish Cypriots de facto control in the north; Greek Cypriots
  control the only internationally recognized government; on 15
  November 1983 Turkish Cypriot "President" Rauf DENKTASH declared
  independence and the formation of a "Turkish Republic of Northern
  Cyprus" (TRNC), which is recognized only by Turkey

Capital:
  name: Nicosia (Lefkosia)
  geographic coordinates: 35 10 N, 33 22 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  6 districts; Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia,
  Paphos; note - Turkish Cypriot area's administrative divisions
  include Kyrenia, all but a small part of Famagusta, and small parts
  of Lefkosia (Nicosia) and Larnaca

Independence:
  16 August 1960 (from UK); note - Turkish Cypriots proclaimed
  self-rule on 13 February 1975 and independence in 1983, but these
  proclamations are only recognized by Turkey

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 October (1960); note - Turkish Cypriots
  celebrate 15 November (1983) as Independence Day

Constitution:
  16 August 1960; from December 1963, the Turkish Cypriots no longer
  participated in the government; negotiations to create the basis for
  a new or revised constitution to govern the island and for better
  relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been held
  intermittently since the mid-1960s; in 1975, following the 1974
  Turkish intervention, Turkish Cypriots created their own
  constitution and governing bodies within the "Turkish Federated
  State of Cyprus," which became the "Turkish Republic of Northern
  Cyprus" when the Turkish Cypriots declared their independence in
  1983; a new constitution for the "TRNC" passed by referendum on 5
  May 1985

Legal system:
  based on common law, with civil law modifications; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Tassos PAPADOPOULOS (since 1 March 2003);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; post of vice president is currently vacant; under the
  1960 constitution, the post is reserved for a Turkish Cypriot
  head of government: President Tassos PAPADOPOULOS (since 1 March
  2003); note - post of vice president is currently vacant; under the
  1960 constitution, the post is reserved for a Turkish Cypriot
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed jointly by the president and
  vice president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 16 February 2003 (next to be held February 2008)
  election results: Tassos PAPADOPOULOS elected president; percent of
  vote - Tassos PAPADOPOULOS 51.5%, Glafkos KLIRIDIS 38.8%, Alekos
  MARKIDIS 6.6%
  note: Mehmet Ali TALAT became "president" of north Cyprus, 24 April
  2005, after "presidential" elections on 17 April 2005; results -
  Mehmet Ali TALAT 55.6%, Dervis EROGLU 22.7%; Ferdi Sabit SOYER is
  "prime minister"; there is a Council of Ministers (cabinet) in north
  Cyprus, appointed by the "prime minister"

Legislative branch:
  unicameral - Republic of Cyprus: House of Representatives or Vouli
  Antiprosopon (80 seats; 56 assigned to the Greek Cypriots, 24 to
  Turkish Cypriots; note - only those assigned to Greek Cypriots are
  filled; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms); north Cyprus: Assembly of the Republic or Cumhuriyet Meclisi
  (50 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: Republic of Cyprus: last held 27 May 2001 (next to be
  held 21 May 2006); north Cyprus: last held 14 December 2003 (next to
  be held in 2008)
  election results: Republic of Cyprus: House of Representatives -
  percent of vote by party - AKEL 34.71%, DISY 34%, DIKO 14.84%, KISOS
  6.51%, others 9.94%; seats by party - AKEL (Communist) 20, DISY 19,
  DIKO 9, KISOS 4, other 4; north Cyprus: Assembly of the Republic -
  percent of vote by party - CTP 35.8%, UBP 32.3%, Peace and
  Democratic Movement 13.4%, DP 12.3%; seats by party - CTP 19, UBP
  18, Peace and Democratic Movement 6, DP 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed jointly by the president and
  vice president)
  note: there is also a Supreme Court in north Cyprus

Political parties and leaders:
  Republic of Cyprus: Democratic Party or DIKO [Tassos PAPADOPOULOS];
  Democratic Rally or DISY [Nikos ANASTASIADHIS]; European Democracy
  or EURO.DE [Prodromos PRODROMOU] (evolved from For Europe which
  merged with New Horizons); European Party or EURO.KO [Demetris
  SYLLOURIS]; Fighting Democratic Movement or ADIK [Dinos
  MIKHAILIDIS]; Green Party of Cyprus [George PERDIKIS]; Movement for
  Social Democracy United Democratic Union of Center or KISOS
  [Yannakis OMIROU]; Progressive Party of the Working People or AKEL
  (Communist Party) [Dimitrios CHRISTOFIAS]; United Democrats Movement
  or EDE [Michalis PAPAPETROU]; north Cyprus: Democratic Party or DP
  [Serder DENKTASH]; National Birth Party or UDP [Enver EMIN];
  National Unity Party or UBP [Dervis EROGLU]; Our Party or BP [Okyay
  SADIKOGLU]; Patriotic Unity Movement or YBH [Alpay DURDURAN]; Peace
  and Democratic Movement [Mustafa AKINCI]; Republican Turkish Party
  or CTP [Mehmet ALI TALAT]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Confederation of Cypriot Workers or SEK (pro-West); Confederation
  of Revolutionary Labor Unions or Dev-Is; Federation of Turkish
  Cypriot Labor Unions or Turk-Sen; Pan-Cyprian Labor Federation or
  PEO (Communist controlled)

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, C, CE, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OAS (observer),
  OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andreas KAKOURIS
  chancery: 2211 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-5772, 462-0873
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-6710
  consulate(s) general: New York
  note: representative of the Turkish Cypriot community in the US is
  Osman ERTUG; office at 1667 K Street NW, Washington, DC; telephone
  [1] (202) 887-6198

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald L. SCHLICHER
  embassy: corner of Metochiou and Ploutarchou Streets, 2407 Engomi,
  Nicosia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 24536, 1385 Nicosia
  telephone: [357] (22) 393939
  FAX: [357] (22) 780944

Flag description:
  white with a copper-colored silhouette of the island (the name
  Cyprus is derived from the Greek word for copper) above two green
  crossed olive branches in the center of the flag; the branches
  symbolize the hope for peace and reconciliation between the Greek
  and Turkish communities
  note: the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" flag has a
  horizontal red stripe at the top and bottom between which is a red
  crescent and red star on a white field

Economy Cyprus


Economy - overview:
  The Republic of Cyprus has a market economy dominated by the
  service sector, which accounts for 76% of GDP. Tourism and financial
  services are the most important sectors; erratic growth rates over
  the past decade reflect the economy's reliance on tourism, which
  often fluctuates with political instability in the region and
  economic conditions in Western Europe. Nevertheless, the economy
  grew a healthy 3.7% per year in 2004 and 2005, well above the EU
  average. Cyprus joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM2)
  in May 2005. The government has initiated an aggressive austerity
  program, which has cut the budget deficit to below 3% but continued
  fiscal discipline is necessary if Cyprus is to meet its goal of
  adopting the euro on 1 January 2008. As in the area administered by
  Turkish Cypriots, water shortages are a perennial problem; a few
  desalination plants are now on line. After 10 years of drought, the
  country received substantial rainfall from 2001-03 alleviating
  immediate concerns. The Turkish Cypriot economy has roughly
  one-third of the per capita GDP of the south, and economic growth
  tends to be volatile, given north Cyprus's relative isolation,
  bloated public sector, reliance on the Turkish lira, and small
  market size. The Turkish Cypriot economy grew 15.4% in 2004, fueled
  by growth in the construction and education sectors, as well as
  increased employment of Turkish Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus.
  The Turkish Cypriots are heavily dependent on transfers from the
  Turkish Government. Under the 2003-06 economic protocol, Ankara
  plans to provide around $550 million to the "TRNC." Agriculture and
  services, together, employ more than half of the work force.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  Republic of Cyprus: $16.81 billion; north Cyprus: $4.54 billion
  (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  Republic of Cyprus: $15.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.8%; north Cyprus: 10.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  Republic of Cyprus: $21,600 (2005 est.); north Cyprus: $7,135 (2004
  est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  Republic of Cyprus: agriculture 3.7%; industry 19.8%; services
  76.5% (2005 est.)
  north Cyprus: agriculture 10.6%; industry 20.5%; services 68.9%
  (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  Republic of Cyprus: 370,000, north Cyprus: 95,025 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  Republic of Cyprus: agriculture 7.4%, industry 38.2%, services
  54.4% (2004 est.)
  north Cyprus: agriculture 14.5%, industry 29%, services 56.5% (2004
  est.)

Unemployment rate:
  Republic of Cyprus: 4% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: 5.6% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  Republic of Cyprus: 2.6% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: 9.1% (2004 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  Republic of Cyprus: 19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: Republic of Cyprus - $6.698 billion (2005 est.)
  expenditures: Republic of Cyprus - $7.122 billion (2005 est.)
  revenues: $685.7 million; north Cyprus - $231.3 million (2003 est.)
  expenditures: north Cyprus - $432.8 million (2003 est.)

Public debt:
  Republic of Cyprus: 70.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  citrus, vegetables, barley, grapes, olives, vegetables; poultry,
  pork, lamb; dairy, cheese

Industries:
  tourism, food and beverage processing, cement and gypsum
  production, ship repair and refurbishment, textiles, light
  chemicals, metal products, wood, paper, stone, and clay products

Industrial production growth rate:
  Republic of Cyprus: 0.4% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: -0.3% (2002
  est.)

Electricity - production:
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.801 billion kWh; north Cyprus: NA kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.535 billion kWh (2004); north Cyprus: NA kWh
  (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  Republic of Cyprus: 300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  Republic of Cyprus: 52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  Republic of Cyprus: $-962.3 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  Republic of Cyprus: $1.237 billion f.o.b.; north Cyprus: $69
  million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  Republic of Cyprus: citrus, potatoes, pharmaceuticals, cement,
  clothing and cigarettes; north Cyprus: citrus, potatoes, textiles

Exports - partners:
  France 17.7%, UK 17%, Greece 12.2%, Germany 5.7% (2005)

Imports:
  Republic of Cyprus: $5.552 billion f.o.b.;; north Cyprus: $415.2
  million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  Republic of Cyprus: consumer goods, petroleum and lubricants,
  intermediate goods, machinery, transport equipment; north Cyprus:
  vehicles, fuel, cigarettes, food, minerals, chemicals, machinery

Imports - partners:
  Greece 17.3%, Italy 10.3%, UK 9%, Germany 8.4%, Israel 7.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  Republic of Cyprus: $4.429 billion; north Cyprus $NA (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  Republic of Cyprus: $10.53 billion; north Cyprus: $NA (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  Republic of Cyprus - $NA; north Cyprus - $700 million from Turkey
  in grants and loans, which are usually forgiven (2003-06)

Currency (code):
  Republic of Cyprus: Cypriot pound (CYP); Turkish Cypriot area:
  Turkish New lira (YTL)

Currency code:
  CYP; TRL

Exchange rates:
  Cypriot pounds per US dollar - 0.4641 (2005), 0.4686 (2004), 0.5174
  (2003), 0.6107 (2002), 0.6431 (2001), Turkish lira per US dollar -
  1.36 (2005), 1.426 million (2004), 1.501 million (2003), 1.507
  million (2002), 1.226 million (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Cyprus


Telephones - main lines in use:
  Republic of Cyprus: 420,000 (2005); north Cyprus: 86,228 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  Republic of Cyprus: 718,800 (2005); north Cyprus: 143,178 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent in both Republic of Cyprus and north
  Cyprus areas
  domestic: open-wire, fiber-optic cable, and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 357 (area administered by Turkish
  Cypriots uses the country code of Turkey - 90); tropospheric
  scatter; 3 coaxial and 5 fiber-optic submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean), 2
  Eutelsat, 2 Intersputnik, and 1 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  Republic of Cyprus: AM 5, FM 76, shortwave 0
  north Cyprus: AM 1, FM 20, shortwave 1 (2004)

Radios:
  Greek Cypriot area: 310,000 (1997); Turkish Cypriot area: 56,450
  (1994)

Television broadcast stations:
  Republic of Cyprus: 8
  north Cyprus: 2 (plus 4 relay) (2004)

Televisions:
  Greek Cypriot area: 248,000 (1997); Turkish Cypriot area: 52,300
  (1994)

Internet country code:
  .cy

Internet hosts:
  67,589 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  298,000 (2005)

Transportation Cyprus


Airports:
  16 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Heliports:
  10 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 14,496 km (Republic of Cyprus: 12,146 km; north Cyprus:
  2,350 km)
  paved: Republic of Cyprus: 7,845 km (including 276 km of
  expressways); north Cyprus: 1,370 km
  unpaved: Republic of Cyprus: 4,301 km; north Cyprus: 980 km
  (2005/1996 est.)

Merchant marine:
  total: 884 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,477,944 GRT/31,157,473 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 354, cargo 210, chemical tanker 44, container
  145, liquefied gas 8, passenger 7, passenger/cargo 23, petroleum
  tanker 64, refrigerated cargo 15, roll on/roll off 9, vehicle
  carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 777 (Belgium 1, Canada 2, China 11, Croatia 2, Cuba
  2, Denmark 1, Estonia 6, Germany 214, Greece 337, Greenland 1, Hong
  Kong 1, India 5, Iran 2, Ireland 3, Israel 3, Italy 2, Japan 17,
  South Korea 1, Latvia 4, Netherlands 18, Norway 16, Philippines 1,
  Poland 20, Portugal 2, Russia 53, Singapore 1, Slovakia 1, Slovenia
  4, Spain 7, Sweden 3, Switzerland 4, Syria 3, UAE 11, UK 6, Ukraine
  4, US 7, unknown 1)
  registered in other countries: 87 (Bahamas 13, Belize 2, Cambodia
  12, Georgia 1, Gibraltar 1, Greece 1, Isle of Man 1, Liberia 3,
  Malta 15, Marshall Islands 15, Norway 2, Panama 14, Portugal 1,
  Russia 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Sierra Leone 1, Turkey
  2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol, Vasilikos

Military Cyprus


Military branches:
  Republic of Cyprus: Greek Cypriot National Guard (GCNG; includes
  air and naval elements); north Cyprus: Turkish Cypriot Security
  Force (GKK)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 184,352
  females age 18-49: 175,567 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 150,750
  females age 18-49: 144,344 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 6,578
  females age 18-49: 6,200 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $384 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.8% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Cyprus


Disputes - international:
  hostilities in 1974 divided the island into two de facto autonomous
  entities, the internationally recognized Cypriot Government and a
  Turkish-Cypriot community (north Cyprus); the 1,000-strong UN
  Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has served in Cyprus since
  1964 and maintains the buffer zone between north and south; March
  2003 reunification talks failed, but Turkish-Cypriots later opened
  their borders to temporary visits by Greek Cypriots; on 24 April
  2004, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities voted in
  simultaneous and parallel referenda on whether to approve the
  UN-brokered Annan Plan that would have ended the 30-year division of
  the island by establishing a new "United Cyprus Republic," a
  majority of Greek Cypriots voted "no"; on 1 May 2004, Cyprus entered
  the European Union still divided, with the EU's body of legislation
  and standards (acquis communitaire) suspended in the north

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 265,000 (both Turkish and Greek Cypriots; many displaced for
  over 30 years) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Cyprus is primarily a destination country for a
  large number of women trafficked from Eastern and Central Europe,
  the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic for the purpose of
  sexual exploitation; traffickers continued to fraudulently recruit
  victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on short-term
  "artiste" visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment visas, or
  for illegal work on tourist or student visas; there were credible
  reports of female domestic workers from India, Sri Lanka, and the
  Philippines forced to work excessively long hours and denied proper
  compensation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Cyprus does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and failed
  to show evidence of increasing efforts to address its serious
  trafficking for sexual exploitation problem; however, it is making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  minor transit point for heroin and hashish via air routes and
  container traffic to Europe, especially from Lebanon and Turkey;
  some cocaine transits as well; despite a strengthening of
  anti-money-laundering legislation, remains vulnerable to money
  laundering; reporting of suspicious transactions in offshore sector
  remains weak


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Czech Republic

Introduction Czech Republic


Background:
  Following the First World War, the closely related Czechs and
  Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire merged to form
  Czechoslovakia. During the interwar years, the new country's leaders
  were frequently preoccupied with meeting the demands of other ethnic
  minorities within the republic, most notably the Sudeten Germans and
  the Ruthenians (Ukrainians). After World War II, a truncated
  Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1968,
  an invasion by Warsaw Pact troops ended the efforts of the country's
  leaders to liberalize Communist party rule and create "socialism
  with a human face." Anti-Soviet demonstrations the following year
  ushered in a period of harsh repression. With the collapse of Soviet
  authority in 1989, Czechoslovakia regained its freedom through a
  peaceful "Velvet Revolution." On 1 January 1993, the country
  underwent a "velvet divorce" into its two national components, the
  Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999
  and the European Union in 2004.

Geography Czech Republic


Location:
  Central Europe, southeast of Germany

Geographic coordinates:
  49 45 N, 15 30 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 78,866 sq km
  land: 77,276 sq km
  water: 1,590 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,290.2 km
  border countries: Austria 466.3 km, Germany 810.3 km, Poland 761.8
  km, Slovakia 251.8 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters

Terrain:
  Bohemia in the west consists of rolling plains, hills, and plateaus
  surrounded by low mountains; Moravia in the east consists of very
  hilly country

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Elbe River 115 m
  highest point: Snezka 1,602 m

Natural resources:
  hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 38.82%
  permanent crops: 3%
  other: 58.18% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  240 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding

Environment - current issues:
  air and water pollution in areas of northwest Bohemia and in
  northern Moravia around Ostrava present health risks; acid rain
  damaging forests; efforts to bring industry up to EU code should
  improve domestic pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategically located astride some of oldest and most
  significant land routes in Europe; Moravian Gate is a traditional
  military corridor between the North European Plain and the Danube in
  central Europe

People Czech Republic


Population:
  10,235,455 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.4% (male 755,098/female 714,703)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 3,656,021/female 3,629,036)
  65 years and over: 14.5% (male 576,264/female 904,333) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 37.5 years
  female: 41.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.06% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.59 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.97 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.22 years
  male: 72.94 years
  female: 79.69 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,500 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 10 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Czech(s)
  adjective: Czech

Ethnic groups:
  Czech 90.4%, Moravian 3.7%, Slovak 1.9%, other 4% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 26.8%, Protestant 2.1%, other 3.3%, unspecified
  8.8%, unaffiliated 59% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Czech

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Czech Republic


Country name:
  conventional long form: Czech Republic
  conventional short form: Czech Republic
  local long form: Ceska Republika
  local short form: Cesko

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Prague
  geographic coordinates: 40 55 N, 21 00 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  13 regions (kraje, singular - kraj) and 1 capital city* (hlavni
  mesto); Jihocesky Kraj, Jihomoravsky Kraj, Karlovarsky Kraj,
  Kralovehradecky Kraj, Liberecky Kraj, Moravskoslezsky Kraj,
  Olomoucky Kraj, Pardubicky Kraj, Plzensky Kraj, Praha (Prague)*,
  Stredocesky Kraj, Ustecky Kraj, Vysocina, Zlinsky Kraj

Independence:
  1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and
  Slovakia)

National holiday:
  Czech Founding Day, 28 October (1918)

Constitution:
  ratified 16 December 1992, effective 1 January 1993

Legal system:
  civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; legal code modified to bring it in line
  with Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
  obligations and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal theory

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Vaclav KLAUS (since 7 March 2003)
  note: the Czech Republic's first president Vaclav HAVEL stepped down
  from office on 2 February 2003 having served exactly 10 years;
  parliament finally elected a successor on 28 February 2003 after two
  inconclusive elections in January 2003
  head of government: Prime Minister Mirek TOPOLANEK (since 4
  September 2006), Deputy Prime Minister Petr NECAS (since 4 September
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); last successful election held 28
  February 2003 (after earlier elections held 15 and 24 January 2003
  were inconclusive; next election to be held January 2008); prime
  minister appointed by the president
  election results: Vaclav KLAUS elected president on 28 February
  2003; Vaclav KLAUS 142 votes, Jan SOKOL 124 votes (third round;
  combined votes of both chambers of parliament)

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate or Senat
  (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year
  terms; one-third elected every two years) and the Chamber of
  Deputies or Poslanecka Snemovna (200 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held in two rounds 20-21 and 27-28 October
  2006 (next to be held October 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held
  2-3 June 2006 (next to be held by June 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - ODS 41, CSSD 12, KDU-CSL 10, others 15, independents 2;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - ODS 35.4%, CSSD
  32.3%, KSCM 12.8%, KDU-CSL 7.2%, Greens 6.3%, other 6%; seats by
  party - ODS 81, CSSD 74, KSCM 26, KDU-CSL 13, Greens 6

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court; chairman and deputy chairmen
  are appointed by the president for a 10-year term

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's Party or KDU-CSL
  [Jan KASAL, chairman]; Civic Democratic Alliance or ODA [Jirina
  NOVAKOVA, chairwoman]; Civic Democratic Party or ODS [Mirek
  TOPOLANEK, chairman]; Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia or KSCM
  [Vojtech FILIP, chairman]; Czech Social Democratic Party or CSSD
  [Jiri PAROUBEK, chairman]; Freedom Union-Democratic Union or US-DEU
  [Jan HADRAVA, chairman]; Green Party [Martin BURSIK, chairman];
  Independent Democrats (NEZDEM) [Vladimir ZELEZNY, chairman]; Party
  of Open Society (SOS) [Pavel NOVACEK, chairman]; Path of Change
  [Jiri LOBKOWITZ, chairman]; SNK-European Democrats or SNK-ED [Jana
  HYBASKOVA, chairman]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions or CMKOS [Milan STECH]

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CE, CEI,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA (cooperating state), EU (new member),
  FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF
  (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Petr KOLAR
  chancery: 3900 Spring of Freedom Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 274-9100
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-8540
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard W. GRABER
  embassy: Trziste 15, 11801 Prague 1
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [420] 257 022 000
  FAX: [420] 257 022 809

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a blue
  isosceles triangle based on the hoist side (identical to the flag of
  the former Czechoslovakia)

Economy Czech Republic


Economy - overview:
  The Czech Republic is one of the most stable and prosperous of the
  post-Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. Growth in
  2000-05 was supported by exports to the EU, primarily to Germany,
  and a strong recovery of foreign and domestic investment. Domestic
  demand is playing an ever more important role in underpinning growth
  as interest rates drop and the availability of credit cards and
  mortgages increases. The current account deficit has declined to
  around 3% of GDP as demand for Czech products in the European Union
  has increased. Inflation is under control. Recent accession to the
  EU gives further impetus and direction to structural reform. In
  early 2004 the government passed increases in the Value Added Tax
  (VAT) and tightened eligibility for social benefits with the
  intention to bring the public finance gap down to 4% of GDP by 2006,
  but more difficult pension and healthcare reforms will have to wait
  until after the next elections. Privatization of the state-owned
  telecommunications firm Cesky Telecom took place in 2005.
  Intensified restructuring among large enterprises, improvements in
  the financial sector, and effective use of available EU funds should
  strengthen output growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $204.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $109.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $20,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.4%
  industry: 39.3%
  services: 57.3% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  5.27 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.1%
  industry: 37.6%
  services: 58.3% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  7.9% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  At risk of poverty after social transfers: 8%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.3%
  highest 10%: 22.4% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  27.3 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  26.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $48.16 billion
  expenditures: $53.04 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit; pigs, poultry

Industries:
  metallurgy, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, glass,
  armaments

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.7% (2005)

Electricity - production:
  84.33 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 76.1%
  hydro: 2.9%
  nuclear: 20%
  other: 1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  57.12 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  25.49 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  9.776 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  15,240 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - consumption:
  202,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  26,670 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  182,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  15 million bbl (1 January 2006)

Natural gas - production:
  133 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  9.623 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  1 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  9.8 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  3.964 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Current account balance:
  $-2.496 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $78.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment 52%, chemicals 5%, raw materials
  and fuel 9% (2003)

Exports - partners:
  Germany 33.5%, Slovakia 8.7%, Austria 5.5%, Poland 5.5%, France
  5.3%, UK 4.6%, Italy 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $76.59 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment 46%, raw materials and fuels 15%,
  chemicals 10% (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Germany 30%, Russia 5.7%, Slovakia 5.4%, China 5.1%, Poland 5%,
  Italy 4.8%, France 4.5%, Netherlands 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $29.36 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $49.14 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.8 billion in committed EU structural adjustment and cohesion
  funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  Czech koruna (CZK)

Currency code:
  CZK

Exchange rates:
  koruny per US dollar - 23.957 (2005), 25.7 (2004), 28.209 (2003),
  32.739 (2002), 38.035 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Czech Republic


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,217,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  11.776 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: privatization and modernization of the Czech
  telecommunication system got a late start but is advancing steadily;
  growth in the use of mobile cellular telephones is particularly
  vigorous
  domestic: 86% of exchanges now digital; existing copper subscriber
  systems now being enhanced with Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
  (ADSL) equipment to accommodate Internet and other digital signals;
  trunk systems include fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 420; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intersputnik (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions), 1 Intelsat, 1
  Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat, 1 Globalstar

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 31, FM 304, shortwave 17 (2000)

Radios:
  3,159,134 (December 2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  150 (plus 1,434 repeaters) (2000)

Televisions:
  3,405,834 (December 2000)

Internet country code:
  .cz

Internet hosts:
  1,267,265 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  more than 300 (2000)

Internet users:
  5.1 million (2005)

Transportation Czech Republic


Airports:
  121 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 46
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 75
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 49 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 7,010 km; oil 547 km; refined products 94 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 9,572 km
  standard gauge: 9,473 km 1.435-m gauge (2,951 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 99 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 127,747 km
  paved: 127,747 km (including 518 km of expressways) (2003)

Waterways:
  664 km (principally on Elbe as well as Vltava and Oder rivers)
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Decin, Prague, Usti nad Labem

Military Czech Republic


Military branches:
  Army of the Czech Republic (ACR): Joint Forces Command (includes
  air forces), Support and Training Forces Command (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-50 years of age for voluntary military service; on-going
  transformation of military service into a fully professional,
  all-volunteer force no longer dependent on conscription began in
  January 2004 and is scheduled to be completed by 2007 (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,414,728
  females age 18-49: 2,329,412 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,996,631
  females age 18-49: 1,923,508 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 66,583
  females age 18-49: 63,363 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2.17 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.81% FY05

Transnational Issues Czech Republic


Disputes - international:
  in February 2005, the ICJ refused to rule on the restitution of
  Liechtenstein's land and property assets in the Czech Republic
  confiscated in 1945 as German property; individual Sudeten Germans
  seek restitution for property confiscated in connection with their
  expulsion from Czechoslovakia after World War II; Austrian
  anti-nuclear activists have revived blockades of the Czech-Austrian
  border to protest operation of the Temelin nuclear power plant in
  the Czech Republic

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and minor transit
  point for Latin American cocaine to Western Europe; producer of
  synthetic drugs for local and regional markets; susceptible to money
  laundering related to drug trafficking, organized crime


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Denmark

Introduction Denmark


Background:
  Once the seat of Viking raiders and later a major north European
  power, Denmark has evolved into a modern, prosperous nation that is
  participating in the general political and economic integration of
  Europe. It joined NATO in 1949 and the EEC (now the EU) in 1973.
  However, the country has opted out of certain elements of the
  European Union's Maastricht Treaty, including the European Economic
  and Monetary Union (EMU), European defense cooperation, and issues
  concerning certain justice and home affairs.

Geography Denmark


Location:
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on a
  peninsula north of Germany (Jutland); also includes two major
  islands (Sjaelland and Fyn)

Geographic coordinates:
  56 00 N, 10 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 43,094 sq km
  land: 42,394 sq km
  water: 700 sq km
  note: includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest
  of metropolitan Denmark (the Jutland Peninsula, and the major
  islands of Sjaelland and Fyn), but excludes the Faroe Islands and
  Greenland

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
  total: 68 km
  border countries: Germany 68 km

Coastline:
  7,314 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers

Terrain:
  low and flat to gently rolling plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lammefjord -7 m
  highest point: Yding Skovhoej 173 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone, gravel
  and sand

Land use:
  arable land: 52.59%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 47.22% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  4,490 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of
  Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are
  protected from the sea by a system of dikes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions;
  nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea; drinking and
  surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and
  North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in greater
  Copenhagen

People Denmark


Population:
  5,450,661 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.7% (male 523,257/female 496,697)
  15-64 years: 66.1% (male 1,815,240/female 1,787,406)
  65 years and over: 15.2% (male 355,656/female 472,405) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.8 years
  male: 38.9 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.33% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.79 years
  male: 75.49 years
  female: 80.22 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Dane(s)
  adjective: Danish

Ethnic groups:
  Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian, Somali

Religions:
  Evangelical Lutheran 95%, other Protestant and Roman Catholic 3%,
  Muslim 2%

Languages:
  Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect), German (small
  minority)
  note: English is the predominant second language

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Denmark


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Denmark
  conventional short form: Denmark
  local long form: Kongeriget Danmark
  local short form: Danmark

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Copenhagen
  geographic coordinates: 55 40 N, 12 35 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  metropolitan Denmark - 14 counties (amter, singular - amt) and 2
  boroughs* (amtskommuner, singular - amtskommune); Arhus, Bornholm,
  Frederiksberg*, Frederiksborg, Fyn, Kobenhavn, Kobenhavn
  (Copenhagen)*, Nordjylland, Ribe, Ringkobing, Roskilde,
  Sonderjylland, Storstrom, Vejle, Vestsjalland, Viborg
  note: as a result of an extensive 2005 local government reform, with
  2006 being a transition year, 275 municipalities will be merged to
  99 by 1 January 2007, and the 14 counties will be reorganized into
  five regions

Independence:
  first organized as a unified state in 10th century; in 1849 became
  a constitutional monarchy

National holiday:
  none designated; Constitution Day, 5 June (1849) is generally
  viewed as the National Day

Constitution:
  5 June 1849 adoption of original constitution; a major overhaul of
  5 June 1953 allowed for a unicameral legislature and a female chief
  of state

Legal system:
  civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II (since 14 January 1972); Heir
  Apparent Crown Prince FREDERIK, elder son of the monarch (born 26
  May 1968)
  head of government: Prime Minister Anders Fogh RASMUSSEN (since 27
  November 2001)
  cabinet: Council of State appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral People's Assembly or Folketinget (179 seats, including 2
  from Greenland and 2 from the Faroe Islands; members are elected by
  popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Liberal Party 29%,
  Social Democrats 25.9%, Danish People's Party 13.2%, Conservative
  Party 10.3%, Social Liberal Party 9.2%, Socialist People's Party 6%,
  Unity List 3.4%; seats by party - Liberal Party 52, Social Democrats
  47, Danish People's Party 24, Conservative Party 18, Social Liberal
  Party 17, Socialist People's Party 11, Unity List 6; note - does not
  include the 2 seats from Greenland and the 2 seats from the Faroe
  Islands

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the monarch for life)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democrats (was Christian People's Party) [Bodil KORNBEK];
  Conservative Party (sometimes known as Conservative People's Party)
  [Bendt BENDTSEN]; Danish People's Party [Pia KJAERSGAARD]; Liberal
  Party [Anders Fogh RASMUSSEN]; Red-Green Unity List (bloc includes
  Left Socialist Party, Communist Party of Denmark, Socialist Workers'
  Party) [collective leadership]; Social Democratic Party [Helle
  THORNING-SCHMIDT]; Social Liberal Party (sometimes called the
  Radical Left) [Marianne JELVED, leader; Soren BALD, chairman];
  Socialist People's Party [Villy SOEVNDAL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN,
  EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NATO, NC,
  NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA,
  UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU
  (observer), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Friis Arne PETERSEN
  chancery: 3200 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-4300
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-1470
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James P. CAIN
  embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds Alle 24, 2100 Copenhagen
  mailing address: PSC 73, APO AE 09716
  telephone: [45] 33 41 71 00
  FAX: [45] 35 43 02 23

Flag description:
  red with a white cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the
  vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side, and that
  design element of the Dannebrog (Danish flag) was subsequently
  adopted by the other Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway,
  and Sweden

Economy Denmark


Economy - overview:
  This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech
  agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry,
  extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards,
  a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is
  a net exporter of food and energy and enjoys a comfortable balance
  of payments surplus. Government objectives include streamlining the
  bureaucracy and further privatization of state assets. The
  government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the
  economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase
  (a common European currency) of the European Economic and Monetary
  Union (EMU), but Denmark has decided not to join 12 other EU members
  in the euro. Nonetheless, the Danish krone remains pegged to the
  euro. Economic growth gained momentum in 2004 and the upturn
  accelerated through 2005. Because of high GDP per capita, welfare
  benefits, a low Gini index, and political stability, the Danish
  people enjoy living standards topped by no other nation. A major
  long-term issue will be the sharp decline in the ratio of workers to
  retirees.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $189.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $243.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $34,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 24.6%
  services: 73.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.9 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 21%
  services: 76% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 24% (2000 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  23.2 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $144 billion
  expenditures: $135 billion; including capital expenditures of $4.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  37% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  barley, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets; pork, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  iron, steel, nonferrous metals, chemicals, food processing,
  machinery and transportation equipment, textiles and clothing,
  electronics, construction, furniture and other wood products,
  shipbuilding and refurbishment, windmills, pharmaceuticals, medical
  equipment

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  43.32 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 82.7%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 17.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  31.68 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  15.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  7 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  376,900 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  188,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  332,100 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  195,000 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.23 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  7.965 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  5.173 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  3.1 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  73.51 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $7.753 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $84.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy products,
  fish, chemicals, furniture, ships, windmills

Exports - partners:
  Germany 17.5%, Sweden 13.2%, UK 8.8%, US 6.4%, France 5.5%,
  Netherlands 5.3%, Norway 5.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $74.69 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, raw materials and semimanufactures for
  industry, chemicals, grain and foodstuffs, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  Germany 20.5%, Sweden 13.8%, Norway 6.6%, Netherlands 6.6%, UK 6%,
  China 4.7%, France 4.2%, Italy 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $34.03 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $352.9 billion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $2 billion (2004)

Currency (code):
  Danish krone (DKK)

Currency code:
  DKK

Exchange rates:
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911 (2004), 6.5877
  (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Denmark


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3.35 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  5.469 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent telephone and telegraph services
  domestic: buried and submarine cables and microwave radio relay form
  trunk network, 4 cellular mobile communications systems
  international: country code - 45; 18 submarine fiber-optic cables
  linking Denmark with Canada, Faroe Islands, Germany, Iceland,
  Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and UK; satellite earth
  stations - 6 Intelsat, 10 Eutelsat, 1 Orion, 1 Inmarsat
  (Blaavand-Atlantic-East); note - the Nordic countries (Denmark,
  Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) share the Danish earth station
  and the Eik, Norway, station for worldwide Inmarsat access (1997)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 355, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  6.02 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  26 (plus 51 repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  3.121 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .dk

Internet hosts:
  2,415,530 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  13 (2000)

Internet users:
  3,762,500 (2005)

Transportation Denmark


Airports:
  92 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 64
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 61 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 12 km; gas 3,931 km; oil 626 km; oil/gas/water 2 km
  (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,673 km
  standard gauge: 2,673 km 1.435-m gauge (601 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 72,257 km
  paved: 72,257 km (including 1,032 km of expressways) (2005)

Waterways:
  400 km (2001)

Merchant marine:
  total: 293 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,986,735 GRT/9,936,431 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 63, chemical tanker 48, container 86,
  liquefied gas 4, livestock carrier 2, passenger 1, passenger/cargo
  40, petroleum tanker 23, refrigerated cargo 7, roll on/roll off 8,
  specialized tanker 4
  foreign-owned: 25 (Canada 1, Germany 13, Greece 5, Greenland 1,
  Norway 3, Sweden 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 409 (Antigua and Barbuda 14, Bahamas
  59, Belgium 4, Cayman Islands 5, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, Estonia 2,
  France 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 2, Gibraltar 1, Hong
  Kong 6, Isle of Man 53, North Korea 1, Liberia 8, Lithuania 10,
  Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Mexico 2, Netherlands 9, Netherlands
  Antilles 1, Norway 32, Panama 34, Portugal 4, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 14, Singapore 52, South Africa 1, Spain 1, Sweden 4, UK
  46, US 24, Vanuatu 6, Venezuela 3, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Aalborg, Aarhus, Asnaesvaerkets, Copenhagen, Elsinore, Ensted,
  Esbjerg, Fredericia, Frederikshavn, Kalundborg, Odense, Roenne

Military Denmark


Military branches:
  Defense Command: Army Operational Command, Admiral Danish Fleet,
  Tactical Air Command (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and volunteer military service;
  conscripts serve an initial training period that varies from four to
  12 months according to specialization; reservists are assigned to
  mobilization units following completion of their conscript service;
  women eligible to volunteer for military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,175,108
  females age 18-49: 1,150,627 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 955,168
  females age 18-49: 935,643 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 31,317
  females age 18-49: 29,558 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3,271.6 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2004)

Transnational Issues Denmark


Disputes - international:
  Iceland disputes the Faroe Islands' fisheries median line; Iceland,
  the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands'
  continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm; Faroese continue to study
  proposals for full independence; uncontested sovereignty dispute
  with Canada over Hans Island in the Kennedy Channel between
  Ellesmere Island and Greenland


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Dhekelia

Introduction Dhekelia


Background:
  By terms of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment that created the
  independent Republic of Cyprus, the UK retained full sovereignty and
  jurisdiction over two areas of almost 254 square kilometers -
  Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The larger of these is the Dhekelia Sovereign
  Base Area, which is also referred to as the Eastern Sovereign Base
  Area.

Geography Dhekelia


Location:
  on the southeast coast of Cyprus near Famagusta

Geographic coordinates:
  34 59 N, 33 45 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 130.8 sq km
  note: area surrounds three Cypriot enclaves

Area - comparative:
  about three-quarters the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: NA; note - boundary with Cyprus is being resurveyed

Coastline:
  27.5 km

Climate:
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool winters

Environment - current issues:
  netting and trapping of small migrant songbirds in the spring and
  autumn

Geography - note:
  British extraterritorial rights also extended to several small
  off-post sites scattered across Cyprus

People Dhekelia


Population:
  no indigenous personnel
  note: approximately 2,200 military personnel are on the base; there
  are another 5,000 British citizens who are families of military
  personnel or civilian staff on both the bases of Akrotiri and
  Dhekelia; Cyprus citizens work on the base, but do not live there

Languages:
  English, Greek

Government Dhekelia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area
  conventional short form: Dhekelia

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of UK; administered by an administrator who is
  also the Commander, British Forces Cyprus

Capital:
  name: Episkopi Cantonment; located in Akrotiri
  geographic coordinates: 34 40 N, 32 51 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Constitution:
  Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia Order in Council
  1960, effective 16 August 1960

Legal system:
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Administrator Air Vice-Marshal Richard LACEY
  (since 26 April 2006); note - reports to the British Ministry of
  Defence
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the administrator is
  appointed by the monarch

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  the flag of the UK is used

Economy Dhekelia


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to the military
  and their families located in Dhekelia. All food and manufactured
  goods must be imported.

Industries:
  none

Communications Dhekelia


Radio broadcast stations:
  FM 1 (located in Akrotiri)
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  and Radio 2 service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)

Television broadcast stations:
  British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides multi-channel
  satellite service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)


Military Dhekelia


Military - note:
  includes Dhekelia Garrison and Ayios Nikolaos Station connected by
  a roadway



This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Djibouti

Introduction Djibouti


Background:
  The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in
  1977. Hassan Gouled APTIDON installed an authoritarian one-party
  state and proceeded to serve as president until 1999. Unrest among
  the Afars minority during the 1990s led to a civil war that ended in
  2001 following the conclusion of a peace accord between Afar rebels
  and the Issa-dominated government. In 1999, Djibouti's first
  multi-party presidential elections resulted in the election of
  Ismail Omar GUELLEH; he was re-elected to a second and final term in
  2005. Djibouti occupies a strategic geographic location at the mouth
  of the Red Sea and serves as an important transshipment location for
  goods entering and leaving the east African highlands. The present
  leadership favors close ties to France, which maintains a
  significant military presence in the country, but is also developing
  stronger ties with the US. Djibouti hosts the only US military base
  in sub-Saharan Africa and is a front-line state in the global war on
  terrorism.

Geography Djibouti


Location:
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, between
  Eritrea and Somalia

Geographic coordinates:
  11 30 N, 43 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 23,000 sq km
  land: 22,980 sq km
  water: 20 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
  total: 516 km
  border countries: Eritrea 109 km, Ethiopia 349 km, Somalia 58 km

Coastline:
  314 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  desert; torrid, dry

Terrain:
  coastal plain and plateau separated by central mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lac Assal -155 m
  highest point: Moussa Ali 2,028 m

Natural resources:
  geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble, salt,
  diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum

Land use:
  arable land: 0.04%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.96% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes; droughts; occasional cyclonic disturbances from the
  Indian Ocean bring heavy rains and flash floods

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; limited arable land;
  desertification; endangered species

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location near world's busiest shipping lanes and close to
  Arabian oilfields; terminus of rail traffic into Ethiopia; mostly
  wasteland; Lac Assal (Lake Assal) is the lowest point in Africa

People Djibouti


Population:
  486,530 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.3% (male 105,760/female 105,068)
  15-64 years: 53.3% (male 135,119/female 124,367)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 8,183/female 8,033) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.02% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  39.53 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  19.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 102.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 110.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 43.17 years
  male: 41.86 years
  female: 44.52 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  9,100 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  690 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Djiboutian(s)
  adjective: Djiboutian

Ethnic groups:
  Somali 60%, Afar 35%, French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian 5%

Religions:
  Muslim 94%, Christian 6%

Languages:
  French (official), Arabic (official), Somali, Afar

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 67.9%
  male: 78%
  female: 58.4% (2003 est.)

Government Djibouti


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Djibouti
  conventional short form: Djibouti
  local long form: Republique de Djibouti/Jumhuriyat Jibuti
  local short form: Djibouti/Jibuti
  former: French Territory of the Afars and Issas, French Somaliland

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Djibouti
  geographic coordinates: 11 30 N, 43 15 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 districts (cercles, singular - cercle); Ali Sabieh, Arta, Dikhil,
  Djibouti, Obock, Tadjourah

Independence:
  27 June 1977 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 June (1977)

Constitution:
  multiparty constitution approved by referendum 4 September 1992

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system, traditional practices, and
  Islamic law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ismail Omar GUELLEH (since 8 May 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Mohamed Dileita DILEITA (since 4
  March 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 April 2005 (next
  to be held by April 2011); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Ismail Omar GUELLEH reelected president; percent
  of vote - Ismail Omar GUELLEH 100%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Chamber of Deputies or Chambre des Deputes (65 seats;
  members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 January 2003 (next to be held January 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - RPP 62.2%, FRUD 36.9%; seats -
  RPP 65, FRUD 0; note - RPP (the ruling party) dominated the election

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic National Party or PND [ADEN Robleh Awaleh]; Democratic
  Renewal Party or PRD [Abdillahi HAMARITEH]; Djibouti Development
  Party or PDD [Mohamed Daoud CHEHEM]; Front pour la Restauration de
  l'Unite Democratique or FRUD [Ali Mohamed DAOUD]; People's Progress
  Assembly or RPP [Ismail Omar GUELLEH] (governing party); Peoples
  Social Democratic Party or PPSD [Moumin Bahdon FARAH]; Republican
  Alliance for Democracy or ARD [Ahmed Dini AHMED]; Union for
  Democracy and Justice or UDJ

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Union for Presidential Majority UMP (coalition includes RPP, FRUD,
  PPSD and PND); Union for Democratic Changeover or UAD (opposition
  coalition includes ARD, MRDD, UDJ, and PDD) [Ahmed Dini AHMED]

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW (signatory), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roble OLHAYE Oudine
  chancery: Suite 515, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-0270
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-0302

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador W. Stuart SYMINGTON
  embassy: Plateau du Serpent, Boulevard Marechal Joffre, Djibouti
  mailing address: B. P. 185, Djibouti
  telephone: [253] 35 39 95
  FAX: [253] 35 39 40

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of light blue (top) and light green with
  a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bearing a red
  five-pointed star in the center

Economy Djibouti


Economy - overview:
  The economy is based on service activities connected with the
  country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in
  northeast Africa. Two-thirds of the inhabitants live in the capital
  city; the remainder are mostly nomadic herders. Scanty rainfall
  limits crop production to fruits and vegetables, and most food must
  be imported. Djibouti provides services as both a transit port for
  the region and an international transshipment and refueling center.
  Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. The nation
  is, therefore, heavily dependent on foreign assistance to help
  support its balance of payments and to finance development projects.
  An unemployment rate of at least 50% continues to be a major
  problem. While inflation is not a concern, due to the fixed tie of
  the Djiboutian franc to the US dollar, the artificially high value
  of the Djiboutian franc adversely affects Djibouti's balance of
  payments. Per capita consumption dropped an estimated 35% over the
  last seven years because of recession, civil war, and a high
  population growth rate (including immigrants and refugees). Faced
  with a multitude of economic difficulties, the government has fallen
  in arrears on long-term external debt and has been struggling to
  meet the stipulations of foreign aid donors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $619 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $702 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.9%
  industry: 22.5%
  services: 59.6% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  282,000 (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  50% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $135 million
  expenditures: $182 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1999 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal hides

Industries:
  construction, agricultural processing, salt

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (1996 est.)

Electricity - production:
  240 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  223.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $250 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  reexports, hides and skins, coffee (in transit)

Exports - partners:
  Somalia 55.2%, Yemen 19.5%, Ethiopia 17.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $987 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foods, beverages, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 21.7%, India 18.5%, China 10%, Ethiopia 4.8%, France
  4.5%, US 4.3%, Japan 4.2% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $394 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $64.1 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Djiboutian franc (DJF)

Currency code:
  DJF

Exchange rates:
  Djiboutian francs per US dollar - 177.72 (2005), 177.72 (2004),
  177.72 (2003), 177.72 (2002), 177.72 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Djibouti


Telephones - main lines in use:
  11,100 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  34,500 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telephone facilities in the city of Djibouti
  are adequate, as are the microwave radio relay connections to
  outlying areas of the country
  domestic: microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 253; submarine cable to Jiddah, Suez,
  Sicily, Marseille, Colombo, and Singapore; satellite earth stations
  - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat; Medarabtel regional
  microwave radio relay telephone network

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001)

Radios:
  52,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  28,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .dj

Internet hosts:
  1,540 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  9,000 (2005)

Transportation Djibouti


Airports:
  13 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 100 km (Djibouti segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway)
  narrow gauge: 100 km 1.000-m gauge
  note: railway under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 2,890 km
  paved: 364 km
  unpaved: 2,526 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,369 GRT/3,030 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Djibouti

Military Djibouti


Military branches:
  Djibouti National Army (includes Navy and Air Force)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 95,328
  females age 18-49: 87,795 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 46,020
  females age 18-49: 42,181 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $29.05 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Djibouti


Disputes - international:
  Djibouti maintains economic ties and border accords with
  "Somaliland" leadership while maintaining some political ties to
  various factions in Somalia; thousands of Somali refugees await
  repatriation in UNHCR camps in Djibouti

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 17,331 (Somalia) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Djibouti is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and possibly forced labor; small numbers are trafficked
  from Ethiopia and Somalia for sexual exploitation; economic migrants
  from these countries also fall victim to trafficking upon reaching
  Djibouti City or the Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor; women and
  children from neighboring countries reportedly transit Djibouti to
  Arab countries and Somalia for ultimate use in forced labor or
  sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Djibouti does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,
  it is making significant efforts to do so based partly on the
  government's commitments to undertake future action


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Dominica

Introduction Dominica


Background:
  Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by
  Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs.
  France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the
  island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after independence,
  Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical
  administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia CHARLES, the
  first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office
  for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still living on Dominica are
  the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean.

Geography Dominica


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, about one-half of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and
  Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  15 25 N, 61 20 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 754 sq km
  land: 754 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than four times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  148 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds; heavy rainfall

Terrain:
  rugged mountains of volcanic origin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Morne Diablatins 1,447 m

Natural resources:
  timber, hydropower, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 6.67%
  permanent crops: 21.33%
  other: 72% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  flash floods are a constant threat; destructive hurricanes can be
  expected during the late summer months

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" due to its
  spectacular, lush, and varied flora and fauna, which are protected
  by an extensive natural park system; the most mountainous of the
  Lesser Antilles, its volcanic peaks are cones of lava craters and
  include Boiling Lake, the second-largest, thermally active lake in
  the world

People Dominica


Population:
  68,910 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 9,084/female 8,885)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 23,419/female 22,079)
  65 years and over: 7.9% (male 2,186/female 3,257) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 30.1 years
  male: 29.8 years
  female: 30.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.08% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.27 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.73 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -9.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 13.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 18.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.11 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.87 years
  male: 71.95 years
  female: 77.93 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Dominican(s)
  adjective: Dominican

Ethnic groups:
  black, mixed black and European, European, Syrian, Carib Amerindian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 77%, Protestant 15% (Methodist 5%, Pentecostal 3%,
  Seventh-Day Adventist 3%, Baptist 2%, other 2%), other 6%, none 2%

Languages:
  English (official), French patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 94%
  male: 94%
  female: 94% (2003 est.)

Government Dominica


Country name:
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Dominica
  conventional short form: Dominica

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Roseau
  geographic coordinates: 15 18 N, 61 24 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 parishes; Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John,
  Saint Joseph, Saint Luke, Saint Mark, Saint Patrick, Saint Paul,
  Saint Peter

Independence:
  3 November 1978 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 3 November (1978)

Constitution:
  3 November 1978

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nicholas J. O. LIVERPOOL (since October
  2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Roosevelt SKERRIT (since 8
  January 2004); note - assumed post after death of Prime Minister
  Pierre CHARLES
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by the House of Assembly for a
  five-year term; election last held 1 October 2003 (next to be held
  October 2008); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Nicholas LIVERPOOL elected president; percent of
  legislative vote - NA%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Assembly (30 seats, 9 appointed senators, 21
  elected by popular vote; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 May 2005 (next to be held by 5 August 2010);
  note - tradition dictates that the election will be held within five
  years of the last election, but technically it is five years from
  the first seating of parliament (12 May 2005) plus a 90-day grace
  period
  election results: percent of vote by party - DLP 52.07%, UWP 43.6%,
  DFP 3.15%; seats by party - DLP 12, UWP 8, independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting of the Court of Appeal
  and the High Court (located in Saint Lucia; one of the six judges
  must reside in Dominica and preside over the Court of Summary
  Jurisdiction)

Political parties and leaders:
  Dominica Freedom Party or DFP [Charles SAVARIN]; Dominica Labor
  Party or DLP [Roosevelt SKERRIT]; Dominica United Workers Party or
  UWP [Earl WILLIAMS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Dominica Liberation Movement or DLM (a small leftist party)

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO
  (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS, OECS, OIF, OPANAL,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Judith Anne ROLLE, Third Secretary
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6781
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6791
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Dominica; the US Ambassador to
  Barbados is accredited to Dominica

Flag description:
  green, with a centered cross of three equal bands - the vertical
  part is yellow (hoist side), black, and white and the horizontal
  part is yellow (top), black, and white; superimposed in the center
  of the cross is a red disk bearing a sisserou parrot encircled by 10
  green, five-pointed stars edged in yellow; the 10 stars represent
  the 10 administrative divisions (parishes)

Economy Dominica


Economy - overview:
  The Dominican economy depends on agriculture, primarily bananas,
  and remains highly vulnerable to climatic conditions and
  international economic developments. Production of bananas dropped
  precipitously in 2003, a major reason for the 1% decline in GDP.
  Tourism increased in 2003 as the government sought to promote
  Dominica as an "ecotourism" destination. Development of the tourism
  industry remains difficult, however, because of the rugged
  coastline, lack of beaches, and the absence of an international
  airport. The government began a comprehensive restructuring of the
  economy in 2003 - including elimination of price controls,
  privatization of the state banana company, and tax increases - to
  address Dominica's economic crisis and to meet IMF targets. In order
  to diversify the island's production base, the government is
  attempting to develop an offshore financial sector and is planning
  to construct an oil refinery on the eastern part of the island.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $384 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $279 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.7%
  industry: 32.8%
  services: 49.5% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  25,000 (1999 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 32%
  services: 28%

Unemployment rate:
  23% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  30% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.1% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $73.9 million
  expenditures: $84.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2001)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, citrus, mangoes, root crops, coconuts, cocoa; forest and
  fishery potential not exploited

Industries:
  soap, coconut oil, tourism, copra, furniture, cement blocks, shoes

Industrial production growth rate:
  -10% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  69.98 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 47.1%
  hydro: 52.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  65.09 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $74 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas, soap, bay oil, vegetables, grapefruit, oranges

Exports - partners:
  UK 26.2%, Jamaica 9.8%, South Korea 8.7%, Antigua and Barbuda 8.6%,
  Guyana 7.2%, Trinidad and Tobago 4.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $234 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, machinery and equipment, food, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  US 25.3%, China 20.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 12.3%, South Korea 7.1%,
  Japan 4.6%, UK 4.4% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $213 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $29.2 million (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Dominica


Telephones - main lines in use:
  21,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  41,800 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fully automatic network
  international: country code - 1-767; microwave radio relay and SHF
  radiotelephone links to Martinique and Guadeloupe; VHF and UHF
  radiotelephone links to Saint Lucia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  46,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2004)

Televisions:
  6,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .dm

Internet hosts:
  263 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  20,500 (2005)

Transportation Dominica


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 780 km
  paved: 393 km
  unpaved: 387 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 48 ships (1000 GRT or over) 634,668 GRT/1,100,558 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 24, chemical tanker 4, container 2,
  petroleum tanker 6, refrigerated cargo 4, roll on/roll off 1,
  vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 45 (Estonia 11, Germany 1, Greece 5, Latvia 1, Norway
  1, NZ 4, Russia 2, Saudi Arabia 3, Singapore 9, Syria 1, Turkey 3,
  UAE 2, Ukraine 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Portsmouth, Roseau

Military Dominica


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force
  (includes coast guard)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,227 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,136 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 602 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Dominica


Disputes - international:
  Dominica is the only Caribbean state to challenge Venezuela's
  sovereignty claim over Aves Island and joins the other island
  nations in challenging whether the feature sustains human
  habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the
  Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its Exclusive
  Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf claims over a large
  portion of the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and Europe;
  minor cannabis producer; anti-money-laundering enforcement is weak,
  making the country particularly vulnerable to money laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Dominican Republic

Introduction Dominican Republic


Background:
  Explored and claimed by Christopher COLUMBUS on his first voyage in
  1492, the island of Hispaniola became a springboard for Spanish
  conquest of the Caribbean and the American mainland. In 1697, Spain
  recognized French dominion over the western third of the island,
  which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of the island, by then
  known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own independence in 1821,
  but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians for 22 years; it finally
  attained independence as the Dominican Republic in 1844. In 1861,
  the Dominicans voluntarily returned to the Spanish Empire, but two
  years later they launched a war that restored independence in 1865.
  A legacy of unsettled, mostly non-representative rule followed,
  capped by the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas TRUJILLO from
  1930-1961. Juan BOSCH was elected president in 1962, but was deposed
  in a military coup in 1963. In 1965, the United States led an
  intervention in the midst of a civil war sparked by an uprising to
  restore BOSCH. In 1966, Joaquin BALAGUER defeated BOSCH in an
  election to become president. BALAGUER maintained a tight grip on
  power for most of the next 30 years when international reaction to
  flawed elections forced him to curtail his term in 1996. Since then,
  regular competitive elections have been held in which opposition
  candidates have won the presidency. Former President (1996-2000)
  Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna won election to a second term in 2004
  following a constitutional amendment allowing presidents to serve
  more than one term.

Geography Dominican Republic


Location:
  Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, between
  the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of Haiti

Geographic coordinates:
  19 00 N, 70 40 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 48,730 sq km
  land: 48,380 sq km
  water: 350 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of New Hampshire

Land boundaries:
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Haiti 360 km

Coastline:
  1,288 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 6 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature variation; seasonal
  variation in rainfall

Terrain:
  rugged highlands and mountains with fertile valleys interspersed

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lago Enriquillo -46 m
  highest point: Pico Duarte 3,175 m

Natural resources:
  nickel, bauxite, gold, silver

Land use:
  arable land: 22.49%
  permanent crops: 10.26%
  other: 67.25% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,750 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe
  storms from June to October; occasional flooding; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  water shortages; soil eroding into the sea damages coral reefs;
  deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti

People Dominican Republic


Population:
  9,183,984 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 1,531,145/female 1,464,076)
  15-64 years: 61.9% (male 2,902,098/female 2,782,608)
  65 years and over: 5.5% (male 235,016/female 269,041) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 24 years
  female: 24.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.47% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  23.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.73 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.79 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 30.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.73 years
  male: 70.21 years
  female: 73.33 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  88,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  7,900 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Dominican(s)
  adjective: Dominican

Ethnic groups:
  mixed 73%, white 16%, black 11%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 95%

Languages:
  Spanish

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84.7%
  male: 84.6%
  female: 84.8% (2003 est.)

Government Dominican Republic


Country name:
  conventional long form: Dominican Republic
  conventional short form: The Dominican
  local long form: Republica Dominicana
  local short form: La Dominicana

Government type:
  representative democracy

Capital:
  name: Santo Domingo
  geographic coordinates: 18 28 N, 69 54 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  31 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 district*
  (distrito); Azua, Baoruco, Barahona, Dajabon, Distrito Nacional*,
  Duarte, El Seibo, Elias Pina, Espaillat, Hato Mayor, Independencia,
  La Altagracia, La Romana, La Vega, Maria Trinidad Sanchez, Monsenor
  Nouel, Monte Cristi, Monte Plata, Pedernales, Peravia, Puerto Plata,
  Salcedo, Samana, San Cristobal, San Jose de Ocoa, San Juan, San
  Pedro de Macoris, Sanchez Ramirez, Santiago, Santiago Rodriguez,
  Santo Domingo, Valverde

Independence:
  27 February 1844 (from Haiti)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 February (1844)

Constitution:
  28 November 1966; amended 25 July 2002

Legal system:
  based on French civil codes; Criminal Procedures Code modified in
  2004 to include important elements of an accusatory system; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age, universal and compulsory; married persons
  regardless of age
  note: members of the armed forces and national police cannot vote

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna (since 16 August
  2004); Vice President Rafael ALBURQUERQUE de Castro (since 16 August
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna (since 16
  August 2004); Vice President Rafael ALBURQUERQUE de Castro (since 16
  August 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 16 May 2004 (next to be held in May 2008)
  election results: Leonel FERNANDEZ elected president; percent of
  vote - Leonel FERNANDEZ (PLD) 57.1%, Rafael Hipolito MEJIA Dominguez
  (PRD) 33.7%, Eduardo ESTRELLA (PRSC) 8.7%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of the
  Senate or Senado (32 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Camara de
  Diputados (150 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 16 May 2002 (next to be held in May
  2006); House of Representatives - last held 16 May 2002 (next to be
  held in May 2006)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PRD 29, PLD 2, PRSC 1; House of Representatives - percent of
  vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRD 73, PLD 41, PRSC 36

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are appointed by the
  National Judicial Council comprised of the president, the leaders of
  both chambers of congress, the president of the Supreme Court, and
  an additional non-governing party congressional representative)

Political parties and leaders:
  Dominican Liberation Party or PLD [Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna];
  Dominican Revolutionary Party or PRD [Ramon ALBURQUERQUE]; National
  Progressive Front [Vincent CASTILLO, Pelegrin CASTILLO]; Social
  Christian Reformist Party or PRSC [Enrique ATUN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Citizen Participation Group (Participacion Ciudadania); Collective
  of Popular Organizations or COP; Foundation for Institution-Building
  and Justice (FINJUS)

International organization participation:
  ACP, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory),
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO (suspended), ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA
  (observer), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Flavio Dario ESPINAL Jacobo
  chancery: 1715 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-6280
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-8057
  consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Boston, Chicago, Mayaguez (Puerto
  Rico), Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto
  Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hans H. HERTELL
  embassy: corner of Calle Cesar Nicolas Penson and Calle Leopoldo
  Navarro, Santo Domingo
  mailing address: Unit 5500, APO AA 34041-5500
  telephone: [1] (809) 221-2171
  FAX: [1] (809) 686-7437

Flag description:
  a centered white cross that extends to the edges divides the flag
  into four rectangles - the top ones are blue (hoist side) and red,
  and the bottom ones are red (hoist side) and blue; a small coat of
  arms featuring a shield supported by an olive branch (left) and a
  palm branch (right) is at the center of the cross; above the shield
  a blue ribbon displays the motto, DIOS, PATRIA, LIBERTAD (God,
  Fatherland, Liberty), and below the shield, REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
  appears on a red ribbon

Economy Dominican Republic


Economy - overview:
  The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean representative democracy that
  enjoyed strong GDP growth until 2003. Although the country has long
  been viewed primarily as an exporter of sugar, coffee, and tobacco,
  in recent years the service sector has overtaken agriculture as the
  economy's largest employer due to growth in tourism and free trade
  zones. Growth turned negative in 2003 with reduced tourism, a major
  bank fraud, and limited growth in the US economy (the source of
  about 80% of export revenues), but recovered in 2004 and 2005. With
  the help of strict fiscal targets agreed in the 2004 renegotiation
  of an IMF standby loan, President FERNANDEZ has stabilized the
  country's financial situation. Although the economy continues to
  grow at a respectable rate, unemployment remains an important
  challenge. The country suffers from marked income inequality; the
  poorest half of the population receives less than one-fifth of GNP,
  while the richest 10% enjoys nearly 40% of national income. The
  Dominican Republic's development prospects improved with the
  ratification of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade
  Agreement (CAFTA-DR) in September 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $67.44 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $18.15 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.2%
  industry: 30.6%
  services: 58.2% (2003)

Labor force:
  2.3 million-2.6 million (2000 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: 24.3%
  services: 58.7% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  17% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 37.9% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  47.4 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $5.322 billion
  expenditures: $5.485 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.1
  billion (2005)

Public debt:
  45.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, coffee, cotton, cocoa, tobacco, rice, beans, potatoes,
  corn, bananas; cattle, pigs, dairy products, beef, eggs

Industries:
  tourism, sugar processing, ferronickel and gold mining, textiles,
  cement, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate:
  2% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
  12.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 92%
  hydro: 7.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  11.71 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  128,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  129,900 bbl/day (2003)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  300 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  NA cu m

Current account balance:
  $-143 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $5.818 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  ferronickel, sugar, gold, silver, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, meats,
  consumer goods

Exports - partners:
  US 79%, Netherlands 2.4%, Mexico 1.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $9.747 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, petroleum, cotton and fabrics, chemicals and
  pharmaceuticals

Imports - partners:
  US 50.2%, Colombia 6.2%, Mexico 5.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.853 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $7.687 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $571.6 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Dominican peso (DOP)

Currency code:
  DOP

Exchange rates:
  Dominican pesos per US dollar - 30.409 (2005), 42.12 (2004), 30.831
  (2003), 18.61 (2002), 16.952 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Dominican Republic


Telephones - main lines in use:
  894,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  3.623 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: relatively efficient system based on island-wide microwave
  radio relay network
  international: country code - 1-809; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 120, FM 56, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  1.44 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  25 (2003)

Televisions:
  770,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .do

Internet hosts:
  91,895 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  24 (2000)

Internet users:
  938,300 (2005)

Transportation Dominican Republic


Airports:
  33 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 517 km
  standard gauge: 375 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 142 km 0.762-m gauge
  note: additional 1,226 km operated by sugar companies in 1.076 m,
  0.889 m, and 0.762-m gauges (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 12,600 km
  paved: 6,224 km
  unpaved: 6,376 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,587 GRT/1,165 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Boca Chica, Puerto Plata, Rio Haina, Santo Domingo

Military Dominican Republic


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,133,142
  females age 18-49: 2,032,840 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,671,493
  females age 18-49: 1,536,257 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 91,699
  females age 18-49: 87,550 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $0 (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0% (2002 est.)

Transnational Issues Dominican Republic


Disputes - international:
  increasing numbers of illegal migrants from the Dominican Republic
  cross the Mona Passage each year to Puerto Rico to find work

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US
  and Europe; has become a transshipment point for ecstasy from the
  Netherlands and Belgium destined for US and Canada; substantial
  money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics traffickers favor the
  Dominican Republic for illicit financial transactions


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@East Timor

Introduction East Timor


Background:
  The Portuguese began to trade with the island of Timor in the early
  16th century and colonized it in mid-century. Skirmishing with the
  Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty in which
  Portugal ceded the western portion of the island. Imperial Japan
  occupied East Timor from 1942 to 1945, but Portugal resumed colonial
  authority after the Japanese defeat in World War II. East Timor
  declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975 and
  was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later. It
  was incorporated into Indonesia in July 1976 as the province of East
  Timor. An unsuccessful campaign of pacification followed over the
  next two decades, during which an estimated 100,000 to 250,000
  individuals lost their lives. On 30 August 1999, in a UN-supervised
  popular referendum, an overwhelming majority of the people of East
  Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. Between the referendum
  and the arrival of a multinational peacekeeping force in late
  September 1999, anti-independence Timorese militias - organized and
  supported by the Indonesian military - commenced a large-scale,
  scorched-earth campaign of retribution. The militias killed
  approximately 1,400 Timorese and forcibly pushed 300,000 people into
  West Timor as refugees. The majority of the country's
  infrastructure, including homes, irrigation systems, water supply
  systems, and schools, and nearly 100% of the country's electrical
  grid were destroyed. On 20 September 1999 the Australian-led
  peacekeeping troops of the International Force for East Timor
  (INTERFET) deployed to the country and brought the violence to an
  end. On 20 May 2002, East Timor was internationally recognized as an
  independent state.

Geography East Timor


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, northwest of Australia in the Lesser Sunda
  Islands at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago; note -
  East Timor includes the eastern half of the island of Timor, the
  Oecussi (Ambeno) region on the northwest portion of the island of
  Timor, and the islands of Pulau Atauro and Pulau Jaco

Geographic coordinates:
  8 50 S, 125 55 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 15,007 sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: NA sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: 228 km
  border countries: Indonesia 228 km

Coastline:
  706 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: NA
  exclusive economic zone: NA
  continental shelf: NA
  exclusive fishing zone: NA

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; distinct rainy and dry seasons

Terrain:
  mountainous

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Timor Sea, Savu Sea, and Banda Sea 0 m
  highest point: Foho Tatamailau 2,963 m

Natural resources:
  gold, petroleum, natural gas, manganese, marble

Land use:
  arable land: 8.2%
  permanent crops: 4.57%
  other: 87.23% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,065 sq km (est.)

Natural hazards:
  floods and landslides are common; earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical
  cyclones

Environment - current issues:
  widespread use of slash and burn agriculture has led to
  deforestation and soil erosion

Environment - international agreements:
  NA

Geography - note:
  Timor comes from the Malay word for "East"; the island of Timor is
  part of the Malay Archipelago and is the largest and easternmost of
  the Lesser Sunda Islands

People East Timor


Population:
  1,062,777
  note: other estimates range as low as 800,000 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.3% (male 196,293/female 189,956)
  15-64 years: 60.6% (male 328,111/female 315,401)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 16,072/female 16,944) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.8 years
  male: 20.8 years
  female: 20.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.08% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  26.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 45.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.03 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 39.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 66.26 years
  male: 63.96 years
  female: 68.67 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Timorese
  adjective: Timorese

Ethnic groups:
  Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), Papuan, small Chinese minority

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 90%, Muslim 4%, Protestant 3%, Hindu 0.5%, Buddhist,
  Animist (1992 est.)

Languages:
  Tetum (official), Portuguese (official), Indonesian, English
  note: there are about 16 indigenous languages; Tetum, Galole,
  Mambae, and Kemak are spoken by significant numbers of people

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 58.6%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2002)

Government East Timor


Country name:
  conventional long form: Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
  conventional short form: East Timor
  local long form: Republika Demokratika Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum];
  Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
  local short form: Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum]; Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
  former: Portuguese Timor

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Dili
  geographic coordinates: 8 35 S, 125 36 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  13 administrative districts; Aileu, Ainaro, Baucau, Bobonaro
  (Maliana), Cova-Lima (Suai), Dili, Ermera, Lautem (Los Palos),
  Liquica, Manatuto, Manufahi (Same), Oecussi (Ambeno), Viqueque

Independence:
  28 November 1975 (date of proclamation of independence from
  Portugal); note - 20 May 2002 is the official date of international
  recognition of East Timor's independence from Indonesia

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 28 November (1975)

Constitution:
  22 March 2002 (based on the Portuguese model)

Legal system:
  UN-drafted legal system based on Indonesian law remains in place
  but will be replaced by civil and penal codes based on Portuguese
  law; these have passed and are expected to be promulgated in early
  2006

Suffrage:
  17 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO (since 20 May
  2002); note - the president plays a largely symbolic role but is
  able to veto legislation, dissolve parliament, and call national
  elections; he formerly used the name Jose Alexandre GUSMAO
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose RAMOS-HORTA (since 10 July
  2006); First Deputy Prime Minister Estanlislau Maria Alexio da SILVA
  (since 10 July 2006); Second Deputy Prime Minister Rui Maria do
  ARAUJO (since 10 July 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 April 2002 (next
  to be held in May 2007)
  election results: Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO elected president; percent
  of vote - Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO 82.7%, Francisco Xavier do AMARAL
  17.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Parliament (number of seats can vary, minimum
  requirement of 52 and a maximum of 65 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms); note - for its first term of
  office, the National Parliament is comprised of 88 members on an
  exceptional basis
  elections: (next to be held in May 2007); direct elections for
  national parliament were never held; elected delegates to the
  national convention adopted a constitution and named themselves
  legislators instead of having elections; hence the exceptional
  numbers for this term of the national parliament
  election results: percent of vote by party - FRETILIN 57.37%, PD
  8.72%, PSD 8.18%, ASDT 7.84%, UDT 2.36%, PNT 2.21%, KOTA 2.13%, PPT
  2.01%, PDC 1.98%, PST 1.78%, independents/other 5.42%; seats by
  party - FRETILIN 55, PD 7, PSD 6, ASDT 6, PDC 2, UDT 2, KOTA 2, PNT
  2, PPT 2, UDC/PDC 1, PST 1, PL 1, independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice - constitution calls for one judge to be
  appointed by National Parliament and rest appointed by Superior
  Council for Judiciary; note - until Supreme Court is established,
  Court of Appeals is highest court

Political parties and leaders:
  Associacao Social-Democrata Timorense or ASDT [Francisco Xavier do
  AMARAL]; Christian Democratic Party of Timor or PDC [Antonio
  XIMENES]; Christian Democratic Union of Timor or UDC [Vicente da
  Silva GUTERRES]; Democratic Party or PD [Fernando de ARAUJO];
  People's Party of Timor or PPT [Jacob XAVIER]; Revolutionary Front
  of Independent East Timor or FRETILIN [Francisco Guterres Lu OLO];
  Social Democrat Party of East Timor or PSD [Mario CARRASCALAO];
  Socialist Party of Timor or PST [Pedro da COSTA]; Sons of the
  Mountain Warriors (also known as Association of Timorese Heroes) or
  KOTA [Clementino dos Reis AMARAL]; Timor Democratic Union or UDT
  [Joao CARRASCALAO]; Timor Labor Party or PTT [Paulo Freitas DA
  SILVA]; Timorese Nationalist Party or PNT [Abilio ARAUJO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Popular Council for the Defense of the Democratic Republic of East
  Timor or CPD-RDTL [Antonio-Aitahan MATAK] is largest political
  pressure group; dissatisfied veterans of struggle against Indonesia,
  led by one-time government advisor Cornelio GAMA (also known as
  L-7), also play an important role in pressuring government

International organization participation:
  ACP, ARF, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, MIGA, OPCW, PIF (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Constancio
  PINTO
  chancery: 4201 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: 202 966-3202
  FAX: 202 966-3205
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Grover Joseph REES
  embassy: Avenida de Portugal, Praia dos Conqueiros, Dili
  mailing address: US Department of State, 8250 Dili Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-8250
  telephone: (670) 332-4684
  FAX: (670) 331-3206

Flag description:
  red, with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side)
  superimposed on a slightly longer yellow arrowhead that extends to
  the center of the flag; there is a white star in the center of the
  black triangle

Economy East Timor


Economy - overview:
  In late 1999, about 70% of the economic infrastructure of East
  Timor was laid waste by Indonesian troops and anti-independence
  militias, and 300,000 people fled westward. Over the next three
  years, however, a massive international program, manned by 5,000
  peacekeepers (8,000 at peak) and 1,300 police officers, led to
  substantial reconstruction in both urban and rural areas. By the end
  of 2005, all refugees either returned or resettled in Indonesia.
  Non-petroleum GDP growth was held back in 2003 by extensive drought
  and the gradual winding down of the international presence but
  recovered somewhat in 2004. The country faces great challenges in
  continuing the rebuilding of infrastructure, strengthening the
  infant civil administration, and generating jobs for young people
  entering the work force. The development of oil and gas resources in
  nearby waters has begun to supplement government revenues ahead of
  schedule and above expectations - the result of high petroleum
  prices - but the technology-intensive industry does little to create
  jobs for the unemployed, because there are no production facilities
  in Timor and the gas is piped to Australia. The parliament in June
  2005 unanimously approved the creation of a Petroleum Fund to serve
  as a repository for all petroleum revenues and preserve the value of
  East Timor's petroleum wealth for future generations.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $370 million (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $349 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.5%
  industry: 23.1%
  services: 68.4% (2001)

Labor force:
  NA

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  50% estimated; note - unemployment in urban areas reached 20%; data
  do not include underemployed (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  42% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  38 (2002 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.4% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $107.7 million
  expenditures: $73 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, rice, corn, cassava, sweet potatoes, soybeans, cabbage,
  mangoes, bananas, vanilla

Industries:
  printing, soap manufacturing, handicrafts, woven cloth

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.5%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Exports:
  $10 million; note - excludes oil (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, sandalwood, marble; note - potential for oil and vanilla
  exports

Exports - partners:
  Indonesia 100% (2005)

Imports:
  $202 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, gasoline, kerosene, machinery

Debt - external:
  $0

Economic aid - recipient:
  $153 million (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications East Timor


Telephones - main lines in use:
  NA

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  NA

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

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .tl; note - ICANN approved the change from .tp in January 2005

Internet hosts:
  68 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  1,000 (2004)

Transportation East Timor


Airports:
  8 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Heliports:
  9 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 5,000 km
  paved: 2,500 km
  unpaved: 2,500 km (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Dili

Military East Timor


Military branches:
  East Timor Defense Force (Forcas de Defesa de Timor-L'este, FDTL):
  Army, Navy (Armada) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 235,198
  females age 18-49: 223,069 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 179,422
  females age 18-49: 184,533 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 12,740
  females age 18-49: 12,438 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.4 million (FY03)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues East Timor


Disputes - international:
  UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) has maintained about
  1,000 peacekeepers in East Timor since 2002; East Timor-Indonesia
  Boundary Committee continues to meet, survey, and delimit the land
  boundary, but several sections of the boundary especially around the
  Oekussi enclave remain unresolved; Indonesia and East Timor contest
  the sovereignty of the uninhabited coral island of Pulau Batek/Fatu
  Sinai, which prevents delimitation of the northern maritime
  boundaries; many refugees who left East Timor in 2003 still reside
  in Indonesia and refuse repatriation; Australia and East Timor
  agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the boundary for 50
  years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint
  Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty;
  dispute with Australia has hampered creation of a southern maritime
  boundary with Indonesia

Illicit drugs:
  NA


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ecuador

Introduction Ecuador


Background:
  What is now Ecuador formed part of the northern Inca Empire until
  the Spanish conquest in 1533. Quito became a seat of Spanish
  colonial government in 1563 and part of the Viceroyalty of New
  Granada in 1717. The territories of the Viceroyalty - New Granada
  (Colombia), Venezuela, and Quito - gained their independence by 1819
  and formed a federation known as Gran Colombia. When Quito withdrew
  in 1830, the traditional name was changed in favor of the "Republic
  of the Equator." Between 1904 and 1942, Ecuador lost territories in
  a series of conflicts with its neighbors. A border war with Peru
  that flared in 1995 was resolved in 1999. Although Ecuador marked 25
  years of civilian governance in 2004, the period has been marred by
  political instability. Seven presidents have governed Ecuador since
  1996.

Geography Ecuador


Location:
  Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the Equator,
  between Colombia and Peru

Geographic coordinates:
  2 00 S, 77 30 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 283,560 sq km
  land: 276,840 sq km
  water: 6,720 sq km
  note: includes Galapagos Islands

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Nevada

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,010 km
  border countries: Colombia 590 km, Peru 1,420 km

Coastline:
  2,237 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 100 nm from 2,500 meter isobath

Climate:
  tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations;
  tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands

Terrain:
  coastal plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands (sierra), and
  flat to rolling eastern jungle (oriente)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Chimborazo 6,267 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, fish, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 4.81%
  other: 89.48% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  8,650 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity; floods;
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; water pollution;
  pollution from oil production wastes in ecologically sensitive areas
  of the Amazon Basin and Galapagos Islands

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Cotopaxi in Andes is highest active volcano in world

People Ecuador


Population:
  13,547,510 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 33% (male 2,281,499/female 2,195,551)
  15-64 years: 61.9% (male 4,178,653/female 4,210,766)
  65 years and over: 5% (male 319,719/female 361,322) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23.6 years
  male: 23.1 years
  female: 24 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.5% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.29 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 22.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.42 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.42 years
  male: 73.55 years
  female: 79.43 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  21,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,700 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Ecuadorian(s)
  adjective: Ecuadorian

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%, Amerindian 25%, Spanish
  and others 7%, black 3%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 95%, other 5%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quechua)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 94%
  female: 91% (2003 est.)

Government Ecuador


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Ecuador
  conventional short form: Ecuador
  local long form: Republica del Ecuador
  local short form: Ecuador

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Quito
  geographic coordinates: 0 13 S, 78 30 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  22 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Azuay, Bolivar,
  Canar, Carchi, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Esmeraldas, Galapagos,
  Guayas, Imbabura, Loja, Los Rios, Manabi, Morona-Santiago, Napo,
  Orellana, Pastaza, Pichincha, Sucumbios, Tungurahua, Zamora-Chinchipe

Independence:
  24 May 1822 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (independence of Quito), 10 August (1809)

Constitution:
  10 August 1998

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal, compulsory for literate persons ages
  18-65, optional for other eligible voters

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Alfredo PALACIO (since 20 April 2005);
  Vice President Nicanor Alejandro SERRANO Aguilar (since 5 May 2005);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; former President Lucio GUTIERREZ was removed from office
  by congress effective 20 April 2005
  head of government: President Alfredo PALACIO (since 20 April 2005);
  Vice President Nicanor Alejandro SERRANO Aguilar (since 5 May 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: the president and vice president are elected on the same
  ticket by popular vote for a four-year term (may not serve
  consecutive terms); election last held 15 October 2006 with a runoff
  election scheduled for 26 November 2006 (next to be held October
  2010)
  election results: results of the 15 October 2006 election; percent
  of vote - Alvaro NOBOA 26.8%; Rafael CORREA 22.8%; Gilmar GUTIERREZ
  17.4%; Leon ROLDOS Aguilera 14.8%; Cynthia VITERI 9.6%; note - a
  runoff election will be held 26 November 2006 between NOBOA and
  CORREA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (100 seats;
  members are popularly elected by province to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 October 2002 (next to be held October 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PSC 25, ID 16, PRE 15, PRIAN 10, PSP 9, Pachakutik Movement 6, MPD
  5, DP 4, PS-FA 3, independents 7; note - defections by members of
  National Congress are commonplace, resulting in frequent changes in
  the numbers of seats held by the various parties

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (according to the Constitution, new
  justices are elected by the full Supreme Court; in December 2004,
  however, Congress successfully replaced the entire court via a
  simple-majority resolution)

Political parties and leaders:
  Concentration of Popular Forces or CFP [Averroes BUCARAM];
  Democratic Left or ID [Guillermo LANDAZURI]; National Action
  Institutional Renewal Party or PRIAN [Alvaro NOBOA]; Pachakutik
  Movement [Gilberto TALAHUA]; Patriotic Society Party or PSP [Lucio
  GUTIERREZ Borbua]; Popular Democracy or DP [Dr. Juan Manuel
  FUERTES]; Popular Democratic Movement or MPD [Gustavo TERAN Acosta];
  Radical Alfarista Front or FRA [Fabian ALARCON, director]; Roldosist
  Party or PRE [Abdala BUCARAM Ortiz, director]; Social Christian
  Party or PSC [Leon FEBRES CORDERO]; Socialist Party - Broad Front or
  PS-FA [Victor GRANDA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or CONAIE
  [Luis MACAS, president]; Coordinator of Social Movements or CMS [F.
  Napoleon SANTOS]; Federation of Indigenous Evangelists of Ecuador or
  FEINE [Marco MURILLO, president]; National Federation of Indigenous
  Afro-Ecuatorianos and Peasants or FENOCIN [Pedro DE LA CRUZ,
  president]

International organization participation:
  CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH,
  NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Luis Benigno GALLEGOS Chiriboga
  chancery: 2535 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-7200
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-3482
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Jersey City (New Jersey),
  Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco,
  Washington, DC

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Linda L. JEWELL
  embassy: Avenida 12 de Octubre y Avenida Patria, Quito
  mailing address: APO AA 34039
  telephone: [593] (2) 256-2890
  FAX: [593] (2) 250-2052
  consulate(s) general: Guayaquil

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double width), blue, and red
  with the coat of arms superimposed at the center of the flag;
  similar to the flag of Colombia, which is shorter and does not bear
  a coat of arms

Economy Ecuador


Economy - overview:
  Ecuador has substantial petroleum resources, which have accounted
  for 40% of the country's export earnings and one-third of central
  government budget revenues in recent years. Consequently,
  fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic
  impact. In the late 1990s, Ecuador suffered its worst economic
  crisis, with natural disasters and sharp declines in world petroleum
  prices driving Ecuador's economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP
  contracted by more than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly.
  The banking system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its
  external debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70%
  in 1999, and, on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government
  announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted
  MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta
  failed to garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took
  over the presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series of
  structural reforms that also provided the framework for the adoption
  of the US dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the
  economy, and growth returned to its pre-crisis levels in the years
  that followed. Under the administration of Lucio GUTIERREZ - January
  2003 to April 2005 - Ecuador benefited from higher world petroleum
  prices. However, the government under Alfredo PALACIO has reversed
  economic reforms that reduced Ecuador's vulnerability to petroleum
  price swings and financial crises, allowing the central government
  greater access to oil windfalls and disbursing surplus retirement
  funds.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $57.23 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $30.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 61.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.6 million (urban) (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 24%
  services: 68% (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  10.7% official rate; but underemployment of 47% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  41% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 32%
  note: data for urban households only (October 2003)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  42
  note: data are for urban households (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $8.822 billion
  expenditures: planned $8.153 billion; including capital expenditures
  of $1.6 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  40.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coffee, cocoa, rice, potatoes, manioc (tapioca),
  plantains, sugarcane; cattle, sheep, pigs, beef, pork, dairy
  products; balsa wood; fish, shrimp

Industries:
  petroleum, food processing, textiles, wood products, chemicals

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  11.27 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 81%
  hydro: 19%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  10.55 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  65 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  140 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  493,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  155,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  387,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.512 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  9.769 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-566 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $9.224 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, bananas, cut flowers, shrimp

Exports - partners:
  US 51.1%, Peru 8%, Germany 4.4%, Colombia 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.436 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  vehicles, medicinal products, telecommunications equipment,
  electricity

Imports - partners:
  US 22.3%, Colombia 14.9%, Venezuela 7.8%, Brazil 6%, China 5.3%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.148 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $18.09 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $216 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  25,000 (2005), 25,000 (2004), 25,000 (2003), 25,000 (2002), 25,000
  (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Ecuador


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,701,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  6.246 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: generally elementary but being expanded
  domestic: facilities generally inadequate and unreliable
  international: country code - 593; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 392, FM 35, shortwave 29 (2001)

Radios:
  5 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  7 (plus 14 repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  2.5 million (2001)

Internet country code:
  .ec

Internet hosts:
  19,027 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  31 (2001)

Internet users:
  616,000 (2005)

Transportation Ecuador


Airports:
  359 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 98
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 261
  914 to 1,523 m: 33
  under 914 m: 228 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  extra heavy crude 578 km; gas 71 km; oil 1,386 km; refined products
  1,185 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 966 km
  narrow gauge: 966 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 43,197 km
  paved: 7,287 km
  unpaved: 35,910 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,500 km (most inaccessible) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 31 ships (1000 GRT or over) 184,819 GRT/300,339 DWT
  by type: chemical tanker 1, liquefied gas 1, passenger 7, petroleum
  tanker 21, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Norway 1, Paraguay 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Georgia 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, La Libertad, Manta, Puerto Bolivar

Military Ecuador


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes naval infantry, naval aviation, coast guard),
  Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Ecuatoriana, FAE)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age for conscript military service; 12-month service
  obligation (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 2,792,770
  females age 20-49: 2,849,519 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 2,338,428
  females age 20-49: 2,380,327 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 133,922
  females age 20-49: 129,758 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $650 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Ecuador


Disputes - international:
  organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia penetrate across
  Ecuador's shared border and caused over 20,000 refugees to flee into
  Ecuador in 2004

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 8,270 (Colombia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  significant transit country for cocaine originating in Colombia and
  Peru; importer of precursor chemicals used in production of illicit
  narcotics; attractive location for cash-placement by drug
  traffickers laundering money because of dollarization and weak
  anti-money-laundering regime; increased activity on the northern
  frontier by trafficking groups and Colombian insurgents


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Egypt

Introduction Egypt


Background:
  The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled
  with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west,
  allowed for the development of one of the world's great
  civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C., and a series
  of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last
  native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were
  replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who
  introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who
  ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the
  Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the
  conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the
  completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important
  world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt.
  Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of
  Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman
  Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in
  1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The
  completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake
  Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the
  agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the
  largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on
  the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The
  government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium
  through economic reform and massive investment in communications and
  physical infrastructure.

Geography Egypt


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and
  the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the
  Asian Sinai Peninsula

Geographic coordinates:
  27 00 N, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,001,450 sq km
  land: 995,450 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,665 km
  border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 266 km, Libya 1,115 km,
  Sudan 1,273 km

Coastline:
  2,450 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters

Terrain:
  vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m
  highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone,
  gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc

Land use:
  arable land: 2.92%
  permanent crops: 0.5%
  other: 96.58% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  34,220 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods, landslides;
  hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring; dust storms,
  sandstorms

Environment - current issues:
  agricultural land being lost to urbanization and windblown sands;
  increasing soil salination below Aswan High Dam; desertification;
  oil pollution threatening coral reefs, beaches, and marine habitats;
  other water pollution from agricultural pesticides, raw sewage, and
  industrial effluents; very limited natural fresh water resources
  away from the Nile, which is the only perennial water source; rapid
  growth in population overstraining the Nile and natural resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between Africa and
  remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, a sea link
  between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition
  to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics;
  dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues;
  prone to influxes of refugees

People Egypt


Population:
  78,887,007 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 13,172,641/female 12,548,346)
  15-64 years: 62.9% (male 25,102,754/female 24,519,698)
  65 years and over: 4.5% (male 1,510,280/female 2,033,288) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 24.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.75% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.21 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 31.33 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 30.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.29 years
  male: 68.77 years
  female: 73.93 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  12,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  700 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Egyptian(s)
  adjective: Egyptian

Ethnic groups:
  Egyptian 98%, Berber, Nubian, Bedouin, and Beja 1%, Greek,
  Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) 1%

Religions:
  Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Coptic 9%, other Christian 1%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated
  classes

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 57.7%
  male: 68.3%
  female: 46.9% (2003 est.)

Government Egypt


Country name:
  conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt
  conventional short form: Egypt
  local long form: Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah
  local short form: Misr
  former: United Arab Republic (with Syria)

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Cairo
  geographic coordinates: 30 03 N, 31 15 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in April; ends last
  Thursday in September

Administrative divisions:
  26 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ad Daqahliyah,
  Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah, Al
  Iskandariyah, Al Isma'iliyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya, Al
  Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, As Suways, Ash Sharqiyah,
  Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Sa'id, Dumyat, Janub Sina', Kafr ash
  Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina', Suhaj

Independence:
  28 February 1922 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Revolution Day, 23 July (1952)

Constitution:
  11 September 1971; amended 22 May 1980 and 25 May 2005

Legal system:
  based on English common law, Islamic law, and Napoleonic codes;
  judicial review by Supreme Court and Council of State (oversees
  validity of administrative decisions); accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK (since 14 October
  1981)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF (since 9 July 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term (no
  term limits); note - a national referendum in May 2005 approved a
  constitutional amendment that changed the presidential election to a
  multicandidate popular vote; previously the president was nominated
  by the People's Assembly and the nomination was validated by a
  national, popular referendum; last referendum held 26 September
  1999; first election under terms of constitutional amendment held 7
  September 2005; next election scheduled for 2011
  election results: Hosni MUBARAK reelected president; percent of vote
  - Hosni MUBARAK 88.6%, Ayman NOUR 7.6%, Noman GOMAA 2.9%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral system consists of the People's Assembly or Majlis
  al-Sha'b (454 seats; 444 elected by popular vote, 10 appointed by
  the president; members serve five-year terms) and the Advisory
  Council or Majlis al-Shura - which functions only in a consultative
  role (264 seats; 176 elected by popular vote, 88 appointed by the
  president; members serve six-year terms; mid-term elections for half
  of the elected members)
  elections: People's Assembly - three-phase voting - last held 7 and
  20 November, 1 December 2005;(next to be held November-December
  2010); Advisory Council - last held May-June 2004 (next to be held
  May-June 2007)
  election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NDP 311, NWP 6, Tagammu 2, Tomorrow Party 1,
  independents 112 (12 seats to be determined by rerun elections, 10
  seats appointed by President); Advisory Council - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Constitutional Court

Political parties and leaders:
  National Democratic Party or NDP [Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK (governing
  party)]; National Progressive Unionist Grouping or Tagammu [Rifaat
  EL-SAID]; New Wafd Party or NWP [Mahmoud ABAZA]; Tomorrow Party
  [Naji AL-GHATRIFI]
  note: formation of political parties must be approved by the
  government

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  despite a constitutional ban against religious-based parties, the
  technically illegal Muslim Brotherhood constitutes Hosni MUBARAK's
  potentially most significant political opposition; MUBARAK tolerated
  limited political activity by the Brotherhood for his first two
  terms, but moved more aggressively since then to block its
  influence; civic society groups are sanctioned, but constrained in
  practical terms; trade unions and professional associations are
  officially sanctioned

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, BSEC (observer), CAEU, COMESA,
  EBRD, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM,
  OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, ONUB, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nabil FAHMY
  chancery: 3521 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 895-5400
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-4319
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Francis J. RICCIARDONE, Jr.
  embassy: 8 Kamal El Din Salah St., Garden City, Cairo
  mailing address: Unit 64900, Box 15, APO AE 09839-4900
  telephone: [20] (2) 797-3300
  FAX: [20] (2) 797-3200

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the
  national emblem (a gold Eagle of Saladin facing the hoist side with
  a shield superimposed on its chest above a scroll bearing the name
  of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; design is
  based on the Arab Liberation flag and similar to the flag of Syria,
  which has two green stars, Iraq, which has three green stars (plus
  an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line centered in the white
  band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band

Economy Egypt


Economy - overview:
  Occupying the northeast corner of the African continent, Egypt is
  bisected by the highly fertile Nile valley, where most economic
  activity takes place. In the last 30 years, the government has
  reformed the highly centralized economy it inherited from President
  NASSER. In 2005, Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF reduced personal and
  corporate tax rates, reduced energy subsidies, and privatized
  several enterprises. The stock market boomed, and GDP grew nearly
  5%. Despite these achievements, the government has failed to raise
  living standards for the average Egyptian, and has had to continue
  providing subsidies for basic necessities. The subsidies have
  contributed to a growing budget deficit - more than 8% of GDP in
  2005 - and represent a significant drain on the economy. Foreign
  direct investment remains low. To achieve higher GDP growth the
  NAZIF government will need to continue its aggressive pursuit of
  reform, especially in the energy sector. Egypt's export sectors -
  particularly natural gas - have bright prospects.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $304.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $92.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 14.9%
  industry: 35.7%
  services: 49.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  21.34 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 32%
  industry: 17%
  services: 51% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  20% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.4%
  highest 10%: 25% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34.4 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $20.29 billion
  expenditures: $27.68 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.7
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  104.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruits, vegetables; cattle, water
  buffalo, sheep, goats

Industries:
  textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals, pharmaceuticals,
  hydrocarbons, construction, cement, metals, light manufactures

Industrial production growth rate:
  5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  84.26 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 81%
  hydro: 19%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  78.16 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  450 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  250 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  700,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  566,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  134,000 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  2.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.9 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $2.207 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $14.33 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal products,
  chemicals

Exports - partners:
  US 13.4%, Italy 9.4%, Spain 7.7%, Syria 5.7%, Germany 4.9%, France
  4.9%, UK 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $24.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, wood products, fuels

Imports - partners:
  US 10.6%, Germany 7%, China 6.5%, France 6.3%, Italy 5.7%, Saudi
  Arabia 4.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $21.39 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $35.26 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $1.12 billion (2002)

Currency (code):
  Egyptian pound (EGP)

Currency code:
  EGP

Exchange rates:
  Egyptian pounds per US dollar - 5.78 (2005), 6.1962 (2004), 5.8509
  (2003), 4.4997 (2002), 3.973 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Egypt


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,396,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  14,045,134 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: large system; underwent extensive upgrading
  during 1990s and is reasonably modern; Internet access and cellular
  service are available
  domestic: principal centers at Alexandria, Cairo, Al Mansurah,
  Ismailia, Suez, and Tanta are connected by coaxial cable and
  microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 20; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean), 1 Arabsat, and 1
  Inmarsat; 5 coaxial submarine cables; tropospheric scatter to Sudan;
  microwave radio relay to Israel; a participant in Medarabtel

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 42 (plus 15 repeaters), FM 14, shortwave 3 (1999)

Radios:
  20.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  98 (September 1995)

Televisions:
  7.7 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .eg

Internet hosts:
  2,254 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  50 (2000)

Internet users:
  5 million (2005)

Transportation Egypt


Airports:
  88 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 72
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 38
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 16
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 464 km; condensate/gas 94 km; gas 6,021 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 897 km; oil 5,120 km; oil/gas/water 36 km; refined
  products 897 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,063 km
  standard gauge: 5,063 km 1.435-m gauge (62 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 64,000 km
  paved: 49,984 km
  unpaved: 14,016 km (1999)

Waterways:
  3,500 km
  note: includes Nile River, Lake Nasser, Alexandria-Cairo Waterway,
  and numerous smaller canals in delta; Suez Canal (193.5 km including
  approaches) navigable by oceangoing vessels drawing up to 17.68 m
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 76 ships (1000 GRT or over) 987,524 GRT/1,467,139 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 14, cargo 33, container 2, passenger/cargo 5,
  petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 9
  foreign-owned: 9 (Denmark 1, Greece 6, Lebanon 2)
  registered in other countries: 49 (Bolivia 2, Cambodia 8, Georgia 8,
  Honduras 4, North Korea 2, Panama 16, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 3, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Saudi Arabia 2, Sierra Leone
  1, Thailand 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Alexandria, Damietta, El Dekheila, Port Said, Suez, Zeit

Military Egypt


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Command

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for conscript military service; three-year service
  obligation (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,347,560
  females age 18-49: 17,683,904 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,540,234
  females age 18-49: 14,939,378 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 802,920
  females age 18-49: 764,176 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2.44 billion (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (2004)

Transnational Issues Egypt


Disputes - international:
  Egypt and Sudan retain claims to administer the two triangular
  areas that extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along
  the 22nd Parallel, but have withdrawn their military presence; Egypt
  is developing the Hala'ib Triangle north of the Treaty line; since
  the attack on Taba and other Egyptian resort towns on the Red Sea in
  October 2004, Egypt vigilantly monitors the Sinai and borders with
  Israel and the Gaza Strip; Egypt does not extend domestic asylum to
  some 70,000 persons who identify themselves as Palestinians but who
  largely lack UNRWA assistance and, until recently, UNHCR recognition
  as refugees

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 70,245 (Palestinian Territories)
  14,904 (Sudan) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Egypt is a transit country for women trafficked
  from Eastern Europe to Israel for the purpose of sexual
  exploitation; these women generally arrive as tourists and are
  subsequently trafficked through the Sinai Desert by Bedouin tribes;
  men and women from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are believed to be
  trafficked through the Sinai Desert to Israel and Europe for labor
  exploitation; some Egyptian children from rural areas are trafficked
  within the country to work as domestic servants or laborers in the
  agriculture industry
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Egypt is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to
  address trafficking over the past year, particularly in the area of
  law enforcement

Illicit drugs:
  transit point for Southwest Asian and Southeast Asian heroin and
  opium moving to Europe, Africa, and the US; transit stop for
  Nigerian couriers; concern as money-laundering site due to lax
  enforcement of financial regulations


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@El Salvador

Introduction El Salvador


Background:
  El Salvador achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and from the
  Central American Federation in 1839. A 12-year civil war, which cost
  about 75,000 lives, was brought to a close in 1992 when the
  government and leftist rebels signed a treaty that provided for
  military and political reforms.

Geography El Salvador


Location:
  Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between
  Guatemala and Honduras

Geographic coordinates:
  13 50 N, 88 55 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 21,040 sq km
  land: 20,720 sq km
  water: 320 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Land boundaries:
  total: 545 km
  border countries: Guatemala 203 km, Honduras 342 km

Coastline:
  307 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; rainy season (May to October); dry season (November to
  April); tropical on coast; temperate in uplands

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with narrow coastal belt and central plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro El Pital 2,730 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, geothermal power, petroleum, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 31.37%
  permanent crops: 11.88%
  other: 56.75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  450 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  known as the Land of Volcanoes; frequent and sometimes destructive
  earthquakes and volcanic activity; extremely susceptible to
  hurricanes

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution; contamination of
  soils from disposal of toxic wastes

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  smallest Central American country and only one without a coastline
  on Caribbean Sea

People El Salvador


Population:
  6,822,378 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.3% (male 1,265,080/female 1,212,216)
  15-64 years: 58.5% (male 1,900,372/female 2,092,251)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 156,292/female 196,167) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 20.7 years
  female: 22.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.72% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  26.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.78 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 24.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.49 years
  male: 67.88 years
  female: 75.28 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  29,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  2,200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Salvadoran(s)
  adjective: Salvadoran

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo 90%, white 9%, Amerindian 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 83%, other 17%
  note: there is extensive activity by Protestant groups throughout
  the country; by the end of 1992, there were an estimated 1 million
  Protestant evangelicals in El Salvador

Languages:
  Spanish, Nahua (among some Amerindians)

Literacy:
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 80.2%
  male: 82.8%
  female: 77.7% (2003 est.)

Government El Salvador


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of El Salvador
  conventional short form: El Salvador
  local long form: Republica de El Salvador
  local short form: El Salvador

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: San Salvador
  geographic coordinates: 13 42 N, 89 12 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Ahuachapan, Cabanas, Chalatenango, Cuscatlan, La Libertad, La Paz,
  La Union, Morazan, San Miguel, San Salvador, San Vicente, Santa Ana,
  Sonsonate, Usulutan

Independence:
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Constitution:
  23 December 1983

Legal system:
  based on civil and Roman law with traces of common law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez (since 1 June
  2004); Vice President Ana Vilma DE ESCOBAR (since 1 June 2004); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez (since 1
  June 2004); Vice President Ana Vilma DE ESCOBAR (since 1 June 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers selected by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 21
  March 2004 (next to be held March 2009)
  election results: Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez elected president;
  percent of vote - Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez (ARENA) 57.7%, Schafik
  HANDAL (FMLN) 35.6%, Hector SILVA (CDU-PDC) 3.9%, other 2.8%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa (84 seats;
  members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve three-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 12 March 2006 (next to be held in March 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  ARENA 34, FMLN 32, PCN 10, PDC 6, CD 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are selected by the
  Legislative Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Rodolfo PARKER, secretary
  general]; Democratic Convergence or CD (formerly United Democratic
  Center or CDU) [Ruben ZAMORA, secretary general]; Farabundo Marti
  National Liberation Front or FMLN [Medardo GONZALEZ, coordinator
  general]; National Conciliation Party or PCN [Ciro CRUZ ZEPEDA,
  president]; National Republican Alliance or ARENA [Elias Antonio
  SACA Gonzalez]; Popular Social Christian Party or PPSC [Rene
  AGUILUZ]; Revolutionary Democratic Front or FDR [Julio Cesar
  HERNANDEZ Carcamo, coordinator general]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  labor organizations - Electrical Industry Union of El Salvador or
  SIES; Federation of the Construction Industry, Similar Transport and
  other activities, or FESINCONTRANS; National Confederation of
  Salvadoran Workers or CNTS; National Union of Salvadoran Workers or
  UNTS; Port Industry Union of El Salvador or SIPES; Salvadoran Union
  of Ex-Petrolleros and Peasant Workers or USEPOC; Salvadoran Workers
  Central or CTS; Workers Union of Electrical Corporation or STCEL;
  business organizations - National Association of Small Enterprise or
  ANEP; Salvadoran Assembly Industry Association or ASIC; Salvadoran
  Industrial Association or ASI

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, LAES, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (observer), OAS,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rene Antonio LEON Rodriguez
  chancery: 2308 California Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-9671
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-3834
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Dallas, Elizabeth (New Jersey),
  Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (2), Nogales
  (Arizona), Santa Ana (California), San Francisco, Washington, DC
  consulate(s): Boston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador H. Douglas BARCLAY
  embassy: Final Boulevard Santa Elena Sur, Antiguo Cuscatlan, La
  Libertad, San Salvador
  mailing address: Unit 3116, APO AA 34023
  telephone: [503] 2278-4444
  FAX: [503] 2278-5522

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with
  the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of
  arms features a round emblem encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE EL
  SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL; similar to the flag of Nicaragua,
  which has a different coat of arms centered in the white band - it
  features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on
  top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; also similar to the flag of
  Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X pattern
  centered in the white band

Economy El Salvador


Economy - overview:
  The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador has the third
  largest economy, but growth has been minimal in recent years. Hoping
  to stimulate the sluggish economy, the government is striving to
  open new export markets, encourage foreign investment, and modernize
  the tax and healthcare systems. Implementation in 2006 of the
  Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which El
  Salvador was the first to ratify, is viewed as a key policy to help
  achieve these objectives. The trade deficit has been offset by
  annual remittances from Salvadorans living abroad - 16.6% of GDP in
  2005 - and external aid. With the adoption of the US dollar as its
  currency in 2001, El Salvador has lost control over monetary policy
  and must concentrate on maintaining a disciplined fiscal policy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $31.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $16.52 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.9%
  industry: 30.2%
  services: 59.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.81 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 17.1%
  industry: 17.1%
  services: 65.8% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6.5% official rate; but the economy has much underemployment (2005
  est.)

Population below poverty line:
  36.1% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.4%
  highest 10%: 39.3% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  52.5 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  15.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.84 billion
  expenditures: $3.167 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2006 est.)

Public debt:
  46.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, sugar, corn, rice, beans, oilseed, cotton, sorghum; beef,
  dairy products; shrimp

Industries:
  food processing, beverages, petroleum, chemicals, fertilizer,
  textiles, furniture, light metals

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  4.158 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 44%
  hydro: 30.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 25.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.45 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  91 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  473 million kWh (2004)

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

Oil - consumption:
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-778 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.586 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp, textiles,
  chemicals, electricity

Exports - partners:
  US 61%, Guatemala 12.1%, Honduras 7.4%, Nicaragua 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $6.678 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials, consumer goods, capital goods, fuels, foodstuffs,
  petroleum, electricity

Imports - partners:
  US 43.4%, Guatemala 8.2%, Mexico 7.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.833 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $8.087 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $125 million of which, $53 million from US (2003)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar became El Salvador's currency in 2001

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications El Salvador


Telephones - main lines in use:
  971,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.412 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system
  international: country code - 503; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave
  System

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 61 (plus 24 repeaters), FM 30, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  2.75 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (1997)

Televisions:
  600,000 (1990)

Internet country code:
  .sv

Internet hosts:
  4,682 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  4 (2000)

Internet users:
  637,100 (2005)

Transportation El Salvador


Airports:
  75 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 71
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 56 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 283 km
  narrow gauge: 283 km 0.914-m gauge
  note: length of operational route reduced from 562 km to 283 km by
  disuse and lack of maintenance (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 10,029 km
  paved: 1,986 km
  unpaved: 8,043 km (1999)

Waterways:
  Rio Lempa partially navigable (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Acajutla, Puerto Cutuco

Military El Salvador


Military branches:
  Salvadoran Army (ES), Salvadoran Navy (FNES), Salvadoran Air Force
  (Fuerza Aerea Salvadorena, FAS) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, with 12-month
  service obligation; 16 years of age for volunteers (2002)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,391,278
  females age 18-49: 1,542,323 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 960,315
  females age 18-49: 1,310,466 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 70,286
  females age 18-49: 69,526 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $161.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues El Salvador


Disputes - international:
  in 1992, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the
  delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El
  Salvador-Honduras boundary, but despite Organization of American
  States (OAS) intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full
  demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling
  advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf
  of Fonseca advocating Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador
  continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ
  decision, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine; small amounts of marijuana
  produced for local consumption; domestic cocaine abuse on the rise


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Equatorial Guinea

Introduction Equatorial Guinea


Background:
  Equatorial Guinea gained independence in 1968 after 190 years of
  Spanish rule. This tiny country, composed of a mainland portion plus
  five inhabited islands, is one of the smallest on the African
  continent. President Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO has ruled the
  country since 1979 when he seized power in a coup. Although
  nominally a constitutional democracy since 1991, the 1996 and 2002
  presidential elections - as well as the 1999 and 2004 legislative
  elections - were widely seen as flawed. The president exerts almost
  total control over the political system and has discouraged
  political opposition. Equatorial Guinea has experienced rapid
  economic growth due to the discovery of large offshore oil reserves,
  and in the last decade has become Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest
  oil exporter. Despite the country's economic windfall from oil
  production resulting in a massive increase in government revenue in
  recent years, there have been few improvements in the population's
  living standards.

Geography Equatorial Guinea


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra, between Cameroon and
  Gabon

Geographic coordinates:
  2 00 N, 10 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 28,051 sq km
  land: 28,051 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 539 km
  border countries: Cameroon 189 km, Gabon 350 km

Coastline:
  296 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; always hot, humid

Terrain:
  coastal plains rise to interior hills; islands are volcanic

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico Basile 3,008 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, timber, gold, bauxite, diamonds, tantalum,
  sand and gravel, clay

Land use:
  arable land: 4.63%
  permanent crops: 3.57%
  other: 91.8% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  violent windstorms, flash floods

Environment - current issues:
  tap water is not potable; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  insular and continental regions widely separated

People Equatorial Guinea


Population:
  540,109 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.7% (male 113,083/female 111,989)
  15-64 years: 54.5% (male 141,914/female 152,645)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 8,886/female 11,592) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.8 years
  male: 18.2 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.05% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  35.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  15.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 89.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 95.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 49.54 years
  male: 48 years
  female: 51.13 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3.4% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5,900 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  370 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Equatorial Guinean(s) or Equatoguinean(s)
  adjective: Equatorial Guinean or Equatoguinean

Ethnic groups:
  Bioko (primarily Bubi, some Fernandinos), Rio Muni (primarily
  Fang), Europeans less than 1,000, mostly Spanish

Religions:
  nominally Christian and predominantly Roman Catholic, pagan
  practices

Languages:
  Spanish (official), French (official), pidgin English, Fang, Bubi,
  Ibo

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.7%
  male: 93.3%
  female: 78.4% (2003 est.)

Government Equatorial Guinea


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Equatorial Guinea
  conventional short form: Equatorial Guinea
  local long form: Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial/Republique de Guinee
  equatoriale
  local short form: Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinee equatoriale
  former: Spanish Guinea

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Malabo
  geographic coordinates: 3 45 N, 8 47 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  7 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Annobon, Bioko
  Norte, Bioko Sur, Centro Sur, Kie-Ntem, Litoral, Wele-Nzas

Independence:
  12 October 1968 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 October (1968)

Constitution:
  approved by national referendum 17 November 1991; amended January
  1995

Legal system:
  partly based on Spanish civil law and tribal custom

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA
  MBASOGO (since 3 August 1979 when he seized power in a military coup)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ricardo Mangue Obama NFUBEA
  (since 14 August 2006); First Deputy Prime Minister Mercelino Oyono
  NTUTUMU (since 15 June 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 15 December 2002 (next to be
  held December 2009); prime minister and deputy prime ministers
  appointed by the president
  election results: Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO reelected president;
  percent of vote - Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO 97.1%, Celestino
  Bonifacio BACALE 2.2%; elections marred by widespread fraud

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of People's Representatives or Camara de
  Representantes del Pueblo (100 seats; members directly elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PDGE 98, CPDS 2
  note: Parliament has little power since the constitution vests all
  executive authority in the president

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Tribunal

Political parties and leaders:
  Convergence Party for Social Democracy or CPDS [Placido MIKO
  Abogo]; Democratic Party for Equatorial Guinea or PDGE [Teodoro
  OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO] (ruling party); Party for Progress of
  Equatorial Guinea or PPGE [Severo MOTO]; Popular Action of
  Equatorial Guinea or APGE [Miguel Esono EMAN]; Popular Union or UP
  [Andres Moises Bda ADA]; Progressive Democratic Alliance or ADP
  [Victorino Bolekia BONAY]; Union of Independent Democrats of UDI
  [Daniel OYONO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM,
  OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO,
  WIPO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Purificacion ANGUE ONDO
  chancery: 2020 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 518-5700
  FAX: [1] (202) 518-5252

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: the US ambassador to Cameroon is accredited to
  Equatorial Guinea
  embassy: adjacent to the golf course at the base of Mont Febe; note
  - relocated embassy is opened for limited functions; inquiries
  should continue to be directed to the US Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon
  mailing address: B.P. 817, Yaounde, Cameroon; US Embassy Yaounde, US
  Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-2520
  telephone: [237] 220 15 00
  FAX: [237] 220 16 20

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red with a
  blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side and the coat of arms
  centered in the white band; the coat of arms has six yellow
  six-pointed stars (representing the mainland and five offshore
  islands) above a gray shield bearing a silk-cotton tree and below
  which is a scroll with the motto UNIDAD, PAZ, JUSTICIA (Unity,
  Peace, Justice)

Economy Equatorial Guinea


Economy - overview:
  The discovery and exploitation of large oil reserves have
  contributed to dramatic economic growth in recent years. Forestry,
  farming, and fishing are also major components of GDP. Subsistence
  farming predominates. Although pre-independence Equatorial Guinea
  counted on cocoa production for hard currency earnings, the neglect
  of the rural economy under successive regimes has diminished
  potential for agriculture-led growth (the government has stated its
  intention to reinvest some oil revenue into agriculture). A number
  of aid programs sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF have been
  cut off since 1993, because of corruption and mismanagement. No
  longer eligible for concessional financing because of large oil
  revenues, the government has been trying to agree on a "shadow"
  fiscal management program with the World Bank and IMF. Businesses,
  for the most part, are owned by government officials and their
  family members. Undeveloped natural resources include titanium, iron
  ore, manganese, uranium, and alluvial gold. Growth remained strong
  in 2005, led by oil. Equatorial Guinea now has the second highest
  per capita income in the world, after Luxembourg.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $25.69 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.644 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  18.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $50,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 90.6%
  services: 6.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  NA

Unemployment rate:
  30% (1998 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  39.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.973 billion
  expenditures: $711.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  6.4% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cocoa, rice, yams, cassava (tapioca), bananas, palm oil
  nuts; livestock; timber

Industries:
  petroleum, fishing, sawmilling, natural gas

Industrial production growth rate:
  30% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  29.43 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 94.3%
  hydro: 5.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  27.37 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  420,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  563.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  1.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  36.81 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $264 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.727 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, methanol, timber, cocoa

Exports - partners:
  US 25.8%, China 22.9%, Spain 11.4%, Canada 7.7%, Taiwan 7.5%,
  Portugal 5.7%, Netherlands 5.5%, France 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.864 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum sector equipment, other equipment

Imports - partners:
  US 24.6%, Italy 20.7%, France 12.1%, Spain 10.8%, Cote d'Ivoire
  8.7%, UK 7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.103 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $353 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $33.8 million $NA

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Equatorial Guinea


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  96,900 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poor system with adequate government services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 240; international communications from
  Bata and Malabo to African and European countries; satellite earth
  station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 3, shortwave 5 (2002)

Radios:
  180,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  4,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gq

Internet hosts:
  19 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  5,000 (2005)

Transportation Equatorial Guinea


Airports:
  4 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 46 km; condensate/gas 5 km; gas 47 km; oil 31 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,880 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,745 GRT/3,434 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Malabo

Military Equatorial Guinea


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 104,563
  females age 18-49: 109,923 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 56,462
  females age 18-49: 59,260 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $152.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Equatorial Guinea


Disputes - international:
  in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement of
  Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf of
  Guinea, but a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an
  island at the mouth of the Ntem River, imprecisely defined maritime
  coordinates in the ICJ decision, and the unresolved Bakasi
  allocation contribute to the delay in implementation; UN has been
  pressing Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to pledge to resolve the
  sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and create a
  maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Equatorial Guinea is a transit and destination
  country for women and children trafficked for forced labor,
  involuntary domestic servitude, and commercial sexual exploitation
  from surrounding countries - primarily Benin, Nigeria, Mali, and
  Cameroon; victims work in the agricultural and commercial sectors of
  Malabo and Bata, where demand is high due to a booming oil sector;
  children work as farmhands, street vendors, or household servants;
  girls and women are also trafficked for commercial sexual
  exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Equatorial Guinea is placed on the
  Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide adequate evidence of
  concrete measures to address trafficking over the past year


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Eritrea

Introduction Eritrea


Background:
  Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation.
  Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later
  sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with
  Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was
  overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year
  border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN
  auspices in December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN peacekeeping
  operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone on
  the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to
  resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002 but final
  demarcation is on hold due to Ethiopian objections.

Geography Eritrea


Location:
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 39 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 121,320 sq km
  land: 121,320 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,626 km
  border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

Coastline:
  2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea 1,083 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter in the
  central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest June
  to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands

Terrain:
  dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending highlands,
  descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the northwest
  to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: near Kulul within the Denakil depression -75 m
  highest point: Soira 3,018 m

Natural resources:
  gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural gas, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 4.78%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 95.19% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  210 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent droughts; locust swarms

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing; loss of
  infrastructure from civil warfare

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest shipping
  lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia along the
  Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993

People Eritrea


Population:
  4,786,994 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44% (male 1,059,458/female 1,046,955)
  15-64 years: 52.5% (male 1,244,153/female 1,268,189)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 82,112/female 86,127) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.8 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.47% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  34.33 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 46.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 40.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 59.03 years
  male: 57.44 years
  female: 60.66 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  60,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  6,300 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Eritrean(s)
  adjective: Eritrean

Ethnic groups:
  Tigrinya 50%, Tigre and Kunama 40%, Afar 4%, Saho (Red Sea coast
  dwellers) 3%, other 3%

Religions:
  Muslim, Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, Protestant

Languages:
  Afar, Arabic, Tigre and Kunama, Tigrinya, other Cushitic languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 58.6%
  male: 69.9%
  female: 47.6% (2003 est.)

Government Eritrea


Country name:
  conventional long form: State of Eritrea
  conventional short form: Eritrea
  local long form: Hagere Ertra
  local short form: Ertra
  former: Eritrea Autonomous Region in Ethiopia

Government type:
  transitional government
  note: following a successful referendum on independence for the
  Autonomous Region of Eritrea on 23-25 April 1993, a National
  Assembly, composed entirely of the People's Front for Democracy and
  Justice or PFDJ, was established as a transitional legislature; a
  Constitutional Commission was also established to draft a
  constitution; ISAIAS Afworki was elected president by the
  transitional legislature; the constitution, ratified in May 1997,
  did not enter into effect, pending parliamentary and presidential
  elections; parliamentary elections had been scheduled in December
  2001, but were postponed indefinitely; currently the sole legal
  party is the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)

Capital:
  name: Asmara (Asmera)
  geographic coordinates: 15 20 N, 38 53 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 regions (zobatat, singular - zoba); Anseba, Debub (Southern),
  Debubawi K'eyih Bahri (Southern Red Sea), Gash Barka, Ma'akel
  (Central), Semenawi Keyih Bahri (Northern Red Sea)

Independence:
  24 May 1993 (from Ethiopia)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 24 May (1993)

Constitution:
  a transitional constitution, decreed on 19 May 1993, was replaced
  by a new constitution adopted on 23 May 1997, but not yet implemented

Legal system:
  primary basis is the Ethiopian legal code of 1957, with revisions;
  new civil, commercial, and penal codes have not yet been
  promulgated; also relies on customary and post-independence-enacted
  laws and, for civil cases involving Muslims, Sharia law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President ISAIAS Afworki (since 8 June 1993); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  and is head of the State Council and National Assembly
  head of government: President ISAIAS Afworki (since 8 June 1993);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government and is head of the State Council and National Assembly
  cabinet: State Council is the collective executive authority;
  members appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 8
  June 1993 (next election date uncertain as the National Assembly did
  not hold a presidential election in December 2001 as anticipated)
  election results: ISAIAS Afworki elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - ISAIAS Afworki 95%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (150 seats; term limits not
  established)
  elections: in May 1997, following the adoption of the new
  constitution, 75 members of the PFDJ Central Committee (the old
  Central Committee of the EPLF), 60 members of the 527-member
  Constituent Assembly, that had been established in 1997 to discuss
  and ratify the new constitution, and 15 representatives of Eritreans
  living abroad were formed into a Transitional National Assembly to
  serve as the country's legislative body until countrywide elections
  to a National Assembly were held; although only 75 of 150 members of
  the Transitional National Assembly were elected, the constitution
  stipulates that once past the transition stage, all members of the
  National Assembly will be elected by secret ballot of all eligible
  voters; National Assembly elections scheduled for December 2001 were
  postponed indefinitely

Judicial branch:
  High Court - regional, subregional, and village courts; also have
  military and special courts

Political parties and leaders:
  People's Front for Democracy and Justice or PFDJ, the only party
  recognized by the government [ISAIAS Afworki]; note - a National
  Assembly committee drafted a law on political parties in January
  2001, but the full National Assembly has not yet debated or voted on
  it

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Eritrean Islamic Jihad or EIJ (also including Eritrean Islamic
  Jihad Movement or EIJM (also known as the Abu Sihel Movement));
  Eritrean Islamic Salvation or EIS (also known as the Arafa
  Movement); Eritrean Liberation Front or ELF [ABDULLAH Muhammed];
  Eritrean National Alliance or ENA (a coalition including EIJ, EIS,
  ELF, and a number of ELF factions) [HERUY Tedla Biru]; Eritrean
  Public Forum or EPF [ARADOM Iyob]

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS (observer), IGAD, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW,
  PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador GHIRMAI Ghebremariam
  chancery: 1708 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-1991
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-1304
  consulate(s) general: Oakland (California)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Scott H. DELISI
  embassy: 179 Alaa Street, Asmara
  mailing address: P. O. Box 211, Asmara
  telephone: [291] (1) 120004
  FAX: [291] (1) 127584

Flag description:
  red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) dividing the flag
  into two right triangles; the upper triangle is green, the lower one
  is blue; a gold wreath encircling a gold olive branch is centered on
  the hoist side of the red triangle

Economy Eritrea


Economy - overview:
  Since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea has faced the
  economic problems of a small, desperately poor country. Like the
  economies of many African nations, the economy is largely based on
  subsistence agriculture, with 80% of the population involved in
  farming and herding. The Ethiopian-Eritrea war in 1998-2000 severely
  hurt Eritrea's economy. GDP growth fell to zero in 1999 and to
  -12.1% in 2000. The May 2000 Ethiopian offensive into northern
  Eritrea caused some $600 million in property damage and loss,
  including losses of $225 million in livestock and 55,000 homes. The
  attack prevented planting of crops in Eritrea's most productive
  region, causing food production to drop by 62%. Even during the war,
  Eritrea developed its transportation infrastructure, asphalting new
  roads, improving its ports, and repairing war-damaged roads and
  bridges. Since the war ended, the government has maintained a firm
  grip on the economy, expanding the use of the military and
  party-owned businesses to complete Eritrea's development agenda.
  Erratic rainfall and the delayed demobilization of agriculturalists
  from the military kept cereal production well below normal, holding
  down growth in 2002-05. Eritrea's economic future depends upon its
  ability to master social problems such as illiteracy, unemployment,
  and low skills, as well as the willingness to open its economy to
  private enterprise so that the diaspora's money and expertise can
  foster economic growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.471 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.244 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 10.2%
  industry: 25.4%
  services: 64.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  NA

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  25.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $248.8 million
  expenditures: $409.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sorghum, lentils, vegetables, corn, cotton, tobacco, coffee, sisal;
  livestock, goats; fish

Industries:
  food processing, beverages, clothing and textiles, salt, cement,
  commercial ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  270.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  251.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  4,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-291 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $33.58 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  livestock, sorghum, textiles, food, small manufactures (2000)

Exports - partners:
  Italy 39.3%, US 14.9%, Belarus 7.3%, Germany 5.8%, UK 4.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $676.5 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, petroleum products, food, manufactured goods (2000)

Imports - partners:
  Germany 22.2%, Italy 20.3%, France 15.9%, US 12.8%, Ireland 8.2%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $30 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $311 million (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $77 million (1999)

Currency (code):
  nakfa (ERN)

Currency code:
  ERN

Exchange rates:
  nakfa (ERN) per US dollar - 14.5 (2005), 13.788 (2004), 13.878
  (2003), 13.958 (2002), 11.31 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Eritrea


Telephones - main lines in use:
  37,700 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  40,400 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate
  domestic: inadequate; most telephones are in Asmara; government is
  seeking international tenders to improve the system (2002)
  international: country code - 291; note - international connections
  exist

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM NA, shortwave 2 (2000)

Radios:
  345,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2000)

Televisions:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .er

Internet hosts:
  1,088 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  70,000 (2005)

Transportation Eritrea


Airports:
  17 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 13
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 306 km
  narrow gauge: 306 km 0.950-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 4,010 km
  paved: 874 km
  unpaved: 3,136 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,506 GRT/23,649 DWT
  by type: cargo 3, liquefied gas 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll
  off 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Assab, Massawa

Military Eritrea


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 16 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 893,361
  females age 18-49: 891,662 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 555,553
  females age 18-49: 562,426 (2005)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 50,156
  females age 18-49: 49,746 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $220.1 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  17.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Eritrea


Disputes - international:
  Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by 2002 Ethiopia-Eritrea
  Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but despite
  international intervention, mutual animosities, accusations, and
  armed posturing have prevented demarcation; Ethiopia refuses to
  withdraw to the delimited boundary until claimed technical errors
  made by the EEBC that ignored "human geography" are addressed,
  including the award of Badme, the focus of the 1998-2000 war;
  Eritrea insists that the EEBC decision be implemented immediately
  without modifications; in 2005 Eritrea began severely restricting
  the operations of the UN Peacekeeping Mission to Ethiopia and
  Eritrea (UNMEE) monitoring the 25km-wide Temporary Security Zone in
  Eritrea since 2000; Sudan sustains over 110,000 Eritrean refugees
  and accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 59,000 (border war with Ethiopia from 1998-2000; most IDPs
  are near the central border region) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Estonia

Introduction Estonia


Background:
  After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule,
  Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated into
  the USSR in 1940, it regained its freedom in 1991, with the collapse
  of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in 1994,
  Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with
  Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Geography Estonia


Location:
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland,
  between Latvia and Russia

Geographic coordinates:
  59 00 N, 26 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 45,226 sq km
  land: 43,211 sq km
  water: 2,015 sq km
  note: includes 1,520 islands in the Baltic Sea

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Hampshire and Vermont combined

Land boundaries:
  total: 633 km
  border countries: Latvia 339 km, Russia 294 km

Coastline:
  3,794 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: limits fixed in coordination with
  neighboring states

Climate:
  maritime, wet, moderate winters, cool summers

Terrain:
  marshy, lowlands; flat in the north, hilly in the south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Suur Munamagi 318 m

Natural resources:
  oil shale, peat, phosphorite, clay, limestone, sand, dolomite,
  arable land, sea mud

Land use:
  arable land: 12.05%
  permanent crops: 0.35%
  other: 87.6% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  40 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  sometimes flooding occurs in the spring

Environment - current issues:
  air polluted with sulfur dioxide from oil-shale burning power
  plants in northeast; however, the amount of pollutants emitted to
  the air have fallen steadily, the emissions of 2000 were 80% less
  than in 1980; the amount of unpurified wastewater discharged to
  water bodies in 2000 was one twentieth the level of 1980; in
  connection with the start-up of new water purification plants, the
  pollution load of wastewater decreased; Estonia has more than 1,400
  natural and manmade lakes, the smaller of which in agricultural
  areas need to be monitored; coastal seawater is polluted in certain
  locations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ship Pollution,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the mainland terrain is flat, boggy, and partly wooded; offshore
  lie more than 1,500 islands

People Estonia


Population:
  1,324,333 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.2% (male 103,367/female 97,587)
  15-64 years: 67.6% (male 427,043/female 468,671)
  65 years and over: 17.2% (male 75,347/female 152,318) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 35.8 years
  female: 42.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.64% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.04 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.84 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.91 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.04 years
  male: 66.58 years
  female: 77.83 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  7,800 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Estonian(s)
  adjective: Estonian

Ethnic groups:
  Estonian 67.9%, Russian 25.6%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Belarusian 1.3%,
  Finn 0.9%, other 2.2% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Evangelical Lutheran 13.6%, Orthodox 12.8%, other Christian
  (including Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic,
  Pentecostal) 1.4%, unaffiliated 34.1%, other and unspecified 32%,
  none 6.1% (2000 census)

Languages:
  Estonian (official) 67.3%, Russian 29.7%, other 2.3%, unknown 0.7%
  (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.8% (2003 est.)

Government Estonia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Estonia
  conventional short form: Estonia
  local long form: Eesti Vabariik
  local short form: Eesti
  former: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Tallinn
  geographic coordinates: 59 25 N, 24 45 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  15 counties (maakonnad, singular - maakond): Harjumaa (Tallinn),
  Hiiumaa (Kardla), Ida-Virumaa (Johvi), Jarvamaa (Paide), Jogevamaa
  (Jogeva), Laanemaa (Haapsalu), Laane-Virumaa (Rakvere), Parnumaa
  (Parnu), Polvamaa (Polva), Raplamaa (Rapla), Saaremaa (Kuressaare),
  Tartumaa (Tartu), Valgamaa (Valga), Viljandimaa (Viljandi), Vorumaa
  (Voru)
  note: counties have the administrative center name following in
  parentheses

Independence:
  20 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 24 February (1918); note - 24 February 1918 is
  the date Estonia declared its independence from Soviet Russia; 20
  August 1991 is the date it declared its independence from the Soviet
  Union

Constitution:
  adopted 28 June 1992

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; no judicial review of legislative acts;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal for all Estonian citizens

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Toomas Hendrik ILVES (since 9 October
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Andrus ANSIP (since 12 April 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister,
  approved by Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); if a candidate does not secure
  two-thirds of the votes after three rounds of balloting in the
  Parliament, then an electoral assembly (made up of Parliament plus
  members of local governments) elects the president, choosing between
  the two candidates with the largest percentage of votes; election
  last held 23 September 2006 (next to be held fall of 2011); prime
  minister nominated by the president and approved by Parliament
  election results: Toomas Hendrik ILVES elected president on 23
  September 2006 by a 345-member electoral assembly; ILVES received
  174 votes to incumbent Arnold RUUTEL's 162; remaining 9 ballots left
  blank or invalid

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Riigikogu (101 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 2 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Center Party of Estonia
  25.4%, Res Publica 24.6%, Estonian Reform Party 17.7%, Estonian
  People's Union 13%, Pro Patria Union (Fatherland League) 7.3%
  People's Party Moodukad 7%; seats by party - Res Publica 26, Center
  Party 20, Reform Party 19, Estonian People's Union 13, Pro Patria
  Union 7, Social Democrats (formerly People's Party Moodukad) 6,
  non-affiliated (Social Liberals and independents) 10

Judicial branch:
  National Court (chairman appointed by Parliament for life)

Political parties and leaders:
  Center Party of Estonia (Keskerakond) [Edgar SAVISAAR, chairman];
  Estonian People's Union (Rahvaliit) [Villu REILJAN, chairman];
  Estonian Reform Party (Reformierakond) [Andrus ANSIP]; Estonian
  United Russian People's Party or EUVRP [Yevgeniy TOMBERG, chairman];
  Social Democratic Party (formerly People's Party Moodukad or
  Moderates) [Ivari PADAR, chairman]; Social Liberals (group of eight
  parliamentarians, former Center Party members) [Peeter KREITZBERG];
  Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica (Isamaa je Res Publica Liit)
  [Tonis LUKAS and Taavi VESKIMAGI, co-chairman]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new
  member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Juri LUIK
  chancery: 2131 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-0101
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-0108
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aldona Zofia WOS
  embassy: Kentmanni 20, 15099 Tallinn
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [372] 668-8100
  FAX: [372] 668-8134

Flag description:
  pre-1940 flag restored by Supreme Soviet in May 1990 - three equal
  horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white

Economy Estonia


Economy - overview:
  Estonia, as a new member of the World Trade Organization and the
  European Union, has transitioned effectively to a modern market
  economy with strong ties to the West, including the pegging of its
  currency to the euro. The economy benefits from strong electronics
  and telecommunications sectors and is greatly influenced by
  developments in Finland, Sweden, and Germany, three major trading
  partners. The current account deficit remains high; however, the
  state budget is essentially in balance, and public debt is low.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $23.34 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $12.19 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  10.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $17,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 66.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  670,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 11%
  industry: 20%
  services: 69% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.8% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP) 5% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.9%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  33 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.91 billion
  expenditures: $4.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  4.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, vegetables; livestock and dairy products; fish

Industries:
  engineering, electronics, wood and wood products, textile;
  information technology, telecommunications

Industrial production growth rate:
  9.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  10.304 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.8%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.26 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  2.141 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  347 million kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  6,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  60,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  54,000 bbl/day (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.42 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.42 billion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $-1.375 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $7.439 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 33%, wood and paper 15%, textiles 14%, food
  products 8%, furniture 7%, metals, chemical products (2001)

Exports - partners:
  Finland 26.5%, Sweden 12.9%, Latvia 8.8%, Russia 6.5%, Germany
  6.2%, Lithuania 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $9.189 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 33.5%, chemical products 11.6%, textiles
  10.3%, foodstuffs 9.4%, transportation equipment 8.9% (2001)

Imports - partners:
  Finland 19.8%, Germany 13.8%, Russia 9.4%, Sweden 8.8%, Lithuania
  6.1%, Latvia 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.948 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $11.03 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $735 million (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  Estonian kroon (EEK)

Currency code:
  EEK

Exchange rates:
  krooni per US dollar - 12.584 (2005), 12.596 (2004), 13.856 (2003),
  16.612 (2002), 17.478 (2001), note - the krooni is pegged to the euro

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Estonia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  442,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.445 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: foreign investment in the form of joint
  business ventures greatly improved telephone service; substantial
  fiber-optic cable systems carry telephone, TV, and radio traffic in
  the digital mode; Internet services are available throughout most of
  the country
  domestic: a wide range of high quality voice, data, and Internet
  services is available throughout the country
  international: country code - 372; fiber-optic cables to Finland,
  Sweden, Latvia, and Russia provide worldwide packet-switched
  service; two international switches are located in Tallinn (2001)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 98, shortwave 0 (2001)

Radios:
  1.01 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (2001)

Televisions:
  605,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ee

Internet hosts:
  52,241 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  38 (2001)

Internet users:
  690,000 (2005)

Transportation Estonia


Airports:
  24 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 859 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 958 km
  broad gauge: 958 km 1.520 m/1.524-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 56,849 km
  paved: 13,303 km (including 99 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 45,546 km (2003)

Waterways:
  500 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 35 ships (1000 GRT or over) 388,723 GRT/98,393 DWT
  by type: cargo 7, passenger/cargo 26, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Denmark 2, Norway 2)
  registered in other countries: 72 (Antigua and Barbuda 12, Bahamas
  1, Belize 3, Cyprus 6, Dominica 11, Isle of Man 2, Liberia 1, Malta
  4, Norway 1, Panama 3, Russia 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  25, Slovakia 1, Vanuatu 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Kopli, Kuivastu, Muuga, Tallinn, Virtsu

Military Estonia


Military branches:
  Estonian Defense Forces: Land Force, Navy, Air Force, Volunteer
  Defense League (Kaitseliit, KL) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  compulsory military service for men between 19 and 28; conscription
  lasts 11 months for junior NCOs and reserve platoon leaders; reserve
  officers and designated specialists have a different conscript
  service obligation; Estonia has committed to retaining conscription
  for men up to 2010 and, unlike Latvia and Lithuania, has no plan to
  transition to a contract armed forces; 17 years of age for
  volunteers; reserve commitment up to the age of 60 (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 291,696
  females age 18-49: 304,961 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 200,382 (in 2004, 51% of the young men called up
  for service were determined to be unfit; main obstacles to
  conscription were psychiatric and behavioral)
  females age 18-49: 250,351 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males: 11,146
  females age 18-49: 10,605 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $155 million (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2% (2002 est.)

Transnational Issues Estonia


Disputes - international:
  in 2005, Russia refuses to sign the 1996 technical border agreement
  with Estonia when Estonia prepares a unilateral declaration
  referencing Soviet occupation and territorial losses; Russia demands
  better accommodation of Russian-speaking population in Estonia;
  Estonian citizen groups continue to press for realignment of the
  boundary based on the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty that would bring the
  now divided ethnic Setu people and parts of the Narva region within
  Estonia; as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, Estonia must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for opiates and cannabis from Southwest Asia
  and the Caucasus via Russia, cocaine from Latin America to Western
  Europe and Scandinavia, and synthetic drugs from Western Europe to
  Scandinavia; increasing domestic drug abuse problem; possible
  precursor manufacturing and/or trafficking; potential money
  laundering related to organized crime and drug trafficking is a
  concern, as is possible use of the gambling sector to launder funds


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ethiopia

Introduction Ethiopia


Background:
  Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian monarchy
  maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the exception of the
  1936-41 Italian occupation during World War II. In 1974, a military
  junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE (who had ruled since
  1930) and established a socialist state. Torn by bloody coups,
  uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee problems, the
  regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces,
  the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). A
  constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first multiparty
  elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea late in the
  1990's ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. Final demarcation
  of the boundary is currently on hold due to Ethiopian objections to
  an international commission's finding requiring it to surrender
  territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.

Geography Ethiopia


Location:
  Eastern Africa, west of Somalia

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 N, 38 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,127,127 sq km
  land: 1,119,683 sq km
  water: 7,444 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,328 km
  border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea 912 km, Kenya 861 km,
  Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation

Terrain:
  high plateau with central mountain range divided by Great Rift
  Valley

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Denakil Depression -125 m
  highest point: Ras Dejen 4,620 m

Natural resources:
  small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural gas,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 10.01%
  permanent crops: 0.65%
  other: 89.34% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,900 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to earthquakes,
  volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; water
  shortages in some areas from water-intensive farming and poor
  management

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked - entire coastline along the Red Sea was lost with the
  de jure independence of Eritrea on 24 May 1993; the Blue Nile, the
  chief headstream of the Nile by water volume, rises in T'ana Hayk
  (Lake Tana) in northwest Ethiopia; three major crops are believed to
  have originated in Ethiopia: coffee, grain sorghum, and castor bean

People Ethiopia


Population:
  74,777,981
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 16,373,718/female 16,280,766)
  15-64 years: 53.6% (male 19,999,482/female 20,077,014)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 929,349/female 1,117,652) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.8 years
  male: 17.7 years
  female: 17.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.31% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  37.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: repatriation of Ethiopian refugees residing in Sudan is
  expected to continue for several years; some Sudanese, Somali, and
  Eritrean refugees, who fled to Ethiopia from the fighting or famine
  in their own countries, continue to return to their homes (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 93.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 103.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 49.03 years
  male: 47.86 years
  female: 50.24 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.5 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  120,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and hepatitis E
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis are high
  risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Ethiopian(s)
  adjective: Ethiopian

Ethnic groups:
  Oromo 40%, Amhara and Tigre 32%, Sidamo 9%, Shankella 6%, Somali
  6%, Afar 4%, Gurage 2%, other 1%

Religions:
  Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%, other 3%-8%

Languages:
  Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, other
  local languages, English (major foreign language taught in schools)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 42.7%
  male: 50.3%
  female: 35.1% (2003 est.)

Government Ethiopia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
  conventional short form: Ethiopia
  local long form: Ityop'iya Federalawi Demokrasiyawi Ripeblik
  local short form: Ityop'iya
  former: Abyssinia, Italian East Africa
  abbreviation: FDRE

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Addis Ababa
  geographic coordinates: 9 02 N, 38 42 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 ethnically-based states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and 2
  self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular -
  astedader); Adis Abeba* (Addis Ababa), Afar, Amara (Amhara),
  Binshangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa*, Gambela Hizboch (Gambela Peoples),
  Hareri Hizb (Harari People), Oromiya (Oromia), Sumale (Somali),
  Tigray, Ye Debub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Southern Nations,
  Nationalities and Peoples)

Independence:
  oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the
  world - at least 2,000 years

National holiday:
  National Day (defeat of MENGISTU regime), 28 May (1991)

Constitution:
  ratified December 1994, effective 22 August 1995

Legal system:
  currently transitional mix of national and regional courts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President GIRMA Woldegiorgis (since 8 October 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister MELES Zenawi (since NA August
  1995)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers as provided for in the December 1994
  constitution; ministers are selected by the prime minister and
  approved by the House of People's Representatives
  elections: president elected by the House of People's
  Representatives for a six-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 8 October 2001 (next to be held October 2007);
  prime minister designated by the party in power following
  legislative elections
  election results: GIRMA Woldegiorgis elected president; percent of
  vote by the House of People's Representatives - 100%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Federation or upper
  chamber (108 seats; members are chosen by state assemblies to serve
  five-year terms) and the House of People's Representatives or lower
  chamber (547 seats; members are directly elected by popular vote
  from single-member districts to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 15 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats by party - EPRDF 327,
  CUD 109, UEDF 52, SPDP 23, OFDM 11, BGPDUF 8, ANDP 8, independent 1,
  others 6, undeclared 2
  note: irregularities at some polling stations necessitated the
  rescheduling of voting in certain constituencies

Judicial branch:
  Federal Supreme Court (the president and vice president of the
  Federal Supreme Court are recommended by the prime minister and
  appointed by the House of People's Representatives; for other
  federal judges, the prime minister submits to the House of People's
  Representatives for appointment candidates selected by the Federal
  Judicial Administrative Council)

Political parties and leaders:
  Afar National Democratic Party or ANDP; Benishangul Gumuz People's
  Democratic Unity Front or BGPDUF [Mulualem BESSE]; Coalition for
  Unity and Democracy or CUD [HAILU Shawel]; Ethiopian People's
  Revolutionary Democratic Front or EPRDF [MELES Zenawi] (an alliance
  of Amhara National Democratic Movement or ANDM, Oromo People's
  Democratic Organization or OPDO, the South Ethiopean People's
  Democratic Front or SEPDF, and TigrAyan Peoples' Liberation Front or
  TPLF); Gurage Nationalities' Democratic Movement or GNDM; Oromo
  Federalist Democratic Movement or OFDM [BULCHA Demeksa]; Somali
  People's Democratic Party or SPDP; United Ethopian Democratic Forces
  or UEDF [BEYENE Petros]; dozens of small parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union Front or ARDUF; Oromo
  Liberation Front or OLF [DAOUD Ibsa]; Oromo National Liberation
  Front or ONLF

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samuel ASSEFA
  chancery: 3506 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-1200
  FAX: [1] (202) 587-0195
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Vicki
  HUDDLESTON
  embassy: Entoto Street, Addis Ababa
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1014, Addis Ababa
  telephone: [251] (1) 517-4000
  FAX: [251] (1) 517-4888

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a
  yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles
  between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands;
  Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three
  main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other African
  countries upon independence that they became known as the
  pan-African colors

Economy Ethiopia


Economy - overview:
  Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on agriculture,
  accounting for half of GDP, 60% of exports, and 80% of total
  employment. The agricultural sector suffers from frequent drought
  and poor cultivation practices. Coffee is critical to the Ethiopian
  economy with exports of some $156 million in 2002, but historically
  low prices have seen many farmers switching to qat to supplement
  income. The war with Eritrea in 1998-2000 and recurrent drought have
  buffeted the economy, in particular coffee production. In November
  2001, Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly Indebted
  Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in December 2005 the
  International Monetary Fund voted to forgive Ethiopia's debt to the
  body. Under Ethiopia's land tenure system, the government owns all
  land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; the system
  continues to hamper growth in the industrial sector as entrepreneurs
  are unable to use land as collateral for loans. Drought struck again
  late in 2002, leading to a 2% decline in GDP in 2003. Normal weather
  patterns late in 2003 helped agricultural and GDP growth recover in
  2004-05.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $64.73 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $8.819 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 47.5%
  industry: 9.9%
  services: 42.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  27.27 million

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 8%
  services: 12% (1985)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 33.7% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  30 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  11.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.338 billion
  expenditures: $2.88 billion; including capital expenditures of $788
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  106.2% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, qat,
  cut flowers; hides, cattle, sheep, goats; fish

Industries:
  food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals, metals
  processing, cement

Industrial production growth rate:
  6.7% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.058 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.3%
  hydro: 97.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.914 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  27,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  214,000 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  24.92 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-844 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $612 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds

Exports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 6.9%, Djibouti 6.8%, Switzerland 6.4%, Italy 5.9%, US
  5.5%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.722 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals,
  machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, textiles

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 14.7%, China 12.6%, US 12.4%, **COUNTRY** 9.6%, India
  6.7%, Italy 4.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.226 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.101 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $308 million (FY00/01)

Currency (code):
  birr (ETB)

Currency code:
  ETB

Exchange rates:
  birr per US dollar - 8.68 (2005), 8.6356 (2004), 8.5997 (2003),
  8.5678 (2002), 8.4575 (2001)
  note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates are determined on a daily
  basis via interbank transactions regulated by the Central Bank

Fiscal year:
  8 July - 7 July

Communications Ethiopia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  610,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  410,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate for government use
  domestic: open-wire; microwave radio relay; radio communication in
  the HF, VHF, and UHF frequencies; two domestic satellites provide
  the national trunk service
  international: country code - 251; open-wire to Sudan and Djibouti;
  microwave radio relay to Kenya and Djibouti; satellite earth
  stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 0, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  15.2 million (2002)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 plus 24 repeaters (2002)

Televisions:
  682,000 (2002)

Internet country code:
  .et

Internet hosts:
  88 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  113,000 (2005)

Transportation Ethiopia


Airports:
  84 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 70
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 28
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 681 km (Ethiopian segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti
  railroad)
  narrow gauge: 681 km 1.000-m gauge
  note: railway under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 33,856 km
  paved: 4,367 km
  unpaved: 29,489 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 79,441 GRT/97,669 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, roll on/roll off 2 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ethiopia is landlocked and has used ports of Assab and Massawa in
  Eritrea and port of Djibouti

Military Ethiopia


Military branches:
  Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF): Ground Forces, Ethiopian
  Air Force
  note: Ethiopia is landlocked and has no navy; following the
  secession of Eritrea, Ethiopian naval facilities remained in
  Eritrean possession

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 14,568,277
  females age 18-49: 14,482,885 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 8,072,755
  females age 18-49: 7,902,660 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 803,777
  females age 18-49: 801,789 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $295.9 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Ethiopia


Disputes - international:
  Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002 Eritrea-Ethiopia
  Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision, but mutual
  animosities, accusations, and armed posturing prevail, preventing
  demarcation despite international intervention; Ethiopia refuses to
  withdraw to the delimited boundary until technical errors made by
  the EEBC that ignored "human geography" are addressed, including the
  award of Badme, the focus of the 1998-2000 war; Eritrea insists that
  the EEBC decision be implemented immediately without modifications;
  Ethiopia has only an administrative line and no international border
  with the Oromo region of southern Somalia where it maintains
  alliances with local clans in opposition to the unrecognized Somali
  Interim Government in Mogadishu; "Somaliland" secessionists provide
  port facilities and trade ties to landlocked Ethiopia; efforts to
  demarcate the porous boundary with Sudan have been delayed by civil
  war

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 90,451 (Sudan) 16,470 (Somalia) 8,719
  (Eritrea)
  IDPs: 132,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000 and ethnic
  clashes in Gambela; most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela Provinces)
  (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and Southeast Asia
  and destined for Europe and North America, as well as cocaine
  destined for markets in southern Africa; cultivates qat (khat) for
  local use and regional export, principally to Djibouti and Somalia
  (legal in all three countries); the lack of a well-developed
  financial system limits the country's utility as a money-laundering
  center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@European Union

Introduction European Union


Preliminary statement:
  The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a regional economic
  agreement among six neighboring states in 1951 to today's
  supranational organization of 25 countries across the European
  continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the annals of
  history. Dynastic unions for territorial consolidation were long the
  norm in Europe. On a few occasions even country-level unions were
  arranged - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the
  Austro-Hungarian Empire were examples - but for such a large number
  of nation-states to cede some of their sovereignty to an overarching
  entity is truly unique. Although the EU is not a federation in the
  strict sense, it is far more than a free-trade association such as
  ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur, and it has many of the attributes
  associated with independent nations: its own flag, anthem, founding
  date, and currency, as well as an incipient common foreign and
  security policy in its dealings with other nations. In the future,
  many of these nation-like characteristics are likely to be expanded.
  Thus, inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has been deemed
  appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World Factbook.
  However, because of the EU's special status, this description is
  placed after the regular country entries.

Background:
  Following the two devastating World Wars of the first half of the
  20th century, a number of European leaders in the late 1940s became
  convinced that the only way to establish a lasting peace was to
  unite the two chief belligerent nations - France and Germany - both
  economically and politically. In 1950, the French Foreign Minister
  Robert SCHUMAN proposed an eventual union of all Europe, the first
  step of which would be the integration of the coal and steel
  industries of Western Europe. The following year the European Coal
  and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up when six members, Belgium,
  France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, signed
  the Treaty of Paris. The ECSC was so successful that within a few
  years the decision was made to integrate other parts of the
  countries' economies. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome created the
  European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy
  Community (Euratom), and the six member states undertook to
  eliminate trade barriers among themselves by forming a common
  market. In 1967, the institutions of all three communities were
  formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a single
  Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the European
  Parliament. Members of the European Parliament were initially
  selected by national parliaments, but in 1979 the first direct
  elections were undertaken and they have been held every five years
  since. In 1973, the first enlargement of the EC took place with the
  addition of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The 1980s saw
  further membership expansion with Greece joining in 1981 and Spain
  and Portugal in 1986. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht laid the basis
  for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in
  judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic
  and monetary union - including a common currency. This further
  integration created the European Union (EU). In 1995, Austria,
  Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, raising the membership total to
  15. A new currency, the euro, was launched in world money markets on
  1 January 1999; it became the unit of exchange for all of the EU
  states except the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In 2002,
  citizens of the 12 euro-area countries began using the euro
  banknotes and coins. Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 -
  Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
  Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - bringing the current
  membership to 25. In order to ensure that the EU can continue to
  function efficiently with an expanded membership, the 2003 Treaty of
  Nice set forth rules streamlining the size and procedures of EU
  institutions. An EU Constitutional Treaty, signed in Rome on 29
  October 2004, gave member states two years to ratify the document
  before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006. Referenda
  held in France and the Netherlands in May-June 2005 rejected the
  proposed constitution. This development suspended the ratification
  effort and left the longer-term political integration of the EU in
  limbo.

Geography European Union


Location:
  Europe between Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, southeastern Europe, and
  the North Atlantic Ocean

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 3,976,372 sq km

Area - comparative:
  less than one-half the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 11,214.8 km
  border countries: Albania 282 km, Andorra 120.3 km, Belarus 1,050
  km, Bulgaria 494 km, Croatia 999 km, Holy See 3.2 km, Liechtenstein
  34.9 km, Macedonia 246 km, Monaco 4.4 km, Norway 2,348 km, Romania
  443 km, Russia 2,257 km, San Marino 39 km, Serbia 151 km,
  Switzerland 1,811 km, Turkey 206 km, Ukraine 726 km
  note: data for European Continent only

Coastline:
  65,413.9 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  cold temperate; potentially subarctic in the north to temperate;
  mild wet winters; hot dry summers in the south

Terrain:
  fairly flat along the Baltic and Atlantic coast; mountainous in the
  central and southern areas

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lammefjord, Denmark -7 m; Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands
  -7 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m; note - situated on the border
  between France and Italy

Natural resources:
  iron ore, arable land, natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, lead,
  zinc, hydropower, uranium, potash, fish

Land use:
  arable land: NA
  permanent crops: NA
  other: NA

Irrigated land:
  131,250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding along coasts; avalanches in mountainous area; earthquakes
  in the south; volcanic eruptions in Italy; periodic droughts in
  Spain; ice floes in the Baltic

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 82, Tropical
  Timber 94
  signed but not ratified: Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds

People European Union


Population:
  456,953,258 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.03% (male 37,608,010/female 35,632,351)
  15-64 years: 67.17% (male 154,439,536/female 152,479,619)
  65 years and over: 16.81% (male 31,515,921/female 45,277,821) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  NA

Population growth rate:
  0.15% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: NA
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and older: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.1 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.3 years
  male: 75.1 years
  female: 81.6 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Religions:
  Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish

Languages:
  Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German,
  Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish,
  Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish; note - only official
  languages are listed; Irish (Gaelic) will become the 21st language
  on 1 January 2007

Government European Union


Union name:
  conventional long form: European Union
  abbreviation: EU

Political structure:
  a hybrid intergovernmental and supranational organization

Capital:
  name: Brussels (Belgium)
  geographic coordinates: 50 50 N, 4 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: the Council of the European Union meets in Brussels, the
  European Parliament meets in Strasbourg, France, and the Court of
  Justice of the European Communities meets in Luxembourg

Member states:
  25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
  Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
  Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
  Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK; note - Canary Islands
  (Spain), Azores and Madeira (Portugal), French Guyana, Guadeloupe,
  Martinique, and Reunion (France) are sometimes listed separately
  even though they are legally a part of Spain, Portugal, and France;
  candidate countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey

Independence:
  7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed establishing the EU); 1
  November 1993 (Maastricht Treaty entered into force)

National holiday:
  Europe Day 9 May (1950); note - a Union-wide holiday, the day that
  Robert SCHUMAN proposed the creation of an organized Europe

Constitution:
  based on a series of treaties: the Treaty of Paris, which set up
  the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951; the Treaties
  of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the
  European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957; the Single
  European Act in 1986; the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) in
  1992; the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997; and the Treaty of Nice in
  2001; note - a new draft Constitutional Treaty, signed on 29 October
  2004 in Rome, gave member states two years for ratification either
  by parliamentary vote or national referendum before it was scheduled
  to take effect on 1 November 2006; defeat in French and Dutch
  referenda in May-June 2005 caused a suspension of the ratification
  process

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of union: President of the European Commission Jose Manuel
  DURAO BARROSO (since 22 November 2004)
  cabinet: European Commission (composed of 25 members, one from each
  member country; each commissioner responsible for one or more policy
  areas)
  elections: the president of the European Commission is designated by
  member governments; the president-designate then chooses the other
  Commission members; the European Parliament confirms the entire
  Commission for a five-year term; election last held 18 November 2004
  (next to be held 2009)
  election results: European Parliament approved the European
  Commission by an approval vote of 449 to 149 with 82 abstentions
  note: the European Council brings together heads of state and
  government and the president of the European Commission and meets at
  least twice a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the major
  political issues relating to European integration and to issue
  general policy guidelines

Legislative branch:
  Council of the European Union (25 member-state ministers having 321
  votes; the number of votes is roughly proportional to member-states'
  population); note - the Council is the main decision-making body of
  the EU; European Parliament (732 seats; seats allocated among member
  states by proportion to population); members elected by direct
  universal suffrage for a five-year term
  elections: last held 10-13 June 2004 (next to be held June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats by party - EPP-ED
  268, PES 202, ALDE 88, Greens/EFA 42, EUL/NGL 41, IND/DEM 36, UEN
  27, independents 28

Judicial branch:
  Court of Justice of the European Communities (ensures that the
  treaties are interpreted and applied correctly) - 25 justices (one
  from each member state) appointed for a six-year term; note - for
  the sake of efficiency, the court can sit with 11 justices known as
  the "Grand Chamber"; Court of First Instance - 25 justices appointed
  for a six-year term

Political parties and leaders:
  Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left or
  EUL/NGL [Francis WURTZ]; European People's Party-European Democrats
  or EPP-ED [Hans-Gert POETTERING]; Group of the Alliance of Liberals
  and Democrats for Europe or ALDE [Graham R. WATSON]; Group of
  Greens/European Free Alliance or Greens/EFA [Monica FRASSONI and
  Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT]; Independence/Democracy Group or IND/DEM
  [Jens-Peter BONDE and Nigel FARAGE]; Socialist Group in the European
  Parliament or PES [Martin SCHULZ]; Union for Europe of the Nations
  Group or UEN [Brian CROWLEY and Cristiana MUSCARDINI]

International organization participation:
  European Union: ASEAN (dialogue member), ARF (dialogue member),
  IDA, OAS (observer), UN (observer), WTO
  European Commission: Australian Group, CBSS, CERN, FAO, EBRD, G-10,
  NSG (observer), OECD, UNRWA, ZC (observer)
  European Central Bank: BIS
  European Investment Bank: EBRD, WADB (nonregional member)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John BRUTON
  chancery: 2300 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 862-9500
  FAX: [1] (202) 429-1766

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador C. Boyden GRAY
  embassy: 13 Zinnerstraat/Rue Zinner, B-1000 Brussels
  mailing address: same as above
  telephone: [32] (2) 508-2222
  FAX: [32] (2) 512-5720

Flag description:
  on a blue field, 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged in a circle,
  representing the union of the peoples of Europe; the number of stars
  is fixed

Economy European Union


Economy - overview:
  Domestically, the European Union attempts to lower trade barriers,
  adopt a common currency, and move toward convergence of living
  standards. Internationally, the EU aims to bolster Europe's trade
  position and its political and economic power. Because of the great
  differences in per capita income (from $15,000 to $56,000) and
  historic national animosities, the European Community faces
  difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies. For example,
  since 2003 Germany and France have flouted the member states' treaty
  obligation to prevent their national budgets from running more than
  a 3% deficit. In 2004, the EU admitted 10 central and eastern
  European countries that are, in general, less advanced
  technologically and economically than the other 15. Twelve EU member
  states introduced the euro as their common currency on 1 January
  1999, but the UK, Sweden, and Denmark do not participate. The 10 new
  member states may choose to adopt the euro when they meet the EU's
  fiscal and monetary criteria and the other euro states so agree.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $12.18 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $13.31 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $28,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 27.3%
  services: 70.5% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  218.5 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.4%
  industry: 27.2%
  services: 67.2%
  note: the remainder is in miscellaneous public and private sector
  industries and services (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  see individual country listings

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.5% (1995 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  32 (2003 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes; dairy products,
  cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry; fish

Industries:
  among the world's largest and most technologically advanced, the
  European Union industrial base includes: ferrous and non-ferrous
  metal production and processing, metal products, petroleum, coal,
  cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, rail transportation
  equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, construction
  equipment, industrial equipment, shipbuilding, electrical power
  equipment, machine tools and automated manufacturing systems,
  electronics and telecommunications equipment, fishing, food and
  beverage processing, furniture, paper, textiles, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.925 trillion kWh (2002 est.)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.711 trillion kWh (2002 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  282.6 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  281.2 billion kWh (2002 est.)

Oil - production:
  3.424 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - consumption:
  14.59 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - exports:
  5.322 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  15.69 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  7.294 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  239.2 billion cu m (2001)

Natural gas - consumption:
  465.6 billion cu m (2001)

Natural gas - exports:
  78.1 billion cu m (2001)

Natural gas - imports:
  297.8 billion cu m (2001)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  3.256 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $NA

Exports:
  $1.318 trillion; note - external exports, excluding intra-EU trade
  (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery, motor vehicles, aircraft, plastics, pharmaceuticals and
  other chemicals, fuels, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, wood pulp
  and paper products, textiles, meat, dairy products, fish, alcoholic
  beverages.

Exports - partners:
  US 24.2%, Switzerland 7.7%, China 5%, Russia 4.7% (2004)

Imports:
  $1.402 trillion; note - external imports, excluding intra-EU trade
  (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, vehicles, aircraft, plastics, crude oil, chemicals,
  textiles, metals, foodstuffs, clothing

Imports - partners:
  US 15.3%, China 12.4%, Russia 7.8%, Japan 7.2% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  euro, British pound, Cypriot pound, Czech koruna, Danish krone,
  Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat, Lithuanian litas,
  Maltese lira, Polish zloty, Slovak koruna, Slovenian tolar, Swedish
  krona

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  NA

Communications European Union


Telephones - main lines in use:
  238,763,162 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  314,644,700 (2002)

Telephone system:
  note - see individual country entries of member states

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 866, FM 13,396, shortwave 73 (1998); note - sum of individual
  country radio broadcast stations; there is also a European-wide
  station (Euroradio)

Television broadcast stations:
  2,791 (1995); note - does not include repeaters; sum of individual
  country television broadcast stations; there is also a European-wide
  station (Eurovision)

Internet country code:
  .eu (effective 2005); note - see country entries of member states
  for individual country codes

Internet hosts:
  22,000,414 (2004); note - sum of individual country Internet hosts

Internet users:
  239,881,917 (2006)

Transportation European Union


Airports:
  3,115 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  1,863 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  1,252 (2006)

Heliports:
  93 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 222,293 km
  broad gauge: 28,438 km
  standard gauge: 186,405 km
  narrow gauge: 7,427 km
  other: 23 km (2003)

Roadways:
  total: 4,634,810 km (including 56,704 km of expressways)
  paved: 4,161,318 km
  unpaved: 473,492 km (1999-2000)

Waterways:
  53,512 km

Ports and terminals:
  Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Bremen (Germany), Copenhagen
  (Denmark), Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland),
  Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon
  (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Naples (Italy),
  Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Rotterdam
  (Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden), Talinn (Estonia)

Military European Union


Military - note:
  In November 2004, the European Union heads of government signed a
  "Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe" that offers
  possibilities - with some limits - for increased defense and
  security cooperation. If ratified, in a process that may take some
  two years, this treaty will in effect make operational the European
  Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) approved in the 2000 Nice Treaty.
  Despite limits of cooperation for some EU members, development of a
  European military planning unit is likely to continue. So is
  creation of a rapid-reaction military force and a humanitarian aid
  system, which the planning unit will support. France, Germany,
  Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy continue to press for
  wider coordination. The five-nation Eurocorps - created in 1992 by
  France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg - has already
  deployed troops and police on peacekeeping missions to Bosnia and
  Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and
  assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force
  (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August 2004. Eurocorps directly commands
  the 5,000-man Franco-German Brigade, the Multinational Command
  Support Brigade, and EUFOR, which took over from SFOR in Bosnia in
  December 2004. Other troop contributions are under national command
  - commitments to provide 67,100 troops were made at the Helsinki EU
  session in 2000. Some 56,000 EU troops were actually deployed in
  2003. In August 2004, the new European Defense Agency, tasked with
  promoting cooperative European defense capabilities, began
  operations. In November 2004, the EU Council of Ministers formally
  committed to creating thirteen 1,500-man "battle groups" by the end
  of 2007, to respond to international crises on a rotating basis.
  Twenty-two of the EU's 25 nations have agreed to supply troops.
  France, Italy, and the UK are to form the first three battle groups
  in 2005, with Spain to follow. In May 2005, Norway, Sweden, and
  Finland agreed to establish one of the battle groups, possibly to
  include Estonian forces. The remaining groups are to be formed by
  2007. (2005)

Transnational Issues European Union


Disputes - international:
  as a political union, the EU has no border disputes with
  neighboring countries, but Estonia and Latvia have no land boundary
  agreements with Russia, Slovenia disputes its land and maritime
  boundaries with Croatia, and Spain has territorial and maritime
  disputes with Morocco; the EU has set up a Schengen area -
  consisting of 13 EU member states that have signed the convention
  implementing the Schengen agreements (1985 and 1990) on the free
  movement of persons and the harmonization of border controls in
  Europe; the Schengen agreements ("acquis") became incorporated into
  EU law with the implementation of the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam on 1
  May 1999; member states are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
  France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal,
  Spain, and Sweden; in addition, non-EU states Iceland and Norway (as
  part of the Nordic Union) have been included in the Schengen area
  since 1996 (full members in 2001), bringing the total current
  membership to 15; the UK (since 2000) and Ireland (since 2002) take
  part in some aspects of the Schengen area, especially with respect
  to police and criminal matters; the 10 new member states that joined
  the EU in 2004 eventually are expected to participate in Schengen,
  following a transition period to upgrade their border controls and
  procedures


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

Introduction Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Background:
  Although first sighted by an English navigator in 1592, the first
  landing (English) did not occur until almost a century later in
  1690, and the first settlement (French) was not established until
  1764. The colony was turned over to Spain two years later and the
  islands have since been the subject of a territorial dispute, first
  between Britain and Spain, then between Britain and Argentina. The
  UK asserted its claim to the islands by establishing a naval
  garrison there in 1833. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April
  1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that landed
  seven weeks later and after fierce fighting forced Argentine
  surrender on 14 June 1982.

Geography Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Location:
  Southern South America, islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, east
  of southern Argentina

Geographic coordinates:
  51 45 S, 59 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 12,173 sq km
  land: 12,173 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes the two main islands of East and West Falkland and
  about 200 small islands

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,288 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  cold marine; strong westerly winds, cloudy, humid; rain occurs on
  more than half of days in year; average annual rainfall is 24 inches
  in Stanley; occasional snow all year, except in January and
  February, but does not accumulate

Terrain:
  rocky, hilly, mountainous with some boggy, undulating plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Usborne 705 m

Natural resources:
  fish, squid, wildlife, calcified seaweed, sphagnum moss

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (99% permanent pastures, 1% other) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  strong winds persist throughout the year

Environment - current issues:
  overfishing by unlicensed vessels is a problem; reindeer were
  introduced to the islands in 2001 for commercial reasons; this is
  the only commercial reindeer herd in the world unaffected by the
  Chornobyl disaster

Geography - note:
  deeply indented coast provides good natural harbors; short growing
  season

People Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Population:
  2,967 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.44% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA children born/woman

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Falkland Islander(s)
  adjective: Falkland Island

Ethnic groups:
  British

Religions:
  primarily Anglican, Roman Catholic, United Free Church, Evangelist
  Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  NA

Government Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK; also claimed by Argentina

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Stanley
  geographic coordinates: 51 42 S, 57 41 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in September; ends
  third Sunday in April

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK; also claimed by Argentina)

National holiday:
  Liberation Day, 14 June (1982)

Constitution:
  3 October 1985; amended 1997 and 1998

Legal system:
  English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Governor Alan HUCKLE (since 25 August 2006);
  Chief Executive Chris SIMPKINS (since March 2003); Financial
  Secretary Derek F. HOWATT (since NA)
  cabinet: Executive Council; three members elected by the Legislative
  Council, two ex officio members (chief executive and the financial
  secretary), and the governor
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council (10 seats - two ex officio, eight
  elected by popular vote, members serve four-year terms); presided
  over by the governor
  elections: last held 17 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 8

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (chief justice is a nonresident); Magistrates Court
  (senior magistrate presides over civil and criminal divisions);
  Court of Summary Jurisdiction

Political parties and leaders:
  none; all independents

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ICFTU, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Flag description:
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Falkland Island coat of arms centered on the outer half of the
  flag; the coat of arms contains a white ram (sheep raising was once
  the major economic activity) above the sailing ship Desire (whose
  crew discovered the islands) with a scroll at the bottom bearing the
  motto DESIRE THE RIGHT

Economy Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Economy - overview:
  The economy was formerly based on agriculture, mainly sheep
  farming, but today fishing contributes the bulk of economic
  activity. In 1987 the government began selling fishing licenses to
  foreign trawlers operating within the Falkland Islands' exclusive
  fishing zone. These license fees total more than $40 million per
  year, which goes to support the island's health, education, and
  welfare system. Squid accounts for 75% of the fish taken. Dairy
  farming supports domestic consumption; crops furnish winter fodder.
  Exports feature shipments of high-grade wool to the UK and the sale
  of postage stamps and coins. The islands are now self-financing
  except for defense. The British Geological Survey announced a
  200-mile oil exploration zone around the islands in 1993, and early
  seismic surveys suggest substantial reserves capable of producing
  500,000 barrels per day; to date, no exploitable site has been
  identified. An agreement between Argentina and the UK in 1995 seeks
  to defuse licensing and sovereignty conflicts that would dampen
  foreign interest in exploiting potential oil reserves. Tourism,
  especially eco-tourism, is increasing rapidly, with about 30,000
  visitors in 2001. Another large source of income is interest paid on
  money the government has in the bank. The British military presence
  also provides a sizeable economic boost.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $75 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $25,000 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 95%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  1,724 (est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 95% (mostly sheepherding and fishing)
  industry and services: 5%

Unemployment rate:
  full employment; labor shortage (2001)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.6% (1998)

Budget:
  revenues: $66.2 million
  expenditures: $67.9 million; including capital expenditures of $23.2
  million (FY98/99 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fodder and vegetable crops; sheep, dairy products

Industries:
  fish and wool processing; tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  22.23 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  20.68 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $125 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  wool, hides, meat

Exports - partners:
  Spain 81.9%, US 6%, UK 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $90 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuel, food and drink, building materials, clothing

Imports - partners:
  UK 72.5%, US 15.1%, Netherlands 8.5% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $0 (1997 est.)

Currency (code):
  Falkland pound (FKP)

Currency code:
  FKP

Exchange rates:
  Falkland pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Falkland pound is at par with the British pound

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,400 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (2001)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: government-operated radiotelephone and private VHF/CB
  radiotelephone networks provide effective service to almost all
  points on both islands
  international: country code - 500; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) with links through London to other
  countries

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 7, shortwave 0
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  (FM) and Radio 2 (AM) service (2006)

Radios:
  1,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides
  multi-channel satellite service to members of UK Forces as well as
  islanders)
  note: cable television is available in Stanley (2006)

Televisions:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .fk

Internet hosts:
  103 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  1,900 (2002)

Transportation Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 440 km
  paved: 50 km
  unpaved: 390 km (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Stanley

Military Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Military branches:
  no regular military forces

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)


Disputes - international:
  Argentina, which claims the islands in its constitution and briefly
  occupied them by force in 1982, agreed in 1995 to no longer seek
  settlement by force; UK continues to reject Argentine requests for
  sovereignty talks


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Faroe Islands

Introduction Faroe Islands


Background:
  The population of the Faroe Islands is largely descended from
  Viking settlers who arrived in the 9th century. The islands have
  been connected politically to Denmark since the 14th century. A high
  degree of self government was attained in 1948.

Geography Faroe Islands


Location:
  Northern Europe, island group between the Norwegian Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, about one-half of the way from Iceland to
  Norway

Geographic coordinates:
  62 00 N, 7 00 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 1,399 sq km
  land: 1,399 sq km
  water: 0 sq km (some lakes and streams)

Area - comparative:
  eight times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,117 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

Climate:
  mild winters, cool summers; usually overcast; foggy, windy

Terrain:
  rugged, rocky, some low peaks; cliffs along most of coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Slaettaratindur 882 m

Natural resources:
  fish, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas

Land use:
  arable land: 2.14%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.86% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  archipelago of 17 inhabited islands and one uninhabited island, and
  a few uninhabited islets; strategically located along important sea
  lanes in northeastern Atlantic; precipitous terrain limits
  habitation to small coastal lowlands

People Faroe Islands


Population:
  47,246 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.9% (male 4,940/female 4,952)
  15-64 years: 65.1% (male 16,247/female 14,522)
  65 years and over: 13.9% (male 2,976/female 3,609) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 35 years
  male: 34.7 years
  female: 35.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.58% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.85 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.35 years
  male: 75.91 years
  female: 82.8 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Faroese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Faroese

Ethnic groups:
  Scandinavian

Religions:
  Evangelical Lutheran

Languages:
  Faroese (derived from Old Norse), Danish

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%
  note: probably 100%, the same as Denmark proper

Government Faroe Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Faroe Islands
  local long form: none
  local short form: Foroyar

Dependency status:
  part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas
  administrative division of Denmark since 1948

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Torshavn
  geographic coordinates: 62 01 N, 6 46 W
  time difference: UTC (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas
  administrative division of Denmark); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are 49 municipalities

Independence:
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas
  administrative division of Denmark)

National holiday:
  Olaifest (Olavasoka), 29 July

Constitution:
  5 June 1953 (Danish constitution)

Legal system:
  Danish

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II of Denmark (since 14 January
  1972), represented by High Commissioner Birgit KLEIS, chief
  administrative officer (since 1 November 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Joannes EIDESGAARD (since 3
  February 2004)
  cabinet: Landsstyri appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; high commissioner appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  elected prime minister by the Faroese Parliament; election last held
  20 January 2004 (next to be held no later than January 2008)
  election results: Joannes EIDESGAARD elected prime minister; percent
  of parliamentary vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Faroese Parliament or Logting (32 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote on a proportional basis from the seven
  constituencies to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 January 2004 (next to be held no later than
  January 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Union Party 23.7%,
  Social Democratic Party 21.8%, Republican Party 21.7%, People's
  Party 20.6%, Center Party 5.2%, Independence Party 4.6%; seats by
  party - Union Party 7, Social Democratic Party 7, Republican Party
  8, People's Party 7, Center Party 2, Independence Party 1
  note: election of two seats to the Danish Parliament was last held
  on 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Republican Party 1,
  People's Party 1

Judicial branch:
  none

Political parties and leaders:
  Center Party [Jenis A. RANA]; Independence Party [Kari P.
  HOJGAARD]; People's Party [Anfinn KALLSBERG]; Republican Party
  [Hogni HOYDAL]; Social Democratic Party [Joannes EIDESGAARD]; Union
  Party [Kaj Leo JOHANNESEN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Arctic Council, IMO (associate), NC, NIB, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Flag description:
  white with a red cross outlined in blue extending to the edges of
  the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted toward the hoist
  side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Economy Faroe Islands


Economy - overview:
  The Faroese economy has had a strong performance since 1994, mostly
  as a result of increasing fish landings and high and stable export
  prices. Unemployment is minimal and there are signs of labor
  shortages in several sectors. The positive economic development has
  helped the Faroese Home Rule Government produce increasing budget
  surpluses, which in turn have helped reduce the large public debt,
  most of it owed to Denmark. However, the total dependence on fishing
  makes the Faroese economy extremely vulnerable, and the present
  fishing efforts appear in excess of what is a sustainable level of
  fishing in the long term. Oil finds close to the Faroese area give
  hope for deposits in the immediate Faroese area, which may
  eventually lay the basis for a more diversified economy and thus
  lessen dependence on Danish economic assistance. Aided by a
  substantial annual subsidy (about 15% of GDP) from Denmark, the
  Faroese have a standard of living not far below the Danes and other
  Scandinavians.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1 billion (2001 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  10% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $22,000 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 27%
  industry: 11%
  services: 62% (1999)

Labor force:
  24,250 (October 2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 33%
  industry: 33%
  services: 34%

Unemployment rate:
  1% (October 2000)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.1% (1999)

Budget:
  revenues: $488 million
  expenditures: $484 million; including capital expenditures of $21
  million (1999)

Agriculture - products:
  milk, potatoes, vegetables; sheep; salmon, other fish

Industries:
  fishing, fish processing, small ship repair and refurbishment,
  handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  8% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production:
  260.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 62.4%
  hydro: 37.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  242 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  4,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $533 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish and fish products 94%, stamps, ships (1999)

Exports - partners:
  Denmark 38.2%, UK 29.6%, Nigeria 8.9%, Norway 6.1%, Netherlands
  4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $639 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods 36%, raw materials and semi-manufactures 32%,
  machinery and transport equipment 29%, fuels, fish, salt (1999)

Imports - partners:
  Denmark 46.2%, Norway 18.2%, Germany 8.2%, Spain 7.5%, Iceland 4.8%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $64 million (1999)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $135 million (annual subsidy from Denmark) (1998)

Currency (code):
  Danish krone (DKK)

Currency code:
  DKK

Exchange rates:
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911 (2004), 6.5877
  (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Faroe Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  23,800 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  42,500 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good international communications; good
  domestic facilities
  domestic: digitalization was completed in 1998; both NMT (analog)
  and GSM (digital) mobile telephone systems are installed
  international: country code - 298; satellite earth stations - 1
  Orion; 1 fiber-optic submarine cable to the Shetland Islands,
  linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark and Iceland; fiber-optic
  submarine cable connection to Canada-Europe cable

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  26,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus 43 low-power repeaters) (September 1995)

Televisions:
  15,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .fo

Internet hosts:
  6,915 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  33,000 (2005)

Transportation Faroe Islands


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 458 km
  note: no roads between towns (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,265 GRT/9,171 DWT
  by type: cargo 10, container 2, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 8 (Iceland 4, Norway 4) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Torshavn

Military Faroe Islands


Military branches:
  no regular military forces

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,695 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 8,852 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 366 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Denmark

Transnational Issues Faroe Islands


Disputes - international:
  because anticipated offshore hydrocarbon resources have not been
  realized, earlier Faroese proposals for full independence have been
  deferred; Iceland disputes the Faroe Islands' fisheries median line
  boundary; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that
  the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Fiji

Introduction Fiji


Background:
  Fiji became independent in 1970, after nearly a century as a
  British colony. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military
  coups in 1987, caused by concern over a government perceived as
  dominated by the Indian community (descendants of contract laborers
  brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century). The
  coups and a 1990 constitution that cemented native Melanesian
  control of Fiji, led to heavy Indian emigration; the population loss
  resulted in economic difficulties, but ensured that Melanesians
  became the majority. A new constitution enacted in 1997 was more
  equitable. Free and peaceful elections in 1999 resulted in a
  government led by an Indo-Fijian, but a civilian-led coup in May
  2000 ushered in a prolonged period of political turmoil.
  Parliamentary elections held in August 2001 provided Fiji with a
  democratically elected government led by Prime Minister Laisenia
  QARASE.

Geography Fiji


Location:
  Oceania, island group in the South Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds
  of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  18 00 S, 175 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 18,270 sq km
  land: 18,270 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,129 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation;
  rectilinear shelf claim added

Climate:
  tropical marine; only slight seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  mostly mountains of volcanic origin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Tomanivi 1,324 m

Natural resources:
  timber, fish, gold, copper, offshore oil potential, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 10.95%
  permanent crops: 4.65%
  other: 84.4% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  cyclonic storms can occur from November to January

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  includes 332 islands; approximately 110 are inhabited

People Fiji


Population:
  905,949 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 31.1% (male 143,847/female 138,061)
  15-64 years: 64.6% (male 293,072/female 292,312)
  65 years and over: 4.3% (male 17,583/female 21,074) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 24.1 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.4% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.55 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 12.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.82 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Fijian(s)
  adjective: Fijian

Ethnic groups:
  Fijian 51% (predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesian admixture),
  Indian 44%, European, other Pacific Islanders, overseas Chinese, and
  other 5% (1998 est.)

Religions:
  Christian 52% (Methodist 37%, Roman Catholic 9%), Hindu 38%, Muslim
  8%, other 2%
  note: Fijians are mainly Christian, Indians are Hindu, and there is
  a Muslim minority

Languages:
  English (official), Fijian (official), Hindustani

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.7%
  male: 95.5%
  female: 91.9% (2003 est.)

Government Fiji


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of the Fiji Islands
  conventional short form: Fiji
  local long form: Republic of the Fiji Islands/Matanitu ko Viti
  local short form: Fiji/Viti

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Suva (on Viti Levu)
  geographic coordinates: 18 08 S, 178 25 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  4 divisions and 1 dependency*; Central, Eastern, Northern, Rotuma*,
  Western

Independence:
  10 October 1970 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, second Monday of October (1970)

Constitution:
  enacted on 25 July 1997 to encourage multiculturalism and make
  multiparty government mandatory; effective 28 July 1998

Legal system:
  based on British system

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ratu Josefa ILOILOVATU Uluivuda (since 18
  July 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Laisenia QARASE (since 10
  September 2000)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister from among the
  members of Parliament and is responsible to Parliament
  elections: president elected by the Great Council of Chiefs for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); prime minister
  appointed by the president; election last held 8 March 2006 (next to
  be held in 2011)
  election results: Ratu Josefa ILOILOVATU Uluivuda elected president
  by the Great Council of Chiefs; percent of vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (32 seats; 14 appointed
  by the president on the advice of the Great Council of Chiefs, 9
  appointed by the president on the advice of the Prime Minister, 8 on
  the advice of the Opposition Leader, and 1 appointed on the advice
  of the council of Rotuma) and the House of Representatives (71
  seats; 23 reserved for ethnic Fijians, 19 reserved for ethnic
  Indians, 3 reserved for other ethnic groups, 1 reserved for the
  council of Rotuma constituency encompassing the whole of Fiji, and
  25 open seats; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 25 August through 1
  September and 19 September 2001 (next to be held 6-13 May 2006)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - SDL 27.5%, FLP 26.5%, MV 4.2%, NLUP 1.3%, NFP 1.2%,
  independents 1.4%, UGP .3%; seats by party - SDL 32, FLP 27, MV 6,
  NLUP 2, NFP 1, independents 2, UGP 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president); Court of
  Appeal; High Court; Magistrates' Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Conservative Alliance Party/Matanitu Vanua or CAMV [Ratu Josefa
  DIMURI]; Dodonu Ni Taukei Party or DNT [Fereti S. DEWA]; Fiji
  Democratic Party or FDP [Filipe BOLE] (a merger of the Christian
  Democrat Alliance or VLV [Poesci Waqalevu BUNE], Fijian Association
  Party or FAP, Fijian Political Party or SVT (primarily Fijian)
  [Sitiveni RABUKA], and New Labor Unity Party or NLUP [Ofa SWANN]);
  Fiji Labor Party or FLP [Mahendra CHAUDHRY]; General Voters Party or
  GVP (became part of United General Party); Girmit Heritage Party or
  GHP; Justice and Freedom Party or AIM; Lio 'On Famor Rotuma Party or
  LFR; National Federation Party or NFP (primarily Indian) [Pramond
  RAE]; Nationalist Vanua Takolavo Party or NVTLP [Saula TELAWA];
  Party of National Unity or PANU [Ponipate LESAVUA]; Party of the
  Truth or POTT; United Fiji Party/Sogosogo Duavata ni Lewenivanua or
  SDL [Laisenia QARASE]; United General Party or UGP [Millis Mick
  BEDDOES]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, OPCW, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jesoni VITUSAGAVULU
  chancery: 2233 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 240, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-8320
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-1996

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Larry Miles DINGER
  embassy: 31 Loftus Street, Suva
  mailing address: P. O. Box 218, Suva
  telephone: [679] 331-4466
  FAX: [679] 330-0081

Flag description:
  light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant
  and the Fijian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the
  shield depicts a yellow lion above a white field quartered by the
  cross of Saint George featuring stalks of sugarcane, a palm tree,
  bananas, and a white dove

Economy Fiji


Economy - overview:
  Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of
  the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still
  with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports, remittances from
  Fijians working abroad, and a growing tourist industry - with
  300,000 to 400,000 tourists annually - are the major sources of
  foreign exchange. Fiji's sugar has special access to European Union
  markets, but will be harmed by the EU's decision to cut sugar
  subsidies. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial
  activity but is not efficient. Long-term problems include low
  investment, uncertain land ownership rights, and the government's
  ability to manage its budget. Yet, because of a tourist boom,
  short-run economic prospects are good, provided tensions do not
  again erupt between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Overseas
  remittances from Fijians working in Kuwait and Iraq have increased
  significantly.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $5.255 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.81 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.9%
  industry: 13.5%
  services: 77.6% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  137,000 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 70%
  industry and services: 30% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.6% (1999)

Population below poverty line:
  25.5% (1990-91)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $720.5 million
  expenditures: $728.3 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), rice, sweet potatoes,
  bananas; cattle, pigs, horses, goats; fish

Industries:
  tourism, sugar, clothing, copra, gold, silver, lumber, small
  cottage industries

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  775.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 18.5%
  hydro: 81.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  721.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-465.8 million

Exports:
  $719.6 million f.o.b. (2005)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar, garments, gold, timber, fish, molasses, coconut oil

Exports - partners:
  US 19.7%, Australia 17%, UK 12.3%, Japan 5.4%, Samoa 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.462 billion c.i.f. (2005)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, petroleum
  products, food, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Singapore 27.4%, Australia 23.6%, NZ 18.9%, Thailand 4.5% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $127 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $63.9 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Fijian dollar (FJD)

Currency code:
  FJD

Exchange rates:
  Fijian dollars per US dollar - 1.691 (2005), 1.7331 (2004), 1.8958
  (2003), 2.1869 (2002), 2.2766 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Fiji


Telephones - main lines in use:
  102,000 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  142,200 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern local, interisland, and international
  (wire/radio integrated) public and special-purpose telephone,
  telegraph, and teleprinter facilities; regional radio communications
  center
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 679; access to important cable links
  between US and Canada as well as between NZ and Australia; 2
  satellite earth stations - 2 INMARSAT (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 13, FM 40, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  541,476 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  88,110 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .fj

Internet hosts:
  8,987 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  61,000 (2004)

Transportation Fiji


Airports:
  28 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 597 km
  narrow gauge: 597 km 0.600-m gauge
  note: belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation; used
  to haul sugarcane during harvest season (May to December) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 3,440 km
  paved: 1,692 km
  unpaved: 1,748 km (1999)

Waterways:
  203 km
  note: 122 km navigable by motorized craft and 200-metric-ton barges
  (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 15,867 GRT/8,432 DWT
  by type: passenger 3, passenger/cargo 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Australia 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Lambasa, Lautoka, Suva

Military Fiji


Military branches:
  Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF): Land Forces, Naval Forces
  (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 215,104
  females age 18-49: 212,739 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 163,960
  females age 18-49: 178,714 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 9,266
  females age 18-49: 8,916 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $36 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.2% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Fiji


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Finland

Introduction Finland


Background:
  Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden from the
  12th to the 19th centuries and an autonomous grand duchy of Russia
  after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During World
  War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and resist
  invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of territory.
  In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a remarkable
  transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern
  industrial economy; per capita income is now on par with Western
  Europe. As a member of the European Union, Finland was the only
  Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation in January
  1999.

Geography Finland


Location:
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and
  Gulf of Finland, between Sweden and Russia

Geographic coordinates:
  64 00 N, 26 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 338,145 sq km
  land: 304,473 sq km
  water: 33,672 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,681 km
  border countries: Norway 727 km, Sweden 614 km, Russia 1,340 km

Coastline:
  1,250 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm (in the Gulf of Finland - 3 nm)
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm; extends to continental shelf boundary
  with Sweden

Climate:
  cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild
  because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current,
  Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes

Terrain:
  mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low
  hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Haltiatunturi 1,328 m

Natural resources:
  timber, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, nickel, gold,
  silver, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 6.54%
  permanent crops: 0.02%
  other: 93.44% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  640 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from manufacturing and power plants contributing to
  acid rain; water pollution from industrial wastes, agricultural
  chemicals; habitat loss threatens wildlife populations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  long boundary with Russia; Helsinki is northernmost national
  capital on European continent; population concentrated on small
  southwestern coastal plain

People Finland


Population:
  5,231,372 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.1% (male 455,420/female 438,719)
  15-64 years: 66.7% (male 1,766,674/female 1,724,858)
  65 years and over: 16.2% (male 337,257/female 508,444) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 41.3 years
  male: 39.7 years
  female: 42.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.14% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.84 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.5 years
  male: 74.99 years
  female: 82.17 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Finn(s)
  adjective: Finnish

Ethnic groups:
  Finn 93.4%, Swede 5.7%, Russian 0.4%, Estonian 0.2%, Roma 0.2%,
  Sami 0.1%

Religions:
  Lutheran National Church 84.2%, Greek Orthodox in Finland 1.1%,
  other Christian 1.1%, other 0.1%, none 13.5% (2003)

Languages:
  Finnish 92% (official), Swedish 5.6% (official), other 2.4% (small
  Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) (2003)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2000 est.)

Government Finland


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Finland
  conventional short form: Finland
  local long form: Suomen tasavalta/Republiken Finland
  local short form: Suomi/Finland

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Helsinki
  geographic coordinates: 60 10 N, 24 58 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  6 provinces (laanit, singular - laani); Aland, Etela-Suomen Laani,
  Ita-Suomen Laani, Lansi-Suomen Laani, Lappi, Oulun Laani

Independence:
  6 December 1917 (from Russia)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 December (1917)

Constitution:
  1 March 2000

Legal system:
  civil law system based on Swedish law; the president may request
  the Supreme Court to review laws; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Tarja HALONEN (since 1 March 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Matti VANHANEN (since 24 June
  2003) and Deputy Prime Minister Eero HEINALUOMA (since 24 September
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of State or Valtioneuvosto appointed by the
  president, responsible to parliament
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 January 2006
  (next to be held January 2012); the president appoints the prime
  minister and deputy prime minister from the majority party or the
  majority coalition after parliamentary elections and the parliament
  must approve the appointment
  election results: percent of vote - Tarja HALONEN (SDP) 46.3%, Sauli
  NIINISTO (Kok) 24.1%, Matti Vanhanen (Kesk) 18.6%, Heidi HAUTALA
  (VIHR) 3.5%; a runoff election between HALONEN and NIINISTO was held
  29 January 2006 - HOLONEN 51.8%, NIINISTO 48.2%
  note: government coalition - Kesk, SDP, and SFP

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Eduskunta (200 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote on a proportional basis to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 16 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Kesk 24.7%, SDP 24.5%,
  Kok 18.5%, VAS 9.9%, VIHR 8%, KD 5.3%, SFP 4.6%; seats by party -
  Kesk 55, SDP 53, Kok 40, VAS 19, VIHR 14, KD 7, SFP 8, other 4

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Korkein Oikeus (judges appointed by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Center Party or Kesk [Matti VANHANEN]; Christian Democrats or KD
  [Paivi RASANEN]; Green League or VIHR [Tarja CRONBERG]; Left
  Alliance or VAS composed of People's Democratic League and
  Democratic Alternative [Martti KORHONEN]; National Coalition
  (conservative) Party or Kok [Jyrki KATAINEN]; Social Democratic
  Party or SDP [Eero HEINALUOMA]; Swedish People's Party or SFP
  [Stefan WALLIN]

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN,
  EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NC, NEA,
  NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO,
  ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pekka LINTU
  chancery: 3301 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-5800
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-6030
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marilyn WARE
  embassy: Itainen Puistotie 14B, 00140 Helsinki
  mailing address: APO AE 09723
  telephone: [358] (9) 616250
  FAX: [358] (9) 6162 5800

Flag description:
  white with a blue cross extending to the edges of the flag; the
  vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style
  of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Economy Finland


Economy - overview:
  Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market economy
  with per capita output roughly that of the UK, France, Germany, and
  Italy. Its key economic sector is manufacturing - principally the
  wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and electronics
  industries. Trade is important; exports equal two-fifths of GDP.
  Finland excels in high-tech exports, e.g., mobile phones. Except for
  timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports of raw
  materials, energy, and some components for manufactured goods.
  Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited to
  maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. Forestry, an
  important export earner, provides a secondary occupation for the
  rural population. Rapidly increasing integration with Western Europe
  - Finland was one of the 12 countries joining the European Economic
  and Monetary Union (EMU) - will dominate the economic picture over
  the next several years. High unemployment remains a persistent
  problem.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $161.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $184.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $31,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 29.5%
  services: 67.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.61 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture and forestry 8%, industry 22%, construction 6%,
  commerce 14%, finance, insurance, and business services 10%,
  transport and communications 8%, public services 32%

Unemployment rate:
  8.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.2%
  highest 10%: 21.6% (1991)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  26.9 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $99.61 billion
  expenditures: $97.14 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  39.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  barley, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes; dairy cattle; fish

Industries:
  metals and metal products, electronics, machinery and scientific
  instruments, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, foodstuffs, chemicals,
  textiles, clothing

Industrial production growth rate:
  -2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  79.61 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 39%
  hydro: 18.7%
  nuclear: 30.4%
  other: 11.8% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  78.94 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  7 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  11.9 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  9,013 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  219,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  101,000 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  318,300 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  5.028 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  4.567 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $5.043 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $67.88 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals; timber, paper, pulp
  (1999)

Exports - partners:
  Russia 11.2%, Sweden 10.7%, Germany 10.5%, UK 6.6%, US 6.2%,
  Netherlands 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $56.45 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, transport
  equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and fabrics,
  grains

Imports - partners:
  Germany 16.2%, Sweden 14.1%, Russia 13.9%, Netherlands 6.2%,
  Denmark 4.6%, UK 4.3%, China 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $11.4 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $211.7 billion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $379 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Finland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.12 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  5.231 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system with excellent service
  domestic: digital fiber-optic fixed-line network and an extensive
  cellular network provide domestic needs
  international: country code - 358; 1 submarine cable (Finland
  Estonia Connection); satellite earth stations - access to Intelsat
  transmission service via a Swedish satellite earth station, 1
  Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Finland shares
  the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark,
  Iceland, Norway, and Sweden)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 186, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  7.7 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  120 (plus 431 repeaters) (1999)

Televisions:
  3.2 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .fi; note - the IANA has assigned the ccTLD of .ax to the Aland
  Islands

Internet hosts:
  1,633,614 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2002)

Internet users:
  3.286 million (2005)

Transportation Finland


Airports:
  148 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 76
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 14 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 72
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 67 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 694 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,741 km
  broad gauge: 5,741 km 1.524-m gauge (2,619 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 78,189 km
  paved: 50,633 km (including 653 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 27,556 km (2006)

Waterways:
  7,842 km
  note: includes Saimaa Canal system of 3,577 km; southern part leased
  from Russia (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 87 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,250,600 GRT/952,072 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 22, chemical tanker 6, container 1,
  passenger 5, passenger/cargo 20, petroleum tanker 4, roll on/roll
  off 25
  foreign-owned: 3 (Norway 1, Russia 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 48 (Bahamas 8, Germany 2, Gibraltar
  3, Luxembourg 4, Marshall Islands 2, Netherlands 13, Norway 4,
  Sweden 11, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Hamina, Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka, Naantali, Pori, Porvoo, Raahe,
  Rauma, Turku

Military Finland


Military branches:
  Finnish Defense Forces: Army, Navy (includes coastal defense
  forces), Air Force (2003)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service
  (October 2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,121,275
  females age 18-49: 1,076,684 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 913,617
  females age 18-49: 875,689 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 32,040
  females age 18-49: 30,519 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.8 billion (FY98/99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2% (FY98/99)

Transnational Issues Finland


Disputes - international:
  various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia and other
  areas ceded to the Soviet Union, but the Finnish Government asserts
  no territorial demands


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@France

Introduction France


Background:
  Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France
  suffered extensive losses in its empire, wealth, manpower, and rank
  as a dominant nation-state. Nevertheless, France today is one of the
  most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European
  nations. Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy
  resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier parliamentary
  democracies. In recent years, its reconciliation and cooperation
  with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of
  Europe, including the introduction of a common exchange currency,
  the euro, in January 1999. At present, France is at the forefront of
  efforts to develop the EU's military capabilities to supplement
  progress toward an EU foreign policy.

Geography France


Location:
  Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English Channel,
  between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the UK; bordering the
  Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain

Geographic coordinates:
  46 00 N, 2 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 547,030 sq km
  land: 545,630 sq km
  water: 1,400 sq km
  note: includes only metropolitan France; excludes the overseas
  administrative divisions

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Colorado

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,889 km
  border countries: Andorra 56.6 km, Belgium 620 km, Germany 451 km,
  Italy 488 km, Luxembourg 73 km, Monaco 4.4 km, Spain 623 km,
  Switzerland 573 km

Coastline:
  3,427 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm (does not apply to the Mediterranean)
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and hot
  summers along the Mediterranean; occasional strong, cold, dry,
  north-to-northwesterly wind known as mistral

Terrain:
  mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west;
  remainder is mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south, Alps in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Rhone River delta -2 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc, uranium, antimony, arsenic, potash,
  feldspar, fluorospar, gypsum, timber, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 33.46%
  permanent crops: 2.03%
  other: 64.51% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  26,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding; avalanches; midwinter windstorms; drought; forest fires
  in south near the Mediterranean

Environment - current issues:
  some forest damage from acid rain; air pollution from industrial
  and vehicle emissions; water pollution from urban wastes,
  agricultural runoff

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  largest West European nation

People France


Population:
  60,876,136 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.3% (male 5,704,152/female 5,427,213)
  15-64 years: 65.3% (male 19,886,228/female 19,860,506)
  65 years and over: 16.4% (male 4,103,883/female 5,894,154) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.1 years
  male: 37.6 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.35% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.14 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.73 years
  male: 76.1 years
  female: 83.54 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  120,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)
  adjective: French

Ethnic groups:
  Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Indochinese,
  Basque minorities

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5%-10%,
  unaffiliated 4%

Languages:
  French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages
  (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government France


Country name:
  conventional long form: French Republic
  conventional short form: France
  local long form: Republique francaise
  local short form: France

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Paris
  geographic coordinates: 48 52 N, 2 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  22 regions (regions, singular - region); Alsace, Aquitaine,
  Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre,
  Champagne-Ardenne, Corse, Franche-Comte, Haute-Normandie,
  Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine,
  Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardie,
  Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Rhone-Alpes
  note: metropolitan France is divided into 22 regions (including the
  "territorial collectivity" of Corse or Corsica) and is subdivided
  into 96 departments; see separate entries for the overseas
  departments (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion) and the
  overseas territorial collectivities (Mayotte, Saint Pierre, Miquelon)

Dependent areas:
  Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, French
  Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glorioso Islands,
  Juan de Nova Island, New Caledonia, Tromelin Island, Wallis and
  Futuna
  note: the US does not recognize claims to Antarctica

Independence:
  486 (unified by Clovis)

National holiday:
  Fete de la Federation, 14 July (1790); note - although often
  incorrectly referred to as Bastille Day, the celebration actually
  commemorates the holiday held on the first anniversary of the
  storming of the Bastille (on 14 July 1789) and the establishment of
  a constitutional monarchy; other names for the holiday are Fete
  Nationale (National Holiday) and quatorze juillet (14th of July)

Constitution:
  adopted by referendum 28 September 1958, effective 4 October 1958;
  amended concerning election of president in 1962; amended to comply
  with provisions of 1992 EC Maastricht Treaty, 1996 Amsterdam Treaty,
  2000 Treaty of Nice; amended to tighten immigration laws in 1993;
  amended in 2000 to change the seven-year presidential term to a
  five-year term

Legal system:
  civil law system with indigenous concepts; review of administrative
  but not legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC (since 17 May 1995)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dominique DE VILLEPIN (since 31
  May 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  suggestion of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (changed from seven-year term in October 2000); election last held
  21 April and 5 May 2002 (next to be held, first round April 2007,
  second round May 2007); prime minister nominated by the National
  Assembly majority and appointed by the president
  election results: Jacques CHIRAC reelected president; percent of
  vote, second ballot - Jacques CHIRAC (RPR) 81.96%, Jean-Marie LE PEN
  (FN) 18.04%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of the Senate or Senat
  (321 seats - 296 for metropolitan France, 13 for overseas
  departments and territories, and 12 for French nationals abroad;
  members are indirectly elected by an electoral college to serve
  nine-year terms; elected by thirds every three years); note -
  between 2004 and 2010, 25 new seats will be added to the Senate for
  a total of 346 seats - 326 for metropolitan France and overseas
  departments, 2 for New Caledonia, 2 for Mayotte, 1 for Saint-Pierre
  and Miquelon, 3 for overseas territories, and 12 for French
  nationals abroad; starting in 2008, members will be indirectly
  elected by an electoral college to serve six-year terms, with
  one-half the seats being renewed every three years; and the National
  Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (577 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote under a single-member majority system to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 26 September 2004 (next to be held
  September 2008); National Assembly - last held 8-16 June 2002 (next
  to be held not later than June 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - UMP 156, PS 97, UDF 33, PCF 23, RDSE 15, other 7; National
  Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP 355,
  PS 140, UDF 29, PCF 21, Left Radical Party 7, Greens 3, other 22

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Appeals or Cour de Cassation (judges are appointed
  by the president from nominations of the High Council of the
  Judiciary); Constitutional Council or Conseil Constitutionnel (three
  members appointed by the president, three appointed by the president
  of the National Assembly, and three appointed by the president of
  the Senate); Council of State or Conseil d'Etat

Political parties and leaders:
  Citizen and Republican Movement or MRC [Jean Pierre CHEVENEMENT];
  Democratic and European Social Rally or RDSE (mainly Radical
  Republican and Socialist Parties, and PRG) [Jacques PELLETIER];
  French Communist Party or PCF [Marie-George BUFFET]; Greens [Yan
  WEHRLING, national secretary]; Left Radical Party or PRG (previously
  Radical Socialist Party or PRS and the Left Radical Movement or MRG)
  [Jean-Michel BAYLET]; Movement for France or MPF [Philippe DE
  VILLIERS]; National Front or FN [Jean-Marie LE PEN]; Rally for
  France or RPF [Charles PASQUA]; Socialist Party or PS [Francois
  HOLLANDE]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Francois BAYROU];
  Union for a Popular Movement or UMP [Nicolas SARKOZY]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  historically-Communist labor union (Confederation Generale du
  Travail) or CGT, approximately 700,000 members (claimed);
  left-leaning labor union (Confederation Francaise Democratique du
  Travail) or CFDT, approximately 889,000 members (claimed);
  independent labor union (Confederation Generale du Travail - Force
  Ouvriere) or FO, 300,000 members (est.); independent white-collar
  union (Confederation Generale des Cadres) or CGC, 196,000 members
  (claimed); employers' union (Mouvement des Entreprises de France) or
  MEDEF, 750,000 companies as members (claimed)

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia
  Group, BDEAC, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS (observer), CE, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, FZ, G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer),
  OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI
  (observer), SPC, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UNTSO, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCL, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jean-David LEVITTE
  chancery: 4101 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-6000
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-6166
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Craig R. STAPLETON
  embassy: 2 Avenue Gabriel, 75382 Paris Cedex 08
  mailing address: PSC 116, APO AE 09777
  telephone: [33] (1) 43-12-22-22
  FAX: [33] (1) 42 66 97 83
  consulate(s) general: Marseille, Strasbourg

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and red;
  known as the "Le drapeau tricolore" (French Tricolor), the origin of
  the flag dates to 1790 and the French Revolution; the design and/or
  colors are similar to a number of other flags, including those of
  Belgium, Chad, Ireland, Cote d'Ivoire, Luxembourg, and Netherlands;
  the official flag for all French dependent areas

Economy France


Economy - overview:
  France is in the midst of transition from a well-to-do modern
  economy that has featured extensive government ownership and
  intervention to one that relies more on market mechanisms. The
  government has partially or fully privatized many large companies,
  banks, and insurers. It retains controlling stakes in several
  leading firms, including Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and
  Thales, and is dominant in some sectors, particularly power, public
  transport, and defense industries. The telecommunications sector is
  gradually being opened to competition. France's leaders remain
  committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by
  means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income
  disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and
  welfare. The government has lowered income taxes and introduced
  measures to boost employment and reform the pension system. In
  addition, it is focusing on the problems of the high cost of labor
  and labor market inflexibility resulting from the 35-hour workweek
  and restrictions on lay-offs. The tax burden remains one of the
  highest in Europe (nearly 50% of GDP in 2005). The lingering
  economic slowdown and inflexible budget items have pushed the budget
  deficit above the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP limit; unemployment stands at
  10%.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.794 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.055 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $29,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 76.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  27.72 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.1%
  industry: 24.4%
  services: 71.5% (1999)

Unemployment rate:
  9.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  6.5% (2000)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.1% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  32.7 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.06 trillion
  expenditures: $1.144 trillion; including capital expenditures of $23
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  66.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, cereals, sugar beets, potatoes, wine grapes; beef, dairy
  products; fish

Industries:
  machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft,
  electronics; textiles, food processing; tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  0.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  536.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 8.2%
  hydro: 14%
  nuclear: 77.1%
  other: 0.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  433.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  72.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  6.2 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  76,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  409,600 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  2.281 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  144.3 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  1.566 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  43.74 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  1.725 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  40.26 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  14.33 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-38.78 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $443.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics,
  chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages

Exports - partners:
  Germany 14.7%, Spain 9.6%, Italy 8.7%, UK 8.3%, US 7.2%, Belgium
  7.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $473.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics,
  chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Germany 18.9%, Belgium 10.7%, Italy 8.2%, Spain 7%, Netherlands
  6.5%, UK 5.9%, US 5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $74.36 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.826 trillion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $5.4 billion (2002)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications France


Telephones - main lines in use:
  35.7 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  48.058 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: highly developed
  domestic: extensive cable and microwave radio relay; extensive
  introduction of fiber-optic cable; domestic satellite system
  international: country code - 33; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (with total of 5 antennas - 2 for Indian Ocean and 3 for
  Atlantic Ocean), NA Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region); HF
  radiotelephone communications with more than 20 countries

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 41, FM about 3,500 (this figure is an approximation and includes
  many repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  55.3 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  584 (plus 9,676 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  34.8 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .fr

Internet hosts:
  3,148,379 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  62 (2000)

Internet users:
  29.521 million (2006)

Transportation France


Airports:
  477 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 292
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 96
  914 to 1,523 m: 81
  under 914 m: 74 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 185
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 73
  under 914 m: 108 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 14,588 km; oil 3,024 km; refined products 4,889 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 29,085 km
  standard gauge: 28,918 km 1.435-m gauge (14,481 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 167 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 891,290 km
  paved: 891,290 km (including 10,390 km of expressways) (2003)

Waterways:
  8,500 km (1,686 km accessible to craft of 3,000 metric tons) (2000)

Merchant marine:
  total: 61 ships (1000 GRT or over) 875,777 GRT/1,318,605 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 3, container 5, liquefied gas 6,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 32, petroleum tanker 10, roll on/roll
  off 1
  foreign-owned: 13 (Denmark 1, Hong Kong 1, Italy 2, Monaco 1, Norway
  1, NZ 1, Singapore 2, Sweden 2, Switzerland 2)
  registered in other countries: 154 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Australia
  3, Bahamas 37, Bermuda 1, Cameroon 1, French Polynesia 1, French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands 36, Gibraltar 1, Indonesia 1, Isle of
  Man 2, Italy 1, South Korea 12, Liberia 3, Luxembourg 14, Malta 6,
  Mexico 1, Morocco 1, Panama 15, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 8,
  UK 4, Wallis and Futuna 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bordeaux, Calais, Dunkerque, La Pallice, Le Havre, Marseille,
  Nantes, Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg

Military France


Military branches:
  Army (includes marines, Foreign Legion, light aviation), Navy
  (includes naval air), Air Force (includes air defense), National
  Gendarmerie

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription ended
  in the 1990s; women serve in non-combat military posts (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 13,676,509
  females age 17-49: 13,504,539 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 11,262,661
  females age 17-49: 11,079,472 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 389,204
  females age 17-49: 372,719 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $45 billion FY06 (2005)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.6% FY06 (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues France


Disputes - international:
  Madagascar claims the French territories of Bassas da India, Europa
  Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juan de Nova Island; Comoros claims
  Mayotte; Mauritius claims Tromelin Island; territorial dispute
  between Suriname and the French overseas department of French
  Guiana; France asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Adelie
  Land); France and Vanuatu claim Matthew and Hunter Islands, east of
  New Caledonia

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for and consumer of South American cocaine,
  Southwest Asian heroin, and European synthetics


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@French Guiana

Introduction French Guiana


Background:
  First settled by the French in 1604, French Guiana was the site of
  notorious penal settlements until 1951. The European Space Agency
  launches its communication satellites from Kourou.

Geography French Guiana


Location:
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Brazil and Suriname

Geographic coordinates:
  4 00 N, 53 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 91,000 sq km
  land: 89,150 sq km
  water: 1,850 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,240.4 km
  border countries: Brazil 730.4 km, Suriname 510 km

Coastline:
  378 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  low-lying coastal plains rising to hills and small mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Bellevue de l'Inini 851 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, timber, gold (widely scattered), petroleum, kaolin, fish,
  niobium, tantalum, clay

Land use:
  arable land: 0.13%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 99.83% (90% forest, 10% other) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  high frequency of heavy showers and severe thunderstorms; flooding

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  mostly an unsettled wilderness; the only non-independent portion of
  the South American continent

People French Guiana


Population:
  199,509 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.9% (male 29,540/female 28,210)
  15-64 years: 64.8% (male 69,302/female 59,980)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 6,350/female 6,127) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.6 years
  male: 29.6 years
  female: 27.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.96% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.88 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.16 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.04 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.12 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 11.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.27 years
  male: 73.95 years
  female: 80.75 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: French Guianese (singular and plural)
  adjective: French Guianese

Ethnic groups:
  black or mulatto 66%, white 12%, East Indian, Chinese, Amerindian
  12%, other 10%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic

Languages:
  French

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83%
  male: 84%
  female: 82% (1982 est.)

Government French Guiana


Country name:
  conventional long form: Department of Guiana
  conventional short form: French Guiana
  local long form: none
  local short form: Guyane

Dependency status:
  overseas department of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Cayenne
  geographic coordinates: 4 56 N, 52 20 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas department of France)

Independence:
  none (overseas department of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French legal system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Pierre LAFLAQUIERE (since 19 July
  2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Pierre DESERT
  (since 26 March 2004); President of the Regional Council Antoine
  KARAM (since 22 March 1992)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; presidents of the General and Regional
  Councils are appointed by the members of those councils

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (19 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a
  unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (31 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held in March 2000 (next to be
  held March 2006); Regional Council - last held 21 and 28 March 2004
  (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - PSG 5, various left-wing parties 5, independents 7,
  other 2; Regional Council - (second election results) percent of
  vote by party - PS 37.24%, UMP 31.58%, FDG/Walwari 31.18%; seats by
  party - PS 17, UMP 7, FDG/Walwari 7
  note: one seat was elected to the French Senate on 27 September 1998
  (next to be held September 2007); results - percent of vote by party
  - NA; seats by party - NA; 2 seats were elected to the French
  National Assembly on 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - UMP/RPR
  1, Walwari Committee 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel (highest local court based in
  Martinique with jurisdiction over Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French
  Guiana)

Political parties and leaders:
  Guyana Democratic Forces or FDG [Georges OTHILY]; Guyanese
  Democratic Action or ADG [Andre LECANTE]; Guyanese Socialist Party
  or PSG [Marie-Claude VERDAN]; Popular National Guyanese Party or
  PNPG [Jose DORCY]; Socialist Party or PS [Alix LABBE]; Union for
  French Democracy or UDF [Georges HABRAN-MERY]; Union for a Popular
  Movement or UMP (includes RPR) [Remi Louis DUBOC]; Walwari Committee
  (aligned with the PRG in France) [Christine TAUBIRA-DELANON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Flag description:
  the flag of France is used

Economy French Guiana


Economy - overview:
  The economy is tied closely to the much larger French economy
  through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space center at
  Kourou (which accounts for 25% of GDP), fishing and forestry are the
  most important economic activities. Forest and woodland cover 90% of
  the country. The large reserves of tropical hardwoods, not fully
  exploited, support an expanding sawmill industry that provides sawn
  logs for export. Cultivation of crops is limited to the coastal
  area, where the population is largely concentrated; rice and manioc
  are the major crops. French Guiana is heavily dependent on imports
  of food and energy. Unemployment is a serious problem, particularly
  among younger workers.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.551 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,300 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA% 6.6%
  industry: NA% 15.6%
  services: NA% 77.8%

Labor force:
  62,630 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 18.2%
  industry: 21.2%
  services: 60.6% (1980)

Unemployment rate:
  19.2% (December 2003)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1% (2003)

Budget:
  revenues: $135.5 million
  expenditures: $135.5 million; including capital expenditures of $105
  million (1996)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, rice, manioc (tapioca), sugar, cocoa, vegetables, bananas;
  cattle, pigs, poultry

Industries:
  construction, shrimp processing, forestry products, rum, gold mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  465.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  432.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  6,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $137.5 million f.o.b. (2003)

Exports - commodities:
  shrimp, timber, gold, rum, rosewood essence, clothing

Exports - partners:
  France 62%, Switzerland 7%, US 2% (2004)

Imports:
  $625 million c.i.f. (2002 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food (grains, processed meat), machinery and transport equipment,
  fuels and chemicals

Imports - partners:
  France 63%, US, Trinidad and Tobago, Italy (2004)

Debt - external:
  $800.3 million (2003)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications French Guiana


Telephones - main lines in use:
  51,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  98,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fair open-wire and microwave radio relay system
  international: country code - 594; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 14 (including 6 repeaters), shortwave 6 (including 5
  repeaters) (1998)

Radios:
  104,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus eight low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  30,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gf

Internet hosts:
  106 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  38,000 (2005)

Transportation French Guiana


Airports:
  11 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 817 km (1998)

Waterways:
  3,760 km
  note: 460 km navigable by small oceangoing vessels and coastal and
  river steamers, 3,300 km by native craft (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Degrad des Cannes

Military French Guiana


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 47,809 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 38,676 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues French Guiana


Disputes - international:
  Suriname claims area between Riviere Litani and Riviere Marouini
  (both headwaters of the Lawa) in French Guiana

Illicit drugs:
  small amount of marijuana grown for local consumption; minor
  transshipment point to Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@French Polynesia

Introduction French Polynesia


Background:
  The French annexed various Polynesian island groups during the 19th
  century. In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by
  resuming nuclear testing on the Mururoa atoll after a three-year
  moratorium. The tests were suspended in January 1996. In recent
  years, French Polynesia's autonomy has been considerably expanded.

Geography French Polynesia


Location:
  Oceania, archipelagoes in the South Pacific Ocean about one-half of
  the way from South America to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 S, 140 00 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 4,167 sq km (118 islands and atolls)
  land: 3,660 sq km
  water: 507 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than one-third the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  2,525 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical, but moderate

Terrain:
  mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Orohena 2,241 m

Natural resources:
  timber, fish, cobalt, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 0.75%
  permanent crops: 5.5%
  other: 93.75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional cyclonic storms in January

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  includes five archipelagoes (4 volcanic, 1 coral); Makatea in
  French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in
  the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati
  and Nauru

People French Polynesia


Population:
  274,578 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 36,541/female 34,999)
  15-64 years: 67.9% (male 96,769/female 89,593)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 8,428/female 8,248) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.9 years
  male: 28.2 years
  female: 27.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.48% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.69 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.1 years
  male: 73.69 years
  female: 78.63 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: French Polynesian(s)
  adjective: French Polynesian

Ethnic groups:
  Polynesian 78%, Chinese 12%, local French 6%, metropolitan French 4%

Religions:
  Protestant 54%, Roman Catholic 30%, other 10%, no religion 6%

Languages:
  French 61.1% (official), Polynesian 31.4% (official), Asian
  languages 1.2%, other 0.3%, unspecified 6% (2002 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 14 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 98% (1977 est.)

Government French Polynesia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Overseas Lands of French Polynesia
  conventional short form: French Polynesia
  local long form: Pays d'outre-mer de la Polynesie Francaise
  local short form: Polynesie Francaise
  former: French Colony of Oceania

Dependency status:
  overseas lands of France; overseas territory of France from
  1946-2004

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Papeete
  geographic coordinates: 17 32 S, 149 34 W
  time difference: UTC-10 (5 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas lands of France); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are five archipelagic divisions named Archipel des Marquises,
  Archipel des Tuamotu, Archipel des Tubuai, Iles du Vent, Iles
  Sous-le-Vent
  note: Clipperton Island is administered by France from French
  Polynesia

Independence:
  none (overseas lands of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  based on French system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by High Commissioner of the Republic Anne BOQUET
  (since September 2005)
  head of government: President of French Polynesia Oscar TEMARU
  (since 3 March 2005); President of the Territorial Assembly Antony
  GEROS (since 9 May 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers; president submits a list of members
  of the Territorial Assembly for approval by them to serve as
  ministers
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high commissioner appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of Interior; president of the
  territorial government and the president of the Territorial Assembly
  are elected by the members of the assembly for five-year terms (no
  term limits)

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblee Territoriale (57 seats
  - changed from 49 seats for May 2004 election; members are elected
  by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 May 2004 (next to be held May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  People's Rally for the Republic (Gaullist) 28, Union for Democracy
  27, New Star 1, This Country is Yours 1; after by-elections of 13
  February 2005 seating was as follows: People's Rally for the
  Republic 27, Union for Democracy 27, and Alliance for a New
  Democracy 3
  note: one seat was elected to the French Senate on 27 September 1998
  (next to be held September 2007); results - percent of vote by party
  - NA; seats by party - NA; two seats were elected to the French
  National Assembly on 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP/RPR 1,
  UMP 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Court of the First Instance or
  Tribunal de Premiere Instance; Court of Administrative Law or
  Tribunal Administratif

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for a New Democracy or ADN [Nicole BOUTEAU and Philip
  SCHYLE](includes the parties The New Star and This Country is
  Yours); Independent Front for the Liberation of Polynesia (Tavini
  Huiraatira) [Oscar TEMARU]; New Fatherland Party (Ai'a Api) [Emile
  VERNAUDON]; People's Rally for the Republic of Polynesia or RPR
  (Tahoeraa Huiraatira) [Gaston FLOSSE]; Union for Democracy or UPD
  [Oscar TEMARU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  FZ, ICFTU, PIF (observer), SPC, UPU, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas lands of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas lands of France)

Flag description:
  two narrow red horizontal bands encase a wide white band; centered
  on the white band is a disk with blue and white wave pattern on the
  lower half and gold and white ray pattern on the upper half; a
  stylized red, blue and white ship rides on the wave pattern; the
  French flag is used for official occasions

Government - note:
  under certain acts of France, French Polynesia has acquired
  autonomy in all areas except those relating to police and justice,
  monetary policy, tertiary education, immigration, and defense and
  foreign affairs; the duties of its president are fashioned after
  those of the French prime minister

Economy French Polynesia


Economy - overview:
  Since 1962, when France stationed military personnel in the region,
  French Polynesia has changed from a subsistence agricultural economy
  to one in which a high proportion of the work force is either
  employed by the military or supports the tourist industry. With the
  halt of French nuclear testing in 1996, the military contribution to
  the economy fell sharply. Tourism accounts for about one-fourth of
  GDP and is a primary source of hard currency earnings. Other sources
  of income are pearl farming and deep-sea commercial fishing. The
  small manufacturing sector primarily processes agricultural
  products. The territory benefits substantially from development
  agreements with France aimed principally at creating new businesses
  and strengthening social services.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.58 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $17,500 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 76.9% (2002)

Labor force:
  65,870 (December 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 19%
  services: 68% (2002)

Unemployment rate:
  11.8% (1994)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.1% (2006 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $865 million
  expenditures: $644.1 million; including capital expenditures of $185
  million (1996)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, vanilla, vegetables, fruits, coffee; poultry, beef, dairy
  products

Industries:
  tourism, pearls, agricultural processing, handicrafts, phosphates

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  493.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 60.7%
  hydro: 39.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  459.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  4,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $211 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cultured pearls, coconut products, mother-of-pearl, vanilla, shark
  meat

Exports - partners:
  France 46.3%, Japan 20.8%, Niger 12.8%, US 12.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.706 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, foodstuffs, machinery and equipment

Imports - partners:
  France 52.7%, Singapore 14.9%, NZ 6.8%, US 6.6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $580 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

Currency code:
  XPF

Exchange rates:
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per US dollar - 95.89
  (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71 (2002), 133.26 (2001)
  note: pegged at the rate of 119.25 XPF to the euro

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications French Polynesia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  53,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  87,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 689; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 14, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  128,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  7 (plus 17 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  40,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pf

Internet hosts:
  14,047 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  55,000 (2005)

Transportation French Polynesia


Airports:
  51 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 39
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,590 km
  paved: 1,735 km
  unpaved: 855 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 23,684 GRT/17,291 DWT
  by type: cargo 4, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 5, refrigerated cargo
  1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (France 1)
  registered in other countries: 2 (Wallis and Futuna 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Papeete

Military French Polynesia


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie and National Police Force

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 69,679 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 55,305 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,747 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues French Polynesia


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Introduction French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Background:
  The Southern Lands consist of two archipelagos, Iles Crozet and
  Iles Kerguelen, and two volcanic islands, Ile Amsterdam and Ile
  Saint-Paul. They contain no permanent inhabitants and are visited
  only by researchers studying the native fauna. The Antarctic portion
  consists of "Adelie Land," a thin slice of the Antarctic continent
  discovered and claimed by the French in 1840.

Geography French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Location:
  southeast of Africa, islands in the southern Indian Ocean, about
  equidistant between Africa, Antarctica, and Australia; note - French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands include Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul,
  Iles Crozet, and Iles Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean, along
  with the French-claimed sector of Antarctica, "Adelie Land"; the US
  does not recognize the French claim to "Adelie Land"

Geographic coordinates:
  43 00 S, 67 00 E

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 7,829 sq km
  land: 7,829 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul, Iles Crozet, and Iles
  Kerguelen; excludes "Adelie Land" claim of about 500,000 sq km in
  Antarctica that is not recognized by the US

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than 1.3 times the size of Delaware

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,232 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm from Iles Kerguelen (does not
  include the rest of French Southern and Antarctic Lands)

Climate:
  antarctic

Terrain:
  volcanic

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Ross on Iles Kerguelen 1,850 m

Natural resources:
  fish, crayfish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul are extinct volcanoes

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  islands component is widely scattered across remote locations in
  the southern Indian Ocean

People French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: in 2002, there were 145 researchers whose numbers vary from
  winter (July) to summer (January) (July 2006 est.)

Government French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of the French Southern and
  Antarctic Lands
  conventional short form: French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  local long form: Territoire des Terres Australes et Antarctiques
  Francaises
  local short form: Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises
  abbreviation: TAAF

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of France since 1955; administered from Paris by
  Administrateur Superieur Michel CHAMPON (since 20 December 2004),
  assisted by Secretary General Jean-Yves HERMOSO (since NA)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of France); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are three districts named Ile Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Iles
  Saint-Paul et Amsterdam; excludes "Adelie Land" claim in Antarctica
  that is not recognized by the US

Legal system:
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Senior Administrator Michel CHAMPON

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Flag description:
  the flag of France is used

Economy French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and
  geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets.
  The fish catches landed on Iles Kerguelen by foreign ships are
  exported to France and Reunion.

Communications French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Internet country code:
  .tf

Internet hosts:
  38 (2006)

Transportation French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Merchant marine:
  total: 77 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,432,833 GRT/5,345,291 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, chemical tanker 27, container 18, liquefied
  gas 5, petroleum tanker 15, roll on/roll off 6, vehicle carrier 4
  foreign-owned: 76 (Belgium 6, Denmark 2, France 36, Germany 2, Hong
  Kong 2, Japan 4, Norway 12, Saudi Arabia 1, Sweden 9, Switzerland 1,
  UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues French Southern and Antarctic Lands


Disputes - international:
  French claim to "Adelie Land" in Antarctica is not recognized by
  the US


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Gabon

Introduction Gabon


Background:
  Only two autocratic presidents have ruled Gabon since independence
  from France in 1960. The current president of Gabon, El Hadj Omar
  BONGO Ondimba - one of the longest-serving heads of state in the
  world - has dominated the contry's political scene for almost four
  decades. President BONGO introduced a nominal multiparty system and
  a new constitution in the early 1990s. However, allegations of
  electoral fraud during local elections in 2002-03 and the
  presidential elections in 2005 have exposed the weaknesses of formal
  political structures in Gabon. Gabon's political opposition remains
  weak, divided, and financially dependent on the current regime.
  Despite political conditions, a small population, abundant natural
  resources, and considerable foreign support have helped make Gabon
  one of the more prosperous and stable African countries.

Geography Gabon


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean at the Equator,
  between Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea

Geographic coordinates:
  1 00 S, 11 45 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 267,667 sq km
  land: 257,667 sq km
  water: 10,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Colorado

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,551 km
  border countries: Cameroon 298 km, Republic of the Congo 1,903 km,
  Equatorial Guinea 350 km

Coastline:
  885 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; always hot, humid

Terrain:
  narrow coastal plain; hilly interior; savanna in east and south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Iboundji 1,575 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, diamond, niobium, manganese, uranium, gold,
  timber, iron ore, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 1.21%
  permanent crops: 0.64%
  other: 98.15% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  70 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; poaching

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  a small population and oil and mineral reserves have helped Gabon
  become one of Africa's wealthier countries; in general, these
  circumstances have allowed the country to maintain and conserve its
  pristine rain forest and rich biodiversity

People Gabon


Population:
  1,424,906
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.1% (male 300,914/female 299,141)
  15-64 years: 53.9% (male 383,137/female 384,876)
  65 years and over: 4% (male 23,576/female 33,262) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.13% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  36.16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 54.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 63.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 45.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 54.49 years
  male: 53.21 years
  female: 55.81 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  8.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  48,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  3,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Gabonese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Gabonese

Ethnic groups:
  Bantu tribes, including four major tribal groupings (Fang,
  Bapounou, Nzebi, Obamba); other Africans and Europeans, 154,000,
  including 10,700 French and 11,000 persons of dual nationality

Religions:
  Christian 55%-75%, animist, Muslim less than 1%

Languages:
  French (official), Fang, Myene, Nzebi, Bapounou/Eschira, Bandjabi

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 63.2%
  male: 73.7%
  female: 53.3% (1995 est.)

Government Gabon


Country name:
  conventional long form: Gabonese Republic
  conventional short form: Gabon
  local long form: Republique gabonaise
  local short form: Gabon

Government type:
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Capital:
  name: Libreville
  geographic coordinates: 0 23 N, 9 27 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces; Estuaire, Haut-Ogooue, Moyen-Ogooue, Ngounie, Nyanga,
  Ogooue-Ivindo, Ogooue-Lolo, Ogooue-Maritime, Woleu-Ntem

Independence:
  17 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Founding of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), 12 March (1968)

Constitution:
  adopted 14 March 1991

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law; judicial review
  of legislative acts in Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba (since 2
  December 1967)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe NDONG (since 20
  January 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister in
  consultation with the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 27 November 2005 (next to be
  held in 2012); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba reelected;
  percent of vote - El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba 79.2%, Pierre
  MAMBOUNDOU 13.6%, Zacharie MYBOTO 6.6%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consists of the Senate (91 seats; members
  elected by members of municipal councils and departmental
  assemblies) and the National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (120
  seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 26 January and 9 February 2003 (next
  to be held by January 2009); National Assembly - last held 9 and 23
  December 2001 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PDG 53, RNB 20, PGP 4, ADERE 3, RDP 1, CLR 1, independents
  9; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party
  - PDG 86, RNB-RPG 8, PGP 3, ADERE 3, CLR 2, PUP 1, PSD 1,
  independents 13, others 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme consisting of three chambers -
  Judicial, Administrative, and Accounts; Constitutional Court; Courts
  of Appeal; Court of State Security; County Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Circle of Liberal Reformers or CLR [General Jean Boniface ASSELE];
  Congress for Democracy and Justice or CDJ [Jules Aristide Bourdes
  OGOULIGUENDE]; Democratic and Republican Alliance or ADERE
  [Divungui-di-Ndinge DIDJOB]; Gabonese Democratic Party or PDG
  [Simplice Nguedet MANZELA] (former sole party); Gabonese Party for
  Progress or PGP [Pierre-Louis AGONDJO-OKAWE]; National Rally of
  Woodcutters or RNB; National Rally of Woodcutters-Rally for Gabon or
  RNB-RPG (Bucherons) [Fr. Paul M'BA-ABESSOLE]; People's Unity Party
  or PUP [Louis Gaston MAYILA]; Rally for Democracy and Progress or
  RDP [Pierre EMBONI]; Social Democratic Party or PSD [Pierre Claver
  MAGANGA-MOUSSAVOU]; Union for Democracy and Social Integration or
  UDIS; Union of Gabonese People or UPG [Pierre MAMBOUNDOU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jules Marius OGOUEBANDJA
  chancery: Suite 200, 2034 20th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-1000
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-0668
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Barrie R. WALKLEY
  embassy: Boulevard du Bord de Mer, Libreville
  mailing address: Centre Ville, B. P. 4000, Libreville
  telephone: [241] 76 20 03 through 76 20 04, after hours - 74 34 92
  FAX: [241] 74 55 07

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and blue

Economy Gabon


Economy - overview:
  Gabon enjoys a per capita income four times that of most of
  sub-Saharan African nations. This has supported a sharp decline in
  extreme poverty; yet, because of high income inequality, a large
  proportion of the population remains poor. Gabon depended on timber
  and manganese until oil was discovered offshore in the early 1970s.
  The oil sector now accounts for 50% of GDP. Gabon continues to face
  fluctuating prices for its oil, timber, and manganese exports.
  Despite the abundance of natural wealth, poor fiscal management
  hobbles the economy. Devaluation of its currency by 50% in January
  1994 sparked a one-time inflationary surge, to 35%; the rate dropped
  to 6% in 1996. The IMF provided a one-year standby arrangement in
  1994-95, a three-year Enhanced Financing Facility (EFF) at near
  commercial rates beginning in late 1995, and stand-by credit of $119
  million in October 2000. Those agreements mandated progress in
  privatization and fiscal discipline. France provided additional
  financial support in January 1997 after Gabon met IMF targets for
  mid-1996. In 1997, an IMF mission to Gabon criticized the government
  for overspending on off-budget items, overborrowing from the central
  bank, and slipping on its schedule for privatization and
  administrative reform. The rebound of oil prices in 1999-2000 helped
  growth, but drops in production hampered Gabon from fully realizing
  potential gains. In December 2000, Gabon signed a new agreement with
  the Paris Club to reschedule its official debt. A follow-up
  bilateral repayment agreement with the US was signed in December
  2001. Gabon signed a 14-month Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF in
  May 2004, and received Paris Club debt rescheduling later that year.
  Short-term progress depends on an upbeat world economy and fiscal
  and other adjustments in line with IMF policies.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $9.739 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $6.697 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6.1%
  industry: 59.2%
  services: 34.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  640,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 15%
  services: 25%

Unemployment rate:
  21% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.463 billion
  expenditures: $1.618 billion; including capital expenditures of $325
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  33.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa, coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber; cattle; okoume (a tropical
  softwood); fish

Industries:
  petroleum extraction and refining; manganese, gold; chemicals, ship
  repair, food and beverages, textiles, lumbering and plywood, cement

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.6% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.487 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 34.5%
  hydro: 65.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.383 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  268,900 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  12,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.921 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  90 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  90 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  33.98 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $675 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $5.813 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil 77%, timber, manganese, uranium (2001)

Exports - partners:
  US 53.5%, France 6.4%, China 6.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.533 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, construction
  materials

Imports - partners:
  France 40.6%, US 6.4%, Cameroon 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $675.2 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.903 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $331 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Currency code:
  XAF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Gabon


Telephones - main lines in use:
  39,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  649,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate service by African standards and
  improving with the help of the growing mobile cell system
  domestic: adequate system of cable, microwave radio relay,
  tropospheric scatter, radiotelephone communication stations, and a
  domestic satellite system with 12 earth stations
  international: country code - 241; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 7 (and 11 repeaters), shortwave 4 (2001)

Radios:
  208,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (plus four low-power repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  63,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ga

Internet hosts:
  322 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2001)

Internet users:
  67,000 (2005)

Transportation Gabon


Airports:
  56 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 272 km; oil 1,354 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 814 km
  standard gauge: 814 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 32,333 km
  paved: 6,247 km
  unpaved: 26,086 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,600 km (310 km on Ogooue River) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cambodia 1, Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Gamba, Libreville, Lucinda, Owendo, Port-Gentil

Military Gabon


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force, National Gendarmerie, National Police

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 278,826
  females age 18-49: 279,865 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 159,198
  females age 18-49: 156,122 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 15,325
  females age 18-49: 15,367 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $253.5 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Gabon


Disputes - international:
  UN presses Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the sovereignty
  dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and to establish a maritime
  boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay; only a few hundred out of
  the 20,000 Republic of the Congo refugees who fled militia fighting
  in 2000 remain in Gabon


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Gambia, The

Introduction Gambia, The


Background:
  The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in 1965; it formed a
  short-lived federation of Senegambia with Senegal between 1982 and
  1989. In 1991 the two nations signed a friendship and cooperation
  treaty. A military coup in 1994 overthrew the president and banned
  political activity, but a 1996 constitution and presidential
  elections, followed by parliamentary balloting in 1997, completed a
  nominal return to civilian rule. The country undertook another round
  of presidential and legislative elections in late 2001 and early
  2002. Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH, the leader of the coup, has been
  elected president in all subsequent elections.

Geography Gambia, The


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and Senegal

Geographic coordinates:
  13 28 N, 16 34 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 11,300 sq km
  land: 10,000 sq km
  water: 1,300 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Delaware

Land boundaries:
  total: 740 km
  border countries: Senegal 740 km

Coastline:
  80 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: not specified
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, rainy season (June to November); cooler, dry season
  (November to May)

Terrain:
  flood plain of the Gambia River flanked by some low hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 53 m

Natural resources:
  fish, titanium (rutile and ilmenite), tin, zircon, silica sand,
  clay, petroleum

Land use:
  arable land: 27.88%
  permanent crops: 0.44%
  other: 71.68% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  drought (rainfall has dropped by 30% in the last 30 years)

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; desertification; water-borne diseases prevalent

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  almost an enclave of Senegal; smallest country on the continent of
  Africa

People Gambia, The


Population:
  1,641,564 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.3% (male 365,157/female 361,821)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 431,627/female 438,159)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 22,889/female 21,911) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 17.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.84% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  39.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.05 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 71.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 78.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 64.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 54.14 years
  male: 52.3 years
  female: 56.03 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  6,800 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  600 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Crimean-Congo
  hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Gambian(s)
  adjective: Gambian

Ethnic groups:
  African 99% (Mandinka 42%, Fula 18%, Wolof 16%, Jola 10%, Serahuli
  9%, other 4%), non-African 1%

Religions:
  Muslim 90%, Christian 9%, indigenous beliefs 1%

Languages:
  English (official), Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, other indigenous
  vernaculars

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.1%
  male: 47.8%
  female: 32.8% (2003 est.)

Government Gambia, The


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of The Gambia
  conventional short form: The Gambia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Banjul
  geographic coordinates: 12 28 N, 16 39 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  5 divisions and 1 city*; Banjul*, Central River, Lower River, North
  Bank, Upper River, Western

Independence:
  18 February 1965 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 18 February (1965)

Constitution:
  24 April 1970; suspended July 1994; rewritten and approved by
  national referendum 8 August 1996; reestablished January 1997

Legal system:
  based on a composite of English common law, Koranic law, and
  customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH (since 18 October
  1996); note - from 1994 to 1996 he was chairman of the Junta); Vice
  President Isatou NJIE-SAIDY (since 20 March 1997); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH (since 18
  October 1996); note - from 1994 to 1996 he was chairman of the
  Junta); Vice President Isatou NJIE-SAIDY (since 20 March 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 22 September 2006 (next to be
  held in 2011)
  election results: Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH reelected president; percent
  of vote - Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH 67.3%, Ousainou DARBOE 26.6%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (53 seats; 48 elected by popular vote,
  5 appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 January 2002 (next to be held 25 January
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  APRC 45, PDOIS 2, NRP 1,

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction or APRC
  [Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH] (the ruling party); Gambian People's
  Party-Progressive People's Party-United Democratic Party or
  GPP-PPP-UDP Coalition [Ousainou DARBOE]; National Convention Party
  or NCP [Sheriff DIBBA]; National Reconciliation Party or NRP [Hamat
  N. K. BAH]; People's Democratic Organization for Independence and
  Socialism or PDOIS [Sidia JATTA]
  note: in August 2001, an independent electoral commission allowed
  the reregistration of the GPP, NCP, and PPP, three parties banned
  since 1996

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dodou Bammy JAGNE
  chancery: Suite 905, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1379
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1430

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph D. STAFFORD, III
  embassy: Kairaba Avenue, Fajara, Banjul
  mailing address: P. M. B. No. 19, Banjul
  telephone: [220] 439-2856, 437-6169, 437-6170
  FAX: [220] 439-2475

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue with white edges,
  and green

Economy Gambia, The


Economy - overview:
  The Gambia has no significant mineral or natural resource deposits
  and has a limited agricultural base. About 75% of the population
  depends on crops and livestock for its livelihood. Small-scale
  manufacturing activity features the processing of peanuts, fish, and
  hides. Reexport trade normally constitutes a major segment of
  economic activity, but a 1999 government-imposed preshipment
  inspection plan, and instability of the Gambian dalasi (currency)
  have drawn some of the reexport trade away from The Gambia. The
  government's 1998 seizure of the private peanut firm Alimenta
  eliminated the largest purchaser of Gambian groundnuts. Despite an
  announced program to begin privatizing key parastatals, no plans
  have been made public that would indicate that the government
  intends to follow through on its promises. Unemployment and
  underemployment rates remain extremely high; short-run economic
  progress depends on sustained bilateral and multilateral aid, on
  responsible government economic management, on continued technical
  assistance from the IMF and bilateral donors, and on expected growth
  in the construction sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.034 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $429 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 30.8%
  industry: 14.2%
  services: 54.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  400,000 (1996)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: 19%
  services: 6%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $46.63 million
  expenditures: $62.66 million; including capital expenditures of $4.1
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, millet, sorghum, peanuts, corn, sesame, cassava (tapioca),
  palm kernels; cattle, sheep, goats

Industries:
  processing peanuts, fish, and hides; tourism, beverages,
  agricultural machinery assembly, woodworking, metalworking, clothing

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  140 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  130.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  2,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-53 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $140.3 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  peanut products, fish, cotton lint, palm kernels, re-exports

Exports - partners:
  India 40.4%, UK 18.2%, Indonesia 8.3%, Senegal 4.6%, Belgium 4.3%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $197 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, manufactures, fuel, machinery and transport equipment

Imports - partners:
  China 21.3%, Senegal 11.3%, Cote d'Ivoire 8.4%, Brazil 6%, US 5.2%,
  UK 5.1%, Netherlands 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $82 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $628.8 million (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $59.8 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  dalasi (GMD)

Currency code:
  GMD

Exchange rates:
  dalasi per US dollar - 30.38 (2005), 30.03 (2004), 27.306 (2004),
  19.918 (2003), 15.687 (2002), 15.687 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Gambia, The


Telephones - main lines in use:
  44,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  247,500 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate; a packet switched data network is
  available
  domestic: adequate network of microwave radio relay and open-wire
  international: country code - 220; microwave radio relay links to
  Senegal and Guinea-Bissau; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001)

Radios:
  196,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (government-owned) (1997)

Televisions:
  5,000 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .gm

Internet hosts:
  14 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2001)

Internet users:
  49,000 (2005)

Transportation Gambia, The


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 3,742 km
  paved: 723 km
  unpaved: 3,019 km (2003)

Waterways:
  390 km (on River Gambia; small ocean-going vessels can reach 190
  km) (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 5 ships (1000 GRT or over) 32,064 GRT/9,751 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Banjul

Military Gambia, The


Military branches:
  Gambian National Army (GNA), Gambian Navy (GN), Presidential Guard,
  National Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 311,025
  females age 18-49: 316,214 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 183,057
  females age 18-49: 194,551 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.55 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Gambia, The


Disputes - international:
  attempts to stem refugees, cross-border raids, arms smuggling, and
  other illegal activities by separatists from southern Senegal's
  Casamance region, as well as from conflicts in other west African
  states


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Gaza Strip

Introduction Gaza Strip


Background:
  The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
  Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993,
  provided for a transitional period not exceeding five years of
  Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West
  Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain powers and
  responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the
  interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
  A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza Strip and
  Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994 Cairo
  Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in additional
  areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28 September 1995
  Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997 Protocol
  Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23 October 1998
  Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh
  Agreement. The DOP provides that Israel will retain responsibility
  during the transitional period for external and internal security
  and for public order of settlements and Israeli citizens. Direct
  negotiations to determine the permanent status of Gaza and West Bank
  began in September 1999 after a three-year hiatus, but were derailed
  by a second intifadah that broke out in September 2000. In April
  2003 the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) presented a roadmap to a
  final settlement of the conflict by 2005 based on reciprocal steps
  by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic
  Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent status agreement has
  been postponed indefinitely due to violence and accusations that
  both sides have not followed through on their commitments. Longtime
  Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT died in November 2004 and Mahmud
  ABBAS was elected PA president in January 2005, bringing hope of a
  turning point in the conflict. In February 2005 Israel and the PA
  agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments, focused on security
  issues, in an effort to move the peace process forward. Progress has
  been slow because of different interpretations of the verbal
  agreement by the two sides. In September 2005, Israel withdrew all
  its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in
  the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank settlements. Nonetheless,
  Israel controls maritime, airspace, and most access to the Gaza
  Strip. An agreement signed by the PA and Israel in November 2005
  authorized the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between the
  Gaza Strip and Egypt under joint PA and Egyptian control, with
  monitoring provided by the EU.

Geography Gaza Strip


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and
  Israel

Geographic coordinates:
  31 25 N, 34 20 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 360 sq km
  land: 360 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 62 km
  border countries: Egypt 11 km, Israel 51 km

Coastline:
  40 km

Maritime claims:
  Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the
  Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be
  determined through further negotiation

Climate:
  temperate, mild winters, dry and warm to hot summers

Terrain:
  flat to rolling, sand- and dune-covered coastal plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda) 105 m

Natural resources:
  arable land, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 29%
  permanent crops: 21%
  other: 50% (2002)

Irrigated land:
  150 sq km; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts

Environment - current issues:
  desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment;
  water-borne disease; soil degradation; depletion and contamination
  of underground water resources

Geography - note:
  strategic strip of land along Mideast-North African trade routes
  has experienced an incredibly turbulent history; the town of Gaza
  itself has been besieged countless times in its history

People Gaza Strip


Population:
  1,428,757 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 48.1% (male 351,642/female 335,060)
  15-64 years: 49.4% (male 360,147/female 345,318)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 15,231/female 21,359) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 15.8 years
  male: 15.7 years
  female: 16 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.71% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  39.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 22.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.97 years
  male: 70.67 years
  female: 73.34 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: NA
  adjective: NA

Ethnic groups:
  Palestinian Arab and other 99.4%, Jewish 0.6%

Religions:
  Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 98.7%, Christian 0.7%, Jewish 0.6%

Languages:
  Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by many Palestinians), English (widely
  understood)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 87.4% (2003 est.)

Government Gaza Strip


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Gaza Strip
  local long form: none
  local short form: Qita Ghazzah

Economy Gaza Strip


Economy - overview:
  High population density, limited land access, and strict internal
  and external controls have kept economic conditions in the Gaza
  Strip - the smaller of the two areas under the Palestinian Authority
  (PA)- even more degraded than in the West Bank. The beginning of the
  second intifadah in September 2000 sparked an economic downturn,
  largely the result of Israeli closure policies; these policies,
  which were imposed in response to security interests in Israel,
  disrupted labor and commodity relationships with the Gaza Strip. In
  2001, and even more severely in 2003, Israeli military measures in
  PA areas resulted in the destruction of much capital plant, the
  disruption of administrative structure, and widespread business
  closures. Including the West Bank, the UN estimates that more than
  100,000 Palestinians out of the 125,000 who used to work in Israel
  or in joint industrial zones have lost their jobs. Half the labor
  force is unemployed. Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in
  September 2005 offers some medium-term opportunities for economic
  growth, especially given the removal of restrictions on internal
  movement. In addition, recent agreements and continuing negotiations
  on the administration of Gaza's border crossings increase the
  prospects for trade.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $768 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.5% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $600 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 28.3%
  services: 68.7% (includes West Bank) (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  278,000 (April-June 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 11.9%
  industry: 18%
  services: 70.1% (2nd qtr. 2005)

Unemployment rate:
  31% (includes West Bank) (January-September 2005 avg.)

Population below poverty line:
  81% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (includes West Bank) (2003)

Budget:
  revenues: $964 million
  expenditures: $1.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA;
  note - these budget data include West Bank (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  olives, citrus, vegetables; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  generally small family businesses that produce textiles, soap,
  olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs; the Israelis
  have established some small-scale modern industries in an industrial
  center, but operations ceased prior to Israel's evacuation of Gaza
  Strip settlements

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by the Gaza Strip power plant
  and by an Israeli utility

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh; note - some electricity supplied by an Israeli utility
  (2005)

Exports:
  $270 million f.o.b.; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Exports - commodities:
  citrus, flowers, textiles

Exports - partners:
  Israel, Egypt, West Bank (2004)

Imports:
  $1.952 billion c.i.f.; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Imports - commodities:
  food, consumer goods, construction materials

Imports - partners:
  Israel, Egypt, West Bank (2004)

Debt - external:
  $0; note - includes West Bank (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2 billion; note - includes West Bank (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  new Israeli shekel (ILS)

Currency code:
  ILS

Exchange rates:
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482 (2004),
  4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Gaza Strip


Telephones - main lines in use:
  349,000 (includes West Bank) (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.095 million (includes West Bank) (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL
  are responsible for fixed line services in the Gaza Strip; the
  Palestinian JAWAL company provides cellular services
  international: country code - 970

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 8, shortwave 0 (2005)

Radios:
  NA; note - most Palestinian households have radios (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2005)

Televisions:
  NA; note - most Palestinian households have televisions (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ps

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (1999)

Internet users:
  243,000 (includes West Bank) (2005)

Transportation Gaza Strip


Airports:
  2
  note: includes Gaza International Airport closed since its runway
  was destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces in December 2001 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Roadways:
  note: see entry for West Bank

Ports and terminals:
  Gaza

Military Gaza Strip


Military branches:
  in accordance with the peace agreement, the Palestinian Authority
  is not permitted conventional military forces; there are, however,
  public security forces (2002)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 260,855 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 221,530 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 15,196 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Gaza Strip


Disputes - international:
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status
  subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent
  status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel removed
  settlers and military personnel from the Gaza Strip in August 2005

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 986,034 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA)) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Georgia

Introduction Georgia


Background:
  The region of present-day Georgia contained the ancient kingdoms of
  Colchis and Kartli-Iberia. The area came under Roman influence in
  the first centuries A.D. and Christianity became the state religion
  in the 330s. Domination by Persians, Arabs, and Turks was followed
  by a Georgian golden age (11th-13th centuries) that was cut short by
  the Mongol invasion of 1236. Subsequently, the Ottoman and Persian
  empires competed for influence in the region. Georgia was absorbed
  into the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Independent for three
  years (1918-1921) following the Russian revolution, it was forcibly
  incorporated into the USSR until the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
  An attempt by the incumbent Georgian government to manipulate
  national legislative elections in November 2003 touched off
  widespread protests that led to the resignation of Eduard
  SHEVARDNADZE, president since 1995. New elections in early 2004
  swept Mikheil SAAKASHVILI into power along with his National
  Movement Party. Progress on market reforms and democratization has
  been made in the years since independence, but this progress has
  been complicated by two civil conflicts in the breakaway regions of
  Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These two territories remain outside the
  control of the central government and are ruled by de facto,
  unrecognized governments, supported by Russia. Russian-led
  peacekeeping operations continue in both regions. The Georgian
  Government put forward a new peace initiative for the peaceful
  resolution of the status of South Ossetia in 2005.

Geography Georgia


Location:
  Southwestern Asia, bordering the Black Sea, between Turkey and
  Russia

Geographic coordinates:
  42 00 N, 43 30 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 69,700 sq km
  land: 69,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,461 km
  border countries: Armenia 164 km, Azerbaijan 322 km, Russia 723 km,
  Turkey 252 km

Coastline:
  310 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  warm and pleasant; Mediterranean-like on Black Sea coast

Terrain:
  largely mountainous with Great Caucasus Mountains in the north and
  Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the south; Kolkhet'is Dablobi (Kolkhida
  Lowland) opens to the Black Sea in the west; Mtkvari River Basin in
  the east; good soils in river valley flood plains, foothills of
  Kolkhida Lowland

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mt'a Shkhara 5,201 m

Natural resources:
  forests, hydropower, manganese deposits, iron ore, copper, minor
  coal and oil deposits; coastal climate and soils allow for important
  tea and citrus growth

Land use:
  arable land: 11.51%
  permanent crops: 3.79%
  other: 84.7% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  4,690 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution, particularly in Rust'avi; heavy pollution of Mtkvari
  River and the Black Sea; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil
  pollution from toxic chemicals

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategically located east of the Black Sea; Georgia controls much
  of the Caucasus Mountains and the routes through them

People Georgia


Population:
  4,661,473 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.3% (male 428,056/female 380,193)
  15-64 years: 66.2% (male 1,482,908/female 1,602,064)
  65 years and over: 16.5% (male 308,905/female 459,347) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 37.7 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.34% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.15 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 17.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.56 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.09 years
  male: 72.8 years
  female: 79.87 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Georgian(s)
  adjective: Georgian

Ethnic groups:
  Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian 5.7%, Russian 1.5%, other 2.5%
  (2002 census)

Religions:
  Orthodox Christian 83.9%, Muslim 9.9%, Armenian-Gregorian 3.9%,
  Catholic 0.8%, other 0.8%, none 0.7% (2002 census)

Languages:
  Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%, other 7%
  note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2004 est.)

Government Georgia


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Georgia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Sak'art'velo
  former: Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: T'bilisi
  geographic coordinates: 41 43 N, 44 49 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 regions (mkharebi, singular - mkhare), 9 cities (k'alak'ebi,
  singular - k'alak'i), and 2 autonomous republics (avtomnoy
  respubliki, singular - avtom respublika)
  regions: Guria, Imereti, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti,
  Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti,
  Samtskhe-Javakheti, Shida Kartli
  cities: Chiat'ura, Gori, K'ut'aisi, P'ot'i, Rust'avi, Tbilisi,
  Tqibuli, Tsqaltubo, Zugdidi
  autonomous republics: Abkhazia or Ap'khazet'is Avtonomiuri
  Respublika (Sokhumi), Ajaria or Acharis Avtonomiuri Respublika
  (Bat'umi)
  note: the administrative centers of the two autonomous republics are
  shown in parentheses

Independence:
  9 April 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 26 May (1918); note - 26 May 1918 is the date of
  independence from Soviet Russia, 9 April 1991 is the date of
  independence from the Soviet Union

Constitution:
  adopted 24 August 1995

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mikheil SAAKASHVILI (since 25 January
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government for the power ministries: state security (includes
  interior) and defense
  head of government: President Mikheil SAAKASHVILI (since 25 January
  2004); Prime Minister Zurab NOGHAIDELI (since 17 February 2005);
  note - the president is the chief of state and head of government
  for the power ministries: state security (includes interior) and
  defense; the prime minister is head of the remaining ministries of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 4 January 2004
  (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Mikheil SAAKASHVILI elected president; percent of
  vote - Mikheil SAAKASHVILI 96.3%, Temur SHASHIASHVILI 1.9%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Supreme Council (commonly referred to as Parliament) or
  Umaghiesi Sabcho (235 seats - 150 elected by party lists); members
  are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 28 March 2004 (next to be held spring 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - National
  Movement-Democratic Front 67.6%, Rightist Opposition 7.6%, all other
  parties received less than 7% each; seats by party - National
  Movement-Democratic Front 135, Rightist Opposition 15

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges elected by the Supreme Council on the
  president's or chairman of the Supreme Court's recommendation);
  Constitutional Court; first and second instance courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Burjanadze-Democrats [Nino BURJANADZE]; Georgian People's Front
  [Nodar NATADZE]; Georgian United Communist Party or UCPG
  [Panteleimon GIORGADZE]; Greens [Giorgi GACHECHILADZE]; Industry
  Will Save Georgia (Industrialists) or IWSG [Georgi TOPADZE]; Labor
  Party [Shalva NATELASHVILI]; National Democratic Party or NDP
  [Bachuki KARDAVA]; National Movement Democratic Front [Mikheil
  SAAKASHVILI] bloc composed of National Movement and
  Burjanadze-Democrats; National Movement [Mikheil SAAKASHVILI]; New
  Rights [David GAMKRELIDZE]; Republican Party [David USUPASHVILI];
  Rightist Opposition [David GAMKRELIDZE] bloc composed of
  Industrialists and New Right Party; Socialist Party or SPG [Irakli
  MINDELI]; Traditionalists [Akaki ASATIANI]; Union of National
  Forces-Conservatives [Koba DAVITASHVILI and Zviad DZIDZIGURI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Georgian independent deputies from Abkhaz government in exile;
  separatists in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia;
  supporters of former President Zviad GAMSAKHURDYA ousted in 1991

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SECI (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Vasil SIKHARULIDZE
  chancery: 1101 15th Street NW, Suite 602, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-2390
  FAX: [1] (202) 393-4537

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John F. TEFFT
  embassy: 11 George Balanchine St., T'bilisi 0131
  mailing address: 7060 T'bilisi Place, Washington, DC 20521-7060
  telephone: [995] (32) 27-70-00
  FAX: [995] (32) 53-23-10

Flag description:
  white rectangle, in its central portion a red cross connecting all
  four sides of the flag; in each of the four corners is a small red
  bolnur-katskhuri cross; the five-cross flag appears to date back to
  the 14th century

Economy Georgia


Economy - overview:
  Georgia's main economic activities include the cultivation of
  agricultural products such as grapes, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts;
  mining of manganese and copper; and output of a small industrial
  sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals,
  machinery, and chemicals. The country imports the bulk of its energy
  needs, including natural gas and oil products. It has sizeable but
  underdeveloped hydropower capacity. Despite the severe damage the
  economy has suffered due to civil strife, Georgia, with the help of
  the IMF and World Bank, has made substantial economic gains since
  2000, achieving positive GDP growth and curtailing inflation.
  Georgia had suffered from a chronic failure to collect tax revenues;
  however, the new government is making progress and has reformed the
  tax code, improved tax administration, increased tax enforcement,
  and cracked down on corruption. In addition, the reinvigorated
  privatization process has met with success, supplementing government
  expenditures on infrastructure, defense, and poverty reduction.
  Despite customs and financial (tax) enforcement improvements,
  smuggling is a drain on the economy. Georgia also suffers from
  energy shortages due to aging and badly maintained infrastructure,
  as well as poor management. Due to concerted reform efforts,
  collection rates have improved considerably to roughly 60%, both in
  T'bilisi and throughout the regions. Continued reform in the
  management of state-owned power entities is essential to successful
  privatization and onward sustainability in this sector. The country
  is pinning its hopes for long-term growth on its role as a transit
  state for pipelines and trade. The construction on the
  Baku-T'bilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-T'bilisi-Erzerum gas
  pipeline have brought much-needed investment and job opportunities.
  Nevertheless, high energy prices in 2006 will compound the pressure
  on the country's inefficient energy sector. Restructuring the sector
  and finding energy supply alternatives to Russia remain major
  challenges.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $16.03 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $6.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.2%
  industry: 27.5%
  services: 55.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.04 million (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 20%
  services: 40% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.6% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  54% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 27.9% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  38 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.43 billion
  expenditures: $1.56 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock

Industries:
  steel, aircraft, machine tools, electrical appliances, mining
  (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood products, wine

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2000)

Electricity - production:
  8.634 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 19.7%
  hydro: 80.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  9.8 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  71 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  1.2 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  1,982 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  13,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  20 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  NA cu m

Natural gas - imports:
  1.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-625 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  scrap metal, machinery, chemicals; fuel reexports; citrus fruits,
  tea, wine

Exports - partners:
  Russia 18.1%, Turkey 14.3%, Azerbaijan 9.8%, Turkmenistan 8.9%,
  Bulgaria 5%, Armenia 4.7%, Ukraine 4.4%, Canada 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.5 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, machinery and parts, transport equipment, grain and other
  foods, pharmaceuticals

Imports - partners:
  Russia 15.4%, Turkey 11.4%, Azerbaijan 9.4%, Ukraine 8.8%, Germany
  8.3%, US 6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $474.2 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.04 billion (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $150 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  lari (GEL)

Currency code:
  GEL

Exchange rates:
  lari per US dollar - 1.8127 (2005), 1.9167 (2004), 2.1457 (2003),
  2.1957 (2002), 2.073 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Georgia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  683,200 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.459 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: local - T'bilisi and K'ut'aisi have cellular telephone
  networks; urban telephone density is about 20 per 100 people; rural
  telephone density is about 4 per 100 people; intercity facilities
  include a fiber-optic line between T'bilisi and K'ut'aisi;
  nationwide pager service is available
  international: country code - 995; Georgia and Russia are working on
  a fiber-optic line between P'ot'i and Sochi (Russia); present
  international service is available by microwave, landline, and
  satellite through the Moscow switch; international electronic mail
  and telex service are available

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 12, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  3.02 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  12 (plus repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  2.57 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ge

Internet hosts:
  10,752 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  175,600 (2005)

Transportation Georgia


Airports:
  23 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 19
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,349 km; oil 1,010 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,612 km
  broad gauge: 1,575 km 1.520-m gauge (1,575 electrified)
  narrow gauge: 37 km 0.912-m gauge (37 electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 20,247 km
  paved: 7,973 km
  unpaved: 12,274 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 222 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,059,386 GRT/1,538,746 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 27, cargo 176, container 4, liquefied gas 1,
  passenger 1, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated
  cargo 4, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 188 (Albania 1, Azerbaijan 2, Belgium 1, China 2,
  Cyprus 1, Ecuador 1, Egypt 8, Germany 1, Greece 8, Indonesia 1,
  South Korea 1, Lebanon 7, Monaco 13, Romania 11, Russia 28, Slovakia
  1, Slovenia 1, Syria 43, Turkey 30, UAE 1, UK 4, Ukraine 22) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bat'umi, P'ot'i

Transportation - note:
  transportation network is in poor condition resulting from ethnic
  conflict, criminal activities, and fuel shortages; network lacks
  maintenance and repair

Military Georgia


Military branches:
  Ground Forces (includes National Guard), Air and Air Defense
  Forces, Navy (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 to 34 years of age for compulsory and voluntary active duty
  military service; conscript service obligation - 18 months (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,038,736
  females age 18-49: 1,105,910 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 827,281
  females age 18-49: 903,791 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 38,857
  females age 18-49: 38,238 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $23 million (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.59% (FY00)

Military - note:
  a CIS peacekeeping force of Russian troops is deployed in the
  Abkhazia region of Georgia together with a UN military observer
  group; a Russian peacekeeping battalion is deployed in South Ossetia

Transnational Issues Georgia


Disputes - international:
  Russia and Georgia agree on delimiting 80% of their common border,
  leaving certain small, strategic segments and the maritime boundary
  unresolved; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as the
  Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Argun Gorge in Abkhazia;
  UN Observer Mission in Georgia has maintained a peacekeeping force
  in Georgia since 1993; Meshkheti Turks scattered throughout the
  former Soviet Union seek to return to Georgia; boundary with Armenia
  remains undemarcated; ethnic Armenian groups in Javakheti region of
  Georgia seek greater autonomy from the Georgian government;
  Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to discuss the alignment of their
  boundary at certain crossing areas

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 260,000 (displaced from Abkhazia and South Ossetia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for
  domestic consumption; used as transshipment point for opiates via
  Central Asia to Western Europe and Russia


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Germany

Introduction Germany


Background:
  As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation,
  Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political,
  and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany
  in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century
  and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the
  US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the
  Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal
  Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic
  (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic
  and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO,
  while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led
  Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War
  allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has
  expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages
  up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU
  countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

Geography Germany


Location:
  Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between
  the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark

Geographic coordinates:
  51 00 N, 9 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 357,021 sq km
  land: 349,223 sq km
  water: 7,798 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,621 km
  border countries: Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646
  km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577
  km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Coastline:
  2,389 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers;
  occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

Terrain:
  lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Neuendorf bei Wilster -3.54 m
  highest point: Zugspitze 2,963 m

Natural resources:
  coal, lignite, natural gas, iron ore, copper, nickel, uranium,
  potash, salt, construction materials, timber, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 33.13%
  permanent crops: 0.6%
  other: 66.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  4,850 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding

Environment - current issues:
  emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries contribute to
  air pollution; acid rain, resulting from sulfur dioxide emissions,
  is damaging forests; pollution in the Baltic Sea from raw sewage and
  industrial effluents from rivers in eastern Germany; hazardous waste
  disposal; government established a mechanism for ending the use of
  nuclear power over the next 15 years; government working to meet EU
  commitment to identify nature preservation areas in line with the
  EU's Flora, Fauna, and Habitat directive

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on North European Plain and along the entrance
  to the Baltic Sea

People Germany


Population:
  82,422,299 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.1% (male 5,973,437/female 5,665,971)
  15-64 years: 66.4% (male 27,889,936/female 26,874,858)
  65 years and over: 19.4% (male 6,602,478/female 9,415,619) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 42.6 years
  male: 41.3 years
  female: 43.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.02% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.62 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.8 years
  male: 75.81 years
  female: 81.96 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  43,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: German(s)
  adjective: German

Ethnic groups:
  German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek,
  Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)

Religions:
  Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or
  other 28.3%

Languages:
  German

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Germany


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federal Republic of Germany
  conventional short form: Germany
  local long form: Bundesrepublik Deutschland
  local short form: Deutschland
  former: German Empire, German Republic, German Reich

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Berlin
  geographic coordinates: 52 31 N, 13 24 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  13 states (Laender, singular - Land) and 3 free states*
  (Freistaaten, singular - Freistaat); Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern*,
  Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen,
  Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen,
  Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen*, Sachsen-Anhalt,
  Schleswig-Holstein, Thueringen*

Independence:
  18 January 1871 (German Empire unification); divided into four
  zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France) in 1945
  following World War II; Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West
  Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and
  French zones; German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany)
  proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone;
  unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October
  1990; all four powers formally relinquished rights 15 March 1991

National holiday:
  Unity Day, 3 October (1990)

Constitution:
  23 May 1949, known as Basic Law; became constitution of the united
  German people 3 October 1990

Legal system:
  civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Horst KOEHLER (since 1 July 2004)
  head of government: Chancellor Angela MERKEL (since 22 November 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet or Bundesminister (Federal Ministers) appointed by
  the president on the recommendation of the chancellor
  elections: president elected for a five-year term (eligible for a
  second term) by a Federal Convention, including all members of the
  Federal Assembly and an equal number of delegates elected by the
  state parliaments; election last held 23 May 2004 (next to be held
  23 May 2009); chancellor elected by an absolute majority of the
  Federal Assembly for a four-year term; election last held 22
  November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Horst KOEHLER elected president; received 604
  votes of the Federal Convention against 589 for Gesine SCHWAN;
  Angela MERKEL elected chancellor; vote by Federal Assembly 397 to
  202 with 12 abstentions

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Federal Assembly
  or Bundestag (613 seats; elected by popular vote under a system
  combining direct and proportional representation; a party must win
  5% of the national vote or three direct mandates to gain
  representation; members serve four-year terms) and the Federal
  Council or Bundesrat (69 votes; state governments are directly
  represented by votes; each has three to six votes depending on
  population and are required to vote as a block)
  elections: Federal Assembly - last held 18 September 2005 (next to
  be held September 2009); note - there are no elections for the
  Bundesrat; composition is determined by the composition of the
  state-level governments; the composition of the Bundesrat has the
  potential to change any time one of the 16 states holds an election
  election results: Federal Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  CDU/CSU 35.2%, SPD 34.3%, FDP 9.8%, Left 8.7%, Greens 8.1%; seats by
  party - CDU/CSU 225, SPD 222, FDP 61, Left 54, Greens 51

Judicial branch:
  Federal Constitutional Court or Bundesverfassungsgericht (half the
  judges are elected by the Bundestag and half by the Bundesrat)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance '90/Greens [Claudia ROTH and Reinhard BUETIKOFER];
  Christian Democratic Union or CDU [Angela MERKEL]; Christian Social
  Union or CSU [Edmund STOIBER, chairman]; Free Democratic Party or
  FDP [Guido WESTERWELLE, chairman]; Left Party (Linkspartei. was
  Party of Democratic Socialism) or PDS [Lothar BISKY]; Social
  Democratic Party or SPD [Kurt BECK]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  business associations, employers' organizations; expellee, refugee,
  trade unions, and veterans groups

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC
  (observer), CBSS, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO,
  G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG,
  UNRWA, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO,
  ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Klaus SCHARIOTH
  chancery: 4645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-4000
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-4249
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William R. TIMKEN, Jr.
  embassy: Neustaedtische Kirchstrasse 4-5, 10117 Berlin; note - a new
  embassy will be built near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin; ground
  was broken in October 2004 and completion is scheduled for 2008
  mailing address: PSC 120, Box 1000, APO AE 09265
  telephone: [49] (030) 2385 174
  FAX: [49] (030) 8305-1215
  consulate(s) general: Duesseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg,
  Leipzig, Munich

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and gold

Economy Germany


Economy - overview:
  Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy - the fifth
  largest in the world - has become one of the slowest growing
  economies in the euro zone. A quick turnaround is not in the offing
  in the foreseeable future. Growth in 2001-03 fell short of 1%,
  rising to 1.7% in 2004 before falling back to 0.9% in 2005. The
  modernization and integration of the eastern German economy
  continues to be a costly long-term process, with annual transfers
  from west to east amounting to roughly $70 billion. Germany's aging
  population, combined with high unemployment, has pushed social
  security outlays to a level exceeding contributions from workers.
  Structural rigidities in the labor market - including strict
  regulations on laying off workers and the setting of wages on a
  national basis - have made unemployment a chronic problem. Corporate
  restructuring and growing capital markets are setting the
  foundations that could allow Germany to meet the long-term
  challenges of European economic integration and globalization,
  particularly if labor market rigidities are further addressed. In
  the short run, however, the fall in government revenues and the rise
  in expenditures have raised the deficit above the EU's 3% debt limit.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.48 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.73 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $30,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.9%
  industry: 29.6%
  services: 69.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  43.32 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 33.4%
  services: 63.8% (1999)

Unemployment rate:
  11.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 25.1% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.3 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.249 trillion
  expenditures: $1.362 trillion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  67.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbages; cattle,
  pigs, poultry

Industries:
  among the world's largest and most technologically advanced
  producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery,
  vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages,
  shipbuilding, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  558.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 61.8%
  hydro: 4.2%
  nuclear: 29.9%
  other: 4.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  510.4 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  54.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  45.4 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  158,700 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  2.677 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - exports:
  12,990 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  2.135 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  395.8 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  22.22 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  93.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  7.731 billion cu m (2003)

Natural gas - imports:
  85.02 billion cu m (2003)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  305.8 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Current account balance:
  $115.5 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.016 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Exports - partners:
  France 10.2%, US 8.8%, UK 7.9%, Italy 6.9%, Netherlands 6.1%,
  Belgium 5.6%, Austria 5.4%, Spain 5.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $801 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, foodstuffs, textiles, metals

Imports - partners:
  France 8.7%, Netherlands 8.5%, US 6.6%, China 6.4%, UK 6.3%, Italy
  5.7%, Belgium 5%, Austria 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $101.7 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.626 trillion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $5.6 billion (1998)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Germany


Telephones - main lines in use:
  55.046 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  79.2 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Germany has one of the world's most
  technologically advanced telecommunications systems; as a result of
  intensive capital expenditures since reunification, the formerly
  backward system of the eastern part of the country, dating back to
  World War II, has been modernized and integrated with that of the
  western part
  domestic: Germany is served by an extensive system of automatic
  telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic
  cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic
  satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available,
  expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to many foreign
  countries
  international: country code - 49; Germany's international service is
  excellent worldwide, consisting of extensive land and undersea cable
  facilities as well as earth stations in the Inmarsat, Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, and Intersputnik satellite systems (2001)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 51, FM 787, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  77.8 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  373 (plus 8,042 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  51.4 million (1998)

Internet country code:
  .de

Internet hosts:
  11,859,131 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  200 (2001)

Internet users:
  50.616 million (2006)

Transportation Germany


Airports:
  554 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 332
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 54
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 58
  914 to 1,523 m: 72
  under 914 m: 135 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 222
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 33
  under 914 m: 185 (2006)

Heliports:
  32 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 37 km; gas 25,035 km; oil 3,546 km; refined products
  3,827 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 47,201 km
  standard gauge: 46,948 km 1.435-m gauge (19,674 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 229 km 1.000-m gauge (16 km electrified); 24 km
  0.750-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 231,581 km
  paved: 231,581 km (including 12,200 km of expressways) (2005)

Waterways:
  7,467 km
  note: Rhine River carries most goods; Main-Danube Canal links North
  Sea and Black Sea (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 394 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,017,754 GRT/13,091,194 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 60, chemical tanker 13, container
  273, liquefied gas 3, passenger 6, passenger/cargo 25, petroleum
  tanker 10, roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 4 (Finland 2, Italy 1, Switzerland 1)
  registered in other countries: 2,491 (Antigua and Barbuda 858,
  Australia 3, Bahamas 22, Belize 3, Bermuda 21, Brazil 7, Bulgaria 1,
  Burma 5, Canada 3, Cayman Islands 13, Cyprus 214, Denmark 13,
  Dominica 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 2, Georgia 1,
  Gibraltar 108, Guyana 1, Hong Kong 6, Indonesia 1, Ireland 2, Isle
  of Man 56, Jamaica 3, Liberia 587, Luxembourg 10, Malaysia 2, Malta
  64, Marshall Islands 194, Morocco 2, Netherlands 56, Netherlands
  Antilles 60, NZ 1, Panama 35, Portugal 17, Russia 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 8, Samoa 1, Singapore 9, Spain 12, Sri Lanka 5,
  Sweden 3, Turkey 1, UK 76, US 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bremen, Bremerhaven, Brunsbuttel, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg,
  Karlsruhe, Mainz, Rostock, Wilhemshaven

Military Germany


Military branches:
  Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr): Army (Heer), Navy (Deutsche
  Marine, includes naval air arm), Air Force (Luftwaffe), Joint
  Service Support Command (Streitkraeftebasis), Central Medical
  Service (Zentraler Sanitaetsdienst) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (conscripts serve a nine-month tour of compulsory
  military service) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,917,537
  females age 18-49: 17,913,113 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,258,931
  females age 18-49: 14,443,412 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 497,048
  females age 18-49: 470,537 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $35.063 billion (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2003)

Transnational Issues Germany


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  source of precursor chemicals for South American cocaine
  processors; transshipment point for and consumer of Southwest Asian
  heroin, Latin American cocaine, and European-produced synthetic
  drugs; major financial center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ghana

Introduction Ghana


Background:
  Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and
  the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first
  sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. A
  long series of coups resulted in the suspension of the constitution
  in 1981 and a ban on political parties. A new constitution,
  restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992. Lt. Jerry
  RAWLINGS, head of state since 1981, won presidential elections in
  1992 and 1996, but was constitutionally prevented from running for a
  third term in 2000. John KUFUOR, who defeated former Vice President
  Atta MILLS in a free and fair election, succeeded him.

Geography Ghana


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire
  and Togo

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 N, 2 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 239,460 sq km
  land: 230,940 sq km
  water: 8,520 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,094 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 549 km, Cote d'Ivoire 668 km, Togo
  877 km

Coastline:
  539 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and
  humid in southwest; hot and dry in north

Terrain:
  mostly low plains with dissected plateau in south-central area

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Afadjato 880 m

Natural resources:
  gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish,
  rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 17.54%
  permanent crops: 9.22%
  other: 73.24% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  310 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dry, dusty, northeastern harmattan winds occur from January to
  March; droughts

Environment - current issues:
  recurrent drought in north severely affects agricultural
  activities; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; poaching and
  habitat destruction threatens wildlife populations; water pollution;
  inadequate supplies of potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  Lake Volta is the world's largest artificial lake

People Ghana


Population:
  22,409,572
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.8% (male 4,395,744/female 4,288,720)
  15-64 years: 57.7% (male 6,450,828/female 6,483,781)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 371,428/female 419,071) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.9 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.07% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  30.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 55.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 59.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 50.33 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 58.87 years
  male: 58.07 years
  female: 59.69 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  350,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  30,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Ghanaian(s)
  adjective: Ghanaian

Ethnic groups:
  African 98.5% (includes Akan 44%, Moshi-Dagomba 16%, Ewe 13%, Ga
  8%, Gurma 3%, Yoruba 1%), European and other 1.5% (1998)

Religions:
  Christian 63%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 21%

Languages:
  English (official), African languages (including Akan,
  Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74.8%
  male: 82.7%
  female: 67.1% (2003 est.)

Government Ghana


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Ghana
  conventional short form: Ghana
  former: Gold Coast

Government type:
  constitutional democracy

Capital:
  name: Accra
  geographic coordinates: 5 33 N, 0 13 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 regions; Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra,
  Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western

Independence:
  6 March 1957 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 March (1957)

Constitution:
  approved 28 April 1992

Legal system:
  based on English common law and customary law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President John Agyekum KUFUOR (since 7 January
  2001); Vice President Alhaji Aliu MAHAMA (since 7 January 2001);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President John Agyekum KUFUOR (since 7 January
  2001); Vice President Alhaji Aliu MAHAMA (since 7 January 2001);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers; president nominates members subject
  to approval by Parliament
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 7 December 2004 (next to be held December 2008)
  election results: John Agyekum KUFUOR reelected president in
  election; percent of vote - John KUFUOR 53.4%, John Atta MILLS 43.7%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (230 seats; note - increased from 200 seats
  in last election; members are elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 December 2004 (next to be held December 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NPP 128, NDC 92, other 10

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Convention People's Party or CPP [Nii Noi DOWUONA, general
  secretary]; Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere or EGLE [Owuraku AMOFA,
  chairman]; Great Consolidated Popular Party or GCPP [Dan LARTY];
  National Convention Party or NCP [Sarpong KUMA-KUMA]; National
  Democratic Congress or NDC [Dr. Huudu YAHAYA, general secretary];
  New Patriotic Party or NPP [Samuel Arthur ODOI-SYKES]; People's
  Convention Party or PCP [P. K. DONKOH-AYIFI, acting chairman];
  People's Heritage Party or PHP [Emmanuel Alexander ERSKINE];
  People's National Convention or PNC [Edward MAHAMA]; Reform Party
  [Kyeretwie OPUKU, general secretary]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer),
  OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Fritz Kwabena POKU
  chancery: 1156 15th St. NW #905, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1379
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1430
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mary Carlin YATES
  embassy: 6th and 10th Lanes, 798/1 Osu, Accra
  mailing address: P. O. Box 194, Accra
  telephone: [233] (21) 775-347, 775-348
  FAX: [233] (21) 701-813

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with a
  large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; uses the
  popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia; similar to the flag of
  Bolivia, which has a coat of arms centered in the yellow band

Economy Ghana


Economy - overview:
  Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has roughly twice the
  per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even so,
  Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and
  technical assistance. Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major
  sources of foreign exchange. The domestic economy continues to
  revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34% of
  GDP and employs 60% of the work force, mainly small landholders.
  Ghana opted for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country
  (HIPC) program in 2002, but was included in a G-8 debt relief
  program decided upon at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005.
  Priorities under its current $38 million Poverty Reduction and
  Growth Facility (PRGF) include tighter monetary and fiscal policies,
  accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services.
  Receipts from the gold sector helped sustain GDP growth in 2005
  along with record high prices for Ghana's largest cocoa crop to
  date. Inflation should ease but remains a major internal problem.
  Ghana also remains a candidate country to benefit from Millennium
  Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding that could assist in
  transforming Ghana's agricultural export sector. A final decision on
  its MCC bid is expected in spring 2006.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $54.86 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.413 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 36.6%
  industry: 24.6%
  services: 38.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  10.62 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 15%
  services: 25% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  20% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  31.4% (1992 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.2%
  highest 10%: 30.1% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  30 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.216 billion
  expenditures: $3.506 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  75.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa, rice, coffee, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, corn, shea nuts,
  bananas; timber

Industries:
  mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food
  processing, cement, small commercial ship building

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.8% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  5.356 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 5%
  hydro: 95%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  5.081 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  400 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  500 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  7,433 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  39,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  8.255 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  23.79 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-790 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.911 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminum, manganese ore,
  diamonds

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 12.6%, UK 8.3%, US 6.7%, Belgium 5.8%, France 5.7%,
  Germany 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.273 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Nigeria 15.4%, China 12.7%, US 6.4%, UK 5.3%, Netherlands 4.1%,
  South Africa 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.897 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $6.999 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $6.9 billion (1999)

Currency (code):
  cedi (GHC)

Currency code:
  GHC

Exchange rates:
  cedis per US dollar - 9,072.5 (2005), 9,004.6 (2004), 8,677.4
  (2003), 7,932.7 (2002), 7,170.8 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Ghana


Telephones - main lines in use:
  321,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.842 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poor to fair system; Internet accessible; many
  rural communities not yet connected; expansion of services is
  underway
  domestic: primarily microwave radio relay; wireless local loop has
  been installed
  international: country code - 233; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); microwave radio relay link to Panaftel
  system connects Ghana to its neighbors; fiber optic submarine cable
  (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 49, shortwave 3 (2001)

Radios:
  12.5 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  10 (2001)

Televisions:
  1.9 million (2001)

Internet country code:
  .gh

Internet hosts:
  380 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  12 (2000)

Internet users:
  401,300 (2005)

Transportation Ghana


Airports:
  12 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 13 km; refined products 316 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 953 km
  narrow gauge: 953 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 42,623 km
  paved: 3,267 km
  unpaved: 39,356 km (2004)

Waterways:
  1,293 km
  note: 168 km for launches and lighters on Volta, Ankobra, and Tano
  rivers; 1,125 km of arterial and feeder waterways on Lake Volta
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 6,308 GRT/9,418 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Brazil 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Takoradi, Tema

Military Ghana


Military branches:
  Ghanaian Army, Ghanaian Navy, Ghanaian Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and volunteer military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,808,451
  females age 18-49: 4,762,459 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,011,081
  females age 18-49: 2,991,551 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 251,056
  females age 18-49: 247,777 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $83.65 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Ghana


Disputes - international:
  Ghana struggles to accommodate returning nationals who worked in
  the cocoa plantations and escaped fighting in Cote d'Ivoire

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 40,853 (Liberia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis for the international drug trade;
  major transit hub for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and, to a
  lesser extent, South American cocaine destined for Europe and the
  US; widespread crime and money laundering problem, but the lack of a
  well-developed financial infrastructure limits the country's utility
  as a money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Gibraltar

Introduction Gibraltar


Background:
  Strategically important, Gibraltar was reluctantly ceded to Great
  Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; the British garrison
  was formally declared a colony in 1830. In a referendum held in
  1967, Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British
  dependency. Although the current 1969 Constitution for Gibraltar
  states that the British government will never allow the people of
  Gibraltar to pass under the sovereignty of another state against
  their freely and democratically expressed wishes, a series of talks
  were held by the UK and Spain between 1997 and 2002 on establishing
  temporary joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. In response to these
  talks, the Gibraltarian Government set up a referendum in late 2002
  in which a majority of the citizens voted overwhelmingly against any
  sharing of sovereignty with Spain. Since the referendum, tripartite
  talks have been held with Spain, the UK, and Gibraltar, and in
  September 2006 a three-way agreement was signed. Spain agreed to
  allow airlines other than British to serve Gibraltar, to speed up
  customs procedures, and to add more telephone lines into Gibraltar.
  Britain agreed to pay pensions to Spaniards who had been employed in
  Gibraltar before the border closed in 1969. Spain will be allowed to
  open a cultural institute from which the Spanish flag will fly.

Geography Gibraltar


Location:
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the Strait of Gibraltar, which links
  the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southern
  coast of Spain

Geographic coordinates:
  36 8 N, 5 21 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 6.5 sq km
  land: 6.5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 11 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 1.2 km
  border countries: Spain 1.2 km

Coastline:
  12 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Climate:
  Mediterranean with mild winters and warm summers

Terrain:
  a narrow coastal lowland borders the Rock of Gibraltar

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Rock of Gibraltar 426 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural freshwater resources: large concrete or natural
  rock water catchments collect rainwater (no longer used for drinking
  water) and adequate desalination plant

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Strait of Gibraltar that links the North
  Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

People Gibraltar


Population:
  27,928 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.5% (male 2,499/female 2,388)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 9,443/female 8,999)
  65 years and over: 16.5% (male 2,059/female 2,540) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.8 years
  male: 39.4 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.14% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.8 years
  male: 76.92 years
  female: 82.83 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Gibraltarian(s)
  adjective: Gibraltar

Ethnic groups:
  Spanish, Italian, English, Maltese, Portuguese, German, North
  Africans

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 78.1%, Church of England 7%, other Christian 3.2%,
  Muslim 4%, Jewish 2.1%, Hindu 1.8%, other or unspecified 0.9%, none
  2.9% (2001 census)

Languages:
  English (used in schools and for official purposes), Spanish,
  Italian, Portuguese

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: above 80%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Gibraltar


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Gibraltar

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Gibraltar
  geographic coordinates: 39 11 N, 5 22 W
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  National Day, 10 September (1967); note - day of the national
  referendum to decide whether to remain with the UK or go with Spain

Constitution:
  30 May 1969

Legal system:
  English law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal, plus other British citizens who have
  been residents six months or more

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor Sir Robert FULTON (since 27 October 2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Peter CARUANA (since 17 May 1996)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed from among the 15 elected
  members of the House of Assembly by the governor in consultation
  with the chief minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Assembly (18 seats - 15 elected by popular
  vote, 1 appointed for the Speaker, and 2 ex officio members; members
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 November 2003 (next to be held not later
  than February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - GSD 58%, GSLP 41%;
  seats by party - GSD 8, GSLP 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  Gibraltar Liberal Party [Joseph GARCIA]; Gibraltar Social Democrats
  or GSD [Peter CARUANA]; Gibraltar Socialist Labor Party or GSLP
  [Joseph John BOSSANO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Chamber of Commerce; Gibraltar Representatives Organization;
  Women's Association

International organization participation:
  Interpol (subbureau), UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  two horizontal bands of white (top, double width) and red with a
  three-towered red castle in the center of the white band; hanging
  from the castle gate is a gold key centered in the red band

Economy Gibraltar


Economy - overview:
  Self-sufficient Gibraltar benefits from an extensive shipping
  trade, offshore banking, and its position as an international
  conference center. The British military presence has been sharply
  reduced and now contributes about 7% to the local economy, compared
  with 60% in 1984. The financial sector, tourism (almost 5 million
  visitors in 1998), shipping services fees, and duties on consumer
  goods also generate revenue. The financial sector, the shipping
  sector, and tourism each contribute 25%-30% of GDP.
  Telecommunications accounts for another 10%. In recent years,
  Gibraltar has seen major structural change from a public to a
  private sector economy, but changes in government spending still
  have a major impact on the level of employment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $769 million (2000 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $27,900 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  12,690 (including non-Gibraltar laborers) (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: negligible
  industry: 40%
  services: 60%

Unemployment rate:
  2% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.5% (1998)

Budget:
  revenues: $307 million
  expenditures: $284 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY00/01 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  none

Industries:
  tourism, banking and finance, ship repairing, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  106.1 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  98.69 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  23,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $271 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  (principally reexports) petroleum 51%, manufactured goods 41%,
  other 8%

Exports - partners:
  UK 30.8%, Spain 22.7%, Germany 13.7%, Turkmenistan 10.4%,
  Switzerland 8.3%, Italy 6.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.967 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Spain 23.4%, Russia 12.3%, Italy 12%, UK 9%, France 8.9%,
  Netherlands 6.8%, US 4.7% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Gibraltar pound (GIP)

Currency code:
  GIP

Exchange rates:
  Gibraltar pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Gibraltar pound is at par with the British pound

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Gibraltar


Telephones - main lines in use:
  24,512 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  9,797 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate, automatic domestic system and
  adequate international facilities
  domestic: automatic exchange facilities
  international: country code - 350; radiotelephone; microwave radio
  relay; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  37,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus three low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  10,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gi

Internet hosts:
  641 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  6,200 (2002)

Transportation Gibraltar


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 29 km
  paved: 29 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 180 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,129,379 GRT/1,437,754 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 1, cargo 105, chemical tanker
  26, container 26, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 11, roll on/roll off
  6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 165 (Belgium 2, Cyprus 1, Denmark 1, Finland 3,
  France 1, Germany 108, Greece 7, Iceland 1, Ireland 1, Italy 6,
  Latvia 2, Netherlands 5, Norway 18, Sweden 5, UK 4) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Gibraltar

Military Gibraltar


Military branches:
  Royal Gibraltar Regiment

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,959 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,893 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 187 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK; the last British regular
  infantry forces left Gibraltar in 1992, replaced by the Royal
  Gibraltar Regiment

Transnational Issues Gibraltar


Disputes - international:
  in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to
  reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement; the government of
  Gibraltar insists on equal participation in talks between the UK and
  Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar even greater
  autonomy


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Greece

Introduction Greece


Background:
  Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829.
  During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the
  20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and
  territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In World War II,
  Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied
  by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war
  between supporters of the king and Communist rebels. Following the
  latter's defeat in 1949, Greece joined NATO in 1952. A military
  dictatorship, which in 1967 suspended many political liberties and
  forced the king to flee the country, lasted seven years. The 1974
  democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary
  republic and abolished the monarchy. In 1981 Greece joined the EC
  (now the EU); it became the 12th member of the euro zone in 2001.

Geography Greece


Location:
  Southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the
  Mediterranean Sea, between Albania and Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
  39 00 N, 22 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 131,940 sq km
  land: 130,800 sq km
  water: 1,140 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Alabama

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,228 km
  border countries: Albania 282 km, Bulgaria 494 km, Turkey 206 km,
  Macedonia 246 km

Coastline:
  13,676 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate; mild, wet winters; hot, dry summers

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with ranges extending into the sea as peninsulas
  or chains of islands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Olympus 2,917 m

Natural resources:
  lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel,
  magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential

Land use:
  arable land: 20.45%
  permanent crops: 8.59%
  other: 70.96% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  14,530 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  severe earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution; water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds

Geography - note:
  strategic location dominating the Aegean Sea and southern approach
  to Turkish Straits; a peninsular country, possessing an archipelago
  of about 2,000 islands

People Greece


Population:
  10,688,058 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.3% (male 790,291/female 742,902)
  15-64 years: 66.7% (male 3,562,251/female 3,566,097)
  65 years and over: 19% (male 891,620/female 1,134,897) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.8 years
  male: 39.7 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.18% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.34 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.24 years
  male: 76.72 years
  female: 81.91 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  9,100 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Greek(s)
  adjective: Greek

Ethnic groups:
  Greek 98%, Turkish and other 2%
  note: the Greek Government states there are no ethnic divisions in
  Greece

Religions:
  Greek Orthodox 98%, Muslim 1.3%, other 0.7%

Languages:
  Greek 99% (official), English, French

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.5%
  male: 98.6%
  female: 96.5% (2003 est.)

People - note:
  women, men, and children are trafficked to and within Greece for
  the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor

Government Greece


Country name:
  conventional long form: Hellenic Republic
  conventional short form: Greece
  local long form: Elliniki Dhimokratia
  local short form: Ellas or Ellada
  former: Kingdom of Greece

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Athens
  geographic coordinates: 37 59 N, 23 44 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos) and 1 autonomous region*;
  Achaia, Agion Oros* (Mt. Athos), Aitolia kai Akarnania, Argolis,
  Arkadia, Arta, Attiki, Chalkidiki, Chanion, Chios, Dodekanisos,
  Drama, Evros, Evrytania, Evvoia, Florina, Fokidos, Fthiotis,
  Grevena, Ileia, Imathia, Ioannina, Irakleion, Karditsa, Kastoria,
  Kavala, Kefallinia, Kerkyra, Kilkis, Korinthia, Kozani, Kyklades,
  Lakonia, Larisa, Lasithi, Lefkas, Lesvos, Magnisia, Messinia, Pella,
  Pieria, Preveza, Rethynnis, Rodopi, Samos, Serrai, Thesprotia,
  Thessaloniki, Trikala, Voiotia, Xanthi, Zakynthos

Independence:
  1829 (from the Ottoman Empire)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 25 March (1821)

Constitution:
  11 June 1975; amended March 1986 and April 2001

Legal system:
  based on codified Roman law; judiciary divided into civil,
  criminal, and administrative courts; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Karolos PAPOULIAS (since 12 March 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Konstandinos (Kostas) KARAMANLIS
  (since 7 March 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 February 2005
  (next to be held by February 2010); according to the Greek
  Constitution, presidents may only serve two terms; president
  appoints leader of the party securing plurality of vote in election
  to become prime minister and form a government
  election results: Karolos PAPOULIAS elected president; number of
  parlimentary votes, 279 out of 300

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Vouli ton Ellinon (300 seats; members are
  elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 7 March 2004 (next to be held by
  March 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - ND 45.4%, PASOK 40.6%,
  KKE 5.9%, Synaspismos 3.3%; seats by party - ND 165, PASOK 117, KKE
  12, Synaspismos 6

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Judicial Court; Special Supreme Tribunal; all judges
  appointed for life by the president after consultation with a
  judicial council

Political parties and leaders:
  Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) [Alekos ALAVANOS];
  Communist Party of Greece or KKE [Aleka PAPARIGA]; New Democracy or
  ND (conservative) [Konstandinos KARAMANLIS]; Panhellenic Socialist
  Movement or PASOK [Yiorgos PAPANDREOU]; Popular Orthodox Rally or
  LAOS [Yeoryios KARATZAFERIS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  General Confederation of Greek Workers or GSEE [Khristos
  POLYZOGOPOULOS]; Federation of Greek Industries or SEV [Odysseas
  KYRIAKOPOULOS]; Civil Servants Confederation or ADEDY [Spyros
  PAPASPYROS]

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, EU,
  FAO, G- 6, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD,
  OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UN Security Council (temporary),
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WEU,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alexandros P. MALLIAS
  chancery: 2221 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-1300
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-1324
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco, Tampa
  consulate(s): Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles P. RIES
  embassy: 91 Vasilisis Sophias Avenue, 10160 Athens
  mailing address: PSC 108, APO AE 09842-0108
  telephone: [30] (210) 721-2951
  FAX: [30] (210) 645-6282
  consulate(s) general: Thessaloniki

Flag description:
  nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white; there
  is a blue square in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white
  cross; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established
  religion of the country

Economy Greece


Economy - overview:
  Greece has a capitalist economy with the public sector accounting
  for about 40% of GDP and with per capita GDP at least 75% of the
  leading euro-zone economies. Tourism provides 15% of GDP. Immigrants
  make up nearly one-fifth of the work force, mainly in menial jobs.
  Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 3.3% of
  annual GDP. The Greek economy grew by about 4.0% for the between
  2003 and 2005, largely because of an investment boom and
  infrastructure upgrades for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Economic
  growth slowed to about 3% in 2005. Greece has not met the EU's
  Growth and Stability Pact budget deficit criteria of 3% of GDP since
  2000. Public debt, inflation, and unemployment are above the
  euro-zone average. To overcome these challenges, the Greek
  Government is expected to continue cutting government spending,
  reducing the size of the public sector, and reforming the labor and
  pension systems.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $238.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $209.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $22,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 21.3%
  services: 73.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.72 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 20%
  services: 68% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 28.3% (1998 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35.1 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $94.13 billion
  expenditures: $103.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  106.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, wine, tobacco,
  potatoes; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  tourism, food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals, metal
  products; mining, petroleum

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  54.56 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 94.5%
  hydro: 3.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  53.5 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  2.1 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  4.2 billion kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
  5,805 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  435,700 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  84,720 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  468,300 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  27 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.34 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.018 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  991.1 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-17.86 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $18.54 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  food and beverages, manufactured goods, petroleum products,
  chemicals, textiles

Exports - partners:
  Germany 12.4%, Italy 10.4%, UK 6.7%, Bulgaria 5.9%, US 5.3%, Cyprus
  5.2%, Turkey 5.1%, France 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $48.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, transport equipment, fuels, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Germany 12.7%, Italy 12.4%, Russia 7.8%, France 5.7%, Netherlands
  5.5%, Saudi Arabia 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.287 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $75.18 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $8 billion from EU (2000-06)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Greece


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6.303 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  10.043 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate, modern networks reach all areas; good
  mobile telephone and international service
  domestic: microwave radio relay trunk system; extensive open-wire
  connections; submarine cable to offshore islands
  international: country code - 30; tropospheric scatter; 8 submarine
  cables; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and
  1 Indian Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 26, FM 88, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  5.02 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  36 (plus 1,341 low-power repeaters); also two stations in the US
  Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (1995)

Televisions:
  2.54 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gr

Internet hosts:
  587,717 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  27 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.8 million (2005)

Transportation Greece


Airports:
  82 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 66
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 17
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Heliports:
  8 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,166 km; oil 94 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,571 km
  standard gauge: 1,565 km 1.435-m gauge (764 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 961 km 1.000-m gauge; 22 km 0.750-m gauge
  dual gauge: 23 km combined 1.435 m and 1.000-m gauges (three rail
  system) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 116,470 km
  paved: 106,920 km (including 880 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,550 km (1999)

Waterways:
  6 km
  note: Corinth Canal (6 km) crosses the Isthmus of Corinth; shortens
  sea voyage by 325 km (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 817 ships (1000 GRT or over) 31,895,832 GRT/54,341,584 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 270, cargo 61, chemical tanker 47, container
  47, liquefied gas 5, passenger 11, passenger/cargo 114, petroleum
  tanker 244, roll on/roll off 17, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 24 (Belgium 12, Cyprus 1, Hong Kong 1, UK 9, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 2,363 (Bahamas 232, Barbados 11,
  Belgium 4, Belize 2, Bermuda 2, Cambodia 8, Cayman Islands 21,
  Comoros 10, Cyprus 337, Denmark 5, Dominica 5, Egypt 6, Georgia 8,
  Gibraltar 7, Honduras 3, Hong Kong 27, Isle of Man 45, Italy 6,
  Jamaica 6, North Korea 1, Lebanon 3, Liberia 267, Malta 495,
  Marshall Islands 199, Norway 1, Panama 524, Philippines 5, Portugal
  4, Russia 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 82, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Singapore 9, Slovakia 4, UAE
  2, UK 7, Uruguay 1, US 1, Venezuela 3, unknown 7) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Agioitheodoroi, Aspropyrgos, Irakleion, Pachi, Piraeus, Thessaloniki

Military Greece


Military branches:
  Hellenic Army (Ellinikos Stratos, ES), Hellenic Navy (Ellinikos
  Polemiko Navtiko, EPN), Hellenic Air Force (Elliniki Polimiki
  Aeroporia, EPA) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; during wartime the
  law allows for recruitment beginning January of the year of
  inductee's 18th birthday, thus including 17 year olds; 17 years of
  age for volunteers; conscript service obligation - 12 months for the
  Army, Air Force; 15 months for Navy; women are eligible for military
  service (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,459,988
  females age 18-49: 2,442,818 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,018,557
  females age 18-49: 2,000,650 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 58,399
  females age 18-49: 55,571 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $5.89 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.3% (2003)

Transnational Issues Greece


Disputes - international:
  Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their complex
  maritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea;
  Cyprus question with Turkey; Greece rejects the use of the name
  Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia

Illicit drugs:
  a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin
  from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor
  chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine transits or is
  consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug trafficking and
  organized crime


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Greenland

Introduction Greenland


Background:
  Greenland, the world's largest island, is about 81% ice-capped.
  Vikings reached the island in the 10th century from Iceland; Danish
  colonization began in the 18th century, and Greenland was made an
  integral part of Denmark in 1953. It joined the European Community
  (now the EU) with Denmark in 1973 but withdrew in 1985 over a
  dispute over stringent fishing quotas. Greenland was granted
  self-government in 1979 by the Danish parliament. The law went into
  effect the following year. Denmark continues to exercise control of
  Greenland's foreign affairs.

Geography Greenland


Location:
  Northern North America, island between the Arctic Ocean and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada

Geographic coordinates:
  72 00 N, 40 00 W

Map references:
  Arctic Region

Area:
  total: 2,166,086 sq km
  land: 2,166,086 sq km (410,449 sq km ice-free, 1,755,637 sq km
  ice-covered) (2000 est.)

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than three times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  44,087 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

Climate:
  arctic to subarctic; cool summers, cold winters

Terrain:
  flat to gradually sloping icecap covers all but a narrow,
  mountainous, barren, rocky coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Gunnbjorn 3,700 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, molybdenum, gold, platinum, uranium,
  fish, seals, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  continuous permafrost over northern two-thirds of the island

Environment - current issues:
  protection of the arctic environment; preservation of the Inuit
  traditional way of life, including whaling and seal hunting

Geography - note:
  dominates North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe;
  sparse population confined to small settlements along coast, but
  close to one-quarter of the population lives in the capital, Nuuk;
  world's second largest ice cap

People Greenland


Population:
  56,361 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.5% (male 7,072/female 6,740)
  15-64 years: 68.9% (male 20,904/female 17,919)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 1,768/female 1,958) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 32.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.03% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -8.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.17 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.12 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 15.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.94 years
  male: 66.36 years
  female: 73.6 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  100 (1999)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Greenlander(s)
  adjective: Greenlandic

Ethnic groups:
  Greenlander 88% (Inuit and Greenland-born whites), Danish and
  others 12% (2000)

Religions:
  Evangelical Lutheran

Languages:
  Greenlandic (East Inuit), Danish, English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2001 est.)

Government Greenland


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Greenland
  local long form: none
  local short form: Kalaallit Nunaat

Dependency status:
  part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas
  administrative division of Denmark since 1979

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Nuuk (Godthab)
  geographic coordinates: 64 11 N, 51 44 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Greenland is divided into four time zones

Administrative divisions:
  3 districts (landsdele); Avannaa (Nordgronland), Tunu
  (Ostgronland), Kitaa (Vestgronland)
  note: there are 18 municipalities in Greenland

Independence:
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; foreign affairs is the
  responsibility of Denmark, but Greenland actively participates in
  international agreements relating to Greenland)

National holiday:
  June 21 (longest day)

Constitution:
  5 June 1953 (Danish constitution)

Legal system:
  Danish

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II of Denmark (since 14 January
  1972), represented by High Commissioner Soren MOLLER (since April
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Hans ENOKSEN (since 14 December
  2002)
  cabinet: Home Rule Government is elected by the parliament
  (Landstinget) on the basis of the strength of parties
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; high commissioner appointed
  by the monarch; prime minister is elected by parliament (usually the
  leader of the majority party); election last held 3 December 2002
  (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Hans ENOKSEN elected prime minister
  note: government coalition - Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Landstinget (31 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held on 15 November 2005 (next to be held by
  December 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Siumut 30.7%,
  Demokratiit 22.8%, Inuit Ataqatigiit 22.6%, Atassut Party 19.1%;
  Katusseqatigiit 4.1%, other 0.7%; seats by party - Siumut 10,
  Demokratiit 7, Inuit Ataqatigiit 7, Atassut 6, Katusseqatigiit 1
  note: two representatives were elected to the Danish Parliament or
  Folketing on 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Siumut 1, Inuit
  Ataqatigiit 1

Judicial branch:
  High Court or Landsret (appeals can be made to the Ostre Landsret
  or Eastern Division of the High Court or Supreme Court in Copenhagen)

Political parties and leaders:
  Atassut Party (Solidarity, a conservative party favoring continuing
  close relations with Denmark) [Finn KARLSEN]; Demokratiit [Per
  BERTHELSEN]; Inuit Ataqatigiit or IA (Eskimo Brotherhood, a leftist
  party favoring complete independence from Denmark rather than home
  rule) [Josef MOTZFELDT]; Issituup (Polar Party) [Nicolai HEINRICH];
  Kattusseqatigiit (Candidate List, an independent right-of-center
  party with no official platform; Siumut (Forward Party, a social
  democratic party advocating more distinct Greenlandic identity and
  greater autonomy from Denmark) [Hans ENOKSEN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Arctic Council, NC, NIB, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a large disk
  slightly to the hoist side of center - the top half of the disk is
  red, the bottom half is white

Economy Greenland


Economy - overview:
  The economy remains critically dependent on exports of fish and
  substantial support from the Danish Government, which supplies about
  half of government revenues. The public sector, including
  publicly-owned enterprises and the municipalities, plays the
  dominant role in the economy. Despite several interesting
  hydrocarbon and mineral exploration activities, it will take a
  number of years before production can materialize. Tourism is the
  only sector offering any near-term potential, and even this is
  limited due to a short season and high costs.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.1 billion (2001 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $20,000 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  24,500 (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  10% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.6% (1999 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $646 million
  expenditures: $629 million; including capital expenditures of $85
  million (1999)

Agriculture - products:
  forage crops, garden and greenhouse vegetables; sheep, reindeer;
  fish

Industries:
  fish processing (mainly shrimp and Greenland halibut); gold,
  niobium, tantalite, uranium, iron and diamond mining; handicrafts,
  hides and skins, small shipyards

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  242.2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0%
  note: Greenland is shifting its electricity production from fossil
  fuel to hydropower production (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  225.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  3,850 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $480 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish and fish products 94% (prawns 63%)

Exports - partners:
  Denmark 62.5%, Japan 12.3%, China 5.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $601 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food,
  petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  Denmark 66.8%, Sweden 19.3%, Ireland 3.6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $25 million (1999)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $380 million subsidy from Denmark (1997)

Currency (code):
  Danish krone (DKK)

Currency code:
  DKK

Exchange rates:
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911 (2004), 6.5877
  (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Greenland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  25,300 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  32,200 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate domestic and international service
  provided by satellite, cables and microwave radio relay; totally
  digitalized in 1995
  domestic: microwave radio relay and satellite
  international: country code - 299; satellite earth stations - 12
  Intelsat, 1 Eutelsat, 2 Americom GE-2 (all Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM 12, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  30,000 (1998 est.)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 publicly-owned station, some local low-power stations, and three
  AFRTS (US Air Force) stations (1997)

Televisions:
  30,000 (1998 est.)

Internet country code:
  .gl

Internet hosts:
  8,851 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  38,000 (2005)

Transportation Greenland


Airports:
  14 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: NA
  note: while there are short roads in towns, there are no roads
  between towns; inter-town transport takes place either by sea or air
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,540 GRT/2,540 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger 2
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cyprus 1, Denmark 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Sisimiut

Military Greenland


Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 14,653 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,199 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 440 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Denmark

Transnational Issues Greenland


Disputes - international:
  managed dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island in the
  Kennedy Channel between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Grenada

Introduction Grenada


Background:
  Carib Indians inhabited Grenada when COLUMBUS discovered the island
  in 1498, but it remained uncolonized for more than a century. The
  French settled Grenada in the 17th century, established sugar
  estates, and imported large numbers of African slaves. Britain took
  the island in 1762 and vigorously expanded sugar production. In the
  19th century, cacao eventually surpassed sugar as the main export
  crop; in the 20th century, nutmeg became the leading export. In
  1967, Britain gave Grenada autonomy over its internal affairs. Full
  independence was attained in 1974 making Grenada one of the smallest
  independent countries in the Western Hemisphere. Grenada was seized
  by a Marxist military council on 19 October 1983. Six days later the
  island was invaded by US forces and those of six other Caribbean
  nations, which quickly captured the ringleaders and their hundreds
  of Cuban advisers. Free elections were reinstituted the following
  year and have continued since that time. Hurricane Ivan struck
  Grenada in September of 2004 causing severe damage.

Geography Grenada


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean,
  north of Trinidad and Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  12 07 N, 61 40 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 344 sq km
  land: 344 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  121 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; tempered by northeast trade winds

Terrain:
  volcanic in origin with central mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Saint Catherine 840 m

Natural resources:
  timber, tropical fruit, deepwater harbors

Land use:
  arable land: 5.88%
  permanent crops: 29.41%
  other: 64.71% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  lies on edge of hurricane belt; hurricane season lasts from June to
  November

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the administration of the islands of the Grenadines group is
  divided between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada

People Grenada


Population:
  89,703 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 33.4% (male 15,097/female 14,820)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 30,106/female 26,764)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 1,394/female 1,522) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.7 years
  male: 22.1 years
  female: 21.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.08 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.88 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -12.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.67 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.87 years
  male: 63.06 years
  female: 66.68 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Grenadian(s)
  adjective: Grenadian

Ethnic groups:
  black 82%, mixed black and European 13%, European and East Indian
  5%, and trace of Arawak/Carib Amerindian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 53%, Anglican 13.8%, other Protestant 33.2%

Languages:
  English (official), French patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Government Grenada


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Grenada

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Saint George's
  geographic coordinates: 12 03 N, 61 45 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 parishes and 1 dependency*; Carriacou and Petit Martinique*,
  Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mark,
  Saint Patrick

Independence:
  7 February 1974 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 7 February (1974)

Constitution:
  19 December 1973

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Daniel WILLIAMS (since 9 August 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Keith MITCHELL (since 22 June
  1995)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (a 13-member body, 10
  appointed by the government and 3 by the leader of the opposition)
  and the House of Representatives (15 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held on 27 November 2003 (next to be held by
  November 2008)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NNP 46.65%, NDC 44.12%; seats by party - NNP 8, NDC 7

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting of a court of Appeal
  and a High Court of Justice (a High Court judge is assigned to and
  resides in Grenada)

Political parties and leaders:
  Good Old Democracy or GOD [Justin MCBURNIE]; Grenada United Labor
  Party or GULP [Gloria Payne BANFIELD]; National Democratic Congress
  or NDC [Tillman THOMAS]; New National Party or NNP [Keith MITCHELL];
  People Labor Movement or PLM [Dr. Francis ALEXIS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber),
  ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Denis G. ANTOINE
  chancery: 1701 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-2561
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-2468
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to
  Grenada
  embassy: Lance-aux-Epines Stretch, Saint George's
  mailing address: P. O. Box 54, Saint George's
  telephone: [1] (473) 444-1173 through 1176
  FAX: [1] (473) 444-4820

Flag description:
  a rectangle divided diagonally into yellow triangles (top and
  bottom) and green triangles (hoist side and outer side), with a red
  border around the flag; there are seven yellow, five-pointed stars
  with three centered in the top red border, three centered in the
  bottom red border, and one on a red disk superimposed at the center
  of the flag; there is also a symbolic nutmeg pod on the hoist-side
  triangle (Grenada is the world's second-largest producer of nutmeg,
  after Indonesia); the seven stars represent the seven administrative
  divisions

Economy Grenada


Economy - overview:
  Grenada relies on tourism as its main source of foreign exchange,
  especially since the construction of an international airport in
  1985. Strong performances in construction and manufacturing,
  together with the development of an offshore financial industry,
  have also contributed to growth in national output.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $440 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $454 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 18%
  services: 76.6% (2000)

Labor force:
  42,300 (1996)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 24%
  industry: 14%
  services: 62% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.5% (2000)

Population below poverty line:
  32% (2000)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $85.8 million
  expenditures: $102.1 million; including capital expenditures of $28
  million (1997)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, citrus, avocados, root crops,
  sugarcane, corn, vegetables

Industries:
  food and beverages, textiles, light assembly operations, tourism,
  construction

Industrial production growth rate:
  0.7% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  159.8 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  148.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $40 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas, cocoa, nutmeg, fruit and vegetables, clothing, mace

Exports - partners:
  Saint Lucia 12.1%, US 11.3%, Antigua and Barbuda 8.2%, Germany
  7.9%, Netherlands 7.8%, Saint Kitts & Nevis 7.4%, Dominica 7.4%, UK
  6.8%, France 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $276 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, manufactured goods, machinery, chemicals, fuel

Imports - partners:
  Trinidad and Tobago 27.8%, US 27%, UK 6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $347 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $15.4 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Grenada


Telephones - main lines in use:
  32,700 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  43,300 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: automatic, islandwide telephone system
  domestic: interisland VHF and UHF radiotelephone links
  international: country code - 1-473; new SHF radiotelephone links to
  Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Vincent; VHF and UHF radio links to
  Trinidad

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  57,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1997)

Televisions:
  33,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gd

Internet hosts:
  17 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  14 (2000)

Internet users:
  19,000 (2005)

Transportation Grenada


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,127 km
  paved: 687 km
  unpaved: 440 km (1999)

Ports and terminals:
  Saint George's

Military Grenada


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Grenada Police Force

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 24,031 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 17,483 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,274 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Grenada


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  small-scale cannabis cultivation; lesser transshipment point for
  marijuana and cocaine to US


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guadeloupe

Introduction Guadeloupe


Background:
  Guadeloupe has been a French possession since 1635. The island of
  Saint Martin is shared with the Netherlands; its southern portion is
  named Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles and its
  northern portion is named Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe

Geography Guadeloupe


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, southeast of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  16 15 N, 61 35 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 1,780 sq km
  land: 1,706 sq km
  water: 74 sq km
  note: Guadeloupe is an archipelago of nine inhabited islands,
  including Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Desirade,
  Iles des Saintes (2), Saint-Barthelemy, Iles de la Petite Terre, and
  Saint-Martin (French part of the island of Saint Martin)

Area - comparative:
  10 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 15 km
  border countries: Netherlands Antilles (Sint Maarten) 15 km

Coastline:
  306 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical tempered by trade winds; moderately high humidity

Terrain:
  Basse-Terre is volcanic in origin with interior mountains;
  Grande-Terre is low limestone formation; most of the seven other
  islands are volcanic in origin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Soufriere 1,484 m

Natural resources:
  cultivable land, beaches and climate that foster tourism

Land use:
  arable land: 11.7%
  permanent crops: 2.92%
  other: 85.38% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  60 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes (June to October); Soufriere de Guadeloupe is an active
  volcano

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  a narrow channel, the Riviere Salee, divides Guadeloupe proper into
  two islands: the larger, western Basse-Terre and the smaller,
  eastern Grande-Terre

People Guadeloupe


Population:
  452,776 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.6% (male 54,725/female 52,348)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 150,934/female 153,094)
  65 years and over: 9.2% (male 17,353/female 24,322) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 32.2 years
  male: 31.3 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.88% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.09 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8.41 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.06 years
  male: 74.91 years
  female: 81.37 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Guadeloupian(s)
  adjective: Guadeloupe

Ethnic groups:
  black or mulatto 90%, white 5%, East Indian, Lebanese, Chinese less
  than 5%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 95%, Hindu and pagan African 4%, Protestant 1%

Languages:
  French (official) 99%, Creole patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90%
  male: 90%
  female: 90% (1982 est.)

Government Guadeloupe


Country name:
  conventional long form: Department of Guadeloupe
  conventional short form: Guadeloupe
  local long form: Departement de la Guadeloupe
  local short form: Guadeloupe

Dependency status:
  overseas department of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Basse-Terre
  geographic coordinates: 16 00 N, 61 44 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas department of France)

Independence:
  none (overseas department of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French legal system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Jacques BROT (since 12 June 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Jacques GILLOT
  (since 26 March 2001); President of the Regional Council Victorin
  LUREL (since 2 April 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils
  election results: NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (42 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the
  unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (41 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held March 2004 (next to be held
  by in 2010); Regional Council - last held 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held in March 2008 to elect half of the body)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - left-wing candidates 11, PS 8, RPR 8, PPDG 6,
  right-wing candidates 5, PCG 3, UDF 1; Regional Council (second
  round) - percent of vote by party - PS 58.4%, UMP 41.6%; seats by
  party - PS 29, UMP 12
  note: Guadeloupe elects two representatives to the French Senate;
  elections last held September 2004 (next to be held September 2013);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA, Guadeloupe
  elects four representatives to the French National Assembly;
  elections last held 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held June 2007);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - RPR 2, PS 1,
  different right parties 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel with jurisdiction over Guadeloupe,
  French Guiana, and Martinique

Political parties and leaders:
  Communist Party of Guadeloupe or PCG [Mona CADOCE]; FGPS [Dominique
  LARIFLA]; Left Radical Party or PRG [Flavien FERRANT]; Progressive
  Democratic Party or PPDG [Henri BANGOU]; Socialist Party or PS
  [Jules OTTO]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Claudine LACAVE];
  Union for a Popular Movement or UMP (including Rassemblement pour la
  Republique or RPR) [Gabrielle LOUIS-CARABIN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Christian Movement for the Liberation of Guadeloupe or KLPG;
  General Federation of Guadeloupe Workers or CGT-G; General Union of
  Guadeloupe Workers or UGTG; Movement for Independent Guadeloupe or
  MPGI; The Socialist Renewal Movement

International organization participation:
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Flag description:
  unofficial, local flag based upon the arms of the city of
  Pointe-a-Pitre; the field is divided horizontally with a narrow,
  blue stripe along the top edge charged with three gold
  fleurs-de-lis; the wider, lower portion of the field is black and
  charged with green sugar cane leaves - representing one of
  Guadeloupe's main crops - surmounted by a gold radiant sun
  representing the tropical climate; the only official flag is the
  national flag of France

Economy Guadeloupe


Economy - overview:
  This Caribbean economy depends on agriculture, tourism, light
  industry, and services. It also depends on France for large
  subsidies and imports. Tourism is a key industry, with most tourists
  from the US; an increasingly large number of cruise ships visit the
  islands. The traditional sugarcane crop is slowly being replaced by
  other crops, such as bananas (which now supply about 50% of export
  earnings), eggplant, and flowers. Other vegetables and root crops
  are cultivated for local consumption, although Guadeloupe is still
  dependent on imported food, mainly from France. Light industry
  features sugar and rum production. Most manufactured goods and fuel
  are imported. Unemployment is especially high among the young.
  Hurricanes periodically devastate the economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.513 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,900 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 17%
  services: 68% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  191,400 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 20%
  services: 65% (2002)

Unemployment rate:
  26.9% (2003)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $637.7 million
  expenditures: $680.1 million; including capital expenditures of
  $112.5 million (2002)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, sugarcane, tropical fruits and vegetables; cattle, pigs,
  goats

Industries:
  construction, cement, rum, sugar, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.165 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.084 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  13,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $147.8 million f.o.b. (2002)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas, sugar, rum, melons, spring water

Exports - partners:
  France 60%, Martinique 18%, US 4% (2004)

Imports:
  $1.766 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, fuels, vehicles, clothing and other consumer goods,
  construction materials

Imports - partners:
  France 63%, Germany 4%, US 3%, Japan 2%, Netherlands Antilles 2%
  (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA; note - substantial annual French subsidies (2004)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 j(2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guadeloupe


Telephones - main lines in use:
  210,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  314,700 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic facilities inadequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 590; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); microwave radio relay to Antigua and
  Barbuda, Dominica, and Martinique

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 17, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  113,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (plus several low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  118,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gp

Internet hosts:
  422 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  79,000 (2005)

Transportation Guadeloupe


Airports:
  9 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 947 km (2002)

Ports and terminals:
  Basse-Terre, Gustavia, Pointe-a-Pitre

Military Guadeloupe


Military branches:
  no regular military forces

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 112,551 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 92,834 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 3,364 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Guadeloupe


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guam

Introduction Guam


Background:
  Guam was ceded to the US by Spain in 1898. Captured by the Japanese
  in 1941, it was retaken by the US three years later. The military
  installation on the island is one of the most strategically
  important US bases in the Pacific.

Geography Guam


Location:
  Oceania, island in the North Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters of
  the way from Hawaii to the Philippines

Geographic coordinates:
  13 28 N, 144 47 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 541.3 sq km
  land: 541.3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  three times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  125.5 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; generally warm and humid, moderated by northeast
  trade winds; dry season (January to June), rainy season (July to
  December); little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  volcanic origin, surrounded by coral reefs; relatively flat
  coralline limestone plateau (source of most fresh water), with steep
  coastal cliffs and narrow coastal plains in north, low hills in
  center, mountains in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Lamlam 406 m

Natural resources:
  fishing (largely undeveloped), tourism (especially from Japan)

Land use:
  arable land: 3.64%
  permanent crops: 18.18%
  other: 78.18% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  frequent squalls during rainy season; relatively rare, but
  potentially very destructive typhoons (June - December)

Environment - current issues:
  extirpation of native bird population by the rapid proliferation of
  the brown tree snake, an exotic, invasive species

Geography - note:
  largest and southernmost island in the Mariana Islands archipelago;
  strategic location in western North Pacific Ocean

People Guam


Population:
  171,019 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29% (male 25,703/female 23,903)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 56,020/female 53,894)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 5,391/female 6,108) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.6 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 28.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.43% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.79 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.58 years
  male: 75.52 years
  female: 81.83 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Guamanian(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Guamanian

Ethnic groups:
  Chamorro 37.1%, Filipino 26.3%, other Pacific islander 11.3%, white
  6.9%, other Asian 6.3%, other ethnic origin or race 2.3%, mixed 9.8%
  (2000 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 85%, other 15% (1999 est.)

Languages:
  English 38.3%, Chamorro 22.2%, Philippine languages 22.2%, other
  Pacific island languages 6.8%, Asian languages 7%, other languages
  3.5% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (1990 est.)

Government Guam


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Guam
  conventional short form: Guam
  local long form: Guahan
  local short form: Guahan

Dependency status:
  organized, unincorporated territory of the US with policy relations
  between Guam and the US under the jurisdiction of the Office of
  Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Hagatna (Agana)
  geographic coordinates: 13 28 N, 144 45 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of the US)

Independence:
  none (territory of the US)

National holiday:
  Discovery Day, first Monday in March (1521)

Constitution:
  Organic Act of Guam, 1 August 1950

Legal system:
  modeled on US; US federal laws apply

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal; US citizens, but do not vote in US
  presidential elections

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Felix P. CAMACHO (since 6 January 2003)
  and Lieutenant Governor Kaleo MOYLAN (since 6 January 2003)
  cabinet: heads of executive departments; appointed by the governor
  with the consent of the Guam legislature
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as Guam, do not vote in elections for US president
  and vice president; governor and lieutenant governor elected on the
  same ticket by popular vote for four-year term (can serve two
  consecutive terms, then must wait a full term before running again);
  election last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2010)
  election results: Felix P. CAMACHO reelected governor; Dr. Michael
  W. CRUZ elected lieutenant governor; percent of vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislature (15 seats; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Republican Party 8, Democratic Party 7
  note: Guam elects one nonvoting delegate to the US House of
  Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held
  November 2008); results - Madeleine BORDALLO (Democratic Party) was
  reelected as delegate; percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party
  - Democratic Party 1

Judicial branch:
  Federal District Court (judge is appointed by the president);
  Territorial Superior Court (judges appointed for eight-year terms by
  the governor)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party [leader Michael PHILLIPS]; Republican Party
  (controls the legislature) [leader Philip J. FLORES]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  IOC, SPC, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Flag description:
  territorial flag is dark blue with a narrow red border on all four
  sides; centered is a red-bordered, pointed, vertical ellipse
  containing a beach scene, outrigger canoe with sail, and a palm tree
  with the word GUAM superimposed in bold red letters; US flag is the
  national flag

Economy Guam


Economy - overview:
  The economy depends largely on US military spending and tourism.
  Total US grants, wage payments, and procurement outlays amounted to
  $1.3 billion in 2004. Over the past 30 years, the tourist industry
  has grown to become the largest income source following national
  defense. The Guam economy continues to experience expansion in both
  its tourism and military sectors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.773 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $15,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA
  industry: NA
  services: NA

Labor force:
  62,050 (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 10%
  services: 64% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  11.4% (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  23% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $319.6 million
  expenditures: $427.8 million (2002 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruits, copra, vegetables; eggs, pork, poultry, beef

Industries:
  US military, tourism, construction, transshipment services,
  concrete products, printing and publishing, food processing, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  840.1 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  781.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  19,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $45 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  mostly transshipments of refined petroleum products; construction
  materials, fish, food and beverage products

Exports - partners:
  Japan 67.2%, Singapore 11.6%, UK 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $701 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, food, manufactured goods

Imports - partners:
  Singapore 50%, South Korea 21.4%, Japan 14%, Hong Kong 4.6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  Guam receives large transfer payments from the US Federal Treasury
  ($143 million in 1997) into which Guamanians pay no income or excise
  taxes; under the provisions of a special law of Congress, the Guam
  Treasury, rather than the US Treasury, receives federal income taxes
  paid by military and civilian Federal employees stationed in Guam
  (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Guam


Telephones - main lines in use:
  84,134 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  98,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system, integrated with US facilities
  for direct dialing, including free use of 800 numbers
  domestic: modern digital system, including cellular mobile service
  and local access to the Internet
  international: country code - 1-671; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); submarine cables to US and Japan (Guam is
  a trans-Pacific communications hub for MCI, Sprint, AT&T, IT&E, and
  GTE, linking the US and Asia)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 11, shortwave 2 (2006)

Radios:
  221,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3; 6 (Low Power TV) (2006)

Televisions:
  106,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gu

Internet hosts:
  76 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  20 (2000)

Internet users:
  79,000 (2004)

Transportation Guam


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 977 km (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Apra Harbor

Military Guam


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Guam


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guatemala

Introduction Guatemala


Background:
  The Maya civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding
  regions during the first millennium A.D. After almost three
  centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence in
  1821. During the second half of the 20th century, it experienced a
  variety of military and civilian governments, as well as a 36-year
  guerrilla war. In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement
  formally ending the conflict, which had left more than 100,000
  people dead and had created some 1 million refugees.

Geography Guatemala


Location:
  Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between El
  Salvador and Mexico, and bordering the Gulf of Honduras (Caribbean
  Sea) between Honduras and Belize

Geographic coordinates:
  15 30 N, 90 15 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 108,890 sq km
  land: 108,430 sq km
  water: 460 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Tennessee

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,687 km
  border countries: Belize 266 km, El Salvador 203 km, Honduras 256
  km, Mexico 962 km

Coastline:
  400 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid in lowlands; cooler in highlands

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with narrow coastal plains and rolling limestone
  plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Volcan Tajumulco 4,211 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 13.22%
  permanent crops: 5.6%
  other: 81.18% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,300 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  numerous volcanoes in mountains, with occasional violent
  earthquakes; Caribbean coast extremely susceptible to hurricanes and
  other tropical storms

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation in the Peten rainforest; soil erosion; water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  no natural harbors on west coast

People Guatemala


Population:
  12,293,545 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.1% (male 2,573,359/female 2,479,098)
  15-64 years: 55.5% (male 3,353,630/female 3,468,184)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 194,784/female 224,490) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.5 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.27% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.88 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 30.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.38 years
  male: 67.65 years
  female: 71.18 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  78,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  5,800 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Guatemalan(s)
  adjective: Guatemalan

Ethnic groups:
  Mestizo (mixed Amerindian-Spanish - in local Spanish called Ladino)
  and European 59.4%, K'iche 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam 7.9%, Q'eqchi
  6.3%, other Mayan 8.6%, indigenous non-Mayan 0.2%, other 0.1% (2001
  census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan beliefs

Languages:
  Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23 officially recognized
  Amerindian languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam,
  Garifuna, and Xinca)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70.6%
  male: 78%
  female: 63.3% (2003 est.)

Government Guatemala


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Guatemala
  conventional short form: Guatemala
  local long form: Republica de Guatemala
  local short form: Guatemala

Government type:
  constitutional democratic republic

Capital:
  name: Guatemala
  geographic coordinates: 14 38 N, 90 31 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in April; ends last
  Friday in September; note - there is no DST planned for 2007-2009

Administrative divisions:
  22 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Alta
  Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Chiquimula, El Progreso,
  Escuintla, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Izabal, Jalapa, Jutiapa, Peten,
  Quetzaltenango, Quiche, Retalhuleu, Sacatepequez, San Marcos, Santa
  Rosa, Solola, Suchitepequez, Totonicapan, Zacapa

Independence:
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Constitution:
  31 May 1985, effective 14 January 1986; note - suspended 25 May
  1993 by former President Jorge SERRANO; reinstated 5 June 1993
  following ouster of president; amended November 1993

Legal system:
  civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal (active duty members of the armed forces
  may not vote and are restricted to their barracks on election day)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Oscar Jose Rafael BERGER Perdomo (since
  14 January 2004); Vice President Eduardo STEIN Barillas (since 14
  January 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Oscar Jose Rafael BERGER Perdomo
  (since 14 January 2004); Vice President Eduardo STEIN Barillas
  (since 14 January 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 9 November
  2003; runoff held 28 December 2003 (next to be held September 2007)
  election results: Oscar BERGER Perdomo elected president; percent of
  vote - Oscar BERGER Perdomo (GANA) 54.1%, Alvarado COLOM (UNE) 45.9%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Congress of the Republic or Congreso de la Republica
  (158 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 9 November 2003 (next to be held September 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  GANA 49, FRG 41, UNE 33, PAN 17, other 18
  note: for the 9 November 2003 election, the number of congressional
  seats increased from 113 to 158

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court or Corte de Constitutcionalidad is Guatemala's
  highest court (five judges are elected for concurrent five-year
  terms by Congress, each serving one year as president of the
  Constitutional Court; one is elected by Congress, one elected by the
  Supreme Court of Justice, one appointed by the president, one
  elected by Superior Counsel of Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala,
  and one by Colegio de Abogados); Supreme Court of Justice or Corte
  Suprema de Justicia (13 members serve concurrent five-year terms and
  elect a president of the Court each year from among their number;
  the president of the Supreme Court of Justice also supervises trial
  judges around the country, who are named to five-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
  Authentic Integral Development or DIA [Eduardo SUGER]; Grand
  National Alliance or GANA (an alliance of smaller parties) [Alfredo
  VILA Giron, secretary general]; Green Party or LOV [Rodolfo ROSALES
  Garcis-Salaz]; Guatemalan Christian Democracy or DCG [Vinicio CEREZO
  Arevalo]; Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity or URNG [Alba
  ESTELA Maldonado, secretary general]; Guatemalan Republican Front or
  FRG [Efrain RIOS Montt]; Movement for Guatemalan Unity or MGU
  [Jacobo ARBENZ Villanueva]; Movement for Principals and Values or
  MPV [Francisco BIANCHI]; National Advancement Party or PAN [Leonel
  LOPEZ Rodas, secretary general]; National Unity for Hope or UNE
  [Alvarado COLOM Caballeros]; New Nation Alliance or ANN (formed by
  an alliance of DIA, URNG, and several splinter groups most of whom
  subsequently defected) [led by three co-equal partners - Nineth
  Varenca MONTENEGRO Cottom, Rodolfo BAUER Paiz, and Jorge Antonio
  BALSELLS TUT]; Patriot Party or PP [Ret. Gen. Otto PEREZ Molina];
  Progressive Liberator Party or PLP [Acisclo VALLADARES Molina];
  Reform Movement or MR [Alfredo SKINNER-KLEE, secretary general];
  Unionista Party

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Agrarian Owners Group or UNAGRO; Alliance Against Impunity or AAI;
  Committee for Campesino Unity or CUC; Coordinating Committee of
  Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations or
  CACIF; Mutual Support Group or GAM

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, ONUB, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Guillermo CASTILLO
  chancery: 2220 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-4952
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-1908
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York, Providence, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James M. DERHAM
  embassy: 7-01 Avenida Reforma, Zone 10, Guatemala City
  mailing address: APO AA 34024
  telephone: [502] 2326-4000
  FAX: [502] 2326-4654

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of light blue (hoist side), white, and
  light blue with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the
  coat of arms includes a green and red quetzal (the national bird)
  and a scroll bearing the inscription LIBERTAD 15 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE
  1821 (the original date of independence from Spain) all superimposed
  on a pair of crossed rifles and a pair of crossed swords and framed
  by a wreath

Economy Guatemala


Economy - overview:
  Guatemala is the largest and most populous of the Central American
  countries with a GDP per capita roughly one-half that of Brazil,
  Argentina, and Chile. The agricultural sector accounts for about
  one-fourth of GDP, two-thirds of exports, and half of the labor
  force. Coffee, sugar, and bananas are the main products. The 1996
  signing of peace accords, which ended 36 years of civil war, removed
  a major obstacle to foreign investment, but widespread political
  violence and corruption scandals continue to dampen investor
  confidence. The distribution of income remains highly unequal with
  perhaps 75% of the population below the poverty line. Other ongoing
  challenges include increasing government revenues, negotiating
  further assistance from international donors, upgrading both
  government and private financial operations, curtailing drug
  trafficking, and narrowing the trade deficit.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $56.86 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $26.98 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 22.7%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 58.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.76 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 50%
  industry: 15%
  services: 35% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.5% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  75% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 46% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  48.3 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  15.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.374 billion
  expenditures: $4.041 billion; including capital expenditures of $750
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, corn, bananas, coffee, beans, cardamom; cattle, sheep,
  pigs, chickens

Industries:
  sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals, petroleum,
  metals, rubber, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.1% (1999)

Electricity - production:
  6.898 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 51.9%
  hydro: 35.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 12.9% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.025 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  425 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  35 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  22,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  66,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  3,104 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  263 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  3.087 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-1.341 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.94 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, sugar, petroleum, apparel, bananas, fruits and vegetables,
  cardamom

Exports - partners:
  US 50.1%, El Salvador 12.1%, Honduras 7.3%, Mexico 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $7.744 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, machinery and transport equipment, construction materials,
  grain, fertilizers, electricity

Imports - partners:
  US 38.1%, Mexico 7.6%, El Salvador 4.8%, South Korea 4.8%, Panama
  4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $3.673 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.503 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $250 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  quetzal (GTQ), US dollar (USD), others allowed

Currency code:
  GTQ; USD

Exchange rates:
  quetzales per US dollar - 7.6339 (2005), 7.9465 (2004), 7.9409
  (2003), 7.8217 (2002), 7.8586 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guatemala


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,132,100 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  3,168,300 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fairly modern network centered in the city of
  Guatemala
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 502; connected to Central American
  Microwave System; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 130, FM 487, shortwave 15 (2000)

Radios:
  835,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  26 (plus 27 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  1.323 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gt

Internet hosts:
  49,026 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2000)

Internet users:
  756,000 (2005)

Transportation Guatemala


Airports:
  450 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 439
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 111
  under 914 m: 319 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 480 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 886 km
  narrow gauge: 886 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 14,095 km
  paved: 4,863 km (including 75 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,232 km (1999)

Waterways:
  990 km
  note: 260 km navigable year round; additional 730 km navigable
  during high-water season (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Puerto Quetzal, Santo Tomas de Castilla

Military Guatemala


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes marines), Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 50 are liable for
  military service; conscript service obligation varies from 12 to 24
  months (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,429,033
  females age 18-49: 2,503,482 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,911,412
  females age 18-49: 2,070,806 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 134,032
  females age 18-49: 130,641 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $169.8 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Guatemala


Disputes - international:
  Guatemalan squatters continue to settle in the rain forests of
  Belize's border region; Organization of American States (OAS) is
  attempting to revive the 2002 failed Differendum that created a
  small adjustment to land boundary, a Guatemalan maritime corridor in
  Caribbean, a joint ecological park for the disputed Sapodilla Cays,
  and a substantial US-UK financial package; Guatemalans enter Mexico
  illegally seeking work or transit to the US

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 250,000 (government's scorched-earth offensive in 1980s
  against indigenous people) 30,000 (Hurricane "Stan" October 2005)
  (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  major transit country for cocaine and heroin; in 2004, reemerged as
  a potential source of opium, growing 330 hectares of opium poppy,
  with potential pure heroin production of 1.4 metric tons; 76% of
  opium poppy cultivation in western highlands along Mexican border;
  marijuana cultivation for mostly domestic consumption; proximity to
  Mexico makes Guatemala a major staging area for drugs (particularly
  for cocaine); money laundering is a serious problem; corruption is a
  major problem


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guernsey

Introduction Guernsey


Background:
  The island of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands represent the
  last remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy, which held sway
  in both France and England. The islands were the only British soil
  occupied by German troops in World War II. Guernsey is a British
  crown dependency, but is not part of the UK.

Geography Guernsey


Location:
  Western Europe, islands in the English Channel, northwest of France

Geographic coordinates:
  49 28 N, 2 35 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 78 sq km
  land: 78 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Alderney, Guernsey, Herm, Sark, and some other
  smaller islands

Area - comparative:
  about one-half the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  50 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Climate:
  temperate with mild winters and cool summers; about 50% of days are
  overcast

Terrain:
  mostly level with low hills in southwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Sark 114 m

Natural resources:
  cropland

Land use:
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  large, deepwater harbor at Saint Peter Port

People Guernsey


Population:
  65,409 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15% (male 4,998/female 4,842)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 21,752/female 22,170)
  65 years and over: 17.8% (male 4,926/female 6,721) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 41.3 years
  male: 40.4 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.81 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.01 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.42 years
  male: 77.41 years
  female: 83.53 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Channel Islander(s)
  adjective: Channel Islander

Ethnic groups:
  UK and Norman-French descent with small percentages from other
  European countries

Religions:
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational,
  Methodist

Languages:
  English, French, Norman-French dialect spoken in country districts

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Government Guernsey


Country name:
  conventional long form: Bailiwick of Guernsey
  conventional short form: Guernsey

Dependency status:
  British crown dependency

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Saint Peter Port
  geographic coordinates: 49 27 N, 2 32 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (British crown dependency); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are 10 parishes including Castel, Forest, Saint Andrew, Saint
  Martin, Saint Peter Port, Saint Pierre du Bois, Saint Sampson, Saint
  Saviour, Torteval, Vale

Independence:
  none (British crown dependency)

National holiday:
  Liberation Day, 9 May (1945)

Constitution:
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Legal system:
  English law and local statutes; justice is administered by the
  Royal Court

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Lieutenant Governor Sir Fabian MALBON (since 28
  October 2005)
  head of government: Chief Minister Laurie MORGAN (since 1 May 2004)
  cabinet: Policy Council elected by the States of Deliberation
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor appointed
  by the monarch; chief minister is elected by States of Delibertion
  election results: Laurie MORGAN elected chief minister, percent of
  vote of the States of Deliberation NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral States of Deliberation (45 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote for four years); note - Alderney and Sark have their
  own parliaments
  elections: last held 21 April 2004 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - all independents

Judicial branch:
  Royal Court

Political parties and leaders:
  none; all independents

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Flag description:
  white with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of England)
  extending to the edges of the flag and a yellow equal-armed cross of
  William the Conqueror superimposed on the Saint George cross

Economy Guernsey


Economy - overview:
  Financial services - banking, fund management, insurance - account
  for about 55% of total income in this tiny, prosperous Channel
  Island economy. Tourism, manufacturing, and horticulture, mainly
  tomatoes and cut flowers, have been declining. Light tax and death
  duties make Guernsey a popular tax haven. The evolving economic
  integration of the EU nations is changing the environment under
  which Guernsey operates.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.59 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $40,000 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 10%
  services: 87% (2000)

Labor force:
  32,290 (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  0.5% (1999 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.9% (2004 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $539.2 million
  expenditures: $448.3 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002)

Agriculture - products:
  tomatoes, greenhouse flowers, sweet peppers, eggplant, fruit;
  Guernsey cattle

Industries:
  tourism, banking

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  tomatoes, flowers and ferns, sweet peppers, eggplant, other
  vegetables

Exports - partners:
  UK; note - regarded as internal trade (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  coal, gasoline, oil, machinery and equipment

Imports - partners:
  UK; note - regarded as internal trade (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Guernsey pound

Currency code:
  GBP

Exchange rates:
  Guernsey pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Guernsey pound is at par with the British pound

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guernsey


Telephones - main lines in use:
  55,100 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  43,800 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: 1 submarine cable

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .gg

Internet hosts:
  1,245 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  36,000 (2005)

Transportation Guernsey


Airports:
  2 (one on Alderney) (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: NA

Ports and terminals:
  Saint Peter Port, Saint Sampson

Military Guernsey


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Guernsey


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guinea

Introduction Guinea


Background:
  Guinea has had only two presidents since gaining its independence
  from France in 1958. Lansana CONTE came to power in 1984 when the
  military seized the government after the death of the first
  president, Sekou TOURE. Guinea did not hold democratic elections
  until 1993 when Gen. CONTE (head of the military government) was
  elected president of the civilian government. He was reelected in
  1998 and again in 2003. Unrest in Sierra Leone and Liberia has
  spilled over into Guinea on several occasions over the past decade,
  threatening stability and creating humanitarian emergencies.

Geography Guinea


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone

Geographic coordinates:
  11 00 N, 10 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 245,857 sq km
  land: 245,857 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,399 km
  border countries: Cote d'Ivoire 610 km, Guinea-Bissau 386 km,
  Liberia 563 km, Mali 858 km, Senegal 330 km, Sierra Leone 652 km

Coastline:
  320 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  generally hot and humid; monsoonal-type rainy season (June to
  November) with southwesterly winds; dry season (December to May)
  with northeasterly harmattan winds

Terrain:
  generally flat coastal plain, hilly to mountainous interior

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, iron ore, diamonds, gold, uranium, hydropower, fish, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 4.47%
  permanent crops: 2.64%
  other: 92.89% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  950 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze may reduce visibility during dry
  season

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; inadequate supplies of potable water;
  desertification; soil contamination and erosion; overfishing,
  overpopulation in forest region; poor mining practices have led to
  environmental damage

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the Niger and its important tributary the Milo have their sources
  in the Guinean highlands

People Guinea


Population:
  9,690,222 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.4% (male 2,171,733/female 2,128,027)
  15-64 years: 52.5% (male 2,541,140/female 2,542,847)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 134,239/female 172,236) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.4 years
  female: 17.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.63% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  41.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  15.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: as a result of conflict in neighboring countries, Guinea is
  host to approximately 141,500 refugees from Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia,
  and Sierra Leone (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 90 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 95.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 84.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 49.5 years
  male: 48.34 years
  female: 50.7 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  140,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  9,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Guinean(s)
  adjective: Guinean

Ethnic groups:
  Peuhl 40%, Malinke 30%, Soussou 20%, smaller ethnic groups 10%

Religions:
  Muslim 85%, Christian 8%, indigenous beliefs 7%

Languages:
  French (official); note - each ethnic group has its own language

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 35.9%
  male: 49.9%
  female: 21.9% (1995 est.)

Government Guinea


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Guinea
  conventional short form: Guinea
  local long form: Republique de Guinee
  local short form: Guinee
  former: French Guinea

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Conakry
  geographic coordinates: 9 31 N, 13 43 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  33 prefectures and 1 special zone (zone special)*; Beyla, Boffa,
  Boke, Conakry*, Coyah, Dabola, Dalaba, Dinguiraye, Dubreka, Faranah,
  Forecariah, Fria, Gaoual, Gueckedou, Kankan, Kerouane, Kindia,
  Kissidougou, Koubia, Koundara, Kouroussa, Labe, Lelouma, Lola,
  Macenta, Mali, Mamou, Mandiana, Nzerekore, Pita, Siguiri, Telimele,
  Tougue, Yomou

Independence:
  2 October 1958 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 2 October (1958)

Constitution:
  23 December 1990 (Loi Fundamentale)

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system, customary law, and decree; legal
  codes currently being revised; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Lansana CONTE (head of military
  government since 5 April 1984, elected president 19 December 1993)
  head of government: vacant; note - Prime Minister Cellou Dalein
  DIALLO was dismissed on 5 April 2006
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); candidate must receive a majority of the votes
  cast to be elected president; election last held 21 December 2003
  (next to be held December 2010); the prime minister is appointed by
  the president
  election results: Lansana CONTE reelected president; percent of vote
  - Lansana CONTE (PUP) 95.3%, Mamadou Boye BARRY (UPR) 4.6%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral People's National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale
  Populaire (114 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PUP 61.6%, UPR 26.6%,
  other 11.8%; seats by party - PUP 85, UPR 20, other 9

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party of Guinea-African Democratic Rally or PDG-RDA [El
  Hadj Ismael Mohamed Gassim GUSHEIN]; National Union for Progress or
  UPN [Mamadou Bhoye BARRY]; Party for Unity and Progress or PUP
  [Lansana CONTE] (the governing party); People's Party of Guinea or
  PPG [Pascal TOLNO]; Rally for the Guinean People or RPG [Alpha
  CONDE]; Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea or UFDG [Mamadou BA];
  Union of Republican Forces or UFR [Sidya TOURE]; Union for Progress
  of Guinea or UPG [Jean-Marie DORE, secretary-general]; Union for
  Progress and Renewal or UPR [Ousmane BAH]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Student and teacher unions

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Ibrihama
  Sory TRAORE
  chancery: 2112 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-4300
  FAX: [1] (202) 478-3800

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jackson C. MCDONALD
  embassy: Koloma, Conakry, east of Hamdallaye Circle
  mailing address: B. P. 603, Transversale No. 2, Centre Administratif
  de Koloma, Commune de Ratoma, Conakry
  telephone: [224] 30-42-08-61
  FAX: [224] 30-42-08-73

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of red (hoist side), yellow, and green;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Guinea


Economy - overview:
  Guinea possesses major mineral, hydropower, and agricultural
  resources, yet remains an underdeveloped nation. The country
  possesses almost half of the world's bauxite reserves and is the
  second-largest bauxite producer. The mining sector accounted for
  over 70% of exports in 2004. Long-run improvements in government
  fiscal arrangements, literacy, and the legal framework are needed if
  the country is to move out of poverty. Fighting along the Sierra
  Leonean and Liberian borders, as well as refugee movements, have
  caused major economic disruptions, aggravating a loss in investor
  confidence. Panic buying has created food shortages and inflation
  and caused riots in local markets. Guinea is not receiving
  multilateral aid; the IMF and World Bank cut off most assistance in
  2003. Growth rose slightly in 2005, primarily due to increases in
  global demand and commodity prices on world markets.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $18.65 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $3.576 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23.7%
  industry: 36.2%
  services: 40.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3 million (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 32% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40.3 (1994)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  25% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $305.6 million
  expenditures: $590.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, coffee, pineapples, palm kernels, cassava (tapioca), bananas,
  sweet potatoes; cattle, sheep, goats; timber

Industries:
  bauxite, gold, diamonds; alumina refining; light manufacturing and
  agricultural processing industries

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA

Electricity - production:
  775 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 45.5%
  hydro: 54.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  720.8 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  8,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-268.4 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $612.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bauxite, alumina, gold, diamonds, coffee, fish, agricultural
  products

Exports - partners:
  Russia 14.6%, South Korea 11.3%, Spain 10.2%, Ukraine 7.9%, US
  6.1%, Ireland 6%, France 5.7%, Germany 5%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $680 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, metals, machinery, transport equipment,
  textiles, grain and other foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  China 8.5%, US 7.3%, France 7.2%, Cote d'Ivoire 5.2%, Italy 4.7%,
  Belgium 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $69.83 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.46 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $237.5 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Guinean franc (GNF)

Currency code:
  GNF

Exchange rates:
  Guinean francs per US dollar - 2,550 (2005), 2,225 (2004), 1,984.9
  (2003), 1,975.8 (2002), 1,950.6 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guinea


Telephones - main lines in use:
  26,200 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  189,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poor to fair system of open-wire lines, small
  radiotelephone communication stations, and new microwave radio relay
  system
  domestic: microwave radio relay and radiotelephone communication
  international: country code - 224; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4 (one station is inactive), FM 1 (plus 7 repeaters), shortwave
  3 (2001)

Radios:
  357,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 low-power stations (2001)

Televisions:
  85,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gn

Internet hosts:
  367 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  4 (2001)

Internet users:
  46,000 (2005)

Transportation Guinea


Airports:
  16 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 837 km
  standard gauge: 175 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 662 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 44,348 km
  paved: 4,342 km
  unpaved: 40,006 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,300 km (navigable by shallow-draft native craft) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Kamsar

Military Guinea


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Air Force, Presidential Guard (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 24 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,852,534
  females age 18-49: 1,827,560 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,034,006
  females age 18-49: 1,032,885 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $119.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Guinea


Disputes - international:
  conflicts among rebel groups, warlords, and youth gangs in
  neighboring states have spilled over into Guinea, resulting in
  domestic instability; Sierra Leone has pressured Guinea to remove
  its forces from the town of Yenga, occupied since 1998

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 127,256 (Liberia) 7,165 (Sierra
  Leone) 7,064 (Cote d'Ivoire)
  IDPs: 82,000 (cross-border incursions from Liberia, Sierra Leone,
  Cote d'Ivoire) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guinea-Bissau

Introduction Guinea-Bissau


Background:
  Since independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has
  experienced considerable political and military upheaval. In 1980, a
  military coup established authoritarian dictator Joao Bernardo
  'Nino' VIEIRA as president. Despite setting a path to a market
  economy and multiparty system, VIEIRA's regime was characterized by
  the suppression of political opposition and the purging of political
  rivals. Several coup attempts through the 1980s and early 1990s
  failed to unseat him. In 1994 VIEIRA was elected president in the
  country's first free elections. A military mutiny and resulting
  civil war in 1998 eventually led to VIEIRA's ouster in May 1999. In
  February 2000, a transitional government turned over power to
  opposition leader Kumba YALA, after he was elected president in
  transparent polling. In September 2003, after only three years in
  office, YALA was ousted by the military in a bloodless coup, and
  businessman Henrique ROSA was sworn in as interim president. In
  August 2005, former President VIEIRA was re-elected president in the
  second round of presidential polling. Since formally assuming office
  in October 2005, Vieira has pledged to pursue economic development
  and national reconciliation.

Geography Guinea-Bissau


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea
  and Senegal

Geographic coordinates:
  12 00 N, 15 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 36,120 sq km
  land: 28,000 sq km
  water: 8,120 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: 724 km
  border countries: Guinea 386 km, Senegal 338 km

Coastline:
  350 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; generally hot and humid; monsoonal-type rainy season
  (June to November) with southwesterly winds; dry season (December to
  May) with northeasterly harmattan winds

Terrain:
  mostly low coastal plain rising to savanna in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location in the northeast corner of the
  country 300 m

Natural resources:
  fish, timber, phosphates, bauxite, clay, granite, limestone,
  unexploited deposits of petroleum

Land use:
  arable land: 8.31%
  permanent crops: 6.92%
  other: 84.77% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze may reduce visibility during dry
  season; brush fires

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  this small country is swampy along its western coast and low-lying
  further inland

People Guinea-Bissau


Population:
  1,442,029 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.4% (male 297,623/female 298,942)
  15-64 years: 55.6% (male 384,559/female 417,811)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 18,048/female 25,046) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 19.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.07% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  37.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 105.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 115.53 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 46.87 years
  male: 45.05 years
  female: 48.75 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  10% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  17,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,200 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Guinean(s)
  adjective: Guinean

Ethnic groups:
  African 99% (includes Balanta 30%, Fula 20%, Manjaca 14%, Mandinga
  13%, Papel 7%), European and mulatto less than 1%

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 50%, Muslim 45%, Christian 5%

Languages:
  Portuguese (official), Crioulo, African languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 42.4%
  male: 58.1%
  female: 27.4% (2003 est.)

Government Guinea-Bissau


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Guinea-Bissau
  conventional short form: Guinea-Bissau
  local long form: Republica da Guine-Bissau
  local short form: Guine-Bissau
  former: Portuguese Guinea

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bissau
  geographic coordinates: 11 51 N, 15 35 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 regions (regioes, singular - regiao); Bafata, Biombo, Bissau,
  Bolama, Cacheu, Gabu, Oio, Quinara, Tombali; note - Bolama may have
  been renamed Bolama/Bijagos

Independence:
  24 September 1973 (unilaterally declared by Guinea-Bissau); 10
  September 1974 (recognized by Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 24 September (1973)

Constitution:
  16 May 1984; amended 4 May 1991, 4 December 1991, 26 February 1993,
  9 June 1993, NA 1996

Legal system:
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Joao Bernardo 'Nino' VIEIRA (since 1
  October 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Aristides GOMES (since 2 November
  2005)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 July 2005 (next to be held
  in 2010); prime minister appointed by the president after
  consultation with party leaders in the legislature
  election results: Joao Bernardo VIEIRA elected president; percent of
  vote, second ballot - Joao Bernardo VIEIRA 52.4%, Malan Bacai SANHA
  47.6%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National People's Assembly or Assembleia Nacional
  Popular (100 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve a
  maximum of four years)
  elections: last held 28 March 2004 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAIGC 31.5%, PRS 24.8%,
  PUSD 16.1%, UE 4.1%, APU 1.3%, 13 other parties 22.2%; seats by
  party - PAIGC 45, PRS 35, PUSD 17, UE 2, APU 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Supremo Tribunal da Justica (consists of nine
  justices appointed by the president and serve at his pleasure; final
  court of appeals in criminal and civil cases); Regional Courts (one
  in each of nine regions; first court of appeals for Sectoral Court
  decisions; hear all felony cases and civil cases valued at over
  $1,000); 24 Sectoral Courts (judges are not necessarily trained
  lawyers; they hear civil cases under $1,000 and misdemeanor criminal
  cases)

Political parties and leaders:
  African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde
  or PAIGC [Carlos GOMES Junior]; Democratic Social Front or FDS;
  Electoral Union or UE; Party for Democratic Convergence or PCD
  [Victor MANDINGA]; Social Renovation Party or PRS [Alberto NAMBEIA];
  Union for Change or UM [Jorge MANDINGA, president, Dr. Anne SAAD,
  secretary general]; United Platform or UP (coalition formed by PCD,
  FDS, FLING, and RGB-MB); United Popular Alliance or APU; United
  Social Democratic Party or PUSD [Francisco Jose FADUL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF,
  OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WADB (regional),
  WAEMU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); note - Guinea-Bissau does
  not have official representation in Washington, DC; Guinea-Bissau's
  representative in Washington is Henrique Adriano DA SILVA, P.O. Box
  33813, Washington, DC 20033, telephone: (301)947-3958

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US Embassy suspended operations on 14 June 1998 in the midst of
  violent conflict between forces loyal to then President VIEIRA and
  military-led junta; the US Ambassador to Senegal is accredited to
  Guinea-Bissau

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and green with a
  vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black five-pointed
  star centered in the red band; uses the popular pan-African colors
  of Ethiopia

Economy Guinea-Bissau


Economy - overview:
  One of the 10 poorest countries in the world, Guinea-Bissau depends
  mainly on farming and fishing. Cashew crops have increased
  remarkably in recent years, and the country now ranks sixth in
  cashew production. Guinea-Bissau exports fish and seafood along with
  small amounts of peanuts, palm kernels, and timber. Rice is the
  major crop and staple food. However, intermittent fighting between
  Senegalese-backed government troops and a military junta destroyed
  much of the country's infrastructure and caused widespread damage to
  the economy in 1998; the civil war led to a 28% drop in GDP that
  year, with partial recovery in 1999-2002. Before the war, trade
  reform and price liberalization were the most successful part of the
  country's structural adjustment program under IMF sponsorship. The
  tightening of monetary policy and the development of the private
  sector had also begun to reinvigorate the economy. Because of high
  costs, the development of petroleum, phosphate, and other mineral
  resources is not a near-term prospect. However, offshore oil
  prospecting has begun and could lead to much-needed revenue in the
  long run. The inequality of income distribution is one of the most
  extreme in the world. The government and international donors
  continue to work out plans to forward economic development from a
  lamentably low base. In December 2003, the World Bank, IMF, and UNDP
  were forced to step in to provide emergency budgetary support in the
  amount of $107 million for 2004, representing over 80% of the total
  national budget. Government drift and indecision, however, have
  resulted in continued low growth in 2002-05.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.171 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $280 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 62%
  industry: 12%
  services: 26% (1999 est.)

Labor force:
  480,000 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 82%
  industry and services: 18% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 42.4% (1991)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2002 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  rice, corn, beans, cassava (tapioca), cashew nuts, peanuts, palm
  kernels, cotton; timber; fish

Industries:
  agricultural products processing, beer, soft drinks

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.7% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  56 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  52.08 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  2,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $116 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cashew nuts, shrimp, peanuts, palm kernels, sawn lumber

Exports - partners:
  India 72%, Nigeria 17.1%, Ecuador 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $176 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  Italy 25.3%, Senegal 18.6%, Portugal 15.8%, Cote d'Ivoire 4.3%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $941.5 million (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $115.4 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF; GWP

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)
  note: since 1 January 1999, the XOF franc has been pegged to the
  euro at a rate of 655.957 XOF francs per euro

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guinea-Bissau


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,600 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  67,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: small system
  domestic: combination of microwave radio relay, open-wire lines,
  radiotelephone, and cellular communications
  international: country code - 245

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1 (transmitter out of service), FM 4, shortwave 0 (2002)

Radios:
  49,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA (2005)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .gw

Internet hosts:
  5 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2002)

Internet users:
  26,000 (2005)

Transportation Guinea-Bissau


Airports:
  28 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 25
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 4,400 km
  paved: 453 km
  unpaved: 3,947 km (1999)

Waterways:
  four largest rivers are navigable for some distance; many inlets
  and creeks give shallow-water access to much of interior (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bissau, Buba, Cacheu, Farim

Military Guinea-Bissau


Military branches:
  People's Revolutionary Armed Force (FARP; includes Army, Navy, and
  Air Force), paramilitary force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 287,542
  females age 18-49: 297,295 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 152,681
  females age 18-49: 161,033 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9.46 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Guinea-Bissau


Disputes - international:
  attempts to stem refugees and cross-border raids, arms smuggling,
  and political instability from a separatist movement in Senegal's
  Casamance region


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Guyana

Introduction Guyana


Background:
  Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana had
  become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to black
  settlement of urban areas and the importation of indentured servants
  from India to work the sugar plantations. This ethnocultural divide
  has persisted and has led to turbulent politics. Guyana achieved
  independence from the UK in 1966, and since then it has been ruled
  mostly by socialist-oriented governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was
  elected president in what is considered the country's first free and
  fair election since independence. After his death five years later,
  his wife, Jane JAGAN, became president but resigned in 1999 due to
  poor health. Her successor, Bharrat JAGDEO, was reelected in 2001.

Geography Guyana


Location:
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Suriname and Venezuela

Geographic coordinates:
  5 00 N, 59 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 214,970 sq km
  land: 196,850 sq km
  water: 18,120 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Idaho

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,462 km
  border countries: Brazil 1,119 km, Suriname 600 km, Venezuela 743 km

Coastline:
  459 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the outer edge of the continental
  margin

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid, moderated by northeast trade winds; two rainy
  seasons (May to August, November to January)

Terrain:
  mostly rolling highlands; low coastal plain; savanna in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Roraima 2,835 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, gold, diamonds, hardwood timber, shrimp, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 2.23%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 97.63% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flash floods are a constant threat during rainy seasons

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from sewage and agricultural and industrial
  chemicals; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the third-smallest country in South America after Suriname and
  Uruguay; substantial portions of its western and eastern territories
  are claimed by Venezuela and Suriname respectively

People Guyana


Population:
  767,245
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.2% (male 102,551/female 98,772)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 265,193/female 260,892)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 17,043/female 22,794) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.4 years
  male: 26.9 years
  female: 27.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.25% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.28 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -7.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 32.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 35.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.86 years
  male: 63.21 years
  female: 68.65 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  11,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Guyanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Guyanese

Ethnic groups:
  East Indian 50%, black 36%, Amerindian 7%, white, Chinese, and
  mixed 7%

Religions:
  Christian 50%, Hindu 35%, Muslim 10%, other 5%

Languages:
  English, Amerindian dialects, Creole, Hindi, Urdu

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98.5% (2003 est.)

Government Guyana


Country name:
  conventional long form: Cooperative Republic of Guyana
  conventional short form: Guyana
  former: British Guiana

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Georgetown
  geographic coordinates: 6 48 N, 58 10 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 regions; Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Demerara-Mahaica, East
  Berbice-Corentyne, Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, Mahaica-Berbice,
  Pomeroon-Supenaam, Potaro-Siparuni, Upper Demerara-Berbice, Upper
  Takutu-Upper Essequibo

Independence:
  26 May 1966 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 23 February (1970)

Constitution:
  6 October 1980

Legal system:
  based on English common law with certain admixtures of Roman-Dutch
  law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Bharrat JAGDEO (since 11 August 1999);
  note - assumed presidency after resignation of President Janet JAGAN
  and reelected in 2001, and again in 2006
  head of government: Prime Minister Samuel HINDS (since October 1992,
  except for a period as chief of state after the death of President
  Cheddi JAGAN on 6 March 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president,
  responsible to the legislature
  elections: president elected by popular vote as leader of a party
  list in parliamentary elections, which must be held at least every
  five years (no term limits); elections last held 28 August 2006
  (next to be held by August 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: President Bharrat JAGDEO reelected; percent of
  vote 54.6%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (65 members elected by popular vote,
  also not more than four non-elected non-voting ministers and two
  non-elected non-voting parliamentary secretaries appointed by the
  president; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 28 August 2006 (next to be held by August 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PPP/C 54.6%, PNC/R 34%,
  AFC 8.1%, other 3.3%; seats by party - PPP/C 36, PNC/R 22, AFC 5,
  other 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of the High Court and the
  Judicial Court of Appeal, with right of final appeal to the
  Caribbean Court of Justice

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Change or AFC [Raphael TROTMAN and Khemraj RAMJATTAN];
  Guyana Action Party or GAP [Paul HARDY]; Justice for All Party [C.N.
  SHARMA]; People's National Congress/Reform or PNC/R [Robert Herman
  Orlando CORBIN]; People's Progressive Party/Civic or PPP/C [Bharrat
  JAGDEO]; Rise, Organize, and Rebuild or ROAR [Ravi DEV]; The United
  Force or TUF [Manzoor NADIR]; The Unity Party [Joey JAGAN]; Vision
  Guyana [Peter RAMSAROOP]; Working People's Alliance or WPA [Rupert
  ROOPNARAINE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Amerindian People's Association; Guyana Citizens Initiative; Guyana
  Bar Association; Guyana Human Rights Association; Guyana Public
  Service Union or GPSU; Private Sector Commission; Trades Union
  Congress

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM (observer), ISO (subscriber), ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OIC,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bayney KARRAN
  chancery: 2490 Tracy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-6900
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-1297
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David M. ROBINSON
  embassy: 100 Young and Duke Streets, Kingston, Georgetown
  mailing address: P. O. Box 10507, Georgetown; US Embassy, 3170
  Georgetown Place, Washington DC 20521-3170
  telephone: [592] 225-4900 through 4909
  FAX: [592] 225-8497

Flag description:
  green, with a red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side)
  superimposed on a long, yellow arrowhead; there is a narrow, black
  border between the red and yellow, and a narrow, white border
  between the yellow and the green

Economy Guyana


Economy - overview:
  The Guyanese economy exhibited moderate economic growth in 2001-02,
  based on expansion in the agricultural and mining sectors, a more
  favorable atmosphere for business initiatives, a more realistic
  exchange rate, fairly low inflation, and the continued support of
  international organizations. Growth slowed in 2003 and came back
  gradually in 2004, buoyed largely by increased export earnings; it
  slowed again in 2005. Chronic problems include a shortage of skilled
  labor and a deficient infrastructure. The government is juggling a
  sizable external debt against the urgent need for expanded public
  investment. The bauxite mining sector should benefit in the near
  term from restructuring and partial privatization. Export earnings
  from agriculture and mining have fallen sharply, while the import
  bill has risen, driven by higher energy prices. Guyana's entrance
  into the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) in January 2006
  might broaden the country's export market, primarily in the raw
  materials sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.439 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $782 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  -3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 37%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 42.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  418,000 (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  9.1% (understated) (2000)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  34.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $320.1 million
  expenditures: $362.6 million; including capital expenditures of
  $93.4 million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, rice, wheat, vegetable oils; beef, pork, poultry, dairy
  products; fish, shrimp

Industries:
  bauxite, sugar, rice milling, timber, textiles, gold mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  779 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.4%
  hydro: 0.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  724.5 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  11,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-112 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $587.2 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar, gold, bauxite/alumina, rice, shrimp, molasses, rum, timber

Exports - partners:
  Canada 18.9%, US 18.9%, UK 11.7%, Portugal 8.1%, Jamaica 5.3%,
  Trinidad and Tobago 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $681.6 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactures, machinery, petroleum, food

Imports - partners:
  US 26.7%, Trinidad and Tobago 23.9%, Cuba 6.6%, UK 5%, China 4.1%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $261 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.2 billion (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $84 million (1995), Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC)
  $253 million (1997)

Currency (code):
  Guyanese dollar (GYD)

Currency code:
  GYD

Exchange rates:
  Guyanese dollars per US dollar - 200.79 (2005), 198.31 (2004),
  193.88 (2003), 190.67 (2002), 187.32 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Guyana


Telephones - main lines in use:
  110,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  281,400 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system for long-distance service
  domestic: microwave radio relay network for trunk lines
  international: country code - 592; tropospheric scatter to Trinidad;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 3, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  420,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (one public station; two private stations which relay US
  satellite services) (1997)

Televisions:
  46,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .gy

Internet hosts:
  1,046 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  160,000 (2005)

Transportation Guyana


Airports:
  90 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 81
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 65 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 187 km
  standard gauge: 139 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 48 km 0.914-m gauge
  note: all dedicated to ore transport (2001 est.)

Roadways:
  total: 7,970 km
  paved: 590 km
  unpaved: 7,380 km (1999)

Waterways:
  Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo rivers are navigable by oceangoing
  vessels for 150 km, 100 km, and 80 km respectively (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 12,461 GRT/15,155 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Germany 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  3, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Georgetown

Military Guyana


Military branches:
  Guyana Defense Force: Ground Forces, Coast Guard, Air Corps (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 206,098 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 137,964 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $6.48 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Guyana


Disputes - international:
  all of the area west of the Essequibo (river) is claimed by
  Venezuela preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana
  has expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims
  before UNCLOS that Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with
  Venezuela extends into their waters; Suriname claims a triangle of
  land between the New and Kutari/Koetari rivers in a historic dispute
  over the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks arbitration
  under provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
  to resolve the long-standing dispute with Suriname over the axis of
  the territorial sea boundary in potentially oil-rich waters

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for narcotics from South America - primarily
  Venezuela - to Europe and the US; producer of cannabis; rising money
  laundering related to drug trafficking and human smuggling


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Haiti

Introduction Haiti


Background:
  The native Taino Amerindians - who inhabited the island of
  Hispaniola when it was discovered by COLUMBUS in 1492 - were
  virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the
  early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola,
  and in 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the
  island, which later became Haiti. The French colony, based on
  forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest
  in the Caribbean, but only through the heavy importation of African
  slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th
  century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint
  L'OUVERTURE. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first
  black republic to declare its independence in 1804. The poorest
  country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been plagued by
  political violence for most of its history. After an armed rebellion
  led to the departure of President Jean-Betrand ARISTIDE in February
  2004, an interim government took office to organize new elections
  under the auspices of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in
  Haiti (MINUSTAH). Continued violence and technical delays have
  prompted repeated postponements, and Haiti missed the
  constitutionally-mandated presidential inauguration date of 7
  February 2006.

Geography Haiti


Location:
  Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola, between
  the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the
  Dominican Republic

Geographic coordinates:
  19 00 N, 72 25 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 27,750 sq km
  land: 27,560 sq km
  water: 190 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Dominican Republic 360 km

Coastline:
  1,771 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds

Terrain:
  mostly rough and mountainous

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Chaine de la Selle 2,680 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 28.11%
  permanent crops: 11.53%
  other: 60.36% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  920 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe
  storms from June to October; occasional flooding and earthquakes;
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  extensive deforestation (much of the remaining forested land is
  being cleared for agriculture and used as fuel); soil erosion;
  inadequate supplies of potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes

Geography - note:
  shares island of Hispaniola with Dominican Republic (western
  one-third is Haiti, eastern two-thirds is the Dominican Republic)

People Haiti


Population:
  8,308,504
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.4% (male 1,770,523/female 1,749,853)
  15-64 years: 54.2% (male 2,201,957/female 2,301,886)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 125,298/female 158,987) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  36.44 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 71.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 78.01 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 65.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 53.23 years
  male: 51.89 years
  female: 54.6 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  5.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  280,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  24,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Haitian(s)
  adjective: Haitian

Ethnic groups:
  black 95%, mulatto and white 5%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%,
  Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%
  note: roughly half of the population practices Voodoo

Languages:
  French (official), Creole (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 52.9%
  male: 54.8%
  female: 51.2% (2003 est.)

Government Haiti


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Haiti
  conventional short form: Haiti
  local long form: Republique d'Haiti/Repiblik d' Ayiti
  local short form: Haiti/Ayiti

Government type:
  elected government

Capital:
  name: Port-au-Prince
  geographic coordinates: 18 32 N, 72 20 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  10 departments (departements, singular - departement); Artibonite,
  Centre, Grand 'Anse, Nippes, Nord, Nord-Est, Nord-Ouest, Ouest, Sud,
  Sud-Est

Independence:
  1 January 1804 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 January (1804)

Constitution:
  approved March 1987; suspended June 1988 with most articles
  reinstated March 1989; constitutional government ousted in a
  military coup in September 1991, although in October 1991, military
  government claimed to be observing the constitution; returned to
  constitutional rule in October 1994; constitution remains
  technically in force but has not been observed since Aristide's
  departure in 2004

Legal system:
  based on Roman civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Rene PREVAL (since 14 May 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard ALEXIS (since 30
  May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with
  the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 7 February
  2006 (next to be held in 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president, ratified by the National Assembly
  election results: Rene PREVAL elected president; percent of vote -
  Rene PREVAL 51%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale consists of the
  Senate (30 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve six-year
  terms; one-third elected every two years) and the Chamber of
  Deputies (99 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms); note - in reestablishing the Senate, the candidate
  in each department receiving the most votes in the last election
  serves six years, the candidate with the second most votes serves
  four years, and the candidate with the third most votes serves two
  years
  elections: Senate - last held 21 April 2006, run-off elections to be
  determined (next regular election, for one third of seats, to be
  held in 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 21 April 2006,
  run-off elections to be determined (next regular election to be held
  in 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - L'ESPWA 11, OPL 4, FL 3, FUSION 3, LAAA 2, UNCRH 2, ALYANS
  1, PONT 1, 3 seats subject to run-off election; Chamber of Deputies
  - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - L'ESPWA 19, FUSION
  15, ALYANS 10, OPL 8, FL 6, UNCRH 6, MPH 4, RDNP 4, LAAA 3,KONBA 3,
  FRN 1, MOCHRENHA 1, MRN 1, Tet-Ansanm 1, MIRN 1, JPDN 1, UNITE 1,
  PLH 1, 13 seats subject to run-off election

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour de Cassation

Political parties and leaders:
  Artibonite in Action or LAAA [Youri LATORTUE]; Assembly of
  Progressive National Democrats or RDNP [Leslie MANIGAT]; Convention
  for Democratic Unity or KID [Evans PAUL]; Cooperative Action to
  Build Haiti or KONBA [Evans LESCOUFALIR]; Democratic Alliance or
  ALYANS (coalition composed of KID and PPRH) [Evans PAUL]; Effort and
  Solidarity to Create an Alternative for the People or ESKAMP [Joseph
  JASME]; For Us All or PONT [Jean-Marie CHERESTAL]; Front for Hope or
  L'ESPWA (alliance of ESKAMP, PLB, and grass-roots organizations
  Grand-Anse Resistance Committee, the Central Plateau Peasants'
  Group, and Kombit Sudest) [Rene PREVAL]; Grand Center Right Front
  coalition (composed of MDN, MRN, and PDCH) [Hubert de RONCERAY];
  Haitian Christian Democratic Party or PDCH [Osner FEVRY and
  Marie-Denise CLAUDE]; Haitian Democratic and Reform Movement or
  MODEREH [Dany TOUSSAINT and Pierre Soncon PRINCE]; Heads Together or
  Tet-Ansanm [Dr. Gerard BLOT]; Independent Movement for National
  Reconciliation or MIRN [Luc FLEURINORD]; Justice for Peace and
  National Development or JPDN [Rigaud DUPLAN]; Fanmi Lavalas or FL
  [Rudy HERIVEAUX]; Liberal Party of Haiti or PLH [Gehy MICHEL];
  Merging of Haitian Social Democratic Parties or FUSION or FPSDH
  (merged Ayiti Capable, Haitian National Revolutionary Party, and
  National Congress of Democratic Movements) [Serge GILLES];
  Mobilization for Haiti's Development or MPH [Samir MOURRA];
  Mobilization for National Development or MDN [Hubert de RONCERAY];
  Movement for National Reconstruction or MRN [Jean Henold BUTEAU];
  Movement for the Installation of Democracy in Haiti or MIDH [Marc
  BAZIN]; National Christian Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti or
  UNCRH [Marie Claude GERMAIN]; National Front for the Reconstruction
  of Haiti or FRN [Guy PHILIPPE]; New Christian Movement for a New
  Haiti or MOCHRENA [Luc MESADIEU]; Open the Gate Party or PLB [Anes
  LUBIN]; Popular Party for the Renewal of Haiti or PPRH [Claude
  ROMAIN and Daniel SUPPLICE]; Struggling People's Organization or OPL
  [Edgard LEBLANC]; Union for Haiti or UPH (coalition of MIDH and FL)
  [Marc BAZIN]; Union of Nationalist and Progressive Haitians or UNITE
  [Edouard FRANCISQUE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Autonomous Organizations of Haitian Workers or CATH [Fignole
  ST-CYR]; Confederation of Haitian Workers or CTH; Federation of
  Workers Trade Unions or FOS; Grand-Anse Resistance Committee, or
  KOREGA; Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations, or G-184 [Andy
  APAID]; National Popular Assembly or APN; Papaye Peasants Movement
  or MPP [Chavannes JEAN-BAPTISTE]; Popular Organizations Gathering
  Power or PROP; Roman Catholic Church; Protestant Federation of Haiti

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, Caricom, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, ITU, LAES, MIGA, OAS, OIF, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Raymond JOSEPH (as of October 2005)
  chancery: 2311 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-4090
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-7215
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, San Juan
  (Puerto Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janet A. SANDERSON
  embassy: 5 Harry S Truman Boulevard, Bicentenaire-Port-au-Prince
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1761, Port-au-Prince
  telephone: [509] 222-0200
  FAX: [509] 223-9038

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a centered
  white rectangle bearing the coat of arms, which contains a palm tree
  flanked by flags and two cannons above a scroll bearing the motto
  L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE (Union Makes Strength)

Economy Haiti


Economy - overview:
  In this poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the
  population lives in abject poverty. Two-thirds of all Haitians
  depend on the agriculture sector, mainly small-scale subsistence
  farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural
  disasters, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation.
  The economy grew 1.5% in 2005, the highest growth rate since 1999.
  Haiti suffers from rampant inflation, a lack of investment, and a
  severe trade deficit. In early 2005, Haiti paid its arrears to the
  World Bank, paving the way for reengagement with the Bank. The
  government is reliant on formal international economic assistance
  for fiscal sustainability. Remittances are the primary source of
  foreign exchange, equaling nearly a quarter of GDP in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $13.97 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.321 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 28%
  industry: 20%
  services: 52% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  3.6 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled labor abundant (1995)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 66%
  industry: 9%
  services: 25%

Unemployment rate:
  widespread unemployment and underemployment; more than two-thirds
  of the labor force do not have formal jobs (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  80% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  27.4% of GDP (2004 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $400 million
  expenditures: $600.8 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum; wood

Industries:
  sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light assembly
  industries based on imported parts

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  546 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 60.3%
  hydro: 39.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  507.8 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  11,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $23 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $390.7 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactures, coffee, oils, cocoa, mangoes

Exports - partners:
  US 80.8%, Dominican Republic 6.9%, Canada 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.471 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels,
  raw materials

Imports - partners:
  US 49.3%, Netherlands Antilles 12%, Colombia 3.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $100 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.313 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $153 million (FY05 est.)

Currency (code):
  gourde (HTG)

Currency code:
  HTG

Exchange rates:
  gourdes per US dollar - 40.449 (2005), 38.352 (2004), 42.367
  (2003), 29.251 (2002), 24.429 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Haiti


Telephones - main lines in use:
  140,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  400,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic facilities barely adequate;
  international facilities slightly better
  domestic: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay trunk service
  international: country code - 509; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 41, FM 26, shortwave 0 (1999)

Radios:
  415,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (plus a cable TV service) (1997)

Televisions:
  38,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ht

Internet hosts:
  6 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  500,000 (2005)

Transportation Haiti


Airports:
  12 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 4,160 km
  paved: 1,011 km
  unpaved: 3,149 km (1999)

Ports and terminals:
  Cap-Haitien

Military Haiti


Military branches:
  the regular Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH) - Army, Navy, and Air Force
  - have been demobilized but still exist on paper unless they are
  constitutionally abolished

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary recruitment into the police force
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,626,491
  females age 18-49: 1,637,657 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 948,320
  females age 18-49: 931,972 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 98,554
  females age 18-49: 97,690 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $25.96 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Haiti


Disputes - international:
  since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization
  Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite
  efforts to control illegal migration, Haitians fleeing economic
  privation and civil unrest continue to cross into the Dominican
  Republic and sail to neighboring countries; Haiti claims
  US-administered Navassa Island

Illicit drugs:
  Caribbean transshipment point for cocaine en route to the US and
  Europe; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics
  traffickers favor Haiti for illicit financial transactions;
  pervasive corruption


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Heard Island and McDonald Islands

Introduction Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Background:
  These uninhabited, barren, sub-Antarctic islands were transferred
  from the UK to Australia in 1947. Populated by large numbers of seal
  and bird species, the islands have been designated a nature preserve.

Geography Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Location:
  islands in the Indian Ocean, about two-thirds of the way from
  Madagascar to Antarctica

Geographic coordinates:
  53 06 S, 72 31 E

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 412 sq km
  land: 412 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than two times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  101.9 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  antarctic

Terrain:
  Heard Island - 80% ice-covered, bleak and mountainous, dominated by
  a large massif (Big Ben) and an active volcano (Mawson Peak);
  McDonald Islands - small and rocky

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mawson Peak, on Big Ben 2,745 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  Mawson Peak, an active volcano, is on Heard Island

Environment - current issues:
  NA

People Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Population:
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Government Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Heard Island and McDonald
  Islands
  conventional short form: Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  abbreviation: HIMI

Dependency status:
  territory of Australia; administered from Canberra by the
  Australian Antarctic Division of the Department of the Environment
  and Heritage

Legal system:
  the laws of Australia, where applicable, apply

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  the flag of Australia is used

Economy Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Economy - overview:
  No indigenous economic activity, but the Australian Government
  allows limited fishing around the islands.

Communications Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Internet country code:
  .hm

Transportation Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia; Australia conducts
  fisheries patrols

Transnational Issues Heard Island and McDonald Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Holy See (Vatican City)

Introduction Holy See (Vatican City)


Background:
  Popes in their secular role ruled portions of the Italian peninsula
  for more than a thousand years until the mid 19th century, when many
  of the Papal States were seized by the newly united Kingdom of
  Italy. In 1870, the pope's holdings were further circumscribed when
  Rome itself was annexed. Disputes between a series of "prisoner"
  popes and Italy were resolved in 1929 by three Lateran Treaties,
  which established the independent state of Vatican City and granted
  Roman Catholicism special status in Italy. In 1984, a concordat
  between the Holy See and Italy modified certain of the earlier
  treaty provisions, including the primacy of Roman Catholicism as the
  Italian state religion. Present concerns of the Holy See include
  religious freedom, international development, the Middle East,
  terrorism, interreligious dialogue and reconciliation, and the
  application of church doctrine in an era of rapid change and
  globalization. About 1 billion people worldwide profess the Catholic
  faith.

Geography Holy See (Vatican City)


Location:
  Southern Europe, an enclave of Rome (Italy)

Geographic coordinates:
  41 54 N, 12 27 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 0.44 sq km
  land: 0.44 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 3.2 km
  border countries: Italy 3.2 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; mild, rainy winters (September to May) with hot, dry
  summers (May to September)

Terrain:
  urban; low hill

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: unnamed location 19 m
  highest point: unnamed location 75 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (urban area) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: none of the selected agreements
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution, Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  landlocked; enclave in Rome, Italy; world's smallest state; beyond
  the territorial boundary of Vatican City, the Lateran Treaty of 1929
  grants the Holy See extraterritorial authority over 23 sites in Rome
  and five outside of Rome, including the Pontifical Palace at Castel
  Gandolfo (the Pope's summer residence)

People Holy See (Vatican City)


Population:
  932 (July 2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.01% (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: none
  adjective: none

Ethnic groups:
  Italians, Swiss, other

Religions:
  Roman Catholic

Languages:
  Italian, Latin, French, various other languages

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Government Holy See (Vatican City)


Country name:
  conventional long form: The Holy See (State of the Vatican City)
  conventional short form: Holy See (Vatican City)
  local long form: Santa Sede (Stato della Citta del Vaticano)
  local short form: Santa Sede (Citta del Vaticano)

Government type:
  ecclesiastical

Capital:
  name: Vatican City
  geographic coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 27 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none

Independence:
  11 February 1929 (from Italy); note - the three treaties signed
  with Italy on 11 February 1929 acknowledged, among other things, the
  full sovereignty of the Vatican and established its territorial
  extent; however, the origin of the Papal States, which over the
  years have varied considerably in extent, may be traced back to the
  8th century

National holiday:
  Coronation Day of Pope BENEDICT XVI, 24 April (2005)

Constitution:
  new Fundamental Law promulgated by Pope JOHN PAUL II on 26 November
  2000, effective 22 February 2001 (replaces the first Fundamental Law
  of 1929)

Legal system:
  based on Code of Canon Law and revisions to it

Suffrage:
  limited to cardinals less than 80 years old

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Pope BENEDICT XVI (since 19 April 2005)
  head of government: Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio BERTONE
  (since 15 September 2006)
  cabinet: Pontifical Commission appointed by the pope
  elections: pope elected for life by the College of Cardinals;
  election last held 19 April 2005 (next to be held after the death of
  the current pope); secretary of state appointed by the pope
  election results: Joseph RATZINGER elected Pope BENEDICT XVI

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Pontifical Commission

Judicial branch:
  there are three tribunals responsible for civil and criminal
  matters within Vatican City; three other tribunals rule on issues
  pertaining to the Holy See
  note: judicial duties were established by the Motu Proprio of Pope
  PIUS XII on 1 May 1946

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none (exclusive of influence exercised by church officers)

International organization participation:
  CE (observer), IAEA, ICFTU, IOM (observer), ITU, NAM (guest), OAS
  (observer), OPCW, OSCE, UN (observer), UNCTAD, UNHCR, UPU, WIPO,
  WToO (observer), WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Pietro SAMBI
  chancery: 3339 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-7121
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-4036

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Francis ROONEY
  embassy: Villa Domiziana, Via delle Terme Deciane 26, 00153 Rome
  mailing address: PSC 59, Box 66, APO AE 09624
  telephone: [39] (06) 4674-3428
  FAX: [39] (06) 575-8346

Flag description:
  two vertical bands of yellow (hoist side) and white with the arms
  of the Holy See, consisting of the crossed keys of Saint Peter
  surmounted by the three-tiered papal tiara, centered in the white
  band

Economy Holy See (Vatican City)


Economy - overview:
  This unique, noncommercial economy is supported financially by an
  annual contribution from Roman Catholic dioceses throughout the
  world (known as Peter's Pence); by the sale of postage stamps,
  coins, medals, and tourist mementos; by fees for admission to
  museums; and by the sale of publications. Investments and real
  estate income also account for a sizable portion of revenue. The
  incomes and living standards of lay workers are comparable to those
  of counterparts who work in the city of Rome.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

Labor force:
  NA

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: essentially services with a small amount of industry;
  dignitaries, priests, nuns, guards, and 3,000 lay workers live
  outside the Vatican

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $245.2 million
  expenditures: $260.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002)

Industries:
  printing; production of coins, medals, postage stamps; a small
  amount of mosaics and staff uniforms; worldwide banking and
  financial activities

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by Italy

Economic aid - recipient:
  $0

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Holy See (Vatican City)


Telephones - main lines in use:
  5,120 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: automatic digital exchange
  domestic: connected via fiber optic cable to Telecom Italia network
  international: country code - 39; uses Italian system

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 3, shortwave 2 (2004)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2005)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .va

Internet hosts:
  45 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  93 (2000)


Military Holy See (Vatican City)


Military branches:
  Pontifical Swiss Guard (Corpo della Guardia Svizzera Pontificia)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Italy; ceremonial and limited
  security duties performed by Pontifical Swiss Guard

Transnational Issues Holy See (Vatican City)


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Honduras

Introduction Honduras


Background:
  Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became
  an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades of
  mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to
  power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for
  anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government
  and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist
  guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998,
  which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion
  in damage.

Geography Honduras


Location:
  Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Guatemala and
  Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North Pacific Ocean),
  between El Salvador and Nicaragua

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 86 30 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 112,090 sq km
  land: 111,890 sq km
  water: 200 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,520 km
  border countries: Guatemala 256 km, El Salvador 342 km, Nicaragua
  922 km

Coastline:
  820 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: natural extension of territory or to 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains

Terrain:
  mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Las Minas 2,870 m

Natural resources:
  timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal,
  fish, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 9.53%
  permanent crops: 3.21%
  other: 87.26% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  800 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely susceptible to
  damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean coast

Environment - current issues:
  urban population expanding; deforestation results from logging and
  the clearing of land for agricultural purposes; further land
  degradation and soil erosion hastened by uncontrolled development
  and improper land use practices such as farming of marginal lands;
  mining activities polluting Lago de Yojoa (the country's largest
  source of fresh water), as well as several rivers and streams, with
  heavy metals

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean shoreline,
  including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast

People Honduras


Population:
  7,326,496
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 39.9% (male 1,491,170/female 1,429,816)
  15-64 years: 56.7% (male 2,076,727/female 2,077,975)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 113,747/female 137,061) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.5 years
  male: 19.1 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.16% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  28.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 25.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 22.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.33 years
  male: 67.75 years
  female: 70.98 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.8% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  63,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  4,100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Honduran(s)
  adjective: Honduran

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%, black
  2%, white 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%

Languages:
  Spanish, Amerindian dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.2%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 76.3% (2003 est.)

Government Honduras


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Honduras
  conventional short form: Honduras
  local long form: Republica de Honduras
  local short form: Honduras

Government type:
  democratic constitutional republic

Capital:
  name: Tegucigalpa
  geographic coordinates: 14 06 N, 87 13 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007

Administrative divisions:
  18 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Atlantida,
  Choluteca, Colon, Comayagua, Copan, Cortes, El Paraiso, Francisco
  Morazan, Gracias a Dios, Intibuca, Islas de la Bahia, La Paz,
  Lempira, Ocotepeque, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Valle, Yoro

Independence:
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Constitution:
  11 January 1982, effective 20 January 1982; amended 1995

Legal system:
  rooted in Roman and Spanish civil law with increasing influence of
  English common law; recent judicial reforms include abandoning
  Napoleonic legal codes in favor of the oral adversarial system;
  accepts ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (since 27 January
  2006); First Vice President Elvin Ernesto SANTOS Ordonez (since 27
  January 2006); Second Vice President (vacant); Third Vice President
  (vacant); note - the president is both the chief of state and head
  of government
  head of government: President Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (since 27
  January 2006); First Vice President Elvin Ernesto SANTOS Ordonez
  (since 27 January 2006); Second Vice President (vacant); Third Vice
  President (vacant)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term;
  election last held 27 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (PL) elected president -
  49.8%, Porfirio "Pepe" LOBO Sosa (PN) 46.1%, other 4.1%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (128 seats;
  members are elected proportionally to the number of votes their
  party's presidential candidate receives to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PL
  62, PN 55, PUD 5, PDC 4, PINU 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges are
  elected for seven-year terms by the National Congress)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Saul ESCOBAR Andrade];
  Democratic Unification Party or PUD [Matias FUNES]; Liberal Party or
  PL [Patricia RODAS]; National Innovation and Unity Party or PINU
  [Olban F. VALLADARES]; National Party of Honduras or PN [Gilberto
  GOLDSTEIN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras or CODEH;
  Confederation of Honduran Workers or CTH; Coordinating Committee of
  Popular Organizations or CCOP; General Workers Confederation or CGT;
  Honduran Council of Private Enterprise or COHEP; National
  Association of Honduran Campesinos or ANACH; National Union of
  Campesinos or UNC; Popular Bloc or BP; United Confederation of
  Honduran Workers or CUTH

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO
  (subscriber), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM, OAS,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roberto FLORES Bermudez
  chancery: Suite 4-M, 3007 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-7702
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-9751
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco
  honorary consulate(s): Boston, Detroit, Jacksonville

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles A. FORD
  embassy: Avenida La Paz, Apartado Postal No. 3453, Tegucigalpa
  mailing address: American Embassy, APO AA 34022, Tegucigalpa
  telephone: [504] 236-9320, 238-5114
  FAX: [504] 236-9037

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with
  five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered in
  the white band; the stars represent the members of the former
  Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador,
  Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; similar to the flag of El
  Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words
  REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white
  band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a
  triangle encircled by the word REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and
  AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band

Economy Honduras


Economy - overview:
  Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere
  with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive
  unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the US-Central
  America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief under the
  Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The country has
  met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a three-year IMF
  Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program in February
  2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US, its largest
  trading partner, on continued exports of non-traditional
  agricultural products (such as melons, chiles, tilapia, and shrimp),
  and on reduction of the high crime rate.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $20.61 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.812 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 13.9%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 54.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.54 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 34%
  industry: 21%
  services: 45% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  28% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  53% (1993 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.6%
  highest 10%: 42.7% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  55 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.693 billion
  expenditures: $1.938 billion; including capital expenditures of $106
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  68.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp

Industries:
  sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.7% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  4.338 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 50.2%
  hydro: 49.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.369 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  335 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  37,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-42.3 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.726 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster, lumber

Exports - partners:
  US 73.2%, Guatemala 2.9%, El Salvador 2.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw materials,
  chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000)

Imports - partners:
  US 53.1%, Guatemala 6.5%, El Salvador 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.339 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.795 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $557.8 million (1999)

Currency (code):
  lempira (HNL)

Currency code:
  HNL

Exchange rates:
  lempiras per US dollar - 18.92 (2005), 18.206 (2004), 17.345
  (2003), 16.433 (2002), 15.474 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Honduras


Telephones - main lines in use:
  494,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.282 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 504; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave
  System

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998)

Radios:
  2.45 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  570,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .hn

Internet hosts:
  3,973 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  8 (2000)

Internet users:
  223,000 (2005)

Transportation Honduras


Airports:
  116 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 105
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 19
  under 914 m: 84 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 699 km
  narrow gauge: 279 km 1.067-m gauge; 420 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 13,603 km
  paved: 2,775 km
  unpaved: 10,828 km (1999)

Waterways:
  465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 136 ships (1000 GRT or over) 405,984 GRT/557,179 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 61, chemical tanker 5, container 1,
  liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 1, passenger 5, passenger/cargo
  9, petroleum tanker 29, refrigerated cargo 8, roll on/roll off 4,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 43 (Canada 1, China 3, Egypt 4, Greece 3, Hong Kong
  2, Israel 1, Japan 4, South Korea 6, Lebanon 1, Mexico 1, Qatar 1,
  Singapore 11, Taiwan 2, Tanzania 1, US 1, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela

Military Honduras


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes naval infantry), Honduran Air Force (Fuerza
  Aerea Hondurena, FAH) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary two-three year military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,537,232
  females age 18-49: 1,515,120 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,100,991
  females age 18-49: 1,121,649 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 82,105
  females age 18-49: 78,971 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $52.8 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.55% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Honduras


Disputes - international:
  in 1992, International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the
  delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El
  Salvador-Honduras border, but despite Organization of American
  States (OAS) intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full
  demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling
  advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf
  of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El
  Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the
  ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims
  Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize, but agreed to creation of a
  joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in
  the failed 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum, which the OAS is
  attempting to revive; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in
  1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex dispute
  over islands and maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for drugs and narcotics; illicit producer of
  cannabis, cultivated on small plots and used principally for local
  consumption; corruption is a major problem; some money-laundering
  activity


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Hong Kong

Introduction Hong Kong


Background:
  Occupied by the UK in 1841, Hong Kong was formally ceded by China
  the following year; various adjacent lands were added later in the
  19th century. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and the UK on
  19 December 1984, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special
  Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 1 July 1997. In this
  agreement, China has promised that, under its "one country, two
  systems" formula, China's socialist economic system will not be
  imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong will enjoy a high degree of
  autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the
  next 50 years.

Geography Hong Kong


Location:
  Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China

Geographic coordinates:
  22 15 N, 114 10 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 1,092 sq km
  land: 1,042 sq km
  water: 50 sq km

Area - comparative:
  six times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 30 km
  regional border: China 30 km

Coastline:
  733 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Climate:
  subtropical monsoon; cool and humid in winter, hot and rainy from
  spring through summer, warm and sunny in fall

Terrain:
  hilly to mountainous with steep slopes; lowlands in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Tai Mo Shan 958 m

Natural resources:
  outstanding deepwater harbor, feldspar

Land use:
  arable land: 5.05%
  permanent crops: 1.01%
  other: 93.94% (2001)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
  occasional typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  air and water pollution from rapid urbanization

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Marine Dumping (associate member)

Geography - note:
  more than 200 islands

People Hong Kong


Population:
  6,940,432 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 13.5% (male 488,607/female 445,593)
  15-64 years: 73.7% (male 2,495,679/female 2,620,336)
  65 years and over: 12.8% (male 413,031/female 477,186) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.7 years
  male: 40.4 years
  female: 40.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  7.29 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.89 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 2.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 81.59 years
  male: 78.9 years
  female: 84.5 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Chinese/Hong Konger
  adjective: Chinese/Hong Kong

Ethnic groups:
  Chinese 95%, other 5%

Religions:
  eclectic mixture of local religions 90%, Christian 10%

Languages:
  Chinese (Cantonese), English; both are official

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 93.5%
  male: 96.9%
  female: 89.6% (2002)

Government Hong Kong


Country name:
  conventional long form: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
  conventional short form: Hong Kong
  local long form: Xianggang Tebie Xingzhengqu
  local short form: Xianggang
  abbreviation: HK

Dependency status:
  special administrative region of China

Government type:
  limited democracy

Administrative divisions:
  none (special administrative region of China)

Independence:
  none (special administrative region of China)

National holiday:
  National Day (Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic
  of China), 1 October (1949); note - 1 July 1997 is celebrated as
  Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day

Constitution:
  Basic Law, approved in March 1990 by China's National People's
  Congress, is Hong Kong's "mini-constitution"

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  direct election 18 years of age; universal for permanent residents
  living in the territory of Hong Kong for the past seven years;
  indirect election limited to about 200,000 members of functional
  constituencies and an 800-member election committee drawn from broad
  regional groupings, municipal organizations, and central government
  bodies

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of China HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003)
  head of government: Chief Executive Donald TSANG (since 24 June 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of 14 official members and 15
  non-official members
  elections: previous chief executive TUNG Chee-hwa was elected to
  second five-year term in March 2002 by 800-member election committee
  dominated by pro-Beijing forces, resignation accepted 12 March 2005;
  Donald TSANG acted as chief executive between 12 March 2005 and 25
  May 2005; Henry TANG acted as chief executive between 25 May 2005
  and 24 June 2005; TSANG was elected on 16 June 2005 to fill final
  two years of TUNG's term (next election to be held in March 2007)

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council or LEGCO (60 seats; in 2004 30 seats
  indirectly elected by functional constituencies, 30 elected by
  popular vote; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 September 2004 (next to be held in September
  2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - pro-democracy group
  62%; seats by party - (pro-Beijing 34) DAB 12, Liberal Party 10,
  independents 11, FTU 1; (pro-democracy 25) independents 11,
  Democratic Party 9, CTU 2, ADPL 1, Frontier Party 1, NWSC 1;
  non-voting LEGCO president 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Final Appeal in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Political parties and leaders:
  Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood or ADPL
  [Frederick FUNG Kin-kee]; Citizens Party [Alex CHAN Kai-chung];
  Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong or
  DAB [MA Lik]; Democratic Party [LEE Wing-tat]; Frontier Party [Emily
  LAU Wai-hing]; Liberal Party [James TIEN Pei-chun]
  note: political blocs include: pro-democracy - ADPL, Democratic
  Party, Frontier Party; pro-Beijing - DAB, Liberal Party

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Article 45 Concern Group (pro-democracy); Chinese General Chamber
  of Commerce (pro-China); Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong
  Kong; Confederation of Trade Unions or CTU (pro-democracy) [LAU
  Chin-shek, president; LEE Cheuk-yan, general secretary]; Federation
  of Hong Kong Industries; Federation of Trade Unions or FTU
  (pro-China) [CHENG Yiu-tong, executive councilor]; Hong Kong
  Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China
  [Szeto WAH, chairman]; Hong Kong and Kowloon Trade Union Council
  (pro-Taiwan); Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce; Hong Kong
  Professional Teachers' Union [CHEUNG Man-kwong, president];
  Neighborhood and Workers' Service Center or NWSC (pro-democracy);
  The Alliance [Bernard CHAN, exco member]

International organization participation:
  APEC, AsDB, BIS, ICC, ICFTU, IHO, IMF, IMO (associate), IOC, ISO
  (correspondent), UPU, WCL, WCO, WMO, WToO (associate), WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (special administrative region of China)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Consul General James B. CUNNINGHAM
  consulate(s) general: 26 Garden Road, Hong Kong
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 1, FPO AP 96521-0006
  telephone: [852] 2523-9011
  FAX: [852] 2845-1598

Flag description:
  red with a stylized, white, five-petal bauhinia flower in the center

Economy Hong Kong


Economy - overview:
  Hong Kong has a free market, entrepot economy, highly dependent on
  international trade. Natural resources are limited, and food and raw
  materials must be imported. Gross imports and exports (i.e.,
  including reexports to and from third countries) each exceed GDP in
  dollar value. Even before Hong Kong reverted to Chinese
  administration on 1 July 1997, it had extensive trade and investment
  ties with China. Hong Kong has been further integrating its economy
  with China because China's growing openness to the world economy has
  made manufacturing in China much more cost effective. Hong Kong's
  reexport business to and from China is a major driver of growth. Per
  capita GDP is comparable to that of the four big economies of
  Western Europe. GDP growth averaged a strong 5% from 1989 to 2005,
  but Hong Kong suffered two recessions in the past eight years
  because of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 and the global
  downturn in 2001-2002. Although the Severe Acute Respiratory
  Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 also battered Hong Kong's economy,
  a solid rise in exports, a boom in tourism from the mainland because
  of China's easing of travel restrictions, and a return of consumer
  confidence resulted in the resumption of strong growth from late
  2003 through 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $234.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $172.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $34,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.1%
  industry: 9.2%
  services: 90.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.61 million (October 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  manufacturing 7.5%, construction 2.9%, wholesale and retail trade,
  restaurants, and hotels 43.9%, financing, insurance, and real estate
  19.6%, transport and communications 7.1%, community and social
  services 18.8%
  note: above data exclude public sector (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  43.4 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $31.31 billion
  expenditures: $32.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.9
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  1.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fresh vegetables; poultry, pork; fish

Industries:
  textiles, clothing, tourism, banking, shipping, electronics,
  plastics, toys, watches, clocks

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  37.3 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  39.22 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  3.086 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  9.84 billion kWh (2004)

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

Oil - consumption:
  293,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m NA cu m

Natural gas - consumption:
  692.2 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  71.15 million cu m (2004 est.)

Current account balance:
  $19.7 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $286.3 billion f.o.b., including reexports (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  electrical machinery and appliances, textiles, apparel, footwear,
  watches and clocks, toys, plastics, precious stones, printed material

Exports - partners:
  China 45%, US 16.1%, Japan 5.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $291.6 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials and semi-manufactures, consumer goods, capital goods,
  foodstuffs, fuel (most is re-exported)

Imports - partners:
  China 45%, Japan 11%, Taiwan 7.2%, Singapore 5.8%, US 5.1%, South
  Korea 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $124.3 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $72.04 billion (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  Hong Kong dollar (HKD)

Currency code:
  HKD

Exchange rates:
  Hong Kong dollars per US dollar - 7.7773 (2005), 7.788 (2004),
  7.7868 (2003), 7.7989 (2002), 7.7988 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Hong Kong


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,794,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  8.693 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern facilities provide excellent domestic
  and international services
  domestic: microwave radio relay links and extensive fiber-optic
  network
  international: country code - 852; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); coaxial cable to
  Guangzhou, China; access to 5 international submarine cables
  providing connections to ASEAN member nations, Japan, Taiwan,
  Australia, Middle East, and Western Europe

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  4.45 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  55 low power stations
  note: two TV networks, each one broadcasting on two channels (2006)

Televisions:
  1.84 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .hk

Internet hosts:
  800,834 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  17 (2000)

Internet users:
  4,878,713 (2005)

Transportation Hong Kong


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,955 km
  paved: 1,955 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 924 ships (1000 GRT or over) 30,838,025 GRT/51,957,682 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 495, cargo 121, chemical
  tanker 44, container 133, liquefied gas 22, passenger 6,
  passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 76, roll on/roll off 3,
  specialized tanker 7, vehicle carrier 8
  foreign-owned: 562 (Australia 1, Belgium 3, Canada 28, China 274,
  Denmark 6, Germany 6, Greece 27, Indonesia 4, Japan 67, South Korea
  6, Norway 26, Philippines 16, Portugal 1, Singapore 24, Syria 1,
  Taiwan 6, UAE 2, UK 43, US 21)
  registered in other countries: 417 (Bahamas 8, Belize 8, Bermuda 10,
  Cambodia 15, China 7, Cyprus 1, France 1, French Southern and
  Antarctic Lands 2, Greece 1, Honduras 2, India 1, Liberia 37,
  Malaysia 14, Malta 2, Marshall Islands 7, Norway 55, Panama 169,
  Philippines 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Singapore 50,
  Taiwan 3, Tuvalu 8, unknown 7) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Hong Kong

Military Hong Kong


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; Hong Kong garrison of
  China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) includes elements of the PLA
  Ground Forces, PLA Navy, and PLA Air Force; these forces are under
  the direct leadership of the Central Military Commission in Beijing
  and under administrative control of the adjacent Guangzhou Military
  Region

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,743,972
  females age 18-49: 1,904,967 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,403,088
  females age 18-49: 1,527,278 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 40,343
  females age 18-49: 38,234 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  Hong Kong garrison is funded by China; figures are NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of China

Transnational Issues Hong Kong


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  makes strenuous law enforcement efforts, but faces difficult
  challenges in controlling transit of heroin and methamphetamine to
  regional and world markets; modern banking system provides conduit
  for money laundering; rising indigenous use of synthetic drugs,
  especially among young people


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Hungary

Introduction Hungary


Background:
  Hungary was part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire, which
  collapsed during World War I. The country fell under Communist rule
  following World War II. In 1956, a revolt and announced withdrawal
  from the Warsaw Pact were met with a massive military intervention
  by Moscow. Under the leadership of Janos KADAR in 1968, Hungary
  began liberalizing its economy, introducing so-called "Goulash
  Communism." Hungary held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and
  initiated a free market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 and the EU
  in 2004.

Geography Hungary


Location:
  Central Europe, northwest of Romania

Geographic coordinates:
  47 00 N, 20 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 93,030 sq km
  land: 92,340 sq km
  water: 690 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,171 km
  border countries: Austria 366 km, Croatia 329 km, Romania 443 km,
  Serbia 151 km, Slovakia 677 km, Slovenia 102 km, Ukraine 103 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; cold, cloudy, humid winters; warm summers

Terrain:
  mostly flat to rolling plains; hills and low mountains on the
  Slovakian border

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Tisza River 78 m
  highest point: Kekes 1,014 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, coal, natural gas, fertile soils, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 49.58%
  permanent crops: 2.06%
  other: 48.36% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,300 sq km (2003)

Environment - current issues:
  the upgrading of Hungary's standards in waste management, energy
  efficiency, and air, soil, and water pollution to meet EU
  requirements will require large investments

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategic location astride main land routes between
  Western Europe and Balkan Peninsula as well as between Ukraine and
  Mediterranean basin; the north-south flowing Duna (Danube) and Tisza
  Rivers divide the country into three large regions

People Hungary


Population:
  9,981,334 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.6% (male 799,163/female 755,389)
  15-64 years: 69.2% (male 3,403,375/female 3,505,640)
  65 years and over: 15.2% (male 550,297/female 967,470) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 36.3 years
  female: 41.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.25% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.86 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.57 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 8.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.66 years
  male: 68.45 years
  female: 77.14 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,800 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Hungarian(s)
  adjective: Hungarian

Ethnic groups:
  Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek Catholic
  2.6%, other Christian 1%, other or unspecified 11.1%, unaffiliated
  14.5% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Hungarian 93.6%, other or unspecified 6.4% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.4%
  male: 99.5%
  female: 99.3% (2003 est.)

Government Hungary


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Hungary
  conventional short form: Hungary
  local long form: Magyar Koztarsasag
  local short form: Magyarorszag

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Budapest
  geographic coordinates: 47 30 N, 19 05 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  19 counties (megyek, singular - megye), 22 urban counties (singular
  - megyei varos), and 1 capital city (fovaros)
  counties: Bacs-Kiskun, Baranya, Bekes, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen,
  Csongrad, Fejer, Gyor-Moson-Sopron, Hajdu-Bihar, Heves,
  Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok, Komarom-Esztergom, Nograd, Pest, Somogy,
  Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, Tolna, Vas, Veszprem, Zala
  urban counties: Bekescsaba, Debrecen, Dunaujvaros, Eger, Gyor,
  Hodmezovasarhely, Kaposvar, Kecskemet, Miskolc, Nagykanizsa,
  Nyiregyhaza, Pecs, Salgotarjan, Sopron, Szeged, Szekesfehervar,
  Szekszard, Szolnok, Szombathely, Tatabanya, Veszprem, Zalaegerszeg
  capital city: Budapest

Independence:
  1001 (unification by King Stephen I)

National holiday:
  Saint Stephen's Day, 20 August

Constitution:
  18 August 1949, effective 20 August 1949; revised 19 April 1972; 18
  October 1989 revision ensured legal rights for individuals and
  constitutional checks on the authority of the prime minister and
  also established the principle of parliamentary oversight; 1997
  amendment streamlined the judicial system

Legal system:
  rule of law based on Western model; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Laszlo SOLYOM (since 5 August 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ferenc GYURCSANY (since 29
  September 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the National Assembly on
  the recommendation of the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 6-7
  June 2005 (next to be held by June 2010); prime minister elected by
  the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president;
  election last held 29 September 2004
  election results: Laszlo SOLYOM elected president by a simple
  majority in the third round of voting, 185 to 182; Ferenc GYURCSANY
  elected prime minister; result of legislative vote - 197 to 12
  note: to be elected, the president must win two-thirds of
  legislative vote in the first two rounds or a simple majority in the
  third round

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Orszaggyules (386 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote under a system of proportional and
  direct representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 and 23 April 2006 (next to be held April 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party (5% or more of the vote
  required for parliamentary representation in the first round) - MSzP
  43.2%, Fidesz-KDNP 42%, SzDSz 6.5%, MDF 5%, other 3.3%; seats by
  party - MSzP 190, Fidesz 141, KDNP 23, SzDSz 20, MDF 11, independent
  1

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court (judges are elected by the National Assembly
  for nine-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance of Free Democrats or SzDSz [Gabor KUNCZE]; Christian
  Democratic People's Party or KDNP [Zsolt SEMJEN]; Hungarian Civic
  Alliance or Fidesz [Viktor ORBAN, chairman]; Hungarian Democratic
  Forum or MDF [Ibolya DAVID]; Hungarian Socialist Party or MSzP
  [Istvan HILLER, chairman]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, ESA (cooperating state), EU (new member), FAO, G- 9, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (guest),
  NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE,
  PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNOMIG, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andras SIMONYI
  chancery: 3910 Shoemaker Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 362-6730
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-8135
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador April H. FOLEY
  embassy: Szabadsag ter 12, H-1054 Budapest
  mailing address: pouch: American Embassy Budapest, 5270 Budapest
  Place, US Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-5270
  telephone: [36] (1) 475-4400
  FAX: [36] (1) 475-4764

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and green

Economy Hungary


Economy - overview:
  Hungary has made the transition from a centrally planned to a
  market economy, with a per capita income about 60% of the EU-25
  average. Hungary continues to demonstrate strong economic growth and
  acceded to the EU in May 2004. The private sector accounts for over
  80% of GDP. Foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms
  are widespread, with cumulative foreign direct investment totaling
  more than $34 billion between 1990 and 2003. Several private sector
  analysts and sovereign ratings agencies have expressed concerns over
  Hungary's unsustainable budget and current account deficits.
  Inflation has declined from 14% in 1998 to 3.5% in 2005.
  Unemployment in 2005 rose to 7.1%, its highest point since 1999;
  Hungary's labor force participation rate of 57% is one of the lowest
  in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
  Germany is by far Hungary's largest economic partner. Policy
  challenges include cutting the public sector deficit to 3% of GDP by
  2008, from about 6.1% in 2005, and orchestrating an orderly interest
  rate reduction without sparking capital outflows.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $163.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $106.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $16,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.7%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 65.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.18 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 33.3%
  services: 61.2% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  7.2% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  At-risk-of poverty rate after social transfers: 12% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 22.2% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  24.96 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $51.4 billion
  expenditures: $58.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  58.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, sunflower seed, potatoes, sugar beets; pigs, cattle,
  poultry, dairy products

Industries:
  mining, metallurgy, construction materials, processed foods,
  textiles, chemicals (especially pharmaceuticals), motor vehicles

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  32.21 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 60.1%
  hydro: 0.5%
  nuclear: 39%
  other: 0.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  36.96 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  7.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  14.1 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  45,190 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - consumption:
  136,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  47,180 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  94,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  102 million bbl (1 January 2006)

Natural gas - production:
  3.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  13 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  4 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  10.95 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  33.98 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Current account balance:
  $-7.963 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $61.75 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 61.1%, other manufactures 28.7%, food
  products 6.5%, raw materials 2%, fuels and electricity 1.6% (2003)

Exports - partners:
  Germany 29.4%, Austria 5.9%, Italy 5.6%, France 5%, UK 4.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $64.83 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 51.6%, other manufactures 35.7%, fuels and
  electricity 7.7%, food products 3.1%, raw materials 2.0% (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Germany 27.2%, Russia 7.5%, China 7.2%, Austria 6.7%, Italy 4.9%,
  France 4.8%, Netherlands 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $18.59 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $66.22 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $3.4 billion in committed EU structural adjustment and cohesion
  funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  forint (HUF)

Currency code:
  HUF

Exchange rates:
  forints per US dollar - 199.58 (2005), 202.75 (2004), 224.31
  (2003), 257.89 (2002), 286.49 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Hungary


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3.356 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  9.32 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the telephone system has been modernized and is
  capable of satisfying all requests for telecommunication service
  domestic: the system is digitalized and highly automated; trunk
  services are carried by fiber-optic cable and digital microwave
  radio relay; a program for fiber-optic subscriber connections was
  initiated in 1996; heavy use is made of mobile cellular telephones
  international: country code - 36; Hungary has fiber-optic cable
  connections with all neighboring countries; the international switch
  is in Budapest; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean and Indian Ocean regions), 1 Inmarsat, 1 very small aperture
  terminal (VSAT) system of ground terminals

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 17, FM 57, shortwave 3 (1998)

Radios:
  7.01 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  35 (plus 161 low-power repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  4.42 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .hu

Internet hosts:
  608,085 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.05 million (2005)

Transportation Hungary


Airports:
  46 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 20
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 26
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Heliports:
  5 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,397 km; oil 990 km; refined products 335 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 7,937 km
  broad gauge: 36 km 1.524-m gauge
  standard gauge: 7,682 km 1.435-m gauge (2,628 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 219 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 159,568 km
  paved: 70,050 km (30,874 km of interurban roads including 626 km of
  expressways)
  unpaved: 89,518 km (2005)

Waterways:
  1,622 km (most on Danube River) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Budapest, Dunaujvaros, Gyor-Gonyu, Csepel, Baja, Mohacs (2003)

Military Hungary


Military branches:
  Ground Forces, Air Forces

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription
  abolished in June 2004 (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,303,116
  females age 18-49: 2,265,463 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,780,513
  females age 18-49: 1,864,580 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 63,847
  females age 18-49: 61,037 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.08 billion (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.75% (2002 est.)

Transnational Issues Hungary


Disputes - international:
  in 2004, Hungary amended the status law extending special social
  and cultural benefits - and voted down a referendum to extend dual
  citizenship - to ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring states,
  which have objected to such measures; consultations continue between
  Slovakia and Hungary over Hungary's completion of its portion the
  Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as a
  member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Hungary
  must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and cannabis and for
  South American cocaine destined for Western Europe; limited producer
  of precursor chemicals, particularly for amphetamine and
  methamphetamine; improving, but remains vulnerable to money
  laundering related to organized crime and drug trafficking


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Iceland

Introduction Iceland


Background:
  Settled by Norwegian and Celtic (Scottish and Irish) immigrants
  during the late 9th and 10th centuries A.D., Iceland boasts the
  world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, the Althing,
  established in 930. Independent for over 300 years, Iceland was
  subsequently ruled by Norway and Denmark. Fallout from the Askja
  volcano of 1875 devastated the Icelandic economy and caused
  widespread famine. Over the next quarter century, 20% of the
  island's population emigrated, mostly to Canada and the US. Limited
  home rule from Denmark was granted in 1874 and complete independence
  attained in 1944. Literacy, longevity, income, and social cohesion
  are first-rate by world standards.

Geography Iceland


Location:
  Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the North
  Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the UK

Geographic coordinates:
  65 00 N, 18 00 W

Map references:
  Arctic Region

Area:
  total: 103,000 sq km
  land: 100,250 sq km
  water: 2,750 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Kentucky

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  4,970 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  temperate; moderated by North Atlantic Current; mild, windy
  winters; damp, cool summers

Terrain:
  mostly plateau interspersed with mountain peaks, icefields; coast
  deeply indented by bays and fiords

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Hvannadalshnukur 2,110 m (at Vatnajokull glacier)

Natural resources:
  fish, hydropower, geothermal power, diatomite

Land use:
  arable land: 0.07%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.93% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes and volcanic activity

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from fertilizer runoff; inadequate wastewater
  treatment

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Transboundary Air Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location between Greenland and Europe; westernmost
  European country; Reykjavik is the northernmost national capital in
  the world; more land covered by glaciers than in all of continental
  Europe

People Iceland


Population:
  299,388 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 21.7% (male 33,021/female 32,021)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 100,944/female 98,239)
  65 years and over: 11.7% (male 15,876/female 19,287) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.2 years
  male: 33.8 years
  female: 34.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.87% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.64 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.31 years
  male: 78.23 years
  female: 82.48 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  220 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Icelander(s)
  adjective: Icelandic

Ethnic groups:
  homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts 94%,
  population of foreign origin 6%

Religions:
  Lutheran Church of Iceland 85.5%, Reykjavik Free Church 2.1%, Roman
  Catholic Church 2%, Hafnarfjorour Free Church 1.5%, other Christian
  2.7%, other or unspecified 3.8%, unaffiliated 2.4% (2004)

Languages:
  Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Iceland


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Iceland
  conventional short form: Iceland
  local long form: Lydveldid Island
  local short form: Island

Government type:
  constitutional republic

Capital:
  name: Reykjavik
  geographic coordinates: 64 09 N, 21 57 W
  time difference: UTC (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  8 regions; Austurland, Hofudhborgarsvaedhi, Nordhurland Eystra,
  Nordhurland Vestra, Sudhurland, Sudhurnes, Vestfirdhir, Vesturland

Independence:
  1 December 1918 (became a sovereign state under the Danish Crown);
  17 June 1944 (from Denmark)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 17 June (1944)

Constitution:
  16 June 1944, effective 17 June 1944; amended many times

Legal system:
  civil law system based on Danish law; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON (since 1 August
  1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Geir H. HAARDE (since 7 June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president, largely a ceremonial post, is elected by
  popular vote for a four-year term (no term limits); election last
  held 26 June 2004 (next to be held June 2008); following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually the prime minister
  election results: Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON 85.6%, Baldur AGUSTSSON
  12.5%, Astthor MAGNUSSON 1.9%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Althing (63 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 May 2003 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Independence Party
  33.7%, Social Democratic Alliance 31%, Progressive Party 17.7%,
  Left-Green Movement 8.8%, Liberal Party 7.4%; seats by party -
  Independence Party 22, Social Democratic Alliance 20, Progressive
  Party 12, Left-Green Alliance 5, Liberal Party 4

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Haestirettur (justices are appointed for life by
  the Minister of Justice); eight district courts (justices are
  appointed for life by the Minister of Justice)

Political parties and leaders:
  Independence Party or IP [Geir HAARDE]; Left-Green Movement or LGM
  [Steingrimur SIGFUSSON]; Liberal Party or LP [Gudjon KRISTJANSSON];
  Progressive Party or PP [Halldor ASGRIMSSON - will step down in
  August 2006]; Social Democratic Alliance (includes People's Alliance
  or PA, Social Democratic Party or SDP, Women's List) or SDA
  [Ingibjorg Solrun GISLADOTTIR]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EFTA,
  FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NATO,
  NC, NEA, NIB, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO,
  WEU (associate), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Helgi AGUSTSSON
  chancery: Suite 1200, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-1704
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-6653
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-6656
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carol VAN VOORST
  embassy: Laufasvegur 21, 101 Reykjavik
  mailing address: US Department of State, 5640 Reykjavik Place,
  Washington, D.C. 20521-5640
  telephone: [354] 562-9100
  FAX: [354] 562-9118

Flag description:
  blue with a red cross outlined in white extending to the edges of
  the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist
  side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Economy Iceland


Economy - overview:
  Iceland's Scandinavian-type economy is basically capitalistic, yet
  with an extensive welfare system (including generous housing
  subsidies), low unemployment, and remarkably even distribution of
  income. In the absence of other natural resources (except for
  abundant geothermal power), the economy depends heavily on the
  fishing industry, which provides 70% of export earnings and employs
  4% of the work force. The economy remains sensitive to declining
  fish stocks as well as to fluctuations in world prices for its main
  exports: fish and fish products, aluminum, and ferrosilicon.
  Government policies include reducing the current account deficit,
  limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation, revising
  agricultural and fishing policies, and diversifying the economy. The
  government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily because of
  Icelanders' concern about losing control over their fishing
  resources. Iceland's economy has been diversifying into
  manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new
  developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial
  services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding,
  with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale watching. Growth had
  been remarkably steady in 1996-2001 at 3%-5%, but could not be
  sustained in 2002 in an environment of global recession. Growth
  resumed in 2003, and estimates call for strong growth until 2007,
  slowly dropping until the end of the decade.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $10.59 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $13.05 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $35,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.6%
  industry: 15%
  services: 76.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  165,900 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10.3%
  industry: 18.3%
  services: 71.4% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  28.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $6.995 billion
  expenditures: $6.761 billion; including capital expenditures of $467
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  31.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, green vegetables; mutton, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  fish processing; aluminum smelting, ferrosilicon production;
  geothermal power, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  14.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  8.619 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.1%
  hydro: 82.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 17.5% (geothermal) (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  8.619 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  17,280 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  15,470 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-2.607 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.215 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish and fish products 70%, aluminum, animal products,
  ferrosilicon, diatomite

Exports - partners:
  UK 17.9%, Germany 16.4%, Netherlands 13%, US 8.1%, Spain 7.7%,
  Denmark 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.582 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs, textiles

Imports - partners:
  Germany 13.4%, US 9.1%, Sweden 8.6%, Denmark 7.3%, Norway 7.2%, UK
  5.9%, China 5.3%, Netherlands 5%, Japan 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.069 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.073 billion (2002)

Economic aid - donor:
  $6.7 million $NA

Currency (code):
  Icelandic krona (ISK)

Currency code:
  ISK

Exchange rates:
  Icelandic kronur per US dollar - 62.982 (2005), 70.192 (2004),
  76.709 (2003), 91.662 (2002), 97.425 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Iceland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  193,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  304,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: extensive domestic service
  domestic: the trunk network consists of coaxial and fiber-optic
  cables and microwave radio relay links
  international: country code - 354; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean
  regions); note - Iceland shares the Inmarsat earth station with the
  other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM about 70 (including repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  260,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  14 (plus 156 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  98,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .is

Internet hosts:
  212,897 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  20 (2001)

Internet users:
  258,000 (2005)

Transportation Iceland


Airports:
  98 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 93
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 61 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 13,028 km
  paved/oiled gravel: 4,241 km (does not include urban roads)
  unpaved: 8,787 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 3,354 GRT/480 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 1
  registered in other countries: 34 (Antigua and Barbuda 8, Bahamas 1,
  Belize 2, Faroe Islands 4, Gibraltar 1, Malta 4, Norway 4, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 10) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Grundartangi, Hafnarfjordur, Hornafjordhur, Reykjavik,
  Seydhisfjordhur

Military Iceland


Military branches:
  no regular armed forces; Icelandic National Police, Icelandic Coast
  Guard (Islenska Landhelgisgaeslan) subordinate to Ministry of
  Justice, Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 69,038 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 56,777 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  0

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0%

Military - note:
  under a 1951 bilateral agreement, Iceland's defense was provided by
  a US-manned Icelandic Defense Force (IDF) headquartered in Keflavik;
  in October 2006, all US military forces in Iceland were withdrawn;
  nonetheless, the US and Iceland signed a Joint Understanding to
  strengthen their bilateral defense relationship, including regular
  security consultations, military communications in the event of
  national emergencies, annual bilateral exercises on Icelandic
  territory, and future bilateral and NATO support to four Iceland Air
  Defense System (IADS) radar sites

Transnational Issues Iceland


Disputes - international:
  Iceland disputes Denmark's alignment of the Faroe Islands'
  fisheries median line; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute
  Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends
  beyond 200 nm


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Iles Eparses

Introduction Iles Eparses


Background:
  The Iles Eparses, or scattered islands, are a group of five French
  entities - Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de
  Nova Island, and Tromelin Island - which on 1 April 1960 came under
  the authority of the Minister in charge of overseas possessions. On
  19 September 1960 by decree, the islands were transferred to the
  charge of the Prefet of Reunion where they remained until 3 January
  2005 when they were transferred by another decree to the Senior
  Administrator of the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands (TAAF).
  Bassas da India: A French possession since 1897, this atoll is a
  volcanic seamount surrounded by reefs and awash at high tide.
  Europa Island: A French possession since 1897, the island is heavily
  wooded; it is the site of a small military garrison that staffs a
  weather station.
  Glorioso Islands: A French possession since 1892, the Glorioso
  Islands are composed of two lushly vegetated coral islands (Ile
  Glorieuse and Ile du Lys) and three rock islets. A military garrison
  operates a weather and radio station on Ile Glorieuse.
  Juan de Nova Island: Named after a famous 15th century Spanish
  navigator and explorer, the island has been a French possession
  since 1897. It has been exploited for its guano and phosphate.
  Presently a small military garrison oversees a meteorological
  station.
  Tromelin Island: First explored by the French in 1776, the island
  came under the jurisdiction of Reunion in 1814. At present, it
  serves as a sea turtle sanctuary and is the site of an important
  meteorological station.

Geography Iles Eparses


Location:
  Southern Africa, in the Indian Ocean
  Bassas da India: atoll in the southern Mozambique Channel, about
  half way from Madagascar to Mozambique
  Europa Island: island in the Mozambique Channel, about half way
  between southern Madagascar and southern Mozambique
  Glorioso Islands: group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northwest of
  Madagascar
  Juan de Nova Island: island in the Mozambique Channel, about
  one-third of the way between Madagascar and Mozambique
  Tromelin Island: island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

Geographic coordinates:
  Bassas da India: 21 30 S, 39 50 E
  Europa Island: 22 20 S, 40 22 E
  Glorioso Islands: 11 30 S, 47 20 E
  Juan de Nova Island: 17 03 S, 42 45 E
  Tromelin Island: 15 52 S, 54 25 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  Bassas da India: total - 80 sq km; land - 0.2 sq km; water - 79.8
  sq km (lagoon)
  Europa Island: total - 28 sq km; land - 28 sq km; water - 0 sq km
  Glorioso Islands: total - 5 sq km; land - 5 sq km; water - 0 sq km
  Juan de Nova Island: total - 4.4 sq km; land - 4.4 sq km; water - 0
  sq km
  Tromelin Island: total - 1 sq km; land - 1 sq km; water - 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  Bassas da India: land area about one-third the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Europa Island: about one-sixth the size of Washington, DC
  Glorioso Islands: about eight times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Juan de Nova Island: about seven times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Tromelin Island: about 1.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Land boundaries:
  none

Coastline:
  Bassas da India: 35.2 km
  Europa Island: 22.2 km
  Glorioso Islands: 35.2 km
  Juan de Nova Island: 24.1 km
  Tromelin Island: 3.7 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; note - Juan de Nova Island and
  Tromelin Island claim a continental shelf of 200-m depth or to the
  depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  Bassas da India: atoll, awash at high tide; shallow (15 m) lagoon
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island: low, flat, and
  sandy
  Tromelin Island: low, flat, sandy; likely volcanic seamount

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Bassas da India 2.4 m; Europa Island 24 m; Glorioso
  Islands 12 m; Juan de Nova Island 10 m; Tromelin Island 7 m (all
  unnamed locations)

Natural resources:
  Bassas da India and Europa Island: none
  Glorioso Islands and Juan de Nova Island: guano, phosphates; coconuts
  Tromelin Island: fish

Land use:
  Bassas da India - 100% rock, coral reef, and sand; Europa Island -
  100% mangrove swamp and dry woodlands; Glorioso Islands - 100% lush
  vegetation and coconut palms; Juan de Nova Island - 90% forest, 10%
  other; Tromelin Island - 100% grasses and scattered brush

Natural hazards:
  all islands subject to periodic cyclones
  Bassas da India: maritime hazard since it is under water for a
  period of three hours prior to and following the high tide and
  surrounded by reefs

Geography - note:
  Bassas da India: the atoll is a circular reef that sits atop a
  long-extinct, submerged volcano
  Europa Island and Juan de Nova Island: wildlife sanctuary for
  seabirds and sea turtles
  Glorioso Islands: the islands and rocks are surrounded by an
  extensive reef system
  Tromelin Island: climatologically important location for forecasting
  cyclones in the western Indian Ocean; wildlife sanctuary (seabirds,
  tortoises)

People Iles Eparses


Population:
  Bassas da India: uninhabitable
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island: a small French
  military garrison and a few meteorologists on each possession;
  visited by scientists
  Tromelin Island: uninhabited, except for visits by scientists

Government Iles Eparses


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso
  Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Bassas da India, Ile Europa, Iles Glorieuses, Ile
  Juan de Nova, Ile Tromelin

Dependency status:
  possessions of France; administered by the Senior Administrator of
  the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF),
  resident in Reunion

Legal system:
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Senior Administrator Michel CHAMPON

Flag description:
  the flag of France is used

Economy Iles Eparses


Economy - overview:
  no economic activity

Communications Iles Eparses


Communications - note:
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin
  Island: 1 meteorological station on each possession; note -
  meteorological station on Tromelin Island is important for
  forecasting cyclones

Transportation Iles Eparses


Airports:
  4 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Transportation - note:
  aids to navigation - lighthouses: Europa Island 18m; Juan de Nova
  Island (W side) 37m; Tromelin Island (NW point) 11m

Military Iles Eparses


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Iles Eparses


Disputes - international:
  Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova
  Island: claimed by Madagascar
  Tromelin Island: claimed by Mauritius


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@India

Introduction India


Background:
  The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world,
  dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest
  infiltrated onto Indian lands about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the
  earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture.
  Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th
  were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late
  15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political
  control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the
  British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent
  resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and
  Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was
  divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state
  of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted
  in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite
  impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces
  pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over
  Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation,
  extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

Geography India


Location:
  Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal,
  between Burma and Pakistan

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 N, 77 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 3,287,590 sq km
  land: 2,973,190 sq km
  water: 314,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than one-third the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 14,103 km
  border countries: Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463
  km, China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km

Coastline:
  7,000 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north

Terrain:
  upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain along
  the Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Kanchenjunga 8,598 m

Natural resources:
  coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese,
  mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds,
  petroleum, limestone, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 48.83%
  permanent crops: 2.8%
  other: 48.37% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  558,080 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive
  flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air
  pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water
  pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap
  water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing
  population is overstraining natural resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian Ocean
  trade routes; Kanchenjunga, third tallest mountain in the world,
  lies on the border with Nepal

People India


Population:
  1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.8% (male 173,478,760/female 163,852,827)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 363,876,219/female 340,181,764)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 27,258,020/female 26,704,405) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.9 years
  male: 24.9 years
  female: 24.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 54.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.71 years
  male: 63.9 years
  female: 65.57 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.9% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5.1 million (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  310,000 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese
  encephalitis are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Indian(s)
  adjective: Indian

Ethnic groups:
  Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

Religions:
  Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%,
  unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages:
  English enjoys associate status but is the most important language
  for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the
  national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are
  14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu,
  Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri,
  Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu
  spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official
  language

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 59.5%
  male: 70.2%
  female: 48.3% (2003 est.)

Government India


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of India
  conventional short form: India
  local long form: Republic of India/Bharatiya Ganarajya
  local short form: India/Bharat

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: New Delhi
  geographic coordinates: 28 36 N, 77 12 E
  time difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  28 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar Islands*,
  Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh*,
  Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli*, Daman and Diu*, Delhi*, Goa,
  Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand,
  Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
  Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Puducherry*, Punjab,
  Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal,
  West Bengal

Independence:
  15 August 1947 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 26 January (1950)

Constitution:
  26 January 1950; amended many times

Legal system:
  based on English common law; limited judicial review of legislative
  acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations;
  separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President A.P.J. Abdul KALAM (since 25 July 2002);
  Vice President Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT (since 19 August 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Manmohan SINGH (since 22 May 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of
  elected members of both houses of Parliament and the legislatures of
  the states for a five-year term (no term limits); election last held
  July 2002 (next to be held 18 July 2007); vice president elected by
  both houses of Parliament for a five-year term; election last held
  12 August 2002 (next to be held August 2007); prime minister chosen
  by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative
  elections; election last held April - May 2004 (next to be held May
  2009)
  election results: Abdul KALAM elected president; percent of
  electoral college vote - 89.6%; Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT elected vice
  president; percent of Parliament vote - 59.8%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of the Council of States or
  Rajya Sabha (a body consisting of not more than 250 members, up to
  12 of whom are appointed by the president, the remainder are chosen
  by the elected members of the state and territorial assemblies;
  members serve six-year terms) and the People's Assembly or Lok Sabha
  (545 seats; 543 elected by popular vote, 2 appointed by the
  president; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: People's Assembly - last held 20 April through 10 May
  2004 (next must be held before May 2009)
  election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - INC 145, BJP 138, CPI(M) 43, SP 36, RJD 24, BSP 19,
  DMK 16, SS 12, BJD 11, CPI 10, NCP 9, JDU 8, SAD 8, PMK 6, TDP 5,
  TRS 5, JMM 5, LJSP 4, MDMK 4, independents 5, other 30

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (one chief justice and 25 associate justices are
  appointed by the president and remain in office until they reach the
  age of 65 or are removed for "proved misbehavior")

Political parties and leaders:
  note - India has dozens of national and regional political parties;
  only parties with four or more seats in the People's Assembly are
  listed; Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI]; Bharatiya Janata
  Party or BJP [Rajnath SINGH]; Biju Janata Dal or BJD [Naveen
  PATNAIK]; Communist Party of India or CPI [Ardhendu Bhushan
  BARDHAN]; Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) [Prakash
  KARAT]; Dravida Munnetra Kazagham or DMK [M. KARUNANIDHI]; Indian
  National Congress or INC [Sonia GANDHI]; Janata Dal (United) or
  JD(U) [Sharad YADEV]; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM [Shibu SOREN];
  Lok Jan Shakti Party or LJSP [Ram Vilas PASWAN]; Marumalarchi
  Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK [VAIKU]; Nationalist Congress
  Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]; Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK [S.
  RAMADOSS]; Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Laloo Prasad YADAV];
  Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV]; Shiromani Akali Dal or
  SAD [Prakash Singh BADAL]; Shiv Sena or SS [Bal THACKERAY];
  Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS [K. Chandrasekhar RAO]; Telugu
  Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  numerous religious or militant/chauvinistic organizations,
  including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Rashtriya
  Swayamsevak Sangh; various separatist groups seeking greater
  communal and/or regional autonomy, including the All Parties
  Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir Valley and the National Socialist
  Council of Nagaland in the Northeast

International organization participation:
  AfDB, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIMSTEC, BIS, C, CERN
  (observer), CP, EAS, FAO, G- 6, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), ONUB, OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC, SACEP, SCO
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE,
  UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ranendra SEN
  chancery: 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008; note -
  Consular Wing located at 2536 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington,
  DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-7000
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-4351
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David C. MULFORD
  embassy: Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [91] (11) 2419-8000
  FAX: [91] (11) 2419-0017
  consulate(s) general: Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai
  (Bombay)

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued orange) (top),
  white, and green with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in
  the white band; similar to the flag of Niger, which has a small
  orange disk centered in the white band

Economy India


Economy - overview:
  India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming,
  modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries,
  and a multitude of services. Services are the major source of
  economic growth, accounting for half of India's output with less
  than one quarter of its labor force. About three-fifths of the
  work-force is in agriculture, leading the UPA government to
  articulate an economic reform program that includes developing basic
  infrastructure to improve the lives of the rural poor and boost
  economic performance. Government controls on foreign trade and
  investment have been reduced in some areas, but high tariffs
  (averaging 20% on non-agricultural items in 2004) and limits on
  foreign direct investment are still in place. The government in 2005
  liberalized investment in the civil aviation, telecom, and
  construction sectors. Privatization of government-owned industries
  essentially came to a halt in 2005, and continues to generate
  political debate; continued social, political, and economic
  rigidities hold back needed initiatives. The economy has posted an
  average growth rate of more than 7% in the decade since 1994,
  reducing poverty by about 10 percentage points. India achieved 7.6%
  GDP growth in 2005, significantly expanding manufacturing. India is
  capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in
  the English language to become a major exporter of software services
  and software workers. Despite strong growth, the World Bank and
  others worry about the combined state and federal budget deficit,
  running at approximately 9% of GDP; government borrowing has kept
  interest rates high. Economic deregulation would help attract
  additional foreign capital and lower interest rates. The huge and
  growing population is the fundamental social, economic, and
  environmental problem.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.666 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $719.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 18.6%
  industry: 27.6%
  services: 53.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  496.4 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 17%
  services: 23% (1999)

Unemployment rate:
  8.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  25% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.5%
  highest 10%: 33.5% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  32.5 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  28.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $111.2 billion
  expenditures: $135.8 billion; including capital expenditures of $15
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  53.8% of GDP (federal and state debt combined) (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes;
  cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

Industries:
  textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation
  equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  556.8 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 81.7%
  hydro: 14.5%
  nuclear: 3.4%
  other: 0.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  519 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  187 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.4 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  785,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  350,000 bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  2.09 million bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  5.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  27.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  27.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  853.5 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-12.95 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $76.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals,
  leather manufactures

Exports - partners:
  US 16.7%, UAE 8.5%, China 6.6%, Singapore 5.3%, UK 4.9%, Hong Kong
  4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $113.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  China 7.3%, US 5.6%, Switzerland 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $136 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $125.5 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.9 billion (FY98/99)

Currency (code):
  Indian rupee (INR)

Currency code:
  INR

Exchange rates:
  Indian rupees per US dollar - 44.101 (2005), 45.317 (2004), 46.583
  (2003), 48.61 (2002), 47.186 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications India


Telephones - main lines in use:
  49.75 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  69,193,321 (2006)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: recent deregulation and liberalization of
  telecommunications laws and policies have prompted rapid change;
  local and long distance service provided throughout all regions of
  the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban
  areas; steady improvement is taking place with the recent admission
  of private and private-public investors, but telephone density
  remains low at about seven for each 100 persons nationwide but only
  one per 100 persons in rural areas and a national waiting list of
  over 1.7 million; fastest growth is in cellular service with modest
  growth in fixed lines
  domestic: expansion of domestic service, although still weak in
  rural areas, resulted from increased competition and dramatic
  reductions in price led in large part by wireless service; mobile
  cellular service (both CDMA and GSM) introduced in 1994 and
  organized nationwide into four metropolitan cities and 19 telecom
  circles each with about three private service providers and one
  state-owned service provider; in recent years significant trunk
  capacity added in the form of fiber-optic cable and one of the
  world's largest domestic satellite systems, the Indian National
  Satellite system (INSAT), with five satellites supporting 33,000
  very small aperture terminals (VSAT)
  international: country code - 91; satellite earth stations - 8
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region); nine
  gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata
  (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar,
  Hyderabad, and Ernakulam; 5 submarine cables, including Sea-Me-We-3
  with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay), Fiber-Optic Link
  Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai (Bombay), South
  Africa - Far East (SAFE) with landing site at Cochin, i2icn linking
  to Singapore with landing sites at Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai
  (Madras), and Tata Indicom linking Singapore and Chennai (Madras),
  provide a significant increase in the bandwidth available for both
  voice and data traffic (2004)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998)

Radios:
  116 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480
  stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997)

Televisions:
  63 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .in

Internet hosts:
  1,543,289 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  43 (2000)

Internet users:
  60 million (2005)

Transportation India


Airports:
  341 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 243
  over 3,047 m: 17
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 51
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 73
  914 to 1,523 m: 81
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 98
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 42
  under 914 m: 48 (2006)

Heliports:
  28 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate/gas 8 km; gas 5,184 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,993 km;
  oil 6,500 km; refined products 6,152 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 63,230 km
  broad gauge: 45,718 km 1.676-m gauge (16,528 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 14,406 km 1.000-m gauge (165 km electrified); 3,106 km
  0.762-m gauge and 0.610-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 3,851,440 km
  paved: 2,411,001 km
  unpaved: 1,440,439 km (2002)

Waterways:
  14,500 km
  note: 5,200 km on major rivers and 485 km on canals suitable for
  mechanized vessels (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 316 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,772,313 GRT/13,310,858 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 96, cargo 72, chemical tanker 13, container 8,
  liquefied gas 17, passenger 3, passenger/cargo 10, petroleum tanker
  96, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (China 2, Hong Kong 1, UAE 6, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 46 (Bahamas 1, Comoros 1, Cyprus 5,
  North Korea 1, Liberia 3, Malta 1, Mauritius 2, Panama 19, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Singapore 5, Venezuela 1, unknown 1)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Chennai, Haldia, Jawaharal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta),
  Mumbai (Bombay), New Mangalore, Vishakhapatnam

Military India


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes naval air arm), Air Force, Coast Guard,
  various security or paramilitary forces (includes Border Security
  Force, Assam Rifles, National Security Guards, Indo-Tibetan Border
  Police, Special Frontier Force, Central Reserve Police Force,
  Central Industrial Security Force, Railway Protection Force, and
  Defense Security Corps)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 287,551,111
  females age 16-49: 268,524,835 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 219,471,999
  females age 16-49: 209,917,553 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 11,446,452
  females age 16-49: 10,665,877 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $19.04 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues India


Disputes - international:
  since China and India launched a security and foreign policy
  dialogue in 2005, consolidated discussions related to the dispute
  over most of their rugged, militarized boundary, regional nuclear
  proliferation, Indian claims that China transferred missiles to
  Pakistan, and other matters continue; various talks and
  confidence-building measures have cautiously begun to defuse
  tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the October 2005
  earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains the site of
  the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with
  portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin),
  India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern
  Areas); in 2004, India and Pakistan instituted a cease fire in
  Kashmir and in 2005, restored bus service across the highly
  militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has taken its dispute on the
  impact and benefits of India's building the Baglihar Dam on the
  Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for arbitration;
  UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has
  maintained a small group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does not
  recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964;
  disputes persist with Pakistan over Indus River water sharing; to
  defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on a maritime boundary,
  in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion of the disputed
  boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch;
  Pakistani maps continue to show its Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat
  State; discussions with Bangladesh remain stalled to delimit a small
  section of river boundary, to exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in
  both countries, to allocate divided villages, and to stop illegal
  cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists
  through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's attempts to
  fence off high-traffic sections of the border; dispute with
  Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay
  of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; India seeks
  cooperation from Bhutan and Burma to keep Indian Nagaland and Assam
  separatists from hiding in remote areas along the borders; Joint
  Border Committee with Nepal continues to demarcate minor disputed
  boundary sections; India maintains a strict border regime to keep
  out Maoist insurgents and control illegal cross-border activities
  from Nepal

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 92,394 (Tibet/China) 57,274 (Sri
  Lanka) 9,761 (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: 600,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunami); 500,000
  (Jammu and Kashmir conflicts; most IDPs are Kashmiri Hindus) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: India is a source, destination, and transit
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
  forced or bonded labor and commercial sexual exploitation; the large
  population of men, women, and children - numbering in the millions -
  in debt bondage face involuntary servitude in brick kilns, rice
  mills, and embroidery factories, while some children endure
  involuntary servitude as domestic servants; internal trafficking of
  women and girls for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation
  and forced marriage also occurs; the government estimates that 90
  percent of India's sex trafficking is internal; India is also a
  destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked
  for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; boys from
  Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are trafficked through India
  to the Gulf states for involuntary servitude as child camel jockeys;
  Indian men and women migrate willingly to the Persian Gulf region
  for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers, but some
  later find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude
  including extended working hours, nonpayment of wages, restrictions
  on their movement by withholding of their passports or confinement
  to the home, and physical or sexual abuse
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - India has been on the Tier 2 Watch
  List since 2004 for its failure to show evidence of increasing
  efforts to address trafficking in persons

Illicit drugs:
  world's largest producer of licit opium for the pharmaceutical
  trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit
  international drug markets; transit point for illicit narcotics
  produced in neighboring countries; illicit producer of methaqualone;
  vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Indian Ocean

Introduction Indian Ocean


Background:
  The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's five oceans
  (after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, but larger than the
  Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean). Four critically important access
  waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb
  (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of
  Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia). The decision by the International
  Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth
  ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean
  south of 60 degrees south latitude.

Geography Indian Ocean


Location:
  body of water between Africa, the Southern Ocean, Asia, and
  Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 S, 80 00 E

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 68.556 million sq km
  note: includes Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Flores Sea,
  Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Java Sea,
  Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Savu Sea, Strait of
  Malacca, Timor Sea, and other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
  about 5.5 times the size of the US

Coastline:
  66,526 km

Climate:
  northeast monsoon (December to April), southwest monsoon (June to
  October); tropical cyclones occur during May/June and
  October/November in the northern Indian Ocean and January/February
  in the southern Indian Ocean

Terrain:
  surface dominated by counterclockwise gyre (broad, circular system
  of currents) in the southern Indian Ocean; unique reversal of
  surface currents in the northern Indian Ocean; low atmospheric
  pressure over southwest Asia from hot, rising, summer air results in
  the southwest monsoon and southwest-to-northeast winds and currents,
  while high pressure over northern Asia from cold, falling, winter
  air results in the northeast monsoon and northeast-to-southwest
  winds and currents; ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Indian Ocean
  Ridge and subdivided by the Southeast Indian Ocean Ridge, Southwest
  Indian Ocean Ridge, and Ninetyeast Ridge

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Java Trench -7,258 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
  oil and gas fields, fish, shrimp, sand and gravel aggregates,
  placer deposits, polymetallic nodules

Natural hazards:
  occasional icebergs pose navigational hazard in southern reaches

Environment - current issues:
  endangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and
  whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea

Geography - note:
  major chokepoints include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Strait
  of Malacca, southern access to the Suez Canal, and the Lombok Strait



Economy Indian Ocean


Economy - overview:
  The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle
  East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries
  a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products
  from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its fish are
  of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for
  domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan,
  South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for
  shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in
  the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western
  Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production
  comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and
  offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering
  countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
  and Thailand.


Transportation Indian Ocean


Ports and terminals:
  Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South
  Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kolkata (Calcutta; India) Melbourne
  (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), Richards Bay (South Africa)


Transnational Issues Indian Ocean


Disputes - international:
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Indonesia

Introduction Indonesia


Background:
  The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century;
  the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia
  declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required
  four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and
  UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony.
  Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and home to the
  world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include:
  alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy
  after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing financial
  sector reforms, stemming corruption, and holding the military and
  police accountable for human rights violations. Indonesia was the
  nation worst hit by the December 2004 tsunami, which particularly
  affected Aceh province causing over 100,000 deaths and over $4
  billion in damage. An additional earthquake in March 2005 created
  heavy destruction on the island of Nias. Reconstruction in these
  areas may take up to a decade. In 2005, Indonesia reached a historic
  peace agreement with armed separatists in Aceh, but it continues to
  face a low intensity separatist guerilla movement in Papua.

Geography Indonesia


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Indian Ocean and the
  Pacific Ocean

Geographic coordinates:
  5 00 S, 120 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 1,919,440 sq km
  land: 1,826,440 sq km
  water: 93,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,830 km
  border countries: East Timor 228 km, Malaysia 1,782 km, Papua New
  Guinea 820 km

Coastline:
  54,716 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands

Terrain:
  mostly coastal lowlands; larger islands have interior mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Puncak Jaya 5,030 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper,
  fertile soils, coal, gold, silver

Land use:
  arable land: 11.03%
  permanent crops: 7.04%
  other: 81.93% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  45,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional floods, severe droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes,
  volcanoes, forest fires

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; water pollution from industrial wastes, sewage; air
  pollution in urban areas; smoke and haze from forest fires

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  archipelago of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited); straddles equator;
  strategic location astride or along major sea lanes from Indian
  Ocean to Pacific Ocean

People Indonesia


Population:
  245,452,739 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.8% (male 35,995,919/female 34,749,582)
  15-64 years: 65.8% (male 80,796,794/female 80,754,238)
  65 years and over: 5.4% (male 5,737,473/female 7,418,733) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.8 years
  male: 26.4 years
  female: 27.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.41% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 34.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 39.36 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 29.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.87 years
  male: 67.42 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  110,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  2,400 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and chikungunya are
  high risks in some locations
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US citizens who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Indonesian(s)
  adjective: Indonesian

Ethnic groups:
  Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, coastal Malays 7.5%,
  other 26%

Religions:
  Muslim 88%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 2%, Buddhist
  1%, other 1% (1998)

Languages:
  Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English,
  Dutch, local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is Javanese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.9%
  male: 92.5%
  female: 83.4% (2002 est.)

Government Indonesia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Indonesia
  conventional short form: Indonesia
  local long form: Republik Indonesia
  local short form: Indonesia
  former: Netherlands East Indies; Dutch East Indies

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Jakarta
  geographic coordinates: 6 10 S, 106 48 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Indonesia is divided into three time zones

Administrative divisions:
  30 provinces (propinsi-propinsi, singular - propinsi), 2 special
  regions* (daerah-daerah istimewa, singular - daerah istimewa), and 1
  special capital city district** (daerah khusus ibukota); Aceh*,
  Bali, Banten, Bengkulu, Gorontalo, Irian Jaya Barat, Jakarta Raya**,
  Jambi, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur, Kalimantan Barat,
  Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Timur, Kepulauan
  Bangka Belitung, Kepulauan Riau, Lampung, Maluku, Maluku Utara, Nusa
  Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua, Riau, Sulawesi Barat,
  Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Tenggara, Sulawesi
  Utara, Sumatera Barat, Sumatera Selatan, Sumatera Utara, Yogyakarta*
  note: following the implementation of decentralization beginning on
  1 January 2001, the 440 districts or regencies have become the key
  administrative units responsible for providing most government
  services

Independence:
  17 August 1945 (independence proclaimed); 27 December 1949
  (Netherlands recognizes Indonesian independence)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 17 August (1945)

Constitution:
  August 1945; abrogated by Federal Constitution of 1949 and
  Provisional Constitution of 1950, restored 5 July 1959; series of
  amemdments concluded in 2002

Legal system:
  based on Roman-Dutch law, substantially modified by indigenous
  concepts and by new criminal procedures and election codes; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  17 years of age; universal and married persons regardless of age

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO (since 20
  October 2004) and Vice President Muhammad Yusuf KALLA (since 20
  October 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO (since 20
  October 2004) and Vice President Muhammad Yusuf KALLA (since 20
  October 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president were elected for five-year
  terms (eligible for a second term) by direct vote of the citizenry;
  last held 20 September 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO elected president
  receiving 60.6% of vote; MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri received 39.4%

Legislative branch:
  House of Representatives or Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) (550
  seats; members elected to serve five-year terms); House of Regional
  Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah or DPD), constitutionally
  mandated role includes providing legislative input to DPR on issues
  affecting regions; People's Consultative Assembly (Majelis
  Permusyawaratan Rakyat or MPR) has role in inaugurating and
  impeaching president and in amending constitution; consists of
  popularly-elected members in DPR and DPD; MPR does not formulate
  national policy
  elections: last held 5 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Golkar 21.6%, PDI-P
  18.5%, PKB 10.6%, PPP 8.2%, PD 7.5%, PKS 7.3%, PAN 6.4%, others
  19.9%; seats by party - Golkar 128, PDI-P 109, PPP 58, PD 55, PAN
  53, PKB 52, PKS 45, others 50
  note: because of election rules, the number of seats won does not
  always follow the percentage of votes received by parties

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Mahkamah Agung (justices appointed by the
  president from a list of candidates approved by the legislature); a
  separate Constitutional Court or Mahkamah Konstitusi was invested by
  the president on 16 August 2003; in March 2004 the Supreme Court
  assumed administrative and financial responsibility for the lower
  court system from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; Labor
  Court under supervision of Supreme Court began functioning in
  January 2006

Political parties and leaders:
  Crescent Moon and Star Party or PBB [Yusril Ihza MAHENDRA];
  Democratic Party or PD [Subur BUDHISANTOSO]; Functional Groups Party
  or Golkar [Yusuf KALLA]; Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle or
  PDI-P [MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri]; National Awakening Party or PKB [Alwi
  SHIHAB]; National Mandate Party or PAN [Sutrisno BACHIR]; Prosperous
  Justice Party or PKS [Tifatul SEMBIRING]; United Development Party
  or PPP [Hamzah HAZ]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PIF (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIL, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador SUDJADNAN Parnohadiningrat
  chancery: 2020 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 775-5200
  FAX: [1] (202) 775-5365
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador B. Lynn PASCOE
  embassy: Jalan 1 Medan Merdeka Selatan 4-5, Jakarta 10110
  mailing address: Unit 8129, Box 1, FPO AP 96520
  telephone: [62] (21) 3435-9000
  FAX: [62] (21) 3435-9922
  consulate(s) general: Surabaya
  consulate(s): Medan; Denpasar (consular agency)

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; similar to the
  flag of Monaco, which is shorter; also similar to the flag of
  Poland, which is white (top) and red

Economy Indonesia


Economy - overview:
  Indonesia, a vast polyglot nation, has struggled to overcome the
  Asian financial crisis, and still grapples with high unemployment, a
  fragile banking sector, endemic corruption, inadequate
  infrastructure, a poor investment climate, and unequal resource
  distribution among regions. Indonesia became a net oil importer in
  2004 because of declining production and lack of new exploration
  investment. In late December 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami took
  131,000 lives with another 37,000 missing, left some 570,000
  displaced persons, and caused an estimated $4.5 billion in damages
  and losses. The cost of subsidizing domestic fuel placed increasing
  strain on the budget in 2005, and combined with indecisive monetary
  policy, contributed to a run on the currency in August 2005,
  prompting the government to enact a 126% average fuel price hike in
  October. The resulting inflation and interest rate hikes dampened
  growth prospects in 2006. However, in October 2006, Jakarta paid off
  its outstanding IMF debt, incurred during the 1997-98 Asian
  financial crisis, four years ahead of schedule. Keys to future
  growth remain internal reform, building up the confidence of
  international and domestic investors, and strong global economic
  growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $869.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $270 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 13.4%
  industry: 45.8%
  services: 40.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  94.2 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 46.5%
  industry: 11.8%
  services: 41.7% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  16.7% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34.3 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $54.3 billion
  expenditures: $57.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  49.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, rubber, cocoa, coffee, palm oil,
  copra; poultry, beef, pork, eggs

Industries:
  petroleum and natural gas, textiles, apparel, footwear, mining,
  cement, chemical fertilizers, plywood, rubber, food, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  120.2 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 86.9%
  hydro: 10.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 2.6% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  105.4 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  1.061 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1.084 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  431,500 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  345,700 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.6 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  83.4 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  22.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  37.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.557 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $2.016 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $83.64 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, textiles, rubber

Exports - partners:
  Japan 21.1%, US 11.5%, Singapore 9.2%, South Korea 8.3%, China
  7.8%, Malaysia 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $62.02 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Singapore 16.4%, Japan 12%, China 10.1%, US 6.7%, Thailand 6%,
  South Korea 5%, Saudi Arabia 4.7%, Australia 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $34.58 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $135 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $43 billion
  note: Indonesia finished its IMF program in December 2003 but still
  receives bilateral aid through the Consultative Group on Indonesia
  (CGI), which pledged $2.8 billion in grants and loans for 2004 and
  again in 2005; nearly $5 billion in aid money pledged by a variety
  bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental organization (NGO)
  donors following the 2004 tsunami; money is slated for use in relief
  and rebuilding efforts in Aceh (2002)

Currency (code):
  Indonesian rupiah (IDR)

Currency code:
  IDR

Exchange rates:
  Indonesian rupiahs per US dollar - 9,704.7 (2005), 8,938.9 (2004),
  8,577.1 (2003), 9,311.2 (2002), 10,260.9 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year; note - previously was 1 April - 31 March, but
  starting with 2001, has been changed to calendar year

Communications Indonesia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  12.772 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  46.91 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic service fair, international service
  good
  domestic: interisland microwave system and HF radio police net;
  domestic satellite communications system
  international: country code - 62; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 678, FM 43, shortwave 82 (1998)

Radios:
  31.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  54 local TV stations
  note: 11 national TV networks; each with their own group of local,
  often low power, transmitters (2006)

Televisions:
  13.75 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .id

Internet hosts:
  170,834 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  24 (2000)

Internet users:
  16 million (2005)

Transportation Indonesia


Airports:
  662 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 159
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 49
  914 to 1,523 m: 49
  under 914 m: 42 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 503
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 26
  under 914 m: 471 (2006)

Heliports:
  23 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 944 km; condensate/gas 135 km; gas 9,175 km; oil 7,684
  km; oil/gas/water 89 km; refined products 1,367 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 6,458 km
  narrow gauge: 5,961 km 1.067-m gauge (125 km electrified); 497 km
  0.750-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 368,360 km
  paved: 213,649 km
  unpaved: 154,711 km (2002)

Waterways:
  21,579 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 824 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,773,771 GRT/4,887,614 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 43, cargo 451, chemical tanker 21, container
  50, liquefied gas 7, livestock carrier 1, passenger 41,
  passenger/cargo 58, petroleum tanker 132, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 12, specialized tanker 4, vehicle carrier 2
  foreign-owned: 30 (France 1, Germany 1, Japan 3, South Korea 1,
  Norway 1, Philippines 1, Singapore 17, Switzerland 3, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 122 (Bahamas 4, Belize 2, Bermuda 1,
  Cambodia 1, Georgia 1, Hong Kong 4, Liberia 1, Panama 50, Singapore
  56, Thailand 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Banjarmasin, Belawan, Ciwandan, Krueg Geukueh, Palembang, Panjang,
  Sungai Pakning, Tanjung Perak, Tanjung Priok

Military Indonesia


Military branches:
  Indonesia Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI): Army
  (TNI-AD), Navy (TNI-AL, includes marines, naval air arm), Air Force
  (TNI-AU)
  note: the TNI is directly subordinate to the president but the
  government is making efforts to incorporate it into the Department
  of Defense

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2002)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 60,543,028
  females age 18-49: 59,981,730 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 48,687,234
  females age 18-49: 50,252,911 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,201,047
  females age 18-49: 2,139,573 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.3 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3% (2004)

Transnational Issues Indonesia


Disputes - international:
  East Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee continues to meet, survey,
  and delimit land boundary, but several sections of the boundary
  remain unresolved; many East Timorese refugees who left in 2003
  still reside in Indonesia and refuse repatriation; Indonesia and
  East Timor contest the sovereignty of the uninhabited coral island
  of Pulau Batek/Fatu Sinai, which hinders a decision on a northern
  maritime boundary; a 1997 treaty between Indonesia and Australia
  settled some parts of their maritime boundary but outstanding issues
  remain; ICJ's award of Sipadan and Ligitan islands to Malaysia in
  2002 left maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in
  dispute, culminating in hostile confrontations in March 2005 over
  concessions to the Ambalat oil block; the ICJ decision has prompted
  Indonesia to assert claims to and to establish a presence on its
  smaller outer islands; Indonesia and Singapore pledged in 2005 to
  finalize their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining
  unresolved areas north of Batam Island; Indonesian secessionists,
  squatters, and illegal migrants create repatriation problems for
  Papua New Guinea; piracy remains a problem in the Malacca Strait

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 570,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunami) 500,000
  (government offensives against rebels in Aceh; most IDPs in Aceh,
  Central Kalimantan, Maluku, and Central Sulawesi Provinces); (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Indonesia is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women, children and men trafficked for the purposes of
  sexual exploitation and forced labor; Indonesian victims are
  trafficked to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Hong Kong,
  Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore; a significant number of
  Indonesian women who go overseas each year to work as domestic
  servants or "cultural performers" are subjected to conditions of
  involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation; to a
  minimal extent, Indonesia is a destination for women from East Asia,
  Europe, and South America who are trafficked for sexual
  exploitation; there is extensive trafficking within Indonesia from
  rural to urban metropolitan areas particularly for sexual
  exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Indonesia is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
  to combat trafficking

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis largely for domestic use; producer of
  methamphetamine and ecstasy


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Iran

Introduction Iran


Background:
  Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979
  after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and the shah was forced
  into exile. Conservative clerical forces established a theocratic
  system of government with ultimate political authority nominally
  vested in a learned religious scholar. Iranian-US relations have
  been strained since a group of Iranian students seized the US
  Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 and held it until 20 January
  1981. During 1980-88, Iran fought a bloody, indecisive war with Iraq
  that eventually expanded into the Persian Gulf and led to clashes
  between US Navy and Iranian military forces between 1987-1988. Iran
  has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism for its activities
  in Lebanon and elsewhere in the world and remains subject to US
  economic sanctions and export controls because of its continued
  involvement. Following the elections of a reformist president and
  Majlis in the late 1990s, attempts to foster political reform in
  response to popular dissatisfaction floundered as conservative
  politicians prevented reform measures from being enacted, increased
  repressive measures, and made electoral gains against reformers.
  Parliamentary elections in 2004 and the August 2005 inauguration of
  a conservative stalwart as president, completed the reconsolidation
  of conservative power in Iran's government.

Geography Iran


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, and the
  Caspian Sea, between Iraq and Pakistan

Geographic coordinates:
  32 00 N, 53 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 1.648 million sq km
  land: 1.636 million sq km
  water: 12,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Alaska

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,440 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 936 km, Armenia 35 km,
  Azerbaijan-proper 432 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave 179 km, Iraq
  1,458 km, Pakistan 909 km, Turkey 499 km, Turkmenistan 992 km

Coastline:
  2,440 km; note - Iran also borders the Caspian Sea (740 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: bilateral agreements or median lines in the
  Persian Gulf
  continental shelf: natural prolongation

Climate:
  mostly arid or semiarid, subtropical along Caspian coast

Terrain:
  rugged, mountainous rim; high, central basin with deserts,
  mountains; small, discontinuous plains along both coasts

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Kuh-e Damavand 5,671 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead,
  manganese, zinc, sulfur

Land use:
  arable land: 9.78%
  permanent crops: 1.29%
  other: 88.93% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  76,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts, floods; dust storms, sandstorms; earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution, especially in urban areas, from vehicle emissions,
  refinery operations, and industrial effluents; deforestation;
  overgrazing; desertification; oil pollution in the Persian Gulf;
  wetland losses from drought; soil degradation (salination);
  inadequate supplies of potable water; water pollution from raw
  sewage and industrial waste; urbanization

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, which
  are vital maritime pathways for crude oil transport

People Iran


Population:
  68,688,433 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 9,204,785/female 8,731,429)
  15-64 years: 69% (male 24,133,919/female 23,245,255)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 1,653,827/female 1,719,218) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.8 years
  male: 24.6 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.1% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 40.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 40.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 40.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.26 years
  male: 68.86 years
  female: 71.74 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  31,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  800 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Iranian(s)
  adjective: Iranian

Ethnic groups:
  Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab
  3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%

Religions:
  Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian,
  and Baha'i 2%

Languages:
  Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%,
  Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.4%
  male: 85.6%
  female: 73% (2003 est.)

Government Iran


Country name:
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Iran
  conventional short form: Iran
  local long form: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran
  local short form: Iran
  former: Persia

Government type:
  theocratic republic

Capital:
  name: Tehran
  geographic coordinates: 35 40 N, 51 26 E
  time difference: UTC+3.5 (8.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  30 provinces (ostanha, singular - ostan); Ardabil, Azarbayjan-e
  Gharbi, Azarbayjan-e Sharqi, Bushehr, Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari,
  Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman,
  Kermanshah, Khorasan-e Janubi, Khorasan-e Razavi, Khorasan-e
  Shemali, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh va Buyer Ahmad, Kordestan, Lorestan,
  Markazi, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Sistan va Baluchestan,
  Tehran, Yazd, Zanjan

Independence:
  1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 1 April (1979)
  note: additional holidays celebrated widely in Iran include
  Revolution Day, 11 February (1979); Noruz (New Year's Day), 21
  March; Constitutional Monarchy Day, 5 August (1925); and various
  Islamic observances that change in accordance with the lunar-based
  hejira calendar

Constitution:
  2-3 December 1979; revised 1989 to expand powers of the presidency
  and eliminate the prime ministership

Legal system:
  the Constitution codifies Islamic principles of government

Suffrage:
  15 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-KHAMENEI (since 4 June
  1989)
  head of government: President Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD (since 3 August
  2005); First Vice President Parviz DAVUDI (since 11 September 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers selected by the president with
  legislative approval; the Supreme Leader has some control over
  appointments to the more sensitive ministries
  note: also considered part of the Executive branch of government are
  three oversight bodies: 1) Assembly of Experts, a popularly elected
  body of 86 religious scholars constitutionally charged with
  determining the succession of the Supreme Leader, reviewing his
  performance, and deposing him if deemed necessary; 2) Expediency
  Council or Council for the Discernment of Expediency is a policy
  advisory and implementation board consisting of permanent and
  temporary members representing all major government factions, some
  of whom are appointed by the Supreme Leader; the Council exerts
  supervisory authority over the executive, judicial, and legislative
  branches and resolves legislative issues on which the Majles and the
  Council of Guardians disagree; 3) Council of Guardians or Council of
  Guardians of the Constitution is a 12-member board of clerics and
  jurists serving six-year terms that determines whether proposed
  legislation is both constitutional and faithful to Islamic law; the
  Council also vets candidates for suitability and supervises national
  elections
  elections: Supreme Leader appointed for life by the Assembly of
  Experts; president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 17 June 2005 with a
  two-candidate runoff on 24 June 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD elected president; percent of
  vote - Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD 62%, Ali Akbar Hashemi RAFSANJANI 36%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Islamic Consultative Assembly or
  Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami (290 seats - formerly 270 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 February 2004 with a runoff held 7 May 2004
  (by-elections next to be held in December 2006; general election to
  be held in February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats by party -
  conservatives/Islamists 190, reformers 50, independents 43,
  religious minorities 5, and 2 seats unaccounted for

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court - above a special clerical court, a revolutionary
  court, and a special administrative court

Political parties and leaders:
  formal political parties are a relatively new phenomenon in Iran
  and most conservatives still prefer to work through political
  pressure groups rather than parties; a loose pro-reform coalition
  called the 2nd Khordad Front, which includes political parties as
  well as less formal pressure groups and organizations, achieved
  considerable success at elections to the sixth Majles in early 2000;
  groups in the coalition include: Islamic Iran Participation Front
  (IIPF), Executives of Construction Party (Kargozaran), Solidarity
  Party, Islamic Labor Party, Mardom Salari, Mojahedin of the Islamic
  Revolution Organization (MIRO), and Militant Clerics Society
  (Ruhaniyun); the coalition participated in the seventh Majles
  elections in early 2004; following his defeat in the 2005
  presidential elections, former MCS Secretary General Mehdi KARRUBI
  formed the National Trust Party; a new apparently conservative
  group, the Builders of Islamic Iran, took a leading position in the
  new Majles after winning a majority of the seats in February 2004

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  political pressure groups conduct most of Iran's political
  activities; groups that generally support the Islamic Republic
  include Ansar-e Hizballah, Muslim Students Following the Line of the
  Imam, Tehran Militant Clergy Association (Ruhaniyat), Islamic
  Coalition Party (Motalefeh), and Islamic Engineers Society; active
  pro-reform student groups include the Office of Strengthening Unity
  (OSU); opposition groups include Freedom Movement of Iran, the
  National Front, Marz-e Por Gohar, and various ethnic and Monarchist
  organizations; armed political groups that have been almost
  completely repressed by the government include Mujahidin-e Khalq
  Organization (MEK), People's Fedayeen, Democratic Party of Iranian
  Kurdistan, and Komala

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, CP, ECO, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA,
  SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none; note - Iran has an Interests Section in the Pakistani
  Embassy; address: Iranian Interests Section, Pakistani Embassy, 2209
  Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007; telephone: [1] (202)
  965-4990; FAX [1] (202) 965-1073

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none; note - protecting power in Iran is Switzerland

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the
  national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the
  shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the
  white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is
  repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11
  times along the top edge of the red band

Economy Iran


Economy - overview:
  Iran's economy is marked by a bloated, inefficient state sector,
  over reliance on the oil sector, and statist policies that create
  major distortions throughout. Most economic activity is controlled
  by the state. Private sector activity is typically small-scale -
  workshops, farming, and services. President Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD has
  continued to follow the market reform plans of former President
  RAFSANJANI, with limited progress. Relatively high oil prices in
  recent years have enabled Iran to amass some $40 billion in foreign
  exchange reserves, but have not eased economic hardships such as
  high unemployment and inflation. The proportion of the economy
  devoted to the development of weapons of mass destruction remains a
  contentious issue with leading Western nations.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $569.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $181.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.6%
  industry: 42.4%
  services: 46% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  23.68 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 25%
  services: 45% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  11.2% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  43 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  13.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  30.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $48.82 billion
  expenditures: $60.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $7.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  28.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, rice, other grains, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, cotton; dairy
  products, wool; caviar

Industries:
  petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and other construction
  materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and
  vegetable oil production), metal fabrication, armaments

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% excluding oil (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  142.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 97.1%
  hydro: 2.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  132.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  840 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  600 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  3.979 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  2.5 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  133.3 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  3.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  4.92 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  26.62 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $13.27 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $55.42 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum 80%, chemical and petrochemical products, fruits and
  nuts, carpets

Exports - partners:
  Japan 16.6%, China 11%, Italy 5.8%, South Korea 5.7%, South Africa
  5.7%, Turkey 5.6%, Netherlands 4.5%, France 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $42.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods,
  foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military
  supplies

Imports - partners:
  Germany 13.8%, UAE 8.3%, China 8.3%, Italy 7%, France 6.2%, South
  Korea 5.4%, Russia 4.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $45.46 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $19.06 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $408 million (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  Iranian rial (IRR)

Currency code:
  IRR

Exchange rates:
  rials per US dollar - 8,964 (2005), 8,614 (2004), 8,193.9 (2003),
  6,907 (2002), 1,753.6 (2001)
  note: Iran has been using a managed floating exchange rate regime
  since unifying multiple exchange rates in March 2002

Fiscal year:
  21 March - 20 March

Communications Iran


Telephones - main lines in use:
  18.986 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  7.222 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate, but currently being modernized and
  expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and
  increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing
  telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently
  connected
  domestic: as a result of heavy investing in the telephone system
  since 1994, the number of long-distance channels in the microwave
  radio relay trunk has grown substantially; many villages have been
  brought into the net; the number of main lines in the urban systems
  has approximately doubled; thousands of mobile cellular subscribers
  are being served; moreover, the technical level of the system has
  been raised by the installation of thousands of digital switches
  international: country code - 98; HF radio and microwave radio relay
  to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria,
  Kuwait, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; submarine fiber-optic cable to
  UAE with access to Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG);
  Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line runs from Azerbaijan
  through the northern portion of Iran to Turkmenistan with expansion
  to Georgia and Azerbaijan; satellite earth stations - 9 Intelsat and
  4 Inmarsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 72, FM 5, shortwave 5 (1998)

Radios:
  17 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  28 (plus 450 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  4.61 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ir

Internet hosts:
  5,242 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  100 (2002)

Internet users:
  7.5 million (2005)

Transportation Iran


Airports:
  321 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 129
  over 3,047 m: 41
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 26
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 192
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 140
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Heliports:
  15 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 7 km; condensate/gas 397 km; gas 17,099 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 570 km; oil 8,521 km; refined products 7,808 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 7,256 km
  broad gauge: 94 km 1.676-m gauge
  standard gauge: 7,162 km 1.435-m gauge (186 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 178,152 km
  paved: 118,115 km (including 751 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 60,037 km (2002)

Waterways:
  850 km (850 km on Karun River; additional service on Lake Urmia)
  (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 141 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,086,702 GRT/8,878,829 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 39, cargo 45, chemical tanker 4, container 12,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker
  30, roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 22 (Bolivia 1, Cyprus 2, Malta 14,
  Panama 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Assaluyeh, Bushehr

Military Iran


Military branches:
  Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artesh): Ground Forces,
  Navy, Air Force (Niruye Havayi Jomhuriye Islamiye Iran; includes air
  defense); Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e
  Enqelab-e Eslami, IRGC): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force, Qods Force
  (special operations), and Basij Force (Popular Mobilization Army);
  Law Enforcement Forces (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age
  for volunteers; soldiers as young as 9 were recruited extensively
  during the Iran-Iraq War; conscript service obligation - 18 months
  (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,319,545
  females age 18-49: 17,541,037 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,665,725
  females age 18-49: 15,005,597 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 862,056
  females age 18-49: 808,044 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.3 billion (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.3% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Iran


Disputes - international:
  Iran protests Afghanistan's limiting flow of dammed tributaries to
  the Helmand River in periods of drought; Iraq's lack of a maritime
  boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of
  the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Iran and UAE dispute Tunb
  Islands and Abu Musa Island, which are occupied by Iran; Iran stands
  alone among littoral states in insisting upon a division of the
  Caspian Sea into five equal sectors

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 952,802 (Afghanistan) 93,173 (Iraq)
  (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Iran is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and involuntary servitude; according to foreign
  observers, women and girls are trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, the
  Persian Gulf, and Europe for sexual exploitation, while boys from
  Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are trafficked through Iran en
  route to Persian Gulf states where they are ultimately forced to
  work as camel jockeys, beggars, or laborers; Afghan women and girls
  are trafficked to the country for forced marriages and sexual
  exploitation; women and children are also trafficked internally for
  the purposes of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and
  involuntary servitude
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Iran is downgraded to Tier 3 after persistent,
  credible reports of Iranian authorities punishing victims of
  trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution

Illicit drugs:
  despite substantial interdiction efforts, Iran remains a key
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe; domestic
  narcotics consumption remains a persistent problem and according to
  official Iranian statistics there are at least 2 million drug users
  in the country; lacks anti-money-laundering laws


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Iraq

Introduction Iraq


Background:
  Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was occupied by Britain
  during the course of World War I; in 1920, it was declared a League
  of Nations mandate under UK administration. In stages over the next
  dozen years, Iraq attained its independence as a kingdom in 1932. A
  "republic" was proclaimed in 1958, but in actuality a series of
  military strongmen ruled the country, the latest was SADDAM Husayn.
  Territorial disputes with Iran led to an inconclusive and costly
  eight-year war (1980-88). In August 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait, but
  was expelled by US-led, UN coalition forces during the Gulf War of
  January-February 1991. Following Kuwait's liberation, the UN
  Security Council (UNSC) required Iraq to scrap all weapons of mass
  destruction and long-range missiles and to allow UN verification
  inspections. Continued Iraqi noncompliance with UNSC resolutions
  over a period of 12 years led to the US-led invasion of Iraq in
  March 2003 and the ouster of the SADDAM Husayn regime. Coalition
  forces remain in Iraq, helping to restore degraded infrastructure
  and facilitating the establishment of a freely elected government,
  while simultaneously dealing with a robust insurgency. The Coalition
  Provisional Authority, which temporarily administered Iraq after the
  invasion, transferred full governmental authority on 28 June 2004,
  to the Iraqi Interim Government (IG), which governed under the
  Transitional Administrative Law for Iraq (TAL). Under the TAL,
  elections for a 275-member Transitional National Assembly (TNA) were
  held in Iraq on 30 January 2005. Following these elections, the
  Iraqi Transitional Government (ITG) assumed office. The TNA was
  charged with drafting Iraq's permanent constitution, which was
  approved in a 15 October 2005 constitutional referendum. An election
  under the constitution for a 275-member Council of Representatives
  (CoR) was held in December 2005. The CoR approval in the selection
  of most of the cabinet ministers on 20 May 2006 marked the
  transition from the ITG to Iraq's full-term government.

Geography Iraq


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait

Geographic coordinates:
  33 00 N, 44 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 437,072 sq km
  land: 432,162 sq km
  water: 4,910 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Idaho

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,650 km
  border countries: Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi
  Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 352 km

Coastline:
  58 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Climate:
  mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless
  summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish
  borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that
  melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in
  central and southern Iraq

Terrain:
  mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south
  with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran and
  Turkey

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: unnamed peak; 3,611 m; note - this peak is not Gundah
  Zhur 3,607 m or Kuh-e Hajji-Ebrahim 3,595 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Land use:
  arable land: 13.12%
  permanent crops: 0.61%
  other: 86.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  35,250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust storms, sandstorms, floods

Environment - current issues:
  government water control projects have drained most of the
  inhabited marsh areas east of An Nasiriyah by drying up or diverting
  the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Marsh
  Arabs, who inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has been
  displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat poses
  serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate
  supplies of potable water; development of the Tigris and Euphrates
  rivers system contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian
  Turkey; air and water pollution; soil degradation (salination) and
  erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Law of the Sea
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of the
  Persian Gulf

People Iraq


Population:
  26,783,383 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 39.7% (male 5,398,645/female 5,231,760)
  15-64 years: 57.3% (male 7,776,257/female 7,576,726)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 376,700/female 423,295) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.7 years
  male: 19.6 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.66% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  31.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.37 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 48.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 42.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.01 years
  male: 67.76 years
  female: 70.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Iraqi(s)
  adjective: Iraqi

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%

Religions:
  Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

Languages:
  Arabic, Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Assyrian, Armenian

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.4%
  male: 55.9%
  female: 24.4% (2003 est.)

Government Iraq


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Iraq
  conventional short form: Iraq
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah
  local short form: Al Iraq

Government type:
  transitional democracy

Capital:
  name: Baghdad
  geographic coordinates: 33 21 N, 44 25 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins 1 April; ends 1 October

Administrative divisions:
  18 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Anbar, Al
  Basrah, Al Muthanna, Al Qadisiyah, An Najaf, Arbil, As Sulaymaniyah,
  At Ta'mim, Babil, Baghdad, Dahuk, Dhi Qar, Diyala, Karbala', Maysan,
  Ninawa, Salah ad Din, Wasit

Independence:
  3 October 1932 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration); note - on 28 June 2004 the Coalition Provisional
  Authority transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government

National holiday:
  Revolution Day, 17 July (1968); note - this holiday was celebrated
  under the SADDAM Husayn regime but the Iraqi Interim Government has
  yet to declare a new national holiday

Constitution:
  ratified on 15 October 2005

Legal system:
  based on European civil and Islamic law under the framework
  outlined in the Iraqi Constitution

Suffrage:
  formerly 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jalal TALABANI (since 6 April 2005); Vice
  Presidents Adil ABD AL-MAHDI and Tariq al-HASHIMI (since 22 April
  2006); note - the president and vice presidents comprise the
  Presidency Council)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nuri al-MALIKI (since 20 May
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Barham SALIH and Salam al-ZUBAI (since
  20 May 2006)
  cabinet: 37 ministers appointed by the Presidency Council, plus
  Prime Minister Nuri al-MALIKI, and Deputy Prime Ministers Barham
  SALIH and Salam al-ZUBAI
  elections: held 15 December 2005 to elect a 275-member Council of
  Representatives

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Council of Representatives or Mejlis Watani (consisting
  of 275 members elected by a closed-list, proportional-representation
  system)
  elections: held 15 December 2005 to elect a 275-member Council of
  Representatives that will finalize a permanent constitution
  election results: Council of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NA; number of seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court appointed by the Prime Minister, confirmed by the
  Presidency Council

Political parties and leaders:
  Al-Sadr Movement [Muqtada Al-SADR]; Assyrian Democratic Movement
  [Yunadim KANNA]; Conference of Iraqi People [Adnan al-DULAYMI];
  Constitutional Monarchy Movement or CMM [Sharif Ali Bin al-HUSAYN];
  Da'wa Party [Ibrahim al-JA'FARI]; Independent Iraqi Alliance or IIA
  [Falah al-NAQIB]; Iraqi Communist Party [Hamid al-MUSA]; Iraqi
  Hizballah [Karim Mahud al-MUHAMMADAWI]; Iraqi Independent Democrats
  or IID [Adnan PACHACHI, Mahdi al-HAFIZ]; Iraqi Islamic Party or IIP
  [Muhsin Abd al-HAMID, Hajim al-HASSANI]; Iraqi National Accord or
  INA [Ayad ALLAWI]; Iraqi National Congress or INC [Ahmad CHALABI];
  Iraqi National Council for Dialogue or INCD [Khalaf Ulayan
  al-Khalifawi al-DULAYMI]; Iraqi National Unity Movement or INUM
  [Ahmad al-KUBAYSI, chairman]; Islamic Action Organization or IAO
  [Ayatollah Muhammad al-MUDARRISI]; Jama'at al Fadilah or JAF
  [Ayatollah Muhammad Ali al-YAQUBI]; Kurdistan Democratic Party or
  KDP [Masud BARZANI]; Muslim Ulama Council or MUC [Harith Sulayman
  al-DARI, secretary general]; National Iraqi Front [Salih al-MUTLAQ];
  National Reconciliation and Liberation Party [Mishan al-JABBURI];
  Patriotic Union of Kurdistan or PUK [Jalal TALABANI]; Supreme
  Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq or SCIRI [Abd al-Aziz
  al-HAKIM]
  note: the Kurdistan Alliance, Iraqi National List, Iraqi Consensus
  Front, Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, and United Iraqi Alliance
  were only electoral slates consisting of the representatives from
  the various Iraqi political parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  an insurgency against the Iraqi Transitional Government and
  Coalition forces is primarily concentrated in Baghdad and in areas
  west and north of the capital; the diverse, multigroup insurgency is
  led principally by Sunni Arabs whose only common denominator is a
  shared desire to oust the Coalition and end US influence in Iraq

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA,
  IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samir Shakir al-SUMAYDI
  chancery: 1801 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-7500
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-5066

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zalmay KHALILZAD
  embassy: Baghdad
  mailing address: APO AE 09316
  telephone: 00-1-240-553-0584 ext. 5340 or 5635; note - Consular
  Section
  FAX: NA

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with
  three green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the
  white band; the phrase ALLAHU AKBAR (God is Great) in green Arabic
  script - Allahu to the right of the middle star and Akbar to the
  left of the middle star - was added in January 1991 during the
  Persian Gulf crisis; similar to the flag of Syria, which has two
  stars but no script, Yemen, which has a plain white band, and that
  of Egypt which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white
  band; design is based upon the Arab Liberation colors

Economy Iraq


Economy - overview:
  Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has
  traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings.
  Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international
  economic sanctions, and damage from military action by an
  international coalition beginning in January 1991 drastically
  reduced economic activity. Although government policies supporting
  large military and internal security forces and allocating resources
  to key supporters of the regime hurt the economy, implementation of
  the UN's oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996, helped
  improve conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. Iraq was allowed
  to export limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and
  some infrastructure spare parts. In December 1999, the UN Security
  Council authorized Iraq to export under the program as much oil as
  required to meet humanitarian needs. Per capita food imports
  increased significantly, while medical supplies and health care
  services steadily improved. Per capita output and living standards
  were still well below the pre-1991 level, but any estimates have a
  wide range of error. The military victory of the US-led coalition in
  March-April 2003 resulted in the shutdown of much of the central
  economic administrative structure. Although a comparatively small
  amount of capital plant was damaged during the hostilities, looting,
  insurgent attacks, and sabotage have undermined efforts to rebuild
  the economy. Attacks on key economic facilities - especially oil
  pipelines and infrastructure - have prevented Iraq from reaching
  projected export volumes, but total government revenues have been
  higher than anticipated due to high oil prices. Despite political
  uncertainty, Iraq has established the institutions needed to
  implement economic policy, has successfully concluded a three-stage
  debt reduction agreement with the Paris Club, and is working toward
  a Standby Arrangement with the IMF. The Standby Arrangement would
  clear the way for continued debt relief from the Paris Club.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $94.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $46.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  -3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 7.3%
  industry: 66.6%
  services: 26.1% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  7.4 million (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  25% to 30% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  33% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $19.3 billion
  expenditures: $24 billion; including capital expenditures of $5
  billion (2005 budget)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, dates, cotton; cattle, sheep,
  poultry

Industries:
  petroleum, chemicals, textiles, leather, construction materials,
  food processing, fertilizer, metal fabrication/processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  31.7 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 98.4%
  hydro: 1.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  33.3 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:
  2.02 billion kWh (2005)

Oil - production:
  2.093 million bbl/day; note - prewar production (in 2002) was 2.03
  million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  351,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.42 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  112.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  1.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  3.115 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-9.447 billion (2004 est.)

Exports:
  $17.78 billion f.o.b. (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil (83.9%), crude materials excluding fuels (8.0%), food and
  live animals (5.0%)

Exports - partners:
  US 49.3%, Italy 10.3%, Spain 6.2%, Canada 5.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $19.57 billion f.o.b. (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  food, medicine, manufactures

Imports - partners:
  Turkey 23.2%, Syria 23%, US 11.6%, Jordan 5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $9.161 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $92.33 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  more than $33 billion in foreign aid pledged for 2004-07 (2004)

Currency (code):
  New Iraqi dinar (NID) as of 22 January 2004

Currency code:
  NID, IQD prior to 22 January 2004

Exchange rates:
  New Iraqi dinars per US dollar - 1,475 (2005), 1,890 (second half,
  2003), 0.3109 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Iraq


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,034,200 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  574,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the 2003 war severely disrupted
  telecommunications throughout Iraq including international
  connections; USAID is overseeing the repair of switching capability
  and the construction of mobile and satellite communication facilities
  domestic: repairs to switches and lines destroyed during the 2003
  war continue, but sabotage remains a problem; additional switching
  capacity is improving access; cellular service is available and
  centered on three regional GSM networks, improving country-wide
  connectivity
  international: country code - 964; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Arabsat (inoperative); coaxial cable
  and microwave radio relay to Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey;
  despite a new satellite gateway, international calls outside of
  Baghdad remain problematic

Radio broadcast stations:
  after 17 months of unregulated media growth, there are
  approximately 80 radio stations on the air inside Iraq (2004)

Radios:
  4.85 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  21 (2004)

Televisions:
  1.75 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .iq

Internet hosts:
  5 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  36,000 (2005)

Transportation Iraq


Airports:
  110 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 77
  over 3,047 m: 20
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 37
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 33
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Heliports:
  8 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,228 km; liquid petroleum gas 918 km; oil 5,506 km; refined
  products 1,637 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,200 km
  standard gauge: 2,200 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 45,550 km
  paved: 38,399 km
  unpaved: 7,151 km (1999)

Waterways:
  5,279 km
  note: Euphrates River (2,815 km), Tigris River (1,899 km), and Third
  River (565 km) are principal waterways (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 67,796 GRT/101,317 DWT
  by type: cargo 11, petroleum tanker 2 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Al Basrah, Khawr az Zubayr, Umm Qasr

Military Iraq


Military branches:
  Iraqi Armed Forces: Iraqi Regular Army (includes Iraqi Special
  Operations Force, Iraqi Intervention Force), Iraqi Navy (former
  Iraqi Coastal Defense Force), Iraqi Air Force (former Iraqi Army Air
  Corps) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  all volunteer force; the Iraqi Government is creating a new
  professional Iraqi military force of men aged 18 to 40 to defend
  Iraq from external threats and the current insurgency (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,870,640
  females age 18-49: 5,642,073 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,930,074
  females age 18-49: 4,771,105 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 198,518
  females age 18-49: 289,879 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.34 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Iraq


Disputes - international:
  coalition forces assist Iraqis in monitoring boundary security;
  Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction
  disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf;
  Turkey has expressed concern over the status of Kurds in Iraq

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 22,711 (Palestinian Territories)
  IDPs: 1 million (ongoing US-led war and Kurds' subsequent return)
  (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ireland

Introduction Ireland


Background:
  Celtic tribes arrived on the island between 600-150 B.C. Invasions
  by Norsemen that began in the late 8th century were finally ended
  when King Brian BORU defeated the Danes in 1014. English invasions
  began in the 12th century and set off more than seven centuries of
  Anglo-Irish struggle marked by fierce rebellions and harsh
  repressions. A failed 1916 Easter Monday Rebellion touched off
  several years of guerrilla warfare that in 1921 resulted in
  independence from the UK for 26 southern counties; six northern
  (Ulster) counties remained part of the UK. In 1948 Ireland withdrew
  from the British Commonwealth; it joined the European Community in
  1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful unification of
  Ireland and have cooperated with Britain against terrorist groups. A
  peace settlement for Northern Ireland, known as the Good Friday
  Agreement and approved in 1998, is being implemented with some
  difficulties.

Geography Ireland


Location:
  Western Europe, occupying five-sixths of the island of Ireland in
  the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain

Geographic coordinates:
  53 00 N, 8 00 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 70,280 sq km
  land: 68,890 sq km
  water: 1,390 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 360 km
  border countries: UK 360 km

Coastline:
  1,448 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  temperate maritime; modified by North Atlantic Current; mild
  winters, cool summers; consistently humid; overcast about half the
  time

Terrain:
  mostly level to rolling interior plain surrounded by rugged hills
  and low mountains; sea cliffs on west coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Carrauntoohil 1,041 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, peat, copper, lead, zinc, silver, barite, gypsum,
  limestone, dolomite

Land use:
  arable land: 16.82%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 83.15% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution, especially of lakes, from agricultural runoff

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location on major air and sea routes between North
  America and northern Europe; over 40% of the population resides
  within 100 km of Dublin

People Ireland


Population:
  4,062,235 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.9% (male 437,903/female 409,774)
  15-64 years: 67.6% (male 1,373,771/female 1,370,452)
  65 years and over: 11.6% (male 207,859/female 262,476) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 34.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.15% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.82 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.87 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.73 years
  male: 75.11 years
  female: 80.52 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,800 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Irishman(men), Irishwoman(women), Irish (collective plural)
  adjective: Irish

Ethnic groups:
  Celtic, English

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 88.4%, Church of Ireland 3%, other Christian 1.6%,
  other 1.5%, unspecified 2%, none 3.5% (2002 census)

Languages:
  English (official) is the language generally used, Irish (official)
  (Gaelic or Gaeilge) spoken mainly in areas located along the western
  seaboard

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Ireland


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Ireland
  local long form: none
  local short form: Eire

Government type:
  republic, parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Dublin
  geographic coordinates: 53 20 N, 6 15 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  26 counties; Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway,
  Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth,
  Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary,
  Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow
  note: Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan are part of Ulster Province

Independence:
  6 December 1921 (from UK by treaty)

National holiday:
  Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March

Constitution:
  adopted 1 July 1937 by plebiscite; effective 29 December 1937

Legal system:
  based on English common law, substantially modified by indigenous
  concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in Supreme Court; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mary MCALEESE (since 11 November 1997)
  head of government: Prime Minister Bertie AHERN (since 26 June 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with previous nomination
  by the prime minister and approval of the House of Representatives
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 31 October 1997
  (next scheduled for October 2011); note - Mary MCALEESE appointed to
  a second term when no other candidate qualified for the 2004
  presidential election; prime minister (taoiseach) nominated by the
  House of Representatives and appointed by the president
  election results: Mary MCALEESE elected president; percent of vote -
  Mary MCALEESE 44.8%, Mary BANOTTI 29.6%
  note: government coalition - Fianna Fail and the Progressive
  Democrats

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Oireachtas consists of the Senate or Seanad
  Eireann (60 seats - 49 elected by the universities and from
  candidates put forward by five vocational panels, 11 are nominated
  by the prime minister; members serve five-year terms) and the House
  of Representatives or Dail Eireann (166 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 16 and 17 July 2002 (next to be held
  by July 2007); House of Representatives - last held 17 May 2002
  (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Fianna Fail 30, Fine Gael 15, Labor Party 5, Progressive
  Democrats 4, independents and other 6; House of Representatives -
  percent of vote by party - Fianna Fail 41.5%, Fine Gael 22.5%, Labor
  Party 10.8%, Sinn Fein 6.5%, Progressive Democrats 4.0%, Green Party
  3.8%, other 10.9%; seats by party - Fianna Fail 81, Fine Gael 31,
  Labor Party 21, Sinn Fein 5, Progressive Democrats 8, Green Party 6,
  other 14

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the president on the advice of
  the prime minister and cabinet)

Political parties and leaders:
  Fianna Fail [Bertie AHERN]; Fine Gael [Enda KENNY]; Green Party
  [Trevor SARGENT]; Labor Party [Pat RABITTE]; Progressive Democrats
  [Michael McDOWELL]; Sinn Fein [Gerry ADAMS]; Socialist Party [Joe
  HIGGINS]; The Workers' Party [Sean GARLAND]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIL, UNOCI, UNTSO, UPU,
  WCO, WEU (observer), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Noel FAHEY
  chancery: 2234 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-3939
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-5993
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas C. FOLEY
  embassy: 42 Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [353] (1) 668-8777
  FAX: [353] (1) 668-9946

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and
  orange; similar to the flag of Cote d'Ivoire, which is shorter and
  has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green;
  also similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter and has colors
  of green (hoist side), white, and red

Economy Ireland


Economy - overview:
  Ireland is a small, modern, trade-dependent economy with growth
  averaging a robust 7% in 1995-2004. Agriculture, once the most
  important sector, is now dwarfed by industry and services. Industry
  accounts for 46% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and 29% of the labor
  force. Although exports remain the primary engine for Ireland's
  growth, the economy has also benefited from a rise in consumer
  spending, construction, and business investment. Per capita GDP is
  10% above that of the four big European economies and the second
  highest in the EU behind Luxembourg. Over the past decade, the Irish
  Government has implemented a series of national economic programs
  designed to curb price and wage inflation, reduce government
  spending, increase labor force skills, and promote foreign
  investment. Ireland joined in circulating the euro on 1 January 2002
  along with 11 other EU nations.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $165.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $188.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $41,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 46%
  services: 49% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  2.03 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 29%
  services: 64% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  10% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 27.3% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35.9 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  27% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $70.46 billion
  expenditures: $69.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.5
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  26.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  steel, lead, zinc, silver, aluminum, barite, and gypsum mining
  processing; food products, brewing, textiles, clothing; chemicals,
  pharmaceuticals; machinery, rail transportation equipment, passenger
  and commercial vehicles, ship construction and refurbishment; glass
  and crystal; software, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  23.41 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 95.9%
  hydro: 2.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  22.97 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.2 billion kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  175,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  27,450 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  178,600 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  673 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  4.298 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  3.384 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  19.82 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-3.833 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $102 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, computers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals;
  live animals, animal products

Exports - partners:
  US 18.7%, UK 17.4%, Belgium 15.2%, Germany 7.4%, France 6.4%,
  Netherlands 4.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $65.47 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  data processing equipment, other machinery and equipment,
  chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products, textiles, clothing

Imports - partners:
  UK 37%, US 13.8%, Germany 9.2%, Netherlands 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $869.3 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.049 trillion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $607 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Ireland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.033 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.21 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern digital system using cable and microwave
  radio relay
  domestic: microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 353; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 9, FM 106, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  2.55 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (many low-power repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  1.82 million (2001)

Internet country code:
  .ie

Internet hosts:
  238,191 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  22 (2000)

Internet users:
  2.06 million (2005)

Transportation Ireland


Airports:
  36 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 21
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,728 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,312 km
  broad gauge: 1,947 km 1.600-m gauge (46 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,365 km 0.914-m gauge (operated by the Irish Peat
  Board to transport peat to power stations and briquetting plants)
  (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 95,736 km
  paved: 95,736 km (including 125 km of expressways) (2002)

Waterways:
  753 km (pleasure craft only) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 103,589 GRT/145,044 DWT
  by type: cargo 19, chemical tanker 2, container 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Germany 2, US 2)
  registered in other countries: 21 (Bahamas 2, Bermuda 1, Cyprus 3,
  Gibraltar 1, Netherlands 10, Panama 2, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cork, Dublin, New Ross, Shannon Foynes, Waterford

Military Ireland


Military branches:
  Irish Defense Forces (Oglaigh na h-Eireann): Army (includes Naval
  Service and Air Corps) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; enlistees under the
  age of 17 can be recruited for specialist positions (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 977,092
  females age 17-49: 978,465 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 814,768
  females age 17-49: 813,981 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,327
  females age 17-49: 28,139 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $700 million (FY00/01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (FY00/01)

Transnational Issues Ireland


Disputes - international:
  Ireland, Iceland, and the UK dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe
  Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for and consumer of hashish from North Africa
  to the UK and Netherlands and of European-produced synthetic drugs;
  minor transshipment point for heroin and cocaine destined for
  Western Europe; despite recent legislation, narcotics-related money
  laundering - using bureaux de change, trusts, and shell companies
  involving the offshore financial community - remains a concern


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Isle of Man

Introduction Isle of Man


Background:
  Part of the Norwegian Kingdom of the Hebrides until the 13th
  century when it was ceded to Scotland, the isle came under the
  British crown in 1765. Current concerns include reviving the almost
  extinct Manx Gaelic language. Isle of Man is a British crown
  dependency, but is not part of the UK.

Geography Isle of Man


Location:
  Western Europe, island in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and
  Ireland

Geographic coordinates:
  54 15 N, 4 30 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 572 sq km
  land: 572 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than three times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  160 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Climate:
  temperate; cool summers and mild winters; overcast about one-third
  of the time

Terrain:
  hills in north and south bisected by central valley

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Irish Sea 0 m
  highest point: Snaefell 621 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 9%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 91% (permanent pastures, forests, mountain, and heathland)
  (2002)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  waste disposal (both household and industrial); transboundary air
  pollution

Geography - note:
  one small islet, the Calf of Man, lies to the southwest, and is a
  bird sanctuary

People Isle of Man


Population:
  75,441 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.3% (male 6,669/female 6,350)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 24,884/female 24,678)
  65 years and over: 17% (male 5,197/female 7,663) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.6 years
  male: 38.4 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.52% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  11.19 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  5.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.49 years
  male: 75.14 years
  female: 82.02 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Manxman (men), Manxwoman (women)
  adjective: Manx

Ethnic groups:
  Manx (Norse-Celtic descent), Briton

Religions:
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Society
  of Friends

Languages:
  English, Manx Gaelic

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Government Isle of Man


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Isle of Man

Dependency status:
  British crown dependency

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Douglas
  geographic coordinates: 54 09 N, 4 28 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (five hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none; there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined
  by the US Government, but there are 24 local authorities each with
  its own elections

Independence:
  none (British crown dependency)

National holiday:
  Tynwald Day, 5 July

Constitution:
  unwritten; note - The Isle of Man Constitution Act of 1961 does not
  embody the unwritten Manx Constitution

Legal system:
  English common law and Manx statute

Suffrage:
  16 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Lord of Mann Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Lieutenant Governor Sir Paul K. HADDACKS
  (since 17 October 2005)
  head of government: Chief Minister Donald GELLING (since 14 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor appointed
  by the monarch for a five-year term; the chief minister is elected
  by the Tynwald; election last held 14 December 2004 (next to be held
  December 2006)
  election results: Donald GELLING elected chief minister by the
  Tynwald; note - Richard CORKILL resigned 2 December 2004

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Tynwald consists of the Legislative Council (an 11-member
  body composed of the President of Tynwald, the Lord Bishop of Sodor
  and Man, a nonvoting attorney general, and eight others named by the
  House of Keys) and the House of Keys (24 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Keys - last held 22 November 2001 (next to be
  held November 2006)
  election results: House of Keys - percent of vote by party - Man
  Labor Party 17.3%, Alliance for Progressive Government 14.6%; seats
  by party - Man Labor Party 2, Alliance for Progressive Government 3,
  independents 19

Judicial branch:
  High Court of Justice (justices are appointed by the Lord
  Chancellor of England on the nomination of the lieutenant governor)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Progressive Government; Man Labor Party; Man
  Nationalist Party (branch of the British National Party)
  note: most members sit as independents

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Flag description:
  red with the Three Legs of Man emblem (Trinacria), in the center;
  the three legs are joined at the thigh and bent at the knee; in
  order to have the toes pointing clockwise on both sides of the flag,
  a two-sided emblem is used

Economy Isle of Man


Economy - overview:
  Offshore banking, manufacturing, and tourism are key sectors of the
  economy. The government offers incentives to high-technology
  companies and financial institutions to locate on the island; this
  has paid off in expanding employment opportunities in high-income
  industries. As a result, agriculture and fishing, once the mainstays
  of the economy, have declined in their shares of GDP. Trade is
  mostly with the UK. The Isle of Man enjoys free access to EU markets.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.113 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.26 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.3% NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $27,800 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  39,690 (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture, forestry and fishing 3%, manufacturing 11%,
  construction 10%, transport and communication 8%, wholesale and
  retail distribution 11%, professional and scientific services 18%,
  public administration 6%, banking and finance 18%, tourism 2%,
  entertainment and catering 3%, miscellaneous services 10%

Unemployment rate:
  0.6% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $485 million
  expenditures: $463 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY00/01 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cereals, vegetables; cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry

Industries:
  financial services, light manufacturing, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.2% (FY96/97)

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  tweeds, herring, processed shellfish, beef, lamb

Exports - partners:
  UK (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  timber, fertilizers, fish

Imports - partners:
  UK (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Manx pound

Currency code:
  GBP

Exchange rates:
  Manx pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Isle of Man


Telephones - main lines in use:
  51,000 (1999)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: landline, telefax, mobile cellular telephone system
  international: fiber-optic cable, microwave radio relay, satellite
  earth station, submarine cable

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (receives broadcasts from the UK and satellite) (1999)

Televisions:
  27,490 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .im

Internet hosts:
  290 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Isle of Man


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 65 km
  standard guage: 7 km 1.067-m guage (7 km electrified)
  narrow guage: 58 km 0.914-m guage (29 km electrified)
  note: primarily summer tourist attractions (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 800 km
  paved: 800 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 305 ships (1000 GRT or over) 8,266,229 GRT/13,792,927 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 38, cargo 65, chemical tanker 53, container
  16, liquefied gas 38, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 74,
  refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 9, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 213 (Cyprus 1, Denmark 53, Estonia 2, France 2,
  Germany 56, Greece 45, Italy 5, Japan 4, Monaco 3, Netherlands 1,
  Norway 27, Singapore 7, Sweden 1, Turkey 3, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 9 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Liberia 5,
  Marshall Islands 1, NZ 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Castletown, Douglas, Ramsey

Military Isle of Man


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Isle of Man


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Israel

Introduction Israel


Background:
  Following World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of
  Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and Jewish
  states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently, the
  Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending the
  deep tensions between the two sides. The territories occupied by
  Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country
  profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew
  from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
  Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a
  Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding
  an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial
  and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994
  Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel
  withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied
  since 1982. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid
  Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted
  between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve
  a permanent settlement. In April 2003, US President BUSH, working in
  conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the
  lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict
  by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two
  states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward
  a permanent status agreement was undermined by Palestinian-Israeli
  violence between September 2000 and February 2005. An agreement
  reached at Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005 significantly reduced
  the violence. The election in January 2005 of Mahmud ABBAS as the
  new Palestinian leader following the November 2004 death of Yasir
  ARAFAT, the formation of a Likud-Labor-United Torah Judaism
  coalition government in January 2005, and the successful Israeli
  disengagement from the Gaza Strip (August-September 2005), presented
  an opportunity for a renewed peace effort. However, internal Israeli
  political events between October and December 2005 have destabilized
  the political situation and forced early elections, scheduled for
  March 2006.

Geography Israel


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and
  Lebanon

Geographic coordinates:
  31 30 N, 34 45 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 20,770 sq km
  land: 20,330 sq km
  water: 440 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,017 km
  border countries: Egypt 266 km, Gaza Strip 51 km, Jordan 238 km,
  Lebanon 79 km, Syria 76 km, West Bank 307 km

Coastline:
  273 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas

Terrain:
  Negev desert in the south; low coastal plain; central mountains;
  Jordan Rift Valley

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Har Meron 1,208 m

Natural resources:
  timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock, magnesium
  bromide, clays, sand

Land use:
  arable land: 15.45%
  permanent crops: 3.88%
  other: 80.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,940 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  sandstorms may occur during spring and summer; droughts; periodic
  earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  limited arable land and natural fresh water resources pose serious
  constraints; desertification; air pollution from industrial and
  vehicle emissions; groundwater pollution from industrial and
  domestic waste, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  there are 242 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in
  the West Bank, 42 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, 0 in the
  Gaza Strip, and 29 in East Jerusalem (August 2005 est.); Sea of
  Galilee is an important freshwater source

People Israel


Population:
  6,352,117
  note: includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank,
  about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and fewer than
  177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.3% (male 855,054/female 815,619)
  15-64 years: 63.9% (male 2,044,135/female 2,016,647)
  65 years and over: 9.8% (male 266,671/female 353,991) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 29.6 years
  male: 28.8 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.18% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.97 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.46 years
  male: 77.33 years
  female: 81.7 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,000 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Israeli(s)
  adjective: Israeli

Ethnic groups:
  Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born
  22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly
  Arab) (2004)

Religions:
  Jewish 76.4%, Muslim 16%, Arab Christians 1.7%, other Christian
  0.4%, Druze 1.6%, unspecified 3.9% (2004)

Languages:
  Hebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority,
  English most commonly used foreign language

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 95.4%
  male: 97.3%
  female: 93.6% (2003 est.)

Government Israel


Country name:
  conventional long form: State of Israel
  conventional short form: Israel
  local long form: Medinat Yisra'el
  local short form: Yisra'el

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Jerusalem; note - Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital
  in 1950, but the US, like nearly all other countries, maintains its
  Embassy in Tel Aviv
  geographic coordinates: 32 05 N, 34 48 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in March; ends the
  Sunday between the holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

Administrative divisions:
  6 districts (mehozot, singular - mehoz); Central, Haifa, Jerusalem,
  Northern, Southern, Tel Aviv

Independence:
  14 May 1948 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 14 May (1948); note - Israel declared
  independence on 14 May 1948, but the Jewish calendar is lunar and
  the holiday may occur in April or May

Constitution:
  no formal constitution; some of the functions of a constitution are
  filled by the Declaration of Establishment (1948), the Basic Laws of
  the parliament (Knesset), and the Israeli citizenship law

Legal system:
  mixture of English common law, British Mandate regulations, and, in
  personal matters, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal systems; in
  December 1985, Israel informed the UN Secretariat that it would no
  longer accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Moshe KATZAV (since 31 July 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ehud OLMERT (since May 2006);
  Deputy Prime Minister Tzipora "Tzipi" LIVNI (since May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by prime minister and approved by the
  Knesset
  elections: president is largely a ceremonial role and is elected by
  the Knesset for a seven-year term (no term limits); election last
  held 31 July 2000 (next to be held mid-2007); following legislative
  elections, the president assigns a Knesset member - traditionally
  the leader of the largest party - the task of forming a governing
  coalition
  election results: Moshe KATZAV elected president by the 120-member
  Knesset with a total of 60 votes, other candidate, Shimon PERES,
  received 57 votes (there were three abstentions); Ariel SHARON
  continued as prime minister after Likud Party victory in January
  2003 Knesset elections; Likud won 38 seats and then formed coalition
  government with Shinui, the National Religious Party, and the
  National Union; controversy surrounding SHARON's disengagement plan
  ultimately led to the formation of a Likud-Labor-United Torah
  Judaism (UTJ) coalition government in January 2005

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Knesset (120 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29 March 2006 (next scheduled to be held in
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Kadima 29, Labor 19, Likud 12, SHAS 12, Yisrael Beiteinu 11, NU/NRP
  9, GIL 7, Torah and Shabbat Judaism 6, Meretz-YAHAD 5, United Arab
  List 4, Balad 3, HADASH 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by Judicial Selection Committee -
  made up of all three branches of the government; mandatory
  retirement age is 70)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (HADASH) [Muhammad BARAKA];
  GIL (Pensioners) [Rafael EITAN]; Kadima [Ehud OLMERT]; Labor Party
  [Amir PERETZ]; Likud Party [Binyamin NETANYAHU]; Meretz-YAHAD [Yossi
  BEILIN]; National Democratic Assembly (Balad) [Azmi BISHARA];
  National Union (NU)/National Religious Party (NRP) [Binyamin ELON];
  SHAS [Eliyahu YISHAI]; Torah and Shabbat Judaism [Yaakov LITZMAN];
  United Arab List [Ibrahim SARSOUR]; Yisrael Beiteinu [Avigdor
  LIEBERMAN]; Yisrael Ba'Aliya (merged with Likud)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Israeli nationalists advocating Jewish settlement on the West Bank
  and Gaza Strip; Peace Now supports territorial concessions in the
  West Bank and Gaza Strip; Yesha (settler) Council promotes settler
  interests and opposes territorial compromise; B'Tselem monitors
  human rights abuses

International organization participation:
  BIS, BSEC (observer), CERN (observer), EBRD, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, OAS (observer), OPCW (signatory),
  OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Salai MERIDOR
  chancery: 3514 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-5500
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-5607
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard H. JONES
  embassy: 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv 63903
  mailing address: PSC 98, Box 29, APO AE 09830
  telephone: [972] (3) 519-7575
  FAX: [972] (3) 516-4390
  consulate(s) general: Jerusalem; note - an independent US mission,
  established in 1928, whose members are not accredited to a foreign
  government

Flag description:
  white with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as the
  Magen David (Shield of David) centered between two equal horizontal
  blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag

Economy Israel


Economy - overview:
  Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with
  substantial government participation. It depends on imports of crude
  oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited
  natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural
  and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports
  substantial quantities of grain, but is largely self-sufficient in
  other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology
  equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the
  leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable current account
  deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad
  and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt
  is owed to the US, which is its major source of economic and
  military aid. The bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict; difficulties
  in the high-technology, construction, and tourist sectors; and
  fiscal austerity in the face of growing inflation led to small
  declines in GDP in 2001 and 2002. The economy rebounded in 2003 and
  2004, growing at a 4% rate each year, as the government tightened
  fiscal policy and implemented structural reforms to boost
  competition and efficiency in the markets. In 2005, rising consumer
  confidence, tourism, and foreign direct investment - as well as
  higher demand for Israeli exports - boosted GDP by 4.7%.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $156.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $114.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $25,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.6%
  industry: 31.7%
  services: 65.7% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  2.42 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2.6%, manufacturing 20.2%,
  construction 7.5%, commerce 12.8%, transport, storage, and
  communications 6.2%, finance and business 13.1%, personal and other
  services 6.4%, public services 31.2% (1996)

Unemployment rate:
  9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  21% (2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 28.3% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34 (2005)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $43.82 billion
  expenditures: $58.04 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  99.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products

Industries:
  high-technology projects (including aviation, communications,
  computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber
  optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food,
  beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metals
  products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles,
  footwear

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  44.24 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.9%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  39.67 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.47 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  2,740 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  270,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.92 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  200 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  200 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  38.94 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $2.385 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $40.14 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural
  products, chemicals, textiles and apparel

Exports - partners:
  US 36.5%, Belgium 8.7%, Hong Kong 5.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $43.19 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough
  diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  US 13.4%, Belgium 10.1%, Germany 6.4%, UK 5.7%, Switzerland 5.5%,
  China 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $28.06 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $75.55 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $662 million from US (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency abbreviation;
  ILS is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) code
  for the NIS

Currency code:
  ILS

Exchange rates:
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482 (2004),
  4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Israel


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,936,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  7.757 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: most highly developed system in the Middle East
  although not the largest
  domestic: good system of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay;
  all systems are digital
  international: country code - 972; 3 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 23, FM 15, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  3.07 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  17 (plus 36 low-power repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  1.69 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .il

Internet hosts:
  1,251,881 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  21 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.7 million (2006)

Transportation Israel


Airports:
  53 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 30
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 23
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 193 km; oil 442 km; refined products 261 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 853 km
  standard gauge: 853 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 17,364 km
  paved: 17,364 km (including 126 km of expressways) (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 716,382 GRT/845,053 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, container 16
  registered in other countries: 51 (Bahamas 1, Bermuda 3, Cyprus 3,
  Honduras 1, Liberia 5, Malta 23, Panama 6, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 2, Slovakia 7) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ashdod, Elat (Eilat), Hadera, Haifa

Military Israel


Military branches:
  Israel Defense Forces (IDF): Army Headquarters, Israel Navy,
  Israeli Air and Space Force (ISAF, includes air defense forces);
  historically there have been no separate Israeli military services
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for compulsory (Jews, Druzes) and voluntary
  (Christians, Muslims, Circassians) military service; both sexes are
  eligible for military service; conscript service obligation - 36
  months for men, 21 months for women (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,492,125
  females age 17-49: 1,443,916 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,255,902
  females age 17-49: 1,212,394 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 53,760
  females: 51,293 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9.45 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Israel


Disputes - international:
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status
  subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent
  status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel
  continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along
  parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew
  its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip and from four
  settlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights is
  Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan
  Heights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce
  Supervision Organization (UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor
  ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated
  incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the
  region

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 276,000 (Arab villagers displaced from homes in northern
  Israel) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Israel is a destination country for low-skilled
  workers from Eastern Europe and Asia who migrate voluntarily for
  contract labor in the construction, agriculture, and health care
  industries, some of whom are subsequently subjected to conditions of
  involuntary servitude; many labor recruitment agencies in source
  countries and in Israel require workers to pay large up-front fees
  that often lead to debt bondage and vulnerability to forced labor;
  Israel is also a destination country for women trafficked from
  Eastern Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Israel is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
  to address trafficking, namely the conditions of involuntary
  servitude allegedly facing thousands of foreign migrant workers

Illicit drugs:
  increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse; drugs arrive
  in country from Lebanon and, increasingly, from Jordan;
  money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Italy

Introduction Italy


Background:
  Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states of the
  peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King
  Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a
  close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist
  dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to
  Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the
  monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter
  member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has
  been at the forefront of European economic and political
  unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.
  Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime,
  corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low
  incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the
  prosperous north.

Geography Italy


Location:
  Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
  Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

Geographic coordinates:
  42 50 N, 12 50 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 301,230 sq km
  land: 294,020 sq km
  water: 7,210 sq km
  note: includes Sardinia and Sicily

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Arizona

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,932.2 km
  border countries: Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican
  City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 232 km, Switzerland 740 km

Coastline:
  7,600 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south

Terrain:
  mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) de Courmayeur 4,748 m (a
  secondary peak of Mont Blanc)

Natural resources:
  coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice,
  fluorospar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil
  reserves, fish, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 26.41%
  permanent crops: 9.09%
  other: 64.5% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  27,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  regional risks include landslides, mudflows, avalanches,
  earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding; land subsidence in Venice

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from industrial emissions such as sulfur dioxide;
  coastal and inland rivers polluted from industrial and agricultural
  effluents; acid rain damaging lakes; inadequate industrial waste
  treatment and disposal facilities

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  strategic location dominating central Mediterranean as well as
  southern sea and air approaches to Western Europe

People Italy


Population:
  58,133,509 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 13.8% (male 4,147,149/female 3,899,980)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 19,530,512/female 19,105,841)
  65 years and over: 19.7% (male 4,771,858/female 6,678,169) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 42.2 years
  male: 40.7 years
  female: 43.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.04% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.06 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.42 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.81 years
  male: 76.88 years
  female: 82.94 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.5% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  140,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Italian(s)
  adjective: Italian

Ethnic groups:
  Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and
  Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and
  Greek-Italians in the south)

Religions:
  approximately 90% Roman Catholic (about one-third regularly attend
  services); mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing
  Muslim immigrant community

Languages:
  Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are
  predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking
  minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking
  minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99%
  female: 98.3% (2003 est.)

Government Italy


Country name:
  conventional long form: Italian Republic
  conventional short form: Italy
  local long form: Repubblica Italiana
  local short form: Italia
  former: Kingdom of Italy

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Rome
  geographic coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 29 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  15 regions (regioni, singular - regione) and 5 autonomous regions*
  (regioni autonome, singular - regione autonoma); Abruzzo,
  Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia
  Giulia*, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte,
  Puglia, Sardegna*, Sicilia*, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige*, Umbria,
  Valle d'Aosta*, Veneto

Independence:
  17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed; Italy was not finally
  unified until 1870)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 2 June (1946)

Constitution:
  passed 11 December 1947, effective 1 January 1948; amended many
  times

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; appeals treated as new trials; judicial
  review under certain conditions in Constitutional Court; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal (except in senatorial elections, where
  minimum age is 25)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Giorgio NAPOLITANO (since 15 May 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister (referred to in Italy as the
  president of the Council of Ministers) Romano PRODI (since 17 May
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  approved by the president
  elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of
  both houses of parliament and 58 regional representatives for a
  seven-year term (no term limits); election last held 10 May 2006
  (next to be held May 2013); prime minister appointed by the
  president and confirmed by parliament
  election results: Giorgio NAPOLITANO elected president on the fourth
  round of voting; electoral college vote - 543

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlamento consists of the Senate or Senato
  della Repubblica (315 seats; elected by proportional vote with the
  winning coalition in each region receiving 55% of seats from that
  region; members serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies
  or Camera dei Deputati (630 seats; elected by popular vote with the
  winning national coalition receiving 54% of chamber seats; members
  serve five-year terms); note - electoral vote reform passed in
  December 2005
  elections: Senate - last held 10 April 2006 (next to be held in
  2011); Chamber of Deputies - last held 10 April 2006 (next to be
  held May 2011)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - The Union 158 (DS 62, DL 39, RC 27, Together with the Union
  11, other 19), House of Freedoms 154 (FI 79, AN 41, UDC 21, LEGA
  13), other 3; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - The Union 348 (DS 220, RC 41, Rose in the Fist 18,
  Italy of Values 17, PdCI 16, Greens Federation 15, UDEUR 10, other
  11), House of Freedoms 276 (FI 140, AN 71, Union of Christian and
  Center Democrats 39, LEGA 26), other 6

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court or Corte Costituzionale (composed of 15
  judges: one-third appointed by the president, one-third elected by
  parliament, one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative
  Supreme Courts)

Political parties and leaders:
  Center-Left Union Coalition [Romano PRODI]: Ulivo Alliance
  (including Democrats of the Left or DS [Piero FASSINO];
  Daisy-Democracy is Freedom or DL [Francesco RUTELLI]); Rose in the
  Fist (including Italian Social Democrats or SDI [Enrico BOSELLI];
  Italian Radical Party [Emma BONINO]); Italian Communist Party or
  PdCI [Oliviero DILIBERTO]; Green Federation [Alfonso PECORARO
  SCANIO]; Communist Renewal or RC [Fausto BERTINOTTI]; Italy of
  Values or IdV [Antonio DI PIETRO]; Union of Democrats for Europe or
  UDEUR [Clemente MASTELLA]; Republican European Movement or MRE
  [Luciana SBARBATI]
  Center-Right Freedom House Coalition [Silvio BERLUSCONI]: Forza
  Italia or FI [Silvio BERLUSCONI]; National Alliance or AN
  [Gianfranco FINI]; Union of Christian Democrats of the Center or UDC
  [Pier Ferdinando CASINI]; Northern League or LEGA [Umberto BOSSI];
  Christian Democracy (Per la Autonomie) [Publio FIORI]
  other non-allied parties: New Italian Socialist Party or New PSI
  [Gianni DE MICHELIS]; Italian Republican Party or PRI [Giorgio LA
  MALFA]; Social Alternative [Alessandra MUSSOLINI]; Social
  Movement-Tricolor Flame or MSI-Fiamma [Luca ROMAGNOLI]; Social Idea
  Movement with Rauti or MIS [Pino RAUTI]; South Tyrol People's Party
  or SVP (German speakers) [Elmar Pichler ROLLE]; Union of Valley
  Aosta Region or UV [Guido CESAL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Italian manufacturers and merchants associations (Confindustria,
  Confcommercio); organized farm groups (Confcoltivatori,
  Confagricoltura); Roman Catholic Church; three major trade union
  confederations (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro or CGIL
  [Guglielmo EPIFANI] which is left wing, Confederazione Italiana dei
  Sindacati Lavoratori or CISL [Savino PEZZOTTA], which is Roman
  Catholic centrist, and Unione Italiana del Lavoro or UIL [Luigi
  ANGELETTI] which is lay centrist)

International organization participation:
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS (observer),
  CDB, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 7, G- 8,
  G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG,
  OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI (observer),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMOGIP, UNRWA, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Giovanni CASTELLANETA
  chancery: 3000 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 612-4400
  FAX: [1] (202) 518-2151
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Los
  Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Detroit

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald P. SPOGLI
  embassy: Via Vittorio Veneto 121, 00187-Rome
  mailing address: PSC 59, Box 100, APO AE 09624
  telephone: [39] (06) 46741
  FAX: [39] (06) 488-2672, 4674-2356
  consulate(s) general: Florence, Milan, Naples

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red;
  similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and is green (hoist
  side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the Cote
  d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side),
  white, and green
  note: inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in
  1797

Economy Italy


Economy - overview:
  Italy has a diversified industrial economy with roughly the same
  total and per capita output as France and the UK. This capitalistic
  economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, dominated
  by private companies, and a less-developed, welfare-dependent,
  agricultural south, with 20% unemployment. Most raw materials needed
  by industry and more than 75% of energy requirements are imported.
  Over the past decade, Italy has pursued a tight fiscal policy in
  order to meet the requirements of the Economic and Monetary Unions
  and has benefited from lower interest and inflation rates. The
  current government has enacted numerous short-term reforms aimed at
  improving competitiveness and long-term growth. Italy has moved
  slowly, however, on implementing needed structural reforms, such as
  lightening the high tax burden and overhauling Italy's rigid labor
  market and over-generous pension system, because of the current
  economic slowdown and opposition from labor unions. But the
  leadership faces a severe economic constraint: the budget deficit
  has breached the 3% EU ceiling. The economy experienced almost no
  growth in 2005, and unemployment remained at a high level.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.667 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.71 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $28,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 29.1%
  services: 68.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  24.49 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 32%
  services: 63% (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 26.6% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $785.7 billion
  expenditures: $861.5 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  108.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain,
  olives; beef, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing,
  textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

Industrial production growth rate:
  -1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  270.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 78.6%
  hydro: 18.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  302.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  500 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  51.5 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  136,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  456,600 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  2.158 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  586.6 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  13.55 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  76.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  61 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  54.78 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  226.5 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-26.38 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $371.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery,
  motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and
  tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals

Exports - partners:
  Germany 13.1%, France 12.3%, US 8.1%, Spain 7.4%, UK 6.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $369.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy
  products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing;
  food, beverages, and tobacco

Imports - partners:
  Germany 17.2%, France 9.9%, Netherlands 5.7%, China 4.6%, Belgium
  4.5%, Spain 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $65.95 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $922.5 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1 billion (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Italy


Telephones - main lines in use:
  25.049 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  72.2 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern, well developed, fast; fully automated
  telephone, telex, and data services
  domestic: high-capacity cable and microwave radio relay trunks
  international: country code - 39; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (with a total of 5 antennas - 3 for Atlantic Ocean and 2
  for Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and NA
  Eutelsat; 21 submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM about 100, FM about 4,600, shortwave 9 (1998)

Radios:
  50.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  358 (plus 4,728 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  30.3 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .it

Internet hosts:
  1,731,165 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  93 (Italy and Holy See) (2000)

Internet users:
  28.87 million (2005)

Transportation Italy


Airports:
  133 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 98
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 30
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 14 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Heliports:
  5 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 17,589 km; oil 1,136 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 19,459 km
  standard gauge: 18,037 km 1.435-m gauge (11,354 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 123 km 1.000-m gauge (122 km electrified); 1,299 km
  0.950-m gauge (161 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 479,688 km
  paved: 479,688 km (including 6,478 km of expressways) (2004)

Waterways:
  2,400 km
  note: used for commercial traffic; of limited overall value compared
  to road and rail (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 591 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,737,175 GRT/12,573,225 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 52, cargo 45, chemical tanker 136, container
  25, liquefied gas 37, livestock carrier 3, passenger 16,
  passenger/cargo 150, petroleum tanker 49, refrigerated cargo 4, roll
  on/roll off 33, specialized tanker 13, vehicle carrier 28
  foreign-owned: 36 (France 1, Greece 6, Spain 1, Taiwan 10, UK 3, US
  15)
  registered in other countries: 152 (Bahamas 5, Belize 4, Cayman
  Islands 12, Cyprus 2, France 2, Germany 1, Gibraltar 6, Isle of Man
  5, Jamaica 1, Liberia 16, Malta 29, Marshall Islands 1, Norway 4,
  Panama 15, Portugal 12, Romania 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  18, Singapore 2, Spain 2, Sweden 7, Turkey 3, UK 4) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Augusta, Genoa, Livorno, Melilli Oil Terminal, Ravenna, Taranto,
  Trieste, Venice

Military Italy


Military branches:
  Army (Esercito Italiano, EI), Navy (Marina Militare Italiana, MMI),
  Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana, AMI), Carabinieri Corps
  (Corpo dei Carabinieri, CC) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  voluntary military service; conscription abolished January 2005
  (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 13,491,260
  females age 18-49: 12,886,033 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,963,513
  females age 18-49: 10,452,189 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 286,344
  females age 18-49: 270,099 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $28,182.8 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.8% (2004)

Transnational Issues Italy


Disputes - international:
  Italy's long coastline and developed economy entices tens of
  thousands of illegal immigrants from southeastern Europe and
  northern Africa

Illicit drugs:
  important gateway for and consumer of Latin American cocaine and
  Southwest Asian heroin entering the European market; money
  laundering by organized crime and from smuggling


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Jamaica

Introduction Jamaica


Background:
  The island - discovered by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1494 - was
  settled by the Spanish early in the 16th century. The native Taino
  Indians, who had inhabited Jamaica for centuries, were gradually
  exterminated, replaced by African slaves. England siezed the island
  in 1655 and a plantation economy - based on sugar, cocoa, and coffee
  - was established. The abolition of slavery in 1834 freed a quarter
  million slaves, many of which became small farmers. Jamaica
  gradually obtained increasing independence from Britain, and in 1958
  it joined other British Caribbean colonies in forming the Federation
  of the West Indies. Jamaica gained full independence when it
  withdrew from the federation in 1962. Deteriorating economic
  conditions during the 1970s led to recurrent violence as rival gangs
  created by the major political parties evolved into powerful
  organized crime networks involved in international drug smuggling
  and money laundering. The cycle of violence, drugs, and poverty has
  served to impoverish large sectors of the populace. Nonetheless,
  many rural and resort areas remain relatively safe and contribute
  substantially to the economy.

Geography Jamaica


Location:
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba

Geographic coordinates:
  18 15 N, 77 30 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 10,991 sq km
  land: 10,831 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,022 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; temperate interior

Terrain:
  mostly mountains, with narrow, discontinuous coastal plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Blue Mountain Peak 2,256 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, gypsum, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 15.83%
  permanent crops: 10.01%
  other: 74.16% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  250 sq km (2002)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes (especially July to November)

Environment - current issues:
  heavy rates of deforestation; coastal waters polluted by industrial
  waste, sewage, and oil spills; damage to coral reefs; air pollution
  in Kingston results from vehicle emissions

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location between Cayman Trench and Jamaica Channel, the
  main sea lanes for the Panama Canal

People Jamaica


Population:
  2,758,124 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 33.1% (male 464,297/female 449,181)
  15-64 years: 59.6% (male 808,718/female 835,394)
  65 years and over: 7.3% (male 90,100/female 110,434) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23 years
  male: 22.4 years
  female: 23.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.8% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.52 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -6.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 15.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.24 years
  male: 71.54 years
  female: 75.03 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  22,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  900 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Jamaican(s)
  adjective: Jamaican

Ethnic groups:
  black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%, mixed
  7.3%, other 0.1%

Religions:
  Protestant 61.3% (Church of God 21.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist 9%,
  Baptist 8.8%, Pentecostal 7.6%, Anglican 5.5%, Methodist 2.7%,
  United Church 2.7%, Jehovah's Witness 1.6%, Brethren 1.1%, Moravian
  1.1%), Roman Catholic 4%, other including some spiritual cults 34.7%

Languages:
  English, patois English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 87.9%
  male: 84.1%
  female: 91.6% (2003 est.)

Government Jamaica


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Jamaica

Government type:
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Kingston
  geographic coordinates: 18 00 N, 76 48 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 parishes; Clarendon, Hanover, Kingston, Manchester, Portland,
  Saint Andrew, Saint Ann, Saint Catherine, Saint Elizabeth, Saint
  James, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Trelawny, Westmoreland
  note: for local government purposes, Kingston and Saint Andrew were
  amalgamated in 1923 into the present single corporate body known as
  the Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation

Independence:
  6 August 1962 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 August (1962)

Constitution:
  6 August 1962

Legal system:
  based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Kenneth O. HALL (since 15 February
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Portia SIMPSON-MILLER (since 30
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime
  minister; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition in the House
  of Representatives is appointed prime minister by the governor
  general; the deputy prime minister is recommended by the prime
  minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (a 21-member body
  appointed by the governor general on the recommendations of the
  prime minister and the leader of the opposition; ruling party is
  allocated 13 seats, and the opposition is allocated eight seats) and
  the House of Representatives (60 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 16 October 2002 (next to be held no later than
  October 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PNP 52%, JLP 47.3%;
  seats by party - PNP 34, JLP 26

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the governor general on the
  advice of the prime minister); Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  Jamaica Labor Party or JLP [Bruce GOLDING]; National Democratic
  Movement or NDM [Hyacinth BENNETT]; People's National Party or PNP
  [Percival James PATTERSON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  New Beginnings Movement or NBM; Rastafarians (black
  religious/racial cultists, pan-Africanists)

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-15, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gordon SHIRLEY
  chancery: 1520 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-0660
  FAX: [1] (202) 452-0081
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Brenda LaGrange JOHNSON
  embassy: Mutual Life Building, 2 Oxford Road, 3rd floor, Kingston 5
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [1] (876) 929-4850 through 4859
  FAX: [1] (876) 935-6001

Flag description:
  diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles - green
  (top and bottom) and black (hoist side and outer side)

Economy Jamaica


Economy - overview:
  The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which now
  account for 60% of GDP. The country continues to derive most of its
  foreign exchange from remittances, tourism, and bauxite/alumina. The
  global economic slowdown, particularly after the terrorist attacks
  in the US on 11 September 2001, stunted economic growth; the economy
  rebounded moderately in 2003-04, with brisk tourist seasons. But the
  economy faces serious long-term problems: high interest rates,
  increased foreign competition, exchange rate instability, a sizable
  merchandise trade deficit, large-scale unemployment and
  underemployment, and a growing stock of internal debt - the result
  of government bailouts to ailing sectors of the economy, most
  notably the financial sector in the mid-1990s. The ratio of debt to
  GDP is 135%. Inflation, previously a bright spot, is expected to
  remain in the double digits. Uncertain economic conditions have led
  to increased civil unrest, including gang violence fueled by the
  drug trade. In 2004, the government faced the difficult prospect of
  having to achieve fiscal discipline in order to maintain debt
  payments while simultaneously attacking a serious and growing crime
  problem that is hampering economic growth. Attempts at deficit
  control were derailed by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, which
  required substantial government spending to repair the damage.
  Despite the hurricane, tourism looks set to enjoy solid growth for
  the foreseeable future.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $12.18 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.127 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4.9%
  industry: 33.7%
  services: 61.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.2 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 19.3%
  industry: 16.6%
  services: 64.1% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  11.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  19.1% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.7%
  highest 10%: 30.3% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  37.9 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  32.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.8 billion
  expenditures: $3.21 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $180.4 million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  128.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus, yams, ackees, vegetables;
  poultry, goats, milk; crustaceans, mollusks

Industries:
  tourism, bauxite/alumina, agro processing, light manufactures, rum,
  cement, metal, paper, chemical products, telecommunications

Industrial production growth rate:
  -2% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.717 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 96.8%
  hydro: 1.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.974 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

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

Oil - consumption:
  69,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-974 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.608 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, rum, coffee, yams, beverages,
  chemicals, wearing apparel, mineral fuels

Exports - partners:
  US 25.8%, Canada 19.3%, UK 10.7%, Netherlands 8.6%, China 7%,
  Norway 6.4%, Germany 5.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.093 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food and other consumer goods, industrial supplies, fuel, parts and
  accessories of capital goods, machinery and transport equipment,
  construction materials

Imports - partners:
  US 41.4%, Trinidad and Tobago 14%, Venezuela 5.5%, Japan 4.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.17 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $7.162 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $18.5 million; note - US aid only (2004)

Currency (code):
  Jamaican dollar (JMD)

Currency code:
  JMD

Exchange rates:
  Jamaican dollars per US dollar - 62.51 (2005), 61.197 (2004),
  57.741 (2003), 48.416 (2002), 45.996 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Jamaica


Telephones - main lines in use:
  342,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.7 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fully automatic domestic telephone network
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-876; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); 3 coaxial submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 10, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  1.215 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  7 (1997)

Televisions:
  460,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .jm

Internet hosts:
  1,402 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  21 (2000)

Internet users:
  1.067 million (2005)

Transportation Jamaica


Airports:
  35 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 272 km
  standard gauge: 272 km 1.435-m gauge
  note: 207 of these km belonging to the Jamaica Railway Corporation
  had been in common carrier service until 1992 but are no longer
  operational; 57 km of the remaining track is privately owned and
  used by ALCAN to transport bauxite (2003)

Roadways:
  total: 18,700 km
  paved: 13,009 km
  unpaved: 5,610 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 10 ships (1000 GRT or over) 124,323 GRT/184,247 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 5, cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll
  off 2
  foreign-owned: 10 (Germany 3, Greece 6, Italy 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Kingston, Port Esquivel, Port Kaiser, Port Rhoades, Rocky Point

Military Jamaica


Military branches:
  Jamaica Defense Force: Ground Forces, Coast Guard, Air Wing

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; younger recruits
  may be conscripted with parental consent (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 592,018
  females age 18-49: 616,500 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 478,761
  females age 18-49: 504,541 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 27,923
  females age 18-49: 27,889 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $31.17 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.4% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Jamaica


Disputes - international:
  none

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Jamaica is a source country for men, women, and
  children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and
  labor; information suggests that women from the Dominican Republic
  and Eastern Europe are also trafficked to Jamaica for sexual
  exploitation; women and children are trafficked internally from
  rural to urban and tourist areas for sexual exploitation; there may
  also be trafficking for domestic servitude and forced labor
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Jamaica is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List based on the determination that it is making significant
  efforts to undertake future action

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North America
  and Europe; illicit cultivation of cannabis; government has an
  active manual cannabis eradication program; corruption is a major
  concern; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics
  traffickers favor Jamaica for illicit financial transactions


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Jan Mayen

Introduction Jan Mayen


Background:
  This desolate, mountainous island was named after a Dutch whaling
  captain who indisputably discovered it in 1614 (earlier claims are
  inconclusive). Visited only occasionally by seal hunters and
  trappers over the following centuries, the island came under
  Norwegian sovereignty in 1929. The long dormant Haakon VII
  Toppen/Beerenberg volcano resumed activity in 1970; it is the
  northernmost active volcano on earth.

Geography Jan Mayen


Location:
  Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the Norwegian
  Sea, northeast of Iceland

Geographic coordinates:
  71 00 N, 8 00 W

Map references:
  Arctic Region

Area:
  total: 377 sq km
  land: 377 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  124.1 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 4 nm
  contiguous zone: 10 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  arctic maritime with frequent storms and persistent fog

Terrain:
  volcanic island, partly covered by glaciers

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Norwegian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg 2,277 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  dominated by the volcano Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg; volcanic
  activity resumed in 1970

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  barren volcanic island with some moss and grass

People Jan Mayen


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: personnel operate the Long Range Navigation (Loran-C) base and
  the weather and coastal services radio station (July 2006 est.)

Government Jan Mayen


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Jan Mayen

Dependency status:
  territory of Norway; since August 1994, administered from Oslo
  through the county governor (fylkesmann) of Nordland; however,
  authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian
  Defense Communication Service

Legal system:
  the laws of Norway, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of Norway is used

Economy Jan Mayen


Economy - overview:
  Jan Mayen is a volcanic island with no exploitable natural
  resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for
  employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations on the
  island.

Communications Jan Mayen


Radio broadcast stations:
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
  note: there is one radio and meteorological station (1998)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  13 (Jan Mayen and Svalbard) (2000)

Transportation Jan Mayen


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Jan Mayen


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Norway

Transnational Issues Jan Mayen


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Japan

Introduction Japan


Background:
  In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a
  long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure
  its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy
  stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the
  Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854, Japan opened its ports and
  began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late
  19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that
  was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied
  Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32
  Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale
  invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering
  America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East
  and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan
  recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US.
  While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity,
  actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats,
  and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown
  starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented
  growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia
  and globally. In 2005, Japan began a two-year term as a
  non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Geography Japan


Location:
  Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the
  Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula

Geographic coordinates:
  36 00 N, 138 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 377,835 sq km
  land: 374,744 sq km
  water: 3,091 sq km
  note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto,
  Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and
  Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto)

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than California

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  29,751 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the international
  straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Eastern and
  Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north

Terrain:
  mostly rugged and mountainous

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m
  highest point: Mount Fuji 3,776 m

Natural resources:
  negligible mineral resources, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 11.64%
  permanent crops: 0.9%
  other: 87.46% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  25,920 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic
  occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain;
  acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and
  threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of
  fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these
  resources in Asia and elsewhere

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

Geography - note:
  strategic location in northeast Asia

People Japan


Population:
  127,463,611 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.2% (male 9,309,524/female 8,849,476)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 42,158,122/female 41,611,754)
  65 years and over: 20% (male 10,762,585/female 14,772,150) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 42.9 years
  male: 41.1 years
  female: 44.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.02% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.16 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 81.25 years
  male: 77.96 years
  female: 84.7 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  12,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Japanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Japanese

Ethnic groups:
  Japanese 99%, others 1% (Korean 511,262, Chinese 244,241, Brazilian
  182,232, Filipino 89,851, other 237,914)
  note: up to 230,000 Brazilians of Japanese origin migrated to Japan
  in the 1990s to work in industries; some have returned to Brazil
  (2004)

Religions:
  observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including
  Christian 0.7%)

Languages:
  Japanese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2002)

Government Japan


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Japan
  local long form: Nihon-koku/Nippon-koku
  local short form: Nihon/Nippon

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government

Capital:
  name: Tokyo
  geographic coordinates: 35 42 N, 139 46 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui, Fukuoka,
  Fukushima, Gifu, Gunma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Ibaraki,
  Ishikawa, Iwate, Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kanagawa, Kochi, Kumamoto,
  Kyoto, Mie, Miyagi, Miyazaki, Nagano, Nagasaki, Nara, Niigata, Oita,
  Okayama, Okinawa, Osaka, Saga, Saitama, Shiga, Shimane, Shizuoka,
  Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Tottori, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamagata,
  Yamaguchi, Yamanashi

Independence:
  660 B.C. (traditional founding by Emperor JIMMU)

National holiday:
  Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (1933)

Constitution:
  3 May 1947

Legal system:
  modeled after European civil law system with English-American
  influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

Suffrage:
  20 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Emperor AKIHITO (since 7 January 1989)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shinzo ABE (since 26 September
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: Diet designates prime minister; constitution requires
  that prime minister commands parliamentary majority; following
  legislative elections, leader of majority party or leader of
  majority coalition in House of Representatives usually becomes prime
  minister; monarch is hereditary
  election results: ABE was elected prime minister with 339 of 476
  votes cast in the House of Representatives and 136 of 240 votes cast
  in the House of Councilors.

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Diet or Kokkai consists of the House of Councillors or
  Sangi-in (242 seats - members elected for six-year terms; half
  reelected every three years; 146 members in multi-seat
  constituencies and 96 by proportional representation) and the House
  of Representatives or Shugi-in (480 seats - members elected for
  four-year terms; 300 in single-seat constituencies; 180 members by
  proportional representation in 11 regional blocs)
  elections: House of Councillors - last held 11 July 2004 (next to be
  held in July 2007); House of Representatives - last held 11
  September 2005 (next election by September 2009)
  election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - LDP 115, DPJ 82, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 5,
  others 7; distribution of seats as of January 2006 - LDP 112, DPJ
  83, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 6, others 8
  : House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - LDP 47.8%,
  DPJ 36.4%, others 15.8%; seats by party - LDP 296, DPJ 113, Komeito
  31, JCP 9, SDP 7, others 24; distribution of seats as of January
  2006 - LDP 294, DPJ 112, Komeito 31, JCP 9, SDP 7, others 27 (2006)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the monarch after
  designation by the cabinet; all other justices are appointed by the
  cabinet)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party of Japan or DPJ [Ichiro OZAWA]; Japan Communist
  Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII]; Komeito [Akihoro OTA]; Liberal Democratic
  Party or LDP [Shinzo ABE]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Mizuho
  FUKUSHIMA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia
  Group, BIS, CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, G-5,
  G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, LAIA, MIGA, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC (observer), SECI
  (observer), UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNDOF,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMOVIC, UNRWA, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ryozo KATO
  chancery: 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2187
  consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver,
  Detroit, Agana (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New
  Orleans, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador J. Thomas SCHIEFFER
  embassy: 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420
  mailing address: Unit 45004, Box 258, APO AP 96337-5004
  telephone: [81] (03) 3224-5000
  FAX: [81] (03) 3505-1862
  consulate(s) general: Naha (Okinawa), Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo
  consulate(s): Fukuoka, Nagoya

Flag description:
  white with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in
  the center

Economy Japan


Economy - overview:
  Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of
  high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of
  GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of
  second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the
  US and the third-largest economy in the world after the US and
  China, measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. One
  notable characteristic of the economy is how manufacturers,
  suppliers, and distributors work together in closely-knit groups
  called keiretsu. A second basic feature has been the guarantee of
  lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labor
  force. Both features are now eroding. Japan's industrial sector is
  heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. The tiny
  agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop
  yields among the highest in the world. Usually self sufficient in
  rice, Japan must import about 60% of its food on a caloric basis.
  Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and
  accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades,
  overall real economic growth had been spectacular - a 10% average in
  the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s.
  Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s, averaging just 1.7%, largely
  because of the after effects of overinvestment during the late 1980s
  and contractionary domestic policies intended to wring speculative
  excesses from the stock and real estate markets and to force a
  restructuring of the economy. From 2000 to 2003, government efforts
  to revive economic growth met with little success and were further
  hampered by the slowing of the US, European, and Asian economies. In
  2004 and 2005, growth improved and the lingering fears of deflation
  in prices and economic activity lessened. Japan's huge government
  debt, which totals 170% of GDP, and the aging of the population are
  two major long-run problems. Some fear that a rise in taxes could
  endanger the current economic recovery. Internal conflict over the
  proper way to reform the financial system will continue as Japan
  Post's banking, insurance, and delivery services undergo
  privatization between 2007 and 2017.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.025 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.664 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $31,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.7%
  industry: 25.8%
  services: 72.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  66.4 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.6%
  industry: 27.8%
  services: 67.7% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  4.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.8%
  highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  37.9 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.429 trillion
  expenditures: $1.775 trillion; including capital expenditures
  (public works only) of about $71 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  158% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy
  products, eggs; fish

Industries:
  among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of
  motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and
  nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.017 trillion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 60%
  hydro: 8.4%
  nuclear: 29.8%
  other: 1.8% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  946.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  120,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  93,360 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  5.449 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  29.29 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  2.814 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  86.51 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  77.73 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  39.64 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $165.6 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $550.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  transport equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors, electrical
  machinery, chemicals

Exports - partners:
  US 22.9%, China 13.4%, South Korea 7.8%, Taiwan 7.3%, Hong Kong
  6.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $451.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles,
  raw materials (2001)

Imports - partners:
  China 21%, US 12.7%, Saudi Arabia 5.5%, UAE 4.9%, Australia 4.7%,
  South Korea 4.7%, Indonesia 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $835.5 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.545 trillion (31 December 2004)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $8.9 billion (2004)

Currency (code):
  yen (JPY)

Currency code:
  JPY

Exchange rates:
  yen per US dollar - 110.22 (2005), 108.19 (2004), 115.93 (2003),
  125.39 (2002), 121.53 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Japan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  58.78 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  94.745 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international service
  domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of
  every kind
  international: country code - 81; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region), and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean
  regions); submarine cables to China, Philippines, Russia, and US
  (via Guam) (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 215 plus 370 repeaters, FM 89 plus 485 repeaters, shortwave 21
  (2001)

Radios:
  120.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  211 plus 7,341 repeaters
  note: in addition, US Forces are served by 3 TV stations and 2 TV
  cable services (1999)

Televisions:
  86.5 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .jp

Internet hosts:
  28,321,846 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  73 (2000)

Internet users:
  86.3 million (2005)

Transportation Japan


Airports:
  175 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 145
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 41
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 39
  914 to 1,523 m: 28
  under 914 m: 30 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 30
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Heliports:
  15 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 8,015 km; oil 170 km; oil/gas/water 60 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 23,556 km
  standard gauge: 3,204 km 1.435-m gauge (3,204 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 77 km 1.372-m gauge (77 km electrified); 20,264 km
  1.067-m gauge (13,280 km electrified); 11 km 0.762-m gauge (11 km
  electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 1.183 million km
  paved: 925,000 km (including 6,946 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 258,000 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,770 km (seagoing vessels use inland seas) (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 683 ships (1000 GRT or over) 10,415,892 GRT/11,765,038 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 134, cargo 30, chemical tanker 20, container
  11, liquefied gas 59, passenger 14, passenger/cargo 149, petroleum
  tanker 156, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 51, vehicle
  carrier 56
  registered in other countries: 2,459 (Australia 1, Bahamas 51,
  Belize 2, Burma 4, Cambodia 4, Cayman Islands 1, China 3, Cyprus 17,
  French Southern and Antarctic Lands 4, Honduras 4, Hong Kong 67,
  Indonesia 3, Isle of Man 4, South Korea 1, Liberia 102, Malaysia 4,
  Malta 1, Marshall Islands 7, Mongolia 1, Norway 1, Panama 2007,
  Philippines 26, Portugal 9, Singapore 100, Sweden 2, Thailand 4,
  Vanuatu 28, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Chiba, Kawasaki, Kiire, Kisarazu, Kobe, Mizushima, Nagoya, Osaka,
  Tokyo, Yohohama

Military Japan


Military branches:
  Japanese Defense Agency (JDA): Ground Self-Defense Force (Rikujou
  Jietai, GSDF), Maritime Self-Defense Force (Kaijou Jietai, MSDF),
  Air Self-Defense Force (Nihon Koku-Jieitai, ASDF) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 27,003,112
  females age 18-49: 26,153,482 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 22,234,663
  females age 18-49: 21,494,947 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 683,147
  females age 18-49: 650,157 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $44.31 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Japan


Disputes - international:
  the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and
  Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern
  Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kuril Islands," occupied
  by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia and claimed
  by Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace
  treaty formally ending World War II hostilities; Japan and South
  Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Tok-do) occupied by South
  Korea since 1954; China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims to
  the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and
  Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East
  China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Jersey

Introduction Jersey


Background:
  Jersey and the other Channel Islands represent the last remnants of
  the medieval Dukedom of Normandy that held sway in both France and
  England. These islands were the only British soil occupied by German
  troops in World War II. Jersey is a British crown dependency, but is
  not part of the UK.

Geography Jersey


Location:
  Western Europe, island in the English Channel, northwest of France

Geographic coordinates:
  49 15 N, 2 10 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 116 sq km
  land: 116 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about two-thirds the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  70 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Climate:
  temperate; mild winters and cool summers

Terrain:
  gently rolling plain with low, rugged hills along north coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 143 m

Natural resources:
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  largest and southernmost of Channel Islands; about 30% of
  population concentrated in Saint Helier

People Jersey


Population:
  91,084 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.2% (male 8,139/female 7,552)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 30,407/female 30,691)
  65 years and over: 15.7% (male 6,299/female 7,996) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 41.4 years
  male: 40.7 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.28% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.38 years
  male: 76.89 years
  female: 82.05 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Channel Islander(s)
  adjective: Channel Islander

Ethnic groups:
  Jersey 51.1%, British 34.8%, Irish, French, and other white 6.6%,
  Portuguese/Madeiran 6.4%, other 1.1% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational New Church,
  Methodist, Presbyterian

Languages:
  English 94.5% (official), Portuguese 4.6%, other 0.9% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Government Jersey


Country name:
  conventional long form: Bailiwick of Jersey
  conventional short form: Jersey

Dependency status:
  British crown dependency

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Saint Helier
  geographic coordinates: 49 12 N, 2 07 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (British crown dependency)

Independence:
  none (British crown dependency)

National holiday:
  Liberation Day, 9 May (1945)

Constitution:
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Legal system:
  English law and local statute; justice is administered by the Royal
  Court

Suffrage:
  NA years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Lieutenant Governor Andrew RIDGEWAY (since 14
  June 2006); Bailiff Philip Martin BAILHACHE (since February 1995)
  cabinet: committees appointed by the Assembly of the States
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor and
  bailiff appointed by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly of the States (55 voting members - 12 senators
  (elected for six-year terms), 12 constables or heads of parishes
  (elected for three-year terms), 29 deputies (elected for three-year
  terms); the bailiff and the deputy bailiff; and three non-voting
  members - the Dean of Jersey, the Attorney General, and the
  Solicitor General all appointed by the monarch)
  elections: last held NA (next to be held NA); note - on 23 November
  2005, 29 deputies, independents, were elected
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 55

Judicial branch:
  Royal Court (judges elected by an electoral college and the bailiff)

Political parties and leaders:
  none; all independents

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (British crown dependency)

Flag description:
  white with a diagonal red cross extending to the corners of the
  flag; in the upper quadrant, surmounted by a yellow crown, a red
  shield with the three lions of England in yellow

Economy Jersey


Economy - overview:
  Jersey's economy is based on international financial services,
  agriculture, and tourism. In 1996, the finance sector accounted for
  about 60% of the island's output. Potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes,
  and especially flowers are important export crops, shipped mostly to
  the UK. The Jersey breed of dairy cattle is known worldwide and
  represents an important export income earner. Milk products go to
  the UK and other EU countries. Tourism accounts for 24% of GDP. In
  recent years, the government has encouraged light industry to locate
  in Jersey, with the result that an electronics industry has
  developed alongside the traditional manufacturing of knitwear. All
  raw material and energy requirements are imported, as well as a
  large share of Jersey's food needs. Light taxes and death duties
  make the island a popular tax haven. Living standards come close to
  those of the UK.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.6 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $40,000 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 2%
  services: 93% (1996)

Labor force:
  52,790 (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  0.9% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.3% (2004)

Budget:
  revenues: $601 million
  expenditures: $588 million; including capital expenditures of $98
  million (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  tourism, banking and finance, dairy

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - consumption:
  630.1 million kWh (2004 est.)

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by France

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  light industrial and electrical goods, foodstuffs, textiles

Exports - partners:
  UK (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, foodstuffs,
  mineral fuels, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  UK (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $0

Currency (code):
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Jersey pound

Currency code:
  GBP

Exchange rates:
  Jersey pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Jersey pound is at par with the British pound

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Jersey


Telephones - main lines in use:
  73,900 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  83,900 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: 3 submarine cables

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM NA, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1997)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .je

Internet hosts:
  1,240 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  27,000 (2005)

Transportation Jersey


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 577 km

Ports and terminals:
  Gorey, Saint Aubin, Saint Helier

Military Jersey


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Jersey


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Jordan

Introduction Jordan


Background:
  Following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire,
  the UK received a mandate to govern much of the Middle East. Britain
  separated out a semi-autonomous region of Transjordan from Palestine
  in the early 1920s, and the area gained its independence in 1946; it
  adopted the name of Jordan in 1950. The country's long-time ruler
  was King HUSSEIN (1953-99). A pragmatic leader, he successfully
  navigated competing pressures from the major powers (US, USSR, and
  UK), various Arab states, Israel, and a large internal Palestinian
  population, despite several wars and coup attempts. In 1989 he
  reinstituted parliamentary elections and gradual political
  liberalization; in 1994 he signed a peace treaty with Israel. King
  ABDALLAH II, the son of King HUSSEIN, assumed the throne following
  his father's death in February 1999. Since then, he has consolidated
  his power and undertaken an aggressive economic reform program.
  Jordan acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2000, and began to
  participate in the European Free Trade Association in 2001. After a
  two-year delay, parliamentary and municipal elections took place in
  the summer of 2003. The prime minister appointed in November 2005
  stated the government would focus on political reforms, improving
  conditions for the poor, and fighting corruption.

Geography Jordan


Location:
  Middle East, northwest of Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  31 00 N, 36 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 92,300 sq km
  land: 91,971 sq km
  water: 329 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,635 km
  border countries: Iraq 181 km, Israel 238 km, Saudi Arabia 744 km,
  Syria 375 km, West Bank 97 km

Coastline:
  26 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Climate:
  mostly arid desert; rainy season in west (November to April)

Terrain:
  mostly desert plateau in east, highland area in west; Great Rift
  Valley separates East and West Banks of the Jordan River

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Jabal Ram 1,734 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, potash, shale oil

Land use:
  arable land: 3.32%
  permanent crops: 1.18%
  other: 95.5% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  750 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts; periodic earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources; deforestation; overgrazing;
  soil erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba and as the Arab
  country that shares the longest border with Israel and the occupied
  West Bank

People Jordan


Population:
  5,906,760 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 33.8% (male 1,018,070/female 976,442)
  15-64 years: 62.4% (male 1,966,794/female 1,716,255)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 111,636/female 117,563) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23 years
  male: 23.7 years
  female: 22.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.49% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  2.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  6.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.15 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 16.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.4 years
  male: 75.9 years
  female: 81.05 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  600 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Jordanian(s)
  adjective: Jordanian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 98%, Circassian 1%, Armenian 1%

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 92%, Christian 6% (majority Greek Orthodox, but some
  Greek and Roman Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox,
  Armenian Orthodox, and Protestant denominations), other 2% (several
  small Shi'a Muslim and Druze populations) (2001 est.)

Languages:
  Arabic (official), English widely understood among upper and middle
  classes

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.3%
  male: 95.9%
  female: 86.3% (2003 est.)

Government Jordan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  conventional short form: Jordan
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Urduniyah al Hashimiyah
  local short form: Al Urdun
  former: Transjordan

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Amman
  geographic coordinates: 31 57 N, 35 56 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Thursday in March; ends last
  Friday in September

Administrative divisions:
  12 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ajlun, Al
  'Aqabah, Al Balqa', Al Karak, Al Mafraq, 'Amman, At Tafilah, Az
  Zarqa', Irbid, Jarash, Ma'an, Madaba

Independence:
  25 May 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 25 May (1946)

Constitution:
  1 January 1952; amended 1954, 1955, 1958, 1960, 1965, 1973, 1974,
  1976, 1984

Legal system:
  based on Islamic law and French codes; judicial review of
  legislative acts in a specially provided High Tribunal; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King ABDALLAH II (since 7 February 1999); Prince
  HUSSEIN (born 1994), eldest son of King ABDALLAH, is first in line
  to inherit the throne
  head of government: Prime Minister Marouf al-BAKHIT (since 24
  November 2005); Deputy Prime Minister Ziad FARIZ (since 24 November
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister in consultation
  with the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-'Umma consists of the
  Senate, also called the House of Notables (Majlis al-Ayan) (55
  seats; members appointed by the monarch from designated categories
  of public figures; members serve four-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives, also called the House of Deputies (Majlis
  al-Nuwaab) (110 seats; members elected by popular vote on the basis
  of proportional representation to serve four-year terms); note - six
  seats are reserved for women and are allocated by a special
  electoral panel if no women are elected
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 17 June 2003 (next
  to be held in 2007)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - independents and other 89.6%, IAF 10.4%; seats by party -
  independents and other 92, IAF 18; note - one of the six quota seats
  was given to a female IAF candidate
  note: the House of Representatives has been convened and dissolved
  by the monarch several times since 1974; in November 1989, the first
  parliamentary elections in 22 years were held; political parties
  were not legalized until 1992; King ABDALLAH delayed the 2001
  elections until 2003

Judicial branch:
  Court of Cassation; Supreme Court (court of final appeal)

Political parties and leaders:
  al-Ahd Party; Arab Islamic Democratic Movement [Yusuf ABU BAKR,
  president]; Arab Land Party [Dr. Ayishah Salih HIJAZAYN, secretary
  general]; Arab Socialist Ba'th Party [Taysir al-HIMSI, secretary
  general]; Ba'th Arab Progressive Party [Fu'ad DABBUR, secretary
  general]; Freedom Party; Future Party; Islamic Action Front or IAF
  [Zaki Sa'ed BANI IRSHEID, secretary general]; Islamic Center Party
  [Marwan al-FAURI, secretary general]; Jordanian Arab Ansar Party;
  Jordanian Arab New Dawn Party; Jordanian Arab Party; Jordanian
  Citizens' Rights Movement; Jordanian Communist Party [Munir
  HAMARINAH, secretary general]; Jordanian Communist Workers Party;
  Jordanian Democratic Left Party [Musa MA'AYTEH, secretary general];
  Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party [Sa'id Dhiyab Ali MUSTAFA,
  secretary general]; Jordanian Generations Party [Muhammad KHALAYLEH,
  secretary general]; Jordanian Green Party [Muhammad BATAYNEH,
  secretary general]; Jordanian Labor Party [Dr. Mazin Sulayman Jiryis
  HANNA, secretary general]; Jordanian Peace Party; Jordanian People's
  Committees Movement; Jordanian People's Democratic Party (Hashd)
  [Ahmad YUSUF, secretary general]; Jordanian Rafah Party; Jordanian
  Renaissance Party; Mission Party; Nation Party [Ahmad al-HANANDEH,
  secretary general]; National Action Party (Haqq) [Tariq al-KAYYALI,
  secretary general]; National Constitutional Party [Abdul Hadi
  MAJALI, secretary general]; National Popular Democratic Movement
  [Mahmud al-NUWAYHI, secretary general]; Progressive Party [Fawwaz
  al-ZUBI, secretary general]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Anti-Normalization Committee [Ali Abu SUKKAR, president vice
  chairman]; Jordan Bar Association [Hussein Mujalli, chairman];
  Jordanian Press Association [Sayf al-SHARIF, president]; Muslim
  Brotherhood [Salem AL-FALAHAT, secretary general]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OIC, ONUB,
  OPCW, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Karim Tawfiq KAWAR
  chancery: 3504 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-2664
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-3110

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David M. HALE
  embassy: Abdoun, Amman
  mailing address: P. O. Box 354, Amman 11118 Jordan; Unit 70200, Box
  5, APO AE 09892-0200
  telephone: [962] (6) 590-6000
  FAX: [962] (6) 592-0121

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), representing the
  Abbassid Caliphate, white, representing the Ummayyad Caliphate, and
  green, representing the Fatimid Caliphate; a red isosceles triangle
  on the hoist side, representing the Great Arab Revolt of 1916, and
  bearing a small white seven-pointed star symbolizing the seven
  verses of the opening Sura (Al-Fatiha) of the Holy Koran; the seven
  points on the star represent faith in One God, humanity, national
  spirit, humility, social justice, virtue, and aspirations; design is
  based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I

Economy Jordan


Economy - overview:
  Jordan is a small Arab country with inadequate supplies of water
  and other natural resources such as oil. Debt, poverty, and
  unemployment are fundamental problems, but King ABDALLAH, since
  assuming the throne in 1999, has undertaken some broad economic
  reforms in a long-term effort to improve living standards. 'Amman in
  the past three years has worked closely with the IMF, practiced
  careful monetary policy, and made substantial headway with
  privatization. The government also has liberalized the trade regime
  sufficiently to secure Jordan's membership in the WTO (2000), a free
  trade accord with the US (2001), and an association agreement with
  the EU (2001). These measures have helped improve productivity and
  have put Jordan on the foreign investment map. Jordan imported most
  of its oil from Iraq, but the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 made Jordan
  more dependent on oil from other Gulf nations, forcing the Jordanian
  Government to raise retail petroleum product prices and the sales
  tax base. Jordan's export market, which is heavily dependent on
  exports to Iraq, was also affected by the war but recovered quickly
  while contributing to the Iraq recovery effort. The main challenges
  facing Jordan are reducing dependence on foreign grants, reducing
  the budget deficit, and creating investment incentives to promote
  job creation.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $26.85 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $11.51 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 28.7%
  services: 68% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.46 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 12.5%
  services: 82.5% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.5% official rate; unofficial rate is approximately 30% (2004
  est.)

Population below poverty line:
  30% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 29.8% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.4 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.8 billion
  expenditures: $4.688 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $1.092 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  79.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, citrus, tomatoes, melons, olives; sheep, goats,
  poultry

Industries:
  textiles, phosphate mining, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, petroleum
  refining, cement, potash, inorganic chemicals, light manufacturing,
  tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  7.517 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.4%
  hydro: 0.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  7.959 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  972 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  40 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  103,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  100,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  445,000 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  390 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  390 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  6.23 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-1.613 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $4.226 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, phosphates, fertilizers, potash, vegetables,
  manufactures, pharmaceuticals

Exports - partners:
  US 29.4%, Iraq 15.6%, India 8.8%, Saudi Arabia 5.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.681 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  crude oil, textile fabrics, machinery, transport equipment,
  manufactured goods

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 20.9%, China 8%, Germany 7.1%, US 6.2%, South Korea
  4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $5.463 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $8.528 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $500 million (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  Jordanian dinar (JOD)

Currency code:
  JOD

Exchange rates:
  Jordanian dinars per US dollar - 0.709 (2005), 0.709 (2004), 0.709
  (2003), 0.709 (2002), 0.709 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Jordan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  617,300 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,594,500 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: service has improved recently with increased
  use of digital switching equipment, but better access to the
  telephone system is needed in the rural areas and easier access to
  pay telephones is needed by the urban public
  domestic: microwave radio relay transmission and coaxial and
  fiber-optic cable are employed on trunk lines; considerable use of
  mobile cellular systems; Internet service is available
  international: country code - 962; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat, 1 Arabsat, and 29 land and maritime Inmarsat terminals;
  fiber-optic cable to Saudi Arabia and microwave radio relay link
  with Egypt and Syria; connection to international submarine cable
  FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe); participant in MEDARABTEL;
  international links total about 4,000

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (1999)

Radios:
  1.66 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  20 (plus 96 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  500,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .jo

Internet hosts:
  3,441 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2000)

Internet users:
  629,500 (2005)

Transportation Jordan


Airports:
  17 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 426 km; oil 49 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 505 km
  narrow gauge: 505 km 1.050-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 7,364 km
  paved: 7,364 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 25 ships (1000 GRT or over) 346,698 GRT/501,060 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 9, container 2, passenger/cargo 6,
  petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 11 (UAE 11)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Bahamas 2, Panama 13) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Al 'Aqabah

Military Jordan


Military branches:
  Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF): Royal Jordanian Land Force, Royal
  Jordanian Navy, Royal Jordanian Air Force (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya
  al-Malakiya al-Urduniya), Special Operations Command (Socom); Public
  Security Directorate (normally falls under Ministry of Interior, but
  comes under JAF in wartime or crisis situations) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription at age
  18 was suspended in 1999, although all males under age 37 are
  required to register; women not subject to conscription, but can
  volunteer to serve in non-combat military positions (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,573,995
  females age 17-49: 1,346,642 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,348,076
  females age 17-49: 1,158,011 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 60,625
  females age 17-49: 58,218 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  11.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Jordan


Disputes - international:
  2004 Agreement settles border dispute with Syria pending demarcation

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 1,827,877 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA))
  IDPs: 168,000 (1967 Arab-Israeli War) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Kazakhstan

Introduction Kazakhstan


Background:
  Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who
  migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united as
  a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th
  century, and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. During the
  1950s and 1960s agricultural "Virgin Lands" program, Soviet citizens
  were encouraged to help cultivate Kazakhstan's northern pastures.
  This influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some other
  deported nationalities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled
  non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. Independence in 1991 caused many
  of these newcomers to emigrate. Current issues include: developing a
  cohesive national identity; expanding the development of the
  country's vast energy resources and exporting them to world markets;
  achieving a sustainable economic growth outside the oil, gas, and
  mining sectors; and strengthening relations with neighboring states
  and other foreign powers.

Geography Kazakhstan


Location:
  Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural
  River in eastern-most Europe

Geographic coordinates:
  48 00 N, 68 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 2,717,300 sq km
  land: 2,669,800 sq km
  water: 47,500 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than four times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 12,012 km
  border countries: China 1,533 km, Kyrgyzstan 1,051 km, Russia 6,846
  km, Turkmenistan 379 km, Uzbekistan 2,203 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked); note - Kazakhstan borders the Aral Sea, now
  split into two bodies of water (1,070 km), and the Caspian Sea
  (1,894 km)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  continental, cold winters and hot summers, arid and semiarid

Terrain:
  extends from the Volga to the Altai Mountains and from the plains
  in western Siberia to oases and desert in Central Asia

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Vpadina Kaundy -132 m
  highest point: Khan Tangiri Shyngy (Pik Khan-Tengri) 6,995 m

Natural resources:
  major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore,
  manganese, chrome ore, nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, lead,
  zinc, bauxite, gold, uranium

Land use:
  arable land: 8.28%
  permanent crops: 0.05%
  other: 91.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  35,560 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes in the south, mudslides around Almaty

Environment - current issues:
  radioactive or toxic chemical sites associated with former defense
  industries and test ranges scattered throughout the country pose
  health risks for humans and animals; industrial pollution is severe
  in some cities; because the two main rivers which flowed into the
  Aral Sea have been diverted for irrigation, it is drying up and
  leaving behind a harmful layer of chemical pesticides and natural
  salts; these substances are then picked up by the wind and blown
  into noxious dust storms; pollution in the Caspian Sea; soil
  pollution from overuse of agricultural chemicals and salination from
  poor infrastructure and wasteful irrigation practices

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note:
  landlocked; Russia leases approximately 6,000 sq km of territory
  enclosing the Baykonur Cosmodrome; in January 2004, Kazakhstan and
  Russia extended the lease to 2050

People Kazakhstan


Population:
  15,233,244 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23% (male 1,792,685/female 1,717,294)
  15-64 years: 68.8% (male 5,122,027/female 5,357,819)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 438,541/female 804,878) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.8 years
  male: 27.2 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.33% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.55 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 23.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 66.89 years
  male: 61.56 years
  female: 72.52 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  16,500 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Kazakhstani(s)
  adjective: Kazakhstani

Ethnic groups:
  Kazakh (Qazaq) 53.4%, Russian 30%, Ukrainian 3.7%, Uzbek 2.5%,
  German 2.4%, Tatar 1.7%, Uygur 1.4%, other 4.9% (1999 census)

Religions:
  Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%

Languages:
  Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, used in
  everyday business, designated the "language of interethnic
  communication") 95% (2001 est.)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.4%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 97.7% (1999 est.)

Government Kazakhstan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Kazakhstan
  conventional short form: Kazakhstan
  local long form: Qazaqstan Respublikasy
  local short form: Qazaqstan
  former: Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power
  outside the executive branch

Capital:
  name: Astana
  geographic coordinates: 51 10 N, 71 30 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Kazakhstan is divided into three time zones

Administrative divisions:
  14 provinces (oblystar, singular - oblys) and 3 cities* (qala,
  singular - qalasy); Almaty Oblysy, Almaty Qalasy*, Aqmola Oblysy
  (Astana), Aqtobe Oblysy, Astana Qalasy*, Atyrau Oblysy, Batys
  Qazaqstan Oblysy (Oral), Bayqongyr Qalasy*, Mangghystau Oblysy
  (Aqtau), Ongtustik Qazaqstan Oblysy (Shymkent), Pavlodar Oblysy,
  Qaraghandy Oblysy, Qostanay Oblysy, Qyzylorda Oblysy, Shyghys
  Qazaqstan Oblysy (Oskemen), Soltustik Qazaqstan Oblysy
  (Petropavlovsk), Zhambyl Oblysy (Taraz)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses); in 1995, the Governments of
  Kazakhstan and Russia entered into an agreement whereby Russia would
  lease for a period of 20 years an area of 6,000 sq km enclosing the
  Baykonur space launch facilities and the city of Bayqongyr
  (Baykonur, formerly Leninsk); in 2004, a new agreement extended the
  lease to 2050

Independence:
  16 December 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 16 December (1991)

Constitution:
  first post-independence constitution adopted 28 January 1993; new
  constitution adopted by national referendum 30 August 1995

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV (chairman of the
  Supreme Soviet from 22 February 1990, elected president 1 December
  1991)
  head of government: Prime Minister Daniyal AKHMETOV (since 13 June
  2003); Deputy Prime Minister Karim MASIMOV (since 19 January 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 4 December 2005 (next to be
  held in 2012); prime minister and first deputy prime minister
  appointed by the president
  election results: Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV reelected president;
  percent of vote - Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV 91.1%, Zharmakhan A.
  TUYAKBAI 6.6%, Alikhan M. BAIMENOV 1.6%
  note: President NAZARBAYEV arranged a referendum in 1995 that
  extended his term of office and expanded his presidential powers:
  only he can initiate constitutional amendments, appoint and dismiss
  the government, dissolve Parliament, call referenda at his
  discretion, and appoint administrative heads of regions and cities

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (39 seats; 7 senators
  are appointed by the president; other members are elected by local
  government bodies, 2 from each of the 14 oblasts, the capital of
  Astana, and the city of Almaty, to serve six-year terms; note -
  formerly composed of 47 seats) and the Mazhilis (77 seats; 10 out of
  the 77 Mazhilis members are elected from the winning party's lists;
  members are popularly elected to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - (indirect) last held December 2005; next to be
  held in 2011; Mazhilis - last held 19 September and 3 October 2004
  (next to be held in September 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; candidates nominated by local councils; Mazhilis -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Otan 42, AIST 11,
  ASAR (All Together) 4, Aq Zhol (Bright Path) 1, Democratic Party 1
  (party refused to take the seat due to criticism of the election and
  seat remained unoccupied), independent 18; note - most independent
  candidates are affiliated with parastatal enterprises and other
  pro-government institutions

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (44 members); Constitutional Council (7 members)

Political parties and leaders:
  Adilet (Justice) [Maksut NARIKBAYEV, co-chair, Zeynulla
  ALSHIMBAYEV, co-chair, Bakhytbek AKHMETZHAN, co-chair, Yerkin
  ONGARBAYEV, co-chair, Tolegan SYDYKOV, co-chair] (formerly
  Democratic Party of Kazakhstan); Aq Zhol Party (Bright Path)
  [Alikhan BAIMENOV, chairman]; AUL (Village) [Gani KALIYEV,
  chairman]; Communist Party of Kazakhstan or KPK [Serikbolsyn
  ABDILDIN, first secretary]; Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan
  [Vladislav KOSAREV, first secretary]; Otan [Bakhytzhan ZHUMAGULOV,
  acting chairman] (the Agrarian, Asar, and Civic parties merged with
  Otan); Patriots' Party [Gani KASYMOV, chairman]; Rukhaniyat
  (Spirituality) [Altynshash ZHAGANOVA, chairwoman]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Adil-Soz [Tamara KALEYEVA]; Almaty Helsinki Group [Ninel FOKINA];
  Confederation of Free Trade Unions [Sergei BELKIN]; For a Just
  Kazakhstan [Bolat ABILOV, Altynbek SARSENBAYEV]; For Fair Elections
  [Yevgeniy ZHOVTIS, Sabit ZHUSUPOV, Sergey DUVANOV, Ibrash
  NUSUPBAYEV]; Kazakhstan International Bureau on Human Rights
  [Yevgeniy ZHOVTIS, executive director]; Pensioners Movement or
  Pokoleniye [Irina SAVOSTINA, chairwoman]; Republican Network of
  International Monitors [Dos KUSHIM]; Transparency International
  [Sergei ZLOTNIKOV]

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP,
  SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Kanat B. SAUDABAYEV
  chancery: 1401 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-5488
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-5845
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John M. ORDWAY
  embassy: Ak Bulak 4, Str. 23-22, Building #3, Astana 010010
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [7] (3172) 70-21-00
  FAX: [7] (3172) 34-08-90

Flag description:
  sky blue background representing the endless sky and a gold sun
  with 32 rays soaring above a golden steppe eagle in the center; on
  the hoist side is a "national ornamentation" in gold

Economy Kazakhstan


Economy - overview:
  Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in
  territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves
  and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a
  large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain.
  Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and
  processing of these natural resources and also on a growing
  machine-building sector specializing in construction equipment,
  tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The
  breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for
  Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a
  short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual
  decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government
  program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in
  a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan
  enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 9% or more per year in
  2002-05 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to
  economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. The opening
  of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western
  Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised
  export capacity. Kazakhstan also has begun work on an ambitious
  cooperative construction effort with China to build an oil pipeline
  that will extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the
  Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy
  designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the
  oil sector by developing light industry. The policy aims to reduce
  the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The
  government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil
  companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions
  continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2005
  due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $125.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $47.39 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6.7%
  industry: 38.6%
  services: 54.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  7.85 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 30%
  services: 50% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  19% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 26.5% (2004 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  31.5 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  26.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $12.19 billion
  expenditures: $12.44 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  10.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock

Industries:
  oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, chromite, lead, zinc, copper,
  titanium, bauxite, gold, silver, phosphates, sulfur, iron and steel;
  tractors and other agricultural machinery, electric motors,
  construction materials

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  60.33 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 84.3%
  hydro: 15.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  52.55 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  2.45 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1.3 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  221,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  890,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  47,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  26 billion bbl (1 January 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  18.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  15.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  4.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  NA cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  3 trillion cu m (1 January 2004)

Current account balance:
  $-485.7 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $30.09 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil and oil products 58%, ferrous metals 24%, chemicals 5%,
  machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001)

Exports - partners:
  Bermuda 12.5%, Russia 11.1%, Germany 10.7%, China 10%, Italy 7.9%,
  France 7.7%, Romania 4.5%, US 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $17.51 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 41%, metal products 28%, foodstuffs 8%
  (2001)

Imports - partners:
  Russia 35.9%, China 21.4%, Germany 7.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $7.07 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $41.66 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $74.2 million in US assistance programs, 1992-2000 (FY2004)

Currency (code):
  tenge (KZT)

Currency code:
  KZT

Exchange rates:
  tenge per US dollar - 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004), 149.58 (2003),
  153.28 (2002), 146.74 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Kazakhstan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.5 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.955 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: service is poor; equipment antiquated
  domestic: intercity by landline and microwave radio relay; mobile
  cellular systems are available in most of Kazakhstan
  international: country code - 7; international traffic with other
  former Soviet republics and China carried by landline and microwave
  radio relay and with other countries by satellite and by the
  Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic cable; satellite earth stations
  - 2 Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 60, FM 17, shortwave 9 (1998)

Radios:
  6.47 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  12 (plus nine repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  3.88 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kz

Internet hosts:
  21,187 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  10 (with their own international channels) (2001)

Internet users:
  400,000 (2005)

Transportation Kazakhstan


Airports:
  150 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 67
  over 3,047 m: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 17
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Heliports:
  4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 658 km; gas 11,019 km; oil 10,338 km; refined products
  1,095 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 13,700 km
  broad gauge: 13,700 km 1.520-m gauge (3,700 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 258,029 km
  paved: 247,347 km
  unpaved: 10,682 km (2003)

Waterways:
  4,000 km (on the Ertis (Irtysh) (80%) and Syr Darya (Syrdariya)
  rivers) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 27,173 GRT/43,475 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Oman 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Aqtau (Shevchenko), Atyrau (Gur'yev), Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk),
  Pavlodar, Semey (Semipalatinsk)

Military Kazakhstan


Military branches:
  Ground Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces, Naval Force, Republican
  Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - two years; minimum age for volunteers NA (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,758,255
  females age 18-49: 3,822,845 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,473,529
  females age 18-49: 3,168,048 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 173,129
  females age 18-49: 168,697 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $221.8 million (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Transnational Issues Kazakhstan


Disputes - international:
  in 2005, Kazakhstan agreed with Russia, Turkmenistan, and
  Uzbekistan to commence demarcating their boundaries; delimitation
  with Kyrgyzstan is complete; creation of a seabed boundary with
  Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains unresolved; equidistant
  seabed treaties have been ratified with Azerbaijan and Russia in the
  Caspian Sea, but no resolution has been made on dividing the water
  column among any of the littoral states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 13,684 (Russia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS markets, as
  well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra (for the drug
  ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit
  point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of
  Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Kenya

Introduction Kenya


Background:
  Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led
  Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when
  President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional
  succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969
  until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made
  itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and
  external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The
  ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power
  in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and
  fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the
  Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following
  fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate
  of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow
  Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the
  presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption
  platform.

Geography Kenya


Location:
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and
  Tanzania

Geographic coordinates:
  1 00 N, 38 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 582,650 sq km
  land: 569,250 sq km
  water: 13,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Nevada

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,477 km
  border countries: Ethiopia 861 km, Somalia 682 km, Sudan 232 km,
  Tanzania 769 km, Uganda 933 km

Coastline:
  536 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior

Terrain:
  low plains rise to central highlands bisected by Great Rift Valley;
  fertile plateau in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Kenya 5,199 m

Natural resources:
  limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite,
  gypsum, wildlife, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 8.01%
  permanent crops: 0.97%
  other: 91.02% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,030 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring drought; flooding during rainy seasons

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from urban and industrial wastes; degradation of
  water quality from increased use of pesticides and fertilizers;
  water hyacinth infestation in Lake Victoria; deforestation; soil
  erosion; desertification; poaching

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful
  agricultural production regions in Africa; glaciers are found on
  Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak; unique physiography
  supports abundant and varied wildlife of scientific and economic
  value

People Kenya


Population:
  34,707,817
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.6% (male 7,454,765/female 7,322,130)
  15-64 years: 55.1% (male 9,631,488/female 9,508,068)
  65 years and over: 2.3% (male 359,354/female 432,012) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 18.1 years
  female: 18.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.57% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  39.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.02 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: according to the UNHCR, by the end of 2005 Kenya was host to
  233,778 refugees from neighboring countries, including Somalia
  153,627, Sudan 67,556, Ethiopia 12,595 (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 59.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 56.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 48.93 years
  male: 49.78 years
  female: 48.07 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  6.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.2 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  150,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Kenyan(s)
  adjective: Kenyan

Ethnic groups:
  Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%,
  Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African (Asian, European, and Arab)
  1%

Religions:
  Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim
  10%, other 2%
  note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for
  the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous
  beliefs vary widely

Languages:
  English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous
  languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.1%
  male: 90.6%
  female: 79.7% (2003 est.)

Government Kenya


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Kenya
  conventional short form: Kenya
  local long form: Republic of Kenya/Jamhuri y Kenya
  local short form: Kenya
  former: British East Africa

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Nairobi
  geographic coordinates: 1 17 S, 36 49 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  7 provinces and 1 area*; Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi Area*,
  North Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western

Independence:
  12 December 1963 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 December (1963)

Constitution:
  12 December 1963; amended as a republic 1964; reissued with
  amendments 1979, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2001

Legal system:
  based on Kenyan statutory law, Kenyan and English common law,
  tribal law, and Islamic law; judicial review in High Court; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; constitutional
  amendment of 1982 making Kenya a de jure one-party state repealed in
  1991

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mwai KIBAKI (since 30 December 2002);
  Vice President Moody AWORI (since 25 September 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Mwai KIBAKI (since 30 December 2002);
  Vice President Moody AWORI (since 25 September 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); in addition to receiving the largest
  number of votes in absolute terms, the presidential candidate must
  also win 25% or more of the vote in at least five of Kenya's seven
  provinces and one area to avoid a runoff; election last held 27
  December 2002 (next to be held December 2007); vice president
  appointed by the president
  election results: President Mwai KIBAKI elected; percent of vote -
  Mwai KIBAKI 63%, Uhuru KENYATTA 30%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Bunge (224 seats; 210 members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms, 12 so-called
  "nominated" members who are appointed by the president but selected
  by the parties in proportion to their parliamentary vote totals, 2
  ex-officio members)
  elections: last held 27 December 2002 (next to be held by early 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NARC 125, KANU 64, FORD-P 14, other 7; ex-officio 2; seats appointed
  by the president - NARC 7, KANU 4, FORD-P 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal (chief justice is appointed by the president); High
  Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-People or FORD-People
  [Kimaniwa NYOIKE, chairman]; Kenya African National Union or KANU
  [Uhuru KENYATTA]; National Rainbow Coalition or NARC [Mwai KIBAKI]
  (the governing party)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  human rights groups; labor unions; Muslim organizations; National
  Convention Executive Council or NCEC, a proreform coalition of
  political parties and nongovernment organizations [Kivutha KIBWANA];
  Protestant National Council of Churches of Kenya or NCCK [Mutava
  MUSYIMI]; Roman Catholic and other Christian churches; Supreme
  Council of Kenya Muslims or SUPKEM [Shaykh Abdul Gafur al-BUSAIDY]

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, EADB, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, ONUB,
  OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Leonard NGAITHE
  chancery: 2249 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-6101
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-3829
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William M. BELLAMY
  embassy: US Embassy, United Nations Ave., Gigiri; P. O. Box 606
  Village Market Nairobi
  mailing address: Box 21A, Unit 64100, APO AE 09831
  telephone: [254] (20) 537-800
  FAX: [254] (20) 537-810

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the
  red band is edged in white; a large warrior's shield covering
  crossed spears is superimposed at the center

Economy Kenya


Economy - overview:
  The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya has
  been hampered by corruption and by reliance upon several primary
  goods whose prices have remained low. In 1997, the IMF suspended
  Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program due to the
  government's failure to maintain reforms and curb corruption. A
  severe drought from 1999 to 2000 compounded Kenya's problems,
  causing water and energy rationing and reducing agricultural output.
  As a result, GDP contracted by 0.2% in 2000. The IMF, which had
  resumed loans in 2000 to help Kenya through the drought, again
  halted lending in 2001 when the government failed to institute
  several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of strong rains
  in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and low
  investment limited Kenya's economic growth to 1.2%. Growth lagged at
  1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor confidence,
  meager donor support, and political infighting up to the elections.
  In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's 24-year-old
  reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable
  economic problems facing the nation. In 2003, progress was made in
  rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support. GDP grew more
  than 5% in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $37.89 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $16.11 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.3%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 65.1% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  11.85 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 75%
  industry and services: 25% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  40% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  44.5 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  10.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.715 billion
  expenditures: $3.88 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  50.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy
  products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs

Industries:
  small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries,
  textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, oil
  refining; aluminum, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair,
  tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  4.342 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 17.7%
  hydro: 71%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 11.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.238 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  200 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-1.543 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.173 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  tea, horticultural products, coffee, petroleum products, fish,
  cement

Exports - partners:
  Uganda 13.9%, UK 10.5%, US 9.5%, Netherlands 8.2%, Egypt 5.1%,
  Tanzania 4.7%, Pakistan 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $5.126 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor
  vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics

Imports - partners:
  UAE 13.6%, Saudi Arabia 9.9%, US 9.8%, India 8.3%, South Africa
  7.9%, China 7.1%, UK 5.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.799 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $7.391 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $453 million (1997)

Currency (code):
  Kenyan shilling (KES)

Currency code:
  KES

Exchange rates:
  Kenyan shillings per US dollar - 75.554 (2005), 79.174 (2004),
  75.936 (2003), 78.749 (2002), 78.563 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Kenya


Telephones - main lines in use:
  281,800 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.612 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: unreliable; little attempt to modernize except
  for service to business
  domestic: trunks are primarily microwave radio relay; business data
  commonly transferred by a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) system
  international: country code - 254; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 24, FM 18, shortwave 6 (2001)

Radios:
  3.07 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  8 (2002)

Televisions:
  730,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ke

Internet hosts:
  13,274 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  65 (2001)

Internet users:
  1,054,900 (2005)

Transportation Kenya


Airports:
  225 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 210
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 115
  under 914 m: 84 (2006)

Pipelines:
  refined products 894 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,778 km
  narrow gauge: 2,778 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 63,000 km (interurban roads)
  paved: 7,623 km
  unpaved: 55,377 km
  note: there also are 100,000 km of rural roads and 14,500 km of
  urban roads for a national total of 177,500 km (2004)

Waterways:
  part of Lake Victoria system is within boundaries of Kenya (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 6,049 GRT/7,082 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1
  registered in other countries: 6 (Bahamas 1, Comoros 1, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 2, Tuvalu 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mombasa

Military Kenya


Military branches:
  Kenyan Army, Kenyan Navy, Kenyan Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,303,153
  females age 18-49: 7,083,726 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,963,532
  females age 18-49: 3,471,926 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $280.5 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Kenya


Disputes - international:
  Kenya served as an important mediator in brokering Sudan's
  north-south separation in February 2005; Kenya provides shelter to
  approximately a quarter of a million refugees including Ugandans who
  flee across the border periodically to seek protection from Lord's
  Resistance Army (LRA) rebels; the Kenya-Somalia border is open to
  pastoralists and is susceptible to cross-border clan insurgencies;
  Kenya's administrative limits extend beyond the treaty border into
  the Sudan, creating the Ilemi Triangle

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 153,627 (Somalia) 12,595 (Ethiopia)
  67,556 (Sudan)
  IDPs: 360,000 (KANU attacks on opposition tribal groups in 1990s)
  (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Kenya is a source, transit, and destination
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and
  sexual exploitation; children are trafficked within the country for
  domestic servitude, street vending, agricultural labor, and sexual
  exploitation; men, women, and girls are trafficked to the Middle
  East, other African nations, Western Europe, and North America for
  domestic servitude, enslavement in massage parlors and brothels, and
  manual labor; Chinese women trafficked for sexual exploitation
  reportedly transit Nairobi and Bangladeshis may transit Kenya for
  forced labor in other countries
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Kenya is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List due to a lack of evidence of increasing efforts to combat
  severe forms of trafficking

Illicit drugs:
  widespread harvesting of small plots of marijuana; transit country
  for South Asian heroin destined for Europe and North America; Indian
  methaqualone also transits on way to South Africa; significant
  potential for money-laundering activity given the country's status
  as a regional financial center; massive corruption, and relatively
  high levels of narcotics-associated activities


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Kiribati

Introduction Kiribati


Background:
  The Gilbert Islands were granted self-rule by the UK in 1971 and
  complete independence in 1979 under the new name of Kiribati. The US
  relinquished all claims to the sparsely inhabited Phoenix and Line
  Island groups in a 1979 treaty of friendship with Kiribati.

Geography Kiribati


Location:
  Oceania, group of 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, straddling
  the Equator; the capital Tarawa is about one-half of the way from
  Hawaii to Australia; note - on 1 January 1995, Kiribati proclaimed
  that all of its territory lies in the same time zone as its Gilbert
  Islands group (GMT +12) even though the Phoenix Islands and the Line
  Islands under its jurisdiction lie on the other side of the
  International Date Line

Geographic coordinates:
  1 25 N, 173 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 811 sq km
  land: 811 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes three island groups - Gilbert Islands, Line Islands,
  Phoenix Islands

Area - comparative:
  four times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,143 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; marine, hot and humid, moderated by trade winds

Terrain:
  mostly low-lying coral atolls surrounded by extensive reefs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Banaba 81 m

Natural resources:
  phosphate (production discontinued in 1979)

Land use:
  arable land: 2.74%
  permanent crops: 47.95%
  other: 49.31% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons can occur any time, but usually November to March;
  occasional tornadoes; low level of some of the islands make them
  very sensitive to changes in sea level

Environment - current issues:
  heavy pollution in lagoon of south Tarawa atoll due to heavy
  migration mixed with traditional practices such as lagoon latrines
  and open-pit dumping; ground water at risk

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  21 of the 33 islands are inhabited; Banaba (Ocean Island) in
  Kiribati is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the
  Pacific Ocean - the others are Makatea in French Polynesia, and Nauru

People Kiribati


Population:
  105,432 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.6% (male 20,608/female 20,060)
  15-64 years: 58.1% (male 30,216/female 31,004)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 1,517/female 2,027) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.2 years
  male: 19.8 years
  female: 20.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.24% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  30.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 47.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 41.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 62.08 years
  male: 59.06 years
  female: 65.24 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: I-Kiribati (singular and plural)
  adjective: I-Kiribati

Ethnic groups:
  Micronesian 98.8%, other 1.2% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 52%, Protestant (Congregational) 40%, some
  Seventh-Day Adventist, Muslim, Baha'i, Latter-day Saints, Church of
  God (1999)

Languages:
  I-Kiribati, English (official)

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Kiribati


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Kiribati
  conventional short form: Kiribati
  local long form: Republic of Kiribati
  local short form: Kiribati
  note: pronounced keer-ree-bahss
  former: Gilbert Islands

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Tarawa
  geographic coordinates: 1 25 N, 173 00 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  3 units; Gilbert Islands, Line Islands, Phoenix Islands; note - in
  addition, there are 6 districts (Banaba, Central Gilberts, Line
  Islands, Northern Gilberts, Southern Gilberts, Tarawa) and 21 island
  councils - one for each of the inhabited islands (Abaiang, Abemama,
  Aranuka, Arorae, Banaba, Beru, Butaritari, Kanton, Kiritimati,
  Kuria, Maiana, Makin, Marakei, Nikunau, Nonouti, Onotoa, Tabiteuea,
  Tabuaeran, Tamana, Tarawa, Teraina)

Independence:
  12 July 1979 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 July (1979)

Constitution:
  12 July 1979

Legal system:
  NA

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Anote TONG (since 10 July 2003); Vice
  President Teima ONORIO; note - the president is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: President Anote TONG (since 10 July 2003); Vice
  President Teima ONORIO
  cabinet: 12-member cabinet appointed by the president from among the
  members of the House of Parliament
  elections: the House of Parliament chooses the presidential
  candidates from among its members and then those candidates compete
  in a general election; president is elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (eligible for two more terms); election last held 4
  July 2003 (next to be held not later than July 2007); vice president
  appointed by the president
  election results: Anote TONG 47.4%, Harry TONG 43.5%, Banuera BERINA
  9.1%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Parliament or Maneaba Ni Maungatabu (42 seats;
  39 elected by popular vote, 1 ex officio member - the attorney
  general, 1 appointed to represent Banaba, and 1 other; members serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: legislative elections were held in two rounds - the first
  round on 9 May 2003 and the second round on 14 May 2003 (next to be
  held by November 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  BTK 17, MTM 16, independents 7, other 2 (includes attorney general)

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal; High Court; 26 Magistrates' courts; judges at all
  levels are appointed by the president

Political parties and leaders:
  Boutokaan Te Koaua Party or BTK [Taberannang TIMEON]; Maneaban Te
  Mauri Party or MTM [Teburoro TITO]; Maurin Kiribati Pati or MKP;
  National Progressive Party or NPP [Dr. Harry TONG]
  note: there is no tradition of formally organized political parties
  in Kiribati; they more closely resemble factions or interest groups
  because they have no party headquarters, formal platforms, or party
  structures

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  Kiribati does not have an embassy in the US; there is an honorary
  consulate in Honolulu

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Kiribati; the ambassador to Fiji
  is accredited to Kiribati

Flag description:
  the upper half is red with a yellow frigate bird flying over a
  yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three horizontal
  wavy white stripes to represent the ocean

Economy Kiribati


Economy - overview:
  A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls, Kiribati has few
  natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were
  exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in 1979. Copra and
  fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. The economy
  has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic development is
  constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure,
  and remoteness from international markets. Tourism provides more
  than one-fifth of GDP. The financial sector is at an early stage of
  development as is the expansion of private sector initiatives.
  Foreign financial aid from UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and
  China equals about 20% of GDP. Remittances from seamen on merchant
  ships abroad account for more than $5 million each year. Kiribati
  receives around $15 million annually for the government budget from
  an Australian trust fund.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $142.9 million
  note: supplemented by a nearly equal amount from external sources
  (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $76.4 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.3% (2005)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,900 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.9%
  industry: 24.2%
  services: 66.8% (1998 est.)

Labor force:
  7,870 economically active, not including subsistence farmers (2001
  est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  2.70213%, 32%, 65.3%

Unemployment rate:
  2% official rate; underemployment 70% (1992 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $55.52 million
  expenditures: $59.71 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05)

Agriculture - products:
  copra, taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, vegetables; fish

Industries:
  fishing, handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  0.7% (1991 est.)

Electricity - production:
  12 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  11.16 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-19.87 million

Exports:
  $17 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copra 62%, coconuts, seaweed, fish

Exports - partners:
  US 22.8%, Belgium 21.5%, Japan 14.3%, Samoa 7.8%, Australia 7.5%,
  Malaysia 6.7%, Taiwan 5.6%, Denmark 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $62 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, miscellaneous manufactured
  goods, fuel

Imports - partners:
  Australia 33%, Fiji 27.1%, Japan 18.1%, NZ 6.9% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $10 million (1999 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $16.7 million largely from UK and Japan (2004)

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  NA

Communications Kiribati


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4,500 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  600 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: generally good quality national and
  international service
  domestic: wire line service available on Tarawa and Kiritimati
  (Christmas Island); connections to outer islands by HF/VHF
  radiotelephone; wireless service available in Tarawa since 1999
  international: country code - 686; Kiribati is being linked to the
  Pacific Ocean Cooperative Telecommunications Network, which should
  improve telephone service; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 1
  note: the shortwave station may be inactive (2002)

Radios:
  17,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (not reported to be active) (2002)

Televisions:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ki

Internet hosts:
  42 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  2,000 (2004)

Transportation Kiribati


Airports:
  19 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 670 km (1999)

Waterways:
  5 km (small network of canals in Line Islands) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,749 GRT/3,911 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Betio

Military Kiribati


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Police Force (carries out law
  enforcement functions and paramilitary duties; small police posts
  are on all islands)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 21,938 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 14,231 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,128 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  Kiribati does not have military forces; defense assistance is
  provided by Australia and NZ

Transnational Issues Kiribati


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Korea, North

Introduction Korea, North


Background:
  An independent kingdom for much of its long history, Korea was
  occupied by Japan in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War. Five
  years later, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula. Following
  World War II, Korea was split with the northern half coming under
  Soviet-sponsored Communist domination. After failing in the Korean
  War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed Republic of Korea (ROK) in
  the southern portion by force, North Korea (DPRK), under its founder
  President KIM Il-so'ng, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic
  and economic "self-reliance" as a check against excessive Soviet or
  Communist Chinese influence. The DPRK demonized the US as the
  ultimate threat to its social system through state-funded
  propaganda, and molded political, economic, and military policies
  around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of
  Korea under Pyongyang's control. KIM's son, the current ruler KIM
  Jong Il, was officially designated as his father's successor in
  1980, assuming a growing political and managerial role until the
  elder KIM's death in 1994. After decades of economic mismanagement
  and resource misallocation, the DPRK since the mid-1990s has relied
  heavily on international aid to feed its population while continuing
  to expend resources to maintain an army of 1 million. North Korea's
  long-range missile development, as well as its nuclear, chemical,
  and biological weapons programs and massive conventional armed
  forces, are of major concern to the international community. In
  December 2002, following revelations that the DPRK was pursuing a
  nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a
  1994 agreement with the US to freeze and ultimately dismantle its
  existing plutonium-based program, North Korea expelled monitors from
  the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In January 2003, it
  declared its withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation
  Treaty. In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced it had completed the
  reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods (to extract weapons-grade
  plutonium) and was developing a "nuclear deterrent." Since August
  2003, North Korea has participated in the Six-Party Talks with
  China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the US designed to resolve
  the stalemate over its nuclear programs. The fourth round of
  Six-Party Talks were held in Beijing during July-September 2005. All
  parties agreed to a Joint Statement of Principles in which, among
  other things, the six parties unanimously reaffirmed the goal of
  verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful
  manner. In the Joint Statement, the DPRK committed to "abandoning
  all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at
  an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
  Weapons and to IAEA safeguards." The Joint Statement also commits
  the US and other parties to certain actions as the DPRK
  denuclearizes. The US offered a security assurance, specifying that
  it had no nuclear weapons on ROK territory and no intention to
  attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or other weapons. The US and
  DPRK will take steps to normalize relations, subject to the DPRK's
  implementing its denuclearization pledge and resolving other
  longstanding concerns. While the Joint Statement provides a vision
  of the end-point of the Six-Party process, much work lies ahead to
  implement the elements of the agreement.

Geography Korea, North


Location:
  Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the
  Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea

Geographic coordinates:
  40 00 N, 127 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 120,540 sq km
  land: 120,410 sq km
  water: 130 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Mississippi

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,673 km
  border countries: China 1,416 km, South Korea 238 km, Russia 19 km

Coastline:
  2,495 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  note: military boundary line 50 nm in the Sea of Japan and the
  exclusive economic zone limit in the Yellow Sea where all foreign
  vessels and aircraft without permission are banned

Climate:
  temperate with rainfall concentrated in summer

Terrain:
  mostly hills and mountains separated by deep, narrow valleys;
  coastal plains wide in west, discontinuous in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sea of Japan 0 m
  highest point: Paektu-san 2,744 m

Natural resources:
  coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron ore, copper,
  gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 22.4%
  permanent crops: 1.66%
  other: 75.94% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  14,600 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  late spring droughts often followed by severe flooding; occasional
  typhoons during the early fall

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution; inadequate supplies of potable water; waterborne
  disease; deforestation; soil erosion and degradation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Environmental Modification, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  strategic location bordering China, South Korea, and Russia;
  mountainous interior is isolated and sparsely populated

People Korea, North


Population:
  23,113,019 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.8% (male 2,788,944/female 2,708,331)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 7,762,442/female 7,955,522)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 667,792/female 1,229,988) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 32 years
  male: 30.7 years
  female: 33.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.84% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.54 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.54 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.65 years
  male: 68.92 years
  female: 74.51 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Korean(s)
  adjective: Korean

Ethnic groups:
  racially homogeneous; there is a small Chinese community and a few
  ethnic Japanese

Religions:
  traditionally Buddhist and Confucianist, some Christian and
  syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way)
  note: autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent;
  government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of
  religious freedom

Languages:
  Korean

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99%

Government Korea, North


Country name:
  conventional long form: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
  conventional short form: North Korea
  local long form: Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk
  local short form: Choson
  abbreviation: DPRK

Government type:
  Communist state one-man dictatorship

Capital:
  name: Pyongyang
  geographic coordinates: 39 01 N, 125 45 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces (do, singular and plural) and 4 municipalities (si,
  singular and plural)
  provinces: Chagang-do (Chagang), Hamgyong-bukto (North Hamgyong),
  Hamgyong-namdo (South Hamgyong), Hwanghae-bukto (North Hwanghae),
  Hwanghae-namdo (South Hwanghae), Kangwon-do (Kangwon),
  P'yongan-bukto (North P'yongan), P'yongan-namdo (South P'yongan),
  Yanggang-do (Yanggang)
  municipalites: Kaesong-si (Kaesong), Najin Sonbong-si (Najin),
  Namp'o-si (Namp'o), P'yongyang-si (Pyongyang)

Independence:
  15 August 1945 (from Japan)

National holiday:
  Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), 9
  September (1948)

Constitution:
  adopted 1948; completely revised 27 December 1972, revised again in
  April 1992, and September 1998

Legal system:
  based on German civil law system with Japanese influences and
  Communist legal theory; no judicial review of legislative acts; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  17 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: KIM Jong Il (since July 1994); note - on 3
  September 2003, rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA)
  reelected KIM Jong Il chairman of the National Defense Commission, a
  position accorded nation's "highest administrative authority"; SPA
  reelected KIM Yong Nam president of its Presidium also with
  responsibility of representing state and receiving diplomatic
  credentials; SPA appointed PAK Pong Ju premier
  head of government: Premier PAK Pong Ju (since 3 September 2003);
  Vice Premiers KWAK Pom Gi (since 5 September 1998), JON Sung Hun
  (since 3 September 2003), RO Tu Chol (since 3 September 2003)
  cabinet: Naegak (cabinet) members, except for Minister of People's
  Armed Forces, are appointed by SPA
  elections: last held in September 2003 (next to be held in September
  2008)
  election results: KIM Jong Il and KIM Yong Nam were only nominees
  for positions and ran unopposed

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Supreme People's Assembly or Ch'oego Inmin Hoeui (687
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 August 2003 (next to be held in August 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NA; ruling party approves a list of candidates who are elected
  without opposition; some seats are held by minor parties

Judicial branch:
  Central Court (judges are elected by the Supreme People's Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  major party - Korean Workers' Party or KWP [KIM Jong Il]; minor
  parties - Chondoist Chongu Party [RYU Mi Yong] (under KWP control),
  Social Democratic Party [KIM Yong Dae] (under KWP control)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ARF, FAO, G-77, ICAO, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, IMO, IOC, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, NAM, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none; North Korea has a Permanent Mission to the UN in New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none; note - Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents the US as
  consular protecting power

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue;
  the red band is edged in white; on the hoist side of the red band is
  a white disk with a red five-pointed star

Economy Korea, North


Economy - overview:
  North Korea, one of the world's most centrally planned and isolated
  economies, faces desperate economic conditions. Industrial capital
  stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of
  underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Industrial and power
  output have declined in parallel. Despite an increased harvest in
  2005 because of more stable weather conditions, fertilizer
  assistance from South Korea, and an extraordinary mobilization of
  the population to help with agricultural production, the nation has
  suffered its 11th year of food shortages because of on-going
  systemic problems, including a lack of arable land, collective
  farming practices, and chronic shortages of tractors and fuel.
  Massive international food aid deliveries have allowed the people of
  North Korea to escape mass starvation since famine threatened in
  1995, but the population continues to suffer from prolonged
  malnutrition and poor living conditions. Large-scale military
  spending eats up resources needed for investment and civilian
  consumption. In 2004, the regime formalized an arrangement whereby
  private "farmers markets" were allowed to begin selling a wider
  range of goods. It also permitted some private farming on an
  experimental basis in an effort to boost agricultural output. In
  October 2005, the regime reversed some of these policies by
  forbidding private sales of grains and reinstituting a centralized
  food rationing system. In December 2005, the regime confirmed that
  it intended to carry out earlier threats to terminate all
  international humanitarian assistance operations in the DPRK
  (calling instead for developmental assistance only) and to restrict
  the activities of international and non-governmental aid
  organizations such as the World Food Program. Firm political control
  remains the Communist government's overriding concern, which will
  likely inhibit the loosening of economic regulations.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $40 billion
  note: North Korea does not publish any reliable National Income
  Accounts data; the datum shown here is derived from purchasing power
  parity (PPP) GDP estimates for North Korea that were made by Angus
  Maddison in a study conducted for the OECD; his figure for 1999 was
  extrapolated to 2005 using estimated real growth rates for North
  Korea's GDP and an inflation factor based on the US GDP deflator;
  the result was rounded to the nearest $10 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 34%
  services: 36% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  9.6 million

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 36%
  industry and services: 64%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, pulses; cattle, pigs, pork, eggs

Industries:
  military products; machine building, electric power, chemicals;
  mining (coal, iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and
  precious metals), metallurgy; textiles, food processing; tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  18.75 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 29%
  hydro: 71%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  17.43 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  25,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  22,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $1.275 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  minerals, metallurgical products, manufactures (including
  armaments), textiles, fishery products

Exports - partners:
  China 45.6%, South Korea 20.2%, Japan 12.9% (2004)

Imports:
  $2.819 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum, coking coal, machinery and equipment, textiles, grain

Imports - partners:
  China 32.9%, Thailand 10.7%, Japan 4.8% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $12 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA; note - approximately 350,000 metric tons in food aid, worth
  approximately $118 million, through the World Food Program appeal in
  2004, plus additional aid from bilateral donors and non-governmental
  organizations

Currency (code):
  North Korean won (KPW)

Currency code:
  KPW

Exchange rates:
  official: North Korean won per US dollar - 170 (December 2004), 150
  (December 2002), 2.15 (December 2001); market: North Korean won per
  US dollar - 300-600 (December 2002)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Korea, North


Telephones - main lines in use:
  980,000 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 850; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Russian (Indian Ocean region); other
  international connections through Moscow and Beijing

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 17 (including 11 stations of Korean Central Broadcasting
  Station), FM 14, shortwave 14 (2003)

Radios:
  3.36 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (includes Korean Central Television, Mansudae Television, Korean
  Educational and Cultural Network, and Kaesong Television targeting
  South Korea) (2003)

Televisions:
  1.2 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kp

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Korea, North


Airports:
  77 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 36
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 41
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 20
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Heliports:
  22 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 154 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,214 km
  standard gauge: 5,214 km 1.435-m gauge (3,500 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 31,200 km
  paved: 1,997 km
  unpaved: 29,203 km (1999 est.)

Waterways:
  2,250 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 232 ships (1000 GRT or over) 983,182 GRT/1,370,104 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 14, cargo 176, chemical tanker 1, container 4,
  livestock carrier 3, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 17,
  refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 8, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 60 (British Virgin Islands 1, China 1, Denmark 1,
  Egypt 2, Greece 1, India 1, Lebanon 6, Lithuania 1, Marshall Islands
  1, Pakistan 3, Romania 11, Russia 1, Singapore 1, Syria 14, Turkey
  4, UAE 6, US 3, Yemen 2)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Belize 2, Mongolia 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ch'ongjin, Haeju, Hungnam (Hamhung), Kimch'aek, Kosong, Najin,
  Namp'o, Sinuiju, Songnim, Sonbong (formerly Unggi), Ungsang, Wonsan

Military Korea, North


Military branches:
  North Korean People's Army: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force; civil
  security forces (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 5,851,801
  females age 17-49: 5,850,733 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 4,810,831
  females age 17-49: 4,853,270 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 194,605
  females age 17-49: 187,846 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $5,217.4 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Korea, North


Disputes - international:
  China seeks to stem illegal migration of tens of thousands of North
  Koreans escaping famine, economic privation, and political
  oppression; North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty of certain
  islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers and a section of boundary around
  Paektu-san (mountain) is indefinite; Military Demarcation Line
  within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has separated North from
  South Korea since 1953; periodic maritime disputes with South over
  the Northern Limit Line; North Korea supports South Korea in
  rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 50,000-250,000 (government repression and famine) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: North Korea is a source country for men, women,
  and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; North Korea's own system of political repression
  includes forced labor in a network of prison camps where an
  estimated 150,000 to 200,000 persons are incarcerated; the illegal
  status of North Koreans in China and other countries increases their
  vulnerability to trafficking schemes and sexual and physical abuse;
  North Koreans forcibly returned from China may be subject to hard
  labor in prison camps operated by the government
  tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of the
  Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of them
  diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad
  while trafficking in narcotics, including two in Turkey in December
  2004; police investigations in Taiwan and Japan in recent years have
  linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and
  methamphetamine, including an attempt by the North Korean merchant
  ship Pong Su to deliver 150 kg of heroin to Australia in April 2003


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Korea, South

Introduction Korea, South


Background:
  Korea was an independent kingdom for much of its millennia-long
  history. Following its victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905,
  Japan occupied Korea; five years later it formally annexed the
  entire peninsula. After World War II, a Republic of Korea (ROK) was
  set up in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula while a
  Communist-style government was installed in the north (the DPRK).
  During the Korean War (1950-53), US troops and UN forces fought
  alongside soldiers from the ROK to defend South Korea from DPRK
  attacks supported by China and the Soviet Union. An armistice was
  signed in 1953, splitting the peninsula along a demilitarized zone
  at about the 38th parallel. Thereafter, South Korea achieved rapid
  economic growth with per capita income rising to roughly 14 times
  the level of North Korea. In 1993, KIM Yo'ng-sam became South
  Korea's first civilian president following 32 years of military
  rule. South Korea today is a fully functioning modern democracy. In
  June 2000, a historic first North-South summit took place between
  the South's President KIM Dae-jung and the North's leader KIM Jong
  Il.

Geography Korea, South


Location:
  Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the
  Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea

Geographic coordinates:
  37 00 N, 127 30 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 98,480 sq km
  land: 98,190 sq km
  water: 290 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 238 km
  border countries: North Korea 238 km

Coastline:
  2,413 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the Korea Strait
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Climate:
  temperate, with rainfall heavier in summer than winter

Terrain:
  mostly hills and mountains; wide coastal plains in west and south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sea of Japan 0 m
  highest point: Halla-san 1,950 m

Natural resources:
  coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, hydropower potential

Land use:
  arable land: 16.58%
  permanent crops: 2.01%
  other: 81.41% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  8,780 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional typhoons bring high winds and floods; low-level seismic
  activity common in southwest

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution in large cities; acid rain; water pollution from the
  discharge of sewage and industrial effluents; drift net fishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Korea Strait

People Korea, South


Population:
  48,846,823 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.9% (male 4,844,083/female 4,368,139)
  15-64 years: 71.9% (male 17,886,148/female 17,250,862)
  65 years and over: 9.2% (male 1,818,677/female 2,678,914) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 35.2 years
  male: 34.2 years
  female: 36.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.42% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.85 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.11 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.04 years
  male: 73.61 years
  female: 80.75 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  8,300 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Korean(s)
  adjective: Korean

Ethnic groups:
  homogeneous (except for about 20,000 Chinese)

Religions:
  no affiliation 46%, Christian 26%, Buddhist 26%, Confucianist 1%,
  other 1%

Languages:
  Korean, English widely taught in junior high and high school

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.9%
  male: 99.2%
  female: 96.6% (2002)

Government Korea, South


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Korea
  conventional short form: South Korea
  local long form: Taehan-min'guk
  local short form: Han'guk
  abbreviation: ROK

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Seoul
  geographic coordinates: 37 34 N, 127 00 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces (do, singular and plural) and 7 metropolitan cities
  (gwangyoksi, singular and plural)
  provinces: Cheju-do, Cholla-bukto (North Cholla), Cholla-namdo
  (South Cholla), Ch'ungch'ong-bukto (North Ch'ungch'ong),
  Ch'ungch'ong-namdo (South Ch'ungch'ong), Kangwon-do, Kyonggi-do,
  Kyongsang-bukto (North Kyongsang), Kyongsang-namdo (South Kyongsang)
  metropolitan cities: Inch'on-gwangyoksi (Inch'on),
  Kwangju-gwangyoksi (Kwangju), Pusan-gwangyoksi (Pusan),
  Soul-t'ukpyolsi (Seoul), Taegu-gwangyoksi (Taegu), Taejon-gwangyoksi
  (Taejon), Ulsan-gwangyoksi (Ulsan)

Independence:
  15 August 1945 (from Japan)

National holiday:
  Liberation Day, 15 August (1945)

Constitution:
  17 July 1948

Legal system:
  combines elements of continental European civil law systems,
  Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought

Suffrage:
  19 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President ROH Moo-hyun (since 25 February 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister HAN Myeong-sook (since 20 April
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers KIM Woo-sik (since 10 February 2006);
  KWON O-kyu (since 18 July 2006); KIM Shin-il (since 20 September
  2006)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the president on the prime
  minister's recommendation
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single five-year
  term; election last held 19 December 2002 (next to be held in
  December 2007); prime minister appointed by president with consent
  of National Assembly; deputy prime ministers appointed by president
  on prime minister's recommendation
  election results: ROH Moo-hyun elected president; percent of vote -
  ROH Moo-hyun (MDP) 48.9%; LEE Hoi-chang (GNP) 46.6%; other 4.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Kukhoe (299 seats - members elected
  for four-year terms; 243 in single-seat constituencies, 56 by
  proportional representation)
  elections: last held 15 April 2004 (next to be held in April 2008;
  byelections held on 30 April 2005 and on 26 October 2005)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Uri 51%, GNP 41%, DLP
  3%, DP 3%, others 2%; seats by party - Uri 144, GNP 127, DP 11, DLP
  9, ULD 3, independents 5
  note: percent of vote is for 2004 general election; seats by party
  reflect results of April and October 2005 byelections involving six
  and four seats respectively; MDP became DP in May 2005; United
  Liberal Democrats (ULD) merged with GNP in February 2006. (2006)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by president with consent of
  National Assembly); Constitutional Court (justices appointed by
  president based partly on nominations by National Assembly and Chief
  Justice of the court)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Labor Party or DLP [MOON Seong-hyun]; Democratic Party
  or DP [HAHN Hwa-kap]; Grand National Party or GNP [KANG Jae-sup];
  People-Centered Party or PCP [SHIN Kook-hwan]; Uri Party [KIM
  Geun-tae]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Federation of Korean Industries; Federation of Korean Trade Unions;
  Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; Korean National Council of
  Churches; Korean Traders Association; Korean Veterans' Association;
  National Council of Labor Unions; National Democratic Alliance of
  Korea; National Federation of Farmers' Associations; National
  Federation of Student Associations

International organization participation:
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia
  Group, BIS, CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA, MIGA, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE (partner), PCA, PIF (partner),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador LEE Tae-sik
  chancery: 2450 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-5600
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-0205
  consulate(s) general: Agana (Guam), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
  Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW
  embassy: 32 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-710
  mailing address: US Embassy Seoul, Unit 15550, APO AP 96205-5550
  telephone: [82] (2) 397-4114
  FAX: [82] (2) 738-8845

Flag description:
  white with a red (top) and blue yin-yang symbol in the center;
  there is a different black trigram from the ancient I Ching (Book of
  Changes) in each corner of the white field

Economy Korea, South


Economy - overview:
  Since the early 1960s, South Korea has achieved an incredible
  record of growth and integration into the high-tech modern world
  economy. Four decades ago, GDP per capita was comparable with levels
  in the poorer countries of Africa and Asia. In 2004, South Korea
  joined the trillion dollar club of world economies. Today its GDP
  per capita is equal to the lesser economies of the EU. This success
  through the late 1980s was achieved by a system of close
  government/business ties, including directed credit, import
  restrictions, sponsorship of specific industries, and a strong labor
  effort. The government promoted the import of raw materials and
  technology at the expense of consumer goods and encouraged savings
  and investment over consumption. The Asian financial crisis of
  1997-99 exposed longstanding weaknesses in South Korea's development
  model, including high debt/equity ratios, massive foreign borrowing,
  and an undisciplined financial sector. GDP plunged by 6.9% in 1998,
  then recovered 9.5% in 1999 and 8.5% in 2000. Growth fell back to
  3.3% in 2001 because of the slowing global economy, falling exports,
  and the perception that much-needed corporate and financial reforms
  had stalled. Led by consumer spending and exports, growth in 2002
  was an impressive 7%, despite anemic global growth. Between 2003 and
  2005, growth moderated to about 4%. A downturn in consumer spending
  was offset by rapid export growth. In 2005, the government proposed
  labor reform legislation and a corporate pension scheme to help make
  the labor market more flexible, and new real estate policies to cool
  property speculation. Moderate inflation, low unemployment, an
  export surplus, and fairly equal distribution of income characterize
  this solid economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.101 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $801.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $22,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 40.3%
  services: 56.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  23.53 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 6.4%
  industry: 26.4%
  services: 67.2% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  15% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.9%
  highest 10%: 25% (2005 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35.8 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $195 billion
  expenditures: $189 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, root crops, barley, vegetables, fruit; cattle, pigs,
  chickens, milk, eggs; fish

Industries:
  electronics, telecommunications, automobile production, chemicals,
  shipbuilding, steel

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  342.1 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 62.4%
  hydro: 0.8%
  nuclear: 36.6%
  other: 0.2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  321.1 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  2.061 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  645,200 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  2.263 million bbl/day (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  24.09 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  21.11 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $16.56 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $288.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  semiconductors, wireless telecommunications equipment, motor
  vehicles, computers, steel, ships, petrochemicals

Exports - partners:
  China 21.8%, US 14.6%, Japan 8.5%, Hong Kong 5.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $256 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil, steel,
  transport equipment, organic chemicals, plastics

Imports - partners:
  Japan 18.5%, China 14.8%, US 11.8%, Saudi Arabia 6.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $210.4 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $153.9 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $423.3 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  South Korean won (KRW)

Currency code:
  KRW

Exchange rates:
  South Korean won per US dollar - 1,024.1 (2005), 1,145.3 (2004),
  1,191.6 (2003), 1,251.1 (2002), 1,291 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Korea, South


Telephones - main lines in use:
  23.745 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  38.342 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 82; 10 fiber-optic submarine cables -
  1 Korea-Russia-Japan, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong, 3 Korea-Japan-China,
  1 Korea-Japan-China-Europe, 1 Korea-Japan-China-US-Taiwan, 1
  Korea-Japan-China, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong-Taiwan, 1 Korea-Japan;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian
  Ocean) and 3 Inmarsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 61, FM 150, shortwave 2 (2005)

Radios:
  47.5 million (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  terrestrial stations 43; cable operators 59; relay cable operators
  190 (2005)

Televisions:
  15.9 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kr

Internet hosts:
  5,433,591 (2005)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  11 (2000)

Internet users:
  33.9 million (2005)

Transportation Korea, South


Airports:
  107 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 69
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 21
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 38
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Heliports:
  540 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,482 km; refined products 827 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,472 km
  standard gauge: 3,472 km 1.435-m gauge (1,361 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 97,252 km
  paved: 74,641 km (including 3,060 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 22,611 km (2004)

Waterways:
  1,608 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 669 ships (1000 GRT or over) 8,634,188 GRT/13,733,624 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 157, cargo 193, chemical tanker 98, container
  81, liquefied gas 22, passenger 5, passenger/cargo 24, petroleum
  tanker 57, refrigerated cargo 17, roll on/roll off 6, specialized
  tanker 3, vehicle carrier 6
  foreign-owned: 22 (France 12, Japan 1, UK 2, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 365 (Belize 4, Cambodia 23, China 2,
  Cyprus 1, Georgia 1, Honduras 6, Hong Kong 6, Indonesia 1, Liberia
  3, Malaysia 1, Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Panama 291, Singapore
  17, unknown 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Inch'on, Masan, P'ohang, Pusan, Ulsan

Military Korea, South


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Republic of Korea Air Force (Han-guk Kong Goon), Marine
  Corps, National Maritime Police (coast guard) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  20-30 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 24-28 months, depending on the military branch
  involved; 18 years of age for voluntary military service; some 4,000
  women serve as commissioned and noncommissioned officers, approx.
  2.3% of all officers; women, in service since 1950, are admitted to
  seven service branches, including infantry, but excluded from
  artillery, armor, anti-air, and chaplaincy corps (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 12,483,677
  females age 20-49: 12,014,462 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 10,115,817
  females age 20-49: 9,721,914 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 344,943
  females age 20-49: 312,720 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $21.06 billion FY05 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.6% FY05 (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Korea, South


Disputes - international:
  Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone
  has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic maritime
  disputes with North Korea over the Northern Limit Line; South Korea
  and Japan claim Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima), occupied by
  South Korea since 1954


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Kuwait

Introduction Kuwait


Background:
  Britain oversaw foreign relations and defense for the ruling
  Kuwaiti AL-SABAH dynasty from 1899 until independence in 1961.
  Kuwait was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990. Following
  several weeks of aerial bombardment, a US-led, UN coalition began a
  ground assault on 23 February 1991 that liberated Kuwait in four
  days. Kuwait spent more than $5 billion to repair oil infrastructure
  damaged during 1990-91.

Geography Kuwait


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iraq and Saudi
  Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  29 30 N, 45 45 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 17,820 sq km
  land: 17,820 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 462 km
  border countries: Iraq 240 km, Saudi Arabia 222 km

Coastline:
  499 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  dry desert; intensely hot summers; short, cool winters

Terrain:
  flat to slightly undulating desert plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 306 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, fish, shrimp, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 0.84%
  permanent crops: 0.17%
  other: 98.99% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  130 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  sudden cloudbursts are common from October to April and bring heavy
  rain, which can damage roads and houses; sandstorms and dust storms
  occur throughout the year, but are most common between March and
  August

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources; some of world's largest and
  most sophisticated desalination facilities provide much of the
  water; air and water pollution; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Dumping

Geography - note:
  strategic location at head of Persian Gulf

People Kuwait


Population:
  2,418,393
  note: includes 1,291,354 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.9% (male 331,768/female 319,895)
  15-64 years: 70.3% (male 1,085,721/female 613,746)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 42,460/female 24,803) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.9 years
  male: 28 years
  female: 22.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.52%
  note: this rate reflects a return to pre-Gulf crisis immigration of
  expatriates (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  2.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  15.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.77 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.52 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.2 years
  male: 76.13 years
  female: 78.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.12% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Kuwaiti(s)
  adjective: Kuwaiti

Ethnic groups:
  Kuwaiti 45%, other Arab 35%, South Asian 9%, Iranian 4%, other 7%

Religions:
  Muslim 85% (Sunni 70%, Shi'a 30%), Christian, Hindu, Parsi, and
  other 15%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), English widely spoken

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83.5%
  male: 85.1%
  female: 81.7% (2003 est.)

Government Kuwait


Country name:
  conventional long form: State of Kuwait
  conventional short form: Kuwait
  local long form: Dawlat al Kuwayt
  local short form: Al Kuwayt

Government type:
  constitutional hereditary emirate

Capital:
  name: Kuwait
  geographic coordinates: 29 20 N, 47 59 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Ahmadi, Al
  'Asimah, Al Farwaniyah, Al Jahra', Hawalli, Mubarak Al Kabir

Independence:
  19 June 1961 (from UK)

National holiday:
  National Day, 25 February (1950)

Constitution:
  approved and promulgated 11 November 1962

Legal system:
  civil law system with Islamic law significant in personal matters;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  adult males who are not in the military forces, and adult females
  (as of 16 May 2005); all voters must have been citizens for 20 years

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Amir SABAH al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah (since 29
  January 2006); Crown Prince NAWAF al-Ahmad al-Sabah
  head of government: Prime Minister NASIR al-Muhammad al-Ahmad
  al-Sabah (since 7 February 2006) First Deputy Prime Minister JABIR
  Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah (since 9 February 2006); Deputy Prime
  Ministers MUHAMMAD al-Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah (since 9 February
  2006) and Ismail al-SHATTI (since 10 July 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and
  approved by the amir
  elections: none; the amir is hereditary; prime minister and deputy
  prime ministers appointed by the amir

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma (50 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29 June 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - NA; note - all
  cabinet ministers are also ex officio members of the National
  Assembly

Judicial branch:
  High Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  none; formation of political parties is illegal

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  a number of political groups act as de facto parties; several
  legislative blocs operate in the National Assembly: tribal groups,
  merchants, Shi'a activists, Islamists, and secular liberals

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, BDEAC, CAEU, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA,
  NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador SALIM Abdallah al-Jabir al-Sabah
  chancery: 2940 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-0702
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-0517

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard LEBARON
  embassy: Bayan 36302, Area 14, Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa Street (near the
  Bayan palace), Kuwait City
  mailing address: P. O. Box 77 Safat 13001 Kuwait; or PSC 1280 APO AE
  09880-9000
  telephone: [965] 259-1001
  FAX: [965] 538-0282

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red with a
  black trapezoid based on the hoist side; design, which dates to
  1961, based on the Arab revolt flag of World War I

Economy Kuwait


Economy - overview:
  Kuwait is a small, rich, relatively open economy with self-reported
  crude oil reserves of about 96 billion barrels - 10% of world
  reserves. Petroleum accounts for nearly half of GDP, 95% of export
  revenues, and 80% of government income. Kuwait's climate limits
  agricultural development. Consequently, with the exception of fish,
  it depends almost wholly on food imports. About 75% of potable water
  must be distilled or imported. Kuwait continues its discussions with
  foreign oil companies to develop fields in the northern part of the
  country.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $47.36 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $52.76 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $20,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.4%
  industry: 47.9%
  services: 51.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.67 million
  note: non-Kuwaitis represent about 80% of the labor force (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  2.2% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  14.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $47.21 billion
  expenditures: $20.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  12.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  practically no crops; fish

Industries:
  petroleum, petrochemicals, cement, shipbuilding and repair,
  desalination, food processing, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate:
  13.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  38.19 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  35.52 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  2.418 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  305,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.97 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  96.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  8.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  8.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.572 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $26.92 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $44.43 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil and refined products, fertilizers

Exports - partners:
  Japan 19.6%, South Korea 15.3%, US 11.8%, Taiwan 11%, Singapore
  9.5%, Netherlands 4.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $12.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, clothing

Imports - partners:
  US 14%, Germany 10.7%, Japan 8.4%, Saudi Arabia 6.2%, UK 5.6%,
  France 4.8%, China 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.972 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $16.12 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA (2001)

Currency (code):
  Kuwaiti dinar (KD)

Currency code:
  KWD

Exchange rates:
  Kuwaiti dinars per US dollar - 0.292 (2005), 0.2947 (2004), 0.298
  (2003), 0.3039 (2002), 0.3067 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Kuwait


Telephones - main lines in use:
  510,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.38 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the quality of service is excellent
  domestic: new telephone exchanges provide a large capacity for new
  subscribers; trunk traffic is carried by microwave radio relay,
  coaxial cable, and open-wire and fiber-optic cable; a cellular
  telephone system operates throughout Kuwait, and the country is well
  supplied with pay telephones
  international: country code - 965; coaxial cable and microwave radio
  relay to Saudi Arabia; linked to Bahrain, Qatar, UAE via the
  Fiber-Optic Gulf (FOG) cable; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat
  (1 Atlantic Ocean, 2 Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean), and
  2 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 11, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  1.175 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  13 (plus several satellite channels) (1997)

Televisions:
  875,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kw

Internet hosts:
  2,310 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  700,000 (2005)

Transportation Kuwait


Airports:
  7 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Heliports:
  5 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 269 km; oil 540 km; refined products 57 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 4,450 km
  paved: 3,587 km
  unpaved: 863 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 38 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,424,983 GRT/3,996,755 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 1, container 6, liquefied gas 5,
  livestock carrier 3, petroleum tanker 21
  registered in other countries: 28 (Bahrain 3, Comoros 1, Liberia 1,
  Libya 1, Panama 2, Qatar 7, Saudi Arabia 5, UAE 8) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ash Shu'aybah, Ash Shuwaykh, Az Zawr (Mina' Sa'ud), Mina' 'Abd
  Allah, Mina' al Ahmadi

Military Kuwait


Military branches:
  Land Forces, Kuwaiti Navy, Kuwaiti Air Force (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya
  al-Kuwaitiya), National Guard (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; 1
  month annual training to age 40; women have served in police forces
  since 1999 (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 864,745
  females age 18-49: 467,120 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 737,292
  females age 18-49: 405,207 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 18,743
  females age 18-49: 20,065 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.01 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Kuwait


Disputes - international:
  Kuwait and Saudi Arabia continue negotiating a joint maritime
  boundary with Iran; no maritime boundary exists with Iraq in the
  Persian Gulf

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Kuwait is a destination country for men and
  women who migrate legally from South and Southeast Asia for domestic
  or low-skilled labor, but are subjected to conditions of involuntary
  servitude by employers in Kuwait including conditions of physical
  and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, confinement to the home, and
  withholding of passports to restrict their freedom of movement;
  Kuwait is reportedly a transit point for South and East Asian
  workers recruited for low-skilled work in Iraq; some of these
  workers are deceived as to the true location and nature of this
  work, and others are subjected to conditions of involuntary
  servitude in Iraq; in past years, Kuwait was also a destination
  country for children exploited as camel jockeys, but this form of
  trafficking appears to have ceased
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Kuwait is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List because its efforts are based largely on pledges of
  future actions


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Kyrgyzstan

Introduction Kyrgyzstan


Background:
  A Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud
  nomadic traditions, Kyrgyzstan was annexed by Russia in 1864; it
  achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Nationwide
  demonstrations in the spring of 2005 resulted in the ouster of
  President Askar AKAYEV, who had run the country since 1990.
  Subsequent presidential elections in July 2005 were won
  overwhelmingly by former prime minister Kurmanbek BAKIYEV. Current
  concerns include: privatization of state-owned enterprises,
  expansion of democracy and political freedoms, reduction of
  corruption, improving interethnic relations, and combating terrorism.

Geography Kyrgyzstan


Location:
  Central Asia, west of China

Geographic coordinates:
  41 00 N, 75 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 198,500 sq km
  land: 191,300 sq km
  water: 7,200 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Dakota

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,878 km
  border countries: China 858 km, Kazakhstan 1,051 km, Tajikistan 870
  km, Uzbekistan 1,099 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  dry continental to polar in high Tien Shan; subtropical in
  southwest (Fergana Valley); temperate in northern foothill zone

Terrain:
  peaks of Tien Shan and associated valleys and basins encompass
  entire nation

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Kara-Daryya (Karadar'ya) 132 m
  highest point: Jengish Chokusu (Pik Pobedy) 7,439 m

Natural resources:
  abundant hydropower; significant deposits of gold and rare earth
  metals; locally exploitable coal, oil, and natural gas; other
  deposits of nepheline, mercury, bismuth, lead, and zinc

Land use:
  arable land: 6.55%
  permanent crops: 0.28%
  other: 93.17%
  note: Kyrgyzstan has the world's largest natural growth walnut
  forest (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10,720 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution; many people get their water directly from
  contaminated streams and wells; as a result, water-borne diseases
  are prevalent; increasing soil salinity from faulty irrigation
  practices

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; entirely mountainous, dominated by the Tien Shan range;
  many tall peaks, glaciers, and high-altitude lakes

People Kyrgyzstan


Population:
  5,213,898 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.9% (male 821,976/female 789,687)
  15-64 years: 62.9% (male 1,607,396/female 1,669,612)
  65 years and over: 6.2% (male 126,847/female 198,380) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23.6 years
  male: 22.8 years
  female: 24.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.32% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.08 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 34.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 39.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 68.49 years
  male: 64.48 years
  female: 72.7 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,900 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Kyrgyzstani(s)
  adjective: Kyrgyzstani

Ethnic groups:
  Kyrgyz 64.9%, Uzbek 13.8%, Russian 12.5%, Dungan 1.1%, Ukrainian
  1%, Uygur 1%, other 5.7% (1999 census)

Religions:
  Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%

Languages:
  Kyrgyz (official), Russian (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.7%
  male: 99.3%
  female: 98.1% (1999 est.)

Government Kyrgyzstan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kyrgyz Republic
  conventional short form: Kyrgyzstan
  local long form: Kyrgyz Respublikasy
  local short form: Kyrgyzstan
  former: Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bishkek
  geographic coordinates: 42 54 N, 74 36 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  7 provinces (oblastlar, singular - oblasty) and 1 city* (shaar);
  Batken Oblasty, Bishkek Shaary*, Chuy Oblasty (Bishkek), Jalal-Abad
  Oblasty, Naryn Oblasty, Osh Oblasty, Talas Oblasty, Ysyk-Kol Oblasty
  (Karakol)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Independence:
  31 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 31 August (1991)

Constitution:
  adopted 5 May 1993; note - amendment proposed by President Askar
  AKAYEV and passed in a national referendum on 2 February 2003
  significantly expands the powers of the president at the expense of
  the legislature; following the spring 2005 demonstrations, a new
  Constitutional Council was appointed and the reform process is
  ongoing

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Kurmanbek BAKIYEV (since 14 August 2005);
  note - former President Askar AKAYEV resigned effective 11 April
  2005 following widespread protests that forced him to flee the
  country on 24 March 2005
  head of government: Prime Minister Feliks KULOV (since 1 September
  2005); First Deputy Prime Minister Daniyar USENOV (since 10 May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister; note - the new constitution of
  November 2006 calls for the legislature to appoint the prime
  minister and members of the Cabinet after the elections of 2010
  elections: Kurmanbek BAKIYEV elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 July 2005
  (next scheduled for 2010); prime minister nominated by the president
  for approval by Parliament; note - the new constitution of November
  2006 calls for the legislature to appoint the prime minister and
  members of the Cabinet after the elections of 2010
  election results: Kurmanbek BAKIYEV elected president; percent of
  vote - Kurmanbek BAKIYEV 88.6%, Tursunbai BAKIR-UULU 3.9%, other
  candidates 7.5%; Feliks KULOV approved as prime minister 55-8

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Supreme Council or Jorgorku Kenesh (75 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve five year terms)
  elections: elections for the new unicameral body or Jorgorku Kenesh
  were held 27 February 2005, but the vast majority of positions
  remained undecided and were contested in a runoff election on 13
  March 2005; election irregularities caused widespread protests that
  resulted in the president being forced to flee the country
  election results: Supreme Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed for 10-year terms by the
  Supreme Council on the recommendation of the president);
  Constitutional Court; Higher Court of Arbitration

Political parties and leaders:
  Adilet (Justice) Party [Toychubek KASYMOV]; Agrarian Labor Party of
  Kyrgyzstan [Uson SYDYKOV]; Agrarian Party of Kyrgyzstan [Erkin
  ALIYEV]; Alga, Kyrgyzstan (Forward, Kyrgyzstan) [Bolot BEGALIYEV];
  Ar-Namys (Dignity) Party [Emil ALIYEV]; Asaba (Banner National
  Revival Party) [Azimbek BEKNAZAROV]; Ata-Meken (Fatherland) [Omurbek
  TEKEBAYEV]; Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan [Klara ADZHIBEKOVA];
  Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan or DDK [Jypar JEKSHEYEV]; Erkin
  Kyrgyzstan Progressive and Democratic Party [Bektur ASANOV];
  Erkindik (Freedom) Party [Topchubek TURGUNALIYEV]; Future of
  Kyrgyzstan [Balbak TULEBAYEV]; Jany Kyrgyzstan (New Kyrgyzstan)
  [Dosbol NUR UULU]; Kairan El [Dooronbek SADYKOV]; Kyrgyz National
  Party [Bakyt BESHIMOV]; Kyrgyzstan Kelechegi [Ruslan CHYNYBAYEV];
  Manas El (Party of Spiritual Restoration) [Chingiz AITMATOV]; Moya
  Strana (My Country Party of Action) [Joomart OTORBAYEV]; Party of
  Communists of Kyrgyzstan or KCP [Bakytbek BEKBOYEV]; Party of
  Justice and Progress [Muratbek IMANALIEV]; Party of Peasants
  [Esengul ISAKOV]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Council of Free Trade Unions; Kyrgyz Committee on Human Rights
  [Ramazan DYRYLDAYEV]; National Unity Democratic Movement; Union of
  Entrepreneurs

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OIC,
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zamira SYDYKOVA
  chancery: 2360 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 338-5141
  FAX: [1] (202) 386-7550
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marie L. YOVANOVITCH
  embassy: 171 Prospect Mira, Bishkek 720016
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [996] (312) 551-241, (517) 777-217
  FAX: [996] (312) 551-264

Flag description:
  red field with a yellow sun in the center having 40 rays
  representing the 40 Kyrgyz tribes; on the obverse side the rays run
  counterclockwise, on the reverse, clockwise; in the center of the
  sun is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines, a stylized
  representation of the roof of the traditional Kyrgyz yurt

Economy Kyrgyzstan


Economy - overview:
  Kyrgyzstan is a poor, mountainous country with a predominantly
  agricultural economy. Cotton, tobacco, wool, and meat are the main
  agricultural products, although only tobacco and cotton are exported
  in any quantity. Industrial exports include gold, mercury, uranium,
  natural gas, and electricity. Kyrgyzstan has been progressive in
  carrying out market reforms, such as an improved regulatory system
  and land reform. Kyrgyzstan was the first CIS country to be accepted
  into the World Trade Organization. Much of the government's stock in
  enterprises has been sold. Drops in production had been severe after
  the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991, but by mid-1995,
  production began to recover and exports began to increase.
  Kyrgyzstan has distinguished itself by adopting relatively liberal
  economic policies. The drop in output at the Kumtor gold mine
  sparked a 0.5% decline in GDP in 2002, but GDP growth bounced back
  in 2003-05. The government has made steady strides in controlling
  its substantial fiscal deficit and reduced the deficit to 1% of GDP
  in 2005. The government and international financial institutions
  have been engaged in a comprehensive medium-term poverty reduction
  and economic growth strategy, and in 2005 agreed to pursue
  much-needed tax reform. Progress fighting corruption, further
  restructuring of domestic industry, and success in attracting
  foreign investment are keys to future growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $10.08 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.144 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  -0.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 35.3%
  industry: 20.8%
  services: 43.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.7 million (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 15%
  services: 30% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  18% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.9%
  highest 10%: 23.3% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  29 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  12.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $516.3 million
  expenditures: $539.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  tobacco, cotton, potatoes, vegetables, grapes, fruits and berries;
  sheep, goats, cattle, wool

Industries:
  small machinery, textiles, food processing, cement, shoes, sawn
  logs, refrigerators, furniture, electric motors, gold, rare earth
  metals

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.1% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:
  13.77 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 7.6%
  hydro: 92.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  8.783 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  4.13 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  108 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1,990 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  11,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  6 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-134 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $759 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, wool, meat, tobacco; gold, mercury, uranium, natural gas,
  hydropower; machinery; shoes

Exports - partners:
  UAE 35.6%, Russia 18.6%, China 13.4%, Kazakhstan 12.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $937.4 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  oil and gas, machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  China 43.2%, Russia 19.8%, Kazakhstan 11.9%, Turkey 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $612.3 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.428 billion (31 December 2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $50 million from the US (2001)

Currency (code):


Currency code:
  KGS

Exchange rates:
  soms per US dollar - 41.012 (2005), 42.65 (2004), 43.648 (2003),
  46.937 (2002), 48.378 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Kyrgyzstan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  438,200 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  541,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: development of telecommunications
  infrastructure is slow; fixed line penetration remains low and
  concentrated in Bishkek
  domestic: two wireless telephony service providers, but penetration
  remains low
  international: country code - 996; connections with other CIS
  countries by landline or microwave radio relay and with other
  countries by leased connections with Moscow international gateway
  switch and by satellite; satellite earth stations - 1 Intersputnik
  and 1 Intelsat; connected internationally by the Trans-Asia-Europe
  (TAE) fiber-optic line

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 12 (plus 10 repeater stations), FM 14, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  520,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA (repeater stations throughout the country relay programs from
  Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey) (1997)

Televisions:
  210,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kg

Internet hosts:
  18,928 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  280,000 (2005)

Transportation Kyrgyzstan


Airports:
  37 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 18
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 254 km; oil 16 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 470 km
  broad gauge: 470 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 18,500 km
  paved: 16,854 km
  unpaved: 1,646 km (1999)

Waterways:
  600 km (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Balykchy (Ysyk-Kol or Rybach'ye)

Military Kyrgyzstan


Military branches:
  Army, Air Force, National Guard (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,193,529
  females age 18-49: 1,219,080 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 871,493
  females age 18-49: 1,024,568 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 61,091
  females age 18-49: 59,784 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $19.2 million (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Kyrgyzstan


Disputes - international:
  delimitation with Kazakhstan is complete; disputes in Isfara Valley
  delay completion of delimitation with Tajikistan; delimitation of
  130 km of border with Uzbekistan is hampered by serious disputes
  around enclaves and other areas

Illicit drugs:
  limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy for CIS
  markets; limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit
  point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of
  Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Laos

Introduction Laos


Background:
  Modern-day Laos has its roots in the ancient Lao kingdom of Lan
  Xang, established in the 14th Century under King FA NGUM. For three
  hundred years Lan Xang included large parts of present-day Cambodia
  and Thailand, as well as all of what is now Laos. After centuries of
  gradual decline, Laos came under the control of Siam (Thailand) from
  the late 18th century until the late 19th century when it became
  part of French Indochina. The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 defined
  the current Lao border with Thailand. In 1975, the Communist Pathet
  Lao took control of the government ending a six-century-old monarchy
  and instituting a strict socialist regime closely aligned to
  Vietnam. A gradual return to private enterprise and the
  liberalization of foreign investment laws began in 1986. Laos became
  a member of ASEAN in 1997.

Geography Laos


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam

Geographic coordinates:
  18 00 N, 105 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 236,800 sq km
  land: 230,800 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Utah

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,083 km
  border countries: Burma 235 km, Cambodia 541 km, China 423 km,
  Thailand 1,754 km, Vietnam 2,130 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical monsoon; rainy season (May to November); dry season
  (December to April)

Terrain:
  mostly rugged mountains; some plains and plateaus

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mekong River 70 m
  highest point: Phou Bia 2,817 m

Natural resources:
  timber, hydropower, gypsum, tin, gold, gemstones

Land use:
  arable land: 4.01%
  permanent crops: 0.34%
  other: 95.65% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,750 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  floods, droughts

Environment - current issues:
  unexploded ordnance; deforestation; soil erosion; most of the
  population does not have access to potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; most of the country is mountainous and thickly
  forested; the Mekong River forms a large part of the western
  boundary with Thailand

People Laos


Population:
  6,368,481 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.4% (male 1,324,207/female 1,313,454)
  15-64 years: 55.4% (male 1,744,206/female 1,786,139)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 89,451/female 111,024) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.6 years
  female: 19.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.39% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  35.49 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  11.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 83.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 73.26 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 55.49 years
  male: 53.45 years
  female: 57.61 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,700 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Lao(s) or Laotian(s)
  adjective: Lao or Laotian

Ethnic groups:
  Lao Loum (lowland) 68%, Lao Theung (upland) 22%, Lao Soung
  (highland) including the Hmong and the Yao 9%, ethnic
  Vietnamese/Chinese 1%

Religions:
  Buddhist 60%, animist and other 40% (including various Christian
  denominations 1.5%)

Languages:
  Lao (official), French, English, and various ethnic languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 66.4%
  male: 77.4%
  female: 55.5% (2002)

Government Laos


Country name:
  conventional long form: Lao People's Democratic Republic
  conventional short form: Laos PDR or Laos
  local long form: Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao
  local short form: none

Government type:
  Communist state

Capital:
  name: Vientiane
  geographic coordinates: 17 58 N, 102 36 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  16 provinces (khoueng, singular and plural), 1 municipality*
  (kampheng nakhon, singular and plural), and 1 special zone**
  (khetphiset, singular and plural); Attapu, Bokeo, Bolikhamxai,
  Champasak, Houaphan, Khammouan, Louangnamtha, Louangphrabang,
  Oudomxai, Phongsali, Salavan, Savannakhet, Viangchan (Vientiane)*,
  Viangchan, Xaignabouli, Xaisomboun**, Xekong, Xiangkhoang

Independence:
  19 July 1949 (from France)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 2 December (1975)

Constitution:
  promulgated 14 August 1991

Legal system:
  based on traditional customs, French legal norms and procedures,
  and socialist practice

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. CHOUMMALI Saignason (since 8
  June 2006) and Vice President BOUN-GNANG Volachit (since 8 June 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister BOUASONE Bouphavanh (since 8 June
  2006); Deputy Prime Minister Maj. Gen. ASANG Laoli (since May 2002),
  Deputy Prime Minister Maj. Gen. DOUANGCHAI Phichit [since 8 June
  2006], Deputy Prime Minister SOMSAVAT Lengsavat (since 26 February
  1998), and Deputy Prime Minister THONGLOUN Sisolit (since 27 March
  2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president, approved
  by the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly for five-year terms; election last held 8 June 2006 (next
  to be held in 2011); prime minister nominated by the president and
  elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term
  election results: CHOUMMALI Saignason elected president; BOUN-GNANG
  Volachit elected vice president; percent of National Assembly vote -
  100%; BOUASONE Bouphavanh elected prime minister; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 97%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (115 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 April 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  LPRP 113, independents 2

Judicial branch:
  People's Supreme Court (the president of the People's Supreme Court
  is elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the
  National Assembly Standing Committee; the vice president of the
  People's Supreme Court and the judges are appointed by the National
  Assembly Standing Committee)

Political parties and leaders:
  Lao People's Revolutionary Party or LPRP [CHOUMMALY Sayasone];
  other parties proscribed

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  noncommunist political groups proscribed; most opposition leaders
  fled the country in 1975

International organization participation:
  ACCT, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM,
  OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador PHANTHONG Phommahaxay
  chancery: 2222 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-6416
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-4923

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia M. HASLACH
  embassy: 19 Rue Bartholonie, That Dam Road, Vientiane
  mailing address: American Embassy Vientiane, Box V, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [856] 21-26 7000
  FAX: [856] 21-26 7074

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of red (top), blue (double width), and red
  with a large white disk centered in the blue band

Economy Laos


Economy - overview:
  The government of Laos, one of the few remaining official Communist
  states, began decentralizing control and encouraging private
  enterprise in 1986. The results, starting from an extremely low
  base, were striking - growth averaged 6% in 1988-2004 except during
  the short-lived drop caused by the Asian financial crisis beginning
  in 1997. Despite this high growth rate, Laos remains a country with
  a primitive infrastructure. It has no railroads, a rudimentary road
  system, and limited external and internal telecommunications, though
  the government is sponsoring major improvements in the road system
  with possible support from Japan. Electricity is available in only a
  few urban areas. Subsistence agriculture, dominated by rice,
  accounts for about half of GDP and provides 80% of total employment.
  The economy will continue to benefit from aid by the IMF and other
  international sources and from new foreign investment in food
  processing and mining. Construction will be another strong economic
  driver, especially as hydroelectric dam and road projects gain
  steam. In late 2004, Laos gained Normal Trade Relations status with
  the US, allowing Laos-based producers to face lower tariffs on
  exports. This new status may help spur growth. In addition, the
  European Union has agreed to provide $1 million to the Lao
  Government for technical assistance in preparations for WTO
  membership. If the avian flu worsens and spreads in the region,
  however, prospects for tourism could dim.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $12.29 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.523 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 45.5%
  industry: 28.7%
  services: 25.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.8 million (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  34% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 30.6% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  37 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $319.3 million
  expenditures: $434.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco,
  cotton, tea, peanuts, rice; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry

Industries:
  copper, tin, and gypsum mining; timber, electric power,
  agricultural processing, construction, garments, tourism, cement

Industrial production growth rate:
  13% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.767 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.4%
  hydro: 98.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.298 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  435 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  230 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  2,950 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-134 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $379 million (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  garments, wood products, coffee, electricity, tin

Exports - partners:
  Thailand 29.6%, Vietnam 12%, France 6.1%, Germany 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $541 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  Thailand 66.1%, China 9%, Vietnam 6.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $249 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.49 billion (2001)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $243 million (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  kip (LAK)

Currency code:
  LAK

Exchange rates:
  kips per US dollar - 10,820 (2005), 10,585.5 (2004), 10,569 (2003),
  10,056.3 (2002), 8,954.6 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Laos


Telephones - main lines in use:
  90,067 (2006)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  520,546 (2006)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: service to general public is poor but
  improving; the government relies on a radiotelephone network to
  communicate with remote areas
  domestic: radiotelephone communications
  international: country code - 856; satellite earth station - 1
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)

Radios:
  730,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  7; note - including one station relaying Vietnam Television from
  Hanoi (2006)

Televisions:
  52,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .la

Internet hosts:
  1,108 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  25,000 (2005)

Transportation Laos


Airports:
  44 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Pipelines:
  refined products 540 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 32,620 km
  paved: 4,590 km
  unpaved: 28,030 km (2002)

Waterways:
  4,600 km
  note: primarily Mekong and tributaries; 2,897 additional km are
  intermittently navigable by craft drawing less than 0.5 m (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,370 GRT/3,110 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Military Laos


Military branches:
  Lao People's Army (LPA; includes Riverine Force), Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  15 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - minimum 18 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 15-49: 1,500,625
  females age 15-49: 1,521,116 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 15-49: 954,816
  females age 15-49: 1,006,082 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 73,167
  females age 15-49: 71,432 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $11.04 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  Laos is one of the world's least developed countries; the Lao
  People's Armed Forces are small, poorly funded, and ineffectively
  resourced; there is little political will to allocate sparse funding
  to the military, and the armed forces' gradual degradation is likely
  to continue; the massive drug production and trafficking industry
  centered in the Golden Triangle makes Laos an important narcotics
  transit country, and armed Wa and Chinese smugglers are active on
  the Lao-Burma border (2005)

Transnational Issues Laos


Disputes - international:
  Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check
  the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion of demarcation
  with Thailand but disputes remain over several areas along Mekong
  River and Thai squatters; concern among Mekong Commission members
  that China's construction of dams on the Mekong River will affect
  water levels

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Laos is a source country for men and women
  trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation;
  a significant number are economic migrants who are subjected to
  commercial sexual exploitation or conditions of forced or bonded
  labor in Thailand; to a lesser extent, Laos is a transit and
  destination country for women who are trafficked for sexual
  exploitation including a small number of victims from China and
  Vietnam trafficked to work as street vendors and for sexual
  exploitation in prostitution
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Laos does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  estimated cultivation in 2004 - 10,000 hectares, a 45% decrease
  from 2003; estimated potential production in 2004 - 49 metric tons,
  a significant decrease from 200 metric tons in 2003 (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Latvia

Introduction Latvia


Background:
  After a brief period of independence between the two World Wars,
  Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1940. It reestablished its
  independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
  Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the
  Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to
  Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Geography Latvia


Location:
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and
  Lithuania

Geographic coordinates:
  57 00 N, 25 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 64,589 sq km
  land: 63,589 sq km
  water: 1,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,368 km
  border countries: Belarus 167 km, Estonia 343 km, Lithuania 576 km,
  Russia 282 km

Coastline:
  531 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  maritime; wet, moderate winters

Terrain:
  low plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Gaizinkalns 312 m

Natural resources:
  peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, wood, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 28.19%
  permanent crops: 0.45%
  other: 71.36% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  200 sq km
  note: land in Latvia is often too wet, and in need of drainage, not
  irrigation; approximately 16,000 sq km or 85% of agricultural land
  has been improved by drainage (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  Latvia's environment has benefited from a shift to service
  industries after the country regained independence; the main
  environmental priorities are improvement of drinking water quality
  and sewage system, household, and hazardous waste management, as
  well as reduction of air pollution; in 2001, Latvia closed the EU
  accession negotiation chapter on environment committing to full
  enforcement of EU environmental directives by 2010

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  most of the country is composed of fertile, low-lying plains, with
  some hills in the east

People Latvia


Population:
  2,274,735 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14% (male 162,562/female 155,091)
  15-64 years: 69.6% (male 769,004/female 815,042)
  65 years and over: 16.4% (male 121,646/female 251,390) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.4 years
  male: 36.3 years
  female: 42.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.67% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  13.66 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.48 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.33 years
  male: 66.08 years
  female: 76.85 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.6% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  7,600 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Latvian(s)
  adjective: Latvian

Ethnic groups:
  Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian 2.7%,
  Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

Religions:
  Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox

Languages:
  Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3%
  (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.8% (2003 est.)

Government Latvia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Latvia
  conventional short form: Latvia
  local long form: Latvijas Republika
  local short form: Latvija
  former: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Riga
  geographic coordinates: 56 57 N, 24 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  26 counties (singular - rajons) and 7 municipalities*: Aizkraukles
  Rajons, Aluksnes Rajons, Balvu Rajons, Bauskas Rajons, Cesu Rajons,
  Daugavpils*, Daugavpils Rajons, Dobeles Rajons, Gulbenes Rajons,
  Jekabpils Rajons, Jelgava*, Jelgavas Rajons, Jurmala*, Kraslavas
  Rajons, Kuldigas Rajons, Liepaja*, Liepajas Rajons, Limbazu Rajons,
  Ludzas Rajons, Madonas Rajons, Ogres Rajons, Preilu Rajons,
  Rezekne*, Rezeknes Rajons, Riga*, Rigas Rajons, Saldus Rajons, Talsu
  Rajons, Tukuma Rajons, Valkas Rajons, Valmieras Rajons, Ventspils*,
  Ventspils Rajons

Independence:
  21 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 18 November (1918); note - 18 November 1918 is
  the date Latvia declared itself independent from Soviet Russia; 4
  May 1990 is when it declared the renewal of independence; 21 August
  1991 is the date of de facto independence from the Soviet Union

Constitution:
  15 February 1922; an October 1998 amendment on Fundamental Human
  Rights replaced the 1991 Constitutional Law, which had supplemented
  the constitution

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal for Latvian citizens

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA (since 8 July 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Aigars KALVITIS (since 2 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  appointed by the Parliament
  elections: president reelected by Parliament for a four-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 20 June 2003 (next to be held
  by June 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA reelected president;
  parliamentary vote - Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA 88 of 94 votes cast

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Saeima (100 seats; members are elected by
  direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 October 2006 (next to be held October 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - TP 19.5%, ZZS 16.7%, JL
  16.4%, SC 14.4%; LPP/LC 8.6%; TB/LNNK 7%; PCTVL 6%; seats by party -
  TP 23, ZZS 18, JL 18, SC 17, LPP/LC 10, TB/LNNK 8, PCTVL 6

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges' appointments are confirmed by Parliament)

Political parties and leaders:
  First Party of Latvia or LPP [Juris LUJANS]; For Human Rights in a
  United Latvia or PCTVL [Tatjana ZDANOKA, Jakovs PLINERS]; For the
  Fatherland and Freedom/Latvian National Independence Movement or
  TB/LNNK [Janis STRAUME]; Harmony Center or SC [Sergejs DOLGOPOLOVS];
  Latvian Green Party or ZZS [Indulis EMSIS, Viesturs SILENIEKS,
  Raimonds VEJONIS]; Latvian Farmer's Union or LZS [Augusts
  BRIGMANIS]; Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party (Social
  Democrats) or LSDSP [Juris BOJARS]; Latvian Socialist Party or LSP
  [Alfreds RUBIKS]; Latvia's Way or LC [Ivars GODMANIS]; New Democrats
  or JD [Maris GULBIS]; New Era Party or JL [Einars REPSE]; People's
  Harmony Party or TSP [Aivars DATAVS]; People's Party or TP [Atis
  SLAKTERIS]; Social Democratic Union or SDS [Egils BALDZENS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools (SHTAB)
  [Aleksandr KAZAKOV]

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new
  member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS,
  IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent),
  ITU, MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Maris RIEKSTINS
  chancery: 2306 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-2840
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2860

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Catherine TODD BAILEY
  embassy: 7 Raina Boulevard, Riga LV-1510
  mailing address: American Embassy Riga, PSC 78, Box Riga, APO AE
  09723
  telephone: [371] 703-6200
  FAX: [371] 782-0047

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of maroon (top), white (half-width), and
  maroon

Economy Latvia


Economy - overview:
  Latvia's transitional economy recovered from the 1998 Russian
  financial crisis, largely due to the government's budget stringency
  and a gradual reorientation of exports toward EU countries,
  lessening Latvia's trade dependency on Russia. The majority of
  companies, banks, and real estate have been privatized, although the
  state still holds sizable stakes in a few large enterprises. Latvia
  officially joined the World Trade Organization in February 1999. EU
  membership, a top foreign policy goal, came in May 2004. The current
  account deficit - 11.5% of GDP in 2005 - remains a major concern. A
  growing perception that many of Latvia's banks facilitate illicit
  activity could damage the country's vibrant financial sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $31.46 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $14.43 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  10.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $13,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 26.1%
  services: 69.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.11 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 25%
  services: 60% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP): 3%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 26.1% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  35 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  27.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $5.673 billion
  expenditures: $5.889 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  10.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, sugar beets, potatoes, vegetables; beef, pork, milk, eggs;
  fish

Industries:
  buses, vans, street and railroad cars; synthetic fibers,
  agricultural machinery, fertilizers, washing machines, radios,
  electronics, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, textiles; note -
  dependent on imports for energy and raw materials

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.97 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 29.1%
  hydro: 70.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  5.839 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  38 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  2.7 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  47,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  47,000 bbl/day (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m NA (2003)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.76 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.76 billion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $-1.959 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $4.86 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  wood and wood products, machinery and equipment, metals, textiles,
  foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Lithuania 11%, Estonia 10.8%, Germany 10.2%, UK 10.2%, Russia 7.9%,
  Sweden 7.8%, Denmark 5.3%, Poland 5.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.19 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, vehicles

Imports - partners:
  Germany 13.9%, Lithuania 13.6%, Russia 8.6%, Estonia 7.9%, Poland
  6.4%, Finland 5.9%, Belarus 5.8%, Sweden 5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.361 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $10.8 billion (1 January 2006)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.2 billion (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  Latvian lat (LVL)

Currency code:
  LVL

Exchange rates:
  lati per US dollar - 0.5647 (2005), 0.5402 (2004), 0.5715 (2003),
  0.6182 (2002), 0.6279 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Latvia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  731,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.872 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: recent efforts focused on bringing competition
  to the telecommunications sector, beginning in 2003; the number of
  fixed lines is decreasing as wireless telephony expands
  domestic: two wireless service providers in addition to Lattelekom,
  the incumbent monopoly
  international: country code - 371; the Latvian network is now
  connected via fiber optic cable to Estonia, Finland, and Sweden

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 56, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  1.76 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  44 (plus 31 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  1.22 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lv

Internet hosts:
  65,858 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  41 (2001)

Internet users:
  1.03 million (2005)

Transportation Latvia


Airports:
  46 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 24
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,097 km; oil 82 km; refined products 415 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,303 km
  broad gauge: 2,270 km 1.520-m gauge (257 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 33 km 0.750-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 69,919 km
  paved: 69,919 km (2003)

Waterways:
  300 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 21 ships (1000 GRT or over) 250,559 GRT/336,136 DWT
  by type: cargo 7, chemical tanker 1, liquefied gas 2,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 7, roll on/roll off 1
  registered in other countries: 105 (Antigua and Barbuda 5, Bahamas
  1, Belize 6, Cambodia 2, Cyprus 4, Dominica 1, Gibraltar 2, Liberia
  14, Malta 40, Marshall Islands 7, Panama 3, Russia 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 18) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Riga, Ventspils

Military Latvia


Military branches:
  Latvian Republic Defense Force: Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force,
  Border Guard, Home Guard (Zemessardze) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  19 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for volunteers; plans are to
  phase out conscription, tentatively moving to an all-professional
  force by 2007; under current law, every citizen is entitled to serve
  in the armed forces for life (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 517,713
  females age 19-49: 519,631 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 361,098
  females age 19-49: 422,913 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 19,137
  females age 19-49: 18,505 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $87 million (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.2% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Latvia


Disputes - international:
  Russia refuses to sign the 1997 boundary treaty due to Latvian
  insistence on a unilateral clarificatory declaration referencing
  Soviet occupation of Latvia and territorial losses; Russia demands
  better Latvian treatment of ethnic Russians in Latvia; the Latvian
  parliament has not ratified its 1998 maritime boundary treaty with
  Lithuania, primarily due to concerns over oil exploration rights; as
  a member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Latvia
  must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for opiates and cannabis from Central and
  Southwest Asia to Western Europe and Scandinavia and Latin American
  cocaine and some synthetics from Western Europe to CIS; despite
  improved legislation, vulnerable to money laundering due to nascent
  enforcement capabilities and comparatively weak regulation of
  offshore companies and the gaming industry; CIS organized crime
  (including counterfeiting, corruption, extortion, stolen cars, and
  prostitution) accounts for most laundered proceeds


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Lebanon

Introduction Lebanon


Background:
  Following the capture of Syria from the Ottoman Empire by
  Anglo-French forces in 1918, France received a mandate over this
  territory and separated out a region of Lebanon in 1920. France
  granted this area independence in 1943. A 15-year civil war
  (1976-1991) devastated the country, but Lebanon has since made
  progress toward rebuilding its political institutions. Under the
  Ta'if Accord - the blueprint for national reconciliation - the
  Lebanese established a more equitable political system, particularly
  by giving Muslims a greater voice in the political process while
  institutionalizing sectarian divisions in the government. Since the
  end of the war, Lebanon has conducted several successful elections,
  most militias have been disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces
  (LAF) have extended authority over about two-thirds of the country.
  Hizballah, a radical Shi'a organization listed by the US State
  Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, retains its weapons.
  During Lebanon's civil war, the Arab League legitimized in the Ta'if
  Accord Syria's troop deployment, numbering about 16,000 based mainly
  east of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley. Damascus justified its
  continued military presence in Lebanon by citing Beirut's requests
  and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the
  constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord. Israel's withdrawal from
  southern Lebanon in May 2000, however, encouraged some Lebanese
  groups to demand that Syria withdraw its forces as well. The passage
  of UNSCR 1559 in early October 2004 - a resolution calling for Syria
  to withdraw from Lebanon and end its interference in Lebanese
  affairs - further emboldened Lebanese groups opposed to Syria's
  presence in Lebanon. The assassination of former Prime Minister
  Rafiq HARIRI and 20 others in February 2005 led to massive
  demonstrations in Beirut against the Syrian presence ("the Cedar
  Revolution"). Syria finally withdrew the remainder of its military
  forces from Lebanon in April 2005. In May-June 2005, Lebanon held
  its first legislative elections since the end of the civil war free
  of foreign interference, handing a two-thirds majority to the bloc
  led by Saad HARIRI, the slain prime minister's son.

Geography Lebanon


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and
  Syria

Geographic coordinates:
  33 50 N, 35 50 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 10,400 sq km
  land: 10,230 sq km
  water: 170 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.7 times the size of Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: 454 km
  border countries: Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km

Coastline:
  225 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers;
  Lebanon mountains experience heavy winter snows

Terrain:
  narrow coastal plain; El Beqaa (Bekaa Valley) separates Lebanon and
  Anti-Lebanon Mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Qurnat as Sawda' 3,088 m

Natural resources:
  limestone, iron ore, salt, water-surplus state in a water-deficit
  region, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 16.35%
  permanent crops: 13.75%
  other: 69.9% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,040 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust storms, sandstorms

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution in
  Beirut from vehicular traffic and the burning of industrial wastes;
  pollution of coastal waters from raw sewage and oil spills

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Hazardous
  Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation

Geography - note:
  Nahr el Litani is the only major river in Near East not crossing an
  international boundary; rugged terrain historically helped isolate,
  protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion,
  clan, and ethnicity

People Lebanon


Population:
  3,874,050 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.5% (male 523,220/female 502,372)
  15-64 years: 66.6% (male 1,235,915/female 1,342,540)
  65 years and over: 7% (male 122,155/female 147,848) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 26.7 years
  female: 28.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.23% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.21 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.88 years
  male: 70.41 years
  female: 75.48 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,800 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Lebanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Lebanese

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%
  note: many Christian Lebanese do not identify themselves as Arab but
  rather as descendents of the ancient Canaanites and prefer to be
  called Phoenicians

Religions:
  Muslim 59.7% (Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or Nusayri),
  Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic,
  Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian
  Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, Protestant),
  other 1.3%
  note: 17 religious sects recognized

Languages:
  Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.4%
  male: 93.1%
  female: 82.2% (2003 est.)

Government Lebanon


Country name:
  conventional long form: Lebanese Republic
  conventional short form: Lebanon
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Lubnaniyah
  local short form: Lubnan
  former: Greater Lebanon

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Beirut
  geographic coordinates: 33 53 N, 35 30 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  8 governorates (mohafazat, singular - mohafazah); Aakkar,
  Baalbek-Hermel, Beyrouth, Beqaa, Liban-Nord, Liban-Sud, Mont-Liban,
  Nabatiye

Independence:
  22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under French
  administration)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 22 November (1943)

Constitution:
  23 May 1926; amended a number of times, most recently Charter of
  Lebanese National Reconciliation (Ta'if Accord) of October 1989

Legal system:
  mixture of Ottoman law, canon law, Napoleonic code, and civil law;
  no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; compulsory for all males; authorized for women at
  age 21 with elementary education

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Emile LAHUD (since 24 November 1998)
  head of government: Prime Minister Fuad SINIORA (since 30 June
  2005); Deputy Prime Minister Elias MURR (since April 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with
  the president and members of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a six-year
  term (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 15
  October 1998 (next to be held in 2007 based on three-year
  extension); note - on 3 September 2004 the National Assembly voted
  96 to 29 to extend Emile LAHUD's six-year term by three years; the
  prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president
  in consultation with the National Assembly; by agreement, the
  president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister is a Sunni
  Muslim, and the speaker of the legislature is a Shi'a Muslim
  election results: for 15 October 1998 election: Emile LAHUD elected
  president; National Assembly vote - 118 votes in favor, 0 against,
  10 abstentions

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Majlis Alnuwab (Arabic) or
  Assemblee Nationale (French) (128 seats; members elected by popular
  vote on the basis of sectarian proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held in four rounds on 29 May, 5, 12, 19 June 2005
  (next to be held 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by group - NA; seats by group -
  Future Movement Bloc 36; Democratic Gathering 15; Development and
  Resistance Bloc 15; Loyalty to the Resistance 14; Free Patriotic
  Movement 14; Lebanese Forces 6; Qornet Shewan 5; Popular Bloc 4;
  Tripoli Independent Bloc 3; Syrian National Socialist Party 2;
  Kataeb Reform Movement 2; Tachnaq Party 2; Democratic Renewal
  Movement 1; Democratic Left 1; Nasserite Popular Movement 1; Ba'th
  Party 1; Kataeb Party 1; independent 5

Judicial branch:
  four Courts of Cassation (three courts for civil and commercial
  cases and one court for criminal cases); Constitutional Council
  (called for in Ta'if Accord - rules on constitutionality of laws);
  Supreme Council (hears charges against the president and prime
  minister as needed)

Political parties and leaders:
  Ba'th Party; Democratic Gathering [Walid JUMBLATT]; Democratic Left
  [Ilyas ATALLAH]; Democratic Renewal Movement [Nassib LAHUD];
  Development and Resistance Bloc [Nabih BERRI, Amal Movement
  leader/Speaker of the National Assembly]; Free Patriotic Movement
  [Michel AWN]; Future Movement Bloc [Sa'ad HARIRI]; Kataeb Party
  [Karim PAKRADONI]; Kataeb Reform Movement [Amine GEMAYAL]; Lebanese
  Forces [Samir JA'JA]; Loyalty to the Resistance [Mohammad RA'AD];
  Metn Bloc [Michel MURR]; Nasserite Popular Movement [Ussama SAAD];
  National Bloc [Carlos EDDE]; Popular Bloc [Elias SKAFF]; Qornet
  Shewan Gathering [a grouping with no individual leader]; Syrian
  National Socialist Party [Ali QANSU]; Tachnaq Party; Tripoli
  Independent Bloc [a grouping with no individual leader]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant)
  chancery: 2560 28th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6320
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-6324
  consulate(s) general: Detroit, New York, Los Angeles

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeffrey D. FELTMAN
  embassy: Awkar, Lebanon; (Akwar facing the Municipality)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 70-840, Antelias, Lebanon; PSC 815, Box
  2, FPO AE 09836-0002; from US: US Embassy Beirut, 6070 Beirut Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-6070
  telephone: [961] (4) 542600, 543600
  FAX: [961] (4) 544136

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands consisting of red (top), white (middle,
  double width), and red (bottom) with a green cedar tree centered in
  the white band

Economy Lebanon


Economy - overview:
  The 1975-91 civil war seriously damaged Lebanon's economic
  infrastructure, cut national output by half, and all but ended
  Lebanon's position as a Middle Eastern entrepot and banking hub. In
  the years since, Lebanon has rebuilt much of its war-torn physical
  and financial infrastructure by borrowing heavily - mostly from
  domestic banks. In an attempt to reduce the ballooning national
  debt, the Rafiq HARIRI government began an austerity program,
  reining in government expenditures, increasing revenue collection,
  and privatizing state enterprises. In November 2002, the government
  met with international donors at the Paris II conference to seek
  bilateral assistance in restructuring its massive domestic debt at
  lower interest rates. Substantial receipts from donor nations
  stabilized government finances in 2003, but did little to reduce the
  debt, which stands at nearly 170% of GDP. In 2004 the HARIRI
  government issued Eurobonds in an effort to manage maturing debt.
  The downturn in economic activity that followed the assassination of
  Rafiq al-HARIRI has eased, but has yet to be reversed. Tourism
  remains below the level of 2004. The new Prime Minister, Fuad
  SINIORA, has pledged to push ahead with economic reform, including
  privatization and more efficient government. The Core Group of
  nations has announced plans to hold a Donor's Conference in early
  2006 to assist the government of Lebanon in restructuring its debt
  and increasing foreign investment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $22.78 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $20.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 21%
  services: 67% (2000)

Labor force:
  2.6 million
  note: in addition, there are as many as 1 million foreign workers
  (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  18% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  28% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.953 billion
  expenditures: $6.595 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  180.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  citrus, grapes, tomatoes, apples, vegetables, potatoes, olives,
  tobacco; sheep, goats

Industries:
  banking, tourism, food processing, jewelry, cement, textiles,
  mineral and chemical products, wood and furniture products, oil
  refining, metal fabricating

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  10.67 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 97.2%
  hydro: 2.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  10.67 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  750 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  102,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-4.239 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.782 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  authentic jewelry, inorganic chemicals, miscellaneous consumer
  goods, fruit, tobacco, construction minerals, electric power
  machinery and switchgear, textile fibers, paper

Exports - partners:
  Syria 25.3%, UAE 11.4%, Switzerland 8.1%, Turkey 6%, Saudi Arabia
  6% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.855 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, cars, medicinal products, clothing, meat and
  live animals, consumer goods, paper, textile fabrics, tobacco

Imports - partners:
  Italy 11.1%, Syria 10.7%, France 9.2%, Germany 6.5%, China 5.4%, US
  5.3%, UK 4.4%, Saudi Arabia 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $16.62 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $26 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.2 billion received (2003), out of the $4.2 billion in soft loans
  pledged at the November 2002 Paris II Aid Conference

Currency (code):
  Lebanese pound (LBP)

Currency code:
  LBP

Exchange rates:
  Lebanese pounds per US dollar - 1,507.5 (2005), 1,507.5 (2004),
  1,507.5 (2003), 1,507.5 (2002), 1,507.5 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Lebanon


Telephones - main lines in use:
  990,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  990,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: repair of the telecommunications system,
  severely damaged during the civil war, now complete
  domestic: two commercial wireless networks provide good service;
  political instability hampers privatization and deployment of new
  technologies
  international: country code - 961; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean) (erratic operations);
  coaxial cable to Syria; 3 submarine coaxial cables

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 20, FM 22, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  2.85 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  15 (plus 5 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  1.18 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lb

Internet hosts:
  3,307 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  22 (2000)

Internet users:
  700,000 (2005)

Transportation Lebanon


Airports:
  7 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 43 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 401 km
  standard gauge: 319 km 1.435 m
  narrow gauge: 82 km 1.050 m
  note: rail system became unusable because of damage done during
  fighting in the 1980s and in 2006 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 7,300 km
  paved: 6,198 km
  unpaved: 1,102 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 39 ships (1000 GRT or over) 150,598 GRT/178,295 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 18, livestock carrier 10,
  refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 3, vehicle carrier 3
  foreign-owned: 4 (Greece 3, Syria 1)
  registered in other countries: 59 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Barbados
  1, Cambodia 6, Comoros 6, Egypt 2, Georgia 7, Honduras 1, North
  Korea 6, Liberia 2, Malta 10, Mongolia 1, Panama 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 4, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Syria 7, unknown 2)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Beirut, Chekka, Jounie, Tripoli

Military Lebanon


Military branches:
  Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF): Army, Navy, and Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18-30 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 974,363
  females age 18-49: 1,024,273 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 821,762
  females age 18-49: 865,770 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $540.6 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.1% (2004)

Transnational Issues Lebanon


Disputes - international:
  Lebanese Government claims Shab'a Farms area of Israeli-occupied
  Golan Heights; the roughly 2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon
  (UNIFIL) has been in place since 1978

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 404,170 (Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA))
  IDPs: 300,000 (1975-90 civil war, Israeli invasions) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  cannabis cultivation dramatically reduced to 2,500 hectares in
  2002; opium poppy cultivation minimal; small amounts of Latin
  American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin transit country on way
  to European markets and for Middle Eastern consumption


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Lesotho

Introduction Lesotho


Background:
  Basutoland was renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho upon independence
  from the UK in 1966. The Basuto National Party ruled for the first
  two decades. King MOSHOESHOE was exiled in 1990, but returned to
  Lesotho in 1992 and reinstated in 1995. Constitutional government
  was restored in 1993 after 7 years of military rule. In 1998,
  violent protests and a military mutiny following a contentious
  election prompted a brief but bloody intervention by South African
  and Botswanan military forces under the aegis of the Southern
  African Development Community. Constitutional reforms have since
  restored political stability; peaceful parliamentary elections were
  held in 2002.

Geography Lesotho


Location:
  Southern Africa, an enclave of South Africa

Geographic coordinates:
  29 30 S, 28 30 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 30,355 sq km
  land: 30,355 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 909 km
  border countries: South Africa 909 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; cool to cold, dry winters; hot, wet summers

Terrain:
  mostly highland with plateaus, hills, and mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: junction of the Orange and Makhaleng Rivers 1,400 m
  highest point: Thabana Ntlenyana 3,482 m

Natural resources:
  water, agricultural and grazing land, diamonds, sand, clay,
  building stone

Land use:
  arable land: 10.87%
  permanent crops: 0.13%
  other: 89% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  population pressure forcing settlement in marginal areas results in
  overgrazing, severe soil erosion, and soil exhaustion;
  desertification; Highlands Water Project controls, stores, and
  redirects water to South Africa

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa; mountainous,
  more than 80% of the country is 1,800 meters above sea level

People Lesotho


Population:
  2,022,331
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.8% (male 374,102/female 369,527)
  15-64 years: 58.3% (male 572,957/female 606,846)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 39,461/female 59,438) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 21 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.75 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  28.71 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 87.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 82.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 34.4 years
  male: 35.55 years
  female: 33.21 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  28.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  320,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Mosotho (singular), Basotho (plural)
  adjective: Basotho

Ethnic groups:
  Sotho 99.7%, Europeans, Asians, and other 0.3%,

Religions:
  Christian 80%, indigenous beliefs 20%

Languages:
  Sesotho (southern Sotho), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84.8%
  male: 74.5%
  female: 94.5% (2003 est.)

Government Lesotho


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Lesotho
  conventional short form: Lesotho
  local long form: Kingdom of Lesotho
  local short form: Lesotho
  former: Basutoland

Government type:
  parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Maseru
  geographic coordinates: 29 28 S, 27 30 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 districts; Berea, Butha-Buthe, Leribe, Mafeteng, Maseru,
  Mohale's Hoek, Mokhotlong, Qacha's Nek, Quthing, Thaba-Tseka

Independence:
  4 October 1966 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 4 October (1966)

Constitution:
  2 April 1993

Legal system:
  based on English common law and Roman-Dutch law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in High Court and Court of Appeal; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King LETSIE III (since 7 February 1996); note -
  King LETSIE III formerly occupied the throne from November 1990 to
  February 1995, while his father was in exile
  head of government: Prime Minister Pakalitha MOSISILI (since 23 May
  1998)
  cabinet: Cabinet
  elections: none - according to the constitution, the leader of the
  majority party in the Assembly automatically becomes prime minister;
  the monarch is hereditary, but, under the terms of the constitution,
  which came into effect after the March 1993 election, the monarch is
  a "living symbol of national unity" with no executive or legislative
  powers; under traditional law the college of chiefs has the power to
  depose the monarch, determine who is next in the line of succession,
  or who shall serve as regent in the event that the successor is not
  of mature age

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (33 members - 22
  principal chiefs and 11 other members appointed by the ruling party)
  and the Assembly (120 seats, 80 by direct popular vote and 40 by
  proportional vote; members elected by popular vote for five-year
  terms); note - number of seats in the Assembly rose from 80 to 120
  in the May 2002 election
  elections: last held 25 May 2002 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - LCD 54%, BNP 21%, LPC
  7%, other 18%; seats by party - LCD 76, BNP 21, LPC 5, other 18

Judicial branch:
  High Court (chief justice appointed by the monarch acting on the
  advice of the Prime Minister); Court of Appeal; Magistrate's Court;
  customary or traditional court

Political parties and leaders:
  Basotholand African Congress or BAC [Khauhelo RALITAPOLE];
  Basotholand Congress Party or BCP [Ntsukunyane MPHANYA]; Basotho
  National Party or BNP [Maj. Gen. Justine Metsing LEKHANYA]; Kopanang
  Basotho Party or KPB [MOSALA]; Lesotho Congress for Democracy or LCD
  [Pakalitha MOSISILI] (the governing party); Lesotho Education Party
  or LEP [Thabo PITSO]; Lesotho People's Congress or LPC [Kelebone
  MAOPE]; Lesotho Workers Party of LWP [Macaefa BILLY]; Marematlou
  Freedom Party or MFP [Vincent MALEBO]; National Independent Party or
  NIP [Anthony MANYELI]; National Progressive Party or NPP [Chief
  Peete Nkoebe PEETE]; Popular Front for Democracy or PFD [Lekhetho
  RAKUOANE]; Sefate Democratic Union or SDU [Bofihla NKUEBE]; Social
  Democratic Party of SDP [Masitise SELESO]; United Democratic Party
  or UDP [C.D. MOFELI]; United Party or UP [Makara SEKAUTU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OPCW, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Molelekeng E. RAPOLAKI
  chancery: 2511 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-5533 through 5536
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-6815

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador June Carter PERRY
  embassy: 254 Kingsway, Maseru West (Consular Section)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 333, Maseru 100, Lesotho
  telephone: [266] 22 312666
  FAX: [266] 22 310116

Flag description:
  three horizontal stripes of blue (top), white, and green in the
  proportions of 3:4:3; the colors represent rain, peace, and
  prosperity respectively; centered in the white stripe is a black
  Basotho hat representing the indigenous people; the flag was
  unfurled in October 2006 to celebrate 40 years of independence

Economy Lesotho


Economy - overview:
  Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on remittances
  from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties from the
  Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of government
  revenue. However, the government has recently strengthened its tax
  system to reduce dependency on customs duties. Completion of a major
  hydropower facility in January 1998 now permits the sale of water to
  South Africa, also generating royalties for Lesotho. As the number
  of mineworkers has declined steadily over the past several years, a
  small manufacturing base has developed based on farm products that
  support the milling, canning, leather, and jute industries, as well
  as a rapidly expanding apparel-assembly sector. The latter has grown
  significantly, mainly due to Lesotho qualifying for the trade
  benefits contained in the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. The
  economy is still primarily based on subsistence agriculture,
  especially livestock, although drought has decreased agricultural
  activity. The extreme inequality in the distribution of income
  remains a major drawback. Lesotho has signed an Interim Poverty
  Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $5.008 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.362 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.3%
  industry: 44.3%
  services: 39.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  838,000 (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 86% of resident population engaged in subsistence
  agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners work in
  South Africa
  industry and services: 14%

Unemployment rate:
  45% (2002)

Population below poverty line:
  49% (1999)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.9%
  highest 10%: 43.4%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  63.2 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $738.5 million
  expenditures: $792.1 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock

Industries:
  food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts,
  construction, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  15.5% (1999)

Electricity - production:
  350 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
  363.5 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  38 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,400 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-92 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $602.8 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool and
  mohair, food and live animals (2000)

Exports - partners:
  Hong Kong 43.6%, China 35.4%, Germany 8.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.166 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines, petroleum
  products (2000)

Imports - partners:
  US 84%, Belgium 12.8%, Canada 2.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $573 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $735 million (2002)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $4.4 million

Economic aid - recipient:
  $41.5 million (2000)

Currency (code):
  loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR)

Currency code:
  LSL; ZAR

Exchange rates:
  maloti per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003),
  10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Lesotho


Telephones - main lines in use:
  48,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  245,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: rudimentary system
  domestic: consists of a modest but growing number of landlines, a
  small microwave radio relay system, and a minor radiotelephone
  communication system; a cellular mobile telephone system is growing
  international: country code - 266; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  NA (2002)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2000)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .ls

Internet hosts:
  168 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  43,000 (2005)

Transportation Lesotho


Airports:
  28 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 5,940 km
  paved: 1,087 km
  unpaved: 4,853 km (1999)

Military Lesotho


Military branches:
  Lesotho Defense Force (LDF): Army and Air Wing

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 428,982
  females age 18-49: 440,102 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 180,797
  females age 18-49: 160,681 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $41.1 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  the Lesotho Government in 1999 began an open debate on the future
  structure, size, and role of the armed forces, especially
  considering the Lesotho Defense Force's (LDF) history of intervening
  in political affairs

Transnational Issues Lesotho


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Liberia

Introduction Liberia


Background:
  Settlement of freed slaves from the US in what is today Liberia
  began in 1822; by 1847, the Americo-Liberians were able to establish
  a republic. William TUBMAN, president from 1944-71, did much to
  promote foreign investment and to bridge the economic, social, and
  political gaps between the descendents of the original settlers and
  the inhabitants of the interior. In 1980, a military coup led by
  Samuel DOE assassinated President William TOLBERT (1971-80) and
  ushered in a decade of authoritarian rule followed by a prolonged
  civil war, in which DOE himself was killed. In August 2003, a
  comprehensive peace agreement ended 14 years of intermittent
  fighting and prompted the resignation of former president Charles
  TAYLOR, who was exiled to Nigeria. After two years of rule by a
  transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought
  President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF to power. The UN Mission in Liberia
  (UNMIL), which maintains a strong presence throughout the country,
  completed a disarmament program for former combatants in late 2004,
  but the security situation is still volatile and the process of
  rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn
  country remains sluggish.

Geography Liberia


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Cote
  d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone

Geographic coordinates:
  6 30 N, 9 30 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 111,370 sq km
  land: 96,320 sq km
  water: 15,050 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,585 km
  border countries: Guinea 563 km, Cote d'Ivoire 716 km, Sierra Leone
  306 km

Coastline:
  579 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; dry winters with hot days and cool to cold
  nights; wet, cloudy summers with frequent heavy showers

Terrain:
  mostly flat to rolling coastal plains rising to rolling plateau and
  low mountains in northeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Wuteve 1,380 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore, timber, diamonds, gold, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 3.43%
  permanent crops: 1.98%
  other: 94.59% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara (December to March)

Environment - current issues:
  tropical rain forest deforestation; soil erosion; loss of
  biodiversity; pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw
  sewage

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  facing the Atlantic Ocean, the coastline is characterized by
  lagoons, mangrove swamps, and river-deposited sandbars; the inland
  grassy plateau supports limited agriculture

People Liberia


Population:
  3,042,004 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.1% (male 656,016/female 653,734)
  15-64 years: 54.2% (male 816,443/female 832,152)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 40,591/female 43,068) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.1 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  4.91% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  44.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  23.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  27.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: at least 238,500 Liberian refugees are in surrounding
  countries; the uncertain security situation has hindered their
  ability to return (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 155.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 171.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 139.06 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 39.65 years
  male: 37.99 years
  female: 41.35 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  5.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  100,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  7,200 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Liberian(s)
  adjective: Liberian

Ethnic groups:
  indigenous African 95% (including Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo,
  Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi, Vai, Dei, Bella, Mandingo,
  and Mende), Americo-Liberians 2.5% (descendants of immigrants from
  the US who had been slaves), Congo People 2.5% (descendants of
  immigrants from the Caribbean who had been slaves)

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%

Languages:
  English 20% (official), some 20 ethnic group languages, of which a
  few can be written and are used in correspondence

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 57.5%
  male: 73.3%
  female: 41.6% (2003 est.)

Government Liberia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Liberia
  conventional short form: Liberia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Monrovia
  geographic coordinates: 6 18 N, 10 47 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  15 counties; Bomi, Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape Mount,
  Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Nimba,
  River Cess, River Gee, Sinoe

Independence:
  26 July 1847

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 26 July (1847)

Constitution:
  6 January 1986

Legal system:
  dual system of statutory law based on Anglo-American common law for
  the modern sector and customary law based on unwritten tribal
  practices for indigenous sector; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (since 16 January
  2006); note - the President is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (since 6 January
  2006); note - the President is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president and confirmed by the
  Senate
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 November 2005
  (next to be held NA 2011)
  election results: Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF elected president; percent
  of vote, second round - Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (UP) 59.6%, George
  WEAH (CDC) 40.4%
  note: a UN-brokered cease-fire among warring factions and the
  Liberian Government resulted in the August 2003 resignation of
  former president, Charles TAYLOR; a jointly agreed upon replacement,
  Chairman Gyude BRYANT, assumed office as head of the National
  Transitional Government on 14 October 2003; free elections were held
  11 October 2005, with a runoff election between the two leading
  candidates on 8 November 2005

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly consists of the Senate (30 seats -
  number of seats changed in 11 October 2005 elections; members
  elected by popular vote to serve nine-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (64 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  six-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 October 2005 (next to be held in
  2014); House of Representatives - last held 11 October 2005 (next to
  be held NA 2011)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - COTOL 7, NPP 4, CDC 3, LP 3, UP 3, APD 3, other 7; House of
  Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  CDC 15, LP 9, UP 8, COTOL 8, APD 5, NPP 4, other 15
  note: the current six-year term for junior senators - those who
  received the second most votes in the election - is mandated by the
  Liberian constitution to stagger Senate elections and ensure
  continuity of government

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Peace and Democracy or APD [Togba-na TIPOTEH];
  Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia or COTOL; Congress for
  Democratic Change or CDC [George WEAH]; Liberian Action Party or LAP
  [H. Varney SHERMAN]; Liberty Party or LP [Charles BRUMSKINE];
  National Patriotic Party or NPP [Cyril ALLEN]; Unity Party or UP
  [Charles CLARKE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ITU, NAM, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles A. MINOR
  chancery: 5201 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 723-0437
  FAX: [1] (202) 723-0436
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Donald E. BOOTH
  embassy: 111 United Nations Drive, P. O. Box 10-0098, Mamba Point,
  1000 Monrovia, 10
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [231] 226-370 through 226-380
  FAX: [231] 226-148

Flag description:
  11 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating
  with white; there is a white five-pointed star on a blue square in
  the upper hoist-side corner; the design was based on the US flag

Economy Liberia


Economy - overview:
  Civil war and government mismanagement have destroyed much of
  Liberia's economy, especially the infrastructure in and around
  Monrovia, while continued international sanctions on diamonds and
  timber exports will limit growth prospects for the foreseeable
  future. Many businessmen have fled the country, taking capital and
  expertise with them. Some have returned, but many will not. Richly
  endowed with water, mineral resources, forests, and a climate
  favorable to agriculture, Liberia had been a producer and exporter
  of basic products - primarily raw timber and rubber. Local
  manufacturing, mainly foreign owned, had been small in scope. The
  departure of the former president, Charles TAYLOR, to Nigeria in
  August 2003, the establishment of the all-inclusive Transitional
  Government, and the arrival of a UN mission have helped defuse the
  political crisis, but have done little to encourage economic
  development. Wealthy international donors, who are ready to assist
  reconstruction efforts, are withholding funding until Liberia's
  National Assembly signs onto a Governance and Economic Management
  Action Plan (GEMAP). The Plan was created in October 2005 by the
  International Contact Group for Liberia to help ensure transparent
  revenue collection and allocation - something that was lacking under
  the Transitional Government and that has limited Liberia's economic
  recovery. The reconstruction of infrastructure and the raising of
  incomes in this ravaged economy will largely depend on generous
  financial support and technical assistance from donor countries.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.643 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $902.9 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 76.9%
  industry: 5.4%
  services: 17.7% (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 8%
  services: 22% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  85% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  80%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $85.4 million
  expenditures: $90.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rubber, coffee, cocoa, rice, cassava (tapioca), palm oil,
  sugarcane, bananas; sheep, goats; timber

Industries:
  rubber processing, palm oil processing, timber, diamonds

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  509.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  473.8 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  3,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $910 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  rubber, timber, iron, diamonds, cocoa, coffee

Exports - partners:
  Belgium 41.4%, Spain 11.6%, US 9.1%, Malaysia 5.5%, Thailand 4.6%,
  Poland 4.6%, Germany 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.839 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  fuels, chemicals, machinery, transportation equipment, manufactured
  goods; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  South Korea 37.9%, Japan 21.1%, Singapore 14.2%, Croatia 4.7% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $3.2 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $94 million (1999)

Currency (code):
  Liberian dollar (LRD)

Currency code:
  LRD

Exchange rates:
  Liberian dollars per US dollar - NA (2005), 54.906 (2004), 59.379
  (2003), 61.754 (2002), 48.583 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Liberia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6,900 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  160,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the limited services available are found almost
  exclusively in the capital Monrovia
  domestic: fully automatic system with very low density of .23 fixed
  main lines per 100 persons; limited wireless service available
  international: country code - 231; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 7, shortwave 2 (2001)

Radios:
  790,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus four low-power repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  70,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lr

Internet hosts:
  8 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2001)

Internet users:
  1,000 (2002)

Transportation Liberia


Airports:
  53 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 51
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 38 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 490 km
  standard gauge: 345 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 145 km 1.067-m gauge
  note: railway is inoperable because of damage suffered during the
  civil war (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 10,600 km
  paved: 657 km
  unpaved: 9,943 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,687 ships (1000 GRT or over) 62,522,787 GRT/96,776,521 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 322, cargo 83, chemical
  tanker 199, combination ore/oil 2, container 477, liquefied gas 75,
  passenger 2, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 397, refrigerated
  cargo 76, roll on/roll off 4, specialized tanker 11, vehicle carrier
  35
  foreign-owned: 1,611 (Argentina 7, Australia 2, Austria 13, Bahamas,
  The 1, Bermuda 1, Brazil 3, Canada 2, China 35, Croatia 7, Cyprus 3,
  Denmark 8, Estonia 1, France 3, Germany 587, Greece 267, Hong Kong
  37, India 3, Indonesia 1, Isle of Man 5, Israel 5, Italy 16, Japan
  102, South Korea 3, Kuwait 1, Latvia 14, Lebanon 2, Mexico 1, Monaco
  10, Netherlands 29, Norway 38, Poland 14, Qatar 2, Russia 77, Saudi
  Arabia 24, Singapore 28, Slovenia 2, Sweden 8, Switzerland 7, Taiwan
  69, Turkey 1, UAE 18, UK 41, Ukraine 16, Uruguay 3, US 93, unknown
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Buchanan, Monrovia

Military Liberia


Military branches:
  Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL): Army, Navy, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 575,384
  females age 18-49: 588,780 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 267,430
  females age 18-49: 286,231 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $67.4 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Liberia


Disputes - international:
  although Liberia's domestic fighting among disparate rebel groups,
  warlords, and youth gangs was declared over in 2003, civil unrest
  persists, and in 2004, 133,000 Liberian refugees remained in Guinea,
  72,000 in Cote d'Ivoire, 67,000 in Sierra Leone, and 43,000 in
  Ghana; Liberia, in turn, shelters refugees fleeing turmoil in Cote
  d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone; since 2003, the UN Mission in Liberia
  (UNMIL) has maintained about 18,000 peacekeepers in Liberia; the
  Cote d'Ivoire Government accuses Liberia of supporting Ivoirian
  rebels; UN sanctions ban Liberia from exporting diamonds and timber

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 13,941 (Sierra Leone) 12,408 (Cote
  d'Ivoire)
  IDPs: 464,000 (civil war from 1990-2004; IDP resettlement began in
  November 2004) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin and
  South American cocaine for the European and US markets; corruption,
  criminal activity, arms-dealing, and diamond trade provide
  significant potential for money laundering, but the lack of
  well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  major money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Libya

Introduction Libya


Background:
  The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks from the area around
  Tripoli in 1911 and did not reliquish their hold until 1943 when
  defeated in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and
  achieved independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col.
  Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political
  system, the Third Universal Theory. The system is a combination of
  socialism and Islam derived in part from tribal practices and is
  supposed to be implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a
  unique form of "direct democracy." QADHAFI has always seen himself
  as a revolutionary and visionary leader. He used oil funds during
  the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideology outside Libya,
  supporting subversives and terrorists abroad to hasten the end of
  Marxism and capitalism. In addition, beginning in 1973, he engaged
  in military operations in northern Chad's Aozou Strip - to gain
  access to minerals and to use as a base of influence in Chadian
  politics - but was forced to retreat in 1987. UN sanctions in 1992
  isolated QADHAFI politically following the downing of Pan AM Flight
  103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libyan support for terrorism appeared
  to have decreased after the imposition of sanctions. During the
  1990s, QADHAFI also began to rebuild his relationships with Europe.
  UN sanctions were suspended in April 1999 and finally lifted in
  September 2003 after Libya resolved the Lockerbie case. In December
  2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to reveal and end its
  programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, and QADHAFI has
  made significant strides in normalizing relations with western
  nations since then. He has received various Western European leaders
  as well as many working-level and commercial delegations, and made
  his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled to
  Brussels in April 2004. QADHAFI also finally resolved in 2004
  several outstanding cases against his government for terrorist
  activities in the 1980s by compensating the families of victims of
  the UTA and La Belle disco bombings.

Geography Libya


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and
  Tunisia

Geographic coordinates:
  25 00 N, 17 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,759,540 sq km
  land: 1,759,540 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Alaska

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,348 km
  border countries: Algeria 982 km, Chad 1,055 km, Egypt 1,115 km,
  Niger 354 km, Sudan 383 km, Tunisia 459 km

Coastline:
  1,770 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  note: Gulf of Sidra closing line - 32 degrees, 30 minutes north

Climate:
  Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior

Terrain:
  mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m
  highest point: Bikku Bitti 2,267 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, gypsum

Land use:
  arable land: 1.03%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 98.78% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  4,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern wind lasting one to four
  days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms

Environment - current issues:
  desertification; very limited natural fresh water resources; the
  Great Manmade River Project, the largest water development scheme in
  the world, is being built to bring water from large aquifers under
  the Sahara to coastal cities

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  more than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert

People Libya


Population:
  5,900,754
  note: includes 166,510 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 33.6% (male 1,012,748/female 969,978)
  15-64 years: 62.2% (male 1,891,643/female 1,778,621)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 121,566/female 126,198) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23 years
  male: 23.1 years
  female: 22.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  26.49 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.32 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.69 years
  male: 74.46 years
  female: 79.02 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  10,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through October)
  (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Libyan(s)
  adjective: Libyan

Ethnic groups:
  Berber and Arab 97%, Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians,
  Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, Tunisians

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 97%

Languages:
  Arabic, Italian, English, all are widely understood in the major
  cities

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 82.6%
  male: 92.4%
  female: 72% (2003 est.)

Government Libya


Country name:
  conventional long form: Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab
  Jamahiriya
  conventional short form: Libya
  local long form: Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah al Libiyah ash Shabiyah
  al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma
  local short form: none

Government type:
  Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the
  populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship

Capital:
  name: Tripoli
  geographic coordinates: 32 54 N, 13 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  25 municipalities (baladiyat, singular - baladiyah); Ajdabiya, Al
  'Aziziyah, Al Fatih, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Al Jufrah, Al Khums, Al
  Kufrah, An Nuqat al Khams, Ash Shati', Awbari, Az Zawiyah, Banghazi,
  Darnah, Ghadamis, Gharyan, Misratah, Murzuq, Sabha, Sawfajjin, Surt,
  Tarabulus, Tarhunah, Tubruq, Yafran, Zlitan; note - the 25
  municipalities may have been replaced by 13 regions

Independence:
  24 December 1951 (from UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Revolution Day, 1 September (1969)

Constitution:
  11 December 1969; amended 2 March 1977

Legal system:
  based on Italian civil law system and Islamic law; separate
  religious courts; no constitutional provision for judicial review of
  legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Revolutionary Leader Col. Muammar Abu Minyar
  al-QADHAFI (since 1 September 1969); note - holds no official title,
  but is de facto chief of state
  head of government: Secretary of the General People's Committee
  (Prime Minister) al-Baghdadi Ali al-MAHMUDI (since 5 March 2006)
  cabinet: General People's Committee established by the General
  People's Congress
  elections: national elections are indirect through a hierarchy of
  people's committees; head of government elected by the General
  People's Congress; election last held 2 March 2000 (next to be held
  NA)
  election results: NA

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General People's Congress (NA seats; members elected
  indirectly through a hierarchy of people's committees)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  various Arab nationalist movements with almost negligible
  memberships may be functioning clandestinely, as well as some
  Islamic elements; an anti-QADHAFI Libyan exile movement exists,
  primarily based in London, but has little influence

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, CAEU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW,
  OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Ali AUJALI
  chancery: 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 705, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-9601
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-9060

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires ad Interim
  Gregory L. BERRY
  embassy: Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel, Souq At-Tlat Al-Qadim, Tripoli
  mailing address: US Embassy, 8850 Tripoli Place, Washington, DC
  20521-8850
  telephone: [218] 21-335-1848

Flag description:
  plain green; green is the traditional color of Islam (the state
  religion)

Economy Libya


Economy - overview:
  The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the oil
  sector, which contribute about 95% of export earnings, about
  one-quarter of GDP, and 60% of public sector wages. Substantial
  revenues from the energy sector coupled with a small population give
  Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, but little of
  this income flows down to the lower orders of society. Libyan
  officials in the past four years have made progress on economic
  reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country
  into the international fold. This effort picked up steam after UN
  sanctions were lifted in September 2003 and as Libya announced that
  it would abandon programs to build weapons of mass destruction in
  December 2003. Almost all US unilateral sanctions against Libya were
  removed in April 2004, helping Libya attract more foreign direct
  investment, mostly in the energy sector. Libya faces a long road
  ahead in liberalizing the socialist-oriented economy, but initial
  steps - including applying for WTO membership, reducing some
  subsidies, and announcing plans for privatization - are laying the
  groundwork for a transition to a more market-based economy. The
  non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for
  about 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural
  products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel,
  and aluminum. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit
  agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $68 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $31.49 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $11,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 7.6%
  industry: 49.9%
  services: 42.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.64 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: 23%
  services: 59% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  30% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  11.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $25.34 billion
  expenditures: $15.47 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  8.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, olives, dates, citrus, vegetables, peanuts,
  soybeans; cattle

Industries:
  petroleum, iron and steel, food processing, textiles, handicrafts,
  cement

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  14.4 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  13.39 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1.643 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  237,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.34 million bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  40 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  6.25 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  770 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.321 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $10.73 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $30.79 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas

Exports - partners:
  Italy 37.9%, Germany 15.2%, Spain 8.7%, Turkey 6.3%, France 6.2%,
  US 5.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $10.82 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, transport equipment, semi-finished goods, food, consumer
  products

Imports - partners:
  Italy 21.5%, Germany 10.4%, Tunisia 5.6%, Turkey 4.9%, UK 4.9%,
  France 4.8%, South Korea 4.7%, China 4.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $39.7 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.267 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $4.4 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Libyan dinar (LYD)

Currency code:
  LYD

Exchange rates:
  Libyan dinars per US dollar - 1.3084 (2005), 1.305 (2004), 1.2929
  (2003), 1.2707 (2002), 0.6051 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Libya


Telephones - main lines in use:
  750,000 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  234,800 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telecommunications system is being modernized;
  mobile cellular telephone system became operational in 1996
  domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, cellular,
  tropospheric scatter, and a domestic satellite system with 14 earth
  stations
  international: country code - 218; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat, NA Arabsat, and NA Intersputnik; submarine cables to
  France and Italy; microwave radio relay to Tunisia and Egypt;
  tropospheric scatter to Greece; participant in Medarabtel (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 3 (2002)

Radios:
  1.35 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  12 (plus one low-power repeater) (1999)

Televisions:
  730,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ly

Internet hosts:
  31 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  205,000 (2005)

Transportation Libya


Airports:
  141 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 60
  over 3,047 m: 23
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 81
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 41
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 882 km; gas 3,481 km; oil 6,916 km (2006)

Railways:
  0 km
  note: Libya is working on seven lines totaling 2,757 km of 1.435-m
  gauge track; it hopes to have trains running by 2008 (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 83,200 km
  paved: 47,590 km
  unpaved: 35,610 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 86,034 GRT/89,820 DWT
  by type: cargo 10, liquefied gas 3, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Kuwait 1, Norway 1, Turkey 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  As Sidrah, Az Zuwaytinah, Marsa al Burayqah, Ra's Lanuf, Tripoli,
  Zawiyah

Military Libya


Military branches:
  Armed Peoples on Duty (APOD, Army), Libyan Arab Navy, Libyan Arab
  Air Force (LAAF) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,505,675
  females age 17-49: 1,429,152 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,291,624
  females age 17-49: 1,230,824 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 62,034
  females age 17-49: 59,533 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.3 billion (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.9% (FY99)

Transnational Issues Libya


Disputes - international:
  Libya has claimed more than 32,000 sq km in southeastern Algeria
  and about 25,000 sq km in Niger in currently dormant disputes;
  various Chadian rebels from the Aozou region reside in southern Libya

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Libya is a transit and destination country for
  men, women, and children from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia trafficked
  for forced labor and sexual exploitation; many victims willingly
  migrate to Libya en route to Europe with the help of smugglers, but
  may be forced into prostitution or work as laborers and beggars to
  pay off their $800-$1,200 smuggling debt; laborers from Egypt,
  Sudan, and Ethiopia are reportedly trafficked to Libya for the
  purpose of labor exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Libya is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its lack of evidence of increasing efforts to address
  trafficking since 2004


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Liechtenstein

Introduction Liechtenstein


Background:
  The Principality of Liechtenstein was established within the Holy
  Roman Empire in 1719; it became a sovereign state in 1806. Until the
  end of World War I, it was closely tied to Austria, but the economic
  devastation caused by that conflict forced Liechtenstein to enter
  into a customs and monetary union with Switzerland. Since World War
  II (in which Liechtenstein remained neutral), the country's low
  taxes have spurred outstanding economic growth. Shortcomings in
  banking regulatory oversight have resulted in concerns about the use
  of the financial institutions for money laundering. Liechtenstein
  has, however, implemented new anti-money-laundering legislation and
  recently concluded a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the US.

Geography Liechtenstein


Location:
  Central Europe, between Austria and Switzerland

Geographic coordinates:
  47 16 N, 9 32 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 160 sq km
  land: 160 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.9 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 76 km
  border countries: Austria 34.9 km, Switzerland 41.1 km

Coastline:
  0 km (doubly landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  continental; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow or rain; cool
  to moderately warm, cloudy, humid summers

Terrain:
  mostly mountainous (Alps) with Rhine Valley in western third

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Ruggeller Riet 430 m
  highest point: Vorder-Grauspitz 2,599 m

Natural resources:
  hydroelectric potential, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 25%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  along with Uzbekistan, one of only two doubly landlocked countries
  in the world; variety of microclimatic variations based on elevation

People Liechtenstein


Population:
  33,987 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.4% (male 2,922/female 2,988)
  15-64 years: 70.2% (male 11,842/female 12,022)
  65 years and over: 12.4% (male 1,773/female 2,440) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.6 years
  male: 39.2 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.78% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.21 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.77 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.01 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.04 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.68 years
  male: 76.1 years
  female: 83.28 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Liechtensteiner(s)
  adjective: Liechtenstein

Ethnic groups:
  Alemannic 86%, Italian, Turkish, and other 14%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 76.2%, Protestant 7%, unknown 10.6%, other 6.2%
  (June 2002)

Languages:
  German (official), Alemannic dialect

Literacy:
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Government Liechtenstein


Country name:
  conventional long form: Principality of Liechtenstein
  conventional short form: Liechtenstein
  local long form: Fuerstentum Liechtenstein
  local short form: Liechtenstein

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Vaduz
  geographic coordinates: 47 09 N, 9 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  11 communes (Gemeinden, singular - Gemeinde); Balzers, Eschen,
  Gamprin, Mauren, Planken, Ruggell, Schaan, Schellenberg, Triesen,
  Triesenberg, Vaduz

Independence:
  23 January 1719 (Principality of Liechtenstein established); 12
  July 1806 (independence from the Holy Roman Empire)

National holiday:
  Assumption Day, 15 August

Constitution:
  5 October 1921

Legal system:
  local civil and penal codes; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Prince HANS ADAM II (since 13 November 1989,
  assumed executive powers 26 August 1984); Heir Apparent Prince
  ALOIS, son of the monarch (born 11 June 1968); note - on 15 August
  2004, HANS ADAM transferred the official duties of the ruling prince
  to ALOIS, but HANS ADAM retains status of chief of state
  head of government: Head of Government Ottmar HASLER (since 5 April
  2001) and Deputy Head of Government Rita KIEBER-BECK (since 5 April
  2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet elected by the Parliament, confirmed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party in the Landtag is
  usually appointed the head of government by the monarch and the
  leader of the largest minority party in the Landtag is usually
  appointed the deputy head of government by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Landtag (25 seats; members are elected by
  direct, popular vote under proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 and 13 March 2005 (next to be held by NA
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - FBP 48.7%, VU 38.2%, FL
  13%; seats by party - FBP 12, VU 10, FL 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Oberster Gerichtshof; Court of Appeal or
  Obergericht

Political parties and leaders:
  Patriotic Union (was Fatherland Union) or VU [Adolf HEEB];
  Progressive Citizens' Party or FBP [Otmar HASLER]; The Free List or
  FL

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  CE, EBRD, EFTA, IAEA, ICCt, ICRM, IFRCS, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU,
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UPU, WCL, WIPO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Claudia FRITSCHE
  chancery: 888 17th Street NW, Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-0590
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-3221

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Liechtenstein, but the US
  Ambassador to Switzerland is also accredited to Liechtenstein

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a gold crown
  on the hoist side of the blue band

Economy Liechtenstein


Economy - overview:
  Despite its small size and limited natural resources, Liechtenstein
  has developed into a prosperous, highly industrialized,
  free-enterprise economy with a vital financial service sector and
  living standards on a par with its large European neighbors. The
  Liechtenstein economy is widely diversified with a large number of
  small businesses. Low business taxes - the maximum tax rate is 20% -
  and easy incorporation rules have induced many holding or so-called
  letter box companies to establish nominal offices in Liechtenstein,
  providing 30% of state revenues. The country participates in a
  customs union with Switzerland and uses the Swiss franc as its
  national currency. It imports more than 90% of its energy
  requirements. Liechtenstein has been a member of the European
  Economic Area (an organization serving as a bridge between the
  European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the EU) since May 1995.
  The government is working to harmonize its economic policies with
  those of an integrated Europe.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.786 billion (2001 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.487 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  11% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $25,000 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6% NA%
  industry: 39%
  services: 55% NA% (1999)

Labor force:
  29,500 of whom 13,900 commute from Austria, Switzerland, and
  Germany to work each day (31 December 2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 47%
  services: 51% (31 December 2001)

Unemployment rate:
  1.3% (September 2002)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1% (2001)

Budget:
  revenues: $424.2 million
  expenditures: $414.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, corn, potatoes; livestock, dairy products

Industries:
  electronics, metal manufacturing, dental products, ceramics,
  pharmaceuticals, food products, precision instruments, tourism,
  optical instruments

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Exports:
  $2.47 billion (1996)

Exports - commodities:
  small specialty machinery, connectors for audio and video, parts
  for motor vehicles, dental products, hardware, prepared foodstuffs,
  electronic equipment, optical products

Exports - partners:
  EU 62.6% (Germany 24.3%, Austria 9.5%, France 8.9%, Italy 6.6%, UK
  4.6%), US 18.9%, Switzerland 15.7% (2004)

Imports:
  $917.3 million (1996)

Imports - commodities:
  agricultural products, raw materials, machinery, metal goods,
  textiles, foodstuffs, motor vehicles

Imports - partners:
  EU, Switzerland (2004)

Debt - external:
  $0 (2001)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $0

Currency (code):
  Swiss franc (CHF)

Currency code:
  CHF

Exchange rates:
  Swiss francs per US dollar - 1.2452 (2005), 1.2435 (2004), 1.3467
  (2003), 1.5586 (2002), 1.6876 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Liechtenstein


Telephones - main lines in use:
  19,900 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  11,400 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: automatic telephone system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 423; linked to Swiss networks by cable
  and microwave radio relay

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 4, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  21,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA (linked to Swiss networks) (1997)

Televisions:
  12,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .li

Internet hosts:
  4,697 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  44 (Liechtenstein and Switzerland) (2000)

Internet users:
  20,000 (2002)

Transportation Liechtenstein


Pipelines:
  gas 20 km (2006)

Railways:
  9 km 1.435-m gauge (electrified)
  note: belongs to the Austrian Railway System connecting Austria and
  Switzerland (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 380 km
  paved: 380 km (2006)

Waterways:
  28 km (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  none

Military Liechtenstein


Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,736 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,250 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 208 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Switzerland

Transnational Issues Liechtenstein


Disputes - international:
  in February 2005, the ICJ refused to rule on the restitution of
  Liechtenstein's land and property assets in the Czech Republic
  confiscated in 1945 as German property

Illicit drugs:
  has strengthened money-laundering controls, but money laundering
  remains a concern due to Liechtenstein's sophisticated offshore
  financial services sector


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Lithuania

Introduction Lithuania


Background:
  Independent between the two World Wars, Lithuania was annexed by
  the USSR in 1940. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first of
  the Soviet republics to declare its independence, but Moscow did not
  recognize this proclamation until September of 1991 (following the
  abortive coup in Moscow). The last Russian troops withdrew in 1993.
  Lithuania subsequently restructured its economy for integration into
  Western European institutions; it joined both NATO and the EU in the
  spring of 2004.

Geography Lithuania


Location:
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Latvia and Russia

Geographic coordinates:
  56 00 N, 24 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 65,200 sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: NA sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,613 km
  border countries: Belarus 653.5 km, Latvia 588 km, Poland 103.7 km,
  Russia (Kaliningrad) 267.8 km

Coastline:
  90 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  transitional, between maritime and continental; wet, moderate
  winters and summers

Terrain:
  lowland, many scattered small lakes, fertile soil

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Juozapines Kalnas 293.6 m

Natural resources:
  peat, arable land, amber

Land use:
  arable land: 44.81%
  permanent crops: 0.9%
  other: 54.29% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  70 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  contamination of soil and groundwater with petroleum products and
  chemicals at military bases

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of
  the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  fertile central plains are separated by hilly uplands that are
  ancient glacial deposits

People Lithuania


Population:
  3,585,906 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.5% (male 284,888/female 270,458)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 1,210,557/female 1,265,542)
  65 years and over: 15.5% (male 190,496/female 363,965) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.2 years
  male: 35.7 years
  female: 40.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.75 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.98 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.71 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.52 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.89 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.2 years
  male: 69.2 years
  female: 79.49 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,300 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Lithuanian(s)
  adjective: Lithuanian

Ethnic groups:
  Lithuanian 83.4%, Polish 6.7%, Russian 6.3%, other or unspecified
  3.6% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 79%, Russian Orthodox 4.1%, Protestant (including
  Lutheran and Evangelical Christian Baptist) 1.9%, other or
  unspecified 5.5%, none 9.5% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Lithuanian (official) 82%, Russian 8%, Polish 5.6%, other and
  unspecified 4.4% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6% (2003 est.)

Government Lithuania


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Lithuania
  conventional short form: Lithuania
  local long form: Lietuvos Respublika
  local short form: Lietuva
  former: Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Vilnius
  geographic coordinates: 54 41 N, 25 19 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  10 counties (apskritys, singular - apskritis); Alytaus, Kauno,
  Klaipedos, Marijampoles, Panevezio, Siauliu, Taurages, Telsiu,
  Utenos, Vilniaus

Independence:
  11 March 1990 (independence declared from Soviet Union); 6
  September 1991 (Soviet Union recognizes Lithuania's independence)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 16 February (1918); note - 16 February 1918 is
  the date Lithuania declared its independence from Soviet Russia and
  established its statehood; 11 March 1990 is the date it declared its
  independence from the Soviet Union

Constitution:
  adopted 25 October 1992

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; legislative acts can be appealed to the
  constitutional court

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Valdas ADAMKUS (since 12 July 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Gediminas KIRKILAS (since 4 July
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  nomination of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 13 and 27 June 2004
  (next to be held June 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president on the approval of the Parliament
  election results: Valdas ADAMKUS elected president; percent of vote
  - Valdas ADAMKUS 52.2%, Kazimiera PRUNSKIENE 47.8%; Gediminas
  KIRKILAS approved by Parliament 85-13, with 5 abstentions

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Seimas (141 seats, 71 members are directly
  elected by popular vote, 70 are elected by proportional
  representation; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 and 24 October 2004 (next to be held October
  2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Labor 28.6%, Working
  for Lithuania (Social Democrats and Social Liberals) 20.7%, TS
  14.6%, For Order and Justice (Liberal Democrats and Lithuanian
  People's Union) 11.4%, Liberal and Center Union 9.1%, Farmers and
  New Democracy Union 6.6%, other 9%; seats by faction - Labor 29,
  Homeland Union 26, Social Democrats 23, Civil Democracy (split from
  Labor) 11, Liberal Movement (formerly Liberal Political Group) 11,
  National Farmer's Union (formerly Farmers and New Democracy Union)
  11, Social Liberal 10, Liberal Democrats 9, Liberal and Center
  Political Group 8, independents 3 (as of late-July 2006)

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; judges for
  all courts appointed by the President

Political parties and leaders:
  Civil Democracy Party [Viktor MUNTIANAS, chairman]; Electoral
  Action of Lithuanian Poles [Valdemar TOMASZEVSKI, chairman];
  National Farmer's Union [Kazimiera PRUNSKIENE, chairman]; Homeland
  Union/Conservative Party or TS [Andrius KUBILIUS, chairman]; Labor
  Party; Liberal and Center Political Group [Arturas ZUOKAS,
  chairman]; Liberal Democratic Party [Valentinas MAZURONIS,
  chairman]; Liberal Movement; Lithuanian Christian Democrats or LKD
  [Valentinas STUNDYS, chairman]; Lithuanian People's Union for a Fair
  Lithuania; Lithuanian Social Democratic Coalition [Algirdas
  BRAZAUSKAS, chairman] consists of the Lithuanian Democratic Labor
  Party or LDDP and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party or LSDP;
  Social Liberal/New Union [Arturas PAULAUSKAS, chairman]; Social
  Union of Christian Conservatives [Gediminas VAGNORIUS, chairman];
  Young Lithuania and New Nationalists

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate
  partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Kornelija
  JURGAITIENE
  chancery: 4590 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5860
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-0466
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John A. CLOUD
  embassy: Akmenu Gatve 6, Vilnius, LT-03106
  mailing address: American Embassy, Almeny gatve 6, Vilnius LT-03106
  telephone: [370] (5) 266 5500
  FAX: [370] (5) 266 5510

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), green, and red

Economy Lithuania


Economy - overview:
  Lithuania, the Baltic state that has conducted the most trade with
  Russia, has slowly rebounded from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.
  Unemployment dropped from 11% in 2003 to about 8% in 2005. Growing
  domestic consumption and increased investment have furthered
  recovery. Trade has been increasingly oriented toward the West.
  Lithuania has gained membership in the World Trade Organization and
  joined the EU in May 2004. Privatization of the large, state-owned
  utilities, particularly in the energy sector, is nearing completion.
  Overall, more than 80% of enterprises have been privatized. Foreign
  government and business support have helped in the transition from
  the old command economy to a market economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $49.41 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $23.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $14,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 32.5%
  services: 62% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.61 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 15.8%
  industry: 28.2%
  services: 56% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8.2% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  Less than $2.15 per day (PPP): 4%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 24.9% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  32.5 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2005)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $8.429 billion
  expenditures: $9.103 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Public debt:
  18.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, vegetables; beef, milk, eggs;
  fish

Industries:
  metal-cutting machine tools, electric motors, television sets,
  refrigerators and freezers, petroleum refining, shipbuilding (small
  ships), furniture making, textiles, food processing, fertilizers,
  agricultural machinery, optical equipment, electronic components,
  computers, amber jewelry

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  19 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 16.5%
  hydro: 5.7%
  nuclear: 77.7%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  12.079 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  11.7 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  4.144 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  14,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  52,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  93,000 bbl/day bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  12 million bbl (2004)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
  $-1.771 billion (2005)

Exports:
  $11.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  mineral products 23%, textiles and clothing 16%, machinery and
  equipment 11%, chemicals 6%, wood and wood products 5%, foodstuffs
  5% (2001)

Exports - partners:
  Russia 10.4%, Latvia 10.2%, Germany 9.4%, France 7%, Estonia 5.9%,
  Poland 5.5%, Sweden 5%, US 4.7%, UK 4.7%, Denmark 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $15.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  mineral products, machinery and equipment, transport equipment,
  chemicals, textiles and clothing, metals

Imports - partners:
  Russia 27.9%, Germany 15.2%, Poland 8.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $3.815 billion (2005)

Debt - external:
  $11.7 billion (2 February 2006)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.6 billion in committed EU structural and cohesion funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  litas (LTL)

Currency code:
  LTL

Exchange rates:
  litai per US dollar - 2.774 (2005), 2.7806 (2004), 3.0609 (2003),
  3.677 (2002), 4 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Lithuania


Telephones - main lines in use:
  801,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.353 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate, but is being modernized to provide
  an improved international capability and better residential access
  domestic: a national, fiber-optic cable, interurban, trunk system is
  nearing completion; rural exchanges are being improved and expanded;
  mobile cellular systems are being installed; access to the Internet
  is available; still many unsatisfied telephone subscriber
  applications
  international: country code - 370; landline connections to Latvia
  and Poland; major international connections to Denmark, Sweden, and
  Norway by submarine cable for further transmission by satellite

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 29, FM 142, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  1.9 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  27
  note: Lithuania has approximately 27 broadcasting stations, but may
  have as many as 100 transmitters, including repeater stations (2001)

Televisions:
  1.7 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lt

Internet hosts:
  148,675 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  32 (2001)

Internet users:
  1,221,700 (2005)

Transportation Lithuania


Airports:
  91 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 34
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 57
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,696 km; oil 228 km; refined products 121 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,771 km
  broad gauge: 1,749 km 1.524-m gauge (122 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 22 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 79,497 km
  paved: 70,549 km (including 417 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 8,948 km (2005)

Waterways:
  425 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 49 ships (1000 GRT or over) 353,094 GRT/352,883 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 20, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
  passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 14, roll
  on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (Denmark 10)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Antigua and Barbuda 3, Belize 1,
  North Korea 1, Norway 1, Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  3, unknown 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Klaipeda

Military Lithuania


Military branches:
  Ground Forces, Naval Force, Lithuanian Military Air Forces,
  National Defense Volunteer Forces (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  19-45 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript
  service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for volunteers (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 830,368
  females age 19-49: 830,524 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 590,606
  females age 19-49: 676,102 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,689
  females age 19-49: 28,543 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $230.8 million (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.9% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Lithuania


Disputes - international:
  Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their boundary in
  2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty ratified by
  Russia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania operates a
  simplified transit regime for Russian nationals traveling from the
  Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while still conforming, as
  a member state that forms part of the EU's external border, to
  strict Schengen border rules; the Latvian parliament has not
  ratified its 1998 maritime boundary treaty with Lithuania, primarily
  due to concerns over potential hydrocarbons

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for opiates and other illicit drugs from
  Southwest Asia, Latin America, and Western Europe to Western Europe
  and Scandinavia; limited production of methamphetamine and ecstasy;
  susceptible to money laundering despite changes to banking
  legislation


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Luxembourg

Introduction Luxembourg


Background:
  Founded in 963, Luxembourg became a grand duchy in 1815 and an
  independent state under the Netherlands. It lost more than half of
  its territory to Belgium in 1839, but gained a larger measure of
  autonomy. Full independence was attained in 1867. Overrun by Germany
  in both World Wars, it ended its neutrality in 1948 when it entered
  into the Benelux Customs Union and when it joined NATO the following
  year. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six founding countries
  of the European Economic Community (later the European Union), and
  in 1999 it joined the euro currency area.

Geography Luxembourg


Location:
  Western Europe, between France and Germany

Geographic coordinates:
  49 45 N, 6 10 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 2,586 sq km
  land: 2,586 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  total: 359 km
  border countries: Belgium 148 km, France 73 km, Germany 138 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  modified continental with mild winters, cool summers

Terrain:
  mostly gently rolling uplands with broad, shallow valleys; uplands
  to slightly mountainous in the north; steep slope down to Moselle
  flood plain in the southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Moselle River 133 m
  highest point: Buurgplaatz 559 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore (no longer exploited), arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 23.94%
  permanent crops: 0.39%
  other: 75.67% (includes Belgium) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  air and water pollution in urban areas, soil pollution of farmland

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  landlocked; the only Grand Duchy in the world

People Luxembourg


Population:
  474,413 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.9% (male 46,118/female 43,356)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 159,498/female 156,075)
  65 years and over: 14.6% (male 28,027/female 41,339) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 37.7 years
  female: 39.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.23% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  8.75 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.89 years
  male: 75.6 years
  female: 82.38 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Luxembourger(s)
  adjective: Luxembourg

Ethnic groups:
  Celtic base (with French and German blend), Portuguese, Italian,
  Slavs (from Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo) and European (guest and
  resident workers)

Religions:
  87% Roman Catholic, 13% Protestants, Jews, and Muslims (2000)

Languages:
  Luxembourgish (national language), German (administrative
  language), French (administrative language)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2000 est.)

Government Luxembourg


Country name:
  conventional long form: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
  conventional short form: Luxembourg
  local long form: Grand Duche de Luxembourg
  local short form: Luxembourg

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Luxembourg
  geographic coordinates: 49 45 N, 6 10 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  3 districts; Diekirch, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg

Independence:
  1839 (from the Netherlands)

National holiday:
  National Day (Birthday of Grand Duchess Charlotte) 23 June

Constitution:
  17 October 1868; occasional revisions

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Grand Duke HENRI (since 7 October 2000); Heir
  Apparent Prince GUILLAUME (son of the monarch, born 11 November 1981)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jean-Claude JUNCKER (since 1
  January 1995) and Vice Prime Minister Jean ASSELBORN (since 31 July
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers recommended by the prime minister and
  appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following popular
  elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the leader of the majority
  party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed
  prime minister by the monarch; the deputy prime minister is
  appointed by the monarch; they are responsible to the Chamber of
  Deputies
  note: government coalition - CSV and LSAP

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Chamber of Deputies or Chambre des Deputes (60 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 13 June 2004 (next to be held by June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CSV 36.1%, LSAP 23.4%,
  DP 16.1%, Green Party 11.6%, ADR 10%; seats by party - CSV 24, LSAP
  14, DP 10, Green Party 7, ADR 5
  note: there is also a Council of State that serves as an advisory
  body to the Chamber of Deputies; the Council of State has 21 members
  appointed by the Grand Duke on the advice of the prime minister

Judicial branch:
  judicial courts and tribunals (3 Justices of the Peace, 2 district
  courts, and 1 Supreme Court of Appeals); administrative courts and
  tribunals (State Prosecutor's Office, administrative courts and
  tribunals, and the Constitutional Court); judges for all courts are
  appointed for life by the monarch

Political parties and leaders:
  Action Committee for Democracy and Justice or ADR [Gast GIBERYEN];
  Christian Social People's Party or CSV (also known as Christian
  Social Party or PCS) [Francois BILTGEN]; Democratic Party or DP
  [Claude MEISCH]; Green Party [Francois BAUSCH]; Luxembourg Socialist
  Workers' Party or LSAP [Alex BODRY]; Marxist and Reformed Communist
  Party dei Lenk/la Gauche (the Left) [no formal leadership]; other
  minor parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  ABBL (bankers' association); ALEBA (financial sector trade union);
  Centrale Paysanne (federation of agricultural producers); CEP
  (professional sector chamber); CGFP (trade union representing civil
  service); Chambre de Commerce (Chamber of Commerce); Chambre des
  Metiers (Chamber of Artisans); FEDIL (federation of industrialists);
  Greenpeace (environment protection); LCGP (center-right trade
  union); Mouvement Ecologique (protection of ecology); OGBL
  (center-left trade union)

International organization participation:
  ACCT, AsDB, Australia Group, Benelux, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU,
  ESA, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph WEYLAND
  chancery: 2200 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-4171/72
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-8270
  consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ann WAGNER
  embassy: 22 Boulevard Emmanuel Servais, L-2535 Luxembourg City
  mailing address: American Embassy Luxembourg, Unit 1410, APO AE
  09126-1410 (official mail); American Embassy Luxembourg, PSC 9, Box
  9500, APO AE 09123 (personal mail)
  telephone: [352] 46 01 23
  FAX: [352] 46 14 01

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and light blue;
  similar to the flag of the Netherlands, which uses a darker blue and
  is shorter; design was based on the flag of France

Economy Luxembourg


Economy - overview:
  This stable, high-income economy - benefitting from its proximity
  to France, Belgium, and Germany - features solid growth, low
  inflation, and low unemployment. The industrial sector, initially
  dominated by steel, has become increasingly diversified to include
  chemicals, rubber, and other products. Growth in the financial
  sector, which now accounts for about 28% of GDP, has more than
  compensated for the decline in steel. Most banks are foreign-owned
  and have extensive foreign dealings. Agriculture is based on small
  family-owned farms. The economy depends on foreign and cross-border
  workers for more than 30% of its labor force. Although Luxembourg,
  like all EU members, has suffered from the global economic slump,
  the country enjoys an extraordinarily high standard of living - GDP
  per capita ranks first in the world.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $30.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $31.76 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $65,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  316,500 of whom 121,600 are foreign cross-border workers commuting
  primarily from France, Belgium, and Germany (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $9.195 billion
  expenditures: $9.573 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $975.5 million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wine, grapes, barley, oats, potatoes, wheat, fruits; dairy
  products, livestock products

Industries:
  banking and financial services, iron and steel, information
  technology, telecommunications, cargo transportation, food
  processing, chemicals, metal products, engineering, tires, glass,
  aluminum, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.203 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 57.3%
  hydro: 25.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 17.5% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.14 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  2.346 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - imports:
  5.287 billion kWh (2005 est.)

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

Oil - consumption:
  55,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  634 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  50,700 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.205 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  867 million cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $3.56 billion

Exports:
  $13.39 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, steel products, chemicals, rubber
  products, glass

Exports - partners:
  Germany 21%, France 16.3%, Belgium 9.2%, UK 8.3%, Italy 7.5%, Spain
  6.6%, Netherlands 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $18.74 billion c.i.f. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  minerals, metals, foodstuffs, quality consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  Belgium 28.2%, Germany 21.8%, China 12.8%, France 9.6%, Netherlands
  5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $279.1 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $235.59 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Luxembourg


Telephones - main lines in use:
  244,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  720,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: highly developed, completely automated and
  efficient system, mainly buried cables
  domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; buried cable
  international: country code - 352; 3 channels leased on TAT-6
  coaxial submarine cable (Europe to North America)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 2 (1999)

Radios:
  285,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (1999)

Televisions:
  285,000 (1998 est.)

Internet country code:
  .lu

Internet hosts:
  88,661 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  8 (2000)

Internet users:
  315,000 (2005)

Transportation Luxembourg


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 155 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 274 km
  standard gauge: 274 km 1.435-m gauge (262 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 5,210 km
  paved: 5,210 km (including 147 km of expressways) (2002)

Waterways:
  37 km (on Moselle River) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 42 ships (1000 GRT or over) 557,636 GRT/792,069 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, chemical tanker 16, container 7, liquefied
  gas 2, passenger 3, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 42 (Belgium 9, Finland 4, France 14, Germany 10,
  Netherlands 2, US 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mertert

Military Luxembourg


Military branches:
  Army

Military service age and obligation:
  a 1967 law made the Army an all-volunteer force; 17 years of age
  for voluntary military service; soldiers under 18 are not deployed
  into combat or with peacekeeping missions (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 110,867
  females age 17-49: 108,758 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 90,279
  females age 17-49: 88,638 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,775
  females age 17-49: 2,703 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $231.6 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2003)

Transnational Issues Luxembourg


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Macau

Introduction Macau


Background:
  Colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the
  first European settlement in the Far East. Pursuant to an agreement
  signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the
  Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 20 December
  1999. China has promised that, under its "one country, two systems"
  formula, China's socialist economic system will not be practiced in
  Macau, and that Macau will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all
  matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.

Geography Macau


Location:
  Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China

Geographic coordinates:
  22 10 N, 113 33 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 28.2 sq km
  land: 28.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  less than one-sixth the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 0.34 km
  regional border: China 0.34 km

Coastline:
  41 km

Maritime claims:
  not specified

Climate:
  subtropical; marine with cool winters, warm summers

Terrain:
  generally flat

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Coloane Alto 172.4 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  essentially urban; an area of land reclaimed from the sea measuring
  5.2 sq km and known as Cotai now connects the islands of Coloane and
  Taipa; the island area is connected to the mainland peninsula by
  three bridges

People Macau


Population:
  453,125 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.2% (male 37,934/female 35,412)
  15-64 years: 75.9% (male 163,975/female 179,830)
  65 years and over: 7.9% (male 15,099/female 20,875) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 36.1 years
  male: 35.7 years
  female: 36.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.86% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.56 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 82.19 years
  male: 79.36 years
  female: 85.17 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Chinese
  adjective: Chinese

Ethnic groups:
  Chinese 95.7%, Macanese (mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry) 1%,
  other 3.3% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Buddhist 50%, Roman Catholic 15%, none and other 35% (1997 est.)

Languages:
  Cantonese 87.9%, Hokkien 4.4%, Mandarin 1.6%, other Chinese
  dialects 3.1%, other 3% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.5%
  male: 97.2%
  female: 92% (2003 est.)

Government Macau


Country name:
  conventional long form: Macau Special Administrative Region
  conventional short form: Macau
  local long form: Aomen Tebie Xingzhengqu (Chinese); Regiao
  Administrativa Especial de Macau (Portuguese)
  local short form: Aomen (Chinese); Macau (Portuguese)

Dependency status:
  special administrative region of China

Government type:
  limited democracy

Administrative divisions:
  none (special administrative region of China)

Independence:
  none (special administrative region of China)

National holiday:
  National Day (Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic
  of China), 1 October (1949); note - 20 December 1999 is celebrated
  as Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day

Constitution:
  Basic Law, approved in March 1993 by China's National People's
  Congress, is Macau's "mini-constitution"

Legal system:
  based on Portuguese civil law system

Suffrage:
  direct election 18 years of age, universal for permanent residents
  living in Macau for the past seven years; indirect election limited
  to organizations registered as "corporate voters" (257 are currently
  registered) and a 300-member Election Committee drawn from broad
  regional groupings, municipal organizations, and central government
  bodies

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of China HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003)
  head of government: Chief Executive Edmund HO Hau-wah (since 20
  December 1999)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of one government secretary,
  three legislators, four businessmen, one pro-Beijing unionist, and
  one pro-Beijing educator
  elections: chief executive chosen by a 300-member Election Committee
  for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last
  held 29 August 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Edmund HO Hau-wah reelected received 296 votes;
  three members submitted blank ballots; one member was absent

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (29 seats; 12 elected by popular
  vote, 10 by indirect vote, and 7 appointed by the chief executive;
  members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 September 2005 (next in September 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - Development Union 12.8%, Macau
  Development Alliance 9%, Macau United Citizens' Association 16%, New
  Democratic Macau Association 18.2%, others NA; seats by political
  group - Development Union 2, Macau Development Alliance 1, Macau
  United Citizens' Association 2, New Democratic Macau Association 2,
  New Hope 1, United Forces 2, others 2; 10 seats filled by
  professional and business groups; seven members appointed by chief
  executive

Judicial branch:
  Court of Final Appeal in Macau Special Administrative Region

Political parties and leaders:
  Civil Service Union [Jose Maria Pereira COUTINHO]; Development
  Union [KWAN Tsui-hang]; Macau Development Alliance [Angela LEONG
  On-kei]; Macau United Citizens' Association [CHAN Meng-kam]; New
  Democratic Macau Association [Antonio NG Kuok-cheong]; United Forces

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  IHO, IMF, IMO (associate), ISO (correspondent), UNESCO (associate),
  UPU, WCO, WMO, WToO (associate), WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (special administrative region of China)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US has no offices in Macau; US interests are monitored by the
  US Consulate General in Hong Kong

Flag description:
  light green with a lotus flower above a stylized bridge and water
  in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one large
  in center of arc and four smaller

Economy Macau


Economy - overview:
  Macau's well-to-do economy has remained one of the most open in the
  world since its reversion to China in 1999. Apparel exports and
  tourism are mainstays of the economy. Although the territory was hit
  hard by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the global downturn
  in 2001, its economy grew 10.1% in 2002, 14.2% in 2003, and 28.6% in
  2004. During the first three quarters of 2005, Macau registered
  year-on-year GDP increases of 6.2%. A rapid rise in the number of
  mainland visitors because of China's easing of travel restrictions,
  increased public works expenditures, and significant investment
  inflows associated with the liberalization of Macau's gaming
  industry drove the four-year recovery. The budget also returned to
  surplus since 2002 because of the surge in visitors from China and a
  hike in taxes on gambling profits, which generated about 70% of
  government revenue. The three companies awarded gambling licenses
  have pledged to invest $2.2 billion in the territory, which will
  boost GDP growth. Much of Macau's textile industry may move to the
  mainland as the Multi-Fiber Agreement is phased out. The territory
  may have to rely more on gambling and trade-related services to
  generate growth. Two new casinos were opened by new foreign gambling
  licensees in 2004; development of new infrastructure and facilities
  in preparation for Macau's hosting of the 2005 East Asian Games led
  the construction sector. The Closer Economic Partnership Agreement
  (CEPA) between Macau and mainland China that came into effect on 1
  January 2004 offers many Macau-made products tariff-free access to
  the mainland, and the range of products covered by CEPA was expanded
  on 1 January 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $10 billion (2004)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $10.05 billion (2004)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.8% (3rd Quarter 2005)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $22,000 (2004)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.1%
  industry: 7.2%
  services: 92.7% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  251,200 (3rd Quarter, 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  manufacturing 13.7%, construction 10.5%, transport and
  communications 5.9%, wholesale and retail trade 14.6%, restaurants
  and hotels 10.3%, gambling 17.9%, public sector 7.8%, other services
  and agriculture 19.3% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  4.1% (3rd Quarter 2005)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.8% (2nd quarter, 2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.16 billion
  expenditures: $3.16 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05/06)

Agriculture - products:
  only 2% of land area is cultivated, mainly by vegetable growers;
  fishing, mostly for crustaceans, is important; some of the catch is
  exported to Hong Kong

Industries:
  tourism, gambling, clothing, textiles, electronics, footwear, toys

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.893 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.899 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  153.3 million kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $3.465 billion f.o.b.; note - includes reexports (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, textiles, footwear, toys, electronics, machinery and parts

Exports - partners:
  US 48.7%, China 14.9%, Hong Kong 9.8%, Germany 5.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.478 billion c.i.f. (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials and semi-manufactured goods, consumer goods
  (foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco), capital goods, mineral fuels and
  oils

Imports - partners:
  China 43.1%, Japan 10.9%, Hong Kong 10%, Singapore 5.2%, US 4.1%,
  Taiwan 4% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $3.1 billion (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  pataca (MOP)

Currency code:
  MOP

Exchange rates:
  patacas per US dollar - 8.011 (2005), 8.022 (2004), 8.021 (2003),
  8.033 (2002), 8.034 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Macau


Telephones - main lines in use:
  174,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  532,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fairly modern communication facilities
  maintained for domestic and international services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 853; HF radiotelephone communication
  facility; access to international communications carriers provided
  via Hong Kong and China; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  160,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2006)

Televisions:
  49,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mo

Internet hosts:
  108 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  201,000 (2004)

Transportation Macau


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 368 km
  paved: 368 km (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Macau

Military Macau


Military branches:
  no regular military forces

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 112,744 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 91,299 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsiblity of China

Transnational Issues Macau


Disputes - international:
  none

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Macau is a transit and destination territory for
  women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation;
  most females in Macau's sizeable sex industry come from the interior
  regions of China or Mongolia, though a significant number also come
  from Russia, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and Vietnam; the majority of
  women in Macau's prostitution trade appear to have entered Macau and
  the sex trade voluntarily, though there is evidence that some are
  deceived or coerced into sexual servitude, often through the use of
  debt bondage; organized criminal syndicates are reportedly involved
  in bringing women to Macau, and fear of reprisals from these groups
  may prevent some women from seeking help
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Macau is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failing to show evidence of increasing efforts to address
  trafficking since 2004


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Macedonia

Introduction Macedonia


Background:
  Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from Yugoslavia in
  1991, but Greece's objection to the new state's use of what it
  considered a Hellenic name and symbols delayed international
  recognition, which occurred under the provisional designation of the
  "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." In 1995, Greece lifted a
  20-month trade embargo and the two countries agreed to normalize
  relations, although differences over Macedonia's name remain. The
  undetermined status of neighboring Kosovo, implementation of the
  Framework Agreement - which ended the 2001 ethnic Albanian armed
  insurgency - and a weak economy continue to be challenges for
  Macedonia.

Geography Macedonia


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, north of Greece

Geographic coordinates:
  41 50 N, 22 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 25,333 sq km
  land: 24,856 sq km
  water: 477 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Vermont

Land boundaries:
  total: 766 km
  border countries: Albania 151 km, Bulgaria 148 km, Greece 246 km,
  Serbia 221 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  warm, dry summers and autumns; relatively cold winters with heavy
  snowfall

Terrain:
  mountainous territory covered with deep basins and valleys; three
  large lakes, each divided by a frontier line; country bisected by
  the Vardar River

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Vardar River 50 m
  highest point: Golem Korab (Maja e Korabit) 2,764 m

Natural resources:
  low-grade iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, manganese,
  nickel, tungsten, gold, silver, asbestos, gypsum, timber, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 22.01%
  permanent crops: 1.79%
  other: 76.2% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  550 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  high seismic risks

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from metallurgical plants

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of
  the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; major transportation corridor from Western and Central
  Europe to Aegean Sea and Southern Europe to Western Europe

People Macedonia


Population:
  2,050,554 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 213,486/female 199,127)
  15-64 years: 68.9% (male 711,853/female 701,042)
  65 years and over: 11% (male 98,618/female 126,428) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 35.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.77 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.97 years
  male: 71.51 years
  female: 76.62 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Macedonian(s)
  adjective: Macedonian

Ethnic groups:
  Macedonian 64.2%, Albanian 25.2%, Turkish 3.9%, Roma 2.7%, Serb
  1.8%, other 2.2% (2002 census)

Religions:
  Macedonian Orthodox 64.7%, other Christian 0.37%, Muslim 33.3%,
  other and unspecified 1.63% (2002 census)

Languages:
  Macedonian 66.5%, Albanian 25.1%, Turkish 3.5%, Roma 1.9%, Serbian
  1.2%, other 1.8% (2002 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.1%
  male: 98.2%
  female: 94.1% (2002 est.)

Government Macedonia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Macedonia
  conventional short form: Macedonia
  local long form: Republika Makedonija
  local short form: Makedonija
  note: the provisional designation used by the UN, EU, and NATO is
  Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
  former: People's Republic of Macedonia, Socialist Republic of
  Macedonia

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Skopje
  geographic coordinates: 41 59 N, 21 26 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  85 municipalities (opstini, singular - opstina); Aerodrom (Skopje),
  Aracinovo, Berovo, Bitola, Bogdanci, Bogovinje, Bosilovo, Brvenica,
  Butel (Skopje), Cair (Skopje), Caska, Centar (Skopje), Centar Zupa,
  Cesinovo, Cucer-Sandevo, Debar, Debartsa, Delcevo, Demir Hisar,
  Demir Kapija, Dojran, Dolneni, Drugovo, Gazi Baba (Skopje),
  Gevgelija, Gjorce Petrov (Skopje), Gostivar, Gradsko, Ilinden,
  Jegunovce, Karbinci, Karpos (Skopje), Kavadarci, Kicevo, Kisela Voda
  (Skopje), Kocani, Konce, Kratovo, Kriva Palanka, Krivogastani,
  Krusevo, Kumanovo, Lipkovo, Lozovo, Makedonska Kamenica, Makedonski
  Brod, Mavrovo i Rastusa, Mogila, Negotino, Novaci, Novo Selo, Ohrid,
  Oslomej, Pehcevo, Petrovec, Plasnica, Prilep, Probistip, Radovis,
  Rankovce, Resen, Rosoman, Saraj (Skopje), Skopje, Sopiste, Staro
  Nagoricane, Stip, Struga, Strumica, Studenicani, Suto Orizari
  (Skopje), Sveti Nikole, Tearce, Tetovo, Valandovo, Vasilevo, Veles,
  Vevcani, Vinica, Vranestica, Vrapciste, Zajas, Zelenikovo, Zelino,
  Zrnovci
  note: the ten municipalities followed by Skopje in parentheses
  collectively constitute "greater Skopje"

Independence:
  8 September 1991 (referendum by registered voters endorsing
  independence from Yugoslavia)

National holiday:
  Uprising Day, 2 August (1903); note - also known as Saint Elijah's
  Day and Ilinden

Constitution:
  adopted 17 November 1991, effective 20 November 1991; amended
  November 2001 by a series of new constitutional amendments
  strengthening minority rights and in 2005 with amendments related to
  the judiciary

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Branko CRVENKOVSKI (since 12 May 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nikola GRUEVSKI (since 28 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the majority vote of all
  the deputies in the Assembly; note - current cabinet formed by the
  government coalition parties VMRO/DPMNE, NSDP, PDSH/DPA, and several
  small parties
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); two-round election last held 14 April
  and 28 April 2004 (next to be held by April 2009); prime minister
  elected by the Assembly following legislative elections
  election results: Branko CRVENKOVSKI elected president on
  second-round ballot; percent of vote - Branko CRVENKOVSKI 62.7%,
  Sasko KEDEV 37.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly or Sobranie (120 seats - members elected by
  popular vote from party lists based on the percentage of the overall
  vote the parties gain in each of six electoral districts; all serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 July 2006 (next to be held by July 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - VMRO-DPMNE 32.5%, SDSM
  23.3%, DUI 12.2%, PDSH/DPA 7.5%; seats by party - VMRO-DPMNE 44,
  SDSM 32, DUI 28, PDSH/DPA 11, other 5

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court - the Assembly appoints the judges; Constitutional
  Court - the Assembly appoints the judges; Republican Judicial
  Council - the Assembly appoints the judges

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Alliance [Pavle TRAJANOV]; Democratic Alternative or DA
  [Vasil TUPURKOVSKI]; Democratic League of the Bosniaks [Rafet
  MUMINOVIC]; Democratic Party of Albanians or PDSH/DPA [Arben
  XHAFERI]; Democratic Party of Serbs [Ivan STOILJKOVIC]; Democratic
  Party of Turks [Kenan HASIPI]; Democratic Renewal of Macedonia
  [Liljana POPOVSKA]; Democratic Republican Union of Macedonia or DRUM
  [Goran RAFAJLOVSKI]; Democratic Union of Vlachs for Macedonia [Mitko
  KOSTOV]; Democratic Union for Integration or DUI [Ali AHMETI];
  Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for
  Macedonian National Unity or VMRO-DPMNE [Nikola GRUEVSKI]; Internal
  Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Macedonian [Boris STOJMENOV];
  Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-People's Party or
  VMRO-Narodna [Vesna JANEVSKA, acting]; League for Democracy [Gjorgi
  MARJANOVIC]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Risto PENOV]; Liberal
  Party [Stojan ANDOV]; National Alternative [Harun ALIU]; National
  Democratic Party or PDK [Basri HALITI]; National Farmers' Party
  [Vejljo TANTAROV]; New Democratic Forces [Hysni SHAQIRI]; New Social
  Democratic Party or NSDP [Tito PETKOVSKI]; Party for Democratic
  Future [Alajdin DEMIRI]; Party for Democratic Prosperity or PPD/PDP
  [Abduljhadi VEJSELI]; Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia or
  SDSM [Vlado BUCKOVSKI]; Socialist Party of Macedonia or SP [Ljubisav
  IVANOV-ZINGO]; United Party for Emancipation or OPE [Nezdet MUSTAFA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Civic Movement of Macedonia [Gordana SILJANOVSKA]; World Macedonian
  Congress [Todor PETROV]

International organization participation:
  BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU,
  ISO, ITU, MIGA, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ljupco JORDANOVSKI
  chancery: 2129 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-0501
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2131
  consulate(s) general: Southfield (Michigan)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gillian A. MILOVANOVIC
  embassy: Bul. Ilindenska bb, 1000 Skopje
  mailing address: American Embassy Skopje, US Department of State,
  7120 Skopje Place, Washington, DC 20521-7120 (pouch)
  telephone: [389] 2 311-6180
  FAX: [389] 2 311-7103

Flag description:
  a yellow sun with eight broadening rays extending to the edges of
  the red field

Economy Macedonia


Economy - overview:
  At independence in September 1991, Macedonia was the least
  developed of the Yugoslav republics, producing a mere 5% of the
  total federal output of goods and services. The collapse of
  Yugoslavia ended transfer payments from the central government and
  eliminated advantages from inclusion in a de facto free trade area.
  An absence of infrastructure, UN sanctions on the downsized
  Yugoslavia, one of its largest markets, and a Greek economic embargo
  over a dispute about the country's constitutional name and flag
  hindered economic growth until 1996. GDP subsequently rose each year
  through 2000. However, the leadership's commitment to economic
  reform, free trade, and regional integration was undermined by the
  ethnic Albanian insurgency of 2001. The economy shrank 4.5% because
  of decreased trade, intermittent border closures, increased deficit
  spending on security needs, and investor uncertainty. Growth barely
  recovered in 2002 to 0.9%, then rose by 3.4% in 2003, 4.1% in 2004,
  and 3.7% in 2005. Macedonia has maintained macroeconomic stability
  with low inflation, but it has lagged the region in attracting
  foreign investment and job growth has been anemic. Macedonia has an
  extensive grey market, estimated to be more than 20 percent of GDP,
  that falls outside official statistics.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $15.94 billion
  note: Macedonia has a large informal sector (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.304 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.8%
  industry: 31.9%
  services: 56.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  855,000 (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  37.3% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  29.6% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.2 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.105 billion
  expenditures: $2.15 billion; including capital expenditures of $114
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  33.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grapes, wine, tobacco, vegetables; milk, eggs

Industries:
  food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, steel, cement,
  energy, pharmaceuticals

Industrial production growth rate:
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  6.271 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 83.7%
  hydro: 16.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  7.933 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:
  1.662 billion kWh (2005)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  23,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-81.1 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.047 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  food, beverages, tobacco; miscellaneous manufactures, iron and steel

Exports - partners:
  Germany 17.8%, Greece 15.3%, Italy 8.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.196 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, automobiles, chemicals, fuels, food
  products

Imports - partners:
  Russia 13.2%, Germany 10.4%, Greece 9.2%, Bulgaria 7.3%, Italy 6%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.341 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.19 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $250 million (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  Macedonian denar (MKD)

Currency code:
  MKD

Exchange rates:
  Macedonian denars per US dollar - 48.92 (2005), 49.41 (2004),
  54.322 (2003), 64.35 (2002), 68.037 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Macedonia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  533,200 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.261 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 389

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 29, FM 20, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  410,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  31 (plus 166 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  510,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mk

Internet hosts:
  3,716 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  392,671 (2005)

Transportation Macedonia


Airports:
  17 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 268 km; oil 120 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 699 km
  standard gauge: 699 km 1.435-m gauge (233 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 8,684 km
  paved: 5,540 km
  unpaved: 3,144 km (1999)

Military Macedonia


Military branches:
  Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM): Joint Operational Command,
  with subordinate Air Wing (Makedonsko Voeno Vozduhoplovstvo, MVV),
  Special Force Command (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  conscription to be phased out by 2007; current tour of conscript
  duty is six months; 18 years of age for voluntary military service
  (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 498,259
  females age 18-49: 481,317 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 411,156
  females age 18-49: 397,839 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 16,686
  females age 18-49: 15,664 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $200 million (FY01/02 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  6% (FY01/02 est.)

Transnational Issues Macedonia


Disputes - international:
  ethnic Albanians in Kosovo object to demarcation of the boundary
  with Macedonia in accordance with the 2000 Macedonia-Serbia and
  Montenegro delimitation agreement; Greece continues to reject the
  use of the name Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 2,678 (ethnic conflict in 2001) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish;
  minor transit point for South American cocaine destined for Europe;
  although not a financial center and most criminal activity is
  thought to be domestic, money laundering is a problem due to a
  mostly cash-based economy and weak enforcement (no arrests or
  prosecutions for money laundering to date)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Madagascar

Introduction Madagascar


Background:
  Formerly an independent kingdom, Madagascar became a French colony
  in 1896, but regained its independence in 1960. During 1992-93, free
  presidential and National Assembly elections were held, ending 17
  years of single-party rule. In 1997, in the second presidential
  race, Didier RATSIRAKA, the leader during the 1970s and 1980s, was
  returned to the presidency. The 2001 presidential election was
  contested between the followers of Didier RATSIRAKA and Marc
  RAVALOMANANA, nearly causing secession of half of the country. In
  April 2002, the High Constitutional Court announced RAVALOMANANA the
  winner.

Geography Madagascar


Location:
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 S, 47 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 587,040 sq km
  land: 581,540 sq km
  water: 5,500 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Arizona

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  4,828 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or 100 nm from the 2,500-m deep isobath

Climate:
  tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south

Terrain:
  narrow coastal plain, high plateau and mountains in center

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Maromokotro 2,876 m

Natural resources:
  graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz, tar sands,
  semiprecious stones, mica, fish, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 5.03%
  permanent crops: 1.02%
  other: 93.95% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10,860 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic cyclones, drought, and locust infestation

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion results from deforestation and overgrazing;
  desertification; surface water contaminated with raw sewage and
  other organic wastes; several endangered species of flora and fauna
  unique to the island

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  world's fourth-largest island; strategic location along Mozambique
  Channel

People Madagascar


Population:
  18,595,469 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.8% (male 4,171,821/female 4,158,288)
  15-64 years: 52.2% (male 4,809,173/female 4,900,675)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 249,414/female 306,098) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.5 years
  male: 17.3 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.03% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  41.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  11.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 75.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 83.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 66.84 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 57.34 years
  male: 54.93 years
  female: 59.82 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.7% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  140,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  7,500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Malagasy (singular and plural)
  adjective: Malagasy

Ethnic groups:
  Malayo-Indonesian (Merina and related Betsileo), Cotiers (mixed
  African, Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab ancestry - Betsimisaraka,
  Tsimihety, Antaisaka, Sakalava), French, Indian, Creole, Comoran

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%, Muslim 7%

Languages:
  French (official), Malagasy (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 68.9%
  male: 75.5%
  female: 62.5% (2003 est.)

Government Madagascar


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Madagascar
  conventional short form: Madagascar
  local long form: Republique de Madagascar/Repoblikan'i Madagasikara
  local short form: Madagascar/Madagasikara
  former: Malagasy Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Antananarivo
  geographic coordinates: 18 52 S, 47 30 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 provinces (faritany); Antananarivo, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa,
  Mahajanga, Toamasina, Toliara

Independence:
  26 June 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 26 June (1960)

Constitution:
  19 August 1992 by national referendum

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and traditional Malagasy law;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Marc RAVALOMANANA (since 6 May 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jacques SYLLA (27 May 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 16 December 2001
  (next to be held December 2006); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: percent of vote - Marc RAVALOMANANA (TIM) 50.5%,
  Didier RATSIRAKA (AREMA) 37.7%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consists of a National Assembly or Assemblee
  Nationale (160 seats; members are directly elected by popular vote
  to serve four-year terms) and a Senate or Senat (100 seats;
  two-thirds of the seats filled by regional assemblies whose members
  will be elected by popular vote; the remaining one-third of the
  seats appointed by the president; all members will serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 15 December 2002 (next to
  be held December 2006)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - TIM 103, FP 22, AREMA 3, LEADER/Fanilo 2, RPSD
  5, others 3, independents 22

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; High Constitutional Court or Haute
  Cour Constitutionnelle

Political parties and leaders:
  Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar or AREMA [Pierrot
  RAJAONARIVO]; Economic Liberalism and Democratic Action for National
  Recovery or LEADER/Fanilo [Herizo RAZAFIMAHALEO]; Fihaonana Party or
  FP [Guy-Willy RAZANAMASY]; I Love Madagascar or TIM [Marc
  RAVALOMANANA]; Renewal of the Social Democratic Party or RPSD
  [Evariste MARSON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Committee for the Defense of Truth and Justice or KMMR; Committee
  for National Reconciliation or CRN [Albert Zafy]; National Council
  of Christian Churches or FFKM

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM,
  OIF, OPCW, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rajaonarivony NARISOA
  chancery: 2374 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-5525, 5526
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-3034
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James D. MCGEE
  embassy: 14-16 Rue Rainitovo, Antsahavola, Antananarivo 101
  mailing address: B. P. 620, Antsahavola, Antananarivo
  telephone: [261] (20) 22-212-57, 22-212-73, 22-209-56
  FAX: [261] (20) 22-345-39

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a vertical
  white band of the same width on hoist side

Economy Madagascar


Economy - overview:
  Having discarded past socialist economic policies, Madagascar has
  since the mid 1990s followed a World Bank- and IMF-led policy of
  privatization and liberalization. This strategy placed the country
  on a slow and steady growth path from an extremely low level.
  Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the
  economy, accounting for more than one-fourth of GDP and employing
  80% of the population. Exports of apparel have boomed in recent
  years primarily due to duty-free access to the United States.
  Deforestation and erosion, aggravated by the use of firewood as the
  primary source of fuel, are serious concerns. President RAVALOMANANA
  has worked aggressively to revive the economy following the 2002
  political crisis, which triggered a 12% drop in GDP that year.
  Poverty reduction and combating corruption will be the centerpieces
  of economic policy for the next few years.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $16.05 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.719 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 27.6%
  industry: 16.5%
  services: 55.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  7.3 million (2000)

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 29% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  47.5 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  26.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $703.6 million
  expenditures: $853 million; including capital expenditures of $331
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves, cocoa, rice, cassava (tapioca),
  beans, bananas, peanuts; livestock products

Industries:
  meat processing, soap, breweries, tanneries, sugar, textiles,
  glassware, cement, automobile assembly plant, paper, petroleum,
  tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  825.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 36.1%
  hydro: 63.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  767.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  15,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  0 cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-438 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $951 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, cotton cloth, chromite,
  petroleum products

Exports - partners:
  France 30.9%, US 30.3%, Germany 8.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, petroleum, consumer goods, food

Imports - partners:
  France 16.6%, China 10.6%, Iran 7.9%, Mauritius 6.5%, South Africa
  5.9%, Hong Kong 5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $572 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.6 billion (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $354 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  Madagascar ariary (MGA)

Currency code:
  MGF

Exchange rates:
  Malagasy ariary per US dollar - 2,003 (2005), 1,868.9 (2004),
  1,238.3 (2003), 1,366.4 (2002), 1,317.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Madagascar


Telephones - main lines in use:
  66,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  504,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: system is above average for the region
  domestic: open-wire lines, coaxial cables, microwave radio relay,
  and tropospheric scatter links connect regions
  international: country code - 261; submarine cable to Bahrain;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1
  Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2 (plus a number of repeater stations), FM 9, shortwave 6 (2001)

Radios:
  3.05 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus 36 repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  325,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mg

Internet hosts:
  1,504 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  90,000 (2005)

Transportation Madagascar


Airports:
  116 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 29
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 87
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 42
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 854 km
  narrow gauge: 854 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 49,827 km
  paved: 5,780 km
  unpaved: 44,047 km (1999)

Waterways:
  600 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 13,896 GRT/18,466 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, passenger 2, petroleum tanker 2 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Antsiranana, Mahajanga, Toamasina, Toliara

Military Madagascar


Military branches:
  People's Armed Forces: Intervention Force, Development Force, and
  Aeronaval Force (navy and air); National Gendarmerie

Military service age and obligation:
  18-50 years of age; conscript service obligation - 18 months
  (either military or equivalent civil service) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,542,797
  females age 18-49: 3,551,447 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,218,662
  females age 18-49: 2,408,810 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 187,000
  females age 18-49: 184,833 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $329 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  7.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Madagascar


Disputes - international:
  claims Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juan
  de Nova Island (all administered by France)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis (cultivated and wild varieties) used
  mostly for domestic consumption; transshipment point for heroin


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Malawi

Introduction Malawi


Background:
  Established in 1891, the British protectorate of Nyasaland became
  the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. After three decades of
  one-party rule under President Hastings Kamuzu BANDA the country
  held multiparty elections in 1994, under a provisional constitution
  which came into full effect the following year. Current President
  Bingu wa MUTHARIKA, elected in May 2004 after a failed attempt by
  the previous president to amend the constitution to permit another
  term, has struggled to assert his authority against his predecessor,
  who still leads their shared political party. MUTHARIKA's
  anti-corruption efforts have led to several high-level arrests and
  one prominent conviction. Increasing corruption, population growth,
  increasing pressure on agricultural lands, and the spread of
  HIV/AIDS pose major problems for the country.

Geography Malawi


Location:
  Southern Africa, east of Zambia

Geographic coordinates:
  13 30 S, 34 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 118,480 sq km
  land: 94,080 sq km
  water: 24,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,881 km
  border countries: Mozambique 1,569 km, Tanzania 475 km, Zambia 837 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  sub-tropical; rainy season (November to May); dry season (May to
  November)

Terrain:
  narrow elongated plateau with rolling plains, rounded hills, some
  mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: junction of the Shire River and international
  boundary with Mozambique 37 m
  highest point: Sapitwa (Mount Mlanje) 3,002 m

Natural resources:
  limestone, arable land, hydropower, unexploited deposits of
  uranium, coal, and bauxite

Land use:
  arable land: 20.68%
  permanent crops: 1.18%
  other: 78.14% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  560 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; land degradation; water pollution from agricultural
  runoff, sewage, industrial wastes; siltation of spawning grounds
  endangers fish populations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; Lake Nyasa, some 580 km long, is the country's most
  prominent physical feature

People Malawi


Population:
  13,013,926
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.5% (male 3,056,522/female 3,000,493)
  15-64 years: 50.8% (male 3,277,573/female 3,332,907)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 139,953/female 206,478) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.2 years
  female: 16.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  43.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  19.33 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 94.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 98.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 89.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 41.7 years
  male: 41.93 years
  female: 41.45 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  14.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  900,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  84,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Malawian(s)
  adjective: Malawian

Ethnic groups:
  Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, Ngonde,
  Asian, European

Religions:
  Christian 79.9%, Muslim 12.8%, other 3%, none 4.3% (1998 census)

Languages:
  Chichewa 57.2% (official), Chinyanja 12.8%, Chiyao 10.1%,
  Chitumbuka 9.5%, Chisena 2.7%, Chilomwe 2.4%, Chitonga 1.7%, other
  3.6% (1998 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 62.7%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 49.8% (2003 est.)

Government Malawi


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Malawi
  conventional short form: Malawi
  local long form: Dziko la Malawi
  local short form: Malawi
  former: British Central African Protectorate, Nyasaland
  Protectorate, Nyasaland

Government type:
  multiparty democracy

Capital:
  name: Lilongwe
  geographic coordinates: 13 59 S, 33 44 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  27 districts; Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Chitipa,
  Dedza, Dowa, Karonga, Kasungu, Likoma, Lilongwe, Machinga (Kasupe),
  Mangochi, Mchinji, Mulanje, Mwanza, Mzimba, Ntcheu, Nkhata Bay,
  Nkhotakota, Nsanje, Ntchisi, Phalombe, Rumphi, Salima, Thyolo, Zomba

Independence:
  6 July 1964 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (Republic Day), 6 July (1964)

Constitution:
  18 May 1994

Legal system:
  based on English common law and customary law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Supreme Court of Appeal; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (since 24 May 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (since 24 May
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: 46-member Cabinet named by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 20 May 2004 (next
  to be held May 2009)
  election results: Bingu wa MUTHARIKA elected president; percent of
  vote - Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (UDF) 35.9%, John TEMBO (MCP) 27.1%,
  Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA (MC) 25.7%, Brown MPINGANJIRA (NDA) 8.7%,
  Justin MALEWEZI (independent) 2.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (193 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 May 2004 (next to be held May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  UDF 74, MCP 60, Independents 24, RP 16, others 18, vacancies 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Appeal; High Court (chief justice appointed by the
  president, puisne judges appointed on the advice of the Judicial
  Service Commission); magistrate's courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Democracy or AFORD [Chakufwa CHIHANA]; Congress for
  National Unity or CONU; Democratic Progressive Party or DPP [Bingu
  wa MUTHARIKA]; Malawi Congress Party or MCP [John TEMBO]; Malawi
  Democratic Party or MDP [Kampelo KALUA]; Malawi Forum for Unity and
  Development or MAFUNDE [George MNESA]; Mgwirizano Coalition or MC
  [Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA] (coalition of MAFUNDE, MDP, MGODE, NUP,
  PETRA, PPM, RP); Movement for Genuine Democratic Change or MGODE
  [Sam Kandodo BANDA]; National Democratic Alliance or NDA [Brown
  MPINGANJIRA]; National Unity Party or NUP [Harry CHIUME]; People's
  Progressive Movement or PPM [Aleke BANDA]; People's Transformation
  Movement or PETRA [Kamuzu CHIBAMBO]; Republican Party or RP
  [Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA]; United Democratic Front or UDF

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, ONUB, OPCW, SADC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernard Herbert SANDE
  chancery: 1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 721-0270
  FAX: [1] (202) 721-0288

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires David
  GILMOUR
  embassy: Area 40, Plot 24, Kenyatta Road
  mailing address: P. O. Box 30016, Lilongwe 3, Malawi
  telephone: [265] (1) 773 166
  FAX: [265] (1) 770 471

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green with a
  radiant, rising, red sun centered in the black band

Government - note:
  the executive exerts considerable influence over the legislature

Economy Malawi


Economy - overview:
  Landlocked Malawi ranks among the world's least developed
  countries. The economy is predominately agricultural, with about 90%
  of the population living in rural areas. Agriculture accounted for
  nearly 36% of GDP and 80% of export revenues in 2005. The
  performance of the tobacco sector is key to short-term growth as
  tobacco accounts for over 60% of exports. The economy depends on
  substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World
  Bank, and individual donor nations. In late 2000, Malawi was
  approved for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
  program. The government faces strong challenges, including
  developing a market economy, improving educational facilities,
  facing up to environmental problems, dealing with the rapidly
  growing problem of HIV/AIDS, and satisfying foreign donors that
  fiscal discipline is being tightened. In 2005, President MUTHARIKA
  championed an anticorruption campaign. Malawi's recent fiscal policy
  performance has been very strong, but a serious drought in 2005 and
  2006 will heighten pressure on the government to increase spending.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $7.364 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.984 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 34.2%
  industry: 15.8%
  services: 49.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.5 million (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  55% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  50.3 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  10.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $844.6 million
  expenditures: $913.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  195.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, cassava (tapioca),
  sorghum, pulses, groundnuts, Macadamia nuts; cattle, goats

Industries:
  tobacco, tea, sugar, sawmill products, cement, consumer goods

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.296 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 3.3%
  hydro: 96.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.206 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  5,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-218 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $364 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  tobacco 60%, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, peanuts, wood products,
  apparel

Exports - partners:
  US 18%, South Africa 12.2%, Egypt 7.6%, Germany 7%, Netherlands
  6.9%, Japan 4.8%, Russia 4.6%, UK 4.2%, Mozambique 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $645 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, petroleum products, semimanufactures, consumer goods,
  transportation equipment

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 37.9%, Zambia 8.7%, Mozambique 7.8%, Zimbabwe 7.3%,
  India 6.4%, Tanzania 4.6% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $151 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.287 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $401.5 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  Malawian kwacha (MWK)

Currency code:
  MWK

Exchange rates:
  Malawian kwachas per US dollar - 108.894 (2005), 108.898 (2004),
  97.433 (2003), 76.687 (2002), 72.197 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Malawi


Telephones - main lines in use:
  102,700 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  429,300 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: system employs open-wire lines, microwave radio relay
  links, and radiotelephone communications stations
  international: country code - 265; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 9, FM 5 (plus 15 repeater stations), shortwave 2 (plus a third
  station held in standby status) (2001)

Radios:
  2.6 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .mw

Internet hosts:
  377 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2002)

Internet users:
  52,500 (2005)

Transportation Malawi


Airports:
  42 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 797 km
  narrow gauge: 797 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 28,400 km
  paved: 5,254 km
  unpaved: 23,146 km (1999)

Waterways:
  700 km (on Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and Shire River) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Chipoka, Monkey Bay, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Chilumba

Military Malawi


Military branches:
  Malawi Armed Forces: Army (includes Air Wing and Naval Detachment),
  Police (includes Mobile Force Unit)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,430,514 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,226,802 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $15.81 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Malawi


Disputes - international:
  disputes with Tanzania over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake
  Malawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Malaysia

Introduction Malaysia


Background:
  During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established
  colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these
  were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled
  territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya,
  which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was formed in 1963 when
  the former British colonies of Singapore and the East Malaysian
  states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of Borneo joined
  the Federation. The first several years of the country's history
  were marred by Indonesian efforts to control Malaysia, Philippine
  claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from the Federation in
  1965. During the 22-year term of Prime Minister MAHATHIR bin Mohamad
  (1981-2003), Malaysia was successful in diversifying its economy
  from dependence on exports of raw materials, to expansion in
  manufacturing, services, and tourism.

Geography Malaysia


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and northern
  one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia, Brunei, and
  the South China Sea, south of Vietnam

Geographic coordinates:
  2 30 N, 112 30 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 329,750 sq km
  land: 328,550 sq km
  water: 1,200 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,669 km
  border countries: Brunei 381 km, Indonesia 1,782 km, Thailand 506 km

Coastline:
  4,675 km (Peninsular Malaysia 2,068 km, East Malaysia 2,607 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation;
  specified boundary in the South China Sea

Climate:
  tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast
  (October to February) monsoons

Terrain:
  coastal plains rising to hills and mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Gunung Kinabalu 4,100 m

Natural resources:
  tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas, bauxite

Land use:
  arable land: 5.46%
  permanent crops: 17.54%
  other: 77% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  3,650 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding, landslides, forest fires

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from industrial and vehicular emissions; water
  pollution from raw sewage; deforestation; smoke/haze from Indonesian
  forest fires

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands

Geography - note:
  strategic location along Strait of Malacca and southern South China
  Sea

People Malaysia


Population:
  24,385,858 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 4,093,859/female 3,862,730)
  15-64 years: 62.6% (male 7,660,680/female 7,613,537)
  65 years and over: 4.7% (male 509,260/female 645,792) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 24.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.78% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.86 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: does not reflect net flow of an unknown number of illegal
  immigrants from other countries in the region (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 17.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.5 years
  male: 69.8 years
  female: 75.38 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  52,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  2,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Malaysian(s)
  adjective: Malaysian

Ethnic groups:
  Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others
  7.8% (2004 est.)

Religions:
  Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh; note - in
  addition, Shamanism is practiced in East Malaysia

Languages:
  Bahasa Melayu (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin,
  Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi,
  Thai
  note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most
  widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88.7%
  male: 92%
  female: 85.4% (2002)

Government Malaysia


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Malaysia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Malaysia
  former: Federation of Malaysia

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy
  note: nominally headed by paramount ruler and a bicameral Parliament
  consisting of a nonelected upper house and an elected lower house;
  all Peninsular Malaysian states have hereditary rulers except Melaka
  and Pulau Pinang (Penang); those two states along with Sabah and
  Sarawak in East Malaysia have governors appointed by government;
  powers of state governments are limited by federal constitution;
  under terms of federation, Sabah and Sarawak retain certain
  constitutional prerogatives (e.g., right to maintain their own
  immigration controls); Sabah holds 25 seats in House of
  Representatives; Sarawak holds 28 seats in House of Representatives

Capital:
  name: Kuala Lumpur
  geographic coordinates: 3 10 N, 101 42 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Putrajaya is referred to as administrative center not capital;
  Parliament meets in Kuala Lumpur

Administrative divisions:
  13 states (negeri-negeri, singular - negeri) Johor, Kedah,
  Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau
  Pinang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, and Terengganu; and one federal
  territory (wilayah persekutuan) with three components, city of Kuala
  Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya

Independence:
  31 August 1957 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day/Malaysia Day, 31 August (1957)

Constitution:
  31 August 1957; amended 16 September 1963

Legal system:
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts in
  the Supreme Court at request of supreme head of the federation; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; Islamic law is applied to
  Muslims in matters of family law

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Paramount Ruler Sultan MIZAN Zainal Abidin (since
  13 December 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister ABDULLAH bin Ahmad Badawi (since
  31 October 2003); Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed NAJIB bin Abdul
  Razak (since 7 January 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister from among the
  members of Parliament with consent of the paramount ruler
  elections: paramount ruler elected by and from the hereditary rulers
  of nine of the states for five-year terms; election last held 3
  November 2006 (next to be held in 2011); prime minister designated
  from among the members of the House of Representatives; following
  legislative elections, the leader of the party that wins a plurality
  of seats in the House of Representatives becomes prime minister
  election results: Sultan MIZAN Zainal Abidin elected paramount ruler

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlimen consists of the Senate or Dewan
  Negara (70 seats; 44 appointed by the paramount ruler, 26 appointed
  by the state legislatures) and the House of Representatives or Dewan
  Rakyat (219 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 21 March 2004 (next
  must be held by 2009)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - BN 91%, DAP 5%, PAS 3%, other 1%; seats by party - BN 199,
  DAP 12, PAS 6, PKR 1, independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Federal Court (judges appointed by the paramount ruler on the
  advice of the prime minister)

Political parties and leaders:
  ruling-coalition National Front (Barisan Nasional) or BN,
  consisting of the following parties: Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Party
  or PGRM [LIM Keng Yaik]; Liberal Democratic Party (Parti Liberal
  Demokratik - Sabah) or LDP [LIEW Vui Keong]; Malaysian Chinese
  Association (Persatuan China Malaysia) or MCA [ONG Ka Ting];
  Malaysian Indian Congress (Kongresi India Malaysia) or MIC [S. Samy
  VELLU]; Parti Bersatu Pakyat Sabah or PBRS [Joseph KURUP]; Parti
  Bersatu Sabah or PBS [Joseph PAIRIN Kitingan]; Parti Pesaka
  Bumiputra Bersatu or PBB [Patinggi Haji Abdul TAIB Mahmud]; Parti
  Rakyat Sarawak or PRS [James MASING]; Sabah Progressive Party (Parti
  Progresif Sabah) or SAPP [YONG Teck Lee]; Sarawak United People's
  Party (Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sarawak) or SUPP [George CHAN Hong Nam];
  United Malays National Organization or UMNO [ABDULLAH bin Ahmad
  Badawi]; United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organization
  (Pertubuhan Pasko Momogun Kadazan Dusun Bersatu) or UPKO [Bernard
  DOMPOK]; People's Progressive Party (Parti Progresif Penduduk
  Malaysia) or PPP [M.Keyveas]; Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party
  or SPDP [William MAWANI]; opposition parties: Democratic Action
  Party (Parti Tindakan Demokratik) or DAP [KARPAL Singh]; Islamic
  Party of Malaysia (Parti Islam se Malaysia) or PAS [Abdul HADI
  Awang]; People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) or PKR [WAN
  AZIZAH Wan Ismael]; Sarawak National Party or SNAP [Edwin DUNDANG];
  opposition coalition Alternative Front (Barisan Alternatif) or BA -
  consists of PAS and PKR

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, C, CP, EAS, FAO, G-15, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador GHAZZALI bin Sheikh Abdul Khalid
  chancery: 3516 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 572-9700
  FAX: [1] (202) 572-9882
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christopher J. LAFLEUR
  embassy: 376 Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur 50440
  mailing address: US Embassy Kuala Lumpur, APO AP 96535-8152
  telephone: [60] (3) 2168-5000
  FAX: [60] (3) 2142-2207

Flag description:
  14 equal horizontal stripes of red (top) alternating with white
  (bottom); there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner
  bearing a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-pointed star; the crescent
  and the star are traditional symbols of Islam; the design was based
  on the flag of the US

Economy Malaysia


Economy - overview:
  Malaysia, a middle-income country, transformed itself from 1971
  through the late 1990s from a producer of raw materials into an
  emerging multi-sector economy. Growth was almost exclusively driven
  by exports - particularly of electronics. As a result, Malaysia was
  hard hit by the global economic downturn and the slump in the
  information technology (IT) sector in 2001 and 2002. GDP in 2001
  grew only 0.5% because of an estimated 11% contraction in exports,
  but a substantial fiscal stimulus package equal to US $1.9 billion
  mitigated the worst of the recession, and the economy rebounded in
  2002 with a 4.1% increase. The economy grew 4.9% in 2003,
  notwithstanding a difficult first half, when external pressures from
  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Iraq War led to
  caution in the business community. Growth topped 7% in 2004 and 5%
  in 2005. As an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia has profited from
  higher world energy prices, although the cost of government
  subsidies for domestic gasoline and diesel fuel has risen and offset
  some of the benefit. Malaysia "unpegged" the ringgit from the US
  dollar in 2005, but so far there has been little movement in the
  exchange rate. Healthy foreign exchange reserves, low inflation, and
  a small external debt are all strengths that make it unlikely that
  Malaysia will experience a financial crisis over the near term
  similar to the one in 1997. The economy remains dependent on
  continued growth in the US, China, and Japan - top export
  destinations and key sources of foreign investment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $287 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $122 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $12,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8.4%
  industry: 48%
  services: 43.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  10.67 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 14.5%
  industry: 36%
  services: 49.5% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  8% (1998 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.4%
  highest 10%: 39.2% (2003 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  49.2 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $30.57 billion
  expenditures: $34.62 billion; including capital expenditures of $9.4
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  46.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  Peninsular Malaysia - rubber, palm oil, cocoa, rice; Sabah -
  subsistence crops, rubber, timber, coconuts, rice; Sarawak - rubber,
  pepper, timber

Industries:
  Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and
  manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining
  and smelting, logging, timber processing; Sabah - logging, petroleum
  production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production
  and refining, logging

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  79.28 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 89.5%
  hydro: 10.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  73.63 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  100 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  770,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  510,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  230,200 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  3.1 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  53.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  28.53 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  22.41 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.124 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $14.06 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $147.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, wood and
  wood products, palm oil, rubber, textiles, chemicals

Exports - partners:
  US 19.7%, Singapore 15.6%, Japan 9.3%, China 6.6%, Hong Kong 5.8%,
  Thailand 5.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $118.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  electronics, machinery, petroleum products, plastics, vehicles,
  iron and steel products, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Japan 14.6%, US 13%, Singapore 11.8%, China 11.6%, Taiwan 5.6%,
  Thailand 5.3%, South Korea 5%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $70.23 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $52 billion (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  ringgit (MYR)

Currency code:
  MYR

Exchange rates:
  ringgits per US dollar - 3.8 (2005), 3.8 (2004), 3.8 (2003), 3.8
  (2002), 3.8 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Malaysia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4.366 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  19.545 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system; international service excellent
  domestic: good intercity service provided on Peninsular Malaysia
  mainly by microwave radio relay; adequate intercity microwave radio
  relay network between Sabah and Sarawak via Brunei; domestic
  satellite system with 2 earth stations
  international: country code - 60; submarine cables to India, Hong
  Kong, and Singapore; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian
  Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean) (2001)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 35, FM 391, shortwave 15 (2001)

Radios:
  10.9 million (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  mainland Malaysia 51; Sabah 16; Sarawak 21; note - many are low
  power stations (2006)

Televisions:
  10.8 million (1999)

Internet country code:
  .my

Internet hosts:
  158,650 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  7 (2000)

Internet users:
  11.016 million (2005)

Transportation Malaysia


Airports:
  117 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 37
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 80
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 72 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 282 km; gas 5,372 km; oil 1,715 km; oil/gas/water 19 km;
  refined products 114 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,890 km
  standard gauge: 57 km 1.435-m gauge (57 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,833 km 1.000-m gauge (150 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 71,814 km
  paved: 55,943 km
  unpaved: 15,871 km (2001)

Waterways:
  7,200 km
  note: Peninsular Malaysia 3,200 km, Sabah 1,500 km, Sarawak 2,500 km
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 312 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,542,727 GRT/7,544,154 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 19, cargo 99, chemical tanker 38, container
  48, liquefied gas 27, livestock carrier 1, passenger/cargo 8,
  petroleum tanker 61, roll on/roll off 5, vehicle carrier 6
  foreign-owned: 66 (China 1, Germany 2, Hong Kong 14, Japan 4, South
  Korea 1, Singapore 44)
  registered in other countries: 68 (Bahamas 12, Belize 1, Cayman
  Islands 1, Mongolia 1, Panama 13, Philippines 1, Singapore 35, US 4)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bintulu, Johor, Labuan, Lahad Datu, Lumut, Miri, George Town
  (Penang), Port Kelang, Tanjung Pelepas

Military Malaysia


Military branches:
  Malaysian Armed Forces (Angkatan Tentera Malaysia, ATM): Malaysian
  Army (Tentera Darat Malaysia), Royal Malaysian Navy (Tentera Laut
  Diraja Malaysia, TLDM), Royal Malaysian Air Force (Tentera Udara
  Diraja Malaysia, TUDM) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,584,231
  females age 18-49: 5,510,345 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,574,854
  females age 18-49: 4,613,321 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 244,418
  females age 18-49: 231,896 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.69 billion (FY00 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.03% (FY00)

Transnational Issues Malaysia


Disputes - international:
  Malaysia has asserted sovereignty over the Spratly Islands together
  with China, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; while
  the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China
  Sea" has eased tensions over the Spratly Islands, it is not the
  legally binding "code of conduct" sought by some parties; Malaysia
  was not party to the March 2005 joint accord among the national oil
  companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam on conducting
  marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; disputes continue
  over deliveries of fresh water to Singapore, Singapore's land
  reclamation, bridge construction, maritime boundaries, and Pedra
  Branca Island/Pulau Batu Putih - but parties agree to ICJ
  arbitration on island dispute within three years; ICJ awarded
  Ligitan and Sipadan islands, also claimed by Indonesia and
  Philippines, to Malaysia but left maritime boundary in the
  hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile
  confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil
  block; separatist violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim
  southern provinces prompts measures to close and monitor border with
  Malaysia to stem terrorist activities; Philippines retains a now
  dormant claim to Malaysia's Sabah State in northern Borneo; in 2003,
  Brunei and Malaysia ceased gas and oil exploration in their disputed
  offshore and deepwater seabeds and negotiations have stalemated
  prompting consideration of international adjudication; Malaysia's
  land boundary with Brunei around Limbang is in dispute; piracy
  remains a problem in the Malacca Strait

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 15,181 (Indonesia) 9,601 (Burma)
  (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser
  extent, a source and transit country for men and women trafficked
  for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; foreign
  victims, mostly women and girls from China, Indonesia, Thailand, the
  Philippines, and Vietnam, are trafficked to Malaysia for commercial
  sexual exploitation; economic migrants from countries in the region
  who work as domestic servants or laborers in the construction and
  agricultural sectors face exploitative conditions in Malaysia that
  meet the definition of involuntary servitude; some Malaysian women,
  primarily of Chinese ethnicity, are trafficked abroad for sexual
  exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Malaysia is placed on Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to
  combat trafficking, particularly its failure to provide protection
  for victims of trafficking

Illicit drugs:
  regional transit point for some illicit drugs; drug trafficking
  prosecuted vigorously and carries severe penalties


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Maldives

Introduction Maldives


Background:
  The Maldives was long a sultanate, first under Dutch and then under
  British protection. It became a republic in 1968, three years after
  independence. Since 1978, President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM - currently
  in his sixth term in office - has dominated the islands' political
  scene. Following riots in the capital Male in August 2004, the
  president and his government have pledged to embark upon democratic
  reforms, including a more representative political system and
  expanded political freedoms. Tourism and fishing are being developed
  on the archipelago.

Geography Maldives


Location:
  Southern Asia, group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, south-southwest
  of India

Geographic coordinates:
  3 15 N, 73 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 300 sq km
  land: 300 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 1.7 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  644 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; dry, northeast monsoon (November to March);
  rainy, southwest monsoon (June to August)

Terrain:
  flat, with white sandy beaches

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Wilingili island in the Addu
  Atoll 2.4 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 13.33%
  permanent crops: 30%
  other: 56.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  low level of islands makes them very sensitive to sea level rise

Environment - current issues:
  depletion of freshwater aquifers threatens water supplies; global
  warming and sea level rise; coral reef bleaching

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  1,190 coral islands grouped into 26 atolls (200 inhabited islands,
  plus 80 islands with tourist resorts); archipelago with strategic
  location astride and along major sea lanes in Indian Ocean

People Maldives


Population:
  359,008 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.4% (male 80,113/female 75,763)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 98,040/female 94,029)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 5,477/female 5,586) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.9 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.78% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  34.81 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 54.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.01 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 55.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.41 years
  male: 63.08 years
  female: 65.8 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Maldivian(s)
  adjective: Maldivian

Ethnic groups:
  South Indians, Sinhalese, Arabs

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim

Languages:
  Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic),
  English spoken by most government officials

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.2%
  male: 97.1%
  female: 97.3% (2003 est.)

Government Maldives


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Maldives
  conventional short form: Maldives
  local long form: Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa
  local short form: Dhivehi Raajje

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Male
  geographic coordinates: 4 10 N, 73 31 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  19 atolls (atholhu, singular and plural) and the capital city*;
  Alifu, Baa, Dhaalu, Faafu, Gaafu Alifu, Gaafu Dhaalu, Gnaviyani, Haa
  Alifu, Haa Dhaalu, Kaafu, Laamu, Lhaviyani, Maale* (Male), Meemu,
  Noonu, Raa, Seenu, Shaviyani, Thaa, Vaavu

Independence:
  26 July 1965 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 26 July (1965)

Constitution:
  adopted 1 January 1998

Legal system:
  based on Islamic law with admixtures of English common law
  primarily in commercial matters; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM (since 11 November
  1978); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM (since 11
  November 1978); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president nominated by the Majlis and then the nomination
  must be ratified by a national referendum (at least a 51% approval
  margin is required); president elected for a five-year term;
  election last held 17 October 2003 (next to be held NA 2008)
  election results: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM reelected in
  referendum held 17 October 2003; percent of popular vote - Maumoon
  Abdul GAYOOM 90.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral People's Council or Majlis (50 seats; 42 elected by
  popular vote, 8 appointed by the president; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 22 January 2005 (next to be held NA 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 50

Judicial branch:
  High Court

Political parties and leaders:
  political parties were allowed to register in June 2005; the first
  entrants are: Adhaalath (Justice) Party or AP [Abdul Majeed Abdul
  BARI]; Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party) or DRP
  [Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM]; Islamic Democratic Party or IDP [Omar
  NASEER]; Maldivian Democratic Party or MDP [Mohamed NASHEED]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  various unregistered political parties

International organization participation:
  AsDB, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mohamed LATHEEF
  chancery: 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400E, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6195
  FAX: [1] (212) 661-6405

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Maldives; the US Ambassador to
  Sri Lanka is accredited to Maldives and makes periodic visits there

Flag description:
  red with a large green rectangle in the center bearing a vertical
  white crescent; the closed side of the crescent is on the hoist side
  of the flag

Economy Maldives


Economy - overview:
  Tourism, Maldives' largest industry, accounts for 20% of GDP and
  more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts. Over 90%
  of government tax revenue comes from import duties and
  tourism-related taxes. Fishing is a second leading sector. The
  Maldivian Government began an economic reform program in 1989
  initially by lifting import quotas and opening some exports to the
  private sector. Subsequently, it has liberalized regulations to
  allow more foreign investment. Agriculture and manufacturing
  continue to play a lesser role in the economy, constrained by the
  limited availability of cultivable land and the shortage of domestic
  labor. Most staple foods must be imported. Industry, which consists
  mainly of garment production, boat building, and handicrafts,
  accounts for about 18% of GDP. Maldivian authorities worry about the
  impact of erosion and possible global warming on their low-lying
  country; 80% of the area is one meter or less above sea level. In
  late December 2004, a major tsunami left more than 100 dead, 12,000
  displaced, and property damage exceeding $300 million. Over the past
  decade, real GDP growth averaged over 7.5% per year. As a result of
  the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 5.5% in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.25 billion (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $817 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  -3.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,900 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 18%
  services: 62% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  88,000 (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 22%
  industry: 18%
  services: 60% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  NEGL% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  21% NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $265 million (excluding foreign grants)
  expenditures: $362 million; including capital expenditures of $80
  million (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, corn, sweet potatoes; fish

Industries:
  fish processing, tourism, shipping, boat building, coconut
  processing, garments, woven mats, rope, handicrafts, coral and sand
  mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.9% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:
  135 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  125.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  4,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $123 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish, clothing

Exports - partners:
  Japan 22.8%, Thailand 22.7%, Sri Lanka 16.4%, UK 12.6%, Singapore
  5.8%, Germany 4.8%, France 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $567 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, ships, foodstuffs, textiles, clothing,
  intermediate and capital goods

Imports - partners:
  Singapore 24.1%, UAE 15.7%, India 11.3%, Malaysia 7.2%, Sri Lanka
  5.7%, UK 4.5% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $304 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $27.9 million $NA (2004)

Currency (code):
  rufiyaa (MVR)

Currency code:
  MVR

Exchange rates:
  rufiyaa per US dollar - 12.8 (2005), 12.8 (2004), 12.8 (2003), 12.8
  (2002), 12.24 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Maldives


Telephones - main lines in use:
  32,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  153,400 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: minimal domestic and international facilities
  domestic: interatoll communication through microwave links; all
  inhabited islands are connected with telephone and fax service
  international: country code - 960; satellite earth station - 3
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  35,000 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2006)

Televisions:
  10,000 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .mv

Internet hosts:
  1,357 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  19,000 (2005)

Transportation Maldives


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 88 km
  paved roads: 88 km - 60 km in Male; 14 km on Addu Atolis; 14 km on
  Laamu
  note: village roads are mainly compacted coral (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 17 ships (1000 GRT or over) 67,149 GRT/87,220 DWT
  by type: cargo 13, petroleum tanker 2, refrigerated cargo 2
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Male

Military Maldives


Military branches:
  National Security Service: Security Branch (ground forces), Air
  Element, Coast Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 71,774
  females age 18-49: 69,229 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 56,687
  females age 18-49: 54,454 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $45.07 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Maldives


Disputes - international:
  none

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 11,000 (December 2004 tsunami victims) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mali

Introduction Mali


Background:
  The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France in
  1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few
  months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed
  Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 by a coup
  that ushered in democratic government. President Alpha KONARE won
  Mali's first democratic presidential election in 1992 and was
  reelected in 1997. In keeping with Mali's two-term constitutional
  limit, KONARE stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou TOURE.

Geography Mali


Location:
  Western Africa, southwest of Algeria

Geographic coordinates:
  17 00 N, 4 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1.24 million sq km
  land: 1.22 million sq km
  water: 20,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 7,243 km
  border countries: Algeria 1,376 km, Burkina Faso 1,000 km, Guinea
  858 km, Cote d'Ivoire 532 km, Mauritania 2,237 km, Niger 821 km,
  Senegal 419 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  subtropical to arid; hot and dry (February to June); rainy, humid,
  and mild (June to November); cool and dry (November to February)

Terrain:
  mostly flat to rolling northern plains covered by sand; savanna in
  south, rugged hills in northeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Senegal River 23 m
  highest point: Hombori Tondo 1,155 m

Natural resources:
  gold, phosphates, kaolin, salt, limestone, uranium, gypsum,
  granite, hydropower
  note: bauxite, iron ore, manganese, tin, and copper deposits are
  known but not exploited

Land use:
  arable land: 3.76%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 96.21% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,360 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons; recurring
  droughts; occasional Niger River flooding

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; inadequate supplies
  of potable water; poaching

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; divided into three natural zones: the southern,
  cultivated Sudanese; the central, semiarid Sahelian; and the
  northern, arid Saharan

People Mali


Population:
  11,716,829 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 48.2% (male 2,857,670/female 2,787,506)
  15-64 years: 48.8% (male 2,804,344/female 2,910,097)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 146,458/female 210,754) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 15.8 years
  male: 15.4 years
  female: 16.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.63% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  49.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -6.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 107.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 117.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 97.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 49 years
  male: 47.05 years
  female: 51.01 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  140,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  12,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Malian(s)
  adjective: Malian

Ethnic groups:
  Mande 50% (Bambara, Malinke, Soninke), Peul 17%, Voltaic 12%,
  Songhai 6%, Tuareg and Moor 10%, other 5%

Religions:
  Muslim 90%, indigenous beliefs 9%, Christian 1%

Languages:
  French (official), Bambara 80%, numerous African languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 46.4%
  male: 53.5%
  female: 39.6% (2003 est.)

Government Mali


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Mali
  conventional short form: Mali
  local long form: Republique de Mali
  local short form: Mali
  former: French Sudan and Sudanese Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bamako
  geographic coordinates: 12 39 N, 8 00 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  8 regions (regions, singular - region); Gao, Kayes, Kidal,
  Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, Tombouctou

Independence:
  22 September 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 22 September (1960)

Constitution:
  adopted 12 January 1992

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law; judicial review
  of legislative acts in Constitutional Court (which was formally
  established on 9 March 1994); has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Amadou Toumani TOURE (since 8 June 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi MAIGA (since 30
  April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 12 May 2002 (next
  to be held April 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Amadou Toumani TOURE elected president; percent of
  vote - Amadou Toumani TOURE 64.4%, Soumaila CISSE 35.6%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (147 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 and 28 July 2002 (next to be held July 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Hope 2002 coalition 66, ADEMA 51, other 30

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Democracy or ADEMA [Diounconda TRAORE, party
  chairman]; Hope 2002 (a coalition of CNID, MPR, RDT, and RPM);
  National Congress for Democratic Initiative or CNID [Mountaga TALL,
  chairman]; Party for Democracy and Progress or PDP [Me Idrissa
  TRAORE]; Party for National Renewal or PARENA [Tiebile DRAME,
  secretary general]; Patriotic Movement for Renewal or MPR [Choguel
  MAIGA]; Rally for Democracy and Labor or RDT; Rally for Mali or RPM
  [Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA, chairman]; Sudanese Union/African
  Democratic Rally or US/RDA [Mamadou Bamou TOURE, secretary general];
  Union for Democracy and Development or UDD [Moussa Balla COULIBALY];
  Union for Republic and Democracy or URD [Soumaila CISSE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Patriotic Movement of the Ghanda Koye or MPGK; United Movement and
  Fronts of Azawad or MFUA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF,
  ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WADB
  (regional), WAEMU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abdoulaye DIOP
  chancery: 2130 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-2249, 939-8950
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6603

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Terrence P. MCCULLEY
  embassy: Rue Rochester NY and Rue Mohamed V, Bamako
  mailing address: B. P. 34, Bamako
  telephone: [223] 222-5470
  FAX: [223] 222-3712

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Mali


Economy - overview:
  Mali is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its
  land area desert or semidesert and with a highly unequal
  distribution of income. Economic activity is largely confined to the
  riverine area irrigated by the Niger. About 10% of the population is
  nomadic and some 80% of the labor force is engaged in farming and
  fishing. Industrial activity is concentrated on processing farm
  commodities. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable
  to fluctuations in world prices for cotton, its main export, along
  with gold. The government has continued its successful
  implementation of an IMF-recommended structural adjustment program
  that is helping the economy grow, diversify, and attract foreign
  investment. Mali's adherence to economic reform and the 50%
  devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994 have pushed up economic
  growth to a sturdy 5% average in 1996-2005. Worker remittances and
  external trade routes for the landlocked country have been
  jeopardized by continued unrest in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $13.61 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.434 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: 17%
  services: 38% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  3.93 million (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  14.6% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  64% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 40.4% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  50.5 (1994)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.5% (2002 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $764 million
  expenditures: $828 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, millet, rice, corn, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep,
  goats

Industries:
  food processing; construction; phosphate and gold mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  820 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 41.7%
  hydro: 58.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  762.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh; note - recent hydropower developments may be providing
  electricity to Senegal and Mauritania (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  4,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $323 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, gold, livestock

Exports - partners:
  China 25.2%, Pakistan 12.8%, Thailand 8.7%, Taiwan 6.7%, Italy 4.5%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $1.858 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum, machinery and equipment, construction materials,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Imports - partners:
  France 13.1%, Senegal 13.1%, Cote d'Ivoire 8.5% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $2.8 billion (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $472.1 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mali


Telephones - main lines in use:
  75,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  869,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic system unreliable but improving;
  provides only minimal service
  domestic: network consists of microwave radio relay, open-wire, and
  radiotelephone communications stations; expansion of microwave radio
  relay in progress
  international: country code - 223; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 28, shortwave 1
  note: the shortwave station in Bamako has seven frequencies and five
  transmitters and relays broadcasts for China Radio International
  (2001)

Radios:
  570,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  45,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ml

Internet hosts:
  278 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  13 (2001)

Internet users:
  60,000 (2005)

Transportation Mali


Airports:
  29 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 20
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 729 km
  narrow gauge: 729 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 15,100 km
  paved: 1,827 km
  unpaved: 13,273 km (1999)

Waterways:
  1,815 km (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Koulikoro

Military Mali


Military branches:
  Army, Air Force, National Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,094,432
  females age 18-49: 2,027,352 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,244,176
  females age 18-49: 1,226,226 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $106.3 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Mali


Disputes - international:
  none

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 6,185 (Mauritania) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Malta

Introduction Malta


Background:
  Great Britain formally acquired possession of Malta in 1814. The
  island staunchly supported the UK through both World Wars and
  remained in the Commonwealth when it became independent in 1964. A
  decade later Malta became a republic. Since about the mid-1980s, the
  island has transformed itself into a freight transshipment point, a
  financial center, and a tourist destination. Malta became an EU
  member in May 2004.

Geography Malta


Location:
  Southern Europe, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily
  (Italy)

Geographic coordinates:
  35 50 N, 14 35 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 316 sq km
  land: 316 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  196.8 km (does not include 56.01 km for the island of Gozo)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 25 nm

Climate:
  Mediterranean; mild, rainy winters; hot, dry summers

Terrain:
  mostly low, rocky, flat to dissected plains; many coastal cliffs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Ta'Dmejrek 253 m (near Dingli)

Natural resources:
  limestone, salt, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 31.25%
  permanent crops: 3.13%
  other: 65.62% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  20 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  very limited natural fresh water resources; increasing reliance on
  desalination

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the country comprises an archipelago, with only the three largest
  islands (Malta, Ghawdex or Gozo, and Kemmuna or Comino) being
  inhabited; numerous bays provide good harbors; Malta and Tunisia are
  discussing the commercial exploitation of the continental shelf
  between their countries, particularly for oil exploration

People Malta


Population:
  400,214 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.1% (male 35,264/female 33,368)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 139,890/female 136,767)
  65 years and over: 13.7% (male 23,554/female 31,371) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 37.2 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.42% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.01 years
  male: 76.83 years
  female: 81.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Maltese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Maltese

Ethnic groups:
  Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians, with
  strong elements of Italian and other Mediterranean stock)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 98%

Languages:
  Maltese (official), English (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.8%
  male: 92%
  female: 93.6% (2003 est.)

Government Malta


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Malta
  conventional short form: Malta
  local long form: Repubblika ta' Malta
  local short form: Malta

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Valletta
  geographic coordinates: 35 54 N, 14 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (administered directly from Valletta); note - local councils
  carry out administrative orders

Independence:
  21 September 1964 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 21 September (1964)

Constitution:
  1964 constitution; amended many times

Legal system:
  based on English common law and Roman civil law; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Edward FENECH ADAMI (since 4 April 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Lawrence GONZI (since 23 March
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by the House of Representatives for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 29
  March 2004 (next to be held by April 2009); following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a majority
  coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the president for a
  five-year term; the deputy prime minister is appointed by the
  president on the advice of the prime minister
  election results: Eddie FENECH ADAMI elected president; House of
  Representatives vote - 33 out of 65 votes

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Representatives (usually 65 seats; note -
  additional seats are given to the party with the largest popular
  vote to ensure a legislative majority; members are elected by
  popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 April 2003 (next to be held by August 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PN 51.7%, MLP 47.6%, AD
  0.7%; seats by party - PN 34, MLP 31

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Court of Appeal; judges for both courts are
  appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister

Political parties and leaders:
  Alternativa Demokratika/Alliance for Social Justice or AD [Harry
  VASSALLO]; Malta Labor Party or MLP [Alfred SANT]; Nationalist Party
  or PN [Lawrence GONZI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, C, CE, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John LOWELL
  chancery: 2017 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-3611, 3612
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-5470
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Molly BORDONARO
  embassy: 3rd Floor, Development House, Saint Anne Street, Floriana,
  VLT 01
  mailing address: P. O. Box 535, Valletta, CMR01
  telephone: [356] 2561 4000
  FAX: [356] 21 243229

Flag description:
  two equal vertical bands of white (hoist side) and red; in the
  upper hoist-side corner is a representation of the George Cross,
  edged in red

Economy Malta


Economy - overview:
  Major resources are limestone, a favorable geographic location, and
  a productive labor force. Malta produces only about 20% of its food
  needs, has limited fresh water supplies, and has few domestic energy
  sources. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing
  (especially electronics and textiles), and tourism. Continued
  sluggishness in the European economy is holding back exports,
  tourism, and overall growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $7.861 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.193 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $19,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 23%
  services: 74% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  160,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 22%
  services: 75% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.503 billion
  expenditures: $2.703 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, cauliflower, grapes, wheat, barley, tomatoes, citrus, cut
  flowers, green peppers; pork, milk, poultry, eggs

Industries:
  tourism, electronics, ship building and repair, construction, food
  and beverages, textiles, footwear, clothing, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  2.082 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.936 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  18,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NEGL (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-598 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.744 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactures

Exports - partners:
  France 15.4%, US 14.4%, Singapore 12.3%, UK 11.3%, Germany 11.2%,
  Italy 5.1%, Libya 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.859 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured and
  semi-manufactured goods; food, drink, tobacco

Imports - partners:
  Italy 32.3%, UK 11.5%, France 9.6%, Germany 8%, US 5.5%, Singapore
  4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.579 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $188.8 million (2005)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Maltese lira (MTL)

Currency code:
  MTL

Exchange rates:
  Maltese liri per US dollar - 0.34578 (2005), 0.34466 (2004),
  0.37723 (2003), 0.43362 (2002), 0.45004 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Malta


Telephones - main lines in use:
  202,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  324,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: automatic system satisfies normal requirements
  domestic: submarine cable and microwave radio relay between islands
  international: country code - 356; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 18, shortwave 6 (1999)

Radios:
  255,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 (2000)

Televisions:
  280,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mt

Internet hosts:
  14,025 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2002)

Internet users:
  127,200 (2005)

Transportation Malta


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,227 km
  paved: 2,014 km
  unpaved: 213 km (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,220 ships (1000 GRT or over) 23,917,414 GRT/38,685,924 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 434, cargo 344, chemical tanker 105,
  combination ore/oil 1, container 59, liquefied gas 7, livestock
  carrier 1, passenger 15, passenger/cargo 14, petroleum tanker 146,
  refrigerated cargo 43, roll on/roll off 33, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 16
  foreign-owned: 1,162 (Austria 1, Azerbaijan 2, Bangladesh 3, Belgium
  10, Bulgaria 13, Canada 18, China 14, Croatia 10, Cyprus 15, Denmark
  6, Estonia 4, France 6, Germany 64, Greece 495, Hong Kong 2, Iceland
  4, India 1, Iran 14, Israel 23, Italy 29, Japan 1, South Korea 6,
  Latvia 40, Lebanon 10, Monaco 1, Netherlands 6, Norway 49, Pakistan
  1, Poland 27, Portugal 3, Romania 9, Russia 70, Slovenia 3, Spain 6,
  Sweden 3, Switzerland 21, Syria 7, Taiwan 2, Turkey 123, UAE 5, UK
  8, Ukraine 24, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Panama 3, Portugal 1, Russia 4)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Marsaxlokk, Valletta

Military Malta


Military branches:
  Armed Forces of Malta (AFM; includes air and maritime elements)
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 90,651
  females age 18-49: 87,047 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 74,525
  females age 18-49: 71,333 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $38.168 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Malta


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  minor transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to Western
  Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Marshall Islands

Introduction Marshall Islands


Background:
  After almost four decades under US administration as the
  easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands,
  the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under a Compact
  of Free Association. Compensation claims continue as a result of US
  nuclear testing on some of the atolls between 1947 and 1962. The
  Marshall Islands hosts the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) Reagan
  Missile Test Site, a key installation in the US missile defense
  network.

Geography Marshall Islands


Location:
  Oceania, two archipelagic island chains of 29 atolls, each made up
  of many small islets, and five single islands in the North Pacific
  Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  9 00 N, 168 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 11,854.3 sq km
  land: 181.3 sq km
  water: 11,673 sq km (note - lagoon waters)
  note: includes the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Kwajalein, Majuro,
  Rongelap, and Utirik

Area - comparative:
  about the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  370.4 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot and humid; wet season May to November; islands border
  typhoon belt

Terrain:
  low coral limestone and sand islands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Likiep 10 m

Natural resources:
  coconut products, marine products, deep seabed minerals

Land use:
  arable land: 11.11%
  permanent crops: 44.44%
  other: 44.45% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  infrequent typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; pollution of Majuro lagoon
  from household waste and discharges from fishing vessels

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Bikini and Enewetak are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein,
  the famous World War II battleground, is used as a US missile test
  range; island city of Ebeye is the second largest settlement in the
  Marshall Islands, after the capital of Majuro, and one of the most
  densely populated locations in the Pacific

People Marshall Islands


Population:
  60,422 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.1% (male 11,720/female 11,295)
  15-64 years: 59.2% (male 18,305/female 17,445)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 801/female 856) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 20.4 years
  female: 20.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.25% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  33.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.78 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -5.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.93 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.31 years
  male: 68.33 years
  female: 72.39 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Marshallese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Marshallese

Ethnic groups:
  Micronesian

Religions:
  Protestant 54.8%, Assembly of God 25.8%, Roman Catholic 8.4%, Bukot
  nan Jesus 2.8%, Mormon 2.1%, other Christian 3.6%, other 1%, none
  1.5% (1999 census)

Languages:
  Marshallese 98.2%, other languages 1.8% (1999 census)
  note: English widely spoken as a second language; both Marshallese
  and English are official languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.7%
  male: 93.6%
  female: 93.7% (1999)

Government Marshall Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of the Marshall Islands
  conventional short form: Marshall Islands
  local long form: Republic of the Marshall Islands
  local short form: Marshall Islands
  abbreviation: RMI
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Marshall Islands
  District

Government type:
  constitutional government in free association with the US; the
  Compact of Free Association entered into force 21 October 1986 and
  the Amended Compact entered into force in May 2004

Capital:
  name: Majuro
  geographic coordinates: 7 05 N, 171 08 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  33 municipalities; Ailinginae, Ailinglaplap, Ailuk, Arno, Aur,
  Bikar, Bikini, Bokak, Ebon, Enewetak, Erikub, Jabat, Jaluit, Jemo,
  Kili, Kwajalein, Lae, Lib, Likiep, Majuro, Maloelap, Mejit, Mili,
  Namorik, Namu, Rongelap, Rongrik, Toke, Ujae, Ujelang, Utirik,
  Wotho, Wotje

Independence:
  21 October 1986 (from the US-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 1 May (1979)

Constitution:
  1 May 1979

Legal system:
  based on adapted Trust Territory laws, acts of the legislature,
  municipal, common, and customary laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Kessai Hesa NOTE (since 5 January 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Kessai Hesa NOTE (since 5 January 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the president from among the members of
  the legislature
  elections: president elected by Parliament from among its own
  members for a four-year term; election last held 17 November 2003
  (next to be held November 2007)
  election results: Kessai Hesa NOTE elected president; percent of
  Parliament vote - 100%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral legislature or Nitijela (33 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 November 2003 (next to be held by November
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - NA
  note: the Council of Chiefs or Ironij is a 12-member body comprised
  of tribal chiefs that advises on matters affecting customary law and
  practice

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; High Court; Traditional Rights Court

Political parties and leaders:
  traditionally there have been no formally organized political
  parties; what has existed more closely resembles factions or
  interest groups because they do not have party headquarters, formal
  platforms, or party structures; the following two "groupings" have
  competed in legislative balloting in recent years - Aelon Kein Ad
  Party [Michael KABUA] and United Democratic Party or UDP [Litokwa
  TOMEING]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, IDA, IFC, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Banny DE BRUM
  chancery: 2433 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5414
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-3236
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Greta N. MORRIS
  embassy: Oceanside, Mejen Weto, Long Island, Majuro
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1379, Majuro, Republic of the Marshall
  Islands 96960-1379
  telephone: [692] 247-4011
  FAX: [692] 247-4012

Flag description:
  blue with two stripes radiating from the lower hoist-side corner -
  orange (top) and white; there is a white star with four large rays
  and 20 small rays on the hoist side above the two stripes

Economy Marshall Islands


Economy - overview:
  US Government assistance is the mainstay of this tiny island
  economy. Agricultural production, primarily subsistence, is
  concentrated on small farms; the most important commercial crops are
  coconuts and breadfruit. Small-scale industry is limited to
  handicrafts, tuna processing, and copra. The tourist industry, now a
  small source of foreign exchange employing less than 10% of the
  labor force, remains the best hope for future added income. The
  islands have few natural resources, and imports far exceed exports.
  Under the terms of the Amended Compact of Free Association, the US
  will provide millions of dollars per year to the Marshall Islands
  (RMI) through 2023, at which time a Trust Fund made up of US and RMI
  contributions will begin perpetual annual payouts. Government
  downsizing, drought, a drop in construction, the decline in tourism
  and foreign investment due to the Asian financial difficulties, and
  less income from the renewal of fishing vessel licenses have held
  GDP growth to an average of 1% over the past decade.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $115 million (2001 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $144 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 31.7%
  industry: 14.9%
  services: 53.4% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  14,680 (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 21.4%
  industry: 20.9%
  services: 57.7%

Unemployment rate:
  30.9% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $42 million
  expenditures: $40 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1999)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, tomatoes, melons, taro, breadfruit, fruits; pigs, chickens

Industries:
  copra, tuna processing, tourism, craft items from seashells, wood,
  and pearls

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1% (solar)

Exports:
  $9.1 million f.o.b. (2000)

Exports - commodities:
  copra cake, coconut oil, handicrafts, fish

Exports - partners:
  US, Japan, Australia, China (2004)

Imports:
  $54.7 million f.o.b. (2000)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels, beverages and tobacco

Imports - partners:
  US, Japan, Australia, NZ, Singapore, Fiji, China, Philippines (2004)

Debt - external:
  $86.5 million (FY99/00 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $51.1 million more than $1 billion from the US, 1986-2002

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Marshall Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  5,510 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,198 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: digital switching equipment; modern services
  include telex, cellular, internet, international calling, caller ID,
  and leased data circuits
  domestic: Majuro Atoll and Ebeye and Kwajalein islands have regular,
  seven-digit, direct-dial telephones; other islands interconnected by
  high frequency radiotelephone (used mostly for government purposes)
  and mini-satellite telephones
  international: country code - 692; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); US Government satellite communications
  system on Kwajalein (2001)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 3, shortwave 0
  note: additionally, the US Armed Forces Radio and Television
  Services (Central Pacific Network) operate one FM and one AM station
  on Kwajalein (2005)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (both are US military stations)
  note: Marshalls Broadcasting Service (cable company) operates on
  Majuro (2005)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .mh

Internet hosts:
  6 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  2,000 (2005)

Transportation Marshall Islands


Airports:
  15 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 64.5 km
  paved: 64.5 km
  note: paved roads on major islands (Majuro, Kwajalein), otherwise
  stone-, coral-, or laterite-surfaced roads and tracks (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 795 ships (1000 GRT or over) 30,772,611 GRT/50,987,293 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 178, cargo 53, chemical
  tanker 133, container 147, liquefied gas 25, passenger 7, petroleum
  tanker 234, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 7, specialized
  tanker 2, vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 730 (Australia 2, Bermuda 4, Brazil 1, Canada 6,
  Chile 1, Croatia 2, Cyprus 15, Denmark 1, Finland 2, Germany 194,
  Greece 199, Hong Kong 7, Isle of Man 1, Italy 1, Japan 7, South
  Korea 1, Latvia 7, Monaco 8, Netherlands 1, Norway 65, Russia 1,
  Saudi Arabia 1, Singapore 6, Slovenia 3, Spain 3, Switzerland 13,
  Turkey 20, UAE 3, UK 12, US 143)
  registered in other countries: 1 (North Korea 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Majuro

Military Marshall Islands


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Marshall Islands Police

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 13,465 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,792 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 726 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Marshall Islands


Disputes - international:
  claims US territory of Wake Island


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Martinique

Introduction Martinique


Background:
  The French began to settle this island in 1635, overcoming
  resistance from the local Carib inhabitants. In 1660, the suviving
  natives were rounded up and permanently expelled. The island has
  subsequently remained a French possession except for three brief
  periods of foreign occupation.

Geography Martinique


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic
  Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  14 40 N, 61 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 1,100 sq km
  land: 1,060 sq km
  water: 40 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than six times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  350 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by trade winds; rainy season (June to October);
  vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every eight years on
  average; average temperature 17.3 degrees C; humid

Terrain:
  mountainous with indented coastline; dormant volcano

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Montagne Pelee 1,397 m

Natural resources:
  coastal scenery and beaches, cultivable land

Land use:
  arable land: 9.09%
  permanent crops: 10%
  other: 80.91% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  70 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes, flooding, and volcanic activity (an average of one
  major natural disaster every five years)

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  the island is dominated by Mount Pelee, which on 8 May 1902 erupted
  and completely destroyed the city of Saint Pierre, killing 30,000
  inhabitants

People Martinique


Population:
  436,131 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 22.1% (male 48,988/female 47,525)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 147,082/female 146,470)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 20,791/female 25,275) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.4 years
  female: 34.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.72% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.18 years
  male: 79.5 years
  female: 78.85 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Martiniquais (singular and plural)
  adjective: Martiniquais

Ethnic groups:
  African and African-white-Indian mixture 90%, white 5%, East Indian
  and Chinese less than 5%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 10.5%, Muslim 0.5%, Hindu 0.5%,
  other 3.5% (1997)

Languages:
  French, Creole patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.7%
  male: 97.4%
  female: 98.1% (2003 est.)

Government Martinique


Country name:
  conventional long form: Department of Martinique
  conventional short form: Martinique
  local long form: Departement de la Martinique
  local short form: Martinique

Dependency status:
  overseas department of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Fort-de-France
  geographic coordinates: 14 36 N, 61 05 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas department of France)

Independence:
  none (overseas department of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French legal system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995); Prefect Yves DASSONVILLE (since 14 January 2004); note - took
  office 8 February 2004
  head of government: President of the General Council Claude LISE
  (since 22 March 1992); President of the Regional Council Alfred
  MARIE-JEANNE (since NA March 1998)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils for
  six-year terms

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (45 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a
  unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (41 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held March 2000 (next to be held
  in 2006); Regional Council - last held on 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held by March 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - left-wing candidates 13, PPM 11, RPR 6, right-wing
  candidates 5, PCM 3, UDF 3, PMS 2, independents 2; note - the PPM
  won a plurality; Regional Council (second round) - percent of vote
  by party - MIM 53.8%, PPM 30.6%; seats by party - MIM 28, PPM 9,
  other 4
  note: Martinique elects 2 seats to the French Senate; elections last
  held September 2004 (next to be held September 2008); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PPM 1, left-wing
  candidate 1; Martinique also elects 4 seats to the French National
  Assembly; elections last held, first round - 9 June 2002, second
  round - 16 June 2002 (next to be held not later than June 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP-RPR 1,
  PMS 1, MIM 1, left-wing candidate 1 (candidacy of the left-wing
  candidate was found invalid by the Constitutional Council; new
  elections will be called)

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Martinique Communist Party or PCM [Georges ERICHOT]; Martinique
  Independence Movement or MIM [Alfred MARIE-JEANNE]; Martinique
  Progressive Party or PPM [Pierre SUEDILE]; Martinique Socialist
  Party or PMS [Ernest WAN-AJOUHU]; Movement of Democrats and
  Ecologists for a Sovereign Martinique or Modemas [Garcin MALSA];
  Rally for the Republic or RPR [Michel CHARLONE]; Socialist
  Revolution Group or GRS [Philippe PIERRE-CHARLES]; Union for French
  Democracy or UDF [Jean MAREN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance or ARC; Central Union for
  Martinique Workers or CSTM [Marc PULVAR]; Frantz Fanon Circle;
  League of Workers and Peasants; Proletarian Action Group or GAP

International organization participation:
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Flag description:
  unofficial flag, derives from the civil ensign flown by French
  merchant ships and dates to 1766; a blue field quartered by a white
  cross; in the center of each rectangle is a white, coiled snake
  representing the venomous Fer-de-lance; the flag of France is used
  for official occasions

Economy Martinique


Economy - overview:
  The economy is based on sugarcane, bananas, tourism, and light
  industry. Agriculture accounts for about 6% of GDP and the small
  industrial sector for 11%. Sugar production has declined, with most
  of the sugarcane now used for the production of rum. Banana exports
  are increasing, going mostly to France. The bulk of meat, vegetable,
  and grain requirements must be imported, contributing to a chronic
  trade deficit that requires large annual transfers of aid from
  France. Tourism, which employs more than 11,000 people, has become
  more important than agricultural exports as a source of foreign
  exchange.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $6.117 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $14,400 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 11%
  services: 83% (1997 est.)

Labor force:
  165,900 (1998)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 17%
  services: 73% (1997)

Unemployment rate:
  27.2% (1998)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA

Budget:
  revenues: $317.5 million
  expenditures: $317.5 million; including capital expenditures of $140
  million (1996)

Agriculture - products:
  pineapples, avocados, bananas, flowers, vegetables, sugarcane

Industries:
  construction, rum, cement, oil refining, sugar, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.205 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.12 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  13,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $404.2 million f.o.b. (2002)

Exports - commodities:
  refined petroleum products, bananas, rum, pineapples

Exports - partners:
  France 45%, Guadeloupe 28% (2004)

Imports:
  $2.307 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, crude oil, foodstuffs, construction materials,
  vehicles, clothing and other consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  France 62%, Venezuela 6%, Germany 4%, Italy 4%, US 3% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $180 million (1994)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA; note - substantial annual aid from France (1998)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Martinique


Telephones - main lines in use:
  172,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  319,900 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic facilities are adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 596; microwave radio relay to
  Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Saint Lucia; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 14, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  82,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  11 (plus nine repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  66,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mq

Internet hosts:
  72 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  107,000 (2005)

Transportation Martinique


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,105 km (including 261 km of expressways) (2000)

Ports and terminals:
  Fort-de-France, La Trinite, Marin

Military Martinique


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 110,536 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 90,868 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 3,105 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Martinique


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for the US and
  Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mauritania

Introduction Mauritania


Background:
  Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern
  third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but
  relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario
  guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Maaouya Ould
  Sid Ahmed TAYA seized power in a coup in 1984. Opposition parties
  were legalized and a new constitution approved in 1991. Two
  multiparty presidential elections since then were widely seen as
  flawed, but October 2001 legislative and municipal elections were
  generally free and open. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed
  President TAYA and ushered in a military council headed by Col. Ely
  Ould Mohamed VALL, which declared it would remain in power for up to
  two years while it created conditions for genuine democratic
  institutions and organized elections. For now, however, Mauritania
  remains an autocratic state, and the country continues to experience
  ethnic tensions among its black population and different Moor
  (Arab-Berber) communities.

Geography Mauritania


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Senegal and Western Sahara

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 N, 12 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,030,700 sq km
  land: 1,030,400 sq km
  water: 300 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,074 km
  border countries: Algeria 463 km, Mali 2,237 km, Senegal 813 km,
  Western Sahara 1,561 km

Coastline:
  754 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  desert; constantly hot, dry, dusty

Terrain:
  mostly barren, flat plains of the Sahara; some central hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sebkhet Te-n-Dghamcha -5 m
  highest point: Kediet Ijill 915 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore, gypsum, copper, phosphate, diamonds, gold, oil, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0.2%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99.79% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  490 sq km (2002)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind blows primarily in March and
  April; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  overgrazing, deforestation, and soil erosion aggravated by drought
  are contributing to desertification; very limited natural fresh
  water resources away from the Senegal, which is the only perennial
  river; locust infestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  most of the population concentrated in the cities of Nouakchott and
  Nouadhibou and along the Senegal River in the southern part of the
  country

People Mauritania


Population:
  3,177,388 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 45.6% (male 726,376/female 723,013)
  15-64 years: 52.2% (male 818,408/female 839,832)
  65 years and over: 2.2% (male 28,042/female 41,717) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17 years
  male: 16.8 years
  female: 17.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.88% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  40.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.16 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 69.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 72.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 66.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 53.12 years
  male: 50.88 years
  female: 55.42 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  9,500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and Rift Valley fever are high risks
  in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Mauritanian(s)
  adjective: Mauritanian

Ethnic groups:
  mixed Maur/black 40%, Moor 30%, black 30%

Religions:
  Muslim 100%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), Pulaar, Soninke, French, Hassaniya, Wolof

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 41.7%
  male: 51.8%
  female: 31.9% (2003 est.)

Government Mauritania


Country name:
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Mauritania
  conventional short form: Mauritania
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Islamiyah al Muritaniyah
  local short form: Muritaniyah

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Nouakchott
  geographic coordinates: 18 06 N, 15 57 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  12 regions (regions, singular - region) and 1 capital district*;
  Adrar, Assaba, Brakna, Dakhlet Nouadhibou, Gorgol, Guidimaka, Hodh
  Ech Chargui, Hodh El Gharbi, Inchiri, Nouakchott*, Tagant, Tiris
  Zemmour, Trarza

Independence:
  28 November 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 28 November (1960)

Constitution:
  12 July 1991

Legal system:
  a combination of Shari'a (Islamic law) and French civil law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Col. Ely Ould Mohamed VALL, whose Military Council
  for Justice and Democracy deposed longtime President Maaouya Ould
  Sid Ahmed TAYA in a coup on 3 August 2005
  head of government: Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould BOUBAKAR (since
  8 August 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second consecutive term); note - passage of a
  constitutional reform referendum in July 2006 limits president to
  two five-year terms; election last held 7 November 2003 (next to be
  held 11 March 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA reelected
  for a third term with 60.8% of the vote

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consists of the Senate or Majlis al-Shuyukh
  (56 seats; a portion of seats up for election every two years;
  members elected by municipal leaders to serve six-year terms) and
  the National Assembly or Majlis al-Watani (95 seats; members elected
  by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 9 and 16 April 2004 (next to be held
  21 January 2007); National Assembly - last held 19 November and 3
  December 2006
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats
  by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; Court of Appeals; lower courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Action for Change or AC (no longer active) [Messoud Ould
  BOULKHEIR]; Alliance for Justice and Democracy or AJD [Cisse Amadou
  CHEIKHOU]; National Union for Democracy and Development or UNDD
  [Tidjane KOITA]; Party for Liberty, Equality, and Justice or PLEJ
  [Ba Mamdou ALASSANE]; Party of Democratic Convergence or PCD [Cheikh
  Ould HORMA]; Popular Front or FP [Ch'bih Ould CHEIKH MALAININE];
  Popular Progressive Alliance or APP [Messoud Ould BOULKHEIR];
  Progress Force Union or UFP (no longer active) [Mohamed Ould
  MAOULOUD]; Rally of Democratic Forces or RFD [Ahmed Ould DADDAH];
  Rally for Democracy and Unity or RDU [Ahmed Ould SIDI BABA];
  Republican Party for Democracy and Renewal or PRDR (formerly ruling
  Democratic and Social Republican Party or PRDS) [Boullah Ould
  MOGUEYA]; Right Way or SAWAB [Cheikh Ould Sidi Ould HANANA]; Union
  for Democracy and Progress or UDP [Naha Mint MOUKNASS]; Union of
  Forces of Progress or UFP [Mohamed Ould MAOULOUD]
  note: the Party of Democratic Convergence was banned in October 2005
  because it was regarded as Islamist and therefore in breach of
  Mauritanian law

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Arab nationalists; Ba'thists; General Confederation of Mauritanian
  Workers or CGTM [Abdallahi Ould MOHAMED, secretary general];
  Independent Confederation of Mauritanian Workers or CLTM [Samory
  Ould BEYE]; Islamists; Mauritanian Workers Union or UTM [Mohamed Ely
  Ould BRAHIM, secretary general]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tijani Ould Mohamed EL KERIM
  chancery: 2129 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-5700, 5701
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2623

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Steven
  KOUTSIS
  embassy: 288 Rue Abdallaye (between Presidency building and Spanish
  Embassy), Nouakchott
  mailing address: BP 222, Nouakchott
  telephone: [222] 525-2660/525-2663
  FAX: [222] 525-1592

Flag description:
  green with a yellow five-pointed star above a yellow, horizontal
  crescent; the closed side of the crescent is down; the crescent,
  star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam

Economy Mauritania


Economy - overview:
  Half the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for
  a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers
  were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and
  1980s. Mauritania has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account
  for nearly 40% of total exports. The decline in world demand for
  this ore, however, has led to cutbacks in production. The nation's
  coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but
  overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue.
  The country's first deepwater port opened near Nouakchott in 1986.
  In the past, drought and economic mismanagement resulted in a
  buildup of foreign debt which now stands at more than three times
  the level of annual exports. In February 2000, Mauritania qualified
  for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
  initiative and in December 2001 received strong support from donor
  and lending countries at a triennial Consultative Group review. A
  new investment code approved in December 2001 improved the
  opportunities for direct foreign investment. Ongoing negotiations
  with the IMF involve problems of economic reforms and fiscal
  discipline. In 2001, exploratory oil wells in tracts 80 km offshore
  indicated potential extraction at current world oil prices.
  Mauritania has an estimated 1 billion barrels of proved reserves.
  Substantial oil production and exports are scheduled to begin in
  early 2006 and may average 75,000 barrels per day for that year.
  Meantime the government emphasizes reduction of poverty, improvement
  of health and education, and promoting privatization of the economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $6.901 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.346 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 25%
  industry: 29%
  services: 46% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  786,000 (2001)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 50%
  industry: 10%
  services: 40% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  20% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 30.2% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  39 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $421 million
  expenditures: $378 million; including capital expenditures of $154
  million (2002 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  dates, millet, sorghum, rice, corn; cattle, sheep

Industries:
  fish processing, mining of iron ore and gypsum

Industrial production growth rate:
  2% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  185.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 85.9%
  hydro: 14.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  172.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  24,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1 billion bbl (2005)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  0 cu m (2005)

Exports:
  $784 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  iron ore, fish and fish products, gold

Exports - partners:
  Italy 14.9%, Japan 12.3%, France 11.8%, Belgium 8.5%, Germany 8.3%,
  Cote d'Ivoire 7.2%, Spain 6.5%, Russia 5%, Netherlands 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.124 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, capital goods,
  foodstuffs, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  France 18.5%, UK 7.2%, US 7%, China 6%, Spain 5%, Belgium 4.3%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $2.5 billion (2000)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $305.7 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  ouguiya (MRO)

Currency code:
  MRO

Exchange rates:
  ouguiyas per US dollar - NA (2005), NA (2004), 263.03 (2003),
  271.74 (2002), 255.63 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mauritania


Telephones - main lines in use:
  41,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  745,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: limited system of cable and open-wire lines,
  minor microwave radio relay links, and radiotelephone communications
  stations (improvements being made)
  domestic: mostly cable and open-wire lines; a recently completed
  domestic satellite telecommunications system links Nouakchott with
  regional capitals
  international: country code - 222; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 2 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 14, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  410,000 (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2002)

Televisions:
  98,000 (2001)

Internet country code:
  .mr

Internet hosts:
  32 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  14,000 (2005)

Transportation Mauritania


Airports:
  25 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 17
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Railways:
  717 km
  standard gauge: 717 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 7,660 km
  paved: 866 km
  unpaved: 6,794 km (1999)

Ports and terminals:
  Nouadhibou, Nouakchott

Military Mauritania


Military branches:
  Mauritanian Armed Forces: Army, Navy (Marine Mauritanienne;
  includes naval infantry), Air Force (Force Aerienne Islamique de
  Mauritanie, FAIM) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); conscript service obligation - two years;
  majority of servicemen believed to be volunteers; service in Air
  Force and Navy is voluntary (April 2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 606,463
  females age 18-49: 607,955 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 370,513
  females age 18-49: 384,269 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $19.32 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Mauritania


Disputes - international:
  Mauritanian claims to Western Sahara have been dormant in recent
  years

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Mauritania is a source and destination country
  for children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor, begging,
  and domestic servitude; adults and children are subjected to
  slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave
  relationships in isolated parts of the country where a barter
  economy exists
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mauritania is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to show evidence of increased efforts to
  combat trafficking, particularly in the area of law enforcement


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mauritius

Introduction Mauritius


Background:
  Although known to Arab and Malay sailors as early as the 10th
  century, Mauritius was first explored by the Portuguese in 1505; it
  was subsequently held by the Dutch, French, and British before
  independence was attained in 1968. A stable democracy with regular
  free elections and a positive human rights record, the country has
  attracted considerable foreign investment and has earned one of
  Africa's highest per capita incomes. Recent poor weather and
  declining sugar prices have slowed economic growth, leading to some
  protests over standards of living in the Creole community.

Geography Mauritius


Location:
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

Geographic coordinates:
  20 17 S, 57 33 E

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 2,040 sq km
  land: 2,030 sq km
  water: 10 sq km
  note: includes Agalega Islands, Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint
  Brandon), and Rodrigues

Area - comparative:
  almost 11 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  177 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; warm, dry winter (May
  to November); hot, wet, humid summer (November to May)

Terrain:
  small coastal plain rising to discontinuous mountains encircling
  central plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Piton 828 m

Natural resources:
  arable land, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 49.02%
  permanent crops: 2.94%
  other: 48.04% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  220 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  cyclones (November to April); almost completely surrounded by reefs
  that may pose maritime hazards

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution, degradation of coral reefs

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the main island, from which the country derives its name, is of
  volcanic origin and is almost entirely surrounded by coral reefs

People Mauritius


Population:
  1,240,827 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.9% (male 149,486/female 147,621)
  15-64 years: 69.5% (male 430,288/female 431,753)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 31,939/female 49,740) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 30.8 years
  male: 30 years
  female: 31.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.82% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.23 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.63 years
  male: 68.66 years
  female: 76.66 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  700 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Mauritian(s)
  adjective: Mauritian

Ethnic groups:
  Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian 3%, Franco-Mauritian
  2%

Religions:
  Hindu 48%, Roman Catholic 23.6%, other Christian 8.6%, Muslim
  16.6%, other 2.5%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.4% (2000 census)

Languages:
  Creole 80.5%, Bhojpuri 12.1%, French 3.4%, English (official;
  spoken by less than 1% of the population), other 3.7%, unspecified
  0.3% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.6%
  male: 88.6%
  female: 82.7% (2003 est.)

Government Mauritius


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Mauritius
  conventional short form: Mauritius
  local long form: Republic of Mauritius
  local short form: Mauritius

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Port Louis
  geographic coordinates: 20 10 S, 57 30 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 districts and 3 dependencies*; Agalega Islands*, Black River,
  Cargados Carajos Shoals*, Flacq, Grand Port, Moka, Pamplemousses,
  Plaines Wilhems, Port Louis, Riviere du Rempart, Rodrigues*, Savanne

Independence:
  12 March 1968 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 March (1968)

Constitution:
  12 March 1968; amended 12 March 1992

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system with elements of English common
  law in certain areas; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Sir Anerood JUGNAUTH (since 7 October
  2003) and Vice President Abdool Raouf BUNDHUN (since 25 February
  2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Navinchandra RAMGOOLAM (since 5
  July 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly for five-year terms (eligible for a second term); election
  last held 25 February 2002 (next to be held in 2007); prime minister
  and deputy prime minister appointed by the president, responsible to
  the National Assembly
  election results: Karl OFFMANN elected president and Raouf BUNDHUN
  elected vice president; percent of vote by the National Assembly -
  NA%; note - Karl OFFMANN stepped down on 30 September 2003

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (70 seats; 62 elected by popular vote,
  8 appointed by the election commission to give representation to
  various ethnic minorities; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held on 3 July 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - AS
  38, MSM/MMM 22, OPR 2; appointed seats - AS 4, MSM/MMM 2, OPR 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance Sociale or AS; Hizbullah [Cehl Mohamed FAKEEMEEAH];
  Mauritian Labor Party or MLP [Navinchandra RAMGOOLAM]; Mauritian
  Militant Movement or MMM [Paul BERENGER] (in coalition with MSM);
  Mauritian Social Democrat Party or PMSD [Charles Xavier-Luc DUVAL];
  Militant Socialist Movement or MSM [Pravind JUGNAUTH] (the governing
  party); Rodrigues Movement or MR [Joseph (Nicholas) Von MALLY];
  Rodrigues Peoples Organization or OPR [Serge CLAIR]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  various labor unions

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, SADC,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Usha JEETAH
  chancery: 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 441, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-1491, 1492
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-0983

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John PRICE
  embassy: 4th Floor, Rogers House, John Kennedy Street, Port Louis
  mailing address: international mail: P. O. Box 544, Port Louis; US
  mail: American Embassy, Port Louis, US Department of State,
  Washington, DC 20521-2450
  telephone: [230] 202-4400
  FAX: [230] 208-9534

Flag description:
  four equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, yellow, and green

Economy Mauritius


Economy - overview:
  Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a
  low-income, agriculturally based economy to a middle-income
  diversified economy with growing industrial, financial, and tourist
  sectors. For most of the period, annual growth has been in the order
  of 5% to 6%. This remarkable achievement has been reflected in more
  equitable income distribution, increased life expectancy, lowered
  infant mortality, and a much-improved infrastructure. Sugarcane is
  grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25%
  of export earnings. The government's development strategy centers on
  expanding local financial institutions and building a domestic
  information telecommunications industry. Mauritius has attracted
  more than 9,000 offshore entities, many aimed at commerce in India
  and South Africa, and investment in the banking sector alone has
  reached over $1 billion. Mauritius, with its strong textile sector,
  has been well poised to take advantage of the Africa Growth and
  Opportunity Act (AGOA).

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $15.73 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $6.681 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $12,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.9%
  industry: 29.8%
  services: 64.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  570,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture and fishing 14%, construction and industry 36%,
  transportation and communication 7%, trade, restaurants, hotels 16%,
  finance 3%, other services 24% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  10% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  37 (1987 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.377 billion
  expenditures: $1.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  67.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas, pulses; cattle, goats; fish

Industries:
  food processing (largely sugar milling), textiles, clothing,
  chemicals, metal products, transport equipment, nonelectrical
  machinery, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  8% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.941 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 90.8%
  hydro: 9.2%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.805 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  21,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-342 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.949 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing and textiles, sugar, cut flowers, molasses

Exports - partners:
  UK 32.3%, France 20.7%, US 11.7%, Madagascar 6.2%, Italy 5.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.507 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, capital equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum
  products, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  France 12.1%, South Africa 11%, India 7.2%, Finland 6.1%, China 6%,
  Germany 5.3%, Bahrain 5.2%, Singapore 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.366 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.246 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $42 million (1997)

Currency (code):
  Mauritian rupee (MUR)

Currency code:
  MUR

Exchange rates:
  Mauritian rupees per US dollar - 29.496 (2005), 27.499 (2004),
  27.902 (2003), 29.962 (2002), 29.129 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Mauritius


Telephones - main lines in use:
  359,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  713,300 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: small system with good service
  domestic: primarily microwave radio relay trunk system
  international: country code - 230; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean); new microwave link to Reunion; HF
  radiotelephone links to several countries; fiber optic submarine
  cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2002)

Radios:
  420,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (plus several repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  258,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mu

Internet hosts:
  4,997 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  180,000 (2005)

Transportation Mauritius


Airports:
  6 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 2,020 km
  paved: 2,020 km (including 75 km of expressways) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 22,386 GRT/23,214 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, passenger/cargo 2, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (India 2, Switzerland 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Port Louis

Military Mauritius


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; National Police Force, Special Mobile
  Force, National Coast Guard

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 313,271 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $12.04 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Mauritius


Disputes - international:
  Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (UK-administered British
  Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants, who reside
  chiefly in Mauritius, were granted UK citizenship but no right to
  patriation in the UK; claims French-administered Tromelin Island

Illicit drugs:
  minor consumer and transshipment point for heroin from South Asia;
  small amounts of cannabis produced and consumed locally; significant
  offshore financial industry creates potential for money laundering,
  but corruption levels are relatively low and the government appears
  generally to be committed to regulating its banking industry


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mayotte

Introduction Mayotte


Background:
  Mayotte was ceded to France along with the other islands of the
  Comoros group in 1843. It was the only island in the archipelago
  that voted in 1974 to retain its link with France and forego
  independence.

Geography Mayotte


Location:
  Southern Africa, island in the Mozambique Channel, about one-half
  of the way from northern Madagascar to northern Mozambique

Geographic coordinates:
  12 50 S, 45 10 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 374 sq km
  land: 374 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  185.2 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; marine; hot, humid, rainy season during northeastern
  monsoon (November to May); dry season is cooler (May to November)

Terrain:
  generally undulating, with deep ravines and ancient volcanic peaks

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Benara 660 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  cyclones during rainy season

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  part of Comoro Archipelago; 18 islands

People Mayotte


Population:
  201,234 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46% (male 46,512/female 46,067)
  15-64 years: 52.3% (male 56,899/female 48,274)
  65 years and over: 1.7% (male 1,756/female 1,726) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 16 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.77% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  40.95 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  4.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.18 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 60.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 66.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 61.76 years
  male: 59.57 years
  female: 64.02 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Mahorais (singular and plural)
  adjective: Mahoran

Ethnic groups:
  NA

Religions:
  Muslim 97%, Christian (mostly Roman Catholic)

Languages:
  Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French (official language) spoken by
  35% of the population

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Mayotte


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territorial Collectivity of Mayotte
  conventional short form: Mayotte

Dependency status:
  departmental collectivity of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Mamoudzou
  geographic coordinates: 12 47 S, 45 14 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Independence:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Paul KIHL (since 17 January 2005)
  head of government: President of the General Council Said Omar OILI
  (since 8 April 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of the Interior; president of the General Council
  elected by the members of the General Council for a six-year term;
  next election to be held in 2010

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (19 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 and 28 March 2004 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MDM 23.3%, UMP 22.8%,
  PS 10.2%, MRC 8.9%, FRAP 6.5%, MPM 1.2%; seats by party - MDM 6, UMP
  9, MRC 2, MPM 1, diverse left 1
  note: Mayotte elects one member of the French Senate; elections last
  held 24 September 2001 (next to be held September 2007); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA; Mayotte also
  elects one member to the French National Assembly; elections last
  held 16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007); results - percent of
  vote by party - UMP-RPR 55.08%, UDF 44.92%; seats by party - UMP-RPR
  1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Superieur d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Front or FD [Youssouf MOUSSA]; Mahoran Popular Movement
  or MPM [Ahmed MADI]; Federation of Mahorans or RPR (UMP) [Mansour
  KAMARDINE]; Force of the Rally and the Alliance for Democracy or
  FRAP; Movement for Department Status Mayotte or MDM [Mouhoutar
  SALIM]; Renewed Communist Party of Mayotte or MRC [Omar SIMBA];
  Socialist Party or PS (local branch of French Parti Socialiste)
  [Ibrahim ABUBACAR]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Henri
  JEAN-BAPTISTE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Flag description:
  unofficial, local flag with the coat of arms of Mayotte centered on
  a white field, above which the name of the island appears in red
  capital letters; the main elements of the coat of arms, flanked on
  either side by a seahorse, appear above a scroll with the motto RA
  HACHIRI (We are Vigilant); the only official flag is the national
  flag of France

Economy Mayotte


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is based primarily on the agricultural sector,
  including fishing and livestock raising. Mayotte is not
  self-sufficient and must import a large portion of its food
  requirements, mainly from France. The economy and future development
  of the island are heavily dependent on French financial assistance,
  an important supplement to GDP. Mayotte's remote location is an
  obstacle to the development of tourism.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $466.8 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,600 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  44,560 (2002)

Unemployment rate:
  32.8% (2003)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $73 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1991 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vanilla, ylang-ylang (perfume essence), coffee, copra

Industries:
  newly created lobster and shrimp industry, construction

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0%

Electricity - consumption:
  87.79 million kWh NA kWh

Exports:
  $4.85 million f.o.b. (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  ylang-ylang (perfume essence), vanilla, copra, coconuts, coffee,
  cinnamon

Exports - partners:
  France 80%, Comoros 15%, Reunion (2004)

Imports:
  $256.7 million f.o.b. (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  food, machinery and equipment, transportation equipment, metals,
  chemicals

Imports - partners:
  France 66%, Africa 14%, Southeast Asia 11% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $208 million; note - extensive French financial assistance (2004)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mayotte


Telephones - main lines in use:
  10,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  48,100 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: small system administered by French Department
  of Posts and Telecommunications
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 269; microwave radio relay and HF
  radiotelephone communications to Comoros

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2001)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (2001)

Televisions:
  3,500 (1994)

Internet country code:
  .yt

Internet hosts:
  1 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Mayotte


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 93 km
  paved: 72 km
  unpaved: 21 km

Ports and terminals:
  Dzaoudzi

Military Mayotte


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France; small contingent of French
  forces stationed on the island

Transnational Issues Mayotte


Disputes - international:
  claimed by Comoros


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mexico

Introduction Mexico


Background:
  The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came under
  Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence early
  in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994 threw
  Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession in over
  half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive recovery.
  Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real wages,
  underemployment for a large segment of the population, inequitable
  income distribution, and few advancement opportunities for the
  largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states.
  Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the 1910
  Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in
  government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX
  of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000
  as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.

Geography Mexico


Location:
  Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico,
  between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific Ocean,
  between Guatemala and the US

Geographic coordinates:
  23 00 N, 102 00 W

Map references:
  North America

Area:
  total: 1,972,550 sq km
  land: 1,923,040 sq km
  water: 49,510 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,353 km
  border countries: Belize 250 km, Guatemala 962 km, US 3,141 km

Coastline:
  9,330 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  varies from tropical to desert

Terrain:
  high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus; desert

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Laguna Salada -10 m
  highest point: Volcan Pico de Orizaba 5,700 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 12.66%
  permanent crops: 1.28%
  other: 86.06% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  63,200 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive
  earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific,
  Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts

Environment - current issues:
  scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to urban
  migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted in
  north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme
  southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in
  urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification;
  deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in
  the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land
  subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion
  note: the government considers the lack of clean water and
  deforestation national security issues

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize), one of
  the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated in
  Mexico

People Mexico


Population:
  107,449,525 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.6% (male 16,770,957/female 16,086,172)
  15-64 years: 63.6% (male 33,071,809/female 35,316,281)
  65 years and over: 5.8% (male 2,814,707/female 3,389,599) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 24.3 years
  female: 26.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.16% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.69 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 20.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.41 years
  male: 72.63 years
  female: 78.33 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  160,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  5,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Mexican(s)
  adjective: Mexican

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly
  Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%

Religions:
  nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%

Languages:
  Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous
  languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.2%
  male: 94%
  female: 90.5% (2003 est.)

Government Mexico


Country name:
  conventional long form: United Mexican States
  conventional short form: Mexico
  local long form: Estados Unidos Mexicanos
  local short form: Mexico

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Mexico (Distrito Federal)
  geographic coordinates: 19 24 N, 99 09 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Mexico is divided into four time zones

Administrative divisions:
  31 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal district*
  (distrito federal); Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California
  Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Colima,
  Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco,
  Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca,
  Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi,
  Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave,
  Yucatan, Zacatecas

Independence:
  16 September 1810 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 16 September (1810)

Constitution:
  5 February 1917

Legal system:
  mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system; judicial
  review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa (since
  1 December 2006); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  head of government: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa
  (since 1 December 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of
  attorney general requires consent of the Senate
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single six-year
  term; election last held 2 July 2006 (next to be held 1 July 2012)
  election results: Felipe CALDERON elected president; percent of vote
  - Felipe CALDERON (PAN) 35.89%, Andres Manuel Lopez OBRADOR (PRD)
  35.31%, Roberto MADRAZO (PRI) 22.26%, other 6.54%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists of the
  Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 are elected by popular
  vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 are allocated on the basis of
  each party's popular vote) and the Federal Chamber of Deputies or
  Camara Federal de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are directly
  elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; remaining 200
  members are allocated on the basis of each party's popular vote,
  also for three-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 July 2006 for all of the seats (next
  to be held 1 July 2012); Chamber of Deputies - last held 2 July 2006
  (next to be held 5 July 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - PAN 52, PRI 33, PRD 29, PVEM 6, CD 5, PT 2, PNA 1; Chamber
  of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PAN
  206, PRD 127, PRI 103, PVEM 18, CD 17, PT 16, other 13; note -
  election results pending certification

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia Nacional
  (justices or ministros are appointed by the president with consent
  of the Senate)

Political parties and leaders:
  Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro];
  Institutional Revolutionary Party (Institutional Revolutionary
  Party) or PRI [leader NA]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM
  [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party (Partido
  Accion Nacional) or PAN [Manuel ESPINO Barrientos]; New Alliance
  Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Miguel Angel JIMENEZ Godines];
  Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion
  Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano]; Workers Party or PT
  [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic or COPARMEX;
  Confederation of Industrial Chambers or CONCAMIN; Confederation of
  Mexican Workers or CTM; Confederation of National Chambers of
  Commerce or CONCANACO; Coordinator for Foreign Trade Business
  Organizations or COECE; Federation of Unions Providing Goods and
  Services or FESEBES; National Chamber of Transformation Industries
  or CANACINTRA; National Peasant Confederation or CNC; National Union
  of Workers or UNT; Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers or
  CROM; Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants or CROC;
  Roman Catholic Church

International organization participation:
  APEC, BCIE, BIS, CAN (observer), CDB, CE (observer), CSN
  (observer), EBRD, FAO, G-3, G-6, G-15, G-24, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAFTA, NAM
  (observer), NEA, OAS, OECD, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMOVIC, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos Alberto DE ICAZA Gonzalez
  chancery: 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 728-1600
  FAX: [1] (202) 728-1698
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas,
  Denver, El Paso, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York,
  Nogales (Arizona), Omaha, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio,
  San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Juan (Puerto Rico)
  consulate(s): Albuquerque, Brownsville (Texas), Calexico
  (California), Del Rio (Texas), Detroit, Douglas (Arizona), Eagle
  Pass (Texas), Fresno (California), Indianapolis (Indiana), Kansas
  City (Missouri), Laredo (Texas), Las Vegas, McAllen (Texas), Midland
  (Texas), Oxnard (California), Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon),
  Presidio (Texas), Raleigh, Saint Paul (Minnesota), Salt Lake City,
  San Bernardino, Santa Ana (California), Seattle, Tucson, Yuma
  (Arizona)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Antonio O. GARZA, Jr.
  embassy: Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, 06500 Mexico,
  Distrito Federal
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9000, Brownsville, TX 78520-9000
  telephone: [52] (55) 5080-2000
  FAX: [52] (55) 5511-9980
  consulate(s) general: Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana
  consulate(s): Hermosillo, Matamoros, Merida, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and red;
  the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in its
  beak) is centered in the white band

Economy Mexico


Economy - overview:
  Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion
  dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded industry
  and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private sector.
  Recent administrations have expanded competition in seaports,
  railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation, natural gas
  distribution, and airports. Per capita income is one-fourth that of
  the US; income distribution remains highly unequal. Trade with the
  US and Canada has tripled since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994.
  Mexico has 12 free trade agreements with over 40 countries
  including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the European Free Trade
  Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of trade under free trade
  agreements. The FOX administration is cognizant of the need to
  upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax system and labor laws, and
  allow private investment in the energy sector, but has been unable
  to win the support of the opposition-led Congress. The next
  government that takes office in December 2006 will confront the same
  challenges of boosting economic growth, improving Mexico's
  international competitiveness, and reducing poverty.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.064 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $693 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $10,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 70.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  43.4 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 18%
  industry: 24%
  services: 58% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  3.6% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 35.6% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  54.6 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $181 billion
  expenditures: $184 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005)

Public debt:
  17.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit,
  tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products

Industries:
  food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, petroleum,
  mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer durables,
  tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  209.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 78.7%
  hydro: 14.2%
  nuclear: 4.2%
  other: 2.9% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  193.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  1.07 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  390.2 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  3.42 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1.752 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.863 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  205,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  33.31 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  47.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  55.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  7.85 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  424.3 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-5.708 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $213.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits,
  vegetables, coffee, cotton

Exports - partners:
  US 85.7%, Canada 2%, Spain 1.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $223.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural machinery,
  electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair parts for motor
  vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts

Imports - partners:
  US 53.4%, China 8%, Japan 5.9% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $74.1 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $137.2 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.166 billion (1995)

Currency (code):
  Mexican peso (MXN)

Currency code:
  MXN

Exchange rates:
  Mexican pesos per US dollar - 10.898 (2005), 11.286 (2004), 10.789
  (2003), 9.656 (2002), 9.342 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mexico


Telephones - main lines in use:
  19.512 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  47.462 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: low telephone density with about 18 main lines
  per 100 persons; privatized in December 1990; the opening to
  competition in January 1997 improved prospects for development, but
  Telmex remains dominant
  domestic: adequate telephone service for business and government,
  but the population is poorly served; mobile subscribers far
  outnumber fixed-line subscribers; domestic satellite system with 120
  earth stations; extensive microwave radio relay network;
  considerable use of fiber-optic cable and coaxial cable
  international: country code - 52; satellite earth stations - 32
  Intelsat, 2 Solidaridad (giving Mexico improved access to South
  America, Central America, and much of the US as well as enhancing
  domestic communications), 1 Panamsat, numerous Inmarsat mobile earth
  stations; linked to Central American Microwave System of trunk
  connections; high capacity Columbus-2 fiber-optic submarine cable
  with access to the US, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Morocco,
  Spain, and Italy (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 850, FM 545, shortwave 15 (2003)

Radios:
  31 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  236 (plus repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  25.6 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mx

Internet hosts:
  3,426,680 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  51 (2000)

Internet users:
  18,622,500 (2005)

Transportation Mexico


Airports:
  1,839 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 228
  over 3,047 m: 12
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 82
  914 to 1,523 m: 77
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1,611
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 68
  914 to 1,523 m: 460
  under 914 m: 1,081 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 22,705 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,875 km; oil 8,688 km;
  oil/gas/water 228 km; refined products 6,520 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 17,562 km
  standard gauge: 17,562 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 349,038 km
  paved: 116,928 km (including 6,979 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 232,110 km (2003)

Waterways:
  2,900 km (navigable rivers and coastal canals) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 56 ships (1000 GRT or over) 751,607 GRT/1,129,234 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 6, chemical tanker 6, liquefied gas
  4, passenger/cargo 9, petroleum tanker 25, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 5 (Denmark 2, France 1, Norway 1, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Belize 1, Honduras 1, Liberia 1,
  Panama 5, Portugal 1, Spain 3, Venezuela 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Altamira, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico,
  Topolobampo, Veracruz

Military Mexico


Military branches:
  Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional,
  Sedena): Army (Ejercito), Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Mexicana,
  FAM); Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaria de Marina, Semar): Mexican
  Navy (Armada de Mexico, ARM, includes Naval Air Force (FAN) and
  Marines) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript service
  obligation - 12 months; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary
  enlistment (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 24,488,008
  females age 18-49: 26,128,046 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 19,058,337
  females age 18-49: 21,966,796 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,063,233
  females age 18-49: 1,043,816 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $6.07 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Mexico


Disputes - international:
  prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices and
  infrastructure in the border region have strained water-sharing
  arrangements with the US; the US has stepped up efforts to stem
  nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other parts of the world
  from illegally crossing the border with Mexico

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 12,000 (government's quashing of Zapatista uprising in 1994
  in eastern Chiapas Region) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Mexico is a source, transit, and destination
  country for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor;
  while the vast majority of victims are Central Americans trafficked
  along Mexico's southern border, other source regions include South
  America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia; women and
  children are trafficked from rural regions to urban centers and
  tourist areas for sexual exploitation, often through fraudulent
  offers of employment or through threats of physical violence; the
  Mexican trafficking problem is often conflated with alien smuggling,
  and frequently the same criminal networks are involved; pervasive
  corruption among state and local law enforcement often impedes
  investigations
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mexico remains on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for the third consecutive year based on future commitments to
  undertake additional efforts in prosecution, protection, and
  prevention of trafficking in persons, and the failure of the
  government to provide critical law enforcement data

Illicit drugs:
  major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2004
  amounted to 3,500 hectares, but opium cultivation stayed within the
  range - between 3,500 and 5,500 hectares - observed in nine of the
  last 12 years; potential production of 9 metric tons of pure heroin,
  or 23 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form of
  Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana cultivation
  decreased 23% to 5,800 hectares in 2004 after decade-high
  cultivation peak in 2003; potential production of 10,400 metric tons
  of marijuana in 2004; government conducts the largest independent
  illicit-crop eradication program in the world; major supplier of
  heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine
  to the US market; continues as the primary transshipment country for
  US-bound cocaine from South America, accounting for about 90% of
  estimated annual cocaine movement to the US; major drug syndicates
  control majority of drug trafficking throughout the country;
  producer and distributor of ecstasy; significant money-laundering
  center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Micronesia, Federated States of

Introduction Micronesia, Federated States of


Background:
  In 1979 the Federated States of Micronesia, a UN Trust Territory
  under US administration, adopted a constitution. In 1986
  independence was attained under a Compact of Free Association with
  the US, which was amended and renewed in 2004. Present concerns
  include large-scale unemployment, overfishing, and overdependence on
  US aid.

Geography Micronesia, Federated States of


Location:
  Oceania, island group in the North Pacific Ocean, about
  three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia

Geographic coordinates:
  6 55 N, 158 15 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 702 sq km
  land: 702 sq km
  water: 0 sq km (fresh water only)
  note: includes Pohnpei (Ponape), Chuuk (Truk) Islands, Yap Islands,
  and Kosrae (Kosaie)

Area - comparative:
  four times the size of Washington, DC (land area only)

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  6,112 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; heavy year-round rainfall, especially in the eastern
  islands; located on southern edge of the typhoon belt with
  occasionally severe damage

Terrain:
  islands vary geologically from high mountainous islands to low,
  coral atolls; volcanic outcroppings on Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Chuuk

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Dolohmwar (Totolom) 791 m

Natural resources:
  forests, marine products, deep-seabed minerals, phosphate

Land use:
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 45.71%
  other: 48.58% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons (June to December)

Environment - current issues:
  overfishing, climate change, pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  four major island groups totaling 607 islands

People Micronesia, Federated States of


Population:
  108,004 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.6% (male 20,116/female 19,391)
  15-64 years: 60.4% (male 32,620/female 32,659)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 1,413/female 1,805) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.9 years
  male: 20.5 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.11% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.75 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -21.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 29.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 26.01 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.05 years
  male: 68.24 years
  female: 71.95 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Micronesian(s)
  adjective: Micronesian; Chuukese, Kosraen(s), Pohnpeian(s), Yapese

Ethnic groups:
  nine ethnic Micronesian and Polynesian groups

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 47%, other 3%

Languages:
  English (official and common language), Trukese, Pohnpeian, Yapese,
  Kosrean, Ulithian, Woleaian, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 89%
  male: 91%
  female: 88% (1980 est.)

Government Micronesia, Federated States of


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federated States of Micronesia
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Federated States of Micronesia
  local short form: none
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Ponape, Truk, and
  Yap Districts
  abbreviation: FSM

Government type:
  constitutional government in free association with the US; the
  Compact of Free Association entered into force 3 November 1986 and
  the Amended Compact entered into force May 2004

Capital:
  name: Palikir
  geographic coordinates: 6 55 N, 158 08 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  4 states; Chuuk (Truk), Kosrae (Kosaie), Pohnpei (Ponape), Yap

Independence:
  3 November 1986 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 10 May (1979)

Constitution:
  10 May 1979

Legal system:
  based on adapted Trust Territory laws, acts of the legislature,
  municipal, common, and customary laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Joseph J. URUSEMAL (since 11 May 2003);
  Vice President Redley KILLION (11 May 2003); note - the president is
  both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Joseph J. URUSEMAL (since 11 May
  2003); Vice President Redley KILLION (11 May 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet includes the vice president and the heads of the
  eight executive departments
  elections: president and vice president elected by Congress from
  among the four senators at large for a four-year term (eligible for
  a second term); election last held 11 May 2003 (next to be held May
  2007); note - a proposed constitutional amendment to establish
  popular elections for president and vice president failed
  election results: Joseph J. URUSEMAL elected president; percent of
  Congress vote - NA%; Redley KILLION elected vice president; percent
  of Congress vote - NA%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Congress (14 seats; 4 - one elected from each state to
  serve four-year terms and 10 - elected from single-member districts
  delineated by population to serve two-year terms; members elected by
  popular vote)
  elections: elections for four-year term seats last held 4 March 2003
  (next to be held March 2007); elections for two-year term seats last
  held 8 March 2005 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 14

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  no formal parties

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IMF, IOC,
  ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jesse Bibiano MAREHALAU
  chancery: 1725 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-4383
  FAX: [1] (202) 223-4391
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu, Tamuning (Guam)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Suzanne K. HALE
  embassy: 101 Upper Pics Road, Kolonia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1286, Kolonia, Pohnpei, 96941
  telephone: [691] 320-2187
  FAX: [691] 320-2186

Flag description:
  light blue with four white five-pointed stars centered; the stars
  are arranged in a diamond pattern

Economy Micronesia, Federated States of


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity consists primarily of subsistence farming and
  fishing. The islands have few mineral deposits worth exploiting,
  except for high-grade phosphate. The potential for a tourist
  industry exists, but the remote location, a lack of adequate
  facilities, and limited air connections hinder development. The
  Amended Compact of Free Association with the US guarantees the
  Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) millions of dollars in annual
  aid through 2023, and establishes a Trust Fund into which the US and
  the FSM make annual contributions in order to provide annual payouts
  to the FSM in perpetuity after 2023. The country's medium-term
  economic outlook appears fragile due not only to the reduction in US
  assistance but also to the slow growth of the private sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $277 million; note - supplemented by grant aid, averaging perhaps
  $100 million annually (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $232 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 28.9%
  industry: 15.2%
  services: 55.9% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  37,410

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: 0.9% two-thirds are government employees, 34.4%, 64.7%

Unemployment rate:
  22% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  26.7%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $127.3 million ($69 million less grants)
  expenditures: $144.2 million; including capital expenditures of
  $17.9 million $NA (1998 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  black pepper, tropical fruits and vegetables, coconuts, cassava
  (tapioca), betel nuts, sweet potatoes; pigs, chickens; fish

Industries:
  tourism, construction; fish processing, specialized aquaculture;
  craft items from shell, wood, and pearls

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  192 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - production by source:
  NA

Electricity - consumption:
  178.6 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Current account balance:
  $-34.3 million

Exports:
  $14 million (f.o.b.) (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish, garments, bananas, black pepper

Exports - partners:
  Japan, US, Guam (2004)

Imports:
  $132.7 million f.o.b. (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  food, manufactured goods, machinery and equipment, beverages

Imports - partners:
  US, Japan, Hong Kong (2004)

Debt - external:
  $60.8 million (FY05 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $86.3 million under terms of the Compact of Free Association, the
  US pledged $1.3 billion in grant aid during the period 1986-2001;
  the level of aid has been subsequently reduced

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Micronesia, Federated States of


Telephones - main lines in use:
  12,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  14,100 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: islands interconnected by shortwave radiotelephone (used
  mostly for government purposes), satellite (Intelsat) ground
  stations, and some coaxial and fiber-optic cable; cellular service
  available on Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap
  international: country code - 691; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean) (2002)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  9,400 (1996)

Television broadcast stations:
  3; note - cable TV also available (2004)

Televisions:
  2,800 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .fm

Internet hosts:
  550 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  14,000 (2005)

Transportation Micronesia, Federated States of


Airports:
  6 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 240 km
  paved: 42 km
  unpaved: 198 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,423 GRT/1,551 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Tomil Harbor

Military Micronesia, Federated States of


Military branches:
  no ministry of defense and no standing armed forces; the
  paramilitary Maritime Wing, a small maritime law enforcement unit,
  is responsible to the Division of Maritime Surveillance within the
  Office of the Attorney General (2003)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 23,816 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 18,914 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,305 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Micronesia, Federated States of


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Moldova

Introduction Moldova


Background:
  Formerly part of Romania, Moldova was incorporated into the Soviet
  Union at the close of World War II. Although independent from the
  USSR since 1991, Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory
  east of the Dniester River supporting the Slavic majority
  population, mostly Ukrainians and Russians, who have proclaimed a
  "Transnistria" republic. The poorest nation in Europe, Moldova
  became the first former Soviet state to elect a Communist as its
  president in 2001.

Geography Moldova


Location:
  Eastern Europe, northeast of Romania

Geographic coordinates:
  47 00 N, 29 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 33,843 sq km
  land: 33,371 sq km
  water: 472 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,389 km
  border countries: Romania 450 km, Ukraine 939 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  moderate winters, warm summers

Terrain:
  rolling steppe, gradual slope south to Black Sea

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Dniester River 2 m
  highest point: Dealul Balanesti 430 m

Natural resources:
  lignite, phosphorites, gypsum, arable land, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 54.52%
  permanent crops: 8.81%
  other: 36.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  3,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  landslides (57 cases in 1998)

Environment - current issues:
  heavy use of agricultural chemicals, including banned pesticides
  such as DDT, has contaminated soil and groundwater; extensive soil
  erosion from poor farming methods

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; well endowed with various sedimentary rocks and
  minerals including sand, gravel, gypsum, and limestone

People Moldova


Population:
  4,466,706 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20% (male 455,673/female 438,934)
  15-64 years: 69.7% (male 1,498,078/female 1,613,489)
  65 years and over: 10.3% (male 170,456/female 290,076) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 32.3 years
  male: 30.3 years
  female: 34.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.28% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.7 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.64 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 38.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 41.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 35.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.65 years
  male: 61.61 years
  female: 69.88 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5,500 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 300 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Moldovan(s)
  adjective: Moldovan

Ethnic groups:
  Moldovan/Romanian 78.2%, Ukrainian 8.4%, Russian 5.8%, Gagauz 4.4%,
  Bulgarian 1.9%, other 1.3% (2004 census)
  note: internal disputes with ethnic Slavs in the Transnistrian region

Religions:
  Eastern Orthodox 98%, Jewish 1.5%, Baptist and other 0.5% (2000)

Languages:
  Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian language),
  Russian, Gagauz (a Turkish dialect)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.1%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 98.7% (2003 est.)

Government Moldova


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Moldova
  conventional short form: Moldova
  local long form: Republica Moldova
  local short form: Moldova
  former: Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic; Moldovan Soviet
  Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Chisinau (Kishinev)
  geographic coordinates: 47 00 N, 28 50 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  32 raions (raioane, singular - raionul), 3 municipalities
  (municipiul), 1 autonomous territorial unit (unitatea teritoriala
  autonoma), and 1 territorial unit (unitatea teritoriala)
  raions: Anenii Noi, Basarabeasca, Briceni, Cahul, Cantemir,
  Calarasi, Causeni, Cimislia, Criuleni, Donduseni, Drochia, Dubasari,
  Edinet, Falesti, Floresti, Glodeni, Hincesti, Ialoveni, Leova,
  Nisporeni, Ocnita, Orhei, Rezina, Riscani, Singerei, Soldanesti,
  Soroca, Stefan-Voda, Straseni, Taraclia, Telenesti, Ungheni
  municipalities: Balti, Bender, Chisinau
  autonomous territorial unit: Gagauzia
  territorial unit: Stinga Nistrului

Independence:
  27 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 August (1991)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 29 July 1994, effective 27 August 1994;
  replaced old Soviet constitution of 1979

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; Constitutional Court reviews legality of
  legislative acts and governmental decisions of resolution; accepts
  many UN and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
  (OSCE) documents

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Vladimir VORONIN (since 4 April 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Vasile TARLEV (since 15 April
  2001), First Deputy Prime Minister Zinaida GRECIANII (since 10
  October 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by president, subject to approval of
  Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 4 April 2005 (next
  to be held in 2009); note - prime minister designated by the
  president, upon consultation with Parliament; within 15 days from
  designation, the prime minister-designate must request a vote of
  confidence from the Parliament regarding his/her work program and
  entire cabinet; prime minister designated 15 April 2001, cabinet
  received a vote of confidence 19 April 2001
  election results: Vladimir VORONIN reelected president;
  parliamentary votes - Vladimir VORONIN 75, Gheorghe DUCA 1; Vasile
  TARLEV designated prime minister; parliamentary votes of confidence
  - 75 of 101

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Parlamentul (101 seats; parties and
  electoral blocs elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 March 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PCRM 46.1%, Democratic
  Moldova Bloc 28.4%, PPCD 9.1%, other parties 16.4%; seats by party -
  PCRM 56, Democratic Moldova Bloc 34, PPCD 11

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court (the sole authority for
  constitutional judicature)

Political parties and leaders:
  Braghis Faction [Dumitru BRAGHIS]; Christian Democratic People's
  Party or PPCD [Iurie ROSCA]; Communist Party of the Republic of
  Moldova or PCRM [Vladimir VORONIN, first chairman]; Democratic
  Moldova Bloc (comprised of the AMN, Democratic Party, and PSL);
  Democratic Party [Dumitru DIACOV]; Our Moldova Alliance or AMN
  [Serafim URECHEANU]; Social Liberal Party or PSL [Oleg SEREBRIAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, BSEC, CE, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OIF, OPCW,
  OSCE, PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nicolae CHIRTOACA
  chancery: 2101 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-1130
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-1204

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambasador Michael D. KIRBY
  embassy: 103 Mateevici Street, Chisinau MD-2009
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [373] (22) 40-8300
  FAX: [373] (22) 23-3044

Flag description:
  same color scheme as Romania - three equal vertical bands of blue
  (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a
  Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons
  carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its
  right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons; on its breast
  is a shield divided horizontally red over blue with a stylized ox
  head, star, rose, and crescent all in black-outlined yellow

Economy Moldova


Economy - overview:
  Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe despite
  recent progress from its small economic base. It enjoys a favorable
  climate and good farmland but has no major mineral deposits. As a
  result, the economy depends heavily on agriculture, featuring
  fruits, vegetables, wine, and tobacco. Moldova must import almost
  all of its energy supplies. Energy shortages contributed to sharp
  production declines after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
  December 1991. As part of an ambitious reform effort after
  independence, Moldova introduced a convertible currency, freed
  prices, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises,
  backed steady land privatization, removed export controls, and freed
  interest rates. The government entered into agreements with the
  World Bank and the IMF to promote growth and reduce poverty. The
  economy returned to positive growth in 2000, and has remained at or
  above 6% every year since. Further reforms will come slowly because
  of strong political forces backing government controls. The economy
  remains vulnerable to higher fuel prices, poor agricultural weather,
  and the skepticism of foreign investors.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $8.41 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.416 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 21.3%
  industry: 23.3%
  services: 55.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.34 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 14%
  services: 46% (1998)

Unemployment rate:
  8%; note - roughly 25% of working age Moldovans are employed abroad
  (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  80% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.2%
  highest 10%: 30.7% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.2 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  11.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.069 billion
  expenditures: $1.065 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  79.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables, fruits, wine, grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed,
  tobacco; beef, milk

Industries:
  sugar, vegetable oil, food processing, agricultural machinery;
  foundry equipment, refrigerators and freezers, washing machines;
  hosiery, shoes, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  17% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.942 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 90.6%
  hydro: 9.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.036 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  300 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  600 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  37,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.38 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.05 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-285 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.04 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, textiles, machinery

Exports - partners:
  Russia 32.9%, Italy 12.7%, Romania 10.6%, Ukraine 9.5%, Belarus
  6.7%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  mineral products and fuel, machinery and equipment, chemicals,
  textiles (2000)

Imports - partners:
  Ukraine 20.9%, Russia 11.7%, Romania 11.2%, Germany 8.3%, Italy
  6.6%, Turkey 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $597.5 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.986 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $100 million (2000)

Currency (code):
  Moldovan leu (MDL)

Currency code:
  MDL

Exchange rates:
  lei per US dollar - 12.6 (2005), 12.33 (2004), 13.945 (2003),
  13.571 (2002), 12.865 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Moldova


Telephones - main lines in use:
  929,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.09 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate, outmoded, poor service outside
  Chisinau; some modernization is under way
  domestic: new subscribers face long wait for service; mobile
  cellular telephone service being introduced
  international: country code - 373; service through Romania and
  Russia via landline; satellite earth stations - Intelsat, Eutelsat,
  and Intersputnik

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 50, shortwave 3 (1998)

Radios:
  3.22 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus 30 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  1.26 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .md

Internet hosts:
  58,886 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (1999)

Internet users:
  406,000 (2005)

Transportation Moldova


Airports:
  12 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 606 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,138 km
  broad gauge: 1,124 km 1.520-m gauge
  standard gauge: 14 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 12,730 km
  paved: 10,973 km
  unpaved: 1,757 km (2003)

Waterways:
  424 km (on Dniester River) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 13,831 GRT/15,003 DWT
  by type: cargo 7
  foreign-owned: 3 (Ukraine 3) (2006)

Military Moldova


Military branches:
  National Army: Ground Forces, Rapid Reaction Forces, Air and Air
  Defense Forces (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; national service
  obligation - 12 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,066,459
  females age 18-49: 1,117,070 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 693,913
  females age 18-49: 911,568 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 43,729
  females age 18-49: 42,354 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $8.7 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.4% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Moldova


Disputes - international:
  Moldova and Ukraine have established joint customs posts to monitor
  transit through Moldova's break-away Transnistria region which
  remains under OSCE supervision

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 1,000 (internal secessionist uprising in Transnistrian region
  in 1991) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  limited cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, mostly for CIS
  consumption; transshipment point for illicit drugs from Southwest
  Asia via Central Asia to Russia, Western Europe, and possibly the
  US; widespread crime and underground economic activity


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Monaco

Introduction Monaco


Background:
  The Genoese built a fortress on the site of present-day Monaco in
  1215. The current ruling Grimaldi family secured control in the late
  13th century, and a principality was established in 1338. Economic
  development was spurred in the late 19th century with a railroad
  linkup to France and the opening of a casino. Since then, the
  principality's mild climate, splendid scenery, and gambling
  facilities have made Monaco world famous as a tourist and recreation
  center.

Geography Monaco


Location:
  Western Europe, bordering the Mediterranean Sea on the southern
  coast of France, near the border with Italy

Geographic coordinates:
  43 44 N, 7 24 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 1.95 sq km
  land: 1.95 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about three times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 4.4 km
  border countries: France 4.4 km

Coastline:
  4.1 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate:
  Mediterranean with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers

Terrain:
  hilly, rugged, rocky

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Agel 140 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (urban area) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note:
  second-smallest independent state in the world (after Holy See);
  almost entirely urban

People Monaco


Population:
  32,543 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.2% (male 2,539/female 2,417)
  15-64 years: 62.1% (male 9,959/female 10,266)
  65 years and over: 22.6% (male 3,015/female 4,347) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 45.4 years
  male: 43.3 years
  female: 47.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.4% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.19 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.91 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  7.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.69 years
  male: 75.85 years
  female: 83.74 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Monegasque(s) or Monacan(s)
  adjective: Monegasque or Monacan

Ethnic groups:
  French 47%, Monegasque 16%, Italian 16%, other 21%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 90%

Languages:
  French (official), English, Italian, Monegasque

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Monaco


Country name:
  conventional long form: Principality of Monaco
  conventional short form: Monaco
  local long form: Principaute de Monaco
  local short form: Monaco

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Monaco
  geographic coordinates: 43 44 N, 7 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none; there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined
  by the US Government, but there are four quarters (quartiers,
  singular - quartier); Fontvieille, La Condamine, Monaco-Ville,
  Monte-Carlo

Independence:
  1419 (beginning of the rule by the House of Grimaldi)

National holiday:
  National Day (Prince of Monaco Holiday), 19 November

Constitution:
  17 December 1962

Legal system:
  based on French law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Prince ALBERT II (since 6 April 2005)
  head of government: Minister of State Jean-Paul PROUST (since 1 June
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Government is under the authority of the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; minister of state
  appointed by the monarch from a list of three French national
  candidates presented by the French Government

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Council or Conseil National (24 seats; 16
  members elected by list majority system, 8 by proportional
  representation; to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 February 2003 (next to be held February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  UNAM 21, UND 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Supreme (judges appointed by the monarch
  on the basis of nominations by the National Council)

Political parties and leaders:
  National and Democratic Union or UND [Guy MAGNAN]; Union for Monaco
  or UPM (including National Union for the Future of Monaco or UNAM)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, CE, FAO, IAEA, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IFRCS, IHO,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNITAR, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  Monaco does not have an embassy in the US
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Monaco; the US Consul General in
  Marseille (France) under the authority of the US ambassador to
  France is accredited to Monaco

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; similar to the
  flag of Indonesia which is longer and the flag of Poland which is
  white (top) and red

Economy Monaco


Economy - overview:
  Monaco, bordering France on the Mediterranean coast, is a popular
  resort, attracting tourists to its casino and pleasant climate. In
  2001, a major construction project extended the pier used by cruise
  ships in the main harbor. The principality has successfully sought
  to diversify into services and small, high-value-added, nonpolluting
  industries. The state has no income tax and low business taxes and
  thrives as a tax haven both for individuals who have established
  residence and for foreign companies that have set up businesses and
  offices. The state retains monopolies in a number of sectors,
  including tobacco, the telephone network, and the postal service.
  Living standards are high, roughly comparable to those in prosperous
  French metropolitan areas.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $870 million
  note: Monaco does not publish national income figures; the estimates
  are extremely rough (2000 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.9% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $27,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  41,110
  note: includes workers from all foreign countries (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  22% (1999)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.9% (2000)

Budget:
  revenues: $719.2 million
  expenditures: $864.1 million; including capital expenditures of
  $283.1 million (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  none

Industries:
  tourism, construction, small-scale industrial and consumer products

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by France

Exports:
  $656.5 million $NA
  note: full customs integration with France, which collects and
  rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market
  system through customs union with France

Imports:
  $636.6 million $NA
  note: full customs integration with France, which collects and
  rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market
  system through customs union with France

Debt - external:
  $18 billion (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Monaco


Telephones - main lines in use:
  33,700 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  19,300 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern automatic telephone system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 377; no satellite earth stations;
  connected by cable into the French communications system

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM NA, shortwave 8 (1998)

Radios:
  34,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (1998)

Televisions:
  25,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .mc

Internet hosts:
  12,720 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  16,000 (2002)

Transportation Monaco


Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 50 km
  paved: 50 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 77 (Bahamas 17, Barbados 1, Bermuda
  2, France 1, Georgia 13, Isle of Man 3, Liberia 10, Malta 1,
  Marshall Islands 8, Norway 4, Panama 9, Saint Kitts and Nevis 1,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 4, Switzerland 2, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Monaco

Military Monaco


Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,256 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,971 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 148 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France; the Palace Guard performs
  ceremonial duties (2003)

Transnational Issues Monaco


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mongolia

Introduction Mongolia


Background:
  The Mongols gained fame in the 13th century when under Chinggis
  KHAN they conquered a huge Eurasian empire. After his death the
  empire was divided into several powerful Mongol states, but these
  broke apart in the 14th century. The Mongols eventually retired to
  their original steppe homelands and later came under Chinese rule.
  Mongolia won its independence in 1921 with Soviet backing. A
  Communist regime was installed in 1924. The ex-Communist Mongolian
  People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won elections in 1990 and 1992,
  but was defeated by the Democratic Union Coalition (DUC) in the 1996
  parliamentary election. Since then, parliamentary elections returned
  the MPRP overwhelmingly to power in 2000 and produced a coalition
  government in 2004.

Geography Mongolia


Location:
  Northern Asia, between China and Russia

Geographic coordinates:
  46 00 N, 105 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 1,564,116 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Alaska

Land boundaries:
  total: 8,220 km
  border countries: China 4,677 km, Russia 3,543 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  desert; continental (large daily and seasonal temperature ranges)

Terrain:
  vast semidesert and desert plains, grassy steppe, mountains in west
  and southwest; Gobi Desert in south-central

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Hoh Nuur 518 m
  highest point: Nayramadlin Orgil (Huyten Orgil) 4,374 m

Natural resources:
  oil, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin, nickel,
  zinc, fluorspar, gold, silver, iron

Land use:
  arable land: 0.76%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.24% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  840 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust storms, grassland and forest fires, drought, and "zud," which
  is harsh winter conditions

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources in some areas; the policies
  of former Communist regimes promoted rapid urbanization and
  industrial growth that had negative effects on the environment; the
  burning of soft coal in power plants and the lack of enforcement of
  environmental laws severely polluted the air in Ulaanbaatar;
  deforestation, overgrazing, and the converting of virgin land to
  agricultural production increased soil erosion from wind and rain;
  desertification and mining activities had a deleterious effect on
  the environment

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategic location between China and Russia

People Mongolia


Population:
  2,832,224 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.9% (male 402,448/female 387,059)
  15-64 years: 68.4% (male 967,546/female 969,389)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 45,859/female 59,923) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 24.3 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.95 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 52.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.89 years
  male: 62.64 years
  female: 67.25 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 500 (2003 est)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Mongolian(s)
  adjective: Mongolian

Ethnic groups:
  Mongol (mostly Khalkha) 94.9%, Turkic (mostly Kazakh) 5%, other
  (including Chinese and Russian) 0.1% (2000)

Religions:
  Buddhist Lamaist 50%, none 40%, Shamanist and Christian 6%, Muslim
  4% (2004)

Languages:
  Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian (1999)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.8%
  male: 98%
  female: 97.5% (2002)

Government Mongolia


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Mongolia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Mongol Uls
  former: Outer Mongolia

Government type:
  mixed parliamentary/presidential

Capital:
  name: Ulaanbaatar
  geographic coordinates: 47 55 N, 106 53 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Saturday in March; ends last
  Saturday in September

Administrative divisions:
  21 provinces (aymguud, singular - aymag) and 1 municipality*
  (singular - hot); Arhangay, Bayanhongor, Bayan-Olgiy, Bulgan,
  Darhan-Uul, Dornod, Dornogovi, Dundgovi, Dzavhan, Govi-Altay,
  Govisumber, Hentiy, Hovd, Hovsgol, Omnogovi, Orhon, Ovorhangay,
  Selenge, Suhbaatar, Tov, Ulaanbaatar*, Uvs

Independence:
  11 July 1921 (from China)

National holiday:
  Independence Day/Revolution Day, 11 July (1921)

Constitution:
  12 February 1992

Legal system:
  blend of Soviet, German, and US systems that combine "continental"
  or "civil" code and case-precedent; constitution ambiguous on
  judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR (since 24 June 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Miegombyn ENKHBOLD (since 25
  January 2006); Deputy Prime Minister Mendsaikhan ENKHSAIKHAN (since
  28 January 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the prime minister in consultation
  with the president and confirmed by the State Great Hural
  (parliament)
  elections: presidential candidates nominated by political parties
  represented in State Great Hural and elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 22
  May 2005 (next to be held in May 2009); following legislative
  elections, leader of majority party or majority coalition is usually
  elected prime minister by State Great Hural
  election results: Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR elected president; percent of
  vote - Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR (MPRP) 53.44%, Mendsaikhanin ENKHSAIKHAN
  (DP) 20.05%, Bazarsadyn JARGALSAIKHAN (MRP) 13.92%, Badarchyn
  ERDENEBAT (M-MNSDP) 12.59%; Miegombyn ENKHBOLD elected prime
  minister by the State Great Hural 56 to 10

Legislative branch:
  unicameral State Great Hural 76 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms
  elections: last held 27 June 2004 (next to be held in June 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MPRP 48.78%, MDC 44.8%,
  independents 3.5%, Republican Party 1.5%, others 1.42%; seats by
  party - MPRP 36, MDC 34, others 4; note - following June 2004
  election MDC collapsed; as of 1 December 2005 composition of
  legislature was MPRP 38, DP 25, M-MNSDP 6, CWRP 2, MRP 1, PP 1,
  independents 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (serves as appeals court for people's and provincial
  courts but rarely overturns verdicts of lower courts; judges are
  nominated by the General Council of Courts and approved by the
  president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Citizens' Will Republican Party or CWRP (also called Civil Courage
  Republican Party or CCRP) [Sanjaasurengiin OYUN]; Democratic Party
  or DP [Tsakhiagiyn ELBEGDORJ]; Motherland-Mongolian New Socialist
  Democratic Party or M-MNSDP [Badarchyn ERDENEBAT]; Mongolian
  People's Revolutionary Party or MPRP [Miegombyn ENKHBOLD]; Mongolian
  Republican Party or MRP [Bazarsadyn JARGALSAIKHAN]; People's Party
  or PP [Lamjav GUNDALAI]
  note: DP and M-MNSDP formed Motherland-Democracy Coalition (MDC) in
  2003 and with CWRP contested June 2004 elections as single party;
  MDC's leadership dissolved coalition in December 2004

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ARF, AsDB, CP, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OPCW, OSCE (partner), SCO
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ravdan BOLD
  chancery: 2833 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-7117
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-9227

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mark C. MINTON
  embassy: Big Ring Road, 11th Micro Region, Ulaanbaatar
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 300, FPO AP 96521-0002; P.O. Box 1021,
  Ulaanbaatar-13
  telephone: [976] (11) 329095
  FAX: [976] (11) 320776

Flag description:
  three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), blue, and red;
  centered on the hoist-side red band in yellow is the national emblem
  ("soyombo" - a columnar arrangement of abstract and geometric
  representation for fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang
  symbol)

Economy Mongolia


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity in Mongolia has traditionally been based on
  herding and agriculture. Mongolia has extensive mineral deposits.
  Copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten and gold account for a large
  part of industrial production. Soviet assistance, at its height
  one-third of GDP, disappeared almost overnight in 1990 and 1991 at
  the time of the dismantlement of the USSR. The following decade saw
  Mongolia endure both deep recession due to political inaction and
  natural disasters, as well as economic growth because of
  reform-embracing, free-market economics and extensive privatization
  of the formerly state-run economy. Severe winters and summer
  droughts in 2000-2002 resulted in massive livestock die-off and zero
  or negative GDP growth. This was compounded by falling prices for
  Mongolia's primary sector exports and widespread opposition to
  privatization. Growth was 10.6% in 2004 and 5.5% in 2005, largely
  because of high copper prices and new gold production. Mongolia's
  economy continues to be heavily influenced by its neighbors. For
  example, Mongolia purchases 80% of its petroleum products and a
  substantial amount of electric power from Russia, leaving it
  vulnerable to price increases. China is Mongolia's chief export
  partner and a main source of the "shadow" or "grey" economy. The
  World Bank and other international financial institutions estimate
  the grey economy to be at least equal to that of the official
  economy, but the former's actual size is difficult to calculate
  since the money does not pass through the hands of tax authorities
  or the banking sector. Remittances from Mongolians working abroad
  both legally and illegally are sizeable, and money laundering is a
  growing concern. Mongolia settled its $11 billion debt with Russia
  at the end of 2003 on favorable terms. Mongolia, which joined the
  World Trade Organization in 1997, seeks to expand its participation
  and integration into Asian regional economic and trade regimes.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $5.272 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.2% according to official estimate (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 20.6%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 58% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  1.488 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  herding/agriculture 42%, mining 4%, manufacturing 6%, trade 14%,
  services 29%, public sector 5% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  6.7% (2003)

Population below poverty line:
  36.1% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 37% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  44 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $702 million
  expenditures: $651 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, vegetables, forage crops; sheep, goats, cattle,
  camels, horses

Industries:
  construction and construction materials; mining (coal, copper,
  molybdenum, fluorspar, tin, tungsten, and gold); oil; food and
  beverages; processing of animal products, cashmere and natural fiber
  manufacturing

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.1% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.24 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.37 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  18 million kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - imports:
  130 million kWh (2005 est.)

Oil - production:
  548.8 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  11,220 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  515 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports:
  11,210 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $852 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copper, apparel, livestock, animal products, cashmere, wool, hides,
  fluorspar, other nonferrous metals

Exports - partners:
  China 56.2%, Canada 15.6%, US 14.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.011 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuel, cars, food products, industrial
  consumer goods, chemicals, building materials, sugar, tea

Imports - partners:
  Russia 35.8%, China 25.7%, Japan 6.3%, South Korea 6%, Germany 4.2%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $1.36 billion (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $215 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  togrog/tugrik (MNT)

Currency code:
  MNT

Exchange rates:
  togrogs/tugriks per US dollar - 1,187.17 (2005), 1,185.3 (2004),
  1,146.5 (2003), 1,110.3 (2002), 1,097.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mongolia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  156,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  557,200 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: network is improving with international direct
  dialing available in many areas
  domestic: very low density of about 5.5 main lines per 100 persons;
  two wireless providers cover all but two provinces
  international: country code - 976; satellite earth station - 1
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean Region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 62, shortwave 3 (2004)

Radios:
  155,900 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  52 (plus 21 provincial repeaters and many low power repeaters)
  (2004)

Televisions:
  168,800 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .mn

Internet hosts:
  272 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  268,300 (2005)

Transportation Mongolia


Airports:
  44 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 32
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,810 km
  broad gauge: 1,810 km 1.524-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 49,250 km
  paved: 1,724 km
  unpaved: 47,526 km (2002)

Waterways:
  580 km
  note: only waterway in operation is Lake Hovsgol (135 km); Selenge
  River (270 km) and Orhon River (175 km) are navigable but carry
  little traffic; lakes and rivers freeze in winter, are open from May
  to September (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 61 ships (1000 GRT or over) 319,053 GRT/479,190 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 49, passenger/cargo 1, roll on/roll
  off 3
  foreign-owned: 49 (China 4, Japan 1, North Korea 3, Lebanon 1,
  Malaysia 1, Russia 13, Singapore 10, Syria 1, Thailand 1, UAE 5,
  Ukraine 1, Vietnam 8) (2006)

Military Mongolia


Military branches:
  Mongolian People's Army (MPA), Mongolian People's Air Force (MPAF);
  there is no navy (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-25 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 12 months in land or air defense forces or
  police; a small portion of Mongolian land forces (2.5 percent) is
  comprised of contract soldiers (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 736,182
  females age 18-49: 734,679 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 570,435
  females age 18-49: 607,918 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 34,674
  females age 18-49: 34,251 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $23.1 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.2% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Mongolia


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Montenegro

Introduction Montenegro


Background:
  The use of the name Montenegro began in the 15th century when the
  Crnojevic dynasty began to rule the Serbian principality of Zeta;
  over subsequent centuries it was able to maintain its independence
  from the Ottoman Empire. From the 16th to 19th centuries, Montenegro
  became a theocratic state ruled by a series of bishop princes; in
  1852, it was transformed into a secular principality. After World
  War I, Montenegro was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and, at the
  conclusion of World War II, it became a constituent republic of the
  Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. When the latter dissolved
  in 1992, Montenegro federated with Serbia, first as the Federal
  Republic of Yugoslavia and, after 2003, in a looser union of Serbia
  and Montenegro. Following a three-year postponement, Montenegro held
  an independence referendum in the spring of 2006 under rules set by
  the EU. The vote for severing ties with Serbia exceeded the 55%
  threshold, allowing Montenegro to formally declare its independence
  on 3 June 2006.

Geography Montenegro


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, between the Adriatic Sea and Serbia

Geographic coordinates:
  42 30 N, 19 18 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 14,026 sq km
  land: 13,812 sq km
  water: 214 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: 625 km
  border countries: Albania 172 km, Bosnia and Herzegovina 225 km,
  Croatia 25 km, Serbia 203 km

Coastline:
  293.5 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  Mediterranean climate, hot dry summers and autumns and relatively
  cold winters with heavy snowfalls inland

Terrain:
  highly indented coastline with narrow coastal plain backed by
  rugged high limestone mountains and plateaus

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Bobotov Kuk 2,522 m

Natural resources:
  bauxite, hydroelectricity

Land use:
  arable land: 13.7%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 85.3%

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  pollution of coastal waters from sewage outlets, especially in
  tourist-related areas such as Kotor

Geography - note:
  strategic location along the Adriatic coast

People Montenegro


Population:
  630,548 (2004)

Population growth rate:
  3.5% (2004)

Birth rate:
  12.6 births/1,000 population (2004)

Death rate:
  9.2 deaths/1,000 population (2004)

Nationality:
  noun: Montenegrin(s)
  adjective: Montenegrin

Ethnic groups:
  Montenegrin 43%, Serbian 32%, Bosniak 8%, Albanian 5%, other
  (Muslims, Croats, Roma) 12%

Religions:
  Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic

Languages:
  Serbian (Ijekavian dialect - official), Bosnian, Albanian, Croatian

Government Montenegro


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Montenegro
  conventional short form: Montenegro
  local long form: Republika Crna Gora
  local short form: Crna Gora
  former: People's Republic of Montenegro, Socialist Republic of
  Montenegro

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Podgorica (administrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 42 26 N, 19 16 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1 hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Cetinje (capital city)

Administrative divisions:
  21 municipalities (opstini, singular - opstina); Andrijevia, Bar,
  Berane, Bijelo Polje, Budva, Cetinje, Danilovgrad, Herceg Novi,
  Kolasin, Kotor, Mojkovac, Niksic, Plav, Pluzine, Pljevlja,
  Podgornica, Rozaje, Savnik, Tivat, Ulcinj, Zabljak

Independence:
  3 June 2006 (from Serbia and Montenegro); note - a referendum on
  independence was held 21 May 2006

National holiday:
  National Day, 13 July

Constitution:
  12 October 1992 (was approved by the Assembly)

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Filip VUJANOVIC (since 11 May 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Zeljko STURANOVIC (since 10
  November 2006)
  cabinet: Ministries act as cabinet
  elections: president elected by direct vote for five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 11 May 2003 (next
  to be held in 2008); prime minister proposed by president, accepted
  by Assembly
  election results: Filip VUJANOVIC elected on the third round; Filip
  VUJANOVIC 63.3%, Miodrag ZIVKOVIC 30.8%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly (81 seats, elected by direct vote for four-year
  terms; changed from 74 seats at the time of the elections)
  elections: last held 10 September 2006 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Coalition for a European Montenegro 41, SNS 12, Coalition SPP/NS/DSS
  11, PZP 11, Liberals and Bosniaks 3, Democratic League-Democratic
  Prosperity 1, Democratic Union of Albanians 1, Albanian Alternative 1

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court (five judges with nine-year terms); Supreme
  Court (judges have life tenure)

Political parties and leaders:
  Albanian Alternative or AA; Bosniak Party or BS [Rafet HUSOVIC];
  Coalition for a European Montenegro (Democratic Party of Socialists
  or DPS and Social Democratic Party or SDP) [Milo DJUKANOVIC];
  Coalition SPP/NS/DSS; Democratic League-Party of Democratic
  Prosperity [Mehmet BARHDI]; Democratic Serbian Party of Montenegro
  or DSS; Democratic Union of Albanians or DUA [Ferhat DINOSA];
  Liberal Party of Montenegro or LP [Miodrag ZIVKOVIC]; Movement for
  Changes or PZP [Nebojsa MEDOJEVIC]; People's Party of Montenegro or
  NS [Predrag POPOVIC]; Serbian People's Party of Montenegro or SNS
  [Andrija MANDIC]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Ranko KRIVOKAPIC];
  Social Democratic Party of Montenegro or DPS [Milo DJUKANOVIC];
  Socialist People's Party or SNP [Predrag BULATOVIC]

International organization participation:
  CEI, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, ICFTU, ILO, Interpol, IPU, ITU, OSCE, UN,
  UPU, WHO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Miodrag VLAHOVIC

Flag description:
  a red field bordered by a narrow golden-yellow stripe with the
  Montenegrin coat of arms centered

Economy Montenegro


Economy - overview:
  The republic of Montenegro severed its economy from federal control
  and from Serbia during the MILOSEVIC era and continues to maintain
  its own central bank, uses the euro instead of the Yugoslav dinar as
  official currency, collects customs tariffs, and manages its own
  budget. The dissolution of the loose political union between Serbia
  and Montenegro in 2006 led to separate membership in several
  international financial institutions, such as the IMF, World Bank,
  and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Montenegro
  is pursuing its own membership in the World Trade Organization as
  well as negotiating a Stabilization and Association agreement with
  the European Union in anticipation of eventual membership. Severe
  unemployment remains a key political and economic problem for this
  entire region. Montenegro has privatized its large aluminum complex
  - the dominant industry - as well as most of its financial sector,
  and has begun to attract foreign direct investment in the tourism
  sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.412 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.125 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: % NA
  industry: % NA
  services: % NA

Labor force:
  259,100 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 30%
  services: 68% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  27.7% (2005)

Population below poverty line:
  12.2% (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.4% (2004)

Investment (gross fixed):
  % of GDP NA

Budget:
  revenues: NA
  expenditures: NA

Public debt:
  % of GDP NA

Agriculture - products:
  grains, tobacco, potatoes, citrus fruits, olives, grapes;
  sheepherding; commercial fishing negligible

Industries:
  steelmaking, agricultural processing, consumer goods, tourism

Electricity - production:
  2.864 billion kWh 2.864 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA

Oil - production:
  NA

Oil - consumption:
  NA

Natural gas - consumption:
  NA

Current account balance:
  NA

Exports:
  $171.3 million (2003)

Exports - partners:
  Switzerland 83.9%, Italy 6.1%, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1.3% (2003)

Imports:
  $601.7 million (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Greece 10.2%, Italy 10.2%, Germany 9.6%, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  9.2% (2003)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  NA

Debt - external:
  NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  NA

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8089 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Montenegro


Telephones - main lines in use:
  177,663 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  543,220 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern telecommunications system with access to
  European satellites
  domestic: GSM wireless service, available through two providers with
  national coverage, is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 382 (the old code of 381 used by
  Serbia and Montenegro will also remain in use until Feb 2007); two
  international switches connect the national system

Radio broadcast stations:
  31 (2004)

Television broadcast stations:
  13 (2004)

Internet country code:
  .me

Internet users:
  50,000 (2004)

Transportation Montenegro


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 250 km
  standard gauge: 250 km 1.435-m gauge (electrified 169 km) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 7,353 km
  paved: 4,274 km
  unpaved: 3,079 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 9,458 GRT/10,172 DWT
  by type: cargo 4
  registered in other countries: 4 (Bahamas 2, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bar

Military Montenegro


Military service age and obligation:
  compulsory national military service abolished August 2006

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2.306 billion

Military - note:
  Montenegrin plans call for the establishment of a fully
  professional armed forces

Transnational Issues Montenegro


Disputes - international:
  ethnic Albanians in Kosovo refuse demarcation of the boundary with
  Macedonia in accordance with the 2000 Macedonia-Serbia and
  Montenegro delimitation agreement, which includes a section of
  boundary with Montenegro


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Montserrat

Introduction Montserrat


Background:
  English and Irish colonists from St. Kitts first settled on
  Montserrat in 1632; the first African slaves arrived three decades
  later. The British and French fought for possesion of the island for
  most of the 18th century, but it finally was confirmed as a British
  possession in 1783. The island's sugar plantation economy was
  converted to small farm landholdings in the mid 19th century. Much
  of this island was devastated and two-thirds of the population fled
  abroad because of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano that
  began on 18 July 1995. Montserrat has endured volcanic activity
  since, with the last eruption occurring in July 2003.

Geography Montserrat


Location:
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, southeast of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  16 45 N, 62 12 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 102 sq km
  land: 102 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.6 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  40 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; little daily or seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  volcanic island, mostly mountainous, with small coastal lowland

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: lava dome in English's Crater (in the Soufriere Hills
  volcanic complex) estimated at over 930 m (2006)

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 80% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  severe hurricanes (June to November); volcanic eruptions (Soufriere
  Hills volcano has erupted continuously since 1995)

Environment - current issues:
  land erosion occurs on slopes that have been cleared for cultivation

Geography - note:
  the island is entirely volcanic in origin and comprised of three
  major volcanic centers of differing ages

People Montserrat


Population:
  9,439
  note: an estimated 8,000 refugees left the island following the
  resumption of volcanic activity in July 1995; some have returned
  (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.3% (male 1,125/female 1,079)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 2,957/female 3,245)
  65 years and over: 10.9% (male 532/female 501) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.9 years
  male: 28.6 years
  female: 29.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.05% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  17.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.06 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.85 years
  male: 76.67 years
  female: 81.14 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Montserratian(s)
  adjective: Montserratian

Ethnic groups:
  black, white

Religions:
  Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Seventh-Day
  Adventist, other Christian denominations

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 97% (1970 est.)

Government Montserrat


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Montserrat

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Plymouth
  geographic coordinates: 16 44 N, 62 14 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Plymouth was abandoned in 1997 due to volcanic activity;
  interim government buildings have been built at Brades Estate, in
  the Carr's Bay/Little Bay vicinity at the northwest end of Montserrat

Administrative divisions:
  3 parishes; Saint Anthony, Saint Georges, Saint Peter

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in June (1926)

Constitution:
  effective 19 December 1989

Legal system:
  English common law and statutory law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor Deborah BARNES-JONES (since 10 May 2004)
  head of government: Chief Minister Lowell LEWIS (since 2 June 2006)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of the governor, the chief
  minister, three other ministers, the attorney general, and the
  finance secretary
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by the
  monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority
  party usually becomes chief minister

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council (11 seats, 9 popularly elected;
  members serve five-year terms)
  note: expanded in 2001 from 7 to 9 elected members with attorney
  general and financial secretary sitting as ex-officio members
  elections: last held 31 May 2006 (next to be held by 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MCAP 36.1%, NPLM 29.4%,
  MDP 24.4%, independents 10.1%; seats by party - MCAP 4, NPLM 3, MDP
  1, independents 1
  note: in 2001, the Elections Commission instituted a single
  constituency/voter-at-large system whereby all eligible voters cast
  ballots for all nine seats of the Legislative Council

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based in Saint Lucia, one judge of
  the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and presides over the
  High Court)

Political parties and leaders:
  Montserrat Democratic Party or MDP [Lowell LEWIS]; Movement for
  Change and Prosperity or MCAP [Roselyn CASSELL-SEALY]; New People's
  Liberation Movement or NPLM [John A. OSBORNE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Caricom, CDB, ICFTU, Interpol (subbureau), OECS, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Montserratian coat of arms centered in the outer half of the
  flag; the coat of arms features a woman standing beside a yellow
  harp with her arm around a black cross

Economy Montserrat


Economy - overview:
  Severe volcanic activity, which began in July 1995, has put a
  damper on this small, open economy. A catastrophic eruption in June
  1997 closed the airports and seaports, causing further economic and
  social dislocation. Two-thirds of the 12,000 inhabitants fled the
  island. Some began to return in 1998, but lack of housing limited
  the number. The agriculture sector continued to be affected by the
  lack of suitable land for farming and the destruction of crops.
  Prospects for the economy depend largely on developments in relation
  to the volcanic activity and on public sector construction activity.
  The UK has launched a three-year $122.8 million aid program to help
  reconstruct the economy. Half of the island is expected to remain
  uninhabitable for another decade.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $29 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  -1% (2002 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,400 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 13.6%
  services: 81% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
  4,521
  note: lowered by flight of people from volcanic activity (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6% (1998 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.6% (2002 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $31.4 million
  expenditures: $31.6 million; including capital expenditures of $8.4
  million (1997 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers; livestock
  products

Industries:
  tourism, rum, textiles, electronic appliances

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  2 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.86 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $700,000 (2001)

Exports - commodities:
  electronic components, plastic bags, apparel; hot peppers, limes,
  live plants; cattle

Exports - partners:
  US, Antigua and Barbuda (2004)

Imports:
  $17 million (2001)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transportation equipment, foodstuffs, manufactured
  goods, fuels, lubricants, and related materials

Imports - partners:
  US, UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Japan, Canada (2004)

Debt - external:
  $8.9 million (1997)

Economic aid - recipient:
  Country Policy Plan (2001) is a three-year program for spending
  $122.8 million in British budgetary assistance (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Montserrat


Telephones - main lines in use:
  NA

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  70 (1994)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern and fully digitalized
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-664

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  7,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  3,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ms

Internet hosts:
  386 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  17 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Montserrat


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 227 km
  note: volcanic eruptions that began in 1995 destroyed most of the
  road system (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Plymouth

Military Montserrat


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Montserrat Police Force (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,298 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,899 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 84 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Montserrat


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined for the
  US and Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Morocco

Introduction Morocco


Background:
  In 788, about a century after the Arab conquest of North Africa,
  successive Moorish dynasties began to rule in Morocco. In the 16th
  century, the Sa'adi monarchy, particularly under Ahmad AL-MANSUR
  (1578-1603), repelled foreign invaders and inaugurated a golden age.
  In 1860, Spain occupied northern Morocco and ushered in a half
  century of trade rivalry among European powers that saw Morocco's
  sovereignty steadily erode; in 1912, the French imposed a
  protectorate over the country. A protracted independence struggle
  with France ended successfully in 1956. The internationalized city
  of Tangier and most Spanish possessions were turned over to the new
  country that same year. Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara
  during the late 1970s, but final resolution on the status of the
  territory remains unresolved. Gradual political reforms in the 1990s
  resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature, which
  first met in 1997. Parliamentary elections were held for the second
  time in September 2002 and municipal elections were held in
  September 2003.

Geography Morocco


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and the
  Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Western Sahara

Geographic coordinates:
  32 00 N, 5 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 446,550 sq km
  land: 446,300 sq km
  water: 250 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,017.9 km
  border countries: Algeria 1,559 km, Western Sahara 443 km, Spain
  (Ceuta) 6.3 km, Spain (Melilla) 9.6 km

Coastline:
  1,835 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  Mediterranean, becoming more extreme in the interior

Terrain:
  northern coast and interior are mountainous with large areas of
  bordering plateaus, intermontane valleys, and rich coastal plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sebkha Tah -55 m
  highest point: Jebel Toubkal 4,165 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, iron ore, manganese, lead, zinc, fish, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 19%
  permanent crops: 2%
  other: 79% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  14,450 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  northern mountains geologically unstable and subject to
  earthquakes; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  land degradation/desertification (soil erosion resulting from
  farming of marginal areas, overgrazing, destruction of vegetation);
  water supplies contaminated by raw sewage; siltation of reservoirs;
  oil pollution of coastal waters

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands,
  Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  strategic location along Strait of Gibraltar

People Morocco


Population:
  33,241,259 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 31.6% (male 5,343,976/female 5,145,019)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 10,505,018/female 10,580,599)
  65 years and over: 5% (male 725,116/female 941,531) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23.9 years
  male: 23.4 years
  female: 24.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.55% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.87 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 40.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 36.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.94 years
  male: 68.62 years
  female: 73.37 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  15,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Moroccan(s)
  adjective: Moroccan

Ethnic groups:
  Arab-Berber 99.1%, other 0.7%, Jewish 0.2%

Religions:
  Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), Berber dialects, French often the language of
  business, government, and diplomacy

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 51.7%
  male: 64.1%
  female: 39.4% (2003 est.)

Government Morocco


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Morocco
  conventional short form: Morocco
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah
  local short form: Al Maghrib

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Rabat
  geographic coordinates: 34 02 N, 6 51 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  15 regions; Grand Casablanca, Chaouia-Ouardigha, Doukkala-Abda,
  Fes-Boulemane, Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen, Guelmim-Es Smara,
  Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra, Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz,
  Meknes-Tafilalet, Oriental, Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer,
  Souss-Massa-Draa, Tadla-Azilal, Tanger-Tetouan, Taza-Al
  Hoceima-Taounate
  note: Morocco claims the territory of Western Sahara, the political
  status of which is considered undetermined by the US Government;
  portions of the regions Guelmim-Es Smara and Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia
  El Hamra as claimed by Morocco lie within Western Sahara; Morocco
  claims another region, Oued Eddahab-Lagouira, which falls entirely
  within Western Sahara

Independence:
  2 March 1956 (from France)

National holiday:
  Throne Day (accession of King MOHAMED VI to the throne), 30 July
  (1999)

Constitution:
  10 March 1972; revised 4 September 1992, amended (to create
  bicameral legislature) September 1996

Legal system:
  based on Islamic law and French and Spanish civil law system;
  judicial review of legislative acts in Constitutional Chamber of
  Supreme Court

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal (as of January 2003)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King MOHAMED VI (since 30 July 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Driss JETTOU (since 9 October
  2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch following legislative elections

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of an upper house or Chamber of
  Counselors (270 seats; members elected indirectly by local councils,
  professional organizations, and labor syndicates for nine-year
  terms; one-third of the members are renewed every three years) and a
  lower house or Chamber of Representatives (325 seats; 295 by
  multi-seat constituencies and 30 from national lists of women;
  members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Counselors - last held 6 October 2003 (next to
  be held in 2006); Chamber of Representatives - last held 27
  September 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: Chamber of Counselors - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - RNI 42, MDS 33, UC 28, MP 27, PND 21, PI 21,
  USFP 16, MNP 15, PA 13, FFD 12, other 42; Chamber of Representatives
  - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - USFP 50, PI 48,
  PJD 42, RNI 41, MP 27, MNP 18, UC 16, PND 12, PPS 11, UD 10, other 50

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed on the recommendation of the
  Supreme Council of the Judiciary, presided over by the monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Action Party or PA [Muhammad EL IDRISSI]; Alliance of Liberties or
  ADL [Ali BELHAJ]; Annahj Addimocrati or Annahj [Abdellah EL HARIF];
  Avant Garde Social Democratic Party or PADS [Ahmed BENJELLOUN];
  Citizen Forces or FC [Abderrahman LAHJOUJI]; Citizen's Initiatives
  for Development [Mohamed BENHAMOU]; Constitutional Union or UC
  [Mohamed ABIED (interim)]; Democratic and Independence Party or PDI
  [Abdelwahed MAACH]; Democratic and Social Movement or MDS [Mahmoud
  ARCHANE]; Democratic Socialist Party or PSD [Aissa OUARDIGHI];
  Democratic Union or UD [Bouazza IKKEN]; Environment and Development
  Party or PED [Ahmed EL ALAMI]; Front of Democratic Forces or FFD
  [Thami EL KHYARI]; Istiqlal Party (Independence Party) or PI [Abbas
  El FASSI]; Justice and Development Party or PJD [Saad Eddine
  OTHMANI]; Moroccan Liberal Party or PML [Mohamed ZIANE]; National
  Democratic Party or PND [Abdallah KADIRI]; National Ittihadi
  Congress Party or CNI [Abdelmajid BOUZOUBAA]; National Popular
  Movement or MNP [Mahjoubi AHERDANE]; National Rally of Independents
  or RNI [Ahmed OSMAN]; National Union of Popular Forces or UNFP
  [Abdellah IBRAHIM]; Parti Al Ahd or Al Ahd [Najib EL OUAZZANI,
  chairman]; Party of Progress and Socialism or PPS [Ismail ALAOUI];
  Party of Renewal and Equity or PRE [Chakir ACHABAR]; Party of the
  Unified Socialist Left or GSU [Mohamed Ben Said AIT IDDER]; Popular
  Movement or MP [Mohamed LAENSER]; Reform and Development Party or
  PRD [Abderrahmane EL KOUHEN]; Social Center Party or PSC [Lahcen
  MADIH]; Socialist Union of Popular Forces or USFP [Mohammed
  El-YAZGHI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Democratic Confederation of Labor or CDT [Noubir AMAOUI]; General
  Union of Moroccan Workers or UGTM [Abderrazzak AFILAL]; Moroccan
  Employers Association or CGEM [Hassan CHAMI]; National Labor Union
  of Morocco or UNMT [Abdelslam MAATI]; Union of Moroccan Workers or
  UMT [Mahjoub BENSEDDIK]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNOCI,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aziz MEKOUAR
  chancery: 1601 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-7979
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-0161
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas T. RILEY
  embassy: 2 Avenue de Mohamed El Fassi, Rabat
  mailing address: PSC 74, Box 021, APO AE 09718
  telephone: [212] (37) 76 22 65
  FAX: [212] (37) 76 56 61
  consulate(s) general: Casablanca

Flag description:
  red with a green pentacle (five-pointed, linear star) known as
  Sulayman's (Solomon's) seal in the center of the flag; red and green
  are traditional colors in Arab flags, although the use of red is
  more commonly associated with the Arab states of the Persian gulf;
  design dates to 1912

Economy Morocco


Economy - overview:
  Moroccan economic policies brought macroeconomic stability to the
  country in the early 1990s but have not spurred growth sufficient to
  reduce unemployment that nears 20% in urban areas. Poverty has
  actually increased due to the volatile nature of GDP, Morocco's
  continued dependence on foreign energy, and its inability to promote
  the growth of small and medium size enterprises. Despite structural
  adjustment programs supported by the IMF, the World Bank, and the
  Paris Club, the dirham is only fully convertible for current account
  transactions and Morocco's financial sector is rudimentary. Moroccan
  authorities understand that reducing poverty and providing jobs is
  key to domestic security and development. In 2004, Moroccan
  authorities instituted measures to boost foreign direct investment
  and trade by signing a free trade agreement with the US and selling
  government shares in the state telecommunications company and in the
  largest state-owned bank. The Free Trade agreement went into effect
  in January 2006. In 2005, GDP growth slipped to 1.2% and the budget
  deficit rose sharply - to 7.5% of GDP - because of substantial
  increases in wages and oil subsidies. Long-term challenges include
  preparing the economy for freer trade with the US and European
  Union, improving education and job prospects for Morocco's youth,
  and raising living standards, which the government hopes to achieve
  by increasing tourist arrivals and boosting competitiveness in
  textiles.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $135.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $51.94 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 21.7%
  industry: 35.7%
  services: 42.6% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  11.19 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 15%
  services: 45% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  11% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  19% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 30.9% (1998-99)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40 (2005 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $12.94 billion
  expenditures: $16.77 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $2.19 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  72% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  barley, wheat, citrus, wine, vegetables, olives; livestock

Industries:
  phosphate rock mining and processing, food processing, leather
  goods, textiles, construction, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  4% NA%

Electricity - production:
  17.35 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 95.4%
  hydro: 4.6%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  17.58 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.45 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  158,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  147,800 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  100 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  5 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  650 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  NA cu m

Natural gas - imports:
  NA cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.218 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.255 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $9.472 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing, fish, inorganic chemicals, transistors, crude minerals,
  fertilizers (including phosphates), petroleum products, fruits,
  vegetables

Exports - partners:
  France 30.3%, Spain 18%, UK 6.2%, Italy 5.2%, India 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $18.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  crude petroleum, textile fabric, telecommunications equipment,
  wheat, gas and electricity, transistors, plastics

Imports - partners:
  France 18.2%, Spain 11%, Saudi Arabia 6.8%, Russia 6.8%, Italy
  6.1%, China 5.2%, Germany 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $16.47 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $15.61 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $218 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Moroccan dirham (MAD)

Currency code:
  MAD

Exchange rates:
  Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.865 (2005), 8.868 (2004), 9.574
  (2003), 11.021 (2002), 11.303 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Morocco


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,341,200 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  12.393 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system with all important capabilities;
  however, density is low with only 4 main lines available for each
  100 persons
  domestic: good system composed of open-wire lines, cables, and
  microwave radio relay links; Internet available but expensive;
  principal switching centers are Casablanca and Rabat; national
  network nearly 100% digital using fiber-optic links; improved rural
  service employs microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 212; 7 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat;
  microwave radio relay to Gibraltar, Spain, and Western Sahara;
  coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Algeria; participant in
  Medarabtel; fiber-optic cable link from Agadir to Algeria and
  Tunisia (1998)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 27, FM 25, shortwave 6 (1998)

Radios:
  6.64 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  35 (plus 66 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  3.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ma

Internet hosts:
  3,218 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  8 (2000)

Internet users:
  4.6 million (2005)

Transportation Morocco


Airports:
  60 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 34
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 715 km; oil 285 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,907 km
  standard gauge: 1,907 km 1.435-m gauge (1,003 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 57,694 km
  paved: 32,551 km (including 417 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 25,143 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 382,781 GRT/285,435 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, chemical tanker 6, container 9, passenger/cargo
  13, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 5 (France 1, Germany 2, Switzerland 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Agadir, Casablanca, Mohammedia, Nador, Safi, Tangier

Military Morocco


Military branches:
  Royal Armed Forces (Forces Armees Royales, FAR): Royal Moroccan
  Army (includes Air Defense), Navy (includes Marines), Royal Moroccan
  Air Force (Force Aerienne Royale Marocaine) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,908,864
  females age 18-49: 7,882,879 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,484,787
  females age 18-49: 6,675,729 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 353,377
  females age 18-49: 341,677 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2.31 billion (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Morocco


Disputes - international:
  claims and administers Western Sahara whose sovereignty remains
  unresolved - UN-administered cease-fire has remained in effect since
  September 1991, but attempts to hold a referendum have failed and
  parties thus far have rejected all brokered proposals; Morocco
  protests Spain's control over the coastal enclaves of Ceuta,
  Melilla, and Penon de Velez de la Gomera, the islands of Penon de
  Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and surrounding waters; discussions
  have not progressed on a comprehensive maritime delimitation setting
  limits on exploration and refugee interdiction since Morocco's 2002
  rejection of Spain's unilateral designation of a median line from
  the Canary Islands; Morocco serves as one of the primary launching
  areas of illegal migration into Spain from North Africa

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of hashish; shipments of hashish mostly directed
  to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South America
  destined for Western Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Mozambique

Introduction Mozambique


Background:
  Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a close with
  independence in 1975. Large-scale emigration by whites, economic
  dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil
  war hindered the country's development. The ruling Front for the
  Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) party formally abandoned Marxism
  in 1989, and a new constitution the following year provided for
  multiparty elections and a free market economy. A UN-negotiated
  peace agreement between FRELIMO and rebel Mozambique National
  Resistance (RENAMO) forces ended the fighting in 1992. In December
  2004, Mozambique underwent a delicate transition as Joaquim CHISSANO
  stepped down after 18 years in office. His newly elected successor,
  Armando Emilio GUEBUZA, has promised to continue the sound economic
  policies that have encouraged foreign investment.

Geography Mozambique


Location:
  Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between
  South Africa and Tanzania

Geographic coordinates:
  18 15 S, 35 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 801,590 sq km
  land: 784,090 sq km
  water: 17,500 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,571 km
  border countries: Malawi 1,569 km, South Africa 491 km, Swaziland
  105 km, Tanzania 756 km, Zambia 419 km, Zimbabwe 1,231 km

Coastline:
  2,470 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical to subtropical

Terrain:
  mostly coastal lowlands, uplands in center, high plateaus in
  northwest, mountains in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Monte Binga 2,436 m

Natural resources:
  coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum, graphite

Land use:
  arable land: 5.43%
  permanent crops: 0.29%
  other: 94.28% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,180 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  severe droughts; devastating cyclones and floods in central and
  southern provinces

Environment - current issues:
  a long civil war and recurrent drought in the hinterlands have
  resulted in increased migration of the population to urban and
  coastal areas with adverse environmental consequences;
  desertification; pollution of surface and coastal waters; elephant
  poaching for ivory is a problem

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the Zambezi flows through the north-central and most fertile part
  of the country

People Mozambique


Population:
  19,686,505
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected; the 1997
  Mozambican census reported a population of 16,099,246 (July 2006
  est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 4,229,802/female 4,177,235)
  15-64 years: 54.5% (male 5,207,149/female 5,519,291)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 230,616/female 322,412) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  35.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  21.35 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 129.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 134.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 124.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 39.82 years
  male: 39.53 years
  female: 40.13 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  12.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.3 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  110,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Mozambican(s)
  adjective: Mozambican

Ethnic groups:
  African 99.66% (Makhuwa, Tsonga, Lomwe, Sena, and others),
  Europeans 0.06%, Euro-Africans 0.2%, Indians 0.08%

Religions:
  Catholic 23.8%, Muslim 17.8%, Zionist Christian 17.5%, other 17.8%,
  none 23.1% (1997 census)

Languages:
  Emakhuwa 26.1%, Xichangana 11.3%, Portuguese 8.8% (official; spoken
  by 27% of population as a second language), Elomwe 7.6%, Cisena
  6.8%, Echuwabo 5.8%, other Mozambican languages 32%, other foreign
  languages 0.3%, unspecified 1.3% (1997 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 47.8%
  male: 63.5%
  female: 32.7% (2003 est.)

Government Mozambique


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Mozambique
  conventional short form: Mozambique
  local long form: Republica de Mocambique
  local short form: Mocambique
  former: Portuguese East Africa

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Maputo
  geographic coordinates: 25 58 S, 32 35 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), 1 city (cidade)*;
  Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Cidade de Maputo*,
  Nampula, Niassa, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia

Independence:
  25 June 1975 (from Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 25 June (1975)

Constitution:
  30 November 1990

Legal system:
  based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Armando GUEBUZA (since 2 February 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Luisa DIOGO (since 17 February
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 1-2 December 2004
  (next to be held December 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Armando GUEBUZA elected president; percent of vote
  - Armando GUEBUZA 63.7%, Afonso DHLAKAMA 31.7%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly of the Republic or Assembleia da Republica (250
  seats; members are directly elected by popular vote on a secret
  ballot to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 1-2 December 2004 (next to be held December
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - FRELIMO 62%, RENAMO
  29.7%; seats by party - FRELIMO 160, RENAMO 90

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (the court of final appeal; some of its professional
  judges are appointed by the president and some are elected by the
  Assembly); other courts include an Administrative Court, customs
  courts, maritime courts, courts marshal, labor courts
  note: although the constitution provides for a separate
  Constitutional Court, one has never been established; in its absence
  the Supreme Court reviews constitutional cases

Political parties and leaders:
  Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Liberatacao de
  Mocambique) or FRELIMO [Armando Emilio GUEBUZA, president];
  Mozambique National Resistance-Electoral Union (Resistencia Nacional
  Mocambicana-Uniao Eleitoral) or RENAMO-UE [Afonso DHLAKAMA,
  president]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Institute for Peace and Democracy (Instituto para Paz e Democracia)
  or IPADE [Raul DOMINGOS, president]; Etica [Abdul CARIMO Issa,
  chairman]; Movement for Peace and Citizenship (Movimento para Paz e
  Cidadania); Mozambican League of Human Rights (Liga Mocambicana dos
  Direitos Humanos) or LDH [Alice MABOTE, president]; Human Rights and
  Development (Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento) or DHD [Artemisia
  FRANCO, secretary general]

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory),
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA,
  MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF (observer), OPCW, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Armando PANGUENE
  chancery: 1990 M Street NW, Suite 570, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 293-7146
  FAX: [1] (202) 835-0245

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Helen LA LIME
  embassy: Avenida Kenneth Kuanda 193, Maputo
  mailing address: P. O. Box 783, Maputo
  telephone: [258] (1) 492797
  FAX: [258] (1) 490448

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with
  a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is
  edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed
  star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an
  open white book

Economy Mozambique


Economy - overview:
  At independence in 1975, Mozambique was one of the world's poorest
  countries. Socialist mismanagement and a brutal civil war from
  1977-92 exacerbated the situation. In 1987, the government embarked
  on a series of macroeconomic reforms designed to stabilize the
  economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with
  political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have
  led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation
  was reduced to single digits during the late 1990s although it
  returned to double digits in 2000-03. Fiscal reforms, including the
  introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service,
  have improved the government's revenue collection abilities. In
  spite of these gains, Mozambique remains dependent upon foreign
  assistance for much of its annual budget, and the majority of the
  population remains below the poverty line. Subsistence agriculture
  continues to employ the vast majority of the country's work force. A
  substantial trade imbalance persists although the opening of the
  Mozal aluminum smelter, the country's largest foreign investment
  project to date, has increased export earnings. In late 2005, and
  after years of negotiations, the government signed an agreement to
  gain Portugal's majority share of the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectricity
  (HCB) company, a dam that was not transferred to Mozambique at
  independence because of the ensuing civil war and unpaid debts. More
  power is needed for additional investment projects in titanium
  extraction and processing and garment manufacturing that could
  further close the import/export gap. Mozambique's once substantial
  foreign debt has been reduced through forgiveness and rescheduling
  under the IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Enhanced
  HIPC initiatives, and is now at a manageable level.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $26.18 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.727 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 26.2%
  industry: 34.8%
  services: 39% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  9.2 million (2000 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 81%
  industry: 6%
  services: 13% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  21% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  70% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 31.7% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  39.6 (1996-97)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.031 billion
  expenditures: $1.93 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  21% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, cassava (tapioca), corn,
  coconuts, sisal, citrus and tropical fruits, potatoes, sunflowers;
  beef, poultry

Industries:
  food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), aluminum,
  petroleum products, textiles, cement, glass, asbestos, tobacco

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.4% (2000)

Electricity - production:
  15.14 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 2.9%
  hydro: 97.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  10.46 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  9.5 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5.875 billion kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  11,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  127.4 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-639 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.69 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  aluminum, prawns, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, timber; bulk
  electricity

Exports - partners:
  Belgium 25.5%, South Africa 12.2%, Spain 11.6%, Italy 11.6%,
  Germany 7.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.041 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, chemicals, metal products,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 36.3%, Australia 12.8%, India 5.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.051 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.456 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $632.8 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  metical (MZM)

Currency code:
  MZM

Exchange rates:
  meticais per US dollar - 23,061 (2005), 22,581 (2004), 23,782
  (2003), 23,678 (2002), 20,704 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Mozambique


Telephones - main lines in use:
  69,700 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.22 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system but not available generally
  (extremely low density with less than 1 main line per 100 persons)
  domestic: the system consists of open-wire lines and trunk
  connection by microwave radio relay and tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 258; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 13, FM 17, shortwave 11 (2001)

Radios:
  730,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2001)

Televisions:
  67,600 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .mz

Internet hosts:
  6,985 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  11 (2002)

Internet users:
  138,000 (2005)

Transportation Mozambique


Airports:
  158 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 22
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 136
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 34
  under 914 m: 87 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 918 km; refined products 294 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,123 km
  narrow gauge: 2,983 km 1.067-m gauge; 140 km 0.762-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 30,400 km
  paved: 5,685 km
  unpaved: 24,715 km (1999)

Waterways:
  460 km (Zambezi River navigable to Tete and along Cahora Bassa
  Lake) (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,964 GRT/5,324 DWT
  by type: cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 2 (Belgium 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Beira, Maputo, Nacala

Military Mozambique


Military branches:
  Mozambique Armed Defense Forces (FADM): Mozambique Army, Mozambique
  Navy (Marinha Mocambique, MM), Mozambique Air Force (Forca Aerea de
  Mocambique, FAM) (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,793,373 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,751,223 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 185,314 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $78.03 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Mozambique


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  Southern African transit point for South Asian hashish and heroin,
  and South American cocaine probably destined for the European and
  South African markets; producer of cannabis (for local consumption)
  and methaqualone (for export to South Africa); corruption and poor
  regulatory capability makes the banking system vulnerable to money
  laundering, but the lack of a well-developed financial
  infrastructure limits the country's utility as a money-laundering
  center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Namibia

Introduction Namibia


Background:
  South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa during
  World War I and administered it as a mandate until after World War
  II, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist South-West
  Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war
  of independence for the area that was soon named Namibia, but it was
  not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration in
  accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. Namibia won
  its independence in 1990 and has been governed by SWAPO since.
  Hifikepunye POHAMBA was elected president in November 2004 in a
  landslide victory replacing Sam NUJOMA who led the country during
  its first 14 years of self rule.

Geography Namibia


Location:
  Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between Angola
  and South Africa

Geographic coordinates:
  22 00 S, 17 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 825,418 sq km
  land: 825,418 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than half the size of Alaska

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,936 km
  border countries: Angola 1,376 km, Botswana 1,360 km, South Africa
  967 km, Zambia 233 km

Coastline:
  1,572 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  desert; hot, dry; rainfall sparse and erratic

Terrain:
  mostly high plateau; Namib Desert along coast; Kalahari Desert in
  east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Konigstein 2,606 m

Natural resources:
  diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, lead, tin, lithium, cadmium, zinc,
  salt, hydropower, fish
  note: suspected deposits of oil, coal, and iron ore

Land use:
  arable land: 0.99%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  80 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  prolonged periods of drought

Environment - current issues:
  very limited natural fresh water resources; desertification;
  wildlife poaching; land degradation has led to few conservation areas

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  first country in the world to incorporate the protection of the
  environment into its constitution; some 14% of the land is
  protected, including virtually the entire Namib Desert coastal strip

People Namibia


Population:
  2,044,147
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.2% (male 393,878/female 387,147)
  15-64 years: 58.1% (male 596,557/female 591,350)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 34,245/female 40,970) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20 years
  male: 19.8 years
  female: 20.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.32 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  18.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 48.1 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 51.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 44.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 43.39 years
  male: 44.46 years
  female: 42.29 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  21.3% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  210,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  16,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Namibian(s)
  adjective: Namibian

Ethnic groups:
  black 87.5%, white 6%, mixed 6.5%
  note: about 50% of the population belong to the Ovambo tribe and 9%
  to the Kavangos tribe; other ethnic groups includes Herero 7%,
  Damara 7%, Nama 5%, Caprivian 4%, Bushmen 3%, Baster 2%, Tswana 0.5%

Religions:
  Christian 80% to 90% (Lutheran 50% at least), indigenous beliefs
  10% to 20%

Languages:
  English 7% (official), Afrikaans common language of most of the
  population and about 60% of the white population, German 32%,
  indigenous languages (Oshivambo, Herero, Nama)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84%
  male: 84.4%
  female: 83.7% (2003 est.)

Government Namibia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Namibia
  conventional short form: Namibia
  local long form: Republic of Namibia
  local short form: Namibia
  former: German Southwest Africa, South-West Africa

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Windhoek
  geographic coordinates: 22 34 S, 17 06 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in September; ends
  first Sunday in April

Administrative divisions:
  13 regions; Caprivi, Erongo, Hardap, Karas, Khomas, Kunene,
  Ohangwena, Okavango, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa

Independence:
  21 March 1990 (from South African mandate)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 21 March (1990)

Constitution:
  ratified 9 February 1990, effective 12 March 1990

Legal system:
  based on Roman-Dutch law and 1990 constitution

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Hifikepunye POHAMBA (since 21 March 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nahas ANGULA (since 21 March 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Hifikepunye POHAMBA elected president; percent of
  vote - Hifikepunye POHAMBA 76.4%, Den ULENGA 7.3%, Katuutire KAURA
  5.1%, Kuaima RIRUAKO 4.2%, Justus GAROEB 3.8%, other 3.2%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consists of the National Council (26 seats; 2
  members are chosen from each regional council to serve six-year
  terms) and the National Assembly (72 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: National Council - elections for regional councils, to
  determine members of the National Council, held 29-30 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2010); National Assembly - last held 15-16
  November 2004 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: National Council - percent of vote by party -
  SWAPO 89.7%, UDF 4.7%, NUDO 2.8%, DTA 1.9%; seats by party - SWAPO
  24, UDF 1, DTA 1; National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  SWAPO 75.1%, COD 7.2%, DTA 5%, NUDO 4.1%, UDF 3.5%, RP 1.9%, MAG
  0.8%; seats by party - SWAPO 55, COD 5, DTA 4, NUDO 3, UDF 3, RP 1,
  MAG 1
  note: the National Council is primarily an advisory body

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission)

Political parties and leaders:
  Congress of Democrats or COD [Ben ULENGA]; Democratic Turnhalle
  Alliance of Namibia or DTA [Katuutire KAURA, president]; Monitor
  Action Group or MAG [Jurie VILJOEN]; South West Africa People's
  Organization or SWAPO [Sam Shafishuna NUJOMA]; United Democratic
  Front or UDF [Justus GAROEB]; Republican Party or RP [Henk MUDGE];
  National Unity Democratic Organization or NUDO [Kuaima RIRUAKO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU,
  ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, ONUB, OPCW, SACU, SADC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patrick NANDAGO
  chancery: 1605 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-0540
  FAX: [1] (202) 986-0443

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joyce BARR
  embassy: Ausplan Building, 14 Lossen Street, Windhoek
  mailing address: Private Bag 12029 Ausspannplatz, Windhoek
  telephone: [264] (61) 221601
  FAX: [264] (61) 229792

Flag description:
  a large blue triangle with a yellow sunburst fills the upper left
  section and an equal green triangle (solid) fills the lower right
  section; the triangles are separated by a red stripe that is
  contrasted by two narrow white-edge borders

Economy Namibia


Economy - overview:
  The economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing
  of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 20% of GDP. Rich
  alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for
  gem-quality diamonds. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of
  nonfuel minerals in Africa, the world's fifth-largest producer of
  uranium, and the producer of large quantities of lead, zinc, tin,
  silver, and tungsten. The mining sector employs only about 3% of the
  population while about half of the population depends on subsistence
  agriculture for its livelihood. Namibia normally imports about 50%
  of its cereal requirements; in drought years food shortages are a
  major problem in rural areas. A high per capita GDP, relative to the
  region, hides the world's worst inequality of income distribution.
  The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the
  Namibian dollar pegged one-to-one to the South African rand.
  Privatization of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate
  long-run foreign investment. Increased fish production and mining of
  zinc, copper, uranium, and silver spurred growth in 2003-05.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $14.16 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $4.976 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.7%
  industry: 31.5%
  services: 58.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  820,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 47%
  industry: 20%
  services: 33% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  35% (1998)

Population below poverty line:
  the UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report indicated that 34.9% of
  the population live on $1 per day and 55.8% live on $2 per day

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA% 0.5%
  highest 10%: NA% 64.5%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  70.7 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.945 billion
  expenditures: $2.039 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  32.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  millet, sorghum, peanuts, grapes; livestock; fish

Industries:
  meatpacking, fish processing, dairy products; mining (diamonds,
  lead, zinc, tin, silver, tungsten, uranium, copper)

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.464 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  NA

Electricity - consumption:
  2.372 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  55 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  1.065 billion kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa
  (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  16,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  12,770 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  62.3 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $509.2 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.04 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, copper, gold, zinc, lead, uranium; cattle, processed
  fish, karakul skins

Exports - partners:
  South Africa 33.4%, US 4% (2004)

Imports:
  $2.35 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs; petroleum products and fuel, machinery and equipment,
  chemicals

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 85.2%, US (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $312.1 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $712.9 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $160 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  Namibian dollar (NAD); South African rand (ZAR)

Currency code:
  NAD; ZAR

Exchange rates:
  Namibian dollars per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004),
  7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Namibia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  127,900 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  495,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good system; about 6 telephones for each 100
  persons
  domestic: good urban services; fair rural service; microwave radio
  relay links major towns; connections to other populated places are
  by open wire; 100% digital
  international: country code - 264; fiber-optic cable to South
  Africa, microwave radio relay link to Botswana, direct links to
  other neighboring countries; connected to Africa ONE and South
  African Far East (SAFE) submarine cables through South Africa;
  satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (2002)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 39, shortwave 4 (2001)

Radios:
  232,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  8 (plus about 20 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  60,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .na

Internet hosts:
  3,527 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  75,000 (2005)

Transportation Namibia


Airports:
  137 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 21
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 116
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 72
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,382 km
  narrow gauge: 2,382 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 42,237 km
  paved: 5,406 km
  unpaved: 36,831 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,265 GRT/3,605 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Luderitz, Walvis Bay

Military Namibia


Military branches:
  Namibian Defense Force: Army, Air Wing, Navy (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 441,293 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 217,118 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $149.5 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Namibia


Disputes - international:
  border commission has yet to resolve small residual disputes with
  Botswana along the Caprivi Strip, including the Situngu marshlands
  along the Linyanti River; Botswana residents protest Namibia's
  planned construction of the Okavango hydroelectric dam on Popa
  Falls; managed dispute with South Africa over the location of the
  boundary in the Orange River; Namibia has supported and in 2004
  Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana and Zambia to
  build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto recognizing
  a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambia boundary in the
  river

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 12,618 (Angola) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Nauru

Introduction Nauru


Background:
  The exact origins of the Nauruans are unclear, since their language
  does not resemble any other in the Pacific. The island was annexed
  by Germany in 1888 and its phosphate deposits began to be mined
  early in the 20th century by a German-British consortium. Nauru was
  occupied by Australian forces in World War I and subsequently became
  a League of Nations mandate. After the Second World War - and a
  brutal occupation by Japan - Nauru became a UN trust territory. It
  achieved its independence in 1968 and joined the UN in 1999 as the
  world's smallest independent republic.

Geography Nauru


Location:
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Marshall
  Islands

Geographic coordinates:
  0 32 S, 166 55 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 21 sq km
  land: 21 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  30 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical with a monsoonal pattern; rainy season (November to
  February)

Terrain:
  sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs with
  phosphate plateau in center

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location along plateau rim 61 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources, roof storage tanks collect
  rainwater, but mostly dependent on a single, aging desalination
  plant; intensive phosphate mining during the past 90 years - mainly
  by a UK, Australia, and NZ consortium - has left the central 90% of
  Nauru a wasteland and threatens limited remaining land resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Nauru is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the
  Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and
  Makatea in French Polynesia; only 53 km south of Equator

People Nauru


Population:
  13,287 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.9% (male 2,507/female 2,391)
  15-64 years: 61.2% (male 4,004/female 4,123)
  65 years and over: 2% (male 139/female 123) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.6 years
  male: 20 years
  female: 21.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.81% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.13 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 63.08 years
  male: 59.5 years
  female: 66.84 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Nauruan(s)
  adjective: Nauruan

Ethnic groups:
  Nauruan 58%, other Pacific Islander 26%, Chinese 8%, European 8%

Religions:
  Christian (two-thirds Protestant, one-third Roman Catholic)

Languages:
  Nauruan (official, a distinct Pacific Island language), English
  widely understood, spoken, and used for most government and
  commercial purposes

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Nauru


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Nauru
  conventional short form: Nauru
  local long form: Republic of Nauru
  local short form: Nauru
  former: Pleasant Island

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  no official capital; government offices in Yaren District
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 districts; Aiwo, Anabar, Anetan, Anibare, Baiti, Boe, Buada,
  Denigomodu, Ewa, Ijuw, Meneng, Nibok, Uaboe, Yaren

Independence:
  31 January 1968 (from the Australia-, NZ-, and UK-administered UN
  trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 31 January (1968)

Constitution:
  29 January 1968; amended 17 May 1968 (Constitution Day)

Legal system:
  acts of the Nauru Parliament and British common law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  20 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ludwig SCOTTY (since 22 June 2004); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Ludwig SCOTTY (since 22 June 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a three-year term;
  election last held 23 October 2004 (next to be held NA 2007)
  election results: Ludwig SCOTTY was unopposed in the parliamentary
  elections for president

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (18 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 October 2004 (next to be held not later than
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - Nauru First Party 3,
  independents 15
  note: the president dissolved parliament on 30 September 2004 and
  set new elections for 23 October 2004

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  loose multiparty system; Democratic Party [Kennan ADEANG]; Nauru
  Party (informal); Nauru First (Naoero Amo) Party

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, ICAO, ICCt, Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Vinci Niel CLODUMAR
  chancery: 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400 D, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 937-0074
  FAX: [1] (212) 937-0079
  consulate(s): Agana (Guam)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Nauru; the US Ambassador to Fiji
  is accredited to Nauru

Flag description:
  blue with a narrow, horizontal, yellow stripe across the center and
  a large white 12-pointed star below the stripe on the hoist side;
  the star indicates the country's location in relation to the Equator
  (the yellow stripe) and the 12 points symbolize the 12 original
  tribes of Nauru

Economy Nauru


Economy - overview:
  Revenues of this tiny island have traditionally come from exports
  of phosphates, now significantly depleted. An Australian company in
  2005 entered into an agreement intended to exploit remaining
  supplies. Few other resources exist with most necessities being
  imported, mainly from Australia, its former occupier and later major
  source of support. The rehabilitation of mined land and the
  replacement of income from phosphates are serious long-term
  problems. In anticipation of the exhaustion of Nauru's phosphate
  deposits, substantial amounts of phosphate income were invested in
  trust funds to help cushion the transition and provide for Nauru's
  economic future. As a result of heavy spending from the trust funds,
  the government faces virtual bankruptcy. To cut costs the government
  has frozen wages and reduced overstaffed public service departments.
  In 2005, the deterioration in housing, hospitals, and other capital
  plant continued, and the cost to Australia of keeping the government
  and economy afloat continued to climb. Few comprehensive statistics
  on the Nauru economy exist, with estimates of Nauru's GDP varying
  widely.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $60 million (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: 0.1% employed in mining phosphates, public administration,
  education, and transportation

Unemployment rate:
  90% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -3.6% (1993)

Budget:
  revenues: $13.5 million
  expenditures: $13.5 million (2005)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts

Industries:
  phosphate mining, offshore banking, coconut products

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  23 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  21.39 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $64,000 f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  phosphates

Exports - partners:
  South Africa 63.7%, South Korea 7.6%, Canada 6.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $20 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, fuel, manufactures, building materials, machinery

Imports - partners:
  South Korea 43.8%, Australia 36.2%, US 5.9%, Germany 4.3% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $33.3 million (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $20 million mostly from Australia

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Nauru


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,900 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,500 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate local and international radiotelephone
  communication provided via Australian facilities
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 674; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  7,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  500 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .nr

Internet hosts:
  52 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  300 (2002)

Transportation Nauru


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 30 km
  paved: 24 km
  unpaved: 6 km (1999 est.)

Ports and terminals:
  Nauru

Military Nauru


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Nauru Police Force (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,874 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  Nauru maintains no defense forces; under an informal agreement,
  defense is the responsibility of Australia

Transnational Issues Nauru


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Navassa Island

Introduction Navassa Island


Background:
  This uninhabited island was claimed by the US in 1857 for its
  guano. Mining took place between 1865 and 1898. The lighthouse,
  built in 1917, was shut down in 1996 and administration of Navassa
  Island transferred from the Coast Guard to the Department of the
  Interior. A 1998 scientific expedition to the island described it as
  a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity; the following year it
  became a National Wildlife Refuge and annual scientific expeditions
  have continued.

Geography Navassa Island


Location:
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, 35 miles west of Tiburon
  Peninsula of Haiti

Geographic coordinates:
  18 25 N, 75 02 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 5.4 sq km
  land: 5.4 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about nine times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  8 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  marine, tropical

Terrain:
  raised coral and limestone plateau, flat to undulating; ringed by
  vertical white cliffs (9 to 15 m high)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on southwest side 77 m

Natural resources:
  guano

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  strategic location 160 km south of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo
  Bay, Cuba; mostly exposed rock but with enough grassland to support
  goat herds; dense stands of fig-like trees, scattered cactus

People Navassa Island


Population:
  uninhabited
  note: transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on the island
  (July 2006 est.)

Government Navassa Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Navassa Island

Dependency status:
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered by the Fish and
  Wildlife Service, US Department of the Interior, from the Caribbean
  Islands National Wildlife Refuge in Boqueron, Puerto Rico; in
  September 1996, the Coast Guard ceased operations and maintenance of
  Navassa Island Light, a 46-meter-tall lighthouse on the southern
  side of the island; there has also been a private claim advanced
  against the island

Legal system:
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of the US is used

Economy Navassa Island


Economy - overview:
  Subsistence fishing and commercial trawling occur within refuge
  waters.


Transportation Navassa Island


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Navassa Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Navassa Island


Disputes - international:
  claimed by Haiti, source of subsistence fishing


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Nepal

Introduction Nepal


Background:
  In 1951, the Nepalese monarch ended the century-old system of rule
  by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system of
  government. Reforms in 1990 established a multiparty democracy
  within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. A Maoist
  insurgency, launched in 1996, has gained traction and is threatening
  to bring down the regime, especially after a negotiated cease-fire
  between the Maoists and government forces broke down in August 2003.
  In 2001, the crown prince massacred ten members of the royal family,
  including the king and queen, and then took his own life. In October
  2002, the new king dismissed the prime minister and his cabinet for
  "incompetence" after they dissolved the parliament and were
  subsequently unable to hold elections because of the ongoing
  insurgency. While stopping short of reestablishing parliament, the
  king in June 2004 reinstated the most recently elected prime
  minister who formed a four-party coalition government. Citing
  dissatisfaction with the government's lack of progress in addressing
  the Maoist insurgency and corruption, the king in February 2005
  dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency, imprisoned
  party leaders, and assumed power. The king's government subsequently
  released party leaders and officially ended the state of emergency
  in May 2005, but the monarch retained absolute power until April
  2006. After nearly three weeks of mass protests organized by the
  seven-party opposition and the Maoists, the king allowed parliament
  to reconvene on 28 April 2006.

Geography Nepal


Location:
  Southern Asia, between China and India

Geographic coordinates:
  28 00 N, 84 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 147,181 sq km
  land: 143,181 sq km
  water: 4,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Arkansas

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,926 km
  border countries: China 1,236 km, India 1,690 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  varies from cool summers and severe winters in north to subtropical
  summers and mild winters in south

Terrain:
  Tarai or flat river plain of the Ganges in south, central hill
  region, rugged Himalayas in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Kanchan Kalan 70 m
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Natural resources:
  quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty, small deposits of
  lignite, copper, cobalt, iron ore

Land use:
  arable land: 16.07%
  permanent crops: 0.85%
  other: 83.08% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  11,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  severe thunderstorms, flooding, landslides, drought, and famine
  depending on the timing, intensity, and duration of the summer
  monsoons

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation (overuse of wood for fuel and lack of alternatives);
  contaminated water (with human and animal wastes, agricultural
  runoff, and industrial effluents); wildlife conservation; vehicular
  emissions

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  landlocked; strategic location between China and India; contains
  eight of world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest and
  Kanchenjunga - the world's tallest and third tallest - on the
  borders with China and India respectively

People Nepal


Population:
  28,287,147 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.7% (male 5,648,959/female 5,291,447)
  15-64 years: 57.6% (male 8,365,526/female 7,925,941)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 513,777/female 541,497) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 20.1 years
  female: 20.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.17% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  30.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 65.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 63.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 67.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 60.18 years
  male: 60.43 years
  female: 59.91 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.5% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  61,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  3,100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Nepalese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Nepalese

Ethnic groups:
  Chhettri 15.5%, Brahman-Hill 12.5%, Magar 7%, Tharu 6.6%, Tamang
  5.5%, Newar 5.4%, Muslim 4.2%, Kami 3.9%, Yadav 3.9%, other 32.7%,
  unspecified 2.8% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Hindu 80.6%, Buddhist 10.7%, Muslim 4.2%, Kirant 3.6%, other 0.9%
  (2001 census)
  note: only official Hindu state in the world

Languages:
  Nepali 47.8%, Maithali 12.1%, Bhojpuri 7.4%, Tharu (Dagaura/Rana)
  5.8%, Tamang 5.1%, Newar 3.6%, Magar 3.3%, Awadhi 2.4%, other 10%,
  unspecified 2.5% (2001 census)
  note: many in government and business also speak English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 48.6%
  male: 62.7%
  female: 34.9% (2000-2004 est.)

Government Nepal


Country name:
  conventional long and short form: Nepal
  local long and short form: Nepal

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Kathmandu
  geographic coordinates: 27 43 N, 85 19 E
  time difference: UTC+5.75 (10.75 hours ahead of Washington, DC
  during Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 zones (anchal, singular and plural); Bagmati, Bheri,
  Dhawalagiri, Gandaki, Janakpur, Karnali, Kosi, Lumbini, Mahakali,
  Mechi, Narayani, Rapti, Sagarmatha, Seti

Independence:
  1768 (unified by Prithvi Narayan Shah)

National holiday:
  Birthday of King GYANENDRA, 7 July (1946)

Constitution:
  9 November 1990

Legal system:
  based on Hindu legal concepts and English common law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King GYANENDRA Bir Bikram Shah (since 4 June 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Girija Prasad KOIRALA (since 30
  April 2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Khadga Prasad OLI (since 2 May
  2006) and Amik SHERCHAN since June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet historically appointed by the monarch on the
  recommendation of the prime minister; note - the prime minister
  selected the Cabinet in May 2006 in consultation with the political
  parties
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; note - following
  legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of
  a majority coalition historically has been appointed prime minister
  by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the National Council (60 seats; 35
  appointed by the House of Representatives, 10 by the king, and 15
  elected by an electoral college; one-third of the members elected
  every two years to serve six-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (205 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held in May 1999; note -
  Parliament was dissolved in May 2002 but was finally reconvened in
  April 2006 with most of the members that were elected in 1999
  election results: House of Representatives (for 1999 parliament) -
  percent of vote by party - NC 37.3%, CPN/UML 31.6%, NDP (RPP) 10.4%,
  NSP 3.2%, Rastriya Jana Morcha 1.4%, Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal 0.8%,
  NWPP 0.5%, others 14.8%; seats by party - NC 113, CPN/UML 69, NDP
  11, NSP 5, Rastriya Jana Morcha 5, Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal 1, NWPP
  1; note - NC, NSP, and NDP have since each split into two parties

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Sarbochha Adalat (chief justice is appointed by
  the monarch on recommendation of the Constitutional Council; the
  other judges are appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of
  the Judicial Council)

Political parties and leaders:
  Communist Party of Nepal/United Marxist-Leninist or CPN/UML [Madhav
  Kumar NEPAL, general secretary]; National Democratic Party or NDP
  (also called Rastriya Prajantra Party or RPP) [Pashupati Shumsher
  RANA, chairman]; Nepali Congress-Democratic [Sher Bahadur DEUBA,
  president]; Nepali Congress or NC [Girija Prasad KOIRALA, party
  president, Sushil KOIRALA, vice president]; Nepal Sadbhavana
  (Goodwill) Party or NSP - Mandal [Bhadri Prasad MANDAL, party
  president]; Nepal Sadbhavana Party - Ananda Devi [Ananda DEVI,
  president]; Nepal Workers and Peasants Party or NWPP [Narayan Man
  BIJUKCHHE, party chairman]; People's Front Nepal (Rastriya Jana
  Morcha) [Amik SHERCHAN, chairman]; Rastriya Janashakti Party or RJP
  [Surya Bahadur THAPA, chairman]; note - split from RPP in March
  2005; Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal [leader NA]; note - merged with
  People's Front Nepal or PFN in 2002

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Maoist guerrilla-based insurgency [Pushpa Kamal DAHAL, also known
  as PRACHANDA, chairman; Dr. Baburam BHATTARAI]; numerous small,
  left-leaning student groups in the capital; several small, radical
  Nepalese antimonarchist groups

International organization participation:
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU,
  ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, ONUB, OPCW,
  SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant)
  chancery: 2131 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-4550
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-5534
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James F. MORIARTY
  embassy: Panipokhari, Kathmandu
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [977] (1) 411-1179
  FAX: [977] (1) 441-9963

Flag description:
  red with a blue border around the unique shape of two overlapping
  right triangles; the smaller, upper triangle bears a white stylized
  moon and the larger, lower triangle bears a white 12-pointed sun

Economy Nepal


Economy - overview:
  Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the
  world with almost one-third of its population living below the
  poverty line. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing
  a livelihood for three-fourths of the population and accounting for
  38% of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of
  agricultural produce including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain.
  Security concerns relating to the Maoist conflict have led to a
  decrease in tourism, a key source of foreign exchange. Nepal has
  considerable scope for exploiting its potential in hydropower and
  tourism, areas of recent foreign investment interest. Prospects for
  foreign trade or investment in other sectors will remain poor,
  however, because of the small size of the economy, its technological
  backwardness, its remoteness, its landlocked geographic location,
  its civil strife, and its susceptibility to natural disaster.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $39.14 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $6.655 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 21%
  services: 41% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  10.4 million
  note: severe lack of skilled labor (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 76%
  industry: 6%
  services: 18%

Unemployment rate:
  42% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  31% (2003-2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 39.1% (2003-2004)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  37.7 (FY04/05)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7.8% (October 2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.153 billion
  expenditures: $1.789 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05/06)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops; milk, water buffalo meat

Industries:
  tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed
  mills; cigarettes, cement and brick production

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.8% (FY04/05)

Electricity - production:
  2.565 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 8.5%
  hydro: 91.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.85 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  111 million kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:
  241 million kWh (2005)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  11,980 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  11,760 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $822 million f.o.b.; note - does not include unrecorded border
  trade with India (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain

Exports - partners:
  India 53.7%, US 17.4%, Germany 7.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer

Imports - partners:
  India 47.5%, UAE 11.2%, China 10.7%, Saudi Arabia 4.9%, Kuwait 4.1%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $3.34 billion (March 2005)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $424 million (FY00/01)

Currency (code):
  Nepalese rupee (NPR)

Currency code:
  NPR

Exchange rates:
  Nepalese rupees per US dollar - 71.368 (2005), 73.674 (2004),
  76.141 (2003), 77.877 (2002), 74.949 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  16 July - 15 July

Communications Nepal


Telephones - main lines in use:
  448,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  248,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poor telephone and telegraph service; fair
  radiotelephone communication service and mobile cellular telephone
  network
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 977; radiotelephone communications;
  microwave landline to India; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (January 2000)

Radios:
  840,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus 9 repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  130,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .np

Internet hosts:
  17,789 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  175,000 (2005)

Transportation Nepal


Airports:
  48 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 10
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 38
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 59 km
  narrow gauge: 59 km 0.762-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 15,905 km
  paved: 8,573 km
  unpaved: 7,332 km (2003)

Military Nepal


Military branches:
  Royal Nepalese Army (includes Royal Nepalese Army Air Service);
  Nepalese Police Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,107,091
  females age 18-49: 5,744,989 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4.193 million
  females age 18-49: 3,853,102 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 308,031
  females age 18-49: 286,604 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $104.9 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Nepal


Disputes - international:
  joint border commission continues to work on small disputed
  sections of boundary with India; India has instituted a stricter
  border regime to restrict transit of Maoist insurgents and illegal
  cross-border activities

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 104,915 (Bhutan)
  IDPs: 100,000-200,000 (ongoing conflict between government forces
  and Maoist rebels; displacement spread across the country) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  illicit producer of cannabis and hashish for the domestic and
  international drug markets; transit point for opiates from Southeast
  Asia to the West


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Netherlands

Introduction Netherlands


Background:
  The Dutch United Provinces declared their independence from Spain
  in 1579; during the 17th century, they became a leading seafaring
  and commercial power, with settlements and colonies around the
  world. After a 20-year French occupation, a Kingdom of the
  Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a
  separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I,
  but suffered invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A
  modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large
  exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member
  of NATO and the EEC (now the EU), and participated in the
  introduction of the euro in 1999.

Geography Netherlands


Location:
  Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between Belgium and Germany

Geographic coordinates:
  52 30 N, 5 45 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 41,526 sq km
  land: 33,883 sq km
  water: 7,643 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,027 km
  border countries: Belgium 450 km, Germany 577 km

Coastline:
  451 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  temperate; marine; cool summers and mild winters

Terrain:
  mostly coastal lowland and reclaimed land (polders); some hills in
  southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Zuidplaspolder -7 m
  highest point: Vaalserberg 322 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, petroleum, peat, limestone, salt, sand and gravel,
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 21.96%
  permanent crops: 0.77%
  other: 77.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  5,650 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution in the form of heavy metals, organic compounds, and
  nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates; air pollution from
  vehicles and refining activities; acid rain

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea,
  Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands,
  Whaling

Geography - note:
  located at mouths of three major European rivers (Rhine, Maas or
  Meuse, and Schelde)

People Netherlands


Population:
  16,491,461 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18% (male 1,515,123/female 1,445,390)
  15-64 years: 67.8% (male 5,656,448/female 5,525,481)
  65 years and over: 14.2% (male 994,723/female 1,354,296) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.4 years
  male: 38.6 years
  female: 40.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.49% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.38 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.96 years
  male: 76.39 years
  female: 81.67 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  19,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Dutchman(men), Dutchwoman(women)
  adjective: Dutch

Ethnic groups:
  Dutch 83%, other 17% (of which 9% are non-Western origin mainly
  Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese, and Indonesians) (1999
  est.)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 31%, Dutch Reformed 13%, Calvinist 7%, Muslim 5.5%,
  other 2.5%, none 41% (2002)

Languages:
  Dutch (official), Frisian (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Netherlands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of the Netherlands
  conventional short form: Netherlands
  local long form: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden
  local short form: Nederland

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Amsterdam
  geographic coordinates: 52 23 N, 4 54 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: The Hague (seat of government)

Administrative divisions:
  12 provinces (provincies, singular - provincie); Drenthe,
  Flevoland, Friesland (Fryslan), Gelderland, Groningen, Limburg,
  Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland,
  Zuid-Holland

Dependent areas:
  Aruba, Netherlands Antilles

Independence:
  23 January 1579 (the northern provinces of the Low Countries
  conclude the Union of Utrecht breaking with Spain; on 26 July 1581
  they formally declared their independence with an Act of Abjuration;
  however, it was not until 30 January 1648 and the Peace of
  Westphalia that Spain recognized this independence)

National holiday:
  Queen's Day (Birthday of Queen-Mother JULIANA in 1909 and accession
  to the throne of her oldest daughter BEATRIX in 1980), 30 April

Constitution:
  adopted 1815; amended many times, most recently in 2002

Legal system:
  civil law system incorporating French penal theory; constitution
  does not permit judicial review of acts of the States General;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX (since 30 April 1980); Heir Apparent
  WILLEM-ALEXANDER (born 27 April 1967), son of the monarch
  head of government: Prime Minister Jan Peter BALKENENDE (since 22
  July 2002) and Deputy Prime Ministers Gerrit ZALM (since 27 May
  2003) and Laurens Jan BRINKHORST (since 31 March 2005); note - Prime
  Minister BALKENENDE tendered his resignation on 30 June 2006
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; following Second
  Chamber elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  monarch; vice prime ministers appointed by the monarch
  note: there is also a Council of State composed of the monarch, heir
  apparent, and councilors that provides consultations to the cabinet
  on legislative and administrative policy

Legislative branch:
  bicameral States General or Staten Generaal consists of the First
  Chamber or Eerste Kamer (75 seats; members indirectly elected by the
  country's 12 provincial councils for four-year terms) and the Second
  Chamber or Tweede Kamer (150 seats; members directly elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: First Chamber - last held 25 May 2003 (next to be held
  May 2007); Second Chamber - last held 22 November 2006 (next to be
  held November 2010)
  election results: First Chamber - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - CDA 23, PvdA 19, VVD 15, Green Party 5, Socialist
  Party 4, D66 3, other 6; Second Chamber - percent of vote by party -
  CDA 26.5, PvdA 21.2%, Socialist Party 16.6%, VVD 14.6%, Party for
  Freedom 5.9%, Green Party 4.6%, Christian Union 4.0%; seats by party
  - CDA 41, PvdA 33, Socialist Party 25, VVD 22, Party for Freedom 9,
  Green Party 7, Christian Union 6, other 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Hoge Raad (justices are nominated for life by the
  monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA [Ernst Hirsch BALLIN]; Christian
  Union Party [Andre ROUVOET]; Democrats 66 or D66 [Lousewies VAN DER
  LAAN]; Green Party [Femke HALSEMA]; Labor Party or PvdA [Wouter
  BOS]; List Pim Fortuyn [Ton VAN DILLEN]; Party for Freedom [Geert
  WILDERS]; People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Liberal) or VVD
  [Pieter WINSEMIUS]; Socialist Party [Jan MARIJNISSEN]; plus a few
  minor parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Netherlands Trade Union Federation or FNV (consisting of a merger
  of Socialist and Catholic trade unions); Christian Trade Union
  Federation or CNV; Trade Union Federation of Middle and High
  Personnel or MHP; Federation of Catholic and Protestant Employers
  Associations; Interchurch Peace Council or IKV; large multinational
  firms; the nondenominational Federation of Netherlands Enterprises

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, Benelux,
  BIS, CBSS (observer), CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO,
  G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD,
  OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christiaan Mark Johan KRONER
  chancery: 4200 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-5300
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-3430
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York
  consulate(s): Boston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roland E. ARNALL
  embassy: Lange Voorhout 102, 2514 EJ, The Hague
  mailing address: PSC 71, Box 1000, APO AE 09715
  telephone: [31] (70) 310-2209
  FAX: [31] (70) 361-4688
  consulate(s) general: Amsterdam

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue; similar
  to the flag of Luxembourg, which uses a lighter blue and is longer;
  one of the oldest flags in constant use, originating with WILLIAM I,
  Prince of Orange, in the latter half of the 16th century

Economy Netherlands


Economy - overview:
  The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy, which depends
  heavily on foreign trade. The economy is noted for stable industrial
  relations, moderate unemployment and inflation, a sizable current
  account surplus, and an important role as a European transportation
  hub. Industrial activity is predominantly in food processing,
  chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery. A highly
  mechanized agricultural sector employs no more than 2% of the labor
  force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing industry
  and for exports. The Netherlands, along with 11 of its EU partners,
  began circulating the euro currency on 1 January 2002. The country
  continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting
  foreign direct investment. Economic growth slowed considerably in
  2001-05, as part of the global economic slowdown, but for the four
  years before that, annual growth averaged nearly 4%, well above the
  EU average.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $497.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $581.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $30,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 24.4%
  services: 73.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  7.53 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 19%
  services: 79% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  10.5% NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 22.9% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  30.9 (2005)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $291.8 billion
  expenditures: $303.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  52.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits, vegetables; livestock

Industries:
  agroindustries, metal and engineering products, electrical
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction,
  microelectronics, fishing

Industrial production growth rate:
  -1.4% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  95 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 89.9%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 4.3%
  other: 5.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  101.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3.8 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  20.8 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  94,870 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  920,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1.418 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  2.284 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  88.06 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  73.13 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  50.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  49.28 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  20.78 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.756 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $39.95 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $365.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels; foodstuffs

Exports - partners:
  Germany 24.9%, Belgium 13%, France 9.4%, UK 9.1%, Italy 5.7%, US
  4.3%, Spain 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $326.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs,
  clothing

Imports - partners:
  Germany 16.6%, Belgium 9.3%, China 8.8%, US 7.6%, UK 5.8%, France
  4.7%, Russia 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $20.54 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.645 trillion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $4 billion (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Netherlands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  7.6 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  15.834 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: highly developed and well maintained
  domestic: extensive fixed-line fiber-optic network; cellular
  telephone system is one of the largest in Europe with five major
  network operators utilizing the third generation of the Global
  System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
  international: country code - 31; 9 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean), 1
  Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions) (2004)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 246, shortwave 3 (2004)

Radios:
  15.3 million (1996)

Television broadcast stations:
  21 (plus 26 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  8.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .nl

Internet hosts:
  8,363,158 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  52 (2000)

Internet users:
  10,806,328 (2004)

Transportation Netherlands


Airports:
  27 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 20
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 81 km; gas 7,229 km; oil 578 km; refined products 716 km
  (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,808 km
  standard gauge: 2,808 km 1.435-m gauge (2,061 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 134,000 km (including 3,270 km of expressways) (2004)

Waterways:
  6,183 km (navigable for ships of 50 tons) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 558 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,042,775 GRT/5,016,265 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 29, cargo 345, chemical tanker 29, container
  59, liquefied gas 12, passenger 14, passenger/cargo 14, petroleum
  tanker 16, refrigerated cargo 19, roll on/roll off 18, specialized
  tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 157 (Australia 1, Belgium 2, Denmark 9, Finland 13,
  Germany 56, Ireland 10, Netherlands Antilles 1, Norway 7, Sweden 26,
  UK 19, US 13)
  registered in other countries: 222 (Antigua and Barbuda 14,
  Australia 2, Austria 2, Bahamas 24, Canada 1, Cayman Islands 4,
  Cyprus 18, Gibraltar 5, Isle of Man 1, Liberia 29, Luxembourg 2,
  Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Netherlands Antilles 54, Norway 3,
  Panama 21, Philippines 19, Portugal 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 5, Singapore 2, UK 3, US 4, unknown 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Amsterdam, Groningen, IJmuiden, Rotterdam, Terneuzen, Vlissingen,
  Zaanstad

Military Netherlands


Military branches:
  Royal Netherlands Army, Royal Netherlands Navy (includes Naval Air
  Service and Marine Corps), Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke
  Luchtmacht, KLu), Royal Military Police, Defense Interservice
  Command (DICO) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age for an all-volunteer force (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 3,557,918
  females age 20-49: 3,470,377 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 2,856,691
  females age 20-49: 2,786,495 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 99,934
  females age 20-49: 95,818 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9.408 billion (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.6% (2004)

Transnational Issues Netherlands


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  major European producer of ecstasy, illicit amphetamines, and other
  synthetic drugs; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish
  entering Europe; major source of US-bound ecstasy; large financial
  sector vulnerable to money laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Netherlands Antilles

Introduction Netherlands Antilles


Background:
  Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade, the island of Curacao
  was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in 1863. Its prosperity
  (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in the early 20th
  century with the construction of oil refineries to service the newly
  discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of Saint Martin is
  shared with France; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten and
  is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern portion is called
  Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe (France).

Geography Netherlands Antilles


Location:
  Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean Sea - composed of
  five islands, Curacao and Bonaire located off the coast of
  Venezuela, and St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius lie east of the
  US Virgin Islands

Geographic coordinates:
  12 15 N, 68 45 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 960 sq km
  land: 960 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint
  Maarten (Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin)

Area - comparative:
  more than five times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 15 km
  border countries: Guadeloupe (Saint-Martin) 15 km

Coastline:
  364 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Climate:
  tropical; ameliorated by northeast trade winds

Terrain:
  generally hilly, volcanic interiors

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Scenery 862 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates (Curacao only), salt (Bonaire only)

Land use:
  arable land: 10%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 90% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  Curacao and Bonaire are south of Caribbean hurricane belt and are
  rarely threatened; Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius are
  subject to hurricanes from July to October

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles are divided
  geographically into the Leeward Islands (northern) group (Saba, Sint
  Eustatius, and Sint Maarten) and the Windward Islands (southern)
  group (Bonaire and Curacao)

People Netherlands Antilles


Population:
  221,736 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.9% (male 27,197/female 25,886)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 71,622/female 77,710)
  65 years and over: 8.7% (male 7,925/female 11,396) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 32.8 years
  male: 31.1 years
  female: 34.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.79% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.03 years
  male: 73.76 years
  female: 78.41 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Dutch Antillean(s)
  adjective: Dutch Antillean

Ethnic groups:
  mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East Asian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 72%, Pentecostal 4.9%, Protestant 3.5%, Seventh-Day
  Adventist 3.1%, Methodist 2.9%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.7%, other
  Christian 4.2%, Jewish 1.3%, other or unspecified 1.2%, none 5.2%
  (2001 census)

Languages:
  Papiamento 65.4% (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect),
  English 15.9% (widely spoken), Dutch 7.3% (official), Spanish 6.1%,
  Creole 1.6%, other 1.9%, unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.7%
  male: 96.7%
  female: 96.8% (2003 est.)

Government Netherlands Antilles


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Netherlands Antilles
  local long form: none
  local short form: Nederlandse Antillen
  former: Curacao and Dependencies

Dependency status:
  an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands; full
  autonomy in internal affairs granted in 1954; Dutch Government
  responsible for defense and foreign affairs

Government type:
  parliamentary

Capital:
  name: Willemstad (on Curacao)
  geographic coordinates: 12 06 N, 68 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  note: each island has its own government

Independence:
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

National holiday:
  Queen's Day (Birthday of Queen-Mother JULIANA in 1909 and accession
  to the throne of her oldest daughter BEATRIX in 1980), 30 April

Constitution:
  29 December 1954, Statute of the Realm of the Netherlands, as
  amended

Legal system:
  based on Dutch civil law system with some English common law
  influence

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX of the Netherlands (since 30 April
  1980), represented by Governor General Frits GOEDGEDRAG (since 1
  July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Emily de JONGH-ELHAGE (since 26
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the Staten (legislature)
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by
  the monarch for a six-year term; following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party is usually elected prime minister
  by the Staten; election last held 27 January 2006 (next to be held
  by 2007)
  note: government coalition - PAR, PNP, DP St. Maarten, UP Bonaire,
  WIPM Saba, DP Statia

Legislative branch:
  unicameral States or Staten (22 seats - Curacao 14, Bonaire 3, St.
  Maarten 3, St. Eustatius 1, Saba 1; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 January 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PAR 5, MAN 3, FOL 2, Forsa Korsou 2, National Alliance 2, PNP 2, UPB
  2, DP St. E 1, DP St. M 1, BDP 1, WIPM 1
  note: the government of Prime Minister Emily de JONGH-ELHAGE is a
  coalition of several parties

Judicial branch:
  Joint High Court of Justice (judges appointed by the monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Bonaire: Democratic Party of Bonaire or PDB [Jopi ABRAHAM];
  Patriotic Union of Bonaire or UPB [Ramonsito BOOI]
  Curacao: Ban Vota [Norbert GEORGE]; C-93 [Stanley BROWN]; Democratic
  Party of Curacao or DP [Errol HERNANDEZ]; E Mayoria [Aurelio PEDRO];
  Forsa Korsou [Nelson NAVARRO]; Liste Ni'un Paso Atras [Nelson
  PIERRE]; Movemiento Patriotiko Korsou [Reginald LAK]; New Antilles
  Movement or MAN [Charles COOPER]; Partido Akshon Pa Prosperidat I
  Seguridat [Sonja BERKEMEYER]; Partido Laboral Krusada Popular or
  PLKP [Errol COVA]; Party for the Restructured Antilles or PAR [Emily
  de JONGH-ELHAGE]; People's National Party or PNP [Ersilia DE
  LANNOOY]; Pidjin [Jasmin PINEDO]; Pueblo Soberano [Herman WIELS];
  Workers' Liberation Front or FOL [Anthony GODETT]
  Saba: Saba Labor Party [Akilah LEVENSTONE]; Windward Islands
  People's Movement or WIPM [Ray HASSELL]
  Sint Eustatius: Democratic Party of Sint Eustatius or DP-St. E
  [Julian WOODLEY]; Progressive Labor Party [Clyde VAN PUTTEN]; St.
  Eustatius Alliance [Ingrid HOUTMAN-WHITFIELD]
  Sint Maarten: Democratic Party of Sint Maarten or DP-St. M [Sarah
  WESCOTT-WILLIAMS]; Freedom Slate of National Democratic Party
  [Theophilus PRIEST]; National Alliance or NA [William MARLIN];
  People's Progressive Alliance or PPA [Gracita ARRINDELL]; St.
  Maarten People's Party [Johan LEONARD]; United People's Labor Party
  [Bienvenido RICHARDSON]
  note: political parties are indigenous to each island

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Unions (AVBO) and Employers Association (VBC)

International organization participation:
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, UNESCO (associate), UPU, WCL, WCO, WMO,
  WToO (associate)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (represented by the Kingdom of the Netherlands); note - Mr.
  Jeffrey CORRION, Minister Plenipotentiary for Aruba at the Embassy
  of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Consul General Robert E. SORENSON
  consulate(s) general: J. B. Gorsiraweg #1, Willemstad, Curacao
  mailing address: P. O. Box 158, Willemstad, Curacao
  telephone: [599] (9) 4613066
  FAX: [599] (9) 4616489

Flag description:
  white, with a horizontal blue stripe in the center superimposed on
  a vertical red band, also centered; five white, five-pointed stars
  are arranged in an oval pattern in the center of the blue band; the
  five stars represent the five main islands of Bonaire, Curacao,
  Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten

Economy Netherlands Antilles


Economy - overview:
  Tourism, petroleum refining, and offshore finance are the mainstays
  of this small economy, which is closely tied to the outside world.
  Although GDP has declined or grown slightly in each of the past
  eight years, the islands enjoy a high per capita income and a
  well-developed infrastructure compared with other countries in the
  region. Almost all consumer and capital goods are imported, the US
  and Mexico being the major suppliers. Poor soils and inadequate
  water supplies hamper the development of agriculture. Budgetary
  problems hamper reform of the health and pension systems of an aging
  population.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.8 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $16,000 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 15%
  services: 84% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  83,600 (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 20%
  services: 79% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  17% (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $757.9 million
  expenditures: $949.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  aloes, sorghum, peanuts, vegetables, tropical fruit

Industries:
  tourism (Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire), petroleum refining
  (Curacao), petroleum transshipment facilities (Curacao and Bonaire),
  light manufacturing (Curacao)

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.017 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  945.8 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  72,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $2.076 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum products

Exports - partners:
  US 29.4%, Panama 14.4%, Mexico 8.8%, Haiti 5.6%, Venezuela 4.9%,
  Bahamas, The 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.383 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  crude petroleum, food, manufactures

Imports - partners:
  Venezuela 52.3%, US 21.4%, Italy 4.9%, Netherlands 4.6% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $2.68 billion (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $21.5 million IMF provided $61 million in 2000, and the Netherlands
  continued its support with $40 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG)

Currency code:
  ANG

Exchange rates:
  Netherlands Antillean guilders per US dollar - 1.79 (2005), 1.79
  (2004), 1.79 (2003), 1.79 (2002), 1.79 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Netherlands Antilles


Telephones - main lines in use:
  81,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  200,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: generally adequate facilities
  domestic: extensive interisland microwave radio relay links
  international: country code - 599; submarine cables - 2; satellite
  earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 19, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  217,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (there is also a cable service, which supplies programs received
  from various US satellite networks and four Venezuelan channels)
  (2004)

Televisions:
  69,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .an

Internet hosts:
  19,204 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6

Internet users:
  2,000 (2000)

Transportation Netherlands Antilles


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 152 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,289,462 GRT/1,671,649 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 13, cargo 68, chemical tanker
  3, container 19, liquefied gas 4, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3,
  petroleum tanker 2, refrigerated cargo 28, roll on/roll off 4,
  specialized tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 143 (Belgium 4, Cuba 1, Denmark 1, Germany 60,
  Netherlands 54, Norway 5, Sweden 5, Turkey 9, UK 3, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Netherlands 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bopec Terminal, Fuik Bay, Kralendijk, Willemstad

Military Netherlands Antilles


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; National Guard, Police Force (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for National Guard recruitment; no conscription
  (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 54,200
  females age 16-49: 56,868 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 45,273
  females age 16-49: 47,166 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,720
  females age 16-49: 1,657 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Transnational Issues Netherlands Antilles


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American drugs bound for the US and
  Europe; money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@New Caledonia

Introduction New Caledonia


Background:
  Settled by both Britain and France during the first half of the
  19th century, the island was made a French possession in 1853. It
  served as a penal colony for four decades after 1864. Agitation for
  independence during the 1980s and early 1990s ended in the 1998
  Noumea Accord, which over a period of 15 to 20 years will transfer
  an increasing amount of governing responsibility from France to New
  Caledonia. The agreement also commits France to conduct as many as
  three referenda between 2013 and 2018, to decide whether New
  Caledonia should assume full sovereignty and independence.

Geography New Caledonia


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  21 30 S, 165 30 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 19,060 sq km
  land: 18,575 sq km
  water: 485 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  2,254 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; modified by southeast trade winds; hot, humid

Terrain:
  coastal plains with interior mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Panie 1,628 m

Natural resources:
  nickel, chrome, iron, cobalt, manganese, silver, gold, lead, copper

Land use:
  arable land: 0.32%
  permanent crops: 0.22%
  other: 99.46% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  100 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  cyclones, most frequent from November to March

Environment - current issues:
  erosion caused by mining exploitation and forest fires

Geography - note:
  consists of the main island of New Caledonia (one of the largest in
  the Pacific Ocean), the archipelago of Iles Loyaute, and numerous
  small, sparsely populated islands and atolls

People New Caledonia


Population:
  219,246 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 28.4% (male 31,818/female 30,503)
  15-64 years: 64.9% (male 71,565/female 70,815)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 6,773/female 7,772) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.4 years
  female: 28.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.24% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.69 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there has been steady emigration from Wallis and Futuna to New
  Caledonia (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.57 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.27 years
  male: 71.29 years
  female: 77.39 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: New Caledonian(s)
  adjective: New Caledonian

Ethnic groups:
  Melanesian 42.5%, European 37.1%, Wallisian 8.4%, Polynesian 3.8%,
  Indonesian 3.6%, Vietnamese 1.6%, other 3%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 60%, Protestant 30%, other 10%

Languages:
  French (official), 33 Melanesian-Polynesian dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91%
  male: 92%
  female: 90% (1976 est.)

Government New Caledonia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies
  conventional short form: New Caledonia
  local long form: Territoire des Nouvelle-Caledonie et Dependances
  local short form: Nouvelle-Caledonie

Dependency status:
  territorial collectivity of France since 1998

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Noumea
  geographic coordinates: 22 16 S, 166 27 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of France); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are 3 provinces named Iles Loyaute, Nord, and Sud

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of France); note - a referendum on
  independence was held in 1998 but did not pass; a new referendum is
  scheduled for 2014

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  the 1988 Matignon Accords grant substantial autonomy to the
  islands; formerly under French law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President of France Jacques CHIRAC (since 17 May
  1995), represented by High Commissioner Michel MATHIEU (since 15
  July 2005)
  head of government: President of the Government Marie-Noelle
  THEMEREAU (since 10 June 2004)
  cabinet: Consultative Committee consists of eight members chosen
  from leading figures on the island to advise the High Commissioner
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high commissioner appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of Interior; president of the
  government elected by the members of the Territorial Congress for a
  five-year term (no term limits); note - last election held 29 June
  2004 when Marie-Noelle THEMEREAU was elected on the third vote with
  8 votes for and 3 abstentions

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Territorial Congress or Congres Territorial (54 seats;
  members belong to the three Provincial Assemblies or Assemblees
  Provinciales elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 May 2004 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  RPCR-UMP 16, AE 16, UNI-FLNKS 8, UC 7, FN 4, others 3
  note: New Caledonia currently holds 1 seat in the French Senate; by
  2010, New Caledonia will gain a second seat in the French Senate;
  elections last held 24 September 2001 (next to be held not later
  than September 2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats
  by party - UMP 1; New Caledonia also elects 2 seats to the French
  National Assembly; elections last held 9 and 16 June 2002 (next to
  be held by June 2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - UMP 2

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; County Courts; Joint Commerce
  Tribunal Court; Children's Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance pour la Caledonie or APLC [Didier LE ROUX]; Caledonian
  Union or UC; Federation des Comites de Coordination des
  Independantistes or FCCI [Francois BURCK]; Front National or FN [Guy
  GEORGE]; Front Uni de Liberation Kanak or FULK [Ernest UNE]; Kanak
  Socialist Front for National Liberation or FLNKS [leader NA]
  (includes PALIKA, UNI, UC, and UPM); Parti de Liberation Kanak or
  PALIKA [Paul NEAOUTYINE and Elie POIGOUNE]; Rally for Caledonia in
  the Republic (anti independent) or RPCR-UMP [Jacques LAFLEUR]; The
  Future Together or AE [Harold MARTIN]; Union Nationale pour
  l'Independance or UNI [Paul NEAOUTYINE]; note - may no longer exist,
  but Paul NEAOUTYINE has since become a president of Parti de
  Liberation Kanak or PALIKA; Union Progressiste Melanesienne or UPM
  [Victor TUTUGORO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ICFTU, PIF (observer), SPC, UPU, WFTU, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Flag description:
  the flag of France is used

Economy New Caledonia


Economy - overview:
  New Caledonia has about 25% of the world's known nickel resources.
  Only a small amount of the land is suitable for cultivation, and
  food accounts for about 20% of imports. In addition to nickel,
  substantial financial support from France - equal to more than
  one-fourth of GDP - and tourism are keys to the health of the
  economy. Substantial new investment in the nickel industry, combined
  with the recovery of global nickel prices, brightens the economic
  outlook for the next several years.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $3.158 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $15,000 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 8.8%
  services: 76.2% (1997 est.)

Labor force:
  78,990 (including 11,300 unemployed) (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 20%
  services: 60% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  17.1% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.6% (2000 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $856.3 million
  expenditures: $836.5 million (1996 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables; beef, deer, other livestock products; fish

Industries:
  nickel mining and smelting

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.6% (1996)

Electricity - production:
  1.581 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 76.3%
  hydro: 23.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.47 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $999 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  ferronickels, nickel ore, fish

Exports - partners:
  Japan 21.4%, France 16%, Taiwan 11.4%, South Korea 10.1%, Spain 9%,
  China 7.2%, South Africa 5.2%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.636 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  France 39%, Singapore 17.4%, Australia 13%, NZ 5.3% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $79 million (1998 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $525 million annual subsidy from France (2004)

Currency (code):
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

Currency code:
  XPF

Exchange rates:
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per US dollar - 95.89
  (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71 (2002), 133.26 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications New Caledonia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  55,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  134,300 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 687; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  107,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 (plus 25 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  52,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .nc

Internet hosts:
  13,962 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  76,000 (2005)

Transportation New Caledonia


Airports:
  25 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Heliports:
  6 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 5,432 km (2000)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,566 GRT/2,543 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Noumea

Military New Caledonia


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; French Armed Forces
  (includes Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie); Police Force

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 50,874 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 40,822 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,907 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues New Caledonia


Disputes - international:
  Matthew and Hunter Islands east of New Caledonia claimed by France
  and Vanuatu


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@New Zealand

Introduction New Zealand


Background:
  The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In
  1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the
  Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen
  Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the
  British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of
  land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native
  peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent
  dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars.
  New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances
  lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to
  address longstanding Maori grievances.

Geography New Zealand


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  41 00 S, 174 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 268,680 sq km
  land: 268,021 sq km
  water: NA
  note: includes Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands,
  Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands

Area - comparative:
  about the size of Colorado

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  15,134 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  temperate with sharp regional contrasts

Terrain:
  predominately mountainous with some large coastal plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Aoraki-Mount Cook 3,754 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, iron ore, sand, coal, timber, hydropower, gold,
  limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 5.54%
  permanent crops: 6.92%
  other: 87.54% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,850 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes are common, though usually not severe; volcanic activity

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; native flora and fauna hard-hit by
  invasive species

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Antarctic Seals, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  about 80% of the population lives in cities; Wellington is the
  southernmost national capital in the world

People New Zealand


Population:
  4,076,140 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 21.1% (male 439,752/female 419,174)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 1,374,850/female 1,361,570)
  65 years and over: 11.8% (male 210,365/female 270,429) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 33.9 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 34.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.99% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.63 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.81 years
  male: 75.82 years
  female: 81.93 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,400 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: New Zealander(s)
  adjective: New Zealand

Ethnic groups:
  European 69.8%, Maori 7.9%, Asian 5.7%, Pacific islander 4.4%,
  other 0.5%, mixed 7.8%, unspecified 3.8% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Anglican 14.9%, Roman Catholic 12.4%, Presbyterian 10.9%, Methodist
  2.9%, Pentecostal 1.7%, Baptist 1.3%, other Christian 9.4%, other
  3.3%, unspecified 17.2%, none 26% (2001 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Maori (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government New Zealand


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: New Zealand
  abbreviation: NZ

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Wellington
  geographic coordinates: 41 28 S, 174 51 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in October; ends
  third Sunday in March
  note: New Zealand is divided into two time zones, including Chatham
  Island

Administrative divisions:
  16 regions and 1 territory*; Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury,
  Chatham Islands*, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu-Wanganui,
  Marlborough, Nelson, Northland, Otago, Southland, Taranaki, Tasman,
  Waikato, Wellington, West Coast

Dependent areas:
  Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau

Independence:
  26 September 1907 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British sovereignty
  over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Constitution:
  consists of a series of legal documents, including certain acts of
  the UK and New Zealand Parliaments, as well as The Constitution Act
  1986, which is the principal formal charter; adopted 1 January 1987,
  effective 1 January 1987

Legal system:
  based on English law, with special land legislation and land courts
  for the Maori; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Anand SATYANAND (since 23 August
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Helen CLARK (since 10 December
  1999) and Deputy Prime Minister Michael CULLEN (since NA July 2002)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor general on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Representatives - commonly called Parliament
  (120 seats; 69 members elected by popular vote in single-member
  constituencies including seven Maori constituencies, and 51
  proportional seats chosen from party lists, all to serve three-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 17 September 2005 (next to be held not later
  than 15 November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NZLP 41.1%, NP 39.1%,
  NZFP 5.72%, Green Party 5.3%, Maori 2.12%, UF 2.67%, ACT New Zealand
  1.51%, Progressive 1.16%; seats by party - NZLP 50, NP 48, NZFP 7,
  Green Party 6, Maori 4, UF 3, ACT New Zealand 2, Progressive 1
  note: results of 2005 election saw the total number of seats
  increase to 121 because the Maori Party won one more electorate seat
  than its entitlement under the party vote

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; High Court; note - Judges appointed
  by the Governor-General

Political parties and leaders:
  ACT New Zealand [Rodney HIDE]; Green Party [Jeanette FITZSIMONS];
  Maori Party [Whatarangi WINIATA]; National Party or NP [Don BRASH];
  New Zealand First Party or NZFP [Winston PETERS]; New Zealand Labor
  Party or NZLP [Helen CLARK]; Progressive Party [James (Jim)
  ANDERTON]; United Future or UF [Peter DUNNE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ANZUS (US suspended security obligations to NZ on 11 August 1986),
  APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, C,
  CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, NAM (guest), NSG, OECD, OPCW, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roy N. FERGUSON
  chancery: 37 Observatory Circle NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-4800
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-5227
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William P. McCORMICK
  embassy: 29 Fitzherbert Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1190, Wellington; PSC 467, Box 1, APO AP
  96531-1034
  telephone: [64] (4) 462-6000
  FAX: [64] (4) 499-0490
  consulate(s) general: Auckland

Flag description:
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant with
  four red five-pointed stars edged in white centered in the outer
  half of the flag; the stars represent the Southern Cross
  constellation

Economy New Zealand


Economy - overview:
  Over the past 20 years the government has transformed New Zealand
  from an agrarian economy dependent on concessionary British market
  access to a more industrialized, free market economy that can
  compete globally. This dynamic growth has boosted real incomes (but
  left behind many at the bottom of the ladder), broadened and
  deepened the technological capabilities of the industrial sector,
  and contained inflationary pressures. Per capita income has risen
  for six consecutive years and was more than $24,000 in 2005 in
  purchasing power parity terms. New Zealand is heavily dependent on
  trade - particularly in agricultural products - to drive growth.
  Exports are equal to about 22% of GDP. Thus far the economy has been
  resilient, and the Labor Government promises that expenditures on
  health, education, and pensions will increase proportionately to
  output.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $102 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $94.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $25,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4.3%
  industry: 27.3%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.13 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 25%
  services: 65% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA
  highest 10%: NA (1991 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.2 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $43.1 billion
  expenditures: $37.57 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, potatoes, pulses, fruits, vegetables; wool, beef,
  lamb and mutton, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  food processing, wood and paper products, textiles, machinery,
  transportation equipment, banking and insurance, tourism, mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  -2.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  39.82 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 31.6%
  hydro: 57.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 10.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  37.03 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  31,740 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  151,900 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  30,220 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  119,700 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  89.62 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  4.773 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  4.773 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  37.38 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-9.688 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $22.21 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  dairy products, meat, wood and wood products, fish, machinery

Exports - partners:
  Australia 21.4%, US 14.1%, Japan 10.6%, China 5.1%, UK 4.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $24.57 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, vehicles and aircraft, petroleum,
  electronics, textiles, plastics

Imports - partners:
  Australia 20.9%, US 11%, Japan 11%, China 10.9%, Germany 4.9% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.893 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $42.84 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $99.7 million

Currency (code):
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:
  NZD

Exchange rates:
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004),
  1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications New Zealand


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,800,500 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  3.53 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international systems
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 64; submarine cables to Australia and
  Fiji; 8 satellite earth stations - 1 InMarSat (Pacific Ocean), 7
  other

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 124, FM 290, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  3.75 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  41 (plus 52 medium-power repeaters and over 650 low-power
  repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  1.926 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .nz

Internet hosts:
  1,050,197 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  36 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.2 million (2005)

Transportation New Zealand


Airports:
  118 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 45
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 27
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 73
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 40 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 224 km; gas 1,693 km; liquid petroleum gas 45 km; oil
  280 km; refined products 288 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,128 km
  narrow gauge: 4,128 km 1.067-m gauge (506 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 92,662 km
  paved: 59,109 km (including 169 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 33,553 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 136,361 GRT/124,972 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 1, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 2, Germany 1, Isle of Man 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Cook
  Islands 1, Dominica 4, France 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Auckland, Lyttelton, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangarei

Military New Zealand


Military branches:
  New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF): New Zealand Army, Royal New
  Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be
  deployed until the age of 18 (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 984,700
  females age 17-49: 965,170 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 809,519
  females age 17-49: 802,069 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,738
  females age 17-49: 28,523 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.147 billion (FY03/04)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (FY02)

Transnational Issues New Zealand


Disputes - international:
  asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross Dependency) [see
  Antarctica]


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Nicaragua

Introduction Nicaragua


Background:
  The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish colony from
  Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from Spain was
  declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in
  1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the
  19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in
  subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation
  and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a
  short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas
  to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist rebels in El Salvador
  caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista contra guerrillas through
  much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990, 1996, and 2001, saw the
  Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006 announced the return of
  former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra. Nicaragua's
  infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the earlier civil war and
  by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being rebuilt.

Geography Nicaragua


Location:
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

Geographic coordinates:
  13 00 N, 85 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 129,494 sq km
  land: 120,254 sq km
  water: 9,240 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than the state of New York

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,231 km
  border countries: Costa Rica 309 km, Honduras 922 km

Coastline:
  910 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: natural prolongation

Climate:
  tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands

Terrain:
  extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior
  mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mogoton 2,438 m

Natural resources:
  gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 14.81%
  permanent crops: 1.82%
  other: 83.37% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  610 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides; extremely
  susceptible to hurricanes

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  largest country in Central America; contains the largest freshwater
  body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua

People Nicaragua


Population:
  5,570,129 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 36.4% (male 1,031,897/female 994,633)
  15-64 years: 60.5% (male 1,677,633/female 1,691,353)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 76,758/female 97,855) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.9 years
  male: 20.5 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.89% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.51 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.11 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.63 years
  male: 68.55 years
  female: 72.81 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  6,400 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Nicaraguan(s)
  adjective: Nicaraguan

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black 9%,
  Amerindian 5%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 72.9%, Evangelical 15.1%, Moravian 1.5%, Episcopal
  0.1%, other 1.9%, none 8.5% (1995 census)

Languages:
  Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census)
  note: English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 67.5%
  male: 67.2%
  female: 67.8% (2003 est.)

Government Nicaragua


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Nicaragua
  conventional short form: Nicaragua
  local long form: Republica de Nicaragua
  local short form: Nicaragua

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Managua
  geographic coordinates: 12 09 N, 86 17 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  15 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 2
  autonomous regions* (regiones autonomistas, singular - region
  autonomista); Atlantico Norte*, Atlantico Sur*, Boaco, Carazo,
  Chinandega, Chontales, Esteli, Granada, Jinotega, Leon, Madriz,
  Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rio San Juan, Rivas

Independence:
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Constitution:
  9 January 1987; reforms in 1995 and 2000

Legal system:
  civil law system; Supreme Court may review administrative acts;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  16 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Enrique BOLANOS Geyer (since 10 January
  2002); Vice President Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo (since 10 October 2005);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government;
  Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo was elected Vice President by the deputies of
  the National Assembly after Vice President Jose RIZO Castellon
  resigned on 27 September 2005
  head of government: President Enrique BOLANOS Geyer (since 10
  January 2002); Vice President Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo (since 10 October
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 5 November 2006 (next to be held by November 2011)
  election results: Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra (FSLN) elected president -
  38.07%, Eduardo MONTEALEGRE (ALN) 29%, Jose RIZO (PLC) 26.21%,
  Edmundo JARQUIN (MRS) 6.44%; note - ORTEGA will take office 10
  January 2007

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (92 seats;
  members are elected by proportional representation and party lists
  to serve five-year terms; 1 seat for the previous president, 1 seat
  for the runner-up in previous presidential election)
  elections: last held 5 November 2006 (next to be held by November
  2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  FSLN 38, PLC 25, ALN 23 (22 plus one for presidential candidate
  Eduardo MONTEALEGRE, runner-up in the 2006 presidential election),
  MRS 5, APRE 1 (outgoing President Enrique BOLANOS)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (16 judges elected for five-year
  terms by the National Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for the Republic or APRE [Miguel LOPEZ Baldizon]; Central
  American Unionist Party or PUCA [Blanca ROJAS]; Christian
  Alternative Party or AC [Orlando TARDENCILLA Espinoza]; Conservative
  Party or PC [Mario Sebastian RAPPACCIOLI]; Independent Liberal Party
  or PLI [Anibal MARTINEZ Nunez, Pedro REYES Vallejos]; Independent
  Liberal Party for National Unity or PLIUN [Carlos GUERRA Gallardo];
  Liberal Constitutional Party or PLC [Jorge CASTILLO Quant]; Liberal
  Salvation Movement or MSL [Eliseo NUNEZ Hernandez]; New Liberal
  Party or PALI [Adolfo GARCIA Esquivel]; Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance
  or ALN [Eduardo MONTEALEGRE]; Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path
  or PCCN [Guillermo OSORNO Molina]; Nicaraguan Resistance Party or
  PRN [Salvador TALAVERA]; Sandinista National Liberation Front or
  FSLN [Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra]; Sandinista Renovation Movement or MRS
  [Dora Maria TELLEZ]; Unity Alliance or AU

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  National Workers Front or FNT is a Sandinista umbrella group of
  eight labor unions including - Farm Workers Association or ATC,
  Health Workers Federation or FETASALUD, Heroes and Martyrs
  Confederation of Professional Associations or CONAPRO, National
  Association of Educators of Nicaragua or ANDEN, National Union of
  Employees or UNE, National Union of Farmers and Ranchers or UNAG,
  Sandinista Workers Central or CST, and Union of Journalists of
  Nicaragua or UPN; Permanent Congress of Workers or CPT is an
  umbrella group of four non-Sandinista labor unions including -
  Autonomous Nicaraguan Workers Central or CTN-A, Confederation of
  Labor Unification or CUS, Independent General Confederation of Labor
  or CGT-I, and Labor Action and Unity Central or CAUS; Nicaraguan
  Workers' Central or CTN is an independent labor union; Superior
  Council of Private Enterprise or COSEP is a confederation of
  business groups

International organization participation:
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL,
  OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Salvador STADTHAGEN
  chancery: 1627 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6570, [1] (202) 939-6573
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-6545
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San
  Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Paul A. TRIVELLI
  embassy: Kilometer 4.5 Carretera Sur, Managua
  mailing address: P.O. Box 327
  telephone: [505] 266-6010
  FAX: [505] 266-3861

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue with
  the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of
  arms features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE
  NICARAGUA on the top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; similar to
  the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by
  the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in
  the white band; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five
  blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band

Economy Nicaragua


Economy - overview:
  Nicaragua, one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest countries, has
  low per capita income, widespread underemployment, and a heavy
  external debt burden. Distribution of income is one of the most
  unequal on the globe. While the country has progressed toward
  macroeconomic stability in the past few years, GDP annual growth has
  been far too low to meet the country's needs, forcing the country to
  rely on international economic assistance to meet fiscal and debt
  financing obligations. Nicaragua qualified in early 2004 for some
  $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the Heavily Indebted
  Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative because of its earlier successful
  performances under its International Monetary Fund policy program
  and other efforts. In October 2005, Nicaragua ratified the
  US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which will provide
  an opportunity for Nicaragua to attract investment, create jobs, and
  deepen economic development. High oil prices helped drive inflation
  to 9.6% in 2005, leading to a fall in real GDP growth to 4% from
  over 5% in 2004.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $16.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.03 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.5%
  industry: 27.5%
  services: 56% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.01 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 30.5%
  industry: 17.3%
  services: 52.2% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.6% plus underemployment of 46.5% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 45% (2001)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  55.1 (2001)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  27% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.134 billion
  expenditures: $1.358 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  82.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco, sesame,
  soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products; shrimp,
  lobsters

Industries:
  food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products, textiles,
  clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages, footwear,
  wood

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.887 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 83.9%
  hydro: 7.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 8.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.848 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  21.8 million kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  23.3 million kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  14,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  25,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  758.9 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  15,560 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-835 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.55 billion f.o.b.; note - includes free trade zones (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, tobacco, sugar, gold, peanuts

Exports - partners:
  US 60.7%, Mexico 8.6%, El Salvador 6.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.865 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, petroleum
  products

Imports - partners:
  US 19.6%, Mexico 10.3%, Venezuela 9.5%, Costa Rica 8.5%, Guatemala
  6.7%, El Salvador 4.5%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $727.8 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.188 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $419.5 million (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  gold cordoba (NIO)

Currency code:
  NIO

Exchange rates:
  gold cordobas per US dollar - 16.733 (2005), 15.937 (2004), 15.105
  (2003), 14.251 (2002), 13.372 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Nicaragua


Telephones - main lines in use:
  220,900 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.119 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: inadequate system being upgraded by foreign
  investment
  domestic: low-capacity microwave radio relay and wire system being
  expanded; connected to Central American Microwave System
  international: country code - 505; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) and 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 63, FM 32, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  1.24 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  320,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ni

Internet hosts:
  24,452 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  140,000 (2005)

Transportation Nicaragua


Airports:
  176 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 165
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 141 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 54 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 6 km
  narrow gauge: 6 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 19,036 km
  paved: 2,299 km
  unpaved: 16,737 km (2005)

Waterways:
  2,220 km (including lakes Managua and Nicaragua) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Bluefields, Corinto, El Bluff

Military Nicaragua


Military branches:
  Army (includes Navy, Air Force)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,309,970
  females age 17-49: 1,315,186 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 1,051,425
  females age 17-49: 1,129,649 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 65,170
  females age 17-49: 63,133 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $32.27 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Nicaragua


Disputes - international:
  Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and against
  Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary
  involving 50,000 sq km in the Caribbean Sea, including the
  Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; the
  1992 ICJ ruling for El Salvador and Honduras advised a tripartite
  resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca,
  which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; legal dispute over
  navigational rights of San Juan River on border with Costa Rica

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US and
  transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Niger

Introduction Niger


Background:
  Niger became independent from France in 1960 and experienced
  single-party and military rule until 1991, when Gen. Ali SAIBOU was
  forced by public pressure to allow multiparty elections, which
  resulted in a democratic government in 1993. Political infighting
  brought the government to a standstill and in 1996 led to a coup by
  Col. Ibrahim BARE. In 1999 BARE was killed in a coup by military
  officers who promptly restored democratic rule and held elections
  that brought Mamadou TANDJA to power in December of that year.
  TANDJA was reelected in 2004. Niger is one of the poorest countries
  in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds
  to develop its resource base. The largely agrarian and
  subsistence-based economy is frequently disrupted by extended
  droughts common to the Sahel region of Africa.

Geography Niger


Location:
  Western Africa, southeast of Algeria

Geographic coordinates:
  16 00 N, 8 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1.267 million sq km
  land: 1,266,700 sq km
  water: 300 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,697 km
  border countries: Algeria 956 km, Benin 266 km, Burkina Faso 628 km,
  Chad 1,175 km, Libya 354 km, Mali 821 km, Nigeria 1,497 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south

Terrain:
  predominately desert plains and sand dunes; flat to rolling plains
  in south; hills in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Niger River 200 m
  highest point: Mont Bagzane 2,022 m

Natural resources:
  uranium, coal, iron ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum, gypsum,
  salt, petroleum

Land use:
  arable land: 11.43%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 88.56% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  730 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring droughts

Environment - current issues:
  overgrazing; soil erosion; deforestation; desertification; wildlife
  populations (such as elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, and lion)
  threatened because of poaching and habitat destruction

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; one of the hottest countries in the world; northern
  four-fifths is desert, southern one-fifth is savanna, suitable for
  livestock and limited agriculture

People Niger


Population:
  12,525,094 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.9% (male 2,994,022/female 2,882,273)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 3,262,114/female 3,083,522)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 150,982/female 152,181) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.5 years
  female: 16.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.92% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  50.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  20.91 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.99 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 118.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 122.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 114.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 43.76 years
  male: 43.8 years
  female: 43.73 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  70,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  4,800 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Nigerien(s)
  adjective: Nigerien

Ethnic groups:
  Hausa 56%, Djerma 22%, Fula 8.5%, Tuareg 8%, Beri Beri (Kanouri)
  4.3%, Arab, Toubou, and Gourmantche 1.2%, about 1,200 French
  expatriates

Religions:
  Muslim 80%, remainder indigenous beliefs and Christian

Languages:
  French (official), Hausa, Djerma

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 17.6%
  male: 25.8%
  female: 9.7% (2003 est.)

Government Niger


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Niger
  conventional short form: Niger
  local long form: Republique du Niger
  local short form: Niger

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Niamey
  geographic coordinates: 13 31 N, 2 07 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  8 regions (regions, singular - region) includes 1 capital district*
  (communite urbaine); Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi, Niamey*, Tahoua,
  Tillaberi, Zinder

Independence:
  3 August 1960 (from France)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 18 December (1958)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 18 July 1999

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mamadou TANDJA (since 22 December 1999);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Mamadou TANDJA (since 22 December
  1999); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government; Prime Minister Hama AMADOU (since 31 December 1999) was
  appointed by the president and shares some executive
  responsibilities with the president
  cabinet: 26-member Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); second round last held 4 December 2004
  (next to be held December 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Mamadou TANDJA reelected president; percent of
  vote - Mamadou TANDJA 65.5%, Mahamadou ISSOUFOU 34.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (113 seats; note - expanded from 83
  seats; members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: last held 4 December 2004 (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  MNSD 47, CDS 22, PNDS 25, RSD 7, RDP 6, ANDP 5, PSDN 1

Judicial branch:
  State Court or Cour d'Etat; Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic and Social Convention-Rahama or CDS-Rahama [Mahamane
  OUSMANE]; National Movement for a Developing Society-Nassara or
  MNSD-Nassara [Hama AMADOU]; Niger Social Democratic Party or PSDN;
  Nigerien Alliance for Democracy and Social Progress-Zaman Lahiya or
  ANDP-Zaman Lahiya [Moumouni DJERMAKOYE]; Nigerien Party for Autonomy
  or PNA-Alouma'a [Sanousi JACKOU]; Nigerien Party for Democracy and
  Socialism or PNDS-Tarrayya [Issifou MAHAMADOU]; Nigerien Progressive
  Party or PPN-RDA [Abdoulaye DIORI]; Rally for Democracy and Progress
  or RDP-jama'a [Hamid ALGABID]; Social and Democratic Rally or
  RSD-Gaskiyya [Cheiffou AMADOU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Coalition Against a High Cost of Living [Nouhou ARZIKA]

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MONUC, NAM, OIC,
  OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WADB
  (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aminata Maiga Djibrilla TOURE
  chancery: 2204 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4224 through 4227
  FAX: [1] (202)483-3169

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernadette M. ALLEN
  embassy: Rue Des Ambassades, Niamey
  mailing address: B. P. 11201, Niamey
  telephone: [227] 73 31 69
  FAX: [227] 73 55 60

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with
  a small orange disk (representing the sun) centered in the white
  band; similar to the flag of India, which has a blue spoked wheel
  centered in the white band

Economy Niger


Economy - overview:
  Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking last on
  the United Nations Development Fund index of human development. It
  is a landlocked, Sub-Saharan nation, whose economy centers on
  subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's largest
  uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 2.9% population
  growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium have undercut
  the economy. Niger shares a common currency, the CFA franc, and a
  common central bank, the Central Bank of West African States
  (BCEAO), with seven other members of the West African Monetary
  Union. In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt relief
  under the International Monetary Fund program for Highly Indebted
  Poor Countries (HIPC) and concluded an agreement with the Fund on a
  Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Debt relief provided
  under the enhanced HIPC initiative significantly reduces Niger's
  annual debt service obligations, freeing funds for expenditures on
  basic health care, primary education, HIV/AIDS prevention, rural
  infrastructure, and other programs geared at poverty reduction. In
  December 2005, it was announced that Niger had received 100%
  multilateral debt relief from the IMF, which translates into the
  forgiveness of approximately $86 million USD in debts to the IMF,
  excluding the remaining assistance under HIPC. Nearly half of the
  government's budget is derived from foreign donor resources. Future
  growth may be sustained by exploitation of oil, gold, coal, and
  other mineral resources. Uranium prices have recovered somewhat in
  the last few years. A drought and locust infestation in 2005 led to
  food shortages for as many as 2.5 million Nigerians.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $11.59 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $3.432 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 39%
  industry: 17%
  services: 44% (2001)

Labor force:
  70,000 salaried workers, 60% of whom are employed in the public
  sector (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 90%
  industry: 6%
  services: 4%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  63% (1993 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 35.4% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  50.5 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.2% (2004 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $320 million - including $134 million from foreign sources
  expenditures: $320 million; including capital expenditures of $178
  million (2002 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cowpeas, cotton, peanuts, millet, sorghum, cassava (tapioca), rice;
  cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, horses, poultry

Industries:
  uranium mining, cement, brick, soap, textiles, food processing,
  chemicals, slaughterhouses

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.1% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  230 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  263.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  50 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  5,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $222 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas, onions

Exports - partners:
  France 47.8%, Nigeria 21.4%, US 20.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $588 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery, vehicles and parts, petroleum, cereals

Imports - partners:
  France 14.5%, US 10.7%, French Polynesia 7.5%, Nigeria 7.4%, Italy
  6.7%, Cote d'Ivoire 5.1%, Belgium 4.6%, Germany 4.5%, China 4.5%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $2.1 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $453.3 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States (BCEAO)

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Niger


Telephones - main lines in use:
  24,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  299,900 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: small system of wire, radio telephone
  communications, and microwave radio relay links concentrated in the
  southwestern area of Niger
  domestic: wire, radiotelephone communications, and microwave radio
  relay; domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations and 1 planned
  international: country code - 227; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM 6, shortwave 4 (2001)

Radios:
  680,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (2002)

Televisions:
  125,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ne

Internet hosts:
  189 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  24,000 (2005)

Transportation Niger


Airports:
  28 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 10,100 km
  paved: 798 km
  unpaved: 9,302 km (1999)

Waterways:
  300 km (the Niger, the only major river, is navigable to Gaya
  between September and March) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  none

Military Niger


Military branches:
  Nigerien Armed Forces (Forces Armees Nigeriennes, FAN): Army,
  National Air Force (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,367,828
  females age 18-49: 2,217,568 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,349,863
  females age 18-49: 1,256,569 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 129,045
  females age 18-49: 121,230 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $44.78 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Niger


Disputes - international:
  Libya claims about 25,000 sq km in a currently dormant dispute;
  much of Benin-Niger boundary, including tripoint with Nigeria,
  remains undemarcated; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake
  Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty which
  also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Nigeria

Introduction Nigeria


Background:
  British influence and control over what would become Nigeria grew
  through the 19th century. A series of constitutions after World War
  II granted Nigeria greater autonomy; independence came in 1960.
  Following nearly 16 years of military rule, a new constitution was
  adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government
  was completed. The president faces the daunting task of reforming a
  petroleum-based economy, whose revenues have been squandered through
  corruption and mismanagement, and institutionalizing democracy. In
  addition, the OBASANJO administration must defuse longstanding
  ethnic and religious tensions, if it is to build a sound foundation
  for economic growth and political stability. Although the April 2003
  elections were marred by some irregularities, Nigeria is currently
  experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence.

Geography Nigeria


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin and
  Cameroon

Geographic coordinates:
  10 00 N, 8 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 923,768 sq km
  land: 910,768 sq km
  water: 13,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,047 km
  border countries: Benin 773 km, Cameroon 1,690 km, Chad 87 km, Niger
  1,497 km

Coastline:
  853 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  varies; equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in north

Terrain:
  southern lowlands merge into central hills and plateaus; mountains
  in southeast, plains in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Chappal Waddi 2,419 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium,
  lead, zinc, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 33.02%
  permanent crops: 3.14%
  other: 63.84% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,820 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; flooding

Environment - current issues:
  soil degradation; rapid deforestation; urban air and water
  pollution; desertification; oil pollution - water, air, and soil;
  has suffered serious damage from oil spills; loss of arable land;
  rapid urbanization

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the Niger enters the country in the northwest and flows southward
  through tropical rain forests and swamps to its delta in the Gulf of
  Guinea

People Nigeria


Population:
  131,859,731
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.3% (male 28,089,017/female 27,665,212)
  15-64 years: 54.6% (male 36,644,885/female 35,405,915)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 1,930,007/female 2,124,695) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.7 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 18.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  40.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.94 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 97.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 104.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 90.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 47.08 years
  male: 46.52 years
  female: 47.66 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  5.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3.6 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  310,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: one of the most highly
  endemic areas for Lassa fever (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Nigerian(s)
  adjective: Nigerian

Ethnic groups:
  Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than
  250 ethnic groups; the following are the most populous and
  politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo
  (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%

Religions:
  Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%

Languages:
  English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo), Fulani

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 68%
  male: 75.7%
  female: 60.6% (2003 est.)

Government Nigeria


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federal Republic of Nigeria
  conventional short form: Nigeria

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Abuja
  geographic coordinates: 9 12 N, 7 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  36 states and 1 territory*; Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra,
  Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo,
  Ekiti, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory*, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa,
  Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger,
  Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara

Independence:
  1 October 1960 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (National Day), 1 October (1960)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted May 1999

Legal system:
  based on English common law, Islamic Shariah law (in 12 northern
  states), and traditional law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Olusegun OBASANJO (since 29 May 1999);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Olusegun OBASANJO (since 29 May 1999);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Federal Executive Council
  elections: president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 19 April 2003 (next
  to be held April 2007)
  election results: Olusegun OBASANJO elected president; percent of
  vote - Olusegun OBASANJO (PDP) 61.9%, Muhammadu BUHARI (ANPP) 31.2%,
  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu OJUKWU (APGA) 3.3%, other 3.6%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly consists of Senate (109 seats - 3 from
  each state plus 1 from Abuja, members elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms) and House of Representatives (360 seats,
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 12 April 2003 (next to be held in
  2007); House of Representatives - last held 12 April 2003 (next to
  be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PDP 53.7%,
  ANPP 27.9%, AD 9.7%; seats by party - PDP 76, ANPP 27, AD 6; House
  of Representatives - percent of vote by party - PDP 54.5%, ANPP
  27.4%, AD 8.8%, other 9.3%; seats by party - PDP 223, ANPP 96, AD
  34, other 6; note - one seat is vacant

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the President); Federal Court of
  Appeal (judges are appointed by the federal government on the advice
  of the Advisory Judicial Committee)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance for Democracy or AD [Mojisoluwa AKINFENWA]; All Nigeria
  Peoples' Party or ANPP [Don ETIEBET]; All Progressives Grand
  Alliance or APGA [disputed leadership]; National Democratic Party or
  NDP [Aliyu Habu FARI]; Peoples Democratic Party or PDP [Dr. Ahmadu
  ALI]; Peoples Redemption Party or PRP [Abdulkadir Balarabe MUSA];
  Peoples Salvation Party or PSP [Lawal MAITURARE]; United Nigeria
  Peoples Party or UNPP [disputed leadership]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM,
  OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Professor George A. OBIOZOR
  chancery: 3519 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-8400
  FAX: [1] (202) 775-1385
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador John CAMPBELL
  embassy: 7 Mambilla Drive, Abuja
  mailing address: P. O. Box 554, Lagos
  telephone: [234] (9) 523-0916/0906/5857/2235/2205
  FAX: [234] (9) 523-0353

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green

Economy Nigeria


Economy - overview:
  Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability,
  corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic
  management, is undertaking some reforms under a new reform-minded
  administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify
  the economy away from its overdependence on the capital-intensive
  oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange
  earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely
  subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid
  population growth - Nigeria is Africa's most populous country - and
  the country, once a large net exporter of food, now must import
  food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August
  2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club
  and a $1 billion credit from the IMF, both contingent on economic
  reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after
  failing to meet spending and exchange rate targets, making it
  ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. In
  the last year the government has begun showing the political will to
  implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to
  modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking
  excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the
  distribution of earnings from the oil industry. In 2003, the
  government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the
  privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted
  the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a
  domestically designed and run program modeled on the IMF's Poverty
  Reduction and Growth Facility for fiscal and monetary management.
  GDP rose strongly in 2005, based largely on increased oil exports
  and high global crude prices. In November 2005, Abuja won Paris Club
  approval for a historic debt-relief deal that by March 2006 should
  eliminate $30 billion worth of Nigeria's total $37 billion external
  debt. The deal first requires that Nigeria repay roughly $12 billion
  in arrears to its bilateral creditors. Nigeria would then be allowed
  to buy back its remaining debt stock at a discount. The deal also
  commits Nigeria to more intensified IMF reviews.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $175.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $77.33 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 26.9%
  industry: 48.7%
  services: 24.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  57.21 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 10%
  services: 20% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  60% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  50.6 (1996-97)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  13.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $12.86 billion
  expenditures: $13.54 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  11% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava
  (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber; fish

Industries:
  crude oil, coal, tin, columbite; palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber,
  wood; hides and skins, textiles, cement and other construction
  materials, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing,
  ceramics, steel, small commercial ship construction and repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  15.59 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 61.9%
  hydro: 38.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  14.46 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  40 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  2.451 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  310,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  36 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  19.2 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  7.41 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  7.83 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  4.502 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $5.597 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $52.16 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber

Exports - partners:
  US 49.7%, Brazil 10.4%, Spain 7.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $25.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, manufactured goods, food
  and live animals

Imports - partners:
  China 10.4%, US 7.3%, UK 6.7%, Netherlands 6%, France 5.9%, Germany
  4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $28.28 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $32.45 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  IMF, $250 million (1998)

Currency (code):
  naira (NGN)

Currency code:
  NGN

Exchange rates:
  nairas per US dollar - 132.59 (2005), 132.89 (2004), 129.22 (2003),
  120.58 (2002), 111.23 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Nigeria


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,223,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  21,571,131 (2006)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: expansion and modernization of the fixed-line
  telephone network has been slow due to faltering efforts at
  privatization
  domestic: the addition of a second fixed-line provider in 2002
  resulted in faster growth in this service; wireless telephony has
  grown rapidly, in part responding to the shortcomings of the
  fixed-line network; four wireless (GSM) service providers operate
  nationally; the combined growth resulted in a sharp increase in
  teledensity reported to be over 18% in March 2006
  international: country code - 234; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); fiber optic
  submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 83, FM 36, shortwave 11 (2001)

Radios:
  23.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (the government controls 2 of the broadcasting stations and 15
  repeater stations) (2002)

Televisions:
  6.9 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ng

Internet hosts:
  1,549 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  11 (2000)

Internet users:
  5 million (2005)

Transportation Nigeria


Airports:
  69 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 36
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 126 km; gas 2,812 km; liquid petroleum gas 125 km; oil
  4,278 km; refined products 3,517 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,505 km
  narrow gauge: 3,505 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 194,394 km
  paved: 60,068 km
  unpaved: 134,326 km (1999)

Waterways:
  8,600 km (Niger and Benue rivers and smaller rivers and creeks)
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 52 ships (1000 GRT or over) 277,709 GRT/475,414 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, chemical tanker 5, combination ore/oil 1,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 36, specialized
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Norway 1, Pakistan 1, Singapore 1, Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 28 (Bahamas 2, Bermuda 11, Cambodia
  2, Comoros 2, Panama 7, Poland 1, Seychelles 1, unknown 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bonny Inshore Terminal, Calabar, Lagos, Port Harcourt

Military Nigeria


Military branches:
  Nigerian Armed Forces (Forces Armees Nigeriennes, FAN): Army, Niger
  Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 26,802,678
  females age 18-49: 25,668,446 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,052,914
  females age 18-49: 13,860,806 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,353,180
  females age 18-49: 1,329,267 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $737.6 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Nigeria


Disputes - international:
  ICJ ruled in 2002 on the entire Cameroon-Nigeria land and maritime
  boundary but the parties formed a Joint Border Commission to resolve
  differences bilaterally and have commenced with demarcation in
  less-contested sections of the boundary, starting in Lake Chad in
  the north; following the UN-brokered Greentree Agreement of 12 June
  2006, Nigeria, in completion of the 2002 ICJ decision on the
  Cameroon-Nigerian land boundary, handed sovereignty of the Bakassi
  peninsula to Cameroon on 14 August; all Nigerian military forces
  have reportedly withdrawn from the region but Nigeria will continue
  to maintain a police and administrative presence in the southeastern
  "transition zone" for a period of up to two years; Nigeria pledges
  to provide for the resettlement of those Bakassi residents who wish
  to remain Nigerian citizens; the ICJ ruled on an equidistance
  settlement of Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary
  in the Gulf of Guinea, but imprecisely defined coordinates in the
  ICJ decision and a sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea and
  Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River all
  contribute to the delay in implementation; a joint task force was
  established in 2004 that resolved disputes over and redrew the
  maritime and the 870-km land boundary with Benin on the Okpara
  River; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad
  Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty which also
  includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 200,000 - 250,000 (communal violence between Christians and
  Muslims since President OBASANJO's election in 1999) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  a transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for European, East
  Asian, and North American markets; safehaven for Nigerian
  narcotraffickers operating worldwide; major money-laundering center;
  massive corruption and criminal activity; Nigeria has improved some
  anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the
  Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and
  Territories List in June 2006; Nigeria's anti-money-laundering
  regime continues to be monitored by FATF


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Niue

Introduction Niue


Background:
  Niue's remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic differences
  between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest of the Cook
  Islands, have caused it to be separately administered. The
  population of the island continues to drop (from a peak of 5,200 in
  1966 to about 2,166 in 2006), with substantial emigration to New
  Zealand, 2,400 km to the southwest.

Geography Niue


Location:
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga

Geographic coordinates:
  19 02 S, 169 52 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 260 sq km
  land: 260 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  64 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; modified by southeast trade winds

Terrain:
  steep limestone cliffs along coast, central plateau

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location near Mutalau settlement 68 m

Natural resources:
  fish, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 11.54%
  permanent crops: 15.38%
  other: 73.08% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  increasing attention to conservationist practices to counter loss
  of soil fertility from traditional slash and burn agriculture

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  one of world's largest coral islands

People Niue


Population:
  2,166 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA births/1,000 population

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Niuean(s)
  adjective: Niuean

Ethnic groups:
  Niuen 78.2%, Pacific islander 10.2%, European 4.5%, mixed 3.9%,
  Asian 0.2%, unspecified 3% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Ekalesia Niue (Niuean Church - a Protestant church closely related
  to the London Missionary Society) 61.1%, Latter-Day Saints 8.8%,
  Roman Catholic 7.2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 2.4%, Seventh-Day Adventist
  1.4%, other 8.4%, unspecified 8.7%, none 1.9% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Niuean, a Polynesian language closely related to Tongan and Samoan;
  English

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 95%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Niue


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Niue
  former: Savage Island

Dependency status:
  self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1974;
  Niue fully responsible for internal affairs; New Zealand retains
  responsibility for external affairs and defense; however, these
  responsibilities confer no rights of control and are only exercised
  at the request of the Government of Niue

Government type:
  self-governing parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Alofi
  geographic coordinates: 19 01 S, 169 55 W
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none; note - there are no first-order administrative divisions as
  defined by the US Government, but there are 14 villages at the
  second order

Independence:
  on 19 October 1974, Niue became a self-governing parliamentary
  government in free association with New Zealand

National holiday:
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British sovereignty
  over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Constitution:
  19 October 1974 (Niue Constitution Act)

Legal system:
  English common law; note - Niue is self-governing, with the power
  to make its own laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General of New Zealand Anand SATYANAND
  (since 23 August 2006); the UK and New Zealand are represented by
  New Zealand High Commissioner John BRYAN (since NA May 2000)
  head of government: Premier Young VIVIAN (since 1 May 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of the premier and three ministers
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; premier elected by the
  Legislative Assembly for a three-year term; election last held 12
  May 2005 (next to be held May 2008)
  election results: Young VIVIAN reelected premier; percent of
  Legislative Assembly vote - Young VIVIAN (NPP) 85%, O'Love JACOBSEN
  (independent) 15%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (20 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve three-year terms; 6 elected from a common roll
  and 14 are village representatives)
  elections: last held 30 April 2005 (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of New Zealand; High Court of Niue

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance of Independents or AI; Niue People's Action Party or NPP
  [Young VIVIAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, FAO, IFAD, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand)

Flag description:
  yellow with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant;
  the flag of the UK bears five yellow five-pointed stars - a large
  one on a blue disk in the center and a smaller one on each arm of
  the bold red cross

Economy Niue


Economy - overview:
  The economy suffers from the typical Pacific island problems of
  geographic isolation, few resources, and a small population.
  Government expenditures regularly exceed revenues, and the shortfall
  is made up by critically needed grants from New Zealand that are
  used to pay wages to public employees. Niue has cut government
  expenditures by reducing the public service by almost half. The
  agricultural sector consists mainly of subsistence gardening,
  although some cash crops are grown for export. Industry consists
  primarily of small factories to process passion fruit, lime oil,
  honey, and coconut cream. The sale of postage stamps to foreign
  collectors is an important source of revenue. The island in recent
  years has suffered a serious loss of population because of
  emigration to New Zealand. Efforts to increase GDP include the
  promotion of tourism and a financial services industry, although the
  International Banking Repeal Act of 2002 resulted in the termination
  of all offshore banking licenses. Economic aid from New Zealand in
  2002 was about US$2 million. Niue suffered a devastating typhoon in
  January 2004, which decimated nascent economic programs. While in
  the process of rebuilding, Niue has been dependent on foreign aid.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $7.6 million (2000 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $10.01 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.2%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,800 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23.5%
  industry: 26.9%
  services: 49.5% (2003)

Labor force:
  NA 663

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: most work on family plantations; paid work exists only in
  government service, small industry, and the Niue Development Board

Unemployment rate:
  12% NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $15.07 million
  expenditures: $16.33 million; including capital expenditures of
  $123,700

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, passion fruit, honey, limes, taro, yams, cassava
  (tapioca), sweet potatoes; pigs, poultry, beef cattle

Industries:
  tourism, handicrafts, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.79 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $201,400 (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  canned coconut cream, copra, honey, vanilla, passion fruit
  products, pawpaws, root crops, limes, footballs, stamps, handicrafts

Exports - partners:
  New Zealand mainly, Fiji, Cook Islands, Australia (2004)

Imports:
  $9.038 million (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  food, live animals, manufactured goods, machinery, fuels,
  lubricants, chemicals, drugs

Imports - partners:
  New Zealand mainly, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Australia, US (2004)

Debt - external:
  $418,000 (2002 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.6 million from New Zealand (2002)

Currency (code):
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:
  NZD

Exchange rates:
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004),
  1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Niue


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,100 est (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  400 (2002)

Telephone system:
  domestic: single-line telephone system connects all villages on
  island
  international: country code - 683

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  1,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .nu

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  900 (2002)

Transportation Niue


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 234 km
  paved: 86 km
  unpaved: 148 km (2001)

Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Niue


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; Police Force

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand

Transnational Issues Niue


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Norfolk Island

Introduction Norfolk Island


Background:
  Two British attempts at establishing the island as a penal colony
  (1788-1814 and 1825-55) were ultimately abandoned. In 1856, the
  island was resettled by Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the
  Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.

Geography Norfolk Island


Location:
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  29 02 S, 167 57 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 34.6 sq km
  land: 34.6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.2 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  32 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical; mild, little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  volcanic formation with mostly rolling plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Bates 319 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons (especially May to July)

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  most of the 32 km coastline consists of almost inaccessible cliffs,
  but the land slopes down to the sea in one small southern area on
  Sydney Bay, where the capital of Kingston is situated

People Norfolk Island


Population:
  1,828 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.2%
  15-64 years: 63.9%
  65 years and over: 15.9% (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Norfolk Islander(s)
  adjective: Norfolk Islander(s)

Ethnic groups:
  descendants of the Bounty mutineers, Australian, New Zealander,
  Polynesian

Religions:
  Anglican 34.9%, Roman Catholic 11.7%, Uniting Church in Australia
  11.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist 2.8%, Australian Christian 2.4%,
  Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, other 2.7%, unspecified 15.3%, none 18.1%
  (2001 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Norfolk a mixture of 18th century English and
  ancient Tahitian

Literacy:
  NA

Government Norfolk Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of Norfolk Island
  conventional short form: Norfolk Island

Dependency status:
  territory of Australia; Canberra administers Commonwealth
  responsibilities on Norfolk Island through the Department of
  Environment, Sport, and Territories

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Kingston
  geographic coordinates: 29 03 S, 167 58 E
  time difference: UTC+11.5 (16.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of Australia)

Independence:
  none (territory of Australia)

National holiday:
  Bounty Day (commemorates the arrival of Pitcairn Islanders), 8 June
  (1856)

Constitution:
  Norfolk Island Act of 1979

Legal system:
  based on the laws of Australia, local ordinances and acts; English
  common law applies in matters not covered by either Australian or
  Norfolk Island law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); the UK
  and Australia are represented by Administrator Grant TAMBLING (since
  1 November 2003)
  head of government: Assembly President and Chief Minister Geoffrey
  Robert GARDNER (since 5 December 2001)
  cabinet: Executive Council is made up of four of the nine members of
  the Legislative Assembly; the council devises government policy and
  acts as an advisor to the administrator
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed by the
  governor general of Australia; chief minister elected by the
  Legislative Assembly for a term of not more than three years;
  election last held 20 October 2004 (next to be held by December 2007)
  election results: Geoffrey Robert GARDNER elected chief minister;
  percent of Legislative Assembly vote - 17.2%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (9 seats; members elected by
  electors who have nine equal votes each but only four votes can be
  given to any one candidate; members serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 October 2004 (next to be held by December
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 9
  (note - no political parties)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Petty Sessions

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of Australia)

Flag description:
  three vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and green with a
  large green Norfolk Island pine tree centered in the slightly wider
  white band

Economy Norfolk Island


Economy - overview:
  Tourism, the primary economic activity, has steadily increased over
  the years and has brought a level of prosperity unusual among
  inhabitants of the Pacific islands. The agricultural sector has
  become self-sufficient in the production of beef, poultry, and eggs.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

Labor force:
  1,345

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry and services: 90%

Unemployment rate:
  0%

Budget:
  revenues: $4.6 million
  expenditures: $4.8 million; including capital expenditures of $2
  million (FY99/00)

Agriculture - products:
  Norfolk Island pine seed, Kentia palm seed, cereals, vegetables,
  fruit; cattle, poultry

Industries:
  tourism, light industry, ready mixed concrete

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2002)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Exports:
  $1.5 million f.o.b. (FY91/92)

Exports - commodities:
  postage stamps, seeds of the Norfolk Island pine and Kentia palm,
  small quantities of avocados

Exports - partners:
  Australia, other Pacific island countries, NZ, Asia, Europe (2004)

Imports:
  $17.9 million c.i.f. (FY91/92)

Imports - commodities:
  NA

Imports - partners:
  Australia, other Pacific island countries, NZ, Asia, Europe (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004),
  1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Norfolk Island


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,532; note - a mix of analog (2500) and digital (32) circuits
  (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (proposed cellular service disallowed in August 2002 island
  referendum) (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: free local calls
  international: country code - 672; undersea coaxial cable links with
  Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; satellite earth station

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2005)

Radios:
  2,500 (1996)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (local programming station plus two repeaters that bring in
  Australian programs by satellite) (2005)

Televisions:
  1,200 (1996)

Internet country code:
  .nf

Internet hosts:
  100 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  700

Transportation Norfolk Island


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 80 km
  paved: 53 km
  unpaved: 27 km (2002)

Ports and terminals:
  none; loading jetties at Kingston and Cascade

Military Norfolk Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Australia

Transnational Issues Norfolk Island


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Northern Mariana Islands

Introduction Northern Mariana Islands


Background:
  Under US administration as part of the UN Trust Territory of the
  Pacific, the people of the Northern Mariana Islands decided in the
  1970s not to seek independence but instead to forge closer links
  with the US. Negotiations for territorial status began in 1972. A
  covenant to establish a commonwealth in political union with the US
  was approved in 1975, and came into force on 24 March 1976. A new
  government and constitution went into effect in 1978.

Geography Northern Mariana Islands


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the North Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters
  of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines

Geographic coordinates:
  15 12 N, 145 45 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 477 sq km
  land: 477 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes 14 islands including Saipan, Rota, and Tinian

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,482 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine; moderated by northeast trade winds, little
  seasonal temperature variation; dry season December to June, rainy
  season July to October

Terrain:
  southern islands are limestone with level terraces and fringing
  coral reefs; northern islands are volcanic

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Agrihan 965 m

Natural resources:
  arable land, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 13.04%
  permanent crops: 4.35%
  other: 82.61% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  active volcanoes on Pagan and Agrihan; typhoons (especially August
  to November)

Environment - current issues:
  contamination of groundwater on Saipan may contribute to disease;
  clean-up of landfill; protection of endangered species conflicts
  with development

Geography - note:
  strategic location in the North Pacific Ocean

People Northern Mariana Islands


Population:
  82,459 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.4% (male 8,350/female 7,623)
  15-64 years: 79% (male 26,715/female 38,442)
  65 years and over: 1.6% (male 679/female 650) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 29.5 years
  male: 31.7 years
  female: 28.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.54% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  19.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  2.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  8.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.7 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.05 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.77 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.09 years
  male: 73.5 years
  female: 78.83 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: NA (US citizens)
  adjective: NA

Ethnic groups:
  Asian 56.3%, Pacific islander 36.3%, Caucasian 1.8%, other 0.8%,
  mixed 4.8% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Christian (Roman Catholic majority, although traditional beliefs
  and taboos may still be found)

Languages:
  Philippine languages 24.4%, Chinese 23.4%, Chamorro 22.4%, English
  10.8%, other Pacific island languages 9.5%, other 9.6% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 96% (1980 est.)

Government Northern Mariana Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
  conventional short form: Northern Mariana Islands
  abbreviation: CNMI
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Mariana Islands
  District

Dependency status:
  commonwealth in political union with the US; federal funds to the
  Commonwealth administered by the US Department of the Interior,
  Office of Insular Affairs

Government type:
  commonwealth; self-governing with locally elected governor,
  lieutenant governor, and legislature

Capital:
  name: Saipan
  geographic coordinates: 15 12 N, 145 45 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (commonwealth in political union with the US); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are four municipalities at the second order:
  Northern Islands, Rota, Saipan, Tinian

Independence:
  none (commonwealth in political union with the US)

National holiday:
  Commonwealth Day, 8 January (1978)

Constitution:
  Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
  effective 1 January 1978; Covenant Agreement fully effective 4
  November 1986

Legal system:
  based on US system, except for customs, wages, immigration laws,
  and taxation

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal; indigenous inhabitants are US citizens
  but do not vote in US presidential elections

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Benigno R. FITIAL (since 9 January
  2006); Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. VILLAGOMEZ (since 9 January
  2006)
  cabinet: the cabinet consists of the heads of the 10 principal
  departments under the executive branch who are appointed by the
  governor with the advice and consent of the Senate; other members
  include Special Assistants to the governor and office heads
  appointed by and reporting directly to the governor
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
  Islands, do not vote in elections for US president and vice
  president; governor and lieutenant governor elected on the same
  ticket by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second
  term); election last held 5 November 2005 (next to be held November
  2009)
  election results: Benigno R. FITIAL elected governor in a four-way
  race; percent of vote - Benigno R. FITIAL (Covenant Party) 28.07%,
  Heinz HOFSCHNEIDER (Independent) 27.34%, Juan BABAUTA (Republican)
  26.6%, Froilan TENORIO (Democrat) 17.99%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Legislature consists of the Senate (9 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year staggered terms) and the
  House of Representatives (18 seats; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 5 November 2005 (next to be held
  November 2009); House of Representatives - last held 5 November 2005
  (next to be held November 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Covenant Party 3, Republican Party 3, Democratic Party 2,
  independent 1; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - Covenant Party 7, Republican Party 7,
  Democratic Party 2, independent 2
  note: the Northern Mariana Islands does not have a nonvoting
  delegate in the US Congress; instead, it has an elected official or
  "resident representative" located in Washington, DC; seats by party
  - Republican Party 1 (Pedro A. TENORIO)

Judicial branch:
  Commonwealth Supreme Court; Superior Court; Federal District Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Covenant Party [Benigno R. FITIAL]; Democratic Party [Dr. Carlos S.
  CAMACHO]; Republican Party [Juan S. REYES]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Interpol (subbureau), SPC, UPU

Flag description:
  blue, with a white, five-pointed star superimposed on the gray
  silhouette of a latte stone (a traditional foundation stone used in
  building) in the center, surrounded by a wreath

Economy Northern Mariana Islands


Economy - overview:
  The economy benefits substantially from financial assistance from
  the US. The rate of funding has declined as locally generated
  government revenues have grown. The key tourist industry employs
  about 50% of the work force and accounts for roughly one-fourth of
  GDP. Japanese tourists predominate. Annual tourist entries have
  exceeded one-half million in recent years, but financial
  difficulties in Japan have caused a temporary slowdown. The
  agricultural sector is made up of cattle ranches and small farms
  producing coconuts, breadfruit, tomatoes, and melons. Garment
  production is by far the most important industry with the employment
  of 17,500 mostly Chinese workers and sizable shipments to the US
  under duty and quota exemptions.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $900 million
  note: GDP estimate includes US subsidy (2000 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $633.4 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $12,500 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  44,470 total indigenous labor force; 2,699 unemployed; 28,717
  foreign workers (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  3.9% NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -0.8% (2000)

Budget:
  revenues: $193 million
  expenditures: $223 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY01/02 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, fruits, vegetables; cattle

Industries:
  tourism, construction, garments, handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  garments

Exports - partners:
  US (2004)

Imports:
  $214.4 million $NA

Imports - commodities:
  food, construction equipment and materials, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  US, Japan (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  extensive funding from US

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Northern Mariana Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  21,000 (2000)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  20,500 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-670; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 6, shortwave 1 (2006)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (Low Power TV on Saipan; in addition, two cable services on
  Saipan provide varied programming from satellite networks) (2006)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .mp

Internet hosts:
  20 (2005)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2001)

Internet users:
  10,000 (2003)

Transportation Northern Mariana Islands


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 536 km (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Saipan, Tinian

Military Northern Mariana Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Northern Mariana Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Norway

Introduction Norway


Background:
  Two centuries of Viking raids into Europe tapered off following the
  adoption of Christianity by King Olav TRYGGVASON in 994. Conversion
  of the Norwegian kingdom occurred over the next several decades. In
  1397, Norway was absorbed into a union with Denmark that lasted more
  than four centuries. In 1814, Norwegians resisted the cession of
  their country to Sweden and adopted a new constitution. Sweden then
  invaded Norway but agreed to let Norway keep its constitution in
  return for accepting the union under a Swedish king. Rising
  nationalism throughout the 19th century led to a 1905 referendum
  granting Norway independence. Although Norway remained neutral in
  World War I, it suffered heavy losses to its shipping. Norway
  proclaimed its neutrality at the outset of World War II, but was
  nonetheless occupied for five years by Nazi Germany (1940-45). In
  1949, neutrality was abandoned and Norway became a member of NATO.
  Discovery of oil and gas in adjacent waters in the late 1960s
  boosted Norway's economic fortunes. The current focus is on
  containing spending on the extensive welfare system and planning for
  the time when petroleum reserves are depleted. In referenda held in
  1972 and 1994, Norway rejected joining the EU.

Geography Norway


Location:
  Northern Europe, bordering the North Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, west of Sweden

Geographic coordinates:
  62 00 N, 10 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 323,802 sq km
  land: 307,442 sq km
  water: 16,360 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,542 km
  border countries: Finland 727 km, Sweden 1,619 km, Russia 196 km

Coastline:
  25,148 km (includes mainland 2,650 km, as well as long fjords,
  numerous small islands, and minor indentations 22,498 km; length of
  island coastlines 58,133 km)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 10 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  temperate along coast, modified by North Atlantic Current; colder
  interior with increased precipitation and colder summers; rainy
  year-round on west coast

Terrain:
  glaciated; mostly high plateaus and rugged mountains broken by
  fertile valleys; small, scattered plains; coastline deeply indented
  by fjords; arctic tundra in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Norwegian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Galdhopiggen 2,469 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, titanium,
  pyrites, nickel, fish, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 2.7%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.3% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,270 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  rockslides, avalanches

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution; acid rain damaging forests and adversely affecting
  lakes, threatening fish stocks; air pollution from vehicle emissions

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  about two-thirds mountains; some 50,000 islands off its much
  indented coastline; strategic location adjacent to sea lanes and air
  routes in North Atlantic; one of most rugged and longest coastlines
  in the world

People Norway


Population:
  4,610,820 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.3% (male 455,122/female 434,009)
  15-64 years: 65.9% (male 1,542,439/female 1,496,745)
  65 years and over: 14.8% (male 288,509/female 393,996) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 37.6 years
  female: 39.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  11.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 3.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.03 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.54 years
  male: 76.91 years
  female: 82.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  2,100 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Norwegian(s)
  adjective: Norwegian

Ethnic groups:
  Norwegian, Sami 20,000

Religions:
  Church of Norway 85.7%, Pentecostal 1%, Roman Catholic 1%, other
  Christian 2.4%, Muslim 1.8%, other 8.1% (2004)

Languages:
  Bokmal Norwegian (official), Nynorsk Norwegian (official), small
  Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities; note - Sami is official in
  six municipalities

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Government Norway


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Norway
  conventional short form: Norway
  local long form: Kongeriket Norge
  local short form: Norge

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Oslo
  geographic coordinates: 59 55 N, 10 45 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  19 counties (fylker, singular - fylke); Akershus, Aust-Agder,
  Buskerud, Finnmark, Hedmark, Hordaland, More og Romsdal, Nordland,
  Nord-Trondelag, Oppland, Oslo, Ostfold, Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane,
  Sor-Trondelag, Telemark, Troms, Vest-Agder, Vestfold

Dependent areas:
  Bouvet Island, Jan Mayen, Svalbard

Independence:
  7 June 1905 (Norway declared the union with Sweden dissolved); 26
  October 1905 (Sweden agreed to the repeal of the union)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 17 May (1814)

Constitution:
  17 May 1814; amended many times

Legal system:
  mixture of customary law, civil law system, and common law
  traditions; Supreme Court renders advisory opinions to legislature
  when asked; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King HARALD V (since 17 January 1991); Heir
  Apparent Crown Prince HAAKON MAGNUS, son of the monarch (born 20
  July 1973)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jens STOLTENBERG (since 17
  October 2005)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the monarch with the approval of
  parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following parliamentary
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  monarch with the approval of the parliament

Legislative branch:
  modified unicameral Parliament or Storting (169 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote by proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 September 2005 (next to be held September
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Labor Party 32.7%,
  Progress Party 22.1%, Conservative Party 14.1%, Socialist Left Party
  8.8%, Christian People's Party 6.8%, Center Party 6.5%, Liberal
  Party 5.9%, Red Electoral Alliance 1.2%, other 1.9%; seats by party
  - Labor Party 61, Progress Party 38, Conservative Party 23,
  Socialist Left Party 15, Christian People's Party 11, Center Party
  11, Liberal Party 10
  note: for certain purposes, the parliament divides itself into two
  chambers and elects one-fourth of its membership to an upper house
  or Lagting

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Hoyesterett (justices appointed by the monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Center Party [Aslaug Marie HAGA]; Christian People's Party [Dagfinn
  HOYBRATEN]; Coastal Party [Roy WAAGE]; Conservative Party [Erna
  SOLBERG]; Labor Party [Jens STOLTENBERG]; Liberal Party [Lars
  SPONHEIM]; Progress Party [Siv JENSEN]; Red Electoral Alliance
  [Torstein DAHLE]; Socialist Left Party [Kristin HALVORSEN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN,
  EAPC, EBRD, EFTA, ESA, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NC, NEA,
  NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNRWA, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Knut VOLLEBAEK
  chancery: 2720 34th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-6000
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-0870
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Benson K. WHITNEY
  embassy: Henrik Ibsens gate 48, 0244 Oslo; note - the embassy will
  move to Huseby in the near future
  mailing address: PSC 69, Box 1000, APO AE 09707
  telephone: [47] (22) 44 85 50
  FAX: [47] (22) 44 33 63, 56 27 51

Flag description:
  red with a blue cross outlined in white that extends to the edges
  of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist
  side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Economy Norway


Economy - overview:
  The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare
  capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and
  government intervention. The government controls key areas such as
  the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises).
  The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum,
  hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on
  its oil production and international oil prices, with oil and gas
  accounting for one-third of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia
  export more oil than Norway. Norway opted to stay out of the EU
  during a referendum in November 1994; nonetheless, it contributes
  sizably to the EU budget. The government has moved ahead with
  privatization. Although Norwegian oil production peaked in 2000,
  natural gas production is still rising. Norwegians realize that once
  their gas production peaks they will eventually face declining oil
  and gas revenues; accordingly, Norway has been saving its
  oil-and-gas-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund,
  which is invested abroad and now is valued at more than $250
  billion. After lackluster growth of 1% in 2002 and 0.5% in 2003, GDP
  growth picked up to 3.3% in 2004 and to 3.7% in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $196.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $246.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $42,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 41.5%
  services: 56.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.4 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 22%
  services: 74% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 21.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  25.8 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $176.1 billion
  expenditures: $131.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  50.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  barley, wheat, potatoes; pork, beef, veal, milk; fish

Industries:
  petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and paper
  products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles, fishing

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  105.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.4%
  hydro: 99.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  106.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  5.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  13.5 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  3.22 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  257,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  3.466 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  88,870 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  9.859 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  73.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  4.14 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  50.5 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.118 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $49.49 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $111.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and equipment, metals,
  chemicals, ships, fish

Exports - partners:
  UK 25.5%, Germany 12.6%, Netherlands 9.9%, France 9.1%, US 6.7%,
  Sweden 6.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $58.12 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Sweden 14.6%, Germany 13.6%, Denmark 7.3%, UK 6.8%, China 5.5%, US
  5%, France 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $46.99 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $281 billion; note - Norway is a net external creditor (30 June
  2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1.4 billion (1998)

Currency (code):
  Norwegian krone (NOK)

Currency code:
  NOK

Exchange rates:
  Norwegian kroner per US dollar - 6.4425 (2005), 6.7408 (2004),
  7.0802 (2003), 7.9838 (2002), 8.9917 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Norway


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.129 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.755 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern in all respects; one of the most
  advanced telecommunications networks in Europe
  domestic: Norway has a domestic satellite system; moreover, the
  prevalence of rural areas encourages the wide use of cellular mobile
  systems instead of fixed-wire systems
  international: country code - 47; 2 buried coaxial cable systems; 4
  coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth stations - NA Eutelsat, NA
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean
  regions); note - Norway shares the Inmarsat earth station with the
  other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden) (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 5, FM at least 650, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  4.03 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  360 (plus 2,729 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  2.03 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .no

Internet hosts:
  1,364,448 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  13 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.14 million (2005)

Transportation Norway


Airports:
  99 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 67
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 32
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 508 km; gas 5,910 km; oil 2,557 km; oil/gas/water 746 km
  (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,077 km
  standard gauge: 4,077 km 1.435-m gauge (2,680 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 92,513 km
  paved: 71,832 km (including 664 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 20,681 km (2005)

Waterways:
  1,577 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 724 ships (1000 GRT or over) 14,472,103 GRT/20,245,353 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 67, cargo 153, chemical tanker 150, container
  2, liquefied gas 79, passenger/cargo 121, petroleum tanker 75,
  refrigerated cargo 9, roll on/roll off 19, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 47
  foreign-owned: 168 (China 3, Cyprus 2, Denmark 32, Estonia 1,
  Finland 4, Greece 1, Hong Kong 55, Iceland 4, Italy 4, Japan 1,
  Lithuania 1, Monaco 4, Netherlands 3, Poland 2, Saudi Arabia 3,
  Sweden 28, UAE 1, UK 6, US 13)
  registered in other countries: 861 (Antigua and Barbuda 11,
  Australia 1, Bahamas 259, Barbados 29, Belize 2, Bermuda 5, Brazil
  2, Cambodia 1, Canada 1, Cayman Islands 2, China 1, Comoros 1, Cook
  Islands 1, Cyprus 16, Denmark 3, Dominica 1, Ecuador 1, Estonia 2,
  Faroe Islands 4, Finland 1, France 1, French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands 12, Gibraltar 18, Hong Kong 26, Indonesia 1, Isle of Man 27,
  Liberia 38, Libya 1, Malta 49, Marshall Islands 65, Mexico 1,
  Netherlands 7, Netherlands Antilles 5, Nigeria 1, Panama 66,
  Philippines 3, Portugal 4, Russia 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 16, Singapore 90, Spain 7, Sweden 7, Thailand 30, Tonga
  1, UK 36, US 2, unknown 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Borg Havn, Bergen, Mo i Rana, Molde, Mongstad, Narvik, Oslo, Sture

Military Norway


Military branches:
  Norwegian Army (Haeren), Royal Norwegian Navy (Kongelige Norske
  Sjoeforsvaret, RNoN; includes Coastal Rangers and Coast Guard
  (Kystvakt)), Royal Norwegian Air Force (Kongelige Norske
  Luftforsvaret, RNoAF), Home Guard (Heimevernet, HV) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age in
  wartime; 17 years of age for male volunteers; 18 years of age for
  women; 16 years of age for volunteers to the Home Guard; conscript
  service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,014,592
  females age 18-49: 982,734 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 827,016
  females age 18-49: 801,358 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,179
  females age 18-49: 28,023 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4,033.5 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.9% (2003)

Transnational Issues Norway


Disputes - international:
  Norway asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Queen Maud Land
  and its continental shelf); despite recent discussions, Russia and
  Norway continue to dispute their maritime limits in the Barents Sea
  and Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits
  within the Svalbard Treaty zone


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Oman

Introduction Oman


Background:
  The inhabitants of the area of Oman have long prospered on Indian
  Ocean trade. In the late 18th century, a newly established sultanate
  in Muscat signed the first in a series of friendship treaties with
  Britain. Over time, Oman's dependence on British political and
  military advisors increased, but it never became a British colony.
  In 1970, QABOOS bin Said al-Said overthrew the restrictive rule of
  his father; he has ruled as sultan ever since. His extensive
  modernization program has opened the country to the outside world
  while preserving the longstanding close ties with the UK. Oman's
  moderate, independent foreign policy has sought to maintain good
  relations with all Middle Eastern countries.

Geography Oman


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Persian
  Gulf, between Yemen and UAE

Geographic coordinates:
  21 00 N, 57 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 212,460 sq km
  land: 212,460 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Kansas

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,374 km
  border countries: Saudi Arabia 676 km, UAE 410 km, Yemen 288 km

Coastline:
  2,092 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  dry desert; hot, humid along coast; hot, dry interior; strong
  southwest summer monsoon (May to September) in far south

Terrain:
  central desert plain, rugged mountains in north and south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Shams 2,980 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, copper, asbestos, some marble, limestone, chromium,
  gypsum, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 0.12%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 99.74% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  720 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  summer winds often raise large sandstorms and dust storms in
  interior; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  rising soil salinity; beach pollution from oil spills; very limited
  natural fresh water resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Musandam Peninsula adjacent to Strait of
  Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil

People Oman


Population:
  3,102,229
  note: includes 577,293 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 675,423/female 648,963)
  15-64 years: 54.7% (male 1,001,917/female 695,578)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 44,300/female 36,048) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19 years
  male: 21.7 years
  female: 16.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.28% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  36.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.44 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.23 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.25 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 18.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.37 years
  male: 71.14 years
  female: 75.72 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,300 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Omani(s)
  adjective: Omani

Ethnic groups:
  Arab, Baluchi, South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan,
  Bangladeshi), African

Religions:
  Ibadhi Muslim 75%, Sunni Muslim, Shi'a Muslim, Hindu

Languages:
  Arabic (official), English, Baluchi, Urdu, Indian dialects

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 75.8%
  male: 83.1%
  female: 67.2%

Government Oman


Country name:
  conventional long form: Sultanate of Oman
  conventional short form: Oman
  local long form: Saltanat Uman
  local short form: Uman
  former: Muscat and Oman

Government type:
  monarchy

Capital:
  name: Muscat
  geographic coordinates: 23 37 N, 58 35 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  5 regions (manatiq, singular - mintaqat) and 4 governorates*
  (muhafazat, singular - muhafazat) Ad Dakhiliyah, Al Batinah, Al
  Buraymi*, Al Wusta, Ash Sharqiyah, Az Zahirah, Masqat*, Musandam*,
  Zufar (Dhofar)*

Independence:
  1650 (expulsion of the Portuguese)

National holiday:
  Birthday of Sultan QABOOS, 18 November (1940)

Constitution:
  none; note - on 6 November 1996, Sultan QABOOS issued a royal
  decree promulgating a basic law considered by the government to be a
  constitution which, among other things, clarifies the royal
  succession, provides for a prime minister, bars ministers from
  holding interests in companies doing business with the government,
  establishes a bicameral legislature, and guarantees basic civil
  liberties for Omani citizens

Legal system:
  based on English common law and Islamic law; ultimate appeal to the
  monarch; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  in Oman's most recent Majlis al-Shura elections in 2003, suffrage
  was universal for all Omanis over age 21 except for members of the
  military and security forces; the next Majlis al-Shura elections are
  scheduled for 2007

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Sultan and Prime Minister QABOOS bin Said al-Said
  (sultan since 23 July 1970 and prime minister since 23 July 1972);
  note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: Sultan and Prime Minister QABOOS bin Said
  al-Said (sultan since 23 July 1970 and prime minister since 23 July
  1972); note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Majlis Oman consists of an upper chamber or Majlis
  al-Dawla (58 seats; members appointed by the monarch; has advisory
  powers only) and a lower chamber or Majlis al-Shura (83 seats;
  members elected by popular vote for four-year terms; body has some
  limited power to propose legislation, but otherwise has only
  advisory powers)
  elections: last held 4 October 2003 (next to be held NA 2007)
  election results: NA

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court
  note: the nascent civil court system, administered by region, has
  judges who practice secular and Shari'a law

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory),
  IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU,
  LAS, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hunaina bint Sultan bin Ahmad
  al-MUGHAIRI
  chancery: 2535 Belmont Road, NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-1980 through 1981, 1988
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-4933

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gary A. GRAPPO
  embassy: Jameat A'Duwal Al Arabiya Street, Al Khuwair area, Muscat
  mailing address: P. O. Box 202, P.C. 115, Madinat Sultan Qaboos,
  Muscat
  telephone: [968] 24-698989
  FAX: [968] 24-699771

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of white, red, and green of equal width with
  a broad, vertical, red band on the hoist side; the national emblem
  (a khanjar dagger in its sheath superimposed on two crossed swords
  in scabbards) in white is centered near the top of the vertical band

Economy Oman


Economy - overview:
  Oman is a middle-income economy in the Middle East with notable oil
  and gas resources, a substantial trade surplus, and low inflation.
  Work on a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility progressed in
  2005 and will contribute to slightly higher oil and gas exports in
  2006. Oman continues to liberalize its markets and joined the World
  Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2000. To reduce unemployment
  and limit dependence on foreign labor, the government is encouraging
  the replacement of foreign expatriate workers with local workers.
  Training in information technology, business management, and English
  support this objective. Industrial development plans focus on gas
  resources, metal manufacturing, petrochemicals, and international
  transshipment ports. In 2005, Oman signed agreements with several
  foreign investors to boost oil reserves, build and operate a power
  plant, and develop a second mobile phone network in the country.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $40.39 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $24.98 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $13,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.7%
  industry: 39%
  services: 58.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  920,000 (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  15% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  14.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $14.36 billion
  expenditures: $10.61 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  8.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  dates, limes, bananas, alfalfa, vegetables; camels, cattle; fish

Industries:
  crude oil production and refining, natural and liquefied natural
  gas (LNG) production; construction, cement, copper, steel,
  chemicals, optic fiber

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  10.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  9.582 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  769,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  62,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  721,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  6.1 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  16.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  7.09 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  7.43 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  829.1 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $4.796 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $19.01 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, reexports, fish, metals, textiles

Exports - partners:
  China 21.7%, South Korea 19.5%, Japan 14.3%, Thailand 12.7%, UAE
  7.1%, Taiwan 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.709 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food,
  livestock, lubricants

Imports - partners:
  UAE 22.4%, Japan 15.7%, UK 7.7%, US 6.7%, Germany 5.8%, India 4.2%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $4.358 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.361 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $76.4 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Omani rial (OMR)

Currency code:
  OMR

Exchange rates:
  Omani rials per US dollar - 0.3845 (2005), 0.3845 (2004), 0.3845
  (2003), 0.3845 (2002), 0.3845 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Oman


Telephones - main lines in use:
  265,200 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.333 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system consisting of open-wire,
  microwave, and radiotelephone communication stations; limited
  coaxial cable
  domestic: open-wire, microwave, radiotelephone communications, and a
  domestic satellite system with 8 earth stations
  international: country code - 968; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 9, shortwave 2 (1999)

Radios:
  1.4 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  13 (plus 25 low-power repeaters) (1999)

Televisions:
  1.6 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .om

Internet hosts:
  3,555 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  245,000 (2005)

Transportation Oman


Airports:
  137 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 131
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 52
  914 to 1,523 m: 35
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,072 km; oil 3,405 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 34,965 km
  paved: 9,673 km (including 550 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 25,292 km (2001)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 10,797 GRT/5,040 DWT
  by type: passenger 1
  registered in other countries: 2 (Kazakhstan 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Mina' Qabus, Salalah

Military Oman


Military branches:
  Royal Omani Armed Forces: Royal Army of Oman, Royal Navy of Oman,
  Royal Air Force of Oman (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Sultanat Oman,
  RAFO) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 719,871
  females age 18-49: 508,621 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 581,444
  females age 18-49: 435,107 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 26,391
  females age 18-49: 25,466 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $252.99 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  11.4% (2003)

Transnational Issues Oman


Disputes - international:
  boundary agreement reportedly signed and ratified with UAE in 2003
  for entire border, including Oman's Musandam Peninsula and Al Madhah
  exclave, but details have not been made public

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Oman is a destination country for men and women
  primarily from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India who migrate
  willingly, but may subsequently become victims of trafficking when
  subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude as domestic workers
  and laborers; there have been occasional reports that expatriate
  children engaged in camel racing may transit or reside in Omani
  territory
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Oman is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List because of a lack of evidence of increasing efforts to combat
  severe forms of trafficking in persons in 2005


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Pacific Ocean

Introduction Pacific Ocean


Background:
  The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's five oceans
  (followed by the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and
  Arctic Ocean). Strategically important access waterways include the
  La Perouse, Tsugaru, Tsushima, Taiwan, Singapore, and Torres
  Straits. The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization
  in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean,
  removed the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of 60 degrees south.

Geography Pacific Ocean


Location:
  body of water between the Southern Ocean, Asia, Australia, and the
  Western Hemisphere

Geographic coordinates:
  0 00 N, 160 00 W

Map references:
  Political Map of the World

Area:
  total: 155.557 million sq km
  note: includes Bali Sea, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East
  China Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Tonkin, Philippine Sea, Sea of
  Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, and other
  tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
  about 15 times the size of the US; covers about 28% of the global
  surface; larger than the total land area of the world

Coastline:
  135,663 km

Climate:
  planetary air pressure systems and resultant wind patterns exhibit
  remarkable uniformity in the south and east; trade winds and
  westerly winds are well-developed patterns, modified by seasonal
  fluctuations; tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of
  Mexico from June to October and affect Mexico and Central America;
  continental influences cause climatic uniformity to be much less
  pronounced in the eastern and western regions at the same latitude
  in the North Pacific Ocean; the western Pacific is monsoonal - a
  rainy season occurs during the summer months, when moisture-laden
  winds blow from the ocean over the land, and a dry season during the
  winter months, when dry winds blow from the Asian landmass back to
  the ocean; tropical cyclones (typhoons) may strike southeast and
  east Asia from May to December

Terrain:
  surface currents in the northern Pacific are dominated by a
  clockwise, warm-water gyre (broad circular system of currents) and
  in the southern Pacific by a counterclockwise, cool-water gyre; in
  the northern Pacific, sea ice forms in the Bering Sea and Sea of
  Okhotsk in winter; in the southern Pacific, sea ice from Antarctica
  reaches its northernmost extent in October; the ocean floor in the
  eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, while the
  western Pacific is dissected by deep trenches, including the Mariana
  Trench, which is the world's deepest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench -10,924 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
  oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules, sand and gravel
  aggregates, placer deposits, fish

Natural hazards:
  surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and earthquake activity
  sometimes referred to as the "Pacific Ring of Fire"; subject to
  tropical cyclones (typhoons) in southeast and east Asia from May to
  December (most frequent from July to October); tropical cyclones
  (hurricanes) may form south of Mexico and strike Central America and
  Mexico from June to October (most common in August and September);
  cyclical El Nino/La Nina phenomenon occurs in the equatorial
  Pacific, influencing weather in the Western Hemisphere and the
  western Pacific; ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme
  north from October to May; persistent fog in the northern Pacific
  can be a maritime hazard from June to December

Environment - current issues:
  endangered marine species include the dugong, sea lion, sea otter,
  seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in Philippine Sea and
  South China Sea

Geography - note:
  the major chokepoints are the Bering Strait, Panama Canal, Luzon
  Strait, and the Singapore Strait; the Equator divides the Pacific
  Ocean into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean;
  dotted with low coral islands and rugged volcanic islands in the
  southwestern Pacific Ocean



Economy Pacific Ocean


Economy - overview:
  The Pacific Ocean is a major contributor to the world economy and
  particularly to those nations its waters directly touch. It provides
  low-cost sea transportation between East and West, extensive fishing
  grounds, offshore oil and gas fields, minerals, and sand and gravel
  for the construction industry. In 1996, over 60% of the world's fish
  catch came from the Pacific Ocean. Exploitation of offshore oil and
  gas reserves is playing an ever-increasing role in the energy
  supplies of the US, Australia, NZ, China, and Peru. The high cost of
  recovering offshore oil and gas, combined with the wide swings in
  world prices for oil since 1985, has led to fluctuations in new
  drillings.


Transportation Pacific Ocean


Ports and terminals:
  Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong (China), Kao-hsiung (Taiwan), Los
  Angeles (US), Manila (Philippines), Pusan (South Korea), San
  Francisco (US), Seattle (US), Shanghai (China), Singapore, Sydney
  (Australia), Vladivostok (Russia), Wellington (NZ), Yokohama (Japan)

Transportation - note:
  Inside Passage offers protected waters from southeast Alaska to
  Puget Sound (Washington state)


Transnational Issues Pacific Ocean


Disputes - international:
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Pakistan

Introduction Pakistan


Background:
  The separation in 1947 of British India into the Muslim state of
  Pakistan (with two sections West and East) and largely Hindu India
  was never satisfactorily resolved, and India and Pakistan fought two
  wars - in 1947-48 and 1965 - over the disputed Kashmir territory. A
  third war between these countries in 1971 - in which India
  capitalized on Islamabad's marginalization of Bengalis in Pakistani
  politics - resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of
  Bangladesh. In response to Indian nuclear weapons testing, Pakistan
  conducted its own tests in 1998. The dispute over the state of
  Kashmir is ongoing, but discussions and confidence-building measures
  have led to decreased tensions since 2002.

Geography Pakistan


Location:
  Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea, between India on the east
  and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the north

Geographic coordinates:
  30 00 N, 70 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 803,940 sq km
  land: 778,720 sq km
  water: 25,220 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,774 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 2,430 km, China 523 km, India 2,912
  km, Iran 909 km

Coastline:
  1,046 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  mostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest; arctic in north

Terrain:
  flat Indus plain in east; mountains in north and northwest;
  Balochistan plateau in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: K2 (Mt. Godwin-Austen) 8,611 m

Natural resources:
  land, extensive natural gas reserves, limited petroleum, poor
  quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 24.44%
  permanent crops: 0.84%
  other: 74.72% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  182,300 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent earthquakes, occasionally severe especially in north and
  west; flooding along the Indus after heavy rains (July and August)

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from raw sewage, industrial wastes, and
  agricultural runoff; limited natural fresh water resources; a
  majority of the population does not have access to potable water;
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  controls Khyber Pass and Bolan Pass, traditional invasion routes
  between Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent

People Pakistan


Population:
  165,803,560 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 39% (male 33,293,428/female 31,434,314)
  15-64 years: 56.9% (male 48,214,298/female 46,062,933)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 3,256,065/female 3,542,522) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.8 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.09% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 70.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 70.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 70.04 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 63.39 years
  male: 62.4 years
  female: 64.44 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  74,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  4,900 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and cutaneous
  leishmaniasis are high risks depending on location
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Pakistani(s)
  adjective: Pakistani

Ethnic groups:
  Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun (Pathan), Baloch, Muhajir (immigrants from
  India at the time of partition and their descendants)

Religions:
  Muslim 97% (Sunni 77%, Shi'a 20%), Christian, Hindu, and other 3%

Languages:
  Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashtu
  8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English
  (official and lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government
  ministries), Burushaski, and other 8%

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 48.7%
  male: 61.7%
  female: 35.2% (2004 est.)

Government Pakistan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Pakistan
  conventional short form: Pakistan
  local long form: Jamhuryat Islami Pakistan
  local short form: Pakistan
  former: West Pakistan

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Islamabad
  geographic coordinates: 33 42 N, 73 10 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  4 provinces, 1 territory*, and 1 capital territory**; Balochistan,
  Federally Administered Tribal Areas*, Islamabad Capital Territory**,
  North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, Sindh
  note: the Pakistani-administered portion of the disputed Jammu and
  Kashmir region consists of two administrative entities: Azad Kashmir
  and Northern Areas

Independence:
  14 August 1947 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 23 March (1956)

Constitution:
  12 April 1973; suspended 5 July 1977, restored with amendments 30
  December 1985; suspended 15 October 1999, restored in stages in
  2002; amended 31 December 2003

Legal system:
  based on English common law with provisions to accommodate
  Pakistan's status as an Islamic state; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal; joint electorates and reserved
  parliamentary seats for women and non-Muslims

Executive branch:
  note: following a military takeover on 12 October 1999, Chief of
  Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee,
  General Pervez MUSHARRAF, suspended Pakistan's constitution and
  assumed the additional title of Chief Executive; on 12 May 2000,
  Pakistan's Supreme Court unanimously validated the October 1999 coup
  and granted MUSHARRAF executive and legislative authority for three
  years from the coup date; on 20 June 2001, MUSHARRAF named himself
  as president and was sworn in, replacing Mohammad Rafiq TARAR; in a
  referendum held on 30 April 2002, MUSHARRAF's presidency was
  extended by five more years; on 1 January 2004, MUSHARRAF won a vote
  of confidence in the Senate, National Assembly, and four provincial
  assemblies
  chief of state: President General Pervez MUSHARRAF (since 20 June
  2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shaukat AZIZ (since 28 August
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the president is elected by Parliament for a five-year
  term; note - in a referendum held on 30 April 2002, MUSHARRAF's
  presidency was extended by five more years (next to be held in
  2007); the prime minister is selected by the National Assembly (next
  to be held in 2007)
  election results: AZIZ elected by the National Assembly on 27 August
  2004 with 191 of the votes

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Majlis-e-Shoora consists of the Senate (100
  seats - formerly 87; members indirectly elected by provincial
  assemblies to serve six-year terms and the National Assembly (342
  seats - formerly 217; 60 seats represent women; 10 seats represent
  minorities; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held in March 2006 (next to be held in
  March 2009); National Assembly - last held 10 October 2002 (next to
  be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate results - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - PML 47, PPPP 9, MMA 20, MQM/A 6, PML/N 4, PML/F 1,
  PkMAP 3, ANP 2, PPP 3, JWP 1, BNP-Awami 1, BNP-Mengal 1, BNP/H 1,
  independents 1; National Assembly results - percent of votes by
  party - NA; seats by party - PML/Q 126, PPPP 81, MMA 63, PML/N 19,
  MQM/A 17, NA 16, PML/F 5, PML/J 3, PPP/S 2, BNP 1, JWP 1, PAT 1,
  PML/Z 1, PTI 1, MQM/H 1, PkMAP 1, independents 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by the president); Federal
  Islamic or Shari'a Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Awami National Party or ANP [Asfandyar Wali KHAN]; Balochistan
  National Party/Hayee Group or BNP/H [Dr. Hayee BALUCH]; Baluch
  National Party/Awami or BNP/Awami [Moheem Khan BALOCH]; Baluch
  National Party-Mengal or BNP/M [Sardar Ataullah MENGAL]; Jamhoori
  Watan Party or JWP; Jamiat-al-Hadith or JAH [Sajid MIR];
  Jamiat-i-Islami or JI [Qazi Hussain AHMED]; Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam,
  Fazlur Rehman faction or JUI/F [Fazlur REHMAN]; Jamiat
  Ulema-i-Islam, Sami ul-HAQ faction or JUI/S [Sami ul-HAQ]; Jamiat
  Ulema-i-Pakistan or JUP [Shah Faridul HAQ]; Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
  Pakistan or MMA [Qazi Hussain AHMED]; Muttahida Qaumi Movement,
  Altaf faction or MQM/A [Altaf HUSSAIN]; Muttahida Quami Movement,
  Haqiqi faction or MQM/H [Afaq AHMAD]; National Alliance or NA
  [Ghulam Mustapha JATOI]; Pakhtun Khwa Milli Awami Party or PkMAP
  [Mahmood Khan ACHAKZAI]; Pakhtun Quami Party or PQP [Mohammed Afzal
  KHAN]; Pakistan Awami Tehrik or PAT [Tahir ul QADRI]; Pakistan
  Muslim League, Functional Group or PML/F [Pir PAGARO]; Pakistan
  Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif faction or PML/N [Nawaz SHARIF];
  Pakistan Muslim League or PML [Chaudhry Shujaat HUSSAIN]; note - as
  of May 2004, the PML/Q changed its name to PML and absorbed the
  PML/J, PML/Z, and NA; Pakistan National Party or PNP [Hasil
  BIZENJO]; Pakistan People's Party or PPP [Aftab Ahmed Khan SHERPAO];
  Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians or PPPP [Benazir BHUTTO];
  Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf or PTI [Imran KHAN]; Tehrik-i-Islami
  [Allama Sajid NAQVI]
  note: political alliances in Pakistan can shift frequently

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  military remains most important political force; ulema (clergy),
  landowners, industrialists, and small merchants also influential

International organization participation:
  ARF, AsDB, C (reinstated 2004), CP, ECO, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, SAARC,
  SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mahmud Ali DURRANI
  chancery: 3517 International Court, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 243-6500
  FAX: [1] (202) 686-1544
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New
  York, Sunnyvale (California)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ryan CROCKER
  embassy: Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5, Islamabad
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1048, Unit 62200, APO AE 09812-2200
  telephone: [92] (51) 208-0000
  FAX: [92] (51) 2276427
  consulate(s) general: Karachi
  consulate(s): Lahore, Peshawar

Flag description:
  green with a vertical white band (symbolizing the role of religious
  minorities) on the hoist side; a large white crescent and star are
  centered in the green field; the crescent, star, and color green are
  traditional symbols of Islam

Economy Pakistan


Economy - overview:
  Pakistan, an impoverished and underdeveloped country, has suffered
  from decades of internal political disputes, low levels of foreign
  investment, and a costly, ongoing confrontation with neighboring
  India. However, IMF-approved government policies, bolstered by
  generous foreign assistance and renewed access to global markets
  since 2001, have generated solid macroeconomic recovery the last
  four years. The government has made substantial macroeconomic
  reforms since 2000, although progress on more politically sensitive
  reforms has slowed. For example, in the budget for fiscal year 2006,
  Islamabad did not impose taxes on the agriculture or real estate
  sectors, despite Pakistan's chronically low tax-to-GDP ratio. While
  long-term prospects remain uncertain, given Pakistan's low level of
  development, medium-term prospects for job creation and poverty
  reduction are the best in more than a decade. Islamabad has raised
  development spending from about 2% of GDP in the 1990s to 4% in
  2003, a necessary step towards reversing the broad underdevelopment
  of its social sector. GDP growth, spurred by double-digit gains in
  industrial production over the past year, has become less dependent
  on agriculture, and remained above 7% in 2004 and 2005. Inflation
  remains the biggest threat to the economy, jumping to more than 9%
  in 2005. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank announced that
  they would provide US $1 billion each in aid to help Pakistan
  rebuild areas hit by the October 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. Foreign
  exchange reserves continued to reach new levels in 2005, supported
  by steady worker remittances. In the near term, growth probably
  cannot be sustained at the 7% level; however, massive international
  aid, increased government spending, lower taxes, and pay increases
  for government workers will help Pakistan maintain strong GDP growth
  over the longer term.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $395.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $89.55 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 21.6%
  industry: 25.1%
  services: 53.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  46.84 million
  note: extensive export of labor, mostly to the Middle East, and use
  of child labor (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 42%
  industry: 20%
  services: 38% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6.6% plus substantial underemployment (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  32% (FY00/01 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 27.6% (FY96/97)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  41 (FY98/99)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  15.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $15.45 billion
  expenditures: $20.07 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  53.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; milk, beef,
  mutton, eggs

Industries:
  textiles and apparel, food processing, pharmaceuticals,
  construction materials, paper products, fertilizer, shrimp

Industrial production growth rate:
  10.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  76.92 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 68.8%
  hydro: 28.2%
  nuclear: 3%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  71.54 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  63,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  365,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  341.8 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  23.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  23.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  759.7 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-1.109 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $14.85 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles (garments, bed linen, cotton cloth, yarn), rice, leather
  goods, sports goods, chemicals, manufactures, carpets and rugs

Exports - partners:
  US 22.5%, UAE 8.9%, UK 5.8%, China 5.4%, Germany 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $21.26 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum, petroleum products, machinery, plastics, transportation
  equipment, edible oils, paper and paperboard, iron and steel, tea

Imports - partners:
  China 13.8%, Saudi Arabia 10.3%, UAE 8.8%, Japan 6.1%, US 5%,
  Kuwait 5%, Germany 4.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $10.95 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $38.8 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.4 billion (FY01/02)

Currency (code):
  Pakistani rupee (PKR)

Currency code:
  PKR

Exchange rates:
  Pakistani rupees per US dollar - 59.515 (2005), 58.258 (2004),
  57.752 (2003), 59.724 (2002), 61.927 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Pakistan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  5,277,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  12.771 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the domestic system is mediocre, but improving;
  service is adequate for government and business use, in part because
  major businesses have established their own private systems; since
  1988, the government has promoted investment in the national
  telecommunications system on a priority basis, significantly
  increasing network capacity; despite major improvements in trunk and
  urban systems, telecommunication services are still not readily
  available to the majority of the rural population
  domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable,
  cellular, and satellite networks
  international: country code - 92; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); 3 operational
  international gateway exchanges (1 at Karachi and 2 at Islamabad);
  microwave radio relay to neighboring countries (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 27, FM 1, shortwave 21 (1998)

Radios:
  13.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  22 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  3.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pk

Internet hosts:
  72,765 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  30 (2000)

Internet users:
  10.5 million (2005)

Transportation Pakistan


Airports:
  139 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 91
  over 3,047 m: 14
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 21
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 33
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 48
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Heliports:
  18 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 10,257 km; oil 2,001 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 8,163 km
  broad gauge: 7,718 km 1.676-m gauge (293 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 445 km 1.000-m gauge (2004)

Roadways:
  total: 255,856 km
  paved: 157,975 km (including 367 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 97,881 km (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 16 ships (1000 GRT or over) 397,740 GRT/657,656 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 10, container 1, petroleum tanker 4
  registered in other countries: 11 (Comoros 2, North Korea 3, Malta
  1, Nigeria 1, Panama 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Karachi, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim

Military Pakistan


Military branches:
  Army (includes National Guard), Navy (includes Marines), Pakistan
  Air Force (Pakistan Fiza'ya) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers cannot be
  deployed for combat until age of 18; the Pakistani Air Force has
  inducted its first female combat pilot (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 39,028,014
  females age 16-49: 36,779,584 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 29,428,747
  females age 16-49: 28,391,887 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,969,055
  females age 16-49: 1,849,254 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.26 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Pakistan


Disputes - international:
  various talks and confidence-building measures cautiously have
  begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the
  October 2005 earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains
  the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial
  dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China
  (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir
  and Northern Areas); UN Military Observer Group in India and
  Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has maintained a small group of peacekeepers
  since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic
  Kashmir lands to China in 1964; in 2004, India and Pakistan
  instituted a cease-fire in the Kashmir, and in 2005 restored bus
  service across the highly militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has
  taken its dispute on the impact of India's building the Baglihar Dam
  on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for
  arbitration and in general the two states still dispute Indus River
  water sharing; to defuse tensions and prepare discussions on a
  maritime boundary, in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion
  of the disputed the Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of
  Kutch; Pakistani maps continue to show the Junagadh claim in India's
  Gujarat State; by 2005, Pakistan, with UN assistance, had
  repatriated 2.3 million Afghan refugees and had undertaken a census
  to count the remaining million or more, many of whom remain at their
  own choosing; Pakistan has sent troops into remote tribal areas to
  control the border with Afghanistan and stem organized terrorist or
  other illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings with Afghan
  and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary
  encroachments

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 960,041 (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: undetermined (government strikes on Islamic militants in South
  Waziristan); 3 million (October 2005 earthquake) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  opium poppy cultivation declined 58% to 3,147 hectares in 2005;
  federal and provincial authorities continue to conduct anti-poppy
  campaigns that force eradication - fines and arrests will take place
  if the ban on poppy cultivation is not observed; key transit point
  for Afghan drugs, including heroin, opium, morphine, and hashish,
  bound for Western markets, the Gulf States, and Africa; financial
  crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption, and
  smuggling remain problems


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Palau

Introduction Palau


Background:
  After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the
  Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the
  Caroline Islands opted for independence in 1978 rather than join the
  Federated States of Micronesia. A Compact of Free Association with
  the US was approved in 1986, but not ratified until 1993. It entered
  into force the following year, when the islands gained independence.

Geography Palau


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, southeast of
  the Philippines

Geographic coordinates:
  7 30 N, 134 30 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 458 sq km
  land: 458 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,519 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot and humid; wet season May to November

Terrain:
  varying geologically from the high, mountainous main island of
  Babelthuap to low, coral islands usually fringed by large barrier
  reefs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Ngerchelchuus 242 m

Natural resources:
  forests, minerals (especially gold), marine products, deep-seabed
  minerals

Land use:
  arable land: 8.7%
  permanent crops: 4.35%
  other: 86.95% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons (June to December)

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate facilities for disposal of solid waste; threats to the
  marine ecosystem from sand and coral dredging, illegal fishing
  practices, and overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  westernmost archipelago in the Caroline chain, consists of six
  island groups totaling more than 300 islands; includes World War II
  battleground of Beliliou (Peleliu) and world-famous rock islands

People Palau


Population:
  20,579 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.3% (male 2,789/female 2,622)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 7,664/female 6,549)
  65 years and over: 4.6% (male 453/female 502) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.7 years
  male: 32.7 years
  female: 30.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.31% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.17 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.13 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.42 years
  male: 67.26 years
  female: 73.77 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Palauan(s)
  adjective: Palauan

Ethnic groups:
  Palauan (Micronesian with Malayan and Melanesian admixtures) 69.9%,
  Filipino 15.3%, Chinese 4.9%, other Asian 2.4%, white 1.9%,
  Carolinian 1.4%, other Micronesian 1.1%, other or unspecified 3.2%
  (2000 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 41.6%, Protestant 23.3%, Modekngei 8.8% (indigenous
  to Palau), Seventh-Day Adventist 5.3%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%,
  Latter-Day Saints 0.6%, other religion 3.1%, unspecified or none
  16.4% (2000 census)

Languages:
  Palauan 64.7% official in all islands except Sonsoral (Sonsoralese
  and English are official), Tobi (Tobi and English are official), and
  Angaur (Angaur, Japanese, and English are official), Filipino 13.5%,
  English 9.4%, Chinese 5.7%, Carolinian 1.5%, Japanese 1.5%, other
  Asian 2.3%, other languages 1.5% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92%
  male: 93%
  female: 90% (1980 est.)

Government Palau


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Palau
  conventional short form: Palau
  local long form: Beluu er a Belau
  local short form: Belau
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Palau District

Government type:
  constitutional government in free association with the US; the
  Compact of Free Association entered into force 1 October 1994

Capital:
  name: Melekeok
  geographic coordinates: 7 29 N, 134 38 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  16 states; Aimeliik, Airai, Angaur, Hatohobei, Kayangel, Koror,
  Melekeok, Ngaraard, Ngarchelong, Ngardmau, Ngatpang, Ngchesar,
  Ngeremlengui, Ngiwal, Peleliu, Sonsorol

Independence:
  1 October 1994 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 9 July (1979)

Constitution:
  1 January 1981

Legal system:
  based on Trust Territory laws, acts of the legislature, municipal,
  common, and customary laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. (since 19
  January 2001) and Vice President Camsek CHIN (since 1 January 2005);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. (since 19
  January 2001) and Vice President Camsek CHIN (since 1 January 2005)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: president and vice president elected on separate tickets
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. reelected president;
  percent of vote - Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. 64%, Polycarp BASILIUS
  33%; Elias Camsek CHIN elected vice president; percent of vote -
  Elias Camsek CHIN 70%, Sandra PIERANTOZZI 29%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Olbiil Era Kelulau (OEK) consists of the
  Senate (9 seats; members elected by popular vote on a population
  basis to serve four-year terms) and the House of Delegates (16
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held
  November 2008); House of Delegates - last held 2 November 2004 (next
  to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote - NA%; seats -
  independents 9 (four new members elected); House of Delegates -
  percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 16 (one new member
  elected)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; National Court; Court of Common Pleas

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IMF, IOC,
  IPU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hersey KYOTA
  chancery: 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC
  20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-6814
  FAX: [1] (202) 452-6281
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu
  consulate(s): Tamuning (Guam)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: US ambassador to the Philippines is accredited to
  Palau
  embassy: Koror (no street address)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 6028, Republic of Palau 96940
  telephone: [680] 488-2920, 2990
  FAX: [680] 488-2911

Flag description:
  light blue with a large yellow disk (representing the moon) shifted
  slightly to the hoist side

Economy Palau


Economy - overview:
  The economy consists primarily of tourism, subsistence agriculture,
  and fishing. The government is the major employer of the work force,
  relying heavily on financial assistance from the US. Business and
  tourist arrivals numbered 63,000 in 2003. The population enjoys a
  per capita income twice that of the Philippines and much of
  Micronesia. Long-run prospects for the key tourist sector have been
  greatly bolstered by the expansion of air travel in the Pacific, the
  rising prosperity of leading East Asian countries, and the
  willingness of foreigners to finance infrastructure development.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $124.5 million; note - includes US subsidy (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $145 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA% 6.2%
  industry: NA% 12%
  services: NA% 81.8%

Labor force:
  9,777 (2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA% (1990)

Unemployment rate:
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $72.07 million
  expenditures: $72.43 million; including capital expenditures of
  $12.98 million (FY98/99 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, copra, cassava (tapioca), sweet potatoes; fish

Industries:
  tourism, craft items (from shell, wood, pearls), construction,
  garment making

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production by source:
  NA

Current account balance:
  $15.09 million

Exports:
  $5.882 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  shellfish, tuna, copra, garments

Exports - partners:
  US, Japan, Singapore (2004)

Imports:
  $107.3 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuels, metals; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  US, Singapore, Japan, South Korea (2004)

Debt - external:
  $0 (FY99/00)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $19.6 million; note - the Compact of Free Association with the US,
  entered into after the end of the UN trusteeship on 1 October 1994,
  provides Palau with up to $700 million in US aid over 15 years in
  return for furnishing military facilities

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Palau


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6,700 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,000 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 680; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2002)

Radios:
  12,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (cable) (2005)

Televisions:
  11,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pw

Internet hosts:
  3 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Transportation Palau


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 61 km
  paved: 36 km
  unpaved: 25 km

Ports and terminals:
  Koror

Military Palau


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Palau National Police (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,694 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,087 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 142 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US; under a Compact of Free
  Association between Palau and the US, the US military is granted
  access to the islands for 50 years, but it has not stationed any
  military forces there (2005)

Transnational Issues Palau


Disputes - international:
  border delineation disputes being negotiated with Philippines,
  Indonesia


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Panama

Introduction Panama


Background:
  Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama
  broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Colombia, Venezuela,
  and Ecuador - named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When the latter
  dissolved in 1830, Panama remained part of Colombia. With US
  backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and promptly signed a
  treaty with the US allowing for the construction of a canal and US
  sovereignty over a strip of land on either side of the structure
  (the Panama Canal Zone). The Panama Canal was built by the US Army
  Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was
  signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the US to Panama
  by the end of the century. Certain portions of the Zone and
  increasing responsibility over the Canal were turned over in the
  subsequent decades. With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was
  deposed in 1989. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the
  Canal, and remaining US military bases were transfered to Panama by
  the end of 1999. In October 2006, Panamanians approved an ambitious
  plan to expand the Canal. The project, which is to begin in 2007 and
  could double the Canal's capacity, is expected to be completed in
  2014-15.

Geography Panama


Location:
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica

Geographic coordinates:
  9 00 N, 80 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 78,200 sq km
  land: 75,990 sq km
  water: 2,210 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Land boundaries:
  total: 555 km
  border countries: Colombia 225 km, Costa Rica 330 km

Coastline:
  2,490 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical maritime; hot, humid, cloudy; prolonged rainy season (May
  to January), short dry season (January to May)

Terrain:
  interior mostly steep, rugged mountains and dissected, upland
  plains; coastal areas largely plains and rolling hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Volcan de Chiriqui 3,475 m

Natural resources:
  copper, mahogany forests, shrimp, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 7.26%
  permanent crops: 1.95%
  other: 90.79% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  430 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional severe storms and forest fires in the Darien area

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from agricultural runoff threatens fishery
  resources; deforestation of tropical rain forest; land degradation
  and soil erosion threatens siltation of Panama Canal; air pollution
  in urban areas; mining threatens natural resources

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location on eastern end of isthmus forming land bridge
  connecting North and South America; controls Panama Canal that links
  North Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea with North Pacific Ocean

People Panama


Population:
  3,191,319 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.3% (male 492,403/female 472,996)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 1,025,898/female 998,926)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 94,122/female 106,974) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.1 years
  male: 25.8 years
  female: 26.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.6% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 16.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.75 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.22 years
  male: 72.68 years
  female: 77.87 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.9% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  16,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Panamanian(s)
  adjective: Panamanian

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 70%, Amerindian and mixed
  (West Indian) 14%, white 10%, Amerindian 6%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), English 14%; note - many Panamanians bilingual

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 93.2%
  female: 91.9% (2003 est.)

Government Panama


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Panama
  conventional short form: Panama
  local long form: Republica de Panama
  local short form: Panama

Government type:
  constitutional democracy

Capital:
  name: Panama
  geographic coordinates: 8 58 N, 79 32 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 territory*
  (comarca); Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon, Darien, Herrera,
  Los Santos, Panama, San Blas*(Kuna Yala), and Veraguas

Independence:
  3 November 1903 (from Colombia; became independent from Spain 28
  November 1821)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 3 November (1903)

Constitution:
  11 October 1972; major reforms adopted 1978, 1983, 1994, and 2004

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts in
  the Supreme Court of Justice; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Martin TORRIJOS Espino (since 1 September
  2004); First Vice President Samuel LEWIS Navarro (since 1 September
  2004); Second Vice President Ruben AROSEMENA Valdes (since 1
  September 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Martin TORRIJOS Espino (since 1
  September 2004); First Vice President Samuel LEWIS Navarro (since 1
  September 2004); Second Vice President Ruben AROSEMENA Valdes (since
  1 September 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice presidents elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for five-year terms (eligible for two more terms);
  election last held 2 May 2004 (next to be held 3 May 2009); note -
  beginning in 2009, Panama will have only one vice president.
  election results: Martin TORRIJOS Espino elected president; percent
  of vote - Martin TORRIJOS Espino 47.5%, Guillermo ENDARA Galimany
  30.6%, Jose Miguel ALEMAN 17%, Ricardo MARTINELLI 4.9%
  note: government coalition - PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party),
  PP (Popular Party)

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (formerly called Legislative Assembly)
  or Asamblea Nacional (78 seats; members are elected by popular vote
  to serve five-year terms); note - in 2009, the number of seats will
  change to 71
  elections: last held 2 May 2004 (next to be held 3 May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PRD 40, PA 17, PS 8, MOLIRENA 3, CD 2, PP 2, PLN 1, other 5
  note: legislators from outlying rural districts are chosen on a
  plurality basis while districts located in more populous towns and
  cities elect multiple legislators by means of a proportion-based
  formula

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (nine judges
  appointed for 10-year terms); five superior courts; three courts of
  appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Change or CD [Ricardo MARTINELLI]; Democratic
  Revolutionary Party or PRD [Hugo GUIRAUD]; National Liberal Party or
  PLN [Anibal GALINDO]; Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement or
  MOLIRENA [Jesus ROSAS]; Panamenista Party or PA (formerly the
  Arnulfista Party) [Marco AMEGLIO]; Popular Party or PP (formerly
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC) [Ricardo ARIAS Calderon];
  Solidarity Party or PS [Jose Raul MULINO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Chamber of Commerce; National Civic Crusade; National Council of
  Organized Workers or CONATO; National Council of Private Enterprise
  or CONEP; National Union of Construction and Similar Workers
  (SUNTRACS); Panamanian Association of Business Executives or APEDE;
  Panamanian Industrialists Society or SIP; Workers Confederation of
  the Republic of Panama or CTRP

International organization participation:
  CAN (observer), CSN (observer), FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM,
  OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Federico HUMBERT Arias
  chancery: 2862 McGill Terrace NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-1407
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-8416
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Houston, Miami, New Orleans, New
  York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Tampa

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William A. EATON
  embassy: Avenida Balboa and Calle 37, Apartado Postal 0816-02561,
  Zona 5, Panama City 5
  mailing address: American Embassy Panama, Unit 0945, APO AA 34002
  telephone: [507] 207-7000
  FAX: [507] 227-1964

Flag description:
  divided into four, equal rectangles; the top quadrants are white
  (hoist side) with a blue five-pointed star in the center and plain
  red; the bottom quadrants are plain blue (hoist side) and white with
  a red five-pointed star in the center

Economy Panama


Economy - overview:
  Panama's dollarised economy rests primarily on a well-developed
  services sector that accounts for three-fourths of GDP. Services
  include operating the Panama Canal, banking, the Colon Free Zone,
  insurance, container ports, flagship registry, and tourism. A slump
  in the Colon Free Zone and agricultural exports, the global
  slowdown, and the withdrawal of US military forces held back
  economic growth in 2000-03; growth picked up in 2004 and 2005 led by
  export-oriented services and a construction boom stimulated by tax
  incentives. The government has implemented tax reforms, as well as
  social security reforms, and backs regional trade agreements and
  development of tourism. Unemployment remains high.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $23.33 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $14.89 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 6.8%
  industry: 15.6%
  services: 77.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.39 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor, but an oversupply of unskilled
  labor (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 20.8%
  industry: 18%
  services: 61.2% (1995 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  37% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 35.7% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  56.4 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.426 billion
  expenditures: $3.959 billion; including capital expenditures of $471
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  64.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, rice, corn, coffee, sugarcane, vegetables; livestock;
  shrimp

Industries:
  construction, brewing, cement and other construction materials,
  sugar milling

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  5.398 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 37%
  hydro: 61.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 1.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.87 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  175 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  25 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  78,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day; note - imports oil

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-705.7 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $7.481 billion f.o.b.; note - includes the Colon Free Zone (2005
  est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas, shrimp, sugar, coffee, clothing

Exports - partners:
  US 44.9%, Spain 8.9%, Sweden 5.6%, Netherlands 4.9%, Costa Rica 4%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $8.734 billion f.o.b. (includes the Colon Free Zone) (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  US 27.5%, Netherlands Antilles 11.4%, Costa Rica 4.7%, Japan 4.5%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.211 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $9.758 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $197.1 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  balboa (PAB); US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  PAB; USD

Exchange rates:
  balboas per US dollar - 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1 (2003), 1 (2002), 1
  (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Panama


Telephones - main lines in use:
  440,100 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.352 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: domestic and international facilities well
  developed
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 507; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to
  the Central American Microwave System

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 101, FM 134, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  815,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  38 (including repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:
  510,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pa

Internet hosts:
  7,149 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  300,000 (2005)

Transportation Panama


Airports:
  117 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 53
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 28 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 64
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 355 km
  standard gauge: 77 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 278 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 11,643 km
  paved: 4,028 km
  unpaved: 7,615 km (2000)

Waterways:
  800 km (includes 82 km Panama Canal) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 5,473 ships (1000 GRT or over) 146,511,342 GRT/219,940,567
  DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 1,776, cargo 992, chemical
  tanker 476, combination ore/oil 2, container 663, liquefied gas 193,
  livestock carrier 7, passenger 49, passenger/cargo 77, petroleum
  tanker 518, refrigerated cargo 299, roll on/roll off 123,
  specialized tanker 23, vehicle carrier 274
  foreign-owned: 4,922 (Anguilla 1, Argentina 9, Australia 3, Bahamas,
  The 2, Belgium 11, Bermuda 1, Bulgaria 1, Canada 4, Chile 9, China
  420, Colombia 5, Croatia 5, Cuba 11, Cyprus 14, Denmark 34, Egypt
  16, Estonia 3, France 15, Gabon 1, Germany 35, Greece 524, Hong Kong
  169, India 19, Indonesia 50, Iran 4, Ireland 2, Israel 6, Italy 15,
  Japan 2007, Jordan 13, South Korea ( ( (291, Kuwait 2, Latvia 3,
  Lebanon 2, Lithuania 5, Malaysia 13, Maldives 1, Malta 3, Mexico 5,
  Monaco 9, Morocco 1, Netherlands 21, Nigeria 7, Norway 66, Pakistan
  3, Peru 15, Philippines 13, Poland 15, Portugal 10, Qatar 1, Romania
  9, Russia 7, Saudi Arabia 8, Singapore 67, South Africa 3, Spain 53,
  Sri Lanka 5, Sudan 1, Sweden 5, Switzerland 226, Syria 18, Taiwan
  308, Thailand 9, Trinidad and Tobago 1, Turkey 42, UAE 105, UK 37,
  Ukraine 8, US 94, Venezuela 14, Vietnam 4, Yemen 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Venezuela 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Balboa, Colon, Cristobal

Military Panama


Military branches:
  an amendment to the Constitution abolished the armed forces, but
  there are security forces (Panamanian Public Forces or PPF includes
  the Panamanian National Police, National Maritime Service, and
  National Air Service)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 751,065 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 591,604 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 29,724

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $150 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  on 10 February 1990, the government of then President ENDARA
  abolished Panama's military and reformed the security apparatus by
  creating the Panamanian Public Forces; in October 1994, Panama's
  Legislative Assembly approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting
  the creation of a standing military force, but allowing the
  temporary establishment of special police units to counter acts of
  "external aggression"

Transnational Issues Panama


Disputes - international:
  organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia operate within
  the border region with Panama

Illicit drugs:
  major cocaine transshipment point and primary money-laundering
  center for narcotics revenue; money-laundering activity is
  especially heavy in the Colon Free Zone; offshore financial center;
  negligible signs of coca cultivation; monitoring of financial
  transactions is improving; official corruption remains a major
  problem


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Papua New Guinea

Introduction Papua New Guinea


Background:
  The eastern half of the island of New Guinea - second largest in
  the world - was divided between Germany (north) and the UK (south)
  in 1885. The latter area was transferred to Australia in 1902, which
  occupied the northern portion during World War I and continued to
  administer the combined areas until independence in 1975. A
  nine-year secessionist revolt on the island of Bougainville ended in
  1997 after claiming some 20,000 lives.

Geography Papua New Guinea


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island
  of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean,
  east of Indonesia

Geographic coordinates:
  6 00 S, 147 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 462,840 sq km
  land: 452,860 sq km
  water: 9,980 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 820 km
  border countries: Indonesia 820 km

Coastline:
  5,152 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon
  (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Wilhelm 4,509 m

Natural resources:
  gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries

Land use:
  arable land: 0.49%
  permanent crops: 1.4%
  other: 98.11% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  active volcanism; situated along the Pacific "Ring of Fire"; the
  country is subject to frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes; mud
  slides; tsunamis

Environment - current issues:
  rain forest subject to deforestation as a result of growing
  commercial demand for tropical timber; pollution from mining
  projects; severe drought

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; one of world's largest
  swamps along southwest coast

People Papua New Guinea


Population:
  5,670,544 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37.8% (male 1,090,879/female 1,054,743)
  15-64 years: 58.3% (male 1,703,204/female 1,601,224)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 103,054/female 117,440) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.2 years
  male: 21.4 years
  female: 21.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.21% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.36 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 49.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 45.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.28 years
  male: 63.08 years
  female: 67.58 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  16,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  600 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Papua New Guinean(s)
  adjective: Papua New Guinean

Ethnic groups:
  Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 22%, Lutheran 16%, Presbyterian/Methodist/London
  Missionary Society 8%, Anglican 5%, Evangelical Alliance 4%,
  Seventh-Day Adventist 1%, other Protestant 10%, indigenous beliefs
  34%

Languages:
  Melanesian Pidgin serves as the lingua franca, English spoken by
  1%-2%, Motu spoken in Papua region
  note: 820 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's
  total)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 64.6%
  male: 71.1%
  female: 57.7% (2002)

Government Papua New Guinea


Country name:
  conventional long form: Independent State of Papua New Guinea
  conventional short form: Papua New Guinea
  local short form: Papuaniugini
  former: Territory of Papua and New Guinea
  abbreviation: PNG

Government type:
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Port Moresby
  geographic coordinates: 9 30 S, 147 10 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  20 provinces; Bougainville, Central, Chimbu, Eastern Highlands,
  East New Britain, East Sepik, Enga, Gulf, Madang, Manus, Milne Bay,
  Morobe, National Capital, New Ireland, Northern, Sandaun, Southern
  Highlands, Western, Western Highlands, West New Britain

Independence:
  16 September 1975 (from the Australian-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 16 September (1975)

Constitution:
  16 September 1975

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by governor general Sir Paulius MATANE (since 29 June
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sir Michael SOMARE (since 2
  August 2002); deputy prime minister Don Polye (since 5 July 2006)
  cabinet: National Executive Council appointed by the governor
  general on the recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the National Executive Council; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition usually is appointed prime minister by the
  governor general

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Parliament - sometimes referred to as the House
  of Assembly (109 seats, 89 elected from open electorates and 20 from
  provincial electorates; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 15-29 June 2002 and April and May 2003;
  completed in May 2003 (voting in the Southern Highlands was not
  completed during the June 2002 election period); next to be held not
  later than June 2007
  election results: percent of vote by party - National Alliance 18%,
  URP 13%, PDM 12%, PPP 8%, Pangu 6%, PAP 5%, PLP 4%, others 34%;
  seats by party - National Alliance 19, URP 14, PDM 13, PPP 8, PANGU
  6, PAP 5, PLP 4, others 40; as of January 2006 - National Alliance
  25, URP 10, PNGP 9, PPP 9, PANGU 6, PAP 12, PLP 4, others 34
  note: association with political parties is fluid (2005)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (the chief justice is appointed by the governor
  general on the proposal of the National Executive Council after
  consultation with the minister responsible for justice; other judges
  are appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Party [Dr. Banare BUN]; Melanesian Alliance
  Party or MAP [Sir Moi AVEL]; National Alliance Party or NA [Michael
  SOMARE]; National Party [Melcher PEP]; Papua and Niugini Union Party
  or PANGU [Rabbie NAMALIU]; Papua New Guinea First Party [Cecilking
  DORUBA]; Papua New Guinea Labor Party [Bob DANAYA]; Papua New Guinea
  Party or PNGP (was People's Democratic Movement or PDM) [Sir Mekere
  MORAUTA]; People's Action Party or PAP [Moses MALADINA]; People's
  Labor Party or PLP [Ekis ROPENU]; People's National Congress or PNC
  [Peter O'NEILL]; People's Progress Party or PPP [Byron CHAN]; Pipol
  First Party [Luther WENGE]; United Party [Bire KIMASOPA]; United
  Resources Party or URP [Tim NEVILLE] (2005)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (observer), C, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Evan Jeremy PAKI
  chancery: 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 805, Washington, DC
  20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-3680
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-3679

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert W. FITTS
  embassy: Douglas Street, Port Moresby
  mailing address: 4240 Port Moresby PI, US Department of State,
  Washington DC 20521-4240
  telephone: [675] 321-1455
  FAX: [675] 321-3423

Flag description:
  divided diagonally from upper hoist-side corner; the upper triangle
  is red with a soaring yellow bird of paradise centered; the lower
  triangle is black with five, white, five-pointed stars of the
  Southern Cross constellation centered

Economy Papua New Guinea


Economy - overview:
  Papua New Guinea is richly endowed with natural resources, but
  exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain and the high cost
  of developing infrastructure. Agriculture provides a subsistence
  livelihood for 85% of the population. Mineral deposits, including
  oil, copper, and gold, account for nearly two-thirds of export
  earnings. The economy has improved over the past three years because
  of high commodity prices following a prolonged period of
  instability. The government of Prime Minister SOMARE has expended
  much of its energy remaining in power and should be the first
  government in decades to serve a full five-year term. The government
  has also brought stability to the national budget thus far, largely
  through expenditure control. Numerous challenges still face the
  government including regaining investor confidence, restoring
  integrity to state institutions, promoting economic efficiency by
  privatizing moribund state institutions, and balancing relations
  with Australia, the former colonial ruler. Other socio-cultural
  challenges include the HIV/Aids epidemic, law and order, and land
  tenure issues. Australia annually supplies $240 million in aid,
  which accounts for nearly 20% of the national budget.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $14.37 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $3.924 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 35.3%
  industry: 38.1%
  services: 26.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.413 million (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 85%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  2.8% up to 80% in urban areas (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  37% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.7%
  highest 10%: 40.5% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  50.9 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.368 billion
  expenditures: $1.354 billion; including capital expenditures of $344
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  42.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cocoa, copra, palm kernels, tea, sugar, rubber, sweet
  potatoes, fruit, vegetables, vanilla; shell fish, poultry, pork

Industries:
  copra crushing, palm oil processing, plywood production, wood chip
  production; mining of gold, silver, and copper; crude oil
  production, petroleum refining; construction, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.592 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 54.1%
  hydro: 45.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.481 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  50,000 bbl/day (January 2006 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  18,000 bbl/day (January 2006 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  170 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  140 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  140 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  345.5 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $482.1 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.833 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil, gold, copper ore, logs, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, crayfish,
  prawns

Exports - partners:
  Australia 28.7%, Japan 8.6%, China 5.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.651 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food, fuels,
  chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Australia 54.6%, Singapore 13.4%, Japan 4.3%, Malaysia 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $748.8 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.882 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  kina (PGK)

Currency code:
  PGK

Exchange rates:
  kina per US dollar - 3.08 (2005), 3.2225 (2004), 3.5635 (2003),
  3.8952 (2002), 3.3887 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Papua New Guinea


Telephones - main lines in use:
  62,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  26,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: services are adequate; facilities provide
  radiotelephone and telegraph, coastal radio, aeronautical radio, and
  international radio communication services
  domestic: mostly radiotelephone
  international: country code - 675; submarine cables to Australia and
  Guam; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean);
  international radio communication service

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 19, shortwave 28 (1998)

Radios:
  410,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (all in the Port Moresby area)
  note: additional stations at Mt. Hagen, Goroka, Lae, and Rabaul are
  planned (2004)

Televisions:
  59,841 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .pg

Internet hosts:
  1,573 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2000)

Internet users:
  170,000 (2005)

Transportation Papua New Guinea


Airports:
  582 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 21
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 561
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 62
  under 914 m: 488 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 264 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 19,600 km
  paved: 686 km
  unpaved: 18,914 km (1999)

Waterways:
  10,940 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 55,532 GRT/72,240 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 18, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum
  tanker 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 6 (UK 6) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Kimbe, Lae, Rabaul

Military Papua New Guinea


Military branches:
  Papua New Guinea Defense Force (includes Maritime Operations
  Element, Air Operations Element)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,264,728
  females age 18-49: 1,167,188 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 902,432
  females age 18-49: 894,759 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $16.9 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Papua New Guinea


Disputes - international:
  relies on assistance from Australia to keep out illegal
  cross-border activities from primarily Indonesia, including goods
  smuggling, illegal narcotics trafficking, and squatters and
  secessionists


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Paracel Islands

Introduction Paracel Islands


Background:
  The Paracel Islands are surrounded by productive fishing grounds
  and by potential oil and gas reserves. In 1932, French Indochina
  annexed the islands and set up a weather station on Pattle Island;
  maintenance was continued by its successor, Vietnam. China has
  occupied the Paracel Islands since 1974, when its troops seized a
  South Vietnamese garrison occupying the western islands. The islands
  are claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Geography Paracel Islands


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, group of small islands and reefs in the South
  China Sea, about one-third of the way from central Vietnam to the
  northern Philippines

Geographic coordinates:
  16 30 N, 112 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: NA sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  NA

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  518 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  mostly low and flat

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Rocky Island 14 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  composed of 130 small coral islands and reefs divided into the
  northeast Amphitrite Group and the western Crescent Group

People Paracel Islands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there are scattered Chinese garrisons

Government Paracel Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Paracel Islands

Economy Paracel Islands


Economy - overview:
  China announced plans in 1997 to open the islands for tourism.


Transportation Paracel Islands


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  small Chinese port facilities on Woody Island and Duncan Island
  being expanded

Military Paracel Islands


Military - note:
  occupied by China

Transnational Issues Paracel Islands


Disputes - international:
  occupied by China, also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Paraguay

Introduction Paraguay


Background:
  In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70), Paraguay
  lost two-thirds of all adult males and much of its territory. It
  stagnated economically for the next half century. In the Chaco War
  of 1932-35, large, economically important areas were won from
  Bolivia. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo STROESSNER was
  overthrown in 1989, and, despite a marked increase in political
  infighting in recent years, relatively free and regular presidential
  elections have been held since then.

Geography Paraguay


Location:
  Central South America, northeast of Argentina

Geographic coordinates:
  23 00 S, 58 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 406,750 sq km
  land: 397,300 sq km
  water: 9,450 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,920 km
  border countries: Argentina 1,880 km, Bolivia 750 km, Brazil 1,290 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  subtropical to temperate; substantial rainfall in the eastern
  portions, becoming semiarid in the far west

Terrain:
  grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran Chaco
  region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the river,
  and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: junction of Rio Paraguay and Rio Parana 46 m
  highest point: Cerro Pero (Cerro Tres Kandu) 842 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, timber, iron ore, manganese, limestone

Land use:
  arable land: 7.47%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 92.29% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  670 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  local flooding in southeast (early September to June); poorly
  drained plains may become boggy (early October to June)

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; water pollution; inadequate means for waste disposal
  pose health risks for many urban residents; loss of wetlands

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; lies between Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil; population
  concentrated in southern part of country

People Paraguay


Population:
  6,506,464 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37.7% (male 1,245,149/female 1,204,970)
  15-64 years: 57.5% (male 1,878,761/female 1,862,266)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 145,899/female 169,419) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.3 years
  male: 21.1 years
  female: 21.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.1 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 24.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 29.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 19.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.1 years
  male: 72.56 years
  female: 77.78 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  15,000 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  600 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Paraguayan(s)
  adjective: Paraguayan

Ethnic groups:
  mestizo (mixed Spanish and Amerindian) 95%, other 5%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 90%, Mennonite and other Protestant 10%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), Guarani (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94%
  male: 94.9%
  female: 93% (2003 est.)

Government Paraguay


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Paraguay
  conventional short form: Paraguay
  local long form: Republica del Paraguay
  local short form: Paraguay

Government type:
  constitutional republic

Capital:
  name: Asuncion
  geographic coordinates: 25 16 S, 57 40 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  17 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and 1
  capital city*; Alto Paraguay, Alto Parana, Amambay, Asuncion*,
  Boqueron, Caaguazu, Caazapa, Canindeyu, Central, Concepcion,
  Cordillera, Guaira, Itapua, Misiones, Neembucu, Paraguari,
  Presidente Hayes, San Pedro

Independence:
  14 May 1811 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 14 May 1811 (observed 15 May annually)

Constitution:
  promulgated 20 June 1992

Legal system:
  based on Argentine codes, Roman law, and French codes; judicial
  review of legislative acts in Supreme Court of Justice; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory up to age 75

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS (since 15 August
  2003); Vice President Luis CASTIGLIONI Joria (since 15 August 2003);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS (since 15 August
  2003); Vice President Luis CASTIGLIONI Joria (since 15 August 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 27
  April 2003 (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS elected president; percent
  of vote - Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS 37.1%, Julio Cesar Ramon FRANCO
  Gomez 23.9%, Pedro Nicolas Maraa FADUL Niella 21.3%, Guillermo
  SANCHEZ Guffanti 13.5%, other 4.2%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Congress or Congreso consists of the Chamber of Senators
  or Camara de Senadores (45 seats; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camara
  de Diputados (80 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators - last held 27 April 2003 (next to be
  held April 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 27 April 2003
  (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - ANR 16, PLRA 12, UNACE 7, PQ 7, PPS 2, PEN 1;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party
  - ANR 37, PLRA 21, UNACE 10, PQ 10, PPS 2
  note: as of January 2006, changes in party affiliation has led to
  the composition of the legislature as follows: Chamber of Senators -
  seats by party - ANR 18, PLRA 12, UNACE 5, PQ 7, PPS 2, PEN 1;
  Chamber of Deputies - seats by party - ANR 39, PLRA 21, UNACE 8, PQ
  10, PPS 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges
  appointed on the proposal of the Council of Magistrates or Consejo
  de la Magistratura)

Political parties and leaders:
  Asociacion Nacional Republicana - Colorado Party or ANR [Herminio
  CACERES, interim president]; Movimiento Union Nacional de Ciudadanos
  Eticos or UNACE [Enrique GONZALEZ Quintana, acting chairman]; Patria
  Querida (Beloved Fatherland Party) or PQ [Pedro Nicolas Maraa FADUL
  Niella]; Partido Encuentro Nacional or PEN [Luis TORALES Kennedy];
  Partido Liberal Radical Autentico or PLRA [Blas LLANO]; Partido Pais
  Solidario or PPS [Carlos Alberto FILIZZOLA Pallares]
  note: Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS on leave as party leader of the Colorado
  Party or ANR while serving as President of Paraguay; Lino Cesar
  OVIEDO Silva, leader of UNACE, is currently serving a ten-year
  prison term

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Ahorristas Estafados or AE; National Coordinating Board of
  Campesino Organizations or MCNOC [Luis AGUAYO]; National Federation
  of Campesinos or FNC [Odilon ESPINOLA]; National Workers Central or
  CNT [Secretary General Juan TORRALES]; Paraguayan Workers
  Confederation or CPT; Roman Catholic Church; Unitary Workers Central
  or CUT [Jorge Guzman ALVARENGA Malgarejo]

International organization participation:
  CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM (observer), OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James SPALDING Hellmers
  chancery: 2400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-6960 through 6962
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-4508
  consulate(s) general: Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  Ambassador James C. CASON
  embassy: 1776 Avenida Mariscal Lopez, Casilla Postal 402, Asuncion
  mailing address: Unit 4711, APO AA 34036-0001
  telephone: [595] (21) 213-715
  FAX: [595] (21) 213-728

Flag description:
  three equal, horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue with an
  emblem centered in the white band; unusual flag in that the emblem
  is different on each side; the obverse (hoist side at the left)
  bears the national coat of arms (a yellow five-pointed star within a
  green wreath capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY, all within
  two circles); the reverse (hoist side at the right) bears the seal
  of the treasury (a yellow lion below a red Cap of Liberty and the
  words Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice) capped by the words
  REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY, all within two circles)

Economy Paraguay


Economy - overview:
  Landlocked Paraguay has a market economy marked by a large informal
  sector. This sector features both reexport of imported consumer
  goods to neighboring countries, as well as the activities of
  thousands of microenterprises and urban street vendors. Because of
  the importance of the informal sector, accurate economic measures
  are difficult to obtain. A large percentage of the population
  derives its living from agricultural activity, often on a
  subsistence basis. The formal economy grew by an average of about 3%
  annually in 1995-97, but averaged near-zero growth in 1998-2001 and
  contracted by 2.3 percent in 2002, in response to regional contagion
  and an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. On a per capita basis,
  real income has stagnated at 1980 levels. Most observers attribute
  Paraguay's poor economic performance to political uncertainty,
  corruption, lack of progress on structural reform, substantial
  internal and external debt, and deficient infrastructure. Aided by a
  firmer exchange rate and perhaps a greater confidence in the
  economic policy of the DUARTE FRUTOS administration, the economy
  rebounded between 2003 and 2005, posting modest growth each year.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $29.11 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.281 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 22.4%
  industry: 20.7%
  services: 56.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.68 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  16% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  32% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 43.8% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  56.8 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.334 billion
  expenditures: $1.37 billion; including capital expenditures of $700
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  36% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn, wheat, tobacco, cassava
  (tapioca), fruits, vegetables; beef, pork, eggs, milk; timber

Industries:
  sugar, cement, textiles, beverages, wood products, steel,
  metallurgic, electric power

Industrial production growth rate:
  0% (2000 est.)

Electricity - production:
  51.29 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0%
  hydro: 99.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.528 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  44.17 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  25,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-255 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.13 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  soybeans, feed, cotton, meat, edible oils, electricity, wood,
  leather

Exports - partners:
  Uruguay 26.7%, Brazil 15.2%, Argentina 4.8%, Chile 4.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.832 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  road vehicles, consumer goods, tobacco, petroleum products,
  electrical machinery

Imports - partners:
  Brazil 26.8%, Argentina 21.1%, US 20.8%, China 9.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.297 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.45 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  guarani (PYG)

Currency code:
  PYG

Exchange rates:
  guarani per US dollar - 6,178 (2005), 5,974.6 (2004), 6,424.3
  (2003), 5,716.3 (2002), 4,105.9 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Paraguay


Telephones - main lines in use:
  320,300 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.887 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: meager telephone service; principal switching
  center is in Asuncion
  domestic: fair microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 595; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 46, FM 27, shortwave 6 (three inactive) (1998)

Radios:
  925,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (2003)

Televisions:
  990,000 (2001)

Internet country code:
  .py

Internet hosts:
  13,178 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  4 (2000)

Internet users:
  200,000 (2005)

Transportation Paraguay


Airports:
  881 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 869
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 325
  under 914 m: 518 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 36 km
  standard gauge: 36 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 29,500 km
  paved: 14,986 km
  unpaved: 14,514 km (1999)

Waterways:
  3,100 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 21 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,749 GRT/39,280 DWT
  by type: cargo 15, livestock carrier 1, passenger 1, passenger/cargo
  1, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 3 (Argentina 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Ecuador 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Asuncion, Villeta, San Antonio, Encarnacion

Military Paraguay


Military branches:
  Army, National Navy (Armada Nacional, includes Naval Aviation,
  Marine Corps, General Naval Prefecture), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea
  Paraguay, FAP) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months for Army, 24 months for
  Navy (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,345,022
  females age 18-49: 1,342,725 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,109,166
  females age 18-49: 1,135,046 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 63,058
  females age 18-49: 62,217 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $53.1 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Paraguay


Disputes - international:
  unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders
  is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics
  trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations

Illicit drugs:
  major illicit producer of cannabis, most or all of which is
  consumed in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile; transshipment country for
  Andean cocaine headed for Brazil, other Southern Cone markets, and
  Europe; corruption and some money-laundering activity, especially in
  the Tri-Border Area; weak anti-money-laundering laws and enforcement


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Peru

Introduction Peru


Background:
  Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean
  civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was
  captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence
  was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1824.
  After a dozen years of military rule, Peru returned to democratic
  leadership in 1980, but experienced economic problems and the growth
  of a violent insurgency. President Alberto FUJIMORI's election in
  1990 ushered in a decade that saw a dramatic turnaround in the
  economy and significant progress in curtailing guerrilla activity.
  Nevertheless, the president's increasing reliance on authoritarian
  measures and an economic slump in the late 1990s generated mounting
  dissatisfaction with his regime, which led to his ouster in 2000. A
  caretaker government oversaw new elections in the spring of 2001,
  which ushered in Alejandro TOLEDO as the new head of government -
  the first democratically elected president of Quechua ethnicity. The
  presidential election of 2006 saw the return of Alan GARCIA who,
  after a disappointing presidential term from 1985 to 1990, returned
  to the presidency with promises to improve social conditions.

Geography Peru


Location:
  Western South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between
  Chile and Ecuador

Geographic coordinates:
  10 00 S, 76 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 1,285,220 sq km
  land: 1.28 million sq km
  water: 5,220 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Alaska

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,536 km
  border countries: Bolivia 900 km, Brazil 1,560 km, Chile 160 km,
  Colombia 1,496 km (est.), Ecuador 1,420 km

Coastline:
  2,414 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  varies from tropical in east to dry desert in west; temperate to
  frigid in Andes

Terrain:
  western coastal plain (costa), high and rugged Andes in center
  (sierra), eastern lowland jungle of Amazon Basin (selva)

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Nevado Huascaran 6,768 m

Natural resources:
  copper, silver, gold, petroleum, timber, fish, iron ore, coal,
  phosphate, potash, hydropower, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 2.88%
  permanent crops: 0.47%
  other: 96.65% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  12,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, mild volcanic activity

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation (some the result of illegal logging); overgrazing of
  the slopes of the costa and sierra leading to soil erosion;
  desertification; air pollution in Lima; pollution of rivers and
  coastal waters from municipal and mining wastes

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake,
  with Bolivia; a remote slope of Nevado Mismi, a 5,316 m peak, is the
  ultimate source of the Amazon River

People Peru


Population:
  28,302,603 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.9% (male 4,456,195/female 4,300,233)
  15-64 years: 63.7% (male 9,078,123/female 8,961,981)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 709,763/female 796,308) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 25 years
  female: 25.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.32% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 30.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.84 years
  male: 68.05 years
  female: 71.71 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  82,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  4,200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Peruvian(s)
  adjective: Peruvian

Ethnic groups:
  Amerindian 45%, mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37%, white
  15%, black, Japanese, Chinese, and other 3%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 81%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.4%, other Christian
  0.7%, other 0.6%, unspecified or none 16.3% (2003 est.)

Languages:
  Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara, and a large number
  of minor Amazonian languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.7%
  male: 93.5%
  female: 82.1% (2004 est.)

Government Peru


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Peru
  conventional short form: Peru
  local long form: Republica del Peru
  local short form: Peru

Government type:
  constitutional republic

Capital:
  name: Lima
  geographic coordinates: 12 03 S, 77 03 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Administrative divisions:
  25 regions (regiones, singular - region) and 1 province*
  (provincia); Amazonas, Ancash, Apurimac, Arequipa, Ayacucho,
  Cajamarca, Callao, Cusco, Huancavelica, Huanuco, Ica, Junin, La
  Libertad, Lambayeque, Lima, Lima*, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Moquegua,
  Pasco, Piura, Puno, San Martin, Tacna, Tumbes, Ucayali

Independence:
  28 July 1821 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 28 July (1821)

Constitution:
  31 December 1993

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory until the age of 70; note
  - members of the military and national police may not vote

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Alan GARCIA Perez (since 28 July 2006);
  First Vice President Luis GIAMPIETRI Rojas; Second Vice President
  Lourdes MENDOZA del Solar (since 28 July 2006); note - the president
  is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Alan GARCIA Perez (since 28 July
  2006); First Vice President Luis GIAMPIETRI Rojas; Second Vice
  President Lourdes MENDOZA del Solar (since 28 July 2006)
  note: Prime Minister Jorge DEL CASTILLO Galvez (since 28 August
  2006) does not exercise executive power; this power is in the hands
  of the president
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); presidential and congressional
  elections held 9 April 2006, with runoff election held 4 June 2006;
  next to be held April 2011
  election results: Alan GARCIA elected president in runoff election;
  percent of vote - Alan GARCIA 52.5%, Ollanta HUMALA Tasso 47.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Congress of the Republic of Peru or Congreso de la
  Republica del Peru (120 seats; members are elected by popular vote
  to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 April 2006 (next to be held April 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - UPP 21.2%, PAP 20.6%,
  UN 15.3%, AF 13.1%, FC 7.1%, PP 4.1%, RN 4.0%; seats by party - UPP
  45, PAP 36, UN 17, AF 13, FC 5, PP 2, RN 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges are
  appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alliance For Progress (Alianza Para El Progreso) [Cesar ACUNA
  Peralta]; Alliance For The Future (Alianza Por El Futuro) or AF - a
  coalition of pro-FUJIMORI parties including Cambio 90, Nueva
  Mayoria, and Si Cumple [Martha CHAVEZ Cossio]; Centrist Front
  (Frente Del Centro) or FC - a coalition of Accion Popular, Somos
  Peru, and Coordinadora Nacional de Independientes [Valentin PANIAGUA
  Corazoa]; Independent Moralizing Front (Frente Independiente
  Moralizador) or FIM [Fernando OLIVERA Vega]; Nationalist Party
  Uniting Peru (Partido Nacionalista Uniendo al Peru) or UPP - a
  coalition of Union for Peru (UPP) and Peruvian Nationalist Party
  (PNP) [Ollanta HUMALA Tasso]; National Restoration (Restauracion
  Nacional) or RN [Humberto LAY Sun]; National Unity (Unidad Nacional)
  or UN [Lourdes FLORES Nano]; Peru Possible (Peru Posible) or PP
  [David WAISMAN]; Peruvian Aprista Party (Partido Aprista Peruano) or
  PAP - also referred to by its original name Alianza Popular
  Revolucionaria Americana or APRA [Alan GARCIA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  leftist guerrilla groups include Shining Path [Abimael GUZMAN
  Reynoso (imprisoned), Gabriel MACARIO (top leader at-large)]; Tupac
  Amaru Revolutionary Movement or MRTA [Victor POLAY (imprisoned),
  Hugo AVALLENEDA Valdez (top leader at-large)]

International organization participation:
  APEC, CAN, CSN, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA,
  Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Felipe ORTIZ de Zevallos
  chancery: 1700 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 833-9860 through 9869
  FAX: [1] (202) 659-8124
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Hartford, Houston,
  Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paterson (New Jersey), San Francisco,
  Washington, DC

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador J. Curtis STRUBLE
  embassy: Avenida La Encalada, Cuadra 17s/n, Surco, Lima 33
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1995, Lima 1; American Embassy (Lima),
  APO AA 34031-5000
  telephone: [51] (1) 434-3000
  FAX: [51] (1) 618-2397

Flag description:
  three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), white, and red
  with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms
  features a shield bearing a vicuna, cinchona tree (the source of
  quinine), and a yellow cornucopia spilling out gold coins, all
  framed by a green wreath

Economy Peru


Economy - overview:
  Peru's economy reflects its varied geography - an arid coastal
  region, the Andes further inland, and tropical lands bordering
  Colombia and Brazil. Abundant mineral resources are found in the
  mountainous areas, and Peru's coastal waters provide excellent
  fishing grounds. However, overdependence on minerals and metals
  subjects the economy to fluctuations in world prices, and a lack of
  infrastructure deters trade and investment. After several years of
  inconsistent economic performance, the Peruvian economy grew by more
  than 4 percent per year during the period 2002-2005, with a stable
  exchange rate and low inflation. Risk premiums on Peruvian bonds on
  secondary markets reached historically low levels in late 2004,
  reflecting investor optimism regarding the government's prudent
  fiscal policies and openness to trade and investment. Despite the
  strong macroeconomic performance, the TOLEDO administration remained
  unpopular in 2005, and unemployment and poverty have stayed
  persistently high. Economic growth will be driven by the Camisea
  natural gas megaproject and by exports of minerals, textiles, and
  agricultural products. Peru is expected to sign a free-trade
  agreement with the United States in early 2006.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $167.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $69.81 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 27%
  services: 65% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  9.06 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 9%
  industry: 18%
  services: 73% (2001)

Unemployment rate:
  7.6% in metropolitan Lima; widespread underemployment (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  54% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  49.8 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $21.87 billion
  expenditures: $22.47 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.8
  billion for general government, but excluding private enterprises
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  38% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cotton, sugarcane, rice, potatoes, corn, plantains, grapes,
  oranges, coca; poultry, beef, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  mining and refining of minerals; steel, metal fabrication;
  petroleum extraction and refining, natural gas; fishing and fish
  processing, textiles, clothing, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  22.68 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 14.5%
  hydro: 84.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.8% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  21.09 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  120,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  157,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  49,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  370 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  560 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  910 million cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  247.1 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.03 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $15.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copper, gold, zinc, crude petroleum and petroleum products, coffee

Exports - partners:
  US 31.1%, China 10.8%, Chile 6.6%, Canada 5.9%, Switzerland 4.6%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $12.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, machinery, vehicles,
  iron and steel, wheat, paper

Imports - partners:
  US 18.2%, China 8.5%, Brazil 8%, Ecuador 7.4%, Colombia 6.1%,
  Argentina 5.1%, Chile 5.1%, Venezuela 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $14.18 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $30.94 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $491 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  nuevo sol (PEN)

Currency code:
  PEN

Exchange rates:
  nuevo sol per US dollar - 3.2958 (2005), 3.4132 (2004), 3.4785
  (2003), 3.5165 (2002), 3.5068 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Peru


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,250,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  5.583 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate for most requirements
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system and a domestic
  satellite system with 12 earth stations
  international: country code - 51; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); Pan American submarine cable

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 472, FM 198, shortwave 189 (1999)

Radios:
  6.65 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  13 (plus 112 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  3.06 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pe

Internet hosts:
  269,981 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  10 (2000)

Internet users:
  4.6 million (2005)

Transportation Peru


Airports:
  268 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 54
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 20
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 214
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 63
  under 914 m: 124 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 983 km; gas/lpg 61 km; liquid natural gas 106 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 517 km; oil 1,754 km; refined products 13 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,462 km
  standard gauge: 2,962 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 500 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 78,672 km
  paved: 10,314 km (including 276 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 68,358 km (2003)

Waterways:
  8,808 km
  note: 8,600 km of navigable tributaries of Amazon system and 208 km
  of Lago Titicaca (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 38,954 GRT/62,255 DWT
  by type: cargo 3, petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (US 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Panama 15) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Callao, Iquitos, Matarani, Pucallpa, Yurimaguas; note - Iquitos,
  Pucallpa, and Yurimaguas are on the upper reaches of the Amazon and
  its tributaries

Military Peru


Military branches:
  Peruvian Army (Ejercito Peruano), Peruvian Navy (Marina de Guerra
  del Peru; includes naval air, naval infantry, and coast guard),
  Peruvian Air Force (Fuerza Aerea del Peru, FAP)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (1999)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,647,874
  females age 18-49: 6,544,408 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,938,417
  females age 18-49: 5,278,511 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 277,105
  females age 18-49: 269,799 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $829.3 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Peru


Disputes - international:
  Chile and Ecuador rejected Peru's November 2005 unilateral law to
  shift the axis of their joint treaty-defined maritime boundary along
  the parallel of latitude to an equidistance line which favors Peru;
  organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia have penetrated
  Peru's shared border; Peru does not support Bolivia's claim to
  restore maritime access through a sovereign corridor through Chile
  along the Peruvian border

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 60,000 (civil war from 1980-2000; most IDPs are indigenous
  peasants in Andean and Amazonian regions) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Peru is primarily a source country for women and
  children trafficked internally for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and forced domestic labor; most victims are girls and
  young women moved internally from rural to urban areas, or from city
  to city, and lured or coerced into prostitution in nightclubs, bars,
  and brothels; Peruvians have also been trafficked for sexual
  exploitation to Spain, Japan, the United States, and Venezuela; the
  government acknowledges that sex tourism occurs, particularly in the
  Amazon region of the country
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Peru is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to eliminate
  trafficking in 2005

Illicit drugs:
  until 1996 the world's largest coca leaf producer; cultivation of
  coca in Peru fell 15% to 31,150 hectares between 2002 and the end of
  2003; much of the cocaine base is shipped to neighboring Colombia
  for processing into cocaine, while finished cocaine is shipped out
  from Pacific ports to the international drug market; increasing
  amounts of base and finished cocaine, however, are being moved to
  Brazil and Bolivia for use in the Southern Cone or transshipped to
  Europe and Africa


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Philippines

Introduction Philippines


Background:
  The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th
  century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the
  Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a
  self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected President and
  was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a
  10-year transition. In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese
  occupation during WWII, and US forces and Filipinos fought together
  during 1944-45 to regain control. On 4 July 1946 the Philippines
  attained their independence. The 20-year rule of Ferdinand MARCOS
  ended in 1986, when a widespread popular rebellion forced him into
  exile and installed Corazon AQUINO as president. Her presidency was
  hampered by several coup attempts, which prevented a return to full
  political stability and economic development. Fidel RAMOS was
  elected president in 1992 and his administration was marked by
  greater stability and progress on economic reforms. In 1992, the US
  closed its last military bases on the islands. Joseph ESTRADA was
  elected president in 1998, but was succeeded by his vice-president,
  Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, in January 2001 after ESTRADA's stormy
  impeachment trial on corruption charges broke down and widespread
  demonstrations led to his ouster. MACAPAGAL-ARROYO was elected to a
  six-year term in May 2004. The Philippine Government faces threats
  from armed communist insurgencies and from Muslim separatists in the
  south.

Geography Philippines


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the
  South China Sea, east of Vietnam

Geographic coordinates:
  13 00 N, 122 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 300,000 sq km
  land: 298,170 sq km
  water: 1,830 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Arizona

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  36,289 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: irregular polygon extending up to 100 nm from
  coastline as defined by 1898 treaty; since late 1970s has also
  claimed polygonal-shaped area in South China Sea up to 285 nm in
  breadth
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical marine; northeast monsoon (November to April); southwest
  monsoon (May to October)

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with narrow to extensive coastal lowlands

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Philippine Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Apo 2,954 m

Natural resources:
  timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt, copper

Land use:
  arable land: 19%
  permanent crops: 16.67%
  other: 64.33% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  15,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck by five to
  six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active volcanoes;
  destructive earthquakes; tsunamis

Environment - current issues:
  uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed areas; soil
  erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef
  degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps that
  are important fish breeding grounds

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  the Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands; favorably
  located in relation to many of Southeast Asia's main water bodies:
  the South China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, and
  Luzon Strait

People Philippines


Population:
  89,468,677 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35% (male 15,961,365/female 15,340,065)
  15-64 years: 61% (male 27,173,919/female 27,362,736)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 1,576,089/female 2,054,503) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 22.5 years
  male: 22 years
  female: 23 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.8% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  24.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 22.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 19.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.21 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 73.24 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  9,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Filipino(s)
  adjective: Philippine

Ethnic groups:
  Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%,
  Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%, other 25.3% (2000
  census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 80.9%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%,
  Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, Muslim 5%, other 1.8%,
  unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census)

Languages:
  two official languages - Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English;
  eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or
  Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 92.5%
  female: 92.7% (2002)

Government Philippines


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of the Philippines
  conventional short form: Philippines
  local long form: Republika ng Pilipinas
  local short form: Pilipinas

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Manila
  geographic coordinates: 14 35 N, 121 00 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  79 provinces and 117 chartered cities
  provinces: Abra, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Aklan, Albay,
  Antique, Apayao, Aurora, Basilan, Bataan, Batanes, Batangas,
  Biliran, Benguet, Bohol, Bukidnon, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines
  Norte, Camarines Sur, Camiguin, Capiz, Catanduanes, Cavite, Cebu,
  Compostela, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Eastern
  Samar, Guimaras, Ifugao, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Iloilo, Isabela,
  Kalinga, Laguna, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, La Union, Leyte,
  Maguindanao, Marinduque, Masbate, Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro
  Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Mountain Province,
  Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, North Cotabato, Northern Samar,
  Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Palawan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Quezon,
  Quirino, Rizal, Romblon, Samar, Sarangani, Siquijor, Sorsogon, South
  Cotabato, Southern Leyte, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Surigao del Norte,
  Surigao del Sur, Tarlac, Tawi-Tawi, Zambales, Zamboanga del Norte,
  Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay
  chartered cities: Alaminos, Angeles, Antipolo, Bacolod, Bago,
  Baguio, Bais, Balanga, Batangas, Bayawan, Bislig, Butuan,
  Cabanatuan, Cadiz, Cagayan de Oro, Calamba, Calapan, Calbayog,
  Candon, Canlaon, Cauayan, Cavite, Cebu, Cotabato, Dagupan, Danao,
  Dapitan, Davao, Digos, Dipolog, Dumaguete, Escalante, Gapan, General
  Santos, Gingoog, Himamaylan, Iligan, Iloilo, Isabela, Iriga,
  Kabankalan, Kalookan, Kidapawan, Koronadal, La Carlota, Laoag,
  Lapu-Lapu, Las Pinas, Legazpi, Ligao, Lipa, Lucena, Maasin, Makati,
  Malabon, Malaybalay, Malolos, Mandaluyong, Mandaue, Manila, Marawi,
  Markina, Masbate, Muntinlupa, Munoz, Naga, Olongapo, Ormoc,
  Oroquieta, Ozamis, Pagadian, Palayan, Panabo, Paranaque, Pasay,
  Pasig, Passi, Puerto Princesa, Quezon, Roxas, Sagay, Samal, San
  Carlos (in Negros Occidental), San Carlos (in Pangasinan), San
  Fernando (in La Union), San Fernando (in Pampanga), San Jose, San
  Jose del Monte, San Pablo, Santa Rosa, Santiago, Silay, Sipalay,
  Sorsogon, Surigao, Tabaco, Tacloban, Tacurong, Tagaytay, Tagbilaran,
  Taguig, Tagum, Talisay (in Cebu), Talisay (in Negros Oriental),
  Tanauan, Tangub, Tanjay, Tarlac, Toledo, Tuguegarao, Trece Martires,
  Urdaneta, Valencia, Valenzuela, Victorias, Vigan, Zamboanga

Independence:
  12 June 1898 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 June (1898); note - 12 June 1898 was date of
  declaration of independence from Spain; 4 July 1946 was date of
  independence from US

Constitution:
  2 February 1987, effective 11 February 1987

Legal system:
  based on Spanish and Anglo-American law; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO (since 20 January
  2001); note - president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO (since 20
  January 2001); note - president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with consent of
  Commission of Appointments
  elections: president and vice president (Manuel "Noli" DE CASTRO)
  elected on separate tickets by popular vote for a single six-year
  term; election last held 10 May 2004 (next to be held in May 2010)
  election results: results of the election - Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
  elected president; percent of vote - Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO 40%,
  Fernando POE 37%, three others 23%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Congress or Kongreso consists of the Senate or Senado (24
  seats - one-half elected every three years; members elected at large
  by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives or Kapulungan Ng Mga Kinatawan (212 members
  representing districts plus 24 sectoral party-list members; members
  elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; note - the
  Constitution prohibits the House of Representatives from having more
  than 250 members)
  elections: Senate - last held 10 May 2004 (next to be held in May
  2007); House of Representatives - elections last held 10 May 2004
  (next to be held in May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - Lakas 30%, LP
  13%, KNP 13%, independents 17%, others 27%; seats by party - Lakas
  7, LP 3, KNP (coalition) 3, independents 4, others 6; note - there
  are 23 rather than 24 sitting senators because one senator was
  elected vice president; House of Representatives - percent of vote
  by party - NA; seats by party - Lakas 93, NPC 53, LP 34, LDP 11,
  others 20; party-listers 24 (2004)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (15 justices are appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council and serve until 70
  years of age); Court of Appeals; Sandigan-bayan (special court for
  hearing corruption cases of government officials)

Political parties and leaders:
  Kabalikat Ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) [Ronaldo PUNO]; Laban Ng
  Demokratikong Pilipino (Struggle of Filipino Democrats) or LDP
  [Edgardo ANGARA]; Lakas Ng Edsa (National Union of Christian
  Democrats) or Lakas [Jose DE VENECIA]; Liberal Party or LP [Franklin
  DRILON/Eli QUINTO]; Nacionalista [Manuel VILLAR]; National People's
  Coalition or NPC [Frisco SAN JUAN]; PDP-Laban [Aquilino PIMENTEL];
  People's Reform Party [Miriam Defensor SANTIAGO]; PROMDI [Emilio
  OSMENA]; Pwersa Ng Masang Pilipino (Party of the Philippine Masses)
  or PMP [Joseph ESTRADA]; Reporma [Renato DE VILLA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  AKBAYAN [Reps. Etta ROSALES, Mario AGUJA, and Risa
  HONTIVEROS-BARAQUIEL]; ALAGAD [Rep. Rodante MARROLITA]; ALIF [Rep.
  Acmad TOMAWIS]; An Waray [Rep. Horencio NOEL]; Anak Mindanao [Mujiv
  HATAMIN]; ANAKPAWIS [Reps. Crispin BELTRAN and Rafael MARIANO]; APEC
  [Reps. Ernesto PABLO, Edgar VALDEZ]; Association of Philippine
  Electric Cooperatives (APEC) [Reps. Edgar VALDEZ, Ernesto PABLO, and
  Sunny Rose MADAMBA]; AVE [Rep. Eulogio MAGSAYSAY]; Bayan Muna [Reps.
  Satur OCAMPO, Joel VIRADOR, and Teodoro CASINO, Jr.]; BUHAY [Reps.
  Rene VELARDE and Hans Christian SENERES]; BUTIL [Rep. Benjamin
  CRUZ]; CIBAC [Rep. Emmanuel Joel VILLANUEVA]; COOP-NATCO [Rep.
  Guillermo CUA]; GABRIELA [Rep. Liza MAZA]; Partido Ng Manggagawa
  [Rep. Renato MAGTUBO]; Veterans Federation of the Philippines [Rep.
  Ernesto GIDAYA] (2006)

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, NAM, OAS (observer), ONUB, OPCW, PIF (partner), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Willy C. GAA
  chancery: 1600 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-9300
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-7614
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco, San Jose (Northern Mariana Islands), Tamuning (Guam)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney
  embassy: 1201 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita 1000, Manila
  mailing address: PSC 500, FPO AP 96515-1000
  telephone: [63] (2) 528-6300
  FAX: [63] (2) 522-4361

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top; representing peace and
  justice) and red (representing courage); a white equilateral
  triangle based on the hoist side represents equality; the center of
  the triangle displays a yellow sun with eight primary rays, each
  representing one of the first eight provinces that sought
  independence from Spain; each corner of the triangle contains a
  small, yellow, five-pointed star representing the three major
  geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao;
  the design of the flag dates to 1897; in wartime the flag is flown
  upside down with the red band at the top

Economy Philippines


Economy - overview:
  The Philippines was less severely affected by the Asian financial
  crisis of 1998 than its neighbors, aided in part by its high level
  of annual remittances from overseas workers, and no sustained runup
  in asset prices or foreign borrowing prior to the crisis. From a
  0.6% decline in 1998, GDP expanded by 2.4% in 1999, and 4.4% in
  2000, but slowed to 3.2% in 2001 in the context of a global economic
  slowdown, an export slump, and political and security concerns. GDP
  growth accelerated to about 5% between 2002 and 2005 reflecting the
  continued resilience of the service sector, and improved exports and
  agricultural output. Nonetheless, it will take a higher, sustained
  growth path to make appreciable progress in the alleviation of
  poverty given the Philippines' high annual population growth rate
  and unequal distribution of income. The Philippines also faces
  higher oil prices, higher interest rates on its dollar borrowings,
  and higher inflation. Fiscal constraints limit Manila's ability to
  finance infrastructure and social spending. The Philippines'
  consistently large budget deficit has produced a high debt level,
  and this situation has forced Manila to spend a large portion of the
  national government budget on debt service. Large unprofitable
  public enterprises, especially in the energy sector, contribute to
  the government's debt because of slow progress on privatization.
  Credit rating agencies have at times expressed concern about the
  Philippines' ability to service the debt, though central bank
  reserves appear adequate and large remittance inflows appear stable.
  The implementation of the expanded Value Added Tax (VAT) in November
  2005 boosted confidence in the government's fiscal capacity and
  helped to strengthen the peso, which gained 5.7 percent
  year-on-year, making it East Asia's best performing currency in
  2005. Investors and credit rating institutions will continue to look
  for effective implementation of the new VAT and continued
  improvement in the government's overall fiscal capacity in the
  coming year.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $412.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $91.36 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 14.4%
  industry: 32.6%
  services: 53% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  36.73 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 36%
  industry: 16%
  services: 48% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 31.9% (2003)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  46.6 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  15.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $12.38 billion
  expenditures: $15.77 billion; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  72.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, coconuts, rice, corn, bananas, cassavas, pineapples,
  mangoes; pork, eggs, beef; fish

Industries:
  electronics assembly, garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals,
  chemicals, wood products, food processing, petroleum refining,
  fishing

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  47.82 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 55.6%
  hydro: 17.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 26.9% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  44.48 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  14,360 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  335,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  312,000 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  152 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  2.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  106.8 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Current account balance:
  $2.354 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $41.25 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  electronic equipment, machinery and transport equipment, garments,
  optical instruments, coconut products, fruits and nuts, copper
  products, chemicals

Exports - partners:
  US 18%, Japan 17.5%, China 9.9%, Netherlands 9.8%, Hong Kong 8.1%,
  Singapore 6.6%, Malaysia 6%, Taiwan 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $42.66 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials, machinery and equipment, fuels, vehicles and vehicle
  parts, plastic, chemicals, grains

Imports - partners:
  US 19.2%, Japan 17%, Singapore 7.9%, Taiwan 7.5%, China 6.3%, South
  Korea 4.8%, Saudi Arabia 4.6%, Hong Kong 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $18.5 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $65.71 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA commitments, $2 billion (2004)

Currency (code):
  Philippine peso (PHP)

Currency code:
  PHP

Exchange rates:
  Philippine pesos per US dollar - 55.086 (2005), 56.04 (2004),
  54.203 (2003), 51.604 (2002), 50.993 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Philippines


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,437,500 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  32.81 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good international radiotelephone and submarine
  cable services; domestic and inter-island service adequate
  domestic: domestic satellite system with 11 earth stations
  international: country code - 63; 9 international gateways;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Pacific
  Ocean); submarine cables to Hong Kong, Guam, Singapore, Taiwan, and
  Japan

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 369, FM 583, shortwave 5
  note: each shortwave station operates on multiple frequencies in the
  language of the target audience (2004)

Radios:
  11.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  225; note - 1373 CATV networks (2004)

Televisions:
  3.7 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ph

Internet hosts:
  111,262 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  33 (2000)

Internet users:
  7.82 million (2005)

Transportation Philippines


Airports:
  256 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 36
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 173
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 69
  under 914 m: 99 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 565 km; oil 135 km; refined products 105 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 897 km
  narrow gauge: 897 km 1.067-m gauge (492 km are in operation) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 200,037 km
  paved: 19,804 km
  unpaved: 180,233 km (2003)

Waterways:
  3,219 km (limited to vessels with draft less than 1.5 m) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 403 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,661,285 GRT/6,426,183 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 82, cargo 115, chemical tanker 13, container
  6, liquefied gas 5, livestock carrier 17, passenger 9,
  passenger/cargo 73, petroleum tanker 42, refrigerated cargo 15, roll
  on/roll off 13, vehicle carrier 13
  foreign-owned: 66 (Greece 5, Hong Kong 3, Japan 26, Malaysia 1,
  Netherlands 19, Norway 3, UAE 1, US 8)
  registered in other countries: 41 (Australia 1, Bahamas 1, Cambodia
  1, Cayman Islands 1, Comoros 1, Cyprus 1, Hong Kong 16, Indonesia 1,
  Panama 13, Singapore 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iligan, Iloilo, Manila, Surigao

Military Philippines


Military branches:
  Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP): Army, Navy (includes Marine
  Corps), Philippine Air Force (Hukbomg Himpapawid ng Pilipinas) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 20,131,179
  females age 18-49: 20,009,526 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 15,170,096
  females age 18-49: 16,931,191 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 907,542
  females age 18-49: 878,712 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $836.9 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Philippines


Disputes - international:
  Philippines claims sovereignty over certain of the Spratly Islands,
  known locally as the Kalayaan (Freedom) Islands, also claimed by
  China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam; the 2002 "Declaration on the
  Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," has eased tensions in
  the Spratly Islands but falls short of a legally binding "code of
  conduct" desired by several of the disputants; in March 2005, the
  national oil companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed
  a joint accord to conduct marine seismic activities in the Spratly
  Islands; Philippines retains a dormant claim to Malaysia's Sabah
  State in northern Borneo based on the Sultanate of Sulu's granting
  the Philippines Government power of attorney to pursue a sovereignty
  claim on his behalf

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 150,000 (fighting between government troops and MILF and Abu
  Sayyaf groups) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  domestic methamphetamine production has been a growing problem in
  recent years; longstanding marijuana producer


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Pitcairn Islands

Introduction Pitcairn Islands


Background:
  Pitcairn Island was discovered in 1767 by the British and settled
  in 1790 by the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.
  Pitcairn was the first Pacific island to become a British colony (in
  1838) and today remains the last vestige of that empire in the South
  Pacific. Outmigration, primarily to New Zealand, has thinned the
  population from a peak of 233 in 1937 to less than 50 today.

Geography Pitcairn Islands


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about midway between
  Peru and New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  25 04 S, 130 06 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 47 sq km
  land: 47 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  51 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot and humid; modified by southeast trade winds; rainy
  season (November to March)

Terrain:
  rugged volcanic formation; rocky coastline with cliffs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pawala Valley Ridge 347 m

Natural resources:
  miro trees (used for handicrafts), fish
  note: manganese, iron, copper, gold, silver, and zinc have been
  discovered offshore

Land use:
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons (especially November to March)

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation (only a small portion of the original forest remains
  because of burning and clearing for settlement)

Geography - note:
  Britain's most isolated dependency; only the larger island of
  Pitcairn is inhabited but it has no port or natural harbor; supplies
  must be transported by rowed longboat from larger ships stationed
  offshore

People Pitcairn Islands


Population:
  45 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Pitcairn Islander(s)
  adjective: Pitcairn Islander

Ethnic groups:
  descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian wives

Religions:
  Seventh-Day Adventist 100%

Languages:
  English (official), Pitcairnese (mixture of an 18th century English
  dialect and a Tahitian dialect)

Literacy:
  NA

Government Pitcairn Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands
  conventional short form: Pitcairn Islands

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Adamstown
  geographic coordinates: 25 04 S, 130 05 W
  time difference: UTC-9 (4 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in June (1926)

Constitution:
  30 November 1838; reformed 1904 with additional reforms in 1940;
  further refined by the Local Government Ordinance of 1964

Legal system:
  local island by-laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal with three years residency

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by UK High Commissioner to New Zealand and Governor
  (nonresident) of the Pitcairn Islands George FERGUSSON (since April
  2006); Commissioner (nonresident) Leslie JAQUES (since September
  2003) serves as liaison between the governor and the Island Council
  head of government: Governor George FERGUSSON (since April 2006);
  Mayor and Chairman of the Island Council Jay WARREN (since 15
  December 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; governor and commissioner
  appointed by the monarch; island mayor elected by popular vote for a
  three-year term; election last held December 2004 (next to be held
  December 2007)
  election results: Jay WARREN elected mayor and chairman of the
  Island Council

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Island Council (10 seats - 5 elected by popular vote, 1
  nominated by the 5 elected members, 2 appointed by the governor
  including 1 seat for the Island Secretary, the Island Mayor, and a
  commissioner liaising between the governor and council; elected
  members serve one-year terms)
  elections: last held in 24 December 2005 (next to be held December
  2006)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - all independents

Judicial branch:
  Magistrate's Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; Judicial
  Officers are appointed by the Governor

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  SPC, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Pitcairn Islander coat of arms centered on the outer half of the
  flag; the coat of arms is yellow, green, and light blue with a
  shield featuring a yellow anchor

Economy Pitcairn Islands


Economy - overview:
  The inhabitants of this tiny isolated economy exist on fishing,
  subsistence farming, handicrafts, and postage stamps. The fertile
  soil of the valleys produces a wide variety of fruits and
  vegetables, including citrus, sugarcane, watermelons, bananas, yams,
  and beans. Bartering is an important part of the economy. The major
  sources of revenue are the sale of postage stamps to collectors and
  the sale of handicrafts to passing ships. In October 2004, more than
  one-quarter of Pitcairn's small labor force was arrested, putting
  the economy in a bind, since their services were required as lighter
  crew to load or unload passing ships.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

Labor force:
  15 able-bodied men (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: no business community in the usual sense; some public works;
  subsistence farming and fishing

Budget:
  revenues: $746,000
  expenditures: $1.028 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY04/05)

Agriculture - products:
  honey; wide variety of fruits and vegetables; goats, chickens

Industries:
  postage stamps, handicrafts, beekeeping, honey

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh; note - electric power is provided by a small diesel-powered
  generator

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  fruits, vegetables, curios, stamps

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  fuel oil, machinery, building materials, flour, sugar, other
  foodstuffs

Economic aid - recipient:
  $3.465 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:
  NZD

Exchange rates:
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004),
  1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Pitcairn Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1 (there are 17 telephones on one party line); (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: satellite phone services
  domestic: domestic communication via radio (CB)
  international: country code - 872; satellite earth station (Inmarsat)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0, note - 15 Ham radio operators (VP6) (2004)

Radios:
  NA

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .pn

Internet hosts:
  8 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  NA

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Pitcairn Islands


Roadways:
  total: 6 km
  unpaved: 6 km (dirt roads)

Ports and terminals:
  Adamstown (on Bounty Bay)

Military Pitcairn Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Pitcairn Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Poland

Introduction Poland


Background:
  Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of
  the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century.
  During the following century, the strengthening of the gentry and
  internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of agreements
  between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned
  Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its independence in 1918
  only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II.
  It became a Soviet satellite state following the war, but its
  government was comparatively tolerant and progressive. Labor turmoil
  in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union
  "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and by 1990 had
  swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A "shock therapy"
  program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its
  economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe, but Poland
  still faces the lingering challenges of high unemployment,
  underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure, and a poor rural
  underclass. Solidarity suffered a major defeat in the 2001
  parliamentary elections when it failed to elect a single deputy to
  the lower house of Parliament, and the new leaders of the Solidarity
  Trade Union subsequently pledged to reduce the Trade Union's
  political role. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in
  2004. With its transformation to a democratic, market-oriented
  country largely completed, Poland is an increasingly active member
  of Euro-Atlantic organizations.

Geography Poland


Location:
  Central Europe, east of Germany

Geographic coordinates:
  52 00 N, 20 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 312,685 sq km
  land: 304,465 sq km
  water: 8,220 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,056 km
  border countries: Belarus 416 km, Czech Republic 790 km, Germany 467
  km, Lithuania 103 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 210 km, Slovakia
  541 km, Ukraine 529 km

Coastline:
  491 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: defined by international treaties

Climate:
  temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with
  frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and
  thundershowers

Terrain:
  mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: near Raczki Elblaskie -2 m
  highest point: Rysy 2,499 m

Natural resources:
  coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber,
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 40.25%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 58.75% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding

Environment - current issues:
  situation has improved since 1989 due to decline in heavy industry
  and increased environmental concern by post-Communist governments;
  air pollution nonetheless remains serious because of sulfur dioxide
  emissions from coal-fired power plants, and the resulting acid rain
  has caused forest damage; water pollution from industrial and
  municipal sources is also a problem, as is disposal of hazardous
  wastes; pollution levels should continue to decrease as industrial
  establishments bring their facilities up to EU code, but at
  substantial cost to business and the government

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Geography - note:
  historically, an area of conflict because of flat terrain and the
  lack of natural barriers on the North European Plain

People Poland


Population:
  38,536,869 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.9% (male 3,142,811/female 2,976,363)
  15-64 years: 70.8% (male 13,585,306/female 13,704,763)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 1,961,326/female 3,166,300) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 37 years
  male: 35.1 years
  female: 39 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.05% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.85 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.97 years
  male: 70.95 years
  female: 79.23 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% ; note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  14,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Pole(s)
  adjective: Polish

Ethnic groups:
  Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other
  and unspecified 2.7% (2002 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%,
  Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

Languages:
  Polish 97.8%, other and unspecified 2.2% (2002 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.7% (2003 est.)

Government Poland


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Poland
  conventional short form: Poland
  local long form: Rzeczpospolita Polska
  local short form: Polska

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Warsaw
  geographic coordinates: 52 15 N, 21 00 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  16 provinces (wojewodztwa, singular - wojewodztwo); Dolnoslaskie,
  Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lodzkie, Lubelskie, Lubuskie, Malopolskie,
  Mazowieckie, Opolskie, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Pomorskie, Slaskie,
  Swietokrzyskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Wielkopolskie,
  Zachodniopomorskie

Independence:
  11 November 1918 (independent republic proclaimed)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)

Constitution:
  adopted by the National Assembly 2 April 1997, passed by national
  referendum 25 May 1997, effective 17 October 1997

Legal system:
  mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover
  Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced as part
  of broader democratization process; limited judicial review of
  legislative acts, but rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal are
  final; court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of
  Justice in Strasbourg; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Lech KACZYNSKI (since 23 December 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI (since 10 July
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Ludwik DORN (since 23 November 2005),
  Roman GIERTYCH (since 5 May 2006), Zyta GILOWSKA (since 22 September
  2006), Andrzej LEPPER (since 16 October 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the prime minister and
  the Sejm; the prime minister proposes, the president appoints, and
  the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 9 and 23 October
  2005 (next to be held October 2010); prime minister and deputy prime
  ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the Sejm
  election results: Lech KACZYNSKI elected president; percent of
  popular vote - Lech KACZYNSKI 54%, Donald Tusk 46%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the Senate or
  Senat (100 seats; members are elected by a majority vote on a
  provincial basis to serve four-year terms), and a lower house, the
  Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of
  proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the
  designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only
  used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly
  elections: Senate - last held 25 September 2005 (next to be held by
  September 2009); Sejm elections last held 25 September 2005 (next to
  be held by September 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - PiS 49, PO 34, LPR 7, SO 3, PSL 2, independents 5; Sejm -
  percent of vote by party - PiS 27%, PO 24.1%, SO 11.4%, SLD 11.3%,
  LPR 8%, PSL 7%, other 11.2%; seats by party - PiS 155, PO 133, SO
  56, SLD 55, LPR 34, PSL 25, German minorities 2
  note: two seats are assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm
  only

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an
  indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by
  the Sejm for nine-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
  Catholic-National Movement or RKN [Antoni MACIEREWICZ]; Civic
  Platform or PO [Donald TUSK]; Conservative Peasants Party or SKL
  [Artur BALASZ]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [Wojciech
  OLEJNICZAK]; Democratic Party or PD [Wladyslaw FRASYNIUK]; Dom
  Ojczysty (Fatherland Home); German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO
  [Henryk KROLL]; Law and Justice or PiS [Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI]; League
  of Polish Families or LPR [Marek KOTLINOWSKI]; Peasant-Democratic
  Party or PLD [Roman JAGIELINSKI]; Polish Accord or PP [Jan
  LOPUSZANSKI]; Polish Peasant Party or PSL [Waldemar PAWLAK]; Ruch
  Patriotyczny or RP [Jan OLSZEWSKI]; Samoobrona or SO [Andrzej
  LEPPER]; Social Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [Marek BOROWSKI];
  Social Movement or RS [Krzysztof PIESIEWICZ]; Union of Labor or UP
  [Andrzej SPYCHALSKI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  All Poland Trade Union Alliance or OPZZ (trade union) [Jan GUZ];
  Roman Catholic Church [Cardinal Jozef GLEMP]; Solidarity Trade Union
  [Janusz SNIADEK]

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS,
  BSEC (observer), CBSS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU, FAO,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janusz REITER
  chancery: 2640 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-3800 through 3802
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-6271
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Victor ASHE
  embassy: Aleje Ujazdowskie 29/31 00-540 Warsaw
  mailing address: American Embassy Warsaw, US Department of State,
  Washington, DC 20521-5010 (pouch)
  telephone: [48] (22) 504-2000
  FAX: [48] (22) 504-2688
  consulate(s) general: Krakow

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; similar to the
  flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white

Economy Poland


Economy - overview:
  Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of economic liberalization
  throughout the 1990s and today stands out as a success story among
  transition economies. Even so, much remains to be done, especially
  in bringing down the unemployment rate - currently the highest in
  the EU. The privatization of small- and medium-sized state-owned
  companies and a liberal law on establishing new firms has encouraged
  the development of the private business sector, but legal and
  bureaucratic obstacles alongside persistent corruption are hampering
  its further development. Poland's agricultural sector remains
  handicapped by surplus labor, inefficient small farms, and lack of
  investment. Restructuring and privatization of "sensitive sectors"
  (e.g., coal, steel, railroads, and energy), while recently
  initiated, have stalled. Reforms in health care, education, the
  pension system, and state administration have resulted in
  larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Further progress in public
  finance depends mainly on reducing losses in Polish state
  enterprises, restraining entitlements, and overhauling the tax code
  to incorporate the growing gray economy and farmers, most of whom
  pay no tax. The previous Socialist-led government introduced a
  package of social and administrative spending cuts to reduce public
  spending by about $17 billion through 2007, but full implementation
  of the plan was trumped by election-year politics in 2005. The
  right-wing Law and Justice party won parliamentary elections in
  September, and Lech KACZYNSKI won the presidential election in
  October 2005, running on a state-interventionist fiscal and monetary
  platform. Poland joined the EU in May 2004, and surging exports to
  the EU contributed to Poland's strong growth in 2004, though its
  competitiveness could be threatened by the zloty's appreciation. GDP
  per capita roughly equals that of the three Baltic states. Poland
  stands to benefit from nearly $23.2 billion in EU funds, available
  through 2006. Farmers have already begun to reap the rewards of
  membership via booming exports, higher food prices, and EU
  agricultural subsidies.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $505.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $246.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $13,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 31.1%
  services: 64% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  17.1 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 16.1%
  industry: 29%
  services: 54.9% (2002)

Unemployment rate:
  18.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  17% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 26.7% (2002)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34.1 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $52.73 billion
  expenditures: $63.22 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  47.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork, dairy

Industries:
  machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals,
  shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  150.8 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 98.1%
  hydro: 1.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  121.3 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  15.2 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  5 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  24,530 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  476,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  53,000 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  413,700 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  142.4 million bbl (December 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  4.33 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  14.97 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  44 million cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  9.45 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  154.4 billion cu m (December 2004)

Current account balance:
  $-4.364 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $92.72 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate manufactured
  goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%, food and live
  animals 7.6% (2003)

Exports - partners:
  Germany 28.2%, France 6.2%, Italy 6.1%, UK 5.6%, Czech Republic
  4.6%, Russia 4.4%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $95.67 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment 38%, intermediate manufactured
  goods 21%, chemicals 14.8%, minerals, fuels, lubricants, and related
  materials 9.1% (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Germany 29.6%, Russia 8.7%, Italy 6.6%, Netherlands 5.9%, France
  5.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $42.56 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $101.5 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $13.9 billion in available EU structural adjustment and cohesion
  funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  zloty (PLN)

Currency code:
  PLN

Exchange rates:
  zlotych per US dollar - 3.2355 (2005), 3.6576 (2004), 3.8891
  (2003), 4.08 (2002), 4.0939 (2001)
  note: zlotych is the plural form of zloty

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Poland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  11.803 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  29,166,400 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modernization of the telecommunications network
  has accelerated with market based competition finalized in 2003;
  fixed-line service, dominated by the former state-owned company, is
  dwarfed by the growth in wireless telephony
  domestic: wireless service, available since 1993 (GSM service
  available since 1996) and provided by three nation-wide networks,
  has grown rapidly in response to the weak fixed-line coverage; third
  generation UMTS service available in urban areas; cellular coverage
  is generally good with more gaps in the east; fixed-line service is
  growing slowly and still lags in rural areas
  international: country code - 48; international direct dialing with
  automated exchanges; satellite earth station - 1 (Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 14, FM 777, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  20.2 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  40 (2006)

Televisions:
  13.05 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pl

Internet hosts:
  358,476 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  19 (2000)

Internet users:
  10.6 million (2005)

Transportation Poland


Airports:
  122 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 29
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 40
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 39
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 13,552 km; oil 1,384 km; refined products 777 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 23,072 km
  broad gauge: 629 km 1.524-m gauge
  standard gauge: 22,443 km 1.435-m gauge (20,555 km operational;
  11,910 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 423,997 km
  paved: 295,356 km (including 405 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 128,641 km (2004)

Waterways:
  3,997 km (navigable rivers and canals) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 11 ships (1000 GRT or over) 55,701 GRT/45,082 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, chemical tanker 2, passenger/cargo 1, roll on/roll
  off 1, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Nigeria 1)
  registered in other countries: 106 (Antigua and Barbuda 3, Bahamas
  15, Belize 2, Cyprus 20, Liberia 14, Malta 27, Norway 2, Panama 15,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Slovakia 2, Vanuatu 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Gdansk, Gdynia, Swinoujscie, Szczecin

Military Poland


Military branches:
  Polish Armed Forces: Land Forces (includes Navy (Marynarka Wojenna,
  MW)), Polish Air Force (Polskie Sily Powietrzne, PSP) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for compulsory military service after January 1st
  of the year of 18th birthday; 17 years of age for voluntary military
  service; in 2005, Poland plans to shorten the length of conscript
  service obligation from 12 to 9 months; by 2008, plans call for at
  least 60% of military personnel to be volunteers; only soldiers who
  have completed their conscript service are allowed to volunteer for
  professional service; as of April 2004, women are only allowed to
  serve as officers and noncommissioned officers (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 9,681,703
  females age 17-49: 9,480,641 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 7,739,472
  females age 17-49: 7,859,165 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 275,446
  females age 17-49: 265,164 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.5 billion (2002)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.71% (2002)

Transnational Issues Poland


Disputes - international:
  as a member state that forms part of the EU's external border,
  Poland must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Illicit drugs:
  major illicit producer of synthetic drugs for the international
  market; minor transshipment point for Asian and Latin American
  illicit drugs to Western Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Portugal

Introduction Portugal


Background:
  Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th
  centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the
  destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the
  Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil as a colony.
  A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six
  decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a
  left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms. The
  following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African
  colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC
  (now the EU) in 1986.

Geography Portugal


Location:
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, west of
  Spain

Geographic coordinates:
  39 30 N, 8 00 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 92,391 sq km
  land: 91,951 sq km
  water: 440 sq km
  note: includes Azores and Madeira Islands

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,214 km
  border countries: Spain 1,214 km

Coastline:
  1,793 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and drier in
  south

Terrain:
  mountainous north of the Tagus River, rolling plains in south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Ponta do Pico (Pico or Pico Alto) on Ilha do Pico in
  the Azores 2,351 m

Natural resources:
  fish, forests (cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten,
  silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable land,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 17.29%
  permanent crops: 7.84%
  other: 74.87% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  6,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  Azores subject to severe earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion; air pollution caused by industrial and vehicle
  emissions; water pollution, especially in coastal areas

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Environmental
  Modification

Geography - note:
  Azores and Madeira Islands occupy strategic locations along western
  sea approaches to Strait of Gibraltar

People Portugal


Population:
  10,605,870 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.5% (male 915,604/female 839,004)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 3,484,545/female 3,544,674)
  65 years and over: 17.2% (male 751,899/female 1,070,144) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.5 years
  male: 36.4 years
  female: 40.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.36% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.5 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.7 years
  male: 74.43 years
  female: 81.2 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.4% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  22,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Portuguese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Portuguese

Ethnic groups:
  homogeneous Mediterranean stock; citizens of black African descent
  who immigrated to mainland during decolonization number less than
  100,000; since 1990 East Europeans have entered Portugal

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant (1995)

Languages:
  Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official - but locally used)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.3%
  male: 95.5%
  female: 91.3% (2003 est.)

Government Portugal


Country name:
  conventional long form: Portuguese Republic
  conventional short form: Portugal
  local long form: Republica Portuguesa
  local short form: Portugal

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Lisbon
  geographic coordinates: 38 43 N, 9 08 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  18 districts (distritos, singular - distrito) and 2 autonomous
  regions* (regioes autonomas, singular - regiao autonoma); Aveiro,
  Acores (Azores)*, Beja, Braga, Braganca, Castelo Branco, Coimbra,
  Evora, Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa, Madeira*, Portalegre, Porto,
  Santarem, Setubal, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Viseu

Independence:
  1143 (Kingdom of Portugal recognized); 5 October 1910 (independent
  republic proclaimed)

National holiday:
  Portugal Day (Day of Portugal), 10 June (1580); note - also called
  Camoes Day, the day that revered national poet Luis de Camoes
  (1524-80) died

Constitution:
  25 April 1976; revised many times

Legal system:
  civil law system; the Constitutional Tribunal reviews the
  constitutionality of legislation; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Anibal CAVACO Silva (since 9 March 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose SOCRATES (since 12 March
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  note: there is also a Council of State that acts as a consultative
  body to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 22 January 2006
  (next to be held January 2011); following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or leader of a majority coalition is
  usually appointed prime minister by the president
  election results: Anibal CAVACO Silva elected president; percent of
  vote - Anibal CAVACO Silva 50.6%, Manuel ALEGRE 20.7%, Mario SOARES
  14.3%, Jeronimo de SOUSA 8.5%, Franciso LOUCA 5.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Assembly of the Republic or Assembleia da Republica (230
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PS 45.1%, PSD 28.7%,
  CDU 7.6%, PP 7.3%, BE 6.4%; seats by party - PS 121, PSD 75, CDU 14,
  PP 12, BE 8

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Supremo Tribunal de Justica (judges appointed for
  life by the Conselho Superior da Magistratura)

Political parties and leaders:
  Green Ecologist Party or PEV [Heloisa APOLONIA]; Popular Party or
  PP [Jose Ribeiro e CASTRO]; Portuguese Communist Party or PCP
  [Jeronimo de SOUSA]; Portuguese Socialist Party or PS [Jose SOCRATES
  Carvalho Pinto de Sousa]; Social Democratic Party or PSD [Luis
  Marques MENDES]; The Left Bloc or BE [Franciso Anacleto LOUCA];
  Unitarian Democratic Coalition or CDU (includes PEV and PCP)
  [Jeronimo de SOUSA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU,
  ESA, EU, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pedro Manuel Dos Reis Alves CATARINO
  chancery: 2012 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 350-5400
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-3726
  consulate(s) general: Boston, New York, Newark (New Jersey), San
  Francisco
  consulate(s): New Bedford (Massachusetts), Providence (Rhode Island)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alfred J. HOFFMAN Jr.
  embassy: Avenida das Forcas Armadas, 1600-081 Lisbon
  mailing address: Apartado 43033, 1601-301 Lisboa; PSC 83, APO AE
  09726
  telephone: [351] (21) 727-3300
  FAX: [351] (21) 726-9109
  consulate(s): Ponta Delgada (Azores)

Flag description:
  two vertical bands of green (hoist side, two-fifths) and red
  (three-fifths) with the Portuguese coat of arms centered on the
  dividing line

Economy Portugal


Economy - overview:
  Portugal has become a diversified and increasingly service-based
  economy since joining the European Community in 1986. Over the past
  decade, successive governments have privatized many state-controlled
  firms and liberalized key areas of the economy, including the
  financial and telecommunications sectors. The country qualified for
  the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998 and began circulating the
  euro on 1 January 2002 along with 11 other EU member economies.
  Economic growth had been above the EU average for much of the past
  decade, but fell back in 2001-05. GDP per capita stands at
  two-thirds that of the Big Four EU economies. A poor educational
  system, in particular, has been an obstacle to greater productivity
  and growth. Portugal has been increasingly overshadowed by
  lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a target for
  foreign direct investment. The government faces tough choices in its
  attempts to boost Portugal's economic competitiveness while keeping
  the budget deficit within the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP ceiling.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $200.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $170.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  0.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $19,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.3%
  industry: 27.4%
  services: 67.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  5.52 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 30%
  services: 60% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 28.4% (1995 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  38.5 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $78.84 billion
  expenditures: $90.27 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  63.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, grapes; sheep, cattle, goats,
  swine, poultry, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  textiles and footwear; wood pulp, paper, and cork; metals and
  metalworking; oil refining; chemicals; fish canning; rubber and
  plastic products; ceramics; electronics and communications
  equipment; rail transportation equipment; aerospace equipment; ship
  construction and refurbishment; wine; tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  0% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  44.32 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 64.5%
  hydro: 31.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 4.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  44.01 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5.9 billion kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  326,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  28,830 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  357,300 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.983 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.553 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-17.1 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $38.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  clothing and footwear, machinery, chemicals, cork and paper
  products, hides

Exports - partners:
  Spain 25.9%, France 13.1%, Germany 11.9%, UK 8%, US 5.4%, Italy
  4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $60.35 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum, textiles,
  agricultural products

Imports - partners:
  Spain 29%, Germany 13.4%, France 8.5%, Italy 5.2%, Netherlands
  4.3%, UK 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $10.36 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $287.8 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $271 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Portugal


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4.234 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  11.448 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Portugal's telephone system has achieved a
  state-of-the-art network with broadband, high-speed capabilities
  domestic: integrated network of coaxial cables, open-wire, microwave
  radio relay, and domestic satellite earth stations
  international: country code - 351; 6 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean),
  NA Eutelsat; tropospheric scatter to Azores; note - an earth station
  for Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region) is planned

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 47, FM 172 (many are repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  3.02 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  62 (plus 166 repeaters)
  note: includes Azores and Madeira Islands (1995)

Televisions:
  3.31 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pt

Internet hosts:
  845,980 (2005)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  7,782,700 (2006)

Transportation Portugal


Airports:
  66 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 43
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,099 km; oil 8 km; refined products 174 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,850 km
  broad gauge: 2,576 km 1.668-m gauge (623 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 274 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 72,600 km
  paved: 62,436 km (including 1,700 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 10,164 km (2002)

Waterways:
  210 km (on Douro River from Porto) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 111 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,077,300 GRT/1,363,435 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 27, chemical tanker 15, container 7,
  liquefied gas 11, passenger 9, passenger/cargo 10, petroleum tanker
  8, roll on/roll off 4, vehicle carrier 9
  foreign-owned: 82 (Australia 1, Belgium 8, Cyprus 1, Denmark 4,
  Germany 17, Greece 4, Italy 12, Japan 9, Malta 1, Mexico 1,
  Netherlands 1, Norway 4, Spain 15, Switzerland 3, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 16 (Cyprus 2, Hong Kong 1, Malta 3,
  Panama 10) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Leixoes, Lisbon, Setubal, Sines

Military Portugal


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (Marinha Portuguesa; includes Marine Corps), Air Force
  (Forca Aerea Portuguesa, FAP), National Republican Guard (Guarda
  Nacional Republicana) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; compulsory military
  service was ended in 2004; women serve in the armed forces, on naval
  ships since 1993, but are prohibited from serving in some combatant
  specialties (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,435,042
  females age 18-49: 2,405,816 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,952,819
  females age 18-49: 1,977,264 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 67,189
  females age 18-49: 60,626 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3,497.8 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.3% (2003)

Transnational Issues Portugal


Disputes - international:
  Portugal does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over the territory
  of Olivenza based on a difference of interpretation of the 1815
  Congress of Vienna and the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz

Illicit drugs:
  gateway country for Latin American cocaine and Southwest Asian
  heroin entering the European market (especially from Brazil);
  transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to Europe;
  consumer of Southwest Asian heroin


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Puerto Rico

Introduction Puerto Rico


Background:
  Populated for centuries by aboriginal peoples, the island was
  claimed by the Spanish Crown in 1493 following COLUMBUS' second
  voyage to the Americas. In 1898, after 400 years of colonial rule
  that saw the indigenous population nearly exterminated and African
  slave labor introduced, Puerto Rico was ceded to the US as a result
  of the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted US
  citizenship in 1917. Popularly-elected governors have served since
  1948. In 1952, a constitution was enacted providing for internal
  self government. In plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters
  chose not to alter the existing political status.

Geography Puerto Rico


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic

Geographic coordinates:
  18 15 N, 66 30 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 13,790 sq km
  land: 8,870 sq km
  water: 4,921 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  501 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical marine, mild; little seasonal temperature variation

Terrain:
  mostly mountains with coastal plain belt in north; mountains
  precipitous to sea on west coast; sandy beaches along most coastal
  areas

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Cerro de Punta 1,339 m

Natural resources:
  some copper and nickel; potential for onshore and offshore oil

Land use:
  arable land: 3.69%
  permanent crops: 5.59%
  other: 90.72% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  400 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; hurricanes

Environment - current issues:
  erosion; occasional drought causing water shortages

Geography - note:
  important location along the Mona Passage - a key shipping lane to
  the Panama Canal; San Juan is one of the biggest and best natural
  harbors in the Caribbean; many small rivers and high central
  mountains ensure land is well watered; south coast relatively dry;
  fertile coastal plain belt in north

People Puerto Rico


Population:
  3,927,188 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 21.3% (male 428,610/female 409,484)
  15-64 years: 65.8% (male 1,239,255/female 1,345,519)
  65 years and over: 12.8% (male 218,045/female 286,275) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.7 years
  male: 33 years
  female: 36.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.4% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.14 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.4 years
  male: 74.46 years
  female: 82.54 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  7,397 (1997)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Puerto Rican(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Puerto Rican

Ethnic groups:
  white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%, black 8%, Amerindian 0.4%,
  Asian 0.2%, mixed and other 10.9%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant and other 15%

Languages:
  Spanish, English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.1%
  male: 93.9%
  female: 94.4% (2002 est.)

Government Puerto Rico


Country name:
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
  conventional short form: Puerto Rico

Dependency status:
  unincorporated, organized territory of the US with commonwealth
  status; policy relations between Puerto Rico and the US conducted
  under the jurisdiction of the Office of the President

Government type:
  commonwealth

Capital:
  name: San Juan
  geographic coordinates: 18 28 N, 66 07 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are 78 municipalities (municipios, singular -
  municipio) at the second order; Adjuntas, Aguada, Aguadilla, Aguas
  Buenas, Aibonito, Anasco, Arecibo, Arroyo, Barceloneta,
  Barranquitas, Bayamon, Cabo Rojo, Caguas, Camuy, Canovanas,
  Carolina, Catano, Cayey, Ceiba, Ciales, Cidra, Coamo, Comerio,
  Corozal, Culebra, Dorado, Fajardo, Florida, Guanica, Guayama,
  Guayanilla, Guaynabo, Gurabo, Hatillo, Hormigueros, Humacao,
  Isabela, Jayuya, Juana Diaz, Juncos, Lajas, Lares, Las Marias, Las
  Piedras, Loiza, Luquillo, Manati, Maricao, Maunabo, Mayaguez, Moca,
  Morovis, Naguabo, Naranjito, Orocovis, Patillas, Penuelas, Ponce,
  Quebradillas, Rincon, Rio Grande, Sabana Grande, Salinas, San
  German, San Juan, San Lorenzo, San Sebastian, Santa Isabel, Toa
  Alta, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto, Utuado, Vega Alta, Vega Baja,
  Vieques, Villalba, Yabucoa, Yauco

Independence:
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

National holiday:
  US Independence Day, 4 July (1776); Puerto Rico Constitution Day,
  25 July (1952)

Constitution:
  ratified 3 March 1952, approved by US Congress 3 July 1952,
  effective 25 July 1952

Legal system:
  based on Spanish civil code and within the US Federal system of
  justice

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal; island residents are US citizens but do
  not vote in US presidential elections

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA (since 2 January
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor with the consent of the
  legislature
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as Puerto Rico, do not vote in elections for US
  president and vice president; governor elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (no term limits); election last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA (PPD) elected governor;
  percent of vote - 48.4%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Legislative Assembly consists of the Senate (at least 27
  seats - currently 29; members are directly elected by popular vote
  to serve four-year terms) and the House of Representatives (51
  seats; members are directly elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held
  November 2008); House of Representatives - last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PNP 43.4%, PPD
  40.3%, PIP 9.4%; seats by party - PNP 17, PPD 9, PIP 1; House of
  Representatives - percent of vote by party - PNP 46.3%, PPD 43.1%,
  PIP 9.7%; seats by party - PNP 32, PPD 18, PIP 1
  note: Puerto Rico elects, by popular vote, a resident commissioner
  to serve a four-year term as a nonvoting representative in the US
  House of Representatives; aside from not voting on the House floor,
  he enjoys all the rights of a member of Congress; elections last
  held 2 November 2004 (next to be held November 2008); Luis FORTUNO
  elected resident commissioner; results - percent of vote by party -
  PNP 48.6%; seats by party - PNP 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Appellate Court; Court of First Instance composed of
  two sections: a Superior Court and a Municipal Court (justices for
  all these courts appointed by the governor with the consent of the
  Senate)

Political parties and leaders:
  National Democratic Party [Roberto PRATS]; National Republican
  Party of Puerto Rico [Dr. Tiody FERRE]; New Progressive Party or PNP
  (pro-US statehood) [Pedro ROSSELLO]; Popular Democratic Party or PPD
  (pro-commonwealth) [Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA]; Puerto Rican Independence
  Party or PIP (pro-independence) [Ruben BERRIOS Martinez]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Boricua Popular Army or EPB (a revolutionary group also known as
  Los Macheteros); note - the following radical groups are considered
  dormant by Federal law enforcement: Armed Forces for National
  Liberation or FALN, Armed Forces of Popular Resistance, Volunteers
  of the Puerto Rican Revolution

International organization participation:
  Interpol (subbureau), IOC, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WToO (associate)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

Flag description:
  five equal horizontal bands of red (top and bottom) alternating
  with white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side bears
  a large, white, five-pointed star in the center; design initially
  influenced by the US flag, but similar to the Cuban flag, with the
  colors of the bands and triangle reversed

Economy Puerto Rico


Economy - overview:
  Puerto Rico has one of the most dynamic economies in the Caribbean
  region. A diverse industrial sector has far surpassed agriculture as
  the primary locus of economic activity and income. Encouraged by
  duty-free access to the US and by tax incentives, US firms have
  invested heavily in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. US minimum wage
  laws apply. Sugar production has lost out to dairy production and
  other livestock products as the main source of income in the
  agricultural sector. Tourism has traditionally been an important
  source of income, with estimated arrivals of nearly 5 million
  tourists in 2004. Growth fell off in 2001-03, largely due to the
  slowdown in the US economy, and has recovered in 2004-2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $73.27 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $18,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 45%
  services: 54% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  1.3 million (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 20%
  services: 77% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12% (2002)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.5% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $6.7 billion
  expenditures: $9.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY99/00)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, coffee, pineapples, plantains, bananas; livestock
  products, chickens

Industries:
  pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, food products, tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  23.03 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.2%
  hydro: 0.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  21.42 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  218,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  740 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  630 million cu m (2001 est.)

Exports:
  $46.9 billion f.o.b. (2001)

Exports - commodities:
  chemicals, electronics, apparel, canned tuna, rum, beverage
  concentrates, medical equipment

Exports - partners:
  US 90.3%, UK 1.6%, Netherlands 1.4%, Dominican Republic 1.4% (2004)

Imports:
  $29.1 billion c.i.f. (2001)

Imports - commodities:
  chemicals, machinery and equipment, clothing, food, fish, petroleum
  products

Imports - partners:
  US 55.0%, Ireland 23.7%, Japan 5.4% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Puerto Rico


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,111,900 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.682 million (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system integrated with that of the US by
  high-capacity submarine cable and Intelsat with high-speed data
  capability
  domestic: digital telephone system; cellular telephone service
  international: country code - 1-787, 939; satellite earth station -
  1 Intelsat; submarine cable to US

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 74, FM 53, shortwave 0 (2006)

Radios:
  2.7 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  32 (2006)

Televisions:
  1.021 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pr

Internet hosts:
  404 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  76 (2000)

Internet users:
  1 million (2005)

Transportation Puerto Rico


Airports:
  30 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 96 km
  narrow gauge: 96 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 25,645 km
  paved: 24,363 km (including 426 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 1,282 km (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 77,177 GRT/50,138 DWT
  by type: roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 3 (US 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Las Mareas, Mayaguez, San Juan

Military Puerto Rico


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; paramilitary National Guard,
  Police Force

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Puerto Rico


Disputes - international:
  increasing numbers of illegal migrants from the Dominican Republic
  cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico each year looking for work


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Qatar

Introduction Qatar


Background:
  Ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed
  itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling
  into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas
  revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy
  was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by
  the amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son, the current
  Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani, overthrew him in a bloodless coup
  in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding border disputes
  with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Oil and natural gas revenues
  enable Qatar to have one of the highest per capita incomes in the
  world.

Geography Qatar


Location:
  Middle East, peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  25 30 N, 51 15 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 11,437 sq km
  land: 11,437 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  total: 60 km
  border countries: Saudi Arabia 60 km

Coastline:
  563 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: as determined by bilateral agreements or
  the median line

Climate:
  arid; mild, pleasant winters; very hot, humid summers

Terrain:
  mostly flat and barren desert covered with loose sand and gravel

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Qurayn Abu al Bawl 103 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 0.27%
  other: 98.09% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  130 sq km (2002)

Natural hazards:
  haze, dust storms, sandstorms common

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources are increasing dependence on
  large-scale desalination facilities

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location in central Persian Gulf near major petroleum
  deposits

People Qatar


Population:
  885,359 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.4% (male 105,546/female 101,371)
  15-64 years: 73% (male 446,779/female 199,133)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 24,059/female 8,471) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.7 years
  male: 37.1 years
  female: 22.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.5% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  14.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 2.24 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 2.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.87 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 18.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.9 years
  male: 71.37 years
  female: 76.57 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.09% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Qatari(s)
  adjective: Qatari

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 40%, Indian 18%, Pakistani 18%, Iranian 10%, other 14%

Religions:
  Muslim 95%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), English commonly used as a second language

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 89%
  male: 89.1%
  female: 88.6% (2004 est.)

Government Qatar


Country name:
  conventional long form: State of Qatar
  conventional short form: Qatar
  local long form: Dawlat Qatar
  local short form: Qatar
  note: closest approximation of the native pronunciation falls
  between cutter and gutter, but not like guitar

Government type:
  traditional emirate

Capital:
  name: Doha
  geographic coordinates: 25 17 N, 51 32 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 municipalities (baladiyat, singular - baladiyah); Ad Dawhah, Al
  Ghuwayriyah, Al Jumayliyah, Al Khawr, Al Wakrah, Ar Rayyan, Jarayan
  al Batinah, Madinat ash Shamal, Umm Sa'id, Umm Salal

Independence:
  3 September 1971 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 3 September (1971)

Constitution:
  ratified by public referendum on 29 April 2003, endorsed by the
  amir on 8 June 2004, effective on 9 June 2005

Legal system:
  discretionary system of law controlled by the amir, although civil
  codes are being implemented; Shari'a law dominates family and
  personal matters

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani (since 27 June 1995
  when, as crown prince, he ousted his father, Amir KHALIFA bin Hamad
  al-Thani, in a bloodless coup); Crown Prince TAMIM bin Hamad bin
  Khalifa al-Thani, fourth son of the monarch (selected Heir Apparent
  by the monarch on 5 August 2003); note - Amir HAMAD also holds the
  positions of Minister of Defense and Commander-in-chief of the Armed
  Forces
  head of government: Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin Khalifa al-Thani,
  brother of the monarch (since 30 October 1996); Deputy Prime
  Minister MUHAMMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani, brother of the monarch
  (since 20 January 1998); First Deputy Prime Minister HAMAD bin Jasim
  bin Jabir al-Thani (since 16 September 2003, also Foreign Minister
  since 1992); Second Deputy Prime Minister Abdallah bin Hamad
  al-ATIYAH (since 16 September 2003, also Electricity and Water
  Minister since 1999 and Energy and Industry Minister since 1992)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary
  note: in April 2003, Qatar held nationwide elections for a 29-member
  Central Municipal Council (CMC), which has consultative powers aimed
  at improving the provision of municipal services; the first election
  for the CMC was held in March 1999

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Advisory Council or Majlis al-Shura (35 seats; members
  appointed)
  note: no legislative elections have been held since 1970 when there
  were partial elections to the body; Council members have had their
  terms extended every four years since; the new constitution, which
  came into force on 9 June 2005, provides for a 45-member
  Consultative Council, or Majlis al-Shura; the public would elect
  two-thirds of the Majlis al-Shura; the amir would appoint the
  remaining members; preparations are underway to conduct elections to
  the Majlis al-Shura in early 2007

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal
  note: under a judiciary law issued in 2003, the former two court
  systems, civil and Islamic law, were merged under a higher court,
  the Court of Cassation, established for appeals

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACC, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICRM, IDB, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UN
  Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nasir bin Hamad bin Mubarak al-KHALIFA
  chancery: 2555 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 274-1600 and 274-1603
  FAX: [1] (202) 237-0061
  consulate(s) general: Houston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Chase UNTERMEYER
  embassy: Al-Luqta District, 22 February Road, Doha
  mailing address: P. O. Box 2399, Doha
  telephone: [974] 488 4101
  FAX: [974] 488 4176

Flag description:
  maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on the
  hoist side

Economy Qatar


Economy - overview:
  Oil and gas account for more than 60% of GDP, roughly 85% of export
  earnings, and 70% of government revenues. Oil and gas have given
  Qatar a per capita GDP about 80% of that of the leading West
  European industrial countries. Proved oil reserves of 16 billion
  barrels should ensure continued output at current levels for 23
  years. Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas exceed 25 trillion
  cubic meters, more than 5% of the world total and third largest in
  the world. Qatar has permitted substantial foreign investment in the
  development of its gas fields during the last decade and is expected
  to become the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter by
  2007. In recent years, Qatar has consistently posted trade surpluses
  largely because of high oil prices and increased natural gas
  exports, becoming one of the world's fastest growing and highest
  per-capita income countries.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $24.46 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $28.07 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $28,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.2%
  industry: 80.1%
  services: 19.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  440,000 (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.7% (2001)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $17.31 billion
  expenditures: $11.31 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.2
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  35.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  fruits, vegetables; poultry, dairy products, beef; fish

Industries:
  crude oil production and refining, ammonia, fertilizers,
  petrochemicals, steel reinforcing bars, cement, commercial ship
  repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  10% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  9.735 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  9.053 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  790,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  33,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  16 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  30.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  11.61 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  18.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  25.77 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $9.27 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $24.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  liquefied natural gas (LNG), petroleum products, fertilizers, steel

Exports - partners:
  Japan 37.1%, South Korea 19.5%, Singapore 8.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $6.706 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, food, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  France 11.5%, Japan 10.5%, US 10.4%, Germany 8.4%, Saudi Arabia
  7.3%, UK 7%, Italy 6.5%, South Korea 5.5%, UAE 4.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $4.552 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $21.13 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Qatari rial (QAR)

Currency code:
  QAR

Exchange rates:
  Qatari rials per US dollar - 3.64 (2005), 3.64 (2004), 3.64 (2003),
  3.64 (2002), 3.64 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Qatar


Telephones - main lines in use:
  205,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  716,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system centered in Doha
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 974; tropospheric scatter to Bahrain;
  microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia and UAE; submarine cable to
  Bahrain and UAE; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic
  Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  256,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  230,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .qa

Internet hosts:
  301 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  219,000 (2005)

Transportation Qatar


Airports:
  5 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 319 km; condensate/gas 209 km; gas 1,024 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 87 km; oil 844 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,230 km
  paved: 1,107 km
  unpaved: 123 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 750,669 GRT/1,177,673 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 3, container 8, liquefied gas 2,
  petroleum tanker 7, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 8 (Kuwait 7, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Honduras 1, Liberia 2, Panama 1)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Doha

Military Qatar


Military branches:
  Qatari Amiri Land Force (QALF), Qatari Amiri Navy (QAN), Qatari
  Amiri Air Force (QAAF)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; land forces
  enlisted personnel are largely unprofessional foreign nationals
  (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 302,873
  females age 18-49: 137,856 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 238,566
  females age 18-49: 116,595 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 7,851
  females age 18-49: 7,040 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $723 million (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  10% (FY00)

Transnational Issues Qatar


Disputes - international:
  none

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Qatar is a destination country for men and women
  from South and Southeast Asia who migrate willingly, but are
  subsequently trafficked into involuntary servitude as domestic
  workers and laborers; the problem of trafficking of foreign children
  as camel jockeys was thoroughly addressed by government action in
  2005, but independent confirmation of the problem's complete
  elimination is not yet available
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Qatar has made noticeable progress
  in rescuing and repatriating child camel jockeys, establishing a
  shelter for abused domestic workers, and creating hotlines to
  register complaints; however, Qatar is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to provide sufficient evidence of increasing
  efforts to combat trafficking in persons in 2005, particularly with
  regard to labor exploitation


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Reunion

Introduction Reunion


Background:
  The Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island in 1513. From the
  17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration, supplemented by
  influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar Indians, gave the
  island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 cost
  the island its importance as a stopover on the East Indies trade
  route.

Geography Reunion


Location:
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

Geographic coordinates:
  21 06 S, 55 36 E

Map references:
  World

Area:
  total: 2,517 sq km
  land: 2,507 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  207 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical, but temperature moderates with elevation; cool and dry
  (May to November), hot and rainy (November to April)

Terrain:
  mostly rugged and mountainous; fertile lowlands along coast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Piton des Neiges 3,069 m

Natural resources:
  fish, arable land, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 13.94%
  permanent crops: 1.59%
  other: 84.47% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  120 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic, devastating cyclones (December to April); Piton de la
  Fournaise on the southeastern coast is an active volcano

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  this mountainous, volcanic island has an active volcano, Piton de
  la Fournaise; there is a tropical cyclone center at Saint-Denis,
  which is the monitoring station for the whole of the Indian Ocean

People Reunion


Population:
  787,584 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29.8% (male 120,147/female 114,589)
  15-64 years: 64% (male 248,895/female 255,156)
  65 years and over: 6.2% (male 19,847/female 28,950) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.9 years
  male: 25.7 years
  female: 28.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.34% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.85 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.18 years
  male: 70.78 years
  female: 77.75 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Reunionese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Reunionese

Ethnic groups:
  French, African, Malagasy, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 86%, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist (1995)

Languages:
  French (official), Creole widely used

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88.9%
  male: 87%
  female: 90.8% (2003 est.)

Government Reunion


Country name:
  conventional long form: Department of Reunion
  conventional short form: Reunion
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile de la Reunion
  former: Bourbon Island

Dependency status:
  overseas department of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Saint-Denis
  geographic coordinates: 20 52 S, 55 28 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas department of France); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are 4 arrondissements, 24 communes, and 47 cantons

Independence:
  none (overseas department of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Prefect Pierre-Henry MACCIONI (since 28 August
  2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Nassimah DINDAR
  (since NA March 2004) and President of the Regional Council Paul
  VERGES (since NA March 1993)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of the Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council (49 seats; members are elected by
  direct, popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a unicameral
  Regional Council (45 seats; members are elected by direct, popular
  vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held 15 and 22 March 1998 (next to
  be held NA); Regional Council - last held 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held in 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - various right-wing candidates 13, PCR 10, PS 10,
  UDF 8, RPR 6, other left-wing candidates 2; Regional Council (second
  round) - percent of vote by party - PCR 44.9%, UMP 32.8%, PS-Greens
  22.3%; seats by party - PCR 27, UMP 11, PS-Greens 7
  note: Reunion elects three representatives to the French Senate;
  elections last held in 2001 (next to be held in 2006); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRC 1, UDF 1, UMP 1;
  Reunion also elects five deputies to the French National Assembly;
  elections last held 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP 3, PS
  1, independent 1

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Communist Party of Reunion or PCR [Elie HOARAU]; Rally for the
  Republic or RPR [Andre Maurice PIHOUEE]; Socialist Party or PS
  [Michel VERGOZ]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Gilbert GERARD];
  Union for a Popular Movement or UMP

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  InOC, UPU, WFTU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas department of France)

Flag description:
  unofficial, local flag designed to emphasize solidarity among the
  people of Reunion; the field is divided vertically with three narrow
  stripes of blue, white, and red along the hoist edge representing
  the French national flag; the remainder of the field is divided
  diagonally into four triangles colored (clockwise from the hoist
  side) blue, golden yellow, red, and green; in the center, the apexes
  of the triangles are surmounted by a white disk; the only official
  flag is the national flag of France

Economy Reunion


Economy - overview:
  The economy has traditionally been based on agriculture, but
  services now dominate. Sugarcane has been the primary crop for more
  than a century, and in some years it accounts for 85% of exports.
  The government has been pushing the development of a tourist
  industry to relieve high unemployment, which amounts to one-third of
  the labor force. The gap in Reunion between the well-off and the
  poor is extraordinary and accounts for the persistent social
  tensions. The white and Indian communities are substantially better
  off than other segments of the population, often approaching
  European standards, whereas minority groups suffer the poverty and
  unemployment typical of the poorer nations of the African continent.
  The outbreak of severe rioting in February 1991 illustrated the
  seriousness of socioeconomic tensions. The economic well-being of
  Reunion depends heavily on continued financial assistance from
  France.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.79 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 19%
  services: 73% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  299,000 (2002)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 12%
  services: 75% (2000)

Unemployment rate:
  31% (2002)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $554.7 million
  expenditures: $554.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, vanilla, tobacco, tropical fruits, vegetables, corn

Industries:
  sugar, rum, cigarettes, handicraft items, flower oil extraction

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.19 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 55.5%
  hydro: 44.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.107 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  18,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $248.5 million f.o.b. (2002)

Exports - commodities:
  sugar 63%, rum and molasses 4%, perfume essences 2%, lobster 3%

Exports - partners:
  France 74%, Japan 6%, Comoros 4% (2004)

Imports:
  $3.306 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, food, beverages, tobacco, machinery and
  transportation equipment, raw materials, and petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  France 64%, Bahrain 3%, Germany 3%, Italy 3% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA; note - substantial annual subsidies from France (2001 est.)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Reunion


Telephones - main lines in use:
  300,000 (2001)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  579,200 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate system; principal center is Saint-Denis
  domestic: modern open-wire and microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 262; radiotelephone communication to
  Comoros, France, Madagascar; new microwave route to Mauritius;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean); fiber optic
  submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE) provides connectivity to Europe
  and Asia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 55, shortwave 0 (2001)

Radios:
  173,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  35 (plus 18 low-power repeaters) (2001)

Televisions:
  127,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .re

Internet hosts:
  29 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  200,000 (2005)

Transportation Reunion


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,214 km (including 88 km of four-lane roads) (2001)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 1 (Bahamas 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Le Port

Military Reunion


Military branches:
  no regular indigenous military forces; French forces (includes
  Army, Navy, Air Force, and Gendarmerie) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 183,421
  females age 18-49: 185,606 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 142,578
  females age 18-49: 154,273 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 7,339
  females age 18-49: 7,007 (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Reunion


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Romania

Introduction Romania


Background:
  The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia - for centuries under
  the suzerainty of the Turkish Ottoman Empire - secured their
  autonomy in 1856; they united in 1859 and a few years later adopted
  the new name of Romania. The country gained recognition of its
  independence in 1878. It joined the Allied Powers in World War I and
  acquired new territories - most notably Transylvania - following the
  conflict. In 1940, Romania allied with the Axis powers and
  participated in the 1941 German invasion of the USSR. Three years
  later, overrun by the Soviets, Romania signed an armistice. The
  post-war Soviet occupation led to the formation of a Communist
  "people's republic" in 1947 and the abdication of the king. The
  decades-long rule of dictator Nicolae CEAUSESCU, who took power in
  1965, and his Securitate police state became increasingly oppressive
  and draconian through the 1980s. CEAUSESCU was overthrown and
  executed in late 1989. Former Communists dominated the government
  until 1996 when they were swept from power. Romania joined NATO in
  March of 2004 and completed accession talks with the European Union
  (EU) in December 2004; it is scheduled to accede to the EU in 2007.

Geography Romania


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and
  Ukraine

Geographic coordinates:
  46 00 N, 25 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 237,500 sq km
  land: 230,340 sq km
  water: 7,160 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,508 km
  border countries: Bulgaria 608 km, Hungary 443 km, Moldova 450 km,
  Serbia 476 km, Ukraine (north) 362 km, Ukraine (east) 169 km

Coastline:
  225 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow and fog; sunny
  summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms

Terrain:
  central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Plain of Moldavia
  on the east by the Carpathian Mountains and separated from the
  Walachian Plain on the south by the Transylvanian Alps

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Moldoveanu 2,544 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum (reserves declining), timber, natural gas, coal, iron
  ore, salt, arable land, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 39.49%
  permanent crops: 1.92%
  other: 58.59% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30,770 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes, most severe in south and southwest; geologic structure
  and climate promote landslides

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion and degradation; water pollution; air pollution in
  south from industrial effluents; contamination of Danube delta
  wetlands

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  controls most easily traversable land route between the Balkans,
  Moldova, and Ukraine

People Romania


Population:
  22,303,552 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.7% (male 1,799,072/female 1,708,030)
  15-64 years: 69.6% (male 7,724,368/female 7,797,065)
  65 years and over: 14.7% (male 1,347,392/female 1,927,625) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 36.6 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 37.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.12% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.7 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  11.77 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 25.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 22.16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71.63 years
  male: 68.14 years
  female: 75.34 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  6,500 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  350 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Romanian(s)
  adjective: Romanian

Ethnic groups:
  Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German
  0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4% (2002 census)

Religions:
  Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 86.8%,
  Protestant (various denominations including Reformate and
  Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%, other (mostly Muslim) and
  unspecified 0.9%, none 0.1% (2002 census)

Languages:
  Romanian (official), Hungarian, German

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.4%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 97.7% (2003 est.)

Government Romania


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Romania
  local long form: none
  local short form: Romania

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bucharest
  geographic coordinates: 44 26 N, 26 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  41 counties (judete, singular - judet) and 1 municipality*
  (municipiu); Alba, Arad, Arges, Bacau, Bihor, Bistrita-Nasaud,
  Botosani, Braila, Brasov, Bucuresti (Bucharest)*, Buzau, Calarasi,
  Caras-Severin, Cluj, Constanta, Covasna, Dimbovita, Dolj, Galati,
  Gorj, Giurgiu, Harghita, Hunedoara, Ialomita, Iasi, Ilfov,
  Maramures, Mehedinti, Mures, Neamt, Olt, Prahova, Salaj, Satu Mare,
  Sibiu, Suceava, Teleorman, Timis, Tulcea, Vaslui, Vilcea, Vrancea

Independence:
  9 May 1877 (independence proclaimed from the Ottoman Empire;
  independence recognized 13 July 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin;
  kingdom proclaimed 26 March 1881); 30 December 1947 (republic
  proclaimed)

National holiday:
  Unification Day (of Romania and Transylvania), 1 December (1918)

Constitution:
  8 December 1991; revision effective 29 October 2003

Legal system:
  former mixture of civil law system and communist legal theory; is
  now based on the constitution of France's Fifth Republic

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Traian BASESCU (since 20 December 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Calin Popescu-TARICEANU (since 29
  December 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 28 November 2004,
  with runoff between the top two candidates held 12 December 2004
  (next to be held November-December 2009); prime minister appointed
  by the president with the consent of the Parliament
  election results: percent of vote - Traian BASESCU 51.23%, Adrian
  NASTASE 48.77%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate or Senat
  (137 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote on a
  proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms) and the
  Chamber of Deputies or Camera Deputatilor (332 seats; members are
  elected by direct, popular vote on a proportional representation
  basis to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 28 November 2004 (next expected to be
  held in November 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 28 November
  2004 (next expected to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by alliance/party -
  PSD-PUR 37.1%, PNL-PD 31.8%, PRM 13.6%, UDMR 6.2%; seats by party -
  PSD 44, PNL 30, PD 20, PRM 20, PC 11, UDMR 10, independents 2;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by alliance/party - PSD-PUR
  36.8%, PNL-PD 31.5%, PRM 13%, UDMR 6.2%; seats by party - PSD 111,
  PNL 66, PD 45, PRM 34, ex-PRM (Ciontu Group) 12, UDMR 22, PC 20, PIN
  (GUSA Group) 3, independent 1, ethnic minorities 18

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Justice (comprised of 11 judges appointed for
  three-year terms by the president in consultation with the Superior
  Council of Magistrates, which is comprised of the minister of
  justice, the prosecutor general, two civil society representatives
  appointed by the Senate, and 14 judges and prosecutors elected by
  their peers); a separate body, the Constitutional Court, validates
  elections and makes decisions regarding the constitutionality of
  laws, treaties, ordinances, and internal rules of the Parliament; it
  is comprised of nine members serving nine-year terms, with three
  members each appointed by the president, the Senate, and the Chamber
  of Deputies

Political parties and leaders:
  Conservative Party or PC [Dan VOICULESCU], formerly Humanist Party
  or PUR; Democratic Party or PD [Emil BOC]; Democratic Union of
  Hungarians in Romania or UDMR [Bela MARKO]; National Liberal Party
  or PNL [Calin Popescu-TARICEANU]; Romania Mare Party (Greater
  Romanian Party) or PRM [Corneliu Vadim TUDOR]; Social Democratic
  Party or PSD [Mircea Dan GEOANA], formerly Party of Social Democracy
  in Romania or PDSR

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  various human rights and professional associations

International organization participation:
  ACCT, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ESA
  (cooperating state), EU (applicant), FAO, G- 9, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM
  (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Daniela
  GITMAN
  chancery: 1607 23rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-4846, 4848, 4851, 4852
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-4748
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nicholas F. TAUBMAN
  embassy: Strada Tudor Arghezi 7-9, Bucharest
  mailing address: American Embassy Bucharest, US Department of State,
  5260 Bucharest Place, Washington, DC 20521-5260 (pouch)
  telephone: [40] (21) 200-3300
  FAX: [40] (21) 200-3442
  information office: Cluj-Napoca

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and red;
  the national coat of arms that used to be centered in the yellow
  band has been removed; now similar to the flag of Chad, also
  resembles the flags of Andorra and Moldova

Economy Romania


Economy - overview:
  Romania began the transition from Communism in 1989 with a largely
  obsolete industrial base and a pattern of output unsuited to the
  country's needs. The country emerged in 2000 from a punishing
  three-year recession thanks to strong demand in EU export markets.
  Despite the global slowdown in 2001-02, strong domestic activity in
  construction, agriculture, and consumption have kept GDP growth
  above 4%. An IMF standby agreement, signed in 2001, has been
  accompanied by slow but palpable gains in privatization, deficit
  reduction, and the curbing of inflation. The IMF Board approved
  Romania's completion of the standby agreement in October 2003, the
  first time Romania has successfully concluded an IMF agreement since
  the 1989 revolution. In July 2004, the executive board of the IMF
  approved a 24-month standby agreement for $367 million. IMF concerns
  about Romania's tax policy and budget deficit led to a breakdown of
  this agreement in 2005. In the past, the IMF has criticized the
  government's fiscal, wage, and monetary policies. Meanwhile,
  macroeconomic gains have only recently started to spur creation of a
  middle class and address Romania's widespread poverty, while
  corruption and red tape continue to handicap the business
  environment. Romanian government confidence in continuing
  disinflation was underscored by its currency revaluation in 2005,
  making 10,000 "old" lei equal 1 "new" leu.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $181.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $72.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 10.1%
  industry: 35%
  services: 54.9% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  9.31 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 31.6%
  industry: 30.7%
  services: 37.7% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers 12% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 27.6% (2003)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.8 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9% (2005)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $29.97 billion
  expenditures: $31.37 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.2
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, sunflower seed, potatoes, grapes;
  eggs, sheep

Industries:
  textiles and footwear, light machinery and auto assembly, mining,
  timber, construction materials, metallurgy, chemicals, food
  processing, petroleum refining

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  57 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 62.5%
  hydro: 27.6%
  nuclear: 9.9%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  37.5 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  380 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  119,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  212,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  163,000 bbl/day bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  500 million bbl (yearend 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  13.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  18.8 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  5.9 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  300 billion cu m (yearend 2004)

Current account balance:
  $-8.2 billion (2005)

Exports:
  $31.2 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles and footwear, metals and metal products, machinery and
  equipment, minerals and fuels, chemicals, agricultural products

Exports - partners:
  Italy 19.4%, Germany 14%, Turkey 7.9%, France 7.4%, UK 5.5%,
  Hungary 4.1%, US 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $41 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuels and minerals, chemicals, textile and
  products, basic metals, agricultural products

Imports - partners:
  Italy 15.5%, Germany 14%, Russia 8.3%, France 6.8%, Turkey 4.9%,
  China 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $21.6 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $35.68 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $3.3 billion in committed EU pre-accession aid (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  leu (ROL) is being phased out in 2006; "new" leu (RON) was
  introduced in 2005 due to currency revaluation: 10,000 ROL = 1 RON

Currency code:
  ROL

Exchange rates:
  lei per US dollar - 3 (2005), 3 (2004), 3 (2003), 3 (2002), 3 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Romania


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4.391 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  13.354 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: rapidly improving domestic and international
  service, especially in wireless telephony
  domestic: 90% of telephone network is automatic; liberalization in
  2003 is transforming telecommunications; there has been 20% growth
  in fixed lines with a penetration rate of 58% of households;
  nation-wide wireless service is growing even faster with four major
  providers and a penetration rate of 32%
  international: country code - 40; satellite earth station - 10
  (Intelsat 4); digital, international, direct-dial exchanges operate
  in Bucharest (2005)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 40, FM 202, shortwave 3 (1998)

Radios:
  7.2 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  48 (plus 392 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  5.25 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ro

Internet hosts:
  57,470 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  38 (2000)

Internet users:
  4.94 million (2005)

Transportation Romania


Airports:
  61 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 3,508 km; oil 2,427 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 11,385 km
  standard gauge: 10,898 km 1.435-m gauge (3,888 km electrified)
  broad gauge: 60 km 1.524-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 427 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 198,817 km
  paved: 60,043 km (including 228 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 138,774 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,731 km
  note: includes 1,075 km on Danube River, 524 km on secondary
  branches, and 132 km on canals (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 198,767 GRT/246,732 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 15, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 2,
  petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Italy 1)
  registered in other countries: 48 (Georgia 11, North Korea 11, Malta
  9, Panama 9, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Syria 3, unknown 4)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Braila, Constanta, Galati, Tulcea

Military Romania


Military branches:
  Land Forces, Naval Forces, Romanian Air Force (Fortele Aerienne
  Romane, FAR), Special Operations (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  all military inductees (including women) are volunteers who
  contract for an initial five-year term of service; subsequent
  voluntary service contracts are for successive three-year terms
  until the age of 36; minimum age for voluntary military service is
  18 (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 5,061,984
  females age 20-49: 4,975,427 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 3,932,579
  females age 20-49: 4,076,288 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 172,093
  females age 20-49: 165,547 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $985 million (2002)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.47% (2002)

Transnational Issues Romania


Disputes - international:
  Romania and Ukraine have taken their dispute over
  Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy (Snake) Island and Black Sea
  maritime boundary to the ICJ for adjudication; Romania also opposes
  Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the Danube border
  through Ukraine to the Black Sea; Hungary amended the status law
  extending special social and cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians
  in Romania, to which Romania had objected

Illicit drugs:
  major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin transiting the
  Balkan route and small amounts of Latin American cocaine bound for
  Western Europe; although not a significant financial center, role as
  a narcotics conduit leaves it vulnerable to laundering which occurs
  via the banking system, currency exchange houses, and casinos


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Russia

Introduction Russia


Background:
  Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able
  to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th
  centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding
  principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty
  continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific.
  Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic
  Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th
  century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia.
  Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led
  to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and
  to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists
  under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR.
  The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist
  rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of
  millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the
  following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV
  (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika
  (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his
  initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991
  splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics.
  Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a
  democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict
  social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period.
  While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent
  years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and
  the erosion of nascent democratic institutions. A determined
  guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya and threatens to
  destabilize the North Caucasus region.

Geography Russia


Location:
  Northern Asia (the area west of the Urals is considered part of
  Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North
  Pacific Ocean

Geographic coordinates:
  60 00 N, 100 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 17,075,200 sq km
  land: 16,995,800 sq km
  water: 79,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  approximately 1.8 times the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 20,096.5 km
  border countries: Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China
  (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland
  1,340 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km,
  Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 280.5 km, Mongolia
  3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 232 km, Ukraine
  1,576 km

Coastline:
  37,653 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much
  of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the
  polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid
  in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along
  Arctic coast

Terrain:
  broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous forest
  and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern border
  regions

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Gora El'brus 5,633 m

Natural resources:
  wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil, natural
  gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber
  note: formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder
  exploitation of natural resources

Land use:
  arable land: 7.17%
  permanent crops: 0.11%
  other: 92.72% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  46,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to
  development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and
  earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula; spring floods and
  summer/autumn forest fires throughout Siberia and parts of European
  Russia

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired electric
  plants, and transportation in major cities; industrial, municipal,
  and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and seacoasts;
  deforestation; soil erosion; soil contamination from improper
  application of agricultural chemicals; scattered areas of sometimes
  intense radioactive contamination; groundwater contamination from
  toxic waste; urban solid waste management; abandoned stocks of
  obsolete pesticides

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Geography - note:
  largest country in the world in terms of area but unfavorably
  located in relation to major sea lanes of the world; despite its
  size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates (either
  too cold or too dry) for agriculture; Mount El'brus is Europe's
  tallest peak

People Russia


Population:
  142,893,540 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.2% (male 10,441,151/female 9,921,102)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 49,271,698/female 52,679,463)
  65 years and over: 14.4% (male 6,500,814/female 14,079,312) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 35.2 years
  female: 41.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.37% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.95 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.46 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 15.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 67.08 years
  male: 60.45 years
  female: 74.1 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  860,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  9,000 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Russian(s)
  adjective: Russian

Ethnic groups:
  Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%, Chuvash
  1.1%, other or unspecified 12.1% (2002 census)

Religions:
  Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006
  est.)
  note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large
  populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy
  of over seven decades of Soviet rule

Languages:
  Russian, many minority languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.5% (2003 est.)

Government Russia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Russian Federation
  conventional short form: Russia
  local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
  local short form: Rossiya
  former: Russian Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Government type:
  federation

Capital:
  name: Moscow
  geographic coordinates: 55 45 N, 37 35 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Russia is divided into eleven time zones

Administrative divisions:
  48 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik,
  singular - respublika), 9 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov,
  singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 7 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2
  federal cities (singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast
  (avtonomnaya oblast')
  oblasts: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod,
  Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga,
  Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma,
  Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk,
  Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel,
  Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara,
  Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula,
  Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh,
  Yaroslavl'
  republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan
  (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya
  (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas),
  Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista),
  Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk),
  Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola),
  Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya]
  (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)
  autonomous okrugs: Aga Buryat (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'), Evenk
  (Tura), Khanty-Mansi, Koryak (Palana), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Taymyr
  [Dolgano-Nenets] (Dudinka), Ust'-Orda Buryat (Ust'-Ordynskiy),
  Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
  krays: Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk,
  Permskiy, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'
  federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg)
  autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Independence:
  24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Russia Day, 12 June (1990)

Constitution:
  adopted 12 December 1993

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN (acting
  president 31 December 1999-6 May 2000, president since 7 May 2000)
  head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5
  March 2004); First Deputy Premier Dmitriy Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV
  (since 14 November 2005), Deputy Premiers Aleksandr Dmitriyevich
  ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004) and Sergey Borisovich IVANOV (since 14
  November 2005)
  cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of
  the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other
  individuals; all are appointed by the president
  note: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides
  staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential
  decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a
  Security Council also reports directly to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 March 2004 (next
  to be held March 2008); note - no vice president; if the president
  dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is
  impeached, or resigns, the premier serves as acting president until
  a new presidential election is held, which must be within three
  months; premier appointed by the president with the approval of the
  Duma
  election results: Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN reelected president;
  percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN 71.2%, Nikolay
  KHARITONOV 13.7%, other (no candidate above 5%) 15.1%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists of the
  Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats; as of July 2000,
  members appointed by the top executive and legislative officials in
  each of the 88 federal administrative units - oblasts, krays,
  republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal cities of
  Moscow and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year terms) and the
  State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats; currently elected by
  proportional representation from party lists winning at least 7% of
  the vote; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: State Duma - last held 7 December 2003 (next to be held
  in December 2007)
  election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties
  clearing the 5% threshold entitling them to a proportional share of
  the 225 party list seats - United Russia 37.1%, CPRF 12.7%, LDPR
  11.6%, Motherland 9.1%; seats by party - United Russia 222, CPRF 53,
  LDPR 38, Motherland 37, People's Party 19, Yabloko 4, SPS 2, other
  7, independents 65, repeat election required 3; composition as of 1
  July 2006 - United Russia 309, CPRF 45, LDPR 35, Motherland 29,
  People's Party 12, independents 18, vacant 2

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Supreme Arbitration Court;
  judges for all courts are appointed for life by the Federation
  Council on the recommendation of the president

Political parties and leaders:
  A Just Russia or JR [Sergei MIRONOV] (formed from the merger of
  three small political parties: Motherland Party (Rodina),
  Pensioner's Party, and Party of Life); Communist Party of the
  Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal
  Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich
  ZHIRINOVSKIY]; People's Party [Gennady RAIKOV]; Union of Right
  Forces or SPS [Nikita BELYKH]; United Russia or UR [Boris
  Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV]; Yabloko Party [Grigoriy Alekseyevich
  YAVLINSKIY]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS, BSEC,
  CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, G- 8, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer),
  MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer), OIC
  (observer), ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN
  Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer), ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
  chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William J. BURNS
  embassy: Bolshoy Deviatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow
  mailing address: PSC-77, APO AE 09721
  telephone: [7] (495) 728-5000
  FAX: [7] (495) 728-5090
  consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red

Economy Russia


Economy - overview:
  Russia ended 2005 with its seventh straight year of growth,
  averaging 6.4% annually since the financial crisis of 1998. Although
  high oil prices and a relatively cheap ruble are important drivers
  of this economic rebound, since 2000 investment and consumer-driven
  demand have played a noticeably increasing role. Real fixed capital
  investments have averaged gains greater than 10% over the last five
  years, and real personal incomes have realized average increases
  over 12%. During this time, poverty has declined steadily and the
  middle class has continued to expand. Russia has also improved its
  international financial position since the 1998 financial crisis,
  with its foreign debt declining from 90% of GDP to around 31%.
  Strong oil export earnings have allowed Russia to increase its
  foreign reserves from only $12 billion to some $180 billion at
  yearend 2005. These achievements, along with a renewed government
  effort to advance structural reforms, have raised business and
  investor confidence in Russia's economic prospects. Nevertheless,
  serious problems persist. Economic growth slowed to 5.9% for 2005
  while inflation remains high. Oil, natural gas, metals, and timber
  account for more than 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable
  to swings in world prices. Russia's manufacturing base is
  dilapidated and must be replaced or modernized if the country is to
  achieve broad-based economic growth. Other problems include a weak
  banking system, a poor business climate that discourages both
  domestic and foreign investors, corruption, and widespread lack of
  trust in institutions. In addition, a string of investigations
  launched against a major Russian oil company, culminating with the
  arrest of its CEO in the fall of 2003 and the acquisition of the
  company by a state owned firm, have raised concerns by some
  observers that President PUTIN is granting more influence to forces
  within his government that desire to reassert state control over the
  economy. State control has increased in the past year with a number
  of large acquisitions. Most fundamentally, Russia has made little
  progress in building the rule of law, the bedrock of a modern market
  economy.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.584 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $740.7 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $11,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 37.1%
  services: 57.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  74.22 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10.3%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 68.3% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.6% plus considerable underemployment (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  17.8% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.7%
  highest 10%: 38.7% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  12.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $176.7 billion
  expenditures: $125.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  12.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef, milk

Industries:
  complete range of mining and extractive industries producing coal,
  oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building from
  rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles;
  defense industries including radar, missile production, and advanced
  electronic components, shipbuilding; road and rail transportation
  equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery,
  tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and
  transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer
  durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  931 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 66.3%
  hydro: 17.2%
  nuclear: 16.4%
  other: 0.1% (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
  811.5 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  24 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  14 billion kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
  9.15 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  2.8 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  5.15 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  75,000 bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  69 billion bbl (2003 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  587 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  402.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  157.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  12 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  47.57 trillion cu m (2003)

Current account balance:
  $84.25 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $245 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood
  products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and
  military manufactures

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 10.3%, Germany 8.3%, Italy 7.9%, China 5.5%, Ukraine
  5.2%, Turkey 4.5%, Switzerland 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $125 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar,
  semifinished metal products

Imports - partners:
  Germany 13.6%, Ukraine 8%, China 7.4%, Japan 6%, Belarus 4.7%, US
  4.7%, Italy 4.6%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $182.2 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $215.3 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  in FY01 from US, $979 million (including $750 million in
  non-proliferation subsidies); in 2001 from EU, $200 million (2000
  est.)

Currency (code):
  Russian ruble (RUR)

Currency code:
  RUR

Exchange rates:
  Russian rubles per US dollar - 28.284 (2005), 28.814 (2004), 30.692
  (2003), 31.349 (2002), 29.169 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Russia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  40.1 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  120 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the telephone system underwent significant
  changes in the 1990s; there are more than 1,000 companies licensed
  to offer communication services; access to digital lines has
  improved, particularly in urban centers; Internet and e-mail
  services are improving; Russia has made progress toward building the
  telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a market economy;
  however, a large demand for main line service remains unsatisfied
  domestic: cross-country digital trunk lines run from Saint
  Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the
  telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital
  infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and digital, are
  available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services are
  still outdated, inadequate, and low density
  international: country code - 7; Russia is connected internationally
  by three undersea fiber-optic cables; digital switches in several
  cities provide more than 50,000 lines for international calls;
  satellite earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik,
  Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita systems

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 323, FM 1,500 est., shortwave 62 (2004)

Radios:
  61.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  7,306 (1998)

Televisions:
  60.5 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ru; note - Russia also has responsibility for a legacy domain
  ".su" that was allocated to the Soviet Union, and whose legal status
  and ownership are contested by the Russian Government, ICANN, and
  several Russian commercial entities

Internet hosts:
  1,979,924 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  300 (June 2000)

Internet users:
  23.7 million (2005)

Transportation Russia


Airports:
  1,623 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 616
  over 3,047 m: 51
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 198
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 130
  914 to 1,523 m: 100
  under 914 m: 137 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1,007
  over 3,047 m: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 75
  914 to 1,523 m: 127
  under 914 m: 780 (2006)

Heliports:
  52 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 122 km; gas 156,285 km; oil 72,283 km; refined products
  13,658 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 87,157 km
  broad gauge: 86,200 km 1.520-m gauge (40,300 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 957 km 1.067-m gauge (on Sakhalin Island)
  note: an additional 30,000 km of non-common carrier lines serve
  industries (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 871,000 km
  paved: 738,000 km (including 29,000 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 133,000 km
  note: includes public and departmental roads (2004)

Waterways:
  102,000 km (including 33,000 km with guaranteed depth)
  note: 72,000 km system in European Russia links Baltic Sea, White
  Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and Black Sea (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,178 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,080,341 GRT/6,287,784 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 46, cargo 743, chemical
  tanker 25, combination ore/oil 38, container 13, passenger 12,
  passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 219, refrigerated cargo 54, roll
  on/roll off 15, specialized tanker 5
  foreign-owned: 100 (Belgium 4, Canada 1, Cyprus 2, Estonia 1,
  Germany 2, Greece 1, Latvia 2, Malta 4, Norway 1, Switzerland 7,
  Turkey 63, Ukraine 11, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 465 (Antigua and Barbuda 6, Bahamas
  6, Belize 36, Bulgaria 1, Cambodia 105, Comoros 4, Cyprus 53,
  Dominica 2, Finland 1, Georgia 28, North Korea 1, Liberia 77, Malta
  70, Marshall Islands 1, Mongolia 13, Panama 7, Saint Kitts and Nevis
  5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 29, Sierra Leone 1, Tuvalu 2,
  Ukraine 1, Vanuatu 1, Venezuela 1, unknown 14) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Anapa, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Novorossiysk,
  Rostov-na-Donu, Saint Petersburg, Taganrog, Vanino, Vostochnyy

Military Russia


Military branches:
  Ground Forces (SV), Navy (VMF), Air Forces (VVS); Airborne Troops
  (VDV), Strategic Rocket Troops (RVSN), and Space Troops (KV) are
  independent "combat arms," not subordinate to any of the three
  branches

Military service age and obligation:
  Russia has adopted a mixed conscript-contract force; 18-27 years of
  age; males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age; length
  of compulsory military service is two years; plans call for
  reduction in mandatory service to 18 months in 2007 and to one year
  by 2008; 30% of Russian army personnel were contract servicemen at
  the end of 2005; planning calls for volunteer servicemen to compose
  70% of armed forces by 2010, with the remaining servicemen
  consisting of conscripts; as of November 2006, the Armed Forces had
  more than 60 units manned with contract personnel totalling over
  78,000 contract privates and sergeants; 88 Ministry of Defense units
  have been designated as permanent readiness units and are expected
  to become all-volunteer by end 2007; these include most air force,
  naval, and nuclear arms units, as well as all airborne and naval
  infantry units, most motorized rifle brigades, and all special
  forces detachments (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 35,247,049
  females age 18-49: 35,986,426 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 21,049,651
  females age 18-49: 29,056,021 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,286,069
  females age 18-49: 1,244,264 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Russia


Disputes - international:
  in 2005, China and Russia ratified the treaty to divide up the
  islands in the Amur, Ussuri, and Argun Rivers, representing the
  final portion of their centuries-long border disputes; the
  sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri,
  Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern
  Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kurils," occupied by the
  Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, and claimed by
  Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty
  formally ending World War II hostilities; Russia and Georgia agree
  on delimiting all but small, strategic segments of the land boundary
  and the maritime boundary; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas
  such as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Kodori Gorge
  in Abkhazia; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia signed equidistance
  boundaries in the Caspian seabed but the littoral states have no
  consensus on dividing the water column; Russia and Norway dispute
  their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights
  beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty
  zone; various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia
  (Kareliya) and other areas ceded to the Soviet Union following the
  Second World War but the Finnish Government asserts no territorial
  demands; in May 2005, Russia recalled its signatures to the 1996
  border agreements with Estonia (1996) and Latvia (1997), when the
  two Baltic states announced issuance of unilateral declarations
  referencing Soviet occupation and ensuing territorial losses; Russia
  demands better treatment of ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia;
  Estonian citizen groups continue to press for realignment of the
  boundary based on the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty that would bring the
  now divided ethnic Setu people and parts of the Narva region within
  Estonia; Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their
  boundary in 2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty
  ratified by Russia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania
  operates a simplified transit regime for Russian nationals traveling
  from the Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while still
  conforming, as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, to strict Schengen border rules; delimitation of land
  boundary with Ukraine is complete, but states have renewed
  discussions on demarcation; the dispute over the maritime boundary
  between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov
  remains unresolved despite a December 2003 framework agreement and
  on-going expert-level discussions; discussions toward economic and
  political union with Belarus advance slowly; Kazakhstan and Russia
  boundary delimitation ratified November 2005 and demarcation is
  underway; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Maritime Boundary
  Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 339,000 (displacement from Chechnya and North Ossetia) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Russia is a source, transit, and destination
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for various
  purposes; it remains a significant source of women trafficked to
  over 50 countries for commercial sexual exploitation; Russia is also
  a transit and destination country for men and women trafficked from
  Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and North Korea to Central and Western
  Europe and the Middle East for purposes of forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; internal trafficking remains a problem in Russia with
  women trafficked from rural areas to urban centers for commercial
  sexual exploitation, and men are trafficked internally and from
  Central Asia for forced labor in the construction and agricultural
  industries; debt bondage is common among trafficking victims, and
  child sex tourism remains a concern
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Russia is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for a third consecutive year for its continued failure to
  show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking,
  particularly in the area of victim protection and assistance

Illicit drugs:
  limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium poppy and
  producer of methamphetamine, mostly for domestic consumption;
  government has active illicit crop eradication program; used as
  transshipment point for Asian opiates, cannabis, and Latin American
  cocaine bound for growing domestic markets, to a lesser extent
  Western and Central Europe, and occasionally to the US; major source
  of heroin precursor chemicals; corruption and organized crime are
  key concerns; heroin increasingly popular in domestic market


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Rwanda

Introduction Rwanda


Background:
  In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority
  ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the
  next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some
  150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of
  these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front
  (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several
  political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions,
  culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly 800,000 Tutsis
  and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and
  ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2 million Hutu
  refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring
  Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since then, most of
  the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000 remain in
  neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and have formed an
  extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the RPF tried
  in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and political
  reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in March 1999 and
  its first post-genocide presidential and legislative elections in
  August and September 2003 - the country continues to struggle to
  boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic reconciliation
  is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi political dominance.
  Kigali's increasing centralization and intolerance of dissent, the
  nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across the border, and Rwandan
  involvement in two wars in recent years in the neighboring
  Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts
  to escape its bloody legacy.

Geography Rwanda


Location:
  Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Geographic coordinates:
  2 00 S, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 26,338 sq km
  land: 24,948 sq km
  water: 1,390 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  total: 893 km
  border countries: Burundi 290 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  217 km, Tanzania 217 km, Uganda 169 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; two rainy seasons (February to April, November to
  January); mild in mountains with frost and snow possible

Terrain:
  mostly grassy uplands and hills; relief is mountainous with
  altitude declining from west to east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Rusizi River 950 m
  highest point: Volcan Karisimbi 4,519 m

Natural resources:
  gold, cassiterite (tin ore), wolframite (tungsten ore), methane,
  hydropower, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 45.56%
  permanent crops: 10.25%
  other: 44.19% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  90 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts; the volcanic Virunga mountains are in the
  northwest along the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation results from uncontrolled cutting of trees for fuel;
  overgrazing; soil exhaustion; soil erosion; widespread poaching

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; most of the country is savanna grassland with the
  population predominantly rural

People Rwanda


Population:
  8,648,248
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.9% (male 1,817,998/female 1,802,134)
  15-64 years: 55.6% (male 2,392,778/female 2,417,467)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 87,325/female 130,546) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.43% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  40.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.09 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 89.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 94.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 84.34 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 47.3 years
  male: 46.26 years
  female: 48.38 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  5.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  250,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  22,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Rwandan(s)
  adjective: Rwandan

Ethnic groups:
  Hutu 84%, Tutsi 15%, Twa (Pygmoid) 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist 11.1%, Muslim 4.6%,
  indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)

Languages:
  Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French
  (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in
  commercial centers

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70.4%
  male: 76.3%
  female: 64.7% (2003 est.)

People - note:
  Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa

Government Rwanda


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Rwanda
  conventional short form: Rwanda
  local long form: Republika y'u Rwanda
  local short form: Rwanda
  former: Ruanda, German East Africa

Government type:
  republic; presidential, multiparty system

Capital:
  name: Kigali
  geographic coordinates: 1 57 S, 30 04 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  12 provinces (in French - provinces, singular - province; in
  Kinyarwanda - prefigintara for singular and plural); Butare, Byumba,
  Cyangugu, Gikongoro, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Kibungo, Kibuye, Kigali
  Rurale, Kigali-ville, Umutara, Ruhengeri

Independence:
  1 July 1962 (from Belgium-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 July (1962)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 4 June 2003

Legal system:
  based on German and Belgian civil law systems and customary law;
  judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Paul KAGAME (since 22 April 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Bernard MAKUZA (since 8 March
  2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: President elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); elections last held 25 August 2003
  (next to be held NA 2008)
  election results: Paul KAGAME elected president in first direct
  popular vote; Paul KAGAME 95.05%, Faustin TWAGIRAMUNGU 3.62%,
  Jean-Nepomuscene NAYINZIRA 1.33%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of Senate (26 seats; 12 members
  elected local councils, 8 appointed by the president, 4 by the
  Political Organizations Forum, 2 represent institutions of higher
  learning, to serve eight-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies (80
  seats; 53 members elected by popular vote, 24 women elected by local
  bodies, 3 selected by youth and disability organizations, to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held NA, members appointed as part of the
  transitional government (next to be held in 2011); Chamber of
  Deputies - last held 29 September 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: seats by party under the 2003 Constitution - RPF
  40, PSD 7, PL 6, additional 27 members indirectly elected

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; High Courts of the Republic; Provincial Courts;
  District Courts; mediation committees

Political parties and leaders:
  Centrist Democratic Party or PDC [Alfred MUKEZAMFURA]; Democratic
  Popular Union of Rwanda or UDPR [Adrien RANGIRA]; Democratic
  Republican Movement or MDR [Celestin KABANDA] (officially banned);
  Islamic Democratic Party or PDI [Andre BUMAYA]; Liberal Party or PL
  [Prosper HIGIRO]; Party for Democratic Renewal (officially banned);
  Rwandan Patriotic Front or RPF [Paul KAGAME]; Social Democratic
  Party or PSD [Vincent BIRUTA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  IBUKA - association of genocide survivors

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zac NSENGA
  chancery: 1714 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-2882
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-4544

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael ARIETTI
  embassy: 337 Boulevard de la Revolution, Kigali
  mailing address: B. P. 28, Kigali
  telephone: [250] 50 56 01 through 03
  FAX: [250] 57 2128

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of sky blue (top, double width), yellow, and
  green, with a golden sun with 24 rays near the fly end of the blue
  band

Economy Rwanda


Economy - overview:
  Rwanda is a poor rural country with about 90% of the population
  engaged in (mainly subsistence) agriculture. It is the most densely
  populated country in Africa and is landlocked with few natural
  resources and minimal industry. Primary foreign exchange earners are
  coffee and tea. The 1994 genocide decimated Rwanda's fragile
  economic base, severely impoverished the population, particularly
  women, and eroded the country's ability to attract private and
  external investment. However, Rwanda has made substantial progress
  in stabilizing and rehabilitating its economy to pre-1994 levels,
  although poverty levels are higher now. GDP has rebounded and
  inflation has been curbed. Despite Rwanda's fertile ecosystem, food
  production often does not keep pace with population growth,
  requiring food imports. Rwanda continues to receive substantial aid
  money and obtained IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Country
  (HIPC) initiative debt relief in 2005. Kigali's high defense
  expenditures have caused tension between the government and
  international donors and lending agencies. An energy shortage and
  instability in neighboring states may slow growth in 2006, while the
  lack of adequate transportation linkages to other countries
  continues to handicap export growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $12.54 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.817 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 40.1%
  industry: 22.9%
  services: 37% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.6 million (2000)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  60% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4.2%
  highest 10%: 24.2% (1985)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.9 (1985)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $509.9 million
  expenditures: $584.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, tea, pyrethrum (insecticide made from chrysanthemums),
  bananas, beans, sorghum, potatoes; livestock

Industries:
  cement, agricultural products, small-scale beverages, soap,
  furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles, cigarettes

Industrial production growth rate:
  7% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production:
  98 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 2.3%
  hydro: 97.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  121.1 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  30 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  6,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  56.63 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-166 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $98 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, tea, hides, tin ore

Exports - partners:
  Germany 11%, China 6.5%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $243 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, steel, petroleum products,
  cement and construction material

Imports - partners:
  Kenya 23.8%, Uganda 6.2%, Belgium 5.4%, Germany 5.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $357 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $1.4 billion (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $425 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Rwandan franc (RWF)

Currency code:
  RWF

Exchange rates:
  Rwandan francs per US dollar - 610 (2005), 574.62 (2004), 537.66
  (2003), 476.33 (2002), 442.8 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Rwanda


Telephones - main lines in use:
  23,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  290,000
  note: Rwanda has mobile cellular service between Kigali and several
  provincial capitals (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: telephone system primarily serves business and
  government
  domestic: the capital, Kigali, is connected to the centers of the
  provinces by microwave radio relay and, recently, by cellular
  telephone service; much of the network depends on wire and HF
  radiotelephone
  international: country code - 250; international connections employ
  microwave radio relay to neighboring countries and satellite
  communications to more distant countries; satellite earth stations -
  1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) in Kigali (includes telex and telefax
  service)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 8 (two main FM programs are broadcast through a system of
  repeaters, three international FM programs include the BBC, VOA, and
  Deutchewelle), shortwave 1 (2005)

Radios:
  601,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2004)

Televisions:
  NA; probably less than 1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .rw

Internet hosts:
  1,590 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2002)

Internet users:
  38,000 (2005)

Transportation Rwanda


Airports:
  9 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 12,000 km
  paved: 996 km
  unpaved: 11,004 km (1999)

Waterways:
  Lac Kivu navigable by shallow-draft barges and native craft (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Cyangugu, Gisenyi, Kibuye

Military Rwanda


Military branches:
  Rwandan Defense Forces: Army, Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 2,004,750
  females age 16-49: 1,990,935 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 1,103,823
  females age 16-49: 1,096,644 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $53.66 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Rwanda


Disputes - international:
  Tutsi, Hutu, Hema, Lendu, and other conflicting ethnic groups,
  associated political rebels, armed gangs, and various government
  forces continue fighting in Great Lakes region, transcending the
  boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and
  Uganda to gain control over populated areas and natural resources -
  government heads pledge to end conflicts, but localized violence
  continues despite UN peacekeeping efforts; DROC and Rwanda
  established a border verification mechanism in 2005 to address
  accusations of Rwandan military supporting Congolese rebels and the
  Congo providing rebel Rwandan "Interhamwe" forces the means and
  bases to attack Rwandan forces; as of 2004, Rwandan refugees lived
  in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Zambia

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 45,460 (Democratic Republic of the
  Congo)
  IDPs: 4,158 (incursions by Hutu rebels from Democratic Republic of
  the Congo, 1997-99; most IDPs in northwest) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saint Helena

Introduction Saint Helena


Background:
  Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory consisting of Saint
  Helena and Ascension Islands, and the island group of Tristan da
  Cunha.
  Saint Helena: Uninhabited when first discovered by the Portuguese in
  1502, Saint Helena was garrisoned by the British during the 17th
  century. It acquired fame as the place of Napoleon BONAPARTE's
  exile, from 1815 until his death in 1821, but its importance as a
  port of call declined after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
  During the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa, several thousand Boer
  prisoners were confined on the island between 1900 and 1903.
  Ascension Island: This barren and uninhabited island was discovered
  and named by the Portuguese in 1503. The British garrisoned the
  island in 1815 to prevent a rescue of Napoleon from Saint Helena and
  it served as a provisioning station for the Royal Navy's West Africa
  Squadron on anti-slavery patrol. The island remained under Admiralty
  control until 1922, when it became a dependency of Saint Helena.
  During World War II, the UK permitted the US to construct an
  airfield on Ascension in support of trans-Atlantic flights to Africa
  and anti-submarine operations in the South Atlantic. In the 1960s
  the island became an important space tracking station for the US. In
  1982, Ascension was an essential staging area for British forces
  during the Falklands War, and it remains a critical refueling point
  in the air-bridge from the UK to the South Atlantic.
  Tristan da Cunha: The island group consists of the islands of
  Tristan da Cunha, Nightingale, Inaccessible, and Gough. Tristan da
  Cunha is named after its Portuguese discoverer (1506); it was
  garrisoned by the British in 1816 to prevent any attempt to rescue
  Napoleon from Saint Helena. Gough and Inaccessible Islands have been
  designated World Heritage Sites. South Africa leases the site for a
  meteorological station on Gough Island.

Geography Saint Helena


Location:
  islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, about midway between South
  America and Africa; Ascension Island lies 700 nm northwest of Saint
  Helena; Tristan da Cunha lies 2300 nm southwest of Saint Helena

Geographic coordinates:
  Saint Helena: 15 57 S 5 42 W
  Ascension Island: 7 57 S 14 22 W
  Tristan da Cunha island group: 37 15 S 12 30 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 413 sq km
  land: Saint Helena Island 122 sq km; Ascension Island 90 sq km;
  Tristan da Cunha island group 201 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  Saint Helena: 60 km
  Ascension Island: NA
  Tristan da Cunha: 40 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  Saint Helena: tropical marine; mild, tempered by trade winds
  Ascension Island: tropical marine; mild, semi-arid
  Tristan da Cunha: temperate marine; mild, tempered by trade winds
  (tends to be cooler than Saint Helena)

Terrain:
  the islands of this group result from volcanic activity associated
  with the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge
  Saint Helena: rugged, volcanic; small scattered plateaus and plains
  Ascension: surface covered by lava flows and cinder cones of 44
  dormant volcanoes; ground rises to the east
  Tristan da Cunha: sheer cliffs line the coastline of the nearly
  circular island; the flanks of the central volcanic peak are deeply
  dissected; narrow coastal plain lies between The Peak and the
  coastal cliffs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Queen Mary's Peak on Tristan da Cunha 2,062 m; Green
  Mountain on Ascension Island 859 m; Mount Actaeon on Saint Helena
  Island 818 m

Natural resources:
  fish, lobster

Land use:
  arable land: 12.9%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 87.1% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  active volcanism on Tristan da Cunha, last eruption in 1961

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  Saint Helena harbors at least 40 species of plants unknown anywhere
  else in the world; Ascension is a breeding ground for sea turtles
  and sooty terns; Queen Mary's Peak on Tristan da Cunha is the
  highest island mountain in the South Atlantic and a prominent
  landmark on the sea lanes around southern Africa

People Saint Helena


Population:
  7,502
  note: only Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha islands are
  inhabited (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 18.8% (male 717/female 692)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 2,751/female 2,593)
  65 years and over: 10% (male 342/female 407) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 36 years
  male: 36.2 years
  female: 35.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.56% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 18.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.93 years
  male: 75.02 years
  female: 80.98 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Saint Helenian(s)
  adjective: Saint Helenian
  note: referred to locally as "Saints"

Ethnic groups:
  African descent 50%, white 25%, Chinese 25%

Religions:
  Anglican (majority), Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  definition: age 20 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 98% (1987 est.)

Government Saint Helena


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Helena

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Jamestown
  geographic coordinates: 15 56 S, 5 44 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  1 administrative area and 2 dependencies*; Ascension*, Saint
  Helena, Tristan da Cunha*

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in June (1926)

Constitution:
  1 January 1989

Legal system:
  British common law and statutes, supplemented by local statutes

Suffrage:
  NA years of age

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Governor and Commander in Chief Michael CLANCY
  (since 15 October 2004)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of the governor, three
  ex-officio officers, and five elected members of the Legislative
  Council
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor is appointed by
  the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council (16 seats, including the speaker, 3
  ex officio and 12 elected members; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 31 August 2005 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 12

Judicial branch:
  Magistrate's Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ICFTU, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the Saint Helenian shield centered on the outer half of the flag;
  the shield features a rocky coastline and three-masted sailing ship

Economy Saint Helena


Economy - overview:
  The economy depends largely on financial assistance from the UK,
  which amounted to about $5 million in 1997 or almost one-half of
  annual budgetary revenues. The local population earns income from
  fishing, raising livestock, and sales of handicrafts. Because there
  are few jobs, 25% of the work force has left to seek employment on
  Ascension Island, on the Falklands, and in the UK.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $18 million (1998 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,500 (1998 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  2,486
  note: 1,200 work offshore (1998 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 48%
  services: 46% (1987 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  14% (1998 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.2% (1997 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $11.2 million
  expenditures: $11 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY92/93)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, corn, potatoes, vegetables; timber; fish, lobster (on
  Tristan da Cunha)

Industries:
  construction, crafts (furniture, lacework, fancy woodwork),
  fishing, philatelic sales

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  5 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.65 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $19 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish (frozen, canned, and salt-dried skipjack, tuna), coffee,
  handicrafts

Exports - partners:
  Tanzania 37.7%, US 17.4%, Japan 15.2%, UK 8.4%, Nigeria 4.8%, Spain
  4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $45 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, beverages, tobacco, fuel oils, animal feed, building
  materials, motor vehicles and parts, machinery and parts

Imports - partners:
  UK 53.5%, South Africa 14.3%, Spain 10.3%, Tanzania 8.5%, US 4.6%
  (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $12.6 million (1995); note - $5.3 million from UK (1997)

Currency (code):
  Saint Helenian pound (SHP)

Currency code:
  SHP

Exchange rates:
  Saint Helenian pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004),
  0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Saint Helenian pound is on par with the British pound

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Saint Helena


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,200 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: can communicate worldwide
  domestic: automatic digital network
  international: country code - 290; international direct dialing;
  satellite voice and data communications; satellite earth stations -
  5 (Ascension Island - 4, Saint Helena - 1)

Radio broadcast stations:
  Saint Helena: AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0
  Ascension: AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (2005)

Radios:
  3,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0
  note: three television channels are received in Saint Helena via
  satellite and distributed by UHF (2005)

Televisions:
  2,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sh; note - the IANA has assigned .ac as the ccTLD for Ascension
  Island

Internet hosts:
  329 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  1,000 note - includes Ascension Island (2003)

Communications - note:
  South Africa maintains a meteorological station on Gough Island

Transportation Saint Helena


Airports:
  1
  note: Wideawake Field on Ascension Island (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 198 km (Saint Helena 138 km, Ascension 40 km, Tristan da
  Cunha 20 km)
  paved: 168 km (Saint Helena 118km, Ascension 40 km, Tristan da Cunha
  10 km)
  unpaved: 30 km (Saint Helena 20 km, Ascension 0 km, Tristan da Cunha
  10 km) (2002)

Ports and terminals:
  Saint Helena: Jamestown
  Ascension Island: Georgetown
  Tristan da Cunha: Calshot Harbor

Transportation - note:
  there is no air connection to Saint Helena or Tristan da Cunha; an
  international airport for Saint Helena is in development for 2010

Military Saint Helena


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Saint Helena


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saint Kitts and Nevis

Introduction Saint Kitts and Nevis


Background:
  First settled by the British in 1623, the islands became an
  associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967. The island of
  Anguilla rebelled and was allowed to secede in 1971. Saint Kitts and
  Nevis achieved independence in 1983. In 1998, a vote in Nevis on a
  referendum to separate from Saint Kitts fell short of the two-thirds
  majority needed. Nevis continues in its efforts to try and separate
  from Saint Kitts.

Geography Saint Kitts and Nevis


Location:
  Caribbean, islands in the Caribbean Sea, about one-third of the way
  from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  17 20 N, 62 45 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 261 sq km (Saint Kitts 168 sq km; Nevis 93 sq km)
  land: 261 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  135 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical, tempered by constant sea breezes; little seasonal
  temperature variation; rainy season (May to November)

Terrain:
  volcanic with mountainous interiors

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Liamuiga 1,156 m

Natural resources:
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 19.44%
  permanent crops: 2.78%
  other: 77.78% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes (July to October)

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  with coastlines in the shape of a baseball bat and ball, the two
  volcanic islands are separated by a three-km-wide channel called The
  Narrows; on the southern tip of long, baseball bat-shaped Saint
  Kitts lies the Great Salt Pond; Nevis Peak sits in the center of its
  almost circular namesake island and its ball shape complements that
  of its sister island

People Saint Kitts and Nevis


Population:
  39,129 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.5% (male 5,515/female 5,263)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 12,605/female 12,572)
  65 years and over: 8.1% (male 1,313/female 1,861) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.1 years
  female: 28.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.5% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.33 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.7 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.4 years
  male: 69.56 years
  female: 75.42 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Kittitian(s), Nevisian(s)
  adjective: Kittitian, Nevisian

Ethnic groups:
  predominantly black; some British, Portuguese, and Lebanese

Religions:
  Anglican, other Protestant, Roman Catholic

Languages:
  English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 97.8%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Government Saint Kitts and Nevis


Country name:
  conventional long form: Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis
  conventional short form: Saint Kitts and Nevis
  former: Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Basseterre
  geographic coordinates: 17 18 N, 62 43 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  14 parishes; Christ Church Nichola Town, Saint Anne Sandy Point,
  Saint George Basseterre, Saint George Gingerland, Saint James
  Windward, Saint John Capesterre, Saint John Figtree, Saint Mary
  Cayon, Saint Paul Capesterre, Saint Paul Charlestown, Saint Peter
  Basseterre, Saint Thomas Lowland, Saint Thomas Middle Island,
  Trinity Palmetto Point

Independence:
  19 September 1983 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 19 September (1983)

Constitution:
  19 September 1983

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Cuthbert Montraville SEBASTIAN
  (since 1 January 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dr. Denzil DOUGLAS (since 6 July
  1995) and Deputy Prime Minister Sam CONDOR (since 6 July 1995)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general in consultation
  with the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or leader of a majority coalition is
  usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (14 seats, 3 appointed and 11
  popularly elected from single-member constituencies; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 October 2004 (next to be held by 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  SKNLP 7, CCM 2, NRP 1, PAM 1

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based on Saint Lucia; one judge of
  the Supreme Court resides in Saint Kitts and Nevis)

Political parties and leaders:
  Concerned Citizens Movement or CCM [Vance AMORY]; Nevis Reformation
  Party or NRP [Joseph PARRY]; People's Action Movement or PAM
  [Lindsey GRANT]; Saint Kitts and Nevis Labor Party or SKNLP [Dr.
  Denzil DOUGLAS]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIGA, OAS,
  OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dr. Izben Cordinal WILLIAMS
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 686-2636
  FAX: [1] (202) 686-5740
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Saint Kitts and Nevis; the US
  Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Saint Kitts and Nevis

Flag description:
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side by a broad black band
  bearing two white, five-pointed stars; the black band is edged in
  yellow; the upper triangle is green, the lower triangle is red

Economy Saint Kitts and Nevis


Economy - overview:
  Sugar was the traditional mainstay of the Saint Kitts economy until
  the 1970s. Although the crop still dominates the agricultural
  sector, activities such as tourism, export-oriented manufacturing,
  and offshore banking have assumed larger roles in the economy.
  Tourism revenues are now the chief source of the islands' foreign
  exchange; about 40,000 tourist visited Nevis during the 2003-2004
  season. Additional tourist facilities, including a second cruise
  ship pier, hotels, and golf courses are under construction.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $339 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $453 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.5%
  industry: 25.8%
  services: 70.7% (2001)

Labor force:
  18,170 (June 1995)

Unemployment rate:
  4.5% (1997)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.7% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $89.7 million
  expenditures: $128.2 million; including capital expenditures of
  $19.5 million (2003 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, rice, yams, vegetables, bananas; fish

Industries:
  sugar processing, tourism, cotton, salt, copra, clothing, footwear,
  beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  111.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  103.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $70 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery, food, electronics, beverages, tobacco

Exports - partners:
  US 63.5%, Canada 8.4%, UK 5.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $405 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, manufactures, food, fuels

Imports - partners:
  US 46.9%, Trinidad and Tobago 13.7%, UK 5.4%, France 4.5%, Japan
  4.2% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $314 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $-110,000 (2004)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Saint Kitts and Nevis


Telephones - main lines in use:
  25,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  10,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good inter-island and international connections
  domestic: inter-island links via Eastern Caribbean Fiber Optic
  cable; construction of enhanced wireless infrastructure launched in
  November 2004
  international: country code - 1-869; international calls are carried
  by submarine cable or Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  28,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2004)

Televisions:
  10,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .kn

Internet hosts:
  50 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  10,000 (2002)

Transportation Saint Kitts and Nevis


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 50 km
  narrow gauge: 50 km 0.762-m gauge on Saint Kitts to serve sugarcane
  plantations during harvest season and for tourists (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 320 km
  paved: 138 km
  unpaved: 182 km (1999 est)

Merchant marine:
  total: 50 ships (1000 GRT or over) 261,556 GRT/381,593 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 36, chemical tanker 5,
  passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 5, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 41 (Greece 1, Monaco 1, Russia 5, Spain 2, Syria 3,
  Tanzania 1, Turkey 6, UAE 19, Ukraine 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Basseterre, Charlestown

Military Saint Kitts and Nevis


Military branches:
  Saint Kitts and Nevis Defense Force (includes Coast Guard), Royal
  Saint Kitts and Nevis Police Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 9,196
  females age 18-49: 9,236 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,119
  females age 18-49: 7,645 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 357
  females age 18-49: 347 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Saint Kitts and Nevis


Disputes - international:
  joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves
  Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UNCLOS, which
  permits Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large
  portion of the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US
  and Europe; some money-laundering activity


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saint Lucia

Introduction Saint Lucia


Background:
  The island, with its fine natural harbor at Castries, was contested
  between England and France throughout the 17th and early 18th
  centuries (changing possession 14 times); it was finally ceded to
  the UK in 1814. Even after the abolition of slavery on its
  plantations in 1834, Saint Lucia remained an agricultural island,
  dedicated to producing tropical commodity crops. Self-government was
  granted in 1967 and independence in 1979.

Geography Saint Lucia


Location:
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic
  Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  13 53 N, 60 58 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 616 sq km
  land: 606 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Area - comparative:
  3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  158 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical, moderated by northeast trade winds; dry season January to
  April, rainy season May to August

Terrain:
  volcanic and mountainous with some broad, fertile valleys

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Gimie 950 m

Natural resources:
  forests, sandy beaches, minerals (pumice), mineral springs,
  geothermal potential

Land use:
  arable land: 6.45%
  permanent crops: 22.58%
  other: 70.97% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes and volcanic activity

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion, particularly in the northern region

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the twin Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton), striking cone-shaped
  peaks south of Soufriere, are one of the scenic natural highlights
  of the Caribbean

People Saint Lucia


Population:
  168,458 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29.8% (male 25,941/female 24,319)
  15-64 years: 65% (male 53,916/female 55,582)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 3,186/female 5,514) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.2 years
  male: 24.4 years
  female: 26.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.29% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  19.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.08 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.58 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 13.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 14.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.84 years
  male: 70.29 years
  female: 77.65 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Saint Lucian(s)
  adjective: Saint Lucian

Ethnic groups:
  black 90%, mixed 6%, East Indian 3%, white 1%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 67.5%, Seventh Day Adventist 8.5%, Pentecostal 5.7%,
  Anglican 2%, Evangelical 2%, other Christian 5.1%, Rastafarian 2.1%,
  other 1.1%, unspecified 1.5%, none 4.5% (2001 census)

Languages:
  English (official), French patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 90.1%
  male: 89.5%
  female: 90.6% (2001 est.)

Government Saint Lucia


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Lucia

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Castries
  geographic coordinates: 14 01 N, 61 00 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  11 quarters; Anse-la-Raye, Castries, Choiseul, Dauphin, Dennery,
  Gros-Islet, Laborie, Micoud, Praslin, Soufriere, Vieux-Fort

Independence:
  22 February 1979 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 22 February (1979)

Constitution:
  22 February 1979

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Dame Pearlette LOUISY (since
  September 1997)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sir John COMPTON (since 15
  December 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (11 seats; 6 members
  appointed on the advice of the prime minister, 3 on the advice of
  the leader of the opposition, and 2 after consultation with
  religious, economic, and social groups) and the House of Assembly
  (17 seats; members are elected by popular vote from single-member
  constituencies to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 11 December 2006 (next to
  be held in December 2011)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - UWP 11, SLP 6

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (jurisdiction extends to Anguilla,
  Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada,
  Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines)

Political parties and leaders:
  National Alliance or NA [George ODLUM]; Saint Lucia Freedom Party
  or SFP [Martinus FRANCOIS]; Saint Lucia Labor Party or SLP [Kenneth
  ANTHONY]; Sou Tout Apwe Fete Fini or STAFF [Christopher HUNTE];
  United Workers Party or UWP [Sir John COMPTON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OECS, OIF, OPANAL, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Sonia Merlyn JOHNNY
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6792 through 6795
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6723
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Saint Lucia; the US Ambassador
  to Barbados is accredited to Saint Lucia

Flag description:
  blue, with a gold isosceles triangle below a black arrowhead; the
  upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border

Economy Saint Lucia


Economy - overview:
  Changes in the EU import preference regime and the increased
  competition from Latin American bananas have made economic
  diversification increasingly important in Saint Lucia. The island
  nation has been able to attract foreign business and investment,
  especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries. The
  manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean
  area, and the government is trying to revitalize the banana
  industry. Economic fundamentals remain solid, even though
  unemployment needs to be cut.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $866 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $825 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 20%
  services: 73% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  43,800 (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 21.7%
  industry: 24.7%
  services: 53.6% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  20% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $141.2 million
  expenditures: $146.7 million; including capital expenditures of
  $25.1 million (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coconuts, vegetables, citrus, root crops, cocoa

Industries:
  clothing, assembly of electronic components, beverages, corrugated
  cardboard boxes, tourism; lime processing, coconut processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  -8.9% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  281 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  261.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  2,520 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $82 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas 41%, clothing, cocoa, vegetables, fruits, coconut oil

Exports - partners:
  France 29.3%, US 17.4%, China 17%, UK 13.1%, Brazil 6.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $410 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food 23%, manufactured goods 21%, machinery and transportation
  equipment 19%, chemicals, fuels

Imports - partners:
  US 24.1%, Trinidad and Tobago 15.5%, Netherlands 14.5%, Venezuela
  5.6%, UK 5.6%, France 4.7% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $257 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $-21.5 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Saint Lucia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  51,100 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  93,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: system is automatically switched
  international: country code - 1-758; direct microwave radio relay
  link with Martinique and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines;
  tropospheric scatter to Barbados; international calls beyond these
  countries are carried by Intelsat from Martinique

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  111,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (of which one is a commercial broadcast station and one is a
  community antenna television or CATV channel) (2004)

Televisions:
  32,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lc

Internet hosts:
  21 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  15 (2000)

Internet users:
  55,000 (2005)

Transportation Saint Lucia


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 910 km
  paved: 48 km
  unpaved: 862 km (2000)

Ports and terminals:
  Castries, Cul-de-Sac, Vieux-Fort

Military Saint Lucia


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Saint Lucia Police Force
  (includes Special Service Unit, Coast Guard) (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 42,742 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 33,539 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,651 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Saint Lucia


Disputes - international:
  joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves
  Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UNCLOS, which
  permits Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large
  portion of the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  transit point for South American drugs destined for the US and
  Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saint Pierre and Miquelon

Introduction Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Background:
  First settled by the French in the early 17th century, the islands
  represent the sole remaining vestige of France's once vast North
  American possessions.

Geography Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Location:
  Northern North America, islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, south
  of Newfoundland (Canada)

Geographic coordinates:
  46 50 N, 56 20 W

Map references:
  North America

Area:
  total: 242 sq km
  land: 242 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes eight small islands in the Saint Pierre and the
  Miquelon groups

Area - comparative:
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  120 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  cold and wet, with much mist and fog; spring and autumn are windy

Terrain:
  mostly barren rock

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morne de la Grande Montagne 240 m

Natural resources:
  fish, deepwater ports

Land use:
  arable land: 12.5%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 87.5% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  persistent fog throughout the year can be a maritime hazard

Environment - current issues:
  recent test drilling for oil in waters around Saint Pierre and
  Miquelon may bring future development that would impact the
  environment

Geography - note:
  vegetation scanty

People Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Population:
  7,026 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 23.5% (male 843/female 807)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 2,342/female 2,272)
  65 years and over: 10.8% (male 348/female 414) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.7 years
  female: 34.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.17% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.98 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.61 years
  male: 76.27 years
  female: 81.06 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)
  adjective: French

Ethnic groups:
  Basques and Bretons (French fishermen)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 99%

Languages:
  French (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (1982 est.)

Government Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre
  and Miquelon
  conventional short form: Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  local long form: Departement de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
  local short form: Saint-Pierre et Miquelon

Dependency status:
  self-governing territorial collectivity of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Saint-Pierre
  geographic coordinates: 46 46 N, 56 11 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007

Administrative divisions:
  none (territorial collectivity of France); note - there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are two communes - Saint Pierre, Miquelon at
  the second order

Independence:
  none (territorial collectivity of France; has been under French
  control since 1763)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French law with special adaptations for local conditions, such as
  housing and taxation

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Prefect Yves FAUQUEUR (since 28 August 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Marc
  PLANTAGENEST (since NA)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; election last held, 21 April 2002 (first round) and 5 May 2002
  (second round) (next to be held in 2007); prefect appointed by the
  French president on the advice of the French Ministry of Interior;
  president of the General Council is elected by the members of the
  council

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (19 seats - 15 from
  Saint Pierre and 4 from Miquelon; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 19 and 26 March 2000 (next to be held
  in April 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PS 12, PRG 2, UDF-RPR 5
  note: Saint Pierre and Miquelon elect 1 seat to the French Senate;
  elections last held 26 September 2004 (next to be held in September
  2013); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP
  1; Saint Pierre and Miquelon also elects 1 seat to the French
  National Assembly; elections last held, first round - 9 June 2002,
  second round - 16 June 2002 (next to be held NA 2007); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UDF 1

Judicial branch:
  Superior Tribunal of Appeals or Tribunal Superieur d'Appel

Political parties and leaders:
  Left Radical Party or PRG; Rassemblement pour la Republique or RPR
  (now UMP); Socialist Party or PS; Union pour la Democratie Francaise
  or UDF

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  UPU, WFTU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Flag description:
  a yellow sailing ship facing the hoist side rides on a dark blue
  background with yellow wavy lines under the ship; on the hoist side,
  a vertical band is divided into three parts: the top part (called
  ikkurina) is red with a green diagonal cross extending to the
  corners overlaid by a white cross dividing the rectangle into four
  sections; the middle part has a white background with an ermine
  pattern; the third part has a red background with two stylized
  yellow lions outlined in black, one above the other; these three
  heraldic arms represent settlement by colonists from the Basque
  Country (top), Brittany, and Normandy; the flag of France is used
  for official occasions

Economy Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Economy - overview:
  The inhabitants have traditionally earned their livelihood by
  fishing and by servicing fishing fleets operating off the coast of
  Newfoundland. The economy has been declining, however, because of
  disputes with Canada over fishing quotas and a steady decline in the
  number of ships stopping at Saint Pierre. In 1992, an arbitration
  panel awarded the islands an exclusive economic zone of 12,348 sq km
  to settle a longstanding territorial dispute with Canada, although
  it represents only 25% of what France had sought. The islands are
  heavily subsidized by France to the great betterment of living
  standards. The government hopes an expansion of tourism will boost
  economic prospects. Recent test drilling for oil may pave the way
  for development of the energy sector.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $48.3 million
  note: supplemented by annual payments from France of about $60
  million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,000 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  3,261 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 18%
  industry: 41%
  services: 41% (1996 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  10.3% (1999)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (1991-96 average)

Budget:
  revenues: $70 million
  expenditures: $60 million; including capital expenditures of $24
  million (1996 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  vegetables; poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs; fish

Industries:
  fish processing and supply base for fishing fleets; tourism

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  44.15 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  41.06 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $7 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish and fish products, soybeans, animal feed, mollusks and
  crustaceans, fox and mink pelts

Exports - partners:
  Spain 33.6%, Belgium 21.8%, India 18.3%, France 9.4%, US 7.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $70 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  meat, clothing, fuel, electrical equipment, machinery, building
  materials

Imports - partners:
  France 51.3%, Canada 31.8%, Belgium 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  approximately $60 million in annual grants from France

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4,800 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 508; radiotelephone communication with
  most countries in the world; 1 earth station in French domestic
  satellite system

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  4,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (there are, however, two repeaters which rebroadcast programs
  from France, Canada, and the US) (1997)

Televisions:
  4,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .pm

Internet hosts:
  0 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Saint-Pierre

Military Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Saint Pierre and Miquelon


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Introduction Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Background:
  Resistance by native Caribs prevented colonization on St. Vincent
  until 1719. Disputed between France and the United Kingdom for most
  of the 18th century, the island was ceded to the latter in 1783.
  Between 1960 and 1962, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was a
  separate administrative unit of the Federation of the West Indies.
  Autonomy was granted in 1969 and independence in 1979.

Geography Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic
  Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Geographic coordinates:
  13 15 N, 61 12 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 389 sq km (Saint Vincent 344 sq km)
  land: 389 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  84 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season (May
  to November)

Terrain:
  volcanic, mountainous

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: La Soufriere 1,234 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, cropland

Land use:
  arable land: 17.95%
  permanent crops: 17.95%
  other: 64.1% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  10 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hurricanes; Soufriere volcano on the island of Saint Vincent is a
  constant threat

Environment - current issues:
  pollution of coastal waters and shorelines from discharges by
  pleasure yachts and other effluents; in some areas, pollution is
  severe enough to make swimming prohibitive

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the administration of the islands of the Grenadines group is
  divided between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada; Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines is comprised of 32 islands and cays

People Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Population:
  117,848 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.7% (male 16,007/female 15,426)
  15-64 years: 66.9% (male 40,676/female 38,155)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 3,315/female 4,269) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.9 years
  male: 26.7 years
  female: 27.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.98 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -7.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.85 years
  male: 71.99 years
  female: 75.77 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Saint Vincentian(s) or Vincentian(s)
  adjective: Saint Vincentian or Vincentian

Ethnic groups:
  black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian 6%, Carib Amerindian 2%, other 7%

Religions:
  Anglican 47%, Methodist 28%, Roman Catholic 13%, Hindu, Seventh-Day
  Adventist, other Protestant

Languages:
  English, French patois

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 96%
  male: 96%
  female: 96% (1970 est.)

Government Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Kingstown
  geographic coordinates: 13 09 N, 61 14 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 parishes; Charlotte, Grenadines, Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint
  George, Saint Patrick

Independence:
  27 October 1979 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 October (1979)

Constitution:
  27 October 1979

Legal system:
  based on English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir Fredrick Nathaniel BALLANTYNE
  (since 2 September 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ralph E. GONSALVES (since 29
  March 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party is usually appointed prime minister by
  the governor general; deputy prime minister appointed by the
  governor general on the advice of the prime minister

Legislative branch:
  unicameral House of Assembly (21 seats, 15 elected representatives
  and 6 appointed senators; representatives are elected by popular
  vote from single-member constituencies to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 December 2005 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - ULP 55.26%, NDP 44.68%;
  seats by party - ULP 12, NDP 3

Judicial branch:
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based on Saint Lucia; one judge of
  the Supreme Court resides in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)

Political parties and leaders:
  New Democratic Party or NDP [Arnhim EUSTACE]; Unity Labor Party or
  ULP [Ralph GONSALVES] (formed by the coalition of Saint Vincent
  Labor Party or SVLP and the Movement for National Unity or MNU)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber),
  ITU, MIGA, OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ellsworth I. A. JOHN
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6730
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6736
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines; the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines

Flag description:
  three vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold (double width), and
  green; the gold band bears three green diamonds arranged in a V
  pattern

Economy Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Economy - overview:
  Economic growth in this lower-middle-income country hinges upon
  seasonal variations in the agricultural and tourism sectors.
  Tropical storms wiped out substantial portions of crops in 1994,
  1995, and 2002, and tourism in the Eastern Caribbean has suffered
  low arrivals following 11 September 2001. Saint Vincent is home to a
  small offshore banking sector and has moved to adopt international
  regulatory standards. Saint Vincent is also a producer of marijuana
  and is being used as a transshipment point for illegal narcotics
  from South America.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $342 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $428 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 26%
  services: 64% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  41,680 (1991 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 17%
  services: 57% (1980 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  15% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $94.6 million
  expenditures: $85.8 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, coconuts, sweet potatoes, spices; small numbers of cattle,
  sheep, pigs, goats; fish

Industries:
  food processing, cement, furniture, clothing, starch

Industrial production growth rate:
  -0.9% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  95 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 69.3%
  hydro: 30.7%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  88.35 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $37 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  bananas 39%, eddoes and dasheen (taro), arrowroot starch; tennis
  racquets

Exports - partners:
  France 50.3%, Italy 21%, Greece 11%, US 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $225 million (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, chemicals and fertilizers,
  minerals and fuels

Imports - partners:
  France 36.1%, Singapore 12.5%, Italy 11.9%, Trinidad and Tobago
  7.9%, US 7.2% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $223 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $10.5 million (1995); note - EU $34.5 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Currency code:
  XCD

Exchange rates:
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7
  (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Telephones - main lines in use:
  22,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  70,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: islandwide, fully automatic telephone system; VHF/UHF
  radiotelephone from Saint Vincent to the other islands of the
  Grenadines
  international: country code - 1-784; VHF/UHF radiotelephone from
  Saint Vincent to Barbados; new SHF radiotelephone to Grenada and to
  Saint Lucia; access to Intelsat earth station in Martinique through
  Saint Lucia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 6, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  77,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2004)

Televisions:
  18,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .vc

Internet hosts:
  94 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  15 (2000)

Internet users:
  8,000 (2005)

Transportation Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Airports:
  6 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 829 km
  paved: 580 km
  unpaved: 249 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 589 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,449,699 GRT/8,051,250 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 106, cargo 351, chemical tanker 5, container
  20, liquefied gas 7, livestock carrier 1, passenger 5,
  passenger/cargo 15, petroleum tanker 18, refrigerated cargo 38, roll
  on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 529 (Bangladesh 1, Barbados 1, Belgium 3, Bulgaria
  17, Canada 6, China 103, Croatia 9, Cyprus 1, Czech Republic
  registered in other countries: 1 (Comoros 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Kingstown

Military Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Police Force (includes Special Service Unit), Coast Guard (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 31,489 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 25,787 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 1,204 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


Disputes - international:
  joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves
  Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under UNCLOS, which
  permits Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large
  portion of the Caribbean Sea

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US
  and Europe; small-scale cannabis cultivation


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Samoa

Introduction Samoa


Background:
  New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at
  the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer the
  islands as a mandate and then as a trust territory until 1962, when
  the islands became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish
  independence in the 20th century. The country dropped the "Western"
  from its name in 1997.

Geography Samoa


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  13 35 S, 172 20 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 2,944 sq km
  land: 2,934 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  403 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; rainy season (November to April), dry season (May to
  October)

Terrain:
  two main islands (Savaii, Upolu) and several smaller islands and
  uninhabited islets; narrow coastal plain with volcanic, rocky,
  rugged mountains in interior

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mauga Silisili (Savaii) 1,857 m

Natural resources:
  hardwood forests, fish, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 21.13%
  permanent crops: 24.3%
  other: 54.57% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  occasional typhoons; active volcanism

Environment - current issues:
  soil erosion, deforestation, invasive species, overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  occupies an almost central position within Polynesia

People Samoa


Population:
  176,908 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 23,492/female 22,653)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 74,202/female 44,894)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 5,299/female 6,368) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.2 years
  male: 28.1 years
  female: 22 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.2% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.62 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -11.76 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.65 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.39 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 26.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 71 years
  male: 68.2 years
  female: 73.94 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  12

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  3

Nationality:
  noun: Samoan(s)
  adjective: Samoan

Ethnic groups:
  Samoan 92.6%, Euronesians 7% (persons of European and Polynesian
  blood), Europeans 0.4%

Religions:
  Congregationalist 34.8%, Roman Catholic 19.6%, Methodist 15%,
  Latter-Day Saints 12.7%, Assembly of God 6.6%, Seventh-Day Adventist
  3.5%, other Christian 4.5%, Worship Centre 1.3%, other 1.7%,
  unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Samoan (Polynesian), English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99.7% (2003 est.)

Government Samoa


Country name:
  conventional long form: Independent State of Samoa
  conventional short form: Samoa
  local long form: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Samoa
  local short form: Samoa
  former: Western Samoa

Government type:
  mix of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Apia
  geographic coordinates: 13 50 S, 171 45W
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  11 districts; A'ana, Aiga-i-le-Tai, Atua, Fa'asaleleaga,
  Gaga'emauga, Gagaifomauga, Palauli, Satupa'itea, Tuamasaga,
  Va'a-o-Fonoti, Vaisigano

Independence:
  1 January 1962 (from New Zealand-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Independence Day Celebration, 1 June (1962); note - 1 January 1962
  is the date of independence from the New Zealand-administered UN
  trusteeship, 1 June 1962 is the date that independence is celebrated

Constitution:
  1 January 1962

Legal system:
  based on English common law and local customs; judicial review of
  legislative acts with respect to fundamental rights of the citizen;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Chief Tanumafili II MALIETOA (cochief of state from
  1 January 1962 until becoming sole chief of state 5 April 1963)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sailele Malielegaoi TUILA'EPA
  (since 1996); note - TUILA'EPA served as deputy prime minister from
  1992 and assumed the duties of acting prime minister in 1996, when
  former Prime Minister TOFILAU Eti Alesana resigned in poor health;
  TUILA'EPA was confirmed as prime minister (November 1998) after
  TOFILAU died; Deputy Prime Minister MISA Telefoni (since 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of 12 members, appointed by the chief of
  state on the prime minister's advice
  elections: upon the death of Chief Tanumafili II MALIETOA, a new
  chief of state will be elected by the Legislative Assembly to serve
  a five-year term (no term limits); following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party is usually appointed prime minister
  by the chief of state with the approval of the Legislative Assembly

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Fono (49 seats - 47 elected by
  voters affiliated with traditional village-based electoral
  districts, 2 elected by independent, mostly non-Samoan or
  part-Samoan, voters who cannot, (or choose not to) establish a
  village affiliation; only chiefs (matai) may stand for election to
  the Fono from the 47 village-based electorates; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: election last held 31 March 2006 (next election to be
  held not later than March 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  HRPP 35, SDUP 10, independents 4

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal; Supreme Court; District Court; Land and Titles
  Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Human Rights Protection Party or HRPP [Sailele Malielegaoi
  TUILA'EPA]; Samoa Christian Party or TCP [Tuala Tiresa MALIETOA];
  Samoa Democratic United Party or SDUP [LE MAMEA Ropati]; Samoa Party
  or SP [Su'a Rimoni Ah CHONG]; Samoa Progressive Political Party or
  SPPP [Toeolesulusulu SIUEVA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, IPU, ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca,
  SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aliioaiga Feturi ELISAIA
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400D, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6196, 6197
  FAX: [1] (212) 599-0797

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: US Ambassador to New Zealand is accredited to
  Samoa
  embassy: Accident Compensation Board (ACB) Building, 5th Floor,
  Beach Road, Apia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 3430, Apia, 0815
  telephone: [685] 21436/21452/21631/22696
  FAX: [685] 22030

Flag description:
  red with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side quadrant bearing
  five white five-pointed stars representing the Southern Cross
  constellation

Economy Samoa


Economy - overview:
  The economy of Samoa has traditionally been dependent on
  development aid, family remittances from overseas, agriculture, and
  fishing. The country is vulnerable to devastating storms.
  Agriculture employs two-thirds of the labor force, and furnishes 90%
  of exports, featuring coconut cream, coconut oil, and copra. The
  manufacturing sector mainly processes agricultural products. The
  decline of fish stocks in the area is a continuing problem. Tourism
  is an expanding sector, accounting for 25% of GDP; about 88,000
  tourists visited the islands in 2001. One factory in the Foreign
  Trade Zone employs 3,000 people to make automobile electrical
  harnesses for an assembly plant in Australia. The Samoan Government
  has called for deregulation of the financial sector, encouragement
  of investment, and continued fiscal discipline, while at the same
  time protecting the environment. Observers point to the flexibility
  of the labor market as a basic strength for future economic
  advances. Foreign reserves are in a relatively healthy state, the
  external debt is stable, and inflation is low.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1 billion (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $399 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.4%
  industry: 58.4%
  services: 30.2% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  90,000 (2000 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.3% (2005)

Budget:
  revenues: $171.3 million
  expenditures: $78.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2001-02)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, bananas, taro, yams, coffee, cocoa

Industries:
  food processing, building materials, auto parts

Industrial production growth rate:
  2.8% (2000)

Electricity - production:
  116 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 58%
  hydro: 42%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  107.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-2.428 million

Exports:
  $94 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish, coconut oil and cream, copra, taro, automotive parts,
  garments, beer

Exports - partners:
  Australia 75.9%, American Samoa 13.6%, US 6.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $285 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, industrial supplies, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  NZ 31%, Australia 22.6%, US 13.5%, Japan 7.5%, Fiji 6%, China 4.6%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $70.15 million

Debt - external:
  $177 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $30.8 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  tala (SAT)

Currency code:
  SAT (former WST code is still in wide use)

Exchange rates:
  tala per US dollar - 2.7103 (2005), 2.7807 (2004), 2.9732 (2003),
  3.3763 (2002), 3.478 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  June 1 - May 31

Communications Samoa


Telephones - main lines in use:
  13,300 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  24,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 685; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  174,849 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2002)

Televisions:
  8,634 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .ws

Internet hosts:
  10,680 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  6,000 (2004)

Transportation Samoa


Airports:
  4 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 790 km
  paved: 332 km
  unpaved: 458 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 7,091 GRT/8,127 DWT
  by type: cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Germany 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Apia

Military Samoa


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Samoa Police Force (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 58,722 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 45,294 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,306 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  Samoa has no formal defense structure or regular armed forces;
  informal defense ties exist with NZ, which is required to consider
  any Samoan request for assistance under the 1962 Treaty of Friendship

Transnational Issues Samoa


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@San Marino

Introduction San Marino


Background:
  The third smallest state in Europe (after the Holy See and Monaco)
  also claims to be the world's oldest republic. According to
  tradition, it was founded by a Christian stonemason named Marino in
  301 A.D. San Marino's foreign policy is aligned with that of Italy.
  Social and political trends in the republic also track closely with
  those of its larger neighbor.

Geography San Marino


Location:
  Southern Europe, an enclave in central Italy

Geographic coordinates:
  43 46 N, 12 25 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 61.2 sq km
  land: 61.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  total: 39 km
  border countries: Italy 39 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  Mediterranean; mild to cool winters; warm, sunny summers

Terrain:
  rugged mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Torrente Ausa 55 m
  highest point: Monte Titano 755 m

Natural resources:
  building stone

Land use:
  arable land: 16.67%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 83.33% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution

Geography - note:
  landlocked; smallest independent state in Europe after the Holy See
  and Monaco; dominated by the Apennines

People San Marino


Population:
  29,251 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.8% (male 2,534/female 2,372)
  15-64 years: 66.2% (male 9,316/female 10,055)
  65 years and over: 17% (male 2,149/female 2,825) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.6 years
  male: 40.3 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.26% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  10.7 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.09 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 81.71 years
  male: 78.23 years
  female: 85.5 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Sammarinese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Sammarinese

Ethnic groups:
  Sammarinese, Italian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic

Languages:
  Italian

Literacy:
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: 97%
  female: 95% (1976 est.)

Government San Marino


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of San Marino
  conventional short form: San Marino
  local long form: Repubblica di San Marino
  local short form: San Marino

Government type:
  independent republic

Capital:
  name: San Marino
  geographic coordinates: 43 56 N, 12 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  9 municipalities (castelli, singular - castello); Acquaviva, Borgo
  Maggiore, Chiesanuova, Domagnano, Faetano, Fiorentino,
  Montegiardino, San Marino Citta, Serravalle

Independence:
  3 September A.D. 301

National holiday:
  Founding of the Republic, 3 September (A.D. 301)

Constitution:
  8 October 1600; electoral law of 1926 serves some of the functions
  of a constitution

Legal system:
  based on civil law system with Italian law influences; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Cochiefs of State Captain Regent Antonio CARATTONI
  and Captain Regent Roberto GIORGETTI (for the period 1 October
  2006-31 March 2007)
  head of government: Secretary of State for Foreign and Political
  Affairs Fiorenzo STOLFI (since 27 July 2006)
  cabinet: Congress of State elected by the Great and General Council
  for a five-year term
  elections: cochiefs of state (captains regent) elected by the Great
  and General Council for a six-month term; election last held in
  September 2006 (next to be held March 2007); secretary of state for
  foreign and political affairs elected by the Great and General
  Council for a five-year term; election last held 13 December 2003
  (next to be held NA)
  election results: Antonio CARATTONI and Roberto GIORGETTI elected
  captains regent; percent of legislative vote - NA; Fabio BERARDI
  elected secretary of state for foreign and political affairs;
  percent of legislative vote - NA
  note: the popularly elected parliament (Grand and General Council)
  selects two of its members to serve as the Captains Regent (cochiefs
  of state) for a six-month period; they preside over meetings of the
  Grand and General Council and its cabinet (Congress of State), which
  has 10 other members, all selected by the Grand and General Council;
  assisting the captains regent are 10 secretaries of state; the
  secretary of state for Foreign Affairs has assumed some of the
  prerogatives of a prime minister

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Grand and General Council or Consiglio Grande e Generale
  (60 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 4 June 2006 (next to be held by June 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PDCS 32.9%, Party of
  Socialists and Democrats 31.9%, APDS 11.9%, United Left 8.7%, New
  Socialist Party 5.4%; seats by party - PDCS 21, Party of Socialists
  and Democrats 20, APDS 7, United Left 5, New Socialist Party 3,
  other 4

Judicial branch:
  Council of Twelve or Consiglio dei XII

Political parties and leaders:
  Communist Refoundation or RC [Ivan FOSHI]; Ideas in Movement or IM
  [Alessandro ROSSI]; National Alliance or AN; New Socialist Party;
  Party of Socialists and Democrats [Claudio FELICI]; San Marino
  Christian Democratic Party or PDCS [Giovanni LONFERNINI]; San Marino
  Popular Alliance of Democrats or APDS [Roberto GIORGETTI]; San
  Marino Socialist Party or PSS [Alberto CECCHETTI]; Socialists for
  Reform or SR [Renzo GIARDI]; United Left

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  CE, FAO, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ITU, OPCW, OSCE, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  San Marino does not have an embassy in the US
  honorary consulate(s) general: New York, Washington, DC
  honorary consulate(s): Detroit, Honolulu

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in San Marino; the US Consul
  General in Florence (Italy) is accredited to San Marino

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and light blue with the
  national coat of arms superimposed in the center; the coat of arms
  has a shield (featuring three towers on three peaks) flanked by a
  wreath, below a crown and above a scroll bearing the word LIBERTAS
  (Liberty)

Economy San Marino


Economy - overview:
  The tourist sector contributes over 50% of GDP. In 2000 more than 3
  million tourists visited San Marino. The key industries are banking,
  wearing apparel, electronics, and ceramics. Main agricultural
  products are wine and cheeses. The per capita level of output and
  standard of living are comparable to those of the most prosperous
  regions of Italy, which supplies much of its food.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $940 million (2001 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $880 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.3% (2002 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $34,600 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  19,970 (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 42%
  services: 57% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.6% (2001)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -1.7% (2001)

Budget:
  revenues: $400 million
  expenditures: $400 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, grapes, corn, olives; cattle, pigs, horses, beef, cheese,
  hides

Industries:
  tourism, banking, textiles, electronics, ceramics, cement, wine

Industrial production growth rate:
  6% (1997 est.)

Exports:
  trade data are included with the statistics for Italy

Exports - commodities:
  building stone, lime, wood, chestnuts, wheat, wine, baked goods,
  hides, ceramics

Imports:
  trade data are included with the statistics for Italy

Imports - commodities:
  wide variety of consumer manufactures, food

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications San Marino


Telephones - main lines in use:
  20,600 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  16,800 (2002)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate connections
  domestic: automatic telephone system completely integrated into
  Italian system
  international: country code - 378; connected to Italian
  international network

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  16,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (San Marino residents also receive broadcasts from Italy) (1997)

Televisions:
  9,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sm

Internet hosts:
  3,140 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  14,300 (2002)

Transportation San Marino


Roadways:
  total: 104 km
  paved: 104 km (2003)

Military San Marino


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Voluntary Military Force (Corpi
  Militari Voluntar) performs ceremonial duties and limited police
  functions (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,331 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,107 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 135 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $700,000 (FY00/01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of Italy

Transnational Issues San Marino


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Sao Tome and Principe

Introduction Sao Tome and Principe


Background:
  Discovered and claimed by Portugal in the late 15th century, the
  islands' sugar-based economy gave way to coffee and cocoa in the
  19th century - all grown with plantation slave labor, a form of
  which lingered into the 20th century. Although independence was
  achieved in 1975, democratic reforms were not instituted until the
  late 1980s. Though the first free elections were held in 1991, the
  political environment has been one of continued instability with
  frequent changes in leadership and coup attempts in 1995 and 2003.
  The recent discovery of oil in the Gulf of Guinea is likely to have
  a significant impact on the country's economy.

Geography Sao Tome and Principe


Location:
  Western Africa, islands in the Gulf of Guinea, straddling the
  Equator, west of Gabon

Geographic coordinates:
  1 00 N, 7 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,001 sq km
  land: 1,001 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  more than five times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  209 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; one rainy season (October to May)

Terrain:
  volcanic, mountainous

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico de Sao Tome 2,024 m

Natural resources:
  fish, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 8.33%
  permanent crops: 48.96%
  other: 42.71% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  100 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion and exhaustion

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the smallest country in Africa; the two main islands form part of a
  chain of extinct volcanoes and both are fairly mountainous

People Sao Tome and Principe


Population:
  193,413 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 47.5% (male 46,478/female 45,302)
  15-64 years: 48.8% (male 45,631/female 48,661)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 3,368/female 3,973) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.2 years
  male: 15.6 years
  female: 16.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.15% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  40.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 41.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 39.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 67.31 years
  male: 65.73 years
  female: 68.95 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Sao Tomean(s)
  adjective: Sao Tomean

Ethnic groups:
  mestico, angolares (descendants of Angolan slaves), forros
  (descendants of freed slaves), servicais (contract laborers from
  Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde), tongas (children of servicais
  born on the islands), Europeans (primarily Portuguese)

Religions:
  Catholic 70.3%, Evangelical 3.4%, New Apostolic 2%, Adventist 1.8%,
  other 3.1%, none 19.4% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Portuguese (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.3%
  male: 85%
  female: 62% (1991 est.)

Government Sao Tome and Principe


Country name:
  conventional long form: Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe
  conventional short form: Sao Tome and Principe
  local long form: Republica Democratica de Sao Tome e Principe
  local short form: Sao Tome e Principe

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Sao Tome
  geographic coordinates: 0 12 N, 6 39 E
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  2 provinces; Principe, Sao Tome
  note: Principe has had self-government since 29 April 1995

Independence:
  12 July 1975 (from Portugal)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 12 July (1975)

Constitution:
  approved March 1990, effective 10 September 1990

Legal system:
  based on Portuguese legal system and customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Fradique DE MENEZES (since 3 September
  2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Tome Soares da VERA CRUZ (since
  21 April 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  proposal of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 30 July 2006 (next
  to be held July 2011); prime minister chosen by the National
  Assembly and approved by the president
  election results: Fradique DE MENEZES elected president; percent of
  vote - Fradique DE MENEZES 60%, Patrice TROVOADA 38.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia Nacional (55 seats;
  members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 March 2006 (next to be held March 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MDFM-PCD 37.2%, MLSTP
  28.9%, ADI 20.0%, NR 4.7%, other 9.2%; seats by party - MDFM-PCD 23,
  MLSTP 19, ADI 12, NR 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the National Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Renovation Party [Armindo GRACA]; Force for Change
  Democratic Movement or MDFM; Independent Democratic Action or ADI
  [Carlos NEVES]; Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and
  Principe-Social Democratic Party or MLSTP-PSD [Manuel Pinto Da
  COSTA]; Party for Democratic Convergence or PCD [Aldo BANDEIRA];
  Ue-Kedadji coalition; other small parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory),
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ITU, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: First Secretary Domingos Augusto FERREIRA
  chancery: 400 Park Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022
  telephone: [1] (212) 317-0580
  FAX: [1] (212) 935-7348
  consulate(s): Atlanta

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Sao Tome and Principe; the
  Ambassador to Gabon is accredited to Sao Tome and Principe on a
  nonresident basis and makes periodic visits to the islands

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of green (top), yellow (double width), and
  green with two black five-pointed stars placed side by side in the
  center of the yellow band and a red isosceles triangle based on the
  hoist side; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Sao Tome and Principe


Economy - overview:
  This small, poor island economy has become increasingly dependent
  on cocoa since independence in 1975. Cocoa production has
  substantially declined in recent years because of drought and
  mismanagement, but strengthening prices helped boost export earnings
  in 2003. Sao Tome has to import all fuels, most manufactured goods,
  consumer goods, and a substantial amount of food. Over the years, it
  has had difficulty servicing its external debt and has relied
  heavily on concessional aid and debt rescheduling. Sao Tome
  benefited from $200 million in debt relief in December 2000 under
  the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program, and is expected
  to benefit from an additional round of HIPC debt relief in early
  2006, to help bring down the country's $300 million debt burden. In
  August 2005, Sao Tome signed on to a new 3-year IMF Poverty
  Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) program worth $4.3 million.
  Considerable potential exists for development of a tourist industry,
  and the government has taken steps to expand facilities in recent
  years. The government also has attempted to reduce price controls
  and subsidies. Sao Tome is optimistic about the development of
  petroleum resources in its territorial waters in the oil-rich Gulf
  of Guinea, which are being jointly developed in a 60-40 split with
  Nigeria. The first production licenses were sold in 2004, though a
  dispute over licensing with Nigeria delayed Sao Tome's receipt of
  more than $20 million in signing bonuses for almost a year. Real GDP
  growth reached 6% in 2004, and also probably in 2005, as a result of
  increases in public expenditures and oil-related capital investment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $214 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $71.38 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  6% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,200 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.7%
  industry: 14.8%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  35,050

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: population mainly engaged in subsistence agriculture and
  fishing; shortages of skilled workers

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  54% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  32.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $26.39 million
  expenditures: $59.48 million; including capital expenditures of $54
  million (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa, coconuts, palm kernels, copra, cinnamon, pepper, coffee,
  bananas, papayas, beans; poultry; fish

Industries:
  light construction, textiles, soap, beer, fish processing, timber

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  15 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 41.2%
  hydro: 58.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  13.95 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-20 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $8 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cocoa 80%, copra, coffee, palm oil

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 61.1%, Belgium 9.2%, Turkey 5.5%, South Korea 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $38 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and electrical equipment, food products, petroleum
  products

Imports - partners:
  UK 94.2%, Portugal 2.7%, US 1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $20 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $318 million (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $200 million in December 2000 under the HIPC program

Currency (code):
  dobra (STD)

Currency code:
  STD

Exchange rates:
  dobras per US dollar - 9,900.4 (2005), (2004), 9,347.6 (2003),
  9,088.3 (2002), 8,842.1 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Sao Tome and Principe


Telephones - main lines in use:
  7,000 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  12,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: adequate facilities
  domestic: minimal system
  international: country code - 239; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 1 (2002)

Radios:
  38,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2002)

Televisions:
  23,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .st

Internet hosts:
  735 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  20,000 (2005)

Transportation Sao Tome and Principe


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 320 km
  paved: 218 km
  unpaved: 102 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 21,527 GRT/29,823 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 7
  foreign-owned: 3 (Egypt 1, Greece 1, Lebanon 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Sao Tome

Military Sao Tome and Principe


Military branches:
  Armed Forces of Sao Tome and Principe (FASTP): Army, Coast Guard,
  Presidential Guard (2004)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 33,438
  females age 18-49: 35,279 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 25,950
  females age 18-49: 28,660 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $581,729 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  Sao Tome and Principe's army is a tiny force with almost no
  resources at its disposal and would be wholly ineffective operating
  unilaterally; infantry equipment is considered simple to operate and
  maintain but may require refurbishment or replacement after 25 years
  in tropical climates; poor pay and conditions have been a problem in
  the past, as has alleged nepotism in the promotion of officers, as
  reflected in the 1995 and 2003 coups; these issues are being
  addressed with foreign assistance as initial steps towards the
  improvement of the army and its focus on realistic security
  concerns; command is exercised from the president, through the
  Minister of Defense, to the Chief of the Armed Forces staff (2005)

Transnational Issues Sao Tome and Principe


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Saudi Arabia

Introduction Saudi Arabia


Background:
  In 1902, ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured Riyadh and
  set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian Peninsula. A son
  of ABD AL-AZIZ rules the country today, and the country's Basic Law
  stipulates that the throne shall remain in the hands of the aging
  sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder. Following Iraq's
  invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal
  family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops
  to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following
  year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil after
  Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension between the
  royal family and the public until the US military's near-complete
  withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first major terrorist
  attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which occurred in May and
  November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the part of the Saudi
  government to counter domestic terrorism and extremism, which also
  coincided with a slight upsurge in media freedom and announcement of
  government plans to phase in partial political representation. As
  part of this effort, the government permitted elections - held
  nationwide from February through April 2005 - for half the members
  of 179 municipal councils. A burgeoning population, aquifer
  depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and
  prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.

Geography Saudi Arabia


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, north of
  Yemen

Geographic coordinates:
  25 00 N, 45 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 1,960,582 sq km
  land: 1,960,582 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than one-fifth the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,431 km
  border countries: Iraq 814 km, Jordan 744 km, Kuwait 222 km, Oman
  676 km, Qatar 60 km, UAE 457 km, Yemen 1,458 km

Coastline:
  2,640 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Climate:
  harsh, dry desert with great temperature extremes

Terrain:
  mostly uninhabited, sandy desert

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Sawda' 3,133 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold, copper

Land use:
  arable land: 1.67%
  permanent crops: 0.09%
  other: 98.24% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  16,200 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent sand and dust storms

Environment - current issues:
  desertification; depletion of underground water resources; the lack
  of perennial rivers or permanent water bodies has prompted the
  development of extensive seawater desalination facilities; coastal
  pollution from oil spills

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  extensive coastlines on Persian Gulf and Red Sea provide great
  leverage on shipping (especially crude oil) through Persian Gulf and
  Suez Canal

People Saudi Arabia


Population:
  27,019,731
  note: includes 5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 38.2% (male 5,261,530/female 5,059,041)
  15-64 years: 59.4% (male 9,159,519/female 6,895,616)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 342,020/female 302,005) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.4 years
  male: 22.9 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.18% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  29.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  2.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -4.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.33 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.13 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.2 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 12.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 14.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.67 years
  male: 73.66 years
  female: 77.78 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.01% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Saudi(s)
  adjective: Saudi or Saudi Arabian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 90%, Afro-Asian 10%

Religions:
  Muslim 100%

Languages:
  Arabic

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 78.8%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 70.8% (2003 est.)

Government Saudi Arabia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  conventional short form: Saudi Arabia
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah
  local short form: Al Arabiyah as Suudiyah

Government type:
  monarchy

Capital:
  name: Riyadh
  geographic coordinates: 24 38 N, 46 43 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  13 provinces (mintaqat, singular - mintaqah); Al Bahah, Al Hudud
  ash Shamaliyah, Al Jawf, Al Madinah, Al Qasim, Ar Riyad, Ash
  Sharqiyah (Eastern Province), 'Asir, Ha'il, Jizan, Makkah, Najran,
  Tabuk

Independence:
  23 September 1932 (unification of the kingdom)

National holiday:
  Unification of the Kingdom, 23 September (1932)

Constitution:
  governed according to Shari'a law; the Basic Law that articulates
  the government's rights and responsibilities was introduced in 1993

Legal system:
  based on Shari'a law, several secular codes have been introduced;
  commercial disputes handled by special committees; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  adult male citizens age 21 or older
  note: voter registration began in November 2004 for partial
  municipal council elections held nationwide from February through
  April 2005

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King and Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz Al
  Saud (since 1 August 2005); Heir Apparent Crown Prince SULTAN bin
  Abd al- Aziz Al Saud (half brother of the monarch, born 5 January
  1928) note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: King and Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz
  Al Saud (since 1 August 2005); Heir Apparent Crown Prince SULTAN bin
  Abd al- Aziz Al Saud (half brother of the monarch, born 5 January
  1928) note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers is appointed by the monarch and
  includes many royal family members
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Legislative branch:
  Consultative Council or Majlis al-Shura (120 members and a chairman
  appointed by the monarch for four-year terms); note - in October
  2003, Council of Ministers announced its intent to introduce
  elections for half of the members of local and provincial assemblies
  and a third of the members of the national Consultative Council or
  Majlis al-Shura, incrementally over a period of four to five years;
  in November 2004, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs
  initiated voter registration for partial municipal council elections
  held nationwide from February through April 2005

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Council of Justice

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, BIS, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW,
  OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador TURKI al-Faysal bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
  chancery: 601 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-3800
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-3113
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador James C. OBERWETTER
  embassy: Collector Road M, Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh
  mailing address: American Embassy, Unit 61307, APO AE 09803-1307;
  International Mail: P. O. Box 94309, Riyadh 11693
  telephone: [966] (1) 488-3800
  FAX: [966] (1) 488-3989
  consulate(s) general: Dhahran, Jiddah (Jeddah)

Flag description:
  green, a traditional color in Islamic flags, with the Shahada or
  Muslim creed in large white Arabic script (translated as "There is
  no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God") above a white
  horizontal saber (the tip points to the hoist side); design dates to
  the early twentieth century and is closely associated with the Al
  Saud family which established the kingdom in 1932

Economy Saudi Arabia


Economy - overview:
  This is an oil-based economy with strong government controls over
  major economic activities. Saudi Arabia possesses 25% of the world's
  proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest exporter of
  petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC. The petroleum sector
  accounts for roughly 75% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP, and 90% of
  export earnings. About 40% of GDP comes from the private sector.
  Roughly 5.5 million foreign workers play an important role in the
  Saudi economy, particularly, in the oil and service sectors. The
  government is encouraging private sector growth to lessen the
  kingdom's dependence on oil and increase employment opportunities
  for the swelling Saudi population. The government has begun to
  permit private sector and foreign investor participation in the
  power generation and telecom sectors. As part of its effort to
  attract foreign investment and diversify the economy, Saudi Arabia
  acceded to the WTO in 2005 after many years of negotiations. With
  high oil revenues enabling the government to post large budget
  surpluses, Riyadh has been able to substantially boost spending on
  job training and education, infrastructure development, and
  government salaries.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $346.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $264 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $13,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 61.3%
  services: 35.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  6.76 million
  note: more than 35% of the population in the 15-64 age group is
  non-national (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 25%
  services: 63% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  13% among Saudi males only (local bank estimate; some estimates
  range as high as 25%) (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $143.7 billion
  expenditures: $89.65 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  44.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, tomatoes, melons, dates, citrus; mutton, chickens,
  eggs, milk

Industries:
  crude oil production, petroleum refining, basic petrochemicals;
  ammonia, industrial gases, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), cement,
  fertilizer, plastics; metals, commercial ship repair, commercial
  aircraft repair, construction

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  145.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  134.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  9.475 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  1.775 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - exports:
  7.92 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  262.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  60.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  60.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2002)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2002)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  6.544 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $90.73 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products 90%

Exports - partners:
  US 16.4%, Japan 16.1%, South Korea 9.1%, China 6.9%, Singapore
  5.1%, Taiwan 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $44.93 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, motor vehicles,
  textiles

Imports - partners:
  US 13%, Germany 9.5%, Japan 7.9%, China 7.3%, France 4.7%, Italy
  4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $26.76 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $36.78 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  pledged $100 million in 1993 to fund reconstruction of Lebanon;
  since 2000, Saudi Arabia has committed $307 million for assistance
  to the Palestinians; pledged $230 million to development in
  Afghanistan; pledged $1 billion in export guarantees and soft loans
  to Iraq; pledged $133 million in direct grant aid, $187 million in
  concessional loans, and $153 million in export credits for Pakistan
  earthquake relief

Currency (code):
  Saudi riyal (SAR)

Currency code:
  SAR

Exchange rates:
  Saudi riyals per US dollar - 3.747 (2005), 3.75 (2004), 3.75
  (2003), 3.75 (2002), 3.75 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 March - 28 February

Communications Saudi Arabia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3.8 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  13.3 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, and
  fiber-optic cable systems
  international: country code - 966; microwave radio relay to Bahrain,
  Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, and Sudan; coaxial cable to
  Kuwait and Jordan; submarine cable to Djibouti, Egypt and Bahrain;
  satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (3 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian
  Ocean), 1 Arabsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 43, FM 31, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  6.25 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  117 (1997)

Televisions:
  5.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sa

Internet hosts:
  10,931 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  22 (2003)

Internet users:
  2.54 million (2005)

Transportation Saudi Arabia


Airports:
  208 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 32
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 135
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 75
  914 to 1,523 m: 40
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Heliports:
  6 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 212 km; gas 1,880 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,183 km; oil
  4,531 km; refined products 1,150 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,392 km
  standard gauge: 1,392 km 1.435-m gauge (with branch lines and
  sidings) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 152,044 km
  paved: 45,461 km
  unpaved: 106,583 km (2000)

Merchant marine:
  total: 60 ships (1000 GRT or over) 837,272 GRT/1,064,377 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, chemical tanker 15, container 4, passenger/cargo
  8, petroleum tanker 18, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 9
  foreign-owned: 9 (Egypt 2, Kuwait 5, Sudan 1, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 55 (Bahamas 12, Comoros 3, Dominica
  3, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 1, Liberia 24, Marshall
  Islands 1, Norway 3, Panama 8) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ad Dammam, Al Jubayl, Jiddah, Yanbu' al Sinaiyah

Military Saudi Arabia


Military branches:
  Land Forces (Army), Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Force, National
  Guard, Ministry of Interior Forces (paramilitary)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,648,999
  females age 18-49: 5,417,922 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,592,709
  females age 18-49: 4,659,347 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 247,334
  females age 18-49: 234,500 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $18 billion (2002)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  10% (2002)

Transnational Issues Saudi Arabia


Disputes - international:
  despite resistance from nomadic groups, the demarcation of the
  Saudi Arabia-Yemen boundary established under the 2000 Jeddah Treaty
  is almost complete; Saudi Arabia still maintains the concrete-filled
  pipe as a security barrier along sections of the border with Yemen
  in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities; Kuwait and Saudi
  Arabia continue discussions on a maritime boundary with Iran; the
  United Arab Emirate 2006 Yearbook published a map and text
  rescinding the 1974 boundary with Saudi Arabia, as stipulated in a
  treaty filed with the UN in 1993, on the grounds that the agreement
  was not formally ratified

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 240,000 (Palestinian Territories)
  (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Saudi Arabia is a destination country for
  workers from South and Southeast Asia who are subjected to
  conditions that constitute involuntary servitude including being
  subjected to physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages,
  confinement, and withholding of passports as a restriction on their
  movement; domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because some
  are confined to the house in which they work, unable to seek help;
  Saudi Arabia is also a destination country for Nigerian, Yemeni,
  Pakistani, Afghan, Somali, Malian, and Sudanese children trafficked
  for forced begging and involuntary servitude as street vendors; some
  Nigerian women were reportedly trafficked into Saudi Arabia for
  commercial sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  death penalty for traffickers; increasing consumption of heroin,
  cocaine, and hashish; improving anti-money-laundering legislation
  and enforcement


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Senegal

Introduction Senegal


Background:
  Independent from France in 1960, Senegal was ruled by the Socialist
  Party for forty years until current President Abdoulaye WADE was
  elected in 2000. Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal
  confederation of Senegambia in 1982, but the envisaged integration
  of the two countries was never carried out, and the union was
  dissolved in 1989. A southern separatist group sporadically has
  clashed with government forces since 1982, but Senegal remains one
  of the most stable democracies in Africa. Senegal has a long history
  of participating in international peacekeeping.

Geography Senegal


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

Geographic coordinates:
  14 00 N, 14 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 196,190 sq km
  land: 192,000 sq km
  water: 4,190 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Dakota

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,640 km
  border countries: The Gambia 740 km, Guinea 330 km, Guinea-Bissau
  338 km, Mali 419 km, Mauritania 813 km

Coastline:
  531 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; rainy season (May to November) has strong
  southeast winds; dry season (December to April) dominated by hot,
  dry, harmattan wind

Terrain:
  generally low, rolling, plains rising to foothills in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed feature near Nepen Diakha 581 m

Natural resources:
  fish, phosphates, iron ore

Land use:
  arable land: 12.51%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 87.25% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,200 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  lowlands seasonally flooded; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  wildlife populations threatened by poaching; deforestation;
  overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling

Geography - note:
  westernmost country on the African continent; The Gambia is almost
  an enclave within Senegal

People Senegal


Population:
  11,987,121 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 40.8% (male 2,467,021/female 2,422,385)
  15-64 years: 56.1% (male 3,346,756/female 3,378,518)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 174,399/female 198,042) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.1 years
  male: 18.9 years
  female: 19.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.34% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  32.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 52.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 56.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 49.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 59.25 years
  male: 57.7 years
  female: 60.85 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.8% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  44,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  3,500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever,
  Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Rift Valley fever are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Senegalese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Senegalese

Ethnic groups:
  Wolof 43.3%, Pular 23.8%, Serer 14.7%, Jola 3.7%, Mandinka 3%,
  Soninke 1.1%, European and Lebanese 1%, other 9.4%

Religions:
  Muslim 94%, Christian 5% (mostly Roman Catholic), indigenous
  beliefs 1%

Languages:
  French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.2%
  male: 50%
  female: 30.7% (2003 est.)

Government Senegal


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Senegal
  conventional short form: Senegal
  local long form: Republique du Senegal
  local short form: Senegal
  former: Senegambia (along with The Gambia); Mali Federation

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Dakar
  geographic coordinates: 14 40 N, 17 26 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  11 regions (regions, singular - region); Dakar, Diourbel, Fatick,
  Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Matam, Saint-Louis, Tambacounda, Thies,
  Ziguinchor

Independence:
  4 April 1960 (from France); note - complete independence was
  achieved upon dissolution of federation with Mali on 20 August 1960

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 4 April (1960)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 7 January 2001

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system; judicial review of legislative
  acts in Constitutional Court; the Council of State audits the
  government's accounting office; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Abdoulaye WADE (since 1 April 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Macky SALL (since 21 April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister in
  consultation with the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term) under new constitution; election last
  held under prior constitution (seven-year terms) 27 February and 19
  March 2000 (next to be held 27 February 2007); prime minister
  appointed by the president
  election results: Abdoulaye WADE elected president; percent of vote
  in the second round of voting - Abdoulaye WADE (PDS) 58.49%, Abdou
  DIOUF (PS) 41.51%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (120 seats;
  members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  note: the former National Assembly, dissolved in the spring of 2001,
  had 140 seats
  elections: last held 29 April 2001 (next to be held 27 February
  2007) note - the National Assembly in December 2005 voted to
  postpone legislative elections originally scheduled for 2006, they
  will now coincide with presidential elections in 2007
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  SOPI Coalition 89, AFP 11, PS 10, other 10

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Council of State; Court of Final Appeals or
  Cour de Cassation; Court of Appeals

Political parties and leaders:
  African Party for Democracy and Socialism or And Jef (also known as
  PADS/AJ) [Landing SAVANE, secretary general]; African Party of
  Independence [Majhemout DIOP]; Alliance of Forces of Progress or AFP
  [Moustapha NIASSE]; Democratic and Patriotic Convention or CDP (also
  known as Garab-Gi) [Dr. Iba Der THIAM]; Democratic League-Labor
  Party Movement or LD-MPT [Dr. Abdoulaye BATHILY]; Front for
  Socialism and Democracy or FSD [Cheikh Abdoulaye DIEYE]; Gainde
  Centrist Bloc or BGC [Jean-Paul DIAS]; Independence and Labor Party
  or PIT [Amath DANSOKHO]; National Democratic Rally or RND [Madier
  DIOUF]; Senegalese Democratic Party or PDS [Abdoulaye WADE];
  Socialist Party or PS [Ousmane Tanor DIENG]; SOPI Coalition
  [Abdoulaye WADE] (a coalition led by the PDS); Union for Democratic
  Renewal or URD [Djibo Leyti KA]; other small parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  labor; Muslim brotherhoods; students; teachers

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL,
  UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Amadou Lamine BA
  chancery: 2112 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-0540
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6315
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janice L. JACOBS
  embassy: Avenue Jean XXIII at the corner of Rue Kleber, Dakar
  mailing address: B. P. 49, Dakar
  telephone: [221] 823-4296
  FAX: [221] 822-2991

Flag description:
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and red
  with a small green five-pointed star centered in the yellow band;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Economy Senegal


Economy - overview:
  In January 1994, Senegal undertook a bold and ambitious economic
  reform program with the support of the international donor
  community. This reform began with a 50% devaluation of Senegal's
  currency, the CFA franc, which was linked at a fixed rate to the
  French franc. Government price controls and subsidies have been
  steadily dismantled. After seeing its economy contract by 2.1% in
  1993, Senegal made an important turnaround, thanks to the reform
  program, with real growth in GDP averaging over 5% annually during
  1995-2004. Annual inflation had been pushed down to the low single
  digits. As a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union
  (WAEMU), Senegal is working toward greater regional integration with
  a unified external tariff and a more stable monetary policy.
  However, Senegal still relies heavily upon outside donor assistance.
  Under the IMF's Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief
  program, Senegal will benefit from eradication of two-thirds of its
  bilateral, multilateral, and private-sector debt.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $20.57 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.972 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.2%
  industry: 20.9%
  services: 61.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.82 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 77%
  industry and services: 23% (1990 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  48%; note - urban youth 40% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  54% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 33.5% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  41.3 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.657 billion
  expenditures: $1.926 billion; including capital expenditures of $357
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  46% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  peanuts, millet, corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, tomatoes, green
  vegetables; cattle, poultry, pigs; fish

Industries:
  agricultural and fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer
  production, petroleum refining, construction materials, ship
  construction and repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.332 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.239 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  31,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-848 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.526 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  fish, groundnuts (peanuts), petroleum products, phosphates, cotton

Exports - partners:
  Mali 16.9%, India 13.1%, France 9.5%, Spain 6.1%, Italy 5.5%,
  Gambia, The 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.405 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food and beverages, capital goods, fuels

Imports - partners:
  France 22.8%, Nigeria 11.4%, Brazil 4.5%, Thailand 4.3%, US 4.2%,
  UK 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.191 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $3.529 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $449.6 million (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Senegal


Telephones - main lines in use:
  266,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.73 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: good system
  domestic: above-average urban system; microwave radio relay, coaxial
  cable and fiber-optic cable in trunk system
  international: country code - 221; 4 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 20, shortwave 1 (2001)

Radios:
  1.24 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (1997)

Televisions:
  361,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sn

Internet hosts:
  412 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2002)

Internet users:
  540,000 (2005)

Transportation Senegal


Airports:
  20 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 43 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 906 km
  narrow gauge: 906 km 1.000 meter gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 13,576 km
  paved: 3,972 km (including 7 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,604 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,000 km (primarily on Senegal, Saloum, and Casamance rivers) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Dakar

Military Senegal


Military branches:
  Army, Senegalese Navy (Marine Senegalaise), Senegalese Air Force
  (Armee de l'Air du Senegal) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,443,840
  females age 18-49: 2,461,939 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,558,175
  females age 18-49: 1,642,533 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 129,331
  females age 18-49: 129,398 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $117.3 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Senegal


Disputes - international:
  The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau attempt to stem Senegalese citizens
  from the Casamance region fleeing separatist violence, cross border
  raids, and arms smuggling

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 19,778 (Mauritania)
  IDPs: 17,000 (clashes between government troops and separatists in
  Casamance region) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and
  South American cocaine moving to Europe and North America; illicit
  cultivator of cannabis


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Serbia

Introduction Serbia


Background:
  The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed in 1918; its
  name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. Occupation by Nazi Germany
  in 1941 was resisted by various paramilitary bands that fought each
  other as well as the invaders. The group headed by Josip TITO took
  full control of Yugoslavia upon German expulsion in 1945. Although
  Communist, his new government and its successors (he died in 1980)
  managed to steer their own path between the Warsaw Pact nations and
  the West for the next four and a half decades. In the early 1990s,
  post-TITO Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines: Slovenia,
  Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized as
  independent states in 1992. The remaining republics of Serbia and
  Montenegro declared a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in
  April 1992 and, under President Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Serbia led
  various military intervention efforts to unite ethnic Serbs in
  neighboring republics into a "Greater Serbia." These actions led to
  Yugoslavia being ousted from the UN in 1992, but Serbia continued
  its campaign until signing the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In
  1998-99, massive expulsions by FRY forces and Serb paramilitaries of
  ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo provoked an international
  response, including the NATO bombing of Belgrade and the stationing
  of a NATO-led force (KFOR), in Kosovo. Federal elections in the fall
  of 2000, brought about the ouster of MILOSEVIC and installed
  Vojislav KOSTUNICA as president. The arrest of MILOSEVIC in 2001
  allowed for his subsequent transfer to the International Criminal
  Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague to be tried for
  crimes against humanity. In 2001, the country's suspension from the
  UN was lifted, and it was once more accepted into UN organizations
  under the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo has
  been governed by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
  (UNMIK) since June 1999, under the authority of UN Security Council
  Resolution 1244, pending a determination by the international
  community of its future status. In 2002, the Serbian and Montenegrin
  components of Yugoslavia began negotiations to forge a looser
  relationship. In February 2003 lawmakers restructured the country
  into a loose federation of two republics called Serbia and
  Montenegro. The Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro
  included a provision that allowed either republic to hold a
  referendum after three years that would allow for their independence
  from the state union. In the spring of 2006, Montenegro took
  advantage of the provision to undertake a successful independence
  vote enabling it to secede on 3 June. Two days later, Serbia
  declared that it was the successor state to the union of Serbia and
  Montenegro.

Geography Serbia


Location:
  Southeastern Europe, between Macedonia and Hungary

Geographic coordinates:
  44 00 N, 21 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 88,361 sq km
  land: 88,361 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than South Carolina

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,027 km
  border countries: Albania 115 km, Bosnia and Herzegovina 302 km,
  Bulgaria 318 km, Croatia 241 km, Hungary 151 km, Macedonia 221 km,
  Montenegro 203 km, Romania 476 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  in the north, continental climate (cold winters and hot, humid
  summers with well distributed rainfall); in other parts, continental
  and Mediterranean climate (hot, dry summers and autumns and
  relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall)

Terrain:
  extremely varied; to the north, rich fertile plains; to the east,
  limestone ranges and basins; to the southeast, ancient mountains and
  hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: NA
  highest point: Daravica 2,656 m

Natural resources:
  oil, gas, coal, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, chromite,
  nickel, gold, silver, magnesium, pyrite, limestone, marble, salt,
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: NA
  permanent crops: NA
  other: NA

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  destructive earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution around Belgrade and other industrial cities; water
  pollution from industrial wastes dumped into the Sava which flows
  into the Danube

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine
  Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  controls one of the major land routes from Western Europe to Turkey
  and the Near East

People Serbia


Population:
  9,396,411 (2002 census)

Median age:
  total: 40.4 years
  male: 39.1 years
  female: 41.7 years

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74 years
  male: 71 years
  female: 76 years

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

Nationality:
  noun: Serb(s)
  adjective: Serbian

Ethnic groups:
  Serb 66%, Albanian 17%, Hungarian 3.5%, other 13.5% (1991)

Religions:
  Serbian Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Protestant

Languages:
  Serbian (official nationwide); Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak,
  Ukrainian, and Croatian (all official in Vojvodina); Albanian
  (official in Kosovo)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.4%
  male: 98.9%
  female: 94.1% (2002 est.)

Government Serbia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Serbia
  conventional short form: Serbia
  local long form: Republika Srbija
  local short form: Srbija
  former: People's Republic of Serbia, Socialist Republic of Serbia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Belgrade
  geographic coordinates: 44 50 N, 20 30 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  29 districts (okrugov; singular - okrug), 1 capital city*
  Serbia Proper: Belgrad*, Bor, Branicevo, Jablanica, Kolubara, Macva,
  Moravica, Nisava, Pcinja, Pirot, Podunavlje, Pomoravlje, Rasina,
  Raska, Sumadija, Toplica, Zajecar, Zlatibor
  Vojvodina Autonomous Province: Central Banat, North Backa, North
  Banat, South Backa, South Banat, Srem, West Backa
  Kosovo and Metojia Autonomous Province: Kosovo, Kosovska-Mitrovica,
  Kosovo-Pomoravlje, Pec, Prizren

Independence:
  5 June 2006 (from Serbia and Montenegro)

National holiday:
  National Day, 27 April

Constitution:
  28 September 1990; note - a new draft constitution approved by
  Parliament on 30 September 2006 stresses that Kosovo is an integral
  part of Serbia; the draft must still be approved by a national
  referendum

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Boris TADIC (since 11 July 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Vojislav KOSTUNICA (since 3 March
  2004)
  cabinet: Federal Ministries act as cabinet
  elections: president elected by direct vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 27 June 2004 (next
  to be held June 2009); prime minister elected by the Assembly
  election results: Boris TADIC elected president in the second round
  of voting; Boris TADIC received 53% of the vote

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (250 deputies elected by direct vote
  for a four-year term)
  elections: last held 28 December 2003 (next to be held December 2007)
  election results: SRS 83, DSS 53, DS 37, G17 Plus 34, SPO-NS 22, SPS
  22

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court (nine justices with life tenure)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party of Serbia or DSS [Vojislav KOSTUNICA]; Democratic
  Party or DS [Boris TADIC]; G17 Plus [Mladjan DINKIC is acting
  leader]; Serbian Radical Party or SRS [Vojislav SESELJ, but Tomislav
  NIKOLIC is acting leader]; Socialist Party of Serbia or SPS [vacant,
  but Ivica DACIC is head of the SPS Main Board]; New Serbia or NS
  [Velimir ILIC]; Serbian Renewal Movement or SPO [Vuk DRASKOVIC]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, EBRD, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD (suspended), IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ivan VUJACIC
  chancery: 2134 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-0333
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-3933
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael C. POLT
  embassy: Kneza Milosa 50, 11000 Belgrade
  mailing address: 5070 Belgrade Place, Washington, DC 20521-5070
  telephone: [381] (11) 361-9344
  FAX: [381] (11) 361-8230
  note: there is a branch office in Pristina at 30 Nazim Hikmet 38000
  Prstina, Kososvo; telephone: [381] (38) 549-516; FAX:[381] (38)
  549-890

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal stripes of red (top), blue, and white;
  charged with the coat of arms of Serbia shifted slightly to the
  hoist side

Economy Serbia


Economy - overview:
  MILOSEVIC-era mismanagement of the economy, an extended period of
  economic sanctions, and the damage to Yugoslavia's infrastructure
  and industry during the NATO airstrikes in 1999 left the economy
  only half the size it was in 1990. After the ousting of former
  Federal Yugoslav President MILOSEVIC in October 2000, the Democratic
  Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition government implemented
  stabilization measures and embarked on a market reform program.
  After renewing its membership in the IMF in December 2000, a
  down-sized Yugoslavia continued to reintegrate into the
  international community by rejoining the World Bank (IBRD) and the
  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). A World
  Bank-European Commission sponsored Donors' Conference held in June
  2001 raised $1.3 billion for economic restructuring. In November
  2001, the Paris Club agreed to reschedule the country's $4.5 billion
  public debt and wrote off 66% of the debt. In July 2004, the London
  Club of private creditors forgave $1.7 billion of debt, just over
  half the total owed. Belgrade has made only minimal progress in
  restructuring and privatizing its holdings in major sectors of the
  economy, including energy and telecommunications. It has made
  halting progress towards EU membership and is currently pursuing a
  Stabilization and Association Agreement with Brussels. Serbia is
  also pursuing membership in the World Trade Organization.
  Unemployment remains an ongoing political and economic problem. The
  Republic of Montenegro severed its economy from Serbia during the
  MILOSEVIC era; therefore, the formal separation of Serbia and
  Montenegro in June 2006 had little real impact on either economy.
  Kosovo's economy continues to transition to a market-based system
  and is largely dependent on the international community and the
  diaspora for financial and technical assistance. The euro and the
  Yugoslav dinar are both accepted currencies in Kosovo. While
  maintaining ultimate oversight, UNMIK continues to work with the EU
  and Kosovo's local provisional government to accelerate economic
  growth, lower unemployment, and attract foreign investment to help
  Kosovo integrate into regional economic structures. The complexity
  of Serbia and Kosovo's political and legal relationships has created
  uncertainty over property rights and hindered the privatization of
  state-owned assets in Kosovo. Most of Kosovo's population lives in
  rural towns outside of the largest city, Pristina. Inefficient,
  near-subsistence farming is common.
  note: economic data for Serbia currently reflects information for
  the former Serbia and Montenegro, unless otherwise noted; data for
  Serbia alone will be added when available

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $41.15 billion for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $19.19 billion for Serbia alone (excluding Kosovo) (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5.9% for Serbia alone (excluding Kosovo) (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,400 for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.6%
  industry: 25.5%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.961 million for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2002 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 46%
  services: 24%
  note: excluding Kosovo and Montenegro (2002)

Unemployment rate:
  31.6%
  note: unemployment is approximately 50% in Kosovo (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  30%
  note: data covers the former Serbia and Montenegro (1999 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  15.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $11.45 billion
  expenditures: $11.12 billion; including capital expenditures $NA;
  note - figures are for Serbia and Montenegro; Serbian Statistical
  Office indicates that for 2006 budget, Serbia will have revenues of
  $7.08 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  53.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, maize, sugar beets, sunflower, beef, pork, milk

Industries:
  sugar, agricultural machinery, electrical and communication
  equipment, paper and pulp, lead, transportation equipment

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.4% (2006 est.)

Electricity - production:
  33.87 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2004)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA

Electricity - exports:
  12.05 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo; exported to Montenegro) (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  11.23 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo; imports from Montenegro) (2004)

Oil - production:
  14,660 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - consumption:
  85,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - proved reserves:
  38.75 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  650 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.55 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  48.14 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-2.451 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $4.553 billion (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, food and live animals, machinery and transport
  equipment

Imports:
  $10.58 billion (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $5.35 billion

Debt - external:
  $15.43 billion (including Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2 billion pledged in 2001 to Serbia and Montenegro (disbursements
  to follow over several years; aid pledged by EU and US has been
  placed on hold because of lack of cooperation by Serbia in handing
  over General Ratco MLADIC to the criminal court in The Hague)

Currency (code):
  new Yugoslav dinar (YUM); note - in Kosovo both the euro and the
  Yugoslav dinar are legal

Exchange rates:
  new Yugoslav dinars per US dollar - 58.6925 (2005)

Communications Serbia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2,685,400 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  5.229 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modernization of the telecommunications network
  has been slow as a result of damage stemming from the 1999 war and
  transition to a competitive market-based system; network was only
  65% digitalized in 2005
  domestic: teledensity remains below the average for neighboring
  states; GSM wireless service, available through two providers with
  national coverage, is growing very rapidly; best telecommunications
  service limited to urban centers
  international: country code - 381

Radio broadcast stations:
  153 (2001)

Internet country code:
  .rs; note - former ccTLD .yu will remain in service until the end
  of 2006

Internet hosts:
  NA

Internet users:
  1.4 million (2006)

Transportation Serbia


Airports:
  39 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 23
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Heliports:
  4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 3,177 km; oil 393 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,135 km
  standard guage: 4,135 km 1.435-m guage (electrified 1,195 km) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 37,887 km
  paved: 23,937 km
  unpaved: 13,950 km (2002)

Waterways:
  587 km - primarily on Danube and Sava rivers (2005)

Merchant marine:
  note: see entry for Montenegro

Military Serbia


Military branches:
  Serbian Armed Forces (Vojska Srbije, VS): Serbian Land Forces
  (Kopnene Vojska, KoV), Air Force and Air Defense Force
  (Vozduhoplostvo i Protivozduhoplovna Odbrana, ViPO), naval force to
  be determined (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  peacetime service obligation begins at age 17 and lasts until age
  60 for men and 50 for women; under a state of war or impending war,
  the obligation can begin at age 16 and be extended beyond 60 (2006)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $14.85 million

Transnational Issues Serbia


Disputes - international:
  the final status of the Serbian province of Kosovo remains
  unresolved and several thousand peacekeepers from the UN Interim
  Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have administered the
  region since 1999, with Kosovar Albanians overwhelmingly supporting
  and Serbian officials opposing Kosovo independence; the
  international community had agreed to begin a process to determine
  final status but contingency of solidifying multi-ethnic democracy
  in Kosovo has not been satisfied; ethnic Albanians in Kosovo refuse
  demarcation of the boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the
  2000 Macedonia-Serbia and Montenegro delimitation agreement; Serbia
  and Montenegro delimited about half of the boundary with Bosnia and
  Herzegovina, but sections with Serbia along the Drina River remain
  in dispute

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 180,117 (Croatia); 95,297 (Bosnia and
  Herzegovina)
  IDPs: 225,000 - 251,000 (mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma who fled
  Kosovo in 1999) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin moving to Western
  Europe on the Balkan route; economy vulnerable to money laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Seychelles

Introduction Seychelles


Background:
  A lengthy struggle between France and Great Britain for the islands
  ended in 1814, when they were ceded to the latter. Independence came
  in 1976. Socialist rule was brought to a close with a new
  constitution and free elections in 1993. The most recent
  presidential elections were held in 2001; President RENE, who had
  served since 1977, was re-elected. In April 2004 RENE stepped down
  and Vice President James MICHEL was sworn in as president.

Geography Seychelles


Location:
  archipelago in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar

Geographic coordinates:
  4 35 S, 55 40 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 455 sq km
  land: 455 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  491 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical marine; humid; cooler season during southeast monsoon
  (late May to September); warmer season during northwest monsoon
  (March to May)

Terrain:
  Mahe Group is granitic, narrow coastal strip, rocky, hilly; others
  are coral, flat, elevated reefs

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morne Seychellois 905 m

Natural resources:
  fish, copra, cinnamon trees

Land use:
  arable land: 2.17%
  permanent crops: 13.04%
  other: 84.79% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  lies outside the cyclone belt, so severe storms are rare; short
  droughts possible

Environment - current issues:
  water supply depends on catchments to collect rainwater

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  41 granitic and about 75 coralline islands

People Seychelles


Population:
  81,541 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 25.9% (male 10,667/female 10,440)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 27,060/female 28,366)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 1,607/female 3,401) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 27 years
  female: 29.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.43% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -5.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.47 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 15.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.99 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.08 years
  male: 66.69 years
  female: 77.63 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Seychellois (singular and plural)
  adjective: Seychellois

Ethnic groups:
  mixed French, African, Indian, Chinese, and Arab

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 82.3%, Anglican 6.4%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.1%,
  other Christian 3.4%, Hindu 2.1%, Muslim 1.1%, other non-Christian
  1.5%, unspecified 1.5%, none 0.6% (2002 census)

Languages:
  Creole 91.8%, English 4.9% (official), other 3.1%, unspecified 0.2%
  (2002 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 91.4%
  female: 92.3% (2003 est.)

Government Seychelles


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Seychelles
  conventional short form: Seychelles
  local long form: Republic of Seychelles
  local short form: Seychelles

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Victoria
  geographic coordinates: 4 38 S, 55 27 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  23 administrative districts; Anse aux Pins, Anse Boileau, Anse
  Etoile, Anse Louis, Anse Royale, Baie Lazare, Baie Sainte Anne, Beau
  Vallon, Bel Air, Bel Ombre, Cascade, Glacis, Grand' Anse (on Mahe),
  Grand' Anse (on Praslin), La Digue, La Riviere Anglaise, Mont
  Buxton, Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Pointe La Rue, Port Glaud, Saint
  Louis, Takamaka

Independence:
  29 June 1976 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day (National Day), 18 June (1993)

Constitution:
  18 June 1993

Legal system:
  based on English common law, French civil law, and customary law

Suffrage:
  17 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President James MICHEL (since 14 April 2004); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President James MICHEL (since 14 April 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for two more terms); election last held 28-30 July 2006
  (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: President James MICHEL elected president; percent
  of vote - James MICHEL (SPPF) 53.73%, Wavel RAMKALAWAN (SNP) 45.71%,
  Philippe BOULLE 0.56%; note - this was the first election in which
  President James MICHEL participated; he was originally sworn in as
  president after former president France Albert RENE stepped down in
  April 2004

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (34 seats - 25
  elected by popular vote, 9 allocated on a proportional basis to
  parties winning at least 10% of the vote; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 4-6 December 2002 (next to be held in December
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SPPF 54.3%, SNP 42.6%,
  DP 3.1%; seats by party - SPPF 23, SNP 11

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal; Supreme Court; judges for both courts are
  appointed by the president

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party or DP [James MANCHAM, Daniel BELLE]; Mouvement
  Seychellois pour la Democratie [Jacques HODOUL]; Seychelles National
  Party or SNP [Wavel RAMKALAWAN] (formerly the United Opposition or
  UO); Seychelles People's Progressive Front or SPPF [France Albert
  RENE, James MICHEL] (the governing party)

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Roman Catholic Church; trade unions

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC,
  Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeremie BONNELAME
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400C, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 972-1785
  FAX: [1] (212) 972-1786

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Seychelles; the ambassador to
  Mauritius is accredited to the Seychelles

Flag description:
  five oblique bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, red, white, and
  green (bottom) radiating from the bottom of the hoist side

Economy Seychelles


Economy - overview:
  Since independence in 1976, per capita output in this Indian Ocean
  archipelago has expanded to roughly seven times the old
  near-subsistence level. Growth has been led by the tourist sector,
  which employs about 30% of the labor force and provides more than
  70% of hard currency earnings, and by tuna fishing. In recent years
  the government has encouraged foreign investment in order to upgrade
  hotels and other services. At the same time, the government has
  moved to reduce the dependence on tourism by promoting the
  development of farming, fishing, and small-scale manufacturing.
  Sharp drops illustrated the vulnerability of the tourist sector in
  1991-92 due largely to the Gulf War, and once again following the 11
  September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. Growth slowed in
  1998-2002, and fell in 2003, due to sluggish tourist and tuna
  sectors, but resumed in 2004, erasing a persistent budget deficit.
  Growth turned negative again in 2005. Tight controls on exchange
  rates and the scarcity of foreign exchange have impaired short-term
  economic prospects. The black-market value of the Seychelles rupee
  is half the official exchange rate; without a devaluation of the
  currency, the tourist sector may remain sluggish as vacationers seek
  cheaper destinations such as Comoros, Mauritius, and Madagascar.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $626 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $722 million (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  -3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,800 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.2%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 66.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  30,900 (1996)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 19%
  services: 71% (1989)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  42% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $343.3 million
  expenditures: $332.2 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  167% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, cinnamon, vanilla, sweet potatoes, cassava (tapioca),
  bananas; poultry; tuna

Industries:
  fishing, tourism, processing of coconuts and vanilla, coir (coconut
  fiber) rope, boat building, printing, furniture; beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  241.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  224.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  7,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-32 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $312.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  canned tuna, frozen fish, cinnamon bark, copra, petroleum products
  (reexports)

Exports - partners:
  UK 23%, Spain 19.6%, France 11.4%, Japan 9.7%, Italy 7.4%, Germany
  5.7%, Netherlands 5.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $459.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 16.7%, Spain 14.9%, Singapore 7.6%, France 7.5%, Italy
  6.2%, South Africa 6.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $41 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $508 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $16.4 million (1995)

Currency (code):
  Seychelles rupee (SCR)

Currency code:
  SCR

Exchange rates:
  Seychelles rupees per US dollar - 5.5 (2005), 5.5 (2004), 5.4007
  (2003), 5.48 (2002), 5.8575 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Seychelles


Telephones - main lines in use:
  21,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  57,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: effective system
  domestic: radiotelephone communications between islands in the
  archipelago
  international: country code - 248; direct radiotelephone
  communications with adjacent island countries and African coastal
  countries; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  42,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (plus 9 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  11,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sc

Internet hosts:
  72 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  20,000 (2005)

Transportation Seychelles


Airports:
  15 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 458 km
  paved: 440 km
  unpaved: 18 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 5 ships (1000 GRT or over) 69,777 GRT/113,501 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 4
  foreign-owned: 1 (Nigeria 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Victoria

Military Seychelles


Military branches:
  Seychelles Defense Force: Army, Coast Guard (includes Navy Wing,
  Air Wing), National Guard (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 21,612
  females age 18-49: 22,459 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 16,122
  females age 18-49: 18,777 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $14.85 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Seychelles


Disputes - international:
  together with Mauritius, Seychelles claims the Chagos Archipelago
  (UK-administered British Indian Ocean Territory)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Sierra Leone

Introduction Sierra Leone


Background:
  The government is slowly reestablishing its authority after the
  1991 to 2002 civil war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths
  and the displacement of more than 2 million people (about one-third
  of the population). The last UN peacekeepers withdrew in December
  2005, leaving full responsibility for security with domestic forces,
  but a new civilian UN office remains to support the government.
  Mounting tensions related to planned 2007 elections, deteriorating
  political and economic conditions in Guinea, and the tenuous
  security situation in neighboring Liberia may present challenges to
  continuing progress in Sierra Leone's stability.

Geography Sierra Leone


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea
  and Liberia

Geographic coordinates:
  8 30 N, 11 30 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 71,740 sq km
  land: 71,620 sq km
  water: 120 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Land boundaries:
  total: 958 km
  border countries: Guinea 652 km, Liberia 306 km

Coastline:
  402 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; summer rainy season (May to December); winter
  dry season (December to April)

Terrain:
  coastal belt of mangrove swamps, wooded hill country, upland
  plateau, mountains in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Loma Mansa (Bintimani) 1,948 m

Natural resources:
  diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, chromite

Land use:
  arable land: 7.95%
  permanent crops: 1.05%
  other: 91% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  300 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dry, sand-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara (December to
  February); sandstorms, dust storms

Environment - current issues:
  rapid population growth pressuring the environment; overharvesting
  of timber, expansion of cattle grazing, and slash-and-burn
  agriculture have resulted in deforestation and soil exhaustion;
  civil war depleting natural resources; overfishing

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  rainfall along the coast can reach 495 cm (195 inches) a year,
  making it one of the wettest places along coastal, western Africa

People Sierra Leone


Population:
  6,005,250 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.8% (male 1,321,563/female 1,370,721)
  15-64 years: 52% (male 1,494,502/female 1,625,733)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 90,958/female 101,773) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.4 years
  male: 17.1 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  45.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  23.03 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: refugees currently in surrounding countries are slowly
  returning (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 160.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 177.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 142.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 40.22 years
  male: 38.05 years
  female: 42.46 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  7% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  170,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  11,000 (2001 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Sierra Leonean(s)
  adjective: Sierra Leonean

Ethnic groups:
  20 African ethnic groups 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other 30%),
  Creole (Krio) 10% (descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were
  settled in the Freetown area in the late-18th century), refugees
  from Liberia's recent civil war, small numbers of Europeans,
  Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians

Religions:
  Muslim 60%, indigenous beliefs 30%, Christian 10%

Languages:
  English (official, regular use limited to literate minority), Mende
  (principal vernacular in the south), Temne (principal vernacular in
  the north), Krio (English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of
  freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a
  lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but
  understood by 95%)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English, Mende,
  Temne, or Arabic
  total population: 29.6%
  male: 39.8%
  female: 20.5% (2000 est.)

Government Sierra Leone


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
  conventional short form: Sierra Leone
  local long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
  local short form: Sierra Leone

Government type:
  constitutional democracy

Capital:
  name: Freetown
  geographic coordinates: 8 30 N, 13 15 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  3 provinces and 1 area*; Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western*

Independence:
  27 April 1961 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 April (1961)

Constitution:
  1 October 1991; subsequently amended several times

Legal system:
  based on English law and customary laws indigenous to local tribes;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (since 29 March 1996,
  reinstated 10 March 1998); note - the president is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: President Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (since 29 March
  1996, reinstated 10 March 1998); note - the president is both the
  chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Ministers of State appointed by the president with the
  approval of the House of Representatives; the cabinet is responsible
  to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 May 2002 (next
  to be held 28 July 2007)
  election results: Ahmad Tejan KABBAH reelected president; percent of
  vote - Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (SLPP) 70.6%, Ernest KOROMA (APC) 22.4%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (124 seats - 112 elected by popular vote, 12
  filled by paramount chiefs elected in separate elections; members
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 May 2002 (next to be held May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SLPP 70.06%, APC
  22.35%, PLP 3%, others 4.59%; seats by party - SLPP 83, APC 27, PLP 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Appeals Court; High Court

Political parties and leaders:
  All People's Congress or APC [Ben KANU]; Peace and Liberation Party
  or PLP [Darlington MORRISON, interim chairman]; Sierra Leone
  People's Party or SLPP [Sama BANYA]; numerous others

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  trade unions and student unions

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ibrahim M. KAMARA
  chancery: 1701 19th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-9261 through 9263
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-1793

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas N. HULL
  embassy: Corner of Walpole and Siaka Stevens Streets, Freetown
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [232] (22) 226481 through 226485
  FAX: [232] (22) 225471

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of light green (top), white, and light
  blue

Economy Sierra Leone


Economy - overview:
  Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation with tremendous
  inequality in income distribution. While it possesses substantial
  mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, its economic and
  social infrastructure is not well developed, and serious social
  disorders continue to hamper economic development. About two-thirds
  of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture.
  Manufacturing consists mainly of the processing of raw materials and
  of light manufacturing for the domestic market. Alluvial diamond
  mining remains the major source of hard currency earnings,
  accounting for nearly half of Sierra Leone's exports. The fate of
  the economy depends upon the maintenance of domestic peace and the
  continued receipt of substantial aid from abroad, which is essential
  to offset the severe trade imbalance and supplement government
  revenues. The IMF has completed a Poverty Reduction and Growth
  Facility program that helped stabilize economic growth and reduce
  inflation. A recent increase in political stability has led to a
  revival of economic activity, such as the rehabilitation of bauxite
  mining.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.939 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.128 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 31%
  services: 21% (2001 est.)

Labor force:
  1.369 million (1981 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  68% (1989 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 43.6% (1989)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  62.9 (1989)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1% (2002 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $96 million
  expenditures: $351 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, coffee, cocoa, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts; poultry,
  cattle, sheep, pigs; fish

Industries:
  diamond mining; small-scale manufacturing (beverages, textiles,
  cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining, small commercial ship
  repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  260.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  242.4 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  0.8361 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  6,510 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $185 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  diamonds, rutile, cocoa, coffee, fish

Exports - partners:
  Belgium 66.2%, Germany 13.5%, US 4.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $531 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels and lubricants, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Germany 18.9%, Cote d'Ivoire 11.2%, UK 8.5%, US 6.9%, China 5.6%,
  Netherlands 5.4%, South Africa 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $1.61 billion (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $297.4 million (2003 est.)

Currency (code):
  leone (SLL)

Currency code:
  SLL

Exchange rates:
  leones per US dollar - 2,889.6 (2005), 2,701.3 (2004), 2,347.9
  (2003), 2,099 (2002), 1,986.2 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Sierra Leone


Telephones - main lines in use:
  24,000 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  113,200 (2003)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: marginal telephone and telegraph service
  domestic: the national microwave radio relay trunk system connects
  Freetown to Bo and Kenema
  international: country code - 232; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 9, shortwave 1 (1999)

Radios:
  1.12 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (1999)

Televisions:
  53,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sl

Internet hosts:
  20 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2001)

Internet users:
  10,000 (2005)

Transportation Sierra Leone


Airports:
  10 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 11,300 km
  paved: 904 km
  unpaved: 10,396 km (2002)

Waterways:
  800 km (600 km year round) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 54 ships (1000 GRT or over) 185,037 GRT/249,996 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 36, chemical tanker 3, combination
  ore/oil 3, liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 1, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 14 (China 2, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, Russia 1, Syria 1,
  UAE 3, Ukraine 4, US 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Freetown, Pepel, Sherbro Islands

Military Sierra Leone


Military branches:
  Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF): Army (includes Air
  Wing, Maritime Wing)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,086,091 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 539,697 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $14.25 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Sierra Leone


Disputes - international:
  domestic fighting among disparate rebel groups, warlords, and youth
  gangs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone perpetuate
  insurgencies, street violence, looting, arms trafficking, ethnic
  conflicts, and refugees in border areas; UN Mission in Sierra Leone
  (UNAMSIL) has maintained over 4,000 peacekeepers in Sierra Leone
  since 1999; Sierra Leone pressures Guinea to remove its forces from
  the town of Yenga occupied since 1998

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 65,433 (Liberia) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Singapore

Introduction Singapore


Background:
  Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It
  joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years
  later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of
  the world's most prosperous countries with strong international
  trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of
  tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the
  leading nations of Western Europe.

Geography Singapore


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, islands between Malaysia and Indonesia

Geographic coordinates:
  1 22 N, 103 48 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 692.7 sq km
  land: 682.7 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  193 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: within and beyond territorial sea, as
  defined in treaties and practice

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid, rainy; two distinct monsoon seasons -
  Northeastern monsoon (December to March) and Southwestern monsoon
  (June to September); inter-monsoon - frequent afternoon and early
  evening thunderstorms

Terrain:
  lowland; gently undulating central plateau contains water catchment
  area and nature preserve

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Singapore Strait 0 m
  highest point: Bukit Timah 166 m

Natural resources:
  fish, deepwater ports

Land use:
  arable land: 1.47%
  permanent crops: 1.47%
  other: 97.06% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  industrial pollution; limited natural fresh water resources;
  limited land availability presents waste disposal problems; seasonal
  smoke/haze resulting from forest fires in Indonesia

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  focal point for Southeast Asian sea routes

People Singapore


Population:
  4,492,150 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 15.6% (male 362,329/female 337,964)
  15-64 years: 76.1% (male 1,666,709/female 1,750,736)
  65 years and over: 8.3% (male 165,823/female 208,589) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 37.3 years
  male: 36.9 years
  female: 37.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.42% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  9.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 2.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 2.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.07 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 81.71 years
  male: 79.13 years
  female: 84.49 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  4,100 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Singaporean(s)
  adjective: Singapore

Ethnic groups:
  Chinese 76.8%, Malay 13.9%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Taoist 8.5%, Hindu 4%, Catholic 4.8%,
  other Christian 9.8%, other 0.7%, none 14.8% (2000 census)

Languages:
  Mandarin 35%, English 23%, Malay 14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%, Cantonese
  5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil 3.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.8%, other
  0.9% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 96.6%
  female: 88.6% (2002)

Government Singapore


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Singapore
  conventional short form: Singapore
  local long form: Republic of Singapore
  local short form: Singapore

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Singapore
  geographic coordinates: 1 17 N, 103 51 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none

Independence:
  9 August 1965 (from Malaysian Federation)

National holiday:
  National Day, 9 August (1965)

Constitution:
  3 June 1959; amended 1965 (based on preindependence State of
  Singapore Constitution)

Legal system:
  based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President S. R. NATHAN (since 1 September 1999)
  note: uses S. R. NATHAN but his full name and the one used in formal
  communications is Sellapan RAMANATHAN
  head of government: Prime Minister LEE Hsien Loong (since 12 August
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Shunmugan JAYAKUMAR (since 12 August
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister WONG Kan Seng (since 1 September 2005);
  Senior Minister GOH Chok Tong (since 12 August 2004); Minister
  Mentor LEE Kuan Yew (since 12 August 2004)
  cabinet: appointed by president, responsible to parliament
  elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term; last
  appointed 17 August 2005 - see note (next election to be held by
  August 2011); following legislative elections, leader of majority
  party or leader of majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by president; deputy prime ministers appointed by president
  election results: Sellapan Rama (S. R.) NATHAN appointed president
  in August 2005 after Presidential Elections Committee disqualified
  three other would-be candidates; scheduled election not held

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (84 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms); note - in addition, there are up to nine
  nominated members; the losing opposition candidate who came closest
  to winning a seat may be appointed as a "nonconstituency" member
  elections: last held 6 May 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAP 66.6%, WP 16.3%,
  SDA 13%, SDP 4.1%; seats by party - PAP 82, WP 1, SDA 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the president with the
  advice of the prime minister, other judges are appointed by the
  president with the advice of the chief justice); Court of Appeals

Political parties and leaders:
  People's Action Party or PAP [LEE Hsien Loong]; Singapore
  Democratic Alliance or SDA [CHIAM See Tong]; Singapore Democratic
  Party or SDP [CHEE Soon Juan]; Workers' Party or WP [Sylvia LIM Swee
  Lian]
  note: SDA includes National Solidarity Party or NSP, Singapore
  Justice Party or SJP, Singapore National Malay Organization or PKMS,
  Singapore People's Party or SPP

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, C, CP, EAS, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador CHAN Heng Chee
  chancery: 3501 International Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 537-3100
  FAX: [1] (202) 537-0876
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia L. HERBOLD
  embassy: 27 Napier Road, Singapore 258508
  mailing address: FPO AP 96507-0001
  telephone: [65] 6476-9100
  FAX: [65] 6476-9340

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; near the hoist
  side of the red band, there is a vertical, white crescent (closed
  portion is toward the hoist side) partially enclosing five white
  five-pointed stars arranged in a circle

Economy Singapore


Economy - overview:
  Singapore, a highly-developed and successful free-market economy,
  enjoys a remarkably open and corruption-free environment, stable
  prices, and a per capita GDP equal to that of the four largest West
  European countries. The economy depends heavily on exports,
  particularly in electronics and manufacturing. It was hard hit in
  2001-03 by the global recession, by the slump in the technology
  sector, and by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
  (SARS) in 2003, which curbed tourism and consumer spending. The
  government hopes to establish a new growth path that will be less
  vulnerable to the external business cycle and will continue efforts
  to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and high-tech
  hub. Fiscal stimulus, low interest rates, a surge in exports, and
  internal flexibility led to vigorous growth in 2004, with real GDP
  rising by 8% - by far the economy's best performance since 2000 -
  but growth slowed to 5.7% in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $126.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $110.6 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $28,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0%
  industry: 33.9%
  services: 66.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.28 million (September 2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  manufacturing 18%, construction 6%, transportation and
  communication 11%, financial, business, and other services 39%,
  other 26% (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  42.5 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $18.67 billion
  expenditures: $18.21 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.1
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  102.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rubber, copra, fruit, orchids, vegetables; poultry, eggs; fish,
  ornamental fish

Industries:
  electronics, chemicals, financial services, oil drilling equipment,
  petroleum refining, rubber processing and rubber products, processed
  food and beverages, ship repair, offshore platform construction,
  life sciences, entrepot trade

Industrial production growth rate:
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  36.8 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  33.2 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  8,290 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  800,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  5.32 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.5 billion cu m
  note: from Indonesia and Malaysia (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $32.74 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $204.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment (including electronics), consumer goods,
  chemicals, mineral fuels

Exports - partners:
  Malaysia 14.7%, US 11.5%, Indonesia 10.7%, Hong Kong 10.4%, China
  9.5%, Japan 6%, Thailand 4.5%, Australia 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $188.3 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, mineral fuels, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Malaysia 14.4%, US 12.4%, China 10.8%, Japan 10.1%, Indonesia 5.5%,
  Saudi Arabia 4.7%, South Korea 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $115.8 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $23.76 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Singapore dollar (SGD)

Currency code:
  SGD

Exchange rates:
  Singapore dollars per US dollar - 1.6644 (2005), 1.6902 (2004),
  1.7422 (2003), 1.7906 (2002), 1.7917 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Singapore


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1.848 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.385 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent service
  domestic: excellent domestic facilities; launched 3G wireless
  service in February 2005
  international: country code - 65; 9 submarine cables provide direct
  connection to more than 100 countries; 4 satellite earth stations,
  supplemented by VSAT coverage

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 17, shortwave 2 (2003)

Radios:
  2.6 million (2000)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (broadcasting on six channels); additional reception of numerous
  UHF and VHF signals originating in Malaysia and Indonesia; note -
  digital TV for reception in public spaces and transportation is
  transmitted from 10 sites (2006)

Televisions:
  1.33 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sg

Internet hosts:
  898,762 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  9 (2000)

Internet users:
  2,421,800 (2005)

Transportation Singapore


Airports:
  9 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 9
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 139 km; refined products 8 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 3,234 km
  paved: 3,234 km (including 150 km of expressways) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1,063 ships (1000 GRT or over) 31,033,735 GRT/49,715,650 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 155, cargo 87, chemical tanker 136, container
  214, liquefied gas 53, livestock carrier 1, passenger/cargo 1,
  petroleum tanker 353, refrigerated cargo 10, roll on/roll off 2,
  specialized tanker 11, vehicle carrier 40
  foreign-owned: 592 (Australia 7, Bangladesh 1, Belgium 12, China 23,
  Denmark 52, Germany 9, Greece 9, Hong Kong 50, India 5, Indonesia
  56, Italy 2, Japan 100, South Korea 17, Malaysia 35, Netherlands 2,
  Norway 90, Philippines 5, Slovenia 1, Sweden 12, Taiwan 59, Thailand
  22, UAE 7, UK 9, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 285 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Bahamas
  12, Belize 6, Bolivia 3, Cambodia 4, Cayman Islands 10, Cyprus 1,
  Dominica 9, France 2, Honduras 11, Hong Kong 24, Indonesia 17, Isle
  of Man 7, North Korea 1, Liberia 28, Malaysia 44, Marshall Islands
  6, Mongolia 10, Nigeria 1, Panama 67, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 5, Thailand 6, Tuvalu 6, US 2, unknown 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Singapore

Military Singapore


Military branches:
  Singapore Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Republic of Singapore Air Force
  (includes Air Defense) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age
  for volunteers; conscript service obligation reduced to 24 months
  beginning December 2004 (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,215,568 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 982,368 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $4.47 billion (FY01 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.9% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Singapore


Disputes - international:
  disputes persist with Malaysia over deliveries of fresh water to
  Singapore, Singapore's extensive land reclamation works, bridge
  construction, maritime boundaries, and Pedra Branca Island/Pulau
  Batu Putih - parties agree to ICJ arbitration on island dispute
  within three years; Indonesia and Singapore pledged in 2005 to
  finalize their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining
  unresolved areas north of Batam Island; piracy remains a problem in
  the Malacca Strait

Illicit drugs:
  as a transportation and financial services hub, Singapore is
  vulnerable, despite strict laws and enforcement, as a venue for
  money laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Slovakia

Introduction Slovakia


Background:
  The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the close of
  World War I allowed the Slovaks to join the closely related Czechs
  to form Czechoslovakia. Following the chaos of World War II,
  Czechoslovakia became a Communist nation within Soviet-ruled Eastern
  Europe. Soviet influence collapsed in 1989 and Czechoslovakia once
  more became free. The Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate
  peacefully on 1 January 1993. Slovakia joined both NATO and the EU
  in the spring of 2004.

Geography Slovakia


Location:
  Central Europe, south of Poland

Geographic coordinates:
  48 40 N, 19 30 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 48,845 sq km
  land: 48,800 sq km
  water: 45 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about twice the size of New Hampshire

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,524 km
  border countries: Austria 91 km, Czech Republic 215 km, Hungary 677
  km, Poland 444 km, Ukraine 97 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters

Terrain:
  rugged mountains in the central and northern part and lowlands in
  the south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Bodrok River 94 m
  highest point: Gerlachovsky Stit 2,655 m

Natural resources:
  brown coal and lignite; small amounts of iron ore, copper and
  manganese ore; salt; arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 29.23%
  permanent crops: 2.67%
  other: 68.1% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,830 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from metallurgical plants presents human health
  risks; acid rain damaging forests

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; most of the country is rugged and mountainous; the
  Tatra Mountains in the north are interspersed with many scenic lakes
  and valleys

People Slovakia


Population:
  5,439,448 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 465,304/female 443,967)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 1,929,448/female 1,947,735)
  65 years and over: 12% (male 244,609/female 408,385) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 35.8 years
  male: 34.2 years
  female: 37.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.15% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.6 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.73 years
  male: 70.76 years
  female: 78.89 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Slovak(s)
  adjective: Slovak

Ethnic groups:
  Slovak 85.8%, Hungarian 9.7%, Roma 1.7%, Ruthenian/Ukrainian 1%,
  other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 68.9%, Protestant 10.8%, Greek Catholic 4.1%, other
  or unspecified 3.2%, none 13% (2001 census)

Languages:
  Slovak (official) 83.9%, Hungarian 10.7%, Roma 1.8%, Ukrainian 1%,
  other or unspecified 2.6% (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6% (2001 est.)

Government Slovakia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Slovak Republic
  conventional short form: Slovakia
  local long form: Slovenska Republika
  local short form: Slovensko

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Bratislava
  geographic coordinates: 48 09 N, 17 07 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  8 regions (kraje, singular - kraj); Banskobystricky, Bratislavsky,
  Kosicky, Nitriansky, Presovsky, Trenciansky, Trnavsky, Zilinsky

Independence:
  1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and
  Slovakia)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 1 September (1992)

Constitution:
  ratified 1 September 1992, effective 1 January 1993; changed in
  September 1998 to allow direct election of the president; amended
  February 2001 to allow Slovakia to apply for NATO and EU membership

Legal system:
  civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; legal code modified
  to comply with the obligations of Organization on Security and
  Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal
  theory

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ivan GASPAROVIC (since 15 June 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Robert FICO (since 4 July 2006);
  Deputy Prime Ministers Dusan CAPLOVIC, Robert KALINAK, Stefan
  HARABIN, Jan MIKOLAJ (since 4 July 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by direct, popular vote for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election last held 3 April and 17
  April 2004 (next to be held April 2009); following National Council
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of a
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  president
  election results: Ivan GASPAROVIC elected president in runoff;
  percent of vote - Ivan GASPAROVIC 59.9%, Vladimir MECIAR 40.1%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic or Narodna Rada
  Slovenskej Republiky (150 seats; members are elected on the basis of
  proportional representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 June 2006 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Smer 29.1%, SDKU 18.4%,
  SNS 11.7%, SMK 11.7%, LS-HZDS 8.8%, KDH 8.3%; seats by party - Smer
  50, SDKU 31, SNS 20, SMK 20, LS-HZDS 15, KDH 14

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are elected by the National Council);
  Constitutional Court (judges appointed by president from group of
  nominees approved by the National Council); Special Court (judges
  elected by a council of judges and appointed by president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democratic Movement or KDH [Pavol HRUSOVSKY];
  Direction-Social Democracy or Smer-SD [Robert FICO]; Free Forum
  [Zuzana MARTINAKOVA]; Movement for Democracy or HZD [Jozef GRAPA];
  People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia or LS-HZDS
  [Vladimir MECIAR]; New Citizens Alliance or ANO [Pavol RUSKO]; Party
  of the Hungarian Coalition or SMK [Bela BUGAR]; People's Union or LU
  [Gustav KRAJCI]; Slovak Communist Party or KSS [Vladimir DADO];
  Slovak Democratic and Christian Union or SDKU [Mikulas DZURINDA];
  Slovak National Party or SNS [Jan SLOTA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Federation of Employers' Associations of the Slovak Republic;
  Association of Towns and Villages or ZMOS; Confederation of Trade
  Unions or KOZ

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CE, CEI,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UN Security
  Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rastislav KACER
  chancery: 3523 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 237-1054
  FAX: [1] (202) 237-6438
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rodolphe "Skip" M. VALLEE
  embassy: Hviezdoslavovo Namestie 4, 81102 Bratislava
  mailing address: P.O. Box 309, 814 99 Bratislava
  telephone: [421] (2) 5443-3338
  FAX: [421] (2) 5443-0096

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
  superimposed with the coat of arms of Slovakia (consisting of a red
  shield bordered in white and bearing a white Cross of Lorraine
  surmounting three blue hills); the coat of arms is centered
  vertically and offset slightly to the hoist side

Economy Slovakia


Economy - overview:
  Slovakia has mastered much of the difficult transition from a
  centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. The DZURINDA
  government made excellent progress during 2001-04 in macroeconomic
  stabilization and structural reform. Major privatizations are nearly
  complete, the banking sector is almost completely in foreign hands,
  and the government has helped facilitate a foreign investment boom
  with business-friendly policies, such as labor market liberalization
  and a 19% flat tax. Foreign investment in the automotive sector has
  been strong. Slovakia's economic growth exceeded expectations in
  2001-05, despite the general European slowdown. Unemployment, at an
  unacceptable 18% in 2003-04, dropped to 16.4% in 2005, but remains
  the economy's Achilles heel. Slovakia joined the EU on 1 May 2004.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $88.78 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $43.07 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $16,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 3.5%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 67.2% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.24 million (30 September 2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 5.8%, industry 29.3%, construction 9%, services 55.9%
  (2003)

Unemployment rate:
  16.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers: 21%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 20.9% (1992)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  25.8 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  26% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $22.7 billion
  expenditures: $23.2 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  42.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit; pigs, cattle, poultry;
  forest products

Industries:
  metal and metal products; food and beverages; electricity, gas,
  coke, oil, nuclear fuel; chemicals and manmade fibers; machinery;
  paper and printing; earthenware and ceramics; transport vehicles;
  textiles; electrical and optical apparatus; rubber products

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  30.57 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 30.3%
  hydro: 16%
  nuclear: 53.6%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  24.8 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  10.59 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  8.731 billion kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  11,480 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  74,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  2,160 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  59,000 bbl/day bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  9 million bbl (1 January 2006)

Natural gas - production:
  165 million cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  6.8 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  1 million cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  7.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  15.01 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Current account balance:
  $-4.066 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $30.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  vehicles 25.9%, machinery and electrical equipment 21.3%, base
  metals 14.6%, chemicals and minerals 10.1%, plastics 5.4% (2004)

Exports - partners:
  Germany 26.2%, Czech Republic 14.1%, Austria 7.1%, Italy 6.7%,
  Poland 6.3%, Hungary 5.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $32.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment 41.1%, intermediate manufactured
  goods 19.3%, fuels 12.3%, chemicals 9.8%, miscellaneous manufactured
  goods 10.2% (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Germany 25.1%, Czech Republic 19.3%, Russia 10.5%, Austria 6.1%,
  Poland 4.7%, Hungary 4.6%, Italy 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $14.97 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $26.94 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.9 billion in committed EU structural adjustment and cohesion
  funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  Slovak koruna (SKK)

Currency code:
  SKK

Exchange rates:
  koruny per US dollar - 31.018 (2005), 32.257 (2004), 36.773 (2003),
  45.327 (2002), 48.355 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Slovakia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1.197 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.54 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: a modernization and privatization program is
  increasing accessibility to telephone service, reducing the waiting
  time for new subscribers, and generally improving service quality
  domestic: predominantly an analog system that is now receiving
  digital equipment and is being enlarged with fiber-optic cable,
  especially in the larger cities; mobile cellular capability has been
  added
  international: country code - 421; three international exchanges
  (one in Bratislava and two in Banska Bystrica) are available;
  Slovakia is participating in several international
  telecommunications projects that will increase the availability of
  external services

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 15, FM 78, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  3.12 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 national broadcasting, 7 regional, 67 local (2004)

Televisions:
  2.62 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sk

Internet hosts:
  210,758 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  2.5 million (2005)

Transportation Slovakia


Airports:
  36 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 18
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 18
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 6,769 km; oil 416 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,662 km
  broad gauge: 100 km 1.520-m gauge
  standard gauge: 3,512 km 1.435-m gauge (1,588 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 50 km (1.000-m or 0.750-m gauge) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 42,993 km
  paved: 37,533 km (including 316 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 5,460 km (2003)

Waterways:
  172 km (on Danube River) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 43 ships (1000 GRT or over) 217,819 GRT/309,049 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 36, chemical tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 40 (Bulgaria 7, Estonia 1, Greece 4, Israel 7, Poland
  2, Syria 2, Turkey 8, UK 1, Ukraine 8)
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cyprus 1, Georgia 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bratislava, Komarno

Military Slovakia


Military branches:
  Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic (Ozbrojene Sily Slovenskej
  Republiky): Land Forces (Pozemne Sily), Air Forces (Vzdusne Sily),
  Training and Support Forces (Vycviku a Podpory Sily) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  complete transition to an all-volunteer professional force went
  into effect at the beginning of 2006 after 140 years of mandatory
  army service; volunteers include women, with minimum age of 17 years
  (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,351,848
  females age 18-49: 1,322,647 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,089,645
  females age 18-49: 1,093,077 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 41,544
  females age 18-49: 40,183 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $406 million (2002)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.87% FY05 (2005)

Transnational Issues Slovakia


Disputes - international:
  Hungary amended its status law extending special social and
  cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia, to which
  Slovakia had protested; consultations continue between Slovakia and
  Hungary over Hungary's completion of its portion of the
  Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as a
  member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Slovakia
  must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin bound for Western
  Europe; producer of synthetic drugs for regional market


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Slovenia

Introduction Slovenia


Background:
  The Slovene lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until
  the latter's dissolution at the end of World War I. In 1918, the
  Slovenes joined the Serbs and Croats in forming a new multinational
  state, which was named Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II,
  Slovenia became a republic of the renewed Yugoslavia, which though
  Communist, distanced itself from Moscow's rule. Dissatisfied with
  the exercise of power by the majority Serbs, the Slovenes succeeded
  in establishing their independence in 1991 after a short 10-day war.
  Historical ties to Western Europe, a strong economy, and a stable
  democracy have assisted in Slovenia's transformation to a modern
  state. Slovenia acceded to both NATO and the EU in the spring of
  2004.

Geography Slovenia


Location:
  Central Europe, eastern Alps bordering the Adriatic Sea, between
  Austria and Croatia

Geographic coordinates:
  46 07 N, 14 49 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 20,273 sq km
  land: 20,151 sq km
  water: 122 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,382 km
  border countries: Austria 330 km, Croatia 670 km, Hungary 102 km,
  Italy 280 km

Coastline:
  46.6 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  Mediterranean climate on the coast, continental climate with mild
  to hot summers and cold winters in the plateaus and valleys to the
  east

Terrain:
  a short coastal strip on the Adriatic, an alpine mountain region
  adjacent to Italy and Austria, mixed mountains and valleys with
  numerous rivers to the east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Triglav 2,864 m

Natural resources:
  lignite coal, lead, zinc, mercury, uranium, silver, hydropower,
  forests

Land use:
  arable land: 8.53%
  permanent crops: 1.43%
  other: 90.04% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding and earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  Sava River polluted with domestic and industrial waste; pollution
  of coastal waters with heavy metals and toxic chemicals; forest
  damage near Koper from air pollution (originating at metallurgical
  and chemical plants) and resulting acid rain

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  despite its small size, this eastern Alpine country controls some
  of Europe's major transit routes

People Slovenia


Population:
  2,010,347 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 13.8% (male 143,079/female 135,050)
  15-64 years: 70.5% (male 714,393/female 702,950)
  65 years and over: 15.7% (male 121,280/female 193,595) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.6 years
  male: 39 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.05% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.88 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.33 years
  male: 72.63 years
  female: 80.29 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  280 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Slovene(s)
  adjective: Slovenian

Ethnic groups:
  Slovene 83.1%, Serb 2%, Croat 1.8%, Bosniak 1.1%, other or
  unspecified 12% (2002 census)

Religions:
  Catholic 57.8%, Orthodox 2.3%, other Christian 0.9%, Muslim 2.4%,
  unaffiliated 3.5%, other or unspecified 23%, none 10.1% (2002 census)

Languages:
  Slovenian 91.1%, Serbo-Croatian 4.5%, other or unspecified 4.4%
  (2002 census)

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6%

Government Slovenia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Slovenia
  conventional short form: Slovenia
  local long form: Republika Slovenija
  local short form: Slovenija
  former: People's Republic of Slovenia, Socialist Republic of Slovenia

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Ljubljana
  geographic coordinates: 46 03 N, 14 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  182 municipalities (obcine, singular - obcina) and 11 urban
  municipalities* (mestne obcine , singular - mestna obcina )
  Ajdovscina, Beltinci, Benedikt, Bistrica ob Sotli, Bled, Bloke,
  Bohinj, Borovnica, Bovec, Braslovce, Brda, Brezice, Brezovica,
  Cankova, Celje*, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Cerknica, Cerkno,
  Cerkvenjak, Crensovci, Crna na Koroskem, Crnomelj, Destrnik, Divaca,
  Dobje, Dobrepolje, Dobrna, Dobrova-Horjul-Polhov Gradec,
  Dobrovnik-Dobronak, Dolenjske Toplice, Dol pri Ljubljani, Domzale,
  Dornava, Dravograd, Duplek, Gorenja Vas-Poljane, Gorisnica, Gornja
  Radgona, Gornji Grad, Gornji Petrovci, Grad, Grosuplje, Hajdina,
  Hoce-Slivnica, Hodos-Hodos, Horjul, Hrastnik, Hrpelje-Kozina,
  Idrija, Ig, Ilirska Bistrica, Ivancna Gorica, Izola-Isola, Jesenice,
  Jezersko, Jursinci, Kamnik, Kanal, Kidricevo, Kobarid, Kobilje,
  Kocevje, Komen, Komenda, Koper-Capodistria*, Kostel, Kozje, Kranj*,
  Kranjska Gora, Krizevci, Krsko, Kungota, Kuzma, Lasko, Lenart,
  Lendava-Lendva, Litija, Ljubljana*, Ljubno, Ljutomer, Logatec, Loska
  Dolina, Loski Potok, Lovrenc na Pohorju, Luce, Lukovica, Majsperk,
  Maribor*, Markovci, Medvode, Menges, Metlika, Mezica, Miklavz na
  Dravskem Polju, Miren-Kostanjevica, Mirna Pec, Mislinja, Moravce,
  Moravske Toplice, Mozirje, Murska Sobota*, Muta, Naklo, Nazarje,
  Nova Gorica*, Novo Mesto*, Odranci, Oplotnica, Ormoz, Osilnica,
  Pesnica, Piran-Pirano, Pivka, Podcetrtek, Podlehnik, Podvelka,
  Polzela, Postojna, Prebold, Preddvor, Prevalje, Ptuj*, Puconci,
  Race-Fram, Radece, Radenci, Radlje ob Dravi, Radovljica, Ravne na
  Koroskem, Razkrizje, Ribnica, Ribnica na Pohorju, Rogasovci, Rogaska
  Slatina, Rogatec, Ruse, Salovci, Selnica ob Dravi, Semic,
  Sempeter-Vrtojba, Sencur, Sentilj, Sentjernej, Sentjur pri Celju,
  Sevnica, Sezana, Skocjan, Skofja Loka, Skofljica, Slovenj Gradec*,
  Slovenska Bistrica, Slovenske Konjice, Smarje pri Jelsah, Smartno ob
  Paki, Smartno pri Litiji, Sodrazica, Solcava, Sostanj, Starse,
  Store, Sveta Ana, Sveti Andraz v Slovenskih Goricah, Sveti Jurij,
  Tabor, Tisina, Tolmin, Trbovlje, Trebnje, Trnovska Vas, Trzic,
  Trzin, Turnisce, Velenje*, Velika Polana, Velike Lasce, Verzej,
  Videm, Vipava, Vitanje, Vodice, Vojnik, Vransko, Vrhnika, Vuzenica,
  Zagorje ob Savi, Zalec, Zavrc, Zelezniki, Zetale, Ziri, Zirovnica,
  Zuzemberk, Zrece
  note: there may be 45 more municipalities

Independence:
  25 June 1991 (from Yugoslavia)

National holiday:
  Independence Day/Statehood Day, 25 June (1991)

Constitution:
  adopted 23 December 1991

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Janez DRNOVSEK (since 22 December 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Janez JANSA (since 9 November
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  elected by the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 November and 1
  December 2002 (next to be held in the fall of 2007); following
  National Assembly elections, the leader of the majority party or the
  leader of a majority coalition is usually nominated to become prime
  minister by the president and elected by the National Assembly;
  election last held 9 November 2004 (next National Assembly elections
  to be held October 2008)
  election results: Janez DRNOVSEK elected president; percent of vote
  - Janez DRNOVSEK 56.5%, Barbara BREZIGAR 43.5%; Janez JANSA elected
  prime minister; National Assembly vote - 57 to 27

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consisting of a National Assembly or Drzavni
  Zbor (90 seats; 40 are directly elected and 50 are selected on a
  proportional basis; note - the numbers of directly elected and
  proportionally elected seats varies with each election; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the National
  Council or Drzavni Svet (40 seats; this is primarily an advisory
  body with limited legislative powers; it may propose laws, ask to
  review any National Assembly decisions, and call national referenda;
  members - representing social, economic, professional, and local
  interests - are indirectly elected to five-year terms by an
  electoral college)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 3 October 2004 (next to be
  held October 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SDS 29.1%, LDS 22.8%,
  ZLSD 10.2%, NSi 9%, SLS 6.8%, SNS 6.3%, DeSUS 4.1%, other 11.7%;
  seats by party - SDS 29, LDS 23, ZLSD 10, NSi 9, SLS 7, SNS 6, DeSUS
  4, Hungarian and Italian minorities 1 each

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are elected by the National Assembly on the
  recommendation of the Judicial Council); Constitutional Court
  (judges elected for nine-year terms by the National Assembly and
  nominated by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party of Retired (Persons) of Slovenia or DeSUS [Karl
  ERJAVEC]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Jelko KACIN]; New
  Slovenia or NSi [Andrej BAJUK]; Slovenian Democratic Party or SDS
  [Janez JANSA]; Slovene National Party or SNS [Zmago JELINCIC];
  Slovene People's Party or SLS [Janez PODOBNIK]; Slovene Youth Party
  or SMS [Darko KRANJC]; Social Democrats or SD [Borut PAHOR]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU
  (new member), FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA,
  IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU
  (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samuel ZBOGAR
  chancery: 1525 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-5363
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-4563
  consulate(s) general: Cleveland, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas B. ROBERTSON
  embassy: Presernova 31, 1000 Ljubljana
  mailing address: American Embassy Ljubljana, US Department of State,
  7140 Ljubljana Place, Washington, DC 20521-7140
  telephone: [386] (1) 200-5500
  FAX: [386] (1) 200-5555

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, with
  the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav, Slovenia's
  highest peak, in white against a blue background at the center;
  beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and rivers, and
  above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted
  triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the Counts of
  Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th and early
  15th centuries); the seal is located in the upper hoist side of the
  flag centered in the white and blue bands

Economy Slovenia


Economy - overview:
  With its small transition economy and population of approximately
  two million, Slovenia is a model of economic success and stability
  for its neighbors in the former Yugoslavia. The country, which
  joined the EU in 2004, has excellent infrastructure, a well-educated
  work force, and an excellent central location. It enjoys a GDP per
  capita substantially higher than any of the other transitioning
  economies of Central Europe. In March 2004, Slovenia became the
  first transition country to graduate from borrower status to donor
  partner at the World Bank. Slovenia plans to adopt the euro by 2007
  and has met the EU's Maastricht criteria for inflation. Despite its
  economic success, Slovenia faces growing challenges. Much of the
  economy remains in state hands and foreign direct investment (FDI)
  in Slovenia is one of the lowest in the EU on a per capita basis.
  Taxes are relatively high, the labor market is often seen as
  inflexible, and legacy industries are losing sales to more
  competitive firms in China, India, and elsewhere. The current
  center-right government, elected in October 2004, has pledged to
  accelerate privatization of a number of large state holdings and is
  interested in increasing FDI in Slovenia. In late 2005, the
  government's new Committee for Economic Reforms was elevated to
  cabinet-level status. The Committee's program includes plans for
  lowering the tax burden, privatizing state-controlled firms,
  improving the flexibility of the labor market, and increasing the
  government's efficiency.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $43.27 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $35.21 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $21,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 36.9%
  services: 60.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  920,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.8%
  industry: 39.1%
  services: 56.1% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  6.3% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers: 10% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 21.4% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  28.4 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $16.02 billion
  expenditures: $16.73 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  28.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  potatoes, hops, wheat, sugar beets, corn, grapes; cattle, sheep,
  poultry

Industries:
  ferrous metallurgy and aluminum products, lead and zinc smelting;
  electronics (including military electronics), trucks, electric power
  equipment, wood products, textiles, chemicals, machine tools

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  14.02 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 35.2%
  hydro: 27.3%
  nuclear: 36.8%
  other: 0.7% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  12.52 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  5.811 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5.975 billion kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003)

Natural gas - imports:
  963 million cu m (2002)

Current account balance:
  $-303 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $18.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals,
  food

Exports - partners:
  Germany 19.9%, Italy 12.7%, Croatia 9.4%, Austria 8.1%, France 8.1%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $19.62 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, chemicals,
  fuels and lubricants, food

Imports - partners:
  Germany 19.5%, Italy 18.6%, Austria 12%, France 7.2%, Croatia 4.2%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.16 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $18.97 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $484 million in committed EU structural adjustment and cohesion
  funds (2004-06)

Currency (code):
  tolar (SIT)

Currency code:
  SIT

Exchange rates:
  tolars per US dollar - 192.71 (2005), 192.38 (2004), 207.11 (2003),
  240.25 (2002), 242.75 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Slovenia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  816,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.759 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: 100% digital (2000)
  international: country code - 386

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 17, FM 160, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  805,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  48 (2001)

Televisions:
  710,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .si

Internet hosts:
  61,735 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  11 (2000)

Internet users:
  1.09 million (2005)

Transportation Slovenia


Airports:
  14 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,526 km; oil 11 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,229 km
  standard gauge: 1,229 km 1.435-m gauge (504 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 38,400 km
  paved: 38,400 km (including 477 km of expressways) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  registered in other countries: 26 (Antigua and Barbuda 6, Bahamas
  1, Cyprus 4, Georgia 1, Liberia 2, Malta 3, Marshall Islands 3,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 5, Singapore 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Koper

Military Slovenia


Military branches:
  Slovenian Army (includes air and naval forces)

Military service age and obligation:
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription
  abolished in 2003 (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 17-49: 496,929
  females age 17-49: 483,959 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 17-49: 405,593
  females age 17-49: 397,167 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 12,816
  females age 17-49: 12,178 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $370 million (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.7% (FY00)

Transnational Issues Slovenia


Disputes - international:
  the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which
  would have ceded most of Piran Bay and maritime access to Slovenia
  and several villages to Croatia, remains unratified and in dispute;
  as a member state that forms part of the EU's external border,
  Slovenia must implement the strict Schengen border rules to curb
  illegal migration and commerce through southeastern Europe while
  encouraging close cross-border ties with Croatia

Illicit drugs:
  minor transit point for cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin bound
  for Western Europe, and for precursor chemicals


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Solomon Islands

Introduction Solomon Islands


Background:
  The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in the
  1890s. Some of the bitterest fighting of World War II occurred on
  this archipelago. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and
  independence two years later. Ethnic violence, government
  malfeasance, and endemic crime have undermined stability and civil
  society. In June 2003, Prime Minister Sir Allen KEMAKEZA sought the
  assistance of Australia in reestablishing law and order; the
  following month, an Australian-led multinational force arrived to
  restore peace and disarm ethnic militias. The Regional Assistance
  Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has been very effective in
  restoring law and order and rebuilding government institutions.

Geography Solomon Islands


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua
  New Guinea

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 S, 159 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 28,450 sq km
  land: 27,540 sq km
  water: 910 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  5,313 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and weather

Terrain:
  mostly rugged mountains with some low coral atolls

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Makarakomburu 2,447 m

Natural resources:
  fish, forests, gold, bauxite, phosphates, lead, zinc, nickel

Land use:
  arable land: 0.62%
  permanent crops: 2.04%
  other: 97.34% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  typhoons, but rarely destructive; geologically active region with
  frequent earth tremors; volcanic activity

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; many of the surrounding coral reefs
  are dead or dying

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on sea routes between the South Pacific Ocean,
  the Solomon Sea, and the Coral Sea

People Solomon Islands


Population:
  552,438 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 41.3% (male 116,370/female 111,834)
  15-64 years: 55.4% (male 154,793/female 151,308)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 8,696/female 9,437) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 19 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.61% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  30.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 20.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 17.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.91 years
  male: 70.4 years
  female: 75.55 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Solomon Islander(s)
  adjective: Solomon Islander

Ethnic groups:
  Melanesian 94.5%, Polynesian 3%, Micronesian 1.2%, other 1.1%,
  unspecified 0.2% (1999 census)

Religions:
  Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South Seas
  Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church 10.3%,
  Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other 2.4%,
  unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)

Languages:
  Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua franca; English
  is official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population
  note: 120 indigenous languages

Literacy:
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Solomon Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Solomon Islands
  local long form: none
  local short form: Solomon Islands
  former: British Solomon Islands

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Honiara
  geographic coordinates: 9 26 S, 159 57 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces and 1 capital territory*; Central, Choiseul,
  Guadalcanal, Honiara*, Isabel, Makira, Malaita, Rennell and Bellona,
  Temotu, Western

Independence:
  7 July 1978 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 7 July (1978)

Constitution:
  7 July 1978

Legal system:
  English common law, which is widely disregarded

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Nathaniel WAENA (since 7 July 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Manasseh SOGAVARE (since 4 May
  2006); note - Prime Minister Snyder RINI, elected on 18 April 2006
  and sworn in on 20 April 2006, resigned on 26 April prior to no
  confidence vote in parliament; SOGAVARE elected on 4 May
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of 20 members appointed by the governor
  general on the advice of the prime minister from among the members
  of Parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the advice of Parliament for up to five
  years (eligible for a second term); following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority
  coalition is usually elected prime minister by Parliament; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister from among the members of Parliament

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Parliament (50 seats; members elected from
  single-member constituencies by popular vote to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 5 April 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - National Party 6.9%,
  SIPRA 6.3%, Democratic 4.9%, PAP 6.3%, LAFARI 2.8%, Liberal 5%,
  SOCRED 4.3%, independents 60.3%; seats by party - National Party 4,
  SIPRA 4, Democratic 3, PAP 3, LAFARI 2, Liberal 2, SOCRED 2,
  independents 30

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  Association of Independent Members or AIM [Thomas CHAN]; Christian
  Alliance Solomon Islands or CASI [Edward RONIA]; LAFARI Party [John
  GARO]; National Party [Francis HILLY]; People's Alliance Party or
  PAP [Sir Allan KEMAKEZA]; Social Credit Party or SOCRED [Manasseh
  Damukana SOGAVARE]; Solomon First Party [David QUAN]; Solomon
  Islands Democratic Party [Gabriel SURI]; Solomon Islands Labor Party
  or SILP [Joses TUHANUKU]; Solomon Islands Liberal Party [Bartholomew
  ULUFA'ALU]; Solomon Islands Party for Rural Advancement or SIPRA
  [Job D. TAUSINGA]; United Party [Sir Peter KENILOREA]
  note: in general, Solomon Islands politics is characterized by fluid
  coalitions

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM); Malaita Eagle Force (MEF); note -
  these rival armed ethnic factions crippled the Solomon Islands in a
  wave of violence from 1999 to 2003

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Collin David BECK
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400L, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6192, 6193
  FAX: [1] (212) 661-8925

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Solomon Islands (embassy closed
  July 1993); the ambassador to Papua New Guinea is accredited to the
  Solomon Islands

Flag description:
  divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the lower
  hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is blue with five
  white five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern; the lower
  triangle is green

Government - note:
  June 2003 Prime Minister Sir Allan KEMAKEZA sought the intervention
  of Australia to aid in restoring order; parliament approved the
  request for intervention in July 2003; troops from Australia, NZ,
  Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga arrived 24 July 2003; by 2006, the
  Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) had been
  scaled back to 259 police officers and 20 military, in addition to
  civilian technical advisers; in response to rioting that broke out
  in mid-April 2006, Australia dispatched an addtional 220 troops and
  70 police officers to help restore order

Economy Solomon Islands


Economy - overview:
  The bulk of the population depends on agriculture, fishing, and
  forestry for at least part of its livelihood. Most manufactured
  goods and petroleum products must be imported. The islands are rich
  in undeveloped mineral resources such as lead, zinc, nickel, and
  gold. Prior to the arrival of the Regional Assistance Mission to the
  Solomon Islands (RAMSI), severe ethnic violence, the closing of key
  businesses, and an empty government treasury culminated in economic
  collapse. RAMSI has enabled a return to law and order, a new period
  of economic stability, and modest growth as the economy rebuilds.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $800 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $286 million

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

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 42%
  industry: 11%
  services: 47% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  249,200 (1999)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: 5%
  services: 20% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $49.7 million
  expenditures: $75.1 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2003)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice, potatoes, vegetables,
  fruit; timber; cattle, pigs; fish

Industries:
  fish (tuna), mining, timber

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  55 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  51.15 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,270 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $171 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  timber, fish, copra, palm oil, cocoa

Exports - partners:
  China 40.7%, South Korea 13.2%, Thailand 6.9%, Japan 6.3%,
  Philippines 4.5%, Italy 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $159 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, plant and equipment, manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Australia 25.8%, Singapore 25.3%, NZ 4.6%, Fiji 4.2%, Papua New
  Guinea 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $166 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $122 million annually, mainly from Australia (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  Solomon Islands dollar (SBD)

Currency code:
  SBD

Exchange rates:
  Solomon Islands dollars per US dollar - 7.5299 (2005), 7.4847
  (2004), 7.5059 (2003), 6.7488 (2002), 5.278 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Solomon Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  7,400 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  6,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 677; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (2004)

Radios:
  57,000 (1997)

Televisions:
  3,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sb

Internet hosts:
  2,658 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  8,400 (2005)

Transportation Solomon Islands


Airports:
  35 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,360 km
  paved: 34 km
  unpaved: 1,326 km (1999)

Ports and terminals:
  Honiara, Malloco Bay, Shortland Harbor, Viru Harbor, Yandina

Military Solomon Islands


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Royal Solomon Islands Police (RSIP)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 114,253 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 92,796 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 6,033 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Solomon Islands


Disputes - international:
  Australian Defense Force leads the Regional Assistance Mission to
  the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) at the invitation of the Solomon
  Islands' Government to maintain civil and political order and
  reinforce regional security


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Somalia

Introduction Somalia


Background:
  Britain withdrew from British Somaliland in 1960 in order to allow
  its protectorate to join with Italian Somaliland and form the new
  nation of Somalia. In 1969, a coup headed by Mohamed SIAD Barre
  ushered in an authoritarian socialist rule that managed to impose a
  degree of stability in the country for a couple of decades. After
  the regime's overthrow early in 1991, Somalia descended into
  turmoil, factional fighting, and anarchy. In May of 1991, northern
  clans declared an independent Republic of Somaliland that now
  includes the administrative regions of Awdal, Woqooyi Galbeed,
  Togdheer, Sanaag, and Sool. Although not recognized by any
  government, this entity has maintained a stable existence, aided by
  the overwhelming dominance of a ruling clan and economic
  infrastructure left behind by British, Russian, and American
  military assistance programs. The regions of Bari, Nugaal, and
  northern Mudug comprise a neighboring self-declared autonomous state
  of Puntland, which has been self-governing since 1998, but does not
  aim at independence; it has also made strides toward reconstructing
  a legitimate, representative government, but has suffered some civil
  strife. Puntland disputes its border with Somaliland as it also
  claims portions of eastern Sool and Sanaag. Beginning in 1993, a
  two-year UN humanitarian effort (primarily in the south) was able to
  alleviate famine conditions, but when the UN withdrew in 1995,
  having suffered significant casualties, order still had not been
  restored. The mandate of the Transitional National Government (TNG),
  created in August 2000 in Arta, Djibouti, expired in August 2003. A
  two-year peace process, led by the Government of Kenya under the
  auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD),
  concluded in October 2004 with the election of Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed
  as Transitional Federal President of Somalia and the formation of a
  transitional government, known as the Somalia Transitional Federal
  Institutions (TFIs). The Somalia TFIs include a 275-member
  parliamentary body, known as the Transitional Federal Assembly
  (TFA), a transitional Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed GHEDI, and a
  90-member cabinet. The TFIs are currently divided between Mogadishu
  and Jowhar, but discussions to co-locate the TFIs in one city are
  ongoing. Suspicion of Somali links with global terrorism further
  complicates the picture.

Geography Somalia


Location:
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean,
  east of Ethiopia

Geographic coordinates:
  10 00 N, 49 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 637,657 sq km
  land: 627,337 sq km
  water: 10,320 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,340 km
  border countries: Djibouti 58 km, Ethiopia 1,600 km, Kenya 682 km

Coastline:
  3,025 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Climate:
  principally desert; northeast monsoon (December to February),
  moderate temperatures in north and very hot in south; southwest
  monsoon (May to October), torrid in the north and hot in the south,
  irregular rainfall, hot and humid periods (tangambili) between
  monsoons

Terrain:
  mostly flat to undulating plateau rising to hills in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Shimbiris 2,416 m

Natural resources:
  uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum,
  bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves

Land use:
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 98.32% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over eastern plains in
  summer; floods during rainy season

Environment - current issues:
  famine; use of contaminated water contributes to human health
  problems; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Horn of Africa along southern approaches to
  Bab el Mandeb and route through Red Sea and Suez Canal

People Somalia


Population:
  8,863,338
  note: this estimate was derived from an official census taken in
  1975 by the Somali Government; population counting in Somalia is
  complicated by the large number of nomads and by refugee movements
  in response to famine and clan warfare (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 44.4% (male 1,973,294/female 1,961,083)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 2,355,861/female 2,342,988)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 97,307/female 132,805) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.5 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.85% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  45.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.63 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 114.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 124.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 105.32 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 48.47 years
  male: 46.71 years
  female: 50.28 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  43,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Somali(s)
  adjective: Somali

Ethnic groups:
  Somali 85%, Bantu and other non-Somali 15% (including Arabs 30,000)

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim

Languages:
  Somali (official), Arabic, Italian, English

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 37.8%
  male: 49.7%
  female: 25.8% (2001 est.)

Government Somalia


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Somalia
  local long form: Jamhuuriyada Demuqraadiga Soomaaliyeed
  local short form: Soomaaliya
  former: Somali Republic; Somali Democratic Republic

Government type:
  no permanent national government; transitional, parliamentary
  federal government

Capital:
  name: Mogadishu
  geographic coordinates: 2 04 N, 45 22 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  18 regions (plural - NA, singular - gobolka); Awdal, Bakool,
  Banaadir, Bari, Bay, Galguduud, Gedo, Hiiraan, Jubbada Dhexe,
  Jubbada Hoose, Mudug, Nugaal, Sanaag, Shabeellaha Dhexe, Shabeellaha
  Hoose, Sool, Togdheer, Woqooyi Galbeed

Independence:
  1 July 1960 (from a merger of British Somaliland, which became
  independent from the UK on 26 June 1960, and Italian Somaliland,
  which became independent from the Italian-administered UN
  trusteeship on 1 July 1960, to form the Somali Republic)

National holiday:
  Foundation of the Somali Republic, 1 July (1960); note - 26 June
  (1960) in Somaliland

Constitution:
  25 August 1979, presidential approval 23 September 1979
  note: the formation of transitional governing institutions, known as
  the Transitional Federal Government, is currently ongoing

Legal system:
  no national system; Shari'a (Islamic) and secular courts based on
  Somali customary law (xeer) are present in some localities; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Transitional Federal President Abdullahi YUSUF
  Ahmed (since 14 October 2004); note - a transitional governing
  entity with a five-year mandate, known as the Transitional Federal
  Institutions (TFIs), was established in October 2004; the TFI
  relocated to Somalia in June 2004, but its members remain divided
  between Mogadishu and Jowhar inside Somalia, and the government
  continues to struggle to establish effective governance in the
  country
  head of government: Prime Minister Ali Mohamed GEDI (since 24
  December 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister and approved by the
  Transitional Federal Assembly
  election results: Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed, the former leader of the
  semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, was elected president by
  the Transitional Federal Assembly

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly
  note: fledgling parliament; a 275-member Transitional Federal
  Assembly; the new parliament consists of 61 seats assigned to each
  of four large clan groups (Darod, Digil-Mirifle, Dir, and Hawiye)
  with the remaining 31 seats divided between minority clans

Judicial branch:
  following the breakdown of the central government, most regions
  have reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either secular,
  traditional Somali customary law, or Shari'a (Islamic) law with a
  provision for appeal of all sentences

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  numerous clan and sub-clan factions are currently vying for power

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA,
  IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  Somalia does not have an embassy in the US (ceased operations on 8
  May 1991); note - the TFG and other factions have representatives in
  Washington and at the United Nations

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Somalia; US interests are
  represented by the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya at United Nations
  Avenue, Nairobi; mailing address: Unit 64100, Nairobi; APO AE 09831;
  telephone: [254] (20) 363-6000; FAX [254] (20) 363-6157

Flag description:
  light blue with a large white five-pointed star in the center; blue
  field influenced by the flag of the UN

Government - note:
  although an interim government was created in 2004, other regional
  and local governing bodies continue to exist and control various
  cities and regions of the country, including the self-declared
  Republic of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia, the semi-autonomous
  State of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, and traditional clan and
  faction strongholds

Economy Somalia


Economy - overview:
  Somalia's economic fortunes are driven by its deep political
  divisions. The northwestern area has declared its independence as
  the "Republic of Somaliland"; the northeastern region of Puntland is
  a semi-autonomous state; and the remaining southern portion is
  riddled with the struggles of rival factions. Economic life
  continues, in part because much activity is local and relatively
  easily protected. Agriculture is the most important sector, with
  livestock normally accounting for about 40% of GDP and about 65% of
  export earnings, but Saudi Arabia's ban on Somali livestock, due to
  Rift Valley Fever concerns, has severely hampered the sector. Nomads
  and semi-nomads, who are dependent upon livestock for their
  livelihood, make up a large portion of the population. Livestock,
  hides, fish, charcoal, and bananas are Somalia's principal exports,
  while sugar, sorghum, corn, qat, and machined goods are the
  principal imports. Somalia's small industrial sector, based on the
  processing of agricultural products, has largely been looted and
  sold as scrap metal. Despite the seeming anarchy, Somalia's service
  sector has managed to survive and grow. Telecommunication firms
  provide wireless services in most major cities and offer the lowest
  international call rates on the continent. In the absence of a
  formal banking sector, money exchange services have sprouted
  throughout the country, handling between $500 million and $1 billion
  in remittances annually. Mogadishu's main market offers a variety of
  goods from food to the newest electronic gadgets. Hotels continue to
  operate, and militias provide security. The ongoing civil
  disturbances and clan rivalries, however, have interfered with any
  broad-based economic development and international aid arrangements.
  Somalia's arrears to the IMF continued to grow in 2005. Statistics
  on Somalia's GDP, growth, per capita income, and inflation should be
  viewed skeptically. In late December 2004, a major tsunami caused an
  estimated 150 deaths and resulted in destruction of property in
  coastal areas.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $4.809 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.483 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 10%
  services: 25% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  3.7 million (very few skilled laborers)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 71%
  industry and services: 29%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%; note - businesses print their own money, so inflation rates
  cannot be easily determined

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  bananas, sorghum, corn, coconuts, rice, sugarcane, mangoes, sesame
  seeds, beans; cattle, sheep, goats; fish

Industries:
  a few light industries, including sugar refining, textiles,
  wireless communication

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  235.6 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  219.1 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  5,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  5.663 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Exports:
  $241 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  livestock, bananas, hides, fish, charcoal, scrap metal

Exports - partners:
  UAE 52.6%, Yemen 14.6%, Oman 6.3%, India 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $576 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactures, petroleum products, foodstuffs, construction
  materials, qat

Imports - partners:
  Djibouti 30.1%, Kenya 13.7%, Brazil 8.4%, India 8%, Oman 5.3%, UAE
  5% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $3 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $60 million (1999 est.)

Currency (code):
  Somali shilling (SOS)

Currency code:
  SOS

Exchange rates:
  Somali shillings per US dollar - 11,000 (November 2000), 2,620
  (January 1999), 7,500 (November 1997 est.), 7,000 (January 1996
  est.), 5,000 (1 January 1995)
  note: the Republic of Somaliland, a self-declared independent
  country not recognized by any foreign government, issues its own
  currency, the Somaliland shilling

Fiscal year:
  NA

Communications Somalia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  100,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  500,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the public telecommunications system was almost
  completely destroyed or dismantled by the civil war factions;
  private wireless companies offer service in most major cities and
  charge the lowest international rates on the continent
  domestic: local cellular telephone systems have been established in
  Mogadishu and in several other population centers
  international: country code - 252; international connections are
  available from Mogadishu by satellite

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 11, shortwave 1 in Mogadishu; 1 FM in Puntland, 1 FM in
  Somaliland (2001)

Radios:
  470,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4; note - two in Mogadishu; two in Hargeisa (2001)

Televisions:
  135,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .so

Internet hosts:
  3 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (one each in Boosaaso, Hargeisa, and Mogadishu) (2000)

Internet users:
  90,000 (2005)

Transportation Somalia


Airports:
  65 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 58
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 22,100 km
  paved: 2,608 km
  unpaved: 19,492 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,659 GRT/2,540 DWT
  by type: cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Boosaaso, Berbera, Chisimayu (Kismaayo), Merca, Mogadishu

Military Somalia


Military branches:
  a Somali National Army was attempted under the interim government;
  numerous factions and clans maintain independent militias, and the
  Somaliland and Puntland regional governments maintain their own
  security and police forces

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,787,727
  females age 18-49: 1,714,792 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,022,360
  females age 18-49: 1,038,697 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $22.34 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Somalia


Disputes - international:
  "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities to landlocked
  Ethiopia and establish commercial ties with regional states;
  "Puntland" and "Somaliland" "governments" seek support from
  neighboring states in their secessionist aspirations and in
  conflicts with each other; Ethiopia has only an administrative line
  with the Oromo region of southern Somalia and maintains alliances
  with local Somali clans opposed to the unrecognized Somali Interim
  Government, which plans eventual relocation from Kenya to Mogadishu;
  rival militia and clan fighting in southern Somalia periodically
  spills over into Kenya

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 400,000 (civil war since 1988, clan-based competition for
  resources) 5,000 (26 December 2004 tsunami) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@South Africa

Introduction South Africa


Background:
  After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many
  of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own
  republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred
  wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native
  inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments, but were
  defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The resulting Union of South
  Africa operated under a policy of apartheid - the separate
  development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid
  politically and ushered in black majority rule.

Geography South Africa


Location:
  Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa

Geographic coordinates:
  29 00 S, 24 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 1,219,912 sq km
  land: 1,219,912 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Prince Edward Islands (Marion Island and Prince
  Edward Island)

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,862 km
  border countries: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491
  km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km

Coastline:
  2,798 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool
  nights

Terrain:
  vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow coastal
  plain

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Njesuthi 3,408 m

Natural resources:
  gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese, nickel,
  phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper, vanadium,
  salt, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 12.1%
  permanent crops: 0.79%
  other: 87.11% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  14,980 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  prolonged droughts

Environment - current issues:
  lack of important arterial rivers or lakes requires extensive water
  conservation and control measures; growth in water usage outpacing
  supply; pollution of rivers from agricultural runoff and urban
  discharge; air pollution resulting in acid rain; soil erosion;
  desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine
  Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands,
  Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho and almost completely
  surrounds Swaziland

People South Africa


Population:
  44,187,637
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29.7% (male 6,603,220/female 6,525,810)
  15-64 years: 65% (male 13,955,950/female 14,766,843)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 905,870/female 1,429,944) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 23.3 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.4% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.2 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.16 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 60.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 64.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 56.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 42.73 years
  male: 43.25 years
  female: 42.19 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  21.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5.3 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  370,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: South African(s)
  adjective: South African

Ethnic groups:
  black African 79%, white 9.6%, colored 8.9%, Indian/Asian 2.5%
  (2001 census)

Religions:
  Zion Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Catholic 7.1%,
  Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%, other Christian
  36%, Islam 1.5%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001
  census)

Languages:
  IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%,
  English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%, other 7.2%
  (2001 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.4%
  male: 87%
  female: 85.7% (2003 est.)

Government South Africa


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of South Africa
  conventional short form: South Africa
  former: Union of South Africa
  abbreviation: RSA

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Pretoria (administrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 29 12 S, 28 10 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial
  capital)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces; Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal,
  Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North-West, Northern Cape, Western Cape

Independence:
  31 May 1910 (from UK); note - South Africa became a republic in
  1961 following an October 1960 referendum

National holiday:
  Freedom Day, 27 April (1994)

Constitution:
  10 December 1996; this new constitution was certified by the
  Constitutional Court on 4 December 1996, was signed by then
  President MANDELA on 10 December 1996, and entered into effect on 3
  February 1997; it is being implemented in phases

Legal system:
  based on Roman-Dutch law and English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Thabo MBEKI (since 16 June 1999);
  Executive Deputy President Phumzile MLAMBO-NGCUKA (since 23 June
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Thabo MBEKI (since 16 June 1999);
  Executive Deputy President Phumzile MLAMBO-NGCUKA (since 23 June
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 24
  April 2004 (next to be held April 2009)
  election results: Thabo MBEKI elected president; percent of National
  Assembly vote - 100% (by acclamation)

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consisting of the National Assembly (400
  seats; members are elected by popular vote under a system of
  proportional representation to serve five-year terms) and the
  National Council of Provinces (90 seats, 10 members elected by each
  of the nine provincial legislatures for five-year terms; has special
  powers to protect regional interests, including the safeguarding of
  cultural and linguistic traditions among ethnic minorities); note -
  following the implementation of the new constitution on 3 February
  1997, the former Senate was disbanded and replaced by the National
  Council of Provinces with essentially no change in membership and
  party affiliations, although the new institution's responsibilities
  have been changed somewhat by the new constitution
  elections: National Assembly and National Council of Provinces -
  last held 14 April 2004 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party - ANC
  69.7%, DA 12.4%, IFP 7%, UDM 2.3%, NNP 1.7%, ACDP 1.6%, other 5.3%;
  seats by party - ANC 279, DA 50, IFP 28, UDM 9, NNP 7, ACDP 6, other
  21; National Council of Provinces - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - NA

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court of Appeals; High Courts;
  Magistrate Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  African Christian Democratic Party or ACDP [Kenneth MESHOE,
  president]; African National Congress or ANC [Thabo MBEKI,
  president]; Democratic Alliance or DA [Anthony LEON] (formed from
  the merger of the Democratic Party or DP and the Freedom Alliance or
  FA); Inkatha Freedom Party or IFP [Mangosuthu BUTHELEZI, president];
  Pan-Africanist Congress or PAC [Stanley MOGOBA, president]; New
  National Party or NNP; United Democratic Movement or UDM [Bantu
  HOLOMISA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Congress of South African Trade Unions or COSATU [Zwelinzima VAVI,
  general secretary]; South African Communist Party or SACP [Blade
  NZIMANDE, general secretary]; South African National Civics
  Organization or SANCO [Mlungisi HLONGWANE, national president]; note
  - COSATU and SACP are in a formal alliance with the ANC

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, BIS, C, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, NSG, ONUB,
  OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UNMEE, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Barbara Joyce Mosima MASEKELA
  chancery: 3051 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-4400
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1607
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jendayi E. FRAZER
  embassy: 877 Pretorius Street, Pretoria
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9536, Pretoria 0001
  telephone: [27] (12) 342-1048
  FAX: [27] (12) 342-2244
  consulate(s) general: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg

Flag description:
  two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue separated by
  a central green band which splits into a horizontal Y, the arms of
  which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y embraces a black
  isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow
  yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green
  band and its arms by narrow white stripes

Economy South Africa


Economy - overview:
  South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant
  supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal,
  communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that
  ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern infrastructure
  supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers
  throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to
  lower South Africa's high unemployment rate, and daunting economic
  problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty and lack
  of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. South
  African economic policy is fiscally conservative, but pragmatic,
  focusing on targeting inflation and liberalizing trade as means to
  increase job growth and household income.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $540.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $187.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $12,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 2.5%
  industry: 30.3%
  services: 67.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  15.23 million economically active (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 25%
  services: 45% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  26.6% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  50% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 45.9% (1994)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  59.3 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $65.91 billion
  expenditures: $70.62 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  35.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef, poultry, mutton,
  wool, dairy products

Industries:
  mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium),
  automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles, iron and
  steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  215.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 93.5%
  hydro: 1.1%
  nuclear: 5.5%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  197.4 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  10.14 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  6.739 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  216,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  484,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  7.84 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  2.35 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.35 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  28.32 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-11.08 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $50.91 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and
  equipment

Exports - partners:
  UK 11.1%, US 9.1%, Japan 8.3%, Germany 6.3%, China 5.2%, Italy 4.5%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $52.97 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific
  instruments, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Germany 14.9%, US 7%, China 6.9%, UK 6.8%, Saudi Arabia 6.5%, Japan
  5.9%, Iran 5.8%, France 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $20.63 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $29.97 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $487.5 million (2000)

Currency (code):
  rand (ZAR)

Currency code:
  ZAR

Exchange rates:
  rand per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003),
  10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications South Africa


Telephones - main lines in use:
  4.729 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  33.96 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: the system is the best developed and most
  modern in Africa
  domestic: consists of carrier-equipped open-wire lines, coaxial
  cables, microwave radio relay links, fiber-optic cable,
  radiotelephone communication stations, and wireless local loops; key
  centers are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port
  Elizabeth, and Pretoria
  international: country code - 27; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 14, FM 347 (plus 243 repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  17 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  6 million (2000)

Internet country code:
  .za

Internet hosts:
  645,179 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  150 (2001)

Internet users:
  5.1 million (2005)

Transportation South Africa


Airports:
  731 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 146
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 51
  914 to 1,523 m: 67
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 585
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 34
  914 to 1,523 m: 302
  under 914 m: 249 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 100 km; gas 1,062 km; oil 966 km; refined products 1,354
  km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 20,872 km
  narrow gauge: 20,436 km 1.065-m gauge (8,868 km electrified); 436 km
  0.610-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 362,099 km
  paved: 73,506 km
  unpaved: 288,593 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 32,815 GRT/39,295 DWT
  by type: container 1, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Denmark 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Panama 3, UK 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Cape Town, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay,
  Saldanha Bay

Military South Africa


Military branches:
  South African National Defense Force (SANDF): South African Army,
  South African Navy (SAN), South African Air Force (SAAF), Joint
  Operations Command, Joint Support Command, Military Intelligence,
  Military Health Service (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; women have a long
  history of military service in noncombat roles, dating back to World
  War I (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 10,354,769
  females age 18-49: 10,626,550 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,927,757
  females age 18-49: 4,609,071 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 512,407
  females age 18-49: 506,078 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $3.55 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  with the end of apartheid and the establishment of majority rule,
  former military, black homelands forces, and ex-opposition forces
  were integrated into the South African National Defense Force
  (SANDF); as of 2003 the integration process was considered complete

Transnational Issues South Africa


Disputes - international:
  South Africa has placed military along the border to stem the
  thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political
  persecution; managed dispute with Namibia over the location of the
  boundary in the Orange River

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 5,774 (Angola) 9,516 (Democratic
  Republic of Congo) 7,118 (Somalia) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: South Africa is a source, transit, and
  destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
  forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked
  internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for
  sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are
  trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe
  for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from
  neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and
  Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for
  debt-bonded sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is placed on the Tier
  2 Watch List for its failure to show increasing efforts to address
  trafficking in 2005

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment center for heroin, hashish, marijuana, and cocaine;
  cocaine consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit
  methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various
  east African countries; illicit cultivation of marijuana; attractive
  venue for money launderers given the increasing level of organized
  criminal and narcotics activity in the region


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Southern Ocean

Introduction Southern Ocean


Background:
  A large body of recent oceanographic research has shown that the
  Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current that flows
  from west to east around Antarctica, plays a crucial role in global
  ocean circulation. The region where the cold waters of the ACC meet
  and mingle with the warmer waters of the north defines a distinct
  border - the Antarctic Convergence - which fluctuates with the
  seasons, but which encompasses a discrete body of water and a unique
  ecologic region. The Convergence concentrates nutrients, which
  promotes marine plant life, and which in turn allows for a greater
  abundance of animal life. In the spring of 2000, the International
  Hydrographic Organization decided to delimit the waters within the
  Convergence as a fifth world ocean - the Southern Ocean - by
  combining the southern portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean,
  and Pacific Ocean. The Southern Ocean extends from the coast of
  Antarctica north to 60 degrees south latitude, which coincides with
  the Antarctic Treaty Limit and which approximates the extent of the
  Antarctic Convergence. As such, the Southern Ocean is now the fourth
  largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean,
  Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean, but larger than the Arctic Ocean).
  It should be noted that inclusion of the Southern Ocean does not
  imply recognition of this feature as one of the world's primary
  oceans by the US Government.

Geography Southern Ocean


Location:
  body of water between 60 degrees south latitude and Antarctica

Geographic coordinates:
  60 00 S, 90 00 E (nominally), but the Southern Ocean has the unique
  distinction of being a large circumpolar body of water totally
  encircling the continent of Antarctica; this ring of water lies
  between 60 degrees south latitude and the coast of Antarctica and
  encompasses 360 degrees of longitude

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 20.327 million sq km
  note: includes Amundsen Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, part of the Drake
  Passage, Ross Sea, a small part of the Scotia Sea, Weddell Sea, and
  other tributary water bodies

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of the US

Coastline:
  17,968 km

Climate:
  sea temperatures vary from about 10 degrees Celsius to -2 degrees
  Celsius; cyclonic storms travel eastward around the continent and
  frequently are intense because of the temperature contrast between
  ice and open ocean; the ocean area from about latitude 40 south to
  the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average winds found anywhere
  on Earth; in winter the ocean freezes outward to 65 degrees south
  latitude in the Pacific sector and 55 degrees south latitude in the
  Atlantic sector, lowering surface temperatures well below 0 degrees
  Celsius; at some coastal points intense persistent drainage winds
  from the interior keep the shoreline ice-free throughout the winter

Terrain:
  the Southern Ocean is deep, 4,000 to 5,000 meters over most of its
  extent with only limited areas of shallow water; the Antarctic
  continental shelf is generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge
  lying at depths of 400 to 800 meters (the global mean is 133
  meters); the Antarctic icepack grows from an average minimum of 2.6
  million square kilometers in March to about 18.8 million square
  kilometers in September, better than a sixfold increase in area; the
  Antarctic Circumpolar Current (21,000 km in length) moves
  perpetually eastward; it is the world's largest ocean current,
  transporting 130 million cubic meters of water per second - 100
  times the flow of all the world's rivers

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: -7,235 m at the southern end of the South Sandwich
  Trench
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Natural resources:
  probable large and possible giant oil and gas fields on the
  continental margin, manganese nodules, possible placer deposits,
  sand and gravel, fresh water as icebergs; squid, whales, and seals -
  none exploited; krill, fishes

Natural hazards:
  huge icebergs with drafts up to several hundred meters; smaller
  bergs and iceberg fragments; sea ice (generally 0.5 to 1 meter
  thick) with sometimes dynamic short-term variations and with large
  annual and interannual variations; deep continental shelf floored by
  glacial deposits varying widely over short distances; high winds and
  large waves much of the year; ship icing, especially May-October;
  most of region is remote from sources of search and rescue

Environment - current issues:
  increased solar ultraviolet radiation resulting from the Antarctic
  ozone hole in recent years, reducing marine primary productivity
  (phytoplankton) by as much as 15% and damaging the DNA of some fish;
  illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in recent years,
  especially the landing of an estimated five to six times more
  Patagonian toothfish than the regulated fishery, which is likely to
  affect the sustainability of the stock; large amount of incidental
  mortality of seabirds resulting from long-line fishing for toothfish
  note: the now-protected fur seal population is making a strong
  comeback after severe overexploitation in the 18th and 19th centuries

Environment - international agreements:
  the Southern Ocean is subject to all international agreements
  regarding the world's oceans; in addition, it is subject to these
  agreements specific to the Antarctic region: International Whaling
  Commission (prohibits commercial whaling south of 40 degrees south
  [south of 60 degrees south between 50 degrees and 130 degrees
  west]); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (limits
  sealing); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living
  Resources (regulates fishing)
  note: many nations (including the US) prohibit mineral resource
  exploration and exploitation south of the fluctuating Polar Front
  (Antarctic Convergence) which is in the middle of the Antarctic
  Circumpolar Current and serves as the dividing line between the very
  cold polar surface waters to the south and the warmer waters to the
  north

Geography - note:
  the major chokepoint is the Drake Passage between South America and
  Antarctica; the Polar Front (Antarctic Convergence) is the best
  natural definition of the northern extent of the Southern Ocean; it
  is a distinct region at the middle of the Antarctic Circumpolar
  Current that separates the very cold polar surface waters to the
  south from the warmer waters to the north; the Front and the Current
  extend entirely around Antarctica, reaching south of 60 degrees
  south near New Zealand and near 48 degrees south in the far South
  Atlantic coinciding with the path of the maximum westerly winds



Economy Southern Ocean


Economy - overview:
  Fisheries in 2003-04 landed 136,262 metric tons, of which 87%
  (118,166 tons) was krill and 8% (11,182 tons) Patagonian toothfish,
  compared to 142,555 tons in 2002-03 of which 83% (117,728 tons) was
  krill and 12% (16,479 tons) Patagonian toothfish (estimated fishing
  from the area covered by the Convention of the Conservation of
  Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which extends slightly
  beyond the Southern Ocean area). International agreements were
  adopted in late 1999 to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated
  fishing, which in the 2000-01 season landed, by one estimate, 8,376
  metric tons of Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish. In the 2004-05
  Antarctic summer 28,202 tourists, most of them seaborne
  (approximately 97%), visited the Southern Ocean and Antarctica,
  compared to 14,762 in 1999-2000.


Transportation Southern Ocean


Ports and terminals:
  McMurdo, Palmer, and offshore anchorages in Antarctica
  note: few ports or harbors exist on southern side of Southern Ocean;
  ice conditions limit use of most to short periods in midsummer; even
  then some cannot be entered without icebreaker escort; most
  Antarctic ports are operated by government research stations and,
  except in an emergency, are not open to commercial or private
  vessels; vessels in any port south of 60 degrees south are subject
  to inspection by Antarctic Treaty observers (see Article 7); The
  Hydrographic Committee on Antarctica (HCA), a special hydrographic
  commission of International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), is
  responsible for hydrographic surveying and nautical charting matters
  in Antarctic Treaty area; it coordinates and facilitates provision
  of accurate and appropriate charts and other aids to navigation in
  support of safety of navigation in region; membership of HCA is open
  to any IHO Member State whose government has acceded to the
  Antarctic Treaty and which contributes resources and/or data to IHO
  Chart coverage of the area; members of HCA are Argentina, Australia,
  Chile, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, NZ, Norway,
  Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the UK (2005)

Transportation - note:
  Drake Passage offers alternative to transit through the Panama Canal


Transnational Issues Southern Ocean


Disputes - international:
  Antarctic Treaty defers claims (see Antarctica entry), but
  Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ, Norway, and UK assert
  claims (some overlapping), including the continental shelf in the
  Southern Ocean; several states have expressed an interest in
  extending those continental shelf claims under the United Nations
  Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to include undersea
  ridges; the US and most other states do not recognize the land or
  maritime claims of other states and have made no claims themselves
  (the US and Russia have reserved the right to do so); no formal
  claims exist in the waters in the sector between 90 degrees west and
  150 degrees west


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@South Georgia and the South Sandwich

Introduction South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Background:
  The islands, which have large bird and seal populations, lie
  approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands and have been
  under British administration since 1908 - except for a brief period
  in 1982 when Argentina occupied them. Grytviken, on South Georgia,
  was a 19th and early 20th century whaling station. Famed explorer
  Ernest SHACKLETON stopped there in 1914 en route to his ill-fated
  attempt to cross Antarctica on foot. He returned some 20 months
  later with a few companions in a small boat and arranged a
  successful rescue for the rest of his crew, stranded off the
  Antarctic Peninsula. He died in 1922 on a subsequent expedition and
  is buried in Grytviken. Today, the station houses scientists from
  the British Antarctic Survey. Recognizing the importance of
  preserving the marine stocks in adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993,
  extended the exclusive fishing zone from 12 nm to 200 nm around each
  island.

Geography South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Location:
  Southern South America, islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, east
  of the tip of South America

Geographic coordinates:
  54 30 S, 37 00 W

Map references:
  Antarctic Region

Area:
  total: 3,903 sq km
  land: 3,903 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Shag Rocks, Black Rock, Clerke Rocks, South Georgia
  Island, Bird Island, and the South Sandwich Islands, which consist
  of eleven islands

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Rhode Island

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  NA km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  variable, with mostly westerly winds throughout the year
  interspersed with periods of calm; nearly all precipitation falls as
  snow

Terrain:
  most of the islands, rising steeply from the sea, are rugged and
  mountainous; South Georgia is largely barren and has steep,
  glacier-covered mountains; the South Sandwich Islands are of
  volcanic origin with some active volcanoes

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Paget (South Georgia) 2,934 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (largely covered by permanent ice and snow with some
  sparse vegetation consisting of grass, moss, and lichen) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  the South Sandwich Islands have prevailing weather conditions that
  generally make them difficult to approach by ship; they are also
  subject to active volcanism

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  the north coast of South Georgia has several large bays, which
  provide good anchorage; reindeer, introduced early in the 20th
  century, live on South Georgia

People South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: the small military garrison on South Georgia withdrew in March
  2001, to be replaced by a permanent group of scientists of the
  British Antarctic Survey, which also has a biological station on
  Bird Island; the South Sandwich Islands are uninhabited (July 2006
  est.)

Government South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  conventional short form: none
  abbreviation: SGSSI

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina;
  administered from the Falkland Islands by a commissioner, who is
  concurrently governor of the Falkland Islands, representing Queen
  ELIZABETH II; Grytviken - formerly a whaling station on South
  Georgia - is a scientific base

Legal system:
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply; the senior magistrate
  from the Falkland Islands presides over the Magistrates Court

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands coat of arms
  centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms features a
  shield with a golden lion centered; the shield is supported by a fur
  seal on the left and a penguin on the right; a reindeer appears
  above the shield, and below it on a scroll is the motto LEO TERRAM
  PROPRIAM PROTEGAT (Let the Lion Protect its Own Land)

Economy South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Economy - overview:
  Some fishing takes place in adjacent waters. There is a potential
  source of income from harvesting finfish and krill. The islands
  receive income from postage stamps produced in the UK, sale of
  fishing licenses, and harbor and landing fees from tourist vessels.
  Tourism from specialized cruise ships is increasing rapidly.

Communications South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: coastal radiotelephone station at Grytviken

Radio broadcast stations:
  0 (2003)

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (2003)

Internet country code:
  .gs

Internet hosts:
  271 (2006)

Transportation South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Ports and terminals:
  Grytviken

Military South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands


Disputes - international:
  Argentina, which claims the islands in its constitution and briefly
  occupied the islands by force in 1982, agreed in 1995 to no longer
  seek settlement by force


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Spain

Introduction Spain


Background:
  Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries
  ultimately yielded command of the seas to England. Subsequent
  failure to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions caused
  the country to fall behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic
  and political power. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II,
  but suffered through a devastating civil war (1936-39). A peaceful
  transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco
  FRANCO in 1975, and rapid economic modernization (Spain joined the
  EU in 1986), have given Spain one of the most dynamic economies in
  Europe and made it a global champion of freedom. Continuing
  challenges include Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) terrorism and
  relatively high unemployment.

Geography Spain


Location:
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay, Mediterranean
  Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and Pyrenees Mountains, southwest of
  France

Geographic coordinates:
  40 00 N, 4 00 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 504,782 sq km
  land: 499,542 sq km
  water: 5,240 sq km
  note: there are 2 autonomous cities - Ceuta and Melilla - and 17
  autonomous communities including Balearic Islands and Canary
  Islands, and three small Spanish possessions off the coast of
  Morocco - Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez
  de la Gomera

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,917.8 km
  border countries: Andorra 63.7 km, France 623 km, Gibraltar 1.2 km,
  Portugal 1,214 km, Morocco (Ceuta) 6.3 km, Morocco (Melilla) 9.6 km

Coastline:
  4,964 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm (applies only to the Atlantic Ocean)

Climate:
  temperate; clear, hot summers in interior, more moderate and cloudy
  along coast; cloudy, cold winters in interior, partly cloudy and
  cool along coast

Terrain:
  large, flat to dissected plateau surrounded by rugged hills;
  Pyrenees in north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico de Teide (Tenerife) on Canary Islands 3,718 m

Natural resources:
  coal, lignite, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, uranium, tungsten,
  mercury, pyrites, magnesite, fluorspar, gypsum, sepiolite, kaolin,
  potash, hydropower, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 27.18%
  permanent crops: 9.85%
  other: 62.97% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  37,800 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  pollution of the Mediterranean Sea from raw sewage and effluents
  from the offshore production of oil and gas; water quality and
  quantity nationwide; air pollution; deforestation; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  strategic location along approaches to Strait of Gibraltar

People Spain


Population:
  40,397,842 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.4% (male 3,000,686/female 2,821,325)
  15-64 years: 67.8% (male 13,751,963/female 13,653,426)
  65 years and over: 17.7% (male 2,993,496/female 4,176,946) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.9 years
  male: 38.6 years
  female: 41.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.13% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.06 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.99 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.65 years
  male: 76.32 years
  female: 83.2 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  140,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Spaniard(s)
  adjective: Spanish

Ethnic groups:
  composite of Mediterranean and Nordic types

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 94%, other 6%

Languages:
  Castilian Spanish 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%; note -
  Castilian is the official language nationwide; the other languages
  are official regionally

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.9%
  male: 98.7%
  female: 97.2% (2003 est.)

Government Spain


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Spain
  conventional short form: Spain
  local long form: Reino de Espana
  local short form: Espana

Government type:
  parliamentary monarchy

Capital:
  name: Madrid
  geographic coordinates: 40 24 N, 3 41 W
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Spain is divided into two time zones, including the Canary
  Islands

Administrative divisions:
  17 autonomous communities (comunidades autonomas, singular -
  comunidad autonoma)and 2 autonomous cities* (ciudades autonomas,
  singular - ciudad autonoma); Andalucia, Aragon, Asturias, Baleares
  (Balearic Islands), Ceuta*, Canarias (Canary Islands), Cantabria,
  Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Cataluna, Comunidad Valenciana,
  Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Melilla*, Murcia, Navarra,
  Pais Vasco (Basque Country)
  note: the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla plus three small
  islands of Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez
  de la Gomera, administered directly by the Spanish central
  government, are all located along the coast of Morocco and are
  collectively referred to as Places of Sovereignty (Plazas de
  Soberania)

Independence:
  the Iberian peninsula was characterized by a variety of independent
  kingdoms prior to the Muslim occupation that began in the early 8th
  century AD and lasted nearly seven centuries; the small Christian
  redoubts of the north began the reconquest almost immediately,
  culminating in the seizure of Granada in 1492; this event completed
  the unification of several kingdoms and is traditionally considered
  the forging of present-day Spain

National holiday:
  National Day, 12 October

Constitution:
  6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978

Legal system:
  civil law system, with regional applications; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King JUAN CARLOS I (since 22 November 1975); Heir
  Apparent Prince FELIPE, son of the monarch, born 30 January 1968
  head of government: President of the Government and Prime Minister
  Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO (since 17 April 2004); First Vice
  President and Deputy Prime Minister (and Minister of the Presidency)
  Maria Teresa FERNANDEZ DE LA VEGA (since 18 April 2004) and Second
  Vice President (and Minister of Economy and Finance) Pedro SOLBES
  (since 18 April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers designated by the president
  note: there is also a Council of State that is the supreme
  consultative organ of the government, but its recommendations are
  non-binding
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually proposed president by the monarch and
  elected by the National Assembly; election last held 14 March 2004
  (next to be held March 2008); vice presidents appointed by the
  monarch on the proposal of the president
  election results: Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO (PSOE) elected
  president; percent of National Assembly vote - 52.29%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral; General Courts or National Assembly or Las Cortes
  Generales consists of the Senate or Senado (259 seats - 208 members
  directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the
  regional legislatures to serve four-year terms) and the Congress of
  Deputies or Congreso de los Diputados (350 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional
  representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 14 March 2004 (next to be held March
  2008); Congress of Deputies - last held 14 March 2004 (next to be
  held March 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PP 49%, PSOE
  38.9%, Entesa Catalona de Progress 5.7%, CiU 1.99%, PNV 2.8%, CC
  1.4%; seats by party - PP 102, PSOE 81, Entesa Catalona de Progress
  12, CiU 4, PNV 6, CC 3; Congress of Deputies - percent of vote by
  party - PSOE 43.3%, PP 37.8%, CiU 3.2%, ERC 2.5%, PNV 1.6%, IU 3.2%,
  CC 0.9%; seats by party - PSOE 164, PP 148, CiU 10, ERC 8, PNV 7, IU
  2, CC 3, other 8

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo

Political parties and leaders:
  Basque Nationalist Party or PNV [Josu Jon IMAZ]; Canarian Coalition
  or CC (a coalition of five parties) [Paulino RIVERO Baute];
  Convergence and Union or CiU [Artur MAS i Gavarro] (a coalition of
  the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia or CDC [Artur MAS i Gavarro]
  and the Democratic Union of Catalonia or UDC [Josep Antoni DURAN y
  LLEIDA]); Entesa Catalonia de Progress (a Senate coalition grouping
  four Catalan parties - PSC, ERC, ICV, EUA); Galician Nationalist
  Bloc or BNG [Anxo Manuel QUINTANA]; Party of Independents from
  Lanzarote or PIL [Dimas MARTIN Martin]; Popular Party or PP [Mariano
  RAJOY]; Republican Left of Catalonia or ERC [Joan Puigcercos
  BOIXASSA]; Spanish Socialist Workers Party or PSOE [Jose Luis
  RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO]; United Left or IU (a coalition of parties
  including the PCE and other small parties) [Gaspar LLAMAZARES]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  business and landowning interests; Catholic Church; free labor
  unions (authorized in April 1977); Socialist General Union of
  Workers or UGT and the smaller independent Workers Syndical Union or
  USO; university students; Trade Union Confederation of Workers'
  Commissions or CC.OO.; Nunca Mas (Galician for "Never Again"; formed
  in response to the oil tanker Prestige oil spill)

International organization participation:
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB,
  EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA,
  NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNRWA,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos WESTENDORP
  chancery: 2375 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-0100, 728-2340
  FAX: [1] (202) 833-5670
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Eduardo AGUIRRE, Jr.
  embassy: Serrano 75, 28006 Madrid
  mailing address: PSC 61, APO AE 09642
  telephone: [34] (91) 587-2200
  FAX: [34] (91) 587-2303
  consulate(s) general: Barcelona

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width), and red
  with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band;
  the coat of arms includes the royal seal framed by the Pillars of
  Hercules, which are the two promontories (Gibraltar and Ceuta) on
  either side of the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar

Economy Spain


Economy - overview:
  The Spanish economy boomed from 1986 to 1990, averaging five
  percent annual growth. After a European-wide recession in the early
  1990s, the Spanish economy resumed moderate growth starting in 1994.
  Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita
  basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies. The
  center-right government of former President AZNAR successfully
  worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching
  the European single currency (the euro) on 1 January 1999. The AZNAR
  administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization,
  and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to
  that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the AZNAR administration
  but remains high at 10.1%. Growth of 2.5% in 2003, 2.6% in 2004, and
  3.4% in 2005 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering
  European economy. The socialist president, RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO, has
  initiated economic and social reforms that are generally popular
  among the masses of people, but that are anathema to religious and
  other conservative elements. Adjusting to the monetary and other
  economic policies of an integrated Europe, reducing unemployment,
  and absorbing widespread social changes will pose challenges to
  Spain over the next few years.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.033 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.019 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $25,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 29.5%
  services: 66.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  20.67 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 5.3%
  industry: 30.1%
  services: 64.6% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  9.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1990)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  32.5 (1990)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $440.9 billion
  expenditures: $448.4 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $12.8 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  42.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, vegetables, olives, wine grapes, sugar beets, citrus; beef,
  pork, poultry, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  textiles and apparel (including footwear), food and beverages,
  metals and metal manufactures, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles,
  machine tools, tourism, clay and refractory products, footwear,
  pharmaceuticals, medical equipment

Industrial production growth rate:
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  247.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 50.4%
  hydro: 18.2%
  nuclear: 27.2%
  other: 4.1% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  231.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  7.5 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  8.7 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  24,540 bbl/day (2003 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  135,100 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  1.582 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  10.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  216 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  23.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  17.26 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.662 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-83.14 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $194.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery, motor vehicles; foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medicines,
  other consumer goods

Exports - partners:
  France 19.4%, Germany 11.4%, Portugal 9.5%, UK 8.5%, Italy 8.4%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $271.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, semifinished goods,
  foodstuffs, consumer goods, measuring and medical control instruments

Imports - partners:
  Germany 15%, France 14.5%, Italy 8.5%, UK 5.8%, Netherlands 4.9%,
  China 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $17.23 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $970.7 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1.33 billion (1999)

Currency (code):
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by the financial institutions
  of member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions with the member countries

Currency code:
  EUR

Exchange rates:
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Spain


Telephones - main lines in use:
  18.322 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  41.328 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: generally adequate, modern facilities;
  teledensity is 45 main lines for each 100 persons
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 34; 22 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian
  Ocean), NA Eutelsat; tropospheric scatter to adjacent countries

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 208, FM 715, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  13.1 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  224 (plus 2,105 repeaters)
  note: these figures include 11 television broadcast stations and 88
  repeaters in the Canary Islands (1995)

Televisions:
  16.2 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .es

Internet hosts:
  2,520,711 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  56 (2000)

Internet users:
  19,204,771 (2006)

Transportation Spain


Airports:
  157 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 96
  over 3,047 m: 16
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 20
  914 to 1,523 m: 24
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 61
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 44 (2006)

Heliports:
  8 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 7,962 km; oil 622 km; refined products 3,447 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 14,873 km
  broad gauge: 11,919 km 1.668-m gauge (6,950 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 998 km 1.435-m gauge (998 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,928 km 1.000-m gauge (815 km electrified); 28 km
  0.914-m gauge (28 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 666,292 km
  paved: 659,629 km (including 12,009 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 6,663 km (2003)

Waterways:
  1,000 km (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 169 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,902,839 GRT/1,874,161 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 9, cargo 13, chemical tanker 14, container 27,
  liquefied gas 9, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 49, petroleum tanker
  15, refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 36 (Cuba 1, Denmark 1, Germany 12, Italy 2, Mexico 3,
  Norway 7, UK 1, Uruguay 2, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 112 (Bahamas 12, Belize 3, Brazil 4,
  Cambodia 1, Cape Verde 1, Cuba 1, Cyprus 7, Italy 1, Malta 6,
  Marshall Islands 3, Nigeria 1, Panama 53, Portugal 15, Saint Kitts
  and Nevis 2, UK 1, Venezuela 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Algeciras, Barcelona, Cartagena, Gijon, Huelva, La Coruna,
  Tarragona, Valencia

Military Spain


Military branches:
  Spanish Armed Forces: Army (Ejercito de Tierra), Spanish Navy
  (Armada Espanola, AE; includes Marine Corps), Spanish Air Force
  (Ejercito del Aire Espanola, EdA) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 9,366,588
  females age 20-49: 9,155,057 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 7,623,356
  females age 20-49: 7,434,465 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 233,384
  females age 20-49: 221,805 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $9,906.5 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.2% (2003)

Transnational Issues Spain


Disputes - international:
  in 2003, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to
  remain a British colony and against a "total shared sovereignty"
  arrangement while demanding participation in talks between the UK
  and Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar greater
  autonomy; Morocco protests Spain's control over the coastal enclaves
  of Ceuta, Melilla, and the islands of Penon de Velez de la Gomera,
  Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and surrounding waters;
  Morocco serves as the primary launching site of illegal migration
  into Spain from North Africa; Portugal does not recognize Spanish
  sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza based on a difference of
  interpretation of the 1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1801 Treaty of
  Badajoz

Illicit drugs:
  key European gateway country and consumer for Latin American
  cocaine and North African hashish entering the European market;
  destination and minor transshipment point for Southwest Asian
  heroin; money-laundering site for Colombian narcotics trafficking
  organizations and organized crime


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Spratly Islands

Introduction Spratly Islands


Background:
  The Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small islands or
  reefs. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potentially
  by gas and oil deposits. They are claimed in their entirety by
  China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, while portions are claimed by Malaysia
  and the Philippines. About 45 islands are occupied by relatively
  small numbers of military forces from China, Malaysia, the
  Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Brunei has established a fishing
  zone that overlaps a southern reef, but has not made any formal
  claim.

Geography Spratly Islands


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, group of reefs and islands in the South China
  Sea, about two-thirds of the way from southern Vietnam to the
  southern Philippines

Geographic coordinates:
  8 38 N, 111 55 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: less than 5 sq km
  land: less than 5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes 100 or so islets, coral reefs, and sea mounts
  scattered over an area of nearly 410,000 sq km of the central South
  China Sea

Area - comparative:
  NA

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  926 km

Maritime claims:
  NA

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  flat

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Southwest Cay 4 m

Natural resources:
  fish, guano, undetermined oil and natural gas potential

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  typhoons; numerous reefs and shoals pose a serious maritime hazard

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  strategically located near several primary shipping lanes in the
  central South China Sea; includes numerous small islands, atolls,
  shoals, and coral reefs

People Spratly Islands


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there are scattered garrisons occupied by personnel of several
  claimant states (2004)

Government Spratly Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Spratly Islands

Economy Spratly Islands


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to commercial fishing. The proximity
  to nearby oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins suggests the
  potential for oil and gas deposits, but the region is largely
  unexplored. There are no reliable estimates of potential reserves.
  Commercial exploitation has yet to be developed.


Transportation Spratly Islands


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Spratly Islands


Military - note:
  Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small islands or reefs, of
  which about 45 are claimed and occupied by China, Malaysia, the
  Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam

Transnational Issues Spratly Islands


Disputes - international:
  all of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, and
  Vietnam; parts of them are claimed by Malaysia and the Philippines;
  in 1984, Brunei established an exclusive fishing zone that
  encompasses Louisa Reef in the southern Spratly Islands but has not
  publicly claimed the reef; claimants in November 2002 signed the
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,"
  which has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code
  of conduct"; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the
  Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
  seismic activities in the Spratly Islands


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Sri Lanka

Introduction Sri Lanka


Background:
  The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century B.C.,
  probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced beginning in
  about the mid-third century B.C., and a great civilization developed
  at the cities of Anuradhapura (kingdom from circa 200 B.C. to circa
  A.D. 1000) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070 to 1200). In the 14th
  century, a south Indian dynasty seized power in the north and
  established a Tamil kingdom. Occupied by the Portuguese in the 16th
  century and by the Dutch in the 17th century, the island was ceded
  to the British in 1796, became a crown colony in 1802, and was
  united under British rule by 1815. As Ceylon, it became independent
  in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972. Tensions between
  the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists erupted into war in
  1983. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic conflict that
  continues to fester. After two decades of fighting, the government
  and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam formalized a cease-fire in
  February 2002, with Norway brokering peace negotiations.

Geography Sri Lanka


Location:
  Southern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of India

Geographic coordinates:
  7 00 N, 81 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 65,610 sq km
  land: 64,740 sq km
  water: 870 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,340 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March); southwest
  monsoon (June to October)

Terrain:
  mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in south-central
  interior

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pidurutalagala 2,524 m

Natural resources:
  limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems, phosphates, clay,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 13.96%
  permanent crops: 15.24%
  other: 70.8% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  7,430 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional cyclones and tornadoes

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife populations threatened by
  poaching and urbanization; coastal degradation from mining
  activities and increased pollution; freshwater resources being
  polluted by industrial wastes and sewage runoff; waste disposal; air
  pollution in Colombo

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes

People Sri Lanka


Population:
  20,222,240
  note: since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and
  armed Tamil separatists in the mid-1980s, several hundred thousand
  Tamil civilians have fled the island and more than 200,000 Tamils
  have sought refuge in the West (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.1% (male 2,488,689/female 2,379,233)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 6,727,399/female 7,140,751)
  65 years and over: 7.3% (male 687,842/female 798,326) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 29.8 years
  male: 28.7 years
  female: 30.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.78% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.51 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.52 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 13.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.41 years
  male: 70.83 years
  female: 76.12 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,500 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Sri Lankan(s)
  adjective: Sri Lankan

Ethnic groups:
  Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri
  Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (2001 census
  provisional data)

Religions:
  Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%,
  unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)

Languages:
  Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national
  language) 18%, other 8%
  note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken
  competently by about 10% of the population

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.3%
  male: 94.8%
  female: 90% (2003 est.)

Government Sri Lanka


Country name:
  conventional long form: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
  conventional short form: Sri Lanka
  local long form: Shri Lamka Prajatantrika Samajaya di
  Janarajaya/Ilankai Jananayaka Choshalichak Kutiyarachu
  local short form: Shri Lamka/Ilankai
  former: Serendib, Ceylon

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Colombo
  geographic coordinates: 6 56 N, 79 51 E
  time difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte (legislative capital)

Administrative divisions:
  8 provinces; Central, North Central, North Eastern, North Western,
  Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western
  note: in 1998 the Government of Sri Lanka proposed a merger of the
  former Northern and Eastern provinces; while this merger was never
  ratified, the Government treats North Eastern Province as a de facto
  singular administrative unit

Independence:
  4 February 1948 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 4 February (1948)

Constitution:
  adopted 16 August 1978, certified 31 August 1978

Legal system:
  a highly complex mixture of English common law, Roman-Dutch,
  Muslim, Sinhalese, and customary law; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Mahinda RAJAPAKSE (since 19 November
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; Ratnasiri WICKREMANAYAKE (since 21 November 2005) holds
  the ceremonial title of prime minister
  head of government: President Mahinda RAJAPAKSE (since 19 November
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president in consultation with the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 17 November 2005
  (next to be held 2011)
  election results: Mahinda RAJAPAKSE elected president; percent of
  vote - Mahinda RAJAPAKSE 50.3%, Ranil WICKREMESINGHE 48.4%, other
  1.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (225 seats; members elected by popular vote
  on the basis of a modified proportional representation system by
  district to serve six-year terms)
  elections: last held 2 April 2004 (next to be held by 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party or electoral alliance -
  SLFP and JVP (no longer in formal UPFA alliance) 45.6%, UNP 37.83%,
  TNA 6.84%, JHU 5.97%, SLMC 2.02%, UPF 0.54%, EPDP 0.27%, others
  0.93%; seats by party - UNP 68, SLFP 57, JVP 39, UNP dissident 1,
  TNA 22, CWC 8, JHU 7, JHU dissidents 2, SLMC 6, SLMC dissidents 4,
  Communist Party 2, LSSP 2, MEP 2, NUA 2, UPF 2, EPDP 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeals; judges for both courts are
  appointed by the president

Political parties and leaders:
  All Ceylon Tamil Congress or ACTC [KUMARGURUPARAM]; Ceylon Workers
  Congress or CWC [Arumugam THONDAMAN]; Communist Party or CP [D.
  GUNASEKERA]; Democratic United National (Lalith) Front or DUNLF
  [Shrimani ATULATHMUDALI]; Eelam People's Democratic Party or EPDP
  [Douglas DEVANANDA]; Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
  or EPRLF [Suresh PREMACHANDRAN]; Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna or JVP
  [Somawansa AMARASINGHE]; Lanka Sama Samaja Party or LSSP; Mahajana
  Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) or MEP [D. GUNAWARDENE];
  National Heritage Party or JHU [Tilak KARUNARATNE]; National Unity
  Alliance or NUA [Ferial ASHRAFF]; People's Liberation Organization
  of Tamil Eelam or PLOTE [D. SIDHARTHAN]; Sihala Urumaya or SU; Sri
  Lanka Freedom Party or SLFP [Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA];
  Sri Lanka Muslim Congress or SLMC [Rauff HAKEEM]; Sri Lanka
  Progressive Front or SLPF [P. Nelson PERERA]; Tamil Eelam Liberation
  Organization or TELO [SABARATNAM]; Tamil National Alliance or TNA
  [R. SAMPANTHAN]; Tamil United Liberation Front or TULF [V.
  ANANDASANGAREE]; United National Party or UNP [Ranil
  WICKREMASINGHE]; Up-country People's Front or UPF [P.
  CHANDRASEKARAN]; several ethnic Tamil and Muslim parties,
  represented in either Parliament or provincial councils

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Buddhist clergy; labor unions; Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or
  LTTE [Velupillai PRABHAKARAN](insurgent group fighting for a
  separate state); radical chauvinist Sinhalese groups such as the
  National Movement Against Terrorism; Sinhalese Buddhist lay groups

International organization participation:
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernard GOONETILLEKE
  chancery: 2148 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4025 (through 4028)
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-7181
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles
  consulate(s): New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert O. BLAKE, Jr.
  embassy: 210 Galle Road, Colombo 3
  mailing address: P. O. Box 106, Colombo
  telephone: [94] (11) 249-8500
  FAX: [94] (11) 243-7345

Flag description:
  yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has two equal
  vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other panel is
  a large dark red rectangle with a yellow lion holding a sword, and
  there is a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow field appears
  as a border around the entire flag and extends between the two panels

Economy Sri Lanka


Economy - overview:
  In 1977, Colombo abandoned statist economic policies and its import
  substitution trade policy for market-oriented policies and
  export-oriented trade. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are food
  processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages,
  telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2003, plantation
  crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while
  textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average
  annual rate of about 5.5% in the 1990s, but 2001 saw the first
  contraction in the country's history, by 1.4%, due to a combination
  of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the global slowdown,
  and continuing civil strife. Growth recovered to 5% between 2002 and
  2005. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% in the Middle East.
  They send home about $1 billion a year. The struggle by the Tamil
  Tigers of the north and east for a largely independent homeland
  continues to cast a shadow over the economy. In late December 2004,
  a major tsunami took about 31,000 lives, left more than 6,300
  missing and 443,000 displaced, and destroyed an estimated $1.5
  billion worth of property.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $86.07 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $21.62 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $4,300 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.8%
  industry: 27.6%
  services: 54.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  8.08 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 17%
  services: 45% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  22% (1997 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.5%
  highest 10%: 28% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34.4 (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  11.6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  26.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $3.804 billion
  expenditures: $5.469 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  92.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea, rubber,
  coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef; fish

Industries:
  processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, tobacco and other agricultural
  commodities; telecommunications, insurance, banking; clothing,
  textiles; cement, petroleum refining

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  7.308 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 51.7%
  hydro: 48.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  6.796 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  79,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-776 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.442 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles and apparel, tea and spices; diamonds, emeralds, rubies;
  coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish

Exports - partners:
  US 30.9%, UK 11.6%, India 7.3%, Belgium 4.8%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $8.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  textile fabrics, mineral products, petroleum, foodstuffs, machinery
  and transportation equipment

Imports - partners:
  India 19.7%, China 9.9%, Singapore 7.2%, Iran 5.5%, Malaysia 4.6%,
  Hong Kong 4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.737 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $11.05 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $577 million (1998)

Currency (code):
  Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)

Currency code:
  LKR

Exchange rates:
  Sri Lankan rupees per US dollar - 100.498 (2005), 101.194 (2004),
  96.521 (2003), 95.662 (2002), 89.383 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Sri Lanka


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1.244 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  3.362 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: very inadequate domestic service, particularly
  in rural areas; likely improvement with privatization of national
  telephone company and encouragement to private investment; good
  international service (1999)
  domestic: national trunk network consists mostly of digital
  microwave radio relay; fiber-optic links now in use in Colombo area
  and two fixed wireless local loops have been installed; competition
  is strong in mobile cellular systems; telephone density remains low
  (1999)
  international: country code - 94; submarine cables to Indonesia and
  Djibouti; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 26, FM 45, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  3.85 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  21 (1997)

Televisions:
  1.53 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .lk

Internet hosts:
  6,526 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2000)

Internet users:
  280,000 (2005)

Transportation Sri Lanka


Airports:
  16 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 7 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,449 km
  broad gauge: 1,449 km 1.676-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 97,287 km
  paved: 78,802 km
  unpaved: 18,485 km (2003)

Waterways:
  160 km (primarily on rivers in southwest) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 22 ships (1000 GRT or over) 144,066 GRT/196,418 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 17, container 2, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 7 (Germany 5, UAE 2)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Panama 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Colombo, Galle

Military Sri Lanka


Military branches:
  Sri Lankan Army, Sri Lankan Navy, Sri Lankan Air Force (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,933,217
  females age 18-49: 5,153,597 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,789,627
  females age 18-49: 4,281,043 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 174,049
  females age 18-49: 167,201 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $606.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.6% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Sri Lanka


Disputes - international:
  none

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 353,000 (both Tamils and non-Tamils displaced due to Tamil
  conflict); 450,000 (resulting from 2004 tsunami) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Sudan

Introduction Sudan


Background:
  Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have
  dominated national politics since independence from the UK in 1956.
  Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the
  remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in
  northern economic, political, and social domination of largely
  non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in
  1972, but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related
  effects resulted in more than 4 million people displaced and,
  according to rebel estimates, more than 2 million deaths over a
  period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with
  the signing of several accords; a final Naivasha peace treaty of
  January 2005 granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years,
  after which a referendum for independence is scheduled to be held. A
  separate conflict that broke out in the western region of Darfur in
  2003 has resulted in at least 200,000 deaths and nearly 2 million
  displaced; as of late 2005, peacekeeping troops were struggling to
  stabilize the situation. Sudan also has faced large refugee influxes
  from neighboring countries, primarily Ethiopia and Chad, and armed
  conflict, poor transport infrastructure, and lack of government
  support have chronically obstructed the provision of humanitarian
  assistance to affected populations.

Geography Sudan


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 2,505,810 sq km
  land: 2.376 million sq km
  water: 129,810 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than one-quarter the size of the US

Land boundaries:
  total: 7,687 km
  border countries: Central African Republic 1,165 km, Chad 1,360 km,
  Democratic Republic of the Congo 628 km, Egypt 1,273 km, Eritrea 605
  km, Ethiopia 1,606 km, Kenya 232 km, Libya 383 km, Uganda 435 km

Coastline:
  853 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical in south; arid desert in north; rainy season varies by
  region (April to November)

Terrain:
  generally flat, featureless plain; mountains in far south,
  northeast and west; desert dominates the north

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Red Sea 0 m
  highest point: Kinyeti 3,187 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum; small reserves of iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc,
  tungsten, mica, silver, gold, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 6.78%
  permanent crops: 0.17%
  other: 93.05% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  18,630 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust storms and periodic persistent droughts

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; wildlife populations
  threatened by excessive hunting; soil erosion; desertification;
  periodic drought

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  largest country in Africa; dominated by the Nile and its tributaries

People Sudan


Population:
  41,236,378 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 8,993,483/female 8,614,022)
  15-64 years: 54.9% (male 11,327,679/female 11,297,798)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 536,754/female 466,642) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 18.1 years
  female: 18.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.55% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  34.53 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.02 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.15 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 61.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 60.18 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 58.92 years
  male: 57.69 years
  female: 60.21 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  2.3% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  400,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  23,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, African trypanosomiasis
  (sleeping sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Sudanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Sudanese

Ethnic groups:
  black 52%, Arab 39%, Beja 6%, foreigners 2%, other 1%

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 70% (in north), indigenous beliefs 25%, Christian 5%
  (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Languages:
  Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic,
  Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
  note: program of "Arabization" in process

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 61.1%
  male: 71.8%
  female: 50.5% (2003 est.)

Government Sudan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of the Sudan
  conventional short form: Sudan
  local long form: Jumhuriyat as-Sudan
  local short form: As-Sudan
  former: Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Government type:
  Government of National Unity (GNU) - the National Congress Party
  (NCP) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) formed a
  power-sharing government under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace
  Agreement (CPA); the NCP, which came to power by military coup in
  1989, is the majority partner; the agreement stipulates national
  elections for the 2008 - 2009 timeframe.

Capital:
  name: Khartoum
  geographic coordinates: 15 36 N, 32 32 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  25 states (wilayat, singular - wilayah); A'ali an Nil (Upper Nile),
  Al Bahr al Ahmar (Red Sea), Al Buhayrat (Lakes), Al Jazirah (El
  Gezira), Al Khartum (Khartoum), Al Qadarif (Gedaref), Al Wahdah
  (Unity), An Nil al Abyad (White Nile), An Nil al Azraq (Blue Nile),
  Ash Shamaliyah (Northern), Bahr al Jabal (Bahr al Jabal), Gharb al
  Istiwa'iyah (Western Equatoria), Gharb Bahr al Ghazal (Western Bahr
  al Ghazal), Gharb Darfur (Western Darfur), Janub Darfur (Southern
  Darfur), Janub Kurdufan (Southern Kordofan), Junqali (Jonglei),
  Kassala (Kassala), Nahr an Nil (Nile), Shamal Bahr al Ghazal
  (Northern Bahr al Ghazal), Shamal Darfur (Northern Darfur), Shamal
  Kurdufan (Northern Kordofan), Sharq al Istiwa'iyah (Eastern
  Equatoria), Sinnar (Sinnar), Warab (Warab)

Independence:
  1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 January (1956)

Constitution:
  12 April 1973; suspended following coup of 6 April 1985; interim
  constitution of 10 October 1985 suspended following coup of 30 June
  1989; new constitution implemented on 30 June 1998 partially
  suspended 12 December 1999 by President BASHIR; under the CPA,
  Interim National Constitution ratified 5 July 2005; Constitution of
  Southern Sudan signed December 2005

Legal system:
  based on English common law and Shari'a law; as of 20 January 1991,
  the now defunct Revolutionary Command Council imposed Shari'a law in
  the northern states; Shari'a law applies to all residents of the
  northern states regardless of their religion; some separate
  religious courts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations; the southern legal system is still developing under
  the CPA following the civil war; Shari'a law will not apply to the
  southern states

Suffrage:
  17 years of age; universal, but noncompulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR (since 16
  October 1993); First Vice President Salva KIIR (since 4 August
  2005), Vice President Ali Osman TAHA (since 20 September 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR (since 16
  October 1993); First Vice President Salva KIIR (since 4 August
  2005), Vice President Ali Osman TAHA (since 20 September 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president; note - the
  National Congress Party or NCP (formerly the National Islamic Front
  or NIF) dominates al-BASHIR's cabinet
  elections: election last held 13-23 December 2000; next to be held
  no later than July 2009 under terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace
  Agreement
  election results: Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR reelected president;
  percent of vote - Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR 86.5%, Ja'afar
  Muhammed NUMAYRI 9.6%, three other candidates received a combined
  vote of 3.9%; election widely viewed as rigged; all popular
  opposition parties boycotted elections because of a lack of
  guarantees for a free and fair election
  note: al-BASHIR assumed power as chairman of Sudan's Revolutionary
  Command Council for National Salvation (RCC) in June 1989 and served
  concurrently as chief of state, chairman of the RCC, prime minister,
  and minister of defense until mid-October 1993 when he was appointed
  president by the RCC; he was elected president by popular vote for
  the first time in March 1996

Legislative branch:
  bi-cameral body comprising the National Assembly and Council of
  States (replaced unicameral National Assembly of 360 seats); pending
  elections and National Election Law, the Presidency appointed 450
  members to the National Assembly according to the provisions of the
  2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement: 52% NCP; 28% SPLM; 14% other
  Northerners; 6% other Southerners; 2 representatives from every
  state constitute the Council of States; terms in each chamber are
  five years following the first elections
  elections: last held 13-22 December 2000 (next to be held 2008-2009
  timeframe)
  election results: NCP 355, others 5; note - replaced by appointments
  under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court of nine justices; National Supreme Court;
  National Courts of Appeal; other national courts; National Judicial
  Service Commission will undertake overall management of the National
  Judiciary

Political parties and leaders:
  political parties in the Government of National Unity include:
  National Congress Party or NCP [Ibrahim Ahmed OMAR]; Sudan People's
  Liberation Movement or SPLM [Salva Mayardit KIIR]; and elements of
  the National Democratic Alliance or NDA including factions of the
  Democratic Union Party [Muhammad Uthman al-MIRGHANI] and Umma Party
  [SADIQ Siddiq al-Mahdi]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Umma Party [Sadiq al-MAHDI]; Popular Congress Party or PCP [Hassan
  al-TURABI]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, CAEU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA,
  NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires, Ad
  Interim Khidir HAROUN (since April 2001)
  chancery: 2210 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 338-8565
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2406

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Cameron
  HUME
  embassy: Sharia Ali Abdul Latif Avenue, Khartoum
  mailing address: P. O. Box 699, Khartoum; APO AE 09829
  telephone: [249] (183) 774701
  FAX: [249] (183) 774137
  note: US Consul in Cairo is providing backup service for Khartoum;
  consular services are being established in Juba (southern Sudan)

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with a
  green isosceles triangle based on the hoist side

Economy Sudan


Economy - overview:
  Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound economic
  policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces
  formidable economic problems, starting from its low level of per
  capita output. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF
  macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and
  in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which,
  along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate.
  Increased oil production, revived light industry, and expanded
  export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 8.6% in 2004.
  Agricultural production remains Sudan's most important sector,
  employing 80% of the work force, contributing 39% of GDP, and
  accounting for most of GDP growth, but most farms remain rain-fed
  and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - resulting from the
  long-standing civil war between the Muslim north and the
  Christian/pagan south, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural
  prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below
  the poverty line for years.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $85.89 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $22.75 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 38.7%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 41% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  7.415 million (1996 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 7%
  services: 13% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  18.7% (2002 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  40% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $6.182 billion
  expenditures: $5.753 billion; including capital expenditures of $304
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  107% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, gum arabic,
  sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangos, papaya, bananas, sweet
  potatoes, sesame; sheep, livestock

Industries:
  oil, cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar, soap
  distilling, shoes, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, armaments,
  automobile/light truck assembly

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.5% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.165 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 52.1%
  hydro: 47.9%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.943 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  401,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  70,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  275,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.6 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  84.95 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-3.013 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.989 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  oil and petroleum products; cotton, sesame, livestock, groundnuts,
  gum arabic, sugar

Exports - partners:
  China 71.1%, Japan 12%, Saudi Arabia 2.8% (2005)

Imports:
  $5.028 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, manufactured goods, refinery and transport equipment,
  medicines and chemicals, textiles, wheat

Imports - partners:
  China 20.7%, Saudi Arabia 9.4%, UAE 5.9%, Egypt 5.5%, Japan 5.1%,
  India 4.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.45 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $27.34 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $172 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  Sudanese dinar (SDD)

Currency code:
  SDD

Exchange rates:
  Sudanese dinars per US dollar - 243.61 (2005), 257.91 (2004),
  260.98 (2003), 263.31 (2002), 258.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Sudan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  670,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.828 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: large, well-equipped system by regional
  standards and being upgraded; cellular communications started in
  1996 and have expanded substantially
  domestic: consists of microwave radio relay, cable, radiotelephone
  communications, tropospheric scatter, and a domestic satellite
  system with 14 earth stations
  international: country code - 249; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat (2000)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 12, FM 1, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  7.55 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (1997)

Televisions:
  2.38 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sd

Internet hosts:
  16 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2002)

Internet users:
  2.8 million (2005)

Transportation Sudan


Airports:
  88 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 37
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 156 km; oil 3,930 km; refined products 1,613 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 5,978 km
  narrow gauge: 4,578 km 1.067-m gauge; 1,400 km 0.600-m gauge for
  cotton plantations (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 11,900 km
  paved: 4,320 km
  unpaved: 7,580 km (1999)

Waterways:
  4,068 km (1,723 km open year round on White and Blue Nile rivers)
  (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,326 GRT/14,068 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, livestock carrier 1
  registered in other countries: 2 (Panama 1, Saudi Arabia 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Port Sudan

Military Sudan


Military branches:
  Sudanese People's Armed Forces (SPAF): Army, Navy, Air Force,
  Popular Defense Force

Military service age and obligation:
  18-30 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - three years (August 2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 8,291,695
  females age 18-49: 8,135,683 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,427,474
  females age 18-49: 5,649,566 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 442,915
  females age 18-49: 426,320 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $587 million (2001 est.) (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3% (1999) (2004)

Transnational Issues Sudan


Disputes - international:
  the effects of Sudan's almost constant ethnic and rebel militia
  fighting since the mid-twentieth century have penetrated all of its
  border states that provide shelter for fleeing refugees and cover to
  disparate domestic and foreign conflicting elements; since 2003,
  Janjawid armed militia and Sudanese military have driven about
  200,000 Darfur region refugees into eastern Chad; large numbers of
  Sudanese refugees have also fled to Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the
  Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
  southern Sudan provides shelter to Ugandans seeking periodic
  protection from soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army; Sudan
  accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups; efforts to
  demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia have been delayed by
  civil and ethnic fighting in Sudan; Kenya's administrative boundary
  extends into the southern Sudan, creating the "Ilemi Triangle";
  Egypt and Sudan retain claims to administer triangular areas that
  extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd
  Parallel, but have withdrawn their military presence; Egypt is
  economically developing the "Hala'ib Triangle" north of the Treaty
  Line; periodic violent skirmishes with Sudanese residents over water
  and grazing rights persist among related pastoral populations from
  the Central African Republic along the border

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 110,927 (Eritrea) 5,023 (Chad) 7,983
  (Uganda) 14,812 (Ethiopia)
  IDPs: 5,300,000 - 6,200,000 (internal conflict since 1980s; ongoing
  genocide) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Sudan is a source country for men, women, and
  children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; Sudan may also be a transit and destination country
  for Ethiopian women trafficked for domestic servitude; boys are
  trafficked to the Middle East, particularly Qatar and the United
  Arab Emirates, for use as camel jockeys; small numbers of girls are
  reportedly trafficked within Sudan for domestic servitude, as well
  as for commercial sexual exploitation in small brothels in
  internally displaced persons (IDP) camps; the terrorist rebel
  organization "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) continues to abduct and
  forcibly conscript small numbers of children in Southern Sudan for
  use as cooks, porters, and combatants in its ongoing war against
  Uganda; some of these children are then trafficked across borders
  into Uganda or possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
  children are utilized by rebel groups and the Sudanese Armed Forces
  and associated militias in the ongoing conflict in Darfur; during
  the decades of civil war, thousands of Dinka women and children were
  enslaved by members of Baggara tribes and subjected to various forms
  of forced labor without remuneration, as well as physical and sexual
  abuse; with the cessation of the North-South conflict and the
  ongoing peace process, there were no known new abductions of Dinka
  by Baggara tribes during 2005; however, inter-tribal abductions of a
  different nature continue in Southern Sudan and warrant further
  investigation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Suriname

Introduction Suriname


Background:
  First explored by the Spaniards in the 16th century and then
  settled by the English in the mid-17th century, Suriname became a
  Dutch colony in 1667. With the abolition of slavery in 1863, workers
  were brought in from India and Java. Independence from the
  Netherlands was granted in 1975. Five years later the civilian
  government was replaced by a military regime that soon declared a
  socialist republic. It continued to exert control through a
  succession of nominally civilian administrations until 1987, when
  international pressure finally forced a democratic election. In
  1990, the military overthrew the civilian leadership, but a
  democratically elected government - a four-party New Front coalition
  - returned to power in 1991 and has ruled since.

Geography Suriname


Location:
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  French Guiana and Guyana

Geographic coordinates:
  4 00 N, 56 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 163,270 sq km
  land: 161,470 sq km
  water: 1,800 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Georgia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,707 km
  border countries: Brazil 597 km, French Guiana 510 km, Guyana 600 km

Coastline:
  386 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by trade winds

Terrain:
  mostly rolling hills; narrow coastal plain with swamps

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: unnamed location in the coastal plain -2 m
  highest point: Juliana Top 1,230 m

Natural resources:
  timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold, and small
  amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore

Land use:
  arable land: 0.36%
  permanent crops: 0.06%
  other: 99.58% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  510 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of inland
  waterways by small-scale mining activities

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  smallest independent country on South American continent; mostly
  tropical rain forest; great diversity of flora and fauna that, for
  the most part, is increasingly threatened by new development;
  relatively small population, mostly along the coast

People Suriname


Population:
  439,117 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29% (male 65,412/female 62,069)
  15-64 years: 64.7% (male 145,913/female 138,076)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 12,223/female 15,424) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26.5 years
  male: 26 years
  female: 26.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.2% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -8.76 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.01 years
  male: 66.66 years
  female: 71.47 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.7% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  5,200 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Surinamer(s)
  adjective: Surinamese

Ethnic groups:
  Hindustani (also known locally as "East Indians"; their ancestors
  emigrated from northern India in the latter part of the 19th
  century) 37%, Creole (mixed white and black) 31%, Javanese 15%,
  "Maroons" (their African ancestors were brought to the country in
  the 17th and 18th centuries as slaves and escaped to the interior)
  10%, Amerindian 2%, Chinese 2%, white 1%, other 2%

Religions:
  Hindu 27.4%, Protestant 25.2% (predominantly Moravian), Roman
  Catholic 22.8%, Muslim 19.6%, indigenous beliefs 5%

Languages:
  Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Sranang Tongo
  (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of
  Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca
  among others), Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Javanese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88%
  male: 92.3%
  female: 84.1% (2000 est.)

Government Suriname


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Suriname
  conventional short form: Suriname
  local long form: Republiek Suriname
  local short form: Suriname
  former: Netherlands Guiana, Dutch Guiana

Government type:
  constitutional democracy

Capital:
  name: Paramaribo
  geographic coordinates: 5 50 N, 55 10 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  10 districts (distrikten, singular - distrikt); Brokopondo,
  Commewijne, Coronie, Marowijne, Nickerie, Para, Paramaribo,
  Saramacca, Sipaliwini, Wanica

Independence:
  25 November 1975 (from Netherlands)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 25 November (1975)

Constitution:
  ratified 30 September 1987

Legal system:
  based on Dutch legal system incorporating French penal theory;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN (since 12 August
  2000); Vice President Ram SARDJOE (since 3 August 2005); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN (since 12
  August 2000); Vice President Ram SARDJOE (since 3 August 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly or, if no presidential or vice presidential candidate
  receives a two-thirds constitutional majority in the National
  Assembly after two votes, by a simple majority in the larger United
  People's Assembly (893 representatives from the national, local, and
  regional councils), for five-year terms (no term limits); election
  last held 25 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN reelected president;
  percent of vote - Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN 62.9%, Rabin PARMESSAR
  35.4%, other 1.7%; note - after two votes in the parliament failed
  to secure a two-thirds majority for a candidate, the vote then went
  to a special session of the United People's Assembly on 3 August 2005

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Nationale Assemblee (51 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NF 39.73%, NDP 22.2%,
  VVV 13.79%, A-Com 7.21%, A-1 5.86%, other 7.42%; seats by party - NF
  23, NDP 15, VVV 5, A-Com 5, A-1 3

Judicial branch:
  Cantonal Courts and a Court of Justice as an appellate court
  (justices are nominated for life)

Political parties and leaders:
  Alternative-1 or A-1 (a coalition of Amazone Party of Suriname or
  APS [Kenneth VAN GENDEREN], Democrats of the 21st Century or D-21
  [Soewarto MOESTADJA], Nieuw Suriname or NS [Radjen Nanan PANDAY],
  Political Wing of the FAL or PVF [Jiwan SITAL], Trefpunt 2000 or
  T-2000 [Arti JESSURUN]); General Interior Development Party or ABOP
  [Ronnie BRUNSWIJK]; National Democratic Party or NDP [Desire
  BOUTERSE]; New Front for Democracy and Development or NF (a
  coalition which includes A-Combination or A-Com [leader NA],
  Democratic Alternative 1991 or DA-91 which split from the A-1 before
  the elections of May 2005 and are an independent, business-oriented
  party [Winston JESSURUN], National Party Suriname or NPS [Ronald
  VENETIAAN], United Reform Party or VHP [Ram SARDJOE], Pertjaja Luhur
  or PL [Salam Paul SOMOHARDJO], Surinamese Labor Party or SPA
  [Siegfried GILDS]); Party for Democracy and Development in Unity or
  DOE [Marten SCHALKWIJK]; People's Alliance for Progress or VVV (a
  coalition of Democratic National Platform 2000 or DNP-2000 [Jules
  WIJDENBOSCH], Grassroots Party for Renewal and Democracy or BVD
  [Tjan GOBARDHAN], Party for National Unity and Solidarity of the
  Highest Order or KTPI [Willy SOEMITA], Party for Progression,
  Justice, and Perseverance or PPRS [Renee KAIMAN], Pendawalima or PL
  [Raymond SAPOEN]); Progressive Laborers and Farmers Union or PALU
  [Jim HOK]; Progressive Political Party or PPP [Surinder MUNGRA];
  Seeka [Paul ABENA]; Union of Progressive Surinamers or UPS [Sheoradj
  PANDAY]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Association of Indigenous Village Chiefs [Ricardo PANE];
  Association of Saramaccan Authorities or Maroon [Head Captain WASE];
  Women's Parliament Forum or PVF [Iris GILLIAD]

International organization participation:
  ACP, Caricom, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDB,
  IFAD, IFRCS, IHO (suspended), ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU,
  ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OIC, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Henry Lothar ILLES
  chancery: Suite 460, 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-7488
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-5878
  consulate(s) general: Miami

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lisa Bobbie SCHREIBER HUGHES
  embassy: Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat 129, Paramaribo
  mailing address: US Department of State, 3390 Paramaribo Place,
  Washington, DC, 20521-3390
  telephone: [597] 472-900
  FAX: [597] 425-690

Flag description:
  five horizontal bands of green (top, double width), white, red
  (quadruple width), white, and green (double width); there is a
  large, yellow, five-pointed star centered in the red band

Economy Suriname


Economy - overview:
  The economy is dominated by the mining industry, which accounts for
  more than a third of GDP and subjects government revenues to mineral
  price volatility. The short-term economic outlook depends on the
  government's ability to control inflation and on the development of
  projects in the bauxite and gold mining sectors. Suriname's economic
  prospects for the medium term will depend on continued commitment to
  responsible monetary and fiscal policies and to the introduction of
  structural reforms to liberalize markets and promote competition.
  The government of Ronald VENETIAAN, in his first term, implemented
  an austerity program, raised taxes, and attempted to control
  spending. Economic policies are likely to remain the same during
  VENETIAAN's second term. Prospects for local onshore oil production
  are good, as a drilling program is underway. Offshore oil drilling
  was given a boost in 2004 when the State Oil Company (Staatsolie)
  signed exploration agreements with Repsol, Mearsk, and Occidental.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $2.893 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 22%
  services: 65% (2001)

Labor force:
  156,700 (2004)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 14%
  services: 78%

Unemployment rate:
  9.5% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  70% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $392.6 million
  expenditures: $425.9 million (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  paddy rice, bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains, peanuts;
  beef, chickens; shrimp; forest products

Industries:
  bauxite and gold mining, alumina production; oil, lumbering, food
  processing, fishing

Industrial production growth rate:
  6.5% (1994 est.)

Electricity - production:
  2.014 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 25.2%
  hydro: 74.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.873 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  12,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  14,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  1,370 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  1,644 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  150 million bbl (2005)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  0 cu m (2005)

Exports:
  $881 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  alumina, crude oil, lumber, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas

Exports - partners:
  Norway 23.5%, US 16.5%, Canada 16.1%, Belgium 9.7%, France 7.9%,
  UAE 7.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $750 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  US 29.3%, Netherlands 17.5%, Trinidad and Tobago 12.7%, China 6.5%,
  Japan 5.2% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $504.3 million (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $46 million Netherlands provided $37 million for project and
  program assistance, European Development Fund $4 million, Belgium $2
  million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Surinam dollar (SRD)

Currency code:
  SRG

Exchange rates:
  Surinamese dollars per US dollar - 2.7317 (2005), Surinamese
  guilders per US dollar - 2.7336 (2004), 2.6013 (2003), 2.3468
  (2002), 2.1785 (2001)
  note: during 1998, the exchange rate splintered into four distinct
  rates; in January 1999 the government floated the guilder, but
  subsequently fixed it when the black-market rate plunged; in January
  2004, the government introduced the Surinamese dollar as replacement
  for the guilder, tied to a US dollar-dominated currency basket

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Suriname


Telephones - main lines in use:
  81,100 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  232,800 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: international facilities are good
  domestic: microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 597; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 13, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  300,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus seven repeaters) (2000)

Televisions:
  63,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sr

Internet hosts:
  126 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  30,000 (2005)

Transportation Suriname


Airports:
  47 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 42
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 36 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 51 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 4,492 km
  paved: 1,168 km
  unpaved: 3,324 km (2002)

Waterways:
  1,200 km (most navigable by ships with drafts up to 7 m) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,078 GRT/1,214 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Paramaribo

Military Suriname


Military branches:
  National Army, Naval Element, Air Wing (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 111,582
  females age 18-49: 103,769 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 77,793
  females age 18-49: 72,943 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $7.5 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.7% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Suriname


Disputes - international:
  area claimed by French Guiana between Riviere Litani and Riviere
  Marouini (both headwaters of the Lawa); Suriname claims a triangle
  of land between the New and Kutari/Koetari rivers in a historic
  dispute over the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks United
  Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration to
  resolve the long-standing dispute with Suriname over the axis of the
  territorial sea boundary in potentially oil-rich waters

Illicit drugs:
  growing transshipment point for South American drugs destined for
  Europe via the Netherlands and Brazil; transshipment point for
  arms-for-drugs dealing


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Svalbard

Introduction Svalbard


Background:
  First discovered by the Norwegians in the 12th century, the islands
  served as an international whaling base during the 17th and 18th
  centuries. Norway's sovereignty was recognized in 1920; five years
  later it officially took over the territory.

Geography Svalbard


Location:
  Northern Europe, islands between the Arctic Ocean, Barents Sea,
  Greenland Sea, and Norwegian Sea, north of Norway

Geographic coordinates:
  78 00 N, 20 00 E

Map references:
  Arctic Region

Area:
  total: 61,020 sq km
  land: 61,020 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Spitsbergen and Bjornoya (Bear Island)

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  3,587 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 4 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm unilaterally claimed by Norway but
  not recognized by Russia

Climate:
  arctic, tempered by warm North Atlantic Current; cool summers, cold
  winters; North Atlantic Current flows along west and north coasts of
  Spitsbergen, keeping water open and navigable most of the year

Terrain:
  wild, rugged mountains; much of high land ice covered; west coast
  clear of ice about one-half of the year; fjords along west and north
  coasts

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Arctic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Newtontoppen 1,717 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, wildlife, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (no trees, and the only bushes are crowberry and
  cloudberry) (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  ice floes often block the entrance to Bellsund (a transit point for
  coal export) on the west coast and occasionally make parts of the
  northeastern coast inaccessible to maritime traffic

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway; consists of nine main
  islands; glaciers and snowfields cover 60% of the total area; site
  of future seed repository under construction by the Global Crop
  Diversity Trust and the Norwegian Government

People Svalbard


Population:
  2,701 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.02% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA births/1,000 population

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0% (2001)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  0 (2001)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  0 (2001)

Ethnic groups:
  Norwegian 55.4%, Russian and Ukrainian 44.3%, other 0.3% (1998)

Languages:
  Norwegian, Russian

Literacy:
  NA

Government Svalbard


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Svalbard (sometimes referred to as
  Spitzbergen)

Dependency status:
  territory of Norway; administered by the Polar Department of the
  Ministry of Justice, through a governor (sysselmann) residing in
  Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen; by treaty (9 February 1920) sovereignty
  was awarded to Norway

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Longyearbyen
  geographic coordinates: 78 13 N, 15 33 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Independence:
  none (territory of Norway)

Legal system:
  NA

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King HARALD V of Norway (since 17 January 1991)
  head of government: Governor Odd Olsen INGERO (since 8 June 2001)
  and Assistant Governor Rune Baard HANSEN (since NA)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor and assistant
  governor responsible to the Polar Department of the Ministry of
  Justice

International organization participation:
  none

Flag description:
  the flag of Norway is used

Economy Svalbard


Economy - overview:
  Coal mining is the major economic activity on Svalbard. The treaty
  of 9 February 1920 gives the 41 signatories equal rights to exploit
  mineral deposits, subject to Norwegian regulation. Although US, UK,
  Dutch, and Swedish coal companies have mined in the past, the only
  companies still mining are Norwegian and Russian. The settlements on
  Svalbard are essentially company towns. The Norwegian state-owned
  coal company employs nearly 60% of the Norwegian population on the
  island, runs many of the local services, and provides most of the
  local infrastructure. There is also some hunting of seal, reindeer,
  and fox.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

Labor force:
  NA

Budget:
  revenues: $11.5 million
  expenditures: $11.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 57.9984%
  hydro: 42.0016%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0%

Exports:
  $NA

Imports:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $8.2 million from Norway (1998)

Currency (code):
  Norwegian krone (NOK)

Currency code:
  NOK

Exchange rates:
  Norwegian kroner per US dollar - 6.4425 (2005), 6.7408 (2004),
  7.0802 (2003), 7.9838 (2002), 8.9917 (2001)

Communications Svalbard


Telephones - main lines in use:
  NA

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  NA

Telephone system:
  general assessment: probably adequate
  domestic: local telephone service
  international: country code - 47-790; satellite earth station - 1 of
  unknown type (for communication with Norwegian mainland only)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1 (plus 2 repeaters), shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .sj

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  13 (Svalbard and Jan Mayen) (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Svalbard


Airports:
  4 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Barentsburg, Longyearbyen, Ny-Alesund, Pyramiden

Military Svalbard


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $5.501 billion

Military - note:
  demilitarized by treaty on 9 February 1920

Transnational Issues Svalbard


Disputes - international:
  despite recent discussions, Russia and Norway dispute their
  maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights
  beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Swaziland

Introduction Swaziland


Background:
  Autonomy for the Swazis of southern Africa was guaranteed by the
  British in the late 19th century; independence was granted in 1968.
  Student and labor unrest during the 1990s pressured the monarchy
  (one of the oldest on the continent) to grudgingly allow political
  reform and greater democracy. Swaziland recently surpassed Botswana
  as the country with the world's highest known rates of HIV/AIDS
  infection.

Geography Swaziland


Location:
  Southern Africa, between Mozambique and South Africa

Geographic coordinates:
  26 30 S, 31 30 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 17,363 sq km
  land: 17,203 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 535 km
  border countries: Mozambique 105 km, South Africa 430 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  varies from tropical to near temperate

Terrain:
  mostly mountains and hills; some moderately sloping plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Great Usutu River 21 m
  highest point: Emlembe 1,862 m

Natural resources:
  asbestos, coal, clay, cassiterite, hydropower, forests, small gold
  and diamond deposits, quarry stone, and talc

Land use:
  arable land: 10.25%
  permanent crops: 0.81%
  other: 88.94% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  drought

Environment - current issues:
  limited supplies of potable water; wildlife populations being
  depleted because of excessive hunting; overgrazing; soil
  degradation; soil erosion

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; almost completely surrounded by South Africa

People Swaziland


Population:
  1,136,334
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 40.7% (male 233,169/female 229,103)
  15-64 years: 55.8% (male 303,260/female 330,460)
  65 years and over: 3.6% (male 16,071/female 24,271) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.5 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 19.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.23% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  27.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  29.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 71.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 75.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 68.34 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 32.62 years
  male: 32.1 years
  female: 33.17 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  38.8% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  220,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  17,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Swazi(s)
  adjective: Swazi

Ethnic groups:
  African 97%, European 3%

Religions:
  Zionist 40% (a blend of Christianity and indigenous ancestral
  worship), Roman Catholic 20%, Muslim 10%, Anglican, Bahai,
  Methodist, Mormon, Jewish and other 30%

Languages:
  English (official, government business conducted in English),
  siSwati (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 81.6%
  male: 82.6%
  female: 80.8% (2003 est.)

Government Swaziland


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Swaziland
  conventional short form: Swaziland
  local long form: Umbuso weSwatini
  local short form: eSwatini

Government type:
  monarchy

Capital:
  name: Mbabane
  geographic coordinates: 26 18 S, 31 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Lobamba (royal and legislative capital)

Administrative divisions:
  4 districts; Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, Shiselweni

Independence:
  6 September 1968 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 September (1968)

Constitution:
  the first constitution was signed into law in July 2005 and is
  scheduled to be implemented in January 2006

Legal system:
  based on South African Roman-Dutch law in statutory courts and
  Swazi traditional law and custom in traditional courts; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King MSWATI III (since 25 April 1986)
  head of government: Prime Minister Absolom Themba DLAMINI (since 14
  November 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet recommended by the prime minister and confirmed by
  the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament or Libandla, an advisory body, consists of the
  Senate (30 seats - 10 appointed by the House of Assembly and 20
  appointed by the monarch; members serve five-year terms) and the
  House of Assembly (65 seats - 10 appointed by the monarch and 55
  elected by popular vote; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 18 October 2003 (next to be
  held October 2008)
  election results: House of Assembly - balloting is done on a
  nonparty basis; candidates for election are nominated by the local
  council of each constituency and for each constituency the three
  candidates with the most votes in the first round of voting are
  narrowed to a single winner by a second round

Judicial branch:
  High Court; Court of Appeal; judges for both courts are appointed
  by the monarch

Political parties and leaders:
  political parties are banned by the government under an emergency
  decree that will be revoked when the new constitution takes effect
  (January 2006)- the following are considered political associations;
  Imbokodvo National Movement or INM; Ngwane National Liberatory
  Congress or NNLC [Obed DLAMINI, president]; People's United
  Democratic Movement or PUDEMO [Mario MASUKU, president]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ephraim Mandla HLOPHE
  chancery: 1712 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5002
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-8254

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lewis LUCKE
  embassy: Central Bank Building, Mahlokahla Street, Mbabane
  mailing address: P. O. Box 199, Mbabane
  telephone: [268] 404-6441 through 404-6445
  FAX: [268] 404-5959

Flag description:
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue;
  the red band is edged in yellow; centered in the red band is a large
  black and white shield covering two spears and a staff decorated
  with feather tassels, all placed horizontally

Economy Swaziland


Economy - overview:
  In this small, landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture occupies
  more than 80% of the population. The manufacturing sector has
  diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain
  important foreign exchange earners. Mining has declined in
  importance in recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines
  remaining active. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short
  border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
  Africa from which it receives about nine-tenths of its imports and
  to which it sends nearly two-thirds of its exports. Customs duties
  from the Southern African Customs Union and worker remittances from
  South Africa substantially supplement domestically earned income.
  The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign
  investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and sometimes
  floods persist as problems for the future. More than one-fourth of
  the population needed emergency food aid in 2004-05 because of
  drought, and nearly two-fifths of the adult population has been
  infected by HIV/AIDS.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $5.68 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.117 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $5,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.9%
  industry: 51.5%
  services: 36.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  155,700 (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Unemployment rate:
  40% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  69% (2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1%
  highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  10.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $805.6 million
  expenditures: $957.1 million; including capital expenditures of $147
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus, pineapples,
  sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Industries:
  mining (coal, raw asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink
  concentrates, textile and apparel

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.7% (FY95/96)

Electricity - production:
  392 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 58%
  hydro: 42%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.161 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  821.4 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa
  (2004)

Oil - production:
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  3,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $7 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.991 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn,
  refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit

Exports - partners:
  South Africa 59.7%, EU 8.8%, US 8.8%, Mozambique 6.2% (2004)

Imports:
  $2.149 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment, foodstuffs,
  petroleum products, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 95.6%, EU 0.9%, Japan 0.9%, Singapore 0.3% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $311 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $357 million (2003 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $104 million (2001)

Currency (code):
  lilangeni (SZL)

Currency code:
  SZL

Exchange rates:
  emalangeni per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648
  (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Swaziland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  35,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  200,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: a somewhat modern but not an advanced system
  domestic: system consists of carrier-equipped, open-wire lines and
  low-capacity, microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 268; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 3, FM 2 plus 4 repeaters, shortwave 3 (2004)

Radios:
  170,000 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  12 (includes 7 relay stations) (2004)

Televisions:
  23,000 (2000)

Internet country code:
  .sz

Internet hosts:
  2,472 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2002)

Internet users:
  36,000 (2005)

Transportation Swaziland


Airports:
  18 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 17
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 301 km
  narrow gauge: 301 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 3,594 km
  paved: 1,078 km
  unpaved: 2,516 km (2002)

Military Swaziland


Military branches:
  Umbutfo Swaziland Defense Force (USDF): Ground Force (includes air
  wing), Royal Swaziland Police Force (RSPF) (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-30 years of age for voluntary military service; both sexes are
  eligible for military service (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 227,617 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 89,609 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $41.6 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Swaziland


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Sweden

Introduction Sweden


Background:
  A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not
  participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality
  was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic
  formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare
  elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in
  2000-02 by the global economic downturn, but fiscal discipline over
  the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic
  vagaries. Indecision over the country's role in the political and
  economic integration of Europe delayed Sweden's entry into the EU
  until 1995, and waived the introduction of the euro in 1999.

Geography Sweden


Location:
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia,
  Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway

Geographic coordinates:
  62 00 N, 15 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 449,964 sq km
  land: 410,934 sq km
  water: 39,030 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,233 km
  border countries: Finland 614 km, Norway 1,619 km

Coastline:
  3,218 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm (adjustments made to return a portion of
  straits to high seas)
  exclusive economic zone: agreed boundaries or midlines
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate in south with cold, cloudy winters and cool, partly
  cloudy summers; subarctic in north

Terrain:
  mostly flat or gently rolling lowlands; mountains in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: reclaimed bay of Lake Hammarsjon, near Kristianstad
  -2.41 m
  highest point: Kebnekaise 2,111 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium,
  arsenic, feldspar, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 5.93%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 94.06% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,150 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf of
  Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic

Environment - current issues:
  acid rain damage to soils and lakes; pollution of the North Sea and
  the Baltic Sea

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location along Danish Straits linking Baltic and North
  Seas

People Sweden


Population:
  9,016,596 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 775,433/female 732,773)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 3,001,928/female 2,918,242)
  65 years and over: 17.6% (male 689,756/female 898,464) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.8 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.16% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.27 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  1.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 2.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 2.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.51 years
  male: 78.29 years
  female: 82.87 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  3,600 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Swede(s)
  adjective: Swedish

Ethnic groups:
  indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami minorities;
  foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns, Yugoslavs,
  Danes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks

Religions:
  Lutheran 87%, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish,
  Buddhist

Languages:
  Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Sweden


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Sweden
  conventional short form: Sweden
  local long form: Konungariket Sverige
  local short form: Sverige

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Stockholm
  geographic coordinates: 59 20 N, 18 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  21 counties (lan, singular and plural); Blekinge, Dalarnas,
  Gavleborgs, Gotlands, Hallands, Jamtlands, Jonkopings, Kalmar,
  Kronobergs, Norrbottens, Orebro, Ostergotlands, Skane,
  Sodermanlands, Stockholms, Uppsala, Varmlands, Vasterbottens,
  Vasternorrlands, Vastmanlands, Vastra Gotalands

Independence:
  6 June 1523 (Gustav VASA elected king)

National holiday:
  Flag Day, 6 June

Constitution:
  1 January 1975

Legal system:
  civil law system influenced by customary law; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King CARL XVI GUSTAF (since 19 September 1973);
  Heir Apparent Princess VICTORIA Ingrid Alice Desiree, daughter of
  the monarch (born 14 July 1977)
  head of government: Prime Minister Fredrik REINFELDT (since 5
  October 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the prime minister is elected by the parliament; election
  last held 17 September 2006 (next to be held in September 2010)
  election results: Fredrik REINFELDT elected prime minister with 175
  out of 349 votes

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Riksdag (349 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 September 2006 (next to be held September
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Social Democrats 37.2%,
  Moderates 27.8%, Center Party 8.3%, People's Party 8.0%, Christian
  Democrats 6.9%, Left Party 6.3%, Greens 5.4%; seats by party -
  Social Democrats 130, Moderates 97, Center Party 29, People's Party
  28, Christian Democrats 24, Left Party 22, Greens 19

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Hogsta Domstolen (judges are appointed by the
  prime minister and the cabinet)

Political parties and leaders:
  Center Party [Maud OLOFSSON]; Christian Democratic Party [Goran
  HAGGLUND]; Environment Party the Greens [no formal leader but party
  spokespersons are Maria WETTERSTRAND and Peter ERIKSSON]; Left Party
  or V (formerly Communist) [Lars OHLY]; Moderate Party (conservative)
  [Fredrik REINFELDT]; People's Party [Lars LEIJONBORG]; Social
  Democratic Party [Goran PERSSON]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, CERN,
  EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 6, G- 9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM
  (guest), NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris
  Club, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL,
  UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer),
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gunnar LUND
  chancery: 902 30th Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-2600
  FAX: [1] (202) 467-2699
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael M. WOOD
  embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds VAG 31, SE-11589 Stockholm
  mailing address: American Embassy Stockholm, US Department of State,
  5750 Stockholm Place, Washington, DC 20521-5750 (pouch)
  telephone: [46] (08) 783 53 00
  FAX: [46] (08) 661 19 64

Flag description:
  blue with a golden yellow cross extending to the edges of the flag;
  the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the
  style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Economy Sweden


Economy - overview:
  Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th century,
  Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a mixed
  system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. It
  has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external
  communications, and a skilled labor force. Timber, hydropower, and
  iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented
  toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for about 90% of
  industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for 50%
  of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP and
  of jobs. The government's commitment to fiscal discipline resulted
  in a substantial budgetary surplus in 2001, which was cut by more
  than half in 2002, due to the global economic slowdown, declining
  revenue, and increased spending. The Swedish central bank (the
  Riksbank) focuses on price stability with its inflation target of
  2%. Growth remained sluggish in 2003, but picked up in 2004 and
  2005. Presumably because of generous sick-leave benefits, Swedish
  workers report in sick more often than other Europeans. In September
  2003, Swedish voters turned down entry into the euro system,
  concerned about the impact on democracy and sovereignty.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $268.3 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $348.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $29,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.1%
  industry: 28.2%
  services: 70.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.49 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 24%
  services: 74% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.7%
  highest 10%: 20.1% (1992)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  25 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $210.5 billion
  expenditures: $205.9 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  50.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk

Industries:
  iron and steel, precision equipment (bearings, radio and telephone
  parts, armaments), wood pulp and paper products, processed foods,
  motor vehicles

Industrial production growth rate:
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  127.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 4%
  hydro: 50.8%
  nuclear: 43%
  other: 2.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  131.8 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  11.5 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  24.3 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  2,441 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  346,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  203,700 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  553,100 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  980 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  968 million cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $25.62 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $126.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery 35%, motor vehicles, paper products, pulp and wood, iron
  and steel products, chemicals

Exports - partners:
  US 10.6%, Germany 10.2%, Norway 8.7%, UK 7.3%, Denmark 6.5%,
  Finland 5.7%, France 4.9%, Netherlands 4.5%, Belgium 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $104.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor
  vehicles, iron and steel; foodstuffs, clothing

Imports - partners:
  Germany 17.5%, Denmark 8.9%, Norway 7.8%, UK 6.6%, Netherlands
  6.2%, Finland 5.8%, France 5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $22.33 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $516.1 billion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1.7 billion (1997)

Currency (code):
  Swedish krona (SEK)

Currency code:
  SEK

Exchange rates:
  Swedish kronor per US dollar - 7.4731 (2005), 7.3489 (2004), 8.0863
  (2003), 9.7371 (2002), 10.3291 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Sweden


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6.447 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  8.436 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  facilities; automatic system
  domestic: coaxial and multiconductor cables carry most of the voice
  traffic; parallel microwave radio relay systems carry some
  additional telephone channels
  international: country code - 46; 5 submarine coaxial cables;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Eutelsat,
  and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Sweden
  shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries
  (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 265, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  8.25 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  169 (plus 1,299 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  4.6 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .se

Internet hosts:
  2,958,435 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  29 (2000)

Internet users:
  6.8 million (2005)

Transportation Sweden


Airports:
  255 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 155
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 80
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 36 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 100
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 91 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 798 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 11,481 km
  standard gauge: 11,481 km 1.435-m gauge (9,400 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 424,981 km
  paved: 132,339 km (including 1,544 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 292,642 km (2003)

Waterways:
  2,052 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 198 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,703,834 GRT/2,382,754 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 28, chemical tanker 47, container 5,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 36, petroleum tanker 15, roll on/roll
  off 31, specialized tanker 4, vehicle carrier 21
  foreign-owned: 37 (Belgium 2, Denmark 4, Finland 11, Germany 3,
  Italy 7, Japan 2, Norway 7, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 161 (Bahamas 6, Bermuda 14, Cayman
  Islands 9, Cook Islands 3, Cyprus 3, Denmark 1, France 2, French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands 9, Gibraltar 5, Isle of Man 1, Liberia
  8, Malta 3, Netherlands 26, Netherlands Antilles 5, Norway 28,
  Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Singapore 12, UK 15,
  US 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Goteborg, Helsingborg, Karlshamn, Lulea, Malmo, Oxelosund,
  Stenungsund, Stockholm, Trelleborg

Military Sweden


Military branches:
  Swedish Armed Forces (Forsvarsmakten): Army (Armen), Royal Swedish
  Navy (Marinen), Swedish Air Force (Svenska Flygvapnet) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  19 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 7-17 months depending on conscript role; after
  completing initial service, soldiers have a reserve commitment until
  age of 47 (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 1,838,427
  females age 19-49: 1,774,659 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 1,493,668
  females age 19-49: 1,441,257 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 58,724
  females age 19-49: 55,954 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $5.51 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Sweden


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Switzerland

Introduction Switzerland


Background:
  The Swiss Confederation was founded in 1291 as a defensive alliance
  among three cantons. In succeeding years, other localities joined
  the original three. The Swiss Confederation secured its independence
  from the Holy Roman Empire in 1499. Switzerland's sovereignty and
  neutrality have long been honored by the major European powers, and
  the country was not involved in either of the two World Wars. The
  political and economic integration of Europe over the past half
  century, as well as Switzerland's role in many UN and international
  organizations, has strengthened Switzerland's ties with its
  neighbors. However, the country did not officially become a UN
  member until 2002. Switzerland remains active in many UN and
  international organizations, but retains a strong commitment to
  neutrality.

Geography Switzerland


Location:
  Central Europe, east of France, north of Italy

Geographic coordinates:
  47 00 N, 8 00 E

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 41,290 sq km
  land: 39,770 sq km
  water: 1,520 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,852 km
  border countries: Austria 164 km, France 573 km, Italy 740 km,
  Liechtenstein 41 km, Germany 334 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate, but varies with altitude; cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy
  winters; cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers

Terrain:
  mostly mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) with a central
  plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lake Maggiore 195 m
  highest point: Dufourspitze 4,634 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower potential, timber, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 9.91%
  permanent crops: 0.58%
  other: 89.51% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  250 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  avalanches, landslides, flash floods

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from vehicle emissions and open-air burning; acid
  rain; water pollution from increased use of agricultural
  fertilizers; loss of biodiversity

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  landlocked; crossroads of northern and southern Europe; along with
  southeastern France, northern Italy, and southwestern Austria, has
  the highest elevations in the Alps

People Switzerland


Population:
  7,523,934 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 16.3% (male 637,585/female 591,297)
  15-64 years: 68.1% (male 2,585,062/female 2,539,345)
  65 years and over: 15.6% (male 480,198/female 690,447) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 40.1 years
  male: 39 years
  female: 41.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.43% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  9.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 4.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 80.51 years
  male: 77.69 years
  female: 83.48 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.4% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  13,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Swiss (singular and plural)
  adjective: Swiss

Ethnic groups:
  German 65%, French 18%, Italian 10%, Romansch 1%, other 6%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%, other
  Christian 0.4%, Muslim 4.3%, other 1%, unspecified 4.3%, none 11.1%
  (2000 census)

Languages:
  German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian
  (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese
  1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000
  census)
  note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national
  languages, but only the first three are official languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Switzerland


Country name:
  conventional long form: Swiss Confederation
  conventional short form: Switzerland
  local long form: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German);
  Confederation Suisse (French); Confederazione Svizzera (Italian)
  local short form: Schweiz (German); Suisse (French); Svizzera
  (Italian)

Government type:
  formally a confederation, but similar in structure to a federal
  republic

Capital:
  name: Bern
  geographic coordinates: 46 57 N, 7 26 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  26 cantons (cantons, singular - canton in French; cantoni, singular
  - cantone in Italian; kantone, singular - kanton in German); Aargau,
  Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden, Appenzell Inner-Rhoden, Basel-Landschaft,
  Basel-Stadt, Bern, Fribourg, Geneve, Glarus, Graubunden, Jura,
  Luzern, Neuchatel, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Sankt Gallen, Schaffhausen,
  Schwyz, Solothurn, Thurgau, Ticino, Uri, Valais, Vaud, Zug, Zurich

Independence:
  1 August 1291 (founding of the Swiss Confederation)

National holiday:
  Founding of the Swiss Confederation, 1 August (1291)

Constitution:
  revision of Constitution of 1874 approved by the Federal Parliament
  18 December 1998, adopted by referendum 18 April 1999, officially
  entered into force 1 January 2000

Legal system:
  civil law system influenced by customary law; judicial review of
  legislative acts, except with respect to federal decrees of general
  obligatory character; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Moritz LEUENBERGER (since 8 January
  2006); Vice President Micheline CALMY-REY (since 8 January 2006);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Moritz LEUENBERGER (since 8 January
  2006); Vice President Micheline CALMY-REY (since 8 January 2006)
  cabinet: Federal Council or Bundesrat (in German), Conseil Federal
  (in French), Consiglio Federale (in Italian) elected by the Federal
  Assembly usually from among its own members for a four-year term
  elections: president and vice president elected by the Federal
  Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for a
  one-year term (they may not serve consecutive terms); election last
  held 7 December 2005 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Moritz LUENBERGER elected president; percent of
  Federal Assembly vote - NA; Micheline CALMY-REY elected vice
  president; percent of legislative vote - NA

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Bundesversammlung (in German),
  Assemblee Federale (in French), Assemblea Federale (in Italian)
  consists of the Council of States or Standerat (in German), Conseil
  des Etats (in French), Consiglio degli Stati (in Italian) (46 seats
  - consists of two representatives from each canton and one from each
  half canton; members serve four-year terms) and the National Council
  or Nationalrat (in German), Conseil National (in French), Consiglio
  Nazionale (in Italian) (200 seats - members are elected by popular
  vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: Council of States - last held in most cantons 19 October
  2003 (each canton determines when the next election will be held);
  National Council - last held 19 October 2003 (next to be held
  October 2007)
  election results: Council of States - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - CVP 15, FDP 14, SVP 8, SPS 6, other 3;
  National Council - percent of vote by party - SVP 26.6%, SPS 23.3%,
  FDP 17.3%, CVP 14.4%, Greens 7.4%, other small parties all under 5%;
  seats by party - SVP 55, SPS 54, FDP 36, CVP 28, Green Party 13,
  other small parties 14

Judicial branch:
  Federal Supreme Court (judges elected for six-year terms by the
  Federal Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Green Party (Grune Partei der Schweiz or Grune, Parti Ecologiste
  Suisse or Les Verts, Partito Ecologista Svizzero or I Verdi, Partida
  Ecologica Svizra or La Verda) [Ruth GENNER]; Christian Democratic
  People's Party (Christichdemokratische Volkspartei der Schweiz or
  CVP, Parti Democrate-Chretien Suisse or PDC, Partito
  Democratico-Cristiano Popolare Svizzero or PDC, Partida
  Cristiandemocratica dalla Svizra or PCD) [Doris LEUTHARD,
  president]; Radical Free Democratic Party (Freisinnig-Demokratische
  Partei der Schweiz or FDP, Parti Radical-Democratique Suisse or PRD,
  Partitio Liberal-Radicale Svizzero or PLR) [Marianne
  KLEINER-SCHLAEPFER, president]; Social Democratic Party
  (Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz or SPS, Parti Socialist
  Suisse or PSS, Partito Socialista Svizzero or PSS, Partida
  Socialdemocratica de la Svizra or PSS) [Hans-Juerg FEHR, president];
  Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP, Union
  Democratique du Centre or UDC, Unione Democratica de Centro or UDC,
  Uniun Democratica dal Center or UDC) [Ueli MAURER, president]; and
  other minor parties

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EFTA,
  ESA, FAO, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Urs ZISWILER
  chancery: 2900 Cathedral Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-7900
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-2564
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New
  York, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Boston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Peter R. CONEWAY
  embassy: Jubilaumsstrasse 93, CH-3005 Bern
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [41] (031) 357 70 11
  FAX: [41] (031) 357 73 44

Flag description:
  red square with a bold, equilateral white cross in the center that
  does not extend to the edges of the flag

Economy Switzerland


Economy - overview:
  Switzerland is a peaceful, prosperous, and stable modern market
  economy with low unemployment, a highly skilled labor force, and a
  per capita GDP larger than that of the big Western European
  economies. The Swiss in recent years have brought their economic
  practices largely into conformity with the EU's to enhance their
  international competitiveness. Switzerland remains a safehaven for
  investors, because it has maintained a degree of bank secrecy and
  has kept up the franc's long-term external value. Reflecting the
  anemic economic conditions of Europe, GDP growth dropped in 2001 to
  about 0.8%, to 0.2% in 2002, and to -0.3% in 2003, with a small rise
  to 1.8% in 2004-05. Even so, unemployment has remained at less than
  half the EU average.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $240.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $367 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $32,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.5%
  industry: 34%
  services: 64.5% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  3.8 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 4.6%
  industry: 26.3%
  services: 69.1% (1998)

Unemployment rate:
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1992)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  33.1 (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $138.1 billion
  expenditures: $143.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  52% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grains, fruits, vegetables; meat, eggs

Industries:
  machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision instruments

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  63.4 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.3%
  hydro: 59.5%
  nuclear: 37.1%
  other: 2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  55.86 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  33.2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  30.1 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  1,950 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  258,900 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  10,420 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  289,500 bbl/day (2001)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  3.209 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  3.093 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
  $58.24 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $148.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  machinery, chemicals, metals, watches, agricultural products

Exports - partners:
  Germany 19.4%, US 10.9%, Italy 9.1%, France 8.7%, UK 5.4%, Spain
  4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $135 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, chemicals, vehicles, metals; agricultural products,
  textiles

Imports - partners:
  Germany 31.6%, Italy 10.5%, France 10%, US 5.6%, Netherlands 4.8%,
  Austria 4.6%, UK 4.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $57.64 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $856 billion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $1.1 billion (1995)

Currency (code):
  Swiss franc (CHF)

Currency code:
  CHF

Exchange rates:
  Swiss francs per US dollar - 1.2452 (2005), 1.2435 (2004), 1.3467
  (2003), 1.5586 (2002), 1.6876 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Switzerland


Telephones - main lines in use:
  5.123 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  6.847 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international services
  domestic: extensive cable and microwave radio relay networks
  international: country code - 41; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 113 (plus many low power stations), shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  7.1 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  115 (plus 1,919 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  3.31 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ch

Internet hosts:
  2,442,659 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  44 (Switzerland and Liechtenstein) (2000)

Internet users:
  5,097,822 (2005)

Transportation Switzerland


Airports:
  65 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 42
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 23
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Heliports:
  2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 1,831 km; oil 94 km; refined products 7 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,583 km
  standard gauge: 3,234 km 1.435-m gauge (3,223 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,339 km 1.000-m gauge (1,338 km electrified); 10 km
  0.800-m gauge (10 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 71,297 km
  paved: 71,297 km (including 1,726 of expressways) (2004)

Waterways:
  65 km (Rhine River between Basel-Rheinfelden and
  Schaffhausen-Bodensee) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 27 ships (1000 GRT or over) 492,434 GRT/810,559 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 9, cargo 10, chemical tanker 3, container 4,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Monaco 2)
  registered in other countries: 320 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Bahamas
  2, Belize 1, Bermuda 2, Cyprus 4, France 2, French Southern and
  Antarctic Lands 1, Germany 1, Indonesia 3, Liberia 7, Malta 21,
  Marshall Islands 13, Mauritius 2, Morocco 1, Panama 226, Portugal 3,
  Russia 7, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 13, Tonga 1, Turkey 1, UK
  3, Vanuatu 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Basel

Military Switzerland


Military branches:
  Swiss Armed Forces: Land Forces, Swiss Air Force (Schweizer
  Luftwaffe); Switzerland has no navy, but maintains a fleet of
  military patrol boats to patrol Swiss borders (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  the Swiss Constitution states that "every Swiss male is obliged to
  do military service"; every Swiss male has to serve for at least 260
  days in the armed forces; 19 years of age for compulsory military
  service; 17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscripts
  receive 15 weeks of compulsory training, followed by 10 intermittent
  recalls for training over the next 22 years; women are accepted on a
  voluntary basis but are not drafted (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 1,707,694
  females age 19-49: 1,662,099 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 1,375,889
  females age 19-49: 1,342,945 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 46,319
  females age 19-49: 43,829 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $2.548 billion (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Switzerland


Disputes - international:
  none

Illicit drugs:
  a major international financial center vulnerable to the layering
  and integration stages of money laundering; despite significant
  legislation and reporting requirements, secrecy rules persist and
  nonresidents are permitted to conduct business through offshore
  entities and various intermediaries; transit country for and
  consumer of South American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Syria

Introduction Syria


Background:
  Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I,
  France administered Syria until its independence in 1946. The
  country lacked political stability, however, and experienced a
  series of military coups during its first decades. Syria united with
  Egypt in February 1958 to form the United Arab Republic, but in
  September 1961 the two entities separated and the Syrian Arab
  Republic was reestablished. In November 1970, Hafiz al-ASAD, a
  member of the Socialist Ba'th Party and the minority Alawite sect,
  seized power in a bloodless coup and brought political stability to
  the country. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan
  Heights to Israel, and over the past decade Syria and Israel have
  held occasional peace talks over its return. Following the death of
  President al-ASAD in July 2000, his son, Bashar al-ASAD, was
  approved as president by popular referendum. Syrian troops -
  stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in an ostensible peacekeeping role -
  were withdrawn in April of 2005.

Geography Syria


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and
  Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
  35 00 N, 38 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 185,180 sq km
  land: 184,050 sq km
  water: 1,130 sq km
  note: includes 1,295 sq km of Israeli-occupied territory

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than North Dakota

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,253 km
  border countries: Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon
  375 km, Turkey 822 km

Coastline:
  193 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 41 nm

Climate:
  mostly desert; hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and mild,
  rainy winters (December to February) along coast; cold weather with
  snow or sleet periodically in Damascus

Terrain:
  primarily semiarid and desert plateau; narrow coastal plain;
  mountains in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: unnamed location near Lake Tiberias -200 m
  highest point: Mount Hermon 2,814 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron
  ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 24.8%
  permanent crops: 4.47%
  other: 70.73% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  13,330 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  dust storms, sandstorms

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; water
  pollution from raw sewage and petroleum refining wastes; inadequate
  potable water

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the
  Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (August 2005 est.)

People Syria


Population:
  18,881,361
  note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied
  Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and
  about 20,000 Israeli settlers (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37% (male 3,592,915/female 3,384,722)
  15-64 years: 59.7% (male 5,779,257/female 5,500,887)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 296,070/female 327,510) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.7 years
  male: 20.6 years
  female: 20.9 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  27.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 28.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.36 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.32 years
  male: 69.01 years
  female: 71.7 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Syrian(s)
  adjective: Syrian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawite, Druze, and other Muslim sects 16%,
  Christian (various sects) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus,
  Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)

Languages:
  Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely
  understood; French, English somewhat understood

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.9%
  male: 89.7%
  female: 64% (2003 est.)

Government Syria


Country name:
  conventional long form: Syrian Arab Republic
  conventional short form: Syria
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Arabiyah as Suriyah
  local short form: Suriyah
  former: United Arab Republic (with Egypt)

Government type:
  republic under an authoritarian, military-dominated regime

Capital:
  name: Damascus
  geographic coordinates: 33 30 N, 36 18 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins 1 April; ends 30 September

Administrative divisions:
  14 provinces (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Hasakah, Al
  Ladhiqiyah, Al Qunaytirah, Ar Raqqah, As Suwayda', Dar'a, Dayr az
  Zawr, Dimashq, Halab, Hamah, Hims, Idlib, Rif Dimashq, Tartus

Independence:
  17 April 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under French
  administration)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 17 April (1946)

Constitution:
  13 March 1973

Legal system:
  based on a combination of French and Ottoman civil law; religious
  law is used in the family court system; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Bashar al-ASAD (since 17 July 2000); Vice
  President Farouk al-SHARA (since 11 February 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-UTRI (since 10
  September 2003); Deputy Prime Minister Abdallah al-DARDARI (since 14
  June 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president approved by popular referendum for a seven-year
  term (no term limits); referendum last held 10 July 2000 - after the
  death of President Hafiz al-ASAD, father of Bashar al-ASAD - (next
  to be held 2007); vice president appointed by the president; prime
  minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Bashar al-ASAD approved as president; percent of
  vote - Bashar al-ASAD 97.29%
  note: Hafiz al-ASAD died on 10 June 2000; on 20 June, the Ba'th
  Party nominated Bashar al-ASAD for president and presented his name
  to the People's Council on 25 June; he was approved by a popular
  referendum on 10 July

Legislative branch:
  unicameral People's Council or Majlis al-Shaab (250 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 2-3 March 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NPF 67%, independents
  33%; seats by party - NPF 167, independents 83; note - the
  constitution guarantees that the Ba'th Party (part of the NPF
  alliance) receives one-half of the seats

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Constitutional Court (adjudicates electoral disputes and
  rules on constitutionality of laws and decrees; justices appointed
  for four-year terms by the President); High Judicial Council
  (appoints and dismisses judges; headed by the President); Court of
  Cassation (national level); State Security Courts (hear cases
  related to national security); Personal Status Courts (religious;
  hear cases related to marriage and divorce); Courts of First
  Instance (local level; include magistrate, summary, and peace courts)

Political parties and leaders:
  Arab Socialist Unionist Movement [Ahmed al-AHMED]; National
  Progressive Front or NPF (includes Arab Socialist Renaissance
  (Ba'th) Party; the governing party) [President Bashar al-ASAD,
  secretary general]; Socialist Unionist Democratic Party [Fadlallal
  Nasr Al-DIN]; Syrian Arab Socialist Party or ASP [Safwan QUDSI];
  Syrian Communist Party (two branches) [Wissal Farha BAKDASH, Yuusuf
  Rashid FAYSAL]; Syrian Social National Party [Jubran URAYJI];
  Unionist Socialist Party [Fayez ISMAIL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Kurdish Democratic Alliance (includes several groups but has no
  designated leader); Kurdish Democratic Front (includes several
  groups but has no designated leader); Muslim Brotherhood (operates
  in exile in London) [Sadr al-Din al-BAYANUNI]; National Democratic
  Front [Hassan Abd al-AZIM]

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Imad MUSTAFA
  chancery: 2215 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-6313
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-9548

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Michael
  CORBIN
  embassy: Abou Roumaneh, Al-Mansour Street, No. 2, Damascus
  mailing address: P. O. Box 29, Damascus
  telephone: [963] (11) 333-1342
  FAX: [963] (11) 224-7938

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black, colors
  associated with the Arab Liberation flag; two small green
  five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band;
  former flag of the United Arab Republic where the two stars
  represented the constituent states of Syria and Egypt; similar to
  the flag of Yemen, which has a plain white band, Iraq, which has
  three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line
  centered in the white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold
  Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band; the current design
  dates to 1980

Economy Syria


Economy - overview:
  The Syrian Government estimates the economy grew by 4.5 percent in
  real terms in 2005, led by the petroleum and agricultural sectors,
  which together account for about half of GDP. Economic performance
  and the exchange rate on the informal market were hit by
  international political developments following the assassination in
  February of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-HARIRI and the
  specter of international sanctions. Higher crude oil prices
  countered declining oil production and exports and helped to narrow
  the budget deficit and widen the current account surplus. The
  Government of Syria has implemented modest economic reforms in the
  last few years, including cutting interest rates, opening private
  banks, consolidating some of the multiple exchange rates, and
  raising prices on some subsidized foodstuffs. Nevertheless, the
  economy remains highly controlled by the government. Long-run
  economic constraints include declining oil production and exports,
  increasing pressure on water supplies caused by rapid population
  growth, industrial expansion, and water pollution.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $71.42 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $25.84 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 24.9%
  industry: 23%
  services: 51.9% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  5.12 million (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 27%
  services: 43% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.3% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  20% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $6.392 billion
  expenditures: $7.613 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $3.23 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  40.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, barley, cotton, lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar beets;
  beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, milk

Industries:
  petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate
  rock mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  7% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  29.53 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 57.6%
  hydro: 42.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  28.26 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  403,800 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  240,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  285,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  2.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  6.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  6.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  240.7 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.097 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.344 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton fiber,
  clothing, meat and live animals, wheat

Exports - partners:
  Iraq 22.3%, Saudi Arabia 15.3%, Italy 8.4%, Germany 8.3%, Lebanon
  7.7%, Egypt 4.3%, France 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $5.973 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, electric power machinery, food
  and livestock, metal and metal products, chemicals and chemical
  products, plastics, yarn, paper

Imports - partners:
  Saudi Arabia 10.6%, China 5.6%, Egypt 5.4%, Italy 5.3%, UAE 5.2%,
  Ukraine 4.2%, Germany 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $5.363 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $8.566 billion; note - excludes military debt and debt to Russia
  (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $180 million (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
  Syrian pound (SYP)

Currency code:
  SYP

Exchange rates:
  Syrian pounds per US dollar - (public sector rate): 11.225 (2005),
  11.225 (2004), 11.225 (2003), 11.225 (2002), 11.225 (2001),
  (parallel market rate in 'Amman and Beirut): NA (2005), NA (2004),
  52.8 (2003), 52.4 (2002), 50.4 (2001), (official rate for repaying
  loans): 11.25 (2004)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Syria


Telephones - main lines in use:
  2.903 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2.95 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system currently undergoing significant
  improvement and digital upgrades, including fiber-optic technology
  domestic: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 963; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region);
  1 submarine cable; coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Iraq,
  Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey; participant in Medarabtel

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 14, FM 2, shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  4.15 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  44 (plus 17 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  1.05 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .sy

Internet hosts:
  66 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  1.1 million (2005)

Transportation Syria


Airports:
  92 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 66
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 54 (2006)

Heliports:
  7 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,764 km; oil 2,000 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,711 km
  standard gauge: 2,460 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 251 km 1.050-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 91,795 km
  paved: 18,451 km
  unpaved: 73,344 km (2003)

Waterways:
  900 km (not economically significant) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 108 ships (1000 GRT or over) 386,603 GRT/563,506 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 93, container 1, livestock carrier 4,
  petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 11 (Lebanon 7, Romania 3, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 130 (Cambodia 20, Comoros 4, Cyprus
  3, Dominica 1, Georgia 43, Hong Kong 1, North Korea 14, Lebanon 1,
  Malta 7, Mongolia 1, Panama 18, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Sierra Leone 1, Slovakia 2, unknown 5)
  (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Baniyas, Latakia

Military Syria


Military branches:
  Syrian Armed Forces: Syrian Arab Army (includes Syrian Arab Navy),
  Syrian Arab Air and Air Defense Force (includes Air Defense Command)
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 30 months (18 months in the Syrian Arab Navy); women
  are not conscripted but may volunteer to serve (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,356,413
  females age 18-49: 4,123,339 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,453,888
  females age 18-49: 3,421,558 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 225,113
  females age 18-49: 211,829 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $858 million (FY00 est.); note - based on official budget data that
  may understate actual spending

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5.9% (FY00)

Transnational Issues Syria


Disputes - international:
  Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied with the almost 1,000-strong UN
  Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) patrolling a buffer zone since
  1964; Lebanon claims Shaba'a farms in Golan Heights; international
  pressure prompts the removal of Syrian troops and intelligence
  personnel stationed in Lebanon since October 1976; 2004 Agreement
  and pending demarcation settles border dispute with Jordan

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 432,048 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA)) 14,391 (Iraq)
  IDPs: 170,000 (most displaced from Golan Heights during 1967
  Arab-Israeli War) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Syria is a destination country for women from
  South and Southeast Asia and Africa for domestic servitude and from
  Eastern Europe and Iraq for sexual exploitation; women are recruited
  for work in Syria as domestic servants, but some face conditions of
  exploitation and involuntary servitude including long hours,
  non-payment of wages, withholding of passports and other
  restrictions on movement, and physical and sexual abuse; Eastern
  European women recruited for work in Syria as cabaret dancers are
  not permitted to leave their work premises without permission and
  have their passports withheld; some displaced Iraqi women and
  children are reportedly forced into sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Syria does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  a transit point for opiates and hashish bound for regional and
  Western markets; weak anti-money-laundering controls and bank
  privatization may leave it vulnerable to money-laundering


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Taiwan

Introduction Taiwan


Background:
  In 1895, military defeat forced China to cede Taiwan to Japan.
  Taiwan reverted to Chinese control after World War II. Following the
  Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million Nationalists
  fled to Taiwan and established a government using the 1946
  constitution drawn up for all of China. Over the next five decades,
  the ruling authorities gradually democratized and incorporated the
  native population within the governing structure. In 2000, Taiwan
  underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from the Nationalist
  to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this period, the
  island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic "Tigers."
  The dominant political issues continue to be the relationship
  between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of eventual
  unification - as well as domestic political and economic reform.

Geography Taiwan


Location:
  Eastern Asia, islands bordering the East China Sea, Philippine Sea,
  South China Sea, and Taiwan Strait, north of the Philippines, off
  the southeastern coast of China

Geographic coordinates:
  23 30 N, 121 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 35,980 sq km
  land: 32,260 sq km
  water: 3,720 sq km
  note: includes the Pescadores, Matsu, and Quemoy

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  1,566.3 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; marine; rainy season during southwest monsoon (June to
  August); cloudiness is persistent and extensive all year

Terrain:
  eastern two-thirds mostly rugged mountains; flat to gently rolling
  plains in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Yu Shan 3,952 m

Natural resources:
  small deposits of coal, natural gas, limestone, marble, and asbestos

Land use:
  arable land: 24%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 75% (2001)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes and typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution; water pollution from industrial emissions, raw
  sewage; contamination of drinking water supplies; trade in
  endangered species; low-level radioactive waste disposal

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: none of the selected agreements because of Taiwan's
  international status
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements because of
  Taiwan's international status

Geography - note:
  strategic location adjacent to both the Taiwan Strait and the Luzon
  Strait

People Taiwan


Population:
  23,036,087 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 19.4% (male 2,330,951/female 2,140,965)
  15-64 years: 70.8% (male 8,269,421/female 8,040,169)
  65 years and over: 9.8% (male 1,123,429/female 1,131,152) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 34.6 years
  male: 34.1 years
  female: 35 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.61% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.99 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.43 years
  male: 74.67 years
  female: 80.47 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Taiwan (singular and plural)
  note: example - he or she is from Taiwan; they are from Taiwan
  adjective: Taiwan

Ethnic groups:
  Taiwanese (including Hakka) 84%, mainland Chinese 14%, aborigine 2%

Religions:
  mixture of Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist 93%, Christian 4.5%,
  other 2.5%

Languages:
  Mandarin Chinese (official), Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.1%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003)

Government Taiwan


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Taiwan
  local long form: none
  local short form: T'ai-wan
  former: Formosa

Government type:
  multiparty democracy

Capital:
  name: Taipei
  geographic coordinates: 25 03 N, 121 30 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  includes central island of Taiwan plus numerous smaller islands
  near central island and off coast of China's Fujian Province; Taiwan
  is divided into 18 counties (hsien, singular and plural), 5
  municipalities (shih, singular and plural), and 2 special
  municipalities (chuan-shih, singular and plural)
  counties: Chang-hua, Chia-i, Hsin-chu, Hua-lien, I-lan, Kao-hsiung
  (county), Kin-men, Lien-chiang, Miao-li, Nan-t'ou, P'eng-hu,
  P'ing-tung, T'ai-chung, T'ai-nan, T'ai-pei (county), T'ai-tung,
  T'ao-yuan, and Yun-lin
  municipalities: Chia-i, Chi-lung, Hsin-chu, T'ai-chung, T'ai-nan
  special municipalities: Kao-hsiung city, T'ai-pei city
  note: Taiwan generally uses Wade-Giles system for romanization;
  special municipality of Taipei adopted standard pinyin romanization
  for street and place names within city boundaries, other local
  authorities have selected a variety of romanization systems

National holiday:
  Republic Day (Anniversary of the Chinese Revolution), 10 October
  (1911)

Constitution:
  25 December 1946; amended in 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  20 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President CHEN Shui-bian (since 20 May 2000) and
  Vice President Annette LU (LU Hsiu-lien) (since 20 May 2000)
  head of government: Premier (President of the Executive Yuan) SU
  Tseng-chang (since 25 January 2006) and Vice Premier (Vice President
  of the Executive Yuan) TSAI Ing-wen (since 25 January 2006)
  cabinet: Executive Yuan appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 20 March 2004 (next to be held in March 2008);
  premier appointed by the president; vice premiers appointed by the
  president on the recommendation of the premier
  election results: CHEN Shui-bian re-elected president; percent of
  vote - CHEN Shui-bian (DPP) 50.1%, LIEN Chan (KMT) 49.9%

Legislative branch:
  Legislative Yuan (225 seats - 168 elected by popular vote, 41
  elected on basis of proportion of islandwide votes received by
  participating political parties, eight elected from overseas Chinese
  constituencies on basis of proportion of island-wide votes received
  by participating political parties, eight elected by popular vote
  among aboriginal populations; members serve three-year terms);
  National Assembly (300 seat nonstanding body; delegates nominated by
  parties and elected by proportional representation six to nine
  months after Legislative Yuan calls to amend Constitution, impeach
  president, or change national borders) - see note
  note: as a result of constitutional amendments approved by National
  Assembly in June 2005, number of seats in legislature will be
  reduced from 225 to 113 beginning with election in 2007; amendments
  also eliminated National Assembly thus giving Taiwan a unicameral
  legislature
  elections: Legislative Yuan - last held 11 December 2004 (next to be
  held in December 2007); National Assembly - last held 14 May 2005;
  dissolved in June 2005
  election results: Legislative Yuan - percent of vote by party - DPP
  38%, KMT 35%, PFP 15%, TSU 8%, other parties and independents 4%;
  seats by party - DPP 89, KMT 79, PFP 34, TSU 12, other parties 7,
  independents 4; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - DPP
  42.5%, KMT 38.9%, TSU 7%, PFP 6%, others 6.6%; seats by party - DPP
  127, KMT 117, TSU 21, PFP 18, others 17 (2005)

Judicial branch:
  Judicial Yuan (justices appointed by the president with consent of
  the Legislative Yuan)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Progressive Party or DPP [YU Shyi-kun]; Kuomintang or
  KMT (Nationalist Party) [MA Ying-jeou]; People First Party or PFP
  [James SOONG (SOONG Chu-yu)]; Taiwan Solidarity Union or TSU [SU
  Chin-chiang]; other minor parties including the Chinese New Party or
  NP

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Taiwan independence movement, various business and environmental
  groups
  note: debate on Taiwan independence has become acceptable within the
  mainstream of domestic politics on Taiwan; political liberalization
  and the increased representation of opposition parties in Taiwan's
  legislature have opened public debate on the island's national
  identity; a broad popular consensus has developed that Taiwan
  currently enjoys de facto independence and - whatever the ultimate
  outcome regarding reunification or independence - that Taiwan's
  people must have the deciding voice; advocates of Taiwan
  independence oppose the stand that the island will eventually unify
  with mainland China; goals of the Taiwan independence movement
  include establishing a sovereign nation on Taiwan and entering the
  UN; other organizations supporting Taiwan independence include the
  World United Formosans for Independence and the Organization for
  Taiwan Nation Building

International organization participation:
  APEC, AsDB, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IFRCS, IOC, WCL, WTO
  note: Taiwan has acquired observer status on the competition
  committee and special observer status on the Trade Committee of the
  OECD, and is seeking observer status with the backing of the US in
  WHO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none; unofficial commercial and cultural relations with the people
  of the US are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the
  Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US
  with headquarters in Taipei and field offices in Washington and 12
  other US cities

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none; unofficial commercial and cultural relations with the people
  on Taiwan are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality - the
  American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - which has offices in the US and
  Taiwan; US office at 1700 N. Moore St., Suite 1700, Arlington, VA
  22209-1996, telephone: [1] (703) 525-8474, FAX: [1] (703) 841-1385);
  Taiwan offices at #7 Lane 134, Hsin Yi Road, Section 3, Taipei,
  Taiwan, telephone: [886] (2) 2162-2000, FAX: [886] (2) 2162-2251; #2
  Chung Cheng 3rd Road, 5th Floor, Kao-hsiung, Taiwan, telephone:
  [886] (7) 238-7744, FAX: [886] (7) 238-5237; and the American Trade
  Center, Room 3208 International Trade Building, Taipei World Trade
  Center, 333 Keelung Road Section 1, Taipei, Taiwan 10548, telephone:
  [886] (2) 2720-1550, FAX: [886] (2) 2757-7162

Flag description:
  red with a dark blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner
  bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays

Economy Taiwan


Economy - overview:
  Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing
  guidance of investment and foreign trade by government authorities.
  In keeping with this trend, some large, government-owned banks and
  industrial firms are being privatized. Exports have provided the
  primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is
  substantial, and foreign reserves are the world's third largest.
  Agriculture contributes less than 2% to GDP, down from 32% in 1952.
  Taiwan is a major investor throughout Southeast Asia. China has
  overtaken the US to become Taiwan's largest export market and, in
  2005, Taiwan's third-largest source of imports after Japan and the
  US. Taiwan has benefited from cross-Strait economic integration and
  a sharp increase in world demand to achieve substantial growth in
  its export sector and a seven-year-high real GDP growth of 6.1% in
  2004. However, excess inventory, higher international oil prices,
  and rising interest rates dampened consumption in developed markets,
  and GDP growth dropped to 3.8% in 2005. The service sector, which
  accounts for 69% of Taiwan's GDP, has continued to expand, while
  unemployment and inflation rates have declined.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $630 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $323.4 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $27,500 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 72.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  10.6 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 35.8%
  services: 58.2% (2005 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  0.9% (2005)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 6.7%
  highest 10%: 41.1% (2002 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $41.67 billion
  expenditures: $50.26 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $14.4 billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  33.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, corn, vegetables, fruit, tea; pigs, poultry, beef, milk; fish

Industries:
  electronics, petroleum refining, armaments, chemicals, textiles,
  iron and steel, machinery, cement, food processing, vehicles,
  consumer products, pharmaceuticals

Industrial production growth rate:
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  218.3 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 71.4%
  hydro: 6%
  nuclear: 22.6%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  206.1 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  8,354 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  915,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  2.9 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  970 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  8.45 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  7.48 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  76.46 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $16.22 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $189.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  computer products and electrical equipment, metals, textiles,
  plastics and rubber products, chemicals (2002)

Exports - partners:
  China 21.6%, US 16.22%, Hong Kong 15.1%, Japan 7.7% (2005)

Imports:
  $181.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and electrical equipment 44.5%, minerals, precision
  instruments (2002)

Imports - partners:
  Japan 25.3%, US 11.6%, China 11%, South Korea 7.3%, Saudi Arabia
  4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $258 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $87.5 billion (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  new Taiwan dollar (TWD)

Currency code:
  TWD

Exchange rates:
  new Taiwan dollars per US dollar - 31.71 (2005), 34.418 (2004),
  34.575 (2003), 33.8 (2002), 33.09 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June (up to FY98/99); 1 July 1999 - 31 December 2000
  for FY00; calendar year (after FY00)

Communications Taiwan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  13.615 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  22.17 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: provides telecommunications service for every
  business and private need
  domestic: thoroughly modern; completely digitalized
  international: country code - 886; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); submarine cables to
  Japan (Okinawa), Philippines, Guam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
  Australia, Middle East, and Western Europe (1999)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 218, FM 333, shortwave 50 (1999)

Radios:
  16 million (1994)

Television broadcast stations:
  29 (plus two repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  8.8 million (1998)

Internet country code:
  .tw

Internet hosts:
  4,320,310 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  8 (2000)

Internet users:
  13.21 million (2005)

Transportation Taiwan


Airports:
  42 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 38
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 25 km; gas 661 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,497 km
  narrow gauge: 1,097 km 1.067-m gauge (685 km electrified)
  note: 1,400 km .762-m gauge (belonging to the Taiwan Sugar
  Corporation and to the Taiwan Forestry Bureau) used to carry
  products and limited numbers of passengers (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 37,299 km
  paved: 35,621 km (including 1,789 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 1,678 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 112 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,798,992 GRT/4,652,921 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 35, cargo 22, chemical tanker 2, container 25,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 16, refrigerated cargo 7, roll
  on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 3 (Hong Kong 3)
  registered in other countries: 463 (Bolivia 1, Cambodia 2, Honduras
  2, Hong Kong 6, Italy 10, Liberia 69, Malta 2, Panama 308, Singapore
  59, UK 1, US 1, unknown 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Chi-lung (Keelung), Hua-lien, Kao-hsiung, Su-ao, T'ai-chung

Military Taiwan


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes Marine Corps), Air Force, Coast Guard
  Administration, Armed Forces Reserve Command, Combined Service
  Forces Command, Armed Forces Police Command

Military service age and obligation:
  19-35 years of age for military service; service obligation 16
  months (to be shortened to 12 months in 2008); women in Air Force
  service are restricted to noncombat roles (2005)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 19-49: 5,883,828
  females age 19-49: 5,680,773 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 19-49: 4,749,537
  females age 19-49: 4,644,607 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 174,173
  females age 19-49: 163,683 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $7.93 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Taiwan


Disputes - international:
  involved in complex dispute with China, Malaysia, Philippines,
  Vietnam, and possibly Brunei over the Spratly Islands; the 2002
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" has
  eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code of
  conduct" desired by several of the disputants; Paracel Islands are
  occupied by China, but claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam; in 2003, China
  and Taiwan became more vocal in rejecting both Japan's claims to the
  uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's
  unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea
  where all parties engage in hydrocarbon prospecting

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Taiwan is primarily a destination for men,
  women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; women from China and Southeast Asian countries are
  trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor; women and
  children, primarily from Vietnam, are trafficked through the use of
  fraudulent marriages, deceptive employment offers, and illegal
  smuggling for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; a
  significant share of foreign workers - primarily from Vietnam,
  Thailand, and the Philippines - are recruited legally for
  low-skilled jobs, and are subjected to forced labor or involuntary
  servitude by labor agencies or employers upon arrival in Taiwan; to
  a much lesser extent, there is internal trafficking of children for
  sexual exploitation and trafficking of a small and declining number
  of Taiwanese women to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Taiwan is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts
  over the past year to address trafficking, despite ample resources
  to do so, particularly the serious level of forced labor and sexual
  servitude among legally migrating Southeast Asian contract workers
  and brides

Illicit drugs:
  regional transit point for heroin and methamphetamine; major
  problem with domestic consumption of methamphetamine and heroin;
  renewal of domestic methamphetamine production is a problem


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tajikistan

Introduction Tajikistan


Background:
  The Tajik people came under Russian rule in the 1860s and 1870s,
  but Russia's hold on Central Asia weakened following the Revolution
  of 1917. Bolshevik control of the area was fiercely contested and
  not fully reestablished until 1925. Tajikistan became independent in
  1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and it is now in the
  process of strengthening its democracy and transitioning to a free
  market economy after its 1992-1997 civil war. There have been no
  major security incidents in recent years, although the country
  remains the poorest in the former Soviet sphere. Attention by the
  international community in the wake of the war in Afghanistan has
  brought increased economic development assistance, which could
  create jobs and increase stability in the long term. Tajikistan is
  in the early stages of seeking World Trade Organization membership
  and has joined NATO's Partnership for Peace.

Geography Tajikistan


Location:
  Central Asia, west of China

Geographic coordinates:
  39 00 N, 71 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 143,100 sq km
  land: 142,700 sq km
  water: 400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Wisconsin

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,651 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 1,206 km, China 414 km, Kyrgyzstan 870
  km, Uzbekistan 1,161 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  midlatitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to
  polar in Pamir Mountains

Terrain:
  Pamir and Alay Mountains dominate landscape; western Fergana Valley
  in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Syr Darya (Sirdaryo) 300 m
  highest point: Qullai Ismoili Somoni 7,495 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal, lead,
  zinc, antimony, tungsten, silver, gold

Land use:
  arable land: 6.52%
  permanent crops: 0.89%
  other: 92.59% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  7,220 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  earthquakes and floods

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate sanitation facilities; increasing levels of soil
  salinity; industrial pollution; excessive pesticides

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Environmental Modification, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; mountainous region dominated by the Trans-Alay Range in
  the north and the Pamirs in the southeast; highest point, Qullai
  Ismoili Somoni (formerly Communism Peak), was the tallest mountain
  in the former USSR

People Tajikistan


Population:
  7,320,815 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37.9% (male 1,396,349/female 1,375,168)
  15-64 years: 57.4% (male 2,091,476/female 2,108,889)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 154,162/female 194,771) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.19% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  32.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -2.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 106.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 117.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.94 years
  male: 62.03 years
  female: 68 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Tajikistani(s)
  adjective: Tajikistani

Ethnic groups:
  Tajik 79.9%, Uzbek 15.3%, Russian 1.1%, Kyrgyz 1.1%, other 2.6%
  (2000 census)

Religions:
  Sunni Muslim 85%, Shi'a Muslim 5%, other 10% (2003 est.)

Languages:
  Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and business

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.4%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99.1% (2003 est.)

Government Tajikistan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Tajikistan
  conventional short form: Tajikistan
  local long form: Jumhurii Tojikiston
  local short form: Tojikiston
  former: Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Dushanbe
  geographic coordinates: 38 35 N, 68 48 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  2 provinces (viloyatho, singular - viloyat) and 1 autonomous
  province* (viloyati mukhtor); Viloyati Khatlon (Qurghonteppa),
  Viloyati Mukhtori Kuhistoni Badakhshon* [Gorno-Badakhshan]
  (Khorugh), Viloyati Sughd (Khujand)
  note: the administrative center name follows in parentheses

Independence:
  9 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day (or National Day), 9 September (1991)

Constitution:
  6 November 1994

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; no judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Emomali RAHMONOV (since 6 November 1994;
  head of state and Supreme Assembly chairman since 19 November 1992)
  head of government: Prime Minister Oqil OQILOV (since 20 January
  1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president, approved
  by the Supreme Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 6 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2013); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Emomali RAHMONOV reelected president; percent of
  vote - Emomali RAHMONOV 76.4%, Olimzon BOBOYEV 7.2%, other 16.4%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Supreme Assembly or Majlisi Oli consists of the Assembly
  of Representatives (lower chamber) or Majlisi Namoyandagon (63
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  and the National Assembly (upper chamber) or Majlisi Milliy (34
  seats; members are indirectly elected, 25 selected by local
  deputies, 8 appointed by the president; 1 seat reserved for the
  former president; all serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 February and 13 March 2005 for the Assembly
  of Representatives (next to be held February 2010) and 25 March 2005
  for the National Assembly (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: Assembly of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - PDPT 74.9%, CPT 13.6%, Islamic Revival Party 8.9%, other
  2.5%; seats by party - PDPT 51, CPT 5, Islamic Revival Party 2,
  independents 5; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - PDPT 29, CPT 2, independents 3

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Agrarian Party of Tajikistan or APT [Amir KARAKULOV]; Democratic
  Party or DPT [Mahmadruzi ISKANDAROV]; Islamic Revival Party [Said
  Abdullo NURI]; Party of Economic Reform or PER [Olimjon BOBOYEV];
  People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan or PDPT [Emomali RAHMONOV];
  Social Democratic Party or SDPT [Rahmatullo ZOYIROV]; Socialist
  Party or SPT [Abdualim GHAFFOROV]; Tajik Communist Party or CPT
  [Shodi SHABDOLOV]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  unregistered political parties: Agrarian Party [Hikmatullo
  NASREDDINOV]; Party of Justice [Abdurahim KARIMOV]; People's Unity
  Party [Abdumalik ABDULLOJONOV]; Progressive Party [Sulton QUVVATOV];
  Socialist Party [Mirhuseyn NAZRIYEV]; note - this is the SPT that
  was disbanded, another pro-government SPT (listed above under
  political parties) replaced it; Unity Party [Hikmatullo SAIDOV]

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA,
  IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA,
  OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Khamrokhon ZARIPOV
  chancery: 1005 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-6090
  FAX: [1] (202) 223-6091

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tracey Ann JACOBSON
  embassy: 109-A Ismoili Somoni Ave., Dushanbe 734003
  mailing address: 7090 Dushanbe Place, Dulles, VA 20189
  telephone: [992] (37) 229-20-00
  FAX: [992] (37) 229-20-50

Flag description:
  three horizontal stripes of red (top), a wider stripe of white, and
  green; a gold crown surmounted by seven gold, five-pointed stars is
  located in the center of the white stripe

Economy Tajikistan


Economy - overview:
  Tajikistan has one of the lowest per capita GDPs among the 15
  former Soviet republics. Only 6% of the land area is arable; cotton
  is the most important crop. Mineral resources, varied but limited in
  amount, include silver, gold, uranium, and tungsten. Industry
  consists only of a large aluminum plant, hydropower facilities, and
  small obsolete factories mostly in light industry and food
  processing. The civil war (1992-97) severely damaged the already
  weak economic infrastructure and caused a sharp decline in
  industrial and agricultural production. Even though 64% of its
  people continue to live in abject poverty, Tajikistan has
  experienced steady economic growth since 1997, but experienced a
  slight drop in its growth rate to 8% in 2005 from 10.6% in 2004.
  Continued privatization of medium and large state-owned enterprises
  would further increase productivity. Tajikistan's economic
  situation, however, remains fragile due to uneven implementation of
  structural reforms, weak governance, widespread unemployment, and
  the external debt burden. A debt restructuring agreement was reached
  with Russia in December 2002, including a $250 million write-off of
  Tajikistan's $300 million debt to Russia. Tajikistan ranks third in
  the world in terms of water resources per head. A proposed
  investment to finish the hydropower dams Rogun and Sangtuda would
  substantially add to electricity production. If finished, Rogun will
  be the world's tallest dam.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $8.617 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.887 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23.4%
  industry: 28.6%
  services: 48% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.7 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 67.2%
  industry: 7.5%
  services: 25.3% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  64% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  34.7 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $442.3 million
  expenditures: $542.6 million; including capital expenditures of $86
  million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, grain, fruits, grapes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, goats

Industries:
  aluminum, zinc, lead; chemicals and fertilizers, cement, vegetable
  oil, metal-cutting machine tools, refrigerators and freezers

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.2% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
  16.5 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 1.9%
  hydro: 98.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  15.05 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3.874 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  4.81 billion kWh (2004)

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

Oil - consumption:
  25,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  30 million cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.4 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.4 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-44 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $950 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  aluminum, electricity, cotton, fruits, vegetable oil, textiles

Exports - partners:
  Netherlands 46.6%, Turkey 15.8%, Russia 9.1%, Uzbekistan 7.3%,
  Latvia 4.9%, Iran 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.25 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  electricity, petroleum products, aluminum oxide, machinery and
  equipment, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Russia 19.3%, Kazakhstan 12.7%, Uzbekistan 11.5%, Azerbaijan 8.6%,
  China 7%, Ukraine 6.2%, Romania 4.6%, Turkmenistan 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $186.8 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $888 million (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $67 million from US (2005)

Currency (code):
  somoni

Currency code:
  TJS

Exchange rates:
  Tajikistani somoni per US dollar - 3.1166 (2005), 2.9705 (2004),
  3.0614 (2003), 2.7641 (2002), 2.3722 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Tajikistan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  245,200 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  265,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poorly developed and not well maintained; many
  towns are not linked to the national network
  domestic: cable and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 992; linked by cable and microwave
  radio relay to other CIS republics and by leased connections to the
  Moscow international gateway switch; Dushanbe linked by Intelsat to
  international gateway switch in Ankara (Turkey); satellite earth
  stations - 1 Orbita and 2 Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 8, FM 10, shortwave 2 (2002)

Radios:
  1.291 million (1991)

Television broadcast stations:
  13 (2001)

Televisions:
  820,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tj

Internet hosts:
  98 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  4 (2002)

Internet users:
  5,000 (2005)

Transportation Tajikistan


Airports:
  40 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 549 km; oil 38 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 482 km
  broad gauge: 482 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 27,767 km (2000)

Waterways:
  200 km (along Vakhsh River) (2006)

Military Tajikistan


Military branches:
  Ground Troops, Air and Air Defense Troops, Mobile Troops (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,556,415
  females age 18-49: 1,568,780 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,244,941
  females age 18-49: 1,297,891 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 87,846
  females age 18-49: 85,869 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $35.4 million (FY01)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.9% (FY01)

Transnational Issues Tajikistan


Disputes - international:
  boundary agreements signed in 2002 cede 1,000 sq km of Pamir
  Mountain range to China in return for China relinquishing claims to
  28,000 sq km of Tajikistani lands, but neither state has published
  maps of ceded areas and demarcation has not yet commenced; talks
  continue with Uzbekistan to delimit border and remove minefields;
  disputes in Isfara Valley delay delimitation with Kyrgyzstan

Illicit drugs:
  major transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and,
  to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit
  cultivation of opium poppy for domestic consumption; Tajikistan
  seizes roughly 80% of all drugs captured in Central Asia and stands
  third worldwide in seizures of opiates (heroin and raw opium)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tanzania

Introduction Tanzania


Background:
  Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early
  1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania
  in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the first
  democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s. Zanzibar's
  semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to two
  contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won despite
  international observers' claims of voting irregularities.

Geography Tanzania


Location:
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya and
  Mozambique

Geographic coordinates:
  6 00 S, 35 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 945,087 sq km
  land: 886,037 sq km
  water: 59,050 sq km
  note: includes the islands of Mafia, Pemba, and Zanzibar

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than twice the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,861 km
  border countries: Burundi 451 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  459 km, Kenya 769 km, Malawi 475 km, Mozambique 756 km, Rwanda 217
  km, Uganda 396 km, Zambia 338 km

Coastline:
  1,424 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  varies from tropical along coast to temperate in highlands

Terrain:
  plains along coast; central plateau; highlands in north, south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Kilimanjaro 5,895 m

Natural resources:
  hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones,
  gold, natural gas, nickel

Land use:
  arable land: 4.23%
  permanent crops: 1.16%
  other: 94.61% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,840 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  flooding on the central plateau during the rainy season; drought

Environment - current issues:
  soil degradation; deforestation; desertification; destruction of
  coral reefs threatens marine habitats; recent droughts affected
  marginal agriculture; wildlife threatened by illegal hunting and
  trade, especially for ivory

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Kilimanjaro is highest point in Africa; bordered by three of the
  largest lakes on the continent: Lake Victoria (the world's
  second-largest freshwater lake) in the north, Lake Tanganyika (the
  world's second deepest) in the west, and Lake Nyasa in the southwest

People Tanzania


Population:
  37,445,392
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 8,204,593/female 8,176,489)
  15-64 years: 53.6% (male 9,906,446/female 10,178,066)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 422,674/female 557,124) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.5 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.83% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  37.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  16.39 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -3.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 96.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 105.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 87.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 45.64 years
  male: 44.93 years
  female: 46.37 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  8.8% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.6 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  160,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, Rift Valley fever and plague are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Tanzanian(s)
  adjective: Tanzanian

Ethnic groups:
  mainland - African 99% (of which 95% are Bantu consisting of more
  than 130 tribes), other 1% (consisting of Asian, European, and
  Arab); Zanzibar - Arab, African, mixed Arab and African

Religions:
  mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs 35%;
  Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim

Languages:
  Kiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili in
  Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce,
  administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in
  Zanzibar), many local languages
  note: Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people
  living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili
  is Bantu in structure and origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety
  of sources, including Arabic and English, and it has become the
  lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of
  most people is one of the local languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write Kiswahili (Swahili),
  English, or Arabic
  total population: 78.2%
  male: 85.9%
  female: 70.7% (2003 est.)

Government Tanzania


Country name:
  conventional long form: United Republic of Tanzania
  conventional short form: Tanzania
  local long form: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania
  local short form: Tanzania
  former: United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Dar es Salaam
  geographic coordinates: 6 48 S, 39 17 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: legislative offices have been transferred to Dodoma, which is
  planned as the new national capital; the National Assembly now meets
  there on a regular basis

Administrative divisions:
  26 regions; Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera, Kigoma,
  Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Manyara, Mara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara, Mwanza,
  Pemba North, Pemba South, Pwani, Rukwa, Ruvuma, Shinyanga, Singida,
  Tabora, Tanga, Zanzibar Central/South, Zanzibar North, Zanzibar
  Urban/West

Independence:
  26 April 1964; Tanganyika became independent 9 December 1961 (from
  UK-administered UN trusteeship); Zanzibar became independent 19
  December 1963 (from UK); Tanganyika united with Zanzibar 26 April
  1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; renamed
  United Republic of Tanzania 29 October 1964

National holiday:
  Union Day (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), 26 April (1964)

Constitution:
  25 April 1977; major revisions October 1984

Legal system:
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts
  limited to matters of interpretation; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December 2005);
  Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001); note -
  the president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December
  2005); Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  note: Zanzibar elects a president who is head of government for
  matters internal to Zanzibar; Amani Abeid KARUME was reelected to
  that office on 30 October 2005
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ballot
  by popular vote for five-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 14 December 2005(next to be held in December
  2010); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Jakaya KIKWETE elected president; percent of vote
  - Jakaya KIKWETE 80.3%, Ibrahim LIPUMBA 11.7%, Freeman MBOWE 5.9%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Bunge (274 seats - 232 elected by
  popular vote, 37 allocated to women nominated by the president, 5 to
  members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives; members serve
  five-year terms); note - in addition to enacting laws that apply to
  the entire United Republic of Tanzania, the Assembly enacts laws
  that apply only to the mainland; Zanzibar has its own House of
  Representatives to make laws especially for Zanzibar (the Zanzibar
  House of Representatives has 50 seats, directly elected by universal
  suffrage to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 December 2005 (next to be held in December
  2010)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - CCM 206, CUF 19, CHADEMA 5, other 2, women
  appointed by the president 37, Zanzibar representatives 5; Zanzibar
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - CCM 30, CUF 19; 1 seat was nullified with a rerun to take
  place soon

Judicial branch:
  Permanent Commission of Enquiry (official ombudsman); Court of
  Appeal (consists of a chief justice and four judges); High Court
  (consists of a Jaji Kiongozi and 29 judges appointed by the
  president; holds regular sessions in all regions); District Courts;
  Primary Courts (limited jurisdiction and appeals can be made to the
  higher courts)

Political parties and leaders:
  Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Party of Democracy and
  Development) or CHADEMA [Bob MAKANI]; Chama Cha Mapinduzi or CCM
  (Revolutionary Party) [Jakaya Mrisho KIKWETE]; Civic United Front or
  CUF [Ibrahim LIPUMBA]; Democratic Party [Christopher MTIKLA]
  (unregistered); Tanzania Labor Party or TLP [Augustine Lyatonga
  MREME]; United Democratic Party or UDP [John CHEYO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, EADB, FAO, G-6, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, SADC, UN, UN Security
  Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andrew Mhando DARAJA
  chancery: 2139 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6125
  FAX: [1] (202) 797-7408

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael L. RETZER
  embassy: 140 Msese Road, Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9123, Dar es Salaam
  telephone: [255] (22) 2666-010 through 2666-015
  FAX: [255] (22) 2666-701, 2668-501

Flag description:
  divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the lower
  hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the
  lower triangle is blue

Economy Tanzania


Economy - overview:
  Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy
  depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for almost half of
  GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs 80% of the work force.
  Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated crops
  to only 4% of the land area. Industry traditionally featured the
  processing of agricultural products and light consumer goods. The
  World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and bilateral donors
  have provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania's out-of-date economic
  infrastructure and to alleviate poverty. Long-term growth through
  2005 featured a pickup in industrial production and a substantial
  increase in output of minerals, led by gold. Recent banking reforms
  have helped increase private-sector growth and investment. Continued
  donor assistance and solid macroeconomic policies supported real GDP
  growth of more than 6% in 2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $27.11 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $12.12 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 43.2%
  industry: 17.2%
  services: 39.6% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  19.22 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  36% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 30.1% (1993)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  38.2 (1993)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  18.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.235 billion
  expenditures: $2.669 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  65.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, pyrethrum (insecticide made from
  chrysanthemums), cashew nuts, tobacco, cloves, corn, wheat, cassava
  (tapioca), bananas, fruits, vegetables; cattle, sheep, goats

Industries:
  agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes, sisal twine);
  diamond, gold, and iron mining, salt, soda ash; cement, oil
  refining, shoes, apparel, wood products, fertilizer

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.4% (1999 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.152 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 18.9%
  hydro: 81.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.959 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  28 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  22,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  22.65 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-558 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.581 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  gold, coffee, cashew nuts, manufactures, cotton

Exports - partners:
  China 10.2%, Canada 8.6%, India 7.3%, Netherlands 5.2%, Japan 4.5%,
  Kenya 4.4%, Germany 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.391 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  consumer goods, machinery and transportation equipment, industrial
  raw materials, crude oil

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 12.2%, China 9.6%, India 7%, UAE 6.1%, Kenya 5.2%, UK
  4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.074 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $8.178 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.2 billion (2001)

Currency (code):
  Tanzanian shilling (TZS)

Currency code:
  TZS

Exchange rates:
  Tanzanian shillings per US dollar - 1,128.93 (2005), 1,089.33
  (2004), 1,038.42 (2003), 966.58 (2002), 876.41 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Tanzania


Telephones - main lines in use:
  148,400 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.942 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system operating below capacity and being
  modernized for better service; very small aperture terminal (VSAT)
  system under construction
  domestic: trunk service provided by open-wire, microwave radio
  relay, tropospheric scatter, and fiber-optic cable; some links being
  made digital
  international: country code - 255; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 12, FM 11, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  8.8 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (1999)

Televisions:
  103,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tz

Internet hosts:
  8,609 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  333,000 (2005)

Transportation Tanzania


Airports:
  124 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 113
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 62
  under 914 m: 33 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 254 km; oil 872 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,690 km
  narrow gauge: 969 km 1.067-m gauge; 2,721 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 78,891 km
  paved: 6,808 km
  unpaved: 72,083 km (2003)

Waterways:
  Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, and Lake Nyasa principal avenues of
  commerce with neighboring countries; rivers not navigable (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 24,801 GRT/31,507 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 4
  registered in other countries: 2 (Honduras 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, Zanzibar City

Military Tanzania


Military branches:
  Tanzanian People's Defense Force (JWTZ): Army, Naval Wing, Air
  Defense Command (includes air wing), National Service

Military service age and obligation:
  15 years of age for voluntary military service; 18 years of age for
  compulsory military service upon graduation from secondary school;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,422,869 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 3,879,630 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $21.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Tanzania


Disputes - international:
  disputes with Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi)
  and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 443,706 (Burundi) 153,474 (Democratic
  Republic of the Congo) 3,036 (Somalia) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  growing role in transshipment of Southwest and Southeast Asian
  heroin and South American cocaine destined for South African,
  European, and US markets and of South Asian methaqualone bound for
  southern Africa; money laundering remains a problem


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Thailand

Introduction Thailand


Background:
  A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century.
  Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian
  country never to have been taken over by a European power. A
  bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In
  alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally
  following the conflict. Thailand is currently facing armed violence
  in its three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.

Geography Thailand


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of
  Thailand, southeast of Burma

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 100 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 514,000 sq km
  land: 511,770 sq km
  water: 2,230 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of Wyoming

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,863 km
  border countries: Burma 1,800 km, Cambodia 803 km, Laos 1,754 km,
  Malaysia 506 km

Coastline:
  3,219 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical; rainy, warm, cloudy southwest monsoon (mid-May to
  September); dry, cool northeast monsoon (November to mid-March);
  southern isthmus always hot and humid

Terrain:
  central plain; Khorat Plateau in the east; mountains elsewhere

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 m
  highest point: Doi Inthanon 2,576 m

Natural resources:
  tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, timber, lead, fish,
  gypsum, lignite, fluorite, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 27.54%
  permanent crops: 6.93%
  other: 65.53% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  49,860 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  land subsidence in Bangkok area resulting from the depletion of the
  water table; droughts

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution from vehicle emissions; water pollution from organic
  and factory wastes; deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife
  populations threatened by illegal hunting

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  controls only land route from Asia to Malaysia and Singapore

People Thailand


Population:
  64,631,595
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 22% (male 7,284,068/female 6,958,632)
  15-64 years: 70% (male 22,331,312/female 22,880,588)
  65 years and over: 8% (male 2,355,190/female 2,821,805) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.9 years
  male: 31.1 years
  female: 32.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.68% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.87 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.04 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 19.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.25 years
  male: 69.95 years
  female: 74.68 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  570,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  58,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis,
  and plague are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US personnel who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Thai (singular and plural)
  adjective: Thai

Ethnic groups:
  Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%

Religions:
  Buddhist 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christian 0.7%, other 0.1% (2000
  census)

Languages:
  Thai, English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and
  regional dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 94.9%
  female: 90.5% (2002)

Government Thailand


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Thailand
  conventional short form: Thailand
  local long form: Ratcha Anachak Thai
  local short form: Prathet Thai
  former: Siam

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Bangkok
  geographic coordinates: 13 45 N, 100 31 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  76 provinces (changwat, singular and plural); Amnat Charoen, Ang
  Thong, Buriram, Chachoengsao, Chai Nat, Chaiyaphum, Chanthaburi,
  Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Chon Buri, Chumphon, Kalasin, Kamphaeng
  Phet, Kanchanaburi, Khon Kaen, Krabi, Krung Thep Mahanakhon
  (Bangkok), Lampang, Lamphun, Loei, Lop Buri, Mae Hong Son, Maha
  Sarakham, Mukdahan, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Phanom,
  Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nan,
  Narathiwat, Nong Bua Lamphu, Nong Khai, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani,
  Pattani, Phangnga, Phatthalung, Phayao, Phetchabun, Phetchaburi,
  Phichit, Phitsanulok, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phrae, Phuket,
  Prachin Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ranong, Ratchaburi, Rayong, Roi
  Et, Sa Kaeo, Sakon Nakhon, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Samut
  Songkhram, Sara Buri, Satun, Sing Buri, Sisaket, Songkhla,
  Sukhothai, Suphan Buri, Surat Thani, Surin, Tak, Trang, Trat, Ubon
  Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Uthai Thani, Uttaradit, Yala, Yasothon

Independence:
  1238 (traditional founding date; never colonized)

National holiday:
  Birthday of King PHUMIPHON, 5 December (1927)

Constitution:
  constitution signed by King PHUMIPHON on 11 October 1997; abrogated
  on 19 September 2006 after coup; interim constitution promulgated on
  1 October 2006; junta has promised new constitution by October 2007

Legal system:
  based on civil law system, with influences of common law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King PHUMIPHON Adunyadet (since 9 June 1946)
  head of government: Interim Prime Minister SURAYUT Chulanon (since 1
  October 2006); Interim Deputy Prime Ministers KHOSIT Panpiamrat
  (since 9 October 2006); PRIDIYATHON Thewakun (since 9 October 2006)
  note: Prime Minister THAKSIN Chinnawat was overthrown on 19
  September 2006 in a coup led by General SONTHI Boonyaratglin
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  note: there is also a Privy Council
  elections: none; monarch is hereditary; according to 1997
  constitution, prime minister was designated from among members of
  House of Representatives; following national elections for House of
  Representatives, leader of party that could organize a majority
  coalition usually was appointed prime minister by king

Legislative branch:
  bicameral National Assembly or Rathasapha consisted of the Senate
  or Wuthisapha (200 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Sapha Phuthaen
  Ratsadon (500 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms); after coup in September 2006, junta appointed an
  interim National Assembly with 250 members to act as Senate and
  House of Representatives; body has no vote on government matters
  elections: Senate - last held 19 April 2006; House of
  Representatives - last held 6 February 2005; junta scheduled next
  general election by October 2007
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; House of Representatives - (2005 election) percent of
  vote by party - NA; seats by party - TRT 376, DP 97, TNP 25, PP 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court or Sandika (judges appointed by the monarch)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democrat Party or DP (Prachathipat Party) [ABHISIT Wetchachiwa];
  People's Party or PP (Mahachon Party) [ANEK Laothamatas]; Thai
  Nation Party or TNP (Chat Thai Party) [BARNHARN SILPA-ARCHA]; Thai
  Rak Thai Party or TRT [CHATURON Chaisang]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC (observer), ONUB, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Virasakdi FUTRAKUL
  chancery: 1024 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 401, Washington, DC
  20007-3681
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-3600
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-3611
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ralph L. BOYCE
  embassy: 120-122 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330
  mailing address: APO AP 96546
  telephone: [66] (2) 205-4000
  FAX: [66] (2) 254-2990, 205-4131
  consulate(s) general: Chiang Mai

Flag description:
  five horizontal bands of red (top), white, blue (double width),
  white, and red

Economy Thailand


Economy - overview:
  With a well-developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise economy,
  and pro-investment policies, Thailand appears to have fully
  recovered from the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. The country was
  one of East Asia's best performers in 2002-04. Boosted by increased
  consumption and strong export growth, the Thai economy grew 6.9% in
  2003 and 6.1% in 2004 despite a sluggish global economy. Bangkok has
  pursued preferential trade agreements with a variety of partners in
  an effort to boost exports and to maintain high growth. In 2004,
  Thailand and the US began negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement. In
  late December 2004, a major tsunami took 8,500 lives in Thailand and
  caused massive destruction of property in the southern provinces of
  Krabi, Phangnga, and Phuket. Growth slowed to 4.4% in 2005. The
  downturn can be attributed to high oil prices, weaker demand from
  Western markets, severe drought in rural regions, tsunami-related
  declines in tourism, and lower consumer confidence. Moreover, the
  THAKSIN administration's expansionist economic policies, including
  plans for multi-billion-dollar mega-projects in infrastructure and
  social development, has raised concerns about fiscal discipline and
  the health of financial institutions. On the positive side, the Thai
  economy performed well beginning in the third quarter of 2005.
  Export-oriented manufacturing - in particular automobile production
  - and farm output are driving these gains. In 2006, the economy
  should benefit from an influx of investment and a revived tourism
  sector; however, a possible avian flu epidemic could significantly
  harm economic prospects throughout the region.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $550.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $183.9 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.9%
  industry: 44.1%
  services: 46% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  35.36 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 14%
  services: 37% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  10% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  51.1 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  29% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $30.64 billion
  expenditures: $31.76 billion; including capital expenditures of $5
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  47.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, cassava (tapioca), rubber, corn, sugarcane, coconuts, soybeans

Industries:
  tourism, textiles and garments, agricultural processing, beverages,
  tobacco, cement, light manufacturing such as jewelry and electric
  appliances, computers and parts, integrated circuits, furniture,
  plastics, automobiles and automotive parts; world's second-largest
  tungsten producer and third-largest tin producer

Industrial production growth rate:
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  114.7 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 91.3%
  hydro: 6.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 2.4% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  107.3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  315 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  980 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  230,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  851,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  583 million bbl (November 2003)

Natural gas - production:
  22.28 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  29.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  5.2 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  377.7 billion cu m (November 2003)

Current account balance:
  $-3.689 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $105.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles and footwear, fishery products, rice, rubber, jewelry,
  automobiles, computers and electrical appliances

Exports - partners:
  US 15.5%, Japan 13.7%, China 8.3%, Singapore 6.8%, Hong Kong 5.6%,
  Malaysia 5.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $107 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials, consumer
  goods, fuels

Imports - partners:
  Japan 22%, China 9.4%, US 7.4%, Malaysia 6.8%, UAE 4.8%, Singapore
  4.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $52.07 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $52.46 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $72 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  baht (THB)

Currency code:
  THB

Exchange rates:
  baht per US dollar - 40.22 (2005), 40.222 (2004), 41.485 (2003),
  42.96 (2002), 44.432 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Thailand


Telephones - main lines in use:
  7.035 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  27.379 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: high quality system, especially in urban areas
  like Bangkok; WTO requirement for privatization of telecom sector is
  planned to be complete by 2006
  domestic: fixed line system provided by both a government owned and
  commercial provider; wireless service expanding rapidly and
  outpacing fixed lines
  international: country code - 66; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean); landing country for
  APCN submarine cable

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 204, FM 334, shortwave 6 (1999)

Radios:
  13.96 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  111 (2006)

Televisions:
  15.19 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .th

Internet hosts:
  938,784 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  15 (2000)

Internet users:
  8.42 million (2005)

Transportation Thailand


Airports:
  108 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 66
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 42
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Heliports:
  3 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 3,760 km; refined products 379 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 4,071 km
  narrow gauge: 4,071 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 57,403 km
  paved: 56,542 km
  unpaved: 861 km (2000)

Waterways:
  4,000 km
  note: 3,701 km navigable by boats with drafts up to 0.9 m (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 400 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,808,509 GRT/4,317,320 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 60, cargo 145, chemical tanker 14, container
  21, liquefied gas 29, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum
  tanker 91, refrigerated cargo 32, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 45 (China 1, Egypt 1, Indonesia 1, Japan 4, Norway
  30, Singapore 6, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 34 (Bahamas 1, Mongolia 1, Panama 9,
  Singapore 22, Tuvalu 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Prachuap Port, Si Racha

Military Thailand


Military branches:
  Royal Thai Army (RTA), Royal Thai Navy (RTN, includes Royal Thai
  Marine Corps), Royal Thai Air Force (Knogtap Agard Thai, RTAF) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  21 years of age for compulsory military service; males are
  registered at 18 years of age; conscript service obligation - two
  years; 18 years of age for voluntary military service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 21-49: 14,903,855
  females age 21-49: 15,265,854 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 21-49: 10,396,032
  females age 21-49: 11,487,690 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 526,276
  females age 21-49: 514,396 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.775 billion (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.8% (2003)

Transnational Issues Thailand


Disputes - international:
  separatist violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim southern
  provinces prompt border closures and controls with Malaysia to stem
  terrorist activities; southeast Asian states have enhanced border
  surveillance to check the spread of avian flu; talks continue on
  completion of demarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over
  several areas along Mekong River and Thai squatters; despite
  continuing border committee talks, significant differences remain
  with Burma over boundary alignment and the handling of ethnic
  rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border activities; Cambodia and
  Thailand dispute sections of boundary with missing boundary markers;
  Cambodia claims Thai encroachments into Cambodian territory and
  obstructing access to Preah Vihear temple ruins awarded to Cambodia
  by ICJ decision in 1962; ethnic Karens from Burma flee into Thailand
  - to escape fighting between Karen rebels and Burmese troops -
  resulting in Thailand sheltering about 120,000 Burmese refugees in
  2005; Karens also protest Thai support for a Burmese hydroelectric
  dam construction on the Salween River near the border;
  environmentalists in Burma and Thailand remain concerned about
  China's construction of hydroelectric dams upstream on the
  Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan Province

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 120,814 (Burma)
  IDPs: 6,000 (26 December 2004 tsunami) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  a minor producer of opium, heroin, and marijuana; illicit transit
  point for heroin en route to the international drug market from
  Burma and Laos; eradication efforts have reduced the area of
  cannabis cultivation and shifted some production to neighboring
  countries; opium poppy cultivation has been reduced by eradication
  efforts; also a drug money-laundering center; minor role in
  methamphetamine production for regional consumption; major consumer
  of methamphetamine since the 1990s


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Togo

Introduction Togo


Background:
  French Togoland became Togo in 1960. Gen. Gnassingbe EYADEMA,
  installed as military ruler in 1967, continued to rule well into the
  21st century. Despite the facade of multiparty elections instituted
  in the early 1990s, the government continued to be dominated by
  President EYADEMA, whose Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party
  has maintained power almost continually since 1967. Togo has come
  under fire from international organizations for human rights abuses
  and is plagued by political unrest. While most bilateral and
  multilateral aid to Togo remains frozen, the EU initiated a partial
  resumption of cooperation and development aid to Togo in late 2004
  based upon commitments by Togo to expand opportunities for political
  opposition and liberalize portions of the economy. Upon his death in
  February 2005, President EYADEMA was succeeded by his son Faure
  GNASSINGBE. The succession, supported by the military and in
  contravention of the nation's constitution, was challenged by
  popular protest and a threat of sanctions from regional leaders.
  GNASSINGBE succumbed to pressure and in April 2005 held elections
  that legitimized his succession.

Geography Togo


Location:
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Benin and
  Ghana

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 N, 1 10 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 56,785 sq km
  land: 54,385 sq km
  water: 2,400 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,647 km
  border countries: Benin 644 km, Burkina Faso 126 km, Ghana 877 km

Coastline:
  56 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 30 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid in south; semiarid in north

Terrain:
  gently rolling savanna in north; central hills; southern plateau;
  low coastal plain with extensive lagoons and marshes

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Agou 986 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, limestone, marble, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 44.2%
  permanent crops: 2.11%
  other: 53.69% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  70 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry harmattan wind can reduce visibility in north during
  winter; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation attributable to slash-and-burn agriculture and the
  use of wood for fuel; water pollution presents health hazards and
  hinders the fishing industry; air pollution increasing in urban areas

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the country's length allows it to stretch through six distinct
  geographic regions; climate varies from tropical to savanna

People Togo


Population:
  5,548,702
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.3% (male 1,177,141/female 1,169,321)
  15-64 years: 55.1% (male 1,485,621/female 1,570,117)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 59,870/female 86,632) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.72% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  37.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 60.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 68.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 52.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 57.42 years
  male: 55.41 years
  female: 59.49 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  110,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  10,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Togolese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Togolese

Ethnic groups:
  African (37 tribes; largest and most important are Ewe, Mina, and
  Kabre) 99%, European and Syrian-Lebanese less than 1%

Religions:
  indigenous beliefs 51%, Christian 29%, Muslim 20%

Languages:
  French (official and the language of commerce), Ewe and Mina (the
  two major African languages in the south), Kabye (sometimes spelled
  Kabiye) and Dagomba (the two major African languages in the north)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 60.9%
  male: 75.4%
  female: 46.9% (2003 est.)

Government Togo


Country name:
  conventional long form: Togolese Republic
  conventional short form: Togo
  local long form: Republique togolaise
  local short form: none
  former: French Togoland

Government type:
  republic under transition to multiparty democratic rule

Capital:
  name: Lome
  geographic coordinates: 6 08 N, 1 13 E
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  5 regions (regions, singular - region); Centrale, Kara, Maritime,
  Plateaux, Savanes

Independence:
  27 April 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 April (1960)

Constitution:
  multiparty draft constitution approved by High Council of the
  Republic 1 July 1992, adopted by public referendum 27 September 1992

Legal system:
  French-based court system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Suffrage:
  NA years of age; universal adult

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Faure GNASSINGBE (since 6 February 2005);
  note - Gnassingbe EYADEMA died on 5 February 2005 and was succeeded
  by his son, Faure GNASSINGBE; popular elections in April 2005
  validated the succession
  head of government: Prime Minister Yawovi AGBOYIBO (since 16
  September 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president and the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held
  NA); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Faure GNASSINGBE elected president; percent of
  vote - Faure GNASSINGBE 60.2%, Emmanuel Akitani BOB 38.3%, Nicolas
  LAWSON 1%, Harry OLYMPIO 0.5%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (81 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 October 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  RPT 72, RSDD 3, UDPS 2, Juvento 2, MOCEP 1, independents 1
  note: two opposition parties boycotted the election, the Union of
  the Forces for Change and the Action Committee for Renewal

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Political parties and leaders:
  Juvento [Monsilia DJATO]; Movement of the Believers of Peace and
  Equality or MOCEP; Rally for the Support for Development and
  Democracy or RSDD [Harry OLYMPIO]; Rally of the Togolese People or
  RPT [Faure GNASSINGBE]; Union for Democracy and Social Progress or
  UDPS [Gagou KOKOU]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI,
  UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Akoussoulelou BODJONA
  chancery: 2208 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-4212
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-3190

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gregory ENGLE
  embassy: Angle Rue Kouenou and Rue 15 Beniglato, Lome
  mailing address: B. P. 852, Lome
  telephone: [228] 221 29 91 through 221 29 94
  FAX: [228] 221 79 52

Flag description:
  five equal horizontal bands of green (top and bottom) alternating
  with yellow; there is a white five-pointed star on a red square in
  the upper hoist-side corner; uses the popular pan-African colors of
  Ethiopia

Economy Togo


Economy - overview:
  This small, sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both
  commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment
  for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be
  imported. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate about 40% of export
  earnings, with cotton being the most important cash crop. Togo is
  the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate. The government's
  decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to
  implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment,
  and bring revenues in line with expenditures has moved slowly.
  Progress depends on follow-through on privatization, increased
  openness in government financial operations, progress toward
  legislative elections, and continued support from foreign donors.
  Togo is working with donors to write a PRGF that could eventually
  lead to a debt reduction plan.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $8.802 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $1.999 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 39.5%
  industry: 20.4%
  services: 40.1% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  1.302 million (1998)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 5%
  services: 30% (1998 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  32% (1989 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  21.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $251.3 million
  expenditures: $292.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, cocoa, cotton, yams, cassava (tapioca), corn, beans, rice,
  millet, sorghum; livestock; fish

Industries:
  phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement, handicrafts,
  textiles, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  165.9 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 98.7%
  hydro: 1.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  654.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  500 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by Ghana (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  8,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-199 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $768 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  reexports, cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa

Exports - partners:
  Ghana 21.1%, Burkina Faso 18.2%, Benin 11.5%, Mali 7.3%, India
  5.8%, Nigeria 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.047 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products

Imports - partners:
  France 17.8%, China 13.3%, Cote d'Ivoire 6.5%, Italy 4.5%, Spain
  4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $318 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2 billion (2005)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $80 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Currency code:
  XOF

Exchange rates:
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar - 527.47
  (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Togo


Telephones - main lines in use:
  58,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  443,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fair system based on a network of microwave
  radio relay routes supplemented by open-wire lines and a mobile
  cellular system
  domestic: microwave radio relay and open-wire lines for conventional
  system
  international: country code - 228; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Symphonie

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  940,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (plus two repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  73,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tg

Internet hosts:
  520 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  3 (2001)

Internet users:
  300,000 (2005)

Transportation Togo


Airports:
  9 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 568 km
  narrow gauge: 568 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 7,520 km
  paved: 2,376 km
  unpaved: 5,144 km (1999)

Waterways:
  50 km (seasonally on Mono River depending on rainfall) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,918 GRT/3,852 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, refrigerated cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Kpeme, Lome

Military Togo


Military branches:
  Togolese Armed Forces (FAT): Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,102,661
  females age 18-49: 1,124,463 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 696,933
  females age 18-49: 707,821 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $29.98 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Togo


Disputes - international:
  in 2001 Benin claimed Togo moved boundary monuments - joint
  commission continues to resurvey the boundary

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Togo is a source, transit, and destination
  country for children, women, and men trafficked for forced labor and
  sexual exploitation; the majority of victims are children, and
  trafficking within the country is more prevalent than international
  trafficking; children are trafficked to work as domestic servants,
  produce porters, roadside sellers, agricultural laborers, and for
  sexual exploitation; Togolese women may be trafficked to Europe for
  forced labor and sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Togo is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failure to show evidence of increased efforts to combat
  trafficking over the past year, particularly in the areas of
  prosecution and protection

Illicit drugs:
  transit hub for Nigerian heroin and cocaine traffickers; money
  laundering not a significant problem


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tokelau

Introduction Tokelau


Background:
  Originally settled by Polynesian emigrants from surrounding island
  groups, the Tokelau Islands were made a British protectorate in
  1889. They were transferred to New Zealand administration in 1925.

Geography Tokelau


Location:
  Oceania, group of three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  9 00 S, 172 00 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 10 sq km
  land: 10 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 17 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  101 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by trade winds (April to November)

Terrain:
  low-lying coral atolls enclosing large lagoons

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 0% (soil is thin and infertile)
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  lies in Pacific typhoon belt

Environment - current issues:
  very limited natural resources and overcrowding are contributing to
  emigration to New Zealand

Geography - note:
  consists of three atolls, each with a lagoon surrounded by a number
  of reef-bound islets of varying length and rising to over three
  meters above sea level

People Tokelau


Population:
  1,392 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42%
  15-64 years: 53%
  65 years and over: 5% (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  NA

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Total fertility rate:
  NA

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Tokelauan(s)
  adjective: Tokelauan

Ethnic groups:
  Polynesian

Religions:
  Congregational Christian Church 70%, Roman Catholic 28%, other 2%
  note: on Atafu, all Congregational Christian Church of Samoa; on
  Nukunonu, all Roman Catholic; on Fakaofo, both denominations, with
  the Congregational Christian Church predominant

Languages:
  Tokelauan (a Polynesian language), English

Literacy:
  NA

Government Tokelau


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Tokelau

Dependency status:
  self-administering territory of New Zealand; note - Tokelau and New
  Zealand have agreed to a draft constitution as Tokelau moves toward
  free association with New Zealand; a UN sponsored referendum on
  self-governance, in February 2006, did not produce the two thirds
  majority vote necessary for changing the current political status

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  none; each atoll has its own administrative center
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Independence:
  none (territory of New Zealand)

National holiday:
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British sovereignty
  over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Constitution:
  administered under the Tokelau Islands Act of 1948; amended in 1970

Legal system:
  New Zealand and local statutes

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General of New Zealand Anand SATYANAND
  (since 23 August 2006); New Zealand is represented by Administrator
  David PAYTON (since 17 October 2006)
  head of government: Kolouei O'BRIEN (2006); note - position rotates
  annually among the three Faipule (village leaders)
  cabinet: the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau,
  consisting of three Faipule (village leaders) and three Pulenuku
  (village mayors), functions as a cabinet
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in New Zealand; the
  head of government is chosen from the Council of Faipule and serves
  a one-year term

Legislative branch:
  unicameral General Fono (21 seats; based upon proportional
  representation from the three islands elected by popular vote to
  serve three-year terms; Nukunonu has 6 seats, Fakaofo has 7 seats,
  Atafu has 8 seats); note - the Tokelau Amendment Act of 1996 confers
  limited legislative power on the General Fono
  elections: last held January 2005 (next to be held January 2008)

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court in New Zealand exercises civil and criminal
  jurisdiction in Tokelau

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  PIF (observer), SPC, UNESCO (associate), UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Flag description:
  the flag of New Zealand is used

Economy Tokelau


Economy - overview:
  Tokelau's small size (three villages), isolation, and lack of
  resources greatly restrain economic development and confine
  agriculture to the subsistence level. The people rely heavily on aid
  from New Zealand - about $4 million annually - to maintain public
  services, with annual aid being substantially greater than GDP. The
  principal sources of revenue come from sales of copra, postage
  stamps, souvenir coins, and handicrafts. Money is also remitted to
  families from relatives in New Zealand.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.5 million (1993 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,000 (1993 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  440

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $430,800
  expenditures: $2.8 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (1987 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts, copra, breadfruit, papayas, bananas; pigs, poultry,
  goats; fish

Industries:
  small-scale enterprises for copra production, woodworking, plaited
  craft goods; stamps, coins; fishing

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Exports:
  $0 f.o.b. (2002)

Exports - commodities:
  stamps, copra, handicrafts

Exports - partners:
  New Zealand (2004)

Imports:
  $969,200 c.i.f. (2002)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, building materials, fuel

Imports - partners:
  New Zealand (2004)

Debt - external:
  $0

Economic aid - recipient:
  about $4 million annually from New Zealand

Currency (code):
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Currency code:
  NZD

Exchange rates:
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087 (2004),
  1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 April - 31 March

Communications Tokelau


Telephones - main lines in use:
  300 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (2001)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern satellite-based communications system;
  domestic: radiotelephone service between islands
  international: country code - 690; radiotelephone service to Samoa;
  government-regulated telephone service (TeleTok), with 3 satellite
  earth stations

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
  note: 1 radio station provides service to all islands (2002)

Radios:
  1,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tk

Internet hosts:
  298 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Tokelau


Ports and terminals:
  none; offshore anchorage only

Military Tokelau


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $66.72 million

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand

Transnational Issues Tokelau


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tonga

Introduction Tonga


Background:
  Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its
  indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands"
  were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became a
  constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in 1900;
  it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth of
  Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific.

Geography Tonga


Location:
  Oceania, archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds
  of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 S, 175 00 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 748 sq km
  land: 718 sq km
  water: 30 sq km

Area - comparative:
  four times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  419 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical; modified by trade winds; warm season (December to May),
  cool season (May to December)

Terrain:
  most islands have limestone base formed from uplifted coral
  formation; others have limestone overlying volcanic base

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Kao Island 1,033 m

Natural resources:
  fish, fertile soil

Land use:
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 14.67%
  other: 65.33% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  cyclones (October to April); earthquakes and volcanic activity on
  Fonuafo'ou

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation results as more and more land is being cleared for
  agriculture and settlement; some damage to coral reefs from starfish
  and indiscriminate coral and shell collectors; overhunting threatens
  native sea turtle populations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  archipelago of 169 islands (36 inhabited)

People Tonga


Population:
  114,689 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35.3% (male 20,679/female 19,843)
  15-64 years: 60.5% (male 34,399/female 34,964)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 2,059/female 2,745) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 20.7 years
  male: 20.1 years
  female: 21.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  25.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 12.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.82 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Tongan(s)
  adjective: Tongan

Ethnic groups:
  Polynesian, Europeans

Religions:
  Christian (Free Wesleyan Church claims over 30,000 adherents)

Languages:
  Tongan, English

Literacy:
  definition: can read and write Tongan and/or English
  total population: 98.9%
  male: 98.8%
  female: 99% (1999 est.)

Government Tonga


Country name:
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Tonga
  conventional short form: Tonga
  local long form: Pule'anga Tonga
  local short form: Tonga
  former: Friendly Islands

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: Nuku'alofa
  geographic coordinates: 21 08 S, 175 12 W
  time difference: UTC+13 (18 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  3 island groups; Ha'apai, Tongatapu, Vava'u

Independence:
  4 June 1970 (from UK protectorate)

National holiday:
  Emancipation Day, 4 June (1970)

Constitution:
  4 November 1875; revised 1 January 1967

Legal system:
  based on English law

Suffrage:
  21 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: King George TUPOU V (since 11 September 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dr. Feleti SEVELE (since 11
  February 2006); Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Viliami TANGI (since 16
  May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet currently consists of 14 members, 10 appointed by
  the monarch for life; 4 appointed from among the elected members of
  the Legislative Assembly, including 2 each from the nobles and
  peoples representatives serving three year terms
  note: there is also a Privy Council that consists of the monarch,
  the cabinet, and two governors
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister and
  deputy prime minister appointed by the monarch

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Fale Alea (32 seats - 14
  reserved for cabinet ministers sitting ex officio, 9 for nobles
  selected by the country's 33 nobles, and 9 elected by popular vote;
  members serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 March 2005 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: Peoples Representatives: percent of vote - HRDMT
  70%; seats - HRDMT 7, independents 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the monarch); Court of
  Appeal (Chief Justice and high court justices from overseas chosen
  and approved by Privy Council)

Political parties and leaders:
  People's Democratic Party [Tesina FUKO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Human Rights and Democracy Movement Tonga or HRDMT [Rev. Simote
  VEA, chairman]; Public Servant's Association [Finau TUTONE]

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Fekitamoeloa 'UTOIKAMANU
  chancery: 250 East 51st Street, New York, NY 10022
  telephone: [1] (917) 369-1025
  FAX: [1] (917) 369-1024
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Tonga; the ambassador to Fiji is
  accredited to Tonga

Flag description:
  red with a bold red cross on a white rectangle in the upper
  hoist-side corner

Economy Tonga


Economy - overview:
  Tonga, a small, open, South Pacific island economy, has a narrow
  export base in agricultural goods. Squash, coconuts, bananas, and
  vanilla beans are the main crops, and agricultural exports make up
  two-thirds of total exports. The country must import a high
  proportion of its food, mainly from New Zealand. The country remains
  dependent on external aid and remittances from Tongan communities
  overseas to offset its trade deficit. Tourism is the second-largest
  source of hard currency earnings following remittances. The
  government is emphasizing the development of the private sector,
  especially the encouragement of investment, and is committing
  increased funds for health and education. Tonga has a reasonably
  sound basic infrastructure and well-developed social services. High
  unemployment among the young, a continuing upturn in inflation,
  pressures for democratic reform, and rising civil service
  expenditures are major issues facing the government.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $178.5 million (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $244 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 23%
  industry: 27%
  services: 50% (FY03/04 est.)

Labor force:
  33,910 (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 65%
  industry and services: 35% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  13% (FY03/04 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  24% NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  11.1% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $56.97 million
  expenditures: $83.88 million; including capital expenditures of $1.9
  million (FY99/00 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  squash, coconuts, copra, bananas, vanilla beans, cocoa, coffee,
  ginger, black pepper; fish

Industries:
  tourism, fishing

Industrial production growth rate:
  1% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  34 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  31.62 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-4.321 million

Exports:
  $34 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  squash, fish, vanilla beans, root crops

Exports - partners:
  Japan 41.5%, US 33.1%, NZ 6.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $122 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment, fuels, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  NZ 33.4%, Fiji 26.7%, Australia 10.5%, US 8.4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $40.83 million

Debt - external:
  $80.7 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $19.3 million Australia $5.5 million, New Zealand $2.3 million
  (FY01/02)

Currency (code):
  pa'anga (TOP)

Currency code:
  TOP

Exchange rates:
  pa'anga per US dollar - 1.96 (2005), 1.9716 (2004), 2.142 (2003),
  2.1952 (2002), 2.1236 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Tonga


Telephones - main lines in use:
  11,200 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  16,400 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: competition between Tonga Telecommunications
  Corporation (TCC) and Shoreline Communications Tonga (SCT) is
  accelerating expansion of telecommunications; SCT recently granted
  authority to develop high-speed digital service for telephone,
  Internet, and television
  domestic: fully automatic switched network
  international: country code - 676; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean) (2004)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2004)

Radios:
  61,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  3 (2004)

Televisions:
  2,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .to

Internet hosts:
  18,775 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  3,000 (2004)

Transportation Tonga


Airports:
  6 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 680 km
  paved: 184 km
  unpaved: 496 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 16 ships (1000 GRT or over) 62,185 GRT/72,960 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 10, liquefied gas 1, livestock
  carrier 1, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo
  1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 1, Norway 1, Switzerland 1, UK 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Nuku'alofa

Military Tonga


Military branches:
  Tonga Defense Services: Land Force (Royal Guard), Naval Force
  (includes Royal Marines, Air Wing) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 25,420
  females ag3 18-49: 24,827 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 19,840
  females age 18-49: 21,342 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males ag3 18-49: 1,586
  females age 18-49: 1,538 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Tonga


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Trinidad and Tobago

Introduction Trinidad and Tobago


Background:
  First colonized by the Spanish, the islands came under British
  control in the early 19th century. The islands' sugar industry was
  hurt by the emancipation of the slaves in 1834. Manpower was
  replaced with the importation of contract laborers from India
  between 1845 and 1917, which boosted sugar production as well as the
  cocoa industry. The discovery of oil on Trinidad in 1910 added
  another important export. Independence was attained in 1962. The
  country is one of the most prosperous in the Caribbean thanks
  largely to petroleum and natural gas production and processing.
  Tourism, mostly in Tobago, is targeted for expansion and is growing.

Geography Trinidad and Tobago


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, northeast of Venezuela

Geographic coordinates:
  11 00 N, 61 00 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 5,128 sq km
  land: 5,128 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  362 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the outer edge of the continental
  margin

Climate:
  tropical; rainy season (June to December)

Terrain:
  mostly plains with some hills and low mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: El Cerro del Aripo 940 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, asphalt

Land use:
  arable land: 14.62%
  permanent crops: 9.16%
  other: 76.22% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  40 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  outside usual path of hurricanes and other tropical storms

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from agricultural chemicals, industrial wastes, and
  raw sewage; oil pollution of beaches; deforestation; soil erosion

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  Pitch Lake, on Trinidad's southwestern coast, is the world's
  largest natural reservoir of asphalt

People Trinidad and Tobago


Population:
  1,065,842 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 109,936/female 104,076)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 398,657/female 361,093)
  65 years and over: 8.6% (male 41,162/female 50,918) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 31.2 years
  male: 30.8 years
  female: 31.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.87% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  12.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.57 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -11.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 25.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 23.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 66.76 years
  male: 65.71 years
  female: 67.86 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  3.2% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  29,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  1,900 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Trinidadian(s), Tobagonian(s)
  adjective: Trinidadian, Tobagonian

Ethnic groups:
  Indian (South Asian) 40%, African 37.5%, mixed 20.5%, other 1.2%,
  unspecified 0.8% (2000 census)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 26%, Hindu 22.5%, Anglican 7.8%, Baptist 7.2%,
  Pentecostal 6.8%, other Christian 5.8%, Muslim 5.8%, Seventh Day
  Adventist 4%, other 10.8%, unspecified 1.4%, none 1.9% (2000 census)

Languages:
  English (official), Hindi, French, Spanish, Chinese

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98% (2003 est.)

Government Trinidad and Tobago


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
  conventional short form: Trinidad and Tobago

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Port-of-Spain
  geographic coordinates: 10 39 N, 61 31 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 regional corporations, 2 city corporations, 3 borough
  corporations, 1 ward
  regional corporations: Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo, Diego Martin,
  Mayaro/Rio Claro, Penal/Debe, Princes Town, Sangre Grande, San
  Juan/Laventille, Siparia, Tunapuna/Piarco
  city corporations: Port-of-Spain, San Fernando
  borough corporations: Arima, Chaguanas, Point Fortin
  ward: Tobago

Independence:
  31 August 1962 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 31 August (1962)

Constitution:
  1 August 1976

Legal system:
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts in
  the Supreme Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George Maxwell RICHARDS (since 17 March
  2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Patrick MANNING (since 24
  December 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed from among the members of Parliament
  elections: president elected by an electoral college, which consists
  of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 14
  February 2003 (next to be held in 2008); the president usually
  appoints as prime minister the leader of the majority party in the
  House of Representatives
  election results: George Maxwell RICHARDS elected president; percent
  of electoral college vote - 43%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (31 seats; 16 members
  appointed by the ruling party, 9 by the President, 6 by the
  opposition party for a maximum term of five years) and the House of
  Representatives (36 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 7 October 2002 (next
  to be held by October 2007)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote - PNM
  55.5%, UNC 44.5%; seats by party - PNM 20, UNC 16
  note: Tobago has a unicameral House of Assembly with 12 members
  serving four-year terms; last election held January 2005; seats by
  party - PNM 11, DAC 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court of Judicature (comprised of the High Court of Justice
  and the Court of Appeals; the chief justice is appointed by the
  president after consultation with the prime minister and the leader
  of the opposition; other justices are appointed by the president on
  the advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission); High Court
  of Justice; Caribbean Court of Appeals member; Court of Appeals; the
  highest court of appeal is the Privy Council in London

Political parties and leaders:
  National Alliance for Reconstruction or NAR [Lennox SANKERSINGH];
  People's National Movement or PNM [Patrick MANNING]; Team Unity or
  TU [Ramesh MAHARAJ]; United National Congress or UNC [Basdeo
  PANDAY]; Democratic Action Committee or DAC [Hochoy CHARLES], note -
  only active in Tobago

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Jamaat-al Muslimeen [Yasin BAKR]

International organization participation:
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-24, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, ISO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marina Annette VALERE
  chancery: 1708 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-6490
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-3130
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roy L. AUSTIN
  embassy: 15 Queen's Park West, Port-of-Spain
  mailing address: P. O. Box 752, Port-of-Spain
  telephone: [1] (868) 622-6371 through 6376
  FAX: [1] (868) 628-5462

Flag description:
  red with a white-edged black diagonal band from the upper hoist
  side to the lower fly side

Economy Trinidad and Tobago


Economy - overview:
  Trinidad and Tobago, the leading Caribbean producer of oil and gas,
  has earned a reputation as an excellent investment site for
  international businesses. Tourism is a growing sector, although not
  proportionately as important as in many other Caribbean islands. The
  economy benefits from low inflation and a growing trade surplus.
  Prospects for growth in 2006 are good as prices for oil,
  petrochemicals, and liquefied natural gas are expected to remain
  high, and foreign direct investment continues to grow to support
  expanded capacity in the energy sector. The government is coping
  with a rise in violent crime.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $18.11 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $13.02 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $16,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.7%
  industry: 57%
  services: 42.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  620,000 (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture 9.5%, manufacturing, mining, and quarrying 14%,
  construction and utilities 12.4%, services 64.1% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  8% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  21% (1992 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.5 billion
  expenditures: $4.06 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $117.3 million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  43% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cocoa, rice, citrus, coffee, vegetables; poultry

Industries:
  petroleum, chemicals, tourism, food processing, cement, beverage,
  cotton textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  6.076 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.8%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.2% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  5.651 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  150,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  29,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  990 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  24.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  12.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  11.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  733 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Current account balance:
  $2.88 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $9.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, steel products,
  fertilizer, sugar, cocoa, coffee, citrus, flowers

Exports - partners:
  US 68.8%, Jamaica 5.5%, Barbados 2.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $6.011 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, transportation equipment, manufactured goods, food, live
  animals

Imports - partners:
  US 27.7%, Venezuela 13.3%, Brazil 11.8%, Japan 5.5%, Canada 4.2%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $4.888 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.767 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $24 million (1999 est.)

Currency (code):
  Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD)

Currency code:
  TTD

Exchange rates:
  Trinidad and Tobago dollars per US dollar - 6.2842 (2005), 6.299
  (2004), 6.2951 (2003), 6.2487 (2002), 6.2332 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Trinidad and Tobago


Telephones - main lines in use:
  323,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  800,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: excellent international service; good local
  service
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-868; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Barbados and
  Guyana

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4, FM 18, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  680,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 (2005)

Televisions:
  425,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tt

Internet hosts:
  30,732 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  17 (2000)

Internet users:
  160,000 (2005)

Transportation Trinidad and Tobago


Airports:
  6 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 253 km; gas 1,278 km; oil 571 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 8,320 km
  paved: 4,252 km
  unpaved: 4,068 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 16,760 GRT/7,941 DWT
  by type: liquefied gas 1, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (US 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Pointe-a-Pierre, Point Lisas, Port-of-Spain

Military Trinidad and Tobago


Military branches:
  Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force: Ground Force, Coast Guard
  (includes air wing) (2004)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription
  (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 290,715
  females age 18-49: 258,410 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 202,958
  females age 18-49: 173,797 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $66.72 million (2003 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Transnational Issues Trinidad and Tobago


Disputes - international:
  Barbados will assert its claim before the UN Convention on the Law
  of the Sea (UNCLOS) that the northern limit of Trinidad and Tobago's
  maritime boundary with Venezuela extends into its waters; Guyana has
  also expressed its intention to challenge this boundary as it may
  extend into its waters as well

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the US
  and Europe; producer of cannabis


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tunisia

Introduction Tunisia


Background:
  Rivalry between French and Italian interests in Tunisia culminated
  in a French invasion in 1881 and the creation of a protectorate.
  Agitation for independence in the decades following World War I was
  finally successful in getting the French to recognize Tunisia as an
  independent state in 1956. The country's first president, Habib
  BOURGUIBA, established a strict one-party state. He dominated the
  country for 31 years, repressing Islamic fundamentalism and
  establishing rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation.
  Tunisia has long taken a moderate, non-aligned stance in its foreign
  relations. Domestically, it has sought to defuse rising pressure for
  a more open political society.

Geography Tunisia


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria
  and Libya

Geographic coordinates:
  34 00 N, 9 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 163,610 sq km
  land: 155,360 sq km
  water: 8,250 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Georgia

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,424 km
  border countries: Algeria 965 km, Libya 459 km

Coastline:
  1,148 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm

Climate:
  temperate in north with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers;
  desert in south

Terrain:
  mountains in north; hot, dry central plain; semiarid south merges
  into the Sahara

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Shatt al Gharsah -17 m
  highest point: Jebel ech Chambi 1,544 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, phosphates, iron ore, lead, zinc, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 17.05%
  permanent crops: 13.08%
  other: 69.87% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  3,940 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  toxic and hazardous waste disposal is ineffective and poses health
  risks; water pollution from raw sewage; limited natural fresh water
  resources; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  strategic location in central Mediterranean; Malta and Tunisia are
  discussing the commercial exploitation of the continental shelf
  between their countries, particularly for oil exploration

People Tunisia


Population:
  10,175,014 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.6% (male 1,293,235/female 1,212,994)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 3,504,283/female 3,478,268)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 327,521/female 358,713) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.3 years
  female: 28.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.99% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  15.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 23.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.12 years
  male: 73.4 years
  female: 76.96 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2005 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Tunisian(s)
  adjective: Tunisian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Religions:
  Muslim 98%, Christian 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Languages:
  Arabic (official and one of the languages of commerce), French
  (commerce)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74.3%
  male: 83.4%
  female: 65.3% (2004 est.)

Government Tunisia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Tunisian Republic
  conventional short form: Tunisia
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah at Tunisiyah
  local short form: Tunis

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Tunis
  geographic coordinates: 36 48 N, 10 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  24 governorates; Ariana (Aryanah), Beja (Bajah), Ben Arous (Bin
  'Arus), Bizerte (Banzart), Gabes (Qabis), Gafsa (Qafsah), Jendouba
  (Jundubah), Kairouan (Al Qayrawan), Kasserine (Al Qasrayn), Kebili
  (Qibili), Kef (Al Kaf), Mahdia (Al Mahdiyah), Manouba (Manubah),
  Medenine (Madanin), Monastir (Al Munastir), Nabeul (Nabul), Sfax
  (Safaqis), Sidi Bou Zid (Sidi Bu Zayd), Siliana (Silyanah), Sousse
  (Susah), Tataouine (Tatawin), Tozeur (Tawzar), Tunis, Zaghouan
  (Zaghwan)

Independence:
  20 March 1956 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 20 March (1956)

Constitution:
  1 June 1959; amended 1988, 2002

Legal system:
  based on French civil law system and Shari'a law; some judicial
  review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court in joint session

Suffrage:
  20 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Zine el Abidine BEN ALI (since 7 November
  1987)
  head of government: Prime Minister Mohamed GHANNOUCHI (since 17
  November 1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 October 2004 (next to be
  held October 2009); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President Zine El Abidine BEN ALI reelected for a
  fourth term; percent of vote - Zine El Abidine BEN ALI 94.5%,
  Mohamed BOUCHIHA 3.8%, Mohamed Ali HALOUANI 1%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral system consists of the Chamber of Deputies or Majlis
  al-Nuwaab (189 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms) and the Chamber of Advisors (126 seats; 85 members
  elected by municipal counselors, deputies, mayors, and professional
  associations and trade unions; 41 members are presidential
  appointees; members serve six-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Deputies - last held 24 October 2004 (next to
  be held October 2009); Chamber of Advisors - last held 3 July 2005
  (next to be held July 2011)
  election results: Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - RCD 152, MDS 14, PUP 11, UDU 7, Al-Tajdid 3,
  PSL 2; Chamber of Advisors - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - RCD 71 (14 trade union seats vacant (boycotted))

Judicial branch:
  Court of Cassation or Cour de Cassation

Political parties and leaders:
  Al-Tajdid Movement [Ali HALOUANI]; Constitutional Democratic Rally
  Party (Rassemblement Constitutionnel Democratique) or RCD [President
  Zine El Abidine BEN ALI (official ruling party)]; Liberal Social
  Party or PSL [Mounir BEJI]; Movement of Socialist Democrats or MDS
  [Ismail BOULAHYA]; Popular Unity Party or PUP [Mohamed BOUCHIHA];
  Progressive Democratic Party [Nejib CHEBBI]; Unionist Democratic
  Union or UDU [Ahmed INOUBLI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  the Islamic fundamentalist party, Al Nahda (Renaissance), is
  outlawed

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, BSEC (observer), FAO, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OAPEC (suspended), OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nejib HACHANA
  chancery: 1515 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 862-1850
  FAX: [1] (202) 862-1858

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador designate Robert F. GODEC
  embassy: Zone Nord-Est des Berges du Lac Nord de Tunis 1053
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [216] 71 107-000
  FAX: [216] 71 107-090

Flag description:
  red with a white disk in the center bearing a red crescent nearly
  encircling a red five-pointed star; the crescent and star are
  traditional symbols of Islam

Economy Tunisia


Economy - overview:
  Tunisia has a diverse economy, with important agricultural, mining,
  energy, tourism, and manufacturing sectors. Governmental control of
  economic affairs while still heavy has gradually lessened over the
  past decade with increasing privatization, simplification of the tax
  structure, and a prudent approach to debt. Progressive social
  policies also have helped raise living conditions in Tunisia
  relative to the region. Real growth slowed to a 15-year low of 1.9%
  in 2002 because of agricultural drought and lackluster tourism.
  Better rains in 2003 through 2005, however, helped push GDP growth
  to about 5% for these years. Tourism also recovered after the end of
  combat operations in Iraq. Tunisia is gradually removing barriers to
  trade with the EU. Broader privatization, further liberalization of
  the investment code to increase foreign investment, improvements in
  government efficiency, and reduction of the trade deficit are among
  the challenges ahead.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $82.85 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $30.94 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 13.2%
  industry: 31.8%
  services: 55% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.41 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 23%
  services: 22% (1995 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  14.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  7.4% (2005 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 31.8% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40 (2005 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $7.322 billion
  expenditures: $8.304 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  59.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  olives, olive oil, grain, tomatoes, citrus fruit, sugar beets,
  dates, almonds; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  petroleum, mining (particularly phosphate and iron ore), tourism,
  textiles, footwear, agribusiness, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  11.56 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.5%
  hydro: 0.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  10.76 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  10 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  76,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  90,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  1.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  2.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  3.84 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  1.58 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  77.87 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-359.2 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $10.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  textiles, mechanical goods, phosphates and chemicals, agricultural
  products, hydrocarbons

Exports - partners:
  France 30.9%, Italy 21.1%, Germany 9.4%, Spain 5.5%, Libya 4.5%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $12.86 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  textiles, machinery and equipment, hydrocarbons, chemicals, food

Imports - partners:
  France 25.5%, Italy 22.9%, Germany 9.5%, Spain 5.5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $4.375 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $16.09 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $114.6 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Tunisian dinar (TND)

Currency code:
  TND

Exchange rates:
  Tunisian dinars per US dollar - 1.2974 (2005), 1.2455 (2004),
  1.2885 (2003), 1.4217 (2002), 1.4387 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Tunisia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,257,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  5.681 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: above the African average and continuing to be
  upgraded; key centers are Sfax, Sousse, Bizerte, and Tunis; Internet
  access available
  domestic: trunk facilities consist of open-wire lines, coaxial
  cable, and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 216; 5 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat; coaxial
  cable and microwave radio relay to Algeria and Libya; participant in
  Medarabtel; two international gateway digital switches

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 20, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  2.06 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  26 (plus 76 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  920,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tn

Internet hosts:
  428 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  953,800 (2005)

Transportation Tunisia


Airports:
  30 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 2,945 km; oil 1,227 km; refined products 351 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,153 km
  standard gauge: 471 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 1,674 km 1.000-m gauge (65 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 8 km 1.435 m and 1.000-m gauges (three rails) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 18,997 km
  paved: 12,424 km (including 142 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 6,573 km (2001)

Merchant marine:
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 146,759 GRT/115,118 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 1, chemical tanker 3, passenger/cargo
  4 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Bizerte, Gabes, La Goulette, Skhira

Military Tunisia


Military branches:
  Army, Navy, Republic of Tunisia Air Force (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya
  al-Jamahiriyah At'tunisia) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for voluntary military
  service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 2,441,741
  females age 20-49: 2,406,362 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 2,035,431
  females age 20-49: 2,000,757 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 108,817
  females age 20-49: 103,087 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $356 million (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.5% (FY99)

Transnational Issues Tunisia


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Turkey

Introduction Turkey


Background:
  Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of
  the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was
  later honored with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks."
  Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging
  social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party
  rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950
  election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful
  transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have
  multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of
  instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980),
  which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political
  power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the
  ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then
  Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus
  in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since
  acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,"
  which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984
  by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's
  Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the
  Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives.
  After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents
  largely withdrew from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK
  announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK
  increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a
  member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the
  European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many
  reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to
  begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

Geography Turkey


Location:
  Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey
  west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering
  the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the
  Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria

Geographic coordinates:
  39 00 N, 35 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 780,580 sq km
  land: 770,760 sq km
  water: 9,820 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,648 km
  border countries: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km,
  Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 352 km, Syria 822 km

Coastline:
  7,200 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 6 nm in the Aegean Sea; 12 nm in Black Sea and in
  Mediterranean Sea
  exclusive economic zone: in Black Sea only: to the maritime boundary
  agreed upon with the former USSR

Climate:
  temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in
  interior

Terrain:
  high central plateau (Anatolia); narrow coastal plain; several
  mountain ranges

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Ararat 5,166 m

Natural resources:
  coal, iron ore, copper, chromium, antimony, mercury, gold, barite,
  borate, celestite (strontium), emery, feldspar, limestone,
  magnesite, marble, perlite, pumice, pyrites (sulfur), clay, arable
  land, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 29.81%
  permanent crops: 3.39%
  other: 66.8% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  52,150 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  severe earthquakes, especially in northern Turkey, along an arc
  extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents; air
  pollution, particularly in urban areas; deforestation; concern for
  oil spills from increasing Bosporus ship traffic

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus, Sea
  of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas; Mount
  Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, is in the far
  eastern portion of the country

People Turkey


Population:
  70,413,958 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 25.5% (male 9,133,226/female 8,800,070)
  15-64 years: 67.7% (male 24,218,277/female 23,456,761)
  65 years and over: 6.8% (male 2,198,073/female 2,607,551) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 27.9 years
  female: 28.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.06% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.62 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  5.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 39.69 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 35.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 72.62 years
  male: 70.18 years
  female: 75.18 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% - note - no country specific models provided (2001
  est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Turk(s)
  adjective: Turkish

Ethnic groups:
  Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated)

Religions:
  Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)

Languages:
  Turkish (official), Kurdish, Dimli (or Zaza), Azeri, Kabardian
  note: there is also a substantial Gagauz population in the Europe
  part of Turkey

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.5%
  male: 94.3%
  female: 78.7% (2003 est.)

Government Turkey


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Turkey
  conventional short form: Turkey
  local long form: Turkiye Cumhuriyeti
  local short form: Turkiye

Government type:
  republican parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Ankara
  geographic coordinates: 39 56 N, 32 52 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  81 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman,
  Afyonkarahisar, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Ardahan,
  Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol,
  Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli,
  Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir,
  Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel (Mersin), Igdir,
  Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars,
  Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli,
  Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir,
  Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt,
  Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van,
  Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak

Independence:
  29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)

National holiday:
  Republic Day, 29 October (1923)

Constitution:
  7 November 1982

Legal system:
  civil law system derived from various European continental legal
  systems; note - member of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),
  although Turkey claims limited derogations on the ratified European
  Convention on Human Rights

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ahmet Necdet SEZER (since 16 May 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (14 March
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  nomination of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a single
  seven-year term; election last held 5 May 2000 (next to be held May
  2007); prime minister appointed by the president from among members
  of parliament
  election results: Ahmed Necdet SEZER elected president on the third
  ballot; percent of National Assembly vote - 60%
  note: president must have a two-thirds majority of the National
  Assembly on the first two ballots and a simple majority on the third
  ballot

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkiye Buyuk
  Millet Meclisi (550 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 November 2002 (next to be held in 2007); note
  - a special rerun of the General Election in the province of Siirt
  on 9 March 2003 resulted in the election of Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN to
  a seat in parliament, a prerequisite for becoming prime minister, on
  14 March 2003
  election results: percent of vote by party - AKP 34.3%, CHP 19.4%,
  DYP 9.6%, MHP 8.3%, Anavatan 5.1%, DSP 1.1%, and other; seats by
  party - AKP 363, CHP 178, independents 9; note - parties surpassing
  the 10% threshold are entitled to parliamentary seats; seats by
  party as of 1 December 2005 - AKP 357, CHP 154, ANAVATAN 22, DYP 4,
  SHP 4, HYP 1, independents 4, vacant 4

Judicial branch:
  Constitutional Court; High Court of Appeals (Yargitay); Council of
  State (Danistay); Court of Accounts (Sayistay); Military High Court
  of Appeals; Military High Administrative Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Anavatan Partisi (once was Motherland Party) or ANAVATAN [Erkan
  MUMCU]; Democratic Left Party or DSP [Mehmet Zeki SEZER]; Democratic
  People's Party or DEHAP [Tuncer BAKIRHAN]; Felicity Party (sometimes
  translated as Contentment Party) or SP [Necmettin ERBAKAN]; Justice
  and Development Party or AKP [Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN]; Liberal
  Democratic Party or LDP; Nationalist Action Party or MHP [Devlet
  BAHCELI]; People's Rise Party (Halkin Yukselisi Partisi) or HYP
  [Yasr Nuri OZTURK]; Republican People's Party or CHP [Deniz BAYKAL];
  Social Democratic People's Party or SHP [Murat KARAYALCIN]; True
  Path Party (sometimes translated as Correct Way Party) or DYP
  [Mehmet AGAR]
  note: the parties listed above are some of the more significant of
  the 49 parties that Turkey had on 1 December 2004

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Confederation of Public Sector Unions or KESK [Sami EVREN];
  Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions or DISK [Suleyman
  CELEBI]; Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association
  or MUSIAD [Omer BOLAT]; Moral Rights Workers Union or Hak-Is [Salim
  USLU]; Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions or TISK [Refik
  BAYDUR]; Turkish Confederation of Labor or Turk-Is [Salih KILIC];
  Turkish Confederation of Tradesmen and Craftsmen or TESK [Dervis
  GUNDAY]; Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association or
  TUSIAD [Omer SABANCI]; Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and
  Commodity Exchanges or TOBB [M. Rifat HISARCIKLIOGLU]

International organization participation:
  AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN (observer), EAPC, EBRD,
  ECO, EU (applicant), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IDB, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIC,
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nabi SENSOY
  chancery: 2525 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 612-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 612-6744
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ross WILSON
  embassy: 110 Ataturk Boulevard, Kavaklidere, 06100 Ankara
  mailing address: PSC 93, Box 5000, APO AE 09823
  telephone: [90] (312) 455-5555
  FAX: [90] (312) 467-0019
  consulate(s) general: Istanbul
  consulate(s): Adana; note - there is a Consular Agent in Izmir

Flag description:
  red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is toward
  the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just outside
  the crescent opening

Economy Turkey


Economy - overview:
  Turkey's dynamic economy is a complex mix of modern industry and
  commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that still
  accounts for more than 35% of employment. It has a strong and
  rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major
  role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication. The
  largest industrial sector is textiles and clothing, which accounts
  for one-third of industrial employment; it faces stiff competition
  in international markets with the end of the global quota system.
  However, other sectors, notably the automotive and electronics
  industries, are rising in importance within Turkey's export mix.
  Real GNP growth has exceeded 6% in many years, but this strong
  expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 1994,
  1999, and 2001. The economy is turning around with the
  implementation of economic reforms, and 2004 GDP growth reached 9%.
  Inflation fell to 7.7% in 2005 - a 30-year low. Despite the strong
  economic gains in 2002-05, which were largely due to renewed
  investor interest in emerging markets, IMF backing, and tighter
  fiscal policy, the economy is still burdened by a high current
  account deficit and high debt. The public sector fiscal deficit
  exceeds 6% of GDP - due in large part to high interest payments,
  which accounted for about 37% of central government spending in
  2004. Prior to 2005, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey
  averaged less than $1 billion annually, but further economic and
  judicial reforms and prospective EU membership are expected to boost
  FDI. Privatization sales are currently approaching $21 billion.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $584.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $332.5 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $8,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 11.7%
  industry: 29.8%
  services: 58.5% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  24.7 million
  note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 35.9%
  industry: 22.8%
  services: 41.2% (3rd qtr. 2004)

Unemployment rate:
  10.2% plus underemployment of 4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  20% (2002)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 30.7% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  42 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $93.58 billion
  expenditures: $115.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  68% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulse, citrus;
  livestock

Industries:
  textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, mining (coal,
  chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber,
  paper

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  133.6 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 79.3%
  hydro: 20.4%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  140.3 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:
  600 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  1.2 billion kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
  50,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  715,100 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - exports:
  46,110 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  616,500 bbl/day (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
  288.4 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  560 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  22.6 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  15.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  8.495 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-23.08 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $72.49 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal manufactures, transport
  equipment

Exports - partners:
  Germany 12.9%, UK 8.1%, Italy 7.6%, US 6.7%, France 5.2%, Spain
  4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $101.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods, fuels, transport
  equipment

Imports - partners:
  Germany 11.7%, Russia 11%, Italy 6.5%, China 5.9%, France 5%, US
  4.6%, UK 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $52.49 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $170.1 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  ODA, $635.8 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Turkish lira (YTL); old Turkish lira (TRL) before 1 January 2005

Currency code:
  TRL, YTL

Exchange rates:
  Turkish liras per US dollar - 1.3436 (2005), 1.4255 (2004), 1.5009
  (2003), 1.5072 (2002), 1.2256 (2001)
  note: on 1 January 2005 the old Turkish Lira (TRL) was converted to
  new Turkish Lira (YTL) at a rate of 1,000,000 old to 1 new Turkish
  Lira

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Turkey


Telephones - main lines in use:
  18.978 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  43.609 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: undergoing rapid modernization and expansion,
  especially with cellular telephones
  domestic: additional digital exchanges are permitting a rapid
  increase in subscribers; the construction of a network of
  technologically advanced intercity trunk lines, using both
  fiber-optic cable and digital microwave radio relay is facilitating
  communication between urban centers; remote areas are reached by a
  domestic satellite system; the number of subscribers to mobile
  cellular telephone service is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 90; international service is provided
  by three submarine fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean and Black
  Seas, linking Turkey with Italy, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania,
  and Russia; also by 12 Intelsat earth stations, and by 328 mobile
  satellite terminals in the Inmarsat and Eutelsat systems (2002)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 16, FM 107, shortwave 6 (2001)

Radios:
  11.3 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  635 (plus 2,934 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  20.9 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tr

Internet hosts:
  1,313,135 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  50 (2001)

Internet users:
  16 million (2005)

Transportation Turkey


Airports:
  117 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 89
  over 3,047 m: 15
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Heliports:
  18 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,621 km; oil 3,543 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 8,697 km
  standard gauge: 8,697 km 1.435-m gauge (2,122 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 347,553 km
  paved: 154,807 km (including 1,886 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 192,747 km (2004)

Waterways:
  1,200 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 545 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,772,864 GRT/7,313,070 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 109, cargo 239, chemical tanker 50, container
  24, liquefied gas 6, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 50, petroleum
  tanker 36, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 24, specialized
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 7 (Cyprus 2, Germany 1, Italy 3, Switzerland 1)
  registered in other countries: 411 (Albania 1, Antigua and Barbuda
  8, Bahamas 8, Belize 11, Cambodia 26, Comoros 11, Dominica 3,
  Georgia 30, Isle of Man 3, North Korea 4, Liberia 1, Libya 2, Malta
  123, Marshall Islands 20, Netherlands Antilles 9, Panama 42, Russia
  63, Saint Kitts and Nevis 6, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 25,
  Slovakia 8, Tuvalu 2, UK 2, unknown 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Aliaga, Ambarli, Eregli, Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli
  (Izmit), Toros

Military Turkey


Military branches:
  Turkish Armed Forces (TSK): Land Forces, Naval Forces (includes
  naval air and naval infantry), Turkish Air Force (Turk Hava
  Kuvvetleri) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  20 years of age (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 20-49: 16,756,323
  females age 20-49: 16,051,706 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 20-49: 13,905,901
  females age 20-49: 13,335,812 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 679,734
  females age 20-49: 659,090 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $12.155 billion (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  5.3% (2003)

Military - note:
  in the early 1990s, the Turkish Land Force was a large but badly
  equipped infantry force; there were 14 infantry divisions, but only
  one was mechanized, and out of 16 infantry brigades, only six were
  mechanized; the overhaul that has taken place since has produced
  highly mobile forces with greatly enhanced firepower in accordance
  with NATO's new strategic concept (2005)

Transnational Issues Turkey


Disputes - international:
  complex maritime, air, and territorial disputes with Greece in the
  Aegean Sea; status of north Cyprus question remains; Syria and Iraq
  protest Turkish hydrological projects to control upper Euphrates
  waters; Turkey has expressed concern over the status of Kurds in
  Iraq; border with Armenia remains closed over Nagorno-Karabakh

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 350,000-1,000,000 (fighting from 1984-99 between Kurdish PKK
  and Turkish military; most IDPs in southeastern provinces) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe and
  - to a far lesser extent the US - via air, land, and sea routes;
  major Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking
  organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert
  imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey
  and near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas
  of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw
  concentrate; lax enforcement of money-laundering controls


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Turkmenistan

Introduction Turkmenistan


Background:
  Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan became a
  Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved its independence upon the
  dissolution of the USSR in 1991. President Saparmurat NIYAZOV
  retains absolute control over the country and opposition is not
  tolerated. Extensive hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a
  boon to this underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery
  projects were to be expanded. The Turkmenistan Government is
  actively seeking to develop alternative petroleum transportation
  routes in order to break Russia's pipeline monopoly.

Geography Turkmenistan


Location:
  Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan

Geographic coordinates:
  40 00 N, 60 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 488,100 sq km
  land: 488,100 sq km
  water: NEGL

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,736 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 744 km, Iran 992 km, Kazakhstan 379
  km, Uzbekistan 1,621 km

Coastline:
  0 km; note - Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea (1,768 km)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  subtropical desert

Terrain:
  flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to mountains in the
  south; low mountains along border with Iran; borders Caspian Sea in
  west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Vpadina Akchanaya -81 m; note - Sarygamysh Koli is a
  lake in northern Turkmenistan with a water level that fluctuates
  above and below the elevation of Vpadina Akchanaya (the lake has
  dropped as low as -110 m)
  note: Sarygamysh Koli is a lake in northern Turkmenistan with a
  water level that fluctuates above and below the elevation of Vpadina
  Akchanaya (the lake has dropped as low as -110 m)
  highest point: Gora Ayribaba 3,139 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt

Land use:
  arable land: 4.51%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 95.35% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  18,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  contamination of soil and groundwater with agricultural chemicals,
  pesticides; salination, water-logging of soil due to poor irrigation
  methods; Caspian Sea pollution; diversion of a large share of the
  flow of the Amu Darya into irrigation contributes to that river's
  inability to replenish the Aral Sea; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; the western and central low-lying, desolate portions of
  the country make up the great Garagum (Kara-Kum) desert, which
  occupies over 80% of the country; eastern part is plateau

People Turkmenistan


Population:
  5,042,920 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35.2% (male 913,988/female 863,503)
  15-64 years: 60.7% (male 1,501,486/female 1,557,155)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 79,227/female 127,561) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 20.9 years
  female: 22.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.83% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  27.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.75 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 72.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 76.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 68 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 61.83 years
  male: 58.43 years
  female: 65.41 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2004 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 100 (2004 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Turkmen(s)
  adjective: Turkmen

Ethnic groups:
  Turkmen 85%, Uzbek 5%, Russian 4%, other 6% (2003)

Religions:
  Muslim 89%, Eastern Orthodox 9%, unknown 2%

Languages:
  Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7%

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.3%
  female: 98.3% (1999 est.)

Government Turkmenistan


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Turkmenistan
  local long form: none
  local short form: Turkmenistan
  former: Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power
  outside the executive branch

Capital:
  name: Ashgabat (Ashkhabad)
  geographic coordinates: 37 57 N, 58 23 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  5 provinces (welayatlar, singular - welayat): Ahal Welayaty
  (Ashgabat), Balkan Welayaty (Balkanabat), Dashoguz Welayaty, Lebap
  Welayaty (Turkmenabat), Mary Welayaty
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Independence:
  27 October 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 27 October (1991)

Constitution:
  adopted 18 May 1992

Legal system:
  based on civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers
  Saparmurat NIYAZOV (since 27 October 1990, when the first direct
  presidential election occurred); note - the president is both the
  chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President and Chairman of the Cabinet of
  Ministers Saparmurat NIYAZOV (since 27 October 1990, when the first
  direct presidential election occurred)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  note: NIYAZOV's term in office was extended indefinitely on 28
  December 1999 during a session of the People's Council (Halk
  Maslahaty); in November 2005, the People's Council voted down
  NIYAZOV's suggestion to hold presidential elections in 2009
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 21 June 1992; note - President NIYAZOV was
  unanimously approved as president for life by the People's Council
  on 28 December 1999; deputy chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers are
  appointed by the president
  election results: Saparmurat NIYAZOV elected president without
  opposition; percent of vote - Saparmurat NIYAZOV 99.5%

Legislative branch:
  under the 1992 constitution, there are two parliamentary bodies, a
  unicameral People's Council or Halk Maslahaty (supreme legislative
  body of up to 2,500 delegates, some of whom are elected by popular
  vote and some of whom are appointed; meets at least yearly) and a
  unicameral Parliament or Mejlis (50 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms); membership is scheduled to
  be increased to 65 seats
  elections: People's Council - last held in April 2003 (next to be
  held December 2008); Mejlis - last held 19 December 2004 (next to be
  held December 2008)
  election results: Mejlis - DPT 100%; seats by party - DPT 50; note -
  all 50 elected officials are members of the Democratic Party of
  Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President NIYAZOV
  note: in late 2003, a new law was adopted, reducing the powers of
  the Mejlis and making the Halk Maslahaty the supreme legislative
  organ; the Halk Maslahaty can now legally dissolve the Mejlis, and
  the president is now able to participate in the Mejlis as its
  supreme leader; the Mejlis can no longer adopt or amend the
  constitution, or announce referendums or its elections; since the
  president is both the "Chairman for Life" of the Halk Maslahaty and
  the supreme leader of the Mejlis, the 2003 law has the effect of
  making him the sole authority of both the executive and legislative
  branches of government

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party of Turkmenistan or DPT [Saparmurat NIYAZOV]
  note: formal opposition parties are outlawed; unofficial, small
  opposition movements exist underground or in foreign countries; the
  two most prominent opposition groups-in-exile have been National
  Democratic Movement of Turkmenistan (NDMT) and the United Democratic
  Party of Turkmenistan (UDPT); NDMT was led by former Foreign
  Minister Boris SHIKHMURADOV until his arrest and imprisonment in the
  wake of the 25 November 2002 assassination attempt on President
  NIYAZOV; UDPT is led by former Foreign Minister Abdy KULIEV and is
  based out of Moscow

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDB, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Meret Bairamovich ORAZOV
  chancery: 2207 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-1500
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-0697

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Jennifer
  L. BRUSH
  embassy: No. 9 1984 Street (formerly Pushkin Street), Ashgabat,
  Turkmenistan 774000
  mailing address: 7070 Ashgabat Place, Washington, DC 20521-7070
  telephone: [9] (9312) 35-00-45
  FAX: [9] (9312) 39-26-14

Flag description:
  green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side,
  containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing carpets)
  stacked above two crossed olive branches similar to the olive
  branches on the UN flag; a white crescent moon representing Islam
  with five white stars representing the regions or velayats of
  Turkmenistan appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly
  side of the red stripe

Economy Turkmenistan


Economy - overview:
  Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with intensive agriculture
  in irrigated oases and large gas and oil resources. One-half of its
  irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was the world's
  tenth-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years have led to an
  almost 50% decline in cotton exports. With an authoritarian
  ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based social structure,
  Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to economic reform,
  hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its inefficient
  economy. Privatization goals remain limited. In 1998-2005,
  Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate export
  routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive short-term
  external debt. At the same time, however, total exports rose by 20%
  to 30% per year in 2003-2005, largely because of higher
  international oil and gas prices. In 2005, Ashgabat sought to raise
  natural gas export prices to its main customers, Russia and Ukraine,
  from $44 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) to $66 per tcm. Overall
  prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread
  internal poverty, the burden of foreign debt, the government's
  irrational use of oil and gas revenues, and its unwillingness to
  adopt market-oriented reforms. Turkmenistan's economic statistics
  are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide
  margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $39.14 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $13.99 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  IMF estimate: 6%
  note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these
  estimates are widely regarded as unreliable (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 20.9%
  industry: 38%
  services: 41.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  2.32 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 48.2%
  industry: 13.8%
  services: 37% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  60% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  58% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 31.7% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  40.8 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  35.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.401 billion
  expenditures: $1.542 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, grain; livestock

Industries:
  natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
  22% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  11.41 billion kWh (2004 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 99.9%
  hydro: 0.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  8.847 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
  1.136 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
  203,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  80,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  273 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  54.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  15.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  38.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  2.01 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $236 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $4.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, cotton fiber, textiles

Exports - partners:
  Ukraine 43.5%, Iran 15%, Hungary 5.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.175 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  UAE 12.4%, Azerbaijan 10.9%, US 9.4%, Russia 8.9%, Ukraine 7.4%,
  Turkey 7.2%, Iran 6.1%, Germany 5.3%, Kazakhstan 4.2% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.963 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $2.4 billion to $5 billion (2001 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $16 million from the US (2001)

Currency (code):
  Turkmen manat (TMM)

Currency code:
  TMM

Exchange rates:
  in recent years the unofficial rate has hovered around 24,000 to
  25,000 Turkmen manats to the dollar; the official rate has
  consistently been 5,200 manat to the dollar

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Turkmenistan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  376,100 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  52,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: poorly developed
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 993; linked by cable and microwave
  radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased
  connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new
  telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new
  exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey
  via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  1.225 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (government owned and programmed) (2004)

Televisions:
  820,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .tm

Internet hosts:
  585 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1

Internet users:
  36,000 (2005)

Transportation Turkmenistan


Airports:
  29 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 22
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 6,441 km; oil 1,361 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,440 km
  broad gauge: 2,440 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 24,000 km
  paved: 19,488 km
  unpaved: 4,512 km (1999)

Waterways:
  1,300 km (Amu Darya and Kara Kum canal important inland waterways)
  (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 22,870 GRT/25,801 DWT
  by type: cargo 4, combination ore/oil 1, petroleum tanker 2,
  refrigerated cargo 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Turkmenbasy

Military Turkmenistan


Military branches:
  Ground Forces, Artillery and Rocket Forces, Navy, Air and Air
  Defense Forces (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - two years (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,132,833
  females age 18-49: 1,162,569 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 759,978
  females age 18-49: 940,179 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 56,532
  females age 18-49: 55,413 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $90 million (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.4% (FY99)

Transnational Issues Turkmenistan


Disputes - international:
  cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan creates
  water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states; bilateral
  talks continue with Azerbaijan on dividing the seabed and contested
  oilfields in the middle of the Caspian; demarcation of land boundary
  with Kazakhstan has started but Caspian seabed delimitation remains
  stalled

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 12,085 (Tajikistan) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and Western
  European markets; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals bound
  for Afghanistan


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Turks and Caicos Islands

Introduction Turks and Caicos Islands


Background:
  The islands were part of the UK's Jamaican colony until 1962, when
  they assumed the status of a separate crown colony upon Jamaica's
  independence. The governor of The Bahamas oversaw affairs from 1965
  to 1973. With Bahamian independence, the islands received a separate
  governor in 1973. Although independence was agreed upon for 1982,
  the policy was reversed and the islands remain a British overseas
  territory.

Geography Turks and Caicos Islands


Location:
  Caribbean, two island groups in the North Atlantic Ocean, southeast
  of The Bahamas, north of Haiti

Geographic coordinates:
  21 45 N, 71 35 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 430 sq km
  land: 430 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  389 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; marine; moderated by trade winds; sunny and relatively dry

Terrain:
  low, flat limestone; extensive marshes and mangrove swamps

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Blue Hills 49 m

Natural resources:
  spiny lobster, conch

Land use:
  arable land: 2.33%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.67% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  frequent hurricanes

Environment - current issues:
  limited natural fresh water resources, private cisterns collect
  rainwater

Geography - note:
  about 40 islands (eight inhabited)

People Turks and Caicos Islands


Population:
  21,152 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 31.9% (male 3,432/female 3,312)
  15-64 years: 64.4% (male 7,155/female 6,457)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 362/female 434) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 27.5 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 26.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.82% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  21.84 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.21 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  10.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.11 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.73 years
  male: 72.48 years
  female: 77.08 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: none
  adjective: none

Ethnic groups:
  black 90%, mixed, European, or North American 10%

Religions:
  Baptist 40%, Anglican 18%, Methodist 16%, Church of God 12%, other
  14% (1990)

Languages:
  English (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 98%
  male: 99%
  female: 98% (1970 est.)

People - note:
  destination and transit point for illegal Haitian immigrants bound
  for the Turks and Caicos Islands, The Bahamas, and US

Government Turks and Caicos Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Turks and Caicos Islands
  abbreviation: TCI

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of the UK

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Grand Turk (Cockburn Town)
  geographic coordinates: 21 28 N, 71 08 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

National holiday:
  Constitution Day, 30 August (1976)

Constitution:
  Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution Order 2006 (effective 9
  August 2006)

Legal system:
  based on laws of England and Wales, with a few adopted from Jamaica
  and The Bahamas

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor Richard TAUWHARE (since 11 July 2005)
  head of government: Premier Michael Eugene MISICK (since 15 August
  2003); note - the office of premier was created in the new
  constitution
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of the governor, the premier, six
  ministers appointed by the governor from among the members of the
  Legislative Council, and the attorney general
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party is appointed premier by the governor

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Legislative Council (21 seats of which 15 are popularly
  elected; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 24 April 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PDM 53.8%, PNP 46.2%;
  seats by party - PDM 7, PNP 6; note - in by-elections held 7 August
  2003, the PNP gained two seats for a majority of 8 seats; PDM now
  has 5

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Political parties and leaders:
  People's Democratic Movement or PDM [Derek H. TAYLOR]; Progressive
  National Party or PNP [Michael Eugene MISICK]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Flag description:
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and
  the colonial shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the
  shield is yellow and contains a conch shell, lobster, and cactus

Economy Turks and Caicos Islands


Economy - overview:
  The Turks and Caicos economy is based on tourism, fishing, and
  offshore financial services. Most capital goods and food for
  domestic consumption are imported. The US is the leading source of
  tourists, accounting for more than half of the annual 93,000
  visitors in the late 1990s. Major sources of government revenue also
  include fees from offshore financial activities and customs receipts.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $216 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.9% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $11,500 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  4,848 (1990 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: about 33% in government and 20% in agriculture and fishing;
  significant numbers in tourism, financial, and other services

Unemployment rate:
  10% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4% (1995)

Budget:
  revenues: $47 million
  expenditures: $33.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1997-98 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, beans, cassava (tapioca), citrus fruits; fish

Industries:
  tourism, offshore financial services

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  5 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  4.65 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $169.2 million (2000)

Exports - commodities:
  lobster, dried and fresh conch, conch shells

Exports - partners:
  US, UK (2004)

Imports:
  $175.6 million (2000)

Imports - commodities:
  food and beverages, tobacco, clothing, manufactures, construction
  materials

Imports - partners:
  US, UK (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $4.1 million (1997)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Turks and Caicos Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  5,700 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,700 (1999)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fully digital system with international direct
  dialing
  domestic: full range of services available; GSM wireless service
  available
  international: country code - 1-649; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  8,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (broadcasts from The Bahamas are received; 2 cable television
  networks) (2004)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .tc

Internet hosts:
  2,735 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  14 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Turks and Caicos Islands


Airports:
  8 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 121 km
  paved: 24 km
  unpaved: 97 km (2003)

Ports and terminals:
  Grand Turk, Providenciales

Military Turks and Caicos Islands


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $192.8 million

Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Transnational Issues Turks and Caicos Islands


Disputes - international:
  have received Haitians fleeing economic and civil disorder

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined for the
  US and Europe


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Tuvalu

Introduction Tuvalu


Background:
  In 1974, ethnic differences within the British colony of the
  Gilbert and Ellice Islands caused the Polynesians of the Ellice
  Islands to vote for separation from the Micronesians of the Gilbert
  Islands. The following year, the Ellice Islands became the separate
  British colony of Tuvalu. Independence was granted in 1978. In 2000,
  Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv"
  for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period.

Geography Tuvalu


Location:
  Oceania, island group consisting of nine coral atolls in the South
  Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 S, 178 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 26 sq km
  land: 26 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  0.1 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  24 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by easterly trade winds (March to November);
  westerly gales and heavy rain (November to March)

Terrain:
  very low-lying and narrow coral atolls

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Natural resources:
  fish

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 66.67%
  other: 33.33% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  severe tropical storms are usually rare, but, in 1997, there were
  three cyclones; low level of islands make them sensitive to changes
  in sea level

Environment - current issues:
  since there are no streams or rivers and groundwater is not
  potable, most water needs must be met by catchment systems with
  storage facilities (the Japanese Government has built one
  desalination plant and plans to build one other); beachhead erosion
  because of the use of sand for building materials; excessive
  clearance of forest undergrowth for use as fuel; damage to coral
  reefs from the spread of the Crown of Thorns starfish; Tuvalu is
  concerned about global increases in greenhouse gas emissions and
  their effect on rising sea levels, which threaten the country's
  underground water table; in 2000, the government appealed to
  Australia and New Zealand to take in Tuvaluans if rising sea levels
  should make evacuation necessary

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  one of the smallest and most remote countries on Earth; six of the
  coral atolls - Nanumea, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti, and
  Nukulaelae - have lagoons open to the ocean; Nanumaya and Niutao
  have landlocked lagoons; Niulakita does not have a lagoon

People Tuvalu


Population:
  11,810 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 30.2% (male 1,819/female 1,752)
  15-64 years: 64.7% (male 3,715/female 3,923)
  65 years and over: 5.1% (male 228/female 373) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 26 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.51% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 19.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 68.32 years
  male: 66.08 years
  female: 70.66 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Tuvaluan(s)
  adjective: Tuvaluan

Ethnic groups:
  Polynesian 96%, Micronesian 4%

Religions:
  Church of Tuvalu (Congregationalist) 97%, Seventh-Day Adventist
  1.4%, Baha'i 1%, other 0.6%

Languages:
  Tuvaluan, English, Samoan, Kiribati (on the island of Nui)

Literacy:
  NA

Government Tuvalu


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Tuvalu
  local long form: none
  local short form: Tuvalu
  former: Ellice Islands
  note: "Tuvalu" means "group of eight," referring to the country's
  eight traditionally inhabited islands

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Funafuti
  geographic coordinates: 8 30 S, 179 12 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: administrative offices are located in Vaiaku Village on
  Fongafale Islet

Administrative divisions:
  none

Independence:
  1 October 1978 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 October (1978)

Constitution:
  1 October 1978

Legal system:
  NA

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Filoimea TELITO (since 15 April 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Apisai IELEMIA (since 14 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by
  the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister; prime
  minister and deputy prime minister elected by and from the members
  of Parliament; election last held 14 August 2006 (next to be held
  following parliamentary elections in 2010)
  election results: Apisai IELEMIA elected Prime Minister in a
  Parliamentary election on 14 August 2006

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament or Fale I Fono, also called House of Assembly
  (15 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 August 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 15

Judicial branch:
  High Court (a chief justice visits twice a year to preside over its
  sessions; its rulings can be appealed to the Court of Appeal in
  Fiji); eight Island Courts (with limited jurisdiction)

Political parties and leaders:
  there are no political parties but members of Parliament usually
  align themselves in informal groupings

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, IFRCS (observer), IMO, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca,
  SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  Tuvalu does not have an embassy in the US - the country's only
  diplomatic post is in Fiji - Tuvalu does, however, have a UN office
  located at 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400D, New York, NY 10017,
  telephone: [1] (212) 490-0534

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Tuvalu; the US ambassador to
  Fiji is accredited to Tuvalu

Flag description:
  light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant; the outer half of the flag represents a map of the country
  with nine yellow five-pointed stars symbolizing the nine islands

Economy Tuvalu


Economy - overview:
  Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scattered group of nine
  coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineral
  resources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the
  primary economic activities. Fewer than 1,000 tourists, on average,
  visit Tuvalu annually. Government revenues largely come from the
  sale of stamps and coins and remittances from seamen on merchant
  ships abroad. About 1,000 Tuvaluans are being repatriated from
  Nauru, with the decline of phosphate resources there. Substantial
  income is received annually from an international trust fund
  established in 1987 by Australia, NZ, and the UK and supported also
  by Japan and South Korea. Thanks to wise investments and
  conservative withdrawals, this fund has grown from an initial $17
  million to over $35 million in 1999. The US Government is also a
  major revenue source for Tuvalu because of payments from a 1988
  treaty on fisheries. In an effort to reduce its dependence on
  foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms,
  including privatization of some government functions and personnel
  cuts of up to 7%. Tuvalu derives around $1.5 million per year from
  the lease of its ".tv" Internet domain name. With merchandise
  exports only a fraction of merchandise imports, continued reliance
  must be placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees,
  remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and income
  from overseas investments.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $14.94 million (2002 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $14.94 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.2% (2002 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,600 (2002 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 16.6% NA%
  industry: 27.2% NA%
  services: 56.2% NA%

Labor force:
  3,615 (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: people make a living mainly through exploitation of the sea,
  reefs, and atolls and from wages sent home by those abroad (mostly
  workers in the phosphate industry and sailors)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.7% (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $22.78 million
  expenditures: $14.23 million; including capital expenditures of $4.2
  million (2000 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coconuts; fish

Industries:
  fishing, tourism, copra

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

Current account balance:
  $2.323 million

Exports:
  $1 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copra, fish

Exports - partners:
  Germany 60.5%, Italy 20.1%, Fiji 6.9% (2005)

Imports:
  $9.186 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food, animals, mineral fuels, machinery, manufactured goods

Imports - partners:
  Fiji 46.1%, Japan 18.9%, China 18.2%, Australia 7.7%, NZ 4.1% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $13 million; note - major donors are Australia, Japan, and the US
  (1999 est.)

Currency (code):
  Australian dollar (AUD); note - there is also a Tuvaluan dollar

Currency code:
  AUD

Exchange rates:
  Tuvaluan dollars or Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095
  (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Tuvalu


Telephones - main lines in use:
  700 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: serves particular needs for internal
  communications
  domestic: radiotelephone communications between islands
  international: country code - 688; international calls can be made
  by satellite

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Radios:
  4,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  0 (2004)

Televisions:
  800

Internet country code:
  .tv

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  1,300 (2002)

Transportation Tuvalu


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 8 km
  paved: 8 km (2002)

Merchant marine:
  total: 52 ships (1000 GRT or over) 196,790 GRT/256,436 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 37, chemical tanker 1, container 2,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 4, specialized
  tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 43 (China 23, Hong Kong 8, Kenya 1, Russia 2,
  Singapore 6, Thailand 1, Turkey 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Funafuti

Military Tuvalu


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; Police Force

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Tuvalu


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Uganda

Introduction Uganda


Background:
  The colonial boundaries created by Britain to delimit Uganda
  grouped together a wide range of ethnic groups with different
  political systems and cultures. These differences prevented the
  establishment of a working political community after independence
  was achieved in 1962. The dictatorial regime of Idi AMIN (1971-79)
  was responsible for the deaths of some 300,000 opponents; guerrilla
  war and human rights abuses under Milton OBOTE (1980-85) claimed at
  least another 100,000 lives. The rule of Yoweri MUSEVENI since 1986
  has brought relative stability and economic growth to Uganda. During
  the 1990s, the government promulgated non-party presidential and
  legislative elections.

Geography Uganda


Location:
  Eastern Africa, west of Kenya

Geographic coordinates:
  1 00 N, 32 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 236,040 sq km
  land: 199,710 sq km
  water: 36,330 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,698 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 765 km, Kenya 933
  km, Rwanda 169 km, Sudan 435 km, Tanzania 396 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical; generally rainy with two dry seasons (December to
  February, June to August); semiarid in northeast

Terrain:
  mostly plateau with rim of mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Lake Albert 621 m
  highest point: Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley 5,110 m

Natural resources:
  copper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, salt, arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 21.57%
  permanent crops: 8.92%
  other: 69.51% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  90 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  draining of wetlands for agricultural use; deforestation;
  overgrazing; soil erosion; water hyacinth infestation in Lake
  Victoria; poaching is widespread

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
  landlocked; fertile, well-watered country with many lakes and rivers

People Uganda


Population:
  28,195,754
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 50% (male 7,091,763/female 6,996,385)
  15-64 years: 47.8% (male 6,762,071/female 6,727,230)
  65 years and over: 2.2% (male 266,931/female 351,374) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 15 years
  male: 14.9 years
  female: 15.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.37% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  47.35 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  12.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 66.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 69.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 62.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 52.67 years
  male: 51.68 years
  female: 53.69 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  4.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  530,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  78,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and African trypanosomiasis (sleeping
  sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Ugandan(s)
  adjective: Ugandan

Ethnic groups:
  Baganda 17%, Ankole 8%, Basoga 8%, Iteso 8%, Bakiga 7%, Langi 6%,
  Rwanda 6%, Bagisu 5%, Acholi 4%, Lugbara 4%, Batoro 3%, Bunyoro 3%,
  Alur 2%, Bagwere 2%, Bakonjo 2%, Jopodhola 2%, Karamojong 2%, Rundi
  2%, non-African (European, Asian, Arab) 1%, other 8%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs
  18%

Languages:
  English (official national language, taught in grade schools, used
  in courts of law and by most newspapers and some radio broadcasts),
  Ganda or Luganda (most widely used of the Niger-Congo languages,
  preferred for native language publications in the capital and may be
  taught in school), other Niger-Congo languages, Nilo-Saharan
  languages, Swahili, Arabic

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 69.9%
  male: 79.5%
  female: 60.4% (2003 est.)

Government Uganda


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Uganda
  conventional short form: Uganda

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Kampala
  geographic coordinates: 0 19 N, 32 25 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  56 districts; Adjumani, Apac, Arua, Bugiri, Bundibugyo, Bushenyi,
  Busia, Gulu, Hoima, Iganga, Jinja, Kabale, Kabarole, Kaberamaido,
  Kalangala, Kampala, Kamuli, Kamwenge, Kanungu, Kapchorwa, Kasese,
  Katakwi, Kayunga, Kibale, Kiboga, Kisoro, Kitgum, Kotido, Kumi,
  Kyenjojo, Lira, Luwero, Masaka, Masindi, Mayuge, Mbale, Mbarara,
  Moroto, Moyo, Mpigi, Mubende, Mukono, Nakapiripirit, Nakasongola,
  Nebbi, Ntungamo, Pader, Pallisa, Rakai, Rukungiri, Sembabule,
  Sironko, Soroti, Tororo, Wakiso, Yumbe
  note: as of a July 2005, 13 new districts were reportedly added
  bringing the total up to 69; the new districts are Amolatar, Amuria,
  Budaka, Butaleja, Ibanda, Kaabong, Kabingo, Kaliro, Kiruhura,
  Koboko, Manafwa, Mityana, Nakaseke; a total of nine more districts
  are in the process of being added

Independence:
  9 October 1962 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 9 October (1962)

Constitution:
  8 October 1995; in 2005 the constitution was amended removing
  presidential term limits and legalizing a multiparty political system

Legal system:
  in 1995, the government restored the legal system to one based on
  English common law and customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI (since
  seizing power 26 January 1986); note - the president is both chief
  of state and head of government
  head of government: President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI (since
  seizing power 29 January 1986); Prime Minister Apollo NSIBAMBI
  (since 5 April 1999); note - the president is both chief of state
  and head of government; the prime minister assists the president in
  the supervision of the cabinet
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among elected
  legislators
  elections: president reelected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 23 February 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI elected president;
  percent of vote - Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI 59.3%, Kizza
  BESIGYE 37.4%, other 3.3%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (303 members - 214 directly elected by
  popular vote, 81 nominated by legally established special interest
  groups [women 56, army 10, disabled 5, youth 5, labor 5], 8 ex
  officio members; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 February 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NA; note - election results had not been posted as of March 2006

Judicial branch:
  Court of Appeal (judges are appointed by the president and approved
  by the legislature); High Court (judges are appointed by the
  president)

Political parties and leaders:
  Conservative Party or CP [Ken LUKYAMUZI]; Democratic Party or DP
  [Kizito SSEBAANA]; Forum for Democratic Change or FDC [Kizza
  BESIGYE]; Justice Forum or JEEMA [Muhammad Kibirige MAYANJA];
  National Democrats Forum [Chapaa KARUHANGA]; National Resistance
  Movement or NRM [Yoweri MUSEVENI]; Ugandan People's Congress or UPC
  [Miria OBOTE]
  note: a national referendum in July 2005 opened the way for Uganda's
  transition to a multi-party political system

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Popular Resistance Against a Life President or PRALP

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, EADB, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Edith G. SSEMPALA
  chancery: 5911 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-7100 through 7102, 0416
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-1727

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires William
  FITZGERALD
  embassy: 1577 Ggaba Rd., Kampala
  mailing address: P. O. Box 7007, Kampala
  telephone: [256] (41) 234-142
  FAX: [256] (41) 258-451

Flag description:
  six equal horizontal bands of black (top), yellow, red, black,
  yellow, and red; a white disk is superimposed at the center and
  depicts a red-crested crane (the national symbol) facing the hoist
  side

Economy Uganda


Economy - overview:
  Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils,
  regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt.
  Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing
  over 80% of the work force. Coffee accounts for the bulk of export
  revenues. Since 1986, the government - with the support of foreign
  countries and international agencies - has acted to rehabilitate and
  stabilize the economy by undertaking currency reform, raising
  producer prices on export crops, increasing prices of petroleum
  products, and improving civil service wages. The policy changes are
  especially aimed at dampening inflation and boosting production and
  export earnings. During 1990-2001, the economy turned in a solid
  performance based on continued investment in the rehabilitation of
  infrastructure, improved incentives for production and exports,
  reduced inflation, gradually improved domestic security, and the
  return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs. In 2000, Uganda
  qualified for enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt
  relief worth $1.3 billion and Paris Club debt relief worth $145
  million. These amounts combined with the original HIPC debt relief
  added up to about $2 billion. Growth for 2001-02 was solid despite
  continued decline in the price of coffee, Uganda's principal export.
  Growth in 2003-05 reflected an upturn in Uganda's export markets.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $47.76 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $7.909 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 31.1%
  industry: 22.2%
  services: 46.9% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
  13.17 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 82%
  industry: 5%
  services: 13% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  35% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 4%
  highest 10%: 21% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  43 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  23.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.845 billion
  expenditures: $1.904 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  64.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, cassava (tapioca), potatoes, corn,
  millet, pulses, cut flowers; beef, goat meat, milk, poultry

Industries:
  sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles; cement, steel production

Industrial production growth rate:
  9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  1.729 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.9%
  hydro: 99.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  1.448 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  160 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-355 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $768 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  coffee, fish and fish products, tea, cotton, flowers, horticultural
  products; gold

Exports - partners:
  Kenya 15.1%, Belgium 9.9%, Netherlands 9.7%, France 7.1%, Germany
  5.1%, Rwanda 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.608 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  capital equipment, vehicles, petroleum, medical supplies; cereals

Imports - partners:
  Kenya 32%, UAE 8.6%, South Africa 6.4%, India 5.7%, China 5.2%, UK
  4.4%, US 4.1%, Japan 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.286 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.973 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $959 million (2003)

Currency (code):
  Ugandan shilling (UGX)

Currency code:
  UGX

Exchange rates:
  Ugandan shillings per US dollar - 1,780.7 (2005), 1,810.3 (2004),
  1,963.7 (2003), 1,797.6 (2002), 1,755.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 July - 30 June

Communications Uganda


Telephones - main lines in use:
  100,800 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.525 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: seriously inadequate; two cellular systems have
  been introduced, but a sharp increase in the number of main lines is
  essential; e-mail and Internet services are available
  domestic: intercity traffic by wire, microwave radio relay, and
  radiotelephone communication stations, fixed and mobile cellular
  systems for short-range traffic
  international: country code - 256; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat; analog links to Kenya and
  Tanzania

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 33, shortwave 2 (2001)

Radios:
  5 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  8 (plus one low-power repeater) (2001)

Televisions:
  500,000 (2001)

Internet country code:
  .ug

Internet hosts:
  1,365 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  2 (2000)

Internet users:
  500,000 (2005)

Transportation Uganda


Airports:
  31 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 26
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,244 km
  narrow gauge: 1,244 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 70,746 km
  paved: 16,272 km
  unpaved: 54,474 km (2003)

Waterways:
  on Lake Victoria, 200 km on Lake Albert, Lake Kyoga, and parts of
  Albert Nile (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Entebbe, Jinja, Port Bell

Military Uganda


Military branches:
  Ugandan Peoples' Defense Force (UPDF): Army, Marine Unit, Air Wing

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military duty; the
  government has stated that recruitment below that age could occur
  with proper consent and that "no person under the apparent age of 13
  years shall be enrolled in the armed forces"

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 5,012,620
  females age 18-49: 4,855,858 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,889,808
  females age 18-49: 2,780,135 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $192.8 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Uganda


Disputes - international:
  Uganda is subject to armed fighting among hostile ethnic groups,
  rebels, armed gangs, militias, and various government forces;
  Ugandan refugees have fled the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) into the
  southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; LRA forces
  have attacked Kenyan villages across the border

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 214,673 (Sudan) 18,902 (Rwanda)
  14,982 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  IDPs: 1,330,000-2,000,000 note - ongoing Lord's Resistance Army
  (LRA) rebellion, mainly in the north; LRA frequently attacks IDP
  camps (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Ukraine

Introduction Ukraine


Background:
  Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan
  Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and
  most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and
  Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy
  of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation
  for Ukrainian nationalism through subsequent centuries. A new
  Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was established during the
  mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despite
  continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate managed to remain
  autonomous for well over 100 years. During the latter part of the
  18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic territory was absorbed by
  the Russian Empire. Following the collapse of czarist Russia in
  1917, Ukraine was able to bring about a short-lived period of
  independence (1917-20), but was reconquered and forced to endure a
  brutal Soviet rule that engineered two artificial famines (1921-22
  and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died. In World War II, German
  and Soviet armies were responsible for some 7 to 8 million more
  deaths. Although final independence for Ukraine was achieved in 1991
  with the dissolution of the USSR, democracy remained elusive as the
  legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at
  economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass
  protest "Orange Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the
  authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow
  a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a
  reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal
  squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH
  to stage a comeback in parliamentary elections and become prime
  minister in August of 2006.

Geography Ukraine


Location:
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Romania,
  and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east

Geographic coordinates:
  49 00 N, 32 00 E

Map references:
  Asia, Europe

Area:
  total: 603,700 sq km
  land: 603,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,663 km
  border countries: Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 939 km,
  Poland 526 km, Romania (south) 169 km, Romania (west) 362 km, Russia
  1,576 km, Slovakia 97 km

Coastline:
  2,782 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  temperate continental; Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean
  coast; precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west
  and north, lesser in east and southeast; winters vary from cool
  along the Black Sea to cold farther inland; summers are warm across
  the greater part of the country, hot in the south

Terrain:
  most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus,
  mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the
  Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Hora Hoverla 2,061 m

Natural resources:
  iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur,
  graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber,
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 53.8%
  permanent crops: 1.5%
  other: 44.7% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  22,080 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  inadequate supplies of potable water; air and water pollution;
  deforestation; radiation contamination in the northeast from 1986
  accident at Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds

Geography - note:
  strategic position at the crossroads between Europe and Asia;
  second-largest country in Europe

People Ukraine


Population:
  46,710,816 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 14.1% (male 3,377,868/female 3,203,738)
  15-64 years: 69.3% (male 15,559,998/female 16,831,486)
  65 years and over: 16.6% (male 2,635,651/female 5,102,075) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.2 years
  male: 35.9 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.6% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  8.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  14.39 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.43 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.52 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 9.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 69.98 years
  male: 64.71 years
  female: 75.59 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  1.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  360,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  20,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Ukrainian(s)
  adjective: Ukrainian

Ethnic groups:
  Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%,
  Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%,
  Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Ukrainian Orthodox - Kyiv Patriarchate 19%, Orthodox (no particular
  jurisdiction) 16%, Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate 9%,
  Ukrainian Greek Catholic 6%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 1.7%,
  Protestant, Jewish, none 38% (2004 est.)

Languages:
  Ukrainian (official) 67%, Russian 24%, small Romanian-, Polish-,
  and Hungarian-speaking minorities

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.6% (2003 est.)

Government Ukraine


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Ukraine
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ukrayina
  former: Ukrainian National Republic, Ukrainian State, Ukrainian
  Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Kyiv (Kiev)
  geographic coordinates: 50 26 N, 30 31 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic*
  (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities (mista, singular -
  misto) with oblast status**; Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Crimea
  or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'), Dnipropetrovs'k,
  Donets'k, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmel'nyts'kyy,
  Kirovohrad, Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhans'k, L'viv, Mykolayiv, Odesa,
  Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol'**, Sumy, Ternopil', Vinnytsya, Volyn'
  (Luts'k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya, Zhytomyr
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Independence:
  24 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 24 August (1991); 22 January (1918), the day
  Ukraine first declared its independence (from Soviet Russia) and the
  day the short-lived Western and Central Ukrainian republics united
  (1919), is now celebrated as Unity Day

Constitution:
  adopted 28 June 1996

Legal system:
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Viktor A. YUSHCHENKO (since 23 January
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Viktor YANUKOVYCH (since 4 August
  2006); First Deputy Prime Minister - Mykola AZAROV (since 5 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers selected by the prime minister; the
  only exceptions are the foreign and defense ministers, who are
  chosen by the president
  note: there is also a National Security and Defense Council or NSDC
  originally created in 1992 as the National Security Council; the
  NSDC staff is tasked with developing national security policy on
  domestic and international matters and advising the president; a
  Presidential Secretariat helps draft presidential edicts and
  provides policy support to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); note - a special repeat runoff
  presidential election between Viktor YUSHCHENKO and Viktor
  YANUKOVYCH took place on 26 December 2004 after the earlier 21
  November 2004 contest - won by Mr. YANUKOVYCH - was invalidated by
  the Ukrainian Supreme Court because of widespread and significant
  violations; under constitutional reforms that went into effect 1
  January 2006, the majority in parliament takes the lead in naming
  the prime minister
  election results: Viktor YUSHCHENKO elected president; percent of
  vote - Viktor YUSHCHENKO 51.99%, Viktor YANUKOVYCH 44.2%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Supreme Council or Verkhovna Rada (450 seats; allocated
  on a proportional basis to those parties that gain 3% or more of the
  national electoral vote; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 March 2006 (next to be held March 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party/bloc in 2002 - Party of
  Regions 32.1%, Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 22.3%, Our Ukraine 13.9%, SPU
  5.7%, CPU 3.7%; seats by party/bloc - Party of Regions 186, Yuliya
  Tymoshenko Bloc 129, Our Ukraine 81, SPU 33, CPU 21

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court

Political parties and leaders:
  Communist Party of Ukraine or CPU [Petro SYMONENKO]; Fatherland
  Party (Batkivshchyna) [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO]; Lytyvn-led People's Bloc
  group [Ihor SHAROV]; Our Ukraine [Viktor YUSHCHENKO]; Party of
  Industrialists and Entrepreneurs [Anatoliy KINAKH]; People's
  Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) [Borys TARASYUK]; People's Party
  [Volodymyr LYTVYN]; People's Trust group [Anton KISSE]; PORA! (It's
  Time!) party [Vladyslav KASKIV]; Progressive Socialist Party
  [Natalya VITRENKO]; Reforms and Order Party [Viktor PYNZENYK]; Party
  of Regions [Viktor YANUKOVYCH]; Republican Party [Yuriy BOYKO];
  Social Democratic Party (United) or SDPU(o) [Viktor MEDVEDCHUK];
  Socialist Party of Ukraine or SPU [Oleksandr MOROZ, chairman];
  Ukrainian People's Party [Yuriy KOSTENKO]; United Ukraine [Bohdan
  HUBSKYY]; Vidrodzhennya (Revival) [Anton KISSE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Committee of Voters of Ukraine [Ihor POPOV]

International organization participation:
  Australia Group, BSEC, CBSS (observer), CE, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD,
  FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI (observer),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer), ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Oleh V. SHAMSHUR
  chancery: 3350 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-0606
  FAX: [1] (202) 333-0817
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York, San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William B. TAYLOR
  embassy: 10 Yurii Kotsiubynsky Street, 04053 Kyiv
  mailing address: 5850 Kiev Place, Washington, DC 20521-5850
  telephone: [380] (44) 490-4000
  FAX: [380] (44) 490-4085

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of azure (top) and golden yellow
  represent grain fields under a blue sky

Economy Ukraine


Economy - overview:
  After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most
  important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing
  about four times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its
  fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of Soviet
  agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities
  of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics. Likewise,
  its diversified heavy industry supplied the unique equipment (for
  example, large diameter pipes) and raw materials to industrial and
  mining sites (vertical drilling apparatus) in other regions of the
  former USSR. Ukraine depends on imports of energy, especially
  natural gas, to meet some 85% of its annual energy requirements.
  Shortly after independence was ratified in December 1991, the
  Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal
  framework for privatization, but widespread resistance to reform
  within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform
  efforts and led to some backtracking. Output by 1999 had fallen to
  less than 40% of the 1991 level. Loose monetary policies pushed
  inflation to hyperinflationary levels in late 1993. Ukraine's
  dependence on Russia for energy supplies and the lack of significant
  structural reform have made the Ukrainian economy vulnerable to
  external shocks. A dispute with Russia over pricing led to a
  temporary gas cut-off; Ukraine concluded a deal with Russia in
  January 2006, which almost doubled the price Ukraine pays for
  Russian gas, and could cost the Ukrainian economy $1.4-2.2 billion
  and cause GDP growth to fall 3-4%. Ukrainian government officials
  eliminated most tax and customs privileges in a March 2005 budget
  law, bringing more economic activity out of Ukraine's large shadow
  economy, but more improvements are needed, including fighting
  corruption, developing capital markets, and improving the
  legislative framework for businesses. Reforms in the more
  politically sensitive areas of structural reform and land
  privatization are still lagging. Outside institutions - particularly
  the IMF - have encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of
  reforms. GDP growth was 2.4% in 2005, down from 12.4% in 2004. The
  current account surplus reached $2.2 billion in 2005. The
  privatization of the Kryvoryzhstal steelworks in late 2005 produced
  $4.8 billion in windfall revenue for the government. Some of the
  proceeds were used to finance the budget deficit, some to
  recapitalize two state banks, some to retire public debt, and the
  rest may be used to finance future deficits.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $329.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $75.14 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.6% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 18.7%
  industry: 45.2%
  services: 36.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  22.67 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 24%
  industry: 32%
  services: 44% (1996)

Unemployment rate:
  3.1% officially registered; large number of unregistered or
  underemployed workers; the International Labor Organization
  calculates that Ukraine's real unemployment level is around 9-10%
  (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  29% (2003 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.4%
  highest 10%: 24.8% (2005)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  29 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  13.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $23.59 billion
  expenditures: $22.98 billion; note - this is the consolidated budget
  (January-September 2005)

Public debt:
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, vegetables; beef, milk

Industries:
  coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and
  transport equipment, chemicals, food processing (especially sugar)

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  181.3 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 48.6%
  hydro: 7.9%
  nuclear: 43.5%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  176 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  1 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  255 million kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  85,660 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  491,700 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  8,891 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  444,600 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  395 million bbl (9 November 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  20.3 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  75.8 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  3.9 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  59.8 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.121 trillion cu m (9 November 2004)

Current account balance:
  $2.531 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $38.22 billion (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  ferrous and nonferrous metals, fuel and petroleum products,
  chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, food products

Exports - partners:
  Russia 22.1%, Turkey 6%, Italy 5.6% (2005)

Imports:
  $37.18 billion (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  energy, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  Russia 35.5%, Germany 9.4%, Turkmenistan 7.4%, China 5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $19.39 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $23.93 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $637.7 million (1995); IMF Extended Funds Facility $2.2 billion
  (1998)

Currency (code):
  hryvnia (UAH)

Currency code:
  UAH

Exchange rates:
  hryvnia per US dollar - 5.1247 (2005), 5.3192 (2004), 5.3327
  (2003), 5.3266 (2002), 5.3722 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Ukraine


Telephones - main lines in use:
  12.142 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  17.214 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Ukraine's telecommunication development plan,
  running through 2005, emphasizes improving domestic trunk lines,
  international connections, and the mobile cellular system
  domestic: at independence in December 1991, Ukraine inherited a
  telephone system that was antiquated, inefficient, and in disrepair;
  more than 3.5 million applications for telephones could not be
  satisfied; telephone density is rising slowly and the domestic trunk
  system is being improved; the mobile cellular telephone system is
  expanding at a high rate
  international: country code - 380; two new domestic trunk lines are
  a part of the fiber-optic Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) system and three
  Ukrainian links have been installed in the fiber-optic
  Trans-European Lines (TEL) project that connects 18 countries;
  additional international service is provided by the
  Italy-Turkey-Ukraine-Russia (ITUR) fiber-optic submarine cable and
  by earth stations in the Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik
  satellite systems

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 134, FM 289, shortwave 4 (1998)

Radios:
  45.05 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  at least 33 (plus 21 repeaters that relay broadcasts from Russia)
  (1997)

Televisions:
  18.05 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ua

Internet hosts:
  229,110 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  260 (2001)

Internet users:
  5,278,100 (2005)

Transportation Ukraine


Airports:
  499 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 193
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 55
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 27
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 93 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 306
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 274 (2006)

Heliports:
  10 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 19,951 km; oil 4,514 km; refined products 4,211 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 22,473 km
  broad gauge: 22,473 km 1.524-m gauge (9,250 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 169,447 km
  paved: 164,772 km (including 15 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 4,675 km (2004)

Waterways:
  2,253 km (most on Dnieper River) (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 202 ships (1000 GRT or over) 782,456 GRT/911,201 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 151, container 4, passenger 6,
  passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 11, roll
  on/roll off 7, specialized tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Russia 1)
  registered in other countries: 160 (Belize 7, Cambodia 17, Comoros
  14, Cyprus 4, Dominica 2, Georgia 22, Liberia 16, Malta 24, Moldova
  3, Mongolia 1, Panama 8, Russia 11, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 12, Sierra Leone 4, Slovakia 8, unknown
  4) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Feodosiya, Kerch, Kherson, Mariupol', Mykolayiv, Odesa, Reni,
  Yuzhnyy

Military Ukraine


Military branches:
  Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air Forces (Viyskovo-Povitryani Syly),
  Air Defense Forces (2002)

Military service age and obligation:
  18-25 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 18 months for Army and Air Force, 24
  months for Navy (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 11,020,222
  females age 18-49: 11,370,687 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 7,376,050
  females age 18-49: 9,313,385 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 382,751
  females age 18-49: 365,599 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $617.9 million (FY02)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (FY02)

Transnational Issues Ukraine


Disputes - international:
  1997 boundary treaty with Belarus remains un-ratified due to
  unresolved financial claims, stalling demarcation and reducing
  border security; delimitation of land boundary with Russia is
  complete and parties have renewed discussions on demarcation; the
  dispute over the maritime boundary between Russia and Ukraine
  through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov remains unresolved despite
  a December 2003 framework agreement and ongoing expert-level
  discussions; Moldova and Ukraine have established joint customs
  posts to monitor transit through Moldova's break-away Transnistria
  Region, which remains under OSCE supervision; in 2004 Ukraine and
  Romania took their dispute over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy
  (Snake) Island and Black Sea maritime boundary to the ICJ for
  adjudication; Romania opposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation
  canal from the Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea

Illicit drugs:
  limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS
  consumption; some synthetic drug production for export to the West;
  limited government eradication program; used as transshipment point
  for opiates and other illicit drugs from Africa, Latin America, and
  Turkey to Europe and Russia; Ukraine has improved
  anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the
  Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and
  Territories List in February 2004; Ukraine's anti-money-laundering
  regime continues to be monitored by FATF


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@United Arab Emirates

Introduction United Arab Emirates


Background:
  The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf coast granted the UK control
  of their defense and foreign affairs in 19th century treaties. In
  1971, six of these states - Abu Zaby, 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash
  Shariqah, Dubayy, and Umm al Qaywayn - merged to form the United
  Arab Emirates (UAE). They were joined in 1972 by Ra's al Khaymah.
  The UAE's per capita GDP is on par with those of leading West
  European nations. Its generosity with oil revenues and its moderate
  foreign policy stance have allowed the UAE to play a vital role in
  the affairs of the region.

Geography United Arab Emirates


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf,
  between Oman and Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  24 00 N, 54 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 82,880 sq km
  land: 82,880 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Maine

Land boundaries:
  total: 867 km
  border countries: Oman 410 km, Saudi Arabia 457 km

Coastline:
  1,318 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  desert; cooler in eastern mountains

Terrain:
  flat, barren coastal plain merging into rolling sand dunes of vast
  desert wasteland; mountains in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Yibir 1,527 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas

Land use:
  arable land: 0.77%
  permanent crops: 2.27%
  other: 96.96% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  760 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  frequent sand and dust storms

Environment - current issues:
  lack of natural freshwater resources compensated by desalination
  plants; desertification; beach pollution from oil spills

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Geography - note:
  strategic location along southern approaches to Strait of Hormuz, a
  vital transit point for world crude oil

People United Arab Emirates


Population:
  2,602,713 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 24.9% (male 331,012/female 317,643)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 1,125,286/female 726,689)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 74,700/female 27,383)
  note: 73.9% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national
  (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 34.8 years
  female: 23.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.52% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.96 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.55 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 2.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.43 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 14.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.57 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 75.44 years
  male: 72.92 years
  female: 78.08 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.18% (2001 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Emirati(s)
  adjective: Emirati

Ethnic groups:
  Emirati 19%, other Arab and Iranian 23%, South Asian 50%, other
  expatriates (includes Westerners and East Asians) 8% (1982)
  note: less than 20% are UAE citizens (1982)

Religions:
  Muslim 96% (Shi'a 16%), Christian, Hindu, and other 4%

Languages:
  Arabic (official), Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 77.9%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 81.7% (2003 est.)

Government United Arab Emirates


Country name:
  conventional long form: United Arab Emirates
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Al Imarat al Arabiyah al Muttahidah
  local short form: none
  former: Trucial Oman, Trucial States
  abbreviation: UAE

Government type:
  federation with specified powers delegated to the UAE federal
  government and other powers reserved to member emirates

Capital:
  name: Abu Dhabi
  geographic coordinates: 24 28 N, 54 22 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  7 emirates (imarat, singular - imarah); Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi),
  'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah (Sharjah), Dubayy (Dubai), Ra's al
  Khaymah, Umm al Qaywayn (Quwayn)

Independence:
  2 December 1971 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 2 December (1971)

Constitution:
  2 December 1971; made permanent in 1996

Legal system:
  federal court system introduced in 1971; applies to all emirates
  except Dubayy (Dubai) and Ra's al Khaymah, which are not fully
  integrated into the federal judicial system; all emirates have
  secular courts to adjudicate criminal, civil, and commercial matters
  and Islamic courts to review family and religious disputes

Suffrage:
  none

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President KHALIFA bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 3
  November 2004), ruler of Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi) (since 4 November
  2004); Vice President and Prime Minister MUHAMMAD bin Rashid
  al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister and Vice President MUHAMMAD bin
  Rashid al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006); Deputy Prime Ministers
  SULTAN bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 November 1990) and HAMDAN bin
  Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 October 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  note: there is also a Federal Supreme Council (FSC) composed of the
  seven emirate rulers; the FSC is the highest constitutional
  authority in the UAE; establishes general policies and sanctions
  federal legislation; meets four times a year; Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi)
  and Dubayy (Dubai) rulers have effective veto power
  elections: president and vice president elected by the FSC for
  five-year terms (no term limits); election last held 3 November 2004
  upon the death of the UAE's Founding Father and first President
  ZAYID bin Sultan Al Nuhayyan (next to be held 2009); prime minister
  and deputy prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: KHALIFA bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan elected president by
  a unanimous vote of the FSC; MUHAMMAD bin Rashid al-Maktum
  unanimously reaffirmed vice president

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Federal National Council (FNC) or Majlis al-Ittihad
  al-Watani (40 seats; members appointed by the rulers of the
  constituent states to serve two-year terms)
  elections: President KHALIFA in December 2005 announced that
  indirect elections would be held in early 2006 for half of the seats
  in the FNC; the other half would be filled by appointment
  note: reviews legislation, but cannot change or veto

Judicial branch:
  Union Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW,
  OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Saqr Ghobash Said GHOBASH
  chancery: 3522 International Court NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC
  20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 243-2400
  FAX: [1] (202) 243-2432
  consulate(s): New York, Houston

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michele J. SISON
  embassy: Embassies District, Plot 38 Sector W59-02, Street No. 4,
  Abu Dhabi
  mailing address: P. O. Box 4009, Abu Dhabi
  telephone: [971] (2) 414-2200
  FAX: [971] (2) 414-2603
  consulate(s) general: Dubai

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with
  a wider vertical red band on the hoist side

Economy United Arab Emirates


Economy - overview:
  The UAE has an open economy with a high per capita income and a
  sizable annual trade surplus. Its wealth is based on oil and gas
  output (about 30% of GDP), and the fortunes of the economy fluctuate
  with the prices of those commodities. Since the discovery of oil in
  the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has undergone a profound
  transformation from an impoverished region of small desert
  principalities to a modern state with a high standard of living. At
  present levels of production, oil and gas reserves should last for
  more than 100 years. The government has increased spending on job
  creation and infrastructure expansion and is opening up its
  utilities to greater private sector involvement. Higher oil revenue,
  strong liquidity, and cheap credit in 2005 led to a surge in asset
  prices (shares and real estate) and consumer inflation. Any sharp
  correction to the UAE's equity markets could damage investor and
  consumer sentiment and affect bank asset quality. In April 2004, the
  UAE signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with
  Washington and in November 2004 agreed to undertake negotiations
  toward a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $115.8 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $98.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $45,200 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 58.5%
  services: 37.5% (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  2.8 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 15%
  services: 78% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  2.4% (2001)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  20.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $34.93 billion
  expenditures: $29.41 billion; including capital expenditures of $3.4
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  17.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  dates, vegetables, watermelons; poultry, eggs, dairy products; fish

Industries:
  petroleum and petrochemicals; fishing, aluminum, cement,
  fertilizers, commercial ship repair, construction materials, some
  boat building, handicrafts, textiles

Industrial production growth rate:
  4% (2000)

Electricity - production:
  45.12 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  38.32 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2004)

Oil - production:
  2.396 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  310,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - exports:
  2.5 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  97.8 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  44.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  37.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  7.19 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  6.006 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $18.54 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $103.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil 45%, natural gas, reexports, dried fish, dates

Exports - partners:
  Japan 24.6%, South Korea 9.8%, Thailand 5.6%, India 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $60.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food

Imports - partners:
  UK 10%, China 9.7%, US 9.4%, India 9.2%, Germany 5.9%, Japan 5.4%,
  France 4.7%, Singapore 4.1% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $23.53 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $34.47 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  since its founding in 1971, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development has
  given about $5.2 billion in aid to 56 countries (2004)

Currency (code):
  Emirati dirham (AED)

Currency code:
  AED

Exchange rates:
  Emirati dirhams per US dollar - 3.6725 (2005), 3.6725 (2004),
  3.6725 (2003), 3.6725 (2002), 3.6725 (2001)
  note: officially pegged to the US dollar since February 2002

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications United Arab Emirates


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1.237 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  4.535 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital
  network with rapidly growing use of mobile cellular telephones; key
  centers are Abu Dhabi and Dubai
  domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber optic and coaxial cable
  international: country code - 971; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat;
  submarine cables to Qatar, Bahrain, India, and Pakistan;
  tropospheric scatter to Bahrain; microwave radio relay to Saudi
  Arabia

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 13, FM 8, shortwave 2 (2004)

Radios:
  820,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  15 (2004)

Televisions:
  310,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ae

Internet hosts:
  337,092 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  1,397,200 (2005)

Transportation United Arab Emirates


Airports:
  37 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 23
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Heliports:
  4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 520 km; gas 2,580 km; liquid petroleum gas 300 km; oil
  2,950 km; oil/gas/water 5 km; refined products 156 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,088 km
  paved: 1,088 km (including 253 km of expressways) (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 58 ships (1000 GRT or over) 656,003 GRT/891,837 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 7, chemical tanker 5, container 6,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 20, roll
  on/roll off 6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (Greece 2, Kuwait 8)
  registered in other countries: 259 (Bahamas 16, Barbados 1, Belize
  5, Cambodia 1, Comoros 6, Cyprus 11, Dominica 2, Georgia 1, Hong
  Kong 2, India 6, Iran 1, Jordan 11, Kiribati 1, North Korea 6,
  Liberia 18, Malta 5, Marshall Islands 3, Mexico 1, Mongolia 5,
  Norway 1, Panama 105, Philippines 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis 19, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 11, Saudi Arabia 1, Sierra Leone 3,
  Singapore 7, Somalia 1, Sri Lanka 2, Syria 1, unknown 5) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Al Fujayrah, Khawr Fakkan, Mina' Jabal 'Ali, Mina' Rashid, Mina'
  Saqr, Mina' Zayid, Sharjan

Military United Arab Emirates


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes Marines and Coast Guard), Air and Air Defense
  Force, paramilitary forces (includes Federal Police Force)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 653,181
  females age 18-49: 497,394 (includes non-nationals; 2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 526,671
  females age 18-49: 419,975 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males: 30,706
  females age 18-49: 29,617 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.6 billion (FY00)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  3.1% (FY00)

Transnational Issues United Arab Emirates


Disputes - international:
  the United Arab Emirate 2006 Yearbook published a map and text
  rescinding the 1974 boundary with Saudi Arabia, as stipulated in a
  treaty filed with the UN in 1993, on the grounds that the agreement
  was not formally ratified; boundary agreement was signed and
  ratified with Oman in 2003 for entire border, including Oman's
  Musandam Peninsula and Al Madhah enclaves, but contents of the
  agreement and maps showing the alignment have not been published;
  Iran and UAE dispute Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island, which Iran
  occupies

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: the United Arab Emirates is a destination
  country for men, women, and children trafficked from South and East
  Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for involuntary
  servitude and for sexual exploitation; an estimated 10,000 women
  from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, Iraq,
  Iran, and Morocco may be victims of sex trafficking in the UAE;
  women also migrate from Africa, and South and Southeast Asia to work
  as domestic servants, but may have their passports confiscated, be
  denied permission to leave the place of employment in the home, or
  face sexual or physical abuse by their employers; men from South
  Asia come to the UAE to work in the construction industry, but may
  be subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude as they are
  coerced to pay off recruitment and travel costs, sometimes having
  their wages denied for months at a time; victims of child camel
  jockey trafficking may still remain in the UAE, despite a July 2005
  law banning the practice; while all identified victims were
  repatriated at the government's expense to their home countries,
  questions persist as to the effectiveness of the ban and the true
  number of victims
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - UAE is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to show increased efforts to combat trafficking
  in 2005, particularly in its efforts to address the large-scale
  trafficking of foreign girls and women for commercial sexual
  exploitation

Illicit drugs:
  the UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its
  proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing countries; the UAE's
  position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money
  laundering; anti-money-laundering controls improving, but informal
  banking remains unregulated


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@United Kingdom

Introduction United Kingdom


Background:
  As the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century,
  the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played a leading
  role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing
  literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched
  over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of the 20th
  century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two World Wars
  and the Irish republic withdraw from the union. The second half
  witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK rebuilding itself
  into a modern and prosperous European nation. As one of five
  permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding member of
  NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global approach to
  foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of its
  integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it chose to
  remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time being.
  Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK. The
  Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the
  Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter
  is suspended due to wrangling over the peace process.

Geography United Kingdom


Location:
  Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the
  island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North
  Sea, northwest of France

Geographic coordinates:
  54 00 N, 2 00 W

Map references:
  Europe

Area:
  total: 244,820 sq km
  land: 241,590 sq km
  water: 3,230 sq km
  note: includes Rockall and Shetland Islands

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Land boundaries:
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Ireland 360 km

Coastline:
  12,429 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: as defined in continental shelf orders or in
  accordance with agreed upon boundaries

Climate:
  temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North
  Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast

Terrain:
  mostly rugged hills and low mountains; level to rolling plains in
  east and southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: The Fens -4 m
  highest point: Ben Nevis 1,343 m

Natural resources:
  coal, petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, lead, zinc, gold, tin,
  limestone, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, potash, silica sand, slate,
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 23.23%
  permanent crops: 0.2%
  other: 76.57% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,700 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  winter windstorms; floods

Environment - current issues:
  continues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (has met Kyoto
  Protocol target of a 12.5% reduction from 1990 levels and intends to
  meet the legally binding target and move toward a domestic goal of a
  20% cut in emissions by 2010); by 2005 the government aims to reduce
  the amount of industrial and commercial waste disposed of in
  landfill sites to 85% of 1998 levels and to recycle or compost at
  least 25% of household waste, increasing to 33% by 2015; between
  1998-99 and 1999-2000, household recycling increased from 8.8% to
  10.3%

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Geography - note:
  lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes; only 35 km from France
  and linked by tunnel under the English Channel; because of heavily
  indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from tidal waters

People United Kingdom


Population:
  60,609,153 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 17.5% (male 5,417,663/female 5,161,714)
  15-64 years: 66.8% (male 20,476,571/female 19,988,959)
  65 years and over: 15.8% (male 4,087,020/female 5,477,226) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 38.2 years
  female: 40.4 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.28% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  10.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  10.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 5.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 78.54 years
  male: 76.09 years
  female: 81.13 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.2% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  51,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural)
  adjective: British

Ethnic groups:
  white (of which English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh 4.9%, Northern
  Irish 2.9%) 92.1%, black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani 1.3%, mixed
  1.2%, other 1.6% (2001 census)

Religions:
  Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist)
  71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1%
  (2001 census)

Languages:
  English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish
  form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of
  schooling
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government United Kingdom


Country name:
  conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and
  Northern Ireland; note - Great Britain includes England, Scotland,
  and Wales
  conventional short form: United Kingdom
  abbreviation: UK

Government type:
  constitutional monarchy

Capital:
  name: London
  geographic coordinates: 51 30 N, 0 10 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:
  England: 47 boroughs, 36 counties, 29 London boroughs, 12 cities
  and boroughs, 10 districts, 12 cities, 3 royal boroughs
  boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton,
  Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale,
  Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool,
  Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes,
  North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland,
  Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull,
  Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport,
  Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford,
  Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton
  counties (or unitary authorities): Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
  Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon,
  Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire,
  Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire,
  Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire,
  Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire,
  Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire,
  West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire
  London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent,
  Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney,
  Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon,
  Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge,
  Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham
  Forest, Wandsworth
  cities and boroughs: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds,
  Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Sheffield,
  Sunderland, Wakefield, Westminster
  districts: Bath and North East Somerset, East Riding of Yorkshire,
  North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset,
  Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Telford and Wrekin, West Berkshire,
  Wokingham
  cities: City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull,
  Leicester, City of London, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth,
  Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York
  royal boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames,
  Windsor and Maidenhead
  Northern Ireland: 24 districts, 2 cities, 6 counties
  districts: Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge,
  Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down,
  Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Magherafelt, Moyle,
  Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane
  cities: Belfast, Londonderry (Derry)
  counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County
  Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone
  Scotland: 32 council areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus,
  Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee
  City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East
  Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Eilean Siar (Western Isles),
  Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian,
  Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and
  Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South
  Lanarkshire, Stirling, The Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire,
  West Lothian;
  Wales: 11 county boroughs, 9 counties, 2 cities and counties
  county boroughs: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy,
  Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon
  Taff, Torfaen, Wrexham
  counties: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Denbighshire, Flintshire,
  Isle of Anglesey, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, The Vale of
  Glamorgan
  cities and counties: Cardiff, Swansea

Dependent areas:
  Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin
  Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat,
  Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena and Ascension, South Georgia and the
  South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

Independence:
  England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the
  union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of
  Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in
  another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to
  permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great
  Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of
  the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the
  Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six
  northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as
  Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United
  Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927

National holiday:
  the UK does not celebrate one particular national holiday

Constitution:
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Legal system:
  common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental
  influences; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of Parliament
  under the Human Rights Act of 1998; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); Heir
  Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948)
  head of government: Prime Minister Anthony (Tony) BLAIR (since 2 May
  1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually the prime minister

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament comprised of House of Lords (consists of
  approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers and 26 clergy) and
  House of Commons (646 seats since 2005 elections; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms unless the House is
  dissolved earlier)
  elections: House of Lords - no elections (note - in 1999, as
  provided by the House of Lords Act, elections were held in the House
  of Lords to determine the 92 hereditary peers who would remain
  there; elections are held only as vacancies in the hereditary
  peerage arise); House of Commons - last held 5 May 2005 (next to be
  held by May 2010)
  election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party -
  Labor 35.2%, Conservative 32.3%, Liberal Democrats 22%, other 10.5%;
  seats by party - Labor 356, Conservative 197, Liberal Democrat 62,
  other 31; note - as of 10 February 2006 party by seat in the House
  of Commons: Labor 353, Conservative 196, Liberal Democrat 63,
  Scottish National Party/Plaid Cymru 9, Democratic Unionist 9, Sinn
  Fein 5 (but cannot vote), other 11
  note: in 1998 elections were held for a Northern Ireland Assembly
  (because of unresolved disputes among existing parties, the transfer
  of power from London to Northern Ireland came only at the end of
  1999 and has been suspended four times the latest occurring in
  October 2002); in 1999 there were elections for a new Scottish
  Parliament and a new Welsh Assembly

Judicial branch:
  House of Lords (highest court of appeal; several Lords of Appeal in
  Ordinary are appointed by the monarch for life); Supreme Courts of
  England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (comprising the Courts of
  Appeal, the High Courts of Justice, and the Crown Courts);
  Scotland's Court of Session and Court of the Justiciary

Political parties and leaders:
  Conservative and Unionist Party [David CAMERON]; Democratic
  Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Rev. Ian PAISLEY]; Labor Party
  [Anthony (Tony) BLAIR]; Liberal Democrats [Sir Menzies CAMPBELL];
  Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Dafydd IWAN]; Scottish National Party
  or SNP [Alex SALMOND]; Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Gerry ADAMS];
  Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) [Mark
  DURKAN]; Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Sir Reg EMPEY]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Confederation of British
  Industry; National Farmers' Union; Trades Union Congress

International organization participation:
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, C,
  CBSS (observer), CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 5,
  G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD,
  OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), UN, UN
  Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL,
  UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO,
  WToO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David G. MANNING
  chancery: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-6500
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-7870
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, New York, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert Holmes TUTTLE
  embassy: 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 1AE
  mailing address: PSC 801, Box 40, FPO AE 09498-4040
  telephone: [44] (0) 20 7499-9000
  FAX: [44] (0) 20 7629-9124
  consulate(s) general: Belfast, Edinburgh

Flag description:
  blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of
  England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red cross of
  Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is superimposed on
  the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron saint of Scotland);
  properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly called the Union
  Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue Ensign) have been
  the basis for a number of other flags including other Commonwealth
  countries and their constituent states or provinces, and British
  overseas territories

Economy United Kingdom


Economy - overview:
  The UK, a leading trading power and financial center, is one of the
  quintet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Over the
  past two decades, the government has greatly reduced public
  ownership and contained the growth of social welfare programs.
  Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient by
  European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less than
  2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and oil
  reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one of
  the highest shares of any industrial nation. Services, particularly
  banking, insurance, and business services, account by far for the
  largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to decline in
  importance. GDP growth slipped in 2001-03 as the global downturn,
  the high value of the pound, and the bursting of the "new economy"
  bubble hurt manufacturing and exports. Output recovered in 2004, to
  3.2% growth, but fell in 2005, to 1.7%. Despite slower growth, the
  economy is one of the strongest in Europe; inflation, interest
  rates, and unemployment remain low. The relatively good economic
  performance has complicated the BLAIR government's efforts to make a
  case for Britain to join the European Economic and Monetary Union
  (EMU). Critics point out that the economy is doing well outside of
  EMU, and public opinion polls show a majority of Britons are opposed
  to the euro. Meantime, the government has been speeding up the
  improvement of education, transport, and health services, at a cost
  in higher taxes and a widening public deficit.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.818 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $2.228 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  1.9% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $30,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 0.5%
  industry: 23.7%
  services: 75.8% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  30.07 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1.5%
  industry: 19.1%
  services: 79.5% (2004)

Unemployment rate:
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  17% (2002 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.8 (1999)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $881.4 billion
  expenditures: $951 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  43.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle, sheep, poultry; fish

Industries:
  machine tools, electric power equipment, automation equipment,
  railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles and
  parts, electronics and communications equipment, metals, chemicals,
  coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food processing,
  textiles, clothing, other consumer goods

Industrial production growth rate:
  -1.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  369.9 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 73.8%
  hydro: 0.9%
  nuclear: 23.7%
  other: 1.6% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  346.1 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  3 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  5.1 billion kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  1.498 million bbl/day (2001)

Oil - imports:
  1.084 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.5 billion bbl (31 December 2004)

Natural gas - production:
  102.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  95.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  15.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  2.7 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  628.6 billion cu m (31 December 2004)

Current account balance:
  $-57.61 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $372.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco

Exports - partners:
  US 15.1%, Germany 10.5%, France 8.9%, Ireland 7.3%, Netherlands
  5.5%, Belgium 5%, Spain 4.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $483.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Germany 12.8%, US 8.7%, France 7.1%, Netherlands 6.6%, China 5%,
  Norway 4.7%, Belgium 4.6%, Italy 4% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $48.66 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $7.107 trillion (30 June 2005)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $7.9 billion (2004)

Currency (code):
  British pound (GBP)

Currency code:
  GBP

Exchange rates:
  British pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  6 April - 5 April

Communications United Kingdom


Telephones - main lines in use:
  32.943 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  61.091 million (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: technologically advanced domestic and
  international system
  domestic: equal mix of buried cables, microwave radio relay, and
  fiber-optic systems
  international: country code - 44; 40 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 10 Intelsat (7 Atlantic Ocean and 3
  Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Eutelsat;
  at least 8 large international switching centers

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 219, FM 431, shortwave 3 (1998)

Radios:
  84.5 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  228 (plus 3,523 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
  30.5 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .uk

Internet hosts:
  6,064,860 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  more than 400 (2000)

Internet users:
  37.6 million (2005)

Transportation United Kingdom


Airports:
  471 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 334
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 149
  914 to 1,523 m: 86
  under 914 m: 58 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 137
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 112 (2006)

Heliports:
  11 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate 565 km; condensate/gas 6 km; gas 21,575 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 59 km; oil 5,094 km; oil/gas/water 161 km; refined
  products 4,444 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 17,156 km
  standard gauge: 16,814 km 1.435-m gauge (5,384 km electrified)
  broad gauge: 342 km 1.600-m gauge (in Northern Ireland) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 387,674 km
  paved: 387,674 km (including 3,523 km of expressways) (2004)

Waterways:
  3,200 km (620 km used for commerce) (2003)

Merchant marine:
  total: 449 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,049,317 GRT/11,731,680 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 24, cargo 54, chemical tanker 50, container
  146, liquefied gas 17, passenger 9, passenger/cargo 65, petroleum
  tanker 33, refrigerated cargo 17, roll on/roll off 26, vehicle
  carrier 8
  foreign-owned: 215 (Australia 3, Denmark 46, Finland 1, France 4,
  Germany 76, Greece 7, Ireland 1, Italy 4, Netherlands 3, Norway 36,
  NZ 1, South Africa 5, Spain 1, Sweden 15, Switzerland 3, Taiwan 1,
  Turkey 2, US 6)
  registered in other countries: 368 (Algeria 13, Antigua and Barbuda
  7, Argentina 4, Australia 2, Bahamas 69, Barbados 5, Belgium 2,
  Bermuda 9, Brazil 1, Brunei 8, Cape Verde 1, Cayman Islands 10,
  Cyprus 6, Denmark 1, Finland 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  1, Georgia 4, Gibraltar 4, Greece 9, Hong Kong 43, India 1,
  Indonesia 2, Italy 3, South Korea 2, Liberia 41, Malta 8, Marshall
  Islands 12, Morocco 1, Netherlands 19, Netherlands Antilles 3,
  Norway 6, Panama 37, Papua New Guinea 6, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 13, Singapore 9, Slovakia 1, Spain 1, Thailand 2, Tonga
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Hound Point, Immingham, Milford Haven, Liverpool, London,
  Southampton, Sullom Voe, Teesport

Military United Kingdom


Military branches:
  Army, Royal Navy (includes Royal Marines), Royal Air Force

Military service age and obligation:
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women serve in
  military services, but are excluded from ground combat positions and
  some naval postings (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 16-49: 14,607,724
  females age 16-49: 14,028,738 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 16-49: 12,046,268
  females age 16-49: 11,555,893 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $42,836.5 million (2003)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.4% (2003)

Transnational Issues United Kingdom


Disputes - international:
  in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to
  reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement between the UK and
  Spain; the Government of Gibraltar insists on equal participation in
  talks between the two countries; Spain disapproves of UK plans to
  grant Gibraltar greater autonomy; Mauritius and Seychelles claim the
  Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former
  inhabitants since their eviction in 1965; most Chagossians reside in
  Mauritius, and in 2001 were granted UK citizenship but no right to
  patriation in the UK; UK rejects sovereignty talks requested by
  Argentina, which still claims the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim
  in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory) overlaps Argentine claim
  and partially overlaps Chilean claim; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland
  dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf
  extends beyond 200 nm

Illicit drugs:
  producer of limited amounts of synthetic drugs and synthetic
  precursor chemicals; major consumer of Southwest Asian heroin, Latin
  American cocaine, and synthetic drugs; money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@United States

Introduction United States


Background:
  Britain's American colonies broke with the mother country in 1776
  and were recognized as the new nation of the United States of
  America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the 19th and
  20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13 as the
  nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired a
  number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic experiences
  in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and the Great
  Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II
  and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most
  powerful nation state. The economy is marked by steady growth, low
  unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.

Geography United States


Location:
  North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the
  North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico

Geographic coordinates:
  38 00 N, 97 00 W

Map references:
  North America

Area:
  total: 9,631,420 sq km
  land: 9,161,923 sq km
  water: 469,497 sq km
  note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Area - comparative:
  about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of
  Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger
  than Brazil); slightly larger than China; almost two and a half
  times the size of the European Union

Land boundaries:
  total: 12,034 km
  border countries: Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska),
  Mexico 3,141 km
  note: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is leased by the US and
  is part of Cuba; the base boundary is 28 km

Coastline:
  19,924 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Climate:
  mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in
  Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River,
  and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter
  temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in
  January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes
  of the Rocky Mountains

Terrain:
  vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low mountains in
  east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska; rugged,
  volcanic topography in Hawaii

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Death Valley -86 m
  highest point: Mount McKinley 6,194 m

Natural resources:
  coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold,
  iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten, zinc, petroleum,
  natural gas, timber

Land use:
  arable land: 18.01%
  permanent crops: 0.21%
  other: 81.78% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  223,850 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around Pacific Basin;
  hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts; tornadoes
  in the midwest and southeast; mud slides in California; forest fires
  in the west; flooding; permafrost in northern Alaska, a major
  impediment to development

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution resulting in acid rain in both the US and Canada; the
  US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning
  of fossil fuels; water pollution from runoff of pesticides and
  fertilizers; limited natural fresh water resources in much of the
  western part of the country require careful management;
  desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Hazardous Wastes

Geography - note:
  world's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and
  by population (after China and India); Mt. McKinley is highest point
  in North America and Death Valley the lowest point on the continent

People United States


Population:
  298,444,215 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 20.4% (male 31,095,847/female 29,715,872)
  15-64 years: 67.2% (male 100,022,845/female 100,413,484)
  65 years and over: 12.5% (male 15,542,288/female 21,653,879) (2006
  est.)

Median age:
  total: 36.5 years
  male: 35.1 years
  female: 37.8 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.91% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  14.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  3.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 6.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 77.85 years
  male: 75.02 years
  female: 80.82 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.6% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  950,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  14,000 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: American(s)
  adjective: American

Ethnic groups:
  white 81.7%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and Alaska native
  1%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.2% (2003 est.)
  note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US
  Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American
  descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican
  origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group
  (white, black, Asian, etc.)

Religions:
  Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim
  1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.)

Languages:
  English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and
  Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government United States


Country name:
  conventional long form: United States of America
  conventional short form: United States
  abbreviation: US or USA

Government type:
  Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

Capital:
  name: Washington, DC (capital)
  geographic coordinates: 38 53 N, 77 02 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (during Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007
  note: the United States is divided into six time zones

Administrative divisions:
  50 states and 1 district*; Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas,
  California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia*,
  Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
  Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
  Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
  Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North
  Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
  Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,
  Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Dependent areas:
  American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island,
  Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island,
  Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, Virgin
  Islands, Wake Island
  note: from 18 July 1947 until 1 October 1994, the US administered
  the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; it entered into a
  political relationship with all four political units: the Northern
  Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in political union with the US
  (effective 3 November 1986); the Republic of the Marshall Islands
  signed a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 21
  October 1986); the Federated States of Micronesia signed a Compact
  of Free Association with the US (effective 3 November 1986); Palau
  concluded a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 1
  October 1994)

Independence:
  4 July 1776 (from Great Britain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 4 July (1776)

Constitution:
  17 September 1787, effective 4 March 1789

Legal system:
  federal court system based on English common law; each state has
  its own unique legal system, of which all but one (Louisiana's) is
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative acts

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH (since 20 January 2001);
  Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January 2001); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President George W. BUSH (since 20 January
  2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with Senate approval
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by a college of representatives who are elected directly from each
  state; president and vice president serve four-year terms (eligible
  for a second term); election last held 2 November 2004 (next to be
  held 4 November 2008)
  election results: George W. BUSH reelected president; percent of
  popular vote - George W. BUSH (Republican Party) 50.9%, John KERRY
  (Democratic Party) 48.1%, other 1.0%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Congress consists of the Senate (100 seats, one-third are
  renewed every two years; 2 members are elected from each state by
  popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (435 seats; members are directly elected by popular
  vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held on
  November 2008); House of Representatives - last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held on November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Democratic Party 49, Republican Party 49, independent 2;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Democratic Party 232, Republican Party 203

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (nine justices; nominated by the president and
  confirmed with the advice and consent of the Senate; appointed to
  serve for life); United States Courts of Appeal; United States
  District Courts; State and County Courts

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party [Howard DEAN]; Green Party; Libertarian Party
  [Steve DAMERELL]; Republican Party [Ken MEHLMAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AfDB, ANZUS, APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue
  partner), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS (observer), CE
  (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, G-5, G-7, G- 8,
  G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, NAFTA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club,
  PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), SPC, UN, UN Security Council,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Flag description:
  13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating
  with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner
  bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset
  horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows
  of five stars; the 50 stars represent the 50 states, the 13 stripes
  represent the 13 original colonies; known as Old Glory; the design
  and colors have been the basis for a number of other flags,
  including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and Puerto Rico

Economy United States


Economy - overview:
  The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in
  the world, with a per capita GDP of $42,000. In this market-oriented
  economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the
  decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods
  and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business
  firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western
  Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off
  surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they
  face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than
  foreign firms face entering US markets. US firms are at or near the
  forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in
  medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has
  narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology
  largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor
  market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the
  professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and
  more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage,
  and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in
  household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The
  response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 showed the
  remarkable resilience of the economy. The war in March-April 2003
  between a US-led coalition and Iraq, and the subsequent occupation
  of Iraq, required major shifts in national resources to the
  military. The rise in GDP in 2004 and 2005 was undergirded by
  substantial gains in labor productivity. Hurricane Katrina caused
  extensive damage in the Gulf Coast region in August 2005, but had a
  small impact on overall GDP growth for the year. Soaring oil prices
  in 2005 and 2006 threatened inflation and unemployment, yet the
  economy continued to grow through mid-2006. Imported oil accounts
  for about two-thirds of US consumption. Long-term problems include
  inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising
  medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade and
  budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower
  economic groups.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $12.31 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $12.49 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $41,600 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 20.4%
  services: 78.7% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  149.3 million (includes unemployed) (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  farming, forestry, and fishing 0.7%, manufacturing, extraction,
  transportation, and crafts 22.9%, managerial, professional, and
  technical 34.7%, sales and office 25.4%, other services 16.3%
  note: figures exclude the unemployed (2005)

Unemployment rate:
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  12% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 30.5% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  45 (2004)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  16.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.119 trillion
  expenditures: $2.466 trillion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  64.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork,
  poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products

Industries:
  leading industrial power in the world, highly diversified and
  technologically advanced; petroleum, steel, motor vehicles,
  aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food
  processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.892 trillion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 71.4%
  hydro: 5.6%
  nuclear: 20.7%
  other: 2.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.656 trillion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  23.97 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  30.39 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  7.61 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

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

Oil - exports:
  1.048 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
  13.15 million bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:
  22.45 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  539 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  633.6 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  24.19 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  114.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  5.353 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $-829.1 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $927.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%, industrial
  supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods (transistors,
  aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, telecommunications
  equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles, medicines) 15.0%
  (2003)

Exports - partners:
  Canada 23.4%, Mexico 13.3%, Japan 6.1%, China 4.6%, UK 4.3% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.727 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9% (crude oil
  8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications equipment,
  motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power machinery),
  consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines, furniture,
  toys) (2003)

Imports - partners:
  Canada 16.9%, China 15%, Mexico 10%, Japan 8.2%, Germany 5% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $86.94 billion (2004 est.)

Debt - external:
  $8.837 trillion (30 June 2005 est.)

Economic aid - donor:
  ODA, $6.9 billion (1997)

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  British pounds per US dollar - 0.5500 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125
  (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001); Canadian dollars per US dollar
  - 1.2118 (2005), 1.3010 (2004), 1.4011 (2003), 1.5693 (2002), 1.5488
  (2001); Japanese yen per US dollar - 110.22 (2005), 108.19 (2004),
  115.93 (2003), 125.39 (2002), 121.53 (2001); euros per US dollar -
  0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.8866 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175
  (2001); Chinese yuan per US dollar - 8.1943 (2005), 8.2768 (2004),
  8.2770 (2003), 8.2770 (2002), 8.2271 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications United States


Telephones - main lines in use:
  268 million (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  219.4 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: a large, technologically advanced, multipurpose
  communications system
  domestic: a large system of fiber-optic cable, microwave radio
  relay, coaxial cable, and domestic satellites carries every form of
  telephone traffic; a rapidly growing cellular system carries mobile
  telephone traffic throughout the country
  international: country code - 1; 24 ocean cable systems in use;
  satellite earth stations - 61 Intelsat (45 Atlantic Ocean and 16
  Pacific Ocean), 5 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), and 4
  Inmarsat (Pacific and Atlantic Ocean regions) (2000)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 4,789, FM 8,961, shortwave 19 (2006)

Radios:
  575 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  2,218 (2006)

Televisions:
  219 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .us

Internet hosts:
  195,138,696 (2005)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  7,000 (2002 est.)

Internet users:
  205,326,680 (2005)

Transportation United States


Airports:
  14,858 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 5,119
  over 3,047 m: 189
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 221
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1,426
  914 to 1,523 m: 2,337
  under 914 m: 946 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 9,739
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 157
  914 to 1,523 m: 1,728
  under 914 m: 7,847 (2006)

Heliports:
  149 (2006)

Pipelines:
  petroleum products 244,620 km; natural gas 548,665 km (2003)

Railways:
  total: 226,605 km
  standard gauge: 226,605 km 1.435-m gauge (2004)

Roadways:
  total: 6,407,637 km
  paved: 4,164,964 km (including 74,950 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 2,242,673 km (2004)

Waterways:
  41,009 km (19,312 km used for commerce)
  note: Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint
  Lawrence River of 3,058 km, shared with Canada (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 465 ships (1000 GRT or over) 10,590,325 GRT/13,273,133 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 7, bulk carrier 67, cargo 91, chemical tanker
  20, container 76, passenger 19, passenger/cargo 58, petroleum tanker
  76, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 27, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 20
  foreign-owned: 51 (Australia 2, Canada 4, Denmark 24, Germany 2,
  Greece 1, Malaysia 4, Netherlands 4, Norway 2, Singapore 2, Sweden
  5, Taiwan 1)
  registered in other countries: 700 (Antigua and Barbuda 7, Australia
  3, Bahamas 121, Belize 5, Bermuda 27, Cambodia 8, Canada 2, Cayman
  Islands 41, Comoros 2, Cyprus 7, Greece 1, Honduras 1, Hong Kong 21,
  Ireland 2, Isle of Man 3, Italy 15, North Korea 3, South Korea 7,
  Liberia 93, Luxembourg 3, Malta 3, Marshall Islands 143, Netherlands
  13, Netherlands Antilles 1, Norway 13, Panama 94, Peru 1,
  Philippines 8, Portugal 1, Puerto Rico 3, Qatar 1, Russia 1, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 21, Sierra Leone 1, Singapore 7, Spain 7,
  Sweden 1, Trinidad and Tobago 1, UK 6, Vanuatu 1, Wallis and Futuna
  1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Corpus Christi, Duluth, Hampton Roads, Houston, Long Beach, Los
  Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Texas City
  note: 13 ports north of New Orleans (South Louisiana Ports) on the
  Mississippi River handle 290,000,000 tons of cargo annually

Military United States


Military branches:
  Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard; note -
  Coast Guard administered in peacetime by the Department of Homeland
  Security, but in wartime reports to the Department of the Navy

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age; 17 years of age with written parental consent
  (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 67,742,879
  females age 18-49: 67,070,144 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 54,609,050
  females age 18-49: 54,696,706 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 2,143,873
  females age 18-49: 2,036,201 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $518.1 billion (FY04 est.) (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4.06% (FY03 est.) (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues United States


Disputes - international:
  prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices and
  infrastructure in the border region strain water-sharing
  arrangements with Mexico; the US has stepped up efforts to stem
  nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other parts of the world
  from crossing illegally into the US from Mexico; illegal immigrants
  from the Caribbean, notably Haiti and the Dominican Republic,
  attempt to enter the US through Florida by sea; 1990 Maritime
  Boundary Agreement in the Bering Sea still awaits Russian Duma
  ratification; managed maritime boundary disputes with Canada at
  Dixon Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and around the
  disputed Machias Seal Island and North Rock; US and Canada seek
  greater cooperation in monitoring people and commodities crossing
  the border; The Bahamas and US have not been able to agree on a
  maritime boundary; US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased from
  Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can
  terminate the lease; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa Island; US
  has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the
  right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other
  state; Marshall Islands claims Wake Island

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): the US admitted 52,868 refugees
  during FY03/04 including: 13,331 (Somalia), 6,000 (Laos), 3,482
  (Ukraine), 2,959 (Cuba), 1,787 (Iran); note - 32,229 refugees had
  been admitted as of 30 June 2005

Illicit drugs:
  world's largest consumer of cocaine, shipped from Colombia through
  Mexico and the Caribbean; consumer of heroin, marijuana, and
  increasingly methamphetamine from Mexico; consumer of high-quality
  Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana,
  depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine;
  money-laundering center


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges

Introduction United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Background:
  The following US Pacific island territories constitute the Pacific
  Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex and as such are
  managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of
  Interior. These remote refuges are the most widespread collection of
  marine- and terrestrial-life protected areas on the planet under a
  single country's jurisdiction. They protect many endemic species
  including corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, water
  birds, land birds, insects, and vegetation not found elsewhere.
  Baker Island: The US took possession of the island in 1857, and its
  guano deposits were mined by US and British companies during the
  second half of the 19th century. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at
  colonization began on this island but was disrupted by World War II
  and thereafter abandoned. The island was established as a National
  Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Howland Island: Discovered by the US early in the 19th century, the
  island was officially claimed by the US in 1857. Both US and British
  companies mined for guano until about 1890. In 1935, a short-lived
  attempt at colonization began on this island, similar to the effort
  on nearby Baker Island, but was disrupted by World War II and
  thereafter abandoned. The famed American aviatrix Amelia EARHART
  disappeared while seeking out Howland Island as a refueling stop
  during her 1937 round-the-world flight; Earhart Light, a day beacon
  near the middle of the west coast, was named in her memory. The
  island was established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Jarvis Island: First discovered by the British in 1821, the
  uninhabited island was annexed by the US in 1858, but abandoned in
  1879 after tons of guano had been removed. The UK annexed the island
  in 1889, but never carried out plans for further exploitation. The
  US occupied and reclaimed the island in 1935 until it was abandoned
  in 1942 during World War II. The island was established as a
  National Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Johnston Atoll: Both the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed
  Johnston Atoll in 1858, but it was the US that mined the guano
  deposits until the late 1880s. Johnston and Sand Islands were
  designated wildlife refuges in 1926. The US Navy took over the atoll
  in 1934, and subsequently the US Air Force assumed control in 1948.
  The site was used for high-altitude nuclear tests in the 1950s and
  1960s, and until late in 2000 the atoll was maintained as a storage
  and disposal site for chemical weapons. Munitions destruction is now
  complete. Cleanup and closure of the facility was completed by May
  2005. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Air Force are
  currently discussing future management options; in the interim,
  Johnston Atoll and the three-mile Naval Defensive Sea around it
  remain under the jurisdiction and administrative control of the US
  Air Force.
  Kingman Reef: The US annexed the reef in 1922. Its sheltered lagoon
  served as a way station for flying boats on Hawaii-to-American Samoa
  flights during the late 1930s. There are no terrestrial plants on
  the reef, which is frequently awash, but it does support abundant
  and diverse marine fauna and flora. In 2001, the waters surrounding
  the reef out to 12 nm were designated a US National Wildlife Refuge.
  Midway Islands: The US took formal possession of the islands in
  1867. The laying of the trans-Pacific cable, which passed through
  the islands, brought the first residents in 1903. Between 1935 and
  1947, Midway was used as a refueling stop for trans-Pacific flights.
  The US naval victory over a Japanese fleet off Midway in 1942 was
  one of the turning points of World War II. The islands continued to
  serve as a naval station until closed in 1993. Today the islands are
  a National Wildlife Refuge and are the site of the world's largest
  Laysan albatross colony.
  Palmyra Atoll: The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the atoll in 1862, and
  the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the
  archipelago in 1898. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not
  include Palmyra Atoll, which is now partly privately owned by the
  Nature Conservancy with the rest owned by the Federal government and
  managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These organizations are
  managing the atoll as a wildlife refuge. The lagoons and surrounding
  waters within the 12 nm US territorial seas were transferred to the
  US Fish and Wildlife Service and designated as a National Wildlife
  Refuge in January 2001.

Geography United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Location:
  Oceania
  Baker Island: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 1,830 nm (3,389 km)
  southwest of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and Australia
  Howland Island: island in the North Pacific Ocean 1,815 nm (3,361
  km) southwest of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and
  Australia
  Jarvis Island: island in the South Pacific Ocean 1,305 nm (2,417 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and the Cook Islands
  Johnston Atoll: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 717 nm (1,328 km)
  southwest of Honolulu, about one-third of the way from Hawaii to the
  Marshall Islands
  Kingman Reef: reef in the North Pacific Ocean 930 nm (1,722 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and American Samoa
  Midway Islands: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 1,260 nm (2,334 km)
  northwest of Honolulu near the end of the Hawaiian Archipelago,
  about one-third of the way from Honolulu to Tokyo
  Palmyra Atoll: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 960 nm (1,778 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and American Samoa

Geographic coordinates:
  Baker Island: 0 13 N, 176 28 W
  Howland Island: 0 48 N, 176 38 W
  Jarvis Island: 0 23 S, 160 01 W
  Johnston Atoll: 16 45 N, 169 31 W
  Kingman Reef: 6 23 N, 162 25 W
  Midway Islands: 28 12 N, 177 22 W
  Palmyra Atoll: 5 53 N, 162 05 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total - 6,959.41 sq km; emergent land - 22.41 sq km; submerged -
  6,937 sq km
  Baker Island: total - 129 sq km; emergent land - 2.1 sq km;
  submerged - 127 sq km
  Howland Island: total - 139 sq km; emergent land - 2.6 sq km;
  submerged - 136 sq km
  Jarvis Island: total - 152 sq km; emergent land - 5 sq km; submerged
  - 147 sq km
  Johnston Atoll: total - 276.6 sq km; emergent land - 2.6 sq km;
  submerged - 274 sq km
  Kingman Reef: total - 1,958.01 sq km; emergent land - 0.01 sq km;
  submerged - 1,958 sq km
  Midway Islands: total - 2,355.2 sq km; emergent land - 6.2 sq km;
  submerged - 2,349 sq km
  Palmyra Atoll: total - 1,949.9 sq km; emergent land - 3.9 sq km;
  submerged - 1,946 sq km

Area - comparative:
  Baker Island: about two and a half times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Howland Island: about three times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Jarvis Island: about eight times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC
  Johnston Atoll: about four and a half times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Kingman Reef: a little more than one and a half times the size of
  The Mall in Washington, DC
  Midway Islands: about nine times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC
  Palmyra Atoll: about 20 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  none

Coastline:
  Baker Island: 4.8 km
  Howland Island: 6.4 km
  Jarvis Island: 8 km
  Johnston Atoll: 34 km
  Kingman Reef: 3 km
  Midway Islands: 15 km
  Palmyra Atoll: 14.5 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands: equatorial; scant rainfall,
  constant wind, burning sun
  Johnston Atoll and Kingman Reef: tropical, but generally dry;
  consistent northeast trade winds with little seasonal temperature
  variation
  Midway Islands: subtropical with cool, moist winters (December to
  February) and warm, dry summers (May to October); moderated by
  prevailing easterly winds; most of the 1,067 mm (42 in) of annual
  rainfall occurs during the winter
  Palmyra Atoll: equatorial, hot; located within the low pressure area
  of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where the northeast and
  southeast trade winds meet, it is extremely wet with between
  4,000-5,000 mm (160-200 in) of rainfall each year

Terrain:
  low and nearly level sandy coral islands with narrow fringing reefs
  that have developed at the top of submerged volcanic mountains,
  which in most cases rise steeply from the ocean floor

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Baker Island, unnamed location - 8 m; Howland Island,
  unnamed location - 3 m; Jarvis Island, unnamed location - 7 m;
  Johnston Atoll, Sand Island - 10 m; Kingman Reef, unnamed location -
  less than 1 m; Midway Islands, unnamed location - 13 m; Palmyra
  Atoll, unnamed location - 2 m

Natural resources:
  terrestrial and aquatic wildlife

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Natural hazards:
  Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands: the narrow fringing reef
  surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard
  Kingman Reef: wet or awash most of the time, maximum elevation of
  less than 1 m makes Kingman Reef a maritime hazard
  Midway Islands, Johnston, and Palmyra Atolls: NA

Environment - current issues:
  Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands, and Johnston Atoll: no natural
  fresh water resources
  Kingman Reef: none
  Midway Islands and Palmyra Atoll: NA

Geography - note:
  Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands: scattered vegetation consisting
  of grasses, prostrate vines, and low growing shrubs; primarily a
  nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds,
  and marine wildlife
  Johnston Atoll: Johnston Island and Sand Island are natural islands,
  which have been expanded by coral dredging; North Island (Akau) and
  East Island (Hikina) are manmade islands formed from coral dredging;
  the egg-shaped reef is 34 km in circumference
  Kingman Reef: barren coral atoll with deep interior lagoon; closed
  to the public
  Midway Islands: a coral atoll managed as a national wildlife refuge
  and open to the public for wildlife-related recreation in the form
  of wildlife observation and photography
  Palmyra Atoll: the high rainfall and resulting lush vegetation make
  the environment of this atoll unique among the US Pacific Island
  territories; it supports one of the largest remaining undisturbed
  stands of Pisonia beach forest in the Pacific

People United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: public entry is by special-use permit from US Fish and
  Wildlife Service only and generally restricted to scientists and
  educators; visited annually by US Fish and Wildlife Service
  Johnston Atoll: in previous years, an average of 1,100 US military
  and civilian contractor personnel were present; as of May 2005 all
  US government personnel had left the island
  Midway Islands: approximately 40 people make up the staff of US Fish
  and Wildlife Service and their services contractor living at the
  atoll
  Palmyra Atoll: four to 20 Nature Conservancy and US Fish and
  Wildlife staff

Government United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Baker Island; Howland Island; Jarvis
  Island; Johnston Atoll; Kingman Reef; Midway Islands; Palmyra Atoll

Dependency status:
  unincorporated territories of the US; administered from Washington,
  DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the
  Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system
  note on Palmyra Atoll: incorporated Territory of the US; partly
  privately owned and partly federally owned; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US
  Department of the Interior; the Office of Insular Affairs of the US
  Department of the Interior continues to administer nine excluded
  areas comprising certain tidal and submerged lands within the 12 nm
  territorial sea or within the lagoon

Legal system:
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of the US is used

Economy United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Economy - overview:
  no economic activity


Transportation United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Airports:
  Baker Island: one abandoned World War II runway of 1,665 m covered
  with vegetation and unusable
  Howland Island: airstrip constructed in 1937 for scheduled refueling
  stop on the round-the-world flight of Amelia EARHART and Fred
  NOONAN; the aviators left Lae, New Guinea, for Howland Island but
  were never seen again; the airstrip is no longer serviceable
  Johnston Atoll: 1 - closed and not maintained
  Kingman Reef: lagoon was used as a halfway station between Hawaii
  and American Samoa by Pan American Airways for flying boats in 1937
  and 1938
  Midway Islands: 3 - one operational (2,409 m paved); no fuel for
  sale except emergencies
  Palmyra Atoll: 1 - 1,846 m unpaved runway; privately owned (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands, and Kingman Reef: none;
  offshore anchorage only
  Johnston Atoll: Johnston Island
  Midway Islands: Sand Island
  Palmyra Atoll: West Lagoon

Military United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Uruguay

Introduction Uruguay


Background:
  Montevideo, founded by the Spanish in 1726 as a military
  stronghold, soon took advantage of its natural harbor to become an
  important commercial center. Annexed by Brazil as a separate
  province in 1821, Uruguay declared its independence four years later
  and secured its freedom in 1828 after a three-year struggle. The
  administrations of President Jose BATLLE in the early 20th century
  established widespread political, social, and economic reforms. A
  violent Marxist urban guerrilla movement named the Tupamaros,
  launched in the late 1960s, led Uruguay's president to agree to
  military control of his administration in 1973. By yearend, the
  rebels had been crushed, but the military continued to expand its
  hold throughout the government. Civilian rule was not restored until
  1985. In 2004, the left-of-center EP-FA Coalition won national
  elections that effectively ended 170 years of political control
  previously held by the Colorado and Blanco parties. Uruguay's
  political and labor conditions are among the freest on the continent.

Geography Uruguay


Location:
  Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between
  Argentina and Brazil

Geographic coordinates:
  33 00 S, 56 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 176,220 sq km
  land: 173,620 sq km
  water: 2,600 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than the state of Washington

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,564 km
  border countries: Argentina 579 km, Brazil 985 km

Coastline:
  660 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  warm temperate; freezing temperatures almost unknown

Terrain:
  mostly rolling plains and low hills; fertile coastal lowland

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Catedral 514 m

Natural resources:
  arable land, hydropower, minor minerals, fisheries

Land use:
  arable land: 7.77%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 91.99% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  2,100 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  seasonally high winds (the pampero is a chilly and occasional
  violent wind that blows north from the Argentine pampas), droughts,
  floods; because of the absence of mountains, which act as weather
  barriers, all locations are particularly vulnerable to rapid changes
  from weather fronts

Environment - current issues:
  water pollution from meat packing/tannery industry; inadequate
  solid/hazardous waste disposal

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
  second-smallest South American country (after Suriname); most of
  the low-lying landscape (three-quarters of the country) is
  grassland, ideal for cattle and sheep raising

People Uruguay


Population:
  3,431,932 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 22.9% (male 399,409/female 386,136)
  15-64 years: 63.9% (male 1,087,180/female 1,104,465)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 185,251/female 269,491) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 32.7 years
  male: 31.3 years
  female: 34.2 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  9.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.25 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 11.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 76.33 years
  male: 73.12 years
  female: 79.65 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.3% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  6,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Uruguayan(s)
  adjective: Uruguayan

Ethnic groups:
  white 88%, mestizo 8%, black 4%, Amerindian (practically
  nonexistent)

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 66% (less than half of the adult population attends
  church regularly), Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, nonprofessing or other
  31%

Languages:
  Spanish, Portunol, or Brazilero (Portuguese-Spanish mix on the
  Brazilian frontier)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 97.6%
  female: 98.4% (2003 est.)

Government Uruguay


Country name:
  conventional long form: Oriental Republic of Uruguay
  conventional short form: Uruguay
  local long form: Republica Oriental del Uruguay
  local short form: Uruguay
  former: Banda Oriental, Cisplatine Province

Government type:
  constitutional republic

Capital:
  name: Montevideo
  geographic coordinates: 34 53 S, 56 11 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in October; ends
  second Sunday in March

Administrative divisions:
  19 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Artigas,
  Canelones, Cerro Largo, Colonia, Durazno, Flores, Florida,
  Lavalleja, Maldonado, Montevideo, Paysandu, Rio Negro, Rivera,
  Rocha, Salto, San Jose, Soriano, Tacuarembo, Treinta y Tres

Independence:
  25 August 1825 (from Brazil)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 25 August (1825)

Constitution:
  27 November 1966, effective February 1967; suspended 27 June 1973,
  new constitution rejected by referendum 30 November 1980; two
  constitutional reforms approved by plebiscite 26 November 1989 and 7
  January 1997

Legal system:
  based on Spanish civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Tabare VAZQUEZ Rosas (since 1 March 2005)
  and Vice President Rodolfo NIN NOVOA (since 1 March 2005); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Tabare VAZQUEZ Rosas (since 1 March
  2005) and Vice President Rodolfo NIN NOVOA (since 1 March 2005);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president with
  parliamentary approval
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for five-year terms (may not serve consecutive
  terms); election last held 31 October 2004 (next to be held October
  2009)
  election results: Tabare VAZQUEZ elected president; percent of vote
  - Tabare VAZQUEZ 50.5%, Jorge LARRANAGA 35.1%, Guillermo STIRLING
  10.3%; other 4.1%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral General Assembly or Asamblea General consists of Chamber
  of Senators or Camara de Senadores (30 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms; vice president has one vote
  in the Senate) and Chamber of Representatives or Camara de
  Representantes (99 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators - last held 31 October 2004 (next to
  be held October 2009); Chamber of Representatives - last held 31
  October 2004 (next to be held October 2009)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - EP-FA 16, Blanco 11, Colorado Party 3; Chamber
  of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party
  - EP-FA 52, Blanco 36, Colorado Party 10, Independent Party 1

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are nominated by the president and elected
  for 10-year terms by the General Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Colorado Party [Julio Maria SANGUINETTI]; Independent Party
  (Partido Independiente) [Pablo MIERES]; Movement of Popular
  Participation or MPP [Jose MUJICA]; National Party or Blanco [Jorge
  LARRANAGA]; New Sector/Space Coalition (Nuevo Espacio) [Rafael
  MICHELINI]; Progressive Encounter/Broad Front Coalition (Encuentro
  Progresista/Frente Amplio) or EP-FA [Tabare VAZQUEZ]; Socialist
  Party of Uruguay or Socialists [Reinaldo GARGANO]; Uruguayan
  Assembly or Asamblea Uruguay [Danilo ASTORI]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Architect's Society of Uruguay (professional organization);
  Catholic Church; Chamber of Uruguayan Industries (manufacturer's
  association); Chemist and Pharmaceutical Association (professional
  organization); PIT-CNT (powerful federation of Uruguayan unions);
  Rural Association of Uruguay (rancher's association); students;
  Uruguayan Construction League

International organization participation:
  CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM
  (observer), OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMOGIP, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos Alberto GIANELLI Derois
  chancery: 1913 I Street NW, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-1313 through 1316
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-8142
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York
  consulate(s): San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Charge d'Affaires James D. NEALON
  embassy: Lauro Muller 1776, Montevideo 11200
  mailing address: APO AA 34035
  telephone: [598] (2) 418-7777
  FAX: [598] (2) 418-8611

Flag description:
  nine equal horizontal stripes of white (top and bottom) alternating
  with blue; there is a white square in the upper hoist-side corner
  with a yellow sun bearing a human face known as the Sun of May with
  16 rays that alternate between triangular and wavy

Economy Uruguay


Economy - overview:
  Uruguay's well-to-do economy is characterized by an export-oriented
  agricultural sector, a well-educated work force, and high levels of
  social spending. After averaging growth of 5% annually during
  1996-98, in 1999-2002 the economy suffered a major downturn,
  stemming largely from the spillover effects of the economic problems
  of its large neighbors, Argentina and Brazil. For instance, in
  2001-02 Argentina made massive withdrawals of dollars deposited in
  Uruguayan banks, which led to a plunge in the Uruguayan peso and a
  massive rise in unemployment. Total GDP in these four years dropped
  by nearly 20%, with 2002 the worst year due to the banking crisis.
  The unemployment rate rose to nearly 20% in 2002, inflation surged,
  and the burden of external debt doubled. Cooperation with the IMF
  helped stem the damage. A debt swap with private-sector creditors in
  2003 extended the maturity dates on nearly half of Uruguay's then
  $11.3 billion of public debt and helped restore public confidence.
  The economy grew about 10% in 2004 as a result of high commodity
  prices for Uruguayan exports, a competitive peso, growth in the
  region, and low international interest rates, but slowed to 6.1% in
  2005.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $33.98 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $13.24 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $9,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 31.1%
  services: 59.6% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  1.52 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 14%
  industry: 16%
  services: 70%

Unemployment rate:
  12.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  22% of households (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.7%
  highest 10%: 25.8% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  44.6 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  12.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $4.468 billion
  expenditures: $4.845 billion; including capital expenditures of $193
  million (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  81.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  rice, wheat, corn, barley; livestock; fish

Industries:
  food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment,
  petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  8.5% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  8.611 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.7%
  hydro: 99.1%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0.3% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  7.762 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  900 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  654 million kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  38,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  65 million cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-87.9 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $3.55 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  meat, rice, leather products, wool, fish, dairy products

Exports - partners:
  US 18.6%, Brazil 15.6%, Mexico 6.9%, Argentina 6.1%, Spain 4.1%,
  Germany 4% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.54 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, chemicals, road vehicles, crude petroleum

Imports - partners:
  Argentina 18.9%, Brazil 18.5%, Paraguay 14%, US 8.6%, China 6.2%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $3.079 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $13.24 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Uruguayan peso (UYU)

Currency code:
  UYU

Exchange rates:
  Uruguayan pesos per US dollar - 24.479 (2005), 28.704 (2004),
  28.209 (2003), 21.257 (2002), 13.319 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Uruguay


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1 million (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  600,000 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: fully digitalized
  domestic: most modern facilities concentrated in Montevideo; new
  nationwide microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 598; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2002)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 93, FM 191, shortwave 7 (2005)

Radios:
  1.97 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  62 (2005)

Televisions:
  782,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .uy

Internet hosts:
  145,774 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  14 (2001)

Internet users:
  680,000 (2005)

Transportation Uruguay


Airports:
  64 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 56
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 31 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 257 km; oil 160 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,073 km
  standard gauge: 2,073 km 1.435-m gauge
  note: 461 km have been taken out of service and 460 km are in
  partial use (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 77,732 km
  paved: 7,743 km
  unpaved: 69,989 km (2004)

Waterways:
  1,600 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,259 GRT/19,725 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Argentina 3, Greece 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Argentina 1, Bahamas 2, Liberia 3,
  Spain 2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Montevideo, Nueva Palmira, Fray Bentos, Colonia, Juan Lacaze

Military Uruguay


Military branches:
  Army, Navy (includes naval air arm, Marines, Maritime Prefecture in
  wartime), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Uruguaya, FAU) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service (2001)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 764,408
  females age 18-49: 760,341 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 637,445
  females age 18-49: 631,046 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $371.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Uruguay


Disputes - international:
  uncontested dispute with Brazil over certain islands in the
  Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada streams and the resulting tripoint with
  Argentina


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Uzbekistan

Introduction Uzbekistan


Background:
  Russia conquered Uzbekistan in the late 19th century. Stiff
  resistance to the Red Army after World War I was eventually
  suppressed and a socialist republic set up in 1924. During the
  Soviet era, intensive production of "white gold" (cotton) and grain
  led to overuse of agrochemicals and the depletion of water supplies,
  which have left the land poisoned and the Aral Sea and certain
  rivers half dry. Independent since 1991, the country seeks to
  gradually lessen its dependence on agriculture while developing its
  mineral and petroleum reserves. Current concerns include terrorism
  by Islamic militants, economic stagnation, and the curtailment of
  human rights and democratization.

Geography Uzbekistan


Location:
  Central Asia, north of Afghanistan

Geographic coordinates:
  41 00 N, 64 00 E

Map references:
  Asia

Area:
  total: 447,400 sq km
  land: 425,400 sq km
  water: 22,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than California

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,221 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 137 km, Kazakhstan 2,203 km,
  Kyrgyzstan 1,099 km, Tajikistan 1,161 km, Turkmenistan 1,621 km

Coastline:
  0 km (doubly landlocked); note - Uzbekistan includes the southern
  portion of the Aral Sea with a 420 km shoreline

Maritime claims:
  none (doubly landlocked)

Climate:
  mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters;
  semiarid grassland in east

Terrain:
  mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad, flat
  intensely irrigated river valleys along course of Amu Darya, Syr
  Darya (Sirdaryo), and Zarafshon; Fergana Valley in east surrounded
  by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sariqarnish Kuli -12 m
  highest point: Adelunga Toghi 4,301 m

Natural resources:
  natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead
  and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum

Land use:
  arable land: 10.51%
  permanent crops: 0.76%
  other: 88.73% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  42,810 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  shrinkage of the Aral Sea is resulting in growing concentrations of
  chemical pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then
  blown from the increasingly exposed lake bed and contribute to
  desertification; water pollution from industrial wastes and the
  heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause of many human
  health disorders; increasing soil salination; soil contamination
  from buried nuclear processing and agricultural chemicals, including
  DDT

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  along with Liechtenstein, one of the only two doubly landlocked
  countries in the world

People Uzbekistan


Population:
  27,307,134 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.9% (male 4,572,721/female 4,403,405)
  15-64 years: 62.3% (male 8,420,174/female 8,594,478)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 539,336/female 777,020) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 22.7 years
  male: 22 years
  female: 23.3 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.7% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  26.36 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 69.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 74.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 65.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 64.58 years
  male: 61.19 years
  female: 68.14 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  11,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Uzbekistani
  adjective: Uzbekistani

Ethnic groups:
  Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%,
  Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)

Religions:
  Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

Languages:
  Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.3%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Uzbekistan


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Uzbekistan
  conventional short form: Uzbekistan
  local long form: Ozbekiston Respublikasi
  local short form: Ozbekiston
  former: Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic

Government type:
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power
  outside the executive branch

Capital:
  name: Tashkent (Toshkent)
  geographic coordinates: 41 20 N, 69 18 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  12 provinces (viloyatlar, singular - viloyat), 1 autonomous
  republic* (respublika), and 1 city** (shahar); Andijon Viloyati,
  Buxoro Viloyati, Farg'ona Viloyati, Jizzax Viloyati, Namangan
  Viloyati, Navoiy Viloyati, Qashqadaryo Viloyati (Qarshi),
  Qoraqalpog'iston Respublikasi* (Nukus), Samarqand Viloyati, Sirdaryo
  Viloyati (Guliston), Surxondaryo Viloyati (Termiz), Toshkent
  Shahri**, Toshkent Viloyati, Xorazm Viloyati (Urganch)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Independence:
  1 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 1 September (1991)

Constitution:
  new constitution adopted 8 December 1992

Legal system:
  evolution of Soviet civil law; still lacks independent judicial
  system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Islom KARIMOV (since 24 March 1990, when
  he was elected president by the then Supreme Soviet)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shavkat MIRZIYAYEV (since 11
  December 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president with
  approval of the Supreme Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term; previously was a five-year term,
  extended by constitutional amendment in 2002); election last held 9
  January 2000 (next to be held in 2007); prime minister, ministers,
  and deputy ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Islom KARIMOV reelected president; percent of vote
  - Islom KARIMOV 91.9%, Abdulkhafiz JALALOV 4.2%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Supreme Assembly or Oliy Majlis consists of an Upper
  House or Senate (100 seats; 84 members are elected by regional
  governing councils to serve five-year terms and 16 are appointed by
  the president) and a Lower House or Legislative Chamber (120 seats;
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 December 2004 and 9 January 2005 (next to be
  held December 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - NA; Legislative Chamber - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - LDPU 41, NDP 32, Fidokorlar 17, MTP 11, Adolat 9,
  unaffiliated 10
  note: all parties in the Supreme Assembly support President KARIMOV

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (judges are nominated by the president and confirmed
  by the Supreme Assembly)

Political parties and leaders:
  Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party [Dilorom TOSHMUHAMMADOVA,
  chairman]; Democratic National Rebirth Party (Milly Tiklanish) or
  MTP [Xurshid DOSTMUHAMMADOV, chief]; Liberal Democratic Party of
  Uzbekistan or LDPU [Adham SHODMONOV, chairman]; People's Democratic
  Party or NDP (formerly Communist Party) [Asliddin RUSTAMOV, first
  secretary]; Self-Sacrificers Party or Fidokorlar National Democratic
  Party [Ahtam TURSUNOV, chief]; note - Fatherland Progress Party
  merged with Self-Sacrificers Party

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Agrarian and Entrepreneurs' Party [Marat ZAHIDOV]; Birlik (Unity)
  Movement [Abdurakhim POLAT, chairman]; Erk (Freedom) Democratic
  Party [Muhammad SOLIH, chairman] was banned 9 December 1992; Ezgulik
  Human Rights Society [Vasilia INOYATOVA]; Free Farmers' Party or
  Ozod Dehqonlar [Nigara KHIDOYATOVA]; Human Rights Society of
  Uzbekistan [Tolib YAKUBOV, chairman]; Independent Human Rights
  Society of Uzbekistan [Mikhail ARDZINOV, chairman]; Mazlum; Sunshine
  Coalition [Sanjar UMAROV, chairman]

International organization participation:
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abdulaziz KAMILOV
  chancery: 1746 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 887-5300
  FAX: [1] (202) 293-6804
  consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jon PURNELL
  embassy: 3 Moyqo'rq'on, 5th Block, Yunusobod District, Tashkent
  100093
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [998] (71) 120-5450
  FAX: [998] (71) 120-6335

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and green
  separated by red fimbriations with a white crescent moon and 12
  white stars in the upper hoist-side quadrant

Economy Uzbekistan


Economy - overview:
  Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country of which 11% consists of
  intensely cultivated, irrigated river valleys. More than 60% of its
  population lives in densely populated rural communities. Uzbekistan
  is now the world's second-largest cotton exporter and fifth largest
  producer; it relies heavily on cotton production as the major source
  of export earnings. Other major export earners include gold, natural
  gas, and oil. Following independence in September 1991, the
  government sought to prop up its Soviet-style command economy with
  subsidies and tight controls on production and prices. While aware
  of the need to improve the investment climate, the government still
  sponsors measures that often increase, not decrease, its control
  over business decisions. A sharp increase in the inequality of
  income distribution has hurt the lower ranks of society since
  independence. In 2003, the government accepted the obligations of
  Article VIII under the International Monetary Fund (IMF), providing
  for full currency convertibility. However, strict currency controls
  and tightening of borders have lessened the effects of
  convertibility and have also led to some shortages that have further
  stifled economic activity. The Central Bank often delays or
  restricts convertibility, especially for consumer goods. Potential
  investment by Russia and China in Uzbekistan's gas and oil industry
  would increase economic growth prospects. In November 2005, Russian
  President Vladimir PUTIN and Uzbekistan President KARIMOV signed an
  "alliance" treaty, which included provisions for economic and
  business cooperation. Russian businesses have shown increased
  interest in Uzbekistan, especially in mining, telecom, and oil and
  gas. In December 2005, the Russians opened a "Trade House" to
  support and develop Russian-Uzbek business and economic ties.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $50.31 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.86 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 34.2%
  industry: 22.9%
  services: 43% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  14.26 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 44%
  industry: 20%
  services: 36% (1995)

Unemployment rate:
  0.7% officially, plus another 20% underemployed (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  28% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 22% (2000)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  26.8 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.815 billion
  expenditures: $2.917 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  36.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  cotton, vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock

Industries:
  textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, gold
  petroleum, natural gas, chemicals

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  46.52 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 88.2%
  hydro: 11.8%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  48.45 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  5.36 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10.55 billion kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  152,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - consumption:
  120,000 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  600 million bbl (1 January 2005)

Natural gas - production:
  55.8 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - consumption:
  49.3 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - exports:
  6.5 billion cu m (2004)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  1.875 trillion cu m (1 January 2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.082 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton 41.5%, gold 9.6%, energy products 9.6%, mineral fertilizers,
  ferrous metals, textiles, food products, automobiles (1998)

Exports - partners:
  Russia 24.6%, China 12.3%, Turkey 7.1%, Ukraine 5.6%, Bangladesh
  4.9%, Poland 4.3%, Tajikistan 4.2% (2005)

Imports:
  $3.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment 49.8%, foodstuffs 16.4%, chemicals, metals
  (1998)

Imports - partners:
  Russia 26.7%, South Korea 15.3%, Germany 8.9%, China 7.2%,
  Kazakhstan 6.4%, Turkey 4.7%, Ukraine 4.7% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $2.681 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.032 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $91.6 million from the US (2005)

Currency (code):
  Uzbekistani soum (UZS)

Currency code:
  UZS

Exchange rates:
  Uzbekistani soum per US dollar - 1,020 (2005), 971.265 (2004),
  771.029 (2002), 423.832 (2002), 236.61 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Uzbekistan


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,717,100 (2003)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  720,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: antiquated and inadequate; in serious need of
  modernization
  domestic: the domestic telephone system is being expanded and
  technologically improved, particularly in Tashkent (Toshkent) and
  Samarqand, under contracts with prominent companies in
  industrialized countries; moreover, by 1998, six cellular networks
  had been placed in operation - four of the GSM type (Global System
  for Mobile Communication), one D-AMPS type (Digital Advanced Mobile
  Phone System), and one AMPS type (Advanced Mobile Phone System)
  international: country code - 998; linked by landline or microwave
  radio relay with CIS member states and to other countries by leased
  connection via the Moscow international gateway switch; after the
  completion of the Uzbek link to the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE)
  fiber-optic cable, Uzbekistan will be independent of Russian
  facilities for international communications; Inmarsat also provides
  an international connection, albeit an expensive one; satellite
  earth stations - NA (1998)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 20, FM 7, shortwave 10 (1998)

Radios:
  10.8 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  4 (plus two repeaters that relay Russian programs), 1 cable
  rebroadcaster in Tashkent; approximately 20 stations in regional
  capitals (2003)

Televisions:
  6.4 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .uz

Internet hosts:
  9,058 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  42 (2000)

Internet users:
  880,000 (2005)

Transportation Uzbekistan


Airports:
  61 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 34
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 27
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  under 914 m: 25 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 9,594 km; oil 868 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,950 km
  broad gauge: 3,950 km 1.520-m gauge (620 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 81,600 km
  paved: 71,237 km
  unpaved: 10,363 km (1999)

Waterways:
  1,100 km (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Termiz (Amu Darya)

Military Uzbekistan


Military branches:
  Army, Air and Air Defense Forces, National Guard

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service
  obligation - 12 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,340,220
  females age 18-49: 6,432,072 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,609,621
  females age 18-49: 5,383,233 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 324,722
  females age 18-49: 317,062 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $200 million (FY97)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2% (FY97)

Transnational Issues Uzbekistan


Disputes - international:
  prolonged drought and cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and
  Turkmenistan creates water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river
  states; delimitation with Kazakhstan complete with demarcation
  underway; border delimitation of 130 km of border with Kyrgyzstan is
  hampered by serious disputes around enclaves and other areas

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 39,202 (Tajikistan) 5,238
  (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: 3,000 (forced population transfers by government from villages
  near Tajikistan border) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Uzbekistan is a source and, to a lesser extent,
  a transit country for women trafficked to Asia and the Middle East
  for the purpose of sexual exploitation; women from other Central
  Asian countries and China are trafficked through Uzbekistan; men are
  trafficked for purposes of forced labor in the construction and
  agricultural industries to Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and
  Kyrgyzstan; men and women are also trafficked within the country
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Uzbekistan is placed on Tier 3 because it
  failed to fulfill commitments by the country to take additional
  steps during 2005, including the adoption of comprehensive
  anti-trafficking legislation, criminal code amendments to raise
  trafficking penalties, support to the country's first trafficking
  shelter, and approval of a national action plan

Illicit drugs:
  transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian and, to a
  lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit cultivation
  of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for domestic
  consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by government crop
  eradication program; transit point for heroin precursor chemicals
  bound for Afghanistan


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Vanuatu

Introduction Vanuatu


Background:
  Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language,
  migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceeding European
  exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts
  for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to
  this day. The British and French, who settled the New Hebrides in
  the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium,
  which administered the islands until independence in 1980, when the
  new name of Vanuatu was adopted.

Geography Vanuatu


Location:
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Geographic coordinates:
  16 00 S, 167 00 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 12,200 sq km
  land: 12,200 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes more than 80 islands, about 65 of which are inhabited

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Connecticut

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  2,528 km

Maritime claims:
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by southeast trade winds from May to October;
  moderate rainfall from November to April; may be affected by
  cyclones from December to April

Terrain:
  mostly mountainous islands of volcanic origin; narrow coastal plains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Tabwemasana 1,877 m

Natural resources:
  manganese, hardwood forests, fish

Land use:
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 6.97%
  other: 91.39% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  tropical cyclones or typhoons (January to April); volcanic eruption
  on Aoba (Ambae) island began 27 November 2005, volcanism also causes
  minor earthquakes; tsunamis

Environment - current issues:
  a majority of the population does not have access to a reliable
  supply of potable water; deforestation

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  a Y-shaped chain of four main islands and 80 smaller islands;
  several of the islands have active volcanoes

People Vanuatu


Population:
  208,869 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 34,804/female 33,331)
  15-64 years: 63.7% (male 67,919/female 65,138)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 4,027/female 3,650) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 23 years
  male: 23 years
  female: 23 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.49% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  22.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.82 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.1 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 53.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 56.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 51.13 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 62.85 years
  male: 61.34 years
  female: 64.44 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Ni-Vanuatu (singular and plural)
  adjective: Ni-Vanuatu

Ethnic groups:
  Ni-Vanuatu 98.5%, other 1.5% (1999 Census)

Religions:
  Presbyterian 31.4%, Anglican 13.4%, Roman Catholic 13.1%,
  Seventh-Day Adventist 10.8%, other Christian 13.8%, indigenous
  beliefs 5.6% (including Jon Frum cargo cult), other 9.6%, none 1%,
  unspecified 1.3% (1999 Census)

Languages:
  local languages (more than 100) 72.6%, pidgin (known as Bislama or
  Bichelama) 23.1%, English 1.9%, French 1.4%, other 0.3%, unspecified
  0.7% (1999 Census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Government Vanuatu


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Vanuatu
  conventional short form: Vanuatu
  local long form: Ripablik blong Vanuatu
  local short form: Vanuatu
  former: New Hebrides

Government type:
  parliamentary republic

Capital:
  name: Port-Vila (on Efate)
  geographic coordinates: 17 44 S, 168 19 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  6 provinces; Malampa, Penama, Sanma, Shefa, Tafea, Torba

Independence:
  30 July 1980 (from France and UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 30 July (1980)

Constitution:
  30 July 1980

Legal system:
  unified system being created from former dual French and British
  systems

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Kalkot Matas KELEKELE (since 16 August
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ham LINI (since 11 December
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Sato KILMAN (since 11 December 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister,
  responsible to Parliament
  elections: president elected for a five-year term by an electoral
  college consisting of Parliament and the presidents of the regional
  councils; election for president last held 16 August 2004 (next to
  be held in 2009); following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or majority coalition is usually elected prime
  minister by Parliament from among its members; election for prime
  minister last held 29 July 2004 (next to be held following general
  elections in 2008)
  election results: Kalkot Matas KELEKELE elected president, with 49
  votes out of 56, after several ballots on 16 August 2004

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Parliament (52 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 July 2004 (next to be held 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NUP 10, UMP 8, VP 8, VRP 4, MPP 3, VGP 3, other and independent 16;
  note - political party associations are fluid
  note: the National Council of Chiefs advises on matters of culture
  and language

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the president after
  consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the
  opposition, three other justices are appointed by the president on
  the advice of the Judicial Service Commission)

Political parties and leaders:
  Jon Frum Movement [Song KEASPAI]; Melanesian Progressive Party or
  MPP [Barak SOPE]; National United Party or NUP [Hem LINI]; Union of
  Moderate Parties or UMP [Serge VOHOR]; Vanua'aku Pati (Our Land
  Party) or VP [Edward NATAPEI]; Vanuatu Greens Party or VGP [Moana
  CARCASSES]; Vanuatu Republican Party or VRP [Maxime Carlot KORMAN]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACCT, ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca,
  SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO
  (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  Vanuatu does not have an embassy in the US; it does, however, have
  a Permanent Mission to the UN

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  the US does not have an embassy in Vanuatu; the ambassador to Papua
  New Guinea is accredited to Vanuatu

Flag description:
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a black
  isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) all separated by a
  black-edged yellow stripe in the shape of a horizontal Y (the two
  points of the Y face the hoist side and enclose the triangle);
  centered in the triangle is a boar's tusk encircling two crossed
  namele leaves, all in yellow

Economy Vanuatu


Economy - overview:
  This South Pacific island economy is based primarily on small-scale
  agriculture, which provides a living for 65% of the population.
  Fishing, offshore financial services, and tourism, with about 50,000
  visitors in 2004, are other mainstays of the economy. Mineral
  deposits are negligible; the country has no known petroleum
  deposits. A small light industry sector caters to the local market.
  Tax revenues come mainly from import duties. Economic development is
  hindered by dependence on relatively few commodity exports,
  vulnerability to natural disasters, and long distances from main
  markets and between constituent islands. GDP growth rose less than
  3% on average in the 1990s. In response to foreign concerns, the
  government has promised to tighten regulation of its offshore
  financial center. In mid-2002 the government stepped up efforts to
  boost tourism. Agriculture, especially livestock farming, is a
  second target for growth. Australia and New Zealand are the main
  suppliers of tourists and foreign aid.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $276.3 million (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $341 million

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,900 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 12%
  services: 62% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
  76,410

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 5%
  services: 30% (2000 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  1.7% NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  -1.6% (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $78.7 million
  expenditures: $72.23 million (2003)

Agriculture - products:
  copra, coconuts, cocoa, coffee, taro, yams, fruits, vegetables;
  beef; fish

Industries:
  food and fish freezing, wood processing, meat canning

Industrial production growth rate:
  1% (1997 est.)

Electricity - production:
  41 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  38.13 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

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

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-28.35 million

Exports:
  $34.11 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copra, beef, cocoa, timber, kava, coffee

Exports - partners:
  Thailand 46.5%, India 14.1%, Poland 7.9%, Turkey 7.7%, Japan 6.9%
  (2005)

Imports:
  $117.1 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, fuels

Imports - partners:
  Australia 18.4%, Japan 16.6%, Singapore 14.7%, Poland 8.5%, NZ
  7.2%, Fiji 6.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $40.54 million

Debt - external:
  $81.2 million (2004)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $37.8 million (2004)

Currency (code):
  vatu (VUV)

Currency code:
  VUV

Exchange rates:
  vatu per US dollar - NA (2005), 111.79 (2004), 122.19 (2003), 139.2
  (2002), 145.31 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Vanuatu


Telephones - main lines in use:
  6,800 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  12,700 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 678; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2004)

Radios:
  67,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  1 (2004)

Televisions:
  2,300 (1999)

Internet country code:
  .vu

Internet hosts:
  413 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  7,500 (2004)

Transportation Vanuatu


Airports:
  31 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 28
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,070 km
  paved: 256 km
  unpaved: 814 km (1999)

Merchant marine:
  total: 51 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,340,132 GRT/1,908,687 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 29, cargo 8, container 1, liquefied gas 2,
  petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 2,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 51 (Australia 2, Canada 5, Denmark 6, Estonia 1,
  Japan 28, Poland 5, Russia 1, Switzerland 2, US 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Forari, Port-Vila, Santo (Espiritu Santo)

Military Vanuatu


Military branches:
  no regular military forces; security forces comprise the Vanuatu
  Police Force (VPF) and paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF),
  which includes Vanuatu's naval force, known as the Police Maritime
  Wing (PMW); border security in Vanuatu is the joint responsibility
  of the Customs and Inland Revenue Service, VPF, VMF, and PMW (2003)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 50,221 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 33,837 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues Vanuatu


Disputes - international:
  Matthew and Hunter Islands east of New Caledonia claimed by Vanuatu
  and France


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Venezuela

Introduction Venezuela


Background:
  Venezuela was one of three countries that emerged from the collapse
  of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and New Granada,
  which became Colombia). For most of the first half of the 20th
  century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military
  strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social
  reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since
  1959. Hugo CHAVEZ, president since 1999, has promoted a
  controversial policy of "democratic socialism," which purports to
  alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization
  and undermining regional stability. Current concerns include: a
  weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a
  politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian
  border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the
  petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible
  mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and
  indigenous peoples.

Geography Venezuela


Location:
  Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Atlantic Ocean, between Colombia and Guyana

Geographic coordinates:
  8 00 N, 66 00 W

Map references:
  South America

Area:
  total: 912,050 sq km
  land: 882,050 sq km
  water: 30,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly more than twice the size of California

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,993 km
  border countries: Brazil 2,200 km, Colombia 2,050 km, Guyana 743 km

Coastline:
  2,800 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 15 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:
  tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands

Terrain:
  Andes Mountains and Maracaibo Lowlands in northwest; central plains
  (llanos); Guiana Highlands in southeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Pico Bolivar (La Columna) 5,007 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold, bauxite, other minerals,
  hydropower, diamonds

Land use:
  arable land: 2.85%
  permanent crops: 0.88%
  other: 96.27% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  5,750 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  subject to floods, rockslides, mudslides; periodic droughts

Environment - current issues:
  sewage pollution of Lago de Valencia; oil and urban pollution of
  Lago de Maracaibo; deforestation; soil degradation; urban and
  industrial pollution, especially along the Caribbean coast; threat
  to the rainforest ecosystem from irresponsible mining operations

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed but not ratified:: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  on major sea and air routes linking North and South America; Angel
  Falls in the Guiana Highlands is the world's highest waterfall

People Venezuela


Population:
  25,730,435 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 29.1% (male 3,860,116/female 3,620,440)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 8,494,944/female 8,410,874)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 609,101/female 734,960) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 26 years
  male: 25.4 years
  female: 26.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  18.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  4.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 21.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 74.54 years
  male: 71.49 years
  female: 77.81 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.7% - note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  110,000 (1999 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  4,100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Venezuelan(s)
  adjective: Venezuelan

Ethnic groups:
  Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arab, German, African, indigenous
  people

Religions:
  nominally Roman Catholic 96%, Protestant 2%, other 2%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), numerous indigenous dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.4%
  male: 93.8%
  female: 93.1% (2003 est.)

Government Venezuela


Country name:
  conventional long form: Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
  conventional short form: Venezuela
  local long form: Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
  local short form: Venezuela

Government type:
  federal republic

Capital:
  name: Caracas
  geographic coordinates: 10 30 N, 66 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  23 states (estados, singular - estado), 1 capital district*
  (distrito capital), and 1 federal dependency** (dependencia
  federal); Amazonas, Anzoategui, Apure, Aragua, Barinas, Bolivar,
  Carabobo, Cojedes, Delta Amacuro, Dependencias Federales**, Distrito
  Federal*, Falcon, Guarico, Lara, Merida, Miranda, Monagas, Nueva
  Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Tachira, Trujillo, Vargas, Yaracuy, Zulia
  note: the federal dependency consists of 11 federally controlled
  island groups with a total of 72 individual islands

Independence:
  5 July 1811 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 5 July (1811)

Constitution:
  30 December 1999

Legal system:
  open, adversarial court system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Hugo CHAVEZ Frias (since 3 February
  1999); Vice President Jose Vicente RANGEL Vale (since 28 April
  2002); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Hugo CHAVEZ Frias (since 3 February
  1999); Vice President Jose Vicente RANGEL Vale (since 28 April 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 3 December 2006
  (next to be held December 2012)
  note: in 1999, a National Constituent Assembly drafted a new
  constitution that increased the presidential term to six years; an
  election was subsequently held on 30 July 2000 under the terms of
  this new constitution
  election results: Hugo CHAVEZ Frias reelected president; percent of
  vote - Hugo CHAVEZ Frias 63%, Manuel ROSALES 37%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (167 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms; three
  seats reserved for the indigenous peoples of Venezuela)
  elections: last held 4 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  pro-government 167 (MVR 114, PODEMOS 15, PPT 11, indigenous 2, other
  25), opposition 0

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Tribunal of Justice or Tribuna Suprema de Justicia
  (magistrates are elected by the National Assembly for a single
  12-year term)

Political parties and leaders:
  Christian Democrats or COPEI [Eduardo FERNANDEZ]; Democratic Action
  or AD [Jesus MENDEZ Quijada]; Fatherland for All or PPT [Jose
  ALBORNOZ]; Fifth Republic Movement or MVR [Hugo CHAVEZ]; Justice
  First [Julio BORGES]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Hector
  MUJICA]; Venezuela Project or PV [Henrique SALAS Romer]; We Can or
  PODEMOS [Ismael GARCIA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  FEDECAMARAS, a conservative business group; VECINOS groups;
  Venezuelan Confederation of Workers or CTV (labor organization
  dominated by the Democratic Action)

International organization participation:
  CAN, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-3, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA, NAM,
  OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernardo ALVAREZ Herrera
  chancery: 1099 30th Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-2214
  FAX: [1] (202) 342-6820
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New Orleans,
  New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador William R. BROWNFIELD
  embassy: Calle F con Calle Suapure, Urbanizacion Colinas de Valle
  Arriba, Caracas 1080
  mailing address: P. O. Box 62291, Caracas 1060-A; APO AA 34037
  telephone: [58] (212) 975-9234, 975-6411
  FAX: [58] (212) 975-8991

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), blue, and red with
  the coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band and an arc of
  eight white five-pointed stars centered in the blue band

Economy Venezuela


Economy - overview:
  Venezuela continues to be highly dependent on the petroleum sector,
  accounting for roughly one-third of GDP, around 80% of export
  earnings, and over half of government operating revenues. Government
  revenue also has been bolstered by increased tax collection, which
  has surpassed its 2005 collection goal by almost 50%. Tax revenue is
  the primary source of non-oil revenue, which accounts for 53% of the
  2006 budget. A disastrous two-month national oil strike, from
  December 2002 to February 2003, temporarily halted economic
  activity. The economy remained in depression in 2003, declining by
  9.2% after an 8.9% fall in 2002. Output recovered strongly in
  2004-2005, aided by high oil prices and strong consumption growth.
  Venezuela continues to be an important source of crude oil for the
  US market. Both inflation and unemployment remain fundamental
  problems.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $162.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $106.1 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  9.3% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $6,400 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 41.9%
  services: 54.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  12.31 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 23%
  services: 64% (1997 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  12.2% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  47% (1998 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 36.5% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  49.1 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  16% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  19% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $39.63 billion
  expenditures: $41.27 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  34.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, sorghum, sugarcane, rice, bananas, vegetables, coffee; beef,
  pork, milk, eggs; fish

Industries:
  petroleum, construction materials, food processing, textiles; iron
  ore mining, steel, aluminum; motor vehicle assembly

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  87.44 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 31.7%
  hydro: 68.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  81.32 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  3.081 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  530,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  2.1 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  75.59 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  29.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  29.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  4.191 trillion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $25.36 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $52.73 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  petroleum, bauxite and aluminum, steel, chemicals, agricultural
  products, basic manufactures

Exports - partners:
  US 51.2%, Netherlands Antilles 7.3%, Canada 2.4% (2005)

Imports:
  $24.63 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  raw materials, machinery and equipment, transport equipment,
  construction materials

Imports - partners:
  US 31.6%, Colombia 11%, Brazil 9.1%, Mexico 6.9% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $29.64 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $41.51 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $74 million (2000)

Currency (code):
  bolivar (VEB)

Currency code:
  VEB

Exchange rates:
  bolivares per US dollar - 2,089.8 (2005), 1,891.3 (2004), 1,607
  (2003), 1,161 (2002), 723.7 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Venezuela


Telephones - main lines in use:
  3,605,500 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  12.496 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern and expanding
  domestic: domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations; recent
  substantial improvement in telephone service in rural areas;
  substantial increase in digitalization of exchanges and trunk lines;
  installation of a national interurban fiber-optic network capable of
  digital multimedia services
  international: country code - 58; 3 submarine coaxial cables;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1
  PanAmSat; participating with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in
  the construction of an international fiber-optic network

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 201, FM NA (20 in Caracas), shortwave 11 (1998)

Radios:
  10.75 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  66 (plus 45 repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  4.1 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ve

Internet hosts:
  51,968 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  16 (2000)

Internet users:
  3.04 million (2005)

Transportation Venezuela


Airports:
  375 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 129
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 34
  914 to 1,523 m: 60
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 246
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 90
  under 914 m: 147 (2006)

Heliports:
  1 (2006)

Pipelines:
  extra heavy crude 992 km; gas 5,369 km; oil 7,607 km; refined
  products 1,681 km; unknown (oil/water) 141 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 682 km
  standard gauge: 682 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 96,155 km
  paved: 32,308 km
  unpaved: 63,847 km (1999)

Waterways:
  7,100 km
  note: Orinoco River and Lake de Maracaibo navigable by oceangoing
  vessels, Orinoco for 400 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 56 ships (1000 GRT or over) 824,941 GRT/1,327,924 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 10, chemical tanker 2, container 1,
  liquefied gas 6, passenger/cargo 12, petroleum tanker 18
  foreign-owned: 13 (Denmark 3, Greece 3, India 1, Mexico 3, Panama 1,
  Russia 1, Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Bahamas 1, Panama 14) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Amuay, La Guaira, Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello, Punta Cardon

Military Venezuela


Military branches:
  National Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Nacionales or FAN): Ground
  Forces or Army (Fuerzas Terrestres or Ejercito), Naval Forces
  (Fuerzas Navales or Armada; includes Marines, Coast Guard), Air
  Force (Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion), Armed Forces of Cooperation or
  National Guard (Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacion or Guardia Nacional)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - 30 months (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 6,236,012
  females age 18-49: 6,137,622 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,907,947
  females age 18-49: 5,151,843 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 252,396
  females age 18-49: 237,300 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $1.61 billion (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Venezuela


Disputes - international:
  claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River in Guyana,
  preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana has
  expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims before
  the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that
  Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with Venezuela extends into
  their waters; dispute with Colombia over Los Monjes islands and
  maritime boundary near the Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized
  illegal narcotics and paramilitary activities penetrate Venezuela's
  shared border region resulting in several thousand residents
  migrating away from the border; US, France, and the Netherlands
  recognize Venezuela's claim to give full effect to Aves Island,
  which creates a Venezuelan EEZ/continental shelf extending over a
  large portion of the Caribbean Sea; Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
  Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines protest
  Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation and
  other states' recognition of it

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and forced labor; women and children from Colombia,
  China, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic are trafficked to
  and through Venezuela and subjected to commercial sexual
  exploitation or forced labor; Venezuelans are trafficked internally
  and to Western Europe, particularly Spain and the Netherlands, and
  to countries in the Caribbean region for commercial sexual
  exploitation; Venezuela is a transit country for illegal migrants
  from other countries in the region and for Asian nationals, some are
  believed to be trafficking victims
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Venezuela does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  small-scale illicit producer of opium and coca for the processing
  of opiates and coca derivatives; however, large quantities of
  cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transit the country from Colombia
  bound for US and Europe; significant narcotics-related
  money-laundering activity, especially along the border with Colombia
  and on Margarita Island; active eradication program primarily
  targeting opium; increasing signs of drug-related activities by
  Colombian insurgents on border


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Vietnam

Introduction Vietnam


Background:
  The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed
  by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887. Vietnam
  declared independence after World War II, but France continued to
  rule until its 1954 defeat by Communist forces under Ho Chi MINH.
  Under the Geneva Accords of 1954, Vietnam was divided into the
  Communist North and anti-Communist South. US economic and military
  aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster
  the government, but US armed forces were withdrawn following a
  cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, North Vietnamese
  forces overran the South reuniting the country under Communist rule.
  Despite the return of peace, for over a decade the country
  experienced little economic growth because of conservative
  leadership policies. However, since the enactment of Vietnam's "doi
  moi" (renovation) policy in 1986, Vietnamese authorities have
  committed to increased economic liberalization and enacted
  structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce
  more competitive, export-driven industries. The country continues to
  experience protests from various groups - such as the Protestant
  Montagnard ethnic minority population of the Central Highlands and
  the Hoa Hao Buddhists in southern Vietnam over religious
  persecution. Montagnard grievances also include the loss of land to
  Vietnamese settlers.

Geography Vietnam


Location:
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin,
  and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia

Geographic coordinates:
  16 00 N, 106 00 E

Map references:
  Southeast Asia

Area:
  total: 329,560 sq km
  land: 325,360 sq km
  water: 4,200 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
  total: 4,639 km
  border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km, China 1,281 km, Laos 2,130 km

Coastline:
  3,444 km (excludes islands)

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May
  to September) and warm, dry season (October to March)

Terrain:
  low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly,
  mountainous in far north and northwest

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Fan Si Pan 3,144 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and
  gas deposits, forests, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 20.14%
  permanent crops: 6.93%
  other: 72.93% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  30,000 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding,
  especially in the Mekong River delta

Environment - current issues:
  logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute to
  deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing
  threaten marine life populations; groundwater contamination limits
  potable water supply; growing urban industrialization and population
  migration are rapidly degrading environment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
  City

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  extending 1,650 km north to south, the country is only 50 km across
  at its narrowest point

People Vietnam


Population:
  84,402,966 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27% (male 11,826,457/female 10,983,069)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 28,055,941/female 28,614,553)
  65 years and over: 5.8% (male 1,924,562/female 2,998,384) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 25.9 years
  male: 24.8 years
  female: 27.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.02% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  16.86 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 25.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.72 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 70.85 years
  male: 68.05 years
  female: 73.85 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.4% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  220,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  9,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis,
  and plague are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US personnel who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Vietnamese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Vietnamese

Ethnic groups:
  Kinh (Viet) 86.2%, Tay 1.9%, Thai 1.7%, Muong 1.5%, Khome 1.4%, Hoa
  1.1%, Nun 1.1%, Hmong 1%, others 4.1% (1999 census)

Religions:
  Buddhist 9.3%, Catholic 6.7%, Hoa Hao 1.5%, Cao Dai 1.1%,
  Protestant 0.5%, Muslim 0.1%, none 80.8% (1999 census)

Languages:
  Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second
  language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages
  (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90.3%
  male: 93.9%
  female: 86.9% (2002)

Government Vietnam


Country name:
  conventional long form: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
  conventional short form: Vietnam
  local long form: Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam
  local short form: Viet Nam
  abbreviation: SRV

Government type:
  Communist state

Capital:
  name: Hanoi
  geographic coordinates: 21 02 N, 105 51 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  59 provinces (tinh, singular and plural) and 5 municipalities
  (thanh pho, singular and plural)
  provinces: An Giang, Bac Giang, Bac Kan, Bac Lieu, Bac Ninh, Ba
  Ria-Vung Tau, Ben Tre, Binh Dinh, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Binh
  Thuan, Ca Mau, Cao Bang, Dac Lak, Dac Nong, Dien Bien, Dong Nai,
  Dong Thap, Gia Lai, Ha Giang, Ha Nam, Ha Tay, Ha Tinh, Hai Duong,
  Hau Giang, Hoa Binh, Hung Yen, Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Kon Tum, Lai
  Chau, Lam Dong, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Long An, Nam Dinh, Nghe An, Ninh
  Binh, Ninh Thuan, Phu Tho, Phu Yen, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang
  Ngai, Quang Ninh, Quang Tri, Soc Trang, Son La, Tay Ninh, Thai Binh,
  Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien-Hue, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Tuyen
  Quang, Vinh Long, Vinh Phuc, Yen Bai
  municipalities: Can Tho, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh

Independence:
  2 September 1945 (from France)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 2 September (1945)

Constitution:
  15 April 1992

Legal system:
  based on communist legal theory and French civil law system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Nguyen Minh TRIET (since 27 June 2006);
  Vice President Truong My HOA (since 25 July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nguyen Tan DUNG (since 27 June
  2006); Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh HUNG (since 28 June 2006),
  Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia KHIEM (since 28 June 2006), and
  Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh TRONG (since 28 June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by president based on proposal of prime
  minister and confirmed by National Assembly
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly from among its
  members for five-year term; election last held 27 June 2006; prime
  minister appointed by the president from among the members of the
  National Assembly; deputy prime ministers appointed by the prime
  minister; appointment of prime minister and deputy prime ministers
  confirmed by National Assembly
  election results: Nguyen Minh TRIET elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 94%; Nguyen Tan DUNG elected prime
  minister; percent of National Assembly vote - 92%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly or Quoc-Hoi (498 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 19 May 2002 (next to be held 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CPV 90%, other 10% (the
  10% are not CPV members but are approved by the CPV to stand for
  election); seats by party - CPV 447, CPV-approved 51

Judicial branch:
  Supreme People's Court (chief justice is elected for a five-year
  term by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president)

Political parties and leaders:
  only party - Communist Party of Vietnam or CPV [Nong Duc MANH]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  ACCT (observer), APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nguyen Tam CHIEN
  chancery: 1233 20th Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 861-0737
  FAX: [1] (202) 861-0917
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael W. MARINE
  embassy: 7 Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 400, FPO AP 96521-0002
  telephone: [84] (4) 772-1500
  FAX: [84] (4) 772-1510
  consulate(s) general: Ho Chi Minh City

Flag description:
  red with a large yellow five-pointed star in the center

Economy Vietnam


Economy - overview:
  Vietnam is a densely-populated, developing country that in the last
  30 years has had to recover from the ravages of war, the loss of
  financial support from the old Soviet Bloc, and the rigidities of a
  centrally-planned economy. Substantial progress was achieved from
  1986 to 1997 in moving forward from an extremely low level of
  development and significantly reducing poverty. Growth averaged
  around 9% per year from 1993 to 1997. The 1997 Asian financial
  crisis highlighted the problems in the Vietnamese economy and
  temporarily allowed opponents of reform to slow progress toward a
  market-oriented economy. GDP growth averaged 6.8% per year from 1997
  to 2004 even against the background of the Asian financial crisis
  and a global recession, and growth hit 8% in 2005. Since 2001,
  however, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to
  economic liberalization and international integration. They have
  moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the
  economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries.
  Vietnam's membership in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and entry
  into force of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in December
  2001 have led to even more rapid changes in Vietnam's trade and
  economic regime. Vietnam's exports to the US doubled in 2002 and
  again in 2003. Vietnam hopes to become a member of the WTO in 2006.
  Among other benefits, accession would allow Vietnam to take
  advantage of the phase out of the Agreement on Textiles and
  Clothing, which eliminated quotas on textiles and clothing for WTO
  partners on 1 January 2005. Agriculture's share of economic output
  has continued to shrink, from about 25% in 2000 to 21% in 2005. Deep
  poverty, defined as a percent of the population living under $1 per
  day, has declined significantly and is now smaller than that of
  China, India, and the Philippines. Vietnam is working to promote job
  creation to keep up with the country's high population growth rate.
  However, high levels of inflation have prompted Vietnamese
  authorities to tighten monetary and fiscal policies.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $235.2 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $43.75 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  8.5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,800 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 20.9%
  industry: 41%
  services: 38.1% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  44.39 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 56.8%
  industry: 37%
  services: 6.2% (July 2005)

Unemployment rate:
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  19.5% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 29.9% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  36.1 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  8.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  33.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $11.64 billion
  expenditures: $12.95 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.8
  billion (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  48.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  paddy rice, coffee, rubber, cotton, tea, pepper, soybeans, cashews,
  sugar cane, peanuts, bananas; poultry; fish, seafood

Industries:
  food processing, garments, shoes, machine-building; mining, coal,
  steel; cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, paper

Industrial production growth rate:
  17.2% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  46.2 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 43.7%
  hydro: 56.3%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  52 billion kWh (2004)

Electricity - exports:
  NA kWh

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh

Oil - production:
  400,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  216,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  600 million bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  6.342 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  6.342 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  NA cu m

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  192.6 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $-309 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $32.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea, garments,
  shoes

Exports - partners:
  US 21.2%, Japan 13.3%, Australia 8.4%, China 7.5%, Singapore 5.3%,
  Germany 5% (2005)

Imports:
  $36.88 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer, steel
  products, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles

Imports - partners:
  China 16.3%, Singapore 12.8%, Taiwan 11.7%, Japan 10.4%, South
  Korea 9.9%, Thailand 6.8% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $8.863 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $20.16 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.8 billion in credits and grants pledged by international donors
  for 2000 (2004)

Currency (code):
  dong (VND)

Currency code:
  VND

Exchange rates:
  dong per US dollar - 15,746 (2005), (2004), 15,510 (2003), 15,280
  (2002), 14,725 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Vietnam


Telephones - main lines in use:
  15.845 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  9.593 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: Vietnam is putting considerable effort into
  modernization and expansion of its telecommunication system, but its
  performance continues to lag behind that of its more modern neighbors
  domestic: all provincial exchanges are digitalized and connected to
  Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City by fiber-optic cable or
  microwave radio relay networks; main lines have been substantially
  increased, and the use of mobile telephones is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 84; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 65, FM 7, shortwave 29 (1999)

Radios:
  8.2 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  6 (plus 61 provincial TV stations) (2006)

Televisions:
  3.57 million (1997)

Internet country code:
  .vn

Internet hosts:
  12,114 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2000)

Internet users:
  13.1 million (2006)

Transportation Vietnam


Airports:
  32 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Pipelines:
  condensate/gas 432 km; gas 163 km; oil 50 km; refined products 206
  km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,600 km
  standard gauge: 178 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 2,169 km 1.000-m gauge
  dual gauge: 253 km three-rail track combining 1.435 m and 1.000-m
  gauges (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 222,179 km
  paved: 42,167 km
  unpaved: 180,012 km (2004)

Waterways:
  17,702 km (5,000 km navigable by vessels up to 1.8 m draft) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 267 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,423,936 GRT/2,191,858 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 23, cargo 202, chemical tanker 4, container 5,
  liquefied gas 5, petroleum tanker 24, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 1, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Denmark 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Honduras
  1, Mongolia 8, Panama 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, unknown
  2) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City

Military Vietnam


Military branches:
  People's Armed Forces: People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) (includes
  People's Navy Command (with naval infantry, coast guard), Air and
  Air Defense Force (Kon Quan Nhan Dan), Border Defense Command),
  People's Public Security Forces, Militia Force, Self-Defense Forces
  (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (male) for compulsory military service; females may
  volunteer for active duty military service; conscript service
  obligation - 2 years (3-4 years in the navy); 18-45 years of age
  (male) or 18-40 years of age (female) for Militia Force or Self
  Defense Forces (2006)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 21,341,813
  females age 18-49: 21,430,808 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 16,032,358
  females age 18-49: 17,921,241 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 915,572
  females age 18-49: 864,161 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $650 million (FY98)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  2.5% (FY98)

Transnational Issues Vietnam


Disputes - international:
  southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to check
  the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Laos protest Vietnamese
  squatters and armed encroachments along border; after years of
  Cambodia claiming Vietnam had moved or destroyed boundary markers,
  in 2005, after much domestic debate, Cambodia ratified an agreement
  with Vietnam that settled all but a small portion of the land
  boundary; establishment of a maritime boundary with Cambodia is
  hampered by unresolved dispute over offshore islands; in 2004,
  Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commission agrees to erect missing
  markers in two adjoining provinces; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
  boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
  delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004,
  implementation has been delayed; China occupies Paracel Islands also
  claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; involved in complex dispute with
  China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei over the
  Spratly Islands; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
  the South China Sea" has eased tensions but falls short of a legally
  binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants;
  Vietnam continues to expand construction of facilities in the
  Spratly Islands; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China,
  the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
  seismic activities in the Spratly Islands

Illicit drugs:
  minor producer of opium poppy; probable minor transit point for
  Southeast Asian heroin; government continues to face domestic
  opium/heroin/methamphetamine addiction problems despite longstanding
  crackdowns


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Virgin Islands

Introduction Virgin Islands


Background:
  During the 17th century, the archipelago was divided into two
  territorial units, one English and the other Danish. Sugarcane,
  produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy during the 18th
  and early 19th centuries. In 1917, the US purchased the Danish
  portion, which had been in economic decline since the abolition of
  slavery in 1848.

Geography Virgin Islands


Location:
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
  Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates:
  18 20 N, 64 50 W

Map references:
  Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
  total: 1,910 sq km
  land: 346 sq km
  water: 1,564 sq km

Area - comparative:
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  188 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  subtropical, tempered by easterly trade winds, relatively low
  humidity, little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season
  September to November

Terrain:
  mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little level land

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Crown Mountain 475 m

Natural resources:
  sun, sand, sea, surf

Land use:
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 2.86%
  other: 91.43% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  several hurricanes in recent years; frequent and severe droughts
  and floods; occasional earthquakes

Environment - current issues:
  lack of natural freshwater resources

Geography - note:
  important location along the Anegada Passage - a key shipping lane
  for the Panama Canal; Saint Thomas has one of the best natural
  deepwater harbors in the Caribbean

People Virgin Islands


Population:
  108,605 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 22.4% (male 12,261/female 12,056)
  15-64 years: 66.4% (male 34,174/female 37,949)
  65 years and over: 11.2% (male 5,385/female 6,780) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 37.1 years
  male: 36.2 years
  female: 38 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  -0.12% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  13.96 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  6.43 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -8.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 7.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.93 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.72 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 79.05 years
  male: 75.24 years
  female: 83.09 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Virgin Islander(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Virgin Islander

Ethnic groups:
  black 76.2%, white 13.1%, Asian 1.1%, other 6.1%, mixed 3.5% (2000
  census)

Religions:
  Baptist 42%, Roman Catholic 34%, Episcopalian 17%, other 7%

Languages:
  English 74.7%, Spanish or Spanish Creole 16.8%, French or French
  Creole 6.6%, other 1.9% (2000 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90-95% est.
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2005 est.)

Government Virgin Islands


Country name:
  conventional long form: United States Virgin Islands
  conventional short form: Virgin Islands
  former: Danish West Indies
  abbreviation: USVI

Dependency status:
  organized, unincorporated territory of the US with policy relations
  between the Virgin Islands and the US under the jurisdiction of the
  Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Charlotte Amalie
  geographic coordinates: 18 21 N, 64 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (territory of the US); there are no first-order administrative
  divisions as defined by the US Government, but there are three
  islands at the second order; Saint Croix, Saint John, Saint Thomas

National holiday:
  Transfer Day (from Denmark to the US), 27 March (1917)

Constitution:
  Revised Organic Act of 22 July 1954

Legal system:
  based on US laws

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal; island residents are US citizens but do
  not vote in US presidential elections

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Dr. Charles Wesley TURNBULL (since 5
  January 1999)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as the Virgin Islands, do not vote in elections
  for US president and vice president; governor and lieutenant
  governor elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year
  terms (eligible for a second term); election last held 7 and 21
  November 2006 (next to be held November 2010)
  election results: John DeJONGH elected governor and takes office in
  January 2007; percent of vote - John DeJONGH 57.3%, Kenneth MAPP
  42.7%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Senate (15 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve two-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Democratic Party 8, ICM 4, independent 3
  note: the Virgin Islands elects one non-voting representative to the
  US House of Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2008); results - Donna M. CHRISTENSEN
  (Democrat) reelected

Judicial branch:
  US District Court of the Virgin Islands (under Third Circuit
  jurisdiction); Superior Court of the Virgin Islands (judges
  appointed by the governor for 10-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
  Democratic Party [Arturo WATLINGTON]; Independent Citizens'
  Movement or ICM [Usie RICHARDS]; Republican Party [Gary SPRAUVE]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  IOC, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (territory of the US)

Flag description:
  white, with a modified US coat of arms in the center between the
  large blue initials V and I; the coat of arms shows a yellow eagle
  holding an olive branch in one talon and three arrows in the other
  with a superimposed shield of vertical red and white stripes below a
  blue panel

Economy Virgin Islands


Economy - overview:
  Tourism is the primary economic activity, accounting for 80% of GDP
  and employment. The islands normally host 2 million visitors a year.
  The manufacturing sector consists of petroleum refining, textiles,
  electronics, pharmaceuticals, and watch assembly. The agricultural
  sector is small, with most food being imported. International
  business and financial services are small but growing components of
  the economy. One of the world's largest petroleum refineries is at
  Saint Croix. The islands are subject to substantial damage from
  storms. The government is working to improve fiscal discipline, to
  support construction projects in the private sector, to expand
  tourist facilities, to reduce crime, and to protect the environment.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.577 billion (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  2% (2002 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $14,500 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 80% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
  43,980 (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 80% (2003 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  6.2% (2004)

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.2% (2003)

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  fruit, vegetables, sorghum; Senepol cattle

Industries:
  tourism, petroleum refining, watch assembly, rum distilling,
  construction, pharmaceuticals, textiles, electronics

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  1.04 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  967.3 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  14,650 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  105,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $4.234 billion $NA

Exports - commodities:
  refined petroleum products

Exports - partners:
  US, Puerto Rico (2004)

Imports:
  $4.609 billion $NA

Imports - commodities:
  crude oil, foodstuffs, consumer goods, building materials

Imports - partners:
  US, Puerto Rico (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  US dollar (USD)

Currency code:
  USD

Exchange rates:
  the US dollar is used

Fiscal year:
  1 October - 30 September

Communications Virgin Islands


Telephones - main lines in use:
  70,900 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  64,200 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: modern system with total digital switching,
  uses fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
  domestic: full range of services available
  international: country code - 1-340; 2 submarine cable connections
  (Taino Carib, Americas-1); satellite earth stations - NA

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 16, shortwave 0 (2006)

Radios:
  107,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  5 (2006)

Televisions:
  68,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .vi

Internet hosts:
  3,855 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  50 (2000)

Internet users:
  30,000 (2002)

Transportation Virgin Islands


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 1,257 km (2004)

Ports and terminals:
  Charlotte Amalie, Limetree Bay

Military Virgin Islands


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Transnational Issues Virgin Islands


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Wake Island

Introduction Wake Island


Background:
  The US annexed Wake Island in 1899 for a cable station. An
  important air and naval base was constructed in 1940-41. In December
  1941, the island was captured by the Japanese and held until the end
  of World War II. In subsequent years, Wake was developed as a
  stopover and refueling site for military and commercial aircraft
  transiting the Pacific. Since 1974, the island's airstrip has been
  used by the US military, as well as for emergency landings. All
  operations on the island were suspended and all personnel evacuated
  in August 2006 with the approach of super typhoon Loke (category 5),
  which struck the island with sustained winds of 250 kph and a 6 m
  storm surge inflicting major damage. A US Air Force assessment and
  repair team returned to the island in September and restored limited
  function to the airfield and facilities. The future status of
  activities on the island will be determined upon completion of the
  survey and assessment.

Geography Wake Island


Location:
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds of the
  way from Hawaii to the Northern Mariana Islands

Geographic coordinates:
  19 17 N, 166 39 E

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 6.5 sq km
  land: 6.5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about 11 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  19.3 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical

Terrain:
  atoll of three low coral islands, Peale, Wake, and Wilkes, built up
  on an underwater volcano; central lagoon is former crater, islands
  are part of the rim

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 6 m

Natural resources:
  none

Land use:
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  0 sq km

Natural hazards:
  occasional typhoons

Environment - current issues:
  NA

Geography - note:
  strategic location in the North Pacific Ocean; emergency landing
  location for transpacific flights

People Wake Island


Population:
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: US military personnel have left the island, but contractor
  personnel remain; as of October 2001, 200 contractor personnel were
  present (July 2006 est.)

Government Wake Island


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Wake Island

Dependency status:
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from Washington,
  DC, by the Department of the Interior; activities on the island are
  conducted by the US Air Force

Legal system:
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Flag description:
  the flag of the US is used

Economy Wake Island


Economy - overview:
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to military
  personnel and contractors located on the island. All food and
  manufactured goods must be imported.

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Communications Wake Island


Telephone system:
  general assessment: satellite communications; 1 DSN circuit off the
  Overseas Telephone System (OTS)
  domestic: NA
  international: NA

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 0, FM 0, shortwave 0
  note: Armed Forces Radio/Television Service (AFRTS) radio service
  provided by satellite (2005)

Television broadcast stations:
  0
  note: Armed Forces Radio/Television Service (AFRTS) radio service
  provided by satellite (2005)

Transportation Wake Island


Airports:
  1 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  none; two offshore anchorages for large ships

Transportation - note:
  there are no commercial or civilian flights to and from Wake
  Island, except in direct support of island missions; emergency
  landing is available

Military Wake Island


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of the US; launch support facility is
  part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS)
  administered by US Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC)

Transnational Issues Wake Island


Disputes - international:
  claimed by Marshall Islands


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Wallis and Futuna

Introduction Wallis and Futuna


Background:
  The Futuna island group was discovered by the Dutch in 1616 and
  Wallis by the British in 1767, but it was the French who declared a
  protectorate over the islands in 1842. In 1959, the inhabitants of
  the islands voted to become a French overseas territory.

Geography Wallis and Futuna


Location:
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about two-thirds of
  the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Geographic coordinates:
  13 18 S, 176 12 W

Map references:
  Oceania

Area:
  total: 274 sq km
  land: 274 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ile Uvea (Wallis Island), Ile Futuna (Futuna Island),
  Ile Alofi, and 20 islets

Area - comparative:
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries:
  0 km

Coastline:
  129 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate:
  tropical; hot, rainy season (November to April); cool, dry season
  (May to October); rains 2,500-3,000 mm per year (80% humidity);
  average temperature 26.6 degrees C

Terrain:
  volcanic origin; low hills

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Singavi 765 m

Natural resources:
  NEGL

Land use:
  arable land: 7.14%
  permanent crops: 35.71%
  other: 57.15% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  NA

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation (only small portions of the original forests remain)
  largely as a result of the continued use of wood as the main fuel
  source; as a consequence of cutting down the forests, the
  mountainous terrain of Futuna is particularly prone to erosion;
  there are no permanent settlements on Alofi because of the lack of
  natural fresh water resources

Geography - note:
  both island groups have fringing reefs

People Wallis and Futuna


Population:
  16,025 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  NA

Birth rate:
  NA births/1,000 population

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Net migration rate:
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there has been steady emigration from Wallis and Futuna to New
  Caledonia (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA years
  male: NA years
  female: NA years

Total fertility rate:
  NA children born/woman

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Wallisian(s), Futunan(s), or Wallis and Futuna Islanders
  adjective: Wallisian, Futunan, or Wallis and Futuna Islander

Ethnic groups:
  Polynesian

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 99%, other 1%

Languages:
  Wallisian 58.9% (indigenous Polynesian language), Futunian 30.1%,
  French 10.8%, other 0.2% (2003 census)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50%
  male: 50%
  female: 50% (1969 est.)

Government Wallis and Futuna


Country name:
  conventional long form: Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands
  conventional short form: Wallis and Futuna
  local long form: Territoire des Iles Wallis et Futuna
  local short form: Wallis et Futuna

Dependency status:
  overseas territory of France

Government type:
  NA

Capital:
  name: Mata-Utu (on Ile Uvea)
  geographic coordinates: 13 57 S, 171 56 W
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (overseas territory of France); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are three kingdoms at the second order named Alo, Sigave, Wallis

Independence:
  none (overseas territory of France)

National holiday:
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Constitution:
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Legal system:
  French legal system

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May
  1995), represented by High Administrator Richard DIDIER (since 19
  July 2006)
  head of government: President of the Territorial Assembly Patalione
  KANIMOA (since January 2001)
  cabinet: Council of the Territory consists of three kings and three
  members appointed by the high administrator on the advice of the
  Territorial Assembly
  note: there are three traditional kings with limited powers
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high administrator appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of the Interior; the presidents of the
  Territorial Government and the Territorial Assembly are elected by
  the members of the assembly

Legislative branch:
  unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblee Territoriale (20
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 March 2002 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  RPR and affiliates 13, Socialists and affiliates 7
  note: Wallis and Futuna elects one senator to the French Senate and
  one deputy to the French National Assembly; French Senate -
  elections last held 27 September 1998 (next to be held by September
  2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats - RPR (now
  UMP) 1; French National Assembly - elections last held 16 June 2002
  (next to be held by in 2007); results - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats - RPR (UMP) 1

Judicial branch:
  none; justice generally administered under French law by the high
  administrator, but the three traditional kings administer customary
  law and there is a magistrate in Mata-Utu

Political parties and leaders:
  Lua Kae Tahi (Giscardians); Mouvement des Radicaux de Gauche or
  MRG; Rally for the Republic or RPR (UMP) [Clovis LOGOLOGOFOLAU];
  Socialist Party or PS; Taumu'a Lelei [Soane Muni UHILA]; Union
  Populaire Locale or UPL [Falakiko GATA]; Union Pour la Democratie
  Francaise or UDF

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  SPC, UPU

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none (overseas territory of France)

Flag description:
  unofficial, local flag has a red field with four white isosceles
  triangles in the middle, representing the three native kings of the
  islands and the French administrator; the apexes of the triangles
  are oriented inward and at right angles to each other; the flag of
  France, outlined in white on two sides, is in the upper hoist
  quadrant; the flag of France is the only official flag

Economy Wallis and Futuna


Economy - overview:
  The economy is limited to traditional subsistence agriculture, with
  about 80% labor force earnings from agriculture (coconuts and
  vegetables), livestock (mostly pigs), and fishing. About 4% of the
  population is employed in government. Revenues come from French
  Government subsidies, licensing of fishing rights to Japan and South
  Korea, import taxes, and remittances from expatriate workers in New
  Caledonia.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $60 million (2004 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $3,800 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Labor force:
  NA 3,104

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 4%
  services: 16% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
  15.2% NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  2.8% NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $29,730
  expenditures: $31,330 (1998 est.)

Public debt:
  5.6% of GDP

Agriculture - products:
  breadfruit, yams, taro, bananas; pigs, goats; fish

Industries:
  copra, handicrafts, fishing, lumber

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0%

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2002)

Exports:
  $47,450 f.o.b. (2004)

Exports - commodities:
  copra, chemicals, construction materials

Exports - partners:
  Italy 40%, Croatia 15%, US 14%, Denmark 13% (2004)

Imports:
  $61.17 million f.o.b. (2004)

Imports - commodities:
  chemicals, machinery, passenger ships, consumer goods

Imports - partners:
  France 97%, Australia 2%, NZ 1% (2004)

Debt - external:
  $3.67 million $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  assistance from France

Currency (code):
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

Currency code:
  XPF

Exchange rates:
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per US dollar - 95.89
  (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71 (2002), 133.26 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Wallis and Futuna


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,900 (2002)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (1994)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 681

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0 (2000)

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  2 (2000)

Televisions:
  NA

Internet country code:
  .wf

Internet hosts:
  1 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  900 (2002)

Transportation Wallis and Futuna


Airports:
  2 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Merchant marine:
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 110,428 GRT/56,830 DWT
  by type: chemical tanker 1, passenger 7
  foreign-owned: 8 (France 5, French Polynesia 2, US 1) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Leava, Mata-Utu

Military Wallis and Futuna


Military - note:
  defense is the responsibility of France

Transnational Issues Wallis and Futuna


Disputes - international:
  none


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@West Bank

Introduction West Bank


Background:
  The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government
  Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993,
  provided for a transitional period not exceeding five years of
  Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West
  Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain powers and
  responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the
  interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
  A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza Strip and
  Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994 Cairo
  Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in additional
  areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28 September 1995
  Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997 Protocol
  Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23 October 1998
  Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh
  Agreement. The DOP provided that Israel would retain responsibility
  during the transitional period for external and internal security
  and for public order of settlements and Israeli citizens. Direct
  negotiations to determine the permanent status of Gaza and West Bank
  began in September 1999 after a three-year hiatus, but were derailed
  by a second intifada that broke out in September 2000. In April 2003
  the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) presented a roadmap to a final
  settlement of the conflict by 2005 based on reciprocal steps by the
  two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic
  Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent status agreement has
  been postponed indefinitely due to violence and accusations that
  both sides have not followed through on their commitments. Longtime
  Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT died in November 2004 and Mahmud
  ABBAS was elected PA President in January 2005, bringing hope of a
  turning point in the conflict. Israel and the PA agreed in February
  2005 to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments, focused on security issues,
  in an effort to move the peace process forward. Progress has been
  slow because of different interpretations of the verbal agreement by
  the two sides.

Geography West Bank


Location:
  Middle East, west of Jordan

Geographic coordinates:
  32 00 N, 35 15 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 5,860 sq km
  land: 5,640 sq km
  water: 220 sq km
  note: includes West Bank, Latrun Salient, and the northwest quarter
  of the Dead Sea, but excludes Mt. Scopus; East Jerusalem and
  Jerusalem No Man's Land are also included only as a means of
  depicting the entire area occupied by Israel in 1967

Area - comparative:
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Land boundaries:
  total: 404 km
  border countries: Israel 307 km, Jordan 97 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  temperate; temperature and precipitation vary with altitude, warm
  to hot summers, cool to mild winters

Terrain:
  mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in west, but barren
  in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Tall Asur 1,022 m

Natural resources:
  arable land

Land use:
  arable land: 16.9%
  permanent crops: 18.97%
  other: 64.13% (2001)

Irrigated land:
  150 sq km; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Natural hazards:
  droughts

Environment - current issues:
  adequacy of fresh water supply; sewage treatment

Geography - note:
  landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for Israel's coastal
  aquifers; there are 242 West Bank settlements and 29 East Jerusalem
  settlements in addition to at least 20 occupied outposts (August
  2005 est.)

People West Bank


Population:
  2,460,492
  note: in addition, there are about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the
  West Bank and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2004 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 42.9% (male 541,110/female 515,202)
  15-64 years: 53.7% (male 676,427/female 644,347)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 35,440/female 47,966) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 18.2 years
  female: 18.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.06% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  31.67 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  3.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  2.8 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 19.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 17.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 73.27 years
  male: 71.5 years
  female: 75.15 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: NA
  adjective: NA

Ethnic groups:
  Palestinian Arab and other 83%, Jewish 17%

Religions:
  Muslim 75% (predominantly Sunni), Jewish 17%, Christian and other 8%

Languages:
  Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians),
  English (widely understood)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 87.4% (2003 est.)

Government West Bank


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: West Bank

Economy West Bank


Economy - overview:
  The West Bank - the larger of the two areas under the Palestinian
  Authority (PA)- has experienced a general decline in economic growth
  and a degradation in economic conditions made worse since the second
  intifadah began in September 2000. The downturn has been largely the
  result of the Israeli closure policies - the imposition of border
  closures in response to security incidents in Israel - which
  disrupted labor and commodity market relationships. In 2001, and
  even more severely in 2002, Israeli military measures in PA areas
  resulted in the destruction of much capital plant, the disruption of
  administrative structure, and widespread business closures.
  Including the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates that more than 100,000
  Palestinians out of the 125,000 who used to work in Israeli
  settlements, or in joint industrial zones, have lost their jobs.
  International aid of $2 billion to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in
  2004 prevented the complete collapse of the economy and allowed some
  reforms in the government's financial operations. In 2005, high
  unemployment and limited trade opportunities, due to continued
  closures both within the West Bank and externally, stymied growth.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $1.8 billion (2003 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $3.45 billion

GDP - real growth rate:
  6.2% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $1,100 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 9%
  industry: 28%
  services: 63%
  note: includes Gaza Strip (2002 est.)

Labor force:
  614,000 (April-June 2005)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 18.4%
  industry: 24%
  services: 57.6% (April-June 2005)

Unemployment rate:
  19.9% (includes Gaza Strip) (January-September 2005)

Population below poverty line:
  46% including Gaza Strip (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  7% (includes Gaza Strip) (2003 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $964 million
  expenditures: $1.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA;
  note - these budget data include Gaza Strip (2004)

Agriculture - products:
  olives, citrus, vegetables; beef, dairy products

Industries:
  generally small family businesses that produce cement, textiles,
  soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs; the
  Israelis have established some small-scale, modern industries in the
  settlements and industrial centers

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  NA kWh; note - most electricity imported from Israel; East
  Jerusalem Electric Company buys and distributes electricity to
  Palestinians in East Jerusalem and its concession in the West Bank;
  the Israel Electric Company directly supplies electricity to most
  Jewish residents and military facilities; some Palestinian
  municipalities, such as Nablus and Janin, generate their own
  electricity from small power plants

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  NA kWh

Electricity - imports:
  NA kWh

Exports:
  $270 million f.o.b.; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Exports - commodities:
  olives, fruit, vegetables, limestone

Exports - partners:
  Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip (2004)

Imports:
  $1.952 billion c.i.f.; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Imports - commodities:
  food, consumer goods, construction materials

Imports - partners:
  Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip (2004)

Debt - external:
  $0; note - includes Gaza Strip (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $1.14 billion; note - includes Gaza Strip (2004 est.)

Currency (code):
  new Israeli shekel (ILS); Jordanian dinar (JOD)

Currency code:
  ILS; JOD

Exchange rates:
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482 (2004),
  4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications West Bank


Telephones - main lines in use:
  357,300 (includes Gaza Strip) (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1.095 million (includes Gaza Strip) (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL
  are responsible for fixed line services in the Gaza Strip; the
  Palestinian JAWAL company provides cellular services
  international: country code - 970

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 1, FM 20, shortwave 0 (2005)

Radios:
  NA; note - most Palestinian households have radios (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  8 (2005)

Televisions:
  NA; note - many Palestinian households have televisions (1999)

Internet country code:
  .ps

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  8 (1999)

Internet users:
  243,000 (includes Gaza Strip) (2005)

Transportation West Bank


Airports:
  3 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 4,158 km
  paved: 4,158 km
  note: includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Military West Bank


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  NA

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  NA

Transnational Issues West Bank


Disputes - international:
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current status
  subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent
  status to be determined through further negotiation; Israel
  continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier along
  parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel withdrew
  from four settlements in the northern West Bank in August 2005;
  since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce Supervision
  Organization (UNTSO), headquartered in Jerusalem, monitor
  ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated
  incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the
  region

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 699,817 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA)) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Western Sahara

Introduction Western Sahara


Background:
  Morocco virtually annexed the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara
  (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976, and the rest of the territory in
  1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A guerrilla war with the
  Polisario Front contesting Rabat's sovereignty ended in a 1991
  UN-brokered cease-fire; a UN-organized referendum on final status
  has been repeatedly postponed.

Geography Western Sahara


Location:
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Mauritania and Morocco

Geographic coordinates:
  24 30 N, 13 00 W

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 266,000 sq km
  land: 266,000 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:
  about the size of Colorado

Land boundaries:
  total: 2,046 km
  border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km

Coastline:
  1,110 km

Maritime claims:
  contingent upon resolution of sovereignty issue

Climate:
  hot, dry desert; rain is rare; cold offshore air currents produce
  fog and heavy dew

Terrain:
  mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces
  rising to small mountains in south and northeast

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Sebjet Tah -55 m
  highest point: unnamed location 463 m

Natural resources:
  phosphates, iron ore

Land use:
  arable land: 0.02%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.98% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  NA

Natural hazards:
  hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind can occur during winter and
  spring; widespread harmattan haze exists 60% of time, often severely
  restricting visibility

Environment - current issues:
  sparse water and lack of arable land

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: none of the selected agreements
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  the waters off the coast are particularly rich fishing areas

People Western Sahara


Population:
  273,008 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  NA

Birth rate:
  NA births/1,000 population

Death rate:
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Sex ratio:
  NA

Infant mortality rate:
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: NA years
  male: NA years
  female: NA years

Total fertility rate:
  NA children born/woman

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Sahrawi(s), Sahraoui(s)
  adjective: Sahrawi, Sahrawian, Sahraouian

Ethnic groups:
  Arab, Berber

Religions:
  Muslim

Languages:
  Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic

Literacy:
  NA

Government Western Sahara


Country name:
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Western Sahara
  former: Spanish Sahara

Government type:
  legal status of territory and issue of sovereignty unresolved;
  territory contested by Morocco and Polisario Front (Popular Front
  for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in
  February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile of the
  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), led by President Mohamed
  ABDELAZIZ; territory partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in
  April 1976, with Morocco acquiring northern two-thirds; Mauritania,
  under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to
  its portion in August 1979; Morocco moved to occupy that sector
  shortly thereafter and has since asserted administrative control;
  the Polisario's government-in-exile was seated as an Organization of
  African Unity (OAU) member in 1984; guerrilla activities continued
  sporadically, until a UN-monitored cease-fire was implemented 6
  September 1991

Capital:
  none
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  none (under de facto control of Morocco)

Suffrage:
  none; a UN-sponsored voter identification campaign not yet completed

Executive branch:
  none

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  none

International organization participation:
  none

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  none

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  none

Economy Western Sahara


Economy - overview:
  Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing, and phosphate
  mining as the principal sources of income for the population. The
  territory lacks sufficient rainfall for sustainable agricultural
  production, and most of the food for the urban population must be
  imported. All trade and other economic activities are controlled by
  the Moroccan Government. Moroccan energy interests in 2001 signed
  contracts to explore for oil off the coast of Western Sahara, which
  has angered the Polisario. Incomes and standards of living in
  Western Sahara are substantially below the Moroccan level.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $NA

GDP (official exchange rate):
  NA

GDP - real growth rate:
  NA%

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $NA

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: 40%

Labor force:
  12,000

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 50%
  industry and services: 50%

Unemployment rate:
  NA%

Population below poverty line:
  NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  NA%

Budget:
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Agriculture - products:
  fruits and vegetables (grown in the few oases); camels, sheep,
  goats (kept by nomads); fish

Industries:
  phosphate mining, handicrafts

Industrial production growth rate:
  NA%

Electricity - production:
  85 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  83.7 million kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  1,750 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Exports:
  $NA

Exports - commodities:
  phosphates 62%

Exports - partners:
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners
  are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004)

Imports:
  $NA

Imports - commodities:
  fuel for fishing fleet, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners
  are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004)

Debt - external:
  $NA

Economic aid - recipient:
  $NA

Currency (code):
  Moroccan dirham (MAD)

Currency code:
  MAD

Exchange rates:
  Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.865 (2005), 8.868 (2004), 9.5744
  (2003), 11.0206 (2002), 11.303 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Western Sahara


Telephones - main lines in use:
  about 2,000 (1999 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  0 (1999)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: sparse and limited system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 212; tied into Morocco's system by
  microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, and satellite;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) linked to
  Rabat, Morocco

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 2, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998)

Radios:
  56,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  6,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .eh

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  NA

Transportation Western Sahara


Airports:
  11 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Ad Dakhla, Cabo Bojador, Laayoune (El Aaiun)

Military Western Sahara


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $992.2 million

Transnational Issues Western Sahara


Disputes - international:
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, whose sovereignty
  remains unresolved; UN-administered cease-fire has remained in
  effect since September 1991, administered by the UN Mission for the
  Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), but attempts to hold a
  referendum have failed and parties thus far have rejected all
  brokered proposals


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@World

Introduction World


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

Geography World


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

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

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

Land boundaries:
  the land boundaries in the world total 250,708 km (not counting
  shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia, each border
  14 other countries
  note: 44 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include:
  Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan,
  Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic,
  Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary,
  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
  Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay,
  Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland,
  Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia,
  Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly
  landlocked

Coastline:
  356,000 km
  note: 98 nations and other entities are islands that border no other
  countries, they include: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and
  Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
  Baker Island, Barbados, Bassas da India, Bermuda, Bouvet Island,
  British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde,
  Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling)
  Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Cyprus,
  Dominica, Europa Island, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe
  Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands, Glorioso Islands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard
  Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man,
  Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll,
  Juan de Nova Island, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives,
  Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated
  States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa
  Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern
  Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines,
  Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts
  and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and
  the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore,
  Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,
  Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and
  Tobago, Tromelin Island, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu,
  Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan

Maritime claims:
  a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries make
  the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline as
  described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea:
  territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive
  economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of
  continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone; boundary
  situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from
  extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200nm

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

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

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
  note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is
  the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific
  Ocean
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Natural resources:
  the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the
  depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and
  plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality
  (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose
  serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only
  beginning to address

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

Irrigated land:
  2,770,980 sq km (2003)

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

Environment - current issues:
  large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters,
  pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of
  vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of
  wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion

Geography - note:
  the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old, just
  about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the universe

People World


Population:
  6,525,170,264 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 27.4% (male 919,219,446/female 870,242,271)
  15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,152,066,888/female 2,100,334,722)
  65 years and over: 7.4% (male 213,160,216/female 270,146,721)
  note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus
  a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and
  the total for world age structure (2006 est.)

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

Population growth rate:
  1.14% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  20.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

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

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

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  NA

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

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Religions:
  Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants
  5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%), Muslims 20.12%, Hindus
  13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other religions
  12.61%, non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)

Languages:
  Mandarin Chinese 13.69%, Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%, Hindi 2.82%,
  Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%, Russian 2.27%, Japanese 1.99%,
  Standard German 1.49%, Wu Chinese 1.21% (2004 est.)
  note: percents are for "first language" speakers only

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 82%
  male: 87%
  female: 77%
  note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults
  are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh,
  Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the
  illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low
  literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West
  Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around
  one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

Government World


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

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

Economy World


Economy - overview:
  Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China (9.3%), India
  (7.6%), and Russia (5.9%). The other 14 successor nations of the
  USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely
  divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong
  performers, in the 7% range of growth. Growth results posted by the
  major industrial countries varied from no gain for Italy to a strong
  gain by the United States (3.5%). The developing nations also varied
  in their growth results, with many countries facing population
  increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the nation-state,
  as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing
  control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and
  technology. Internally, the central government often finds its
  control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements -
  typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the
  successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former
  Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada.
  Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers
  to international bodies, notably the EU. In Western Europe,
  governments face the difficult political problem of channeling
  resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment
  and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80
  million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is
  exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification,
  underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own
  internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries
  devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer
  areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view,
  are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as
  the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while
  paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic
  risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political
  differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks
  on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a further growing risk to
  global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of
  resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The
  opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq
  added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the
  coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high
  economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major
  global problems that continued into 2006.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  GWP (gross world product): $60.63 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $43.07 trillion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  4.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $9,500 (2005 est.)

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

Labor force:
  3.001 billion (2005 est.)

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

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

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 29.4% (2000 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries 5% to
  20% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in individual
  cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation in one Third
  World countries (Zimbabwe); inflation rates have declined for most
  countries for the last several years, held in check by increasing
  international competition from several low wage countries (2005 est.)

Industries:
  dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in computers,
  robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical equipment;
  most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a small
  portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly adjusting to
  these technological forces; the accelerated development of new
  industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating already
  grim environmental problems

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2003 est.)

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

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: NA
  hydro: NA
  nuclear: NA
  other: NA

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

Electricity - exports:
  537 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  545.2 billion kWh (2003)

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

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

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

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

Natural gas - consumption:
  2.675 trillion cu m (2003 est.)

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

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

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

Exports:
  $10.33 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

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

Exports - partners:
  US 15.6%, Germany 7.4%, China 5.7%, France 4.9%, UK 4.7%, Japan
  4.5% (2005)

Imports:
  $10.3 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

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

Imports - partners:
  China 9.3%, US 9%, Germany 9%, Japan 6.1%, France 4.2% (2005)

Debt - external:
  $36.89 trillion
  note: this figure is the sum total of all countries' external debt,
  both public and private (2004 est.)

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

Communications World


Telephones - main lines in use:
  1,263,367,600 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2,168,433,600 (2005)

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

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

Radios:
  NA

Television broadcast stations:
  NA

Televisions:
  NA

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  10,350 (2000 est.)

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

Transportation World


Airports:
  49,024 (2006)

Heliports:
  2,021 (2006)

Railways:
  total: 1,115,205 km
  broad gauge: 257,481 km
  standard gauge: 671,413 km
  narrow gauge: 186,311 km (2003)

Roadways:
  total: 32,345,165 km
  paved: 19,403,061 km
  unpaved: 12,942,104 km (2002)

Waterways:
  671,886 km (2004)

Merchant marine:
  total: 33,222 ships (1000 GRT or over) (2006)

Military World


Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide has increased in the
  beginning of the 21st century, with the largest increase in the US;
  a rough estimate for 2005 is $1.2 trillion (at puchasing power
  parity) (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  roughly 2% of gross world product (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues World


Disputes - international:
  stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 329 international land
  boundaries separate the 193 independent states and 73 dependencies,
  areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities;
  ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states
  into separate political entities as much as history, physical
  terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes
  arbitrary and imposed boundaries; maritime states have claimed
  limits and have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and
  joint development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide
  for national security at sea; boundary, borderland/resource, and
  territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to
  violent or militarized; most disputes over the alignment of
  political boundaries are confined to short segments and are today
  less common and less hostile than borderland, resource, and
  territorial disputes; undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and
  unmanaged boundaries, however, encourage illegal cross-border
  activities, uncontrolled migration, and confrontation; territorial
  disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they
  may be brought on by resource competition; ethnic and cultural
  clashes continue to be responsible for much of the territorial
  fragmentation around the world; disputes over islands at sea or in
  rivers frequently form the source of territorial and boundary
  conflict; other sources of contention include access to water and
  mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries, and arable
  land; nonetheless, most nations cooperate to clarify their
  international boundaries and to resolve territorial and resource
  disputes peacefully; regional discord today prevails not so much
  between the armed forces of independent states as between stateless
  armed entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare of local
  populations, leaving the community of nations to cope with resultant
  refugees, hunger, disease, impoverishment, and environmental
  degradation

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated
  that in December 2004 there was a global population of 9.2 million
  refugees, the lowest number in 25 years, and as many as 25 million
  IDPs in over 49 countries (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women
  and children, are trafficked annually across national borders, not
  including millions trafficked within their own countries; at least
  80% of the victims are female; 75% of all victims are trafficked
  into commercial sexual exploitation; roughly two-thirds of the
  global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East Asia and
  the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and Eurasia
  (170,000 to 210,000 people)

Illicit drugs:
  cocaine: worldwide coca cultivation in 2004 amounted to 166,200
  hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than two-thirds of the
  worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure cocaine
  production of 645 metric tons in 2004 marked the lowest level of
  Andean cocaine production in the past 10 years; Colombia conducts
  aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both Peruvian and Bolivian
  Governments are hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing areas; 376
  metric tons of export-quality cocaine are documented to have been
  seized in 2003, and 26 metric tons disrupted (jettisoned or
  destroyed); consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to
  have been 800 metric tons
  opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation reached 258,630
  hectares in 2004; potential opium production of 5,444 metric tons
  was highest total recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s;
  Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 91% of
  the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 7% of global
  opium - continued to diminish in importance in the world opium
  market; Latin America produced 2% of global opium, but most refined
  into heroin destined for United States; if all opium processed into
  pure heroin, the potential global production would be 632 metric
  tons of heroin in 2004


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Yemen

Introduction Yemen


Background:
  North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The
  British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port
  of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South
  Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist
  orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis
  from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility
  between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the
  Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994
  was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a
  delimitation of their border.

Geography Yemen


Location:
  Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea,
  between Oman and Saudi Arabia

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 N, 48 00 E

Map references:
  Middle East

Area:
  total: 527,970 sq km
  land: 527,970 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR
  or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of
  Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen)

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

Land boundaries:
  total: 1,746 km
  border countries: Oman 288 km, Saudi Arabia 1,458 km

Coastline:
  1,906 km

Maritime claims:
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Climate:
  mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western
  mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry,
  harsh desert in east

Terrain:
  narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged
  mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the
  desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb 3,760 m

Natural resources:
  petroleum, fish, rock salt, marble; small deposits of coal, gold,
  lead, nickel, and copper; fertile soil in west

Land use:
  arable land: 2.91%
  permanent crops: 0.25%
  other: 96.84% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  5,500 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  sandstorms and dust storms in summer

Environment - current issues:
  very limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of
  potable water; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  strategic location on Bab el Mandeb, the strait linking the Red Sea
  and the Gulf of Aden, one of world's most active shipping lanes

People Yemen


Population:
  21,456,188 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.4% (male 5,067,762/female 4,881,333)
  15-64 years: 51% (male 5,568,078/female 5,375,263)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 275,878/female 287,874) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.6 years
  female: 16.6 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  3.46% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  42.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  8.3 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 59.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 64.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 62.12 years
  male: 60.23 years
  female: 64.11 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  12,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  NA

Nationality:
  noun: Yemeni(s)
  adjective: Yemeni

Ethnic groups:
  predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asians, Europeans

Religions:
  Muslim including Shaf'i (Sunni) and Zaydi (Shi'a), small numbers of
  Jewish, Christian, and Hindu

Languages:
  Arabic

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50.2%
  male: 70.5%
  female: 30% (2003 est.)

Government Yemen


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Yemen
  conventional short form: Yemen
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
  local short form: Al Yaman
  former: Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and
  People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Sanaa
  geographic coordinates: 15 21 N, 44 12 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  19 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Abyan, 'Adan, Ad
  Dali', Al Bayda', Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit,
  'Amran, Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib, Sa'dah,
  San'a', Shabwah, Ta'izz
  note: for electoral and administrative purposes, the capital city of
  Sanaa is treated as an additional governorate

Independence:
  22 May 1990 (Republic of Yemen established with the merger of the
  Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and the
  Marxist-dominated People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen
  (Aden) or South Yemen]); note - previously North Yemen had become
  independent in November of 1918 (from the Ottoman Empire) and South
  Yemen had become independent on 30 November 1967 (from the UK)

National holiday:
  Unification Day, 22 May (1990)

Constitution:
  16 May 1991; amended 29 September 1994 and February 2001

Legal system:
  based on Islamic law, Turkish law, English common law, and local
  tribal customary law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Ali Abdallah SALIH (since 22 May 1990,
  the former president of North Yemen, assumed office upon the merger
  of North and South Yemen); Vice President Maj. Gen. Abd al-Rab
  Mansur al-HADI (since 3 October 1994)
  head of government: Prime Minister Abd al-Qadir BA JAMAL; Deputy
  Prime Ministers Rashid Muhammad al-ALIMI, Alawi Salah al-SALAMI,
  Ahmad Muhammad Abdallah al-SUFAN
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  advice of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term;
  election last held 20 September 2006 (next to be held September
  2013); vice president appointed by the president; prime minister and
  deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Ali Abdallah SALIH elected president; percent of
  vote - Ali Abdallah SALIH 77.2%, Faisal bin SHAMLAN 21.8%

Legislative branch:
  a new constitutional amendment ratified on 20 February 2001 created
  a bicameral legislature consisting of a Shura Council (111 seats;
  members appointed by the president) and a House of Representatives
  (301 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 April 2003 (next to be held in April 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  GPC 228, Islah 47, YSP 7, Nasserite Unionist Party 3, National Arab
  Socialist Ba'th Party 2, independents 14

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:
  there are more than 12 political parties active in Yemen, some of
  the more prominent are: General People's Congress or GPC [President
  Ali Abdallah SALIH]; Islamic Reform Grouping or Islah [Shaykh
  Abdallah bin Husayn al-AHMAR]; Nasserite Unionist Party [Abdal Malik
  al-MAKHLAFI]; National Arab Socialist Ba'th Party [Dr. Qasim SALAM];
  Yemeni Socialist Party or YSP [Ali Salih MUQBIL]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory),
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAS
  (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abd al-Wahab Abdallah al-HAJRI
  chancery: 2319 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 965-4760
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-2017

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas C. KRAJESKI
  embassy: Sa'awan Street, Sanaa
  mailing address: P. O. Box 22347, Sanaa
  telephone: [967] (1) 755-2000 ext. 2153 or 2266
  FAX: [967] (1) 303-182

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black;
  similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars, and of
  Iraq, which has three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription), in a
  horizontal line centered in the white band; also similar to the flag
  of Egypt, which has a heraldic eagle centered in the white band

Economy Yemen


Economy - overview:
  Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, has reported
  meager growth since 2000. Its economic fortunes depend mostly on
  oil. Oil revenues increased in 2005 due to higher prices. Yemen was
  on an IMF-supported structural adjustment program designed to
  modernize and streamline the economy, which led to substantial
  foreign debt relief and restructuring. However, government
  dedication to the program waned in 2001 for political reasons. Yemen
  is struggling to control excessive spending and rampant corruption.
  The people have grown increasingly upset over the economic
  situation. In July 2005, a reduction in fuel subsidies sparked
  riots; over 20 Yemenis were killed and hundreds were injured.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $19.36 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $14.34 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  2.8% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 13.5%
  industry: 47.2%
  services: 39.3% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  5.83 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  note: most people are employed in agriculture and herding;
  services, construction, industry, and commerce account for less than
  one-fourth of the labor force

Unemployment rate:
  35% (2003 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  45.2% (2003)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 25.9% (2003)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  33.4 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $5.616 billion
  expenditures: $5.719 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  34.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  grain, fruits, vegetables, pulses, qat, coffee, cotton; dairy
  products, livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, camels), poultry; fish

Industries:
  crude oil production and petroleum refining; small-scale production
  of cotton textiles and leather goods; food processing; handicrafts;
  small aluminum products factory; cement; commercial ship repair

Industrial production growth rate:
  3% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production:
  3.848 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 100%
  hydro: 0%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  2.827 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  387,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  80,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  370,300 bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  4.37 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  478.6 billion cu m (2005)

Current account balance:
  $1.224 billion (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $6.387 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  crude oil, coffee, dried and salted fish

Exports - partners:
  China 36.5%, Chile 19.2%, Thailand 12.5%, Japan 5.4%, South Korea
  4.4%, US 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $4.19 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  food and live animals, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Imports - partners:
  UAE 14.6%, Saudi Arabia 11.6%, China 9.1%, Kuwait 5%, India 4.5%
  (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $6.143 billion (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.347 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $2.3 billion (2003-07 disbursements)

Currency (code):
  Yemeni rial (YER)

Currency code:
  YER

Exchange rates:
  Yemeni rials per US dollar - 192.67 (2005), 184.78 (2004), 183.45
  (2003), 175.63 (2002), 168.67 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Yemen


Telephones - main lines in use:
  798,100 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  2 million (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: since unification in 1990, efforts have been
  made to create a national telecommunications network
  domestic: the national network consists of microwave radio relay,
  cable, tropospheric scatter, and GSM cellular mobile telephone
  systems
  international: country code - 967; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (2 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region), and 2 Arabsat; microwave radio relay to
  Saudi Arabia and Djibouti

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 6, FM 1, shortwave 2 (1998)

Radios:
  1.05 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  7 (plus several low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
  470,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .ye

Internet hosts:
  171 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  1 (2000)

Internet users:
  220,000 (2005)

Transportation Yemen


Airports:
  46 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 30
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Pipelines:
  gas 71 km; liquid petroleum gas 22 km; oil 1,284 km (2006)

Roadways:
  total: 71,300 km
  paved: 6,200 km
  unpaved: 65,100 km (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 15,400 GRT/18,072 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll
  on/roll off 1
  registered in other countries: 9 (Bolivia 1, Cambodia 3, North Korea
  2, Panama 3) (2006)

Ports and terminals:
  Aden, Nishtun

Military Yemen


Military branches:
  Army (includes Special Forces), Navy (includes Marines), Unified
  Yemen Air Force (includes Air Defense Force) (2006)

Military service age and obligation:
  in May 2001, Yemen's National Defense Council abolished compulsory
  military service and authorized a voluntary program for military
  service (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 4,058,223
  females age 18-49: 3,868,112 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,790,705
  females age 18-49: 2,792,406 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males age 18-49: 236,517
  females age 18-49: 230,641 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $992.2 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Military - note:
  a Coast Guard was established in 2002

Transnational Issues Yemen


Disputes - international:
  Yemen protests Eritrea fishing around the Hanish Islands awarded to
  Yemen by the ICJ in 1999; Saudi Arabia still maintains the
  concrete-filled pipe as a security barrier along sections of the
  border with Yemen in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities;
  Yemen protests Saudi erection of a concrete-filled pipe as a
  security barrier in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities in
  sections of the boundary

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 63,511 (Somalia) (2005)


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Zambia

Introduction Zambia


Background:
  The territory of Northern Rhodesia was administered by the
  [British] South Africa Company from 1891 until it was taken over by
  the UK in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s, advances in mining
  spurred development and immigration. The name was changed to Zambia
  upon independence in 1964. In the 1980s and 1990s, declining copper
  prices and a prolonged drought hurt the economy. Elections in 1991
  brought an end to one-party rule, but the subsequent vote in 1996
  saw blatant harassment of opposition parties. The election in 2001
  was marked by administrative problems with three parties filing a
  legal petition challenging the election of ruling party candidate
  Levy MWANAWASA. The new president launched an anti-corruption
  campaign in 2002, which resulted in the prosecution of former
  President Frederick CHILUBA and some officials of his administration.

Geography Zambia


Location:
  Southern Africa, east of Angola

Geographic coordinates:
  15 00 S, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 752,614 sq km
  land: 740,724 sq km
  water: 11,890 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Texas

Land boundaries:
  total: 5,664 km
  border countries: Angola 1,110 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  1,930 km, Malawi 837 km, Mozambique 419 km, Namibia 233 km, Tanzania
  338 km, Zimbabwe 797 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical; modified by altitude; rainy season (October to April)

Terrain:
  mostly high plateau with some hills and mountains

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Zambezi river 329 m
  highest point: unnamed location in Mafinga Hills 2,301 m

Natural resources:
  copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, coal, emeralds, gold, silver, uranium,
  hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 6.99%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 92.97% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,560 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  periodic drought, tropical storms (November to April)

Environment - current issues:
  air pollution and resulting acid rain in the mineral extraction and
  refining region; chemical runoff into watersheds; poaching seriously
  threatens rhinoceros, elephant, antelope, and large cat populations;
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; lack of adequate water
  treatment presents human health risks

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Geography - note:
  landlocked; the Zambezi forms a natural riverine boundary with
  Zimbabwe

People Zambia


Population:
  11,502,010
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 46.3% (male 2,673,891/female 2,656,268)
  15-64 years: 51.3% (male 2,925,910/female 2,969,324)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 117,877/female 158,740) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.3 years
  female: 16.7 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  2.11% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  19.93 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 86.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 94.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 79.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 40.03 years
  male: 39.76 years
  female: 40.31 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  16.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  920,000 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  89,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Zambian(s)
  adjective: Zambian

Ethnic groups:
  African 98.7%, European 1.1%, other 0.2%

Religions:
  Christian 50%-75%, Muslim and Hindu 24%-49%, indigenous beliefs 1%

Languages:
  English (official), major vernaculars - Bemba, Kaonda, Lozi, Lunda,
  Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and about 70 other indigenous languages

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English
  total population: 80.6%
  male: 86.8%
  female: 74.8% (2003 est.)

Government Zambia


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Zambia
  conventional short form: Zambia
  former: Northern Rhodesia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  name: Lusaka
  geographic coordinates: 15 25 S, 28 17 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  9 provinces; Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Luapula, Lusaka,
  Northern, North-Western, Southern, Western

Independence:
  24 October 1964 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 24 October (1964)

Constitution:
  24 August 1991; amended in 1996 to establish presidential term
  limits

Legal system:
  based on English common law and customary law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in an ad hoc constitutional council; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Levy MWANAWASA (since 2 January 2002);
  Vice President Rupiah BANDA (since 9 October 2006); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Levy MWANAWASA (since 2 January 2002);
  Vice President Rupiah BANDA (since 9 October 2006); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 28 September 2006
  (next to be held 2011); vice president appointed by the president
  election results: Levy MWANAWASA reelected president; percent of
  vote - Levy MWANAWASA 43.0%, Michael SATA 29.4%, Hakainde HICHILEMA
  25.3%, Godfrey MIYANDA 1.6%, Winright NGONDO 0.8%

Legislative branch:
  unicameral National Assembly (158 seats; 150 members are elected by
  popular vote, eight members are appointed by the president, to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 December 2001 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MMD 45.9%, UPND 32.4%,
  UNIP 8.8%, FDD 8.1%, HP 2.7%, PF 0.7%, ZRP 0.7%, independents 0.7%;
  seats by party - MMD 68, UPND 48, UNIP 13, FDD 12, HP 4, PF 1, ZRP
  1, independents 1; seats not determined 2

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court (the final court of appeal; justices are appointed by
  the president); High Court (has unlimited jurisdiction to hear civil
  and criminal cases)

Political parties and leaders:
  Agenda for Zambia or AZ [Inonge MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA]; Forum for
  Democracy and Development or FDD [Christon TEMBO]; Heritage Party or
  HP [Godfrey MIYANDA]; Liberal Progressive Front or LPF [Roger
  CHONGWE, president]; Movement for Multiparty Democracy or MMD [Levy
  MWANAWASA, acting president]; National Leadership for Development or
  NLD [Yobert SHAMAPANDE]; National Party or NP [Dr. Sam CHIPUNGU];
  Patriotic Front or PF [Michael SATA]; Social Democratic Party or SDP
  [Gwendoline KONIE]; United National Independence Party or UNIP
  [Francis NKHOMA, president]; United Party for National Development
  or UPND [Anderson MAZOKA]; Zambian Republican Party or ZRP [Benjamin
  MWILA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  NA

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Inonge MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA
  chancery: 2419 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-9717 through 9719
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-0826

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carmen M. MARTINEZ
  embassy: corner of Independence and United Nations Avenues, Lusaka
  mailing address: P. O. Box 31617, Lusaka
  telephone: [260] (1) 250-955
  FAX: [260] (1) 252-225

Flag description:
  green with a panel of three vertical bands of red (hoist side),
  black, and orange below a soaring orange eagle, on the outer edge of
  the flag

Economy Zambia


Economy - overview:
  Despite progress in privatization and budgetary reform, Zambia's
  economic growth remains somewhat below the 6%-7% needed to reduce
  poverty significantly. Privatization of government-owned copper
  mines relieved the government from covering mammoth losses generated
  by the industry and greatly improved the chances for copper mining
  to return to profitability and spur economic growth. Copper output
  has increased steadily since 2004, due to higher copper prices and
  the opening of new mines. The maize harvest was again good in 2005,
  helping boost GDP and agricultural exports. Cooperation continues
  with international bodies on programs to reduce poverty, including a
  new lending arrangement with the IMF in the second quarter of 2004.
  A tighter monetary policy will help cut inflation, but Zambia still
  has a serious problem with high public debt.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $10.63 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $5.351 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  5% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $900 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 22%
  industry: 29%
  services: 48.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.8 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 85%
  industry: 6%
  services: 9%

Unemployment rate:
  50% (2000 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  86% (1993)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 41% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  52.6 (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  18.3% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  27.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.688 billion
  expenditures: $1.866 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  71.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, sorghum, rice, peanuts, sunflower seed, vegetables, flowers,
  tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), coffee; cattle,
  goats, pigs, poultry, milk, eggs, hides

Industries:
  copper mining and processing, construction, foodstuffs, beverages,
  chemicals, textiles, fertilizer, horticulture

Industrial production growth rate:
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  8.347 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 0.5%
  hydro: 99.5%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  5.345 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  2 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  0 kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  12,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-420 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.947 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  copper/cobalt 64%, cobalt, electricity; tobacco, flowers, cotton

Exports - partners:
  Switzerland 28.7%, South Africa 18.6%, UK 14.4%, Democratic
  Republic of the Congo 5.4%, Tanzania 5.1%, Zimbabwe 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $1.934 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products,
  electricity, fertilizer; foodstuffs, clothing

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 47.6%, UK 12.6%, Zimbabwe 4.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $559.8 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $4.641 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $640.6 million (2002)

Currency (code):
  Zambian kwacha (ZMK)

Currency code:
  ZMK

Exchange rates:
  Zambian kwacha per US dollar - 4,463.5 (2005), 4,778.9 (2004),
  4,733.3 (2003), 4,398.6 (2002), 3,610.9 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Zambia


Telephones - main lines in use:
  94,700 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  946,600 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: facilities are aging but still among the best
  in Sub-Saharan Africa
  domestic: high-capacity microwave radio relay connects most larger
  towns and cities; several cellular telephone services in operation;
  Internet service is widely available; very small aperture terminal
  (VSAT) networks are operated by private firms
  international: country code - 260; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 19, FM 5, shortwave 4 (2001)

Radios:
  1.2 million (2001)

Television broadcast stations:
  9 (2002)

Televisions:
  277,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .zm

Internet hosts:
  3,227 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  5 (2001)

Internet users:
  231,000 (2005)

Transportation Zambia


Airports:
  111 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 10
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 101
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 64
  under 914 m: 32 (2006)

Pipelines:
  oil 771 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 2,173 km
  narrow gauge: 2,173 km 1.067-m gauge
  note: includes 891 km of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority
  (TAZARA) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 91,440 km
  paved: 20,117 km
  unpaved: 71,323 km (2001)

Waterways:
  2,250 km (includes Lake Tanganyika and the Zambezi and Luapula
  rivers) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Mpulungu

Military Zambia


Military branches:
  Zambian National Defense Force (ZNDF): Army, Air Force, Police,
  National Service

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,219,739
  females age 18-49: 2,159,688 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,043,702
  females age 18-49: 953,328 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $121.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Zambia


Disputes - international:
  in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana and
  Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto
  recognizing a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambia
  boundary in the river

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  refugees (country of origin): 88,842 (Angola) 66,248 (Democratic
  Republic of the Congo) 5,791 (Rwanda) (2005)

Illicit drugs:
  transshipment point for moderate amounts of methaqualone, small
  amounts of heroin, and cocaine bound for Southern Africa and
  possibly Europe; a poorly developed financial infrastructure coupled
  with a government commitment to combating money laundering make it
  an unattractive venue for money launderers


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@Zimbabwe

Introduction Zimbabwe


Background:
  The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South Africa
  Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored
  whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its
  independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more
  complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country
  (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising
  finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe)
  in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been
  the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated
  the country's political system since independence. His chaotic land
  redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of
  white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread
  shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international condemnation,
  MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his
  reelection. Opposition and labor strikes in 2003 were unsuccessful
  in pressuring MUGABE to retire early; security forces continued
  their brutal repression of regime opponents. The ruling ZANU-PF
  party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in
  the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the
  constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been
  abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on
  Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization
  program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or
  businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition,
  according to UN estimates.

Geography Zimbabwe


Location:
  Southern Africa, between South Africa and Zambia

Geographic coordinates:
  20 00 S, 30 00 E

Map references:
  Africa

Area:
  total: 390,580 sq km
  land: 386,670 sq km
  water: 3,910 sq km

Area - comparative:
  slightly larger than Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 3,066 km
  border countries: Botswana 813 km, Mozambique 1,231 km, South Africa
  225 km, Zambia 797 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  tropical; moderated by altitude; rainy season (November to March)

Terrain:
  mostly high plateau with higher central plateau (high veld);
  mountains in east

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: junction of the Runde and Save rivers 162 m
  highest point: Inyangani 2,592 m

Natural resources:
  coal, chromium ore, asbestos, gold, nickel, copper, iron ore,
  vanadium, lithium, tin, platinum group metals

Land use:
  arable land: 8.24%
  permanent crops: 0.33%
  other: 91.43% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,740 sq km (2003)

Natural hazards:
  recurring droughts; floods and severe storms are rare

Environment - current issues:
  deforestation; soil erosion; land degradation; air and water
  pollution; the black rhinoceros herd - once the largest
  concentration of the species in the world - has been significantly
  reduced by poaching; poor mining practices have led to toxic waste
  and heavy metal pollution

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note:
  landlocked; the Zambezi forms a natural riverine boundary with
  Zambia; in full flood (February-April) the massive Victoria Falls on
  the river forms the world's largest curtain of falling water

People Zimbabwe


Population:
  12,236,805
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 37.4% (male 2,307,170/female 2,265,298)
  15-64 years: 59.1% (male 3,616,528/female 3,621,190)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 199,468/female 227,151) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 19.9 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  0.62% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  28.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  21.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 51.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 39.29 years
  male: 40.39 years
  female: 38.16 years (2006 est.)

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

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  24.6% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  1.8 million (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  170,000 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases:
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Nationality:
  noun: Zimbabwean(s)
  adjective: Zimbabwean

Ethnic groups:
  African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%), mixed and Asian 1%,
  white less than 1%

Religions:
  syncretic (part Christian, part indigenous beliefs) 50%, Christian
  25%, indigenous beliefs 24%, Muslim and other 1%

Languages:
  English (official), Shona, Sindebele (the language of the Ndebele,
  sometimes called Ndebele), numerous but minor tribal dialects

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English
  total population: 90.7%
  male: 94.2%
  female: 87.2% (2003 est.)

Government Zimbabwe


Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Zimbabwe
  conventional short form: Zimbabwe
  former: Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia

Government type:
  parliamentary democracy

Capital:
  name: Harare
  geographic coordinates: 17 50 S, 31 03 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Administrative divisions:
  8 provinces and 2 cities* with provincial status; Bulawayo*,
  Harare*, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East,
  Mashonaland West, Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South,
  Midlands

Independence:
  18 April 1980 (from UK)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 18 April (1980)

Constitution:
  21 December 1979

Legal system:
  mixture of Roman-Dutch and English common law

Suffrage:
  18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
  chief of state: Executive President Robert Gabriel MUGABE (since 31
  December 1987); Vice President Joseph MSIKA (since December 1999)
  and Vice President Joyce MUJURU (since 6 December 2004); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: Executive President Robert Gabriel MUGABE (since
  31 December 1987); Vice President Joseph MSIKA (since December 1999)
  and Vice President Joyce MUJURU (since 6 December 2004); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; responsible to the
  House of Assembly
  elections: presidential candidates nominated with a nomination paper
  signed by at least 10 registered voters (at least one from each
  province) and elected by popular vote for a six-year term (no term
  limits); election last held 9-11 March 2002 (next to be held March
  2008); co-vice presidents appointed by the president
  election results: Robert Gabriel MUGABE reelected president; percent
  of vote - Robert Gabriel MUGABE 56.2%, Morgan TSVANGIRAI 41.9%

Legislative branch:
  bicameral Parliament consists of a House of Assembly (150 seats -
  120 elected by popular vote for five-year terms, 12 nominated by the
  president, 10 occupied by traditional chiefs chosen by their peers,
  and eight occupied by provincial governors appointed by the
  president) and a Senate (66 seats - 50 elected by popular vote for a
  five-year term, six nominated by the president, 10 nominated by the
  Council of Chiefs)
  elections: House of Assembly last held 31 March 2005 (next to be
  held in 2010), Senate last held 26 November 2005 (next to be held in
  2010)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  ZANU-PF 59.6%, MDC 39.5%, other 0.9%; seats by party - ZANU-PF 78,
  MDC 41, independents 1; Senate - percent of vote by party - ZANU-PF
  73.7%, MDC 20.3%, other 4.4%, independents 1.6%; seats by party -
  ZANU-PF 43, MDC 7

Judicial branch:
  Supreme Court; High Court

Political parties and leaders:
  African National Party or ANP; Movement for Democratic Change or
  MDC [Morgan TSVANGIRAI]; Peace Action is Freedom for All or PAFA;
  United Parties [Abel MUZOREWA]; United People's Party [Daniel
  SHUMBA]; Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga or ZANU-Ndonga
  [Wilson KUMBULA]; Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front or
  ZANU-PF [Robert Gabriel MUGABE]; Zimbabwe African Peoples Union or
  ZAPU [Agrippa MADLELA]; Zimbabwe Youth in Alliance or ZIYA

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition [Wellington CHIBEBE]; National
  Constitutional Assembly or NCA [Lovemore MADHUKU]; Zimbabwe Congress
  of Trade Unions or ZCTU [Lovemore MATOMBO]

International organization participation:
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dr. Machivenyika T. MAPURANGA
  chancery: 1608 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-7100
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-9326

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christopher W. DELL
  embassy: 172 Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Harare
  mailing address: P. O. Box 3340, Harare
  telephone: [263] (4) 250-593 and 250-594
  FAX: [263] (4) 796-488

Flag description:
  seven equal horizontal bands of green, yellow, red, black, red,
  yellow, and green with a white isosceles triangle edged in black
  with its base on the hoist side; a yellow Zimbabwe bird representing
  the long history of the country is superimposed on a red
  five-pointed star in the center of the triangle, which symbolizes
  peace; green symbolizes agriculture, yellow - mineral wealth, red -
  blood shed to achieve independence, and black stands for the native
  people

Economy Zimbabwe


Economy - overview:
  The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult
  economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal
  deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and bare
  shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic
  Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of
  dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been
  suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans, which
  it began repaying in 2005. The official annual inflation rate rose
  from 32% in 1998, to 133% at the end of 2004, and 585% at the end of
  2005, although private sector estimates put the figure much higher.
  Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean
  dollars per US dollar in 1998 to 96,000 in mid-January 2006. The
  government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and
  violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the
  traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider
  of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food
  products.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $25.69 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $3.207 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  -7.7% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 17.9%
  industry: 24.3%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  3.94 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture: 66%
  industry: 10%
  services: 24% (1996)

Unemployment rate:
  80% (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  80% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 40.4% (1995)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  56.8 (2003)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  266.8% official data; private sector estimates are much higher
  (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  7.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $1.409 billion
  expenditures: $1.905 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Public debt:
  109.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep,
  goats, pigs

Industries:
  mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous
  metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel; wood products, cement,
  chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages

Industrial production growth rate:
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Electricity - production:
  8.877 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - production by source:
  fossil fuel: 47%
  hydro: 53%
  nuclear: 0%
  other: 0% (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
  11.22 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  3.3 billion kWh (2003)

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

Oil - consumption:
  22,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  0 bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  23,000 bbl/day

Natural gas - production:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Current account balance:
  $-519 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $1.644 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing

Exports - partners:
  South Africa 32.8%, China 7.4%, Japan 6.3%, Zambia 5.2%,
  Netherlands 5%, US 4.6%, Italy 4.2%, Germany 4.1% (2005)

Imports:
  $2.059 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures, chemicals,
  fuels

Imports - partners:
  South Africa 42.9%, China 4.6%, Botswana 3.3% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $160 million (2005 est.)

Debt - external:
  $5.216 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $178 million; note - the EU and the US provide food aid on
  humanitarian grounds (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
  Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD)

Currency code:
  ZWD

Exchange rates:
  Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar - 4,303.28 (2005), 5,068.66
  (2004), 697.424 (2003), 55.036 (2002), 55.052 (2001)
  note: these are official exchange rates; non-official rates vary
  significantly

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

Communications Zimbabwe


Telephones - main lines in use:
  328,000 (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  699,000 (2005)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: system was once one of the best in Africa, but
  now suffers from poor maintenance; more than 100,000 outstanding
  requests for connection despite an equally large number of installed
  but unused main lines
  domestic: consists of microwave radio relay links, open-wire lines,
  radiotelephone communication stations, fixed wireless local loop
  installations, and a substantial mobile cellular network; Internet
  connection is available in Harare and planned for all major towns
  and for some of the smaller ones
  international: country code - 263; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat; two international digital gateway exchanges (in Harare and
  Gweru)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 7, FM 20 (plus 17 repeater stations), shortwave 1 (1998)

Radios:
  1.14 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
  16 (1997)

Televisions:
  370,000 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .zw

Internet hosts:
  7,954 (2006)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
  6 (2000)

Internet users:
  1 million (2005)

Transportation Zimbabwe


Airports:
  403 (2006)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 8 (2006)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 386
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 187
  under 914 m: 194 (2006)

Pipelines:
  refined products 261 km (2006)

Railways:
  total: 3,077 km
  narrow gauge: 3,077 km 1.067-m gauge (313 km electrified) (2005)

Roadways:
  total: 97,440 km
  paved: 18,514 km
  unpaved: 78,926 km (2002)

Waterways:
  on Lake Kariba, length small (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Binga, Kariba

Military Zimbabwe


Military branches:
  Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF): Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force of
  Zimbabwe (AFZ), Zimbabwe Republic Police (2005)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 2,778,404
  females age 18-49: 2,681,531 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,304,424
  females age 18-49: 1,115,096 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $124.7 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  4% (2005 est.)

Transnational Issues Zimbabwe


Disputes - international:
  Botswana has built electric fences and South Africa has placed
  military along the border to stem the flow of thousands of
  Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political persecution;
  Namibia has supported and in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to
  plans between Botswana and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi
  River, thereby de facto recognizing a short, but not clearly
  delimited Botswana-Zambia boundary in the river

Refugees and internally displaced persons:
  IDPs: 400,000-450,000 (MUGABE-led political violence, human rights
  violations, land reform, and economic collapse) (2005)

Trafficking in persons:
  current situation: Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women and children trafficked for forced labor and
  sexual exploitation; children may be trafficked internally for
  forced agricultural labor, domestic servitude, and sexual
  exploitation; women and girls are lured out of the country to South
  Africa, China, Egypt, and Zambia with false job or scholarship
  promises that result in domestic servitude or commercial sexual
  exploitation; there are reports of South African employers demanding
  sex from undocumented Zimbabwean workers under threat of
  deportation; women and children from Malawi, Zambia, and the
  Democratic Republic of the Congo transit Zimbabwe en route to South
  Africa; small numbers of South African girls are trafficked to
  Zimbabwe for domestic labor
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Zimbabwe does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

Illicit drugs:
  transit point for African cannabis and South Asian heroin, mandrax,
  and methamphetamines destined for the South African and European
  markets


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006





======================================================================




@2001  GDP (purchasing power parity)


Afghanistan
  $21.5 billion (2004 est.)

Albania
  $18.87 billion
  note: Albania has a large gray economy that may be as large as 50%
  of official GDP (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $235.5 billion (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $510.1 million (2003 est.)

Andorra
  $1.84 billion (2004)

Angola
  $45.32 billion (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $108.9 million (2004 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $750 million (2002 est.)

Argentina
  $543.4 billion (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $14.45 billion (2005 est.)

Aruba
  $2.258 billion (2005 est.)

Australia
  $635.5 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $265.8 billion (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $42.99 billion (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $6.105 billion (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  $15.9 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $305.9 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $4.815 billion (2005 est.)

Belarus
  $73.09 billion (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $322.3 billion (2005 est.)

Belize
  $1.778 billion (2004 est.)

Benin
  $8.419 billion (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  $4.5 billion (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  $2.9 billion (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  $25.82 billion (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $23.09 billion
  note: Bosnia has a large informal sector that could also be as much
  as 50% of official GDP (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $17.53 billion (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $1.536 trillion (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $853.4 million (2004 est.)

Brunei
  $6.842 billion (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  $71.67 billion (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  $16.66 billion (2005 est.)

Burma
  $80.11 billion (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $5.404 billion (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $34.08 billion (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $39.75 billion (2005 est.)

Canada
  $1.111 trillion (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $2.99 billion (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  $1.939 billion (2004 est.)

Central African Republic
  $4.677 billion (2005 est.)

Chad
  $13.98 billion (2005 est.)

Chile
  $189.9 billion (2005 est.)

China
  $8.883 trillion (2005 est.)

Christmas Island
  $NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  $NA

Colombia
  $341.1 billion (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $441 million (2002 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $40.67 billion (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $4.585 billion (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $183.2 million (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  $45.67 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $27.58 billion (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $55.79 billion (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $40.06 billion (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $16.81 billion; north Cyprus: $4.54
  billion (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  $204.4 billion (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $189.3 billion (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  $619 million (2002 est.)

Dominica
  $384 million (2003 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $67.44 billion (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $370 million (2004 est.)

Ecuador
  $57.23 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $304.3 billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $31.3 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $25.69 billion (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $4.471 billion (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $23.34 billion (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $64.73 billion (2005 est.)

European Union
  $12.18 trillion (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $75 million (2002 est.)

Faroe Islands
  $1 billion (2001 est.)

Fiji
  $5.255 billion (2005 est.)

Finland
  $161.9 billion (2005 est.)

France
  $1.794 trillion (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  $1.551 billion (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  $4.58 billion (2003 est.)

Gabon
  $9.739 billion (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $3.034 billion (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  $768 million (2003 est.)

Georgia
  $16.03 billion (2005 est.)

Germany
  $2.48 trillion (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $54.86 billion (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  $769 million (2000 est.)

Greece
  $238.2 billion (2005 est.)

Greenland
  $1.1 billion (2001 est.)

Grenada
  $440 million (2002 est.)

Guadeloupe
  $3.513 billion (2003 est.)

Guam
  $2.5 billion (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  $56.86 billion (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  $2.59 billion (2003 est.)

Guinea
  $18.65 billion (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $1.171 billion (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $3.439 billion (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $13.97 billion (2005 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  $NA

Honduras
  $20.61 billion (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $234.3 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $163.1 billion (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $10.59 billion (2005 est.)

India
  $3.666 trillion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $869.7 billion (2005 est.)

Iran
  $569.9 billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $94.1 billion (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $165.1 billion (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  $2.113 billion (2003 est.)

Israel
  $156.9 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $1.667 trillion (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $12.18 billion (2005 est.)

Japan
  $4.025 trillion (2005 est.)

Jersey
  $3.6 billion (2003 est.)

Jordan
  $26.85 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $125.3 billion (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $37.89 billion (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $142.9 million
  note: supplemented by a nearly equal amount from external sources
  (2004 est.)

Korea, North
  $40 billion
  note: North Korea does not publish any reliable National Income
  Accounts data; the datum shown here is derived from purchasing power
  parity (PPP) GDP estimates for North Korea that were made by Angus
  Maddison in a study conducted for the OECD; his figure for 1999 was
  extrapolated to 2005 using estimated real growth rates for North
  Korea's GDP and an inflation factor based on the US GDP deflator;
  the result was rounded to the nearest $10 billion (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  $1.101 trillion (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $47.36 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $10.08 billion (2005 est.)

Laos
  $12.29 billion (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $31.46 billion (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $22.78 billion (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $5.008 billion (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $2.643 billion (2005 est.)

Libya
  $68 billion (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $1.786 billion (2001 est.)

Lithuania
  $49.41 billion (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  $30.9 billion (2005 est.)

Macau
  $10 billion (2004)

Macedonia
  $15.94 billion
  note: Macedonia has a large informal sector (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $16.05 billion (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $7.364 billion (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $287 billion (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $1.25 billion (2002 est.)

Mali
  $13.61 billion (2005 est.)

Malta
  $7.861 billion (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  $115 million (2001 est.)

Martinique
  $6.117 billion (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  $6.901 billion (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $15.73 billion (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  $466.8 million (2003 est.)

Mexico
  $1.064 trillion (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $277 million; note - supplemented by
  grant aid, averaging perhaps $100 million annually (2002 est.)

Moldova
  $8.41 billion (2005 est.)

Monaco
  $870 million
  note: Monaco does not publish national income figures; the estimates
  are extremely rough (2000 est.)

Mongolia
  $5.272 billion (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  $2.412 billion (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  $29 million (2002 est.)

Morocco
  $135.1 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $26.18 billion (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $14.16 billion (2005 est.)

Nauru
  $60 million (2005 est.)

Nepal
  $39.14 billion (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $497.9 billion (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  $2.8 billion (2004 est.)

New Caledonia
  $3.158 billion (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  $102 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $16.1 billion (2005 est.)

Niger
  $11.59 billion (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $175.5 billion (2005 est.)

Niue
  $7.6 million (2000 est.)

Norfolk Island
  $NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  $900 million
  note: GDP estimate includes US subsidy (2000 est.)

Norway
  $196.4 billion (2005 est.)

Oman
  $40.39 billion (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $395.2 billion (2005 est.)

Palau
  $124.5 million; note - includes US subsidy (2004 est.)

Panama
  $23.33 billion (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $14.37 billion (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $29.11 billion (2005 est.)

Peru
  $167.3 billion (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $412.5 billion (2005 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  $NA

Poland
  $505.2 billion (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $200.6 billion (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  $73.27 billion (2005 est.)

Qatar
  $24.46 billion (2005 est.)

Reunion
  $4.79 billion (2005 est.)

Romania
  $181.8 billion (2005 est.)

Russia
  $1.584 trillion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $12.54 billion (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  $18 million (1998 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $339 million (2002 est.)

Saint Lucia
  $866 million (2002 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  $48.3 million
  note: supplemented by annual payments from France of about $60
  million (2003 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $342 million (2002 est.)

Samoa
  $1 billion (2002 est.)

San Marino
  $940 million (2001 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  $214 million (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $346.3 billion (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $20.57 billion (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $41.15 billion for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $626 million (2002 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $4.939 billion (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $126.5 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $88.78 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $43.27 billion (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $800 million (2002 est.)

Somalia
  $4.809 billion (2005 est.)

South Africa
  $540.8 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $1.033 trillion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $86.07 billion (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $85.89 billion (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $2.893 billion (2005 est.)

Svalbard
  $NA

Swaziland
  $5.68 billion (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $268.3 billion (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $240.9 billion (2005 est.)

Syria
  $71.42 billion (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $630 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $8.617 billion (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $27.11 billion (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $550.2 billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  $8.802 billion (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  $1.5 million (1993 est.)

Tonga
  $178.5 million (2004 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $18.11 billion (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $82.85 billion (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $584.5 billion (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $39.14 billion (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $216 million (2002 est.)

Tuvalu
  $14.94 million (2002 est.)

Uganda
  $47.76 billion (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $329.1 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $115.8 billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $1.818 trillion (2005 est.)

United States
  $12.31 trillion (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $33.98 billion (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $50.31 billion (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $276.3 million (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  $162.1 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $235.2 billion (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  $1.577 billion (2004 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  $60 million (2004 est.)

West Bank
  $1.8 billion (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  GWP (gross world product): $60.63 trillion (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $19.36 billion (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $10.63 billion (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $25.69 billion (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2002  Population growth rate (%)


Afghanistan
  2.67% (2006 est.)

Albania
  0.52% (2006 est.)

Algeria
  1.22% (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  -0.19% (2006 est.)

Andorra
  0.89% (2006 est.)

Angola
  2.45% (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  1.57% (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0.55% (2006 est.)

Argentina
  0.96% (2006 est.)

Armenia
  -0.19% (2006 est.)

Aruba
  0.44% (2006 est.)

Australia
  0.85% (2006 est.)

Austria
  0.09% (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  0.66% (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  0.64% (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  2.09% (2006 est.)

Barbados
  0.37% (2006 est.)

Belarus
  -0.06% (2006 est.)

Belgium
  0.13% (2006 est.)

Belize
  2.31% (2006 est.)

Benin
  2.73% (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  0.61% (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  2.1% (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1.35% (2006 est.)

Botswana
  -0.04% (2006 est.)

Brazil
  1.04% (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  1.97% (2006 est.)

Brunei
  1.87% (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  -0.86% (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  3% (2006 est.)

Burma
  0.81% (2006 est.)

Burundi
  3.7% (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  1.78% (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  2.04% (2006 est.)

Canada
  0.88% (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  0.64% (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  2.56% (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  1.53% (2006 est.)

Chad
  2.93% (2006 est.)

Chile
  0.94% (2006 est.)

China
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  0% (2006 est.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  0% (2006 est.)

Colombia
  1.46% (2006 est.)

Comoros
  2.87% (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  3.07% (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  2.6% (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  -1.2% between 1996-2001 (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  2.03% (2006 est.)

Croatia
  -0.03% (2006 est.)

Cuba
  0.31% (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  0.53% (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  -0.06% (2006 est.)

Denmark
  0.33% (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  2.02% (2006 est.)

Dominica
  -0.08% (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  1.47% (2006 est.)

East Timor
  2.08% (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  1.5% (2006 est.)

Egypt
  1.75% (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  1.72% (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  2.05% (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  2.47% (2006 est.)

Estonia
  -0.64% (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  2.31% (2006 est.)

European Union
  0.15% (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  2.44% (2006 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0.58% (2006 est.)

Fiji
  1.4% (2006 est.)

Finland
  0.14% (2006 est.)

France
  0.35% (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  1.96% (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  1.48% (2006 est.)

Gabon
  2.13% (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  2.84% (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  3.71% (2006 est.)

Georgia
  -0.34% (2006 est.)

Germany
  -0.02% (2006 est.)

Ghana
  2.07% (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  0.14% (2006 est.)

Greece
  0.18% (2006 est.)

Greenland
  -0.03% (2006 est.)

Grenada
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  0.88% (2006 est.)

Guam
  1.43% (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  2.27% (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Guinea
  2.63% (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  2.07% (2006 est.)

Guyana
  0.25% (2006 est.)

Haiti
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  0.01% (2006 est.)

Honduras
  2.16% (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Hungary
  -0.25% (2006 est.)

Iceland
  0.87% (2006 est.)

India
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  1.41% (2006 est.)

Iran
  1.1% (2006 est.)

Iraq
  2.66% (2006 est.)

Ireland
  1.15% (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  0.52% (2006 est.)

Israel
  1.18% (2006 est.)

Italy
  0.04% (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  0.8% (2006 est.)

Japan
  0.02% (2006 est.)

Jersey
  0.28% (2006 est.)

Jordan
  2.49% (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  0.33% (2006 est.)

Kenya
  2.57% (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  2.24% (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  0.84% (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  0.42% (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  3.52%
  note: this rate reflects a return to pre-Gulf crisis immigration of
  expatriates (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  1.32% (2006 est.)

Laos
  2.39% (2006 est.)

Latvia
  -0.67% (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  1.23% (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  -0.46% (2006 est.)

Liberia
  4.91% (2006 est.)

Libya
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  0.78% (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  -0.3% (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  1.23% (2006 est.)

Macau
  0.86% (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  3.03% (2006 est.)

Malawi
  2.38% (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  1.78% (2006 est.)

Maldives
  2.78% (2006 est.)

Mali
  2.63% (2006 est.)

Malta
  0.42% (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  2.25% (2006 est.)

Martinique
  0.72% (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  2.88% (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  0.82% (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  3.77% (2006 est.)

Mexico
  1.16% (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  -0.11% (2006 est.)

Moldova
  0.28% (2006 est.)

Monaco
  0.4% (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  1.46% (2006 est.)

Montenegro
  3.5% (2004)

Montserrat
  1.05% (2006 est.)

Morocco
  1.55% (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Namibia
  0.59% (2006 est.)

Nauru
  1.81% (2006 est.)

Nepal
  2.17% (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  0.49% (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  0.79% (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  1.24% (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  0.99% (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  1.89% (2006 est.)

Niger
  2.92% (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  2.38% (2006 est.)

Niue
  0.01% (2006 est.)

Norfolk Island
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Northern Mariana Islands
  2.54% (2006 est.)

Norway
  0.38% (2006 est.)

Oman
  3.28% (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  2.09% (2006 est.)

Palau
  1.31% (2006 est.)

Panama
  1.6% (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  2.21% (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  2.45% (2006 est.)

Peru
  1.32% (2006 est.)

Philippines
  1.8% (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Poland
  -0.05% (2006 est.)

Portugal
  0.36% (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  0.4% (2006 est.)

Qatar
  2.5% (2006 est.)

Reunion
  1.34% (2006 est.)

Romania
  -0.12% (2006 est.)

Russia
  -0.37% (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  2.43% (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  0.56% (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0.5% (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  1.29% (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0.17% (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0.26% (2006 est.)

Samoa
  -0.2% (2006 est.)

San Marino
  1.26% (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  3.15% (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  2.18% (2006 est.)

Senegal
  2.34% (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  0.43% (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Singapore
  1.42% (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  0.15% (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  -0.05% (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  2.61% (2006 est.)

Somalia
  2.85% (2006 est.)

South Africa
  -0.4% (2006 est.)

Spain
  0.13% (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  0.78% (2006 est.)

Sudan
  2.55% (2006 est.)

Suriname
  0.2% (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  -0.02% (2006 est.)

Swaziland
  -0.23% (2006 est.)

Sweden
  0.16% (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  0.43% (2006 est.)

Syria
  2.3% (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  0.61% (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  2.19% (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  1.83% (2006 est.)

Thailand
  0.68% (2006 est.)

Togo
  2.72% (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  -0.01% (2006 est.)

Tonga
  2.01% (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  -0.87% (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  0.99% (2006 est.)

Turkey
  1.06% (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  1.83% (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  2.82% (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  1.51% (2006 est.)

Uganda
  3.37% (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  -0.6% (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  1.52% (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  0.28% (2006 est.)

United States
  0.91% (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  0.46% (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  1.7% (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  1.49% (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  1.38% (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  1.02% (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  -0.12% (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  3.06% (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  1.14% (2006 est.)

Yemen
  3.46% (2006 est.)

Zambia
  2.11% (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0.62% (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2003  GDP - real growth rate (%)


Afghanistan
  14% (2005 est.)

Albania
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Algeria
  5.5% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  3% NA%

Andorra
  4% (2004 est.)

Angola
  19.9% (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  10.2% (2004 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Argentina
  9.2% (2005 est.)

Armenia
  13.9% (2005 est.)

Aruba
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Australia
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Austria
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  26.4% (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Barbados
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Belarus
  9.2% (2005 est.)

Belgium
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Belize
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Benin
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  4.6% (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  5% (2005 est.)

Botswana
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Brazil
  2.3% (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  1% (2002 est.)

Brunei
  1.7% (2004 est.)

Bulgaria
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Burma
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Burundi
  1.1% (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  13.4% (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Canada
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  0.9% (2004 est.)

Central African Republic
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Chad
  6% (2005 est.)

Chile
  6.3% (2005 est.)

China
  10.2% (official data) (2005 est.)

Colombia
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Comoros
  3% (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  7.1% (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  0.1% (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  1% (2005 est.)

Croatia
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Cuba
  8% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.8%; north Cyprus: 10.6% (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  6.1% (2005 est.)

Denmark
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Dominica
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  9.3% (2005 est.)

East Timor
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  4.9% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  18.6% (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  2% (2005 est.)

Estonia
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  8.9% (2005 est.)

European Union
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA%

Faroe Islands
  10% (2001 est.)

Fiji
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Finland
  3% (2005 est.)

France
  1.2% (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  NA%

French Polynesia
  NA% (2001 est.)

Gabon
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  4.5% (2003 est.)

Georgia
  9.3% (2005 est.)

Germany
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Ghana
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA%

Greece
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Greenland
  1.8% (2001 est.)

Grenada
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  NA%

Guam
  NA%

Guatemala
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  3% (2003 est.)

Guinea
  2% (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Guyana
  -3% (2005 est.)

Haiti
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Honduras
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Hungary
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Iceland
  5.6% (2005 est.)

India
  8.4% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Iran
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Iraq
  -3% (2005 est.)

Ireland
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  6.3% NA%

Israel
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Italy
  0.1% (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Japan
  2.6% (2005 est.)

Jersey
  NA%

Jordan
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Kenya
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  0.3% (2005)

Korea, North
  1% (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  4% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  8.3% (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  -0.6% (2005 est.)

Laos
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  10.2% (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  0.1% (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Liberia
  9.8% (2005 est.)

Libya
  8.4% (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  11% (1999 est.)

Lithuania
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  4% (2005 est.)

Macau
  2.8% (3rd Quarter 2005)

Macedonia
  4% (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Malawi
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Maldives
  -3.6% (2005 est.)

Mali
  6.1% (2005 est.)

Malta
  1% (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Martinique
  NA%

Mauritania
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  NA%

Mexico
  3% (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  0.3% (2005 est.)

Moldova
  7.1% (2005 est.)

Monaco
  0.9% (2000 est.)

Mongolia
  6.2% according to official estimate (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  -1% (2002 est.)

Morocco
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Namibia
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Nauru
  NA%

Nepal
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  1% (2004 est.)

New Caledonia
  NA%

New Zealand
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  4% (2005 est.)

Niger
  7% (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Niue
  6.2%

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA%

Norway
  4% (2005 est.)

Oman
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Palau
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Panama
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  3% (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Peru
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Philippines
  4.8% (2005 est.)

Poland
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Portugal
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Qatar
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Reunion
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Romania
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Russia
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Samoa
  5.5% (2005 est.)

San Marino
  2.3% (2002 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  6% (2004 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  6.5% (2005 est.)

Senegal
  6.1% (2005 est.)

Serbia
  5.9% for Serbia alone (excluding Kosovo) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  -3% (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Singapore
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  6% (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  4% (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  4.4% (2005 est.)

Somalia
  2.4% (2005 est.)

South Africa
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Spain
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  6% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  8% (2005 est.)

Suriname
  5% (2005 est.)

Svalbard
  NA%

Swaziland
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Sweden
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Syria
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  4% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  6.7% (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Thailand
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Togo
  1% (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  NA%

Tonga
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  7% (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  7.4% (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  IMF estimate: 6%
  note: official government statistics show 21.4% growth, but these
  estimates are widely regarded as unreliable (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  4.9% (2000 est.)

Tuvalu
  1.2% (2002 est.)

Uganda
  4% (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  2.6% (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  8.8% (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  1.9% (2005 est.)

United States
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  7% (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  9.3% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  8.5% (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  2% (2002 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA%

West Bank
  6.2% (2004 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA%

World
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Yemen
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Zambia
  5% (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  -7.7% (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2004  GDP - per capita (PPP)


Afghanistan
  $800 (2004 est.)

Albania
  $5,300 (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $7,200 (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $5,800 (2005 est.)

Andorra
  $24,000 (2004)

Angola
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $8,800 (2004 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $10,900 (2005 est.)

Argentina
  $13,700 (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $4,800 (2005 est.)

Aruba
  $21,800 (2004 est.)

Australia
  $31,600 (2005 est.)

Austria
  $32,500 (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $5,400 (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $20,200 (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  $23,100 (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $17,300 (2005 est.)

Belarus
  $7,100 (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $31,100 (2005 est.)

Belize
  $6,800 (2005 est.)

Benin
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  $69,900 (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  $1,400 (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $5,200 (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $10,700 (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $8,300 (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $38,500 (2004 est.)

Brunei
  $23,600 (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  $9,600 (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

Burma
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $700 (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $2,300 (2005 est.)

Canada
  $33,900 (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $6,200 (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  $43,800 (2004 est.)

Central African Republic
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

Chad
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

Chile
  $11,900 (2005 est.)

China
  $6,800 (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $7,900 (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $600 (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $700 (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $1,300 (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $9,100 (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  $11,400 (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $1,600 (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $12,400 (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $3,500 (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $21,600 (2005 est.); north Cyprus: $7,135
  (2004 est.)

Czech Republic
  $20,000 (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $34,800 (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

Dominica
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $7,500 (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $800 (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  $4,300 (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $50,200 (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $17,500 (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $900 (2005 est.)

European Union
  $28,100 (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $25,000 (2002 est.)

Faroe Islands
  $22,000 (2001 est.)

Fiji
  $5,900 (2005 est.)

Finland
  $31,000 (2005 est.)

France
  $29,600 (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  $8,300 (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  $17,500 (2003 est.)

Gabon
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  $600 (2003 est.)

Georgia
  $3,400 (2005 est.)

Germany
  $30,100 (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  $27,900 (2000 est.)

Greece
  $22,300 (2005 est.)

Greenland
  $20,000 (2001 est.)

Grenada
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  $7,900 (2003 est.)

Guam
  $15,000 (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  $40,000 (2003 est.)

Guinea
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $800 (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $4,500 (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $34,000 (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $16,300 (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $35,700 (2005 est.)

India
  $3,400 (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $3,600 (2005 est.)

Iran
  $8,400 (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $41,100 (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  $27,800 (2003 est.)

Israel
  $25,000 (2005 est.)

Italy
  $28,700 (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $4,500 (2005 est.)

Japan
  $31,600 (2005 est.)

Jersey
  $40,000 (2003 est.)

Jordan
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $8,300 (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $1,100 (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $1,900 (2004 est.)

Korea, North
  $1,700 (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  $22,600 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $20,300 (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

Laos
  $2,000 (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $13,700 (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $6,000 (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $2,500 (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $900 (2005 est.)

Libya
  $11,800 (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $25,000 (1999 est.)

Lithuania
  $14,100 (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  $65,900 (2005 est.)

Macau
  $22,000 (2004)

Macedonia
  $7,800 (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $900 (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $600 (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $12,000 (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $3,900 (2002 est.)

Mali
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

Malta
  $19,700 (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

Martinique
  $14,400 (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  $2,200 (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $12,800 (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  $2,600 (2003 est.)

Mexico
  $10,000 (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $2,300 (2005 est.)

Moldova
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

Monaco
  $27,000 (2000 est.)

Mongolia
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  $3,800 (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  $3,400 (2002 est.)

Morocco
  $4,100 (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $1,300 (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

Nauru
  $5,000 (2005 est.)

Nepal
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $30,300 (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  $16,000 (2004 est.)

New Caledonia
  $15,000 (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  $25,300 (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $2,900 (2005 est.)

Niger
  $1,000 (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $1,400 (2005 est.)

Niue
  $5,800 (2003 est.)

Northern Mariana Islands
  $12,500 (2000 est.)

Norway
  $42,800 (2005 est.)

Oman
  $13,500 (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $2,400 (2005 est.)

Palau
  $7,600 (2005 est.)

Panama
  $7,400 (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $2,600 (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $4,600 (2005 est.)

Peru
  $6,000 (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $4,700 (2005 est.)

Poland
  $13,100 (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $19,000 (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  $18,700 (2005 est.)

Qatar
  $28,300 (2005 est.)

Reunion
  $6,200 (2005 est.)

Romania
  $8,100 (2005 est.)

Russia
  $11,000 (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $1,500 (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  $2,500 (1998 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $8,200 (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  $4,800 (2005 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  $7,000 (2001 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $3,600 (2005 est.)

Samoa
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

San Marino
  $34,600 (2001 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  $1,200 (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $13,100 (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $4,400 for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $7,800 (2002 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $800 (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $28,600 (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $16,300 (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $21,500 (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $600 (2005 est.)

Somalia
  $600 (2005 est.)

South Africa
  $12,200 (2005 est.)

Spain
  $25,600 (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $4,300 (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $6,600 (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  $5,000 (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $29,800 (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $32,200 (2005 est.)

Syria
  $3,900 (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $27,500 (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $1,200 (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $700 (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $8,600 (2005 est.)

Togo
  $1,600 (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  $1,000 (1993 est.)

Tonga
  $2,200 (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $16,800 (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $8,200 (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $8,400 (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $7,900 (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $11,500 (2002 est.)

Tuvalu
  $1,600 (2002 est.)

Uganda
  $1,800 (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $7,000 (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $45,200 (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $30,100 (2005 est.)

United States
  $41,600 (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $9,900 (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $1,900 (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $2,900 (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  $6,400 (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $2,800 (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  $14,500 (2004 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  $3,800 (2004 est.)

West Bank
  $1,100 (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  $9,500 (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $900 (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $900 (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $2,100 (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2006  Dependency status


Akrotiri
  overseas territory of UK; administered by an administrator
  who is also the Commander, British Forces Cyprus

American Samoa
  unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US;
  administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the
  Interior

Anguilla
  overseas territory of the UK

Aruba
  member country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; full
  autonomy in internal affairs obtained in 1986 upon separation from
  the Netherlands Antilles; Dutch Government responsible for defense
  and foreign affairs

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  territory of Australia; administered by
  the Australian Department of Transport and Regional Services

Baker Island
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US
  Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge
  system

Bassas da India
  possession of France; administered by the
  Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Bermuda
  overseas territory of the UK

Bouvet Island
  territory of Norway; administered by the Polar
  Department of the Ministry of Justice and Police from Oslo

British Indian Ocean Territory
  overseas territory of the UK;
  administered by a commissioner, resident in the Foreign and
  Commonwealth Office in London

British Virgin Islands
  overseas territory of the UK; internal
  self-governing

Cayman Islands
  overseas territory of the UK

Christmas Island
  non-self governing territory of Australia;
  administered by the Australian Department of Transport and Regional
  Services

Clipperton Island
  possession of France; administered by France from
  French Polynesia by a high commissioner of the Republic

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  non-self governing territory of Australia;
  administered from Canberra by the Australian Department of Transport
  and Regional Services

Cook Islands
  self-governing in free association with New Zealand;
  Cook Islands is fully responsible for internal affairs; New Zealand
  retains responsibility for external affairs and defense, in
  consultation with the Cook Islands

Coral Sea Islands
  territory of Australia; administered from Canberra
  by the Department of the Environment, Sport, and Territories

Dhekelia
  overseas territory of UK; administered by an administrator
  who is also the Commander, British Forces Cyprus

Europa Island
  possession of France; administered by the
  Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  overseas territory of the UK; also
  claimed by Argentina

Faroe Islands
  part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing
  overseas administrative division of Denmark since 1948

French Guiana
  overseas department of France

French Polynesia
  overseas lands of France; overseas territory of
  France from 1946-2004

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  overseas territory of France
  since 1955; administered from Paris by Administrateur Superieur
  Michel CHAMPON (since 20 December 2004), assisted by Secretary
  General Jean-Yves HERMOSO (since NA)

Gibraltar
  overseas territory of the UK

Glorioso Islands
  possession of France; administered by the
  Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Greenland
  part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas
  administrative division of Denmark since 1979

Guadeloupe
  overseas department of France

Guam
  organized, unincorporated territory of the US with policy
  relations between Guam and the US under the jurisdiction of the
  Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior

Guernsey
  British crown dependency

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  territory of Australia;
  administered from Canberra by the Australian Antarctic Division of
  the Department of the Environment and Heritage

Hong Kong
  special administrative region of China

Howland Island
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US
  Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge
  system

Iles Eparses
  possessions of France; administered by the Senior
  Administrator of the Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands (TAAF), resident in Reunion

Isle of Man
  British crown dependency

Jan Mayen
  territory of Norway; since August 1994, administered from
  Oslo through the county governor (fylkesmann) of Nordland; however,
  authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian
  Defense Communication Service

Jarvis Island
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US
  Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge
  system

Jersey
  British crown dependency

Johnston Atoll
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Honolulu, HI, by Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, and the
  Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior as
  part of the National Wildlife Refuge system

Juan de Nova Island
  possession of France; administered by the
  Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Kingman Reef
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the US Fish and Wildlife Service of the
  Department of the Interior
  note: on 1 September 2000, the Department of the Interior accepted
  restoration of its administrative jurisdiction over Kingman Reef
  from the Department of the Navy; Executive Order 3223 signed 18
  January 2001 established Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge to be
  administered by the Director, US Fish and Wildlife Service; this
  refuge is managed to protect the terrestrial and aquatic wildlife of
  Kingman Reef out to the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea limit

Macau
  special administrative region of China

Martinique
  overseas department of France

Mayotte
  departmental collectivity of France

Midway Islands
  unincorporated territory of the US; formerly
  administered from Washington, DC, by the US Navy; on 31 October
  1996, through a presidential executive order, the jurisdiction and
  control of the atoll was transferred to the Fish and Wildlife
  Service of the US Department of the Interior as part of the National
  Wildlife Refuge system

Montserrat
  overseas territory of the UK

Navassa Island
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered by
  the Fish and Wildlife Service, US Department of the Interior, from
  the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge in Boqueron, Puerto
  Rico; in September 1996, the Coast Guard ceased operations and
  maintenance of Navassa Island Light, a 46-meter-tall lighthouse on
  the southern side of the island; there has also been a private claim
  advanced against the island

Netherlands Antilles
  an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the
  Netherlands; full autonomy in internal affairs granted in 1954;
  Dutch Government responsible for defense and foreign affairs

New Caledonia
  territorial collectivity of France since 1998

Niue
  self-governing in free association with New Zealand since 1974;
  Niue fully responsible for internal affairs; New Zealand retains
  responsibility for external affairs and defense; however, these
  responsibilities confer no rights of control and are only exercised
  at the request of the Government of Niue

Norfolk Island
  territory of Australia; Canberra administers
  Commonwealth responsibilities on Norfolk Island through the
  Department of Environment, Sport, and Territories

Northern Mariana Islands
  commonwealth in political union with the
  US; federal funds to the Commonwealth administered by the US
  Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs

Palmyra Atoll
  incorporated territory of the US; privately owned, but
  administered from Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service
  of the US Department of the Interior; the Office of Insular Affairs
  of the US Department of the Interior continues to administer nine
  excluded areas comprising certain tidal and submerged lands within
  the 12 nm territorial sea or within the lagoon

Pitcairn Islands
  overseas territory of the UK

Puerto Rico
  unincorporated, organized territory of the US with
  commonwealth status; policy relations between Puerto Rico and the US
  conducted under the jurisdiction of the Office of the President

Reunion
  overseas department of France

Saint Helena
  overseas territory of the UK

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  self-governing territorial collectivity of
  France

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  overseas territory of
  the UK, also claimed by Argentina; administered from the Falkland
  Islands by a commissioner, who is concurrently governor of the
  Falkland Islands, representing Queen ELIZABETH II; Grytviken -
  formerly a whaling station on South Georgia - is a scientific base

Svalbard
  territory of Norway; administered by the Polar Department
  of the Ministry of Justice, through a governor (sysselmann) residing
  in Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen; by treaty (9 February 1920)
  sovereignty was awarded to Norway

Tokelau
  self-administering territory of New Zealand; note - Tokelau
  and New Zealand have agreed to a draft constitution as Tokelau moves
  toward free association with New Zealand; a UN sponsored referendum
  on self-governance, in February 2006, did not produce the two thirds
  majority vote necessary for changing the current political status

Tromelin Island
  possession of France; administered by the
  Administrateur Superieur of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands

Turks and Caicos Islands
  overseas territory of the UK

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  unincorporated
  territories of the US; administered from Washington, DC, by the Fish
  and Wildlife Service of the US Department of the Interior as part of
  the National Wildlife Refuge system
  note on Palmyra Atoll: incorporated Territory of the US; partly
  privately owned and partly federally owned; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US
  Department of the Interior; the Office of Insular Affairs of the US
  Department of the Interior continues to administer nine excluded
  areas comprising certain tidal and submerged lands within the 12 nm
  territorial sea or within the lagoon

Virgin Islands
  organized, unincorporated territory of the US with
  policy relations between the Virgin Islands and the US under the
  jurisdiction of the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the
  Interior

Wake Island
  unincorporated territory of the US; administered from
  Washington, DC, by the Department of the Interior; activities on the
  island are conducted by the US Air Force

Wallis and Futuna
  overseas territory of France

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2007  Diplomatic representation from the US


Afghanistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald E. NEUMANN
  embassy: The Great Masood Road, Kabul
  mailing address: 6180 Kabul Place, Dulles, VA 20189-6180
  telephone: [00 93] (20) 230-0436
  FAX: [00 93] (20) 230-1364

Akrotiri
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Albania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marcie B. RIES
  embassy: Rruga e Elbasanit, Labinoti #103, Tirana
  mailing address: US Department of State, 9510 Tirana Place, Dulles,
  VA 20189-9510
  telephone: [355] (4) 247285
  FAX: [355] (4) 232222

Algeria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert S. FORD
  embassy: 04 Chemin Cheikh Bachir Ibrahimi El-Biar 16030, Algiers
  mailing address: B. P. 408, Alger-Gare, 16030 Algiers
  telephone: [213] (021) 69-12-55
  FAX: [213] (021) 69-39-79

American Samoa
  none (territory of the US)

Andorra
  the US does not have an embassy in Andorra; the US
  Ambassador to Spain is accredited to Andorra; US interests in
  Andorra are represented by the Consulate General's office in
  Barcelona (Spain); mailing address: Paseo Reina Elisenda de
  Montcada, 23, 08034 Barcelona, Spain; telephone: [34] (3) 280-2227;
  FAX: [34] (3) 205-5206

Angola
  chief of mission: Ambassador Cynthia EFIRD
  embassy: number 32 Rua Houari Boumedienne (in the Miramar area of
  Luanda), Luanda
  mailing address: international mail: Caixa Postal 6468, Luanda;
  pouch: US Embassy Luanda,US Department of State, 2550 Luanda Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-2550
  telephone: [244] (222) 64-1000
  FAX: [244] (222) 64-1232

Anguilla
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Antigua and Barbuda
  the US does not have an embassy in Antigua and
  Barbuda (embassy closed 30 June 1994); the US Ambassador to Barbados
  is accredited to Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina
  chief of mission: Ambassador Earl Anthony WAYNE
  embassy: Avenida Colombia 4300, C1425GMN Buenos Aires
  mailing address: international mail: use street address; APO
  address: Unit 4334, APO AA 34034
  telephone: [54] (11) 5777-4533
  FAX: [54] (11) 5777-4240

Armenia
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Anthony F. GODFREY
  embassy: 1 American Ave., Yerevan 375082
  mailing address: American Embassy Yerevan, US Department of State,
  7020 Yerevan Place, Washington, DC 20521-7020
  telephone: [374](10) 464-700
  FAX: [374](10) 464-742

Aruba
  the US does not have an embassy in Aruba; the Consul General
  to Netherlands Antilles is accredited to Aruba

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Australia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert D. McCALLUM, Jr.
  embassy: Moonah Place, Yarralumla, Canberra, Australian Capital
  Territory 2600
  mailing address: APO AP 96549
  telephone: [61] (02) 6214-5600
  FAX: [61] (02) 6214-5970
  consulate(s) general: Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Austria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Susan R. McCAW
  embassy: Boltzmanngasse 16, A-1090, Vienna
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [43] (1) 31339-0
  FAX: [43] (1) 3100682

Azerbaijan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Anne E. DERSE
  embassy: 83 Azadliyg Prospecti, Baku AZ1007
  mailing address: American Embassy Baku, US Department of State, 7050
  Baku Place, Washington, DC 20521-7050
  telephone: [994] (12) 4980-335 through 337
  FAX: [994] (12) 4656-671

Bahamas, The
  chief of mission: Ambassador John D. ROOD
  embassy: 42 Queen Street, Nassau
  mailing address: local or express mail address: P. O. Box N-8197,
  Nassau; US Department of State, 3370 Nassau Place, Washington, DC
  20521-3370
  telephone: [1] (242) 322-1181, 328-2206 (after hours)
  FAX: [1] (242) 356-0222

Bahrain
  chief of mission: Ambassador William T. MONROE
  embassy: Building #979, Road 3119 (next to Al-Ahli Sports Club),
  Block 331, Zinj District, Manama
  mailing address: American Embassy Manama, PSC 451, FPO AE
  09834-5100; international mail: American Embassy, Box 26431, Manama
  telephone: [973] 1724-2700
  FAX: [973] 1727-0547

Bangladesh
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia A. BUTENIS
  embassy: Madani Avenue, Baridhara, Dhaka 1212
  mailing address: G. P. O. Box 323, Dhaka 1000
  telephone: [880] (2) 885-5500
  FAX: [880] (2) 882-3744

Barbados
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mary M. OURISMAN
  embassy: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building, Broad Street,
  Bridgetown; (courier) ALICO Building-Cheapside, Bridgetown
  mailing address: P. O. Box 302, Bridgetown; CMR 1014, APO AA 34055
  telephone: [1] (246) 436-4950
  FAX: [1] (246) 429-5246, 429-3379

Belarus
  chief of mission: Ambassador Karen B. STEWART
  embassy: 46 Starovilenskaya St., Minsk 220002
  mailing address: PSC 78, Box B Minsk, APO 09723
  telephone: [375] (17) 210-12-83, 217-7347, 217-7348
  FAX: [375] (17) 234-7853

Belgium
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tom C. KOROLOGOS
  embassy: Regentlaan 27 Boulevard du Regent, B-1000 Brussels
  mailing address: PSC 82, Box 002, APO AE 09710
  telephone: [32] (2) 508-2111
  FAX: [32] (2) 511-2725

Belize
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert J. DIETER
  embassy: 29 Gabourel Lane, Belize City
  mailing address: P. O. Box 286, Belize City
  telephone: [501] 227-7161 through 7163
  FAX: [501] 223-0802

Benin
  chief of mission: Ambassador Wayne NEILL
  embassy: Rue Caporal Bernard Anani, Cotonou
  mailing address: 01 B. P. 2012, Cotonou
  telephone: [229] 30-06-50
  FAX: [229] 30-06-70

Bermuda
  chief of mission: Consul General Gregory W. SLAYTON
  consulate(s) general: Crown Hill, 16 Middle Road, Devonshire DVO3
  mailing address: P. O. Box HM325, Hamilton HMBX; American Consulate
  General Hamilton, US Department of State, 5300 Hamilton Place,
  Washington, DC 20520-5300
  telephone: [1] (441) 295-1342
  FAX: [1] (441) 295-1592, [1] (441) 296-9233

Bhutan
  the US and Bhutan have no formal diplomatic relations,
  although informal contact is maintained between the Bhutanese and US
  Embassy in New Delhi (India)

Bolivia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Philip S. GOLDBERG
  embassy: Avenida Arce 2780, La Paz
  mailing address: P. O. Box 425, La Paz; APO AA 34032
  telephone: [591] (2) 216-8000
  FAX: [591] (2) 216-8111

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  chief of mission: Ambassador Douglas L.
  McELHANEY
  embassy: Alipasina 43, 71000 Sarajevo
  mailing address: use street address
  telephone: [387] (33) 445-700
  FAX: [387] (33) 659-722
  branch office(s): Banja Luka, Mostar

Botswana
  chief of mission: Ambassador Katherine H. CANAVAN
  embassy: address NA, Gaborone
  mailing address: Embassy Enclave, P. O. Box 90, Gaborone
  telephone: [267] 353982
  FAX: [267] 312782

Brazil
  chief of mission: Ambassador Clifford M. SOBEL
  embassy: Avenida das Nacoes, Quadra 801, Lote 3, Distrito Federal
  Cep 70403-900, Brasilia
  mailing address: Unit 3500, APO AA 34030
  telephone: [55] (61) 3312-7000
  FAX: [55] (61) 3225-9136
  consulate(s) general: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo
  consulate(s): Recife

British Indian Ocean Territory
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

British Virgin Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Brunei
  chief of mission: Ambassador Emil SKODON
  embassy: Third Floor, Teck Guan Plaza, Jalan Sultan, Bandar Seri
  Begawan, BS8811
  mailing address: PSC 470 (BSB), FPO AP 96507; P.O. Box 2991, Bandar
  Seri Begawan BS8675, Negara Brunei Darussalam
  telephone: [673] 222-0384
  FAX: [673] 222-5293

Bulgaria
  chief of mission: Ambassador John Ross BEYRLE
  embassy: 16 Kozyak Street, Sofia 1407
  mailing address: American Embassy Sofia, US Department of State,
  5740 Sofia Place, Washington, DC 20521-5740
  telephone: [359] (2) 937-5100
  FAX: [359] (2) 937-5320

Burkina Faso
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeanine E. JACKSON
  embassy: 602 Avenue Raoul Follereau, Koulouba, Secteur 4
  mailing address: 01 B. P. 35, Ouagadougou 01; pouch mail - US
  Department of State, 2440 Ouagadougou Place, Washington, DC
  20521-2440
  telephone: [226] 50-30-67-23
  FAX: [226] 50-30-38-90, 50-31-23-68

Burma
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Shari
  VILLAROSA
  embassy: 581 Merchant Street, Rangoon (GPO 521)
  mailing address: Box B, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [95] (1) 379-880, 379-881
  FAX: [95] (1) 256-018

Burundi
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia Newton MOLLER
  embassy: Avenue des Etats-Unis, Bujumbura
  mailing address: B. P. 1720, Bujumbura
  telephone: [257] 223454
  FAX: [257] 222926

Cambodia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph A. MUSSOMELI
  embassy: #1, Street 96, Sangkat Wat Phnom, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh
  mailing address: Box P, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [855] (23) 728-000
  FAX: [855] (23) 728-600

Cameroon
  chief of mission: Ambassador Niels MARQUARDT
  embassy: Rue Nachtigal, Yaounde
  mailing address: P. O. Box 817, Yaounde; pouch: American Embassy, US
  Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-2520
  telephone: [237] 220 15 00; Consular: [237] 220 16 03
  FAX: [237] 220 16 20; Consular FAX: [237] 220 17 52
  branch office(s): Douala

Canada
  chief of mission: Ambassador David H. WILKINS
  embassy: 490 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1G8
  mailing address: P. O. Box 5000, Ogdensburgh, NY 13669-0430
  telephone: [1] (613) 238-5335, 4470
  FAX: [1] (613) 688-3082
  consulate(s) general: Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto,
  Vancouver, Winnipeg

Cape Verde
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roger D. PIERCE
  embassy: Rua Abilio Macedo n6, Praia
  mailing address: C. P. 201, Praia
  telephone: [238] 2-60-89-00
  FAX: [238] 2-61-13-55

Cayman Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Central African Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant);
  Charge d'Affaires James PANOS
  embassy: Avenue David Dacko, Bangui
  mailing address: B. P. 924, Bangui
  telephone: [236] 61 02 00
  FAX: [236] 61 44 94
  note: the embassy is currently operating with a minimal staff

Chad
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marc M. WALL
  embassy: Avenue Felix Eboue, N'Djamena
  mailing address: B. P. 413, N'Djamena
  telephone: [235] 516-211
  FAX: [235] 515-654

Chile
  chief of mission: Ambassador Craig A. KELLY
  embassy: Avenida Andres Bello 2800, Las Condes, Santiago
  mailing address: APO AA 34033
  telephone: [56] (2) 232-2600
  FAX: [56] (2) 330-3710

China
  chief of mission: Ambassador Clark T. RANDT, Jr.
  embassy: Xiu Shui Bei Jie 3, 100600 Beijing
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 50, FPO AP 96521-0002
  telephone: [86] (10) 6532-3831
  FAX: [86] (10) 6532-3178
  consulate(s) general: Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macau,
  Shanghai, Shenyang

Christmas Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Colombia
  chief of mission: Ambassador William B. WOOD
  embassy: Calle 22D-BIS, numbers 47-51, Apartado Aereo 3831
  mailing address: Carrera 45 #22D-45, Bogota, D.C., APO AA 34038
  telephone: [57] (1) 315-0811
  FAX: [57] (1) 315-2197

Comoros
  the US does not have an embassy in Comoros; the ambassador
  to Madagascar is accredited to Comoros

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roger
  MEECE
  embassy: 310 Avenue des Aviateurs, Kinshasa
  mailing address: Unit 31550, APO AE 09828
  telephone: [243] (88) 43608
  FAX: [243] (88) 43467

Congo, Republic of the
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge
  d'Affaires Mark BIEDLINGMAIER
  embassy: NA
  mailing address: NA
  telephone: [243] (88) 43608
  note: the embassy is temporarily collocated with the US Embassy in
  the Democratic Republic of the Congo (US Embassy Kinshasa, 310
  Avenue des Aviateurs, Kinshasa)

Cook Islands
  none (self-governing in free association with New
  Zealand)

Coral Sea Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Costa Rica
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mark LANGDALE
  embassy: Calle 120 Avenida O, Pavas, San Jose
  mailing address: APO AA 34020
  telephone: [506] 519-2000
  FAX: [506] 519-2305

Cote d'Ivoire
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aubrey HOOKS
  embassy: Riviera Golf 01, Abidjan
  mailing address: B. P. 1866, Abidjan 01
  telephone: [225] 20 21 09 79
  FAX: [225] 20 22 32 59

Croatia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert A. BRADTKE
  embassy: 2 Thomas Jefferson Street, 10010 Zagreb
  mailing address: use street address
  telephone: [385] (1) 661-2200
  FAX: [385] (1) 661-2373

Cuba
  none; note - the US has an Interests Section in the Swiss
  Embassy, headed by Principal Officer Michael E. PARMLY; address:
  USINT, Swiss Embassy, Calzada between L and M Streets, Vedado,
  Havana; telephone: [53] (7) 833-3551 through 3559 (operator
  assistance required); FAX: [53] (7) 833-3700; protecting power in
  Cuba is Switzerland

Cyprus
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald L. SCHLICHER
  embassy: corner of Metochiou and Ploutarchou Streets, 2407 Engomi,
  Nicosia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 24536, 1385 Nicosia
  telephone: [357] (22) 393939
  FAX: [357] (22) 780944

Czech Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard W. GRABER
  embassy: Trziste 15, 11801 Prague 1
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [420] 257 022 000
  FAX: [420] 257 022 809

Denmark
  chief of mission: Ambassador James P. CAIN
  embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds Alle 24, 2100 Copenhagen
  mailing address: PSC 73, APO AE 09716
  telephone: [45] 33 41 71 00
  FAX: [45] 35 43 02 23

Dhekelia
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Djibouti
  chief of mission: Ambassador W. Stuart SYMINGTON
  embassy: Plateau du Serpent, Boulevard Marechal Joffre, Djibouti
  mailing address: B. P. 185, Djibouti
  telephone: [253] 35 39 95
  FAX: [253] 35 39 40

Dominica
  the US does not have an embassy in Dominica; the US
  Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Dominica

Dominican Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hans H. HERTELL
  embassy: corner of Calle Cesar Nicolas Penson and Calle Leopoldo
  Navarro, Santo Domingo
  mailing address: Unit 5500, APO AA 34041-5500
  telephone: [1] (809) 221-2171
  FAX: [1] (809) 686-7437

East Timor
  chief of mission: Ambassador Grover Joseph REES
  embassy: Avenida de Portugal, Praia dos Conqueiros, Dili
  mailing address: US Department of State, 8250 Dili Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-8250
  telephone: (670) 332-4684
  FAX: (670) 331-3206

Ecuador
  chief of mission: Ambassador Linda L. JEWELL
  embassy: Avenida 12 de Octubre y Avenida Patria, Quito
  mailing address: APO AA 34039
  telephone: [593] (2) 256-2890
  FAX: [593] (2) 250-2052
  consulate(s) general: Guayaquil

Egypt
  chief of mission: Ambassador Francis J. RICCIARDONE, Jr.
  embassy: 8 Kamal El Din Salah St., Garden City, Cairo
  mailing address: Unit 64900, Box 15, APO AE 09839-4900
  telephone: [20] (2) 797-3300
  FAX: [20] (2) 797-3200

El Salvador
  chief of mission: Ambassador H. Douglas BARCLAY
  embassy: Final Boulevard Santa Elena Sur, Antiguo Cuscatlan, La
  Libertad, San Salvador
  mailing address: Unit 3116, APO AA 34023
  telephone: [503] 2278-4444
  FAX: [503] 2278-5522

Equatorial Guinea
  chief of mission: the US ambassador to Cameroon is
  accredited to Equatorial Guinea
  embassy: adjacent to the golf course at the base of Mont Febe; note
  - relocated embassy is opened for limited functions; inquiries
  should continue to be directed to the US Embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon
  mailing address: B.P. 817, Yaounde, Cameroon; US Embassy Yaounde, US
  Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-2520
  telephone: [237] 220 15 00
  FAX: [237] 220 16 20

Eritrea
  chief of mission: Ambassador Scott H. DELISI
  embassy: 179 Alaa Street, Asmara
  mailing address: P. O. Box 211, Asmara
  telephone: [291] (1) 120004
  FAX: [291] (1) 127584

Estonia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aldona Zofia WOS
  embassy: Kentmanni 20, 15099 Tallinn
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [372] 668-8100
  FAX: [372] 668-8134

Ethiopia
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Vicki HUDDLESTON
  embassy: Entoto Street, Addis Ababa
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1014, Addis Ababa
  telephone: [251] (1) 517-4000
  FAX: [251] (1) 517-4888

European Union
  chief of mission: Ambassador C. Boyden GRAY
  embassy: 13 Zinnerstraat/Rue Zinner, B-1000 Brussels
  mailing address: same as above
  telephone: [32] (2) 508-2222
  FAX: [32] (2) 512-5720

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none (overseas territory of the
  UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Faroe Islands
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division
  of Denmark)

Fiji
  chief of mission: Ambassador Larry Miles DINGER
  embassy: 31 Loftus Street, Suva
  mailing address: P. O. Box 218, Suva
  telephone: [679] 331-4466
  FAX: [679] 330-0081

Finland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marilyn WARE
  embassy: Itainen Puistotie 14B, 00140 Helsinki
  mailing address: APO AE 09723
  telephone: [358] (9) 616250
  FAX: [358] (9) 6162 5800

France
  chief of mission: Ambassador Craig R. STAPLETON
  embassy: 2 Avenue Gabriel, 75382 Paris Cedex 08
  mailing address: PSC 116, APO AE 09777
  telephone: [33] (1) 43-12-22-22
  FAX: [33] (1) 42 66 97 83
  consulate(s) general: Marseille, Strasbourg

French Guiana
  none (overseas department of France)

French Polynesia
  none (overseas lands of France)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  none (overseas territory of
  France)

Gabon
  chief of mission: Ambassador Barrie R. WALKLEY
  embassy: Boulevard du Bord de Mer, Libreville
  mailing address: Centre Ville, B. P. 4000, Libreville
  telephone: [241] 76 20 03 through 76 20 04, after hours - 74 34 92
  FAX: [241] 74 55 07

Gambia, The
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph D. STAFFORD, III
  embassy: Kairaba Avenue, Fajara, Banjul
  mailing address: P. M. B. No. 19, Banjul
  telephone: [220] 439-2856, 437-6169, 437-6170
  FAX: [220] 439-2475

Georgia
  chief of mission: Ambassador John F. TEFFT
  embassy: 11 George Balanchine St., T'bilisi 0131
  mailing address: 7060 T'bilisi Place, Washington, DC 20521-7060
  telephone: [995] (32) 27-70-00
  FAX: [995] (32) 53-23-10

Germany
  chief of mission: Ambassador William R. TIMKEN, Jr.
  embassy: Neustaedtische Kirchstrasse 4-5, 10117 Berlin; note - a new
  embassy will be built near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin; ground
  was broken in October 2004 and completion is scheduled for 2008
  mailing address: PSC 120, Box 1000, APO AE 09265
  telephone: [49] (030) 2385 174
  FAX: [49] (030) 8305-1215
  consulate(s) general: Duesseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg,
  Leipzig, Munich

Ghana
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mary Carlin YATES
  embassy: 6th and 10th Lanes, 798/1 Osu, Accra
  mailing address: P. O. Box 194, Accra
  telephone: [233] (21) 775-347, 775-348
  FAX: [233] (21) 701-813

Gibraltar
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Greece
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles P. RIES
  embassy: 91 Vasilisis Sophias Avenue, 10160 Athens
  mailing address: PSC 108, APO AE 09842-0108
  telephone: [30] (210) 721-2951
  FAX: [30] (210) 645-6282
  consulate(s) general: Thessaloniki

Greenland
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of
  Denmark)

Grenada
  chief of mission: the US Ambassador to Barbados is
  accredited to Grenada
  embassy: Lance-aux-Epines Stretch, Saint George's
  mailing address: P. O. Box 54, Saint George's
  telephone: [1] (473) 444-1173 through 1176
  FAX: [1] (473) 444-4820

Guadeloupe
  none (overseas department of France)

Guam
  none (territory of the US)

Guatemala
  chief of mission: Ambassador James M. DERHAM
  embassy: 7-01 Avenida Reforma, Zone 10, Guatemala City
  mailing address: APO AA 34024
  telephone: [502] 2326-4000
  FAX: [502] 2326-4654

Guernsey
  none (British crown dependency)

Guinea
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jackson C. MCDONALD
  embassy: Koloma, Conakry, east of Hamdallaye Circle
  mailing address: B. P. 603, Transversale No. 2, Centre Administratif
  de Koloma, Commune de Ratoma, Conakry
  telephone: [224] 30-42-08-61
  FAX: [224] 30-42-08-73

Guinea-Bissau
  the US Embassy suspended operations on 14 June 1998 in
  the midst of violent conflict between forces loyal to then President
  VIEIRA and military-led junta; the US Ambassador to Senegal is
  accredited to Guinea-Bissau

Guyana
  chief of mission: Ambassador David M. ROBINSON
  embassy: 100 Young and Duke Streets, Kingston, Georgetown
  mailing address: P. O. Box 10507, Georgetown; US Embassy, 3170
  Georgetown Place, Washington DC 20521-3170
  telephone: [592] 225-4900 through 4909
  FAX: [592] 225-8497

Haiti
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janet A. SANDERSON
  embassy: 5 Harry S Truman Boulevard, Bicentenaire-Port-au-Prince
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1761, Port-au-Prince
  telephone: [509] 222-0200
  FAX: [509] 223-9038

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  chief of mission: Ambassador Francis ROONEY
  embassy: Villa Domiziana, Via delle Terme Deciane 26, 00153 Rome
  mailing address: PSC 59, Box 66, APO AE 09624
  telephone: [39] (06) 4674-3428
  FAX: [39] (06) 575-8346

Honduras
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles A. FORD
  embassy: Avenida La Paz, Apartado Postal No. 3453, Tegucigalpa
  mailing address: American Embassy, APO AA 34022, Tegucigalpa
  telephone: [504] 236-9320, 238-5114
  FAX: [504] 236-9037

Hong Kong
  chief of mission: Consul General James B. CUNNINGHAM
  consulate(s) general: 26 Garden Road, Hong Kong
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 1, FPO AP 96521-0006
  telephone: [852] 2523-9011
  FAX: [852] 2845-1598

Hungary
  chief of mission: Ambassador April H. FOLEY
  embassy: Szabadsag ter 12, H-1054 Budapest
  mailing address: pouch: American Embassy Budapest, 5270 Budapest
  Place, US Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-5270
  telephone: [36] (1) 475-4400
  FAX: [36] (1) 475-4764

Iceland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carol VAN VOORST
  embassy: Laufasvegur 21, 101 Reykjavik
  mailing address: US Department of State, 5640 Reykjavik Place,
  Washington, D.C. 20521-5640
  telephone: [354] 562-9100
  FAX: [354] 562-9118

India
  chief of mission: Ambassador David C. MULFORD
  embassy: Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110021
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [91] (11) 2419-8000
  FAX: [91] (11) 2419-0017
  consulate(s) general: Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai
  (Bombay)

Indonesia
  chief of mission: Ambassador B. Lynn PASCOE
  embassy: Jalan 1 Medan Merdeka Selatan 4-5, Jakarta 10110
  mailing address: Unit 8129, Box 1, FPO AP 96520
  telephone: [62] (21) 3435-9000
  FAX: [62] (21) 3435-9922
  consulate(s) general: Surabaya
  consulate(s): Medan; Denpasar (consular agency)

Iran
  none; note - protecting power in Iran is Switzerland

Iraq
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zalmay KHALILZAD
  embassy: Baghdad
  mailing address: APO AE 09316
  telephone: 00-1-240-553-0584 ext. 5340 or 5635; note - Consular
  Section
  FAX: NA

Ireland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas C. FOLEY
  embassy: 42 Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [353] (1) 668-8777
  FAX: [353] (1) 668-9946

Isle of Man
  none (British crown dependency)

Israel
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard H. JONES
  embassy: 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv 63903
  mailing address: PSC 98, Box 29, APO AE 09830
  telephone: [972] (3) 519-7575
  FAX: [972] (3) 516-4390
  consulate(s) general: Jerusalem; note - an independent US mission,
  established in 1928, whose members are not accredited to a foreign
  government

Italy
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ronald P. SPOGLI
  embassy: Via Vittorio Veneto 121, 00187-Rome
  mailing address: PSC 59, Box 100, APO AE 09624
  telephone: [39] (06) 46741
  FAX: [39] (06) 488-2672, 4674-2356
  consulate(s) general: Florence, Milan, Naples

Jamaica
  chief of mission: Ambassador Brenda LaGrange JOHNSON
  embassy: Mutual Life Building, 2 Oxford Road, 3rd floor, Kingston 5
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [1] (876) 929-4850 through 4859
  FAX: [1] (876) 935-6001

Japan
  chief of mission: Ambassador J. Thomas SCHIEFFER
  embassy: 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420
  mailing address: Unit 45004, Box 258, APO AP 96337-5004
  telephone: [81] (03) 3224-5000
  FAX: [81] (03) 3505-1862
  consulate(s) general: Naha (Okinawa), Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo
  consulate(s): Fukuoka, Nagoya

Jersey
  none (British crown dependency)

Jordan
  chief of mission: Ambassador David M. HALE
  embassy: Abdoun, Amman
  mailing address: P. O. Box 354, Amman 11118 Jordan; Unit 70200, Box
  5, APO AE 09892-0200
  telephone: [962] (6) 590-6000
  FAX: [962] (6) 592-0121

Kazakhstan
  chief of mission: Ambassador John M. ORDWAY
  embassy: Ak Bulak 4, Str. 23-22, Building #3, Astana 010010
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [7] (3172) 70-21-00
  FAX: [7] (3172) 34-08-90

Kenya
  chief of mission: Ambassador William M. BELLAMY
  embassy: US Embassy, United Nations Ave., Gigiri; P. O. Box 606
  Village Market Nairobi
  mailing address: Box 21A, Unit 64100, APO AE 09831
  telephone: [254] (20) 537-800
  FAX: [254] (20) 537-810

Kiribati
  the US does not have an embassy in Kiribati; the ambassador
  to Fiji is accredited to Kiribati

Korea, North
  none; note - Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents
  the US as consular protecting power

Korea, South
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alexander VERSHBOW
  embassy: 32 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-710
  mailing address: US Embassy Seoul, Unit 15550, APO AP 96205-5550
  telephone: [82] (2) 397-4114
  FAX: [82] (2) 738-8845

Kuwait
  chief of mission: Ambassador Richard LEBARON
  embassy: Bayan 36302, Area 14, Al-Masjed Al-Aqsa Street (near the
  Bayan palace), Kuwait City
  mailing address: P. O. Box 77 Safat 13001 Kuwait; or PSC 1280 APO AE
  09880-9000
  telephone: [965] 259-1001
  FAX: [965] 538-0282

Kyrgyzstan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marie L. YOVANOVITCH
  embassy: 171 Prospect Mira, Bishkek 720016
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [996] (312) 551-241, (517) 777-217
  FAX: [996] (312) 551-264

Laos
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia M. HASLACH
  embassy: 19 Rue Bartholonie, That Dam Road, Vientiane
  mailing address: American Embassy Vientiane, Box V, APO AP 96546
  telephone: [856] 21-26 7000
  FAX: [856] 21-26 7074

Latvia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Catherine TODD BAILEY
  embassy: 7 Raina Boulevard, Riga LV-1510
  mailing address: American Embassy Riga, PSC 78, Box Riga, APO AE
  09723
  telephone: [371] 703-6200
  FAX: [371] 782-0047

Lebanon
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeffrey D. FELTMAN
  embassy: Awkar, Lebanon; (Akwar facing the Municipality)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 70-840, Antelias, Lebanon; PSC 815, Box
  2, FPO AE 09836-0002; from US: US Embassy Beirut, 6070 Beirut Place,
  Washington, DC 20521-6070
  telephone: [961] (4) 542600, 543600
  FAX: [961] (4) 544136

Lesotho
  chief of mission: Ambassador June Carter PERRY
  embassy: 254 Kingsway, Maseru West (Consular Section)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 333, Maseru 100, Lesotho
  telephone: [266] 22 312666
  FAX: [266] 22 310116

Liberia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Donald E. BOOTH
  embassy: 111 United Nations Drive, P. O. Box 10-0098, Mamba Point,
  1000 Monrovia, 10
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [231] 226-370 through 226-380
  FAX: [231] 226-148

Libya
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires ad
  Interim Gregory L. BERRY
  embassy: Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel, Souq At-Tlat Al-Qadim, Tripoli
  mailing address: US Embassy, 8850 Tripoli Place, Washington, DC
  20521-8850
  telephone: [218] 21-335-1848

Liechtenstein
  the US does not have an embassy in Liechtenstein, but
  the US Ambassador to Switzerland is also accredited to Liechtenstein

Lithuania
  chief of mission: Ambassador John A. CLOUD
  embassy: Akmenu Gatve 6, Vilnius, LT-03106
  mailing address: American Embassy, Almeny gatve 6, Vilnius LT-03106
  telephone: [370] (5) 266 5500
  FAX: [370] (5) 266 5510

Luxembourg
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ann WAGNER
  embassy: 22 Boulevard Emmanuel Servais, L-2535 Luxembourg City
  mailing address: American Embassy Luxembourg, Unit 1410, APO AE
  09126-1410 (official mail); American Embassy Luxembourg, PSC 9, Box
  9500, APO AE 09123 (personal mail)
  telephone: [352] 46 01 23
  FAX: [352] 46 14 01

Macau
  the US has no offices in Macau; US interests are monitored by
  the US Consulate General in Hong Kong

Macedonia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gillian A. MILOVANOVIC
  embassy: Bul. Ilindenska bb, 1000 Skopje
  mailing address: American Embassy Skopje, US Department of State,
  7120 Skopje Place, Washington, DC 20521-7120 (pouch)
  telephone: [389] 2 311-6180
  FAX: [389] 2 311-7103

Madagascar
  chief of mission: Ambassador James D. MCGEE
  embassy: 14-16 Rue Rainitovo, Antsahavola, Antananarivo 101
  mailing address: B. P. 620, Antsahavola, Antananarivo
  telephone: [261] (20) 22-212-57, 22-212-73, 22-209-56
  FAX: [261] (20) 22-345-39

Malawi
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  David GILMOUR
  embassy: Area 40, Plot 24, Kenyatta Road
  mailing address: P. O. Box 30016, Lilongwe 3, Malawi
  telephone: [265] (1) 773 166
  FAX: [265] (1) 770 471

Malaysia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christopher J. LAFLEUR
  embassy: 376 Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur 50440
  mailing address: US Embassy Kuala Lumpur, APO AP 96535-8152
  telephone: [60] (3) 2168-5000
  FAX: [60] (3) 2142-2207

Maldives
  the US does not have an embassy in Maldives; the US
  Ambassador to Sri Lanka is accredited to Maldives and makes periodic
  visits there

Mali
  chief of mission: Ambassador Terrence P. MCCULLEY
  embassy: Rue Rochester NY and Rue Mohamed V, Bamako
  mailing address: B. P. 34, Bamako
  telephone: [223] 222-5470
  FAX: [223] 222-3712

Malta
  chief of mission: Ambassador Molly BORDONARO
  embassy: 3rd Floor, Development House, Saint Anne Street, Floriana,
  VLT 01
  mailing address: P. O. Box 535, Valletta, CMR01
  telephone: [356] 2561 4000
  FAX: [356] 21 243229

Marshall Islands
  chief of mission: Ambassador Greta N. MORRIS
  embassy: Oceanside, Mejen Weto, Long Island, Majuro
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1379, Majuro, Republic of the Marshall
  Islands 96960-1379
  telephone: [692] 247-4011
  FAX: [692] 247-4012

Martinique
  none (overseas department of France)

Mauritania
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Steven KOUTSIS
  embassy: 288 Rue Abdallaye (between Presidency building and Spanish
  Embassy), Nouakchott
  mailing address: BP 222, Nouakchott
  telephone: [222] 525-2660/525-2663
  FAX: [222] 525-1592

Mauritius
  chief of mission: Ambassador John PRICE
  embassy: 4th Floor, Rogers House, John Kennedy Street, Port Louis
  mailing address: international mail: P. O. Box 544, Port Louis; US
  mail: American Embassy, Port Louis, US Department of State,
  Washington, DC 20521-2450
  telephone: [230] 202-4400
  FAX: [230] 208-9534

Mayotte
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Mexico
  chief of mission: Ambassador Antonio O. GARZA, Jr.
  embassy: Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, 06500 Mexico,
  Distrito Federal
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9000, Brownsville, TX 78520-9000
  telephone: [52] (55) 5080-2000
  FAX: [52] (55) 5511-9980
  consulate(s) general: Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana
  consulate(s): Hermosillo, Matamoros, Merida, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo

Micronesia, Federated States of
  chief of mission: Ambassador Suzanne
  K. HALE
  embassy: 101 Upper Pics Road, Kolonia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1286, Kolonia, Pohnpei, 96941
  telephone: [691] 320-2187
  FAX: [691] 320-2186

Moldova
  chief of mission: Ambasador Michael D. KIRBY
  embassy: 103 Mateevici Street, Chisinau MD-2009
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [373] (22) 40-8300
  FAX: [373] (22) 23-3044

Monaco
  the US does not have an embassy in Monaco; the US Consul
  General in Marseille (France) under the authority of the US
  ambassador to France is accredited to Monaco

Mongolia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mark C. MINTON
  embassy: Big Ring Road, 11th Micro Region, Ulaanbaatar
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 300, FPO AP 96521-0002; P.O. Box 1021,
  Ulaanbaatar-13
  telephone: [976] (11) 329095
  FAX: [976] (11) 320776

Montserrat
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Morocco
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas T. RILEY
  embassy: 2 Avenue de Mohamed El Fassi, Rabat
  mailing address: PSC 74, Box 021, APO AE 09718
  telephone: [212] (37) 76 22 65
  FAX: [212] (37) 76 56 61
  consulate(s) general: Casablanca

Mozambique
  chief of mission: Ambassador Helen LA LIME
  embassy: Avenida Kenneth Kuanda 193, Maputo
  mailing address: P. O. Box 783, Maputo
  telephone: [258] (1) 492797
  FAX: [258] (1) 490448

Namibia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joyce BARR
  embassy: Ausplan Building, 14 Lossen Street, Windhoek
  mailing address: Private Bag 12029 Ausspannplatz, Windhoek
  telephone: [264] (61) 221601
  FAX: [264] (61) 229792

Nauru
  the US does not have an embassy in Nauru; the US Ambassador to
  Fiji is accredited to Nauru

Nepal
  chief of mission: Ambassador James F. MORIARTY
  embassy: Panipokhari, Kathmandu
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [977] (1) 411-1179
  FAX: [977] (1) 441-9963

Netherlands
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roland E. ARNALL
  embassy: Lange Voorhout 102, 2514 EJ, The Hague
  mailing address: PSC 71, Box 1000, APO AE 09715
  telephone: [31] (70) 310-2209
  FAX: [31] (70) 361-4688
  consulate(s) general: Amsterdam

Netherlands Antilles
  chief of mission: Consul General Robert E.
  SORENSON
  consulate(s) general: J. B. Gorsiraweg #1, Willemstad, Curacao
  mailing address: P. O. Box 158, Willemstad, Curacao
  telephone: [599] (9) 4613066
  FAX: [599] (9) 4616489

New Caledonia
  none (overseas territory of France)

New Zealand
  chief of mission: Ambassador William P. McCORMICK
  embassy: 29 Fitzherbert Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1190, Wellington; PSC 467, Box 1, APO AP
  96531-1034
  telephone: [64] (4) 462-6000
  FAX: [64] (4) 499-0490
  consulate(s) general: Auckland

Nicaragua
  chief of mission: Ambassador Paul A. TRIVELLI
  embassy: Kilometer 4.5 Carretera Sur, Managua
  mailing address: P.O. Box 327
  telephone: [505] 266-6010
  FAX: [505] 266-3861

Niger
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernadette M. ALLEN
  embassy: Rue Des Ambassades, Niamey
  mailing address: B. P. 11201, Niamey
  telephone: [227] 73 31 69
  FAX: [227] 73 55 60

Nigeria
  chief of mission: Ambassador John CAMPBELL
  embassy: 7 Mambilla Drive, Abuja
  mailing address: P. O. Box 554, Lagos
  telephone: [234] (9) 523-0916/0906/5857/2235/2205
  FAX: [234] (9) 523-0353

Niue
  none (self-governing territory in free association with New
  Zealand)

Norfolk Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Norway
  chief of mission: Ambassador Benson K. WHITNEY
  embassy: Henrik Ibsens gate 48, 0244 Oslo; note - the embassy will
  move to Huseby in the near future
  mailing address: PSC 69, Box 1000, APO AE 09707
  telephone: [47] (22) 44 85 50
  FAX: [47] (22) 44 33 63, 56 27 51

Oman
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gary A. GRAPPO
  embassy: Jameat A'Duwal Al Arabiya Street, Al Khuwair area, Muscat
  mailing address: P. O. Box 202, P.C. 115, Madinat Sultan Qaboos,
  Muscat
  telephone: [968] 24-698989
  FAX: [968] 24-699771

Pakistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ryan CROCKER
  embassy: Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5, Islamabad
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1048, Unit 62200, APO AE 09812-2200
  telephone: [92] (51) 208-0000
  FAX: [92] (51) 2276427
  consulate(s) general: Karachi
  consulate(s): Lahore, Peshawar

Palau
  chief of mission: US ambassador to the Philippines is
  accredited to Palau
  embassy: Koror (no street address)
  mailing address: P. O. Box 6028, Republic of Palau 96940
  telephone: [680] 488-2920, 2990
  FAX: [680] 488-2911

Panama
  chief of mission: Ambassador William A. EATON
  embassy: Avenida Balboa and Calle 37, Apartado Postal 0816-02561,
  Zona 5, Panama City 5
  mailing address: American Embassy Panama, Unit 0945, APO AA 34002
  telephone: [507] 207-7000
  FAX: [507] 227-1964

Papua New Guinea
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert W. FITTS
  embassy: Douglas Street, Port Moresby
  mailing address: 4240 Port Moresby PI, US Department of State,
  Washington DC 20521-4240
  telephone: [675] 321-1455
  FAX: [675] 321-3423

Paraguay
  Ambassador James C. CASON
  embassy: 1776 Avenida Mariscal Lopez, Casilla Postal 402, Asuncion
  mailing address: Unit 4711, APO AA 34036-0001
  telephone: [595] (21) 213-715
  FAX: [595] (21) 213-728

Peru
  chief of mission: Ambassador J. Curtis STRUBLE
  embassy: Avenida La Encalada, Cuadra 17s/n, Surco, Lima 33
  mailing address: P. O. Box 1995, Lima 1; American Embassy (Lima),
  APO AA 34031-5000
  telephone: [51] (1) 434-3000
  FAX: [51] (1) 618-2397

Philippines
  chief of mission: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney
  embassy: 1201 Roxas Boulevard, Ermita 1000, Manila
  mailing address: PSC 500, FPO AP 96515-1000
  telephone: [63] (2) 528-6300
  FAX: [63] (2) 522-4361

Pitcairn Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Poland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Victor ASHE
  embassy: Aleje Ujazdowskie 29/31 00-540 Warsaw
  mailing address: American Embassy Warsaw, US Department of State,
  Washington, DC 20521-5010 (pouch)
  telephone: [48] (22) 504-2000
  FAX: [48] (22) 504-2688
  consulate(s) general: Krakow

Portugal
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alfred J. HOFFMAN Jr.
  embassy: Avenida das Forcas Armadas, 1600-081 Lisbon
  mailing address: Apartado 43033, 1601-301 Lisboa; PSC 83, APO AE
  09726
  telephone: [351] (21) 727-3300
  FAX: [351] (21) 726-9109
  consulate(s): Ponta Delgada (Azores)

Puerto Rico
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

Qatar
  chief of mission: Ambassador Chase UNTERMEYER
  embassy: Al-Luqta District, 22 February Road, Doha
  mailing address: P. O. Box 2399, Doha
  telephone: [974] 488 4101
  FAX: [974] 488 4176

Reunion
  none (overseas department of France)

Romania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nicholas F. TAUBMAN
  embassy: Strada Tudor Arghezi 7-9, Bucharest
  mailing address: American Embassy Bucharest, US Department of State,
  5260 Bucharest Place, Washington, DC 20521-5260 (pouch)
  telephone: [40] (21) 200-3300
  FAX: [40] (21) 200-3442
  information office: Cluj-Napoca

Russia
  chief of mission: Ambassador William J. BURNS
  embassy: Bolshoy Deviatinskiy Pereulok No. 8, 121099 Moscow
  mailing address: PSC-77, APO AE 09721
  telephone: [7] (495) 728-5000
  FAX: [7] (495) 728-5090
  consulate(s) general: Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg

Rwanda
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael ARIETTI
  embassy: 337 Boulevard de la Revolution, Kigali
  mailing address: B. P. 28, Kigali
  telephone: [250] 50 56 01 through 03
  FAX: [250] 57 2128

Saint Helena
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  the US does not have an embassy in Saint Kitts
  and Nevis; the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Saint
  Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia
  the US does not have an embassy in Saint Lucia; the US
  Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Saint Lucia

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  the US does not have an embassy in
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; the US Ambassador to Barbados is
  accredited to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa
  chief of mission: US Ambassador to New Zealand is accredited
  to Samoa
  embassy: Accident Compensation Board (ACB) Building, 5th Floor,
  Beach Road, Apia
  mailing address: P. O. Box 3430, Apia, 0815
  telephone: [685] 21436/21452/21631/22696
  FAX: [685] 22030

San Marino
  the US does not have an embassy in San Marino; the US
  Consul General in Florence (Italy) is accredited to San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe
  the US does not have an embassy in Sao Tome
  and Principe; the Ambassador to Gabon is accredited to Sao Tome and
  Principe on a nonresident basis and makes periodic visits to the
  islands

Saudi Arabia
  chief of mission: Ambassador James C. OBERWETTER
  embassy: Collector Road M, Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh
  mailing address: American Embassy, Unit 61307, APO AE 09803-1307;
  International Mail: P. O. Box 94309, Riyadh 11693
  telephone: [966] (1) 488-3800
  FAX: [966] (1) 488-3989
  consulate(s) general: Dhahran, Jiddah (Jeddah)

Senegal
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janice L. JACOBS
  embassy: Avenue Jean XXIII at the corner of Rue Kleber, Dakar
  mailing address: B. P. 49, Dakar
  telephone: [221] 823-4296
  FAX: [221] 822-2991

Serbia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael C. POLT
  embassy: Kneza Milosa 50, 11000 Belgrade
  mailing address: 5070 Belgrade Place, Washington, DC 20521-5070
  telephone: [381] (11) 361-9344
  FAX: [381] (11) 361-8230
  note: there is a branch office in Pristina at 30 Nazim Hikmet 38000
  Prstina, Kososvo; telephone: [381] (38) 549-516; FAX:[381] (38)
  549-890

Seychelles
  the US does not have an embassy in Seychelles; the
  ambassador to Mauritius is accredited to the Seychelles

Sierra Leone
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas N. HULL
  embassy: Corner of Walpole and Siaka Stevens Streets, Freetown
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [232] (22) 226481 through 226485
  FAX: [232] (22) 225471

Singapore
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patricia L. HERBOLD
  embassy: 27 Napier Road, Singapore 258508
  mailing address: FPO AP 96507-0001
  telephone: [65] 6476-9100
  FAX: [65] 6476-9340

Slovakia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rodolphe "Skip" M. VALLEE
  embassy: Hviezdoslavovo Namestie 4, 81102 Bratislava
  mailing address: P.O. Box 309, 814 99 Bratislava
  telephone: [421] (2) 5443-3338
  FAX: [421] (2) 5443-0096

Slovenia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas B. ROBERTSON
  embassy: Presernova 31, 1000 Ljubljana
  mailing address: American Embassy Ljubljana, US Department of State,
  7140 Ljubljana Place, Washington, DC 20521-7140
  telephone: [386] (1) 200-5500
  FAX: [386] (1) 200-5555

Solomon Islands
  the US does not have an embassy in Solomon Islands
  (embassy closed July 1993); the ambassador to Papua New Guinea is
  accredited to the Solomon Islands

Somalia
  the US does not have an embassy in Somalia; US interests are
  represented by the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya at United Nations
  Avenue, Nairobi; mailing address: Unit 64100, Nairobi; APO AE 09831;
  telephone: [254] (20) 363-6000; FAX [254] (20) 363-6157

South Africa
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jendayi E. FRAZER
  embassy: 877 Pretorius Street, Pretoria
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9536, Pretoria 0001
  telephone: [27] (12) 342-1048
  FAX: [27] (12) 342-2244
  consulate(s) general: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  none (overseas
  territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina)

Spain
  chief of mission: Ambassador Eduardo AGUIRRE, Jr.
  embassy: Serrano 75, 28006 Madrid
  mailing address: PSC 61, APO AE 09642
  telephone: [34] (91) 587-2200
  FAX: [34] (91) 587-2303
  consulate(s) general: Barcelona

Sri Lanka
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert O. BLAKE, Jr.
  embassy: 210 Galle Road, Colombo 3
  mailing address: P. O. Box 106, Colombo
  telephone: [94] (11) 249-8500
  FAX: [94] (11) 243-7345

Sudan
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Cameron HUME
  embassy: Sharia Ali Abdul Latif Avenue, Khartoum
  mailing address: P. O. Box 699, Khartoum; APO AE 09829
  telephone: [249] (183) 774701
  FAX: [249] (183) 774137
  note: US Consul in Cairo is providing backup service for Khartoum;
  consular services are being established in Juba (southern Sudan)

Suriname
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lisa Bobbie SCHREIBER HUGHES
  embassy: Dr. Sophie Redmondstraat 129, Paramaribo
  mailing address: US Department of State, 3390 Paramaribo Place,
  Washington, DC, 20521-3390
  telephone: [597] 472-900
  FAX: [597] 425-690

Swaziland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lewis LUCKE
  embassy: Central Bank Building, Mahlokahla Street, Mbabane
  mailing address: P. O. Box 199, Mbabane
  telephone: [268] 404-6441 through 404-6445
  FAX: [268] 404-5959

Sweden
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael M. WOOD
  embassy: Dag Hammarskjolds VAG 31, SE-11589 Stockholm
  mailing address: American Embassy Stockholm, US Department of State,
  5750 Stockholm Place, Washington, DC 20521-5750 (pouch)
  telephone: [46] (08) 783 53 00
  FAX: [46] (08) 661 19 64

Switzerland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Peter R. CONEWAY
  embassy: Jubilaumsstrasse 93, CH-3005 Bern
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [41] (031) 357 70 11
  FAX: [41] (031) 357 73 44

Syria
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Michael CORBIN
  embassy: Abou Roumaneh, Al-Mansour Street, No. 2, Damascus
  mailing address: P. O. Box 29, Damascus
  telephone: [963] (11) 333-1342
  FAX: [963] (11) 224-7938

Taiwan
  none; unofficial commercial and cultural relations with the
  people on Taiwan are maintained through an unofficial
  instrumentality - the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - which has
  offices in the US and Taiwan; US office at 1700 N. Moore St., Suite
  1700, Arlington, VA 22209-1996, telephone: [1] (703) 525-8474, FAX:
  [1] (703) 841-1385); Taiwan offices at #7 Lane 134, Hsin Yi Road,
  Section 3, Taipei, Taiwan, telephone: [886] (2) 2162-2000, FAX:
  [886] (2) 2162-2251; #2 Chung Cheng 3rd Road, 5th Floor, Kao-hsiung,
  Taiwan, telephone: [886] (7) 238-7744, FAX: [886] (7) 238-5237; and
  the American Trade Center, Room 3208 International Trade Building,
  Taipei World Trade Center, 333 Keelung Road Section 1, Taipei,
  Taiwan 10548, telephone: [886] (2) 2720-1550, FAX: [886] (2)
  2757-7162

Tajikistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tracey Ann JACOBSON
  embassy: 109-A Ismoili Somoni Ave., Dushanbe 734003
  mailing address: 7090 Dushanbe Place, Dulles, VA 20189
  telephone: [992] (37) 229-20-00
  FAX: [992] (37) 229-20-50

Tanzania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael L. RETZER
  embassy: 140 Msese Road, Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam
  mailing address: P. O. Box 9123, Dar es Salaam
  telephone: [255] (22) 2666-010 through 2666-015
  FAX: [255] (22) 2666-701, 2668-501

Thailand
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ralph L. BOYCE
  embassy: 120-122 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330
  mailing address: APO AP 96546
  telephone: [66] (2) 205-4000
  FAX: [66] (2) 254-2990, 205-4131
  consulate(s) general: Chiang Mai

Togo
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gregory ENGLE
  embassy: Angle Rue Kouenou and Rue 15 Beniglato, Lome
  mailing address: B. P. 852, Lome
  telephone: [228] 221 29 91 through 221 29 94
  FAX: [228] 221 79 52

Tokelau
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Tonga
  the US does not have an embassy in Tonga; the ambassador to
  Fiji is accredited to Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roy L. AUSTIN
  embassy: 15 Queen's Park West, Port-of-Spain
  mailing address: P. O. Box 752, Port-of-Spain
  telephone: [1] (868) 622-6371 through 6376
  FAX: [1] (868) 628-5462

Tunisia
  chief of mission: Ambassador designate Robert F. GODEC
  embassy: Zone Nord-Est des Berges du Lac Nord de Tunis 1053
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [216] 71 107-000
  FAX: [216] 71 107-090

Turkey
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ross WILSON
  embassy: 110 Ataturk Boulevard, Kavaklidere, 06100 Ankara
  mailing address: PSC 93, Box 5000, APO AE 09823
  telephone: [90] (312) 455-5555
  FAX: [90] (312) 467-0019
  consulate(s) general: Istanbul
  consulate(s): Adana; note - there is a Consular Agent in Izmir

Turkmenistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge
  d'Affaires Jennifer L. BRUSH
  embassy: No. 9 1984 Street (formerly Pushkin Street), Ashgabat,
  Turkmenistan 774000
  mailing address: 7070 Ashgabat Place, Washington, DC 20521-7070
  telephone: [9] (9312) 35-00-45
  FAX: [9] (9312) 39-26-14

Turks and Caicos Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Tuvalu
  the US does not have an embassy in Tuvalu; the US ambassador
  to Fiji is accredited to Tuvalu

Uganda
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  William FITZGERALD
  embassy: 1577 Ggaba Rd., Kampala
  mailing address: P. O. Box 7007, Kampala
  telephone: [256] (41) 234-142
  FAX: [256] (41) 258-451

Ukraine
  chief of mission: Ambassador William B. TAYLOR
  embassy: 10 Yurii Kotsiubynsky Street, 04053 Kyiv
  mailing address: 5850 Kiev Place, Washington, DC 20521-5850
  telephone: [380] (44) 490-4000
  FAX: [380] (44) 490-4085

United Arab Emirates
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michele J. SISON
  embassy: Embassies District, Plot 38 Sector W59-02, Street No. 4,
  Abu Dhabi
  mailing address: P. O. Box 4009, Abu Dhabi
  telephone: [971] (2) 414-2200
  FAX: [971] (2) 414-2603
  consulate(s) general: Dubai

United Kingdom
  chief of mission: Ambassador Robert Holmes TUTTLE
  embassy: 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 1AE
  mailing address: PSC 801, Box 40, FPO AE 09498-4040
  telephone: [44] (0) 20 7499-9000
  FAX: [44] (0) 20 7629-9124
  consulate(s) general: Belfast, Edinburgh

Uruguay
  chief of mission: Charge d'Affaires James D. NEALON
  embassy: Lauro Muller 1776, Montevideo 11200
  mailing address: APO AA 34035
  telephone: [598] (2) 418-7777
  FAX: [598] (2) 418-8611

Uzbekistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jon PURNELL
  embassy: 3 Moyqo'rq'on, 5th Block, Yunusobod District, Tashkent
  100093
  mailing address: use embassy street address
  telephone: [998] (71) 120-5450
  FAX: [998] (71) 120-6335

Vanuatu
  the US does not have an embassy in Vanuatu; the ambassador
  to Papua New Guinea is accredited to Vanuatu

Venezuela
  chief of mission: Ambassador William R. BROWNFIELD
  embassy: Calle F con Calle Suapure, Urbanizacion Colinas de Valle
  Arriba, Caracas 1080
  mailing address: P. O. Box 62291, Caracas 1060-A; APO AA 34037
  telephone: [58] (212) 975-9234, 975-6411
  FAX: [58] (212) 975-8991

Vietnam
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael W. MARINE
  embassy: 7 Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi
  mailing address: PSC 461, Box 400, FPO AP 96521-0002
  telephone: [84] (4) 772-1500
  FAX: [84] (4) 772-1510
  consulate(s) general: Ho Chi Minh City

Virgin Islands
  none (territory of the US)

Wallis and Futuna
  none (overseas territory of France)

Western Sahara
  none

Yemen
  chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas C. KRAJESKI
  embassy: Sa'awan Street, Sanaa
  mailing address: P. O. Box 22347, Sanaa
  telephone: [967] (1) 755-2000 ext. 2153 or 2266
  FAX: [967] (1) 303-182

Zambia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carmen M. MARTINEZ
  embassy: corner of Independence and United Nations Avenues, Lusaka
  mailing address: P. O. Box 31617, Lusaka
  telephone: [260] (1) 250-955
  FAX: [260] (1) 252-225

Zimbabwe
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christopher W. DELL
  embassy: 172 Herbert Chitepo Avenue, Harare
  mailing address: P. O. Box 3340, Harare
  telephone: [263] (4) 250-593 and 250-594
  FAX: [263] (4) 796-488

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2008  Transportation - note


Arctic Ocean
  sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes;
  the Northwest Passage (North America) and Northern Sea Route
  (Eurasia) are important seasonal waterways

Atlantic Ocean
  Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two
  important waterways; significant domestic commercial and
  recreational use of Intracoastal Waterway on central and south
  Atlantic seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of US

Baker Island
  there is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast

Georgia
  transportation network is in poor condition resulting from
  ethnic conflict, criminal activities, and fuel shortages; network
  lacks maintenance and repair

Howland Island
  Earhart Light is a day beacon near the middle of the
  west coast that was partially destroyed during World War II, but has
  since been rebuilt; named in memory of famed aviatrix Amelia EARHART

Iles Eparses
  aids to navigation - lighthouses: Europa Island 18m;
  Juan de Nova Island (W side) 37m; Tromelin Island (NW point) 11m

Jarvis Island
  there is a day beacon near the middle of the west coast

Midway Islands
  airfield serves as an emergency landing site for
  commercial aircraft crossing the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean
  Inside Passage offers protected waters from southeast
  Alaska to Puget Sound (Washington state)

Saint Helena
  there is no air connection to Saint Helena or Tristan
  da Cunha; an international airport for Saint Helena is in
  development for 2010

Southern Ocean
  Drake Passage offers alternative to transit through
  the Panama Canal

Wake Island
  there are no commercial or civilian flights to and from
  Wake Island, except in direct support of island missions; emergency
  landing is available

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2010  Age structure (%)


Afghanistan
  0-14 years: 44.6% (male 7,095,117/female 6,763,759)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 8,436,716/female 8,008,463)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 366,642/female 386,300) (2006 est.)

Albania
  0-14 years: 24.8% (male 464,954/female 423,003)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 1,214,942/female 1,158,562)
  65 years and over: 8.9% (male 148,028/female 172,166) (2006 est.)

Algeria
  0-14 years: 28.1% (male 4,722,076/female 4,539,713)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 11,133,802/female 10,964,502)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 735,444/female 834,554) (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  0-14 years: 34.7% (male 10,388/female 9,654)
  15-64 years: 62.4% (male 18,698/female 17,350)
  65 years and over: 2.9% (male 633/female 1,071) (2006 est.)

Andorra
  0-14 years: 14.7% (male 5,456/female 4,994)
  15-64 years: 71.4% (male 26,632/female 24,172)
  65 years and over: 14% (male 4,918/female 5,029) (2006 est.)

Angola
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 2,678,185/female 2,625,933)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 3,291,954/female 3,195,688)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 148,944/female 186,367) (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  0-14 years: 22.8% (male 1,557/female 1,510)
  15-64 years: 70.4% (male 4,878/female 4,608)
  65 years and over: 6.9% (male 412/female 512) (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0-14 years: 27.6% (male 9,716/female 9,375)
  15-64 years: 68.5% (male 23,801/female 23,524)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 1,020/female 1,672) (2006 est.)

Argentina
  0-14 years: 25.2% (male 5,153,164/female 4,921,625)
  15-64 years: 64.1% (male 12,804,376/female 12,798,731)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 1,740,118/female 2,503,819) (2006
  est.)

Armenia
  0-14 years: 20.5% (male 322,189/female 286,944)
  15-64 years: 68.4% (male 949,975/female 1,085,484)
  65 years and over: 11.1% (male 133,411/female 198,369) (2006 est.)

Aruba
  0-14 years: 19.5% (male 7,175/female 6,849)
  15-64 years: 68.2% (male 23,894/female 25,140)
  65 years and over: 12.3% (male 3,616/female 5,217) (2006 est.)

Australia
  0-14 years: 19.6% (male 2,031,313/female 1,936,802)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 6,881,863/female 6,764,709)
  65 years and over: 13.1% (male 1,170,589/female 1,478,806) (2006
  est.)

Austria
  0-14 years: 15.4% (male 645,337/female 614,602)
  15-64 years: 67.5% (male 2,782,712/female 2,749,620)
  65 years and over: 17.1% (male 567,752/female 832,857) (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  0-14 years: 25.8% (male 1,046,501/female 1,011,492)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 2,573,134/female 2,706,275)
  65 years and over: 7.8% (male 246,556/female 377,661) (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  0-14 years: 27.5% (male 41,799/female 41,733)
  15-64 years: 66.1% (male 98,847/female 102,074)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 7,891/female 11,426) (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  0-14 years: 27.4% (male 96,567/female 94,650)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 280,272/female 202,451)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 12,753/female 11,892) (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  0-14 years: 32.9% (male 24,957,997/female 23,533,894)
  15-64 years: 63.6% (male 47,862,774/female 45,917,674)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 2,731,578/female 2,361,435) (2006 est.)

Barbados
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 28,160/female 28,039)
  15-64 years: 71.1% (male 97,755/female 101,223)
  65 years and over: 8.8% (male 9,508/female 15,227) (2006 est.)

Belarus
  0-14 years: 15.7% (male 825,823/female 791,741)
  15-64 years: 69.7% (male 3,490,442/female 3,682,950)
  65 years and over: 14.6% (male 498,976/female 1,003,079) (2006 est.)

Belgium
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 883,254/female 846,099)
  15-64 years: 65.9% (male 3,450,879/female 3,389,565)
  65 years and over: 17.4% (male 746,569/female 1,062,701) (2006 est.)

Belize
  0-14 years: 39.5% (male 57,923/female 55,678)
  15-64 years: 57% (male 82,960/female 81,046)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 4,888/female 5,235) (2006 est.)

Benin
  0-14 years: 44.1% (male 1,751,709/female 1,719,138)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 2,067,248/female 2,138,957)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 75,694/female 110,198) (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  0-14 years: 18.6% (male 6,146/female 6,098)
  15-64 years: 69.2% (male 22,562/female 22,954)
  65 years and over: 12.2% (male 3,479/female 4,534) (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  0-14 years: 38.9% (male 458,801/female 426,947)
  15-64 years: 57.1% (male 671,057/female 631,078)
  65 years and over: 4% (male 46,217/female 45,623) (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  0-14 years: 35% (male 1,603,982/female 1,542,319)
  15-64 years: 60.4% (male 2,660,806/female 2,771,807)
  65 years and over: 4.6% (male 182,412/female 227,720) (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  0-14 years: 15.5% (male 359,739/female
  336,978)
  15-64 years: 70.1% (male 1,590,923/female 1,564,665)
  65 years and over: 14.4% (male 265,637/female 381,034) (2006 est.)

Botswana
  0-14 years: 38.3% (male 319,531/female 309,074)
  15-64 years: 57.9% (male 460,692/female 488,577)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 23,374/female 38,585) (2006 est.)

Brazil
  0-14 years: 25.8% (male 24,687,656/female 23,742,998)
  15-64 years: 68.1% (male 63,548,331/female 64,617,539)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 4,712,675/female 6,769,028) (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  0-14 years: 20.5% (male 2,403/female 2,331)
  15-64 years: 74.3% (male 8,811/female 8,340)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 636/female 577) (2006 est.)

Brunei
  0-14 years: 28.1% (male 54,411/female 52,134)
  15-64 years: 68.8% (male 138,129/female 123,017)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 5,584/female 6,169) (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  0-14 years: 13.9% (male 527,881/female 502,334)
  15-64 years: 68.7% (male 2,496,054/female 2,579,680)
  65 years and over: 17.3% (male 527,027/female 752,391) (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  0-14 years: 46.8% (male 3,267,202/female 3,235,190)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 3,513,559/female 3,538,623)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 140,083/female 208,315) (2006 est.)

Burma
  0-14 years: 26.4% (male 6,335,236/female 6,181,216)
  15-64 years: 68.5% (male 16,011,723/female 16,449,626)
  65 years and over: 5.1% (male 1,035,853/female 1,368,979) (2006 est.)

Burundi
  0-14 years: 46.3% (male 1,884,825/female 1,863,200)
  15-64 years: 51.1% (male 2,051,451/female 2,082,017)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 83,432/female 125,143) (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  0-14 years: 35.6% (male 2,497,595/female 2,447,754)
  15-64 years: 61% (male 4,094,946/female 4,370,159)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 180,432/female 290,541) (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  0-14 years: 41.2% (male 3,614,430/female 3,531,047)
  15-64 years: 55.5% (male 4,835,453/female 4,796,276)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 260,342/female 303,154) (2006 est.)

Canada
  0-14 years: 17.6% (male 2,992,811/female 2,848,388)
  15-64 years: 69% (male 11,482,452/female 11,368,286)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 1,883,008/female 2,523,987) (2006
  est.)

Cape Verde
  0-14 years: 37.9% (male 80,594/female 79,126)
  15-64 years: 55.3% (male 113,450/female 119,423)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 10,542/female 17,844) (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  0-14 years: 20.7% (male 4,708/female 4,700)
  15-64 years: 70.9% (male 15,707/female 16,504)
  65 years and over: 8.4% (male 1,793/female 2,024) (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  0-14 years: 41.9% (male 907,629/female
  897,153)
  15-64 years: 53.9% (male 1,146,346/female 1,173,268)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 71,312/female 107,648) (2006 est.)

Chad
  0-14 years: 47.9% (male 2,396,393/female 2,369,261)
  15-64 years: 49.3% (male 2,355,940/female 2,550,535)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 107,665/female 164,407) (2006 est.)

Chile
  0-14 years: 24.7% (male 2,035,278/female 1,944,754)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 5,403,525/female 5,420,497)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 555,075/female 775,090) (2006 est.)

China
  0-14 years: 20.8% (male 145,461,833/female 128,445,739)
  15-64 years: 71.4% (male 482,439,115/female 455,960,489)
  65 years and over: 7.7% (male 48,562,635/female 53,103,902) (2006
  est.)

Christmas Island
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Colombia
  0-14 years: 30.3% (male 6,683,079/female 6,528,563)
  15-64 years: 64.5% (male 13,689,384/female 14,416,439)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 996,022/female 1,279,548) (2006 est.)

Comoros
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 148,009/female 147,038)
  15-64 years: 54.3% (male 185,107/female 190,139)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 9,672/female 10,983) (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  0-14 years: 47.4% (male
  14,906,488/female 14,798,210)
  15-64 years: 50.1% (male 15,597,353/female 15,793,350)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 632,143/female 933,007) (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  0-14 years: 46.4% (male 864,407/female
  853,728)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 930,390/female 945,545)
  65 years and over: 2.9% (male 44,430/female 63,814) (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  0-14 years: 34.1% (male 2,718/female 2,388)
  15-64 years: 59.5% (male 4,531/female 4,395)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 489/female 469) (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  0-14 years: 28.3% (male 590,261/female 563,196)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 1,359,750/female 1,329,346)
  65 years and over: 5.7% (male 108,041/female 124,667) (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  0-14 years: 40.8% (male 3,546,674/female 3,653,990)
  15-64 years: 56.4% (male 5,024,575/female 4,939,677)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 238,793/female 251,134) (2006 est.)

Croatia
  0-14 years: 16.2% (male 373,638/female 354,261)
  15-64 years: 67% (male 1,497,958/female 1,515,314)
  65 years and over: 16.8% (male 288,480/female 465,098) (2006 est.)

Cuba
  0-14 years: 19.1% (male 1,117,677/female 1,058,512)
  15-64 years: 70.3% (male 4,001,161/female 3,999,303)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 554,148/female 652,019) (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  0-14 years: 20.4% (male 81,776/female 78,272)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 270,254/female 263,354)
  65 years and over: 11.6% (male 39,536/female 51,109) (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  0-14 years: 14.4% (male 755,098/female 714,703)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 3,656,021/female 3,629,036)
  65 years and over: 14.5% (male 576,264/female 904,333) (2006 est.)

Denmark
  0-14 years: 18.7% (male 523,257/female 496,697)
  15-64 years: 66.1% (male 1,815,240/female 1,787,406)
  65 years and over: 15.2% (male 355,656/female 472,405) (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  0-14 years: 43.3% (male 105,760/female 105,068)
  15-64 years: 53.3% (male 135,119/female 124,367)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 8,183/female 8,033) (2006 est.)

Dominica
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 9,084/female 8,885)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 23,419/female 22,079)
  65 years and over: 7.9% (male 2,186/female 3,257) (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 1,531,145/female
  1,464,076)
  15-64 years: 61.9% (male 2,902,098/female 2,782,608)
  65 years and over: 5.5% (male 235,016/female 269,041) (2006 est.)

East Timor
  0-14 years: 36.3% (male 196,293/female 189,956)
  15-64 years: 60.6% (male 328,111/female 315,401)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 16,072/female 16,944) (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  0-14 years: 33% (male 2,281,499/female 2,195,551)
  15-64 years: 61.9% (male 4,178,653/female 4,210,766)
  65 years and over: 5% (male 319,719/female 361,322) (2006 est.)

Egypt
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 13,172,641/female 12,548,346)
  15-64 years: 62.9% (male 25,102,754/female 24,519,698)
  65 years and over: 4.5% (male 1,510,280/female 2,033,288) (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  0-14 years: 36.3% (male 1,265,080/female 1,212,216)
  15-64 years: 58.5% (male 1,900,372/female 2,092,251)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 156,292/female 196,167) (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  0-14 years: 41.7% (male 113,083/female 111,989)
  15-64 years: 54.5% (male 141,914/female 152,645)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 8,886/female 11,592) (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  0-14 years: 44% (male 1,059,458/female 1,046,955)
  15-64 years: 52.5% (male 1,244,153/female 1,268,189)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 82,112/female 86,127) (2006 est.)

Estonia
  0-14 years: 15.2% (male 103,367/female 97,587)
  15-64 years: 67.6% (male 427,043/female 468,671)
  65 years and over: 17.2% (male 75,347/female 152,318) (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 16,373,718/female 16,280,766)
  15-64 years: 53.6% (male 19,999,482/female 20,077,014)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 929,349/female 1,117,652) (2006 est.)

European Union
  0-14 years: 16.03% (male 37,608,010/female 35,632,351)
  15-64 years: 67.17% (male 154,439,536/female 152,479,619)
  65 years and over: 16.81% (male 31,515,921/female 45,277,821) (2006
  est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0-14 years: 20.9% (male 4,940/female 4,952)
  15-64 years: 65.1% (male 16,247/female 14,522)
  65 years and over: 13.9% (male 2,976/female 3,609) (2006 est.)

Fiji
  0-14 years: 31.1% (male 143,847/female 138,061)
  15-64 years: 64.6% (male 293,072/female 292,312)
  65 years and over: 4.3% (male 17,583/female 21,074) (2006 est.)

Finland
  0-14 years: 17.1% (male 455,420/female 438,719)
  15-64 years: 66.7% (male 1,766,674/female 1,724,858)
  65 years and over: 16.2% (male 337,257/female 508,444) (2006 est.)

France
  0-14 years: 18.3% (male 5,704,152/female 5,427,213)
  15-64 years: 65.3% (male 19,886,228/female 19,860,506)
  65 years and over: 16.4% (male 4,103,883/female 5,894,154) (2006
  est.)

French Guiana
  0-14 years: 28.9% (male 29,540/female 28,210)
  15-64 years: 64.8% (male 69,302/female 59,980)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 6,350/female 6,127) (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 36,541/female 34,999)
  15-64 years: 67.9% (male 96,769/female 89,593)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 8,428/female 8,248) (2006 est.)

Gabon
  0-14 years: 42.1% (male 300,914/female 299,141)
  15-64 years: 53.9% (male 383,137/female 384,876)
  65 years and over: 4% (male 23,576/female 33,262) (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  0-14 years: 44.3% (male 365,157/female 361,821)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 431,627/female 438,159)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 22,889/female 21,911) (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  0-14 years: 48.1% (male 351,642/female 335,060)
  15-64 years: 49.4% (male 360,147/female 345,318)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 15,231/female 21,359) (2006 est.)

Georgia
  0-14 years: 17.3% (male 428,056/female 380,193)
  15-64 years: 66.2% (male 1,482,908/female 1,602,064)
  65 years and over: 16.5% (male 308,905/female 459,347) (2006 est.)

Germany
  0-14 years: 14.1% (male 5,973,437/female 5,665,971)
  15-64 years: 66.4% (male 27,889,936/female 26,874,858)
  65 years and over: 19.4% (male 6,602,478/female 9,415,619) (2006
  est.)

Ghana
  0-14 years: 38.8% (male 4,395,744/female 4,288,720)
  15-64 years: 57.7% (male 6,450,828/female 6,483,781)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 371,428/female 419,071) (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  0-14 years: 17.5% (male 2,499/female 2,388)
  15-64 years: 66% (male 9,443/female 8,999)
  65 years and over: 16.5% (male 2,059/female 2,540) (2006 est.)

Greece
  0-14 years: 14.3% (male 790,291/female 742,902)
  15-64 years: 66.7% (male 3,562,251/female 3,566,097)
  65 years and over: 19% (male 891,620/female 1,134,897) (2006 est.)

Greenland
  0-14 years: 24.5% (male 7,072/female 6,740)
  15-64 years: 68.9% (male 20,904/female 17,919)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 1,768/female 1,958) (2006 est.)

Grenada
  0-14 years: 33.4% (male 15,097/female 14,820)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 30,106/female 26,764)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 1,394/female 1,522) (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  0-14 years: 23.6% (male 54,725/female 52,348)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 150,934/female 153,094)
  65 years and over: 9.2% (male 17,353/female 24,322) (2006 est.)

Guam
  0-14 years: 29% (male 25,703/female 23,903)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 56,020/female 53,894)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 5,391/female 6,108) (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  0-14 years: 41.1% (male 2,573,359/female 2,479,098)
  15-64 years: 55.5% (male 3,353,630/female 3,468,184)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 194,784/female 224,490) (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  0-14 years: 15% (male 4,998/female 4,842)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 21,752/female 22,170)
  65 years and over: 17.8% (male 4,926/female 6,721) (2006 est.)

Guinea
  0-14 years: 44.4% (male 2,171,733/female 2,128,027)
  15-64 years: 52.5% (male 2,541,140/female 2,542,847)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 134,239/female 172,236) (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  0-14 years: 41.4% (male 297,623/female 298,942)
  15-64 years: 55.6% (male 384,559/female 417,811)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 18,048/female 25,046) (2006 est.)

Guyana
  0-14 years: 26.2% (male 102,551/female 98,772)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 265,193/female 260,892)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 17,043/female 22,794) (2006 est.)

Haiti
  0-14 years: 42.4% (male 1,770,523/female 1,749,853)
  15-64 years: 54.2% (male 2,201,957/female 2,301,886)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 125,298/female 158,987) (2006 est.)

Honduras
  0-14 years: 39.9% (male 1,491,170/female 1,429,816)
  15-64 years: 56.7% (male 2,076,727/female 2,077,975)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 113,747/female 137,061) (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  0-14 years: 13.5% (male 488,607/female 445,593)
  15-64 years: 73.7% (male 2,495,679/female 2,620,336)
  65 years and over: 12.8% (male 413,031/female 477,186) (2006 est.)

Hungary
  0-14 years: 15.6% (male 799,163/female 755,389)
  15-64 years: 69.2% (male 3,403,375/female 3,505,640)
  65 years and over: 15.2% (male 550,297/female 967,470) (2006 est.)

Iceland
  0-14 years: 21.7% (male 33,021/female 32,021)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 100,944/female 98,239)
  65 years and over: 11.7% (male 15,876/female 19,287) (2006 est.)

India
  0-14 years: 30.8% (male 173,478,760/female 163,852,827)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 363,876,219/female 340,181,764)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 27,258,020/female 26,704,405) (2006
  est.)

Indonesia
  0-14 years: 28.8% (male 35,995,919/female 34,749,582)
  15-64 years: 65.8% (male 80,796,794/female 80,754,238)
  65 years and over: 5.4% (male 5,737,473/female 7,418,733) (2006 est.)

Iran
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 9,204,785/female 8,731,429)
  15-64 years: 69% (male 24,133,919/female 23,245,255)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 1,653,827/female 1,719,218) (2006 est.)

Iraq
  0-14 years: 39.7% (male 5,398,645/female 5,231,760)
  15-64 years: 57.3% (male 7,776,257/female 7,576,726)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 376,700/female 423,295) (2006 est.)

Ireland
  0-14 years: 20.9% (male 437,903/female 409,774)
  15-64 years: 67.6% (male 1,373,771/female 1,370,452)
  65 years and over: 11.6% (male 207,859/female 262,476) (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  0-14 years: 17.3% (male 6,669/female 6,350)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 24,884/female 24,678)
  65 years and over: 17% (male 5,197/female 7,663) (2006 est.)

Israel
  0-14 years: 26.3% (male 855,054/female 815,619)
  15-64 years: 63.9% (male 2,044,135/female 2,016,647)
  65 years and over: 9.8% (male 266,671/female 353,991) (2006 est.)

Italy
  0-14 years: 13.8% (male 4,147,149/female 3,899,980)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 19,530,512/female 19,105,841)
  65 years and over: 19.7% (male 4,771,858/female 6,678,169) (2006
  est.)

Jamaica
  0-14 years: 33.1% (male 464,297/female 449,181)
  15-64 years: 59.6% (male 808,718/female 835,394)
  65 years and over: 7.3% (male 90,100/female 110,434) (2006 est.)

Japan
  0-14 years: 14.2% (male 9,309,524/female 8,849,476)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 42,158,122/female 41,611,754)
  65 years and over: 20% (male 10,762,585/female 14,772,150) (2006
  est.)

Jersey
  0-14 years: 17.2% (male 8,139/female 7,552)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 30,407/female 30,691)
  65 years and over: 15.7% (male 6,299/female 7,996) (2006 est.)

Jordan
  0-14 years: 33.8% (male 1,018,070/female 976,442)
  15-64 years: 62.4% (male 1,966,794/female 1,716,255)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 111,636/female 117,563) (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  0-14 years: 23% (male 1,792,685/female 1,717,294)
  15-64 years: 68.8% (male 5,122,027/female 5,357,819)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 438,541/female 804,878) (2006 est.)

Kenya
  0-14 years: 42.6% (male 7,454,765/female 7,322,130)
  15-64 years: 55.1% (male 9,631,488/female 9,508,068)
  65 years and over: 2.3% (male 359,354/female 432,012) (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  0-14 years: 38.6% (male 20,608/female 20,060)
  15-64 years: 58.1% (male 30,216/female 31,004)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 1,517/female 2,027) (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  0-14 years: 23.8% (male 2,788,944/female 2,708,331)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 7,762,442/female 7,955,522)
  65 years and over: 8.2% (male 667,792/female 1,229,988) (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  0-14 years: 18.9% (male 4,844,083/female 4,368,139)
  15-64 years: 71.9% (male 17,886,148/female 17,250,862)
  65 years and over: 9.2% (male 1,818,677/female 2,678,914) (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  0-14 years: 26.9% (male 331,768/female 319,895)
  15-64 years: 70.3% (male 1,085,721/female 613,746)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 42,460/female 24,803) (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  0-14 years: 30.9% (male 821,976/female 789,687)
  15-64 years: 62.9% (male 1,607,396/female 1,669,612)
  65 years and over: 6.2% (male 126,847/female 198,380) (2006 est.)

Laos
  0-14 years: 41.4% (male 1,324,207/female 1,313,454)
  15-64 years: 55.4% (male 1,744,206/female 1,786,139)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 89,451/female 111,024) (2006 est.)

Latvia
  0-14 years: 14% (male 162,562/female 155,091)
  15-64 years: 69.6% (male 769,004/female 815,042)
  65 years and over: 16.4% (male 121,646/female 251,390) (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  0-14 years: 26.5% (male 523,220/female 502,372)
  15-64 years: 66.6% (male 1,235,915/female 1,342,540)
  65 years and over: 7% (male 122,155/female 147,848) (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  0-14 years: 36.8% (male 374,102/female 369,527)
  15-64 years: 58.3% (male 572,957/female 606,846)
  65 years and over: 4.9% (male 39,461/female 59,438) (2006 est.)

Liberia
  0-14 years: 43.1% (male 656,016/female 653,734)
  15-64 years: 54.2% (male 816,443/female 832,152)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 40,591/female 43,068) (2006 est.)

Libya
  0-14 years: 33.6% (male 1,012,748/female 969,978)
  15-64 years: 62.2% (male 1,891,643/female 1,778,621)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 121,566/female 126,198) (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  0-14 years: 17.4% (male 2,922/female 2,988)
  15-64 years: 70.2% (male 11,842/female 12,022)
  65 years and over: 12.4% (male 1,773/female 2,440) (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  0-14 years: 15.5% (male 284,888/female 270,458)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 1,210,557/female 1,265,542)
  65 years and over: 15.5% (male 190,496/female 363,965) (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  0-14 years: 18.9% (male 46,118/female 43,356)
  15-64 years: 66.5% (male 159,498/female 156,075)
  65 years and over: 14.6% (male 28,027/female 41,339) (2006 est.)

Macau
  0-14 years: 16.2% (male 37,934/female 35,412)
  15-64 years: 75.9% (male 163,975/female 179,830)
  65 years and over: 7.9% (male 15,099/female 20,875) (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 213,486/female 199,127)
  15-64 years: 68.9% (male 711,853/female 701,042)
  65 years and over: 11% (male 98,618/female 126,428) (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  0-14 years: 44.8% (male 4,171,821/female 4,158,288)
  15-64 years: 52.2% (male 4,809,173/female 4,900,675)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 249,414/female 306,098) (2006 est.)

Malawi
  0-14 years: 46.5% (male 3,056,522/female 3,000,493)
  15-64 years: 50.8% (male 3,277,573/female 3,332,907)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 139,953/female 206,478) (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 4,093,859/female 3,862,730)
  15-64 years: 62.6% (male 7,660,680/female 7,613,537)
  65 years and over: 4.7% (male 509,260/female 645,792) (2006 est.)

Maldives
  0-14 years: 43.4% (male 80,113/female 75,763)
  15-64 years: 53.5% (male 98,040/female 94,029)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 5,477/female 5,586) (2006 est.)

Mali
  0-14 years: 48.2% (male 2,857,670/female 2,787,506)
  15-64 years: 48.8% (male 2,804,344/female 2,910,097)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 146,458/female 210,754) (2006 est.)

Malta
  0-14 years: 17.1% (male 35,264/female 33,368)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 139,890/female 136,767)
  65 years and over: 13.7% (male 23,554/female 31,371) (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  0-14 years: 38.1% (male 11,720/female 11,295)
  15-64 years: 59.2% (male 18,305/female 17,445)
  65 years and over: 2.7% (male 801/female 856) (2006 est.)

Martinique
  0-14 years: 22.1% (male 48,988/female 47,525)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 147,082/female 146,470)
  65 years and over: 10.6% (male 20,791/female 25,275) (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  0-14 years: 45.6% (male 726,376/female 723,013)
  15-64 years: 52.2% (male 818,408/female 839,832)
  65 years and over: 2.2% (male 28,042/female 41,717) (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  0-14 years: 23.9% (male 149,486/female 147,621)
  15-64 years: 69.5% (male 430,288/female 431,753)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 31,939/female 49,740) (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  0-14 years: 46% (male 46,512/female 46,067)
  15-64 years: 52.3% (male 56,899/female 48,274)
  65 years and over: 1.7% (male 1,756/female 1,726) (2006 est.)

Mexico
  0-14 years: 30.6% (male 16,770,957/female 16,086,172)
  15-64 years: 63.6% (male 33,071,809/female 35,316,281)
  65 years and over: 5.8% (male 2,814,707/female 3,389,599) (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  0-14 years: 36.6% (male
  20,116/female 19,391)
  15-64 years: 60.4% (male 32,620/female 32,659)
  65 years and over: 3% (male 1,413/female 1,805) (2006 est.)

Moldova
  0-14 years: 20% (male 455,673/female 438,934)
  15-64 years: 69.7% (male 1,498,078/female 1,613,489)
  65 years and over: 10.3% (male 170,456/female 290,076) (2006 est.)

Monaco
  0-14 years: 15.2% (male 2,539/female 2,417)
  15-64 years: 62.1% (male 9,959/female 10,266)
  65 years and over: 22.6% (male 3,015/female 4,347) (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  0-14 years: 27.9% (male 402,448/female 387,059)
  15-64 years: 68.4% (male 967,546/female 969,389)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 45,859/female 59,923) (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  0-14 years: 23.3% (male 1,125/female 1,079)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 2,957/female 3,245)
  65 years and over: 10.9% (male 532/female 501) (2006 est.)

Morocco
  0-14 years: 31.6% (male 5,343,976/female 5,145,019)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 10,505,018/female 10,580,599)
  65 years and over: 5% (male 725,116/female 941,531) (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 4,229,802/female 4,177,235)
  15-64 years: 54.5% (male 5,207,149/female 5,519,291)
  65 years and over: 2.8% (male 230,616/female 322,412) (2006 est.)

Namibia
  0-14 years: 38.2% (male 393,878/female 387,147)
  15-64 years: 58.1% (male 596,557/female 591,350)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 34,245/female 40,970) (2006 est.)

Nauru
  0-14 years: 36.9% (male 2,507/female 2,391)
  15-64 years: 61.2% (male 4,004/female 4,123)
  65 years and over: 2% (male 139/female 123) (2006 est.)

Nepal
  0-14 years: 38.7% (male 5,648,959/female 5,291,447)
  15-64 years: 57.6% (male 8,365,526/female 7,925,941)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 513,777/female 541,497) (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  0-14 years: 18% (male 1,515,123/female 1,445,390)
  15-64 years: 67.8% (male 5,656,448/female 5,525,481)
  65 years and over: 14.2% (male 994,723/female 1,354,296) (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  0-14 years: 23.9% (male 27,197/female 25,886)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 71,622/female 77,710)
  65 years and over: 8.7% (male 7,925/female 11,396) (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  0-14 years: 28.4% (male 31,818/female 30,503)
  15-64 years: 64.9% (male 71,565/female 70,815)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 6,773/female 7,772) (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  0-14 years: 21.1% (male 439,752/female 419,174)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 1,374,850/female 1,361,570)
  65 years and over: 11.8% (male 210,365/female 270,429) (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  0-14 years: 36.4% (male 1,031,897/female 994,633)
  15-64 years: 60.5% (male 1,677,633/female 1,691,353)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 76,758/female 97,855) (2006 est.)

Niger
  0-14 years: 46.9% (male 2,994,022/female 2,882,273)
  15-64 years: 50.7% (male 3,262,114/female 3,083,522)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 150,982/female 152,181) (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  0-14 years: 42.3% (male 28,089,017/female 27,665,212)
  15-64 years: 54.6% (male 36,644,885/female 35,405,915)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 1,930,007/female 2,124,695) (2006 est.)

Niue
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Norfolk Island
  0-14 years: 20.2%
  15-64 years: 63.9%
  65 years and over: 15.9% (2006 est.)

Northern Mariana Islands
  0-14 years: 19.4% (male 8,350/female 7,623)
  15-64 years: 79% (male 26,715/female 38,442)
  65 years and over: 1.6% (male 679/female 650) (2006 est.)

Norway
  0-14 years: 19.3% (male 455,122/female 434,009)
  15-64 years: 65.9% (male 1,542,439/female 1,496,745)
  65 years and over: 14.8% (male 288,509/female 393,996) (2006 est.)

Oman
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 675,423/female 648,963)
  15-64 years: 54.7% (male 1,001,917/female 695,578)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 44,300/female 36,048) (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  0-14 years: 39% (male 33,293,428/female 31,434,314)
  15-64 years: 56.9% (male 48,214,298/female 46,062,933)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 3,256,065/female 3,542,522) (2006 est.)

Palau
  0-14 years: 26.3% (male 2,789/female 2,622)
  15-64 years: 69.1% (male 7,664/female 6,549)
  65 years and over: 4.6% (male 453/female 502) (2006 est.)

Panama
  0-14 years: 30.3% (male 492,403/female 472,996)
  15-64 years: 63.4% (male 1,025,898/female 998,926)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 94,122/female 106,974) (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  0-14 years: 37.8% (male 1,090,879/female 1,054,743)
  15-64 years: 58.3% (male 1,703,204/female 1,601,224)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 103,054/female 117,440) (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  0-14 years: 37.7% (male 1,245,149/female 1,204,970)
  15-64 years: 57.5% (male 1,878,761/female 1,862,266)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 145,899/female 169,419) (2006 est.)

Peru
  0-14 years: 30.9% (male 4,456,195/female 4,300,233)
  15-64 years: 63.7% (male 9,078,123/female 8,961,981)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 709,763/female 796,308) (2006 est.)

Philippines
  0-14 years: 35% (male 15,961,365/female 15,340,065)
  15-64 years: 61% (male 27,173,919/female 27,362,736)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 1,576,089/female 2,054,503) (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Poland
  0-14 years: 15.9% (male 3,142,811/female 2,976,363)
  15-64 years: 70.8% (male 13,585,306/female 13,704,763)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 1,961,326/female 3,166,300) (2006
  est.)

Portugal
  0-14 years: 16.5% (male 915,604/female 839,004)
  15-64 years: 66.3% (male 3,484,545/female 3,544,674)
  65 years and over: 17.2% (male 751,899/female 1,070,144) (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  0-14 years: 21.3% (male 428,610/female 409,484)
  15-64 years: 65.8% (male 1,239,255/female 1,345,519)
  65 years and over: 12.8% (male 218,045/female 286,275) (2006 est.)

Qatar
  0-14 years: 23.4% (male 105,546/female 101,371)
  15-64 years: 73% (male 446,779/female 199,133)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 24,059/female 8,471) (2006 est.)

Reunion
  0-14 years: 29.8% (male 120,147/female 114,589)
  15-64 years: 64% (male 248,895/female 255,156)
  65 years and over: 6.2% (male 19,847/female 28,950) (2006 est.)

Romania
  0-14 years: 15.7% (male 1,799,072/female 1,708,030)
  15-64 years: 69.6% (male 7,724,368/female 7,797,065)
  65 years and over: 14.7% (male 1,347,392/female 1,927,625) (2006
  est.)

Russia
  0-14 years: 14.2% (male 10,441,151/female 9,921,102)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 49,271,698/female 52,679,463)
  65 years and over: 14.4% (male 6,500,814/female 14,079,312) (2006
  est.)

Rwanda
  0-14 years: 41.9% (male 1,817,998/female 1,802,134)
  15-64 years: 55.6% (male 2,392,778/female 2,417,467)
  65 years and over: 2.5% (male 87,325/female 130,546) (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  0-14 years: 18.8% (male 717/female 692)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 2,751/female 2,593)
  65 years and over: 10% (male 342/female 407) (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0-14 years: 27.5% (male 5,515/female 5,263)
  15-64 years: 64.3% (male 12,605/female 12,572)
  65 years and over: 8.1% (male 1,313/female 1,861) (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  0-14 years: 29.8% (male 25,941/female 24,319)
  15-64 years: 65% (male 53,916/female 55,582)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 3,186/female 5,514) (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0-14 years: 23.5% (male 843/female 807)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 2,342/female 2,272)
  65 years and over: 10.8% (male 348/female 414) (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0-14 years: 26.7% (male
  16,007/female 15,426)
  15-64 years: 66.9% (male 40,676/female 38,155)
  65 years and over: 6.4% (male 3,315/female 4,269) (2006 est.)

Samoa
  0-14 years: 26.1% (male 23,492/female 22,653)
  15-64 years: 67.3% (male 74,202/female 44,894)
  65 years and over: 6.6% (male 5,299/female 6,368) (2006 est.)

San Marino
  0-14 years: 16.8% (male 2,534/female 2,372)
  15-64 years: 66.2% (male 9,316/female 10,055)
  65 years and over: 17% (male 2,149/female 2,825) (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0-14 years: 47.5% (male 46,478/female 45,302)
  15-64 years: 48.8% (male 45,631/female 48,661)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 3,368/female 3,973) (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  0-14 years: 38.2% (male 5,261,530/female 5,059,041)
  15-64 years: 59.4% (male 9,159,519/female 6,895,616)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 342,020/female 302,005) (2006 est.)

Senegal
  0-14 years: 40.8% (male 2,467,021/female 2,422,385)
  15-64 years: 56.1% (male 3,346,756/female 3,378,518)
  65 years and over: 3.1% (male 174,399/female 198,042) (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  0-14 years: 25.9% (male 10,667/female 10,440)
  15-64 years: 68% (male 27,060/female 28,366)
  65 years and over: 6.1% (male 1,607/female 3,401) (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  0-14 years: 44.8% (male 1,321,563/female 1,370,721)
  15-64 years: 52% (male 1,494,502/female 1,625,733)
  65 years and over: 3.2% (male 90,958/female 101,773) (2006 est.)

Singapore
  0-14 years: 15.6% (male 362,329/female 337,964)
  15-64 years: 76.1% (male 1,666,709/female 1,750,736)
  65 years and over: 8.3% (male 165,823/female 208,589) (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 465,304/female 443,967)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 1,929,448/female 1,947,735)
  65 years and over: 12% (male 244,609/female 408,385) (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  0-14 years: 13.8% (male 143,079/female 135,050)
  15-64 years: 70.5% (male 714,393/female 702,950)
  65 years and over: 15.7% (male 121,280/female 193,595) (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  0-14 years: 41.3% (male 116,370/female 111,834)
  15-64 years: 55.4% (male 154,793/female 151,308)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 8,696/female 9,437) (2006 est.)

Somalia
  0-14 years: 44.4% (male 1,973,294/female 1,961,083)
  15-64 years: 53% (male 2,355,861/female 2,342,988)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 97,307/female 132,805) (2006 est.)

South Africa
  0-14 years: 29.7% (male 6,603,220/female 6,525,810)
  15-64 years: 65% (male 13,955,950/female 14,766,843)
  65 years and over: 5.3% (male 905,870/female 1,429,944) (2006 est.)

Spain
  0-14 years: 14.4% (male 3,000,686/female 2,821,325)
  15-64 years: 67.8% (male 13,751,963/female 13,653,426)
  65 years and over: 17.7% (male 2,993,496/female 4,176,946) (2006
  est.)

Sri Lanka
  0-14 years: 24.1% (male 2,488,689/female 2,379,233)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 6,727,399/female 7,140,751)
  65 years and over: 7.3% (male 687,842/female 798,326) (2006 est.)

Sudan
  0-14 years: 42.7% (male 8,993,483/female 8,614,022)
  15-64 years: 54.9% (male 11,327,679/female 11,297,798)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 536,754/female 466,642) (2006 est.)

Suriname
  0-14 years: 29% (male 65,412/female 62,069)
  15-64 years: 64.7% (male 145,913/female 138,076)
  65 years and over: 6.3% (male 12,223/female 15,424) (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

Swaziland
  0-14 years: 40.7% (male 233,169/female 229,103)
  15-64 years: 55.8% (male 303,260/female 330,460)
  65 years and over: 3.6% (male 16,071/female 24,271) (2006 est.)

Sweden
  0-14 years: 16.7% (male 775,433/female 732,773)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 3,001,928/female 2,918,242)
  65 years and over: 17.6% (male 689,756/female 898,464) (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  0-14 years: 16.3% (male 637,585/female 591,297)
  15-64 years: 68.1% (male 2,585,062/female 2,539,345)
  65 years and over: 15.6% (male 480,198/female 690,447) (2006 est.)

Syria
  0-14 years: 37% (male 3,592,915/female 3,384,722)
  15-64 years: 59.7% (male 5,779,257/female 5,500,887)
  65 years and over: 3.3% (male 296,070/female 327,510) (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  0-14 years: 19.4% (male 2,330,951/female 2,140,965)
  15-64 years: 70.8% (male 8,269,421/female 8,040,169)
  65 years and over: 9.8% (male 1,123,429/female 1,131,152) (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  0-14 years: 37.9% (male 1,396,349/female 1,375,168)
  15-64 years: 57.4% (male 2,091,476/female 2,108,889)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 154,162/female 194,771) (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  0-14 years: 43.7% (male 8,204,593/female 8,176,489)
  15-64 years: 53.6% (male 9,906,446/female 10,178,066)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 422,674/female 557,124) (2006 est.)

Thailand
  0-14 years: 22% (male 7,284,068/female 6,958,632)
  15-64 years: 70% (male 22,331,312/female 22,880,588)
  65 years and over: 8% (male 2,355,190/female 2,821,805) (2006 est.)

Togo
  0-14 years: 42.3% (male 1,177,141/female 1,169,321)
  15-64 years: 55.1% (male 1,485,621/female 1,570,117)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 59,870/female 86,632) (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  0-14 years: 42%
  15-64 years: 53%
  65 years and over: 5% (2006 est.)

Tonga
  0-14 years: 35.3% (male 20,679/female 19,843)
  15-64 years: 60.5% (male 34,399/female 34,964)
  65 years and over: 4.2% (male 2,059/female 2,745) (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  0-14 years: 20.1% (male 109,936/female 104,076)
  15-64 years: 71.3% (male 398,657/female 361,093)
  65 years and over: 8.6% (male 41,162/female 50,918) (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  0-14 years: 24.6% (male 1,293,235/female 1,212,994)
  15-64 years: 68.6% (male 3,504,283/female 3,478,268)
  65 years and over: 6.7% (male 327,521/female 358,713) (2006 est.)

Turkey
  0-14 years: 25.5% (male 9,133,226/female 8,800,070)
  15-64 years: 67.7% (male 24,218,277/female 23,456,761)
  65 years and over: 6.8% (male 2,198,073/female 2,607,551) (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  0-14 years: 35.2% (male 913,988/female 863,503)
  15-64 years: 60.7% (male 1,501,486/female 1,557,155)
  65 years and over: 4.1% (male 79,227/female 127,561) (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0-14 years: 31.9% (male 3,432/female 3,312)
  15-64 years: 64.4% (male 7,155/female 6,457)
  65 years and over: 3.8% (male 362/female 434) (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  0-14 years: 30.2% (male 1,819/female 1,752)
  15-64 years: 64.7% (male 3,715/female 3,923)
  65 years and over: 5.1% (male 228/female 373) (2006 est.)

Uganda
  0-14 years: 50% (male 7,091,763/female 6,996,385)
  15-64 years: 47.8% (male 6,762,071/female 6,727,230)
  65 years and over: 2.2% (male 266,931/female 351,374) (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  0-14 years: 14.1% (male 3,377,868/female 3,203,738)
  15-64 years: 69.3% (male 15,559,998/female 16,831,486)
  65 years and over: 16.6% (male 2,635,651/female 5,102,075) (2006
  est.)

United Arab Emirates
  0-14 years: 24.9% (male 331,012/female 317,643)
  15-64 years: 71.2% (male 1,125,286/female 726,689)
  65 years and over: 3.9% (male 74,700/female 27,383)
  note: 73.9% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national
  (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  0-14 years: 17.5% (male 5,417,663/female 5,161,714)
  15-64 years: 66.8% (male 20,476,571/female 19,988,959)
  65 years and over: 15.8% (male 4,087,020/female 5,477,226) (2006
  est.)

United States
  0-14 years: 20.4% (male 31,095,847/female 29,715,872)
  15-64 years: 67.2% (male 100,022,845/female 100,413,484)
  65 years and over: 12.5% (male 15,542,288/female 21,653,879) (2006
  est.)

Uruguay
  0-14 years: 22.9% (male 399,409/female 386,136)
  15-64 years: 63.9% (male 1,087,180/female 1,104,465)
  65 years and over: 13.3% (male 185,251/female 269,491) (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  0-14 years: 32.9% (male 4,572,721/female 4,403,405)
  15-64 years: 62.3% (male 8,420,174/female 8,594,478)
  65 years and over: 4.8% (male 539,336/female 777,020) (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  0-14 years: 32.6% (male 34,804/female 33,331)
  15-64 years: 63.7% (male 67,919/female 65,138)
  65 years and over: 3.7% (male 4,027/female 3,650) (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  0-14 years: 29.1% (male 3,860,116/female 3,620,440)
  15-64 years: 65.7% (male 8,494,944/female 8,410,874)
  65 years and over: 5.2% (male 609,101/female 734,960) (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  0-14 years: 27% (male 11,826,457/female 10,983,069)
  15-64 years: 67.1% (male 28,055,941/female 28,614,553)
  65 years and over: 5.8% (male 1,924,562/female 2,998,384) (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  0-14 years: 22.4% (male 12,261/female 12,056)
  15-64 years: 66.4% (male 34,174/female 37,949)
  65 years and over: 11.2% (male 5,385/female 6,780) (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

West Bank
  0-14 years: 42.9% (male 541,110/female 515,202)
  15-64 years: 53.7% (male 676,427/female 644,347)
  65 years and over: 3.4% (male 35,440/female 47,966) (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  0-14 years: NA
  15-64 years: NA
  65 years and over: NA (2006 est.)

World
  0-14 years: 27.4% (male 919,219,446/female 870,242,271)
  15-64 years: 65.2% (male 2,152,066,888/female 2,100,334,722)
  65 years and over: 7.4% (male 213,160,216/female 270,146,721)
  note: some countries do not maintain age structure information, thus
  a slight discrepancy exists between the total world population and
  the total for world age structure (2006 est.)

Yemen
  0-14 years: 46.4% (male 5,067,762/female 4,881,333)
  15-64 years: 51% (male 5,568,078/female 5,375,263)
  65 years and over: 2.6% (male 275,878/female 287,874) (2006 est.)

Zambia
  0-14 years: 46.3% (male 2,673,891/female 2,656,268)
  15-64 years: 51.3% (male 2,925,910/female 2,969,324)
  65 years and over: 2.4% (male 117,877/female 158,740) (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0-14 years: 37.4% (male 2,307,170/female 2,265,298)
  15-64 years: 59.1% (male 3,616,528/female 3,621,190)
  65 years and over: 3.5% (male 199,468/female 227,151) (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2011  Geographic coordinates


Afghanistan
  33 00 N, 65 00 E

Akrotiri
  34 37 N, 32 58 E

Albania
  41 00 N, 20 00 E

Algeria
  28 00 N, 3 00 E

American Samoa
  14 20 S, 170 00 W

Andorra
  42 30 N, 1 30 E

Angola
  12 30 S, 18 30 E

Anguilla
  18 15 N, 63 10 W

Antarctica
  90 00 S, 0 00 E

Antigua and Barbuda
  17 03 N, 61 48 W

Arctic Ocean
  90 00 N, 0 00 E

Argentina
  34 00 S, 64 00 W

Armenia
  40 00 N, 45 00 E

Aruba
  12 30 N, 69 58 W

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  12 14 S, 123 05 E

Atlantic Ocean
  0 00 N, 25 00 W

Australia
  27 00 S, 133 00 E

Austria
  47 20 N, 13 20 E

Azerbaijan
  40 30 N, 47 30 E

Bahamas, The
  24 15 N, 76 00 W

Bahrain
  26 00 N, 50 33 E

Baker Island
  0 13 N, 176 28 W

Bangladesh
  24 00 N, 90 00 E

Barbados
  13 10 N, 59 32 W

Bassas da India
  21 30 S, 39 50 E

Belarus
  53 00 N, 28 00 E

Belgium
  50 50 N, 4 00 E

Belize
  17 15 N, 88 45 W

Benin
  9 30 N, 2 15 E

Bermuda
  32 20 N, 64 45 W

Bhutan
  27 30 N, 90 30 E

Bolivia
  17 00 S, 65 00 W

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  44 00 N, 18 00 E

Botswana
  22 00 S, 24 00 E

Bouvet Island
  54 26 S, 3 24 E

Brazil
  10 00 S, 55 00 W

British Indian Ocean Territory
  6 00 S, 71 30 E; note - Diego Garcia
  7 20 S, 72 25 E

British Virgin Islands
  18 30 N, 64 30 W

Brunei
  4 30 N, 114 40 E

Bulgaria
  43 00 N, 25 00 E

Burkina Faso
  13 00 N, 2 00 W

Burma
  22 00 N, 98 00 E

Burundi
  3 30 S, 30 00 E

Cambodia
  13 00 N, 105 00 E

Cameroon
  6 00 N, 12 00 E

Canada
  60 00 N, 95 00 W

Cape Verde
  16 00 N, 24 00 W

Cayman Islands
  19 30 N, 80 30 W

Central African Republic
  7 00 N, 21 00 E

Chad
  15 00 N, 19 00 E

Chile
  30 00 S, 71 00 W

China
  35 00 N, 105 00 E

Christmas Island
  10 30 S, 105 40 E

Clipperton Island
  10 17 N, 109 13 W

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  12 30 S, 96 50 E

Colombia
  4 00 N, 72 00 W

Comoros
  12 10 S, 44 15 E

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  0 00 N, 25 00 E

Congo, Republic of the
  1 00 S, 15 00 E

Cook Islands
  21 14 S, 159 46 W

Coral Sea Islands
  18 00 S, 152 00 E

Costa Rica
  10 00 N, 84 00 W

Cote d'Ivoire
  8 00 N, 5 00 W

Croatia
  45 10 N, 15 30 E

Cuba
  21 30 N, 80 00 W

Cyprus
  35 00 N, 33 00 E

Czech Republic
  49 45 N, 15 30 E

Denmark
  56 00 N, 10 00 E

Dhekelia
  34 59 N, 33 45 E

Djibouti
  11 30 N, 43 00 E

Dominica
  15 25 N, 61 20 W

Dominican Republic
  19 00 N, 70 40 W

East Timor
  8 50 S, 125 55 E

Ecuador
  2 00 S, 77 30 W

Egypt
  27 00 N, 30 00 E

El Salvador
  13 50 N, 88 55 W

Equatorial Guinea
  2 00 N, 10 00 E

Eritrea
  15 00 N, 39 00 E

Estonia
  59 00 N, 26 00 E

Ethiopia
  8 00 N, 38 00 E

Europa Island
  22 20 S, 40 22 E

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  51 45 S, 59 00 W

Faroe Islands
  62 00 N, 7 00 W

Fiji
  18 00 S, 175 00 E

Finland
  64 00 N, 26 00 E

France
  46 00 N, 2 00 E

French Guiana
  4 00 N, 53 00 W

French Polynesia
  15 00 S, 140 00 W

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  43 00 S, 67 00 E

Gabon
  1 00 S, 11 45 E

Gambia, The
  13 28 N, 16 34 W

Gaza Strip
  31 25 N, 34 20 E

Georgia
  42 00 N, 43 30 E

Germany
  51 00 N, 9 00 E

Ghana
  8 00 N, 2 00 W

Gibraltar
  36 8 N, 5 21 W

Glorioso Islands
  11 30 S, 47 20 E

Greece
  39 00 N, 22 00 E

Greenland
  72 00 N, 40 00 W

Grenada
  12 07 N, 61 40 W

Guadeloupe
  16 15 N, 61 35 W

Guam
  13 28 N, 144 47 E

Guatemala
  15 30 N, 90 15 W

Guernsey
  49 28 N, 2 35 W

Guinea
  11 00 N, 10 00 W

Guinea-Bissau
  12 00 N, 15 00 W

Guyana
  5 00 N, 59 00 W

Haiti
  19 00 N, 72 25 W

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  53 06 S, 72 31 E

Holy See (Vatican City)
  41 54 N, 12 27 E

Honduras
  15 00 N, 86 30 W

Hong Kong
  22 15 N, 114 10 E

Howland Island
  0 48 N, 176 38 W

Hungary
  47 00 N, 20 00 E

Iceland
  65 00 N, 18 00 W

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: 21 30 S, 39 50 E
  Europa Island: 22 20 S, 40 22 E
  Glorioso Islands: 11 30 S, 47 20 E
  Juan de Nova Island: 17 03 S, 42 45 E
  Tromelin Island: 15 52 S, 54 25 E

India
  20 00 N, 77 00 E

Indian Ocean
  20 00 S, 80 00 E

Indonesia
  5 00 S, 120 00 E

Iran
  32 00 N, 53 00 E

Iraq
  33 00 N, 44 00 E

Ireland
  53 00 N, 8 00 W

Isle of Man
  54 15 N, 4 30 W

Israel
  31 30 N, 34 45 E

Italy
  42 50 N, 12 50 E

Jamaica
  18 15 N, 77 30 W

Jan Mayen
  71 00 N, 8 00 W

Japan
  36 00 N, 138 00 E

Jarvis Island
  0 22 S, 160 01 W

Jersey
  49 15 N, 2 10 W

Johnston Atoll
  16 45 N, 169 31 W

Jordan
  31 00 N, 36 00 E

Juan de Nova Island
  17 03 S, 42 45 E

Kazakhstan
  48 00 N, 68 00 E

Kenya
  1 00 N, 38 00 E

Kingman Reef
  6 24 N, 162 22 W

Kiribati
  1 25 N, 173 00 E

Korea, North
  40 00 N, 127 00 E

Korea, South
  37 00 N, 127 30 E

Kuwait
  29 30 N, 45 45 E

Kyrgyzstan
  41 00 N, 75 00 E

Laos
  18 00 N, 105 00 E

Latvia
  57 00 N, 25 00 E

Lebanon
  33 50 N, 35 50 E

Lesotho
  29 30 S, 28 30 E

Liberia
  6 30 N, 9 30 W

Libya
  25 00 N, 17 00 E

Liechtenstein
  47 16 N, 9 32 E

Lithuania
  56 00 N, 24 00 E

Luxembourg
  49 45 N, 6 10 E

Macau
  22 10 N, 113 33 E

Macedonia
  41 50 N, 22 00 E

Madagascar
  20 00 S, 47 00 E

Malawi
  13 30 S, 34 00 E

Malaysia
  2 30 N, 112 30 E

Maldives
  3 15 N, 73 00 E

Mali
  17 00 N, 4 00 W

Malta
  35 50 N, 14 35 E

Marshall Islands
  9 00 N, 168 00 E

Martinique
  14 40 N, 61 00 W

Mauritania
  20 00 N, 12 00 W

Mauritius
  20 17 S, 57 33 E

Mayotte
  12 50 S, 45 10 E

Mexico
  23 00 N, 102 00 W

Micronesia, Federated States of
  6 55 N, 158 15 E

Midway Islands
  28 12 N, 177 22 W

Moldova
  47 00 N, 29 00 E

Monaco
  43 44 N, 7 24 E

Mongolia
  46 00 N, 105 00 E

Montenegro
  42 30 N, 19 18 E

Montserrat
  16 45 N, 62 12 W

Morocco
  32 00 N, 5 00 W

Mozambique
  18 15 S, 35 00 E

Namibia
  22 00 S, 17 00 E

Nauru
  0 32 S, 166 55 E

Navassa Island
  18 25 N, 75 02 W

Nepal
  28 00 N, 84 00 E

Netherlands
  52 30 N, 5 45 E

Netherlands Antilles
  12 15 N, 68 45 W

New Caledonia
  21 30 S, 165 30 E

New Zealand
  41 00 S, 174 00 E

Nicaragua
  13 00 N, 85 00 W

Niger
  16 00 N, 8 00 E

Nigeria
  10 00 N, 8 00 E

Niue
  19 02 S, 169 52 W

Norfolk Island
  29 02 S, 167 57 E

Northern Mariana Islands
  15 12 N, 145 45 E

Norway
  62 00 N, 10 00 E

Oman
  21 00 N, 57 00 E

Pacific Ocean
  0 00 N, 160 00 W

Pakistan
  30 00 N, 70 00 E

Palau
  7 30 N, 134 30 E

Palmyra Atoll
  5 52 N, 162 04 W

Panama
  9 00 N, 80 00 W

Papua New Guinea
  6 00 S, 147 00 E

Paracel Islands
  16 30 N, 112 00 E

Paraguay
  23 00 S, 58 00 W

Peru
  10 00 S, 76 00 W

Philippines
  13 00 N, 122 00 E

Pitcairn Islands
  25 04 S, 130 06 W

Poland
  52 00 N, 20 00 E

Portugal
  39 30 N, 8 00 W

Puerto Rico
  18 15 N, 66 30 W

Qatar
  25 30 N, 51 15 E

Reunion
  21 06 S, 55 36 E

Romania
  46 00 N, 25 00 E

Russia
  60 00 N, 100 00 E

Rwanda
  2 00 S, 30 00 E

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena: 15 57 S 5 42 W
  Ascension Island: 7 57 S 14 22 W
  Tristan da Cunha island group: 37 15 S 12 30 W

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  17 20 N, 62 45 W

Saint Lucia
  13 53 N, 60 58 W

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  46 50 N, 56 20 W

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  13 15 N, 61 12 W

Samoa
  13 35 S, 172 20 W

San Marino
  43 46 N, 12 25 E

Sao Tome and Principe
  1 00 N, 7 00 E

Saudi Arabia
  25 00 N, 45 00 E

Senegal
  14 00 N, 14 00 W

Serbia
  44 00 N, 21 00 E

Seychelles
  4 35 S, 55 40 E

Sierra Leone
  8 30 N, 11 30 W

Singapore
  1 22 N, 103 48 E

Slovakia
  48 40 N, 19 30 E

Slovenia
  46 07 N, 14 49 E

Solomon Islands
  8 00 S, 159 00 E

Somalia
  10 00 N, 49 00 E

South Africa
  29 00 S, 24 00 E

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  54 30 S, 37 00 W

Southern Ocean
  60 00 S, 90 00 E (nominally), but the Southern Ocean
  has the unique distinction of being a large circumpolar body of
  water totally encircling the continent of Antarctica; this ring of
  water lies between 60 degrees south latitude and the coast of
  Antarctica and encompasses 360 degrees of longitude

Spain
  40 00 N, 4 00 W

Spratly Islands
  8 38 N, 111 55 E

Sri Lanka
  7 00 N, 81 00 E

Sudan
  15 00 N, 30 00 E

Suriname
  4 00 N, 56 00 W

Svalbard
  78 00 N, 20 00 E

Swaziland
  26 30 S, 31 30 E

Sweden
  62 00 N, 15 00 E

Switzerland
  47 00 N, 8 00 E

Syria
  35 00 N, 38 00 E

Taiwan
  23 30 N, 121 00 E

Tajikistan
  39 00 N, 71 00 E

Tanzania
  6 00 S, 35 00 E

Thailand
  15 00 N, 100 00 E

Togo
  8 00 N, 1 10 E

Tokelau
  9 00 S, 172 00 W

Tonga
  20 00 S, 175 00 W

Trinidad and Tobago
  11 00 N, 61 00 W

Tromelin Island
  15 52 S, 54 25 E

Tunisia
  34 00 N, 9 00 E

Turkey
  39 00 N, 35 00 E

Turkmenistan
  40 00 N, 60 00 E

Turks and Caicos Islands
  21 45 N, 71 35 W

Tuvalu
  8 00 S, 178 00 E

Uganda
  1 00 N, 32 00 E

Ukraine
  49 00 N, 32 00 E

United Arab Emirates
  24 00 N, 54 00 E

United Kingdom
  54 00 N, 2 00 W

United States
  38 00 N, 97 00 W

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker Island: 0 13 N,
  176 28 W
  Howland Island: 0 48 N, 176 38 W
  Jarvis Island: 0 23 S, 160 01 W
  Johnston Atoll: 16 45 N, 169 31 W
  Kingman Reef: 6 23 N, 162 25 W
  Midway Islands: 28 12 N, 177 22 W
  Palmyra Atoll: 5 53 N, 162 05 W

Uruguay
  33 00 S, 56 00 W

Uzbekistan
  41 00 N, 64 00 E

Vanuatu
  16 00 S, 167 00 E

Venezuela
  8 00 N, 66 00 W

Vietnam
  16 00 N, 106 00 E

Virgin Islands
  18 20 N, 64 50 W

Wake Island
  19 17 N, 166 39 E

Wallis and Futuna
  13 18 S, 176 12 W

West Bank
  32 00 N, 35 15 E

Western Sahara
  24 30 N, 13 00 W

Yemen
  15 00 N, 48 00 E

Zambia
  15 00 S, 30 00 E

Zimbabwe
  20 00 S, 30 00 E

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2012  GDP - composition by sector (%)


Afghanistan
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 24%
  services: 38%
  note: data exclude opium production (2005 est.)

Albania
  agriculture: 23.2%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

Algeria
  agriculture: 10.1%
  industry: 60%
  services: 29.8% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Andorra
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Angola
  agriculture: 9.6%
  industry: 65.8%
  services: 24.6% (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 18%
  services: 78% (2002 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 22%
  services: 74.3% (2002)

Argentina
  agriculture: 9.5%
  industry: 35.8%
  services: 54.7% (2004 est.)

Armenia
  agriculture: 23.9%
  industry: 34.3%
  services: 41.8% (2005 est.)

Aruba
  agriculture: 0.4% NA%
  industry: 33.3% NA%
  services: 66.3% NA%

Australia
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 26.2%
  services: 70% (2004 est.)

Austria
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 67.8% (2004 est.)

Azerbaijan
  agriculture: 14.1%
  industry: 45.7%
  services: 40.2% (2002 est.)

Bahamas, The
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 7%
  services: 90% (2001 est.)

Bahrain
  agriculture: 0.5%
  industry: 38.7%
  services: 60.8% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  agriculture: 19.9%
  industry: 19.8%
  services: 60.3% (2004 est.)

Barbados
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 16%
  services: 78% (2000 est.)

Belarus
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 31.6%
  services: 59.1% (2005 est.)

Belgium
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 24%
  services: 74.9% (2004 est.)

Belize
  agriculture: 14.2%
  industry: 15.2%
  services: 61.2% (2004 est.)

Benin
  agriculture: 31.6%
  industry: 13.8%
  services: 54.6% (2004 est.)

Bermuda
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 10%
  services: 89% (2002 est.)

Bhutan
  agriculture: 25.8%
  industry: 37.9%
  services: 36.3% (2002 est.)

Bolivia
  agriculture: 12.8%
  industry: 35.2%
  services: 52% (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  agriculture: 14.2%
  industry: 30.8%
  services: 55% (2002)

Botswana
  agriculture: 2.4%
  industry: 46.9% (including 36% mining)
  services: 50.7% (2003 est.)

Brazil
  agriculture: 8.4%
  industry: 40%
  services: 51.6% (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 6.2%
  services: 92% (1996 est.)

Brunei
  agriculture: 3.6%
  industry: 56.1%
  services: 40.3% (2004 est.)

Bulgaria
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 60.3% (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  agriculture: 32.2%
  industry: 19.6%
  services: 48.2% (2004 est.)

Burma
  agriculture: 56.4%
  industry: 8.2%
  services: 35.3% (2005 est.)

Burundi
  agriculture: 46.3%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 33.4% (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  agriculture: 35%
  industry: 30%
  services: 35% (2004)

Cameroon
  agriculture: 44.8%
  industry: 17%
  services: 38.2% (2005 est.)

Canada
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  agriculture: 12.1%
  industry: 21.9%
  services: 66% (2004 est.)

Cayman Islands
  agriculture: 1.4%
  industry: 3.2%
  services: 95.4% (1994 est.)

Central African Republic
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 20%
  services: 25% (2001 est.)

Chad
  agriculture: 33.5%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 40.6% (2005 est.)

Chile
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 49.3%
  services: 44.7% (2005 est.)

China
  agriculture: 12.5%
  industry: 47.3%
  services: 40.3%
  note: industry includes construction (2005 est.)

Colombia
  agriculture: 12.5%
  industry: 34.2%
  services: 53.3% (2005 est.)

Comoros
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 4%
  services: 56% (2001 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 11%
  services: 34% (2000 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  agriculture: 6.2%
  industry: 57%
  services: 36.9% (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  agriculture: 15.1%
  industry: 9.6%
  services: 75.3% (2000 est.)

Costa Rica
  agriculture: 8.8%
  industry: 29.9%
  services: 61.4% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  agriculture: 27.9%
  industry: 17.1%
  services: 55% (2005 est.)

Croatia
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 30.8%
  services: 62.2% (2005 est.)

Cuba
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 26.1%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: agriculture 3.7%; industry 19.8%;
  services 76.5% (2005 est.)
  north Cyprus: agriculture 10.6%; industry 20.5%; services 68.9%
  (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  agriculture: 3.4%
  industry: 39.3%
  services: 57.3% (2004 est.)

Denmark
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 24.6%
  services: 73.5% (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  agriculture: 17.9%
  industry: 22.5%
  services: 59.6% (2001 est.)

Dominica
  agriculture: 17.7%
  industry: 32.8%
  services: 49.5% (2002 est.)

Dominican Republic
  agriculture: 11.2%
  industry: 30.6%
  services: 58.2% (2003)

East Timor
  agriculture: 8.5%
  industry: 23.1%
  services: 68.4% (2001)

Ecuador
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 61.8% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  agriculture: 14.9%
  industry: 35.7%
  services: 49.3% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  agriculture: 9.9%
  industry: 30.2%
  services: 59.9% (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 90.6%
  services: 6.2% (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  agriculture: 10.2%
  industry: 25.4%
  services: 64.3% (2005 est.)

Estonia
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 66.6% (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  agriculture: 47.5%
  industry: 9.9%
  services: 42.6% (2005 est.)

European Union
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 27.3%
  services: 70.5% (2004 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  agriculture: 95%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Faroe Islands
  agriculture: 27%
  industry: 11%
  services: 62% (1999)

Fiji
  agriculture: 8.9%
  industry: 13.5%
  services: 77.6% (2001 est.)

Finland
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 29.5%
  services: 67.6% (2005 est.)

France
  agriculture: 2.2%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 76.4% (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  agriculture: NA% 6.6%
  industry: NA% 15.6%
  services: NA% 77.8%

French Polynesia
  agriculture: 3.1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 76.9% (2002)

Gabon
  agriculture: 6.1%
  industry: 59.2%
  services: 34.8% (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  agriculture: 30.8%
  industry: 14.2%
  services: 54.9% (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 28.3%
  services: 68.7% (includes West Bank) (2002 est.)

Georgia
  agriculture: 17.2%
  industry: 27.5%
  services: 55.3% (2005 est.)

Germany
  agriculture: 0.9%
  industry: 29.6%
  services: 69.5% (2005 est.)

Ghana
  agriculture: 36.6%
  industry: 24.6%
  services: 38.7% (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Greece
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 21.3%
  services: 73.3% (2005 est.)

Greenland
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Grenada
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 18%
  services: 76.6% (2000)

Guadeloupe
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 17%
  services: 68% (2002 est.)

Guam
  agriculture: NA
  industry: NA
  services: NA

Guatemala
  agriculture: 22.7%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 58.5% (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 10%
  services: 87% (2000)

Guinea
  agriculture: 23.7%
  industry: 36.2%
  services: 40.1% (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  agriculture: 62%
  industry: 12%
  services: 26% (1999 est.)

Guyana
  agriculture: 37%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 42.7% (2005 est.)

Haiti
  agriculture: 28%
  industry: 20%
  services: 52% (2004 est.)

Honduras
  agriculture: 13.9%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 54.9% (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  agriculture: 0.1%
  industry: 9.2%
  services: 90.6% (2005 est.)

Hungary
  agriculture: 3.7%
  industry: 31.2%
  services: 65.1% (2005 est.)

Iceland
  agriculture: 8.6%
  industry: 15%
  services: 76.5% (2005 est.)

India
  agriculture: 18.6%
  industry: 27.6%
  services: 53.8% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  agriculture: 13.4%
  industry: 45.8%
  services: 40.8% (2005 est.)

Iran
  agriculture: 11.6%
  industry: 42.4%
  services: 46% (2005 est.)

Iraq
  agriculture: 7.3%
  industry: 66.6%
  services: 26.1% (2004 est.)

Ireland
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 46%
  services: 49% (2002 est.)

Isle of Man
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2000 est.)

Israel
  agriculture: 2.6%
  industry: 31.7%
  services: 65.7% (2003 est.)

Italy
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 29.1%
  services: 68.8% (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  agriculture: 4.9%
  industry: 33.7%
  services: 61.5% (2005 est.)

Japan
  agriculture: 1.7%
  industry: 25.8%
  services: 72.5% (2005 est.)

Jersey
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 2%
  services: 93% (1996)

Jordan
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 28.7%
  services: 68% (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  agriculture: 6.7%
  industry: 38.6%
  services: 54.7% (2005 est.)

Kenya
  agriculture: 16.3%
  industry: 18.8%
  services: 65.1% (2004 est.)

Kiribati
  agriculture: 8.9%
  industry: 24.2%
  services: 66.8% (1998 est.)

Korea, North
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 34%
  services: 36% (2002 est.)

Korea, South
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 40.3%
  services: 56.3% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  agriculture: 0.4%
  industry: 47.9%
  services: 51.6% (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  agriculture: 35.3%
  industry: 20.8%
  services: 43.9% (2005 est.)

Laos
  agriculture: 45.5%
  industry: 28.7%
  services: 25.8% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 26.1%
  services: 69.9% (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 21%
  services: 67% (2000)

Lesotho
  agriculture: 16.3%
  industry: 44.3%
  services: 39.4% (2005 est.)

Liberia
  agriculture: 76.9%
  industry: 5.4%
  services: 17.7% (2002 est.)

Libya
  agriculture: 7.6%
  industry: 49.9%
  services: 42.5% (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  agriculture: 6% NA%
  industry: 39%
  services: 55% NA% (1999)

Lithuania
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 32.5%
  services: 62% (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2005 est.)

Macau
  agriculture: 0.1%
  industry: 7.2%
  services: 92.7% (2002 est.)

Macedonia
  agriculture: 11.8%
  industry: 31.9%
  services: 56.3% (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  agriculture: 27.6%
  industry: 16.5%
  services: 55.9% (2005 est.)

Malawi
  agriculture: 34.2%
  industry: 15.8%
  services: 49.9% (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  agriculture: 8.4%
  industry: 48%
  services: 43.6% (2005 est.)

Maldives
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 18%
  services: 62% (2000 est.)

Mali
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: 17%
  services: 38% (2001 est.)

Malta
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 23%
  services: 74% (2003 est.)

Marshall Islands
  agriculture: 31.7%
  industry: 14.9%
  services: 53.4% (2000 est.)

Martinique
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 11%
  services: 83% (1997 est.)

Mauritania
  agriculture: 25%
  industry: 29%
  services: 46% (2001 est.)

Mauritius
  agriculture: 5.9%
  industry: 29.8%
  services: 64.3% (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Mexico
  agriculture: 3.8%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 70.2% (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  agriculture: 28.9%
  industry: 15.2%
  services: 55.9% (2000 est.)

Moldova
  agriculture: 21.3%
  industry: 23.3%
  services: 55.5% (2005 est.)

Monaco
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Mongolia
  agriculture: 20.6%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 58% (2003 est.)

Montenegro
  agriculture: % NA
  industry: % NA
  services: % NA

Montserrat
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 13.6%
  services: 81% (1996 est.)

Morocco
  agriculture: 21.7%
  industry: 35.7%
  services: 42.6% (2004 est.)

Mozambique
  agriculture: 26.2%
  industry: 34.8%
  services: 39% (2005 est.)

Namibia
  agriculture: 9.7%
  industry: 31.5%
  services: 58.8% (2005 est.)

Nauru
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Nepal
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 21%
  services: 41% (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 24.4%
  services: 73.6% (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 15%
  services: 84% (2000 est.)

New Caledonia
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 8.8%
  services: 76.2% (1997 est.)

New Zealand
  agriculture: 4.3%
  industry: 27.3%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  agriculture: 16.5%
  industry: 27.5%
  services: 56% (2005 est.)

Niger
  agriculture: 39%
  industry: 17%
  services: 44% (2001)

Nigeria
  agriculture: 26.9%
  industry: 48.7%
  services: 24.4% (2005 est.)

Niue
  agriculture: 23.5%
  industry: 26.9%
  services: 49.5% (2003)

Northern Mariana Islands
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Norway
  agriculture: 2.1%
  industry: 41.5%
  services: 56.4% (2005 est.)

Oman
  agriculture: 2.7%
  industry: 39%
  services: 58.3% (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  agriculture: 21.6%
  industry: 25.1%
  services: 53.3% (2005 est.)

Palau
  agriculture: NA% 6.2%
  industry: NA% 12%
  services: NA% 81.8%

Panama
  agriculture: 6.8%
  industry: 15.6%
  services: 77.6% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  agriculture: 35.3%
  industry: 38.1%
  services: 26.6% (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  agriculture: 22.4%
  industry: 20.7%
  services: 56.9% (2005 est.)

Peru
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 27%
  services: 65% (2003 est.)

Philippines
  agriculture: 14.4%
  industry: 32.6%
  services: 53% (2005 est.)

Poland
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 31.1%
  services: 64% (2005 est.)

Portugal
  agriculture: 5.3%
  industry: 27.4%
  services: 67.3% (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 45%
  services: 54% (2002 est.)

Qatar
  agriculture: 0.2%
  industry: 80.1%
  services: 19.7% (2005 est.)

Reunion
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 19%
  services: 73% (2000 est.)

Romania
  agriculture: 10.1%
  industry: 35%
  services: 54.9% (2004 est.)

Russia
  agriculture: 5.4%
  industry: 37.1%
  services: 57.5% (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  agriculture: 40.1%
  industry: 22.9%
  services: 37% (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  agriculture: 3.5%
  industry: 25.8%
  services: 70.7% (2001)

Saint Lucia
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 20%
  services: 73% (2002 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 26%
  services: 64% (2001 est.)

Samoa
  agriculture: 11.4%
  industry: 58.4%
  services: 30.2% (2001 est.)

San Marino
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Sao Tome and Principe
  agriculture: 16.7%
  industry: 14.8%
  services: 68.4% (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  agriculture: 3.3%
  industry: 61.3%
  services: 35.4% (2005 est.)

Senegal
  agriculture: 17.2%
  industry: 20.9%
  services: 61.9% (2005 est.)

Serbia
  agriculture: 16.6%
  industry: 25.5%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  agriculture: 3.2%
  industry: 30.4%
  services: 66.5% (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 31%
  services: 21% (2001 est.)

Singapore
  agriculture: 0%
  industry: 33.9%
  services: 66.1% (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  agriculture: 3.5%
  industry: 29.4%
  services: 67.2% (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 36.9%
  services: 60.3% (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  agriculture: 42%
  industry: 11%
  services: 47% (2000 est.)

Somalia
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 10%
  services: 25% (2000 est.)

South Africa
  agriculture: 2.5%
  industry: 30.3%
  services: 67.1% (2005 est.)

Spain
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 29.5%
  services: 66.5% (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  agriculture: 17.8%
  industry: 27.6%
  services: 54.5% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  agriculture: 38.7%
  industry: 20.3%
  services: 41% (2003 est.)

Suriname
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 22%
  services: 65% (2001)

Swaziland
  agriculture: 11.9%
  industry: 51.5%
  services: 36.6% (2005 est.)

Sweden
  agriculture: 1.1%
  industry: 28.2%
  services: 70.7% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  agriculture: 1.5%
  industry: 34%
  services: 64.5% (2003 est.)

Syria
  agriculture: 24.9%
  industry: 23%
  services: 51.9% (2004 est.)

Taiwan
  agriculture: 1.8%
  industry: 25.9%
  services: 72.3% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  agriculture: 23.4%
  industry: 28.6%
  services: 48% (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  agriculture: 43.2%
  industry: 17.2%
  services: 39.6% (2004 est.)

Thailand
  agriculture: 9.9%
  industry: 44.1%
  services: 46% (2005 est.)

Togo
  agriculture: 39.5%
  industry: 20.4%
  services: 40.1% (2003 est.)

Tokelau
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Tonga
  agriculture: 23%
  industry: 27%
  services: 50% (FY03/04 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  agriculture: 0.7%
  industry: 57%
  services: 42.3% (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  agriculture: 13.2%
  industry: 31.8%
  services: 55% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  agriculture: 11.7%
  industry: 29.8%
  services: 58.5% (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  agriculture: 20.9%
  industry: 38%
  services: 41.1% (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Tuvalu
  agriculture: 16.6% NA%
  industry: 27.2% NA%
  services: 56.2% NA%

Uganda
  agriculture: 31.1%
  industry: 22.2%
  services: 46.9% (2004 est.)

Ukraine
  agriculture: 18.7%
  industry: 45.2%
  services: 36.1% (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 58.5%
  services: 37.5% (2002 est.)

United Kingdom
  agriculture: 0.5%
  industry: 23.7%
  services: 75.8% (2005 est.)

United States
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 20.4%
  services: 78.7% (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  agriculture: 9.3%
  industry: 31.1%
  services: 59.6% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  agriculture: 34.2%
  industry: 22.9%
  services: 43% (2003 est.)

Vanuatu
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 12%
  services: 62% (2000 est.)

Venezuela
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 41.9%
  services: 54.1% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  agriculture: 20.9%
  industry: 41%
  services: 38.1% (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 80% (2003 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

West Bank
  agriculture: 9%
  industry: 28%
  services: 63%
  note: includes Gaza Strip (2002 est.)

Western Sahara
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: 40%

World
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 32%
  services: 64% (2004 est.)

Yemen
  agriculture: 13.5%
  industry: 47.2%
  services: 39.3% (2005 est.)

Zambia
  agriculture: 22%
  industry: 29%
  services: 48.9% (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  agriculture: 17.9%
  industry: 24.3%
  services: 57.9% (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2013  Radio broadcast stations


Afghanistan
  AM 21, FM 23, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in Pashtu, Afghan
  Persian (Dari), Urdu, and English) (2003)

Akrotiri
  FM 1
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  and Radio 2 service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)

Albania
  AM 13, FM 46 (3 national, 62 local), shortwave 1 (2005)

Algeria
  AM 25, FM 1, shortwave 8 (1999)

American Samoa
  AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2006)

Andorra
  AM 0, FM 15, shortwave 0 (1998)

Angola
  AM 21, FM 6, shortwave 7 (2000)

Anguilla
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Antarctica
  AM NA, FM 2, shortwave 1, note - information for US bases
  only (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Argentina
  AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM NA (probably
  more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998)

Armenia
  AM 9, FM 6, shortwave 1 (1998)

Aruba
  AM 2, FM 16, shortwave 0 (2004)

Australia
  AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998)

Austria
  AM 2, FM 65 (plus several hundred repeaters), shortwave 1
  (2001)

Azerbaijan
  AM 10, FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998)

Bahamas, The
  AM 3, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2006)

Bahrain
  AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Bangladesh
  AM 15, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)

Barbados
  AM 2, FM 6, shortwave 0 (2004)

Belarus
  AM 28, FM 37, shortwave 11 (1998)

Belgium
  FM 79, AM 7, shortwave 1 (1998)

Belize
  AM 1, FM 12, shortwave 0 (1998)

Benin
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 4 (2000)

Bermuda
  AM 5, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2005)

Bhutan
  AM 0, FM 9, shortwave 1 (2006)

Bolivia
  AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  AM 8, FM 16, shortwave 1 (1998)

Botswana
  AM 8, FM 13, shortwave 4 (2001)

Brazil
  AM 1,365, FM 296, shortwave 161 (of which 91 are collocated
  with AM stations) (1999)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

British Virgin Islands
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2004)

Brunei
  AM 1, FM 2 (transmitting on 18 different frequencies),
  shortwave 0
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) station transmits
  two FM signals with English and Nepali service (2006)

Bulgaria
  AM 31, FM 63, shortwave 2 (2001)

Burkina Faso
  AM 3, FM 17, shortwave 3 (2002)

Burma
  AM 1, FM 1 (2004)

Burundi
  AM 0, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2001)

Cambodia
  AM 2, FM 17 (2003)

Cameroon
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 3 (2002)

Canada
  AM 245, FM 582, shortwave 6 (2004)

Cape Verde
  AM 0, FM 22 (and 12 low power repeaters), shortwave 0
  (2002)

Cayman Islands
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 0 (2004)

Central African Republic
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 1 (2002)

Chad
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 5 (2002)

Chile
  AM 180 (eight inactive), FM 64, shortwave 17 (one inactive)
  (1998)

China
  AM 369, FM 259, shortwave 45 (1998)

Christmas Island
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2006)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2004)

Colombia
  AM 454, FM 34, shortwave 27 (1999)

Comoros
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2001)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  AM 3, FM 11, shortwave 2 (2001)

Congo, Republic of the
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 3 (2001)

Cook Islands
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Costa Rica
  AM 65, FM 51, shortwave 19 (2002)

Cote d'Ivoire
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 3 (1998)

Croatia
  AM 16, FM 98, shortwave 5 (1999)

Cuba
  AM 169, FM 55, shortwave 1 (1998)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: AM 5, FM 76, shortwave 0
  north Cyprus: AM 1, FM 20, shortwave 1 (2004)

Czech Republic
  AM 31, FM 304, shortwave 17 (2000)

Denmark
  AM 2, FM 355, shortwave 0 (1998)

Dhekelia
  FM 1 (located in Akrotiri)
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  and Radio 2 service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia (2006)

Djibouti
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001)

Dominica
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 0 (2004)

Dominican Republic
  AM 120, FM 56, shortwave 4 (1998)

East Timor
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA

Ecuador
  AM 392, FM 35, shortwave 29 (2001)

Egypt
  AM 42 (plus 15 repeaters), FM 14, shortwave 3 (1999)

El Salvador
  AM 61 (plus 24 repeaters), FM 30, shortwave 0 (1998)

Equatorial Guinea
  AM 0, FM 3, shortwave 5 (2002)

Eritrea
  AM 2, FM NA, shortwave 2 (2000)

Estonia
  AM 0, FM 98, shortwave 0 (2001)

Ethiopia
  AM 8, FM 0, shortwave 1 (2001)

European Union
  AM 866, FM 13,396, shortwave 73 (1998); note - sum of
  individual country radio broadcast stations; there is also a
  European-wide station (Euroradio)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  AM 1, FM 7, shortwave 0
  note: British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides Radio 1
  (FM) and Radio 2 (AM) service (2006)

Faroe Islands
  AM 1, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Fiji
  AM 13, FM 40, shortwave 0 (1998)

Finland
  AM 2, FM 186, shortwave 1 (1998)

France
  AM 41, FM about 3,500 (this figure is an approximation and
  includes many repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)

French Guiana
  AM 2, FM 14 (including 6 repeaters), shortwave 6
  (including 5 repeaters) (1998)

French Polynesia
  AM 2, FM 14, shortwave 2 (1998)

Gabon
  AM 6, FM 7 (and 11 repeaters), shortwave 4 (2001)

Gambia, The
  AM 3, FM 2, shortwave 0 (2001)

Gaza Strip
  AM 0, FM 8, shortwave 0 (2005)

Georgia
  AM 7, FM 12, shortwave 4 (1998)

Germany
  AM 51, FM 787, shortwave 4 (1998)

Ghana
  AM 0, FM 49, shortwave 3 (2001)

Gibraltar
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998)

Greece
  AM 26, FM 88, shortwave 4 (1998)

Greenland
  AM 5, FM 12, shortwave 0 (1998)

Grenada
  AM 2, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Guadeloupe
  AM 1, FM 17, shortwave 0 (1998)

Guam
  AM 3, FM 11, shortwave 2 (2006)

Guatemala
  AM 130, FM 487, shortwave 15 (2000)

Guernsey
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Guinea
  AM 4 (one station is inactive), FM 1 (plus 7 repeaters),
  shortwave 3 (2001)

Guinea-Bissau
  AM 1 (transmitter out of service), FM 4, shortwave 0
  (2002)

Guyana
  AM 3, FM 3, shortwave 1 (1998)

Haiti
  AM 41, FM 26, shortwave 0 (1999)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  AM 4, FM 3, shortwave 2 (2004)

Honduras
  AM 241, FM 53, shortwave 12 (1998)

Hong Kong
  AM 5, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2004)

Hungary
  AM 17, FM 57, shortwave 3 (1998)

Iceland
  AM 3, FM about 70 (including repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)

India
  AM 153, FM 91, shortwave 68 (1998)

Indonesia
  AM 678, FM 43, shortwave 82 (1998)

Iran
  AM 72, FM 5, shortwave 5 (1998)

Iraq
  after 17 months of unregulated media growth, there are
  approximately 80 radio stations on the air inside Iraq (2004)

Ireland
  AM 9, FM 106, shortwave 0 (1998)

Isle of Man
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Israel
  AM 23, FM 15, shortwave 2 (1998)

Italy
  AM about 100, FM about 4,600, shortwave 9 (1998)

Jamaica
  AM 10, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)

Jan Mayen
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
  note: there is one radio and meteorological station (1998)

Japan
  AM 215 plus 370 repeaters, FM 89 plus 485 repeaters, shortwave
  21 (2001)

Jersey
  AM NA, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Jordan
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (1999)

Kazakhstan
  AM 60, FM 17, shortwave 9 (1998)

Kenya
  AM 24, FM 18, shortwave 6 (2001)

Kiribati
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 1
  note: the shortwave station may be inactive (2002)

Korea, North
  AM 17 (including 11 stations of Korean Central
  Broadcasting Station), FM 14, shortwave 14 (2003)

Korea, South
  AM 61, FM 150, shortwave 2 (2005)

Kuwait
  AM 6, FM 11, shortwave 1 (1998)

Kyrgyzstan
  AM 12 (plus 10 repeater stations), FM 14, shortwave 2
  (1998)

Laos
  AM 7, FM 13, shortwave 2 (2006)

Latvia
  AM 8, FM 56, shortwave 1 (1998)

Lebanon
  AM 20, FM 22, shortwave 4 (1998)

Lesotho
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 1 (1998)

Liberia
  AM 0, FM 7, shortwave 2 (2001)

Libya
  AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 3 (2002)

Liechtenstein
  AM 0, FM 4, shortwave 0 (1998)

Lithuania
  AM 29, FM 142, shortwave 1 (2001)

Luxembourg
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 2 (1999)

Macau
  AM 0, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Macedonia
  AM 29, FM 20, shortwave 0 (1998)

Madagascar
  AM 2 (plus a number of repeater stations), FM 9,
  shortwave 6 (2001)

Malawi
  AM 9, FM 5 (plus 15 repeater stations), shortwave 2 (plus a
  third station held in standby status) (2001)

Malaysia
  AM 35, FM 391, shortwave 15 (2001)

Maldives
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (1998)

Mali
  AM 1, FM 28, shortwave 1
  note: the shortwave station in Bamako has seven frequencies and five
  transmitters and relays broadcasts for China Radio International
  (2001)

Malta
  AM 1, FM 18, shortwave 6 (1999)

Marshall Islands
  AM 1, FM 3, shortwave 0
  note: additionally, the US Armed Forces Radio and Television
  Services (Central Pacific Network) operate one FM and one AM station
  on Kwajalein (2005)

Martinique
  AM 0, FM 14, shortwave 0 (1998)

Mauritania
  AM 1, FM 14, shortwave 1 (2001)

Mauritius
  AM 4, FM 9, shortwave 0 (2002)

Mayotte
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2001)

Mexico
  AM 850, FM 545, shortwave 15 (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  AM 5, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Moldova
  AM 7, FM 50, shortwave 3 (1998)

Monaco
  AM 1, FM NA, shortwave 8 (1998)

Mongolia
  AM 7, FM 62, shortwave 3 (2004)

Montenegro
  31 (2004)

Montserrat
  AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)

Morocco
  AM 27, FM 25, shortwave 6 (1998)

Mozambique
  AM 13, FM 17, shortwave 11 (2001)

Namibia
  AM 2, FM 39, shortwave 4 (2001)

Nauru
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998)

Nepal
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (January 2000)

Netherlands
  AM 4, FM 246, shortwave 3 (2004)

Netherlands Antilles
  AM 8, FM 19, shortwave 0 (2004)

New Caledonia
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 0 (1998)

New Zealand
  AM 124, FM 290, shortwave 4 (1998)

Nicaragua
  AM 63, FM 32, shortwave 1 (1998)

Niger
  AM 5, FM 6, shortwave 4 (2001)

Nigeria
  AM 83, FM 36, shortwave 11 (2001)

Niue
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (1998)

Norfolk Island
  AM 1, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2005)

Northern Mariana Islands
  AM 1, FM 6, shortwave 1 (2006)

Norway
  AM 5, FM at least 650, shortwave 1 (1998)

Oman
  AM 3, FM 9, shortwave 2 (1999)

Pakistan
  AM 27, FM 1, shortwave 21 (1998)

Palau
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2002)

Panama
  AM 101, FM 134, shortwave 0 (1998)

Papua New Guinea
  AM 8, FM 19, shortwave 28 (1998)

Paraguay
  AM 46, FM 27, shortwave 6 (three inactive) (1998)

Peru
  AM 472, FM 198, shortwave 189 (1999)

Philippines
  AM 369, FM 583, shortwave 5
  note: each shortwave station operates on multiple frequencies in the
  language of the target audience (2004)

Pitcairn Islands
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0, note - 15 Ham radio
  operators (VP6) (2004)

Poland
  AM 14, FM 777, shortwave 1 (1998)

Portugal
  AM 47, FM 172 (many are repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)

Puerto Rico
  AM 74, FM 53, shortwave 0 (2006)

Qatar
  AM 6, FM 5, shortwave 1 (1998)

Reunion
  AM 2, FM 55, shortwave 0 (2001)

Romania
  AM 40, FM 202, shortwave 3 (1998)

Russia
  AM 323, FM 1,500 est., shortwave 62 (2004)

Rwanda
  AM 0, FM 8 (two main FM programs are broadcast through a
  system of repeaters, three international FM programs include the
  BBC, VOA, and Deutchewelle), shortwave 1 (2005)

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena: AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0
  Ascension: AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  AM 3, FM 3, shortwave 0 (2004)

Saint Lucia
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 0 (1998)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  AM 1, FM 6, shortwave 0 (2004)

Samoa
  AM 2, FM 5, shortwave 0 (2004)

San Marino
  AM 0, FM 3, shortwave 0 (1998)

Sao Tome and Principe
  AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 1 (2002)

Saudi Arabia
  AM 43, FM 31, shortwave 2 (1998)

Senegal
  AM 8, FM 20, shortwave 1 (2001)

Serbia
  153 (2001)

Seychelles
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 2 (1998)

Sierra Leone
  AM 1, FM 9, shortwave 1 (1999)

Singapore
  AM 0, FM 17, shortwave 2 (2003)

Slovakia
  AM 15, FM 78, shortwave 2 (1998)

Slovenia
  AM 17, FM 160, shortwave 0 (1998)

Solomon Islands
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 1 (2004)

Somalia
  AM 0, FM 11, shortwave 1 in Mogadishu; 1 FM in Puntland, 1
  FM in Somaliland (2001)

South Africa
  AM 14, FM 347 (plus 243 repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  0 (2003)

Spain
  AM 208, FM 715, shortwave 1 (1998)

Sri Lanka
  AM 26, FM 45, shortwave 1 (1998)

Sudan
  AM 12, FM 1, shortwave 1 (1998)

Suriname
  AM 4, FM 13, shortwave 1 (1998)

Svalbard
  AM 1, FM 1 (plus 2 repeaters), shortwave 0 (1998)

Swaziland
  AM 3, FM 2 plus 4 repeaters, shortwave 3 (2004)

Sweden
  AM 1, FM 265, shortwave 1 (1998)

Switzerland
  AM 4, FM 113 (plus many low power stations), shortwave 2
  (1998)

Syria
  AM 14, FM 2, shortwave 1 (1998)

Taiwan
  AM 218, FM 333, shortwave 50 (1999)

Tajikistan
  AM 8, FM 10, shortwave 2 (2002)

Tanzania
  AM 12, FM 11, shortwave 2 (1998)

Thailand
  AM 204, FM 334, shortwave 6 (1999)

Togo
  AM 2, FM 9, shortwave 4 (1998)

Tokelau
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA
  note: 1 radio station provides service to all islands (2002)

Tonga
  AM 1, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  AM 4, FM 18, shortwave 0 (2004)

Tunisia
  AM 7, FM 20, shortwave 2 (1998)

Turkey
  AM 16, FM 107, shortwave 6 (2001)

Turkmenistan
  AM 16, FM 8, shortwave 2 (1998)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  AM 2, FM 7, shortwave 0 (2004)

Tuvalu
  AM 1, FM 1, shortwave 0 (2004)

Uganda
  AM 7, FM 33, shortwave 2 (2001)

Ukraine
  AM 134, FM 289, shortwave 4 (1998)

United Arab Emirates
  AM 13, FM 8, shortwave 2 (2004)

United Kingdom
  AM 219, FM 431, shortwave 3 (1998)

United States
  AM 4,789, FM 8,961, shortwave 19 (2006)

Uruguay
  AM 93, FM 191, shortwave 7 (2005)

Uzbekistan
  AM 20, FM 7, shortwave 10 (1998)

Vanuatu
  AM 2, FM 4, shortwave 1 (2004)

Venezuela
  AM 201, FM NA (20 in Caracas), shortwave 11 (1998)

Vietnam
  AM 65, FM 7, shortwave 29 (1999)

Virgin Islands
  AM 6, FM 16, shortwave 0 (2006)

Wake Island
  AM 0, FM 0, shortwave 0
  note: Armed Forces Radio/Television Service (AFRTS) radio service
  provided by satellite (2005)

Wallis and Futuna
  AM 1, FM 0, shortwave 0 (2000)

West Bank
  AM 1, FM 20, shortwave 0 (2005)

Western Sahara
  AM 2, FM 0, shortwave 0 (1998)

World
  AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA

Yemen
  AM 6, FM 1, shortwave 2 (1998)

Zambia
  AM 19, FM 5, shortwave 4 (2001)

Zimbabwe
  AM 7, FM 20 (plus 17 repeater stations), shortwave 1 (1998)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2015  Television broadcast stations


Afghanistan
  at least 10 (one government-run central television
  station in Kabul and regional stations in nine of the 34 provinces;
  the regional stations operate on a reduced schedule; also, in 1997,
  there was a station in Mazar-e-Sharif reaching four northern
  Afghanistan provinces) (1998)

Akrotiri
  British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides
  multi-channel satellite service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia
  (2006)

Albania
  65 (3 national, 62 local); note - 2 cable networks (2005)

Algeria
  46 (plus 216 repeaters) (1995)

American Samoa
  1 (Low Power TV); note - one cable TV station (2006)

Andorra
  0 (1997)

Angola
  6 (2000)

Anguilla
  1 (1997)

Antarctica
  1 (cable system with six channels; American Forces
  Antarctic Network-McMurdo)
  note: information for US bases only (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  2 (1997)

Argentina
  42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997)

Armenia
  3 (plus an unknown number of repeaters) (1998)

Aruba
  1 (1997)

Australia
  104 (1997)

Austria
  10 (plus more than 1,000 repeaters) (2001)

Azerbaijan
  2 (1997)

Bahamas, The
  2 (2006)

Bahrain
  4 (1997)

Bangladesh
  15 (1999)

Barbados
  1 (plus two cable channels) (2004)

Belarus
  47 (plus 27 repeaters) (1995)

Belgium
  25 (plus 10 repeaters) (1997)

Belize
  2 (1997)

Benin
  1 (2001)

Bermuda
  3 (2005)

Bhutan
  1 (2006)

Bolivia
  48 (1997)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  33 (plus 277 repeaters) (September 1995)

Botswana
  1 (2001)

Brazil
  138 (1997)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  1 (1997)

British Virgin Islands
  1 (plus one cable company) (1997)

Brunei
  4; note - including two UHF stations broadcasting a
  subscription service (2006)

Bulgaria
  39 (plus 1,242 repeaters) (2001)

Burkina Faso
  1 (2002)

Burma
  2 (2004)

Burundi
  1 (2001)

Cambodia
  11 (including two TV relay stations with French and
  Vietnamese broadcasts); 12 regional low power TV stations (2006)

Cameroon
  1 (2002)

Canada
  80 (plus many repeaters) (1997)

Cape Verde
  1 (and 7 repeaters) (2002)

Cayman Islands
  4 with cable system (2004)

Central African Republic
  1 (2001)

Chad
  1 (2002)

Chile
  63 (plus 121 repeaters) (1997)

China
  3,240 (of which 209 are operated by China Central Television,
  31 are provincial TV stations, and nearly 3,000 are local city
  stations) (1997)

Christmas Island
  0; note - TV broadcasts received via satellite from
  mainland Australia (2006)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  60 (includes seven low-power stations) (1997)

Comoros
  NA

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  4 (2001)

Congo, Republic of the
  1 (2002)

Cook Islands
  1 (outer islands receive satellite broadcasts) (2004)

Costa Rica
  20 (plus 43 repeaters) (2002)

Cote d'Ivoire
  14 (1999)

Croatia
  36 (plus 321 repeaters) (September 1995)

Cuba
  58 (1997)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 8
  north Cyprus: 2 (plus 4 relay) (2004)

Czech Republic
  150 (plus 1,434 repeaters) (2000)

Denmark
  26 (plus 51 repeaters) (1998)

Dhekelia
  British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides
  multi-channel satellite service to Akrotiri, Dhekelia, and Nicosia
  (2006)

Djibouti
  1 (2002)

Dominica
  1 (2004)

Dominican Republic
  25 (2003)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  7 (plus 14 repeaters) (2001)

Egypt
  98 (September 1995)

El Salvador
  5 (1997)

Equatorial Guinea
  1 (2002)

Eritrea
  1 (2000)

Estonia
  3 (2001)

Ethiopia
  1 plus 24 repeaters (2002)

European Union
  2,791 (1995); note - does not include repeaters; sum
  of individual country television broadcast stations; there is also a
  European-wide station (Eurovision)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  2 (British Forces Broadcasting
  Service (BFBS) provides multi-channel satellite service to members
  of UK Forces as well as islanders)
  note: cable television is available in Stanley (2006)

Faroe Islands
  3 (plus 43 low-power repeaters) (September 1995)

Fiji
  NA

Finland
  120 (plus 431 repeaters) (1999)

France
  584 (plus 9,676 repeaters) (1995)

French Guiana
  3 (plus eight low-power repeaters) (1997)

French Polynesia
  7 (plus 17 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Gabon
  4 (plus four low-power repeaters) (2001)

Gambia, The
  1 (government-owned) (1997)

Gaza Strip
  1 (2005)

Georgia
  12 (plus repeaters) (1998)

Germany
  373 (plus 8,042 repeaters) (1995)

Ghana
  10 (2001)

Gibraltar
  1 (plus three low-power repeaters) (1997)

Greece
  36 (plus 1,341 low-power repeaters); also two stations in the
  US Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (1995)

Greenland
  1 publicly-owned station, some local low-power stations,
  and three AFRTS (US Air Force) stations (1997)

Grenada
  2 (1997)

Guadeloupe
  5 (plus several low-power repeaters) (1997)

Guam
  3; 6 (Low Power TV) (2006)

Guatemala
  26 (plus 27 repeaters) (1997)

Guernsey
  1 (1997)

Guinea
  6 low-power stations (2001)

Guinea-Bissau
  NA (2005)

Guyana
  3 (one public station; two private stations which relay US
  satellite services) (1997)

Haiti
  2 (plus a cable TV service) (1997)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  1 (2005)

Honduras
  11 (plus 17 repeaters) (1997)

Hong Kong
  55 low power stations
  note: two TV networks, each one broadcasting on two channels (2006)

Hungary
  35 (plus 161 low-power repeaters) (1995)

Iceland
  14 (plus 156 low-power repeaters) (1997)

India
  562 (of which 82 stations have 1 kW or greater power and 480
  stations have less than 1 kW of power) (1997)

Indonesia
  54 local TV stations
  note: 11 national TV networks; each with their own group of local,
  often low power, transmitters (2006)

Iran
  28 (plus 450 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Iraq
  21 (2004)

Ireland
  4 (many low-power repeaters) (2001)

Isle of Man
  0 (receives broadcasts from the UK and satellite) (1999)

Israel
  17 (plus 36 low-power repeaters) (1995)

Italy
  358 (plus 4,728 repeaters) (1995)

Jamaica
  7 (1997)

Japan
  211 plus 7,341 repeaters
  note: in addition, US Forces are served by 3 TV stations and 2 TV
  cable services (1999)

Jersey
  2 (1997)

Jordan
  20 (plus 96 repeaters) (1995)

Kazakhstan
  12 (plus nine repeaters) (1998)

Kenya
  8 (2002)

Kiribati
  1 (not reported to be active) (2002)

Korea, North
  4 (includes Korean Central Television, Mansudae
  Television, Korean Educational and Cultural Network, and Kaesong
  Television targeting South Korea) (2003)

Korea, South
  terrestrial stations 43; cable operators 59; relay
  cable operators 190 (2005)

Kuwait
  13 (plus several satellite channels) (1997)

Kyrgyzstan
  NA (repeater stations throughout the country relay
  programs from Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey) (1997)

Laos
  7; note - including one station relaying Vietnam Television
  from Hanoi (2006)

Latvia
  44 (plus 31 repeaters) (1995)

Lebanon
  15 (plus 5 repeaters) (1995)

Lesotho
  1 (2000)

Liberia
  1 (plus four low-power repeaters) (2001)

Libya
  12 (plus one low-power repeater) (1999)

Liechtenstein
  NA (linked to Swiss networks) (1997)

Lithuania
  27
  note: Lithuania has approximately 27 broadcasting stations, but may
  have as many as 100 transmitters, including repeater stations (2001)

Luxembourg
  5 (1999)

Macau
  1 (2006)

Macedonia
  31 (plus 166 repeaters) (1995)

Madagascar
  1 (plus 36 repeaters) (2001)

Malawi
  1 (2001)

Malaysia
  mainland Malaysia 51; Sabah 16; Sarawak 21; note - many are
  low power stations (2006)

Maldives
  1 (2006)

Mali
  1 (plus repeaters) (2001)

Malta
  6 (2000)

Marshall Islands
  2 (both are US military stations)
  note: Marshalls Broadcasting Service (cable company) operates on
  Majuro (2005)

Martinique
  11 (plus nine repeaters) (1997)

Mauritania
  1 (2002)

Mauritius
  2 (plus several repeaters) (1997)

Mayotte
  3 (2001)

Mexico
  236 (plus repeaters) (1997)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  3; note - cable TV also available
  (2004)

Moldova
  1 (plus 30 repeaters) (1995)

Monaco
  5 (1998)

Mongolia
  52 (plus 21 provincial repeaters and many low power
  repeaters) (2004)

Montenegro
  13 (2004)

Montserrat
  1 (1997)

Morocco
  35 (plus 66 repeaters) (1995)

Mozambique
  1 (2001)

Namibia
  8 (plus about 20 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Nauru
  1 (1997)

Nepal
  1 (plus 9 repeaters) (1998)

Netherlands
  21 (plus 26 repeaters) (1995)

Netherlands Antilles
  3 (there is also a cable service, which
  supplies programs received from various US satellite networks and
  four Venezuelan channels) (2004)

New Caledonia
  6 (plus 25 low-power repeaters) (1997)

New Zealand
  41 (plus 52 medium-power repeaters and over 650
  low-power repeaters) (1997)

Nicaragua
  3 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (1997)

Niger
  3 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (2002)

Nigeria
  3 (the government controls 2 of the broadcasting stations
  and 15 repeater stations) (2002)

Niue
  1 (1997)

Norfolk Island
  1 (local programming station plus two repeaters that
  bring in Australian programs by satellite) (2005)

Northern Mariana Islands
  1 (Low Power TV on Saipan; in addition, two
  cable services on Saipan provide varied programming from satellite
  networks) (2006)

Norway
  360 (plus 2,729 repeaters) (1995)

Oman
  13 (plus 25 low-power repeaters) (1999)

Pakistan
  22 (plus seven low-power repeaters) (1997)

Palau
  1 (cable) (2005)

Panama
  38 (including repeaters) (1998)

Papua New Guinea
  3 (all in the Port Moresby area)
  note: additional stations at Mt. Hagen, Goroka, Lae, and Rabaul are
  planned (2004)

Paraguay
  5 (2003)

Peru
  13 (plus 112 repeaters) (1997)

Philippines
  225; note - 1373 CATV networks (2004)

Poland
  40 (2006)

Portugal
  62 (plus 166 repeaters)
  note: includes Azores and Madeira Islands (1995)

Puerto Rico
  32 (2006)

Qatar
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2001)

Reunion
  35 (plus 18 low-power repeaters) (2001)

Romania
  48 (plus 392 repeaters) (1995)

Russia
  7,306 (1998)

Rwanda
  2 (2004)

Saint Helena
  0
  note: three television channels are received in Saint Helena via
  satellite and distributed by UHF (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2004)

Saint Lucia
  2 (of which one is a commercial broadcast station and
  one is a community antenna television or CATV channel) (2004)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 (there are, however, two repeaters which
  rebroadcast programs from France, Canada, and the US) (1997)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1 (plus three repeaters) (2004)

Samoa
  2 (2002)

San Marino
  1 (San Marino residents also receive broadcasts from
  Italy) (1997)

Sao Tome and Principe
  2 (2002)

Saudi Arabia
  117 (1997)

Senegal
  1 (1997)

Seychelles
  2 (plus 9 repeaters) (1997)

Sierra Leone
  2 (1999)

Singapore
  1 (broadcasting on six channels); additional reception of
  numerous UHF and VHF signals originating in Malaysia and Indonesia;
  note - digital TV for reception in public spaces and transportation
  is transmitted from 10 sites (2006)

Slovakia
  6 national broadcasting, 7 regional, 67 local (2004)

Slovenia
  48 (2001)

Somalia
  4; note - two in Mogadishu; two in Hargeisa (2001)

South Africa
  556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  0 (2003)

Spain
  224 (plus 2,105 repeaters)
  note: these figures include 11 television broadcast stations and 88
  repeaters in the Canary Islands (1995)

Sri Lanka
  21 (1997)

Sudan
  3 (1997)

Suriname
  3 (plus seven repeaters) (2000)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  12 (includes 7 relay stations) (2004)

Sweden
  169 (plus 1,299 repeaters) (1995)

Switzerland
  115 (plus 1,919 repeaters) (1995)

Syria
  44 (plus 17 repeaters) (1995)

Taiwan
  29 (plus two repeaters) (1997)

Tajikistan
  13 (2001)

Tanzania
  3 (1999)

Thailand
  111 (2006)

Togo
  3 (plus two repeaters) (1997)

Tonga
  3 (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  6 (2005)

Tunisia
  26 (plus 76 repeaters) (1995)

Turkey
  635 (plus 2,934 repeaters) (1995)

Turkmenistan
  4 (government owned and programmed) (2004)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 (broadcasts from The Bahamas are
  received; 2 cable television networks) (2004)

Tuvalu
  0 (2004)

Uganda
  8 (plus one low-power repeater) (2001)

Ukraine
  at least 33 (plus 21 repeaters that relay broadcasts from
  Russia) (1997)

United Arab Emirates
  15 (2004)

United Kingdom
  228 (plus 3,523 repeaters) (1995)

United States
  2,218 (2006)

Uruguay
  62 (2005)

Uzbekistan
  4 (plus two repeaters that relay Russian programs), 1
  cable rebroadcaster in Tashkent; approximately 20 stations in
  regional capitals (2003)

Vanuatu
  1 (2004)

Venezuela
  66 (plus 45 repeaters) (1997)

Vietnam
  6 (plus 61 provincial TV stations) (2006)

Virgin Islands
  5 (2006)

Wake Island
  0
  note: Armed Forces Radio/Television Service (AFRTS) radio service
  provided by satellite (2005)

Wallis and Futuna
  2 (2000)

West Bank
  8 (2005)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  NA

Yemen
  7 (plus several low-power repeaters) (1997)

Zambia
  9 (2002)

Zimbabwe
  16 (1997)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2018  Sex ratio (male(s)/female)


Afghanistan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Albania
  at birth: 1.1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Algeria
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Andorra
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Angola
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Argentina
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Armenia
  at birth: 1.17 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.88 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.9 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Aruba
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Australia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Austria
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.65 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.38 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.07 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.26 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.16 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Barbados
  at birth: 1.01 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Belarus
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.88 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Belgium
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Belize
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.93 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Benin
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.01 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Botswana
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Brazil
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.1 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Brunei
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.09 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Burma
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Burundi
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Canada
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Chad
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Chile
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

China
  at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Colombia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Comoros
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  107 male(s)/female (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Croatia
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cuba
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Denmark
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Dominica
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

East Timor
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Egypt
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Estonia
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.5 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.84 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

European Union
  at birth: NA
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and older: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female

Faroe Islands
  at birth: 1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Fiji
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Finland
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

France
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.16 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.04 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.12 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Gabon
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.05 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Georgia
  at birth: 1.15 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Germany
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Ghana
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Greece
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Greenland
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.17 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.12 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Grenada
  at birth: 1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.08 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guam
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guinea
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Guyana
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Haiti
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Honduras
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Hungary
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.57 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Iceland
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

India
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Iran
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Iraq
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Ireland
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Israel
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Italy
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Japan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Jersey
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Jordan
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.15 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.55 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Kenya
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.54 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.11 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.77 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.52 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Laos
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Latvia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.48 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Liberia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Libya
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  at birth: 1.01 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.52 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.89 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Macau
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Malawi
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Maldives
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.98 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mali
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Malta
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Martinique
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.18 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.02 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mexico
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA

Moldova
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.59 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Monaco
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.06 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Morocco
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Namibia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Nauru
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.13 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Nepal
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.95 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.87 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Niger
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.99 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.7 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.05 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.77 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Norway
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Oman
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.44 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.23 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.25 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Palau
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.17 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.13 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Panama
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Peru
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Philippines
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Portugal
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Qatar
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 2.24 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 2.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.87 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Reunion
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Romania
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Russia
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.46 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.67 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.58 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.78 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Samoa
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.65 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.39 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

San Marino
  at birth: 1.09 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.93 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.33 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.13 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.2 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Senegal
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.47 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Singapore
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.6 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.92 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Somalia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

South Africa
  at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Spain
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Sudan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.15 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Suriname
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.66 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Sweden
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.77 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Syria
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.9 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  at birth: 1.1 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.99 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Thailand
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Togo
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.81 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Turkey
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.11 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.95 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.61 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Uganda
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.76 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.52 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.55 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 2.73 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.43 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.75 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

United States
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 1.1 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.83 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.64 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.91 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

West Bank
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Yemen
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
  total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Zambia
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.88 male(s)/female
  total population: 1 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2019  Heliports


Afghanistan
  9 (2006)

Albania
  1 (2006)

Algeria
  1 (2006)

Antarctica
  37
  note: all 37 year-round and 15 seasonal stations operated by
  National Antarctic Programs stations have restricted helicopter
  landing facilities (helipads) (2006)

Australia
  1 (2006)

Austria
  1 (2006)

Azerbaijan
  1 (2006)

Bahamas, The
  1 (2006)

Bahrain
  1 (2006)

Belarus
  1 (2006)

Belgium
  1 (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  5 (2006)

Brazil
  417 (2006)

Brunei
  3 (2006)

Bulgaria
  4 (2006)

Burma
  1 (2006)

Cambodia
  2 (2006)

Canada
  319 (2006)

China
  32 (2006)

Colombia
  2 (2006)

Croatia
  2 (2006)

Cyprus
  10 (2006)

Czech Republic
  2 (2006)

East Timor
  9 (2006)

Ecuador
  1 (2006)

Egypt
  3 (2006)

El Salvador
  1 (2006)

Estonia
  1 (2006)

European Union
  93 (2006)

France
  3 (2006)

French Polynesia
  1 (2006)

Gaza Strip
  1 (2006)

Georgia
  3 (2006)

Germany
  32 (2006)

Greece
  8 (2006)

Hong Kong
  3 (2006)

Hungary
  5 (2006)

India
  28 (2006)

Indonesia
  23 (2006)

Iran
  15 (2006)

Iraq
  8 (2006)

Israel
  3 (2006)

Italy
  5 (2006)

Japan
  15 (2006)

Jordan
  1 (2006)

Kazakhstan
  4 (2006)

Korea, North
  22 (2006)

Korea, South
  540 (2006)

Kuwait
  5 (2006)

Libya
  2 (2006)

Luxembourg
  1 (2006)

Malaysia
  2 (2006)

Mexico
  1 (2006)

Monaco
  1 (2006)

Mongolia
  2 (2006)

Morocco
  1 (2006)

Netherlands
  1 (2006)

New Caledonia
  6 (2006)

Nigeria
  1 (2006)

Northern Mariana Islands
  1 (2006)

Norway
  1 (2006)

Oman
  1 (2006)

Pakistan
  18 (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  2 (2006)

Peru
  1 (2006)

Philippines
  2 (2006)

Poland
  3 (2006)

Qatar
  1 (2006)

Romania
  1 (2006)

Russia
  52 (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  6 (2006)

Serbia
  4 (2006)

Sierra Leone
  2 (2006)

Slovakia
  1 (2006)

Spain
  8 (2006)

Sudan
  1 (2006)

Sweden
  2 (2006)

Switzerland
  2 (2006)

Syria
  7 (2006)

Taiwan
  3 (2006)

Thailand
  3 (2006)

Turkey
  18 (2006)

Turkmenistan
  1 (2006)

Ukraine
  10 (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  4 (2006)

United Kingdom
  11 (2006)

United States
  149 (2006)

Venezuela
  1 (2006)

World
  2,021 (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2020  Elevation extremes (m)


Afghanistan
  lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m
  highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m

Albania
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Maja e Korabit (Golem Korab) 2,764 m

Algeria
  lowest point: Chott Melrhir -40 m
  highest point: Tahat 3,003 m

American Samoa
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Lata Mountain 964 m

Andorra
  lowest point: Riu Runer 840 m
  highest point: Coma Pedrosa 2,946 m

Angola
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morro de Moco 2,620 m

Anguilla
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Crocus Hill 65 m

Antarctica
  lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,555 m
  highest point: Vinson Massif 4,897 m
  note: the lowest known land point in Antarctica is hidden in the
  Bentley Subglacial Trench; at its surface is the deepest ice yet
  discovered and the world's lowest elevation not under seawater

Antigua and Barbuda
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Boggy Peak 402 m

Arctic Ocean
  lowest point: Fram Basin -4,665 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Argentina
  lowest point: Laguna del Carbon -105 m (located between
  Puerto San Julian and Comandante Luis Piedra Buena in the province
  of Santa Cruz)
  highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m (located in the northwestern
  corner of the province of Mendoza)

Armenia
  lowest point: Debed River 400 m
  highest point: Aragats Lerrnagagat' 4,090 m

Aruba
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Jamanota 188 m

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 3 m

Atlantic Ocean
  lowest point: Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico
  Trench -8,605 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Australia
  lowest point: Lake Eyre -15 m
  highest point: Mount Kosciuszko 2,229 m

Austria
  lowest point: Neusiedler See 115 m
  highest point: Grossglockner 3,798 m

Azerbaijan
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Bazarduzu Dagi 4,485 m

Bahamas, The
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Alvernia, on Cat Island 63 m

Bahrain
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal ad Dukhan 122 m

Baker Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 8 m

Bangladesh
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m

Barbados
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Hillaby 336 m

Bassas da India
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 2.4 m

Belarus
  lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m
  highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m

Belgium
  lowest point: North Sea 0 m
  highest point: Signal de Botrange 694 m

Belize
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Victoria Peak 1,160 m

Benin
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Sokbaro 658 m

Bermuda
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Town Hill 76 m

Bhutan
  lowest point: Drangme Chhu 97 m
  highest point: Kula Kangri 7,553 m

Bolivia
  lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
  highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Maglic 2,386 m

Botswana
  lowest point: junction of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers 513
  m
  highest point: Tsodilo Hills 1,489 m

Bouvet Island
  lowest point: South Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Olav Peak 935 m

Brazil
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico da Neblina 3,014 m

British Indian Ocean Territory
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Diego Garcia 15 m

British Virgin Islands
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Sage 521 m

Brunei
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Bukit Pagon 1,850 m

Bulgaria
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Musala 2,925 m

Burkina Faso
  lowest point: Mouhoun (Black Volta) River 200 m
  highest point: Tena Kourou 749 m

Burma
  lowest point: Andaman Sea 0 m
  highest point: Hkakabo Razi 5,881 m

Burundi
  lowest point: Lake Tanganyika 772 m
  highest point: Heha 2,670 m

Cambodia
  lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 m
  highest point: Phnum Aoral 1,810 m

Cameroon
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Fako 4,095 m (on Mt. Cameroon)

Canada
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Logan 5,959 m

Cape Verde
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mt. Fogo 2,829 m (a volcano on Fogo Island)

Cayman Islands
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: The Bluff (Cayman Brac) 43 m

Central African Republic
  lowest point: Oubangui River 335 m
  highest point: Mont Ngaoui 1,420 m

Chad
  lowest point: Djourab Depression 160 m
  highest point: Emi Koussi 3,415 m

Chile
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Nevado Ojos del Salado 6,880 m

China
  lowest point: Turpan Pendi -154 m
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Christmas Island
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Murray Hill 361 m

Clipperton Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Rocher Clipperton 29 m

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Colombia
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico Cristobal Colon 5,775 m
  note: nearby Pico Simon Bolivar also has the same elevation

Comoros
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Le Kartala 2,360 m

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pic Marguerite on Mont Ngaliema (Mount Stanley) 5,110
  m

Congo, Republic of the
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Berongou 903 m

Cook Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Te Manga 652 m

Coral Sea Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Cato Island 6 m

Costa Rica
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Chirripo 3,810 m

Cote d'Ivoire
  lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Croatia
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Dinara 1,830 m

Cuba
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Pico Turquino 2,005 m

Cyprus
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Olympus 1,951 m

Czech Republic
  lowest point: Elbe River 115 m
  highest point: Snezka 1,602 m

Denmark
  lowest point: Lammefjord -7 m
  highest point: Yding Skovhoej 173 m

Djibouti
  lowest point: Lac Assal -155 m
  highest point: Moussa Ali 2,028 m

Dominica
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Morne Diablatins 1,447 m

Dominican Republic
  lowest point: Lago Enriquillo -46 m
  highest point: Pico Duarte 3,175 m

East Timor
  lowest point: Timor Sea, Savu Sea, and Banda Sea 0 m
  highest point: Foho Tatamailau 2,963 m

Ecuador
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Chimborazo 6,267 m

Egypt
  lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m
  highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m

El Salvador
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro El Pital 2,730 m

Equatorial Guinea
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico Basile 3,008 m

Eritrea
  lowest point: near Kulul within the Denakil depression -75 m
  highest point: Soira 3,018 m

Estonia
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Suur Munamagi 318 m

Ethiopia
  lowest point: Denakil Depression -125 m
  highest point: Ras Dejen 4,620 m

Europa Island
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 24 m

European Union
  lowest point: Lammefjord, Denmark -7 m;
  Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands -7 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m; note - situated on the border
  between France and Italy

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Usborne 705 m

Faroe Islands
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Slaettaratindur 882 m

Fiji
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Tomanivi 1,324 m

Finland
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Haltiatunturi 1,328 m

France
  lowest point: Rhone River delta -2 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m

French Guiana
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Bellevue de l'Inini 851 m

French Polynesia
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Orohena 2,241 m

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Ross on Iles Kerguelen 1,850 m

Gabon
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Iboundji 1,575 m

Gambia, The
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 53 m

Gaza Strip
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda) 105 m

Georgia
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mt'a Shkhara 5,201 m

Germany
  lowest point: Neuendorf bei Wilster -3.54 m
  highest point: Zugspitze 2,963 m

Ghana
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Afadjato 880 m

Gibraltar
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Rock of Gibraltar 426 m

Glorioso Islands
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 12 m

Greece
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Olympus 2,917 m

Greenland
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Gunnbjorn 3,700 m

Grenada
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Saint Catherine 840 m

Guadeloupe
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Soufriere 1,484 m

Guam
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Lamlam 406 m

Guatemala
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Volcan Tajumulco 4,211 m

Guernsey
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Sark 114 m

Guinea
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Guinea-Bissau
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location in the northeast corner of the
  country 300 m

Guyana
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Roraima 2,835 m

Haiti
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Chaine de la Selle 2,680 m

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mawson Peak, on Big Ben 2,745 m

Holy See (Vatican City)
  lowest point: unnamed location 19 m
  highest point: unnamed location 75 m

Honduras
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Las Minas 2,870 m

Hong Kong
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Tai Mo Shan 958 m

Howland Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 3 m

Hungary
  lowest point: Tisza River 78 m
  highest point: Kekes 1,014 m

Iceland
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Hvannadalshnukur 2,110 m (at Vatnajokull glacier)

Iles Eparses
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Bassas da India 2.4 m; Europa Island 24 m; Glorioso
  Islands 12 m; Juan de Nova Island 10 m; Tromelin Island 7 m (all
  unnamed locations)

India
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Kanchenjunga 8,598 m

Indian Ocean
  lowest point: Java Trench -7,258 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Indonesia
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Puncak Jaya 5,030 m

Iran
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Kuh-e Damavand 5,671 m

Iraq
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: unnamed peak; 3,611 m; note - this peak is not Gundah
  Zhur 3,607 m or Kuh-e Hajji-Ebrahim 3,595 m

Ireland
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Carrauntoohil 1,041 m

Isle of Man
  lowest point: Irish Sea 0 m
  highest point: Snaefell 621 m

Israel
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Har Meron 1,208 m

Italy
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco) de Courmayeur 4,748 m (a
  secondary peak of Mont Blanc)

Jamaica
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Blue Mountain Peak 2,256 m

Jan Mayen
  lowest point: Norwegian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg 2,277 m

Japan
  lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m
  highest point: Mount Fuji 3,776 m

Jarvis Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 7 m

Jersey
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 143 m

Johnston Atoll
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Summit Peak 5 m

Jordan
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Jabal Ram 1,734 m

Juan de Nova Island
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 10 m

Kazakhstan
  lowest point: Vpadina Kaundy -132 m
  highest point: Khan Tangiri Shyngy (Pik Khan-Tengri) 6,995 m

Kenya
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Kenya 5,199 m

Kingman Reef
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 1 m

Kiribati
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Banaba 81 m

Korea, North
  lowest point: Sea of Japan 0 m
  highest point: Paektu-san 2,744 m

Korea, South
  lowest point: Sea of Japan 0 m
  highest point: Halla-san 1,950 m

Kuwait
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 306 m

Kyrgyzstan
  lowest point: Kara-Daryya (Karadar'ya) 132 m
  highest point: Jengish Chokusu (Pik Pobedy) 7,439 m

Laos
  lowest point: Mekong River 70 m
  highest point: Phou Bia 2,817 m

Latvia
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Gaizinkalns 312 m

Lebanon
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Qurnat as Sawda' 3,088 m

Lesotho
  lowest point: junction of the Orange and Makhaleng Rivers
  1,400 m
  highest point: Thabana Ntlenyana 3,482 m

Liberia
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Wuteve 1,380 m

Libya
  lowest point: Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m
  highest point: Bikku Bitti 2,267 m

Liechtenstein
  lowest point: Ruggeller Riet 430 m
  highest point: Vorder-Grauspitz 2,599 m

Lithuania
  lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Juozapines Kalnas 293.6 m

Luxembourg
  lowest point: Moselle River 133 m
  highest point: Buurgplaatz 559 m

Macau
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Coloane Alto 172.4 m

Macedonia
  lowest point: Vardar River 50 m
  highest point: Golem Korab (Maja e Korabit) 2,764 m

Madagascar
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Maromokotro 2,876 m

Malawi
  lowest point: junction of the Shire River and international
  boundary with Mozambique 37 m
  highest point: Sapitwa (Mount Mlanje) 3,002 m

Malaysia
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Gunung Kinabalu 4,100 m

Maldives
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Wilingili island in the Addu
  Atoll 2.4 m

Mali
  lowest point: Senegal River 23 m
  highest point: Hombori Tondo 1,155 m

Malta
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Ta'Dmejrek 253 m (near Dingli)

Marshall Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Likiep 10 m

Martinique
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Montagne Pelee 1,397 m

Mauritania
  lowest point: Sebkhet Te-n-Dghamcha -5 m
  highest point: Kediet Ijill 915 m

Mauritius
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Piton 828 m

Mayotte
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Benara 660 m

Mexico
  lowest point: Laguna Salada -10 m
  highest point: Volcan Pico de Orizaba 5,700 m

Micronesia, Federated States of
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Dolohmwar (Totolom) 791 m

Midway Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 13 m

Moldova
  lowest point: Dniester River 2 m
  highest point: Dealul Balanesti 430 m

Monaco
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mont Agel 140 m

Mongolia
  lowest point: Hoh Nuur 518 m
  highest point: Nayramadlin Orgil (Huyten Orgil) 4,374 m

Montenegro
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Bobotov Kuk 2,522 m

Montserrat
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: lava dome in English's Crater (in the Soufriere Hills
  volcanic complex) estimated at over 930 m (2006)

Morocco
  lowest point: Sebkha Tah -55 m
  highest point: Jebel Toubkal 4,165 m

Mozambique
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Monte Binga 2,436 m

Namibia
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Konigstein 2,606 m

Nauru
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location along plateau rim 61 m

Navassa Island
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on southwest side 77 m

Nepal
  lowest point: Kanchan Kalan 70 m
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Netherlands
  lowest point: Zuidplaspolder -7 m
  highest point: Vaalserberg 322 m

Netherlands Antilles
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Scenery 862 m

New Caledonia
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Panie 1,628 m

New Zealand
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Aoraki-Mount Cook 3,754 m

Nicaragua
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mogoton 2,438 m

Niger
  lowest point: Niger River 200 m
  highest point: Mont Bagzane 2,022 m

Nigeria
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Chappal Waddi 2,419 m

Niue
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location near Mutalau settlement 68 m

Norfolk Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Bates 319 m

Northern Mariana Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Agrihan 965 m

Norway
  lowest point: Norwegian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Galdhopiggen 2,469 m

Oman
  lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Shams 2,980 m

Pacific Ocean
  lowest point: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench
  -10,924 m
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Pakistan
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: K2 (Mt. Godwin-Austen) 8,611 m

Palau
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Ngerchelchuus 242 m

Palmyra Atoll
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 2 m

Panama
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Volcan de Chiriqui 3,475 m

Papua New Guinea
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Wilhelm 4,509 m

Paracel Islands
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Rocky Island 14 m

Paraguay
  lowest point: junction of Rio Paraguay and Rio Parana 46 m
  highest point: Cerro Pero (Cerro Tres Kandu) 842 m

Peru
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Nevado Huascaran 6,768 m

Philippines
  lowest point: Philippine Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Apo 2,954 m

Pitcairn Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pawala Valley Ridge 347 m

Poland
  lowest point: near Raczki Elblaskie -2 m
  highest point: Rysy 2,499 m

Portugal
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Ponta do Pico (Pico or Pico Alto) on Ilha do Pico in
  the Azores 2,351 m

Puerto Rico
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Cerro de Punta 1,339 m

Qatar
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Qurayn Abu al Bawl 103 m

Reunion
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Piton des Neiges 3,069 m

Romania
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Moldoveanu 2,544 m

Russia
  lowest point: Caspian Sea -28 m
  highest point: Gora El'brus 5,633 m

Rwanda
  lowest point: Rusizi River 950 m
  highest point: Volcan Karisimbi 4,519 m

Saint Helena
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Queen Mary's Peak on Tristan da Cunha 2,062 m; Green
  Mountain on Ascension Island 859 m; Mount Actaeon on Saint Helena
  Island 818 m

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Liamuiga 1,156 m

Saint Lucia
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Gimie 950 m

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morne de la Grande Montagne 240 m

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: La Soufriere 1,234 m

Samoa
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mauga Silisili (Savaii) 1,857 m

San Marino
  lowest point: Torrente Ausa 55 m
  highest point: Monte Titano 755 m

Sao Tome and Principe
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico de Sao Tome 2,024 m

Saudi Arabia
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Sawda' 3,133 m

Senegal
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed feature near Nepen Diakha 581 m

Serbia
  lowest point: NA
  highest point: Daravica 2,656 m

Seychelles
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Morne Seychellois 905 m

Sierra Leone
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Loma Mansa (Bintimani) 1,948 m

Singapore
  lowest point: Singapore Strait 0 m
  highest point: Bukit Timah 166 m

Slovakia
  lowest point: Bodrok River 94 m
  highest point: Gerlachovsky Stit 2,655 m

Slovenia
  lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m
  highest point: Triglav 2,864 m

Solomon Islands
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Makarakomburu 2,447 m

Somalia
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Shimbiris 2,416 m

South Africa
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Njesuthi 3,408 m

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  lowest point: Atlantic
  Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mount Paget (South Georgia) 2,934 m

Southern Ocean
  lowest point: -7,235 m at the southern end of the
  South Sandwich Trench
  highest point: sea level 0 m

Spain
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pico de Teide (Tenerife) on Canary Islands 3,718 m

Spratly Islands
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Southwest Cay 4 m

Sri Lanka
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Pidurutalagala 2,524 m

Sudan
  lowest point: Red Sea 0 m
  highest point: Kinyeti 3,187 m

Suriname
  lowest point: unnamed location in the coastal plain -2 m
  highest point: Juliana Top 1,230 m

Svalbard
  lowest point: Arctic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Newtontoppen 1,717 m

Swaziland
  lowest point: Great Usutu River 21 m
  highest point: Emlembe 1,862 m

Sweden
  lowest point: reclaimed bay of Lake Hammarsjon, near
  Kristianstad -2.41 m
  highest point: Kebnekaise 2,111 m

Switzerland
  lowest point: Lake Maggiore 195 m
  highest point: Dufourspitze 4,634 m

Syria
  lowest point: unnamed location near Lake Tiberias -200 m
  highest point: Mount Hermon 2,814 m

Taiwan
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Yu Shan 3,952 m

Tajikistan
  lowest point: Syr Darya (Sirdaryo) 300 m
  highest point: Qullai Ismoili Somoni 7,495 m

Tanzania
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Kilimanjaro 5,895 m

Thailand
  lowest point: Gulf of Thailand 0 m
  highest point: Doi Inthanon 2,576 m

Togo
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Agou 986 m

Tokelau
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Tonga
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location on Kao Island 1,033 m

Trinidad and Tobago
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: El Cerro del Aripo 940 m

Tromelin Island
  lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 7 m

Tunisia
  lowest point: Shatt al Gharsah -17 m
  highest point: Jebel ech Chambi 1,544 m

Turkey
  lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Mount Ararat 5,166 m

Turkmenistan
  lowest point: Vpadina Akchanaya -81 m; note -
  Sarygamysh Koli is a lake in northern Turkmenistan with a water
  level that fluctuates above and below the elevation of Vpadina
  Akchanaya (the lake has dropped as low as -110 m)
  note: Sarygamysh Koli is a lake in northern Turkmenistan with a
  water level that fluctuates above and below the elevation of Vpadina
  Akchanaya (the lake has dropped as low as -110 m)
  highest point: Gora Ayribaba 3,139 m

Turks and Caicos Islands
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Blue Hills 49 m

Tuvalu
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 5 m

Uganda
  lowest point: Lake Albert 621 m
  highest point: Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley 5,110 m

Ukraine
  lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
  highest point: Hora Hoverla 2,061 m

United Arab Emirates
  lowest point: Persian Gulf 0 m
  highest point: Jabal Yibir 1,527 m

United Kingdom
  lowest point: The Fens -4 m
  highest point: Ben Nevis 1,343 m

United States
  lowest point: Death Valley -86 m
  highest point: Mount McKinley 6,194 m

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  lowest point: Pacific
  Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Baker Island, unnamed location - 8 m; Howland Island,
  unnamed location - 3 m; Jarvis Island, unnamed location - 7 m;
  Johnston Atoll, Sand Island - 10 m; Kingman Reef, unnamed location -
  less than 1 m; Midway Islands, unnamed location - 13 m; Palmyra
  Atoll, unnamed location - 2 m

Uruguay
  lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Cerro Catedral 514 m

Uzbekistan
  lowest point: Sariqarnish Kuli -12 m
  highest point: Adelunga Toghi 4,301 m

Vanuatu
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Tabwemasana 1,877 m

Venezuela
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Pico Bolivar (La Columna) 5,007 m

Vietnam
  lowest point: South China Sea 0 m
  highest point: Fan Si Pan 3,144 m

Virgin Islands
  lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
  highest point: Crown Mountain 475 m

Wake Island
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: unnamed location 6 m

Wallis and Futuna
  lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
  highest point: Mont Singavi 765 m

West Bank
  lowest point: Dead Sea -408 m
  highest point: Tall Asur 1,022 m

Western Sahara
  lowest point: Sebjet Tah -55 m
  highest point: unnamed location 463 m

World
  lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m
  note: in the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is
  the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific
  Ocean
  highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

Yemen
  lowest point: Arabian Sea 0 m
  highest point: Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb 3,760 m

Zambia
  lowest point: Zambezi river 329 m
  highest point: unnamed location in Mafinga Hills 2,301 m

Zimbabwe
  lowest point: junction of the Runde and Save rivers 162 m
  highest point: Inyangani 2,592 m

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2021  Natural hazards


Afghanistan
  damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains;
  flooding; droughts

Albania
  destructive earthquakes; tsunamis occur along southwestern
  coast; floods; drought

Algeria
  mountainous areas subject to severe earthquakes; mudslides
  and floods in rainy season

American Samoa
  typhoons common from December to March

Andorra
  avalanches

Angola
  locally heavy rainfall causes periodic flooding on the plateau

Anguilla
  frequent hurricanes and other tropical storms (July to
  October)

Antarctica
  katabatic (gravity-driven) winds blow coastward from the
  high interior; frequent blizzards form near the foot of the plateau;
  cyclonic storms form over the ocean and move clockwise along the
  coast; volcanism on Deception Island and isolated areas of West
  Antarctica; other seismic activity rare and weak; large icebergs may
  calve from ice shelf

Antigua and Barbuda
  hurricanes and tropical storms (July to
  October); periodic droughts

Arctic Ocean
  ice islands occasionally break away from northern
  Ellesmere Island; icebergs calved from glaciers in western Greenland
  and extreme northeastern Canada; permafrost in islands; virtually
  ice locked from October to June; ships subject to superstructure
  icing from October to May

Argentina
  San Miguel de Tucuman and Mendoza areas in the Andes
  subject to earthquakes; pamperos are violent windstorms that can
  strike the pampas and northeast; heavy flooding

Armenia
  occasionally severe earthquakes; droughts

Aruba
  lies outside the Caribbean hurricane belt

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  surrounded by shoals and reefs that can
  pose maritime hazards

Atlantic Ocean
  icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and
  the northwestern Atlantic Ocean from February to August and have
  been spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands; ships
  subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from
  October to May; persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to
  September; hurricanes (May to December)

Australia
  cyclones along the coast; severe droughts; forest fires

Austria
  landslides; avalanches; earthquakes

Azerbaijan
  droughts

Bahamas, The
  hurricanes and other tropical storms cause extensive
  flood and wind damage

Bahrain
  periodic droughts; dust storms

Baker Island
  the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be
  a maritime hazard

Bangladesh
  droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely
  inundated during the summer monsoon season

Barbados
  infrequent hurricanes; periodic landslides

Bassas da India
  maritime hazard since it is usually under water
  during high tide and surrounded by reefs; subject to periodic
  cyclones

Belarus
  NA

Belgium
  flooding is a threat along rivers and in areas of reclaimed
  coastal land, protected from the sea by concrete dikes

Belize
  frequent, devastating hurricanes (June to November) and
  coastal flooding (especially in south)

Benin
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan wind may affect north from December
  to March

Bermuda
  hurricanes (June to November)

Bhutan
  violent storms from the Himalayas are the source of the
  country's name, which translates as Land of the Thunder Dragon;
  frequent landslides during the rainy season

Bolivia
  flooding in the northeast (March-April)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  destructive earthquakes

Botswana
  periodic droughts; seasonal August winds blow from the
  west, carrying sand and dust across the country, which can obscure
  visibility

Bouvet Island
  NA

Brazil
  recurring droughts in northeast; floods and occasional frost
  in south

British Indian Ocean Territory
  NA

British Virgin Islands
  hurricanes and tropical storms (July to
  October)

Brunei
  typhoons, earthquakes, and severe flooding are rare

Bulgaria
  earthquakes, landslides

Burkina Faso
  recurring droughts

Burma
  destructive earthquakes and cyclones; flooding and landslides
  common during rainy season (June to September); periodic droughts

Burundi
  flooding, landslides, drought

Cambodia
  monsoonal rains (June to November); flooding; occasional
  droughts

Cameroon
  volcanic activity with periodic releases of poisonous gases
  from Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun volcanoes

Canada
  continuous permafrost in north is a serious obstacle to
  development; cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a
  result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and
  North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and
  snow east of the mountains

Cape Verde
  prolonged droughts; seasonal harmattan wind produces
  obscuring dust; volcanically and seismically active

Cayman Islands
  hurricanes (July to November)

Central African Republic
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds affect
  northern areas; floods are common

Chad
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan winds occur in north; periodic
  droughts; locust plagues

Chile
  severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis

China
  frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and
  eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts;
  land subsidence

Christmas Island
  the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can
  be a maritime hazard

Clipperton Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  cyclone season is October to April

Colombia
  highlands subject to volcanic eruptions; occasional
  earthquakes; periodic droughts

Comoros
  cyclones possible during rainy season (December to April);
  Le Kartala on Grand Comore is an active volcano

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  periodic droughts in south; Congo
  River floods (seasonal); in the east, in the Great Rift Valley,
  there are active volcanoes

Congo, Republic of the
  seasonal flooding

Cook Islands
  typhoons (November to March)

Coral Sea Islands
  occasional tropical cyclones

Costa Rica
  occasional earthquakes, hurricanes along Atlantic coast;
  frequent flooding of lowlands at onset of rainy season and
  landslides; active volcanoes

Cote d'Ivoire
  coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors; during
  the rainy season torrential flooding is possible

Croatia
  destructive earthquakes

Cuba
  the east coast is subject to hurricanes from August to November
  (in general, the country averages about one hurricane every other
  year); droughts are common

Cyprus
  moderate earthquake activity; droughts

Czech Republic
  flooding

Denmark
  flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g.,
  parts of Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland)
  that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes

Djibouti
  earthquakes; droughts; occasional cyclonic disturbances
  from the Indian Ocean bring heavy rains and flash floods

Dominica
  flash floods are a constant threat; destructive hurricanes
  can be expected during the late summer months

Dominican Republic
  lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and
  subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding;
  periodic droughts

East Timor
  floods and landslides are common; earthquakes, tsunamis,
  tropical cyclones

Ecuador
  frequent earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity; floods;
  periodic droughts

Egypt
  periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods,
  landslides; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring;
  dust storms, sandstorms

El Salvador
  known as the Land of Volcanoes; frequent and sometimes
  destructive earthquakes and volcanic activity; extremely susceptible
  to hurricanes

Equatorial Guinea
  violent windstorms, flash floods

Eritrea
  frequent droughts; locust swarms

Estonia
  sometimes flooding occurs in the spring

Ethiopia
  geologically active Great Rift Valley susceptible to
  earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; frequent droughts

Europa Island
  NA

European Union
  flooding along coasts; avalanches in mountainous
  area; earthquakes in the south; volcanic eruptions in Italy;
  periodic droughts in Spain; ice floes in the Baltic

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  strong winds persist throughout
  the year

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  cyclonic storms can occur from November to January

Finland
  NA

France
  flooding; avalanches; midwinter windstorms; drought; forest
  fires in south near the Mediterranean

French Guiana
  high frequency of heavy showers and severe
  thunderstorms; flooding

French Polynesia
  occasional cyclonic storms in January

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul
  are extinct volcanoes

Gabon
  NA

Gambia, The
  drought (rainfall has dropped by 30% in the last 30
  years)

Gaza Strip
  droughts

Georgia
  earthquakes

Germany
  flooding

Ghana
  dry, dusty, northeastern harmattan winds occur from January to
  March; droughts

Gibraltar
  NA

Glorioso Islands
  periodic cyclones

Greece
  severe earthquakes

Greenland
  continuous permafrost over northern two-thirds of the
  island

Grenada
  lies on edge of hurricane belt; hurricane season lasts from
  June to November

Guadeloupe
  hurricanes (June to October); Soufriere de Guadeloupe is
  an active volcano

Guam
  frequent squalls during rainy season; relatively rare, but
  potentially very destructive typhoons (June - December)

Guatemala
  numerous volcanoes in mountains, with occasional violent
  earthquakes; Caribbean coast extremely susceptible to hurricanes and
  other tropical storms

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze may reduce visibility during
  dry season

Guinea-Bissau
  hot, dry, dusty harmattan haze may reduce visibility
  during dry season; brush fires

Guyana
  flash floods are a constant threat during rainy seasons

Haiti
  lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and subject to severe
  storms from June to October; occasional flooding and earthquakes;
  periodic droughts

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  Mawson Peak, an active volcano, is
  on Heard Island

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  frequent, but generally mild, earthquakes; extremely
  susceptible to damaging hurricanes and floods along the Caribbean
  coast

Hong Kong
  occasional typhoons

Howland Island
  the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can
  be a maritime hazard

Iceland
  earthquakes and volcanic activity

Iles Eparses
  all islands subject to periodic cyclones
  Bassas da India: maritime hazard since it is under water for a
  period of three hours prior to and following the high tide and
  surrounded by reefs

India
  droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive
  flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes

Indian Ocean
  occasional icebergs pose navigational hazard in
  southern reaches

Indonesia
  occasional floods, severe droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes,
  volcanoes, forest fires

Iran
  periodic droughts, floods; dust storms, sandstorms; earthquakes

Iraq
  dust storms, sandstorms, floods

Ireland
  NA

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  sandstorms may occur during spring and summer; droughts;
  periodic earthquakes

Italy
  regional risks include landslides, mudflows, avalanches,
  earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding; land subsidence in Venice

Jamaica
  hurricanes (especially July to November)

Jan Mayen
  dominated by the volcano Haakon VII Toppen/Beerenberg;
  volcanic activity resumed in 1970

Japan
  many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic
  occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons

Jarvis Island
  the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island poses
  a maritime hazard

Jersey
  NA

Johnston Atoll
  NA

Jordan
  droughts; periodic earthquakes

Juan de Nova Island
  periodic cyclones

Kazakhstan
  earthquakes in the south, mudslides around Almaty

Kenya
  recurring drought; flooding during rainy seasons

Kingman Reef
  wet or awash most of the time, maximum elevation of
  about 1 meter makes Kingman Reef a maritime hazard

Kiribati
  typhoons can occur any time, but usually November to March;
  occasional tornadoes; low level of some of the islands make them
  very sensitive to changes in sea level

Korea, North
  late spring droughts often followed by severe flooding;
  occasional typhoons during the early fall

Korea, South
  occasional typhoons bring high winds and floods;
  low-level seismic activity common in southwest

Kuwait
  sudden cloudbursts are common from October to April and bring
  heavy rain, which can damage roads and houses; sandstorms and dust
  storms occur throughout the year, but are most common between March
  and August

Kyrgyzstan
  NA

Laos
  floods, droughts

Latvia
  NA

Lebanon
  dust storms, sandstorms

Lesotho
  periodic droughts

Liberia
  dust-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara (December to
  March)

Libya
  hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern wind lasting one to
  four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  NA

Luxembourg
  NA

Macau
  typhoons

Macedonia
  high seismic risks

Madagascar
  periodic cyclones, drought, and locust infestation

Malawi
  NA

Malaysia
  flooding, landslides, forest fires

Maldives
  low level of islands makes them very sensitive to sea level
  rise

Mali
  hot, dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons;
  recurring droughts; occasional Niger River flooding

Malta
  NA

Marshall Islands
  infrequent typhoons

Martinique
  hurricanes, flooding, and volcanic activity (an average
  of one major natural disaster every five years)

Mauritania
  hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind blows primarily in
  March and April; periodic droughts

Mauritius
  cyclones (November to April); almost completely surrounded
  by reefs that may pose maritime hazards

Mayotte
  cyclones during rainy season

Mexico
  tsunamis along the Pacific coast, volcanoes and destructive
  earthquakes in the center and south, and hurricanes on the Pacific,
  Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean coasts

Micronesia, Federated States of
  typhoons (June to December)

Midway Islands
  NA

Moldova
  landslides (57 cases in 1998)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  dust storms, grassland and forest fires, drought, and
  "zud," which is harsh winter conditions

Montenegro
  destructive earthquakes

Montserrat
  severe hurricanes (June to November); volcanic eruptions
  (Soufriere Hills volcano has erupted continuously since 1995)

Morocco
  northern mountains geologically unstable and subject to
  earthquakes; periodic droughts

Mozambique
  severe droughts; devastating cyclones and floods in
  central and southern provinces

Namibia
  prolonged periods of drought

Nauru
  periodic droughts

Navassa Island
  hurricanes

Nepal
  severe thunderstorms, flooding, landslides, drought, and
  famine depending on the timing, intensity, and duration of the
  summer monsoons

Netherlands
  flooding

Netherlands Antilles
  Curacao and Bonaire are south of Caribbean
  hurricane belt and are rarely threatened; Sint Maarten, Saba, and
  Sint Eustatius are subject to hurricanes from July to October

New Caledonia
  cyclones, most frequent from November to March

New Zealand
  earthquakes are common, though usually not severe;
  volcanic activity

Nicaragua
  destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides; extremely
  susceptible to hurricanes

Niger
  recurring droughts

Nigeria
  periodic droughts; flooding

Niue
  typhoons

Norfolk Island
  typhoons (especially May to July)

Northern Mariana Islands
  active volcanoes on Pagan and Agrihan;
  typhoons (especially August to November)

Norway
  rockslides, avalanches

Oman
  summer winds often raise large sandstorms and dust storms in
  interior; periodic droughts

Pacific Ocean
  surrounded by a zone of violent volcanic and
  earthquake activity sometimes referred to as the "Pacific Ring of
  Fire"; subject to tropical cyclones (typhoons) in southeast and east
  Asia from May to December (most frequent from July to October);
  tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south of Mexico and strike
  Central America and Mexico from June to October (most common in
  August and September); cyclical El Nino/La Nina phenomenon occurs in
  the equatorial Pacific, influencing weather in the Western
  Hemisphere and the western Pacific; ships subject to superstructure
  icing in extreme north from October to May; persistent fog in the
  northern Pacific can be a maritime hazard from June to December

Pakistan
  frequent earthquakes, occasionally severe especially in
  north and west; flooding along the Indus after heavy rains (July and
  August)

Palau
  typhoons (June to December)

Palmyra Atoll
  NA

Panama
  occasional severe storms and forest fires in the Darien area

Papua New Guinea
  active volcanism; situated along the Pacific "Ring
  of Fire"; the country is subject to frequent and sometimes severe
  earthquakes; mud slides; tsunamis

Paracel Islands
  typhoons

Paraguay
  local flooding in southeast (early September to June);
  poorly drained plains may become boggy (early October to June)

Peru
  earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, mild volcanic
  activity

Philippines
  astride typhoon belt, usually affected by 15 and struck
  by five to six cyclonic storms per year; landslides; active
  volcanoes; destructive earthquakes; tsunamis

Pitcairn Islands
  typhoons (especially November to March)

Poland
  flooding

Portugal
  Azores subject to severe earthquakes

Puerto Rico
  periodic droughts; hurricanes

Qatar
  haze, dust storms, sandstorms common

Reunion
  periodic, devastating cyclones (December to April); Piton de
  la Fournaise on the southeastern coast is an active volcano

Romania
  earthquakes, most severe in south and southwest; geologic
  structure and climate promote landslides

Russia
  permafrost over much of Siberia is a major impediment to
  development; volcanic activity in the Kuril Islands; volcanoes and
  earthquakes on the Kamchatka Peninsula; spring floods and
  summer/autumn forest fires throughout Siberia and parts of European
  Russia

Rwanda
  periodic droughts; the volcanic Virunga mountains are in the
  northwest along the border with Democratic Republic of the Congo

Saint Helena
  active volcanism on Tristan da Cunha, last eruption in
  1961

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  hurricanes (July to October)

Saint Lucia
  hurricanes and volcanic activity

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  persistent fog throughout the year can be
  a maritime hazard

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  hurricanes; Soufriere volcano on
  the island of Saint Vincent is a constant threat

Samoa
  occasional typhoons; active volcanism

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA

Saudi Arabia
  frequent sand and dust storms

Senegal
  lowlands seasonally flooded; periodic droughts

Serbia
  destructive earthquakes

Seychelles
  lies outside the cyclone belt, so severe storms are rare;
  short droughts possible

Sierra Leone
  dry, sand-laden harmattan winds blow from the Sahara
  (December to February); sandstorms, dust storms

Singapore
  NA

Slovakia
  NA

Slovenia
  flooding and earthquakes

Solomon Islands
  typhoons, but rarely destructive; geologically
  active region with frequent earth tremors; volcanic activity

Somalia
  recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over eastern plains
  in summer; floods during rainy season

South Africa
  prolonged droughts

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  the South Sandwich
  Islands have prevailing weather conditions that generally make them
  difficult to approach by ship; they are also subject to active
  volcanism

Southern Ocean
  huge icebergs with drafts up to several hundred
  meters; smaller bergs and iceberg fragments; sea ice (generally 0.5
  to 1 meter thick) with sometimes dynamic short-term variations and
  with large annual and interannual variations; deep continental shelf
  floored by glacial deposits varying widely over short distances;
  high winds and large waves much of the year; ship icing, especially
  May-October; most of region is remote from sources of search and
  rescue

Spain
  periodic droughts

Spratly Islands
  typhoons; numerous reefs and shoals pose a serious
  maritime hazard

Sri Lanka
  occasional cyclones and tornadoes

Sudan
  dust storms and periodic persistent droughts

Suriname
  NA

Svalbard
  ice floes often block the entrance to Bellsund (a transit
  point for coal export) on the west coast and occasionally make parts
  of the northeastern coast inaccessible to maritime traffic

Swaziland
  drought

Sweden
  ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf
  of Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic

Switzerland
  avalanches, landslides, flash floods

Syria
  dust storms, sandstorms

Taiwan
  earthquakes and typhoons

Tajikistan
  earthquakes and floods

Tanzania
  flooding on the central plateau during the rainy season;
  drought

Thailand
  land subsidence in Bangkok area resulting from the
  depletion of the water table; droughts

Togo
  hot, dry harmattan wind can reduce visibility in north during
  winter; periodic droughts

Tokelau
  lies in Pacific typhoon belt

Tonga
  cyclones (October to April); earthquakes and volcanic activity
  on Fonuafo'ou

Trinidad and Tobago
  outside usual path of hurricanes and other
  tropical storms

Tromelin Island
  NA

Tunisia
  NA

Turkey
  severe earthquakes, especially in northern Turkey, along an
  arc extending from the Sea of Marmara to Lake Van

Turkmenistan
  NA

Turks and Caicos Islands
  frequent hurricanes

Tuvalu
  severe tropical storms are usually rare, but, in 1997, there
  were three cyclones; low level of islands make them sensitive to
  changes in sea level

Uganda
  NA

Ukraine
  NA

United Arab Emirates
  frequent sand and dust storms

United Kingdom
  winter windstorms; floods

United States
  tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquake activity around
  Pacific Basin; hurricanes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
  coasts; tornadoes in the midwest and southeast; mud slides in
  California; forest fires in the west; flooding; permafrost in
  northern Alaska, a major impediment to development

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker, Howland, and
  Jarvis Islands: the narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can
  be a maritime hazard
  Kingman Reef: wet or awash most of the time, maximum elevation of
  less than 1 m makes Kingman Reef a maritime hazard
  Midway Islands, Johnston, and Palmyra Atolls: NA

Uruguay
  seasonally high winds (the pampero is a chilly and
  occasional violent wind that blows north from the Argentine pampas),
  droughts, floods; because of the absence of mountains, which act as
  weather barriers, all locations are particularly vulnerable to rapid
  changes from weather fronts

Uzbekistan
  NA

Vanuatu
  tropical cyclones or typhoons (January to April); volcanic
  eruption on Aoba (Ambae) island began 27 November 2005, volcanism
  also causes minor earthquakes; tsunamis

Venezuela
  subject to floods, rockslides, mudslides; periodic droughts

Vietnam
  occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive
  flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta

Virgin Islands
  several hurricanes in recent years; frequent and
  severe droughts and floods; occasional earthquakes

Wake Island
  occasional typhoons

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  droughts

Western Sahara
  hot, dry, dust/sand-laden sirocco wind can occur
  during winter and spring; widespread harmattan haze exists 60% of
  time, often severely restricting visibility

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

Yemen
  sandstorms and dust storms in summer

Zambia
  periodic drought, tropical storms (November to April)

Zimbabwe
  recurring droughts; floods and severe storms are rare

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2022  People - note


Afghanistan
  of the estimated 4 million refugees in October 2001, 2.3
  million have returned

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  the landing of illegal immigrants from
  Indonesia's Rote Island has become an ongoing problem

Cook Islands
  2001 census counted a resident population of 15,017

Cuba
  illicit migration is a continuing problem; Cubans attempt to
  depart the island and enter the US using homemade rafts, alien
  smugglers, direct flights, or falsified visas; Cubans also use
  non-maritime routes to enter the US including direct flights to
  Miami and over-land via the southwest border

Greece
  women, men, and children are trafficked to and within Greece
  for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor

Rwanda
  Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa

Turks and Caicos Islands
  destination and transit point for illegal
  Haitian immigrants bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands, The
  Bahamas, and US

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2023  Area - comparative


Afghanistan
  slightly smaller than Texas

Akrotiri
  about 0.7 times the size of Washington, DC

Albania
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Algeria
  slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas

American Samoa
  slightly larger than Washington, DC

Andorra
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Angola
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Anguilla
  about half the size of Washington, DC

Antarctica
  slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Antigua and Barbuda
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Arctic Ocean
  slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the US

Argentina
  slightly less than three-tenths the size of the US

Armenia
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Aruba
  slightly larger than Washington, DC

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  about eight times the size of The Mall
  in Washington, DC

Atlantic Ocean
  slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US

Australia
  slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states

Austria
  slightly smaller than Maine

Azerbaijan
  slightly smaller than Maine

Bahamas, The
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Bahrain
  3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Baker Island
  about 2.5 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Bangladesh
  slightly smaller than Iowa

Barbados
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Bassas da India
  about one-third the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Belarus
  slightly smaller than Kansas

Belgium
  about the size of Maryland

Belize
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Benin
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Bermuda
  about one-third the size of Washington, DC

Bhutan
  about half the size of Indiana

Bolivia
  slightly less than three times the size of Montana

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Botswana
  slightly smaller than Texas

Bouvet Island
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Brazil
  slightly smaller than the US

British Indian Ocean Territory
  land area is about 0.3 times the size
  of Washington, DC

British Virgin Islands
  about 0.9 times the size of Washington, DC

Brunei
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Bulgaria
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Burkina Faso
  slightly larger than Colorado

Burma
  slightly smaller than Texas

Burundi
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Cambodia
  slightly smaller than Oklahoma

Cameroon
  slightly larger than California

Canada
  somewhat larger than the US

Cape Verde
  slightly larger than Rhode Island

Cayman Islands
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Central African Republic
  slightly smaller than Texas

Chad
  slightly more than three times the size of California

Chile
  slightly smaller than twice the size of Montana

China
  slightly smaller than the US

Christmas Island
  about three-quarters the size of Washington, DC

Clipperton Island
  about 12 times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  about 24 times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC

Colombia
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Comoros
  slightly more than 12 times the size of Washington, DC

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  slightly less than one-fourth the
  size of the US

Congo, Republic of the
  slightly smaller than Montana

Cook Islands
  1.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Coral Sea Islands
  NA

Costa Rica
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Cote d'Ivoire
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Croatia
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Cuba
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Cyprus
  about 0.6 times the size of Connecticut

Czech Republic
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Denmark
  slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts

Dhekelia
  about three-quarters the size of Washington, DC

Djibouti
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Dominica
  slightly more than four times the size of Washington, DC

Dominican Republic
  slightly more than twice the size of New Hampshire

East Timor
  slightly larger than Connecticut

Ecuador
  slightly smaller than Nevada

Egypt
  slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico

El Salvador
  slightly smaller than Massachusetts

Equatorial Guinea
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Eritrea
  slightly larger than Pennsylvania

Estonia
  slightly smaller than New Hampshire and Vermont combined

Ethiopia
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Europa Island
  about 0.16 times the size of Washington, DC

European Union
  less than one-half the size of the US

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Faroe Islands
  eight times the size of Washington, DC

Fiji
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Finland
  slightly smaller than Montana

France
  slightly less than twice the size of Colorado

French Guiana
  slightly smaller than Indiana

French Polynesia
  slightly less than one-third the size of Connecticut

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  slightly less than 1.3 times the
  size of Delaware

Gabon
  slightly smaller than Colorado

Gambia, The
  slightly less than twice the size of Delaware

Gaza Strip
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Georgia
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Germany
  slightly smaller than Montana

Ghana
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Gibraltar
  about 11 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Glorioso Islands
  about eight times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC

Greece
  slightly smaller than Alabama

Greenland
  slightly more than three times the size of Texas

Grenada
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Guadeloupe
  10 times the size of Washington, DC

Guam
  three times the size of Washington, DC

Guatemala
  slightly smaller than Tennessee

Guernsey
  about one-half the size of Washington, DC

Guinea
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Guinea-Bissau
  slightly less than three times the size of Connecticut

Guyana
  slightly smaller than Idaho

Haiti
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  slightly more than two times the
  size of Washington, DC

Holy See (Vatican City)
  about 0.7 times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC

Honduras
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Hong Kong
  six times the size of Washington, DC

Howland Island
  about three times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Hungary
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Iceland
  slightly smaller than Kentucky

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: land area about one-third the size of
  The Mall in Washington, DC
  Europa Island: about one-sixth the size of Washington, DC
  Glorioso Islands: about eight times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Juan de Nova Island: about seven times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Tromelin Island: about 1.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

India
  slightly more than one-third the size of the US

Indian Ocean
  about 5.5 times the size of the US

Indonesia
  slightly less than three times the size of Texas

Iran
  slightly larger than Alaska

Iraq
  slightly more than twice the size of Idaho

Ireland
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Isle of Man
  slightly more than three times the size of Washington, DC

Israel
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Italy
  slightly larger than Arizona

Jamaica
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Jan Mayen
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Japan
  slightly smaller than California

Jarvis Island
  about eight times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Jersey
  about two-thirds the size of Washington, DC

Johnston Atoll
  about 4.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Jordan
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Juan de Nova Island
  about seven times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC

Kazakhstan
  slightly less than four times the size of Texas

Kenya
  slightly more than twice the size of Nevada

Kingman Reef
  about 1.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Kiribati
  four times the size of Washington, DC

Korea, North
  slightly smaller than Mississippi

Korea, South
  slightly larger than Indiana

Kuwait
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Kyrgyzstan
  slightly smaller than South Dakota

Laos
  slightly larger than Utah

Latvia
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Lebanon
  about 0.7 times the size of Connecticut

Lesotho
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Liberia
  slightly larger than Tennessee

Libya
  slightly larger than Alaska

Liechtenstein
  about 0.9 times the size of Washington, DC

Lithuania
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Luxembourg
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Macau
  less than one-sixth the size of Washington, DC

Macedonia
  slightly larger than Vermont

Madagascar
  slightly less than twice the size of Arizona

Malawi
  slightly smaller than Pennsylvania

Malaysia
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Maldives
  about 1.7 times the size of Washington, DC

Mali
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Malta
  slightly less than twice the size of Washington, DC

Marshall Islands
  about the size of Washington, DC

Martinique
  slightly more than six times the size of Washington, DC

Mauritania
  slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico

Mauritius
  almost 11 times the size of Washington, DC

Mayotte
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Mexico
  slightly less than three times the size of Texas

Micronesia, Federated States of
  four times the size of Washington,
  DC (land area only)

Midway Islands
  about nine times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Moldova
  slightly larger than Maryland

Monaco
  about three times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Mongolia
  slightly smaller than Alaska

Montenegro
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Montserrat
  about 0.6 times the size of Washington, DC

Morocco
  slightly larger than California

Mozambique
  slightly less than twice the size of California

Namibia
  slightly more than half the size of Alaska

Nauru
  about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC

Navassa Island
  about nine times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Nepal
  slightly larger than Arkansas

Netherlands
  slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey

Netherlands Antilles
  more than five times the size of Washington, DC

New Caledonia
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

New Zealand
  about the size of Colorado

Nicaragua
  slightly smaller than the state of New York

Niger
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

Nigeria
  slightly more than twice the size of California

Niue
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Norfolk Island
  about 0.2 times the size of Washington, DC

Northern Mariana Islands
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Norway
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Oman
  slightly smaller than Kansas

Pacific Ocean
  about 15 times the size of the US; covers about 28% of
  the global surface; larger than the total land area of the world

Pakistan
  slightly less than twice the size of California

Palau
  slightly more than 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Palmyra Atoll
  about 20 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Panama
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Papua New Guinea
  slightly larger than California

Paracel Islands
  NA

Paraguay
  slightly smaller than California

Peru
  slightly smaller than Alaska

Philippines
  slightly larger than Arizona

Pitcairn Islands
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Poland
  slightly smaller than New Mexico

Portugal
  slightly smaller than Indiana

Puerto Rico
  slightly less than three times the size of Rhode Island

Qatar
  slightly smaller than Connecticut

Reunion
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

Romania
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Russia
  approximately 1.8 times the size of the US

Rwanda
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Saint Helena
  slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Saint Lucia
  3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Samoa
  slightly smaller than Rhode Island

San Marino
  about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC

Sao Tome and Principe
  more than five times the size of Washington, DC

Saudi Arabia
  slightly more than one-fifth the size of the US

Senegal
  slightly smaller than South Dakota

Serbia
  slightly larger than South Carolina

Seychelles
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Sierra Leone
  slightly smaller than South Carolina

Singapore
  slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Slovakia
  about twice the size of New Hampshire

Slovenia
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Solomon Islands
  slightly smaller than Maryland

Somalia
  slightly smaller than Texas

South Africa
  slightly less than twice the size of Texas

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  slightly larger than
  Rhode Island

Southern Ocean
  slightly more than twice the size of the US

Spain
  slightly more than twice the size of Oregon

Spratly Islands
  NA

Sri Lanka
  slightly larger than West Virginia

Sudan
  slightly more than one-quarter the size of the US

Suriname
  slightly larger than Georgia

Svalbard
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Swaziland
  slightly smaller than New Jersey

Sweden
  slightly larger than California

Switzerland
  slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey

Syria
  slightly larger than North Dakota

Taiwan
  slightly smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined

Tajikistan
  slightly smaller than Wisconsin

Tanzania
  slightly larger than twice the size of California

Thailand
  slightly more than twice the size of Wyoming

Togo
  slightly smaller than West Virginia

Tokelau
  about 17 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Tonga
  four times the size of Washington, DC

Trinidad and Tobago
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Tromelin Island
  about 1.7 times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC

Tunisia
  slightly larger than Georgia

Turkey
  slightly larger than Texas

Turkmenistan
  slightly larger than California

Turks and Caicos Islands
  2.5 times the size of Washington, DC

Tuvalu
  0.1 times the size of Washington, DC

Uganda
  slightly smaller than Oregon

Ukraine
  slightly smaller than Texas

United Arab Emirates
  slightly smaller than Maine

United Kingdom
  slightly smaller than Oregon

United States
  about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the
  size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly
  larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; almost two and a
  half times the size of the European Union

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker Island: about
  two and a half times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC
  Howland Island: about three times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Jarvis Island: about eight times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC
  Johnston Atoll: about four and a half times the size of The Mall in
  Washington, DC
  Kingman Reef: a little more than one and a half times the size of
  The Mall in Washington, DC
  Midway Islands: about nine times the size of The Mall in Washington,
  DC
  Palmyra Atoll: about 20 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Uruguay
  slightly smaller than the state of Washington

Uzbekistan
  slightly larger than California

Vanuatu
  slightly larger than Connecticut

Venezuela
  slightly more than twice the size of California

Vietnam
  slightly larger than New Mexico

Virgin Islands
  twice the size of Washington, DC

Wake Island
  about 11 times the size of The Mall in Washington, DC

Wallis and Futuna
  1.5 times the size of Washington, DC

West Bank
  slightly smaller than Delaware

Western Sahara
  about the size of Colorado

World
  land area about 16 times the size of the US

Yemen
  slightly larger than twice the size of Wyoming

Zambia
  slightly larger than Texas

Zimbabwe
  slightly larger than Montana

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2024  Military service age and obligation (years of age)


Afghanistan
  22 years of age; inductees are contracted into service
  for a 4-year term (2005)

Albania
  19 years of age (2004)

Algeria
  19-30 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 18 months (6 months basic training,
  12 months civil projects) (2006)

Angola
  17 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - two years plus time for training (2001)

Antigua and Barbuda
  18 years of age (est.); no conscript military
  service (2001)

Argentina
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Armenia
  18 to 27 years of age for compulsory military service,
  conscript service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for
  voluntary military service (2004)

Australia
  16 years of age for voluntary service; women allowed to
  serve in Army combat units in non-combat support roles (2001)

Austria
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of
  age for voluntary service; from 2007, at the earliest, compulsory
  military service obligation will be reduced from eight months to six
  (2005)

Azerbaijan
  men between 18 and 35 are liable for military service; 18
  years of age for voluntary military service; length of military
  service is 18 months and 12 months for university graduates (2006)

Bahamas, The
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Bahrain
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Bangladesh
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2005)

Barbados
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; volunteers
  at earlier age with parental consent; no conscription (2001)

Belarus
  18-27 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 18 months (2005)

Belgium
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women
  comprise approx. 7% of the Belgian armed forces (2001)

Belize
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; laws allow
  for conscription only if volunteers are insufficient; conscription
  has never been implemented; volunteers typically outnumber available
  positions by 3:1 (2001)

Benin
  21 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  in practice, volunteers may be taken at the age of 18; both sexes
  are eligible for military service; conscript tour of duty - 18
  months (2004)

Bhutan
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Bolivia
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual
  number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is
  effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; one
  estimate holds that 40% of the armed forces are under the age of 18,
  with 50% of those under the age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12
  months (2002)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  18 years of age for compulsory military
  service in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 16 years of age
  in times of war; 18 years of age for Republika Srpska; 17 years of
  age for voluntary military service in the Federation and in the
  Republika Srpska; by law, military obligations cover all healthy men
  between the ages of 18 and 60, and all women between the ages of 18
  and 55; service obligation is four months (July 2004)

Botswana
  18 is the apparent age of voluntary military service; the
  official qualifications for determining minimum age are unknown
  (2001)

Brazil
  21-45 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - nine to 12 months; 17-45 years of age for
  voluntary service; an increasing percentage of the ranks are
  "long-service" volunteer professionals; women were allowed to serve
  in the armed forces beginning in early 1980s when the Brazilian Army
  became the first army in South America to accept women into career
  ranks; women serve in Navy and Air Force only in Women's Reserve
  Corps (2001)

Brunei
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Bulgaria
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 9 months; as of May 2006,
  67% of the Bulgarian Army comprised of professional soldiers;
  conscription into the Army to end as of 1 January 2008; Air and Air
  Defense Forces and Naval Forces will become fully professional by
  end of 2006 (2006)

Burkina Faso
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 20
  years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Burma
  18 years of age for voluntary military service for both sexes
  (2004)

Burundi
  16 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service (2001)

Cambodia
  conscription law made effective in October 2006 requires
  all males between 18-30 to register for military service; service
  obligation is 18 months (2006)

Cameroon
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (1999)

Canada
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women
  comprise approximately 11% of Canada's armed forces (2001)

Central African Republic
  18 years of age for voluntary and
  compulsory military service; conscript service obligation is two
  years (2005)

Chad
  20 years of age for conscripts, with three-year service
  obligation; 18 years of age for volunteers; no minimum age
  restriction for volunteers with consent from a guardian; women are
  subject to one year of compulsory military or civic service at age
  of 21 (2004)

Chile
  all male citizens 18-45 are obligated to perform military
  service; conscript service obligation - 12 months for Army, 24
  months for Navy and Air Force (2004)

China
  18-22 years of age for compulsory military service, with
  24-month service obligation; no minimum age for voluntary service
  (all officers are volunteers); 18-22 years of age for women who meet
  requirements for specific military jobs (2006)

Colombia
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 24 months (2004)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  18-45 years of age for military
  service

Congo, Republic of the
  18 years of age for voluntary military
  service (2001)

Costa Rica
  18 years of age (2004)

Cote d'Ivoire
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Croatia
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, with
  six-month service obligation; 16 years of age with consent for
  voluntary service (December 2004)

Cuba
  17 years of age; both sexes are eligible for military service
  (2004)

Cyprus
  18 years of age (2004)

Czech Republic
  18-50 years of age for voluntary military service;
  on-going transformation of military service into a fully
  professional, all-volunteer force no longer dependent on
  conscription began in January 2004 and is scheduled to be completed
  by 2007 (2005)

Denmark
  18 years of age for compulsory and volunteer military
  service; conscripts serve an initial training period that varies
  from four to 12 months according to specialization; reservists are
  assigned to mobilization units following completion of their
  conscript service; women eligible to volunteer for military service
  (2004)

Djibouti
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Dominican Republic
  18 years of age for voluntary military service
  (2001)

East Timor
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Ecuador
  20 years of age for conscript military service; 12-month
  service obligation (2004)

Egypt
  18 years of age for conscript military service; three-year
  service obligation (2001)

El Salvador
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, with
  12-month service obligation; 16 years of age for volunteers (2002)

Equatorial Guinea
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Eritrea
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military
  service; conscript service obligation - 16 months (2004)

Estonia
  compulsory military service for men between 19 and 28;
  conscription lasts 11 months for junior NCOs and reserve platoon
  leaders; reserve officers and designated specialists have a
  different conscript service obligation; Estonia has committed to
  retaining conscription for men up to 2010 and, unlike Latvia and
  Lithuania, has no plan to transition to a contract armed forces; 17
  years of age for volunteers; reserve commitment up to the age of 60
  (2006)

Ethiopia
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service (2001)

Fiji
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Finland
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military
  service (October 2004)

France
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription
  ended in the 1990s; women serve in non-combat military posts (2001)

Gabon
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service
  (2001)

Gambia, The
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Georgia
  18 to 34 years of age for compulsory and voluntary active
  duty military service; conscript service obligation - 18 months
  (2005)

Germany
  18 years of age (conscripts serve a nine-month tour of
  compulsory military service) (2004)

Ghana
  18 years of age for compulsory and volunteer military service
  (2001)

Greece
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; during
  wartime the law allows for recruitment beginning January of the year
  of inductee's 18th birthday, thus including 17 year olds; 17 years
  of age for volunteers; conscript service obligation - 12 months for
  the Army, Air Force; 15 months for Navy; women are eligible for
  military service (2005)

Guatemala
  all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 50 are liable
  for military service; conscript service obligation varies from 12 to
  24 months (2005)

Guinea
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 24 months (2004)

Guinea-Bissau
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (2001)

Haiti
  18 years of age for voluntary recruitment into the police
  force (2001)

Honduras
  18 years of age for voluntary two-three year military
  service (2004)

Hong Kong
  18 years of age (2004)

Hungary
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription
  abolished in June 2004 (2004)

India
  16 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Indonesia
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - two years (2002)

Iran
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of
  age for volunteers; soldiers as young as 9 were recruited
  extensively during the Iran-Iraq War; conscript service obligation -
  18 months (2004)

Iraq
  all volunteer force; the Iraqi Government is creating a new
  professional Iraqi military force of men aged 18 to 40 to defend
  Iraq from external threats and the current insurgency (2006)

Ireland
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; enlistees
  under the age of 17 can be recruited for specialist positions (2001)

Israel
  17 years of age for compulsory (Jews, Druzes) and voluntary
  (Christians, Muslims, Circassians) military service; both sexes are
  eligible for military service; conscript service obligation - 36
  months for men, 21 months for women (2004)

Italy
  voluntary military service; conscription abolished January
  2005 (2006)

Jamaica
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; younger
  recruits may be conscripted with parental consent (2001)

Japan
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Jordan
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription
  at age 18 was suspended in 1999, although all males under age 37 are
  required to register; women not subject to conscription, but can
  volunteer to serve in non-combat military positions (2004)

Kazakhstan
  18 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years; minimum age for volunteers
  NA (2004)

Kenya
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Korea, North
  17 years of age (2004)

Korea, South
  20-30 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 24-28 months, depending on the
  military branch involved; 18 years of age for voluntary military
  service; some 4,000 women serve as commissioned and noncommissioned
  officers, approx. 2.3% of all officers; women, in service since
  1950, are admitted to seven service branches, including infantry,
  but excluded from artillery, armor, anti-air, and chaplaincy corps
  (2005)

Kuwait
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; 1 month annual training to age 40; women have served in
  police forces since 1999 (2001)

Kyrgyzstan
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (2001)

Laos
  15 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - minimum 18 months (2004)

Latvia
  19 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for volunteers;
  plans are to phase out conscription, tentatively moving to an
  all-professional force by 2007; under current law, every citizen is
  entitled to serve in the armed forces for life (2004)

Lebanon
  18-30 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Lesotho
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Liberia
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Libya
  17 years of age (2004)

Lithuania
  19-45 years of age for compulsory military service,
  conscript service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for
  volunteers (2004)

Luxembourg
  a 1967 law made the Army an all-volunteer force; 17 years
  of age for voluntary military service; soldiers under 18 are not
  deployed into combat or with peacekeeping missions (2004)

Macedonia
  conscription to be phased out by 2007; current tour of
  conscript duty is six months; 18 years of age for voluntary military
  service (2005)

Madagascar
  18-50 years of age; conscript service obligation - 18
  months (either military or equivalent civil service) (2004)

Malawi
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Malaysia
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2005)

Maldives
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Mali
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Malta
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Mauritania
  18 years of age (est.); conscript service obligation -
  two years; majority of servicemen believed to be volunteers; service
  in Air Force and Navy is voluntary (April 2005)

Mexico
  18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript
  service obligation - 12 months; 16 years of age with consent for
  voluntary enlistment (2004)

Moldova
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; national
  service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Mongolia
  18-25 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months in land or air defense
  forces or police; a small portion of Mongolian land forces (2.5
  percent) is comprised of contract soldiers (2004)

Montenegro
  compulsory national military service abolished August 2006

Morocco
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Namibia
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Nepal
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Netherlands
  20 years of age for an all-volunteer force (2004)

Netherlands Antilles
  16 years of age for National Guard recruitment;
  no conscription (2004)

New Zealand
  17 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers
  cannot be deployed until the age of 18 (2001)

Nicaragua
  17 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Niger
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - two years (2004)

Nigeria
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2006)

Norway
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of
  age in wartime; 17 years of age for male volunteers; 18 years of age
  for women; 16 years of age for volunteers to the Home Guard;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Oman
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Pakistan
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; soldiers
  cannot be deployed for combat until age of 18; the Pakistani Air
  Force has inducted its first female combat pilot (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Paraguay
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 12 months for Army, 24
  months for Navy (2004)

Peru
  18 years of age for compulsory military service (1999)

Philippines
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service (2001)

Poland
  17 years of age for compulsory military service after January
  1st of the year of 18th birthday; 17 years of age for voluntary
  military service; in 2005, Poland plans to shorten the length of
  conscript service obligation from 12 to 9 months; by 2008, plans
  call for at least 60% of military personnel to be volunteers; only
  soldiers who have completed their conscript service are allowed to
  volunteer for professional service; as of April 2004, women are only
  allowed to serve as officers and noncommissioned officers (2004)

Portugal
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; compulsory
  military service was ended in 2004; women serve in the armed forces,
  on naval ships since 1993, but are prohibited from serving in some
  combatant specialties (2005)

Qatar
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; land forces
  enlisted personnel are largely unprofessional foreign nationals
  (2005)

Reunion
  18 years of age (2004)

Romania
  all military inductees (including women) are volunteers who
  contract for an initial five-year term of service; subsequent
  voluntary service contracts are for successive three-year terms
  until the age of 36; minimum age for voluntary military service is
  18 (2006)

Russia
  Russia has adopted a mixed conscript-contract force; 18-27
  years of age; males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age;
  length of compulsory military service is two years; plans call for
  reduction in mandatory service to 18 months in 2007 and to one year
  by 2008; 30% of Russian army personnel were contract servicemen at
  the end of 2005; planning calls for volunteer servicemen to compose
  70% of armed forces by 2010, with the remaining servicemen
  consisting of conscripts; as of November 2006, the Armed Forces had
  more than 60 units manned with contract personnel totalling over
  78,000 contract privates and sergeants; 88 Ministry of Defense units
  have been designated as permanent readiness units and are expected
  to become all-volunteer by end 2007; these include most air force,
  naval, and nuclear arms units, as well as all airborne and naval
  infantry units, most motorized rifle brigades, and all special
  forces detachments (2006)

Rwanda
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; no
  conscription (2001)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Sao Tome and Principe
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Saudi Arabia
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2004)

Senegal
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Serbia
  peacetime service obligation begins at age 17 and lasts until
  age 60 for men and 50 for women; under a state of war or impending
  war, the obligation can begin at age 16 and be extended beyond 60
  (2006)

Seychelles
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Sierra Leone
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

Singapore
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years
  of age for volunteers; conscript service obligation reduced to 24
  months beginning December 2004 (2004)

Slovakia
  complete transition to an all-volunteer professional force
  went into effect at the beginning of 2006 after 140 years of
  mandatory army service; volunteers include women, with minimum age
  of 17 years (2005)

Slovenia
  17 years of age for voluntary military service;
  conscription abolished in 2003 (2004)

Somalia
  18 years of age (est.) (2001)

South Africa
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; women
  have a long history of military service in noncombat roles, dating
  back to World War I (2004)

Spain
  20 years of age (2004)

Sri Lanka
  18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Sudan
  18-30 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - three years (August 2004)

Suriname
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription

Swaziland
  18-30 years of age for voluntary military service; both
  sexes are eligible for military service (2005)

Sweden
  19 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 7-17 months depending on conscript role; after
  completing initial service, soldiers have a reserve commitment until
  age of 47 (2004)

Switzerland
  the Swiss Constitution states that "every Swiss male is
  obliged to do military service"; every Swiss male has to serve for
  at least 260 days in the armed forces; 19 years of age for
  compulsory military service; 17 years of age for voluntary military
  service; conscripts receive 15 weeks of compulsory training,
  followed by 10 intermittent recalls for training over the next 22
  years; women are accepted on a voluntary basis but are not drafted
  (2005)

Syria
  18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 30 months (18 months in the Syrian Arab Navy);
  women are not conscripted but may volunteer to serve (2004)

Taiwan
  19-35 years of age for military service; service obligation
  16 months (to be shortened to 12 months in 2008); women in Air Force
  service are restricted to noncombat roles (2005)

Tajikistan
  18 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Tanzania
  15 years of age for voluntary military service; 18 years of
  age for compulsory military service upon graduation from secondary
  school; conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Thailand
  21 years of age for compulsory military service; males are
  registered at 18 years of age; conscript service obligation - two
  years; 18 years of age for voluntary military service (2004)

Togo
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military service
  (2001)

Tonga
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  18 years of age for voluntary military service;
  no conscription (2001)

Tunisia
  20 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript
  service obligation - 12 months; 18 years of age for voluntary
  military service (2004)

Turkey
  20 years of age (2004)

Turkmenistan
  18 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - two years (2004)

Uganda
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military duty;
  the government has stated that recruitment below that age could
  occur with proper consent and that "no person under the apparent age
  of 13 years shall be enrolled in the armed forces"

Ukraine
  18-25 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 18 months for Army and Air
  Force, 24 months for Navy (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  18 years of age (est.); no conscription (2001)

United Kingdom
  16 years of age for voluntary military service; women
  serve in military services, but are excluded from ground combat
  positions and some naval postings (2004)

United States
  18 years of age; 17 years of age with written parental
  consent (2006)

Uruguay
  18 years of age for voluntary and compulsory military
  service (2001)

Uzbekistan
  18 years of age for compulsory military service;
  conscript service obligation - 12 months (2004)

Venezuela
  18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military
  service; conscript service obligation - 30 months (2004)

Vietnam
  18 years of age (male) for compulsory military service;
  females may volunteer for active duty military service; conscript
  service obligation - 2 years (3-4 years in the navy); 18-45 years of
  age (male) or 18-40 years of age (female) for Militia Force or Self
  Defense Forces (2006)

Yemen
  in May 2001, Yemen's National Defense Council abolished
  compulsory military service and authorized a voluntary program for
  military service (2004)

Zambia
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

Zimbabwe
  18 years of age (est.) (2004)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2025  Manpower fit for military service


Afghanistan
  males age 22-49: 2,662,946
  females age 22-49: 2,508,574 (2005 est.)

Albania
  males age 19-49: 668,526
  females age 19-49: 648,334 (2005 est.)

Algeria
  males age 19-49: 6,590,079
  females age 19-49: 6,711,285 (2005 est.)

Andorra
  males age 18-49: 14,721 (2005 est.)

Angola
  males age 17-49: 1,282,195
  females age 17-49: 1,256,390 (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  males age 18-49: 2,986 (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  males age 18-49: 14,859
  females age 18-49: 14,947 (2005 est.)

Argentina
  males age 18-49: 7,316,038
  females age 18-49: 7,442,589 (2005 est.)

Armenia
  males age 18-49: 551,938
  females age 18-49: 656,493 (2005 est.)

Aruba
  males age 18-49: 13,219 (2005 est.)

Australia
  males age 16-49: 4,092,717
  females age 16-49: 3,983,447 (2005 est.)

Austria
  males age 18-49: 1,550,441
  females age 18-49: 1,515,365 (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  males age 18-49: 1,314,955
  females age 18-49: 1,676,408 (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  males age 18-49: 44,309 (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  males age 18-49: 161,372
  females age 18-49: 125,488 (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  males age 18-49: 26,841,255 (2005 est.)

Barbados
  males age 18-49: 54,510
  females age 18-49: 54,889 (2005 est.)

Belarus
  males age 18-49: 1,657,984
  females age 18-49: 2,102,793 (2005 est.)

Belgium
  males age 16-49: 1,998,003
  females age 16-49: 1,940,918 (2005 est.)

Belize
  males age 18-49: 44,238
  females age 18-49: 43,633 (2005 est.)

Benin
  males age 21-49: 749,774
  females age 21-49: 751,329 (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  males age 18-49: 12,165 (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  males age 18-49: 314,975
  females age 18-49: 296,833 (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  males age 18-49: 1,311,414
  females age 18-49: 1,502,177 (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  males age 18-49: 910,539
  females age 18-49: 881,446 (2005 est.)

Botswana
  males age 18-49: 136,322
  females age 18-49: 136,315 (2005 est.)

Brazil
  males age 19-49: 33,119,098
  females age 19-49: 38,079,722 (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  males age 18-49: 5,295 (2005 est.)

Brunei
  males age 18-49: 85,045
  females age 18-49: 77,436 (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  males age 18-49: 1,302,037
  females age 18-49: 1,365,126 (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  males age 18-49: 1,530,324 (2005 est.)

Burma
  males age 18-49: 7,946,701
  females age 18-49: 8,543,705 (2005 est.)

Burundi
  males age 16-49: 955,616
  females age 16-49: 932,767 (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  males age 18-49: 1,955,141
  females age 18-49: 2,048,611 (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  males age 18-49: 1,946,767
  females age 18-49: 1,834,600 (2005 est.)

Canada
  males age 16-49: 6,740,490
  females age 16-49: 6,580,868 (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  males age 18-49: 65,614
  females age 18-49: 73,662 (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  males age 18-49: 8,600 (2005 est.)

Central African Republic
  males age 18-49: 416,091
  females age 18-49: 383,056 (2005 est.)

Chad
  males age 20-49: 794,988
  females age 20-49: 849,500 (2005 est.)

Chile
  males age 18-49: 3,123,281
  females age 18-49: 3,128,277 (2005 est.)

China
  males age 18-49: 281,240,272
  females age 18-49: 269,025,517 (2005 est.)

Colombia
  males age 18-49: 6,986,228
  females age 18-49: 8,794,465 (2005 est.)

Comoros
  males age 18-49: 98,792
  females age 18-49: 106,415 (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  males age 18-49: 6,464,223 (2005
  est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  males age 18-49: 406,016
  females age 18-49: 394,745 (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  males age 18-49: 829,874
  females age 18-49: 809,343 (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  males age 18-49: 1,973,265
  females age 18-49: 1,911,777 (2005 est.)

Croatia
  males age 18-49: 725,914
  females age 18-49: 823,611 (2005 est.)

Cuba
  males age 17-49: 2,441,927
  females age 17-49: 2,396,741 (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 150,750
  females age 18-49: 144,344 (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  males age 18-49: 1,996,631
  females age 18-49: 1,923,508 (2005 est.)

Denmark
  males age 18-49: 955,168
  females age 18-49: 935,643 (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  males age 18-49: 46,020
  females age 18-49: 42,181 (2005 est.)

Dominica
  males age 18-49: 15,136 (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  males age 18-49: 1,671,493
  females age 18-49: 1,536,257 (2005 est.)

East Timor
  males age 18-49: 179,422
  females age 18-49: 184,533 (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  males age 20-49: 2,338,428
  females age 20-49: 2,380,327 (2005 est.)

Egypt
  males age 18-49: 15,540,234
  females age 18-49: 14,939,378 (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  males age 18-49: 960,315
  females age 18-49: 1,310,466 (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  males age 18-49: 56,462
  females age 18-49: 59,260 (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  males age 18-49: 555,553
  females age 18-49: 562,426 (2005)

Estonia
  males age 18-49: 200,382 (in 2004, 51% of the young men
  called up for service were determined to be unfit; main obstacles to
  conscription were psychiatric and behavioral)
  females age 18-49: 250,351 (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  males age 18-49: 8,072,755
  females age 18-49: 7,902,660 (2005 est.)

Faroe Islands
  males age 18-49: 8,852 (2005 est.)

Fiji
  males age 18-49: 163,960
  females age 18-49: 178,714 (2005 est.)

Finland
  males age 18-49: 913,617
  females age 18-49: 875,689 (2005 est.)

France
  males age 17-49: 11,262,661
  females age 17-49: 11,079,472 (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  males age 18-49: 38,676 (2005 est.)

French Polynesia
  males age 18-49: 55,305 (2005 est.)

Gabon
  males age 18-49: 159,198
  females age 18-49: 156,122 (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  males age 18-49: 183,057
  females age 18-49: 194,551 (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  males age 18-49: 221,530 (2005 est.)

Georgia
  males age 18-49: 827,281
  females age 18-49: 903,791 (2005 est.)

Germany
  males age 18-49: 15,258,931
  females age 18-49: 14,443,412 (2005 est.)

Ghana
  males age 18-49: 3,011,081
  females age 18-49: 2,991,551 (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  males age 18-49: 4,893 (2005 est.)

Greece
  males age 18-49: 2,018,557
  females age 18-49: 2,000,650 (2005 est.)

Greenland
  males age 18-49: 10,199 (2005 est.)

Grenada
  males age 18-49: 17,483 (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  males age 18-49: 92,834 (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  males age 18-49: 1,911,412
  females age 18-49: 2,070,806 (2005 est.)

Guinea
  males age 18-49: 1,034,006
  females age 18-49: 1,032,885 (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  males age 18-49: 152,681
  females age 18-49: 161,033 (2005 est.)

Guyana
  males age 18-49: 137,964 (2005 est.)

Haiti
  males age 18-49: 948,320
  females age 18-49: 931,972 (2005 est.)

Honduras
  males age 18-49: 1,100,991
  females age 18-49: 1,121,649 (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  males age 18-49: 1,403,088
  females age 18-49: 1,527,278 (2005 est.)

Hungary
  males age 18-49: 1,780,513
  females age 18-49: 1,864,580 (2005 est.)

Iceland
  males age 18-49: 56,777 (2005 est.)

India
  males age 16-49: 219,471,999
  females age 16-49: 209,917,553 (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  males age 18-49: 48,687,234
  females age 18-49: 50,252,911 (2005 est.)

Iran
  males age 18-49: 15,665,725
  females age 18-49: 15,005,597 (2005 est.)

Iraq
  males age 18-49: 4,930,074
  females age 18-49: 4,771,105 (2005 est.)

Ireland
  males age 17-49: 814,768
  females age 17-49: 813,981 (2005 est.)

Israel
  males age 17-49: 1,255,902
  females age 17-49: 1,212,394 (2005 est.)

Italy
  males age 18-49: 10,963,513
  females age 18-49: 10,452,189 (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  males age 18-49: 478,761
  females age 18-49: 504,541 (2005 est.)

Japan
  males age 18-49: 22,234,663
  females age 18-49: 21,494,947 (2005 est.)

Jordan
  males age 17-49: 1,348,076
  females age 17-49: 1,158,011 (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  males age 18-49: 2,473,529
  females age 18-49: 3,168,048 (2005 est.)

Kenya
  males age 18-49: 3,963,532
  females age 18-49: 3,471,926 (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  males age 18-49: 14,231 (2005 est.)

Korea, North
  males age 17-49: 4,810,831
  females age 17-49: 4,853,270 (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  males age 20-49: 10,115,817
  females age 20-49: 9,721,914 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  males age 18-49: 737,292
  females age 18-49: 405,207 (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  males age 18-49: 871,493
  females age 18-49: 1,024,568 (2005 est.)

Laos
  males age 15-49: 954,816
  females age 15-49: 1,006,082 (2005 est.)

Latvia
  males age 19-49: 361,098
  females age 19-49: 422,913 (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  males age 18-49: 821,762
  females age 18-49: 865,770 (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  males age 18-49: 180,797
  females age 18-49: 160,681 (2005 est.)

Liberia
  males age 18-49: 267,430
  females age 18-49: 286,231 (2005 est.)

Libya
  males age 17-49: 1,291,624
  females age 17-49: 1,230,824 (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  males age 18-49: 6,250 (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  males age 19-49: 590,606
  females age 19-49: 676,102 (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  males age 17-49: 90,279
  females age 17-49: 88,638 (2005 est.)

Macau
  males age 18-49: 91,299 (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  males age 18-49: 411,156
  females age 18-49: 397,839 (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  males age 18-49: 2,218,662
  females age 18-49: 2,408,810 (2005 est.)

Malawi
  males age 18-49: 1,226,802 (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  males age 18-49: 4,574,854
  females age 18-49: 4,613,321 (2005 est.)

Maldives
  males age 18-49: 56,687
  females age 18-49: 54,454 (2005 est.)

Mali
  males age 18-49: 1,244,176
  females age 18-49: 1,226,226 (2005 est.)

Malta
  males age 18-49: 74,525
  females age 18-49: 71,333 (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  males age 18-49: 10,792 (2005 est.)

Martinique
  males age 18-49: 90,868 (2005 est.)

Mauritania
  males age 18-49: 370,513
  females age 18-49: 384,269 (2005 est.)

Mexico
  males age 18-49: 19,058,337
  females age 18-49: 21,966,796 (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  males age 18-49: 18,914 (2005 est.)

Moldova
  males age 18-49: 693,913
  females age 18-49: 911,568 (2005 est.)

Monaco
  males age 18-49: 4,971 (2005 est.)

Mongolia
  males age 18-49: 570,435
  females age 18-49: 607,918 (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  males age 18-49: 1,899 (2005 est.)

Morocco
  males age 18-49: 6,484,787
  females age 18-49: 6,675,729 (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  males age 18-49: 1,751,223 (2005 est.)

Namibia
  males age 18-49: 217,118 (2005 est.)

Nepal
  males age 18-49: 4.193 million
  females age 18-49: 3,853,102 (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  males age 20-49: 2,856,691
  females age 20-49: 2,786,495 (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  males age 16-49: 45,273
  females age 16-49: 47,166 (2005 est.)

New Caledonia
  males age 18-49: 40,822 (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  males age 17-49: 809,519
  females age 17-49: 802,069 (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  males age 17-49: 1,051,425
  females age 17-49: 1,129,649 (2005 est.)

Niger
  males age 18-49: 1,349,863
  females age 18-49: 1,256,569 (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  males age 18-49: 15,052,914
  females age 18-49: 13,860,806 (2005 est.)

Norway
  males age 18-49: 827,016
  females age 18-49: 801,358 (2005 est.)

Oman
  males age 18-49: 581,444
  females age 18-49: 435,107 (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  males age 16-49: 29,428,747
  females age 16-49: 28,391,887 (2005 est.)

Palau
  males age 18-49: 4,087 (2005 est.)

Panama
  males age 18-49: 591,604 (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  males age 18-49: 902,432
  females age 18-49: 894,759 (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  males age 18-49: 1,109,166
  females age 18-49: 1,135,046 (2005 est.)

Peru
  males age 18-49: 4,938,417
  females age 18-49: 5,278,511 (2005 est.)

Philippines
  males age 18-49: 15,170,096
  females age 18-49: 16,931,191 (2005 est.)

Poland
  males age 17-49: 7,739,472
  females age 17-49: 7,859,165 (2005 est.)

Portugal
  males age 18-49: 1,952,819
  females age 18-49: 1,977,264 (2005 est.)

Qatar
  males age 18-49: 238,566
  females age 18-49: 116,595 (2005 est.)

Reunion
  males age 18-49: 142,578
  females age 18-49: 154,273 (2005 est.)

Romania
  males age 20-49: 3,932,579
  females age 20-49: 4,076,288 (2005 est.)

Russia
  males age 18-49: 21,049,651
  females age 18-49: 29,056,021 (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  males age 16-49: 1,103,823
  females age 16-49: 1,096,644 (2005 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  males age 18-49: 7,119
  females age 18-49: 7,645 (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  males age 18-49: 33,539 (2005 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  males age 18-49: 25,787 (2005 est.)

Samoa
  males age 18-49: 45,294 (2005 est.)

San Marino
  males age 18-49: 5,107 (2005 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  males age 18-49: 25,950
  females age 18-49: 28,660 (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  males age 18-49: 6,592,709
  females age 18-49: 4,659,347 (2005 est.)

Senegal
  males age 18-49: 1,558,175
  females age 18-49: 1,642,533 (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  males age 18-49: 16,122
  females age 18-49: 18,777 (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  males age 18-49: 539,697 (2005 est.)

Singapore
  males age 18-49: 982,368 (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  males age 18-49: 1,089,645
  females age 18-49: 1,093,077 (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  males age 17-49: 405,593
  females age 17-49: 397,167 (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  males age 18-49: 92,796 (2005 est.)

Somalia
  males age 18-49: 1,022,360
  females age 18-49: 1,038,697 (2005 est.)

South Africa
  males age 18-49: 4,927,757
  females age 18-49: 4,609,071 (2005 est.)

Spain
  males age 20-49: 7,623,356
  females age 20-49: 7,434,465 (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  males age 18-49: 3,789,627
  females age 18-49: 4,281,043 (2005 est.)

Sudan
  males age 18-49: 5,427,474
  females age 18-49: 5,649,566 (2005 est.)

Suriname
  males age 18-49: 77,793
  females age 18-49: 72,943 (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  males age 18-49: 89,609 (2005 est.)

Sweden
  males age 19-49: 1,493,668
  females age 19-49: 1,441,257 (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  males age 19-49: 1,375,889
  females age 19-49: 1,342,945 (2005 est.)

Syria
  males age 18-49: 3,453,888
  females age 18-49: 3,421,558 (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  males age 19-49: 4,749,537
  females age 19-49: 4,644,607 (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  males age 18-49: 1,244,941
  females age 18-49: 1,297,891 (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  males age 18-49: 3,879,630 (2005 est.)

Thailand
  males age 21-49: 10,396,032
  females age 21-49: 11,487,690 (2005 est.)

Togo
  males age 18-49: 696,933
  females age 18-49: 707,821 (2005 est.)

Tonga
  males age 18-49: 19,840
  females age 18-49: 21,342 (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  males age 18-49: 202,958
  females age 18-49: 173,797 (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  males age 20-49: 2,035,431
  females age 20-49: 2,000,757 (2005 est.)

Turkey
  males age 20-49: 13,905,901
  females age 20-49: 13,335,812 (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  males age 18-49: 759,978
  females age 18-49: 940,179 (2005 est.)

Uganda
  males age 18-49: 2,889,808
  females age 18-49: 2,780,135 (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  males age 18-49: 7,376,050
  females age 18-49: 9,313,385 (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  males age 18-49: 526,671
  females age 18-49: 419,975 (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  males age 16-49: 12,046,268
  females age 16-49: 11,555,893 (2005 est.)

United States
  males age 18-49: 54,609,050
  females age 18-49: 54,696,706 (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  males age 18-49: 637,445
  females age 18-49: 631,046 (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  males age 18-49: 4,609,621
  females age 18-49: 5,383,233 (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  males age 18-49: 33,837 (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  males age 18-49: 4,907,947
  females age 18-49: 5,151,843 (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  males age 18-49: 16,032,358
  females age 18-49: 17,921,241 (2005 est.)

Yemen
  males age 18-49: 2,790,705
  females age 18-49: 2,792,406 (2005 est.)

Zambia
  males age 18-49: 1,043,702
  females age 18-49: 953,328 (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  males age 18-49: 1,304,424
  females age 18-49: 1,115,096 (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2026  Manpower reaching military service age annually


Afghanistan
  males age 18-49: 275,362
  females age 22-49: 259,935 (2005 est.)

Albania
  males age 18-49: 37,407
  females age 19-49: 34,587 (2005 est.)

Algeria
  males age 18-49: 374,639
  females age 19-49: 369,021 (2005 est.)

Andorra
  males age 18-49: 369 (2005 est.)

Angola
  males age 18-49: 126,694
  females age 17-49: 123,586 (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  males age 18-49: 120 (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  males age 18-49: 507
  females age 18-49: 494 (2005 est.)

Argentina
  males age 18-49: 344,575
  females age 18-49: 334,649 (2005 est.)

Armenia
  males age 18-49: 31,774
  females age 18-49: 31,182 (2005 est.)

Aruba
  males age 18-49: 520 (2005 est.)

Australia
  males age 18-49: 142,158
  females age 16-49: 135,675 (2005 est.)

Austria
  males age 18-49: 48,967
  females age 18-49: 46,633 (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  males age 18-49: 82,358
  females age 18-49: 78,067 (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  males age 18-49: 2,804 (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  males age 18-49: 6,013
  females age 18-49: 5,852 (2005 est.)

Belarus
  males age 18-49: 85,202
  females age 18-49: 82,037 (2005 est.)

Belgium
  males age 18-49: 64,263
  females age 16-49: 61,402 (2005 est.)

Belize
  males age 18-49: 3,213
  females age 18-49: 3,100 (2005 est.)

Benin
  males age 18-49: 76,661
  females: 75,068 (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  males age 18-49: 408 (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  males age 18-49: 23,939
  females age 18-49: 21,979 (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  males age 18-49: 101,101
  females age 18-49: 98,671 (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  males age 18-49: 32,942
  females age 18-49: 31,466 (2005 est.)

Botswana
  males age 18-49: 21,103
  females age 18-49: 21,379 (2005 est.)

Brazil
  males age 18-49: 1,785,930
  females age 19-49: 1,731,648 (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  males age 18-49: 201 (2005 est.)

Brunei
  males age 18-49: 3,478
  females age 18-49: 3,342 (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  males age 18-49: 51,023
  females age 18-49: 48,651 (2005 est.)

Burma
  males age 18-49: 469,841
  females: 455,689 (2005 est.)

Burundi
  males age 18-49: 91,331
  females age 16-49: 90,685 (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  males age 18-49: 175,497
  females age 18-49: 172,788 (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  males age 18-49: 191,619
  females age 18-49: 187,082 (2005 est.)

Canada
  males age 18-49: 223,821
  females age 16-49: 212,900 (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  males age 18-49: 257 (2005 est.)

Chad
  males age 18-49: 94,536
  females age 20-49: 93,521 (2005 est.)

Chile
  males age 18-49: 140,084
  females age 18-49: 134,518 (2005 est.)

China
  males age 18-49: 13,186,433
  females age 18-49: 12,298,149 (2005 est.)

Colombia
  males age 18-49: 389,735
  females age 18-49: 383,146 (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  males age 18-49: 38,464
  females age 18-49: 38,082 (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  males age 18-49: 41,097
  females age 18-49: 39,243

Cote d'Ivoire
  males age 18-49: 189,354
  females age 18-49: 192,600 (2005 est.)

Croatia
  males age 18-49: 29,020
  females age 18-49: 27,897 (2005 est.)

Cuba
  males age 18-49: 91,901
  females: 87,500 (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 6,578
  females age 18-49: 6,200 (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  males age 18-49: 66,583
  females age 18-49: 63,363 (2005 est.)

Denmark
  males age 18-49: 31,317
  females age 18-49: 29,558 (2005 est.)

Dominica
  males age 18-49: 602 (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  males age 18-49: 91,699
  females age 18-49: 87,550 (2005 est.)

East Timor
  males age 18-49: 12,740
  females age 18-49: 12,438 (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  males age 18-49: 133,922
  females age 20-49: 129,758 (2005 est.)

Egypt
  males age 18-49: 802,920
  females age 18-49: 764,176 (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  males age 18-49: 70,286
  females age 18-49: 69,526 (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  males age 18-49: 50,156
  females age 18-49: 49,746 (2005 est.)

Estonia
  males: 11,146
  females age 18-49: 10,605 (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  males age 18-49: 803,777
  females age 18-49: 801,789 (2005 est.)

Faroe Islands
  males age 18-49: 366 (2005 est.)

Fiji
  males age 18-49: 9,266
  females age 18-49: 8,916 (2005 est.)

Finland
  males age 18-49: 32,040
  females age 18-49: 30,519 (2005 est.)

France
  males age 18-49: 389,204
  females age 17-49: 372,719 (2005 est.)

French Polynesia
  males age 18-49: 2,747 (2005 est.)

Gabon
  males age 18-49: 15,325
  females age 18-49: 15,367 (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  males age 18-49: 15,196 (2005 est.)

Georgia
  males age 18-49: 38,857
  females age 18-49: 38,238 (2005 est.)

Germany
  males age 18-49: 497,048
  females age 18-49: 470,537 (2005 est.)

Ghana
  males age 18-49: 251,056
  females age 18-49: 247,777 (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  males age 18-49: 187 (2005 est.)

Greece
  males age 18-49: 58,399
  females age 18-49: 55,571 (2005 est.)

Greenland
  males age 18-49: 440 (2005 est.)

Grenada
  males age 18-49: 1,274 (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  males age 18-49: 3,364 (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  males age 18-49: 134,032
  females age 18-49: 130,641 (2005 est.)

Haiti
  males age 18-49: 98,554
  females age 18-49: 97,690 (2005 est.)

Honduras
  males age 18-49: 82,105
  females age 18-49: 78,971 (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  males age 18-49: 40,343
  females age 18-49: 38,234 (2005 est.)

Hungary
  males age 18-49: 63,847
  females age 18-49: 61,037 (2005 est.)

India
  males age 18-49: 11,446,452
  females age 16-49: 10,665,877 (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  males age 18-49: 2,201,047
  females age 18-49: 2,139,573 (2005 est.)

Iran
  males age 18-49: 862,056
  females age 18-49: 808,044 (2005 est.)

Iraq
  males age 18-49: 198,518
  females age 18-49: 289,879 (2005 est.)

Ireland
  males age 18-49: 29,327
  females age 17-49: 28,139 (2005 est.)

Israel
  males age 18-49: 53,760
  females: 51,293 (2005 est.)

Italy
  males age 18-49: 286,344
  females age 18-49: 270,099 (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  males age 18-49: 27,923
  females age 18-49: 27,889 (2005 est.)

Japan
  males age 18-49: 683,147
  females age 18-49: 650,157 (2005 est.)

Jordan
  males age 18-49: 60,625
  females age 17-49: 58,218 (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  males age 18-49: 173,129
  females age 18-49: 168,697 (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  males age 18-49: 1,128 (2005 est.)

Korea, North
  males age 18-49: 194,605
  females age 17-49: 187,846 (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  males age 18-49: 344,943
  females age 20-49: 312,720 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  males age 18-49: 18,743
  females age 18-49: 20,065 (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  males age 18-49: 61,091
  females age 18-49: 59,784 (2005 est.)

Laos
  males age 18-49: 73,167
  females age 15-49: 71,432 (2005 est.)

Latvia
  males age 18-49: 19,137
  females age 19-49: 18,505 (2005 est.)

Libya
  males age 18-49: 62,034
  females age 17-49: 59,533 (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  males age 18-49: 208 (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  males age 18-49: 29,689
  females age 19-49: 28,543 (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  males age 18-49: 2,775
  females age 17-49: 2,703 (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  males age 18-49: 16,686
  females age 18-49: 15,664 (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  males age 18-49: 187,000
  females age 18-49: 184,833 (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  males age 18-49: 244,418
  females age 18-49: 231,896 (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  males age 18-49: 726 (2005 est.)

Martinique
  males age 18-49: 3,105 (2005 est.)

Mexico
  males age 18-49: 1,063,233
  females age 18-49: 1,043,816 (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  males age 18-49: 1,305 (2005 est.)

Moldova
  males age 18-49: 43,729
  females age 18-49: 42,354 (2005 est.)

Monaco
  males age 18-49: 148 (2005 est.)

Mongolia
  males age 18-49: 34,674
  females age 18-49: 34,251 (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  males age 18-49: 84 (2005 est.)

Morocco
  males age 18-49: 353,377
  females age 18-49: 341,677 (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  males age 18-49: 185,314 (2005 est.)

Nepal
  males age 18-49: 308,031
  females age 18-49: 286,604 (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  males age 18-49: 99,934
  females age 20-49: 95,818 (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  males age 18-49: 1,720
  females age 16-49: 1,657 (2005 est.)

New Caledonia
  males age 18-49: 1,907 (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  males age 18-49: 29,738
  females age 17-49: 28,523 (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  males age 18-49: 65,170
  females age 17-49: 63,133 (2005 est.)

Niger
  males age 18-49: 129,045
  females age 18-49: 121,230 (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  males age 18-49: 1,353,180
  females age 18-49: 1,329,267 (2005 est.)

Norway
  males age 18-49: 29,179
  females age 18-49: 28,023 (2005 est.)

Oman
  males age 18-49: 26,391
  females age 18-49: 25,466 (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  males age 18-49: 1,969,055
  females age 16-49: 1,849,254 (2005 est.)

Palau
  males age 18-49: 142 (2005 est.)

Panama
  males age 18-49: 29,724

Paraguay
  males age 18-49: 63,058
  females age 18-49: 62,217 (2005 est.)

Peru
  males age 18-49: 277,105
  females age 18-49: 269,799 (2005 est.)

Philippines
  males age 18-49: 907,542
  females age 18-49: 878,712 (2005 est.)

Poland
  males age 18-49: 275,446
  females age 17-49: 265,164 (2005 est.)

Portugal
  males age 18-49: 67,189
  females age 18-49: 60,626 (2005 est.)

Qatar
  males age 18-49: 7,851
  females age 18-49: 7,040 (2005 est.)

Reunion
  males age 18-49: 7,339
  females age 18-49: 7,007 (2005 est.)

Romania
  males age 18-49: 172,093
  females age 20-49: 165,547 (2005 est.)

Russia
  males age 18-49: 1,286,069
  females age 18-49: 1,244,264 (2005 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  males age 18-49: 357
  females age 18-49: 347 (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  males age 18-49: 1,651 (2005 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  males age 18-49: 1,204 (2005 est.)

Samoa
  males age 18-49: 2,306 (2005 est.)

San Marino
  males age 18-49: 135 (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  males age 18-49: 247,334
  females age 18-49: 234,500 (2005 est.)

Senegal
  males age 18-49: 129,331
  females age 18-49: 129,398 (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  males age 18-49: 41,544
  females age 18-49: 40,183 (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  males age 18-49: 12,816
  females age 17-49: 12,178 (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  males age 18-49: 6,033 (2005 est.)

South Africa
  males age 18-49: 512,407
  females age 18-49: 506,078 (2005 est.)

Spain
  males age 18-49: 233,384
  females age 20-49: 221,805 (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  males age 18-49: 174,049
  females age 18-49: 167,201 (2005 est.)

Sudan
  males age 18-49: 442,915
  females age 18-49: 426,320 (2005 est.)

Sweden
  males age 18-49: 58,724
  females age 19-49: 55,954 (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  males age 18-49: 46,319
  females age 19-49: 43,829 (2005 est.)

Syria
  males age 18-49: 225,113
  females age 18-49: 211,829 (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  males age 18-49: 174,173
  females age 19-49: 163,683 (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  males age 18-49: 87,846
  females age 18-49: 85,869 (2005 est.)

Thailand
  males age 18-49: 526,276
  females age 21-49: 514,396 (2005 est.)

Tonga
  males ag3 18-49: 1,586
  females age 18-49: 1,538 (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  males age 18-49: 108,817
  females age 20-49: 103,087 (2005 est.)

Turkey
  males age 18-49: 679,734
  females age 20-49: 659,090 (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  males age 18-49: 56,532
  females age 18-49: 55,413 (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  males age 18-49: 382,751
  females age 18-49: 365,599 (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  males: 30,706
  females age 18-49: 29,617 (2005 est.)

United States
  males age 18-49: 2,143,873
  females age 18-49: 2,036,201 (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  males age 18-49: 324,722
  females age 18-49: 317,062 (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  males age 18-49: 252,396
  females age 18-49: 237,300 (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  males age 18-49: 915,572
  females age 18-49: 864,161 (2005 est.)

Yemen
  males age 18-49: 236,517
  females age 18-49: 230,641 (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2028  Background


Afghanistan
  Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and
  founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between
  the British and Russian empires until it won independence from
  notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy
  ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet
  Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist
  regime, but withdrew 10 years later under relentless pressure by
  internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. A civil
  war between mujahedin factions erupted following the 1992 fall of
  the Communist regime. The Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored
  movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and
  anarchy, seized Kabul in 1996 and most of the country outside of
  opposition Northern Alliance strongholds by 1998. Following the 11
  September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and Northern
  Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Osama
  BIN LADIN. In late 2001, a conference in Bonn, Germany, established
  a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of
  a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and National
  Assembly elections in 2005. On 7 December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became
  the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan. The
  National Assembly was inaugurated on 19 December 2005.

Akrotiri
  By terms of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment that created
  the independent Republic of Cyprus, the UK retained full sovereignty
  and jurisdiction over two areas of almost 254 square kilometers -
  Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The southernmost and smallest of these is the
  Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area, which is also referred to as the
  Western Sovereign Base Area.

Albania
  Between 1990 and 1992 Albania ended 46 years of xenophobic
  Communist rule and established a multiparty democracy. The
  transition has proven challenging as successive governments have
  tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, a
  dilapidated physical infrastructure, powerful organized crime
  networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made
  progress in its democratic development since first holding
  multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International
  observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the
  restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid
  schemes in 1997. In the 2005 general elections, the Democratic Party
  and its allies won a decisive victory on pledges of reducing crime
  and corruption, promoting economic growth, and decreasing the size
  of government. The election, and particularly the orderly transition
  of power, was considered an important step forward. Although
  Albania's economy continues to grow, the country is still one of the
  poorest in Europe, hampered by a large informal economy and an
  inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure. Albania has
  played a largely helpful role in managing inter-ethnic tensions in
  southeastern Europe, and is continuing to work toward joining NATO
  and the EU. Albania, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been a
  strong supporter of the global war on terrorism.

Algeria
  After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians
  fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962.
  Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front
  (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the
  subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to
  counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising
  first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the
  December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and
  postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular
  elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming
  power. The army began a crack down on the FIS that spurred FIS
  supporters to begin attacking government targets. The government
  later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate
  religious-based parties, but did not appease the activists who
  progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated into an
  insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which
  resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate
  massacres of villagers by extremists. The government gained the
  upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic
  Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of
  armed militants persist in confronting government forces and
  conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. The army
  placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a
  fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide
  reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face
  BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority
  Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a
  shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies,
  government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing -
  although significantly degraded - activities of extremist militants.
  Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based economy, which has
  yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress
  Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems.

American Samoa
  Settled as early as 1000 B.C., Samoa was "discovered"
  by European explorers in the 18th century. International rivalries
  in the latter half of the 19th century were settled by an 1899
  treaty in which Germany and the US divided the Samoan archipelago.
  The US formally occupied its portion - a smaller group of eastern
  islands with the excellent harbor of Pago Pago - the following year.

Andorra
  For 715 years, from 1278 to 1993, Andorrans lived under a
  unique co-principality, ruled by French and Spanish leaders (from
  1607 onward, the French chief of state and the Spanish bishop of
  Urgel). In 1993, this feudal system was modified with the titular
  heads of state retained, but the government transformed into a
  parliamentary democracy. Long isolated and impoverished, mountainous
  Andorra achieved considerable prosperity since World War II through
  its tourist industry. Many immigrants (legal and illegal) are
  attracted to the thriving economy with its lack of income taxes.

Angola
  Angola is slowly rebuilding its country after the end of a
  27-year civil war in 2002. Fighting between the Popular Movement for
  the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), led by Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS, and
  the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led
  by Jonas SAVIMBI, followed independence from Portugal in 1975. Peace
  seemed imminent in 1992 when Angola held national elections, but
  UNITA renewed fighting after being beaten by the MPLA at the polls.
  Up to 1.5 million lives may have been lost - and 4 million people
  displaced - in the quarter century of fighting. SAVIMBI's death in
  2002 ended UNITA's insurgency and strengthened the MPLA's hold on
  power. DOS SANTOS has pledged to hold legislative elections in 2006.

Anguilla
  Colonized by English settlers from Saint Kitts in 1650,
  Anguilla was administered by Great Britain until the early 19th
  century, when the island - against the wishes of the inhabitants -
  was incorporated into a single British dependency, along with Saint
  Kitts and Nevis. Several attempts at separation failed. In 1971, two
  years after a revolt, Anguilla was finally allowed to secede; this
  arrangement was formally recognized in 1980, with Anguilla becoming
  a separate British dependency.

Antarctica
  Speculation over the existence of a "southern land" was
  not confirmed until the early 1820s when British and American
  commercial operators and British and Russian national expeditions
  began exploring the Antarctic Peninsula region and other areas south
  of the Antarctic Circle. Not until 1840 was it established that
  Antarctica was indeed a continent and not just a group of islands.
  Several exploration "firsts" were achieved in the early 20th
  century. Following World War II, there was an upsurge in scientific
  research on the continent. A number of countries have set up
  year-round research stations on Antarctica. Seven have made
  territorial claims, but not all countries recognize these claims. In
  order to form a legal framework for the activities of nations on the
  continent, an Antarctic Treaty was negotiated that neither denies
  nor gives recognition to existing territorial claims; signed in
  1959, it entered into force in 1961.

Antigua and Barbuda
  The Siboney were the first to inhabit the
  islands of Antigua and Barbuda in 2400 B.C., but Arawak Indians
  populated the islands when Columbus landed on his second voyage in
  1493. Early settlements by the Spanish and French were succeeded by
  the English who formed a colony in 1667. Slavery, established to run
  the sugar plantations on Antigua, was abolished in 1834. The islands
  became an independent state within the British Commonwealth of
  Nations in 1981.

Arctic Ocean
  The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five
  oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and
  the recently delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US
  and Canada) and Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two
  important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river,
  and land routes circumscribes the Arctic Ocean.

Argentina
  In 1816, the United Provinces of the Rio Plata declared
  their independence from Spain. Eventually, Bolivia, Paraguay, and
  Uruguay went their own way, but the area that remained became
  Argentina. The country's population and culture were subsequently
  heavily shaped by immigrants from throughout Europe, but most
  particularly Italy and Spain, which provided the largest percentage
  of newcomers from 1860 to 1930. Up until about the mid-20th century,
  much of Argentina's history was dominated by periods of internal
  political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between
  civilian and military factions. After World War II, an era of
  Peronist authoritarian rule and interference in subsequent
  governments was followed by a military junta that took power in
  1976. Democracy returned in 1983, and has persisted despite numerous
  challenges, the most formidable of which was a severe economic
  crisis in 2001-02 that led to violent public protests and the
  resignation of several interim presidents. Successful negotiations
  with the IMF allowed Argentina to sidestep some fiscal discipline
  measures normally imposed in such circumstances. Since 2003, the
  government's efforts to stem the crisis have led to rapid economic
  recovery.

Armenia
  Armenia prides itself on being the first nation to formally
  adopt Christianity (early 4th century). Despite periods of autonomy,
  over the centuries Armenia came under the sway of various empires
  including the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman. During
  World War I in the western portion of Armenia, Ottoman Turkey
  instituted a policy of forced resettlement coupled with other harsh
  practices that resulted in an estimated 1 million Armenian deaths.
  The eastern area of Armenia was ceded by the Ottomans to Russia in
  1828; this portion declared its independence in 1918, but was
  conquered by the Soviet Red Army in 1920. Armenian leaders remain
  preoccupied by the long conflict with Muslim Azerbaijan over
  Nagorno-Karabakh, a primarily Armenian-populated region, assigned to
  Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s by Moscow. Armenia and Azerbaijan
  began fighting over the area in 1988; the struggle escalated after
  both countries attained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
  By May 1994, when a cease-fire took hold, Armenian forces held not
  only Nagorno-Karabakh but also a significant portion of Azerbaijan
  proper. The economies of both sides have been hurt by their
  inability to make substantial progress toward a peaceful resolution.
  Turkey imposed an economic blockade on Armenia and closed the common
  border because of the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and
  surrounding areas.

Aruba
  Discovered and claimed for Spain in 1499, Aruba was acquired
  by the Dutch in 1636. The island's economy has been dominated by
  three main industries. A 19th century gold rush was followed by
  prosperity brought on by the opening in 1924 of an oil refinery. The
  last decades of the 20th century saw a boom in the tourism industry.
  Aruba seceded from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986 and became a
  separate, autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
  Movement toward full independence was halted at Aruba's request in
  1990.

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  These uninhabited islands came under
  Australian authority in 1931; formal administration began two years
  later. Ashmore Reef supports a rich and diverse avian and marine
  habitat; in 1983, it became a National Nature Reserve. Cartier
  Island, a former bombing range, is now a marine reserve.

Atlantic Ocean
  The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the
  world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, but larger than the
  Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean). The Kiel Canal
  (Germany), Oresund (Denmark-Sweden), Bosporus (Turkey), Strait of
  Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain), and the Saint Lawrence Seaway (Canada-US)
  are important strategic access waterways. The decision by the
  International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to
  delimit a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion
  of the Atlantic Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.

Australia
  Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from
  Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began
  exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were
  made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name
  of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and
  19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of
  Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural
  resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing
  industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in
  World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has transformed
  itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy.
  It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the
  1990s, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted
  in the 1980s. Long-term concerns include pollution, particularly
  depletion of the ozone layer, and management and conservation of
  coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef.

Austria
  Once the center of power for the large Austro-Hungarian
  Empire, Austria was reduced to a small republic after its defeat in
  World War I. Following annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and
  subsequent occupation by the victorious Allies in 1945, Austria's
  status remained unclear for a decade. A State Treaty signed in 1955
  ended the occupation, recognized Austria's independence, and forbade
  unification with Germany. A constitutional law that same year
  declared the country's "perpetual neutrality" as a condition for
  Soviet military withdrawal. Following the Soviet Union's collapse in
  1991 and Austria's entry into the European Union in 1995, some
  Austrians have called into question this neutrality. A prosperous,
  democratic country, Austria entered the Economic and Monetary Union
  in 1999.

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijan - a nation with a Turkic and majority-Muslim
  population - was briefly independent from 1918 to 1920; it regained
  its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
  Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its
  conflict with Armenia over the Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
  (largely Armenian populated). Azerbaijan has lost 16% of its
  territory and must support some 528,000 internally displaced persons
  as a result of the conflict. Corruption is ubiquitous, and the
  promise of widespread wealth from Azerbaijan's undeveloped petroleum
  resources remains largely unfulfilled.

Bahamas, The
  Lucayan Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher
  Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492.
  British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became
  a colony in 1783. Since attaining independence from the UK in 1973,
  The Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking
  and investment management. Because of its geography, the country is
  a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly
  shipments to the US, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal
  migrants into the US.

Bahrain
  In 1782, the Al Khalifa family captured Bahrain from the
  Persians. In order to secure these holdings, it entered into a
  series of treaties with the UK during the 19th century that made
  Bahrain a British protectorate. The archipelago attained its
  independence in 1971. Bahrain's small size and central location
  among Persian Gulf countries require it to play a delicate balancing
  act in foreign affairs among its larger neighbors. Facing declining
  oil reserves, Bahrain has turned to petroleum processing and
  refining and has transformed itself into an international banking
  center. Sheikh HAMAD bin Isa Al Khalifa, who came to power in 1999,
  has pushed economic and political reforms and has worked to improve
  relations with the Shia community. In February 2001, Bahraini voters
  approved a referendum on the National Action Charter - the
  centerpiece of Sheikh HAMAD's political liberalization program. In
  February 2002, Sheikh HAMAD pronounced Bahrain a constitutional
  monarchy and changed his status from amir to king. In October 2002,
  Bahrainis elected members of the lower house of Bahrain's
  reconstituted bicameral legislature, the National Assembly.

Baker Island
  The US took possession of the island in 1857, and its
  guano deposits were mined by US and British companies during the
  second half of the 19th century. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at
  colonization was begun on this island - as well as on nearby Howland
  Island - but was disrupted by World War II and thereafter abandoned.
  Presently the island is a National Wildlife Refuge run by the US
  Department of the Interior; a day beacon is situated near the middle
  of the west coast.

Bangladesh
  Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of
  Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to
  dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947,
  West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from
  India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of
  Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward
  arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units
  separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and
  dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West
  Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. About a third of this
  extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy
  season, hampering economic development.

Barbados
  The island was uninhabited when first settled by the
  British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on
  the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy
  remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum, and molasses production
  through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social
  and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete
  independence from the UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and
  manufacturing surpassed the sugar industry in economic importance.

Bassas da India
  This atoll is a volcanic rock surrounded by reefs
  and is awash at high tide. A French possession since 1897, it was
  placed under the administration of an Administrateur Superieur of
  the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

Belarus
  After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR,
  Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer
  political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former
  Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state
  union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic
  integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the
  accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his
  election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Alexander
  LUKASHENKO has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian
  means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press,
  peaceful assembly, and religion continue.

Belgium
  Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830; it
  was occupied by Germany during World Wars I and II. The country
  prospered in the past half century as a modern, technologically
  advanced European state and member of NATO and the EU. Tensions
  between the Dutch-speaking Flemings of the north and the
  French-speaking Walloons of the south have led in recent years to
  constitutional amendments granting these regions formal recognition
  and autonomy.

Belize
  Belize was the site of several Mayan city states until their
  decline at the end of the first millennium A.D. The British and
  Spanish disputed the region in the 17th and 18th centuries; it
  formally became the colony of British Honduras in 1854. Territorial
  disputes between the UK and Guatemala delayed the independence of
  Belize until 1981. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation
  until 1992. Tourism has become the mainstay of the economy. Current
  concerns include high unemployment, growing involvement in the South
  American drug trade, and increasing urban crime.

Benin
  Present day Benin was the site of Dahomey, a prominent West
  African kingdom that rose in the 15th century. The territory became
  a French Colony in 1872 and achieved independence on 1 August 1960,
  as the Republic of Benin. A succession of military governments ended
  in 1972 with the rise to power of Mathieu KEREKOU and the
  establishment of a government based on Marxist-Leninist principles.
  A move to representative government began in 1989. Two years later,
  free elections ushered in former Prime Minister Nicephore SOGLO as
  president, marking the first successful transfer of power in Africa
  from a dictatorship to a democracy. KEREKOU was returned to power by
  elections held in 1996 and 2001, though some irregularities were
  alleged.

Bermuda
  Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English
  colonists headed for Virginia. Tourism to the island to escape North
  American winters first developed in Victorian times. Tourism
  continues to be important to the island's economy, although
  international business has overtaken it in recent years. Bermuda has
  developed into a highly successful offshore financial center.
  Although a referendum on independence from the UK was soundly
  defeated in 1995, the present government has reopened debate on the
  issue.

Bhutan
  In 1865, Britain and Bhutan signed the Treaty of Sinchulu,
  under which Bhutan would receive an annual subsidy in exchange for
  ceding some border land to British India. Under British influence, a
  monarchy was set up in 1907; three years later, a treaty was signed
  whereby the British agreed not to interfere in Bhutanese internal
  affairs and Bhutan allowed Britain to direct its foreign affairs.
  This role was assumed by independent India after 1947. Two years
  later, a formal Indo-Bhutanese accord returned the areas of Bhutan
  annexed by the British, formalized the annual subsidies the country
  received, and defined India's responsibilities in defense and
  foreign relations. A refugee issue of some 100,000 Bhutanese in
  Nepal remains unresolved; 90% of the refugees are housed in seven
  United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  camps. In March 2005, King Jigme Singye WANGCHUCK unveiled the
  government's draft constitution - which would introduce major
  democratic reforms - and pledged to hold a national referendum for
  its approval. A referendum date has yet to be named.

Bolivia
  Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR,
  broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history
  has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups.
  Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have
  faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and
  illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected
  Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the
  widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule
  in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's
  traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority.
  However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have
  exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian
  populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of
  the eastern lowlands.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of
  sovereignty in October 1991 was followed by a declaration of
  independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a
  referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported
  by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro - responded with armed
  resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and
  joining Serb-held areas to form a "Greater Serbia." In March 1994,
  Bosniaks and Croats reduced the number of warring factions from
  three to two by signing an agreement creating a joint Bosniak/Croat
  Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 21 November 1995, in
  Dayton, Ohio, the warring parties initialed a peace agreement that
  brought to a halt three years of interethnic civil strife (the final
  agreement was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995). The Dayton Peace
  Accords retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's international boundaries
  and created a joint multi-ethnic and democratic government charged
  with conducting foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy. Also
  recognized was a second tier of government comprised of two entities
  roughly equal in size: the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and
  Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (RS). The
  Federation and RS governments were charged with overseeing most
  government functions. The Office of the High Representative (OHR)
  was established to oversee the implementation of the civilian
  aspects of the agreement. In 1995-96, a NATO-led international
  peacekeeping force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops served in Bosnia to
  implement and monitor the military aspects of the agreement. IFOR
  was succeeded by a smaller, NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR)
  whose mission was to deter renewed hostilities. European Union
  peacekeeping troops (EUFOR) replaced SFOR in December 2004; their
  mission is to maintain peace and stability throughout the country.

Botswana
  Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana
  adopted its new name upon independence in 1966. Four decades of
  uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social policies, and
  significant capital investment have created one of the most dynamic
  economies in Africa. Mineral extraction, principally diamond mining,
  dominates economic activity, though tourism is a growing sector due
  to the country's conservation practices and extensive nature
  preserves. Botswana has one of the world's highest known rates of
  HIV/AIDS infection, but also one of Africa's most progressive and
  comprehensive programs for dealing with the disease.

Bouvet Island
  This uninhabited volcanic island is almost entirely
  covered by glaciers and is difficult to approach. It was discovered
  in 1739 by a French naval officer after whom the island was named.
  No claim was made until 1825, when the British flag was raised. In
  1928, the UK waived its claim in favor of Norway, which had occupied
  the island the previous year. In 1971, Bouvet Island and the
  adjacent territorial waters were designated a nature reserve. Since
  1977, Norway has run an automated meteorological station on the
  island.

Brazil
  Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil
  became an independent nation in 1822 and a republic in 1889. By far
  the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil
  overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the
  governance of the country when in 1985 the military regime
  peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to
  pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of its
  interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool,
  it is today South America's leading economic power and a regional
  leader. Highly unequal income distribution remains a pressing
  problem.

British Indian Ocean Territory
  Established as a territory of the UK
  in 1965, a number of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)
  islands were transferred to the Seychelles when it attained
  independence in 1976. Subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the
  six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago. The
  largest and most southerly of the islands, Diego Garcia, contains a
  joint UK-US naval support facility. All of the remaining islands are
  uninhabited. Former agricultural workers, earlier residents in the
  islands, were relocated primarily to Mauritius but also to the
  Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In 2000, a British High Court
  ruling invalidated the local immigration order that had excluded
  them from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of
  Diego Garcia.

British Virgin Islands
  First inhabited by Arawak and later by Carib
  Indians, the Virgin Islands were settled by the Dutch in 1648 and
  then annexed by the English in 1672. The islands were part of the
  British colony of the Leeward Islands from 1872-1960; they were
  granted autonomy in 1967. The economy is closely tied to the larger
  and more populous US Virgin Islands to the west; the US dollar is
  the legal currency.

Brunei
  The Sultanate of Brunei's influence peaked between the 15th
  and 17th centuries when its control extended over coastal areas of
  northwest Borneo and the southern Philippines. Brunei subsequently
  entered a period of decline brought on by internal strife over royal
  succession, colonial expansion of European powers, and piracy. In
  1888, Brunei became a British protectorate; independence was
  achieved in 1984. The same family has ruled Brunei for over six
  centuries. Brunei benefits from extensive petroleum and natural gas
  fields, the source of one of the highest per capita GDPs in the
  developing world.

Bulgaria
  The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the
  local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first
  Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with
  the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the
  end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman
  Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of
  Bulgaria became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Having
  fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within
  the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People's Republic in
  1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its
  first multiparty election since World War II and began the
  contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a
  market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption,
  and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and is slated to join the
  EU in 2007.

Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) achieved
  independence from France in 1960. Repeated military coups during the
  1970s and 1980s were followed by multiparty elections in the early
  1990s. Burkina Faso's high population density and limited natural
  resources result in poor economic prospects for the majority of its
  citizens. Recent unrest in Cote d'Ivoire and northern Ghana has
  hindered the ability of several hundred thousand seasonal Burkinabe
  farm workers to find employment in neighboring countries.

Burma
  Britain conquered Burma over a period of 62 years (1824-1886)
  and incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Burma was administered
  as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate,
  self-governing colony; independence from the Commonwealth was
  attained in 1948. Gen. NE WIN dominated the government from 1962 to
  1988, first as military ruler, then as self-appointed president, and
  later as political kingpin. Despite multiparty legislative elections
  in 1990 that resulted in the main opposition party - the National
  League for Democracy (NLD) - winning a landslide victory, the ruling
  junta refused to hand over power. NLD leader and Nobel Peace Prize
  recipient AUNG SAN SUU KYI, who was under house arrest from 1989 to
  1995 and 2000 to 2002, was imprisoned in May 2003 and subsequently
  transferred to house arrest, where she remains virtually
  incommunicado. In November 2005, the junta extended her detention
  for at least another six months. Her supporters, as well as all
  those who promote democracy and improved human rights, are routinely
  harassed or jailed.

Burundi
  Burundi's first democratically elected president was
  assassinated in October 1993 after only 100 days in office,
  triggering widespread ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi
  factions. Over 200,000 Burundians perished during the conflict that
  spanned almost a dozen years. Hundreds of thousands of Burundians
  were internally displaced or became refugees in neighboring
  countries. An internationally brokered power-sharing agreement
  between the Tutsi-dominated government and the Hutu rebels in 2003
  paved the way for a transition process that led to an integrated
  defense force, established a new constitution in 2005, and elected a
  majority Hutu government in 2005. The new government, led by
  President Pierre NKURUNZIZA, signed a South African brokered
  ceasefire with the country's last rebel group in the summer of 2006
  but still faces many challenges.

Cambodia
  Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers,
  descendants of the Angkor Empire that extended over much of
  Southeast Asia and reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th
  centuries. Attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam)
  weakened the empire ushering in a long period of decline. The king
  placed the country under French protection in 1863. Cambodia became
  part of French Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in
  World War II, Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953.
  In April 1975, after a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge
  forces captured Phnom Penh and evacuated all cities and towns. At
  least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, forced hardships,
  or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT. A
  December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the
  countryside, began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off
  almost 13 years of civil war. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated
  democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected
  by the Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore
  some semblance of normalcy under a coalition government. Factional
  fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second
  round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another
  coalition government and renewed political stability. The remaining
  elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999. Some of the
  remaining leaders are awaiting trial by a UN-sponsored tribunal for
  crimes against humanity. Elections in July 2003 were relatively
  peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending
  political parties before a coalition government was formed.

Cameroon
  The former French Cameroon and part of British Cameroon
  merged in 1961 to form the present country. Cameroon has generally
  enjoyed stability, which has permitted the development of
  agriculture, roads, and railways, as well as a petroleum industry.
  Despite a slow movement toward democratic reform, political power
  remains firmly in the hands of an ethnic oligarchy headed by
  President Paul BIYA.

Canada
  A land of vast distances and rich natural resources, Canada
  became a self-governing dominion in 1867 while retaining ties to the
  British crown. Economically and technologically the nation has
  developed in parallel with the US, its neighbor to the south across
  an unfortified border. Canada's paramount political problem is
  meeting public demands for quality improvements in health care and
  education services after a decade of budget cuts. Canada also faces
  questions about integrity in government following revelations
  regarding a corruption scandal in the federal government that has
  helped revive the fortunes of separatists in predominantly
  francophone Quebec.

Cape Verde
  The uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by
  the Portuguese in the 15th century; Cape Verde subsequently became a
  trading center for African slaves and later an important coaling and
  resupply stop for whaling and transatlantic shipping. Following
  independence in 1975, and a tentative interest in unification with
  Guinea-Bissau, a one-party system was established and maintained
  until multi-party elections were held in 1990. Cape Verde continues
  to exhibit one of Africa's most stable democratic governments.
  Repeated droughts during the second half of the 20th century caused
  significant hardship and prompted heavy emigration. As a result,
  Cape Verde's expatriate population is greater than its domestic one.
  Most Cape Verdeans have both African and Portuguese antecedents.

Cayman Islands
  The Cayman Islands were colonized from Jamaica by the
  British during the 18th and 19th centuries, and were administered by
  Jamaica after 1863. In 1959, the islands became a territory within
  the Federation of the West Indies, but when the Federation dissolved
  in 1962, the Cayman Islands chose to remain a British dependency.

Central African Republic
  The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari
  became the Central African Republic upon independence in 1960. After
  three tumultuous decades of misrule - mostly by military governments
  - civilian rule was established in 1993 and lasted for one decade.
  President Ange-Felix PATASSE's civilian government was plagued by
  unrest, and in March 2003 he was deposed in a military coup led by
  General Francois BOZIZE, who established a transitional government.
  Though the government has the tacit support of civil society groups
  and the main parties, a wide field of candidates contested the
  municipal, legislative, and presidential elections held in March and
  May of 2005 in which General BOZIZE was affirmed as president. The
  government still does not fully control the countryside, where
  pockets of lawlessness persist.

Chad
  Chad, part of France's African holdings until 1960, endured
  three decades of civil warfare as well as invasions by Libya before
  a semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The government
  eventually drafted a democratic constitution, and held flawed
  presidential elections in 1996 and 2001. In 1998, a rebellion broke
  out in northern Chad, which sporadically flares up despite several
  peace agreements between the government and the rebels. In 2005 new
  rebel groups emerged in western Sudan and have made probing attacks
  into eastern Chad. Power remains in the hands of an ethnic minority.
  In June 2005, President Idriss DEBY held a referendum successfully
  removing constitutional term limits.

Chile
  Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century,
  northern Chile was under Inca rule while Araucanian Indians
  inhabited central and southern Chile; the latter were not completely
  subjugated by Spain until the early 1880s. Although Chile declared
  its independence in 1810, decisive victory over the Spanish was not
  achieved until 1818. In the War of the Pacific (1879-84), Chile
  defeated Peru and Bolivia and won its present northern lands. A
  three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador ALLENDE was overthrown
  in 1973 by a dictatorial military regime led by Augusto PINOCHET,
  who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990.
  Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s,
  have contributed to steady growth and have helped secure the
  country's commitment to democratic and representative government.
  Chile has increasingly assumed regional and international leadership
  roles befitting its status as a stable, democratic nation.

China
  For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing
  the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and
  early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major
  famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War
  II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic
  socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed
  strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of
  millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and
  other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by
  2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living
  standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal
  choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.

Christmas Island
  Named in 1643 for the day of its discovery, the
  island was annexed and settlement began by the UK in 1888. Phosphate
  mining began in the 1890s. The UK transferred sovereignty to
  Australia in 1958. Almost two-thirds of the island has been declared
  a national park.

Clipperton Island
  This isolated island was named for John
  CLIPPERTON, a pirate who made it his hideout early in the 18th
  century. Annexed by France in 1855, it was seized by Mexico in 1897.
  Arbitration eventually awarded the island to France, which took
  possession in 1935.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  There are 27 coral islands in the group.
  Captain William KEELING discovered the islands in 1609, but they
  remained uninhabited until the 19th century. Annexed by the UK in
  1857, they were transferred to the Australian Government in 1955.
  The population on the two inhabited islands generally is split
  between the ethnic Europeans on West Island and the ethnic Malays on
  Home Island.

Colombia
  Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from
  the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and
  Venezuela). A 40-year conflict between government forces and
  anti-government insurgent groups and illegal paramilitary groups -
  both heavily funded by the drug trade - escalated during the 1990s.
  The insurgents lack the military or popular support necessary to
  overthrow the government, and violence has been decreasing since
  about 2002, but insurgents continue attacks against civilians and
  large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence.
  Paramilitary groups challenge the insurgents for control of
  territory and the drug trade. Most paramilitary members have
  demobilized since 2002 in an ongoing peace process, although their
  commitment to ceasing illicit activity is unclear. The Colombian
  Government has stepped up efforts to reassert government control
  throughout the country, and now has a presence in every one of its
  municipalities. However, neighboring countries worry about the
  violence spilling over their borders.

Comoros
  Comoros has endured 19 coups or attempted coups since
  gaining independence from France in 1975. In 1997, the islands of
  Anjouan and Moheli declared independence from Comoros. In 1999,
  military chief Col. AZALI seized power. He pledged to resolve the
  secessionist crisis through a confederal arrangement named the 2000
  Fomboni Accord. In December 2001, voters approved a new constitution
  and presidential elections took place in the spring of 2002. Each
  island in the archipelago elected its own president and a new union
  president took office in May 2002.

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Established as a Belgian colony in
  1908, the Republic of the Congo gained its independence in 1960, but
  its early years were marred by political and social instability.
  Col. Joseph MOBUTU seized power and declared himself president in a
  November 1965 coup. He subsequently changed his name - to MOBUTU
  Sese Seko - as well as that of the country - to Zaire. MOBUTU
  retained his position for 32 years through several subsequent sham
  elections, as well as through the use of brutal force. Ethnic strife
  and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994
  from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi, led in May 1997 to the toppling
  of the MOBUTU regime by a rebellion led by Laurent KABILA. He
  renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but
  in August 1998 his regime was itself challenged by an insurrection
  backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Troops from Angola, Chad, Namibia,
  Sudan, and Zimbabwe intervened to support the Kinshasa regime. A
  cease-fire was signed in July 1999 by the DRC, Congolese armed rebel
  groups, Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe but sporadic
  fighting continued. Laurent KABILA was assassinated in January 2001
  and his son, Joseph KABILA, was named head of state. In October
  2002, the new president was successful in negotiating the withdrawal
  of Rwandan forces occupying eastern Congo; two months later, the
  Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end
  the fighting and establish a government of national unity. A
  transitional government was set up in July 2003; Joseph KABILA
  remains as president and is joined by four vice presidents
  representing the former government, former rebel groups, and the
  political opposition. The transitional government held a successful
  constitutional referendum in December 2005, and plans to hold a
  series of elections in 2006 to determine the presidency and National
  Assembly seats.

Congo, Republic of the
  Upon independence in 1960, the former French
  region of Middle Congo became the Republic of the Congo. A quarter
  century of experimentation with Marxism was abandoned in 1990 and a
  democratically elected government took office in 1992. A brief civil
  war in 1997 restored former Marxist President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO,
  and ushered in a period of ethnic and political unrest.
  Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March
  2003, but the calm is tenuous and refugees continue to present a
  humanitarian crisis. The Republic of Congo was once one of Africa's
  largest petroleum producers, but with declining production it will
  need to hope for new offshore oil finds to sustain its oil earnings
  over the long term.

Cook Islands
  Named after Captain COOK, who sighted them in 1770, the
  islands became a British protectorate in 1888. By 1900,
  administrative control was transferred to New Zealand; in 1965
  residents chose self-government in free association with New
  Zealand. The emigration of skilled workers to New Zealand and
  government deficits are continuing problems.

Coral Sea Islands
  Scattered over more than three-quarters of a
  million square kilometers of ocean, the Coral Sea Islands were
  declared a territory of Australia in 1969. They are uninhabited
  except for a small meteorological staff on the Willis Islets.
  Automated weather stations, beacons, and a lighthouse occupy many
  other islands and reefs.

Costa Rica
  Although explored by the Spanish early in the 16th
  century, initial attempts at colonizing Costa Rica proved
  unsuccessful due to a combination of factors, including: disease
  from mosquito-infested swamps, brutal heat, resistance by natives,
  and pirate raids. It was not until 1563 that a permanent settlement
  of Cartago was established in the cooler, fertile central highlands.
  The area remained a colony for some two and a half centuries. In
  1821, Costa Rica became one of several Central American provinces
  that jointly declared their independence from Spain. Two years later
  it joined the United Provinces of Central America, but this
  federation disintegrated in 1838, at which time Costa Rica
  proclaimed its sovereignty and independence. Since the late 19th
  century, only two brief periods of violence have marred the
  country's democratic development. Although it still maintains a
  large agricultural sector, Costa Rica has expanded its economy to
  include strong technology and tourism industries. The standard of
  living is relatively high. Land ownership is widespread.

Cote d'Ivoire
  Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the
  development of cocoa production for export, and foreign investment
  made Cote d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical
  African states, but did not protect it from political turmoil. In
  December 1999, a military coup - the first ever in Cote d'Ivoire's
  history - overthrew the government. Junta leader Robert GUEI
  blatantly rigged elections held in late 2000 and declared himself
  the winner. Popular protest forced him to step aside and brought
  runner-up Laurent GBAGBO into power. Ivorian dissidents and
  disaffected members of the military launched a failed coup attempt
  in September 2002. Rebel forces claimed the northern half of the
  country, and in January 2003 were granted ministerial positions in a
  unity government under the auspices of the Linas-Marcoussis Peace
  Accord. President GBAGBO and rebel forces resumed implementation of
  the peace accord in December 2003 after a three-month stalemate, but
  issues that sparked the civil war, such as land reform and grounds
  for citizenship, remain unresolved. The central government has yet
  to exert control over the northern regions and tensions remain high
  between GBAGBO and opposition leaders. Several thousand French and
  West African troops remain in Cote d'Ivoire to maintain peace and
  facilitate the disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation
  process.

Croatia
  The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the
  Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the
  Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as
  Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal
  independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal TITO.
  Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991,
  it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before
  occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under
  UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was
  returned to Croatia in 1998.

Cuba
  The native Amerindian population of Cuba began to decline after
  the European discovery of the island by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492
  and following its development as a Spanish colony during the next
  several centuries. Large numbers of African slaves were imported to
  work the coffee and sugar plantations, and Havana became the
  launching point for the annual treasure fleets bound for Spain from
  Mexico and Peru. Spanish rule, marked initially by neglect, became
  increasingly repressive, provoking an independence movement and
  occasional rebellions that were harshly suppressed. It was US
  intervention during the Spanish-American War in 1898 that finally
  overthrew Spanish rule. The subsequent Treaty of Paris established
  Cuban independence, which was granted in 1902 after a three-year
  transition period. Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959;
  his iron rule has held the regime together since then. Cuba's
  Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was exported throughout
  Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The
  country is now slowly recovering from a severe economic recession in
  1990, following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies, worth $4
  billion to $6 billion annually. Cuba portrays its difficulties as
  the result of the US embargo in place since 1961. Illicit migration
  to the US - using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, air flights, or
  via the southwest border - is a continuing problem. The US Coast
  Guard intercepted 2,712 individuals attempting to cross the Straits
  of Florida in fiscal year 2005.

Cyprus
  A former British colony, Cyprus became independent in 1960
  following years of resistance to British rule. Tensions between the
  Greek Cypriot majority and Turkish Cypriot minority came to a head
  in December 1963, when violence broke out in the capital of Nicosia.
  Despite the deployment of UN peacekeepers in 1964, sporadic
  intercommunal violence continued forcing most Turkish Cypriots into
  enclaves throughout the island. In 1974, a Greek
  Government-sponsored attempt to seize control of Cyprus was met by
  military intervention from Turkey, which soon controlled more than a
  third of the island. In 1983, the Turkish-held area declared itself
  the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," but it is recognized only
  by Turkey. The latest two-year round of UN-brokered talks - between
  the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to
  reach an agreement to reunite the divided island - ended when the
  Greek Cypriots rejected the UN settlement plan in an April 2004
  referendum. The entire island entered the EU on 1 May 2004, although
  the EU acquis - the body of common rights and obligations - applies
  only to the areas under direct Republic of Cyprus control, and is
  suspended in the areas administered by Turkish Cypriots. At present,
  every Cypriot carrying a Cyprus passport has the status of a
  European citizen; however, EU laws do not apply to north Cyprus.
  Nicosia continues to oppose EU efforts to establish direct trade and
  economic links to north Cyprus as a way of encouraging the Turkish
  Cypriot community to continue to support reunification.

Czech Republic
  Following the First World War, the closely related
  Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire merged to
  form Czechoslovakia. During the interwar years, the new country's
  leaders were frequently preoccupied with meeting the demands of
  other ethnic minorities within the republic, most notably the
  Sudeten Germans and the Ruthenians (Ukrainians). After World War II,
  a truncated Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of
  influence. In 1968, an invasion by Warsaw Pact troops ended the
  efforts of the country's leaders to liberalize Communist party rule
  and create "socialism with a human face." Anti-Soviet demonstrations
  the following year ushered in a period of harsh repression. With the
  collapse of Soviet authority in 1989, Czechoslovakia regained its
  freedom through a peaceful "Velvet Revolution." On 1 January 1993,
  the country underwent a "velvet divorce" into its two national
  components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic
  joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.

Denmark
  Once the seat of Viking raiders and later a major north
  European power, Denmark has evolved into a modern, prosperous nation
  that is participating in the general political and economic
  integration of Europe. It joined NATO in 1949 and the EEC (now the
  EU) in 1973. However, the country has opted out of certain elements
  of the European Union's Maastricht Treaty, including the European
  Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), European defense cooperation, and
  issues concerning certain justice and home affairs.

Dhekelia
  By terms of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment that created
  the independent Republic of Cyprus, the UK retained full sovereignty
  and jurisdiction over two areas of almost 254 square kilometers -
  Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The larger of these is the Dhekelia Sovereign
  Base Area, which is also referred to as the Eastern Sovereign Base
  Area.

Djibouti
  The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became
  Djibouti in 1977. Hassan Gouled APTIDON installed an authoritarian
  one-party state and proceeded to serve as president until 1999.
  Unrest among the Afars minority during the 1990s led to a civil war
  that ended in 2001 following the conclusion of a peace accord
  between Afar rebels and the Issa-dominated government. In 1999,
  Djibouti's first multi-party presidential elections resulted in the
  election of Ismail Omar GUELLEH; he was re-elected to a second and
  final term in 2005. Djibouti occupies a strategic geographic
  location at the mouth of the Red Sea and serves as an important
  transshipment location for goods entering and leaving the east
  African highlands. The present leadership favors close ties to
  France, which maintains a significant military presence in the
  country, but is also developing stronger ties with the US. Djibouti
  hosts the only US military base in sub-Saharan Africa and is a
  front-line state in the global war on terrorism.

Dominica
  Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be
  colonized by Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the
  native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763,
  which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after
  independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and
  tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia
  CHARLES, the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who
  remained in office for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still
  living on Dominica are the only pre-Columbian population remaining
  in the eastern Caribbean.

Dominican Republic
  Explored and claimed by Christopher COLUMBUS on
  his first voyage in 1492, the island of Hispaniola became a
  springboard for Spanish conquest of the Caribbean and the American
  mainland. In 1697, Spain recognized French dominion over the western
  third of the island, which in 1804 became Haiti. The remainder of
  the island, by then known as Santo Domingo, sought to gain its own
  independence in 1821, but was conquered and ruled by the Haitians
  for 22 years; it finally attained independence as the Dominican
  Republic in 1844. In 1861, the Dominicans voluntarily returned to
  the Spanish Empire, but two years later they launched a war that
  restored independence in 1865. A legacy of unsettled, mostly
  non-representative rule followed, capped by the dictatorship of
  Rafael Leonidas TRUJILLO from 1930-1961. Juan BOSCH was elected
  president in 1962, but was deposed in a military coup in 1963. In
  1965, the United States led an intervention in the midst of a civil
  war sparked by an uprising to restore BOSCH. In 1966, Joaquin
  BALAGUER defeated BOSCH in an election to become president. BALAGUER
  maintained a tight grip on power for most of the next 30 years when
  international reaction to flawed elections forced him to curtail his
  term in 1996. Since then, regular competitive elections have been
  held in which opposition candidates have won the presidency. Former
  President (1996-2000) Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna won election to a
  second term in 2004 following a constitutional amendment allowing
  presidents to serve more than one term.

East Timor
  The Portuguese began to trade with the island of Timor in
  the early 16th century and colonized it in mid-century. Skirmishing
  with the Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty
  in which Portugal ceded the western portion of the island. Imperial
  Japan occupied East Timor from 1942 to 1945, but Portugal resumed
  colonial authority after the Japanese defeat in World War II. East
  Timor declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975
  and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later.
  It was incorporated into Indonesia in July 1976 as the province of
  East Timor. An unsuccessful campaign of pacification followed over
  the next two decades, during which an estimated 100,000 to 250,000
  individuals lost their lives. On 30 August 1999, in a UN-supervised
  popular referendum, an overwhelming majority of the people of East
  Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. Between the referendum
  and the arrival of a multinational peacekeeping force in late
  September 1999, anti-independence Timorese militias - organized and
  supported by the Indonesian military - commenced a large-scale,
  scorched-earth campaign of retribution. The militias killed
  approximately 1,400 Timorese and forcibly pushed 300,000 people into
  West Timor as refugees. The majority of the country's
  infrastructure, including homes, irrigation systems, water supply
  systems, and schools, and nearly 100% of the country's electrical
  grid were destroyed. On 20 September 1999 the Australian-led
  peacekeeping troops of the International Force for East Timor
  (INTERFET) deployed to the country and brought the violence to an
  end. On 20 May 2002, East Timor was internationally recognized as an
  independent state.

Ecuador
  What is now Ecuador formed part of the northern Inca Empire
  until the Spanish conquest in 1533. Quito became a seat of Spanish
  colonial government in 1563 and part of the Viceroyalty of New
  Granada in 1717. The territories of the Viceroyalty - New Granada
  (Colombia), Venezuela, and Quito - gained their independence by 1819
  and formed a federation known as Gran Colombia. When Quito withdrew
  in 1830, the traditional name was changed in favor of the "Republic
  of the Equator." Between 1904 and 1942, Ecuador lost territories in
  a series of conflicts with its neighbors. A border war with Peru
  that flared in 1995 was resolved in 1999. Although Ecuador marked 25
  years of civilian governance in 2004, the period has been marred by
  political instability. Seven presidents have governed Ecuador since
  1996.

Egypt
  The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood,
  coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and
  west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great
  civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C., and a series
  of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last
  native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were
  replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who
  introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who
  ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the
  Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the
  conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the
  completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important
  world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt.
  Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of
  Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman
  Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in
  1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The
  completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake
  Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the
  agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the
  largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on
  the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The
  government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium
  through economic reform and massive investment in communications and
  physical infrastructure.

El Salvador
  El Salvador achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and
  from the Central American Federation in 1839. A 12-year civil war,
  which cost about 75,000 lives, was brought to a close in 1992 when
  the government and leftist rebels signed a treaty that provided for
  military and political reforms.

Equatorial Guinea
  Equatorial Guinea gained independence in 1968
  after 190 years of Spanish rule. This tiny country, composed of a
  mainland portion plus five inhabited islands, is one of the smallest
  on the African continent. President Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO
  has ruled the country since 1979 when he seized power in a coup.
  Although nominally a constitutional democracy since 1991, the 1996
  and 2002 presidential elections - as well as the 1999 and 2004
  legislative elections - were widely seen as flawed. The president
  exerts almost total control over the political system and has
  discouraged political opposition. Equatorial Guinea has experienced
  rapid economic growth due to the discovery of large offshore oil
  reserves, and in the last decade has become Sub-Saharan Africa's
  third largest oil exporter. Despite the country's economic windfall
  from oil production resulting in a massive increase in government
  revenue in recent years, there have been few improvements in the
  population's living standards.

Eritrea
  Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a
  federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years
  later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991
  with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independence was
  overwhelmingly approved in a 1993 referendum. A two-and-a-half-year
  border war with Ethiopia that erupted in 1998 ended under UN
  auspices in December 2000. Eritrea currently hosts a UN peacekeeping
  operation that is monitoring a 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone on
  the border with Ethiopia. An international commission, organized to
  resolve the border dispute, posted its findings in 2002 but final
  demarcation is on hold due to Ethiopian objections.

Estonia
  After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian
  rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated
  into the USSR in 1940, it regained its freedom in 1991, with the
  collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in
  1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties
  with Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of
  2004.

Ethiopia
  Unique among African countries, the ancient Ethiopian
  monarchy maintained its freedom from colonial rule with the
  exception of the 1936-41 Italian occupation during World War II. In
  1974, a military junta, the Derg, deposed Emperor Haile SELASSIE
  (who had ruled since 1930) and established a socialist state. Torn
  by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and massive refugee
  problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of
  rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
  (EPRDF). A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia's first
  multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea
  late in the 1990's ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. Final
  demarcation of the boundary is currently on hold due to Ethiopian
  objections to an international commission's finding requiring it to
  surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.

Europa Island
  A French possession since 1897, the island is heavily
  wooded; it is the site of a small military garrison that staffs a
  weather station.

European Union
  Following the two devastating World Wars of the first
  half of the 20th century, a number of European leaders in the late
  1940s became convinced that the only way to establish a lasting
  peace was to unite the two chief belligerent nations - France and
  Germany - both economically and politically. In 1950, the French
  Foreign Minister Robert SCHUMAN proposed an eventual union of all
  Europe, the first step of which would be the integration of the coal
  and steel industries of Western Europe. The following year the
  European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up when six
  members, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the
  Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris. The ECSC was so successful
  that within a few years the decision was made to integrate other
  parts of the countries' economies. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome
  created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European
  Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the six member states
  undertook to eliminate trade barriers among themselves by forming a
  common market. In 1967, the institutions of all three communities
  were formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a
  single Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the European
  Parliament. Members of the European Parliament were initially
  selected by national parliaments, but in 1979 the first direct
  elections were undertaken and they have been held every five years
  since. In 1973, the first enlargement of the EC took place with the
  addition of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The 1980s saw
  further membership expansion with Greece joining in 1981 and Spain
  and Portugal in 1986. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht laid the basis
  for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in
  judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic
  and monetary union - including a common currency. This further
  integration created the European Union (EU). In 1995, Austria,
  Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, raising the membership total to
  15. A new currency, the euro, was launched in world money markets on
  1 January 1999; it became the unit of exchange for all of the EU
  states except the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In 2002,
  citizens of the 12 euro-area countries began using the euro
  banknotes and coins. Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 -
  Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
  Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - bringing the current
  membership to 25. In order to ensure that the EU can continue to
  function efficiently with an expanded membership, the 2003 Treaty of
  Nice set forth rules streamlining the size and procedures of EU
  institutions. An EU Constitutional Treaty, signed in Rome on 29
  October 2004, gave member states two years to ratify the document
  before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006. Referenda
  held in France and the Netherlands in May-June 2005 rejected the
  proposed constitution. This development suspended the ratification
  effort and left the longer-term political integration of the EU in
  limbo.

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Although first sighted by an
  English navigator in 1592, the first landing (English) did not occur
  until almost a century later in 1690, and the first settlement
  (French) was not established until 1764. The colony was turned over
  to Spain two years later and the islands have since been the subject
  of a territorial dispute, first between Britain and Spain, then
  between Britain and Argentina. The UK asserted its claim to the
  islands by establishing a naval garrison there in 1833. Argentina
  invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an
  expeditionary force that landed seven weeks later and after fierce
  fighting forced Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982.

Faroe Islands
  The population of the Faroe Islands is largely
  descended from Viking settlers who arrived in the 9th century. The
  islands have been connected politically to Denmark since the 14th
  century. A high degree of self government was attained in 1948.

Fiji
  Fiji became independent in 1970, after nearly a century as a
  British colony. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military
  coups in 1987, caused by concern over a government perceived as
  dominated by the Indian community (descendants of contract laborers
  brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century). The
  coups and a 1990 constitution that cemented native Melanesian
  control of Fiji, led to heavy Indian emigration; the population loss
  resulted in economic difficulties, but ensured that Melanesians
  became the majority. A new constitution enacted in 1997 was more
  equitable. Free and peaceful elections in 1999 resulted in a
  government led by an Indo-Fijian, but a civilian-led coup in May
  2000 ushered in a prolonged period of political turmoil.
  Parliamentary elections held in August 2001 provided Fiji with a
  democratically elected government led by Prime Minister Laisenia
  QARASE.

Finland
  Finland was a province and then a grand duchy under Sweden
  from the 12th to the 19th centuries and an autonomous grand duchy of
  Russia after 1809. It won its complete independence in 1917. During
  World War II, it was able to successfully defend its freedom and
  resist invasions by the Soviet Union - albeit with some loss of
  territory. In the subsequent half century, the Finns made a
  remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a
  diversified modern industrial economy; per capita income is now on
  par with Western Europe. As a member of the European Union, Finland
  was the only Nordic state to join the euro system at its initiation
  in January 1999.

France
  Although ultimately a victor in World Wars I and II, France
  suffered extensive losses in its empire, wealth, manpower, and rank
  as a dominant nation-state. Nevertheless, France today is one of the
  most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European
  nations. Since 1958, it has constructed a presidential democracy
  resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier parliamentary
  democracies. In recent years, its reconciliation and cooperation
  with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of
  Europe, including the introduction of a common exchange currency,
  the euro, in January 1999. At present, France is at the forefront of
  efforts to develop the EU's military capabilities to supplement
  progress toward an EU foreign policy.

French Guiana
  First settled by the French in 1604, French Guiana was
  the site of notorious penal settlements until 1951. The European
  Space Agency launches its communication satellites from Kourou.

French Polynesia
  The French annexed various Polynesian island groups
  during the 19th century. In September 1995, France stirred up
  widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing on the Mururoa atoll
  after a three-year moratorium. The tests were suspended in January
  1996. In recent years, French Polynesia's autonomy has been
  considerably expanded.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  The Southern Lands consist of
  two archipelagos, Iles Crozet and Iles Kerguelen, and two volcanic
  islands, Ile Amsterdam and Ile Saint-Paul. They contain no permanent
  inhabitants and are visited only by researchers studying the native
  fauna. The Antarctic portion consists of "Adelie Land," a thin slice
  of the Antarctic continent discovered and claimed by the French in
  1840.

Gabon
  Only two autocratic presidents have ruled Gabon since
  independence from France in 1960. The current president of Gabon, El
  Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba - one of the longest-serving heads of state
  in the world - has dominated the contry's political scene for almost
  four decades. President BONGO introduced a nominal multiparty system
  and a new constitution in the early 1990s. However, allegations of
  electoral fraud during local elections in 2002-03 and the
  presidential elections in 2005 have exposed the weaknesses of formal
  political structures in Gabon. Gabon's political opposition remains
  weak, divided, and financially dependent on the current regime.
  Despite political conditions, a small population, abundant natural
  resources, and considerable foreign support have helped make Gabon
  one of the more prosperous and stable African countries.

Gambia, The
  The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in 1965;
  it formed a short-lived federation of Senegambia with Senegal
  between 1982 and 1989. In 1991 the two nations signed a friendship
  and cooperation treaty. A military coup in 1994 overthrew the
  president and banned political activity, but a 1996 constitution and
  presidential elections, followed by parliamentary balloting in 1997,
  completed a nominal return to civilian rule. The country undertook
  another round of presidential and legislative elections in late 2001
  and early 2002. Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH, the leader of the coup, has
  been elected president in all subsequent elections.

Gaza Strip
  The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim
  Self-Government Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13
  September 1993, provided for a transitional period not exceeding
  five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip
  and the West Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain
  powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as
  part of the interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and
  Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza
  Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994
  Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in
  additional areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28
  September 1995 Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997
  Protocol Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23
  October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm
  el-Sheikh Agreement. The DOP provides that Israel will retain
  responsibility during the transitional period for external and
  internal security and for public order of settlements and Israeli
  citizens. Direct negotiations to determine the permanent status of
  Gaza and West Bank began in September 1999 after a three-year
  hiatus, but were derailed by a second intifadah that broke out in
  September 2000. In April 2003 the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia)
  presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005
  based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states,
  Israel and a democratic Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent
  status agreement has been postponed indefinitely due to violence and
  accusations that both sides have not followed through on their
  commitments. Longtime Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT died in
  November 2004 and Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA president in January
  2005, bringing hope of a turning point in the conflict. In February
  2005 Israel and the PA agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments,
  focused on security issues, in an effort to move the peace process
  forward. Progress has been slow because of different interpretations
  of the verbal agreement by the two sides. In September 2005, Israel
  withdrew all its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military
  facilities in the Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank
  settlements. Nonetheless, Israel controls maritime, airspace, and
  most access to the Gaza Strip. An agreement signed by the PA and
  Israel in November 2005 authorized the reopening of the Rafah border
  crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under joint PA and
  Egyptian control, with monitoring provided by the EU.

Georgia
  The region of present-day Georgia contained the ancient
  kingdoms of Colchis and Kartli-Iberia. The area came under Roman
  influence in the first centuries A.D. and Christianity became the
  state religion in the 330s. Domination by Persians, Arabs, and Turks
  was followed by a Georgian golden age (11th-13th centuries) that was
  cut short by the Mongol invasion of 1236. Subsequently, the Ottoman
  and Persian empires competed for influence in the region. Georgia
  was absorbed into the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
  Independent for three years (1918-1921) following the Russian
  revolution, it was forcibly incorporated into the USSR until the
  Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. An attempt by the incumbent Georgian
  government to manipulate national legislative elections in November
  2003 touched off widespread protests that led to the resignation of
  Eduard SHEVARDNADZE, president since 1995. New elections in early
  2004 swept Mikheil SAAKASHVILI into power along with his National
  Movement Party. Progress on market reforms and democratization has
  been made in the years since independence, but this progress has
  been complicated by two civil conflicts in the breakaway regions of
  Abkhazia and South Ossetia. These two territories remain outside the
  control of the central government and are ruled by de facto,
  unrecognized governments, supported by Russia. Russian-led
  peacekeeping operations continue in both regions. The Georgian
  Government put forward a new peace initiative for the peaceful
  resolution of the status of South Ossetia in 2005.

Germany
  As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation,
  Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political,
  and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany
  in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century
  and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the
  US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the
  Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal
  Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic
  (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic
  and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO,
  while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led
  Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War
  allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has
  expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages
  up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU
  countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

Ghana
  Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast
  and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first
  sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. A
  long series of coups resulted in the suspension of the constitution
  in 1981 and a ban on political parties. A new constitution,
  restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992. Lt. Jerry
  RAWLINGS, head of state since 1981, won presidential elections in
  1992 and 1996, but was constitutionally prevented from running for a
  third term in 2000. John KUFUOR, who defeated former Vice President
  Atta MILLS in a free and fair election, succeeded him.

Gibraltar
  Strategically important, Gibraltar was reluctantly ceded
  to Great Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht; the British
  garrison was formally declared a colony in 1830. In a referendum
  held in 1967, Gibraltarians voted overwhelmingly to remain a British
  dependency. Although the current 1969 Constitution for Gibraltar
  states that the British government will never allow the people of
  Gibraltar to pass under the sovereignty of another state against
  their freely and democratically expressed wishes, a series of talks
  were held by the UK and Spain between 1997 and 2002 on establishing
  temporary joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. In response to these
  talks, the Gibraltarian Government set up a referendum in late 2002
  in which a majority of the citizens voted overwhelmingly against any
  sharing of sovereignty with Spain. Since the referendum, tripartite
  talks have been held with Spain, the UK, and Gibraltar, and in
  September 2006 a three-way agreement was signed. Spain agreed to
  allow airlines other than British to serve Gibraltar, to speed up
  customs procedures, and to add more telephone lines into Gibraltar.
  Britain agreed to pay pensions to Spaniards who had been employed in
  Gibraltar before the border closed in 1969. Spain will be allowed to
  open a cultural institute from which the Spanish flag will fly.

Glorioso Islands
  A French possession since 1892, the Glorioso
  Islands are composed of two lushly vegetated coral islands (Ile
  Glorieuse and Ile du Lys) and three rock islets. A military garrison
  operates a weather and radio station on Ile Glorieuse.

Greece
  Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829.
  During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the
  20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and
  territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In World War II,
  Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied
  by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war
  between supporters of the king and Communist rebels. Following the
  latter's defeat in 1949, Greece joined NATO in 1952. A military
  dictatorship, which in 1967 suspended many political liberties and
  forced the king to flee the country, lasted seven years. The 1974
  democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary
  republic and abolished the monarchy. In 1981 Greece joined the EC
  (now the EU); it became the 12th member of the euro zone in 2001.

Greenland
  Greenland, the world's largest island, is about 81%
  ice-capped. Vikings reached the island in the 10th century from
  Iceland; Danish colonization began in the 18th century, and
  Greenland was made an integral part of Denmark in 1953. It joined
  the European Community (now the EU) with Denmark in 1973 but
  withdrew in 1985 over a dispute over stringent fishing quotas.
  Greenland was granted self-government in 1979 by the Danish
  parliament. The law went into effect the following year. Denmark
  continues to exercise control of Greenland's foreign affairs.

Grenada
  Carib Indians inhabited Grenada when COLUMBUS discovered the
  island in 1498, but it remained uncolonized for more than a century.
  The French settled Grenada in the 17th century, established sugar
  estates, and imported large numbers of African slaves. Britain took
  the island in 1762 and vigorously expanded sugar production. In the
  19th century, cacao eventually surpassed sugar as the main export
  crop; in the 20th century, nutmeg became the leading export. In
  1967, Britain gave Grenada autonomy over its internal affairs. Full
  independence was attained in 1974 making Grenada one of the smallest
  independent countries in the Western Hemisphere. Grenada was seized
  by a Marxist military council on 19 October 1983. Six days later the
  island was invaded by US forces and those of six other Caribbean
  nations, which quickly captured the ringleaders and their hundreds
  of Cuban advisers. Free elections were reinstituted the following
  year and have continued since that time. Hurricane Ivan struck
  Grenada in September of 2004 causing severe damage.

Guadeloupe
  Guadeloupe has been a French possession since 1635. The
  island of Saint Martin is shared with the Netherlands; its southern
  portion is named Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands
  Antilles and its northern portion is named Saint-Martin and is part
  of Guadeloupe

Guam
  Guam was ceded to the US by Spain in 1898. Captured by the
  Japanese in 1941, it was retaken by the US three years later. The
  military installation on the island is one of the most strategically
  important US bases in the Pacific.

Guatemala
  The Maya civilization flourished in Guatemala and
  surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D. After almost
  three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence
  in 1821. During the second half of the 20th century, it experienced
  a variety of military and civilian governments, as well as a 36-year
  guerrilla war. In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement
  formally ending the conflict, which had left more than 100,000
  people dead and had created some 1 million refugees.

Guernsey
  The island of Guernsey and the other Channel Islands
  represent the last remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy,
  which held sway in both France and England. The islands were the
  only British soil occupied by German troops in World War II.
  Guernsey is a British crown dependency, but is not part of the UK.

Guinea
  Guinea has had only two presidents since gaining its
  independence from France in 1958. Lansana CONTE came to power in
  1984 when the military seized the government after the death of the
  first president, Sekou TOURE. Guinea did not hold democratic
  elections until 1993 when Gen. CONTE (head of the military
  government) was elected president of the civilian government. He was
  reelected in 1998 and again in 2003. Unrest in Sierra Leone and
  Liberia has spilled over into Guinea on several occasions over the
  past decade, threatening stability and creating humanitarian
  emergencies.

Guinea-Bissau
  Since independence from Portugal in 1974,
  Guinea-Bissau has experienced considerable political and military
  upheaval. In 1980, a military coup established authoritarian
  dictator Joao Bernardo 'Nino' VIEIRA as president. Despite setting a
  path to a market economy and multiparty system, VIEIRA's regime was
  characterized by the suppression of political opposition and the
  purging of political rivals. Several coup attempts through the 1980s
  and early 1990s failed to unseat him. In 1994 VIEIRA was elected
  president in the country's first free elections. A military mutiny
  and resulting civil war in 1998 eventually led to VIEIRA's ouster in
  May 1999. In February 2000, a transitional government turned over
  power to opposition leader Kumba YALA, after he was elected
  president in transparent polling. In September 2003, after only
  three years in office, YALA was ousted by the military in a
  bloodless coup, and businessman Henrique ROSA was sworn in as
  interim president. In August 2005, former President VIEIRA was
  re-elected president in the second round of presidential polling.
  Since formally assuming office in October 2005, Vieira has pledged
  to pursue economic development and national reconciliation.

Guyana
  Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana
  had become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to
  black settlement of urban areas and the importation of indentured
  servants from India to work the sugar plantations. This
  ethnocultural divide has persisted and has led to turbulent
  politics. Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, and
  since then it has been ruled mostly by socialist-oriented
  governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was elected president in what is
  considered the country's first free and fair election since
  independence. After his death five years later, his wife, Jane
  JAGAN, became president but resigned in 1999 due to poor health. Her
  successor, Bharrat JAGDEO, was reelected in 2001.

Haiti
  The native Taino Amerindians - who inhabited the island of
  Hispaniola when it was discovered by COLUMBUS in 1492 - were
  virtually annihilated by Spanish settlers within 25 years. In the
  early 17th century, the French established a presence on Hispaniola,
  and in 1697, Spain ceded to the French the western third of the
  island, which later became Haiti. The French colony, based on
  forestry and sugar-related industries, became one of the wealthiest
  in the Caribbean, but only through the heavy importation of African
  slaves and considerable environmental degradation. In the late 18th
  century, Haiti's nearly half million slaves revolted under Toussaint
  L'OUVERTURE. After a prolonged struggle, Haiti became the first
  black republic to declare its independence in 1804. The poorest
  country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been plagued by
  political violence for most of its history. After an armed rebellion
  led to the departure of President Jean-Betrand ARISTIDE in February
  2004, an interim government took office to organize new elections
  under the auspices of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in
  Haiti (MINUSTAH). Continued violence and technical delays have
  prompted repeated postponements, and Haiti missed the
  constitutionally-mandated presidential inauguration date of 7
  February 2006.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  These uninhabited, barren,
  sub-Antarctic islands were transferred from the UK to Australia in
  1947. Populated by large numbers of seal and bird species, the
  islands have been designated a nature preserve.

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Popes in their secular role ruled portions
  of the Italian peninsula for more than a thousand years until the
  mid 19th century, when many of the Papal States were seized by the
  newly united Kingdom of Italy. In 1870, the pope's holdings were
  further circumscribed when Rome itself was annexed. Disputes between
  a series of "prisoner" popes and Italy were resolved in 1929 by
  three Lateran Treaties, which established the independent state of
  Vatican City and granted Roman Catholicism special status in Italy.
  In 1984, a concordat between the Holy See and Italy modified certain
  of the earlier treaty provisions, including the primacy of Roman
  Catholicism as the Italian state religion. Present concerns of the
  Holy See include religious freedom, international development, the
  Middle East, terrorism, interreligious dialogue and reconciliation,
  and the application of church doctrine in an era of rapid change and
  globalization. About 1 billion people worldwide profess the Catholic
  faith.

Honduras
  Once part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras
  became an independent nation in 1821. After two and a half decades
  of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came
  to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for
  anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government
  and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting leftist
  guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998,
  which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion
  in damage.

Hong Kong
  Occupied by the UK in 1841, Hong Kong was formally ceded
  by China the following year; various adjacent lands were added later
  in the 19th century. Pursuant to an agreement signed by China and
  the UK on 19 December 1984, Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special
  Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 1 July 1997. In this
  agreement, China has promised that, under its "one country, two
  systems" formula, China's socialist economic system will not be
  imposed on Hong Kong and that Hong Kong will enjoy a high degree of
  autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs for the
  next 50 years.

Howland Island
  Discovered by the US early in the 19th century, the
  island was officially claimed by the US in 1857. Both US and British
  companies mined for guano until about 1890. Earhart Light is a day
  beacon near the middle of the west coast that was partially
  destroyed during World War II, but has since been rebuilt; it is
  named in memory of the famed aviatrix Amelia EARHART. The island is
  administered by the US Department of the Interior as a National
  Wildlife Refuge.

Hungary
  Hungary was part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire,
  which collapsed during World War I. The country fell under Communist
  rule following World War II. In 1956, a revolt and announced
  withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact were met with a massive military
  intervention by Moscow. Under the leadership of Janos KADAR in 1968,
  Hungary began liberalizing its economy, introducing so-called
  "Goulash Communism." Hungary held its first multiparty elections in
  1990 and initiated a free market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 and
  the EU in 2004.

Iceland
  Settled by Norwegian and Celtic (Scottish and Irish)
  immigrants during the late 9th and 10th centuries A.D., Iceland
  boasts the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly, the
  Althing, established in 930. Independent for over 300 years, Iceland
  was subsequently ruled by Norway and Denmark. Fallout from the Askja
  volcano of 1875 devastated the Icelandic economy and caused
  widespread famine. Over the next quarter century, 20% of the
  island's population emigrated, mostly to Canada and the US. Limited
  home rule from Denmark was granted in 1874 and complete independence
  attained in 1944. Literacy, longevity, income, and social cohesion
  are first-rate by world standards.

Iles Eparses
  The Iles Eparses, or scattered islands, are a group of
  five French entities - Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso
  Islands, Juan de Nova Island, and Tromelin Island - which on 1 April
  1960 came under the authority of the Minister in charge of overseas
  possessions. On 19 September 1960 by decree, the islands were
  transferred to the charge of the Prefet of Reunion where they
  remained until 3 January 2005 when they were transferred by another
  decree to the Senior Administrator of the Territory of the French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF).
  Bassas da India: A French possession since 1897, this atoll is a
  volcanic seamount surrounded by reefs and awash at high tide.
  Europa Island: A French possession since 1897, the island is heavily
  wooded; it is the site of a small military garrison that staffs a
  weather station.
  Glorioso Islands: A French possession since 1892, the Glorioso
  Islands are composed of two lushly vegetated coral islands (Ile
  Glorieuse and Ile du Lys) and three rock islets. A military garrison
  operates a weather and radio station on Ile Glorieuse.
  Juan de Nova Island: Named after a famous 15th century Spanish
  navigator and explorer, the island has been a French possession
  since 1897. It has been exploited for its guano and phosphate.
  Presently a small military garrison oversees a meteorological
  station.
  Tromelin Island: First explored by the French in 1776, the island
  came under the jurisdiction of Reunion in 1814. At present, it
  serves as a sea turtle sanctuary and is the site of an important
  meteorological station.

India
  The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world,
  dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest
  infiltrated onto Indian lands about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the
  earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture.
  Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th
  were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late
  15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political
  control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the
  British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent
  resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and
  Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was
  divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state
  of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted
  in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite
  impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces
  pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over
  Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation,
  extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

Indian Ocean
  The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's
  five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, but larger
  than the Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean). Four critically important
  access waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb
  (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of
  Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia). The decision by the International
  Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth
  ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean
  south of 60 degrees south latitude.

Indonesia
  The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th
  century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945.
  Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it
  required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring
  hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to
  relinquish its colony. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic
  state and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current
  issues include: alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism,
  consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism,
  implementing financial sector reforms, stemming corruption, and
  holding the military and police accountable for human rights
  violations. Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the December 2004
  tsunami, which particularly affected Aceh province causing over
  100,000 deaths and over $4 billion in damage. An additional
  earthquake in March 2005 created heavy destruction on the island of
  Nias. Reconstruction in these areas may take up to a decade. In
  2005, Indonesia reached a historic peace agreement with armed
  separatists in Aceh, but it continues to face a low intensity
  separatist guerilla movement in Papua.

Iran
  Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in
  1979 after the ruling monarchy was overthrown and the shah was
  forced into exile. Conservative clerical forces established a
  theocratic system of government with ultimate political authority
  nominally vested in a learned religious scholar. Iranian-US
  relations have been strained since a group of Iranian students
  seized the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 and held it until
  20 January 1981. During 1980-88, Iran fought a bloody, indecisive
  war with Iraq that eventually expanded into the Persian Gulf and led
  to clashes between US Navy and Iranian military forces between
  1987-1988. Iran has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism for
  its activities in Lebanon and elsewhere in the world and remains
  subject to US economic sanctions and export controls because of its
  continued involvement. Following the elections of a reformist
  president and Majlis in the late 1990s, attempts to foster political
  reform in response to popular dissatisfaction floundered as
  conservative politicians prevented reform measures from being
  enacted, increased repressive measures, and made electoral gains
  against reformers. Parliamentary elections in 2004 and the August
  2005 inauguration of a conservative stalwart as president, completed
  the reconsolidation of conservative power in Iran's government.

Iraq
  Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was occupied by
  Britain during the course of World War I; in 1920, it was declared a
  League of Nations mandate under UK administration. In stages over
  the next dozen years, Iraq attained its independence as a kingdom in
  1932. A "republic" was proclaimed in 1958, but in actuality a series
  of military strongmen ruled the country, the latest was SADDAM
  Husayn. Territorial disputes with Iran led to an inconclusive and
  costly eight-year war (1980-88). In August 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait,
  but was expelled by US-led, UN coalition forces during the Gulf War
  of January-February 1991. Following Kuwait's liberation, the UN
  Security Council (UNSC) required Iraq to scrap all weapons of mass
  destruction and long-range missiles and to allow UN verification
  inspections. Continued Iraqi noncompliance with UNSC resolutions
  over a period of 12 years led to the US-led invasion of Iraq in
  March 2003 and the ouster of the SADDAM Husayn regime. Coalition
  forces remain in Iraq, helping to restore degraded infrastructure
  and facilitating the establishment of a freely elected government,
  while simultaneously dealing with a robust insurgency. The Coalition
  Provisional Authority, which temporarily administered Iraq after the
  invasion, transferred full governmental authority on 28 June 2004,
  to the Iraqi Interim Government (IG), which governed under the
  Transitional Administrative Law for Iraq (TAL). Under the TAL,
  elections for a 275-member Transitional National Assembly (TNA) were
  held in Iraq on 30 January 2005. Following these elections, the
  Iraqi Transitional Government (ITG) assumed office. The TNA was
  charged with drafting Iraq's permanent constitution, which was
  approved in a 15 October 2005 constitutional referendum. An election
  under the constitution for a 275-member Council of Representatives
  (CoR) was held in December 2005. The CoR approval in the selection
  of most of the cabinet ministers on 20 May 2006 marked the
  transition from the ITG to Iraq's full-term government.

Ireland
  Celtic tribes arrived on the island between 600-150 B.C.
  Invasions by Norsemen that began in the late 8th century were
  finally ended when King Brian BORU defeated the Danes in 1014.
  English invasions began in the 12th century and set off more than
  seven centuries of Anglo-Irish struggle marked by fierce rebellions
  and harsh repressions. A failed 1916 Easter Monday Rebellion touched
  off several years of guerrilla warfare that in 1921 resulted in
  independence from the UK for 26 southern counties; six northern
  (Ulster) counties remained part of the UK. In 1948 Ireland withdrew
  from the British Commonwealth; it joined the European Community in
  1973. Irish governments have sought the peaceful unification of
  Ireland and have cooperated with Britain against terrorist groups. A
  peace settlement for Northern Ireland, known as the Good Friday
  Agreement and approved in 1998, is being implemented with some
  difficulties.

Isle of Man
  Part of the Norwegian Kingdom of the Hebrides until the
  13th century when it was ceded to Scotland, the isle came under the
  British crown in 1765. Current concerns include reviving the almost
  extinct Manx Gaelic language. Isle of Man is a British crown
  dependency, but is not part of the UK.

Israel
  Following World War II, the British withdrew from their
  mandate of Palestine, and the UN partitioned the area into Arab and
  Jewish states, an arrangement rejected by the Arabs. Subsequently,
  the Israelis defeated the Arabs in a series of wars without ending
  the deep tensions between the two sides. The territories occupied by
  Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the Israel country
  profile, unless otherwise noted. On 25 April 1982, Israel withdrew
  from the Sinai pursuant to the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
  Israel and Palestinian officials signed on 13 September 1993 a
  Declaration of Principles (also known as the "Oslo Accords") guiding
  an interim period of Palestinian self-rule. Outstanding territorial
  and other disputes with Jordan were resolved in the 26 October 1994
  Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. In addition, on 25 May 2000, Israel
  withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon, which it had occupied
  since 1982. In keeping with the framework established at the Madrid
  Conference in October 1991, bilateral negotiations were conducted
  between Israel and Palestinian representatives and Syria to achieve
  a permanent settlement. In April 2003, US President BUSH, working in
  conjunction with the EU, UN, and Russia - the "Quartet" - took the
  lead in laying out a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict
  by 2005, based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two
  states, Israel and a democratic Palestine. However, progress toward
  a permanent status agreement was undermined by Palestinian-Israeli
  violence between September 2000 and February 2005. An agreement
  reached at Sharm al-Sheikh in February 2005 significantly reduced
  the violence. The election in January 2005 of Mahmud ABBAS as the
  new Palestinian leader following the November 2004 death of Yasir
  ARAFAT, the formation of a Likud-Labor-United Torah Judaism
  coalition government in January 2005, and the successful Israeli
  disengagement from the Gaza Strip (August-September 2005), presented
  an opportunity for a renewed peace effort. However, internal Israeli
  political events between October and December 2005 have destabilized
  the political situation and forced early elections, scheduled for
  March 2006.

Italy
  Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the regional states
  of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under
  King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to
  a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a
  Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led
  to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced
  the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a
  charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It
  has been at the forefront of European economic and political
  unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.
  Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime,
  corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low
  incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the
  prosperous north.

Jamaica
  The island - discovered by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1494 -
  was settled by the Spanish early in the 16th century. The native
  Taino Indians, who had inhabited Jamaica for centuries, were
  gradually exterminated, replaced by African slaves. England siezed
  the island in 1655 and a plantation economy - based on sugar, cocoa,
  and coffee - was established. The abolition of slavery in 1834 freed
  a quarter million slaves, many of which became small farmers.
  Jamaica gradually obtained increasing independence from Britain, and
  in 1958 it joined other British Caribbean colonies in forming the
  Federation of the West Indies. Jamaica gained full independence when
  it withdrew from the federation in 1962. Deteriorating economic
  conditions during the 1970s led to recurrent violence as rival gangs
  created by the major political parties evolved into powerful
  organized crime networks involved in international drug smuggling
  and money laundering. The cycle of violence, drugs, and poverty has
  served to impoverish large sectors of the populace. Nonetheless,
  many rural and resort areas remain relatively safe and contribute
  substantially to the economy.

Jan Mayen
  This desolate, mountainous island was named after a Dutch
  whaling captain who indisputably discovered it in 1614 (earlier
  claims are inconclusive). Visited only occasionally by seal hunters
  and trappers over the following centuries, the island came under
  Norwegian sovereignty in 1929. The long dormant Haakon VII
  Toppen/Beerenberg volcano resumed activity in 1970; it is the
  northernmost active volcano on earth.

Japan
  In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered
  in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to
  secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy
  stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the
  Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854, Japan opened its ports and
  began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late
  19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that
  was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied
  Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32
  Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale
  invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering
  America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East
  and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan
  recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US.
  While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity,
  actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats,
  and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown
  starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented
  growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia
  and globally. In 2005, Japan began a two-year term as a
  non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Jarvis Island
  First discovered by the British in 1821, the
  uninhabited island was annexed by the US in 1858, but abandoned in
  1879 after tons of guano had been removed. The UK annexed the island
  in 1889, but never carried out plans for further exploitation. The
  US occupied and reclaimed the island in 1935. Abandoned after World
  War II, the island is currently a National Wildlife Refuge
  administered by the US Department of the Interior.

Jersey
  Jersey and the other Channel Islands represent the last
  remnants of the medieval Dukedom of Normandy that held sway in both
  France and England. These islands were the only British soil
  occupied by German troops in World War II. Jersey is a British crown
  dependency, but is not part of the UK.

Johnston Atoll
  Both the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed
  Johnston Atoll in 1858, but it was the US that mined the guano
  deposits until the late 1880s. Johnston and Sand Islands were
  designated wildlife refuges in 1926. The US Navy took over the atoll
  in 1934, and subsequently the US Air Force assumed control in 1948.
  The site was used for high-altitude nuclear tests in the 1950s and
  1960s, and until late in 2000 the atoll was maintained as a storage
  and disposal site for chemical weapons. Munitions destruction is now
  complete. Cleanup and closure of the facility was completed by May
  2005.

Jordan
  Following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman
  Empire, the UK received a mandate to govern much of the Middle East.
  Britain separated out a semi-autonomous region of Transjordan from
  Palestine in the early 1920s, and the area gained its independence
  in 1946; it adopted the name of Jordan in 1950. The country's
  long-time ruler was King HUSSEIN (1953-99). A pragmatic leader, he
  successfully navigated competing pressures from the major powers
  (US, USSR, and UK), various Arab states, Israel, and a large
  internal Palestinian population, despite several wars and coup
  attempts. In 1989 he reinstituted parliamentary elections and
  gradual political liberalization; in 1994 he signed a peace treaty
  with Israel. King ABDALLAH II, the son of King HUSSEIN, assumed the
  throne following his father's death in February 1999. Since then, he
  has consolidated his power and undertaken an aggressive economic
  reform program. Jordan acceded to the World Trade Organization in
  2000, and began to participate in the European Free Trade
  Association in 2001. After a two-year delay, parliamentary and
  municipal elections took place in the summer of 2003. The prime
  minister appointed in November 2005 stated the government would
  focus on political reforms, improving conditions for the poor, and
  fighting corruption.

Juan de Nova Island
  Named after a famous 15th century Spanish
  navigator and explorer, the island has been a French possession
  since 1897. It has been exploited for its guano and phosphate.
  Presently a small military garrison oversees a meteorological
  station.

Kazakhstan
  Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes
  who migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united
  as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th
  century, and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. During the
  1950s and 1960s agricultural "Virgin Lands" program, Soviet citizens
  were encouraged to help cultivate Kazakhstan's northern pastures.
  This influx of immigrants (mostly Russians, but also some other
  deported nationalities) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled
  non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives. Independence in 1991 caused many
  of these newcomers to emigrate. Current issues include: developing a
  cohesive national identity; expanding the development of the
  country's vast energy resources and exporting them to world markets;
  achieving a sustainable economic growth outside the oil, gas, and
  mining sectors; and strengthening relations with neighboring states
  and other foreign powers.

Kenya
  Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA
  led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when
  President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional
  succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969
  until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made
  itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and
  external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The
  ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power
  in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and
  fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the
  Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following
  fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate
  of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow
  Coalition, defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the
  presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption
  platform.

Kingman Reef
  The US annexed the reef in 1922. Its sheltered lagoon
  served as a way station for flying boats on Hawaii-to-American Samoa
  flights during the late 1930s. There are no terrestrial plants on
  the reef, which is frequently awash, but it does support abundant
  and diverse marine fauna and flora. In 2001, the waters surrounding
  the reef out to 12 nm were designated a US National Wildlife Refuge.

Kiribati
  The Gilbert Islands were granted self-rule by the UK in
  1971 and complete independence in 1979 under the new name of
  Kiribati. The US relinquished all claims to the sparsely inhabited
  Phoenix and Line Island groups in a 1979 treaty of friendship with
  Kiribati.

Korea, North
  An independent kingdom for much of its long history,
  Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese
  War. Five years later, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula.
  Following World War II, Korea was split with the northern half
  coming under Soviet-sponsored Communist domination. After failing in
  the Korean War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed Republic of Korea
  (ROK) in the southern portion by force, North Korea (DPRK), under
  its founder President KIM Il-so'ng, adopted a policy of ostensible
  diplomatic and economic "self-reliance" as a check against excessive
  Soviet or Communist Chinese influence. The DPRK demonized the US as
  the ultimate threat to its social system through state-funded
  propaganda, and molded political, economic, and military policies
  around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of
  Korea under Pyongyang's control. KIM's son, the current ruler KIM
  Jong Il, was officially designated as his father's successor in
  1980, assuming a growing political and managerial role until the
  elder KIM's death in 1994. After decades of economic mismanagement
  and resource misallocation, the DPRK since the mid-1990s has relied
  heavily on international aid to feed its population while continuing
  to expend resources to maintain an army of 1 million. North Korea's
  long-range missile development, as well as its nuclear, chemical,
  and biological weapons programs and massive conventional armed
  forces, are of major concern to the international community. In
  December 2002, following revelations that the DPRK was pursuing a
  nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a
  1994 agreement with the US to freeze and ultimately dismantle its
  existing plutonium-based program, North Korea expelled monitors from
  the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In January 2003, it
  declared its withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation
  Treaty. In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced it had completed the
  reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods (to extract weapons-grade
  plutonium) and was developing a "nuclear deterrent." Since August
  2003, North Korea has participated in the Six-Party Talks with
  China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the US designed to resolve
  the stalemate over its nuclear programs. The fourth round of
  Six-Party Talks were held in Beijing during July-September 2005. All
  parties agreed to a Joint Statement of Principles in which, among
  other things, the six parties unanimously reaffirmed the goal of
  verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful
  manner. In the Joint Statement, the DPRK committed to "abandoning
  all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at
  an early date, to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
  Weapons and to IAEA safeguards." The Joint Statement also commits
  the US and other parties to certain actions as the DPRK
  denuclearizes. The US offered a security assurance, specifying that
  it had no nuclear weapons on ROK territory and no intention to
  attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or other weapons. The US and
  DPRK will take steps to normalize relations, subject to the DPRK's
  implementing its denuclearization pledge and resolving other
  longstanding concerns. While the Joint Statement provides a vision
  of the end-point of the Six-Party process, much work lies ahead to
  implement the elements of the agreement.

Korea, South
  Korea was an independent kingdom for much of its
  millennia-long history. Following its victory in the Russo-Japanese
  War in 1905, Japan occupied Korea; five years later it formally
  annexed the entire peninsula. After World War II, a Republic of
  Korea (ROK) was set up in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula
  while a Communist-style government was installed in the north (the
  DPRK). During the Korean War (1950-53), US troops and UN forces
  fought alongside soldiers from the ROK to defend South Korea from
  DPRK attacks supported by China and the Soviet Union. An armistice
  was signed in 1953, splitting the peninsula along a demilitarized
  zone at about the 38th parallel. Thereafter, South Korea achieved
  rapid economic growth with per capita income rising to roughly 14
  times the level of North Korea. In 1993, KIM Yo'ng-sam became South
  Korea's first civilian president following 32 years of military
  rule. South Korea today is a fully functioning modern democracy. In
  June 2000, a historic first North-South summit took place between
  the South's President KIM Dae-jung and the North's leader KIM Jong
  Il.

Kuwait
  Britain oversaw foreign relations and defense for the ruling
  Kuwaiti AL-SABAH dynasty from 1899 until independence in 1961.
  Kuwait was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990. Following
  several weeks of aerial bombardment, a US-led, UN coalition began a
  ground assault on 23 February 1991 that liberated Kuwait in four
  days. Kuwait spent more than $5 billion to repair oil infrastructure
  damaged during 1990-91.

Kyrgyzstan
  A Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and
  proud nomadic traditions, Kyrgyzstan was annexed by Russia in 1864;
  it achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Nationwide
  demonstrations in the spring of 2005 resulted in the ouster of
  President Askar AKAYEV, who had run the country since 1990.
  Subsequent presidential elections in July 2005 were won
  overwhelmingly by former prime minister Kurmanbek BAKIYEV. Current
  concerns include: privatization of state-owned enterprises,
  expansion of democracy and political freedoms, reduction of
  corruption, improving interethnic relations, and combating terrorism.

Laos
  Modern-day Laos has its roots in the ancient Lao kingdom of Lan
  Xang, established in the 14th Century under King FA NGUM. For three
  hundred years Lan Xang included large parts of present-day Cambodia
  and Thailand, as well as all of what is now Laos. After centuries of
  gradual decline, Laos came under the control of Siam (Thailand) from
  the late 18th century until the late 19th century when it became
  part of French Indochina. The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 defined
  the current Lao border with Thailand. In 1975, the Communist Pathet
  Lao took control of the government ending a six-century-old monarchy
  and instituting a strict socialist regime closely aligned to
  Vietnam. A gradual return to private enterprise and the
  liberalization of foreign investment laws began in 1986. Laos became
  a member of ASEAN in 1997.

Latvia
  After a brief period of independence between the two World
  Wars, Latvia was annexed by the USSR in 1940. It reestablished its
  independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
  Although the last Russian troops left in 1994, the status of the
  Russian minority (some 30% of the population) remains of concern to
  Moscow. Latvia joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Lebanon
  Following the capture of Syria from the Ottoman Empire by
  Anglo-French forces in 1918, France received a mandate over this
  territory and separated out a region of Lebanon in 1920. France
  granted this area independence in 1943. A 15-year civil war
  (1976-1991) devastated the country, but Lebanon has since made
  progress toward rebuilding its political institutions. Under the
  Ta'if Accord - the blueprint for national reconciliation - the
  Lebanese established a more equitable political system, particularly
  by giving Muslims a greater voice in the political process while
  institutionalizing sectarian divisions in the government. Since the
  end of the war, Lebanon has conducted several successful elections,
  most militias have been disbanded, and the Lebanese Armed Forces
  (LAF) have extended authority over about two-thirds of the country.
  Hizballah, a radical Shi'a organization listed by the US State
  Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, retains its weapons.
  During Lebanon's civil war, the Arab League legitimized in the Ta'if
  Accord Syria's troop deployment, numbering about 16,000 based mainly
  east of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley. Damascus justified its
  continued military presence in Lebanon by citing Beirut's requests
  and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the
  constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord. Israel's withdrawal from
  southern Lebanon in May 2000, however, encouraged some Lebanese
  groups to demand that Syria withdraw its forces as well. The passage
  of UNSCR 1559 in early October 2004 - a resolution calling for Syria
  to withdraw from Lebanon and end its interference in Lebanese
  affairs - further emboldened Lebanese groups opposed to Syria's
  presence in Lebanon. The assassination of former Prime Minister
  Rafiq HARIRI and 20 others in February 2005 led to massive
  demonstrations in Beirut against the Syrian presence ("the Cedar
  Revolution"). Syria finally withdrew the remainder of its military
  forces from Lebanon in April 2005. In May-June 2005, Lebanon held
  its first legislative elections since the end of the civil war free
  of foreign interference, handing a two-thirds majority to the bloc
  led by Saad HARIRI, the slain prime minister's son.

Lesotho
  Basutoland was renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho upon
  independence from the UK in 1966. The Basuto National Party ruled
  for the first two decades. King MOSHOESHOE was exiled in 1990, but
  returned to Lesotho in 1992 and reinstated in 1995. Constitutional
  government was restored in 1993 after 7 years of military rule. In
  1998, violent protests and a military mutiny following a contentious
  election prompted a brief but bloody intervention by South African
  and Botswanan military forces under the aegis of the Southern
  African Development Community. Constitutional reforms have since
  restored political stability; peaceful parliamentary elections were
  held in 2002.

Liberia
  Settlement of freed slaves from the US in what is today
  Liberia began in 1822; by 1847, the Americo-Liberians were able to
  establish a republic. William TUBMAN, president from 1944-71, did
  much to promote foreign investment and to bridge the economic,
  social, and political gaps between the descendents of the original
  settlers and the inhabitants of the interior. In 1980, a military
  coup led by Samuel DOE assassinated President William TOLBERT
  (1971-80) and ushered in a decade of authoritarian rule followed by
  a prolonged civil war, in which DOE himself was killed. In August
  2003, a comprehensive peace agreement ended 14 years of intermittent
  fighting and prompted the resignation of former president Charles
  TAYLOR, who was exiled to Nigeria. After two years of rule by a
  transitional government, democratic elections in late 2005 brought
  President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF to power. The UN Mission in Liberia
  (UNMIL), which maintains a strong presence throughout the country,
  completed a disarmament program for former combatants in late 2004,
  but the security situation is still volatile and the process of
  rebuilding the social and economic structure of this war-torn
  country remains sluggish.

Libya
  The Italians supplanted the Ottoman Turks from the area around
  Tripoli in 1911 and did not reliquish their hold until 1943 when
  defeated in World War II. Libya then passed to UN administration and
  achieved independence in 1951. Following a 1969 military coup, Col.
  Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI began to espouse his own political
  system, the Third Universal Theory. The system is a combination of
  socialism and Islam derived in part from tribal practices and is
  supposed to be implemented by the Libyan people themselves in a
  unique form of "direct democracy." QADHAFI has always seen himself
  as a revolutionary and visionary leader. He used oil funds during
  the 1970s and 1980s to promote his ideology outside Libya,
  supporting subversives and terrorists abroad to hasten the end of
  Marxism and capitalism. In addition, beginning in 1973, he engaged
  in military operations in northern Chad's Aozou Strip - to gain
  access to minerals and to use as a base of influence in Chadian
  politics - but was forced to retreat in 1987. UN sanctions in 1992
  isolated QADHAFI politically following the downing of Pan AM Flight
  103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libyan support for terrorism appeared
  to have decreased after the imposition of sanctions. During the
  1990s, QADHAFI also began to rebuild his relationships with Europe.
  UN sanctions were suspended in April 1999 and finally lifted in
  September 2003 after Libya resolved the Lockerbie case. In December
  2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to reveal and end its
  programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, and QADHAFI has
  made significant strides in normalizing relations with western
  nations since then. He has received various Western European leaders
  as well as many working-level and commercial delegations, and made
  his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled to
  Brussels in April 2004. QADHAFI also finally resolved in 2004
  several outstanding cases against his government for terrorist
  activities in the 1980s by compensating the families of victims of
  the UTA and La Belle disco bombings.

Liechtenstein
  The Principality of Liechtenstein was established
  within the Holy Roman Empire in 1719; it became a sovereign state in
  1806. Until the end of World War I, it was closely tied to Austria,
  but the economic devastation caused by that conflict forced
  Liechtenstein to enter into a customs and monetary union with
  Switzerland. Since World War II (in which Liechtenstein remained
  neutral), the country's low taxes have spurred outstanding economic
  growth. Shortcomings in banking regulatory oversight have resulted
  in concerns about the use of the financial institutions for money
  laundering. Liechtenstein has, however, implemented new
  anti-money-laundering legislation and recently concluded a Mutual
  Legal Assistance Treaty with the US.

Lithuania
  Independent between the two World Wars, Lithuania was
  annexed by the USSR in 1940. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the
  first of the Soviet republics to declare its independence, but
  Moscow did not recognize this proclamation until September of 1991
  (following the abortive coup in Moscow). The last Russian troops
  withdrew in 1993. Lithuania subsequently restructured its economy
  for integration into Western European institutions; it joined both
  NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004.

Luxembourg
  Founded in 963, Luxembourg became a grand duchy in 1815
  and an independent state under the Netherlands. It lost more than
  half of its territory to Belgium in 1839, but gained a larger
  measure of autonomy. Full independence was attained in 1867. Overrun
  by Germany in both World Wars, it ended its neutrality in 1948 when
  it entered into the Benelux Customs Union and when it joined NATO
  the following year. In 1957, Luxembourg became one of the six
  founding countries of the European Economic Community (later the
  European Union), and in 1999 it joined the euro currency area.

Macau
  Colonized by the Portuguese in the 16th century, Macau was the
  first European settlement in the Far East. Pursuant to an agreement
  signed by China and Portugal on 13 April 1987, Macau became the
  Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on 20 December
  1999. China has promised that, under its "one country, two systems"
  formula, China's socialist economic system will not be practiced in
  Macau, and that Macau will enjoy a high degree of autonomy in all
  matters except foreign and defense affairs for the next 50 years.

Macedonia
  Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from
  Yugoslavia in 1991, but Greece's objection to the new state's use of
  what it considered a Hellenic name and symbols delayed international
  recognition, which occurred under the provisional designation of the
  "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." In 1995, Greece lifted a
  20-month trade embargo and the two countries agreed to normalize
  relations, although differences over Macedonia's name remain. The
  undetermined status of neighboring Kosovo, implementation of the
  Framework Agreement - which ended the 2001 ethnic Albanian armed
  insurgency - and a weak economy continue to be challenges for
  Macedonia.

Madagascar
  Formerly an independent kingdom, Madagascar became a
  French colony in 1896, but regained its independence in 1960. During
  1992-93, free presidential and National Assembly elections were
  held, ending 17 years of single-party rule. In 1997, in the second
  presidential race, Didier RATSIRAKA, the leader during the 1970s and
  1980s, was returned to the presidency. The 2001 presidential
  election was contested between the followers of Didier RATSIRAKA and
  Marc RAVALOMANANA, nearly causing secession of half of the country.
  In April 2002, the High Constitutional Court announced RAVALOMANANA
  the winner.

Malawi
  Established in 1891, the British protectorate of Nyasaland
  became the independent nation of Malawi in 1964. After three decades
  of one-party rule under President Hastings Kamuzu BANDA the country
  held multiparty elections in 1994, under a provisional constitution
  which came into full effect the following year. Current President
  Bingu wa MUTHARIKA, elected in May 2004 after a failed attempt by
  the previous president to amend the constitution to permit another
  term, has struggled to assert his authority against his predecessor,
  who still leads their shared political party. MUTHARIKA's
  anti-corruption efforts have led to several high-level arrests and
  one prominent conviction. Increasing corruption, population growth,
  increasing pressure on agricultural lands, and the spread of
  HIV/AIDS pose major problems for the country.

Malaysia
  During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain
  established colonies and protectorates in the area of current
  Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948,
  the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the
  Federation of Malaya, which became independent in 1957. Malaysia was
  formed in 1963 when the former British colonies of Singapore and the
  East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the northern coast of
  Borneo joined the Federation. The first several years of the
  country's history were marred by Indonesian efforts to control
  Malaysia, Philippine claims to Sabah, and Singapore's secession from
  the Federation in 1965. During the 22-year term of Prime Minister
  MAHATHIR bin Mohamad (1981-2003), Malaysia was successful in
  diversifying its economy from dependence on exports of raw
  materials, to expansion in manufacturing, services, and tourism.

Maldives
  The Maldives was long a sultanate, first under Dutch and
  then under British protection. It became a republic in 1968, three
  years after independence. Since 1978, President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM
  - currently in his sixth term in office - has dominated the islands'
  political scene. Following riots in the capital Male in August 2004,
  the president and his government have pledged to embark upon
  democratic reforms, including a more representative political system
  and expanded political freedoms. Tourism and fishing are being
  developed on the archipelago.

Mali
  The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France
  in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a
  few months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed
  Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 by a coup
  that ushered in democratic government. President Alpha KONARE won
  Mali's first democratic presidential election in 1992 and was
  reelected in 1997. In keeping with Mali's two-term constitutional
  limit, KONARE stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou TOURE.

Malta
  Great Britain formally acquired possession of Malta in 1814.
  The island staunchly supported the UK through both World Wars and
  remained in the Commonwealth when it became independent in 1964. A
  decade later Malta became a republic. Since about the mid-1980s, the
  island has transformed itself into a freight transshipment point, a
  financial center, and a tourist destination. Malta became an EU
  member in May 2004.

Marshall Islands
  After almost four decades under US administration
  as the easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific
  Islands, the Marshall Islands attained independence in 1986 under a
  Compact of Free Association. Compensation claims continue as a
  result of US nuclear testing on some of the atolls between 1947 and
  1962. The Marshall Islands hosts the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA)
  Reagan Missile Test Site, a key installation in the US missile
  defense network.

Martinique
  The French began to settle this island in 1635,
  overcoming resistance from the local Carib inhabitants. In 1660, the
  suviving natives were rounded up and permanently expelled. The
  island has subsequently remained a French possession except for
  three brief periods of foreign occupation.

Mauritania
  Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the
  southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in
  1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the
  Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory.
  Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA seized power in a coup in 1984.
  Opposition parties were legalized and a new constitution approved in
  1991. Two multiparty presidential elections since then were widely
  seen as flawed, but October 2001 legislative and municipal elections
  were generally free and open. A bloodless coup in August 2005
  deposed President TAYA and ushered in a military council headed by
  Col. Ely Ould Mohamed VALL, which declared it would remain in power
  for up to two years while it created conditions for genuine
  democratic institutions and organized elections. For now, however,
  Mauritania remains an autocratic state, and the country continues to
  experience ethnic tensions among its black population and different
  Moor (Arab-Berber) communities.

Mauritius
  Although known to Arab and Malay sailors as early as the
  10th century, Mauritius was first explored by the Portuguese in
  1505; it was subsequently held by the Dutch, French, and British
  before independence was attained in 1968. A stable democracy with
  regular free elections and a positive human rights record, the
  country has attracted considerable foreign investment and has earned
  one of Africa's highest per capita incomes. Recent poor weather and
  declining sugar prices have slowed economic growth, leading to some
  protests over standards of living in the Creole community.

Mayotte
  Mayotte was ceded to France along with the other islands of
  the Comoros group in 1843. It was the only island in the archipelago
  that voted in 1974 to retain its link with France and forego
  independence.

Mexico
  The site of advanced Amerindian civilizations, Mexico came
  under Spanish rule for three centuries before achieving independence
  early in the 19th century. A devaluation of the peso in late 1994
  threw Mexico into economic turmoil, triggering the worst recession
  in over half a century. The nation continues to make an impressive
  recovery. Ongoing economic and social concerns include low real
  wages, underemployment for a large segment of the population,
  inequitable income distribution, and few advancement opportunities
  for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished southern
  states. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time since the
  1910 Mexican Revolution that the opposition defeated the party in
  government, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Vicente FOX
  of the National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in on 1 December 2000
  as the first chief executive elected in free and fair elections.

Micronesia, Federated States of
  In 1979 the Federated States of
  Micronesia, a UN Trust Territory under US administration, adopted a
  constitution. In 1986 independence was attained under a Compact of
  Free Association with the US, which was amended and renewed in 2004.
  Present concerns include large-scale unemployment, overfishing, and
  overdependence on US aid.

Midway Islands
  The US took formal possession of the islands in 1867.
  The laying of the trans-Pacific cable, which passed through the
  islands, brought the first residents in 1903. Between 1935 and 1947,
  Midway was used as a refueling stop for trans-Pacific flights. The
  US naval victory over a Japanese fleet off Midway in 1942 was one of
  the turning points of World War II. The islands continued to serve
  as a naval station until closed in 1993. Today the islands are a
  national wildlife refuge. From 1996 to 2001 the refuge was open to
  the public; it is now temporarily closed.

Moldova
  Formerly part of Romania, Moldova was incorporated into the
  Soviet Union at the close of World War II. Although independent from
  the USSR since 1991, Russian forces have remained on Moldovan
  territory east of the Dniester River supporting the Slavic majority
  population, mostly Ukrainians and Russians, who have proclaimed a
  "Transnistria" republic. The poorest nation in Europe, Moldova
  became the first former Soviet state to elect a Communist as its
  president in 2001.

Monaco
  The Genoese built a fortress on the site of present-day
  Monaco in 1215. The current ruling Grimaldi family secured control
  in the late 13th century, and a principality was established in
  1338. Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with
  a railroad linkup to France and the opening of a casino. Since then,
  the principality's mild climate, splendid scenery, and gambling
  facilities have made Monaco world famous as a tourist and recreation
  center.

Mongolia
  The Mongols gained fame in the 13th century when under
  Chinggis KHAN they conquered a huge Eurasian empire. After his death
  the empire was divided into several powerful Mongol states, but
  these broke apart in the 14th century. The Mongols eventually
  retired to their original steppe homelands and later came under
  Chinese rule. Mongolia won its independence in 1921 with Soviet
  backing. A Communist regime was installed in 1924. The ex-Communist
  Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) won elections in 1990
  and 1992, but was defeated by the Democratic Union Coalition (DUC)
  in the 1996 parliamentary election. Since then, parliamentary
  elections returned the MPRP overwhelmingly to power in 2000 and
  produced a coalition government in 2004.

Montenegro
  The use of the name Montenegro began in the 15th century
  when the Crnojevic dynasty began to rule the Serbian principality of
  Zeta; over subsequent centuries it was able to maintain its
  independence from the Ottoman Empire. From the 16th to 19th
  centuries, Montenegro became a theocratic state ruled by a series of
  bishop princes; in 1852, it was transformed into a secular
  principality. After World War I, Montenegro was part of the Kingdom
  of Yugoslavia, and, at the conclusion of World War II, it became a
  constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of
  Yugoslavia. When the latter dissolved in 1992, Montenegro federated
  with Serbia, first as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and, after
  2003, in a looser union of Serbia and Montenegro. Following a
  three-year postponement, Montenegro held an independence referendum
  in the spring of 2006 under rules set by the EU. The vote for
  severing ties with Serbia exceeded the 55% threshold, allowing
  Montenegro to formally declare its independence on 3 June 2006.

Montserrat
  English and Irish colonists from St. Kitts first settled
  on Montserrat in 1632; the first African slaves arrived three
  decades later. The British and French fought for possesion of the
  island for most of the 18th century, but it finally was confirmed as
  a British possession in 1783. The island's sugar plantation economy
  was converted to small farm landholdings in the mid 19th century.
  Much of this island was devastated and two-thirds of the population
  fled abroad because of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano
  that began on 18 July 1995. Montserrat has endured volcanic activity
  since, with the last eruption occurring in July 2003.

Morocco
  In 788, about a century after the Arab conquest of North
  Africa, successive Moorish dynasties began to rule in Morocco. In
  the 16th century, the Sa'adi monarchy, particularly under Ahmad
  AL-MANSUR (1578-1603), repelled foreign invaders and inaugurated a
  golden age. In 1860, Spain occupied northern Morocco and ushered in
  a half century of trade rivalry among European powers that saw
  Morocco's sovereignty steadily erode; in 1912, the French imposed a
  protectorate over the country. A protracted independence struggle
  with France ended successfully in 1956. The internationalized city
  of Tangier and most Spanish possessions were turned over to the new
  country that same year. Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara
  during the late 1970s, but final resolution on the status of the
  territory remains unresolved. Gradual political reforms in the 1990s
  resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature, which
  first met in 1997. Parliamentary elections were held for the second
  time in September 2002 and municipal elections were held in
  September 2003.

Mozambique
  Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a
  close with independence in 1975. Large-scale emigration by whites,
  economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a
  prolonged civil war hindered the country's development. The ruling
  Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) party formally
  abandoned Marxism in 1989, and a new constitution the following year
  provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy. A
  UN-negotiated peace agreement between FRELIMO and rebel Mozambique
  National Resistance (RENAMO) forces ended the fighting in 1992. In
  December 2004, Mozambique underwent a delicate transition as Joaquim
  CHISSANO stepped down after 18 years in office. His newly elected
  successor, Armando Emilio GUEBUZA, has promised to continue the
  sound economic policies that have encouraged foreign investment.

Namibia
  South Africa occupied the German colony of South-West Africa
  during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after
  World War II, when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist
  South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group
  launched a war of independence for the area that was soon named
  Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end
  its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire
  region. Namibia won its independence in 1990 and has been governed
  by SWAPO since. Hifikepunye POHAMBA was elected president in
  November 2004 in a landslide victory replacing Sam NUJOMA who led
  the country during its first 14 years of self rule.

Nauru
  The exact origins of the Nauruans are unclear, since their
  language does not resemble any other in the Pacific. The island was
  annexed by Germany in 1888 and its phosphate deposits began to be
  mined early in the 20th century by a German-British consortium.
  Nauru was occupied by Australian forces in World War I and
  subsequently became a League of Nations mandate. After the Second
  World War - and a brutal occupation by Japan - Nauru became a UN
  trust territory. It achieved its independence in 1968 and joined the
  UN in 1999 as the world's smallest independent republic.

Navassa Island
  This uninhabited island was claimed by the US in 1857
  for its guano. Mining took place between 1865 and 1898. The
  lighthouse, built in 1917, was shut down in 1996 and administration
  of Navassa Island transferred from the Coast Guard to the Department
  of the Interior. A 1998 scientific expedition to the island
  described it as a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity; the
  following year it became a National Wildlife Refuge and annual
  scientific expeditions have continued.

Nepal
  In 1951, the Nepalese monarch ended the century-old system of
  rule by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system of
  government. Reforms in 1990 established a multiparty democracy
  within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. A Maoist
  insurgency, launched in 1996, has gained traction and is threatening
  to bring down the regime, especially after a negotiated cease-fire
  between the Maoists and government forces broke down in August 2003.
  In 2001, the crown prince massacred ten members of the royal family,
  including the king and queen, and then took his own life. In October
  2002, the new king dismissed the prime minister and his cabinet for
  "incompetence" after they dissolved the parliament and were
  subsequently unable to hold elections because of the ongoing
  insurgency. While stopping short of reestablishing parliament, the
  king in June 2004 reinstated the most recently elected prime
  minister who formed a four-party coalition government. Citing
  dissatisfaction with the government's lack of progress in addressing
  the Maoist insurgency and corruption, the king in February 2005
  dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency, imprisoned
  party leaders, and assumed power. The king's government subsequently
  released party leaders and officially ended the state of emergency
  in May 2005, but the monarch retained absolute power until April
  2006. After nearly three weeks of mass protests organized by the
  seven-party opposition and the Maoists, the king allowed parliament
  to reconvene on 28 April 2006.

Netherlands
  The Dutch United Provinces declared their independence
  from Spain in 1579; during the 17th century, they became a leading
  seafaring and commercial power, with settlements and colonies around
  the world. After a 20-year French occupation, a Kingdom of the
  Netherlands was formed in 1815. In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a
  separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I,
  but suffered invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A
  modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large
  exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member
  of NATO and the EEC (now the EU), and participated in the
  introduction of the euro in 1999.

Netherlands Antilles
  Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade,
  the island of Curacao was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in
  1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Aruba) was restored in
  the early 20th century with the construction of oil refineries to
  service the newly discovered Venezuelan oil fields. The island of
  Saint Martin is shared with France; its southern portion is named
  Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles; its northern
  portion is called Saint-Martin and is part of Guadeloupe (France).

New Caledonia
  Settled by both Britain and France during the first
  half of the 19th century, the island was made a French possession in
  1853. It served as a penal colony for four decades after 1864.
  Agitation for independence during the 1980s and early 1990s ended in
  the 1998 Noumea Accord, which over a period of 15 to 20 years will
  transfer an increasing amount of governing responsibility from
  France to New Caledonia. The agreement also commits France to
  conduct as many as three referenda between 2013 and 2018, to decide
  whether New Caledonia should assume full sovereignty and
  independence.

New Zealand
  The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D.
  800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain,
  the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen
  Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the
  British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of
  land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native
  peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent
  dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars.
  New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances
  lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to
  address longstanding Maori grievances.

Nicaragua
  The Pacific coast of Nicaragua was settled as a Spanish
  colony from Panama in the early 16th century. Independence from
  Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent
  republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first
  half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region
  in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental
  manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and
  resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist
  Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979. Nicaraguan aid to leftist
  rebels in El Salvador caused the US to sponsor anti-Sandinista
  contra guerrillas through much of the 1980s. Free elections in 1990,
  1996, and 2001, saw the Sandinistas defeated, but voting in 2006
  announced the return of former Sandinista President Daniel ORTEGA
  Saavedra. Nicaragua's infrastructure and economy - hard hit by the
  earlier civil war and by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 - are slowly being
  rebuilt.

Niger
  Niger became independent from France in 1960 and experienced
  single-party and military rule until 1991, when Gen. Ali SAIBOU was
  forced by public pressure to allow multiparty elections, which
  resulted in a democratic government in 1993. Political infighting
  brought the government to a standstill and in 1996 led to a coup by
  Col. Ibrahim BARE. In 1999 BARE was killed in a coup by military
  officers who promptly restored democratic rule and held elections
  that brought Mamadou TANDJA to power in December of that year.
  TANDJA was reelected in 2004. Niger is one of the poorest countries
  in the world with minimal government services and insufficient funds
  to develop its resource base. The largely agrarian and
  subsistence-based economy is frequently disrupted by extended
  droughts common to the Sahel region of Africa.

Nigeria
  British influence and control over what would become Nigeria
  grew through the 19th century. A series of constitutions after World
  War II granted Nigeria greater autonomy; independence came in 1960.
  Following nearly 16 years of military rule, a new constitution was
  adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition to civilian government
  was completed. The president faces the daunting task of reforming a
  petroleum-based economy, whose revenues have been squandered through
  corruption and mismanagement, and institutionalizing democracy. In
  addition, the OBASANJO administration must defuse longstanding
  ethnic and religious tensions, if it is to build a sound foundation
  for economic growth and political stability. Although the April 2003
  elections were marred by some irregularities, Nigeria is currently
  experiencing its longest period of civilian rule since independence.

Niue
  Niue's remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic
  differences between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest
  of the Cook Islands, have caused it to be separately administered.
  The population of the island continues to drop (from a peak of 5,200
  in 1966 to about 2,166 in 2006), with substantial emigration to New
  Zealand, 2,400 km to the southwest.

Norfolk Island
  Two British attempts at establishing the island as a
  penal colony (1788-1814 and 1825-55) were ultimately abandoned. In
  1856, the island was resettled by Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of
  the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.

Northern Mariana Islands
  Under US administration as part of the UN
  Trust Territory of the Pacific, the people of the Northern Mariana
  Islands decided in the 1970s not to seek independence but instead to
  forge closer links with the US. Negotiations for territorial status
  began in 1972. A covenant to establish a commonwealth in political
  union with the US was approved in 1975, and came into force on 24
  March 1976. A new government and constitution went into effect in
  1978.

Norway
  Two centuries of Viking raids into Europe tapered off
  following the adoption of Christianity by King Olav TRYGGVASON in
  994. Conversion of the Norwegian kingdom occurred over the next
  several decades. In 1397, Norway was absorbed into a union with
  Denmark that lasted more than four centuries. In 1814, Norwegians
  resisted the cession of their country to Sweden and adopted a new
  constitution. Sweden then invaded Norway but agreed to let Norway
  keep its constitution in return for accepting the union under a
  Swedish king. Rising nationalism throughout the 19th century led to
  a 1905 referendum granting Norway independence. Although Norway
  remained neutral in World War I, it suffered heavy losses to its
  shipping. Norway proclaimed its neutrality at the outset of World
  War II, but was nonetheless occupied for five years by Nazi Germany
  (1940-45). In 1949, neutrality was abandoned and Norway became a
  member of NATO. Discovery of oil and gas in adjacent waters in the
  late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes. The current focus is
  on containing spending on the extensive welfare system and planning
  for the time when petroleum reserves are depleted. In referenda held
  in 1972 and 1994, Norway rejected joining the EU.

Oman
  The inhabitants of the area of Oman have long prospered on
  Indian Ocean trade. In the late 18th century, a newly established
  sultanate in Muscat signed the first in a series of friendship
  treaties with Britain. Over time, Oman's dependence on British
  political and military advisors increased, but it never became a
  British colony. In 1970, QABOOS bin Said al-Said overthrew the
  restrictive rule of his father; he has ruled as sultan ever since.
  His extensive modernization program has opened the country to the
  outside world while preserving the longstanding close ties with the
  UK. Oman's moderate, independent foreign policy has sought to
  maintain good relations with all Middle Eastern countries.

Pacific Ocean
  The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's five
  oceans (followed by the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern
  Ocean, and Arctic Ocean). Strategically important access waterways
  include the La Perouse, Tsugaru, Tsushima, Taiwan, Singapore, and
  Torres Straits. The decision by the International Hydrographic
  Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the
  Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of 60
  degrees south.

Pakistan
  The separation in 1947 of British India into the Muslim
  state of Pakistan (with two sections West and East) and largely
  Hindu India was never satisfactorily resolved, and India and
  Pakistan fought two wars - in 1947-48 and 1965 - over the disputed
  Kashmir territory. A third war between these countries in 1971 - in
  which India capitalized on Islamabad's marginalization of Bengalis
  in Pakistani politics - resulted in East Pakistan becoming the
  separate nation of Bangladesh. In response to Indian nuclear weapons
  testing, Pakistan conducted its own tests in 1998. The dispute over
  the state of Kashmir is ongoing, but discussions and
  confidence-building measures have led to decreased tensions since
  2002.

Palau
  After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the
  Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the
  Caroline Islands opted for independence in 1978 rather than join the
  Federated States of Micronesia. A Compact of Free Association with
  the US was approved in 1986, but not ratified until 1993. It entered
  into force the following year, when the islands gained independence.

Palmyra Atoll
  The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the atoll in 1862, and
  the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the
  archipelago in 1898. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not
  include Palmyra Atoll, which is now privately owned by the Nature
  Conservancy. This organization is managing the atoll as a nature
  preserve. The lagoons and surrounding waters within the 12 nautical
  mile US territorial seas were transferred to the US Fish and
  Wildlife Service and were designated a National Wildlife Refuge in
  January 2001.

Panama
  Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century,
  Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Colombia,
  Venezuela, and Ecuador - named the Republic of Gran Colombia. When
  the latter dissolved in 1830, Panama remained part of Colombia. With
  US backing, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 and promptly signed
  a treaty with the US allowing for the construction of a canal and US
  sovereignty over a strip of land on either side of the structure
  (the Panama Canal Zone). The Panama Canal was built by the US Army
  Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was
  signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the US to Panama
  by the end of the century. Certain portions of the Zone and
  increasing responsibility over the Canal were turned over in the
  subsequent decades. With US help, dictator Manuel NORIEGA was
  deposed in 1989. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the
  Canal, and remaining US military bases were transfered to Panama by
  the end of 1999. In October 2006, Panamanians approved an ambitious
  plan to expand the Canal. The project, which is to begin in 2007 and
  could double the Canal's capacity, is expected to be completed in
  2014-15.

Papua New Guinea
  The eastern half of the island of New Guinea -
  second largest in the world - was divided between Germany (north)
  and the UK (south) in 1885. The latter area was transferred to
  Australia in 1902, which occupied the northern portion during World
  War I and continued to administer the combined areas until
  independence in 1975. A nine-year secessionist revolt on the island
  of Bougainville ended in 1997 after claiming some 20,000 lives.

Paracel Islands
  The Paracel Islands are surrounded by productive
  fishing grounds and by potential oil and gas reserves. In 1932,
  French Indochina annexed the islands and set up a weather station on
  Pattle Island; maintenance was continued by its successor, Vietnam.
  China has occupied the Paracel Islands since 1974, when its troops
  seized a South Vietnamese garrison occupying the western islands.
  The islands are claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Paraguay
  In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70),
  Paraguay lost two-thirds of all adult males and much of its
  territory. It stagnated economically for the next half century. In
  the Chaco War of 1932-35, large, economically important areas were
  won from Bolivia. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo
  STROESSNER was overthrown in 1989, and, despite a marked increase in
  political infighting in recent years, relatively free and regular
  presidential elections have been held since then.

Peru
  Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean
  civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was
  captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence
  was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1824.
  After a dozen years of military rule, Peru returned to democratic
  leadership in 1980, but experienced economic problems and the growth
  of a violent insurgency. President Alberto FUJIMORI's election in
  1990 ushered in a decade that saw a dramatic turnaround in the
  economy and significant progress in curtailing guerrilla activity.
  Nevertheless, the president's increasing reliance on authoritarian
  measures and an economic slump in the late 1990s generated mounting
  dissatisfaction with his regime, which led to his ouster in 2000. A
  caretaker government oversaw new elections in the spring of 2001,
  which ushered in Alejandro TOLEDO as the new head of government -
  the first democratically elected president of Quechua ethnicity. The
  presidential election of 2006 saw the return of Alan GARCIA who,
  after a disappointing presidential term from 1985 to 1990, returned
  to the presidency with promises to improve social conditions.

Philippines
  The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during
  the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the
  Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a
  self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected President and
  was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a
  10-year transition. In 1942 the islands fell under Japanese
  occupation during WWII, and US forces and Filipinos fought together
  during 1944-45 to regain control. On 4 July 1946 the Philippines
  attained their independence. The 20-year rule of Ferdinand MARCOS
  ended in 1986, when a widespread popular rebellion forced him into
  exile and installed Corazon AQUINO as president. Her presidency was
  hampered by several coup attempts, which prevented a return to full
  political stability and economic development. Fidel RAMOS was
  elected president in 1992 and his administration was marked by
  greater stability and progress on economic reforms. In 1992, the US
  closed its last military bases on the islands. Joseph ESTRADA was
  elected president in 1998, but was succeeded by his vice-president,
  Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, in January 2001 after ESTRADA's stormy
  impeachment trial on corruption charges broke down and widespread
  demonstrations led to his ouster. MACAPAGAL-ARROYO was elected to a
  six-year term in May 2004. The Philippine Government faces threats
  from armed communist insurgencies and from Muslim separatists in the
  south.

Pitcairn Islands
  Pitcairn Island was discovered in 1767 by the
  British and settled in 1790 by the Bounty mutineers and their
  Tahitian companions. Pitcairn was the first Pacific island to become
  a British colony (in 1838) and today remains the last vestige of
  that empire in the South Pacific. Outmigration, primarily to New
  Zealand, has thinned the population from a peak of 233 in 1937 to
  less than 50 today.

Poland
  Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the
  middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th
  century. During the following century, the strengthening of the
  gentry and internal disorders weakened the nation. In a series of
  agreements between 1772 and 1795, Russia, Prussia, and Austria
  partitioned Poland amongst themselves. Poland regained its
  independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany and the Soviet
  Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite state following
  the war, but its government was comparatively tolerant and
  progressive. Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the
  independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a
  political force and by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and
  the presidency. A "shock therapy" program during the early 1990s
  enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most
  robust in Central Europe, but Poland still faces the lingering
  challenges of high unemployment, underdeveloped and dilapidated
  infrastructure, and a poor rural underclass. Solidarity suffered a
  major defeat in the 2001 parliamentary elections when it failed to
  elect a single deputy to the lower house of Parliament, and the new
  leaders of the Solidarity Trade Union subsequently pledged to reduce
  the Trade Union's political role. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the
  European Union in 2004. With its transformation to a democratic,
  market-oriented country largely completed, Poland is an increasingly
  active member of Euro-Atlantic organizations.

Portugal
  Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and
  16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the
  destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the
  Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil as a colony.
  A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six
  decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a
  left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms. The
  following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African
  colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC
  (now the EU) in 1986.

Puerto Rico
  Populated for centuries by aboriginal peoples, the
  island was claimed by the Spanish Crown in 1493 following COLUMBUS'
  second voyage to the Americas. In 1898, after 400 years of colonial
  rule that saw the indigenous population nearly exterminated and
  African slave labor introduced, Puerto Rico was ceded to the US as a
  result of the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted US
  citizenship in 1917. Popularly-elected governors have served since
  1948. In 1952, a constitution was enacted providing for internal
  self government. In plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters
  chose not to alter the existing political status.

Qatar
  Ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar
  transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for
  pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural
  gas revenues. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari
  economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum
  revenues by the amir, who had ruled the country since 1972. His son,
  the current Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani, overthrew him in a
  bloodless coup in 1995. In 2001, Qatar resolved its longstanding
  border disputes with both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Oil and natural
  gas revenues enable Qatar to have one of the highest per capita
  incomes in the world.

Reunion
  The Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island in 1513.
  From the 17th to the 19th centuries, French immigration,
  supplemented by influxes of Africans, Chinese, Malays, and Malabar
  Indians, gave the island its ethnic mix. The opening of the Suez
  Canal in 1869 cost the island its importance as a stopover on the
  East Indies trade route.

Romania
  The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia - for centuries
  under the suzerainty of the Turkish Ottoman Empire - secured their
  autonomy in 1856; they united in 1859 and a few years later adopted
  the new name of Romania. The country gained recognition of its
  independence in 1878. It joined the Allied Powers in World War I and
  acquired new territories - most notably Transylvania - following the
  conflict. In 1940, Romania allied with the Axis powers and
  participated in the 1941 German invasion of the USSR. Three years
  later, overrun by the Soviets, Romania signed an armistice. The
  post-war Soviet occupation led to the formation of a Communist
  "people's republic" in 1947 and the abdication of the king. The
  decades-long rule of dictator Nicolae CEAUSESCU, who took power in
  1965, and his Securitate police state became increasingly oppressive
  and draconian through the 1980s. CEAUSESCU was overthrown and
  executed in late 1989. Former Communists dominated the government
  until 1996 when they were swept from power. Romania joined NATO in
  March of 2004 and completed accession talks with the European Union
  (EU) in December 2004; it is scheduled to accede to the EU in 2007.

Russia
  Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was
  able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th
  centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding
  principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynasty
  continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific.
  Under PETER I (ruled 1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic
  Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire. During the 19th
  century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia.
  Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led
  to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and
  to the overthrow in 1917 of the imperial household. The Communists
  under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the USSR.
  The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist
  rule and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of
  millions of lives. The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the
  following decades until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV
  (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika
  (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize Communism, but his
  initiatives inadvertently released forces that by December 1991
  splintered the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent republics.
  Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a
  democratic political system and market economy to replace the strict
  social, political, and economic controls of the Communist period.
  While some progress has been made on the economic front, recent
  years have seen a recentralization of power under Vladimir PUTIN and
  the erosion of nascent democratic institutions. A determined
  guerrilla conflict still plagues Russia in Chechnya and threatens to
  destabilize the North Caucasus region.

Rwanda
  In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the
  majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king.
  Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and
  some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The
  children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan
  Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along
  with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic
  tensions, culminating in April 1994 in the genocide of roughly
  800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi rebels defeated the
  Hutu regime and ended the killing in July 1994, but approximately 2
  million Hutu refugees - many fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to
  neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the former Zaire. Since
  then, most of the refugees have returned to Rwanda, but about 10,000
  remain in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and have
  formed an extremist insurgency bent on retaking Rwanda, much as the
  RPF tried in 1990. Despite substantial international assistance and
  political reforms - including Rwanda's first local elections in
  March 1999 and its first post-genocide presidential and legislative
  elections in August and September 2003 - the country continues to
  struggle to boost investment and agricultural output, and ethnic
  reconciliation is complicated by the real and perceived Tutsi
  political dominance. Kigali's increasing centralization and
  intolerance of dissent, the nagging Hutu extremist insurgency across
  the border, and Rwandan involvement in two wars in recent years in
  the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder
  Rwanda's efforts to escape its bloody legacy.

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena is a British Overseas Territory consisting
  of Saint Helena and Ascension Islands, and the island group of
  Tristan da Cunha.
  Saint Helena: Uninhabited when first discovered by the Portuguese in
  1502, Saint Helena was garrisoned by the British during the 17th
  century. It acquired fame as the place of Napoleon BONAPARTE's
  exile, from 1815 until his death in 1821, but its importance as a
  port of call declined after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
  During the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa, several thousand Boer
  prisoners were confined on the island between 1900 and 1903.
  Ascension Island: This barren and uninhabited island was discovered
  and named by the Portuguese in 1503. The British garrisoned the
  island in 1815 to prevent a rescue of Napoleon from Saint Helena and
  it served as a provisioning station for the Royal Navy's West Africa
  Squadron on anti-slavery patrol. The island remained under Admiralty
  control until 1922, when it became a dependency of Saint Helena.
  During World War II, the UK permitted the US to construct an
  airfield on Ascension in support of trans-Atlantic flights to Africa
  and anti-submarine operations in the South Atlantic. In the 1960s
  the island became an important space tracking station for the US. In
  1982, Ascension was an essential staging area for British forces
  during the Falklands War, and it remains a critical refueling point
  in the air-bridge from the UK to the South Atlantic.
  Tristan da Cunha: The island group consists of the islands of
  Tristan da Cunha, Nightingale, Inaccessible, and Gough. Tristan da
  Cunha is named after its Portuguese discoverer (1506); it was
  garrisoned by the British in 1816 to prevent any attempt to rescue
  Napoleon from Saint Helena. Gough and Inaccessible Islands have been
  designated World Heritage Sites. South Africa leases the site for a
  meteorological station on Gough Island.

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  First settled by the British in 1623, the
  islands became an associated state with full internal autonomy in
  1967. The island of Anguilla rebelled and was allowed to secede in
  1971. Saint Kitts and Nevis achieved independence in 1983. In 1998,
  a vote in Nevis on a referendum to separate from Saint Kitts fell
  short of the two-thirds majority needed. Nevis continues in its
  efforts to try and separate from Saint Kitts.

Saint Lucia
  The island, with its fine natural harbor at Castries,
  was contested between England and France throughout the 17th and
  early 18th centuries (changing possession 14 times); it was finally
  ceded to the UK in 1814. Even after the abolition of slavery on its
  plantations in 1834, Saint Lucia remained an agricultural island,
  dedicated to producing tropical commodity crops. Self-government was
  granted in 1967 and independence in 1979.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  First settled by the French in the early
  17th century, the islands represent the sole remaining vestige of
  France's once vast North American possessions.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Resistance by native Caribs
  prevented colonization on St. Vincent until 1719. Disputed between
  France and the United Kingdom for most of the 18th century, the
  island was ceded to the latter in 1783. Between 1960 and 1962, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines was a separate administrative unit of the
  Federation of the West Indies. Autonomy was granted in 1969 and
  independence in 1979.

Samoa
  New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa
  at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer
  the islands as a mandate and then as a trust territory until 1962,
  when the islands became the first Polynesian nation to reestablish
  independence in the 20th century. The country dropped the "Western"
  from its name in 1997.

San Marino
  The third smallest state in Europe (after the Holy See
  and Monaco) also claims to be the world's oldest republic. According
  to tradition, it was founded by a Christian stonemason named Marino
  in 301 A.D. San Marino's foreign policy is aligned with that of
  Italy. Social and political trends in the republic also track
  closely with those of its larger neighbor.

Sao Tome and Principe
  Discovered and claimed by Portugal in the late
  15th century, the islands' sugar-based economy gave way to coffee
  and cocoa in the 19th century - all grown with plantation slave
  labor, a form of which lingered into the 20th century. Although
  independence was achieved in 1975, democratic reforms were not
  instituted until the late 1980s. Though the first free elections
  were held in 1991, the political environment has been one of
  continued instability with frequent changes in leadership and coup
  attempts in 1995 and 2003. The recent discovery of oil in the Gulf
  of Guinea is likely to have a significant impact on the country's
  economy.

Saudi Arabia
  In 1902, ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured
  Riyadh and set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian
  Peninsula. A son of ABD AL-AZIZ rules the country today, and the
  country's Basic Law stipulates that the throne shall remain in the
  hands of the aging sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder.
  Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted
  the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western
  and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait
  the following year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on
  Saudi soil after Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension
  between the royal family and the public until the US military's
  near-complete withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first
  major terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which
  occurred in May and November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the
  part of the Saudi government to counter domestic terrorism and
  extremism, which also coincided with a slight upsurge in media
  freedom and announcement of government plans to phase in partial
  political representation. As part of this effort, the government
  permitted elections - held nationwide from February through April
  2005 - for half the members of 179 municipal councils. A burgeoning
  population, aquifer depletion, and an economy largely dependent on
  petroleum output and prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.

Senegal
  Independent from France in 1960, Senegal was ruled by the
  Socialist Party for forty years until current President Abdoulaye
  WADE was elected in 2000. Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the
  nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982, but the envisaged
  integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the
  union was dissolved in 1989. A southern separatist group
  sporadically has clashed with government forces since 1982, but
  Senegal remains one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
  Senegal has a long history of participating in international
  peacekeeping.

Serbia
  The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed in
  1918; its name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. Occupation by Nazi
  Germany in 1941 was resisted by various paramilitary bands that
  fought each other as well as the invaders. The group headed by Josip
  TITO took full control of Yugoslavia upon German expulsion in 1945.
  Although Communist, his new government and its successors (he died
  in 1980) managed to steer their own path between the Warsaw Pact
  nations and the West for the next four and a half decades. In the
  early 1990s, post-TITO Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic
  lines: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were
  recognized as independent states in 1992. The remaining republics of
  Serbia and Montenegro declared a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
  (FRY) in April 1992 and, under President Slobodan MILOSEVIC, Serbia
  led various military intervention efforts to unite ethnic Serbs in
  neighboring republics into a "Greater Serbia." These actions led to
  Yugoslavia being ousted from the UN in 1992, but Serbia continued
  its campaign until signing the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In
  1998-99, massive expulsions by FRY forces and Serb paramilitaries of
  ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo provoked an international
  response, including the NATO bombing of Belgrade and the stationing
  of a NATO-led force (KFOR), in Kosovo. Federal elections in the fall
  of 2000, brought about the ouster of MILOSEVIC and installed
  Vojislav KOSTUNICA as president. The arrest of MILOSEVIC in 2001
  allowed for his subsequent transfer to the International Criminal
  Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague to be tried for
  crimes against humanity. In 2001, the country's suspension from the
  UN was lifted, and it was once more accepted into UN organizations
  under the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo has
  been governed by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
  (UNMIK) since June 1999, under the authority of UN Security Council
  Resolution 1244, pending a determination by the international
  community of its future status. In 2002, the Serbian and Montenegrin
  components of Yugoslavia began negotiations to forge a looser
  relationship. In February 2003 lawmakers restructured the country
  into a loose federation of two republics called Serbia and
  Montenegro. The Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro
  included a provision that allowed either republic to hold a
  referendum after three years that would allow for their independence
  from the state union. In the spring of 2006, Montenegro took
  advantage of the provision to undertake a successful independence
  vote enabling it to secede on 3 June. Two days later, Serbia
  declared that it was the successor state to the union of Serbia and
  Montenegro.

Seychelles
  A lengthy struggle between France and Great Britain for
  the islands ended in 1814, when they were ceded to the latter.
  Independence came in 1976. Socialist rule was brought to a close
  with a new constitution and free elections in 1993. The most recent
  presidential elections were held in 2001; President RENE, who had
  served since 1977, was re-elected. In April 2004 RENE stepped down
  and Vice President James MICHEL was sworn in as president.

Sierra Leone
  The government is slowly reestablishing its authority
  after the 1991 to 2002 civil war that resulted in tens of thousands
  of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (about
  one-third of the population). The last UN peacekeepers withdrew in
  December 2005, leaving full responsibility for security with
  domestic forces, but a new civilian UN office remains to support the
  government. Mounting tensions related to planned 2007 elections,
  deteriorating political and economic conditions in Guinea, and the
  tenuous security situation in neighboring Liberia may present
  challenges to continuing progress in Sierra Leone's stability.

Singapore
  Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819.
  It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years
  later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of
  the world's most prosperous countries with strong international
  trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of
  tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the
  leading nations of Western Europe.

Slovakia
  The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the close
  of World War I allowed the Slovaks to join the closely related
  Czechs to form Czechoslovakia. Following the chaos of World War II,
  Czechoslovakia became a Communist nation within Soviet-ruled Eastern
  Europe. Soviet influence collapsed in 1989 and Czechoslovakia once
  more became free. The Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate
  peacefully on 1 January 1993. Slovakia joined both NATO and the EU
  in the spring of 2004.

Slovenia
  The Slovene lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
  until the latter's dissolution at the end of World War I. In 1918,
  the Slovenes joined the Serbs and Croats in forming a new
  multinational state, which was named Yugoslavia in 1929. After World
  War II, Slovenia became a republic of the renewed Yugoslavia, which
  though Communist, distanced itself from Moscow's rule. Dissatisfied
  with the exercise of power by the majority Serbs, the Slovenes
  succeeded in establishing their independence in 1991 after a short
  10-day war. Historical ties to Western Europe, a strong economy, and
  a stable democracy have assisted in Slovenia's transformation to a
  modern state. Slovenia acceded to both NATO and the EU in the spring
  of 2004.

Solomon Islands
  The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon
  Islands in the 1890s. Some of the bitterest fighting of World War II
  occurred on this archipelago. Self-government was achieved in 1976
  and independence two years later. Ethnic violence, government
  malfeasance, and endemic crime have undermined stability and civil
  society. In June 2003, Prime Minister Sir Allen KEMAKEZA sought the
  assistance of Australia in reestablishing law and order; the
  following month, an Australian-led multinational force arrived to
  restore peace and disarm ethnic militias. The Regional Assistance
  Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has been very effective in
  restoring law and order and rebuilding government institutions.

Somalia
  Britain withdrew from British Somaliland in 1960 in order to
  allow its protectorate to join with Italian Somaliland and form the
  new nation of Somalia. In 1969, a coup headed by Mohamed SIAD Barre
  ushered in an authoritarian socialist rule that managed to impose a
  degree of stability in the country for a couple of decades. After
  the regime's overthrow early in 1991, Somalia descended into
  turmoil, factional fighting, and anarchy. In May of 1991, northern
  clans declared an independent Republic of Somaliland that now
  includes the administrative regions of Awdal, Woqooyi Galbeed,
  Togdheer, Sanaag, and Sool. Although not recognized by any
  government, this entity has maintained a stable existence, aided by
  the overwhelming dominance of a ruling clan and economic
  infrastructure left behind by British, Russian, and American
  military assistance programs. The regions of Bari, Nugaal, and
  northern Mudug comprise a neighboring self-declared autonomous state
  of Puntland, which has been self-governing since 1998, but does not
  aim at independence; it has also made strides toward reconstructing
  a legitimate, representative government, but has suffered some civil
  strife. Puntland disputes its border with Somaliland as it also
  claims portions of eastern Sool and Sanaag. Beginning in 1993, a
  two-year UN humanitarian effort (primarily in the south) was able to
  alleviate famine conditions, but when the UN withdrew in 1995,
  having suffered significant casualties, order still had not been
  restored. The mandate of the Transitional National Government (TNG),
  created in August 2000 in Arta, Djibouti, expired in August 2003. A
  two-year peace process, led by the Government of Kenya under the
  auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD),
  concluded in October 2004 with the election of Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed
  as Transitional Federal President of Somalia and the formation of a
  transitional government, known as the Somalia Transitional Federal
  Institutions (TFIs). The Somalia TFIs include a 275-member
  parliamentary body, known as the Transitional Federal Assembly
  (TFA), a transitional Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed GHEDI, and a
  90-member cabinet. The TFIs are currently divided between Mogadishu
  and Jowhar, but discussions to co-locate the TFIs in one city are
  ongoing. Suspicion of Somali links with global terrorism further
  complicates the picture.

South Africa
  After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in
  1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found
  their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold
  (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the
  subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British
  encroachments, but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902). The
  resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid
  - the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to
  apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  The islands, which have
  large bird and seal populations, lie approximately 1,000 km east of
  the Falkland Islands and have been under British administration
  since 1908 - except for a brief period in 1982 when Argentina
  occupied them. Grytviken, on South Georgia, was a 19th and early
  20th century whaling station. Famed explorer Ernest SHACKLETON
  stopped there in 1914 en route to his ill-fated attempt to cross
  Antarctica on foot. He returned some 20 months later with a few
  companions in a small boat and arranged a successful rescue for the
  rest of his crew, stranded off the Antarctic Peninsula. He died in
  1922 on a subsequent expedition and is buried in Grytviken. Today,
  the station houses scientists from the British Antarctic Survey.
  Recognizing the importance of preserving the marine stocks in
  adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993, extended the exclusive fishing
  zone from 12 nm to 200 nm around each island.

Southern Ocean
  A large body of recent oceanographic research has
  shown that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current
  that flows from west to east around Antarctica, plays a crucial role
  in global ocean circulation. The region where the cold waters of the
  ACC meet and mingle with the warmer waters of the north defines a
  distinct border - the Antarctic Convergence - which fluctuates with
  the seasons, but which encompasses a discrete body of water and a
  unique ecologic region. The Convergence concentrates nutrients,
  which promotes marine plant life, and which in turn allows for a
  greater abundance of animal life. In the spring of 2000, the
  International Hydrographic Organization decided to delimit the
  waters within the Convergence as a fifth world ocean - the Southern
  Ocean - by combining the southern portions of the Atlantic Ocean,
  Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The Southern Ocean extends from the
  coast of Antarctica north to 60 degrees south latitude, which
  coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit and which approximates the
  extent of the Antarctic Convergence. As such, the Southern Ocean is
  now the fourth largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific
  Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean, but larger than the Arctic
  Ocean). It should be noted that inclusion of the Southern Ocean does
  not imply recognition of this feature as one of the world's primary
  oceans by the US Government.

Spain
  Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries
  ultimately yielded command of the seas to England. Subsequent
  failure to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions caused
  the country to fall behind Britain, France, and Germany in economic
  and political power. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II,
  but suffered through a devastating civil war (1936-39). A peaceful
  transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco
  FRANCO in 1975, and rapid economic modernization (Spain joined the
  EU in 1986), have given Spain one of the most dynamic economies in
  Europe and made it a global champion of freedom. Continuing
  challenges include Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) terrorism and
  relatively high unemployment.

Spratly Islands
  The Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small
  islands or reefs. They are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and
  potentially by gas and oil deposits. They are claimed in their
  entirety by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, while portions are claimed
  by Malaysia and the Philippines. About 45 islands are occupied by
  relatively small numbers of military forces from China, Malaysia,
  the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Brunei has established a
  fishing zone that overlaps a southern reef, but has not made any
  formal claim.

Sri Lanka
  The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century
  B.C., probably from northern India. Buddhism was introduced
  beginning in about the mid-third century B.C., and a great
  civilization developed at the cities of Anuradhapura (kingdom from
  circa 200 B.C. to circa A.D. 1000) and Polonnaruwa (from about 1070
  to 1200). In the 14th century, a south Indian dynasty seized power
  in the north and established a Tamil kingdom. Occupied by the
  Portuguese in the 16th century and by the Dutch in the 17th century,
  the island was ceded to the British in 1796, became a crown colony
  in 1802, and was united under British rule by 1815. As Ceylon, it
  became independent in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in
  1972. Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists
  erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic
  conflict that continues to fester. After two decades of fighting,
  the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam formalized a
  cease-fire in February 2002, with Norway brokering peace
  negotiations.

Sudan
  Military regimes favoring Islamic-oriented governments have
  dominated national politics since independence from the UK in 1956.
  Sudan was embroiled in two prolonged civil wars during most of the
  remainder of the 20th century. These conflicts were rooted in
  northern economic, political, and social domination of largely
  non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first civil war ended in
  1972, but broke out again in 1983. The second war and famine-related
  effects resulted in more than 4 million people displaced and,
  according to rebel estimates, more than 2 million deaths over a
  period of two decades. Peace talks gained momentum in 2002-04 with
  the signing of several accords; a final Naivasha peace treaty of
  January 2005 granted the southern rebels autonomy for six years,
  after which a referendum for independence is scheduled to be held. A
  separate conflict that broke out in the western region of Darfur in
  2003 has resulted in at least 200,000 deaths and nearly 2 million
  displaced; as of late 2005, peacekeeping troops were struggling to
  stabilize the situation. Sudan also has faced large refugee influxes
  from neighboring countries, primarily Ethiopia and Chad, and armed
  conflict, poor transport infrastructure, and lack of government
  support have chronically obstructed the provision of humanitarian
  assistance to affected populations.

Suriname
  First explored by the Spaniards in the 16th century and
  then settled by the English in the mid-17th century, Suriname became
  a Dutch colony in 1667. With the abolition of slavery in 1863,
  workers were brought in from India and Java. Independence from the
  Netherlands was granted in 1975. Five years later the civilian
  government was replaced by a military regime that soon declared a
  socialist republic. It continued to exert control through a
  succession of nominally civilian administrations until 1987, when
  international pressure finally forced a democratic election. In
  1990, the military overthrew the civilian leadership, but a
  democratically elected government - a four-party New Front coalition
  - returned to power in 1991 and has ruled since.

Svalbard
  First discovered by the Norwegians in the 12th century, the
  islands served as an international whaling base during the 17th and
  18th centuries. Norway's sovereignty was recognized in 1920; five
  years later it officially took over the territory.

Swaziland
  Autonomy for the Swazis of southern Africa was guaranteed
  by the British in the late 19th century; independence was granted in
  1968. Student and labor unrest during the 1990s pressured the
  monarchy (one of the oldest on the continent) to grudgingly allow
  political reform and greater democracy. Swaziland recently surpassed
  Botswana as the country with the world's highest known rates of
  HIV/AIDS infection.

Sweden
  A military power during the 17th century, Sweden has not
  participated in any war in almost two centuries. An armed neutrality
  was preserved in both World Wars. Sweden's long-successful economic
  formula of a capitalist system interlarded with substantial welfare
  elements was challenged in the 1990s by high unemployment and in
  2000-02 by the global economic downturn, but fiscal discipline over
  the past several years has allowed the country to weather economic
  vagaries. Indecision over the country's role in the political and
  economic integration of Europe delayed Sweden's entry into the EU
  until 1995, and waived the introduction of the euro in 1999.

Switzerland
  The Swiss Confederation was founded in 1291 as a
  defensive alliance among three cantons. In succeeding years, other
  localities joined the original three. The Swiss Confederation
  secured its independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1499.
  Switzerland's sovereignty and neutrality have long been honored by
  the major European powers, and the country was not involved in
  either of the two World Wars. The political and economic integration
  of Europe over the past half century, as well as Switzerland's role
  in many UN and international organizations, has strengthened
  Switzerland's ties with its neighbors. However, the country did not
  officially become a UN member until 2002. Switzerland remains active
  in many UN and international organizations, but retains a strong
  commitment to neutrality.

Syria
  Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War
  I, France administered Syria until its independence in 1946. The
  country lacked political stability, however, and experienced a
  series of military coups during its first decades. Syria united with
  Egypt in February 1958 to form the United Arab Republic, but in
  September 1961 the two entities separated and the Syrian Arab
  Republic was reestablished. In November 1970, Hafiz al-ASAD, a
  member of the Socialist Ba'th Party and the minority Alawite sect,
  seized power in a bloodless coup and brought political stability to
  the country. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan
  Heights to Israel, and over the past decade Syria and Israel have
  held occasional peace talks over its return. Following the death of
  President al-ASAD in July 2000, his son, Bashar al-ASAD, was
  approved as president by popular referendum. Syrian troops -
  stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in an ostensible peacekeeping role -
  were withdrawn in April of 2005.

Taiwan
  In 1895, military defeat forced China to cede Taiwan to
  Japan. Taiwan reverted to Chinese control after World War II.
  Following the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949, 2 million
  Nationalists fled to Taiwan and established a government using the
  1946 constitution drawn up for all of China. Over the next five
  decades, the ruling authorities gradually democratized and
  incorporated the native population within the governing structure.
  In 2000, Taiwan underwent its first peaceful transfer of power from
  the Nationalist to the Democratic Progressive Party. Throughout this
  period, the island prospered and became one of East Asia's economic
  "Tigers." The dominant political issues continue to be the
  relationship between Taiwan and China - specifically the question of
  eventual unification - as well as domestic political and economic
  reform.

Tajikistan
  The Tajik people came under Russian rule in the 1860s and
  1870s, but Russia's hold on Central Asia weakened following the
  Revolution of 1917. Bolshevik control of the area was fiercely
  contested and not fully reestablished until 1925. Tajikistan became
  independent in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and
  it is now in the process of strengthening its democracy and
  transitioning to a free market economy after its 1992-1997 civil
  war. There have been no major security incidents in recent years,
  although the country remains the poorest in the former Soviet
  sphere. Attention by the international community in the wake of the
  war in Afghanistan has brought increased economic development
  assistance, which could create jobs and increase stability in the
  long term. Tajikistan is in the early stages of seeking World Trade
  Organization membership and has joined NATO's Partnership for Peace.

Tanzania
  Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the
  early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of
  Tanzania in 1964. One-party rule came to an end in 1995 with the
  first democratic elections held in the country since the 1970s.
  Zanzibar's semi-autonomous status and popular opposition have led to
  two contentious elections since 1995, which the ruling party won
  despite international observers' claims of voting irregularities.

Thailand
  A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th
  century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast
  Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A
  bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy. In
  alliance with Japan during World War II, Thailand became a US ally
  following the conflict. Thailand is currently facing armed violence
  in its three Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.

Togo
  French Togoland became Togo in 1960. Gen. Gnassingbe EYADEMA,
  installed as military ruler in 1967, continued to rule well into the
  21st century. Despite the facade of multiparty elections instituted
  in the early 1990s, the government continued to be dominated by
  President EYADEMA, whose Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party
  has maintained power almost continually since 1967. Togo has come
  under fire from international organizations for human rights abuses
  and is plagued by political unrest. While most bilateral and
  multilateral aid to Togo remains frozen, the EU initiated a partial
  resumption of cooperation and development aid to Togo in late 2004
  based upon commitments by Togo to expand opportunities for political
  opposition and liberalize portions of the economy. Upon his death in
  February 2005, President EYADEMA was succeeded by his son Faure
  GNASSINGBE. The succession, supported by the military and in
  contravention of the nation's constitution, was challenged by
  popular protest and a threat of sanctions from regional leaders.
  GNASSINGBE succumbed to pressure and in April 2005 held elections
  that legitimized his succession.

Tokelau
  Originally settled by Polynesian emigrants from surrounding
  island groups, the Tokelau Islands were made a British protectorate
  in 1889. They were transferred to New Zealand administration in 1925.

Tonga
  Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost
  its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly
  Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845. Tonga became
  a constitutional monarchy in 1875 and a British protectorate in
  1900; it withdrew from the protectorate and joined the Commonwealth
  of Nations in 1970. Tonga remains the only monarchy in the Pacific.

Trinidad and Tobago
  First colonized by the Spanish, the islands came
  under British control in the early 19th century. The islands' sugar
  industry was hurt by the emancipation of the slaves in 1834.
  Manpower was replaced with the importation of contract laborers from
  India between 1845 and 1917, which boosted sugar production as well
  as the cocoa industry. The discovery of oil on Trinidad in 1910
  added another important export. Independence was attained in 1962.
  The country is one of the most prosperous in the Caribbean thanks
  largely to petroleum and natural gas production and processing.
  Tourism, mostly in Tobago, is targeted for expansion and is growing.

Tromelin Island
  First explored by the French in 1776, the island
  came under the jurisdiction of Reunion in 1814. At present, it
  serves as a sea turtle sanctuary and is the site of an important
  meteorological station.

Tunisia
  Rivalry between French and Italian interests in Tunisia
  culminated in a French invasion in 1881 and the creation of a
  protectorate. Agitation for independence in the decades following
  World War I was finally successful in getting the French to
  recognize Tunisia as an independent state in 1956. The country's
  first president, Habib BOURGUIBA, established a strict one-party
  state. He dominated the country for 31 years, repressing Islamic
  fundamentalism and establishing rights for women unmatched by any
  other Arab nation. Tunisia has long taken a moderate, non-aligned
  stance in its foreign relations. Domestically, it has sought to
  defuse rising pressure for a more open political society.

Turkey
  Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants
  of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who
  was later honored with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks."
  Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging
  social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party
  rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950
  election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful
  transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have
  multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of
  instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980),
  which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political
  power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the
  ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then
  Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus
  in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since
  acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,"
  which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984
  by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's
  Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the
  Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives.
  After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents
  largely withdrew from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK
  announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK
  increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a
  member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the
  European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many
  reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to
  begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

Turkmenistan
  Annexed by Russia between 1865 and 1885, Turkmenistan
  became a Soviet republic in 1924. It achieved its independence upon
  the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. President Saparmurat NIYAZOV
  retains absolute control over the country and opposition is not
  tolerated. Extensive hydrocarbon/natural gas reserves could prove a
  boon to this underdeveloped country if extraction and delivery
  projects were to be expanded. The Turkmenistan Government is
  actively seeking to develop alternative petroleum transportation
  routes in order to break Russia's pipeline monopoly.

Turks and Caicos Islands
  The islands were part of the UK's Jamaican
  colony until 1962, when they assumed the status of a separate crown
  colony upon Jamaica's independence. The governor of The Bahamas
  oversaw affairs from 1965 to 1973. With Bahamian independence, the
  islands received a separate governor in 1973. Although independence
  was agreed upon for 1982, the policy was reversed and the islands
  remain a British overseas territory.

Tuvalu
  In 1974, ethnic differences within the British colony of the
  Gilbert and Ellice Islands caused the Polynesians of the Ellice
  Islands to vote for separation from the Micronesians of the Gilbert
  Islands. The following year, the Ellice Islands became the separate
  British colony of Tuvalu. Independence was granted in 1978. In 2000,
  Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv"
  for $50 million in royalties over a 12-year period.

Uganda
  The colonial boundaries created by Britain to delimit Uganda
  grouped together a wide range of ethnic groups with different
  political systems and cultures. These differences prevented the
  establishment of a working political community after independence
  was achieved in 1962. The dictatorial regime of Idi AMIN (1971-79)
  was responsible for the deaths of some 300,000 opponents; guerrilla
  war and human rights abuses under Milton OBOTE (1980-85) claimed at
  least another 100,000 lives. The rule of Yoweri MUSEVENI since 1986
  has brought relative stability and economic growth to Uganda. During
  the 1990s, the government promulgated non-party presidential and
  legislative elections.

Ukraine
  Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state,
  Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest
  and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels
  and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand
  Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian
  Commonwealth. The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid
  the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism through subsequent
  centuries. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was
  established during the mid-17th century after an uprising against
  the Poles. Despite continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate
  managed to remain autonomous for well over 100 years. During the
  latter part of the 18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic
  territory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Following the collapse
  of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine was able to bring about a
  short-lived period of independence (1917-20), but was reconquered
  and forced to endure a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two
  artificial famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million
  died. In World War II, German and Soviet armies were responsible for
  some 7 to 8 million more deaths. Although final independence for
  Ukraine was achieved in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR,
  democracy remained elusive as the legacy of state control and
  endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform,
  privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass protest "Orange
  Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the authorities to
  overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new
  internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist
  slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the
  YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a
  comeback in parliamentary elections and become prime minister in
  August of 2006.

United Arab Emirates
  The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf coast
  granted the UK control of their defense and foreign affairs in 19th
  century treaties. In 1971, six of these states - Abu Zaby, 'Ajman,
  Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, and Umm al Qaywayn - merged to
  form the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were joined in 1972 by
  Ra's al Khaymah. The UAE's per capita GDP is on par with those of
  leading West European nations. Its generosity with oil revenues and
  its moderate foreign policy stance have allowed the UAE to play a
  vital role in the affairs of the region.

United Kingdom
  As the dominant industrial and maritime power of the
  19th century, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played
  a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in
  advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire
  stretched over one-fourth of the earth's surface. The first half of
  the 20th century saw the UK's strength seriously depleted in two
  World Wars and the Irish republic withdraw from the union. The
  second half witnessed the dismantling of the Empire and the UK
  rebuilding itself into a modern and prosperous European nation. As
  one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a founding
  member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global
  approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of
  its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it
  chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time
  being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK.
  The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the
  Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter
  is suspended due to wrangling over the peace process.

United States
  Britain's American colonies broke with the mother
  country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United
  States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the
  19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13
  as the nation expanded across the North American continent and
  acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic
  experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65) and
  the Great Depression of the 1930s. Buoyed by victories in World Wars
  I and II and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the
  world's most powerful nation state. The economy is marked by steady
  growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rapid advances in
  technology.

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  The following US
  Pacific island territories constitute the Pacific Remote Islands
  National Wildlife Refuge Complex and as such are managed by the Fish
  and Wildlife Service of the US Department of Interior. These remote
  refuges are the most widespread collection of marine- and
  terrestrial-life protected areas on the planet under a single
  country's jurisdiction. They protect many endemic species including
  corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, water birds, land
  birds, insects, and vegetation not found elsewhere.
  Baker Island: The US took possession of the island in 1857, and its
  guano deposits were mined by US and British companies during the
  second half of the 19th century. In 1935, a short-lived attempt at
  colonization began on this island but was disrupted by World War II
  and thereafter abandoned. The island was established as a National
  Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Howland Island: Discovered by the US early in the 19th century, the
  island was officially claimed by the US in 1857. Both US and British
  companies mined for guano until about 1890. In 1935, a short-lived
  attempt at colonization began on this island, similar to the effort
  on nearby Baker Island, but was disrupted by World War II and
  thereafter abandoned. The famed American aviatrix Amelia EARHART
  disappeared while seeking out Howland Island as a refueling stop
  during her 1937 round-the-world flight; Earhart Light, a day beacon
  near the middle of the west coast, was named in her memory. The
  island was established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Jarvis Island: First discovered by the British in 1821, the
  uninhabited island was annexed by the US in 1858, but abandoned in
  1879 after tons of guano had been removed. The UK annexed the island
  in 1889, but never carried out plans for further exploitation. The
  US occupied and reclaimed the island in 1935 until it was abandoned
  in 1942 during World War II. The island was established as a
  National Wildlife Refuge in 1974.
  Johnston Atoll: Both the US and the Kingdom of Hawaii annexed
  Johnston Atoll in 1858, but it was the US that mined the guano
  deposits until the late 1880s. Johnston and Sand Islands were
  designated wildlife refuges in 1926. The US Navy took over the atoll
  in 1934, and subsequently the US Air Force assumed control in 1948.
  The site was used for high-altitude nuclear tests in the 1950s and
  1960s, and until late in 2000 the atoll was maintained as a storage
  and disposal site for chemical weapons. Munitions destruction is now
  complete. Cleanup and closure of the facility was completed by May
  2005. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Air Force are
  currently discussing future management options; in the interim,
  Johnston Atoll and the three-mile Naval Defensive Sea around it
  remain under the jurisdiction and administrative control of the US
  Air Force.
  Kingman Reef: The US annexed the reef in 1922. Its sheltered lagoon
  served as a way station for flying boats on Hawaii-to-American Samoa
  flights during the late 1930s. There are no terrestrial plants on
  the reef, which is frequently awash, but it does support abundant
  and diverse marine fauna and flora. In 2001, the waters surrounding
  the reef out to 12 nm were designated a US National Wildlife Refuge.
  Midway Islands: The US took formal possession of the islands in
  1867. The laying of the trans-Pacific cable, which passed through
  the islands, brought the first residents in 1903. Between 1935 and
  1947, Midway was used as a refueling stop for trans-Pacific flights.
  The US naval victory over a Japanese fleet off Midway in 1942 was
  one of the turning points of World War II. The islands continued to
  serve as a naval station until closed in 1993. Today the islands are
  a National Wildlife Refuge and are the site of the world's largest
  Laysan albatross colony.
  Palmyra Atoll: The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the atoll in 1862, and
  the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the
  archipelago in 1898. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not
  include Palmyra Atoll, which is now partly privately owned by the
  Nature Conservancy with the rest owned by the Federal government and
  managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These organizations are
  managing the atoll as a wildlife refuge. The lagoons and surrounding
  waters within the 12 nm US territorial seas were transferred to the
  US Fish and Wildlife Service and designated as a National Wildlife
  Refuge in January 2001.

Uruguay
  Montevideo, founded by the Spanish in 1726 as a military
  stronghold, soon took advantage of its natural harbor to become an
  important commercial center. Annexed by Brazil as a separate
  province in 1821, Uruguay declared its independence four years later
  and secured its freedom in 1828 after a three-year struggle. The
  administrations of President Jose BATLLE in the early 20th century
  established widespread political, social, and economic reforms. A
  violent Marxist urban guerrilla movement named the Tupamaros,
  launched in the late 1960s, led Uruguay's president to agree to
  military control of his administration in 1973. By yearend, the
  rebels had been crushed, but the military continued to expand its
  hold throughout the government. Civilian rule was not restored until
  1985. In 2004, the left-of-center EP-FA Coalition won national
  elections that effectively ended 170 years of political control
  previously held by the Colorado and Blanco parties. Uruguay's
  political and labor conditions are among the freest on the continent.

Uzbekistan
  Russia conquered Uzbekistan in the late 19th century.
  Stiff resistance to the Red Army after World War I was eventually
  suppressed and a socialist republic set up in 1924. During the
  Soviet era, intensive production of "white gold" (cotton) and grain
  led to overuse of agrochemicals and the depletion of water supplies,
  which have left the land poisoned and the Aral Sea and certain
  rivers half dry. Independent since 1991, the country seeks to
  gradually lessen its dependence on agriculture while developing its
  mineral and petroleum reserves. Current concerns include terrorism
  by Islamic militants, economic stagnation, and the curtailment of
  human rights and democratization.

Vanuatu
  Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct
  language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceeding
  European exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern
  accounts for the complex linguistic diversity found on the
  archipelago to this day. The British and French, who settled the New
  Hebrides in the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French
  Condominium, which administered the islands until independence in
  1980, when the new name of Vanuatu was adopted.

Venezuela
  Venezuela was one of three countries that emerged from the
  collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and New
  Granada, which became Colombia). For most of the first half of the
  20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military
  strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social
  reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since
  1959. Hugo CHAVEZ, president since 1999, has promoted a
  controversial policy of "democratic socialism," which purports to
  alleviate social ills while at the same time attacking globalization
  and undermining regional stability. Current concerns include: a
  weakening of democratic institutions, political polarization, a
  politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian
  border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the
  petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible
  mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and
  indigenous peoples.

Vietnam
  The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was
  completed by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887.
  Vietnam declared independence after World War II, but France
  continued to rule until its 1954 defeat by Communist forces under Ho
  Chi MINH. Under the Geneva Accords of 1954, Vietnam was divided into
  the Communist North and anti-Communist South. US economic and
  military aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt
  to bolster the government, but US armed forces were withdrawn
  following a cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, North
  Vietnamese forces overran the South reuniting the country under
  Communist rule. Despite the return of peace, for over a decade the
  country experienced little economic growth because of conservative
  leadership policies. However, since the enactment of Vietnam's "doi
  moi" (renovation) policy in 1986, Vietnamese authorities have
  committed to increased economic liberalization and enacted
  structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce
  more competitive, export-driven industries. The country continues to
  experience protests from various groups - such as the Protestant
  Montagnard ethnic minority population of the Central Highlands and
  the Hoa Hao Buddhists in southern Vietnam over religious
  persecution. Montagnard grievances also include the loss of land to
  Vietnamese settlers.

Virgin Islands
  During the 17th century, the archipelago was divided
  into two territorial units, one English and the other Danish.
  Sugarcane, produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy
  during the 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1917, the US purchased
  the Danish portion, which had been in economic decline since the
  abolition of slavery in 1848.

Wake Island
  The US annexed Wake Island in 1899 for a cable station.
  An important air and naval base was constructed in 1940-41. In
  December 1941, the island was captured by the Japanese and held
  until the end of World War II. In subsequent years, Wake was
  developed as a stopover and refueling site for military and
  commercial aircraft transiting the Pacific. Since 1974, the island's
  airstrip has been used by the US military, as well as for emergency
  landings. All operations on the island were suspended and all
  personnel evacuated in August 2006 with the approach of super
  typhoon Loke (category 5), which struck the island with sustained
  winds of 250 kph and a 6 m storm surge inflicting major damage. A US
  Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in
  September and restored limited function to the airfield and
  facilities. The future status of activities on the island will be
  determined upon completion of the survey and assessment.

Wallis and Futuna
  The Futuna island group was discovered by the
  Dutch in 1616 and Wallis by the British in 1767, but it was the
  French who declared a protectorate over the islands in 1842. In
  1959, the inhabitants of the islands voted to become a French
  overseas territory.

West Bank
  The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim
  Self-Government Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13
  September 1993, provided for a transitional period not exceeding
  five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip
  and the West Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain
  powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as
  part of the interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and
  Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza
  Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994
  Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in
  additional areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28
  September 1995 Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997
  Protocol Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23
  October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm
  el-Sheikh Agreement. The DOP provided that Israel would retain
  responsibility during the transitional period for external and
  internal security and for public order of settlements and Israeli
  citizens. Direct negotiations to determine the permanent status of
  Gaza and West Bank began in September 1999 after a three-year
  hiatus, but were derailed by a second intifada that broke out in
  September 2000. In April 2003 the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia)
  presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005
  based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states,
  Israel and a democratic Palestine. The proposed date for a permanent
  status agreement has been postponed indefinitely due to violence and
  accusations that both sides have not followed through on their
  commitments. Longtime Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT died in
  November 2004 and Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA President in January
  2005, bringing hope of a turning point in the conflict. Israel and
  the PA agreed in February 2005 to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments,
  focused on security issues, in an effort to move the peace process
  forward. Progress has been slow because of different interpretations
  of the verbal agreement by the two sides.

Western Sahara
  Morocco virtually annexed the northern two-thirds of
  Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976, and the rest of
  the territory in 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal. A
  guerrilla war with the Polisario Front contesting Rabat's
  sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-brokered cease-fire; a UN-organized
  referendum on final status has been repeatedly postponed.

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

Yemen
  North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
  The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern
  port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became
  South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a
  Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of
  Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two decades of
  hostility between the states. The two countries were formally
  unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist
  movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and
  Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

Zambia
  The territory of Northern Rhodesia was administered by the
  [British] South Africa Company from 1891 until it was taken over by
  the UK in 1923. During the 1920s and 1930s, advances in mining
  spurred development and immigration. The name was changed to Zambia
  upon independence in 1964. In the 1980s and 1990s, declining copper
  prices and a prolonged drought hurt the economy. Elections in 1991
  brought an end to one-party rule, but the subsequent vote in 1996
  saw blatant harassment of opposition parties. The election in 2001
  was marked by administrative problems with three parties filing a
  legal petition challenging the election of ruling party candidate
  Levy MWANAWASA. The new president launched an anti-corruption
  campaign in 2002, which resulted in the prosecution of former
  President Frederick CHILUBA and some officials of his administration.

Zimbabwe
  The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South
  Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that
  favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally
  declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and
  demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority
  in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla
  uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as
  Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister,
  has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has
  dominated the country's political system since independence. His
  chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an
  exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in
  widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international
  condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure
  his reelection. Opposition and labor strikes in 2003 were
  unsuccessful in pressuring MUGABE to retire early; security forces
  continued their brutal repression of regime opponents. The ruling
  ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds
  majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to
  amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had
  been abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on
  Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization
  program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or
  businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition,
  according to UN estimates.

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2030  Airports - with paved runways


Afghanistan
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Albania
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2006)

Algeria
  total: 52
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

American Samoa
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Angola
  total: 31
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Anguilla
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Argentina
  total: 154
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 26
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 65
  914 to 1,523 m: 50
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Armenia
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Aruba
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Australia
  total: 311
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 133
  914 to 1,523 m: 143
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Austria
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 15 (2006)

Azerbaijan
  total: 27
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Bahamas, The
  total: 29
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Bahrain
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Bangladesh
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Barbados
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Belarus
  total: 41
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Belgium
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Belize
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Benin
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Bermuda
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Bhutan
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Bolivia
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Botswana
  total: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Brazil
  total: 714
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 24
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 164
  914 to 1,523 m: 464
  under 914 m: 54 (2006)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

British Virgin Islands
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Brunei
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Bulgaria
  total: 132
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 96 (2006)

Burkina Faso
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Burma
  total: 21
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Burundi
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Cambodia
  total: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Cameroon
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Canada
  total: 509
  over 3,047 m: 18
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 151
  914 to 1,523 m: 248
  under 914 m: 77 (2006)

Cape Verde
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Cayman Islands
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Central African Republic
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Chad
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Chile
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

China
  total: 403
  over 3,047 m: 56
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 127
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 138
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 60 (2006)

Christmas Island
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Colombia
  total: 101
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 38
  914 to 1,523 m: 40
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Comoros
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Cook Islands
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Costa Rica
  total: 32
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 19
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 (2006)

Croatia
  total: 23
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Cuba
  total: 78
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 37 (2006)

Cyprus
  total: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Czech Republic
  total: 46
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Denmark
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Djibouti
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Dominica
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Dominican Republic
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

East Timor
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Ecuador
  total: 98
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Egypt
  total: 72
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 38
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

El Salvador
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Eritrea
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 (2006)

Estonia
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Ethiopia
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

European Union
  1,863 (2006)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Faroe Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Fiji
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Finland
  total: 76
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 14 (2006)

France
  total: 292
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 96
  914 to 1,523 m: 81
  under 914 m: 74 (2006)

French Guiana
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

French Polynesia
  total: 39
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Gabon
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Gambia, The
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Gaza Strip
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Georgia
  total: 19
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Germany
  total: 332
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 54
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 58
  914 to 1,523 m: 72
  under 914 m: 135 (2006)

Ghana
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Gibraltar
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Greece
  total: 66
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 17
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Greenland
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Grenada
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Guadeloupe
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Guam
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Guatemala
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Guernsey
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Guinea
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 (2006)

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Guyana
  total: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Haiti
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Honduras
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Hong Kong
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Hungary
  total: 20
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Iceland
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

India
  total: 243
  over 3,047 m: 17
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 51
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 73
  914 to 1,523 m: 81
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Indonesia
  total: 159
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 49
  914 to 1,523 m: 49
  under 914 m: 42 (2006)

Iran
  total: 129
  over 3,047 m: 41
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 26
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Iraq
  total: 77
  over 3,047 m: 20
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 37
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Ireland
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Isle of Man
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Israel
  total: 30
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

Italy
  total: 98
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 30
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 14 (2006)

Jamaica
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Japan
  total: 145
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 41
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 39
  914 to 1,523 m: 28
  under 914 m: 30 (2006)

Jersey
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Johnston Atoll
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Jordan
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 7
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Kazakhstan
  total: 67
  over 3,047 m: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 27
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 17
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Kenya
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Kiribati
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3 (2006)

Korea, North
  total: 36
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Korea, South
  total: 69
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 21
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Kuwait
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 18
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Laos
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Latvia
  total: 24
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Lebanon
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Lesotho
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Liberia
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Libya
  total: 60
  over 3,047 m: 23
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Lithuania
  total: 34
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Luxembourg
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Macau
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Macedonia
  total: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Madagascar
  total: 29
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Malawi
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4 (2006)

Malaysia
  total: 37
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Maldives
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Mali
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Malta
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Marshall Islands
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Martinique
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Mauritania
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 (2006)

Mauritius
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Mayotte
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Mexico
  total: 228
  over 3,047 m: 12
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 82
  914 to 1,523 m: 77
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Midway Islands
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Moldova
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Mongolia
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Montenegro
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Montserrat
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Morocco
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Mozambique
  total: 22
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Namibia
  total: 21
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Nauru
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Nepal
  total: 10
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Netherlands
  total: 20
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

New Caledonia
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

New Zealand
  total: 45
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 27
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Nicaragua
  total: 11
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Niger
  total: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Nigeria
  total: 36
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Niue
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Norfolk Island
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Norway
  total: 67
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 12
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Oman
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Pakistan
  total: 91
  over 3,047 m: 14
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 21
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 33
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Palau
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Panama
  total: 53
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 28 (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 21
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Paracel Islands
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Paraguay
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4 (2006)

Peru
  total: 54
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 20
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Philippines
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 36
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Poland
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 29
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 40
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Portugal
  total: 43
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Puerto Rico
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Qatar
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Reunion
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Romania
  total: 25
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12 (2006)

Russia
  total: 616
  over 3,047 m: 51
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 198
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 130
  914 to 1,523 m: 100
  under 914 m: 137 (2006)

Rwanda
  total: 4
  over 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Saint Helena
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Saint Lucia
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Samoa
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 32
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Senegal
  total: 9
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Serbia
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Seychelles
  total: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Sierra Leone
  total: 1
  over 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Singapore
  total: 9
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Slovakia
  total: 18
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Slovenia
  total: 6
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Solomon Islands
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Somalia
  total: 7
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

South Africa
  total: 146
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 51
  914 to 1,523 m: 67
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Spain
  total: 96
  over 3,047 m: 16
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 20
  914 to 1,523 m: 24
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Spratly Islands
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Sri Lanka
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 7 (2006)

Sudan
  total: 15
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4 (2006)

Suriname
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Svalbard
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Swaziland
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Sweden
  total: 155
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 80
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 36 (2006)

Switzerland
  total: 42
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Syria
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Taiwan
  total: 38
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 9
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Tajikistan
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Tanzania
  total: 11
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Thailand
  total: 66
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Togo
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2 (2006)

Tonga
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 3
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Tunisia
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Turkey
  total: 89
  over 3,047 m: 15
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Turkmenistan
  total: 22
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Uganda
  total: 5
  over 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Ukraine
  total: 193
  over 3,047 m: 13
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 55
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 27
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 93 (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 23
  over 3,047 m: 10
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

United Kingdom
  total: 334
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 149
  914 to 1,523 m: 86
  under 914 m: 58 (2006)

United States
  total: 5,119
  over 3,047 m: 189
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 221
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1,426
  914 to 1,523 m: 2,337
  under 914 m: 946 (2006)

Uruguay
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Uzbekistan
  total: 34
  over 3,047 m: 6
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Vanuatu
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Venezuela
  total: 129
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 34
  914 to 1,523 m: 60
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Vietnam
  total: 26
  over 3,047 m: 8
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Virgin Islands
  total: 2
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Wake Island
  total: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 (2006)

Wallis and Futuna
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

West Bank
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Western Sahara
  total: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2006)

Yemen
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Zambia
  total: 10
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Zimbabwe
  total: 17
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 8 (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2031  Airports - with unpaved runways


Afghanistan
  total: 35
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Albania
  total: 8
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Algeria
  total: 90
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 39
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

American Samoa
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Angola
  total: 213
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 30
  914 to 1,523 m: 95
  under 914 m: 81 (2006)

Anguilla
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Antarctica
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 4
  length unknown or variable: 4 (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Argentina
  total: 1,227
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 49
  914 to 1,523 m: 587
  under 914 m: 587 (2006)

Armenia
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Australia
  total: 144
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 111
  under 914 m: 15 (2006)

Austria
  total: 30
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Azerbaijan
  total: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Bahamas, The
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Bangladesh
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Belarus
  total: 45
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Belgium
  total: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Belize
  total: 38
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Benin
  total: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Bhutan
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Bolivia
  total: 1,068
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 60
  914 to 1,523 m: 207
  under 914 m: 797 (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 20
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Botswana
  total: 75
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 55
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Brazil
  total: 3,562
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 81
  914 to 1,523 m: 1,634
  under 914 m: 1,847 (2006)

British Virgin Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Brunei
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Bulgaria
  total: 85
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 72 (2006)

Burkina Faso
  total: 32
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Burma
  total: 64
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 32 (2006)

Burundi
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Cambodia
  total: 14
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Cameroon
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 20
  under 914 m: 9 (2006)

Canada
  total: 828
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 66
  914 to 1,523 m: 355
  under 914 m: 407 (2006)

Cayman Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Central African Republic
  total: 47
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Chad
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 21
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Chile
  total: 290
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 58
  under 914 m: 216 (2006)

China
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 39 (2006)

Colombia
  total: 883
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 35
  914 to 1,523 m: 275
  under 914 m: 572 (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 209
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 94
  under 914 m: 97 (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Cook Islands
  total: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Costa Rica
  total: 125
  914 to 1,523 m: 24
  under 914 m: 101 (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 28
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Croatia
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 37 (2006)

Cuba
  total: 92
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 62 (2006)

Cyprus
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Czech Republic
  total: 75
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 25
  under 914 m: 49 (2006)

Denmark
  total: 64
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 61 (2006)

Djibouti
  total: 10
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Dominican Republic
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

East Timor
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Ecuador
  total: 261
  914 to 1,523 m: 33
  under 914 m: 228 (2006)

Egypt
  total: 16
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

El Salvador
  total: 71
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 56 (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Eritrea
  total: 13
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Estonia
  total: 12
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

Ethiopia
  total: 70
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 13
  914 to 1,523 m: 28
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Europa Island
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

European Union
  1,252 (2006)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Fiji
  total: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Finland
  total: 72
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 67 (2006)

France
  total: 185
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 73
  under 914 m: 108 (2006)

French Guiana
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 5 (2006)

French Polynesia
  total: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Gabon
  total: 45
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Gaza Strip
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Georgia
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Germany
  total: 222
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 33
  under 914 m: 185 (2006)

Ghana
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Glorioso Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Greece
  total: 16
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 13 (2006)

Greenland
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Guadeloupe
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Guam
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Guatemala
  total: 439
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 111
  under 914 m: 319 (2006)

Guinea
  total: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 25
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Guyana
  total: 81
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 65 (2006)

Haiti
  total: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Honduras
  total: 105
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 19
  under 914 m: 84 (2006)

Hungary
  total: 26
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Iceland
  total: 93
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 61 (2006)

India
  total: 98
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 42
  under 914 m: 48 (2006)

Indonesia
  total: 503
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 26
  under 914 m: 471 (2006)

Iran
  total: 192
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 8
  914 to 1,523 m: 140
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Iraq
  total: 33
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Ireland
  total: 21
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Israel
  total: 23
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Italy
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 14
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Jamaica
  total: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Jan Mayen
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Japan
  total: 30
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Jordan
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Juan de Nova Island
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Kazakhstan
  total: 83
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Kenya
  total: 210
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 115
  under 914 m: 84 (2006)

Kiribati
  total: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Korea, North
  total: 41
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 20
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Korea, South
  total: 38
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Kuwait
  total: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 16 (2006)

Laos
  total: 35
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Latvia
  total: 22
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 19 (2006)

Lebanon
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2 (2006)

Lesotho
  total: 25
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Liberia
  total: 51
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 38 (2006)

Libya
  total: 81
  over 3,047 m: 5
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 15
  914 to 1,523 m: 41
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Lithuania
  total: 57
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Luxembourg
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Macedonia
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Madagascar
  total: 87
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 42
  under 914 m: 43 (2006)

Malawi
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Malaysia
  total: 80
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 72 (2006)

Maldives
  total: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2006)

Mali
  total: 20
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Marshall Islands
  total: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Martinique
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Mauritania
  total: 17
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Mauritius
  total: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Mexico
  total: 1,611
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 68
  914 to 1,523 m: 460
  under 914 m: 1,081 (2006)

Midway Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Moldova
  total: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Mongolia
  total: 32
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 24
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Montenegro
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Morocco
  total: 34
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 11 (2006)

Mozambique
  total: 136
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 34
  under 914 m: 87 (2006)

Namibia
  total: 116
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 22
  914 to 1,523 m: 72
  under 914 m: 20 (2006)

Nepal
  total: 38
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 29 (2006)

Netherlands
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

New Caledonia
  total: 14
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

New Zealand
  total: 73
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 31
  under 914 m: 40 (2006)

Nicaragua
  total: 165
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 141 (2006)

Niger
  total: 19
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Nigeria
  total: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Norway
  total: 32
  914 to 1,523 m: 6
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Oman
  total: 131
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 52
  914 to 1,523 m: 35
  under 914 m: 35 (2006)

Pakistan
  total: 48
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 12
  914 to 1,523 m: 12
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Palau
  total: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2 (2006)

Palmyra Atoll
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Panama
  total: 64
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 53 (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 561
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 62
  under 914 m: 488 (2006)

Paraguay
  total: 869
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 325
  under 914 m: 518 (2006)

Peru
  total: 214
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 26
  914 to 1,523 m: 63
  under 914 m: 124 (2006)

Philippines
  total: 173
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 69
  under 914 m: 99 (2006)

Poland
  total: 39
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 13
  under 914 m: 21 (2006)

Portugal
  total: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Puerto Rico
  total: 13
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Qatar
  total: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Romania
  total: 36
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Russia
  total: 1,007
  over 3,047 m: 9
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 75
  914 to 1,523 m: 127
  under 914 m: 780 (2006)

Rwanda
  total: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Samoa
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 135
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 75
  914 to 1,523 m: 40
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Senegal
  total: 11
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Serbia
  total: 23
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 12 (2006)

Seychelles
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Sierra Leone
  total: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Slovakia
  total: 18
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Slovenia
  total: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Solomon Islands
  total: 33
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Somalia
  total: 58
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 19
  914 to 1,523 m: 29
  under 914 m: 6 (2006)

South Africa
  total: 585
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 34
  914 to 1,523 m: 302
  under 914 m: 249 (2006)

Spain
  total: 61
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 44 (2006)

Spratly Islands
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Sri Lanka
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Sudan
  total: 73
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 37
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Suriname
  total: 42
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 36 (2006)

Svalbard
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Swaziland
  total: 17
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 10 (2006)

Sweden
  total: 100
  914 to 1,523 m: 9
  under 914 m: 91 (2006)

Switzerland
  total: 23
  under 914 m: 23 (2006)

Syria
  total: 66
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 54 (2006)

Taiwan
  total: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Tajikistan
  total: 23
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 22 (2006)

Tanzania
  total: 113
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 18
  914 to 1,523 m: 62
  under 914 m: 33 (2006)

Thailand
  total: 42
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 15
  under 914 m: 26 (2006)

Togo
  total: 7
  914 to 1,523 m: 5
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Tonga
  total: 5
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Tromelin Island
  total: 1
  under 914 m: 1 (2006)

Tunisia
  total: 16
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 7
  under 914 m: 7 (2006)

Turkey
  total: 28
  over 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 8
  under 914 m: 17 (2006)

Turkmenistan
  total: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 1
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Tuvalu
  total: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 (2006)

Uganda
  total: 26
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 6
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 8 (2006)

Ukraine
  total: 306
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 11
  914 to 1,523 m: 18
  under 914 m: 274 (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 14
  over 3,047 m: 2
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 3
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

United Kingdom
  total: 137
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 23
  under 914 m: 112 (2006)

United States
  total: 9,739
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 157
  914 to 1,523 m: 1,728
  under 914 m: 7,847 (2006)

Uruguay
  total: 56
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
  914 to 1,523 m: 22
  under 914 m: 31 (2006)

Uzbekistan
  total: 27
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 2
  under 914 m: 25 (2006)

Vanuatu
  total: 28
  914 to 1,523 m: 10
  under 914 m: 18 (2006)

Venezuela
  total: 246
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 9
  914 to 1,523 m: 90
  under 914 m: 147 (2006)

Vietnam
  total: 6
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 2
  914 to 1,523 m: 2
  under 914 m: 2 (2006)

Wallis and Futuna
  total: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 1 (2006)

Western Sahara
  total: 8
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
  914 to 1,523 m: 4
  under 914 m: 3 (2006)

Yemen
  total: 30
  over 3,047 m: 3
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 11
  under 914 m: 4 (2006)

Zambia
  total: 101
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 4
  914 to 1,523 m: 64
  under 914 m: 32 (2006)

Zimbabwe
  total: 386
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 187
  under 914 m: 194 (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2032  Environment - current issues


Afghanistan
  limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate
  supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing;
  deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for
  fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water
  pollution

Akrotiri
  shooting around the salt lake; note - breeding place for
  loggerhead and green turtles; only remaining colony of griffon
  vultures is on the base

Albania
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution from industrial
  and domestic effluents

Algeria
  soil erosion from overgrazing and other poor farming
  practices; desertification; dumping of raw sewage, petroleum
  refining wastes, and other industrial effluents is leading to the
  pollution of rivers and coastal waters; Mediterranean Sea, in
  particular, becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and
  fertilizer runoff; inadequate supplies of potable water

American Samoa
  limited natural fresh water resources; the water
  division of the government has spent substantial funds in the past
  few years to improve water catchments and pipelines

Andorra
  deforestation; overgrazing of mountain meadows contributes
  to soil erosion; air pollution; wastewater treatment and solid waste
  disposal

Angola
  overuse of pastures and subsequent soil erosion attributable
  to population pressures; desertification; deforestation of tropical
  rain forest, in response to both international demand for tropical
  timber and to domestic use as fuel, resulting in loss of
  biodiversity; soil erosion contributing to water pollution and
  siltation of rivers and dams; inadequate supplies of potable water

Anguilla
  supplies of potable water sometimes cannot meet increasing
  demand largely because of poor distribution system

Antarctica
  in 1998, NASA satellite data showed that the Antarctic
  ozone hole was the largest on record, covering 27 million square
  kilometers; researchers in 1997 found that increased ultraviolet
  light passing through the hole damages the DNA of icefish, an
  Antarctic fish lacking hemoglobin; ozone depletion earlier was shown
  to harm one-celled Antarctic marine plants; in 2002, significant
  areas of ice shelves disintegrated in response to regional warming

Antigua and Barbuda
  water management - a major concern because of
  limited natural fresh water resources - is further hampered by the
  clearing of trees to increase crop production, causing rainfall to
  run off quickly

Arctic Ocean
  endangered marine species include walruses and whales;
  fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from
  disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack

Argentina
  environmental problems (urban and rural) typical of an
  industrializing economy such as deforestation, soil degradation,
  desertification, air pollution, and water pollution
  note: Argentina is a world leader in setting voluntary greenhouse
  gas targets

Armenia
  soil pollution from toxic chemicals such as DDT; the energy
  crisis of the 1990s led to deforestation when citizens scavenged for
  firewood; pollution of Hrazdan (Razdan) and Aras Rivers; the
  draining of Sevana Lich (Lake Sevan), a result of its use as a
  source for hydropower, threatens drinking water supplies; restart of
  Metsamor nuclear power plant in spite of its location in a
  seismically active zone

Aruba
  NA

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  NA

Atlantic Ocean
  endangered marine species include the manatee, seals,
  sea lions, turtles, and whales; drift net fishing is hastening the
  decline of fish stocks and contributing to international disputes;
  municipal sludge pollution off eastern US, southern Brazil, and
  eastern Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico,
  Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea; industrial waste
  and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea, and
  Mediterranean Sea

Australia
  soil erosion from overgrazing, industrial development,
  urbanization, and poor farming practices; soil salinity rising due
  to the use of poor quality water; desertification; clearing for
  agricultural purposes threatens the natural habitat of many unique
  animal and plant species; the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast
  coast, the largest coral reef in the world, is threatened by
  increased shipping and its popularity as a tourist site; limited
  natural fresh water resources

Austria
  some forest degradation caused by air and soil pollution;
  soil pollution results from the use of agricultural chemicals; air
  pollution results from emissions by coal- and oil-fired power
  stations and industrial plants and from trucks transiting Austria
  between northern and southern Europe

Azerbaijan
  local scientists consider the Abseron Yasaqligi (Apsheron
  Peninsula) (including Baku and Sumqayit) and the Caspian Sea to be
  the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe
  air, soil, and water pollution; soil pollution results from oil
  spills, from the use of DDT as a pesticide, and from toxic
  defoliants used in the production of cotton

Bahamas, The
  coral reef decay; solid waste disposal

Bahrain
  desertification resulting from the degradation of limited
  arable land, periods of drought, and dust storms; coastal
  degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation)
  resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers,
  oil refineries, and distribution stations; lack of freshwater
  resources, groundwater and seawater are the only sources for all
  water needs

Baker Island
  no natural fresh water resources

Bangladesh
  many people are landless and forced to live on and
  cultivate flood-prone land; water-borne diseases prevalent in
  surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results
  from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by
  naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of
  falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the
  country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe
  overpopulation

Barbados
  pollution of coastal waters from waste disposal by ships;
  soil erosion; illegal solid waste disposal threatens contamination
  of aquifers

Bassas da India
  NA

Belarus
  soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the
  country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident
  at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine

Belgium
  the environment is exposed to intense pressures from human
  activities: urbanization, dense transportation network, industry,
  extensive animal breeding and crop cultivation; air and water
  pollution also have repercussions for neighboring countries;
  uncertainties regarding federal and regional responsibilities (now
  resolved) have slowed progress in tackling environmental challenges

Belize
  deforestation; water pollution from sewage, industrial
  effluents, agricultural runoff; solid and sewage waste disposal

Benin
  inadequate supplies of potable water; poaching threatens
  wildlife populations; deforestation; desertification

Bermuda
  sustainable development

Bhutan
  soil erosion; limited access to potable water

Bolivia
  the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the
  international demand for tropical timber are contributing to
  deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation
  methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification;
  loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used
  for drinking and irrigation

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  air pollution from metallurgical plants;
  sites for disposing of urban waste are limited; water shortages and
  destruction of infrastructure because of the 1992-95 civil strife;
  deforestation

Botswana
  overgrazing; desertification; limited fresh water resources

Bouvet Island
  NA

Brazil
  deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and
  endangers a multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the
  area; there is a lucrative illegal wildlife trade; air and water
  pollution in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large
  cities; land degradation and water pollution caused by improper
  mining activities; wetland degradation; severe oil spills

British Indian Ocean Territory
  NA

British Virgin Islands
  limited natural fresh water resources (except
  for a few seasonal streams and springs on Tortola, most of the
  islands' water supply comes from wells and rainwater catchments)

Brunei
  seasonal smoke/haze resulting from forest fires in Indonesia

Bulgaria
  air pollution from industrial emissions; rivers polluted
  from raw sewage, heavy metals, detergents; deforestation; forest
  damage from air pollution and resulting acid rain; soil
  contamination from heavy metals from metallurgical plants and
  industrial wastes

Burkina Faso
  recent droughts and desertification severely affecting
  agricultural activities, population distribution, and the economy;
  overgrazing; soil degradation; deforestation

Burma
  deforestation; industrial pollution of air, soil, and water;
  inadequate sanitation and water treatment contribute to disease

Burundi
  soil erosion as a result of overgrazing and the expansion of
  agriculture into marginal lands; deforestation (little forested land
  remains because of uncontrolled cutting of trees for fuel); habitat
  loss threatens wildlife populations

Cambodia
  illegal logging activities throughout the country and strip
  mining for gems in the western region along the border with Thailand
  have resulted in habitat loss and declining biodiversity (in
  particular, destruction of mangrove swamps threatens natural
  fisheries); soil erosion; in rural areas, most of the population
  does not have access to potable water; declining fish stocks because
  of illegal fishing and overfishing

Cameroon
  waterborne diseases are prevalent; deforestation;
  overgrazing; desertification; poaching; overfishing

Canada
  air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affecting
  lakes and damaging forests; metal smelting, coal-burning utilities,
  and vehicle emissions impacting on agricultural and forest
  productivity; ocean waters becoming contaminated due to
  agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities

Cape Verde
  soil erosion; deforestation due to demand for wood used
  as fuel; desertification; environmental damage has threatened
  several species of birds and reptiles; illegal beach sand
  extraction; overfishing

Cayman Islands
  no natural fresh water resources; drinking water
  supplies must be met by rainwater catchments

Central African Republic
  tap water is not potable; poaching has
  diminished the country's reputation as one of the last great
  wildlife refuges; desertification; deforestation

Chad
  inadequate supplies of potable water; improper waste disposal
  in rural areas contributes to soil and water pollution;
  desertification

Chile
  widespread deforestation and mining threaten natural
  resources; air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions;
  water pollution from raw sewage

China
  air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates)
  from reliance on coal produces acid rain; water shortages,
  particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes;
  deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land
  since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development;
  desertification; trade in endangered species

Christmas Island
  loss of rainforest; impact of phosphate mining

Clipperton Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  fresh water resources are limited to
  rainwater accumulations in natural underground reservoirs

Colombia
  deforestation; soil and water quality damage from overuse
  of pesticides; air pollution, especially in Bogota, from vehicle
  emissions

Comoros
  soil degradation and erosion results from crop cultivation
  on slopes without proper terracing; deforestation

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  poaching threatens wildlife
  populations; water pollution; deforestation; refugees responsible
  for significant deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife poaching;
  mining of minerals (coltan - a mineral used in creating capacitors,
  diamonds, and gold) causing environmental damage

Congo, Republic of the
  air pollution from vehicle emissions; water
  pollution from the dumping of raw sewage; tap water is not potable;
  deforestation

Cook Islands
  NA

Coral Sea Islands
  no permanent fresh water resources

Costa Rica
  deforestation and land use change, largely a result of
  the clearing of land for cattle ranching and agriculture; soil
  erosion; coastal marine pollution; fisheries protection; solid waste
  management; air pollution

Cote d'Ivoire
  deforestation (most of the country's forests - once
  the largest in West Africa - have been heavily logged); water
  pollution from sewage and industrial and agricultural effluents

Croatia
  air pollution (from metallurgical plants) and resulting acid
  rain is damaging the forests; coastal pollution from industrial and
  domestic waste; landmine removal and reconstruction of
  infrastructure consequent to 1992-95 civil strife

Cuba
  air and water pollution; biodiversity loss; deforestation

Cyprus
  water resource problems (no natural reservoir catchments,
  seasonal disparity in rainfall, sea water intrusion to island's
  largest aquifer, increased salination in the north); water pollution
  from sewage and industrial wastes; coastal degradation; loss of
  wildlife habitats from urbanization

Czech Republic
  air and water pollution in areas of northwest Bohemia
  and in northern Moravia around Ostrava present health risks; acid
  rain damaging forests; efforts to bring industry up to EU code
  should improve domestic pollution

Denmark
  air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant
  emissions; nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea;
  drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and
  pesticides

Dhekelia
  netting and trapping of small migrant songbirds in the
  spring and autumn

Djibouti
  inadequate supplies of potable water; limited arable land;
  desertification; endangered species

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  water shortages; soil eroding into the sea
  damages coral reefs; deforestation

East Timor
  widespread use of slash and burn agriculture has led to
  deforestation and soil erosion

Ecuador
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; water
  pollution; pollution from oil production wastes in ecologically
  sensitive areas of the Amazon Basin and Galapagos Islands

Egypt
  agricultural land being lost to urbanization and windblown
  sands; increasing soil salination below Aswan High Dam;
  desertification; oil pollution threatening coral reefs, beaches, and
  marine habitats; other water pollution from agricultural pesticides,
  raw sewage, and industrial effluents; very limited natural fresh
  water resources away from the Nile, which is the only perennial
  water source; rapid growth in population overstraining the Nile and
  natural resources

El Salvador
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution;
  contamination of soils from disposal of toxic wastes

Equatorial Guinea
  tap water is not potable; deforestation

Eritrea
  deforestation; desertification; soil erosion; overgrazing;
  loss of infrastructure from civil warfare

Estonia
  air polluted with sulfur dioxide from oil-shale burning
  power plants in northeast; however, the amount of pollutants emitted
  to the air have fallen steadily, the emissions of 2000 were 80% less
  than in 1980; the amount of unpurified wastewater discharged to
  water bodies in 2000 was one twentieth the level of 1980; in
  connection with the start-up of new water purification plants, the
  pollution load of wastewater decreased; Estonia has more than 1,400
  natural and manmade lakes, the smaller of which in agricultural
  areas need to be monitored; coastal seawater is polluted in certain
  locations

Ethiopia
  deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification;
  water shortages in some areas from water-intensive farming and poor
  management

Europa Island
  NA

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  overfishing by unlicensed vessels
  is a problem; reindeer were introduced to the islands in 2001 for
  commercial reasons; this is the only commercial reindeer herd in the
  world unaffected by the Chornobyl disaster

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  deforestation; soil erosion

Finland
  air pollution from manufacturing and power plants
  contributing to acid rain; water pollution from industrial wastes,
  agricultural chemicals; habitat loss threatens wildlife populations

France
  some forest damage from acid rain; air pollution from
  industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution from urban wastes,
  agricultural runoff

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  NA

Gabon
  deforestation; poaching

Gambia, The
  deforestation; desertification; water-borne diseases
  prevalent

Gaza Strip
  desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage
  treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; depletion and
  contamination of underground water resources

Georgia
  air pollution, particularly in Rust'avi; heavy pollution of
  Mtkvari River and the Black Sea; inadequate supplies of potable
  water; soil pollution from toxic chemicals

Germany
  emissions from coal-burning utilities and industries
  contribute to air pollution; acid rain, resulting from sulfur
  dioxide emissions, is damaging forests; pollution in the Baltic Sea
  from raw sewage and industrial effluents from rivers in eastern
  Germany; hazardous waste disposal; government established a
  mechanism for ending the use of nuclear power over the next 15
  years; government working to meet EU commitment to identify nature
  preservation areas in line with the EU's Flora, Fauna, and Habitat
  directive

Ghana
  recurrent drought in north severely affects agricultural
  activities; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; poaching and
  habitat destruction threatens wildlife populations; water pollution;
  inadequate supplies of potable water

Gibraltar
  limited natural freshwater resources: large concrete or
  natural rock water catchments collect rainwater (no longer used for
  drinking water) and adequate desalination plant

Glorioso Islands
  NA

Greece
  air pollution; water pollution

Greenland
  protection of the arctic environment; preservation of the
  Inuit traditional way of life, including whaling and seal hunting

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  extirpation of native bird population by the rapid
  proliferation of the brown tree snake, an exotic, invasive species

Guatemala
  deforestation in the Peten rainforest; soil erosion; water
  pollution

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  deforestation; inadequate supplies of potable water;
  desertification; soil contamination and erosion; overfishing,
  overpopulation in forest region; poor mining practices have led to
  environmental damage

Guinea-Bissau
  deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; overfishing

Guyana
  water pollution from sewage and agricultural and industrial
  chemicals; deforestation

Haiti
  extensive deforestation (much of the remaining forested land
  is being cleared for agriculture and used as fuel); soil erosion;
  inadequate supplies of potable water

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  NA

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  urban population expanding; deforestation results from
  logging and the clearing of land for agricultural purposes; further
  land degradation and soil erosion hastened by uncontrolled
  development and improper land use practices such as farming of
  marginal lands; mining activities polluting Lago de Yojoa (the
  country's largest source of fresh water), as well as several rivers
  and streams, with heavy metals

Hong Kong
  air and water pollution from rapid urbanization

Howland Island
  no natural fresh water resources

Hungary
  the upgrading of Hungary's standards in waste management,
  energy efficiency, and air, soil, and water pollution to meet EU
  requirements will require large investments

Iceland
  water pollution from fertilizer runoff; inadequate
  wastewater treatment

India
  deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air
  pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water
  pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap
  water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing
  population is overstraining natural resources

Indian Ocean
  endangered marine species include the dugong, seals,
  turtles, and whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf,
  and Red Sea

Indonesia
  deforestation; water pollution from industrial wastes,
  sewage; air pollution in urban areas; smoke and haze from forest
  fires

Iran
  air pollution, especially in urban areas, from vehicle
  emissions, refinery operations, and industrial effluents;
  deforestation; overgrazing; desertification; oil pollution in the
  Persian Gulf; wetland losses from drought; soil degradation
  (salination); inadequate supplies of potable water; water pollution
  from raw sewage and industrial waste; urbanization

Iraq
  government water control projects have drained most of the
  inhabited marsh areas east of An Nasiriyah by drying up or diverting
  the feeder streams and rivers; a once sizable population of Marsh
  Arabs, who inhabited these areas for thousands of years, has been
  displaced; furthermore, the destruction of the natural habitat poses
  serious threats to the area's wildlife populations; inadequate
  supplies of potable water; development of the Tigris and Euphrates
  rivers system contingent upon agreements with upstream riparian
  Turkey; air and water pollution; soil degradation (salination) and
  erosion; desertification

Ireland
  water pollution, especially of lakes, from agricultural
  runoff

Isle of Man
  waste disposal (both household and industrial);
  transboundary air pollution

Israel
  limited arable land and natural fresh water resources pose
  serious constraints; desertification; air pollution from industrial
  and vehicle emissions; groundwater pollution from industrial and
  domestic waste, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides

Italy
  air pollution from industrial emissions such as sulfur
  dioxide; coastal and inland rivers polluted from industrial and
  agricultural effluents; acid rain damaging lakes; inadequate
  industrial waste treatment and disposal facilities

Jamaica
  heavy rates of deforestation; coastal waters polluted by
  industrial waste, sewage, and oil spills; damage to coral reefs; air
  pollution in Kingston results from vehicle emissions

Jan Mayen
  NA

Japan
  air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain;
  acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and
  threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of
  fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these
  resources in Asia and elsewhere

Jarvis Island
  no natural fresh water resources

Jersey
  NA

Johnston Atoll
  no natural fresh water resources

Jordan
  limited natural fresh water resources; deforestation;
  overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Juan de Nova Island
  NA

Kazakhstan
  radioactive or toxic chemical sites associated with
  former defense industries and test ranges scattered throughout the
  country pose health risks for humans and animals; industrial
  pollution is severe in some cities; because the two main rivers
  which flowed into the Aral Sea have been diverted for irrigation, it
  is drying up and leaving behind a harmful layer of chemical
  pesticides and natural salts; these substances are then picked up by
  the wind and blown into noxious dust storms; pollution in the
  Caspian Sea; soil pollution from overuse of agricultural chemicals
  and salination from poor infrastructure and wasteful irrigation
  practices

Kenya
  water pollution from urban and industrial wastes; degradation
  of water quality from increased use of pesticides and fertilizers;
  water hyacinth infestation in Lake Victoria; deforestation; soil
  erosion; desertification; poaching

Kingman Reef
  none

Kiribati
  heavy pollution in lagoon of south Tarawa atoll due to
  heavy migration mixed with traditional practices such as lagoon
  latrines and open-pit dumping; ground water at risk

Korea, North
  water pollution; inadequate supplies of potable water;
  waterborne disease; deforestation; soil erosion and degradation

Korea, South
  air pollution in large cities; acid rain; water
  pollution from the discharge of sewage and industrial effluents;
  drift net fishing

Kuwait
  limited natural fresh water resources; some of world's
  largest and most sophisticated desalination facilities provide much
  of the water; air and water pollution; desertification

Kyrgyzstan
  water pollution; many people get their water directly
  from contaminated streams and wells; as a result, water-borne
  diseases are prevalent; increasing soil salinity from faulty
  irrigation practices

Laos
  unexploded ordnance; deforestation; soil erosion; most of the
  population does not have access to potable water

Latvia
  Latvia's environment has benefited from a shift to service
  industries after the country regained independence; the main
  environmental priorities are improvement of drinking water quality
  and sewage system, household, and hazardous waste management, as
  well as reduction of air pollution; in 2001, Latvia closed the EU
  accession negotiation chapter on environment committing to full
  enforcement of EU environmental directives by 2010

Lebanon
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution
  in Beirut from vehicular traffic and the burning of industrial
  wastes; pollution of coastal waters from raw sewage and oil spills

Lesotho
  population pressure forcing settlement in marginal areas
  results in overgrazing, severe soil erosion, and soil exhaustion;
  desertification; Highlands Water Project controls, stores, and
  redirects water to South Africa

Liberia
  tropical rain forest deforestation; soil erosion; loss of
  biodiversity; pollution of coastal waters from oil residue and raw
  sewage

Libya
  desertification; very limited natural fresh water resources;
  the Great Manmade River Project, the largest water development
  scheme in the world, is being built to bring water from large
  aquifers under the Sahara to coastal cities

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  contamination of soil and groundwater with petroleum
  products and chemicals at military bases

Luxembourg
  air and water pollution in urban areas, soil pollution of
  farmland

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  air pollution from metallurgical plants

Madagascar
  soil erosion results from deforestation and overgrazing;
  desertification; surface water contaminated with raw sewage and
  other organic wastes; several endangered species of flora and fauna
  unique to the island

Malawi
  deforestation; land degradation; water pollution from
  agricultural runoff, sewage, industrial wastes; siltation of
  spawning grounds endangers fish populations

Malaysia
  air pollution from industrial and vehicular emissions;
  water pollution from raw sewage; deforestation; smoke/haze from
  Indonesian forest fires

Maldives
  depletion of freshwater aquifers threatens water supplies;
  global warming and sea level rise; coral reef bleaching

Mali
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; inadequate
  supplies of potable water; poaching

Malta
  very limited natural fresh water resources; increasing
  reliance on desalination

Marshall Islands
  inadequate supplies of potable water; pollution of
  Majuro lagoon from household waste and discharges from fishing
  vessels

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  overgrazing, deforestation, and soil erosion aggravated
  by drought are contributing to desertification; very limited natural
  fresh water resources away from the Senegal, which is the only
  perennial river; locust infestation

Mauritius
  water pollution, degradation of coral reefs

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  scarcity of hazardous waste disposal facilities; rural to
  urban migration; natural fresh water resources scarce and polluted
  in north, inaccessible and poor quality in center and extreme
  southeast; raw sewage and industrial effluents polluting rivers in
  urban areas; deforestation; widespread erosion; desertification;
  deteriorating agricultural lands; serious air and water pollution in
  the national capital and urban centers along US-Mexico border; land
  subsidence in Valley of Mexico caused by groundwater depletion
  note: the government considers the lack of clean water and
  deforestation national security issues

Micronesia, Federated States of
  overfishing, climate change,
  pollution

Midway Islands
  NA

Moldova
  heavy use of agricultural chemicals, including banned
  pesticides such as DDT, has contaminated soil and groundwater;
  extensive soil erosion from poor farming methods

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  limited natural fresh water resources in some areas; the
  policies of former Communist regimes promoted rapid urbanization and
  industrial growth that had negative effects on the environment; the
  burning of soft coal in power plants and the lack of enforcement of
  environmental laws severely polluted the air in Ulaanbaatar;
  deforestation, overgrazing, and the converting of virgin land to
  agricultural production increased soil erosion from wind and rain;
  desertification and mining activities had a deleterious effect on
  the environment

Montenegro
  pollution of coastal waters from sewage outlets,
  especially in tourist-related areas such as Kotor

Montserrat
  land erosion occurs on slopes that have been cleared for
  cultivation

Morocco
  land degradation/desertification (soil erosion resulting
  from farming of marginal areas, overgrazing, destruction of
  vegetation); water supplies contaminated by raw sewage; siltation of
  reservoirs; oil pollution of coastal waters

Mozambique
  a long civil war and recurrent drought in the hinterlands
  have resulted in increased migration of the population to urban and
  coastal areas with adverse environmental consequences;
  desertification; pollution of surface and coastal waters; elephant
  poaching for ivory is a problem

Namibia
  very limited natural fresh water resources; desertification;
  wildlife poaching; land degradation has led to few conservation areas

Nauru
  limited natural fresh water resources, roof storage tanks
  collect rainwater, but mostly dependent on a single, aging
  desalination plant; intensive phosphate mining during the past 90
  years - mainly by a UK, Australia, and NZ consortium - has left the
  central 90% of Nauru a wasteland and threatens limited remaining
  land resources

Navassa Island
  NA

Nepal
  deforestation (overuse of wood for fuel and lack of
  alternatives); contaminated water (with human and animal wastes,
  agricultural runoff, and industrial effluents); wildlife
  conservation; vehicular emissions

Netherlands
  water pollution in the form of heavy metals, organic
  compounds, and nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates; air
  pollution from vehicles and refining activities; acid rain

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  erosion caused by mining exploitation and forest fires

New Zealand
  deforestation; soil erosion; native flora and fauna
  hard-hit by invasive species

Nicaragua
  deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution

Niger
  overgrazing; soil erosion; deforestation; desertification;
  wildlife populations (such as elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, and
  lion) threatened because of poaching and habitat destruction

Nigeria
  soil degradation; rapid deforestation; urban air and water
  pollution; desertification; oil pollution - water, air, and soil;
  has suffered serious damage from oil spills; loss of arable land;
  rapid urbanization

Niue
  increasing attention to conservationist practices to counter
  loss of soil fertility from traditional slash and burn agriculture

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  contamination of groundwater on Saipan may
  contribute to disease; clean-up of landfill; protection of
  endangered species conflicts with development

Norway
  water pollution; acid rain damaging forests and adversely
  affecting lakes, threatening fish stocks; air pollution from vehicle
  emissions

Oman
  rising soil salinity; beach pollution from oil spills; very
  limited natural fresh water resources

Pacific Ocean
  endangered marine species include the dugong, sea
  lion, sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in
  Philippine Sea and South China Sea

Pakistan
  water pollution from raw sewage, industrial wastes, and
  agricultural runoff; limited natural fresh water resources; a
  majority of the population does not have access to potable water;
  deforestation; soil erosion; desertification

Palau
  inadequate facilities for disposal of solid waste; threats to
  the marine ecosystem from sand and coral dredging, illegal fishing
  practices, and overfishing

Palmyra Atoll
  NA

Panama
  water pollution from agricultural runoff threatens fishery
  resources; deforestation of tropical rain forest; land degradation
  and soil erosion threatens siltation of Panama Canal; air pollution
  in urban areas; mining threatens natural resources

Papua New Guinea
  rain forest subject to deforestation as a result of
  growing commercial demand for tropical timber; pollution from mining
  projects; severe drought

Paracel Islands
  NA

Paraguay
  deforestation; water pollution; inadequate means for waste
  disposal pose health risks for many urban residents; loss of wetlands

Peru
  deforestation (some the result of illegal logging); overgrazing
  of the slopes of the costa and sierra leading to soil erosion;
  desertification; air pollution in Lima; pollution of rivers and
  coastal waters from municipal and mining wastes

Philippines
  uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed
  areas; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers;
  coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove
  swamps that are important fish breeding grounds

Pitcairn Islands
  deforestation (only a small portion of the original
  forest remains because of burning and clearing for settlement)

Poland
  situation has improved since 1989 due to decline in heavy
  industry and increased environmental concern by post-Communist
  governments; air pollution nonetheless remains serious because of
  sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, and the
  resulting acid rain has caused forest damage; water pollution from
  industrial and municipal sources is also a problem, as is disposal
  of hazardous wastes; pollution levels should continue to decrease as
  industrial establishments bring their facilities up to EU code, but
  at substantial cost to business and the government

Portugal
  soil erosion; air pollution caused by industrial and
  vehicle emissions; water pollution, especially in coastal areas

Puerto Rico
  erosion; occasional drought causing water shortages

Qatar
  limited natural fresh water resources are increasing
  dependence on large-scale desalination facilities

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  soil erosion and degradation; water pollution; air pollution
  in south from industrial effluents; contamination of Danube delta
  wetlands

Russia
  air pollution from heavy industry, emissions of coal-fired
  electric plants, and transportation in major cities; industrial,
  municipal, and agricultural pollution of inland waterways and
  seacoasts; deforestation; soil erosion; soil contamination from
  improper application of agricultural chemicals; scattered areas of
  sometimes intense radioactive contamination; groundwater
  contamination from toxic waste; urban solid waste management;
  abandoned stocks of obsolete pesticides

Rwanda
  deforestation results from uncontrolled cutting of trees for
  fuel; overgrazing; soil exhaustion; soil erosion; widespread poaching

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  deforestation; soil erosion, particularly in the
  northern region

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  recent test drilling for oil in waters
  around Saint Pierre and Miquelon may bring future development that
  would impact the environment

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  pollution of coastal waters and
  shorelines from discharges by pleasure yachts and other effluents;
  in some areas, pollution is severe enough to make swimming
  prohibitive

Samoa
  soil erosion, deforestation, invasive species, overfishing

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  deforestation; soil erosion and exhaustion

Saudi Arabia
  desertification; depletion of underground water
  resources; the lack of perennial rivers or permanent water bodies
  has prompted the development of extensive seawater desalination
  facilities; coastal pollution from oil spills

Senegal
  wildlife populations threatened by poaching; deforestation;
  overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; overfishing

Serbia
  air pollution around Belgrade and other industrial cities;
  water pollution from industrial wastes dumped into the Sava which
  flows into the Danube

Seychelles
  water supply depends on catchments to collect rainwater

Sierra Leone
  rapid population growth pressuring the environment;
  overharvesting of timber, expansion of cattle grazing, and
  slash-and-burn agriculture have resulted in deforestation and soil
  exhaustion; civil war depleting natural resources; overfishing

Singapore
  industrial pollution; limited natural fresh water
  resources; limited land availability presents waste disposal
  problems; seasonal smoke/haze resulting from forest fires in
  Indonesia

Slovakia
  air pollution from metallurgical plants presents human
  health risks; acid rain damaging forests

Slovenia
  Sava River polluted with domestic and industrial waste;
  pollution of coastal waters with heavy metals and toxic chemicals;
  forest damage near Koper from air pollution (originating at
  metallurgical and chemical plants) and resulting acid rain

Solomon Islands
  deforestation; soil erosion; many of the surrounding
  coral reefs are dead or dying

Somalia
  famine; use of contaminated water contributes to human
  health problems; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion;
  desertification

South Africa
  lack of important arterial rivers or lakes requires
  extensive water conservation and control measures; growth in water
  usage outpacing supply; pollution of rivers from agricultural runoff
  and urban discharge; air pollution resulting in acid rain; soil
  erosion; desertification

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  NA

Southern Ocean
  increased solar ultraviolet radiation resulting from
  the Antarctic ozone hole in recent years, reducing marine primary
  productivity (phytoplankton) by as much as 15% and damaging the DNA
  of some fish; illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in recent
  years, especially the landing of an estimated five to six times more
  Patagonian toothfish than the regulated fishery, which is likely to
  affect the sustainability of the stock; large amount of incidental
  mortality of seabirds resulting from long-line fishing for toothfish
  note: the now-protected fur seal population is making a strong
  comeback after severe overexploitation in the 18th and 19th centuries

Spain
  pollution of the Mediterranean Sea from raw sewage and
  effluents from the offshore production of oil and gas; water quality
  and quantity nationwide; air pollution; deforestation;
  desertification

Spratly Islands
  NA

Sri Lanka
  deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife populations
  threatened by poaching and urbanization; coastal degradation from
  mining activities and increased pollution; freshwater resources
  being polluted by industrial wastes and sewage runoff; waste
  disposal; air pollution in Colombo

Sudan
  inadequate supplies of potable water; wildlife populations
  threatened by excessive hunting; soil erosion; desertification;
  periodic drought

Suriname
  deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of
  inland waterways by small-scale mining activities

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  limited supplies of potable water; wildlife populations
  being depleted because of excessive hunting; overgrazing; soil
  degradation; soil erosion

Sweden
  acid rain damage to soils and lakes; pollution of the North
  Sea and the Baltic Sea

Switzerland
  air pollution from vehicle emissions and open-air
  burning; acid rain; water pollution from increased use of
  agricultural fertilizers; loss of biodiversity

Syria
  deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification;
  water pollution from raw sewage and petroleum refining wastes;
  inadequate potable water

Taiwan
  air pollution; water pollution from industrial emissions, raw
  sewage; contamination of drinking water supplies; trade in
  endangered species; low-level radioactive waste disposal

Tajikistan
  inadequate sanitation facilities; increasing levels of
  soil salinity; industrial pollution; excessive pesticides

Tanzania
  soil degradation; deforestation; desertification;
  destruction of coral reefs threatens marine habitats; recent
  droughts affected marginal agriculture; wildlife threatened by
  illegal hunting and trade, especially for ivory

Thailand
  air pollution from vehicle emissions; water pollution from
  organic and factory wastes; deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife
  populations threatened by illegal hunting

Togo
  deforestation attributable to slash-and-burn agriculture and
  the use of wood for fuel; water pollution presents health hazards
  and hinders the fishing industry; air pollution increasing in urban
  areas

Tokelau
  very limited natural resources and overcrowding are
  contributing to emigration to New Zealand

Tonga
  deforestation results as more and more land is being cleared
  for agriculture and settlement; some damage to coral reefs from
  starfish and indiscriminate coral and shell collectors; overhunting
  threatens native sea turtle populations

Trinidad and Tobago
  water pollution from agricultural chemicals,
  industrial wastes, and raw sewage; oil pollution of beaches;
  deforestation; soil erosion

Tromelin Island
  NA

Tunisia
  toxic and hazardous waste disposal is ineffective and poses
  health risks; water pollution from raw sewage; limited natural fresh
  water resources; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion;
  desertification

Turkey
  water pollution from dumping of chemicals and detergents; air
  pollution, particularly in urban areas; deforestation; concern for
  oil spills from increasing Bosporus ship traffic

Turkmenistan
  contamination of soil and groundwater with agricultural
  chemicals, pesticides; salination, water-logging of soil due to poor
  irrigation methods; Caspian Sea pollution; diversion of a large
  share of the flow of the Amu Darya into irrigation contributes to
  that river's inability to replenish the Aral Sea; desertification

Turks and Caicos Islands
  limited natural fresh water resources,
  private cisterns collect rainwater

Tuvalu
  since there are no streams or rivers and groundwater is not
  potable, most water needs must be met by catchment systems with
  storage facilities (the Japanese Government has built one
  desalination plant and plans to build one other); beachhead erosion
  because of the use of sand for building materials; excessive
  clearance of forest undergrowth for use as fuel; damage to coral
  reefs from the spread of the Crown of Thorns starfish; Tuvalu is
  concerned about global increases in greenhouse gas emissions and
  their effect on rising sea levels, which threaten the country's
  underground water table; in 2000, the government appealed to
  Australia and New Zealand to take in Tuvaluans if rising sea levels
  should make evacuation necessary

Uganda
  draining of wetlands for agricultural use; deforestation;
  overgrazing; soil erosion; water hyacinth infestation in Lake
  Victoria; poaching is widespread

Ukraine
  inadequate supplies of potable water; air and water
  pollution; deforestation; radiation contamination in the northeast
  from 1986 accident at Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant

United Arab Emirates
  lack of natural freshwater resources
  compensated by desalination plants; desertification; beach pollution
  from oil spills

United Kingdom
  continues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (has met
  Kyoto Protocol target of a 12.5% reduction from 1990 levels and
  intends to meet the legally binding target and move toward a
  domestic goal of a 20% cut in emissions by 2010); by 2005 the
  government aims to reduce the amount of industrial and commercial
  waste disposed of in landfill sites to 85% of 1998 levels and to
  recycle or compost at least 25% of household waste, increasing to
  33% by 2015; between 1998-99 and 1999-2000, household recycling
  increased from 8.8% to 10.3%

United States
  air pollution resulting in acid rain in both the US
  and Canada; the US is the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide
  from the burning of fossil fuels; water pollution from runoff of
  pesticides and fertilizers; limited natural fresh water resources in
  much of the western part of the country require careful management;
  desertification

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker, Howland, and
  Jarvis Islands, and Johnston Atoll: no natural fresh water resources
  Kingman Reef: none
  Midway Islands and Palmyra Atoll: NA

Uruguay
  water pollution from meat packing/tannery industry;
  inadequate solid/hazardous waste disposal

Uzbekistan
  shrinkage of the Aral Sea is resulting in growing
  concentrations of chemical pesticides and natural salts; these
  substances are then blown from the increasingly exposed lake bed and
  contribute to desertification; water pollution from industrial
  wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides is the cause
  of many human health disorders; increasing soil salination; soil
  contamination from buried nuclear processing and agricultural
  chemicals, including DDT

Vanuatu
  a majority of the population does not have access to a
  reliable supply of potable water; deforestation

Venezuela
  sewage pollution of Lago de Valencia; oil and urban
  pollution of Lago de Maracaibo; deforestation; soil degradation;
  urban and industrial pollution, especially along the Caribbean
  coast; threat to the rainforest ecosystem from irresponsible mining
  operations

Vietnam
  logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute
  to deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and
  overfishing threaten marine life populations; groundwater
  contamination limits potable water supply; growing urban
  industrialization and population migration are rapidly degrading
  environment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

Virgin Islands
  lack of natural freshwater resources

Wake Island
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  deforestation (only small portions of the original
  forests remain) largely as a result of the continued use of wood as
  the main fuel source; as a consequence of cutting down the forests,
  the mountainous terrain of Futuna is particularly prone to erosion;
  there are no permanent settlements on Alofi because of the lack of
  natural fresh water resources

West Bank
  adequacy of fresh water supply; sewage treatment

Western Sahara
  sparse water and lack of arable land

World
  large areas subject to overpopulation, industrial disasters,
  pollution (air, water, acid rain, toxic substances), loss of
  vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of
  wildlife, soil degradation, soil depletion, erosion

Yemen
  very limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate
  supplies of potable water; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification

Zambia
  air pollution and resulting acid rain in the mineral
  extraction and refining region; chemical runoff into watersheds;
  poaching seriously threatens rhinoceros, elephant, antelope, and
  large cat populations; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification;
  lack of adequate water treatment presents human health risks

Zimbabwe
  deforestation; soil erosion; land degradation; air and
  water pollution; the black rhinoceros herd - once the largest
  concentration of the species in the world - has been significantly
  reduced by poaching; poor mining practices have led to toxic waste
  and heavy metal pollution

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2033  Environment - international agreements


Afghanistan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping
  signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Life Conservation

Albania
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Algeria
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Andorra
  party to: Hazardous Wastes
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Angola
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Antigua and Barbuda
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Argentina
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Armenia
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Australia
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Austria
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Azerbaijan
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Bahamas, The
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Bahrain
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Bangladesh
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Barbados
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Belarus
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Belgium
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Belize
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Benin
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Bhutan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Bolivia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Botswana
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Brazil
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Brunei
  party to: Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Bulgaria
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental
  Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Burkina Faso
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Burma
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Burundi
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Cambodia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Cameroon
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Canada
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Marine Life Conservation

Cape Verde
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Central African Republic
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Chad
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping

Chile
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

China
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Colombia
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Comoros
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Congo, Republic of the
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Cook Islands
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Costa Rica
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Cote d'Ivoire
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Croatia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Cuba
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Cyprus
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Czech Republic
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
  Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Denmark
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Djibouti
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Dominica
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Dominican Republic
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Egypt
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

El Salvador
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Equatorial Guinea
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Eritrea
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Estonia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ship Pollution,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Ethiopia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea

European Union
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
  Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air
  Pollution-Sulphur 94, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Tropical Timber 82, Tropical Timber 94
  signed but not ratified: Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds

Fiji
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Finland
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

France
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Gabon
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Gambia, The
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Georgia
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Germany
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Ghana
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Greece
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds

Grenada
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Guatemala
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Guinea
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Guinea-Bissau
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Guyana
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
  83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Haiti
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes

Holy See (Vatican City)
  party to: none of the selected agreements
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution, Environmental Modification

Honduras
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Hong Kong
  party to: Marine Dumping (associate member)

Hungary
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Iceland
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Transboundary Air Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation

India
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Indonesia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Iran
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Life Conservation

Iraq
  party to: Law of the Sea
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Ireland
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Marine Life Conservation

Israel
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Italy
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Jamaica
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Japan
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

Jordan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Kazakhstan
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Kenya
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Kiribati
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Korea, North
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Environmental Modification, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Korea, South
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Kuwait
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Dumping

Kyrgyzstan
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Laos
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Latvia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Lebanon
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
  Conservation

Lesotho
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Liberia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Life Conservation

Libya
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Liechtenstein
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
  Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile
  Organic Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Lithuania
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Luxembourg
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
  Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur
  85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Macedonia
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Madagascar
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Malawi
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Malaysia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands

Maldives
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Mali
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Malta
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Marshall Islands
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Mauritania
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Mauritius
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Mexico
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Micronesia, Federated States of
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous
  Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Moldova
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Monaco
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Mongolia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Morocco
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands,
  Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea

Mozambique
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Namibia
  party to: Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Nauru
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Nepal
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Netherlands
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
  Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur
  85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of
  the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling

New Zealand
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Antarctic Seals, Marine Life Conservation

Nicaragua
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Niger
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Nigeria
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Niue
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Norway
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
  Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Oman
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Pakistan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Palau
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Panama
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Papua New Guinea
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Paraguay
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Peru
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Philippines
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Poland
  party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Hazardous Wastes, Kyoto Protocol, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Portugal
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Environmental
  Modification

Qatar
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Romania
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Russia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Sulfur 94

Rwanda
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes,
  Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Saint Lucia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Samoa
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

San Marino
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution

Sao Tome and Principe
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Law
  of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Saudi Arabia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Senegal
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling

Serbia
  party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Seychelles
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Sierra Leone
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Life
  Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Singapore
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Slovakia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Slovenia
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94,
  Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Solomon Islands
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Environmental Modification,
  Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Somalia
  party to: Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection

South Africa
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic
  Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Southern Ocean
  the Southern Ocean is subject to all international
  agreements regarding the world's oceans; in addition, it is subject
  to these agreements specific to the Antarctic region: International
  Whaling Commission (prohibits commercial whaling south of 40 degrees
  south [south of 60 degrees south between 50 degrees and 130 degrees
  west]); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (limits
  sealing); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living
  Resources (regulates fishing)
  note: many nations (including the US) prohibit mineral resource
  exploration and exploitation south of the fluctuating Polar Front
  (Antarctic Convergence) which is in the middle of the Antarctic
  Circumpolar Current and serves as the dividing line between the very
  cold polar surface waters to the south and the warmer waters to the
  north

Spain
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

Sri Lanka
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Sudan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Suriname
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Swaziland
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Sweden
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85,
  Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds,
  Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources,
  Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Switzerland
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
  Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur
  85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Marine
  Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical
  Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Syria
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
  Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Taiwan
  party to: none of the selected agreements because of Taiwan's
  international status
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements because of
  Taiwan's international status

Tajikistan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Environmental Modification, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Tanzania
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Thailand
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

Togo
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Tonga
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Trinidad and Tobago
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical
  Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Tunisia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,
  Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Turkey
  party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous
  Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Turkmenistan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone
  Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Tuvalu
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Uganda
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law
  of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Ukraine
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air
  Pollution-Sulfur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
  Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
  Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds

United Arab Emirates
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea

United Kingdom
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
  Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic
  Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
  Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
  Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
  Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
  Wetlands, Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

United States
  party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen
  Oxides, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
  Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Climate Change,
  Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
  Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands,
  Whaling
  signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
  Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Hazardous Wastes

Uruguay
  party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine
  Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone
  Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation

Uzbekistan
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
  Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Vanuatu
  party to: Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity,
  Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Venezuela
  party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,
  Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
  Hazardous Wastes, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection,
  Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed but not ratified:: none of the selected agreements

Vietnam
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Western Sahara
  party to: none of the selected agreements
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Yemen
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto
  Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental
  Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Zambia
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer
  Protection, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

Zimbabwe
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification,
  Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection
  signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2034  Military expenditures - percent of GDP (%)


Afghanistan
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Albania
  1.49% (FY02)

Algeria
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Angola
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  1.3% (FY00)

Armenia
  6.5% (FY01)

Australia
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Austria
  0.9% (2004)

Azerbaijan
  2.6% (FY99)

Bahamas, The
  NA

Bahrain
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Barbados
  NA

Belarus
  1.4% (FY02)

Belgium
  1.3% (2003)

Belize
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Benin
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  0.11% (FY00/01)

Bhutan
  1% (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  4.5% (FY02)

Botswana
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Brazil
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Brunei
  5.1% (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  2.6% (2003)

Burkina Faso
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Burma
  2.1% (FY97)

Burundi
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  3% (FY01 est.)

Cameroon
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Canada
  1.1% (2003)

Cape Verde
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Central African Republic
  1% (2005 est.)

Chad
  1% (2005 est.)

Chile
  3.5% (2005 est.)

China
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Colombia
  3.4% (FY01)

Comoros
  3% (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Croatia
  2.39% (2002 est.)

Cuba
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  3.8% (FY02)

Czech Republic
  1.81% FY05

Denmark
  1.5% (2004)

Djibouti
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  0% (2002 est.)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  2% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  3.4% (2004)

El Salvador
  1% (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  17.7% (2005 est.)

Estonia
  2% (2002 est.)

Ethiopia
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  2.2% (FY02)

Finland
  2% (FY98/99)

France
  2.6% FY06 (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  NA

Gabon
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  0.59% (FY00)

Germany
  1.5% (2003)

Ghana
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Greece
  4.3% (2003)

Grenada
  NA

Guatemala
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Guinea
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Guyana
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Haiti
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Honduras
  2.55% (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  NA

Hungary
  1.75% (2002 est.)

Iceland
  0%

India
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  3% (2004)

Iran
  3.3% (2003 est.)

Iraq
  NA

Ireland
  0.9% (FY00/01)

Israel
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Italy
  1.8% (2004)

Jamaica
  0.4% (2003 est.)

Japan
  1% (2005 est.)

Jordan
  11.4% (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  0.9% (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Kenya
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  2.6% FY05 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  1.4% (FY01)

Laos
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  1.2% (FY01)

Lebanon
  3.1% (2004)

Lesotho
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Liberia
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Libya
  3.9% (FY99)

Lithuania
  1.9% (FY01)

Luxembourg
  0.9% (2003)

Macedonia
  6% (FY01/02 est.)

Madagascar
  7.2% (2005 est.)

Malawi
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  2.03% (FY00)

Maldives
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Mali
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Malta
  1% (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  NA

Mauritania
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  0.2% (2005 est.)

Mexico
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Moldova
  0.4% (FY02)

Mongolia
  2.2% (FY02)

Morocco
  5% (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Namibia
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  1.6% (2004)

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  1% (FY02)

Nicaragua
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Niger
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Norway
  1.9% (2003)

Oman
  11.4% (2003)

Pakistan
  3.9% (2005 est.)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  1% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  1.4% (FY02)

Paraguay
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Peru
  1.4% (2003 est.)

Philippines
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Poland
  1.71% (2002)

Portugal
  2.3% (2003)

Qatar
  10% (FY00)

Romania
  2.47% (2002)

Russia
  NA

Rwanda
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  NA

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  0.8% (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  10% (2002)

Senegal
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Singapore
  4.9% (FY01)

Slovakia
  1.87% FY05 (2005)

Slovenia
  1.7% (FY00)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  0.9% (2005 est.)

South Africa
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Spain
  1.2% (2003)

Sri Lanka
  2.6% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  3% (1999) (2004)

Suriname
  0.7% (2003 est.)

Swaziland
  1.4% (2005 est.)

Sweden
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  1% (FY01)

Syria
  5.9% (FY00)

Taiwan
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  3.9% (FY01)

Tanzania
  0.2% (2005 est.)

Thailand
  1.8% (2003)

Togo
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  1.5% (FY99)

Turkey
  5.3% (2003)

Turkmenistan
  3.4% (FY99)

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  1.4% (FY02)

United Arab Emirates
  3.1% (FY00)

United Kingdom
  2.4% (2003)

United States
  4.06% (FY03 est.) (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  2% (FY97)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  2.5% (FY98)

West Bank
  NA

World
  roughly 2% of gross world product (2005 est.)

Yemen
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Zambia
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  4% (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2038  Electricity - production (kWh)


Afghanistan
  905 million kWh (2003)

Albania
  5.68 billion kWh (2004)

Algeria
  26.99 billion kWh (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  130 million kWh (2003)

Andorra
  NA kWh

Angola
  2.24 billion kWh (2004)

Anguilla
  NA kWh

Antigua and Barbuda
  100 million kWh (2003)

Argentina
  87.16 billion kWh (2004)

Armenia
  6.317 billion kWh (2005)

Aruba
  770 million kWh (2003)

Australia
  237 billion kWh (2004)

Austria
  63.69 billion kWh (2004)

Azerbaijan
  20 billion kWh (2003)

Bahamas, The
  1.81 billion kWh (2003)

Bahrain
  7.345 billion kWh (2003)

Bangladesh
  17.42 billion kWh (2003)

Barbados
  819 million kWh (2003)

Belarus
  30 billion kWh (2004)

Belgium
  78.77 billion kWh (2003)

Belize
  120 million kWh (2003)

Benin
  69 million kWh (2003)

Bermuda
  682.5 million kWh (2005)

Bhutan
  1.882 billion kWh (2003)

Bolivia
  4.25 billion kWh (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  10.51 billion kWh (2003)

Botswana
  891 million kWh (2004)

Brazil
  387.5 billion kWh (2004)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied
  by the US military

British Virgin Islands
  34.55 million kWh (2003)

Brunei
  2.906 billion kWh (2004)

Bulgaria
  45 billion kWh (2004)

Burkina Faso
  375.6 million kWh (2003)

Burma
  7.393 billion kWh (2003)

Burundi
  141.3 million kWh (2003)

Cambodia
  123.7 million kWh (2003)

Cameroon
  2.988 billion kWh (2003)

Canada
  566.3 billion kWh (2003)

Cape Verde
  44.15 million kWh (2003)

Cayman Islands
  441.9 million kWh (2003)

Central African Republic
  106 million kWh (2003)

Chad
  120 million kWh (2003)

Chile
  45.3 billion kWh (2003)

China
  2.19 trillion kWh (2004)

Colombia
  50.43 billion kWh (2003)

Comoros
  18 million kWh (2003)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  6.036 billion kWh (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  343 million kWh (2003)

Cook Islands
  28 million kWh (2003)

Costa Rica
  7.726 billion kWh (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  5.127 billion kWh (2003)

Croatia
  11.15 billion kWh (2003)

Cuba
  15.65 billion kWh (2004)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.801 billion kWh; north Cyprus: NA kWh
  (2003)

Czech Republic
  84.33 billion kWh (2004)

Denmark
  43.32 billion kWh (2003)

Djibouti
  240 million kWh (2003)

Dominica
  69.98 million kWh (2003)

Dominican Republic
  12.6 billion kWh (2003)

East Timor
  NA kWh

Ecuador
  11.27 billion kWh (2003)

Egypt
  84.26 billion kWh (2003)

El Salvador
  4.158 billion kWh (2004)

Equatorial Guinea
  29.43 million kWh (2003)

Eritrea
  270.9 million kWh (2003)

Estonia
  10.304 billion kWh (2004)

Ethiopia
  2.058 billion kWh (2003)

European Union
  2.925 trillion kWh (2002 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  22.23 million kWh (2003)

Faroe Islands
  260.2 million kWh (2003)

Fiji
  775.7 million kWh (2003)

Finland
  79.61 billion kWh (2003)

France
  536.9 billion kWh (2003)

French Guiana
  465.2 million kWh (2003)

French Polynesia
  493.7 million kWh (2003)

Gabon
  1.487 billion kWh (2003)

Gambia, The
  140 million kWh (2003)

Gaza Strip
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by the Gaza Strip
  power plant and by an Israeli utility

Georgia
  8.634 billion kWh (2003)

Germany
  558.1 billion kWh (2003)

Ghana
  5.356 billion kWh (2003)

Gibraltar
  106.1 million kWh (2003)

Greece
  54.56 billion kWh (2003)

Greenland
  242.2 million kWh (2003)

Grenada
  159.8 million kWh (2003)

Guadeloupe
  1.165 billion kWh (2003)

Guam
  840.1 million kWh (2003)

Guatemala
  6.898 billion kWh (2003)

Guernsey
  NA kWh

Guinea
  775 million kWh (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  56 million kWh (2003)

Guyana
  779 million kWh (2003)

Haiti
  546 million kWh (2003)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA kWh

Honduras
  4.338 billion kWh (2003)

Hong Kong
  37.3 billion kWh (2004)

Hungary
  32.21 billion kWh (2003)

Iceland
  8.619 billion kWh (2004)

India
  556.8 billion kWh (2003)

Indonesia
  120.2 billion kWh (2004)

Iran
  142.3 billion kWh (2003)

Iraq
  31.7 billion kWh (2005)

Ireland
  23.41 billion kWh (2003)

Israel
  44.24 billion kWh (2003)

Italy
  270.1 billion kWh (2003)

Jamaica
  3.717 billion kWh (2004)

Japan
  1.017 trillion kWh (2003)

Jordan
  7.517 billion kWh (2003)

Kazakhstan
  60.33 billion kWh (2003)

Kenya
  4.342 billion kWh (2003)

Kiribati
  12 million kWh (2003)

Korea, North
  18.75 billion kWh (2003)

Korea, South
  342.1 billion kWh (2004)

Kuwait
  38.19 billion kWh (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  13.77 billion kWh (2003)

Laos
  3.767 billion kWh (2003)

Latvia
  3.97 billion kWh (2003)

Lebanon
  10.67 billion kWh (2003)

Lesotho
  350 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa
  (2003)

Liberia
  509.4 million kWh (2003)

Libya
  14.4 billion kWh (2003)

Lithuania
  19 billion kWh (2004)

Luxembourg
  3.203 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Macau
  1.893 billion kWh (2004)

Macedonia
  6.271 billion kWh (2005)

Madagascar
  825.4 million kWh (2003)

Malawi
  1.296 billion kWh (2003)

Malaysia
  79.28 billion kWh (2003)

Maldives
  135 million kWh (2003)

Mali
  820 million kWh (2003)

Malta
  2.082 billion kWh (2003)

Martinique
  1.205 billion kWh (2003)

Mauritania
  185.6 million kWh (2003)

Mauritius
  1.941 billion kWh (2003)

Mayotte
  NA kWh

Mexico
  209.2 billion kWh (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  192 million kWh (2002)

Moldova
  2.942 billion kWh (2003)

Mongolia
  3.24 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  2.864 billion kWh 2.864 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  2 million kWh (2003)

Morocco
  17.35 billion kWh (2003)

Mozambique
  15.14 billion kWh (2003)

Namibia
  1.464 billion kWh (2003)

Nauru
  23 million kWh (2003)

Nepal
  2.565 billion kWh (2005)

Netherlands
  95 billion kWh (2004)

Netherlands Antilles
  1.017 billion kWh (2003)

New Caledonia
  1.581 billion kWh (2003)

New Zealand
  39.82 billion kWh (2003)

Nicaragua
  2.887 billion kWh (2004)

Niger
  230 million kWh (2003)

Nigeria
  15.59 billion kWh (2003)

Niue
  3 million kWh (2003)

Norfolk Island
  NA kWh

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA kWh

Norway
  105.6 billion kWh (2003)

Oman
  10.3 billion kWh (2003)

Pakistan
  76.92 billion kWh (2003)

Panama
  5.398 billion kWh (2003)

Papua New Guinea
  1.592 billion kWh (2003)

Paraguay
  51.29 billion kWh (2003)

Peru
  22.68 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Philippines
  47.82 billion kWh (2003)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA kWh; note - electric power is provided by a
  small diesel-powered generator

Poland
  150.8 billion kWh (2004)

Portugal
  44.32 billion kWh (2003)

Puerto Rico
  23.03 billion kWh (2003)

Qatar
  9.735 billion kWh (2003)

Reunion
  1.19 billion kWh (2003)

Romania
  57 billion kWh (2004)

Russia
  931 billion kWh (2004)

Rwanda
  98 million kWh (2003)

Saint Helena
  5 million kWh (2003)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  111.7 million kWh (2003)

Saint Lucia
  281 million kWh (2003)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  44.15 million kWh (2003)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  95 million kWh (2003)

Samoa
  116 million kWh (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  15 million kWh (2003)

Saudi Arabia
  145.1 billion kWh (2003)

Senegal
  1.332 billion kWh (2003)

Serbia
  33.87 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2004)

Seychelles
  241.3 million kWh (2003)

Sierra Leone
  260.6 million kWh (2003)

Singapore
  36.8 billion kWh (2004)

Slovakia
  30.57 billion kWh (2004)

Slovenia
  14.02 billion kWh (2003)

Solomon Islands
  55 million kWh (2003)

Somalia
  235.6 million kWh (2003)

South Africa
  215.9 billion kWh (2003)

Spain
  247.3 billion kWh (2003)

Sri Lanka
  7.308 billion kWh (2003)

Sudan
  3.165 billion kWh (2003)

Suriname
  2.014 billion kWh (2003)

Swaziland
  392 million kWh (2003)

Sweden
  127.9 billion kWh (2003)

Switzerland
  63.4 billion kWh (2003)

Syria
  29.53 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  218.3 billion kWh (2004)

Tajikistan
  16.5 billion kWh (2004)

Tanzania
  3.152 billion kWh (2003)

Thailand
  114.7 billion kWh (2003)

Togo
  165.9 million kWh (2003)

Tokelau
  NA kWh

Tonga
  34 million kWh (2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  6.076 billion kWh (2003)

Tunisia
  11.56 billion kWh (2003)

Turkey
  133.6 billion kWh (2003)

Turkmenistan
  11.41 billion kWh (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  5 million kWh (2003)

Uganda
  1.729 billion kWh (2003)

Ukraine
  181.3 billion kWh (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  45.12 billion kWh (2004)

United Kingdom
  369.9 billion kWh (2003)

United States
  3.892 trillion kWh (2003)

Uruguay
  8.611 billion kWh (2003)

Uzbekistan
  46.52 billion kWh (2003)

Vanuatu
  41 million kWh (2003)

Venezuela
  87.44 billion kWh (2003)

Vietnam
  46.2 billion kWh (2004)

Virgin Islands
  1.04 billion kWh (2003)

Wake Island
  NA kWh

Wallis and Futuna
  NA kWh

West Bank
  NA kWh; note - most electricity imported from Israel; East
  Jerusalem Electric Company buys and distributes electricity to
  Palestinians in East Jerusalem and its concession in the West Bank;
  the Israel Electric Company directly supplies electricity to most
  Jewish residents and military facilities; some Palestinian
  municipalities, such as Nablus and Janin, generate their own
  electricity from small power plants

Western Sahara
  85 million kWh (2003)

World
  16.54 trillion kWh (2003 est.)

Yemen
  3.848 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Zambia
  8.347 billion kWh (2003)

Zimbabwe
  8.877 billion kWh (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2042  Electricity - consumption (kWh)


Afghanistan
  1.042 billion kWh (2003)

Albania
  6.76 billion kWh (2004)

Algeria
  24.9 billion kWh (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  120.9 million kWh (2003)

Andorra
  NA kWh

Angola
  1.9 billion kWh (2004)

Anguilla
  42.6 million kWh

Antigua and Barbuda
  93 million kWh (2003)

Argentina
  82.97 billion kWh (2004)

Armenia
  4.374 billion kWh (2005)

Aruba
  716.1 million kWh (2003)

Australia
  221 billion kWh (2004)

Austria
  64.78 billion kWh (2004)

Azerbaijan
  20.25 billion kWh (2003)

Bahamas, The
  1.683 billion kWh (2003)

Bahrain
  6.83 billion kWh (2003)

Bangladesh
  16.2 billion kWh (2003)

Barbados
  761.7 million kWh (2003)

Belarus
  34.3 billion kWh (2004)

Belgium
  79.66 billion kWh (2003)

Belize
  111.6 million kWh (2003)

Benin
  538.2 million kWh (2003)

Bermuda
  616.7 million kWh (2005)

Bhutan
  250.3 million kWh (2003)

Bolivia
  3.963 billion kWh (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  8.849 billion kWh (2003)

Botswana
  2.641 billion kWh (2004)

Brazil
  359.6 billion kWh (2004)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  NA kWh

British Virgin Islands
  32.13 million kWh (2003)

Brunei
  2.726 billion kWh (2004)

Bulgaria
  25.1 billion kWh (2004)

Burkina Faso
  349.3 million kWh (2003)

Burma
  6.875 billion kWh (2003)

Burundi
  141.4 million kWh (2003)

Cambodia
  115 million kWh (2003)

Cameroon
  2.779 billion kWh (2003)

Canada
  520.9 billion kWh (2003)

Cape Verde
  41.06 million kWh (2003)

Cayman Islands
  411 million kWh (2003)

Central African Republic
  98.58 million kWh (2003)

Chad
  111.6 million kWh (2003)

Chile
  44.13 billion kWh (2003)

China
  2.17 trillion kWh (2004)

Colombia
  48.83 billion kWh (2003)

Comoros
  16.74 million kWh (2003)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  4.324 billion kWh (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  619 million kWh (2003)

Cook Islands
  34.46 million kWh (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  7.12 billion kWh (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  3.418 billion kWh (2003)

Croatia
  15.81 billion kWh (2003)

Cuba
  13.27 billion kWh (2004)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 3.535 billion kWh (2004); north Cyprus:
  NA kWh (2003)

Czech Republic
  57.12 billion kWh (2004)

Denmark
  31.68 billion kWh (2003)

Djibouti
  223.2 million kWh (2003)

Dominica
  65.09 million kWh (2003)

Dominican Republic
  11.71 billion kWh (2003)

East Timor
  NA kWh

Ecuador
  10.55 billion kWh (2003)

Egypt
  78.16 billion kWh (2003)

El Salvador
  4.45 billion kWh (2004)

Equatorial Guinea
  27.37 million kWh (2003)

Eritrea
  251.9 million kWh (2003)

Estonia
  6.26 billion kWh (2004)

Ethiopia
  1.914 billion kWh (2003)

European Union
  2.711 trillion kWh (2002 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  20.68 million kWh (2003)

Faroe Islands
  242 million kWh (2003)

Fiji
  721.4 million kWh (2003)

Finland
  78.94 billion kWh (2003)

France
  433.3 billion kWh (2003)

French Guiana
  432.6 million kWh (2003)

French Polynesia
  459.2 million kWh (2003)

Gabon
  1.383 billion kWh (2003)

Gambia, The
  130.2 million kWh (2003)

Gaza Strip
  NA kWh

Georgia
  9.8 billion kWh (2005)

Germany
  510.4 billion kWh (2003)

Ghana
  5.081 billion kWh (2003)

Gibraltar
  98.69 million kWh (2003)

Greece
  53.5 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Greenland
  225.3 million kWh (2003)

Grenada
  148.6 million kWh (2003)

Guadeloupe
  1.084 billion kWh (2003)

Guam
  781.3 million kWh (2003)

Guatemala
  6.025 billion kWh (2003)

Guernsey
  NA kWh

Guinea
  720.8 million kWh (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  52.08 million kWh (2003)

Guyana
  724.5 million kWh (2003)

Haiti
  507.8 million kWh (2003)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA kWh

Honduras
  4.369 billion kWh (2003)

Hong Kong
  39.22 billion kWh (2004)

Hungary
  36.96 billion kWh (2003)

Iceland
  8.619 billion kWh (2004)

India
  519 billion kWh (2003)

Indonesia
  105.4 billion kWh (2004)

Iran
  132.1 billion kWh (2003)

Iraq
  33.3 billion kWh (2005)

Ireland
  22.97 billion kWh (2003)

Israel
  39.67 billion kWh (2003)

Italy
  302.2 billion kWh (2003)

Jamaica
  2.974 billion kWh (2004)

Japan
  946.3 billion kWh (2003)

Jersey
  630.1 million kWh (2004 est.)

Jordan
  7.959 billion kWh (2003)

Kazakhstan
  52.55 billion kWh (2003)

Kenya
  4.238 billion kWh (2003)

Kiribati
  11.16 million kWh (2003)

Korea, North
  17.43 billion kWh (2003)

Korea, South
  321.1 billion kWh (2004)

Kuwait
  35.52 billion kWh (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  8.783 billion kWh (2003)

Laos
  3.298 billion kWh (2003)

Latvia
  5.839 billion kWh (2003)

Lebanon
  10.67 billion kWh (2003)

Lesotho
  363.5 million kWh (2003)

Liberia
  473.8 million kWh (2003)

Libya
  13.39 billion kWh (2003)

Lithuania
  12.079 billion kWh (2004)

Luxembourg
  6.14 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Macau
  1.899 billion kWh (2004)

Macedonia
  7.933 billion kWh (2005)

Madagascar
  767.7 million kWh (2003)

Malawi
  1.206 billion kWh (2003)

Malaysia
  73.63 billion kWh (2003)

Maldives
  125.6 million kWh (2003)

Mali
  762.6 million kWh (2003)

Malta
  1.936 billion kWh (2003)

Martinique
  1.12 billion kWh (2003)

Mauritania
  172.6 million kWh (2003)

Mauritius
  1.805 billion kWh (2003)

Mayotte
  87.79 million kWh NA kWh

Mexico
  193.9 billion kWh (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  178.6 million kWh (2002)

Moldova
  3.036 billion kWh (2003)

Monaco
  NA kWh

Mongolia
  3.37 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  1.86 million kWh (2003)

Morocco
  17.58 billion kWh (2003)

Mozambique
  10.46 billion kWh (2003)

Namibia
  2.372 billion kWh (2003)

Nauru
  21.39 million kWh (2003)

Nepal
  1.85 billion kWh (2005)

Netherlands
  101.6 billion kWh (2003)

Netherlands Antilles
  945.8 million kWh (2003)

New Caledonia
  1.47 billion kWh (2003)

New Zealand
  37.03 billion kWh (2003)

Nicaragua
  1.848 billion kWh (2004)

Niger
  263.9 million kWh (2003)

Nigeria
  14.46 billion kWh (2003)

Niue
  2.79 million kWh (2003)

Norfolk Island
  NA kWh

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA kWh

Norway
  106.1 billion kWh (2003)

Oman
  9.582 billion kWh (2003)

Pakistan
  71.54 billion kWh (2003)

Panama
  4.87 billion kWh (2003)

Papua New Guinea
  1.481 billion kWh (2003)

Paraguay
  3.528 billion kWh (2003)

Peru
  21.09 billion kWh (2003)

Philippines
  44.48 billion kWh (2003)

Poland
  121.3 billion kWh (2004)

Portugal
  44.01 billion kWh (2003)

Puerto Rico
  21.42 billion kWh (2003)

Qatar
  9.053 billion kWh (2003)

Reunion
  1.107 billion kWh (2003)

Romania
  37.5 billion kWh (2003)

Russia
  811.5 billion kWh (2004)

Rwanda
  121.1 million kWh (2003)

Saint Helena
  4.65 million kWh (2003)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  103.9 million kWh (2003)

Saint Lucia
  261.4 million kWh (2003)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  41.06 million kWh (2003)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  88.35 million kWh (2003)

Samoa
  107.9 million kWh (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  13.95 million kWh (2003)

Saudi Arabia
  134.9 billion kWh (2003)

Senegal
  1.239 billion kWh (2003)

Serbia
  NA

Seychelles
  224.4 million kWh (2003)

Sierra Leone
  242.4 million kWh (2003)

Singapore
  33.2 billion kWh (2004)

Slovakia
  24.8 billion kWh (2004)

Slovenia
  12.52 billion kWh (2003)

Solomon Islands
  51.15 million kWh (2003)

Somalia
  219.1 million kWh (2003)

South Africa
  197.4 billion kWh (2003)

Spain
  231.2 billion kWh (2003)

Sri Lanka
  6.796 billion kWh (2003)

Sudan
  2.943 billion kWh (2003)

Suriname
  1.873 billion kWh (2003)

Swaziland
  1.161 billion kWh (2003)

Sweden
  131.8 billion kWh (2003)

Switzerland
  55.86 billion kWh (2003)

Syria
  28.26 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  206.1 billion kWh (2004)

Tajikistan
  15.05 billion kWh (2003)

Tanzania
  2.959 billion kWh (2003)

Thailand
  107.3 billion kWh (2003)

Togo
  654.3 million kWh (2003)

Tokelau
  NA kWh

Tonga
  31.62 million kWh (2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  5.651 billion kWh (2003)

Tunisia
  10.76 billion kWh (2003)

Turkey
  140.3 billion kWh (2005)

Turkmenistan
  8.847 billion kWh (2002)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  4.65 million kWh (2003)

Uganda
  1.448 billion kWh (2003)

Ukraine
  176 billion kWh (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  38.32 billion kWh (2002)

United Kingdom
  346.1 billion kWh (2003)

United States
  3.656 trillion kWh (2003)

Uruguay
  7.762 billion kWh (2003)

Uzbekistan
  48.45 billion kWh (2003)

Vanuatu
  38.13 million kWh (2003)

Venezuela
  81.32 billion kWh (2003)

Vietnam
  52 billion kWh (2004)

Virgin Islands
  967.3 million kWh (2003)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA kWh

West Bank
  NA kWh

Western Sahara
  83.7 million kWh (2003)

World
  15.45 trillion kWh (2003 est.)

Yemen
  2.827 billion kWh (2003 est.)

Zambia
  5.345 billion kWh (2003)

Zimbabwe
  11.22 billion kWh (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2043  Electricity - imports (kWh)


Afghanistan
  200 million kWh (2003)

Albania
  1.08 billion kWh (2004 est.)

Algeria
  200 million kWh (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  0 kWh (2003)

Andorra
  NA kWh; note - most electricity supplied by Spain and
  France; Andorra generates a small amount of hydropower

Angola
  0 kWh (2003)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 kWh (2003)

Argentina
  1.561 billion kWh (2004)

Armenia
  463 million kWh; note - imports an unknown quantity from
  Iran (2003)

Aruba
  0 kWh (2003)

Australia
  0 kWh (2003)

Austria
  16.63 billion kWh (2004)

Azerbaijan
  2.35 billion kWh (2003)

Bahamas, The
  0 kWh (2003)

Bahrain
  0 kWh (2003)

Bangladesh
  0 kWh (2003)

Barbados
  0 kWh (2003)

Belarus
  7 billion kWh (2003)

Belgium
  14.7 billion kWh (2003)

Belize
  0 kWh (2003)

Benin
  474 million kWh (2003)

Bermuda
  0 kWh (2005)

Bhutan
  10 million kWh (2003)

Bolivia
  10 million kWh (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  2.271 billion kWh (2003)

Botswana
  1.39 billion kWh (2002)

Brazil
  37.4 billion kWh; note - supplied by Paraguay (2004)

British Virgin Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Brunei
  0 kWh (2004)

Bulgaria
  1.3 billion kWh (2003)

Burkina Faso
  0 kWh (2003)

Burma
  0 kWh (2004)

Burundi
  10 million kWh; note - supplied by the Democratic Republic
  of the Congo (2003)

Cambodia
  0 kWh (2003)

Cameroon
  0 kWh (2003)

Canada
  33 billion kWh (2004)

Cape Verde
  0 kWh (2003)

Cayman Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Central African Republic
  0 kWh (2003)

Chad
  0 kWh (2003)

Chile
  2 billion kWh (2003)

China
  1.546 billion kWh (2003)

Colombia
  48.4 million kWh (2003)

Comoros
  0 kWh (2003)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  10 million kWh (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  300 million kWh (2003)

Cook Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Costa Rica
  50 million kWh (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  0 kWh (2003)

Croatia
  5.99 billion kWh (2003)

Cuba
  0 kWh (2003)

Cyprus
  0 kWh (2003)

Czech Republic
  9.776 billion kWh (2004)

Denmark
  7 billion kWh (2003)

Djibouti
  0 kWh (2003)

Dominica
  0 kWh (2003)

Dominican Republic
  0 kWh (2003)

East Timor
  0 kWh (2003)

Ecuador
  140 million kWh (2003)

Egypt
  250 million kWh (2003)

El Salvador
  473 million kWh (2004)

Equatorial Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Eritrea
  0 kWh (2003)

Estonia
  347 million kWh (2004)

Ethiopia
  0 kWh (2003)

European Union
  281.2 billion kWh (2002 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 kWh (2003)

Faroe Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Fiji
  0 kWh (2003)

Finland
  11.9 billion kWh (2003)

France
  6.2 billion kWh (2003)

French Guiana
  0 kWh (2003)

French Polynesia
  0 kWh (2003)

Gabon
  0 kWh (2003)

Gambia, The
  0 kWh (2003)

Gaza Strip
  NA kWh; note - some electricity supplied by an Israeli
  utility (2005)

Georgia
  1.2 billion kWh (2004)

Germany
  45.4 billion kWh (2003)

Ghana
  500 million kWh (2003)

Gibraltar
  0 kWh (2003)

Greece
  4.2 billion kWh (2002)

Greenland
  0 kWh (2003)

Grenada
  0 kWh (2003)

Guadeloupe
  0 kWh (2003)

Guam
  0 kWh (2003)

Guatemala
  35 million kWh (2003)

Guernsey
  0 kWh (2002)

Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 kWh (2003)

Guyana
  0 kWh (2003)

Haiti
  0 kWh (2003)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by Italy

Honduras
  335 million kWh (2003)

Hong Kong
  9.84 billion kWh (2004)

Hungary
  14.1 billion kWh (2003)

Iceland
  0 kWh (2003)

India
  1.4 billion kWh (2003)

Indonesia
  0 kWh (2004)

Iran
  600 million kWh (2003)

Iraq
  2.02 billion kWh (2005)

Ireland
  1.2 billion kWh (2003)

Israel
  0 kWh (2003)

Italy
  51.5 billion kWh (2003)

Jamaica
  0 kWh (2004)

Japan
  0 kWh (2003)

Jersey
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by France

Jordan
  972 million kWh (2003)

Kazakhstan
  2.45 billion kWh (2003)

Kenya
  200 million kWh (2003)

Kiribati
  0 kWh (2003)

Korea, North
  0 kWh (2003)

Korea, South
  0 kWh (2004)

Kuwait
  0 kWh (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  108 million kWh (2003)

Laos
  230 million kWh (2003)

Latvia
  2.7 billion kWh (2003)

Lebanon
  750 million kWh (2003)

Lesotho
  38 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa
  (2003)

Liberia
  0 kWh (2003)

Libya
  0 kWh (2003)

Lithuania
  4.144 billion kWh (2003)

Luxembourg
  5.287 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Macau
  153.3 million kWh (2004)

Macedonia
  1.662 billion kWh (2005)

Madagascar
  0 kWh (2003)

Malawi
  0 kWh (2003)

Malaysia
  0 kWh (2003)

Maldives
  0 kWh (2003)

Mali
  0 kWh (2003)

Malta
  0 kWh (2003)

Martinique
  0 kWh (2003)

Mauritania
  0 kWh (2003)

Mauritius
  0 kWh (2003)

Mexico
  390.2 million kWh (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  0 kWh (2002)

Moldova
  600 million kWh (2003)

Monaco
  NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by France

Mongolia
  130 million kWh (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  0 kWh (2003)

Morocco
  1.45 billion kWh (2003)

Mozambique
  5.875 billion kWh (2003)

Namibia
  1.065 billion kWh; note - electricity supplied by South
  Africa (2003)

Nauru
  0 kWh (2003)

Nepal
  241 million kWh (2005)

Netherlands
  20.8 billion kWh (2003)

Netherlands Antilles
  0 kWh (2003)

New Caledonia
  0 kWh (2003)

New Zealand
  0 kWh (2003)

Nicaragua
  23.3 million kWh (2004)

Niger
  50 million kWh (2003)

Nigeria
  0 kWh (2003)

Niue
  0 kWh (2003)

Northern Mariana Islands
  0 kWh

Norway
  13.5 billion kWh (2003)

Oman
  0 kWh (2003)

Pakistan
  0 kWh (2003)

Panama
  25 million kWh (2003)

Papua New Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Paraguay
  0 kWh (2003)

Peru
  0 kWh (2003)

Philippines
  0 kWh (2003)

Poland
  5 billion kWh (2004)

Portugal
  5.9 billion kWh (2003)

Puerto Rico
  0 kWh (2003)

Qatar
  0 kWh (2003)

Reunion
  0 kWh (2003)

Romania
  380 million kWh (2003)

Russia
  14 billion kWh (2002)

Rwanda
  30 million kWh (2003)

Saint Helena
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Lucia
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 kWh (2003)

Samoa
  0 kWh (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 kWh (2003)

Saudi Arabia
  0 kWh (2003)

Senegal
  0 kWh (2003)

Serbia
  11.23 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo; imports from Montenegro)
  (2004)

Seychelles
  0 kWh (2003)

Sierra Leone
  0 kWh (2003)

Singapore
  0 kWh (2004)

Slovakia
  8.731 billion kWh (2004)

Slovenia
  5.975 billion kWh (2003)

Solomon Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Somalia
  0 kWh (2003)

South Africa
  6.739 billion kWh (2003)

Spain
  8.7 billion kWh (2003)

Sri Lanka
  0 kWh (2003)

Sudan
  0 kWh (2003)

Suriname
  0 kWh (2003)

Swaziland
  821.4 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by South
  Africa (2004)

Sweden
  24.3 billion kWh (2003)

Switzerland
  30.1 billion kWh (2003)

Syria
  0 kWh (2003)

Taiwan
  0 kWh (2004)

Tajikistan
  4.81 billion kWh (2004)

Tanzania
  28 million kWh (2003)

Thailand
  980 million kWh (2003)

Togo
  500 million kWh; note - electricity supplied by Ghana (2003)

Tonga
  0 kWh (2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  0 kWh (2003)

Tunisia
  5 million kWh (2003)

Turkey
  1.2 billion kWh (2002)

Turkmenistan
  0 kWh (2002)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Uganda
  0 kWh (2003)

Ukraine
  255 million kWh (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  0 kWh (2004)

United Kingdom
  5.1 billion kWh (2003)

United States
  30.39 billion kWh (2003)

Uruguay
  654 million kWh (2003)

Uzbekistan
  10.55 billion kWh (2003)

Vanuatu
  0 kWh (2003)

Venezuela
  0 kWh (2003)

Vietnam
  NA kWh

Virgin Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Wallis and Futuna
  0 kWh (2002)

West Bank
  NA kWh

Western Sahara
  0 kWh (2003)

World
  545.2 billion kWh (2003)

Yemen
  0 kWh (2003)

Zambia
  0 kWh (2003)

Zimbabwe
  3.3 billion kWh (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2044  Electricity - exports (kWh)


Afghanistan
  0 kWh (2003)

Albania
  200 million kWh (2003)

Algeria
  400 million kWh (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  0 kWh (2003)

Andorra
  NA kWh

Angola
  0 kWh (2003)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 kWh (2003)

Argentina
  2.07 billion kWh (2004)

Armenia
  650 million kWh; note - exports an unknown quantity to
  Georgia; includes exports to Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan
  (2003)

Aruba
  0 kWh (2003)

Australia
  0 kWh (2003)

Austria
  13.53 billion kWh (2004)

Azerbaijan
  700 million kWh (2003)

Bahamas, The
  0 kWh (2003)

Bahrain
  0 kWh (2003)

Bangladesh
  0 kWh (2003)

Barbados
  0 kWh (2003)

Belarus
  800 million kWh (2004)

Belgium
  8.3 billion kWh (2003)

Belize
  0 kWh (2003)

Benin
  0 kWh (2003)

Bermuda
  0 kWh (2005)

Bhutan
  1.51 billion kWh (2003)

Bolivia
  0 kWh (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  3.2 billion kWh (2003)

Botswana
  0 kWh (2002)

Brazil
  6 million kWh (2004)

British Virgin Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Brunei
  0 kWh (2004)

Bulgaria
  6.8 billion kWh (2003)

Burkina Faso
  0 kWh (2003)

Burma
  0 kWh (2003)

Burundi
  0 kWh (2003)

Cambodia
  0 kWh (2003)

Cameroon
  0 kWh (2003)

Canada
  22 billion kWh (2004)

Cape Verde
  0 kWh (2003)

Cayman Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Central African Republic
  0 kWh (2003)

Chad
  0 kWh (2003)

Chile
  0 kWh (2003)

China
  10.6 billion kWh (2003)

Colombia
  1.082 billion kWh (2003)

Comoros
  0 kWh (2003)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1.3 billion kWh (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  0 kWh (2003)

Cook Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Costa Rica
  115 million kWh (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  1.35 billion kWh (2003)

Croatia
  550 million kWh (2003)

Cuba
  0 kWh (2003)

Cyprus
  0 kWh (2003)

Czech Republic
  25.49 billion kWh (2004)

Denmark
  15.6 billion kWh (2003)

Djibouti
  0 kWh (2003)

Dominica
  0 kWh (2003)

Dominican Republic
  0 kWh (2003)

East Timor
  0 kWh (2003)

Ecuador
  65 million kWh (2003)

Egypt
  450 million kWh (2003)

El Salvador
  91 million kWh (2004)

Equatorial Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Eritrea
  0 kWh (2003)

Estonia
  2.141 billion kWh (2004)

Ethiopia
  0 kWh (2003)

European Union
  282.6 billion kWh (2002)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 kWh (2003)

Faroe Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Fiji
  0 kWh (2003)

Finland
  7 billion kWh (2003)

France
  72.2 billion kWh (2003)

French Guiana
  0 kWh (2003)

French Polynesia
  0 kWh (2003)

Gabon
  0 kWh (2003)

Gambia, The
  0 kWh (2003)

Gaza Strip
  0 kWh (2001)

Georgia
  71 million kWh (2004)

Germany
  54.1 billion kWh (2003)

Ghana
  400 million kWh (2003)

Gibraltar
  0 kWh (2003)

Greece
  2.1 billion kWh (2002)

Greenland
  0 kWh (2003)

Grenada
  0 kWh (2003)

Guadeloupe
  0 kWh (2003)

Guam
  0 kWh (2003)

Guatemala
  425 million kWh (2003)

Guernsey
  0 kWh (2002)

Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 kWh (2003)

Guyana
  0 kWh (2003)

Haiti
  0 kWh (2003)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  0 kWh

Honduras
  0 kWh (2003)

Hong Kong
  3.086 billion kWh (2004)

Hungary
  7.1 billion kWh (2003)

Iceland
  0 kWh (2003)

India
  187 million kWh (2003)

Indonesia
  0 kWh (2004)

Iran
  840 million kWh (2003)

Iraq
  0 kWh (2005)

Ireland
  0 kWh (2003)

Israel
  1.47 billion kWh (2003)

Italy
  500 million kWh (2003)

Jamaica
  0 kWh (2004)

Japan
  0 kWh (2003)

Jordan
  4 million kWh (2003)

Kazakhstan
  6 billion kWh (2003)

Kenya
  0 kWh (2003)

Kiribati
  0 kWh (2003)

Korea, North
  0 kWh (2003)

Korea, South
  0 kWh (2004)

Kuwait
  0 kWh (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  4.13 billion kWh (2003)

Laos
  435 million kWh (2003)

Latvia
  38 million kWh (2003)

Lebanon
  0 kWh (2003)

Lesotho
  0 kWh (2003)

Liberia
  0 kWh (2003)

Libya
  0 kWh (2003)

Lithuania
  11.7 billion kWh (2003)

Luxembourg
  2.346 billion kWh (2005 est.)

Macau
  0 kWh (2004)

Macedonia
  0 kWh (2005)

Madagascar
  0 kWh (2003)

Malawi
  0 kWh (2003)

Malaysia
  100 million kWh (2003)

Maldives
  0 kWh (2003)

Mali
  0 kWh; note - recent hydropower developments may be providing
  electricity to Senegal and Mauritania (2003)

Malta
  0 kWh (2003)

Martinique
  0 kWh (2003)

Mauritania
  0 kWh (2003)

Mauritius
  0 kWh (2003)

Mexico
  1.07 billion kWh (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  0 kWh (2002)

Moldova
  300 million kWh (2003)

Mongolia
  18 million kWh (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  0 kWh (2003)

Morocco
  0 kWh (2003)

Mozambique
  9.5 billion kWh (2003)

Namibia
  55 million kWh (2003)

Nauru
  0 kWh (2003)

Nepal
  111 million kWh (2005)

Netherlands
  3.8 billion kWh (2003)

Netherlands Antilles
  0 kWh (2003)

New Caledonia
  0 kWh (2003)

New Zealand
  0 kWh (2003)

Nicaragua
  21.8 million kWh (2004)

Niger
  0 kWh (2003)

Nigeria
  40 million kWh (2003)

Niue
  0 kWh (2003)

Northern Mariana Islands
  0 kWh

Norway
  5.6 billion kWh (2003)

Oman
  0 kWh (2003)

Pakistan
  0 kWh (2003)

Panama
  175 million kWh (2003)

Papua New Guinea
  0 kWh (2003)

Paraguay
  44.17 billion kWh (2003)

Peru
  0 kWh (2003)

Philippines
  0 kWh (2003)

Poland
  15.2 billion kWh (2004)

Portugal
  3.1 billion kWh (2003)

Puerto Rico
  0 kWh (2003)

Qatar
  0 kWh (2003)

Reunion
  0 kWh (2003)

Romania
  3.3 billion kWh (2003)

Russia
  24 billion kWh (2003)

Rwanda
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Helena
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Lucia
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 kWh (2003)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 kWh (2003)

Samoa
  0 kWh (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 kWh (2003)

Saudi Arabia
  0 kWh (2003)

Senegal
  0 kWh (2003)

Serbia
  12.05 billion kWh (excluding Kosovo; exported to Montenegro)
  (2004)

Seychelles
  0 kWh (2003)

Sierra Leone
  0 kWh (2003)

Singapore
  0 kWh (2004)

Slovakia
  10.59 billion kWh (2004)

Slovenia
  5.811 billion kWh (2003)

Solomon Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Somalia
  0 kWh (2003)

South Africa
  10.14 billion kWh (2003)

Spain
  7.5 billion kWh (2003)

Sri Lanka
  0 kWh (2003)

Sudan
  0 kWh (2003)

Suriname
  0 kWh (2003)

Swaziland
  0 kWh (2004)

Sweden
  11.5 billion kWh (2003)

Switzerland
  33.2 billion kWh (2003)

Syria
  0 kWh (2003)

Taiwan
  0 kWh (2004)

Tajikistan
  3.874 billion kWh (2003)

Tanzania
  0 kWh (2003)

Thailand
  315 million kWh (2003)

Togo
  0 kWh (2003)

Tonga
  0 kWh (2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  0 kWh (2003)

Tunisia
  10 million kWh (2003)

Turkey
  600 million kWh (2002)

Turkmenistan
  1.136 billion kWh (2004)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Uganda
  160 million kWh (2003)

Ukraine
  1 billion kWh (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  0 kWh (2004)

United Kingdom
  3 billion kWh (2003)

United States
  23.97 billion kWh (2003)

Uruguay
  900 million kWh (2003)

Uzbekistan
  5.36 billion kWh (2003)

Vanuatu
  0 kWh (2003)

Venezuela
  0 kWh (2003)

Vietnam
  NA kWh

Virgin Islands
  0 kWh (2003)

Wallis and Futuna
  0 kWh (2002)

Western Sahara
  0 kWh (2003)

World
  537 billion kWh (2003)

Yemen
  0 kWh (2003)

Zambia
  2 billion kWh (2003)

Zimbabwe
  0 kWh (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2046  Population below poverty line (%)


Afghanistan
  53% (2003)

Albania
  25% (2004 est.)

Algeria
  25% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  NA%

Andorra
  NA%

Angola
  70% (2003 est.)

Anguilla
  23% (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA%

Argentina
  38.5% (June 2005)

Armenia
  43% (2003 est.)

Aruba
  NA%

Australia
  NA%

Austria
  5.9% (2004)

Azerbaijan
  49% (2002 est.)

Bahamas, The
  9.3% (2004)

Bahrain
  NA%

Bangladesh
  45% (2004 est.)

Barbados
  NA%

Belarus
  27.1% (2003 est.)

Belgium
  4% (1989 est.)

Belize
  33% (1999 est.)

Benin
  33% (2001 est.)

Bermuda
  19% (2000)

Bhutan
  NA%

Bolivia
  64% (2004 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  25% (2004 est.)

Botswana
  30.3% (2003)

Brazil
  22% (1998 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  NA%

Brunei
  NA%

Bulgaria
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP) 4% (2003)

Burkina Faso
  45% (2003 est.)

Burma
  25% (2000 est.)

Burundi
  68% (2002 est.)

Cambodia
  40% (2004 est.)

Cameroon
  48% (2000 est.)

Canada
  15.9%; note - this figure is the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO), a
  calculation that results in higher figures than found in many
  comparable economies; Canada does not have an official poverty line
  (2003)

Cape Verde
  30% (2000)

Cayman Islands
  NA%

Central African Republic
  NA%

Chad
  80% (2001 est.)

Chile
  18.2% (2005)

China
  10% (2001 est.)

Colombia
  49.2% (2005)

Comoros
  60% (2002 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA%

Congo, Republic of the
  NA%

Cook Islands
  NA%

Costa Rica
  18% (2004 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  37% (1995)

Croatia
  11% (2003)

Cuba
  NA%

Cyprus
  NA%

Czech Republic
  At risk of poverty after social transfers: 8%

Denmark
  NA%

Djibouti
  50% (2001 est.)

Dominica
  30% (2002 est.)

Dominican Republic
  25%

East Timor
  42% (2003 est.)

Ecuador
  41% (2003)

Egypt
  20% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  36.1% (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  NA%

Eritrea
  50% (2004 est.)

Estonia
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP) 5% (2003)

Ethiopia
  50% (2004 est.)

European Union
  see individual country listings

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA%

Faroe Islands
  NA%

Fiji
  25.5% (1990-91)

Finland
  NA%

France
  6.5% (2000)

French Guiana
  NA%

French Polynesia
  NA%

Gabon
  NA%

Gambia, The
  NA%

Gaza Strip
  81% (2004 est.)

Georgia
  54% (2001 est.)

Germany
  NA%

Ghana
  31.4% (1992 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA%

Greece
  NA%

Greenland
  NA%

Grenada
  32% (2000)

Guadeloupe
  NA%

Guam
  23% (2001 est.)

Guatemala
  75% (2004 est.)

Guernsey
  NA%

Guinea
  40% (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  NA%

Guyana
  NA%

Haiti
  80% (2003 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA%

Honduras
  53% (1993 est.)

Hong Kong
  NA%

Hungary
  At-risk-of poverty rate after social transfers: 12% (2003)

Iceland
  NA%

India
  25% (2002 est.)

Indonesia
  16.7% (2004)

Iran
  40% (2002 est.)

Iraq
  NA%

Ireland
  10% (1997 est.)

Isle of Man
  NA%

Israel
  21% (2005)

Italy
  NA%

Jamaica
  19.1% (2003 est.)

Japan
  NA%

Jersey
  NA%

Jordan
  30% (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  19% (2004 est.)

Kenya
  50% (2000 est.)

Kiribati
  NA%

Korea, North
  NA%

Korea, South
  15% (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  NA%

Kyrgyzstan
  40% (2004 est.)

Laos
  34% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  Below $2.15 per day (PPP): 3%

Lebanon
  28% (1999 est.)

Lesotho
  49% (1999)

Liberia
  80%

Libya
  NA%

Liechtenstein
  NA%

Lithuania
  Less than $2.15 per day (PPP): 4%

Luxembourg
  NA%

Macau
  NA%

Macedonia
  29.6% (2004 est.)

Madagascar
  50% (2004 est.)

Malawi
  55% (2004 est.)

Malaysia
  8% (1998 est.)

Maldives
  21% NA%

Mali
  64% (2001 est.)

Malta
  NA%

Marshall Islands
  NA%

Martinique
  NA%

Mauritania
  40% (2004 est.)

Mauritius
  10% (2001 est.)

Mayotte
  NA%

Mexico
  40% (2003 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  26.7%

Moldova
  80% (2001 est.)

Monaco
  NA%

Mongolia
  36.1% (2004 est.)

Montenegro
  12.2% (2003)

Montserrat
  NA%

Morocco
  19% (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  70% (2001 est.)

Namibia
  the UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report indicated that
  34.9% of the population live on $1 per day and 55.8% live on $2 per
  day

Nauru
  NA%

Nepal
  31% (2003-2004)

Netherlands
  10.5% NA%

Netherlands Antilles
  NA%

New Caledonia
  NA%

New Zealand
  NA%

Nicaragua
  50% (2001 est.)

Niger
  63% (1993 est.)

Nigeria
  60% (2000 est.)

Niue
  NA%

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA%

Norway
  NA%

Oman
  NA%

Pakistan
  32% (FY00/01 est.)

Palau
  NA%

Panama
  37% (1999 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  37% (2002 est.)

Paraguay
  32% (2005 est.)

Peru
  54% (2003 est.)

Philippines
  40% (2001 est.)

Poland
  17% (2003 est.)

Portugal
  NA%

Puerto Rico
  NA%

Qatar
  NA%

Reunion
  NA%

Romania
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers 12% (2003
  est.)

Russia
  17.8% (2004 est.)

Rwanda
  60% (2001 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA%

Saint Lucia
  NA%

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA%

Samoa
  NA%

San Marino
  NA%

Sao Tome and Principe
  54% (2004 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  NA%

Senegal
  54% (2001 est.)

Serbia
  30%
  note: data covers the former Serbia and Montenegro (1999 est.)

Seychelles
  NA%

Sierra Leone
  68% (1989 est.)

Singapore
  NA%

Slovakia
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers: 21%

Slovenia
  At-risk-of-poverty rate after social transfers: 10% (2003)

Solomon Islands
  NA%

Somalia
  NA%

South Africa
  50% (2000 est.)

Spain
  NA%

Sri Lanka
  22% (1997 est.)

Sudan
  40% (2004 est.)

Suriname
  70% (2002 est.)

Swaziland
  69% (2005)

Sweden
  NA%

Switzerland
  NA%

Syria
  20% (2004 est.)

Taiwan
  0.9% (2005)

Tajikistan
  64% (2004 est.)

Tanzania
  36% (2002 est.)

Thailand
  10% (2004 est.)

Togo
  32% (1989 est.)

Tokelau
  NA%

Tonga
  24% NA%

Trinidad and Tobago
  21% (1992 est.)

Tunisia
  7.4% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  20% (2002)

Turkmenistan
  58% (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA%

Tuvalu
  NA%

Uganda
  35% (2001 est.)

Ukraine
  29% (2003 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  NA%

United Kingdom
  17% (2002 est.)

United States
  12% (2004 est.)

Uruguay
  22% of households (2004)

Uzbekistan
  28% (2004 est.)

Vanuatu
  NA%

Venezuela
  47% (1998 est.)

Vietnam
  19.5% (2004 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA%

Wallis and Futuna
  NA%

West Bank
  46% including Gaza Strip (2004 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA%

Yemen
  45.2% (2003)

Zambia
  86% (1993)

Zimbabwe
  80% (2004 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2047  Household income or consumption by percentage share (%)


Afghanistan
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Albania
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Algeria
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 26.8% (1995)

American Samoa
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Andorra
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Angola
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Anguilla
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Antigua and Barbuda
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Argentina
  lowest 10%: NA
  highest 10%: NA

Armenia
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 41.3% (2004)

Aruba
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Australia
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 25.4% (1994)

Austria
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 22.5% (2004)

Azerbaijan
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 27.8% (1995)

Bahamas, The
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: 27%

Bahrain
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Bangladesh
  lowest 10%: 3.9%
  highest 10%: 28.6% (1995-96 est.)

Barbados
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Belarus
  lowest 10%: 5.1%
  highest 10%: 20% (1998)

Belgium
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 23% (1996)

Belize
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Benin
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Bermuda
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Bhutan
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Bolivia
  lowest 10%: 1.3%
  highest 10%: 32% (1999)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Botswana
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Brazil
  lowest 10%: 0.7%
  highest 10%: 31.27% (2002)

British Virgin Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Brunei
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Bulgaria
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 23.7% (2001)

Burkina Faso
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 46.8% (1994)

Burma
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Burundi
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 32.9% (1998)

Cambodia
  lowest 10%: 2.9%
  highest 10%: 33.8% (1997)

Cameroon
  lowest 10%: 1.9%
  highest 10%: 36.6% (1996)

Canada
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 23.8% (1994)

Cape Verde
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Cayman Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Central African Republic
  lowest 10%: 0.7%
  highest 10%: 47.7% (1993)

Chad
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Chile
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 47% (2000)

China
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 30.4% (1998)

Colombia
  lowest 10%: 7.9%
  highest 10%: 34.3% (2004)

Comoros
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Congo, Republic of the
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Cook Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Costa Rica
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 36.8% (2002)

Cote d'Ivoire
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 28.8% (1995)

Croatia
  lowest 10%: 3.4%
  highest 10%: 24.5% (2003 est.)

Cuba
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Cyprus
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Czech Republic
  lowest 10%: 4.3%
  highest 10%: 22.4% (1996)

Denmark
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 24% (2000 est.)

Djibouti
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Dominica
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Dominican Republic
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 37.9% (1998)

East Timor
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Ecuador
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 32%
  note: data for urban households only (October 2003)

Egypt
  lowest 10%: 4.4%
  highest 10%: 25% (1995)

El Salvador
  lowest 10%: 1.4%
  highest 10%: 39.3% (2001)

Equatorial Guinea
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Eritrea
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Estonia
  lowest 10%: 1.9%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (2000)

Ethiopia
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 33.7% (1995)

European Union
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.5% (1995 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Faroe Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Fiji
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Finland
  lowest 10%: 4.2%
  highest 10%: 21.6% (1991)

France
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.1% (1995)

French Guiana
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

French Polynesia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Gabon
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Gambia, The
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Gaza Strip
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Georgia
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 27.9% (1996)

Germany
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 25.1% (1997)

Ghana
  lowest 10%: 2.2%
  highest 10%: 30.1% (1999)

Gibraltar
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Greece
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 28.3% (1998 est.)

Greenland
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Grenada
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Guadeloupe
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Guam
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Guatemala
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 46% (1998)

Guernsey
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Guinea
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 32% (1994)

Guinea-Bissau
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 42.4% (1991)

Guyana
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Haiti
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Honduras
  lowest 10%: 0.6%
  highest 10%: 42.7% (1998)

Hong Kong
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Hungary
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 22.2% (2002)

Iceland
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

India
  lowest 10%: 3.5%
  highest 10%: 33.5% (1997)

Indonesia
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (2002)

Iran
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Iraq
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Ireland
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 27.3% (1997)

Isle of Man
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Israel
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 28.3% (1997)

Italy
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 26.6% (2000)

Jamaica
  lowest 10%: 2.7%
  highest 10%: 30.3% (2000)

Japan
  lowest 10%: 4.8%
  highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)

Jersey
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Jordan
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 29.8% (1997)

Kazakhstan
  lowest 10%: 3.3%
  highest 10%: 26.5% (2004 est.)

Kenya
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)

Kiribati
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Korea, North
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Korea, South
  lowest 10%: 2.9%
  highest 10%: 25% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Kyrgyzstan
  lowest 10%: 3.9%
  highest 10%: 23.3% (2001)

Laos
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 30.6% (1997)

Latvia
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 26.1% (1998)

Lebanon
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Lesotho
  lowest 10%: 0.9%
  highest 10%: 43.4%

Liberia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Libya
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Liechtenstein
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Lithuania
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 24.9% (2000)

Luxembourg
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Macau
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Macedonia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Madagascar
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 29% (1999)

Malawi
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Malaysia
  lowest 10%: 1.4%
  highest 10%: 39.2% (2003 est.)

Maldives
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Mali
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 40.4% (1994)

Malta
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Marshall Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Martinique
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Mauritania
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 30.2% (2000)

Mauritius
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Mayotte
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Mexico
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 35.6% (2002)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Moldova
  lowest 10%: 2.2%
  highest 10%: 30.7% (1997)

Monaco
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Mongolia
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 37% (1995)

Montserrat
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Morocco
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 30.9% (1998-99)

Mozambique
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 31.7% (1997)

Namibia
  lowest 10%: NA% 0.5%
  highest 10%: NA% 64.5%

Nauru
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Nepal
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 39.1% (2003-2004)

Netherlands
  lowest 10%: 2.5%
  highest 10%: 22.9% (1999)

Netherlands Antilles
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

New Caledonia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

New Zealand
  lowest 10%: NA
  highest 10%: NA (1991 est.)

Nicaragua
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 45% (2001)

Niger
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 35.4% (1995)

Nigeria
  lowest 10%: 1.6%
  highest 10%: 40.8% (1996-97)

Niue
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Northern Mariana Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Norway
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 21.8% (1995)

Oman
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Pakistan
  lowest 10%: 4.1%
  highest 10%: 27.6% (FY96/97)

Palau
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Panama
  lowest 10%: 1.2%
  highest 10%: 35.7% (1997)

Papua New Guinea
  lowest 10%: 1.7%
  highest 10%: 40.5% (1996)

Paraguay
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 43.8% (1998)

Peru
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 37.2% (2000)

Philippines
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 31.9% (2003)

Poland
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 26.7% (2002)

Portugal
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 28.4% (1995 est.)

Puerto Rico
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Qatar
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Reunion
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Romania
  lowest 10%: 2.4%
  highest 10%: 27.6% (2003)

Russia
  lowest 10%: 1.7%
  highest 10%: 38.7% (1998)

Rwanda
  lowest 10%: 4.2%
  highest 10%: 24.2% (1985)

Saint Helena
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Saint Lucia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Samoa
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

San Marino
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Sao Tome and Principe
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Saudi Arabia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Senegal
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 33.5% (1995)

Seychelles
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Sierra Leone
  lowest 10%: 0.5%
  highest 10%: 43.6% (1989)

Singapore
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Slovakia
  lowest 10%: 3.1%
  highest 10%: 20.9% (1992)

Slovenia
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 21.4% (1998)

Solomon Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Somalia
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

South Africa
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 45.9% (1994)

Spain
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1990)

Sri Lanka
  lowest 10%: 3.5%
  highest 10%: 28% (1995)

Sudan
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Suriname
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Swaziland
  lowest 10%: 1%
  highest 10%: 50.2% (1995)

Sweden
  lowest 10%: 3.7%
  highest 10%: 20.1% (1992)

Switzerland
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1992)

Syria
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Taiwan
  lowest 10%: 6.7%
  highest 10%: 41.1% (2002 est.)

Tajikistan
  lowest 10%: 3.2%
  highest 10%: 25.2% (1998)

Tanzania
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 30.1% (1993)

Thailand
  lowest 10%: 2.8%
  highest 10%: 32.4% (1998)

Togo
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Tonga
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Trinidad and Tobago
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Tunisia
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 31.8% (1995)

Turkey
  lowest 10%: 2.3%
  highest 10%: 30.7% (2000)

Turkmenistan
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 31.7% (1998)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Tuvalu
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Uganda
  lowest 10%: 4%
  highest 10%: 21% (2000)

Ukraine
  lowest 10%: 3.4%
  highest 10%: 24.8% (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

United Kingdom
  lowest 10%: 2.1%
  highest 10%: 28.5% (1999)

United States
  lowest 10%: 1.8%
  highest 10%: 30.5% (1997)

Uruguay
  lowest 10%: 3.7%
  highest 10%: 25.8% (1997)

Uzbekistan
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 22% (2000)

Vanuatu
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Venezuela
  lowest 10%: 0.8%
  highest 10%: 36.5% (1998)

Vietnam
  lowest 10%: 3.6%
  highest 10%: 29.9% (1998)

Virgin Islands
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Wallis and Futuna
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

West Bank
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

Western Sahara
  lowest 10%: NA%
  highest 10%: NA%

World
  lowest 10%: 2.6%
  highest 10%: 29.4% (2000 est.)

Yemen
  lowest 10%: 3%
  highest 10%: 25.9% (2003)

Zambia
  lowest 10%: 1.1%
  highest 10%: 41% (1998)

Zimbabwe
  lowest 10%: 2%
  highest 10%: 40.4% (1995)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2048  Labor force - by occupation (%)


Afghanistan
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 10%
  services: 10% (2004 est.)

Albania
  agriculture: 58%
  industry: 19%
  services: 23% (2004 est.)

Algeria
  agriculture 14%, industry 13.4%, construction and public
  works 10%, trade 14.6%, government 32%, other 16% (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  agriculture: 34%
  industry: 33%
  services: 33% (1990)

Andorra
  agriculture: 0.34%
  industry: 19.63%
  services: 80.03% (2004)

Angola
  agriculture: 85%
  industry and services: 15% (2003 est.)

Anguilla
  agriculture/fishing/forestry/mining 4%, manufacturing 3%,
  construction 18%, transportation and utilities 10%, commerce 36%,
  services 29% (2000 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 11%
  services: 82% (1983)

Argentina
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Armenia
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: 25%
  services: 30% (2002 est.)

Aruba
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%
  note: most employment is in wholesale and retail trade and repair,
  followed by hotels and restaurants; oil refining

Australia
  agriculture: 3.6%
  industry: 21.2%
  services: 75.2% (2004 est.)

Austria
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 27%
  services: 70% (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  agriculture: 41%
  industry: 7%
  services: 52% (2001)

Bahamas, The
  agriculture 5%, industry 5%, tourism 50%, other
  services 40% (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 79%
  services: 20% (1997 est.)

Bangladesh
  agriculture: 63%
  industry: 11%
  services: 26% (FY95/96)

Barbados
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 15%
  services: 75% (1996 est.)

Belarus
  agriculture: 14%
  industry: 34.7%
  services: 51.3% (2003 est.)

Belgium
  agriculture: 1.3%
  industry: 24.5%
  services: 74.2% (2003 est.)

Belize
  agriculture: 27%
  industry: 18%
  services: 55% (2001 est.)

Bermuda
  agriculture and fishing 3%, laborers 17%, clerical 19%,
  professional and technical 21%, administrative and managerial 15%,
  sales 7%, services 19% (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  agriculture: 93%
  industry: 2%
  services: 5%

Bolivia
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Botswana
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Brazil
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 14%
  services: 66% (2003 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  agriculture: 0.6%
  industry: 40%
  services: 59.4%

Brunei
  agriculture: 2.9%
  industry: 61.1%
  services: 36% (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  agriculture: 11%
  industry: 32.7%
  services: 56.3% (3rd qtr. 2004 est.)

Burkina Faso
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10% (2000 est.)

Burma
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 7%
  services: 23% (2001)

Burundi
  agriculture: 93.6%
  industry: 2.3%
  services: 4.1% (2002 est.)

Cambodia
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA% (2004 est.)

Cameroon
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 13%
  services: 17%

Canada
  agriculture 2%, manufacturing 14%, construction 5%, services
  75%, other 3% (2004)

Cayman Islands
  agriculture: 1.4%
  industry: 12.6%
  services: 86% (1995)

Chad
  agriculture: 80% (subsistence farming, herding, and fishing)
  industry and services: 20%

Chile
  agriculture: 13.6%
  industry: 23.4%
  services: 63% (2003)

China
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 22%
  services: 29% (2003 est.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  note: the Cocos Islands Cooperative Society
  Ltd. employs construction workers, stevedores, and lighterage
  workers; tourism employs others

Colombia
  agriculture: 22.7%
  industry: 18.7%
  services: 58.5% (2000 est.)

Comoros
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20%

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Cook Islands
  agriculture: 29%
  industry: 15%
  services: 56% (1995)

Costa Rica
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 22%
  services: 58% (1999 est.)

Croatia
  agriculture: 2.7%
  industry: 32.8%
  services: 64.5% (2004)

Cuba
  agriculture: 21.2%
  industry: 14.4%
  services: 64.4% (2004)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: agriculture 7.4%, industry 38.2%,
  services 54.4% (2004 est.)
  north Cyprus: agriculture 14.5%, industry 29%, services 56.5% (2004
  est.)

Czech Republic
  agriculture: 4.1%
  industry: 37.6%
  services: 58.3% (2003)

Denmark
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 21%
  services: 76% (2004 est.)

Djibouti
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Dominica
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 32%
  services: 28%

Dominican Republic
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: 24.3%
  services: 58.7% (1998 est.)

East Timor
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Ecuador
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 24%
  services: 68% (2001)

Egypt
  agriculture: 32%
  industry: 17%
  services: 51% (2001 est.)

El Salvador
  agriculture: 17.1%
  industry: 17.1%
  services: 65.8% (2003 est.)

Eritrea
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20%

Estonia
  agriculture: 11%
  industry: 20%
  services: 69% (1999 est.)

Ethiopia
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 8%
  services: 12% (1985)

European Union
  agriculture: 4.4%
  industry: 27.2%
  services: 67.2%
  note: the remainder is in miscellaneous public and private sector
  industries and services (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  agriculture: 95% (mostly
  sheepherding and fishing)
  industry and services: 5%

Faroe Islands
  agriculture: 33%
  industry: 33%
  services: 34%

Fiji
  agriculture: 70%
  industry and services: 30% (2001 est.)

Finland
  agriculture and forestry 8%, industry 22%, construction 6%,
  commerce 14%, finance, insurance, and business services 10%,
  transport and communications 8%, public services 32%

France
  agriculture: 4.1%
  industry: 24.4%
  services: 71.5% (1999)

French Guiana
  agriculture: 18.2%
  industry: 21.2%
  services: 60.6% (1980)

French Polynesia
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 19%
  services: 68% (2002)

Gabon
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 15%
  services: 25%

Gambia, The
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: 19%
  services: 6%

Gaza Strip
  agriculture: 11.9%
  industry: 18%
  services: 70.1% (2nd qtr. 2005)

Georgia
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 20%
  services: 40% (1999 est.)

Germany
  agriculture: 2.8%
  industry: 33.4%
  services: 63.8% (1999)

Ghana
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 15%
  services: 25% (1999 est.)

Gibraltar
  agriculture: negligible
  industry: 40%
  services: 60%

Greece
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 20%
  services: 68% (2004 est.)

Grenada
  agriculture: 24%
  industry: 14%
  services: 62% (1999 est.)

Guadeloupe
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 20%
  services: 65% (2002)

Guam
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 10%
  services: 64% (2004 est.)

Guatemala
  agriculture: 50%
  industry: 15%
  services: 35% (1999 est.)

Guinea
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2000 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  agriculture: 82%
  industry and services: 18% (2000 est.)

Guyana
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Haiti
  agriculture: 66%
  industry: 9%
  services: 25%

Holy See (Vatican City)
  note: essentially services with a small
  amount of industry; dignitaries, priests, nuns, guards, and 3,000
  lay workers live outside the Vatican

Honduras
  agriculture: 34%
  industry: 21%
  services: 45% (2001 est.)

Hong Kong
  manufacturing 7.5%, construction 2.9%, wholesale and
  retail trade, restaurants, and hotels 43.9%, financing, insurance,
  and real estate 19.6%, transport and communications 7.1%, community
  and social services 18.8%
  note: above data exclude public sector (2005 est.)

Hungary
  agriculture: 5.5%
  industry: 33.3%
  services: 61.2% (2003)

Iceland
  agriculture: 10.3%
  industry: 18.3%
  services: 71.4% (2003)

India
  agriculture: 60%
  industry: 17%
  services: 23% (1999)

Indonesia
  agriculture: 46.5%
  industry: 11.8%
  services: 41.7% (1999 est.)

Iran
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 25%
  services: 45% (2001 est.)

Iraq
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Ireland
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 29%
  services: 64% (2002 est.)

Isle of Man
  agriculture, forestry and fishing 3%, manufacturing 11%,
  construction 10%, transport and communication 8%, wholesale and
  retail distribution 11%, professional and scientific services 18%,
  public administration 6%, banking and finance 18%, tourism 2%,
  entertainment and catering 3%, miscellaneous services 10%

Israel
  agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2.6%, manufacturing 20.2%,
  construction 7.5%, commerce 12.8%, transport, storage, and
  communications 6.2%, finance and business 13.1%, personal and other
  services 6.4%, public services 31.2% (1996)

Italy
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 32%
  services: 63% (2001)

Jamaica
  agriculture: 19.3%
  industry: 16.6%
  services: 64.1% (2004)

Japan
  agriculture: 4.6%
  industry: 27.8%
  services: 67.7% (2004)

Jordan
  agriculture: 5%
  industry: 12.5%
  services: 82.5% (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 30%
  services: 50% (2002 est.)

Kenya
  agriculture: 75%
  industry and services: 25% (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  2.70213%, 32%, 65.3%

Korea, North
  agriculture: 36%
  industry and services: 64%

Korea, South
  agriculture: 6.4%
  industry: 26.4%
  services: 67.2% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Kyrgyzstan
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 15%
  services: 30% (2000 est.)

Laos
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (1997 est.)

Latvia
  agriculture: 15%
  industry: 25%
  services: 60% (2000 est.)

Lebanon
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Lesotho
  agriculture: 86% of resident population engaged in
  subsistence agriculture; roughly 35% of the active male wage earners
  work in South Africa
  industry and services: 14%

Liberia
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 8%
  services: 22% (2000 est.)

Libya
  agriculture: 17%
  industry: 23%
  services: 59% (2004 est.)

Liechtenstein
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 47%
  services: 51% (31 December 2001)

Lithuania
  agriculture: 15.8%
  industry: 28.2%
  services: 56% (2004 est.)

Luxembourg
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 13%
  services: 86% (2004 est.)

Macau
  manufacturing 13.7%, construction 10.5%, transport and
  communications 5.9%, wholesale and retail trade 14.6%, restaurants
  and hotels 10.3%, gambling 17.9%, public sector 7.8%, other services
  and agriculture 19.3% (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Malawi
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10% (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  agriculture: 14.5%
  industry: 36%
  services: 49.5% (2000 est.)

Maldives
  agriculture: 22%
  industry: 18%
  services: 60% (1995)

Mali
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2001 est.)

Malta
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 22%
  services: 75% (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  agriculture: 21.4%
  industry: 20.9%
  services: 57.7%

Martinique
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 17%
  services: 73% (1997)

Mauritania
  agriculture: 50%
  industry: 10%
  services: 40% (2001 est.)

Mauritius
  agriculture and fishing 14%, construction and industry
  36%, transportation and communication 7%, trade, restaurants, hotels
  16%, finance 3%, other services 24% (1995)

Mexico
  agriculture: 18%
  industry: 24%
  services: 58% (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  note: 0.9% two-thirds are government
  employees, 34.4%, 64.7%

Moldova
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 14%
  services: 46% (1998)

Mongolia
  herding/agriculture 42%, mining 4%, manufacturing 6%, trade
  14%, services 29%, public sector 5% (2003)

Montenegro
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 30%
  services: 68% (2004)

Morocco
  agriculture: 40%
  industry: 15%
  services: 45% (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  agriculture: 81%
  industry: 6%
  services: 13% (1997 est.)

Namibia
  agriculture: 47%
  industry: 20%
  services: 33% (1999 est.)

Nauru
  note: 0.1% employed in mining phosphates, public
  administration, education, and transportation

Nepal
  agriculture: 76%
  industry: 6%
  services: 18%

Netherlands
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 19%
  services: 79% (2004 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 20%
  services: 79% (2005 est.)

New Caledonia
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: 20%
  services: 60% (1999 est.)

New Zealand
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 25%
  services: 65% (1995)

Nicaragua
  agriculture: 30.5%
  industry: 17.3%
  services: 52.2% (2003 est.)

Niger
  agriculture: 90%
  industry: 6%
  services: 4%

Nigeria
  agriculture: 70%
  industry: 10%
  services: 20% (1999 est.)

Niue
  note: most work on family plantations; paid work exists only in
  government service, small industry, and the Niue Development Board

Norfolk Island
  agriculture: 10%
  industry and services: 90%

Northern Mariana Islands
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Norway
  agriculture: 4%
  industry: 22%
  services: 74% (1995)

Oman
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Pakistan
  agriculture: 42%
  industry: 20%
  services: 38% (2004 est.)

Palau
  agriculture: 20%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA% (1990)

Panama
  agriculture: 20.8%
  industry: 18%
  services: 61.2% (1995 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  agriculture: 85%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Paraguay
  agriculture: 45%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Peru
  agriculture: 9%
  industry: 18%
  services: 73% (2001)

Philippines
  agriculture: 36%
  industry: 16%
  services: 48% (2004 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  note: no business community in the usual sense;
  some public works; subsistence farming and fishing

Poland
  agriculture: 16.1%
  industry: 29%
  services: 54.9% (2002)

Portugal
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 30%
  services: 60% (1999 est.)

Puerto Rico
  agriculture: 3%
  industry: 20%
  services: 77% (2000 est.)

Reunion
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 12%
  services: 75% (2000)

Romania
  agriculture: 31.6%
  industry: 30.7%
  services: 37.7% (2004)

Russia
  agriculture: 10.3%
  industry: 21.4%
  services: 68.3% (2004 est.)

Rwanda
  agriculture: 90%
  industry and services: 10%

Saint Helena
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 48%
  services: 46% (1987 est.)

Saint Lucia
  agriculture: 21.7%
  industry: 24.7%
  services: 53.6% (2002 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  agriculture: 18%
  industry: 41%
  services: 41% (1996 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  agriculture: 26%
  industry: 17%
  services: 57% (1980 est.)

Samoa
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

San Marino
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 42%
  services: 57% (2000 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  note: population mainly engaged in subsistence
  agriculture and fishing; shortages of skilled workers

Saudi Arabia
  agriculture: 12%
  industry: 25%
  services: 63% (1999 est.)

Senegal
  agriculture: 77%
  industry and services: 23% (1990 est.)

Serbia
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 46%
  services: 24%
  note: excluding Kosovo and Montenegro (2002)

Seychelles
  agriculture: 10%
  industry: 19%
  services: 71% (1989)

Sierra Leone
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Singapore
  manufacturing 18%, construction 6%, transportation and
  communication 11%, financial, business, and other services 39%,
  other 26% (2003)

Slovakia
  agriculture 5.8%, industry 29.3%, construction 9%, services
  55.9% (2003)

Slovenia
  agriculture: 4.8%
  industry: 39.1%
  services: 56.1% (2004)

Solomon Islands
  agriculture: 75%
  industry: 5%
  services: 20% (2000 est.)

Somalia
  agriculture: 71%
  industry and services: 29%

South Africa
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 25%
  services: 45% (1999 est.)

Spain
  agriculture: 5.3%
  industry: 30.1%
  services: 64.6% (2004 est.)

Sri Lanka
  agriculture: 38%
  industry: 17%
  services: 45% (1998 est.)

Sudan
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 7%
  services: 13% (1998 est.)

Suriname
  agriculture: 8%
  industry: 14%
  services: 78%

Swaziland
  agriculture: NA%
  industry: NA%
  services: NA%

Sweden
  agriculture: 2%
  industry: 24%
  services: 74% (2000 est.)

Switzerland
  agriculture: 4.6%
  industry: 26.3%
  services: 69.1% (1998)

Syria
  agriculture: 30%
  industry: 27%
  services: 43% (2002 est.)

Taiwan
  agriculture: 6%
  industry: 35.8%
  services: 58.2% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  agriculture: 67.2%
  industry: 7.5%
  services: 25.3% (2000 est.)

Tanzania
  agriculture: 80%
  industry and services: 20% (2002 est.)

Thailand
  agriculture: 49%
  industry: 14%
  services: 37% (2000 est.)

Togo
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 5%
  services: 30% (1998 est.)

Tonga
  agriculture: 65%
  industry and services: 35% (1997 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  agriculture 9.5%, manufacturing, mining, and
  quarrying 14%, construction and utilities 12.4%, services 64.1%
  (1997 est.)

Tunisia
  agriculture: 55%
  industry: 23%
  services: 22% (1995 est.)

Turkey
  agriculture: 35.9%
  industry: 22.8%
  services: 41.2% (3rd qtr. 2004)

Turkmenistan
  agriculture: 48.2%
  industry: 13.8%
  services: 37% (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  note: about 33% in government and 20% in
  agriculture and fishing; significant numbers in tourism, financial,
  and other services

Tuvalu
  note: people make a living mainly through exploitation of the
  sea, reefs, and atolls and from wages sent home by those abroad
  (mostly workers in the phosphate industry and sailors)

Uganda
  agriculture: 82%
  industry: 5%
  services: 13% (1999 est.)

Ukraine
  agriculture: 24%
  industry: 32%
  services: 44% (1996)

United Arab Emirates
  agriculture: 7%
  industry: 15%
  services: 78% (2000 est.)

United Kingdom
  agriculture: 1.5%
  industry: 19.1%
  services: 79.5% (2004)

United States
  farming, forestry, and fishing 0.7%, manufacturing,
  extraction, transportation, and crafts 22.9%, managerial,
  professional, and technical 34.7%, sales and office 25.4%, other
  services 16.3%
  note: figures exclude the unemployed (2005)

Uruguay
  agriculture: 14%
  industry: 16%
  services: 70%

Uzbekistan
  agriculture: 44%
  industry: 20%
  services: 36% (1995)

Vanuatu
  agriculture: 65%
  industry: 5%
  services: 30% (2000 est.)

Venezuela
  agriculture: 13%
  industry: 23%
  services: 64% (1997 est.)

Vietnam
  agriculture: 56.8%
  industry: 37%
  services: 6.2% (July 2005)

Virgin Islands
  agriculture: 1%
  industry: 19%
  services: 80% (2003 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  agriculture: 80%
  industry: 4%
  services: 16% (2001 est.)

West Bank
  agriculture: 18.4%
  industry: 24%
  services: 57.6% (April-June 2005)

Western Sahara
  agriculture: 50%
  industry and services: 50%

World
  agriculture: 42%
  industry: 21%
  services: 37% (2002 est.)

Yemen
  note: most people are employed in agriculture and herding;
  services, construction, industry, and commerce account for less than
  one-fourth of the labor force

Zambia
  agriculture: 85%
  industry: 6%
  services: 9%

Zimbabwe
  agriculture: 66%
  industry: 10%
  services: 24% (1996)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2049  Exports - commodities


Afghanistan
  opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton,
  hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems

Albania
  textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores,
  crude oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco

Algeria
  petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products 97%

American Samoa
  canned tuna 93% (2004 est.)

Andorra
  tobacco products, furniture

Angola
  crude oil, diamonds, refined petroleum products, gas, coffee,
  sisal, fish and fish products, timber, cotton

Anguilla
  lobster, fish, livestock, salt, concrete blocks, rum

Antigua and Barbuda
  petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%,
  machinery and transport equipment 17%, food and live animals 4%,
  other 8%

Argentina
  edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor
  vehicles

Armenia
  diamonds, mineral products, foodstuffs, energy

Aruba
  live animals and animal products, art and collectibles,
  machinery and electrical equipment, transport equipment

Australia
  coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat,
  machinery and transport equipment

Austria
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper and
  paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles,
  foodstuffs

Azerbaijan
  oil and gas 90%, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs

Bahamas, The
  mineral products and salt, animal products, rum,
  chemicals, fruit and vegetables

Bahrain
  petroleum and petroleum products, aluminum, textiles

Bangladesh
  garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and
  seafood (2001)

Barbados
  sugar and molasses, rum, other foods and beverages,
  chemicals, electrical components

Belarus
  machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals,
  metals, textiles, foodstuffs

Belgium
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and
  metal products, foodstuffs

Belize
  sugar, bananas, citrus, clothing, fish products, molasses,
  wood

Benin
  cotton, crude oil, palm products, cocoa

Bermuda
  reexports of pharmaceuticals

Bhutan
  electricity (to India), cardamom, gypsum, timber,
  handicrafts, cement, fruit, precious stones, spices

Bolivia
  natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum,
  zinc ore, tin

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  metals, clothing, wood products

Botswana
  diamonds, copper, nickel, soda ash, meat, textiles

Brazil
  transport equipment, iron ore, soybeans, footwear, coffee,
  autos

British Virgin Islands
  rum, fresh fish, fruits, animals; gravel, sand

Brunei
  crude oil, natural gas, refined products

Bulgaria
  clothing, footwear, iron and steel, machinery and
  equipment, fuels

Burkina Faso
  cotton, livestock, gold

Burma
  clothing, gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice

Burundi
  coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, hides

Cambodia
  clothing, timber, rubber, rice, fish, tobacco, footwear

Cameroon
  crude oil and petroleum products, lumber, cocoa beans,
  aluminum, coffee, cotton

Canada
  motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft,
  telecommunications equipment; chemicals, plastics, fertilizers; wood
  pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, electricity, aluminum

Cape Verde
  fuel, shoes, garments, fish, hides

Cayman Islands
  turtle products, manufactured consumer goods

Central African Republic
  diamonds, timber, cotton, coffee, tobacco

Chad
  cotton, cattle, gum arabic, oil

Chile
  copper, fruit, fish products, paper and pulp, chemicals, wine

China
  machinery and equipment, plastics, optical and medical
  equipment, iron and steel

Christmas Island
  phosphate

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  copra

Colombia
  petroleum, coffee, coal, apparel, bananas, cut flowers

Comoros
  vanilla, ylang-ylang (perfume essence), cloves, copra

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  diamonds, copper, crude oil,
  coffee, cobalt

Congo, Republic of the
  petroleum, lumber, plywood, sugar, cocoa,
  coffee, diamonds

Cook Islands
  copra, papayas, fresh and canned citrus fruit, coffee;
  fish; pearls and pearl shells; clothing

Costa Rica
  coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples; textiles, electronic
  components, medical equipment

Cote d'Ivoire
  cocoa, coffee, timber, petroleum, cotton, bananas,
  pineapples, palm oil, fish

Croatia
  transport equipment, textiles, chemicals, foodstuffs, fuels

Cuba
  sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, coffee

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: citrus, potatoes, pharmaceuticals,
  cement, clothing and cigarettes; north Cyprus: citrus, potatoes,
  textiles

Czech Republic
  machinery and transport equipment 52%, chemicals 5%,
  raw materials and fuel 9% (2003)

Denmark
  machinery and instruments, meat and meat products, dairy
  products, fish, chemicals, furniture, ships, windmills

Djibouti
  reexports, hides and skins, coffee (in transit)

Dominica
  bananas, soap, bay oil, vegetables, grapefruit, oranges

Dominican Republic
  ferronickel, sugar, gold, silver, coffee, cocoa,
  tobacco, meats, consumer goods

East Timor
  coffee, sandalwood, marble; note - potential for oil and
  vanilla exports

Ecuador
  petroleum, bananas, cut flowers, shrimp

Egypt
  crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal
  products, chemicals

El Salvador
  offshore assembly exports, coffee, sugar, shrimp,
  textiles, chemicals, electricity

Equatorial Guinea
  petroleum, methanol, timber, cocoa

Eritrea
  livestock, sorghum, textiles, food, small manufactures (2000)

Estonia
  machinery and equipment 33%, wood and paper 15%, textiles
  14%, food products 8%, furniture 7%, metals, chemical products (2001)

Ethiopia
  coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds

European Union
  machinery, motor vehicles, aircraft, plastics,
  pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, fuels, iron and steel,
  nonferrous metals, wood pulp and paper products, textiles, meat,
  dairy products, fish, alcoholic beverages.

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  wool, hides, meat

Faroe Islands
  fish and fish products 94%, stamps, ships (1999)

Fiji
  sugar, garments, gold, timber, fish, molasses, coconut oil

Finland
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals; timber, paper,
  pulp (1999)

France
  machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics,
  chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages

French Guiana
  shrimp, timber, gold, rum, rosewood essence, clothing

French Polynesia
  cultured pearls, coconut products, mother-of-pearl,
  vanilla, shark meat

Gabon
  crude oil 77%, timber, manganese, uranium (2001)

Gambia, The
  peanut products, fish, cotton lint, palm kernels,
  re-exports

Gaza Strip
  citrus, flowers, textiles

Georgia
  scrap metal, machinery, chemicals; fuel reexports; citrus
  fruits, tea, wine

Germany
  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Ghana
  gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminum, manganese ore,
  diamonds

Gibraltar
  (principally reexports) petroleum 51%, manufactured goods
  41%, other 8%

Greece
  food and beverages, manufactured goods, petroleum products,
  chemicals, textiles

Greenland
  fish and fish products 94% (prawns 63%)

Grenada
  bananas, cocoa, nutmeg, fruit and vegetables, clothing, mace

Guadeloupe
  bananas, sugar, rum, melons, spring water

Guam
  mostly transshipments of refined petroleum products;
  construction materials, fish, food and beverage products

Guatemala
  coffee, sugar, petroleum, apparel, bananas, fruits and
  vegetables, cardamom

Guernsey
  tomatoes, flowers and ferns, sweet peppers, eggplant, other
  vegetables

Guinea
  bauxite, alumina, gold, diamonds, coffee, fish, agricultural
  products

Guinea-Bissau
  cashew nuts, shrimp, peanuts, palm kernels, sawn lumber

Guyana
  sugar, gold, bauxite/alumina, rice, shrimp, molasses, rum,
  timber

Haiti
  manufactures, coffee, oils, cocoa, mangoes

Honduras
  coffee, shrimp, bananas, gold, palm oil, fruit, lobster,
  lumber

Hong Kong
  electrical machinery and appliances, textiles, apparel,
  footwear, watches and clocks, toys, plastics, precious stones,
  printed material

Hungary
  machinery and equipment 61.1%, other manufactures 28.7%,
  food products 6.5%, raw materials 2%, fuels and electricity 1.6%
  (2003)

Iceland
  fish and fish products 70%, aluminum, animal products,
  ferrosilicon, diatomite

India
  textile goods, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals,
  leather manufactures

Indonesia
  oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, textiles,
  rubber

Iran
  petroleum 80%, chemical and petrochemical products, fruits and
  nuts, carpets

Iraq
  crude oil (83.9%), crude materials excluding fuels (8.0%), food
  and live animals (5.0%)

Ireland
  machinery and equipment, computers, chemicals,
  pharmaceuticals; live animals, animal products

Isle of Man
  tweeds, herring, processed shellfish, beef, lamb

Israel
  machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural
  products, chemicals, textiles and apparel

Italy
  engineering products, textiles and clothing, production
  machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food,
  beverages and tobacco; minerals, and nonferrous metals

Jamaica
  alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, rum, coffee, yams,
  beverages, chemicals, wearing apparel, mineral fuels

Japan
  transport equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors,
  electrical machinery, chemicals

Jersey
  light industrial and electrical goods, foodstuffs, textiles

Jordan
  clothing, phosphates, fertilizers, potash, vegetables,
  manufactures, pharmaceuticals

Kazakhstan
  oil and oil products 58%, ferrous metals 24%, chemicals
  5%, machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001)

Kenya
  tea, horticultural products, coffee, petroleum products, fish,
  cement

Kiribati
  copra 62%, coconuts, seaweed, fish

Korea, North
  minerals, metallurgical products, manufactures
  (including armaments), textiles, fishery products

Korea, South
  semiconductors, wireless telecommunications equipment,
  motor vehicles, computers, steel, ships, petrochemicals

Kuwait
  oil and refined products, fertilizers

Kyrgyzstan
  cotton, wool, meat, tobacco; gold, mercury, uranium,
  natural gas, hydropower; machinery; shoes

Laos
  garments, wood products, coffee, electricity, tin

Latvia
  wood and wood products, machinery and equipment, metals,
  textiles, foodstuffs

Lebanon
  authentic jewelry, inorganic chemicals, miscellaneous
  consumer goods, fruit, tobacco, construction minerals, electric
  power machinery and switchgear, textile fibers, paper

Lesotho
  manufactures 75% (clothing, footwear, road vehicles), wool
  and mohair, food and live animals (2000)

Liberia
  rubber, timber, iron, diamonds, cocoa, coffee

Libya
  crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas

Liechtenstein
  small specialty machinery, connectors for audio and
  video, parts for motor vehicles, dental products, hardware, prepared
  foodstuffs, electronic equipment, optical products

Lithuania
  mineral products 23%, textiles and clothing 16%, machinery
  and equipment 11%, chemicals 6%, wood and wood products 5%,
  foodstuffs 5% (2001)

Luxembourg
  machinery and equipment, steel products, chemicals,
  rubber products, glass

Macau
  clothing, textiles, footwear, toys, electronics, machinery and
  parts

Macedonia
  food, beverages, tobacco; miscellaneous manufactures, iron
  and steel

Madagascar
  coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar, cotton cloth,
  chromite, petroleum products

Malawi
  tobacco 60%, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, peanuts, wood
  products, apparel

Malaysia
  electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas,
  wood and wood products, palm oil, rubber, textiles, chemicals

Maldives
  fish, clothing

Mali
  cotton, gold, livestock

Malta
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactures

Marshall Islands
  copra cake, coconut oil, handicrafts, fish

Martinique
  refined petroleum products, bananas, rum, pineapples

Mauritania
  iron ore, fish and fish products, gold

Mauritius
  clothing and textiles, sugar, cut flowers, molasses

Mayotte
  ylang-ylang (perfume essence), vanilla, copra, coconuts,
  coffee, cinnamon

Mexico
  manufactured goods, oil and oil products, silver, fruits,
  vegetables, coffee, cotton

Micronesia, Federated States of
  fish, garments, bananas, black pepper

Moldova
  foodstuffs, textiles, machinery

Mongolia
  copper, apparel, livestock, animal products, cashmere,
  wool, hides, fluorspar, other nonferrous metals

Montserrat
  electronic components, plastic bags, apparel; hot
  peppers, limes, live plants; cattle

Morocco
  clothing, fish, inorganic chemicals, transistors, crude
  minerals, fertilizers (including phosphates), petroleum products,
  fruits, vegetables

Mozambique
  aluminum, prawns, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, timber;
  bulk electricity

Namibia
  diamonds, copper, gold, zinc, lead, uranium; cattle,
  processed fish, karakul skins

Nauru
  phosphates

Nepal
  carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain

Netherlands
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels; foodstuffs

Netherlands Antilles
  petroleum products

New Caledonia
  ferronickels, nickel ore, fish

New Zealand
  dairy products, meat, wood and wood products, fish,
  machinery

Nicaragua
  coffee, beef, shrimp and lobster, tobacco, sugar, gold,
  peanuts

Niger
  uranium ore, livestock, cowpeas, onions

Nigeria
  petroleum and petroleum products 95%, cocoa, rubber

Niue
  canned coconut cream, copra, honey, vanilla, passion fruit
  products, pawpaws, root crops, limes, footballs, stamps, handicrafts

Norfolk Island
  postage stamps, seeds of the Norfolk Island pine and
  Kentia palm, small quantities of avocados

Northern Mariana Islands
  garments

Norway
  petroleum and petroleum products, machinery and equipment,
  metals, chemicals, ships, fish

Oman
  petroleum, reexports, fish, metals, textiles

Pakistan
  textiles (garments, bed linen, cotton cloth, yarn), rice,
  leather goods, sports goods, chemicals, manufactures, carpets and
  rugs

Palau
  shellfish, tuna, copra, garments

Panama
  bananas, shrimp, sugar, coffee, clothing

Papua New Guinea
  oil, gold, copper ore, logs, palm oil, coffee,
  cocoa, crayfish, prawns

Paraguay
  soybeans, feed, cotton, meat, edible oils, electricity,
  wood, leather

Peru
  copper, gold, zinc, crude petroleum and petroleum products,
  coffee

Philippines
  electronic equipment, machinery and transport equipment,
  garments, optical instruments, coconut products, fruits and nuts,
  copper products, chemicals

Pitcairn Islands
  fruits, vegetables, curios, stamps

Poland
  machinery and transport equipment 37.8%, intermediate
  manufactured goods 23.7%, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1%,
  food and live animals 7.6% (2003)

Portugal
  clothing and footwear, machinery, chemicals, cork and paper
  products, hides

Puerto Rico
  chemicals, electronics, apparel, canned tuna, rum,
  beverage concentrates, medical equipment

Qatar
  liquefied natural gas (LNG), petroleum products, fertilizers,
  steel

Reunion
  sugar 63%, rum and molasses 4%, perfume essences 2%, lobster
  3%

Romania
  textiles and footwear, metals and metal products, machinery
  and equipment, minerals and fuels, chemicals, agricultural products

Russia
  petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood
  products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and
  military manufactures

Rwanda
  coffee, tea, hides, tin ore

Saint Helena
  fish (frozen, canned, and salt-dried skipjack, tuna),
  coffee, handicrafts

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  machinery, food, electronics, beverages,
  tobacco

Saint Lucia
  bananas 41%, clothing, cocoa, vegetables, fruits,
  coconut oil

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  fish and fish products, soybeans, animal
  feed, mollusks and crustaceans, fox and mink pelts

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  bananas 39%, eddoes and dasheen
  (taro), arrowroot starch; tennis racquets

Samoa
  fish, coconut oil and cream, copra, taro, automotive parts,
  garments, beer

San Marino
  building stone, lime, wood, chestnuts, wheat, wine, baked
  goods, hides, ceramics

Sao Tome and Principe
  cocoa 80%, copra, coffee, palm oil

Saudi Arabia
  petroleum and petroleum products 90%

Senegal
  fish, groundnuts (peanuts), petroleum products, phosphates,
  cotton

Serbia
  manufactured goods, food and live animals, machinery and
  transport equipment

Seychelles
  canned tuna, frozen fish, cinnamon bark, copra, petroleum
  products (reexports)

Sierra Leone
  diamonds, rutile, cocoa, coffee, fish

Singapore
  machinery and equipment (including electronics), consumer
  goods, chemicals, mineral fuels

Slovakia
  vehicles 25.9%, machinery and electrical equipment 21.3%,
  base metals 14.6%, chemicals and minerals 10.1%, plastics 5.4% (2004)

Slovenia
  manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment,
  chemicals, food

Solomon Islands
  timber, fish, copra, palm oil, cocoa

Somalia
  livestock, bananas, hides, fish, charcoal, scrap metal

South Africa
  gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals,
  machinery and equipment

Spain
  machinery, motor vehicles; foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals,
  medicines, other consumer goods

Sri Lanka
  textiles and apparel, tea and spices; diamonds, emeralds,
  rubies; coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish

Sudan
  oil and petroleum products; cotton, sesame, livestock,
  groundnuts, gum arabic, sugar

Suriname
  alumina, crude oil, lumber, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas

Swaziland
  soft drink concentrates, sugar, wood pulp, cotton yarn,
  refrigerators, citrus and canned fruit

Sweden
  machinery 35%, motor vehicles, paper products, pulp and wood,
  iron and steel products, chemicals

Switzerland
  machinery, chemicals, metals, watches, agricultural
  products

Syria
  crude oil, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton
  fiber, clothing, meat and live animals, wheat

Taiwan
  computer products and electrical equipment, metals, textiles,
  plastics and rubber products, chemicals (2002)

Tajikistan
  aluminum, electricity, cotton, fruits, vegetable oil,
  textiles

Tanzania
  gold, coffee, cashew nuts, manufactures, cotton

Thailand
  textiles and footwear, fishery products, rice, rubber,
  jewelry, automobiles, computers and electrical appliances

Togo
  reexports, cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa

Tokelau
  stamps, copra, handicrafts

Tonga
  squash, fish, vanilla beans, root crops

Trinidad and Tobago
  petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals,
  steel products, fertilizer, sugar, cocoa, coffee, citrus, flowers

Tunisia
  textiles, mechanical goods, phosphates and chemicals,
  agricultural products, hydrocarbons

Turkey
  apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal manufactures, transport
  equipment

Turkmenistan
  gas, crude oil, petrochemicals, cotton fiber, textiles

Turks and Caicos Islands
  lobster, dried and fresh conch, conch shells

Tuvalu
  copra, fish

Uganda
  coffee, fish and fish products, tea, cotton, flowers,
  horticultural products; gold

Ukraine
  ferrous and nonferrous metals, fuel and petroleum products,
  chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, food products

United Arab Emirates
  crude oil 45%, natural gas, reexports, dried
  fish, dates

United Kingdom
  manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals; food,
  beverages, tobacco

United States
  agricultural products (soybeans, fruit, corn) 9.2%,
  industrial supplies (organic chemicals) 26.8%, capital goods
  (transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers,
  telecommunications equipment) 49.0%, consumer goods (automobiles,
  medicines) 15.0% (2003)

Uruguay
  meat, rice, leather products, wool, fish, dairy products

Uzbekistan
  cotton 41.5%, gold 9.6%, energy products 9.6%, mineral
  fertilizers, ferrous metals, textiles, food products, automobiles
  (1998)

Vanuatu
  copra, beef, cocoa, timber, kava, coffee

Venezuela
  petroleum, bauxite and aluminum, steel, chemicals,
  agricultural products, basic manufactures

Vietnam
  crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea,
  garments, shoes

Virgin Islands
  refined petroleum products

Wallis and Futuna
  copra, chemicals, construction materials

West Bank
  olives, fruit, vegetables, limestone

Western Sahara
  phosphates 62%

World
  the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and
  services

Yemen
  crude oil, coffee, dried and salted fish

Zambia
  copper/cobalt 64%, cobalt, electricity; tobacco, flowers,
  cotton

Zimbabwe
  cotton, tobacco, gold, ferroalloys, textiles/clothing

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2050  Exports - partners (%)


Afghanistan
  US 25.3%, Pakistan 20.9%, India 20.8%, Finland 4% (2005)

Albania
  Italy 72.4%, Greece 10.5%, Serbia and Montenegro 5% (2005)

Algeria
  US 22.8%, Italy 16.2%, Spain 10.4%, France 10%, Canada 8%,
  Brazil 6.1%, Belgium 4.4%, Germany 4.2% (2005)

American Samoa
  Indonesia 28.2%, India 22.3%, Australia 15.3%, Japan
  11.2%, NZ 7.1% (2005)

Andorra
  Spain 58%, France 34% (2004)

Angola
  US 39.8%, China 29.6%, France 7.8%, Chile 5.4%, Taiwan 4.4%
  (2005)

Anguilla
  UK, US, Puerto Rico, Saint-Martin (2004)

Antigua and Barbuda
  Spain 34%, Germany 20.7%, Italy 7.7%, Singapore
  5.8%, UK 4.9% (2005)

Argentina
  Brazil 15.3%, US 10.8%, Chile 10.5%, China 8.3% (2005)

Armenia
  Germany 15.6%, Netherlands 13.7%, Belgium 12.8%, Russia
  12.2%, Israel 11.5%, US 11.2%, Georgia 4.8% (2005)

Aruba
  Netherlands 33.5%, Panama 16.7%, Colombia 11.9%, US 11.3%,
  Venezuela 10.1%, Netherlands Antilles 9% (2005)

Australia
  Japan 20.3%, China 11.5%, South Korea 7.9%, US 6.7%, NZ
  6.5%, India 5% (2005)

Austria
  Germany 31.2%, Italy 8.7%, US 5.8%, Switzerland 5.2%, France
  4.2% (2005)

Azerbaijan
  Italy 30.3%, France 9.4%, Russia 6.6%, Turkey 6.3%,
  Turkmenistan 6.3%, Georgia 4.8%, Israel 4.5%, Croatia 4.1% (2005)

Bahamas, The
  US 31%, Spain 29.7%, Poland 9.3%, Germany 5.6%,
  Guatemala 4.1% (2005)

Bahrain
  Saudi Arabia 3.3%, US 2.6%, UAE 2.3% (2005)

Bangladesh
  US 23.6%, Germany 13.5%, UK 9.4%, France 6.4% (2005)

Barbados
  US 18.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 15%, UK 12.1%, Saint Lucia
  8.4%, Jamaica 7.9%, Grenada 4.6%, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  4.6% (2005)

Belarus
  Russia 38.5%, Ukraine 7.8%, Poland 7.1%, Latvia 4.2%, UK
  4.1%, China 4.1% (2005)

Belgium
  Germany 19.4%, France 17.3%, Netherlands 11.7%, UK 8.2%, US
  6.4%, Italy 5.3% (2005)

Belize
  US 30.6%, UK 25%, France 4.8% (2005)

Benin
  China 31.3%, Indonesia 8.1%, India 7.4%, Niger 6%, Togo 4.8%,
  Thailand 4.8%, Nigeria 4.6% (2005)

Bermuda
  France 65.6%, Spain 11.7%, US 4.5% (2005)

Bhutan
  Japan 33.2%, Germany 13.6%, France 13.5%, South Korea 7.8%,
  US 7.7%, Thailand 5.8%, Italy 5.1% (2005)

Bolivia
  Brazil 41.2%, US 14.1%, Colombia 8.8%, Argentina 7.6%, Peru
  5.5% (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Croatia 18.4%, Italy 17.1%, Slovenia 14.6%,
  Germany 12.8%, Austria 6.5%, Hungary 5.2%, China 4.2% (2005)

Botswana
  European Free Trade Association (EFTA) 87%, Southern
  African Customs Union (SACU) 7%, Zimbabwe 4% (2004)

Brazil
  US 19.6%, China 7.5%, Argentina 6.9%, Germany 5.3%, Mexico
  4.3% (2005)

British Virgin Islands
  Virgin Islands (US), Puerto Rico, US (2004)

Brunei
  Japan 36.8%, Indonesia 19.3%, South Korea 12.7%, US 9.5%,
  Australia 9.3% (2005)

Bulgaria
  Italy 12%, Turkey 10.5%, Germany 9.8%, Greece 9.5%, France
  4.6% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  China 38.3%, Singapore 12.6%, Thailand 5.7%, Ghana
  5.2%, Taiwan 4.4% (2005)

Burma
  Thailand 44.3%, India 12.3%, China 6.8%, Japan 5% (2005)

Burundi
  Germany 24.4%, Belgium 11.1%, Netherlands 8%, Switzerland
  5.8%, US 4.6%, Pakistan 4% (2005)

Cambodia
  US 48.6%, Hong Kong 24.4%, Germany 5.6%, Canada 4.6% (2005)

Cameroon
  Spain 17.2%, Italy 13.7%, France 9.4%, South Korea 8.1%, UK
  8%, Netherlands 7.8%, Belgium 4.8%, US 4.3% (2005)

Canada
  US 84.2%, Japan 2.1%, UK 1.8% (2005)

Cape Verde
  Spain 38.2%, Portugal 33.2%, US 9.2%, Morocco 5.4% (2005)

Cayman Islands
  mostly US (2004)

Central African Republic
  Belgium 34.1%, France 9.5%, Spain 8.5%,
  Italy 7.9%, China 6.9%, Indonesia 6.2%, Democratic Republic of the
  Congo 4.6%, US 4.4%, Turkey 4.4% (2005)

Chad
  US 78.1%, China 9.9%, Taiwan 4.1% (2005)

Chile
  US 15.8%, Japan 11.5%, China 11.1%, Netherlands 5.8%, South
  Korea 5.5%, Brazil 4.4%, Italy 4.2%, Mexico 4% (2005)

China
  US 21.4%, Hong Kong 16.3%, Japan 11%, South Korea 4.6%,
  Germany 4.3% (2005)

Christmas Island
  Australia, NZ (2004)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Australia (2004)

Colombia
  US 41.8%, Venezuela 9.9%, Ecuador 6.3% (2005)

Comoros
  France 27.7%, Singapore 16.8%, Japan 15.1%, Germany 13.7%,
  US 5.8%, Netherlands 5.1% (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Belgium 38.2%, US 17.9%, China
  11.7%, France 8%, Finland 7.8%, Chile 4.3% (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  China 38.9%, US 29%, Taiwan 11.8%, South
  Korea 7.2% (2005)

Cook Islands
  Australia 34%, Japan 27%, New Zealand 25%, US 8% (2004)

Costa Rica
  US 42.6%, Hong Kong 6.9%, Netherlands 6.4%, Guatemala
  4.2% (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  France 18.3%, US 14.1%, Netherlands 11%, Nigeria 8%,
  Panama 4.4% (2005)

Croatia
  Italy 21.8%, Bosnia and Herzegovina 14.7%, Germany 10.7%,
  Slovenia 8.1%, Austria 7.3% (2005)

Cuba
  Netherlands 25.4%, Canada 20.7%, China 9.8%, Spain 6.8% (2005)

Cyprus
  France 17.7%, UK 17%, Greece 12.2%, Germany 5.7% (2005)

Czech Republic
  Germany 33.5%, Slovakia 8.7%, Austria 5.5%, Poland
  5.5%, France 5.3%, UK 4.6%, Italy 4.3% (2005)

Denmark
  Germany 17.5%, Sweden 13.2%, UK 8.8%, US 6.4%, France 5.5%,
  Netherlands 5.3%, Norway 5.1% (2005)

Djibouti
  Somalia 55.2%, Yemen 19.5%, Ethiopia 17.9% (2005)

Dominica
  UK 26.2%, Jamaica 9.8%, South Korea 8.7%, Antigua and
  Barbuda 8.6%, Guyana 7.2%, Trinidad and Tobago 4.7% (2005)

Dominican Republic
  US 79%, Netherlands 2.4%, Mexico 1.9% (2005)

East Timor
  Indonesia 100% (2005)

Ecuador
  US 51.1%, Peru 8%, Germany 4.4%, Colombia 4.3% (2005)

Egypt
  US 13.4%, Italy 9.4%, Spain 7.7%, Syria 5.7%, Germany 4.9%,
  France 4.9%, UK 4.1% (2005)

El Salvador
  US 61%, Guatemala 12.1%, Honduras 7.4%, Nicaragua 4.2%
  (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  US 25.8%, China 22.9%, Spain 11.4%, Canada 7.7%,
  Taiwan 7.5%, Portugal 5.7%, Netherlands 5.5%, France 4.2% (2005)

Eritrea
  Italy 39.3%, US 14.9%, Belarus 7.3%, Germany 5.8%, UK 4.9%
  (2005)

Estonia
  Finland 26.5%, Sweden 12.9%, Latvia 8.8%, Russia 6.5%,
  Germany 6.2%, Lithuania 4.8% (2005)

Ethiopia
  Saudi Arabia 6.9%, Djibouti 6.8%, Switzerland 6.4%, Italy
  5.9%, US 5.5%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

European Union
  US 24.2%, Switzerland 7.7%, China 5%, Russia 4.7%
  (2004)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Spain 81.9%, US 6%, UK 4.5% (2005)

Faroe Islands
  Denmark 38.2%, UK 29.6%, Nigeria 8.9%, Norway 6.1%,
  Netherlands 4.3% (2005)

Fiji
  US 19.7%, Australia 17%, UK 12.3%, Japan 5.4%, Samoa 4.1% (2005)

Finland
  Russia 11.2%, Sweden 10.7%, Germany 10.5%, UK 6.6%, US 6.2%,
  Netherlands 4.8% (2005)

France
  Germany 14.7%, Spain 9.6%, Italy 8.7%, UK 8.3%, US 7.2%,
  Belgium 7.1% (2005)

French Guiana
  France 62%, Switzerland 7%, US 2% (2004)

French Polynesia
  France 46.3%, Japan 20.8%, Niger 12.8%, US 12.5%
  (2005)

Gabon
  US 53.5%, France 6.4%, China 6.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 4%
  (2005)

Gambia, The
  India 40.4%, UK 18.2%, Indonesia 8.3%, Senegal 4.6%,
  Belgium 4.3% (2005)

Gaza Strip
  Israel, Egypt, West Bank (2004)

Georgia
  Russia 18.1%, Turkey 14.3%, Azerbaijan 9.8%, Turkmenistan
  8.9%, Bulgaria 5%, Armenia 4.7%, Ukraine 4.4%, Canada 4.2% (2005)

Germany
  France 10.2%, US 8.8%, UK 7.9%, Italy 6.9%, Netherlands
  6.1%, Belgium 5.6%, Austria 5.4%, Spain 5.1% (2005)

Ghana
  Netherlands 12.6%, UK 8.3%, US 6.7%, Belgium 5.8%, France
  5.7%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Gibraltar
  UK 30.8%, Spain 22.7%, Germany 13.7%, Turkmenistan 10.4%,
  Switzerland 8.3%, Italy 6.7% (2005)

Greece
  Germany 12.4%, Italy 10.4%, UK 6.7%, Bulgaria 5.9%, US 5.3%,
  Cyprus 5.2%, Turkey 5.1%, France 4.2% (2005)

Greenland
  Denmark 62.5%, Japan 12.3%, China 5.3% (2005)

Grenada
  Saint Lucia 12.1%, US 11.3%, Antigua and Barbuda 8.2%,
  Germany 7.9%, Netherlands 7.8%, Saint Kitts & Nevis 7.4%, Dominica
  7.4%, UK 6.8%, France 4.2% (2005)

Guadeloupe
  France 60%, Martinique 18%, US 4% (2004)

Guam
  Japan 67.2%, Singapore 11.6%, UK 4.8% (2005)

Guatemala
  US 50.1%, El Salvador 12.1%, Honduras 7.3%, Mexico 4%
  (2005)

Guernsey
  UK; note - regarded as internal trade (2004)

Guinea
  Russia 14.6%, South Korea 11.3%, Spain 10.2%, Ukraine 7.9%,
  US 6.1%, Ireland 6%, France 5.7%, Germany 5%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  India 72%, Nigeria 17.1%, Ecuador 4% (2005)

Guyana
  Canada 18.9%, US 18.9%, UK 11.7%, Portugal 8.1%, Jamaica
  5.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 4.2% (2005)

Haiti
  US 80.8%, Dominican Republic 6.9%, Canada 4% (2005)

Honduras
  US 73.2%, Guatemala 2.9%, El Salvador 2.9% (2005)

Hong Kong
  China 45%, US 16.1%, Japan 5.3% (2005)

Hungary
  Germany 29.4%, Austria 5.9%, Italy 5.6%, France 5%, UK 4.7%
  (2005)

Iceland
  UK 17.9%, Germany 16.4%, Netherlands 13%, US 8.1%, Spain
  7.7%, Denmark 4.3% (2005)

India
  US 16.7%, UAE 8.5%, China 6.6%, Singapore 5.3%, UK 4.9%, Hong
  Kong 4.4% (2005)

Indonesia
  Japan 21.1%, US 11.5%, Singapore 9.2%, South Korea 8.3%,
  China 7.8%, Malaysia 4% (2005)

Iran
  Japan 16.6%, China 11%, Italy 5.8%, South Korea 5.7%, South
  Africa 5.7%, Turkey 5.6%, Netherlands 4.5%, France 4.3% (2005)

Iraq
  US 49.3%, Italy 10.3%, Spain 6.2%, Canada 5.6% (2005)

Ireland
  US 18.7%, UK 17.4%, Belgium 15.2%, Germany 7.4%, France
  6.4%, Netherlands 4.8% (2005)

Isle of Man
  UK (2004)

Israel
  US 36.5%, Belgium 8.7%, Hong Kong 5.6% (2005)

Italy
  Germany 13.1%, France 12.3%, US 8.1%, Spain 7.4%, UK 6.4%
  (2005)

Jamaica
  US 25.8%, Canada 19.3%, UK 10.7%, Netherlands 8.6%, China
  7%, Norway 6.4%, Germany 5.6% (2005)

Japan
  US 22.9%, China 13.4%, South Korea 7.8%, Taiwan 7.3%, Hong
  Kong 6.1% (2005)

Jersey
  UK (2004)

Jordan
  US 29.4%, Iraq 15.6%, India 8.8%, Saudi Arabia 5.9% (2005)

Kazakhstan
  Bermuda 12.5%, Russia 11.1%, Germany 10.7%, China 10%,
  Italy 7.9%, France 7.7%, Romania 4.5%, US 4% (2005)

Kenya
  Uganda 13.9%, UK 10.5%, US 9.5%, Netherlands 8.2%, Egypt 5.1%,
  Tanzania 4.7%, Pakistan 4.5% (2005)

Kiribati
  US 22.8%, Belgium 21.5%, Japan 14.3%, Samoa 7.8%, Australia
  7.5%, Malaysia 6.7%, Taiwan 5.6%, Denmark 4.6% (2005)

Korea, North
  China 45.6%, South Korea 20.2%, Japan 12.9% (2004)

Korea, South
  China 21.8%, US 14.6%, Japan 8.5%, Hong Kong 5.5% (2005)

Kuwait
  Japan 19.6%, South Korea 15.3%, US 11.8%, Taiwan 11%,
  Singapore 9.5%, Netherlands 4.7% (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  UAE 35.6%, Russia 18.6%, China 13.4%, Kazakhstan 12.6%
  (2005)

Laos
  Thailand 29.6%, Vietnam 12%, France 6.1%, Germany 4.6% (2005)

Latvia
  Lithuania 11%, Estonia 10.8%, Germany 10.2%, UK 10.2%, Russia
  7.9%, Sweden 7.8%, Denmark 5.3%, Poland 5.3% (2005)

Lebanon
  Syria 25.3%, UAE 11.4%, Switzerland 8.1%, Turkey 6%, Saudi
  Arabia 6% (2005)

Lesotho
  Hong Kong 43.6%, China 35.4%, Germany 8.4% (2005)

Liberia
  Belgium 41.4%, Spain 11.6%, US 9.1%, Malaysia 5.5%, Thailand
  4.6%, Poland 4.6%, Germany 4.4% (2005)

Libya
  Italy 37.9%, Germany 15.2%, Spain 8.7%, Turkey 6.3%, France
  6.2%, US 5.2% (2005)

Liechtenstein
  EU 62.6% (Germany 24.3%, Austria 9.5%, France 8.9%,
  Italy 6.6%, UK 4.6%), US 18.9%, Switzerland 15.7% (2004)

Lithuania
  Russia 10.4%, Latvia 10.2%, Germany 9.4%, France 7%,
  Estonia 5.9%, Poland 5.5%, Sweden 5%, US 4.7%, UK 4.7%, Denmark 4.3%
  (2005)

Luxembourg
  Germany 21%, France 16.3%, Belgium 9.2%, UK 8.3%, Italy
  7.5%, Spain 6.6%, Netherlands 4.3% (2005)

Macau
  US 48.7%, China 14.9%, Hong Kong 9.8%, Germany 5.9% (2005)

Macedonia
  Germany 17.8%, Greece 15.3%, Italy 8.3% (2005)

Madagascar
  France 30.9%, US 30.3%, Germany 8.6% (2005)

Malawi
  US 18%, South Africa 12.2%, Egypt 7.6%, Germany 7%,
  Netherlands 6.9%, Japan 4.8%, Russia 4.6%, UK 4.2%, Mozambique 4%
  (2005)

Malaysia
  US 19.7%, Singapore 15.6%, Japan 9.3%, China 6.6%, Hong
  Kong 5.8%, Thailand 5.4% (2005)

Maldives
  Japan 22.8%, Thailand 22.7%, Sri Lanka 16.4%, UK 12.6%,
  Singapore 5.8%, Germany 4.8%, France 4.3% (2005)

Mali
  China 25.2%, Pakistan 12.8%, Thailand 8.7%, Taiwan 6.7%, Italy
  4.5% (2005)

Malta
  France 15.4%, US 14.4%, Singapore 12.3%, UK 11.3%, Germany
  11.2%, Italy 5.1%, Libya 4.2% (2005)

Marshall Islands
  US, Japan, Australia, China (2004)

Martinique
  France 45%, Guadeloupe 28% (2004)

Mauritania
  Italy 14.9%, Japan 12.3%, France 11.8%, Belgium 8.5%,
  Germany 8.3%, Cote d'Ivoire 7.2%, Spain 6.5%, Russia 5%, Netherlands
  4.4% (2005)

Mauritius
  UK 32.3%, France 20.7%, US 11.7%, Madagascar 6.2%, Italy
  5.3% (2005)

Mayotte
  France 80%, Comoros 15%, Reunion (2004)

Mexico
  US 85.7%, Canada 2%, Spain 1.4% (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Japan, US, Guam (2004)

Moldova
  Russia 32.9%, Italy 12.7%, Romania 10.6%, Ukraine 9.5%,
  Belarus 6.7%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Mongolia
  China 56.2%, Canada 15.6%, US 14.7% (2005)

Montenegro
  Switzerland 83.9%, Italy 6.1%, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1.3% (2003)

Montserrat
  US, Antigua and Barbuda (2004)

Morocco
  France 30.3%, Spain 18%, UK 6.2%, Italy 5.2%, India 4.1%
  (2005)

Mozambique
  Belgium 25.5%, South Africa 12.2%, Spain 11.6%, Italy
  11.6%, Germany 7.7% (2005)

Namibia
  South Africa 33.4%, US 4% (2004)

Nauru
  South Africa 63.7%, South Korea 7.6%, Canada 6.6% (2005)

Nepal
  India 53.7%, US 17.4%, Germany 7.1% (2005)

Netherlands
  Germany 24.9%, Belgium 13%, France 9.4%, UK 9.1%, Italy
  5.7%, US 4.3%, Spain 4.1% (2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  US 29.4%, Panama 14.4%, Mexico 8.8%, Haiti
  5.6%, Venezuela 4.9%, Bahamas, The 4.5% (2005)

New Caledonia
  Japan 21.4%, France 16%, Taiwan 11.4%, South Korea
  10.1%, Spain 9%, China 7.2%, South Africa 5.2%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

New Zealand
  Australia 21.4%, US 14.1%, Japan 10.6%, China 5.1%, UK
  4.7% (2005)

Nicaragua
  US 60.7%, Mexico 8.6%, El Salvador 6.2% (2005)

Niger
  France 47.8%, Nigeria 21.4%, US 20.3% (2005)

Nigeria
  US 49.7%, Brazil 10.4%, Spain 7.6% (2005)

Niue
  New Zealand mainly, Fiji, Cook Islands, Australia (2004)

Norfolk Island
  Australia, other Pacific island countries, NZ, Asia,
  Europe (2004)

Northern Mariana Islands
  US (2004)

Norway
  UK 25.5%, Germany 12.6%, Netherlands 9.9%, France 9.1%, US
  6.7%, Sweden 6.5% (2005)

Oman
  China 21.7%, South Korea 19.5%, Japan 14.3%, Thailand 12.7%,
  UAE 7.1%, Taiwan 4.1% (2005)

Pakistan
  US 22.5%, UAE 8.9%, UK 5.8%, China 5.4%, Germany 4.6% (2005)

Palau
  US, Japan, Singapore (2004)

Panama
  US 44.9%, Spain 8.9%, Sweden 5.6%, Netherlands 4.9%, Costa
  Rica 4% (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  Australia 28.7%, Japan 8.6%, China 5.4% (2005)

Paraguay
  Uruguay 26.7%, Brazil 15.2%, Argentina 4.8%, Chile 4.7%
  (2005)

Peru
  US 31.1%, China 10.8%, Chile 6.6%, Canada 5.9%, Switzerland
  4.6% (2005)

Philippines
  US 18%, Japan 17.5%, China 9.9%, Netherlands 9.8%, Hong
  Kong 8.1%, Singapore 6.6%, Malaysia 6%, Taiwan 4.6% (2005)

Poland
  Germany 28.2%, France 6.2%, Italy 6.1%, UK 5.6%, Czech
  Republic 4.6%, Russia 4.4%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

Portugal
  Spain 25.9%, France 13.1%, Germany 11.9%, UK 8%, US 5.4%,
  Italy 4.3% (2005)

Puerto Rico
  US 90.3%, UK 1.6%, Netherlands 1.4%, Dominican Republic
  1.4% (2004)

Qatar
  Japan 37.1%, South Korea 19.5%, Singapore 8.3% (2005)

Reunion
  France 74%, Japan 6%, Comoros 4% (2004)

Romania
  Italy 19.4%, Germany 14%, Turkey 7.9%, France 7.4%, UK 5.5%,
  Hungary 4.1%, US 4.1% (2005)

Russia
  Netherlands 10.3%, Germany 8.3%, Italy 7.9%, China 5.5%,
  Ukraine 5.2%, Turkey 4.5%, Switzerland 4.4% (2005)

Rwanda
  Germany 11%, China 6.5%, Belgium 4.5% (2005)

Saint Helena
  Tanzania 37.7%, US 17.4%, Japan 15.2%, UK 8.4%, Nigeria
  4.8%, Spain 4.5% (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  US 63.5%, Canada 8.4%, UK 5.8% (2005)

Saint Lucia
  France 29.3%, US 17.4%, China 17%, UK 13.1%, Brazil 6.2%
  (2005)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Spain 33.6%, Belgium 21.8%, India 18.3%,
  France 9.4%, US 7.5% (2005)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  France 50.3%, Italy 21%, Greece
  11%, US 4.2% (2005)

Samoa
  Australia 75.9%, American Samoa 13.6%, US 6.5% (2005)

Sao Tome and Principe
  Netherlands 61.1%, Belgium 9.2%, Turkey 5.5%,
  South Korea 4% (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  US 16.4%, Japan 16.1%, South Korea 9.1%, China 6.9%,
  Singapore 5.1%, Taiwan 4.2% (2005)

Senegal
  Mali 16.9%, India 13.1%, France 9.5%, Spain 6.1%, Italy
  5.5%, Gambia, The 4.6% (2005)

Seychelles
  UK 23%, Spain 19.6%, France 11.4%, Japan 9.7%, Italy
  7.4%, Germany 5.7%, Netherlands 5.4% (2005)

Sierra Leone
  Belgium 66.2%, Germany 13.5%, US 4.6% (2005)

Singapore
  Malaysia 14.7%, US 11.5%, Indonesia 10.7%, Hong Kong
  10.4%, China 9.5%, Japan 6%, Thailand 4.5%, Australia 4.1% (2005)

Slovakia
  Germany 26.2%, Czech Republic 14.1%, Austria 7.1%, Italy
  6.7%, Poland 6.3%, Hungary 5.7% (2005)

Slovenia
  Germany 19.9%, Italy 12.7%, Croatia 9.4%, Austria 8.1%,
  France 8.1% (2005)

Solomon Islands
  China 40.7%, South Korea 13.2%, Thailand 6.9%, Japan
  6.3%, Philippines 4.5%, Italy 4.1% (2005)

Somalia
  UAE 52.6%, Yemen 14.6%, Oman 6.3%, India 4.2% (2005)

South Africa
  UK 11.1%, US 9.1%, Japan 8.3%, Germany 6.3%, China
  5.2%, Italy 4.5% (2005)

Spain
  France 19.4%, Germany 11.4%, Portugal 9.5%, UK 8.5%, Italy
  8.4% (2005)

Sri Lanka
  US 30.9%, UK 11.6%, India 7.3%, Belgium 4.8%, Germany 4.5%
  (2005)

Sudan
  China 71.1%, Japan 12%, Saudi Arabia 2.8% (2005)

Suriname
  Norway 23.5%, US 16.5%, Canada 16.1%, Belgium 9.7%, France
  7.9%, UAE 7.3% (2005)

Swaziland
  South Africa 59.7%, EU 8.8%, US 8.8%, Mozambique 6.2%
  (2004)

Sweden
  US 10.6%, Germany 10.2%, Norway 8.7%, UK 7.3%, Denmark 6.5%,
  Finland 5.7%, France 4.9%, Netherlands 4.5%, Belgium 4.3% (2005)

Switzerland
  Germany 19.4%, US 10.9%, Italy 9.1%, France 8.7%, UK
  5.4%, Spain 4.1% (2005)

Syria
  Iraq 22.3%, Saudi Arabia 15.3%, Italy 8.4%, Germany 8.3%,
  Lebanon 7.7%, Egypt 4.3%, France 4.2% (2005)

Taiwan
  China 21.6%, US 16.22%, Hong Kong 15.1%, Japan 7.7% (2005)

Tajikistan
  Netherlands 46.6%, Turkey 15.8%, Russia 9.1%, Uzbekistan
  7.3%, Latvia 4.9%, Iran 4% (2005)

Tanzania
  China 10.2%, Canada 8.6%, India 7.3%, Netherlands 5.2%,
  Japan 4.5%, Kenya 4.4%, Germany 4.3% (2005)

Thailand
  US 15.5%, Japan 13.7%, China 8.3%, Singapore 6.8%, Hong
  Kong 5.6%, Malaysia 5.2% (2005)

Togo
  Ghana 21.1%, Burkina Faso 18.2%, Benin 11.5%, Mali 7.3%, India
  5.8%, Nigeria 4% (2005)

Tokelau
  New Zealand (2004)

Tonga
  Japan 41.5%, US 33.1%, NZ 6.3% (2005)

Trinidad and Tobago
  US 68.8%, Jamaica 5.5%, Barbados 2.9% (2005)

Tunisia
  France 30.9%, Italy 21.1%, Germany 9.4%, Spain 5.5%, Libya
  4.5% (2005)

Turkey
  Germany 12.9%, UK 8.1%, Italy 7.6%, US 6.7%, France 5.2%,
  Spain 4.1% (2005)

Turkmenistan
  Ukraine 43.5%, Iran 15%, Hungary 5.4% (2005)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  US, UK (2004)

Tuvalu
  Germany 60.5%, Italy 20.1%, Fiji 6.9% (2005)

Uganda
  Kenya 15.1%, Belgium 9.9%, Netherlands 9.7%, France 7.1%,
  Germany 5.1%, Rwanda 4% (2005)

Ukraine
  Russia 22.1%, Turkey 6%, Italy 5.6% (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  Japan 24.6%, South Korea 9.8%, Thailand 5.6%,
  India 4.3% (2005)

United Kingdom
  US 15.1%, Germany 10.5%, France 8.9%, Ireland 7.3%,
  Netherlands 5.5%, Belgium 5%, Spain 4.4% (2005)

United States
  Canada 23.4%, Mexico 13.3%, Japan 6.1%, China 4.6%, UK
  4.3% (2005)

Uruguay
  US 18.6%, Brazil 15.6%, Mexico 6.9%, Argentina 6.1%, Spain
  4.1%, Germany 4% (2005)

Uzbekistan
  Russia 24.6%, China 12.3%, Turkey 7.1%, Ukraine 5.6%,
  Bangladesh 4.9%, Poland 4.3%, Tajikistan 4.2% (2005)

Vanuatu
  Thailand 46.5%, India 14.1%, Poland 7.9%, Turkey 7.7%, Japan
  6.9% (2005)

Venezuela
  US 51.2%, Netherlands Antilles 7.3%, Canada 2.4% (2005)

Vietnam
  US 21.2%, Japan 13.3%, Australia 8.4%, China 7.5%, Singapore
  5.3%, Germany 5% (2005)

Virgin Islands
  US, Puerto Rico (2004)

Wallis and Futuna
  Italy 40%, Croatia 15%, US 14%, Denmark 13% (2004)

West Bank
  Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip (2004)

Western Sahara
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so
  trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004)

World
  US 15.6%, Germany 7.4%, China 5.7%, France 4.9%, UK 4.7%,
  Japan 4.5% (2005)

Yemen
  China 36.5%, Chile 19.2%, Thailand 12.5%, Japan 5.4%, South
  Korea 4.4%, US 4.1% (2005)

Zambia
  Switzerland 28.7%, South Africa 18.6%, UK 14.4%, Democratic
  Republic of the Congo 5.4%, Tanzania 5.1%, Zimbabwe 4.1% (2005)

Zimbabwe
  South Africa 32.8%, China 7.4%, Japan 6.3%, Zambia 5.2%,
  Netherlands 5%, US 4.6%, Italy 4.2%, Germany 4.1% (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2051  Administrative divisions


Afghanistan
  34 provinces (velayat, singular - velayat); Badakhshan,
  Badghis, Baghlan, Balkh, Bamian, Daykondi, Farah, Faryab, Ghazni,
  Ghowr, Helmand, Herat, Jowzjan, Kabol, Kandahar, Kapisa, Khowst,
  Konar, Kondoz, Laghman, Lowgar, Nangarhar, Nimruz, Nurestan,
  Oruzgan, Paktia, Paktika, Panjshir, Parvan, Samangan, Sar-e Pol,
  Takhar, Vardak, Zabol

Albania
  12 counties (qarqe, singular - qark); Qarku i Beratit, Qarku
  i Dibres, Qarku i Durresit, Qarku i Elbasanit, Qarku i Fierit, Qarku
  i Gjirokastres, Qarku i Korces, Qarku i Kukesit, Qarku i Lezhes,
  Qarku i Shkodres, Qarku i Tiranes, Qarku i Vlores

Algeria
  48 provinces (wilayat, singular - wilaya); Adrar, Ain Defla,
  Ain Temouchent, Alger, Annaba, Batna, Bechar, Bejaia, Biskra, Blida,
  Bordj Bou Arreridj, Bouira, Boumerdes, Chlef, Constantine, Djelfa,
  El Bayadh, El Oued, El Tarf, Ghardaia, Guelma, Illizi, Jijel,
  Khenchela, Laghouat, Mascara, Medea, Mila, Mostaganem, M'Sila,
  Naama, Oran, Ouargla, Oum el Bouaghi, Relizane, Saida, Setif, Sidi
  Bel Abbes, Skikda, Souk Ahras, Tamanghasset, Tebessa, Tiaret,
  Tindouf, Tipaza, Tissemsilt, Tizi Ouzou, Tlemcen

American Samoa
  none (territory of the US); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are three districts and two islands* at the second order; Eastern,
  Manu'a, Rose Island*, Swains Island*, Western

Andorra
  7 parishes (parroquies, singular - parroquia); Andorra la
  Vella, Canillo, Encamp, Escaldes-Engordany, La Massana, Ordino, Sant
  Julia de Loria

Angola
  18 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Bengo,
  Benguela, Bie, Cabinda, Cuando Cubango, Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul,
  Cunene, Huambo, Huila, Luanda, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Malanje,
  Moxico, Namibe, Uige, Zaire

Anguilla
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Antigua and Barbuda
  6 parishes and 2 dependencies*; Barbuda*,
  Redonda*, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mary, Saint Paul, Saint
  Peter, Saint Philip

Argentina
  23 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1
  autonomous city* (distrito federal); Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
  Capital Federal*, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Cordoba, Corrientes,
  Entre Rios, Formosa, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, Misiones,
  Neuquen, Rio Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe,
  Santiago del Estero, Tierra del Fuego - Antartida e Islas del
  Atlantico Sur, Tucuman
  note: the US does not recognize any claims to Antarctica

Armenia
  11 provinces (marzer, singular - marz); Aragatsotn, Ararat,
  Armavir, Geghark'unik', Kotayk', Lorri, Shirak, Syunik', Tavush,
  Vayots' Dzor, Yerevan

Aruba
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Australia
  6 states and 2 territories*; Australian Capital
  Territory*, New South Wales, Northern Territory*, Queensland, South
  Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Austria
  9 states (Bundeslaender, singular - Bundesland); Burgenland,
  Kaernten (Carinthia), Niederoesterreich, Oberoesterreich, Salzburg,
  Steiermark (Styria), Tirol, Vorarlberg, Wien (Vienna)

Azerbaijan
  59 rayons (rayonlar; rayon - singular), 11 cities
  (saharlar; sahar - singular), 1 autonomous republic (muxtar
  respublika)
  rayons: Abseron Rayonu, Agcabadi Rayonu, Agdam Rayonu, Agdas Rayonu,
  Agstafa Rayonu, Agsu Rayonu, Astara Rayonu, Balakan Rayonu, Barda
  Rayonu, Beylaqan Rayonu, Bilasuvar Rayonu, Cabrayil Rayonu,
  Calilabad Rayonu, Daskasan Rayonu, Davaci Rayonu, Fuzuli Rayonu,
  Gadabay Rayonu, Goranboy Rayonu, Goycay Rayonu, Haciqabul Rayonu,
  Imisli Rayonu, Ismayilli Rayonu, Kalbacar Rayonu, Kurdamir Rayonu,
  Lacin Rayonu, Lankaran Rayonu, Lerik Rayonu, Masalli Rayonu,
  Neftcala Rayonu, Oguz Rayonu, Qabala Rayonu, Qax Rayonu, Qazax
  Rayonu, Qobustan Rayonu, Quba Rayonu, Qubadli Rayonu, Qusar Rayonu,
  Saatli Rayonu, Sabirabad Rayonu, Saki Rayonu, Salyan Rayonu, Samaxi
  Rayonu, Samkir Rayonu, Samux Rayonu, Siyazan Rayonu, Susa Rayonu,
  Tartar Rayonu, Tovuz Rayonu, Ucar Rayonu, Xacmaz Rayonu, Xanlar
  Rayonu, Xizi Rayonu, Xocali Rayonu, Xocavand Rayonu, Yardimli
  Rayonu, Yevlax Rayonu, Zangilan Rayonu, Zaqatala Rayonu, Zardab
  Rayonu
  cities: Ali Bayramli Sahari, Baki Sahari, Ganca Sahari, Lankaran
  Sahari, Mingacevir Sahari, Naftalan Sahari, Saki Sahari, Sumqayit
  Sahari, Susa Sahari, Xankandi Sahari, Yevlax Sahari
  autonomous republic: Naxcivan Muxtar Respublikasi

Bahamas, The
  21 districts; Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bimini, Cat
  Island, Exuma, Freeport, Fresh Creek, Governor's Harbour, Green
  Turtle Cay, Harbour Island, High Rock, Inagua, Kemps Bay, Long
  Island, Marsh Harbour, Mayaguana, New Providence, Nichollstown and
  Berry Islands, Ragged Island, Rock Sound, Sandy Point, San Salvador
  and Rum Cay

Bahrain
  5 governorates; Asamah, Janubiyah, Muharraq, Shamaliyah,
  Wasat
  note: each governorate administered by an appointed governor

Bangladesh
  6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna,
  Rajshahi, Sylhet

Barbados
  11 parishes; Christ Church, Saint Andrew, Saint George,
  Saint James, Saint John, Saint Joseph, Saint Lucy, Saint Michael,
  Saint Peter, Saint Philip, Saint Thomas; note - the city of
  Bridgetown may be given parish status

Belarus
  6 provinces (voblastsi, singular - voblasts') and 1
  municipality* (horad); Brest, Homyel', Horad Minsk*, Hrodna,
  Mahilyow, Minsk, Vitsyebsk
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers

Belgium
  10 provinces (French: provinces, singular - province; Dutch:
  provincies, singular - provincie) and 3 regions* (French: regions;
  Dutch: gewesten); Antwerpen, Brabant Wallon, Brussels* (Bruxelles),
  Flanders*, Hainaut, Liege, Limburg, Luxembourg, Namur,
  Oost-Vlaanderen, Vlaams-Brabant, Wallonia*, West-Vlaanderen
  note: as a result of the 1993 constitutional revision that furthered
  devolution into a federal state, there are now three levels of
  government (federal, regional, and linguistic community) with a
  complex division of responsibilities

Belize
  6 districts; Belize, Cayo, Corozal, Orange Walk, Stann Creek,
  Toledo

Benin
  12 departments; Alibori, Atakora, Atlantique, Borgou,
  Collines, Kouffo, Donga, Littoral, Mono, Oueme, Plateau, Zou

Bermuda
  9 parishes and 2 municipalities*; Devonshire, Hamilton,
  Hamilton*, Paget, Pembroke, Saint George*, Saint George's, Sandys,
  Smith's, Southampton, Warwick

Bhutan
  18 districts (dzongkhag, singular and plural); Bumthang,
  Chhukha, Chirang, Dagana, Geylegphug, Ha, Lhuntshi, Mongar, Paro,
  Pemagatsel, Punakha, Samchi, Samdrup Jongkhar, Shemgang, Tashigang,
  Thimphu, Tongsa, Wangdi Phodrang
  note: there may be two new districts named Gasa and Yangtse

Bolivia
  9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa
  Cruz, Tarija

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  2 first-order administrative divisions and 1
  internationally supervised district* - Brcko district (Brcko
  Distrikt)*, the Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  (Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina) and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika
  Srpska; note - Brcko district is in northeastern Bosnia and is an
  administrative unit under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
  the district remains under international supervision

Botswana
  9 districts and 5 town councils*; Central, Francistown*,
  Gaborone*, Ghanzi, Jwaneng*, Kgalagadi, Kgatleng, Kweneng, Lobatse*,
  Northeast, Northwest, Selebi-Pikwe*, Southeast, Southern

Brazil
  26 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal
  district* (distrito federal); Acre, Alagoas, Amapa, Amazonas, Bahia,
  Ceara, Distrito Federal*, Espirito Santo, Goias, Maranhao, Mato
  Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Para, Paraiba, Parana,
  Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande
  do Sul, Rondonia, Roraima, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo, Sergipe,
  Tocantins

British Virgin Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Brunei
  4 districts (daerah-daerah, singular - daerah); Belait,
  Brunei and Muara, Temburong, Tutong

Bulgaria
  28 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast); Blagoevgrad,
  Burgas, Dobrich, Gabrovo, Khaskovo, Kurdzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech,
  Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Shumen,
  Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofiya, Sofiya-Grad, Stara Zagora,
  Turgovishte, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Yambol

Burkina Faso
  45 provinces; Bale, Bam, Banwa, Bazega, Bougouriba,
  Boulgou, Boulkiemde, Comoe, Ganzourgou, Gnagna, Gourma, Houet, Ioba,
  Kadiogo, Kenedougou, Komondjari, Kompienga, Kossi, Koulpelogo,
  Kouritenga, Kourweogo, Leraba, Loroum, Mouhoun, Nahouri, Namentenga,
  Nayala, Noumbiel, Oubritenga, Oudalan, Passore, Poni, Sanguie,
  Sanmatenga, Seno, Sissili, Soum, Sourou, Tapoa, Tuy, Yagha, Yatenga,
  Ziro, Zondoma, Zoundweogo

Burma
  7 divisions (taing-myar, singular - taing) and 7 states (pyi
  ne-myar, singular - pyi ne)
  divisions: Ayeyarwady, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing, Tanintharyi,
  Yangon
  states: Chin State, Kachin State, Kayah State, Kayin State, Mon
  State, Rakhine State, Shan State

Burundi
  17 provinces; Bubanza, Bujumbura Mairie, Bujumbura Rurale,
  Bururi, Cankuzo, Cibitoke, Gitega, Karuzi, Kayanza, Kirundo,
  Makamba, Muramvya, Muyinga, Mwaro, Ngozi, Rutana, Ruyigi

Cambodia
  20 provinces (khaitt, singular and plural) and 4
  municipalities* (krong, singular and plural)
  provinces: Banteay Mean Cheay, Batdambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong
  Chhnang, Kampong Spoe, Kampong Thum, Kampot, Kandal, Kaoh Kong,
  Krachen, Mondol Kiri, Otdar Mean Cheay, Pouthisat, Preah Vihear,
  Prey Veng, Rotanah Kiri, Siem Reab, Stoeng Treng, Svay Rieng, Takev
  municipalities: Keb, Pailin, Phnum Penh, Preah Seihanu

Cameroon
  10 provinces; Adamaoua, Centre, Est, Extreme-Nord,
  Littoral, Nord, Nord-Ouest, Ouest, Sud, Sud-Ouest

Canada
  10 provinces and 3 territories*; Alberta, British Columbia,
  Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest
  Territories*, Nova Scotia, Nunavut*, Ontario, Prince Edward Island,
  Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory*

Cape Verde
  17 municipalities (concelhos, singular - concelho); Boa
  Vista, Brava, Maio, Mosteiros, Paul, Praia, Porto Novo, Ribeira
  Grande, Sal, Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz, Sao Domingos, Sao Filipe,
  Sao Miguel, Sao Nicolau, Sao Vicente, Tarrafal

Cayman Islands
  8 districts; Creek, Eastern, Midland, South Town,
  Spot Bay, Stake Bay, West End, Western

Central African Republic
  14 prefectures (prefectures, singular -
  prefecture), 2 economic prefectures* (prefectures economiques,
  singular - prefecture economique), and 1 commune**;
  Bamingui-Bangoran, Bangui**, Basse-Kotto, Haute-Kotto, Haut-Mbomou,
  Kemo, Lobaye, Mambere-Kadei, Mbomou, Nana-Grebizi*, Nana-Mambere,
  Ombella-Mpoko, Ouaka, Ouham, Ouham-Pende, Sangha-Mbaere*, Vakaga

Chad
  14 prefectures (prefectures, singular - prefecture); Batha,
  Biltine, Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti, Chari-Baguirmi, Guera, Kanem, Lac,
  Logone Occidental, Logone Oriental, Mayo-Kebbi, Moyen-Chari,
  Ouaddai, Salamat, Tandjile
  note: instead of 14 prefectures, there may be a new administrative
  structure of 28 departments (departments, singular - department) and
  1 city*; Assongha, Baguirmi, Bahr El Gazal, Bahr Koh, Batha
  Oriental, Batha Occidental, Biltine, Borkou, Dababa, Ennedi, Guera,
  Hadjer Lamis, Kabia, Kanem, Lac, Lac Iro, Logone Occidental, Logone
  Oriental, Mandoul, Mayo-Boneye, Mayo-Dallah, Monts de Lam,
  N'Djamena*, Ouaddai, Salamat, Sila, Tandjile Oriental, Tandjile
  Occidental, Tibesti

Chile
  13 regions (regiones, singular - region); Aisen del General
  Carlos Ibanez del Campo, Antofagasta, Araucania, Atacama, Bio-Bio,
  Coquimbo, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Los Lagos,
  Magallanes y de la Antartica Chilena, Maule, Region Metropolitana
  (Santiago), Tarapaca, Valparaiso
  note: the US does not recognize claims to Antarctica

China
  23 provinces (sheng, singular and plural), 5 autonomous
  regions (zizhiqu, singular and plural), and 4 municipalities (shi,
  singular and plural)
  provinces: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei,
  Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin,
  Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan,
  Zhejiang; (see note on Taiwan)
  autonomous regions: Guangxi, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Xizang
  (Tibet)
  municipalities: Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin
  note: China considers Taiwan its 23rd province; see separate entries
  for the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau

Christmas Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Colombia
  32 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and
  1 capital district* (distrito capital); Amazonas, Antioquia, Arauca,
  Atlantico, Bogota*, Bolivar, Boyaca, Caldas, Caqueta, Casanare,
  Cauca, Cesar, Choco, Cordoba, Cundinamarca, Guainia, Guaviare,
  Huila, La Guajira, Magdalena, Meta, Narino, Norte de Santander,
  Putumayo, Quindio, Risaralda, San Andres y Providencia, Santander,
  Sucre, Tolima, Valle del Cauca, Vaupes, Vichada

Comoros
  3 islands and 4 municipalities*; Grande Comore (Njazidja),
  Anjouan (Nzwani), Domoni*, Fomboni*, Moheli (Mwali), Moroni*,
  Moutsamoudou*

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  10 provinces (provinces, singular
  - province) and 1 city* (ville); Bandundu, Bas-Congo, Equateur,
  Kasai-Occidental, Kasai-Oriental, Katanga, Kinshasa*, Maniema,
  Nord-Kivu, Orientale, Sud-Kivu

Congo, Republic of the
  10 regions (regions, singular - region) and 1
  commune*; Bouenza, Brazzaville*, Cuvette, Cuvette-Ouest, Kouilou,
  Lekoumou, Likouala, Niari, Plateaux, Pool, Sangha

Cook Islands
  none

Costa Rica
  7 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Alajuela,
  Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Limon, Puntarenas, San Jose

Cote d'Ivoire
  19 regions; Agneby, Bafing, Bas-Sassandra, Denguele,
  Dix-Huit Montagnes, Fromager, Haut-Sassandra, Lacs, Lagunes,
  Marahoue, Moyen-Cavally, Moyen-Comoe, N'zi-Comoe, Savanes,
  Sud-Bandama, Sud-Comoe, Vallee du Bandama, Worodougou, Zanzan

Croatia
  20 counties (zupanije, zupanija - singular) and 1 city*
  (grad - singular); Bjelovarsko-Bilogorska Zupanija, Brodsko-Posavska
  Zupanija, Dubrovacko-Neretvanska Zupanija, Istarska Zupanija,
  Karlovacka Zupanija, Koprivnicko-Krizevacka Zupanija,
  Krapinsko-Zagorska Zupanija, Licko-Senjska Zupanija, Medimurska
  Zupanija, Osjecko-Baranjska Zupanija, Pozesko-Slavonska Zupanija,
  Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Sibensko-Kninska Zupanija,
  Sisacko-Moslavacka Zupanija, Splitsko-Dalmatinska Zupanija,
  Varazdinska Zupanija, Viroviticko-Podravska Zupanija,
  Vukovarsko-Srijemska Zupanija, Zadarska Zupanija, Zagreb*,
  Zagrebacka Zupanija

Cuba
  14 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 special
  municipality* (municipio especial); Camaguey, Ciego de Avila,
  Cienfuegos, Ciudad de La Habana, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Isla
  de la Juventud*, La Habana, Las Tunas, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio,
  Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara

Cyprus
  6 districts; Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia,
  Paphos; note - Turkish Cypriot area's administrative divisions
  include Kyrenia, all but a small part of Famagusta, and small parts
  of Lefkosia (Nicosia) and Larnaca

Czech Republic
  13 regions (kraje, singular - kraj) and 1 capital
  city* (hlavni mesto); Jihocesky Kraj, Jihomoravsky Kraj, Karlovarsky
  Kraj, Kralovehradecky Kraj, Liberecky Kraj, Moravskoslezsky Kraj,
  Olomoucky Kraj, Pardubicky Kraj, Plzensky Kraj, Praha (Prague)*,
  Stredocesky Kraj, Ustecky Kraj, Vysocina, Zlinsky Kraj

Denmark
  metropolitan Denmark - 14 counties (amter, singular - amt)
  and 2 boroughs* (amtskommuner, singular - amtskommune); Arhus,
  Bornholm, Frederiksberg*, Frederiksborg, Fyn, Kobenhavn, Kobenhavn
  (Copenhagen)*, Nordjylland, Ribe, Ringkobing, Roskilde,
  Sonderjylland, Storstrom, Vejle, Vestsjalland, Viborg
  note: as a result of an extensive 2005 local government reform, with
  2006 being a transition year, 275 municipalities will be merged to
  99 by 1 January 2007, and the 14 counties will be reorganized into
  five regions

Djibouti
  6 districts (cercles, singular - cercle); Ali Sabieh, Arta,
  Dikhil, Djibouti, Obock, Tadjourah

Dominica
  10 parishes; Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint
  John, Saint Joseph, Saint Luke, Saint Mark, Saint Patrick, Saint
  Paul, Saint Peter

Dominican Republic
  31 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia)
  and 1 district* (distrito); Azua, Baoruco, Barahona, Dajabon,
  Distrito Nacional*, Duarte, El Seibo, Elias Pina, Espaillat, Hato
  Mayor, Independencia, La Altagracia, La Romana, La Vega, Maria
  Trinidad Sanchez, Monsenor Nouel, Monte Cristi, Monte Plata,
  Pedernales, Peravia, Puerto Plata, Salcedo, Samana, San Cristobal,
  San Jose de Ocoa, San Juan, San Pedro de Macoris, Sanchez Ramirez,
  Santiago, Santiago Rodriguez, Santo Domingo, Valverde

East Timor
  13 administrative districts; Aileu, Ainaro, Baucau,
  Bobonaro (Maliana), Cova-Lima (Suai), Dili, Ermera, Lautem (Los
  Palos), Liquica, Manatuto, Manufahi (Same), Oecussi (Ambeno),
  Viqueque

Ecuador
  22 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia); Azuay,
  Bolivar, Canar, Carchi, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, El Oro, Esmeraldas,
  Galapagos, Guayas, Imbabura, Loja, Los Rios, Manabi,
  Morona-Santiago, Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Pichincha, Sucumbios,
  Tungurahua, Zamora-Chinchipe

Egypt
  26 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ad
  Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah,
  Al Iskandariyah, Al Isma'iliyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya,
  Al Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, As Suways, Ash
  Sharqiyah, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Sa'id, Dumyat, Janub
  Sina', Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina', Suhaj

El Salvador
  14 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Ahuachapan, Cabanas, Chalatenango, Cuscatlan, La Libertad, La Paz,
  La Union, Morazan, San Miguel, San Salvador, San Vicente, Santa Ana,
  Sonsonate, Usulutan

Equatorial Guinea
  7 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia);
  Annobon, Bioko Norte, Bioko Sur, Centro Sur, Kie-Ntem, Litoral,
  Wele-Nzas

Eritrea
  6 regions (zobatat, singular - zoba); Anseba, Debub
  (Southern), Debubawi K'eyih Bahri (Southern Red Sea), Gash Barka,
  Ma'akel (Central), Semenawi Keyih Bahri (Northern Red Sea)

Estonia
  15 counties (maakonnad, singular - maakond): Harjumaa
  (Tallinn), Hiiumaa (Kardla), Ida-Virumaa (Johvi), Jarvamaa (Paide),
  Jogevamaa (Jogeva), Laanemaa (Haapsalu), Laane-Virumaa (Rakvere),
  Parnumaa (Parnu), Polvamaa (Polva), Raplamaa (Rapla), Saaremaa
  (Kuressaare), Tartumaa (Tartu), Valgamaa (Valga), Viljandimaa
  (Viljandi), Vorumaa (Voru)
  note: counties have the administrative center name following in
  parentheses

Ethiopia
  9 ethnically-based states (kililoch, singular - kilil) and
  2 self-governing administrations* (astedaderoch, singular -
  astedader); Adis Abeba* (Addis Ababa), Afar, Amara (Amhara),
  Binshangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa*, Gambela Hizboch (Gambela Peoples),
  Hareri Hizb (Harari People), Oromiya (Oromia), Sumale (Somali),
  Tigray, Ye Debub Biheroch Bihereseboch na Hizboch (Southern Nations,
  Nationalities and Peoples)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none (overseas territory of the
  UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Faroe Islands
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing
  overseas administrative division of Denmark); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are 49 municipalities

Fiji
  4 divisions and 1 dependency*; Central, Eastern, Northern,
  Rotuma*, Western

Finland
  6 provinces (laanit, singular - laani); Aland, Etela-Suomen
  Laani, Ita-Suomen Laani, Lansi-Suomen Laani, Lappi, Oulun Laani

France
  22 regions (regions, singular - region); Alsace, Aquitaine,
  Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre,
  Champagne-Ardenne, Corse, Franche-Comte, Haute-Normandie,
  Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine,
  Midi-Pyrenees, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Pays de la Loire, Picardie,
  Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Rhone-Alpes
  note: metropolitan France is divided into 22 regions (including the
  "territorial collectivity" of Corse or Corsica) and is subdivided
  into 96 departments; see separate entries for the overseas
  departments (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion) and the
  overseas territorial collectivities (Mayotte, Saint Pierre, Miquelon)

French Guiana
  none (overseas department of France)

French Polynesia
  none (overseas lands of France); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are five archipelagic divisions named Archipel
  des Marquises, Archipel des Tuamotu, Archipel des Tubuai, Iles du
  Vent, Iles Sous-le-Vent
  note: Clipperton Island is administered by France from French
  Polynesia

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  none (overseas territory of
  France); there are no first-order administrative divisions as
  defined by the US Government, but there are three districts named
  Ile Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Iles Saint-Paul et Amsterdam; excludes
  "Adelie Land" claim in Antarctica that is not recognized by the US

Gabon
  9 provinces; Estuaire, Haut-Ogooue, Moyen-Ogooue, Ngounie,
  Nyanga, Ogooue-Ivindo, Ogooue-Lolo, Ogooue-Maritime, Woleu-Ntem

Gambia, The
  5 divisions and 1 city*; Banjul*, Central River, Lower
  River, North Bank, Upper River, Western

Georgia
  9 regions (mkharebi, singular - mkhare), 9 cities
  (k'alak'ebi, singular - k'alak'i), and 2 autonomous republics
  (avtomnoy respubliki, singular - avtom respublika)
  regions: Guria, Imereti, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti,
  Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti,
  Samtskhe-Javakheti, Shida Kartli
  cities: Chiat'ura, Gori, K'ut'aisi, P'ot'i, Rust'avi, Tbilisi,
  Tqibuli, Tsqaltubo, Zugdidi
  autonomous republics: Abkhazia or Ap'khazet'is Avtonomiuri
  Respublika (Sokhumi), Ajaria or Acharis Avtonomiuri Respublika
  (Bat'umi)
  note: the administrative centers of the two autonomous republics are
  shown in parentheses

Germany
  13 states (Laender, singular - Land) and 3 free states*
  (Freistaaten, singular - Freistaat); Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bayern*,
  Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen,
  Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen,
  Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen*, Sachsen-Anhalt,
  Schleswig-Holstein, Thueringen*

Ghana
  10 regions; Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater
  Accra, Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western

Gibraltar
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Greece
  51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos) and 1 autonomous
  region*; Achaia, Agion Oros* (Mt. Athos), Aitolia kai Akarnania,
  Argolis, Arkadia, Arta, Attiki, Chalkidiki, Chanion, Chios,
  Dodekanisos, Drama, Evros, Evrytania, Evvoia, Florina, Fokidos,
  Fthiotis, Grevena, Ileia, Imathia, Ioannina, Irakleion, Karditsa,
  Kastoria, Kavala, Kefallinia, Kerkyra, Kilkis, Korinthia, Kozani,
  Kyklades, Lakonia, Larisa, Lasithi, Lefkas, Lesvos, Magnisia,
  Messinia, Pella, Pieria, Preveza, Rethynnis, Rodopi, Samos, Serrai,
  Thesprotia, Thessaloniki, Trikala, Voiotia, Xanthi, Zakynthos

Greenland
  3 districts (landsdele); Avannaa (Nordgronland), Tunu
  (Ostgronland), Kitaa (Vestgronland)
  note: there are 18 municipalities in Greenland

Grenada
  6 parishes and 1 dependency*; Carriacou and Petit
  Martinique*, Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John,
  Saint Mark, Saint Patrick

Guadeloupe
  none (overseas department of France)

Guam
  none (territory of the US)

Guatemala
  22 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Chiquimula, El Progreso,
  Escuintla, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Izabal, Jalapa, Jutiapa, Peten,
  Quetzaltenango, Quiche, Retalhuleu, Sacatepequez, San Marcos, Santa
  Rosa, Solola, Suchitepequez, Totonicapan, Zacapa

Guernsey
  none (British crown dependency); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are 10 parishes including Castel, Forest, Saint Andrew, Saint
  Martin, Saint Peter Port, Saint Pierre du Bois, Saint Sampson, Saint
  Saviour, Torteval, Vale

Guinea
  33 prefectures and 1 special zone (zone special)*; Beyla,
  Boffa, Boke, Conakry*, Coyah, Dabola, Dalaba, Dinguiraye, Dubreka,
  Faranah, Forecariah, Fria, Gaoual, Gueckedou, Kankan, Kerouane,
  Kindia, Kissidougou, Koubia, Koundara, Kouroussa, Labe, Lelouma,
  Lola, Macenta, Mali, Mamou, Mandiana, Nzerekore, Pita, Siguiri,
  Telimele, Tougue, Yomou

Guinea-Bissau
  9 regions (regioes, singular - regiao); Bafata,
  Biombo, Bissau, Bolama, Cacheu, Gabu, Oio, Quinara, Tombali; note -
  Bolama may have been renamed Bolama/Bijagos

Guyana
  10 regions; Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Demerara-Mahaica,
  East Berbice-Corentyne, Essequibo Islands-West Demerara,
  Mahaica-Berbice, Pomeroon-Supenaam, Potaro-Siparuni, Upper
  Demerara-Berbice, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo

Haiti
  10 departments (departements, singular - departement);
  Artibonite, Centre, Grand 'Anse, Nippes, Nord, Nord-Est, Nord-Ouest,
  Ouest, Sud, Sud-Est

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none

Honduras
  18 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Atlantida, Choluteca, Colon, Comayagua, Copan, Cortes, El Paraiso,
  Francisco Morazan, Gracias a Dios, Intibuca, Islas de la Bahia, La
  Paz, Lempira, Ocotepeque, Olancho, Santa Barbara, Valle, Yoro

Hong Kong
  none (special administrative region of China)

Hungary
  19 counties (megyek, singular - megye), 22 urban counties
  (singular - megyei varos), and 1 capital city (fovaros)
  counties: Bacs-Kiskun, Baranya, Bekes, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen,
  Csongrad, Fejer, Gyor-Moson-Sopron, Hajdu-Bihar, Heves,
  Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok, Komarom-Esztergom, Nograd, Pest, Somogy,
  Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, Tolna, Vas, Veszprem, Zala
  urban counties: Bekescsaba, Debrecen, Dunaujvaros, Eger, Gyor,
  Hodmezovasarhely, Kaposvar, Kecskemet, Miskolc, Nagykanizsa,
  Nyiregyhaza, Pecs, Salgotarjan, Sopron, Szeged, Szekesfehervar,
  Szekszard, Szolnok, Szombathely, Tatabanya, Veszprem, Zalaegerszeg
  capital city: Budapest

Iceland
  8 regions; Austurland, Hofudhborgarsvaedhi, Nordhurland
  Eystra, Nordhurland Vestra, Sudhurland, Sudhurnes, Vestfirdhir,
  Vesturland

India
  28 states and 7 union territories*; Andaman and Nicobar
  Islands*, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,
  Chandigarh*, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli*, Daman and Diu*,
  Delhi*, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
  Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep*, Madhya Pradesh,
  Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa,
  Puducherry*, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar
  Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal

Indonesia
  30 provinces (propinsi-propinsi, singular - propinsi), 2
  special regions* (daerah-daerah istimewa, singular - daerah
  istimewa), and 1 special capital city district** (daerah khusus
  ibukota); Aceh*, Bali, Banten, Bengkulu, Gorontalo, Irian Jaya
  Barat, Jakarta Raya**, Jambi, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur,
  Kalimantan Barat, Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan
  Timur, Kepulauan Bangka Belitung, Kepulauan Riau, Lampung, Maluku,
  Maluku Utara, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua, Riau,
  Sulawesi Barat, Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi
  Tenggara, Sulawesi Utara, Sumatera Barat, Sumatera Selatan, Sumatera
  Utara, Yogyakarta*
  note: following the implementation of decentralization beginning on
  1 January 2001, the 440 districts or regencies have become the key
  administrative units responsible for providing most government
  services

Iran
  30 provinces (ostanha, singular - ostan); Ardabil, Azarbayjan-e
  Gharbi, Azarbayjan-e Sharqi, Bushehr, Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari,
  Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman,
  Kermanshah, Khorasan-e Janubi, Khorasan-e Razavi, Khorasan-e
  Shemali, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh va Buyer Ahmad, Kordestan, Lorestan,
  Markazi, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Sistan va Baluchestan,
  Tehran, Yazd, Zanjan

Iraq
  18 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Anbar, Al
  Basrah, Al Muthanna, Al Qadisiyah, An Najaf, Arbil, As Sulaymaniyah,
  At Ta'mim, Babil, Baghdad, Dahuk, Dhi Qar, Diyala, Karbala', Maysan,
  Ninawa, Salah ad Din, Wasit

Ireland
  26 counties; Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin,
  Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick,
  Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo,
  Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow
  note: Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan are part of Ulster Province

Isle of Man
  none; there are no first-order administrative divisions
  as defined by the US Government, but there are 24 local authorities
  each with its own elections

Israel
  6 districts (mehozot, singular - mehoz); Central, Haifa,
  Jerusalem, Northern, Southern, Tel Aviv

Italy
  15 regions (regioni, singular - regione) and 5 autonomous
  regions* (regioni autonome, singular - regione autonoma); Abruzzo,
  Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia
  Giulia*, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte,
  Puglia, Sardegna*, Sicilia*, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige*, Umbria,
  Valle d'Aosta*, Veneto

Jamaica
  14 parishes; Clarendon, Hanover, Kingston, Manchester,
  Portland, Saint Andrew, Saint Ann, Saint Catherine, Saint Elizabeth,
  Saint James, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas, Trelawny, Westmoreland
  note: for local government purposes, Kingston and Saint Andrew were
  amalgamated in 1923 into the present single corporate body known as
  the Kingston and Saint Andrew Corporation

Japan
  47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui,
  Fukuoka, Fukushima, Gifu, Gunma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo,
  Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Iwate, Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kanagawa, Kochi,
  Kumamoto, Kyoto, Mie, Miyagi, Miyazaki, Nagano, Nagasaki, Nara,
  Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Okinawa, Osaka, Saga, Saitama, Shiga,
  Shimane, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Tottori, Toyama,
  Wakayama, Yamagata, Yamaguchi, Yamanashi

Jersey
  none (British crown dependency)

Jordan
  12 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ajlun, Al
  'Aqabah, Al Balqa', Al Karak, Al Mafraq, 'Amman, At Tafilah, Az
  Zarqa', Irbid, Jarash, Ma'an, Madaba

Kazakhstan
  14 provinces (oblystar, singular - oblys) and 3 cities*
  (qala, singular - qalasy); Almaty Oblysy, Almaty Qalasy*, Aqmola
  Oblysy (Astana), Aqtobe Oblysy, Astana Qalasy*, Atyrau Oblysy, Batys
  Qazaqstan Oblysy (Oral), Bayqongyr Qalasy*, Mangghystau Oblysy
  (Aqtau), Ongtustik Qazaqstan Oblysy (Shymkent), Pavlodar Oblysy,
  Qaraghandy Oblysy, Qostanay Oblysy, Qyzylorda Oblysy, Shyghys
  Qazaqstan Oblysy (Oskemen), Soltustik Qazaqstan Oblysy
  (Petropavlovsk), Zhambyl Oblysy (Taraz)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses); in 1995, the Governments of
  Kazakhstan and Russia entered into an agreement whereby Russia would
  lease for a period of 20 years an area of 6,000 sq km enclosing the
  Baykonur space launch facilities and the city of Bayqongyr
  (Baykonur, formerly Leninsk); in 2004, a new agreement extended the
  lease to 2050

Kenya
  7 provinces and 1 area*; Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi
  Area*, North Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western

Kiribati
  3 units; Gilbert Islands, Line Islands, Phoenix Islands;
  note - in addition, there are 6 districts (Banaba, Central Gilberts,
  Line Islands, Northern Gilberts, Southern Gilberts, Tarawa) and 21
  island councils - one for each of the inhabited islands (Abaiang,
  Abemama, Aranuka, Arorae, Banaba, Beru, Butaritari, Kanton,
  Kiritimati, Kuria, Maiana, Makin, Marakei, Nikunau, Nonouti, Onotoa,
  Tabiteuea, Tabuaeran, Tamana, Tarawa, Teraina)

Korea, North
  9 provinces (do, singular and plural) and 4
  municipalities (si, singular and plural)
  provinces: Chagang-do (Chagang), Hamgyong-bukto (North Hamgyong),
  Hamgyong-namdo (South Hamgyong), Hwanghae-bukto (North Hwanghae),
  Hwanghae-namdo (South Hwanghae), Kangwon-do (Kangwon),
  P'yongan-bukto (North P'yongan), P'yongan-namdo (South P'yongan),
  Yanggang-do (Yanggang)
  municipalites: Kaesong-si (Kaesong), Najin Sonbong-si (Najin),
  Namp'o-si (Namp'o), P'yongyang-si (Pyongyang)

Korea, South
  9 provinces (do, singular and plural) and 7
  metropolitan cities (gwangyoksi, singular and plural)
  provinces: Cheju-do, Cholla-bukto (North Cholla), Cholla-namdo
  (South Cholla), Ch'ungch'ong-bukto (North Ch'ungch'ong),
  Ch'ungch'ong-namdo (South Ch'ungch'ong), Kangwon-do, Kyonggi-do,
  Kyongsang-bukto (North Kyongsang), Kyongsang-namdo (South Kyongsang)
  metropolitan cities: Inch'on-gwangyoksi (Inch'on),
  Kwangju-gwangyoksi (Kwangju), Pusan-gwangyoksi (Pusan),
  Soul-t'ukpyolsi (Seoul), Taegu-gwangyoksi (Taegu), Taejon-gwangyoksi
  (Taejon), Ulsan-gwangyoksi (Ulsan)

Kuwait
  6 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Ahmadi,
  Al 'Asimah, Al Farwaniyah, Al Jahra', Hawalli, Mubarak Al Kabir

Kyrgyzstan
  7 provinces (oblastlar, singular - oblasty) and 1 city*
  (shaar); Batken Oblasty, Bishkek Shaary*, Chuy Oblasty (Bishkek),
  Jalal-Abad Oblasty, Naryn Oblasty, Osh Oblasty, Talas Oblasty,
  Ysyk-Kol Oblasty (Karakol)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Laos
  16 provinces (khoueng, singular and plural), 1 municipality*
  (kampheng nakhon, singular and plural), and 1 special zone**
  (khetphiset, singular and plural); Attapu, Bokeo, Bolikhamxai,
  Champasak, Houaphan, Khammouan, Louangnamtha, Louangphrabang,
  Oudomxai, Phongsali, Salavan, Savannakhet, Viangchan (Vientiane)*,
  Viangchan, Xaignabouli, Xaisomboun**, Xekong, Xiangkhoang

Latvia
  26 counties (singular - rajons) and 7 municipalities*:
  Aizkraukles Rajons, Aluksnes Rajons, Balvu Rajons, Bauskas Rajons,
  Cesu Rajons, Daugavpils*, Daugavpils Rajons, Dobeles Rajons,
  Gulbenes Rajons, Jekabpils Rajons, Jelgava*, Jelgavas Rajons,
  Jurmala*, Kraslavas Rajons, Kuldigas Rajons, Liepaja*, Liepajas
  Rajons, Limbazu Rajons, Ludzas Rajons, Madonas Rajons, Ogres Rajons,
  Preilu Rajons, Rezekne*, Rezeknes Rajons, Riga*, Rigas Rajons,
  Saldus Rajons, Talsu Rajons, Tukuma Rajons, Valkas Rajons, Valmieras
  Rajons, Ventspils*, Ventspils Rajons

Lebanon
  8 governorates (mohafazat, singular - mohafazah); Aakkar,
  Baalbek-Hermel, Beyrouth, Beqaa, Liban-Nord, Liban-Sud, Mont-Liban,
  Nabatiye

Lesotho
  10 districts; Berea, Butha-Buthe, Leribe, Mafeteng, Maseru,
  Mohale's Hoek, Mokhotlong, Qacha's Nek, Quthing, Thaba-Tseka

Liberia
  15 counties; Bomi, Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Cape
  Mount, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado,
  Nimba, River Cess, River Gee, Sinoe

Libya
  25 municipalities (baladiyat, singular - baladiyah); Ajdabiya,
  Al 'Aziziyah, Al Fatih, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Al Jufrah, Al Khums, Al
  Kufrah, An Nuqat al Khams, Ash Shati', Awbari, Az Zawiyah, Banghazi,
  Darnah, Ghadamis, Gharyan, Misratah, Murzuq, Sabha, Sawfajjin, Surt,
  Tarabulus, Tarhunah, Tubruq, Yafran, Zlitan; note - the 25
  municipalities may have been replaced by 13 regions

Liechtenstein
  11 communes (Gemeinden, singular - Gemeinde); Balzers,
  Eschen, Gamprin, Mauren, Planken, Ruggell, Schaan, Schellenberg,
  Triesen, Triesenberg, Vaduz

Lithuania
  10 counties (apskritys, singular - apskritis); Alytaus,
  Kauno, Klaipedos, Marijampoles, Panevezio, Siauliu, Taurages,
  Telsiu, Utenos, Vilniaus

Luxembourg
  3 districts; Diekirch, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg

Macau
  none (special administrative region of China)

Macedonia
  85 municipalities (opstini, singular - opstina); Aerodrom
  (Skopje), Aracinovo, Berovo, Bitola, Bogdanci, Bogovinje, Bosilovo,
  Brvenica, Butel (Skopje), Cair (Skopje), Caska, Centar (Skopje),
  Centar Zupa, Cesinovo, Cucer-Sandevo, Debar, Debartsa, Delcevo,
  Demir Hisar, Demir Kapija, Dojran, Dolneni, Drugovo, Gazi Baba
  (Skopje), Gevgelija, Gjorce Petrov (Skopje), Gostivar, Gradsko,
  Ilinden, Jegunovce, Karbinci, Karpos (Skopje), Kavadarci, Kicevo,
  Kisela Voda (Skopje), Kocani, Konce, Kratovo, Kriva Palanka,
  Krivogastani, Krusevo, Kumanovo, Lipkovo, Lozovo, Makedonska
  Kamenica, Makedonski Brod, Mavrovo i Rastusa, Mogila, Negotino,
  Novaci, Novo Selo, Ohrid, Oslomej, Pehcevo, Petrovec, Plasnica,
  Prilep, Probistip, Radovis, Rankovce, Resen, Rosoman, Saraj
  (Skopje), Skopje, Sopiste, Staro Nagoricane, Stip, Struga, Strumica,
  Studenicani, Suto Orizari (Skopje), Sveti Nikole, Tearce, Tetovo,
  Valandovo, Vasilevo, Veles, Vevcani, Vinica, Vranestica, Vrapciste,
  Zajas, Zelenikovo, Zelino, Zrnovci
  note: the ten municipalities followed by Skopje in parentheses
  collectively constitute "greater Skopje"

Madagascar
  6 provinces (faritany); Antananarivo, Antsiranana,
  Fianarantsoa, Mahajanga, Toamasina, Toliara

Malawi
  27 districts; Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu,
  Chitipa, Dedza, Dowa, Karonga, Kasungu, Likoma, Lilongwe, Machinga
  (Kasupe), Mangochi, Mchinji, Mulanje, Mwanza, Mzimba, Ntcheu, Nkhata
  Bay, Nkhotakota, Nsanje, Ntchisi, Phalombe, Rumphi, Salima, Thyolo,
  Zomba

Malaysia
  13 states (negeri-negeri, singular - negeri) Johor, Kedah,
  Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau
  Pinang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, and Terengganu; and one federal
  territory (wilayah persekutuan) with three components, city of Kuala
  Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya

Maldives
  19 atolls (atholhu, singular and plural) and the capital
  city*; Alifu, Baa, Dhaalu, Faafu, Gaafu Alifu, Gaafu Dhaalu,
  Gnaviyani, Haa Alifu, Haa Dhaalu, Kaafu, Laamu, Lhaviyani, Maale*
  (Male), Meemu, Noonu, Raa, Seenu, Shaviyani, Thaa, Vaavu

Mali
  8 regions (regions, singular - region); Gao, Kayes, Kidal,
  Koulikoro, Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, Tombouctou

Malta
  none (administered directly from Valletta); note - local
  councils carry out administrative orders

Marshall Islands
  33 municipalities; Ailinginae, Ailinglaplap, Ailuk,
  Arno, Aur, Bikar, Bikini, Bokak, Ebon, Enewetak, Erikub, Jabat,
  Jaluit, Jemo, Kili, Kwajalein, Lae, Lib, Likiep, Majuro, Maloelap,
  Mejit, Mili, Namorik, Namu, Rongelap, Rongrik, Toke, Ujae, Ujelang,
  Utirik, Wotho, Wotje

Martinique
  none (overseas department of France)

Mauritania
  12 regions (regions, singular - region) and 1 capital
  district*; Adrar, Assaba, Brakna, Dakhlet Nouadhibou, Gorgol,
  Guidimaka, Hodh Ech Chargui, Hodh El Gharbi, Inchiri, Nouakchott*,
  Tagant, Tiris Zemmour, Trarza

Mauritius
  9 districts and 3 dependencies*; Agalega Islands*, Black
  River, Cargados Carajos Shoals*, Flacq, Grand Port, Moka,
  Pamplemousses, Plaines Wilhems, Port Louis, Riviere du Rempart,
  Rodrigues*, Savanne

Mayotte
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Mexico
  31 states (estados, singular - estado) and 1 federal
  district* (distrito federal); Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja
  California Sur, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila de Zaragoza,
  Colima, Distrito Federal*, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo,
  Jalisco, Mexico, Michoacan de Ocampo, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon,
  Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro de Arteaga, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi,
  Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz-Llave,
  Yucatan, Zacatecas

Micronesia, Federated States of
  4 states; Chuuk (Truk), Kosrae
  (Kosaie), Pohnpei (Ponape), Yap

Moldova
  32 raions (raioane, singular - raionul), 3 municipalities
  (municipiul), 1 autonomous territorial unit (unitatea teritoriala
  autonoma), and 1 territorial unit (unitatea teritoriala)
  raions: Anenii Noi, Basarabeasca, Briceni, Cahul, Cantemir,
  Calarasi, Causeni, Cimislia, Criuleni, Donduseni, Drochia, Dubasari,
  Edinet, Falesti, Floresti, Glodeni, Hincesti, Ialoveni, Leova,
  Nisporeni, Ocnita, Orhei, Rezina, Riscani, Singerei, Soldanesti,
  Soroca, Stefan-Voda, Straseni, Taraclia, Telenesti, Ungheni
  municipalities: Balti, Bender, Chisinau
  autonomous territorial unit: Gagauzia
  territorial unit: Stinga Nistrului

Monaco
  none; there are no first-order administrative divisions as
  defined by the US Government, but there are four quarters
  (quartiers, singular - quartier); Fontvieille, La Condamine,
  Monaco-Ville, Monte-Carlo

Mongolia
  21 provinces (aymguud, singular - aymag) and 1
  municipality* (singular - hot); Arhangay, Bayanhongor, Bayan-Olgiy,
  Bulgan, Darhan-Uul, Dornod, Dornogovi, Dundgovi, Dzavhan,
  Govi-Altay, Govisumber, Hentiy, Hovd, Hovsgol, Omnogovi, Orhon,
  Ovorhangay, Selenge, Suhbaatar, Tov, Ulaanbaatar*, Uvs

Montenegro
  21 municipalities (opstini, singular - opstina);
  Andrijevia, Bar, Berane, Bijelo Polje, Budva, Cetinje, Danilovgrad,
  Herceg Novi, Kolasin, Kotor, Mojkovac, Niksic, Plav, Pluzine,
  Pljevlja, Podgornica, Rozaje, Savnik, Tivat, Ulcinj, Zabljak

Montserrat
  3 parishes; Saint Anthony, Saint Georges, Saint Peter

Morocco
  15 regions; Grand Casablanca, Chaouia-Ouardigha,
  Doukkala-Abda, Fes-Boulemane, Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen, Guelmim-Es
  Smara, Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra, Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz,
  Meknes-Tafilalet, Oriental, Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer,
  Souss-Massa-Draa, Tadla-Azilal, Tanger-Tetouan, Taza-Al
  Hoceima-Taounate
  note: Morocco claims the territory of Western Sahara, the political
  status of which is considered undetermined by the US Government;
  portions of the regions Guelmim-Es Smara and Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia
  El Hamra as claimed by Morocco lie within Western Sahara; Morocco
  claims another region, Oued Eddahab-Lagouira, which falls entirely
  within Western Sahara

Mozambique
  10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), 1 city
  (cidade)*; Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Cidade de
  Maputo*, Nampula, Niassa, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia

Namibia
  13 regions; Caprivi, Erongo, Hardap, Karas, Khomas, Kunene,
  Ohangwena, Okavango, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa

Nauru
  14 districts; Aiwo, Anabar, Anetan, Anibare, Baiti, Boe,
  Buada, Denigomodu, Ewa, Ijuw, Meneng, Nibok, Uaboe, Yaren

Nepal
  14 zones (anchal, singular and plural); Bagmati, Bheri,
  Dhawalagiri, Gandaki, Janakpur, Karnali, Kosi, Lumbini, Mahakali,
  Mechi, Narayani, Rapti, Sagarmatha, Seti

Netherlands
  12 provinces (provincies, singular - provincie);
  Drenthe, Flevoland, Friesland (Fryslan), Gelderland, Groningen,
  Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland,
  Zuid-Holland

Netherlands Antilles
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
  note: each island has its own government

New Caledonia
  none (overseas territory of France); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are 3 provinces named Iles Loyaute, Nord, and
  Sud

New Zealand
  16 regions and 1 territory*; Auckland, Bay of Plenty,
  Canterbury, Chatham Islands*, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay,
  Manawatu-Wanganui, Marlborough, Nelson, Northland, Otago, Southland,
  Taranaki, Tasman, Waikato, Wellington, West Coast

Nicaragua
  15 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento)
  and 2 autonomous regions* (regiones autonomistas, singular - region
  autonomista); Atlantico Norte*, Atlantico Sur*, Boaco, Carazo,
  Chinandega, Chontales, Esteli, Granada, Jinotega, Leon, Madriz,
  Managua, Masaya, Matagalpa, Nueva Segovia, Rio San Juan, Rivas

Niger
  8 regions (regions, singular - region) includes 1 capital
  district* (communite urbaine); Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi,
  Niamey*, Tahoua, Tillaberi, Zinder

Nigeria
  36 states and 1 territory*; Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom,
  Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi,
  Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory*, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa,
  Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nassarawa, Niger,
  Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara

Niue
  none; note - there are no first-order administrative divisions
  as defined by the US Government, but there are 14 villages at the
  second order

Norfolk Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Northern Mariana Islands
  none (commonwealth in political union with
  the US); there are no first-order administrative divisions as
  defined by the US Government, but there are four municipalities at
  the second order: Northern Islands, Rota, Saipan, Tinian

Norway
  19 counties (fylker, singular - fylke); Akershus, Aust-Agder,
  Buskerud, Finnmark, Hedmark, Hordaland, More og Romsdal, Nordland,
  Nord-Trondelag, Oppland, Oslo, Ostfold, Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane,
  Sor-Trondelag, Telemark, Troms, Vest-Agder, Vestfold

Oman
  5 regions (manatiq, singular - mintaqat) and 4 governorates*
  (muhafazat, singular - muhafazat) Ad Dakhiliyah, Al Batinah, Al
  Buraymi*, Al Wusta, Ash Sharqiyah, Az Zahirah, Masqat*, Musandam*,
  Zufar (Dhofar)*

Pakistan
  4 provinces, 1 territory*, and 1 capital territory**;
  Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas*, Islamabad Capital
  Territory**, North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, Sindh
  note: the Pakistani-administered portion of the disputed Jammu and
  Kashmir region consists of two administrative entities: Azad Kashmir
  and Northern Areas

Palau
  16 states; Aimeliik, Airai, Angaur, Hatohobei, Kayangel,
  Koror, Melekeok, Ngaraard, Ngarchelong, Ngardmau, Ngatpang,
  Ngchesar, Ngeremlengui, Ngiwal, Peleliu, Sonsorol

Panama
  9 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1
  territory* (comarca); Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon,
  Darien, Herrera, Los Santos, Panama, San Blas*(Kuna Yala), and
  Veraguas

Papua New Guinea
  20 provinces; Bougainville, Central, Chimbu,
  Eastern Highlands, East New Britain, East Sepik, Enga, Gulf, Madang,
  Manus, Milne Bay, Morobe, National Capital, New Ireland, Northern,
  Sandaun, Southern Highlands, Western, Western Highlands, West New
  Britain

Paraguay
  17 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento) and
  1 capital city*; Alto Paraguay, Alto Parana, Amambay, Asuncion*,
  Boqueron, Caaguazu, Caazapa, Canindeyu, Central, Concepcion,
  Cordillera, Guaira, Itapua, Misiones, Neembucu, Paraguari,
  Presidente Hayes, San Pedro

Peru
  25 regions (regiones, singular - region) and 1 province*
  (provincia); Amazonas, Ancash, Apurimac, Arequipa, Ayacucho,
  Cajamarca, Callao, Cusco, Huancavelica, Huanuco, Ica, Junin, La
  Libertad, Lambayeque, Lima, Lima*, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Moquegua,
  Pasco, Piura, Puno, San Martin, Tacna, Tumbes, Ucayali

Philippines
  79 provinces and 117 chartered cities
  provinces: Abra, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Aklan, Albay,
  Antique, Apayao, Aurora, Basilan, Bataan, Batanes, Batangas,
  Biliran, Benguet, Bohol, Bukidnon, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines
  Norte, Camarines Sur, Camiguin, Capiz, Catanduanes, Cavite, Cebu,
  Compostela, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Eastern
  Samar, Guimaras, Ifugao, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Iloilo, Isabela,
  Kalinga, Laguna, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, La Union, Leyte,
  Maguindanao, Marinduque, Masbate, Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro
  Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Mountain Province,
  Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, North Cotabato, Northern Samar,
  Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Palawan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Quezon,
  Quirino, Rizal, Romblon, Samar, Sarangani, Siquijor, Sorsogon, South
  Cotabato, Southern Leyte, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Surigao del Norte,
  Surigao del Sur, Tarlac, Tawi-Tawi, Zambales, Zamboanga del Norte,
  Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay
  chartered cities: Alaminos, Angeles, Antipolo, Bacolod, Bago,
  Baguio, Bais, Balanga, Batangas, Bayawan, Bislig, Butuan,
  Cabanatuan, Cadiz, Cagayan de Oro, Calamba, Calapan, Calbayog,
  Candon, Canlaon, Cauayan, Cavite, Cebu, Cotabato, Dagupan, Danao,
  Dapitan, Davao, Digos, Dipolog, Dumaguete, Escalante, Gapan, General
  Santos, Gingoog, Himamaylan, Iligan, Iloilo, Isabela, Iriga,
  Kabankalan, Kalookan, Kidapawan, Koronadal, La Carlota, Laoag,
  Lapu-Lapu, Las Pinas, Legazpi, Ligao, Lipa, Lucena, Maasin, Makati,
  Malabon, Malaybalay, Malolos, Mandaluyong, Mandaue, Manila, Marawi,
  Markina, Masbate, Muntinlupa, Munoz, Naga, Olongapo, Ormoc,
  Oroquieta, Ozamis, Pagadian, Palayan, Panabo, Paranaque, Pasay,
  Pasig, Passi, Puerto Princesa, Quezon, Roxas, Sagay, Samal, San
  Carlos (in Negros Occidental), San Carlos (in Pangasinan), San
  Fernando (in La Union), San Fernando (in Pampanga), San Jose, San
  Jose del Monte, San Pablo, Santa Rosa, Santiago, Silay, Sipalay,
  Sorsogon, Surigao, Tabaco, Tacloban, Tacurong, Tagaytay, Tagbilaran,
  Taguig, Tagum, Talisay (in Cebu), Talisay (in Negros Oriental),
  Tanauan, Tangub, Tanjay, Tarlac, Toledo, Tuguegarao, Trece Martires,
  Urdaneta, Valencia, Valenzuela, Victorias, Vigan, Zamboanga

Pitcairn Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Poland
  16 provinces (wojewodztwa, singular - wojewodztwo);
  Dolnoslaskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lodzkie, Lubelskie, Lubuskie,
  Malopolskie, Mazowieckie, Opolskie, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie,
  Pomorskie, Slaskie, Swietokrzyskie, Warminsko-Mazurskie,
  Wielkopolskie, Zachodniopomorskie

Portugal
  18 districts (distritos, singular - distrito) and 2
  autonomous regions* (regioes autonomas, singular - regiao autonoma);
  Aveiro, Acores (Azores)*, Beja, Braga, Braganca, Castelo Branco,
  Coimbra, Evora, Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa, Madeira*, Portalegre,
  Porto, Santarem, Setubal, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Viseu

Puerto Rico
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status);
  there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined by the
  US Government, but there are 78 municipalities (municipios, singular
  - municipio) at the second order; Adjuntas, Aguada, Aguadilla, Aguas
  Buenas, Aibonito, Anasco, Arecibo, Arroyo, Barceloneta,
  Barranquitas, Bayamon, Cabo Rojo, Caguas, Camuy, Canovanas,
  Carolina, Catano, Cayey, Ceiba, Ciales, Cidra, Coamo, Comerio,
  Corozal, Culebra, Dorado, Fajardo, Florida, Guanica, Guayama,
  Guayanilla, Guaynabo, Gurabo, Hatillo, Hormigueros, Humacao,
  Isabela, Jayuya, Juana Diaz, Juncos, Lajas, Lares, Las Marias, Las
  Piedras, Loiza, Luquillo, Manati, Maricao, Maunabo, Mayaguez, Moca,
  Morovis, Naguabo, Naranjito, Orocovis, Patillas, Penuelas, Ponce,
  Quebradillas, Rincon, Rio Grande, Sabana Grande, Salinas, San
  German, San Juan, San Lorenzo, San Sebastian, Santa Isabel, Toa
  Alta, Toa Baja, Trujillo Alto, Utuado, Vega Alta, Vega Baja,
  Vieques, Villalba, Yabucoa, Yauco

Qatar
  10 municipalities (baladiyat, singular - baladiyah); Ad
  Dawhah, Al Ghuwayriyah, Al Jumayliyah, Al Khawr, Al Wakrah, Ar
  Rayyan, Jarayan al Batinah, Madinat ash Shamal, Umm Sa'id, Umm Salal

Reunion
  none (overseas department of France); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are 4 arrondissements, 24 communes, and 47
  cantons

Romania
  41 counties (judete, singular - judet) and 1 municipality*
  (municipiu); Alba, Arad, Arges, Bacau, Bihor, Bistrita-Nasaud,
  Botosani, Braila, Brasov, Bucuresti (Bucharest)*, Buzau, Calarasi,
  Caras-Severin, Cluj, Constanta, Covasna, Dimbovita, Dolj, Galati,
  Gorj, Giurgiu, Harghita, Hunedoara, Ialomita, Iasi, Ilfov,
  Maramures, Mehedinti, Mures, Neamt, Olt, Prahova, Salaj, Satu Mare,
  Sibiu, Suceava, Teleorman, Timis, Tulcea, Vaslui, Vilcea, Vrancea

Russia
  48 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics
  (respublik, singular - respublika), 9 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh
  okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 7 krays (krayev, singular -
  kray), 2 federal cities (singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast
  (avtonomnaya oblast')
  oblasts: Amur (Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangel'sk, Astrakhan', Belgorod,
  Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga,
  Kamchatka (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma,
  Kurgan, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk,
  Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel,
  Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan', Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara,
  Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula,
  Tver', Tyumen', Ul'yanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh,
  Yaroslavl'
  republics: Adygeya (Maykop), Altay (Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan
  (Ufa), Buryatiya (Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (Groznyy), Chuvashiya
  (Cheboksary), Dagestan (Makhachkala), Ingushetiya (Magas),
  Kabardino-Balkariya (Nal'chik), Kalmykiya (Elista),
  Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (Cherkessk), Kareliya (Petrozavodsk),
  Khakasiya (Abakan), Komi (Syktyvkar), Mariy-El (Yoshkar-Ola),
  Mordoviya (Saransk), North Ossetia (Vladikavkaz), Sakha [Yakutiya]
  (Yakutsk), Tatarstan (Kazan'), Tyva (Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (Izhevsk)
  autonomous okrugs: Aga Buryat (Aginskoye), Chukotka (Anadyr'), Evenk
  (Tura), Khanty-Mansi, Koryak (Palana), Nenets (Nar'yan-Mar), Taymyr
  [Dolgano-Nenets] (Dudinka), Ust'-Orda Buryat (Ust'-Ordynskiy),
  Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard)
  krays: Altay (Barnaul), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk,
  Permskiy, Primorskiy (Vladivostok), Stavropol'
  federal cities: Moscow (Moskva), Saint Petersburg (Sankt-Peterburg)
  autonomous oblast: Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Rwanda
  12 provinces (in French - provinces, singular - province; in
  Kinyarwanda - prefigintara for singular and plural); Butare, Byumba,
  Cyangugu, Gikongoro, Gisenyi, Gitarama, Kibungo, Kibuye, Kigali
  Rurale, Kigali-ville, Umutara, Ruhengeri

Saint Helena
  1 administrative area and 2 dependencies*; Ascension*,
  Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha*

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  14 parishes; Christ Church Nichola Town, Saint
  Anne Sandy Point, Saint George Basseterre, Saint George Gingerland,
  Saint James Windward, Saint John Capesterre, Saint John Figtree,
  Saint Mary Cayon, Saint Paul Capesterre, Saint Paul Charlestown,
  Saint Peter Basseterre, Saint Thomas Lowland, Saint Thomas Middle
  Island, Trinity Palmetto Point

Saint Lucia
  11 quarters; Anse-la-Raye, Castries, Choiseul, Dauphin,
  Dennery, Gros-Islet, Laborie, Micoud, Praslin, Soufriere, Vieux-Fort

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  none (territorial collectivity of France);
  note - there are no first-order administrative divisions as defined
  by the US Government, but there are two communes - Saint Pierre,
  Miquelon at the second order

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  6 parishes; Charlotte, Grenadines,
  Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint Patrick

Samoa
  11 districts; A'ana, Aiga-i-le-Tai, Atua, Fa'asaleleaga,
  Gaga'emauga, Gagaifomauga, Palauli, Satupa'itea, Tuamasaga,
  Va'a-o-Fonoti, Vaisigano

San Marino
  9 municipalities (castelli, singular - castello);
  Acquaviva, Borgo Maggiore, Chiesanuova, Domagnano, Faetano,
  Fiorentino, Montegiardino, San Marino Citta, Serravalle

Sao Tome and Principe
  2 provinces; Principe, Sao Tome
  note: Principe has had self-government since 29 April 1995

Saudi Arabia
  13 provinces (mintaqat, singular - mintaqah); Al Bahah,
  Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah, Al Jawf, Al Madinah, Al Qasim, Ar Riyad,
  Ash Sharqiyah (Eastern Province), 'Asir, Ha'il, Jizan, Makkah,
  Najran, Tabuk

Senegal
  11 regions (regions, singular - region); Dakar, Diourbel,
  Fatick, Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Matam, Saint-Louis, Tambacounda,
  Thies, Ziguinchor

Serbia
  29 districts (okrugov; singular - okrug), 1 capital city*
  Serbia Proper: Belgrad*, Bor, Branicevo, Jablanica, Kolubara, Macva,
  Moravica, Nisava, Pcinja, Pirot, Podunavlje, Pomoravlje, Rasina,
  Raska, Sumadija, Toplica, Zajecar, Zlatibor
  Vojvodina Autonomous Province: Central Banat, North Backa, North
  Banat, South Backa, South Banat, Srem, West Backa
  Kosovo and Metojia Autonomous Province: Kosovo, Kosovska-Mitrovica,
  Kosovo-Pomoravlje, Pec, Prizren

Seychelles
  23 administrative districts; Anse aux Pins, Anse Boileau,
  Anse Etoile, Anse Louis, Anse Royale, Baie Lazare, Baie Sainte Anne,
  Beau Vallon, Bel Air, Bel Ombre, Cascade, Glacis, Grand' Anse (on
  Mahe), Grand' Anse (on Praslin), La Digue, La Riviere Anglaise, Mont
  Buxton, Mont Fleuri, Plaisance, Pointe La Rue, Port Glaud, Saint
  Louis, Takamaka

Sierra Leone
  3 provinces and 1 area*; Eastern, Northern, Southern,
  Western*

Singapore
  none

Slovakia
  8 regions (kraje, singular - kraj); Banskobystricky,
  Bratislavsky, Kosicky, Nitriansky, Presovsky, Trenciansky, Trnavsky,
  Zilinsky

Slovenia
  182 municipalities (obcine, singular - obcina) and 11 urban
  municipalities* (mestne obcine , singular - mestna obcina )
  Ajdovscina, Beltinci, Benedikt, Bistrica ob Sotli, Bled, Bloke,
  Bohinj, Borovnica, Bovec, Braslovce, Brda, Brezice, Brezovica,
  Cankova, Celje*, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Cerknica, Cerkno,
  Cerkvenjak, Crensovci, Crna na Koroskem, Crnomelj, Destrnik, Divaca,
  Dobje, Dobrepolje, Dobrna, Dobrova-Horjul-Polhov Gradec,
  Dobrovnik-Dobronak, Dolenjske Toplice, Dol pri Ljubljani, Domzale,
  Dornava, Dravograd, Duplek, Gorenja Vas-Poljane, Gorisnica, Gornja
  Radgona, Gornji Grad, Gornji Petrovci, Grad, Grosuplje, Hajdina,
  Hoce-Slivnica, Hodos-Hodos, Horjul, Hrastnik, Hrpelje-Kozina,
  Idrija, Ig, Ilirska Bistrica, Ivancna Gorica, Izola-Isola, Jesenice,
  Jezersko, Jursinci, Kamnik, Kanal, Kidricevo, Kobarid, Kobilje,
  Kocevje, Komen, Komenda, Koper-Capodistria*, Kostel, Kozje, Kranj*,
  Kranjska Gora, Krizevci, Krsko, Kungota, Kuzma, Lasko, Lenart,
  Lendava-Lendva, Litija, Ljubljana*, Ljubno, Ljutomer, Logatec, Loska
  Dolina, Loski Potok, Lovrenc na Pohorju, Luce, Lukovica, Majsperk,
  Maribor*, Markovci, Medvode, Menges, Metlika, Mezica, Miklavz na
  Dravskem Polju, Miren-Kostanjevica, Mirna Pec, Mislinja, Moravce,
  Moravske Toplice, Mozirje, Murska Sobota*, Muta, Naklo, Nazarje,
  Nova Gorica*, Novo Mesto*, Odranci, Oplotnica, Ormoz, Osilnica,
  Pesnica, Piran-Pirano, Pivka, Podcetrtek, Podlehnik, Podvelka,
  Polzela, Postojna, Prebold, Preddvor, Prevalje, Ptuj*, Puconci,
  Race-Fram, Radece, Radenci, Radlje ob Dravi, Radovljica, Ravne na
  Koroskem, Razkrizje, Ribnica, Ribnica na Pohorju, Rogasovci, Rogaska
  Slatina, Rogatec, Ruse, Salovci, Selnica ob Dravi, Semic,
  Sempeter-Vrtojba, Sencur, Sentilj, Sentjernej, Sentjur pri Celju,
  Sevnica, Sezana, Skocjan, Skofja Loka, Skofljica, Slovenj Gradec*,
  Slovenska Bistrica, Slovenske Konjice, Smarje pri Jelsah, Smartno ob
  Paki, Smartno pri Litiji, Sodrazica, Solcava, Sostanj, Starse,
  Store, Sveta Ana, Sveti Andraz v Slovenskih Goricah, Sveti Jurij,
  Tabor, Tisina, Tolmin, Trbovlje, Trebnje, Trnovska Vas, Trzic,
  Trzin, Turnisce, Velenje*, Velika Polana, Velike Lasce, Verzej,
  Videm, Vipava, Vitanje, Vodice, Vojnik, Vransko, Vrhnika, Vuzenica,
  Zagorje ob Savi, Zalec, Zavrc, Zelezniki, Zetale, Ziri, Zirovnica,
  Zuzemberk, Zrece
  note: there may be 45 more municipalities

Solomon Islands
  9 provinces and 1 capital territory*; Central,
  Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Honiara*, Isabel, Makira, Malaita, Rennell
  and Bellona, Temotu, Western

Somalia
  18 regions (plural - NA, singular - gobolka); Awdal, Bakool,
  Banaadir, Bari, Bay, Galguduud, Gedo, Hiiraan, Jubbada Dhexe,
  Jubbada Hoose, Mudug, Nugaal, Sanaag, Shabeellaha Dhexe, Shabeellaha
  Hoose, Sool, Togdheer, Woqooyi Galbeed

South Africa
  9 provinces; Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng,
  KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North-West, Northern Cape,
  Western Cape

Spain
  17 autonomous communities (comunidades autonomas, singular -
  comunidad autonoma)and 2 autonomous cities* (ciudades autonomas,
  singular - ciudad autonoma); Andalucia, Aragon, Asturias, Baleares
  (Balearic Islands), Ceuta*, Canarias (Canary Islands), Cantabria,
  Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Cataluna, Comunidad Valenciana,
  Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Melilla*, Murcia, Navarra,
  Pais Vasco (Basque Country)
  note: the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla plus three small
  islands of Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez
  de la Gomera, administered directly by the Spanish central
  government, are all located along the coast of Morocco and are
  collectively referred to as Places of Sovereignty (Plazas de
  Soberania)

Sri Lanka
  8 provinces; Central, North Central, North Eastern, North
  Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western
  note: in 1998 the Government of Sri Lanka proposed a merger of the
  former Northern and Eastern provinces; while this merger was never
  ratified, the Government treats North Eastern Province as a de facto
  singular administrative unit

Sudan
  25 states (wilayat, singular - wilayah); A'ali an Nil (Upper
  Nile), Al Bahr al Ahmar (Red Sea), Al Buhayrat (Lakes), Al Jazirah
  (El Gezira), Al Khartum (Khartoum), Al Qadarif (Gedaref), Al Wahdah
  (Unity), An Nil al Abyad (White Nile), An Nil al Azraq (Blue Nile),
  Ash Shamaliyah (Northern), Bahr al Jabal (Bahr al Jabal), Gharb al
  Istiwa'iyah (Western Equatoria), Gharb Bahr al Ghazal (Western Bahr
  al Ghazal), Gharb Darfur (Western Darfur), Janub Darfur (Southern
  Darfur), Janub Kurdufan (Southern Kordofan), Junqali (Jonglei),
  Kassala (Kassala), Nahr an Nil (Nile), Shamal Bahr al Ghazal
  (Northern Bahr al Ghazal), Shamal Darfur (Northern Darfur), Shamal
  Kurdufan (Northern Kordofan), Sharq al Istiwa'iyah (Eastern
  Equatoria), Sinnar (Sinnar), Warab (Warab)

Suriname
  10 districts (distrikten, singular - distrikt); Brokopondo,
  Commewijne, Coronie, Marowijne, Nickerie, Para, Paramaribo,
  Saramacca, Sipaliwini, Wanica

Swaziland
  4 districts; Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, Shiselweni

Sweden
  21 counties (lan, singular and plural); Blekinge, Dalarnas,
  Gavleborgs, Gotlands, Hallands, Jamtlands, Jonkopings, Kalmar,
  Kronobergs, Norrbottens, Orebro, Ostergotlands, Skane,
  Sodermanlands, Stockholms, Uppsala, Varmlands, Vasterbottens,
  Vasternorrlands, Vastmanlands, Vastra Gotalands

Switzerland
  26 cantons (cantons, singular - canton in French;
  cantoni, singular - cantone in Italian; kantone, singular - kanton
  in German); Aargau, Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden, Appenzell Inner-Rhoden,
  Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Bern, Fribourg, Geneve, Glarus,
  Graubunden, Jura, Luzern, Neuchatel, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Sankt
  Gallen, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, Thurgau, Ticino, Uri,
  Valais, Vaud, Zug, Zurich

Syria
  14 provinces (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Al Hasakah, Al
  Ladhiqiyah, Al Qunaytirah, Ar Raqqah, As Suwayda', Dar'a, Dayr az
  Zawr, Dimashq, Halab, Hamah, Hims, Idlib, Rif Dimashq, Tartus

Taiwan
  includes central island of Taiwan plus numerous smaller
  islands near central island and off coast of China's Fujian
  Province; Taiwan is divided into 18 counties (hsien, singular and
  plural), 5 municipalities (shih, singular and plural), and 2 special
  municipalities (chuan-shih, singular and plural)
  counties: Chang-hua, Chia-i, Hsin-chu, Hua-lien, I-lan, Kao-hsiung
  (county), Kin-men, Lien-chiang, Miao-li, Nan-t'ou, P'eng-hu,
  P'ing-tung, T'ai-chung, T'ai-nan, T'ai-pei (county), T'ai-tung,
  T'ao-yuan, and Yun-lin
  municipalities: Chia-i, Chi-lung, Hsin-chu, T'ai-chung, T'ai-nan
  special municipalities: Kao-hsiung city, T'ai-pei city
  note: Taiwan generally uses Wade-Giles system for romanization;
  special municipality of Taipei adopted standard pinyin romanization
  for street and place names within city boundaries, other local
  authorities have selected a variety of romanization systems

Tajikistan
  2 provinces (viloyatho, singular - viloyat) and 1
  autonomous province* (viloyati mukhtor); Viloyati Khatlon
  (Qurghonteppa), Viloyati Mukhtori Kuhistoni Badakhshon*
  [Gorno-Badakhshan] (Khorugh), Viloyati Sughd (Khujand)
  note: the administrative center name follows in parentheses

Tanzania
  26 regions; Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Iringa, Kagera,
  Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Lindi, Manyara, Mara, Mbeya, Morogoro, Mtwara,
  Mwanza, Pemba North, Pemba South, Pwani, Rukwa, Ruvuma, Shinyanga,
  Singida, Tabora, Tanga, Zanzibar Central/South, Zanzibar North,
  Zanzibar Urban/West

Thailand
  76 provinces (changwat, singular and plural); Amnat
  Charoen, Ang Thong, Buriram, Chachoengsao, Chai Nat, Chaiyaphum,
  Chanthaburi, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Chon Buri, Chumphon, Kalasin,
  Kamphaeng Phet, Kanchanaburi, Khon Kaen, Krabi, Krung Thep
  Mahanakhon (Bangkok), Lampang, Lamphun, Loei, Lop Buri, Mae Hong
  Son, Maha Sarakham, Mukdahan, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon
  Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nan,
  Narathiwat, Nong Bua Lamphu, Nong Khai, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani,
  Pattani, Phangnga, Phatthalung, Phayao, Phetchabun, Phetchaburi,
  Phichit, Phitsanulok, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, Phrae, Phuket,
  Prachin Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ranong, Ratchaburi, Rayong, Roi
  Et, Sa Kaeo, Sakon Nakhon, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Samut
  Songkhram, Sara Buri, Satun, Sing Buri, Sisaket, Songkhla,
  Sukhothai, Suphan Buri, Surat Thani, Surin, Tak, Trang, Trat, Ubon
  Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Uthai Thani, Uttaradit, Yala, Yasothon

Togo
  5 regions (regions, singular - region); Centrale, Kara,
  Maritime, Plateaux, Savanes

Tokelau
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Tonga
  3 island groups; Ha'apai, Tongatapu, Vava'u

Trinidad and Tobago
  9 regional corporations, 2 city corporations, 3
  borough corporations, 1 ward
  regional corporations: Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo, Diego Martin,
  Mayaro/Rio Claro, Penal/Debe, Princes Town, Sangre Grande, San
  Juan/Laventille, Siparia, Tunapuna/Piarco
  city corporations: Port-of-Spain, San Fernando
  borough corporations: Arima, Chaguanas, Point Fortin
  ward: Tobago

Tunisia
  24 governorates; Ariana (Aryanah), Beja (Bajah), Ben Arous
  (Bin 'Arus), Bizerte (Banzart), Gabes (Qabis), Gafsa (Qafsah),
  Jendouba (Jundubah), Kairouan (Al Qayrawan), Kasserine (Al Qasrayn),
  Kebili (Qibili), Kef (Al Kaf), Mahdia (Al Mahdiyah), Manouba
  (Manubah), Medenine (Madanin), Monastir (Al Munastir), Nabeul
  (Nabul), Sfax (Safaqis), Sidi Bou Zid (Sidi Bu Zayd), Siliana
  (Silyanah), Sousse (Susah), Tataouine (Tatawin), Tozeur (Tawzar),
  Tunis, Zaghouan (Zaghwan)

Turkey
  81 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman,
  Afyonkarahisar, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Ardahan,
  Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol,
  Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli,
  Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir,
  Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Icel (Mersin), Igdir,
  Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars,
  Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli,
  Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir,
  Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt,
  Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van,
  Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak

Turkmenistan
  5 provinces (welayatlar, singular - welayat): Ahal
  Welayaty (Ashgabat), Balkan Welayaty (Balkanabat), Dashoguz
  Welayaty, Lebap Welayaty (Turkmenabat), Mary Welayaty
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Tuvalu
  none

Uganda
  56 districts; Adjumani, Apac, Arua, Bugiri, Bundibugyo,
  Bushenyi, Busia, Gulu, Hoima, Iganga, Jinja, Kabale, Kabarole,
  Kaberamaido, Kalangala, Kampala, Kamuli, Kamwenge, Kanungu,
  Kapchorwa, Kasese, Katakwi, Kayunga, Kibale, Kiboga, Kisoro, Kitgum,
  Kotido, Kumi, Kyenjojo, Lira, Luwero, Masaka, Masindi, Mayuge,
  Mbale, Mbarara, Moroto, Moyo, Mpigi, Mubende, Mukono, Nakapiripirit,
  Nakasongola, Nebbi, Ntungamo, Pader, Pallisa, Rakai, Rukungiri,
  Sembabule, Sironko, Soroti, Tororo, Wakiso, Yumbe
  note: as of a July 2005, 13 new districts were reportedly added
  bringing the total up to 69; the new districts are Amolatar, Amuria,
  Budaka, Butaleja, Ibanda, Kaabong, Kabingo, Kaliro, Kiruhura,
  Koboko, Manafwa, Mityana, Nakaseke; a total of nine more districts
  are in the process of being added

Ukraine
  24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous
  republic* (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities (mista,
  singular - misto) with oblast status**; Cherkasy, Chernihiv,
  Chernivtsi, Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'),
  Dnipropetrovs'k, Donets'k, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Kharkiv, Kherson,
  Khmel'nyts'kyy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhans'k, L'viv,
  Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol'**, Sumy, Ternopil',
  Vinnytsya, Volyn' (Luts'k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya,
  Zhytomyr
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

United Arab Emirates
  7 emirates (imarat, singular - imarah); Abu
  Zaby (Abu Dhabi), 'Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah (Sharjah),
  Dubayy (Dubai), Ra's al Khaymah, Umm al Qaywayn (Quwayn)

United Kingdom
  England: 47 boroughs, 36 counties, 29 London
  boroughs, 12 cities and boroughs, 10 districts, 12 cities, 3 royal
  boroughs
  boroughs: Barnsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton,
  Bournemouth, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Bury, Calderdale,
  Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Halton, Hartlepool,
  Kirklees, Knowsley, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes,
  North Tyneside, Oldham, Poole, Reading, Redcar and Cleveland,
  Rochdale, Rotherham, Sandwell, Sefton, Slough, Solihull,
  Southend-on-Sea, South Tyneside, St. Helens, Stockport,
  Stockton-on-Tees, Swindon, Tameside, Thurrock, Torbay, Trafford,
  Walsall, Warrington, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton
  counties (or unitary authorities): Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
  Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon,
  Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire,
  Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire,
  Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire,
  Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire,
  Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire,
  West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire
  London boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent,
  Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney,
  Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon,
  Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge,
  Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham
  Forest, Wandsworth
  cities and boroughs: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Leeds,
  Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Sheffield,
  Sunderland, Wakefield, Westminster
  districts: Bath and North East Somerset, East Riding of Yorkshire,
  North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset,
  Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Telford and Wrekin, West Berkshire,
  Wokingham
  cities: City of Bristol, Derby, City of Kingston upon Hull,
  Leicester, City of London, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth,
  Portsmouth, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, York
  royal boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames,
  Windsor and Maidenhead
  Northern Ireland: 24 districts, 2 cities, 6 counties
  districts: Antrim, Ards, Armagh, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Banbridge,
  Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Cookstown, Craigavon, Down,
  Dungannon, Fermanagh, Larne, Limavady, Lisburn, Magherafelt, Moyle,
  Newry and Mourne, Newtownabbey, North Down, Omagh, Strabane
  cities: Belfast, Londonderry (Derry)
  counties: County Antrim, County Armagh, County Down, County
  Fermanagh, County Londonderry, County Tyrone
  Scotland: 32 council areas: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus,
  Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee
  City, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East
  Renfrewshire, City of Edinburgh, Eilean Siar (Western Isles),
  Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow City, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian,
  Moray, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth and
  Kinross, Renfrewshire, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South
  Lanarkshire, Stirling, The Scottish Borders, West Dunbartonshire,
  West Lothian;
  Wales: 11 county boroughs, 9 counties, 2 cities and counties
  county boroughs: Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Conwy,
  Gwynedd, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Rhondda Cynon
  Taff, Torfaen, Wrexham
  counties: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Denbighshire, Flintshire,
  Isle of Anglesey, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, The Vale of
  Glamorgan
  cities and counties: Cardiff, Swansea

United States
  50 states and 1 district*; Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
  Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of
  Columbia*, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
  Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
  Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
  Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
  Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode
  Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
  Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Uruguay
  19 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento);
  Artigas, Canelones, Cerro Largo, Colonia, Durazno, Flores, Florida,
  Lavalleja, Maldonado, Montevideo, Paysandu, Rio Negro, Rivera,
  Rocha, Salto, San Jose, Soriano, Tacuarembo, Treinta y Tres

Uzbekistan
  12 provinces (viloyatlar, singular - viloyat), 1
  autonomous republic* (respublika), and 1 city** (shahar); Andijon
  Viloyati, Buxoro Viloyati, Farg'ona Viloyati, Jizzax Viloyati,
  Namangan Viloyati, Navoiy Viloyati, Qashqadaryo Viloyati (Qarshi),
  Qoraqalpog'iston Respublikasi* (Nukus), Samarqand Viloyati, Sirdaryo
  Viloyati (Guliston), Surxondaryo Viloyati (Termiz), Toshkent
  Shahri**, Toshkent Viloyati, Xorazm Viloyati (Urganch)
  note: administrative divisions have the same names as their
  administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center
  name following in parentheses)

Vanuatu
  6 provinces; Malampa, Penama, Sanma, Shefa, Tafea, Torba

Venezuela
  23 states (estados, singular - estado), 1 capital
  district* (distrito capital), and 1 federal dependency**
  (dependencia federal); Amazonas, Anzoategui, Apure, Aragua, Barinas,
  Bolivar, Carabobo, Cojedes, Delta Amacuro, Dependencias Federales**,
  Distrito Federal*, Falcon, Guarico, Lara, Merida, Miranda, Monagas,
  Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre, Tachira, Trujillo, Vargas,
  Yaracuy, Zulia
  note: the federal dependency consists of 11 federally controlled
  island groups with a total of 72 individual islands

Vietnam
  59 provinces (tinh, singular and plural) and 5
  municipalities (thanh pho, singular and plural)
  provinces: An Giang, Bac Giang, Bac Kan, Bac Lieu, Bac Ninh, Ba
  Ria-Vung Tau, Ben Tre, Binh Dinh, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Binh
  Thuan, Ca Mau, Cao Bang, Dac Lak, Dac Nong, Dien Bien, Dong Nai,
  Dong Thap, Gia Lai, Ha Giang, Ha Nam, Ha Tay, Ha Tinh, Hai Duong,
  Hau Giang, Hoa Binh, Hung Yen, Khanh Hoa, Kien Giang, Kon Tum, Lai
  Chau, Lam Dong, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Long An, Nam Dinh, Nghe An, Ninh
  Binh, Ninh Thuan, Phu Tho, Phu Yen, Quang Binh, Quang Nam, Quang
  Ngai, Quang Ninh, Quang Tri, Soc Trang, Son La, Tay Ninh, Thai Binh,
  Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Thua Thien-Hue, Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Tuyen
  Quang, Vinh Long, Vinh Phuc, Yen Bai
  municipalities: Can Tho, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh

Virgin Islands
  none (territory of the US); there are no first-order
  administrative divisions as defined by the US Government, but there
  are three islands at the second order; Saint Croix, Saint John,
  Saint Thomas

Wallis and Futuna
  none (overseas territory of France); there are no
  first-order administrative divisions as defined by the US
  Government, but there are three kingdoms at the second order named
  Alo, Sigave, Wallis

Western Sahara
  none (under de facto control of Morocco)

World
  272 nations, dependent areas, and other entities

Yemen
  19 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Abyan,
  'Adan, Ad Dali', Al Bayda', Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al
  Mahwit, 'Amran, Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib,
  Sa'dah, San'a', Shabwah, Ta'izz
  note: for electoral and administrative purposes, the capital city of
  Sanaa is treated as an additional governorate

Zambia
  9 provinces; Central, Copperbelt, Eastern, Luapula, Lusaka,
  Northern, North-Western, Southern, Western

Zimbabwe
  8 provinces and 2 cities* with provincial status;
  Bulawayo*, Harare*, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland
  East, Mashonaland West, Masvingo, Matabeleland North, Matabeleland
  South, Midlands

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2052  Agriculture - products


Afghanistan
  opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins,
  lambskins

Albania
  wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets,
  grapes; meat, dairy products

Algeria
  wheat, barley, oats, grapes, olives, citrus, fruits; sheep,
  cattle

American Samoa
  bananas, coconuts, vegetables, taro, breadfruit,
  yams, copra, pineapples, papayas; dairy products, livestock

Andorra
  small quantities of rye, wheat, barley, oats, vegetables;
  sheep

Angola
  bananas, sugarcane, coffee, sisal, corn, cotton, manioc
  (tapioca), tobacco, vegetables, plantains; livestock; forest
  products; fish

Anguilla
  small quantities of tobacco, vegetables; cattle raising

Antigua and Barbuda
  cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas, coconuts,
  cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane; livestock

Argentina
  sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco,
  peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock

Armenia
  fruit (especially grapes), vegetables; livestock

Aruba
  aloes; livestock; fish

Australia
  wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits, cattle, sheep, poultry

Austria
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, wine, fruit; dairy products,
  cattle, pigs, poultry; lumber

Azerbaijan
  cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea,
  tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep, goats

Bahamas, The
  citrus, vegetables; poultry

Bahrain
  fruit, vegetables; poultry, dairy products; shrimp, fish

Bangladesh
  rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco,
  pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry

Barbados
  sugarcane, vegetables, cotton

Belarus
  grain, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beets, flax; beef, milk

Belgium
  sugar beets, fresh vegetables, fruits, grain, tobacco; beef,
  veal, pork, milk

Belize
  bananas, coca, citrus, sugar; fish, cultured shrimp; lumber;
  garments

Benin
  cotton, corn, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil,
  peanuts; livestock

Bermuda
  bananas, vegetables, citrus, flowers; dairy products, honey

Bhutan
  rice, corn, root crops, citrus, foodgrains; dairy products,
  eggs

Bolivia
  soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice,
  potatoes; timber

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  wheat, corn, fruits, vegetables; livestock

Botswana
  livestock, sorghum, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers,
  groundnuts

Brazil
  coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa,
  citrus; beef

British Virgin Islands
  fruits, vegetables; livestock, poultry; fish

Brunei
  rice, vegetables, fruits; chickens, water buffalo, eggs

Bulgaria
  vegetables, fruits, tobacco, wine, wheat, barley,
  sunflowers, sugar beets; livestock

Burkina Faso
  cotton, peanuts, shea nuts, sesame, sorghum, millet,
  corn, rice; livestock

Burma
  rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood;
  fish and fish products

Burundi
  coffee, cotton, tea, corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, bananas,
  manioc (tapioca); beef, milk, hides

Cambodia
  rice, rubber, corn, vegetables, cashews, tapioca

Cameroon
  coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, bananas, oilseed, grains,
  root starches; livestock; timber

Canada
  wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy
  products; forest products; fish

Cape Verde
  bananas, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, coffee,
  peanuts; fish

Cayman Islands
  vegetables, fruit; livestock; turtle farming

Central African Republic
  cotton, coffee, tobacco, manioc (tapioca),
  yams, millet, corn, bananas; timber

Chad
  cotton, sorghum, millet, peanuts, rice, potatoes, manioc
  (tapioca); cattle, sheep, goats, camels

Chile
  grapes, apples, pears, onions, wheat, corn, oats, peaches,
  garlic, asparagus, beans; beef, poultry, wool; fish; timber

China
  rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley,
  apples, cotton, oilseed; pork; fish

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  vegetables, bananas, pawpaws, coconuts

Colombia
  coffee, cut flowers, bananas, rice, tobacco, corn,
  sugarcane, cocoa beans, oilseed, vegetables; forest products; shrimp

Comoros
  vanilla, cloves, perfume essences, copra, coconuts, bananas,
  cassava (tapioca)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber,
  tea, quinine, cassava (tapioca), palm oil, bananas, root crops,
  corn, fruits; wood products

Congo, Republic of the
  cassava (tapioca), sugar, rice, corn,
  peanuts, vegetables, coffee, cocoa; forest products

Cook Islands
  copra, citrus, pineapples, tomatoes, beans, pawpaws,
  bananas, yams, taro, coffee; pigs, poultry

Costa Rica
  coffee, pineapples, bananas, sugar, corn, rice, beans,
  potatoes; beef; timber

Cote d'Ivoire
  coffee, cocoa beans, bananas, palm kernels, corn,
  rice, manioc (tapioca), sweet potatoes, sugar, cotton, rubber; timber

Croatia
  wheat, corn, sugar beets, sunflower seed, barley, alfalfa,
  clover, olives, citrus, grapes, soybeans, potatoes; livestock, dairy
  products

Cuba
  sugar, tobacco, citrus, coffee, rice, potatoes, beans; livestock

Cyprus
  citrus, vegetables, barley, grapes, olives, vegetables;
  poultry, pork, lamb; dairy, cheese

Czech Republic
  wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit; pigs,
  poultry

Denmark
  barley, wheat, potatoes, sugar beets; pork, dairy products;
  fish

Djibouti
  fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal hides

Dominica
  bananas, citrus, mangoes, root crops, coconuts, cocoa;
  forest and fishery potential not exploited

Dominican Republic
  sugarcane, coffee, cotton, cocoa, tobacco, rice,
  beans, potatoes, corn, bananas; cattle, pigs, dairy products, beef,
  eggs

East Timor
  coffee, rice, corn, cassava, sweet potatoes, soybeans,
  cabbage, mangoes, bananas, vanilla

Ecuador
  bananas, coffee, cocoa, rice, potatoes, manioc (tapioca),
  plantains, sugarcane; cattle, sheep, pigs, beef, pork, dairy
  products; balsa wood; fish, shrimp

Egypt
  cotton, rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruits, vegetables; cattle,
  water buffalo, sheep, goats

El Salvador
  coffee, sugar, corn, rice, beans, oilseed, cotton,
  sorghum; beef, dairy products; shrimp

Equatorial Guinea
  coffee, cocoa, rice, yams, cassava (tapioca),
  bananas, palm oil nuts; livestock; timber

Eritrea
  sorghum, lentils, vegetables, corn, cotton, tobacco, coffee,
  sisal; livestock, goats; fish

Estonia
  potatoes, vegetables; livestock and dairy products; fish

Ethiopia
  cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane,
  potatoes, qat, cut flowers; hides, cattle, sheep, goats; fish

European Union
  wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes;
  dairy products, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry; fish

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  fodder and vegetable crops; sheep,
  dairy products

Faroe Islands
  milk, potatoes, vegetables; sheep; salmon, other fish

Fiji
  sugarcane, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), rice, sweet potatoes,
  bananas; cattle, pigs, horses, goats; fish

Finland
  barley, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes; dairy cattle; fish

France
  wheat, cereals, sugar beets, potatoes, wine grapes; beef,
  dairy products; fish

French Guiana
  corn, rice, manioc (tapioca), sugar, cocoa,
  vegetables, bananas; cattle, pigs, poultry

French Polynesia
  coconuts, vanilla, vegetables, fruits, coffee;
  poultry, beef, dairy products

Gabon
  cocoa, coffee, sugar, palm oil, rubber; cattle; okoume (a
  tropical softwood); fish

Gambia, The
  rice, millet, sorghum, peanuts, corn, sesame, cassava
  (tapioca), palm kernels; cattle, sheep, goats

Gaza Strip
  olives, citrus, vegetables; beef, dairy products

Georgia
  citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock

Germany
  potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbages;
  cattle, pigs, poultry

Ghana
  cocoa, rice, coffee, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, corn, shea
  nuts, bananas; timber

Gibraltar
  none

Greece
  wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, wine,
  tobacco, potatoes; beef, dairy products

Greenland
  forage crops, garden and greenhouse vegetables; sheep,
  reindeer; fish

Grenada
  bananas, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, citrus, avocados, root crops,
  sugarcane, corn, vegetables

Guadeloupe
  bananas, sugarcane, tropical fruits and vegetables;
  cattle, pigs, goats

Guam
  fruits, copra, vegetables; eggs, pork, poultry, beef

Guatemala
  sugarcane, corn, bananas, coffee, beans, cardamom; cattle,
  sheep, pigs, chickens

Guernsey
  tomatoes, greenhouse flowers, sweet peppers, eggplant,
  fruit; Guernsey cattle

Guinea
  rice, coffee, pineapples, palm kernels, cassava (tapioca),
  bananas, sweet potatoes; cattle, sheep, goats; timber

Guinea-Bissau
  rice, corn, beans, cassava (tapioca), cashew nuts,
  peanuts, palm kernels, cotton; timber; fish

Guyana
  sugarcane, rice, wheat, vegetable oils; beef, pork, poultry,
  dairy products; fish, shrimp

Haiti
  coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum; wood

Honduras
  bananas, coffee, citrus; beef; timber; shrimp

Hong Kong
  fresh vegetables; poultry, pork; fish

Hungary
  wheat, corn, sunflower seed, potatoes, sugar beets; pigs,
  cattle, poultry, dairy products

Iceland
  potatoes, green vegetables; mutton, dairy products; fish

India
  rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes;
  cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish

Indonesia
  rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, rubber, cocoa, coffee,
  palm oil, copra; poultry, beef, pork, eggs

Iran
  wheat, rice, other grains, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, cotton;
  dairy products, wool; caviar

Iraq
  wheat, barley, rice, vegetables, dates, cotton; cattle, sheep,
  poultry

Ireland
  turnips, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, wheat; beef, dairy
  products

Isle of Man
  cereals, vegetables; cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry

Israel
  citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products

Italy
  fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans,
  grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish

Jamaica
  sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus, yams, ackees,
  vegetables; poultry, goats, milk; crustaceans, mollusks

Japan
  rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy
  products, eggs; fish

Jersey
  potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes; beef, dairy products

Jordan
  wheat, barley, citrus, tomatoes, melons, olives; sheep,
  goats, poultry

Kazakhstan
  grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock

Kenya
  tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy
  products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs

Kiribati
  copra, taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, vegetables; fish

Korea, North
  rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, pulses; cattle, pigs,
  pork, eggs

Korea, South
  rice, root crops, barley, vegetables, fruit; cattle,
  pigs, chickens, milk, eggs; fish

Kuwait
  practically no crops; fish

Kyrgyzstan
  tobacco, cotton, potatoes, vegetables, grapes, fruits and
  berries; sheep, goats, cattle, wool

Laos
  sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco,
  cotton, tea, peanuts, rice; water buffalo, pigs, cattle, poultry

Latvia
  grain, sugar beets, potatoes, vegetables; beef, pork, milk,
  eggs; fish

Lebanon
  citrus, grapes, tomatoes, apples, vegetables, potatoes,
  olives, tobacco; sheep, goats

Lesotho
  corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, barley; livestock

Liberia
  rubber, coffee, cocoa, rice, cassava (tapioca), palm oil,
  sugarcane, bananas; sheep, goats; timber

Libya
  wheat, barley, olives, dates, citrus, vegetables, peanuts,
  soybeans; cattle

Liechtenstein
  wheat, barley, corn, potatoes; livestock, dairy
  products

Lithuania
  grain, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, vegetables; beef,
  milk, eggs; fish

Luxembourg
  wine, grapes, barley, oats, potatoes, wheat, fruits;
  dairy products, livestock products

Macau
  only 2% of land area is cultivated, mainly by vegetable
  growers; fishing, mostly for crustaceans, is important; some of the
  catch is exported to Hong Kong

Macedonia
  grapes, wine, tobacco, vegetables; milk, eggs

Madagascar
  coffee, vanilla, sugarcane, cloves, cocoa, rice, cassava
  (tapioca), beans, bananas, peanuts; livestock products

Malawi
  tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, cassava
  (tapioca), sorghum, pulses, groundnuts, Macadamia nuts; cattle, goats

Malaysia
  Peninsular Malaysia - rubber, palm oil, cocoa, rice; Sabah
  - subsistence crops, rubber, timber, coconuts, rice; Sarawak -
  rubber, pepper, timber

Maldives
  coconuts, corn, sweet potatoes; fish

Mali
  cotton, millet, rice, corn, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep,
  goats

Malta
  potatoes, cauliflower, grapes, wheat, barley, tomatoes,
  citrus, cut flowers, green peppers; pork, milk, poultry, eggs

Marshall Islands
  coconuts, tomatoes, melons, taro, breadfruit,
  fruits; pigs, chickens

Martinique
  pineapples, avocados, bananas, flowers, vegetables,
  sugarcane

Mauritania
  dates, millet, sorghum, rice, corn; cattle, sheep

Mauritius
  sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas, pulses; cattle,
  goats; fish

Mayotte
  vanilla, ylang-ylang (perfume essence), coffee, copra

Mexico
  corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, cotton, coffee, fruit,
  tomatoes; beef, poultry, dairy products; wood products

Micronesia, Federated States of
  black pepper, tropical fruits and
  vegetables, coconuts, cassava (tapioca), betel nuts, sweet potatoes;
  pigs, chickens; fish

Moldova
  vegetables, fruits, wine, grain, sugar beets, sunflower
  seed, tobacco; beef, milk

Monaco
  none

Mongolia
  wheat, barley, vegetables, forage crops; sheep, goats,
  cattle, camels, horses

Montenegro
  grains, tobacco, potatoes, citrus fruits, olives, grapes;
  sheepherding; commercial fishing negligible

Montserrat
  cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers;
  livestock products

Morocco
  barley, wheat, citrus, wine, vegetables, olives; livestock

Mozambique
  cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, cassava (tapioca),
  corn, coconuts, sisal, citrus and tropical fruits, potatoes,
  sunflowers; beef, poultry

Namibia
  millet, sorghum, peanuts, grapes; livestock; fish

Nauru
  coconuts

Nepal
  rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops; milk, water buffalo
  meat

Netherlands
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits, vegetables;
  livestock

Netherlands Antilles
  aloes, sorghum, peanuts, vegetables, tropical
  fruit

New Caledonia
  vegetables; beef, deer, other livestock products; fish

New Zealand
  wheat, barley, potatoes, pulses, fruits, vegetables;
  wool, beef, lamb and mutton, dairy products; fish

Nicaragua
  coffee, bananas, sugarcane, cotton, rice, corn, tobacco,
  sesame, soya, beans; beef, veal, pork, poultry, dairy products;
  shrimp, lobsters

Niger
  cowpeas, cotton, peanuts, millet, sorghum, cassava (tapioca),
  rice; cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, horses, poultry

Nigeria
  cocoa, peanuts, palm oil, corn, rice, sorghum, millet,
  cassava (tapioca), yams, rubber; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; timber;
  fish

Niue
  coconuts, passion fruit, honey, limes, taro, yams, cassava
  (tapioca), sweet potatoes; pigs, poultry, beef cattle

Norfolk Island
  Norfolk Island pine seed, Kentia palm seed, cereals,
  vegetables, fruit; cattle, poultry

Northern Mariana Islands
  coconuts, fruits, vegetables; cattle

Norway
  barley, wheat, potatoes; pork, beef, veal, milk; fish

Oman
  dates, limes, bananas, alfalfa, vegetables; camels, cattle; fish

Pakistan
  cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; milk,
  beef, mutton, eggs

Palau
  coconuts, copra, cassava (tapioca), sweet potatoes; fish

Panama
  bananas, rice, corn, coffee, sugarcane, vegetables;
  livestock; shrimp

Papua New Guinea
  coffee, cocoa, copra, palm kernels, tea, sugar,
  rubber, sweet potatoes, fruit, vegetables, vanilla; shell fish,
  poultry, pork

Paraguay
  cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn, wheat, tobacco, cassava
  (tapioca), fruits, vegetables; beef, pork, eggs, milk; timber

Peru
  coffee, cotton, sugarcane, rice, potatoes, corn, plantains,
  grapes, oranges, coca; poultry, beef, dairy products; fish

Philippines
  sugarcane, coconuts, rice, corn, bananas, cassavas,
  pineapples, mangoes; pork, eggs, beef; fish

Pitcairn Islands
  honey; wide variety of fruits and vegetables;
  goats, chickens

Poland
  potatoes, fruits, vegetables, wheat; poultry, eggs, pork,
  dairy

Portugal
  grain, potatoes, tomatoes, olives, grapes; sheep, cattle,
  goats, swine, poultry, dairy products; fish

Puerto Rico
  sugarcane, coffee, pineapples, plantains, bananas;
  livestock products, chickens

Qatar
  fruits, vegetables; poultry, dairy products, beef; fish

Reunion
  sugarcane, vanilla, tobacco, tropical fruits, vegetables,
  corn

Romania
  wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, sunflower seed, potatoes,
  grapes; eggs, sheep

Russia
  grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, vegetables, fruits; beef,
  milk

Rwanda
  coffee, tea, pyrethrum (insecticide made from
  chrysanthemums), bananas, beans, sorghum, potatoes; livestock

Saint Helena
  coffee, corn, potatoes, vegetables; timber; fish,
  lobster (on Tristan da Cunha)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  sugarcane, rice, yams, vegetables, bananas;
  fish

Saint Lucia
  bananas, coconuts, vegetables, citrus, root crops, cocoa

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  vegetables; poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs;
  fish

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  bananas, coconuts, sweet potatoes,
  spices; small numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats; fish

Samoa
  coconuts, bananas, taro, yams, coffee, cocoa

San Marino
  wheat, grapes, corn, olives; cattle, pigs, horses, beef,
  cheese, hides

Sao Tome and Principe
  cocoa, coconuts, palm kernels, copra,
  cinnamon, pepper, coffee, bananas, papayas, beans; poultry; fish

Saudi Arabia
  wheat, barley, tomatoes, melons, dates, citrus; mutton,
  chickens, eggs, milk

Senegal
  peanuts, millet, corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, tomatoes,
  green vegetables; cattle, poultry, pigs; fish

Serbia
  wheat, maize, sugar beets, sunflower, beef, pork, milk

Seychelles
  coconuts, cinnamon, vanilla, sweet potatoes, cassava
  (tapioca), bananas; poultry; tuna

Sierra Leone
  rice, coffee, cocoa, palm kernels, palm oil, peanuts;
  poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs; fish

Singapore
  rubber, copra, fruit, orchids, vegetables; poultry, eggs;
  fish, ornamental fish

Slovakia
  grains, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit; pigs, cattle,
  poultry; forest products

Slovenia
  potatoes, hops, wheat, sugar beets, corn, grapes; cattle,
  sheep, poultry

Solomon Islands
  cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice, potatoes,
  vegetables, fruit; timber; cattle, pigs; fish

Somalia
  bananas, sorghum, corn, coconuts, rice, sugarcane, mangoes,
  sesame seeds, beans; cattle, sheep, goats; fish

South Africa
  corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef,
  poultry, mutton, wool, dairy products

Spain
  grain, vegetables, olives, wine grapes, sugar beets, citrus;
  beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish

Sri Lanka
  rice, sugarcane, grains, pulses, oilseed, spices, tea,
  rubber, coconuts; milk, eggs, hides, beef; fish

Sudan
  cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), sorghum, millet, wheat, gum
  arabic, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), mangos, papaya, bananas, sweet
  potatoes, sesame; sheep, livestock

Suriname
  paddy rice, bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains,
  peanuts; beef, chickens; shrimp; forest products

Swaziland
  sugarcane, cotton, corn, tobacco, rice, citrus,
  pineapples, sorghum, peanuts; cattle, goats, sheep

Sweden
  barley, wheat, sugar beets; meat, milk

Switzerland
  grains, fruits, vegetables; meat, eggs

Syria
  wheat, barley, cotton, lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar
  beets; beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, milk

Taiwan
  rice, corn, vegetables, fruit, tea; pigs, poultry, beef,
  milk; fish

Tajikistan
  cotton, grain, fruits, grapes, vegetables; cattle, sheep,
  goats

Tanzania
  coffee, sisal, tea, cotton, pyrethrum (insecticide made
  from chrysanthemums), cashew nuts, tobacco, cloves, corn, wheat,
  cassava (tapioca), bananas, fruits, vegetables; cattle, sheep, goats

Thailand
  rice, cassava (tapioca), rubber, corn, sugarcane, coconuts,
  soybeans

Togo
  coffee, cocoa, cotton, yams, cassava (tapioca), corn, beans,
  rice, millet, sorghum; livestock; fish

Tokelau
  coconuts, copra, breadfruit, papayas, bananas; pigs,
  poultry, goats; fish

Tonga
  squash, coconuts, copra, bananas, vanilla beans, cocoa,
  coffee, ginger, black pepper; fish

Trinidad and Tobago
  cocoa, rice, citrus, coffee, vegetables; poultry

Tunisia
  olives, olive oil, grain, tomatoes, citrus fruit, sugar
  beets, dates, almonds; beef, dairy products

Turkey
  tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulse, citrus;
  livestock

Turkmenistan
  cotton, grain; livestock

Turks and Caicos Islands
  corn, beans, cassava (tapioca), citrus
  fruits; fish

Tuvalu
  coconuts; fish

Uganda
  coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, cassava (tapioca), potatoes,
  corn, millet, pulses, cut flowers; beef, goat meat, milk, poultry

Ukraine
  grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, vegetables; beef, milk

United Arab Emirates
  dates, vegetables, watermelons; poultry, eggs,
  dairy products; fish

United Kingdom
  cereals, oilseed, potatoes, vegetables; cattle,
  sheep, poultry; fish

United States
  wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton;
  beef, pork, poultry, dairy products; fish; forest products

Uruguay
  rice, wheat, corn, barley; livestock; fish

Uzbekistan
  cotton, vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock

Vanuatu
  copra, coconuts, cocoa, coffee, taro, yams, fruits,
  vegetables; beef; fish

Venezuela
  corn, sorghum, sugarcane, rice, bananas, vegetables,
  coffee; beef, pork, milk, eggs; fish

Vietnam
  paddy rice, coffee, rubber, cotton, tea, pepper, soybeans,
  cashews, sugar cane, peanuts, bananas; poultry; fish, seafood

Virgin Islands
  fruit, vegetables, sorghum; Senepol cattle

Wallis and Futuna
  breadfruit, yams, taro, bananas; pigs, goats; fish

West Bank
  olives, citrus, vegetables; beef, dairy products

Western Sahara
  fruits and vegetables (grown in the few oases);
  camels, sheep, goats (kept by nomads); fish

Yemen
  grain, fruits, vegetables, pulses, qat, coffee, cotton; dairy
  products, livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, camels), poultry; fish

Zambia
  corn, sorghum, rice, peanuts, sunflower seed, vegetables,
  flowers, tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, cassava (tapioca), coffee;
  cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, milk, eggs, hides

Zimbabwe
  corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts;
  sheep, goats, pigs

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2053  Airports


Afghanistan
  46 (2006)

Albania
  11 (2006)

Algeria
  142 (2006)

American Samoa
  3 (2006)

Angola
  244 (2006)

Anguilla
  3 (2006)

Antarctica
  20
  note: there are no developed public access airports or landing
  facilities; 28 stations or remote field locations, operated by 11
  National Antarctic Programs from nations party to the Antarctic
  Treaty, have restricted aircraft landing facilities comprising a
  total of 11 runways and 22 skiways for fixed-wing aircraft; some
  stations have both runways and skiways; commercial enterprises
  operate two aircraft landing facilities at one station; helicopter
  pads are available at all 37 year-round and 15 seasonal stations
  operated by National Antarctic Programs; the 11 runways are suitable
  for wheeled, fixed-wing aircraft: three are gravel, four blue-ice,
  two sea-ice and two compacted snow; of these, five are 3 km in
  length, two are between 2 km and 3 km in length, three are between 1
  km and 2 km in length and one is less than 1 km in length; the 22
  snow surface skiways are limited to use by ski-equipped, fixed-wing
  aircraft; of these, three are equal to or greater than 3 km in
  length, one is between 2 km and 3 km in length, nine are between 1
  km and 2 km in length, five are less than 1 km in length, and four
  are of unknown or variable length; snow surface skiways are
  generally prepared and maintained during specific periods only and
  during summer; all aircraft landing facilities subject to severe
  restrictions and limitations resulting from extreme seasonal and
  geographic conditions; aircraft landing facilities do not meet ICAO
  standards; advance approval from the respective governmental or
  nongovernmental operating organization required for using their
  facilities; landed aircraft are subject to inspection in accordance
  with Article 7, Antarctic Treaty; guidelines for the operation of
  aircraft near concentrations of birds in Antarctica were adopted in
  2004; relevant legal instruments and authorization procedures
  adopted by states party to the Antarctic Treaty regulating access to
  the Antarctic Treaty area, that is to all areas between 60 and 90
  degrees of latitude South, have to be complied with (see information
  under "Legal System"); an Antarctic Flight Information Manual (AFIM)
  providing up-to-date details of Antarctic air facilities and
  procedures is maintained and published by the Council of Managers of
  National Antarctic Programs (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  3 (2006)

Argentina
  1,381 (2006)

Armenia
  13 (2006)

Aruba
  1 (2006)

Australia
  455 (2006)

Austria
  55 (2006)

Azerbaijan
  36 (2006)

Bahamas, The
  64 (2006)

Bahrain
  3 (2006)

Baker Island
  one abandoned World War II runway of 1,665 m covered
  with vegetation and unusable (2006)

Bangladesh
  16 (2006)

Barbados
  1 (2006)

Belarus
  86 (2006)

Belgium
  43 (2006)

Belize
  43 (2006)

Benin
  5 (2006)

Bermuda
  1 (2006)

Bhutan
  2 (2006)

Bolivia
  1,084 (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  28 (2006)

Botswana
  85 (2006)

Brazil
  4,276 (2006)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  1 (2006)

British Virgin Islands
  3 (2006)

Brunei
  2 (2006)

Bulgaria
  217 (2006)

Burkina Faso
  34 (2006)

Burma
  85 (2006)

Burundi
  8 (2006)

Cambodia
  20 (2006)

Cameroon
  47 (2006)

Canada
  1,337 (2006)

Cape Verde
  7 (2006)

Cayman Islands
  3 (2006)

Central African Republic
  50 (2006)

Chad
  52 (2006)

Chile
  363 (2006)

China
  486 (2006)

Christmas Island
  1 (2006)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  1 (2006)

Colombia
  984 (2006)

Comoros
  4 (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  234 (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  32 (2006)

Cook Islands
  9 (2006)

Costa Rica
  157 (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  35 (2006)

Croatia
  68 (2006)

Cuba
  170 (2006)

Cyprus
  16 (2006)

Czech Republic
  121 (2006)

Denmark
  92 (2006)

Djibouti
  13 (2006)

Dominica
  2 (2006)

Dominican Republic
  33 (2006)

East Timor
  8 (2006)

Ecuador
  359 (2006)

Egypt
  88 (2006)

El Salvador
  75 (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  4 (2006)

Eritrea
  17 (2006)

Estonia
  24 (2006)

Ethiopia
  84 (2006)

Europa Island
  1 (2006)

European Union
  3,115 (2006)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  5 (2006)

Faroe Islands
  1 (2006)

Fiji
  28 (2006)

Finland
  148 (2006)

France
  477 (2006)

French Guiana
  11 (2006)

French Polynesia
  51 (2006)

Gabon
  56 (2006)

Gambia, The
  1 (2006)

Gaza Strip
  2
  note: includes Gaza International Airport closed since its runway
  was destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces in December 2001 (2006)

Georgia
  23 (2006)

Germany
  554 (2006)

Ghana
  12 (2006)

Gibraltar
  1 (2006)

Glorioso Islands
  1 (2006)

Greece
  82 (2006)

Greenland
  14 (2006)

Grenada
  3 (2006)

Guadeloupe
  9 (2006)

Guam
  5 (2006)

Guatemala
  450 (2006)

Guernsey
  2 (one on Alderney) (2006)

Guinea
  16 (2006)

Guinea-Bissau
  28 (2006)

Guyana
  90 (2006)

Haiti
  12 (2006)

Honduras
  116 (2006)

Hong Kong
  3 (2006)

Howland Island
  one airstrip constructed in 1937 for scheduled
  refueling stop on the round-the-world flight of Amelia EARHART and
  Fred NOONAN - they left Lae, New Guinea, for Howland Island, but
  were never seen again; the airstrip is no longer serviceable (2006)

Hungary
  46 (2006)

Iceland
  98 (2006)

Iles Eparses
  4 (2006)

India
  341 (2006)

Indonesia
  662 (2006)

Iran
  321 (2006)

Iraq
  110 (2006)

Ireland
  36 (2006)

Isle of Man
  1 (2006)

Israel
  53 (2006)

Italy
  133 (2006)

Jamaica
  35 (2006)

Jan Mayen
  1 (2006)

Japan
  175 (2006)

Jersey
  1 (2006)

Johnston Atoll
  1
  note: non-operational (2006)

Jordan
  17 (2006)

Juan de Nova Island
  1 (2006)

Kazakhstan
  150 (2006)

Kenya
  225 (2006)

Kingman Reef
  lagoon was used as a halfway station between Hawaii and
  American Samoa by Pan American Airways for flying boats in 1937 and
  1938 (2006)

Kiribati
  19 (2006)

Korea, North
  77 (2006)

Korea, South
  107 (2006)

Kuwait
  7 (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  37 (2006)

Laos
  44 (2006)

Latvia
  46 (2006)

Lebanon
  7 (2006)

Lesotho
  28 (2006)

Liberia
  53 (2006)

Libya
  141 (2006)

Lithuania
  91 (2006)

Luxembourg
  2 (2006)

Macau
  1 (2006)

Macedonia
  17 (2006)

Madagascar
  116 (2006)

Malawi
  42 (2006)

Malaysia
  117 (2006)

Maldives
  5 (2006)

Mali
  29 (2006)

Malta
  1 (2006)

Marshall Islands
  15 (2006)

Martinique
  2 (2006)

Mauritania
  25 (2006)

Mauritius
  6 (2006)

Mayotte
  1 (2006)

Mexico
  1,839 (2006)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  6 (2006)

Midway Islands
  3; note - only one operational (2006)

Moldova
  12 (2006)

Mongolia
  44 (2006)

Montenegro
  5 (2006)

Montserrat
  2 (2006)

Morocco
  60 (2006)

Mozambique
  158 (2006)

Namibia
  137 (2006)

Nauru
  1 (2006)

Nepal
  48 (2006)

Netherlands
  27 (2006)

Netherlands Antilles
  5 (2006)

New Caledonia
  25 (2006)

New Zealand
  118 (2006)

Nicaragua
  176 (2006)

Niger
  28 (2006)

Nigeria
  69 (2006)

Niue
  1 (2006)

Norfolk Island
  1 (2006)

Northern Mariana Islands
  5 (2006)

Norway
  99 (2006)

Oman
  137 (2006)

Pakistan
  139 (2006)

Palau
  3 (2006)

Palmyra Atoll
  1 (2006)

Panama
  117 (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  582 (2006)

Paracel Islands
  1 (2006)

Paraguay
  881 (2006)

Peru
  268 (2006)

Philippines
  256 (2006)

Poland
  122 (2006)

Portugal
  66 (2006)

Puerto Rico
  30 (2006)

Qatar
  5 (2006)

Reunion
  2 (2006)

Romania
  61 (2006)

Russia
  1,623 (2006)

Rwanda
  9 (2006)

Saint Helena
  1
  note: Wideawake Field on Ascension Island (2006)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  2 (2006)

Saint Lucia
  2 (2006)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  2 (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  6 (2006)

Samoa
  4 (2006)

Sao Tome and Principe
  2 (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  208 (2006)

Senegal
  20 (2006)

Serbia
  39 (2006)

Seychelles
  15 (2006)

Sierra Leone
  10 (2006)

Singapore
  9 (2006)

Slovakia
  36 (2006)

Slovenia
  14 (2006)

Solomon Islands
  35 (2006)

Somalia
  65 (2006)

South Africa
  731 (2006)

Spain
  157 (2006)

Spratly Islands
  3 (2006)

Sri Lanka
  16 (2006)

Sudan
  88 (2006)

Suriname
  47 (2006)

Svalbard
  4 (2006)

Swaziland
  18 (2006)

Sweden
  255 (2006)

Switzerland
  65 (2006)

Syria
  92 (2006)

Taiwan
  42 (2006)

Tajikistan
  40 (2006)

Tanzania
  124 (2006)

Thailand
  108 (2006)

Togo
  9 (2006)

Tonga
  6 (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  6 (2006)

Tromelin Island
  1 (2006)

Tunisia
  30 (2006)

Turkey
  117 (2006)

Turkmenistan
  29 (2006)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  8 (2006)

Tuvalu
  1 (2006)

Uganda
  31 (2006)

Ukraine
  499 (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  37 (2006)

United Kingdom
  471 (2006)

United States
  14,858 (2006)

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker Island: one
  abandoned World War II runway of 1,665 m covered with vegetation and
  unusable
  Howland Island: airstrip constructed in 1937 for scheduled refueling
  stop on the round-the-world flight of Amelia EARHART and Fred
  NOONAN; the aviators left Lae, New Guinea, for Howland Island but
  were never seen again; the airstrip is no longer serviceable
  Johnston Atoll: 1 - closed and not maintained
  Kingman Reef: lagoon was used as a halfway station between Hawaii
  and American Samoa by Pan American Airways for flying boats in 1937
  and 1938
  Midway Islands: 3 - one operational (2,409 m paved); no fuel for
  sale except emergencies
  Palmyra Atoll: 1 - 1,846 m unpaved runway; privately owned (2006)

Uruguay
  64 (2006)

Uzbekistan
  61 (2006)

Vanuatu
  31 (2006)

Venezuela
  375 (2006)

Vietnam
  32 (2006)

Virgin Islands
  2 (2006)

Wake Island
  1 (2006)

Wallis and Futuna
  2 (2006)

West Bank
  3 (2006)

Western Sahara
  11 (2006)

World
  49,024 (2006)

Yemen
  46 (2006)

Zambia
  111 (2006)

Zimbabwe
  403 (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2054  Birth rate (births/1,000 population)


Afghanistan
  46.6 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Albania
  15.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Algeria
  17.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  22.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Andorra
  8.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Angola
  45.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  14.17 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  16.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Argentina
  16.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Armenia
  12.07 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Aruba
  11.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Australia
  12.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Austria
  8.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  20.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  17.57 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  17.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  29.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Barbados
  12.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belarus
  11.16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belgium
  10.38 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belize
  28.84 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Benin
  38.85 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  11.4 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  33.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  23.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  8.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Botswana
  23.08 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Brazil
  16.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  14.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Brunei
  18.79 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  9.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  45.62 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burma
  17.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burundi
  42.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  26.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  33.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Canada
  10.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  24.87 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  12.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  33.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chad
  45.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chile
  15.23 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

China
  13.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  20.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Comoros
  36.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  43.69 births/1,000 population
  (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  42.57 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  21 births/1,000 population (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  18.32 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  35.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Croatia
  9.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cuba
  11.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  12.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  9.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Denmark
  11.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  39.53 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominica
  15.27 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  23.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

East Timor
  26.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  22.29 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Egypt
  22.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  26.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  35.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  34.33 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Estonia
  10.04 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  37.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

European Union
  10 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA births/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Faroe Islands
  14.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Fiji
  22.55 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Finland
  10.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

France
  11.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  20.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  16.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gabon
  36.16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  39.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  39.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Georgia
  10.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Germany
  8.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ghana
  30.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  10.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greece
  9.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greenland
  15.93 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Grenada
  22.08 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  15.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guam
  18.79 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  29.88 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  8.81 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guinea
  41.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  37.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guyana
  18.28 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Haiti
  36.44 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Honduras
  28.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  7.29 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hungary
  9.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iceland
  13.64 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

India
  22.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  20.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iran
  17 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iraq
  31.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ireland
  14.45 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  11.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Israel
  17.97 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Italy
  8.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  20.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Japan
  9.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jersey
  9.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jordan
  21.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  16 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kenya
  39.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  30.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  15.54 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  10 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  21.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  22.8 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Laos
  35.49 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Latvia
  9.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  18.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  24.75 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liberia
  44.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Libya
  26.49 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  10.21 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  8.75 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  11.94 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macau
  8.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  12.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  41.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malawi
  43.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  22.86 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Maldives
  34.81 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mali
  49.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malta
  10.22 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  33.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Martinique
  13.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  40.99 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  15.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  40.95 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mexico
  20.69 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  24.68 births/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Moldova
  15.7 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Monaco
  9.19 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  21.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Montenegro
  12.6 births/1,000 population (2004)

Montserrat
  17.59 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Morocco
  21.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  35.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Namibia
  24.32 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nauru
  24.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nepal
  30.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  10.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  14.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  18.11 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  13.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  24.51 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niger
  50.73 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  40.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niue
  NA births/1,000 population

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  19.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Norway
  11.46 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Oman
  36.24 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  29.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Palau
  18.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Panama
  21.74 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  29.36 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  29.1 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Peru
  20.48 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Philippines
  24.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  9.85 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Portugal
  10.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  12.77 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Qatar
  15.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Reunion
  18.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Romania
  10.7 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Russia
  9.95 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  40.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  12.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  18.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  19.68 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  13.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  16.18 births/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Samoa
  16.43 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

San Marino
  10.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  40.25 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  29.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Senegal
  32.78 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  16.03 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  45.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Singapore
  9.34 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  10.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  8.98 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  30.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Somalia
  45.13 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

South Africa
  18.2 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Spain
  10.06 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  15.51 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sudan
  34.53 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Suriname
  18.02 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  NA births/1,000 population

Swaziland
  27.41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sweden
  10.27 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  9.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Syria
  27.76 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  12.56 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  32.65 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  37.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Thailand
  13.87 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Togo
  37.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  25.37 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  12.9 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  15.52 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkey
  16.62 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  27.61 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  21.84 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  22.18 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uganda
  47.35 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  8.82 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  18.96 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  10.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United States
  14.14 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  13.91 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  26.36 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  22.72 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  18.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  16.86 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  13.96 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA births/1,000 population

West Bank
  31.67 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA births/1,000 population

World
  20.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Yemen
  42.89 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zambia
  41 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  28.01 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2055  Military branches


Afghanistan
  Afghan National Army (includes Afghan Air Force) (2006)

Albania
  General Staff Headquarters, Land Forces Command (Army),
  Naval Forces Command, Air Defense Command, Logistics Command,
  Training and Doctrine Command

Algeria
  National Popular Army (ANP; includes Land Forces), Algerian
  National Navy (MRA), Air Force (QJJ), Territorial Air Defense Force
  (2005)

Andorra
  no regular military forces, Police Service of Andorra

Angola
  Army, Navy (Marinha de Guerra, MdG), Air and Air Defense
  Forces (FANA) (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  Royal Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force (2006)

Argentina
  Argentine Army, Navy of the Argentine Republic (includes
  naval aviation and naval infantry), Argentine Air Force (Fuerza
  Aerea Argentina, FAA) (2005)

Armenia
  Armed Forces: Ground Forces, Nagorno-Karabakh Self Defense
  Force (NKSDF), Air Force, Air Defense Force (2006)

Aruba
  no regular indigenous military forces; Royal Netherlands Navy
  and Marines, Coast Guard

Australia
  Australian Defense Force (ADF): Australian Army, Royal
  Australian Navy, Royal Australian Air Force, Special Operations
  Command

Austria
  Land Forces (KdoLdSK), Air Forces (KdoLuSK)

Azerbaijan
  Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces

Bahamas, The
  Royal Bahamian Defense Force: Marines, Air Wing (2006)

Bahrain
  Bahrain Defense Forces (BDF): Ground Force (includes Air
  Defense), Navy, Air Force, National Guard

Bangladesh
  Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh
  Navy, Bangladesh Air Force (Bangladesh Biman Bahini, BAF) (2006)

Barbados
  Royal Barbados Defense Force: Troops Command, Coast Guard
  (2005)

Belarus
  Belarus Armed Forces: Land Force, Air and Air Defense Force
  (2006)

Belgium
  Belgian Armed Forces: Land, Naval, and Air Operations
  Commands (2005)

Belize
  Belize Defense Force (BDF): Army, Maritime Wing, Air Wing,
  and Volunteer Guard

Benin
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Bermuda
  no regular military forces

Bhutan
  Royal Bhutan Army: Royal Bodyguard, Royal Bhutan Police (2005)

Bolivia
  Bolivian Armed Forces: Bolivian Army (Ejercito Boliviano),
  Bolivian Navy (Armada Boliviana; includes marines), Bolivian Air
  Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, FAB) (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  VF Army (the air and air defense forces are
  subordinate commands within the Army), VRS Army (the air and air
  defense forces are subordinate commands within the Army)

Botswana
  Botswana Defense Force (includes an air wing) (2006)

Brazil
  Brazilian Army, Brazilian Navy (Marinha do Brasil (MB),
  includes Naval Air and Marine Corps (Corpo de Fuzileiros Navais)),
  Brazilian Air Force (Forca Aerea Brasileira, FAB) (2006)

Brunei
  Royal Brunei Armed Forces: Royal Brunei Land Forces, Royal
  Brunei Navy, Royal Brunei Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Brunei)
  (2005)

Bulgaria
  Bulgarian Armed Forces: Ground Forces, Naval Forces,
  Bulgarian Air Force (2006)

Burkina Faso
  Army, Air Force of Burkina Faso (Force Aerienne de
  Burkina Faso), National Gendarmerie (2006)

Burma
  Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw): Army, Navy, Air Force (2005)

Burundi
  National Defense Force (Forces de Defense Nationales, FDN):
  Army (includes Naval Detachment and Air Wing), National Gendarmerie
  (being disbanded) (2006)

Cambodia
  Royal Cambodian Armed Forces: Royal Cambodian Army, Royal
  Khmer Navy, Royal Cambodian Air Force (2005)

Cameroon
  Cameroon Armed Forces: Army, Navy (includes naval
  infantry), Air Force (Armee de l'Air du Cameroun, AAC) (2006)

Canada
  Canadian Forces: Land Forces Command, Maritime Command, Air
  Command, Canada Command (homeland security) (2006)

Cape Verde
  People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARP): Army, Coast
  Guard (includes maritime air wing)

Cayman Islands
  no regular military forces; Royal Cayman Islands
  Police Force

Central African Republic
  Central African Armed Forces (FACA): Ground
  Forces, Military Air Service; General Directorate of Gendarmerie
  Inspection (DGIG), Republican Guard, National Police (2006)

Chad
  Chadian National Army (Armee Nationale Tchadienne, ANT), Air
  Force, Gendarmerie (2004)

Chile
  Army of the Nation, National Navy (Armada de Chile, includes
  naval air, marine corps, and Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine
  Directorate (Directemar)), Chilean Air Force (Fuerza Aerea de Chile,
  FACh), Chilean Carabineros (National Police) (2006)

China
  People's Liberation Army (PLA): Ground Forces, Navy (includes
  marines and naval aviation), Air Force (includes airborne forces),
  and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force); People's Armed
  Police (PAP); Reserve and Militia Forces (2006)

Colombia
  Army (Ejercito Nacional), National Navy (Armada Nacional,
  includes naval aviation, marines, and coast guard), Air Force
  (Fuerza Aerea Colombiana) (2006)

Comoros
  Comoran Defense Force: Comoran Security Force (includes
  Gendarmerie and Army), Comoran Federal Police (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Congo, Republic of the
  Congolese Armed Forces (FAC): Army, Congolese
  Air Force (Armee de l'Air Congolaise), Navy, Gendarmerie, Republican
  Guard (2005)

Cook Islands
  no regular military forces; Ministry of Police and
  Disaster Management (2005)

Costa Rica
  no regular military forces; Ministry of Public Security,
  Government, and Police (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  Cote d'Ivoire Defense and Security Forces (FDSC):
  Army, Navy, Air Force (2006)

Croatia
  Ground Forces (Hrvatska Kopnena Vojska, HKoV), Naval Forces
  (Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica, HRM), Air and Air Defense Forces
  (Hrvatsko Ratno Zrakoplovstvo i Protuzrakoplovna Obrana, HRZiPZO),
  Joint Education and Training Command, Logistics Command; Military
  Police Force supports each of the three Croatian military forces
  (2006)

Cuba
  Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR): Revolutionary Army (ER),
  Revolutionary Navy (Marina de Guerra Revolucionaria, MGR),
  Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR), Youth Labor Army
  (EJT) (2005)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: Greek Cypriot National Guard (GCNG;
  includes air and naval elements); north Cyprus: Turkish Cypriot
  Security Force (GKK)

Czech Republic
  Army of the Czech Republic (ACR): Joint Forces
  Command (includes air forces), Support and Training Forces Command
  (2006)

Denmark
  Defense Command: Army Operational Command, Admiral Danish
  Fleet, Tactical Air Command (2006)

Djibouti
  Djibouti National Army (includes Navy and Air Force)

Dominica
  no regular military forces; Commonwealth of Dominica Police
  Force (includes coast guard)

Dominican Republic
  Army, Navy, Air Force

East Timor
  East Timor Defense Force (Forcas de Defesa de
  Timor-L'este, FDTL): Army, Navy (Armada) (2005)

Ecuador
  Army, Navy (includes naval infantry, naval aviation, coast
  guard), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Ecuatoriana, FAE)

Egypt
  Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Command

El Salvador
  Salvadoran Army (ES), Salvadoran Navy (FNES), Salvadoran
  Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Salvadorena, FAS) (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  Army, Navy, Air Force (2005)

Eritrea
  Army, Navy, Air Force

Estonia
  Estonian Defense Forces: Land Force, Navy, Air Force,
  Volunteer Defense League (Kaitseliit, KL) (2006)

Ethiopia
  Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF): Ground Forces,
  Ethiopian Air Force
  note: Ethiopia is landlocked and has no navy; following the
  secession of Eritrea, Ethiopian naval facilities remained in
  Eritrean possession

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  no regular military forces

Faroe Islands
  no regular military forces

Fiji
  Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF): Land Forces, Naval
  Forces (2006)

Finland
  Finnish Defense Forces: Army, Navy (includes coastal defense
  forces), Air Force (2003)

France
  Army (includes marines, Foreign Legion, light aviation), Navy
  (includes naval air), Air Force (includes air defense), National
  Gendarmerie

French Guiana
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie

French Polynesia
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie and
  National Police Force

Gabon
  Army, Navy, Air Force, National Gendarmerie, National Police

Gambia, The
  Gambian National Army (GNA), Gambian Navy (GN),
  Presidential Guard, National Guard

Gaza Strip
  in accordance with the peace agreement, the Palestinian
  Authority is not permitted conventional military forces; there are,
  however, public security forces (2002)

Georgia
  Ground Forces (includes National Guard), Air and Air Defense
  Forces, Navy (2006)

Germany
  Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr): Army (Heer), Navy
  (Deutsche Marine, includes naval air arm), Air Force (Luftwaffe),
  Joint Service Support Command (Streitkraeftebasis), Central Medical
  Service (Zentraler Sanitaetsdienst) (2006)

Ghana
  Ghanaian Army, Ghanaian Navy, Ghanaian Air Force (2006)

Gibraltar
  Royal Gibraltar Regiment

Greece
  Hellenic Army (Ellinikos Stratos, ES), Hellenic Navy
  (Ellinikos Polemiko Navtiko, EPN), Hellenic Air Force (Elliniki
  Polimiki Aeroporia, EPA) (2006)

Grenada
  no regular military forces; Royal Grenada Police Force

Guadeloupe
  no regular military forces

Guatemala
  Army, Navy (includes marines), Air Force

Guinea
  Army, Navy, Air Force, Presidential Guard (2006)

Guinea-Bissau
  People's Revolutionary Armed Force (FARP; includes
  Army, Navy, and Air Force), paramilitary force

Guyana
  Guyana Defense Force: Ground Forces, Coast Guard, Air Corps
  (2006)

Haiti
  the regular Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH) - Army, Navy, and Air
  Force - have been demobilized but still exist on paper unless they
  are constitutionally abolished

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Pontifical Swiss Guard (Corpo della Guardia
  Svizzera Pontificia)

Honduras
  Army, Navy (includes naval infantry), Honduran Air Force
  (Fuerza Aerea Hondurena, FAH) (2006)

Hong Kong
  no regular indigenous military forces; Hong Kong garrison
  of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) includes elements of the
  PLA Ground Forces, PLA Navy, and PLA Air Force; these forces are
  under the direct leadership of the Central Military Commission in
  Beijing and under administrative control of the adjacent Guangzhou
  Military Region

Hungary
  Ground Forces, Air Forces

Iceland
  no regular armed forces; Icelandic National Police,
  Icelandic Coast Guard (Islenska Landhelgisgaeslan) subordinate to
  Ministry of Justice, Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (2006)

India
  Army, Navy (includes naval air arm), Air Force, Coast Guard,
  various security or paramilitary forces (includes Border Security
  Force, Assam Rifles, National Security Guards, Indo-Tibetan Border
  Police, Special Frontier Force, Central Reserve Police Force,
  Central Industrial Security Force, Railway Protection Force, and
  Defense Security Corps)

Indonesia
  Indonesia Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI):
  Army (TNI-AD), Navy (TNI-AL, includes marines, naval air arm), Air
  Force (TNI-AU)
  note: the TNI is directly subordinate to the president but the
  government is making efforts to incorporate it into the Department
  of Defense

Iran
  Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artesh): Ground
  Forces, Navy, Air Force (Niruye Havayi Jomhuriye Islamiye Iran;
  includes air defense); Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah-e
  Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami, IRGC): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force,
  Qods Force (special operations), and Basij Force (Popular
  Mobilization Army); Law Enforcement Forces (2006)

Iraq
  Iraqi Armed Forces: Iraqi Regular Army (includes Iraqi Special
  Operations Force, Iraqi Intervention Force), Iraqi Navy (former
  Iraqi Coastal Defense Force), Iraqi Air Force (former Iraqi Army Air
  Corps) (2005)

Ireland
  Irish Defense Forces (Oglaigh na h-Eireann): Army (includes
  Naval Service and Air Corps) (2006)

Israel
  Israel Defense Forces (IDF): Army Headquarters, Israel Navy,
  Israeli Air and Space Force (ISAF, includes air defense forces);
  historically there have been no separate Israeli military services
  (2005)

Italy
  Army (Esercito Italiano, EI), Navy (Marina Militare Italiana,
  MMI), Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana, AMI), Carabinieri
  Corps (Corpo dei Carabinieri, CC) (2005)

Jamaica
  Jamaica Defense Force: Ground Forces, Coast Guard, Air Wing

Japan
  Japanese Defense Agency (JDA): Ground Self-Defense Force
  (Rikujou Jietai, GSDF), Maritime Self-Defense Force (Kaijou Jietai,
  MSDF), Air Self-Defense Force (Nihon Koku-Jieitai, ASDF) (2006)

Jordan
  Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF): Royal Jordanian Land Force,
  Royal Jordanian Navy, Royal Jordanian Air Force (Al-Quwwat
  al-Jawwiya al-Malakiya al-Urduniya), Special Operations Command
  (Socom); Public Security Directorate (normally falls under Ministry
  of Interior, but comes under JAF in wartime or crisis situations)
  (2006)

Kazakhstan
  Ground Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces, Naval Force,
  Republican Guard

Kenya
  Kenyan Army, Kenyan Navy, Kenyan Air Force (2006)

Kiribati
  no regular military forces; Police Force (carries out law
  enforcement functions and paramilitary duties; small police posts
  are on all islands)

Korea, North
  North Korean People's Army: Ground Force, Navy, Air
  Force; civil security forces (2005)

Korea, South
  Army, Navy, Republic of Korea Air Force (Han-guk Kong
  Goon), Marine Corps, National Maritime Police (coast guard) (2006)

Kuwait
  Land Forces, Kuwaiti Navy, Kuwaiti Air Force (Al-Quwwat
  al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiya), National Guard (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  Army, Air Force, National Guard (2005)

Laos
  Lao People's Army (LPA; includes Riverine Force), Air Force

Latvia
  Latvian Republic Defense Force: Ground Forces, Navy, Air
  Force, Border Guard, Home Guard (Zemessardze) (2005)

Lebanon
  Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF): Army, Navy, and Air Force

Lesotho
  Lesotho Defense Force (LDF): Army and Air Wing

Liberia
  Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL): Army, Navy, Air Force

Libya
  Armed Peoples on Duty (APOD, Army), Libyan Arab Navy, Libyan
  Arab Air Force (LAAF) (2006)

Lithuania
  Ground Forces, Naval Force, Lithuanian Military Air
  Forces, National Defense Volunteer Forces (2005)

Luxembourg
  Army

Macau
  no regular military forces

Macedonia
  Army of the Republic of Macedonia (ARM): Joint Operational
  Command, with subordinate Air Wing (Makedonsko Voeno
  Vozduhoplovstvo, MVV), Special Force Command (2006)

Madagascar
  People's Armed Forces: Intervention Force, Development
  Force, and Aeronaval Force (navy and air); National Gendarmerie

Malawi
  Malawi Armed Forces: Army (includes Air Wing and Naval
  Detachment), Police (includes Mobile Force Unit)

Malaysia
  Malaysian Armed Forces (Angkatan Tentera Malaysia, ATM):
  Malaysian Army (Tentera Darat Malaysia), Royal Malaysian Navy
  (Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia, TLDM), Royal Malaysian Air Force
  (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia, TUDM) (2006)

Maldives
  National Security Service: Security Branch (ground forces),
  Air Element, Coast Guard

Mali
  Army, Air Force, National Guard

Malta
  Armed Forces of Malta (AFM; includes air and maritime
  elements) (2005)

Marshall Islands
  no regular military forces; Marshall Islands Police

Martinique
  no regular military forces; Gendarmerie

Mauritania
  Mauritanian Armed Forces: Army, Navy (Marine
  Mauritanienne; includes naval infantry), Air Force (Force Aerienne
  Islamique de Mauritanie, FAIM) (2005)

Mauritius
  no regular military forces; National Police Force, Special
  Mobile Force, National Coast Guard

Mexico
  Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa
  Nacional, Sedena): Army (Ejercito), Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aerea
  Mexicana, FAM); Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaria de Marina,
  Semar): Mexican Navy (Armada de Mexico, ARM, includes Naval Air
  Force (FAN) and Marines) (2006)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  no ministry of defense and no
  standing armed forces; the paramilitary Maritime Wing, a small
  maritime law enforcement unit, is responsible to the Division of
  Maritime Surveillance within the Office of the Attorney General
  (2003)

Moldova
  National Army: Ground Forces, Rapid Reaction Forces, Air and
  Air Defense Forces (2006)

Mongolia
  Mongolian People's Army (MPA), Mongolian People's Air Force
  (MPAF); there is no navy (2005)

Montserrat
  no regular military forces; Royal Montserrat Police Force
  (2005)

Morocco
  Royal Armed Forces (Forces Armees Royales, FAR): Royal
  Moroccan Army (includes Air Defense), Navy (includes Marines), Royal
  Moroccan Air Force (Force Aerienne Royale Marocaine) (2006)

Mozambique
  Mozambique Armed Defense Forces (FADM): Mozambique Army,
  Mozambique Navy (Marinha Mocambique, MM), Mozambique Air Force
  (Forca Aerea de Mocambique, FAM) (2006)

Namibia
  Namibian Defense Force: Army, Air Wing, Navy (2006)

Nauru
  no regular military forces; Nauru Police Force (2005)

Nepal
  Royal Nepalese Army (includes Royal Nepalese Army Air
  Service); Nepalese Police Force

Netherlands
  Royal Netherlands Army, Royal Netherlands Navy (includes
  Naval Air Service and Marine Corps), Royal Netherlands Air Force
  (Koninklijke Luchtmacht, KLu), Royal Military Police, Defense
  Interservice Command (DICO) (2006)

Netherlands Antilles
  no regular military forces; National Guard,
  Police Force (2005)

New Caledonia
  no regular indigenous military forces; French Armed
  Forces (includes Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie); Police Force

New Zealand
  New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF): New Zealand Army,
  Royal New Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force (2006)

Nicaragua
  Army (includes Navy, Air Force)

Niger
  Nigerien Armed Forces (Forces Armees Nigeriennes, FAN): Army,
  National Air Force (2005)

Nigeria
  Nigerian Armed Forces (Forces Armees Nigeriennes, FAN):
  Army, Niger Air Force (2006)

Niue
  no regular indigenous military forces; Police Force

Norway
  Norwegian Army (Haeren), Royal Norwegian Navy (Kongelige
  Norske Sjoeforsvaret, RNoN; includes Coastal Rangers and Coast Guard
  (Kystvakt)), Royal Norwegian Air Force (Kongelige Norske
  Luftforsvaret, RNoAF), Home Guard (Heimevernet, HV) (2006)

Oman
  Royal Omani Armed Forces: Royal Army of Oman, Royal Navy of
  Oman, Royal Air Force of Oman (Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Sultanat
  Oman, RAFO) (2006)

Pakistan
  Army (includes National Guard), Navy (includes Marines),
  Pakistan Air Force (Pakistan Fiza'ya) (2006)

Palau
  no regular military forces; Palau National Police (2006)

Panama
  an amendment to the Constitution abolished the armed forces,
  but there are security forces (Panamanian Public Forces or PPF
  includes the Panamanian National Police, National Maritime Service,
  and National Air Service)

Papua New Guinea
  Papua New Guinea Defense Force (includes Maritime
  Operations Element, Air Operations Element)

Paraguay
  Army, National Navy (Armada Nacional, includes Naval
  Aviation, Marine Corps, General Naval Prefecture), Air Force (Fuerza
  Aerea Paraguay, FAP) (2006)

Peru
  Peruvian Army (Ejercito Peruano), Peruvian Navy (Marina de
  Guerra del Peru; includes naval air, naval infantry, and coast
  guard), Peruvian Air Force (Fuerza Aerea del Peru, FAP)

Philippines
  Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP): Army, Navy
  (includes Marine Corps), Philippine Air Force (Hukbomg Himpapawid ng
  Pilipinas) (2006)

Poland
  Polish Armed Forces: Land Forces (includes Navy (Marynarka
  Wojenna, MW)), Polish Air Force (Polskie Sily Powietrzne, PSP) (2006)

Portugal
  Army, Navy (Marinha Portuguesa; includes Marine Corps), Air
  Force (Forca Aerea Portuguesa, FAP), National Republican Guard
  (Guarda Nacional Republicana) (2005)

Puerto Rico
  no regular indigenous military forces; paramilitary
  National Guard, Police Force

Qatar
  Qatari Amiri Land Force (QALF), Qatari Amiri Navy (QAN),
  Qatari Amiri Air Force (QAAF)

Reunion
  no regular indigenous military forces; French forces
  (includes Army, Navy, Air Force, and Gendarmerie) (2005)

Romania
  Land Forces, Naval Forces, Romanian Air Force (Fortele
  Aerienne Romane, FAR), Special Operations (2006)

Russia
  Ground Forces (SV), Navy (VMF), Air Forces (VVS); Airborne
  Troops (VDV), Strategic Rocket Troops (RVSN), and Space Troops (KV)
  are independent "combat arms," not subordinate to any of the three
  branches

Rwanda
  Rwandan Defense Forces: Army, Air Force

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Saint Kitts and Nevis Defense Force (includes
  Coast Guard), Royal Saint Kitts and Nevis Police Force

Saint Lucia
  no regular military forces; Royal Saint Lucia Police
  Force (includes Special Service Unit, Coast Guard) (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  no regular military forces; Royal
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (includes Special
  Service Unit), Coast Guard (2005)

Samoa
  no regular military forces; Samoa Police Force (2005)

San Marino
  no regular military forces; Voluntary Military Force
  (Corpi Militari Voluntar) performs ceremonial duties and limited
  police functions (2006)

Sao Tome and Principe
  Armed Forces of Sao Tome and Principe (FASTP):
  Army, Coast Guard, Presidential Guard (2004)

Saudi Arabia
  Land Forces (Army), Navy, Air Force, Air Defense Force,
  National Guard, Ministry of Interior Forces (paramilitary)

Senegal
  Army, Senegalese Navy (Marine Senegalaise), Senegalese Air
  Force (Armee de l'Air du Senegal) (2006)

Serbia
  Serbian Armed Forces (Vojska Srbije, VS): Serbian Land Forces
  (Kopnene Vojska, KoV), Air Force and Air Defense Force
  (Vozduhoplostvo i Protivozduhoplovna Odbrana, ViPO), naval force to
  be determined (2006)

Seychelles
  Seychelles Defense Force: Army, Coast Guard (includes
  Navy Wing, Air Wing), National Guard (2005)

Sierra Leone
  Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF): Army
  (includes Air Wing, Maritime Wing)

Singapore
  Singapore Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Republic of Singapore
  Air Force (includes Air Defense) (2006)

Slovakia
  Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic (Ozbrojene Sily
  Slovenskej Republiky): Land Forces (Pozemne Sily), Air Forces
  (Vzdusne Sily), Training and Support Forces (Vycviku a Podpory Sily)
  (2005)

Slovenia
  Slovenian Army (includes air and naval forces)

Solomon Islands
  no regular military forces; Royal Solomon Islands
  Police (RSIP)

Somalia
  a Somali National Army was attempted under the interim
  government; numerous factions and clans maintain independent
  militias, and the Somaliland and Puntland regional governments
  maintain their own security and police forces

South Africa
  South African National Defense Force (SANDF): South
  African Army, South African Navy (SAN), South African Air Force
  (SAAF), Joint Operations Command, Joint Support Command, Military
  Intelligence, Military Health Service (2005)

Spain
  Spanish Armed Forces: Army (Ejercito de Tierra), Spanish Navy
  (Armada Espanola, AE; includes Marine Corps), Spanish Air Force
  (Ejercito del Aire Espanola, EdA) (2006)

Sri Lanka
  Sri Lankan Army, Sri Lankan Navy, Sri Lankan Air Force
  (2006)

Sudan
  Sudanese People's Armed Forces (SPAF): Army, Navy, Air Force,
  Popular Defense Force

Suriname
  National Army, Naval Element, Air Wing (2006)

Swaziland
  Umbutfo Swaziland Defense Force (USDF): Ground Force
  (includes air wing), Royal Swaziland Police Force (RSPF) (2005)

Sweden
  Swedish Armed Forces (Forsvarsmakten): Army (Armen), Royal
  Swedish Navy (Marinen), Swedish Air Force (Svenska Flygvapnet) (2006)

Switzerland
  Swiss Armed Forces: Land Forces, Swiss Air Force
  (Schweizer Luftwaffe); Switzerland has no navy, but maintains a
  fleet of military patrol boats to patrol Swiss borders (2006)

Syria
  Syrian Armed Forces: Syrian Arab Army (includes Syrian Arab
  Navy), Syrian Arab Air and Air Defense Force (includes Air Defense
  Command) (2005)

Taiwan
  Army, Navy (includes Marine Corps), Air Force, Coast Guard
  Administration, Armed Forces Reserve Command, Combined Service
  Forces Command, Armed Forces Police Command

Tajikistan
  Ground Troops, Air and Air Defense Troops, Mobile Troops
  (2005)

Tanzania
  Tanzanian People's Defense Force (JWTZ): Army, Naval Wing,
  Air Defense Command (includes air wing), National Service

Thailand
  Royal Thai Army (RTA), Royal Thai Navy (RTN, includes Royal
  Thai Marine Corps), Royal Thai Air Force (Knogtap Agard Thai, RTAF)
  (2006)

Togo
  Togolese Armed Forces (FAT): Army, Navy, Air Force, Gendarmerie
  (2005)

Tonga
  Tonga Defense Services: Land Force (Royal Guard), Naval Force
  (includes Royal Marines, Air Wing) (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force: Ground Force,
  Coast Guard (includes air wing) (2004)

Tunisia
  Army, Navy, Republic of Tunisia Air Force (Al-Quwwat
  al-Jawwiya al-Jamahiriyah At'tunisia) (2006)

Turkey
  Turkish Armed Forces (TSK): Land Forces, Naval Forces
  (includes naval air and naval infantry), Turkish Air Force (Turk
  Hava Kuvvetleri) (2006)

Turkmenistan
  Ground Forces, Artillery and Rocket Forces, Navy, Air
  and Air Defense Forces (2006)

Tuvalu
  no regular military forces; Police Force

Uganda
  Ugandan Peoples' Defense Force (UPDF): Army, Marine Unit, Air
  Wing

Ukraine
  Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air Forces (Viyskovo-Povitryani
  Syly), Air Defense Forces (2002)

United Arab Emirates
  Army, Navy (includes Marines and Coast Guard),
  Air and Air Defense Force, paramilitary forces (includes Federal
  Police Force)

United Kingdom
  Army, Royal Navy (includes Royal Marines), Royal Air
  Force

United States
  Army, Navy and Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast
  Guard; note - Coast Guard administered in peacetime by the
  Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime reports to the
  Department of the Navy

Uruguay
  Army, Navy (includes naval air arm, Marines, Maritime
  Prefecture in wartime), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Uruguaya, FAU) (2006)

Uzbekistan
  Army, Air and Air Defense Forces, National Guard

Vanuatu
  no regular military forces; security forces comprise the
  Vanuatu Police Force (VPF) and paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force
  (VMF), which includes Vanuatu's naval force, known as the Police
  Maritime Wing (PMW); border security in Vanuatu is the joint
  responsibility of the Customs and Inland Revenue Service, VPF, VMF,
  and PMW (2003)

Venezuela
  National Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Nacionales or FAN):
  Ground Forces or Army (Fuerzas Terrestres or Ejercito), Naval Forces
  (Fuerzas Navales or Armada; includes Marines, Coast Guard), Air
  Force (Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion), Armed Forces of Cooperation or
  National Guard (Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacion or Guardia Nacional)

Vietnam
  People's Armed Forces: People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN)
  (includes People's Navy Command (with naval infantry, coast guard),
  Air and Air Defense Force (Kon Quan Nhan Dan), Border Defense
  Command), People's Public Security Forces, Militia Force,
  Self-Defense Forces (2005)

Yemen
  Army (includes Special Forces), Navy (includes Marines),
  Unified Yemen Air Force (includes Air Defense Force) (2006)

Zambia
  Zambian National Defense Force (ZNDF): Army, Air Force,
  Police, National Service

Zimbabwe
  Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF): Zimbabwe National Army, Air
  Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ), Zimbabwe Republic Police (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2056  Budget


Afghanistan
  revenues: $269 million
  expenditures: $561 million; including capital expenditures of $41.7
  million
  note: Afghanistan has also received $273 million from the
  Reconstruction Trust Fund and $63 million from the Law and Order
  Trust Fund (FY04-05 budget est.)

Albania
  revenues: $1.96 billion
  expenditures: $2.377 billion; including capital expenditures of $500
  million (2005 est.)

Algeria
  revenues: $42.05 billion
  expenditures: $30.75 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.8
  billion (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  revenues: $121 million (37% in local revenue and 63%
  in US grants)
  expenditures: $127 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY96/97)

Andorra
  revenues: $373.5 million
  expenditures: $373.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Angola
  revenues: $8.5 billion
  expenditures: $10 billion; including capital expenditures of $963
  million (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  revenues: $22.8 million
  expenditures: $22.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  revenues: $123.7 million
  expenditures: $145.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Argentina
  revenues: $42.63 billion
  expenditures: $39.98 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Armenia
  revenues: $786.1 million
  expenditures: $930.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Aruba
  revenues: $507.9 million
  expenditures: $577.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000)

Australia
  revenues: $249.8 billion
  expenditures: $240.2 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Austria
  revenues: $148.6 billion
  expenditures: $154.5 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  revenues: $3.18 billion
  expenditures: $2.986 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  revenues: $1.03 billion
  expenditures: $1.03 billion; including capital expenditures of $130
  million (FY04/05)

Bahrain
  revenues: $4.662 billion
  expenditures: $3.447 billion; including capital expenditures of $700
  million (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  revenues: $5.993 billion
  expenditures: $8.598 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Barbados
  revenues: $847 million (including grants)
  expenditures: $886 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Belarus
  revenues: $5.903 billion
  expenditures: $6.343 billion; including capital expenditures of $180
  million (2005 est.)

Belgium
  revenues: $180.4 billion
  expenditures: $180.5 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $1.56 billion (2005 est.)

Belize
  revenues: $262 million
  expenditures: $329 million; including capital expenditures of $70
  million (2005 est.)

Benin
  revenues: $766.8 million
  expenditures: $1.017 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  revenues: $738 million
  expenditures: $665 million (FY04/05)

Bhutan
  revenues: $346.6 million
  expenditures: including capital expenditures of $NA
  note: the government of India finances nearly three-fifths of
  Bhutan's budget expenditures (FY95/96 est.)

Bolivia
  revenues: $2.848 billion
  expenditures: $3.189 billion; including capital expenditures of $741
  million (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  revenues: $4.373 billion
  expenditures: $4.401 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Botswana
  revenues: $3.766 billion
  expenditures: $3.767 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Brazil
  revenues: $140.6 billion
  expenditures: $172.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

British Virgin Islands
  revenues: $204.7 million
  expenditures: $180.4 million; including capital expenditures of
  $33.8 million (1997)

Brunei
  revenues: $3.765 billion
  expenditures: $4.815 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Bulgaria
  revenues: $11.18 billion
  expenditures: $10.9 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  revenues: $1.033 billion
  expenditures: $1.382 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Burma
  revenues: $473.3 million
  expenditures: $716.6 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (FY04/05 est.)

Burundi
  revenues: $215.4 million
  expenditures: $278 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  revenues: $559.4 million
  expenditures: $772 million; including capital expenditures of $291
  million (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  revenues: $3.263 billion
  expenditures: $2.705 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Canada
  revenues: $159.6 billion
  expenditures: $152.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

Cape Verde
  revenues: $328.1 million
  expenditures: $393.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  revenues: $423.8 million
  expenditures: $392.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1997)

Central African Republic
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Chad
  revenues: $765.2 million
  expenditures: $653.3 million; including capital expenditures of $146
  million (2005 est.)

Chile
  revenues: $29.2 billion
  expenditures: $24.75 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $3.33 billion (2005 est.)

China
  revenues: $392.1 billion
  expenditures: $424.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Christmas Island
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Colombia
  revenues: $46.82 billion
  expenditures: $48.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Comoros
  revenues: $27.6 million
  expenditures: $NA (2001 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  revenues: $700 million
  expenditures: $750 million; including capital expenditures of $24
  million (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  revenues: $1.328 billion
  expenditures: $1.065 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  revenues: $70.95 million
  expenditures: $69.05 million; including capital expenditures of
  $5.744 million (FY00/01 est.)

Costa Rica
  revenues: $2.722 billion
  expenditures: $3.195 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  revenues: $2.434 billion
  expenditures: $2.83 billion; including capital expenditures of $420
  million (2005 est.)

Croatia
  revenues: $17.69 billion
  expenditures: $19.35 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cuba
  revenues: $22.11 billion
  expenditures: $23.65 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  revenues: Republic of Cyprus - $6.698 billion (2005 est.)
  expenditures: Republic of Cyprus - $7.122 billion (2005 est.)
  revenues: $685.7 million; north Cyprus - $231.3 million (2003 est.)
  expenditures: north Cyprus - $432.8 million (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  revenues: $48.16 billion
  expenditures: $53.04 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Denmark
  revenues: $144 billion
  expenditures: $135 billion; including capital expenditures of $4.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  revenues: $135 million
  expenditures: $182 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1999 est.)

Dominica
  revenues: $73.9 million
  expenditures: $84.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2001)

Dominican Republic
  revenues: $5.322 billion
  expenditures: $5.485 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.1
  billion (2005)

East Timor
  revenues: $107.7 million
  expenditures: $73 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Ecuador
  revenues: $8.822 billion
  expenditures: planned $8.153 billion; including capital expenditures
  of $1.6 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  revenues: $20.29 billion
  expenditures: $27.68 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.7
  billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  revenues: $2.84 billion
  expenditures: $3.167 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  revenues: $1.973 billion
  expenditures: $711.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  revenues: $248.8 million
  expenditures: $409.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Estonia
  revenues: $4.91 billion
  expenditures: $4.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  revenues: $2.338 billion
  expenditures: $2.88 billion; including capital expenditures of $788
  million (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  revenues: $66.2 million
  expenditures: $67.9 million; including capital expenditures of $23.2
  million (FY98/99 est.)

Faroe Islands
  revenues: $488 million
  expenditures: $484 million; including capital expenditures of $21
  million (1999)

Fiji
  revenues: $720.5 million
  expenditures: $728.3 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Finland
  revenues: $99.61 billion
  expenditures: $97.14 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

France
  revenues: $1.06 trillion
  expenditures: $1.144 trillion; including capital expenditures of $23
  billion (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  revenues: $135.5 million
  expenditures: $135.5 million; including capital expenditures of $105
  million (1996)

French Polynesia
  revenues: $865 million
  expenditures: $644.1 million; including capital expenditures of $185
  million (1996)

Gabon
  revenues: $2.463 billion
  expenditures: $1.618 billion; including capital expenditures of $325
  million (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  revenues: $46.63 million
  expenditures: $62.66 million; including capital expenditures of $4.1
  million (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  revenues: $964 million
  expenditures: $1.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA;
  note - these budget data include West Bank (2004)

Georgia
  revenues: $1.43 billion
  expenditures: $1.56 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Germany
  revenues: $1.249 trillion
  expenditures: $1.362 trillion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Ghana
  revenues: $3.216 billion
  expenditures: $3.506 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  revenues: $307 million
  expenditures: $284 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY00/01 est.)

Greece
  revenues: $94.13 billion
  expenditures: $103.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Greenland
  revenues: $646 million
  expenditures: $629 million; including capital expenditures of $85
  million (1999)

Grenada
  revenues: $85.8 million
  expenditures: $102.1 million; including capital expenditures of $28
  million (1997)

Guadeloupe
  revenues: $637.7 million
  expenditures: $680.1 million; including capital expenditures of
  $112.5 million (2002)

Guam
  revenues: $319.6 million
  expenditures: $427.8 million (2002 est.)

Guatemala
  revenues: $3.374 billion
  expenditures: $4.041 billion; including capital expenditures of $750
  million (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  revenues: $539.2 million
  expenditures: $448.3 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002)

Guinea
  revenues: $305.6 million
  expenditures: $590.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Guyana
  revenues: $320.1 million
  expenditures: $362.6 million; including capital expenditures of
  $93.4 million (2005 est.)

Haiti
  revenues: $400 million
  expenditures: $600.8 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  revenues: $245.2 million
  expenditures: $260.4 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002)

Honduras
  revenues: $1.693 billion
  expenditures: $1.938 billion; including capital expenditures of $106
  million (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  revenues: $31.31 billion
  expenditures: $32.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.9
  billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  revenues: $51.4 billion
  expenditures: $58.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Iceland
  revenues: $6.995 billion
  expenditures: $6.761 billion; including capital expenditures of $467
  million (2005 est.)

India
  revenues: $111.2 billion
  expenditures: $135.8 billion; including capital expenditures of $15
  billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  revenues: $54.3 billion
  expenditures: $57.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Iran
  revenues: $48.82 billion
  expenditures: $60.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $7.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  revenues: $19.3 billion
  expenditures: $24 billion; including capital expenditures of $5
  billion (2005 budget)

Ireland
  revenues: $70.46 billion
  expenditures: $69.4 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.5
  billion (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  revenues: $485 million
  expenditures: $463 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY00/01 est.)

Israel
  revenues: $43.82 billion
  expenditures: $58.04 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Italy
  revenues: $785.7 billion
  expenditures: $861.5 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  revenues: $2.8 billion
  expenditures: $3.21 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $180.4 million (2005 est.)

Japan
  revenues: $1.429 trillion
  expenditures: $1.775 trillion; including capital expenditures
  (public works only) of about $71 billion (2005 est.)

Jersey
  revenues: $601 million
  expenditures: $588 million; including capital expenditures of $98
  million (2000 est.)

Jordan
  revenues: $2.8 billion
  expenditures: $4.688 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $1.092 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  revenues: $12.19 billion
  expenditures: $12.44 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Kenya
  revenues: $3.715 billion
  expenditures: $3.88 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  revenues: $55.52 million
  expenditures: $59.71 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05)

Korea, North
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Korea, South
  revenues: $195 billion
  expenditures: $189 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  revenues: $47.21 billion
  expenditures: $20.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  revenues: $516.3 million
  expenditures: $539.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Laos
  revenues: $319.3 million
  expenditures: $434.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Latvia
  revenues: $5.673 billion
  expenditures: $5.889 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  revenues: $4.953 billion
  expenditures: $6.595 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  revenues: $738.5 million
  expenditures: $792.1 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2005 est.)

Liberia
  revenues: $85.4 million
  expenditures: $90.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Libya
  revenues: $25.34 billion
  expenditures: $15.47 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  revenues: $424.2 million
  expenditures: $414.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998 est.)

Lithuania
  revenues: $8.429 billion
  expenditures: $9.103 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004 est.)

Luxembourg
  revenues: $9.195 billion
  expenditures: $9.573 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $975.5 million (2005 est.)

Macau
  revenues: $3.16 billion
  expenditures: $3.16 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05/06)

Macedonia
  revenues: $2.105 billion
  expenditures: $2.15 billion; including capital expenditures of $114
  million (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  revenues: $703.6 million
  expenditures: $853 million; including capital expenditures of $331
  million (2005 est.)

Malawi
  revenues: $844.6 million
  expenditures: $913.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  revenues: $30.57 billion
  expenditures: $34.62 billion; including capital expenditures of $9.4
  billion (2005 est.)

Maldives
  revenues: $265 million (excluding foreign grants)
  expenditures: $362 million; including capital expenditures of $80
  million (2004 est.)

Mali
  revenues: $764 million
  expenditures: $828 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2002 est.)

Malta
  revenues: $2.503 billion
  expenditures: $2.703 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  revenues: $42 million
  expenditures: $40 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1999)

Martinique
  revenues: $317.5 million
  expenditures: $317.5 million; including capital expenditures of $140
  million (1996)

Mauritania
  revenues: $421 million
  expenditures: $378 million; including capital expenditures of $154
  million (2002 est.)

Mauritius
  revenues: $1.377 billion
  expenditures: $1.77 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $73 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1991 est.)

Mexico
  revenues: $181 billion
  expenditures: $184 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  revenues: $127.3 million ($69
  million less grants)
  expenditures: $144.2 million; including capital expenditures of
  $17.9 million $NA (1998 est.)

Moldova
  revenues: $1.069 billion
  expenditures: $1.065 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Monaco
  revenues: $719.2 million
  expenditures: $864.1 million; including capital expenditures of
  $283.1 million (2004)

Mongolia
  revenues: $702 million
  expenditures: $651 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  revenues: NA
  expenditures: NA

Montserrat
  revenues: $31.4 million
  expenditures: $31.6 million; including capital expenditures of $8.4
  million (1997 est.)

Morocco
  revenues: $12.94 billion
  expenditures: $16.77 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $2.19 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  revenues: $1.031 billion
  expenditures: $1.93 billion (2005 est.)

Namibia
  revenues: $1.945 billion
  expenditures: $2.039 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Nauru
  revenues: $13.5 million
  expenditures: $13.5 million (2005)

Nepal
  revenues: $1.153 billion
  expenditures: $1.789 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY05/06)

Netherlands
  revenues: $291.8 billion
  expenditures: $303.7 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  revenues: $757.9 million
  expenditures: $949.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2004)

New Caledonia
  revenues: $856.3 million
  expenditures: $836.5 million (1996 est.)

New Zealand
  revenues: $43.1 billion
  expenditures: $37.57 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  revenues: $1.134 billion
  expenditures: $1.358 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Niger
  revenues: $320 million - including $134 million from foreign
  sources
  expenditures: $320 million; including capital expenditures of $178
  million (2002 est.)

Nigeria
  revenues: $12.86 billion
  expenditures: $13.54 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Niue
  revenues: $15.07 million
  expenditures: $16.33 million; including capital expenditures of
  $123,700

Norfolk Island
  revenues: $4.6 million
  expenditures: $4.8 million; including capital expenditures of $2
  million (FY99/00)

Northern Mariana Islands
  revenues: $193 million
  expenditures: $223 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY01/02 est.)

Norway
  revenues: $176.1 billion
  expenditures: $131.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Oman
  revenues: $14.36 billion
  expenditures: $10.61 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  revenues: $15.45 billion
  expenditures: $20.07 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Palau
  revenues: $72.07 million
  expenditures: $72.43 million; including capital expenditures of
  $12.98 million (FY98/99 est.)

Panama
  revenues: $3.426 billion
  expenditures: $3.959 billion; including capital expenditures of $471
  million (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  revenues: $1.368 billion
  expenditures: $1.354 billion; including capital expenditures of $344
  million (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  revenues: $1.334 billion
  expenditures: $1.37 billion; including capital expenditures of $700
  million (2005 est.)

Peru
  revenues: $21.87 billion
  expenditures: $22.47 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.8
  billion for general government, but excluding private enterprises
  (2005 est.)

Philippines
  revenues: $12.38 billion
  expenditures: $15.77 billion; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2005 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  revenues: $746,000
  expenditures: $1.028 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY04/05)

Poland
  revenues: $52.73 billion
  expenditures: $63.22 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Portugal
  revenues: $78.84 billion
  expenditures: $90.27 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  revenues: $6.7 billion
  expenditures: $9.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY99/00)

Qatar
  revenues: $17.31 billion
  expenditures: $11.31 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.2
  billion (2005 est.)

Reunion
  revenues: $554.7 million
  expenditures: $554.7 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998)

Romania
  revenues: $29.97 billion
  expenditures: $31.37 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.2
  billion (2005 est.)

Russia
  revenues: $176.7 billion
  expenditures: $125.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  revenues: $509.9 million
  expenditures: $584.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  revenues: $11.2 million
  expenditures: $11 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (FY92/93)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  revenues: $89.7 million
  expenditures: $128.2 million; including capital expenditures of
  $19.5 million (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  revenues: $141.2 million
  expenditures: $146.7 million; including capital expenditures of
  $25.1 million (2000 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  revenues: $70 million
  expenditures: $60 million; including capital expenditures of $24
  million (1996 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  revenues: $94.6 million
  expenditures: $85.8 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Samoa
  revenues: $171.3 million
  expenditures: $78.1 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2001-02)

San Marino
  revenues: $400 million
  expenditures: $400 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  revenues: $26.39 million
  expenditures: $59.48 million; including capital expenditures of $54
  million (2004 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  revenues: $143.7 billion
  expenditures: $89.65 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Senegal
  revenues: $1.657 billion
  expenditures: $1.926 billion; including capital expenditures of $357
  million (2005 est.)

Serbia
  revenues: $11.45 billion
  expenditures: $11.12 billion; including capital expenditures $NA;
  note - figures are for Serbia and Montenegro; Serbian Statistical
  Office indicates that for 2006 budget, Serbia will have revenues of
  $7.08 billion (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  revenues: $343.3 million
  expenditures: $332.2 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  revenues: $96 million
  expenditures: $351 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2000 est.)

Singapore
  revenues: $18.67 billion
  expenditures: $18.21 billion; including capital expenditures of $5.1
  billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  revenues: $22.7 billion
  expenditures: $23.2 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  revenues: $16.02 billion
  expenditures: $16.73 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  revenues: $49.7 million
  expenditures: $75.1 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (2003)

Somalia
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

South Africa
  revenues: $65.91 billion
  expenditures: $70.62 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Spain
  revenues: $440.9 billion
  expenditures: $448.4 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $12.8 billion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  revenues: $3.804 billion
  expenditures: $5.469 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Sudan
  revenues: $6.182 billion
  expenditures: $5.753 billion; including capital expenditures of $304
  million (2005 est.)

Suriname
  revenues: $392.6 million
  expenditures: $425.9 million (2004)

Svalbard
  revenues: $11.5 million
  expenditures: $11.5 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1998 est.)

Swaziland
  revenues: $805.6 million
  expenditures: $957.1 million; including capital expenditures of $147
  million (2005 est.)

Sweden
  revenues: $210.5 billion
  expenditures: $205.9 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  revenues: $138.1 billion
  expenditures: $143.6 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Syria
  revenues: $6.392 billion
  expenditures: $7.613 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $3.23 billion (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  revenues: $41.67 billion
  expenditures: $50.26 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $14.4 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  revenues: $442.3 million
  expenditures: $542.6 million; including capital expenditures of $86
  million (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  revenues: $2.235 billion
  expenditures: $2.669 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Thailand
  revenues: $30.64 billion
  expenditures: $31.76 billion; including capital expenditures of $5
  billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  revenues: $251.3 million
  expenditures: $292.9 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  revenues: $430,800
  expenditures: $2.8 million; including capital expenditures of NA
  (1987 est.)

Tonga
  revenues: $56.97 million
  expenditures: $83.88 million; including capital expenditures of $1.9
  million (FY99/00 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  revenues: $4.5 billion
  expenditures: $4.06 billion; including capital expenditures of
  $117.3 million (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  revenues: $7.322 billion
  expenditures: $8.304 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Turkey
  revenues: $93.58 billion
  expenditures: $115.3 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  revenues: $1.401 billion
  expenditures: $1.542 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  revenues: $47 million
  expenditures: $33.6 million; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (1997-98 est.)

Tuvalu
  revenues: $22.78 million
  expenditures: $14.23 million; including capital expenditures of $4.2
  million (2000 est.)

Uganda
  revenues: $1.845 billion
  expenditures: $1.904 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  revenues: $23.59 billion
  expenditures: $22.98 billion; note - this is the consolidated budget
  (January-September 2005)

United Arab Emirates
  revenues: $34.93 billion
  expenditures: $29.41 billion; including capital expenditures of $3.4
  billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  revenues: $881.4 billion
  expenditures: $951 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

United States
  revenues: $2.119 trillion
  expenditures: $2.466 trillion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  revenues: $4.468 billion
  expenditures: $4.845 billion; including capital expenditures of $193
  million (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  revenues: $2.815 billion
  expenditures: $2.917 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  revenues: $78.7 million
  expenditures: $72.23 million (2003)

Venezuela
  revenues: $39.63 billion
  expenditures: $41.27 billion; including capital expenditures of $2.6
  billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  revenues: $11.64 billion
  expenditures: $12.95 billion; including capital expenditures of $1.8
  billion (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Wallis and Futuna
  revenues: $29,730
  expenditures: $31,330 (1998 est.)

West Bank
  revenues: $964 million
  expenditures: $1.34 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA;
  note - these budget data include Gaza Strip (2004)

Western Sahara
  revenues: $NA
  expenditures: $NA

Yemen
  revenues: $5.616 billion
  expenditures: $5.719 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Zambia
  revenues: $1.688 billion
  expenditures: $1.866 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  revenues: $1.409 billion
  expenditures: $1.905 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA
  (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2057  Capital


Afghanistan
  name: Kabul
  geographic coordinates: 34 31 N, 69 12 E
  time difference: UTC+4.5 (9.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Akrotiri
  name: Episkopi Cantonment; also serves as capital of
  Dhekelia
  geographic coordinates: 34 40 N, 32 51 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Albania
  name: Tirana (Tirane)
  geographic coordinates: 41 20 N, 19 50 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Algeria
  name: Algiers
  geographic coordinates: 36 47 N, 2 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

American Samoa
  name: Pago Pago
  geographic coordinates: 14 16 S, 170 42 W
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Andorra
  name: Andorra la Vella
  geographic coordinates: 42 30 N, 1 30 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Angola
  name: Luanda
  geographic coordinates: 8 48 S, 13 14 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Anguilla
  name: The Valley
  geographic coordinates: 18 13 N, 63 04 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Antigua and Barbuda
  name: Saint John's
  geographic coordinates: 17 06 N, 61 51 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Argentina
  name: Buenos Aires
  geographic coordinates: 34 36 S, 58 27 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Armenia
  name: Yerevan
  geographic coordinates: 40 11 N, 44 30 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Aruba
  name: Oranjestad
  geographic coordinates: 12 33 N, 70 06 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Australia
  name: Canberra
  geographic coordinates: 35 17 S, 149 08 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in October; ends last
  Sunday in March (ended first Sunday in April 2006)
  note: Australia is divided into three time zones

Austria
  name: Vienna
  geographic coordinates: 48 12 N, 16 22 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Azerbaijan
  name: Baku (Baki, Baky)
  geographic coordinates: 40 23 N, 49 51 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Bahamas, The
  name: Nassau
  geographic coordinates: 25 05 N, 77 21 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Bahrain
  name: Manama
  geographic coordinates: 26 13 N, 50 35 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Bangladesh
  name: Dhaka
  geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 25 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Barbados
  name: Bridgetown
  geographic coordinates: 13 06 N, 59 37 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Belarus
  name: Minsk
  geographic coordinates: 53 54 N, 27 34 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Belgium
  name: Brussels
  geographic coordinates: 50 50 N, 4 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Belize
  name: Belmopan
  geographic coordinates: 17 15 N, 88 46 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Benin
  name: Porto-Novo (official capital)
  geographic coordinates: 6 29 N, 2 37 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Cotonou (seat of government)

Bermuda
  name: Hamilton
  geographic coordinates: 32 17 N, 64 46 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Bhutan
  name: Thimphu
  geographic coordinates: 27 28 N, 89 39 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Bolivia
  name: La Paz (adminstrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 16 30 S, 68 09 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Sucre (constitutional capital)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  name: Sarajevo
  geographic coordinates: 43 52 N, 18 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Botswana
  name: Gaborone
  geographic coordinates: 24 45 S, 25 55 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Brazil
  name: Brasilia
  geographic coordinates: 15 47 S, 47 55 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins third Sunday in October; ends
  third Sunday in February
  note: Brazil is divided into four time zones, including one for the
  Fernando de Noronha islands

British Virgin Islands
  name: Road Town
  geographic coordinates: 18 27 N, 64 37 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Brunei
  name: Bandar Seri Begawan
  geographic coordinates: 4 52 S, 114 55 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Bulgaria
  name: Sofia
  geographic coordinates: 42 41 N, 23 19 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Burkina Faso
  name: Ouagadougou
  geographic coordinates: 12 22 N, 1 31 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Burma
  name: Rangoon (Yangon)
  geographic coordinates: 16 47 N, 96 10 E
  time difference: UTC+6.5 (11.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Naypyidaw is being established as a government center

Burundi
  name: Bujumbura
  geographic coordinates: 3 23 S, 29 22 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Cambodia
  name: Phnom Penh
  geographic coordinates: 11 33 N, 104 55 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Cameroon
  name: Yaounde
  geographic coordinates: 3 52 N, 11 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Canada
  name: Ottawa
  geographic coordinates: 45 25 N, 75 40 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November
  note: Canada is divided into six time zones

Cape Verde
  name: Praia
  geographic coordinates: 14 55 N, 23 31 W
  time difference: UTC-1 (4 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Cayman Islands
  name: George Town (on Grand Cayman)
  geographic coordinates: 19 20 N, 81 23 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Central African Republic
  name: Bangui
  geographic coordinates: 4 22 N, 18 35 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Chad
  name: N'Djamena
  geographic coordinates: 12 07 N, 15 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Chile
  name: Santiago
  geographic coordinates: 33 27 S, 70 40 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in October; ends
  second Sunday in March

China
  name: Beijing
  geographic coordinates: 39 56 N, 116 24 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: despite its size, all of China falls within one time zone

Christmas Island
  name: The Settlement
  geographic coordinates: 18 44 N, 64 19 W
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  name: West Island
  geographic coordinates: 12 10 S, 96 55 E
  time difference: UTC+6.5 (11.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Colombia
  name: Bogota
  geographic coordinates: 4 36 N, 74 05 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Comoros
  name: Moroni
  geographic coordinates: 11 41 S, 43 16 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  name: Kinshasa
  geographic coordinates: 4 18 S, 15 18 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (six hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Congo, Republic of the
  name: Brazzaville
  geographic coordinates: 4 16 S, 15 17 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (six hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Cook Islands
  name: Avarua
  geographic coordinates: 21 12 S, 159 46 W
  time difference: UTC-10 (5 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Costa Rica
  name: San Jose
  geographic coordinates: 9 56 N, 84 05 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Cote d'Ivoire
  name: Yamoussoukro
  geographic coordinates: 5 19 N, 4 02 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: although Yamoussoukro has been the official capital since
  1983, Abidjan remains the commercial and administrative center; the
  US, like other countries, maintains its Embassy in Abidjan

Croatia
  name: Zagreb
  geographic coordinates: 45 48 N, 15 58 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Cuba
  name: Havana
  geographic coordinates: 23 08 N, 82 22 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Cyprus
  name: Nicosia (Lefkosia)
  geographic coordinates: 35 10 N, 33 22 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Czech Republic
  name: Prague
  geographic coordinates: 40 55 N, 21 00 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Denmark
  name: Copenhagen
  geographic coordinates: 55 40 N, 12 35 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Dhekelia
  name: Episkopi Cantonment; located in Akrotiri
  geographic coordinates: 34 40 N, 32 51 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Djibouti
  name: Djibouti
  geographic coordinates: 11 30 N, 43 15 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Dominica
  name: Roseau
  geographic coordinates: 15 18 N, 61 24 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Dominican Republic
  name: Santo Domingo
  geographic coordinates: 18 28 N, 69 54 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

East Timor
  name: Dili
  geographic coordinates: 8 35 S, 125 36 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Ecuador
  name: Quito
  geographic coordinates: 0 13 S, 78 30 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Egypt
  name: Cairo
  geographic coordinates: 30 03 N, 31 15 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in April; ends last
  Thursday in September

El Salvador
  name: San Salvador
  geographic coordinates: 13 42 N, 89 12 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Equatorial Guinea
  name: Malabo
  geographic coordinates: 3 45 N, 8 47 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Eritrea
  name: Asmara (Asmera)
  geographic coordinates: 15 20 N, 38 53 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Estonia
  name: Tallinn
  geographic coordinates: 59 25 N, 24 45 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Ethiopia
  name: Addis Ababa
  geographic coordinates: 9 02 N, 38 42 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

European Union
  name: Brussels (Belgium)
  geographic coordinates: 50 50 N, 4 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: the Council of the European Union meets in Brussels, the
  European Parliament meets in Strasbourg, France, and the Court of
  Justice of the European Communities meets in Luxembourg

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  name: Stanley
  geographic coordinates: 51 42 S, 57 41 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in September; ends
  third Sunday in April

Faroe Islands
  name: Torshavn
  geographic coordinates: 62 01 N, 6 46 W
  time difference: UTC (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Fiji
  name: Suva (on Viti Levu)
  geographic coordinates: 18 08 S, 178 25 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Finland
  name: Helsinki
  geographic coordinates: 60 10 N, 24 58 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

France
  name: Paris
  geographic coordinates: 48 52 N, 2 20 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

French Guiana
  name: Cayenne
  geographic coordinates: 4 56 N, 52 20 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

French Polynesia
  name: Papeete
  geographic coordinates: 17 32 S, 149 34 W
  time difference: UTC-10 (5 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Gabon
  name: Libreville
  geographic coordinates: 0 23 N, 9 27 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Gambia, The
  name: Banjul
  geographic coordinates: 12 28 N, 16 39 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Georgia
  name: T'bilisi
  geographic coordinates: 41 43 N, 44 49 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Germany
  name: Berlin
  geographic coordinates: 52 31 N, 13 24 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Ghana
  name: Accra
  geographic coordinates: 5 33 N, 0 13 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Gibraltar
  name: Gibraltar
  geographic coordinates: 39 11 N, 5 22 W
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Greece
  name: Athens
  geographic coordinates: 37 59 N, 23 44 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Greenland
  name: Nuuk (Godthab)
  geographic coordinates: 64 11 N, 51 44 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Greenland is divided into four time zones

Grenada
  name: Saint George's
  geographic coordinates: 12 03 N, 61 45 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Guadeloupe
  name: Basse-Terre
  geographic coordinates: 16 00 N, 61 44 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Guam
  name: Hagatna (Agana)
  geographic coordinates: 13 28 N, 144 45 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Guatemala
  name: Guatemala
  geographic coordinates: 14 38 N, 90 31 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in April; ends last
  Friday in September; note - there is no DST planned for 2007-2009

Guernsey
  name: Saint Peter Port
  geographic coordinates: 49 27 N, 2 32 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Guinea
  name: Conakry
  geographic coordinates: 9 31 N, 13 43 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Guinea-Bissau
  name: Bissau
  geographic coordinates: 11 51 N, 15 35 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Guyana
  name: Georgetown
  geographic coordinates: 6 48 N, 58 10 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Haiti
  name: Port-au-Prince
  geographic coordinates: 18 32 N, 72 20 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Holy See (Vatican City)
  name: Vatican City
  geographic coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 27 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Honduras
  name: Tegucigalpa
  geographic coordinates: 14 06 N, 87 13 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007

Hungary
  name: Budapest
  geographic coordinates: 47 30 N, 19 05 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Iceland
  name: Reykjavik
  geographic coordinates: 64 09 N, 21 57 W
  time difference: UTC (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

India
  name: New Delhi
  geographic coordinates: 28 36 N, 77 12 E
  time difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Indonesia
  name: Jakarta
  geographic coordinates: 6 10 S, 106 48 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Indonesia is divided into three time zones

Iran
  name: Tehran
  geographic coordinates: 35 40 N, 51 26 E
  time difference: UTC+3.5 (8.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Iraq
  name: Baghdad
  geographic coordinates: 33 21 N, 44 25 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins 1 April; ends 1 October

Ireland
  name: Dublin
  geographic coordinates: 53 20 N, 6 15 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Isle of Man
  name: Douglas
  geographic coordinates: 54 09 N, 4 28 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (five hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Israel
  name: Jerusalem; note - Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its
  capital in 1950, but the US, like nearly all other countries,
  maintains its Embassy in Tel Aviv
  geographic coordinates: 32 05 N, 34 48 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Friday in March; ends the
  Sunday between the holidays of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

Italy
  name: Rome
  geographic coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 29 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Jamaica
  name: Kingston
  geographic coordinates: 18 00 N, 76 48 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Japan
  name: Tokyo
  geographic coordinates: 35 42 N, 139 46 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Jersey
  name: Saint Helier
  geographic coordinates: 49 12 N, 2 07 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Jordan
  name: Amman
  geographic coordinates: 31 57 N, 35 56 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Thursday in March; ends last
  Friday in September

Kazakhstan
  name: Astana
  geographic coordinates: 51 10 N, 71 30 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Kazakhstan is divided into three time zones

Kenya
  name: Nairobi
  geographic coordinates: 1 17 S, 36 49 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Kiribati
  name: Tarawa
  geographic coordinates: 1 25 N, 173 00 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Korea, North
  name: Pyongyang
  geographic coordinates: 39 01 N, 125 45 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Korea, South
  name: Seoul
  geographic coordinates: 37 34 N, 127 00 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Kuwait
  name: Kuwait
  geographic coordinates: 29 20 N, 47 59 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Kyrgyzstan
  name: Bishkek
  geographic coordinates: 42 54 N, 74 36 E
  time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Laos
  name: Vientiane
  geographic coordinates: 17 58 N, 102 36 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Latvia
  name: Riga
  geographic coordinates: 56 57 N, 24 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Lebanon
  name: Beirut
  geographic coordinates: 33 53 N, 35 30 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Lesotho
  name: Maseru
  geographic coordinates: 29 28 S, 27 30 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Liberia
  name: Monrovia
  geographic coordinates: 6 18 N, 10 47 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Libya
  name: Tripoli
  geographic coordinates: 32 54 N, 13 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Liechtenstein
  name: Vaduz
  geographic coordinates: 47 09 N, 9 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Lithuania
  name: Vilnius
  geographic coordinates: 54 41 N, 25 19 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Luxembourg
  name: Luxembourg
  geographic coordinates: 49 45 N, 6 10 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Macedonia
  name: Skopje
  geographic coordinates: 41 59 N, 21 26 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Madagascar
  name: Antananarivo
  geographic coordinates: 18 52 S, 47 30 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Malawi
  name: Lilongwe
  geographic coordinates: 13 59 S, 33 44 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Malaysia
  name: Kuala Lumpur
  geographic coordinates: 3 10 N, 101 42 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Putrajaya is referred to as administrative center not capital;
  Parliament meets in Kuala Lumpur

Maldives
  name: Male
  geographic coordinates: 4 10 N, 73 31 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mali
  name: Bamako
  geographic coordinates: 12 39 N, 8 00 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Malta
  name: Valletta
  geographic coordinates: 35 54 N, 14 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Marshall Islands
  name: Majuro
  geographic coordinates: 7 05 N, 171 08 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Martinique
  name: Fort-de-France
  geographic coordinates: 14 36 N, 61 05 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mauritania
  name: Nouakchott
  geographic coordinates: 18 06 N, 15 57 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mauritius
  name: Port Louis
  geographic coordinates: 20 10 S, 57 30 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mayotte
  name: Mamoudzou
  geographic coordinates: 12 47 S, 45 14 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mexico
  name: Mexico (Distrito Federal)
  geographic coordinates: 19 24 N, 99 09 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Mexico is divided into four time zones

Micronesia, Federated States of
  name: Palikir
  geographic coordinates: 6 55 N, 158 08 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Moldova
  name: Chisinau (Kishinev)
  geographic coordinates: 47 00 N, 28 50 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Monaco
  name: Monaco
  geographic coordinates: 43 44 N, 7 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Mongolia
  name: Ulaanbaatar
  geographic coordinates: 47 55 N, 106 53 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Saturday in March; ends last
  Saturday in September

Montenegro
  name: Podgorica (administrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 42 26 N, 19 16 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1 hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Cetinje (capital city)

Montserrat
  name: Plymouth
  geographic coordinates: 16 44 N, 62 14 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Plymouth was abandoned in 1997 due to volcanic activity;
  interim government buildings have been built at Brades Estate, in
  the Carr's Bay/Little Bay vicinity at the northwest end of Montserrat

Morocco
  name: Rabat
  geographic coordinates: 34 02 N, 6 51 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Mozambique
  name: Maputo
  geographic coordinates: 25 58 S, 32 35 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Namibia
  name: Windhoek
  geographic coordinates: 22 34 S, 17 06 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in September; ends
  first Sunday in April

Nauru
  no official capital; government offices in Yaren District
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Nepal
  name: Kathmandu
  geographic coordinates: 27 43 N, 85 19 E
  time difference: UTC+5.75 (10.75 hours ahead of Washington, DC
  during Standard Time)

Netherlands
  name: Amsterdam
  geographic coordinates: 52 23 N, 4 54 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: The Hague (seat of government)

Netherlands Antilles
  name: Willemstad (on Curacao)
  geographic coordinates: 12 06 N, 68 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

New Caledonia
  name: Noumea
  geographic coordinates: 22 16 S, 166 27 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

New Zealand
  name: Wellington
  geographic coordinates: 41 28 S, 174 51 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in October; ends
  third Sunday in March
  note: New Zealand is divided into two time zones, including Chatham
  Island

Nicaragua
  name: Managua
  geographic coordinates: 12 09 N, 86 17 W
  time difference: UTC-6 (1 hour behind Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Niger
  name: Niamey
  geographic coordinates: 13 31 N, 2 07 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Nigeria
  name: Abuja
  geographic coordinates: 9 12 N, 7 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Niue
  name: Alofi
  geographic coordinates: 19 01 S, 169 55 W
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Norfolk Island
  name: Kingston
  geographic coordinates: 29 03 S, 167 58 E
  time difference: UTC+11.5 (16.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Northern Mariana Islands
  name: Saipan
  geographic coordinates: 15 12 N, 145 45 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Norway
  name: Oslo
  geographic coordinates: 59 55 N, 10 45 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Oman
  name: Muscat
  geographic coordinates: 23 37 N, 58 35 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Pakistan
  name: Islamabad
  geographic coordinates: 33 42 N, 73 10 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Palau
  name: Melekeok
  geographic coordinates: 7 29 N, 134 38 E
  time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Panama
  name: Panama
  geographic coordinates: 8 58 N, 79 32 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Papua New Guinea
  name: Port Moresby
  geographic coordinates: 9 30 S, 147 10 E
  time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Paraguay
  name: Asuncion
  geographic coordinates: 25 16 S, 57 40 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Peru
  name: Lima
  geographic coordinates: 12 03 S, 77 03 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)

Philippines
  name: Manila
  geographic coordinates: 14 35 N, 121 00 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Pitcairn Islands
  name: Adamstown
  geographic coordinates: 25 04 S, 130 05 W
  time difference: UTC-9 (4 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Poland
  name: Warsaw
  geographic coordinates: 52 15 N, 21 00 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Portugal
  name: Lisbon
  geographic coordinates: 38 43 N, 9 08 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Puerto Rico
  name: San Juan
  geographic coordinates: 18 28 N, 66 07 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Qatar
  name: Doha
  geographic coordinates: 25 17 N, 51 32 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Reunion
  name: Saint-Denis
  geographic coordinates: 20 52 S, 55 28 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Romania
  name: Bucharest
  geographic coordinates: 44 26 N, 26 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Russia
  name: Moscow
  geographic coordinates: 55 45 N, 37 35 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Russia is divided into eleven time zones

Rwanda
  name: Kigali
  geographic coordinates: 1 57 S, 30 04 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Saint Helena
  name: Jamestown
  geographic coordinates: 15 56 S, 5 44 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  name: Basseterre
  geographic coordinates: 17 18 N, 62 43 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Saint Lucia
  name: Castries
  geographic coordinates: 14 01 N, 61 00 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  name: Saint-Pierre
  geographic coordinates: 46 46 N, 56 11 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  name: Kingstown
  geographic coordinates: 13 09 N, 61 14 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Samoa
  name: Apia
  geographic coordinates: 13 50 S, 171 45W
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

San Marino
  name: San Marino
  geographic coordinates: 43 56 N, 12 25 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Sao Tome and Principe
  name: Sao Tome
  geographic coordinates: 0 12 N, 6 39 E
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Saudi Arabia
  name: Riyadh
  geographic coordinates: 24 38 N, 46 43 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Senegal
  name: Dakar
  geographic coordinates: 14 40 N, 17 26 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Serbia
  name: Belgrade
  geographic coordinates: 44 50 N, 20 30 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Seychelles
  name: Victoria
  geographic coordinates: 4 38 S, 55 27 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Sierra Leone
  name: Freetown
  geographic coordinates: 8 30 N, 13 15 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Singapore
  name: Singapore
  geographic coordinates: 1 17 N, 103 51 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Slovakia
  name: Bratislava
  geographic coordinates: 48 09 N, 17 07 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Slovenia
  name: Ljubljana
  geographic coordinates: 46 03 N, 14 31 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Solomon Islands
  name: Honiara
  geographic coordinates: 9 26 S, 159 57 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Somalia
  name: Mogadishu
  geographic coordinates: 2 04 N, 45 22 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

South Africa
  name: Pretoria (administrative capital)
  geographic coordinates: 29 12 S, 28 10 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial
  capital)

Spain
  name: Madrid
  geographic coordinates: 40 24 N, 3 41 W
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October
  note: Spain is divided into two time zones, including the Canary
  Islands

Sri Lanka
  name: Colombo
  geographic coordinates: 6 56 N, 79 51 E
  time difference: UTC+5.5 (10.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte (legislative capital)

Sudan
  name: Khartoum
  geographic coordinates: 15 36 N, 32 32 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Suriname
  name: Paramaribo
  geographic coordinates: 5 50 N, 55 10 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Svalbard
  name: Longyearbyen
  geographic coordinates: 78 13 N, 15 33 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Swaziland
  name: Mbabane
  geographic coordinates: 26 18 S, 31 06 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: Lobamba (royal and legislative capital)

Sweden
  name: Stockholm
  geographic coordinates: 59 20 N, 18 03 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Switzerland
  name: Bern
  geographic coordinates: 46 57 N, 7 26 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Syria
  name: Damascus
  geographic coordinates: 33 30 N, 36 18 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins 1 April; ends 30 September

Taiwan
  name: Taipei
  geographic coordinates: 25 03 N, 121 30 E
  time difference: UTC+8 (13 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Tajikistan
  name: Dushanbe
  geographic coordinates: 38 35 N, 68 48 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Tanzania
  name: Dar es Salaam
  geographic coordinates: 6 48 S, 39 17 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: legislative offices have been transferred to Dodoma, which is
  planned as the new national capital; the National Assembly now meets
  there on a regular basis

Thailand
  name: Bangkok
  geographic coordinates: 13 45 N, 100 31 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Togo
  name: Lome
  geographic coordinates: 6 08 N, 1 13 E
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Tokelau
  none; each atoll has its own administrative center
  time difference: UTC-11 (6 hours behind Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Tonga
  name: Nuku'alofa
  geographic coordinates: 21 08 S, 175 12 W
  time difference: UTC+13 (18 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Trinidad and Tobago
  name: Port-of-Spain
  geographic coordinates: 10 39 N, 61 31 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Tunisia
  name: Tunis
  geographic coordinates: 36 48 N, 10 11 E
  time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Turkey
  name: Ankara
  geographic coordinates: 39 56 N, 32 52 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

Turkmenistan
  name: Ashgabat (Ashkhabad)
  geographic coordinates: 37 57 N, 58 23 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  name: Grand Turk (Cockburn Town)
  geographic coordinates: 21 28 N, 71 08 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (same time as Washington, DC during Standard
  Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins first Sunday in April; ends last
  Sunday in October

Tuvalu
  name: Funafuti
  geographic coordinates: 8 30 S, 179 12 E
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  note: administrative offices are located in Vaiaku Village on
  Fongafale Islet

Uganda
  name: Kampala
  geographic coordinates: 0 19 N, 32 25 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Ukraine
  name: Kyiv (Kiev)
  geographic coordinates: 50 26 N, 30 31 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

United Arab Emirates
  name: Abu Dhabi
  geographic coordinates: 24 28 N, 54 22 E
  time difference: UTC+4 (9 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

United Kingdom
  name: London
  geographic coordinates: 51 30 N, 0 10 W
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
  Sunday in October

United States
  name: Washington, DC (capital)
  geographic coordinates: 38 53 N, 77 02 W
  time difference: UTC-5 (during Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in March; ends
  first Sunday in November; note - these new dates become effective in
  2007
  note: the United States is divided into six time zones

Uruguay
  name: Montevideo
  geographic coordinates: 34 53 S, 56 11 W
  time difference: UTC-3 (2 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)
  daylight saving time: +1hr, begins second Sunday in October; ends
  second Sunday in March

Uzbekistan
  name: Tashkent (Toshkent)
  geographic coordinates: 41 20 N, 69 18 E
  time difference: UTC+5 (10 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Vanuatu
  name: Port-Vila (on Efate)
  geographic coordinates: 17 44 S, 168 19 E
  time difference: UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Venezuela
  name: Caracas
  geographic coordinates: 10 30 N, 66 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Vietnam
  name: Hanoi
  geographic coordinates: 21 02 N, 105 51 E
  time difference: UTC+7 (12 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Virgin Islands
  name: Charlotte Amalie
  geographic coordinates: 18 21 N, 64 56 W
  time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Wallis and Futuna
  name: Mata-Utu (on Ile Uvea)
  geographic coordinates: 13 57 S, 171 56 W
  time difference: UTC+12 (17 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Western Sahara
  none
  time difference: UTC 0 (5 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Yemen
  name: Sanaa
  geographic coordinates: 15 21 N, 44 12 E
  time difference: UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Zambia
  name: Lusaka
  geographic coordinates: 15 25 S, 28 17 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

Zimbabwe
  name: Harare
  geographic coordinates: 17 50 S, 31 03 E
  time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
  Standard Time)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2058  Imports - commodities


Afghanistan
  capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products

Albania
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals

Algeria
  capital goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods

American Samoa
  materials for canneries 56%, food 8%, petroleum
  products 7%, machinery and parts 6% (2004 est.)

Andorra
  consumer goods, food, electricity

Angola
  machinery and electrical equipment, vehicles and spare parts;
  medicines, food, textiles, military goods

Anguilla
  fuels, foodstuffs, manufactures, chemicals, trucks, textiles

Antigua and Barbuda
  food and live animals, machinery and transport
  equipment, manufactures, chemicals, oil

Argentina
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal
  manufactures, plastics

Armenia
  natural gas, petroleum, tobacco products, foodstuffs,
  diamonds

Aruba
  machinery and electrical equipment, crude oil for refining and
  reexport, chemicals; foodstuffs

Australia
  machinery and transport equipment, computers and office
  machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and
  petroleum products

Austria
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal
  goods, oil and oil products; foodstuffs

Azerbaijan
  machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs,
  metals, chemicals

Bahamas, The
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactures,
  chemicals, mineral fuels; food and live animals

Bahrain
  crude oil, machinery, chemicals

Bangladesh
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel,
  textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement (2000)

Barbados
  consumer goods, machinery, foodstuffs, construction
  materials, chemicals, fuel, electrical components

Belarus
  mineral products, machinery and equipment, chemicals,
  foodstuffs, metals

Belgium
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds,
  pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, oil products

Belize
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods; fuels,
  chemicals, pharmaceuticals; food, beverages, tobacco

Benin
  foodstuffs, capital goods, petroleum products

Bermuda
  clothing, fuels, machinery and transport equipment,
  construction materials, chemicals, food and live animals

Bhutan
  fuel and lubricants, grain, machinery and parts, vehicles,
  fabrics, rice

Bolivia
  petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft
  parts, prepared foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels,
  foodstuffs

Botswana
  foodstuffs, machinery, electrical goods, transport
  equipment, textiles, fuel and petroleum products, wood and paper
  products, metal and metal products

Brazil
  machinery, electrical and transport equipment, chemical
  products, oil

British Virgin Islands
  building materials, automobiles, foodstuffs,
  machinery

Brunei
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food,
  chemicals

Bulgaria
  machinery and equipment; metals and ores; chemicals and
  plastics; fuels, minerals, and raw materials

Burkina Faso
  capital goods, foodstuffs, petroleum

Burma
  fabric, petroleum products, plastics, machinery, transport
  equipment, construction materials, crude oil; food products

Burundi
  capital goods, petroleum products, foodstuffs

Cambodia
  petroleum products, cigarettes, gold, construction
  materials, machinery, motor vehicles, pharmaceutical products

Cameroon
  machinery, electrical equipment, transport equipment, fuel,
  food

Canada
  machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, crude oil,
  chemicals, electricity, durable consumer goods

Cape Verde
  foodstuffs, industrial products, transport equipment,
  fuels

Cayman Islands
  foodstuffs, manufactured goods

Central African Republic
  food, textiles, petroleum products,
  machinery, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals,
  pharmaceuticals

Chad
  machinery and transportation equipment, industrial goods,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Chile
  petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, electrical and
  telecommunications equipment, industrial machinery, vehicles,
  natural gas

China
  machinery and equipment, oil and mineral fuels, plastics,
  optical and medical equipment, organic chemicals, iron and steel

Christmas Island
  consumer goods

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  foodstuffs

Colombia
  industrial equipment, transportation equipment, consumer
  goods, chemicals, paper products, fuels, electricity

Comoros
  rice and other foodstuffs, consumer goods, petroleum
  products, cement, transport equipment

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  foodstuffs, mining and other
  machinery, transport equipment, fuels

Congo, Republic of the
  capital equipment, construction materials,
  foodstuffs

Cook Islands
  foodstuffs, textiles, fuels, timber, capital goods

Costa Rica
  raw materials, consumer goods, capital equipment,
  petroleum

Cote d'Ivoire
  fuel, capital equipment, foodstuffs

Croatia
  machinery, transport and electrical equipment; chemicals,
  fuels and lubricants; foodstuffs

Cuba
  petroleum, food, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: consumer goods, petroleum and lubricants,
  intermediate goods, machinery, transport equipment; north Cyprus:
  vehicles, fuel, cigarettes, food, minerals, chemicals, machinery

Czech Republic
  machinery and transport equipment 46%, raw materials
  and fuels 15%, chemicals 10% (2003)

Denmark
  machinery and equipment, raw materials and semimanufactures
  for industry, chemicals, grain and foodstuffs, consumer goods

Djibouti
  foods, beverages, transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum
  products

Dominica
  manufactured goods, machinery and equipment, food, chemicals

Dominican Republic
  foodstuffs, petroleum, cotton and fabrics,
  chemicals and pharmaceuticals

East Timor
  food, gasoline, kerosene, machinery

Ecuador
  vehicles, medicinal products, telecommunications equipment,
  electricity

Egypt
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, wood products,
  fuels

El Salvador
  raw materials, consumer goods, capital goods, fuels,
  foodstuffs, petroleum, electricity

Equatorial Guinea
  petroleum sector equipment, other equipment

Eritrea
  machinery, petroleum products, food, manufactured goods
  (2000)

Estonia
  machinery and equipment 33.5%, chemical products 11.6%,
  textiles 10.3%, foodstuffs 9.4%, transportation equipment 8.9% (2001)

Ethiopia
  food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products,
  chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, textiles

European Union
  machinery, vehicles, aircraft, plastics, crude oil,
  chemicals, textiles, metals, foodstuffs, clothing

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  fuel, food and drink, building
  materials, clothing

Faroe Islands
  consumer goods 36%, raw materials and
  semi-manufactures 32%, machinery and transport equipment 29%, fuels,
  fish, salt (1999)

Fiji
  manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment,
  petroleum products, food, chemicals

Finland
  foodstuffs, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals,
  transport equipment, iron and steel, machinery, textile yarn and
  fabrics, grains

France
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft,
  plastics, chemicals

French Guiana
  food (grains, processed meat), machinery and transport
  equipment, fuels and chemicals

French Polynesia
  fuels, foodstuffs, machinery and equipment

Gabon
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, construction
  materials

Gambia, The
  foodstuffs, manufactures, fuel, machinery and transport
  equipment

Gaza Strip
  food, consumer goods, construction materials

Georgia
  fuels, machinery and parts, transport equipment, grain and
  other foods, pharmaceuticals

Germany
  machinery, vehicles, chemicals, foodstuffs, textiles, metals

Ghana
  capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs

Gibraltar
  fuels, manufactured goods, and foodstuffs

Greece
  machinery, transport equipment, fuels, chemicals

Greenland
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods,
  food, petroleum products

Grenada
  food, manufactured goods, machinery, chemicals, fuel

Guadeloupe
  foodstuffs, fuels, vehicles, clothing and other consumer
  goods, construction materials

Guam
  petroleum and petroleum products, food, manufactured goods

Guatemala
  fuels, machinery and transport equipment, construction
  materials, grain, fertilizers, electricity

Guernsey
  coal, gasoline, oil, machinery and equipment

Guinea
  petroleum products, metals, machinery, transport equipment,
  textiles, grain and other foodstuffs

Guinea-Bissau
  foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment,
  petroleum products

Guyana
  manufactures, machinery, petroleum, food

Haiti
  food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment,
  fuels, raw materials

Honduras
  machinery and transport equipment, industrial raw
  materials, chemical products, fuels, foodstuffs (2000)

Hong Kong
  raw materials and semi-manufactures, consumer goods,
  capital goods, foodstuffs, fuel (most is re-exported)

Hungary
  machinery and equipment 51.6%, other manufactures 35.7%,
  fuels and electricity 7.7%, food products 3.1%, raw materials 2.0%
  (2003)

Iceland
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs,
  textiles

India
  crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals

Indonesia
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs

Iran
  industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods,
  foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military
  supplies

Iraq
  food, medicine, manufactures

Ireland
  data processing equipment, other machinery and equipment,
  chemicals, petroleum and petroleum products, textiles, clothing

Isle of Man
  timber, fertilizers, fish

Israel
  raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough
  diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods

Italy
  engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy
  products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing;
  food, beverages, and tobacco

Jamaica
  food and other consumer goods, industrial supplies, fuel,
  parts and accessories of capital goods, machinery and transport
  equipment, construction materials

Japan
  machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals,
  textiles, raw materials (2001)

Jersey
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods,
  foodstuffs, mineral fuels, chemicals

Jordan
  crude oil, textile fabrics, machinery, transport equipment,
  manufactured goods

Kazakhstan
  machinery and equipment 41%, metal products 28%,
  foodstuffs 8% (2001)

Kenya
  machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products,
  motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins and plastics

Kiribati
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, miscellaneous
  manufactured goods, fuel

Korea, North
  petroleum, coking coal, machinery and equipment,
  textiles, grain

Korea, South
  machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil,
  steel, transport equipment, organic chemicals, plastics

Kuwait
  food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, clothing

Kyrgyzstan
  oil and gas, machinery and equipment, chemicals,
  foodstuffs

Laos
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, consumer goods

Latvia
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, vehicles

Lebanon
  petroleum products, cars, medicinal products, clothing, meat
  and live animals, consumer goods, paper, textile fabrics, tobacco

Lesotho
  food; building materials, vehicles, machinery, medicines,
  petroleum products (2000)

Liberia
  fuels, chemicals, machinery, transportation equipment,
  manufactured goods; foodstuffs

Libya
  machinery, transport equipment, semi-finished goods, food,
  consumer products

Liechtenstein
  agricultural products, raw materials, machinery, metal
  goods, textiles, foodstuffs, motor vehicles

Lithuania
  mineral products, machinery and equipment, transport
  equipment, chemicals, textiles and clothing, metals

Luxembourg
  minerals, metals, foodstuffs, quality consumer goods

Macau
  raw materials and semi-manufactured goods, consumer goods
  (foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco), capital goods, mineral fuels and
  oils

Macedonia
  machinery and equipment, automobiles, chemicals, fuels,
  food products

Madagascar
  capital goods, petroleum, consumer goods, food

Malawi
  food, petroleum products, semimanufactures, consumer goods,
  transportation equipment

Malaysia
  electronics, machinery, petroleum products, plastics,
  vehicles, iron and steel products, chemicals

Maldives
  petroleum products, ships, foodstuffs, textiles, clothing,
  intermediate and capital goods

Mali
  petroleum, machinery and equipment, construction materials,
  foodstuffs, textiles

Malta
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured and
  semi-manufactured goods; food, drink, tobacco

Marshall Islands
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels,
  beverages and tobacco

Martinique
  petroleum products, crude oil, foodstuffs, construction
  materials, vehicles, clothing and other consumer goods

Mauritania
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, capital
  goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods

Mauritius
  manufactured goods, capital equipment, foodstuffs,
  petroleum products, chemicals

Mayotte
  food, machinery and equipment, transportation equipment,
  metals, chemicals

Mexico
  metalworking machines, steel mill products, agricultural
  machinery, electrical equipment, car parts for assembly, repair
  parts for motor vehicles, aircraft, and aircraft parts

Micronesia, Federated States of
  food, manufactured goods, machinery
  and equipment, beverages

Moldova
  mineral products and fuel, machinery and equipment,
  chemicals, textiles (2000)

Mongolia
  machinery and equipment, fuel, cars, food products,
  industrial consumer goods, chemicals, building materials, sugar, tea

Montserrat
  machinery and transportation equipment, foodstuffs,
  manufactured goods, fuels, lubricants, and related materials

Morocco
  crude petroleum, textile fabric, telecommunications
  equipment, wheat, gas and electricity, transistors, plastics

Mozambique
  machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, chemicals, metal
  products, foodstuffs, textiles

Namibia
  foodstuffs; petroleum products and fuel, machinery and
  equipment, chemicals

Nauru
  food, fuel, manufactures, building materials, machinery

Nepal
  gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer

Netherlands
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, fuels,
  foodstuffs, clothing

Netherlands Antilles
  crude petroleum, food, manufactures

New Caledonia
  machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, foodstuffs

New Zealand
  machinery and equipment, vehicles and aircraft,
  petroleum, electronics, textiles, plastics

Nicaragua
  consumer goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials,
  petroleum products

Niger
  foodstuffs, machinery, vehicles and parts, petroleum, cereals

Nigeria
  machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, manufactured
  goods, food and live animals

Niue
  food, live animals, manufactured goods, machinery, fuels,
  lubricants, chemicals, drugs

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  food, construction equipment and materials,
  petroleum products

Norway
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs

Oman
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food,
  livestock, lubricants

Pakistan
  petroleum, petroleum products, machinery, plastics,
  transportation equipment, edible oils, paper and paperboard, iron
  and steel, tea

Palau
  machinery and equipment, fuels, metals; foodstuffs

Panama
  capital goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods, chemicals

Papua New Guinea
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured
  goods, food, fuels, chemicals

Paraguay
  road vehicles, consumer goods, tobacco, petroleum products,
  electrical machinery

Peru
  petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, machinery,
  vehicles, iron and steel, wheat, paper

Philippines
  raw materials, machinery and equipment, fuels, vehicles
  and vehicle parts, plastic, chemicals, grains

Pitcairn Islands
  fuel oil, machinery, building materials, flour,
  sugar, other foodstuffs

Poland
  machinery and transport equipment 38%, intermediate
  manufactured goods 21%, chemicals 14.8%, minerals, fuels,
  lubricants, and related materials 9.1% (2003)

Portugal
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, petroleum,
  textiles, agricultural products

Puerto Rico
  chemicals, machinery and equipment, clothing, food,
  fish, petroleum products

Qatar
  machinery and transport equipment, food, chemicals

Reunion
  manufactured goods, food, beverages, tobacco, machinery and
  transportation equipment, raw materials, and petroleum products

Romania
  machinery and equipment, fuels and minerals, chemicals,
  textile and products, basic metals, agricultural products

Russia
  machinery and equipment, consumer goods, medicines, meat,
  sugar, semifinished metal products

Rwanda
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, steel, petroleum
  products, cement and construction material

Saint Helena
  food, beverages, tobacco, fuel oils, animal feed,
  building materials, motor vehicles and parts, machinery and parts

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  machinery, manufactures, food, fuels

Saint Lucia
  food 23%, manufactured goods 21%, machinery and
  transportation equipment 19%, chemicals, fuels

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  meat, clothing, fuel, electrical
  equipment, machinery, building materials

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  foodstuffs, machinery and
  equipment, chemicals and fertilizers, minerals and fuels

Samoa
  machinery and equipment, industrial supplies, foodstuffs

San Marino
  wide variety of consumer manufactures, food

Sao Tome and Principe
  machinery and electrical equipment, food
  products, petroleum products

Saudi Arabia
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, motor
  vehicles, textiles

Senegal
  food and beverages, capital goods, fuels

Seychelles
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products,
  chemicals

Sierra Leone
  foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, fuels and
  lubricants, chemicals

Singapore
  machinery and equipment, mineral fuels, chemicals,
  foodstuffs

Slovakia
  machinery and transport equipment 41.1%, intermediate
  manufactured goods 19.3%, fuels 12.3%, chemicals 9.8%, miscellaneous
  manufactured goods 10.2% (2003)

Slovenia
  machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods,
  chemicals, fuels and lubricants, food

Solomon Islands
  food, plant and equipment, manufactured goods,
  fuels, chemicals

Somalia
  manufactures, petroleum products, foodstuffs, construction
  materials, qat

South Africa
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products,
  scientific instruments, foodstuffs

Spain
  machinery and equipment, fuels, chemicals, semifinished goods,
  foodstuffs, consumer goods, measuring and medical control instruments

Sri Lanka
  textile fabrics, mineral products, petroleum, foodstuffs,
  machinery and transportation equipment

Sudan
  foodstuffs, manufactured goods, refinery and transport
  equipment, medicines and chemicals, textiles, wheat

Suriname
  capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer
  goods

Swaziland
  motor vehicles, machinery, transport equipment,
  foodstuffs, petroleum products, chemicals

Sweden
  machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor
  vehicles, iron and steel; foodstuffs, clothing

Switzerland
  machinery, chemicals, vehicles, metals; agricultural
  products, textiles

Syria
  machinery and transport equipment, electric power machinery,
  food and livestock, metal and metal products, chemicals and chemical
  products, plastics, yarn, paper

Taiwan
  machinery and electrical equipment 44.5%, minerals, precision
  instruments (2002)

Tajikistan
  electricity, petroleum products, aluminum oxide,
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs

Tanzania
  consumer goods, machinery and transportation equipment,
  industrial raw materials, crude oil

Thailand
  capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials,
  consumer goods, fuels

Togo
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, petroleum products

Tokelau
  foodstuffs, building materials, fuel

Tonga
  foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment, fuels, chemicals

Trinidad and Tobago
  machinery, transportation equipment,
  manufactured goods, food, live animals

Tunisia
  textiles, machinery and equipment, hydrocarbons, chemicals,
  food

Turkey
  machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods, fuels, transport
  equipment

Turkmenistan
  machinery and equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs

Turks and Caicos Islands
  food and beverages, tobacco, clothing,
  manufactures, construction materials

Tuvalu
  food, animals, mineral fuels, machinery, manufactured goods

Uganda
  capital equipment, vehicles, petroleum, medical supplies;
  cereals

Ukraine
  energy, machinery and equipment, chemicals

United Arab Emirates
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals,
  food

United Kingdom
  manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs

United States
  agricultural products 4.9%, industrial supplies 32.9%
  (crude oil 8.2%), capital goods 30.4% (computers, telecommunications
  equipment, motor vehicle parts, office machines, electric power
  machinery), consumer goods 31.8% (automobiles, clothing, medicines,
  furniture, toys) (2003)

Uruguay
  machinery, chemicals, road vehicles, crude petroleum

Uzbekistan
  machinery and equipment 49.8%, foodstuffs 16.4%,
  chemicals, metals (1998)

Vanuatu
  machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, fuels

Venezuela
  raw materials, machinery and equipment, transport
  equipment, construction materials

Vietnam
  machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer,
  steel products, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles

Virgin Islands
  crude oil, foodstuffs, consumer goods, building
  materials

Wallis and Futuna
  chemicals, machinery, passenger ships, consumer
  goods

West Bank
  food, consumer goods, construction materials

Western Sahara
  fuel for fishing fleet, foodstuffs

World
  the whole range of industrial and agricultural goods and
  services

Yemen
  food and live animals, machinery and equipment, chemicals

Zambia
  machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products,
  electricity, fertilizer; foodstuffs, clothing

Zimbabwe
  machinery and transport equipment, other manufactures,
  chemicals, fuels

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2059  Climate


Afghanistan
  arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers

Akrotiri
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool
  winters

Albania
  mild temperate; cool, cloudy, wet winters; hot, clear, dry
  summers; interior is cooler and wetter

Algeria
  arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers
  along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high
  plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in
  summer

American Samoa
  tropical marine, moderated by southeast trade winds;
  annual rainfall averages about 3 m; rainy season (November to
  April), dry season (May to October); little seasonal temperature
  variation

Andorra
  temperate; snowy, cold winters and warm, dry summers

Angola
  semiarid in south and along coast to Luanda; north has cool,
  dry season (May to October) and hot, rainy season (November to April)

Anguilla
  tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds

Antarctica
  severe low temperatures vary with latitude, elevation,
  and distance from the ocean; East Antarctica is colder than West
  Antarctica because of its higher elevation; Antarctic Peninsula has
  the most moderate climate; higher temperatures occur in January
  along the coast and average slightly below freezing

Antigua and Barbuda
  tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature
  variation

Arctic Ocean
  polar climate characterized by persistent cold and
  relatively narrow annual temperature ranges; winters characterized
  by continuous darkness, cold and stable weather conditions, and
  clear skies; summers characterized by continuous daylight, damp and
  foggy weather, and weak cyclones with rain or snow

Argentina
  mostly temperate; arid in southeast; subantarctic in
  southwest

Armenia
  highland continental, hot summers, cold winters

Aruba
  tropical marine; little seasonal temperature variation

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  tropical

Atlantic Ocean
  tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop off the coast
  of Africa near Cape Verde and move westward into the Caribbean Sea;
  hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most frequent
  from August to November

Australia
  generally arid to semiarid; temperate in south and east;
  tropical in north

Austria
  temperate; continental, cloudy; cold winters with frequent
  rain and some snow in lowlands and snow in mountains; moderate
  summers with occasional showers

Azerbaijan
  dry, semiarid steppe

Bahamas, The
  tropical marine; moderated by warm waters of Gulf Stream

Bahrain
  arid; mild, pleasant winters; very hot, humid summers

Baker Island
  equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun

Bangladesh
  tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid
  summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)

Barbados
  tropical; rainy season (June to October)

Bassas da India
  tropical

Belarus
  cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between
  continental and maritime

Belgium
  temperate; mild winters, cool summers; rainy, humid, cloudy

Belize
  tropical; very hot and humid; rainy season (May to November);
  dry season (February to May)

Benin
  tropical; hot, humid in south; semiarid in north

Bermuda
  subtropical; mild, humid; gales, strong winds common in
  winter

Bhutan
  varies; tropical in southern plains; cool winters and hot
  summers in central valleys; severe winters and cool summers in
  Himalayas

Bolivia
  varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  hot summers and cold winters; areas of high
  elevation have short, cool summers and long, severe winters; mild,
  rainy winters along coast

Botswana
  semiarid; warm winters and hot summers

Bouvet Island
  antarctic

Brazil
  mostly tropical, but temperate in south

British Indian Ocean Territory
  tropical marine; hot, humid,
  moderated by trade winds

British Virgin Islands
  subtropical; humid; temperatures moderated by
  trade winds

Brunei
  tropical; hot, humid, rainy

Bulgaria
  temperate; cold, damp winters; hot, dry summers

Burkina Faso
  tropical; warm, dry winters; hot, wet summers

Burma
  tropical monsoon; cloudy, rainy, hot, humid summers (southwest
  monsoon, June to September); less cloudy, scant rainfall, mild
  temperatures, lower humidity during winter (northeast monsoon,
  December to April)

Burundi
  equatorial; high plateau with considerable altitude
  variation (772 m to 2,670 m above sea level); average annual
  temperature varies with altitude from 23 to 17 degrees centigrade
  but is generally moderate as the average altitude is about 1,700 m;
  average annual rainfall is about 150 cm; two wet seasons (February
  to May and September to November), and two dry seasons (June to
  August and December to January)

Cambodia
  tropical; rainy, monsoon season (May to November); dry
  season (December to April); little seasonal temperature variation

Cameroon
  varies with terrain, from tropical along coast to semiarid
  and hot in north

Canada
  varies from temperate in south to subarctic and arctic in
  north

Cape Verde
  temperate; warm, dry summer; precipitation meager and
  very erratic

Cayman Islands
  tropical marine; warm, rainy summers (May to October)
  and cool, relatively dry winters (November to April)

Central African Republic
  tropical; hot, dry winters; mild to hot,
  wet summers

Chad
  tropical in south, desert in north

Chile
  temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region;
  cool and damp in south

China
  extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Christmas Island
  tropical with a wet and dry season; heat and
  humidity moderated by trade winds; wet season (December to April)

Clipperton Island
  tropical; humid, average temperature 20-32 degrees
  C, wet season (May to October)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  tropical with high humidity, moderated by
  the southeast trade winds for about nine months of the year

Colombia
  tropical along coast and eastern plains; cooler in highlands

Comoros
  tropical marine; rainy season (November to May)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  tropical; hot and humid in
  equatorial river basin; cooler and drier in southern highlands;
  cooler and wetter in eastern highlands; north of Equator - wet
  season (April to October), dry season (December to February); south
  of Equator - wet season (November to March), dry season (April to
  October)

Congo, Republic of the
  tropical; rainy season (March to June); dry
  season (June to October); persistent high temperatures and humidity;
  particularly enervating climate astride the Equator

Cook Islands
  tropical oceanic; moderated by trade winds; a dry
  season from April to November and a more humid season from December
  to March

Coral Sea Islands
  tropical

Costa Rica
  tropical and subtropical; dry season (December to April);
  rainy season (May to November); cooler in highlands

Cote d'Ivoire
  tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three
  seasons - warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to
  May), hot and wet (June to October)

Croatia
  Mediterranean and continental; continental climate
  predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild winters, dry
  summers along coast

Cuba
  tropical; moderated by trade winds; dry season (November to
  April); rainy season (May to October)

Cyprus
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool
  winters

Czech Republic
  temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters

Denmark
  temperate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool
  summers

Dhekelia
  temperate; Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and cool
  winters

Djibouti
  desert; torrid, dry

Dominica
  tropical; moderated by northeast trade winds; heavy rainfall

Dominican Republic
  tropical maritime; little seasonal temperature
  variation; seasonal variation in rainfall

East Timor
  tropical; hot, humid; distinct rainy and dry seasons

Ecuador
  tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher
  elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands

Egypt
  desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters

El Salvador
  tropical; rainy season (May to October); dry season
  (November to April); tropical on coast; temperate in uplands

Equatorial Guinea
  tropical; always hot, humid

Eritrea
  hot, dry desert strip along Red Sea coast; cooler and wetter
  in the central highlands (up to 61 cm of rainfall annually, heaviest
  June to September); semiarid in western hills and lowlands

Estonia
  maritime, wet, moderate winters, cool summers

Ethiopia
  tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation

Europa Island
  tropical

European Union
  cold temperate; potentially subarctic in the north to
  temperate; mild wet winters; hot dry summers in the south

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  cold marine; strong westerly
  winds, cloudy, humid; rain occurs on more than half of days in year;
  average annual rainfall is 24 inches in Stanley; occasional snow all
  year, except in January and February, but does not accumulate

Faroe Islands
  mild winters, cool summers; usually overcast; foggy,
  windy

Fiji
  tropical marine; only slight seasonal temperature variation

Finland
  cold temperate; potentially subarctic but comparatively mild
  because of moderating influence of the North Atlantic Current,
  Baltic Sea, and more than 60,000 lakes

France
  generally cool winters and mild summers, but mild winters and
  hot summers along the Mediterranean; occasional strong, cold, dry,
  north-to-northwesterly wind known as mistral

French Guiana
  tropical; hot, humid; little seasonal temperature
  variation

French Polynesia
  tropical, but moderate

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  antarctic

Gabon
  tropical; always hot, humid

Gambia, The
  tropical; hot, rainy season (June to November); cooler,
  dry season (November to May)

Gaza Strip
  temperate, mild winters, dry and warm to hot summers

Georgia
  warm and pleasant; Mediterranean-like on Black Sea coast

Germany
  temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers;
  occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind

Ghana
  tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast;
  hot and humid in southwest; hot and dry in north

Gibraltar
  Mediterranean with mild winters and warm summers

Glorioso Islands
  tropical

Greece
  temperate; mild, wet winters; hot, dry summers

Greenland
  arctic to subarctic; cool summers, cold winters

Grenada
  tropical; tempered by northeast trade winds

Guadeloupe
  subtropical tempered by trade winds; moderately high
  humidity

Guam
  tropical marine; generally warm and humid, moderated by
  northeast trade winds; dry season (January to June), rainy season
  (July to December); little seasonal temperature variation

Guatemala
  tropical; hot, humid in lowlands; cooler in highlands

Guernsey
  temperate with mild winters and cool summers; about 50% of
  days are overcast

Guinea
  generally hot and humid; monsoonal-type rainy season (June to
  November) with southwesterly winds; dry season (December to May)
  with northeasterly harmattan winds

Guinea-Bissau
  tropical; generally hot and humid; monsoonal-type
  rainy season (June to November) with southwesterly winds; dry season
  (December to May) with northeasterly harmattan winds

Guyana
  tropical; hot, humid, moderated by northeast trade winds; two
  rainy seasons (May to August, November to January)

Haiti
  tropical; semiarid where mountains in east cut off trade winds

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  antarctic

Holy See (Vatican City)
  temperate; mild, rainy winters (September to
  May) with hot, dry summers (May to September)

Honduras
  subtropical in lowlands, temperate in mountains

Hong Kong
  subtropical monsoon; cool and humid in winter, hot and
  rainy from spring through summer, warm and sunny in fall

Howland Island
  equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun

Hungary
  temperate; cold, cloudy, humid winters; warm summers

Iceland
  temperate; moderated by North Atlantic Current; mild, windy
  winters; damp, cool summers

Iles Eparses
  tropical

India
  varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north

Indian Ocean
  northeast monsoon (December to April), southwest
  monsoon (June to October); tropical cyclones occur during May/June
  and October/November in the northern Indian Ocean and
  January/February in the southern Indian Ocean

Indonesia
  tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands

Iran
  mostly arid or semiarid, subtropical along Caspian coast

Iraq
  mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless
  summers; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish
  borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows that
  melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in
  central and southern Iraq

Ireland
  temperate maritime; modified by North Atlantic Current; mild
  winters, cool summers; consistently humid; overcast about half the
  time

Isle of Man
  temperate; cool summers and mild winters; overcast about
  one-third of the time

Israel
  temperate; hot and dry in southern and eastern desert areas

Italy
  predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in
  south

Jamaica
  tropical; hot, humid; temperate interior

Jan Mayen
  arctic maritime with frequent storms and persistent fog

Japan
  varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north

Jarvis Island
  tropical; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning sun

Jersey
  temperate; mild winters and cool summers

Johnston Atoll
  tropical, but generally dry; consistent northeast
  trade winds with little seasonal temperature variation

Jordan
  mostly arid desert; rainy season in west (November to April)

Juan de Nova Island
  tropical

Kazakhstan
  continental, cold winters and hot summers, arid and
  semiarid

Kenya
  varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior

Kingman Reef
  tropical; moderated by prevailing winds

Kiribati
  tropical; marine, hot and humid, moderated by trade winds

Korea, North
  temperate with rainfall concentrated in summer

Korea, South
  temperate, with rainfall heavier in summer than winter

Kuwait
  dry desert; intensely hot summers; short, cool winters

Kyrgyzstan
  dry continental to polar in high Tien Shan; subtropical
  in southwest (Fergana Valley); temperate in northern foothill zone

Laos
  tropical monsoon; rainy season (May to November); dry season
  (December to April)

Latvia
  maritime; wet, moderate winters

Lebanon
  Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry
  summers; Lebanon mountains experience heavy winter snows

Lesotho
  temperate; cool to cold, dry winters; hot, wet summers

Liberia
  tropical; hot, humid; dry winters with hot days and cool to
  cold nights; wet, cloudy summers with frequent heavy showers

Libya
  Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior

Liechtenstein
  continental; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow
  or rain; cool to moderately warm, cloudy, humid summers

Lithuania
  transitional, between maritime and continental; wet,
  moderate winters and summers

Luxembourg
  modified continental with mild winters, cool summers

Macau
  subtropical; marine with cool winters, warm summers

Macedonia
  warm, dry summers and autumns; relatively cold winters
  with heavy snowfall

Madagascar
  tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south

Malawi
  sub-tropical; rainy season (November to May); dry season (May
  to November)

Malaysia
  tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast
  (October to February) monsoons

Maldives
  tropical; hot, humid; dry, northeast monsoon (November to
  March); rainy, southwest monsoon (June to August)

Mali
  subtropical to arid; hot and dry (February to June); rainy,
  humid, and mild (June to November); cool and dry (November to
  February)

Malta
  Mediterranean; mild, rainy winters; hot, dry summers

Marshall Islands
  tropical; hot and humid; wet season May to
  November; islands border typhoon belt

Martinique
  tropical; moderated by trade winds; rainy season (June to
  October); vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every
  eight years on average; average temperature 17.3 degrees C; humid

Mauritania
  desert; constantly hot, dry, dusty

Mauritius
  tropical, modified by southeast trade winds; warm, dry
  winter (May to November); hot, wet, humid summer (November to May)

Mayotte
  tropical; marine; hot, humid, rainy season during
  northeastern monsoon (November to May); dry season is cooler (May to
  November)

Mexico
  varies from tropical to desert

Micronesia, Federated States of
  tropical; heavy year-round rainfall,
  especially in the eastern islands; located on southern edge of the
  typhoon belt with occasionally severe damage

Midway Islands
  subtropical; moderated by prevailing easterly winds

Moldova
  moderate winters, warm summers

Monaco
  Mediterranean with mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers

Mongolia
  desert; continental (large daily and seasonal temperature
  ranges)

Montenegro
  Mediterranean climate, hot dry summers and autumns and
  relatively cold winters with heavy snowfalls inland

Montserrat
  tropical; little daily or seasonal temperature variation

Morocco
  Mediterranean, becoming more extreme in the interior

Mozambique
  tropical to subtropical

Namibia
  desert; hot, dry; rainfall sparse and erratic

Nauru
  tropical with a monsoonal pattern; rainy season (November to
  February)

Navassa Island
  marine, tropical

Nepal
  varies from cool summers and severe winters in north to
  subtropical summers and mild winters in south

Netherlands
  temperate; marine; cool summers and mild winters

Netherlands Antilles
  tropical; ameliorated by northeast trade winds

New Caledonia
  tropical; modified by southeast trade winds; hot, humid

New Zealand
  temperate with sharp regional contrasts

Nicaragua
  tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands

Niger
  desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south

Nigeria
  varies; equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in
  north

Niue
  tropical; modified by southeast trade winds

Norfolk Island
  subtropical; mild, little seasonal temperature
  variation

Northern Mariana Islands
  tropical marine; moderated by northeast
  trade winds, little seasonal temperature variation; dry season
  December to June, rainy season July to October

Norway
  temperate along coast, modified by North Atlantic Current;
  colder interior with increased precipitation and colder summers;
  rainy year-round on west coast

Oman
  dry desert; hot, humid along coast; hot, dry interior; strong
  southwest summer monsoon (May to September) in far south

Pacific Ocean
  planetary air pressure systems and resultant wind
  patterns exhibit remarkable uniformity in the south and east; trade
  winds and westerly winds are well-developed patterns, modified by
  seasonal fluctuations; tropical cyclones (hurricanes) may form south
  of Mexico from June to October and affect Mexico and Central
  America; continental influences cause climatic uniformity to be much
  less pronounced in the eastern and western regions at the same
  latitude in the North Pacific Ocean; the western Pacific is
  monsoonal - a rainy season occurs during the summer months, when
  moisture-laden winds blow from the ocean over the land, and a dry
  season during the winter months, when dry winds blow from the Asian
  landmass back to the ocean; tropical cyclones (typhoons) may strike
  southeast and east Asia from May to December

Pakistan
  mostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest; arctic in
  north

Palau
  tropical; hot and humid; wet season May to November

Palmyra Atoll
  equatorial, hot, and very rainy

Panama
  tropical maritime; hot, humid, cloudy; prolonged rainy season
  (May to January), short dry season (January to May)

Papua New Guinea
  tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March),
  southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature
  variation

Paracel Islands
  tropical

Paraguay
  subtropical to temperate; substantial rainfall in the
  eastern portions, becoming semiarid in the far west

Peru
  varies from tropical in east to dry desert in west; temperate
  to frigid in Andes

Philippines
  tropical marine; northeast monsoon (November to April);
  southwest monsoon (May to October)

Pitcairn Islands
  tropical; hot and humid; modified by southeast
  trade winds; rainy season (November to March)

Poland
  temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe winters with
  frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent showers and
  thundershowers

Portugal
  maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and
  drier in south

Puerto Rico
  tropical marine, mild; little seasonal temperature
  variation

Qatar
  arid; mild, pleasant winters; very hot, humid summers

Reunion
  tropical, but temperature moderates with elevation; cool and
  dry (May to November), hot and rainy (November to April)

Romania
  temperate; cold, cloudy winters with frequent snow and fog;
  sunny summers with frequent showers and thunderstorms

Russia
  ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in
  much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in
  the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to
  frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool
  along Arctic coast

Rwanda
  temperate; two rainy seasons (February to April, November to
  January); mild in mountains with frost and snow possible

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena: tropical marine; mild, tempered by trade
  winds
  Ascension Island: tropical marine; mild, semi-arid
  Tristan da Cunha: temperate marine; mild, tempered by trade winds
  (tends to be cooler than Saint Helena)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  tropical, tempered by constant sea breezes;
  little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season (May to November)

Saint Lucia
  tropical, moderated by northeast trade winds; dry season
  January to April, rainy season May to August

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  cold and wet, with much mist and fog;
  spring and autumn are windy

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  tropical; little seasonal
  temperature variation; rainy season (May to November)

Samoa
  tropical; rainy season (November to April), dry season (May to
  October)

San Marino
  Mediterranean; mild to cool winters; warm, sunny summers

Sao Tome and Principe
  tropical; hot, humid; one rainy season
  (October to May)

Saudi Arabia
  harsh, dry desert with great temperature extremes

Senegal
  tropical; hot, humid; rainy season (May to November) has
  strong southeast winds; dry season (December to April) dominated by
  hot, dry, harmattan wind

Serbia
  in the north, continental climate (cold winters and hot,
  humid summers with well distributed rainfall); in other parts,
  continental and Mediterranean climate (hot, dry summers and autumns
  and relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall)

Seychelles
  tropical marine; humid; cooler season during southeast
  monsoon (late May to September); warmer season during northwest
  monsoon (March to May)

Sierra Leone
  tropical; hot, humid; summer rainy season (May to
  December); winter dry season (December to April)

Singapore
  tropical; hot, humid, rainy; two distinct monsoon seasons
  - Northeastern monsoon (December to March) and Southwestern monsoon
  (June to September); inter-monsoon - frequent afternoon and early
  evening thunderstorms

Slovakia
  temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters

Slovenia
  Mediterranean climate on the coast, continental climate
  with mild to hot summers and cold winters in the plateaus and
  valleys to the east

Solomon Islands
  tropical monsoon; few extremes of temperature and
  weather

Somalia
  principally desert; northeast monsoon (December to
  February), moderate temperatures in north and very hot in south;
  southwest monsoon (May to October), torrid in the north and hot in
  the south, irregular rainfall, hot and humid periods (tangambili)
  between monsoons

South Africa
  mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny
  days, cool nights

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  variable, with mostly
  westerly winds throughout the year interspersed with periods of
  calm; nearly all precipitation falls as snow

Southern Ocean
  sea temperatures vary from about 10 degrees Celsius
  to -2 degrees Celsius; cyclonic storms travel eastward around the
  continent and frequently are intense because of the temperature
  contrast between ice and open ocean; the ocean area from about
  latitude 40 south to the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average
  winds found anywhere on Earth; in winter the ocean freezes outward
  to 65 degrees south latitude in the Pacific sector and 55 degrees
  south latitude in the Atlantic sector, lowering surface temperatures
  well below 0 degrees Celsius; at some coastal points intense
  persistent drainage winds from the interior keep the shoreline
  ice-free throughout the winter

Spain
  temperate; clear, hot summers in interior, more moderate and
  cloudy along coast; cloudy, cold winters in interior, partly cloudy
  and cool along coast

Spratly Islands
  tropical

Sri Lanka
  tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March);
  southwest monsoon (June to October)

Sudan
  tropical in south; arid desert in north; rainy season varies
  by region (April to November)

Suriname
  tropical; moderated by trade winds

Svalbard
  arctic, tempered by warm North Atlantic Current; cool
  summers, cold winters; North Atlantic Current flows along west and
  north coasts of Spitsbergen, keeping water open and navigable most
  of the year

Swaziland
  varies from tropical to near temperate

Sweden
  temperate in south with cold, cloudy winters and cool, partly
  cloudy summers; subarctic in north

Switzerland
  temperate, but varies with altitude; cold, cloudy,
  rainy/snowy winters; cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with
  occasional showers

Syria
  mostly desert; hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and
  mild, rainy winters (December to February) along coast; cold weather
  with snow or sleet periodically in Damascus

Taiwan
  tropical; marine; rainy season during southwest monsoon (June
  to August); cloudiness is persistent and extensive all year

Tajikistan
  midlatitude continental, hot summers, mild winters;
  semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains

Tanzania
  varies from tropical along coast to temperate in highlands

Thailand
  tropical; rainy, warm, cloudy southwest monsoon (mid-May to
  September); dry, cool northeast monsoon (November to mid-March);
  southern isthmus always hot and humid

Togo
  tropical; hot, humid in south; semiarid in north

Tokelau
  tropical; moderated by trade winds (April to November)

Tonga
  tropical; modified by trade winds; warm season (December to
  May), cool season (May to December)

Trinidad and Tobago
  tropical; rainy season (June to December)

Tromelin Island
  tropical

Tunisia
  temperate in north with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry
  summers; desert in south

Turkey
  temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher
  in interior

Turkmenistan
  subtropical desert

Turks and Caicos Islands
  tropical; marine; moderated by trade winds;
  sunny and relatively dry

Tuvalu
  tropical; moderated by easterly trade winds (March to
  November); westerly gales and heavy rain (November to March)

Uganda
  tropical; generally rainy with two dry seasons (December to
  February, June to August); semiarid in northeast

Ukraine
  temperate continental; Mediterranean only on the southern
  Crimean coast; precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest
  in west and north, lesser in east and southeast; winters vary from
  cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland; summers are warm
  across the greater part of the country, hot in the south

United Arab Emirates
  desert; cooler in eastern mountains

United Kingdom
  temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds
  over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are
  overcast

United States
  mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida,
  arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the
  Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low
  winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in
  January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes
  of the Rocky Mountains

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker, Howland, and
  Jarvis Islands: equatorial; scant rainfall, constant wind, burning
  sun
  Johnston Atoll and Kingman Reef: tropical, but generally dry;
  consistent northeast trade winds with little seasonal temperature
  variation
  Midway Islands: subtropical with cool, moist winters (December to
  February) and warm, dry summers (May to October); moderated by
  prevailing easterly winds; most of the 1,067 mm (42 in) of annual
  rainfall occurs during the winter
  Palmyra Atoll: equatorial, hot; located within the low pressure area
  of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where the northeast and
  southeast trade winds meet, it is extremely wet with between
  4,000-5,000 mm (160-200 in) of rainfall each year

Uruguay
  warm temperate; freezing temperatures almost unknown

Uzbekistan
  mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild
  winters; semiarid grassland in east

Vanuatu
  tropical; moderated by southeast trade winds from May to
  October; moderate rainfall from November to April; may be affected
  by cyclones from December to April

Venezuela
  tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands

Vietnam
  tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season
  (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March)

Virgin Islands
  subtropical, tempered by easterly trade winds,
  relatively low humidity, little seasonal temperature variation;
  rainy season September to November

Wake Island
  tropical

Wallis and Futuna
  tropical; hot, rainy season (November to April);
  cool, dry season (May to October); rains 2,500-3,000 mm per year
  (80% humidity); average temperature 26.6 degrees C

West Bank
  temperate; temperature and precipitation vary with
  altitude, warm to hot summers, cool to mild winters

Western Sahara
  hot, dry desert; rain is rare; cold offshore air
  currents produce fog and heavy dew

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

Yemen
  mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in
  western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot,
  dry, harsh desert in east

Zambia
  tropical; modified by altitude; rainy season (October to
  April)

Zimbabwe
  tropical; moderated by altitude; rainy season (November to
  March)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2060  Coastline (km)


Afghanistan
  0 km (landlocked)

Akrotiri
  56.3 km

Albania
  362 km

Algeria
  998 km

American Samoa
  116 km

Andorra
  0 km (landlocked)

Angola
  1,600 km

Anguilla
  61 km

Antarctica
  17,968 km

Antigua and Barbuda
  153 km

Arctic Ocean
  45,389 km

Argentina
  4,989 km

Armenia
  0 km (landlocked)

Aruba
  68.5 km

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  74.1 km

Atlantic Ocean
  111,866 km

Australia
  25,760 km

Austria
  0 km (landlocked)

Azerbaijan
  0 km (landlocked); note - Azerbaijan borders the Caspian
  Sea (800 km est.)

Bahamas, The
  3,542 km

Bahrain
  161 km

Baker Island
  4.8 km

Bangladesh
  580 km

Barbados
  97 km

Bassas da India
  35.2 km

Belarus
  0 km (landlocked)

Belgium
  66.5 km

Belize
  386 km

Benin
  121 km

Bermuda
  103 km

Bhutan
  0 km (landlocked)

Bolivia
  0 km (landlocked)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  20 km

Botswana
  0 km (landlocked)

Bouvet Island
  29.6 km

Brazil
  7,491 km

British Indian Ocean Territory
  698 km

British Virgin Islands
  80 km

Brunei
  161 km

Bulgaria
  354 km

Burkina Faso
  0 km (landlocked)

Burma
  1,930 km

Burundi
  0 km (landlocked)

Cambodia
  443 km

Cameroon
  402 km

Canada
  202,080 km

Cape Verde
  965 km

Cayman Islands
  160 km

Central African Republic
  0 km (landlocked)

Chad
  0 km (landlocked)

Chile
  6,435 km

China
  14,500 km

Christmas Island
  138.9 km

Clipperton Island
  11.1 km

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  26 km

Colombia
  3,208 km (Caribbean Sea 1,760 km, North Pacific Ocean 1,448
  km)

Comoros
  340 km

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  37 km

Congo, Republic of the
  169 km

Cook Islands
  120 km

Coral Sea Islands
  3,095 km

Costa Rica
  1,290 km

Cote d'Ivoire
  515 km

Croatia
  5,835 km (mainland 1,777 km, islands 4,058 km)

Cuba
  3,735 km

Cyprus
  648 km

Czech Republic
  0 km (landlocked)

Denmark
  7,314 km

Dhekelia
  27.5 km

Djibouti
  314 km

Dominica
  148 km

Dominican Republic
  1,288 km

East Timor
  706 km

Ecuador
  2,237 km

Egypt
  2,450 km

El Salvador
  307 km

Equatorial Guinea
  296 km

Eritrea
  2,234 km (mainland on Red Sea 1,151 km, islands in Red Sea
  1,083 km)

Estonia
  3,794 km

Ethiopia
  0 km (landlocked)

Europa Island
  22.2 km

European Union
  65,413.9 km

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  1,288 km

Faroe Islands
  1,117 km

Fiji
  1,129 km

Finland
  1,250 km

France
  3,427 km

French Guiana
  378 km

French Polynesia
  2,525 km

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  1,232 km

Gabon
  885 km

Gambia, The
  80 km

Gaza Strip
  40 km

Georgia
  310 km

Germany
  2,389 km

Ghana
  539 km

Gibraltar
  12 km

Glorioso Islands
  35.2 km

Greece
  13,676 km

Greenland
  44,087 km

Grenada
  121 km

Guadeloupe
  306 km

Guam
  125.5 km

Guatemala
  400 km

Guernsey
  50 km

Guinea
  320 km

Guinea-Bissau
  350 km

Guyana
  459 km

Haiti
  1,771 km

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  101.9 km

Holy See (Vatican City)
  0 km (landlocked)

Honduras
  820 km

Hong Kong
  733 km

Howland Island
  6.4 km

Hungary
  0 km (landlocked)

Iceland
  4,970 km

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: 35.2 km
  Europa Island: 22.2 km
  Glorioso Islands: 35.2 km
  Juan de Nova Island: 24.1 km
  Tromelin Island: 3.7 km

India
  7,000 km

Indian Ocean
  66,526 km

Indonesia
  54,716 km

Iran
  2,440 km; note - Iran also borders the Caspian Sea (740 km)

Iraq
  58 km

Ireland
  1,448 km

Isle of Man
  160 km

Israel
  273 km

Italy
  7,600 km

Jamaica
  1,022 km

Jan Mayen
  124.1 km

Japan
  29,751 km

Jarvis Island
  8 km

Jersey
  70 km

Johnston Atoll
  34 km

Jordan
  26 km

Juan de Nova Island
  24.1 km

Kazakhstan
  0 km (landlocked); note - Kazakhstan borders the Aral
  Sea, now split into two bodies of water (1,070 km), and the Caspian
  Sea (1,894 km)

Kenya
  536 km

Kingman Reef
  3 km

Kiribati
  1,143 km

Korea, North
  2,495 km

Korea, South
  2,413 km

Kuwait
  499 km

Kyrgyzstan
  0 km (landlocked)

Laos
  0 km (landlocked)

Latvia
  531 km

Lebanon
  225 km

Lesotho
  0 km (landlocked)

Liberia
  579 km

Libya
  1,770 km

Liechtenstein
  0 km (doubly landlocked)

Lithuania
  90 km

Luxembourg
  0 km (landlocked)

Macau
  41 km

Macedonia
  0 km (landlocked)

Madagascar
  4,828 km

Malawi
  0 km (landlocked)

Malaysia
  4,675 km (Peninsular Malaysia 2,068 km, East Malaysia 2,607
  km)

Maldives
  644 km

Mali
  0 km (landlocked)

Malta
  196.8 km (does not include 56.01 km for the island of Gozo)

Marshall Islands
  370.4 km

Martinique
  350 km

Mauritania
  754 km

Mauritius
  177 km

Mayotte
  185.2 km

Mexico
  9,330 km

Micronesia, Federated States of
  6,112 km

Midway Islands
  15 km

Moldova
  0 km (landlocked)

Monaco
  4.1 km

Mongolia
  0 km (landlocked)

Montenegro
  293.5 km

Montserrat
  40 km

Morocco
  1,835 km

Mozambique
  2,470 km

Namibia
  1,572 km

Nauru
  30 km

Navassa Island
  8 km

Nepal
  0 km (landlocked)

Netherlands
  451 km

Netherlands Antilles
  364 km

New Caledonia
  2,254 km

New Zealand
  15,134 km

Nicaragua
  910 km

Niger
  0 km (landlocked)

Nigeria
  853 km

Niue
  64 km

Norfolk Island
  32 km

Northern Mariana Islands
  1,482 km

Norway
  25,148 km (includes mainland 2,650 km, as well as long
  fjords, numerous small islands, and minor indentations 22,498 km;
  length of island coastlines 58,133 km)

Oman
  2,092 km

Pacific Ocean
  135,663 km

Pakistan
  1,046 km

Palau
  1,519 km

Palmyra Atoll
  14.5 km

Panama
  2,490 km

Papua New Guinea
  5,152 km

Paracel Islands
  518 km

Paraguay
  0 km (landlocked)

Peru
  2,414 km

Philippines
  36,289 km

Pitcairn Islands
  51 km

Poland
  491 km

Portugal
  1,793 km

Puerto Rico
  501 km

Qatar
  563 km

Reunion
  207 km

Romania
  225 km

Russia
  37,653 km

Rwanda
  0 km (landlocked)

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena: 60 km
  Ascension Island: NA
  Tristan da Cunha: 40 km

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  135 km

Saint Lucia
  158 km

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  120 km

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  84 km

Samoa
  403 km

San Marino
  0 km (landlocked)

Sao Tome and Principe
  209 km

Saudi Arabia
  2,640 km

Senegal
  531 km

Serbia
  0 km (landlocked)

Seychelles
  491 km

Sierra Leone
  402 km

Singapore
  193 km

Slovakia
  0 km (landlocked)

Slovenia
  46.6 km

Solomon Islands
  5,313 km

Somalia
  3,025 km

South Africa
  2,798 km

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  NA km

Southern Ocean
  17,968 km

Spain
  4,964 km

Spratly Islands
  926 km

Sri Lanka
  1,340 km

Sudan
  853 km

Suriname
  386 km

Svalbard
  3,587 km

Swaziland
  0 km (landlocked)

Sweden
  3,218 km

Switzerland
  0 km (landlocked)

Syria
  193 km

Taiwan
  1,566.3 km

Tajikistan
  0 km (landlocked)

Tanzania
  1,424 km

Thailand
  3,219 km

Togo
  56 km

Tokelau
  101 km

Tonga
  419 km

Trinidad and Tobago
  362 km

Tromelin Island
  3.7 km

Tunisia
  1,148 km

Turkey
  7,200 km

Turkmenistan
  0 km; note - Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea
  (1,768 km)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  389 km

Tuvalu
  24 km

Uganda
  0 km (landlocked)

Ukraine
  2,782 km

United Arab Emirates
  1,318 km

United Kingdom
  12,429 km

United States
  19,924 km

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker Island: 4.8 km
  Howland Island: 6.4 km
  Jarvis Island: 8 km
  Johnston Atoll: 34 km
  Kingman Reef: 3 km
  Midway Islands: 15 km
  Palmyra Atoll: 14.5 km

Uruguay
  660 km

Uzbekistan
  0 km (doubly landlocked); note - Uzbekistan includes the
  southern portion of the Aral Sea with a 420 km shoreline

Vanuatu
  2,528 km

Venezuela
  2,800 km

Vietnam
  3,444 km (excludes islands)

Virgin Islands
  188 km

Wake Island
  19.3 km

Wallis and Futuna
  129 km

West Bank
  0 km (landlocked)

Western Sahara
  1,110 km

World
  356,000 km
  note: 98 nations and other entities are islands that border no other
  countries, they include: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and
  Barbuda, Aruba, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
  Baker Island, Barbados, Bassas da India, Bermuda, Bouvet Island,
  British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde,
  Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos (Keeling)
  Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Cuba, Cyprus,
  Dominica, Europa Island, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe
  Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands, Glorioso Islands, Greenland, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Heard
  Island and McDonald Islands, Howland Island, Iceland, Isle of Man,
  Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jarvis Island, Jersey, Johnston Atoll,
  Juan de Nova Island, Kingman Reef, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives,
  Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated
  States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Navassa
  Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern
  Mariana Islands, Palau, Palmyra Atoll, Paracel Islands, Philippines,
  Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts
  and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and
  the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Singapore,
  Solomon Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,
  Spratly Islands, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and
  Tobago, Tromelin Island, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu,
  Virgin Islands, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Taiwan

Yemen
  1,906 km

Zambia
  0 km (landlocked)

Zimbabwe
  0 km (landlocked)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2061  Imports - partners (%)


Afghanistan
  Pakistan 23.9%, US 11.8%, Germany 6.8%, India 6.5%,
  Turkey 5.1%, Turkmenistan 5%, Russia 4.7%, Kenya 4.4% (2005)

Albania
  Italy 29.3%, Greece 16.4%, Turkey 7.5%, China 6.6%, Germany
  5.4%, Russia 4% (2005)

Algeria
  France 28.2%, Italy 7.8%, Spain 7.1%, China 6.6%, Germany
  6.3%, US 5.5% (2005)

American Samoa
  Australia 66%, Samoa 13.8%, NZ 10.8% (2005)

Andorra
  Spain 51.5%, France 22.3%, US 0.3% (2004)

Angola
  South Korea 20.8%, Portugal 13.6%, US 12.7%, South Africa
  7.5%, Brazil 5.6%, France 5.3%, China 5.1% (2005)

Anguilla
  US, Puerto Rico, UK (2004)

Antigua and Barbuda
  US 21.1%, China 16.4%, Germany 13.3%, Singapore
  12.7%, Spain 6.5% (2005)

Argentina
  Brazil 34.6%, US 16.8%, China 5.4%, Germany 5.3% (2005)

Armenia
  Russia 13.5%, Belgium 8%, Germany 7.9%, Ukraine 7%,
  Turkmenistan 6.3%, US 6.2%, Israel 5.8%, Iran 5%, Romania 4.2% (2005)

Aruba
  US 55.9%, Netherlands 12.9%, UK 3.8% (2005)

Australia
  US 13.9%, China 13.7%, Japan 11%, Singapore 5.6%, Germany
  5.6% (2005)

Austria
  Germany 45.9%, Italy 6.6%, Switzerland 4.5% (2005)

Azerbaijan
  Russia 17%, UK 9.1%, Singapore 9.1%, Turkey 7.4%, Germany
  6.1%, Turkmenistan 5.8%, Ukraine 5.4%, China 4.1% (2005)

Bahamas, The
  US 22.5%, South Korea 20.2%, Spain 7.8%, Brazil 7.1%,
  Italy 6.5%, Germany 5.4% (2005)

Bahrain
  Saudi Arabia 36.4%, Japan 6.6%, Germany 6.4%, US 5.4%, UK
  5%, UAE 4.1% (2005)

Bangladesh
  India 14.1%, China 13.5%, Kuwait 8.5%, Singapore 6.2%,
  Japan 4.1%, Hong Kong 4.1% (2005)

Barbados
  NZ 45.9%, US 20.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 12% (2005)

Belarus
  Russia 57.9%, Germany 9.7%, Ukraine 6.4%, Poland 5.2% (2005)

Belgium
  Netherlands 17.8%, Germany 17.2%, France 11.4%, UK 6.8%,
  Ireland 6.5%, US 5.4% (2005)

Belize
  US 31%, Mexico 11.6%, Russia 8.8%, Cuba 6%, Guatemala 5.6%,
  China 4.6%, Spain 4.4% (2005)

Benin
  France 21.8%, Ghana 7.1%, Cote d'Ivoire 7%, China 6.7%, UK
  5.2%, Belgium 4.9%, Togo 4.5%, Thailand 4.2%, Nigeria 4% (2005)

Bermuda
  Kazakhstan 51%, France 19%, South Korea 10.2%, US 7.6% (2005)

Bhutan
  Hong Kong 68.4%, Mexico 20.8%, France 3.9% (2005)

Bolivia
  Brazil 21.9%, Argentina 16.7%, US 13.8%, Chile 6.9%, Peru
  6.5%, Japan 6.1%, China 5.8% (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Croatia 24.7%, Germany 13.7%, Slovenia 13.1%,
  Italy 11%, Austria 6.9%, Hungary 5.5% (2005)

Botswana
  Southern African Customs Union (SACU) 74%, EFTA 17%,
  Zimbabwe 4% (2004)

Brazil
  US 19.7%, Germany 8.7%, Argentina 8.2%, China 6.2%, Nigeria
  6.1% (2005)

British Virgin Islands
  Virgin Islands (US), Puerto Rico, US (2004)

Brunei
  Singapore 32.7%, Malaysia 23.3%, Japan 6.9%, UK 5.3%,
  Thailand 4.5%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Bulgaria
  Russia 15.6%, Germany 13.6%, Italy 9%, Turkey 6.1%, Greece
  5%, France 4.7% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  France 24.2%, Cote d'Ivoire 23.7%, Togo 6.8% (2005)

Burma
  China 28.8%, Thailand 21.8%, Singapore 18.3%, Malaysia 7.6%
  (2005)

Burundi
  Kenya 12.9%, Tanzania 10.6%, Belgium 10.4%, Italy 8.1%,
  France 5.4%, Uganda 5.3%, China 5%, India 4.1% (2005)

Cambodia
  Hong Kong 16.1%, China 13.6%, France 12.1%, Thailand 11.2%,
  Taiwan 10.2%, South Korea 7.5%, Vietnam 7.1%, Singapore 4.9%, Japan
  4.1% (2005)

Cameroon
  France 25%, Nigeria 12.5%, Belgium 6.6%, China 5.8%, US
  5.3%, Thailand 4.7%, Germany 4.4% (2005)

Canada
  US 56.7%, China 7.8%, Mexico 3.8% (2005)

Cape Verde
  Portugal 41.5%, Italy 8%, Netherlands 7.3%, Spain 5.5%,
  France 4.8%, Belgium 4.7%, Brazil 4.3% (2005)

Cayman Islands
  US, Netherlands Antilles, Japan (2004)

Central African Republic
  France 16.7%, Netherlands 10.4%, Cameroon
  9.8%, US 7.4% (2005)

Chad
  France 21.1%, Cameroon 15.5%, US 12.1%, Belgium 6.8%, Portugal
  4.6%, Saudi Arabia 4.3%, Netherlands 4.1% (2005)

Chile
  Argentina 14.8%, US 14.6%, Brazil 11.7%, China 7.8%, South
  Korea 4.8%, Yemen 4.4% (2005)

China
  Japan 15.2%, South Korea 11.6%, Taiwan 11.2%, US 7.4%, Germany
  4.6% (2005)

Christmas Island
  principally Australia (2004)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Australia (2004)

Colombia
  US 28.5%, Mexico 8.3%, China 7.6%, Brazil 6.5%, Venezuela
  5.7% (2005)

Comoros
  France 20.5%, South Africa 11.7%, UAE 9.1%, Kenya 8%,
  Pakistan 5%, Mauritius 4.4%, Belgium 4.3%, India 4.1% (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  South Africa 16.5%, Belgium 16.1%,
  France 9.1%, Zambia 6.9%, Kenya 5.7%, Germany 4.6%, US 4.5%, Cote
  d'Ivoire 4.3%, Netherlands 4.1% (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  France 25.6%, China 11.3%, US 8.1%, India 8%,
  Italy 7.5%, Belgium 5.1%, Netherlands 4.2% (2005)

Cook Islands
  New Zealand 61%, Fiji 19%, US 9%, Australia 6%, Japan
  2% (2004)

Costa Rica
  US 41.3%, Japan 5.6%, Venezuela 4.8%, Mexico 4.8%,
  Ireland 4.3%, Brazil 4.2%, China 4.2% (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  France 27.7%, Nigeria 24.5%, Singapore 6.6% (2005)

Croatia
  Italy 15.9%, Germany 14.9%, Russia 9.1%, Slovenia 6.8%,
  Austria 5.8%, China 4.7%, France 4.2% (2005)

Cuba
  China 14.9%, Spain 13.9%, Canada 8.6%, US 8.5%, Germany 7.4%,
  Italy 5.7%, Mexico 5.2%, Japan 4.1% (2005)

Cyprus
  Greece 17.3%, Italy 10.3%, UK 9%, Germany 8.4%, Israel 7.1%
  (2005)

Czech Republic
  Germany 30%, Russia 5.7%, Slovakia 5.4%, China 5.1%,
  Poland 5%, Italy 4.8%, France 4.5%, Netherlands 4% (2005)

Denmark
  Germany 20.5%, Sweden 13.8%, Norway 6.6%, Netherlands 6.6%,
  UK 6%, China 4.7%, France 4.2%, Italy 4.1% (2005)

Djibouti
  Saudi Arabia 21.7%, India 18.5%, China 10%, Ethiopia 4.8%,
  France 4.5%, US 4.3%, Japan 4.2% (2005)

Dominica
  US 25.3%, China 20.3%, Trinidad and Tobago 12.3%, South
  Korea 7.1%, Japan 4.6%, UK 4.4% (2005)

Dominican Republic
  US 50.2%, Colombia 6.2%, Mexico 5.8% (2005)

Ecuador
  US 22.3%, Colombia 14.9%, Venezuela 7.8%, Brazil 6%, China
  5.3% (2005)

Egypt
  US 10.6%, Germany 7%, China 6.5%, France 6.3%, Italy 5.7%,
  Saudi Arabia 4.8% (2005)

El Salvador
  US 43.4%, Guatemala 8.2%, Mexico 7.8% (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  US 24.6%, Italy 20.7%, France 12.1%, Spain 10.8%,
  Cote d'Ivoire 8.7%, UK 7% (2005)

Eritrea
  Germany 22.2%, Italy 20.3%, France 15.9%, US 12.8%, Ireland
  8.2% (2005)

Estonia
  Finland 19.8%, Germany 13.8%, Russia 9.4%, Sweden 8.8%,
  Lithuania 6.1%, Latvia 4.7% (2005)

Ethiopia
  Saudi Arabia 14.7%, China 12.6%, US 12.4%, **COUNTRY**
  9.6%, India 6.7%, Italy 4.6% (2005)

European Union
  US 15.3%, China 12.4%, Russia 7.8%, Japan 7.2% (2004)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  UK 72.5%, US 15.1%, Netherlands
  8.5% (2005)

Faroe Islands
  Denmark 46.2%, Norway 18.2%, Germany 8.2%, Spain 7.5%,
  Iceland 4.8% (2005)

Fiji
  Singapore 27.4%, Australia 23.6%, NZ 18.9%, Thailand 4.5% (2005)

Finland
  Germany 16.2%, Sweden 14.1%, Russia 13.9%, Netherlands 6.2%,
  Denmark 4.6%, UK 4.3%, China 4.2% (2005)

France
  Germany 18.9%, Belgium 10.7%, Italy 8.2%, Spain 7%,
  Netherlands 6.5%, UK 5.9%, US 5.1% (2005)

French Guiana
  France 63%, US, Trinidad and Tobago, Italy (2004)

French Polynesia
  France 52.7%, Singapore 14.9%, NZ 6.8%, US 6.6%
  (2005)

Gabon
  France 40.6%, US 6.4%, Cameroon 4.2% (2005)

Gambia, The
  China 21.3%, Senegal 11.3%, Cote d'Ivoire 8.4%, Brazil
  6%, US 5.2%, UK 5.1%, Netherlands 4.1% (2005)

Gaza Strip
  Israel, Egypt, West Bank (2004)

Georgia
  Russia 15.4%, Turkey 11.4%, Azerbaijan 9.4%, Ukraine 8.8%,
  Germany 8.3%, US 6% (2005)

Germany
  France 8.7%, Netherlands 8.5%, US 6.6%, China 6.4%, UK 6.3%,
  Italy 5.7%, Belgium 5%, Austria 4% (2005)

Ghana
  Nigeria 15.4%, China 12.7%, US 6.4%, UK 5.3%, Netherlands
  4.1%, South Africa 4.1% (2005)

Gibraltar
  Spain 23.4%, Russia 12.3%, Italy 12%, UK 9%, France 8.9%,
  Netherlands 6.8%, US 4.7% (2005)

Greece
  Germany 12.7%, Italy 12.4%, Russia 7.8%, France 5.7%,
  Netherlands 5.5%, Saudi Arabia 4.1% (2005)

Greenland
  Denmark 66.8%, Sweden 19.3%, Ireland 3.6% (2005)

Grenada
  Trinidad and Tobago 27.8%, US 27%, UK 6% (2005)

Guadeloupe
  France 63%, Germany 4%, US 3%, Japan 2%, Netherlands
  Antilles 2% (2004)

Guam
  Singapore 50%, South Korea 21.4%, Japan 14%, Hong Kong 4.6%
  (2005)

Guatemala
  US 38.1%, Mexico 7.6%, El Salvador 4.8%, South Korea 4.8%,
  Panama 4.4% (2005)

Guernsey
  UK; note - regarded as internal trade (2004)

Guinea
  China 8.5%, US 7.3%, France 7.2%, Cote d'Ivoire 5.2%, Italy
  4.7%, Belgium 4.1% (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  Italy 25.3%, Senegal 18.6%, Portugal 15.8%, Cote
  d'Ivoire 4.3% (2005)

Guyana
  US 26.7%, Trinidad and Tobago 23.9%, Cuba 6.6%, UK 5%, China
  4.1% (2005)

Haiti
  US 49.3%, Netherlands Antilles 12%, Colombia 3.2% (2005)

Honduras
  US 53.1%, Guatemala 6.5%, El Salvador 4.1% (2005)

Hong Kong
  China 45%, Japan 11%, Taiwan 7.2%, Singapore 5.8%, US
  5.1%, South Korea 4.4% (2005)

Hungary
  Germany 27.2%, Russia 7.5%, China 7.2%, Austria 6.7%, Italy
  4.9%, France 4.8%, Netherlands 4.3% (2005)

Iceland
  Germany 13.4%, US 9.1%, Sweden 8.6%, Denmark 7.3%, Norway
  7.2%, UK 5.9%, China 5.3%, Netherlands 5%, Japan 4.7% (2005)

India
  China 7.3%, US 5.6%, Switzerland 4.7% (2005)

Indonesia
  Singapore 16.4%, Japan 12%, China 10.1%, US 6.7%, Thailand
  6%, South Korea 5%, Saudi Arabia 4.7%, Australia 4.4% (2005)

Iran
  Germany 13.8%, UAE 8.3%, China 8.3%, Italy 7%, France 6.2%,
  South Korea 5.4%, Russia 4.8% (2005)

Iraq
  Turkey 23.2%, Syria 23%, US 11.6%, Jordan 5.1% (2005)

Ireland
  UK 37%, US 13.8%, Germany 9.2%, Netherlands 4.5% (2005)

Isle of Man
  UK (2004)

Israel
  US 13.4%, Belgium 10.1%, Germany 6.4%, UK 5.7%, Switzerland
  5.5%, China 4.2% (2005)

Italy
  Germany 17.2%, France 9.9%, Netherlands 5.7%, China 4.6%,
  Belgium 4.5%, Spain 4.2% (2005)

Jamaica
  US 41.4%, Trinidad and Tobago 14%, Venezuela 5.5%, Japan
  4.6% (2005)

Japan
  China 21%, US 12.7%, Saudi Arabia 5.5%, UAE 4.9%, Australia
  4.7%, South Korea 4.7%, Indonesia 4% (2005)

Jersey
  UK (2004)

Jordan
  Saudi Arabia 20.9%, China 8%, Germany 7.1%, US 6.2%, South
  Korea 4.1% (2005)

Kazakhstan
  Russia 35.9%, China 21.4%, Germany 7.1% (2005)

Kenya
  UAE 13.6%, Saudi Arabia 9.9%, US 9.8%, India 8.3%, South
  Africa 7.9%, China 7.1%, UK 5.4% (2005)

Kiribati
  Australia 33%, Fiji 27.1%, Japan 18.1%, NZ 6.9% (2005)

Korea, North
  China 32.9%, Thailand 10.7%, Japan 4.8% (2004)

Korea, South
  Japan 18.5%, China 14.8%, US 11.8%, Saudi Arabia 6.2%
  (2005)

Kuwait
  US 14%, Germany 10.7%, Japan 8.4%, Saudi Arabia 6.2%, UK
  5.6%, France 4.8%, China 4.5% (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  China 43.2%, Russia 19.8%, Kazakhstan 11.9%, Turkey 4.5%
  (2005)

Laos
  Thailand 66.1%, China 9%, Vietnam 6.7% (2005)

Latvia
  Germany 13.9%, Lithuania 13.6%, Russia 8.6%, Estonia 7.9%,
  Poland 6.4%, Finland 5.9%, Belarus 5.8%, Sweden 5.1% (2005)

Lebanon
  Italy 11.1%, Syria 10.7%, France 9.2%, Germany 6.5%, China
  5.4%, US 5.3%, UK 4.4%, Saudi Arabia 4.3% (2005)

Lesotho
  US 84%, Belgium 12.8%, Canada 2.4% (2005)

Liberia
  South Korea 37.9%, Japan 21.1%, Singapore 14.2%, Croatia
  4.7% (2005)

Libya
  Italy 21.5%, Germany 10.4%, Tunisia 5.6%, Turkey 4.9%, UK
  4.9%, France 4.8%, South Korea 4.7%, China 4.6% (2005)

Liechtenstein
  EU, Switzerland (2004)

Lithuania
  Russia 27.9%, Germany 15.2%, Poland 8.3% (2005)

Luxembourg
  Belgium 28.2%, Germany 21.8%, China 12.8%, France 9.6%,
  Netherlands 5.1% (2005)

Macau
  China 43.1%, Japan 10.9%, Hong Kong 10%, Singapore 5.2%, US
  4.1%, Taiwan 4% (2005)

Macedonia
  Russia 13.2%, Germany 10.4%, Greece 9.2%, Bulgaria 7.3%,
  Italy 6% (2005)

Madagascar
  France 16.6%, China 10.6%, Iran 7.9%, Mauritius 6.5%,
  South Africa 5.9%, Hong Kong 5% (2005)

Malawi
  South Africa 37.9%, Zambia 8.7%, Mozambique 7.8%, Zimbabwe
  7.3%, India 6.4%, Tanzania 4.6% (2005)

Malaysia
  Japan 14.6%, US 13%, Singapore 11.8%, China 11.6%, Taiwan
  5.6%, Thailand 5.3%, South Korea 5%, Germany 4.5% (2005)

Maldives
  Singapore 24.1%, UAE 15.7%, India 11.3%, Malaysia 7.2%, Sri
  Lanka 5.7%, UK 4.5% (2005)

Mali
  France 13.1%, Senegal 13.1%, Cote d'Ivoire 8.5% (2005)

Malta
  Italy 32.3%, UK 11.5%, France 9.6%, Germany 8%, US 5.5%,
  Singapore 4.1% (2005)

Marshall Islands
  US, Japan, Australia, NZ, Singapore, Fiji, China,
  Philippines (2004)

Martinique
  France 62%, Venezuela 6%, Germany 4%, Italy 4%, US 3%
  (2004)

Mauritania
  France 18.5%, UK 7.2%, US 7%, China 6%, Spain 5%, Belgium
  4.3% (2005)

Mauritius
  France 12.1%, South Africa 11%, India 7.2%, Finland 6.1%,
  China 6%, Germany 5.3%, Bahrain 5.2%, Singapore 4.1% (2005)

Mayotte
  France 66%, Africa 14%, Southeast Asia 11% (2004)

Mexico
  US 53.4%, China 8%, Japan 5.9% (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  US, Japan, Hong Kong (2004)

Moldova
  Ukraine 20.9%, Russia 11.7%, Romania 11.2%, Germany 8.3%,
  Italy 6.6%, Turkey 4.1% (2005)

Mongolia
  Russia 35.8%, China 25.7%, Japan 6.3%, South Korea 6%,
  Germany 4.2% (2005)

Montenegro
  Greece 10.2%, Italy 10.2%, Germany 9.6%, Bosnia and
  Herzegovina 9.2% (2003)

Montserrat
  US, UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Japan, Canada (2004)

Morocco
  France 18.2%, Spain 11%, Saudi Arabia 6.8%, Russia 6.8%,
  Italy 6.1%, China 5.2%, Germany 4.7% (2005)

Mozambique
  South Africa 36.3%, Australia 12.8%, India 5.1% (2005)

Namibia
  South Africa 85.2%, US (2004)

Nauru
  South Korea 43.8%, Australia 36.2%, US 5.9%, Germany 4.3%
  (2005)

Nepal
  India 47.5%, UAE 11.2%, China 10.7%, Saudi Arabia 4.9%, Kuwait
  4.1% (2005)

Netherlands
  Germany 16.6%, Belgium 9.3%, China 8.8%, US 7.6%, UK
  5.8%, France 4.7%, Russia 4.4% (2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  Venezuela 52.3%, US 21.4%, Italy 4.9%,
  Netherlands 4.6% (2005)

New Caledonia
  France 39%, Singapore 17.4%, Australia 13%, NZ 5.3%
  (2005)

New Zealand
  Australia 20.9%, US 11%, Japan 11%, China 10.9%, Germany
  4.9% (2005)

Nicaragua
  US 19.6%, Mexico 10.3%, Venezuela 9.5%, Costa Rica 8.5%,
  Guatemala 6.7%, El Salvador 4.5%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Niger
  France 14.5%, US 10.7%, French Polynesia 7.5%, Nigeria 7.4%,
  Italy 6.7%, Cote d'Ivoire 5.1%, Belgium 4.6%, Germany 4.5%, China
  4.5% (2005)

Nigeria
  China 10.4%, US 7.3%, UK 6.7%, Netherlands 6%, France 5.9%,
  Germany 4.2% (2005)

Niue
  New Zealand mainly, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Australia, US (2004)

Norfolk Island
  Australia, other Pacific island countries, NZ, Asia,
  Europe (2004)

Northern Mariana Islands
  US, Japan (2004)

Norway
  Sweden 14.6%, Germany 13.6%, Denmark 7.3%, UK 6.8%, China
  5.5%, US 5%, France 4% (2005)

Oman
  UAE 22.4%, Japan 15.7%, UK 7.7%, US 6.7%, Germany 5.8%, India
  4.2% (2005)

Pakistan
  China 13.8%, Saudi Arabia 10.3%, UAE 8.8%, Japan 6.1%, US
  5%, Kuwait 5%, Germany 4.8% (2005)

Palau
  US, Singapore, Japan, South Korea (2004)

Panama
  US 27.5%, Netherlands Antilles 11.4%, Costa Rica 4.7%, Japan
  4.5% (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  Australia 54.6%, Singapore 13.4%, Japan 4.3%,
  Malaysia 4.2% (2005)

Paraguay
  Brazil 26.8%, Argentina 21.1%, US 20.8%, China 9.5% (2005)

Peru
  US 18.2%, China 8.5%, Brazil 8%, Ecuador 7.4%, Colombia 6.1%,
  Argentina 5.1%, Chile 5.1%, Venezuela 4.1% (2005)

Philippines
  US 19.2%, Japan 17%, Singapore 7.9%, Taiwan 7.5%, China
  6.3%, South Korea 4.8%, Saudi Arabia 4.6%, Hong Kong 4.1% (2005)

Poland
  Germany 29.6%, Russia 8.7%, Italy 6.6%, Netherlands 5.9%,
  France 5.7% (2005)

Portugal
  Spain 29%, Germany 13.4%, France 8.5%, Italy 5.2%,
  Netherlands 4.3%, UK 4.2% (2005)

Puerto Rico
  US 55.0%, Ireland 23.7%, Japan 5.4% (2004)

Qatar
  France 11.5%, Japan 10.5%, US 10.4%, Germany 8.4%, Saudi
  Arabia 7.3%, UK 7%, Italy 6.5%, South Korea 5.5%, UAE 4.8% (2005)

Reunion
  France 64%, Bahrain 3%, Germany 3%, Italy 3% (2004)

Romania
  Italy 15.5%, Germany 14%, Russia 8.3%, France 6.8%, Turkey
  4.9%, China 4.1% (2005)

Russia
  Germany 13.6%, Ukraine 8%, China 7.4%, Japan 6%, Belarus
  4.7%, US 4.7%, Italy 4.6%, South Korea 4.1% (2005)

Rwanda
  Kenya 23.8%, Uganda 6.2%, Belgium 5.4%, Germany 5.3% (2005)

Saint Helena
  UK 53.5%, South Africa 14.3%, Spain 10.3%, Tanzania
  8.5%, US 4.6% (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  US 46.9%, Trinidad and Tobago 13.7%, UK 5.4%,
  France 4.5%, Japan 4.2% (2005)

Saint Lucia
  US 24.1%, Trinidad and Tobago 15.5%, Netherlands 14.5%,
  Venezuela 5.6%, UK 5.6%, France 4.7% (2005)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  France 51.3%, Canada 31.8%, Belgium 4.1%
  (2005)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  France 36.1%, Singapore 12.5%,
  Italy 11.9%, Trinidad and Tobago 7.9%, US 7.2% (2005)

Samoa
  NZ 31%, Australia 22.6%, US 13.5%, Japan 7.5%, Fiji 6%, China
  4.6% (2005)

Sao Tome and Principe
  UK 94.2%, Portugal 2.7%, US 1% (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  US 13%, Germany 9.5%, Japan 7.9%, China 7.3%, France
  4.7%, Italy 4.2% (2005)

Senegal
  France 22.8%, Nigeria 11.4%, Brazil 4.5%, Thailand 4.3%, US
  4.2%, UK 4% (2005)

Seychelles
  Saudi Arabia 16.7%, Spain 14.9%, Singapore 7.6%, France
  7.5%, Italy 6.2%, South Africa 6.2% (2005)

Sierra Leone
  Germany 18.9%, Cote d'Ivoire 11.2%, UK 8.5%, US 6.9%,
  China 5.6%, Netherlands 5.4%, South Africa 4.1% (2005)

Singapore
  Malaysia 14.4%, US 12.4%, China 10.8%, Japan 10.1%,
  Indonesia 5.5%, Saudi Arabia 4.7%, South Korea 4.5% (2005)

Slovakia
  Germany 25.1%, Czech Republic 19.3%, Russia 10.5%, Austria
  6.1%, Poland 4.7%, Hungary 4.6%, Italy 4.5% (2005)

Slovenia
  Germany 19.5%, Italy 18.6%, Austria 12%, France 7.2%,
  Croatia 4.2% (2005)

Solomon Islands
  Australia 25.8%, Singapore 25.3%, NZ 4.6%, Fiji
  4.2%, Papua New Guinea 4.1% (2005)

Somalia
  Djibouti 30.1%, Kenya 13.7%, Brazil 8.4%, India 8%, Oman
  5.3%, UAE 5% (2005)

South Africa
  Germany 14.9%, US 7%, China 6.9%, UK 6.8%, Saudi Arabia
  6.5%, Japan 5.9%, Iran 5.8%, France 4.3% (2005)

Spain
  Germany 15%, France 14.5%, Italy 8.5%, UK 5.8%, Netherlands
  4.9%, China 4.3% (2005)

Sri Lanka
  India 19.7%, China 9.9%, Singapore 7.2%, Iran 5.5%,
  Malaysia 4.6%, Hong Kong 4.5% (2005)

Sudan
  China 20.7%, Saudi Arabia 9.4%, UAE 5.9%, Egypt 5.5%, Japan
  5.1%, India 4.8% (2005)

Suriname
  US 29.3%, Netherlands 17.5%, Trinidad and Tobago 12.7%,
  China 6.5%, Japan 5.2% (2005)

Swaziland
  South Africa 95.6%, EU 0.9%, Japan 0.9%, Singapore 0.3%
  (2004)

Sweden
  Germany 17.5%, Denmark 8.9%, Norway 7.8%, UK 6.6%,
  Netherlands 6.2%, Finland 5.8%, France 5% (2005)

Switzerland
  Germany 31.6%, Italy 10.5%, France 10%, US 5.6%,
  Netherlands 4.8%, Austria 4.6%, UK 4.4% (2005)

Syria
  Saudi Arabia 10.6%, China 5.6%, Egypt 5.4%, Italy 5.3%, UAE
  5.2%, Ukraine 4.2%, Germany 4.1% (2005)

Taiwan
  Japan 25.3%, US 11.6%, China 11%, South Korea 7.3%, Saudi
  Arabia 4.1% (2005)

Tajikistan
  Russia 19.3%, Kazakhstan 12.7%, Uzbekistan 11.5%,
  Azerbaijan 8.6%, China 7%, Ukraine 6.2%, Romania 4.6%, Turkmenistan
  4% (2005)

Tanzania
  South Africa 12.2%, China 9.6%, India 7%, UAE 6.1%, Kenya
  5.2%, UK 4.1% (2005)

Thailand
  Japan 22%, China 9.4%, US 7.4%, Malaysia 6.8%, UAE 4.8%,
  Singapore 4.5% (2005)

Togo
  France 17.8%, China 13.3%, Cote d'Ivoire 6.5%, Italy 4.5%,
  Spain 4.3% (2005)

Tokelau
  New Zealand (2004)

Tonga
  NZ 33.4%, Fiji 26.7%, Australia 10.5%, US 8.4% (2005)

Trinidad and Tobago
  US 27.7%, Venezuela 13.3%, Brazil 11.8%, Japan
  5.5%, Canada 4.2% (2005)

Tunisia
  France 25.5%, Italy 22.9%, Germany 9.5%, Spain 5.5% (2005)

Turkey
  Germany 11.7%, Russia 11%, Italy 6.5%, China 5.9%, France 5%,
  US 4.6%, UK 4% (2005)

Turkmenistan
  UAE 12.4%, Azerbaijan 10.9%, US 9.4%, Russia 8.9%,
  Ukraine 7.4%, Turkey 7.2%, Iran 6.1%, Germany 5.3%, Kazakhstan 4.2%
  (2005)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  US, UK (2004)

Tuvalu
  Fiji 46.1%, Japan 18.9%, China 18.2%, Australia 7.7%, NZ 4.1%
  (2005)

Uganda
  Kenya 32%, UAE 8.6%, South Africa 6.4%, India 5.7%, China
  5.2%, UK 4.4%, US 4.1%, Japan 4% (2005)

Ukraine
  Russia 35.5%, Germany 9.4%, Turkmenistan 7.4%, China 5%
  (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  UK 10%, China 9.7%, US 9.4%, India 9.2%,
  Germany 5.9%, Japan 5.4%, France 4.7%, Singapore 4.1% (2005)

United Kingdom
  Germany 12.8%, US 8.7%, France 7.1%, Netherlands
  6.6%, China 5%, Norway 4.7%, Belgium 4.6%, Italy 4% (2005)

United States
  Canada 16.9%, China 15%, Mexico 10%, Japan 8.2%,
  Germany 5% (2005)

Uruguay
  Argentina 18.9%, Brazil 18.5%, Paraguay 14%, US 8.6%, China
  6.2% (2005)

Uzbekistan
  Russia 26.7%, South Korea 15.3%, Germany 8.9%, China
  7.2%, Kazakhstan 6.4%, Turkey 4.7%, Ukraine 4.7% (2005)

Vanuatu
  Australia 18.4%, Japan 16.6%, Singapore 14.7%, Poland 8.5%,
  NZ 7.2%, Fiji 6.3% (2005)

Venezuela
  US 31.6%, Colombia 11%, Brazil 9.1%, Mexico 6.9% (2005)

Vietnam
  China 16.3%, Singapore 12.8%, Taiwan 11.7%, Japan 10.4%,
  South Korea 9.9%, Thailand 6.8% (2005)

Virgin Islands
  US, Puerto Rico (2004)

Wallis and Futuna
  France 97%, Australia 2%, NZ 1% (2004)

West Bank
  Israel, Jordan, Gaza Strip (2004)

Western Sahara
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so
  trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts (2004)

World
  China 9.3%, US 9%, Germany 9%, Japan 6.1%, France 4.2% (2005)

Yemen
  UAE 14.6%, Saudi Arabia 11.6%, China 9.1%, Kuwait 5%, India
  4.5% (2005)

Zambia
  South Africa 47.6%, UK 12.6%, Zimbabwe 4.3% (2005)

Zimbabwe
  South Africa 42.9%, China 4.6%, Botswana 3.3% (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2062  Economic aid - donor


Australia
  ODA, $894 million (FY99/00)

Austria
  ODA, $681 million (2004)

Belgium
  ODA, $1.072 billion (2002)

Canada
  ODA, $2.6 billion (2004)

Denmark
  ODA, $2 billion (2004)

Finland
  ODA, $379 million (2001)

France
  ODA, $5.4 billion (2002)

Germany
  ODA, $5.6 billion (1998)

Iceland
  $6.7 million $NA

Ireland
  ODA, $607 million (2004)

Italy
  ODA, $1 billion (2002 est.)

Japan
  ODA, $8.9 billion (2004)

Korea, South
  ODA, $423.3 million (2004)

Lesotho
  ODA, $4.4 million

Luxembourg
  ODA, $235.59 million (2004)

Netherlands
  ODA, $4 billion (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  ODA, $99.7 million

Norway
  ODA, $1.4 billion (1998)

Portugal
  ODA, $271 million (1995)

Saudi Arabia
  pledged $100 million in 1993 to fund reconstruction of
  Lebanon; since 2000, Saudi Arabia has committed $307 million for
  assistance to the Palestinians; pledged $230 million to development
  in Afghanistan; pledged $1 billion in export guarantees and soft
  loans to Iraq; pledged $133 million in direct grant aid, $187
  million in concessional loans, and $153 million in export credits
  for Pakistan earthquake relief

Spain
  ODA, $1.33 billion (1999)

Sweden
  ODA, $1.7 billion (1997)

Switzerland
  ODA, $1.1 billion (1995)

United Arab Emirates
  since its founding in 1971, the Abu Dhabi Fund
  for Development has given about $5.2 billion in aid to 56 countries
  (2004)

United Kingdom
  ODA, $7.9 billion (2004)

United States
  ODA, $6.9 billion (1997)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2063  Constitution


Afghanistan
  new constitution drafted 14 December 2003-4 January
  2004; signed 16 January 2004

Akrotiri
  Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia Order in
  Council 1960, effective 16 August 1960

Albania
  adopted by popular referendum on 28 November 1998

Algeria
  8 September 1963; revised 19 November 1976, effective 22
  November 1976; revised 3 November 1988, 23 February 1989, and 28
  November 1996

American Samoa
  ratified 2 June 1966, effective 1 July 1967

Andorra
  Andorra's first written constitution was drafted in 1991,
  approved by referendum 14 March 1993, effective 4 May 1993

Angola
  11 November 1975; revised 7 January 1978, 11 August 1980, 6
  March 1991, and 26 August 1992; note - a new constitution will
  likely be passed following the next legislative election

Anguilla
  Anguilla Constitutional Order 1 April 1982; amended 1990

Antigua and Barbuda
  1 November 1981

Argentina
  1 May 1853; revised August 1994

Armenia
  adopted by nationwide referendum 5 July 1995; amendments
  adopted through a nationwide referendum 27 November 2005

Aruba
  1 January 1986

Australia
  9 July 1900, effective 1 January 1901

Austria
  1920; revised 1929 (reinstated 1 May 1945)

Azerbaijan
  adopted 12 November 1995

Bahamas, The
  10 July 1973

Bahrain
  new constitution 14 February 2002

Bangladesh
  4 November 1972, effective 16 December 1972; suspended
  following coup of 24 March 1982, restored 10 November 1986; amended
  many times

Barbados
  30 November 1966

Belarus
  15 March 1994; revised by national referendum of 24 November
  1996 giving the presidency greatly expanded powers and became
  effective 27 November 1996; revised again 17 October 2004 removing
  presidential term limits

Belgium
  7 February 1831; amended many times; revised 14 July 1993 to
  create a federal state

Belize
  21 September 1981

Benin
  December 1990

Bermuda
  8 June 1968; amended 1989 and 2003

Bhutan
  no written constitution or bill of rights; note - in 2001,
  the king commissioned the drafting of a constitution, and in March
  2005 publicly unveiled it; is awaiting national referendum

Bolivia
  2 February 1967; revised in August 1994

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  the Dayton Agreement, signed 14 December
  1995, included a new constitution now in force; note - each of the
  entities also has its own constitution

Botswana
  March 1965, effective 30 September 1966

Brazil
  5 October 1988

British Virgin Islands
  1 June 1977, amended in 2000

Brunei
  29 September 1959 (some provisions suspended under a State of
  Emergency since December 1962, others since independence on 1
  January 1984)

Bulgaria
  adopted 12 July 1991

Burkina Faso
  2 June 1991 approved by referendum, 11 June 1991
  formally adopted; amended April 2000

Burma
  3 January 1974; suspended since 18 September 1988; national
  convention convened in 1993 to draft a new constitution but
  collapsed in 1996; reconvened in 2004 but does not include
  participation of democratic opposition

Burundi
  28 February 2005; ratified by popular referendum

Cambodia
  promulgated 21 September 1993

Cameroon
  20 May 1972 approved by referendum, 2 June 1972 formally
  adopted; revised January 1996

Canada
  made up of unwritten and written acts, customs, judicial
  decisions, and traditions; the written part of the constitution
  consists of the Constitution Act of 29 March 1867, which created a
  federation of four provinces, and the Constitution Act of 17 April
  1982, which transferred formal control over the constitution from
  Britain to Canada, and added a Canadian Charter of Rights and
  Freedoms as well as procedures for constitutional amendments

Cape Verde
  new constitution came into force 25 September 1992;
  underwent a major revision on 23 November 1995, substantially
  increasing the powers of the president; a 1999 revision created the
  position of national ombudsman (Provedor de Justica)

Cayman Islands
  1959; revised 1962, 1972, and 1994

Central African Republic
  ratified by popular referendum 5 December
  2004; effective 27 December 2004

Chad
  passed by referendum 31 March 1996; a June 2005 referendum
  removed constitutional term limits

Chile
  11 September 1980, effective 11 March 1981; amended 1989,
  1991, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, and 2005

China
  most recent promulgation 4 December 1982

Christmas Island
  Christmas Island Act of 1958-59 (1 October 1958) as
  amended by the Territories Law Reform Act of 1992

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act of 1955 (23
  November 1955) as amended by the Territories Law Reform Act of 1992

Colombia
  5 July 1991

Comoros
  23 December 2001

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  18 February 2006

Congo, Republic of the
  approved by referendum 20 January 2002

Cook Islands
  4 August 1965

Costa Rica
  7 November 1949

Cote d'Ivoire
  new constitution adopted 4 August 2000

Croatia
  adopted on 22 December 1990; revised 2000, 2001

Cuba
  24 February 1976; amended July 1992 and June 2002

Cyprus
  16 August 1960; from December 1963, the Turkish Cypriots no
  longer participated in the government; negotiations to create the
  basis for a new or revised constitution to govern the island and for
  better relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been held
  intermittently since the mid-1960s; in 1975, following the 1974
  Turkish intervention, Turkish Cypriots created their own
  constitution and governing bodies within the "Turkish Federated
  State of Cyprus," which became the "Turkish Republic of Northern
  Cyprus" when the Turkish Cypriots declared their independence in
  1983; a new constitution for the "TRNC" passed by referendum on 5
  May 1985

Czech Republic
  ratified 16 December 1992, effective 1 January 1993

Denmark
  5 June 1849 adoption of original constitution; a major
  overhaul of 5 June 1953 allowed for a unicameral legislature and a
  female chief of state

Dhekelia
  Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia Order in
  Council 1960, effective 16 August 1960

Djibouti
  multiparty constitution approved by referendum 4 September
  1992

Dominica
  3 November 1978

Dominican Republic
  28 November 1966; amended 25 July 2002

East Timor
  22 March 2002 (based on the Portuguese model)

Ecuador
  10 August 1998

Egypt
  11 September 1971; amended 22 May 1980 and 25 May 2005

El Salvador
  23 December 1983

Equatorial Guinea
  approved by national referendum 17 November 1991;
  amended January 1995

Eritrea
  a transitional constitution, decreed on 19 May 1993, was
  replaced by a new constitution adopted on 23 May 1997, but not yet
  implemented

Estonia
  adopted 28 June 1992

Ethiopia
  ratified December 1994, effective 22 August 1995

European Union
  based on a series of treaties: the Treaty of Paris,
  which set up the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951;
  the Treaties of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community
  (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957;
  the Single European Act in 1986; the Treaty on European Union
  (Maastricht) in 1992; the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997; and the
  Treaty of Nice in 2001; note - a new draft Constitutional Treaty,
  signed on 29 October 2004 in Rome, gave member states two years for
  ratification either by parliamentary vote or national referendum
  before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006; defeat in
  French and Dutch referenda in May-June 2005 caused a suspension of
  the ratification process

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  3 October 1985; amended 1997 and
  1998

Faroe Islands
  5 June 1953 (Danish constitution)

Fiji
  enacted on 25 July 1997 to encourage multiculturalism and make
  multiparty government mandatory; effective 28 July 1998

Finland
  1 March 2000

France
  adopted by referendum 28 September 1958, effective 4 October
  1958; amended concerning election of president in 1962; amended to
  comply with provisions of 1992 EC Maastricht Treaty, 1996 Amsterdam
  Treaty, 2000 Treaty of Nice; amended to tighten immigration laws in
  1993; amended in 2000 to change the seven-year presidential term to
  a five-year term

French Guiana
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

French Polynesia
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Gabon
  adopted 14 March 1991

Gambia, The
  24 April 1970; suspended July 1994; rewritten and
  approved by national referendum 8 August 1996; reestablished January
  1997

Georgia
  adopted 24 August 1995

Germany
  23 May 1949, known as Basic Law; became constitution of the
  united German people 3 October 1990

Ghana
  approved 28 April 1992

Gibraltar
  30 May 1969

Greece
  11 June 1975; amended March 1986 and April 2001

Greenland
  5 June 1953 (Danish constitution)

Grenada
  19 December 1973

Guadeloupe
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Guam
  Organic Act of Guam, 1 August 1950

Guatemala
  31 May 1985, effective 14 January 1986; note - suspended
  25 May 1993 by former President Jorge SERRANO; reinstated 5 June
  1993 following ouster of president; amended November 1993

Guernsey
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Guinea
  23 December 1990 (Loi Fundamentale)

Guinea-Bissau
  16 May 1984; amended 4 May 1991, 4 December 1991, 26
  February 1993, 9 June 1993, NA 1996

Guyana
  6 October 1980

Haiti
  approved March 1987; suspended June 1988 with most articles
  reinstated March 1989; constitutional government ousted in a
  military coup in September 1991, although in October 1991, military
  government claimed to be observing the constitution; returned to
  constitutional rule in October 1994; constitution remains
  technically in force but has not been observed since Aristide's
  departure in 2004

Holy See (Vatican City)
  new Fundamental Law promulgated by Pope JOHN
  PAUL II on 26 November 2000, effective 22 February 2001 (replaces
  the first Fundamental Law of 1929)

Honduras
  11 January 1982, effective 20 January 1982; amended 1995

Hong Kong
  Basic Law, approved in March 1990 by China's National
  People's Congress, is Hong Kong's "mini-constitution"

Hungary
  18 August 1949, effective 20 August 1949; revised 19 April
  1972; 18 October 1989 revision ensured legal rights for individuals
  and constitutional checks on the authority of the prime minister and
  also established the principle of parliamentary oversight; 1997
  amendment streamlined the judicial system

Iceland
  16 June 1944, effective 17 June 1944; amended many times

India
  26 January 1950; amended many times

Indonesia
  August 1945; abrogated by Federal Constitution of 1949 and
  Provisional Constitution of 1950, restored 5 July 1959; series of
  amemdments concluded in 2002

Iran
  2-3 December 1979; revised 1989 to expand powers of the
  presidency and eliminate the prime ministership

Iraq
  ratified on 15 October 2005

Ireland
  adopted 1 July 1937 by plebiscite; effective 29 December 1937

Isle of Man
  unwritten; note - The Isle of Man Constitution Act of
  1961 does not embody the unwritten Manx Constitution

Israel
  no formal constitution; some of the functions of a
  constitution are filled by the Declaration of Establishment (1948),
  the Basic Laws of the parliament (Knesset), and the Israeli
  citizenship law

Italy
  passed 11 December 1947, effective 1 January 1948; amended
  many times

Jamaica
  6 August 1962

Japan
  3 May 1947

Jersey
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice

Jordan
  1 January 1952; amended 1954, 1955, 1958, 1960, 1965, 1973,
  1974, 1976, 1984

Kazakhstan
  first post-independence constitution adopted 28 January
  1993; new constitution adopted by national referendum 30 August 1995

Kenya
  12 December 1963; amended as a republic 1964; reissued with
  amendments 1979, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2001

Kiribati
  12 July 1979

Korea, North
  adopted 1948; completely revised 27 December 1972,
  revised again in April 1992, and September 1998

Korea, South
  17 July 1948

Kuwait
  approved and promulgated 11 November 1962

Kyrgyzstan
  adopted 5 May 1993; note - amendment proposed by
  President Askar AKAYEV and passed in a national referendum on 2
  February 2003 significantly expands the powers of the president at
  the expense of the legislature; following the spring 2005
  demonstrations, a new Constitutional Council was appointed and the
  reform process is ongoing

Laos
  promulgated 14 August 1991

Latvia
  15 February 1922; an October 1998 amendment on Fundamental
  Human Rights replaced the 1991 Constitutional Law, which had
  supplemented the constitution

Lebanon
  23 May 1926; amended a number of times, most recently
  Charter of Lebanese National Reconciliation (Ta'if Accord) of
  October 1989

Lesotho
  2 April 1993

Liberia
  6 January 1986

Libya
  11 December 1969; amended 2 March 1977

Liechtenstein
  5 October 1921

Lithuania
  adopted 25 October 1992

Luxembourg
  17 October 1868; occasional revisions

Macau
  Basic Law, approved in March 1993 by China's National People's
  Congress, is Macau's "mini-constitution"

Macedonia
  adopted 17 November 1991, effective 20 November 1991;
  amended November 2001 by a series of new constitutional amendments
  strengthening minority rights and in 2005 with amendments related to
  the judiciary

Madagascar
  19 August 1992 by national referendum

Malawi
  18 May 1994

Malaysia
  31 August 1957; amended 16 September 1963

Maldives
  adopted 1 January 1998

Mali
  adopted 12 January 1992

Malta
  1964 constitution; amended many times

Marshall Islands
  1 May 1979

Martinique
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Mauritania
  12 July 1991

Mauritius
  12 March 1968; amended 12 March 1992

Mayotte
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Mexico
  5 February 1917

Micronesia, Federated States of
  10 May 1979

Moldova
  new constitution adopted 29 July 1994, effective 27 August
  1994; replaced old Soviet constitution of 1979

Monaco
  17 December 1962

Mongolia
  12 February 1992

Montenegro
  12 October 1992 (was approved by the Assembly)

Montserrat
  effective 19 December 1989

Morocco
  10 March 1972; revised 4 September 1992, amended (to create
  bicameral legislature) September 1996

Mozambique
  30 November 1990

Namibia
  ratified 9 February 1990, effective 12 March 1990

Nauru
  29 January 1968; amended 17 May 1968 (Constitution Day)

Nepal
  9 November 1990

Netherlands
  adopted 1815; amended many times, most recently in 2002

Netherlands Antilles
  29 December 1954, Statute of the Realm of the
  Netherlands, as amended

New Caledonia
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

New Zealand
  consists of a series of legal documents, including
  certain acts of the UK and New Zealand Parliaments, as well as The
  Constitution Act 1986, which is the principal formal charter;
  adopted 1 January 1987, effective 1 January 1987

Nicaragua
  9 January 1987; reforms in 1995 and 2000

Niger
  new constitution adopted 18 July 1999

Nigeria
  new constitution adopted May 1999

Niue
  19 October 1974 (Niue Constitution Act)

Norfolk Island
  Norfolk Island Act of 1979

Northern Mariana Islands
  Constitution of the Commonwealth of the
  Northern Mariana Islands effective 1 January 1978; Covenant
  Agreement fully effective 4 November 1986

Norway
  17 May 1814; amended many times

Oman
  none; note - on 6 November 1996, Sultan QABOOS issued a royal
  decree promulgating a basic law considered by the government to be a
  constitution which, among other things, clarifies the royal
  succession, provides for a prime minister, bars ministers from
  holding interests in companies doing business with the government,
  establishes a bicameral legislature, and guarantees basic civil
  liberties for Omani citizens

Pakistan
  12 April 1973; suspended 5 July 1977, restored with
  amendments 30 December 1985; suspended 15 October 1999, restored in
  stages in 2002; amended 31 December 2003

Palau
  1 January 1981

Panama
  11 October 1972; major reforms adopted 1978, 1983, 1994, and
  2004

Papua New Guinea
  16 September 1975

Paraguay
  promulgated 20 June 1992

Peru
  31 December 1993

Philippines
  2 February 1987, effective 11 February 1987

Pitcairn Islands
  30 November 1838; reformed 1904 with additional
  reforms in 1940; further refined by the Local Government Ordinance
  of 1964

Poland
  adopted by the National Assembly 2 April 1997, passed by
  national referendum 25 May 1997, effective 17 October 1997

Portugal
  25 April 1976; revised many times

Puerto Rico
  ratified 3 March 1952, approved by US Congress 3 July
  1952, effective 25 July 1952

Qatar
  ratified by public referendum on 29 April 2003, endorsed by
  the amir on 8 June 2004, effective on 9 June 2005

Reunion
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Romania
  8 December 1991; revision effective 29 October 2003

Russia
  adopted 12 December 1993

Rwanda
  new constitution adopted 4 June 2003

Saint Helena
  1 January 1989

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  19 September 1983

Saint Lucia
  22 February 1979

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  27 October 1979

Samoa
  1 January 1962

San Marino
  8 October 1600; electoral law of 1926 serves some of the
  functions of a constitution

Sao Tome and Principe
  approved March 1990, effective 10 September
  1990

Saudi Arabia
  governed according to Shari'a law; the Basic Law that
  articulates the government's rights and responsibilities was
  introduced in 1993

Senegal
  new constitution adopted 7 January 2001

Serbia
  28 September 1990; note - a new draft constitution approved
  by Parliament on 30 September 2006 stresses that Kosovo is an
  integral part of Serbia; the draft must still be approved by a
  national referendum

Seychelles
  18 June 1993

Sierra Leone
  1 October 1991; subsequently amended several times

Singapore
  3 June 1959; amended 1965 (based on preindependence State
  of Singapore Constitution)

Slovakia
  ratified 1 September 1992, effective 1 January 1993;
  changed in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president;
  amended February 2001 to allow Slovakia to apply for NATO and EU
  membership

Slovenia
  adopted 23 December 1991

Solomon Islands
  7 July 1978

Somalia
  25 August 1979, presidential approval 23 September 1979
  note: the formation of transitional governing institutions, known as
  the Transitional Federal Government, is currently ongoing

South Africa
  10 December 1996; this new constitution was certified
  by the Constitutional Court on 4 December 1996, was signed by then
  President MANDELA on 10 December 1996, and entered into effect on 3
  February 1997; it is being implemented in phases

Spain
  6 December 1978, effective 29 December 1978

Sri Lanka
  adopted 16 August 1978, certified 31 August 1978

Sudan
  12 April 1973; suspended following coup of 6 April 1985;
  interim constitution of 10 October 1985 suspended following coup of
  30 June 1989; new constitution implemented on 30 June 1998 partially
  suspended 12 December 1999 by President BASHIR; under the CPA,
  Interim National Constitution ratified 5 July 2005; Constitution of
  Southern Sudan signed December 2005

Suriname
  ratified 30 September 1987

Swaziland
  the first constitution was signed into law in July 2005
  and is scheduled to be implemented in January 2006

Sweden
  1 January 1975

Switzerland
  revision of Constitution of 1874 approved by the Federal
  Parliament 18 December 1998, adopted by referendum 18 April 1999,
  officially entered into force 1 January 2000

Syria
  13 March 1973

Taiwan
  25 December 1946; amended in 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000,
  2005

Tajikistan
  6 November 1994

Tanzania
  25 April 1977; major revisions October 1984

Thailand
  constitution signed by King PHUMIPHON on 11 October 1997;
  abrogated on 19 September 2006 after coup; interim constitution
  promulgated on 1 October 2006; junta has promised new constitution
  by October 2007

Togo
  multiparty draft constitution approved by High Council of the
  Republic 1 July 1992, adopted by public referendum 27 September 1992

Tokelau
  administered under the Tokelau Islands Act of 1948; amended
  in 1970

Tonga
  4 November 1875; revised 1 January 1967

Trinidad and Tobago
  1 August 1976

Tunisia
  1 June 1959; amended 1988, 2002

Turkey
  7 November 1982

Turkmenistan
  adopted 18 May 1992

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution Order
  2006 (effective 9 August 2006)

Tuvalu
  1 October 1978

Uganda
  8 October 1995; in 2005 the constitution was amended removing
  presidential term limits and legalizing a multiparty political system

Ukraine
  adopted 28 June 1996

United Arab Emirates
  2 December 1971; made permanent in 1996

United Kingdom
  unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and
  practice

United States
  17 September 1787, effective 4 March 1789

Uruguay
  27 November 1966, effective February 1967; suspended 27 June
  1973, new constitution rejected by referendum 30 November 1980; two
  constitutional reforms approved by plebiscite 26 November 1989 and 7
  January 1997

Uzbekistan
  new constitution adopted 8 December 1992

Vanuatu
  30 July 1980

Venezuela
  30 December 1999

Vietnam
  15 April 1992

Virgin Islands
  Revised Organic Act of 22 July 1954

Wallis and Futuna
  4 October 1958 (French Constitution)

Yemen
  16 May 1991; amended 29 September 1994 and February 2001

Zambia
  24 August 1991; amended in 1996 to establish presidential
  term limits

Zimbabwe
  21 December 1979

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2064  Economic aid - recipient


Afghanistan
  international pledges made by more than 60 countries and
  international financial institutions at the Berlin Donors Conference
  for Afghan reconstruction in March 2004 reached $8.9 billion for
  2004-09

Albania
  ODA: $366 million (top donors were Italy, EU, Germany) (2003
  est.)

Algeria
  $122.8 million (2002 est.)

American Samoa
  important financial support from the US, more than
  $40 million in 1994

Andorra
  none

Angola
  $383.5 million (1999)

Anguilla
  $9 million (2004 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $1.65 million (2004)

Argentina
  $10 billion (2001 est.)

Armenia
  ODA, $254 million (2004)

Aruba
  $-11.3 million (2004)

Azerbaijan
  ODA, $140 million (2000 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $5 million (2004)

Bahrain
  $150 million; note - $50 million annually since 1992 from
  the UAE and Kuwait (2002)

Bangladesh
  $1.575 billion (2000 est.)

Barbados
  $9.1 million (1995)

Belarus
  $194.3 million (1995)

Belize
  $NA

Benin
  $342.6 million (2000)

Bermuda
  $NA

Bhutan
  $78 million substantial aid from India and other nations

Bolivia
  $221 million (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $650 million (2001 est.)

Botswana
  $73 million (1995)

Brazil
  $30 billion (2002)

British Virgin Islands
  $NA

Brunei
  $770,000 (2004)

Bulgaria
  $475 million per year in EU pre-accession aid (2004-06)

Burkina Faso
  $468.4 million (2003)

Burma
  $127 million (2001 est.)

Burundi
  $105.5 million (2003)

Cambodia
  $504 million pledged in grants and concessional loans for
  2005 by international donors

Cameroon
  in January 2001, the Paris Club agreed to reduce Cameroon's
  debt of $1.3 billion by $900 million; debt relief now totals $1.26
  billion

Cape Verde
  $136 million (1999)

Cayman Islands
  $390,000 $NA

Central African Republic
  ODA, $59.8 million; note - traditional
  budget subsidies from France (2002 est.)

Chad
  $238.3 million received; note - $125 million committed by
  Taiwan (August 1997); $30 million committed by African Development
  Bank; ODA $246.9 million (2003 est.)

Chile
  $0 (2002)

China
  $NA

Christmas Island
  $NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  $NA

Colombia
  $NA

Comoros
  $24 million (2003 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $2.2 billion (FY03/04)

Congo, Republic of the
  $159.1 million (1995)

Cook Islands
  $13.1 million; note - New Zealand continues to furnish
  the greater part (1995)

Cote d'Ivoire
  ODA, $1 billion (1996 est.)

Croatia
  ODA, $166.5 million (2002)

Cuba
  $68.2 million (1997 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus - $NA; north Cyprus - $700 million from
  Turkey in grants and loans, which are usually forgiven (2003-06)

Czech Republic
  $2.8 billion in committed EU structural adjustment
  and cohesion funds (2004-06)

Djibouti
  $64.1 million (2004)

Dominica
  $29.2 million (2004 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $571.6 million (2004)

East Timor
  $153 million (2004 est.)

Ecuador
  $216 million (2002)

Egypt
  ODA, $1.12 billion (2002)

El Salvador
  $125 million of which, $53 million from US (2003)

Equatorial Guinea
  $33.8 million $NA

Eritrea
  $77 million (1999)

Estonia
  $735 million (2004-06)

Ethiopia
  $308 million (FY00/01)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $0 (1997 est.)

Faroe Islands
  $135 million (annual subsidy from Denmark) (1998)

Fiji
  $63.9 million (2004)

French Guiana
  $NA

French Polynesia
  $580 million (2004)

Gabon
  $331 million (1995)

Gambia, The
  $59.8 million (2003)

Gaza Strip
  $2 billion; note - includes West Bank (2004 est.)

Georgia
  ODA, $150 million (2000 est.)

Ghana
  $6.9 billion (1999)

Gibraltar
  $NA

Greece
  $8 billion from EU (2000-06)

Greenland
  $380 million subsidy from Denmark (1997)

Grenada
  $15.4 million (2004)

Guadeloupe
  $NA; note - substantial annual French subsidies (2004)

Guam
  Guam receives large transfer payments from the US Federal
  Treasury ($143 million in 1997) into which Guamanians pay no income
  or excise taxes; under the provisions of a special law of Congress,
  the Guam Treasury, rather than the US Treasury, receives federal
  income taxes paid by military and civilian Federal employees
  stationed in Guam (2001 est.)

Guatemala
  $250 million (2000 est.)

Guernsey
  $NA

Guinea
  $237.5 million (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  $115.4 million (1995)

Guyana
  $84 million (1995), Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative
  (HIPC) $253 million (1997)

Haiti
  $153 million (FY05 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  $0

Honduras
  $557.8 million (1999)

Hungary
  $3.4 billion in committed EU structural adjustment and
  cohesion funds (2004-06)

India
  $2.9 billion (FY98/99)

Indonesia
  $43 billion
  note: Indonesia finished its IMF program in December 2003 but still
  receives bilateral aid through the Consultative Group on Indonesia
  (CGI), which pledged $2.8 billion in grants and loans for 2004 and
  again in 2005; nearly $5 billion in aid money pledged by a variety
  bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental organization (NGO)
  donors following the 2004 tsunami; money is slated for use in relief
  and rebuilding efforts in Aceh (2002)

Iran
  $408 million (2002 est.)

Iraq
  more than $33 billion in foreign aid pledged for 2004-07 (2004)

Isle of Man
  $NA

Israel
  $662 million from US (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  $18.5 million; note - US aid only (2004)

Jersey
  $0

Jordan
  ODA, $500 million (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $74.2 million in US assistance programs, 1992-2000
  (FY2004)

Kenya
  $453 million (1997)

Kiribati
  $16.7 million largely from UK and Japan (2004)

Korea, North
  $NA; note - approximately 350,000 metric tons in food
  aid, worth approximately $118 million, through the World Food
  Program appeal in 2004, plus additional aid from bilateral donors
  and non-governmental organizations

Kuwait
  $NA (2001)

Kyrgyzstan
  $50 million from the US (2001)

Laos
  $243 million (2001 est.)

Latvia
  $1.2 billion (2004-06)

Lebanon
  $2.2 billion received (2003), out of the $4.2 billion in
  soft loans pledged at the November 2002 Paris II Aid Conference

Lesotho
  $41.5 million (2000)

Liberia
  $94 million (1999)

Libya
  ODA, $4.4 million (2002)

Liechtenstein
  $0

Lithuania
  $1.6 billion in committed EU structural and cohesion funds
  (2004-06)

Macau
  $NA

Macedonia
  $250 million (2003 est.)

Madagascar
  $354 million (2001)

Malawi
  $401.5 million (2001)

Maldives
  $27.9 million $NA (2004)

Mali
  $472.1 million (2002)

Malta
  $NA

Marshall Islands
  $51.1 million more than $1 billion from the US,
  1986-2002

Martinique
  $NA; note - substantial annual aid from France (1998)

Mauritania
  $305.7 million (2002)

Mauritius
  $42 million (1997)

Mayotte
  $208 million; note - extensive French financial assistance
  (2004)

Mexico
  $1.166 billion (1995)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $86.3 million under terms of the
  Compact of Free Association, the US pledged $1.3 billion in grant
  aid during the period 1986-2001; the level of aid has been
  subsequently reduced

Moldova
  $100 million (2000)

Monaco
  $NA

Mongolia
  $215 million (2003)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  Country Policy Plan (2001) is a three-year program for
  spending $122.8 million in British budgetary assistance (2002 est.)

Morocco
  ODA, $218 million (2002)

Mozambique
  $632.8 million (2001)

Namibia
  ODA, $160 million (2000 est.)

Nauru
  $20 million mostly from Australia

Nepal
  $424 million (FY00/01)

Netherlands Antilles
  $21.5 million IMF provided $61 million in 2000,
  and the Netherlands continued its support with $40 million (2004)

New Caledonia
  $525 million annual subsidy from France (2004)

Nicaragua
  $419.5 million (2005 est.)

Niger
  $453.3 million (2003)

Nigeria
  IMF, $250 million (1998)

Niue
  $2.6 million from New Zealand (2002)

Norfolk Island
  $NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  extensive funding from US

Oman
  $76.4 million (1995)

Pakistan
  $2.4 billion (FY01/02)

Palau
  $19.6 million; note - the Compact of Free Association with the
  US, entered into after the end of the UN trusteeship on 1 October
  1994, provides Palau with up to $700 million in US aid over 15 years
  in return for furnishing military facilities

Panama
  $197.1 million (1995)

Papua New Guinea
  $NA

Paraguay
  $NA

Peru
  $491 million (2002)

Philippines
  ODA commitments, $2 billion (2004)

Pitcairn Islands
  $3.465 million (2004)

Poland
  $13.9 billion in available EU structural adjustment and
  cohesion funds (2004-06)

Puerto Rico
  $NA

Qatar
  $NA

Reunion
  $NA; note - substantial annual subsidies from France (2001
  est.)

Romania
  $3.3 billion in committed EU pre-accession aid (2004-06)

Russia
  in FY01 from US, $979 million (including $750 million in
  non-proliferation subsidies); in 2001 from EU, $200 million (2000
  est.)

Rwanda
  $425 million (2003)

Saint Helena
  $12.6 million (1995); note - $5.3 million from UK (1997)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $-110,000 (2004)

Saint Lucia
  $-21.5 million (2004)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  approximately $60 million in annual grants
  from France

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $10.5 million (1995); note - EU
  $34.5 million (2004)

Samoa
  $30.8 million (2004)

San Marino
  $NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  $200 million in December 2000 under the HIPC
  program

Senegal
  $449.6 million (2003 est.)

Serbia
  $2 billion pledged in 2001 to Serbia and Montenegro
  (disbursements to follow over several years; aid pledged by EU and
  US has been placed on hold because of lack of cooperation by Serbia
  in handing over General Ratco MLADIC to the criminal court in The
  Hague)

Seychelles
  $16.4 million (1995)

Sierra Leone
  $297.4 million (2003 est.)

Singapore
  $NA

Slovakia
  $1.9 billion in committed EU structural adjustment and
  cohesion funds (2004-06)

Slovenia
  $484 million in committed EU structural adjustment and
  cohesion funds (2004-06)

Solomon Islands
  $122 million annually, mainly from Australia (2004
  est.)

Somalia
  $60 million (1999 est.)

South Africa
  $487.5 million (2000)

Sri Lanka
  $577 million (1998)

Sudan
  $172 million (2001)

Suriname
  $46 million Netherlands provided $37 million for project
  and program assistance, European Development Fund $4 million,
  Belgium $2 million (2003)

Svalbard
  $8.2 million from Norway (1998)

Swaziland
  $104 million (2001)

Syria
  $180 million (2002 est.)

Tajikistan
  $67 million from US (2005)

Tanzania
  $1.2 billion (2001)

Thailand
  $72 million (2002)

Togo
  ODA, $80 million (2000 est.)

Tokelau
  about $4 million annually from New Zealand

Tonga
  $19.3 million Australia $5.5 million, New Zealand $2.3 million
  (FY01/02)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $24 million (1999 est.)

Tunisia
  $114.6 million (2002)

Turkey
  ODA, $635.8 million (2002)

Turkmenistan
  $16 million from the US (2001)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $4.1 million (1997)

Tuvalu
  $13 million; note - major donors are Australia, Japan, and
  the US (1999 est.)

Uganda
  $959 million (2003)

Ukraine
  $637.7 million (1995); IMF Extended Funds Facility $2.2
  billion (1998)

Uruguay
  $NA

Uzbekistan
  $91.6 million from the US (2005)

Vanuatu
  $37.8 million (2004)

Venezuela
  $74 million (2000)

Vietnam
  $2.8 billion in credits and grants pledged by international
  donors for 2000 (2004)

Virgin Islands
  $NA

Wallis and Futuna
  assistance from France

West Bank
  $1.14 billion; note - includes Gaza Strip (2004 est.)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  $154 billion official development assistance (ODA) (2004)

Yemen
  $2.3 billion (2003-07 disbursements)

Zambia
  $640.6 million (2002)

Zimbabwe
  $178 million; note - the EU and the US provide food aid on
  humanitarian grounds (2000 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2065  Currency (code)


Afghanistan
  afghani (AFA)

Albania
  lek (ALL)

Algeria
  Algerian dinar (DZD)

American Samoa
  US dollar (USD)

Andorra
  euro (EUR)

Angola
  kwanza (AOA)

Anguilla
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Antigua and Barbuda
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Argentina
  Argentine peso (ARS)

Armenia
  dram (AMD)

Aruba
  Aruban guilder/florin (AWG)

Australia
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Austria
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijani manat (AZM)

Bahamas, The
  Bahamian dollar (BSD)

Bahrain
  Bahraini dinar (BHD)

Bangladesh
  taka (BDT)

Barbados
  Barbadian dollar (BBD)

Belarus
  Belarusian ruble (BYB/BYR)

Belgium
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Belize
  Belizean dollar (BZD)

Benin
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Bermuda
  Bermudian dollar (BMD)

Bhutan
  ngultrum (BTN); Indian rupee (INR)

Bolivia
  boliviano (BOB)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  marka (BAM)

Botswana
  pula (BWP)

Brazil
  real (BRL)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  both the British Pound (GBP) and the
  US Dollar (USD) are accepted

British Virgin Islands
  US dollar (USD)

Brunei
  Bruneian dollar (BND)

Bulgaria
  lev (BGL)

Burkina Faso
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Burma
  kyat (MMK)

Burundi
  Burundi franc (BIF)

Cambodia
  riel (KHR)

Cameroon
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note -
  responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Canada
  Canadian dollar (CAD)

Cape Verde
  Cape Verdean escudo (CVE)

Cayman Islands
  Caymanian dollar (KYD)

Central African Republic
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc
  (XAF); note - responsible authority is the Bank of the Central
  African States

Chad
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note - responsible
  authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Chile
  Chilean peso (CLP)

China
  yuan (CNY); note - also referred to as the Renminbi (RMB)

Christmas Island
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Colombia
  Colombian peso (COP)

Comoros
  Comoran franc (KMF)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Congolese franc (CDF)

Congo, Republic of the
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF);
  note - responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African
  States

Cook Islands
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Costa Rica
  Costa Rican colon (CRC)

Cote d'Ivoire
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Croatia
  kuna (HRK)

Cuba
  Cuban peso (CUP) and Convertible peso (CUC)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: Cypriot pound (CYP); Turkish Cypriot
  area: Turkish New lira (YTL)

Czech Republic
  Czech koruna (CZK)

Denmark
  Danish krone (DKK)

Djibouti
  Djiboutian franc (DJF)

Dominica
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Dominican Republic
  Dominican peso (DOP)

East Timor
  US dollar (USD)

Ecuador
  US dollar (USD)

Egypt
  Egyptian pound (EGP)

El Salvador
  US dollar (USD)

Equatorial Guinea
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note
  - responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Eritrea
  nakfa (ERN)

Estonia
  Estonian kroon (EEK)

Ethiopia
  birr (ETB)

European Union
  euro, British pound, Cypriot pound, Czech koruna,
  Danish krone, Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat,
  Lithuanian litas, Maltese lira, Polish zloty, Slovak koruna,
  Slovenian tolar, Swedish krona

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Falkland pound (FKP)

Faroe Islands
  Danish krone (DKK)

Fiji
  Fijian dollar (FJD)

Finland
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

France
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

French Guiana
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

French Polynesia
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

Gabon
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF); note -
  responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African States

Gambia, The
  dalasi (GMD)

Gaza Strip
  new Israeli shekel (ILS)

Georgia
  lari (GEL)

Germany
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Ghana
  cedi (GHC)

Gibraltar
  Gibraltar pound (GIP)

Greece
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Greenland
  Danish krone (DKK)

Grenada
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Guadeloupe
  euro (EUR)

Guam
  US dollar (USD)

Guatemala
  quetzal (GTQ), US dollar (USD), others allowed

Guernsey
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Guernsey pound

Guinea
  Guinean franc (GNF)

Guinea-Bissau
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Guyana
  Guyanese dollar (GYD)

Haiti
  gourde (HTG)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  euro (EUR)

Honduras
  lempira (HNL)

Hong Kong
  Hong Kong dollar (HKD)

Hungary
  forint (HUF)

Iceland
  Icelandic krona (ISK)

India
  Indian rupee (INR)

Indonesia
  Indonesian rupiah (IDR)

Iran
  Iranian rial (IRR)

Iraq
  New Iraqi dinar (NID) as of 22 January 2004

Ireland
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Isle of Man
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Manx pound

Israel
  new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency
  abbreviation; ILS is the International Organization for
  Standardization (ISO) code for the NIS

Italy
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Jamaica
  Jamaican dollar (JMD)

Japan
  yen (JPY)

Jersey
  British pound (GBP); note - there is also a Jersey pound

Jordan
  Jordanian dinar (JOD)

Kazakhstan
  tenge (KZT)

Kenya
  Kenyan shilling (KES)

Kiribati
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Korea, North
  North Korean won (KPW)

Korea, South
  South Korean won (KRW)

Kuwait
  Kuwaiti dinar (KD)

Kyrgyzstan


Laos
  kip (LAK)

Latvia
  Latvian lat (LVL)

Lebanon
  Lebanese pound (LBP)

Lesotho
  loti (LSL); South African rand (ZAR)

Liberia
  Liberian dollar (LRD)

Libya
  Libyan dinar (LYD)

Liechtenstein
  Swiss franc (CHF)

Lithuania
  litas (LTL)

Luxembourg
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Macau
  pataca (MOP)

Macedonia
  Macedonian denar (MKD)

Madagascar
  Madagascar ariary (MGA)

Malawi
  Malawian kwacha (MWK)

Malaysia
  ringgit (MYR)

Maldives
  rufiyaa (MVR)

Mali
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Malta
  Maltese lira (MTL)

Marshall Islands
  US dollar (USD)

Martinique
  euro (EUR)

Mauritania
  ouguiya (MRO)

Mauritius
  Mauritian rupee (MUR)

Mayotte
  euro (EUR)

Mexico
  Mexican peso (MXN)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  US dollar (USD)

Moldova
  Moldovan leu (MDL)

Monaco
  euro (EUR)

Mongolia
  togrog/tugrik (MNT)

Montenegro
  euro (EUR)

Montserrat
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Morocco
  Moroccan dirham (MAD)

Mozambique
  metical (MZM)

Namibia
  Namibian dollar (NAD); South African rand (ZAR)

Nauru
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Nepal
  Nepalese rupee (NPR)

Netherlands
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Netherlands Antilles
  Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG)

New Caledonia
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

New Zealand
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Nicaragua
  gold cordoba (NIO)

Niger
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States
  (BCEAO)

Nigeria
  naira (NGN)

Niue
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Norfolk Island
  Australian dollar (AUD)

Northern Mariana Islands
  US dollar (USD)

Norway
  Norwegian krone (NOK)

Oman
  Omani rial (OMR)

Pakistan
  Pakistani rupee (PKR)

Palau
  US dollar (USD)

Panama
  balboa (PAB); US dollar (USD)

Papua New Guinea
  kina (PGK)

Paraguay
  guarani (PYG)

Peru
  nuevo sol (PEN)

Philippines
  Philippine peso (PHP)

Pitcairn Islands
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Poland
  zloty (PLN)

Portugal
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of
  member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions within the member countries

Puerto Rico
  US dollar (USD)

Qatar
  Qatari rial (QAR)

Reunion
  euro (EUR)

Romania
  leu (ROL) is being phased out in 2006; "new" leu (RON) was
  introduced in 2005 due to currency revaluation: 10,000 ROL = 1 RON

Russia
  Russian ruble (RUR)

Rwanda
  Rwandan franc (RWF)

Saint Helena
  Saint Helenian pound (SHP)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Saint Lucia
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  euro (EUR)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  East Caribbean dollar (XCD)

Samoa
  tala (SAT)

San Marino
  euro (EUR)

Sao Tome and Principe
  dobra (STD)

Saudi Arabia
  Saudi riyal (SAR)

Senegal
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note -
  responsible authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Serbia
  new Yugoslav dinar (YUM); note - in Kosovo both the euro and
  the Yugoslav dinar are legal

Seychelles
  Seychelles rupee (SCR)

Sierra Leone
  leone (SLL)

Singapore
  Singapore dollar (SGD)

Slovakia
  Slovak koruna (SKK)

Slovenia
  tolar (SIT)

Solomon Islands
  Solomon Islands dollar (SBD)

Somalia
  Somali shilling (SOS)

South Africa
  rand (ZAR)

Spain
  euro (EUR)
  note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the
  euro as a common currency to be used by the financial institutions
  of member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole
  currency for everyday transactions with the member countries

Sri Lanka
  Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)

Sudan
  Sudanese dinar (SDD)

Suriname
  Surinam dollar (SRD)

Svalbard
  Norwegian krone (NOK)

Swaziland
  lilangeni (SZL)

Sweden
  Swedish krona (SEK)

Switzerland
  Swiss franc (CHF)

Syria
  Syrian pound (SYP)

Taiwan
  new Taiwan dollar (TWD)

Tajikistan
  somoni

Tanzania
  Tanzanian shilling (TZS)

Thailand
  baht (THB)

Togo
  Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XOF); note - responsible
  authority is the Central Bank of the West African States

Tokelau
  New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Tonga
  pa'anga (TOP)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD)

Tunisia
  Tunisian dinar (TND)

Turkey
  Turkish lira (YTL); old Turkish lira (TRL) before 1 January
  2005

Turkmenistan
  Turkmen manat (TMM)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  US dollar (USD)

Tuvalu
  Australian dollar (AUD); note - there is also a Tuvaluan
  dollar

Uganda
  Ugandan shilling (UGX)

Ukraine
  hryvnia (UAH)

United Arab Emirates
  Emirati dirham (AED)

United Kingdom
  British pound (GBP)

United States
  US dollar (USD)

Uruguay
  Uruguayan peso (UYU)

Uzbekistan
  Uzbekistani soum (UZS)

Vanuatu
  vatu (VUV)

Venezuela
  bolivar (VEB)

Vietnam
  dong (VND)

Virgin Islands
  US dollar (USD)

Wallis and Futuna
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (XPF)

West Bank
  new Israeli shekel (ILS); Jordanian dinar (JOD)

Western Sahara
  Moroccan dirham (MAD)

Yemen
  Yemeni rial (YER)

Zambia
  Zambian kwacha (ZMK)

Zimbabwe
  Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2066  Death rate (deaths/1,000 population)


Afghanistan
  20.34 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Albania
  5.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Algeria
  4.61 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  3.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Andorra
  6.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Angola
  24.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  5.34 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  5.37 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Argentina
  7.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Armenia
  8.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Aruba
  6.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Australia
  7.51 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Austria
  9.76 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  9.75 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  9.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  4.14 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Barbados
  8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belarus
  14.02 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belgium
  10.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belize
  5.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Benin
  12.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  7.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  12.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  8.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Botswana
  29.5 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Brazil
  6.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  4.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Brunei
  3.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  14.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  15.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burma
  9.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burundi
  13.46 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  9.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  13.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Canada
  7.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  6.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  4.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  18.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chad
  16.38 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chile
  5.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

China
  6.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Colombia
  5.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Comoros
  8.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  13.27 deaths/1,000 population
  (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  12.93 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Costa Rica
  4.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  14.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Croatia
  11.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cuba
  7.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  7.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  10.59 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Denmark
  10.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  19.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominica
  6.73 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  5.73 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

East Timor
  6.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  4.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Egypt
  5.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  5.78 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  15.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  9.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Estonia
  13.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  14.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

European Union
  10.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Faroe Islands
  8.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Fiji
  5.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Finland
  9.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

France
  9.14 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  4.88 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  4.69 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gabon
  12.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  12.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  3.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Georgia
  9.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Germany
  10.62 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ghana
  9.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  9.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greece
  10.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greenland
  7.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Grenada
  6.88 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  6.09 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guam
  4.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  5.2 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  10.01 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guinea
  15.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  16.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guyana
  8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Haiti
  12.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Honduras
  5.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  6.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hungary
  13.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iceland
  6.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

India
  8.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  6.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iran
  5.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iraq
  5.37 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ireland
  7.82 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  11.19 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Israel
  6.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Italy
  10.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  6.52 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Japan
  9.16 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jersey
  9.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jordan
  2.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  9.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kenya
  14.02 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  7.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  5.85 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  2.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  7.08 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Laos
  11.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Latvia
  13.66 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  6.21 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  28.71 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liberia
  23.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Libya
  3.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  7.18 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  10.98 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  8.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macau
  4.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  8.77 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  11.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malawi
  19.33 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  5.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Maldives
  7.06 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mali
  16.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malta
  8.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  4.78 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Martinique
  6.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  12.16 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  6.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  7.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mexico
  4.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  4.75 deaths/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Moldova
  12.64 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Monaco
  12.91 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  6.95 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Montenegro
  9.2 deaths/1,000 population (2004)

Montserrat
  7.1 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Morocco
  5.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  21.35 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Namibia
  18.86 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nauru
  6.7 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nepal
  9.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  8.68 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  6.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  5.69 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  4.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niger
  20.91 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  16.94 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niue
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Norfolk Island
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Northern Mariana Islands
  2.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Norway
  9.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Oman
  3.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  8.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Palau
  6.8 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Panama
  5.36 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  7.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  4.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Peru
  6.23 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Philippines
  5.41 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Poland
  9.89 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Portugal
  10.5 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  7.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Qatar
  4.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Reunion
  5.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Romania
  11.77 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Russia
  14.65 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  16.09 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  6.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  8.33 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  5.08 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  6.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  5.98 deaths/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Samoa
  6.62 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

San Marino
  8.17 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  6.47 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  2.58 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Senegal
  9.42 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  6.29 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  23.03 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Singapore
  4.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  9.45 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  10.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  3.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Somalia
  16.63 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

South Africa
  22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Spain
  9.72 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  6.52 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sudan
  8.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Suriname
  7.27 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Swaziland
  29.74 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sweden
  10.31 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  8.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Syria
  4.81 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  6.48 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  8.25 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  16.39 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Thailand
  7.04 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Togo
  9.83 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  NA deaths/1,000 population

Tonga
  5.28 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  10.57 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  5.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkey
  5.97 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  8.6 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  4.21 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  7.11 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uganda
  12.24 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  14.39 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  4.4 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  10.13 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United States
  8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  9.05 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  7.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  7.82 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  4.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  6.22 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  6.43 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA deaths/1,000 population

West Bank
  3.92 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA deaths/1,000 population

World
  8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Yemen
  8.3 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zambia
  19.93 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  21.84 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2067  Military expenditures - dollar figure


Afghanistan
  $122.4 million (2005 est.)

Albania
  $56.5 million (FY02)

Algeria
  $3 billion (2005 est.)

Angola
  $2 billion (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  $4.3 billion (FY99)

Armenia
  $135 million (FY01)

Australia
  $17.84 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $1.497 billion (FY01/02)

Azerbaijan
  $121 million (FY99)

Bahamas, The
  NA

Bahrain
  $627.7 million (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $1.01 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  NA

Belarus
  $420.5 million (2006)

Belgium
  $3.999 billion (2003)

Belize
  $19 million (2005 est.)

Benin
  $100.9 million (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  $4.03 million (2001)

Bhutan
  $8.29 million (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  $130 million (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $234.3 million (FY02)

Botswana
  $325.5 million (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $9.94 billion (2005 est.)

Brunei
  $290.7 million (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  $356 million (FY02)

Burkina Faso
  $74.83 million (2005 est.)

Burma
  $39 million (FY97)

Burundi
  $43.9 million (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $112 million (FY01 est.)

Cameroon
  $230.2 million (2005 est.)

Canada
  $9,801.7 million (2003)

Cape Verde
  $7.18 million (2005 est.)

Central African Republic
  $16.37 million (2005 est.)

Chad
  $68.95 million (2005 est.)

Chile
  $3.91 billion (2005 est.)

China
  $81.48 billion (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $3.3 billion (FY01)

Comoros
  $12.87 million (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $103.7 million (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $85.22 million (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  $83.46 million (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $246.6 million (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $620 million (2004)

Cuba
  $694 million (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  $384 million (FY02)

Czech Republic
  $2.17 billion (2004)

Denmark
  $3,271.6 million (2003)

Djibouti
  $29.05 million (2005 est.)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  $0 (2002 est.)

East Timor
  $4.4 million (FY03)

Ecuador
  $650 million (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $2.44 billion (2003)

El Salvador
  $161.7 million (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $152.2 million (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $220.1 million (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $155 million (2002 est.)

Ethiopia
  $295.9 million (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  $36 million (2004)

Finland
  $1.8 billion (FY98/99)

France
  $45 billion FY06 (2005)

French Guiana
  NA

Gabon
  $253.5 million (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $1.55 million (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  $23 million (FY00)

Germany
  $35.063 billion (2003)

Ghana
  $83.65 million (2005 est.)

Greece
  $5.89 billion (2004)

Grenada
  NA

Guatemala
  $169.8 million (2005 est.)

Guinea
  $119.7 million (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $9.46 million (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $6.48 million (2003 est.)

Haiti
  $25.96 million (2003 est.)

Honduras
  $52.8 million (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  Hong Kong garrison is funded by China; figures are NA

Hungary
  $1.08 billion (2002 est.)

Iceland
  0

India
  $19.04 billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $1.3 billion (2004)

Iran
  $4.3 billion (2003 est.)

Iraq
  $1.34 billion (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $700 million (FY00/01)

Israel
  $9.45 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $28,182.8 million (2003)

Jamaica
  $31.17 million (2003 est.)

Japan
  $44.31 billion (2005 est.)

Jordan
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $221.8 million (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Kenya
  $280.5 million (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  $5,217.4 million (FY02)

Korea, South
  $21.06 billion FY05 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $3.01 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $19.2 million (FY01)

Laos
  $11.04 million (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $87 million (FY01)

Lebanon
  $540.6 million (2004)

Lesotho
  $41.1 million (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $67.4 million (2005 est.)

Libya
  $1.3 billion (FY99)

Lithuania
  $230.8 million (FY01)

Luxembourg
  $231.6 million (2003)

Macedonia
  $200 million (FY01/02 est.)

Madagascar
  $329 million (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $15.81 million (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $1.69 billion (FY00 est.)

Maldives
  $45.07 million (2005 est.)

Mali
  $106.3 million (2005 est.)

Malta
  $38.168 million (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  NA

Mauritania
  $19.32 million (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $12.04 million (2005 est.)

Mexico
  $6.07 billion (2005 est.)

Moldova
  $8.7 million (2004)

Mongolia
  $23.1 million (FY02)

Montenegro
  $2.306 billion

Morocco
  $2.31 billion (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  $78.03 million (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $149.5 million (2005 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  $104.9 million (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $9.408 billion (2004)

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  $1.147 billion (FY03/04)

Nicaragua
  $32.27 million (2005 est.)

Niger
  $44.78 million (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $737.6 million (2005 est.)

Norway
  $4,033.5 million (2003)

Oman
  $252.99 million (2004)

Pakistan
  $4.26 billion (2005 est.)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  $150 million (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $16.9 million (2003)

Paraguay
  $53.1 million (2003 est.)

Peru
  $829.3 million (2003 est.)

Philippines
  $836.9 million (2005 est.)

Poland
  $3.5 billion (2002)

Portugal
  $3,497.8 million (2003)

Qatar
  $723 million (FY00)

Romania
  $985 million (2002)

Russia
  NA

Rwanda
  $53.66 million (2005 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  NA

San Marino
  $700,000 (FY00/01)

Sao Tome and Principe
  $581,729 (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $18 billion (2002)

Senegal
  $117.3 million (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $14.85 million

Seychelles
  $14.85 million (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $14.25 million (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $4.47 billion (FY01 est.)

Slovakia
  $406 million (2002)

Slovenia
  $370 million (FY00)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  $22.34 million (2005 est.)

South Africa
  $3.55 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $9,906.5 million (2003)

Sri Lanka
  $606.2 million (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $587 million (2001 est.) (2004)

Suriname
  $7.5 million (2003 est.)

Svalbard
  $5.501 billion

Swaziland
  $41.6 million (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $5.51 billion (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $2.548 billion (FY01)

Syria
  $858 million (FY00 est.); note - based on official budget data
  that may understate actual spending

Taiwan
  $7.93 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $35.4 million (FY01)

Tanzania
  $21.2 million (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $1.775 billion (FY00)

Togo
  $29.98 million (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  $66.72 million

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  $66.72 million (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  $356 million (FY99)

Turkey
  $12.155 billion (2003)

Turkmenistan
  $90 million (FY99)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $192.8 million

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  $192.8 million (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $617.9 million (FY02)

United Arab Emirates
  $1.6 billion (FY00)

United Kingdom
  $42,836.5 million (2003)

United States
  $518.1 billion (FY04 est.) (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $371.2 million (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $200 million (FY97)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  $1.61 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $650 million (FY98)

West Bank
  NA

Western Sahara
  $992.2 million

World
  aggregate real expenditure on arms worldwide has increased in
  the beginning of the 21st century, with the largest increase in the
  US; a rough estimate for 2005 is $1.2 trillion (at puchasing power
  parity) (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $992.2 million (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $121.7 million (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $124.7 million (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 2 November, 2006



======================================================================




@2068  Dependent areas


Australia
  Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos
  (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald
  Islands, Norfolk Island, Macquarie Island

France
  Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, French
  Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Glorioso Islands,
  Juan de Nova Island, New Caledonia, Tromelin Island, Wallis and
  Futuna
  note: the US does not recognize claims to Antarctica

Netherlands
  Aruba, Netherlands Antilles

New Zealand
  Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau

Norway
  Bouvet Island, Jan Mayen, Svalbard

United Kingdom
  Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
  British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,
  Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena and Ascension, South
  Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

United States
  American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island,
  Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa
  Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, Virgin
  Islands, Wake Island
  note: from 18 July 1947 until 1 October 1994, the US administered
  the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; it entered into a
  political relationship with all four political units: the Northern
  Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in political union with the US
  (effective 3 November 1986); the Republic of the Marshall Islands
  signed a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 21
  October 1986); the Federated States of Micronesia signed a Compact
  of Free Association with the US (effective 3 November 1986); Palau
  concluded a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 1
  October 1994)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2070  Disputes - international


Afghanistan
  most Afghan refugees in Pakistan have been repatriated,
  but thousands still remain in Iran, many at their own choosing;
  Coalition and Pakistani forces continue to patrol remote tribal
  areas to control the borders and stem organized terrorist and other
  illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings between Pakistani
  and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary
  encroachments; regional conflicts over water-sharing arrangements
  with Amu Darya and Helmand River states

Albania
  the Albanian Government calls for the protection of the
  rights of ethnic Albanians in neighboring countries, and the
  peaceful resolution of interethnic disputes; some ethnic Albanian
  groups in neighboring countries advocate for a "greater Albania,"
  but the idea has little appeal among Albanian nationals; thousands
  of unemployed Albanians emigrate annually to nearby Italy and other
  developed countries

Algeria
  Algeria supports the exiled Sahrawi Polisario Front and
  rejects Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; most of the
  approximately 102,000 Western Saharan Sahrawi refugees are sheltered
  in camps in Tindouf, Algeria; Algeria's border with Morocco remains
  an irritant to bilateral relations, each nation accusing the other
  of harboring militants and arms smuggling; in an attempt to improve
  relations, Morocco, in mid-2004, unilaterally lifted the requirement
  that Algerians visiting Morocco possess entry visas - a gesture not
  reciprocated by Algeria; Algeria remains concerned about armed
  bandits operating throughout the Sahel who sometimes destabilize
  southern Algerian towns; dormant disputes include Libyan claims of
  about 32,000 sq km still reflected on its maps of southeastern
  Algeria and the FLN's assertions of a claim to Chirac Pastures in
  southeastern Morocco

American Samoa
  none

Andorra
  none

Angola
  many Cabinda exclave secessionists have sought shelter in
  neighboring states

Anguilla
  none

Antarctica
  Antarctic Treaty freezes claims (see Antarctic Treaty
  Summary in government type entry); Argentina, Australia, Chile,
  France, NZ, Norway, and UK claim land and maritime sectors (some
  overlapping) for a large portion of the continent; the US and many
  other states do not recognize these territorial claims and have made
  no claims themselves (the US and Russia reserve the right to do so);
  no claims have been made in the sector between 90 degrees west and
  150 degrees west; several states with territorial claims in
  Antarctica have expressed their intention to submit data to the UN
  Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to extend their
  continental shelf claims to adjoining undersea ridges

Antigua and Barbuda
  none

Arctic Ocean
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

Argentina
  Argentina continues to assert its claims to the
  UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia
  and the South Sandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly
  occupying the Falklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed no longer to
  seek settlement by force; territorial claim in Antarctica partially
  overlaps UK and Chilean claims (see Antarctic disputes); unruly
  region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders is locus
  of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics
  trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations;
  uncontested dispute between Brazil and Uruguay over Braziliera
  Island in the Quarai/Cuareim River leaves the tripoint with
  Argentina in question; action by the joint boundary commission,
  established by Chile and Argentina in 2001, for mapping and
  demarcating the disputed boundary in the Andean Southern Ice Field
  (Campo de Hielo Sur) remains pending

Armenia
  Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in
  Nagorno-Karabakh and since the early 1990s, has militarily occupied
  16% of Azerbaijan - Organization for Security and Cooperation in
  Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; over 800,000 mostly
  ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia;
  about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in
  Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through
  Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave; border with Turkey remains
  closed over Nagorno-Karabakh dispute; ethnic Armenian groups in
  Javakheti region of Georgia seek greater autonomy; tens of thousands
  of Armenians emigrate, primarily to Russia, to seek employment

Aruba
  none

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  Indonesian groups challenge Australia's
  claim to Ashmore Reef; Australia has closed the surrounding waters
  to Indonesian traditional fishing and created a national park in the
  region while continuing to prospect for hydrocarbons in the vicinity

Atlantic Ocean
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

Australia
  East Timor and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the
  disputed portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split
  hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development
  Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor dispute
  hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia (see
  also Ashmore and Cartier Islands dispute); regional states express
  concern over Australia's 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical
  mile-wide maritime identification zone; Australia asserts land and
  maritime claims to Antarctica (see Antarctica); in 2004 Australia
  submitted its claims to UN Commission on the Limits of the
  Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental margin from both
  its mainland and Antarctic claims

Austria
  Austrian anti-nuclear activists have revived blockades of
  the Czech-Austrian border to protest operation of the Temelin
  nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic

Azerbaijan
  Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in
  Nagorno-Karabakh and since the early 1990s has militarily occupied
  16% of Azerbaijan; over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were
  driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic
  Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia;
  Azerbaijan seeks transit route through Armenia to connect to
  Naxcivan exclave; Organization for Security and Cooperation in
  Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
  and Russia ratify Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on
  equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on an even one-fifth
  allocation and challenges Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon exploration in
  disputed waters; bilateral talks continue with Turkmenistan on
  dividing the seabed and contested oilfields in the middle of the
  Caspian; Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to discuss the alignment of
  their boundary at certain crossing areas

Bahamas, The
  disagrees with the US on the alignment of the maritime
  boundary; continues to monitor and interdict Haitian refugees
  fleeing economic privation and political instability

Bahrain
  none

Baker Island
  none

Bangladesh
  discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small
  section of river boundary, exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in both
  countries, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border
  trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the
  porous border; Bangladesh resists India's attempts to fence or wall
  off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint
  Bangladesh-India boundary inspection in 2005 revealed 92 pillars are
  missing; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha
  Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation;
  Burmese Muslim refugees strain Bangladesh's meager resources

Barbados
  in 2005, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago agreed to
  compulsory international arbitration that will result in a binding
  award challenging whether the northern limit of Trinidad and
  Tobago's and Venezuela's maritime boundary extends into Barbadian
  waters and the southern limit of Barbadian traditional fishing;
  joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's claim that Aves
  Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under the UN
  Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela
  to extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the
  Caribbean Sea

Bassas da India
  claimed by Madagascar

Belarus
  1997 boundary treaty with Ukraine remains unratified over
  unresolved financial claims, preventing demarcation and diminishing
  border security; the whole boundary with Latvia and more than half
  the boundary with Lithuania remains undemarcated; discussions toward
  economic and political union with Russia proceed slowly

Belgium
  none

Belize
  Guatemalan squatters continue to settle in the largely
  uninhabited rain forests of Belize's border region; OAS seeks to
  revive the 2002 failed Belize-Guatemala Differendum that created a
  small adjustment to land boundary, a Guatemalan maritime corridor in
  Caribbean, joint ecological park for disputed Sapodilla Cays, and
  substantial US-UK financial package

Benin
  Benin and Burkina Faso military clash in 2006 over sections of
  riverine boundary involving disputed villages and squatters; much of
  Benin-Niger boundary, including tripoint with Nigeria, remains
  undemarcated; in 2005, Nigeria ceded thirteen villages to Benin as a
  consequence of a 2004 joint task force to resolve maritime and land
  boundary disputes, but clashes among rival gangs along the border
  persist; a joint boundary commission continues to resurvey the
  boundary with Togo to verify Benin's claim that Togo moved boundary
  stones

Bermuda
  none

Bhutan
  approximately 105,000 Bhutanese have lived decades as
  refugees in Nepal, 90% of whom reside in seven UN Office of the High
  Commissioner for Refugees camps; Bhutan cooperates with India to
  expel Indian separatists

Bolivia
  Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the
  Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead
  unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for
  Bolivian natural gas and other commodities

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and
  Montenegro have delimited most of their boundary, but sections along
  the Drina River remain in dispute; discussions continue with Croatia
  on several small disputed sections of the boundary related to
  maritime access that hinder ratification of the 1999 border agreement

Botswana
  commission established with Namibia has yet to resolve
  small residual disputes along the Caprivi Strip, including the
  Situngu marshlands along the Linyanti River; downstream Botswana
  residents protest Namibia's planned construction of the Okavango
  hydroelectric dam at Popavalle (Popa Falls); Botswana has built
  electric fences to stem the thousands of Zimbabweans who flee to
  find work and escape political persecution; Namibia has long
  supported and in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between
  Botswana and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi River,
  thereby de facto recognizing their short, but not clearly delimited
  Botswana-Zambia boundary

Bouvet Island
  none

Brazil
  unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay
  borders is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal
  narcotics trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations;
  uncontested dispute with Uruguay over certain islands in the
  Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada boundary streams and the resulting
  tripoint with Argentina; in 2004 Brazil submitted its claims to the
  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to extend
  its maritime continental margin

British Indian Ocean Territory
  Mauritius and Seychelles claim the
  Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia; in 2001 the former
  inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago, evicted in 1965 and now
  residing chiefly in Mauritius, were granted UK citizenship and the
  right to repatriation; the UK resists the Chagossians' demand for an
  immediate return to the islands; repatriation is complicated by the
  exclusive US military lease of Diego Garcia that restricts access to
  the largest island in the chain;

British Virgin Islands
  none

Brunei
  in 2003 Brunei and Malaysia ceased gas and oil exploration in
  their disputed offshore and deepwater seabeds and negotiations have
  stalemated prompting consideration of international legal
  adjudication; Malaysia's land boundary with Brunei around Limbang is
  in dispute; Brunei established an exclusive economic fishing zone
  encompassing Louisa Reef in southern Spratly Islands in 1984 but
  makes no public territorial claim to the offshore reefs; the 2002
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" has
  eased tensions in the Spratly Islands but falls short of a legally
  binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants

Bulgaria
  none

Burkina Faso
  two villages are in dispute along the border with
  Benin; Benin accuses Burkina Faso of moving boundary pillars;
  Burkina Faso border regions remain a staging area for Liberia and
  Cote d'Ivoire rebels and an asylum for refugees caught in local
  fighting; the Ivoirian Government accuses Burkina Faso of sheltering
  Ivoirian rebels

Burma
  over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic
  groups with substantial numbers of kin beyond its borders; despite
  continuing border committee talks, significant differences remain
  with Thailand over boundary alignment and the handling of ethnic
  rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border activities; ethnic Karens
  flee into Thailand to escape fighting between Karen rebels and
  Burmese troops; in 2005 Thailand sheltered about 121,000 Burmese
  refugees; Karens also protest Thai support for a Burmese
  hydroelectric dam on the Salween River near the border;
  environmentalists in Burma and Thailand continue to voice concern
  over China's construction of hydroelectric dams upstream on the
  Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan Province; India seeks cooperation
  from Burma to keep Indian Nagaland separatists from hiding in remote
  Burmese uplands

Burundi
  Tutsi, Hutu, other conflicting ethnic groups, associated
  political rebels, armed gangs, and various government forces
  continue fighting in the Great Lakes region, transcending the
  boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and
  Uganda in an effort to gain control over populated and natural
  resource areas; government heads pledge to end conflict, but
  localized violence continues despite the presence of about 6,000
  peacekeepers from the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB) since 2004;
  although some 150,000 Burundian refugees have been repatriated, as
  of February 2005, Burundian refugees still reside in camps in
  western Tanzania as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cambodia
  Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to
  check the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Thailand dispute
  sections of boundary with missing boundary markers and Thai
  encroachments into Cambodian territory; maritime boundary with
  Vietnam is hampered by unresolved dispute over offshore islands;
  Cambodia accuses Thailand of obstructing access to Preah Vihear
  temple ruins awarded to Cambodia by ICJ decision in 1962; in 2004,
  Cambodian-Laotian and Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commissions
  re-erected missing markers completing most of their demarcations

Cameroon
  ICJ ruled in 2002 on the entire Cameroon-Nigeria land and
  maritime boundary but the parties formed a Joint Border Commission,
  which continues to meet regularly to resolve differences bilaterally
  and have commenced with demarcation in less-contested sections of
  the boundary, starting in Lake Chad in the north; implementation of
  the ICJ ruling on the Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime
  boundary in the Gulf of Guinea is impeded by imprecisely defined
  coordinates and a sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea and
  Cameroon over an island at the mouth of the Ntem River; Nigeria
  initially rejected cession of the Bakassi Peninsula, then agreed,
  but much of the indigenous population opposes cession; only Nigeria
  and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to
  ratify the delimitation treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger
  and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Canada
  managed maritime boundary disputes with the US at Dixon
  Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and around the
  disputed Machias Seal Island and North Rock; working toward greater
  cooperation with US in monitoring people and commodities crossing
  the border; uncontested sovereignty dispute with Denmark over Hans
  Island in the Kennedy Channel between Ellesmere Island and Greenland

Cape Verde
  none

Cayman Islands
  none

Central African Republic
  about 30,000 refugees fleeing the 2002
  civil conflict in the CAR still reside in southern Chad; periodic
  skirmishes over water and grazing rights among related pastoral
  populations along the border with southern Sudan persist

Chad
  since the expulsions of residents from Darfur in 2003 by
  Janjawid armed militia and Sudanese military, about 200,000 refugees
  remain in eastern Chad; Chad remains an important mediator in the
  Sudanese civil conflict, reducing tensions with Sudan arising from
  cross-border banditry; Chadian Aozou rebels reside in southern
  Libya; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded the Lake Chad
  Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation treaty, which
  also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Chile
  Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the
  Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead
  unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile to
  Bolivian gas and other commodities; Peru proposes changing its
  latitudinal maritime boundary with Chile to an equidistance line
  with a southwestern axis; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean
  Antarctic Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British
  claims; action by the joint boundary commission, established by
  Chile and Argentina in 2001, for mapping and demarcating the
  disputed boundary in the Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo
  Sur) remains pending

China
  in 2005, China and India began drafting principles to resolve
  all aspects of their extensive boundary and territorial disputes
  together with a security and foreign policy dialogue to consolidate
  discussions related to the boundary, regional nuclear proliferation,
  and other matters; recent talks and confidence-building measures
  have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, site of the world's
  largest and most militarized territorial dispute with portions under
  the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and
  Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas); India does
  not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in
  1964; about 90,000 ethnic Tibetan exiles reside primarily in India
  as well as Nepal and Bhutan; China asserts sovereignty over the
  Spratly Islands together with Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan,
  Vietnam, and possibly Brunei; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct
  of Parties in the South China Sea" has eased tensions in the
  Spratlys but is not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by
  some parties; Vietnam and China continue to expand construction of
  facilities in the Spratlys and in March 2005, the national oil
  companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint
  accord on marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands; China
  occupies some of the Paracel Islands also claimed by Vietnam and
  Taiwan; China and Taiwan have become more vocal in rejecting both
  Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu
  Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared equidistance line in the East
  China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting; certain
  islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers are in an uncontested dispute
  with North Korea and a section of boundary around Mount Paektu is
  considered indefinite; China seeks to stem illegal migration of tens
  of thousands of North Koreans; China and Russia prepare to demarcate
  the boundary agreed to in October 2004 between the long-disputed
  islands at the Amur and Ussuri; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
  boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
  delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004,
  implementation has been delayed; environmentalists in Burma and
  Thailand remain concerned about China's construction of
  hydroelectric dams upstream on the Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan
  Province

Christmas Island
  none

Clipperton Island
  none

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none

Colombia
  Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and
  against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary
  involving 50,000 sq km in the Caribbean Sea, including the
  Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank;
  dispute with Venezuela over maritime boundary and Los Monjes Islands
  near the Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized illegal narcotics,
  guerrilla, and paramilitary activities penetrate all of its
  neighbors' borders and have created a serious refugee crisis with
  over 300,000 persons having fled the country, mostly into
  neighboring states

Comoros
  claims French-administered Mayotte

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  heads of the Great Lakes states
  and UN pledge to end conflict but unchecked tribal, rebel, and
  militia fighting continues unabated in the northeastern region of
  the Democratic Republic of the Congo, drawing in the neighboring
  states of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda; the UN Organization Mission in
  the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has maintained over
  14,000 peacekeepers in the region since 1999; thousands of Ituri
  refugees from the Congo continue to flee the fighting primarily into
  Uganda; 90,000 Angolan refugees were repatriated by 2004 with the
  remainder in the DRC expected to return in 2005; in 2005, DRC and
  Rwanda established a border verification mechanism to address
  accusations of Rwandan military supporting Congolese rebels and the
  DRC providing rebel Rwandan "Interhamwe" forces the means and bases
  to attack Rwandan forces; the location of the boundary in the broad
  Congo River with the Republic of the Congo is indefinite except in
  the Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area

Congo, Republic of the
  about 7,000 Congolese refugees fleeing
  internal civil conflicts since the mid-1990s still reside in the
  Democratic Republic of the Congo; the location of the boundary in
  the broad Congo River with the Democratic Republic of the Congo is
  indefinite except in the Pool Malebo/Stanley Pool area

Cook Islands
  none

Coral Sea Islands
  none

Costa Rica
  in September 2005, Costa Rica took its case before the
  ICJ to advocate the navigation, security, and commercial rights of
  Costa Rican vessels using the Río San Juan over which Nicaragua
  retains sovereignty

Cote d'Ivoire
  rebel and ethnic fighting against the central
  government in 2002 has spilled into neighboring states, driven out
  foreign cocoa workers from nearby countries, and, in 2004, resulted
  in 6,000 peacekeepers deployed as part of UN Operation in Cote
  d'Ivoire (UNOCI) assisting 4,000 French troops already in-country;
  the Ivorian Government accuses Burkina Faso and Liberia of
  supporting Ivorian rebels

Croatia
  discussions continue with Bosnia and Herzegovina over
  several small disputed sections of the boundary related to maritime
  access that hinders ratification of the 1999 border agreement; the
  Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which would
  have ceded most of Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and
  several villages to Croatia, remains un-ratified and in dispute; as
  a European Union peripheral state, neighboring Slovenia must conform
  to the strict Schengen border rules to curb illegal migration and
  commerce through southeastern Europe while encouraging close
  cross-border ties with Croatia

Cuba
  US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased to US and only mutual
  agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease

Cyprus
  hostilities in 1974 divided the island into two de facto
  autonomous entities, the internationally recognized Cypriot
  Government and a Turkish-Cypriot community (north Cyprus); the
  1,000-strong UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has served in
  Cyprus since 1964 and maintains the buffer zone between north and
  south; March 2003 reunification talks failed, but Turkish-Cypriots
  later opened their borders to temporary visits by Greek Cypriots; on
  24 April 2004, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities
  voted in simultaneous and parallel referenda on whether to approve
  the UN-brokered Annan Plan that would have ended the 30-year
  division of the island by establishing a new "United Cyprus
  Republic," a majority of Greek Cypriots voted "no"; on 1 May 2004,
  Cyprus entered the European Union still divided, with the EU's body
  of legislation and standards (acquis communitaire) suspended in the
  north

Czech Republic
  in February 2005, the ICJ refused to rule on the
  restitution of Liechtenstein's land and property assets in the Czech
  Republic confiscated in 1945 as German property; individual Sudeten
  Germans seek restitution for property confiscated in connection with
  their expulsion from Czechoslovakia after World War II; Austrian
  anti-nuclear activists have revived blockades of the Czech-Austrian
  border to protest operation of the Temelin nuclear power plant in
  the Czech Republic

Denmark
  Iceland disputes the Faroe Islands' fisheries median line;
  Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe
  Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm; Faroese continue
  to study proposals for full independence; uncontested sovereignty
  dispute with Canada over Hans Island in the Kennedy Channel between
  Ellesmere Island and Greenland

Djibouti
  Djibouti maintains economic ties and border accords with
  "Somaliland" leadership while maintaining some political ties to
  various factions in Somalia; thousands of Somali refugees await
  repatriation in UNHCR camps in Djibouti

Dominica
  Dominica is the only Caribbean state to challenge
  Venezuela's sovereignty claim over Aves Island and joins the other
  island nations in challenging whether the feature sustains human
  habitation, a criterion under the UN Convention on the Law of the
  Sea (UNCLOS), which permits Venezuela to extend its Exclusive
  Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf claims over a large
  portion of the Caribbean Sea

Dominican Republic
  increasing numbers of illegal migrants from the
  Dominican Republic cross the Mona Passage each year to Puerto Rico
  to find work

East Timor
  UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) has
  maintained about 1,000 peacekeepers in East Timor since 2002; East
  Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee continues to meet, survey, and
  delimit the land boundary, but several sections of the boundary
  especially around the Oekussi enclave remain unresolved; Indonesia
  and East Timor contest the sovereignty of the uninhabited coral
  island of Pulau Batek/Fatu Sinai, which prevents delimitation of the
  northern maritime boundaries; many refugees who left East Timor in
  2003 still reside in Indonesia and refuse repatriation; Australia
  and East Timor agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the
  boundary for 50 years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly
  outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002
  Timor Sea Treaty; dispute with Australia has hampered creation of a
  southern maritime boundary with Indonesia

Ecuador
  organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia penetrate
  across Ecuador's shared border and caused over 20,000 refugees to
  flee into Ecuador in 2004

Egypt
  Egypt and Sudan retain claims to administer the two triangular
  areas that extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along
  the 22nd Parallel, but have withdrawn their military presence; Egypt
  is developing the Hala'ib Triangle north of the Treaty line; since
  the attack on Taba and other Egyptian resort towns on the Red Sea in
  October 2004, Egypt vigilantly monitors the Sinai and borders with
  Israel and the Gaza Strip; Egypt does not extend domestic asylum to
  some 70,000 persons who identify themselves as Palestinians but who
  largely lack UNRWA assistance and, until recently, UNHCR recognition
  as refugees

El Salvador
  in 1992, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled
  on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El
  Salvador-Honduras boundary, but despite Organization of American
  States (OAS) intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full
  demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling
  advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf
  of Fonseca advocating Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador
  continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not identified in the ICJ
  decision, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca

Equatorial Guinea
  in 2002, ICJ ruled on an equidistance settlement
  of Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf
  of Guinea, but a dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over
  an island at the mouth of the Ntem River, imprecisely defined
  maritime coordinates in the ICJ decision, and the unresolved Bakasi
  allocation contribute to the delay in implementation; UN has been
  pressing Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to pledge to resolve the
  sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and create a
  maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay

Eritrea
  Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by 2002
  Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision,
  but despite international intervention, mutual animosities,
  accusations, and armed posturing have prevented demarcation;
  Ethiopia refuses to withdraw to the delimited boundary until claimed
  technical errors made by the EEBC that ignored "human geography" are
  addressed, including the award of Badme, the focus of the 1998-2000
  war; Eritrea insists that the EEBC decision be implemented
  immediately without modifications; in 2005 Eritrea began severely
  restricting the operations of the UN Peacekeeping Mission to
  Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) monitoring the 25km-wide Temporary
  Security Zone in Eritrea since 2000; Sudan sustains over 110,000
  Eritrean refugees and accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel
  groups

Estonia
  in 2005, Russia refuses to sign the 1996 technical border
  agreement with Estonia when Estonia prepares a unilateral
  declaration referencing Soviet occupation and territorial losses;
  Russia demands better accommodation of Russian-speaking population
  in Estonia; Estonian citizen groups continue to press for
  realignment of the boundary based on the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty
  that would bring the now divided ethnic Setu people and parts of the
  Narva region within Estonia; as a member state that forms part of
  the EU's external border, Estonia must implement the strict Schengen
  border rules

Ethiopia
  Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the 2002
  Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's (EEBC) delimitation decision,
  but mutual animosities, accusations, and armed posturing prevail,
  preventing demarcation despite international intervention; Ethiopia
  refuses to withdraw to the delimited boundary until technical errors
  made by the EEBC that ignored "human geography" are addressed,
  including the award of Badme, the focus of the 1998-2000 war;
  Eritrea insists that the EEBC decision be implemented immediately
  without modifications; Ethiopia has only an administrative line and
  no international border with the Oromo region of southern Somalia
  where it maintains alliances with local clans in opposition to the
  unrecognized Somali Interim Government in Mogadishu; "Somaliland"
  secessionists provide port facilities and trade ties to landlocked
  Ethiopia; efforts to demarcate the porous boundary with Sudan have
  been delayed by civil war

Europa Island
  claimed by Madagascar

European Union
  as a political union, the EU has no border disputes
  with neighboring countries, but Estonia and Latvia have no land
  boundary agreements with Russia, Slovenia disputes its land and
  maritime boundaries with Croatia, and Spain has territorial and
  maritime disputes with Morocco; the EU has set up a Schengen area -
  consisting of 13 EU member states that have signed the convention
  implementing the Schengen agreements (1985 and 1990) on the free
  movement of persons and the harmonization of border controls in
  Europe; the Schengen agreements ("acquis") became incorporated into
  EU law with the implementation of the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam on 1
  May 1999; member states are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
  France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal,
  Spain, and Sweden; in addition, non-EU states Iceland and Norway (as
  part of the Nordic Union) have been included in the Schengen area
  since 1996 (full members in 2001), bringing the total current
  membership to 15; the UK (since 2000) and Ireland (since 2002) take
  part in some aspects of the Schengen area, especially with respect
  to police and criminal matters; the 10 new member states that joined
  the EU in 2004 eventually are expected to participate in Schengen,
  following a transition period to upgrade their border controls and
  procedures

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Argentina, which claims the
  islands in its constitution and briefly occupied them by force in
  1982, agreed in 1995 to no longer seek settlement by force; UK
  continues to reject Argentine requests for sovereignty talks

Faroe Islands
  because anticipated offshore hydrocarbon resources
  have not been realized, earlier Faroese proposals for full
  independence have been deferred; Iceland disputes the Faroe Islands'
  fisheries median line boundary; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute
  Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends
  beyond 200 nm

Fiji
  none

Finland
  various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia
  and other areas ceded to the Soviet Union, but the Finnish
  Government asserts no territorial demands

France
  Madagascar claims the French territories of Bassas da India,
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, and Juan de Nova Island; Comoros
  claims Mayotte; Mauritius claims Tromelin Island; territorial
  dispute between Suriname and the French overseas department of
  French Guiana; France asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica
  (Adelie Land); France and Vanuatu claim Matthew and Hunter Islands,
  east of New Caledonia

French Guiana
  Suriname claims area between Riviere Litani and
  Riviere Marouini (both headwaters of the Lawa) in French Guiana

French Polynesia
  none

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  French claim to "Adelie Land" in
  Antarctica is not recognized by the US

Gabon
  UN presses Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to resolve the
  sovereignty dispute over Gabon-occupied Mbane Island and to
  establish a maritime boundary in hydrocarbon-rich Corisco Bay; only
  a few hundred out of the 20,000 Republic of the Congo refugees who
  fled militia fighting in 2000 remain in Gabon

Gambia, The
  attempts to stem refugees, cross-border raids, arms
  smuggling, and other illegal activities by separatists from southern
  Senegal's Casamance region, as well as from conflicts in other west
  African states

Gaza Strip
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with
  current status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement
  - permanent status to be determined through further negotiation;
  Israel removed settlers and military personnel from the Gaza Strip
  in August 2005

Georgia
  Russia and Georgia agree on delimiting 80% of their common
  border, leaving certain small, strategic segments and the maritime
  boundary unresolved; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas such as
  the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Argun Gorge in
  Abkhazia; UN Observer Mission in Georgia has maintained a
  peacekeeping force in Georgia since 1993; Meshkheti Turks scattered
  throughout the former Soviet Union seek to return to Georgia;
  boundary with Armenia remains undemarcated; ethnic Armenian groups
  in Javakheti region of Georgia seek greater autonomy from the
  Georgian government; Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to discuss the
  alignment of their boundary at certain crossing areas

Germany
  none

Ghana
  Ghana struggles to accommodate returning nationals who worked
  in the cocoa plantations and escaped fighting in Cote d'Ivoire

Gibraltar
  in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by
  referendum to reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement; the
  government of Gibraltar insists on equal participation in talks
  between the UK and Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant
  Gibraltar even greater autonomy

Glorioso Islands
  claimed by Madagascar

Greece
  Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their
  complex maritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the
  Aegean Sea; Cyprus question with Turkey; Greece rejects the use of
  the name Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia

Greenland
  managed dispute between Canada and Denmark over Hans
  Island in the Kennedy Channel between Canada's Ellesmere Island and
  Greenland

Grenada
  none

Guadeloupe
  none

Guam
  none

Guatemala
  Guatemalan squatters continue to settle in the rain
  forests of Belize's border region; Organization of American States
  (OAS) is attempting to revive the 2002 failed Differendum that
  created a small adjustment to land boundary, a Guatemalan maritime
  corridor in Caribbean, a joint ecological park for the disputed
  Sapodilla Cays, and a substantial US-UK financial package;
  Guatemalans enter Mexico illegally seeking work or transit to the US

Guernsey
  none

Guinea
  conflicts among rebel groups, warlords, and youth gangs in
  neighboring states have spilled over into Guinea, resulting in
  domestic instability; Sierra Leone has pressured Guinea to remove
  its forces from the town of Yenga, occupied since 1998

Guinea-Bissau
  attempts to stem refugees and cross-border raids, arms
  smuggling, and political instability from a separatist movement in
  Senegal's Casamance region

Guyana
  all of the area west of the Essequibo (river) is claimed by
  Venezuela preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana
  has expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims
  before UNCLOS that Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with
  Venezuela extends into their waters; Suriname claims a triangle of
  land between the New and Kutari/Koetari rivers in a historic dispute
  over the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks arbitration
  under provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
  to resolve the long-standing dispute with Suriname over the axis of
  the territorial sea boundary in potentially oil-rich waters

Haiti
  since 2004, about 8,000 peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization
  Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) maintain civil order in Haiti; despite
  efforts to control illegal migration, Haitians fleeing economic
  privation and civil unrest continue to cross into the Dominican
  Republic and sail to neighboring countries; Haiti claims
  US-administered Navassa Island

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  none

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none

Honduras
  in 1992, International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the
  delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El
  Salvador-Honduras border, but despite Organization of American
  States (OAS) intervention and a further ICJ ruling in 2003, full
  demarcation of the border remains stalled; the 1992 ICJ ruling
  advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf
  of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El
  Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the
  ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca; Honduras claims
  Sapodilla Cays off the coast of Belize, but agreed to creation of a
  joint ecological park and Guatemalan corridor in the Caribbean in
  the failed 2002 Belize-Guatemala Differendum, which the OAS is
  attempting to revive; Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in
  1999 and against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over a complex dispute
  over islands and maritime boundaries in the Caribbean Sea

Hong Kong
  none

Howland Island
  none

Hungary
  in 2004, Hungary amended the status law extending special
  social and cultural benefits - and voted down a referendum to extend
  dual citizenship - to ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring
  states, which have objected to such measures; consultations continue
  between Slovakia and Hungary over Hungary's completion of its
  portion the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the
  Danube; as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, Hungary must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Iceland
  Iceland disputes Denmark's alignment of the Faroe Islands'
  fisheries median line; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute
  Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends
  beyond 200 nm

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan
  de Nova Island: claimed by Madagascar
  Tromelin Island: claimed by Mauritius

India
  since China and India launched a security and foreign policy
  dialogue in 2005, consolidated discussions related to the dispute
  over most of their rugged, militarized boundary, regional nuclear
  proliferation, Indian claims that China transferred missiles to
  Pakistan, and other matters continue; various talks and
  confidence-building measures have cautiously begun to defuse
  tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the October 2005
  earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains the site of
  the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with
  portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin),
  India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern
  Areas); in 2004, India and Pakistan instituted a cease fire in
  Kashmir and in 2005, restored bus service across the highly
  militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has taken its dispute on the
  impact and benefits of India's building the Baglihar Dam on the
  Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for arbitration;
  UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has
  maintained a small group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does not
  recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964;
  disputes persist with Pakistan over Indus River water sharing; to
  defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on a maritime boundary,
  in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion of the disputed
  boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch;
  Pakistani maps continue to show its Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat
  State; discussions with Bangladesh remain stalled to delimit a small
  section of river boundary, to exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in
  both countries, to allocate divided villages, and to stop illegal
  cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists
  through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's attempts to
  fence off high-traffic sections of the border; dispute with
  Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay
  of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; India seeks
  cooperation from Bhutan and Burma to keep Indian Nagaland and Assam
  separatists from hiding in remote areas along the borders; Joint
  Border Committee with Nepal continues to demarcate minor disputed
  boundary sections; India maintains a strict border regime to keep
  out Maoist insurgents and control illegal cross-border activities
  from Nepal

Indian Ocean
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

Indonesia
  East Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee continues to meet,
  survey, and delimit land boundary, but several sections of the
  boundary remain unresolved; many East Timorese refugees who left in
  2003 still reside in Indonesia and refuse repatriation; Indonesia
  and East Timor contest the sovereignty of the uninhabited coral
  island of Pulau Batek/Fatu Sinai, which hinders a decision on a
  northern maritime boundary; a 1997 treaty between Indonesia and
  Australia settled some parts of their maritime boundary but
  outstanding issues remain; ICJ's award of Sipadan and Ligitan
  islands to Malaysia in 2002 left maritime boundary in the
  hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile
  confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil
  block; the ICJ decision has prompted Indonesia to assert claims to
  and to establish a presence on its smaller outer islands; Indonesia
  and Singapore pledged in 2005 to finalize their 1973 maritime
  boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Batam
  Island; Indonesian secessionists, squatters, and illegal migrants
  create repatriation problems for Papua New Guinea; piracy remains a
  problem in the Malacca Strait

Iran
  Iran protests Afghanistan's limiting flow of dammed tributaries
  to the Helmand River in periods of drought; Iraq's lack of a
  maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the
  mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Iran and UAE dispute
  Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island, which are occupied by Iran; Iran
  stands alone among littoral states in insisting upon a division of
  the Caspian Sea into five equal sectors

Iraq
  coalition forces assist Iraqis in monitoring boundary security;
  Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction
  disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf;
  Turkey has expressed concern over the status of Kurds in Iraq

Ireland
  Ireland, Iceland, and the UK dispute Denmark's claim that
  the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm

Isle of Man
  none

Israel
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current
  status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement -
  permanent status to be determined through further negotiation;
  Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier
  along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel
  withdrew its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip and from four
  settlements in the West Bank in August 2005; Golan Heights is
  Israeli-occupied (Lebanon claims the Shab'a Farms area of Golan
  Heights); since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce
  Supervision Organization (UNTSO) headquartered in Jerusalem monitor
  ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated
  incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the
  region

Italy
  Italy's long coastline and developed economy entices tens of
  thousands of illegal immigrants from southeastern Europe and
  northern Africa

Jamaica
  none

Jan Mayen
  none

Japan
  the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu,
  Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as
  the "Northern Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kuril
  Islands," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by
  Russia and claimed by Japan, remains the primary sticking point to
  signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities;
  Japan and South Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Tok-do)
  occupied by South Korea since 1954; China and Taiwan dispute both
  Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto
  (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic
  zone in the East China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon
  prospecting

Jarvis Island
  none

Jersey
  none

Johnston Atoll
  none

Jordan
  2004 Agreement settles border dispute with Syria pending
  demarcation

Juan de Nova Island
  claimed by Madagascar

Kazakhstan
  in 2005, Kazakhstan agreed with Russia, Turkmenistan, and
  Uzbekistan to commence demarcating their boundaries; delimitation
  with Kyrgyzstan is complete; creation of a seabed boundary with
  Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains unresolved; equidistant
  seabed treaties have been ratified with Azerbaijan and Russia in the
  Caspian Sea, but no resolution has been made on dividing the water
  column among any of the littoral states

Kenya
  Kenya served as an important mediator in brokering Sudan's
  north-south separation in February 2005; Kenya provides shelter to
  approximately a quarter of a million refugees including Ugandans who
  flee across the border periodically to seek protection from Lord's
  Resistance Army (LRA) rebels; the Kenya-Somalia border is open to
  pastoralists and is susceptible to cross-border clan insurgencies;
  Kenya's administrative limits extend beyond the treaty border into
  the Sudan, creating the Ilemi Triangle

Kingman Reef
  none

Kiribati
  none

Korea, North
  China seeks to stem illegal migration of tens of
  thousands of North Koreans escaping famine, economic privation, and
  political oppression; North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty
  of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers and a section of
  boundary around Paektu-san (mountain) is indefinite; Military
  Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has
  separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic maritime
  disputes with South over the Northern Limit Line; North Korea
  supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks
  (Tok-do/Take-shima)

Korea, South
  Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide
  Demilitarized Zone has separated North from South Korea since 1953;
  periodic maritime disputes with North Korea over the Northern Limit
  Line; South Korea and Japan claim Liancourt Rocks
  (Tok-do/Take-shima), occupied by South Korea since 1954

Kuwait
  Kuwait and Saudi Arabia continue negotiating a joint maritime
  boundary with Iran; no maritime boundary exists with Iraq in the
  Persian Gulf

Kyrgyzstan
  delimitation with Kazakhstan is complete; disputes in
  Isfara Valley delay completion of delimitation with Tajikistan;
  delimitation of 130 km of border with Uzbekistan is hampered by
  serious disputes around enclaves and other areas

Laos
  Southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to
  check the spread of avian flu; talks continue on completion of
  demarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over several areas
  along Mekong River and Thai squatters; concern among Mekong
  Commission members that China's construction of dams on the Mekong
  River will affect water levels

Latvia
  Russia refuses to sign the 1997 boundary treaty due to
  Latvian insistence on a unilateral clarificatory declaration
  referencing Soviet occupation of Latvia and territorial losses;
  Russia demands better Latvian treatment of ethnic Russians in
  Latvia; the Latvian parliament has not ratified its 1998 maritime
  boundary treaty with Lithuania, primarily due to concerns over oil
  exploration rights; as a member state that forms part of the EU's
  external border, Latvia must implement the strict Schengen border
  rules

Lebanon
  Lebanese Government claims Shab'a Farms area of
  Israeli-occupied Golan Heights; the roughly 2,000-strong UN Interim
  Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been in place since 1978

Lesotho
  none

Liberia
  although Liberia's domestic fighting among disparate rebel
  groups, warlords, and youth gangs was declared over in 2003, civil
  unrest persists, and in 2004, 133,000 Liberian refugees remained in
  Guinea, 72,000 in Cote d'Ivoire, 67,000 in Sierra Leone, and 43,000
  in Ghana; Liberia, in turn, shelters refugees fleeing turmoil in
  Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone; since 2003, the UN Mission in
  Liberia (UNMIL) has maintained about 18,000 peacekeepers in Liberia;
  the Cote d'Ivoire Government accuses Liberia of supporting Ivoirian
  rebels; UN sanctions ban Liberia from exporting diamonds and timber

Libya
  Libya has claimed more than 32,000 sq km in southeastern
  Algeria and about 25,000 sq km in Niger in currently dormant
  disputes; various Chadian rebels from the Aozou region reside in
  southern Libya

Liechtenstein
  in February 2005, the ICJ refused to rule on the
  restitution of Liechtenstein's land and property assets in the Czech
  Republic confiscated in 1945 as German property

Lithuania
  Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their
  boundary in 2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty
  ratified by Russia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania
  operates a simplified transit regime for Russian nationals traveling
  from the Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while still
  conforming, as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, to strict Schengen border rules; the Latvian parliament has
  not ratified its 1998 maritime boundary treaty with Lithuania,
  primarily due to concerns over potential hydrocarbons

Luxembourg
  none

Macau
  none

Macedonia
  ethnic Albanians in Kosovo object to demarcation of the
  boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the 2000 Macedonia-Serbia
  and Montenegro delimitation agreement; Greece continues to reject
  the use of the name Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia

Madagascar
  claims Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands,
  and Juan de Nova Island (all administered by France)

Malawi
  disputes with Tanzania over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake
  Malawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant

Malaysia
  Malaysia has asserted sovereignty over the Spratly Islands
  together with China, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly
  Brunei; while the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the
  South China Sea" has eased tensions over the Spratly Islands, it is
  not the legally binding "code of conduct" sought by some parties;
  Malaysia was not party to the March 2005 joint accord among the
  national oil companies of China, the Philippines, and Vietnam on
  conducting marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands;
  disputes continue over deliveries of fresh water to Singapore,
  Singapore's land reclamation, bridge construction, maritime
  boundaries, and Pedra Branca Island/Pulau Batu Putih - but parties
  agree to ICJ arbitration on island dispute within three years; ICJ
  awarded Ligitan and Sipadan islands, also claimed by Indonesia and
  Philippines, to Malaysia but left maritime boundary in the
  hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile
  confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil
  block; separatist violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim
  southern provinces prompts measures to close and monitor border with
  Malaysia to stem terrorist activities; Philippines retains a now
  dormant claim to Malaysia's Sabah State in northern Borneo; in 2003,
  Brunei and Malaysia ceased gas and oil exploration in their disputed
  offshore and deepwater seabeds and negotiations have stalemated
  prompting consideration of international adjudication; Malaysia's
  land boundary with Brunei around Limbang is in dispute; piracy
  remains a problem in the Malacca Strait

Maldives
  none

Mali
  none

Malta
  none

Marshall Islands
  claims US territory of Wake Island

Martinique
  none

Mauritania
  Mauritanian claims to Western Sahara have been dormant in
  recent years

Mauritius
  Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (UK-administered
  British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants, who
  reside chiefly in Mauritius, were granted UK citizenship but no
  right to patriation in the UK; claims French-administered Tromelin
  Island

Mayotte
  claimed by Comoros

Mexico
  prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded practices
  and infrastructure in the border region have strained water-sharing
  arrangements with the US; the US has stepped up efforts to stem
  nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other parts of the world
  from illegally crossing the border with Mexico

Micronesia, Federated States of
  none

Midway Islands
  none

Moldova
  Moldova and Ukraine have established joint customs posts to
  monitor transit through Moldova's break-away Transnistria region
  which remains under OSCE supervision

Monaco
  none

Mongolia
  none

Montenegro
  ethnic Albanians in Kosovo refuse demarcation of the
  boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the 2000 Macedonia-Serbia
  and Montenegro delimitation agreement, which includes a section of
  boundary with Montenegro

Montserrat
  none

Morocco
  claims and administers Western Sahara whose sovereignty
  remains unresolved - UN-administered cease-fire has remained in
  effect since September 1991, but attempts to hold a referendum have
  failed and parties thus far have rejected all brokered proposals;
  Morocco protests Spain's control over the coastal enclaves of Ceuta,
  Melilla, and Penon de Velez de la Gomera, the islands of Penon de
  Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and surrounding waters; discussions
  have not progressed on a comprehensive maritime delimitation setting
  limits on exploration and refugee interdiction since Morocco's 2002
  rejection of Spain's unilateral designation of a median line from
  the Canary Islands; Morocco serves as one of the primary launching
  areas of illegal migration into Spain from North Africa

Mozambique
  none

Namibia
  border commission has yet to resolve small residual disputes
  with Botswana along the Caprivi Strip, including the Situngu
  marshlands along the Linyanti River; Botswana residents protest
  Namibia's planned construction of the Okavango hydroelectric dam on
  Popa Falls; managed dispute with South Africa over the location of
  the boundary in the Orange River; Namibia has supported and in 2004
  Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana and Zambia to
  build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de facto recognizing
  a short, but not clearly delimited, Botswana-Zambia boundary in the
  river

Nauru
  none

Navassa Island
  claimed by Haiti, source of subsistence fishing

Nepal
  joint border commission continues to work on small disputed
  sections of boundary with India; India has instituted a stricter
  border regime to restrict transit of Maoist insurgents and illegal
  cross-border activities

Netherlands
  none

Netherlands Antilles
  none

New Caledonia
  Matthew and Hunter Islands east of New Caledonia
  claimed by France and Vanuatu

New Zealand
  asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Ross
  Dependency) [see Antarctica]

Nicaragua
  Nicaragua filed a claim against Honduras in 1999 and
  against Colombia in 2001 at the ICJ over disputed maritime boundary
  involving 50,000 sq km in the Caribbean Sea, including the
  Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; the
  1992 ICJ ruling for El Salvador and Honduras advised a tripartite
  resolution to establish a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca,
  which considers Honduran access to the Pacific; legal dispute over
  navigational rights of San Juan River on border with Costa Rica

Niger
  Libya claims about 25,000 sq km in a currently dormant
  dispute; much of Benin-Niger boundary, including tripoint with
  Nigeria, remains undemarcated; only Nigeria and Cameroon have heeded
  the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the delimitation
  treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger and Niger-Nigeria
  boundaries

Nigeria
  ICJ ruled in 2002 on the entire Cameroon-Nigeria land and
  maritime boundary but the parties formed a Joint Border Commission
  to resolve differences bilaterally and have commenced with
  demarcation in less-contested sections of the boundary, starting in
  Lake Chad in the north; following the UN-brokered Greentree
  Agreement of 12 June 2006, Nigeria, in completion of the 2002 ICJ
  decision on the Cameroon-Nigerian land boundary, handed sovereignty
  of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon on 14 August; all Nigerian
  military forces have reportedly withdrawn from the region but
  Nigeria will continue to maintain a police and administrative
  presence in the southeastern "transition zone" for a period of up to
  two years; Nigeria pledges to provide for the resettlement of those
  Bakassi residents who wish to remain Nigerian citizens; the ICJ
  ruled on an equidistance settlement of Cameroon-Equatorial
  Guinea-Nigeria maritime boundary in the Gulf of Guinea, but
  imprecisely defined coordinates in the ICJ decision and a
  sovereignty dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon over an
  island at the mouth of the Ntem River all contribute to the delay in
  implementation; a joint task force was established in 2004 that
  resolved disputes over and redrew the maritime and the 870-km land
  boundary with Benin on the Okpara River; only Nigeria and Cameroon
  have heeded the Lake Chad Commission's admonition to ratify the
  delimitation treaty which also includes the Chad-Niger and
  Niger-Nigeria boundaries

Niue
  none

Norfolk Island
  none

Northern Mariana Islands
  none

Norway
  Norway asserts a territorial claim in Antarctica (Queen Maud
  Land and its continental shelf); despite recent discussions, Russia
  and Norway continue to dispute their maritime limits in the Barents
  Sea and Russia's fishing rights beyond Svalbard's territorial limits
  within the Svalbard Treaty zone

Oman
  boundary agreement reportedly signed and ratified with UAE in
  2003 for entire border, including Oman's Musandam Peninsula and Al
  Madhah exclave, but details have not been made public

Pacific Ocean
  some maritime disputes (see littoral states)

Pakistan
  various talks and confidence-building measures cautiously
  have begun to defuse tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the
  October 2005 earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains
  the site of the world's largest and most militarized territorial
  dispute with portions under the de facto administration of China
  (Aksai Chin), India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir
  and Northern Areas); UN Military Observer Group in India and
  Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has maintained a small group of peacekeepers
  since 1949; India does not recognize Pakistan's ceding historic
  Kashmir lands to China in 1964; in 2004, India and Pakistan
  instituted a cease-fire in the Kashmir, and in 2005 restored bus
  service across the highly militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has
  taken its dispute on the impact of India's building the Baglihar Dam
  on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for
  arbitration and in general the two states still dispute Indus River
  water sharing; to defuse tensions and prepare discussions on a
  maritime boundary, in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion
  of the disputed the Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of
  Kutch; Pakistani maps continue to show the Junagadh claim in India's
  Gujarat State; by 2005, Pakistan, with UN assistance, had
  repatriated 2.3 million Afghan refugees and had undertaken a census
  to count the remaining million or more, many of whom remain at their
  own choosing; Pakistan has sent troops into remote tribal areas to
  control the border with Afghanistan and stem organized terrorist or
  other illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings with Afghan
  and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary
  encroachments

Palau
  border delineation disputes being negotiated with Philippines,
  Indonesia

Palmyra Atoll
  none

Panama
  organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia operate
  within the border region with Panama

Papua New Guinea
  relies on assistance from Australia to keep out
  illegal cross-border activities from primarily Indonesia, including
  goods smuggling, illegal narcotics trafficking, and squatters and
  secessionists

Paracel Islands
  occupied by China, also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam

Paraguay
  unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay
  borders is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal
  narcotics trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations

Peru
  Chile and Ecuador rejected Peru's November 2005 unilateral law
  to shift the axis of their joint treaty-defined maritime boundary
  along the parallel of latitude to an equidistance line which favors
  Peru; organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia have
  penetrated Peru's shared border; Peru does not support Bolivia's
  claim to restore maritime access through a sovereign corridor
  through Chile along the Peruvian border

Philippines
  Philippines claims sovereignty over certain of the
  Spratly Islands, known locally as the Kalayaan (Freedom) Islands,
  also claimed by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam; the 2002
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," has
  eased tensions in the Spratly Islands but falls short of a legally
  binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants; in
  March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the Philippines,
  and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine seismic
  activities in the Spratly Islands; Philippines retains a dormant
  claim to Malaysia's Sabah State in northern Borneo based on the
  Sultanate of Sulu's granting the Philippines Government power of
  attorney to pursue a sovereignty claim on his behalf

Pitcairn Islands
  none

Poland
  as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, Poland must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Portugal
  Portugal does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over the
  territory of Olivenza based on a difference of interpretation of the
  1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz

Puerto Rico
  increasing numbers of illegal migrants from the
  Dominican Republic cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico each year
  looking for work

Qatar
  none

Reunion
  none

Romania
  Romania and Ukraine have taken their dispute over
  Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy (Snake) Island and Black Sea
  maritime boundary to the ICJ for adjudication; Romania also opposes
  Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the Danube border
  through Ukraine to the Black Sea; Hungary amended the status law
  extending special social and cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians
  in Romania, to which Romania had objected

Russia
  in 2005, China and Russia ratified the treaty to divide up
  the islands in the Amur, Ussuri, and Argun Rivers, representing the
  final portion of their centuries-long border disputes; the
  sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri,
  Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern
  Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kurils," occupied by the
  Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, and claimed by
  Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty
  formally ending World War II hostilities; Russia and Georgia agree
  on delimiting all but small, strategic segments of the land boundary
  and the maritime boundary; OSCE observers monitor volatile areas
  such as the Pankisi Gorge in the Akhmeti region and the Kodori Gorge
  in Abkhazia; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia signed equidistance
  boundaries in the Caspian seabed but the littoral states have no
  consensus on dividing the water column; Russia and Norway dispute
  their maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights
  beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty
  zone; various groups in Finland advocate restoration of Karelia
  (Kareliya) and other areas ceded to the Soviet Union following the
  Second World War but the Finnish Government asserts no territorial
  demands; in May 2005, Russia recalled its signatures to the 1996
  border agreements with Estonia (1996) and Latvia (1997), when the
  two Baltic states announced issuance of unilateral declarations
  referencing Soviet occupation and ensuing territorial losses; Russia
  demands better treatment of ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia;
  Estonian citizen groups continue to press for realignment of the
  boundary based on the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty that would bring the
  now divided ethnic Setu people and parts of the Narva region within
  Estonia; Lithuania and Russia committed to demarcating their
  boundary in 2006 in accordance with the land and maritime treaty
  ratified by Russia in May 2003 and by Lithuania in 1999; Lithuania
  operates a simplified transit regime for Russian nationals traveling
  from the Kaliningrad coastal exclave into Russia, while still
  conforming, as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, to strict Schengen border rules; delimitation of land
  boundary with Ukraine is complete, but states have renewed
  discussions on demarcation; the dispute over the maritime boundary
  between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov
  remains unresolved despite a December 2003 framework agreement and
  on-going expert-level discussions; discussions toward economic and
  political union with Belarus advance slowly; Kazakhstan and Russia
  boundary delimitation ratified November 2005 and demarcation is
  underway; Russian Duma has not yet ratified 1990 Maritime Boundary
  Agreement with the US in the Bering Sea

Rwanda
  Tutsi, Hutu, Hema, Lendu, and other conflicting ethnic
  groups, associated political rebels, armed gangs, and various
  government forces continue fighting in Great Lakes region,
  transcending the boundaries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the
  Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda to gain control over populated areas and
  natural resources - government heads pledge to end conflicts, but
  localized violence continues despite UN peacekeeping efforts; DROC
  and Rwanda established a border verification mechanism in 2005 to
  address accusations of Rwandan military supporting Congolese rebels
  and the Congo providing rebel Rwandan "Interhamwe" forces the means
  and bases to attack Rwandan forces; as of 2004, Rwandan refugees
  lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Zambia

Saint Helena
  none

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  joins other Caribbean states to counter
  Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a
  criterion under UNCLOS, which permits Venezuela to extend its
  EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the Caribbean Sea

Saint Lucia
  joins other Caribbean states to counter Venezuela's
  claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation, a criterion under
  UNCLOS, which permits Venezuela to extend its EEZ/continental shelf
  over a large portion of the Caribbean Sea

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  none

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  joins other Caribbean states to
  counter Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human
  habitation, a criterion under UNCLOS, which permits Venezuela to
  extend its EEZ/continental shelf over a large portion of the
  Caribbean Sea

Samoa
  none

San Marino
  none

Sao Tome and Principe
  none

Saudi Arabia
  despite resistance from nomadic groups, the demarcation
  of the Saudi Arabia-Yemen boundary established under the 2000 Jeddah
  Treaty is almost complete; Saudi Arabia still maintains the
  concrete-filled pipe as a security barrier along sections of the
  border with Yemen in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities;
  Kuwait and Saudi Arabia continue discussions on a maritime boundary
  with Iran; the United Arab Emirate 2006 Yearbook published a map and
  text rescinding the 1974 boundary with Saudi Arabia, as stipulated
  in a treaty filed with the UN in 1993, on the grounds that the
  agreement was not formally ratified

Senegal
  The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau attempt to stem Senegalese
  citizens from the Casamance region fleeing separatist violence,
  cross border raids, and arms smuggling

Serbia
  the final status of the Serbian province of Kosovo remains
  unresolved and several thousand peacekeepers from the UN Interim
  Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) have administered the
  region since 1999, with Kosovar Albanians overwhelmingly supporting
  and Serbian officials opposing Kosovo independence; the
  international community had agreed to begin a process to determine
  final status but contingency of solidifying multi-ethnic democracy
  in Kosovo has not been satisfied; ethnic Albanians in Kosovo refuse
  demarcation of the boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the
  2000 Macedonia-Serbia and Montenegro delimitation agreement; Serbia
  and Montenegro delimited about half of the boundary with Bosnia and
  Herzegovina, but sections with Serbia along the Drina River remain
  in dispute

Seychelles
  together with Mauritius, Seychelles claims the Chagos
  Archipelago (UK-administered British Indian Ocean Territory)

Sierra Leone
  domestic fighting among disparate rebel groups,
  warlords, and youth gangs in Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and
  Sierra Leone perpetuate insurgencies, street violence, looting, arms
  trafficking, ethnic conflicts, and refugees in border areas; UN
  Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) has maintained over 4,000
  peacekeepers in Sierra Leone since 1999; Sierra Leone pressures
  Guinea to remove its forces from the town of Yenga occupied since
  1998

Singapore
  disputes persist with Malaysia over deliveries of fresh
  water to Singapore, Singapore's extensive land reclamation works,
  bridge construction, maritime boundaries, and Pedra Branca
  Island/Pulau Batu Putih - parties agree to ICJ arbitration on island
  dispute within three years; Indonesia and Singapore pledged in 2005
  to finalize their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining
  unresolved areas north of Batam Island; piracy remains a problem in
  the Malacca Strait

Slovakia
  Hungary amended its status law extending special social and
  cultural benefits to ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia, to which
  Slovakia had protested; consultations continue between Slovakia and
  Hungary over Hungary's completion of its portion of the
  Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as a
  member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Slovakia
  must implement the strict Schengen border rules

Slovenia
  the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement,
  which would have ceded most of Piran Bay and maritime access to
  Slovenia and several villages to Croatia, remains unratified and in
  dispute; as a member state that forms part of the EU's external
  border, Slovenia must implement the strict Schengen border rules to
  curb illegal migration and commerce through southeastern Europe
  while encouraging close cross-border ties with Croatia

Solomon Islands
  Australian Defense Force leads the Regional
  Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) at the invitation
  of the Solomon Islands' Government to maintain civil and political
  order and reinforce regional security

Somalia
  "Somaliland" secessionists provide port facilities to
  landlocked Ethiopia and establish commercial ties with regional
  states; "Puntland" and "Somaliland" "governments" seek support from
  neighboring states in their secessionist aspirations and in
  conflicts with each other; Ethiopia has only an administrative line
  with the Oromo region of southern Somalia and maintains alliances
  with local Somali clans opposed to the unrecognized Somali Interim
  Government, which plans eventual relocation from Kenya to Mogadishu;
  rival militia and clan fighting in southern Somalia periodically
  spills over into Kenya

South Africa
  South Africa has placed military along the border to
  stem the thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape
  political persecution; managed dispute with Namibia over the
  location of the boundary in the Orange River

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  Argentina, which claims
  the islands in its constitution and briefly occupied the islands by
  force in 1982, agreed in 1995 to no longer seek settlement by force

Southern Ocean
  Antarctic Treaty defers claims (see Antarctica
  entry), but Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, NZ, Norway, and UK
  assert claims (some overlapping), including the continental shelf in
  the Southern Ocean; several states have expressed an interest in
  extending those continental shelf claims under the United Nations
  Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to include undersea
  ridges; the US and most other states do not recognize the land or
  maritime claims of other states and have made no claims themselves
  (the US and Russia have reserved the right to do so); no formal
  claims exist in the waters in the sector between 90 degrees west and
  150 degrees west

Spain
  in 2003, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by
  referendum to remain a British colony and against a "total shared
  sovereignty" arrangement while demanding participation in talks
  between the UK and Spain; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant
  Gibraltar greater autonomy; Morocco protests Spain's control over
  the coastal enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the islands of Penon de
  Velez de la Gomera, Penon de Alhucemas and Islas Chafarinas, and
  surrounding waters; Morocco serves as the primary launching site of
  illegal migration into Spain from North Africa; Portugal does not
  recognize Spanish sovereignty over the territory of Olivenza based
  on a difference of interpretation of the 1815 Congress of Vienna and
  the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz

Spratly Islands
  all of the Spratly Islands are claimed by China,
  Taiwan, and Vietnam; parts of them are claimed by Malaysia and the
  Philippines; in 1984, Brunei established an exclusive fishing zone
  that encompasses Louisa Reef in the southern Spratly Islands but has
  not publicly claimed the reef; claimants in November 2002 signed the
  "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,"
  which has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code
  of conduct"; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China, the
  Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
  seismic activities in the Spratly Islands

Sri Lanka
  none

Sudan
  the effects of Sudan's almost constant ethnic and rebel
  militia fighting since the mid-twentieth century have penetrated all
  of its border states that provide shelter for fleeing refugees and
  cover to disparate domestic and foreign conflicting elements; since
  2003, Janjawid armed militia and Sudanese military have driven about
  200,000 Darfur region refugees into eastern Chad; large numbers of
  Sudanese refugees have also fled to Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the
  Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
  southern Sudan provides shelter to Ugandans seeking periodic
  protection from soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army; Sudan
  accuses Eritrea of supporting Sudanese rebel groups; efforts to
  demarcate the porous boundary with Ethiopia have been delayed by
  civil and ethnic fighting in Sudan; Kenya's administrative boundary
  extends into the southern Sudan, creating the "Ilemi Triangle";
  Egypt and Sudan retain claims to administer triangular areas that
  extend north and south of the 1899 Treaty boundary along the 22nd
  Parallel, but have withdrawn their military presence; Egypt is
  economically developing the "Hala'ib Triangle" north of the Treaty
  Line; periodic violent skirmishes with Sudanese residents over water
  and grazing rights persist among related pastoral populations from
  the Central African Republic along the border

Suriname
  area claimed by French Guiana between Riviere Litani and
  Riviere Marouini (both headwaters of the Lawa); Suriname claims a
  triangle of land between the New and Kutari/Koetari rivers in a
  historic dispute over the headwaters of the Courantyne; Guyana seeks
  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration
  to resolve the long-standing dispute with Suriname over the axis of
  the territorial sea boundary in potentially oil-rich waters

Svalbard
  despite recent discussions, Russia and Norway dispute their
  maritime limits in the Barents Sea and Russia's fishing rights
  beyond Svalbard's territorial limits within the Svalbard Treaty zone

Swaziland
  none

Sweden
  none

Switzerland
  none

Syria
  Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied with the almost 1,000-strong
  UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) patrolling a buffer zone
  since 1964; Lebanon claims Shaba'a farms in Golan Heights;
  international pressure prompts the removal of Syrian troops and
  intelligence personnel stationed in Lebanon since October 1976; 2004
  Agreement and pending demarcation settles border dispute with Jordan

Taiwan
  involved in complex dispute with China, Malaysia,
  Philippines, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei over the Spratly Islands;
  the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China
  Sea" has eased tensions but falls short of a legally binding "code
  of conduct" desired by several of the disputants; Paracel Islands
  are occupied by China, but claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam; in 2003,
  China and Taiwan became more vocal in rejecting both Japan's claims
  to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and
  Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East
  China Sea where all parties engage in hydrocarbon prospecting

Tajikistan
  boundary agreements signed in 2002 cede 1,000 sq km of
  Pamir Mountain range to China in return for China relinquishing
  claims to 28,000 sq km of Tajikistani lands, but neither state has
  published maps of ceded areas and demarcation has not yet commenced;
  talks continue with Uzbekistan to delimit border and remove
  minefields; disputes in Isfara Valley delay delimitation with
  Kyrgyzstan

Tanzania
  disputes with Malawi over the boundary in Lake Nyasa (Lake
  Malawi) and the meandering Songwe River remain dormant

Thailand
  separatist violence in Thailand's predominantly Muslim
  southern provinces prompt border closures and controls with Malaysia
  to stem terrorist activities; southeast Asian states have enhanced
  border surveillance to check the spread of avian flu; talks continue
  on completion of demarcation with Thailand but disputes remain over
  several areas along Mekong River and Thai squatters; despite
  continuing border committee talks, significant differences remain
  with Burma over boundary alignment and the handling of ethnic
  rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border activities; Cambodia and
  Thailand dispute sections of boundary with missing boundary markers;
  Cambodia claims Thai encroachments into Cambodian territory and
  obstructing access to Preah Vihear temple ruins awarded to Cambodia
  by ICJ decision in 1962; ethnic Karens from Burma flee into Thailand
  - to escape fighting between Karen rebels and Burmese troops -
  resulting in Thailand sheltering about 120,000 Burmese refugees in
  2005; Karens also protest Thai support for a Burmese hydroelectric
  dam construction on the Salween River near the border;
  environmentalists in Burma and Thailand remain concerned about
  China's construction of hydroelectric dams upstream on the
  Nujiang/Salween River in Yunnan Province

Togo
  in 2001 Benin claimed Togo moved boundary monuments - joint
  commission continues to resurvey the boundary

Tokelau
  none

Tonga
  none

Trinidad and Tobago
  Barbados will assert its claim before the UN
  Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that the northern limit of
  Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with Venezuela extends into
  its waters; Guyana has also expressed its intention to challenge
  this boundary as it may extend into its waters as well

Tromelin Island
  claimed by Mauritius

Tunisia
  none

Turkey
  complex maritime, air, and territorial disputes with Greece
  in the Aegean Sea; status of north Cyprus question remains; Syria
  and Iraq protest Turkish hydrological projects to control upper
  Euphrates waters; Turkey has expressed concern over the status of
  Kurds in Iraq; border with Armenia remains closed over
  Nagorno-Karabakh

Turkmenistan
  cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
  creates water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya river states;
  bilateral talks continue with Azerbaijan on dividing the seabed and
  contested oilfields in the middle of the Caspian; demarcation of
  land boundary with Kazakhstan has started but Caspian seabed
  delimitation remains stalled

Turks and Caicos Islands
  have received Haitians fleeing economic and
  civil disorder

Tuvalu
  none

Uganda
  Uganda is subject to armed fighting among hostile ethnic
  groups, rebels, armed gangs, militias, and various government
  forces; Ugandan refugees have fled the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
  into the southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
  LRA forces have attacked Kenyan villages across the border

Ukraine
  1997 boundary treaty with Belarus remains un-ratified due to
  unresolved financial claims, stalling demarcation and reducing
  border security; delimitation of land boundary with Russia is
  complete and parties have renewed discussions on demarcation; the
  dispute over the maritime boundary between Russia and Ukraine
  through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov remains unresolved despite
  a December 2003 framework agreement and ongoing expert-level
  discussions; Moldova and Ukraine have established joint customs
  posts to monitor transit through Moldova's break-away Transnistria
  Region, which remains under OSCE supervision; in 2004 Ukraine and
  Romania took their dispute over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy
  (Snake) Island and Black Sea maritime boundary to the ICJ for
  adjudication; Romania opposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation
  canal from the Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea

United Arab Emirates
  the United Arab Emirate 2006 Yearbook published
  a map and text rescinding the 1974 boundary with Saudi Arabia, as
  stipulated in a treaty filed with the UN in 1993, on the grounds
  that the agreement was not formally ratified; boundary agreement was
  signed and ratified with Oman in 2003 for entire border, including
  Oman's Musandam Peninsula and Al Madhah enclaves, but contents of
  the agreement and maps showing the alignment have not been
  published; Iran and UAE dispute Tunb Islands and Abu Musa Island,
  which Iran occupies

United Kingdom
  in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by
  referendum to reject any "shared sovereignty" arrangement between
  the UK and Spain; the Government of Gibraltar insists on equal
  participation in talks between the two countries; Spain disapproves
  of UK plans to grant Gibraltar greater autonomy; Mauritius and
  Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean
  Territory), and its former inhabitants since their eviction in 1965;
  most Chagossians reside in Mauritius, and in 2001 were granted UK
  citizenship but no right to patriation in the UK; UK rejects
  sovereignty talks requested by Argentina, which still claims the
  Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South
  Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic
  Territory) overlaps Argentine claim and partially overlaps Chilean
  claim; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that the
  Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends beyond 200 nm

United States
  prolonged drought, population growth, and outmoded
  practices and infrastructure in the border region strain
  water-sharing arrangements with Mexico; the US has stepped up
  efforts to stem nationals from Mexico, Central America, and other
  parts of the world from crossing illegally into the US from Mexico;
  illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, notably Haiti and the
  Dominican Republic, attempt to enter the US through Florida by sea;
  1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement in the Bering Sea still awaits
  Russian Duma ratification; managed maritime boundary disputes with
  Canada at Dixon Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and
  around the disputed Machias Seal Island and North Rock; US and
  Canada seek greater cooperation in monitoring people and commodities
  crossing the border; The Bahamas and US have not been able to agree
  on a maritime boundary; US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased
  from Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area
  can terminate the lease; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa
  Island; US has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has
  reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of
  any other state; Marshall Islands claims Wake Island

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  none

Uruguay
  uncontested dispute with Brazil over certain islands in the
  Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada streams and the resulting tripoint with
  Argentina

Uzbekistan
  prolonged drought and cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan
  and Turkmenistan creates water-sharing difficulties for Amu Darya
  river states; delimitation with Kazakhstan complete with demarcation
  underway; border delimitation of 130 km of border with Kyrgyzstan is
  hampered by serious disputes around enclaves and other areas

Vanuatu
  Matthew and Hunter Islands east of New Caledonia claimed by
  Vanuatu and France

Venezuela
  claims all of the area west of the Essequibo River in
  Guyana, preventing any discussion of a maritime boundary; Guyana has
  expressed its intention to join Barbados in asserting claims before
  the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that
  Trinidad and Tobago's maritime boundary with Venezuela extends into
  their waters; dispute with Colombia over Los Monjes islands and
  maritime boundary near the Gulf of Venezuela; Colombian-organized
  illegal narcotics and paramilitary activities penetrate Venezuela's
  shared border region resulting in several thousand residents
  migrating away from the border; US, France, and the Netherlands
  recognize Venezuela's claim to give full effect to Aves Island,
  which creates a Venezuelan EEZ/continental shelf extending over a
  large portion of the Caribbean Sea; Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
  Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines protest
  Venezuela's claim that Aves Island sustains human habitation and
  other states' recognition of it

Vietnam
  southeast Asian states have enhanced border surveillance to
  check the spread of avian flu; Cambodia and Laos protest Vietnamese
  squatters and armed encroachments along border; after years of
  Cambodia claiming Vietnam had moved or destroyed boundary markers,
  in 2005, after much domestic debate, Cambodia ratified an agreement
  with Vietnam that settled all but a small portion of the land
  boundary; establishment of a maritime boundary with Cambodia is
  hampered by unresolved dispute over offshore islands; in 2004,
  Laotian-Vietnamese boundary commission agrees to erect missing
  markers in two adjoining provinces; demarcation of the China-Vietnam
  boundary proceeds slowly and although the maritime boundary
  delimitation and fisheries agreements were ratified in June 2004,
  implementation has been delayed; China occupies Paracel Islands also
  claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; involved in complex dispute with
  China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei over the
  Spratly Islands; the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
  the South China Sea" has eased tensions but falls short of a legally
  binding "code of conduct" desired by several of the disputants;
  Vietnam continues to expand construction of facilities in the
  Spratly Islands; in March 2005, the national oil companies of China,
  the Philippines, and Vietnam signed a joint accord to conduct marine
  seismic activities in the Spratly Islands

Virgin Islands
  none

Wake Island
  claimed by Marshall Islands

Wallis and Futuna
  none

West Bank
  West Bank and Gaza Strip are Israeli-occupied with current
  status subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement -
  permanent status to be determined through further negotiation;
  Israel continues construction of a "seam line" separation barrier
  along parts of the Green Line and within the West Bank; Israel
  withdrew from four settlements in the northern West Bank in August
  2005; since 1948, about 350 peacekeepers from the UN Truce
  Supervision Organization (UNTSO), headquartered in Jerusalem,
  monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated
  incidents from escalating, and assist other UN personnel in the
  region

Western Sahara
  Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, whose
  sovereignty remains unresolved; UN-administered cease-fire has
  remained in effect since September 1991, administered by the UN
  Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), but attempts
  to hold a referendum have failed and parties thus far have rejected
  all brokered proposals

World
  stretching over 250,000 km, the world's 329 international land
  boundaries separate the 193 independent states and 73 dependencies,
  areas of special sovereignty, and other miscellaneous entities;
  ethnicity, culture, race, religion, and language have divided states
  into separate political entities as much as history, physical
  terrain, political fiat, or conquest, resulting in sometimes
  arbitrary and imposed boundaries; maritime states have claimed
  limits and have so far established over 130 maritime boundaries and
  joint development zones to allocate ocean resources and to provide
  for national security at sea; boundary, borderland/resource, and
  territorial disputes vary in intensity from managed or dormant to
  violent or militarized; most disputes over the alignment of
  political boundaries are confined to short segments and are today
  less common and less hostile than borderland, resource, and
  territorial disputes; undemarcated, indefinite, porous, and
  unmanaged boundaries, however, encourage illegal cross-border
  activities, uncontrolled migration, and confrontation; territorial
  disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they
  may be brought on by resource competition; ethnic and cultural
  clashes continue to be responsible for much of the territorial
  fragmentation around the world; disputes over islands at sea or in
  rivers frequently form the source of territorial and boundary
  conflict; other sources of contention include access to water and
  mineral (especially petroleum) resources, fisheries, and arable
  land; nonetheless, most nations cooperate to clarify their
  international boundaries and to resolve territorial and resource
  disputes peacefully; regional discord today prevails not so much
  between the armed forces of independent states as between stateless
  armed entities that detract from the sustenance and welfare of local
  populations, leaving the community of nations to cope with resultant
  refugees, hunger, disease, impoverishment, and environmental
  degradation

Yemen
  Yemen protests Eritrea fishing around the Hanish Islands
  awarded to Yemen by the ICJ in 1999; Saudi Arabia still maintains
  the concrete-filled pipe as a security barrier along sections of the
  border with Yemen in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities;
  Yemen protests Saudi erection of a concrete-filled pipe as a
  security barrier in 2004 to stem illegal cross-border activities in
  sections of the boundary

Zambia
  in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to plans between Botswana
  and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi River, thereby de
  facto recognizing a short, but not clearly delimited,
  Botswana-Zambia boundary in the river

Zimbabwe
  Botswana has built electric fences and South Africa has
  placed military along the border to stem the flow of thousands of
  Zimbabweans fleeing to find work and escape political persecution;
  Namibia has supported and in 2004 Zimbabwe dropped objections to
  plans between Botswana and Zambia to build a bridge over the Zambezi
  River, thereby de facto recognizing a short, but not clearly
  delimited Botswana-Zambia boundary in the river

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2075  Ethnic groups (%)


Afghanistan
  Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%,
  Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%

Albania
  Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb,
  Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)
  note: in 1989, other estimates of the Greek population ranged from
  1% (official Albanian statistics) to 12% (from a Greek organization)

Algeria
  Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%
  note: almost all Algerians are Berber in origin, not Arab; the
  minority who identify themselves as Berber live mostly in the
  mountainous region of Kabylie east of Algiers; the Berbers are also
  Muslim but identify with their Berber rather than Arab cultural
  heritage; Berbers have long agitated, sometimes violently, for
  autonomy; the government is unlikely to grant autonomy but has
  offered to begin sponsoring teaching Berber language in schools

American Samoa
  native Pacific islander 92.9%, Asian 2.9%, white
  1.2%, mixed 2.8%, other 0.2% (2000 census)

Andorra
  Spanish 43%, Andorran 33%, Portuguese 11%, French 7%, other
  6% (1998)

Angola
  Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed
  European and native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22%

Anguilla
  black (predominant) 90.1%, mixed, mulatto 4.6%, white 3.7%,
  other 1.5% (2001 Census)

Antigua and Barbuda
  black, British, Portuguese, Lebanese, Syrian

Argentina
  white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%, mestizo (mixed
  white and Amerindian ancestry), Amerindian, or other non-white
  groups 3%

Armenia
  Armenian 97.9%, Yezidi (Kurd) 1.3%, Russian 0.5%, other 0.3%
  (2001 census)

Aruba
  mixed white/Caribbean Amerindian 80%

Australia
  Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%

Austria
  Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians,
  Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or
  unspecified 2.4% (2001 census)

Azerbaijan
  Azeri 90.6%, Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%, Armenian 1.5%,
  other 3.9% (1999 census)
  note: almost all Armenians live in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh
  region

Bahamas, The
  black 85%, white 12%, Asian and Hispanic 3%

Bahrain
  Bahraini 62.4%, non-Bahraini 37.6% (2001 census)

Bangladesh
  Bengali 98%, tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims (1998)

Barbados
  black 90%, white 4%, Asian and mixed 6%

Belarus
  Belarusian 81.2%, Russian 11.4%, Polish 3.9%, Ukrainian
  2.4%, other 1.1% (1999 census)

Belgium
  Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, mixed or other 11%

Belize
  mestizo 48.7%, Creole 24.9%, Maya 10.6%, Garifuna 6.1%, other
  9.7%

Benin
  African 99% (42 ethnic groups, most important being Fon, Adja,
  Yoruba, Bariba), Europeans 5,500

Bermuda
  black 54.8%, white 34.1%, mixed 6.4%, other races 4.3%,
  unspecified 0.4% (2000 census)

Bhutan
  Bhote 50%, ethnic Nepalese 35% (includes Lhotsampas - one of
  several Nepalese ethnic groups), indigenous or migrant tribes 15%

Bolivia
  Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry)
  30%, Aymara 25%, white 15%

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosniak 48%, Serb 37.1%, Croat 14.3%, other
  0.6% (2000)
  note: Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term in part to avoid
  confusion with the religious term Muslim - an adherent of Islam

Botswana
  Tswana (or Setswana) 79%, Kalanga 11%, Basarwa 3%, other,
  including Kgalagadi and white 7%

Brazil
  white 53.7%, mulatto (mixed white and black) 38.5%, black
  6.2%, other (includes Japanese, Arab, Amerindian) 0.9%, unspecified
  0.7% (2000 census)

British Virgin Islands
  black 83%, white, Indian, Asian and mixed

Brunei
  Malay 67%, Chinese 15%, indigenous 6%, other 12%

Bulgaria
  Bulgarian 83.9%, Turk 9.4%, Roma 4.7%, other 2% (including
  Macedonian, Armenian, Tatar, Circassian) (2001 census)

Burkina Faso
  Mossi over 40%, Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande,
  Fulani

Burma
  Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian
  2%, Mon 2%, other 5%

Burundi
  Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%,
  Europeans 3,000, South Asians 2,000

Cambodia
  Khmer 90%, Vietnamese 5%, Chinese 1%, other 4%

Cameroon
  Cameroon Highlanders 31%, Equatorial Bantu 19%, Kirdi 11%,
  Fulani 10%, Northwestern Bantu 8%, Eastern Nigritic 7%, other
  African 13%, non-African less than 1%

Canada
  British Isles origin 28%, French origin 23%, other European
  15%, Amerindian 2%, other, mostly Asian, African, Arab 6%, mixed
  background 26%

Cape Verde
  Creole (mulatto) 71%, African 28%, European 1%

Cayman Islands
  mixed 40%, white 20%, black 20%, expatriates of
  various ethnic groups 20%

Central African Republic
  Baya 33%, Banda 27%, Mandjia 13%, Sara 10%,
  Mboum 7%, M'Baka 4%, Yakoma 4%, other 2%

Chad
  200 distinct groups; in the north and center: Arabs, Gorane
  (Toubou, Daza, Kreda), Zaghawa, Kanembou, Ouaddai, Baguirmi,
  Hadjerai, Fulbe, Kotoko, Hausa, Boulala, and Maba, most of whom are
  Muslim; in the south: Sara (Ngambaye, Mbaye, Goulaye), Moundang,
  Moussei, Massa, most of whom are Christian or animist; about 1,000
  French citizens live in Chad

Chile
  white and white-Amerindian 95%, Amerindian 3%, other 2%

China
  Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao,
  Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1%

Christmas Island
  Chinese 70%, European 20%, Malay 10%
  note: no indigenous population (2001)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Europeans, Cocos Malays

Colombia
  mestizo 58%, white 20%, mulatto 14%, black 4%, mixed
  black-Amerindian 3%, Amerindian 1%

Comoros
  Antalote, Cafre, Makoa, Oimatsaha, Sakalava

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  over 200 African ethnic groups of
  which the majority are Bantu; the four largest tribes - Mongo, Luba,
  Kongo (all Bantu), and the Mangbetu-Azande (Hamitic) make up about
  45% of the population

Congo, Republic of the
  Kongo 48%, Sangha 20%, M'Bochi 12%, Teke 17%,
  Europeans and other 3%

Cook Islands
  Cook Island Maori (Polynesian) 87.7%, part Cook Island
  Maori 5.8%, other 6.5% (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  white (including mestizo) 94%, black 3%, Amerindian 1%,
  Chinese 1%, other 1%

Cote d'Ivoire
  Akan 42.1%, Voltaiques or Gur 17.6%, Northern Mandes
  16.5%, Krous 11%, Southern Mandes 10%, other 2.8% (includes 130,000
  Lebanese and 14,000 French) (1998)

Croatia
  Croat 89.6%, Serb 4.5%, other 5.9% (including Bosniak,
  Hungarian, Slovene, Czech, and Roma) (2001 census)

Cuba
  mulatto 51%, white 37%, black 11%, Chinese 1%

Cyprus
  Greek 77%, Turkish 18%, other 5% (2001)

Czech Republic
  Czech 90.4%, Moravian 3.7%, Slovak 1.9%, other 4%
  (2001 census)

Denmark
  Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, German, Turkish, Iranian,
  Somali

Djibouti
  Somali 60%, Afar 35%, French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian
  5%

Dominica
  black, mixed black and European, European, Syrian, Carib
  Amerindian

Dominican Republic
  mixed 73%, white 16%, black 11%

East Timor
  Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian), Papuan, small Chinese
  minority

Ecuador
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 65%, Amerindian 25%,
  Spanish and others 7%, black 3%

Egypt
  Egyptian 98%, Berber, Nubian, Bedouin, and Beja 1%, Greek,
  Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) 1%

El Salvador
  mestizo 90%, white 9%, Amerindian 1%

Equatorial Guinea
  Bioko (primarily Bubi, some Fernandinos), Rio Muni
  (primarily Fang), Europeans less than 1,000, mostly Spanish

Eritrea
  Tigrinya 50%, Tigre and Kunama 40%, Afar 4%, Saho (Red Sea
  coast dwellers) 3%, other 3%

Estonia
  Estonian 67.9%, Russian 25.6%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Belarusian
  1.3%, Finn 0.9%, other 2.2% (2000 census)

Ethiopia
  Oromo 40%, Amhara and Tigre 32%, Sidamo 9%, Shankella 6%,
  Somali 6%, Afar 4%, Gurage 2%, other 1%

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  British

Faroe Islands
  Scandinavian

Fiji
  Fijian 51% (predominantly Melanesian with a Polynesian
  admixture), Indian 44%, European, other Pacific Islanders, overseas
  Chinese, and other 5% (1998 est.)

Finland
  Finn 93.4%, Swede 5.7%, Russian 0.4%, Estonian 0.2%, Roma
  0.2%, Sami 0.1%

France
  Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African,
  Indochinese, Basque minorities

French Guiana
  black or mulatto 66%, white 12%, East Indian, Chinese,
  Amerindian 12%, other 10%

French Polynesia
  Polynesian 78%, Chinese 12%, local French 6%,
  metropolitan French 4%

Gabon
  Bantu tribes, including four major tribal groupings (Fang,
  Bapounou, Nzebi, Obamba); other Africans and Europeans, 154,000,
  including 10,700 French and 11,000 persons of dual nationality

Gambia, The
  African 99% (Mandinka 42%, Fula 18%, Wolof 16%, Jola
  10%, Serahuli 9%, other 4%), non-African 1%

Gaza Strip
  Palestinian Arab and other 99.4%, Jewish 0.6%

Georgia
  Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian 5.7%, Russian 1.5%,
  other 2.5% (2002 census)

Germany
  German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of
  Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)

Ghana
  African 98.5% (includes Akan 44%, Moshi-Dagomba 16%, Ewe 13%,
  Ga 8%, Gurma 3%, Yoruba 1%), European and other 1.5% (1998)

Gibraltar
  Spanish, Italian, English, Maltese, Portuguese, German,
  North Africans

Greece
  Greek 98%, Turkish and other 2%
  note: the Greek Government states there are no ethnic divisions in
  Greece

Greenland
  Greenlander 88% (Inuit and Greenland-born whites), Danish
  and others 12% (2000)

Grenada
  black 82%, mixed black and European 13%, European and East
  Indian 5%, and trace of Arawak/Carib Amerindian

Guadeloupe
  black or mulatto 90%, white 5%, East Indian, Lebanese,
  Chinese less than 5%

Guam
  Chamorro 37.1%, Filipino 26.3%, other Pacific islander 11.3%,
  white 6.9%, other Asian 6.3%, other ethnic origin or race 2.3%,
  mixed 9.8% (2000 census)

Guatemala
  Mestizo (mixed Amerindian-Spanish - in local Spanish
  called Ladino) and European 59.4%, K'iche 9.1%, Kaqchikel 8.4%, Mam
  7.9%, Q'eqchi 6.3%, other Mayan 8.6%, indigenous non-Mayan 0.2%,
  other 0.1% (2001 census)

Guernsey
  UK and Norman-French descent with small percentages from
  other European countries

Guinea
  Peuhl 40%, Malinke 30%, Soussou 20%, smaller ethnic groups 10%

Guinea-Bissau
  African 99% (includes Balanta 30%, Fula 20%, Manjaca
  14%, Mandinga 13%, Papel 7%), European and mulatto less than 1%

Guyana
  East Indian 50%, black 36%, Amerindian 7%, white, Chinese,
  and mixed 7%

Haiti
  black 95%, mulatto and white 5%

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Italians, Swiss, other

Honduras
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) 90%, Amerindian 7%,
  black 2%, white 1%

Hong Kong
  Chinese 95%, other 5%

Hungary
  Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001
  census)

Iceland
  homogeneous mixture of descendants of Norse and Celts 94%,
  population of foreign origin 6%

India
  Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

Indonesia
  Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, coastal Malays
  7.5%, other 26%

Iran
  Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%,
  Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%

Iraq
  Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%

Ireland
  Celtic, English

Isle of Man
  Manx (Norse-Celtic descent), Briton

Israel
  Jewish 76.4% (of which Israel-born 67.1%, Europe/America-born
  22.6%, Africa-born 5.9%, Asia-born 4.2%), non-Jewish 23.6% (mostly
  Arab) (2004)

Italy
  Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and
  Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and
  Greek-Italians in the south)

Jamaica
  black 90.9%, East Indian 1.3%, white 0.2%, Chinese 0.2%,
  mixed 7.3%, other 0.1%

Japan
  Japanese 99%, others 1% (Korean 511,262, Chinese 244,241,
  Brazilian 182,232, Filipino 89,851, other 237,914)
  note: up to 230,000 Brazilians of Japanese origin migrated to Japan
  in the 1990s to work in industries; some have returned to Brazil
  (2004)

Jersey
  Jersey 51.1%, British 34.8%, Irish, French, and other white
  6.6%, Portuguese/Madeiran 6.4%, other 1.1% (2001 census)

Jordan
  Arab 98%, Circassian 1%, Armenian 1%

Kazakhstan
  Kazakh (Qazaq) 53.4%, Russian 30%, Ukrainian 3.7%, Uzbek
  2.5%, German 2.4%, Tatar 1.7%, Uygur 1.4%, other 4.9% (1999 census)

Kenya
  Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii
  6%, Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African (Asian, European, and
  Arab) 1%

Kiribati
  Micronesian 98.8%, other 1.2% (2000 census)

Korea, North
  racially homogeneous; there is a small Chinese
  community and a few ethnic Japanese

Korea, South
  homogeneous (except for about 20,000 Chinese)

Kuwait
  Kuwaiti 45%, other Arab 35%, South Asian 9%, Iranian 4%,
  other 7%

Kyrgyzstan
  Kyrgyz 64.9%, Uzbek 13.8%, Russian 12.5%, Dungan 1.1%,
  Ukrainian 1%, Uygur 1%, other 5.7% (1999 census)

Laos
  Lao Loum (lowland) 68%, Lao Theung (upland) 22%, Lao Soung
  (highland) including the Hmong and the Yao 9%, ethnic
  Vietnamese/Chinese 1%

Latvia
  Latvian 57.7%, Russian 29.6%, Belarusian 4.1%, Ukrainian
  2.7%, Polish 2.5%, Lithuanian 1.4%, other 2% (2002)

Lebanon
  Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1%
  note: many Christian Lebanese do not identify themselves as Arab but
  rather as descendents of the ancient Canaanites and prefer to be
  called Phoenicians

Lesotho
  Sotho 99.7%, Europeans, Asians, and other 0.3%,

Liberia
  indigenous African 95% (including Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru,
  Grebo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi, Vai, Dei, Bella,
  Mandingo, and Mende), Americo-Liberians 2.5% (descendants of
  immigrants from the US who had been slaves), Congo People 2.5%
  (descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean who had been slaves)

Libya
  Berber and Arab 97%, Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians,
  Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, Tunisians

Liechtenstein
  Alemannic 86%, Italian, Turkish, and other 14%

Lithuania
  Lithuanian 83.4%, Polish 6.7%, Russian 6.3%, other or
  unspecified 3.6% (2001 census)

Luxembourg
  Celtic base (with French and German blend), Portuguese,
  Italian, Slavs (from Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo) and European
  (guest and resident workers)

Macau
  Chinese 95.7%, Macanese (mixed Portuguese and Asian ancestry)
  1%, other 3.3% (2001 census)

Macedonia
  Macedonian 64.2%, Albanian 25.2%, Turkish 3.9%, Roma 2.7%,
  Serb 1.8%, other 2.2% (2002 census)

Madagascar
  Malayo-Indonesian (Merina and related Betsileo), Cotiers
  (mixed African, Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab ancestry -
  Betsimisaraka, Tsimihety, Antaisaka, Sakalava), French, Indian,
  Creole, Comoran

Malawi
  Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni,
  Ngonde, Asian, European

Malaysia
  Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%,
  others 7.8% (2004 est.)

Maldives
  South Indians, Sinhalese, Arabs

Mali
  Mande 50% (Bambara, Malinke, Soninke), Peul 17%, Voltaic 12%,
  Songhai 6%, Tuareg and Moor 10%, other 5%

Malta
  Maltese (descendants of ancient Carthaginians and Phoenicians,
  with strong elements of Italian and other Mediterranean stock)

Marshall Islands
  Micronesian

Martinique
  African and African-white-Indian mixture 90%, white 5%,
  East Indian and Chinese less than 5%

Mauritania
  mixed Maur/black 40%, Moor 30%, black 30%

Mauritius
  Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian 3%,
  Franco-Mauritian 2%

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly
  Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%

Micronesia, Federated States of
  nine ethnic Micronesian and
  Polynesian groups

Moldova
  Moldovan/Romanian 78.2%, Ukrainian 8.4%, Russian 5.8%,
  Gagauz 4.4%, Bulgarian 1.9%, other 1.3% (2004 census)
  note: internal disputes with ethnic Slavs in the Transnistrian region

Monaco
  French 47%, Monegasque 16%, Italian 16%, other 21%

Mongolia
  Mongol (mostly Khalkha) 94.9%, Turkic (mostly Kazakh) 5%,
  other (including Chinese and Russian) 0.1% (2000)

Montenegro
  Montenegrin 43%, Serbian 32%, Bosniak 8%, Albanian 5%,
  other (Muslims, Croats, Roma) 12%

Montserrat
  black, white

Morocco
  Arab-Berber 99.1%, other 0.7%, Jewish 0.2%

Mozambique
  African 99.66% (Makhuwa, Tsonga, Lomwe, Sena, and
  others), Europeans 0.06%, Euro-Africans 0.2%, Indians 0.08%

Namibia
  black 87.5%, white 6%, mixed 6.5%
  note: about 50% of the population belong to the Ovambo tribe and 9%
  to the Kavangos tribe; other ethnic groups includes Herero 7%,
  Damara 7%, Nama 5%, Caprivian 4%, Bushmen 3%, Baster 2%, Tswana 0.5%

Nauru
  Nauruan 58%, other Pacific Islander 26%, Chinese 8%, European
  8%

Nepal
  Chhettri 15.5%, Brahman-Hill 12.5%, Magar 7%, Tharu 6.6%,
  Tamang 5.5%, Newar 5.4%, Muslim 4.2%, Kami 3.9%, Yadav 3.9%, other
  32.7%, unspecified 2.8% (2001 census)

Netherlands
  Dutch 83%, other 17% (of which 9% are non-Western origin
  mainly Turks, Moroccans, Antilleans, Surinamese, and Indonesians)
  (1999 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  mixed black 85%, Carib Amerindian, white, East
  Asian

New Caledonia
  Melanesian 42.5%, European 37.1%, Wallisian 8.4%,
  Polynesian 3.8%, Indonesian 3.6%, Vietnamese 1.6%, other 3%

New Zealand
  European 69.8%, Maori 7.9%, Asian 5.7%, Pacific islander
  4.4%, other 0.5%, mixed 7.8%, unspecified 3.8% (2001 census)

Nicaragua
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 69%, white 17%, black
  9%, Amerindian 5%

Niger
  Hausa 56%, Djerma 22%, Fula 8.5%, Tuareg 8%, Beri Beri
  (Kanouri) 4.3%, Arab, Toubou, and Gourmantche 1.2%, about 1,200
  French expatriates

Nigeria
  Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more
  than 250 ethnic groups; the following are the most populous and
  politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo
  (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%

Niue
  Niuen 78.2%, Pacific islander 10.2%, European 4.5%, mixed 3.9%,
  Asian 0.2%, unspecified 3% (2001 census)

Norfolk Island
  descendants of the Bounty mutineers, Australian, New
  Zealander, Polynesian

Northern Mariana Islands
  Asian 56.3%, Pacific islander 36.3%,
  Caucasian 1.8%, other 0.8%, mixed 4.8% (2000 census)

Norway
  Norwegian, Sami 20,000

Oman
  Arab, Baluchi, South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan,
  Bangladeshi), African

Pakistan
  Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun (Pathan), Baloch, Muhajir
  (immigrants from India at the time of partition and their
  descendants)

Palau
  Palauan (Micronesian with Malayan and Melanesian admixtures)
  69.9%, Filipino 15.3%, Chinese 4.9%, other Asian 2.4%, white 1.9%,
  Carolinian 1.4%, other Micronesian 1.1%, other or unspecified 3.2%
  (2000 census)

Panama
  mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 70%, Amerindian and
  mixed (West Indian) 14%, white 10%, Amerindian 6%

Papua New Guinea
  Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian

Paraguay
  mestizo (mixed Spanish and Amerindian) 95%, other 5%

Peru
  Amerindian 45%, mestizo (mixed Amerindian and white) 37%, white
  15%, black, Japanese, Chinese, and other 3%

Philippines
  Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%,
  Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%, Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%,
  other 25.3% (2000 census)

Pitcairn Islands
  descendants of the Bounty mutineers and their
  Tahitian wives

Poland
  Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%,
  other and unspecified 2.7% (2002 census)

Portugal
  homogeneous Mediterranean stock; citizens of black African
  descent who immigrated to mainland during decolonization number less
  than 100,000; since 1990 East Europeans have entered Portugal

Puerto Rico
  white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%, black 8%,
  Amerindian 0.4%, Asian 0.2%, mixed and other 10.9%

Qatar
  Arab 40%, Indian 18%, Pakistani 18%, Iranian 10%, other 14%

Reunion
  French, African, Malagasy, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian

Romania
  Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%,
  German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4% (2002 census)

Russia
  Russian 79.8%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 2%, Bashkir 1.2%,
  Chuvash 1.1%, other or unspecified 12.1% (2002 census)

Rwanda
  Hutu 84%, Tutsi 15%, Twa (Pygmoid) 1%

Saint Helena
  African descent 50%, white 25%, Chinese 25%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  predominantly black; some British, Portuguese,
  and Lebanese

Saint Lucia
  black 90%, mixed 6%, East Indian 3%, white 1%

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Basques and Bretons (French fishermen)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  black 66%, mixed 19%, East Indian
  6%, Carib Amerindian 2%, other 7%

Samoa
  Samoan 92.6%, Euronesians 7% (persons of European and
  Polynesian blood), Europeans 0.4%

San Marino
  Sammarinese, Italian

Sao Tome and Principe
  mestico, angolares (descendants of Angolan
  slaves), forros (descendants of freed slaves), servicais (contract
  laborers from Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde), tongas (children
  of servicais born on the islands), Europeans (primarily Portuguese)

Saudi Arabia
  Arab 90%, Afro-Asian 10%

Senegal
  Wolof 43.3%, Pular 23.8%, Serer 14.7%, Jola 3.7%, Mandinka
  3%, Soninke 1.1%, European and Lebanese 1%, other 9.4%

Serbia
  Serb 66%, Albanian 17%, Hungarian 3.5%, other 13.5% (1991)

Seychelles
  mixed French, African, Indian, Chinese, and Arab

Sierra Leone
  20 African ethnic groups 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%,
  other 30%), Creole (Krio) 10% (descendants of freed Jamaican slaves
  who were settled in the Freetown area in the late-18th century),
  refugees from Liberia's recent civil war, small numbers of
  Europeans, Lebanese, Pakistanis, and Indians

Singapore
  Chinese 76.8%, Malay 13.9%, Indian 7.9%, other 1.4% (2000
  census)

Slovakia
  Slovak 85.8%, Hungarian 9.7%, Roma 1.7%,
  Ruthenian/Ukrainian 1%, other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

Slovenia
  Slovene 83.1%, Serb 2%, Croat 1.8%, Bosniak 1.1%, other or
  unspecified 12% (2002 census)

Solomon Islands
  Melanesian 94.5%, Polynesian 3%, Micronesian 1.2%,
  other 1.1%, unspecified 0.2% (1999 census)

Somalia
  Somali 85%, Bantu and other non-Somali 15% (including Arabs
  30,000)

South Africa
  black African 79%, white 9.6%, colored 8.9%,
  Indian/Asian 2.5% (2001 census)

Spain
  composite of Mediterranean and Nordic types

Sri Lanka
  Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%,
  Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (2001 census
  provisional data)

Sudan
  black 52%, Arab 39%, Beja 6%, foreigners 2%, other 1%

Suriname
  Hindustani (also known locally as "East Indians"; their
  ancestors emigrated from northern India in the latter part of the
  19th century) 37%, Creole (mixed white and black) 31%, Javanese 15%,
  "Maroons" (their African ancestors were brought to the country in
  the 17th and 18th centuries as slaves and escaped to the interior)
  10%, Amerindian 2%, Chinese 2%, white 1%, other 2%

Svalbard
  Norwegian 55.4%, Russian and Ukrainian 44.3%, other 0.3%
  (1998)

Swaziland
  African 97%, European 3%

Sweden
  indigenous population: Swedes with Finnish and Sami
  minorities; foreign-born or first-generation immigrants: Finns,
  Yugoslavs, Danes, Norwegians, Greeks, Turks

Switzerland
  German 65%, French 18%, Italian 10%, Romansch 1%, other
  6%

Syria
  Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%

Taiwan
  Taiwanese (including Hakka) 84%, mainland Chinese 14%,
  aborigine 2%

Tajikistan
  Tajik 79.9%, Uzbek 15.3%, Russian 1.1%, Kyrgyz 1.1%,
  other 2.6% (2000 census)

Tanzania
  mainland - African 99% (of which 95% are Bantu consisting
  of more than 130 tribes), other 1% (consisting of Asian, European,
  and Arab); Zanzibar - Arab, African, mixed Arab and African

Thailand
  Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11%

Togo
  African (37 tribes; largest and most important are Ewe, Mina,
  and Kabre) 99%, European and Syrian-Lebanese less than 1%

Tokelau
  Polynesian

Tonga
  Polynesian, Europeans

Trinidad and Tobago
  Indian (South Asian) 40%, African 37.5%, mixed
  20.5%, other 1.2%, unspecified 0.8% (2000 census)

Tunisia
  Arab 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Turkey
  Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated)

Turkmenistan
  Turkmen 85%, Uzbek 5%, Russian 4%, other 6% (2003)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  black 90%, mixed, European, or North
  American 10%

Tuvalu
  Polynesian 96%, Micronesian 4%

Uganda
  Baganda 17%, Ankole 8%, Basoga 8%, Iteso 8%, Bakiga 7%, Langi
  6%, Rwanda 6%, Bagisu 5%, Acholi 4%, Lugbara 4%, Batoro 3%, Bunyoro
  3%, Alur 2%, Bagwere 2%, Bakonjo 2%, Jopodhola 2%, Karamojong 2%,
  Rundi 2%, non-African (European, Asian, Arab) 1%, other 8%

Ukraine
  Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan
  0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian
  0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 census)

United Arab Emirates
  Emirati 19%, other Arab and Iranian 23%, South
  Asian 50%, other expatriates (includes Westerners and East Asians)
  8% (1982)
  note: less than 20% are UAE citizens (1982)

United Kingdom
  white (of which English 83.6%, Scottish 8.6%, Welsh
  4.9%, Northern Irish 2.9%) 92.1%, black 2%, Indian 1.8%, Pakistani
  1.3%, mixed 1.2%, other 1.6% (2001 census)

United States
  white 81.7%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and
  Alaska native 1%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.2%
  (2003 est.)
  note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US
  Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American
  descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican
  origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group
  (white, black, Asian, etc.)

Uruguay
  white 88%, mestizo 8%, black 4%, Amerindian (practically
  nonexistent)

Uzbekistan
  Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak
  2.5%, Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5% (1996 est.)

Vanuatu
  Ni-Vanuatu 98.5%, other 1.5% (1999 Census)

Venezuela
  Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arab, German, African,
  indigenous people

Vietnam
  Kinh (Viet) 86.2%, Tay 1.9%, Thai 1.7%, Muong 1.5%, Khome
  1.4%, Hoa 1.1%, Nun 1.1%, Hmong 1%, others 4.1% (1999 census)

Virgin Islands
  black 76.2%, white 13.1%, Asian 1.1%, other 6.1%,
  mixed 3.5% (2000 census)

Wallis and Futuna
  Polynesian

West Bank
  Palestinian Arab and other 83%, Jewish 17%

Western Sahara
  Arab, Berber

Yemen
  predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asians, Europeans

Zambia
  African 98.7%, European 1.1%, other 0.2%

Zimbabwe
  African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%), mixed and
  Asian 1%, white less than 1%

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2076  Exchange rates


Afghanistan
  afghanis per US dollar - 541 (2005), 48 (2004), 49
  (2003), 41 (2002), 66 (2001)
  note: in 2002, the afghani was revalued and the currency stabilized
  at about 50 afghanis to the dollar; before 2002, the market rate
  varied widely from the official rate

Albania
  leke per US dollar - 102.649 (2005), 102.78 (2004), 121.863
  (2003), 140.155 (2002), 143.485 (2001)

Algeria
  Algerian dinars per US dollar - 73.276 (2005), 72.061
  (2004), 77.395 (2003), 79.682 (2002), 77.215 (2001)

American Samoa
  the US dollar is used

Andorra
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Angola
  kwanza per US dollar - 88.6 (2005), 83.541 (2004), 74.606
  (2003), 43.53 (2002), 22.058 (2001)

Anguilla
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7
  (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Antigua and Barbuda
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7
  (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Argentina
  Argentine pesos per US dollar - 2.9037 (2005), 2.9233
  (2004), 2.9006 (2003), 3.0633 (2002), 0.9995 (2001)

Armenia
  drams per US dollar - 457.69 (2005), 533.45 (2004), 578.76
  (2003), 573.35 (2002), 555.08 (2001)

Aruba
  Aruban guilders/florins per US dollar - 1.79 (2005), 1.79
  (2004), 1.79 (2003), 1.79 (2002), 1.79 (2001)

Australia
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598
  (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Austria
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijani manats per US dollar - 4,727.1 (2005),
  4,913.48 (2004), 4,910.73 (2003), 4,860.82 (2002), 4,656.58 (2001)
  note: on 1 January 2006 Azerbaijan revalued its currency, with 5,000
  old manats equal to 1 new manat

Bahamas, The
  Bahamian dollars per US dollar - 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1
  (2003), 1 (2002), 1 (2001)

Bahrain
  Bahraini dinars per US dollar - 0.376 (2005), 0.376 (2004),
  0.376 (2003), 0.376 (2002), 0.376 (2001)

Bangladesh
  taka per US dollar - 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004), 58.15
  (2003), 57.888 (2002), 55.807 (2001)

Barbados
  Barbadian dollars per US dollar - 2 (2005), 2 (2004), 2
  (2003), 2 (2002), 2 (2001)

Belarus
  Belarusian rubles per US dollar - 2,150 (2005), 2,160.26
  (2004), 2,051.27 (2003), 1,790.92 (2002), 1,390 (2001)

Belgium
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Belize
  Belizean dollars per US dollar - 2 (2005), 2 (2004), 2
  (2003), 2 (2002), 2 (2001)

Benin
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Bermuda
  Bermudian dollar per US dollar - 1.0000 (fixed rate pegged
  to the US dollar)

Bhutan
  ngultrum per US dollar - 44.101 (2005), 45.317 (2004), 46.583
  (2003), 48.61 (2002), 47.186 (2001)

Bolivia
  bolivianos per US dollar - 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004),
  7.6592 (2003), 7.17 (2002), 6.6069 (2001)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  marka per US dollar - 1.5727 (2005), 1.5752
  (2004), 1.7329 (2003), 2.0782 (2002), 2.1857 (2001)
  note: the marka is pegged to the euro

Botswana
  pulas per US dollar - 5.1104 (2005), 4.6929 (2004), 4.9499
  (2003), 6.3278 (2002), 5.8412 (2001)

Brazil
  reals per US dollar - 2.4344 (2005), 2.9251 (2004), 3.0771
  (2003), 2.9208 (2002), 2.3577 (2001)

British Virgin Islands
  the US dollar is used

Brunei
  Bruneian dollars per US dollar - 1.6644 (2005), 1.6902
  (2004), 1.7422 (2003), 1.7906 (2002), 1.7917 (2001)

Bulgaria
  leva per US dollar - 1.5741 (2005), 1.5751 (2004), 1.7327
  (2003), 2.077 (2002), 2.1847 (2001)

Burkina Faso
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US
  dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002),
  733.04 (2001)

Burma
  kyats per US dollar - 5.761 (2005), 5.7459 (2004), 6.0764
  (2003), 6.5734 (2002), 6.6841 (2001)
  note: these are official exchange rates; unofficial exchange rates
  ranged in 2004 from 815 kyat/US dollar to nearly 970 kyat/US dollar,
  and by year-end 2005, the unofficial exchange rate was 1,075 kyat/US
  dollar

Burundi
  Burundi francs per US dollar - 1,138 (2005), 1,100.91
  (2004), 1,082.62 (2003), 930.75 (2002), 830.35 (2001)

Cambodia
  riels per US dollar - 4,092.5 (2005), 4,016.25 (2004),
  3,973.33 (2003), 3,912.08 (2002), 3,916.33 (2001)

Cameroon
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar
  - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Canada
  Canadian dollars per US dollar - 1.2118 (2005), 1.301 (2004),
  1.4011 (2003), 1.5693 (2002), 1.5488 (2001)

Cape Verde
  Cape Verdean escudos (CVE) per US dollar - 88.67 (2005),
  88.808 (2004), 97.703 (2003), 117.168 (2002), 123.228 (2001)

Cayman Islands
  Caymanian dollars per US dollar - 0.82 (29 October
  2001), 0.83 (3 November 1995), 0.85 (22 November 1993)

Central African Republic
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs
  (XAF) per US dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003),
  696.99 (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Chad
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Chile
  Chilean pesos per US dollar - 560.09 (2005), 609.37 (2004),
  691.43 (2003), 688.94 (2002), 634.94 (2001)

China
  yuan per US dollar - 8.1943 (2005), 8.2768 (2004), 8.277
  (2003), 8.277 (2002), 8.2771 (2001)

Christmas Island
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005),
  1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095
  (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Colombia
  Colombian pesos per US dollar - 2,320.75 (2005), 2,628.61
  (2004), 2,877.65 (2003), 2,504.24 (2002), 2,299.63 (2001)

Comoros
  Comoran francs (KMF) per US dollar - 395.6 (2005), 396.21
  (2004), 435.9 (2003), 522.74 (2002), 549.78 (2001)
  note: the Comoran franc is pegged to the euro at a rate of 491.9677
  Comoran francs per euro

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Congolese francs per US dollar -
  437.86 (2005), 401.04 (2004), 405.34 (2003), 346.49 (2002), 206.62
  (2001)

Congo, Republic of the
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF)
  per US dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99
  (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Cook Islands
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005),
  1.5087 (2004), 1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Costa Rica
  Costa Rican colones per US dollar - 477.79 (2005), 437.91
  (2004), 398.66 (2003), 359.82 (2002), 328.87 (2001)

Cote d'Ivoire
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US
  dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002),
  733.04 (2001)

Croatia
  kuna per US dollar - 5.9473 (2005), 6.0358 (2004), 6.7035
  (2003), 7.8687 (2002), 8.34 (2001)

Cuba
  Convertible pesos per US dollar - 0.93
  note: Cuba has three currencies in circulation: the Cuban peso
  (CUP), the convertible peso (CUC), and the US dollar (USD), although
  the dollar is being withdrawn from circulation; in April 2005 the
  official exchange rate changed from $1 per CUC to $1.08 per CUC
  (0.93 CUC per $1), both for individuals and enterprises; individuals
  can buy 24 Cuban pesos (CUP) for each CUC sold, or sell 25 Cuban
  pesos for each CUC bought; enterprises, however, must exchange CUP
  and CUC at a 1:1 ratio.

Cyprus
  Cypriot pounds per US dollar - 0.4641 (2005), 0.4686 (2004),
  0.5174 (2003), 0.6107 (2002), 0.6431 (2001), Turkish lira per US
  dollar - 1.36 (2005), 1.426 million (2004), 1.501 million (2003),
  1.507 million (2002), 1.226 million (2001)

Czech Republic
  koruny per US dollar - 23.957 (2005), 25.7 (2004),
  28.209 (2003), 32.739 (2002), 38.035 (2001)

Denmark
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911 (2004),
  6.5877 (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Djibouti
  Djiboutian francs per US dollar - 177.72 (2005), 177.72
  (2004), 177.72 (2003), 177.72 (2002), 177.72 (2001)

Dominica
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7
  (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Dominican Republic
  Dominican pesos per US dollar - 30.409 (2005),
  42.12 (2004), 30.831 (2003), 18.61 (2002), 16.952 (2001)

East Timor
  the US dollar is used

Ecuador
  25,000 (2005), 25,000 (2004), 25,000 (2003), 25,000 (2002),
  25,000 (2001)

Egypt
  Egyptian pounds per US dollar - 5.78 (2005), 6.1962 (2004),
  5.8509 (2003), 4.4997 (2002), 3.973 (2001)

El Salvador
  the US dollar became El Salvador's currency in 2001

Equatorial Guinea
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per
  US dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99
  (2002), 733.04 (2001)

Eritrea
  nakfa (ERN) per US dollar - 14.5 (2005), 13.788 (2004),
  13.878 (2003), 13.958 (2002), 11.31 (2001)

Estonia
  krooni per US dollar - 12.584 (2005), 12.596 (2004), 13.856
  (2003), 16.612 (2002), 17.478 (2001), note - the krooni is pegged to
  the euro

Ethiopia
  birr per US dollar - 8.68 (2005), 8.6356 (2004), 8.5997
  (2003), 8.5678 (2002), 8.4575 (2001)
  note: since 24 October 2001 exchange rates are determined on a daily
  basis via interbank transactions regulated by the Central Bank

European Union
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004),
  0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Falkland pounds per US dollar -
  0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947
  (2001)
  note: the Falkland pound is at par with the British pound

Faroe Islands
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911
  (2004), 6.5877 (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Fiji
  Fijian dollars per US dollar - 1.691 (2005), 1.7331 (2004),
  1.8958 (2003), 2.1869 (2002), 2.2766 (2001)

Finland
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

France
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

French Guiana
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004),
  0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

French Polynesia
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per US
  dollar - 95.89 (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71 (2002),
  133.26 (2001)
  note: pegged at the rate of 119.25 XPF to the euro

Gabon
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XAF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Gambia, The
  dalasi per US dollar - 30.38 (2005), 30.03 (2004),
  27.306 (2004), 19.918 (2003), 15.687 (2002), 15.687 (2001)

Gaza Strip
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482
  (2004), 4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Georgia
  lari per US dollar - 1.8127 (2005), 1.9167 (2004), 2.1457
  (2003), 2.1957 (2002), 2.073 (2001)

Germany
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Ghana
  cedis per US dollar - 9,072.5 (2005), 9,004.6 (2004), 8,677.4
  (2003), 7,932.7 (2002), 7,170.8 (2001)

Gibraltar
  Gibraltar pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462
  (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Gibraltar pound is at par with the British pound

Greece
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Greenland
  Danish kroner per US dollar - 5.9969 (2005), 5.9911
  (2004), 6.5877 (2003), 7.8947 (2002), 8.3228 (2001)

Grenada
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7
  (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Guadeloupe
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 j(2001)

Guam
  the US dollar is used

Guatemala
  quetzales per US dollar - 7.6339 (2005), 7.9465 (2004),
  7.9409 (2003), 7.8217 (2002), 7.8586 (2001)

Guernsey
  Guernsey pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004),
  0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Guernsey pound is at par with the British pound

Guinea
  Guinean francs per US dollar - 2,550 (2005), 2,225 (2004),
  1,984.9 (2003), 1,975.8 (2002), 1,950.6 (2001)

Guinea-Bissau
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US
  dollar - 527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002),
  733.04 (2001)
  note: since 1 January 1999, the XOF franc has been pegged to the
  euro at a rate of 655.957 XOF francs per euro

Guyana
  Guyanese dollars per US dollar - 200.79 (2005), 198.31
  (2004), 193.88 (2003), 190.67 (2002), 187.32 (2001)

Haiti
  gourdes per US dollar - 40.449 (2005), 38.352 (2004), 42.367
  (2003), 29.251 (2002), 24.429 (2001)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054
  (2004), 0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Honduras
  lempiras per US dollar - 18.92 (2005), 18.206 (2004),
  17.345 (2003), 16.433 (2002), 15.474 (2001)

Hong Kong
  Hong Kong dollars per US dollar - 7.7773 (2005), 7.788
  (2004), 7.7868 (2003), 7.7989 (2002), 7.7988 (2001)

Hungary
  forints per US dollar - 199.58 (2005), 202.75 (2004), 224.31
  (2003), 257.89 (2002), 286.49 (2001)

Iceland
  Icelandic kronur per US dollar - 62.982 (2005), 70.192
  (2004), 76.709 (2003), 91.662 (2002), 97.425 (2001)

India
  Indian rupees per US dollar - 44.101 (2005), 45.317 (2004),
  46.583 (2003), 48.61 (2002), 47.186 (2001)

Indonesia
  Indonesian rupiahs per US dollar - 9,704.7 (2005), 8,938.9
  (2004), 8,577.1 (2003), 9,311.2 (2002), 10,260.9 (2001)

Iran
  rials per US dollar - 8,964 (2005), 8,614 (2004), 8,193.9
  (2003), 6,907 (2002), 1,753.6 (2001)
  note: Iran has been using a managed floating exchange rate regime
  since unifying multiple exchange rates in March 2002

Iraq
  New Iraqi dinars per US dollar - 1,475 (2005), 1,890 (second
  half, 2003), 0.3109 (2001)

Ireland
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Isle of Man
  Manx pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004),
  0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)

Israel
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482
  (2004), 4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Italy
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Jamaica
  Jamaican dollars per US dollar - 62.51 (2005), 61.197
  (2004), 57.741 (2003), 48.416 (2002), 45.996 (2001)

Japan
  yen per US dollar - 110.22 (2005), 108.19 (2004), 115.93
  (2003), 125.39 (2002), 121.53 (2001)

Jersey
  Jersey pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462 (2004),
  0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Jersey pound is at par with the British pound

Jordan
  Jordanian dinars per US dollar - 0.709 (2005), 0.709 (2004),
  0.709 (2003), 0.709 (2002), 0.709 (2001)

Kazakhstan
  tenge per US dollar - 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004),
  149.58 (2003), 153.28 (2002), 146.74 (2001)

Kenya
  Kenyan shillings per US dollar - 75.554 (2005), 79.174 (2004),
  75.936 (2003), 78.749 (2002), 78.563 (2001)

Kiribati
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598
  (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Korea, North
  official: North Korean won per US dollar - 170
  (December 2004), 150 (December 2002), 2.15 (December 2001); market:
  North Korean won per US dollar - 300-600 (December 2002)

Korea, South
  South Korean won per US dollar - 1,024.1 (2005),
  1,145.3 (2004), 1,191.6 (2003), 1,251.1 (2002), 1,291 (2001)

Kuwait
  Kuwaiti dinars per US dollar - 0.292 (2005), 0.2947 (2004),
  0.298 (2003), 0.3039 (2002), 0.3067 (2001)

Kyrgyzstan
  soms per US dollar - 41.012 (2005), 42.65 (2004), 43.648
  (2003), 46.937 (2002), 48.378 (2001)

Laos
  kips per US dollar - 10,820 (2005), 10,585.5 (2004), 10,569
  (2003), 10,056.3 (2002), 8,954.6 (2001)

Latvia
  lati per US dollar - 0.5647 (2005), 0.5402 (2004), 0.5715
  (2003), 0.6182 (2002), 0.6279 (2001)

Lebanon
  Lebanese pounds per US dollar - 1,507.5 (2005), 1,507.5
  (2004), 1,507.5 (2003), 1,507.5 (2002), 1,507.5 (2001)

Lesotho
  maloti per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648
  (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Liberia
  Liberian dollars per US dollar - NA (2005), 54.906 (2004),
  59.379 (2003), 61.754 (2002), 48.583 (2001)

Libya
  Libyan dinars per US dollar - 1.3084 (2005), 1.305 (2004),
  1.2929 (2003), 1.2707 (2002), 0.6051 (2001)

Liechtenstein
  Swiss francs per US dollar - 1.2452 (2005), 1.2435
  (2004), 1.3467 (2003), 1.5586 (2002), 1.6876 (2001)

Lithuania
  litai per US dollar - 2.774 (2005), 2.7806 (2004), 3.0609
  (2003), 3.677 (2002), 4 (2001)

Luxembourg
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Macau
  patacas per US dollar - 8.011 (2005), 8.022 (2004), 8.021
  (2003), 8.033 (2002), 8.034 (2001)

Macedonia
  Macedonian denars per US dollar - 48.92 (2005), 49.41
  (2004), 54.322 (2003), 64.35 (2002), 68.037 (2001)

Madagascar
  Malagasy ariary per US dollar - 2,003 (2005), 1,868.9
  (2004), 1,238.3 (2003), 1,366.4 (2002), 1,317.7 (2001)

Malawi
  Malawian kwachas per US dollar - 108.894 (2005), 108.898
  (2004), 97.433 (2003), 76.687 (2002), 72.197 (2001)

Malaysia
  ringgits per US dollar - 3.8 (2005), 3.8 (2004), 3.8
  (2003), 3.8 (2002), 3.8 (2001)

Maldives
  rufiyaa per US dollar - 12.8 (2005), 12.8 (2004), 12.8
  (2003), 12.8 (2002), 12.24 (2001)

Mali
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Malta
  Maltese liri per US dollar - 0.34578 (2005), 0.34466 (2004),
  0.37723 (2003), 0.43362 (2002), 0.45004 (2001)

Marshall Islands
  the US dollar is used

Martinique
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Mauritania
  ouguiyas per US dollar - NA (2005), NA (2004), 263.03
  (2003), 271.74 (2002), 255.63 (2001)

Mauritius
  Mauritian rupees per US dollar - 29.496 (2005), 27.499
  (2004), 27.902 (2003), 29.962 (2002), 29.129 (2001)

Mayotte
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Mexico
  Mexican pesos per US dollar - 10.898 (2005), 11.286 (2004),
  10.789 (2003), 9.656 (2002), 9.342 (2001)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  the US dollar is used

Moldova
  lei per US dollar - 12.6 (2005), 12.33 (2004), 13.945
  (2003), 13.571 (2002), 12.865 (2001)

Monaco
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Mongolia
  togrogs/tugriks per US dollar - 1,187.17 (2005), 1,185.3
  (2004), 1,146.5 (2003), 1,110.3 (2002), 1,097.7 (2001)

Montenegro
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8089 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Montserrat
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7
  (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)
  note: fixed rate since 1976

Morocco
  Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.865 (2005), 8.868 (2004),
  9.574 (2003), 11.021 (2002), 11.303 (2001)

Mozambique
  meticais per US dollar - 23,061 (2005), 22,581 (2004),
  23,782 (2003), 23,678 (2002), 20,704 (2001)

Namibia
  Namibian dollars per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597
  (2004), 7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Nauru
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598
  (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Nepal
  Nepalese rupees per US dollar - 71.368 (2005), 73.674 (2004),
  76.141 (2003), 77.877 (2002), 74.949 (2001)

Netherlands
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004),
  0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Netherlands Antilles
  Netherlands Antillean guilders per US dollar -
  1.79 (2005), 1.79 (2004), 1.79 (2003), 1.79 (2002), 1.79 (2001)

New Caledonia
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per US
  dollar - 95.89 (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71 (2002),
  133.26 (2001)

New Zealand
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005),
  1.5087 (2004), 1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Nicaragua
  gold cordobas per US dollar - 16.733 (2005), 15.937
  (2004), 15.105 (2003), 14.251 (2002), 13.372 (2001)

Niger
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Nigeria
  nairas per US dollar - 132.59 (2005), 132.89 (2004), 129.22
  (2003), 120.58 (2002), 111.23 (2001)

Niue
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087
  (2004), 1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Norfolk Island
  Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095 (2005),
  1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Northern Mariana Islands
  the US dollar is used

Norway
  Norwegian kroner per US dollar - 6.4425 (2005), 6.7408
  (2004), 7.0802 (2003), 7.9838 (2002), 8.9917 (2001)

Oman
  Omani rials per US dollar - 0.3845 (2005), 0.3845 (2004),
  0.3845 (2003), 0.3845 (2002), 0.3845 (2001)

Pakistan
  Pakistani rupees per US dollar - 59.515 (2005), 58.258
  (2004), 57.752 (2003), 59.724 (2002), 61.927 (2001)

Palau
  the US dollar is used

Panama
  balboas per US dollar - 1 (2005), 1 (2004), 1 (2003), 1
  (2002), 1 (2001)

Papua New Guinea
  kina per US dollar - 3.08 (2005), 3.2225 (2004),
  3.5635 (2003), 3.8952 (2002), 3.3887 (2001)

Paraguay
  guarani per US dollar - 6,178 (2005), 5,974.6 (2004),
  6,424.3 (2003), 5,716.3 (2002), 4,105.9 (2001)

Peru
  nuevo sol per US dollar - 3.2958 (2005), 3.4132 (2004), 3.4785
  (2003), 3.5165 (2002), 3.5068 (2001)

Philippines
  Philippine pesos per US dollar - 55.086 (2005), 56.04
  (2004), 54.203 (2003), 51.604 (2002), 50.993 (2001)

Pitcairn Islands
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005),
  1.5087 (2004), 1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Poland
  zlotych per US dollar - 3.2355 (2005), 3.6576 (2004), 3.8891
  (2003), 4.08 (2002), 4.0939 (2001)
  note: zlotych is the plural form of zloty

Portugal
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Puerto Rico
  the US dollar is used

Qatar
  Qatari rials per US dollar - 3.64 (2005), 3.64 (2004), 3.64
  (2003), 3.64 (2002), 3.64 (2001)

Reunion
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Romania
  lei per US dollar - 3 (2005), 3 (2004), 3 (2003), 3 (2002),
  3 (2001)

Russia
  Russian rubles per US dollar - 28.284 (2005), 28.814 (2004),
  30.692 (2003), 31.349 (2002), 29.169 (2001)

Rwanda
  Rwandan francs per US dollar - 610 (2005), 574.62 (2004),
  537.66 (2003), 476.33 (2002), 442.8 (2001)

Saint Helena
  Saint Helenian pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005),
  0.5462 (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)
  note: the Saint Helenian pound is on par with the British pound

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7
  (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Saint Lucia
  East Caribbean dollars per US dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7
  (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005),
  0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  East Caribbean dollars per US
  dollar - 2.7 (2005), 2.7 (2004), 2.7 (2003), 2.7 (2002), 2.7 (2001)

Samoa
  tala per US dollar - 2.7103 (2005), 2.7807 (2004), 2.9732
  (2003), 3.3763 (2002), 3.478 (2001)

San Marino
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Sao Tome and Principe
  dobras per US dollar - 9,900.4 (2005), (2004),
  9,347.6 (2003), 9,088.3 (2002), 8,842.1 (2001)

Saudi Arabia
  Saudi riyals per US dollar - 3.747 (2005), 3.75 (2004),
  3.75 (2003), 3.75 (2002), 3.75 (2001)

Senegal
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Serbia
  new Yugoslav dinars per US dollar - 58.6925 (2005)

Seychelles
  Seychelles rupees per US dollar - 5.5 (2005), 5.5 (2004),
  5.4007 (2003), 5.48 (2002), 5.8575 (2001)

Sierra Leone
  leones per US dollar - 2,889.6 (2005), 2,701.3 (2004),
  2,347.9 (2003), 2,099 (2002), 1,986.2 (2001)

Singapore
  Singapore dollars per US dollar - 1.6644 (2005), 1.6902
  (2004), 1.7422 (2003), 1.7906 (2002), 1.7917 (2001)

Slovakia
  koruny per US dollar - 31.018 (2005), 32.257 (2004), 36.773
  (2003), 45.327 (2002), 48.355 (2001)

Slovenia
  tolars per US dollar - 192.71 (2005), 192.38 (2004), 207.11
  (2003), 240.25 (2002), 242.75 (2001)

Solomon Islands
  Solomon Islands dollars per US dollar - 7.5299
  (2005), 7.4847 (2004), 7.5059 (2003), 6.7488 (2002), 5.278 (2001)

Somalia
  Somali shillings per US dollar - 11,000 (November 2000),
  2,620 (January 1999), 7,500 (November 1997 est.), 7,000 (January
  1996 est.), 5,000 (1 January 1995)
  note: the Republic of Somaliland, a self-declared independent
  country not recognized by any foreign government, issues its own
  currency, the Somaliland shilling

South Africa
  rand per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004),
  7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Spain
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886
  (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001)

Sri Lanka
  Sri Lankan rupees per US dollar - 100.498 (2005), 101.194
  (2004), 96.521 (2003), 95.662 (2002), 89.383 (2001)

Sudan
  Sudanese dinars per US dollar - 243.61 (2005), 257.91 (2004),
  260.98 (2003), 263.31 (2002), 258.7 (2001)

Suriname
  Surinamese dollars per US dollar - 2.7317 (2005),
  Surinamese guilders per US dollar - 2.7336 (2004), 2.6013 (2003),
  2.3468 (2002), 2.1785 (2001)
  note: during 1998, the exchange rate splintered into four distinct
  rates; in January 1999 the government floated the guilder, but
  subsequently fixed it when the black-market rate plunged; in January
  2004, the government introduced the Surinamese dollar as replacement
  for the guilder, tied to a US dollar-dominated currency basket

Svalbard
  Norwegian kroner per US dollar - 6.4425 (2005), 6.7408
  (2004), 7.0802 (2003), 7.9838 (2002), 8.9917 (2001)

Swaziland
  emalangeni per US dollar - 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004),
  7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002), 8.6092 (2001)

Sweden
  Swedish kronor per US dollar - 7.4731 (2005), 7.3489 (2004),
  8.0863 (2003), 9.7371 (2002), 10.3291 (2001)

Switzerland
  Swiss francs per US dollar - 1.2452 (2005), 1.2435
  (2004), 1.3467 (2003), 1.5586 (2002), 1.6876 (2001)

Syria
  Syrian pounds per US dollar - (public sector rate): 11.225
  (2005), 11.225 (2004), 11.225 (2003), 11.225 (2002), 11.225 (2001),
  (parallel market rate in 'Amman and Beirut): NA (2005), NA (2004),
  52.8 (2003), 52.4 (2002), 50.4 (2001), (official rate for repaying
  loans): 11.25 (2004)

Taiwan
  new Taiwan dollars per US dollar - 31.71 (2005), 34.418
  (2004), 34.575 (2003), 33.8 (2002), 33.09 (2001)

Tajikistan
  Tajikistani somoni per US dollar - 3.1166 (2005), 2.9705
  (2004), 3.0614 (2003), 2.7641 (2002), 2.3722 (2001)

Tanzania
  Tanzanian shillings per US dollar - 1,128.93 (2005),
  1,089.33 (2004), 1,038.42 (2003), 966.58 (2002), 876.41 (2001)

Thailand
  baht per US dollar - 40.22 (2005), 40.222 (2004), 41.485
  (2003), 42.96 (2002), 44.432 (2001)

Togo
  Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (XOF) per US dollar -
  527.47 (2005), 528.29 (2004), 581.2 (2003), 696.99 (2002), 733.04
  (2001)

Tokelau
  New Zealand dollars per US dollar - 1.4203 (2005), 1.5087
  (2004), 1.7221 (2003), 2.1622 (2002), 2.3788 (2001)

Tonga
  pa'anga per US dollar - 1.96 (2005), 1.9716 (2004), 2.142
  (2003), 2.1952 (2002), 2.1236 (2001)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago dollars per US dollar -
  6.2842 (2005), 6.299 (2004), 6.2951 (2003), 6.2487 (2002), 6.2332
  (2001)

Tunisia
  Tunisian dinars per US dollar - 1.2974 (2005), 1.2455
  (2004), 1.2885 (2003), 1.4217 (2002), 1.4387 (2001)

Turkey
  Turkish liras per US dollar - 1.3436 (2005), 1.4255 (2004),
  1.5009 (2003), 1.5072 (2002), 1.2256 (2001)
  note: on 1 January 2005 the old Turkish Lira (TRL) was converted to
  new Turkish Lira (YTL) at a rate of 1,000,000 old to 1 new Turkish
  Lira

Turkmenistan
  in recent years the unofficial rate has hovered around
  24,000 to 25,000 Turkmen manats to the dollar; the official rate has
  consistently been 5,200 manat to the dollar

Turks and Caicos Islands
  the US dollar is used

Tuvalu
  Tuvaluan dollars or Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.3095
  (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003), 1.8406 (2002), 1.9334 (2001)

Uganda
  Ugandan shillings per US dollar - 1,780.7 (2005), 1,810.3
  (2004), 1,963.7 (2003), 1,797.6 (2002), 1,755.7 (2001)

Ukraine
  hryvnia per US dollar - 5.1247 (2005), 5.3192 (2004), 5.3327
  (2003), 5.3266 (2002), 5.3722 (2001)

United Arab Emirates
  Emirati dirhams per US dollar - 3.6725 (2005),
  3.6725 (2004), 3.6725 (2003), 3.6725 (2002), 3.6725 (2001)
  note: officially pegged to the US dollar since February 2002

United Kingdom
  British pounds per US dollar - 0.55 (2005), 0.5462
  (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001)

United States
  British pounds per US dollar - 0.5500 (2005), 0.5462
  (2004), 0.6125 (2003), 0.6672 (2002), 0.6947 (2001); Canadian
  dollars per US dollar - 1.2118 (2005), 1.3010 (2004), 1.4011 (2003),
  1.5693 (2002), 1.5488 (2001); Japanese yen per US dollar - 110.22
  (2005), 108.19 (2004), 115.93 (2003), 125.39 (2002), 121.53 (2001);
  euros per US dollar - 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.8866 (2003),
  1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001); Chinese yuan per US dollar - 8.1943
  (2005), 8.2768 (2004), 8.2770 (2003), 8.2770 (2002), 8.2271 (2001)

Uruguay
  Uruguayan pesos per US dollar - 24.479 (2005), 28.704
  (2004), 28.209 (2003), 21.257 (2002), 13.319 (2001)

Uzbekistan
  Uzbekistani soum per US dollar - 1,020 (2005), 971.265
  (2004), 771.029 (2002), 423.832 (2002), 236.61 (2001)

Vanuatu
  vatu per US dollar - NA (2005), 111.79 (2004), 122.19
  (2003), 139.2 (2002), 145.31 (2001)

Venezuela
  bolivares per US dollar - 2,089.8 (2005), 1,891.3 (2004),
  1,607 (2003), 1,161 (2002), 723.7 (2001)

Vietnam
  dong per US dollar - 15,746 (2005), (2004), 15,510 (2003),
  15,280 (2002), 14,725 (2001)

Virgin Islands
  the US dollar is used

Wallis and Futuna
  Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique francs (XPF) per
  US dollar - 95.89 (2005), 96.04 (2004), 105.66 (2003), 126.71
  (2002), 133.26 (2001)

West Bank
  new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.4877 (2005), 4.482
  (2004), 4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001)

Western Sahara
  Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.865 (2005), 8.868
  (2004), 9.5744 (2003), 11.0206 (2002), 11.303 (2001)

Yemen
  Yemeni rials per US dollar - 192.67 (2005), 184.78 (2004),
  183.45 (2003), 175.63 (2002), 168.67 (2001)

Zambia
  Zambian kwacha per US dollar - 4,463.5 (2005), 4,778.9
  (2004), 4,733.3 (2003), 4,398.6 (2002), 3,610.9 (2001)

Zimbabwe
  Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar - 4,303.28 (2005),
  5,068.66 (2004), 697.424 (2003), 55.036 (2002), 55.052 (2001)
  note: these are official exchange rates; non-official rates vary
  significantly

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2077  Executive branch


Afghanistan
  chief of state: President of the Islamic Republic of
  Afghanistan Hamid KARZAI (since 7 December 2004); Vice Presidents
  Ahmad Zia MASOOD and Abdul Karim KHALILI (since 7 December 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; former King ZAHIR Shah holds the honorific, "Father of
  the Country," and presides symbolically over certain occasions, but
  lacks any governing authority; the honorific is not hereditary
  head of government: President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  Hamid KARZAI (since 7 December 2004); Vice Presidents Ahmad Zia
  MASOOD and Abdul Karim KHALILI (since 7 December 2004); note - the
  president is both chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: 27 ministers; note - under the new constitution, ministers
  are appointed by the president and approved by the National Assembly
  elections: the president and two vice presidents are elected by
  direct vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); if no
  candidate receives 50% or more of the vote in the first round of
  voting, the two candidates with the most votes will participate in a
  second round; a president can only be elected for two terms;
  election last held 9 October 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Hamid KARZAI elected president; percent of vote -
  Hamid KARZAI 55.4%, Yunus QANOONI 16.3%, Ustad Mohammad MOHAQQEQ
  11.6%, Abdul Rashid DOSTAM 10.0%, Abdul Latif PEDRAM 1.4%, Masooda
  JALAL 1.2%

Akrotiri
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Administrator Air Vice-Marshal Richard LACEY
  (since 26 April 2006); note - reports to the British Ministry of
  Defence
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the administrator is
  appointed by the monarch

Albania
  chief of state: President of the Republic Alfred MOISIU
  (since 24 July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sali BERISHA (since 10 September
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the prime minister,
  nominated by the president, and approved by parliament
  elections: president elected by the People's Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 24
  June 2002 (next to be held June 2007); prime minister appointed by
  the president
  election results: Alfred MOISIU elected president; People's Assembly
  vote by number - total votes 116, for 97, against 19

Algeria
  chief of state: President Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA (since 28
  April 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Abdelaziz BELKHADEM
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 April 2004 (next
  to be held in April 2009); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA reelected president for
  second term; percent of vote - Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA 85%, Ali BENFLIS
  6.4%, Abdellah DJABALLAH 5%

American Samoa
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US
  (since 20 January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20
  January 2001)
  head of government: Governor Togiola TULAFONO (since 7 April 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet made up of 12 department directors
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as American Samoa, do not vote in elections for US
  president and vice president; governor and lieutenant governor
  elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 2 and 16 November
  2004 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Togiola TULAFONO elected governor; percent of vote
  - Togiola TULAFONO 55.7%, Afoa Moega LUTU 44.3%

Andorra
  chief of state: French Coprince Jacques CHIRAC (since 17 May
  1995), represented by Philippe MASSONI (since 26 July 2002); Spanish
  Coprince Bishop Joan Enric VIVES i SICILIA (since 12 May 2003),
  represented by Nemesi MARQUES i OSTE (since NA)
  head of government: Executive Council President Albert PINTAT
  SANTOLARIA (since 27 May 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council or Govern designated by the Executive
  Council president
  elections: Executive Council president elected by the General
  Council and formally appointed by the coprinces for a four-year
  term; election last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held April-May
  2009)
  election results: Albert PINTAT SANTOLARIA elected executive council
  president; percent of General Council vote - NA

Angola
  chief of state: President Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS (since 21
  September 1979); note - the president is both chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS (since 21
  September 1979); note - the president is both chief of state and
  head of government; Fernando de Piedade Dias DOS SANTOS was
  appointed Prime Minister on 6 December 2002
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by universal ballot for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second consecutive or discontinuous term) under
  the 1992 constitution; President DOS SANTOS originally elected (in
  1979) without opposition under a one-party system and stood for
  reelection in Angola's first multiparty elections 29-30 September
  1992 (next to be held September 2006 or 2007)
  election results: Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS 49.6%, Jonas SAVIMBI
  40.1%, making a run-off election necessary; the run-off was not held
  and SAVIMBI's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
  (UNITA) repudiated the results of the first election; the civil war
  resumed leaving DOS SANTOS in his current position as the president

Anguilla
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952);
  represented by Governor Andrew N. GEORGE (since 10 July 2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Osbourne FLEMING (since 3 March
  2000)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor from among the
  elected members of the House of Assembly
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Antigua and Barbuda
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Governor General Sir James B.
  CARLISLE (since 10 June 1993)
  head of government: Prime Minister Winston Baldwin SPENCER (since 24
  March 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the governor general on
  the advice of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general chosen
  by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister; following
  legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the
  leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister
  by the governor general

Argentina
  chief of state: President Nestor KIRCHNER (since 25 May
  2003); Vice President Daniel SCIOLI (since 25 May 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Nestor KIRCHNER (since 25 May 2003);
  Vice President Daniel SCIOLI (since 25 May 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 27 April 2003 (next election to be held in 2007)
  election results: results of the presidential election of 27 April
  2003: Carlos Saul MENEM 24.3%, Nestor KIRCHNER 22%, Ricardo Lopez
  MURPHY 16.4%, Adolfo Rodriguez SAA 14.4%, Elisa CARRIO 14.2%, other
  8.7%; the subsequent runoff election slated for 25 May 2003 was
  awarded to KIRCHNER by default after MENEM withdrew his candidacy on
  the eve of the election

Armenia
  chief of state: President Robert KOCHARIAN (since 30 March
  1998)
  head of government: Prime Minister Andranik MARGARYAN (since 12 May
  2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 19 February and 5
  March 2003 (next to be held in 2008); prime minister appointed by
  the president and confirmed with the majority support of the
  National Assembly; the prime minister and Council of Ministers must
  resign if the National Assembly refuses to accept their program
  election results: Robert KOCHARIAN reelected president; percent of
  vote - Robert KOCHARIAN 67.5%, Stepan DEMIRCHYAN 32.5%

Aruba
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX of the Netherlands (since 30
  April 1980), represented by Governor General Fredis REFUNJOL (since
  11 May 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nelson O. ODUBER (since 30
  October 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the Staten
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed for
  a six-year term by the monarch; prime minister and deputy prime
  minister elected by the Staten for four-year terms; election last
  held 2005 (next to be held by 2009)
  election results: Nelson O. ODUBER elected prime minister; percent
  of legislative vote - NA

Australia
  chief of state: Queen of Australia ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Governor General Maj. Gen. (Ret.)
  Michael JEFFERY (since 11 August 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister John Winston HOWARD (since 11
  March 1996); Deputy Prime Minister Mark VAILE (since 6 July 2005)
  cabinet: prime minister nominates, from among members of Parliament,
  candidates who are subsequently sworn in by the governor general to
  serve as government ministers
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime
  minister; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or leader of a majority coalition is sworn in as
  prime minister by the governor general
  note: government coalition - Liberal Party and National Party

Austria
  chief of state: President Heinz FISCHER (since 8 July 2004)
  head of government: Chancellor Wolfgang SCHUESSEL (OeVP)(since 4
  February 2000); Vice Chancellor Hubert GORBACH (since 21 October
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers chosen by the president on the advice
  of the chancellor
  elections: president elected by direct popular vote for a six-year
  term (eligible for a second term); presidential election last held
  25 April 2004 (next to be held April 2010); chancellor traditionally
  chosen by the president from the plurality party in the National
  Council; vice chancellor chosen by the president on the advice of
  the chancellor
  election results: Heinz FISCHER elected president; percent of vote -
  Heinz FISCHER (SPOe) 52.4%, Benita FERRERO-WALDNER (OeVP) 47.6%
  note: government coalition - OeVP and FPOe

Azerbaijan
  chief of state: President Ilham ALIYEV (since 31 October
  2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Artur RASIZADE (since 4 November
  2003); First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas ABBASOV (since 10 November
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president and
  confirmed by the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote to a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 October 2003
  (next to be held October 2008); prime minister and first deputy
  prime ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the
  National Assembly
  election results: Ilham ALIYEV elected president; percent of vote -
  Ilham ALIYEV 76.8%, Isa GAMBAR 14%

Bahamas, The
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor General Arthur D. HANNA (since 1
  February 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Perry CHRISTIE (since 3 May 2002)
  and Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia PRATT (since 7 May 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the prime
  minister's recommendation
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; the
  prime minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Bahrain
  chief of state: King HAMAD bin Isa al-Khalifa (since 6 March
  1999); Heir Apparent Crown Prince SALMAN bin Hamad (son of the
  monarch, born 21 October 1969)
  head of government: Prime Minister KHALIFA bin Salman al-Khalifa
  (since 1971); Deputy Prime Ministers ALI bin Khalifa bin Salman
  al-Khalifa, MUHAMMAD bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, Jawad al-ARAIDH
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; prime minister
  appointed by the monarch

Bangladesh
  chief of state: President Iajuddin AHMED (since 6
  September 2002); note - the president's duties are normally
  ceremonial, but with the 13th amendment to the constitution
  ("Caretaker Government Amendment"), the president's role becomes
  significant at times when Parliament is dissolved and a caretaker
  government is installed - at presidential direction - to supervise
  the elections
  head of government: Prime Minister Khaleda ZIA (since 10 October
  2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the
  president
  elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election scheduled for 16
  September 2002 was not held since Iajuddin AHMED was the only
  presidential candidate; he was sworn in on 6 September 2002 (next
  election to be held by 2007); following legislative elections, the
  leader of the party that wins the most seats is usually appointed
  prime minister by the president
  election results: Iajuddin AHMED declared by the Election Commission
  elected unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote
  - NA

Barbados
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir Clifford Straughn HUSBANDS
  (since 1 June 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Owen Seymour ARTHUR (since 7
  September 1994); Deputy Prime Minister Mia MOTTLEY (since 26 May
  2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; the
  prime minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Belarus
  chief of state: President Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (since 20
  July 1994)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sergei SIDORSKIY (since 19
  December 2003); First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir SEMASHKO (since
  December 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  first election took place 23 June and 10 July 1994; according to the
  1994 constitution, the next election should have been held in 1999,
  however, Aleksandr LUKASHENKO extended his term to 2001 via a
  November 1996 referendum; subsequent election held 9 September 2001;
  an October 2004 referendum ended presidential term limits allowing
  president to run in a third election held on 19 March 2006; prime
  minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Aleksandr LUKASHENKO reelected president; percent
  of vote - Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 82.6%, Aleksandr MILINKEVICH 6%,
  Aleksandr KOZULIN 2.3%; note - election marred by electoral fraud

Belgium
  chief of state: King ALBERT II (since 9 August 1993); Heir
  Apparent Prince PHILIPPE, son of the monarch
  head of government: Prime Minister Guy VERHOFSTADT (since 13 July
  1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers formally appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary and constitutional;
  following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or
  the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by the monarch and then approved by parliament
  note: government coalition - VLD, MR, PS, SP.A-Spirit

Belize
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Sir Colville YOUNG, Sr. (since 17
  November 1993)
  head of government: Prime Minister Said Wilbert MUSA (since 28
  August 1998); Deputy Prime Minister John BRICENO (since 1 September
  1998)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; prime
  minister recommends the deputy prime minister

Benin
  chief of state: President YAYI Boni (since 6 April 2006); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President YAYI Boni (since 6 April 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president reelected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); runoff election held 19 March 2006
  (next to be held March 2011)
  election results: YAYI Boni elected president; percent of vote -
  YAYI Boni 74.5%, Adrien HOUNGBEDJI 25.5%

Bermuda
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor Sir John VEREKER (since 11 April 2002)
  head of government: Premier Ewart BROWN (since 30 October 2006);
  Deputy Premier Paula COX
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the premier, appointed by the governor
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed premier by the governor

Bhutan
  chief of state: King Jigme Singye WANGCHUCK (since 24 July
  1972)
  head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Sangay
  NGEDUP (since 5 September 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers (Lhengye Shungtsog) nominated by the
  monarch, approved by the National Assembly; members serve fixed,
  five-year terms; note - there is also a Royal Advisory Council
  (Lodoi Tsokde), members nominated by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary, but democratic reforms
  in July 1998 grant the National Assembly authority to remove the
  monarch with two-thirds vote

Bolivia
  chief of state: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22
  January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January
  2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22
  January 2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January
  2006); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 18
  December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma elected president; percent
  of vote - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 53.7%; Jorge Fernando QUIROGA
  Ramirez 28.6%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 7.8%; Michiaki NAGATANI
  Morishit 6.5%; Felipe QUISPE Huanca 2.2%; Guildo ANGULA Cabrera 0.7%

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  chief of state: Chairman of the Presidency
  Nebojsa RADMANOVIC (chairman since 6 November 2006; presidency
  member since 1 October 2006 - Serb); other members of the
  three-member presidency rotating (every eight months): Zeljko KOMSIC
  (since 1 October 2006 - Croat) and Haris SILAJDZIC (since 1 October
  2006 - Bosniak)
  head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers Adnan
  TERZIC (since 20 December 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the council chairman;
  approved by the National House of Representatives
  elections: the three members of the presidency (one Bosniak, one
  Croat, one Serb) are elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term, but then ineligible for four years);
  the member with the most votes becomes the chairman unless he or she
  was the incumbent chairman at the time of the election, but the
  chairmanship rotates every eight months; election last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2010); the chairman of the Council
  of Ministers is appointed by the presidency and confirmed by the
  National House of Representatives
  election results: percent of vote - Nebojsa RADMANOVIC with 53.3% of
  the Serb vote; Zeljko KOMSIC received 39.6% of the Croat vote; Haris
  SILAJDZIC received 62.8% of the Bosniak vote
  note: President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Niko
  LOZANCIC (since 27 January 2003); Vice Presidents Sahbaz DZIHANOVIC
  (since in 2003) and Desnica RADIVOJEVIC (since in 2003); President
  of the Republika Srpska: Milan JELIC (since 9 November 2006)

Botswana
  chief of state: President Festus G. MOGAE (since 1 April
  1998) and Vice President Seretse Ian KHAMA (since 13 July 1998);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Festus G. MOGAE (since 1 April 1998)
  and Vice President Seretse Ian KHAMA (since 13 July 1998); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president indirectly elected for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 20 October 2004
  (next to be held in 2009); vice president appointed by the president
  election results: Festus G. MOGAE elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 52%

Brazil
  chief of state: President Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1
  January 2003); Vice President Jose ALENCAR (since 1 January 2003);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1
  January 2003); Vice President Jose ALENCAR (since 1 January 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single four-year term; election last held 1
  October 2006 with runoff 29 October 2006 (next to be held 3 October
  2010 and, if necessary, 31 October 2010)
  election results: Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (PT) reelected president
  - 60.83%, Geraldo ALCKMIN (PSDB) 39.17%

British Indian Ocean Territory
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II
  (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Commissioner Tony CROMBIE (since January 2004);
  Administrator Tony HUMPHRIES (since February 2005); note - both
  reside in the UK
  cabinet: NA
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; commissioner and
  administrator appointed by the monarch

British Virgin Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Governor David PEAREY (since 18 April
  2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Dr. Orlando D. SMITH (since 17
  June 2003)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor from members of
  the Legislative Council
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Brunei
  chief of state: Sultan and Prime Minister Sir HASSANAL
  Bolkiah (since 5 October 1967); note - the monarch is both the chief
  of state and head of government
  head of government: Sultan and Prime Minister Sir HASSANAL Bolkiah
  (since 5 October 1967); note - the monarch is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Cabinet Ministers appointed and presided over by
  the monarch; deals with executive matters; note - there is also a
  Religious Council (members appointed by the monarch) that advises on
  religious matters, a Privy Council (members appointed by the
  monarch) that deals with constitutional matters, and the Council of
  Succession (members appointed by the monarch) that determines the
  succession to the throne if the need arises
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Bulgaria
  chief of state: President Georgi PURVANOV (since 22 January
  2002); Vice President Angel MARIN (since 22 January 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sergei STANISHEV (since 16 August
  2005); Deputy Prime Ministers Ivaylo KALFIN, Daniel VULCHEV, and
  Emel ETEM (since 16 August 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  elected by the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 22 and 29 October 2006 (next to be held in 2011);
  chairman of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) nominated by
  the president and elected by the National Assembly; deputy prime
  ministers nominated by the prime minister and elected by the
  National Assembly
  election results: Georgi PURVANOV reelected president; percent of
  vote - Georgi PURVANOV 77.3%, Volen SIDEROV 22.7%; Sergei STANISHEV
  elected prime minister, result of legislative vote - 168 to 67

Burkina Faso
  chief of state: President Blaise COMPAORE (since 15
  October 1987)
  head of government: Prime Minister Paramanga Ernest YONLI (since 6
  November 2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 13 November 2005
  (next to be held in 2010); in April 2000, the constitution was
  amended reducing the presidential term from seven to five years,
  enforceable as of 2005; prime minister appointed by the president
  with the consent of the legislature
  election results: Blaise COMPAORE reelected president; percent of
  popular vote - Blaise COMPAORE 80.3%, Benewende Stanislas SANKARA
  4.9%

Burma
  chief of state: Chairman of the State Peace and Development
  Council (SPDC) Sr. Gen. THAN SHWE (since 23 April 1992)
  head of government: Prime Minister, Gen SOE WIN (since 19 October
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet is overseen by the SPDC; military junta, so named
  15 November 1997, assumed power 18 September 1988 under the name
  State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
  elections: none

Burundi
  chief of state: President Pierre NKURUNZIZA (since 26 August
  2005); First Vice President Martin NDUWIMANA - Tutsi (since 29
  August 2005); Second Vice President Marina BARAMPAMA - Hutu (since 8
  September 2006)
  head of government: President Pierre NKURUNZIZA (since 26 August
  2005); First Vice President Martin NDUWIMANA - Tutsi (since 29
  August 2005); Second Vice President Marina BARAMPAMA - Hutu (since 8
  September 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by president
  elections: the president is elected by popular vote to a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); note - the constitution adopted
  in February 2005 permits the post-transition president to be elected
  by a two-thirds majority of the parliament; vice presidents
  nominated by the president, endorsed by parliament
  election results: Pierre NKURUNZIZA was elected president by the
  parliament by a vote of 151 to 9; note - the constitution adopted in
  February 2005 permits the post-transition president to be elected by
  a two-thirds majority of the legislature

Cambodia
  chief of state: King Norodom SIHAMONI (since 29 October
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister HUN SEN (since 14 January 1985)
  and Deputy Prime Ministers SAR KHENG (since 3 February 1992); SOK
  AN, LU LAY SRENG, TEA BANH, HOR NAMHONG, NHEK BUNCHHAY (since 16
  July 2004); KEV PUT REAKSMEI (since 24 October 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers in theory appointed by the monarch; in
  practice named by the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is chosen by a Royal Throne Council;
  following legislative elections, a member of the majority party or
  majority coalition is named prime minister by the Chairman of the
  National Assembly and appointed by the king

Cameroon
  chief of state: President Paul BIYA (since 6 November 1982)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ephraim INONI (since 8 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from proposals submitted
  by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 11 October 2004
  (next to be held by October 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: President Paul BIYA reelected; percent of vote -
  Paul BIYA 70.9%, John FRU NDI 17.4%, Adamou Ndam NJOYA 4.5%, Garga
  Haman ADJI 3.7%

Canada
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Michaelle JEAN (since 27 September
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Stephen HARPER (since 6 February
  2006)
  cabinet: Federal Ministry chosen by the prime minister usually from
  among the members of his own party sitting in Parliament
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister for a
  five-year term; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition in the House
  of Commons is automatically designated prime minister by the
  governor general

Cape Verde
  chief of state: President Pedro Verona PIRES (since 22
  March 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose Maria Pereira NEVES (since 1
  February 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 12 February 2006
  (next to be held February 2011); prime minister nominated by the
  National Assembly and appointed by the president
  election results: Pedro PIRES reelected president; percent of vote -
  Pedro PIRES (PAICV) 51.2%, Carlos VIEGA (MPD) 48.8%

Cayman Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952); Governor Stuart JACK (since 23 November 2005)
  head of government: Leader of Government Business Kurt TIBBETTS
  (since 18 May 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council (three members appointed by the governor,
  four members elected by the Legislative Assembly)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or coalition is appointed by the
  governor Leader of Government Business

Central African Republic
  chief of state: President Francois BOZIZE
  (since 15 March 2003 coup)
  head of government: Prime Minister Elie DOTE (since 13 June 2005);
  note - Celestin GAOMBALET resigned 11 June 2005
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: under the new constitution, the president elected to a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); elections last held 13
  March and 8 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010); prime minister
  appointed by the political party with a parliamentary majority
  election results: Francois BOZIZE elected president; percent of
  second round balloting - Francois BOZIZE (KNK) 64.6%, Martin ZIGUELE
  (MLPC) 35.4%

Chad
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno (since 4
  December 1990)
  head of government: Prime Minister Pascal YOADIMNADJI (since 3
  February 2005)
  cabinet: Council of State, members appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  term; if no candidate receives at least 50% of the total vote, the
  two candidates receiving the most votes must stand for a second
  round of voting; last held 3 May 2006 (next to be held by May 2011);
  prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno reelected president;
  percent of vote - Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY 64.7%, Delwa Kassire
  COUMAKOYE 15.1%, Albert Pahimi PADACKE 7.8%, Mahamat ABDOULAYE 7.1%,
  Brahim KOULAMALLAH 5.3%; note - a June 2005 national referendum
  altered the constitution removing presidential term limits and
  permitting Lt. Gen. Idriss DEBY Itno to run for reelection

Chile
  chief of state: President Michelle BACHELET Jeria (since 11
  March 2006); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Michelle BACHELET Jeria (since 11
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single four-year
  term; election last held 11 December 2005, with runoff election held
  15 January 2006 (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: Michelle BACHELET Jeria elected president; percent
  of vote - Michelle BACHELET Jeria 53.5%; Sebastian PINERA Echenique
  46.5%

China
  chief of state: President HU Jintao (since 15 March 2003) and
  Vice President ZENG Qinghong (since 15 March 2003)
  head of government: Premier WEN Jiabao (since 16 March 2003);
  Executive Vice Premier HUANG Ju (since 17 March 2003), Vice Premiers
  WU Yi (17 March 2003), ZENG Peiyan (since 17 March 2003), and HUI
  Liangyu (since 17 March 2003)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the National People's Congress
  (NPC)
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  People's Congress for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  elections last held 15-17 March 2003 (next to be held mid-March
  2008); premier nominated by the president, confirmed by the National
  People's Congress
  election results: HU Jintao elected president by the 10th National
  People's Congress with a total of 2,937 votes (four delegates voted
  against him, four abstained, and 38 did not vote); ZENG Qinghong
  elected vice president by the 10th National People's Congress with a
  total of 2,578 votes (177 delegates voted against him, 190
  abstained, and 38 did not vote); two seats were vacant

Christmas Island
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by the Australian governor general
  head of government: Administrator Neil LUCAS (since 30 January 2006)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the governor general of Australia and represents the monarch and
  Australia

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by the Australian governor general
  head of government: Administrator (nonresident) Neil LUCAS (since 30
  January 2006)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the governor general of Australia and represents the monarch and
  Australia

Colombia
  chief of state: President Alvaro URIBE Velez (since 7
  August 2002); Vice President Francisco SANTOS (since 7 August 2002);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Alvaro URIBE Velez (since 7 August
  2002); Vice President Francisco SANTOS (since 7 August 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of a coalition of the two dominant parties
  - the PL and PSC - and independents
  elections: president and vice president elected by popular vote for
  a four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 28
  May 2006 (next to be held in May 2010)
  election results: President Alvaro URIBE Velez reelected president;
  percent of vote - Alvaro URIBE Velez 62%, Carlos GAVIRIA Diaz 22%,
  Horacio SERPA Uribe 12%, other 4%

Comoros
  chief of state: President Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI (since 26 May
  2006);
  head of government: President Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI (since 26 May
  2006);
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: as defined by the 2001 constitution, the presidency
  rotates every four years among the elected presidents from the three
  main islands in the Union; election last held 14 May 2006 (next to
  be held by May 2010); prime minister appointed by the president;
  note - the post of Prime Minister has been vacant since May 2002
  election results: Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI elected president; percent of
  vote - Ahmed Abdallah SAMBI 58.0%, Ibrahim HALIDI 28.3%, Mohamed
  DJAANFAMI 13.7%

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  chief of state: President Joseph
  KABILA (since 26 January 2001); note - following the assassination
  of his father, Laurent Desire KABILA, on 16 January 2001, Joseph
  KABILA succeeded to the presidency; the president is both the chief
  of state and head of government
  head of government: President Joseph KABILA (since 26 January 2001);
  note - following the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire
  KABILA, on 16 January 2001, Joseph KABILA succeeded to the
  presidency; the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: National Executive Council appointed by the president
  elections: under the new constitution the president is elected by
  popular vote to a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  elections last held 30 July 2006 with a second round held on 29
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: results of 29 October 2006 elections (second
  round); Joseph KABILA 58%, Jean-Pierre BEMBA Gombo 42%
  note: Joseph KABILA succeeded his father, Laurent Desire KABILA,
  following the latter's assassination in January 2001; negotiations
  with rebel leaders led to the establishment of a transitional
  government in July 2003 with free elections held on 30 July 2006 and
  29 October 2006 where the poplar vote confirmed Joseph KABILA as
  president

Congo, Republic of the
  chief of state: President Denis
  SASSOU-NGUESSO (since 25 October 1997, following the civil war in
  which he toppled elected president Pascal LISSOUBA); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO (since 25 October
  1997, following the civil war in which he toppled elected president
  Pascal LISSOUBA); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 March 2002 (next
  to be held in 2009)
  election results: Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO reelected president; percent
  of vote - Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO 89.4%, Joseph Kignoumbi Kia MBOUNGOU
  2.7%

Cook Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Frederick GOODWIN (since 9 February 2001); New
  Zealand High Commissioner John BRYAN (since 6 September 2005),
  representative of New Zealand
  head of government: Prime Minister Jim MARURAI (since 14 December
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Terepai MAOATE (since 9 August 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister; collectively
  responsible to Parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the UK representative is
  appointed by the monarch; the New Zealand high commissioner is
  appointed by the New Zealand Government; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition usually becomes prime minister

Coral Sea Islands
  administered from Canberra by the Department of
  the Environment, Sport, and Territories

Costa Rica
  chief of state: President Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (since 8
  May 2006); First Vice President Laura CHINCHILLA (since 8 May 2006);
  Second Vice President Kevin CASAS Zamora (since 8 May 2006); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (since 8 May
  2006); First Vice President Laura CHINCHILLA (since 8 May 2006);
  Second Vice President Kevin CASAS Zamora (since 8 May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the president
  elections: president and vice presidents elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single four-year term; election last held 5
  February 2006 (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: Oscar ARIAS Sanchez elected president; percent of
  vote - Oscar ARIAS Sanchez (PLN) 40.9%; Otto SOLIS (PAC) 39.8%, Otto
  GUEVARA Guth (PML) 8%, Ricardo TOLEDO (PUSC) 3%; note - official
  results pending the resolution of election challenges

Cote d'Ivoire
  chief of state: President Laurent GBAGBO (since 26
  October 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Charles Konan BANNY (since 7
  December 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 26 October 2000 (next to be
  held by October 2006, after the government postponed the election);
  prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Laurent GBAGBO elected president; percent of vote
  - Laurent GBAGBO 59.4%, Robert GUEI 32.7%, Francis WODIE 5.7%, other
  2.2%

Croatia
  chief of state: President Stjepan (Stipe) MESIC (since 18
  February 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ivo SANADER (since 9 December
  2003); Deputy Prime Ministers Jadranka KOSOR (since 23 December
  2003) and Damir POLANCEC (since 15 February 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers named by the prime minister and
  approved by the parliamentary Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 16 January 2005
  (next to be held January 2010); the leader of the majority party or
  the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by the president and then approved by the Assembly
  election results: Stjepan MESIC reelected president; percent of vote
  - Stjepan MESIC 66%, Jadranka KOSOR (HDZ) 34% in the second round

Cuba
  chief of state: President of the Council of State and President
  of the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from
  February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished;
  president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the
  Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of
  Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President of the Council of State and President
  of the Council of Ministers Fidel CASTRO Ruz (prime minister from
  February 1959 until 24 February 1976 when office was abolished;
  president since 2 December 1976); First Vice President of the
  Council of State and First Vice President of the Council of
  Ministers Gen. Raul CASTRO Ruz (since 2 December 1976)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers proposed by the president of the
  Council of State and appointed by the National Assembly or the
  31-member Council of State, elected by the Assembly to act on its
  behalf when it is not in session
  elections: president and vice presidents elected by the National
  Assembly for a term of five years; election last held 6 March 2003
  (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: Fidel CASTRO Ruz reelected president; percent of
  legislative vote - 100%; Raul CASTRO Ruz elected vice president;
  percent of legislative vote - 100%

Cyprus
  chief of state: President Tassos PAPADOPOULOS (since 1 March
  2003); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; post of vice president is currently vacant; under the
  1960 constitution, the post is reserved for a Turkish Cypriot
  head of government: President Tassos PAPADOPOULOS (since 1 March
  2003); note - post of vice president is currently vacant; under the
  1960 constitution, the post is reserved for a Turkish Cypriot
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed jointly by the president and
  vice president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 16 February 2003 (next to be held February 2008)
  election results: Tassos PAPADOPOULOS elected president; percent of
  vote - Tassos PAPADOPOULOS 51.5%, Glafkos KLIRIDIS 38.8%, Alekos
  MARKIDIS 6.6%
  note: Mehmet Ali TALAT became "president" of north Cyprus, 24 April
  2005, after "presidential" elections on 17 April 2005; results -
  Mehmet Ali TALAT 55.6%, Dervis EROGLU 22.7%; Ferdi Sabit SOYER is
  "prime minister"; there is a Council of Ministers (cabinet) in north
  Cyprus, appointed by the "prime minister"

Czech Republic
  chief of state: President Vaclav KLAUS (since 7 March
  2003)
  note: the Czech Republic's first president Vaclav HAVEL stepped down
  from office on 2 February 2003 having served exactly 10 years;
  parliament finally elected a successor on 28 February 2003 after two
  inconclusive elections in January 2003
  head of government: Prime Minister Mirek TOPOLANEK (since 4
  September 2006), Deputy Prime Minister Petr NECAS (since 4 September
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); last successful election held 28
  February 2003 (after earlier elections held 15 and 24 January 2003
  were inconclusive; next election to be held January 2008); prime
  minister appointed by the president
  election results: Vaclav KLAUS elected president on 28 February
  2003; Vaclav KLAUS 142 votes, Jan SOKOL 124 votes (third round;
  combined votes of both chambers of parliament)

Denmark
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II (since 14 January 1972);
  Heir Apparent Crown Prince FREDERIK, elder son of the monarch (born
  26 May 1968)
  head of government: Prime Minister Anders Fogh RASMUSSEN (since 27
  November 2001)
  cabinet: Council of State appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the monarch

Dhekelia
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Administrator Air Vice-Marshal Richard LACEY
  (since 26 April 2006); note - reports to the British Ministry of
  Defence
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the administrator is
  appointed by the monarch

Djibouti
  chief of state: President Ismail Omar GUELLEH (since 8 May
  1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Mohamed Dileita DILEITA (since 4
  March 2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 April 2005 (next
  to be held by April 2011); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Ismail Omar GUELLEH reelected president; percent
  of vote - Ismail Omar GUELLEH 100%

Dominica
  chief of state: President Nicholas J. O. LIVERPOOL (since
  October 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Roosevelt SKERRIT (since 8
  January 2004); note - assumed post after death of Prime Minister
  Pierre CHARLES
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by the House of Assembly for a
  five-year term; election last held 1 October 2003 (next to be held
  October 2008); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Nicholas LIVERPOOL elected president; percent of
  legislative vote - NA%

Dominican Republic
  chief of state: President Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna
  (since 16 August 2004); Vice President Rafael ALBURQUERQUE de Castro
  (since 16 August 2004); note - the president is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: President Leonel FERNANDEZ Reyna (since 16
  August 2004); Vice President Rafael ALBURQUERQUE de Castro (since 16
  August 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 16 May 2004 (next to be held in May 2008)
  election results: Leonel FERNANDEZ elected president; percent of
  vote - Leonel FERNANDEZ (PLD) 57.1%, Rafael Hipolito MEJIA Dominguez
  (PRD) 33.7%, Eduardo ESTRELLA (PRSC) 8.7%

East Timor
  chief of state: President Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO (since
  20 May 2002); note - the president plays a largely symbolic role but
  is able to veto legislation, dissolve parliament, and call national
  elections; he formerly used the name Jose Alexandre GUSMAO
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose RAMOS-HORTA (since 10 July
  2006); First Deputy Prime Minister Estanlislau Maria Alexio da SILVA
  (since 10 July 2006); Second Deputy Prime Minister Rui Maria do
  ARAUJO (since 10 July 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 April 2002 (next
  to be held in May 2007)
  election results: Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO elected president; percent
  of vote - Kay Rala Xanana GUSMAO 82.7%, Francisco Xavier do AMARAL
  17.3%

Ecuador
  chief of state: President Alfredo PALACIO (since 20 April
  2005); Vice President Nicanor Alejandro SERRANO Aguilar (since 5 May
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government; former President Lucio GUTIERREZ was removed from office
  by congress effective 20 April 2005
  head of government: President Alfredo PALACIO (since 20 April 2005);
  Vice President Nicanor Alejandro SERRANO Aguilar (since 5 May 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: the president and vice president are elected on the same
  ticket by popular vote for a four-year term (may not serve
  consecutive terms); election last held 15 October 2006 with a runoff
  election scheduled for 26 November 2006 (next to be held October
  2010)
  election results: results of the 15 October 2006 election; percent
  of vote - Alvaro NOBOA 26.8%; Rafael CORREA 22.8%; Gilmar GUTIERREZ
  17.4%; Leon ROLDOS Aguilera 14.8%; Cynthia VITERI 9.6%; note - a
  runoff election will be held 26 November 2006 between NOBOA and
  CORREA

Egypt
  chief of state: President Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK (since 14
  October 1981)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF (since 9 July 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term (no
  term limits); note - a national referendum in May 2005 approved a
  constitutional amendment that changed the presidential election to a
  multicandidate popular vote; previously the president was nominated
  by the People's Assembly and the nomination was validated by a
  national, popular referendum; last referendum held 26 September
  1999; first election under terms of constitutional amendment held 7
  September 2005; next election scheduled for 2011
  election results: Hosni MUBARAK reelected president; percent of vote
  - Hosni MUBARAK 88.6%, Ayman NOUR 7.6%, Noman GOMAA 2.9%

El Salvador
  chief of state: President Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez
  (since 1 June 2004); Vice President Ana Vilma DE ESCOBAR (since 1
  June 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head
  of government
  head of government: President Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez (since 1
  June 2004); Vice President Ana Vilma DE ESCOBAR (since 1 June 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers selected by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 21
  March 2004 (next to be held March 2009)
  election results: Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez elected president;
  percent of vote - Elias Antonio SACA Gonzalez (ARENA) 57.7%, Schafik
  HANDAL (FMLN) 35.6%, Hector SILVA (CDU-PDC) 3.9%, other 2.8%

Equatorial Guinea
  chief of state: President Brig. Gen. (Ret.)
  Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO (since 3 August 1979 when he seized
  power in a military coup)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ricardo Mangue Obama NFUBEA
  (since 14 August 2006); First Deputy Prime Minister Mercelino Oyono
  NTUTUMU (since 15 June 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 15 December 2002 (next to be
  held December 2009); prime minister and deputy prime ministers
  appointed by the president
  election results: Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO reelected president;
  percent of vote - Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO 97.1%, Celestino
  Bonifacio BACALE 2.2%; elections marred by widespread fraud

Eritrea
  chief of state: President ISAIAS Afworki (since 8 June
  1993); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government and is head of the State Council and National Assembly
  head of government: President ISAIAS Afworki (since 8 June 1993);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government and is head of the State Council and National Assembly
  cabinet: State Council is the collective executive authority;
  members appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 8
  June 1993 (next election date uncertain as the National Assembly did
  not hold a presidential election in December 2001 as anticipated)
  election results: ISAIAS Afworki elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - ISAIAS Afworki 95%

Estonia
  chief of state: President Toomas Hendrik ILVES (since 9
  October 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Andrus ANSIP (since 12 April 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister,
  approved by Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); if a candidate does not secure
  two-thirds of the votes after three rounds of balloting in the
  Parliament, then an electoral assembly (made up of Parliament plus
  members of local governments) elects the president, choosing between
  the two candidates with the largest percentage of votes; election
  last held 23 September 2006 (next to be held fall of 2011); prime
  minister nominated by the president and approved by Parliament
  election results: Toomas Hendrik ILVES elected president on 23
  September 2006 by a 345-member electoral assembly; ILVES received
  174 votes to incumbent Arnold RUUTEL's 162; remaining 9 ballots left
  blank or invalid

Ethiopia
  chief of state: President GIRMA Woldegiorgis (since 8
  October 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister MELES Zenawi (since NA August
  1995)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers as provided for in the December 1994
  constitution; ministers are selected by the prime minister and
  approved by the House of People's Representatives
  elections: president elected by the House of People's
  Representatives for a six-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 8 October 2001 (next to be held October 2007);
  prime minister designated by the party in power following
  legislative elections
  election results: GIRMA Woldegiorgis elected president; percent of
  vote by the House of People's Representatives - 100%

European Union
  chief of union: President of the European Commission
  Jose Manuel DURAO BARROSO (since 22 November 2004)
  cabinet: European Commission (composed of 25 members, one from each
  member country; each commissioner responsible for one or more policy
  areas)
  elections: the president of the European Commission is designated by
  member governments; the president-designate then chooses the other
  Commission members; the European Parliament confirms the entire
  Commission for a five-year term; election last held 18 November 2004
  (next to be held 2009)
  election results: European Parliament approved the European
  Commission by an approval vote of 449 to 149 with 82 abstentions
  note: the European Council brings together heads of state and
  government and the president of the European Commission and meets at
  least twice a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the major
  political issues relating to European integration and to issue
  general policy guidelines

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II
  (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Governor Alan HUCKLE (since 25 August 2006);
  Chief Executive Chris SIMPKINS (since March 2003); Financial
  Secretary Derek F. HOWATT (since NA)
  cabinet: Executive Council; three members elected by the Legislative
  Council, two ex officio members (chief executive and the financial
  secretary), and the governor
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch

Faroe Islands
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II of Denmark (since
  14 January 1972), represented by High Commissioner Birgit KLEIS,
  chief administrative officer (since 1 November 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Joannes EIDESGAARD (since 3
  February 2004)
  cabinet: Landsstyri appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; high commissioner appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  elected prime minister by the Faroese Parliament; election last held
  20 January 2004 (next to be held no later than January 2008)
  election results: Joannes EIDESGAARD elected prime minister; percent
  of parliamentary vote - NA

Fiji
  chief of state: President Ratu Josefa ILOILOVATU Uluivuda
  (since 18 July 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Laisenia QARASE (since 10
  September 2000)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister from among the
  members of Parliament and is responsible to Parliament
  elections: president elected by the Great Council of Chiefs for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); prime minister
  appointed by the president; election last held 8 March 2006 (next to
  be held in 2011)
  election results: Ratu Josefa ILOILOVATU Uluivuda elected president
  by the Great Council of Chiefs; percent of vote - NA

Finland
  chief of state: President Tarja HALONEN (since 1 March 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Matti VANHANEN (since 24 June
  2003) and Deputy Prime Minister Eero HEINALUOMA (since 24 September
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of State or Valtioneuvosto appointed by the
  president, responsible to parliament
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 January 2006
  (next to be held January 2012); the president appoints the prime
  minister and deputy prime minister from the majority party or the
  majority coalition after parliamentary elections and the parliament
  must approve the appointment
  election results: percent of vote - Tarja HALONEN (SDP) 46.3%, Sauli
  NIINISTO (Kok) 24.1%, Matti Vanhanen (Kesk) 18.6%, Heidi HAUTALA
  (VIHR) 3.5%; a runoff election between HALONEN and NIINISTO was held
  29 January 2006 - HOLONEN 51.8%, NIINISTO 48.2%
  note: government coalition - Kesk, SDP, and SFP

France
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC (since 17 May 1995)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dominique DE VILLEPIN (since 31
  May 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  suggestion of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (changed from seven-year term in October 2000); election last held
  21 April and 5 May 2002 (next to be held, first round April 2007,
  second round May 2007); prime minister nominated by the National
  Assembly majority and appointed by the president
  election results: Jacques CHIRAC reelected president; percent of
  vote, second ballot - Jacques CHIRAC (RPR) 81.96%, Jean-Marie LE PEN
  (FN) 18.04%

French Guiana
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France
  (since 17 May 1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Pierre LAFLAQUIERE
  (since 19 July 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Pierre DESERT
  (since 26 March 2004); President of the Regional Council Antoine
  KARAM (since 22 March 1992)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; presidents of the General and Regional
  Councils are appointed by the members of those councils

French Polynesia
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France
  (since 17 May 1995), represented by High Commissioner of the
  Republic Anne BOQUET (since September 2005)
  head of government: President of French Polynesia Oscar TEMARU
  (since 3 March 2005); President of the Territorial Assembly Antony
  GEROS (since 9 May 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers; president submits a list of members
  of the Territorial Assembly for approval by them to serve as
  ministers
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high commissioner appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of Interior; president of the
  territorial government and the president of the Territorial Assembly
  are elected by the members of the assembly for five-year terms (no
  term limits)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  chief of state: President
  Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17 May 1995), represented by Senior
  Administrator Michel CHAMPON

Gabon
  chief of state: President El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba (since 2
  December 1967)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe NDONG (since 20
  January 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister in
  consultation with the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 27 November 2005 (next to be
  held in 2012); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba reelected;
  percent of vote - El Hadj Omar BONGO Ondimba 79.2%, Pierre
  MAMBOUNDOU 13.6%, Zacharie MYBOTO 6.6%

Gambia, The
  chief of state: President Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH (since
  18 October 1996); note - from 1994 to 1996 he was chairman of the
  Junta); Vice President Isatou NJIE-SAIDY (since 20 March 1997); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH (since 18
  October 1996); note - from 1994 to 1996 he was chairman of the
  Junta); Vice President Isatou NJIE-SAIDY (since 20 March 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 22 September 2006 (next to be
  held in 2011)
  election results: Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH reelected president; percent
  of vote - Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH 67.3%, Ousainou DARBOE 26.6%

Georgia
  chief of state: President Mikheil SAAKASHVILI (since 25
  January 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government for the power ministries: state security
  (includes interior) and defense
  head of government: President Mikheil SAAKASHVILI (since 25 January
  2004); Prime Minister Zurab NOGHAIDELI (since 17 February 2005);
  note - the president is the chief of state and head of government
  for the power ministries: state security (includes interior) and
  defense; the prime minister is head of the remaining ministries of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 4 January 2004
  (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Mikheil SAAKASHVILI elected president; percent of
  vote - Mikheil SAAKASHVILI 96.3%, Temur SHASHIASHVILI 1.9%

Germany
  chief of state: President Horst KOEHLER (since 1 July 2004)
  head of government: Chancellor Angela MERKEL (since 22 November 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet or Bundesminister (Federal Ministers) appointed by
  the president on the recommendation of the chancellor
  elections: president elected for a five-year term (eligible for a
  second term) by a Federal Convention, including all members of the
  Federal Assembly and an equal number of delegates elected by the
  state parliaments; election last held 23 May 2004 (next to be held
  23 May 2009); chancellor elected by an absolute majority of the
  Federal Assembly for a four-year term; election last held 22
  November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Horst KOEHLER elected president; received 604
  votes of the Federal Convention against 589 for Gesine SCHWAN;
  Angela MERKEL elected chancellor; vote by Federal Assembly 397 to
  202 with 12 abstentions

Ghana
  chief of state: President John Agyekum KUFUOR (since 7 January
  2001); Vice President Alhaji Aliu MAHAMA (since 7 January 2001);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President John Agyekum KUFUOR (since 7 January
  2001); Vice President Alhaji Aliu MAHAMA (since 7 January 2001);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers; president nominates members subject
  to approval by Parliament
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 7 December 2004 (next to be held December 2008)
  election results: John Agyekum KUFUOR reelected president in
  election; percent of vote - John KUFUOR 53.4%, John Atta MILLS 43.7%

Gibraltar
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor Sir Robert FULTON (since 27 October
  2006)
  head of government: Chief Minister Peter CARUANA (since 17 May 1996)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed from among the 15 elected
  members of the House of Assembly by the governor in consultation
  with the chief minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually
  appointed chief minister by the governor

Greece
  chief of state: President Karolos PAPOULIAS (since 12 March
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Konstandinos (Kostas) KARAMANLIS
  (since 7 March 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by parliament for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 February 2005
  (next to be held by February 2010); according to the Greek
  Constitution, presidents may only serve two terms; president
  appoints leader of the party securing plurality of vote in election
  to become prime minister and form a government
  election results: Karolos PAPOULIAS elected president; number of
  parlimentary votes, 279 out of 300

Greenland
  chief of state: Queen MARGRETHE II of Denmark (since 14
  January 1972), represented by High Commissioner Soren MOLLER (since
  April 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Hans ENOKSEN (since 14 December
  2002)
  cabinet: Home Rule Government is elected by the parliament
  (Landstinget) on the basis of the strength of parties
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; high commissioner appointed
  by the monarch; prime minister is elected by parliament (usually the
  leader of the majority party); election last held 3 December 2002
  (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Hans ENOKSEN elected prime minister
  note: government coalition - Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit

Grenada
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Daniel WILLIAMS (since 9 August 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Keith MITCHELL (since 22 June
  1995)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general

Guadeloupe
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since
  17 May 1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Jacques BROT (since 12
  June 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Jacques GILLOT
  (since 26 March 2001); President of the Regional Council Victorin
  LUREL (since 2 April 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils
  election results: NA

Guam
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001)
  head of government: Governor Felix P. CAMACHO (since 6 January 2003)
  and Lieutenant Governor Kaleo MOYLAN (since 6 January 2003)
  cabinet: heads of executive departments; appointed by the governor
  with the consent of the Guam legislature
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as Guam, do not vote in elections for US president
  and vice president; governor and lieutenant governor elected on the
  same ticket by popular vote for four-year term (can serve two
  consecutive terms, then must wait a full term before running again);
  election last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2010)
  election results: Felix P. CAMACHO reelected governor; Dr. Michael
  W. CRUZ elected lieutenant governor; percent of vote - NA

Guatemala
  chief of state: President Oscar Jose Rafael BERGER Perdomo
  (since 14 January 2004); Vice President Eduardo STEIN Barillas
  (since 14 January 2004); note - the president is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: President Oscar Jose Rafael BERGER Perdomo
  (since 14 January 2004); Vice President Eduardo STEIN Barillas
  (since 14 January 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 9 November
  2003; runoff held 28 December 2003 (next to be held September 2007)
  election results: Oscar BERGER Perdomo elected president; percent of
  vote - Oscar BERGER Perdomo (GANA) 54.1%, Alvarado COLOM (UNE) 45.9%

Guernsey
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Lieutenant Governor Sir Fabian MALBON (since 28
  October 2005)
  head of government: Chief Minister Laurie MORGAN (since 1 May 2004)
  cabinet: Policy Council elected by the States of Deliberation
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor appointed
  by the monarch; chief minister is elected by States of Delibertion
  election results: Laurie MORGAN elected chief minister, percent of
  vote of the States of Deliberation NA

Guinea
  chief of state: President Lansana CONTE (head of military
  government since 5 April 1984, elected president 19 December 1993)
  head of government: vacant; note - Prime Minister Cellou Dalein
  DIALLO was dismissed on 5 April 2006
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); candidate must receive a majority of the votes
  cast to be elected president; election last held 21 December 2003
  (next to be held December 2010); the prime minister is appointed by
  the president
  election results: Lansana CONTE reelected president; percent of vote
  - Lansana CONTE (PUP) 95.3%, Mamadou Boye BARRY (UPR) 4.6%

Guinea-Bissau
  chief of state: President Joao Bernardo 'Nino' VIEIRA
  (since 1 October 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Aristides GOMES (since 2 November
  2005)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 July 2005 (next to be held
  in 2010); prime minister appointed by the president after
  consultation with party leaders in the legislature
  election results: Joao Bernardo VIEIRA elected president; percent of
  vote, second ballot - Joao Bernardo VIEIRA 52.4%, Malan Bacai SANHA
  47.6%

Guyana
  chief of state: President Bharrat JAGDEO (since 11 August
  1999); note - assumed presidency after resignation of President
  Janet JAGAN and reelected in 2001, and again in 2006
  head of government: Prime Minister Samuel HINDS (since October 1992,
  except for a period as chief of state after the death of President
  Cheddi JAGAN on 6 March 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president,
  responsible to the legislature
  elections: president elected by popular vote as leader of a party
  list in parliamentary elections, which must be held at least every
  five years (no term limits); elections last held 28 August 2006
  (next to be held by August 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: President Bharrat JAGDEO reelected; percent of
  vote 54.6%

Haiti
  chief of state: President Rene PREVAL (since 14 May 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard ALEXIS (since 30
  May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with
  the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 7 February
  2006 (next to be held in 2011); prime minister appointed by the
  president, ratified by the National Assembly
  election results: Rene PREVAL elected president; percent of vote -
  Rene PREVAL 51%

Holy See (Vatican City)
  chief of state: Pope BENEDICT XVI (since 19
  April 2005)
  head of government: Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio BERTONE
  (since 15 September 2006)
  cabinet: Pontifical Commission appointed by the pope
  elections: pope elected for life by the College of Cardinals;
  election last held 19 April 2005 (next to be held after the death of
  the current pope); secretary of state appointed by the pope
  election results: Joseph RATZINGER elected Pope BENEDICT XVI

Honduras
  chief of state: President Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (since 27
  January 2006); First Vice President Elvin Ernesto SANTOS Ordonez
  (since 27 January 2006); Second Vice President (vacant); Third Vice
  President (vacant); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  head of government: President Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (since 27
  January 2006); First Vice President Elvin Ernesto SANTOS Ordonez
  (since 27 January 2006); Second Vice President (vacant); Third Vice
  President (vacant)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term;
  election last held 27 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Manuel ZELAYA Rosales (PL) elected president -
  49.8%, Porfirio "Pepe" LOBO Sosa (PN) 46.1%, other 4.1%

Hong Kong
  chief of state: President of China HU Jintao (since 15
  March 2003)
  head of government: Chief Executive Donald TSANG (since 24 June 2005)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of 14 official members and 15
  non-official members
  elections: previous chief executive TUNG Chee-hwa was elected to
  second five-year term in March 2002 by 800-member election committee
  dominated by pro-Beijing forces, resignation accepted 12 March 2005;
  Donald TSANG acted as chief executive between 12 March 2005 and 25
  May 2005; Henry TANG acted as chief executive between 25 May 2005
  and 24 June 2005; TSANG was elected on 16 June 2005 to fill final
  two years of TUNG's term (next election to be held in March 2007)

Hungary
  chief of state: Laszlo SOLYOM (since 5 August 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ferenc GYURCSANY (since 29
  September 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the National Assembly on
  the recommendation of the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 6-7
  June 2005 (next to be held by June 2010); prime minister elected by
  the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president;
  election last held 29 September 2004
  election results: Laszlo SOLYOM elected president by a simple
  majority in the third round of voting, 185 to 182; Ferenc GYURCSANY
  elected prime minister; result of legislative vote - 197 to 12
  note: to be elected, the president must win two-thirds of
  legislative vote in the first two rounds or a simple majority in the
  third round

Iceland
  chief of state: President Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON (since 1
  August 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Geir H. HAARDE (since 7 June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president, largely a ceremonial post, is elected by
  popular vote for a four-year term (no term limits); election last
  held 26 June 2004 (next to be held June 2008); following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually the prime minister
  election results: Olafur Ragnar GRIMSSON 85.6%, Baldur AGUSTSSON
  12.5%, Astthor MAGNUSSON 1.9%

Iles Eparses
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France
  (since 17 May 1995), represented by Senior Administrator Michel
  CHAMPON

India
  chief of state: President A.P.J. Abdul KALAM (since 25 July
  2002); Vice President Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT (since 19 August 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Manmohan SINGH (since 22 May 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of
  elected members of both houses of Parliament and the legislatures of
  the states for a five-year term (no term limits); election last held
  July 2002 (next to be held 18 July 2007); vice president elected by
  both houses of Parliament for a five-year term; election last held
  12 August 2002 (next to be held August 2007); prime minister chosen
  by parliamentary members of the majority party following legislative
  elections; election last held April - May 2004 (next to be held May
  2009)
  election results: Abdul KALAM elected president; percent of
  electoral college vote - 89.6%; Bhairon Singh SHEKHAWAT elected vice
  president; percent of Parliament vote - 59.8%

Indonesia
  chief of state: President Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO (since
  20 October 2004) and Vice President Muhammad Yusuf KALLA (since 20
  October 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO (since 20
  October 2004) and Vice President Muhammad Yusuf KALLA (since 20
  October 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president were elected for five-year
  terms (eligible for a second term) by direct vote of the citizenry;
  last held 20 September 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Susilo Bambang YUDHOYONO elected president
  receiving 60.6% of vote; MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri received 39.4%

Iran
  chief of state: Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-KHAMENEI (since 4
  June 1989)
  head of government: President Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD (since 3 August
  2005); First Vice President Parviz DAVUDI (since 11 September 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers selected by the president with
  legislative approval; the Supreme Leader has some control over
  appointments to the more sensitive ministries
  note: also considered part of the Executive branch of government are
  three oversight bodies: 1) Assembly of Experts, a popularly elected
  body of 86 religious scholars constitutionally charged with
  determining the succession of the Supreme Leader, reviewing his
  performance, and deposing him if deemed necessary; 2) Expediency
  Council or Council for the Discernment of Expediency is a policy
  advisory and implementation board consisting of permanent and
  temporary members representing all major government factions, some
  of whom are appointed by the Supreme Leader; the Council exerts
  supervisory authority over the executive, judicial, and legislative
  branches and resolves legislative issues on which the Majles and the
  Council of Guardians disagree; 3) Council of Guardians or Council of
  Guardians of the Constitution is a 12-member board of clerics and
  jurists serving six-year terms that determines whether proposed
  legislation is both constitutional and faithful to Islamic law; the
  Council also vets candidates for suitability and supervises national
  elections
  elections: Supreme Leader appointed for life by the Assembly of
  Experts; president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 17 June 2005 with a
  two-candidate runoff on 24 June 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD elected president; percent of
  vote - Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD 62%, Ali Akbar Hashemi RAFSANJANI 36%

Iraq
  chief of state: President Jalal TALABANI (since 6 April 2005);
  Vice Presidents Adil ABD AL-MAHDI and Tariq al-HASHIMI (since 22
  April 2006); note - the president and vice presidents comprise the
  Presidency Council)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nuri al-MALIKI (since 20 May
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Barham SALIH and Salam al-ZUBAI (since
  20 May 2006)
  cabinet: 37 ministers appointed by the Presidency Council, plus
  Prime Minister Nuri al-MALIKI, and Deputy Prime Ministers Barham
  SALIH and Salam al-ZUBAI
  elections: held 15 December 2005 to elect a 275-member Council of
  Representatives

Ireland
  chief of state: President Mary MCALEESE (since 11 November
  1997)
  head of government: Prime Minister Bertie AHERN (since 26 June 1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with previous nomination
  by the prime minister and approval of the House of Representatives
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 31 October 1997
  (next scheduled for October 2011); note - Mary MCALEESE appointed to
  a second term when no other candidate qualified for the 2004
  presidential election; prime minister (taoiseach) nominated by the
  House of Representatives and appointed by the president
  election results: Mary MCALEESE elected president; percent of vote -
  Mary MCALEESE 44.8%, Mary BANOTTI 29.6%
  note: government coalition - Fianna Fail and the Progressive
  Democrats

Isle of Man
  chief of state: Lord of Mann Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Lieutenant Governor Sir Paul K.
  HADDACKS (since 17 October 2005)
  head of government: Chief Minister Donald GELLING (since 14 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor appointed
  by the monarch for a five-year term; the chief minister is elected
  by the Tynwald; election last held 14 December 2004 (next to be held
  December 2006)
  election results: Donald GELLING elected chief minister by the
  Tynwald; note - Richard CORKILL resigned 2 December 2004

Israel
  chief of state: President Moshe KATZAV (since 31 July 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ehud OLMERT (since May 2006);
  Deputy Prime Minister Tzipora "Tzipi" LIVNI (since May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by prime minister and approved by the
  Knesset
  elections: president is largely a ceremonial role and is elected by
  the Knesset for a seven-year term (no term limits); election last
  held 31 July 2000 (next to be held mid-2007); following legislative
  elections, the president assigns a Knesset member - traditionally
  the leader of the largest party - the task of forming a governing
  coalition
  election results: Moshe KATZAV elected president by the 120-member
  Knesset with a total of 60 votes, other candidate, Shimon PERES,
  received 57 votes (there were three abstentions); Ariel SHARON
  continued as prime minister after Likud Party victory in January
  2003 Knesset elections; Likud won 38 seats and then formed coalition
  government with Shinui, the National Religious Party, and the
  National Union; controversy surrounding SHARON's disengagement plan
  ultimately led to the formation of a Likud-Labor-United Torah
  Judaism (UTJ) coalition government in January 2005

Italy
  chief of state: President Giorgio NAPOLITANO (since 15 May
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister (referred to in Italy as the
  president of the Council of Ministers) Romano PRODI (since 17 May
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  approved by the president
  elections: president elected by an electoral college consisting of
  both houses of parliament and 58 regional representatives for a
  seven-year term (no term limits); election last held 10 May 2006
  (next to be held May 2013); prime minister appointed by the
  president and confirmed by parliament
  election results: Giorgio NAPOLITANO elected president on the fourth
  round of voting; electoral college vote - 543

Jamaica
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Kenneth O. HALL (since 15 February
  2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Portia SIMPSON-MILLER (since 30
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime
  minister; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or the leader of the majority coalition in the House
  of Representatives is appointed prime minister by the governor
  general; the deputy prime minister is recommended by the prime
  minister

Japan
  chief of state: Emperor AKIHITO (since 7 January 1989)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shinzo ABE (since 26 September
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: Diet designates prime minister; constitution requires
  that prime minister commands parliamentary majority; following
  legislative elections, leader of majority party or leader of
  majority coalition in House of Representatives usually becomes prime
  minister; monarch is hereditary
  election results: ABE was elected prime minister with 339 of 476
  votes cast in the House of Representatives and 136 of 240 votes cast
  in the House of Councilors.

Jersey
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952)
  head of government: Lieutenant Governor Andrew RIDGEWAY (since 14
  June 2006); Bailiff Philip Martin BAILHACHE (since February 1995)
  cabinet: committees appointed by the Assembly of the States
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; lieutenant governor and
  bailiff appointed by the monarch

Jordan
  chief of state: King ABDALLAH II (since 7 February 1999);
  Prince HUSSEIN (born 1994), eldest son of King ABDALLAH, is first in
  line to inherit the throne
  head of government: Prime Minister Marouf al-BAKHIT (since 24
  November 2005); Deputy Prime Minister Ziad FARIZ (since 24 November
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister in consultation
  with the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch

Kazakhstan
  chief of state: President Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV
  (chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 22 February 1990, elected
  president 1 December 1991)
  head of government: Prime Minister Daniyal AKHMETOV (since 13 June
  2003); Deputy Prime Minister Karim MASIMOV (since 19 January 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 4 December 2005 (next to be
  held in 2012); prime minister and first deputy prime minister
  appointed by the president
  election results: Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV reelected president;
  percent of vote - Nursultan A. NAZARBAYEV 91.1%, Zharmakhan A.
  TUYAKBAI 6.6%, Alikhan M. BAIMENOV 1.6%
  note: President NAZARBAYEV arranged a referendum in 1995 that
  extended his term of office and expanded his presidential powers:
  only he can initiate constitutional amendments, appoint and dismiss
  the government, dissolve Parliament, call referenda at his
  discretion, and appoint administrative heads of regions and cities

Kenya
  chief of state: President Mwai KIBAKI (since 30 December
  2002); Vice President Moody AWORI (since 25 September 2003); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Mwai KIBAKI (since 30 December 2002);
  Vice President Moody AWORI (since 25 September 2003); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); in addition to receiving the largest
  number of votes in absolute terms, the presidential candidate must
  also win 25% or more of the vote in at least five of Kenya's seven
  provinces and one area to avoid a runoff; election last held 27
  December 2002 (next to be held December 2007); vice president
  appointed by the president
  election results: President Mwai KIBAKI elected; percent of vote -
  Mwai KIBAKI 63%, Uhuru KENYATTA 30%

Kiribati
  chief of state: President Anote TONG (since 10 July 2003);
  Vice President Teima ONORIO; note - the president is both the chief
  of state and head of government
  head of government: President Anote TONG (since 10 July 2003); Vice
  President Teima ONORIO
  cabinet: 12-member cabinet appointed by the president from among the
  members of the House of Parliament
  elections: the House of Parliament chooses the presidential
  candidates from among its members and then those candidates compete
  in a general election; president is elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (eligible for two more terms); election last held 4
  July 2003 (next to be held not later than July 2007); vice president
  appointed by the president
  election results: Anote TONG 47.4%, Harry TONG 43.5%, Banuera BERINA
  9.1%

Korea, North
  chief of state: KIM Jong Il (since July 1994); note -
  on 3 September 2003, rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA)
  reelected KIM Jong Il chairman of the National Defense Commission, a
  position accorded nation's "highest administrative authority"; SPA
  reelected KIM Yong Nam president of its Presidium also with
  responsibility of representing state and receiving diplomatic
  credentials; SPA appointed PAK Pong Ju premier
  head of government: Premier PAK Pong Ju (since 3 September 2003);
  Vice Premiers KWAK Pom Gi (since 5 September 1998), JON Sung Hun
  (since 3 September 2003), RO Tu Chol (since 3 September 2003)
  cabinet: Naegak (cabinet) members, except for Minister of People's
  Armed Forces, are appointed by SPA
  elections: last held in September 2003 (next to be held in September
  2008)
  election results: KIM Jong Il and KIM Yong Nam were only nominees
  for positions and ran unopposed

Korea, South
  chief of state: President ROH Moo-hyun (since 25
  February 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister HAN Myeong-sook (since 20 April
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers KIM Woo-sik (since 10 February 2006);
  KWON O-kyu (since 18 July 2006); KIM Shin-il (since 20 September
  2006)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the president on the prime
  minister's recommendation
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single five-year
  term; election last held 19 December 2002 (next to be held in
  December 2007); prime minister appointed by president with consent
  of National Assembly; deputy prime ministers appointed by president
  on prime minister's recommendation
  election results: ROH Moo-hyun elected president; percent of vote -
  ROH Moo-hyun (MDP) 48.9%; LEE Hoi-chang (GNP) 46.6%; other 4.5%

Kuwait
  chief of state: Amir SABAH al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah (since
  29 January 2006); Crown Prince NAWAF al-Ahmad al-Sabah
  head of government: Prime Minister NASIR al-Muhammad al-Ahmad
  al-Sabah (since 7 February 2006) First Deputy Prime Minister JABIR
  Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah (since 9 February 2006); Deputy Prime
  Ministers MUHAMMAD al-Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah (since 9 February
  2006) and Ismail al-SHATTI (since 10 July 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and
  approved by the amir
  elections: none; the amir is hereditary; prime minister and deputy
  prime ministers appointed by the amir

Kyrgyzstan
  chief of state: President Kurmanbek BAKIYEV (since 14
  August 2005); note - former President Askar AKAYEV resigned
  effective 11 April 2005 following widespread protests that forced
  him to flee the country on 24 March 2005
  head of government: Prime Minister Feliks KULOV (since 1 September
  2005); First Deputy Prime Minister Daniyar USENOV (since 10 May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister; note - the new constitution of
  November 2006 calls for the legislature to appoint the prime
  minister and members of the Cabinet after the elections of 2010
  elections: Kurmanbek BAKIYEV elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 July 2005
  (next scheduled for 2010); prime minister nominated by the president
  for approval by Parliament; note - the new constitution of November
  2006 calls for the legislature to appoint the prime minister and
  members of the Cabinet after the elections of 2010
  election results: Kurmanbek BAKIYEV elected president; percent of
  vote - Kurmanbek BAKIYEV 88.6%, Tursunbai BAKIR-UULU 3.9%, other
  candidates 7.5%; Feliks KULOV approved as prime minister 55-8

Laos
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. CHOUMMALI Saignason (since 8
  June 2006) and Vice President BOUN-GNANG Volachit (since 8 June 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister BOUASONE Bouphavanh (since 8 June
  2006); Deputy Prime Minister Maj. Gen. ASANG Laoli (since May 2002),
  Deputy Prime Minister Maj. Gen. DOUANGCHAI Phichit [since 8 June
  2006], Deputy Prime Minister SOMSAVAT Lengsavat (since 26 February
  1998), and Deputy Prime Minister THONGLOUN Sisolit (since 27 March
  2001)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president, approved
  by the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly for five-year terms; election last held 8 June 2006 (next
  to be held in 2011); prime minister nominated by the president and
  elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term
  election results: CHOUMMALI Saignason elected president; BOUN-GNANG
  Volachit elected vice president; percent of National Assembly vote -
  100%; BOUASONE Bouphavanh elected prime minister; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 97%

Latvia
  chief of state: President Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA (since 8 July
  1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Aigars KALVITIS (since 2 December
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  appointed by the Parliament
  elections: president reelected by Parliament for a four-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 20 June 2003 (next to be held
  by June 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA reelected president;
  parliamentary vote - Vaira VIKE-FREIBERGA 88 of 94 votes cast

Lebanon
  chief of state: President Emile LAHUD (since 24 November
  1998)
  head of government: Prime Minister Fuad SINIORA (since 30 June
  2005); Deputy Prime Minister Elias MURR (since April 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with
  the president and members of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a six-year
  term (may not serve consecutive terms); election last held 15
  October 1998 (next to be held in 2007 based on three-year
  extension); note - on 3 September 2004 the National Assembly voted
  96 to 29 to extend Emile LAHUD's six-year term by three years; the
  prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president
  in consultation with the National Assembly; by agreement, the
  president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister is a Sunni
  Muslim, and the speaker of the legislature is a Shi'a Muslim
  election results: for 15 October 1998 election: Emile LAHUD elected
  president; National Assembly vote - 118 votes in favor, 0 against,
  10 abstentions

Lesotho
  chief of state: King LETSIE III (since 7 February 1996);
  note - King LETSIE III formerly occupied the throne from November
  1990 to February 1995, while his father was in exile
  head of government: Prime Minister Pakalitha MOSISILI (since 23 May
  1998)
  cabinet: Cabinet
  elections: none - according to the constitution, the leader of the
  majority party in the Assembly automatically becomes prime minister;
  the monarch is hereditary, but, under the terms of the constitution,
  which came into effect after the March 1993 election, the monarch is
  a "living symbol of national unity" with no executive or legislative
  powers; under traditional law the college of chiefs has the power to
  depose the monarch, determine who is next in the line of succession,
  or who shall serve as regent in the event that the successor is not
  of mature age

Liberia
  chief of state: President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (since 16
  January 2006); note - the President is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (since 6 January
  2006); note - the President is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president and confirmed by the
  Senate
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 8 November 2005
  (next to be held NA 2011)
  election results: Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF elected president; percent
  of vote, second round - Ellen JOHNSON-SIRLEAF (UP) 59.6%, George
  WEAH (CDC) 40.4%
  note: a UN-brokered cease-fire among warring factions and the
  Liberian Government resulted in the August 2003 resignation of
  former president, Charles TAYLOR; a jointly agreed upon replacement,
  Chairman Gyude BRYANT, assumed office as head of the National
  Transitional Government on 14 October 2003; free elections were held
  11 October 2005, with a runoff election between the two leading
  candidates on 8 November 2005

Libya
  chief of state: Revolutionary Leader Col. Muammar Abu Minyar
  al-QADHAFI (since 1 September 1969); note - holds no official title,
  but is de facto chief of state
  head of government: Secretary of the General People's Committee
  (Prime Minister) al-Baghdadi Ali al-MAHMUDI (since 5 March 2006)
  cabinet: General People's Committee established by the General
  People's Congress
  elections: national elections are indirect through a hierarchy of
  people's committees; head of government elected by the General
  People's Congress; election last held 2 March 2000 (next to be held
  NA)
  election results: NA

Liechtenstein
  chief of state: Prince HANS ADAM II (since 13 November
  1989, assumed executive powers 26 August 1984); Heir Apparent Prince
  ALOIS, son of the monarch (born 11 June 1968); note - on 15 August
  2004, HANS ADAM transferred the official duties of the ruling prince
  to ALOIS, but HANS ADAM retains status of chief of state
  head of government: Head of Government Ottmar HASLER (since 5 April
  2001) and Deputy Head of Government Rita KIEBER-BECK (since 5 April
  2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet elected by the Parliament, confirmed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party in the Landtag is
  usually appointed the head of government by the monarch and the
  leader of the largest minority party in the Landtag is usually
  appointed the deputy head of government by the monarch

Lithuania
  chief of state: President Valdas ADAMKUS (since 12 July
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Gediminas KIRKILAS (since 4 July
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  nomination of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 13 and 27 June 2004
  (next to be held June 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president on the approval of the Parliament
  election results: Valdas ADAMKUS elected president; percent of vote
  - Valdas ADAMKUS 52.2%, Kazimiera PRUNSKIENE 47.8%; Gediminas
  KIRKILAS approved by Parliament 85-13, with 5 abstentions

Luxembourg
  chief of state: Grand Duke HENRI (since 7 October 2000);
  Heir Apparent Prince GUILLAUME (son of the monarch, born 11 November
  1981)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jean-Claude JUNCKER (since 1
  January 1995) and Vice Prime Minister Jean ASSELBORN (since 31 July
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers recommended by the prime minister and
  appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following popular
  elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the leader of the majority
  party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually appointed
  prime minister by the monarch; the deputy prime minister is
  appointed by the monarch; they are responsible to the Chamber of
  Deputies
  note: government coalition - CSV and LSAP

Macau
  chief of state: President of China HU Jintao (since 15 March
  2003)
  head of government: Chief Executive Edmund HO Hau-wah (since 20
  December 1999)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of one government secretary,
  three legislators, four businessmen, one pro-Beijing unionist, and
  one pro-Beijing educator
  elections: chief executive chosen by a 300-member Election Committee
  for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last
  held 29 August 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: Edmund HO Hau-wah reelected received 296 votes;
  three members submitted blank ballots; one member was absent

Macedonia
  chief of state: President Branko CRVENKOVSKI (since 12 May
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nikola GRUEVSKI (since 28 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the majority vote of all
  the deputies in the Assembly; note - current cabinet formed by the
  government coalition parties VMRO/DPMNE, NSDP, PDSH/DPA, and several
  small parties
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); two-round election last held 14 April
  and 28 April 2004 (next to be held by April 2009); prime minister
  elected by the Assembly following legislative elections
  election results: Branko CRVENKOVSKI elected president on
  second-round ballot; percent of vote - Branko CRVENKOVSKI 62.7%,
  Sasko KEDEV 37.3%

Madagascar
  chief of state: President Marc RAVALOMANANA (since 6 May
  2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jacques SYLLA (27 May 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 16 December 2001
  (next to be held December 2006); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: percent of vote - Marc RAVALOMANANA (TIM) 50.5%,
  Didier RATSIRAKA (AREMA) 37.7%

Malawi
  chief of state: President Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (since 24 May
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (since 24 May
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: 46-member Cabinet named by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 20 May 2004 (next
  to be held May 2009)
  election results: Bingu wa MUTHARIKA elected president; percent of
  vote - Bingu wa MUTHARIKA (UDF) 35.9%, John TEMBO (MCP) 27.1%,
  Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA (MC) 25.7%, Brown MPINGANJIRA (NDA) 8.7%,
  Justin MALEWEZI (independent) 2.5%

Malaysia
  chief of state: Paramount Ruler Sultan MIZAN Zainal Abidin
  (since 13 December 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister ABDULLAH bin Ahmad Badawi (since
  31 October 2003); Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed NAJIB bin Abdul
  Razak (since 7 January 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister from among the
  members of Parliament with consent of the paramount ruler
  elections: paramount ruler elected by and from the hereditary rulers
  of nine of the states for five-year terms; election last held 3
  November 2006 (next to be held in 2011); prime minister designated
  from among the members of the House of Representatives; following
  legislative elections, the leader of the party that wins a plurality
  of seats in the House of Representatives becomes prime minister
  election results: Sultan MIZAN Zainal Abidin elected paramount ruler

Maldives
  chief of state: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM (since 11
  November 1978); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM (since 11
  November 1978); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president nominated by the Majlis and then the nomination
  must be ratified by a national referendum (at least a 51% approval
  margin is required); president elected for a five-year term;
  election last held 17 October 2003 (next to be held NA 2008)
  election results: President Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM reelected in
  referendum held 17 October 2003; percent of popular vote - Maumoon
  Abdul GAYOOM 90.3%

Mali
  chief of state: President Amadou Toumani TOURE (since 8 June
  2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi MAIGA (since 30
  April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 12 May 2002 (next
  to be held April 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Amadou Toumani TOURE elected president; percent of
  vote - Amadou Toumani TOURE 64.4%, Soumaila CISSE 35.6%

Malta
  chief of state: President Edward FENECH ADAMI (since 4 April
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Lawrence GONZI (since 23 March
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the advice of the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by the House of Representatives for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 29
  March 2004 (next to be held by April 2009); following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a majority
  coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the president for a
  five-year term; the deputy prime minister is appointed by the
  president on the advice of the prime minister
  election results: Eddie FENECH ADAMI elected president; House of
  Representatives vote - 33 out of 65 votes

Marshall Islands
  chief of state: President Kessai Hesa NOTE (since 5
  January 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Kessai Hesa NOTE (since 5 January 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by the president from among the members of
  the legislature
  elections: president elected by Parliament from among its own
  members for a four-year term; election last held 17 November 2003
  (next to be held November 2007)
  election results: Kessai Hesa NOTE elected president; percent of
  Parliament vote - 100%

Martinique
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since
  17 May 1995); Prefect Yves DASSONVILLE (since 14 January 2004); note
  - took office 8 February 2004
  head of government: President of the General Council Claude LISE
  (since 22 March 1992); President of the Regional Council Alfred
  MARIE-JEANNE (since NA March 1998)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils for
  six-year terms

Mauritania
  chief of state: Col. Ely Ould Mohamed VALL, whose
  Military Council for Justice and Democracy deposed longtime
  President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA in a coup on 3 August 2005
  head of government: Prime Minister Sidi Mohamed Ould BOUBAKAR (since
  8 August 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second consecutive term); note - passage of a
  constitutional reform referendum in July 2006 limits president to
  two five-year terms; election last held 7 November 2003 (next to be
  held 11 March 2007); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA reelected
  for a third term with 60.8% of the vote

Mauritius
  chief of state: President Sir Anerood JUGNAUTH (since 7
  October 2003) and Vice President Abdool Raouf BUNDHUN (since 25
  February 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Navinchandra RAMGOOLAM (since 5
  July 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly for five-year terms (eligible for a second term); election
  last held 25 February 2002 (next to be held in 2007); prime minister
  and deputy prime minister appointed by the president, responsible to
  the National Assembly
  election results: Karl OFFMANN elected president and Raouf BUNDHUN
  elected vice president; percent of vote by the National Assembly -
  NA%; note - Karl OFFMANN stepped down on 30 September 2003

Mayotte
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17
  May 1995), represented by Prefect Jean-Paul KIHL (since 17 January
  2005)
  head of government: President of the General Council Said Omar OILI
  (since 8 April 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of the Interior; president of the General Council
  elected by the members of the General Council for a six-year term;
  next election to be held in 2010

Mexico
  chief of state: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa
  (since 1 December 2006); note - the president is both the chief of
  state and head of government
  head of government: President Felipe de Jesus CALDERON Hinojosa
  (since 1 December 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; note - appointment of
  attorney general requires consent of the Senate
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a single six-year
  term; election last held 2 July 2006 (next to be held 1 July 2012)
  election results: Felipe CALDERON elected president; percent of vote
  - Felipe CALDERON (PAN) 35.89%, Andres Manuel Lopez OBRADOR (PRD)
  35.31%, Roberto MADRAZO (PRI) 22.26%, other 6.54%

Micronesia, Federated States of
  chief of state: President Joseph J.
  URUSEMAL (since 11 May 2003); Vice President Redley KILLION (11 May
  2003); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Joseph J. URUSEMAL (since 11 May
  2003); Vice President Redley KILLION (11 May 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet includes the vice president and the heads of the
  eight executive departments
  elections: president and vice president elected by Congress from
  among the four senators at large for a four-year term (eligible for
  a second term); election last held 11 May 2003 (next to be held May
  2007); note - a proposed constitutional amendment to establish
  popular elections for president and vice president failed
  election results: Joseph J. URUSEMAL elected president; percent of
  Congress vote - NA%; Redley KILLION elected vice president; percent
  of Congress vote - NA%

Moldova
  chief of state: President Vladimir VORONIN (since 4 April
  2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Vasile TARLEV (since 15 April
  2001), First Deputy Prime Minister Zinaida GRECIANII (since 10
  October 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet selected by president, subject to approval of
  Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 4 April 2005 (next
  to be held in 2009); note - prime minister designated by the
  president, upon consultation with Parliament; within 15 days from
  designation, the prime minister-designate must request a vote of
  confidence from the Parliament regarding his/her work program and
  entire cabinet; prime minister designated 15 April 2001, cabinet
  received a vote of confidence 19 April 2001
  election results: Vladimir VORONIN reelected president;
  parliamentary votes - Vladimir VORONIN 75, Gheorghe DUCA 1; Vasile
  TARLEV designated prime minister; parliamentary votes of confidence
  - 75 of 101

Monaco
  chief of state: Prince ALBERT II (since 6 April 2005)
  head of government: Minister of State Jean-Paul PROUST (since 1 June
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Government is under the authority of the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; minister of state
  appointed by the monarch from a list of three French national
  candidates presented by the French Government

Mongolia
  chief of state: President Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR (since 24 June
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Miegombyn ENKHBOLD (since 25
  January 2006); Deputy Prime Minister Mendsaikhan ENKHSAIKHAN (since
  28 January 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet nominated by the prime minister in consultation
  with the president and confirmed by the State Great Hural
  (parliament)
  elections: presidential candidates nominated by political parties
  represented in State Great Hural and elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 22
  May 2005 (next to be held in May 2009); following legislative
  elections, leader of majority party or majority coalition is usually
  elected prime minister by State Great Hural
  election results: Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR elected president; percent of
  vote - Nambaryn ENKHBAYAR (MPRP) 53.44%, Mendsaikhanin ENKHSAIKHAN
  (DP) 20.05%, Bazarsadyn JARGALSAIKHAN (MRP) 13.92%, Badarchyn
  ERDENEBAT (M-MNSDP) 12.59%; Miegombyn ENKHBOLD elected prime
  minister by the State Great Hural 56 to 10

Montenegro
  chief of state: President Filip VUJANOVIC (since 11 May
  2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Zeljko STURANOVIC (since 10
  November 2006)
  cabinet: Ministries act as cabinet
  elections: president elected by direct vote for five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 11 May 2003 (next
  to be held in 2008); prime minister proposed by president, accepted
  by Assembly
  election results: Filip VUJANOVIC elected on the third round; Filip
  VUJANOVIC 63.3%, Miodrag ZIVKOVIC 30.8%

Montserrat
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor Deborah BARNES-JONES (since 10 May
  2004)
  head of government: Chief Minister Lowell LEWIS (since 2 June 2006)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of the governor, the chief
  minister, three other ministers, the attorney general, and the
  finance secretary
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by the
  monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority
  party usually becomes chief minister

Morocco
  chief of state: King MOHAMED VI (since 30 July 1999)
  head of government: Prime Minister Driss JETTOU (since 9 October
  2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch following legislative elections

Mozambique
  chief of state: President Armando GUEBUZA (since 2
  February 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Luisa DIOGO (since 17 February
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 1-2 December 2004
  (next to be held December 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Armando GUEBUZA elected president; percent of vote
  - Armando GUEBUZA 63.7%, Afonso DHLAKAMA 31.7%

Namibia
  chief of state: President Hifikepunye POHAMBA (since 21
  March 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nahas ANGULA (since 21 March 2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 15 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: Hifikepunye POHAMBA elected president; percent of
  vote - Hifikepunye POHAMBA 76.4%, Den ULENGA 7.3%, Katuutire KAURA
  5.1%, Kuaima RIRUAKO 4.2%, Justus GAROEB 3.8%, other 3.2%

Nauru
  chief of state: President Ludwig SCOTTY (since 22 June 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Ludwig SCOTTY (since 22 June 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of Parliament
  elections: president elected by Parliament for a three-year term;
  election last held 23 October 2004 (next to be held NA 2007)
  election results: Ludwig SCOTTY was unopposed in the parliamentary
  elections for president

Nepal
  chief of state: King GYANENDRA Bir Bikram Shah (since 4 June
  2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Girija Prasad KOIRALA (since 30
  April 2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Khadga Prasad OLI (since 2 May
  2006) and Amik SHERCHAN since June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet historically appointed by the monarch on the
  recommendation of the prime minister; note - the prime minister
  selected the Cabinet in May 2006 in consultation with the political
  parties
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; note - following
  legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of
  a majority coalition historically has been appointed prime minister
  by the monarch

Netherlands
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX (since 30 April 1980);
  Heir Apparent WILLEM-ALEXANDER (born 27 April 1967), son of the
  monarch
  head of government: Prime Minister Jan Peter BALKENENDE (since 22
  July 2002) and Deputy Prime Ministers Gerrit ZALM (since 27 May
  2003) and Laurens Jan BRINKHORST (since 31 March 2005); note - Prime
  Minister BALKENENDE tendered his resignation on 30 June 2006
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; following Second
  Chamber elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  monarch; vice prime ministers appointed by the monarch
  note: there is also a Council of State composed of the monarch, heir
  apparent, and councilors that provides consultations to the cabinet
  on legislative and administrative policy

Netherlands Antilles
  chief of state: Queen BEATRIX of the
  Netherlands (since 30 April 1980), represented by Governor General
  Frits GOEDGEDRAG (since 1 July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Emily de JONGH-ELHAGE (since 26
  March 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the Staten (legislature)
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by
  the monarch for a six-year term; following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party is usually elected prime minister
  by the Staten; election last held 27 January 2006 (next to be held
  by 2007)
  note: government coalition - PAR, PNP, DP St. Maarten, UP Bonaire,
  WIPM Saba, DP Statia

New Caledonia
  chief of state: President of France Jacques CHIRAC
  (since 17 May 1995), represented by High Commissioner Michel MATHIEU
  (since 15 July 2005)
  head of government: President of the Government Marie-Noelle
  THEMEREAU (since 10 June 2004)
  cabinet: Consultative Committee consists of eight members chosen
  from leading figures on the island to advise the High Commissioner
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high commissioner appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of Interior; president of the
  government elected by the members of the Territorial Congress for a
  five-year term (no term limits); note - last election held 29 June
  2004 when Marie-Noelle THEMEREAU was elected on the third vote with
  8 votes for and 3 abstentions

New Zealand
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor General Anand SATYANAND (since 23
  August 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Helen CLARK (since 10 December
  1999) and Deputy Prime Minister Michael CULLEN (since NA July 2002)
  cabinet: Executive Council appointed by the governor general on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Nicaragua
  chief of state: President Enrique BOLANOS Geyer (since 10
  January 2002); Vice President Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo (since 10 October
  2005); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government; Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo was elected Vice President by the
  deputies of the National Assembly after Vice President Jose RIZO
  Castellon resigned on 27 September 2005
  head of government: President Enrique BOLANOS Geyer (since 10
  January 2002); Vice President Alfredo GOMEZ Urcuyo (since 10 October
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a five-year term (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 5 November 2006 (next to be held by November 2011)
  election results: Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra (FSLN) elected president -
  38.07%, Eduardo MONTEALEGRE (ALN) 29%, Jose RIZO (PLC) 26.21%,
  Edmundo JARQUIN (MRS) 6.44%; note - ORTEGA will take office 10
  January 2007

Niger
  chief of state: President Mamadou TANDJA (since 22 December
  1999); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Mamadou TANDJA (since 22 December
  1999); note - the president is both chief of state and head of
  government; Prime Minister Hama AMADOU (since 31 December 1999) was
  appointed by the president and shares some executive
  responsibilities with the president
  cabinet: 26-member Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); second round last held 4 December 2004
  (next to be held December 2009); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Mamadou TANDJA reelected president; percent of
  vote - Mamadou TANDJA 65.5%, Mahamadou ISSOUFOU 34.5%

Nigeria
  chief of state: President Olusegun OBASANJO (since 29 May
  1999); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Olusegun OBASANJO (since 29 May 1999);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Federal Executive Council
  elections: president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 19 April 2003 (next
  to be held April 2007)
  election results: Olusegun OBASANJO elected president; percent of
  vote - Olusegun OBASANJO (PDP) 61.9%, Muhammadu BUHARI (ANPP) 31.2%,
  Chukwuemeka Odumegwu OJUKWU (APGA) 3.3%, other 3.6%

Niue
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General of New Zealand Anand SATYANAND
  (since 23 August 2006); the UK and New Zealand are represented by
  New Zealand High Commissioner John BRYAN (since NA May 2000)
  head of government: Premier Young VIVIAN (since 1 May 2002)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of the premier and three ministers
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; premier elected by the
  Legislative Assembly for a three-year term; election last held 12
  May 2005 (next to be held May 2008)
  election results: Young VIVIAN reelected premier; percent of
  Legislative Assembly vote - Young VIVIAN (NPP) 85%, O'Love JACOBSEN
  (independent) 15%

Norfolk Island
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952); the UK and Australia are represented by Administrator Grant
  TAMBLING (since 1 November 2003)
  head of government: Assembly President and Chief Minister Geoffrey
  Robert GARDNER (since 5 December 2001)
  cabinet: Executive Council is made up of four of the nine members of
  the Legislative Assembly; the council devises government policy and
  acts as an advisor to the administrator
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed by the
  governor general of Australia; chief minister elected by the
  Legislative Assembly for a term of not more than three years;
  election last held 20 October 2004 (next to be held by December 2007)
  election results: Geoffrey Robert GARDNER elected chief minister;
  percent of Legislative Assembly vote - 17.2%

Northern Mariana Islands
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of
  the US (since 20 January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY
  (since 20 January 2001)
  head of government: Governor Benigno R. FITIAL (since 9 January
  2006); Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. VILLAGOMEZ (since 9 January
  2006)
  cabinet: the cabinet consists of the heads of the 10 principal
  departments under the executive branch who are appointed by the
  governor with the advice and consent of the Senate; other members
  include Special Assistants to the governor and office heads
  appointed by and reporting directly to the governor
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
  Islands, do not vote in elections for US president and vice
  president; governor and lieutenant governor elected on the same
  ticket by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second
  term); election last held 5 November 2005 (next to be held November
  2009)
  election results: Benigno R. FITIAL elected governor in a four-way
  race; percent of vote - Benigno R. FITIAL (Covenant Party) 28.07%,
  Heinz HOFSCHNEIDER (Independent) 27.34%, Juan BABAUTA (Republican)
  26.6%, Froilan TENORIO (Democrat) 17.99%

Norway
  chief of state: King HARALD V (since 17 January 1991); Heir
  Apparent Crown Prince HAAKON MAGNUS, son of the monarch (born 20
  July 1973)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jens STOLTENBERG (since 17
  October 2005)
  cabinet: State Council appointed by the monarch with the approval of
  parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; following parliamentary
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  monarch with the approval of the parliament

Oman
  chief of state: Sultan and Prime Minister QABOOS bin Said
  al-Said (sultan since 23 July 1970 and prime minister since 23 July
  1972); note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: Sultan and Prime Minister QABOOS bin Said
  al-Said (sultan since 23 July 1970 and prime minister since 23 July
  1972); note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Pakistan
  note: following a military takeover on 12 October 1999,
  Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  Committee, General Pervez MUSHARRAF, suspended Pakistan's
  constitution and assumed the additional title of Chief Executive; on
  12 May 2000, Pakistan's Supreme Court unanimously validated the
  October 1999 coup and granted MUSHARRAF executive and legislative
  authority for three years from the coup date; on 20 June 2001,
  MUSHARRAF named himself as president and was sworn in, replacing
  Mohammad Rafiq TARAR; in a referendum held on 30 April 2002,
  MUSHARRAF's presidency was extended by five more years; on 1 January
  2004, MUSHARRAF won a vote of confidence in the Senate, National
  Assembly, and four provincial assemblies
  chief of state: President General Pervez MUSHARRAF (since 20 June
  2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shaukat AZIZ (since 28 August
  2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the president is elected by Parliament for a five-year
  term; note - in a referendum held on 30 April 2002, MUSHARRAF's
  presidency was extended by five more years (next to be held in
  2007); the prime minister is selected by the National Assembly (next
  to be held in 2007)
  election results: AZIZ elected by the National Assembly on 27 August
  2004 with 191 of the votes

Palau
  chief of state: President Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. (since
  19 January 2001) and Vice President Camsek CHIN (since 1 January
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. (since 19
  January 2001) and Vice President Camsek CHIN (since 1 January 2005)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: president and vice president elected on separate tickets
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. reelected president;
  percent of vote - Tommy Esang REMENGESAU, Jr. 64%, Polycarp BASILIUS
  33%; Elias Camsek CHIN elected vice president; percent of vote -
  Elias Camsek CHIN 70%, Sandra PIERANTOZZI 29%

Panama
  chief of state: President Martin TORRIJOS Espino (since 1
  September 2004); First Vice President Samuel LEWIS Navarro (since 1
  September 2004); Second Vice President Ruben AROSEMENA Valdes (since
  1 September 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  head of government: President Martin TORRIJOS Espino (since 1
  September 2004); First Vice President Samuel LEWIS Navarro (since 1
  September 2004); Second Vice President Ruben AROSEMENA Valdes (since
  1 September 2004); note - the president is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice presidents elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for five-year terms (eligible for two more terms);
  election last held 2 May 2004 (next to be held 3 May 2009); note -
  beginning in 2009, Panama will have only one vice president.
  election results: Martin TORRIJOS Espino elected president; percent
  of vote - Martin TORRIJOS Espino 47.5%, Guillermo ENDARA Galimany
  30.6%, Jose Miguel ALEMAN 17%, Ricardo MARTINELLI 4.9%
  note: government coalition - PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party),
  PP (Popular Party)

Papua New Guinea
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by governor general Sir Paulius MATANE
  (since 29 June 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sir Michael SOMARE (since 2
  August 2002); deputy prime minister Don Polye (since 5 July 2006)
  cabinet: National Executive Council appointed by the governor
  general on the recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the National Executive Council; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition usually is appointed prime minister by the
  governor general

Paraguay
  chief of state: President Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS (since 15
  August 2003); Vice President Luis CASTIGLIONI Joria (since 15 August
  2003); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS (since 15 August
  2003); Vice President Luis CASTIGLIONI Joria (since 15 August 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for a single five-year term; election last held 27
  April 2003 (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS elected president; percent
  of vote - Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS 37.1%, Julio Cesar Ramon FRANCO
  Gomez 23.9%, Pedro Nicolas Maraa FADUL Niella 21.3%, Guillermo
  SANCHEZ Guffanti 13.5%, other 4.2%

Peru
  chief of state: President Alan GARCIA Perez (since 28 July
  2006); First Vice President Luis GIAMPIETRI Rojas; Second Vice
  President Lourdes MENDOZA del Solar (since 28 July 2006); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Alan GARCIA Perez (since 28 July
  2006); First Vice President Luis GIAMPIETRI Rojas; Second Vice
  President Lourdes MENDOZA del Solar (since 28 July 2006)
  note: Prime Minister Jorge DEL CASTILLO Galvez (since 28 August
  2006) does not exercise executive power; this power is in the hands
  of the president
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); presidential and congressional
  elections held 9 April 2006, with runoff election held 4 June 2006;
  next to be held April 2011
  election results: Alan GARCIA elected president in runoff election;
  percent of vote - Alan GARCIA 52.5%, Ollanta HUMALA Tasso 47.5%

Philippines
  chief of state: President Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO (since
  20 January 2001); note - president is both chief of state and head
  of government
  head of government: President Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO (since 20
  January 2001); note - president is both chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with consent of
  Commission of Appointments
  elections: president and vice president (Manuel "Noli" DE CASTRO)
  elected on separate tickets by popular vote for a single six-year
  term; election last held 10 May 2004 (next to be held in May 2010)
  election results: results of the election - Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
  elected president; percent of vote - Gloria MACAPAGAL-ARROYO 40%,
  Fernando POE 37%, three others 23%

Pitcairn Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by UK High Commissioner to New Zealand
  and Governor (nonresident) of the Pitcairn Islands George FERGUSSON
  (since April 2006); Commissioner (nonresident) Leslie JAQUES (since
  September 2003) serves as liaison between the governor and the
  Island Council
  head of government: Governor George FERGUSSON (since April 2006);
  Mayor and Chairman of the Island Council Jay WARREN (since 15
  December 2004)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; governor and commissioner
  appointed by the monarch; island mayor elected by popular vote for a
  three-year term; election last held December 2004 (next to be held
  December 2007)
  election results: Jay WARREN elected mayor and chairman of the
  Island Council

Poland
  chief of state: President Lech KACZYNSKI (since 23 December
  2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI (since 10 July
  2006); Deputy Prime Ministers Ludwik DORN (since 23 November 2005),
  Roman GIERTYCH (since 5 May 2006), Zyta GILOWSKA (since 22 September
  2006), Andrzej LEPPER (since 16 October 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the prime minister and
  the Sejm; the prime minister proposes, the president appoints, and
  the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 9 and 23 October
  2005 (next to be held October 2010); prime minister and deputy prime
  ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the Sejm
  election results: Lech KACZYNSKI elected president; percent of
  popular vote - Lech KACZYNSKI 54%, Donald Tusk 46%

Portugal
  chief of state: President Anibal CAVACO Silva (since 9
  March 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Jose SOCRATES (since 12 March
  2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  note: there is also a Council of State that acts as a consultative
  body to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 22 January 2006
  (next to be held January 2011); following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or leader of a majority coalition is
  usually appointed prime minister by the president
  election results: Anibal CAVACO Silva elected president; percent of
  vote - Anibal CAVACO Silva 50.6%, Manuel ALEGRE 20.7%, Mario SOARES
  14.3%, Jeronimo de SOUSA 8.5%, Franciso LOUCA 5.3%

Puerto Rico
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US
  (since 20 January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20
  January 2001)
  head of government: Governor Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA (since 2 January
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor with the consent of the
  legislature
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as Puerto Rico, do not vote in elections for US
  president and vice president; governor elected by popular vote for a
  four-year term (no term limits); election last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA (PPD) elected governor;
  percent of vote - 48.4%

Qatar
  chief of state: Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani (since 27 June
  1995 when, as crown prince, he ousted his father, Amir KHALIFA bin
  Hamad al-Thani, in a bloodless coup); Crown Prince TAMIM bin Hamad
  bin Khalifa al-Thani, fourth son of the monarch (selected Heir
  Apparent by the monarch on 5 August 2003); note - Amir HAMAD also
  holds the positions of Minister of Defense and Commander-in-chief of
  the Armed Forces
  head of government: Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin Khalifa al-Thani,
  brother of the monarch (since 30 October 1996); Deputy Prime
  Minister MUHAMMAD bin Khalifa al-Thani, brother of the monarch
  (since 20 January 1998); First Deputy Prime Minister HAMAD bin Jasim
  bin Jabir al-Thani (since 16 September 2003, also Foreign Minister
  since 1992); Second Deputy Prime Minister Abdallah bin Hamad
  al-ATIYAH (since 16 September 2003, also Electricity and Water
  Minister since 1999 and Energy and Industry Minister since 1992)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary
  note: in April 2003, Qatar held nationwide elections for a 29-member
  Central Municipal Council (CMC), which has consultative powers aimed
  at improving the provision of municipal services; the first election
  for the CMC was held in March 1999

Reunion
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France (since 17
  May 1995), represented by Prefect Pierre-Henry MACCIONI (since 28
  August 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Nassimah DINDAR
  (since NA March 2004) and President of the Regional Council Paul
  VERGES (since NA March 1993)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; prefect appointed by the French president on the advice of the
  French Ministry of the Interior; the presidents of the General and
  Regional Councils are elected by the members of those councils

Romania
  chief of state: President Traian BASESCU (since 20 December
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Calin Popescu-TARICEANU (since 29
  December 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 28 November 2004,
  with runoff between the top two candidates held 12 December 2004
  (next to be held November-December 2009); prime minister appointed
  by the president with the consent of the Parliament
  election results: percent of vote - Traian BASESCU 51.23%, Adrian
  NASTASE 48.77%

Russia
  chief of state: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
  (acting president 31 December 1999-6 May 2000, president since 7 May
  2000)
  head of government: Premier Mikhail Yefimovich FRADKOV (since 5
  March 2004); First Deputy Premier Dmitriy Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV
  (since 14 November 2005), Deputy Premiers Aleksandr Dmitriyevich
  ZHUKOV (since 9 March 2004) and Sergey Borisovich IVANOV (since 14
  November 2005)
  cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of
  the premier and his deputies, ministers, and selected other
  individuals; all are appointed by the president
  note: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides
  staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential
  decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a
  Security Council also reports directly to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 March 2004 (next
  to be held March 2008); note - no vice president; if the president
  dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill health, is
  impeached, or resigns, the premier serves as acting president until
  a new presidential election is held, which must be within three
  months; premier appointed by the president with the approval of the
  Duma
  election results: Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN reelected president;
  percent of vote - Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN 71.2%, Nikolay
  KHARITONOV 13.7%, other (no candidate above 5%) 15.1%

Rwanda
  chief of state: President Paul KAGAME (since 22 April 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Bernard MAKUZA (since 8 March
  2000)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: President elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); elections last held 25 August 2003
  (next to be held NA 2008)
  election results: Paul KAGAME elected president in first direct
  popular vote; Paul KAGAME 95.05%, Faustin TWAGIRAMUNGU 3.62%,
  Jean-Nepomuscene NAYINZIRA 1.33%

Saint Helena
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952)
  head of government: Governor and Commander in Chief Michael CLANCY
  (since 15 October 2004)
  cabinet: Executive Council consists of the governor, three
  ex-officio officers, and five elected members of the Legislative
  Council
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor is appointed by
  the monarch

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Governor General Cuthbert Montraville
  SEBASTIAN (since 1 January 1996)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dr. Denzil DOUGLAS (since 6 July
  1995) and Deputy Prime Minister Sam CONDOR (since 6 July 1995)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general in consultation
  with the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or leader of a majority coalition is
  usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Saint Lucia
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor General Dame Pearlette LOUISY (since
  September 1997)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sir John COMPTON (since 15
  December 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition
  is usually appointed prime minister by the governor general; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC
  of France (since 17 May 1995), represented by Prefect Yves FAUQUEUR
  (since 28 August 2006)
  head of government: President of the General Council Marc
  PLANTAGENEST (since NA)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; election last held, 21 April 2002 (first round) and 5 May 2002
  (second round) (next to be held in 2007); prefect appointed by the
  French president on the advice of the French Ministry of Interior;
  president of the General Council is elected by the members of the
  council

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II
  (since 6 February 1952), represented by Governor General Sir
  Fredrick Nathaniel BALLANTYNE (since 2 September 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ralph E. GONSALVES (since 29
  March 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the governor general is
  appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the
  leader of the majority party is usually appointed prime minister by
  the governor general; deputy prime minister appointed by the
  governor general on the advice of the prime minister

Samoa
  chief of state: Chief Tanumafili II MALIETOA (cochief of state
  from 1 January 1962 until becoming sole chief of state 5 April 1963)
  head of government: Prime Minister Sailele Malielegaoi TUILA'EPA
  (since 1996); note - TUILA'EPA served as deputy prime minister from
  1992 and assumed the duties of acting prime minister in 1996, when
  former Prime Minister TOFILAU Eti Alesana resigned in poor health;
  TUILA'EPA was confirmed as prime minister (November 1998) after
  TOFILAU died; Deputy Prime Minister MISA Telefoni (since 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of 12 members, appointed by the chief of
  state on the prime minister's advice
  elections: upon the death of Chief Tanumafili II MALIETOA, a new
  chief of state will be elected by the Legislative Assembly to serve
  a five-year term (no term limits); following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party is usually appointed prime minister
  by the chief of state with the approval of the Legislative Assembly

San Marino
  chief of state: Cochiefs of State Captain Regent Antonio
  CARATTONI and Captain Regent Roberto GIORGETTI (for the period 1
  October 2006-31 March 2007)
  head of government: Secretary of State for Foreign and Political
  Affairs Fiorenzo STOLFI (since 27 July 2006)
  cabinet: Congress of State elected by the Great and General Council
  for a five-year term
  elections: cochiefs of state (captains regent) elected by the Great
  and General Council for a six-month term; election last held in
  September 2006 (next to be held March 2007); secretary of state for
  foreign and political affairs elected by the Great and General
  Council for a five-year term; election last held 13 December 2003
  (next to be held NA)
  election results: Antonio CARATTONI and Roberto GIORGETTI elected
  captains regent; percent of legislative vote - NA; Fabio BERARDI
  elected secretary of state for foreign and political affairs;
  percent of legislative vote - NA
  note: the popularly elected parliament (Grand and General Council)
  selects two of its members to serve as the Captains Regent (cochiefs
  of state) for a six-month period; they preside over meetings of the
  Grand and General Council and its cabinet (Congress of State), which
  has 10 other members, all selected by the Grand and General Council;
  assisting the captains regent are 10 secretaries of state; the
  secretary of state for Foreign Affairs has assumed some of the
  prerogatives of a prime minister

Sao Tome and Principe
  chief of state: President Fradique DE MENEZES
  (since 3 September 2001)
  head of government: Prime Minister Tome Soares da VERA CRUZ (since
  21 April 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  proposal of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 30 July 2006 (next
  to be held July 2011); prime minister chosen by the National
  Assembly and approved by the president
  election results: Fradique DE MENEZES elected president; percent of
  vote - Fradique DE MENEZES 60%, Patrice TROVOADA 38.5%

Saudi Arabia
  chief of state: King and Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin
  Abd al-Aziz Al Saud (since 1 August 2005); Heir Apparent Crown
  Prince SULTAN bin Abd al- Aziz Al Saud (half brother of the monarch,
  born 5 January 1928) note - the monarch is both the chief of state
  and head of government
  head of government: King and Prime Minister ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz
  Al Saud (since 1 August 2005); Heir Apparent Crown Prince SULTAN bin
  Abd al- Aziz Al Saud (half brother of the monarch, born 5 January
  1928) note - the monarch is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers is appointed by the monarch and
  includes many royal family members
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary

Senegal
  chief of state: President Abdoulaye WADE (since 1 April 2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Macky SALL (since 21 April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister in
  consultation with the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term) under new constitution; election last
  held under prior constitution (seven-year terms) 27 February and 19
  March 2000 (next to be held 27 February 2007); prime minister
  appointed by the president
  election results: Abdoulaye WADE elected president; percent of vote
  in the second round of voting - Abdoulaye WADE (PDS) 58.49%, Abdou
  DIOUF (PS) 41.51%

Serbia
  chief of state: President Boris TADIC (since 11 July 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Vojislav KOSTUNICA (since 3 March
  2004)
  cabinet: Federal Ministries act as cabinet
  elections: president elected by direct vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 27 June 2004 (next
  to be held June 2009); prime minister elected by the Assembly
  election results: Boris TADIC elected president in the second round
  of voting; Boris TADIC received 53% of the vote

Seychelles
  chief of state: President James MICHEL (since 14 April
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President James MICHEL (since 14 April 2004);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for two more terms); election last held 28-30 July 2006
  (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: President James MICHEL elected president; percent
  of vote - James MICHEL (SPPF) 53.73%, Wavel RAMKALAWAN (SNP) 45.71%,
  Philippe BOULLE 0.56%; note - this was the first election in which
  President James MICHEL participated; he was originally sworn in as
  president after former president France Albert RENE stepped down in
  April 2004

Sierra Leone
  chief of state: President Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (since 29
  March 1996, reinstated 10 March 1998); note - the president is both
  the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (since 29 March
  1996, reinstated 10 March 1998); note - the president is both the
  chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Ministers of State appointed by the president with the
  approval of the House of Representatives; the cabinet is responsible
  to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 14 May 2002 (next
  to be held 28 July 2007)
  election results: Ahmad Tejan KABBAH reelected president; percent of
  vote - Ahmad Tejan KABBAH (SLPP) 70.6%, Ernest KOROMA (APC) 22.4%

Singapore
  chief of state: President S. R. NATHAN (since 1 September
  1999)
  note: uses S. R. NATHAN but his full name and the one used in formal
  communications is Sellapan RAMANATHAN
  head of government: Prime Minister LEE Hsien Loong (since 12 August
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Shunmugan JAYAKUMAR (since 12 August
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister WONG Kan Seng (since 1 September 2005);
  Senior Minister GOH Chok Tong (since 12 August 2004); Minister
  Mentor LEE Kuan Yew (since 12 August 2004)
  cabinet: appointed by president, responsible to parliament
  elections: president elected by popular vote for six-year term; last
  appointed 17 August 2005 - see note (next election to be held by
  August 2011); following legislative elections, leader of majority
  party or leader of majority coalition is usually appointed prime
  minister by president; deputy prime ministers appointed by president
  election results: Sellapan Rama (S. R.) NATHAN appointed president
  in August 2005 after Presidential Elections Committee disqualified
  three other would-be candidates; scheduled election not held

Slovakia
  chief of state: President Ivan GASPAROVIC (since 15 June
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Robert FICO (since 4 July 2006);
  Deputy Prime Ministers Dusan CAPLOVIC, Robert KALINAK, Stefan
  HARABIN, Jan MIKOLAJ (since 4 July 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of
  the prime minister
  elections: president elected by direct, popular vote for a five-year
  term (eligible for a second term); election last held 3 April and 17
  April 2004 (next to be held April 2009); following National Council
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of a
  majority coalition is usually appointed prime minister by the
  president
  election results: Ivan GASPAROVIC elected president in runoff;
  percent of vote - Ivan GASPAROVIC 59.9%, Vladimir MECIAR 40.1%

Slovenia
  chief of state: President Janez DRNOVSEK (since 22 December
  2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Janez JANSA (since 9 November
  2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the prime minister and
  elected by the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 10 November and 1
  December 2002 (next to be held in the fall of 2007); following
  National Assembly elections, the leader of the majority party or the
  leader of a majority coalition is usually nominated to become prime
  minister by the president and elected by the National Assembly;
  election last held 9 November 2004 (next National Assembly elections
  to be held October 2008)
  election results: Janez DRNOVSEK elected president; percent of vote
  - Janez DRNOVSEK 56.5%, Barbara BREZIGAR 43.5%; Janez JANSA elected
  prime minister; National Assembly vote - 57 to 27

Solomon Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952), represented by Governor General Nathaniel WAENA (since 7 July
  2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Manasseh SOGAVARE (since 4 May
  2006); note - Prime Minister Snyder RINI, elected on 18 April 2006
  and sworn in on 20 April 2006, resigned on 26 April prior to no
  confidence vote in parliament; SOGAVARE elected on 4 May
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of 20 members appointed by the governor
  general on the advice of the prime minister from among the members
  of Parliament
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor general
  appointed by the monarch on the advice of Parliament for up to five
  years (eligible for a second term); following legislative elections,
  the leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority
  coalition is usually elected prime minister by Parliament; deputy
  prime minister appointed by the governor general on the advice of
  the prime minister from among the members of Parliament

Somalia
  chief of state: Transitional Federal President Abdullahi
  YUSUF Ahmed (since 14 October 2004); note - a transitional governing
  entity with a five-year mandate, known as the Transitional Federal
  Institutions (TFIs), was established in October 2004; the TFI
  relocated to Somalia in June 2004, but its members remain divided
  between Mogadishu and Jowhar inside Somalia, and the government
  continues to struggle to establish effective governance in the
  country
  head of government: Prime Minister Ali Mohamed GEDI (since 24
  December 2004)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister and approved by the
  Transitional Federal Assembly
  election results: Abdullahi YUSUF Ahmed, the former leader of the
  semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, was elected president by
  the Transitional Federal Assembly

South Africa
  chief of state: President Thabo MBEKI (since 16 June
  1999); Executive Deputy President Phumzile MLAMBO-NGCUKA (since 23
  June 2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head
  of government
  head of government: President Thabo MBEKI (since 16 June 1999);
  Executive Deputy President Phumzile MLAMBO-NGCUKA (since 23 June
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 24
  April 2004 (next to be held April 2009)
  election results: Thabo MBEKI elected president; percent of National
  Assembly vote - 100% (by acclamation)

Spain
  chief of state: King JUAN CARLOS I (since 22 November 1975);
  Heir Apparent Prince FELIPE, son of the monarch, born 30 January 1968
  head of government: President of the Government and Prime Minister
  Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO (since 17 April 2004); First Vice
  President and Deputy Prime Minister (and Minister of the Presidency)
  Maria Teresa FERNANDEZ DE LA VEGA (since 18 April 2004) and Second
  Vice President (and Minister of Economy and Finance) Pedro SOLBES
  (since 18 April 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers designated by the president
  note: there is also a Council of State that is the supreme
  consultative organ of the government, but its recommendations are
  non-binding
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually proposed president by the monarch and
  elected by the National Assembly; election last held 14 March 2004
  (next to be held March 2008); vice presidents appointed by the
  monarch on the proposal of the president
  election results: Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO (PSOE) elected
  president; percent of National Assembly vote - 52.29%

Sri Lanka
  chief of state: President Mahinda RAJAPAKSE (since 19
  November 2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government; Ratnasiri WICKREMANAYAKE (since 21 November
  2005) holds the ceremonial title of prime minister
  head of government: President Mahinda RAJAPAKSE (since 19 November
  2005)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president in consultation with the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 17 November 2005
  (next to be held 2011)
  election results: Mahinda RAJAPAKSE elected president; percent of
  vote - Mahinda RAJAPAKSE 50.3%, Ranil WICKREMESINGHE 48.4%, other
  1.3%

Sudan
  chief of state: President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR (since
  16 October 1993); First Vice President Salva KIIR (since 4 August
  2005), Vice President Ali Osman TAHA (since 20 September 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR (since 16
  October 1993); First Vice President Salva KIIR (since 4 August
  2005), Vice President Ali Osman TAHA (since 20 September 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president; note - the
  National Congress Party or NCP (formerly the National Islamic Front
  or NIF) dominates al-BASHIR's cabinet
  elections: election last held 13-23 December 2000; next to be held
  no later than July 2009 under terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace
  Agreement
  election results: Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR reelected president;
  percent of vote - Umar Hassan Ahmad al-BASHIR 86.5%, Ja'afar
  Muhammed NUMAYRI 9.6%, three other candidates received a combined
  vote of 3.9%; election widely viewed as rigged; all popular
  opposition parties boycotted elections because of a lack of
  guarantees for a free and fair election
  note: al-BASHIR assumed power as chairman of Sudan's Revolutionary
  Command Council for National Salvation (RCC) in June 1989 and served
  concurrently as chief of state, chairman of the RCC, prime minister,
  and minister of defense until mid-October 1993 when he was appointed
  president by the RCC; he was elected president by popular vote for
  the first time in March 1996

Suriname
  chief of state: President Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN (since
  12 August 2000); Vice President Ram SARDJOE (since 3 August 2005);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN (since 12
  August 2000); Vice President Ram SARDJOE (since 3 August 2005); note
  - the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected by the National
  Assembly or, if no presidential or vice presidential candidate
  receives a two-thirds constitutional majority in the National
  Assembly after two votes, by a simple majority in the larger United
  People's Assembly (893 representatives from the national, local, and
  regional councils), for five-year terms (no term limits); election
  last held 25 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN reelected president;
  percent of vote - Runaldo Ronald VENETIAAN 62.9%, Rabin PARMESSAR
  35.4%, other 1.7%; note - after two votes in the parliament failed
  to secure a two-thirds majority for a candidate, the vote then went
  to a special session of the United People's Assembly on 3 August 2005

Svalbard
  chief of state: King HARALD V of Norway (since 17 January
  1991)
  head of government: Governor Odd Olsen INGERO (since 8 June 2001)
  and Assistant Governor Rune Baard HANSEN (since NA)
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor and assistant
  governor responsible to the Polar Department of the Ministry of
  Justice

Swaziland
  chief of state: King MSWATI III (since 25 April 1986)
  head of government: Prime Minister Absolom Themba DLAMINI (since 14
  November 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet recommended by the prime minister and confirmed by
  the monarch
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister appointed
  by the monarch

Sweden
  chief of state: King CARL XVI GUSTAF (since 19 September
  1973); Heir Apparent Princess VICTORIA Ingrid Alice Desiree,
  daughter of the monarch (born 14 July 1977)
  head of government: Prime Minister Fredrik REINFELDT (since 5
  October 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
  elections: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the prime minister is elected by the parliament; election
  last held 17 September 2006 (next to be held in September 2010)
  election results: Fredrik REINFELDT elected prime minister with 175
  out of 349 votes

Switzerland
  chief of state: President Moritz LEUENBERGER (since 8
  January 2006); Vice President Micheline CALMY-REY (since 8 January
  2006); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Moritz LEUENBERGER (since 8 January
  2006); Vice President Micheline CALMY-REY (since 8 January 2006)
  cabinet: Federal Council or Bundesrat (in German), Conseil Federal
  (in French), Consiglio Federale (in Italian) elected by the Federal
  Assembly usually from among its own members for a four-year term
  elections: president and vice president elected by the Federal
  Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for a
  one-year term (they may not serve consecutive terms); election last
  held 7 December 2005 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Moritz LUENBERGER elected president; percent of
  Federal Assembly vote - NA; Micheline CALMY-REY elected vice
  president; percent of legislative vote - NA

Syria
  chief of state: President Bashar al-ASAD (since 17 July 2000);
  Vice President Farouk al-SHARA (since 11 February 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-UTRI (since 10
  September 2003); Deputy Prime Minister Abdallah al-DARDARI (since 14
  June 2005)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president approved by popular referendum for a seven-year
  term (no term limits); referendum last held 10 July 2000 - after the
  death of President Hafiz al-ASAD, father of Bashar al-ASAD - (next
  to be held 2007); vice president appointed by the president; prime
  minister and deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Bashar al-ASAD approved as president; percent of
  vote - Bashar al-ASAD 97.29%
  note: Hafiz al-ASAD died on 10 June 2000; on 20 June, the Ba'th
  Party nominated Bashar al-ASAD for president and presented his name
  to the People's Council on 25 June; he was approved by a popular
  referendum on 10 July

Taiwan
  chief of state: President CHEN Shui-bian (since 20 May 2000)
  and Vice President Annette LU (LU Hsiu-lien) (since 20 May 2000)
  head of government: Premier (President of the Executive Yuan) SU
  Tseng-chang (since 25 January 2006) and Vice Premier (Vice President
  of the Executive Yuan) TSAI Ing-wen (since 25 January 2006)
  cabinet: Executive Yuan appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for four-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 20 March 2004 (next to be held in March 2008);
  premier appointed by the president; vice premiers appointed by the
  president on the recommendation of the premier
  election results: CHEN Shui-bian re-elected president; percent of
  vote - CHEN Shui-bian (DPP) 50.1%, LIEN Chan (KMT) 49.9%

Tajikistan
  chief of state: President Emomali RAHMONOV (since 6
  November 1994; head of state and Supreme Assembly chairman since 19
  November 1992)
  head of government: Prime Minister Oqil OQILOV (since 20 January
  1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president, approved
  by the Supreme Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 6 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2013); prime minister appointed by the
  president
  election results: Emomali RAHMONOV reelected president; percent of
  vote - Emomali RAHMONOV 76.4%, Olimzon BOBOYEV 7.2%, other 16.4%

Tanzania
  chief of state: President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December
  2005); Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Jakaya KIKWETE (since 21 December
  2005); Vice President Dr. Ali Mohammed SHEIN (since 5 July 2001);
  note - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  note: Zanzibar elects a president who is head of government for
  matters internal to Zanzibar; Amani Abeid KARUME was reelected to
  that office on 30 October 2005
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ballot
  by popular vote for five-year terms (eligible for a second term);
  election last held 14 December 2005(next to be held in December
  2010); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Jakaya KIKWETE elected president; percent of vote
  - Jakaya KIKWETE 80.3%, Ibrahim LIPUMBA 11.7%, Freeman MBOWE 5.9%

Thailand
  chief of state: King PHUMIPHON Adunyadet (since 9 June 1946)
  head of government: Interim Prime Minister SURAYUT Chulanon (since 1
  October 2006); Interim Deputy Prime Ministers KHOSIT Panpiamrat
  (since 9 October 2006); PRIDIYATHON Thewakun (since 9 October 2006)
  note: Prime Minister THAKSIN Chinnawat was overthrown on 19
  September 2006 in a coup led by General SONTHI Boonyaratglin
  cabinet: Council of Ministers
  note: there is also a Privy Council
  elections: none; monarch is hereditary; according to 1997
  constitution, prime minister was designated from among members of
  House of Representatives; following national elections for House of
  Representatives, leader of party that could organize a majority
  coalition usually was appointed prime minister by king

Togo
  chief of state: President Faure GNASSINGBE (since 6 February
  2005); note - Gnassingbe EYADEMA died on 5 February 2005 and was
  succeeded by his son, Faure GNASSINGBE; popular elections in April
  2005 validated the succession
  head of government: Prime Minister Yawovi AGBOYIBO (since 16
  September 2006)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president and the
  prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held
  NA); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: Faure GNASSINGBE elected president; percent of
  vote - Faure GNASSINGBE 60.2%, Emmanuel Akitani BOB 38.3%, Nicolas
  LAWSON 1%, Harry OLYMPIO 0.5%

Tokelau
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General of New Zealand Anand SATYANAND
  (since 23 August 2006); New Zealand is represented by Administrator
  David PAYTON (since 17 October 2006)
  head of government: Kolouei O'BRIEN (2006); note - position rotates
  annually among the three Faipule (village leaders)
  cabinet: the Council for the Ongoing Government of Tokelau,
  consisting of three Faipule (village leaders) and three Pulenuku
  (village mayors), functions as a cabinet
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; administrator appointed
  by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in New Zealand; the
  head of government is chosen from the Council of Faipule and serves
  a one-year term

Tonga
  chief of state: King George TUPOU V (since 11 September 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister Dr. Feleti SEVELE (since 11
  February 2006); Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Viliami TANGI (since 16
  May 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet currently consists of 14 members, 10 appointed by
  the monarch for life; 4 appointed from among the elected members of
  the Legislative Assembly, including 2 each from the nobles and
  peoples representatives serving three year terms
  note: there is also a Privy Council that consists of the monarch,
  the cabinet, and two governors
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; prime minister and
  deputy prime minister appointed by the monarch

Trinidad and Tobago
  chief of state: President George Maxwell
  RICHARDS (since 17 March 2003)
  head of government: Prime Minister Patrick MANNING (since 24
  December 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed from among the members of Parliament
  elections: president elected by an electoral college, which consists
  of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, for a
  five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held 14
  February 2003 (next to be held in 2008); the president usually
  appoints as prime minister the leader of the majority party in the
  House of Representatives
  election results: George Maxwell RICHARDS elected president; percent
  of electoral college vote - 43%

Tunisia
  chief of state: President Zine el Abidine BEN ALI (since 7
  November 1987)
  head of government: Prime Minister Mohamed GHANNOUCHI (since 17
  November 1999)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (no term limits); election last held 24 October 2004 (next to be
  held October 2009); prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: President Zine El Abidine BEN ALI reelected for a
  fourth term; percent of vote - Zine El Abidine BEN ALI 94.5%,
  Mohamed BOUCHIHA 3.8%, Mohamed Ali HALOUANI 1%

Turkey
  chief of state: President Ahmet Necdet SEZER (since 16 May
  2000)
  head of government: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN (14 March
  2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  nomination of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a single
  seven-year term; election last held 5 May 2000 (next to be held May
  2007); prime minister appointed by the president from among members
  of parliament
  election results: Ahmed Necdet SEZER elected president on the third
  ballot; percent of National Assembly vote - 60%
  note: president must have a two-thirds majority of the National
  Assembly on the first two ballots and a simple majority on the third
  ballot

Turkmenistan
  chief of state: President and Chairman of the Cabinet
  of Ministers Saparmurat NIYAZOV (since 27 October 1990, when the
  first direct presidential election occurred); note - the president
  is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President and Chairman of the Cabinet of
  Ministers Saparmurat NIYAZOV (since 27 October 1990, when the first
  direct presidential election occurred)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president
  note: NIYAZOV's term in office was extended indefinitely on 28
  December 1999 during a session of the People's Council (Halk
  Maslahaty); in November 2005, the People's Council voted down
  NIYAZOV's suggestion to hold presidential elections in 2009
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 21 June 1992; note - President NIYAZOV was
  unanimously approved as president for life by the People's Council
  on 28 December 1999; deputy chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers are
  appointed by the president
  election results: Saparmurat NIYAZOV elected president without
  opposition; percent of vote - Saparmurat NIYAZOV 99.5%

Turks and Caicos Islands
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6
  February 1952), represented by Governor Richard TAUWHARE (since 11
  July 2005)
  head of government: Premier Michael Eugene MISICK (since 15 August
  2003); note - the office of premier was created in the new
  constitution
  cabinet: Cabinet consists of the governor, the premier, six
  ministers appointed by the governor from among the members of the
  Legislative Council, and the attorney general
  elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; governor appointed by
  the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party is appointed premier by the governor

Tuvalu
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
  represented by Governor General Filoimea TELITO (since 15 April 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Apisai IELEMIA (since 14 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the
  recommendation of the prime minister
  elections: the monarch is hereditary; governor general appointed by
  the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister; prime
  minister and deputy prime minister elected by and from the members
  of Parliament; election last held 14 August 2006 (next to be held
  following parliamentary elections in 2010)
  election results: Apisai IELEMIA elected Prime Minister in a
  Parliamentary election on 14 August 2006

Uganda
  chief of state: President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI
  (since seizing power 26 January 1986); note - the president is both
  chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI (since
  seizing power 29 January 1986); Prime Minister Apollo NSIBAMBI
  (since 5 April 1999); note - the president is both chief of state
  and head of government; the prime minister assists the president in
  the supervision of the cabinet
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among elected
  legislators
  elections: president reelected by popular vote for a five-year term;
  election last held 23 February 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI elected president;
  percent of vote - Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI 59.3%, Kizza
  BESIGYE 37.4%, other 3.3%

Ukraine
  chief of state: President Viktor A. YUSHCHENKO (since 23
  January 2005)
  head of government: Prime Minister Viktor YANUKOVYCH (since 4 August
  2006); First Deputy Prime Minister - Mykola AZAROV (since 5 August
  2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers selected by the prime minister; the
  only exceptions are the foreign and defense ministers, who are
  chosen by the president
  note: there is also a National Security and Defense Council or NSDC
  originally created in 1992 as the National Security Council; the
  NSDC staff is tasked with developing national security policy on
  domestic and international matters and advising the president; a
  Presidential Secretariat helps draft presidential edicts and
  provides policy support to the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); note - a special repeat runoff
  presidential election between Viktor YUSHCHENKO and Viktor
  YANUKOVYCH took place on 26 December 2004 after the earlier 21
  November 2004 contest - won by Mr. YANUKOVYCH - was invalidated by
  the Ukrainian Supreme Court because of widespread and significant
  violations; under constitutional reforms that went into effect 1
  January 2006, the majority in parliament takes the lead in naming
  the prime minister
  election results: Viktor YUSHCHENKO elected president; percent of
  vote - Viktor YUSHCHENKO 51.99%, Viktor YANUKOVYCH 44.2%

United Arab Emirates
  chief of state: President KHALIFA bin Zayid
  al-Nuhayyan (since 3 November 2004), ruler of Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi)
  (since 4 November 2004); Vice President and Prime Minister MUHAMMAD
  bin Rashid al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006)
  head of government: Prime Minister and Vice President MUHAMMAD bin
  Rashid al-Maktum (since 5 January 2006); Deputy Prime Ministers
  SULTAN bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 November 1990) and HAMDAN bin
  Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 20 October 2003)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  note: there is also a Federal Supreme Council (FSC) composed of the
  seven emirate rulers; the FSC is the highest constitutional
  authority in the UAE; establishes general policies and sanctions
  federal legislation; meets four times a year; Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi)
  and Dubayy (Dubai) rulers have effective veto power
  elections: president and vice president elected by the FSC for
  five-year terms (no term limits); election last held 3 November 2004
  upon the death of the UAE's Founding Father and first President
  ZAYID bin Sultan Al Nuhayyan (next to be held 2009); prime minister
  and deputy prime minister appointed by the president
  election results: KHALIFA bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan elected president by
  a unanimous vote of the FSC; MUHAMMAD bin Rashid al-Maktum
  unanimously reaffirmed vice president

United Kingdom
  chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February
  1952); Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14
  November 1948)
  head of government: Prime Minister Anthony (Tony) BLAIR (since 2 May
  1997)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the prime minister
  elections: none; the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative
  elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the
  majority coalition is usually the prime minister

United States
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH (since 20
  January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January
  2001); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President George W. BUSH (since 20 January
  2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20 January 2001)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president with Senate approval
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by a college of representatives who are elected directly from each
  state; president and vice president serve four-year terms (eligible
  for a second term); election last held 2 November 2004 (next to be
  held 4 November 2008)
  election results: George W. BUSH reelected president; percent of
  popular vote - George W. BUSH (Republican Party) 50.9%, John KERRY
  (Democratic Party) 48.1%, other 1.0%

Uruguay
  chief of state: President Tabare VAZQUEZ Rosas (since 1
  March 2005) and Vice President Rodolfo NIN NOVOA (since 1 March
  2005); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: President Tabare VAZQUEZ Rosas (since 1 March
  2005) and Vice President Rodolfo NIN NOVOA (since 1 March 2005);
  note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president with
  parliamentary approval
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket
  by popular vote for five-year terms (may not serve consecutive
  terms); election last held 31 October 2004 (next to be held October
  2009)
  election results: Tabare VAZQUEZ elected president; percent of vote
  - Tabare VAZQUEZ 50.5%, Jorge LARRANAGA 35.1%, Guillermo STIRLING
  10.3%; other 4.1%

Uzbekistan
  chief of state: President Islom KARIMOV (since 24 March
  1990, when he was elected president by the then Supreme Soviet)
  head of government: Prime Minister Shavkat MIRZIYAYEV (since 11
  December 2003)
  cabinet: Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the president with
  approval of the Supreme Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term
  (eligible for a second term; previously was a five-year term,
  extended by constitutional amendment in 2002); election last held 9
  January 2000 (next to be held in 2007); prime minister, ministers,
  and deputy ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Islom KARIMOV reelected president; percent of vote
  - Islom KARIMOV 91.9%, Abdulkhafiz JALALOV 4.2%

Vanuatu
  chief of state: President Kalkot Matas KELEKELE (since 16
  August 2004)
  head of government: Prime Minister Ham LINI (since 11 December
  2004); Deputy Prime Minister Sato KILMAN (since 11 December 2004)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister,
  responsible to Parliament
  elections: president elected for a five-year term by an electoral
  college consisting of Parliament and the presidents of the regional
  councils; election for president last held 16 August 2004 (next to
  be held in 2009); following legislative elections, the leader of the
  majority party or majority coalition is usually elected prime
  minister by Parliament from among its members; election for prime
  minister last held 29 July 2004 (next to be held following general
  elections in 2008)
  election results: Kalkot Matas KELEKELE elected president, with 49
  votes out of 56, after several ballots on 16 August 2004

Venezuela
  chief of state: President Hugo CHAVEZ Frias (since 3
  February 1999); Vice President Jose Vicente RANGEL Vale (since 28
  April 2002); note - the president is both the chief of state and
  head of government
  head of government: President Hugo CHAVEZ Frias (since 3 February
  1999); Vice President Jose Vicente RANGEL Vale (since 28 April 2002)
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a six-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 3 December 2006
  (next to be held December 2012)
  note: in 1999, a National Constituent Assembly drafted a new
  constitution that increased the presidential term to six years; an
  election was subsequently held on 30 July 2000 under the terms of
  this new constitution
  election results: Hugo CHAVEZ Frias reelected president; percent of
  vote - Hugo CHAVEZ Frias 63%, Manuel ROSALES 37%

Vietnam
  chief of state: President Nguyen Minh TRIET (since 27 June
  2006); Vice President Truong My HOA (since 25 July 2002)
  head of government: Prime Minister Nguyen Tan DUNG (since 27 June
  2006); Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh HUNG (since 28 June 2006),
  Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia KHIEM (since 28 June 2006), and
  Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh TRONG (since 28 June 2006)
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by president based on proposal of prime
  minister and confirmed by National Assembly
  elections: president elected by the National Assembly from among its
  members for five-year term; election last held 27 June 2006; prime
  minister appointed by the president from among the members of the
  National Assembly; deputy prime ministers appointed by the prime
  minister; appointment of prime minister and deputy prime ministers
  confirmed by National Assembly
  election results: Nguyen Minh TRIET elected president; percent of
  National Assembly vote - 94%; Nguyen Tan DUNG elected prime
  minister; percent of National Assembly vote - 92%

Virgin Islands
  chief of state: President George W. BUSH of the US
  (since 20 January 2001); Vice President Richard B. CHENEY (since 20
  January 2001)
  head of government: Governor Dr. Charles Wesley TURNBULL (since 5
  January 1999)
  cabinet: NA
  elections: under the US Consitution, residents of unincorporated
  territories, such as the Virgin Islands, do not vote in elections
  for US president and vice president; governor and lieutenant
  governor elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year
  terms (eligible for a second term); election last held 7 and 21
  November 2006 (next to be held November 2010)
  election results: John DeJONGH elected governor and takes office in
  January 2007; percent of vote - John DeJONGH 57.3%, Kenneth MAPP
  42.7%

Wallis and Futuna
  chief of state: President Jacques CHIRAC of France
  (since 17 May 1995), represented by High Administrator Richard
  DIDIER (since 19 July 2006)
  head of government: President of the Territorial Assembly Patalione
  KANIMOA (since January 2001)
  cabinet: Council of the Territory consists of three kings and three
  members appointed by the high administrator on the advice of the
  Territorial Assembly
  note: there are three traditional kings with limited powers
  elections: French president elected by popular vote for a five-year
  term; high administrator appointed by the French president on the
  advice of the French Ministry of the Interior; the presidents of the
  Territorial Government and the Territorial Assembly are elected by
  the members of the assembly

Western Sahara
  none

Yemen
  chief of state: President Ali Abdallah SALIH (since 22 May
  1990, the former president of North Yemen, assumed office upon the
  merger of North and South Yemen); Vice President Maj. Gen. Abd
  al-Rab Mansur al-HADI (since 3 October 1994)
  head of government: Prime Minister Abd al-Qadir BA JAMAL; Deputy
  Prime Ministers Rashid Muhammad al-ALIMI, Alawi Salah al-SALAMI,
  Ahmad Muhammad Abdallah al-SUFAN
  cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president on the
  advice of the prime minister
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a seven-year term;
  election last held 20 September 2006 (next to be held September
  2013); vice president appointed by the president; prime minister and
  deputy prime ministers appointed by the president
  election results: Ali Abdallah SALIH elected president; percent of
  vote - Ali Abdallah SALIH 77.2%, Faisal bin SHAMLAN 21.8%

Zambia
  chief of state: President Levy MWANAWASA (since 2 January
  2002); Vice President Rupiah BANDA (since 9 October 2006); note -
  the president is both the chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Levy MWANAWASA (since 2 January 2002);
  Vice President Rupiah BANDA (since 9 October 2006); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president from among the members
  of the National Assembly
  elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
  (eligible for a second term); election last held 28 September 2006
  (next to be held 2011); vice president appointed by the president
  election results: Levy MWANAWASA reelected president; percent of
  vote - Levy MWANAWASA 43.0%, Michael SATA 29.4%, Hakainde HICHILEMA
  25.3%, Godfrey MIYANDA 1.6%, Winright NGONDO 0.8%

Zimbabwe
  chief of state: Executive President Robert Gabriel MUGABE
  (since 31 December 1987); Vice President Joseph MSIKA (since
  December 1999) and Vice President Joyce MUJURU (since 6 December
  2004); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of
  government
  head of government: Executive President Robert Gabriel MUGABE (since
  31 December 1987); Vice President Joseph MSIKA (since December 1999)
  and Vice President Joyce MUJURU (since 6 December 2004); note - the
  president is both the chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president; responsible to the
  House of Assembly
  elections: presidential candidates nominated with a nomination paper
  signed by at least 10 registered voters (at least one from each
  province) and elected by popular vote for a six-year term (no term
  limits); election last held 9-11 March 2002 (next to be held March
  2008); co-vice presidents appointed by the president
  election results: Robert Gabriel MUGABE reelected president; percent
  of vote - Robert Gabriel MUGABE 56.2%, Morgan TSVANGIRAI 41.9%

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2078  Exports


Afghanistan
  $471 million; note - not including illicit exports or
  reexports (2005 est.)

Albania
  $650.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $49.59 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $445.6 million (FY04 est.)

Andorra
  $145 million f.o.b. (2004)

Angola
  $26.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $14.56 million (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $46.81 million (2004 est.)

Argentina
  $40 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $800 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Aruba
  $80 million f.o.b.; note - includes oil reexports (2004 est.)

Australia
  $103 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $122.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $6.117 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $469.3 million (2004 est.)

Bahrain
  $11.17 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $9.372 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $209 million (2004 est.)

Belarus
  $16.14 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $269.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Belize
  $349.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Benin
  $826.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  $1.469 billion (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  $154 million f.o.b. (2000 est.)

Bolivia
  $2.371 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $2.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $3.68 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $115.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $25.3 million (2002)

Brunei
  $4.514 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Bulgaria
  $11.67 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  $395 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Burma
  $3.111 billion f.o.b.
  note: official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the
  value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled
  to Thailand, China, and Bangladesh (2004)

Burundi
  $52 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $2.663 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $3.236 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Canada
  $364.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $73.35 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  $2.52 million (2004)

Central African Republic
  $131 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Chad
  $3.016 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Chile
  $38.03 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

China
  $752.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Christmas Island
  $NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  $NA

Colombia
  $19.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $34 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $1.108 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $2.209 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $5.222 million (2005)

Costa Rica
  $7.005 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $6.49 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $10.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $2.388 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $1.237 billion f.o.b.; north Cyprus: $69
  million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  $78.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $84.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  $250 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Dominica
  $74 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $5.818 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $10 million; note - excludes oil (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  $9.224 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $14.33 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $3.586 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $6.727 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $33.58 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $7.439 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $612 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

European Union
  $1.318 trillion; note - external exports, excluding
  intra-EU trade (2004)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $125 million (2004 est.)

Faroe Islands
  $533 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Fiji
  $719.6 million f.o.b. (2005)

Finland
  $67.88 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

France
  $443.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  $137.5 million f.o.b. (2003)

French Polynesia
  $211 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gabon
  $5.813 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $140.3 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  $270 million f.o.b.; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Georgia
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

Germany
  $1.016 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $2.911 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  $271 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Greece
  $18.54 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Greenland
  $480 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Grenada
  $40 million (2004 est.)

Guadeloupe
  $147.8 million f.o.b. (2002)

Guam
  $45 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Guatemala
  $3.94 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  $NA

Guinea
  $612.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $116 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Guyana
  $587.2 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $390.7 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $1.726 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $286.3 billion f.o.b., including reexports (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $61.75 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $3.215 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

India
  $76.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $83.64 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iran
  $55.42 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $17.78 billion f.o.b. (2004)

Ireland
  $102 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  $NA

Israel
  $40.14 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Italy
  $371.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $1.608 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Japan
  $550.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Jersey
  $NA

Jordan
  $4.226 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $30.09 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $3.173 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $17 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Korea, North
  $1.275 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Korea, South
  $288.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $44.43 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $759 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Laos
  $379 million (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $4.86 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $1.782 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $602.8 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $910 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Libya
  $30.79 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $2.47 billion (1996)

Lithuania
  $11.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  $13.39 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Macau
  $3.465 billion f.o.b.; note - includes reexports (2004)

Macedonia
  $2.047 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $951 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $364 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $147.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $123 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Mali
  $323 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Malta
  $2.744 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  $9.1 million f.o.b. (2000)

Martinique
  $404.2 million f.o.b. (2002)

Mauritania
  $784 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Mauritius
  $1.949 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  $4.85 million f.o.b. (2004)

Mexico
  $213.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $14 million (f.o.b.) (2004 est.)

Moldova
  $1.04 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Monaco
  $656.5 million $NA
  note: full customs integration with France, which collects and
  rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market
  system through customs union with France

Mongolia
  $852 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Montenegro
  $171.3 million (2003)

Montserrat
  $700,000 (2001)

Morocco
  $9.472 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $1.69 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $2.04 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Nauru
  $64,000 f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Nepal
  $822 million f.o.b.; note - does not include unrecorded border
  trade with India (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $365.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  $2.076 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

New Caledonia
  $999 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

New Zealand
  $22.21 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $1.55 billion f.o.b.; note - includes free trade zones
  (2005 est.)

Niger
  $222 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Nigeria
  $52.16 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Niue
  $201,400 (2004)

Norfolk Island
  $1.5 million f.o.b. (FY91/92)

Northern Mariana Islands
  $NA

Norway
  $111.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Oman
  $19.01 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $14.85 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Palau
  $5.882 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Panama
  $7.481 billion f.o.b.; note - includes the Colon Free Zone
  (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $2.833 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $3.13 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Peru
  $15.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $41.25 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  $NA

Poland
  $92.72 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $38.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  $46.9 billion f.o.b. (2001)

Qatar
  $24.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Reunion
  $248.5 million f.o.b. (2002)

Romania
  $31.2 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Russia
  $245 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $98 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  $19 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $70 million (2004 est.)

Saint Lucia
  $82 million (2004 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  $7 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $37 million (2004 est.)

Samoa
  $94 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

San Marino
  trade data are included with the statistics for Italy

Sao Tome and Principe
  $8 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $1.526 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $4.553 billion (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $312.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $185 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Singapore
  $204.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $30.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $18.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $171 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Somalia
  $241 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

South Africa
  $50.91 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Spain
  $194.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $6.442 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $6.989 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $881 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Svalbard
  $NA

Swaziland
  $1.991 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $126.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $148.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Syria
  $6.344 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $189.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $950 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $1.581 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $105.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Togo
  $768 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  $0 f.o.b. (2002)

Tonga
  $34 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $9.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $10.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $72.49 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $4.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $169.2 million (2000)

Tuvalu
  $1 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Uganda
  $768 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $38.22 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $103.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $372.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

United States
  $927.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $3.55 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $34.11 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Venezuela
  $52.73 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $32.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  $4.234 billion $NA

Wallis and Futuna
  $47,450 f.o.b. (2004)

West Bank
  $270 million f.o.b.; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  $10.33 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Yemen
  $6.387 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $1.947 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $1.644 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2079  Debt - external


Afghanistan
  $8 billion in bilateral debt, mostly to Russia;
  Afghanistan has $500 million in debt to Multilateral Development
  Banks (2004)

Albania
  $1.55 billion (2004)

Algeria
  $19.45 billion (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $NA

Andorra
  $NA

Angola
  $9.401 billion (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $8.8 million (1998)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $427.3 million; note - data are for public
  external debt, not total external debt (2000)

Argentina
  $118.2 billion (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $1.819 billion (20 September 2005)

Aruba
  $478.6 million (2005 est.)

Australia
  $323.4 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $510.6 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $1.873 billion (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $342.6 million (2004 est.)

Bahrain
  $6.814 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $20.63 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $668 million (2003)

Belarus
  $4.662 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Belgium
  $980.1 billion (30 June 2005 est.)

Belize
  $1.362 billion (June 2004 est.)

Benin
  $1.6 billion (2000)

Bermuda
  $160 million (FY99/00)

Bhutan
  $593 million (2004)

Bolivia
  $6.309 billion (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $3.116 billion (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $519 million (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $188 billion (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $36.1 million (1997)

Brunei
  $0 $NA

Bulgaria
  $15.32 billion (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  $1.85 billion (2003)

Burma
  $6.99 billion (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $1.2 billion (2003)

Cambodia
  $800 million (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  $9.168 billion (2005 est.)

Canada
  $439.8 billion (30 November 2005)

Cape Verde
  $325 million (2002)

Cayman Islands
  $70 million (1996)

Central African Republic
  $1.06 billion (2002 est.)

Chad
  $1.5 billion (2003 est.)

Chile
  $47.45 billion (2005 est.)

China
  $252.8 billion (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $32.35 billion (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $232 million (2000 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $10.6 billion (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $5 billion (2000 est.)

Cook Islands
  $141 million (1996 est.)

Costa Rica
  $5.049 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $13.43 billion (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $30.62 billion (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $12.56 billion (convertible currency); another $15-20 billion
  owed to Russia (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $10.53 billion; north Cyprus: $NA (2005
  est.)

Czech Republic
  $49.14 billion (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $352.9 billion (30 June 2005)

Djibouti
  $394 million (2004 est.)

Dominica
  $213 million (2004)

Dominican Republic
  $7.687 billion (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $0

Ecuador
  $18.09 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $35.26 billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $8.087 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $353 million (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $311 million (2000 est.)

Estonia
  $11.03 billion (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $5.101 billion (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $NA

Faroe Islands
  $64 million (1999)

Fiji
  $127 million (2004 est.)

Finland
  $211.7 billion (30 June 2005)

France
  $2.826 trillion (30 June 2005)

French Guiana
  $800.3 million (2003)

French Polynesia
  $NA

Gabon
  $3.903 billion (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $628.8 million (2003 est.)

Gaza Strip
  $0; note - includes West Bank (2002)

Georgia
  $2.04 billion (2004)

Germany
  $3.626 trillion (30 June 2005)

Ghana
  $6.999 billion (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  $NA (2000 est.)

Greece
  $75.18 billion (2005 est.)

Greenland
  $25 million (1999)

Grenada
  $347 million (2004)

Guadeloupe
  $NA

Guam
  $NA

Guatemala
  $5.503 billion (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  $NA

Guinea
  $3.46 billion (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $941.5 million (2000 est.)

Guyana
  $1.2 billion (2002)

Haiti
  $1.313 billion (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $5.795 billion (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $72.04 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $66.22 billion (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $3.073 billion (2002)

India
  $125.5 billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $135 billion (2005 est.)

Iran
  $19.06 billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $92.33 billion (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $1.049 trillion (30 June 2005)

Isle of Man
  $NA

Israel
  $75.55 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $922.5 billion (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $7.162 billion (2005 est.)

Japan
  $1.545 trillion (31 December 2004)

Jersey
  $NA

Jordan
  $8.528 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $41.66 billion (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $7.391 billion (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $10 million (1999 est.)

Korea, North
  $12 billion (1996 est.)

Korea, South
  $153.9 billion (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $16.12 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $2.428 billion (31 December 2004 est.)

Laos
  $2.49 billion (2001)

Latvia
  $10.8 billion (1 January 2006)

Lebanon
  $26 billion (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $735 million (2002)

Liberia
  $3.2 billion (2005 est.)

Libya
  $4.267 billion (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $0 (2001)

Lithuania
  $11.7 billion (2 February 2006)

Luxembourg
  $NA

Macau
  $3.1 billion (2004)

Macedonia
  $2.19 billion (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $4.6 billion (2002)

Malawi
  $3.287 billion (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $52 billion (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $304 million (2004 est.)

Mali
  $2.8 billion (2002)

Malta
  $188.8 million (2005)

Marshall Islands
  $86.5 million (FY99/00 est.)

Martinique
  $180 million (1994)

Mauritania
  $2.5 billion (2000)

Mauritius
  $3.246 billion (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  $NA

Mexico
  $137.2 billion (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $60.8 million (FY05 est.)

Moldova
  $1.986 billion (2005 est.)

Monaco
  $18 billion (2000 est.)

Mongolia
  $1.36 billion (2004)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  $8.9 million (1997)

Morocco
  $15.61 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $5.456 billion (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $712.9 million (2005 est.)

Nauru
  $33.3 million (2002)

Nepal
  $3.34 billion (March 2005)

Netherlands
  $1.645 trillion (30 June 2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  $2.68 billion (2004)

New Caledonia
  $79 million (1998 est.)

New Zealand
  $42.84 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $3.188 billion (2005 est.)

Niger
  $2.1 billion (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  $32.45 billion (2005 est.)

Niue
  $418,000 (2002 est.)

Norfolk Island
  $NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  $NA

Norway
  $281 billion; note - Norway is a net external creditor (30
  June 2005)

Oman
  $4.361 billion (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $38.8 billion (2005 est.)

Palau
  $0 (FY99/00)

Panama
  $9.758 billion (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $1.882 billion (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $3.45 billion (2005 est.)

Peru
  $30.94 billion (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $65.71 billion (2005 est.)

Poland
  $101.5 billion (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $287.8 billion (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  $NA

Qatar
  $21.13 billion (2005 est.)

Reunion
  $NA

Romania
  $35.68 billion (2005 est.)

Russia
  $215.3 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $1.4 billion (2004 est.)

Saint Helena
  $NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $314 million (2004)

Saint Lucia
  $257 million (2004)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  $NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $223 million (2004)

Samoa
  $177 million (2004)

San Marino
  $NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  $318 million (2002)

Saudi Arabia
  $36.78 billion (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $3.529 billion (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $15.43 billion (including Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $508 million (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $1.61 billion (2003 est.)

Singapore
  $23.76 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $26.94 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $18.97 billion (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $166 million (2004)

Somalia
  $3 billion (2001 est.)

South Africa
  $29.97 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $970.7 billion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $11.05 billion (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $27.34 billion (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $504.3 million (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  $357 million (2003 est.)

Sweden
  $516.1 billion (30 June 2005)

Switzerland
  $856 billion (30 June 2005)

Syria
  $8.566 billion; note - excludes military debt and debt to
  Russia (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $87.5 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $888 million (2004 est.)

Tanzania
  $8.178 billion (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $52.46 billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  $2 billion (2005)

Tokelau
  $0

Tonga
  $80.7 million (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $2.767 billion (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $16.09 billion (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $170.1 billion (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $2.4 billion to $5 billion (2001 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $NA

Tuvalu
  $NA

Uganda
  $4.973 billion (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $23.93 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $34.47 billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $7.107 trillion (30 June 2005)

United States
  $8.837 trillion (30 June 2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $13.24 billion (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $5.032 billion (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $81.2 million (2004)

Venezuela
  $41.51 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $20.16 billion (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  $NA

Wallis and Futuna
  $3.67 million $NA

West Bank
  $0; note - includes Gaza Strip (2002)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  $36.89 trillion
  note: this figure is the sum total of all countries' external debt,
  both public and private (2004 est.)

Yemen
  $5.347 billion (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $4.641 billion (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $5.216 billion (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2080  Fiscal year


Afghanistan
  21 March - 20 March

Albania
  calendar year

Algeria
  calendar year

American Samoa
  1 October - 30 September

Andorra
  calendar year

Angola
  calendar year

Anguilla
  1 April - 31 March

Antigua and Barbuda
  1 April - 31 March

Argentina
  calendar year

Armenia
  calendar year

Aruba
  calendar year

Australia
  1 July - 30 June

Austria
  calendar year

Azerbaijan
  calendar year

Bahamas, The
  1 July - 30 June

Bahrain
  calendar year

Bangladesh
  1 July - 30 June

Barbados
  1 April - 31 March

Belarus
  calendar year

Belgium
  calendar year

Belize
  1 April - 31 March

Benin
  calendar year

Bermuda
  1 April - 31 March

Bhutan
  1 July - 30 June

Bolivia
  calendar year

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  calendar year

Botswana
  1 April - 31 March

Brazil
  calendar year

British Virgin Islands
  1 April - 31 March

Brunei
  calendar year

Bulgaria
  calendar year

Burkina Faso
  calendar year

Burma
  1 April - 31 March

Burundi
  calendar year

Cambodia
  calendar year

Cameroon
  1 July - 30 June

Canada
  1 April - 31 March

Cape Verde
  calendar year

Cayman Islands
  1 April - 31 March

Central African Republic
  calendar year

Chad
  calendar year

Chile
  calendar year

China
  calendar year

Christmas Island
  1 July - 30 June

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  1 July - 30 June

Colombia
  calendar year

Comoros
  calendar year

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  calendar year

Congo, Republic of the
  calendar year

Cook Islands
  1 April - 31 March

Costa Rica
  calendar year

Cote d'Ivoire
  calendar year

Croatia
  calendar year

Cuba
  calendar year

Cyprus
  calendar year

Czech Republic
  calendar year

Denmark
  calendar year

Djibouti
  calendar year

Dominica
  1 July - 30 June

Dominican Republic
  calendar year

East Timor
  1 July - 30 June

Ecuador
  calendar year

Egypt
  1 July - 30 June

El Salvador
  calendar year

Equatorial Guinea
  calendar year

Eritrea
  calendar year

Estonia
  calendar year

Ethiopia
  8 July - 7 July

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  1 April - 31 March

Faroe Islands
  calendar year

Fiji
  calendar year

Finland
  calendar year

France
  calendar year

French Guiana
  calendar year

French Polynesia
  calendar year

Gabon
  calendar year

Gambia, The
  calendar year

Gaza Strip
  calendar year

Georgia
  calendar year

Germany
  calendar year

Ghana
  calendar year

Gibraltar
  1 July - 30 June

Greece
  calendar year

Greenland
  calendar year

Grenada
  calendar year

Guadeloupe
  calendar year

Guam
  1 October - 30 September

Guatemala
  calendar year

Guernsey
  calendar year

Guinea
  calendar year

Guinea-Bissau
  calendar year

Guyana
  calendar year

Haiti
  1 October - 30 September

Holy See (Vatican City)
  calendar year

Honduras
  calendar year

Hong Kong
  1 April - 31 March

Hungary
  calendar year

Iceland
  calendar year

India
  1 April - 31 March

Indonesia
  calendar year; note - previously was 1 April - 31 March,
  but starting with 2001, has been changed to calendar year

Iran
  21 March - 20 March

Iraq
  calendar year

Ireland
  calendar year

Isle of Man
  1 April - 31 March

Israel
  calendar year

Italy
  calendar year

Jamaica
  1 April - 31 March

Japan
  1 April - 31 March

Jersey
  1 April - 31 March

Jordan
  calendar year

Kazakhstan
  calendar year

Kenya
  1 July - 30 June

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  calendar year

Korea, South
  calendar year

Kuwait
  1 April - 31 March

Kyrgyzstan
  calendar year

Laos
  1 October - 30 September

Latvia
  calendar year

Lebanon
  calendar year

Lesotho
  1 April - 31 March

Liberia
  calendar year

Libya
  calendar year

Liechtenstein
  calendar year

Lithuania
  calendar year

Luxembourg
  calendar year

Macau
  calendar year

Macedonia
  calendar year

Madagascar
  calendar year

Malawi
  1 July - 30 June

Malaysia
  calendar year

Maldives
  calendar year

Mali
  calendar year

Malta
  calendar year

Marshall Islands
  1 October - 30 September

Martinique
  calendar year

Mauritania
  calendar year

Mauritius
  1 July - 30 June

Mayotte
  calendar year

Mexico
  calendar year

Micronesia, Federated States of
  1 October - 30 September

Moldova
  calendar year

Monaco
  calendar year

Mongolia
  calendar year

Montenegro
  calendar year

Montserrat
  1 April - 31 March

Morocco
  calendar year

Mozambique
  calendar year

Namibia
  1 April - 31 March

Nauru
  1 July - 30 June

Nepal
  16 July - 15 July

Netherlands
  calendar year

Netherlands Antilles
  calendar year

New Caledonia
  calendar year

New Zealand
  1 July - 30 June

Nicaragua
  calendar year

Niger
  calendar year

Nigeria
  calendar year

Niue
  1 April - 31 March

Norfolk Island
  1 July - 30 June

Northern Mariana Islands
  1 October - 30 September

Norway
  calendar year

Oman
  calendar year

Pakistan
  1 July - 30 June

Palau
  1 October - 30 September

Panama
  calendar year

Papua New Guinea
  calendar year

Paraguay
  calendar year

Peru
  calendar year

Philippines
  calendar year

Pitcairn Islands
  1 April - 31 March

Poland
  calendar year

Portugal
  calendar year

Puerto Rico
  1 July - 30 June

Qatar
  1 April - 31 March

Reunion
  calendar year

Romania
  calendar year

Russia
  calendar year

Rwanda
  calendar year

Saint Helena
  1 April - 31 March

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  calendar year

Saint Lucia
  1 April - 31 March

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  calendar year

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  calendar year

Samoa
  June 1 - May 31

San Marino
  calendar year

Sao Tome and Principe
  calendar year

Saudi Arabia
  1 March - 28 February

Senegal
  calendar year

Seychelles
  calendar year

Sierra Leone
  calendar year

Singapore
  1 April - 31 March

Slovakia
  calendar year

Slovenia
  calendar year

Solomon Islands
  calendar year

Somalia
  NA

South Africa
  1 April - 31 March

Spain
  calendar year

Sri Lanka
  calendar year

Sudan
  calendar year

Suriname
  calendar year

Swaziland
  1 April - 31 March

Sweden
  calendar year

Switzerland
  calendar year

Syria
  calendar year

Taiwan
  1 July - 30 June (up to FY98/99); 1 July 1999 - 31 December
  2000 for FY00; calendar year (after FY00)

Tajikistan
  calendar year

Tanzania
  1 July - 30 June

Thailand
  1 October - 30 September

Togo
  calendar year

Tokelau
  1 April - 31 March

Tonga
  1 July - 30 June

Trinidad and Tobago
  1 October - 30 September

Tunisia
  calendar year

Turkey
  calendar year

Turkmenistan
  calendar year

Turks and Caicos Islands
  calendar year

Tuvalu
  calendar year

Uganda
  1 July - 30 June

Ukraine
  calendar year

United Arab Emirates
  calendar year

United Kingdom
  6 April - 5 April

United States
  1 October - 30 September

Uruguay
  calendar year

Uzbekistan
  calendar year

Vanuatu
  calendar year

Venezuela
  calendar year

Vietnam
  calendar year

Virgin Islands
  1 October - 30 September

Wallis and Futuna
  calendar year

West Bank
  calendar year

Western Sahara
  calendar year

Yemen
  calendar year

Zambia
  calendar year

Zimbabwe
  calendar year

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2081  Flag description


Afghanistan
  three equal vertical bands of black (hoist), red, and
  green, with a gold emblem centered on the red band; the emblem
  features a temple-like structure encircled by a wreath on the left
  and right and by a bold Islamic inscription above

Akrotiri
  the flag of the UK is used

Albania
  red with a black two-headed eagle in the center

Algeria
  two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and white; a
  red, five-pointed star within a red crescent centered over the
  two-color boundary; the crescent, star, and color green are
  traditional symbols of Islam (the state religion)

American Samoa
  blue, with a white triangle edged in red that is
  based on the outer side and extends to the hoist side; a brown and
  white American bald eagle flying toward the hoist side is carrying
  two traditional Samoan symbols of authority, a staff and a war club

Andorra
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and
  red with the national coat of arms centered in the yellow band; the
  coat of arms features a quartered shield; similar to the flags of
  Chad and Romania, which do not have a national coat of arms in the
  center, and the flag of Moldova, which does bear a national emblem

Angola
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and black with a
  centered yellow emblem consisting of a five-pointed star within half
  a cogwheel crossed by a machete (in the style of a hammer and sickle)

Anguilla
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Anguillan coat of arms centered in the outer half
  of the flag; the coat of arms depicts three orange dolphins in an
  interlocking circular design on a white background with blue wavy
  water below

Antigua and Barbuda
  red, with an inverted isosceles triangle based
  on the top edge of the flag; the triangle contains three horizontal
  bands of black (top), light blue, and white, with a yellow rising
  sun in the black band

Argentina
  three equal horizontal bands of light blue (top), white,
  and light blue; centered in the white band is a radiant yellow sun
  with a human face known as the Sun of May

Armenia
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, and orange

Aruba
  blue, with two narrow, horizontal, yellow stripes across the
  lower portion and a red, four-pointed star outlined in white in the
  upper hoist-side corner

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  the flag of Australia is used

Australia
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and a large seven-pointed star in the lower hoist-side
  quadrant known as the Commonwealth or Federation Star, representing
  the federation of the colonies of Australia in 1901; the star
  depicts one point for each of the six original states and one
  representing all of Australia's internal and external territories;
  on the fly half is a representation of the Southern Cross
  constellation in white with one small five-pointed star and four
  larger, seven-pointed stars

Austria
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and red

Azerbaijan
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), red, and
  green; a crescent and eight-pointed star in white are centered in
  red band

Bahamas, The
  three equal horizontal bands of aquamarine (top), gold,
  and aquamarine, with a black equilateral triangle based on the hoist
  side

Bahrain
  red, the traditional color for flags of Persian Gulf states,
  with a white serrated band (five white points) on the hoist side;
  the five points represent the five pillars of Islam

Baker Island
  the flag of the US is used

Bangladesh
  green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the
  hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the
  sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the
  lush vegetation of Bangladesh

Barbados
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), gold, and
  blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the
  trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the
  colonial coat of arms contained a complete trident)

Bassas da India
  the flag of France is used

Belarus
  red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band one-half
  the width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the hoist side
  bears Belarusian national ornamentation in red

Belgium
  three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), yellow,
  and red; the design was based on the flag of France

Belize
  blue with a narrow red stripe along the top and the bottom
  edges; centered is a large white disk bearing the coat of arms; the
  coat of arms features a shield flanked by two workers in front of a
  mahogany tree with the related motto SUB UMBRA FLOREO (I Flourish in
  the Shade) on a scroll at the bottom, all encircled by a green
  garland

Benin
  two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and red (bottom)
  with a vertical green band on the hoist side

Bermuda
  red, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Bermudian coat of arms (white and green shield with
  a red lion holding a scrolled shield showing the sinking of the ship
  Sea Venture off Bermuda in 1609) centered on the outer half of the
  flag

Bhutan
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side corner; the
  upper triangle is yellow and the lower triangle is orange; centered
  along the dividing line is a large black and white dragon facing
  away from the hoist side

Bolivia
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green
  with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; similar to the
  flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in
  the yellow band

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  a wide medium blue vertical band on the fly
  side with a yellow isosceles triangle abutting the band and the top
  of the flag; the remainder of the flag is medium blue with seven
  full five-pointed white stars and two half stars top and bottom
  along the hypotenuse of the triangle

Botswana
  light blue with a horizontal white-edged black stripe in
  the center

Bouvet Island
  the flag of Norway is used

Brazil
  green with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a
  blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (one for each
  state and the Federal District) arranged in the same pattern as the
  night sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with
  the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  white with six blue wavy horizontal
  stripes; the flag of the UK is in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the
  striped section bears a palm tree and yellow crown centered on the
  outer half of the flag

British Virgin Islands
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper
  hoist-side quadrant and the Virgin Islander coat of arms centered in
  the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms depicts a woman flanked
  on either side by a vertical column of six oil lamps above a scroll
  bearing the Latin word VIGILATE (Be Watchful)

Brunei
  yellow with two diagonal bands of white (top, almost double
  width) and black starting from the upper hoist side; the national
  emblem in red is superimposed at the center; the emblem includes a
  swallow-tailed flag on top of a winged column within an upturned
  crescent above a scroll and flanked by two upraised hands

Bulgaria
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and
  red; note - the national emblem, formerly on the hoist side of the
  white stripe, has been removed

Burkina Faso
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with
  a yellow five-pointed star in the center; uses the popular
  pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Burma
  red with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner
  bearing, 14 white five-pointed stars encircling a cogwheel
  containing a stalk of rice; the 14 stars represent the seven
  administrative divisions and seven states

Burundi
  divided by a white diagonal cross into red panels (top and
  bottom) and green panels (hoist side and fly side) with a white disk
  superimposed at the center bearing three red six-pointed stars
  outlined in green arranged in a triangular design (one star above,
  two stars below)

Cambodia
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (double width),
  and blue with a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat
  outlined in black in the center of the red band; only national flag
  to incorporate an actual building in its design

Cameroon
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), red, and
  yellow with a yellow five-pointed star centered in the red band;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Canada
  two vertical bands of red (hoist and fly side, half width),
  with white square between them; an 11-pointed red maple leaf is
  centered in the white square; the official colors of Canada are red
  and white

Cape Verde
  three horizontal bands of light blue (top, double width),
  white (with a horizontal red stripe in the middle third), and light
  blue; a circle of 10 yellow five-pointed stars is centered on the
  hoist end of the red stripe and extends into the upper and lower
  blue bands

Cayman Islands
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Caymanian coat of arms centered on the outer half
  of the flag; the coat of arms includes a pineapple and turtle above
  a shield with three stars (representing the three islands) and a
  scroll at the bottom bearing the motto HE HATH FOUNDED IT UPON THE
  SEAS

Central African Republic
  four equal horizontal bands of blue (top),
  white, green, and yellow with a vertical red band in center; there
  is a yellow five-pointed star on the hoist side of the blue band

Chad
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and
  red; similar to the flag of Romania; also similar to the flags of
  Andorra and Moldova, both of which have a national coat of arms
  centered in the yellow band; design was based on the flag of France

Chile
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; there is a
  blue square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end
  of the white band; the square bears a white five-pointed star in the
  center representing a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes
  the sky, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the
  blood spilled to achieve independence; design was influenced by the
  US flag

China
  red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller
  yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the
  middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner

Christmas Island
  territorial flag; divided diagonally from upper
  hoist to lower fly; the upper triangle is green with a yellow image
  of the Golden Bosun Bird superimposed, while the lower triangle is
  blue with the Southern Cross constellation, representing Australia,
  superimposed; a centered yellow disk displays a green map of the
  island; the flag of Australia is used for official purposes

Clipperton Island
  the flag of France is used

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  the flag of Australia is used

Colombia
  three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double-width), blue,
  and red; similar to the flag of Ecuador, which is longer and bears
  the Ecuadorian coat of arms superimposed in the center

Comoros
  four equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), white, red, and
  blue with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist; centered
  within the triangle is a white crescent with the convex side facing
  the hoist and four white, five-pointed stars placed vertically in a
  line between the points of the crescent; the horizontal bands and
  the four stars represent the four main islands of the archipelago -
  Mwali, Njazidja, Nzwani, and Mayotte (a territorial collectivity of
  France, but claimed by Comoros); the crescent, stars, and color
  green are traditional symbols of Islam

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  sky blue field divided diagonally
  from the lower hoist corner to upper fly corner by a red stripe
  bordered by two narrow yellow stripes; a yellow, five-pointed star
  appears in the upper hoist corner

Congo, Republic of the
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side
  by a yellow band; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green and the
  lower triangle is red; uses the popular pan-African colors of
  Ethiopia

Cook Islands
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and a large circle of 15 white five-pointed stars (one for
  every island) centered in the outer half of the flag

Coral Sea Islands
  the flag of Australia is used

Costa Rica
  five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double
  width), white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical
  disk on the hoist side of the red band; above the coat of arms a
  light blue ribbon contains the words, AMERICA CENTRAL, and just
  below it near the top of the coat of arms is a white ribbon with the
  words, REPUBLICA COSTA RICA

Cote d'Ivoire
  three equal vertical bands of orange (hoist side),
  white, and green; similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer
  and has the colors reversed - green (hoist side), white, and orange;
  also similar to the flag of Italy, which is green (hoist side),
  white, and red; design was based on the flag of France

Croatia
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue
  superimposed by the Croatian coat of arms (red and white checkered)

Cuba
  five equal horizontal bands of blue (top, center, and bottom)
  alternating with white; a red equilateral triangle based on the
  hoist side bears a white, five-pointed star in the center

Cyprus
  white with a copper-colored silhouette of the island (the
  name Cyprus is derived from the Greek word for copper) above two
  green crossed olive branches in the center of the flag; the branches
  symbolize the hope for peace and reconciliation between the Greek
  and Turkish communities
  note: the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" flag has a
  horizontal red stripe at the top and bottom between which is a red
  crescent and red star on a white field

Czech Republic
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red
  with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side (identical to
  the flag of the former Czechoslovakia)

Denmark
  red with a white cross that extends to the edges of the
  flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side,
  and that design element of the Dannebrog (Danish flag) was
  subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries of Finland,
  Iceland, Norway, and Sweden

Dhekelia
  the flag of the UK is used

Djibouti
  two equal horizontal bands of light blue (top) and light
  green with a white isosceles triangle based on the hoist side
  bearing a red five-pointed star in the center

Dominica
  green, with a centered cross of three equal bands - the
  vertical part is yellow (hoist side), black, and white and the
  horizontal part is yellow (top), black, and white; superimposed in
  the center of the cross is a red disk bearing a sisserou parrot
  encircled by 10 green, five-pointed stars edged in yellow; the 10
  stars represent the 10 administrative divisions (parishes)

Dominican Republic
  a centered white cross that extends to the edges
  divides the flag into four rectangles - the top ones are blue (hoist
  side) and red, and the bottom ones are red (hoist side) and blue; a
  small coat of arms featuring a shield supported by an olive branch
  (left) and a palm branch (right) is at the center of the cross;
  above the shield a blue ribbon displays the motto, DIOS, PATRIA,
  LIBERTAD (God, Fatherland, Liberty), and below the shield, REPUBLICA
  DOMINICANA appears on a red ribbon

East Timor
  red, with a black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist
  side) superimposed on a slightly longer yellow arrowhead that
  extends to the center of the flag; there is a white star in the
  center of the black triangle

Ecuador
  three horizontal bands of yellow (top, double width), blue,
  and red with the coat of arms superimposed at the center of the
  flag; similar to the flag of Colombia, which is shorter and does not
  bear a coat of arms

Egypt
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black;
  the national emblem (a gold Eagle of Saladin facing the hoist side
  with a shield superimposed on its chest above a scroll bearing the
  name of the country in Arabic) centered in the white band; design is
  based on the Arab Liberation flag and similar to the flag of Syria,
  which has two green stars, Iraq, which has three green stars (plus
  an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line centered in the white
  band, and Yemen, which has a plain white band

El Salvador
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and
  blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the
  coat of arms features a round emblem encircled by the words
  REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL; similar to the flag
  of Nicaragua, which has a different coat of arms centered in the
  white band - it features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA
  DE NICARAGUA on top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; also similar
  to the flag of Honduras, which has five blue stars arranged in an X
  pattern centered in the white band

Equatorial Guinea
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top),
  white, and red with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist
  side and the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of
  arms has six yellow six-pointed stars (representing the mainland and
  five offshore islands) above a gray shield bearing a silk-cotton
  tree and below which is a scroll with the motto UNIDAD, PAZ,
  JUSTICIA (Unity, Peace, Justice)

Eritrea
  red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) dividing
  the flag into two right triangles; the upper triangle is green, the
  lower one is blue; a gold wreath encircling a gold olive branch is
  centered on the hoist side of the red triangle

Estonia
  pre-1940 flag restored by Supreme Soviet in May 1990 - three
  equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black, and white

Ethiopia
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and
  red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from
  the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the
  three bands; Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa,
  and the three main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other
  African countries upon independence that they became known as the
  pan-African colors

Europa Island
  the flag of France is used

European Union
  on a blue field, 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged
  in a circle, representing the union of the peoples of Europe; the
  number of stars is fixed

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  blue with the flag of the UK in
  the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Falkland Island coat of arms
  centered on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms contains a
  white ram (sheep raising was once the major economic activity) above
  the sailing ship Desire (whose crew discovered the islands) with a
  scroll at the bottom bearing the motto DESIRE THE RIGHT

Faroe Islands
  white with a red cross outlined in blue extending to
  the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted
  toward the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Fiji
  light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Fijian shield centered on the outer half of the
  flag; the shield depicts a yellow lion above a white field quartered
  by the cross of Saint George featuring stalks of sugarcane, a palm
  tree, bananas, and a white dove

Finland
  white with a blue cross extending to the edges of the flag;
  the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the
  style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

France
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), white, and
  red; known as the "Le drapeau tricolore" (French Tricolor), the
  origin of the flag dates to 1790 and the French Revolution; the
  design and/or colors are similar to a number of other flags,
  including those of Belgium, Chad, Ireland, Cote d'Ivoire,
  Luxembourg, and Netherlands; the official flag for all French
  dependent areas

French Guiana
  the flag of France is used

French Polynesia
  two narrow red horizontal bands encase a wide white
  band; centered on the white band is a disk with blue and white wave
  pattern on the lower half and gold and white ray pattern on the
  upper half; a stylized red, blue and white ship rides on the wave
  pattern; the French flag is used for official occasions

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  the flag of France is used

Gabon
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and blue

Gambia, The
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue with
  white edges, and green

Georgia
  white rectangle, in its central portion a red cross
  connecting all four sides of the flag; in each of the four corners
  is a small red bolnur-katskhuri cross; the five-cross flag appears
  to date back to the 14th century

Germany
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and gold

Ghana
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green
  with a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band;
  uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia; similar to the flag
  of Bolivia, which has a coat of arms centered in the yellow band

Gibraltar
  two horizontal bands of white (top, double width) and red
  with a three-towered red castle in the center of the white band;
  hanging from the castle gate is a gold key centered in the red band

Glorioso Islands
  the flag of France is used

Greece
  nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white;
  there is a blue square in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a
  white cross; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established
  religion of the country

Greenland
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a
  large disk slightly to the hoist side of center - the top half of
  the disk is red, the bottom half is white

Grenada
  a rectangle divided diagonally into yellow triangles (top
  and bottom) and green triangles (hoist side and outer side), with a
  red border around the flag; there are seven yellow, five-pointed
  stars with three centered in the top red border, three centered in
  the bottom red border, and one on a red disk superimposed at the
  center of the flag; there is also a symbolic nutmeg pod on the
  hoist-side triangle (Grenada is the world's second-largest producer
  of nutmeg, after Indonesia); the seven stars represent the seven
  administrative divisions

Guadeloupe
  unofficial, local flag based upon the arms of the city of
  Pointe-a-Pitre; the field is divided horizontally with a narrow,
  blue stripe along the top edge charged with three gold
  fleurs-de-lis; the wider, lower portion of the field is black and
  charged with green sugar cane leaves - representing one of
  Guadeloupe's main crops - surmounted by a gold radiant sun
  representing the tropical climate; the only official flag is the
  national flag of France

Guam
  territorial flag is dark blue with a narrow red border on all
  four sides; centered is a red-bordered, pointed, vertical ellipse
  containing a beach scene, outrigger canoe with sail, and a palm tree
  with the word GUAM superimposed in bold red letters; US flag is the
  national flag

Guatemala
  three equal vertical bands of light blue (hoist side),
  white, and light blue with the coat of arms centered in the white
  band; the coat of arms includes a green and red quetzal (the
  national bird) and a scroll bearing the inscription LIBERTAD 15 DE
  SEPTIEMBRE DE 1821 (the original date of independence from Spain)
  all superimposed on a pair of crossed rifles and a pair of crossed
  swords and framed by a wreath

Guernsey
  white with the red cross of Saint George (patron saint of
  England) extending to the edges of the flag and a yellow equal-armed
  cross of William the Conqueror superimposed on the Saint George cross

Guinea
  three equal vertical bands of red (hoist side), yellow, and
  green; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Guinea-Bissau
  two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top) and green
  with a vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black
  five-pointed star centered in the red band; uses the popular
  pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Guyana
  green, with a red isosceles triangle (based on the hoist
  side) superimposed on a long, yellow arrowhead; there is a narrow,
  black border between the red and yellow, and a narrow, white border
  between the yellow and the green

Haiti
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with a
  centered white rectangle bearing the coat of arms, which contains a
  palm tree flanked by flags and two cannons above a scroll bearing
  the motto L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE (Union Makes Strength)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  the flag of Australia is used

Holy See (Vatican City)
  two vertical bands of yellow (hoist side)
  and white with the arms of the Holy See, consisting of the crossed
  keys of Saint Peter surmounted by the three-tiered papal tiara,
  centered in the white band

Honduras
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and blue
  with five blue, five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern centered
  in the white band; the stars represent the members of the former
  Federal Republic of Central America - Costa Rica, El Salvador,
  Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; similar to the flag of El
  Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by the words
  REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in the white
  band; also similar to the flag of Nicaragua, which features a
  triangle encircled by the word REPUBLICA DE NICARAGUA on top and
  AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom, centered in the white band

Hong Kong
  red with a stylized, white, five-petal bauhinia flower in
  the center

Howland Island
  the flag of the US is used

Hungary
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and green

Iceland
  blue with a red cross outlined in white extending to the
  edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the
  hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Iles Eparses
  the flag of France is used

India
  three equal horizontal bands of saffron (subdued orange)
  (top), white, and green with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel)
  centered in the white band; similar to the flag of Niger, which has
  a small orange disk centered in the white band

Indonesia
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; similar
  to the flag of Monaco, which is shorter; also similar to the flag of
  Poland, which is white (top) and red

Iran
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red;
  the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in
  the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in
  the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is
  repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11
  times along the top edge of the red band

Iraq
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black
  with three green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in
  the white band; the phrase ALLAHU AKBAR (God is Great) in green
  Arabic script - Allahu to the right of the middle star and Akbar to
  the left of the middle star - was added in January 1991 during the
  Persian Gulf crisis; similar to the flag of Syria, which has two
  stars but no script, Yemen, which has a plain white band, and that
  of Egypt which has a gold Eagle of Saladin centered in the white
  band; design is based upon the Arab Liberation colors

Ireland
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and
  orange; similar to the flag of Cote d'Ivoire, which is shorter and
  has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side), white, and green;
  also similar to the flag of Italy, which is shorter and has colors
  of green (hoist side), white, and red

Isle of Man
  red with the Three Legs of Man emblem (Trinacria), in
  the center; the three legs are joined at the thigh and bent at the
  knee; in order to have the toes pointing clockwise on both sides of
  the flag, a two-sided emblem is used

Israel
  white with a blue hexagram (six-pointed linear star) known as
  the Magen David (Shield of David) centered between two equal
  horizontal blue bands near the top and bottom edges of the flag

Italy
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and
  red; similar to the flag of Ireland, which is longer and is green
  (hoist side), white, and orange; also similar to the flag of the
  Cote d'Ivoire, which has the colors reversed - orange (hoist side),
  white, and green
  note: inspired by the French flag brought to Italy by Napoleon in
  1797

Jamaica
  diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles -
  green (top and bottom) and black (hoist side and outer side)

Jan Mayen
  the flag of Norway is used

Japan
  white with a large red disk (representing the sun without
  rays) in the center

Jarvis Island
  the flag of the US is used

Jersey
  white with a diagonal red cross extending to the corners of
  the flag; in the upper quadrant, surmounted by a yellow crown, a red
  shield with the three lions of England in yellow

Johnston Atoll
  the flag of the US is used

Jordan
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), representing the
  Abbassid Caliphate, white, representing the Ummayyad Caliphate, and
  green, representing the Fatimid Caliphate; a red isosceles triangle
  on the hoist side, representing the Great Arab Revolt of 1916, and
  bearing a small white seven-pointed star symbolizing the seven
  verses of the opening Sura (Al-Fatiha) of the Holy Koran; the seven
  points on the star represent faith in One God, humanity, national
  spirit, humility, social justice, virtue, and aspirations; design is
  based on the Arab Revolt flag of World War I

Juan de Nova Island
  the flag of France is used

Kazakhstan
  sky blue background representing the endless sky and a
  gold sun with 32 rays soaring above a golden steppe eagle in the
  center; on the hoist side is a "national ornamentation" in gold

Kenya
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green;
  the red band is edged in white; a large warrior's shield covering
  crossed spears is superimposed at the center

Kingman Reef
  the flag of the US is used

Kiribati
  the upper half is red with a yellow frigate bird flying
  over a yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three
  horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the ocean

Korea, North
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple
  width), and blue; the red band is edged in white; on the hoist side
  of the red band is a white disk with a red five-pointed star

Korea, South
  white with a red (top) and blue yin-yang symbol in the
  center; there is a different black trigram from the ancient I Ching
  (Book of Changes) in each corner of the white field

Kuwait
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red
  with a black trapezoid based on the hoist side; design, which dates
  to 1961, based on the Arab revolt flag of World War I

Kyrgyzstan
  red field with a yellow sun in the center having 40 rays
  representing the 40 Kyrgyz tribes; on the obverse side the rays run
  counterclockwise, on the reverse, clockwise; in the center of the
  sun is a red ring crossed by two sets of three lines, a stylized
  representation of the roof of the traditional Kyrgyz yurt

Laos
  three horizontal bands of red (top), blue (double width), and
  red with a large white disk centered in the blue band

Latvia
  three horizontal bands of maroon (top), white (half-width),
  and maroon

Lebanon
  three horizontal bands consisting of red (top), white
  (middle, double width), and red (bottom) with a green cedar tree
  centered in the white band

Lesotho
  three horizontal stripes of blue (top), white, and green in
  the proportions of 3:4:3; the colors represent rain, peace, and
  prosperity respectively; centered in the white stripe is a black
  Basotho hat representing the indigenous people; the flag was
  unfurled in October 2006 to celebrate 40 years of independence

Liberia
  11 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom)
  alternating with white; there is a white five-pointed star on a blue
  square in the upper hoist-side corner; the design was based on the
  US flag

Libya
  plain green; green is the traditional color of Islam (the
  state religion)

Liechtenstein
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red with
  a gold crown on the hoist side of the blue band

Lithuania
  three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), green, and
  red

Luxembourg
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and
  light blue; similar to the flag of the Netherlands, which uses a
  darker blue and is shorter; design was based on the flag of France

Macau
  light green with a lotus flower above a stylized bridge and
  water in white, beneath an arc of five gold, five-pointed stars: one
  large in center of arc and four smaller

Macedonia
  a yellow sun with eight broadening rays extending to the
  edges of the red field

Madagascar
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a
  vertical white band of the same width on hoist side

Malawi
  three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green
  with a radiant, rising, red sun centered in the black band

Malaysia
  14 equal horizontal stripes of red (top) alternating with
  white (bottom); there is a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side
  corner bearing a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-pointed star; the
  crescent and the star are traditional symbols of Islam; the design
  was based on the flag of the US

Maldives
  red with a large green rectangle in the center bearing a
  vertical white crescent; the closed side of the crescent is on the
  hoist side of the flag

Mali
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow, and
  red; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Malta
  two equal vertical bands of white (hoist side) and red; in the
  upper hoist-side corner is a representation of the George Cross,
  edged in red

Marshall Islands
  blue with two stripes radiating from the lower
  hoist-side corner - orange (top) and white; there is a white star
  with four large rays and 20 small rays on the hoist side above the
  two stripes

Martinique
  unofficial flag, derives from the civil ensign flown by
  French merchant ships and dates to 1766; a blue field quartered by a
  white cross; in the center of each rectangle is a white, coiled
  snake representing the venomous Fer-de-lance; the flag of France is
  used for official occasions

Mauritania
  green with a yellow five-pointed star above a yellow,
  horizontal crescent; the closed side of the crescent is down; the
  crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam

Mauritius
  four equal horizontal bands of red (top), blue, yellow,
  and green

Mayotte
  unofficial, local flag with the coat of arms of Mayotte
  centered on a white field, above which the name of the island
  appears in red capital letters; the main elements of the coat of
  arms, flanked on either side by a seahorse, appear above a scroll
  with the motto RA HACHIRI (We are Vigilant); the only official flag
  is the national flag of France

Mexico
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and
  red; the coat of arms (an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in
  its beak) is centered in the white band

Micronesia, Federated States of
  light blue with four white
  five-pointed stars centered; the stars are arranged in a diamond
  pattern

Midway Islands
  the flag of the US is used

Moldova
  same color scheme as Romania - three equal vertical bands of
  blue (hoist side), yellow, and red; emblem in center of flag is of a
  Roman eagle of gold outlined in black with a red beak and talons
  carrying a yellow cross in its beak and a green olive branch in its
  right talons and a yellow scepter in its left talons; on its breast
  is a shield divided horizontally red over blue with a stylized ox
  head, star, rose, and crescent all in black-outlined yellow

Monaco
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; similar to
  the flag of Indonesia which is longer and the flag of Poland which
  is white (top) and red

Mongolia
  three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), blue, and
  red; centered on the hoist-side red band in yellow is the national
  emblem ("soyombo" - a columnar arrangement of abstract and geometric
  representation for fire, sun, moon, earth, water, and the yin-yang
  symbol)

Montenegro
  a red field bordered by a narrow golden-yellow stripe
  with the Montenegrin coat of arms centered

Montserrat
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Montserratian coat of arms centered in the outer
  half of the flag; the coat of arms features a woman standing beside
  a yellow harp with her arm around a black cross

Morocco
  red with a green pentacle (five-pointed, linear star) known
  as Sulayman's (Solomon's) seal in the center of the flag; red and
  green are traditional colors in Arab flags, although the use of red
  is more commonly associated with the Arab states of the Persian
  gulf; design dates to 1912

Mozambique
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and
  yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the
  black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow
  five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black
  superimposed on an open white book

Namibia
  a large blue triangle with a yellow sunburst fills the upper
  left section and an equal green triangle (solid) fills the lower
  right section; the triangles are separated by a red stripe that is
  contrasted by two narrow white-edge borders

Nauru
  blue with a narrow, horizontal, yellow stripe across the
  center and a large white 12-pointed star below the stripe on the
  hoist side; the star indicates the country's location in relation to
  the Equator (the yellow stripe) and the 12 points symbolize the 12
  original tribes of Nauru

Navassa Island
  the flag of the US is used

Nepal
  red with a blue border around the unique shape of two
  overlapping right triangles; the smaller, upper triangle bears a
  white stylized moon and the larger, lower triangle bears a white
  12-pointed sun

Netherlands
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and
  blue; similar to the flag of Luxembourg, which uses a lighter blue
  and is longer; one of the oldest flags in constant use, originating
  with WILLIAM I, Prince of Orange, in the latter half of the 16th
  century

Netherlands Antilles
  white, with a horizontal blue stripe in the
  center superimposed on a vertical red band, also centered; five
  white, five-pointed stars are arranged in an oval pattern in the
  center of the blue band; the five stars represent the five main
  islands of Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten

New Caledonia
  the flag of France is used

New Zealand
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant with four red five-pointed stars edged in white centered in
  the outer half of the flag; the stars represent the Southern Cross
  constellation

Nicaragua
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and
  blue with the national coat of arms centered in the white band; the
  coat of arms features a triangle encircled by the words REPUBLICA DE
  NICARAGUA on the top and AMERICA CENTRAL on the bottom; similar to
  the flag of El Salvador, which features a round emblem encircled by
  the words REPUBLICA DE EL SALVADOR EN LA AMERICA CENTRAL centered in
  the white band; also similar to the flag of Honduras, which has five
  blue stars arranged in an X pattern centered in the white band

Niger
  three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green
  with a small orange disk (representing the sun) centered in the
  white band; similar to the flag of India, which has a blue spoked
  wheel centered in the white band

Nigeria
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), white, and
  green

Niue
  yellow with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant; the flag of the UK bears five yellow five-pointed stars -
  a large one on a blue disk in the center and a smaller one on each
  arm of the bold red cross

Norfolk Island
  three vertical bands of green (hoist side), white,
  and green with a large green Norfolk Island pine tree centered in
  the slightly wider white band

Northern Mariana Islands
  blue, with a white, five-pointed star
  superimposed on the gray silhouette of a latte stone (a traditional
  foundation stone used in building) in the center, surrounded by a
  wreath

Norway
  red with a blue cross outlined in white that extends to the
  edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the
  hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Oman
  three horizontal bands of white, red, and green of equal width
  with a broad, vertical, red band on the hoist side; the national
  emblem (a khanjar dagger in its sheath superimposed on two crossed
  swords in scabbards) in white is centered near the top of the
  vertical band

Pakistan
  green with a vertical white band (symbolizing the role of
  religious minorities) on the hoist side; a large white crescent and
  star are centered in the green field; the crescent, star, and color
  green are traditional symbols of Islam

Palau
  light blue with a large yellow disk (representing the moon)
  shifted slightly to the hoist side

Palmyra Atoll
  the flag of the US is used

Panama
  divided into four, equal rectangles; the top quadrants are
  white (hoist side) with a blue five-pointed star in the center and
  plain red; the bottom quadrants are plain blue (hoist side) and
  white with a red five-pointed star in the center

Papua New Guinea
  divided diagonally from upper hoist-side corner;
  the upper triangle is red with a soaring yellow bird of paradise
  centered; the lower triangle is black with five, white, five-pointed
  stars of the Southern Cross constellation centered

Paraguay
  three equal, horizontal bands of red (top), white, and blue
  with an emblem centered in the white band; unusual flag in that the
  emblem is different on each side; the obverse (hoist side at the
  left) bears the national coat of arms (a yellow five-pointed star
  within a green wreath capped by the words REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY,
  all within two circles); the reverse (hoist side at the right) bears
  the seal of the treasury (a yellow lion below a red Cap of Liberty
  and the words Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice) capped by the words
  REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY, all within two circles)

Peru
  three equal, vertical bands of red (hoist side), white, and red
  with the coat of arms centered in the white band; the coat of arms
  features a shield bearing a vicuna, cinchona tree (the source of
  quinine), and a yellow cornucopia spilling out gold coins, all
  framed by a green wreath

Philippines
  two equal horizontal bands of blue (top; representing
  peace and justice) and red (representing courage); a white
  equilateral triangle based on the hoist side represents equality;
  the center of the triangle displays a yellow sun with eight primary
  rays, each representing one of the first eight provinces that sought
  independence from Spain; each corner of the triangle contains a
  small, yellow, five-pointed star representing the three major
  geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao;
  the design of the flag dates to 1897; in wartime the flag is flown
  upside down with the red band at the top

Pitcairn Islands
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper
  hoist-side quadrant and the Pitcairn Islander coat of arms centered
  on the outer half of the flag; the coat of arms is yellow, green,
  and light blue with a shield featuring a yellow anchor

Poland
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red; similar to
  the flags of Indonesia and Monaco which are red (top) and white

Portugal
  two vertical bands of green (hoist side, two-fifths) and
  red (three-fifths) with the Portuguese coat of arms centered on the
  dividing line

Puerto Rico
  five equal horizontal bands of red (top and bottom)
  alternating with white; a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist
  side bears a large, white, five-pointed star in the center; design
  initially influenced by the US flag, but similar to the Cuban flag,
  with the colors of the bands and triangle reversed

Qatar
  maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on
  the hoist side

Reunion
  unofficial, local flag designed to emphasize solidarity
  among the people of Reunion; the field is divided vertically with
  three narrow stripes of blue, white, and red along the hoist edge
  representing the French national flag; the remainder of the field is
  divided diagonally into four triangles colored (clockwise from the
  hoist side) blue, golden yellow, red, and green; in the center, the
  apexes of the triangles are surmounted by a white disk; the only
  official flag is the national flag of France

Romania
  three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and
  red; the national coat of arms that used to be centered in the
  yellow band has been removed; now similar to the flag of Chad, also
  resembles the flags of Andorra and Moldova

Russia
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red

Rwanda
  three horizontal bands of sky blue (top, double width),
  yellow, and green, with a golden sun with 24 rays near the fly end
  of the blue band

Saint Helena
  blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant and the Saint Helenian shield centered on the outer half of
  the flag; the shield features a rocky coastline and three-masted
  sailing ship

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  divided diagonally from the lower hoist side
  by a broad black band bearing two white, five-pointed stars; the
  black band is edged in yellow; the upper triangle is green, the
  lower triangle is red

Saint Lucia
  blue, with a gold isosceles triangle below a black
  arrowhead; the upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  a yellow sailing ship facing the hoist
  side rides on a dark blue background with yellow wavy lines under
  the ship; on the hoist side, a vertical band is divided into three
  parts: the top part (called ikkurina) is red with a green diagonal
  cross extending to the corners overlaid by a white cross dividing
  the rectangle into four sections; the middle part has a white
  background with an ermine pattern; the third part has a red
  background with two stylized yellow lions outlined in black, one
  above the other; these three heraldic arms represent settlement by
  colonists from the Basque Country (top), Brittany, and Normandy; the
  flag of France is used for official occasions

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  three vertical bands of blue (hoist
  side), gold (double width), and green; the gold band bears three
  green diamonds arranged in a V pattern

Samoa
  red with a blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side quadrant
  bearing five white five-pointed stars representing the Southern
  Cross constellation

San Marino
  two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and light blue
  with the national coat of arms superimposed in the center; the coat
  of arms has a shield (featuring three towers on three peaks) flanked
  by a wreath, below a crown and above a scroll bearing the word
  LIBERTAS (Liberty)

Sao Tome and Principe
  three horizontal bands of green (top), yellow
  (double width), and green with two black five-pointed stars placed
  side by side in the center of the yellow band and a red isosceles
  triangle based on the hoist side; uses the popular pan-African
  colors of Ethiopia

Saudi Arabia
  green, a traditional color in Islamic flags, with the
  Shahada or Muslim creed in large white Arabic script (translated as
  "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God") above a
  white horizontal saber (the tip points to the hoist side); design
  dates to the early twentieth century and is closely associated with
  the Al Saud family which established the kingdom in 1932

Senegal
  three equal vertical bands of green (hoist side), yellow,
  and red with a small green five-pointed star centered in the yellow
  band; uses the popular pan-African colors of Ethiopia

Serbia
  three equal horizontal stripes of red (top), blue, and white;
  charged with the coat of arms of Serbia shifted slightly to the
  hoist side

Seychelles
  five oblique bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, red,
  white, and green (bottom) radiating from the bottom of the hoist side

Sierra Leone
  three equal horizontal bands of light green (top),
  white, and light blue

Singapore
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and white; near
  the hoist side of the red band, there is a vertical, white crescent
  (closed portion is toward the hoist side) partially enclosing five
  white five-pointed stars arranged in a circle

Slovakia
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red
  superimposed with the coat of arms of Slovakia (consisting of a red
  shield bordered in white and bearing a white Cross of Lorraine
  surmounting three blue hills); the coat of arms is centered
  vertically and offset slightly to the hoist side

Slovenia
  three equal horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red,
  with the Slovenian seal (a shield with the image of Triglav,
  Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background at the
  center; beneath it are two wavy blue lines depicting seas and
  rivers, and above it are three six-pointed stars arranged in an
  inverted triangle, which are taken from the coat of arms of the
  Counts of Celje, the great Slovene dynastic house of the late 14th
  and early 15th centuries); the seal is located in the upper hoist
  side of the flag centered in the white and blue bands

Solomon Islands
  divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the
  lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is blue
  with five white five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern; the
  lower triangle is green

Somalia
  light blue with a large white five-pointed star in the
  center; blue field influenced by the flag of the UN

South Africa
  two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue
  separated by a central green band which splits into a horizontal Y,
  the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y
  embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are
  separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are
  separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  blue, with the flag of
  the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the South Georgia and
  the South Sandwich Islands coat of arms centered on the outer half
  of the flag; the coat of arms features a shield with a golden lion
  centered; the shield is supported by a fur seal on the left and a
  penguin on the right; a reindeer appears above the shield, and below
  it on a scroll is the motto LEO TERRAM PROPRIAM PROTEGAT (Let the
  Lion Protect its Own Land)

Spain
  three horizontal bands of red (top), yellow (double width),
  and red with the national coat of arms on the hoist side of the
  yellow band; the coat of arms includes the royal seal framed by the
  Pillars of Hercules, which are the two promontories (Gibraltar and
  Ceuta) on either side of the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar

Sri Lanka
  yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has
  two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other
  panel is a large dark red rectangle with a yellow lion holding a
  sword, and there is a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow
  field appears as a border around the entire flag and extends between
  the two panels

Sudan
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black
  with a green isosceles triangle based on the hoist side

Suriname
  five horizontal bands of green (top, double width), white,
  red (quadruple width), white, and green (double width); there is a
  large, yellow, five-pointed star centered in the red band

Svalbard
  the flag of Norway is used

Swaziland
  three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width),
  and blue; the red band is edged in yellow; centered in the red band
  is a large black and white shield covering two spears and a staff
  decorated with feather tassels, all placed horizontally

Sweden
  blue with a golden yellow cross extending to the edges of the
  flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in
  the style of the Dannebrog (Danish flag)

Switzerland
  red square with a bold, equilateral white cross in the
  center that does not extend to the edges of the flag

Syria
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black,
  colors associated with the Arab Liberation flag; two small green
  five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band;
  former flag of the United Arab Republic where the two stars
  represented the constituent states of Syria and Egypt; similar to
  the flag of Yemen, which has a plain white band, Iraq, which has
  three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription) in a horizontal line
  centered in the white band, and that of Egypt, which has a gold
  Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band; the current design
  dates to 1980

Taiwan
  red with a dark blue rectangle in the upper hoist-side corner
  bearing a white sun with 12 triangular rays

Tajikistan
  three horizontal stripes of red (top), a wider stripe of
  white, and green; a gold crown surmounted by seven gold,
  five-pointed stars is located in the center of the white stripe

Tanzania
  divided diagonally by a yellow-edged black band from the
  lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is green
  and the lower triangle is blue

Thailand
  five horizontal bands of red (top), white, blue (double
  width), white, and red

Togo
  five equal horizontal bands of green (top and bottom)
  alternating with yellow; there is a white five-pointed star on a red
  square in the upper hoist-side corner; uses the popular pan-African
  colors of Ethiopia

Tokelau
  the flag of New Zealand is used

Tonga
  red with a bold red cross on a white rectangle in the upper
  hoist-side corner

Trinidad and Tobago
  red with a white-edged black diagonal band from
  the upper hoist side to the lower fly side

Tromelin Island
  the flag of France is used

Tunisia
  red with a white disk in the center bearing a red crescent
  nearly encircling a red five-pointed star; the crescent and star are
  traditional symbols of Islam

Turkey
  red with a vertical white crescent (the closed portion is
  toward the hoist side) and white five-pointed star centered just
  outside the crescent opening

Turkmenistan
  green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist
  side, containing five tribal guls (designs used in producing
  carpets) stacked above two crossed olive branches similar to the
  olive branches on the UN flag; a white crescent moon representing
  Islam with five white stars representing the regions or velayats of
  Turkmenistan appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly
  side of the red stripe

Turks and Caicos Islands
  blue, with the flag of the UK in the upper
  hoist-side quadrant and the colonial shield centered on the outer
  half of the flag; the shield is yellow and contains a conch shell,
  lobster, and cactus

Tuvalu
  light blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side
  quadrant; the outer half of the flag represents a map of the country
  with nine yellow five-pointed stars symbolizing the nine islands

Uganda
  six equal horizontal bands of black (top), yellow, red,
  black, yellow, and red; a white disk is superimposed at the center
  and depicts a red-crested crane (the national symbol) facing the
  hoist side

Ukraine
  two equal horizontal bands of azure (top) and golden yellow
  represent grain fields under a blue sky

United Arab Emirates
  three equal horizontal bands of green (top),
  white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side

United Kingdom
  blue field with the red cross of Saint George (patron
  saint of England) edged in white superimposed on the diagonal red
  cross of Saint Patrick (patron saint of Ireland), which is
  superimposed on the diagonal white cross of Saint Andrew (patron
  saint of Scotland); properly known as the Union Flag, but commonly
  called the Union Jack; the design and colors (especially the Blue
  Ensign) have been the basis for a number of other flags including
  other Commonwealth countries and their constituent states or
  provinces, and British overseas territories

United States
  13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom)
  alternating with white; there is a blue rectangle in the upper
  hoist-side corner bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars
  arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and
  bottom) alternating with rows of five stars; the 50 stars represent
  the 50 states, the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies;
  known as Old Glory; the design and colors have been the basis for a
  number of other flags, including Chile, Liberia, Malaysia, and
  Puerto Rico

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  the flag of the US is
  used

Uruguay
  nine equal horizontal stripes of white (top and bottom)
  alternating with blue; there is a white square in the upper
  hoist-side corner with a yellow sun bearing a human face known as
  the Sun of May with 16 rays that alternate between triangular and
  wavy

Uzbekistan
  three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, and
  green separated by red fimbriations with a white crescent moon and
  12 white stars in the upper hoist-side quadrant

Vanuatu
  two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a
  black isosceles triangle (based on the hoist side) all separated by
  a black-edged yellow stripe in the shape of a horizontal Y (the two
  points of the Y face the hoist side and enclose the triangle);
  centered in the triangle is a boar's tusk encircling two crossed
  namele leaves, all in yellow

Venezuela
  three equal horizontal bands of yellow (top), blue, and
  red with the coat of arms on the hoist side of the yellow band and
  an arc of eight white five-pointed stars centered in the blue band

Vietnam
  red with a large yellow five-pointed star in the center

Virgin Islands
  white, with a modified US coat of arms in the center
  between the large blue initials V and I; the coat of arms shows a
  yellow eagle holding an olive branch in one talon and three arrows
  in the other with a superimposed shield of vertical red and white
  stripes below a blue panel

Wake Island
  the flag of the US is used

Wallis and Futuna
  unofficial, local flag has a red field with four
  white isosceles triangles in the middle, representing the three
  native kings of the islands and the French administrator; the apexes
  of the triangles are oriented inward and at right angles to each
  other; the flag of France, outlined in white on two sides, is in the
  upper hoist quadrant; the flag of France is the only official flag

Yemen
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black;
  similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars, and of
  Iraq, which has three green stars (plus an Arabic inscription), in a
  horizontal line centered in the white band; also similar to the flag
  of Egypt, which has a heraldic eagle centered in the white band

Zambia
  green with a panel of three vertical bands of red (hoist
  side), black, and orange below a soaring orange eagle, on the outer
  edge of the flag

Zimbabwe
  seven equal horizontal bands of green, yellow, red, black,
  red, yellow, and green with a white isosceles triangle edged in
  black with its base on the hoist side; a yellow Zimbabwe bird
  representing the long history of the country is superimposed on a
  red five-pointed star in the center of the triangle, which
  symbolizes peace; green symbolizes agriculture, yellow - mineral
  wealth, red - blood shed to achieve independence, and black stands
  for the native people

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2085  Roadways (km)


Afghanistan
  total: 34,789 km
  paved: 8,231 km
  unpaved: 26,558 km (2003)

Albania
  total: 18,000 km
  paved: 7,020 km
  unpaved: 10,980 km (2002)

Algeria
  total: 104,000 km
  paved: 71,656 km
  unpaved: 32,344 km (1999)

American Samoa
  total: 185 km (2004)

Andorra
  total: 269 km
  paved: 198 km
  unpaved: 71 km

Angola
  total: 51,429 km
  paved: 5,349 km
  unpaved: 46,080 km (2001)

Anguilla
  total: 105 km
  paved: 65 km
  unpaved: 40 km (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 1,165 km
  paved: 384 km
  unpaved: 781 km (2002)

Argentina
  total: 229,144 km
  paved: 68,809 km (including 734 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 160,335 km (2004)

Armenia
  total: 7,633 km
  paved: 7,633 km (includes 1,561 km of expressways) (2003)

Aruba
  total: 800 km
  paved: 513 km
  unpaved: 287 km

Australia
  total: 810,641 km
  paved: 336,962 km
  unpaved: 473,679 km (2004)

Austria
  total: 133,718 km
  paved: 133,718 km (including 1,677 km of expressways) (2003)

Azerbaijan
  total: 27,016 km
  paved: 12,698 km (including 128 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 14,318 km (2003)

Bahamas, The
  total: 2,693 km
  paved: 1,546 km
  unpaved: 1,147 km (1999)

Bahrain
  total: 3,498 km
  paved: 2,768 km
  unpaved: 730 km (2003)

Bangladesh
  total: 239,226 km
  paved: 22,726 km
  unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)

Barbados
  total: 1,600 km
  paved: 1,600 km (2003)

Belarus
  total: 93,055 km
  paved: 93,055 km (2003)

Belgium
  total: 149,757 km
  paved: 117,110 km (including 1,747 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 32,647 km (2003)

Belize
  total: 2,872 km
  paved: 488 km
  unpaved: 2,384 km (1999)

Benin
  total: 16,000 km
  paved: 1,400 km
  unpaved: 14,600 km (2005)

Bermuda
  total: 447 km
  paved: 447 km
  note: public roads - 225 km; private roads - 222 km (2002)

Bhutan
  total: 8,050 km
  paved: 4,991 km
  unpaved: 3,059 km (2003)

Bolivia
  total: 60,762 km
  paved: 4,314 km (including 11 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 56,448 km (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 21,846 km
  paved: 11,425 km (4,686 km of interurban roads)
  unpaved: 10,421 km (2005)

Botswana
  total: 25,233 km
  paved: 8,867 km
  unpaved: 16,366 km (2003)

Brazil
  total: 1,724,929 km
  paved: 94,871 km
  unpaved: 1,630,058 km (2000)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  total: NA
  paved: short section of paved road between port and airfield on
  Diego Garcia

British Virgin Islands
  total: 177 km
  paved: 177 km (2002)

Brunei
  total: 2,525 km
  paved: 2,338 km
  unpaved: 187 km (2000)

Bulgaria
  total: 102,016 km
  paved: 93,855 km (including 328 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 8,161 km (2003)

Burkina Faso
  total: 12,506 km
  paved: 2,001 km
  unpaved: 10,505 km (1999)

Burma
  total: 27,000 km
  paved: 3,200 km
  unpaved: 23,800 km (2005)

Burundi
  total: 14,480 km
  paved: 1,028 km
  unpaved: 13,452 km (1999)

Cambodia
  total: 12,323 km
  paved: 1,996 km
  unpaved: 10,327 km (2000)

Cameroon
  total: 80,932 km
  paved: 5,398 km
  unpaved: 75,534 km (2002)

Canada
  total: 1,042,300 km
  paved: 415,600 km (including 17,000 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 626,700 km (2005)

Cape Verde
  total: 1,350 km
  paved: 932 km
  unpaved: 418 km (2000)

Cayman Islands
  total: 785 km
  paved: 785 km (2002)

Central African Republic
  total: 23,810 km (1999)

Chad
  total: 33,400 km
  paved: 267 km
  unpaved: 33,133 km (1999)

Chile
  total: 79,605 km
  paved: 16,080 km (including 407 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 63,525 km (2001)

China
  total: 1,809,829 km
  paved: 1,447,682 km (with at least 29,745 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 362,147 km (2003)

Christmas Island
  total: 142 km
  paved: 32 km
  unpaved: 110 km (2006)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  total: 22 km
  paved: 10 km
  unpaved: 12 km (2006)

Colombia
  total: 110,000 km
  paved: 26,000 km
  unpaved: 84,000 km (2000)

Comoros
  total: 880 km
  paved: 673 km
  unpaved: 207 km (1999)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 157,000 km (including 30 km
  of expressways) (1999)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 12,800 km
  paved: 1,242 km
  unpaved: 11,558 km (1999)

Cook Islands
  total: 320 km
  paved: 33 km
  unpaved: 287 km (2003)

Costa Rica
  total: 35,889 km
  paved: 8,075 km
  unpaved: 27,814 km (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 80,000 km
  paved: 6,500 km
  unpaved: 73,500 km
  note: includes intercity and urban roads; another 20,000 km of dirt
  roads are in poor condition and 150,000 km of dirt roads are
  impassable (2006)

Croatia
  total: 28,344 km
  paved: 24,186 km (including 742 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 4,158 km (2004)

Cuba
  total: 60,858 km
  paved: 29,820 km (including 638 km of expressway)
  unpaved: 31,038 km (1999)

Cyprus
  total: 14,496 km (Republic of Cyprus: 12,146 km; north
  Cyprus: 2,350 km)
  paved: Republic of Cyprus: 7,845 km (including 276 km of
  expressways); north Cyprus: 1,370 km
  unpaved: Republic of Cyprus: 4,301 km; north Cyprus: 980 km
  (2005/1996 est.)

Czech Republic
  total: 127,747 km
  paved: 127,747 km (including 518 km of expressways) (2003)

Denmark
  total: 72,257 km
  paved: 72,257 km (including 1,032 km of expressways) (2005)

Djibouti
  total: 2,890 km
  paved: 364 km
  unpaved: 2,526 km (1999)

Dominica
  total: 780 km
  paved: 393 km
  unpaved: 387 km (1999)

Dominican Republic
  total: 12,600 km
  paved: 6,224 km
  unpaved: 6,376 km (1999)

East Timor
  total: 5,000 km
  paved: 2,500 km
  unpaved: 2,500 km (2005)

Ecuador
  total: 43,197 km
  paved: 7,287 km
  unpaved: 35,910 km (2003)

Egypt
  total: 64,000 km
  paved: 49,984 km
  unpaved: 14,016 km (1999)

El Salvador
  total: 10,029 km
  paved: 1,986 km
  unpaved: 8,043 km (1999)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 2,880 km (1999)

Eritrea
  total: 4,010 km
  paved: 874 km
  unpaved: 3,136 km (1999)

Estonia
  total: 56,849 km
  paved: 13,303 km (including 99 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 45,546 km (2003)

Ethiopia
  total: 33,856 km
  paved: 4,367 km
  unpaved: 29,489 km (2003)

European Union
  total: 4,634,810 km (including 56,704 km of
  expressways)
  paved: 4,161,318 km
  unpaved: 473,492 km (1999-2000)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total: 440 km
  paved: 50 km
  unpaved: 390 km (2003)

Faroe Islands
  total: 458 km
  note: no roads between towns (2003)

Fiji
  total: 3,440 km
  paved: 1,692 km
  unpaved: 1,748 km (1999)

Finland
  total: 78,189 km
  paved: 50,633 km (including 653 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 27,556 km (2006)

France
  total: 891,290 km
  paved: 891,290 km (including 10,390 km of expressways) (2003)

French Guiana
  total: 817 km (1998)

French Polynesia
  total: 2,590 km
  paved: 1,735 km
  unpaved: 855 km (1999)

Gabon
  total: 32,333 km
  paved: 6,247 km
  unpaved: 26,086 km (2003)

Gambia, The
  total: 3,742 km
  paved: 723 km
  unpaved: 3,019 km (2003)

Gaza Strip
  note: see entry for West Bank

Georgia
  total: 20,247 km
  paved: 7,973 km
  unpaved: 12,274 km (2003)

Germany
  total: 231,581 km
  paved: 231,581 km (including 12,200 km of expressways) (2005)

Ghana
  total: 42,623 km
  paved: 3,267 km
  unpaved: 39,356 km (2004)

Gibraltar
  total: 29 km
  paved: 29 km (2002)

Greece
  total: 116,470 km
  paved: 106,920 km (including 880 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,550 km (1999)

Greenland
  total: NA
  note: while there are short roads in towns, there are no roads
  between towns; inter-town transport takes place either by sea or air
  (2005)

Grenada
  total: 1,127 km
  paved: 687 km
  unpaved: 440 km (1999)

Guadeloupe
  total: 947 km (2002)

Guam
  total: 977 km (2004)

Guatemala
  total: 14,095 km
  paved: 4,863 km (including 75 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,232 km (1999)

Guernsey
  total: NA

Guinea
  total: 44,348 km
  paved: 4,342 km
  unpaved: 40,006 km (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 4,400 km
  paved: 453 km
  unpaved: 3,947 km (1999)

Guyana
  total: 7,970 km
  paved: 590 km
  unpaved: 7,380 km (1999)

Haiti
  total: 4,160 km
  paved: 1,011 km
  unpaved: 3,149 km (1999)

Honduras
  total: 13,603 km
  paved: 2,775 km
  unpaved: 10,828 km (1999)

Hong Kong
  total: 1,955 km
  paved: 1,955 km (2005)

Hungary
  total: 159,568 km
  paved: 70,050 km (30,874 km of interurban roads including 626 km of
  expressways)
  unpaved: 89,518 km (2005)

Iceland
  total: 13,028 km
  paved/oiled gravel: 4,241 km (does not include urban roads)
  unpaved: 8,787 km (2005)

India
  total: 3,851,440 km
  paved: 2,411,001 km
  unpaved: 1,440,439 km (2002)

Indonesia
  total: 368,360 km
  paved: 213,649 km
  unpaved: 154,711 km (2002)

Iran
  total: 178,152 km
  paved: 118,115 km (including 751 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 60,037 km (2002)

Iraq
  total: 45,550 km
  paved: 38,399 km
  unpaved: 7,151 km (1999)

Ireland
  total: 95,736 km
  paved: 95,736 km (including 125 km of expressways) (2002)

Isle of Man
  total: 800 km
  paved: 800 km (1999)

Israel
  total: 17,364 km
  paved: 17,364 km (including 126 km of expressways) (2004)

Italy
  total: 479,688 km
  paved: 479,688 km (including 6,478 km of expressways) (2004)

Jamaica
  total: 18,700 km
  paved: 13,009 km
  unpaved: 5,610 km (1999)

Japan
  total: 1.183 million km
  paved: 925,000 km (including 6,946 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 258,000 km (2003)

Jersey
  total: 577 km

Jordan
  total: 7,364 km
  paved: 7,364 km (2003)

Kazakhstan
  total: 258,029 km
  paved: 247,347 km
  unpaved: 10,682 km (2003)

Kenya
  total: 63,000 km (interurban roads)
  paved: 7,623 km
  unpaved: 55,377 km
  note: there also are 100,000 km of rural roads and 14,500 km of
  urban roads for a national total of 177,500 km (2004)

Kiribati
  total: 670 km (1999)

Korea, North
  total: 31,200 km
  paved: 1,997 km
  unpaved: 29,203 km (1999 est.)

Korea, South
  total: 97,252 km
  paved: 74,641 km (including 3,060 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 22,611 km (2004)

Kuwait
  total: 4,450 km
  paved: 3,587 km
  unpaved: 863 km (1999)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 18,500 km
  paved: 16,854 km
  unpaved: 1,646 km (1999)

Laos
  total: 32,620 km
  paved: 4,590 km
  unpaved: 28,030 km (2002)

Latvia
  total: 69,919 km
  paved: 69,919 km (2003)

Lebanon
  total: 7,300 km
  paved: 6,198 km
  unpaved: 1,102 km (1999)

Lesotho
  total: 5,940 km
  paved: 1,087 km
  unpaved: 4,853 km (1999)

Liberia
  total: 10,600 km
  paved: 657 km
  unpaved: 9,943 km (1999)

Libya
  total: 83,200 km
  paved: 47,590 km
  unpaved: 35,610 km (1999)

Liechtenstein
  total: 380 km
  paved: 380 km (2006)

Lithuania
  total: 79,497 km
  paved: 70,549 km (including 417 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 8,948 km (2005)

Luxembourg
  total: 5,210 km
  paved: 5,210 km (including 147 km of expressways) (2002)

Macau
  total: 368 km
  paved: 368 km (2005)

Macedonia
  total: 8,684 km
  paved: 5,540 km
  unpaved: 3,144 km (1999)

Madagascar
  total: 49,827 km
  paved: 5,780 km
  unpaved: 44,047 km (1999)

Malawi
  total: 28,400 km
  paved: 5,254 km
  unpaved: 23,146 km (1999)

Malaysia
  total: 71,814 km
  paved: 55,943 km
  unpaved: 15,871 km (2001)

Maldives
  total: 88 km
  paved roads: 88 km - 60 km in Male; 14 km on Addu Atolis; 14 km on
  Laamu
  note: village roads are mainly compacted coral (2006)

Mali
  total: 15,100 km
  paved: 1,827 km
  unpaved: 13,273 km (1999)

Malta
  total: 2,227 km
  paved: 2,014 km
  unpaved: 213 km (2004)

Marshall Islands
  total: 64.5 km
  paved: 64.5 km
  note: paved roads on major islands (Majuro, Kwajalein), otherwise
  stone-, coral-, or laterite-surfaced roads and tracks (2002)

Martinique
  total: 2,105 km (including 261 km of expressways) (2000)

Mauritania
  total: 7,660 km
  paved: 866 km
  unpaved: 6,794 km (1999)

Mauritius
  total: 2,020 km
  paved: 2,020 km (including 75 km of expressways) (2005)

Mayotte
  total: 93 km
  paved: 72 km
  unpaved: 21 km

Mexico
  total: 349,038 km
  paved: 116,928 km (including 6,979 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 232,110 km (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 240 km
  paved: 42 km
  unpaved: 198 km (1999)

Midway Islands
  total: NA

Moldova
  total: 12,730 km
  paved: 10,973 km
  unpaved: 1,757 km (2003)

Monaco
  total: 50 km
  paved: 50 km (1999)

Mongolia
  total: 49,250 km
  paved: 1,724 km
  unpaved: 47,526 km (2002)

Montenegro
  total: 7,353 km
  paved: 4,274 km
  unpaved: 3,079 km (2005)

Montserrat
  total: 227 km
  note: volcanic eruptions that began in 1995 destroyed most of the
  road system (2003)

Morocco
  total: 57,694 km
  paved: 32,551 km (including 417 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 25,143 km (2002)

Mozambique
  total: 30,400 km
  paved: 5,685 km
  unpaved: 24,715 km (1999)

Namibia
  total: 42,237 km
  paved: 5,406 km
  unpaved: 36,831 km (2002)

Nauru
  total: 30 km
  paved: 24 km
  unpaved: 6 km (1999 est.)

Nepal
  total: 15,905 km
  paved: 8,573 km
  unpaved: 7,332 km (2003)

Netherlands
  total: 134,000 km (including 3,270 km of expressways)
  (2004)

New Caledonia
  total: 5,432 km (2000)

New Zealand
  total: 92,662 km
  paved: 59,109 km (including 169 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 33,553 km (2003)

Nicaragua
  total: 19,036 km
  paved: 2,299 km
  unpaved: 16,737 km (2005)

Niger
  total: 10,100 km
  paved: 798 km
  unpaved: 9,302 km (1999)

Nigeria
  total: 194,394 km
  paved: 60,068 km
  unpaved: 134,326 km (1999)

Niue
  total: 234 km
  paved: 86 km
  unpaved: 148 km (2001)

Norfolk Island
  total: 80 km
  paved: 53 km
  unpaved: 27 km (2002)

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 536 km (2004)

Norway
  total: 92,513 km
  paved: 71,832 km (including 664 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 20,681 km (2005)

Oman
  total: 34,965 km
  paved: 9,673 km (including 550 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 25,292 km (2001)

Pakistan
  total: 255,856 km
  paved: 157,975 km (including 367 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 97,881 km (2004)

Palau
  total: 61 km
  paved: 36 km
  unpaved: 25 km

Panama
  total: 11,643 km
  paved: 4,028 km
  unpaved: 7,615 km (2000)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 19,600 km
  paved: 686 km
  unpaved: 18,914 km (1999)

Paraguay
  total: 29,500 km
  paved: 14,986 km
  unpaved: 14,514 km (1999)

Peru
  total: 78,672 km
  paved: 10,314 km (including 276 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 68,358 km (2003)

Philippines
  total: 200,037 km
  paved: 19,804 km
  unpaved: 180,233 km (2003)

Pitcairn Islands
  total: 6 km
  unpaved: 6 km (dirt roads)

Poland
  total: 423,997 km
  paved: 295,356 km (including 405 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 128,641 km (2004)

Portugal
  total: 72,600 km
  paved: 62,436 km (including 1,700 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 10,164 km (2002)

Puerto Rico
  total: 25,645 km
  paved: 24,363 km (including 426 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 1,282 km (2004)

Qatar
  total: 1,230 km
  paved: 1,107 km
  unpaved: 123 km (1999)

Reunion
  total: 1,214 km (including 88 km of four-lane roads) (2001)

Romania
  total: 198,817 km
  paved: 60,043 km (including 228 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 138,774 km (2003)

Russia
  total: 871,000 km
  paved: 738,000 km (including 29,000 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 133,000 km
  note: includes public and departmental roads (2004)

Rwanda
  total: 12,000 km
  paved: 996 km
  unpaved: 11,004 km (1999)

Saint Helena
  total: 198 km (Saint Helena 138 km, Ascension 40 km,
  Tristan da Cunha 20 km)
  paved: 168 km (Saint Helena 118km, Ascension 40 km, Tristan da Cunha
  10 km)
  unpaved: 30 km (Saint Helena 20 km, Ascension 0 km, Tristan da Cunha
  10 km) (2002)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 320 km
  paved: 138 km
  unpaved: 182 km (1999 est)

Saint Lucia
  total: 910 km
  paved: 48 km
  unpaved: 862 km (2000)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 829 km
  paved: 580 km
  unpaved: 249 km (2003)

Samoa
  total: 790 km
  paved: 332 km
  unpaved: 458 km (1999)

San Marino
  total: 104 km
  paved: 104 km (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 320 km
  paved: 218 km
  unpaved: 102 km (1999)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 152,044 km
  paved: 45,461 km
  unpaved: 106,583 km (2000)

Senegal
  total: 13,576 km
  paved: 3,972 km (including 7 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 9,604 km (2003)

Serbia
  total: 37,887 km
  paved: 23,937 km
  unpaved: 13,950 km (2002)

Seychelles
  total: 458 km
  paved: 440 km
  unpaved: 18 km (2003)

Sierra Leone
  total: 11,300 km
  paved: 904 km
  unpaved: 10,396 km (2002)

Singapore
  total: 3,234 km
  paved: 3,234 km (including 150 km of expressways) (2005)

Slovakia
  total: 42,993 km
  paved: 37,533 km (including 316 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 5,460 km (2003)

Slovenia
  total: 38,400 km
  paved: 38,400 km (including 477 km of expressways) (2003)

Solomon Islands
  total: 1,360 km
  paved: 34 km
  unpaved: 1,326 km (1999)

Somalia
  total: 22,100 km
  paved: 2,608 km
  unpaved: 19,492 km (1999)

South Africa
  total: 362,099 km
  paved: 73,506 km
  unpaved: 288,593 km (2002)

Spain
  total: 666,292 km
  paved: 659,629 km (including 12,009 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 6,663 km (2003)

Sri Lanka
  total: 97,287 km
  paved: 78,802 km
  unpaved: 18,485 km (2003)

Sudan
  total: 11,900 km
  paved: 4,320 km
  unpaved: 7,580 km (1999)

Suriname
  total: 4,492 km
  paved: 1,168 km
  unpaved: 3,324 km (2002)

Swaziland
  total: 3,594 km
  paved: 1,078 km
  unpaved: 2,516 km (2002)

Sweden
  total: 424,981 km
  paved: 132,339 km (including 1,544 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 292,642 km (2003)

Switzerland
  total: 71,297 km
  paved: 71,297 km (including 1,726 of expressways) (2004)

Syria
  total: 91,795 km
  paved: 18,451 km
  unpaved: 73,344 km (2003)

Taiwan
  total: 37,299 km
  paved: 35,621 km (including 1,789 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 1,678 km (2002)

Tajikistan
  total: 27,767 km (2000)

Tanzania
  total: 78,891 km
  paved: 6,808 km
  unpaved: 72,083 km (2003)

Thailand
  total: 57,403 km
  paved: 56,542 km
  unpaved: 861 km (2000)

Togo
  total: 7,520 km
  paved: 2,376 km
  unpaved: 5,144 km (1999)

Tonga
  total: 680 km
  paved: 184 km
  unpaved: 496 km (1999)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 8,320 km
  paved: 4,252 km
  unpaved: 4,068 km (1999)

Tunisia
  total: 18,997 km
  paved: 12,424 km (including 142 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 6,573 km (2001)

Turkey
  total: 347,553 km
  paved: 154,807 km (including 1,886 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 192,747 km (2004)

Turkmenistan
  total: 24,000 km
  paved: 19,488 km
  unpaved: 4,512 km (1999)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 121 km
  paved: 24 km
  unpaved: 97 km (2003)

Tuvalu
  total: 8 km
  paved: 8 km (2002)

Uganda
  total: 70,746 km
  paved: 16,272 km
  unpaved: 54,474 km (2003)

Ukraine
  total: 169,447 km
  paved: 164,772 km (including 15 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 4,675 km (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 1,088 km
  paved: 1,088 km (including 253 km of expressways) (1999)

United Kingdom
  total: 387,674 km
  paved: 387,674 km (including 3,523 km of expressways) (2004)

United States
  total: 6,407,637 km
  paved: 4,164,964 km (including 74,950 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 2,242,673 km (2004)

Uruguay
  total: 77,732 km
  paved: 7,743 km
  unpaved: 69,989 km (2004)

Uzbekistan
  total: 81,600 km
  paved: 71,237 km
  unpaved: 10,363 km (1999)

Vanuatu
  total: 1,070 km
  paved: 256 km
  unpaved: 814 km (1999)

Venezuela
  total: 96,155 km
  paved: 32,308 km
  unpaved: 63,847 km (1999)

Vietnam
  total: 222,179 km
  paved: 42,167 km
  unpaved: 180,012 km (2004)

Virgin Islands
  total: 1,257 km (2004)

West Bank
  total: 4,158 km
  paved: 4,158 km
  note: includes Gaza Strip (2003)

World
  total: 32,345,165 km
  paved: 19,403,061 km
  unpaved: 12,942,104 km (2002)

Yemen
  total: 71,300 km
  paved: 6,200 km
  unpaved: 65,100 km (2005)

Zambia
  total: 91,440 km
  paved: 20,117 km
  unpaved: 71,323 km (2001)

Zimbabwe
  total: 97,440 km
  paved: 18,514 km
  unpaved: 78,926 km (2002)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2086  Illicit drugs


Afghanistan
  world's largest producer of opium; cultivation dropped
  48% to 107,400 hectares in 2005; better weather and lack of
  widespread disease returned opium yields to normal levels, meaning
  potential opium production declined by only 10% to 4,475 metric
  tons; if the entire poppy crop were processed, it is estimated that
  526 metric tons of heroin could be processed; source of hashish;
  many narcotics-processing labs throughout the country; drug trade
  source of instability and some antigovernment groups profit from the
  trade; 80-90% of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghan
  opium; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through informal
  financial networks

Albania
  increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian
  opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to
  a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for
  Western Europe; limited opium and growing cannabis production;
  ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and expanding
  in Europe; vulnerable to money laundering associated with regional
  trafficking in narcotics, arms, contraband, and illegal aliens

Angola
  used as a transshipment point for cocaine destined for
  Western Europe and other African states

Anguilla
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined
  for the US and Europe

Antigua and Barbuda
  considered a minor transshipment point for
  narcotics bound for the US and Europe; more significant as an
  offshore financial center

Argentina
  used as a transshipment country for cocaine headed for
  Europe; some money-laundering activity, especially in the Tri-Border
  Area; domestic consumption of drugs in urban centers is increasing

Armenia
  illicit cultivation of small amount of cannabis for domestic
  consumption; minor transit point for illicit drugs - mostly opium
  and hashish - moving from Southwest Asia to Russia and to a lesser
  extent the rest of Europe

Aruba
  transit point for US- and Europe-bound narcotics with some
  accompanying money-laundering activity

Australia
  Tasmania is one of the world's major suppliers of licit
  opiate products; government maintains strict controls over areas of
  opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate

Austria
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and South
  American cocaine destined for Western Europe

Azerbaijan
  limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy,
  mostly for CIS consumption; small government eradication program;
  transit point for Southwest Asian opiates bound for Russia and to a
  lesser extent the rest of Europe

Bahamas, The
  transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for
  US and Europe; offshore financial center

Bangladesh
  transit country for illegal drugs produced in neighboring
  countries

Barbados
  one of many Caribbean transshipment points for narcotics
  bound for Europe and the US; offshore financial center

Belarus
  limited cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, mostly for
  the domestic market; transshipment point for illicit drugs to and
  via Russia, and to the Baltics and Western Europe; a small and
  lightly regulated financial center; new anti-money-laundering
  legislation does not meet international standards; few
  investigations or prosecutions of money-laundering activities

Belgium
  growing producer of synthetic drugs; transit point for
  US-bound ecstasy; source of precursor chemicals for South American
  cocaine processors; transshipment point for cocaine, heroin,
  hashish, and marijuana entering Western Europe; despite a
  strengthening of legislation, the country remains vulnerable to
  money laundering related to narcotics, automobiles, alcohol, and
  tobacco

Belize
  transshipment point for cocaine; small-scale illicit producer
  of cannabis for the international drug trade; money-laundering
  activity related to narcotics trafficking and offshore sector

Benin
  transshipment point for narcotics associated with Nigerian
  trafficking organizations and most commonly destined for Western
  Europe and the US; vulnerable to money laundering due to a poorly
  regulated financial infrastructure

Bolivia
  world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and
  Peru) with an estimated 26,500 hectares under cultivation in August
  2005, an 8% increase from 2004; intermediate coca products and
  cocaine exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile
  to European drug markets; cultivation steadily increasing despite
  eradication and alternative crop programs; money-laundering activity
  related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders with Brazil
  and Paraguay

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  minor transit point for marijuana and opiate
  trafficking routes to Western Europe; remains highly vulnerable to
  money-laundering activity given a primarily cash-based and
  unregulated economy, weak law enforcement, and instances of
  corruption

Brazil
  illicit producer of cannabis; trace amounts of coca
  cultivation in the Amazon region, used for domestic consumption;
  government has a large-scale eradication program to control
  cannabis; important transshipment country for Bolivian, Colombian,
  and Peruvian cocaine headed for Europe; also used by traffickers as
  a way station for narcotics air transshipments between Peru and
  Colombia; upsurge in drug-related violence and weapons smuggling;
  important market for Colombian, Bolivian, and Peruvian cocaine;
  illicit narcotics proceeds earned in Brazil are often laundered
  through the financial system; significant illicit financial activity
  in the Tri-Border Area

British Virgin Islands
  transshipment point for South American
  narcotics destined for the US and Europe; large offshore financial
  center makes it vulnerable to money laundering

Brunei
  drug trafficking and illegally importing controlled
  substances are serious offenses in Brunei and carry a mandatory
  death penalty

Bulgaria
  major European transshipment point for Southwest Asian
  heroin and, to a lesser degree, South American cocaine for the
  European market; limited producer of precursor chemicals; some money
  laundering of drug-related proceeds through financial institutions

Burma
  remains world's second largest producer of illicit opium
  (estimated production in 2004 - 292 metric tons, down 40% from 2003
  due to eradication efforts and drought; cultivation in 2004 - 30,900
  hectares, a 34% decline from 2003); lack of government will to take
  on major narcotrafficking groups and lack of serious commitment
  against money laundering continues to hinder the overall antidrug
  effort; major source of methamphetamine and heroin for regional
  consumption; currently under Financial Action Task Force
  countermeasures due to continued failure to address its inadequate
  money-laundering controls (2005)

Cambodia
  narcotics-related corruption reportedly involving some in
  the government, military, and police; possible small-scale heroin
  and methamphetamine production; vulnerable to money laundering due
  to its cash-based economy and porous borders

Canada
  illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and
  export to US; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant
  large quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; transit point
  for ecstasy entering the US market; vulnerable to narcotics money
  laundering because of its mature financial services sector

Cape Verde
  used as a transshipment point for illicit drugs moving
  from Latin America and Asia destined for Western Europe; the lack of
  a well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  money-laundering center

Cayman Islands
  offshore financial center; vulnerable to drug
  transshipment to the US and Europe

Chile
  important transshipment country for cocaine destined for
  Europe; economic prosperity and increasing trade have made Chile
  more attractive to traffickers seeking to launder drug profits,
  especially through the Iquique Free Trade Zone, but a new
  anti-money-laundering law improves controls; imported precursors
  passed on to Bolivia; domestic cocaine consumption is rising

China
  major transshipment point for heroin produced in the Golden
  Triangle; growing domestic drug abuse problem; source country for
  chemical precursors and methamphetamine

Colombia
  illicit producer of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis;
  world's leading coca cultivator (cultivation of coca in 2004 was
  114,100 hectares, virtually unchanged from 2003, but down one-third
  from its peak of 169,800 ha); producing a potential of 430 mt of
  pure cocaine; the world's largest producer of coca derivatives;
  supplying most of the US market and the great majority of cocaine to
  other international drug markets; important supplier of heroin to
  the US market; opium poppy cultivation fell 50% between 2003 and
  2004 to 2,100 hectares yielding a potential 3.8 metric tons of pure
  heroin, mostly for the US market; in 2004, aerial eradication
  treated over 130,000 hectares of coca but aggressive replanting on
  the part of growers means Colombia remains a key producer; a
  significant portion of non-US narcotics proceeds are either
  laundered or invested in Colombia through the black market peso
  exchange

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  illicit producer of cannabis,
  mostly for domestic consumption; while rampant corruption and
  inadequate supervision leaves the banking system vulnerable to money
  laundering, the lack of a well-developed financial system limits the
  country's utility as a money-laundering center

Costa Rica
  transshipment country for cocaine and heroin from South
  America; illicit production of cannabis on small, scattered plots;
  domestic cocaine consumption, particularly crack cocaine, is rising

Cote d'Ivoire
  illicit producer of cannabis, mostly for local
  consumption; transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian
  heroin to Europe and occasionally to the US, and for Latin American
  cocaine destined for Europe and South Africa; while rampant
  corruption and inadequate supervision leave the banking system
  vulnerable to money laundering, the lack of a developed financial
  system limits the country's utility as a major money-laundering
  center

Croatia
  transit point along the Balkan route for Southwest Asian
  heroin to Western Europe; has been used as a transit point for
  maritime shipments of South American cocaine bound for Western Europe

Cuba
  territorial waters and air space serve as transshipment zone
  for US and European-bound drugs; established the death penalty for
  certain drug-related crimes in 1999

Cyprus
  minor transit point for heroin and hashish via air routes and
  container traffic to Europe, especially from Lebanon and Turkey;
  some cocaine transits as well; despite a strengthening of
  anti-money-laundering legislation, remains vulnerable to money
  laundering; reporting of suspicious transactions in offshore sector
  remains weak

Czech Republic
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and
  minor transit point for Latin American cocaine to Western Europe;
  producer of synthetic drugs for local and regional markets;
  susceptible to money laundering related to drug trafficking,
  organized crime

Dominica
  transshipment point for narcotics bound for the US and
  Europe; minor cannabis producer; anti-money-laundering enforcement
  is weak, making the country particularly vulnerable to money
  laundering

Dominican Republic
  transshipment point for South American drugs
  destined for the US and Europe; has become a transshipment point for
  ecstasy from the Netherlands and Belgium destined for US and Canada;
  substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics
  traffickers favor the Dominican Republic for illicit financial
  transactions

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  significant transit country for cocaine originating in
  Colombia and Peru; importer of precursor chemicals used in
  production of illicit narcotics; attractive location for
  cash-placement by drug traffickers laundering money because of
  dollarization and weak anti-money-laundering regime; increased
  activity on the northern frontier by trafficking groups and
  Colombian insurgents

Egypt
  transit point for Southwest Asian and Southeast Asian heroin
  and opium moving to Europe, Africa, and the US; transit stop for
  Nigerian couriers; concern as money-laundering site due to lax
  enforcement of financial regulations

El Salvador
  transshipment point for cocaine; small amounts of
  marijuana produced for local consumption; domestic cocaine abuse on
  the rise

Estonia
  transshipment point for opiates and cannabis from Southwest
  Asia and the Caucasus via Russia, cocaine from Latin America to
  Western Europe and Scandinavia, and synthetic drugs from Western
  Europe to Scandinavia; increasing domestic drug abuse problem;
  possible precursor manufacturing and/or trafficking; potential money
  laundering related to organized crime and drug trafficking is a
  concern, as is possible use of the gambling sector to launder funds

Ethiopia
  transit hub for heroin originating in Southwest and
  Southeast Asia and destined for Europe and North America, as well as
  cocaine destined for markets in southern Africa; cultivates qat
  (khat) for local use and regional export, principally to Djibouti
  and Somalia (legal in all three countries); the lack of a
  well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  money-laundering center

France
  transshipment point for and consumer of South American
  cocaine, Southwest Asian heroin, and European synthetics

French Guiana
  small amount of marijuana grown for local consumption;
  minor transshipment point to Europe

Georgia
  limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for
  domestic consumption; used as transshipment point for opiates via
  Central Asia to Western Europe and Russia

Germany
  source of precursor chemicals for South American cocaine
  processors; transshipment point for and consumer of Southwest Asian
  heroin, Latin American cocaine, and European-produced synthetic
  drugs; major financial center

Ghana
  illicit producer of cannabis for the international drug trade;
  major transit hub for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin and, to a
  lesser extent, South American cocaine destined for Europe and the
  US; widespread crime and money laundering problem, but the lack of a
  well-developed financial infrastructure limits the country's utility
  as a money-laundering center

Greece
  a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and
  heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and
  precursor chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine
  transits or is consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug
  trafficking and organized crime

Grenada
  small-scale cannabis cultivation; lesser transshipment point
  for marijuana and cocaine to US

Guatemala
  major transit country for cocaine and heroin; in 2004,
  reemerged as a potential source of opium, growing 330 hectares of
  opium poppy, with potential pure heroin production of 1.4 metric
  tons; 76% of opium poppy cultivation in western highlands along
  Mexican border; marijuana cultivation for mostly domestic
  consumption; proximity to Mexico makes Guatemala a major staging
  area for drugs (particularly for cocaine); money laundering is a
  serious problem; corruption is a major problem

Guyana
  transshipment point for narcotics from South America -
  primarily Venezuela - to Europe and the US; producer of cannabis;
  rising money laundering related to drug trafficking and human
  smuggling

Haiti
  Caribbean transshipment point for cocaine en route to the US
  and Europe; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian
  narcotics traffickers favor Haiti for illicit financial
  transactions; pervasive corruption

Honduras
  transshipment point for drugs and narcotics; illicit
  producer of cannabis, cultivated on small plots and used principally
  for local consumption; corruption is a major problem; some
  money-laundering activity

Hong Kong
  makes strenuous law enforcement efforts, but faces
  difficult challenges in controlling transit of heroin and
  methamphetamine to regional and world markets; modern banking system
  provides conduit for money laundering; rising indigenous use of
  synthetic drugs, especially among young people

Hungary
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and cannabis
  and for South American cocaine destined for Western Europe; limited
  producer of precursor chemicals, particularly for amphetamine and
  methamphetamine; improving, but remains vulnerable to money
  laundering related to organized crime and drug trafficking

India
  world's largest producer of licit opium for the pharmaceutical
  trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit
  international drug markets; transit point for illicit narcotics
  produced in neighboring countries; illicit producer of methaqualone;
  vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system

Indonesia
  illicit producer of cannabis largely for domestic use;
  producer of methamphetamine and ecstasy

Iran
  despite substantial interdiction efforts, Iran remains a key
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe; domestic
  narcotics consumption remains a persistent problem and according to
  official Iranian statistics there are at least 2 million drug users
  in the country; lacks anti-money-laundering laws

Ireland
  transshipment point for and consumer of hashish from North
  Africa to the UK and Netherlands and of European-produced synthetic
  drugs; minor transshipment point for heroin and cocaine destined for
  Western Europe; despite recent legislation, narcotics-related money
  laundering - using bureaux de change, trusts, and shell companies
  involving the offshore financial community - remains a concern

Israel
  increasingly concerned about cocaine and heroin abuse; drugs
  arrive in country from Lebanon and, increasingly, from Jordan;
  money-laundering center

Italy
  important gateway for and consumer of Latin American cocaine
  and Southwest Asian heroin entering the European market; money
  laundering by organized crime and from smuggling

Jamaica
  transshipment point for cocaine from South America to North
  America and Europe; illicit cultivation of cannabis; government has
  an active manual cannabis eradication program; corruption is a major
  concern; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics
  traffickers favor Jamaica for illicit financial transactions

Kazakhstan
  significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS
  markets, as well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra
  (for the drug ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit
  crops; transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia
  and the rest of Europe

Kenya
  widespread harvesting of small plots of marijuana; transit
  country for South Asian heroin destined for Europe and North
  America; Indian methaqualone also transits on way to South Africa;
  significant potential for money-laundering activity given the
  country's status as a regional financial center; massive corruption,
  and relatively high levels of narcotics-associated activities

Korea, North
  for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of
  the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of
  them diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad
  while trafficking in narcotics, including two in Turkey in December
  2004; police investigations in Taiwan and Japan in recent years have
  linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and
  methamphetamine, including an attempt by the North Korean merchant
  ship Pong Su to deliver 150 kg of heroin to Australia in April 2003

Kyrgyzstan
  limited illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy
  for CIS markets; limited government eradication of illicit crops;
  transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the
  rest of Europe

Laos
  estimated cultivation in 2004 - 10,000 hectares, a 45% decrease
  from 2003; estimated potential production in 2004 - 49 metric tons,
  a significant decrease from 200 metric tons in 2003 (2005)

Latvia
  transshipment point for opiates and cannabis from Central and
  Southwest Asia to Western Europe and Scandinavia and Latin American
  cocaine and some synthetics from Western Europe to CIS; despite
  improved legislation, vulnerable to money laundering due to nascent
  enforcement capabilities and comparatively weak regulation of
  offshore companies and the gaming industry; CIS organized crime
  (including counterfeiting, corruption, extortion, stolen cars, and
  prostitution) accounts for most laundered proceeds

Lebanon
  cannabis cultivation dramatically reduced to 2,500 hectares
  in 2002; opium poppy cultivation minimal; small amounts of Latin
  American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin transit country on way
  to European markets and for Middle Eastern consumption

Liberia
  transshipment point for Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin
  and South American cocaine for the European and US markets;
  corruption, criminal activity, arms-dealing, and diamond trade
  provide significant potential for money laundering, but the lack of
  well-developed financial system limits the country's utility as a
  major money-laundering center

Liechtenstein
  has strengthened money-laundering controls, but money
  laundering remains a concern due to Liechtenstein's sophisticated
  offshore financial services sector

Lithuania
  transshipment point for opiates and other illicit drugs
  from Southwest Asia, Latin America, and Western Europe to Western
  Europe and Scandinavia; limited production of methamphetamine and
  ecstasy; susceptible to money laundering despite changes to banking
  legislation

Macedonia
  major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and
  hashish; minor transit point for South American cocaine destined for
  Europe; although not a financial center and most criminal activity
  is thought to be domestic, money laundering is a problem due to a
  mostly cash-based economy and weak enforcement (no arrests or
  prosecutions for money laundering to date)

Madagascar
  illicit producer of cannabis (cultivated and wild
  varieties) used mostly for domestic consumption; transshipment point
  for heroin

Malaysia
  regional transit point for some illicit drugs; drug
  trafficking prosecuted vigorously and carries severe penalties

Malta
  minor transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to
  Western Europe

Martinique
  transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana bound for
  the US and Europe

Mauritius
  minor consumer and transshipment point for heroin from
  South Asia; small amounts of cannabis produced and consumed locally;
  significant offshore financial industry creates potential for money
  laundering, but corruption levels are relatively low and the
  government appears generally to be committed to regulating its
  banking industry

Mexico
  major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in
  2004 amounted to 3,500 hectares, but opium cultivation stayed within
  the range - between 3,500 and 5,500 hectares - observed in nine of
  the last 12 years; potential production of 9 metric tons of pure
  heroin, or 23 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the dominant form
  of Mexican heroin in the western United States; marijuana
  cultivation decreased 23% to 5,800 hectares in 2004 after
  decade-high cultivation peak in 2003; potential production of 10,400
  metric tons of marijuana in 2004; government conducts the largest
  independent illicit-crop eradication program in the world; major
  supplier of heroin and largest foreign supplier of marijuana and
  methamphetamine to the US market; continues as the primary
  transshipment country for US-bound cocaine from South America,
  accounting for about 90% of estimated annual cocaine movement to the
  US; major drug syndicates control majority of drug trafficking
  throughout the country; producer and distributor of ecstasy;
  significant money-laundering center

Moldova
  limited cultivation of opium poppy and cannabis, mostly for
  CIS consumption; transshipment point for illicit drugs from
  Southwest Asia via Central Asia to Russia, Western Europe, and
  possibly the US; widespread crime and underground economic activity

Montserrat
  transshipment point for South American narcotics destined
  for the US and Europe

Morocco
  illicit producer of hashish; shipments of hashish mostly
  directed to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South
  America destined for Western Europe

Mozambique
  Southern African transit point for South Asian hashish
  and heroin, and South American cocaine probably destined for the
  European and South African markets; producer of cannabis (for local
  consumption) and methaqualone (for export to South Africa);
  corruption and poor regulatory capability makes the banking system
  vulnerable to money laundering, but the lack of a well-developed
  financial infrastructure limits the country's utility as a
  money-laundering center

Nepal
  illicit producer of cannabis and hashish for the domestic and
  international drug markets; transit point for opiates from Southeast
  Asia to the West

Netherlands
  major European producer of ecstasy, illicit
  amphetamines, and other synthetic drugs; important gateway for
  cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe; major source of
  US-bound ecstasy; large financial sector vulnerable to money
  laundering

Netherlands Antilles
  transshipment point for South American drugs
  bound for the US and Europe; money-laundering center

Nicaragua
  transshipment point for cocaine destined for the US and
  transshipment point for arms-for-drugs dealing

Nigeria
  a transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for
  European, East Asian, and North American markets; safehaven for
  Nigerian narcotraffickers operating worldwide; major
  money-laundering center; massive corruption and criminal activity;
  Nigeria has improved some anti-money-laundering controls, resulting
  in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's)
  Noncooperative Countries and Territories List in June 2006;
  Nigeria's anti-money-laundering regime continues to be monitored by
  FATF

Pakistan
  opium poppy cultivation declined 58% to 3,147 hectares in
  2005; federal and provincial authorities continue to conduct
  anti-poppy campaigns that force eradication - fines and arrests will
  take place if the ban on poppy cultivation is not observed; key
  transit point for Afghan drugs, including heroin, opium, morphine,
  and hashish, bound for Western markets, the Gulf States, and Africa;
  financial crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption,
  and smuggling remain problems

Panama
  major cocaine transshipment point and primary
  money-laundering center for narcotics revenue; money-laundering
  activity is especially heavy in the Colon Free Zone; offshore
  financial center; negligible signs of coca cultivation; monitoring
  of financial transactions is improving; official corruption remains
  a major problem

Paraguay
  major illicit producer of cannabis, most or all of which is
  consumed in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile; transshipment country for
  Andean cocaine headed for Brazil, other Southern Cone markets, and
  Europe; corruption and some money-laundering activity, especially in
  the Tri-Border Area; weak anti-money-laundering laws and enforcement

Peru
  until 1996 the world's largest coca leaf producer; cultivation
  of coca in Peru fell 15% to 31,150 hectares between 2002 and the end
  of 2003; much of the cocaine base is shipped to neighboring Colombia
  for processing into cocaine, while finished cocaine is shipped out
  from Pacific ports to the international drug market; increasing
  amounts of base and finished cocaine, however, are being moved to
  Brazil and Bolivia for use in the Southern Cone or transshipped to
  Europe and Africa

Philippines
  domestic methamphetamine production has been a growing
  problem in recent years; longstanding marijuana producer

Poland
  major illicit producer of synthetic drugs for the
  international market; minor transshipment point for Asian and Latin
  American illicit drugs to Western Europe

Portugal
  gateway country for Latin American cocaine and Southwest
  Asian heroin entering the European market (especially from Brazil);
  transshipment point for hashish from North Africa to Europe;
  consumer of Southwest Asian heroin

Romania
  major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin
  transiting the Balkan route and small amounts of Latin American
  cocaine bound for Western Europe; although not a significant
  financial center, role as a narcotics conduit leaves it vulnerable
  to laundering which occurs via the banking system, currency exchange
  houses, and casinos

Russia
  limited cultivation of illicit cannabis and opium poppy and
  producer of methamphetamine, mostly for domestic consumption;
  government has active illicit crop eradication program; used as
  transshipment point for Asian opiates, cannabis, and Latin American
  cocaine bound for growing domestic markets, to a lesser extent
  Western and Central Europe, and occasionally to the US; major source
  of heroin precursor chemicals; corruption and organized crime are
  key concerns; heroin increasingly popular in domestic market

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  transshipment point for South American drugs
  destined for the US and Europe; some money-laundering activity

Saint Lucia
  transit point for South American drugs destined for the
  US and Europe

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  transshipment point for South
  American drugs destined for the US and Europe; small-scale cannabis
  cultivation

Saudi Arabia
  death penalty for traffickers; increasing consumption
  of heroin, cocaine, and hashish; improving anti-money-laundering
  legislation and enforcement

Senegal
  transshipment point for Southwest and Southeast Asian heroin
  and South American cocaine moving to Europe and North America;
  illicit cultivator of cannabis

Serbia
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin moving to
  Western Europe on the Balkan route; economy vulnerable to money
  laundering

Singapore
  as a transportation and financial services hub, Singapore
  is vulnerable, despite strict laws and enforcement, as a venue for
  money laundering

Slovakia
  transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin bound for
  Western Europe; producer of synthetic drugs for regional market

Slovenia
  minor transit point for cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin
  bound for Western Europe, and for precursor chemicals

South Africa
  transshipment center for heroin, hashish, marijuana,
  and cocaine; cocaine consumption on the rise; world's largest market
  for illicit methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India
  through various east African countries; illicit cultivation of
  marijuana; attractive venue for money launderers given the
  increasing level of organized criminal and narcotics activity in the
  region

Spain
  key European gateway country and consumer for Latin American
  cocaine and North African hashish entering the European market;
  destination and minor transshipment point for Southwest Asian
  heroin; money-laundering site for Colombian narcotics trafficking
  organizations and organized crime

Suriname
  growing transshipment point for South American drugs
  destined for Europe via the Netherlands and Brazil; transshipment
  point for arms-for-drugs dealing

Switzerland
  a major international financial center vulnerable to the
  layering and integration stages of money laundering; despite
  significant legislation and reporting requirements, secrecy rules
  persist and nonresidents are permitted to conduct business through
  offshore entities and various intermediaries; transit country for
  and consumer of South American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin

Syria
  a transit point for opiates and hashish bound for regional and
  Western markets; weak anti-money-laundering controls and bank
  privatization may leave it vulnerable to money-laundering

Taiwan
  regional transit point for heroin and methamphetamine; major
  problem with domestic consumption of methamphetamine and heroin;
  renewal of domestic methamphetamine production is a problem

Tajikistan
  major transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for
  Russian and, to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited
  illicit cultivation of opium poppy for domestic consumption;
  Tajikistan seizes roughly 80% of all drugs captured in Central Asia
  and stands third worldwide in seizures of opiates (heroin and raw
  opium)

Tanzania
  growing role in transshipment of Southwest and Southeast
  Asian heroin and South American cocaine destined for South African,
  European, and US markets and of South Asian methaqualone bound for
  southern Africa; money laundering remains a problem

Thailand
  a minor producer of opium, heroin, and marijuana; illicit
  transit point for heroin en route to the international drug market
  from Burma and Laos; eradication efforts have reduced the area of
  cannabis cultivation and shifted some production to neighboring
  countries; opium poppy cultivation has been reduced by eradication
  efforts; also a drug money-laundering center; minor role in
  methamphetamine production for regional consumption; major consumer
  of methamphetamine since the 1990s

Togo
  transit hub for Nigerian heroin and cocaine traffickers; money
  laundering not a significant problem

Trinidad and Tobago
  transshipment point for South American drugs
  destined for the US and Europe; producer of cannabis

Turkey
  key transit route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western
  Europe and - to a far lesser extent the US - via air, land, and sea
  routes; major Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking
  organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert
  imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey
  and near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas
  of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw
  concentrate; lax enforcement of money-laundering controls

Turkmenistan
  transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian
  and Western European markets; transit point for heroin precursor
  chemicals bound for Afghanistan

Turks and Caicos Islands
  transshipment point for South American
  narcotics destined for the US and Europe

Ukraine
  limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for
  CIS consumption; some synthetic drug production for export to the
  West; limited government eradication program; used as transshipment
  point for opiates and other illicit drugs from Africa, Latin
  America, and Turkey to Europe and Russia; Ukraine has improved
  anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the
  Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and
  Territories List in February 2004; Ukraine's anti-money-laundering
  regime continues to be monitored by FATF

United Arab Emirates
  the UAE is a drug transshipment point for
  traffickers given its proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing
  countries; the UAE's position as a major financial center makes it
  vulnerable to money laundering; anti-money-laundering controls
  improving, but informal banking remains unregulated

United Kingdom
  producer of limited amounts of synthetic drugs and
  synthetic precursor chemicals; major consumer of Southwest Asian
  heroin, Latin American cocaine, and synthetic drugs;
  money-laundering center

United States
  world's largest consumer of cocaine, shipped from
  Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean; consumer of heroin,
  marijuana, and increasingly methamphetamine from Mexico; consumer of
  high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis,
  marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and
  methamphetamine; money-laundering center

Uzbekistan
  transit country for Afghan narcotics bound for Russian
  and, to a lesser extent, Western European markets; limited illicit
  cultivation of cannabis and small amounts of opium poppy for
  domestic consumption; poppy cultivation almost wiped out by
  government crop eradication program; transit point for heroin
  precursor chemicals bound for Afghanistan

Venezuela
  small-scale illicit producer of opium and coca for the
  processing of opiates and coca derivatives; however, large
  quantities of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transit the country
  from Colombia bound for US and Europe; significant narcotics-related
  money-laundering activity, especially along the border with Colombia
  and on Margarita Island; active eradication program primarily
  targeting opium; increasing signs of drug-related activities by
  Colombian insurgents on border

Vietnam
  minor producer of opium poppy; probable minor transit point
  for Southeast Asian heroin; government continues to face domestic
  opium/heroin/methamphetamine addiction problems despite longstanding
  crackdowns

World
  cocaine: worldwide coca cultivation in 2004 amounted to
  166,200 hectares; Colombia produced slightly more than two-thirds of
  the worldwide crop, followed by Peru and Bolivia; potential pure
  cocaine production of 645 metric tons in 2004 marked the lowest
  level of Andean cocaine production in the past 10 years; Colombia
  conducts aggressive coca eradication campaign, but both Peruvian and
  Bolivian Governments are hesitant to eradicate coca in key growing
  areas; 376 metric tons of export-quality cocaine are documented to
  have been seized in 2003, and 26 metric tons disrupted (jettisoned
  or destroyed); consumption of export quality cocaine is estimated to
  have been 800 metric tons
  opiates: worldwide illicit opium poppy cultivation reached 258,630
  hectares in 2004; potential opium production of 5,444 metric tons
  was highest total recorded since estimates began in mid-1980s;
  Afghanistan is world's primary opium producer, accounting for 91% of
  the global supply; Southeast Asia - responsible for 7% of global
  opium - continued to diminish in importance in the world opium
  market; Latin America produced 2% of global opium, but most refined
  into heroin destined for United States; if all opium processed into
  pure heroin, the potential global production would be 632 metric
  tons of heroin in 2004

Zambia
  transshipment point for moderate amounts of methaqualone,
  small amounts of heroin, and cocaine bound for Southern Africa and
  possibly Europe; a poorly developed financial infrastructure coupled
  with a government commitment to combating money laundering make it
  an unattractive venue for money launderers

Zimbabwe
  transit point for African cannabis and South Asian heroin,
  mandrax, and methamphetamines destined for the South African and
  European markets

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2087  Imports


Afghanistan
  $3.87 billion (2005 est.)

Albania
  $2.473 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $22.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $308.8 million (FY04 est.)

Andorra
  $1.077 billion (1998)

Angola
  $8.165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $129.9 million (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  $378 million (2004 est.)

Argentina
  $28.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $1.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Aruba
  $875 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Australia
  $119.6 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $118.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $4.656 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $1.82 billion (2004 est.)

Bahrain
  $7.83 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $12.97 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $1.476 billion (2004 est.)

Belarus
  $16.94 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $264.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Belize
  $622.4 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Benin
  $1.043 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  $982 million (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  $196 million c.i.f. (2000 est.)

Bolivia
  $1.845 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $6.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $3.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $78.02 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $187 million (2002 est.)

Brunei
  $1.641 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Bulgaria
  $16.78 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Burkina Faso
  $992 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Burma
  $3.454 billion f.o.b.
  note: import figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of
  consumer goods, diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from
  Thailand, China, Malaysia, and India (2004)

Burundi
  $200 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $3.538 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $2.514 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Canada
  $317.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $500 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  $866.9 million (2004)

Central African Republic
  $203 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Chad
  $749.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Chile
  $30.09 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

China
  $631.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Christmas Island
  $NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  $NA

Colombia
  $18 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $115 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $1.319 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $806.5 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $81.04 million (2005)

Costa Rica
  $9.69 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $4.759 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $18.93 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $6.916 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $5.552 billion f.o.b.;; north Cyprus:
  $415.2 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  $76.59 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $74.69 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  $987 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Dominica
  $234 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $9.747 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $202 million (2004 est.)

Ecuador
  $8.436 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $24.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $6.678 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $1.864 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $676.5 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $9.189 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $2.722 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

European Union
  $1.402 trillion; note - external imports, excluding
  intra-EU trade (2004)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  $90 million (2004 est.)

Faroe Islands
  $639 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Fiji
  $1.462 billion c.i.f. (2005)

Finland
  $56.45 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

France
  $473.3 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  $625 million c.i.f. (2002 est.)

French Polynesia
  $1.706 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gabon
  $1.533 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $197 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  $1.952 billion c.i.f.; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Georgia
  $2.5 billion (2005 est.)

Germany
  $801 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $4.273 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  $2.967 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Greece
  $48.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Greenland
  $601 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Grenada
  $276 million (2004 est.)

Guadeloupe
  $1.766 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Guam
  $701 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Guatemala
  $7.744 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  $NA

Guinea
  $680 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $176 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Guyana
  $681.6 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $1.471 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $4.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $291.6 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $64.83 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $4.582 billion (2005 est.)

India
  $113.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $62.02 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iran
  $42.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $19.57 billion f.o.b. (2004)

Ireland
  $65.47 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  $NA

Israel
  $43.19 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Italy
  $369.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $4.093 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Japan
  $451.1 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Jersey
  $NA

Jordan
  $8.681 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $17.51 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $5.126 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $62 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Korea, North
  $2.819 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Korea, South
  $256 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $12.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $937.4 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Laos
  $541 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $8.19 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Lebanon
  $8.855 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $1.166 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $4.839 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Libya
  $10.82 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $917.3 million (1996)

Lithuania
  $15.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  $18.74 billion c.i.f. (2005 est.)

Macau
  $3.478 billion c.i.f. (2004)

Macedonia
  $3.196 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $1.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $645 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $118.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $567 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Mali
  $1.858 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Malta
  $3.859 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  $54.7 million f.o.b. (2000)

Martinique
  $2.307 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Mauritania
  $1.124 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Mauritius
  $2.507 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  $256.7 million f.o.b. (2004)

Mexico
  $223.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $132.7 million f.o.b. (2004)

Moldova
  $2.23 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Monaco
  $636.6 million $NA
  note: full customs integration with France, which collects and
  rebates Monegasque trade duties; also participates in EU market
  system through customs union with France

Mongolia
  $1.011 billion c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Montenegro
  $601.7 million (2003)

Montserrat
  $17 million (2001)

Morocco
  $18.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $2.041 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $2.35 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Nauru
  $20 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Nepal
  $2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $326.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  $4.383 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

New Caledonia
  $1.636 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

New Zealand
  $24.57 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $2.865 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Niger
  $588 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Nigeria
  $25.95 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Niue
  $9.038 million (2004)

Norfolk Island
  $17.9 million c.i.f. (FY91/92)

Northern Mariana Islands
  $214.4 million $NA

Norway
  $58.12 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Oman
  $8.709 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $21.26 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Palau
  $107.3 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Panama
  $8.734 billion f.o.b. (includes the Colon Free Zone) (2005
  est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $1.651 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $3.832 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Peru
  $12.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $42.66 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  $NA

Poland
  $95.67 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $60.35 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  $29.1 billion c.i.f. (2001)

Qatar
  $6.706 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Reunion
  $3.306 billion c.i.f. (2002)

Romania
  $41 billion f.o.b. (2005)

Russia
  $125 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $243 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  $45 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $405 million (2004 est.)

Saint Lucia
  $410 million (2004 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  $70 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $225 million (2004 est.)

Samoa
  $285 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

San Marino
  trade data are included with the statistics for Italy

Sao Tome and Principe
  $38 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $44.93 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $2.405 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $10.58 billion (excluding Kosovo and Montenegro) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $459.9 million f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $531 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Singapore
  $188.3 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $32.9 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $19.62 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $159 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Somalia
  $576 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

South Africa
  $52.97 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Spain
  $271.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $8.37 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $5.028 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $750 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Svalbard
  $NA

Swaziland
  $2.149 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $104.4 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $135 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Syria
  $5.973 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $181.6 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $1.25 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $2.391 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $107 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Togo
  $1.047 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  $969,200 c.i.f. (2002)

Tonga
  $122 million f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  $6.011 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $12.86 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $101.2 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $4.175 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  $175.6 million (2000)

Tuvalu
  $9.186 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Uganda
  $1.608 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $37.18 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $60.15 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $483.7 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

United States
  $1.727 trillion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $3.54 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $3.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $117.1 million c.i.f. (2004 est.)

Venezuela
  $24.63 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $36.88 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  $4.609 billion $NA

Wallis and Futuna
  $61.17 million f.o.b. (2004)

West Bank
  $1.952 billion c.i.f.; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Western Sahara
  $NA

World
  $10.3 trillion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Yemen
  $4.19 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $1.934 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $2.059 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2088  Independence


Afghanistan
  19 August 1919 (from UK control over Afghan foreign
  affairs)

Albania
  28 November 1912 (from Ottoman Empire)

Algeria
  5 July 1962 (from France)

American Samoa
  none (territory of the US)

Andorra
  1278 (formed under the joint suzerainty of the French count
  of Foix and the Spanish bishop of Urgel)

Angola
  11 November 1975 (from Portugal)

Anguilla
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Antigua and Barbuda
  1 November 1981 (from UK)

Argentina
  9 July 1816 (from Spain)

Armenia
  21 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Aruba
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

Australia
  1 January 1901 (federation of UK colonies)

Austria
  17 September 1156 (Duchy of Austria founded); 11 August 1804
  (Austrian Empire proclaimed); 12 November 1918 (republic proclaimed)

Azerbaijan
  30 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Bahamas, The
  10 July 1973 (from UK)

Bahrain
  15 August 1971 (from UK)

Bangladesh
  16 December 1971 (from West Pakistan); note - 26 March
  1971 is the date of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December
  1971 is known as Victory Day and commemorates the official creation
  of the state of Bangladesh

Barbados
  30 November 1966 (from UK)

Belarus
  25 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Belgium
  4 October 1830 (a provisional government declares
  independence from the Netherlands); 21 July 1831 (King Leopold I
  ascends to the throne)

Belize
  21 September 1981 (from UK)

Benin
  1 August 1960 (from France)

Bermuda
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Bhutan
  8 August 1949 (from India)

Bolivia
  6 August 1825 (from Spain)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1 March 1992 (from Yugoslavia; referendum for
  independence was completed 1 March 1992; independence was declared 3
  March 1992)

Botswana
  30 September 1966 (from UK)

Brazil
  7 September 1822 (from Portugal)

British Virgin Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Brunei
  1 January 1984 (from UK)

Bulgaria
  3 March 1878 (as an autonomous principality within the
  Ottoman Empire); 22 September 1908 (complete independence from the
  Ottoman Empire)

Burkina Faso
  5 August 1960 (from France)

Burma
  4 January 1948 (from UK)

Burundi
  1 July 1962 (from UN trusteeship under Belgian
  administration)

Cambodia
  9 November 1953 (from France)

Cameroon
  1 January 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship)

Canada
  1 July 1867 (union of British North American colonies); 11
  December 1931 (independence recognized)

Cape Verde
  5 July 1975 (from Portugal)

Cayman Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Central African Republic
  13 August 1960 (from France)

Chad
  11 August 1960 (from France)

Chile
  18 September 1810 (from Spain)

China
  221 BC (unification under the Qin or Ch'in Dynasty); 1 January
  1912 (Manchu Dynasty replaced by a Republic); 1 October 1949
  (People's Republic established)

Christmas Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Colombia
  20 July 1810 (from Spain)

Comoros
  6 July 1975 (from France)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  30 June 1960 (from Belgium)

Congo, Republic of the
  15 August 1960 (from France)

Cook Islands
  none (became self-governing in free association with
  New Zealand on 4 August 1965 and has the right at any time to move
  to full independence by unilateral action)

Costa Rica
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Cote d'Ivoire
  7 August 1960 (from France)

Croatia
  25 June 1991 (from Yugoslavia)

Cuba
  20 May 1902 (from Spain 10 December 1898; administered by the
  US from 1898 to 1902)

Cyprus
  16 August 1960 (from UK); note - Turkish Cypriots proclaimed
  self-rule on 13 February 1975 and independence in 1983, but these
  proclamations are only recognized by Turkey

Czech Republic
  1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech
  Republic and Slovakia)

Denmark
  first organized as a unified state in 10th century; in 1849
  became a constitutional monarchy

Djibouti
  27 June 1977 (from France)

Dominica
  3 November 1978 (from UK)

Dominican Republic
  27 February 1844 (from Haiti)

East Timor
  28 November 1975 (date of proclamation of independence
  from Portugal); note - 20 May 2002 is the official date of
  international recognition of East Timor's independence from Indonesia

Ecuador
  24 May 1822 (from Spain)

Egypt
  28 February 1922 (from UK)

El Salvador
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Equatorial Guinea
  12 October 1968 (from Spain)

Eritrea
  24 May 1993 (from Ethiopia)

Estonia
  20 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Ethiopia
  oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest
  in the world - at least 2,000 years

European Union
  7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed
  establishing the EU); 1 November 1993 (Maastricht Treaty entered
  into force)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none (overseas territory of the
  UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Faroe Islands
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing
  overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Fiji
  10 October 1970 (from UK)

Finland
  6 December 1917 (from Russia)

France
  486 (unified by Clovis)

French Guiana
  none (overseas department of France)

French Polynesia
  none (overseas lands of France)

Gabon
  17 August 1960 (from France)

Gambia, The
  18 February 1965 (from UK)

Georgia
  9 April 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Germany
  18 January 1871 (German Empire unification); divided into
  four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France) in 1945
  following World War II; Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West
  Germany) proclaimed 23 May 1949 and included the former UK, US, and
  French zones; German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany)
  proclaimed 7 October 1949 and included the former USSR zone;
  unification of West Germany and East Germany took place 3 October
  1990; all four powers formally relinquished rights 15 March 1991

Ghana
  6 March 1957 (from UK)

Gibraltar
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Greece
  1829 (from the Ottoman Empire)

Greenland
  none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; foreign affairs is
  the responsibility of Denmark, but Greenland actively participates
  in international agreements relating to Greenland)

Grenada
  7 February 1974 (from UK)

Guadeloupe
  none (overseas department of France)

Guam
  none (territory of the US)

Guatemala
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Guernsey
  none (British crown dependency)

Guinea
  2 October 1958 (from France)

Guinea-Bissau
  24 September 1973 (unilaterally declared by
  Guinea-Bissau); 10 September 1974 (recognized by Portugal)

Guyana
  26 May 1966 (from UK)

Haiti
  1 January 1804 (from France)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  11 February 1929 (from Italy); note - the
  three treaties signed with Italy on 11 February 1929 acknowledged,
  among other things, the full sovereignty of the Vatican and
  established its territorial extent; however, the origin of the Papal
  States, which over the years have varied considerably in extent, may
  be traced back to the 8th century

Honduras
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Hong Kong
  none (special administrative region of China)

Hungary
  1001 (unification by King Stephen I)

Iceland
  1 December 1918 (became a sovereign state under the Danish
  Crown); 17 June 1944 (from Denmark)

India
  15 August 1947 (from UK)

Indonesia
  17 August 1945 (independence proclaimed); 27 December 1949
  (Netherlands recognizes Indonesian independence)

Iran
  1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed)

Iraq
  3 October 1932 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration); note - on 28 June 2004 the Coalition Provisional
  Authority transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government

Ireland
  6 December 1921 (from UK by treaty)

Isle of Man
  none (British crown dependency)

Israel
  14 May 1948 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration)

Italy
  17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed; Italy was not
  finally unified until 1870)

Jamaica
  6 August 1962 (from UK)

Japan
  660 B.C. (traditional founding by Emperor JIMMU)

Jersey
  none (British crown dependency)

Jordan
  25 May 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under British
  administration)

Kazakhstan
  16 December 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

Kenya
  12 December 1963 (from UK)

Kiribati
  12 July 1979 (from UK)

Korea, North
  15 August 1945 (from Japan)

Korea, South
  15 August 1945 (from Japan)

Kuwait
  19 June 1961 (from UK)

Kyrgyzstan
  31 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Laos
  19 July 1949 (from France)

Latvia
  21 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Lebanon
  22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under
  French administration)

Lesotho
  4 October 1966 (from UK)

Liberia
  26 July 1847

Libya
  24 December 1951 (from UN trusteeship)

Liechtenstein
  23 January 1719 (Principality of Liechtenstein
  established); 12 July 1806 (independence from the Holy Roman Empire)

Lithuania
  11 March 1990 (independence declared from Soviet Union); 6
  September 1991 (Soviet Union recognizes Lithuania's independence)

Luxembourg
  1839 (from the Netherlands)

Macau
  none (special administrative region of China)

Macedonia
  8 September 1991 (referendum by registered voters
  endorsing independence from Yugoslavia)

Madagascar
  26 June 1960 (from France)

Malawi
  6 July 1964 (from UK)

Malaysia
  31 August 1957 (from UK)

Maldives
  26 July 1965 (from UK)

Mali
  22 September 1960 (from France)

Malta
  21 September 1964 (from UK)

Marshall Islands
  21 October 1986 (from the US-administered UN
  trusteeship)

Martinique
  none (overseas department of France)

Mauritania
  28 November 1960 (from France)

Mauritius
  12 March 1968 (from UK)

Mayotte
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Mexico
  16 September 1810 (from Spain)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  3 November 1986 (from the
  US-administered UN Trusteeship)

Moldova
  27 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Monaco
  1419 (beginning of the rule by the House of Grimaldi)

Mongolia
  11 July 1921 (from China)

Montenegro
  3 June 2006 (from Serbia and Montenegro); note - a
  referendum on independence was held 21 May 2006

Montserrat
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Morocco
  2 March 1956 (from France)

Mozambique
  25 June 1975 (from Portugal)

Namibia
  21 March 1990 (from South African mandate)

Nauru
  31 January 1968 (from the Australia-, NZ-, and UK-administered
  UN trusteeship)

Nepal
  1768 (unified by Prithvi Narayan Shah)

Netherlands
  23 January 1579 (the northern provinces of the Low
  Countries conclude the Union of Utrecht breaking with Spain; on 26
  July 1581 they formally declared their independence with an Act of
  Abjuration; however, it was not until 30 January 1648 and the Peace
  of Westphalia that Spain recognized this independence)

Netherlands Antilles
  none (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)

New Caledonia
  none (overseas territory of France); note - a
  referendum on independence was held in 1998 but did not pass; a new
  referendum is scheduled for 2014

New Zealand
  26 September 1907 (from UK)

Nicaragua
  15 September 1821 (from Spain)

Niger
  3 August 1960 (from France)

Nigeria
  1 October 1960 (from UK)

Niue
  on 19 October 1974, Niue became a self-governing parliamentary
  government in free association with New Zealand

Norfolk Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Northern Mariana Islands
  none (commonwealth in political union with
  the US)

Norway
  7 June 1905 (Norway declared the union with Sweden
  dissolved); 26 October 1905 (Sweden agreed to the repeal of the
  union)

Oman
  1650 (expulsion of the Portuguese)

Pakistan
  14 August 1947 (from UK)

Palau
  1 October 1994 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)

Panama
  3 November 1903 (from Colombia; became independent from Spain
  28 November 1821)

Papua New Guinea
  16 September 1975 (from the Australian-administered
  UN trusteeship)

Paraguay
  14 May 1811 (from Spain)

Peru
  28 July 1821 (from Spain)

Philippines
  12 June 1898 (from Spain)

Pitcairn Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Poland
  11 November 1918 (independent republic proclaimed)

Portugal
  1143 (Kingdom of Portugal recognized); 5 October 1910
  (independent republic proclaimed)

Puerto Rico
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

Qatar
  3 September 1971 (from UK)

Reunion
  none (overseas department of France)

Romania
  9 May 1877 (independence proclaimed from the Ottoman Empire;
  independence recognized 13 July 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin;
  kingdom proclaimed 26 March 1881); 30 December 1947 (republic
  proclaimed)

Russia
  24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Rwanda
  1 July 1962 (from Belgium-administered UN trusteeship)

Saint Helena
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  19 September 1983 (from UK)

Saint Lucia
  22 February 1979 (from UK)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  none (territorial collectivity of France;
  has been under French control since 1763)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  27 October 1979 (from UK)

Samoa
  1 January 1962 (from New Zealand-administered UN trusteeship)

San Marino
  3 September A.D. 301

Sao Tome and Principe
  12 July 1975 (from Portugal)

Saudi Arabia
  23 September 1932 (unification of the kingdom)

Senegal
  4 April 1960 (from France); note - complete independence was
  achieved upon dissolution of federation with Mali on 20 August 1960

Serbia
  5 June 2006 (from Serbia and Montenegro)

Seychelles
  29 June 1976 (from UK)

Sierra Leone
  27 April 1961 (from UK)

Singapore
  9 August 1965 (from Malaysian Federation)

Slovakia
  1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech
  Republic and Slovakia)

Slovenia
  25 June 1991 (from Yugoslavia)

Solomon Islands
  7 July 1978 (from UK)

Somalia
  1 July 1960 (from a merger of British Somaliland, which
  became independent from the UK on 26 June 1960, and Italian
  Somaliland, which became independent from the Italian-administered
  UN trusteeship on 1 July 1960, to form the Somali Republic)

South Africa
  31 May 1910 (from UK); note - South Africa became a
  republic in 1961 following an October 1960 referendum

Spain
  the Iberian peninsula was characterized by a variety of
  independent kingdoms prior to the Muslim occupation that began in
  the early 8th century AD and lasted nearly seven centuries; the
  small Christian redoubts of the north began the reconquest almost
  immediately, culminating in the seizure of Granada in 1492; this
  event completed the unification of several kingdoms and is
  traditionally considered the forging of present-day Spain

Sri Lanka
  4 February 1948 (from UK)

Sudan
  1 January 1956 (from Egypt and UK)

Suriname
  25 November 1975 (from Netherlands)

Svalbard
  none (territory of Norway)

Swaziland
  6 September 1968 (from UK)

Sweden
  6 June 1523 (Gustav VASA elected king)

Switzerland
  1 August 1291 (founding of the Swiss Confederation)

Syria
  17 April 1946 (from League of Nations mandate under French
  administration)

Tajikistan
  9 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Tanzania
  26 April 1964; Tanganyika became independent 9 December
  1961 (from UK-administered UN trusteeship); Zanzibar became
  independent 19 December 1963 (from UK); Tanganyika united with
  Zanzibar 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and
  Zanzibar; renamed United Republic of Tanzania 29 October 1964

Thailand
  1238 (traditional founding date; never colonized)

Togo
  27 April 1960 (from French-administered UN trusteeship)

Tokelau
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Tonga
  4 June 1970 (from UK protectorate)

Trinidad and Tobago
  31 August 1962 (from UK)

Tunisia
  20 March 1956 (from France)

Turkey
  29 October 1923 (successor state to the Ottoman Empire)

Turkmenistan
  27 October 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Tuvalu
  1 October 1978 (from UK)

Uganda
  9 October 1962 (from UK)

Ukraine
  24 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union)

United Arab Emirates
  2 December 1971 (from UK)

United Kingdom
  England has existed as a unified entity since the
  10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284
  with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an
  Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland
  agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union
  of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the
  adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
  Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of
  Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United
  Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the
  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in
  1927

United States
  4 July 1776 (from Great Britain)

Uruguay
  25 August 1825 (from Brazil)

Uzbekistan
  1 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Vanuatu
  30 July 1980 (from France and UK)

Venezuela
  5 July 1811 (from Spain)

Vietnam
  2 September 1945 (from France)

Wallis and Futuna
  none (overseas territory of France)

Yemen
  22 May 1990 (Republic of Yemen established with the merger of
  the Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and the
  Marxist-dominated People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen
  (Aden) or South Yemen]); note - previously North Yemen had become
  independent in November of 1918 (from the Ottoman Empire) and South
  Yemen had become independent on 30 November 1967 (from the UK)

Zambia
  24 October 1964 (from UK)

Zimbabwe
  18 April 1980 (from UK)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2089  Industrial production growth rate (%)


Afghanistan
  NA%

Albania
  3.1% (2004 est.)

Algeria
  8% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  NA%

Andorra
  NA%

Angola
  13.5% (2004)

Anguilla
  3.1% (1997 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  6% (1997 est.)

Argentina
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Armenia
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Aruba
  NA%

Australia
  1.1% (2005 est.)

Austria
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  40% (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  NA%

Bahrain
  2% (2000 est.)

Bangladesh
  6.7% (2005 est.)

Barbados
  -3.2% (2000 est.)

Belarus
  15.6% (2005 est.)

Belgium
  -0.2% (2005 est.)

Belize
  4.6% (1999)

Benin
  8.3% (2001 est.)

Bermuda
  NA%

Bhutan
  9.3% (1996 est.)

Bolivia
  5.7% (2004 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  5.5% (2003 est.)

Botswana
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Brazil
  3.4% (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  NA%

Brunei
  7.3% (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  7.9% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  14% (2001 est.)

Burma
  NA%

Burundi
  18% (2001)

Cambodia
  22% (2002 est.)

Cameroon
  4.2% (1999 est.)

Canada
  2.6% (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  NA%

Cayman Islands
  NA%

Central African Republic
  3% (2002)

Chad
  5% (1995)

Chile
  3.4% (2005 est.)

China
  29.5% (2005 est.)

Colombia
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Comoros
  -2% (1999 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA%

Congo, Republic of the
  0% (2002 est.)

Cook Islands
  1% (2002)

Costa Rica
  5.7% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  15% (1998 est.)

Croatia
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Cuba
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 0.4% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: -0.3%
  (2002 est.)

Czech Republic
  5.7% (2005)

Denmark
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  3% (1996 est.)

Dominica
  -10% (1997 est.)

Dominican Republic
  2% (2001 est.)

East Timor
  8.5%

Ecuador
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  5% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  30% (2002 est.)

Eritrea
  NA%

Estonia
  9.7% (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  6.7% (2001 est.)

European Union
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA%

Faroe Islands
  8% (1999 est.)

Fiji
  NA%

Finland
  -2% (2005 est.)

France
  0.2% (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  NA%

French Polynesia
  NA%

Gabon
  1.6% (2002 est.)

Gambia, The
  NA%

Gaza Strip
  NA%

Georgia
  3% (2000)

Germany
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Ghana
  3.8% (2000 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA%

Greece
  -0.3% (2005 est.)

Greenland
  NA%

Grenada
  0.7% (1997 est.)

Guadeloupe
  NA%

Guam
  NA%

Guatemala
  4.1% (1999)

Guernsey
  NA%

Guinea
  NA

Guinea-Bissau
  4.7% (2003 est.)

Guyana
  NA%

Haiti
  NA%

Honduras
  7.7% (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  -0.6% (2005 est.)

Hungary
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Iceland
  14.2% (2005 est.)

India
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  4.8% (2005 est.)

Iran
  3% excluding oil (2005 est.)

Iraq
  NA%

Ireland
  3% (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  3.2% (FY96/97)

Israel
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Italy
  -1% (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  -2% (2000 est.)

Japan
  1.5% (2005 est.)

Jersey
  NA%

Jordan
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Kenya
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  0.7% (1991 est.)

Korea, North
  NA%

Korea, South
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  13.1% (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  7.1% (2004 est.)

Laos
  13% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  5.6% (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  NA%

Lesotho
  15.5% (1999)

Liberia
  NA%

Libya
  NA%

Liechtenstein
  NA%

Lithuania
  7.3% (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Macau
  NA%

Macedonia
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  3% (2000 est.)

Malawi
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Maldives
  -0.9% (2004 est.)

Mali
  NA%

Malta
  NA%

Marshall Islands
  NA%

Martinique
  NA%

Mauritania
  2% (2000 est.)

Mauritius
  8% (2000 est.)

Mayotte
  NA%

Mexico
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA%

Moldova
  17% (2003 est.)

Monaco
  NA%

Mongolia
  4.1% (2002 est.)

Montserrat
  NA%

Morocco
  4% NA%

Mozambique
  3.4% (2000)

Namibia
  NA%

Nauru
  NA%

Nepal
  3.8% (FY04/05)

Netherlands
  -1.4% (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA%

New Caledonia
  -0.6% (1996)

New Zealand
  -2.5% (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Niger
  5.1% (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Niue
  NA%

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA%

Norway
  -0.5% (2005 est.)

Oman
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  10.7% (2005 est.)

Palau
  NA%

Panama
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  NA%

Paraguay
  0% (2000 est.)

Peru
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Philippines
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Poland
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Portugal
  0% (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  NA%

Qatar
  10% (2003 est.)

Reunion
  NA%

Romania
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Russia
  4% (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  7% (2001 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA%

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA%

Saint Lucia
  -8.9% (1997 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  -0.9% (1997 est.)

Samoa
  2.8% (2000)

San Marino
  6% (1997 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA%

Saudi Arabia
  5.3% (2005 est.)

Senegal
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Serbia
  1.4% (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  NA%

Sierra Leone
  NA%

Singapore
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  NA%

Somalia
  NA%

South Africa
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Spain
  0.7% (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  8.5% (1999 est.)

Suriname
  6.5% (1994 est.)

Swaziland
  3.7% (FY95/96)

Sweden
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  3% (2005 est.)

Syria
  7% (2002 est.)

Taiwan
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  8.2% (2002 est.)

Tanzania
  8.4% (1999 est.)

Thailand
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Togo
  NA%

Tonga
  1% (2003 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  9% (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  5.9% (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  22% (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA%

Tuvalu
  NA%

Uganda
  9% (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  3.2% (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  4% (2000)

United Kingdom
  -1.9% (2005 est.)

United States
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  8.5% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  1% (1997 est.)

Venezuela
  7.2% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  17.2% (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA%

Wallis and Futuna
  NA%

West Bank
  NA%

Western Sahara
  NA%

World
  3% (2003 est.)

Yemen
  3% (2003 est.)

Zambia
  7.9% (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  3.6% (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2090  Industries


Afghanistan
  small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture,
  shoes, fertilizer, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal,
  copper

Albania
  food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement,
  chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower

Algeria
  petroleum, natural gas, light industries, mining,
  electrical, petrochemical, food processing

American Samoa
  tuna canneries (largely supplied by foreign fishing
  vessels), handicrafts

Andorra
  tourism (particularly skiing), cattle raising, timber,
  banking

Angola
  petroleum; diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, feldspar, bauxite,
  uranium, and gold; cement; basic metal products; fish processing;
  food processing, brewing, tobacco products, sugar; textiles; ship
  repair

Anguilla
  tourism, boat building, offshore financial services

Antigua and Barbuda
  tourism, construction, light manufacturing
  (clothing, alcohol, household appliances)

Argentina
  food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables,
  textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel

Armenia
  diamond-processing, metal-cutting machine tools,
  forging-pressing machines, electric motors, tires, knitted wear,
  hosiery, shoes, silk fabric, chemicals, trucks, instruments,
  microelectronics, jewelry manufacturing, software development, food
  processing, brandy

Aruba
  tourism, transshipment facilities, oil refining

Australia
  mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food
  processing, chemicals, steel

Austria
  construction, machinery, vehicles and parts, food, metals,
  chemicals, lumber and wood processing, paper and paperboard,
  communications equipment, tourism

Azerbaijan
  petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield
  equipment; steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and petrochemicals;
  textiles

Bahamas, The
  tourism, banking, cement, oil transshipment, salt, rum,
  aragonite, pharmaceuticals, spiral-welded steel pipe

Bahrain
  petroleum processing and refining, aluminum smelting, iron
  pelletization, fertilizers, offshore banking, ship repairing, tourism

Bangladesh
  cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper
  newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar

Barbados
  tourism, sugar, light manufacturing, component assembly for
  export

Belarus
  metal-cutting machine tools, tractors, trucks, earthmovers,
  motorcycles, televisions, chemical fibers, fertilizer, textiles,
  radios, refrigerators

Belgium
  engineering and metal products, motor vehicle assembly,
  transportation equipment, scientific instruments, processed food and
  beverages, chemicals, basic metals, textiles, glass, petroleum

Belize
  garment production, food processing, tourism, construction

Benin
  textiles, food processing, construction materials, cement

Bermuda
  international business, tourism, light manufacturing

Bhutan
  cement, wood products, processed fruits, alcoholic beverages,
  calcium carbide

Bolivia
  mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco,
  handicrafts, clothing

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  steel, coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, manganese,
  bauxite, vehicle assembly, textiles, tobacco products, wooden
  furniture, tank and aircraft assembly, domestic appliances, oil
  refining

Botswana
  diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash; livestock
  processing; textiles

Brazil
  textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin,
  steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and
  equipment

British Virgin Islands
  tourism, light industry, construction, rum,
  concrete block, offshore financial center

Brunei
  petroleum, petroleum refining, liquefied natural gas,
  construction

Bulgaria
  electricity, gas, water; food, beverages, tobacco;
  machinery and equipment, base metals, chemical products, coke,
  refined petroleum, nuclear fuel

Burkina Faso
  cotton lint, beverages, agricultural processing, soap,
  cigarettes, textiles, gold

Burma
  agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood
  products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials;
  pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement; natural gas

Burundi
  light consumer goods such as blankets, shoes, soap; assembly
  of imported components; public works construction; food processing

Cambodia
  tourism, garments, rice milling, fishing, wood and wood
  products, rubber, cement, gem mining, textiles

Cameroon
  petroleum production and refining, aluminum production,
  food processing, light consumer goods, textiles, lumber, ship repair

Canada
  transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and
  unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish
  products, petroleum and natural gas

Cape Verde
  food and beverages, fish processing, shoes and garments,
  salt mining, ship repair

Cayman Islands
  tourism, banking, insurance and finance,
  construction, construction materials, furniture

Central African Republic
  gold and diamond mining, logging, brewing,
  textiles, footwear, assembly of bicycles and motorcycles

Chad
  oil, cotton textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing, natron (sodium
  carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials

Chile
  copper, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and
  steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles

China
  mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other
  metals, coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel;
  petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products,
  including footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing;
  transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and
  locomotives, ships, and aircraft; telecommunications equipment,
  commercial space launch vehicles, satellites

Christmas Island
  tourism, phosphate extraction (near depletion)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  copra products and tourism

Colombia
  textiles, food processing, oil, clothing and footwear,
  beverages, chemicals, cement; gold, coal, emeralds

Comoros
  tourism, perfume distillation

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  mining (diamonds, copper, zinc),
  mineral processing, consumer products (including textiles, footwear,
  cigarettes, processed foods and beverages), cement, commercial ship
  repair

Congo, Republic of the
  petroleum extraction, cement, lumber,
  brewing, sugar, palm oil, soap, flour, cigarettes

Cook Islands
  fruit processing, tourism, fishing, clothing,
  handicrafts

Costa Rica
  microprocessors, food processing, textiles and clothing,
  construction materials, fertilizer, plastic products

Cote d'Ivoire
  foodstuffs, beverages; wood products, oil refining,
  truck and bus assembly, textiles, fertilizer, building materials,
  electricity, ship construction and repair

Croatia
  chemicals and plastics, machine tools, fabricated metal,
  electronics, pig iron and rolled steel products, aluminum, paper,
  wood products, construction materials, textiles, shipbuilding,
  petroleum and petroleum refining, food and beverages, tourism

Cuba
  sugar, petroleum, tobacco, construction, nickel, steel, cement,
  agricultural machinery, pharmaceuticals

Cyprus
  tourism, food and beverage processing, cement and gypsum
  production, ship repair and refurbishment, textiles, light
  chemicals, metal products, wood, paper, stone, and clay products

Czech Republic
  metallurgy, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles,
  glass, armaments

Denmark
  iron, steel, nonferrous metals, chemicals, food processing,
  machinery and transportation equipment, textiles and clothing,
  electronics, construction, furniture and other wood products,
  shipbuilding and refurbishment, windmills, pharmaceuticals, medical
  equipment

Dhekelia
  none

Djibouti
  construction, agricultural processing, salt

Dominica
  soap, coconut oil, tourism, copra, furniture, cement
  blocks, shoes

Dominican Republic
  tourism, sugar processing, ferronickel and gold
  mining, textiles, cement, tobacco

East Timor
  printing, soap manufacturing, handicrafts, woven cloth

Ecuador
  petroleum, food processing, textiles, wood products,
  chemicals

Egypt
  textiles, food processing, tourism, chemicals,
  pharmaceuticals, hydrocarbons, construction, cement, metals, light
  manufactures

El Salvador
  food processing, beverages, petroleum, chemicals,
  fertilizer, textiles, furniture, light metals

Equatorial Guinea
  petroleum, fishing, sawmilling, natural gas

Eritrea
  food processing, beverages, clothing and textiles, salt,
  cement, commercial ship repair

Estonia
  engineering, electronics, wood and wood products, textile;
  information technology, telecommunications

Ethiopia
  food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals,
  metals processing, cement

European Union
  among the world's largest and most technologically
  advanced, the European Union industrial base includes: ferrous and
  non-ferrous metal production and processing, metal products,
  petroleum, coal, cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, rail
  transportation equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles,
  construction equipment, industrial equipment, shipbuilding,
  electrical power equipment, machine tools and automated
  manufacturing systems, electronics and telecommunications equipment,
  fishing, food and beverage processing, furniture, paper, textiles,
  tourism

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  fish and wool processing; tourism

Faroe Islands
  fishing, fish processing, small ship repair and
  refurbishment, handicrafts

Fiji
  tourism, sugar, clothing, copra, gold, silver, lumber, small
  cottage industries

Finland
  metals and metal products, electronics, machinery and
  scientific instruments, shipbuilding, pulp and paper, foodstuffs,
  chemicals, textiles, clothing

France
  machinery, chemicals, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft,
  electronics; textiles, food processing; tourism

French Guiana
  construction, shrimp processing, forestry products,
  rum, gold mining

French Polynesia
  tourism, pearls, agricultural processing,
  handicrafts, phosphates

Gabon
  petroleum extraction and refining; manganese, gold; chemicals,
  ship repair, food and beverages, textiles, lumbering and plywood,
  cement

Gambia, The
  processing peanuts, fish, and hides; tourism, beverages,
  agricultural machinery assembly, woodworking, metalworking, clothing

Gaza Strip
  generally small family businesses that produce textiles,
  soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs; the
  Israelis have established some small-scale modern industries in an
  industrial center, but operations ceased prior to Israel's
  evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements

Georgia
  steel, aircraft, machine tools, electrical appliances,
  mining (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood products, wine

Germany
  among the world's largest and most technologically advanced
  producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery,
  vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages,
  shipbuilding, textiles

Ghana
  mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting,
  food processing, cement, small commercial ship building

Gibraltar
  tourism, banking and finance, ship repairing, tobacco

Greece
  tourism, food and tobacco processing, textiles, chemicals,
  metal products; mining, petroleum

Greenland
  fish processing (mainly shrimp and Greenland halibut);
  gold, niobium, tantalite, uranium, iron and diamond mining;
  handicrafts, hides and skins, small shipyards

Grenada
  food and beverages, textiles, light assembly operations,
  tourism, construction

Guadeloupe
  construction, cement, rum, sugar, tourism

Guam
  US military, tourism, construction, transshipment services,
  concrete products, printing and publishing, food processing, textiles

Guatemala
  sugar, textiles and clothing, furniture, chemicals,
  petroleum, metals, rubber, tourism

Guernsey
  tourism, banking

Guinea
  bauxite, gold, diamonds; alumina refining; light
  manufacturing and agricultural processing industries

Guinea-Bissau
  agricultural products processing, beer, soft drinks

Guyana
  bauxite, sugar, rice milling, timber, textiles, gold mining

Haiti
  sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement, light
  assembly industries based on imported parts

Holy See (Vatican City)
  printing; production of coins, medals,
  postage stamps; a small amount of mosaics and staff uniforms;
  worldwide banking and financial activities

Honduras
  sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products

Hong Kong
  textiles, clothing, tourism, banking, shipping,
  electronics, plastics, toys, watches, clocks

Hungary
  mining, metallurgy, construction materials, processed foods,
  textiles, chemicals (especially pharmaceuticals), motor vehicles

Iceland
  fish processing; aluminum smelting, ferrosilicon production;
  geothermal power, tourism

India
  textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation
  equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

Indonesia
  petroleum and natural gas, textiles, apparel, footwear,
  mining, cement, chemical fertilizers, plywood, rubber, food, tourism

Iran
  petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and other
  construction materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining
  and vegetable oil production), metal fabrication, armaments

Iraq
  petroleum, chemicals, textiles, leather, construction
  materials, food processing, fertilizer, metal fabrication/processing

Ireland
  steel, lead, zinc, silver, aluminum, barite, and gypsum
  mining processing; food products, brewing, textiles, clothing;
  chemicals, pharmaceuticals; machinery, rail transportation
  equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, ship construction and
  refurbishment; glass and crystal; software, tourism

Isle of Man
  financial services, light manufacturing, tourism

Israel
  high-technology projects (including aviation, communications,
  computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics, fiber
  optics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food,
  beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, construction, metals
  products, chemical products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles,
  footwear

Italy
  tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food
  processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

Jamaica
  tourism, bauxite/alumina, agro processing, light
  manufactures, rum, cement, metal, paper, chemical products,
  telecommunications

Japan
  among world's largest and technologically advanced producers
  of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and
  nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods

Jersey
  tourism, banking and finance, dairy

Jordan
  textiles, phosphate mining, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals,
  petroleum refining, cement, potash, inorganic chemicals, light
  manufacturing, tourism

Kazakhstan
  oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, chromite, lead, zinc,
  copper, titanium, bauxite, gold, silver, phosphates, sulfur, iron
  and steel; tractors and other agricultural machinery, electric
  motors, construction materials

Kenya
  small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries,
  textiles, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, oil
  refining; aluminum, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair,
  tourism

Kiribati
  fishing, handicrafts

Korea, North
  military products; machine building, electric power,
  chemicals; mining (coal, iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper,
  zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy; textiles, food
  processing; tourism

Korea, South
  electronics, telecommunications, automobile production,
  chemicals, shipbuilding, steel

Kuwait
  petroleum, petrochemicals, cement, shipbuilding and repair,
  desalination, food processing, construction materials

Kyrgyzstan
  small machinery, textiles, food processing, cement,
  shoes, sawn logs, refrigerators, furniture, electric motors, gold,
  rare earth metals

Laos
  copper, tin, and gypsum mining; timber, electric power,
  agricultural processing, construction, garments, tourism, cement

Latvia
  buses, vans, street and railroad cars; synthetic fibers,
  agricultural machinery, fertilizers, washing machines, radios,
  electronics, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, textiles; note -
  dependent on imports for energy and raw materials

Lebanon
  banking, tourism, food processing, jewelry, cement,
  textiles, mineral and chemical products, wood and furniture
  products, oil refining, metal fabricating

Lesotho
  food, beverages, textiles, apparel assembly, handicrafts,
  construction, tourism

Liberia
  rubber processing, palm oil processing, timber, diamonds

Libya
  petroleum, iron and steel, food processing, textiles,
  handicrafts, cement

Liechtenstein
  electronics, metal manufacturing, dental products,
  ceramics, pharmaceuticals, food products, precision instruments,
  tourism, optical instruments

Lithuania
  metal-cutting machine tools, electric motors, television
  sets, refrigerators and freezers, petroleum refining, shipbuilding
  (small ships), furniture making, textiles, food processing,
  fertilizers, agricultural machinery, optical equipment, electronic
  components, computers, amber jewelry

Luxembourg
  banking and financial services, iron and steel,
  information technology, telecommunications, cargo transportation,
  food processing, chemicals, metal products, engineering, tires,
  glass, aluminum, tourism

Macau
  tourism, gambling, clothing, textiles, electronics, footwear,
  toys

Macedonia
  food processing, beverages, textiles, chemicals, steel,
  cement, energy, pharmaceuticals

Madagascar
  meat processing, soap, breweries, tanneries, sugar,
  textiles, glassware, cement, automobile assembly plant, paper,
  petroleum, tourism

Malawi
  tobacco, tea, sugar, sawmill products, cement, consumer goods

Malaysia
  Peninsular Malaysia - rubber and oil palm processing and
  manufacturing, light manufacturing industry, electronics, tin mining
  and smelting, logging, timber processing; Sabah - logging, petroleum
  production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production
  and refining, logging

Maldives
  fish processing, tourism, shipping, boat building, coconut
  processing, garments, woven mats, rope, handicrafts, coral and sand
  mining

Mali
  food processing; construction; phosphate and gold mining

Malta
  tourism, electronics, ship building and repair, construction,
  food and beverages, textiles, footwear, clothing, tobacco

Marshall Islands
  copra, tuna processing, tourism, craft items from
  seashells, wood, and pearls

Martinique
  construction, rum, cement, oil refining, sugar, tourism

Mauritania
  fish processing, mining of iron ore and gypsum

Mauritius
  food processing (largely sugar milling), textiles,
  clothing, chemicals, metal products, transport equipment,
  nonelectrical machinery, tourism

Mayotte
  newly created lobster and shrimp industry, construction

Mexico
  food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel,
  petroleum, mining, textiles, clothing, motor vehicles, consumer
  durables, tourism

Micronesia, Federated States of
  tourism, construction; fish
  processing, specialized aquaculture; craft items from shell, wood,
  and pearls

Moldova
  sugar, vegetable oil, food processing, agricultural
  machinery; foundry equipment, refrigerators and freezers, washing
  machines; hosiery, shoes, textiles

Monaco
  tourism, construction, small-scale industrial and consumer
  products

Mongolia
  construction and construction materials; mining (coal,
  copper, molybdenum, fluorspar, tin, tungsten, and gold); oil; food
  and beverages; processing of animal products, cashmere and natural
  fiber manufacturing

Montenegro
  steelmaking, agricultural processing, consumer goods,
  tourism

Montserrat
  tourism, rum, textiles, electronic appliances

Morocco
  phosphate rock mining and processing, food processing,
  leather goods, textiles, construction, tourism

Mozambique
  food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints),
  aluminum, petroleum products, textiles, cement, glass, asbestos,
  tobacco

Namibia
  meatpacking, fish processing, dairy products; mining
  (diamonds, lead, zinc, tin, silver, tungsten, uranium, copper)

Nauru
  phosphate mining, offshore banking, coconut products

Nepal
  tourism, carpet, textile; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed
  mills; cigarettes, cement and brick production

Netherlands
  agroindustries, metal and engineering products,
  electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum,
  construction, microelectronics, fishing

Netherlands Antilles
  tourism (Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire),
  petroleum refining (Curacao), petroleum transshipment facilities
  (Curacao and Bonaire), light manufacturing (Curacao)

New Caledonia
  nickel mining and smelting

New Zealand
  food processing, wood and paper products, textiles,
  machinery, transportation equipment, banking and insurance, tourism,
  mining

Nicaragua
  food processing, chemicals, machinery and metal products,
  textiles, clothing, petroleum refining and distribution, beverages,
  footwear, wood

Niger
  uranium mining, cement, brick, soap, textiles, food
  processing, chemicals, slaughterhouses

Nigeria
  crude oil, coal, tin, columbite; palm oil, peanuts, cotton,
  rubber, wood; hides and skins, textiles, cement and other
  construction materials, food products, footwear, chemicals,
  fertilizer, printing, ceramics, steel, small commercial ship
  construction and repair

Niue
  tourism, handicrafts, food processing

Norfolk Island
  tourism, light industry, ready mixed concrete

Northern Mariana Islands
  tourism, construction, garments, handicrafts

Norway
  petroleum and gas, food processing, shipbuilding, pulp and
  paper products, metals, chemicals, timber, mining, textiles, fishing

Oman
  crude oil production and refining, natural and liquefied
  natural gas (LNG) production; construction, cement, copper, steel,
  chemicals, optic fiber

Pakistan
  textiles and apparel, food processing, pharmaceuticals,
  construction materials, paper products, fertilizer, shrimp

Palau
  tourism, craft items (from shell, wood, pearls), construction,
  garment making

Panama
  construction, brewing, cement and other construction
  materials, sugar milling

Papua New Guinea
  copra crushing, palm oil processing, plywood
  production, wood chip production; mining of gold, silver, and
  copper; crude oil production, petroleum refining; construction,
  tourism

Paraguay
  sugar, cement, textiles, beverages, wood products, steel,
  metallurgic, electric power

Peru
  mining and refining of minerals; steel, metal fabrication;
  petroleum extraction and refining, natural gas; fishing and fish
  processing, textiles, clothing, food processing

Philippines
  electronics assembly, garments, footwear,
  pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wood products, food processing,
  petroleum refining, fishing

Pitcairn Islands
  postage stamps, handicrafts, beekeeping, honey

Poland
  machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals,
  shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Portugal
  textiles and footwear; wood pulp, paper, and cork; metals
  and metalworking; oil refining; chemicals; fish canning; rubber and
  plastic products; ceramics; electronics and communications
  equipment; rail transportation equipment; aerospace equipment; ship
  construction and refurbishment; wine; tourism

Puerto Rico
  pharmaceuticals, electronics, apparel, food products,
  tourism

Qatar
  crude oil production and refining, ammonia, fertilizers,
  petrochemicals, steel reinforcing bars, cement, commercial ship
  repair

Reunion
  sugar, rum, cigarettes, handicraft items, flower oil
  extraction

Romania
  textiles and footwear, light machinery and auto assembly,
  mining, timber, construction materials, metallurgy, chemicals, food
  processing, petroleum refining

Russia
  complete range of mining and extractive industries producing
  coal, oil, gas, chemicals, and metals; all forms of machine building
  from rolling mills to high-performance aircraft and space vehicles;
  defense industries including radar, missile production, and advanced
  electronic components, shipbuilding; road and rail transportation
  equipment; communications equipment; agricultural machinery,
  tractors, and construction equipment; electric power generating and
  transmitting equipment; medical and scientific instruments; consumer
  durables, textiles, foodstuffs, handicrafts

Rwanda
  cement, agricultural products, small-scale beverages, soap,
  furniture, shoes, plastic goods, textiles, cigarettes

Saint Helena
  construction, crafts (furniture, lacework, fancy
  woodwork), fishing, philatelic sales

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  sugar processing, tourism, cotton, salt,
  copra, clothing, footwear, beverages

Saint Lucia
  clothing, assembly of electronic components, beverages,
  corrugated cardboard boxes, tourism; lime processing, coconut
  processing

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  fish processing and supply base for
  fishing fleets; tourism

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  food processing, cement, furniture,
  clothing, starch

Samoa
  food processing, building materials, auto parts

San Marino
  tourism, banking, textiles, electronics, ceramics,
  cement, wine

Sao Tome and Principe
  light construction, textiles, soap, beer, fish
  processing, timber

Saudi Arabia
  crude oil production, petroleum refining, basic
  petrochemicals; ammonia, industrial gases, sodium hydroxide (caustic
  soda), cement, fertilizer, plastics; metals, commercial ship repair,
  commercial aircraft repair, construction

Senegal
  agricultural and fish processing, phosphate mining,
  fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials,
  ship construction and repair

Serbia
  sugar, agricultural machinery, electrical and communication
  equipment, paper and pulp, lead, transportation equipment

Seychelles
  fishing, tourism, processing of coconuts and vanilla,
  coir (coconut fiber) rope, boat building, printing, furniture;
  beverages

Sierra Leone
  diamond mining; small-scale manufacturing (beverages,
  textiles, cigarettes, footwear); petroleum refining, small
  commercial ship repair

Singapore
  electronics, chemicals, financial services, oil drilling
  equipment, petroleum refining, rubber processing and rubber
  products, processed food and beverages, ship repair, offshore
  platform construction, life sciences, entrepot trade

Slovakia
  metal and metal products; food and beverages; electricity,
  gas, coke, oil, nuclear fuel; chemicals and manmade fibers;
  machinery; paper and printing; earthenware and ceramics; transport
  vehicles; textiles; electrical and optical apparatus; rubber products

Slovenia
  ferrous metallurgy and aluminum products, lead and zinc
  smelting; electronics (including military electronics), trucks,
  electric power equipment, wood products, textiles, chemicals,
  machine tools

Solomon Islands
  fish (tuna), mining, timber

Somalia
  a few light industries, including sugar refining, textiles,
  wireless communication

South Africa
  mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold,
  chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles,
  iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship
  repair

Spain
  textiles and apparel (including footwear), food and beverages,
  metals and metal manufactures, chemicals, shipbuilding, automobiles,
  machine tools, tourism, clay and refractory products, footwear,
  pharmaceuticals, medical equipment

Sri Lanka
  processing of rubber, tea, coconuts, tobacco and other
  agricultural commodities; telecommunications, insurance, banking;
  clothing, textiles; cement, petroleum refining

Sudan
  oil, cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar,
  soap distilling, shoes, petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals,
  armaments, automobile/light truck assembly

Suriname
  bauxite and gold mining, alumina production; oil,
  lumbering, food processing, fishing

Swaziland
  mining (coal, raw asbestos), wood pulp, sugar, soft drink
  concentrates, textile and apparel

Sweden
  iron and steel, precision equipment (bearings, radio and
  telephone parts, armaments), wood pulp and paper products, processed
  foods, motor vehicles

Switzerland
  machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision
  instruments

Syria
  petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco,
  phosphate rock mining

Taiwan
  electronics, petroleum refining, armaments, chemicals,
  textiles, iron and steel, machinery, cement, food processing,
  vehicles, consumer products, pharmaceuticals

Tajikistan
  aluminum, zinc, lead; chemicals and fertilizers, cement,
  vegetable oil, metal-cutting machine tools, refrigerators and
  freezers

Tanzania
  agricultural processing (sugar, beer, cigarettes, sisal
  twine); diamond, gold, and iron mining, salt, soda ash; cement, oil
  refining, shoes, apparel, wood products, fertilizer

Thailand
  tourism, textiles and garments, agricultural processing,
  beverages, tobacco, cement, light manufacturing such as jewelry and
  electric appliances, computers and parts, integrated circuits,
  furniture, plastics, automobiles and automotive parts; world's
  second-largest tungsten producer and third-largest tin producer

Togo
  phosphate mining, agricultural processing, cement, handicrafts,
  textiles, beverages

Tokelau
  small-scale enterprises for copra production, woodworking,
  plaited craft goods; stamps, coins; fishing

Tonga
  tourism, fishing

Trinidad and Tobago
  petroleum, chemicals, tourism, food processing,
  cement, beverage, cotton textiles

Tunisia
  petroleum, mining (particularly phosphate and iron ore),
  tourism, textiles, footwear, agribusiness, beverages

Turkey
  textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, mining (coal,
  chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber,
  paper

Turkmenistan
  natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food
  processing

Turks and Caicos Islands
  tourism, offshore financial services

Tuvalu
  fishing, tourism, copra

Uganda
  sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles; cement, steel
  production

Ukraine
  coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals,
  machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food processing
  (especially sugar)

United Arab Emirates
  petroleum and petrochemicals; fishing,
  aluminum, cement, fertilizers, commercial ship repair, construction
  materials, some boat building, handicrafts, textiles

United Kingdom
  machine tools, electric power equipment, automation
  equipment, railroad equipment, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor
  vehicles and parts, electronics and communications equipment,
  metals, chemicals, coal, petroleum, paper and paper products, food
  processing, textiles, clothing, other consumer goods

United States
  leading industrial power in the world, highly
  diversified and technologically advanced; petroleum, steel, motor
  vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics,
  food processing, consumer goods, lumber, mining

Uruguay
  food processing, electrical machinery, transportation
  equipment, petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages

Uzbekistan
  textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy,
  gold petroleum, natural gas, chemicals

Vanuatu
  food and fish freezing, wood processing, meat canning

Venezuela
  petroleum, construction materials, food processing,
  textiles; iron ore mining, steel, aluminum; motor vehicle assembly

Vietnam
  food processing, garments, shoes, machine-building; mining,
  coal, steel; cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, paper

Virgin Islands
  tourism, petroleum refining, watch assembly, rum
  distilling, construction, pharmaceuticals, textiles, electronics

Wallis and Futuna
  copra, handicrafts, fishing, lumber

West Bank
  generally small family businesses that produce cement,
  textiles, soap, olive-wood carvings, and mother-of-pearl souvenirs;
  the Israelis have established some small-scale, modern industries in
  the settlements and industrial centers

Western Sahara
  phosphate mining, handicrafts

World
  dominated by the onrush of technology, especially in
  computers, robotics, telecommunications, and medicines and medical
  equipment; most of these advances take place in OECD nations; only a
  small portion of non-OECD countries have succeeded in rapidly
  adjusting to these technological forces; the accelerated development
  of new industrial (and agricultural) technology is complicating
  already grim environmental problems

Yemen
  crude oil production and petroleum refining; small-scale
  production of cotton textiles and leather goods; food processing;
  handicrafts; small aluminum products factory; cement; commercial
  ship repair

Zambia
  copper mining and processing, construction, foodstuffs,
  beverages, chemicals, textiles, fertilizer, horticulture

Zimbabwe
  mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay,
  numerous metallic and nonmetallic ores), steel; wood products,
  cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs,
  beverages

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2091  Infant mortality rate (deaths/1,000 live births)


Afghanistan
  total: 160.23 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 164.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 155.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Albania
  total: 20.75 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.2 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Algeria
  total: 29.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.94 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  total: 9.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Andorra
  total: 4.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.68 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Angola
  total: 185.36 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 197.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 172.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  total: 20.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 18.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.82 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Argentina
  total: 14.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Armenia
  total: 22.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Aruba
  total: 5.79 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Australia
  total: 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Austria
  total: 4.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  total: 79 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 81.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 76.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  total: 24.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 30.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  total: 16.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  total: 60.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Barbados
  total: 11.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Belarus
  total: 13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Belgium
  total: 4.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.2 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.01 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Belize
  total: 24.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Benin
  total: 79.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 84.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 74.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  total: 8.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.73 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  total: 98.41 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 96.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 100.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  total: 51.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 9.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Botswana
  total: 53.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 52.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Brazil
  total: 28.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  total: 16.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Brunei
  total: 12.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  total: 19.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  total: 91.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 99.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Burma
  total: 61.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 72.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 50.38 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Burundi
  total: 63.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 70.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 55.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  total: 68.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 77.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.84 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  total: 63.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 67.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 59.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Canada
  total: 4.69 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  total: 46.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 51.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 41.26 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  total: 8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  total: 85.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 78.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Chad
  total: 91.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 100.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 82.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Chile
  total: 8.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

China
  total: 23.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.94 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Colombia
  total: 20.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.31 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Comoros
  total: 72.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 81.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 64.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 88.62 deaths/1,000 live
  births
  male: 96.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 80.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 85.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 91 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 79.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Costa Rica
  total: 9.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 89.11 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 105.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 71.99 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Croatia
  total: 6.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cuba
  total: 6.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.41 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  total: 7.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  total: 3.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Denmark
  total: 4.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  total: 102.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 110.07 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Dominica
  total: 13.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 18.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.11 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  total: 28.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 30.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 25.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

East Timor
  total: 45.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.03 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 39.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  total: 22.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.42 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Egypt
  total: 31.33 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 30.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  total: 24.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 27.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 89.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 95.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  total: 46.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 40.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Estonia
  total: 7.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.91 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  total: 93.62 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 103.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 83.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

European Union
  total: 5.1 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.6 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.5 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Faroe Islands
  total: 6.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.85 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Fiji
  total: 12.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Finland
  total: 3.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

France
  total: 4.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  total: 11.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  total: 8.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Gabon
  total: 54.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 63.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 45.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  total: 71.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 78.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 64.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  total: 22.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Georgia
  total: 17.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.56 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Germany
  total: 4.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Ghana
  total: 55.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 59.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 50.33 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  total: 5.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Greece
  total: 5.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Greenland
  total: 15.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Grenada
  total: 14.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.67 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  total: 8.41 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guam
  total: 6.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  total: 30.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  total: 4.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guinea
  total: 90 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 95.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 84.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 105.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 115.53 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Guyana
  total: 32.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 35.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Haiti
  total: 71.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 78.01 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 65.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Honduras
  total: 25.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 22.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  total: 2.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Hungary
  total: 8.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Iceland
  total: 3.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

India
  total: 54.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  total: 34.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 39.36 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 29.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Iran
  total: 40.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 40.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 40.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Iraq
  total: 48.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 42.61 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Ireland
  total: 5.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  total: 5.82 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.79 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Israel
  total: 6.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Italy
  total: 5.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.42 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.19 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  total: 15.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 15.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Japan
  total: 3.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Jersey
  total: 5.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.78 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Jordan
  total: 16.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  total: 28.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 23.45 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Kenya
  total: 59.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 56.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  total: 47.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 52.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 41.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  total: 23.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  total: 6.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.75 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  total: 9.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 34.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 39.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Laos
  total: 83.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 73.26 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Latvia
  total: 9.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  total: 23.72 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  total: 87.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 92.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 82.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Liberia
  total: 155.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 171.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 139.06 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Libya
  total: 23.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.32 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  total: 4.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.04 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  total: 6.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  total: 4.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.73 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Macau
  total: 4.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  total: 9.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 9.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.66 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  total: 75.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 83.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 66.84 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Malawi
  total: 94.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 98.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 89.96 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  total: 17.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.87 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.25 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Maldives
  total: 54.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.01 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 55.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mali
  total: 107.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 117.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 97.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Malta
  total: 3.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.35 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  total: 28.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.93 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Martinique
  total: 6.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.68 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 9.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  total: 69.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 72.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 66.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  total: 14.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.23 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  total: 60.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 66.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mexico
  total: 20.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 29.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 32.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 26.01 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Moldova
  total: 38.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 41.44 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 35.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Monaco
  total: 5.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.46 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  total: 52.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.57 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  total: 7.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Morocco
  total: 40.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 36.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  total: 129.24 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 134.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 124.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Namibia
  total: 48.1 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 51.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 44.09 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Nauru
  total: 9.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Nepal
  total: 65.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 63.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 67.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  total: 4.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.52 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.38 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 9.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  total: 7.57 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  total: 5.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  total: 28.11 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.54 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Niger
  total: 118.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 122.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 114.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  total: 97.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 104.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 90.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Niue
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Norfolk Island
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 6.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.03 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Norway
  total: 3.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.03 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Oman
  total: 18.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.65 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  total: 70.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 70.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 70.04 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Palau
  total: 14.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.19 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Panama
  total: 16.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.75 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 49.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 45.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  total: 24.78 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 29.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 19.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Peru
  total: 30.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 33.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Philippines
  total: 22.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.59 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 19.89 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Poland
  total: 7.22 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.95 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Portugal
  total: 4.98 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.45 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  total: 9.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 10.32 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 7.9 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Qatar
  total: 18.04 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.63 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Reunion
  total: 7.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.85 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Romania
  total: 25.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 22.16 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Russia
  total: 15.13 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  total: 89.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 94.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 84.34 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  total: 18.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.96 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 14.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 14.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.28 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  total: 13.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 14.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.97 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  total: 7.38 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.46 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 14.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 13.08 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Samoa
  total: 26.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 31.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 21.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

San Marino
  total: 5.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.06 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.17 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 41.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.74 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 39.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 12.81 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 14.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Senegal
  total: 52.94 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 56.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 49.29 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  total: 15.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 19.16 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.99 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  total: 160.39 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 177.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 142.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Singapore
  total: 2.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 2.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.07 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  total: 7.26 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  total: 4.4 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  total: 20.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 23.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 17.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Somalia
  total: 114.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 124.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 105.32 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

South Africa
  total: 60.66 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 64.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 56.92 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Spain
  total: 4.37 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  total: 13.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Sudan
  total: 61.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 61.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 60.18 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Suriname
  total: 23.02 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.89 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Swaziland
  total: 71.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 75.25 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 68.34 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Sweden
  total: 2.76 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 2.92 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 2.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  total: 4.34 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 4.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 3.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Syria
  total: 28.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 28.85 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 28.36 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  total: 6.29 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 6.97 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  total: 106.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 117.83 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 94.59 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  total: 96.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 105.64 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 87.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Thailand
  total: 19.49 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 20.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Togo
  total: 60.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 68.17 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 52.87 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Tonga
  total: 12.3 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 13.63 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.91 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 25.05 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 23.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  total: 23.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 26.7 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 20.77 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Turkey
  total: 39.69 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 43.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 35.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  total: 72.56 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 76.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 68 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 17.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  total: 19.47 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 22.27 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 16.52 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Uganda
  total: 66.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 69.51 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 62.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  total: 9.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 11.48 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 8.22 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 14.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 16.57 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 11.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  total: 5.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 5.67 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 4.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

United States
  total: 6.43 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 7.09 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 5.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  total: 11.61 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 12.9 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 10.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  total: 69.99 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 74.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 65.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  total: 53.8 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 56.35 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 51.13 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  total: 21.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 24.58 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 18.27 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  total: 25.14 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 25.54 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 24.72 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  total: 7.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 8.93 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 6.72 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

West Bank
  total: 19.15 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 21.12 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 17.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  total: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

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

Yemen
  total: 59.88 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 64.55 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 54.98 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Zambia
  total: 86.84 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 94.08 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 79.37 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  total: 51.71 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 54.5 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.83 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2092  Inflation rate (consumer prices) (%)


Afghanistan
  16.3% (2005 est.)

Albania
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Algeria
  1.9% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  NA%

Andorra
  3.4% (2004)

Angola
  23% (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  5.3%

Antigua and Barbuda
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Argentina
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Armenia
  0.6% (2005 est.)

Aruba
  3.4% (2005)

Australia
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Austria
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  1.2% ( 2004)

Bahrain
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  7% (2005 est.)

Barbados
  -0.5% (2003 est.)

Belarus
  10.3% (2005 est.)

Belgium
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Belize
  3% (2005 est.)

Benin
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  2.8% (November 2005)

Bhutan
  7% (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  5.4% (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  4.4% (2005 est.)

Botswana
  8.6% (2005 est.)

Brazil
  6.9% (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  2% (2005)

Brunei
  0.9% (2004)

Bulgaria
  5% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  6.4% (2005 est.)

Burma
  20.2% (2005 est.)

Burundi
  16% (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  2% (2005 est.)

Canada
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  4.4% (2004)

Central African Republic
  3.6% (2001 est.)

Chad
  3% (2005 est.)

Chile
  3.1% (2005 est.)

China
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Colombia
  5% (2005 est.)

Comoros
  3% (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  9% (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  13.8% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  3.9% (2005 est.)

Croatia
  3.3% (2005 est.)

Cuba
  7% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 2.6% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: 9.1%
  (2004 est.)

Czech Republic
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Denmark
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  3% (2005 est.)

Dominica
  -0.1% (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  4.2% (2005 est.)

East Timor
  1.4% (2005)

Ecuador
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  4.9% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  5% (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  15% (2005 est.)

Estonia
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  11.6% (2005 est.)

European Union
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  3.6% (1998)

Faroe Islands
  5.1% (1999)

Fiji
  3% (2005)

Finland
  0.9% (2005 est.)

France
  1.7% (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  1% (2003)

French Polynesia
  1.1% (2006 est.)

Gabon
  -0.1% (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  7% (includes West Bank) (2003)

Georgia
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Germany
  2% (2005 est.)

Ghana
  15.1% (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  1.5% (1998)

Greece
  3.5% (2005 est.)

Greenland
  1.6% (1999 est.)

Grenada
  3% (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  NA%

Guam
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  4.9% (2004 est.)

Guinea
  25% (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  4% (2002 est.)

Guyana
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Haiti
  15.7% (2005 est.)

Honduras
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  0.9% (2005 est.)

Hungary
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Iceland
  4% (2005 est.)

India
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Iran
  13.5% (2005 est.)

Iraq
  33% (2005 est.)

Ireland
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  2.7% (2003 est.)

Israel
  1.3% (2005 est.)

Italy
  2% (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  15.3% (2005 est.)

Japan
  -0.3% (2005 est.)

Jersey
  5.3% (2004)

Jordan
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Kenya
  10.3% (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Korea, North
  NA%

Korea, South
  2.8% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Laos
  7% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Liberia
  15% (2003 est.)

Libya
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  1% (2001)

Lithuania
  2.7% (2005)

Luxembourg
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Macau
  3.8% (2nd quarter, 2005)

Macedonia
  0% (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  15% (2005 est.)

Malawi
  15.4% (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  3% (2005 est.)

Maldives
  6% (2005 est.)

Mali
  4.5% (2002 est.)

Malta
  3% (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  3% (2005 est.)

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  7% (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  5% (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  NA%

Mexico
  4% (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  2.2% (2005)

Moldova
  11.9% (2005 est.)

Monaco
  1.9% (2000)

Mongolia
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  3.4% (2004)

Montserrat
  2.6% (2002 est.)

Morocco
  1% (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  6.5% (2005 est.)

Namibia
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Nauru
  -3.6% (1993)

Nepal
  7.8% (October 2005 est.)

Netherlands
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  2.1% (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  -0.6% (2000 est.)

New Zealand
  3% (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Niger
  0.2% (2004 est.)

Nigeria
  13.5% (2005 est.)

Niue
  4% (2005)

Northern Mariana Islands
  -0.8% (2000)

Norway
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Oman
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  9.1% (2005 est.)

Palau
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Panama
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Peru
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Philippines
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Poland
  2.2% (2005 est.)

Portugal
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  6.5% (2003 est.)

Qatar
  8.8% (2005 est.)

Reunion
  NA%

Romania
  9% (2005)

Russia
  12.7% (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  8% (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  3.2% (1997 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  8.7% (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  2.1% (1991-96 average)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1% (2005 est.)

Samoa
  3.3% (2005)

San Marino
  -1.7% (2001)

Sao Tome and Principe
  15.2% (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Senegal
  1.7% (2005 est.)

Serbia
  15.5% (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  1.6% (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  1% (2002 est.)

Singapore
  0.4% (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  2.7% (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  2.5% (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Somalia
  NA%; note - businesses print their own money, so inflation
  rates cannot be easily determined

South Africa
  4% (2005 est.)

Spain
  3.4% (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  11.6% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  9% (2005 est.)

Suriname
  9.5% (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  4% (2005 est.)

Sweden
  0.5% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  1.2% (2005 est.)

Syria
  5% (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  2.3% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  7.1% (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Thailand
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Togo
  6% (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  NA%

Tonga
  11.1% (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  2.1% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  8.2% (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  10.5% (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  4% (1995)

Tuvalu
  3.7% (2003 est.)

Uganda
  8.1% (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  13.5% (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  10.5% (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  2.1% (2005 est.)

United States
  3.2% (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  4.7% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  -1.6% (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  16% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  8.3% (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  2.2% (2003)

Wallis and Futuna
  2.8% NA%

West Bank
  7% (includes Gaza Strip) (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA%

World
  developed countries 1% to 4% typically; developing countries
  5% to 20% typically; national inflation rates vary widely in
  individual cases, from declining prices in Japan to hyperinflation
  in one Third World countries (Zimbabwe); inflation rates have
  declined for most countries for the last several years, held in
  check by increasing international competition from several low wage
  countries (2005 est.)

Yemen
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Zambia
  18.3% (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  266.8% official data; private sector estimates are much
  higher (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2093  Waterways (km)


Afghanistan
  1,200 km (chiefly Amu Darya, which handles vessels up to
  500 DWT) (2005)

Albania
  43 km (2006)

Angola
  1,300 km (2005)

Argentina
  11,000 km (2005)

Australia
  2,000 km (mainly used for recreation on Murray and
  Murray-Darling river systems) (2002)

Austria
  358 km (2003)

Bangladesh
  8,372 km
  note: includes 5,635 km main cargo routes; network reduced to 5,200
  km in dry season (2005)

Belarus
  2,500 km (use limited by location on perimeter of country
  and by shallowness) (2003)

Belgium
  2,043 km (1,528 km in regular commercial use) (2003)

Belize
  825 km (navigable only by small craft) (2005)

Benin
  150 km (on River Niger along northern border) (2005)

Bolivia
  10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Sava River (northern border) open to shipping
  but use limited (2006)

Brazil
  50,000 km (most in areas remote from industry and population)
  (2005)

Brunei
  209 km (navigable by craft drawing less than 1.2 m) (2005)

Bulgaria
  470 km (2006)

Burma
  12,800 km (2005)

Burundi
  mainly on Lake Tanganyika (2003)

Cambodia
  2,400 km (mainly on Mekong River) (2005)

Cameroon
  navigation mainly on Benue River; limited during rainy
  season (2005)

Canada
  631 km
  note: Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint
  Lawrence River of 3,058 km, shared with United States (2003)

Central African Republic
  2,800 km (primarily on the Oubangui and
  Sangha rivers) (2005)

Chad
  Chari and Legone rivers are navigable only in wet season (2002)

China
  123,964 km (2003)

Colombia
  18,000 km (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  15,000 km (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  4,385 km (on Congo and Oubanqui rivers) (2005)

Costa Rica
  730 km (seasonally navigable by small craft) (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  980 km (navigable rivers, canals, and numerous coastal
  lagoons) (2005)

Croatia
  785 km (2006)

Cuba
  240 km (2005)

Czech Republic
  664 km (principally on Elbe as well as Vltava and
  Oder rivers) (2005)

Denmark
  400 km (2001)

Ecuador
  1,500 km (most inaccessible) (2005)

Egypt
  3,500 km
  note: includes Nile River, Lake Nasser, Alexandria-Cairo Waterway,
  and numerous smaller canals in delta; Suez Canal (193.5 km including
  approaches) navigable by oceangoing vessels drawing up to 17.68 m
  (2005)

El Salvador
  Rio Lempa partially navigable (2004)

Estonia
  500 km (2005)

European Union
  53,512 km

Fiji
  203 km
  note: 122 km navigable by motorized craft and 200-metric-ton barges
  (2004)

Finland
  7,842 km
  note: includes Saimaa Canal system of 3,577 km; southern part leased
  from Russia (2005)

France
  8,500 km (1,686 km accessible to craft of 3,000 metric tons)
  (2000)

French Guiana
  3,760 km
  note: 460 km navigable by small oceangoing vessels and coastal and
  river steamers, 3,300 km by native craft (2003)

Gabon
  1,600 km (310 km on Ogooue River) (2005)

Gambia, The
  390 km (on River Gambia; small ocean-going vessels can
  reach 190 km) (2004)

Germany
  7,467 km
  note: Rhine River carries most goods; Main-Danube Canal links North
  Sea and Black Sea (2005)

Ghana
  1,293 km
  note: 168 km for launches and lighters on Volta, Ankobra, and Tano
  rivers; 1,125 km of arterial and feeder waterways on Lake Volta
  (2005)

Greece
  6 km
  note: Corinth Canal (6 km) crosses the Isthmus of Corinth; shortens
  sea voyage by 325 km (2006)

Guatemala
  990 km
  note: 260 km navigable year round; additional 730 km navigable
  during high-water season (2004)

Guinea
  1,300 km (navigable by shallow-draft native craft) (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  four largest rivers are navigable for some distance;
  many inlets and creeks give shallow-water access to much of interior
  (2006)

Guyana
  Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo rivers are navigable by
  oceangoing vessels for 150 km, 100 km, and 80 km respectively (2005)

Honduras
  465 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2005)

Hungary
  1,622 km (most on Danube River) (2006)

India
  14,500 km
  note: 5,200 km on major rivers and 485 km on canals suitable for
  mechanized vessels (2005)

Indonesia
  21,579 km (2005)

Iran
  850 km (850 km on Karun River; additional service on Lake
  Urmia) (2006)

Iraq
  5,279 km
  note: Euphrates River (2,815 km), Tigris River (1,899 km), and Third
  River (565 km) are principal waterways (2004)

Ireland
  753 km (pleasure craft only) (2005)

Italy
  2,400 km
  note: used for commercial traffic; of limited overall value compared
  to road and rail (2004)

Japan
  1,770 km (seagoing vessels use inland seas) (2006)

Kazakhstan
  4,000 km (on the Ertis (Irtysh) (80%) and Syr Darya
  (Syrdariya) rivers) (2005)

Kenya
  part of Lake Victoria system is within boundaries of Kenya
  (2003)

Kiribati
  5 km (small network of canals in Line Islands) (2003)

Korea, North
  2,250 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2006)

Korea, South
  1,608 km (most navigable only by small craft) (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  600 km (2006)

Laos
  4,600 km
  note: primarily Mekong and tributaries; 2,897 additional km are
  intermittently navigable by craft drawing less than 0.5 m (2005)

Latvia
  300 km (2005)

Liechtenstein
  28 km (2005)

Lithuania
  425 km (2005)

Luxembourg
  37 km (on Moselle River) (2003)

Madagascar
  600 km (2005)

Malawi
  700 km (on Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and Shire River) (2006)

Malaysia
  7,200 km
  note: Peninsular Malaysia 3,200 km, Sabah 1,500 km, Sarawak 2,500 km
  (2005)

Mali
  1,815 km (2005)

Mexico
  2,900 km (navigable rivers and coastal canals) (2005)

Moldova
  424 km (on Dniester River) (2005)

Mongolia
  580 km
  note: only waterway in operation is Lake Hovsgol (135 km); Selenge
  River (270 km) and Orhon River (175 km) are navigable but carry
  little traffic; lakes and rivers freeze in winter, are open from May
  to September (2004)

Mozambique
  460 km (Zambezi River navigable to Tete and along Cahora
  Bassa Lake) (2002)

Netherlands
  6,183 km (navigable for ships of 50 tons) (2005)

Nicaragua
  2,220 km (including lakes Managua and Nicaragua) (2005)

Niger
  300 km (the Niger, the only major river, is navigable to Gaya
  between September and March) (2005)

Nigeria
  8,600 km (Niger and Benue rivers and smaller rivers and
  creeks) (2005)

Norway
  1,577 km (2002)

Panama
  800 km (includes 82 km Panama Canal) (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  10,940 km (2003)

Paraguay
  3,100 km (2005)

Peru
  8,808 km
  note: 8,600 km of navigable tributaries of Amazon system and 208 km
  of Lago Titicaca (2005)

Philippines
  3,219 km (limited to vessels with draft less than 1.5 m)
  (2005)

Poland
  3,997 km (navigable rivers and canals) (2005)

Portugal
  210 km (on Douro River from Porto) (2003)

Romania
  1,731 km
  note: includes 1,075 km on Danube River, 524 km on secondary
  branches, and 132 km on canals (2005)

Russia
  102,000 km (including 33,000 km with guaranteed depth)
  note: 72,000 km system in European Russia links Baltic Sea, White
  Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and Black Sea (2005)

Rwanda
  Lac Kivu navigable by shallow-draft barges and native craft
  (2005)

Senegal
  1,000 km (primarily on Senegal, Saloum, and Casamance
  rivers) (2005)

Serbia
  587 km - primarily on Danube and Sava rivers (2005)

Sierra Leone
  800 km (600 km year round) (2005)

Slovakia
  172 km (on Danube River) (2005)

Spain
  1,000 km (2003)

Sri Lanka
  160 km (primarily on rivers in southwest) (2005)

Sudan
  4,068 km (1,723 km open year round on White and Blue Nile
  rivers) (2005)

Suriname
  1,200 km (most navigable by ships with drafts up to 7 m)
  (2005)

Sweden
  2,052 km (2005)

Switzerland
  65 km (Rhine River between Basel-Rheinfelden and
  Schaffhausen-Bodensee) (2003)

Syria
  900 km (not economically significant) (2005)

Tajikistan
  200 km (along Vakhsh River) (2006)

Tanzania
  Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, and Lake Nyasa principal
  avenues of commerce with neighboring countries; rivers not navigable
  (2005)

Thailand
  4,000 km
  note: 3,701 km navigable by boats with drafts up to 0.9 m (2005)

Togo
  50 km (seasonally on Mono River depending on rainfall) (2005)

Turkey
  1,200 km (2005)

Turkmenistan
  1,300 km (Amu Darya and Kara Kum canal important inland
  waterways) (2006)

Uganda
  on Lake Victoria, 200 km on Lake Albert, Lake Kyoga, and
  parts of Albert Nile (2005)

Ukraine
  2,253 km (most on Dnieper River) (2006)

United Kingdom
  3,200 km (620 km used for commerce) (2003)

United States
  41,009 km (19,312 km used for commerce)
  note: Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint
  Lawrence River of 3,058 km, shared with Canada (2004)

Uruguay
  1,600 km (2005)

Uzbekistan
  1,100 km (2006)

Venezuela
  7,100 km
  note: Orinoco River and Lake de Maracaibo navigable by oceangoing
  vessels, Orinoco for 400 km (2005)

Vietnam
  17,702 km (5,000 km navigable by vessels up to 1.8 m draft)
  (2005)

World
  671,886 km (2004)

Zambia
  2,250 km (includes Lake Tanganyika and the Zambezi and
  Luapula rivers) (2005)

Zimbabwe
  on Lake Kariba, length small (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2094  Judicial branch


Afghanistan
  the constitution establishes a nine-member Stera Mahkama
  or Supreme Court (its nine justices are appointed for 10-year terms
  by the president with approval of the Wolesi Jirga) and subordinate
  High Courts and Appeals Courts (note - nine supreme court justices
  were appointed in the interim in January 2005 pending National
  Assembly selection of the constitutionally mandated justices); there
  is also a minister of justice; a separate Afghan Independent Human
  Rights Commission established by the Bonn Agreement is charged with
  investigating human rights abuses and war crimes

Albania
  Constitutional Court, Supreme Court (chairman is elected by
  the People's Assembly for a four-year term), and multiple appeals
  and district courts

Algeria
  Supreme Court

American Samoa
  High Court (chief justice and associate justices are
  appointed by the US Secretary of the Interior)

Andorra
  Tribunal of Judges or Tribunal de Batlles; Tribunal of the
  Courts or Tribunal de Corts; Supreme Court of Justice of Andorra or
  Tribunal Superior de Justicia d'Andorra; Supreme Council of Justice
  or Consell Superior de la Justicia; Fiscal Ministry or Ministeri
  Fiscal; Constitutional Tribunal or Tribunal Constitucional

Angola
  Supreme Court and separate provincial courts (judges are
  appointed by the president)

Anguilla
  High Court (judge provided by Eastern Caribbean Supreme
  Court)

Antigua and Barbuda
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based in Saint
  Lucia; one judge of the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands
  and presides over the Court of Summary Jurisdiction); member
  Caribbean Court of Justice

Argentina
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (the nine Supreme Court
  judges are appointed by the president with approval by the Senate)

Armenia
  Constitutional Court; Court of Cassation (Appeals Court)

Aruba
  Common Court of Justice of Aruba (judges are appointed by the
  monarch)

Australia
  High Court (the chief justice and six other justices are
  appointed by the governor general)

Austria
  Supreme Judicial Court or Oberster Gerichtshof;
  Administrative Court or Verwaltungsgerichtshof; Constitutional Court
  or Verfassungsgerichtshof

Azerbaijan
  Supreme Court

Bahamas, The
  Privy Council (London); Courts of Appeal; Supreme
  (lower) Court; magistrates courts

Bahrain
  High Civil Appeals Court

Bangladesh
  Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are
  appointed by the president)

Barbados
  Supreme Court of Judicature (judges are appointed by the
  Service Commissions for the Judicial and Legal Services)

Belarus
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president);
  Constitutional Court (half of the judges appointed by the president
  and half appointed by the Chamber of Representatives)

Belgium
  Supreme Court of Justice or Hof van Cassatie (in Dutch) or
  Cour de Cassation (in French) (judges are appointed for life by the
  government; candidacies have to be submitted by the High Justice
  Council)

Belize
  Supreme Court (the chief justice is appointed by the governor
  general on the advice of the prime minister)

Benin
  Constitutional Court or Cour Constitutionnelle; Supreme Court
  or Cour Supreme; High Court of Justice

Bermuda
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; Magistrate Courts

Bhutan
  Supreme Court of Appeal (the monarch); High Court (judges
  appointed by the monarch)

Bolivia
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges appointed for 10-year
  terms by National Congress); District Courts (one in each
  department); provincial and local courts (to try minor cases)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  BH Constitutional Court (consists of nine
  members: four members are selected by the Bosniak/Croat Federation's
  House of Representatives, two members by the Republika Srpska's
  National Assembly, and three non-Bosnian members by the president of
  the European Court of Human Rights); BH State Court (consists of
  nine judges and three divisions - Administrative, Appellate and
  Criminal - having jurisdiction over cases related to state-level law
  and appellate jurisdiction over cases initiated in the entities);
  note - a War Crimes Chamber opened in March 2005
  note: the entities each have a Supreme Court; each entity also has a
  number of lower courts; there are 10 cantonal courts in the
  Federation, plus a number of municipal courts; the Republika Srpska
  has five municipal courts

Botswana
  High Court; Court of Appeal; Magistrates' Courts (one in
  each district)

Brazil
  Supreme Federal Tribunal (11 ministers are appointed for life
  by the president and confirmed by the Senate); Higher Tribunal of
  Justice; Regional Federal Tribunals (judges are appointed for life);
  note - though appointed "for life," judges, like all federal
  employees, have a mandatory retirement age of 70

British Virgin Islands
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting
  of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal (one judge of
  the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and presides over the
  High Court); Magistrate's Court; Juvenile Court; Court of Summary
  Jurisdiction

Brunei
  Supreme Court - chief justice and judges are sworn in by
  monarch for three-year terms; Judicial Committee of Privy Council in
  London is final court of appeal for civil cases; Shariah courts deal
  with Islamic laws (2006)

Bulgaria
  Supreme Administrative Court; Supreme Court of Cassation;
  Constitutional Court (12 justices appointed or elected for nine-year
  terms); Supreme Judicial Council (consists of the chairmen of the
  two Supreme Courts, the Chief Prosecutor, and 22 other members;
  responsible for appointing the justices, prosecutors, and
  investigating magistrates in the justice system; members of the
  Supreme Judicial Council elected for five-year terms, 11 elected by
  the National Assembly and 11 by bodies of the judiciary)

Burkina Faso
  Supreme Court; Appeals Court

Burma
  remnants of the British-era legal system are in place, but
  there is no guarantee of a fair public trial; the judiciary is not
  independent of the executive

Burundi
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; Constitutional Court; Courts
  of Appeal (there are three in separate locations); Tribunals of
  First Instance (17 at the province level and 123 small local
  tribunals)

Cambodia
  Supreme Council of the Magistracy (provided for in the
  constitution and formed in December 1997); Supreme Court (and lower
  courts) exercises judicial authority

Cameroon
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president); High
  Court of Justice (consists of nine judges and six substitute judges,
  elected by the National Assembly)

Canada
  Supreme Court of Canada (judges are appointed by the prime
  minister through the governor general); Federal Court of Canada;
  Federal Court of Appeal; Provincial Courts (these are named
  variously Court of Appeal, Court of Queens Bench, Superior Court,
  Supreme Court, and Court of Justice)

Cape Verde
  Supreme Tribunal of Justice or Supremo Tribunal de Justia

Cayman Islands
  Summary Court; Grand Court; Cayman Islands Court of
  Appeal

Central African Republic
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme;
  Constitutional Court (3 judges appointed by the president, 3 by the
  president of the National Assembly, and 3 by fellow judges); Court
  of Appeal; Criminal Courts; Inferior Courts

Chad
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; Criminal Courts; Magistrate
  Courts

Chile
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are appointed by the
  president and ratified by the Senate from lists of candidates
  provided by the court itself; the president of the Supreme Court is
  elected every three years by the 20-member court); Constitutional
  Tribunal

China
  Supreme People's Court (judges appointed by the National
  People's Congress); Local Peoples Courts (comprise higher,
  intermediate, and local courts); Special Peoples Courts (primarily
  military, maritime, and railway transport courts)

Christmas Island
  Supreme Court; District Court; Magistrate's Court

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Supreme Court; Magistrate's Court

Colombia
  four roughly coequal, supreme judicial organs; Supreme
  Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (highest court of
  criminal law; judges are selected by their peers from the nominees
  of the Superior Judicial Council for eight-year terms); Council of
  State (highest court of administrative law; judges are selected from
  the nominees of the Superior Judicial Council for eight-year terms);
  Constitutional Court (guards integrity and supremacy of the
  constitution; rules on constitutionality of laws, amendments to the
  constitution, and international treaties); Superior Judicial Council
  (administers and disciplines the civilian judiciary; resolves
  jurisdictional conflicts arising between other courts; members are
  elected by three sister courts and Congress for eight-year terms)

Comoros
  Supreme Court or Cour Supremes (two members appointed by the
  president, two members elected by the Federal Assembly, one elected
  by the Council of each island, and others are former presidents of
  the republic)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Congo, Republic of the
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Cook Islands
  High Court

Costa Rica
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (22 justices are elected
  for eight-year terms by the Legislative Assembly)

Cote d'Ivoire
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme consists of four
  chambers: Judicial Chamber for criminal cases, Audit Chamber for
  financial cases, Constitutional Chamber for judicial review cases,
  and Administrative Chamber for civil cases; there is no legal limit
  to the number of members

Croatia
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court; judges for both courts
  appointed for eight-year terms by the Judicial Council of the
  Republic, which is elected by the Assembly

Cuba
  People's Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo Popular (president,
  vice president, and other judges are elected by the National
  Assembly)

Cyprus
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed jointly by the president
  and vice president)
  note: there is also a Supreme Court in north Cyprus

Czech Republic
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court; chairman and
  deputy chairmen are appointed by the president for a 10-year term

Denmark
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the monarch for life)

Djibouti
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Dominica
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting of the Court of
  Appeal and the High Court (located in Saint Lucia; one of the six
  judges must reside in Dominica and preside over the Court of Summary
  Jurisdiction)

Dominican Republic
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are
  appointed by the National Judicial Council comprised of the
  president, the leaders of both chambers of congress, the president
  of the Supreme Court, and an additional non-governing party
  congressional representative)

East Timor
  Supreme Court of Justice - constitution calls for one
  judge to be appointed by National Parliament and rest appointed by
  Superior Council for Judiciary; note - until Supreme Court is
  established, Court of Appeals is highest court

Ecuador
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (according to the
  Constitution, new justices are elected by the full Supreme Court; in
  December 2004, however, Congress successfully replaced the entire
  court via a simple-majority resolution)

Egypt
  Supreme Constitutional Court

El Salvador
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges are selected by
  the Legislative Assembly)

Equatorial Guinea
  Supreme Tribunal

Eritrea
  High Court - regional, subregional, and village courts; also
  have military and special courts

Estonia
  National Court (chairman appointed by Parliament for life)

Ethiopia
  Federal Supreme Court (the president and vice president of
  the Federal Supreme Court are recommended by the prime minister and
  appointed by the House of People's Representatives; for other
  federal judges, the prime minister submits to the House of People's
  Representatives for appointment candidates selected by the Federal
  Judicial Administrative Council)

European Union
  Court of Justice of the European Communities (ensures
  that the treaties are interpreted and applied correctly) - 25
  justices (one from each member state) appointed for a six-year term;
  note - for the sake of efficiency, the court can sit with 11
  justices known as the "Grand Chamber"; Court of First Instance - 25
  justices appointed for a six-year term

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Supreme Court (chief justice is a
  nonresident); Magistrates Court (senior magistrate presides over
  civil and criminal divisions); Court of Summary Jurisdiction

Faroe Islands
  none

Fiji
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president); Court of
  Appeal; High Court; Magistrates' Courts

Finland
  Supreme Court or Korkein Oikeus (judges appointed by the
  president)

France
  Supreme Court of Appeals or Cour de Cassation (judges are
  appointed by the president from nominations of the High Council of
  the Judiciary); Constitutional Council or Conseil Constitutionnel
  (three members appointed by the president, three appointed by the
  president of the National Assembly, and three appointed by the
  president of the Senate); Council of State or Conseil d'Etat

French Guiana
  Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel (highest local court
  based in Martinique with jurisdiction over Martinique, Guadeloupe,
  and French Guiana)

French Polynesia
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Court of the First
  Instance or Tribunal de Premiere Instance; Court of Administrative
  Law or Tribunal Administratif

Gabon
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme consisting of three chambers -
  Judicial, Administrative, and Accounts; Constitutional Court; Courts
  of Appeal; Court of State Security; County Courts

Gambia, The
  Supreme Court

Georgia
  Supreme Court (judges elected by the Supreme Council on the
  president's or chairman of the Supreme Court's recommendation);
  Constitutional Court; first and second instance courts

Germany
  Federal Constitutional Court or Bundesverfassungsgericht
  (half the judges are elected by the Bundestag and half by the
  Bundesrat)

Ghana
  Supreme Court

Gibraltar
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Greece
  Supreme Judicial Court; Special Supreme Tribunal; all judges
  appointed for life by the president after consultation with a
  judicial council

Greenland
  High Court or Landsret (appeals can be made to the Ostre
  Landsret or Eastern Division of the High Court or Supreme Court in
  Copenhagen)

Grenada
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, consisting of a court of
  Appeal and a High Court of Justice (a High Court judge is assigned
  to and resides in Grenada)

Guadeloupe
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel with jurisdiction over
  Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Martinique

Guam
  Federal District Court (judge is appointed by the president);
  Territorial Superior Court (judges appointed for eight-year terms by
  the governor)

Guatemala
  Constitutional Court or Corte de Constitutcionalidad is
  Guatemala's highest court (five judges are elected for concurrent
  five-year terms by Congress, each serving one year as president of
  the Constitutional Court; one is elected by Congress, one elected by
  the Supreme Court of Justice, one appointed by the president, one
  elected by Superior Counsel of Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala,
  and one by Colegio de Abogados); Supreme Court of Justice or Corte
  Suprema de Justicia (13 members serve concurrent five-year terms and
  elect a president of the Court each year from among their number;
  the president of the Supreme Court of Justice also supervises trial
  judges around the country, who are named to five-year terms)

Guernsey
  Royal Court

Guinea
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel

Guinea-Bissau
  Supreme Court or Supremo Tribunal da Justica (consists
  of nine justices appointed by the president and serve at his
  pleasure; final court of appeals in criminal and civil cases);
  Regional Courts (one in each of nine regions; first court of appeals
  for Sectoral Court decisions; hear all felony cases and civil cases
  valued at over $1,000); 24 Sectoral Courts (judges are not
  necessarily trained lawyers; they hear civil cases under $1,000 and
  misdemeanor criminal cases)

Guyana
  Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of the High Court and
  the Judicial Court of Appeal, with right of final appeal to the
  Caribbean Court of Justice

Haiti
  Supreme Court or Cour de Cassation

Holy See (Vatican City)
  there are three tribunals responsible for
  civil and criminal matters within Vatican City; three other
  tribunals rule on issues pertaining to the Holy See
  note: judicial duties were established by the Motu Proprio of Pope
  PIUS XII on 1 May 1946

Honduras
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia
  (judges are elected for seven-year terms by the National Congress)

Hong Kong
  Court of Final Appeal in the Hong Kong Special
  Administrative Region

Hungary
  Constitutional Court (judges are elected by the National
  Assembly for nine-year terms)

Iceland
  Supreme Court or Haestirettur (justices are appointed for
  life by the Minister of Justice); eight district courts (justices
  are appointed for life by the Minister of Justice)

India
  Supreme Court (one chief justice and 25 associate justices are
  appointed by the president and remain in office until they reach the
  age of 65 or are removed for "proved misbehavior")

Indonesia
  Supreme Court or Mahkamah Agung (justices appointed by the
  president from a list of candidates approved by the legislature); a
  separate Constitutional Court or Mahkamah Konstitusi was invested by
  the president on 16 August 2003; in March 2004 the Supreme Court
  assumed administrative and financial responsibility for the lower
  court system from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights; Labor
  Court under supervision of Supreme Court began functioning in
  January 2006

Iran
  Supreme Court - above a special clerical court, a revolutionary
  court, and a special administrative court

Iraq
  Supreme Court appointed by the Prime Minister, confirmed by the
  Presidency Council

Ireland
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the president on the
  advice of the prime minister and cabinet)

Isle of Man
  High Court of Justice (justices are appointed by the
  Lord Chancellor of England on the nomination of the lieutenant
  governor)

Israel
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by Judicial Selection
  Committee - made up of all three branches of the government;
  mandatory retirement age is 70)

Italy
  Constitutional Court or Corte Costituzionale (composed of 15
  judges: one-third appointed by the president, one-third elected by
  parliament, one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative
  Supreme Courts)

Jamaica
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the governor general on
  the advice of the prime minister); Court of Appeal

Japan
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the monarch after
  designation by the cabinet; all other justices are appointed by the
  cabinet)

Jersey
  Royal Court (judges elected by an electoral college and the
  bailiff)

Jordan
  Court of Cassation; Supreme Court (court of final appeal)

Kazakhstan
  Supreme Court (44 members); Constitutional Council (7
  members)

Kenya
  Court of Appeal (chief justice is appointed by the president);
  High Court

Kiribati
  Court of Appeal; High Court; 26 Magistrates' courts; judges
  at all levels are appointed by the president

Korea, North
  Central Court (judges are elected by the Supreme
  People's Assembly)

Korea, South
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by president with
  consent of National Assembly); Constitutional Court (justices
  appointed by president based partly on nominations by National
  Assembly and Chief Justice of the court)

Kuwait
  High Court of Appeal

Kyrgyzstan
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed for 10-year terms by
  the Supreme Council on the recommendation of the president);
  Constitutional Court; Higher Court of Arbitration

Laos
  People's Supreme Court (the president of the People's Supreme
  Court is elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of
  the National Assembly Standing Committee; the vice president of the
  People's Supreme Court and the judges are appointed by the National
  Assembly Standing Committee)

Latvia
  Supreme Court (judges' appointments are confirmed by
  Parliament)

Lebanon
  four Courts of Cassation (three courts for civil and
  commercial cases and one court for criminal cases); Constitutional
  Council (called for in Ta'if Accord - rules on constitutionality of
  laws); Supreme Council (hears charges against the president and
  prime minister as needed)

Lesotho
  High Court (chief justice appointed by the monarch acting on
  the advice of the Prime Minister); Court of Appeal; Magistrate's
  Court; customary or traditional court

Liberia
  Supreme Court

Libya
  Supreme Court

Liechtenstein
  Supreme Court or Oberster Gerichtshof; Court of Appeal
  or Obergericht

Lithuania
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal;
  judges for all courts appointed by the President

Luxembourg
  judicial courts and tribunals (3 Justices of the Peace, 2
  district courts, and 1 Supreme Court of Appeals); administrative
  courts and tribunals (State Prosecutor's Office, administrative
  courts and tribunals, and the Constitutional Court); judges for all
  courts are appointed for life by the monarch

Macau
  Court of Final Appeal in Macau Special Administrative Region

Macedonia
  Supreme Court - the Assembly appoints the judges;
  Constitutional Court - the Assembly appoints the judges; Republican
  Judicial Council - the Assembly appoints the judges

Madagascar
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; High Constitutional Court
  or Haute Cour Constitutionnelle

Malawi
  Supreme Court of Appeal; High Court (chief justice appointed
  by the president, puisne judges appointed on the advice of the
  Judicial Service Commission); magistrate's courts

Malaysia
  Federal Court (judges appointed by the paramount ruler on
  the advice of the prime minister)

Maldives
  High Court

Mali
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Malta
  Constitutional Court; Court of Appeal; judges for both courts
  are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister

Marshall Islands
  Supreme Court; High Court; Traditional Rights Court

Martinique
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel

Mauritania
  Supreme Court or Cour Supreme; Court of Appeals; lower
  courts

Mauritius
  Supreme Court

Mayotte
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Superieur d'Appel

Mexico
  Supreme Court of Justice or Suprema Corte de Justicia
  Nacional (justices or ministros are appointed by the president with
  consent of the Senate)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Supreme Court

Moldova
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court (the sole authority for
  constitutional judicature)

Monaco
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Supreme (judges appointed by the
  monarch on the basis of nominations by the National Council)

Mongolia
  Supreme Court (serves as appeals court for people's and
  provincial courts but rarely overturns verdicts of lower courts;
  judges are nominated by the General Council of Courts and approved
  by the president)

Montenegro
  Constitutional Court (five judges with nine-year terms);
  Supreme Court (judges have life tenure)

Montserrat
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based in Saint Lucia,
  one judge of the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and
  presides over the High Court)

Morocco
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed on the recommendation of
  the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, presided over by the monarch)

Mozambique
  Supreme Court (the court of final appeal; some of its
  professional judges are appointed by the president and some are
  elected by the Assembly); other courts include an Administrative
  Court, customs courts, maritime courts, courts marshal, labor courts
  note: although the constitution provides for a separate
  Constitutional Court, one has never been established; in its absence
  the Supreme Court reviews constitutional cases

Namibia
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission)

Nauru
  Supreme Court

Nepal
  Supreme Court or Sarbochha Adalat (chief justice is appointed
  by the monarch on recommendation of the Constitutional Council; the
  other judges are appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of
  the Judicial Council)

Netherlands
  Supreme Court or Hoge Raad (justices are nominated for
  life by the monarch)

Netherlands Antilles
  Joint High Court of Justice (judges appointed
  by the monarch)

New Caledonia
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; County Courts; Joint
  Commerce Tribunal Court; Children's Court

New Zealand
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal; High Court; note -
  Judges appointed by the Governor-General

Nicaragua
  Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (16 judges elected for
  five-year terms by the National Assembly)

Niger
  State Court or Cour d'Etat; Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel

Nigeria
  Supreme Court (judges appointed by the President); Federal
  Court of Appeal (judges are appointed by the federal government on
  the advice of the Advisory Judicial Committee)

Niue
  Supreme Court of New Zealand; High Court of Niue

Norfolk Island
  Supreme Court; Court of Petty Sessions

Northern Mariana Islands
  Commonwealth Supreme Court; Superior Court;
  Federal District Court

Norway
  Supreme Court or Hoyesterett (justices appointed by the
  monarch)

Oman
  Supreme Court
  note: the nascent civil court system, administered by region, has
  judges who practice secular and Shari'a law

Pakistan
  Supreme Court (justices appointed by the president);
  Federal Islamic or Shari'a Court

Palau
  Supreme Court; National Court; Court of Common Pleas

Panama
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (nine
  judges appointed for 10-year terms); five superior courts; three
  courts of appeal

Papua New Guinea
  Supreme Court (the chief justice is appointed by
  the governor general on the proposal of the National Executive
  Council after consultation with the minister responsible for
  justice; other judges are appointed by the Judicial and Legal
  Services Commission)

Paraguay
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia
  (judges appointed on the proposal of the Council of Magistrates or
  Consejo de la Magistratura)

Peru
  Supreme Court of Justice or Corte Suprema de Justicia (judges
  are appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary)

Philippines
  Supreme Court (15 justices are appointed by the
  president on the recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council and
  serve until 70 years of age); Court of Appeals; Sandigan-bayan
  (special court for hearing corruption cases of government officials)

Pitcairn Islands
  Magistrate's Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal;
  Judicial Officers are appointed by the Governor

Poland
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an
  indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by
  the Sejm for nine-year terms)

Portugal
  Supreme Court or Supremo Tribunal de Justica (judges
  appointed for life by the Conselho Superior da Magistratura)

Puerto Rico
  Supreme Court; Appellate Court; Court of First Instance
  composed of two sections: a Superior Court and a Municipal Court
  (justices for all these courts appointed by the governor with the
  consent of the Senate)

Qatar
  Court of Appeal
  note: under a judiciary law issued in 2003, the former two court
  systems, civil and Islamic law, were merged under a higher court,
  the Court of Cassation, established for appeals

Reunion
  Court of Appeals or Cour d'Appel

Romania
  Supreme Court of Justice (comprised of 11 judges appointed
  for three-year terms by the president in consultation with the
  Superior Council of Magistrates, which is comprised of the minister
  of justice, the prosecutor general, two civil society
  representatives appointed by the Senate, and 14 judges and
  prosecutors elected by their peers); a separate body, the
  Constitutional Court, validates elections and makes decisions
  regarding the constitutionality of laws, treaties, ordinances, and
  internal rules of the Parliament; it is comprised of nine members
  serving nine-year terms, with three members each appointed by the
  president, the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies

Russia
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court; Supreme Arbitration
  Court; judges for all courts are appointed for life by the
  Federation Council on the recommendation of the president

Rwanda
  Supreme Court; High Courts of the Republic; Provincial
  Courts; District Courts; mediation committees

Saint Helena
  Magistrate's Court; Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based on
  Saint Lucia; one judge of the Supreme Court resides in Saint Kitts
  and Nevis)

Saint Lucia
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (jurisdiction extends to
  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica,
  Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Superior Tribunal of Appeals or Tribunal
  Superieur d'Appel

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
  (based on Saint Lucia; one judge of the Supreme Court resides in
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines)

Samoa
  Court of Appeal; Supreme Court; District Court; Land and
  Titles Court

San Marino
  Council of Twelve or Consiglio dei XII

Sao Tome and Principe
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the
  National Assembly)

Saudi Arabia
  Supreme Council of Justice

Senegal
  Constitutional Court; Council of State; Court of Final
  Appeals or Cour de Cassation; Court of Appeals

Serbia
  Constitutional Court (nine justices with life tenure)

Seychelles
  Court of Appeal; Supreme Court; judges for both courts
  are appointed by the president

Sierra Leone
  Supreme Court; Appeals Court; High Court

Singapore
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the president
  with the advice of the prime minister, other judges are appointed by
  the president with the advice of the chief justice); Court of Appeals

Slovakia
  Supreme Court (judges are elected by the National Council);
  Constitutional Court (judges appointed by president from group of
  nominees approved by the National Council); Special Court (judges
  elected by a council of judges and appointed by president)

Slovenia
  Supreme Court (judges are elected by the National Assembly
  on the recommendation of the Judicial Council); Constitutional Court
  (judges elected for nine-year terms by the National Assembly and
  nominated by the president)

Solomon Islands
  Court of Appeal

Somalia
  following the breakdown of the central government, most
  regions have reverted to local forms of conflict resolution, either
  secular, traditional Somali customary law, or Shari'a (Islamic) law
  with a provision for appeal of all sentences

South Africa
  Constitutional Court; Supreme Court of Appeals; High
  Courts; Magistrate Courts

Spain
  Supreme Court or Tribunal Supremo

Sri Lanka
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeals; judges for both courts
  are appointed by the president

Sudan
  Constitutional Court of nine justices; National Supreme Court;
  National Courts of Appeal; other national courts; National Judicial
  Service Commission will undertake overall management of the National
  Judiciary

Suriname
  Cantonal Courts and a Court of Justice as an appellate
  court (justices are nominated for life)

Swaziland
  High Court; Court of Appeal; judges for both courts are
  appointed by the monarch

Sweden
  Supreme Court or Hogsta Domstolen (judges are appointed by
  the prime minister and the cabinet)

Switzerland
  Federal Supreme Court (judges elected for six-year terms
  by the Federal Assembly)

Syria
  Supreme Constitutional Court (adjudicates electoral disputes
  and rules on constitutionality of laws and decrees; justices
  appointed for four-year terms by the President); High Judicial
  Council (appoints and dismisses judges; headed by the President);
  Court of Cassation (national level); State Security Courts (hear
  cases related to national security); Personal Status Courts
  (religious; hear cases related to marriage and divorce); Courts of
  First Instance (local level; include magistrate, summary, and peace
  courts)

Taiwan
  Judicial Yuan (justices appointed by the president with
  consent of the Legislative Yuan)

Tajikistan
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)

Tanzania
  Permanent Commission of Enquiry (official ombudsman); Court
  of Appeal (consists of a chief justice and four judges); High Court
  (consists of a Jaji Kiongozi and 29 judges appointed by the
  president; holds regular sessions in all regions); District Courts;
  Primary Courts (limited jurisdiction and appeals can be made to the
  higher courts)

Thailand
  Supreme Court or Sandika (judges appointed by the monarch)

Togo
  Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Supreme Court or Cour Supreme

Tokelau
  Supreme Court in New Zealand exercises civil and criminal
  jurisdiction in Tokelau

Tonga
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the monarch); Court of
  Appeal (Chief Justice and high court justices from overseas chosen
  and approved by Privy Council)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Supreme Court of Judicature (comprised of the
  High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeals; the chief justice is
  appointed by the president after consultation with the prime
  minister and the leader of the opposition; other justices are
  appointed by the president on the advice of the Judicial and Legal
  Service Commission); High Court of Justice; Caribbean Court of
  Appeals member; Court of Appeals; the highest court of appeal is the
  Privy Council in London

Tunisia
  Court of Cassation or Cour de Cassation

Turkey
  Constitutional Court; High Court of Appeals (Yargitay);
  Council of State (Danistay); Court of Accounts (Sayistay); Military
  High Court of Appeals; Military High Administrative Court

Turkmenistan
  Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Supreme Court; Court of Appeal

Tuvalu
  High Court (a chief justice visits twice a year to preside
  over its sessions; its rulings can be appealed to the Court of
  Appeal in Fiji); eight Island Courts (with limited jurisdiction)

Uganda
  Court of Appeal (judges are appointed by the president and
  approved by the legislature); High Court (judges are appointed by
  the president)

Ukraine
  Supreme Court; Constitutional Court

United Arab Emirates
  Union Supreme Court (judges are appointed by
  the president)

United Kingdom
  House of Lords (highest court of appeal; several
  Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are appointed by the monarch for life);
  Supreme Courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (comprising
  the Courts of Appeal, the High Courts of Justice, and the Crown
  Courts); Scotland's Court of Session and Court of the Justiciary

United States
  Supreme Court (nine justices; nominated by the
  president and confirmed with the advice and consent of the Senate;
  appointed to serve for life); United States Courts of Appeal; United
  States District Courts; State and County Courts

Uruguay
  Supreme Court (judges are nominated by the president and
  elected for 10-year terms by the General Assembly)

Uzbekistan
  Supreme Court (judges are nominated by the president and
  confirmed by the Supreme Assembly)

Vanuatu
  Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the president
  after consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the
  opposition, three other justices are appointed by the president on
  the advice of the Judicial Service Commission)

Venezuela
  Supreme Tribunal of Justice or Tribuna Suprema de Justicia
  (magistrates are elected by the National Assembly for a single
  12-year term)

Vietnam
  Supreme People's Court (chief justice is elected for a
  five-year term by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the
  president)

Virgin Islands
  US District Court of the Virgin Islands (under Third
  Circuit jurisdiction); Superior Court of the Virgin Islands (judges
  appointed by the governor for 10-year terms)

Wallis and Futuna
  none; justice generally administered under French
  law by the high administrator, but the three traditional kings
  administer customary law and there is a magistrate in Mata-Utu

Yemen
  Supreme Court

Zambia
  Supreme Court (the final court of appeal; justices are
  appointed by the president); High Court (has unlimited jurisdiction
  to hear civil and criminal cases)

Zimbabwe
  Supreme Court; High Court

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2095  Labor force


Afghanistan
  15 million (2004 est.)

Albania
  1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (2004
  est.)

Algeria
  10.15 million (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  17,630 (2005)

Andorra
  48,740 (2004)

Angola
  5.58 million (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  6,049 (2001)

Antigua and Barbuda
  30,000

Argentina
  15.34 million (2005 est.)

Armenia
  1.2 million (2005)

Aruba
  41,500 (2004 est.)

Australia
  10.42 million (2005 est.)

Austria
  3.49 million (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  5.45 million (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  176,300 (2004)

Bahrain
  380,000
  note: 44% of the population in the 15-64 age group is non-national
  (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  66.6 million
  note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman,
  Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $1.71 billion
  in 1998-99 (2005 est.)

Barbados
  128,500 (2001 est.)

Belarus
  4.3 million (31 December 2005)

Belgium
  4.77 million (2005 est.)

Belize
  90,000
  note: shortage of skilled labor and all types of technical personnel
  (2001 est.)

Benin
  3.211 million

Bermuda
  38,360 (2004)

Bhutan
  NA
  note: major shortage of skilled labor

Bolivia
  4.22 million (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1.026 million (2001)

Botswana
  288,400 formal sector employees (2004)

Brazil
  90.41 million (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  12,770 (2004)

Brunei
  146,300
  note: includes foreign workers and military personnel; temporary
  residents make up about 40% of labor force (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  3.34 million (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  5 million
  note: a large part of the male labor force migrates annually to
  neighboring countries for seasonal employment (2003)

Burma
  27.75 million (2005 est.)

Burundi
  2.99 million (2002)

Cambodia
  7 million (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  6.86 million (2005 est.)

Canada
  16.3 million (December 2005)

Cape Verde
  120,600

Cayman Islands
  23,450 (2004)

Central African Republic
  NA

Chad
  2.719 million

Chile
  6.3 million (2005 est.)

China
  791.4 million (2005 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  20.52 million (2005)

Comoros
  144,500 (1996 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  14.51 million

Congo, Republic of the
  NA

Cook Islands
  6,820 (2001)

Costa Rica
  1.82 million (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  6.95 million (68% agricultural) (2005 est.)

Croatia
  1.71 million (2005 est.)

Cuba
  4.6 million
  note: state sector 78%, non-state sector 22% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 370,000, north Cyprus: 95,025 (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  5.27 million (2005 est.)

Denmark
  2.9 million (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  282,000 (2000)

Dominica
  25,000 (1999 est.)

Dominican Republic
  2.3 million-2.6 million (2000 est.)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  4.6 million (urban) (2005 est.)

Egypt
  21.34 million (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  2.81 million (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  NA

Eritrea
  NA

Estonia
  670,000 (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  27.27 million

European Union
  218.5 million (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  1,724 (est.)

Faroe Islands
  24,250 (October 2000)

Fiji
  137,000 (1999)

Finland
  2.61 million (2005 est.)

France
  27.72 million (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  62,630 (1999)

French Polynesia
  65,870 (December 2005)

Gabon
  640,000 (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  400,000 (1996)

Gaza Strip
  278,000 (April-June 2005)

Georgia
  2.04 million (2004 est.)

Germany
  43.32 million (2005 est.)

Ghana
  10.62 million (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  12,690 (including non-Gibraltar laborers) (2001)

Greece
  4.72 million (2005 est.)

Greenland
  24,500 (1999 est.)

Grenada
  42,300 (1996)

Guadeloupe
  191,400 (1999)

Guam
  62,050 (2002 est.)

Guatemala
  3.76 million (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  32,290 (2001)

Guinea
  3 million (1999)

Guinea-Bissau
  480,000 (1999)

Guyana
  418,000 (2001 est.)

Haiti
  3.6 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor, unskilled labor abundant (1995)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  2.54 million (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  3.61 million (October 2005)

Hungary
  4.18 million (2005 est.)

Iceland
  165,900 (2005 est.)

India
  496.4 million (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  94.2 million (2005 est.)

Iran
  23.68 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor (2005 est.)

Iraq
  7.4 million (2004 est.)

Ireland
  2.03 million (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  39,690 (2001)

Israel
  2.42 million (2005 est.)

Italy
  24.49 million (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  1.2 million (2005 est.)

Japan
  66.4 million (2005 est.)

Jersey
  52,790 (2004)

Jordan
  1.46 million (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  7.85 million (2005 est.)

Kenya
  11.85 million (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  7,870 economically active, not including subsistence
  farmers (2001 est.)

Korea, North
  9.6 million

Korea, South
  23.53 million (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  1.67 million
  note: non-Kuwaitis represent about 80% of the labor force (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  2.7 million (2000)

Laos
  2.8 million (2002 est.)

Latvia
  1.11 million (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  2.6 million
  note: in addition, there are as many as 1 million foreign workers
  (2001 est.)

Lesotho
  838,000 (2000)

Libya
  1.64 million (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  29,500 of whom 13,900 commute from Austria,
  Switzerland, and Germany to work each day (31 December 2001)

Lithuania
  1.61 million (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  316,500 of whom 121,600 are foreign cross-border workers
  commuting primarily from France, Belgium, and Germany (2005 est.)

Macau
  251,200 (3rd Quarter, 2005)

Macedonia
  855,000 (2004 est.)

Madagascar
  7.3 million (2000)

Malawi
  4.5 million (2001 est.)

Malaysia
  10.67 million (2005 est.)

Maldives
  88,000 (2000)

Mali
  3.93 million (2001 est.)

Malta
  160,000 (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  14,680 (2000)

Martinique
  165,900 (1998)

Mauritania
  786,000 (2001)

Mauritius
  570,000 (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  44,560 (2002)

Mexico
  43.4 million (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  37,410

Moldova
  1.34 million (2005 est.)

Monaco
  41,110
  note: includes workers from all foreign countries (2004)

Mongolia
  1.488 million (2003)

Montenegro
  259,100 (2004)

Montserrat
  4,521
  note: lowered by flight of people from volcanic activity (2000 est.)

Morocco
  11.19 million (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  9.2 million (2000 est.)

Namibia
  820,000 (2005 est.)

Nepal
  10.4 million
  note: severe lack of skilled labor (2004 est.)

Netherlands
  7.53 million (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  83,600 (2005)

New Caledonia
  78,990 (including 11,300 unemployed) (2004)

New Zealand
  2.13 million (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  2.01 million (2005 est.)

Niger
  70,000 salaried workers, 60% of whom are employed in the
  public sector (2002 est.)

Nigeria
  57.21 million (2005 est.)

Niue
  NA 663

Norfolk Island
  1,345

Northern Mariana Islands
  44,470 total indigenous labor force; 2,699
  unemployed; 28,717 foreign workers (2000)

Norway
  2.4 million (2005 est.)

Oman
  920,000 (2002 est.)

Pakistan
  46.84 million
  note: extensive export of labor, mostly to the Middle East, and use
  of child labor (2005 est.)

Palau
  9,777 (2005)

Panama
  1.39 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor, but an oversupply of unskilled
  labor (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  2.413 million (2004)

Paraguay
  2.68 million (2005 est.)

Peru
  9.06 million (2005 est.)

Philippines
  36.73 million (2005 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  15 able-bodied men (2004)

Poland
  17.1 million (2005 est.)

Portugal
  5.52 million (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  1.3 million (2000)

Qatar
  440,000 (2005 est.)

Reunion
  299,000 (2002)

Romania
  9.31 million (2005 est.)

Russia
  74.22 million (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  4.6 million (2000)

Saint Helena
  2,486
  note: 1,200 work offshore (1998 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  18,170 (June 1995)

Saint Lucia
  43,800 (2001 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  3,261 (1999)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  41,680 (1991 est.)

Samoa
  90,000 (2000 est.)

San Marino
  19,970 (2003)

Sao Tome and Principe
  35,050

Saudi Arabia
  6.76 million
  note: more than 35% of the population in the 15-64 age group is
  non-national (2005 est.)

Senegal
  4.82 million (2005 est.)

Serbia
  2.961 million for Serbia (including Kosovo) (2002 est.)

Seychelles
  30,900 (1996)

Sierra Leone
  1.369 million (1981 est.)

Singapore
  2.28 million (September 2005 est.)

Slovakia
  2.24 million (30 September 2005 est.)

Slovenia
  920,000 (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  249,200 (1999)

Somalia
  3.7 million (very few skilled laborers)

South Africa
  15.23 million economically active (2005 est.)

Spain
  20.67 million (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  8.08 million (2005 est.)

Sudan
  7.415 million (1996 est.)

Suriname
  156,700 (2004)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  155,700 (2003)

Sweden
  4.49 million (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  3.8 million (2005 est.)

Syria
  5.12 million (2004 est.)

Taiwan
  10.6 million (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  3.7 million (2003)

Tanzania
  19.22 million (2005 est.)

Thailand
  35.36 million (2005 est.)

Togo
  1.302 million (1998)

Tokelau
  440

Tonga
  33,910 (2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  620,000 (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  3.41 million
  note: shortage of skilled labor (2005 est.)

Turkey
  24.7 million
  note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  2.32 million (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  4,848 (1990 est.)

Tuvalu
  3,615 (2004 est.)

Uganda
  13.17 million (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  22.67 million (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  2.8 million (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  30.07 million (2005 est.)

United States
  149.3 million (includes unemployed) (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  1.52 million (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  14.26 million (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  76,410

Venezuela
  12.31 million (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  44.39 million (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  43,980 (2004 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA 3,104

West Bank
  614,000 (April-June 2005)

Western Sahara
  12,000

World
  3.001 billion (2005 est.)

Yemen
  5.83 million (2005 est.)

Zambia
  4.8 million (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  3.94 million (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2096  Land boundaries (km)


Afghanistan
  total: 5,529 km
  border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km,
  Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km

Akrotiri
  total: 47.4 km
  border countries: Cyprus 47.4 km

Albania
  total: 720 km
  border countries: Greece 282 km, Macedonia 151 km, Montenegro 172
  km, Serbia 115 km

Algeria
  total: 6,343 km
  border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km,
  Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km

American Samoa
  0 km

Andorra
  total: 120.3 km
  border countries: France 56.6 km, Spain 63.7 km

Angola
  total: 5,198 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,511 km (of
  which 225 km is the boundary of discontiguous Cabinda Province),
  Republic of the Congo 201 km, Namibia 1,376 km, Zambia 1,110 km

Anguilla
  0 km

Antarctica
  0 km
  note: see entry on Disputes - international

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 km

Argentina
  total: 9,665 km
  border countries: Bolivia 832 km, Brazil 1,224 km, Chile 5,150 km,
  Paraguay 1,880 km, Uruguay 579 km

Armenia
  total: 1,254 km
  border countries: Azerbaijan-proper 566 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan
  exclave 221 km, Georgia 164 km, Iran 35 km, Turkey 268 km

Aruba
  0 km

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  0 km

Australia
  0 km

Austria
  total: 2,562 km
  border countries: Czech Republic 362 km, Germany 784 km, Hungary 366
  km, Italy 430 km, Liechtenstein 35 km, Slovakia 91 km, Slovenia 330
  km, Switzerland 164 km

Azerbaijan
  total: 2,013 km
  border countries: Armenia (with Azerbaijan-proper) 566 km, Armenia
  (with Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave) 221 km, Georgia 322 km, Iran
  (with Azerbaijan-proper) 432 km, Iran (with Azerbaijan-Naxcivan
  exclave) 179 km, Russia 284 km, Turkey 9 km

Bahamas, The
  0 km

Bahrain
  0 km

Baker Island
  0 km

Bangladesh
  total: 4,246 km
  border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km

Barbados
  0 km

Bassas da India
  0 km

Belarus
  total: 2,900 km
  border countries: Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 407 km,
  Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km

Belgium
  total: 1,385 km
  border countries: France 620 km, Germany 167 km, Luxembourg 148 km,
  Netherlands 450 km

Belize
  total: 516 km
  border countries: Guatemala 266 km, Mexico 250 km

Benin
  total: 1,989 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 306 km, Niger 266 km, Nigeria 773 km,
  Togo 644 km

Bermuda
  0 km

Bhutan
  total: 1,075 km
  border countries: China 470 km, India 605 km

Bolivia
  total: 6,743 km
  border countries: Argentina 832 km, Brazil 3,400 km, Chile 861 km,
  Paraguay 750 km, Peru 900 km

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 1,459 km
  border countries: Croatia 932 km, Montenegro 225 km, Serbia 302 km

Botswana
  total: 4,013 km
  border countries: Namibia 1,360 km, South Africa 1,840 km, Zimbabwe
  813 km

Bouvet Island
  0 km

Brazil
  total: 16,884.4 km
  border countries: Argentina 1,261 km, Bolivia 3,423 km, Colombia
  1,644 km, French Guiana 730.4 km, Guyana 1,606 km, Paraguay 1,365
  km, Peru 2,995 km, Suriname 593 km, Uruguay 1,068 km, Venezuela
  2,199 km

British Indian Ocean Territory
  0 km

British Virgin Islands
  0 km

Brunei
  total: 381 km
  border countries: Malaysia 381 km

Bulgaria
  total: 1,808 km
  border countries: Greece 494 km, Macedonia 148 km, Romania 608 km,
  Serbia 318 km, Turkey 240 km

Burkina Faso
  total: 3,193 km
  border countries: Benin 306 km, Cote d'Ivoire 584 km, Ghana 549 km,
  Mali 1,000 km, Niger 628 km, Togo 126 km

Burma
  total: 5,876 km
  border countries: Bangladesh 193 km, China 2,185 km, India 1,463 km,
  Laos 235 km, Thailand 1,800 km

Burundi
  total: 974 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 233 km, Rwanda
  290 km, Tanzania 451 km

Cambodia
  total: 2,572 km
  border countries: Laos 541 km, Thailand 803 km, Vietnam 1,228 km

Cameroon
  total: 4,591 km
  border countries: Central African Republic 797 km, Chad 1,094 km,
  Republic of the Congo 523 km, Equatorial Guinea 189 km, Gabon 298
  km, Nigeria 1,690 km

Canada
  total: 8,893 km
  border countries: US 8,893 km (includes 2,477 km with Alaska)

Cape Verde
  0 km

Cayman Islands
  0 km

Central African Republic
  total: 5,203 km
  border countries: Cameroon 797 km, Chad 1,197 km, Democratic
  Republic of the Congo 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 467 km, Sudan
  1,165 km

Chad
  total: 5,968 km
  border countries: Cameroon 1,094 km, Central African Republic 1,197
  km, Libya 1,055 km, Niger 1,175 km, Nigeria 87 km, Sudan 1,360 km

Chile
  total: 6,339 km
  border countries: Argentina 5,308 km, Bolivia 860 km, Peru 171 km

China
  total: 22,117 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 76 km, Bhutan 470 km, Burma 2,185 km,
  India 3,380 km, Kazakhstan 1,533 km, North Korea 1,416 km,
  Kyrgyzstan 858 km, Laos 423 km, Mongolia 4,677 km, Nepal 1,236 km,
  Pakistan 523 km, Russia (northeast) 3,605 km, Russia (northwest) 40
  km, Tajikistan 414 km, Vietnam 1,281 km
  regional borders: Hong Kong 30 km, Macau 0.34 km

Christmas Island
  0 km

Clipperton Island
  0 km

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  0 km

Colombia
  total: 6,004 km
  border countries: Brazil 1,643 km, Ecuador 590 km, Panama 225 km,
  Peru 1,496 km (est.), Venezuela 2,050 km

Comoros
  0 km

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 10,730 km
  border countries: Angola 2,511 km (of which 225 km is the boundary
  of Angola's discontiguous Cabinda Province), Burundi 233 km, Central
  African Republic 1,577 km, Republic of the Congo 2,410 km, Rwanda
  217 km, Sudan 628 km, Tanzania 459 km, Uganda 765 km, Zambia 1,930 km

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 5,504 km
  border countries: Angola 201 km, Cameroon 523 km, Central African
  Republic 467 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,410 km, Gabon
  1,903 km

Cook Islands
  0 km

Coral Sea Islands
  0 km

Costa Rica
  total: 639 km
  border countries: Nicaragua 309 km, Panama 330 km

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 3,110 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km, Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km,
  Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

Croatia
  total: 2,197 km
  border countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina 932 km, Hungary 329 km,
  Serbia 241 km, Montenegro 25 km, Slovenia 670 km

Cuba
  total: 29 km
  border countries: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay 29 km
  note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the US and remains part of
  Cuba

Cyprus
  total: NA; note - boundary with Dhekelia is being resurveyed
  border countries: Akrotiri 47.4 km, Dhekelia NA

Czech Republic
  total: 2,290.2 km
  border countries: Austria 466.3 km, Germany 810.3 km, Poland 761.8
  km, Slovakia 251.8 km

Denmark
  total: 68 km
  border countries: Germany 68 km

Dhekelia
  total: NA; note - boundary with Cyprus is being resurveyed

Djibouti
  total: 516 km
  border countries: Eritrea 109 km, Ethiopia 349 km, Somalia 58 km

Dominica
  0 km

Dominican Republic
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Haiti 360 km

East Timor
  total: 228 km
  border countries: Indonesia 228 km

Ecuador
  total: 2,010 km
  border countries: Colombia 590 km, Peru 1,420 km

Egypt
  total: 2,665 km
  border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 266 km, Libya 1,115 km,
  Sudan 1,273 km

El Salvador
  total: 545 km
  border countries: Guatemala 203 km, Honduras 342 km

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 539 km
  border countries: Cameroon 189 km, Gabon 350 km

Eritrea
  total: 1,626 km
  border countries: Djibouti 109 km, Ethiopia 912 km, Sudan 605 km

Estonia
  total: 633 km
  border countries: Latvia 339 km, Russia 294 km

Ethiopia
  total: 5,328 km
  border countries: Djibouti 349 km, Eritrea 912 km, Kenya 861 km,
  Somalia 1,600 km, Sudan 1,606 km

Europa Island
  0 km

European Union
  total: 11,214.8 km
  border countries: Albania 282 km, Andorra 120.3 km, Belarus 1,050
  km, Bulgaria 494 km, Croatia 999 km, Holy See 3.2 km, Liechtenstein
  34.9 km, Macedonia 246 km, Monaco 4.4 km, Norway 2,348 km, Romania
  443 km, Russia 2,257 km, San Marino 39 km, Serbia 151 km,
  Switzerland 1,811 km, Turkey 206 km, Ukraine 726 km
  note: data for European Continent only

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 km

Faroe Islands
  0 km

Fiji
  0 km

Finland
  total: 2,681 km
  border countries: Norway 727 km, Sweden 614 km, Russia 1,340 km

France
  total: 2,889 km
  border countries: Andorra 56.6 km, Belgium 620 km, Germany 451 km,
  Italy 488 km, Luxembourg 73 km, Monaco 4.4 km, Spain 623 km,
  Switzerland 573 km

French Guiana
  total: 1,240.4 km
  border countries: Brazil 730.4 km, Suriname 510 km

French Polynesia
  0 km

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  0 km

Gabon
  total: 2,551 km
  border countries: Cameroon 298 km, Republic of the Congo 1,903 km,
  Equatorial Guinea 350 km

Gambia, The
  total: 740 km
  border countries: Senegal 740 km

Gaza Strip
  total: 62 km
  border countries: Egypt 11 km, Israel 51 km

Georgia
  total: 1,461 km
  border countries: Armenia 164 km, Azerbaijan 322 km, Russia 723 km,
  Turkey 252 km

Germany
  total: 3,621 km
  border countries: Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646
  km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577
  km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Ghana
  total: 2,094 km
  border countries: Burkina Faso 549 km, Cote d'Ivoire 668 km, Togo
  877 km

Gibraltar
  total: 1.2 km
  border countries: Spain 1.2 km

Glorioso Islands
  0 km

Greece
  total: 1,228 km
  border countries: Albania 282 km, Bulgaria 494 km, Turkey 206 km,
  Macedonia 246 km

Greenland
  0 km

Grenada
  0 km

Guadeloupe
  total: 15 km
  border countries: Netherlands Antilles (Sint Maarten) 15 km

Guam
  0 km

Guatemala
  total: 1,687 km
  border countries: Belize 266 km, El Salvador 203 km, Honduras 256
  km, Mexico 962 km

Guernsey
  0 km

Guinea
  total: 3,399 km
  border countries: Cote d'Ivoire 610 km, Guinea-Bissau 386 km,
  Liberia 563 km, Mali 858 km, Senegal 330 km, Sierra Leone 652 km

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 724 km
  border countries: Guinea 386 km, Senegal 338 km

Guyana
  total: 2,462 km
  border countries: Brazil 1,119 km, Suriname 600 km, Venezuela 743 km

Haiti
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Dominican Republic 360 km

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  0 km

Holy See (Vatican City)
  total: 3.2 km
  border countries: Italy 3.2 km

Honduras
  total: 1,520 km
  border countries: Guatemala 256 km, El Salvador 342 km, Nicaragua
  922 km

Hong Kong
  total: 30 km
  regional border: China 30 km

Howland Island
  0 km

Hungary
  total: 2,171 km
  border countries: Austria 366 km, Croatia 329 km, Romania 443 km,
  Serbia 151 km, Slovakia 677 km, Slovenia 102 km, Ukraine 103 km

Iceland
  0 km

Iles Eparses
  none

India
  total: 14,103 km
  border countries: Bangladesh 4,053 km, Bhutan 605 km, Burma 1,463
  km, China 3,380 km, Nepal 1,690 km, Pakistan 2,912 km

Indonesia
  total: 2,830 km
  border countries: East Timor 228 km, Malaysia 1,782 km, Papua New
  Guinea 820 km

Iran
  total: 5,440 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 936 km, Armenia 35 km,
  Azerbaijan-proper 432 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave 179 km, Iraq
  1,458 km, Pakistan 909 km, Turkey 499 km, Turkmenistan 992 km

Iraq
  total: 3,650 km
  border countries: Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi
  Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 352 km

Ireland
  total: 360 km
  border countries: UK 360 km

Isle of Man
  0 km

Israel
  total: 1,017 km
  border countries: Egypt 266 km, Gaza Strip 51 km, Jordan 238 km,
  Lebanon 79 km, Syria 76 km, West Bank 307 km

Italy
  total: 1,932.2 km
  border countries: Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican
  City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 232 km, Switzerland 740 km

Jamaica
  0 km

Jan Mayen
  0 km

Japan
  0 km

Jarvis Island
  0 km

Jersey
  0 km

Johnston Atoll
  0 km

Jordan
  total: 1,635 km
  border countries: Iraq 181 km, Israel 238 km, Saudi Arabia 744 km,
  Syria 375 km, West Bank 97 km

Juan de Nova Island
  0 km

Kazakhstan
  total: 12,012 km
  border countries: China 1,533 km, Kyrgyzstan 1,051 km, Russia 6,846
  km, Turkmenistan 379 km, Uzbekistan 2,203 km

Kenya
  total: 3,477 km
  border countries: Ethiopia 861 km, Somalia 682 km, Sudan 232 km,
  Tanzania 769 km, Uganda 933 km

Kingman Reef
  0 km

Kiribati
  0 km

Korea, North
  total: 1,673 km
  border countries: China 1,416 km, South Korea 238 km, Russia 19 km

Korea, South
  total: 238 km
  border countries: North Korea 238 km

Kuwait
  total: 462 km
  border countries: Iraq 240 km, Saudi Arabia 222 km

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 3,878 km
  border countries: China 858 km, Kazakhstan 1,051 km, Tajikistan 870
  km, Uzbekistan 1,099 km

Laos
  total: 5,083 km
  border countries: Burma 235 km, Cambodia 541 km, China 423 km,
  Thailand 1,754 km, Vietnam 2,130 km

Latvia
  total: 1,368 km
  border countries: Belarus 167 km, Estonia 343 km, Lithuania 576 km,
  Russia 282 km

Lebanon
  total: 454 km
  border countries: Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km

Lesotho
  total: 909 km
  border countries: South Africa 909 km

Liberia
  total: 1,585 km
  border countries: Guinea 563 km, Cote d'Ivoire 716 km, Sierra Leone
  306 km

Libya
  total: 4,348 km
  border countries: Algeria 982 km, Chad 1,055 km, Egypt 1,115 km,
  Niger 354 km, Sudan 383 km, Tunisia 459 km

Liechtenstein
  total: 76 km
  border countries: Austria 34.9 km, Switzerland 41.1 km

Lithuania
  total: 1,613 km
  border countries: Belarus 653.5 km, Latvia 588 km, Poland 103.7 km,
  Russia (Kaliningrad) 267.8 km

Luxembourg
  total: 359 km
  border countries: Belgium 148 km, France 73 km, Germany 138 km

Macau
  total: 0.34 km
  regional border: China 0.34 km

Macedonia
  total: 766 km
  border countries: Albania 151 km, Bulgaria 148 km, Greece 246 km,
  Serbia 221 km

Madagascar
  0 km

Malawi
  total: 2,881 km
  border countries: Mozambique 1,569 km, Tanzania 475 km, Zambia 837 km

Malaysia
  total: 2,669 km
  border countries: Brunei 381 km, Indonesia 1,782 km, Thailand 506 km

Maldives
  0 km

Mali
  total: 7,243 km
  border countries: Algeria 1,376 km, Burkina Faso 1,000 km, Guinea
  858 km, Cote d'Ivoire 532 km, Mauritania 2,237 km, Niger 821 km,
  Senegal 419 km

Malta
  0 km

Marshall Islands
  0 km

Martinique
  0 km

Mauritania
  total: 5,074 km
  border countries: Algeria 463 km, Mali 2,237 km, Senegal 813 km,
  Western Sahara 1,561 km

Mauritius
  0 km

Mayotte
  0 km

Mexico
  total: 4,353 km
  border countries: Belize 250 km, Guatemala 962 km, US 3,141 km

Micronesia, Federated States of
  0 km

Midway Islands
  0 km

Moldova
  total: 1,389 km
  border countries: Romania 450 km, Ukraine 939 km

Monaco
  total: 4.4 km
  border countries: France 4.4 km

Mongolia
  total: 8,220 km
  border countries: China 4,677 km, Russia 3,543 km

Montenegro
  total: 625 km
  border countries: Albania 172 km, Bosnia and Herzegovina 225 km,
  Croatia 25 km, Serbia 203 km

Montserrat
  0 km

Morocco
  total: 2,017.9 km
  border countries: Algeria 1,559 km, Western Sahara 443 km, Spain
  (Ceuta) 6.3 km, Spain (Melilla) 9.6 km

Mozambique
  total: 4,571 km
  border countries: Malawi 1,569 km, South Africa 491 km, Swaziland
  105 km, Tanzania 756 km, Zambia 419 km, Zimbabwe 1,231 km

Namibia
  total: 3,936 km
  border countries: Angola 1,376 km, Botswana 1,360 km, South Africa
  967 km, Zambia 233 km

Nauru
  0 km

Navassa Island
  0 km

Nepal
  total: 2,926 km
  border countries: China 1,236 km, India 1,690 km

Netherlands
  total: 1,027 km
  border countries: Belgium 450 km, Germany 577 km

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 15 km
  border countries: Guadeloupe (Saint-Martin) 15 km

New Caledonia
  0 km

New Zealand
  0 km

Nicaragua
  total: 1,231 km
  border countries: Costa Rica 309 km, Honduras 922 km

Niger
  total: 5,697 km
  border countries: Algeria 956 km, Benin 266 km, Burkina Faso 628 km,
  Chad 1,175 km, Libya 354 km, Mali 821 km, Nigeria 1,497 km

Nigeria
  total: 4,047 km
  border countries: Benin 773 km, Cameroon 1,690 km, Chad 87 km, Niger
  1,497 km

Niue
  0 km

Norfolk Island
  0 km

Northern Mariana Islands
  0 km

Norway
  total: 2,542 km
  border countries: Finland 727 km, Sweden 1,619 km, Russia 196 km

Oman
  total: 1,374 km
  border countries: Saudi Arabia 676 km, UAE 410 km, Yemen 288 km

Pakistan
  total: 6,774 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 2,430 km, China 523 km, India 2,912
  km, Iran 909 km

Palau
  0 km

Palmyra Atoll
  0 km

Panama
  total: 555 km
  border countries: Colombia 225 km, Costa Rica 330 km

Papua New Guinea
  total: 820 km
  border countries: Indonesia 820 km

Paracel Islands
  0 km

Paraguay
  total: 3,920 km
  border countries: Argentina 1,880 km, Bolivia 750 km, Brazil 1,290 km

Peru
  total: 5,536 km
  border countries: Bolivia 900 km, Brazil 1,560 km, Chile 160 km,
  Colombia 1,496 km (est.), Ecuador 1,420 km

Philippines
  0 km

Pitcairn Islands
  0 km

Poland
  total: 3,056 km
  border countries: Belarus 416 km, Czech Republic 790 km, Germany 467
  km, Lithuania 103 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 210 km, Slovakia
  541 km, Ukraine 529 km

Portugal
  total: 1,214 km
  border countries: Spain 1,214 km

Puerto Rico
  0 km

Qatar
  total: 60 km
  border countries: Saudi Arabia 60 km

Reunion
  0 km

Romania
  total: 2,508 km
  border countries: Bulgaria 608 km, Hungary 443 km, Moldova 450 km,
  Serbia 476 km, Ukraine (north) 362 km, Ukraine (east) 169 km

Russia
  total: 20,096.5 km
  border countries: Azerbaijan 284 km, Belarus 959 km, China
  (southeast) 3,605 km, China (south) 40 km, Estonia 294 km, Finland
  1,340 km, Georgia 723 km, Kazakhstan 6,846 km, North Korea 19 km,
  Latvia 217 km, Lithuania (Kaliningrad Oblast) 280.5 km, Mongolia
  3,485 km, Norway 196 km, Poland (Kaliningrad Oblast) 232 km, Ukraine
  1,576 km

Rwanda
  total: 893 km
  border countries: Burundi 290 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  217 km, Tanzania 217 km, Uganda 169 km

Saint Helena
  0 km

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 km

Saint Lucia
  0 km

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 km

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 km

Samoa
  0 km

San Marino
  total: 39 km
  border countries: Italy 39 km

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 km

Saudi Arabia
  total: 4,431 km
  border countries: Iraq 814 km, Jordan 744 km, Kuwait 222 km, Oman
  676 km, Qatar 60 km, UAE 457 km, Yemen 1,458 km

Senegal
  total: 2,640 km
  border countries: The Gambia 740 km, Guinea 330 km, Guinea-Bissau
  338 km, Mali 419 km, Mauritania 813 km

Serbia
  total: 2,027 km
  border countries: Albania 115 km, Bosnia and Herzegovina 302 km,
  Bulgaria 318 km, Croatia 241 km, Hungary 151 km, Macedonia 221 km,
  Montenegro 203 km, Romania 476 km

Seychelles
  0 km

Sierra Leone
  total: 958 km
  border countries: Guinea 652 km, Liberia 306 km

Singapore
  0 km

Slovakia
  total: 1,524 km
  border countries: Austria 91 km, Czech Republic 215 km, Hungary 677
  km, Poland 444 km, Ukraine 97 km

Slovenia
  total: 1,382 km
  border countries: Austria 330 km, Croatia 670 km, Hungary 102 km,
  Italy 280 km

Solomon Islands
  0 km

Somalia
  total: 2,340 km
  border countries: Djibouti 58 km, Ethiopia 1,600 km, Kenya 682 km

South Africa
  total: 4,862 km
  border countries: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491
  km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  0 km

Spain
  total: 1,917.8 km
  border countries: Andorra 63.7 km, France 623 km, Gibraltar 1.2 km,
  Portugal 1,214 km, Morocco (Ceuta) 6.3 km, Morocco (Melilla) 9.6 km

Spratly Islands
  0 km

Sri Lanka
  0 km

Sudan
  total: 7,687 km
  border countries: Central African Republic 1,165 km, Chad 1,360 km,
  Democratic Republic of the Congo 628 km, Egypt 1,273 km, Eritrea 605
  km, Ethiopia 1,606 km, Kenya 232 km, Libya 383 km, Uganda 435 km

Suriname
  total: 1,707 km
  border countries: Brazil 597 km, French Guiana 510 km, Guyana 600 km

Svalbard
  0 km

Swaziland
  total: 535 km
  border countries: Mozambique 105 km, South Africa 430 km

Sweden
  total: 2,233 km
  border countries: Finland 614 km, Norway 1,619 km

Switzerland
  total: 1,852 km
  border countries: Austria 164 km, France 573 km, Italy 740 km,
  Liechtenstein 41 km, Germany 334 km

Syria
  total: 2,253 km
  border countries: Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon
  375 km, Turkey 822 km

Taiwan
  0 km

Tajikistan
  total: 3,651 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 1,206 km, China 414 km, Kyrgyzstan 870
  km, Uzbekistan 1,161 km

Tanzania
  total: 3,861 km
  border countries: Burundi 451 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  459 km, Kenya 769 km, Malawi 475 km, Mozambique 756 km, Rwanda 217
  km, Uganda 396 km, Zambia 338 km

Thailand
  total: 4,863 km
  border countries: Burma 1,800 km, Cambodia 803 km, Laos 1,754 km,
  Malaysia 506 km

Togo
  total: 1,647 km
  border countries: Benin 644 km, Burkina Faso 126 km, Ghana 877 km

Tokelau
  0 km

Tonga
  0 km

Trinidad and Tobago
  0 km

Tromelin Island
  0 km

Tunisia
  total: 1,424 km
  border countries: Algeria 965 km, Libya 459 km

Turkey
  total: 2,648 km
  border countries: Armenia 268 km, Azerbaijan 9 km, Bulgaria 240 km,
  Georgia 252 km, Greece 206 km, Iran 499 km, Iraq 352 km, Syria 822 km

Turkmenistan
  total: 3,736 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 744 km, Iran 992 km, Kazakhstan 379
  km, Uzbekistan 1,621 km

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 km

Tuvalu
  0 km

Uganda
  total: 2,698 km
  border countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo 765 km, Kenya 933
  km, Rwanda 169 km, Sudan 435 km, Tanzania 396 km

Ukraine
  total: 4,663 km
  border countries: Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 939 km,
  Poland 526 km, Romania (south) 169 km, Romania (west) 362 km, Russia
  1,576 km, Slovakia 97 km

United Arab Emirates
  total: 867 km
  border countries: Oman 410 km, Saudi Arabia 457 km

United Kingdom
  total: 360 km
  border countries: Ireland 360 km

United States
  total: 12,034 km
  border countries: Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska),
  Mexico 3,141 km
  note: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is leased by the US and
  is part of Cuba; the base boundary is 28 km

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  none

Uruguay
  total: 1,564 km
  border countries: Argentina 579 km, Brazil 985 km

Uzbekistan
  total: 6,221 km
  border countries: Afghanistan 137 km, Kazakhstan 2,203 km,
  Kyrgyzstan 1,099 km, Tajikistan 1,161 km, Turkmenistan 1,621 km

Vanuatu
  0 km

Venezuela
  total: 4,993 km
  border countries: Brazil 2,200 km, Colombia 2,050 km, Guyana 743 km

Vietnam
  total: 4,639 km
  border countries: Cambodia 1,228 km, China 1,281 km, Laos 2,130 km

Virgin Islands
  0 km

Wake Island
  0 km

Wallis and Futuna
  0 km

West Bank
  total: 404 km
  border countries: Israel 307 km, Jordan 97 km

Western Sahara
  total: 2,046 km
  border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km

World
  the land boundaries in the world total 250,708 km (not
  counting shared boundaries twice); two nations, China and Russia,
  each border 14 other countries
  note: 44 nations and other areas are landlocked, these include:
  Afghanistan, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan,
  Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic,
  Chad, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Holy See (Vatican City), Hungary,
  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
  Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Paraguay,
  Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Swaziland, Switzerland,
  Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, West Bank, Zambia,
  Zimbabwe; two of these, Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan, are doubly
  landlocked

Yemen
  total: 1,746 km
  border countries: Oman 288 km, Saudi Arabia 1,458 km

Zambia
  total: 5,664 km
  border countries: Angola 1,110 km, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  1,930 km, Malawi 837 km, Mozambique 419 km, Namibia 233 km, Tanzania
  338 km, Zimbabwe 797 km

Zimbabwe
  total: 3,066 km
  border countries: Botswana 813 km, Mozambique 1,231 km, South Africa
  225 km, Zambia 797 km

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2097  Land use (%)


Afghanistan
  arable land: 12.13%
  permanent crops: 0.21%
  other: 87.66% (2005)

Albania
  arable land: 20.1%
  permanent crops: 4.21%
  other: 75.69% (2005)

Algeria
  arable land: 3.17%
  permanent crops: 0.28%
  other: 96.55% (2005)

American Samoa
  arable land: 10%
  permanent crops: 15%
  other: 75% (2005)

Andorra
  arable land: 2.13%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.87% (2005)

Angola
  arable land: 2.65%
  permanent crops: 0.23%
  other: 97.12% (2005)

Anguilla
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mostly rock with sparse scrub oak, few trees, some
  commercial salt ponds) (2005)

Antarctica
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (ice 98%, barren rock 2%) (2005)

Antigua and Barbuda
  arable land: 18.18%
  permanent crops: 4.55%
  other: 77.27% (2005)

Argentina
  arable land: 10.03%
  permanent crops: 0.36%
  other: 89.61% (2005)

Armenia
  arable land: 16.78%
  permanent crops: 2.01%
  other: 81.21% (2005)

Aruba
  arable land: 10.53%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 89.47% (2005)

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all grass and sand) (2005)

Australia
  arable land: 6.15% (includes about 27 million hectares of
  cultivated grassland)
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 93.81% (2005)

Austria
  arable land: 16.59%
  permanent crops: 0.85%
  other: 82.56% (2005)

Azerbaijan
  arable land: 20.62%
  permanent crops: 2.61%
  other: 76.77% (2005)

Bahamas, The
  arable land: 0.58%
  permanent crops: 0.29%
  other: 99.13% (2005)

Bahrain
  arable land: 2.82%
  permanent crops: 5.63%
  other: 91.55% (2005)

Baker Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Bangladesh
  arable land: 55.39%
  permanent crops: 3.08%
  other: 41.53% (2005)

Barbados
  arable land: 37.21%
  permanent crops: 2.33%
  other: 60.46% (2005)

Bassas da India
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all rock) (2005)

Belarus
  arable land: 26.77%
  permanent crops: 0.6%
  other: 72.63% (2005)

Belgium
  arable land: 27.42%
  permanent crops: 0.69%
  other: 71.89%
  note: includes Luxembourg (2005)

Belize
  arable land: 3.05%
  permanent crops: 1.39%
  other: 95.56% (2005)

Benin
  arable land: 23.53%
  permanent crops: 2.37%
  other: 74.1% (2005)

Bermuda
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 80% (55% developed, 45% rural/open space) (2005)

Bhutan
  arable land: 2.3%
  permanent crops: 0.43%
  other: 97.27% (2005)

Bolivia
  arable land: 2.78%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 97.03% (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  arable land: 19.61%
  permanent crops: 1.89%
  other: 78.5% (2005)

Botswana
  arable land: 0.65%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99.34% (2005)

Bouvet Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (93% ice) (2005)

Brazil
  arable land: 6.93%
  permanent crops: 0.89%
  other: 92.18% (2005)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

British Virgin Islands
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 6.67%
  other: 73.33% (2005)

Brunei
  arable land: 2.08%
  permanent crops: 0.87%
  other: 97.05% (2005)

Bulgaria
  arable land: 29.94%
  permanent crops: 1.9%
  other: 68.16% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  arable land: 17.66%
  permanent crops: 0.22%
  other: 82.12% (2005)

Burma
  arable land: 14.92%
  permanent crops: 1.31%
  other: 83.77% (2005)

Burundi
  arable land: 35.57%
  permanent crops: 13.12%
  other: 51.31% (2005)

Cambodia
  arable land: 20.44%
  permanent crops: 0.59%
  other: 78.97% (2005)

Cameroon
  arable land: 12.54%
  permanent crops: 2.52%
  other: 84.94% (2005)

Canada
  arable land: 4.57%
  permanent crops: 0.65%
  other: 94.78% (2005)

Cape Verde
  arable land: 11.41%
  permanent crops: 0.74%
  other: 87.85% (2005)

Cayman Islands
  arable land: 3.85%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 96.15% (2005)

Central African Republic
  arable land: 3.1%
  permanent crops: 0.15%
  other: 96.75% (2005)

Chad
  arable land: 2.8%
  permanent crops: 0.02%
  other: 97.18% (2005)

Chile
  arable land: 2.62%
  permanent crops: 0.43%
  other: 96.95% (2005)

China
  arable land: 14.86%
  permanent crops: 1.27%
  other: 83.87% (2005)

Christmas Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mainly tropical rainforest; 63% of the island is a
  national park) (2005)

Clipperton Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all coral) (2005)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Colombia
  arable land: 2.01%
  permanent crops: 1.37%
  other: 96.62% (2005)

Comoros
  arable land: 35.87%
  permanent crops: 23.32%
  other: 40.81% (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  arable land: 2.86%
  permanent crops: 0.47%
  other: 96.67% (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  arable land: 1.45%
  permanent crops: 0.15%
  other: 98.4% (2005)

Cook Islands
  arable land: 16.67%
  permanent crops: 8.33%
  other: 75% (2005)

Coral Sea Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mostly grass or scrub cover) (2005)

Costa Rica
  arable land: 4.4%
  permanent crops: 5.87%
  other: 89.73% (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  arable land: 10.23%
  permanent crops: 11.16%
  other: 78.61% (2005)

Croatia
  arable land: 25.82%
  permanent crops: 2.19%
  other: 71.99% (2005)

Cuba
  arable land: 27.63%
  permanent crops: 6.54%
  other: 65.83% (2005)

Cyprus
  arable land: 10.81%
  permanent crops: 4.32%
  other: 84.87% (2005)

Czech Republic
  arable land: 38.82%
  permanent crops: 3%
  other: 58.18% (2005)

Denmark
  arable land: 52.59%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 47.22% (2005)

Djibouti
  arable land: 0.04%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.96% (2005)

Dominica
  arable land: 6.67%
  permanent crops: 21.33%
  other: 72% (2005)

Dominican Republic
  arable land: 22.49%
  permanent crops: 10.26%
  other: 67.25% (2005)

East Timor
  arable land: 8.2%
  permanent crops: 4.57%
  other: 87.23% (2005)

Ecuador
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 4.81%
  other: 89.48% (2005)

Egypt
  arable land: 2.92%
  permanent crops: 0.5%
  other: 96.58% (2005)

El Salvador
  arable land: 31.37%
  permanent crops: 11.88%
  other: 56.75% (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  arable land: 4.63%
  permanent crops: 3.57%
  other: 91.8% (2005)

Eritrea
  arable land: 4.78%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 95.19% (2005)

Estonia
  arable land: 12.05%
  permanent crops: 0.35%
  other: 87.6% (2005)

Ethiopia
  arable land: 10.01%
  permanent crops: 0.65%
  other: 89.34% (2005)

Europa Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (mangrove forests and woodlands) (2005)

European Union
  arable land: NA
  permanent crops: NA
  other: NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (99% permanent pastures, 1% other) (2005)

Faroe Islands
  arable land: 2.14%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.86% (2005)

Fiji
  arable land: 10.95%
  permanent crops: 4.65%
  other: 84.4% (2005)

Finland
  arable land: 6.54%
  permanent crops: 0.02%
  other: 93.44% (2005)

France
  arable land: 33.46%
  permanent crops: 2.03%
  other: 64.51% (2005)

French Guiana
  arable land: 0.13%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 99.83% (90% forest, 10% other) (2005)

French Polynesia
  arable land: 0.75%
  permanent crops: 5.5%
  other: 93.75% (2005)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Gabon
  arable land: 1.21%
  permanent crops: 0.64%
  other: 98.15% (2005)

Gambia, The
  arable land: 27.88%
  permanent crops: 0.44%
  other: 71.68% (2005)

Gaza Strip
  arable land: 29%
  permanent crops: 21%
  other: 50% (2002)

Georgia
  arable land: 11.51%
  permanent crops: 3.79%
  other: 84.7% (2005)

Germany
  arable land: 33.13%
  permanent crops: 0.6%
  other: 66.27% (2005)

Ghana
  arable land: 17.54%
  permanent crops: 9.22%
  other: 73.24% (2005)

Gibraltar
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Glorioso Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (all lush vegetation and coconut palms) (2005)

Greece
  arable land: 20.45%
  permanent crops: 8.59%
  other: 70.96% (2005)

Greenland
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Grenada
  arable land: 5.88%
  permanent crops: 29.41%
  other: 64.71% (2005)

Guadeloupe
  arable land: 11.7%
  permanent crops: 2.92%
  other: 85.38% (2005)

Guam
  arable land: 3.64%
  permanent crops: 18.18%
  other: 78.18% (2005)

Guatemala
  arable land: 13.22%
  permanent crops: 5.6%
  other: 81.18% (2005)

Guernsey
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Guinea
  arable land: 4.47%
  permanent crops: 2.64%
  other: 92.89% (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  arable land: 8.31%
  permanent crops: 6.92%
  other: 84.77% (2005)

Guyana
  arable land: 2.23%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 97.63% (2005)

Haiti
  arable land: 28.11%
  permanent crops: 11.53%
  other: 60.36% (2005)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (urban area) (2005)

Honduras
  arable land: 9.53%
  permanent crops: 3.21%
  other: 87.26% (2005)

Hong Kong
  arable land: 5.05%
  permanent crops: 1.01%
  other: 93.94% (2001)

Howland Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2001)

Hungary
  arable land: 49.58%
  permanent crops: 2.06%
  other: 48.36% (2005)

Iceland
  arable land: 0.07%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.93% (2005)

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India - 100% rock, coral reef, and sand;
  Europa Island - 100% mangrove swamp and dry woodlands; Glorioso
  Islands - 100% lush vegetation and coconut palms; Juan de Nova
  Island - 90% forest, 10% other; Tromelin Island - 100% grasses and
  scattered brush

India
  arable land: 48.83%
  permanent crops: 2.8%
  other: 48.37% (2005)

Indonesia
  arable land: 11.03%
  permanent crops: 7.04%
  other: 81.93% (2005)

Iran
  arable land: 9.78%
  permanent crops: 1.29%
  other: 88.93% (2005)

Iraq
  arable land: 13.12%
  permanent crops: 0.61%
  other: 86.27% (2005)

Ireland
  arable land: 16.82%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 83.15% (2005)

Isle of Man
  arable land: 9%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 91% (permanent pastures, forests, mountain, and heathland)
  (2002)

Israel
  arable land: 15.45%
  permanent crops: 3.88%
  other: 80.67% (2005)

Italy
  arable land: 26.41%
  permanent crops: 9.09%
  other: 64.5% (2005)

Jamaica
  arable land: 15.83%
  permanent crops: 10.01%
  other: 74.16% (2005)

Jan Mayen
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Japan
  arable land: 11.64%
  permanent crops: 0.9%
  other: 87.46% (2005)

Jarvis Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Jersey
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Johnston Atoll
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Jordan
  arable land: 3.32%
  permanent crops: 1.18%
  other: 95.5% (2005)

Juan de Nova Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (90% forest) (2005)

Kazakhstan
  arable land: 8.28%
  permanent crops: 0.05%
  other: 91.67% (2005)

Kenya
  arable land: 8.01%
  permanent crops: 0.97%
  other: 91.02% (2005)

Kingman Reef
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Kiribati
  arable land: 2.74%
  permanent crops: 47.95%
  other: 49.31% (2005)

Korea, North
  arable land: 22.4%
  permanent crops: 1.66%
  other: 75.94% (2005)

Korea, South
  arable land: 16.58%
  permanent crops: 2.01%
  other: 81.41% (2005)

Kuwait
  arable land: 0.84%
  permanent crops: 0.17%
  other: 98.99% (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  arable land: 6.55%
  permanent crops: 0.28%
  other: 93.17%
  note: Kyrgyzstan has the world's largest natural growth walnut
  forest (2005)

Laos
  arable land: 4.01%
  permanent crops: 0.34%
  other: 95.65% (2005)

Latvia
  arable land: 28.19%
  permanent crops: 0.45%
  other: 71.36% (2005)

Lebanon
  arable land: 16.35%
  permanent crops: 13.75%
  other: 69.9% (2005)

Lesotho
  arable land: 10.87%
  permanent crops: 0.13%
  other: 89% (2005)

Liberia
  arable land: 3.43%
  permanent crops: 1.98%
  other: 94.59% (2005)

Libya
  arable land: 1.03%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 98.78% (2005)

Liechtenstein
  arable land: 25%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 75% (2005)

Lithuania
  arable land: 44.81%
  permanent crops: 0.9%
  other: 54.29% (2005)

Luxembourg
  arable land: 23.94%
  permanent crops: 0.39%
  other: 75.67% (includes Belgium) (2005)

Macau
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Macedonia
  arable land: 22.01%
  permanent crops: 1.79%
  other: 76.2% (2005)

Madagascar
  arable land: 5.03%
  permanent crops: 1.02%
  other: 93.95% (2005)

Malawi
  arable land: 20.68%
  permanent crops: 1.18%
  other: 78.14% (2005)

Malaysia
  arable land: 5.46%
  permanent crops: 17.54%
  other: 77% (2005)

Maldives
  arable land: 13.33%
  permanent crops: 30%
  other: 56.67% (2005)

Mali
  arable land: 3.76%
  permanent crops: 0.03%
  other: 96.21% (2005)

Malta
  arable land: 31.25%
  permanent crops: 3.13%
  other: 65.62% (2005)

Marshall Islands
  arable land: 11.11%
  permanent crops: 44.44%
  other: 44.45% (2005)

Martinique
  arable land: 9.09%
  permanent crops: 10%
  other: 80.91% (2005)

Mauritania
  arable land: 0.2%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99.79% (2005)

Mauritius
  arable land: 49.02%
  permanent crops: 2.94%
  other: 48.04% (2005)

Mayotte
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Mexico
  arable land: 12.66%
  permanent crops: 1.28%
  other: 86.06% (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 45.71%
  other: 48.58% (2005)

Midway Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Moldova
  arable land: 54.52%
  permanent crops: 8.81%
  other: 36.67% (2005)

Monaco
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (urban area) (2005)

Mongolia
  arable land: 0.76%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.24% (2005)

Montenegro
  arable land: 13.7%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 85.3%

Montserrat
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 80% (2005)

Morocco
  arable land: 19%
  permanent crops: 2%
  other: 79% (2005)

Mozambique
  arable land: 5.43%
  permanent crops: 0.29%
  other: 94.28% (2005)

Namibia
  arable land: 0.99%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 99% (2005)

Nauru
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Navassa Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Nepal
  arable land: 16.07%
  permanent crops: 0.85%
  other: 83.08% (2005)

Netherlands
  arable land: 21.96%
  permanent crops: 0.77%
  other: 77.27% (2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  arable land: 10%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 90% (2005)

New Caledonia
  arable land: 0.32%
  permanent crops: 0.22%
  other: 99.46% (2005)

New Zealand
  arable land: 5.54%
  permanent crops: 6.92%
  other: 87.54% (2005)

Nicaragua
  arable land: 14.81%
  permanent crops: 1.82%
  other: 83.37% (2005)

Niger
  arable land: 11.43%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 88.56% (2005)

Nigeria
  arable land: 33.02%
  permanent crops: 3.14%
  other: 63.84% (2005)

Niue
  arable land: 11.54%
  permanent crops: 15.38%
  other: 73.08% (2005)

Norfolk Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Northern Mariana Islands
  arable land: 13.04%
  permanent crops: 4.35%
  other: 82.61% (2005)

Norway
  arable land: 2.7%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.3% (2005)

Oman
  arable land: 0.12%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 99.74% (2005)

Pakistan
  arable land: 24.44%
  permanent crops: 0.84%
  other: 74.72% (2005)

Palau
  arable land: 8.7%
  permanent crops: 4.35%
  other: 86.95% (2005)

Palmyra Atoll
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (forests and woodlands) (2005)

Panama
  arable land: 7.26%
  permanent crops: 1.95%
  other: 90.79% (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  arable land: 0.49%
  permanent crops: 1.4%
  other: 98.11% (2005)

Paracel Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Paraguay
  arable land: 7.47%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 92.29% (2005)

Peru
  arable land: 2.88%
  permanent crops: 0.47%
  other: 96.65% (2005)

Philippines
  arable land: 19%
  permanent crops: 16.67%
  other: 64.33% (2005)

Pitcairn Islands
  arable land: NA%
  permanent crops: NA%
  other: NA%

Poland
  arable land: 40.25%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 58.75% (2005)

Portugal
  arable land: 17.29%
  permanent crops: 7.84%
  other: 74.87% (2005)

Puerto Rico
  arable land: 3.69%
  permanent crops: 5.59%
  other: 90.72% (2005)

Qatar
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 0.27%
  other: 98.09% (2005)

Reunion
  arable land: 13.94%
  permanent crops: 1.59%
  other: 84.47% (2005)

Romania
  arable land: 39.49%
  permanent crops: 1.92%
  other: 58.59% (2005)

Russia
  arable land: 7.17%
  permanent crops: 0.11%
  other: 92.72% (2005)

Rwanda
  arable land: 45.56%
  permanent crops: 10.25%
  other: 44.19% (2005)

Saint Helena
  arable land: 12.9%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 87.1% (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  arable land: 19.44%
  permanent crops: 2.78%
  other: 77.78% (2005)

Saint Lucia
  arable land: 6.45%
  permanent crops: 22.58%
  other: 70.97% (2005)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  arable land: 12.5%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 87.5% (2005)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  arable land: 17.95%
  permanent crops: 17.95%
  other: 64.1% (2005)

Samoa
  arable land: 21.13%
  permanent crops: 24.3%
  other: 54.57% (2005)

San Marino
  arable land: 16.67%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 83.33% (2005)

Sao Tome and Principe
  arable land: 8.33%
  permanent crops: 48.96%
  other: 42.71% (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  arable land: 1.67%
  permanent crops: 0.09%
  other: 98.24% (2005)

Senegal
  arable land: 12.51%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 87.25% (2005)

Serbia
  arable land: NA
  permanent crops: NA
  other: NA

Seychelles
  arable land: 2.17%
  permanent crops: 13.04%
  other: 84.79% (2005)

Sierra Leone
  arable land: 7.95%
  permanent crops: 1.05%
  other: 91% (2005)

Singapore
  arable land: 1.47%
  permanent crops: 1.47%
  other: 97.06% (2005)

Slovakia
  arable land: 29.23%
  permanent crops: 2.67%
  other: 68.1% (2005)

Slovenia
  arable land: 8.53%
  permanent crops: 1.43%
  other: 90.04% (2005)

Solomon Islands
  arable land: 0.62%
  permanent crops: 2.04%
  other: 97.34% (2005)

Somalia
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 98.32% (2005)

South Africa
  arable land: 12.1%
  permanent crops: 0.79%
  other: 87.11% (2005)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (largely covered by permanent ice and snow with some
  sparse vegetation consisting of grass, moss, and lichen) (2005)

Spain
  arable land: 27.18%
  permanent crops: 9.85%
  other: 62.97% (2005)

Spratly Islands
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Sri Lanka
  arable land: 13.96%
  permanent crops: 15.24%
  other: 70.8% (2005)

Sudan
  arable land: 6.78%
  permanent crops: 0.17%
  other: 93.05% (2005)

Suriname
  arable land: 0.36%
  permanent crops: 0.06%
  other: 99.58% (2005)

Svalbard
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (no trees, and the only bushes are crowberry and
  cloudberry) (2005)

Swaziland
  arable land: 10.25%
  permanent crops: 0.81%
  other: 88.94% (2005)

Sweden
  arable land: 5.93%
  permanent crops: 0.01%
  other: 94.06% (2005)

Switzerland
  arable land: 9.91%
  permanent crops: 0.58%
  other: 89.51% (2005)

Syria
  arable land: 24.8%
  permanent crops: 4.47%
  other: 70.73% (2005)

Taiwan
  arable land: 24%
  permanent crops: 1%
  other: 75% (2001)

Tajikistan
  arable land: 6.52%
  permanent crops: 0.89%
  other: 92.59% (2005)

Tanzania
  arable land: 4.23%
  permanent crops: 1.16%
  other: 94.61% (2005)

Thailand
  arable land: 27.54%
  permanent crops: 6.93%
  other: 65.53% (2005)

Togo
  arable land: 44.2%
  permanent crops: 2.11%
  other: 53.69% (2005)

Tokelau
  arable land: 0% (soil is thin and infertile)
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Tonga
  arable land: 20%
  permanent crops: 14.67%
  other: 65.33% (2005)

Trinidad and Tobago
  arable land: 14.62%
  permanent crops: 9.16%
  other: 76.22% (2005)

Tromelin Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (grasses; scattered bushes) (2005)

Tunisia
  arable land: 17.05%
  permanent crops: 13.08%
  other: 69.87% (2005)

Turkey
  arable land: 29.81%
  permanent crops: 3.39%
  other: 66.8% (2005)

Turkmenistan
  arable land: 4.51%
  permanent crops: 0.14%
  other: 95.35% (2005)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  arable land: 2.33%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 97.67% (2005)

Tuvalu
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 66.67%
  other: 33.33% (2005)

Uganda
  arable land: 21.57%
  permanent crops: 8.92%
  other: 69.51% (2005)

Ukraine
  arable land: 53.8%
  permanent crops: 1.5%
  other: 44.7% (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  arable land: 0.77%
  permanent crops: 2.27%
  other: 96.96% (2005)

United Kingdom
  arable land: 23.23%
  permanent crops: 0.2%
  other: 76.57% (2005)

United States
  arable land: 18.01%
  permanent crops: 0.21%
  other: 81.78% (2005)

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Uruguay
  arable land: 7.77%
  permanent crops: 0.24%
  other: 91.99% (2005)

Uzbekistan
  arable land: 10.51%
  permanent crops: 0.76%
  other: 88.73% (2005)

Vanuatu
  arable land: 1.64%
  permanent crops: 6.97%
  other: 91.39% (2005)

Venezuela
  arable land: 2.85%
  permanent crops: 0.88%
  other: 96.27% (2005)

Vietnam
  arable land: 20.14%
  permanent crops: 6.93%
  other: 72.93% (2005)

Virgin Islands
  arable land: 5.71%
  permanent crops: 2.86%
  other: 91.43% (2005)

Wake Island
  arable land: 0%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 100% (2005)

Wallis and Futuna
  arable land: 7.14%
  permanent crops: 35.71%
  other: 57.15% (2005)

West Bank
  arable land: 16.9%
  permanent crops: 18.97%
  other: 64.13% (2001)

Western Sahara
  arable land: 0.02%
  permanent crops: 0%
  other: 99.98% (2005)

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

Yemen
  arable land: 2.91%
  permanent crops: 0.25%
  other: 96.84% (2005)

Zambia
  arable land: 6.99%
  permanent crops: 0.04%
  other: 92.97% (2005)

Zimbabwe
  arable land: 8.24%
  permanent crops: 0.33%
  other: 91.43% (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2098  Languages (%)


Afghanistan
  Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashtu (official)
  35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor
  languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism

Akrotiri
  English, Greek

Albania
  Albanian (official - derived from Tosk dialect), Greek,
  Vlach, Romani, Slavic dialects

Algeria
  Arabic (official), French, Berber dialects

American Samoa
  Samoan 90.6% (closely related to Hawaiian and other
  Polynesian languages), English 2.9%, Tongan 2.4%, other Pacific
  islander 2.1%, other 2%
  note: most people are bilingual (2000 census)

Andorra
  Catalan (official), French, Castilian, Portuguese

Angola
  Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

Anguilla
  English (official)

Antigua and Barbuda
  English (official), local dialects

Argentina
  Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

Armenia
  Armenian 97.7%, Yezidi 1%, Russian 0.9%, other 0.4% (2001
  census)

Aruba
  Dutch (official), Papiamento (a Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
  English dialect), English (widely spoken), Spanish

Australia
  English 79.1%, Chinese 2.1%, Italian 1.9%, other 11.1%,
  unspecified 5.8% (2001 Census)

Austria
  German (official nationwide), Slovene (official in
  Carinthia), Croatian (official in Burgenland), Hungarian (official
  in Burgenland)

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijani (Azeri) 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other
  6% (1995 est.)

Bahamas, The
  English (official), Creole (among Haitian immigrants)

Bahrain
  Arabic, English, Farsi, Urdu

Bangladesh
  Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

Barbados
  English

Belarus
  Belarusian, Russian, other

Belgium
  Dutch (official) 60%, French (official) 40%, German
  (official) less than 1%, legally bilingual (Dutch and French)

Belize
  English (official), Spanish, Mayan, Garifuna (Carib), Creole

Benin
  French (official), Fon and Yoruba (most common vernaculars in
  south), tribal languages (at least six major ones in north)

Bermuda
  English (official), Portuguese

Bhutan
  Dzongkha (official), Bhotes speak various Tibetan dialects,
  Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects

Bolivia
  Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian

Botswana
  Setswana 78.2%, Kalanga 7.9%, Sekgalagadi 2.8%, English
  2.1% (official), other 8.6%, unspecified 0.4% (2001 census)

Brazil
  Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

British Virgin Islands
  English (official)

Brunei
  Malay (official), English, Chinese

Bulgaria
  Bulgarian 84.5%, Turkish 9.6%, Roma 4.1%, other and
  unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

Burkina Faso
  French (official), native African languages belonging
  to Sudanic family spoken by 90% of the population

Burma
  Burmese, minority ethnic groups have their own languages

Burundi
  Kirundi (official), French (official), Swahili (along Lake
  Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area)

Cambodia
  Khmer (official) 95%, French, English

Cameroon
  24 major African language groups, English (official),
  French (official)

Canada
  English (official) 59.3%, French (official) 23.2%, other 17.5%

Cape Verde
  Portuguese, Crioulo (a blend of Portuguese and West
  African words)

Cayman Islands
  English

Central African Republic
  French (official), Sangho (lingua franca
  and national language), tribal languages

Chad
  French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more
  than 120 different languages and dialects

Chile
  Spanish

China
  Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing
  dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan
  (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages
  (see Ethnic groups entry)

Christmas Island
  English (official), Chinese, Malay

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Malay (Cocos dialect), English

Colombia
  Spanish

Comoros
  Arabic (official), French (official), Shikomoro (a blend of
  Swahili and Arabic)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  French (official), Lingala (a
  lingua franca trade language), Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or
  Swahili), Kikongo, Tshiluba

Congo, Republic of the
  French (official), Lingala and Monokutuba
  (lingua franca trade languages), many local languages and dialects
  (of which Kikongo is the most widespread)

Cook Islands
  English (official), Maori

Costa Rica
  Spanish (official), English

Cote d'Ivoire
  French (official), 60 native dialects with Dioula the
  most widely spoken

Croatia
  Croatian 96.1%, Serbian 1%, other and undesignated 2.9%
  (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) (2001
  census)

Cuba
  Spanish

Cyprus
  Greek, Turkish, English

Czech Republic
  Czech

Denmark
  Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect), German
  (small minority)
  note: English is the predominant second language

Dhekelia
  English, Greek

Djibouti
  French (official), Arabic (official), Somali, Afar

Dominica
  English (official), French patois

Dominican Republic
  Spanish

East Timor
  Tetum (official), Portuguese (official), Indonesian,
  English
  note: there are about 16 indigenous languages; Tetum, Galole,
  Mambae, and Kemak are spoken by significant numbers of people

Ecuador
  Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quechua)

Egypt
  Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by
  educated classes

El Salvador
  Spanish, Nahua (among some Amerindians)

Equatorial Guinea
  Spanish (official), French (official), pidgin
  English, Fang, Bubi, Ibo

Eritrea
  Afar, Arabic, Tigre and Kunama, Tigrinya, other Cushitic
  languages

Estonia
  Estonian (official) 67.3%, Russian 29.7%, other 2.3%,
  unknown 0.7% (2000 census)

Ethiopia
  Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic,
  other local languages, English (major foreign language taught in
  schools)

European Union
  Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish,
  French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian,
  Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish; note
  - only official languages are listed; Irish (Gaelic) will become the
  21st language on 1 January 2007

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  English

Faroe Islands
  Faroese (derived from Old Norse), Danish

Fiji
  English (official), Fijian (official), Hindustani

Finland
  Finnish 92% (official), Swedish 5.6% (official), other 2.4%
  (small Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) (2003)

France
  French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and
  languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque,
  Flemish)

French Guiana
  French

French Polynesia
  French 61.1% (official), Polynesian 31.4%
  (official), Asian languages 1.2%, other 0.3%, unspecified 6% (2002
  census)

Gabon
  French (official), Fang, Myene, Nzebi, Bapounou/Eschira,
  Bandjabi

Gambia, The
  English (official), Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, other
  indigenous vernaculars

Gaza Strip
  Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by many Palestinians), English
  (widely understood)

Georgia
  Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%,
  other 7%
  note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia

Germany
  German

Ghana
  English (official), African languages (including Akan,
  Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)

Gibraltar
  English (used in schools and for official purposes),
  Spanish, Italian, Portuguese

Greece
  Greek 99% (official), English, French

Greenland
  Greenlandic (East Inuit), Danish, English

Grenada
  English (official), French patois

Guadeloupe
  French (official) 99%, Creole patois

Guam
  English 38.3%, Chamorro 22.2%, Philippine languages 22.2%,
  other Pacific island languages 6.8%, Asian languages 7%, other
  languages 3.5% (2000 census)

Guatemala
  Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23 officially
  recognized Amerindian languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel,
  Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca)

Guernsey
  English, French, Norman-French dialect spoken in country
  districts

Guinea
  French (official); note - each ethnic group has its own
  language

Guinea-Bissau
  Portuguese (official), Crioulo, African languages

Guyana
  English, Amerindian dialects, Creole, Hindi, Urdu

Haiti
  French (official), Creole (official)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Italian, Latin, French, various other
  languages

Honduras
  Spanish, Amerindian dialects

Hong Kong
  Chinese (Cantonese), English; both are official

Hungary
  Hungarian 93.6%, other or unspecified 6.4% (2001 census)

Iceland
  Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken

India
  English enjoys associate status but is the most important
  language for national, political, and commercial communication;
  Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the
  people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu,
  Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi,
  Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular
  variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is
  not an official language

Indonesia
  Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay),
  English, Dutch, local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is
  Javanese

Iran
  Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects
  26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%

Iraq
  Arabic, Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Assyrian,
  Armenian

Ireland
  English (official) is the language generally used, Irish
  (official) (Gaelic or Gaeilge) spoken mainly in areas located along
  the western seaboard

Isle of Man
  English, Manx Gaelic

Israel
  Hebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority,
  English most commonly used foreign language

Italy
  Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige
  region are predominantly German speaking), French (small
  French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene
  (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Jamaica
  English, patois English

Japan
  Japanese

Jersey
  English 94.5% (official), Portuguese 4.6%, other 0.9% (2001
  census)

Jordan
  Arabic (official), English widely understood among upper and
  middle classes

Kazakhstan
  Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official,
  used in everyday business, designated the "language of interethnic
  communication") 95% (2001 est.)

Kenya
  English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous
  languages

Kiribati
  I-Kiribati, English (official)

Korea, North
  Korean

Korea, South
  Korean, English widely taught in junior high and high
  school

Kuwait
  Arabic (official), English widely spoken

Kyrgyzstan
  Kyrgyz (official), Russian (official)

Laos
  Lao (official), French, English, and various ethnic languages

Latvia
  Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other
  4.3% (2000 census)

Lebanon
  Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian

Lesotho
  Sesotho (southern Sotho), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa

Liberia
  English 20% (official), some 20 ethnic group languages, of
  which a few can be written and are used in correspondence

Libya
  Arabic, Italian, English, all are widely understood in the
  major cities

Liechtenstein
  German (official), Alemannic dialect

Lithuania
  Lithuanian (official) 82%, Russian 8%, Polish 5.6%, other
  and unspecified 4.4% (2001 census)

Luxembourg
  Luxembourgish (national language), German (administrative
  language), French (administrative language)

Macau
  Cantonese 87.9%, Hokkien 4.4%, Mandarin 1.6%, other Chinese
  dialects 3.1%, other 3% (2001 census)

Macedonia
  Macedonian 66.5%, Albanian 25.1%, Turkish 3.5%, Roma 1.9%,
  Serbian 1.2%, other 1.8% (2002 census)

Madagascar
  French (official), Malagasy (official)

Malawi
  Chichewa 57.2% (official), Chinyanja 12.8%, Chiyao 10.1%,
  Chitumbuka 9.5%, Chisena 2.7%, Chilomwe 2.4%, Chitonga 1.7%, other
  3.6% (1998 census)

Malaysia
  Bahasa Melayu (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese,
  Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu,
  Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
  note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most
  widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan

Maldives
  Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from
  Arabic), English spoken by most government officials

Mali
  French (official), Bambara 80%, numerous African languages

Malta
  Maltese (official), English (official)

Marshall Islands
  Marshallese 98.2%, other languages 1.8% (1999
  census)
  note: English widely spoken as a second language; both Marshallese
  and English are official languages

Martinique
  French, Creole patois

Mauritania
  Arabic (official), Pulaar, Soninke, French, Hassaniya,
  Wolof

Mauritius
  Creole 80.5%, Bhojpuri 12.1%, French 3.4%, English
  (official; spoken by less than 1% of the population), other 3.7%,
  unspecified 0.3% (2000 census)

Mayotte
  Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French (official language)
  spoken by 35% of the population

Mexico
  Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional
  indigenous languages

Micronesia, Federated States of
  English (official and common
  language), Trukese, Pohnpeian, Yapese, Kosrean, Ulithian, Woleaian,
  Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi

Moldova
  Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian
  language), Russian, Gagauz (a Turkish dialect)

Monaco
  French (official), English, Italian, Monegasque

Mongolia
  Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian (1999)

Montenegro
  Serbian (Ijekavian dialect - official), Bosnian,
  Albanian, Croatian

Montserrat
  English

Morocco
  Arabic (official), Berber dialects, French often the
  language of business, government, and diplomacy

Mozambique
  Emakhuwa 26.1%, Xichangana 11.3%, Portuguese 8.8%
  (official; spoken by 27% of population as a second language), Elomwe
  7.6%, Cisena 6.8%, Echuwabo 5.8%, other Mozambican languages 32%,
  other foreign languages 0.3%, unspecified 1.3% (1997 census)

Namibia
  English 7% (official), Afrikaans common language of most of
  the population and about 60% of the white population, German 32%,
  indigenous languages (Oshivambo, Herero, Nama)

Nauru
  Nauruan (official, a distinct Pacific Island language),
  English widely understood, spoken, and used for most government and
  commercial purposes

Nepal
  Nepali 47.8%, Maithali 12.1%, Bhojpuri 7.4%, Tharu
  (Dagaura/Rana) 5.8%, Tamang 5.1%, Newar 3.6%, Magar 3.3%, Awadhi
  2.4%, other 10%, unspecified 2.5% (2001 census)
  note: many in government and business also speak English

Netherlands
  Dutch (official), Frisian (official)

Netherlands Antilles
  Papiamento 65.4% (a
  Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect), English 15.9% (widely
  spoken), Dutch 7.3% (official), Spanish 6.1%, Creole 1.6%, other
  1.9%, unspecified 1.8% (2001 census)

New Caledonia
  French (official), 33 Melanesian-Polynesian dialects

New Zealand
  English (official), Maori (official)

Nicaragua
  Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995
  census)
  note: English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast

Niger
  French (official), Hausa, Djerma

Nigeria
  English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo), Fulani

Niue
  Niuean, a Polynesian language closely related to Tongan and
  Samoan; English

Norfolk Island
  English (official), Norfolk a mixture of 18th century
  English and ancient Tahitian

Northern Mariana Islands
  Philippine languages 24.4%, Chinese 23.4%,
  Chamorro 22.4%, English 10.8%, other Pacific island languages 9.5%,
  other 9.6% (2000 census)

Norway
  Bokmal Norwegian (official), Nynorsk Norwegian (official),
  small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities; note - Sami is official
  in six municipalities

Oman
  Arabic (official), English, Baluchi, Urdu, Indian dialects

Pakistan
  Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%,
  Pashtu 8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%,
  English (official and lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most
  government ministries), Burushaski, and other 8%

Palau
  Palauan 64.7% official in all islands except Sonsoral
  (Sonsoralese and English are official), Tobi (Tobi and English are
  official), and Angaur (Angaur, Japanese, and English are official),
  Filipino 13.5%, English 9.4%, Chinese 5.7%, Carolinian 1.5%,
  Japanese 1.5%, other Asian 2.3%, other languages 1.5% (2000 census)

Panama
  Spanish (official), English 14%; note - many Panamanians
  bilingual

Papua New Guinea
  Melanesian Pidgin serves as the lingua franca,
  English spoken by 1%-2%, Motu spoken in Papua region
  note: 820 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's
  total)

Paraguay
  Spanish (official), Guarani (official)

Peru
  Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara, and a large
  number of minor Amazonian languages

Philippines
  two official languages - Filipino (based on Tagalog) and
  English; eight major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano,
  Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan

Pitcairn Islands
  English (official), Pitcairnese (mixture of an 18th
  century English dialect and a Tahitian dialect)

Poland
  Polish 97.8%, other and unspecified 2.2% (2002 census)

Portugal
  Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official - but locally
  used)

Puerto Rico
  Spanish, English

Qatar
  Arabic (official), English commonly used as a second language

Reunion
  French (official), Creole widely used

Romania
  Romanian (official), Hungarian, German

Russia
  Russian, many minority languages

Rwanda
  Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French
  (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in
  commercial centers

Saint Helena
  English

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  English

Saint Lucia
  English (official), French patois

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  French (official)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  English, French patois

Samoa
  Samoan (Polynesian), English

San Marino
  Italian

Sao Tome and Principe
  Portuguese (official)

Saudi Arabia
  Arabic

Senegal
  French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka

Serbia
  Serbian (official nationwide); Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak,
  Ukrainian, and Croatian (all official in Vojvodina); Albanian
  (official in Kosovo)

Seychelles
  Creole 91.8%, English 4.9% (official), other 3.1%,
  unspecified 0.2% (2002 census)

Sierra Leone
  English (official, regular use limited to literate
  minority), Mende (principal vernacular in the south), Temne
  (principal vernacular in the north), Krio (English-based Creole,
  spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled
  in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10%
  of the population but understood by 95%)

Singapore
  Mandarin 35%, English 23%, Malay 14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%,
  Cantonese 5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil 3.2%, other Chinese dialects
  1.8%, other 0.9% (2000 census)

Slovakia
  Slovak (official) 83.9%, Hungarian 10.7%, Roma 1.8%,
  Ukrainian 1%, other or unspecified 2.6% (2001 census)

Slovenia
  Slovenian 91.1%, Serbo-Croatian 4.5%, other or unspecified
  4.4% (2002 census)

Solomon Islands
  Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua
  franca; English is official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the
  population
  note: 120 indigenous languages

Somalia
  Somali (official), Arabic, Italian, English

South Africa
  IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi
  9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%,
  other 7.2% (2001 census)

Spain
  Castilian Spanish 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%;
  note - Castilian is the official language nationwide; the other
  languages are official regionally

Sri Lanka
  Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil
  (national language) 18%, other 8%
  note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken
  competently by about 10% of the population

Sudan
  Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of
  Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
  note: program of "Arabization" in process

Suriname
  Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Sranang Tongo
  (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of
  Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca
  among others), Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Javanese

Svalbard
  Norwegian, Russian

Swaziland
  English (official, government business conducted in
  English), siSwati (official)

Sweden
  Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities

Switzerland
  German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%,
  Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%,
  Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch 0.5%, other 2.8%
  (2000 census)
  note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national
  languages, but only the first three are official languages

Syria
  Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian
  widely understood; French, English somewhat understood

Taiwan
  Mandarin Chinese (official), Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects

Tajikistan
  Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and
  business

Tanzania
  Kiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili
  in Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce,
  administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in
  Zanzibar), many local languages
  note: Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people
  living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili
  is Bantu in structure and origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety
  of sources, including Arabic and English, and it has become the
  lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of
  most people is one of the local languages

Thailand
  Thai, English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and
  regional dialects

Togo
  French (official and the language of commerce), Ewe and Mina
  (the two major African languages in the south), Kabye (sometimes
  spelled Kabiye) and Dagomba (the two major African languages in the
  north)

Tokelau
  Tokelauan (a Polynesian language), English

Tonga
  Tongan, English

Trinidad and Tobago
  English (official), Hindi, French, Spanish,
  Chinese

Tunisia
  Arabic (official and one of the languages of commerce),
  French (commerce)

Turkey
  Turkish (official), Kurdish, Dimli (or Zaza), Azeri, Kabardian
  note: there is also a substantial Gagauz population in the Europe
  part of Turkey

Turkmenistan
  Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7%

Turks and Caicos Islands
  English (official)

Tuvalu
  Tuvaluan, English, Samoan, Kiribati (on the island of Nui)

Uganda
  English (official national language, taught in grade schools,
  used in courts of law and by most newspapers and some radio
  broadcasts), Ganda or Luganda (most widely used of the Niger-Congo
  languages, preferred for native language publications in the capital
  and may be taught in school), other Niger-Congo languages,
  Nilo-Saharan languages, Swahili, Arabic

Ukraine
  Ukrainian (official) 67%, Russian 24%, small Romanian-,
  Polish-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities

United Arab Emirates
  Arabic (official), Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu

United Kingdom
  English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of
  Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

United States
  English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European
  3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000 census)

Uruguay
  Spanish, Portunol, or Brazilero (Portuguese-Spanish mix on
  the Brazilian frontier)

Uzbekistan
  Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%

Vanuatu
  local languages (more than 100) 72.6%, pidgin (known as
  Bislama or Bichelama) 23.1%, English 1.9%, French 1.4%, other 0.3%,
  unspecified 0.7% (1999 Census)

Venezuela
  Spanish (official), numerous indigenous dialects

Vietnam
  Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a
  second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area
  languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)

Virgin Islands
  English 74.7%, Spanish or Spanish Creole 16.8%,
  French or French Creole 6.6%, other 1.9% (2000 census)

Wallis and Futuna
  Wallisian 58.9% (indigenous Polynesian language),
  Futunian 30.1%, French 10.8%, other 0.2% (2003 census)

West Bank
  Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many
  Palestinians), English (widely understood)

Western Sahara
  Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic

World
  Mandarin Chinese 13.69%, Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%, Hindi
  2.82%, Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%, Russian 2.27%, Japanese
  1.99%, Standard German 1.49%, Wu Chinese 1.21% (2004 est.)
  note: percents are for "first language" speakers only

Yemen
  Arabic

Zambia
  English (official), major vernaculars - Bemba, Kaonda, Lozi,
  Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and about 70 other indigenous languages

Zimbabwe
  English (official), Shona, Sindebele (the language of the
  Ndebele, sometimes called Ndebele), numerous but minor tribal
  dialects

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2100  Legal system


Afghanistan
  according to the new constitution, no law should be
  "contrary to Islam"; the state is obliged to create a prosperous and
  progressive society based on social justice, protection of human
  dignity, protection of human rights, realization of democracy, and
  to ensure national unity and equality among all ethnic groups and
  tribes; the state shall abide by the UN charter, international
  treaties, international conventions that Afghanistan signed, and the
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Akrotiri
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply

Albania
  has a civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction; has accepted jurisdiction of the International
  Criminal Court for its citizens

Algeria
  socialist, based on French and Islamic law; judicial review
  of legislative acts in ad hoc Constitutional Council composed of
  various public officials, including several Supreme Court justices;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  based on French and Spanish civil codes; no judicial review
  of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Angola
  based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law;
  recently modified to accommodate political pluralism and increased
  use of free markets

Anguilla
  based on English common law

Antarctica
  Antarctica is administered through meetings of the
  consultative member nations; decisions from these meetings are
  carried out by these member nations (with respect to their own
  nationals and operations) in accordance with their own national
  laws; US law, including certain criminal offenses by or against US
  nationals, such as murder, may apply extraterritorially; some US
  laws directly apply to Antarctica; for example, the Antarctic
  Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. section 2401 et seq., provides civil and
  criminal penalties for the following activities, unless authorized
  by regulation of statute: the taking of native mammals or birds; the
  introduction of nonindigenous plants and animals; entry into
  specially protected areas; the discharge or disposal of pollutants;
  and the importation into the US of certain items from Antarctica;
  violation of the Antarctic Conservation Act carries penalties of up
  to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison; the National Science
  Foundation and Department of Justice share enforcement
  responsibilities; Public Law 95-541, the US Antarctic Conservation
  Act of 1978, as amended in 1996, requires expeditions from the US to
  Antarctica to notify, in advance, the Office of Oceans, Room 5805,
  Department of State, Washington, DC 20520, which reports such plans
  to other nations as required by the Antarctic Treaty; for more
  information, contact Permit Office, Office of Polar Programs,
  National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230; telephone:
  (703) 292-8030, or visit their website at www.nsf.gov; more
  generally, access to the Antarctic Treaty area, that is to all areas
  between 60 and 90 degrees south latitude, is subject to a number of
  relevant legal instruments and authorization procedures adopted by
  the states party to the Antarctic Treaty

Antigua and Barbuda
  based on English common law

Argentina
  mixture of US and West European legal systems; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Armenia
  based on civil law system

Aruba
  based on Dutch civil law system, with some English common law
  influence

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  the laws of the Commonwealth of
  Australia and the laws of the Northern Territory of Australia, where
  applicable, apply

Australia
  based on English common law; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Austria
  civil law system with Roman law origin; judicial review of
  legislative acts by the Constitutional Court; separate
  administrative and civil/penal supreme courts; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Azerbaijan
  based on civil law system

Bahamas, The
  based on English common law

Bahrain
  based on Islamic law and English common law

Baker Island
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Bangladesh
  based on English common law

Barbados
  English common law; no judicial review of legislative acts;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Bassas da India
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Belarus
  based on civil law system

Belgium
  civil law system influenced by English constitutional
  theory; judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Belize
  English law

Benin
  based on French civil law and customary law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Bermuda
  English law

Bhutan
  based on Indian law and English common law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Bolivia
  based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  based on civil law system

Botswana
  based on Roman-Dutch law and local customary law; judicial
  review limited to matters of interpretation; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Bouvet Island
  the laws of Norway, where applicable, apply

Brazil
  based on Roman codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

British Indian Ocean Territory
  the laws of the UK, where applicable,
  apply

British Virgin Islands
  English law

Brunei
  based on English common law; for Muslims, Islamic Shari'a law
  supersedes civil law in a number of areas

Bulgaria
  civil law and criminal law based on Roman law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Burkina Faso
  based on French civil law system and customary law

Burma
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Burundi
  based on German and Belgian civil codes and customary law;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Cambodia
  primarily a civil law mixture of French-influenced codes
  from the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)
  period, royal decrees, and acts of the legislature, with influences
  of customary law and remnants of communist legal theory; increasing
  influence of common law in recent years; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Cameroon
  based on French civil law system, with common law
  influence; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Canada
  based on English common law, except in Quebec, where civil
  law system based on French law prevails; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Cape Verde
  derived from the legal system of Portugal

Cayman Islands
  British common law and local statutes

Central African Republic
  based on French law

Chad
  based on French civil law system and Chadian customary law; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Chile
  based on Code of 1857 derived from Spanish law and subsequent
  codes influenced by French and Austrian law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction; note - in June 2005, Chile completed overhaul of
  its criminal justice system to a new, US-style adversarial system

China
  based on civil law system; derived from Soviet and continental
  civil code legal principles; legislature retains power to interpret
  statutes; constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislation;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Christmas Island
  under the authority of the governor general of
  Australia and Australian law

Clipperton Island
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  based upon the laws of Australia and local
  laws

Colombia
  based on Spanish law; a new criminal code modeled after US
  procedures was enacted into law in 2004 and is gradually being
  implemented; judicial review of executive and legislative acts

Comoros
  French and Sharia (Islamic) law in a new consolidated code

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  a new constitution was adopted by
  referendum 18 December 2005; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Congo, Republic of the
  based on French civil law system and
  customary law

Cook Islands
  based on New Zealand law and English common law

Coral Sea Islands
  the laws of Australia, where applicable, apply

Costa Rica
  based on Spanish civil law system; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Cote d'Ivoire
  based on French civil law system and customary law;
  judicial review in the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Croatia
  based on civil law system

Cuba
  based on Spanish and American law, with large elements of
  Communist legal theory; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Cyprus
  based on common law, with civil law modifications; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Czech Republic
  civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; legal code modified to
  bring it in line with Organization on Security and Cooperation in
  Europe (OSCE) obligations and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal
  theory

Denmark
  civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Dhekelia
  the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply

Djibouti
  based on French civil law system, traditional practices,
  and Islamic law

Dominica
  based on English common law

Dominican Republic
  based on French civil codes; Criminal Procedures
  Code modified in 2004 to include important elements of an accusatory
  system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

East Timor
  UN-drafted legal system based on Indonesian law remains
  in place but will be replaced by civil and penal codes based on
  Portuguese law; these have passed and are expected to be promulgated
  in early 2006

Ecuador
  based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Egypt
  based on English common law, Islamic law, and Napoleonic
  codes; judicial review by Supreme Court and Council of State
  (oversees validity of administrative decisions); accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

El Salvador
  based on civil and Roman law with traces of common law;
  judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court

Equatorial Guinea
  partly based on Spanish civil law and tribal custom

Eritrea
  primary basis is the Ethiopian legal code of 1957, with
  revisions; new civil, commercial, and penal codes have not yet been
  promulgated; also relies on customary and post-independence-enacted
  laws and, for civil cases involving Muslims, Sharia law

Estonia
  based on civil law system; no judicial review of legislative
  acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Ethiopia
  currently transitional mix of national and regional courts

Europa Island
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  English common law

Faroe Islands
  Danish

Fiji
  based on British system

Finland
  civil law system based on Swedish law; the president may
  request the Supreme Court to review laws; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

France
  civil law system with indigenous concepts; review of
  administrative but not legislative acts

French Guiana
  French legal system

French Polynesia
  based on French system

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  the laws of France, where
  applicable, apply

Gabon
  based on French civil law system and customary law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme
  Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Gambia, The
  based on a composite of English common law, Koranic law,
  and customary law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Georgia
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Germany
  civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review
  of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Ghana
  based on English common law and customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Gibraltar
  English law

Glorioso Islands
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Greece
  based on codified Roman law; judiciary divided into civil,
  criminal, and administrative courts; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Greenland
  Danish

Grenada
  based on English common law

Guadeloupe
  French legal system

Guam
  modeled on US; US federal laws apply

Guatemala
  civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Guernsey
  English law and local statutes; justice is administered by
  the Royal Court

Guinea
  based on French civil law system, customary law, and decree;
  legal codes currently being revised; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Guinea-Bissau
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Guyana
  based on English common law with certain admixtures of
  Roman-Dutch law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Haiti
  based on Roman civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  the laws of Australia, where
  applicable, apply

Holy See (Vatican City)
  based on Code of Canon Law and revisions to
  it

Honduras
  rooted in Roman and Spanish civil law with increasing
  influence of English common law; recent judicial reforms include
  abandoning Napoleonic legal codes in favor of the oral adversarial
  system; accepts ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Hong Kong
  based on English common law

Howland Island
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Hungary
  rule of law based on Western model; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Iceland
  civil law system based on Danish law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Iles Eparses
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

India
  based on English common law; limited judicial review of
  legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations; separate personal law codes apply to Muslims,
  Christians, and Hindus

Indonesia
  based on Roman-Dutch law, substantially modified by
  indigenous concepts and by new criminal procedures and election
  codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Iran
  the Constitution codifies Islamic principles of government

Iraq
  based on European civil and Islamic law under the framework
  outlined in the Iraqi Constitution

Ireland
  based on English common law, substantially modified by
  indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in Supreme
  Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Isle of Man
  English common law and Manx statute

Israel
  mixture of English common law, British Mandate regulations,
  and, in personal matters, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim legal
  systems; in December 1985, Israel informed the UN Secretariat that
  it would no longer accept compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Italy
  based on civil law system; appeals treated as new trials;
  judicial review under certain conditions in Constitutional Court;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Jamaica
  based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Jan Mayen
  the laws of Norway, where applicable, apply

Japan
  modeled after European civil law system with English-American
  influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations

Jarvis Island
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Jersey
  English law and local statute; justice is administered by the
  Royal Court

Johnston Atoll
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Jordan
  based on Islamic law and French codes; judicial review of
  legislative acts in a specially provided High Tribunal; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Juan de Nova Island
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Kazakhstan
  based on civil law system

Kenya
  based on Kenyan statutory law, Kenyan and English common law,
  tribal law, and Islamic law; judicial review in High Court; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; constitutional
  amendment of 1982 making Kenya a de jure one-party state repealed in
  1991

Kingman Reef
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  based on German civil law system with Japanese
  influences and Communist legal theory; no judicial review of
  legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Korea, South
  combines elements of continental European civil law
  systems, Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought

Kuwait
  civil law system with Islamic law significant in personal
  matters; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Kyrgyzstan
  based on civil law system

Laos
  based on traditional customs, French legal norms and
  procedures, and socialist practice

Latvia
  based on civil law system

Lebanon
  mixture of Ottoman law, canon law, Napoleonic code, and
  civil law; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Lesotho
  based on English common law and Roman-Dutch law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in High Court and Court of Appeal;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Liberia
  dual system of statutory law based on Anglo-American common
  law for the modern sector and customary law based on unwritten
  tribal practices for indigenous sector; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Libya
  based on Italian civil law system and Islamic law; separate
  religious courts; no constitutional provision for judicial review of
  legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Liechtenstein
  local civil and penal codes; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Lithuania
  based on civil law system; legislative acts can be
  appealed to the constitutional court

Luxembourg
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Macau
  based on Portuguese civil law system

Macedonia
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative
  acts

Madagascar
  based on French civil law system and traditional Malagasy
  law; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Malawi
  based on English common law and customary law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court of Appeal; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Malaysia
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative
  acts in the Supreme Court at request of supreme head of the
  federation; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; Islamic
  law is applied to Muslims in matters of family law

Maldives
  based on Islamic law with admixtures of English common law
  primarily in commercial matters; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Mali
  based on French civil law system and customary law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in Constitutional Court (which was
  formally established on 9 March 1994); has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Malta
  based on English common law and Roman civil law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Marshall Islands
  based on adapted Trust Territory laws, acts of the
  legislature, municipal, common, and customary laws

Martinique
  French legal system

Mauritania
  a combination of Shari'a (Islamic law) and French civil
  law

Mauritius
  based on French civil law system with elements of English
  common law in certain areas; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Mayotte
  French law

Mexico
  mixture of US constitutional theory and civil law system;
  judicial review of legislative acts; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Micronesia, Federated States of
  based on adapted Trust Territory
  laws, acts of the legislature, municipal, common, and customary laws

Midway Islands
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Moldova
  based on civil law system; Constitutional Court reviews
  legality of legislative acts and governmental decisions of
  resolution; accepts many UN and Organization for Security and
  Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) documents

Monaco
  based on French law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Mongolia
  blend of Soviet, German, and US systems that combine
  "continental" or "civil" code and case-precedent; constitution
  ambiguous on judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Montenegro
  based on civil law system

Montserrat
  English common law and statutory law

Morocco
  based on Islamic law and French and Spanish civil law
  system; judicial review of legislative acts in Constitutional
  Chamber of Supreme Court

Mozambique
  based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law

Namibia
  based on Roman-Dutch law and 1990 constitution

Nauru
  acts of the Nauru Parliament and British common law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Navassa Island
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Nepal
  based on Hindu legal concepts and English common law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Netherlands
  civil law system incorporating French penal theory;
  constitution does not permit judicial review of acts of the States
  General; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Netherlands Antilles
  based on Dutch civil law system with some
  English common law influence

New Caledonia
  the 1988 Matignon Accords grant substantial autonomy
  to the islands; formerly under French law

New Zealand
  based on English law, with special land legislation and
  land courts for the Maori; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Nicaragua
  civil law system; Supreme Court may review administrative
  acts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Niger
  based on French civil law system and customary law; has not
  accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Nigeria
  based on English common law, Islamic Shariah law (in 12
  northern states), and traditional law; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Niue
  English common law; note - Niue is self-governing, with the
  power to make its own laws

Norfolk Island
  based on the laws of Australia, local ordinances and
  acts; English common law applies in matters not covered by either
  Australian or Norfolk Island law

Northern Mariana Islands
  based on US system, except for customs,
  wages, immigration laws, and taxation

Norway
  mixture of customary law, civil law system, and common law
  traditions; Supreme Court renders advisory opinions to legislature
  when asked; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Oman
  based on English common law and Islamic law; ultimate appeal to
  the monarch; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Pakistan
  based on English common law with provisions to accommodate
  Pakistan's status as an Islamic state; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Palau
  based on Trust Territory laws, acts of the legislature,
  municipal, common, and customary laws

Palmyra Atoll
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Panama
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative
  acts in the Supreme Court of Justice; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Papua New Guinea
  based on English common law

Paraguay
  based on Argentine codes, Roman law, and French codes;
  judicial review of legislative acts in Supreme Court of Justice;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Peru
  based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Philippines
  based on Spanish and Anglo-American law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Pitcairn Islands
  local island by-laws

Poland
  mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover
  Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced as part
  of broader democratization process; limited judicial review of
  legislative acts, but rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal are
  final; court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of
  Justice in Strasbourg; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations

Portugal
  civil law system; the Constitutional Tribunal reviews the
  constitutionality of legislation; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Puerto Rico
  based on Spanish civil code and within the US Federal
  system of justice

Qatar
  discretionary system of law controlled by the amir, although
  civil codes are being implemented; Shari'a law dominates family and
  personal matters

Reunion
  French law

Romania
  former mixture of civil law system and communist legal
  theory; is now based on the constitution of France's Fifth Republic

Russia
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts

Rwanda
  based on German and Belgian civil law systems and customary
  law; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Saint Helena
  British common law and statutes, supplemented by local
  statutes

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  based on English common law

Saint Lucia
  based on English common law

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  French law with special adaptations for
  local conditions, such as housing and taxation

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  based on English common law

Samoa
  based on English common law and local customs; judicial review
  of legislative acts with respect to fundamental rights of the
  citizen; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

San Marino
  based on civil law system with Italian law influences;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Sao Tome and Principe
  based on Portuguese legal system and customary
  law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Saudi Arabia
  based on Shari'a law, several secular codes have been
  introduced; commercial disputes handled by special committees; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Senegal
  based on French civil law system; judicial review of
  legislative acts in Constitutional Court; the Council of State
  audits the government's accounting office; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Serbia
  based on civil law system

Seychelles
  based on English common law, French civil law, and
  customary law

Sierra Leone
  based on English law and customary laws indigenous to
  local tribes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Singapore
  based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Slovakia
  civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations; legal code modified
  to comply with the obligations of Organization on Security and
  Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal
  theory

Slovenia
  based on civil law system

Solomon Islands
  English common law, which is widely disregarded

Somalia
  no national system; Shari'a (Islamic) and secular courts
  based on Somali customary law (xeer) are present in some localities;
  accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

South Africa
  based on Roman-Dutch law and English common law

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  the laws of the UK,
  where applicable, apply; the senior magistrate from the Falkland
  Islands presides over the Magistrates Court

Spain
  civil law system, with regional applications; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Sri Lanka
  a highly complex mixture of English common law,
  Roman-Dutch, Muslim, Sinhalese, and customary law; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Sudan
  based on English common law and Shari'a law; as of 20 January
  1991, the now defunct Revolutionary Command Council imposed Shari'a
  law in the northern states; Shari'a law applies to all residents of
  the northern states regardless of their religion; some separate
  religious courts; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with
  reservations; the southern legal system is still developing under
  the CPA following the civil war; Shari'a law will not apply to the
  southern states

Suriname
  based on Dutch legal system incorporating French penal
  theory; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  based on South African Roman-Dutch law in statutory courts
  and Swazi traditional law and custom in traditional courts; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Sweden
  civil law system influenced by customary law; accepts
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Switzerland
  civil law system influenced by customary law; judicial
  review of legislative acts, except with respect to federal decrees
  of general obligatory character; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction, with reservations

Syria
  based on a combination of French and Ottoman civil law;
  religious law is used in the family court system; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Taiwan
  based on civil law system

Tajikistan
  based on civil law system; no judicial review of
  legislative acts

Tanzania
  based on English common law; judicial review of legislative
  acts limited to matters of interpretation; has not accepted
  compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Thailand
  based on civil law system, with influences of common law;
  has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Togo
  French-based court system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction,
  with reservations

Tokelau
  New Zealand and local statutes

Tonga
  based on English law

Trinidad and Tobago
  based on English common law; judicial review of
  legislative acts in the Supreme Court; has not accepted compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction

Tromelin Island
  the laws of France, where applicable, apply

Tunisia
  based on French civil law system and Shari'a law; some
  judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court in joint
  session

Turkey
  civil law system derived from various European continental
  legal systems; note - member of the European Court of Human Rights
  (ECHR), although Turkey claims limited derogations on the ratified
  European Convention on Human Rights

Turkmenistan
  based on civil law system

Turks and Caicos Islands
  based on laws of England and Wales, with a
  few adopted from Jamaica and The Bahamas

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  in 1995, the government restored the legal system to one
  based on English common law and customary law; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

Ukraine
  based on civil law system; judicial review of legislative
  acts

United Arab Emirates
  federal court system introduced in 1971;
  applies to all emirates except Dubayy (Dubai) and Ra's al Khaymah,
  which are not fully integrated into the federal judicial system; all
  emirates have secular courts to adjudicate criminal, civil, and
  commercial matters and Islamic courts to review family and religious
  disputes

United Kingdom
  common law tradition with early Roman and modern
  continental influences; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of
  Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998; accepts compulsory
  ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

United States
  federal court system based on English common law; each
  state has its own unique legal system, of which all but one
  (Louisiana's) is based on English common law; judicial review of
  legislative acts

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  the laws of the US,
  where applicable, apply

Uruguay
  based on Spanish civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Uzbekistan
  evolution of Soviet civil law; still lacks independent
  judicial system

Vanuatu
  unified system being created from former dual French and
  British systems

Venezuela
  open, adversarial court system

Vietnam
  based on communist legal theory and French civil law system

Virgin Islands
  based on US laws

Wake Island
  the laws of the US, where applicable, apply

Wallis and Futuna
  French legal system

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

Yemen
  based on Islamic law, Turkish law, English common law, and
  local tribal customary law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Zambia
  based on English common law and customary law; judicial
  review of legislative acts in an ad hoc constitutional council; has
  not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Zimbabwe
  mixture of Roman-Dutch and English common law

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2101  Legislative branch


Afghanistan
  the bicameral National Assembly consists of the Wolesi
  Jirga or House of People (no more than 249 seats), directly elected
  for five-year terms, and the Meshrano Jirga or House of Elders (102
  seats, one-third elected from provincial councils for four-year
  terms, one-third elected from local district councils for three-year
  terms - provincial councils elected temporary members to fill these
  seats until district councils are formed, and one-third presidential
  appointees for five-year terms; the presidential appointees will
  include 2 representatives of Kuchis and 2 representatives of the
  disabled; half of the presidential appointees will be women)
  note: on rare occasions the government may convene a Loya Jirga
  (Grand Council) on issues of independence, national sovereignty, and
  territorial integrity; it can amend the provisions of the
  constitution and prosecute the president; it is made up of members
  of the National Assembly and chairpersons of the provincial and
  district councils
  elections: last held 18 September 2005 (next to be held for the
  Wolesi Jirga by September 2009; next to be held for the provincial
  councils to the Meshrano Jirga by September 2008)
  election results: the single non-transferable vote (SNTV) system
  used in the election did not make use of political party slates;
  most candidates ran as independents

Albania
  unicameral Assembly or Kuvendi (140 seats; 100 are elected
  by direct popular vote and 40 by proportional vote for four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 3 July 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PD
  56, PS 42, PR 11, PSD 7, LSI 5, other 19

Algeria
  bicameral Parliament consisting of the National People's
  Assembly or Al-Majlis Ech-Chaabi Al-Watani (389 seats - formerly 380
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and
  the Council of Nations (Senate) (144 seats; one-third of the members
  appointed by the president, two-thirds elected by indirect vote;
  members serve six-year terms; the constitution requires half the
  council to be renewed every three years)
  elections: National People's Assembly - last held 30 May 2002 (next
  to be held in 2007); Council of Nations (Senate) - last held 30
  December 2003 (next to be held in 2006)
  election results: National People's Assembly - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - FLN 199, RND 47, Islah 43, MSP 38, PT
  21, FNA 8, EnNahda 1, PRA 1, MEN 1, independents 30; Council of
  Nations - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party NA

American Samoa
  bicameral Fono or Legislative Assembly consists of
  the House of Representatives (21 seats - 20 of which are elected by
  popular vote and 1 is an appointed, nonvoting delegate from Swains
  Island; members serve two-year terms) and the Senate (18 seats;
  members are elected from local chiefs and serve four-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2008); Senate - last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA; Senate - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - independents 18
  note: American Samoa elects one nonvoting representative to the US
  House of Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006 (next
  to be held November 2008); results - Eni F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA
  (Democrat) reelected as delegate

Andorra
  unicameral General Council of the Valleys or Consell General
  de las Valls (28 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote,
  14 from a single national constituency and 14 to represent each of
  the seven parishes; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 24 April 2005 (next to be held March-April 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLA 41.2%, PS 38.1%,
  CDA-S21 11%, other 9.7%; seats by party - PLA 14, PS 12, CDA-S21 2

Angola
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia Nacional (220
  seats; members elected by proportional vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29-30 September 1992 (next to be held September
  2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MPLA 54%, UNITA 34%,
  other 12%; seats by party - MPLA 129, UNITA 70, PRS 6, FNLA 5, PLD
  3, other 7

Anguilla
  unicameral House of Assembly (11 seats total, 7 elected by
  direct popular vote, 2 ex officio members, and 2 appointed; members
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 February 2005 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - AUF 38.9%, ANSA 19.2%,
  AUM 19.4%, APP 9.5%, independents 13%; seats by party - AUF 4, ANSA
  2, AUM 1

Antigua and Barbuda
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate
  (17-member body appointed by the governor general) and the House of
  Representatives (17 seats; members are elected by proportional
  representation to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 23 March 2004 (next
  to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  ALP 4, UPP 13

Argentina
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists
  of the Senate (72 seats; members are elected by direct vote;
  presently one-third of the members elected every two years to a
  six-year term) and the Chamber of Deputies (257 seats; members are
  elected by direct vote; one-half of the members elected every two
  years to a four-year term)
  elections: Senate - last held 23 October 2005 (next to be held in
  2007); Chamber of Deputies - last held last held 23 October 2005
  (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by bloc or party - FV
  45.1%, FJ 17.2%, UCR 7.5%, other 30.2%; seats by bloc or party - FV
  14, FJ 3, UCR 2, other 5; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by
  bloc or party - FV 29.9%, UCR 8.9%, ARI 7.2%, PJ 6.7%, PRO 6.2%, FJ
  3.9%, other 37.2%; seats by bloc or party - FV 50, UCR 10, ARI 8, PJ
  9, PRO 9, FJ 7, other 34

Armenia
  unicameral National Assembly (Parliament) or Azgayin Zhoghov
  (131 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year
  terms; 90 members elected by party list, 41 by direct vote)
  elections: last held 25 May 2003 (next to be held in the spring of
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Republican Party 23.5%,
  Justice Bloc 13.6%, Rule of Law 12.3%, ARF (Dashnak) 11.4%, National
  Unity Party 8.8%, United Labor Party 5.7%; seats by faction -
  Republican Party 39, Rule of Law 20, Justice Bloc 14, ARF (Dashnak)
  11, National Unity 7, United Labor 6, People's Deputy Group 16,
  independent (not in faction or group) 18; note - as of 10 March
  2006; voting blocs in the legislature are more properly termed
  factions and can be composed of members of several parties; seats by
  faction change frequently as deputies switch parties or announce
  themselves independent

Aruba
  unicameral Legislature or Staten (21 seats; members elected by
  direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 September 2005 (next to be held by in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MEP 43%, AVP 32%, MPA
  7%, RED 7%, PDR 6%, OLA 4%, PPA 2%; seats by party - MEP 11, AVP 8,
  MPA 1, RED 1

Australia
  bicameral Federal Parliament consists of the Senate (76
  seats - 12 from each of the six states and 2 from each of the two
  mainland territories; one-half of state members are elected every
  three years by popular vote to serve six-year terms while all
  territory members are elected every three years) and the House of
  Representatives (150 seats; members elected by popular preferential
  voting to serve terms of up to three-years; no state can have fewer
  than 5 representatives)
  elections: Senate - last held 9 October 2004 (next to be held no
  later than June 2008); House of Representatives - last held 9
  October 2004 (next to be called no later than November 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Liberal Party-National Party coalition 39, Australian Labor
  Party 28, Democrats 4, Australian Greens 4, Family First Party 1;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Liberal Party-National Party coalition 87, Australian Labor
  Party 60, independents 3

Austria
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Bundesversammlung consists of
  Federal Council or Bundesrat (62 members; members represent each of
  the states on the basis of population, but with each state having at
  least 3 representatives; members serve a five- or six-year term) and
  the National Council or Nationalrat (183 seats; members elected by
  direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: National Council - last held 1 October 2006 (next to be
  held in the fall of 2010)
  election results: National Council - percent of vote by party - SPOe
  35.3%, OeVP 34.3%, Greens 11.1%, FPOe 11.0%, BZOe 4.1%; seats by
  party - SPOe 68, OeVP 66, Greens 21, FPOe 21, BZOe 7

Azerbaijan
  unicameral National Assembly or Milli Mejlis (125 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 November 2005 (next to be held in November
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Yeni 58, Azadliq coalition 8, CSP 2, YES 2, Motherland 2, other
  parties with single seats 7, independents 42, undetermined 4

Bahamas, The
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (16-member
  body appointed by the governor general upon the advice of the prime
  minister and the opposition leader for five-year terms) and the
  House of Assembly (40 seats; members elected by direct popular vote
  to serve five-year terms); the government may dissolve the
  Parliament and call elections at any time
  elections: last held 1 May 2002 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLP 50.8%, FNM 41.1%,
  independents 5.2%; seats by party - PLP 29, FNM 7, independents 4

Bahrain
  bicameral Parliament consists of Shura Council (40 members
  appointed by the King) and House of Deputies (40 members directly
  elected to serve four-year terms)
  elections: House of Deputies - last held 31 October 2002 (next
  election to be held in September 2006)
  election results: House of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - Sunni Islamists 12, Shia grouping 7, other
  groupings and independents 21
  note: first elections since 7 December 1973; unicameral National
  Assembly dissolved 26 August 1975; National Action Charter created
  bicameral legislature on 23 December 2000; approved by referendum 14
  February 2001; first legislative session of Parliament held on 25
  December 2002

Bangladesh
  unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300
  seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies
  (the constitutional amendment reserving 30 seats for women over and
  above the 300 regular parliament seats expired in May 2001); members
  serve five-year terms
  elections: last held 1 October 2001 (next to be held no later than
  January 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - BNP and alliance
  partners 41%, AL 40%; seats by party - BNP 193, AL 58, JI 17, JP
  (Ershad faction) 14, IOJ 2, JP (Manzur) 4, other 12; note - the
  election of October 2001 brought a majority BNP government aligned
  with three other smaller parties - JI, IOJ, and Jatiya Party (Manzur)

Barbados
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (21-member body
  appointed by the governor general) and the House of Assembly (30
  seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 21 May 2003 (next to be
  held by May 2008)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - BLP 23, DLP 7

Belarus
  bicameral National Assembly or Natsionalnoye Sobranie
  consists of the Council of the Republic or Soviet Respubliki (64
  seats; 56 members elected by regional councils and 8 members
  appointed by the president, all for four-year terms) and the Chamber
  of Representatives or Palata Predstaviteley (110 seats; members
  elected by universal adult suffrage to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 and 31 October 2004; international observers
  widely denounced the elections as flawed and undemocratic, based on
  massive government falsification; pro-LUKASHENKO candidates won
  every seat, after many opposition candidates were disqualified for
  technical reasons
  election results: Soviet Respubliki - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NA; Palata Predstaviteley - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA

Belgium
  bicameral Parliament consists of a Senate or Senaat in
  Dutch, Senat in French (71 seats; 40 members are directly elected by
  popular vote, 31 are indirectly elected; members serve four-year
  terms) and a Chamber of Deputies or Kamer van
  Volksvertegenwoordigers in Dutch, Chambre des Representants in
  French (150 seats; members are directly elected by popular vote on
  the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate and Chamber of Deputies - last held 18 May 2003
  (next to be held no later than May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - SP.A-Spirit
  15.5%, VLD 15.4%, CD & V 12.7%, PS 12.8%, MR 12.1%, VB 9.4%, CDH
  5.6%; seats by party - SP.A-Spirit 7, VLD 7, CD & V 6, PS 6, MR 5,
  VB 5, CDH 2, other 2 (note - there are also 31 indirectly elected
  senators); Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - VLD
  15.4%, SP.A-Spirit 14.9%, CD & V 13.3%, PS 13.0%, VB 11.6%, MR
  11.4%, CDH 5.5%, Ecolo 3.1%; seats by party - VLD 25, SP.A-Spirit
  23, CD & V 21, PS 25, VB 18, MR 24, CDH 8, Ecolo 4, other 2
  note: as a result of the 1993 constitutional revision that furthered
  devolution into a federal state, there are now three levels of
  government (federal, regional, and linguistic community) with a
  complex division of responsibilities; this reality leaves six
  governments each with its own legislative assembly

Belize
  bicameral National Assembly consists of the Senate (12
  members appointed by the governor general - 6 on the advice of the
  prime minister, 3 on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and
  1 each on the advice of the Belize Council of Churches and
  Evangelical Association of Churches, the Belize Chamber of Commerce
  and Industry and the Belize Better Business Bureau, and the National
  Trade Union Congress and the Civil Society Steering Committee;
  members are appointed for five-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (29 seats; members are elected by direct popular
  vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 5 March 2003 (next
  to be held March 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PUP 21, UDP 8

Benin
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (83 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Presidential Movement (UBF, MADEP, FC, Alliance MDC-PC-CPP, IPD,
  AFP, MDS, RDP) 52, opposition (PRB, PRD, E'toile, and 5 other small
  parties) 31

Bermuda
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (an 11-member
  body appointed by the governor, the premier, and the opposition) and
  the House of Assembly (36 seats; members are elected by popular vote
  to serve up to five-year terms)
  elections: last general election held 24 July 2003 (next to be held
  not later than July 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PLP 51.7%, UBP 48%;
  seats by party - PLP 22, UBP 14

Bhutan
  unicameral National Assembly or Tshogdu (150 seats; 105
  elected from village constituencies, 10 represent religious bodies,
  and 35 are designated by the monarch to represent government and
  other secular interests; members serve three-year terms)
  elections: local elections last held August 2005 (next to be held in
  2008)
  election results: NA

Bolivia
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of
  Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (27 seats; members are
  elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve
  five-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130
  seats; 69 are directly elected from their districts and 61 are
  elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies - last held
  18 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - PODEMOS 13, MAS 12, UN 1, MNR 1; Chamber of
  Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - MAS 73,
  PODEMOS 43, UN 8, MNR 6

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  bicameral Parliamentary Assembly or Skupstina
  consists of the national House of Representatives or Predstavnicki
  Dom (42 seats - elected by proportional representation, 28 seats
  allocated from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 14 seats
  from the Republika Srpska; members elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms); and the House of Peoples or Dom Naroda (15 seats -
  5 Bosniak, 5 Croat, 5 Serb; members elected by the Bosniak/Croat
  Federation's House of Representatives and the Republika Srpska's
  National Assembly to serve four-year terms); note - Bosnia's
  election law specifies four-year terms for the state and first-order
  administrative division entity legislatures
  elections: national House of Representatives - elections last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in 2010); House of Peoples - last
  constituted in January 2003 (next to be constituted in 2007)
  election results: national House of Representatives - percent of
  vote by party/coalition - NA%; seats by party/coalition - SDA 9,
  SBiH 8, SNSD 7, SDP 5, SDS 3, HDZ-BH 3, other 7; House of Peoples -
  percent of vote by party/coalition - NA; seats by party/coalition -
  NA
  note: the Bosniak/Croat Federation has a bicameral legislature that
  consists of a House of Representatives (98 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 1
  October 2006 (next to be held in October 2010); percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party/coalition - SDA 28, SBiH 24, SDP 17,
  HDZ-BH 8, HDZ100 7, other 14; and a House of Peoples (60 seats - 30
  Bosniak, 30 Croat); last constituted December 2002; the Republika
  Srpska has a National Assembly (83 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms); elections last held 1 October 2006
  (next to be held in the fall of 2010); percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party/coalition - SNSD 41, SDS 17, PDP 8, DNS 4, SBH 4,
  SPRS 3, SDA 3, other 3; as a result of the 2002 constitutional
  reform process, a 28-member Republika Srpska Council of Peoples
  (COP) was established in the Republika Srpska National Assembly
  including eight Croats, eight Bosniaks, eight Serbs, and four
  members of the smaller communities

Botswana
  bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Chiefs (a
  largely advisory 15-member body with 8 permanent members consisting
  of the chiefs of the principal tribes, and 7 non-permanent members
  serving 5-year terms, consisting of 4 elected subchiefs and 3
  members selected by the other 12 members) and the National Assembly
  (63 seats, 57 members are directly elected by popular vote, 4 are
  appointed by the majority party, and 2, the President and
  Attorney-General, serve as ex-officio members; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly elections last held 30 October 2004
  (next to be held October 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - BDP 51.7%, BNF 26.1%,
  BCP 16.6%, other 5%; seats by party - BDP 44, BNF 12, BCP 1

Brazil
  bicameral National Congress or Congresso Nacional consists of
  the Federal Senate or Senado Federal (81 seats; 3 members from each
  state and federal district elected according to the principle of
  majority to serve eight-year terms; one-third elected after a
  four-year period, two-thirds elected after the next four-year
  period) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camara dos Deputados (513
  seats; members are elected by proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: Federal Senate - last held 1 October 2006 for one-third
  of the Senate (next to be held October 2010 for two-thirds of the
  Senate); Chamber of Deputies - last held 1 October 2006 (next to be
  held October 2010)
  election results: Federal Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - PFL 6, PSDB 5, PMDB 4, PTB 3, PT 2, PFL 1, PDT 1,
  PSB 1, PL 1, PPS 1, PRTB 1, PP 1, PCdoB 1; total seats following
  election - PFL 18, PMDB 15, PSDB 15, PT 11, PDT 5, PTB 4, PSB 3, PL
  3, PCdoB 2, PRB 2, PPS 1, PRTB 1, PP 1; Chamber of Deputies -
  percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PMDB 89, PT 83, PFL
  65, PSDB 65, PP 42, PSB 27, PDT 24, PL 23, PTB 22, PPS 21, PCdoB 13,
  PV 13, PSC 9, other 17

British Virgin Islands
  unicameral Legislative Council (13 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote, 1 member from each of
  nine electoral districts, 4 at-large members; members serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 16 May 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NDP 8, VIP 5

Brunei
  Legislative Council met on 25 September 2004 for first time
  in 20 years with 21 members appointed by the Sultan; passed
  constitutional amendments calling for a 45-seat council with 15
  elected members; Sultan dissolved council on 1 September 2005 and
  appointed a new council with 29 members as of 2 September 2005
  elections: last held in March 1962 (date of next election NA)

Bulgaria
  unicameral National Assembly or Narodno Sobranie (240
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 June 2005 (next to be held June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CfB 31.1%, NMS2 19.9%,
  MRF 12.7%, ATAKA 8.2%, UDF 7.7%, DSB 6.5%, BPU 5.2%; seats by party
  - CfB 83, NMS2 53, MRF 33, UDF 20, ATAKA 17, DSB 17, BPU 13,
  independents 4

Burkina Faso
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale
  (111 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: National Assembly election last held 5 May 2002 (next to
  be held May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  CDP 57, RDA-ADF 17, PDP/PS 10, CFD 5, PAI 5, other 17

Burma
  unicameral People's Assembly or Pyithu Hluttaw (485 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 May 1990, but Assembly never allowed by
  junta to convene
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NLD 392 (opposition), SNLD 23 (opposition), NUP 10 (pro-government),
  other 60

Burundi
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement, consists of a National
  Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (minimum 100 seats - 60% Hutu and
  40% Tutsi with at least 30% being women; additional seats appointed
  by a National Independent Electoral Commission to ensure ethnic
  representation; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms) and a Senate (54 seats; 34 by indirect vote to
  serve five year terms, with remaining seats assigned to ethnic
  groups and former chiefs of state)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 4 July 2005 (next to be
  held in 2010); Senate - last held 29 July 2005 (next to be held in
  2010)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  CNDD-FDD 58.6%, FRODEBU 21.7%, UPRONA 7.2%, CNDD 4.1%,
  MRC-Rurenzangemero 2.1%, others 6.2%; seats by party - CNDD-FDD 59,
  FRODEBU 25, UPRONA 10, CNDD 4, MRC-Rurenzangemero 2; Senate -
  percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - CNDD-FDD 30,
  FRODEBU 3, CNDD 1

Cambodia
  bicameral, consists of the National Assembly (123 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) and the
  Senate (61 seats; 2 members appointed by the monarch, 2 elected by
  the National Assembly, and 57 elected by parliamentarians and
  commune councils; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 27 July 2003 (next to be
  held in July 2008); Senate - last held 22 January 2006 (next to be
  held in January 2011)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party - CPP
  47%, SRP 22%, FUNCINPEC 21%, other 10%; seats by party - CPP 73,
  FUNCINPEC 26, SRP 24; Senate - percent of vote by party - CPP 69%,
  FUNCINPEC 21%, SRP 10%; seats by party - CPP 45, FUNCINPEC 10, SRP 2
  (January 2006)

Cameroon
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (180
  seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms); note - the president can either lengthen or shorten the term
  of the legislature
  elections: last held 23 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  RDCP 133, SDF 21, UDC 5, other 21
  note: the constitution calls for an upper chamber for the
  legislature, to be called a Senate, but it has yet to be established

Canada
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of the Senate or
  Senat (members appointed by the governor general with the advice of
  the prime minister and serve until reaching 75 years of age; its
  normal limit is 105 senators) and the House of Commons or Chambre
  des Communes (308 seats; members elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve for up to five-year terms)
  elections: House of Commons - last held 23 January 2006 (next to be
  held in 2011)
  election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party -
  Conservative Party 36.3%, Liberal Party 30.2%, New Democratic Party
  17.5%, Bloc Quebecois 10.5%, Greens 4.5%, other 1%; seats by party -
  Conservative Party 124, Liberal Party 103, New Democratic Party 29,
  Bloc Quebecois 51, other 1

Cape Verde
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia Nacional (72
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 22 January 2006 (next to be held in January
  2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAICV 52.3%, MPD 44%,
  UCID 2.7%; seats by party - PAICV 41, MPD 29, ADM 2

Cayman Islands
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (18 seats, 3
  appointed members from the Executive Council and 15 elected by
  popular vote; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 May 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PPM 9, UDP 5, independent 1

Central African Republic
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee
  Nationale (109 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 13 March 2005 and 8 May 2005 (next to be held
  NA 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MLPC 43%, RDC 18%, MDD
  9%, FPP 6%, PSD 5%, ADP 4%, PUN 3%, FODEM 2%, PLD 2%, UPR 1%, FC 1%,
  independents 6%; seats by party - MLPC 47, RDC 20, MDD 8, FPP 7, PSD
  6, ADP 5, PUN 3, FODEM 2, PLD 2, UPR 1, FC 1, independents 7

Chad
  bicameral according to constitution, consists of a National
  Assembly (155 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms) and a Senate (not yet created and size unspecified,
  members to serve six-year terms, one-third of membership renewable
  every two years)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 21 April 2002 (next to be
  held by April 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  MPS 110, RDP 12, FAR 9, RNDP 5, URD 5, UNDR 3, other 11

Chile
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of
  the Senate or Senado (38 seats elected by popular vote; members
  serve eight-year terms - one-half elected every four years) and the
  Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (120 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 December 2005 (next to be held
  December 2009); Chamber of Deputies - last held 11 December 2005
  (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - CPD 20 (PDC 6, PS 8, PPD 3, PRSD 3), APC 17 (UDI 9, RN 8),
  independent 1; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - CPD 65 (PDC 21, PPD 22, PS 15, PRSD 7), APC 54 (UDI
  34, RN 20), independent 1

China
  unicameral National People's Congress or Quanguo Renmin
  Daibiao Dahui (2,985 seats; members elected by municipal, regional,
  and provincial people's congresses to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held December 2002-February 2003 (next to be held
  late 2007-February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - NA

Christmas Island
  unicameral Christmas Island Shire Council (9 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: held every two years with half the members standing for
  election; last held in May 2005 (next to be held in May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 9

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  unicameral Cocos (Keeling) Islands Shire
  Council (7 seats)
  elections: held every two years with half the members standing for
  election; last held in May 2005 (next to be held in May 2007)

Colombia
  bicameral Congress or Congreso consists of the Senate or
  Senado (102 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Camara de
  Representantes (166 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 12 March 2006 (next to be held in
  March 2010); House of Representatives - last held 12 March 2006
  (next to be held in March 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PSUN 20, PC 18, PL 17, CR 15, PDI 11, other parties 21;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PL 36, PSUN 30, PC 29, CR 20, PDA 42, other parties 42

Comoros
  unicameral Assembly of the Union (33 seats; 15 deputies are
  selected by the individual islands' local assemblies and the 18 by
  universal suffrage; deputies serve for five years);
  elections: last held 18 and 25 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  CdIA 12, CRC 6; note - 15 additional seats are filled by deputies
  from local island assemblies

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  bicameral legislature consists of
  a National Assembly (500 seats; 60 elected by majority vote and 440
  by open list proportional representation; members serve 5-year
  terms) and a Senate (120 seats; members elected by indirect vote to
  serve 5-year terms)
  elections: NA; members of the National Assembly were appointed by
  leaders in the factions integrated into the new government;
  elections scheduled for 30 July 2006 will establish a new
  legislature under the February 2006 constitution

Congo, Republic of the
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate
  (66 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms) and the National Assembly (137 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 July 2002 (next to be held July
  2007); National Assembly - last held 27 May and 26 June 2002 (next
  to be held by May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - FDP 56, other 10; National Assembly - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - FDP 83, UDR 6, UPADS 3, other 45

Cook Islands
  bicameral Parliament consisting of a lower house or
  Legislative Assembly with 25 seats (24 seats representing districts
  of the Cook Islands and one seat representing Cook Islanders living
  overseas; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  and an upper house or House of Ariki made up of traditional leaders
  elections: last held 26 September 2006 (next to be held by 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Demo 51.9%, CIP 45.5%,
  independent 2.7%; seats by party - Demo 15, CIP 8, independent 1
  note: the House of Ariki advises on traditional matters and
  maintains considerable influence, but has no legislative powers

Costa Rica
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa
  (57 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 February 2006 (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PLN 25, PAC 18, PML 6, PUSC 4, other 4

Cote d'Ivoire
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale
  (225 seats; members are elected in single- and multi-district
  elections by direct popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 10 December 2000 with by-elections on
  14 January 2001 (next to be held by 31 October 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  FPI 96, PDCI-RDA 94, RDR 5, PIT 4, other 2, independents 22, vacant 2
  note: a Senate is scheduled to be created in the next full election
  in 2006

Croatia
  unicameral Assembly or Sabor (152 seats; note - one seat was
  added in the November 2003 parliamentary elections; members elected
  from party lists by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 November 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; number of seats by
  party - HDZ 66, SDP 34, HSS 10, HNS 10, HSP 8, IDS 4, Libra 3, HSU
  3, SDSS 3, other 11
  note: minority government coalition - HDZ, DC, HSLS, HSU, SDSS

Cuba
  unicameral National Assembly of People's Power or Asemblea
  Nacional del Poder Popular (609 seats, elected directly from slates
  approved by special candidacy commissions; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 19 January 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - PCC 97.6%; seats - PCC 609

Cyprus
  unicameral - Republic of Cyprus: House of Representatives or
  Vouli Antiprosopon (80 seats; 56 assigned to the Greek Cypriots, 24
  to Turkish Cypriots; note - only those assigned to Greek Cypriots
  are filled; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms); north Cyprus: Assembly of the Republic or Cumhuriyet Meclisi
  (50 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: Republic of Cyprus: last held 27 May 2001 (next to be
  held 21 May 2006); north Cyprus: last held 14 December 2003 (next to
  be held in 2008)
  election results: Republic of Cyprus: House of Representatives -
  percent of vote by party - AKEL 34.71%, DISY 34%, DIKO 14.84%, KISOS
  6.51%, others 9.94%; seats by party - AKEL (Communist) 20, DISY 19,
  DIKO 9, KISOS 4, other 4; north Cyprus: Assembly of the Republic -
  percent of vote by party - CTP 35.8%, UBP 32.3%, Peace and
  Democratic Movement 13.4%, DP 12.3%; seats by party - CTP 19, UBP
  18, Peace and Democratic Movement 6, DP 7

Czech Republic
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the
  Senate or Senat (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve six-year terms; one-third elected every two years) and the
  Chamber of Deputies or Poslanecka Snemovna (200 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held in two rounds 20-21 and 27-28 October
  2006 (next to be held October 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held
  2-3 June 2006 (next to be held by June 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - ODS 41, CSSD 12, KDU-CSL 10, others 15, independents 2;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - ODS 35.4%, CSSD
  32.3%, KSCM 12.8%, KDU-CSL 7.2%, Greens 6.3%, other 6%; seats by
  party - ODS 81, CSSD 74, KSCM 26, KDU-CSL 13, Greens 6

Denmark
  unicameral People's Assembly or Folketinget (179 seats,
  including 2 from Greenland and 2 from the Faroe Islands; members are
  elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation
  to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Liberal Party 29%,
  Social Democrats 25.9%, Danish People's Party 13.2%, Conservative
  Party 10.3%, Social Liberal Party 9.2%, Socialist People's Party 6%,
  Unity List 3.4%; seats by party - Liberal Party 52, Social Democrats
  47, Danish People's Party 24, Conservative Party 18, Social Liberal
  Party 17, Socialist People's Party 11, Unity List 6; note - does not
  include the 2 seats from Greenland and the 2 seats from the Faroe
  Islands

Djibouti
  unicameral Chamber of Deputies or Chambre des Deputes (65
  seats; members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 January 2003 (next to be held January 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - RPP 62.2%, FRUD 36.9%; seats -
  RPP 65, FRUD 0; note - RPP (the ruling party) dominated the election

Dominica
  unicameral House of Assembly (30 seats, 9 appointed
  senators, 21 elected by popular vote; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 May 2005 (next to be held by 5 August 2010);
  note - tradition dictates that the election will be held within five
  years of the last election, but technically it is five years from
  the first seating of parliament (12 May 2005) plus a 90-day grace
  period
  election results: percent of vote by party - DLP 52.07%, UWP 43.6%,
  DFP 3.15%; seats by party - DLP 12, UWP 8, independent 1

Dominican Republic
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional
  consists of the Senate or Senado (32 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives or Camara de Diputados (150 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 16 May 2002 (next to be held in May
  2006); House of Representatives - last held 16 May 2002 (next to be
  held in May 2006)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PRD 29, PLD 2, PRSC 1; House of Representatives - percent of
  vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRD 73, PLD 41, PRSC 36

East Timor
  unicameral National Parliament (number of seats can vary,
  minimum requirement of 52 and a maximum of 65 seats; members elected
  by popular vote to serve five-year terms); note - for its first term
  of office, the National Parliament is comprised of 88 members on an
  exceptional basis
  elections: (next to be held in May 2007); direct elections for
  national parliament were never held; elected delegates to the
  national convention adopted a constitution and named themselves
  legislators instead of having elections; hence the exceptional
  numbers for this term of the national parliament
  election results: percent of vote by party - FRETILIN 57.37%, PD
  8.72%, PSD 8.18%, ASDT 7.84%, UDT 2.36%, PNT 2.21%, KOTA 2.13%, PPT
  2.01%, PDC 1.98%, PST 1.78%, independents/other 5.42%; seats by
  party - FRETILIN 55, PD 7, PSD 6, ASDT 6, PDC 2, UDT 2, KOTA 2, PNT
  2, PPT 2, UDC/PDC 1, PST 1, PL 1, independent 1

Ecuador
  unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (100
  seats; members are popularly elected by province to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 20 October 2002 (next to be held October 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PSC 25, ID 16, PRE 15, PRIAN 10, PSP 9, Pachakutik Movement 6, MPD
  5, DP 4, PS-FA 3, independents 7; note - defections by members of
  National Congress are commonplace, resulting in frequent changes in
  the numbers of seats held by the various parties

Egypt
  bicameral system consists of the People's Assembly or Majlis
  al-Sha'b (454 seats; 444 elected by popular vote, 10 appointed by
  the president; members serve five-year terms) and the Advisory
  Council or Majlis al-Shura - which functions only in a consultative
  role (264 seats; 176 elected by popular vote, 88 appointed by the
  president; members serve six-year terms; mid-term elections for half
  of the elected members)
  elections: People's Assembly - three-phase voting - last held 7 and
  20 November, 1 December 2005;(next to be held November-December
  2010); Advisory Council - last held May-June 2004 (next to be held
  May-June 2007)
  election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NDP 311, NWP 6, Tagammu 2, Tomorrow Party 1,
  independents 112 (12 seats to be determined by rerun elections, 10
  seats appointed by President); Advisory Council - percent of vote by
  party - NA; seats by party - NA

El Salvador
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa
  (84 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  three-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 March 2006 (next to be held in March 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  ARENA 34, FMLN 32, PCN 10, PDC 6, CD 2

Equatorial Guinea
  unicameral House of People's Representatives or
  Camara de Representantes del Pueblo (100 seats; members directly
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PDGE 98, CPDS 2
  note: Parliament has little power since the constitution vests all
  executive authority in the president

Eritrea
  unicameral National Assembly (150 seats; term limits not
  established)
  elections: in May 1997, following the adoption of the new
  constitution, 75 members of the PFDJ Central Committee (the old
  Central Committee of the EPLF), 60 members of the 527-member
  Constituent Assembly, that had been established in 1997 to discuss
  and ratify the new constitution, and 15 representatives of Eritreans
  living abroad were formed into a Transitional National Assembly to
  serve as the country's legislative body until countrywide elections
  to a National Assembly were held; although only 75 of 150 members of
  the Transitional National Assembly were elected, the constitution
  stipulates that once past the transition stage, all members of the
  National Assembly will be elected by secret ballot of all eligible
  voters; National Assembly elections scheduled for December 2001 were
  postponed indefinitely

Estonia
  unicameral Parliament or Riigikogu (101 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 2 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Center Party of Estonia
  25.4%, Res Publica 24.6%, Estonian Reform Party 17.7%, Estonian
  People's Union 13%, Pro Patria Union (Fatherland League) 7.3%
  People's Party Moodukad 7%; seats by party - Res Publica 26, Center
  Party 20, Reform Party 19, Estonian People's Union 13, Pro Patria
  Union 7, Social Democrats (formerly People's Party Moodukad) 6,
  non-affiliated (Social Liberals and independents) 10

Ethiopia
  bicameral Parliament consists of the House of Federation or
  upper chamber (108 seats; members are chosen by state assemblies to
  serve five-year terms) and the House of People's Representatives or
  lower chamber (547 seats; members are directly elected by popular
  vote from single-member districts to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 15 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats by party - EPRDF 327,
  CUD 109, UEDF 52, SPDP 23, OFDM 11, BGPDUF 8, ANDP 8, independent 1,
  others 6, undeclared 2
  note: irregularities at some polling stations necessitated the
  rescheduling of voting in certain constituencies

European Union
  Council of the European Union (25 member-state
  ministers having 321 votes; the number of votes is roughly
  proportional to member-states' population); note - the Council is
  the main decision-making body of the EU; European Parliament (732
  seats; seats allocated among member states by proportion to
  population); members elected by direct universal suffrage for a
  five-year term
  elections: last held 10-13 June 2004 (next to be held June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats by party - EPP-ED
  268, PES 202, ALDE 88, Greens/EFA 42, EUL/NGL 41, IND/DEM 36, UEN
  27, independents 28

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  unicameral Legislative Council (10
  seats - two ex officio, eight elected by popular vote, members serve
  four-year terms); presided over by the governor
  elections: last held 17 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 8

Faroe Islands
  unicameral Faroese Parliament or Logting (32 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote on a proportional basis from the
  seven constituencies to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 January 2004 (next to be held no later than
  January 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Union Party 23.7%,
  Social Democratic Party 21.8%, Republican Party 21.7%, People's
  Party 20.6%, Center Party 5.2%, Independence Party 4.6%; seats by
  party - Union Party 7, Social Democratic Party 7, Republican Party
  8, People's Party 7, Center Party 2, Independence Party 1
  note: election of two seats to the Danish Parliament was last held
  on 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Republican Party 1,
  People's Party 1

Fiji
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (32 seats; 14
  appointed by the president on the advice of the Great Council of
  Chiefs, 9 appointed by the president on the advice of the Prime
  Minister, 8 on the advice of the Opposition Leader, and 1 appointed
  on the advice of the council of Rotuma) and the House of
  Representatives (71 seats; 23 reserved for ethnic Fijians, 19
  reserved for ethnic Indians, 3 reserved for other ethnic groups, 1
  reserved for the council of Rotuma constituency encompassing the
  whole of Fiji, and 25 open seats; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 25 August through 1
  September and 19 September 2001 (next to be held 6-13 May 2006)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - SDL 27.5%, FLP 26.5%, MV 4.2%, NLUP 1.3%, NFP 1.2%,
  independents 1.4%, UGP .3%; seats by party - SDL 32, FLP 27, MV 6,
  NLUP 2, NFP 1, independents 2, UGP 1

Finland
  unicameral Parliament or Eduskunta (200 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote on a proportional basis to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 16 March 2003 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Kesk 24.7%, SDP 24.5%,
  Kok 18.5%, VAS 9.9%, VIHR 8%, KD 5.3%, SFP 4.6%; seats by party -
  Kesk 55, SDP 53, Kok 40, VAS 19, VIHR 14, KD 7, SFP 8, other 4

France
  bicameral Parliament or Parlement consists of the Senate or
  Senat (321 seats - 296 for metropolitan France, 13 for overseas
  departments and territories, and 12 for French nationals abroad;
  members are indirectly elected by an electoral college to serve
  nine-year terms; elected by thirds every three years); note -
  between 2004 and 2010, 25 new seats will be added to the Senate for
  a total of 346 seats - 326 for metropolitan France and overseas
  departments, 2 for New Caledonia, 2 for Mayotte, 1 for Saint-Pierre
  and Miquelon, 3 for overseas territories, and 12 for French
  nationals abroad; starting in 2008, members will be indirectly
  elected by an electoral college to serve six-year terms, with
  one-half the seats being renewed every three years; and the National
  Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (577 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote under a single-member majority system to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 26 September 2004 (next to be held
  September 2008); National Assembly - last held 8-16 June 2002 (next
  to be held not later than June 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - UMP 156, PS 97, UDF 33, PCF 23, RDSE 15, other 7; National
  Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP 355,
  PS 140, UDF 29, PCF 21, Left Radical Party 7, Greens 3, other 22

French Guiana
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (19
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  and a unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (31 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held in March 2000 (next to be
  held March 2006); Regional Council - last held 21 and 28 March 2004
  (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - PSG 5, various left-wing parties 5, independents 7,
  other 2; Regional Council - (second election results) percent of
  vote by party - PS 37.24%, UMP 31.58%, FDG/Walwari 31.18%; seats by
  party - PS 17, UMP 7, FDG/Walwari 7
  note: one seat was elected to the French Senate on 27 September 1998
  (next to be held September 2007); results - percent of vote by party
  - NA; seats by party - NA; 2 seats were elected to the French
  National Assembly on 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - UMP/RPR
  1, Walwari Committee 1

French Polynesia
  unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblee
  Territoriale (57 seats - changed from 49 seats for May 2004
  election; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 23 May 2004 (next to be held May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  People's Rally for the Republic (Gaullist) 28, Union for Democracy
  27, New Star 1, This Country is Yours 1; after by-elections of 13
  February 2005 seating was as follows: People's Rally for the
  Republic 27, Union for Democracy 27, and Alliance for a New
  Democracy 3
  note: one seat was elected to the French Senate on 27 September 1998
  (next to be held September 2007); results - percent of vote by party
  - NA; seats by party - NA; two seats were elected to the French
  National Assembly on 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP/RPR 1,
  UMP 1

Gabon
  bicameral legislature consists of the Senate (91 seats;
  members elected by members of municipal councils and departmental
  assemblies) and the National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (120
  seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 26 January and 9 February 2003 (next
  to be held by January 2009); National Assembly - last held 9 and 23
  December 2001 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - PDG 53, RNB 20, PGP 4, ADERE 3, RDP 1, CLR 1, independents
  9; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party
  - PDG 86, RNB-RPG 8, PGP 3, ADERE 3, CLR 2, PUP 1, PSD 1,
  independents 13, others 3

Gambia, The
  unicameral National Assembly (53 seats; 48 elected by
  popular vote, 5 appointed by the president; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 17 January 2002 (next to be held 25 January
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  APRC 45, PDOIS 2, NRP 1,

Georgia
  unicameral Supreme Council (commonly referred to as
  Parliament) or Umaghiesi Sabcho (235 seats - 150 elected by party
  lists); members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 28 March 2004 (next to be held spring 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - National
  Movement-Democratic Front 67.6%, Rightist Opposition 7.6%, all other
  parties received less than 7% each; seats by party - National
  Movement-Democratic Front 135, Rightist Opposition 15

Germany
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Federal
  Assembly or Bundestag (613 seats; elected by popular vote under a
  system combining direct and proportional representation; a party
  must win 5% of the national vote or three direct mandates to gain
  representation; members serve four-year terms) and the Federal
  Council or Bundesrat (69 votes; state governments are directly
  represented by votes; each has three to six votes depending on
  population and are required to vote as a block)
  elections: Federal Assembly - last held 18 September 2005 (next to
  be held September 2009); note - there are no elections for the
  Bundesrat; composition is determined by the composition of the
  state-level governments; the composition of the Bundesrat has the
  potential to change any time one of the 16 states holds an election
  election results: Federal Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  CDU/CSU 35.2%, SPD 34.3%, FDP 9.8%, Left 8.7%, Greens 8.1%; seats by
  party - CDU/CSU 225, SPD 222, FDP 61, Left 54, Greens 51

Ghana
  unicameral Parliament (230 seats; note - increased from 200
  seats in last election; members are elected by direct, popular vote
  to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 December 2004 (next to be held December 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NPP 128, NDC 92, other 10

Gibraltar
  unicameral House of Assembly (18 seats - 15 elected by
  popular vote, 1 appointed for the Speaker, and 2 ex officio members;
  members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 November 2003 (next to be held not later
  than February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - GSD 58%, GSLP 41%;
  seats by party - GSD 8, GSLP 7

Greece
  unicameral Parliament or Vouli ton Ellinon (300 seats;
  members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 7 March 2004 (next to be held by
  March 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - ND 45.4%, PASOK 40.6%,
  KKE 5.9%, Synaspismos 3.3%; seats by party - ND 165, PASOK 117, KKE
  12, Synaspismos 6

Greenland
  unicameral Parliament or Landstinget (31 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional
  representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held on 15 November 2005 (next to be held by
  December 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Siumut 30.7%,
  Demokratiit 22.8%, Inuit Ataqatigiit 22.6%, Atassut Party 19.1%;
  Katusseqatigiit 4.1%, other 0.7%; seats by party - Siumut 10,
  Demokratiit 7, Inuit Ataqatigiit 7, Atassut 6, Katusseqatigiit 1
  note: two representatives were elected to the Danish Parliament or
  Folketing on 8 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Siumut 1, Inuit
  Ataqatigiit 1

Grenada
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (a 13-member
  body, 10 appointed by the government and 3 by the leader of the
  opposition) and the House of Representatives (15 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held on 27 November 2003 (next to be held by
  November 2008)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NNP 46.65%, NDC 44.12%; seats by party - NNP 8, NDC 7

Guadeloupe
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (42 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the
  unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (41 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held March 2004 (next to be held
  by in 2010); Regional Council - last held 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held in March 2008 to elect half of the body)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - left-wing candidates 11, PS 8, RPR 8, PPDG 6,
  right-wing candidates 5, PCG 3, UDF 1; Regional Council (second
  round) - percent of vote by party - PS 58.4%, UMP 41.6%; seats by
  party - PS 29, UMP 12
  note: Guadeloupe elects two representatives to the French Senate;
  elections last held September 2004 (next to be held September 2013);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA, Guadeloupe
  elects four representatives to the French National Assembly;
  elections last held 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held June 2007);
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - RPR 2, PS 1,
  different right parties 1

Guam
  unicameral Legislature (15 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Republican Party 8, Democratic Party 7
  note: Guam elects one nonvoting delegate to the US House of
  Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held
  November 2008); results - Madeleine BORDALLO (Democratic Party) was
  reelected as delegate; percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party
  - Democratic Party 1

Guatemala
  unicameral Congress of the Republic or Congreso de la
  Republica (158 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 November 2003 (next to be held September 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  GANA 49, FRG 41, UNE 33, PAN 17, other 18
  note: for the 9 November 2003 election, the number of congressional
  seats increased from 113 to 158

Guernsey
  unicameral States of Deliberation (45 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote for four years); note - Alderney and Sark
  have their own parliaments
  elections: last held 21 April 2004 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - all independents

Guinea
  unicameral People's National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale
  Populaire (114 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PUP 61.6%, UPR 26.6%,
  other 11.8%; seats by party - PUP 85, UPR 20, other 9

Guinea-Bissau
  unicameral National People's Assembly or Assembleia
  Nacional Popular (100 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve a maximum of four years)
  elections: last held 28 March 2004 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAIGC 31.5%, PRS 24.8%,
  PUSD 16.1%, UE 4.1%, APU 1.3%, 13 other parties 22.2%; seats by
  party - PAIGC 45, PRS 35, PUSD 17, UE 2, APU 1

Guyana
  unicameral National Assembly (65 members elected by popular
  vote, also not more than four non-elected non-voting ministers and
  two non-elected non-voting parliamentary secretaries appointed by
  the president; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 28 August 2006 (next to be held by August 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PPP/C 54.6%, PNC/R 34%,
  AFC 8.1%, other 3.3%; seats by party - PPP/C 36, PNC/R 22, AFC 5,
  other 2

Haiti
  bicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale consists of
  the Senate (30 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  six-year terms; one-third elected every two years) and the Chamber
  of Deputies (99 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms); note - in reestablishing the Senate, the candidate
  in each department receiving the most votes in the last election
  serves six years, the candidate with the second most votes serves
  four years, and the candidate with the third most votes serves two
  years
  elections: Senate - last held 21 April 2006, run-off elections to be
  determined (next regular election, for one third of seats, to be
  held in 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 21 April 2006,
  run-off elections to be determined (next regular election to be held
  in 2010)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - L'ESPWA 11, OPL 4, FL 3, FUSION 3, LAAA 2, UNCRH 2, ALYANS
  1, PONT 1, 3 seats subject to run-off election; Chamber of Deputies
  - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - L'ESPWA 19, FUSION
  15, ALYANS 10, OPL 8, FL 6, UNCRH 6, MPH 4, RDNP 4, LAAA 3,KONBA 3,
  FRN 1, MOCHRENHA 1, MRN 1, Tet-Ansanm 1, MIRN 1, JPDN 1, UNITE 1,
  PLH 1, 13 seats subject to run-off election

Holy See (Vatican City)
  unicameral Pontifical Commission

Honduras
  unicameral National Congress or Congreso Nacional (128
  seats; members are elected proportionally to the number of votes
  their party's presidential candidate receives to serve four-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 27 November 2005 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PL
  62, PN 55, PUD 5, PDC 4, PINU 2

Hong Kong
  unicameral Legislative Council or LEGCO (60 seats; in 2004
  30 seats indirectly elected by functional constituencies, 30 elected
  by popular vote; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 September 2004 (next to be held in September
  2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - pro-democracy group
  62%; seats by party - (pro-Beijing 34) DAB 12, Liberal Party 10,
  independents 11, FTU 1; (pro-democracy 25) independents 11,
  Democratic Party 9, CTU 2, ADPL 1, Frontier Party 1, NWSC 1;
  non-voting LEGCO president 1

Hungary
  unicameral National Assembly or Orszaggyules (386 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote under a system of proportional
  and direct representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 and 23 April 2006 (next to be held April 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party (5% or more of the vote
  required for parliamentary representation in the first round) - MSzP
  43.2%, Fidesz-KDNP 42%, SzDSz 6.5%, MDF 5%, other 3.3%; seats by
  party - MSzP 190, Fidesz 141, KDNP 23, SzDSz 20, MDF 11, independent
  1

Iceland
  unicameral Parliament or Althing (63 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 May 2003 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Independence Party
  33.7%, Social Democratic Alliance 31%, Progressive Party 17.7%,
  Left-Green Movement 8.8%, Liberal Party 7.4%; seats by party -
  Independence Party 22, Social Democratic Alliance 20, Progressive
  Party 12, Left-Green Alliance 5, Liberal Party 4

India
  bicameral Parliament or Sansad consists of the Council of
  States or Rajya Sabha (a body consisting of not more than 250
  members, up to 12 of whom are appointed by the president, the
  remainder are chosen by the elected members of the state and
  territorial assemblies; members serve six-year terms) and the
  People's Assembly or Lok Sabha (545 seats; 543 elected by popular
  vote, 2 appointed by the president; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: People's Assembly - last held 20 April through 10 May
  2004 (next must be held before May 2009)
  election results: People's Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - INC 145, BJP 138, CPI(M) 43, SP 36, RJD 24, BSP 19,
  DMK 16, SS 12, BJD 11, CPI 10, NCP 9, JDU 8, SAD 8, PMK 6, TDP 5,
  TRS 5, JMM 5, LJSP 4, MDMK 4, independents 5, other 30

Indonesia
  House of Representatives or Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR)
  (550 seats; members elected to serve five-year terms); House of
  Regional Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah or DPD),
  constitutionally mandated role includes providing legislative input
  to DPR on issues affecting regions; People's Consultative Assembly
  (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat or MPR) has role in inaugurating and
  impeaching president and in amending constitution; consists of
  popularly-elected members in DPR and DPD; MPR does not formulate
  national policy
  elections: last held 5 April 2004 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Golkar 21.6%, PDI-P
  18.5%, PKB 10.6%, PPP 8.2%, PD 7.5%, PKS 7.3%, PAN 6.4%, others
  19.9%; seats by party - Golkar 128, PDI-P 109, PPP 58, PD 55, PAN
  53, PKB 52, PKS 45, others 50
  note: because of election rules, the number of seats won does not
  always follow the percentage of votes received by parties

Iran
  unicameral Islamic Consultative Assembly or
  Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami (290 seats - formerly 270 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 February 2004 with a runoff held 7 May 2004
  (by-elections next to be held in December 2006; general election to
  be held in February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats by party -
  conservatives/Islamists 190, reformers 50, independents 43,
  religious minorities 5, and 2 seats unaccounted for

Iraq
  unicameral Council of Representatives or Mejlis Watani
  (consisting of 275 members elected by a closed-list,
  proportional-representation system)
  elections: held 15 December 2005 to elect a 275-member Council of
  Representatives that will finalize a permanent constitution
  election results: Council of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - NA; number of seats by party - NA

Ireland
  bicameral Parliament or Oireachtas consists of the Senate or
  Seanad Eireann (60 seats - 49 elected by the universities and from
  candidates put forward by five vocational panels, 11 are nominated
  by the prime minister; members serve five-year terms) and the House
  of Representatives or Dail Eireann (166 seats; members are elected
  by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 16 and 17 July 2002 (next to be held
  by July 2007); House of Representatives - last held 17 May 2002
  (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Fianna Fail 30, Fine Gael 15, Labor Party 5, Progressive
  Democrats 4, independents and other 6; House of Representatives -
  percent of vote by party - Fianna Fail 41.5%, Fine Gael 22.5%, Labor
  Party 10.8%, Sinn Fein 6.5%, Progressive Democrats 4.0%, Green Party
  3.8%, other 10.9%; seats by party - Fianna Fail 81, Fine Gael 31,
  Labor Party 21, Sinn Fein 5, Progressive Democrats 8, Green Party 6,
  other 14

Isle of Man
  bicameral Tynwald consists of the Legislative Council
  (an 11-member body composed of the President of Tynwald, the Lord
  Bishop of Sodor and Man, a nonvoting attorney general, and eight
  others named by the House of Keys) and the House of Keys (24 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Keys - last held 22 November 2001 (next to be
  held November 2006)
  election results: House of Keys - percent of vote by party - Man
  Labor Party 17.3%, Alliance for Progressive Government 14.6%; seats
  by party - Man Labor Party 2, Alliance for Progressive Government 3,
  independents 19

Israel
  unicameral Knesset (120 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29 March 2006 (next scheduled to be held in
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Kadima 29, Labor 19, Likud 12, SHAS 12, Yisrael Beiteinu 11, NU/NRP
  9, GIL 7, Torah and Shabbat Judaism 6, Meretz-YAHAD 5, United Arab
  List 4, Balad 3, HADASH 3

Italy
  bicameral Parliament or Parlamento consists of the Senate or
  Senato della Repubblica (315 seats; elected by proportional vote
  with the winning coalition in each region receiving 55% of seats
  from that region; members serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of
  Deputies or Camera dei Deputati (630 seats; elected by popular vote
  with the winning national coalition receiving 54% of chamber seats;
  members serve five-year terms); note - electoral vote reform passed
  in December 2005
  elections: Senate - last held 10 April 2006 (next to be held in
  2011); Chamber of Deputies - last held 10 April 2006 (next to be
  held May 2011)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - The Union 158 (DS 62, DL 39, RC 27, Together with the Union
  11, other 19), House of Freedoms 154 (FI 79, AN 41, UDC 21, LEGA
  13), other 3; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - The Union 348 (DS 220, RC 41, Rose in the Fist 18,
  Italy of Values 17, PdCI 16, Greens Federation 15, UDEUR 10, other
  11), House of Freedoms 276 (FI 140, AN 71, Union of Christian and
  Center Democrats 39, LEGA 26), other 6

Jamaica
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (a 21-member
  body appointed by the governor general on the recommendations of the
  prime minister and the leader of the opposition; ruling party is
  allocated 13 seats, and the opposition is allocated eight seats) and
  the House of Representatives (60 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 16 October 2002 (next to be held no later than
  October 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PNP 52%, JLP 47.3%;
  seats by party - PNP 34, JLP 26

Japan
  bicameral Diet or Kokkai consists of the House of Councillors
  or Sangi-in (242 seats - members elected for six-year terms; half
  reelected every three years; 146 members in multi-seat
  constituencies and 96 by proportional representation) and the House
  of Representatives or Shugi-in (480 seats - members elected for
  four-year terms; 300 in single-seat constituencies; 180 members by
  proportional representation in 11 regional blocs)
  elections: House of Councillors - last held 11 July 2004 (next to be
  held in July 2007); House of Representatives - last held 11
  September 2005 (next election by September 2009)
  election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - LDP 115, DPJ 82, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 5,
  others 7; distribution of seats as of January 2006 - LDP 112, DPJ
  83, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 6, others 8
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - LDP 47.8%, DPJ
  36.4%, others 15.8%; seats by party - LDP 296, DPJ 113, Komeito 31,
  JCP 9, SDP 7, others 24; distribution of seats as of January 2006 -
  LDP 294, DPJ 112, Komeito 31, JCP 9, SDP 7, others 27 (2006)

Jersey
  unicameral Assembly of the States (55 voting members - 12
  senators (elected for six-year terms), 12 constables or heads of
  parishes (elected for three-year terms), 29 deputies (elected for
  three-year terms); the bailiff and the deputy bailiff; and three
  non-voting members - the Dean of Jersey, the Attorney General, and
  the Solicitor General all appointed by the monarch)
  elections: last held NA (next to be held NA); note - on 23 November
  2005, 29 deputies, independents, were elected
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 55

Jordan
  bicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-'Umma consists of
  the Senate, also called the House of Notables (Majlis al-Ayan) (55
  seats; members appointed by the monarch from designated categories
  of public figures; members serve four-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives, also called the House of Deputies (Majlis
  al-Nuwaab) (110 seats; members elected by popular vote on the basis
  of proportional representation to serve four-year terms); note - six
  seats are reserved for women and are allocated by a special
  electoral panel if no women are elected
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 17 June 2003 (next
  to be held in 2007)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - independents and other 89.6%, IAF 10.4%; seats by party -
  independents and other 92, IAF 18; note - one of the six quota seats
  was given to a female IAF candidate
  note: the House of Representatives has been convened and dissolved
  by the monarch several times since 1974; in November 1989, the first
  parliamentary elections in 22 years were held; political parties
  were not legalized until 1992; King ABDALLAH delayed the 2001
  elections until 2003

Kazakhstan
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (39 seats; 7
  senators are appointed by the president; other members are elected
  by local government bodies, 2 from each of the 14 oblasts, the
  capital of Astana, and the city of Almaty, to serve six-year terms;
  note - formerly composed of 47 seats) and the Mazhilis (77 seats; 10
  out of the 77 Mazhilis members are elected from the winning party's
  lists; members are popularly elected to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - (indirect) last held December 2005; next to be
  held in 2011; Mazhilis - last held 19 September and 3 October 2004
  (next to be held in September 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; candidates nominated by local councils; Mazhilis -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - Otan 42, AIST 11,
  ASAR (All Together) 4, Aq Zhol (Bright Path) 1, Democratic Party 1
  (party refused to take the seat due to criticism of the election and
  seat remained unoccupied), independent 18; note - most independent
  candidates are affiliated with parastatal enterprises and other
  pro-government institutions

Kenya
  unicameral National Assembly or Bunge (224 seats; 210 members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms, 12 so-called
  "nominated" members who are appointed by the president but selected
  by the parties in proportion to their parliamentary vote totals, 2
  ex-officio members)
  elections: last held 27 December 2002 (next to be held by early 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NARC 125, KANU 64, FORD-P 14, other 7; ex-officio 2; seats appointed
  by the president - NARC 7, KANU 4, FORD-P 1

Kiribati
  unicameral House of Parliament or Maneaba Ni Maungatabu (42
  seats; 39 elected by popular vote, 1 ex officio member - the
  attorney general, 1 appointed to represent Banaba, and 1 other;
  members serve four-year terms)
  elections: legislative elections were held in two rounds - the first
  round on 9 May 2003 and the second round on 14 May 2003 (next to be
  held by November 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  BTK 17, MTM 16, independents 7, other 2 (includes attorney general)

Korea, North
  unicameral Supreme People's Assembly or Ch'oego Inmin
  Hoeui (687 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 3 August 2003 (next to be held in August 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  NA; ruling party approves a list of candidates who are elected
  without opposition; some seats are held by minor parties

Korea, South
  unicameral National Assembly or Kukhoe (299 seats -
  members elected for four-year terms; 243 in single-seat
  constituencies, 56 by proportional representation)
  elections: last held 15 April 2004 (next to be held in April 2008;
  byelections held on 30 April 2005 and on 26 October 2005)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Uri 51%, GNP 41%, DLP
  3%, DP 3%, others 2%; seats by party - Uri 144, GNP 127, DP 11, DLP
  9, ULD 3, independents 5
  note: percent of vote is for 2004 general election; seats by party
  reflect results of April and October 2005 byelections involving six
  and four seats respectively; MDP became DP in May 2005; United
  Liberal Democrats (ULD) merged with GNP in February 2006. (2006)

Kuwait
  unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma (50 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 29 June 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - NA; note - all
  cabinet ministers are also ex officio members of the National
  Assembly

Kyrgyzstan
  unicameral Supreme Council or Jorgorku Kenesh (75 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five year terms)
  elections: elections for the new unicameral body or Jorgorku Kenesh
  were held 27 February 2005, but the vast majority of positions
  remained undecided and were contested in a runoff election on 13
  March 2005; election irregularities caused widespread protests that
  resulted in the president being forced to flee the country
  election results: Supreme Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - NA

Laos
  unicameral National Assembly (115 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 30 April 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  LPRP 113, independents 2

Latvia
  unicameral Parliament or Saeima (100 seats; members are
  elected by direct, popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 October 2006 (next to be held October 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - TP 19.5%, ZZS 16.7%, JL
  16.4%, SC 14.4%; LPP/LC 8.6%; TB/LNNK 7%; PCTVL 6%; seats by party -
  TP 23, ZZS 18, JL 18, SC 17, LPP/LC 10, TB/LNNK 8, PCTVL 6

Lebanon
  unicameral National Assembly or Majlis Alnuwab (Arabic) or
  Assemblee Nationale (French) (128 seats; members elected by popular
  vote on the basis of sectarian proportional representation to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held in four rounds on 29 May, 5, 12, 19 June 2005
  (next to be held 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by group - NA; seats by group -
  Future Movement Bloc 36; Democratic Gathering 15; Development and
  Resistance Bloc 15; Loyalty to the Resistance 14; Free Patriotic
  Movement 14; Lebanese Forces 6; Qornet Shewan 5; Popular Bloc 4;
  Tripoli Independent Bloc 3; Syrian National Socialist Party 2;
  Kataeb Reform Movement 2; Tachnaq Party 2; Democratic Renewal
  Movement 1; Democratic Left 1; Nasserite Popular Movement 1; Ba'th
  Party 1; Kataeb Party 1; independent 5

Lesotho
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (33 members - 22
  principal chiefs and 11 other members appointed by the ruling party)
  and the Assembly (120 seats, 80 by direct popular vote and 40 by
  proportional vote; members elected by popular vote for five-year
  terms); note - number of seats in the Assembly rose from 80 to 120
  in the May 2002 election
  elections: last held 25 May 2002 (next to be held by May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - LCD 54%, BNP 21%, LPC
  7%, other 18%; seats by party - LCD 76, BNP 21, LPC 5, other 18

Liberia
  bicameral National Assembly consists of the Senate (30 seats
  - number of seats changed in 11 October 2005 elections; members
  elected by popular vote to serve nine-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (64 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  six-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 11 October 2005 (next to be held in
  2014); House of Representatives - last held 11 October 2005 (next to
  be held NA 2011)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - COTOL 7, NPP 4, CDC 3, LP 3, UP 3, APD 3, other 7; House of
  Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  CDC 15, LP 9, UP 8, COTOL 8, APD 5, NPP 4, other 15
  note: the current six-year term for junior senators - those who
  received the second most votes in the election - is mandated by the
  Liberian constitution to stagger Senate elections and ensure
  continuity of government

Libya
  unicameral General People's Congress (NA seats; members
  elected indirectly through a hierarchy of people's committees)

Liechtenstein
  unicameral Parliament or Landtag (25 seats; members
  are elected by direct, popular vote under proportional
  representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 and 13 March 2005 (next to be held by NA
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - FBP 48.7%, VU 38.2%, FL
  13%; seats by party - FBP 12, VU 10, FL 3

Lithuania
  unicameral Parliament or Seimas (141 seats, 71 members are
  directly elected by popular vote, 70 are elected by proportional
  representation; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 10 and 24 October 2004 (next to be held October
  2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Labor 28.6%, Working
  for Lithuania (Social Democrats and Social Liberals) 20.7%, TS
  14.6%, For Order and Justice (Liberal Democrats and Lithuanian
  People's Union) 11.4%, Liberal and Center Union 9.1%, Farmers and
  New Democracy Union 6.6%, other 9%; seats by faction - Labor 29,
  Homeland Union 26, Social Democrats 23, Civil Democracy (split from
  Labor) 11, Liberal Movement (formerly Liberal Political Group) 11,
  National Farmer's Union (formerly Farmers and New Democracy Union)
  11, Social Liberal 10, Liberal Democrats 9, Liberal and Center
  Political Group 8, independents 3 (as of late-July 2006)

Luxembourg
  unicameral Chamber of Deputies or Chambre des Deputes (60
  seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 13 June 2004 (next to be held by June 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CSV 36.1%, LSAP 23.4%,
  DP 16.1%, Green Party 11.6%, ADR 10%; seats by party - CSV 24, LSAP
  14, DP 10, Green Party 7, ADR 5
  note: there is also a Council of State that serves as an advisory
  body to the Chamber of Deputies; the Council of State has 21 members
  appointed by the Grand Duke on the advice of the prime minister

Macau
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (29 seats; 12 elected by
  popular vote, 10 by indirect vote, and 7 appointed by the chief
  executive; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 September 2005 (next in September 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - Development Union 12.8%, Macau
  Development Alliance 9%, Macau United Citizens' Association 16%, New
  Democratic Macau Association 18.2%, others NA; seats by political
  group - Development Union 2, Macau Development Alliance 1, Macau
  United Citizens' Association 2, New Democratic Macau Association 2,
  New Hope 1, United Forces 2, others 2; 10 seats filled by
  professional and business groups; seven members appointed by chief
  executive

Macedonia
  unicameral Assembly or Sobranie (120 seats - members
  elected by popular vote from party lists based on the percentage of
  the overall vote the parties gain in each of six electoral
  districts; all serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 July 2006 (next to be held by July 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - VMRO-DPMNE 32.5%, SDSM
  23.3%, DUI 12.2%, PDSH/DPA 7.5%; seats by party - VMRO-DPMNE 44,
  SDSM 32, DUI 28, PDSH/DPA 11, other 5

Madagascar
  bicameral legislature consists of a National Assembly or
  Assemblee Nationale (160 seats; members are directly elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms) and a Senate or Senat (100
  seats; two-thirds of the seats filled by regional assemblies whose
  members will be elected by popular vote; the remaining one-third of
  the seats appointed by the president; all members will serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 15 December 2002 (next to
  be held December 2006)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - TIM 103, FP 22, AREMA 3, LEADER/Fanilo 2, RPSD
  5, others 3, independents 22

Malawi
  unicameral National Assembly (193 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 May 2004 (next to be held May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  UDF 74, MCP 60, Independents 24, RP 16, others 18, vacancies 1

Malaysia
  bicameral Parliament or Parlimen consists of the Senate or
  Dewan Negara (70 seats; 44 appointed by the paramount ruler, 26
  appointed by the state legislatures) and the House of
  Representatives or Dewan Rakyat (219 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 21 March 2004 (next
  must be held by 2009)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - BN 91%, DAP 5%, PAS 3%, other 1%; seats by party - BN 199,
  DAP 12, PAS 6, PKR 1, independent 1

Maldives
  unicameral People's Council or Majlis (50 seats; 42 elected
  by popular vote, 8 appointed by the president; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 22 January 2005 (next to be held NA 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - independents 50

Mali
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (147 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 and 28 July 2002 (next to be held July 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Hope 2002 coalition 66, ADEMA 51, other 30

Malta
  unicameral House of Representatives (usually 65 seats; note -
  additional seats are given to the party with the largest popular
  vote to ensure a legislative majority; members are elected by
  popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 April 2003 (next to be held by August 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PN 51.7%, MLP 47.6%, AD
  0.7%; seats by party - PN 34, MLP 31

Marshall Islands
  unicameral legislature or Nitijela (33 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 November 2003 (next to be held by November
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - NA
  note: the Council of Chiefs or Ironij is a 12-member body comprised
  of tribal chiefs that advises on matters affecting customary law and
  practice

Martinique
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (45 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a
  unicameral Regional Council or Conseil Regional (41 seats; members
  are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held March 2000 (next to be held
  in 2006); Regional Council - last held on 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held by March 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - left-wing candidates 13, PPM 11, RPR 6, right-wing
  candidates 5, PCM 3, UDF 3, PMS 2, independents 2; note - the PPM
  won a plurality; Regional Council (second round) - percent of vote
  by party - MIM 53.8%, PPM 30.6%; seats by party - MIM 28, PPM 9,
  other 4
  note: Martinique elects 2 seats to the French Senate; elections last
  held September 2004 (next to be held September 2008); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PPM 1, left-wing
  candidate 1; Martinique also elects 4 seats to the French National
  Assembly; elections last held, first round - 9 June 2002, second
  round - 16 June 2002 (next to be held not later than June 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP-RPR 1,
  PMS 1, MIM 1, left-wing candidate 1 (candidacy of the left-wing
  candidate was found invalid by the Constitutional Council; new
  elections will be called)

Mauritania
  bicameral legislature consists of the Senate or Majlis
  al-Shuyukh (56 seats; a portion of seats up for election every two
  years; members elected by municipal leaders to serve six-year terms)
  and the National Assembly or Majlis al-Watani (95 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 9 and 16 April 2004 (next to be held
  21 January 2007); National Assembly - last held 19 November and 3
  December 2006
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA; seats
  by party - NA

Mauritius
  unicameral National Assembly (70 seats; 62 elected by
  popular vote, 8 appointed by the election commission to give
  representation to various ethnic minorities; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held on 3 July 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - AS
  38, MSM/MMM 22, OPR 2; appointed seats - AS 4, MSM/MMM 2, OPR 2

Mayotte
  unicameral General Council or Conseil General (19 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 and 28 March 2004 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MDM 23.3%, UMP 22.8%,
  PS 10.2%, MRC 8.9%, FRAP 6.5%, MPM 1.2%; seats by party - MDM 6, UMP
  9, MRC 2, MPM 1, diverse left 1
  note: Mayotte elects one member of the French Senate; elections last
  held 24 September 2001 (next to be held September 2007); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA; Mayotte also
  elects one member to the French National Assembly; elections last
  held 16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007); results - percent of
  vote by party - UMP-RPR 55.08%, UDF 44.92%; seats by party - UMP-RPR
  1

Mexico
  bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Union consists
  of the Senate or Camara de Senadores (128 seats; 96 are elected by
  popular vote to serve six-year terms, and 32 are allocated on the
  basis of each party's popular vote) and the Federal Chamber of
  Deputies or Camara Federal de Diputados (500 seats; 300 members are
  directly elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms;
  remaining 200 members are allocated on the basis of each party's
  popular vote, also for three-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 July 2006 for all of the seats (next
  to be held 1 July 2012); Chamber of Deputies - last held 2 July 2006
  (next to be held 5 July 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - PAN 52, PRI 33, PRD 29, PVEM 6, CD 5, PT 2, PNA 1; Chamber
  of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - PAN
  206, PRD 127, PRI 103, PVEM 18, CD 17, PT 16, other 13; note -
  election results pending certification

Micronesia, Federated States of
  unicameral Congress (14 seats; 4 -
  one elected from each state to serve four-year terms and 10 -
  elected from single-member districts delineated by population to
  serve two-year terms; members elected by popular vote)
  elections: elections for four-year term seats last held 4 March 2003
  (next to be held March 2007); elections for two-year term seats last
  held 8 March 2005 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 14

Moldova
  unicameral Parliament or Parlamentul (101 seats; parties and
  electoral blocs elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 March 2005 (next to be held in 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PCRM 46.1%, Democratic
  Moldova Bloc 28.4%, PPCD 9.1%, other parties 16.4%; seats by party -
  PCRM 56, Democratic Moldova Bloc 34, PPCD 11

Monaco
  unicameral National Council or Conseil National (24 seats; 16
  members elected by list majority system, 8 by proportional
  representation; to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 February 2003 (next to be held February 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  UNAM 21, UND 3

Mongolia
  unicameral State Great Hural 76 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms
  elections: last held 27 June 2004 (next to be held in June 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MPRP 48.78%, MDC 44.8%,
  independents 3.5%, Republican Party 1.5%, others 1.42%; seats by
  party - MPRP 36, MDC 34, others 4; note - following June 2004
  election MDC collapsed; as of 1 December 2005 composition of
  legislature was MPRP 38, DP 25, M-MNSDP 6, CWRP 2, MRP 1, PP 1,
  independents 3

Montenegro
  unicameral Assembly (81 seats, elected by direct vote for
  four-year terms; changed from 74 seats at the time of the elections)
  elections: last held 10 September 2006 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  Coalition for a European Montenegro 41, SNS 12, Coalition SPP/NS/DSS
  11, PZP 11, Liberals and Bosniaks 3, Democratic League-Democratic
  Prosperity 1, Democratic Union of Albanians 1, Albanian Alternative 1

Montserrat
  unicameral Legislative Council (11 seats, 9 popularly
  elected; members serve five-year terms)
  note: expanded in 2001 from 7 to 9 elected members with attorney
  general and financial secretary sitting as ex-officio members
  elections: last held 31 May 2006 (next to be held by 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MCAP 36.1%, NPLM 29.4%,
  MDP 24.4%, independents 10.1%; seats by party - MCAP 4, NPLM 3, MDP
  1, independents 1
  note: in 2001, the Elections Commission instituted a single
  constituency/voter-at-large system whereby all eligible voters cast
  ballots for all nine seats of the Legislative Council

Morocco
  bicameral Parliament consists of an upper house or Chamber
  of Counselors (270 seats; members elected indirectly by local
  councils, professional organizations, and labor syndicates for
  nine-year terms; one-third of the members are renewed every three
  years) and a lower house or Chamber of Representatives (325 seats;
  295 by multi-seat constituencies and 30 from national lists of
  women; members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Counselors - last held 6 October 2003 (next to
  be held in 2006); Chamber of Representatives - last held 27
  September 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: Chamber of Counselors - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - RNI 42, MDS 33, UC 28, MP 27, PND 21, PI 21,
  USFP 16, MNP 15, PA 13, FFD 12, other 42; Chamber of Representatives
  - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - USFP 50, PI 48,
  PJD 42, RNI 41, MP 27, MNP 18, UC 16, PND 12, PPS 11, UD 10, other 50

Mozambique
  unicameral Assembly of the Republic or Assembleia da
  Republica (250 seats; members are directly elected by popular vote
  on a secret ballot to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 1-2 December 2004 (next to be held December
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - FRELIMO 62%, RENAMO
  29.7%; seats by party - FRELIMO 160, RENAMO 90

Namibia
  bicameral legislature consists of the National Council (26
  seats; 2 members are chosen from each regional council to serve
  six-year terms) and the National Assembly (72 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: National Council - elections for regional councils, to
  determine members of the National Council, held 29-30 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2010); National Assembly - last held 15-16
  November 2004 (next to be held November 2009)
  election results: National Council - percent of vote by party -
  SWAPO 89.7%, UDF 4.7%, NUDO 2.8%, DTA 1.9%; seats by party - SWAPO
  24, UDF 1, DTA 1; National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  SWAPO 75.1%, COD 7.2%, DTA 5%, NUDO 4.1%, UDF 3.5%, RP 1.9%, MAG
  0.8%; seats by party - SWAPO 55, COD 5, DTA 4, NUDO 3, UDF 3, RP 1,
  MAG 1
  note: the National Council is primarily an advisory body

Nauru
  unicameral Parliament (18 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 October 2004 (next to be held not later than
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - Nauru First Party 3,
  independents 15
  note: the president dissolved parliament on 30 September 2004 and
  set new elections for 23 October 2004

Nepal
  bicameral Parliament consists of the National Council (60
  seats; 35 appointed by the House of Representatives, 10 by the king,
  and 15 elected by an electoral college; one-third of the members
  elected every two years to serve six-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (205 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held in May 1999; note -
  Parliament was dissolved in May 2002 but was finally reconvened in
  April 2006 with most of the members that were elected in 1999
  election results: House of Representatives (for 1999 parliament) -
  percent of vote by party - NC 37.3%, CPN/UML 31.6%, NDP (RPP) 10.4%,
  NSP 3.2%, Rastriya Jana Morcha 1.4%, Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal 0.8%,
  NWPP 0.5%, others 14.8%; seats by party - NC 113, CPN/UML 69, NDP
  11, NSP 5, Rastriya Jana Morcha 5, Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal 1, NWPP
  1; note - NC, NSP, and NDP have since each split into two parties

Netherlands
  bicameral States General or Staten Generaal consists of
  the First Chamber or Eerste Kamer (75 seats; members indirectly
  elected by the country's 12 provincial councils for four-year terms)
  and the Second Chamber or Tweede Kamer (150 seats; members directly
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: First Chamber - last held 25 May 2003 (next to be held
  May 2007); Second Chamber - last held 22 November 2006 (next to be
  held November 2010)
  election results: First Chamber - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - CDA 23, PvdA 19, VVD 15, Green Party 5, Socialist
  Party 4, D66 3, other 6; Second Chamber - percent of vote by party -
  CDA 26.5, PvdA 21.2%, Socialist Party 16.6%, VVD 14.6%, Party for
  Freedom 5.9%, Green Party 4.6%, Christian Union 4.0%; seats by party
  - CDA 41, PvdA 33, Socialist Party 25, VVD 22, Party for Freedom 9,
  Green Party 7, Christian Union 6, other 7

Netherlands Antilles
  unicameral States or Staten (22 seats - Curacao
  14, Bonaire 3, St. Maarten 3, St. Eustatius 1, Saba 1; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 January 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  PAR 5, MAN 3, FOL 2, Forsa Korsou 2, National Alliance 2, PNP 2, UPB
  2, DP St. E 1, DP St. M 1, BDP 1, WIPM 1
  note: the government of Prime Minister Emily de JONGH-ELHAGE is a
  coalition of several parties

New Caledonia
  unicameral Territorial Congress or Congres Territorial
  (54 seats; members belong to the three Provincial Assemblies or
  Assemblees Provinciales elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 9 May 2004 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  RPCR-UMP 16, AE 16, UNI-FLNKS 8, UC 7, FN 4, others 3
  note: New Caledonia currently holds 1 seat in the French Senate; by
  2010, New Caledonia will gain a second seat in the French Senate;
  elections last held 24 September 2001 (next to be held not later
  than September 2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats
  by party - UMP 1; New Caledonia also elects 2 seats to the French
  National Assembly; elections last held 9 and 16 June 2002 (next to
  be held by June 2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - UMP 2

New Zealand
  unicameral House of Representatives - commonly called
  Parliament (120 seats; 69 members elected by popular vote in
  single-member constituencies including seven Maori constituencies,
  and 51 proportional seats chosen from party lists, all to serve
  three-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 September 2005 (next to be held not later
  than 15 November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NZLP 41.1%, NP 39.1%,
  NZFP 5.72%, Green Party 5.3%, Maori 2.12%, UF 2.67%, ACT New Zealand
  1.51%, Progressive 1.16%; seats by party - NZLP 50, NP 48, NZFP 7,
  Green Party 6, Maori 4, UF 3, ACT New Zealand 2, Progressive 1
  note: results of 2005 election saw the total number of seats
  increase to 121 because the Maori Party won one more electorate seat
  than its entitlement under the party vote

Nicaragua
  unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (92
  seats; members are elected by proportional representation and party
  lists to serve five-year terms; 1 seat for the previous president, 1
  seat for the runner-up in previous presidential election)
  elections: last held 5 November 2006 (next to be held by November
  2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  FSLN 38, PLC 25, ALN 23 (22 plus one for presidential candidate
  Eduardo MONTEALEGRE, runner-up in the 2006 presidential election),
  MRS 5, APRE 1 (outgoing President Enrique BOLANOS)

Niger
  unicameral National Assembly (113 seats; note - expanded from
  83 seats; members elected by popular vote for five-year terms)
  elections: last held 4 December 2004 (next to be held December 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  MNSD 47, CDS 22, PNDS 25, RSD 7, RDP 6, ANDP 5, PSDN 1

Nigeria
  bicameral National Assembly consists of Senate (109 seats -
  3 from each state plus 1 from Abuja, members elected by popular vote
  to serve four-year terms) and House of Representatives (360 seats,
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 12 April 2003 (next to be held in
  2007); House of Representatives - last held 12 April 2003 (next to
  be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PDP 53.7%,
  ANPP 27.9%, AD 9.7%; seats by party - PDP 76, ANPP 27, AD 6; House
  of Representatives - percent of vote by party - PDP 54.5%, ANPP
  27.4%, AD 8.8%, other 9.3%; seats by party - PDP 223, ANPP 96, AD
  34, other 6; note - one seat is vacant

Niue
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (20 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve three-year terms; 6 elected from a common roll
  and 14 are village representatives)
  elections: last held 30 April 2005 (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - NA

Norfolk Island
  unicameral Legislative Assembly (9 seats; members
  elected by electors who have nine equal votes each but only four
  votes can be given to any one candidate; members serve three-year
  terms)
  elections: last held 20 October 2004 (next to be held by December
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 9
  (note - no political parties)

Northern Mariana Islands
  bicameral Legislature consists of the
  Senate (9 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year staggered terms) and the House of Representatives (18
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 5 November 2005 (next to be held
  November 2009); House of Representatives - last held 5 November 2005
  (next to be held November 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - Covenant Party 3, Republican Party 3, Democratic Party 2,
  independent 1; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - Covenant Party 7, Republican Party 7,
  Democratic Party 2, independent 2
  note: the Northern Mariana Islands does not have a nonvoting
  delegate in the US Congress; instead, it has an elected official or
  "resident representative" located in Washington, DC; seats by party
  - Republican Party 1 (Pedro A. TENORIO)

Norway
  modified unicameral Parliament or Storting (169 seats;
  members are elected by popular vote by proportional representation
  to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 12 September 2005 (next to be held September
  2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Labor Party 32.7%,
  Progress Party 22.1%, Conservative Party 14.1%, Socialist Left Party
  8.8%, Christian People's Party 6.8%, Center Party 6.5%, Liberal
  Party 5.9%, Red Electoral Alliance 1.2%, other 1.9%; seats by party
  - Labor Party 61, Progress Party 38, Conservative Party 23,
  Socialist Left Party 15, Christian People's Party 11, Center Party
  11, Liberal Party 10
  note: for certain purposes, the parliament divides itself into two
  chambers and elects one-fourth of its membership to an upper house
  or Lagting

Oman
  bicameral Majlis Oman consists of an upper chamber or Majlis
  al-Dawla (58 seats; members appointed by the monarch; has advisory
  powers only) and a lower chamber or Majlis al-Shura (83 seats;
  members elected by popular vote for four-year terms; body has some
  limited power to propose legislation, but otherwise has only
  advisory powers)
  elections: last held 4 October 2003 (next to be held NA 2007)
  election results: NA

Pakistan
  bicameral Parliament or Majlis-e-Shoora consists of the
  Senate (100 seats - formerly 87; members indirectly elected by
  provincial assemblies to serve six-year terms and the National
  Assembly (342 seats - formerly 217; 60 seats represent women; 10
  seats represent minorities; members elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held in March 2006 (next to be held in
  March 2009); National Assembly - last held 10 October 2002 (next to
  be held in 2007)
  election results: Senate results - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - PML 47, PPPP 9, MMA 20, MQM/A 6, PML/N 4, PML/F 1,
  PkMAP 3, ANP 2, PPP 3, JWP 1, BNP-Awami 1, BNP-Mengal 1, BNP/H 1,
  independents 1; National Assembly results - percent of votes by
  party - NA; seats by party - PML/Q 126, PPPP 81, MMA 63, PML/N 19,
  MQM/A 17, NA 16, PML/F 5, PML/J 3, PPP/S 2, BNP 1, JWP 1, PAT 1,
  PML/Z 1, PTI 1, MQM/H 1, PkMAP 1, independents 3

Palau
  bicameral Parliament or Olbiil Era Kelulau (OEK) consists of
  the Senate (9 seats; members elected by popular vote on a population
  basis to serve four-year terms) and the House of Delegates (16
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held
  November 2008); House of Delegates - last held 2 November 2004 (next
  to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote - NA%; seats -
  independents 9 (four new members elected); House of Delegates -
  percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 16 (one new member
  elected)

Panama
  unicameral National Assembly (formerly called Legislative
  Assembly) or Asamblea Nacional (78 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms); note - in 2009, the number
  of seats will change to 71
  elections: last held 2 May 2004 (next to be held 3 May 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PRD 40, PA 17, PS 8, MOLIRENA 3, CD 2, PP 2, PLN 1, other 5
  note: legislators from outlying rural districts are chosen on a
  plurality basis while districts located in more populous towns and
  cities elect multiple legislators by means of a proportion-based
  formula

Papua New Guinea
  unicameral National Parliament - sometimes referred
  to as the House of Assembly (109 seats, 89 elected from open
  electorates and 20 from provincial electorates; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 15-29 June 2002 and April and May 2003;
  completed in May 2003 (voting in the Southern Highlands was not
  completed during the June 2002 election period); next to be held not
  later than June 2007
  election results: percent of vote by party - National Alliance 18%,
  URP 13%, PDM 12%, PPP 8%, Pangu 6%, PAP 5%, PLP 4%, others 34%;
  seats by party - National Alliance 19, URP 14, PDM 13, PPP 8, PANGU
  6, PAP 5, PLP 4, others 40; as of January 2006 - National Alliance
  25, URP 10, PNGP 9, PPP 9, PANGU 6, PAP 12, PLP 4, others 34
  note: association with political parties is fluid (2005)

Paraguay
  bicameral Congress or Congreso consists of the Chamber of
  Senators or Camara de Senadores (45 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies
  or Camara de Diputados (80 seats; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators - last held 27 April 2003 (next to be
  held April 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 27 April 2003
  (next to be held April 2008)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - ANR 16, PLRA 12, UNACE 7, PQ 7, PPS 2, PEN 1;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party
  - ANR 37, PLRA 21, UNACE 10, PQ 10, PPS 2
  note: as of January 2006, changes in party affiliation has led to
  the composition of the legislature as follows: Chamber of Senators -
  seats by party - ANR 18, PLRA 12, UNACE 5, PQ 7, PPS 2, PEN 1;
  Chamber of Deputies - seats by party - ANR 39, PLRA 21, UNACE 8, PQ
  10, PPS 2

Peru
  unicameral Congress of the Republic of Peru or Congreso de la
  Republica del Peru (120 seats; members are elected by popular vote
  to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 9 April 2006 (next to be held April 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - UPP 21.2%, PAP 20.6%,
  UN 15.3%, AF 13.1%, FC 7.1%, PP 4.1%, RN 4.0%; seats by party - UPP
  45, PAP 36, UN 17, AF 13, FC 5, PP 2, RN 2

Philippines
  bicameral Congress or Kongreso consists of the Senate or
  Senado (24 seats - one-half elected every three years; members
  elected at large by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the
  House of Representatives or Kapulungan Ng Mga Kinatawan (212 members
  representing districts plus 24 sectoral party-list members; members
  elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; note - the
  Constitution prohibits the House of Representatives from having more
  than 250 members)
  elections: Senate - last held 10 May 2004 (next to be held in May
  2007); House of Representatives - elections last held 10 May 2004
  (next to be held in May 2007)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - Lakas 30%, LP
  13%, KNP 13%, independents 17%, others 27%; seats by party - Lakas
  7, LP 3, KNP (coalition) 3, independents 4, others 6; note - there
  are 23 rather than 24 sitting senators because one senator was
  elected vice president; House of Representatives - percent of vote
  by party - NA; seats by party - Lakas 93, NPC 53, LP 34, LDP 11,
  others 20; party-listers 24 (2004)

Pitcairn Islands
  unicameral Island Council (10 seats - 5 elected by
  popular vote, 1 nominated by the 5 elected members, 2 appointed by
  the governor including 1 seat for the Island Secretary, the Island
  Mayor, and a commissioner liaising between the governor and council;
  elected members serve one-year terms)
  elections: last held in 24 December 2005 (next to be held December
  2006)
  election results: percent of vote - NA; seats - all independents

Poland
  bicameral legislature consisting of an upper house, the
  Senate or Senat (100 seats; members are elected by a majority vote
  on a provincial basis to serve four-year terms), and a lower house,
  the Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of
  proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the
  designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only
  used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly
  elections: Senate - last held 25 September 2005 (next to be held by
  September 2009); Sejm elections last held 25 September 2005 (next to
  be held by September 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - PiS 49, PO 34, LPR 7, SO 3, PSL 2, independents 5; Sejm -
  percent of vote by party - PiS 27%, PO 24.1%, SO 11.4%, SLD 11.3%,
  LPR 8%, PSL 7%, other 11.2%; seats by party - PiS 155, PO 133, SO
  56, SLD 55, LPR 34, PSL 25, German minorities 2
  note: two seats are assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm
  only

Portugal
  unicameral Assembly of the Republic or Assembleia da
  Republica (230 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 20 February 2005 (next to be held February 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PS 45.1%, PSD 28.7%,
  CDU 7.6%, PP 7.3%, BE 6.4%; seats by party - PS 121, PSD 75, CDU 14,
  PP 12, BE 8

Puerto Rico
  bicameral Legislative Assembly consists of the Senate
  (at least 27 seats - currently 29; members are directly elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (51 seats; members are directly elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 2 November 2004 (next to be held
  November 2008); House of Representatives - last held 2 November 2004
  (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PNP 43.4%, PPD
  40.3%, PIP 9.4%; seats by party - PNP 17, PPD 9, PIP 1; House of
  Representatives - percent of vote by party - PNP 46.3%, PPD 43.1%,
  PIP 9.7%; seats by party - PNP 32, PPD 18, PIP 1
  note: Puerto Rico elects, by popular vote, a resident commissioner
  to serve a four-year term as a nonvoting representative in the US
  House of Representatives; aside from not voting on the House floor,
  he enjoys all the rights of a member of Congress; elections last
  held 2 November 2004 (next to be held November 2008); Luis FORTUNO
  elected resident commissioner; results - percent of vote by party -
  PNP 48.6%; seats by party - PNP 1

Qatar
  unicameral Advisory Council or Majlis al-Shura (35 seats;
  members appointed)
  note: no legislative elections have been held since 1970 when there
  were partial elections to the body; Council members have had their
  terms extended every four years since; the new constitution, which
  came into force on 9 June 2005, provides for a 45-member
  Consultative Council, or Majlis al-Shura; the public would elect
  two-thirds of the Majlis al-Shura; the amir would appoint the
  remaining members; preparations are underway to conduct elections to
  the Majlis al-Shura in early 2007

Reunion
  unicameral General Council (49 seats; members are elected by
  direct, popular vote to serve six-year terms) and a unicameral
  Regional Council (45 seats; members are elected by direct, popular
  vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: General Council - last held 15 and 22 March 1998 (next to
  be held NA); Regional Council - last held 28 March 2004 (next to be
  held in 2010)
  election results: General Council - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - various right-wing candidates 13, PCR 10, PS 10,
  UDF 8, RPR 6, other left-wing candidates 2; Regional Council (second
  round) - percent of vote by party - PCR 44.9%, UMP 32.8%, PS-Greens
  22.3%; seats by party - PCR 27, UMP 11, PS-Greens 7
  note: Reunion elects three representatives to the French Senate;
  elections last held in 2001 (next to be held in 2006); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PRC 1, UDF 1, UMP 1;
  Reunion also elects five deputies to the French National Assembly;
  elections last held 9 June-16 June 2002 (next to be held in 2007);
  results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP 3, PS
  1, independent 1

Romania
  bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate or
  Senat (137 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote on a
  proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms) and the
  Chamber of Deputies or Camera Deputatilor (332 seats; members are
  elected by direct, popular vote on a proportional representation
  basis to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 28 November 2004 (next expected to be
  held in November 2008); Chamber of Deputies - last held 28 November
  2004 (next expected to be held November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by alliance/party -
  PSD-PUR 37.1%, PNL-PD 31.8%, PRM 13.6%, UDMR 6.2%; seats by party -
  PSD 44, PNL 30, PD 20, PRM 20, PC 11, UDMR 10, independents 2;
  Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by alliance/party - PSD-PUR
  36.8%, PNL-PD 31.5%, PRM 13%, UDMR 6.2%; seats by party - PSD 111,
  PNL 66, PD 45, PRM 34, ex-PRM (Ciontu Group) 12, UDMR 22, PC 20, PIN
  (GUSA Group) 3, independent 1, ethnic minorities 18

Russia
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Federalnoye Sobraniye consists
  of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii (178 seats; as of July
  2000, members appointed by the top executive and legislative
  officials in each of the 88 federal administrative units - oblasts,
  krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal
  cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg; members serve four-year
  terms) and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats;
  currently elected by proportional representation from party lists
  winning at least 7% of the vote; members are elected by direct,
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: State Duma - last held 7 December 2003 (next to be held
  in December 2007)
  election results: State Duma - percent of vote received by parties
  clearing the 5% threshold entitling them to a proportional share of
  the 225 party list seats - United Russia 37.1%, CPRF 12.7%, LDPR
  11.6%, Motherland 9.1%; seats by party - United Russia 222, CPRF 53,
  LDPR 38, Motherland 37, People's Party 19, Yabloko 4, SPS 2, other
  7, independents 65, repeat election required 3; composition as of 1
  July 2006 - United Russia 309, CPRF 45, LDPR 35, Motherland 29,
  People's Party 12, independents 18, vacant 2

Rwanda
  bicameral Parliament consists of Senate (26 seats; 12 members
  elected local councils, 8 appointed by the president, 4 by the
  Political Organizations Forum, 2 represent institutions of higher
  learning, to serve eight-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies (80
  seats; 53 members elected by popular vote, 24 women elected by local
  bodies, 3 selected by youth and disability organizations, to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held NA, members appointed as part of the
  transitional government (next to be held in 2011); Chamber of
  Deputies - last held 29 September 2003 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: seats by party under the 2003 Constitution - RPF
  40, PSD 7, PL 6, additional 27 members indirectly elected

Saint Helena
  unicameral Legislative Council (16 seats, including the
  speaker, 3 ex officio and 12 elected members; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 31 August 2005 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 12

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  unicameral National Assembly (14 seats, 3
  appointed and 11 popularly elected from single-member
  constituencies; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 October 2004 (next to be held by 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  SKNLP 7, CCM 2, NRP 1, PAM 1

Saint Lucia
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (11 seats; 6
  members appointed on the advice of the prime minister, 3 on the
  advice of the leader of the opposition, and 2 after consultation
  with religious, economic, and social groups) and the House of
  Assembly (17 seats; members are elected by popular vote from
  single-member constituencies to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 11 December 2006 (next to
  be held in December 2011)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA;
  seats by party - UWP 11, SLP 6

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  unicameral General Council or Conseil
  General (19 seats - 15 from Saint Pierre and 4 from Miquelon;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms)
  elections: elections last held 19 and 26 March 2000 (next to be held
  in April 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  PS 12, PRG 2, UDF-RPR 5
  note: Saint Pierre and Miquelon elect 1 seat to the French Senate;
  elections last held 26 September 2004 (next to be held in September
  2013); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UMP
  1; Saint Pierre and Miquelon also elects 1 seat to the French
  National Assembly; elections last held, first round - 9 June 2002,
  second round - 16 June 2002 (next to be held NA 2007); results -
  percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - UDF 1

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  unicameral House of Assembly (21
  seats, 15 elected representatives and 6 appointed senators;
  representatives are elected by popular vote from single-member
  constituencies to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 December 2005 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - ULP 55.26%, NDP 44.68%;
  seats by party - ULP 12, NDP 3

Samoa
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Fono (49 seats - 47 elected
  by voters affiliated with traditional village-based electoral
  districts, 2 elected by independent, mostly non-Samoan or
  part-Samoan, voters who cannot, (or choose not to) establish a
  village affiliation; only chiefs (matai) may stand for election to
  the Fono from the 47 village-based electorates; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: election last held 31 March 2006 (next election to be
  held not later than March 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  HRPP 35, SDUP 10, independents 4

San Marino
  unicameral Grand and General Council or Consiglio Grande
  e Generale (60 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 4 June 2006 (next to be held by June 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PDCS 32.9%, Party of
  Socialists and Democrats 31.9%, APDS 11.9%, United Left 8.7%, New
  Socialist Party 5.4%; seats by party - PDCS 21, Party of Socialists
  and Democrats 20, APDS 7, United Left 5, New Socialist Party 3,
  other 4

Sao Tome and Principe
  unicameral National Assembly or Assembleia
  Nacional (55 seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 March 2006 (next to be held March 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MDFM-PCD 37.2%, MLSTP
  28.9%, ADI 20.0%, NR 4.7%, other 9.2%; seats by party - MDFM-PCD 23,
  MLSTP 19, ADI 12, NR 1

Saudi Arabia
  Consultative Council or Majlis al-Shura (120 members
  and a chairman appointed by the monarch for four-year terms); note -
  in October 2003, Council of Ministers announced its intent to
  introduce elections for half of the members of local and provincial
  assemblies and a third of the members of the national Consultative
  Council or Majlis al-Shura, incrementally over a period of four to
  five years; in November 2004, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural
  Affairs initiated voter registration for partial municipal council
  elections held nationwide from February through April 2005

Senegal
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (120
  seats; members are elected by direct, popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  note: the former National Assembly, dissolved in the spring of 2001,
  had 140 seats
  elections: last held 29 April 2001 (next to be held 27 February
  2007) note - the National Assembly in December 2005 voted to
  postpone legislative elections originally scheduled for 2006, they
  will now coincide with presidential elections in 2007
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  SOPI Coalition 89, AFP 11, PS 10, other 10

Serbia
  unicameral National Assembly (250 deputies elected by direct
  vote for a four-year term)
  elections: last held 28 December 2003 (next to be held December 2007)
  election results: SRS 83, DSS 53, DS 37, G17 Plus 34, SPO-NS 22, SPS
  22

Seychelles
  unicameral National Assembly or Assemblee Nationale (34
  seats - 25 elected by popular vote, 9 allocated on a proportional
  basis to parties winning at least 10% of the vote; members serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 4-6 December 2002 (next to be held in December
  2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SPPF 54.3%, SNP 42.6%,
  DP 3.1%; seats by party - SPPF 23, SNP 11

Sierra Leone
  unicameral Parliament (124 seats - 112 elected by
  popular vote, 12 filled by paramount chiefs elected in separate
  elections; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 May 2002 (next to be held May 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SLPP 70.06%, APC
  22.35%, PLP 3%, others 4.59%; seats by party - SLPP 83, APC 27, PLP 2

Singapore
  unicameral Parliament (84 seats; members elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms); note - in addition, there
  are up to nine nominated members; the losing opposition candidate
  who came closest to winning a seat may be appointed as a
  "nonconstituency" member
  elections: last held 6 May 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PAP 66.6%, WP 16.3%,
  SDA 13%, SDP 4.1%; seats by party - PAP 82, WP 1, SDA 1

Slovakia
  unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic or
  Narodna Rada Slovenskej Republiky (150 seats; members are elected on
  the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 June 2006 (next to be held 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Smer 29.1%, SDKU 18.4%,
  SNS 11.7%, SMK 11.7%, LS-HZDS 8.8%, KDH 8.3%; seats by party - Smer
  50, SDKU 31, SNS 20, SMK 20, LS-HZDS 15, KDH 14

Slovenia
  bicameral Parliament consisting of a National Assembly or
  Drzavni Zbor (90 seats; 40 are directly elected and 50 are selected
  on a proportional basis; note - the numbers of directly elected and
  proportionally elected seats varies with each election; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) and the National
  Council or Drzavni Svet (40 seats; this is primarily an advisory
  body with limited legislative powers; it may propose laws, ask to
  review any National Assembly decisions, and call national referenda;
  members - representing social, economic, professional, and local
  interests - are indirectly elected to five-year terms by an
  electoral college)
  elections: National Assembly - last held 3 October 2004 (next to be
  held October 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - SDS 29.1%, LDS 22.8%,
  ZLSD 10.2%, NSi 9%, SLS 6.8%, SNS 6.3%, DeSUS 4.1%, other 11.7%;
  seats by party - SDS 29, LDS 23, ZLSD 10, NSi 9, SLS 7, SNS 6, DeSUS
  4, Hungarian and Italian minorities 1 each

Solomon Islands
  unicameral National Parliament (50 seats; members
  elected from single-member constituencies by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 5 April 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - National Party 6.9%,
  SIPRA 6.3%, Democratic 4.9%, PAP 6.3%, LAFARI 2.8%, Liberal 5%,
  SOCRED 4.3%, independents 60.3%; seats by party - National Party 4,
  SIPRA 4, Democratic 3, PAP 3, LAFARI 2, Liberal 2, SOCRED 2,
  independents 30

Somalia
  unicameral National Assembly
  note: fledgling parliament; a 275-member Transitional Federal
  Assembly; the new parliament consists of 61 seats assigned to each
  of four large clan groups (Darod, Digil-Mirifle, Dir, and Hawiye)
  with the remaining 31 seats divided between minority clans

South Africa
  bicameral Parliament consisting of the National
  Assembly (400 seats; members are elected by popular vote under a
  system of proportional representation to serve five-year terms) and
  the National Council of Provinces (90 seats, 10 members elected by
  each of the nine provincial legislatures for five-year terms; has
  special powers to protect regional interests, including the
  safeguarding of cultural and linguistic traditions among ethnic
  minorities); note - following the implementation of the new
  constitution on 3 February 1997, the former Senate was disbanded and
  replaced by the National Council of Provinces with essentially no
  change in membership and party affiliations, although the new
  institution's responsibilities have been changed somewhat by the new
  constitution
  elections: National Assembly and National Council of Provinces -
  last held 14 April 2004 (next to be held NA 2009)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party - ANC
  69.7%, DA 12.4%, IFP 7%, UDM 2.3%, NNP 1.7%, ACDP 1.6%, other 5.3%;
  seats by party - ANC 279, DA 50, IFP 28, UDM 9, NNP 7, ACDP 6, other
  21; National Council of Provinces - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - NA

Spain
  bicameral; General Courts or National Assembly or Las Cortes
  Generales consists of the Senate or Senado (259 seats - 208 members
  directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the
  regional legislatures to serve four-year terms) and the Congress of
  Deputies or Congreso de los Diputados (350 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional
  representation to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 14 March 2004 (next to be held March
  2008); Congress of Deputies - last held 14 March 2004 (next to be
  held March 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - PP 49%, PSOE
  38.9%, Entesa Catalona de Progress 5.7%, CiU 1.99%, PNV 2.8%, CC
  1.4%; seats by party - PP 102, PSOE 81, Entesa Catalona de Progress
  12, CiU 4, PNV 6, CC 3; Congress of Deputies - percent of vote by
  party - PSOE 43.3%, PP 37.8%, CiU 3.2%, ERC 2.5%, PNV 1.6%, IU 3.2%,
  CC 0.9%; seats by party - PSOE 164, PP 148, CiU 10, ERC 8, PNV 7, IU
  2, CC 3, other 8

Sri Lanka
  unicameral Parliament (225 seats; members elected by
  popular vote on the basis of a modified proportional representation
  system by district to serve six-year terms)
  elections: last held 2 April 2004 (next to be held by 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party or electoral alliance -
  SLFP and JVP (no longer in formal UPFA alliance) 45.6%, UNP 37.83%,
  TNA 6.84%, JHU 5.97%, SLMC 2.02%, UPF 0.54%, EPDP 0.27%, others
  0.93%; seats by party - UNP 68, SLFP 57, JVP 39, UNP dissident 1,
  TNA 22, CWC 8, JHU 7, JHU dissidents 2, SLMC 6, SLMC dissidents 4,
  Communist Party 2, LSSP 2, MEP 2, NUA 2, UPF 2, EPDP 1

Sudan
  bi-cameral body comprising the National Assembly and Council
  of States (replaced unicameral National Assembly of 360 seats);
  pending elections and National Election Law, the Presidency
  appointed 450 members to the National Assembly according to the
  provisions of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement: 52% NCP; 28%
  SPLM; 14% other Northerners; 6% other Southerners; 2 representatives
  from every state constitute the Council of States; terms in each
  chamber are five years following the first elections
  elections: last held 13-22 December 2000 (next to be held 2008-2009
  timeframe)
  election results: NCP 355, others 5; note - replaced by appointments
  under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Suriname
  unicameral National Assembly or Nationale Assemblee (51
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 25 May 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NF 39.73%, NDP 22.2%,
  VVV 13.79%, A-Com 7.21%, A-1 5.86%, other 7.42%; seats by party - NF
  23, NDP 15, VVV 5, A-Com 5, A-1 3

Swaziland
  bicameral Parliament or Libandla, an advisory body,
  consists of the Senate (30 seats - 10 appointed by the House of
  Assembly and 20 appointed by the monarch; members serve five-year
  terms) and the House of Assembly (65 seats - 10 appointed by the
  monarch and 55 elected by popular vote; members serve five-year
  terms)
  elections: House of Assembly - last held 18 October 2003 (next to be
  held October 2008)
  election results: House of Assembly - balloting is done on a
  nonparty basis; candidates for election are nominated by the local
  council of each constituency and for each constituency the three
  candidates with the most votes in the first round of voting are
  narrowed to a single winner by a second round

Sweden
  unicameral Parliament or Riksdag (349 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote on a proportional representation basis to
  serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 17 September 2006 (next to be held September
  2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - Social Democrats 37.2%,
  Moderates 27.8%, Center Party 8.3%, People's Party 8.0%, Christian
  Democrats 6.9%, Left Party 6.3%, Greens 5.4%; seats by party -
  Social Democrats 130, Moderates 97, Center Party 29, People's Party
  28, Christian Democrats 24, Left Party 22, Greens 19

Switzerland
  bicameral Federal Assembly or Bundesversammlung (in
  German), Assemblee Federale (in French), Assemblea Federale (in
  Italian) consists of the Council of States or Standerat (in German),
  Conseil des Etats (in French), Consiglio degli Stati (in Italian)
  (46 seats - consists of two representatives from each canton and one
  from each half canton; members serve four-year terms) and the
  National Council or Nationalrat (in German), Conseil National (in
  French), Consiglio Nazionale (in Italian) (200 seats - members are
  elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation
  to serve four-year terms)
  elections: Council of States - last held in most cantons 19 October
  2003 (each canton determines when the next election will be held);
  National Council - last held 19 October 2003 (next to be held
  October 2007)
  election results: Council of States - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - CVP 15, FDP 14, SVP 8, SPS 6, other 3;
  National Council - percent of vote by party - SVP 26.6%, SPS 23.3%,
  FDP 17.3%, CVP 14.4%, Greens 7.4%, other small parties all under 5%;
  seats by party - SVP 55, SPS 54, FDP 36, CVP 28, Green Party 13,
  other small parties 14

Syria
  unicameral People's Council or Majlis al-Shaab (250 seats;
  members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 2-3 March 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NPF 67%, independents
  33%; seats by party - NPF 167, independents 83; note - the
  constitution guarantees that the Ba'th Party (part of the NPF
  alliance) receives one-half of the seats

Taiwan
  Legislative Yuan (225 seats - 168 elected by popular vote, 41
  elected on basis of proportion of islandwide votes received by
  participating political parties, eight elected from overseas Chinese
  constituencies on basis of proportion of island-wide votes received
  by participating political parties, eight elected by popular vote
  among aboriginal populations; members serve three-year terms);
  National Assembly (300 seat nonstanding body; delegates nominated by
  parties and elected by proportional representation six to nine
  months after Legislative Yuan calls to amend Constitution, impeach
  president, or change national borders) - see note
  note: as a result of constitutional amendments approved by National
  Assembly in June 2005, number of seats in legislature will be
  reduced from 225 to 113 beginning with election in 2007; amendments
  also eliminated National Assembly thus giving Taiwan a unicameral
  legislature
  elections: Legislative Yuan - last held 11 December 2004 (next to be
  held in December 2007); National Assembly - last held 14 May 2005;
  dissolved in June 2005
  election results: Legislative Yuan - percent of vote by party - DPP
  38%, KMT 35%, PFP 15%, TSU 8%, other parties and independents 4%;
  seats by party - DPP 89, KMT 79, PFP 34, TSU 12, other parties 7,
  independents 4; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - DPP
  42.5%, KMT 38.9%, TSU 7%, PFP 6%, others 6.6%; seats by party - DPP
  127, KMT 117, TSU 21, PFP 18, others 17 (2005)

Tajikistan
  bicameral Supreme Assembly or Majlisi Oli consists of the
  Assembly of Representatives (lower chamber) or Majlisi Namoyandagon
  (63 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms) and the National Assembly (upper chamber) or Majlisi Milliy
  (34 seats; members are indirectly elected, 25 selected by local
  deputies, 8 appointed by the president; 1 seat reserved for the
  former president; all serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 February and 13 March 2005 for the Assembly
  of Representatives (next to be held February 2010) and 25 March 2005
  for the National Assembly (next to be held February 2010)
  election results: Assembly of Representatives - percent of vote by
  party - PDPT 74.9%, CPT 13.6%, Islamic Revival Party 8.9%, other
  2.5%; seats by party - PDPT 51, CPT 5, Islamic Revival Party 2,
  independents 5; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - PDPT 29, CPT 2, independents 3

Tanzania
  unicameral National Assembly or Bunge (274 seats - 232
  elected by popular vote, 37 allocated to women nominated by the
  president, 5 to members of the Zanzibar House of Representatives;
  members serve five-year terms); note - in addition to enacting laws
  that apply to the entire United Republic of Tanzania, the Assembly
  enacts laws that apply only to the mainland; Zanzibar has its own
  House of Representatives to make laws especially for Zanzibar (the
  Zanzibar House of Representatives has 50 seats, directly elected by
  universal suffrage to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 14 December 2005 (next to be held in December
  2010)
  election results: National Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - CCM 206, CUF 19, CHADEMA 5, other 2, women
  appointed by the president 37, Zanzibar representatives 5; Zanzibar
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - CCM 30, CUF 19; 1 seat was nullified with a rerun to take
  place soon

Thailand
  bicameral National Assembly or Rathasapha consisted of the
  Senate or Wuthisapha (200 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Sapha
  Phuthaen Ratsadon (500 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve four-year terms); after coup in September 2006, junta
  appointed an interim National Assembly with 250 members to act as
  Senate and House of Representatives; body has no vote on government
  matters
  elections: Senate - last held 19 April 2006; House of
  Representatives - last held 6 February 2005; junta scheduled next
  general election by October 2007
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - NA; House of Representatives - (2005 election) percent of
  vote by party - NA; seats by party - TRT 376, DP 97, TNP 25, PP 2

Togo
  unicameral National Assembly (81 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 October 2002 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  RPT 72, RSDD 3, UDPS 2, Juvento 2, MOCEP 1, independents 1
  note: two opposition parties boycotted the election, the Union of
  the Forces for Change and the Action Committee for Renewal

Tokelau
  unicameral General Fono (21 seats; based upon proportional
  representation from the three islands elected by popular vote to
  serve three-year terms; Nukunonu has 6 seats, Fakaofo has 7 seats,
  Atafu has 8 seats); note - the Tokelau Amendment Act of 1996 confers
  limited legislative power on the General Fono
  elections: last held January 2005 (next to be held January 2008)

Tonga
  unicameral Legislative Assembly or Fale Alea (32 seats - 14
  reserved for cabinet ministers sitting ex officio, 9 for nobles
  selected by the country's 33 nobles, and 9 elected by popular vote;
  members serve three-year terms)
  elections: last held 21 March 2005 (next to be held in 2008)
  election results: Peoples Representatives: percent of vote - HRDMT
  70%; seats - HRDMT 7, independents 2

Trinidad and Tobago
  bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (31
  seats; 16 members appointed by the ruling party, 9 by the President,
  6 by the opposition party for a maximum term of five years) and the
  House of Representatives (36 seats; members are elected by popular
  vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: House of Representatives - last held 7 October 2002 (next
  to be held by October 2007)
  election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote - PNM
  55.5%, UNC 44.5%; seats by party - PNM 20, UNC 16
  note: Tobago has a unicameral House of Assembly with 12 members
  serving four-year terms; last election held January 2005; seats by
  party - PNM 11, DAC 1

Tunisia
  bicameral system consists of the Chamber of Deputies or
  Majlis al-Nuwaab (189 seats; members elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Advisors (126 seats; 85
  members elected by municipal counselors, deputies, mayors, and
  professional associations and trade unions; 41 members are
  presidential appointees; members serve six-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Deputies - last held 24 October 2004 (next to
  be held October 2009); Chamber of Advisors - last held 3 July 2005
  (next to be held July 2011)
  election results: Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats by party - RCD 152, MDS 14, PUP 11, UDU 7, Al-Tajdid 3,
  PSL 2; Chamber of Advisors - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - RCD 71 (14 trade union seats vacant (boycotted))

Turkey
  unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey or Turkiye Buyuk
  Millet Meclisi (550 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 November 2002 (next to be held in 2007); note
  - a special rerun of the General Election in the province of Siirt
  on 9 March 2003 resulted in the election of Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN to
  a seat in parliament, a prerequisite for becoming prime minister, on
  14 March 2003
  election results: percent of vote by party - AKP 34.3%, CHP 19.4%,
  DYP 9.6%, MHP 8.3%, Anavatan 5.1%, DSP 1.1%, and other; seats by
  party - AKP 363, CHP 178, independents 9; note - parties surpassing
  the 10% threshold are entitled to parliamentary seats; seats by
  party as of 1 December 2005 - AKP 357, CHP 154, ANAVATAN 22, DYP 4,
  SHP 4, HYP 1, independents 4, vacant 4

Turkmenistan
  under the 1992 constitution, there are two
  parliamentary bodies, a unicameral People's Council or Halk
  Maslahaty (supreme legislative body of up to 2,500 delegates, some
  of whom are elected by popular vote and some of whom are appointed;
  meets at least yearly) and a unicameral Parliament or Mejlis (50
  seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year
  terms); membership is scheduled to be increased to 65 seats
  elections: People's Council - last held in April 2003 (next to be
  held December 2008); Mejlis - last held 19 December 2004 (next to be
  held December 2008)
  election results: Mejlis - DPT 100%; seats by party - DPT 50; note -
  all 50 elected officials are members of the Democratic Party of
  Turkmenistan and are preapproved by President NIYAZOV
  note: in late 2003, a new law was adopted, reducing the powers of
  the Mejlis and making the Halk Maslahaty the supreme legislative
  organ; the Halk Maslahaty can now legally dissolve the Mejlis, and
  the president is now able to participate in the Mejlis as its
  supreme leader; the Mejlis can no longer adopt or amend the
  constitution, or announce referendums or its elections; since the
  president is both the "Chairman for Life" of the Halk Maslahaty and
  the supreme leader of the Mejlis, the 2003 law has the effect of
  making him the sole authority of both the executive and legislative
  branches of government

Turks and Caicos Islands
  unicameral Legislative Council (21 seats of
  which 15 are popularly elected; members serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 24 April 2003 (next to be held in 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - PDM 53.8%, PNP 46.2%;
  seats by party - PDM 7, PNP 6; note - in by-elections held 7 August
  2003, the PNP gained two seats for a majority of 8 seats; PDM now
  has 5

Tuvalu
  unicameral Parliament or Fale I Fono, also called House of
  Assembly (15 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  four-year terms)
  elections: last held 3 August 2006 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote - NA%; seats - independents 15

Uganda
  unicameral National Assembly (303 members - 214 directly
  elected by popular vote, 81 nominated by legally established special
  interest groups [women 56, army 10, disabled 5, youth 5, labor 5], 8
  ex officio members; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 23 February 2006 (next to be held in 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NA; note - election results had not been posted as of March 2006

Ukraine
  unicameral Supreme Council or Verkhovna Rada (450 seats;
  allocated on a proportional basis to those parties that gain 3% or
  more of the national electoral vote; members serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 March 2006 (next to be held March 2011)
  election results: percent of vote by party/bloc in 2002 - Party of
  Regions 32.1%, Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc 22.3%, Our Ukraine 13.9%, SPU
  5.7%, CPU 3.7%; seats by party/bloc - Party of Regions 186, Yuliya
  Tymoshenko Bloc 129, Our Ukraine 81, SPU 33, CPU 21

United Arab Emirates
  unicameral Federal National Council (FNC) or
  Majlis al-Ittihad al-Watani (40 seats; members appointed by the
  rulers of the constituent states to serve two-year terms)
  elections: President KHALIFA in December 2005 announced that
  indirect elections would be held in early 2006 for half of the seats
  in the FNC; the other half would be filled by appointment
  note: reviews legislation, but cannot change or veto

United Kingdom
  bicameral Parliament comprised of House of Lords
  (consists of approximately 500 life peers, 92 hereditary peers and
  26 clergy) and House of Commons (646 seats since 2005 elections;
  members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms unless
  the House is dissolved earlier)
  elections: House of Lords - no elections (note - in 1999, as
  provided by the House of Lords Act, elections were held in the House
  of Lords to determine the 92 hereditary peers who would remain
  there; elections are held only as vacancies in the hereditary
  peerage arise); House of Commons - last held 5 May 2005 (next to be
  held by May 2010)
  election results: House of Commons - percent of vote by party -
  Labor 35.2%, Conservative 32.3%, Liberal Democrats 22%, other 10.5%;
  seats by party - Labor 356, Conservative 197, Liberal Democrat 62,
  other 31; note - as of 10 February 2006 party by seat in the House
  of Commons: Labor 353, Conservative 196, Liberal Democrat 63,
  Scottish National Party/Plaid Cymru 9, Democratic Unionist 9, Sinn
  Fein 5 (but cannot vote), other 11
  note: in 1998 elections were held for a Northern Ireland Assembly
  (because of unresolved disputes among existing parties, the transfer
  of power from London to Northern Ireland came only at the end of
  1999 and has been suspended four times the latest occurring in
  October 2002); in 1999 there were elections for a new Scottish
  Parliament and a new Welsh Assembly

United States
  bicameral Congress consists of the Senate (100 seats,
  one-third are renewed every two years; 2 members are elected from
  each state by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the House of
  Representatives (435 seats; members are directly elected by popular
  vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: Senate - last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held on
  November 2008); House of Representatives - last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held on November 2008)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Democratic Party 49, Republican Party 49, independent 2;
  House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by
  party - Democratic Party 232, Republican Party 203

Uruguay
  bicameral General Assembly or Asamblea General consists of
  Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (30 seats; members are
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms; vice president has
  one vote in the Senate) and Chamber of Representatives or Camara de
  Representantes (99 seats; members are elected by popular vote to
  serve five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators - last held 31 October 2004 (next to
  be held October 2009); Chamber of Representatives - last held 31
  October 2004 (next to be held October 2009)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party -
  NA%; seats by party - EP-FA 16, Blanco 11, Colorado Party 3; Chamber
  of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party
  - EP-FA 52, Blanco 36, Colorado Party 10, Independent Party 1

Uzbekistan
  bicameral Supreme Assembly or Oliy Majlis consists of an
  Upper House or Senate (100 seats; 84 members are elected by regional
  governing councils to serve five-year terms and 16 are appointed by
  the president) and a Lower House or Legislative Chamber (120 seats;
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 26 December 2004 and 9 January 2005 (next to be
  held December 2009)
  election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
  party - NA; Legislative Chamber - percent of vote by party - NA%;
  seats by party - LDPU 41, NDP 32, Fidokorlar 17, MTP 11, Adolat 9,
  unaffiliated 10
  note: all parties in the Supreme Assembly support President KARIMOV

Vanuatu
  unicameral Parliament (52 seats; members elected by popular
  vote to serve four-year terms)
  elections: last held 6 July 2004 (next to be held 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  NUP 10, UMP 8, VP 8, VRP 4, MPP 3, VGP 3, other and independent 16;
  note - political party associations are fluid
  note: the National Council of Chiefs advises on matters of culture
  and language

Venezuela
  unicameral National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional (167
  seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms;
  three seats reserved for the indigenous peoples of Venezuela)
  elections: last held 4 December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  pro-government 167 (MVR 114, PODEMOS 15, PPT 11, indigenous 2, other
  25), opposition 0

Vietnam
  unicameral National Assembly or Quoc-Hoi (498 seats; members
  elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 19 May 2002 (next to be held 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - CPV 90%, other 10% (the
  10% are not CPV members but are approved by the CPV to stand for
  election); seats by party - CPV 447, CPV-approved 51

Virgin Islands
  unicameral Senate (15 seats; members are elected by
  popular vote to serve two-year terms)
  elections: last held 7 November 2006 (next to be held November 2008)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party -
  Democratic Party 8, ICM 4, independent 3
  note: the Virgin Islands elects one non-voting representative to the
  US House of Representatives; election last held 7 November 2006
  (next to be held November 2008); results - Donna M. CHRISTENSEN
  (Democrat) reelected

Wallis and Futuna
  unicameral Territorial Assembly or Assemblee
  Territoriale (20 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve
  five-year terms)
  elections: last held 11 March 2002 (next to be held March 2007)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  RPR and affiliates 13, Socialists and affiliates 7
  note: Wallis and Futuna elects one senator to the French Senate and
  one deputy to the French National Assembly; French Senate -
  elections last held 27 September 1998 (next to be held by September
  2007); results - percent of vote by party - NA; seats - RPR (now
  UMP) 1; French National Assembly - elections last held 16 June 2002
  (next to be held by in 2007); results - percent of vote by party -
  NA; seats - RPR (UMP) 1

Yemen
  a new constitutional amendment ratified on 20 February 2001
  created a bicameral legislature consisting of a Shura Council (111
  seats; members appointed by the president) and a House of
  Representatives (301 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve
  six-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 April 2003 (next to be held in April 2009)
  election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
  GPC 228, Islah 47, YSP 7, Nasserite Unionist Party 3, National Arab
  Socialist Ba'th Party 2, independents 14

Zambia
  unicameral National Assembly (158 seats; 150 members are
  elected by popular vote, eight members are appointed by the
  president, to serve five-year terms)
  elections: last held 27 December 2001 (next to be held December 2006)
  election results: percent of vote by party - MMD 45.9%, UPND 32.4%,
  UNIP 8.8%, FDD 8.1%, HP 2.7%, PF 0.7%, ZRP 0.7%, independents 0.7%;
  seats by party - MMD 68, UPND 48, UNIP 13, FDD 12, HP 4, PF 1, ZRP
  1, independents 1; seats not determined 2

Zimbabwe
  bicameral Parliament consists of a House of Assembly (150
  seats - 120 elected by popular vote for five-year terms, 12
  nominated by the president, 10 occupied by traditional chiefs chosen
  by their peers, and eight occupied by provincial governors appointed
  by the president) and a Senate (66 seats - 50 elected by popular
  vote for a five-year term, six nominated by the president, 10
  nominated by the Council of Chiefs)
  elections: House of Assembly last held 31 March 2005 (next to be
  held in 2010), Senate last held 26 November 2005 (next to be held in
  2010)
  election results: House of Assembly - percent of vote by party -
  ZANU-PF 59.6%, MDC 39.5%, other 0.9%; seats by party - ZANU-PF 78,
  MDC 41, independents 1; Senate - percent of vote by party - ZANU-PF
  73.7%, MDC 20.3%, other 4.4%, independents 1.6%; seats by party -
  ZANU-PF 43, MDC 7

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2102  Life expectancy at birth (years)


Afghanistan
  total population: 43.34 years
  male: 43.16 years
  female: 43.53 years (2006 est.)

Albania
  total population: 77.43 years
  male: 74.78 years
  female: 80.34 years (2006 est.)

Algeria
  total population: 73.26 years
  male: 71.68 years
  female: 74.92 years (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  total population: 76.05 years
  male: 72.48 years
  female: 79.82 years (2006 est.)

Andorra
  total population: 83.51 years
  male: 80.61 years
  female: 86.61 years (2006 est.)

Angola
  total population: 38.62 years
  male: 37.47 years
  female: 39.83 years (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  total population: 77.28 years
  male: 74.35 years
  female: 80.3 years (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total population: 72.16 years
  male: 69.78 years
  female: 74.66 years (2006 est.)

Argentina
  total population: 76.12 years
  male: 72.38 years
  female: 80.05 years (2006 est.)

Armenia
  total population: 71.84 years
  male: 68.25 years
  female: 76.02 years (2006 est.)

Aruba
  total population: 79.28 years
  male: 75.95 years
  female: 82.78 years (2006 est.)

Australia
  total population: 80.5 years
  male: 77.64 years
  female: 83.52 years (2006 est.)

Austria
  total population: 79.07 years
  male: 76.17 years
  female: 82.11 years (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  total population: 63.85 years
  male: 59.78 years
  female: 68.13 years (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  total population: 65.6 years
  male: 62.24 years
  female: 69.03 years (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  total population: 74.45 years
  male: 71.97 years
  female: 77 years (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  total population: 62.46 years
  male: 62.47 years
  female: 62.45 years (2006 est.)

Barbados
  total population: 72.79 years
  male: 70.79 years
  female: 74.82 years (2006 est.)

Belarus
  total population: 69.08 years
  male: 63.47 years
  female: 74.98 years (2006 est.)

Belgium
  total population: 78.77 years
  male: 75.59 years
  female: 82.09 years (2006 est.)

Belize
  total population: 68.3 years
  male: 66.43 years
  female: 70.26 years (2006 est.)

Benin
  total population: 53.04 years
  male: 51.9 years
  female: 54.22 years (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  total population: 77.96 years
  male: 75.85 years
  female: 80.1 years (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  total population: 54.78 years
  male: 55.02 years
  female: 54.53 years (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  total population: 65.84 years
  male: 63.21 years
  female: 68.61 years (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total population: 78 years
  male: 74.39 years
  female: 81.88 years (2006 est.)

Botswana
  total population: 33.74 years
  male: 33.9 years
  female: 33.56 years (2006 est.)

Brazil
  total population: 71.97 years
  male: 68.02 years
  female: 76.12 years (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  total population: 76.68 years
  male: 75.56 years
  female: 77.84 years (2006 est.)

Brunei
  total population: 75.01 years
  male: 72.57 years
  female: 77.59 years (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  total population: 72.3 years
  male: 68.68 years
  female: 76.13 years (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  total population: 48.85 years
  male: 47.33 years
  female: 50.42 years (2006 est.)

Burma
  total population: 60.97 years
  male: 58.07 years
  female: 64.03 years (2006 est.)

Burundi
  total population: 50.81 years
  male: 50.07 years
  female: 51.58 years (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  total population: 59.29 years
  male: 57.35 years
  female: 61.32 years (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  total population: 51.16 years
  male: 50.98 years
  female: 51.34 years (2006 est.)

Canada
  total population: 80.22 years
  male: 76.86 years
  female: 83.74 years (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  total population: 70.73 years
  male: 67.41 years
  female: 74.15 years (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  total population: 80.07 years
  male: 77.45 years
  female: 82.74 years (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  total population: 43.54 years
  male: 43.46 years
  female: 43.62 years (2006 est.)

Chad
  total population: 47.52 years
  male: 45.88 years
  female: 49.21 years (2006 est.)

Chile
  total population: 76.77 years
  male: 73.49 years
  female: 80.21 years (2006 est.)

China
  total population: 72.58 years
  male: 70.89 years
  female: 74.46 years (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Colombia
  total population: 71.99 years
  male: 68.15 years
  female: 75.96 years (2006 est.)

Comoros
  total population: 62.33 years
  male: 60 years
  female: 64.72 years (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total population: 51.46 years
  male: 50.01 years
  female: 52.94 years (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  total population: 52.8 years
  male: 51.65 years
  female: 53.98 years (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Costa Rica
  total population: 77.02 years
  male: 74.43 years
  female: 79.74 years (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total population: 48.82 years
  male: 46.24 years
  female: 51.48 years (2006 est.)

Croatia
  total population: 74.68 years
  male: 71.03 years
  female: 78.53 years (2006 est.)

Cuba
  total population: 77.41 years
  male: 75.11 years
  female: 79.85 years (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  total population: 77.82 years
  male: 75.44 years
  female: 80.31 years (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  total population: 76.22 years
  male: 72.94 years
  female: 79.69 years (2006 est.)

Denmark
  total population: 77.79 years
  male: 75.49 years
  female: 80.22 years (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  total population: 43.17 years
  male: 41.86 years
  female: 44.52 years (2006 est.)

Dominica
  total population: 74.87 years
  male: 71.95 years
  female: 77.93 years (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  total population: 71.73 years
  male: 70.21 years
  female: 73.33 years (2006 est.)

East Timor
  total population: 66.26 years
  male: 63.96 years
  female: 68.67 years (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  total population: 76.42 years
  male: 73.55 years
  female: 79.43 years (2006 est.)

Egypt
  total population: 71.29 years
  male: 68.77 years
  female: 73.93 years (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  total population: 71.49 years
  male: 67.88 years
  female: 75.28 years (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  total population: 49.54 years
  male: 48 years
  female: 51.13 years (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  total population: 59.03 years
  male: 57.44 years
  female: 60.66 years (2006 est.)

Estonia
  total population: 72.04 years
  male: 66.58 years
  female: 77.83 years (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  total population: 49.03 years
  male: 47.86 years
  female: 50.24 years (2006 est.)

European Union
  total population: 78.3 years
  male: 75.1 years
  female: 81.6 years (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Faroe Islands
  total population: 79.35 years
  male: 75.91 years
  female: 82.8 years (2006 est.)

Fiji
  total population: 69.82 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

Finland
  total population: 78.5 years
  male: 74.99 years
  female: 82.17 years (2006 est.)

France
  total population: 79.73 years
  male: 76.1 years
  female: 83.54 years (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  total population: 77.27 years
  male: 73.95 years
  female: 80.75 years (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  total population: 76.1 years
  male: 73.69 years
  female: 78.63 years (2006 est.)

Gabon
  total population: 54.49 years
  male: 53.21 years
  female: 55.81 years (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  total population: 54.14 years
  male: 52.3 years
  female: 56.03 years (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  total population: 71.97 years
  male: 70.67 years
  female: 73.34 years (2006 est.)

Georgia
  total population: 76.09 years
  male: 72.8 years
  female: 79.87 years (2006 est.)

Germany
  total population: 78.8 years
  male: 75.81 years
  female: 81.96 years (2006 est.)

Ghana
  total population: 58.87 years
  male: 58.07 years
  female: 59.69 years (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  total population: 79.8 years
  male: 76.92 years
  female: 82.83 years (2006 est.)

Greece
  total population: 79.24 years
  male: 76.72 years
  female: 81.91 years (2006 est.)

Greenland
  total population: 69.94 years
  male: 66.36 years
  female: 73.6 years (2006 est.)

Grenada
  total population: 64.87 years
  male: 63.06 years
  female: 66.68 years (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  total population: 78.06 years
  male: 74.91 years
  female: 81.37 years (2006 est.)

Guam
  total population: 78.58 years
  male: 75.52 years
  female: 81.83 years (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  total population: 69.38 years
  male: 67.65 years
  female: 71.18 years (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  total population: 80.42 years
  male: 77.41 years
  female: 83.53 years (2006 est.)

Guinea
  total population: 49.5 years
  male: 48.34 years
  female: 50.7 years (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  total population: 46.87 years
  male: 45.05 years
  female: 48.75 years (2006 est.)

Guyana
  total population: 65.86 years
  male: 63.21 years
  female: 68.65 years (2006 est.)

Haiti
  total population: 53.23 years
  male: 51.89 years
  female: 54.6 years (2006 est.)

Honduras
  total population: 69.33 years
  male: 67.75 years
  female: 70.98 years (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  total population: 81.59 years
  male: 78.9 years
  female: 84.5 years (2006 est.)

Hungary
  total population: 72.66 years
  male: 68.45 years
  female: 77.14 years (2006 est.)

Iceland
  total population: 80.31 years
  male: 78.23 years
  female: 82.48 years (2006 est.)

India
  total population: 64.71 years
  male: 63.9 years
  female: 65.57 years (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  total population: 69.87 years
  male: 67.42 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

Iran
  total population: 70.26 years
  male: 68.86 years
  female: 71.74 years (2006 est.)

Iraq
  total population: 69.01 years
  male: 67.76 years
  female: 70.31 years (2006 est.)

Ireland
  total population: 77.73 years
  male: 75.11 years
  female: 80.52 years (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  total population: 78.49 years
  male: 75.14 years
  female: 82.02 years (2006 est.)

Israel
  total population: 79.46 years
  male: 77.33 years
  female: 81.7 years (2006 est.)

Italy
  total population: 79.81 years
  male: 76.88 years
  female: 82.94 years (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  total population: 73.24 years
  male: 71.54 years
  female: 75.03 years (2006 est.)

Japan
  total population: 81.25 years
  male: 77.96 years
  female: 84.7 years (2006 est.)

Jersey
  total population: 79.38 years
  male: 76.89 years
  female: 82.05 years (2006 est.)

Jordan
  total population: 78.4 years
  male: 75.9 years
  female: 81.05 years (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  total population: 66.89 years
  male: 61.56 years
  female: 72.52 years (2006 est.)

Kenya
  total population: 48.93 years
  male: 49.78 years
  female: 48.07 years (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  total population: 62.08 years
  male: 59.06 years
  female: 65.24 years (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  total population: 71.65 years
  male: 68.92 years
  female: 74.51 years (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  total population: 77.04 years
  male: 73.61 years
  female: 80.75 years (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  total population: 77.2 years
  male: 76.13 years
  female: 78.31 years (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  total population: 68.49 years
  male: 64.48 years
  female: 72.7 years (2006 est.)

Laos
  total population: 55.49 years
  male: 53.45 years
  female: 57.61 years (2006 est.)

Latvia
  total population: 71.33 years
  male: 66.08 years
  female: 76.85 years (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  total population: 72.88 years
  male: 70.41 years
  female: 75.48 years (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  total population: 34.4 years
  male: 35.55 years
  female: 33.21 years (2006 est.)

Liberia
  total population: 39.65 years
  male: 37.99 years
  female: 41.35 years (2006 est.)

Libya
  total population: 76.69 years
  male: 74.46 years
  female: 79.02 years (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  total population: 79.68 years
  male: 76.1 years
  female: 83.28 years (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  total population: 74.2 years
  male: 69.2 years
  female: 79.49 years (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  total population: 78.89 years
  male: 75.6 years
  female: 82.38 years (2006 est.)

Macau
  total population: 82.19 years
  male: 79.36 years
  female: 85.17 years (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  total population: 73.97 years
  male: 71.51 years
  female: 76.62 years (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  total population: 57.34 years
  male: 54.93 years
  female: 59.82 years (2006 est.)

Malawi
  total population: 41.7 years
  male: 41.93 years
  female: 41.45 years (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  total population: 72.5 years
  male: 69.8 years
  female: 75.38 years (2006 est.)

Maldives
  total population: 64.41 years
  male: 63.08 years
  female: 65.8 years (2006 est.)

Mali
  total population: 49 years
  male: 47.05 years
  female: 51.01 years (2006 est.)

Malta
  total population: 79.01 years
  male: 76.83 years
  female: 81.31 years (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  total population: 70.31 years
  male: 68.33 years
  female: 72.39 years (2006 est.)

Martinique
  total population: 79.18 years
  male: 79.5 years
  female: 78.85 years (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  total population: 53.12 years
  male: 50.88 years
  female: 55.42 years (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  total population: 72.63 years
  male: 68.66 years
  female: 76.66 years (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  total population: 61.76 years
  male: 59.57 years
  female: 64.02 years (2006 est.)

Mexico
  total population: 75.41 years
  male: 72.63 years
  female: 78.33 years (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total population: 70.05 years
  male: 68.24 years
  female: 71.95 years (2006 est.)

Moldova
  total population: 65.65 years
  male: 61.61 years
  female: 69.88 years (2006 est.)

Monaco
  total population: 79.69 years
  male: 75.85 years
  female: 83.74 years (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  total population: 64.89 years
  male: 62.64 years
  female: 67.25 years (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  total population: 78.85 years
  male: 76.67 years
  female: 81.14 years (2006 est.)

Morocco
  total population: 70.94 years
  male: 68.62 years
  female: 73.37 years (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  total population: 39.82 years
  male: 39.53 years
  female: 40.13 years (2006 est.)

Namibia
  total population: 43.39 years
  male: 44.46 years
  female: 42.29 years (2006 est.)

Nauru
  total population: 63.08 years
  male: 59.5 years
  female: 66.84 years (2006 est.)

Nepal
  total population: 60.18 years
  male: 60.43 years
  female: 59.91 years (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  total population: 78.96 years
  male: 76.39 years
  female: 81.67 years (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  total population: 76.03 years
  male: 73.76 years
  female: 78.41 years (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  total population: 74.27 years
  male: 71.29 years
  female: 77.39 years (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  total population: 78.81 years
  male: 75.82 years
  female: 81.93 years (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  total population: 70.63 years
  male: 68.55 years
  female: 72.81 years (2006 est.)

Niger
  total population: 43.76 years
  male: 43.8 years
  female: 43.73 years (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  total population: 47.08 years
  male: 46.52 years
  female: 47.66 years (2006 est.)

Niue
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Norfolk Island
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  total population: 76.09 years
  male: 73.5 years
  female: 78.83 years (2006 est.)

Norway
  total population: 79.54 years
  male: 76.91 years
  female: 82.31 years (2006 est.)

Oman
  total population: 73.37 years
  male: 71.14 years
  female: 75.72 years (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  total population: 63.39 years
  male: 62.4 years
  female: 64.44 years (2006 est.)

Palau
  total population: 70.42 years
  male: 67.26 years
  female: 73.77 years (2006 est.)

Panama
  total population: 75.22 years
  male: 72.68 years
  female: 77.87 years (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  total population: 65.28 years
  male: 63.08 years
  female: 67.58 years (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  total population: 75.1 years
  male: 72.56 years
  female: 77.78 years (2006 est.)

Peru
  total population: 69.84 years
  male: 68.05 years
  female: 71.71 years (2006 est.)

Philippines
  total population: 70.21 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 73.24 years (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Poland
  total population: 74.97 years
  male: 70.95 years
  female: 79.23 years (2006 est.)

Portugal
  total population: 77.7 years
  male: 74.43 years
  female: 81.2 years (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  total population: 78.4 years
  male: 74.46 years
  female: 82.54 years (2006 est.)

Qatar
  total population: 73.9 years
  male: 71.37 years
  female: 76.57 years (2006 est.)

Reunion
  total population: 74.18 years
  male: 70.78 years
  female: 77.75 years (2006 est.)

Romania
  total population: 71.63 years
  male: 68.14 years
  female: 75.34 years (2006 est.)

Russia
  total population: 67.08 years
  male: 60.45 years
  female: 74.1 years (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  total population: 47.3 years
  male: 46.26 years
  female: 48.38 years (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  total population: 77.93 years
  male: 75.02 years
  female: 80.98 years (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total population: 72.4 years
  male: 69.56 years
  female: 75.42 years (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  total population: 73.84 years
  male: 70.29 years
  female: 77.65 years (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  total population: 78.61 years
  male: 76.27 years
  female: 81.06 years (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total population: 73.85 years
  male: 71.99 years
  female: 75.77 years (2006 est.)

Samoa
  total population: 71 years
  male: 68.2 years
  female: 73.94 years (2006 est.)

San Marino
  total population: 81.71 years
  male: 78.23 years
  female: 85.5 years (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total population: 67.31 years
  male: 65.73 years
  female: 68.95 years (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  total population: 75.67 years
  male: 73.66 years
  female: 77.78 years (2006 est.)

Senegal
  total population: 59.25 years
  male: 57.7 years
  female: 60.85 years (2006 est.)

Serbia
  total population: 74 years
  male: 71 years
  female: 76 years

Seychelles
  total population: 72.08 years
  male: 66.69 years
  female: 77.63 years (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  total population: 40.22 years
  male: 38.05 years
  female: 42.46 years (2006 est.)

Singapore
  total population: 81.71 years
  male: 79.13 years
  female: 84.49 years (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  total population: 74.73 years
  male: 70.76 years
  female: 78.89 years (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  total population: 76.33 years
  male: 72.63 years
  female: 80.29 years (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  total population: 72.91 years
  male: 70.4 years
  female: 75.55 years (2006 est.)

Somalia
  total population: 48.47 years
  male: 46.71 years
  female: 50.28 years (2006 est.)

South Africa
  total population: 42.73 years
  male: 43.25 years
  female: 42.19 years (2006 est.)

Spain
  total population: 79.65 years
  male: 76.32 years
  female: 83.2 years (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  total population: 73.41 years
  male: 70.83 years
  female: 76.12 years (2006 est.)

Sudan
  total population: 58.92 years
  male: 57.69 years
  female: 60.21 years (2006 est.)

Suriname
  total population: 69.01 years
  male: 66.66 years
  female: 71.47 years (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Swaziland
  total population: 32.62 years
  male: 32.1 years
  female: 33.17 years (2006 est.)

Sweden
  total population: 80.51 years
  male: 78.29 years
  female: 82.87 years (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  total population: 80.51 years
  male: 77.69 years
  female: 83.48 years (2006 est.)

Syria
  total population: 70.32 years
  male: 69.01 years
  female: 71.7 years (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  total population: 77.43 years
  male: 74.67 years
  female: 80.47 years (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  total population: 64.94 years
  male: 62.03 years
  female: 68 years (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  total population: 45.64 years
  male: 44.93 years
  female: 46.37 years (2006 est.)

Thailand
  total population: 72.25 years
  male: 69.95 years
  female: 74.68 years (2006 est.)

Togo
  total population: 57.42 years
  male: 55.41 years
  female: 59.49 years (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Tonga
  total population: 69.82 years
  male: 67.32 years
  female: 72.45 years (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total population: 66.76 years
  male: 65.71 years
  female: 67.86 years (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  total population: 75.12 years
  male: 73.4 years
  female: 76.96 years (2006 est.)

Turkey
  total population: 72.62 years
  male: 70.18 years
  female: 75.18 years (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  total population: 61.83 years
  male: 58.43 years
  female: 65.41 years (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total population: 74.73 years
  male: 72.48 years
  female: 77.08 years (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  total population: 68.32 years
  male: 66.08 years
  female: 70.66 years (2006 est.)

Uganda
  total population: 52.67 years
  male: 51.68 years
  female: 53.69 years (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  total population: 69.98 years
  male: 64.71 years
  female: 75.59 years (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  total population: 75.44 years
  male: 72.92 years
  female: 78.08 years (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  total population: 78.54 years
  male: 76.09 years
  female: 81.13 years (2006 est.)

United States
  total population: 77.85 years
  male: 75.02 years
  female: 80.82 years (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  total population: 76.33 years
  male: 73.12 years
  female: 79.65 years (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  total population: 64.58 years
  male: 61.19 years
  female: 68.14 years (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  total population: 62.85 years
  male: 61.34 years
  female: 64.44 years (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  total population: 74.54 years
  male: 71.49 years
  female: 77.81 years (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  total population: 70.85 years
  male: 68.05 years
  female: 73.85 years (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  total population: 79.05 years
  male: 75.24 years
  female: 83.09 years (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  total population: NA years
  male: NA years
  female: NA years

West Bank
  total population: 73.27 years
  male: 71.5 years
  female: 75.15 years (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  total population: NA years
  male: NA years
  female: NA years

World
  total population: 64.77 years
  male: 63.16 years
  female: 66.47 years (2006 est.)

Yemen
  total population: 62.12 years
  male: 60.23 years
  female: 64.11 years (2006 est.)

Zambia
  total population: 40.03 years
  male: 39.76 years
  female: 40.31 years (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  total population: 39.29 years
  male: 40.39 years
  female: 38.16 years (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2103  Literacy (%)


Afghanistan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 36%
  male: 51%
  female: 21% (1999 est.)

Albania
  definition: age 9 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.5%
  male: 93.3%
  female: 79.5% (2003 est.)

Algeria
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70%
  male: 78.8%
  female: 61% (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 98%
  female: 97% (1980 est.)

Andorra
  definition: NA
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Angola
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 66.8%
  male: 82.1%
  female: 53.8% (2001 est.)

Anguilla
  definition: age 12 and over can read and write
  total population: 95%
  male: 95%
  female: 95% (1984 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  definition: age 15 and over has completed five
  or more years of schooling
  total population: 85.8%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Argentina
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.1%
  male: 97.1%
  female: 97.1% (2003 est.)

Armenia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.4%
  female: 98% (2003 est.)

Aruba
  definition: NA
  total population: 97%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Australia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Austria
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Azerbaijan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.5%
  female: 98.2% (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 95.6%
  male: 94.7%
  female: 96.5% (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 89.1%
  male: 91.9%
  female: 85% (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 43.1%
  male: 53.9%
  female: 31.8% (2003 est.)

Barbados
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.7% (2002 est.)

Belarus
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.5% (2003 est.)

Belgium
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Belize
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.1%
  male: 94.1%
  female: 94.1% (2003 est.)

Benin
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 33.6%
  male: 46.4%
  female: 22.6% (2002 est.)

Bermuda
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 99% (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 47%
  male: 60%
  female: 34% (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.2%
  male: 93.1%
  female: 81.6% (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.6%
  male: 98.4%
  female: 91.1% (2000 est.)

Botswana
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.8%
  male: 76.9%
  female: 82.4% (2003 est.)

Brazil
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.4%
  male: 86.1%
  female: 86.6% (2003 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.8% (1991 est.)
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Brunei
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 91.4% (2002)

Bulgaria
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98.2% (2003 est.)

Burkina Faso
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 26.6%
  male: 36.9%
  female: 16.6% (2003 est.)

Burma
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.3%
  male: 89.2%
  female: 81.4% (2002)

Burundi
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 51.6%
  male: 58.5%
  female: 45.2% (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 73.6%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 64.1% (2004 est.)

Cameroon
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 73.4% (2003 est.)

Canada
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.6%
  male: 85.8%
  female: 69.2% (2003 est.)

Cayman Islands
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 98% (1970 est.)

Central African Republic
  definition: age 15 and over can read and
  write
  total population: 51%
  male: 63.3%
  female: 39.9% (2003 est.)

Chad
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write French or Arabic
  total population: 47.5%
  male: 56%
  female: 39.3% (2003 est.)

Chile
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.2%
  male: 96.4%
  female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

China
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90.9%
  male: 95.1%
  female: 86.5% (2002)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 92.4%
  female: 92.6% (2003 est.)

Comoros
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 56.5%
  male: 63.6%
  female: 49.3% (2003 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  definition: age 15 and over can
  read and write French, Lingala, Kingwana, or Tshiluba
  total population: 65.5%
  male: 76.2%
  female: 55.1% (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83.8%
  male: 89.6%
  female: 78.4% (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  definition: NA
  total population: 95%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Costa Rica
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: 95.9%
  female: 96.1% (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50.9%
  male: 57.9%
  female: 43.6% (2003 est.)

Croatia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.5%
  male: 99.4%
  female: 97.8% (2003 est.)

Cuba
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97.2%
  female: 96.9% (2003 est.)

Cyprus
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.6%
  male: 98.9%
  female: 96.3% (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  definition: NA
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Denmark
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 67.9%
  male: 78%
  female: 58.4% (2003 est.)

Dominica
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 94%
  male: 94%
  female: 94% (2003 est.)

Dominican Republic
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84.7%
  male: 84.6%
  female: 84.8% (2003 est.)

East Timor
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 58.6%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2002)

Ecuador
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 94%
  female: 91% (2003 est.)

Egypt
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 57.7%
  male: 68.3%
  female: 46.9% (2003 est.)

El Salvador
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 80.2%
  male: 82.8%
  female: 77.7% (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.7%
  male: 93.3%
  female: 78.4% (2003 est.)

Eritrea
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 58.6%
  male: 69.9%
  female: 47.6% (2003 est.)

Estonia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.8% (2003 est.)

Ethiopia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 42.7%
  male: 50.3%
  female: 35.1% (2003 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%
  note: probably 100%, the same as Denmark proper

Fiji
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.7%
  male: 95.5%
  female: 91.9% (2003 est.)

Finland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2000 est.)

France
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83%
  male: 84%
  female: 82% (1982 est.)

French Polynesia
  definition: age 14 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 98%
  female: 98% (1977 est.)

Gabon
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 63.2%
  male: 73.7%
  female: 53.3% (1995 est.)

Gambia, The
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.1%
  male: 47.8%
  female: 32.8% (2003 est.)

Gaza Strip
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 87.4% (2003 est.)

Georgia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2004 est.)

Germany
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Ghana
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74.8%
  male: 82.7%
  female: 67.1% (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  definition: NA
  total population: above 80%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Greece
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.5%
  male: 98.6%
  female: 96.5% (2003 est.)

Greenland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2001 est.)

Grenada
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Guadeloupe
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90%
  male: 90%
  female: 90% (1982 est.)

Guam
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (1990 est.)

Guatemala
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70.6%
  male: 78%
  female: 63.3% (2003 est.)

Guernsey
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Guinea
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 35.9%
  male: 49.9%
  female: 21.9% (1995 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 42.4%
  male: 58.1%
  female: 27.4% (2003 est.)

Guyana
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98.5% (2003 est.)

Haiti
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 52.9%
  male: 54.8%
  female: 51.2% (2003 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  definition: NA
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Honduras
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.2%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 76.3% (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 93.5%
  male: 96.9%
  female: 89.6% (2002)

Hungary
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.4%
  male: 99.5%
  female: 99.3% (2003 est.)

Iceland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

India
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 59.5%
  male: 70.2%
  female: 48.3% (2003 est.)

Indonesia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.9%
  male: 92.5%
  female: 83.4% (2002 est.)

Iran
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.4%
  male: 85.6%
  female: 73% (2003 est.)

Iraq
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.4%
  male: 55.9%
  female: 24.4% (2003 est.)

Ireland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Isle of Man
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Israel
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 95.4%
  male: 97.3%
  female: 93.6% (2003 est.)

Italy
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99%
  female: 98.3% (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 87.9%
  male: 84.1%
  female: 91.6% (2003 est.)

Japan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2002)

Jersey
  definition: NA
  total population: NA%
  male: NA%
  female: NA%

Jordan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.3%
  male: 95.9%
  female: 86.3% (2003 est.)

Kazakhstan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.4%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 97.7% (1999 est.)

Kenya
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.1%
  male: 90.6%
  female: 79.7% (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Korea, North
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99%

Korea, South
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.9%
  male: 99.2%
  female: 96.6% (2002)

Kuwait
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 83.5%
  male: 85.1%
  female: 81.7% (2003 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.7%
  male: 99.3%
  female: 98.1% (1999 est.)

Laos
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 66.4%
  male: 77.4%
  female: 55.5% (2002)

Latvia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.8% (2003 est.)

Lebanon
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.4%
  male: 93.1%
  female: 82.2% (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84.8%
  male: 74.5%
  female: 94.5% (2003 est.)

Liberia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 57.5%
  male: 73.3%
  female: 41.6% (2003 est.)

Libya
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 82.6%
  male: 92.4%
  female: 72% (2003 est.)

Liechtenstein
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Lithuania
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6% (2003 est.)

Luxembourg
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100% (2000 est.)

Macau
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.5%
  male: 97.2%
  female: 92% (2003 est.)

Macedonia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.1%
  male: 98.2%
  female: 94.1% (2002 est.)

Madagascar
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 68.9%
  male: 75.5%
  female: 62.5% (2003 est.)

Malawi
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 62.7%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 49.8% (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88.7%
  male: 92%
  female: 85.4% (2002)

Maldives
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.2%
  male: 97.1%
  female: 97.3% (2003 est.)

Mali
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 46.4%
  male: 53.5%
  female: 39.6% (2003 est.)

Malta
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.8%
  male: 92%
  female: 93.6% (2003 est.)

Marshall Islands
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.7%
  male: 93.6%
  female: 93.7% (1999)

Martinique
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.7%
  male: 97.4%
  female: 98.1% (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 41.7%
  male: 51.8%
  female: 31.9% (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 85.6%
  male: 88.6%
  female: 82.7% (2003 est.)

Mayotte
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Mexico
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.2%
  male: 94%
  female: 90.5% (2003 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  definition: age 15 and over can read
  and write
  total population: 89%
  male: 91%
  female: 88% (1980 est.)

Moldova
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.1%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 98.7% (2003 est.)

Monaco
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Mongolia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.8%
  male: 98%
  female: 97.5% (2002)

Montserrat
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 97% (1970 est.)

Morocco
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 51.7%
  male: 64.1%
  female: 39.4% (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 47.8%
  male: 63.5%
  female: 32.7% (2003 est.)

Namibia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 84%
  male: 84.4%
  female: 83.7% (2003 est.)

Nauru
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Nepal
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 48.6%
  male: 62.7%
  female: 34.9% (2000-2004 est.)

Netherlands
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.7%
  male: 96.7%
  female: 96.8% (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91%
  male: 92%
  female: 90% (1976 est.)

New Zealand
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 67.5%
  male: 67.2%
  female: 67.8% (2003 est.)

Niger
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 17.6%
  male: 25.8%
  female: 9.7% (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 68%
  male: 75.7%
  female: 60.6% (2003 est.)

Niue
  definition: NA
  total population: 95%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  definition: age 15 and over can read and
  write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 96% (1980 est.)

Norway
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 100%
  male: 100%
  female: 100%

Oman
  definition: NA
  total population: 75.8%
  male: 83.1%
  female: 67.2%

Pakistan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 48.7%
  male: 61.7%
  female: 35.2% (2004 est.)

Palau
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92%
  male: 93%
  female: 90% (1980 est.)

Panama
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 93.2%
  female: 91.9% (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 64.6%
  male: 71.1%
  female: 57.7% (2002)

Paraguay
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94%
  male: 94.9%
  female: 93% (2003 est.)

Peru
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.7%
  male: 93.5%
  female: 82.1% (2004 est.)

Philippines
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 92.5%
  female: 92.7% (2002)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.8%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.7% (2003 est.)

Portugal
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.3%
  male: 95.5%
  female: 91.3% (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 94.1%
  male: 93.9%
  female: 94.4% (2002 est.)

Qatar
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 89%
  male: 89.1%
  female: 88.6% (2004 est.)

Reunion
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88.9%
  male: 87%
  female: 90.8% (2003 est.)

Romania
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.4%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 97.7% (2003 est.)

Russia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.5% (2003 est.)

Rwanda
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 70.4%
  male: 76.3%
  female: 64.7% (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  definition: age 20 and over can read and write
  total population: 97%
  male: 97%
  female: 98% (1987 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended
  school
  total population: 97.8%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
  total population: 90.1%
  male: 89.5%
  female: 90.6% (2001 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  definition: age 15 and over can read and
  write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (1982 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  definition: age 15 and over has
  ever attended school
  total population: 96%
  male: 96%
  female: 96% (1970 est.)

Samoa
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99.7% (2003 est.)

San Marino
  definition: age 10 and over can read and write
  total population: 96%
  male: 97%
  female: 95% (1976 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 79.3%
  male: 85%
  female: 62% (1991 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 78.8%
  male: 84.7%
  female: 70.8% (2003 est.)

Senegal
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 40.2%
  male: 50%
  female: 30.7% (2003 est.)

Serbia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.4%
  male: 98.9%
  female: 94.1% (2002 est.)

Seychelles
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 91.4%
  female: 92.3% (2003 est.)

Sierra Leone
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English,
  Mende, Temne, or Arabic
  total population: 29.6%
  male: 39.8%
  female: 20.5% (2000 est.)

Singapore
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.5%
  male: 96.6%
  female: 88.6% (2002)

Slovakia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.6%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6% (2001 est.)

Slovenia
  definition: NA
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.7%
  female: 99.6%

Solomon Islands
  definition: NA
  total population: NA
  male: NA
  female: NA

Somalia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 37.8%
  male: 49.7%
  female: 25.8% (2001 est.)

South Africa
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.4%
  male: 87%
  female: 85.7% (2003 est.)

Spain
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 97.9%
  male: 98.7%
  female: 97.2% (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.3%
  male: 94.8%
  female: 90% (2003 est.)

Sudan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 61.1%
  male: 71.8%
  female: 50.5% (2003 est.)

Suriname
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 88%
  male: 92.3%
  female: 84.1% (2000 est.)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 81.6%
  male: 82.6%
  female: 80.8% (2003 est.)

Sweden
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Syria
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 76.9%
  male: 89.7%
  female: 64% (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 96.1%
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2003)

Tajikistan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.4%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99.1% (2003 est.)

Tanzania
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write Kiswahili
  (Swahili), English, or Arabic
  total population: 78.2%
  male: 85.9%
  female: 70.7% (2003 est.)

Thailand
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 92.6%
  male: 94.9%
  female: 90.5% (2002)

Togo
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 60.9%
  male: 75.4%
  female: 46.9% (2003 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  definition: can read and write Tongan and/or English
  total population: 98.9%
  male: 98.8%
  female: 99% (1999 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.6%
  male: 99.1%
  female: 98% (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74.3%
  male: 83.4%
  female: 65.3% (2004 est.)

Turkey
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 86.5%
  male: 94.3%
  female: 78.7% (2003 est.)

Turkmenistan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98.8%
  male: 99.3%
  female: 98.3% (1999 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  definition: age 15 and over has ever
  attended school
  total population: 98%
  male: 99%
  female: 98% (1970 est.)

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 69.9%
  male: 79.5%
  female: 60.4% (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.7%
  male: 99.8%
  female: 99.6% (2003 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 77.9%
  male: 76.1%
  female: 81.7% (2003 est.)

United Kingdom
  definition: age 15 and over has completed five or
  more years of schooling
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

United States
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99%
  male: 99%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 98%
  male: 97.6%
  female: 98.4% (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 99.3%
  male: 99.6%
  female: 99% (2003 est.)

Vanuatu
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 74%
  male: NA
  female: NA

Venezuela
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 93.4%
  male: 93.8%
  female: 93.1% (2003 est.)

Vietnam
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90.3%
  male: 93.9%
  female: 86.9% (2002)

Virgin Islands
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 90-95% est.
  male: NA%
  female: NA% (2005 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50%
  male: 50%
  female: 50% (1969 est.)

West Bank
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 91.9%
  male: 96.3%
  female: 87.4% (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 82%
  male: 87%
  female: 77%
  note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults
  are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh,
  Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the
  illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low
  literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West
  Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around
  one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

Yemen
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 50.2%
  male: 70.5%
  female: 30% (2003 est.)

Zambia
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English
  total population: 80.6%
  male: 86.8%
  female: 74.8% (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write English
  total population: 90.7%
  male: 94.2%
  female: 87.2% (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2105  Manpower available for military service


Afghanistan
  males age 22-49: 4,952,812
  females age 22-49: 4,663,963 (2005 est.)

Albania
  males age 19-49: 809,524
  females age 19-49: 784,199 (2005 est.)

Algeria
  males age 19-49: 8,033,049
  females age 19-49: 7,926,351 (2005 est.)

Andorra
  males age 18-49: 18,418 (2005 est.)

Angola
  males age 17-49: 2,548,455
  females age 17-49: 2,462,601 (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  males age 18-49: 3,614 (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  males age 18-49: 18,952
  females age 18-49: 18,360 (2005 est.)

Argentina
  males age 18-49: 8,981,886
  females age 18-49: 8,883,756 (2005 est.)

Armenia
  males age 18-49: 722,836
  females age 18-49: 795,084 (2005 est.)

Aruba
  males age 18-49: 16,278 (2005 est.)

Australia
  males age 18-49: 4,943,676
  females age 18-49: 4,821,264

Austria
  males age 18-49: 1,914,800
  females age 18-49: 1,870,134 (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  males age 18-49: 1,961,973
  females age 18-49: 2,033,186 (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  males age 18-49: 73,121 (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  males age 18-49: 202,126
  females age 18-49: 151,734 (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  males age 18-49: 35,170,019 (2005 est.)

Barbados
  males age 18-49: 71,524
  females age 18-49: 72,302 (2005 est.)

Belarus
  males age 18-49: 2,520,644
  females age 18-49: 2,564,696 (2005 est.)

Belgium
  males age 16-49: 2,436,736
  females age 16-49: 2,369,463 (2005 est.)

Belize
  males age 18-49: 61,201
  females age 18-49: 60,048 (2005 est.)

Benin
  males age 21-49: 1,295,230
  females age 21-49: 1,301,936 (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  males age 18-49: 15,151 (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  males age 18-49: 483,860
  females age 18-49: 453,683 (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  males age 18-49: 1,923,234
  females age 18-49: 2,007,315 (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  males age 18-49: 1,119,508
  females age 18-49: 1,079,435 (2005 est.)

Botswana
  males age 18-49: 350,649
  females age 18-49: 361,642 (2005 est.)

Brazil
  males age 19-49: 45,586,036
  females age 19-49: 45,728,704 (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  males age 18-49: 6,410 (2005 est.)

Brunei
  males age 18-49: 103,885
  females age 18-49: 93,024 (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  males age 18-49: 1,661,211
  females age 18-49: 1,660,982 (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  males age 18-49: 2,651,687 (2005 est.)

Burma
  males age 18-49: 12,268,850
  females age 18-49: 12,469,771 (2005 est.)

Burundi
  males age 16-49: 1,676,855
  females age 16-49: 1,656,366 (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  males age 18-49: 3,002,718
  females age 18-49: 3,108,254 (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  males age 18-49: 3,525,307
  females age 18-49: 3,461,406 (2005 est.)

Canada
  males age 16-49: 8,216,510
  females age 16-49: 8,034,939 (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  males age 18-49: 84,641
  females age 18-49: 87,310 (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  males age 18-49: 10,703 (2005 est.)

Central African Republic
  males age 18-49: 853,760
  females age 18-49: 835,426 (2005 est.)

Chad
  males age 20-49: 1,527,580
  females age 20-49: 1,629,510 (2005 est.)

Chile
  males age 18-49: 3,815,761
  females age 18-49: 3,780,864 (2005 est.)

China
  males age 18-49: 342,956,265
  females age 18-49: 324,701,244 (2005 est.)

Colombia
  males age 18-49: 10,212,456
  females age 18-49: 10,561,562 (2005 est.)

Comoros
  males age 18-49: 138,940
  females age 18-49: 139,491 (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  males age 18-49: 11,365,610 (2005
  est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  males age 18-49: 688,628
  females age 18-49: 685,388 (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  males age 18-49: 997,690
  females age 18-49: 968,290 (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  males age 18-49: 3,696,106
  females age 18-49: 3,569,967 (2005 est.)

Croatia
  males age 18-49: 1,005,058
  females age 18-49: 1,008,511 (2005 est.)

Cuba
  males age 17-49: 2,967,865
  females age 17-49: 2,913,559 (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Greek Cyriot National Guard (GCNG):
  males age 18-49: 184,352
  females age 18-49: 175,567 (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  males age 18-49: 2,414,728
  females age 18-49: 2,329,412 (2005 est.)

Denmark
  males age 18-49: 1,175,108
  females age 18-49: 1,150,627 (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  males age 18-49: 95,328
  females age 18-49: 87,795 (2005 est.)

Dominica
  males age 18-49: 18,227 (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  males age 18-49: 2,133,142
  females age 18-49: 2,032,840 (2005 est.)

East Timor
  males age 18-49: 235,198
  females age 18-49: 223,069 (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  males age 20-49: 2,792,770
  females age 20-49: 2,849,519 (2005 est.)

Egypt
  males age 18-49: 18,347,560
  females age 18-49: 17,683,904 (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  males age 18-49: 1,391,278
  females age 18-49: 1,542,323 (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  males age 18-49: 104,563
  females age 18-49: 109,923 (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  males age 18-49: 893,361
  females age 18-49: 891,662 (2005 est.)

Estonia
  males age 18-49: 291,696
  females age 18-49: 304,961 (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  males age 18-49: 14,568,277
  females age 18-49: 14,482,885 (2005 est.)

Faroe Islands
  males age 18-49: 10,695 (2005 est.)

Fiji
  males age 18-49: 215,104
  females age 18-49: 212,739 (2005 est.)

Finland
  males age 18-49: 1,121,275
  females age 18-49: 1,076,684 (2005 est.)

France
  males age 17-49: 13,676,509
  females age 17-49: 13,504,539 (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  males age 18-49: 47,809 (2005 est.)

French Polynesia
  males age 18-49: 69,679 (2005 est.)

Gabon
  males age 18-49: 278,826
  females age 18-49: 279,865 (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  males age 18-49: 311,025
  females age 18-49: 316,214 (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  males age 18-49: 260,855 (2005 est.)

Georgia
  males age 18-49: 1,038,736
  females age 18-49: 1,105,910 (2005 est.)

Germany
  males age 18-49: 18,917,537
  females age 18-49: 17,913,113 (2005 est.)

Ghana
  males age 18-49: 4,808,451
  females age 18-49: 4,762,459 (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  males age 18-49: 5,959 (2005 est.)

Greece
  males age 18-49: 2,459,988
  females age 18-49: 2,442,818 (2005 est.)

Greenland
  males age 18-49: 14,653 (2005 est.)

Grenada
  males age 18-49: 24,031 (2005 est.)

Guadeloupe
  males age 18-49: 112,551 (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  males age 18-49: 2,429,033
  females age 18-49: 2,503,482 (2005 est.)

Guinea
  males age 18-49: 1,852,534
  females age 18-49: 1,827,560 (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  males age 18-49: 287,542
  females age 18-49: 297,295 (2005 est.)

Guyana
  males age 18-49: 206,098 (2005 est.)

Haiti
  males age 18-49: 1,626,491
  females age 18-49: 1,637,657 (2005 est.)

Honduras
  males age 18-49: 1,537,232
  females age 18-49: 1,515,120 (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  males age 18-49: 1,743,972
  females age 18-49: 1,904,967 (2005 est.)

Hungary
  males age 18-49: 2,303,116
  females age 18-49: 2,265,463 (2005 est.)

Iceland
  males age 18-49: 69,038 (2005 est.)

India
  males age 16-49: 287,551,111
  females age 16-49: 268,524,835 (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  males age 18-49: 60,543,028
  females age 18-49: 59,981,730 (2005 est.)

Iran
  males age 18-49: 18,319,545
  females age 18-49: 17,541,037 (2005 est.)

Iraq
  males age 18-49: 5,870,640
  females age 18-49: 5,642,073 (2005 est.)

Ireland
  males age 17-49: 977,092
  females age 17-49: 978,465 (2005 est.)

Israel
  males age 17-49: 1,492,125
  females age 17-49: 1,443,916 (2005 est.)

Italy
  males age 18-49: 13,491,260
  females age 18-49: 12,886,033 (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  males age 18-49: 592,018
  females age 18-49: 616,500 (2005 est.)

Japan
  males age 18-49: 27,003,112
  females age 18-49: 26,153,482 (2005 est.)

Jordan
  males age 17-49: 1,573,995
  females age 17-49: 1,346,642 (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  males age 18-49: 3,758,255
  females age 18-49: 3,822,845 (2005 est.)

Kenya
  males age 18-49: 7,303,153
  females age 18-49: 7,083,726 (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  males age 18-49: 21,938 (2005 est.)

Korea, North
  males age 17-49: 5,851,801
  females age 17-49: 5,850,733 (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  males age 20-49: 12,483,677
  females age 20-49: 12,014,462 (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  males age 18-49: 864,745
  females age 18-49: 467,120 (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  males age 18-49: 1,193,529
  females age 18-49: 1,219,080 (2005 est.)

Laos
  males age 15-49: 1,500,625
  females age 15-49: 1,521,116 (2005 est.)

Latvia
  males age 19-49: 517,713
  females age 19-49: 519,631 (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  males age 18-49: 974,363
  females age 18-49: 1,024,273 (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  males age 18-49: 428,982
  females age 18-49: 440,102 (2005 est.)

Liberia
  males age 18-49: 575,384
  females age 18-49: 588,780 (2005 est.)

Libya
  males age 17-49: 1,505,675
  females age 17-49: 1,429,152 (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  males age 18-49: 7,736 (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  males age 19-49: 830,368
  females age 19-49: 830,524 (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  males age 17-49: 110,867
  females age 17-49: 108,758 (2005 est.)

Macau
  males age 18-49: 112,744 (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  males age 18-49: 498,259
  females age 18-49: 481,317 (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  males age 18-49: 3,542,797
  females age 18-49: 3,551,447 (2005 est.)

Malawi
  males age 18-49: 2,430,514 (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  males age 18-49: 5,584,231
  females age 18-49: 5,510,345 (2005 est.)

Maldives
  males age 18-49: 71,774
  females age 18-49: 69,229 (2005 est.)

Mali
  males age 18-49: 2,094,432
  females age 18-49: 2,027,352 (2005 est.)

Malta
  males age 18-49: 90,651
  females age 18-49: 87,047 (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  males age 18-49: 13,465 (2005 est.)

Martinique
  males age 18-49: 110,536 (2005 est.)

Mauritania
  males age 18-49: 606,463
  females age 18-49: 607,955 (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  males age 18-49: 313,271 (2005 est.)

Mexico
  males age 18-49: 24,488,008
  females age 18-49: 26,128,046 (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  males age 18-49: 23,816 (2005 est.)

Moldova
  males age 18-49: 1,066,459
  females age 18-49: 1,117,070 (2005 est.)

Monaco
  males age 18-49: 6,256 (2005 est.)

Mongolia
  males age 18-49: 736,182
  females age 18-49: 734,679 (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  males age 18-49: 2,298 (2005 est.)

Morocco
  males age 18-49: 7,908,864
  females age 18-49: 7,882,879 (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  males age 18-49: 3,793,373 (2005 est.)

Namibia
  males age 18-49: 441,293 (2005 est.)

Nauru
  males age 18-49: 2,874 (2005 est.)

Nepal
  males age 18-49: 6,107,091
  females age 18-49: 5,744,989 (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  males age 20-49: 3,557,918
  females age 20-49: 3,470,377 (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  males age 16-49: 54,200
  females age 16-49: 56,868 (2005 est.)

New Caledonia
  males age 18-49: 50,874 (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  males age 17-49: 984,700
  females age 17-49: 965,170 (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  males age 17-49: 1,309,970
  females age 17-49: 1,315,186 (2005 est.)

Niger
  males age 18-49: 2,367,828
  females age 18-49: 2,217,568 (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  males age 18-49: 26,802,678
  females age 18-49: 25,668,446 (2005 est.)

Norway
  males age 18-49: 1,014,592
  females age 18-49: 982,734 (2005 est.)

Oman
  males age 18-49: 719,871
  females age 18-49: 508,621 (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  males age 16-49: 39,028,014
  females age 16-49: 36,779,584 (2005 est.)

Palau
  males age 18-49: 5,694 (2005 est.)

Panama
  males age 18-49: 751,065 (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  males age 18-49: 1,264,728
  females age 18-49: 1,167,188 (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  males age 18-49: 1,345,022
  females age 18-49: 1,342,725 (2005 est.)

Peru
  males age 18-49: 6,647,874
  females age 18-49: 6,544,408 (2005 est.)

Philippines
  males age 18-49: 20,131,179
  females age 18-49: 20,009,526 (2005 est.)

Poland
  males age 17-49: 9,681,703
  females age 17-49: 9,480,641 (2005 est.)

Portugal
  males age 18-49: 2,435,042
  females age 18-49: 2,405,816 (2005 est.)

Qatar
  males age 18-49: 302,873
  females age 18-49: 137,856 (2005 est.)

Reunion
  males age 18-49: 183,421
  females age 18-49: 185,606 (2005 est.)

Romania
  males age 20-49: 5,061,984
  females age 20-49: 4,975,427 (2005 est.)

Russia
  males age 18-49: 35,247,049
  females age 18-49: 35,986,426 (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  males age 16-49: 2,004,750
  females age 16-49: 1,990,935 (2005 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  males age 18-49: 9,196
  females age 18-49: 9,236 (2005 est.)

Saint Lucia
  males age 18-49: 42,742 (2005 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  males age 18-49: 31,489 (2005 est.)

Samoa
  males age 18-49: 58,722 (2005 est.)

San Marino
  males age 18-49: 6,331 (2005 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  males age 18-49: 33,438
  females age 18-49: 35,279 (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  males age 18-49: 7,648,999
  females age 18-49: 5,417,922 (2005 est.)

Senegal
  males age 18-49: 2,443,840
  females age 18-49: 2,461,939 (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  males age 18-49: 21,612
  females age 18-49: 22,459 (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  males age 18-49: 1,086,091 (2005 est.)

Singapore
  males age 18-49: 1,215,568 (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  males age 18-49: 1,351,848
  females age 18-49: 1,322,647 (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  males age 17-49: 496,929
  females age 17-49: 483,959 (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  males age 18-49: 114,253 (2005 est.)

Somalia
  males age 18-49: 1,787,727
  females age 18-49: 1,714,792 (2005 est.)

South Africa
  males age 18-49: 10,354,769
  females age 18-49: 10,626,550 (2005 est.)

Spain
  males age 20-49: 9,366,588
  females age 20-49: 9,155,057 (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  males age 18-49: 4,933,217
  females age 18-49: 5,153,597 (2005 est.)

Sudan
  males age 18-49: 8,291,695
  females age 18-49: 8,135,683 (2005 est.)

Suriname
  males age 18-49: 111,582
  females age 18-49: 103,769 (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  males age 18-49: 227,617 (2005 est.)

Sweden
  males age 19-49: 1,838,427
  females age 19-49: 1,774,659 (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  males age 19-49: 1,707,694
  females age 19-49: 1,662,099 (2005 est.)

Syria
  males age 18-49: 4,356,413
  females age 18-49: 4,123,339 (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  males age 19-49: 5,883,828
  females age 19-49: 5,680,773 (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  males age 18-49: 1,556,415
  females age 18-49: 1,568,780 (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  males age 18-49: 7,422,869 (2005 est.)

Thailand
  males age 21-49: 14,903,855
  females age 21-49: 15,265,854 (2005 est.)

Togo
  males age 18-49: 1,102,661
  females age 18-49: 1,124,463 (2005 est.)

Tonga
  males age 18-49: 25,420
  females ag3 18-49: 24,827 (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  males age 18-49: 290,715
  females age 18-49: 258,410 (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  males age 20-49: 2,441,741
  females age 20-49: 2,406,362 (2005 est.)

Turkey
  males age 20-49: 16,756,323
  females age 20-49: 16,051,706 (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  males age 18-49: 1,132,833
  females age 18-49: 1,162,569 (2005 est.)

Uganda
  males age 18-49: 5,012,620
  females age 18-49: 4,855,858 (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  males age 18-49: 11,020,222
  females age 18-49: 11,370,687 (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  males age 18-49: 653,181
  females age 18-49: 497,394 (includes non-nationals; 2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  males age 16-49: 14,607,724
  females age 16-49: 14,028,738 (2005 est.)

United States
  males age 18-49: 67,742,879
  females age 18-49: 67,070,144 (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  males age 18-49: 764,408
  females age 18-49: 760,341 (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  males age 18-49: 6,340,220
  females age 18-49: 6,432,072 (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  males age 18-49: 50,221 (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  males age 18-49: 6,236,012
  females age 18-49: 6,137,622 (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  males age 18-49: 21,341,813
  females age 18-49: 21,430,808 (2005 est.)

Yemen
  males age 18-49: 4,058,223
  females age 18-49: 3,868,112 (2005 est.)

Zambia
  males age 18-49: 2,219,739
  females age 18-49: 2,159,688 (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  males age 18-49: 2,778,404
  females age 18-49: 2,681,531 (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2106  Maritime claims


Afghanistan
  none (landlocked)

Albania
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Algeria
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 32-52 nm

American Samoa
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Andorra
  none (landlocked)

Angola
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Anguilla
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Antarctica
  Australia, Chile, and Argentina claim Exclusive Economic
  Zone (EEZ) rights or similar over 200 nm extensions seaward from
  their continental claims, but like the claims themselves, these
  zones are not accepted by other countries; 21 of 28 Antarctic
  consultative nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory
  (although Russia and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do
  not recognize the claims of the other nations; also see the Disputes
  - international entry

Antigua and Barbuda
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Argentina
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Armenia
  none (landlocked)

Aruba
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Australia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Austria
  none (landlocked)

Azerbaijan
  none (landlocked)

Bahamas, The
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Bahrain
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  continental shelf: extending to boundaries to be determined

Baker Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Bangladesh
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: up to the outer limits of the continental margin

Barbados
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Bassas da India
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Belarus
  none (landlocked)

Belgium
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: geographic coordinates define outer limit
  continental shelf: median line with neighbors

Belize
  territorial sea: 12 nm in the north, 3 nm in the south; note
  - from the mouth of the Sarstoon River to Ranguana Cay, Belize's
  territorial sea is 3 nm; according to Belize's Maritime Areas Act,
  1992, the purpose of this limitation is to provide a framework for
  negotiating a definitive agreement on territorial differences with
  Guatemala
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Benin
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Bermuda
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Bhutan
  none (landlocked)

Bolivia
  none (landlocked)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  no data available

Botswana
  none (landlocked)

Bouvet Island
  territorial sea: 4 nm

Brazil
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

British Indian Ocean Territory
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

British Virgin Islands
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Brunei
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm or to median line

Bulgaria
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Burkina Faso
  none (landlocked)

Burma
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Burundi
  none (landlocked)

Cambodia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Cameroon
  territorial sea: 50 nm

Canada
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Cape Verde
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Cayman Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Central African Republic
  none (landlocked)

Chad
  none (landlocked)

Chile
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200/350 nm

China
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Christmas Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Clipperton Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Colombia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Comoros
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: boundaries with neighbors

Congo, Republic of the
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Cook Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Coral Sea Islands
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Costa Rica
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Cote d'Ivoire
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Croatia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Cuba
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Cyprus
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Czech Republic
  none (landlocked)

Denmark
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Djibouti
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Dominica
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Dominican Republic
  territorial sea: 6 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

East Timor
  territorial sea: NA
  exclusive economic zone: NA
  continental shelf: NA
  exclusive fishing zone: NA

Ecuador
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 100 nm from 2,500 meter isobath

Egypt
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

El Salvador
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Equatorial Guinea
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Eritrea
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Estonia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: limits fixed in coordination with
  neighboring states

Ethiopia
  none (landlocked)

Europa Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Faroe Islands
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

Fiji
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation;
  rectilinear shelf claim added

Finland
  territorial sea: 12 nm (in the Gulf of Finland - 3 nm)
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm; extends to continental shelf boundary
  with Sweden

France
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm (does not apply to the Mediterranean)
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

French Guiana
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

French Polynesia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm from Iles Kerguelen (does not
  include the rest of French Southern and Antarctic Lands)

Gabon
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Gambia, The
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: not specified
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Gaza Strip
  Israeli-occupied with current status subject to the
  Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status to be
  determined through further negotiation

Georgia
  NA

Germany
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Ghana
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Gibraltar
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Glorioso Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Greece
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Greenland
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm or agreed boundaries or median line

Grenada
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Guadeloupe
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Guam
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Guatemala
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Guernsey
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Guinea
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Guinea-Bissau
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Guyana
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the outer edge of the continental
  margin

Haiti
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none (landlocked)

Honduras
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: natural extension of territory or to 200 nm

Hong Kong
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Howland Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Hungary
  none (landlocked)

Iceland
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Iles Eparses
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm; note - Juan de Nova Island and
  Tromelin Island claim a continental shelf of 200-m depth or to the
  depth of exploitation

India
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Indonesia
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Iran
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: bilateral agreements or median lines in the
  Persian Gulf
  continental shelf: natural prolongation

Iraq
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Ireland
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Isle of Man
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Israel
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Italy
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Jamaica
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

Jan Mayen
  territorial sea: 4 nm
  contiguous zone: 10 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Japan
  territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the
  international straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and
  Eastern and Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Jarvis Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Jersey
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

Johnston Atoll
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Jordan
  territorial sea: 3 nm

Juan de Nova Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Kazakhstan
  none (landlocked)

Kenya
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Kingman Reef
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Kiribati
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Korea, North
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  note: military boundary line 50 nm in the Sea of Japan and the
  exclusive economic zone limit in the Yellow Sea where all foreign
  vessels and aircraft without permission are banned

Korea, South
  territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the
  Korea Strait
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Kuwait
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Kyrgyzstan
  none (landlocked)

Laos
  none (landlocked)

Latvia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Lebanon
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Lesotho
  none (landlocked)

Liberia
  territorial sea: 200 nm

Libya
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  note: Gulf of Sidra closing line - 32 degrees, 30 minutes north

Liechtenstein
  none (landlocked)

Lithuania
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Luxembourg
  none (landlocked)

Macau
  not specified

Macedonia
  none (landlocked)

Madagascar
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or 100 nm from the 2,500-m deep isobath

Malawi
  none (landlocked)

Malaysia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation;
  specified boundary in the South China Sea

Maldives
  measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Mali
  none (landlocked)

Malta
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 25 nm

Marshall Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Martinique
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Mauritania
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Mauritius
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Mayotte
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Mexico
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Micronesia, Federated States of
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Midway Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Moldova
  none (landlocked)

Monaco
  territorial sea: 12 nm

Mongolia
  none (landlocked)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Morocco
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Mozambique
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Namibia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Nauru
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Navassa Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Nepal
  none (landlocked)

Netherlands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Netherlands Antilles
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 12 nm

New Caledonia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

New Zealand
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Nicaragua
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: natural prolongation

Niger
  none (landlocked)

Nigeria
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Niue
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Norfolk Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Northern Mariana Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Norway
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 10 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Oman
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Pakistan
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Palau
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Palmyra Atoll
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Panama
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Papua New Guinea
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Paracel Islands
  NA

Paraguay
  none (landlocked)

Peru
  territorial sea: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Philippines
  territorial sea: irregular polygon extending up to 100
  nm from coastline as defined by 1898 treaty; since late 1970s has
  also claimed polygonal-shaped area in South China Sea up to 285 nm
  in breadth
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: to depth of exploitation

Pitcairn Islands
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Poland
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: defined by international treaties

Portugal
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Puerto Rico
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Qatar
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: as determined by bilateral agreements or
  the median line

Reunion
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Romania
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Russia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Rwanda
  none (landlocked)

Saint Helena
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Saint Lucia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Samoa
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

San Marino
  none (landlocked)

Sao Tome and Principe
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Saudi Arabia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

Senegal
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Serbia
  none (landlocked)

Seychelles
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Sierra Leone
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Singapore
  territorial sea: 3 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: within and beyond territorial sea, as
  defined in treaties and practice

Slovakia
  none (landlocked)

Slovenia
  NA

Solomon Islands
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm

Somalia
  territorial sea: 200 nm

South Africa
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Spain
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm (applies only to the Atlantic Ocean)

Spratly Islands
  NA

Sri Lanka
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Sudan
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 18 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Suriname
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Svalbard
  territorial sea: 4 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm unilaterally claimed by Norway but
  not recognized by Russia

Swaziland
  none (landlocked)

Sweden
  territorial sea: 12 nm (adjustments made to return a portion
  of straits to high seas)
  exclusive economic zone: agreed boundaries or midlines
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Switzerland
  none (landlocked)

Syria
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 41 nm

Taiwan
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Tajikistan
  none (landlocked)

Tanzania
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Thailand
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Togo
  territorial sea: 30 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Tokelau
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Tonga
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Trinidad and Tobago
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the outer edge of the continental
  margin

Tromelin Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Tunisia
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm

Turkey
  territorial sea: 6 nm in the Aegean Sea; 12 nm in Black Sea
  and in Mediterranean Sea
  exclusive economic zone: in Black Sea only: to the maritime boundary
  agreed upon with the former USSR

Turkmenistan
  none (landlocked)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

Tuvalu
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Uganda
  none (landlocked)

Ukraine
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m or to the depth of exploitation

United Arab Emirates
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

United Kingdom
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: as defined in continental shelf orders or in
  accordance with agreed upon boundaries

United States
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: not specified

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Uruguay
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Uzbekistan
  none (doubly landlocked)

Vanuatu
  measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Venezuela
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 15 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Vietnam
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Virgin Islands
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Wake Island
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Wallis and Futuna
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

West Bank
  none (landlocked)

Western Sahara
  contingent upon resolution of sovereignty issue

World
  a variety of situations exist, but in general, most countries
  make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline
  as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea:
  territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive
  economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of
  continental shelf resources and an exclusive fishing zone; boundary
  situations with neighboring states prevent many countries from
  extending their fishing or economic zones to a full 200nm

Yemen
  territorial sea: 12 nm
  contiguous zone: 24 nm
  exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
  continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin

Zambia
  none (landlocked)

Zimbabwe
  none (landlocked)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2107  International organization participation


Afghanistan
  AsDB, CP, ECO, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM,
  IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE (partner), SACEP,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO
  (observer)

Albania
  BSEC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE,
  PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Algeria
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, BIS, FAO, G-15, G-24,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB,
  OPCW, OPEC, OSCE (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

American Samoa
  Interpol (subbureau), IOC, SPC, UPU

Andorra
  CE, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IFRCS, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, OIF,
  OIF (associate member), OPCW, OSCE, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Angola
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS
  (observer), SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Anguilla
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), OECS
  (associate), UPU

Antigua and Barbuda
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS, OECS, OPANAL,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Argentina
  ABEDA, AfDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS, CAN (associate),
  CSN, FAO, G-6, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA, MINURSO,
  MINUSTAH, NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council
  (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMOVIC, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Armenia
  ACCT (observer), AsDB, BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Aruba
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, UNESCO (associate), UPU, WCL, WMO,
  WToO (associate)

Australia
  ANZUS, APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner),
  Australia Group, BIS, C, CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG,
  OECD, OPCW, Paris Club, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNMIS, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO, ZC

Austria
  ACCT (observer), AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC
  (observer), CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9,
  IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINURSO, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF
  (observer), OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SECI (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNOMIG, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Azerbaijan
  AsDB, BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, GUAM, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS
  (observer), OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Bahamas, The
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOM,
  IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer), WToO

Bahrain
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Bangladesh
  ARF, AsDB, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO,
  MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Barbados
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  ISO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Belarus
  BSEC (observer), CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Belgium
  ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, Benelux, BIS, CE, CERN,
  EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NATO, NEA,
  NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA,
  SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR,
  UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WTO, ZC

Belize
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Benin
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Bermuda
  Caricom (associate), ICFTU, Interpol (subbureau), IOC, UPU,
  WCO

Bhutan
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM,
  OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Bolivia
  CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMISET, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  BIS, CE, CEI, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), OAS
  (observer), OIC (observer), OPCW, OSCE, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Botswana
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OPCW, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Brazil
  AfDB, BIS, CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA,
  Mercosur, MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

British Virgin Islands
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol
  (subbureau), IOC, OECS (associate), UNESCO (associate), UPU

Brunei
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, C, EAS, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM,
  IDB, IFRCS, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM,
  OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Bulgaria
  ACCT, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EU (applicant), FAO, G- 9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA,
  SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WEU (associate affiliate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Burkina Faso
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Burma
  APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, NAM, OPCW (signatory), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Burundi
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM (observer), IPU, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Cambodia
  ACCT, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, EAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO

Cameroon
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, C, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Canada
  ACCT, AfDB, APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue
  partner), Australia Group, BIS, C, CDB, CE (observer), EAPC, EBRD,
  ESA (cooperating state), FAO, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC,
  NAFTA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE,
  Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), UN, UNAMSIL,
  UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNMOVIC, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Cape Verde
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Cayman Islands
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol (subbureau), IOC,
  UNESCO (associate), UPU

Central African Republic
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC (observer), OIF, OPCW,
  OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Chad
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO

Chile
  APEC, BIS, CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-15, G-77, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES,
  LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

China
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BCIE,
  BIS, CDB, EAS, FAO, G-24 (observer), G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC
  (observer), SCO, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Christmas Island
  none

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none

Colombia
  BCIE, CAN, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-3, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA,
  Mercosur (associate), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Comoros
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AMF, AU, COMESA, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC,
  Interpol, IOC, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW (signatory), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL,
  COMESA, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO (suspended), ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Congo, Republic of the
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ,
  G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW
  (signatory), UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Cook Islands
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IOC,
  OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Costa Rica
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM (observer),
  OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Cote d'Ivoire
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-24,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WADB
  (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Croatia
  ACCT (observer), BIS, BSEC (observer), CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD,
  FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINURSO, MINUSTAH, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OIF
  (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Cuba
  ACP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAM,
  OAS (excluded from formal participation since 1962), OPANAL, OPCW,
  PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Cyprus
  Australia Group, C, CE, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Czech Republic
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC
  (observer), CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA (cooperating state),
  EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory),
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU
  (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Denmark
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NATO,
  NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club,
  PCA, UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU
  (observer), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Djibouti
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW (signatory),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Dominica
  ACCT, ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO
  (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OAS, OECS, OIF, OPANAL,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Dominican Republic
  ACP, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO (suspended),
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory),
  PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

East Timor
  ACP, ARF, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, MIGA, OPCW, PIF
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WToO

Ecuador
  CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Egypt
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, BSEC (observer), CAEU,
  COMESA, EBRD, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM,
  OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, ONUB, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

El Salvador
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM
  (observer), OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Equatorial Guinea
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-77,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Eritrea
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS (observer), IGAD, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW,
  PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Estonia
  Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new
  member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Ethiopia
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

European Union
  European Union: ASEAN (dialogue member), ARF
  (dialogue member), IDA, OAS (observer), UN (observer), WTO
  European Commission: Australian Group, CBSS, CERN, FAO, EBRD, G-10,
  NSG (observer), OECD, UNRWA, ZC (observer)
  European Central Bank: BIS
  European Investment Bank: EBRD, WADB (nonregional member)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  ICFTU, UPU

Faroe Islands
  Arctic Council, IMO (associate), NC, NIB, UPU

Fiji
  ACP, AsDB, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Finland
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 9, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NC,
  NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA,
  PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNMOGIP, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO,
  ZC

France
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia
  Group, BDEAC, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS (observer), CE, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, FZ, G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer),
  OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI
  (observer), SPC, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UNTSO, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCL, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO, ZC

French Guiana
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

French Polynesia
  FZ, ICFTU, PIF (observer), SPC, UPU, WMO

Gabon
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, BDEAC, CEMAC, FAO, FZ, G-24, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO

Gambia, The
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Georgia
  ACCT (observer), BSEC, CE, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, GUAM, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SECI (observer), UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Germany
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group, BIS,
  BSEC (observer), CBSS, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU,
  FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA,
  NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WCO, WEU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Ghana
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNIFIL, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Gibraltar
  Interpol (subbureau), UPU

Greece
  Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU,
  EU, FAO, G- 6, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer),
  OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UN Security Council
  (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Greenland
  Arctic Council, NC, NIB, UPU

Grenada
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO
  (subscriber), ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Guadeloupe
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

Guam
  IOC, SPC, UPU

Guatemala
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer),
  MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, ONUB, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Guernsey
  UPU

Guinea
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Guinea-Bissau
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-77, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WADB (regional), WAEMU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Guyana
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM (observer), ISO (subscriber), ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OIC,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Haiti
  ACCT, ACP, Caricom, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, ITU, LAES, MIGA, OAS, OIF, OPANAL, OPCW (signatory), PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Holy See (Vatican City)
  CE (observer), IAEA, ICFTU, IOM (observer),
  ITU, NAM (guest), OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, UN (observer), UNCTAD,
  UNHCR, UPU, WIPO, WToO (observer), WTO (observer)

Honduras
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO
  (subscriber), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM, OAS,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Hong Kong
  APEC, AsDB, BIS, ICC, ICFTU, IHO, IMF, IMO (associate),
  IOC, ISO (correspondent), UPU, WCL, WCO, WMO, WToO (associate), WTO

Hungary
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EIB, ESA (cooperating state), EU (new member), FAO, G- 9,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, NAM
  (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Iceland
  Arctic Council, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD,
  EFTA, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NATO,
  NC, NEA, NIB, OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO,
  WEU (associate), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

India
  AfDB, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIMSTEC, BIS, C,
  CERN (observer), CP, EAS, FAO, G- 6, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), ONUB, OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC, SACEP, SCO
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE,
  UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Indonesia
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO, G-15,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PIF (partner), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Iran
  ABEDA, CP, ECO, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC,
  PCA, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Iraq
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM,
  IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU,
  LAS, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Ireland
  AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA,
  EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINURSO, MONUC, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris
  Club, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMIL,
  UNOCI, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Isle of Man
  UPU

Israel
  BIS, BSEC (observer), CERN (observer), EBRD, FAO, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, OAS (observer), OPCW
  (signatory), OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Italy
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS
  (observer), CDB, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO,
  G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NATO,
  NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMOGIP,
  UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Jamaica
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-15, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS,
  OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Japan
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner),
  Australia Group, BIS, CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAS, EBRD,
  FAO, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA, MIGA, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW,
  OSCE (partner), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC (observer),
  SECI (observer), UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNDOF,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMOVIC, UNRWA, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Jordan
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM,
  OIC, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Kazakhstan
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM,
  IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW,
  OSCE, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Kenya
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, EADB, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, ONUB,
  OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Kiribati
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Korea, North
  ARF, FAO, G-77, ICAO, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, IMO, IOC,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, NAM, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO

Korea, South
  AfDB, APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner),
  Australia Group, BIS, CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA, MIGA, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE (partner), PCA, PIF (partner),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Kuwait
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, BDEAC, CAEU, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA,
  NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Kyrgyzstan
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM (observer), OIC,
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Laos
  ACCT, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CP, EAS, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Latvia
  Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new
  member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS,
  IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent),
  ITU, MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Lebanon
  ABEDA, ACCT, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC,
  OIF, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Lesotho
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber), ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OPCW, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Liberia
  ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ITU, NAM, OPCW (signatory), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

Libya
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, CAEU, COMESA, FAO, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC, OPCW,
  OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Liechtenstein
  CE, EBRD, EFTA, IAEA, ICCt, ICRM, IFRCS, Interpol,
  IOC, IPU, ITU, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UPU, WCL, WIPO, WTO

Lithuania
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BA, BIS, CBSS, CE, EAPC,
  EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NATO, NIB, NSG, OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate
  partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Luxembourg
  ACCT, AsDB, Australia Group, Benelux, CE, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, MIGA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF, OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Macau
  IHO, IMF, IMO (associate), ISO (correspondent), UNESCO
  (associate), UPU, WCO, WMO, WToO (associate), WTO

Macedonia
  BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Madagascar
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA,
  NAM, OIF, OPCW, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Malawi
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, ONUB, OPCW, SADC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Malaysia
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, C, CP, EAS, FAO, G-15,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA,
  MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA, PIF (partner), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Maldives
  AsDB, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC,
  SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Mali
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF,
  ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WADB
  (regional), WAEMU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Malta
  Australia Group, C, CE, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Marshall Islands
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, IDA,
  IFC, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO

Martinique
  UPU, WCL, WFTU

Mauritania
  ABEDA, ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, CAEU, FAO,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OIF,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Mauritius
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  InOC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PCA,
  SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO

Mayotte
  UPU

Mexico
  APEC, BCIE, BIS, CAN (observer), CDB, CE (observer), CSN
  (observer), EBRD, FAO, G-3, G-6, G-15, G-24, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, NAFTA, NAM
  (observer), NEA, OAS, OECD, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMOVIC, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Micronesia, Federated States of
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IMF, IOC, ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca,
  SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO, WMO

Moldova
  ACCT, BSEC, CE, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, OIF, OPCW,
  OSCE, PFP, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI,
  UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Monaco
  ACCT, CE, FAO, IAEA, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM,
  IFRCS, IHO, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ITU, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNITAR, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Mongolia
  ARF, AsDB, CP, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OPCW, OSCE (partner), SCO
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Montenegro
  CEI, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, ICFTU, ILO, Interpol, IPU, ITU,
  OSCE, UN, UPU, WHO, WTO (observer)

Montserrat
  Caricom, CDB, ICFTU, Interpol (subbureau), OECS, UPU

Morocco
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, EBRD, FAO, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNOCI,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Mozambique
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF (observer), OPCW, SADC, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO

Namibia
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM
  (observer), IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, ONUB, OPCW,
  SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Nauru
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, ICAO, ICCt, Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO

Nepal
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, CP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer),
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, ONUB,
  OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL,
  UNMIS, UNOCI, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Netherlands
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia Group,
  Benelux, BIS, CBSS (observer), CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, ESA,
  EU, FAO, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer),
  OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Netherlands Antilles
  ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, UNESCO (associate),
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WMO, WToO (associate)

New Caledonia
  ICFTU, PIF (observer), SPC, UPU, WFTU, WMO

New Zealand
  ANZUS (US suspended security obligations to NZ on 11
  August 1986), APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia
  Group, BIS, C, CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, NAM (guest), NSG, OECD, OPCW,
  PCA, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS,
  UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Nicaragua
  BCIE, CACM, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM, OAS,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Niger
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MONUC, NAM, OIC,
  OIF, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WADB
  (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Nigeria
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Niue
  ACP, FAO, IFAD, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Norfolk Island
  UPU

Northern Mariana Islands
  Interpol (subbureau), SPC, UPU

Norway
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EFTA, ESA, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NC, NEA,
  NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNMIS, UNRWA, UNTSO,
  UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Oman
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Pakistan
  ARF, AsDB, C (reinstated 2004), CP, ECO, FAO, G-24, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, SAARC,
  SACEP, SCO (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Palau
  ACP, AsDB, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IMF,
  IOC, IPU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, WHO

Panama
  CAN (observer), CSN (observer), FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM,
  OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Papua New Guinea
  ACP, APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN (observer), C, CP, FAO,
  G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Paraguay
  CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM (observer), OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Peru
  APEC, CAN, CSN, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAES, LAIA,
  Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  PCA, RG, UN, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Philippines
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO, G-24,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAM, OAS (observer), ONUB, OPCW, PIF (partner),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Pitcairn Islands
  SPC, UPU

Poland
  ACCT (observer), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group,
  BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CE, CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU, FAO,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC,
  NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW,
  OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Portugal
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA,
  NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI (observer),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Puerto Rico
  Interpol (subbureau), IOC, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WToO
  (associate)

Qatar
  ABEDA, ACC, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC,
  ICRM, IDB, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU,
  LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer), OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UN
  Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Reunion
  InOC, UPU, WFTU

Romania
  ACCT, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ESA
  (cooperating state), EU (applicant), FAO, G- 9, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM
  (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO,
  WTO, ZC

Russia
  APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), BIS,
  BSEC, CBSS, CE, CERN (observer), CIS, EAPC, EBRD, G- 8, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA
  (observer), MIGA, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM (guest), NSG, OAS (observer),
  OIC (observer), ONUB, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PFP, SCO, UN, UN
  Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE,
  UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer), ZC

Rwanda
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, CEPGL, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Saint Helena
  ICFTU, UPU

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, ITU, MIGA, OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UPU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Saint Lucia
  ACCT, ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OECS, OIF, OPANAL, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  UPU, WFTU

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-77,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber), ITU, MIGA, OAS, OECS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WTO

Samoa
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, IPU, ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
  (observer)

San Marino
  CE, FAO, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ITU, OPCW, OSCE, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WToO

Sao Tome and Principe
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ITU, NAM, OIF, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Saudi Arabia
  ABEDA, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, BIS, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OAS (observer),
  OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO,
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO

Senegal
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, FAO, FZ, G-15, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA,
  MONUC, NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UNMIL, UNMOVIC, UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Serbia
  ABEDA, BIS, BSEC, CE, CEI, EBRD, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD (suspended), IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNOCI, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Seychelles
  ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, InOC, Interpol, IOC, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF,
  OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO
  (observer)

Sierra Leone
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, ECOWAS, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Singapore
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIS, C, CP, EAS, G-77, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Slovakia
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CE,
  CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA,
  NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UN
  Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO,
  UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO, ZC

Slovenia
  ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM,
  IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM (guest), NATO, NSG, OAS (observer), OIF (observer),
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNTSO, UPU, WCO,
  WEU (associate partner), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Solomon Islands
  ACP, AsDB, C, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU,
  MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO,
  WMO, WTO

Somalia
  ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ITU, LAS, NAM, OIC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

South Africa
  ACP, AfDB, AU, BIS, C, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, NSG, ONUB,
  OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR,
  UNMEE, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Spain
  AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BCIE, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD,
  EIB, EMU, ESA, EU, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO,
  NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, SECI
  (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNMEE, UNRWA,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WEU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Sri Lanka
  AsDB, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MINURSO, MINUSTAH, MONUC,
  NAM, OAS (observer), OPCW, PCA, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
  UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Sudan
  ABEDA, ACP, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AU, CAEU, COMESA, FAO, G-77,
  IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Suriname
  ACP, Caricom, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDB, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO (suspended), ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IPU, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OIC, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Svalbard
  none

Swaziland
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, ISO
  (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Sweden
  AfDB, Arctic Council, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CBSS, CE,
  CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, EU, FAO, G- 6, G- 9, G-10, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM
  (guest), NC, NEA, NIB, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris
  Club, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL,
  UNMIS, UNMOGIP, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCO, WEU (observer),
  WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Switzerland
  ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, CE, CERN, EAPC,
  EBRD, EFTA, ESA, FAO, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (guest),
  NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIF, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA,
  PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNOMIG, UNRWA,
  UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Syria
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
  IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC, OIC,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO

Taiwan
  APEC, AsDB, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IFRCS, IOC, WCL, WTO
  note: Taiwan has acquired observer status on the competition
  committee and special observer status on the Trade Committee of the
  OECD, and is seeking observer status with the backing of the US in
  WHO

Tajikistan
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ITU, MIGA, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO,
  UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)

Tanzania
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, EADB, FAO, G-6, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, SADC, UN, UN
  Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE,
  UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Thailand
  APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, BIMSTEC, BIS, CP, EAS, FAO,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC (observer), ONUB, OPCW, OSCE
  (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Togo
  ABEDA, ACCT, ACP, AfDB, AU, ECOWAS, Entente, FAO, FZ, G-77,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC,
  NAM, OIC, OIF, ONUB, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL,
  UNOCI, UPU, WADB (regional), WAEMU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

Tokelau
  PIF (observer), SPC, UNESCO (associate), UPU

Tonga
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,
  IFC, IFRCS, IHO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ITU, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca,
  SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
  (observer)

Trinidad and Tobago
  ACP, C, Caricom, CDB, FAO, G-24, G-77, IADB,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, LAES, MIGA, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Tunisia
  ABEDA, ACCT, AfDB, AFESD, AMF, AMU, AU, BSEC (observer),
  FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS,
  MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OAPEC (suspended), OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, ONUB,
  OPCW, OSCE (partner), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UPU,
  WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Turkey
  AsDB, Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN (observer), EAPC,
  EBRD, ECO, EU (applicant), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM,
  IDA, IDB, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC,
  IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OIC,
  OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SECI, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS,
  UNOCI, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU (associate), WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WToO, WTO, ZC

Turkmenistan
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICRM, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer),
  ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Caricom (associate), CDB, Interpol
  (subbureau), UPU

Tuvalu
  ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, IFRCS (observer), IMO, ITU, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WHO

Uganda
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, EADB, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC,
  OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCO, WFTU,
  WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Ukraine
  Australia Group, BSEC, CBSS (observer), CE, CEI, CIS, EAPC,
  EBRD, FAO, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICFTU,
  ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU,
  ISO, ITU, LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUC, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS
  (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SECI (observer),
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer), ZC

United Arab Emirates
  ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, FAO, G-77, GCC, IAEA, IBRD,
  ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO,
  ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAPEC,
  OIC, OPCW, OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO,
  WMO, WTO

United Kingdom
  AfDB, Arctic Council (observer), AsDB, Australia
  Group, BIS, C, CBSS (observer), CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA,
  EU, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS
  (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI
  (observer), UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UPU, WCO, WEU, WHO,
  WIPO, WMO, WTO, WToO, ZC

United States
  AfDB, ANZUS, APEC, Arctic Council, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN
  (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS
  (observer), CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAPC, EBRD, FAO,
  G-5, G-7, G- 8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO,
  ITU, MIGA, MINUSTAH, NAFTA, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS, OECD, OPCW, OSCE,
  Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SECI (observer), SPC, UN, UN
  Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNITAR, UNMEE, UNMIL,
  UNMOVIC, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

Uruguay
  CAN (associate), CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol,
  IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA, MINURSO,
  MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM (observer), OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMOGIP, UNOCI, UNOMIG, UPU,
  WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Uzbekistan
  AsDB, CIS, EAPC, EBRD, ECO, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC,
  IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OSCE, PFP, SCO, UN, UNCTAD,
  UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Vanuatu
  ACCT, ACP, AsDB, C, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA,
  IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW, PIF,
  Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNOCI, UPU, WFTU, WHO,
  WMO, WTO (observer)

Venezuela
  CAN, CDB, CSN, FAO, G-3, G-15, G-24, G-77, IADB, IAEA,
  IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF,
  IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur, MIGA,
  NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR,
  UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Vietnam
  ACCT (observer), APEC, APT, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CP, EAS, FAO,
  G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OIF, OPCW,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO (observer)

Virgin Islands
  IOC, UPU

Wallis and Futuna
  SPC, UPU

Western Sahara
  none

Yemen
  AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt
  (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM,
  OAS (observer), OIC, ONUB, OPCW, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
  UNMIS, UNOCI, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO (observer)

Zambia
  ACP, AfDB, AU, C, COMESA, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt,
  ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Interpol, IOC, IOM,
  IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SADC,
  UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIL, UNMIS, UPU, WCL,
  WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Zimbabwe
  ACP, AfDB, AU, COMESA, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
  ICCt (signatory), ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO,
  Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, MIGA, NAM, OPCW, PCA, SADC, UN,
  UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIS, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO,
  WToO, WTO

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2108  Merchant marine


Albania
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 52,987 GRT/79,863 DWT
  by type: cargo 23, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Turkey 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Georgia 1) (2006)

Algeria
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 744,406 GRT/766,764 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 10, chemical tanker 2, liquefied gas
  9, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 5, roll on/roll off 3,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 13 (UK 13) (2006)

Angola
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,343 GRT/4,643 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1
  registered in other countries: 5 (Bahamas 5) (2006)

Anguilla
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 1,011 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,452,503
  GRT/9,783,309 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 40, cargo 596, chemical tanker 7, container
  321, liquefied gas 11, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1,
  refrigerated cargo 12, roll on/roll off 21
  foreign-owned: 984 (Australia 1, Bangladesh 4, Belgium 4, Colombia
  2, Denmark 14, Estonia 12, France 1, Germany 858, Iceland 8, Isle of
  Man 2, Latvia 5, Lebanon 1, Lithuania 3, Netherlands 14, Norway 11,
  NZ 1, Poland 3, Russia 6, Singapore 1, Slovenia 6, Switzerland 4,
  Turkey 8, UK 7, US 7, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Argentina
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 435,969 GRT/707,767 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 10, chemical tanker 1, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 21, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 11 (Chile 6, UK 4, Uruguay 1)
  registered in other countries: 24 (Bolivia 1, Chile 1, Liberia 7,
  Panama 9, Paraguay 3, Uruguay 3) (2006)

Australia
  total: 53 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,361,000 GRT/1,532,874
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 17, cargo 4, chemical tanker 3, container 1,
  liquefied gas 4, passenger 6, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 6,
  roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 17 (Canada 1, France 3, Germany 3, Japan 1,
  Netherlands 2, Norway 1, Philippines 1, UK 2, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 34 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Bahamas 2,
  Bermuda 3, Fiji 1, Hong Kong 1, Liberia 2, Marshall Islands 2,
  Netherlands 1, NZ 2, Panama 3, Portugal 1, Singapore 7, Tonga 1, UK
  3, US 2, Vanuatu 2) (2006)

Austria
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,072 GRT/44,437 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, container 2
  foreign-owned: 2 (Netherlands 2)
  registered in other countries: 14 (Liberia 13, Malta 1) (2006)

Azerbaijan
  total: 84 ships (1000 GRT or over) 405,395 GRT/436,666 DWT
  by type: cargo 26, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 8, petroleum tanker
  43, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 3
  registered in other countries: 4 (Georgia 2, Malta 2) (2006)

Bahamas, The
  total: 1,177 ships (1000 GRT or over) 37,743,270
  GRT/50,918,747 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 253, cargo 250, chemical
  tanker 64, container 79, liquefied gas 35, livestock carrier 2,
  passenger 115, passenger/cargo 34, petroleum tanker 175,
  refrigerated cargo 114, roll on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 5,
  vehicle carrier 30
  foreign-owned: 1,093 (Angola 5, Australia 2, Belgium 13, Canada 18,
  China 3, Cuba 1, Cyprus 13, Denmark 59, Estonia 1, Finland 8, France
  37, Germany 22, Greece 232, Hong Kong 8, Iceland 1, India 1,
  Indonesia 4, Ireland 2, Israel 1, Italy 5, Japan 51, Jordan 2, Kenya
  1, Latvia 1, Malaysia 12, Monaco 17, Montenegro 2, Netherlands 24,
  Nigeria 2, Norway 259, Philippines 1, Poland 15, Reunion 1, Russia
  6, Saudi Arabia 12, Singapore 12, Slovenia 1, Spain 12, Sweden 6,
  Switzerland 2, Thailand 1, Turkey 8, UAE 16, UK 69, Uruguay 2, US
  121, Venezuela 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Barbados 1, Liberia 1, Panama 2)
  (2006)

Bahrain
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 235,449 GRT/339,728 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 1, container 2, petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 3 (Kuwait 3) (2006)

Bangladesh
  total: 42 ships (1000 GRT or over) 341,733 GRT/485,840 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 29, container 6, passenger/cargo 1,
  petroleum tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (China 1)
  registered in other countries: 10 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Comoros 1,
  Malta 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Singapore 1) (2006)

Barbados
  total: 58 ships (1000 GRT or over) 433,390 GRT/664,998 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 32, chemical tanker 7, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 2,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 57 (Bahamas, The 1, Canada 8, Greece 11, Lebanon 1,
  Monaco 1, Norway 29, UAE 1, UK 5)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1) (2006)

Belgium
  total: 66 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,952,159 GRT/6,521,645
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 19, cargo 4, chemical tanker 2, container 10,
  liquefied gas 15, petroleum tanker 12, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 10 (Denmark 4, Greece 4, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 113 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Bahamas
  13, Bermuda 4, Cyprus 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 6,
  Georgia 1, Gibraltar 2, Greece 12, Hong Kong 3, Luxembourg 9, Malta
  10, Mozambique 2, Netherlands 2, Netherlands Antilles 4, Panama 11,
  Portugal 8, Russia 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3, Singapore
  12, Sweden 2) (2006)

Belize
  total: 285 ships (1000 GRT or over) 985,464 GRT/1,322,629 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 36, cargo 203, chemical tanker 7, container 4,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 13, refrigerated cargo 12, roll
  on/roll off 6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 225 (China 103, Croatia 1, Cyprus 2, Estonia 3,
  Germany 3, Greece 2, Hong Kong 8, Iceland 2, Indonesia 2, Italy 4,
  Japan 2, North Korea 2, South Korea 4, Latvia 6, Lithuania 1,
  Malaysia 1, Mexico 1, Norway 2, Poland 2, Russia 36, Singapore 6,
  Spain 3, Switzerland 1, Turkey 11, UAE 5, Ukraine 7, US 5) (2006)

Bermuda
  total: 132 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,873,728 GRT/8,688,692
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 25, cargo 1, container 24, liquefied gas 23,
  passenger 19, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 16, refrigerated
  cargo 13, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 116 (Australia 3, Belgium 4, France 1, Germany 21,
  Greece 2, Hong Kong 10, Indonesia 1, Ireland 1, Israel 3, Monaco 2,
  Nigeria 11, Norway 5, Sweden 14, Switzerland 2, UK 9, US 27)
  registered in other countries: 6 (Liberia 1, Marshall Islands 4,
  Panama 1) (2006)

Bolivia
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 127,297 GRT/198,525 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 8, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo
  3, petroleum tanker 10
  foreign-owned: 10 (Argentina 1, China 1, Egypt 2, Iran 1, Singapore
  3, Taiwan 1, Yemen 1) (2006)

Brazil
  total: 137 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,038,923 GRT/3,057,820
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 21, cargo 21, chemical tanker 8, container 8,
  liquefied gas 12, passenger/cargo 12, petroleum tanker 47, roll
  on/roll off 8
  foreign-owned: 15 (Chile 1, Germany 7, Norway 2, Spain 4, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Ghana 1, Liberia 3, Marshall
  Islands 1) (2006)

British Virgin Islands
  registered in other countries: 1 (North Korea
  1) (2006)

Brunei
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 465,937 GRT/413,393 DWT
  by type: liquefied gas 8
  foreign-owned: 8 (UK 8) (2006)

Bulgaria
  total: 75 ships (1000 GRT or over) 872,653 GRT/1,294,877 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 40, cargo 17, chemical tanker 4, container 6,
  passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 2 (Germany 1, Russia 1)
  registered in other countries: 41 (Cambodia 1, Comoros 1, Malta 13,
  Panama 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 17, Slovakia 7, unknown
  1) (2006)

Burma
  total: 34 ships (1000 GRT or over) 402,699 GRT/620,642 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 20, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 9 (Germany 5, Japan 4) (2006)

Cambodia
  total: 544 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,777,907 GRT/2,529,708
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 41, cargo 443, chemical tanker 11, container
  10, livestock carrier 3, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 9,
  refrigerated cargo 19, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 407 (Bulgaria 1, Canada 6, China 128, Cyprus 12,
  Egypt 8, Gabon 1, Greece 8, Hong Kong 15, Indonesia 1, Japan 4,
  South Korea 23, Latvia 2, Lebanon 6, Nigeria 2, Norway 1,
  Philippines 1, Russia 105, Singapore 4, Spain 1, Syria 20, Taiwan 2,
  Turkey 26, UAE 1, Ukraine 17, US 8, Yemen 3, unknown 1) (2006)

Cameroon
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 38,613 GRT/68,820 DWT
  by type: petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (France 1) (2006)

Canada
  total: 173 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,129,243 GRT/2,716,340
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 62, cargo 10, chemical tanker 9, container 2,
  passenger 6, passenger/cargo 63, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll
  off 8
  foreign-owned: 7 (Germany 3, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, US 2)
  registered in other countries: 111 (Australia 1, Bahamas 18,
  Barbados 8, Cambodia 6, Cyprus 2, Denmark 1, Honduras 1, Hong Kong
  28, Liberia 2, Malta 18, Marshall Islands 6, Panama 4, Russia 1,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6, US 4, Vanuatu 5) (2006)

Cape Verde
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 12,300 GRT/7,726 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 4
  foreign-owned: 2 (Spain 1, UK 1) (2006)

Cayman Islands
  total: 132 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,746,290
  GRT/4,366,790 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 32, cargo 14, chemical tanker 42, liquefied
  gas 1, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 14, refrigerated cargo 23, roll
  on/roll off 3, specialized tanker 1, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 130 (Denmark 5, Germany 13, Greece 21, Italy 12,
  Japan 1, Malaysia 1, Netherlands 4, Norway 2, Philippines 1,
  Singapore 10, Sweden 9, UK 10, US 41) (2006)

Chile
  total: 46 ships (1000 GRT or over) 649,091 GRT/898,110 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 10, cargo 6, chemical tanker 10, container 1,
  liquefied gas 2, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 7,
  roll on/roll off 1, vehicle carrier 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (Argentina 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Argentina 6, Brazil 1, Marshall
  Islands 1, Panama 9) (2006)

China
  total: 1,723 ships (1000 GRT or over) 21,405,633
  GRT/32,411,260 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 387, cargo 695, chemical
  tanker 45, combination ore/oil 1, container 152, liquefied gas 31,
  passenger 8, passenger/cargo 83, petroleum tanker 261, refrigerated
  cargo 30, roll on/roll off 8, specialized tanker 6, vehicle carrier
  14
  foreign-owned: 13 (Hong Kong 7, Japan 3, South Korea 2, Norway 1)
  registered in other countries: 1,191 (Bahamas 3, Bangladesh 1,
  Belize 103, Bolivia 1, Cambodia 128, Cyprus 11, Georgia 2, Honduras
  3, Hong Kong 274, India 2, North Korea 1, Liberia 35, Malaysia 1,
  Malta 14, Mongolia 4, Norway 3, Panama 420, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 103, Sierra Leone 2, Singapore 23, Thailand 1, Tuvalu 23,
  unknown 33) (2006)

Colombia
  total: 17 ships (1000 GRT or over) 42,413 GRT/58,737 DWT
  by type: cargo 13, liquefied gas 1, petroleum tanker 3
  registered in other countries: 7 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Panama 5)
  (2006)

Comoros
  total: 121 ships (1000 GRT or over) 564,882 GRT/801,238 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 10, cargo 85, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
  livestock carrier 1, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum
  tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 5, specialized
  tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 72 (Bangladesh 1, Bulgaria 1, Greece 10, India 1,
  Kenya 1, Kuwait 1, Lebanon 6, Nigeria 2, Norway 1, Pakistan 2,
  Philippines 1, Russia 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Saudi
  Arabia 3, Syria 4, Turkey 11, UAE 6, Ukraine 14, US 2) (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over)
  1,004 GRT/1,640 DWT
  by type: petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Congo, Republic of the 1) (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  registered in other countries: 1 (Congo,
  Democratic Republic of the 1) (2006)

Cook Islands
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 48,422 GRT/51,900 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 3
  foreign-owned: 5 (Norway 1, NZ 1, Sweden 3) (2006)

Costa Rica
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,308 GRT/743 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 2 (2006)

Croatia
  total: 72 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,079,286 GRT/1,724,698
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 22, cargo 11, chemical tanker 3,
  passenger/cargo 27, petroleum tanker 5, refrigerated cargo 1, roll
  on/roll off 3
  registered in other countries: 36 (Belize 1, Cyprus 2, Liberia 7,
  Malta 10, Marshall Islands 2, Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 9) (2006)

Cuba
  total: 11 ships (1000 GRT or over) 33,932 GRT/48,791 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger 1,
  petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Bahamas 1, Cyprus 2, Netherlands
  Antilles 1, Panama 11, Spain 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Cyprus
  total: 884 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,477,944 GRT/31,157,473
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 354, cargo 210, chemical tanker 44, container
  145, liquefied gas 8, passenger 7, passenger/cargo 23, petroleum
  tanker 64, refrigerated cargo 15, roll on/roll off 9, vehicle
  carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 777 (Belgium 1, Canada 2, China 11, Croatia 2, Cuba
  2, Denmark 1, Estonia 6, Germany 214, Greece 337, Greenland 1, Hong
  Kong 1, India 5, Iran 2, Ireland 3, Israel 3, Italy 2, Japan 17,
  South Korea 1, Latvia 4, Netherlands 18, Norway 16, Philippines 1,
  Poland 20, Portugal 2, Russia 53, Singapore 1, Slovakia 1, Slovenia
  4, Spain 7, Sweden 3, Switzerland 4, Syria 3, UAE 11, UK 6, Ukraine
  4, US 7, unknown 1)
  registered in other countries: 87 (Bahamas 13, Belize 2, Cambodia
  12, Georgia 1, Gibraltar 1, Greece 1, Isle of Man 1, Liberia 3,
  Malta 15, Marshall Islands 15, Norway 2, Panama 14, Portugal 1,
  Russia 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Sierra Leone 1, Turkey
  2) (2006)

Czech Republic
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and
  the Grenadines 1) (2006)

Denmark
  total: 293 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,986,735 GRT/9,936,431
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 63, chemical tanker 48, container 86,
  liquefied gas 4, livestock carrier 2, passenger 1, passenger/cargo
  40, petroleum tanker 23, refrigerated cargo 7, roll on/roll off 8,
  specialized tanker 4
  foreign-owned: 25 (Canada 1, Germany 13, Greece 5, Greenland 1,
  Norway 3, Sweden 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 409 (Antigua and Barbuda 14, Bahamas
  59, Belgium 4, Cayman Islands 5, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, Estonia 2,
  France 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 2, Gibraltar 1, Hong
  Kong 6, Isle of Man 53, North Korea 1, Liberia 8, Lithuania 10,
  Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Mexico 2, Netherlands 9, Netherlands
  Antilles 1, Norway 32, Panama 34, Portugal 4, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 14, Singapore 52, South Africa 1, Spain 1, Sweden 4, UK
  46, US 24, Vanuatu 6, Venezuela 3, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Djibouti
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,369 GRT/3,030 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Dominica
  total: 48 ships (1000 GRT or over) 634,668 GRT/1,100,558 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 24, chemical tanker 4, container 2,
  petroleum tanker 6, refrigerated cargo 4, roll on/roll off 1,
  vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 45 (Estonia 11, Germany 1, Greece 5, Latvia 1, Norway
  1, NZ 4, Russia 2, Saudi Arabia 3, Singapore 9, Syria 1, Turkey 3,
  UAE 2, Ukraine 2) (2006)

Dominican Republic
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,587 GRT/1,165
  DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Ecuador
  total: 31 ships (1000 GRT or over) 184,819 GRT/300,339 DWT
  by type: chemical tanker 1, liquefied gas 1, passenger 7, petroleum
  tanker 21, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Norway 1, Paraguay 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Georgia 1) (2006)

Egypt
  total: 76 ships (1000 GRT or over) 987,524 GRT/1,467,139 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 14, cargo 33, container 2, passenger/cargo 5,
  petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 9
  foreign-owned: 9 (Denmark 1, Greece 6, Lebanon 2)
  registered in other countries: 49 (Bolivia 2, Cambodia 8, Georgia 8,
  Honduras 4, North Korea 2, Panama 16, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 3, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Saudi Arabia 2, Sierra Leone
  1, Thailand 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,745 GRT/3,434
  DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Eritrea
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,506 GRT/23,649 DWT
  by type: cargo 3, liquefied gas 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll
  off 1 (2006)

Estonia
  total: 35 ships (1000 GRT or over) 388,723 GRT/98,393 DWT
  by type: cargo 7, passenger/cargo 26, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Denmark 2, Norway 2)
  registered in other countries: 72 (Antigua and Barbuda 12, Bahamas
  1, Belize 3, Cyprus 6, Dominica 11, Isle of Man 2, Liberia 1, Malta
  4, Norway 1, Panama 3, Russia 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  25, Slovakia 1, Vanuatu 1) (2006)

Ethiopia
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 79,441 GRT/97,669 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, roll on/roll off 2 (2006)

Faroe Islands
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 19,265 GRT/9,171 DWT
  by type: cargo 10, container 2, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 8 (Iceland 4, Norway 4) (2006)

Fiji
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 15,867 GRT/8,432 DWT
  by type: passenger 3, passenger/cargo 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Australia 1) (2006)

Finland
  total: 87 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,250,600 GRT/952,072 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 22, chemical tanker 6, container 1,
  passenger 5, passenger/cargo 20, petroleum tanker 4, roll on/roll
  off 25
  foreign-owned: 3 (Norway 1, Russia 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 48 (Bahamas 8, Germany 2, Gibraltar
  3, Luxembourg 4, Marshall Islands 2, Netherlands 13, Norway 4,
  Sweden 11, UK 1) (2006)

France
  total: 61 ships (1000 GRT or over) 875,777 GRT/1,318,605 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 3, container 5, liquefied gas 6,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 32, petroleum tanker 10, roll on/roll
  off 1
  foreign-owned: 13 (Denmark 1, Hong Kong 1, Italy 2, Monaco 1, Norway
  1, NZ 1, Singapore 2, Sweden 2, Switzerland 2)
  registered in other countries: 154 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Australia
  3, Bahamas 37, Bermuda 1, Cameroon 1, French Polynesia 1, French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands 36, Gibraltar 1, Indonesia 1, Isle of
  Man 2, Italy 1, South Korea 12, Liberia 3, Luxembourg 14, Malta 6,
  Mexico 1, Morocco 1, Panama 15, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 8,
  UK 4, Wallis and Futuna 5) (2006)

French Polynesia
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 23,684
  GRT/17,291 DWT
  by type: cargo 4, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 5, refrigerated cargo
  1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (France 1)
  registered in other countries: 2 (Wallis and Futuna 2) (2006)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  total: 77 ships (1000 GRT or
  over) 3,432,833 GRT/5,345,291 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, chemical tanker 27, container 18, liquefied
  gas 5, petroleum tanker 15, roll on/roll off 6, vehicle carrier 4
  foreign-owned: 76 (Belgium 6, Denmark 2, France 36, Germany 2, Hong
  Kong 2, Japan 4, Norway 12, Saudi Arabia 1, Sweden 9, Switzerland 1,
  UK 1) (2006)

Gabon
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cambodia 1, Panama 1) (2006)

Gambia, The
  total: 5 ships (1000 GRT or over) 32,064 GRT/9,751 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 1 (2006)

Georgia
  total: 222 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,059,386 GRT/1,538,746
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 27, cargo 176, container 4, liquefied gas 1,
  passenger 1, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated
  cargo 4, roll on/roll off 2, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 188 (Albania 1, Azerbaijan 2, Belgium 1, China 2,
  Cyprus 1, Ecuador 1, Egypt 8, Germany 1, Greece 8, Indonesia 1,
  South Korea 1, Lebanon 7, Monaco 13, Romania 11, Russia 28, Slovakia
  1, Slovenia 1, Syria 43, Turkey 30, UAE 1, UK 4, Ukraine 22) (2006)

Germany
  total: 394 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,017,754
  GRT/13,091,194 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 60, chemical tanker 13, container
  273, liquefied gas 3, passenger 6, passenger/cargo 25, petroleum
  tanker 10, roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 4 (Finland 2, Italy 1, Switzerland 1)
  registered in other countries: 2,491 (Antigua and Barbuda 858,
  Australia 3, Bahamas 22, Belize 3, Bermuda 21, Brazil 7, Bulgaria 1,
  Burma 5, Canada 3, Cayman Islands 13, Cyprus 214, Denmark 13,
  Dominica 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 2, Georgia 1,
  Gibraltar 108, Guyana 1, Hong Kong 6, Indonesia 1, Ireland 2, Isle
  of Man 56, Jamaica 3, Liberia 587, Luxembourg 10, Malaysia 2, Malta
  64, Marshall Islands 194, Morocco 2, Netherlands 56, Netherlands
  Antilles 60, NZ 1, Panama 35, Portugal 17, Russia 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 8, Samoa 1, Singapore 9, Spain 12, Sri Lanka 5,
  Sweden 3, Turkey 1, UK 76, US 2) (2006)

Ghana
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 6,308 GRT/9,418 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Brazil 1) (2006)

Gibraltar
  total: 180 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,129,379
  GRT/1,437,754 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 1, cargo 105, chemical tanker
  26, container 26, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 11, roll on/roll off
  6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 165 (Belgium 2, Cyprus 1, Denmark 1, Finland 3,
  France 1, Germany 108, Greece 7, Iceland 1, Ireland 1, Italy 6,
  Latvia 2, Netherlands 5, Norway 18, Sweden 5, UK 4) (2006)

Greece
  total: 817 ships (1000 GRT or over) 31,895,832 GRT/54,341,584
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 270, cargo 61, chemical tanker 47, container
  47, liquefied gas 5, passenger 11, passenger/cargo 114, petroleum
  tanker 244, roll on/roll off 17, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 24 (Belgium 12, Cyprus 1, Hong Kong 1, UK 9, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 2,363 (Bahamas 232, Barbados 11,
  Belgium 4, Belize 2, Bermuda 2, Cambodia 8, Cayman Islands 21,
  Comoros 10, Cyprus 337, Denmark 5, Dominica 5, Egypt 6, Georgia 8,
  Gibraltar 7, Honduras 3, Hong Kong 27, Isle of Man 45, Italy 6,
  Jamaica 6, North Korea 1, Lebanon 3, Liberia 267, Malta 495,
  Marshall Islands 199, Norway 1, Panama 524, Philippines 5, Portugal
  4, Russia 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 82, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Singapore 9, Slovakia 4, UAE
  2, UK 7, Uruguay 1, US 1, Venezuela 3, unknown 7) (2006)

Greenland
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,540 GRT/2,540 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger 2
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cyprus 1, Denmark 1) (2006)

Guyana
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 12,461 GRT/15,155 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Germany 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  3, unknown 1) (2006)

Honduras
  total: 136 ships (1000 GRT or over) 405,984 GRT/557,179 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 61, chemical tanker 5, container 1,
  liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 1, passenger 5, passenger/cargo
  9, petroleum tanker 29, refrigerated cargo 8, roll on/roll off 4,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 43 (Canada 1, China 3, Egypt 4, Greece 3, Hong Kong
  2, Israel 1, Japan 4, South Korea 6, Lebanon 1, Mexico 1, Qatar 1,
  Singapore 11, Taiwan 2, Tanzania 1, US 1, Vietnam 1) (2006)

Hong Kong
  total: 924 ships (1000 GRT or over) 30,838,025
  GRT/51,957,682 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 495, cargo 121, chemical
  tanker 44, container 133, liquefied gas 22, passenger 6,
  passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 76, roll on/roll off 3,
  specialized tanker 7, vehicle carrier 8
  foreign-owned: 562 (Australia 1, Belgium 3, Canada 28, China 274,
  Denmark 6, Germany 6, Greece 27, Indonesia 4, Japan 67, South Korea
  6, Norway 26, Philippines 16, Portugal 1, Singapore 24, Syria 1,
  Taiwan 6, UAE 2, UK 43, US 21)
  registered in other countries: 417 (Bahamas 8, Belize 8, Bermuda 10,
  Cambodia 15, China 7, Cyprus 1, France 1, French Southern and
  Antarctic Lands 2, Greece 1, Honduras 2, India 1, Liberia 37,
  Malaysia 14, Malta 2, Marshall Islands 7, Norway 55, Panama 169,
  Philippines 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Singapore 50,
  Taiwan 3, Tuvalu 8, unknown 7) (2006)

Iceland
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 3,354 GRT/480 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 1
  registered in other countries: 34 (Antigua and Barbuda 8, Bahamas 1,
  Belize 2, Faroe Islands 4, Gibraltar 1, Malta 4, Norway 4, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 10) (2006)

India
  total: 316 ships (1000 GRT or over) 7,772,313 GRT/13,310,858
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 96, cargo 72, chemical tanker 13, container 8,
  liquefied gas 17, passenger 3, passenger/cargo 10, petroleum tanker
  96, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (China 2, Hong Kong 1, UAE 6, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 46 (Bahamas 1, Comoros 1, Cyprus 5,
  North Korea 1, Liberia 3, Malta 1, Mauritius 2, Panama 19, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Singapore 5, Venezuela 1, unknown 1)
  (2006)

Indonesia
  total: 824 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,773,771
  GRT/4,887,614 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 43, cargo 451, chemical tanker 21, container
  50, liquefied gas 7, livestock carrier 1, passenger 41,
  passenger/cargo 58, petroleum tanker 132, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 12, specialized tanker 4, vehicle carrier 2
  foreign-owned: 30 (France 1, Germany 1, Japan 3, South Korea 1,
  Norway 1, Philippines 1, Singapore 17, Switzerland 3, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 122 (Bahamas 4, Belize 2, Bermuda 1,
  Cambodia 1, Georgia 1, Hong Kong 4, Liberia 1, Panama 50, Singapore
  56, Thailand 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Iran
  total: 141 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,086,702 GRT/8,878,829 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 39, cargo 45, chemical tanker 4, container 12,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker
  30, roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 22 (Bolivia 1, Cyprus 2, Malta 14,
  Panama 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1) (2006)

Iraq
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 67,796 GRT/101,317 DWT
  by type: cargo 11, petroleum tanker 2 (2006)

Ireland
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 103,589 GRT/145,044 DWT
  by type: cargo 19, chemical tanker 2, container 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Germany 2, US 2)
  registered in other countries: 21 (Bahamas 2, Bermuda 1, Cyprus 3,
  Gibraltar 1, Netherlands 10, Panama 2, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 1, UK 1) (2006)

Isle of Man
  total: 305 ships (1000 GRT or over) 8,266,229
  GRT/13,792,927 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 38, cargo 65, chemical tanker 53, container
  16, liquefied gas 38, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 74,
  refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 9, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 213 (Cyprus 1, Denmark 53, Estonia 2, France 2,
  Germany 56, Greece 45, Italy 5, Japan 4, Monaco 3, Netherlands 1,
  Norway 27, Singapore 7, Sweden 1, Turkey 3, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 9 (Antigua and Barbuda 2, Liberia 5,
  Marshall Islands 1, NZ 1) (2006)

Israel
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 716,382 GRT/845,053 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, container 16
  registered in other countries: 51 (Bahamas 1, Bermuda 3, Cyprus 3,
  Honduras 1, Liberia 5, Malta 23, Panama 6, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 2, Slovakia 7) (2006)

Italy
  total: 591 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,737,175 GRT/12,573,225
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 52, cargo 45, chemical tanker 136, container
  25, liquefied gas 37, livestock carrier 3, passenger 16,
  passenger/cargo 150, petroleum tanker 49, refrigerated cargo 4, roll
  on/roll off 33, specialized tanker 13, vehicle carrier 28
  foreign-owned: 36 (France 1, Greece 6, Spain 1, Taiwan 10, UK 3, US
  15)
  registered in other countries: 152 (Bahamas 5, Belize 4, Cayman
  Islands 12, Cyprus 2, France 2, Germany 1, Gibraltar 6, Isle of Man
  5, Jamaica 1, Liberia 16, Malta 29, Marshall Islands 1, Norway 4,
  Panama 15, Portugal 12, Romania 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  18, Singapore 2, Spain 2, Sweden 7, Turkey 3, UK 4) (2006)

Jamaica
  total: 10 ships (1000 GRT or over) 124,323 GRT/184,247 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 5, cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll
  off 2
  foreign-owned: 10 (Germany 3, Greece 6, Italy 1) (2006)

Japan
  total: 683 ships (1000 GRT or over) 10,415,892 GRT/11,765,038
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 134, cargo 30, chemical tanker 20, container
  11, liquefied gas 59, passenger 14, passenger/cargo 149, petroleum
  tanker 156, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 51, vehicle
  carrier 56
  registered in other countries: 2,459 (Australia 1, Bahamas 51,
  Belize 2, Burma 4, Cambodia 4, Cayman Islands 1, China 3, Cyprus 17,
  French Southern and Antarctic Lands 4, Honduras 4, Hong Kong 67,
  Indonesia 3, Isle of Man 4, South Korea 1, Liberia 102, Malaysia 4,
  Malta 1, Marshall Islands 7, Mongolia 1, Norway 1, Panama 2007,
  Philippines 26, Portugal 9, Singapore 100, Sweden 2, Thailand 4,
  Vanuatu 28, unknown 1) (2006)

Jordan
  total: 25 ships (1000 GRT or over) 346,698 GRT/501,060 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 9, container 2, passenger/cargo 6,
  petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 11 (UAE 11)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Bahamas 2, Panama 13) (2006)

Kazakhstan
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 27,173 GRT/43,475 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, petroleum tanker 3, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Oman 2) (2006)

Kenya
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 6,049 GRT/7,082 DWT
  by type: passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 1
  registered in other countries: 6 (Bahamas 1, Comoros 1, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 2, Tuvalu 1, unknown 1) (2006)

Kiribati
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,749 GRT/3,911 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1) (2006)

Korea, North
  total: 232 ships (1000 GRT or over) 983,182
  GRT/1,370,104 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 14, cargo 176, chemical tanker 1, container 4,
  livestock carrier 3, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 17,
  refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 8, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 60 (British Virgin Islands 1, China 1, Denmark 1,
  Egypt 2, Greece 1, India 1, Lebanon 6, Lithuania 1, Marshall Islands
  1, Pakistan 3, Romania 11, Russia 1, Singapore 1, Syria 14, Turkey
  4, UAE 6, US 3, Yemen 2)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Belize 2, Mongolia 3) (2006)

Korea, South
  total: 669 ships (1000 GRT or over) 8,634,188
  GRT/13,733,624 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 157, cargo 193, chemical tanker 98, container
  81, liquefied gas 22, passenger 5, passenger/cargo 24, petroleum
  tanker 57, refrigerated cargo 17, roll on/roll off 6, specialized
  tanker 3, vehicle carrier 6
  foreign-owned: 22 (France 12, Japan 1, UK 2, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 365 (Belize 4, Cambodia 23, China 2,
  Cyprus 1, Georgia 1, Honduras 6, Hong Kong 6, Indonesia 1, Liberia
  3, Malaysia 1, Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Panama 291, Singapore
  17, unknown 2) (2006)

Kuwait
  total: 38 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,424,983 GRT/3,996,755 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 1, container 6, liquefied gas 5,
  livestock carrier 3, petroleum tanker 21
  registered in other countries: 28 (Bahrain 3, Comoros 1, Liberia 1,
  Libya 1, Panama 2, Qatar 7, Saudi Arabia 5, UAE 8) (2006)

Laos
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,370 GRT/3,110 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Latvia
  total: 21 ships (1000 GRT or over) 250,559 GRT/336,136 DWT
  by type: cargo 7, chemical tanker 1, liquefied gas 2,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 7, roll on/roll off 1
  registered in other countries: 105 (Antigua and Barbuda 5, Bahamas
  1, Belize 6, Cambodia 2, Cyprus 4, Dominica 1, Gibraltar 2, Liberia
  14, Malta 40, Marshall Islands 7, Panama 3, Russia 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 18) (2006)

Lebanon
  total: 39 ships (1000 GRT or over) 150,598 GRT/178,295 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 18, livestock carrier 10,
  refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 3, vehicle carrier 3
  foreign-owned: 4 (Greece 3, Syria 1)
  registered in other countries: 59 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Barbados
  1, Cambodia 6, Comoros 6, Egypt 2, Georgia 7, Honduras 1, North
  Korea 6, Liberia 2, Malta 10, Mongolia 1, Panama 2, Saint Vincent
  and the Grenadines 4, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Syria 7, unknown 2)
  (2006)

Liberia
  total: 1,687 ships (1000 GRT or over) 62,522,787
  GRT/96,776,521 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 322, cargo 83, chemical
  tanker 199, combination ore/oil 2, container 477, liquefied gas 75,
  passenger 2, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 397, refrigerated
  cargo 76, roll on/roll off 4, specialized tanker 11, vehicle carrier
  35
  foreign-owned: 1,611 (Argentina 7, Australia 2, Austria 13, Bahamas,
  The 1, Bermuda 1, Brazil 3, Canada 2, China 35, Croatia 7, Cyprus 3,
  Denmark 8, Estonia 1, France 3, Germany 587, Greece 267, Hong Kong
  37, India 3, Indonesia 1, Isle of Man 5, Israel 5, Italy 16, Japan
  102, South Korea 3, Kuwait 1, Latvia 14, Lebanon 2, Mexico 1, Monaco
  10, Netherlands 29, Norway 38, Poland 14, Qatar 2, Russia 77, Saudi
  Arabia 24, Singapore 28, Slovenia 2, Sweden 8, Switzerland 7, Taiwan
  69, Turkey 1, UAE 18, UK 41, Ukraine 16, Uruguay 3, US 93, unknown
  1) (2006)

Libya
  total: 18 ships (1000 GRT or over) 86,034 GRT/89,820 DWT
  by type: cargo 10, liquefied gas 3, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Kuwait 1, Norway 1, Turkey 2) (2006)

Lithuania
  total: 49 ships (1000 GRT or over) 353,094 GRT/352,883 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 20, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
  passenger/cargo 5, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 14, roll
  on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (Denmark 10)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Antigua and Barbuda 3, Belize 1,
  North Korea 1, Norway 1, Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  3, unknown 3) (2006)

Luxembourg
  total: 42 ships (1000 GRT or over) 557,636 GRT/792,069 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, chemical tanker 16, container 7, liquefied
  gas 2, passenger 3, petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 42 (Belgium 9, Finland 4, France 14, Germany 10,
  Netherlands 2, US 3) (2006)

Madagascar
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 13,896 GRT/18,466 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, passenger 2, petroleum tanker 2 (2006)

Malaysia
  total: 312 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,542,727 GRT/7,544,154
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 19, cargo 99, chemical tanker 38, container
  48, liquefied gas 27, livestock carrier 1, passenger/cargo 8,
  petroleum tanker 61, roll on/roll off 5, vehicle carrier 6
  foreign-owned: 66 (China 1, Germany 2, Hong Kong 14, Japan 4, South
  Korea 1, Singapore 44)
  registered in other countries: 68 (Bahamas 12, Belize 1, Cayman
  Islands 1, Mongolia 1, Panama 13, Philippines 1, Singapore 35, US 4)
  (2006)

Maldives
  total: 17 ships (1000 GRT or over) 67,149 GRT/87,220 DWT
  by type: cargo 13, petroleum tanker 2, refrigerated cargo 2
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Malta
  total: 1,220 ships (1000 GRT or over) 23,917,414
  GRT/38,685,924 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 434, cargo 344, chemical tanker 105,
  combination ore/oil 1, container 59, liquefied gas 7, livestock
  carrier 1, passenger 15, passenger/cargo 14, petroleum tanker 146,
  refrigerated cargo 43, roll on/roll off 33, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 16
  foreign-owned: 1,162 (Austria 1, Azerbaijan 2, Bangladesh 3, Belgium
  10, Bulgaria 13, Canada 18, China 14, Croatia 10, Cyprus 15, Denmark
  6, Estonia 4, France 6, Germany 64, Greece 495, Hong Kong 2, Iceland
  4, India 1, Iran 14, Israel 23, Italy 29, Japan 1, South Korea 6,
  Latvia 40, Lebanon 10, Monaco 1, Netherlands 6, Norway 49, Pakistan
  1, Poland 27, Portugal 3, Romania 9, Russia 70, Slovenia 3, Spain 6,
  Sweden 3, Switzerland 21, Syria 7, Taiwan 2, Turkey 123, UAE 5, UK
  8, Ukraine 24, US 3)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Panama 3, Portugal 1, Russia 4)
  (2006)

Marshall Islands
  total: 795 ships (1000 GRT or over) 30,772,611
  GRT/50,987,293 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 2, bulk carrier 178, cargo 53, chemical
  tanker 133, container 147, liquefied gas 25, passenger 7, petroleum
  tanker 234, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 7, specialized
  tanker 2, vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 730 (Australia 2, Bermuda 4, Brazil 1, Canada 6,
  Chile 1, Croatia 2, Cyprus 15, Denmark 1, Finland 2, Germany 194,
  Greece 199, Hong Kong 7, Isle of Man 1, Italy 1, Japan 7, South
  Korea 1, Latvia 7, Monaco 8, Netherlands 1, Norway 65, Russia 1,
  Saudi Arabia 1, Singapore 6, Slovenia 3, Spain 3, Switzerland 13,
  Turkey 20, UAE 3, UK 12, US 143)
  registered in other countries: 1 (North Korea 1) (2006)

Mauritius
  total: 6 ships (1000 GRT or over) 22,386 GRT/23,214 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, passenger/cargo 2, refrigerated cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (India 2, Switzerland 2) (2006)

Mexico
  total: 56 ships (1000 GRT or over) 751,607 GRT/1,129,234 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 6, chemical tanker 6, liquefied gas
  4, passenger/cargo 9, petroleum tanker 25, roll on/roll off 4
  foreign-owned: 5 (Denmark 2, France 1, Norway 1, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Belize 1, Honduras 1, Liberia 1,
  Panama 5, Portugal 1, Spain 3, Venezuela 3) (2006)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over)
  2,423 GRT/1,551 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1 (2006)

Moldova
  total: 7 ships (1000 GRT or over) 13,831 GRT/15,003 DWT
  by type: cargo 7
  foreign-owned: 3 (Ukraine 3) (2006)

Monaco
  registered in other countries: 77 (Bahamas 17, Barbados 1,
  Bermuda 2, France 1, Georgia 13, Isle of Man 3, Liberia 10, Malta 1,
  Marshall Islands 8, Norway 4, Panama 9, Saint Kitts and Nevis 1,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 4, Switzerland 2, unknown 1) (2006)

Mongolia
  total: 61 ships (1000 GRT or over) 319,053 GRT/479,190 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 49, passenger/cargo 1, roll on/roll
  off 3
  foreign-owned: 49 (China 4, Japan 1, North Korea 3, Lebanon 1,
  Malaysia 1, Russia 13, Singapore 10, Syria 1, Thailand 1, UAE 5,
  Ukraine 1, Vietnam 8) (2006)

Montenegro
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 9,458 GRT/10,172 DWT
  by type: cargo 4
  registered in other countries: 4 (Bahamas 2, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 2) (2006)

Morocco
  total: 41 ships (1000 GRT or over) 382,781 GRT/285,435 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, chemical tanker 6, container 9, passenger/cargo
  13, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 5
  foreign-owned: 5 (France 1, Germany 2, Switzerland 1, UK 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Mozambique
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,964 GRT/5,324 DWT
  by type: cargo 2
  foreign-owned: 2 (Belgium 2) (2006)

Namibia
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,265 GRT/3,605 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Netherlands
  total: 558 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,042,775
  GRT/5,016,265 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 29, cargo 345, chemical tanker 29, container
  59, liquefied gas 12, passenger 14, passenger/cargo 14, petroleum
  tanker 16, refrigerated cargo 19, roll on/roll off 18, specialized
  tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 157 (Australia 1, Belgium 2, Denmark 9, Finland 13,
  Germany 56, Ireland 10, Netherlands Antilles 1, Norway 7, Sweden 26,
  UK 19, US 13)
  registered in other countries: 222 (Antigua and Barbuda 14,
  Australia 2, Austria 2, Bahamas 24, Canada 1, Cayman Islands 4,
  Cyprus 18, Gibraltar 5, Isle of Man 1, Liberia 29, Luxembourg 2,
  Malta 6, Marshall Islands 1, Netherlands Antilles 54, Norway 3,
  Panama 21, Philippines 19, Portugal 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 5, Singapore 2, UK 3, US 4, unknown 1) (2006)

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 152 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,289,462
  GRT/1,671,649 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 3, bulk carrier 13, cargo 68, chemical tanker
  3, container 19, liquefied gas 4, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3,
  petroleum tanker 2, refrigerated cargo 28, roll on/roll off 4,
  specialized tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 143 (Belgium 4, Cuba 1, Denmark 1, Germany 60,
  Netherlands 54, Norway 5, Sweden 5, Turkey 9, UK 3, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Netherlands 1) (2006)

New Caledonia
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,566 GRT/2,543 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 1 (2006)

New Zealand
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 136,361 GRT/124,972
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 1, passenger/cargo 5, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 2, Germany 1, Isle of Man 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Cook
  Islands 1, Dominica 4, France 1, UK 1) (2006)

Nigeria
  total: 52 ships (1000 GRT or over) 277,709 GRT/475,414 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, chemical tanker 5, combination ore/oil 1,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 36, specialized
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 4 (Norway 1, Pakistan 1, Singapore 1, Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 28 (Bahamas 2, Bermuda 11, Cambodia
  2, Comoros 2, Panama 7, Poland 1, Seychelles 1, unknown 2) (2006)

Norway
  total: 724 ships (1000 GRT or over) 14,472,103 GRT/20,245,353
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 67, cargo 153, chemical tanker 150, container
  2, liquefied gas 79, passenger/cargo 121, petroleum tanker 75,
  refrigerated cargo 9, roll on/roll off 19, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 47
  foreign-owned: 168 (China 3, Cyprus 2, Denmark 32, Estonia 1,
  Finland 4, Greece 1, Hong Kong 55, Iceland 4, Italy 4, Japan 1,
  Lithuania 1, Monaco 4, Netherlands 3, Poland 2, Saudi Arabia 3,
  Sweden 28, UAE 1, UK 6, US 13)
  registered in other countries: 861 (Antigua and Barbuda 11,
  Australia 1, Bahamas 259, Barbados 29, Belize 2, Bermuda 5, Brazil
  2, Cambodia 1, Canada 1, Cayman Islands 2, China 1, Comoros 1, Cook
  Islands 1, Cyprus 16, Denmark 3, Dominica 1, Ecuador 1, Estonia 2,
  Faroe Islands 4, Finland 1, France 1, French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands 12, Gibraltar 18, Hong Kong 26, Indonesia 1, Isle of Man 27,
  Liberia 38, Libya 1, Malta 49, Marshall Islands 65, Mexico 1,
  Netherlands 7, Netherlands Antilles 5, Nigeria 1, Panama 66,
  Philippines 3, Portugal 4, Russia 1, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 16, Singapore 90, Spain 7, Sweden 7, Thailand 30, Tonga
  1, UK 36, US 2, unknown 2) (2006)

Oman
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 10,797 GRT/5,040 DWT
  by type: passenger 1
  registered in other countries: 2 (Kazakhstan 2) (2006)

Pakistan
  total: 16 ships (1000 GRT or over) 397,740 GRT/657,656 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 10, container 1, petroleum tanker 4
  registered in other countries: 11 (Comoros 2, North Korea 3, Malta
  1, Nigeria 1, Panama 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1) (2006)

Panama
  total: 5,473 ships (1000 GRT or over) 146,511,342
  GRT/219,940,567 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 1,776, cargo 992, chemical
  tanker 476, combination ore/oil 2, container 663, liquefied gas 193,
  livestock carrier 7, passenger 49, passenger/cargo 77, petroleum
  tanker 518, refrigerated cargo 299, roll on/roll off 123,
  specialized tanker 23, vehicle carrier 274
  foreign-owned: 4,922 (Anguilla 1, Argentina 9, Australia 3, Bahamas,
  The 2, Belgium 11, Bermuda 1, Bulgaria 1, Canada 4, Chile 9, China
  420, Colombia 5, Croatia 5, Cuba 11, Cyprus 14, Denmark 34, Egypt
  16, Estonia 3, France 15, Gabon 1, Germany 35, Greece 524, Hong Kong
  169, India 19, Indonesia 50, Iran 4, Ireland 2, Israel 6, Italy 15,
  Japan 2007, Jordan 13, South Korea ( ( (291, Kuwait 2, Latvia 3,
  Lebanon 2, Lithuania 5, Malaysia 13, Maldives 1, Malta 3, Mexico 5,
  Monaco 9, Morocco 1, Netherlands 21, Nigeria 7, Norway 66, Pakistan
  3, Peru 15, Philippines 13, Poland 15, Portugal 10, Qatar 1, Romania
  9, Russia 7, Saudi Arabia 8, Singapore 67, South Africa 3, Spain 53,
  Sri Lanka 5, Sudan 1, Sweden 5, Switzerland 226, Syria 18, Taiwan
  308, Thailand 9, Trinidad and Tobago 1, Turkey 42, UAE 105, UK 37,
  Ukraine 8, US 94, Venezuela 14, Vietnam 4, Yemen 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Venezuela 1) (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 24 ships (1000 GRT or over) 55,532
  GRT/72,240 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 18, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum
  tanker 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 6 (UK 6) (2006)

Paraguay
  total: 21 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,749 GRT/39,280 DWT
  by type: cargo 15, livestock carrier 1, passenger 1, passenger/cargo
  1, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 3 (Argentina 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Ecuador 1) (2006)

Peru
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 38,954 GRT/62,255 DWT
  by type: cargo 3, petroleum tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (US 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Panama 15) (2006)

Philippines
  total: 403 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,661,285
  GRT/6,426,183 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 82, cargo 115, chemical tanker 13, container
  6, liquefied gas 5, livestock carrier 17, passenger 9,
  passenger/cargo 73, petroleum tanker 42, refrigerated cargo 15, roll
  on/roll off 13, vehicle carrier 13
  foreign-owned: 66 (Greece 5, Hong Kong 3, Japan 26, Malaysia 1,
  Netherlands 19, Norway 3, UAE 1, US 8)
  registered in other countries: 41 (Australia 1, Bahamas 1, Cambodia
  1, Cayman Islands 1, Comoros 1, Cyprus 1, Hong Kong 16, Indonesia 1,
  Panama 13, Singapore 5) (2006)

Poland
  total: 11 ships (1000 GRT or over) 55,701 GRT/45,082 DWT
  by type: cargo 6, chemical tanker 2, passenger/cargo 1, roll on/roll
  off 1, vehicle carrier 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Nigeria 1)
  registered in other countries: 106 (Antigua and Barbuda 3, Bahamas
  15, Belize 2, Cyprus 20, Liberia 14, Malta 27, Norway 2, Panama 15,
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Slovakia 2, Vanuatu 5) (2006)

Portugal
  total: 111 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,077,300 GRT/1,363,435
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 11, cargo 27, chemical tanker 15, container 7,
  liquefied gas 11, passenger 9, passenger/cargo 10, petroleum tanker
  8, roll on/roll off 4, vehicle carrier 9
  foreign-owned: 82 (Australia 1, Belgium 8, Cyprus 1, Denmark 4,
  Germany 17, Greece 4, Italy 12, Japan 9, Malta 1, Mexico 1,
  Netherlands 1, Norway 4, Spain 15, Switzerland 3, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 16 (Cyprus 2, Hong Kong 1, Malta 3,
  Panama 10) (2006)

Puerto Rico
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 77,177 GRT/50,138 DWT
  by type: roll on/roll off 3
  foreign-owned: 3 (US 3)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1) (2006)

Qatar
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 750,669 GRT/1,177,673 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 3, container 8, liquefied gas 2,
  petroleum tanker 7, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 8 (Kuwait 7, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 4 (Honduras 1, Liberia 2, Panama 1)
  (2006)

Reunion
  registered in other countries: 1 (Bahamas 1) (2006)

Romania
  total: 23 ships (1000 GRT or over) 198,767 GRT/246,732 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 15, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 2,
  petroleum tanker 3, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Italy 1)
  registered in other countries: 48 (Georgia 11, North Korea 11, Malta
  9, Panama 9, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Syria 3, unknown 4)
  (2006)

Russia
  total: 1,178 ships (1000 GRT or over) 5,080,341 GRT/6,287,784
  DWT
  by type: barge carrier 1, bulk carrier 46, cargo 743, chemical
  tanker 25, combination ore/oil 38, container 13, passenger 12,
  passenger/cargo 7, petroleum tanker 219, refrigerated cargo 54, roll
  on/roll off 15, specialized tanker 5
  foreign-owned: 100 (Belgium 4, Canada 1, Cyprus 2, Estonia 1,
  Germany 2, Greece 1, Latvia 2, Malta 4, Norway 1, Switzerland 7,
  Turkey 63, Ukraine 11, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 465 (Antigua and Barbuda 6, Bahamas
  6, Belize 36, Bulgaria 1, Cambodia 105, Comoros 4, Cyprus 53,
  Dominica 2, Finland 1, Georgia 28, North Korea 1, Liberia 77, Malta
  70, Marshall Islands 1, Mongolia 13, Panama 7, Saint Kitts and Nevis
  5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 29, Sierra Leone 1, Tuvalu 2,
  Ukraine 1, Vanuatu 1, Venezuela 1, unknown 14) (2006)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 50 ships (1000 GRT or over) 261,556
  GRT/381,593 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 36, chemical tanker 5,
  passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 5, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 41 (Greece 1, Monaco 1, Russia 5, Spain 2, Syria 3,
  Tanzania 1, Turkey 6, UAE 19, Ukraine 3) (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 589 ships (1000 GRT or over)
  5,449,699 GRT/8,051,250 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 106, cargo 351, chemical tanker 5, container
  20, liquefied gas 7, livestock carrier 1, passenger 5,
  passenger/cargo 15, petroleum tanker 18, refrigerated cargo 38, roll
  on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 3
  foreign-owned: 529 (Bangladesh 1, Barbados 1, Belgium 3, Bulgaria
  17, Canada 6, China 103, Croatia 9, Cyprus 1, Czech Republic
  registered in other countries: 1 (Comoros 1) (2006)

Samoa
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 7,091 GRT/8,127 DWT
  by type: cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Germany 1) (2006)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 21,527
  GRT/29,823 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 7
  foreign-owned: 3 (Egypt 1, Greece 1, Lebanon 1) (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 60 ships (1000 GRT or over) 837,272
  GRT/1,064,377 DWT
  by type: cargo 5, chemical tanker 15, container 4, passenger/cargo
  8, petroleum tanker 18, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 9
  foreign-owned: 9 (Egypt 2, Kuwait 5, Sudan 1, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 55 (Bahamas 12, Comoros 3, Dominica
  3, French Southern and Antarctic Lands 1, Liberia 24, Marshall
  Islands 1, Norway 3, Panama 8) (2006)

Serbia
  note: see entry for Montenegro

Seychelles
  total: 5 ships (1000 GRT or over) 69,777 GRT/113,501 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 4
  foreign-owned: 1 (Nigeria 1) (2006)

Sierra Leone
  total: 54 ships (1000 GRT or over) 185,037 GRT/249,996
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 2, cargo 36, chemical tanker 3, combination
  ore/oil 3, liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 1, passenger 1,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 2, roll on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 14 (China 2, Cyprus 1, Egypt 1, Russia 1, Syria 1,
  UAE 3, Ukraine 4, US 1) (2006)

Singapore
  total: 1,063 ships (1000 GRT or over) 31,033,735
  GRT/49,715,650 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 155, cargo 87, chemical tanker 136, container
  214, liquefied gas 53, livestock carrier 1, passenger/cargo 1,
  petroleum tanker 353, refrigerated cargo 10, roll on/roll off 2,
  specialized tanker 11, vehicle carrier 40
  foreign-owned: 592 (Australia 7, Bangladesh 1, Belgium 12, China 23,
  Denmark 52, Germany 9, Greece 9, Hong Kong 50, India 5, Indonesia
  56, Italy 2, Japan 100, South Korea 17, Malaysia 35, Netherlands 2,
  Norway 90, Philippines 5, Slovenia 1, Sweden 12, Taiwan 59, Thailand
  22, UAE 7, UK 9, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 285 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Bahamas
  12, Belize 6, Bolivia 3, Cambodia 4, Cayman Islands 10, Cyprus 1,
  Dominica 9, France 2, Honduras 11, Hong Kong 24, Indonesia 17, Isle
  of Man 7, North Korea 1, Liberia 28, Malaysia 44, Marshall Islands
  6, Mongolia 10, Nigeria 1, Panama 67, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 5, Thailand 6, Tuvalu 6, US 2, unknown 2) (2006)

Slovakia
  total: 43 ships (1000 GRT or over) 217,819 GRT/309,049 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 36, chemical tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 40 (Bulgaria 7, Estonia 1, Greece 4, Israel 7, Poland
  2, Syria 2, Turkey 8, UK 1, Ukraine 8)
  registered in other countries: 2 (Cyprus 1, Georgia 1) (2006)

Slovenia
  registered in other countries: 26 (Antigua and Barbuda 6,
  Bahamas 1, Cyprus 4, Georgia 1, Liberia 2, Malta 3, Marshall Islands
  3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 5, Singapore 1) (2006)

Somalia
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 2,659 GRT/2,540 DWT
  by type: cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1) (2006)

South Africa
  total: 3 ships (1000 GRT or over) 32,815 GRT/39,295 DWT
  by type: container 1, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Denmark 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Panama 3, UK 5) (2006)

Spain
  total: 169 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,902,839 GRT/1,874,161 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 9, cargo 13, chemical tanker 14, container 27,
  liquefied gas 9, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 49, petroleum tanker
  15, refrigerated cargo 5, roll on/roll off 20, specialized tanker 2,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 36 (Cuba 1, Denmark 1, Germany 12, Italy 2, Mexico 3,
  Norway 7, UK 1, Uruguay 2, US 7)
  registered in other countries: 112 (Bahamas 12, Belize 3, Brazil 4,
  Cambodia 1, Cape Verde 1, Cuba 1, Cyprus 7, Italy 1, Malta 6,
  Marshall Islands 3, Nigeria 1, Panama 53, Portugal 15, Saint Kitts
  and Nevis 2, UK 1, Venezuela 1) (2006)

Sri Lanka
  total: 22 ships (1000 GRT or over) 144,066 GRT/196,418 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 17, container 2, petroleum tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 7 (Germany 5, UAE 2)
  registered in other countries: 5 (Panama 5) (2006)

Sudan
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,326 GRT/14,068 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, livestock carrier 1
  registered in other countries: 2 (Panama 1, Saudi Arabia 1) (2006)

Suriname
  total: 1 ship (1000 GRT or over) 1,078 GRT/1,214 DWT
  by type: cargo 1 (2006)

Sweden
  total: 198 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,703,834 GRT/2,382,754
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 28, chemical tanker 47, container 5,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 36, petroleum tanker 15, roll on/roll
  off 31, specialized tanker 4, vehicle carrier 21
  foreign-owned: 37 (Belgium 2, Denmark 4, Finland 11, Germany 3,
  Italy 7, Japan 2, Norway 7, US 1)
  registered in other countries: 161 (Bahamas 6, Bermuda 14, Cayman
  Islands 9, Cook Islands 3, Cyprus 3, Denmark 1, France 2, French
  Southern and Antarctic Lands 9, Gibraltar 5, Isle of Man 1, Liberia
  8, Malta 3, Netherlands 26, Netherlands Antilles 5, Norway 28,
  Panama 5, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Singapore 12, UK 15,
  US 5) (2006)

Switzerland
  total: 27 ships (1000 GRT or over) 492,434 GRT/810,559
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 9, cargo 10, chemical tanker 3, container 4,
  specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 2 (Monaco 2)
  registered in other countries: 320 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Bahamas
  2, Belize 1, Bermuda 2, Cyprus 4, France 2, French Southern and
  Antarctic Lands 1, Germany 1, Indonesia 3, Liberia 7, Malta 21,
  Marshall Islands 13, Mauritius 2, Morocco 1, Panama 226, Portugal 3,
  Russia 7, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 13, Tonga 1, Turkey 1, UK
  3, Vanuatu 2) (2006)

Syria
  total: 108 ships (1000 GRT or over) 386,603 GRT/563,506 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 8, cargo 93, container 1, livestock carrier 4,
  petroleum tanker 1, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 11 (Lebanon 7, Romania 3, UAE 1)
  registered in other countries: 130 (Cambodia 20, Comoros 4, Cyprus
  3, Dominica 1, Georgia 43, Hong Kong 1, North Korea 14, Lebanon 1,
  Malta 7, Mongolia 1, Panama 18, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 6, Sierra Leone 1, Slovakia 2, unknown 5)
  (2006)

Taiwan
  total: 112 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,798,992 GRT/4,652,921
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 35, cargo 22, chemical tanker 2, container 25,
  passenger/cargo 3, petroleum tanker 16, refrigerated cargo 7, roll
  on/roll off 2
  foreign-owned: 3 (Hong Kong 3)
  registered in other countries: 463 (Bolivia 1, Cambodia 2, Honduras
  2, Hong Kong 6, Italy 10, Liberia 69, Malta 2, Panama 308, Singapore
  59, UK 1, US 1, unknown 2) (2006)

Tanzania
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 24,801 GRT/31,507 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 4
  registered in other countries: 2 (Honduras 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis
  1) (2006)

Thailand
  total: 400 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,808,509 GRT/4,317,320
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 60, cargo 145, chemical tanker 14, container
  21, liquefied gas 29, passenger 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum
  tanker 91, refrigerated cargo 32, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 45 (China 1, Egypt 1, Indonesia 1, Japan 4, Norway
  30, Singapore 6, UK 2)
  registered in other countries: 34 (Bahamas 1, Mongolia 1, Panama 9,
  Singapore 22, Tuvalu 1) (2006)

Togo
  total: 2 ships (1000 GRT or over) 3,918 GRT/3,852 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, refrigerated cargo 1 (2006)

Tonga
  total: 16 ships (1000 GRT or over) 62,185 GRT/72,960 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 10, liquefied gas 1, livestock
  carrier 1, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo
  1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Australia 1, Norway 1, Switzerland 1, UK 1) (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 16,760
  GRT/7,941 DWT
  by type: liquefied gas 1, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3, petroleum
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (US 1)
  registered in other countries: 1 (Panama 1) (2006)

Tunisia
  total: 9 ships (1000 GRT or over) 146,759 GRT/115,118 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 1, chemical tanker 3, passenger/cargo
  4 (2006)

Turkey
  total: 545 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,772,864 GRT/7,313,070
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 109, cargo 239, chemical tanker 50, container
  24, liquefied gas 6, passenger 4, passenger/cargo 50, petroleum
  tanker 36, refrigerated cargo 1, roll on/roll off 24, specialized
  tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 7 (Cyprus 2, Germany 1, Italy 3, Switzerland 1)
  registered in other countries: 411 (Albania 1, Antigua and Barbuda
  8, Bahamas 8, Belize 11, Cambodia 26, Comoros 11, Dominica 3,
  Georgia 30, Isle of Man 3, North Korea 4, Liberia 1, Libya 2, Malta
  123, Marshall Islands 20, Netherlands Antilles 9, Panama 42, Russia
  63, Saint Kitts and Nevis 6, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 25,
  Slovakia 8, Tuvalu 2, UK 2, unknown 3) (2006)

Turkmenistan
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 22,870 GRT/25,801 DWT
  by type: cargo 4, combination ore/oil 1, petroleum tanker 2,
  refrigerated cargo 1 (2006)

Tuvalu
  total: 52 ships (1000 GRT or over) 196,790 GRT/256,436 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 3, cargo 37, chemical tanker 1, container 2,
  passenger 3, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 4, specialized
  tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 43 (China 23, Hong Kong 8, Kenya 1, Russia 2,
  Singapore 6, Thailand 1, Turkey 2) (2006)

Ukraine
  total: 202 ships (1000 GRT or over) 782,456 GRT/911,201 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 151, container 4, passenger 6,
  passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 11, roll
  on/roll off 7, specialized tanker 2
  foreign-owned: 1 (Russia 1)
  registered in other countries: 160 (Belize 7, Cambodia 17, Comoros
  14, Cyprus 4, Dominica 2, Georgia 22, Liberia 16, Malta 24, Moldova
  3, Mongolia 1, Panama 8, Russia 11, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 12, Sierra Leone 4, Slovakia 8, unknown
  4) (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 58 ships (1000 GRT or over) 656,003
  GRT/891,837 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 6, cargo 7, chemical tanker 5, container 6,
  liquefied gas 1, passenger/cargo 6, petroleum tanker 20, roll
  on/roll off 6, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 10 (Greece 2, Kuwait 8)
  registered in other countries: 259 (Bahamas 16, Barbados 1, Belize
  5, Cambodia 1, Comoros 6, Cyprus 11, Dominica 2, Georgia 1, Hong
  Kong 2, India 6, Iran 1, Jordan 11, Kiribati 1, North Korea 6,
  Liberia 18, Malta 5, Marshall Islands 3, Mexico 1, Mongolia 5,
  Norway 1, Panama 105, Philippines 1, Saint Kitts and Nevis 19, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 11, Saudi Arabia 1, Sierra Leone 3,
  Singapore 7, Somalia 1, Sri Lanka 2, Syria 1, unknown 5) (2006)

United Kingdom
  total: 449 ships (1000 GRT or over) 11,049,317
  GRT/11,731,680 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 24, cargo 54, chemical tanker 50, container
  146, liquefied gas 17, passenger 9, passenger/cargo 65, petroleum
  tanker 33, refrigerated cargo 17, roll on/roll off 26, vehicle
  carrier 8
  foreign-owned: 215 (Australia 3, Denmark 46, Finland 1, France 4,
  Germany 76, Greece 7, Ireland 1, Italy 4, Netherlands 3, Norway 36,
  NZ 1, South Africa 5, Spain 1, Sweden 15, Switzerland 3, Taiwan 1,
  Turkey 2, US 6)
  registered in other countries: 368 (Algeria 13, Antigua and Barbuda
  7, Argentina 4, Australia 2, Bahamas 69, Barbados 5, Belgium 2,
  Bermuda 9, Brazil 1, Brunei 8, Cape Verde 1, Cayman Islands 10,
  Cyprus 6, Denmark 1, Finland 1, French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  1, Georgia 4, Gibraltar 4, Greece 9, Hong Kong 43, India 1,
  Indonesia 2, Italy 3, South Korea 2, Liberia 41, Malta 8, Marshall
  Islands 12, Morocco 1, Netherlands 19, Netherlands Antilles 3,
  Norway 6, Panama 37, Papua New Guinea 6, Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines 13, Singapore 9, Slovakia 1, Spain 1, Thailand 2, Tonga
  1) (2006)

United States
  total: 465 ships (1000 GRT or over) 10,590,325
  GRT/13,273,133 DWT
  by type: barge carrier 7, bulk carrier 67, cargo 91, chemical tanker
  20, container 76, passenger 19, passenger/cargo 58, petroleum tanker
  76, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 27, specialized tanker 1,
  vehicle carrier 20
  foreign-owned: 51 (Australia 2, Canada 4, Denmark 24, Germany 2,
  Greece 1, Malaysia 4, Netherlands 4, Norway 2, Singapore 2, Sweden
  5, Taiwan 1)
  registered in other countries: 700 (Antigua and Barbuda 7, Australia
  3, Bahamas 121, Belize 5, Bermuda 27, Cambodia 8, Canada 2, Cayman
  Islands 41, Comoros 2, Cyprus 7, Greece 1, Honduras 1, Hong Kong 21,
  Ireland 2, Isle of Man 3, Italy 15, North Korea 3, South Korea 7,
  Liberia 93, Luxembourg 3, Malta 3, Marshall Islands 143, Netherlands
  13, Netherlands Antilles 1, Norway 13, Panama 94, Peru 1,
  Philippines 8, Portugal 1, Puerto Rico 3, Qatar 1, Russia 1, Saint
  Vincent and the Grenadines 21, Sierra Leone 1, Singapore 7, Spain 7,
  Sweden 1, Trinidad and Tobago 1, UK 6, Vanuatu 1, Wallis and Futuna
  1) (2006)

Uruguay
  total: 13 ships (1000 GRT or over) 34,259 GRT/19,725 DWT
  by type: cargo 2, chemical tanker 1, passenger/cargo 7, petroleum
  tanker 2, roll on/roll off 1
  foreign-owned: 4 (Argentina 3, Greece 1)
  registered in other countries: 8 (Argentina 1, Bahamas 2, Liberia 3,
  Spain 2) (2006)

Vanuatu
  total: 51 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,340,132 GRT/1,908,687
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 29, cargo 8, container 1, liquefied gas 2,
  petroleum tanker 1, refrigerated cargo 3, roll on/roll off 2,
  vehicle carrier 5
  foreign-owned: 51 (Australia 2, Canada 5, Denmark 6, Estonia 1,
  Japan 28, Poland 5, Russia 1, Switzerland 2, US 1) (2006)

Venezuela
  total: 56 ships (1000 GRT or over) 824,941 GRT/1,327,924
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 7, cargo 10, chemical tanker 2, container 1,
  liquefied gas 6, passenger/cargo 12, petroleum tanker 18
  foreign-owned: 13 (Denmark 3, Greece 3, India 1, Mexico 3, Panama 1,
  Russia 1, Spain 1)
  registered in other countries: 15 (Bahamas 1, Panama 14) (2006)

Vietnam
  total: 267 ships (1000 GRT or over) 1,423,936 GRT/2,191,858
  DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 23, cargo 202, chemical tanker 4, container 5,
  liquefied gas 5, petroleum tanker 24, refrigerated cargo 2, roll
  on/roll off 1, specialized tanker 1
  foreign-owned: 1 (Denmark 1)
  registered in other countries: 17 (Antigua and Barbuda 1, Honduras
  1, Mongolia 8, Panama 4, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, unknown
  2) (2006)

Wallis and Futuna
  total: 8 ships (1000 GRT or over) 110,428
  GRT/56,830 DWT
  by type: chemical tanker 1, passenger 7
  foreign-owned: 8 (France 5, French Polynesia 2, US 1) (2006)

World
  total: 33,222 ships (1000 GRT or over) (2006)

Yemen
  total: 4 ships (1000 GRT or over) 15,400 GRT/18,072 DWT
  by type: cargo 1, chemical tanker 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll
  on/roll off 1
  registered in other countries: 9 (Bolivia 1, Cambodia 3, North Korea
  2, Panama 3) (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2109  National holiday


Afghanistan
  Independence Day, 19 August (1919)

Albania
  Independence Day, 28 November (1912)

Algeria
  Revolution Day, 1 November (1954)

American Samoa
  Flag Day, 17 April (1900)

Andorra
  Our Lady of Meritxell Day, 8 September (1278)

Angola
  Independence Day, 11 November (1975)

Anguilla
  Anguilla Day, 30 May

Antigua and Barbuda
  Independence Day (National Day), 1 November
  (1981)

Argentina
  Revolution Day, 25 May (1810)

Armenia
  Independence Day, 21 September (1991)

Aruba
  Flag Day, 18 March

Australia
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Austria
  National Day, 26 October (1955); note - commemorates the
  State Treaty restoring national sovereignty and the end of
  occupation and the passage of the law on permanent neutrality

Azerbaijan
  Founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, 28 May
  (1918)

Bahamas, The
  Independence Day, 10 July (1973)

Bahrain
  National Day, 16 December (1971); note - 15 August 1971 is
  the date of independence from the UK, 16 December 1971 is the date
  of independence from British protection

Bangladesh
  Independence Day, 26 March (1971); note - 26 March 1971
  is the date of independence from West Pakistan, 16 December 1971 is
  Victory Day and commemorates the official creation of the state of
  Bangladesh

Barbados
  Independence Day, 30 November (1966)

Belarus
  Independence Day, 3 July (1944); note - 3 July 1944 was the
  date Minsk was liberated from German troops, 25 August 1991 was the
  date of independence from the Soviet Union

Belgium
  21 July (1831) ascension to the Throne of King Leopold I

Belize
  Independence Day, 21 September (1981)

Benin
  National Day, 1 August (1960)

Bermuda
  Bermuda Day, 24 May

Bhutan
  National Day (Ugyen WANGCHUCK became first hereditary king),
  17 December (1907)

Bolivia
  Independence Day, 6 August (1825)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  National Day, 25 November (1943)

Botswana
  Independence Day (Botswana Day), 30 September (1966)

Brazil
  Independence Day, 7 September (1822)

British Virgin Islands
  Territory Day, 1 July

Brunei
  National Day, 23 February (1984); note - 1 January 1984 was
  the date of independence from the UK, 23 February 1984 was the date
  of independence from British protection

Bulgaria
  Liberation Day, 3 March (1878)

Burkina Faso
  Republic Day, 11 December (1958)

Burma
  Independence Day, 4 January (1948); Union Day, 12 February
  (1947)

Burundi
  Independence Day, 1 July (1962)

Cambodia
  Independence Day, 9 November (1953)

Cameroon
  Republic Day (National Day), 20 May (1972)

Canada
  Canada Day, 1 July (1867)

Cape Verde
  Independence Day, 5 July (1975)

Cayman Islands
  Constitution Day, first Monday in July

Central African Republic
  Republic Day, 1 December (1958)

Chad
  Independence Day, 11 August (1960)

Chile
  Independence Day, 18 September (1810)

China
  Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China,
  1 October (1949)

Christmas Island
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Australia Day, 26 January (1788)

Colombia
  Independence Day, 20 July (1810)

Comoros
  Independence Day, 6 July (1975)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Independence Day, 30 June (1960)

Congo, Republic of the
  Independence Day, 15 August (1960)

Cook Islands
  Constitution Day, first Monday in August (1965)

Costa Rica
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Cote d'Ivoire
  Independence Day, 7 August (1960)

Croatia
  Independence Day, 8 October (1991); note - 25 June 1991 is
  the day the Croatian Parliament voted for independence; following a
  three-month moratorium to allow the European Community to solve the
  Yugoslav crisis peacefully, Parliament adopted a decision on 8
  October 1991 to sever constitutional relations with Yugoslavia

Cuba
  Independence Day, 10 December (1898); note - 10 December 1898
  is the date of independence from Spain, 20 May 1902 is the date of
  independence from US administration; Rebellion Day, 26 July (1953)

Cyprus
  Independence Day, 1 October (1960); note - Turkish Cypriots
  celebrate 15 November (1983) as Independence Day

Czech Republic
  Czech Founding Day, 28 October (1918)

Denmark
  none designated; Constitution Day, 5 June (1849) is
  generally viewed as the National Day

Djibouti
  Independence Day, 27 June (1977)

Dominica
  Independence Day, 3 November (1978)

Dominican Republic
  Independence Day, 27 February (1844)

East Timor
  Independence Day, 28 November (1975)

Ecuador
  Independence Day (independence of Quito), 10 August (1809)

Egypt
  Revolution Day, 23 July (1952)

El Salvador
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Equatorial Guinea
  Independence Day, 12 October (1968)

Eritrea
  Independence Day, 24 May (1993)

Estonia
  Independence Day, 24 February (1918); note - 24 February
  1918 is the date Estonia declared its independence from Soviet
  Russia; 20 August 1991 is the date it declared its independence from
  the Soviet Union

Ethiopia
  National Day (defeat of MENGISTU regime), 28 May (1991)

European Union
  Europe Day 9 May (1950); note - a Union-wide holiday,
  the day that Robert SCHUMAN proposed the creation of an organized
  Europe

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Liberation Day, 14 June (1982)

Faroe Islands
  Olaifest (Olavasoka), 29 July

Fiji
  Independence Day, second Monday of October (1970)

Finland
  Independence Day, 6 December (1917)

France
  Fete de la Federation, 14 July (1790); note - although often
  incorrectly referred to as Bastille Day, the celebration actually
  commemorates the holiday held on the first anniversary of the
  storming of the Bastille (on 14 July 1789) and the establishment of
  a constitutional monarchy; other names for the holiday are Fete
  Nationale (National Holiday) and quatorze juillet (14th of July)

French Guiana
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

French Polynesia
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Gabon
  Founding of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), 12 March
  (1968)

Gambia, The
  Independence Day, 18 February (1965)

Georgia
  Independence Day, 26 May (1918); note - 26 May 1918 is the
  date of independence from Soviet Russia, 9 April 1991 is the date of
  independence from the Soviet Union

Germany
  Unity Day, 3 October (1990)

Ghana
  Independence Day, 6 March (1957)

Gibraltar
  National Day, 10 September (1967); note - day of the
  national referendum to decide whether to remain with the UK or go
  with Spain

Greece
  Independence Day, 25 March (1821)

Greenland
  June 21 (longest day)

Grenada
  Independence Day, 7 February (1974)

Guadeloupe
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Guam
  Discovery Day, first Monday in March (1521)

Guatemala
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Guernsey
  Liberation Day, 9 May (1945)

Guinea
  Independence Day, 2 October (1958)

Guinea-Bissau
  Independence Day, 24 September (1973)

Guyana
  Republic Day, 23 February (1970)

Haiti
  Independence Day, 1 January (1804)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Coronation Day of Pope BENEDICT XVI, 24
  April (2005)

Honduras
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Hong Kong
  National Day (Anniversary of the Founding of the People's
  Republic of China), 1 October (1949); note - 1 July 1997 is
  celebrated as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment
  Day

Hungary
  Saint Stephen's Day, 20 August

Iceland
  Independence Day, 17 June (1944)

India
  Republic Day, 26 January (1950)

Indonesia
  Independence Day, 17 August (1945)

Iran
  Republic Day, 1 April (1979)
  note: additional holidays celebrated widely in Iran include
  Revolution Day, 11 February (1979); Noruz (New Year's Day), 21
  March; Constitutional Monarchy Day, 5 August (1925); and various
  Islamic observances that change in accordance with the lunar-based
  hejira calendar

Iraq
  Revolution Day, 17 July (1968); note - this holiday was
  celebrated under the SADDAM Husayn regime but the Iraqi Interim
  Government has yet to declare a new national holiday

Ireland
  Saint Patrick's Day, 17 March

Isle of Man
  Tynwald Day, 5 July

Israel
  Independence Day, 14 May (1948); note - Israel declared
  independence on 14 May 1948, but the Jewish calendar is lunar and
  the holiday may occur in April or May

Italy
  Republic Day, 2 June (1946)

Jamaica
  Independence Day, 6 August (1962)

Japan
  Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (1933)

Jersey
  Liberation Day, 9 May (1945)

Jordan
  Independence Day, 25 May (1946)

Kazakhstan
  Independence Day, 16 December (1991)

Kenya
  Independence Day, 12 December (1963)

Kiribati
  Independence Day, 12 July (1979)

Korea, North
  Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
  (DPRK), 9 September (1948)

Korea, South
  Liberation Day, 15 August (1945)

Kuwait
  National Day, 25 February (1950)

Kyrgyzstan
  Independence Day, 31 August (1991)

Laos
  Republic Day, 2 December (1975)

Latvia
  Independence Day, 18 November (1918); note - 18 November 1918
  is the date Latvia declared itself independent from Soviet Russia; 4
  May 1990 is when it declared the renewal of independence; 21 August
  1991 is the date of de facto independence from the Soviet Union

Lebanon
  Independence Day, 22 November (1943)

Lesotho
  Independence Day, 4 October (1966)

Liberia
  Independence Day, 26 July (1847)

Libya
  Revolution Day, 1 September (1969)

Liechtenstein
  Assumption Day, 15 August

Lithuania
  Independence Day, 16 February (1918); note - 16 February
  1918 is the date Lithuania declared its independence from Soviet
  Russia and established its statehood; 11 March 1990 is the date it
  declared its independence from the Soviet Union

Luxembourg
  National Day (Birthday of Grand Duchess Charlotte) 23 June

Macau
  National Day (Anniversary of the Founding of the People's
  Republic of China), 1 October (1949); note - 20 December 1999 is
  celebrated as Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day

Macedonia
  Uprising Day, 2 August (1903); note - also known as Saint
  Elijah's Day and Ilinden

Madagascar
  Independence Day, 26 June (1960)

Malawi
  Independence Day (Republic Day), 6 July (1964)

Malaysia
  Independence Day/Malaysia Day, 31 August (1957)

Maldives
  Independence Day, 26 July (1965)

Mali
  Independence Day, 22 September (1960)

Malta
  Independence Day, 21 September (1964)

Marshall Islands
  Constitution Day, 1 May (1979)

Martinique
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Mauritania
  Independence Day, 28 November (1960)

Mauritius
  Independence Day, 12 March (1968)

Mayotte
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Mexico
  Independence Day, 16 September (1810)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Constitution Day, 10 May (1979)

Moldova
  Independence Day, 27 August (1991)

Monaco
  National Day (Prince of Monaco Holiday), 19 November

Mongolia
  Independence Day/Revolution Day, 11 July (1921)

Montenegro
  National Day, 13 July

Montserrat
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in June
  (1926)

Morocco
  Throne Day (accession of King MOHAMED VI to the throne), 30
  July (1999)

Mozambique
  Independence Day, 25 June (1975)

Namibia
  Independence Day, 21 March (1990)

Nauru
  Independence Day, 31 January (1968)

Nepal
  Birthday of King GYANENDRA, 7 July (1946)

Netherlands
  Queen's Day (Birthday of Queen-Mother JULIANA in 1909
  and accession to the throne of her oldest daughter BEATRIX in 1980),
  30 April

Netherlands Antilles
  Queen's Day (Birthday of Queen-Mother JULIANA
  in 1909 and accession to the throne of her oldest daughter BEATRIX
  in 1980), 30 April

New Caledonia
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

New Zealand
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British
  sovereignty over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Nicaragua
  Independence Day, 15 September (1821)

Niger
  Republic Day, 18 December (1958)

Nigeria
  Independence Day (National Day), 1 October (1960)

Niue
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British
  sovereignty over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Norfolk Island
  Bounty Day (commemorates the arrival of Pitcairn
  Islanders), 8 June (1856)

Northern Mariana Islands
  Commonwealth Day, 8 January (1978)

Norway
  Constitution Day, 17 May (1814)

Oman
  Birthday of Sultan QABOOS, 18 November (1940)

Pakistan
  Republic Day, 23 March (1956)

Palau
  Constitution Day, 9 July (1979)

Panama
  Independence Day, 3 November (1903)

Papua New Guinea
  Independence Day, 16 September (1975)

Paraguay
  Independence Day, 14 May 1811 (observed 15 May annually)

Peru
  Independence Day, 28 July (1821)

Philippines
  Independence Day, 12 June (1898); note - 12 June 1898
  was date of declaration of independence from Spain; 4 July 1946 was
  date of independence from US

Pitcairn Islands
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in
  June (1926)

Poland
  Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)

Portugal
  Portugal Day (Day of Portugal), 10 June (1580); note - also
  called Camoes Day, the day that revered national poet Luis de Camoes
  (1524-80) died

Puerto Rico
  US Independence Day, 4 July (1776); Puerto Rico
  Constitution Day, 25 July (1952)

Qatar
  Independence Day, 3 September (1971)

Reunion
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Romania
  Unification Day (of Romania and Transylvania), 1 December
  (1918)

Russia
  Russia Day, 12 June (1990)

Rwanda
  Independence Day, 1 July (1962)

Saint Helena
  Birthday of Queen ELIZABETH II, second Saturday in June
  (1926)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Independence Day, 19 September (1983)

Saint Lucia
  Independence Day, 22 February (1979)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Independence Day, 27 October (1979)

Samoa
  Independence Day Celebration, 1 June (1962); note - 1 January
  1962 is the date of independence from the New Zealand-administered
  UN trusteeship, 1 June 1962 is the date that independence is
  celebrated

San Marino
  Founding of the Republic, 3 September (A.D. 301)

Sao Tome and Principe
  Independence Day, 12 July (1975)

Saudi Arabia
  Unification of the Kingdom, 23 September (1932)

Senegal
  Independence Day, 4 April (1960)

Serbia
  National Day, 27 April

Seychelles
  Constitution Day (National Day), 18 June (1993)

Sierra Leone
  Independence Day, 27 April (1961)

Singapore
  National Day, 9 August (1965)

Slovakia
  Constitution Day, 1 September (1992)

Slovenia
  Independence Day/Statehood Day, 25 June (1991)

Solomon Islands
  Independence Day, 7 July (1978)

Somalia
  Foundation of the Somali Republic, 1 July (1960); note - 26
  June (1960) in Somaliland

South Africa
  Freedom Day, 27 April (1994)

Spain
  National Day, 12 October

Sri Lanka
  Independence Day, 4 February (1948)

Sudan
  Independence Day, 1 January (1956)

Suriname
  Independence Day, 25 November (1975)

Swaziland
  Independence Day, 6 September (1968)

Sweden
  Flag Day, 6 June

Switzerland
  Founding of the Swiss Confederation, 1 August (1291)

Syria
  Independence Day, 17 April (1946)

Taiwan
  Republic Day (Anniversary of the Chinese Revolution), 10
  October (1911)

Tajikistan
  Independence Day (or National Day), 9 September (1991)

Tanzania
  Union Day (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), 26 April (1964)

Thailand
  Birthday of King PHUMIPHON, 5 December (1927)

Togo
  Independence Day, 27 April (1960)

Tokelau
  Waitangi Day (Treaty of Waitangi established British
  sovereignty over New Zealand), 6 February (1840)

Tonga
  Emancipation Day, 4 June (1970)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Independence Day, 31 August (1962)

Tunisia
  Independence Day, 20 March (1956)

Turkey
  Republic Day, 29 October (1923)

Turkmenistan
  Independence Day, 27 October (1991)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Constitution Day, 30 August (1976)

Tuvalu
  Independence Day, 1 October (1978)

Uganda
  Independence Day, 9 October (1962)

Ukraine
  Independence Day, 24 August (1991); 22 January (1918), the
  day Ukraine first declared its independence (from Soviet Russia) and
  the day the short-lived Western and Central Ukrainian republics
  united (1919), is now celebrated as Unity Day

United Arab Emirates
  Independence Day, 2 December (1971)

United Kingdom
  the UK does not celebrate one particular national
  holiday

United States
  Independence Day, 4 July (1776)

Uruguay
  Independence Day, 25 August (1825)

Uzbekistan
  Independence Day, 1 September (1991)

Vanuatu
  Independence Day, 30 July (1980)

Venezuela
  Independence Day, 5 July (1811)

Vietnam
  Independence Day, 2 September (1945)

Virgin Islands
  Transfer Day (from Denmark to the US), 27 March (1917)

Wallis and Futuna
  Bastille Day, 14 July (1789)

Yemen
  Unification Day, 22 May (1990)

Zambia
  Independence Day, 24 October (1964)

Zimbabwe
  Independence Day, 18 April (1980)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2110  Nationality


Afghanistan
  noun: Afghan(s)
  adjective: Afghan

Albania
  noun: Albanian(s)
  adjective: Albanian

Algeria
  noun: Algerian(s)
  adjective: Algerian

American Samoa
  noun: American Samoan(s) (US nationals)
  adjective: American Samoan

Andorra
  noun: Andorran(s)
  adjective: Andorran

Angola
  noun: Angolan(s)
  adjective: Angolan

Anguilla
  noun: Anguillan(s)
  adjective: Anguillan

Antigua and Barbuda
  noun: Antiguan(s), Barbudan(s)
  adjective: Antiguan, Barbudan

Argentina
  noun: Argentine(s)
  adjective: Argentine

Armenia
  noun: Armenian(s)
  adjective: Armenian

Aruba
  noun: Aruban(s)
  adjective: Aruban; Dutch

Australia
  noun: Australian(s)
  adjective: Australian

Austria
  noun: Austrian(s)
  adjective: Austrian

Azerbaijan
  noun: Azerbaijani(s), Azeri(s)
  adjective: Azerbaijani, Azeri

Bahamas, The
  noun: Bahamian(s)
  adjective: Bahamian

Bahrain
  noun: Bahraini(s)
  adjective: Bahraini

Bangladesh
  noun: Bangladeshi(s)
  adjective: Bangladeshi

Barbados
  noun: Barbadian(s) or Bajan (colloquial)
  adjective: Barbadian or Bajan (colloquial)

Belarus
  noun: Belarusian(s)
  adjective: Belarusian

Belgium
  noun: Belgian(s)
  adjective: Belgian

Belize
  noun: Belizean(s)
  adjective: Belizean

Benin
  noun: Beninese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Beninese

Bermuda
  noun: Bermudian(s)
  adjective: Bermudian

Bhutan
  noun: Bhutanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Bhutanese

Bolivia
  noun: Bolivian(s)
  adjective: Bolivian

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  noun: Bosnian(s), Herzegovinian(s)
  adjective: Bosnian, Herzegovinian

Botswana
  noun: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)
  adjective: Motswana (singular), Batswana (plural)

Brazil
  noun: Brazilian(s)
  adjective: Brazilian

British Virgin Islands
  noun: British Virgin Islander(s)
  adjective: British Virgin Islander

Brunei
  noun: Bruneian(s)
  adjective: Bruneian

Bulgaria
  noun: Bulgarian(s)
  adjective: Bulgarian

Burkina Faso
  noun: Burkinabe (singular and plural)
  adjective: Burkinabe

Burma
  noun: Burmese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Burmese

Burundi
  noun: Burundian(s)
  adjective: Burundian

Cambodia
  noun: Cambodian(s)
  adjective: Cambodian

Cameroon
  noun: Cameroonian(s)
  adjective: Cameroonian

Canada
  noun: Canadian(s)
  adjective: Canadian

Cape Verde
  noun: Cape Verdean(s)
  adjective: Cape Verdean

Cayman Islands
  noun: Caymanian(s)
  adjective: Caymanian

Central African Republic
  noun: Central African(s)
  adjective: Central African

Chad
  noun: Chadian(s)
  adjective: Chadian

Chile
  noun: Chilean(s)
  adjective: Chilean

China
  noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Chinese

Christmas Island
  noun: Christmas Islander(s)
  adjective: Christmas Island

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  noun: Cocos Islander(s)
  adjective: Cocos Islander

Colombia
  noun: Colombian(s)
  adjective: Colombian

Comoros
  noun: Comoran(s)
  adjective: Comoran

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  noun: Congolese (singular and
  plural)
  adjective: Congolese or Congo

Congo, Republic of the
  noun: Congolese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Congolese or Congo

Cook Islands
  noun: Cook Islander(s)
  adjective: Cook Islander

Costa Rica
  noun: Costa Rican(s)
  adjective: Costa Rican

Cote d'Ivoire
  noun: Ivoirian(s)
  adjective: Ivoirian

Croatia
  noun: Croat(s), Croatian(s)
  adjective: Croatian

Cuba
  noun: Cuban(s)
  adjective: Cuban

Cyprus
  noun: Cypriot(s)
  adjective: Cypriot

Czech Republic
  noun: Czech(s)
  adjective: Czech

Denmark
  noun: Dane(s)
  adjective: Danish

Djibouti
  noun: Djiboutian(s)
  adjective: Djiboutian

Dominica
  noun: Dominican(s)
  adjective: Dominican

Dominican Republic
  noun: Dominican(s)
  adjective: Dominican

East Timor
  noun: Timorese
  adjective: Timorese

Ecuador
  noun: Ecuadorian(s)
  adjective: Ecuadorian

Egypt
  noun: Egyptian(s)
  adjective: Egyptian

El Salvador
  noun: Salvadoran(s)
  adjective: Salvadoran

Equatorial Guinea
  noun: Equatorial Guinean(s) or Equatoguinean(s)
  adjective: Equatorial Guinean or Equatoguinean

Eritrea
  noun: Eritrean(s)
  adjective: Eritrean

Estonia
  noun: Estonian(s)
  adjective: Estonian

Ethiopia
  noun: Ethiopian(s)
  adjective: Ethiopian

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  noun: Falkland Islander(s)
  adjective: Falkland Island

Faroe Islands
  noun: Faroese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Faroese

Fiji
  noun: Fijian(s)
  adjective: Fijian

Finland
  noun: Finn(s)
  adjective: Finnish

France
  noun: Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)
  adjective: French

French Guiana
  noun: French Guianese (singular and plural)
  adjective: French Guianese

French Polynesia
  noun: French Polynesian(s)
  adjective: French Polynesian

Gabon
  noun: Gabonese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Gabonese

Gambia, The
  noun: Gambian(s)
  adjective: Gambian

Gaza Strip
  noun: NA
  adjective: NA

Georgia
  noun: Georgian(s)
  adjective: Georgian

Germany
  noun: German(s)
  adjective: German

Ghana
  noun: Ghanaian(s)
  adjective: Ghanaian

Gibraltar
  noun: Gibraltarian(s)
  adjective: Gibraltar

Greece
  noun: Greek(s)
  adjective: Greek

Greenland
  noun: Greenlander(s)
  adjective: Greenlandic

Grenada
  noun: Grenadian(s)
  adjective: Grenadian

Guadeloupe
  noun: Guadeloupian(s)
  adjective: Guadeloupe

Guam
  noun: Guamanian(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Guamanian

Guatemala
  noun: Guatemalan(s)
  adjective: Guatemalan

Guernsey
  noun: Channel Islander(s)
  adjective: Channel Islander

Guinea
  noun: Guinean(s)
  adjective: Guinean

Guinea-Bissau
  noun: Guinean(s)
  adjective: Guinean

Guyana
  noun: Guyanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Guyanese

Haiti
  noun: Haitian(s)
  adjective: Haitian

Holy See (Vatican City)
  noun: none
  adjective: none

Honduras
  noun: Honduran(s)
  adjective: Honduran

Hong Kong
  noun: Chinese/Hong Konger
  adjective: Chinese/Hong Kong

Hungary
  noun: Hungarian(s)
  adjective: Hungarian

Iceland
  noun: Icelander(s)
  adjective: Icelandic

India
  noun: Indian(s)
  adjective: Indian

Indonesia
  noun: Indonesian(s)
  adjective: Indonesian

Iran
  noun: Iranian(s)
  adjective: Iranian

Iraq
  noun: Iraqi(s)
  adjective: Iraqi

Ireland
  noun: Irishman(men), Irishwoman(women), Irish (collective
  plural)
  adjective: Irish

Isle of Man
  noun: Manxman (men), Manxwoman (women)
  adjective: Manx

Israel
  noun: Israeli(s)
  adjective: Israeli

Italy
  noun: Italian(s)
  adjective: Italian

Jamaica
  noun: Jamaican(s)
  adjective: Jamaican

Japan
  noun: Japanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Japanese

Jersey
  noun: Channel Islander(s)
  adjective: Channel Islander

Jordan
  noun: Jordanian(s)
  adjective: Jordanian

Kazakhstan
  noun: Kazakhstani(s)
  adjective: Kazakhstani

Kenya
  noun: Kenyan(s)
  adjective: Kenyan

Kiribati
  noun: I-Kiribati (singular and plural)
  adjective: I-Kiribati

Korea, North
  noun: Korean(s)
  adjective: Korean

Korea, South
  noun: Korean(s)
  adjective: Korean

Kuwait
  noun: Kuwaiti(s)
  adjective: Kuwaiti

Kyrgyzstan
  noun: Kyrgyzstani(s)
  adjective: Kyrgyzstani

Laos
  noun: Lao(s) or Laotian(s)
  adjective: Lao or Laotian

Latvia
  noun: Latvian(s)
  adjective: Latvian

Lebanon
  noun: Lebanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Lebanese

Lesotho
  noun: Mosotho (singular), Basotho (plural)
  adjective: Basotho

Liberia
  noun: Liberian(s)
  adjective: Liberian

Libya
  noun: Libyan(s)
  adjective: Libyan

Liechtenstein
  noun: Liechtensteiner(s)
  adjective: Liechtenstein

Lithuania
  noun: Lithuanian(s)
  adjective: Lithuanian

Luxembourg
  noun: Luxembourger(s)
  adjective: Luxembourg

Macau
  noun: Chinese
  adjective: Chinese

Macedonia
  noun: Macedonian(s)
  adjective: Macedonian

Madagascar
  noun: Malagasy (singular and plural)
  adjective: Malagasy

Malawi
  noun: Malawian(s)
  adjective: Malawian

Malaysia
  noun: Malaysian(s)
  adjective: Malaysian

Maldives
  noun: Maldivian(s)
  adjective: Maldivian

Mali
  noun: Malian(s)
  adjective: Malian

Malta
  noun: Maltese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Maltese

Marshall Islands
  noun: Marshallese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Marshallese

Martinique
  noun: Martiniquais (singular and plural)
  adjective: Martiniquais

Mauritania
  noun: Mauritanian(s)
  adjective: Mauritanian

Mauritius
  noun: Mauritian(s)
  adjective: Mauritian

Mayotte
  noun: Mahorais (singular and plural)
  adjective: Mahoran

Mexico
  noun: Mexican(s)
  adjective: Mexican

Micronesia, Federated States of
  noun: Micronesian(s)
  adjective: Micronesian; Chuukese, Kosraen(s), Pohnpeian(s), Yapese

Moldova
  noun: Moldovan(s)
  adjective: Moldovan

Monaco
  noun: Monegasque(s) or Monacan(s)
  adjective: Monegasque or Monacan

Mongolia
  noun: Mongolian(s)
  adjective: Mongolian

Montenegro
  noun: Montenegrin(s)
  adjective: Montenegrin

Montserrat
  noun: Montserratian(s)
  adjective: Montserratian

Morocco
  noun: Moroccan(s)
  adjective: Moroccan

Mozambique
  noun: Mozambican(s)
  adjective: Mozambican

Namibia
  noun: Namibian(s)
  adjective: Namibian

Nauru
  noun: Nauruan(s)
  adjective: Nauruan

Nepal
  noun: Nepalese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Nepalese

Netherlands
  noun: Dutchman(men), Dutchwoman(women)
  adjective: Dutch

Netherlands Antilles
  noun: Dutch Antillean(s)
  adjective: Dutch Antillean

New Caledonia
  noun: New Caledonian(s)
  adjective: New Caledonian

New Zealand
  noun: New Zealander(s)
  adjective: New Zealand

Nicaragua
  noun: Nicaraguan(s)
  adjective: Nicaraguan

Niger
  noun: Nigerien(s)
  adjective: Nigerien

Nigeria
  noun: Nigerian(s)
  adjective: Nigerian

Niue
  noun: Niuean(s)
  adjective: Niuean

Norfolk Island
  noun: Norfolk Islander(s)
  adjective: Norfolk Islander(s)

Northern Mariana Islands
  noun: NA (US citizens)
  adjective: NA

Norway
  noun: Norwegian(s)
  adjective: Norwegian

Oman
  noun: Omani(s)
  adjective: Omani

Pakistan
  noun: Pakistani(s)
  adjective: Pakistani

Palau
  noun: Palauan(s)
  adjective: Palauan

Panama
  noun: Panamanian(s)
  adjective: Panamanian

Papua New Guinea
  noun: Papua New Guinean(s)
  adjective: Papua New Guinean

Paraguay
  noun: Paraguayan(s)
  adjective: Paraguayan

Peru
  noun: Peruvian(s)
  adjective: Peruvian

Philippines
  noun: Filipino(s)
  adjective: Philippine

Pitcairn Islands
  noun: Pitcairn Islander(s)
  adjective: Pitcairn Islander

Poland
  noun: Pole(s)
  adjective: Polish

Portugal
  noun: Portuguese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Portuguese

Puerto Rico
  noun: Puerto Rican(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Puerto Rican

Qatar
  noun: Qatari(s)
  adjective: Qatari

Reunion
  noun: Reunionese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Reunionese

Romania
  noun: Romanian(s)
  adjective: Romanian

Russia
  noun: Russian(s)
  adjective: Russian

Rwanda
  noun: Rwandan(s)
  adjective: Rwandan

Saint Helena
  noun: Saint Helenian(s)
  adjective: Saint Helenian
  note: referred to locally as "Saints"

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  noun: Kittitian(s), Nevisian(s)
  adjective: Kittitian, Nevisian

Saint Lucia
  noun: Saint Lucian(s)
  adjective: Saint Lucian

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  noun: Frenchman(men), Frenchwoman(women)
  adjective: French

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  noun: Saint Vincentian(s) or
  Vincentian(s)
  adjective: Saint Vincentian or Vincentian

Samoa
  noun: Samoan(s)
  adjective: Samoan

San Marino
  noun: Sammarinese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Sammarinese

Sao Tome and Principe
  noun: Sao Tomean(s)
  adjective: Sao Tomean

Saudi Arabia
  noun: Saudi(s)
  adjective: Saudi or Saudi Arabian

Senegal
  noun: Senegalese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Senegalese

Serbia
  noun: Serb(s)
  adjective: Serbian

Seychelles
  noun: Seychellois (singular and plural)
  adjective: Seychellois

Sierra Leone
  noun: Sierra Leonean(s)
  adjective: Sierra Leonean

Singapore
  noun: Singaporean(s)
  adjective: Singapore

Slovakia
  noun: Slovak(s)
  adjective: Slovak

Slovenia
  noun: Slovene(s)
  adjective: Slovenian

Solomon Islands
  noun: Solomon Islander(s)
  adjective: Solomon Islander

Somalia
  noun: Somali(s)
  adjective: Somali

South Africa
  noun: South African(s)
  adjective: South African

Spain
  noun: Spaniard(s)
  adjective: Spanish

Sri Lanka
  noun: Sri Lankan(s)
  adjective: Sri Lankan

Sudan
  noun: Sudanese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Sudanese

Suriname
  noun: Surinamer(s)
  adjective: Surinamese

Swaziland
  noun: Swazi(s)
  adjective: Swazi

Sweden
  noun: Swede(s)
  adjective: Swedish

Switzerland
  noun: Swiss (singular and plural)
  adjective: Swiss

Syria
  noun: Syrian(s)
  adjective: Syrian

Taiwan
  noun: Taiwan (singular and plural)
  note: example - he or she is from Taiwan; they are from Taiwan
  adjective: Taiwan

Tajikistan
  noun: Tajikistani(s)
  adjective: Tajikistani

Tanzania
  noun: Tanzanian(s)
  adjective: Tanzanian

Thailand
  noun: Thai (singular and plural)
  adjective: Thai

Togo
  noun: Togolese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Togolese

Tokelau
  noun: Tokelauan(s)
  adjective: Tokelauan

Tonga
  noun: Tongan(s)
  adjective: Tongan

Trinidad and Tobago
  noun: Trinidadian(s), Tobagonian(s)
  adjective: Trinidadian, Tobagonian

Tunisia
  noun: Tunisian(s)
  adjective: Tunisian

Turkey
  noun: Turk(s)
  adjective: Turkish

Turkmenistan
  noun: Turkmen(s)
  adjective: Turkmen

Turks and Caicos Islands
  noun: none
  adjective: none

Tuvalu
  noun: Tuvaluan(s)
  adjective: Tuvaluan

Uganda
  noun: Ugandan(s)
  adjective: Ugandan

Ukraine
  noun: Ukrainian(s)
  adjective: Ukrainian

United Arab Emirates
  noun: Emirati(s)
  adjective: Emirati

United Kingdom
  noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural)
  adjective: British

United States
  noun: American(s)
  adjective: American

Uruguay
  noun: Uruguayan(s)
  adjective: Uruguayan

Uzbekistan
  noun: Uzbekistani
  adjective: Uzbekistani

Vanuatu
  noun: Ni-Vanuatu (singular and plural)
  adjective: Ni-Vanuatu

Venezuela
  noun: Venezuelan(s)
  adjective: Venezuelan

Vietnam
  noun: Vietnamese (singular and plural)
  adjective: Vietnamese

Virgin Islands
  noun: Virgin Islander(s) (US citizens)
  adjective: Virgin Islander

Wallis and Futuna
  noun: Wallisian(s), Futunan(s), or Wallis and
  Futuna Islanders
  adjective: Wallisian, Futunan, or Wallis and Futuna Islander

West Bank
  noun: NA
  adjective: NA

Western Sahara
  noun: Sahrawi(s), Sahraoui(s)
  adjective: Sahrawi, Sahrawian, Sahraouian

Yemen
  noun: Yemeni(s)
  adjective: Yemeni

Zambia
  noun: Zambian(s)
  adjective: Zambian

Zimbabwe
  noun: Zimbabwean(s)
  adjective: Zimbabwean

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2111  Natural resources


Afghanistan
  natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc,
  barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and
  semiprecious stones

Albania
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromite, copper,
  iron ore, nickel, salt, timber, hydropower

Algeria
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead,
  zinc

American Samoa
  pumice, pumicite

Andorra
  hydropower, mineral water, timber, iron ore, lead

Angola
  petroleum, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, copper, feldspar,
  gold, bauxite, uranium

Anguilla
  salt, fish, lobster

Antarctica
  iron ore, chromium, copper, gold, nickel, platinum and
  other minerals, and coal and hydrocarbons have been found in small
  uncommercial quantities; none presently exploited; krill, finfish,
  and crab have been taken by commercial fisheries

Antigua and Barbuda
  NEGL; pleasant climate fosters tourism

Arctic Ocean
  sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits,
  polymetallic nodules, oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals
  (seals and whales)

Argentina
  fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper,
  iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium

Armenia
  small deposits of gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, alumina

Aruba
  NEGL; white sandy beaches

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  fish

Atlantic Ocean
  oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and
  whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic
  nodules, precious stones

Australia
  bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver,
  uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds,
  natural gas, petroleum

Austria
  oil, coal, lignite, timber, iron ore, copper, zinc,
  antimony, magnesite, tungsten, graphite, salt, hydropower

Azerbaijan
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals,
  alumina

Bahamas, The
  salt, aragonite, timber, arable land

Bahrain
  oil, associated and nonassociated natural gas, fish, pearls

Baker Island
  guano (deposits worked until 1891), terrestrial and
  aquatic wildlife

Bangladesh
  natural gas, arable land, timber, coal

Barbados
  petroleum, fish, natural gas

Bassas da India
  none

Belarus
  forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural
  gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay

Belgium
  construction materials, silica sand, carbonates

Belize
  arable land potential, timber, fish, hydropower

Benin
  small offshore oil deposits, limestone, marble, timber

Bermuda
  limestone, pleasant climate fostering tourism

Bhutan
  timber, hydropower, gypsum, calcium carbonate

Bolivia
  tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony,
  silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  coal, iron ore, bauxite, copper, lead, zinc,
  chromite, cobalt, manganese, nickel, clay, gypsum, salt, sand,
  forests, hydropower

Botswana
  diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash, coal,
  iron ore, silver

Bouvet Island
  none

Brazil
  bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates,
  platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timber

British Indian Ocean Territory
  coconuts, fish, sugarcane

British Virgin Islands
  NEGL

Brunei
  petroleum, natural gas, timber

Bulgaria
  bauxite, copper, lead, zinc, coal, timber, arable land

Burkina Faso
  manganese, limestone, marble; small deposits of gold,
  phosphates, pumice, salt

Burma
  petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten,
  lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones, natural gas,
  hydropower

Burundi
  nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper,
  platinum, vanadium, arable land, hydropower, niobium, tantalum,
  gold, tin, tungsten, kaolin, limestone

Cambodia
  oil and gas, timber, gemstones, some iron ore, manganese,
  phosphates, hydropower potential

Cameroon
  petroleum, bauxite, iron ore, timber, hydropower

Canada
  iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum,
  potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum,
  natural gas, hydropower

Cape Verde
  salt, basalt rock, limestone, kaolin, fish, clay, gypsum

Cayman Islands
  fish, climate and beaches that foster tourism

Central African Republic
  diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil,
  hydropower

Chad
  petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold,
  limestone, sand and gravel, salt

Chile
  copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals,
  molybdenum, hydropower

China
  coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin,
  tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite,
  aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

Christmas Island
  phosphate, beaches

Clipperton Island
  fish

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  fish

Colombia
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold,
  copper, emeralds, hydropower

Comoros
  NEGL

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum,
  petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc,
  manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, timber

Congo, Republic of the
  petroleum, timber, potash, lead, zinc,
  uranium, copper, phosphates, gold, magnesium, natural gas, hydropower

Cook Islands
  NEGL

Coral Sea Islands
  NEGL

Costa Rica
  hydropower

Cote d'Ivoire
  petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore,
  cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica sand, clay,
  cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower

Croatia
  oil, some coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, calcium,
  gypsum, natural asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, hydropower

Cuba
  cobalt, nickel, iron ore, chromium, copper, salt, timber,
  silica, petroleum, arable land

Cyprus
  copper, pyrites, asbestos, gypsum, timber, salt, marble, clay
  earth pigment

Czech Republic
  hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite, timber

Denmark
  petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, chalk, stone,
  gravel and sand

Djibouti
  geothermal areas, gold, clay, granite, limestone, marble,
  salt, diatomite, gypsum, pumice, petroleum

Dominica
  timber, hydropower, arable land

Dominican Republic
  nickel, bauxite, gold, silver

East Timor
  gold, petroleum, natural gas, manganese, marble

Ecuador
  petroleum, fish, timber, hydropower

Egypt
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese,
  limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc

El Salvador
  hydropower, geothermal power, petroleum, arable land

Equatorial Guinea
  petroleum, natural gas, timber, gold, bauxite,
  diamonds, tantalum, sand and gravel, clay

Eritrea
  gold, potash, zinc, copper, salt, possibly oil and natural
  gas, fish

Estonia
  oil shale, peat, phosphorite, clay, limestone, sand,
  dolomite, arable land, sea mud

Ethiopia
  small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, natural
  gas, hydropower

Europa Island
  NEGL

European Union
  iron ore, arable land, natural gas, petroleum, coal,
  copper, lead, zinc, hydropower, uranium, potash, fish

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  fish, squid, wildlife, calcified
  seaweed, sphagnum moss

Faroe Islands
  fish, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas

Fiji
  timber, fish, gold, copper, offshore oil potential, hydropower

Finland
  timber, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, nickel,
  gold, silver, limestone

France
  coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc, uranium, antimony, arsenic,
  potash, feldspar, fluorospar, gypsum, timber, fish

French Guiana
  bauxite, timber, gold (widely scattered), petroleum,
  kaolin, fish, niobium, tantalum, clay

French Polynesia
  timber, fish, cobalt, hydropower

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  fish, crayfish

Gabon
  petroleum, natural gas, diamond, niobium, manganese, uranium,
  gold, timber, iron ore, hydropower

Gambia, The
  fish, titanium (rutile and ilmenite), tin, zircon,
  silica sand, clay, petroleum

Gaza Strip
  arable land, natural gas

Georgia
  forests, hydropower, manganese deposits, iron ore, copper,
  minor coal and oil deposits; coastal climate and soils allow for
  important tea and citrus growth

Germany
  coal, lignite, natural gas, iron ore, copper, nickel,
  uranium, potash, salt, construction materials, timber, arable land

Ghana
  gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish,
  rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone

Gibraltar
  none

Glorioso Islands
  guano, coconuts

Greece
  lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel,
  magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential

Greenland
  coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, molybdenum, gold, platinum,
  uranium, fish, seals, whales, hydropower, possible oil and gas

Grenada
  timber, tropical fruit, deepwater harbors

Guadeloupe
  cultivable land, beaches and climate that foster tourism

Guam
  fishing (largely undeveloped), tourism (especially from Japan)

Guatemala
  petroleum, nickel, rare woods, fish, chicle, hydropower

Guernsey
  cropland

Guinea
  bauxite, iron ore, diamonds, gold, uranium, hydropower, fish,
  salt

Guinea-Bissau
  fish, timber, phosphates, bauxite, clay, granite,
  limestone, unexploited deposits of petroleum

Guyana
  bauxite, gold, diamonds, hardwood timber, shrimp, fish

Haiti
  bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble, hydropower

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  fish

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none

Honduras
  timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore,
  antimony, coal, fish, hydropower

Hong Kong
  outstanding deepwater harbor, feldspar

Howland Island
  guano (deposits worked until late 1800s), terrestrial
  and aquatic wildlife

Hungary
  bauxite, coal, natural gas, fertile soils, arable land

Iceland
  fish, hydropower, geothermal power, diatomite

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India and Europa Island: none
  Glorioso Islands and Juan de Nova Island: guano, phosphates; coconuts
  Tromelin Island: fish

India
  coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron ore,
  manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas,
  diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

Indian Ocean
  oil and gas fields, fish, shrimp, sand and gravel
  aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules

Indonesia
  petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite,
  copper, fertile soils, coal, gold, silver

Iran
  petroleum, natural gas, coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead,
  manganese, zinc, sulfur

Iraq
  petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur

Ireland
  natural gas, peat, copper, lead, zinc, silver, barite,
  gypsum, limestone, dolomite

Isle of Man
  none

Israel
  timber, potash, copper ore, natural gas, phosphate rock,
  magnesium bromide, clays, sand

Italy
  coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice,
  fluorospar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil
  reserves, fish, arable land

Jamaica
  bauxite, gypsum, limestone

Jan Mayen
  none

Japan
  negligible mineral resources, fish

Jarvis Island
  guano (deposits worked until late 1800s), terrestrial
  and aquatic wildlife

Jersey
  arable land

Johnston Atoll
  guano deposits worked until depletion about 1890,
  terrestrial and aquatic wildlife

Jordan
  phosphates, potash, shale oil

Juan de Nova Island
  guano deposits and other fertilizers

Kazakhstan
  major deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore,
  manganese, chrome ore, nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, lead,
  zinc, bauxite, gold, uranium

Kenya
  limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc,
  diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower

Kingman Reef
  terrestrial and aquatic wildlife

Kiribati
  phosphate (production discontinued in 1979)

Korea, North
  coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron
  ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower

Korea, South
  coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, hydropower
  potential

Kuwait
  petroleum, fish, shrimp, natural gas

Kyrgyzstan
  abundant hydropower; significant deposits of gold and
  rare earth metals; locally exploitable coal, oil, and natural gas;
  other deposits of nepheline, mercury, bismuth, lead, and zinc

Laos
  timber, hydropower, gypsum, tin, gold, gemstones

Latvia
  peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, wood, arable
  land

Lebanon
  limestone, iron ore, salt, water-surplus state in a
  water-deficit region, arable land

Lesotho
  water, agricultural and grazing land, diamonds, sand, clay,
  building stone

Liberia
  iron ore, timber, diamonds, gold, hydropower

Libya
  petroleum, natural gas, gypsum

Liechtenstein
  hydroelectric potential, arable land

Lithuania
  peat, arable land, amber

Luxembourg
  iron ore (no longer exploited), arable land

Macau
  NEGL

Macedonia
  low-grade iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite,
  manganese, nickel, tungsten, gold, silver, asbestos, gypsum, timber,
  arable land

Madagascar
  graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz, tar
  sands, semiprecious stones, mica, fish, hydropower

Malawi
  limestone, arable land, hydropower, unexploited deposits of
  uranium, coal, and bauxite

Malaysia
  tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas,
  bauxite

Maldives
  fish

Mali
  gold, phosphates, kaolin, salt, limestone, uranium, gypsum,
  granite, hydropower
  note: bauxite, iron ore, manganese, tin, and copper deposits are
  known but not exploited

Malta
  limestone, salt, arable land

Marshall Islands
  coconut products, marine products, deep seabed
  minerals

Martinique
  coastal scenery and beaches, cultivable land

Mauritania
  iron ore, gypsum, copper, phosphate, diamonds, gold, oil,
  fish

Mauritius
  arable land, fish

Mayotte
  NEGL

Mexico
  petroleum, silver, copper, gold, lead, zinc, natural gas,
  timber

Micronesia, Federated States of
  forests, marine products,
  deep-seabed minerals, phosphate

Midway Islands
  wildlife, terrestrial and aquatic

Moldova
  lignite, phosphorites, gypsum, arable land, limestone

Monaco
  none

Mongolia
  oil, coal, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, phosphates, tin,
  nickel, zinc, fluorspar, gold, silver, iron

Montenegro
  bauxite, hydroelectricity

Montserrat
  NEGL

Morocco
  phosphates, iron ore, manganese, lead, zinc, fish, salt

Mozambique
  coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum,
  graphite

Namibia
  diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, lead, tin, lithium,
  cadmium, zinc, salt, hydropower, fish
  note: suspected deposits of oil, coal, and iron ore

Nauru
  phosphates, fish

Navassa Island
  guano

Nepal
  quartz, water, timber, hydropower, scenic beauty, small
  deposits of lignite, copper, cobalt, iron ore

Netherlands
  natural gas, petroleum, peat, limestone, salt, sand and
  gravel, arable land

Netherlands Antilles
  phosphates (Curacao only), salt (Bonaire only)

New Caledonia
  nickel, chrome, iron, cobalt, manganese, silver, gold,
  lead, copper

New Zealand
  natural gas, iron ore, sand, coal, timber, hydropower,
  gold, limestone

Nicaragua
  gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber, fish

Niger
  uranium, coal, iron ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum,
  gypsum, salt, petroleum

Nigeria
  natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone,
  niobium, lead, zinc, arable land

Niue
  fish, arable land

Norfolk Island
  fish

Northern Mariana Islands
  arable land, fish

Norway
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc,
  titanium, pyrites, nickel, fish, timber, hydropower

Oman
  petroleum, copper, asbestos, some marble, limestone, chromium,
  gypsum, natural gas

Pacific Ocean
  oil and gas fields, polymetallic nodules, sand and
  gravel aggregates, placer deposits, fish

Pakistan
  land, extensive natural gas reserves, limited petroleum,
  poor quality coal, iron ore, copper, salt, limestone

Palau
  forests, minerals (especially gold), marine products,
  deep-seabed minerals

Palmyra Atoll
  terrestrial and aquatic wildlife

Panama
  copper, mahogany forests, shrimp, hydropower

Papua New Guinea
  gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil,
  fisheries

Paracel Islands
  none

Paraguay
  hydropower, timber, iron ore, manganese, limestone

Peru
  copper, silver, gold, petroleum, timber, fish, iron ore, coal,
  phosphate, potash, hydropower, natural gas

Philippines
  timber, petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, salt,
  copper

Pitcairn Islands
  miro trees (used for handicrafts), fish
  note: manganese, iron, copper, gold, silver, and zinc have been
  discovered offshore

Poland
  coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, amber,
  arable land

Portugal
  fish, forests (cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin,
  tungsten, silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable
  land, hydropower

Puerto Rico
  some copper and nickel; potential for onshore and
  offshore oil

Qatar
  petroleum, natural gas, fish

Reunion
  fish, arable land, hydropower

Romania
  petroleum (reserves declining), timber, natural gas, coal,
  iron ore, salt, arable land, hydropower

Russia
  wide natural resource base including major deposits of oil,
  natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber
  note: formidable obstacles of climate, terrain, and distance hinder
  exploitation of natural resources

Rwanda
  gold, cassiterite (tin ore), wolframite (tungsten ore),
  methane, hydropower, arable land

Saint Helena
  fish, lobster

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  arable land

Saint Lucia
  forests, sandy beaches, minerals (pumice), mineral
  springs, geothermal potential

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  fish, deepwater ports

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  hydropower, cropland

Samoa
  hardwood forests, fish, hydropower

San Marino
  building stone

Sao Tome and Principe
  fish, hydropower

Saudi Arabia
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold, copper

Senegal
  fish, phosphates, iron ore

Serbia
  oil, gas, coal, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, antimony,
  chromite, nickel, gold, silver, magnesium, pyrite, limestone,
  marble, salt, arable land

Seychelles
  fish, copra, cinnamon trees

Sierra Leone
  diamonds, titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold,
  chromite

Singapore
  fish, deepwater ports

Slovakia
  brown coal and lignite; small amounts of iron ore, copper
  and manganese ore; salt; arable land

Slovenia
  lignite coal, lead, zinc, mercury, uranium, silver,
  hydropower, forests

Solomon Islands
  fish, forests, gold, bauxite, phosphates, lead,
  zinc, nickel

Somalia
  uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin,
  gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves

South Africa
  gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese,
  nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper,
  vanadium, salt, natural gas

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  fish

Southern Ocean
  probable large and possible giant oil and gas fields
  on the continental margin, manganese nodules, possible placer
  deposits, sand and gravel, fresh water as icebergs; squid, whales,
  and seals - none exploited; krill, fishes

Spain
  coal, lignite, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, uranium,
  tungsten, mercury, pyrites, magnesite, fluorspar, gypsum, sepiolite,
  kaolin, potash, hydropower, arable land

Spratly Islands
  fish, guano, undetermined oil and natural gas
  potential

Sri Lanka
  limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems, phosphates,
  clay, hydropower

Sudan
  petroleum; small reserves of iron ore, copper, chromium ore,
  zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, hydropower

Suriname
  timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold,
  and small amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore

Svalbard
  coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, wildlife, fish

Swaziland
  asbestos, coal, clay, cassiterite, hydropower, forests,
  small gold and diamond deposits, quarry stone, and talc

Sweden
  iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tungsten,
  uranium, arsenic, feldspar, timber, hydropower

Switzerland
  hydropower potential, timber, salt

Syria
  petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt,
  iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower

Taiwan
  small deposits of coal, natural gas, limestone, marble, and
  asbestos

Tajikistan
  hydropower, some petroleum, uranium, mercury, brown coal,
  lead, zinc, antimony, tungsten, silver, gold

Tanzania
  hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds,
  gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel

Thailand
  tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum, timber, lead,
  fish, gypsum, lignite, fluorite, arable land

Togo
  phosphates, limestone, marble, arable land

Tokelau
  NEGL

Tonga
  fish, fertile soil

Trinidad and Tobago
  petroleum, natural gas, asphalt

Tromelin Island
  fish

Tunisia
  petroleum, phosphates, iron ore, lead, zinc, salt

Turkey
  coal, iron ore, copper, chromium, antimony, mercury, gold,
  barite, borate, celestite (strontium), emery, feldspar, limestone,
  magnesite, marble, perlite, pumice, pyrites (sulfur), clay, arable
  land, hydropower

Turkmenistan
  petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt

Turks and Caicos Islands
  spiny lobster, conch

Tuvalu
  fish

Uganda
  copper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, salt, arable land

Ukraine
  iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur,
  graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber,
  arable land

United Arab Emirates
  petroleum, natural gas

United Kingdom
  coal, petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, lead, zinc,
  gold, tin, limestone, salt, clay, chalk, gypsum, potash, silica
  sand, slate, arable land

United States
  coal, copper, lead, molybdenum, phosphates, uranium,
  bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, nickel, potash, silver, tungsten,
  zinc, petroleum, natural gas, timber

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  terrestrial and
  aquatic wildlife

Uruguay
  arable land, hydropower, minor minerals, fisheries

Uzbekistan
  natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver,
  copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum

Vanuatu
  manganese, hardwood forests, fish

Venezuela
  petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, gold, bauxite, other
  minerals, hydropower, diamonds

Vietnam
  phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil
  and gas deposits, forests, hydropower

Virgin Islands
  sun, sand, sea, surf

Wake Island
  none

Wallis and Futuna
  NEGL

West Bank
  arable land

Western Sahara
  phosphates, iron ore

World
  the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the
  depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and
  plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality
  (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose
  serious long-term problems that governments and peoples are only
  beginning to address

Yemen
  petroleum, fish, rock salt, marble; small deposits of coal,
  gold, lead, nickel, and copper; fertile soil in west

Zambia
  copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, coal, emeralds, gold, silver,
  uranium, hydropower

Zimbabwe
  coal, chromium ore, asbestos, gold, nickel, copper, iron
  ore, vanadium, lithium, tin, platinum group metals

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2112  Net migration rate (migrant(s)/1,000 population)


Afghanistan
  0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Albania
  -4.67 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Algeria
  -0.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  -21.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Andorra
  6.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Angola
  3.55 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  6.9 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  -6.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Argentina
  0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Armenia
  -5.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Aruba
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Australia
  3.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Austria
  1.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  -4.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  -2.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  0.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  -0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Barbados
  -0.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belarus
  2.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belgium
  1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Belize
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Benin
  0.67 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  2.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  -1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  13.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Botswana
  6.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

Brazil
  -0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  9.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Brunei
  3.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  -4.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burma
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Burundi
  8.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Canada
  5.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  -11.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  17.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: major destination for Cubans trying to migrate to the US (2006
  est.)

Central African Republic
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chad
  -0.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Chile
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

China
  -0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  -0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Comoros
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: fighting between the Congolese Government and Uganda- and
  Rwanda-backed Congolese rebels spawned a regional war in DRC in
  August 1998, which left 2.33 million Congolese internally displaced
  and caused 412,000 Congolese refugees to flee to surrounding
  countries (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  -3.62 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Costa Rica
  0.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Croatia
  1.58 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cuba
  -1.57 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  0.97 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Denmark
  2.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominica
  -9.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  -2.79 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

East Timor
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  -3.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Egypt
  -0.21 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  -3.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Estonia
  -3.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: repatriation of Ethiopian refugees residing in Sudan is
  expected to continue for several years; some Sudanese, Somali, and
  Eritrean refugees, who fled to Ethiopia from the fighting or famine
  in their own countries, continue to return to their homes (2006 est.)

European Union
  1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population
  (2006 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Fiji
  -2.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Finland
  0.84 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

France
  0.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  4.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  2.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gabon
  -2.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  1.29 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  1.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Georgia
  -4.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Germany
  2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ghana
  -0.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greece
  2.34 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Greenland
  -8.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Grenada
  -12.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  -0.15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guam
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  -1.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  3.82 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guinea
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: as a result of conflict in neighboring countries, Guinea is
  host to approximately 141,500 refugees from Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia,
  and Sierra Leone (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Guyana
  -7.49 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Haiti
  -1.31 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Honduras
  -1.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  4.89 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Hungary
  0.86 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iceland
  1.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

India
  -0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iran
  -0.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Iraq
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ireland
  4.87 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  5.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Israel
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Italy
  2.06 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  -6.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Japan
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jersey
  2.74 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Jordan
  6.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  -3.33 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kenya
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: according to the UNHCR, by the end of 2005 Kenya was host to
  233,778 refugees from neighboring countries, including Somalia
  153,627, Sudan 67,556, Ethiopia 12,595 (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  15.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  -2.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Laos
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Latvia
  -2.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  -0.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liberia
  27.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: at least 238,500 Liberian refugees are in surrounding
  countries; the uncertain security situation has hindered their
  ability to return (2006 est.)

Libya
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  4.77 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  -0.71 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  8.75 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macau
  4.56 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  -0.65 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malawi
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: does not reflect net flow of an unknown number of illegal
  immigrants from other countries in the region (2006 est.)

Maldives
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mali
  -6.6 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Malta
  2.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  -5.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Martinique
  -0.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  4.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mexico
  -4.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  -21.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  (2006 est.)

Moldova
  -0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Monaco
  7.68 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Morocco
  -0.87 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Namibia
  0.47 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nauru
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nepal
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  2.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there has been steady emigration from Wallis and Futuna to New
  Caledonia (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  3.63 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  -1.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niger
  -0.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  0.27 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Niue
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  8.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Norway
  1.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Oman
  0.35 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  -0.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Palau
  1.85 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Panama
  -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  -0.08 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Peru
  -1.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Philippines
  -1.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  -0.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Portugal
  3.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  -1.14 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Qatar
  14.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Reunion
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Romania
  -0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Russia
  1.03 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  -4.7 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  -1.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  -4.98 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  -7.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  (2006 est.)

Samoa
  -11.76 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

San Marino
  10.7 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  -2.32 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  -4.94 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Senegal
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  -5.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  0.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: refugees currently in surrounding countries are slowly
  returning (2006 est.)

Singapore
  9.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  0.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  0.88 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Somalia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

South Africa
  -0.16 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

Spain
  0.99 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  -1.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sudan
  -0.02 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Suriname
  -8.76 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population

Swaziland
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sweden
  1.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  3.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Syria
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  -2.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  -3.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Thailand
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Togo
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  -11.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  -0.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkey
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  -0.75 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  10.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006
  est.)

Tuvalu
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uganda
  -1.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  -0.43 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  0.66 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  2.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

United States
  3.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  -0.25 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  -1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  -0.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  -8.73 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there has been steady emigration from Wallis and Futuna to New
  Caledonia (2006 est.)

West Bank
  2.8 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Yemen
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zambia
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
  note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa
  and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2113  Geography - note


Afghanistan
  landlocked; the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast
  to southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the
  country; the highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan
  Corridor)

Akrotiri
  British extraterritorial rights also extended to several
  small off-post sites scattered across Cyprus

Albania
  strategic location along Strait of Otranto (links Adriatic
  Sea to Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea)

Algeria
  second-largest country in Africa (after Sudan)

American Samoa
  Pago Pago has one of the best natural deepwater
  harbors in the South Pacific Ocean, sheltered by shape from rough
  seas and protected by peripheral mountains from high winds;
  strategic location in the South Pacific Ocean

Andorra
  landlocked; straddles a number of important crossroads in
  the Pyrenees

Angola
  the province of Cabinda is an exclave, separated from the
  rest of the country by the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Anguilla
  the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser
  Antilles

Antarctica
  the coldest, windiest, highest (on average), and driest
  continent; during summer, more solar radiation reaches the surface
  at the South Pole than is received at the Equator in an equivalent
  period; mostly uninhabitable

Antigua and Barbuda
  Antigua has a deeply indented shoreline with
  many natural harbors and beaches; Barbuda has a very large western
  harbor

Arctic Ocean
  major chokepoint is the southern Chukchi Sea (northern
  access to the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait); strategic
  location between North America and Russia; shortest marine link
  between the extremes of eastern and western Russia; floating
  research stations operated by the US and Russia; maximum snow cover
  in March or April about 20 to 50 centimeters over the frozen ocean;
  snow cover lasts about 10 months

Argentina
  second-largest country in South America (after Brazil);
  strategic location relative to sea lanes between the South Atlantic
  and the South Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel,
  Drake Passage); diverse geophysical landscapes range from tropical
  climates in the north to tundra in the far south; Cerro Aconcagua is
  the Western Hemisphere's tallest mountain, while Laguna del Carbon
  is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere

Armenia
  landlocked in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains; Sevana Lich
  (Lake Sevan) is the largest lake in this mountain range

Aruba
  a flat, riverless island renowned for its white sand beaches;
  its tropical climate is moderated by constant trade winds from the
  Atlantic Ocean; the temperature is almost constant at about 27
  degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit)

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve
  established in August 1983

Atlantic Ocean
  major chokepoints include the Dardanelles, Strait of
  Gibraltar, access to the Panama and Suez Canals; strategic straits
  include the Strait of Dover, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The
  Sound (Oresund), and Windward Passage; the Equator divides the
  Atlantic Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean

Australia
  world's smallest continent but sixth-largest country;
  population concentrated along the eastern and southeastern coasts;
  the invigorating tropical sea breeze known as the "Fremantle Doctor"
  affects the city of Perth on the west coast, and is one of the most
  consistent winds in the world

Austria
  landlocked; strategic location at the crossroads of central
  Europe with many easily traversable Alpine passes and valleys; major
  river is the Danube; population is concentrated on eastern lowlands
  because of steep slopes, poor soils, and low temperatures elsewhere

Azerbaijan
  both the main area of the country and the Naxcivan
  exclave are landlocked

Bahamas, The
  strategic location adjacent to US and Cuba; extensive
  island chain of which 30 are inhabited

Bahrain
  close to primary Middle Eastern petroleum sources; strategic
  location in Persian Gulf, through which much of the Western world's
  petroleum must transit to reach open ocean

Baker Island
  treeless, sparse, and scattered vegetation consisting
  of grasses, prostrate vines, and low growing shrubs; primarily a
  nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds,
  and marine wildlife

Bangladesh
  most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers
  flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main
  channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually
  empty into the Bay of Bengal

Barbados
  easternmost Caribbean island

Bassas da India
  the islands emerge from a circular reef that sits
  atop a long-extinct, submerged volcano

Belarus
  landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of
  Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes

Belgium
  crossroads of Western Europe; majority of West European
  capitals within 1,000 km of Brussels, the seat of both the European
  Union and NATO

Belize
  only country in Central America without a coastline on the
  North Pacific Ocean

Benin
  sandbanks create difficult access to a coast with no natural
  harbors, river mouths, or islands

Bermuda
  consists of about 138 coral islands and islets with ample
  rainfall, but no rivers or freshwater lakes; some land was leased by
  US Government from 1941 to 1995

Bhutan
  landlocked; strategic location between China and India;
  controls several key Himalayan mountain passes

Bolivia
  landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest
  navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  within Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognized
  borders, the country is divided into a joint Bosniak/Croat
  Federation (about 51% of the territory) and the Bosnian Serb-led
  Republika Srpska or RS (about 49% of the territory); the region
  called Herzegovina is contiguous to Croatia and Serbia and
  Montenegro (Montenegro), and traditionally has been settled by an
  ethnic Croat majority in the west and an ethnic Serb majority in the
  east

Botswana
  landlocked; population concentrated in eastern part of the
  country

Bouvet Island
  covered by glacial ice; declared a nature reserve

Brazil
  largest country in South America; shares common boundaries
  with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador

British Indian Ocean Territory
  archipelago of 55 islands; Diego
  Garcia, largest and southernmost island, occupies strategic location
  in central Indian Ocean; island is site of joint US-UK military
  facility

British Virgin Islands
  strong ties to nearby US Virgin Islands and
  Puerto Rico

Brunei
  close to vital sea lanes through South China Sea linking
  Indian and Pacific Oceans; two parts physically separated by
  Malaysia; almost an enclave within Malaysia

Bulgaria
  strategic location near Turkish Straits; controls key land
  routes from Europe to Middle East and Asia

Burkina Faso
  landlocked savanna cut by the three principal rivers of
  the Black, Red, and White Voltas

Burma
  strategic location near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes

Burundi
  landlocked; straddles crest of the Nile-Congo watershed; the
  Kagera, which drains into Lake Victoria, is the most remote
  headstream of the White Nile

Cambodia
  a land of paddies and forests dominated by the Mekong River
  and Tonle Sap

Cameroon
  sometimes referred to as the hinge of Africa; throughout
  the country there are areas of thermal springs and indications of
  current or prior volcanic activity; Mount Cameroon, the highest
  mountain in Sub-Saharan west Africa, is an active volcano

Canada
  second-largest country in world (after Russia); strategic
  location between Russia and US via north polar route; approximately
  90% of the population is concentrated within 160 km of the US border

Cape Verde
  strategic location 500 km from west coast of Africa near
  major north-south sea routes; important communications station;
  important sea and air refueling site

Cayman Islands
  important location between Cuba and Central America

Central African Republic
  landlocked; almost the precise center of
  Africa

Chad
  landlocked; Lake Chad is the most significant water body in the
  Sahel

Chile
  strategic location relative to sea lanes between Atlantic and
  Pacific Oceans (Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, Drake Passage);
  Atacama Desert is one of world's driest regions

China
  world's fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US);
  Mount Everest on the border with Nepal is the world's tallest peak

Christmas Island
  located along major sea lanes of Indian Ocean

Clipperton Island
  reef 12 km in circumference

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  islands are thickly covered with coconut
  palms and other vegetation

Colombia
  only South American country with coastlines on both the
  North Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea

Comoros
  important location at northern end of Mozambique Channel

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  straddles equator; has very narrow
  strip of land that controls the lower Congo River and is only outlet
  to South Atlantic Ocean; dense tropical rain forest in central river
  basin and eastern highlands

Congo, Republic of the
  about 70% of the population lives in
  Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, or along the railroad between them

Cook Islands
  the northern Cook Islands are seven low-lying, sparsely
  populated, coral atolls; the southern Cook Islands, where most of
  the population lives, consist of eight elevated, fertile, volcanic
  isles, including the largest, Rarotonga, at 67 sq km

Coral Sea Islands
  important nesting area for birds and turtles

Costa Rica
  four volcanoes, two of them active, rise near the capital
  of San Jose in the center of the country; one of the volcanoes,
  Irazu, erupted destructively in 1963-65

Cote d'Ivoire
  most of the inhabitants live along the sandy coastal
  region; apart from the capital area, the forested interior is
  sparsely populated

Croatia
  controls most land routes from Western Europe to Aegean Sea
  and Turkish Straits

Cuba
  largest country in Caribbean and westernmost island of the
  Greater Antilles

Cyprus
  the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after
  Sicily and Sardinia)

Czech Republic
  landlocked; strategically located astride some of
  oldest and most significant land routes in Europe; Moravian Gate is
  a traditional military corridor between the North European Plain and
  the Danube in central Europe

Denmark
  controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking
  Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in
  greater Copenhagen

Dhekelia
  British extraterritorial rights also extended to several
  small off-post sites scattered across Cyprus

Djibouti
  strategic location near world's busiest shipping lanes and
  close to Arabian oilfields; terminus of rail traffic into Ethiopia;
  mostly wasteland; Lac Assal (Lake Assal) is the lowest point in
  Africa

Dominica
  known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" due to its
  spectacular, lush, and varied flora and fauna, which are protected
  by an extensive natural park system; the most mountainous of the
  Lesser Antilles, its volcanic peaks are cones of lava craters and
  include Boiling Lake, the second-largest, thermally active lake in
  the world

Dominican Republic
  shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti

East Timor
  Timor comes from the Malay word for "East"; the island of
  Timor is part of the Malay Archipelago and is the largest and
  easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands

Ecuador
  Cotopaxi in Andes is highest active volcano in world

Egypt
  controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between Africa and
  remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, a sea link
  between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition
  to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics;
  dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues;
  prone to influxes of refugees

El Salvador
  smallest Central American country and only one without a
  coastline on Caribbean Sea

Equatorial Guinea
  insular and continental regions widely separated

Eritrea
  strategic geopolitical position along world's busiest
  shipping lanes; Eritrea retained the entire coastline of Ethiopia
  along the Red Sea upon de jure independence from Ethiopia on 24 May
  1993

Estonia
  the mainland terrain is flat, boggy, and partly wooded;
  offshore lie more than 1,500 islands

Ethiopia
  landlocked - entire coastline along the Red Sea was lost
  with the de jure independence of Eritrea on 24 May 1993; the Blue
  Nile, the chief headstream of the Nile by water volume, rises in
  T'ana Hayk (Lake Tana) in northwest Ethiopia; three major crops are
  believed to have originated in Ethiopia: coffee, grain sorghum, and
  castor bean

Europa Island
  wildlife sanctuary

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  deeply indented coast provides
  good natural harbors; short growing season

Faroe Islands
  archipelago of 17 inhabited islands and one
  uninhabited island, and a few uninhabited islets; strategically
  located along important sea lanes in northeastern Atlantic;
  precipitous terrain limits habitation to small coastal lowlands

Fiji
  includes 332 islands; approximately 110 are inhabited

Finland
  long boundary with Russia; Helsinki is northernmost national
  capital on European continent; population concentrated on small
  southwestern coastal plain

France
  largest West European nation

French Guiana
  mostly an unsettled wilderness; the only
  non-independent portion of the South American continent

French Polynesia
  includes five archipelagoes (4 volcanic, 1 coral);
  Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock
  islands in the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island)
  in Kiribati and Nauru

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  islands component is widely
  scattered across remote locations in the southern Indian Ocean

Gabon
  a small population and oil and mineral reserves have helped
  Gabon become one of Africa's wealthier countries; in general, these
  circumstances have allowed the country to maintain and conserve its
  pristine rain forest and rich biodiversity

Gambia, The
  almost an enclave of Senegal; smallest country on the
  continent of Africa

Gaza Strip
  strategic strip of land along Mideast-North African trade
  routes has experienced an incredibly turbulent history; the town of
  Gaza itself has been besieged countless times in its history

Georgia
  strategically located east of the Black Sea; Georgia
  controls much of the Caucasus Mountains and the routes through them

Germany
  strategic location on North European Plain and along the
  entrance to the Baltic Sea

Ghana
  Lake Volta is the world's largest artificial lake

Gibraltar
  strategic location on Strait of Gibraltar that links the
  North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

Glorioso Islands
  the islands and rocks are surrounded by an
  extensive reef system

Greece
  strategic location dominating the Aegean Sea and southern
  approach to Turkish Straits; a peninsular country, possessing an
  archipelago of about 2,000 islands

Greenland
  dominates North Atlantic Ocean between North America and
  Europe; sparse population confined to small settlements along coast,
  but close to one-quarter of the population lives in the capital,
  Nuuk; world's second largest ice cap

Grenada
  the administration of the islands of the Grenadines group is
  divided between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada

Guadeloupe
  a narrow channel, the Riviere Salee, divides Guadeloupe
  proper into two islands: the larger, western Basse-Terre and the
  smaller, eastern Grande-Terre

Guam
  largest and southernmost island in the Mariana Islands
  archipelago; strategic location in western North Pacific Ocean

Guatemala
  no natural harbors on west coast

Guernsey
  large, deepwater harbor at Saint Peter Port

Guinea
  the Niger and its important tributary the Milo have their
  sources in the Guinean highlands

Guinea-Bissau
  this small country is swampy along its western coast
  and low-lying further inland

Guyana
  the third-smallest country in South America after Suriname
  and Uruguay; substantial portions of its western and eastern
  territories are claimed by Venezuela and Suriname respectively

Haiti
  shares island of Hispaniola with Dominican Republic (western
  one-third is Haiti, eastern two-thirds is the Dominican Republic)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  landlocked; enclave in Rome, Italy; world's
  smallest state; beyond the territorial boundary of Vatican City, the
  Lateran Treaty of 1929 grants the Holy See extraterritorial
  authority over 23 sites in Rome and five outside of Rome, including
  the Pontifical Palace at Castel Gandolfo (the Pope's summer
  residence)

Honduras
  has only a short Pacific coast but a long Caribbean
  shoreline, including the virtually uninhabited eastern Mosquito Coast

Hong Kong
  more than 200 islands

Howland Island
  almost totally covered with grasses, prostrate vines,
  and low-growing shrubs; small area of trees in the center; primarily
  a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds,
  and marine wildlife

Hungary
  landlocked; strategic location astride main land routes
  between Western Europe and Balkan Peninsula as well as between
  Ukraine and Mediterranean basin; the north-south flowing Duna
  (Danube) and Tisza Rivers divide the country into three large regions

Iceland
  strategic location between Greenland and Europe; westernmost
  European country; Reykjavik is the northernmost national capital in
  the world; more land covered by glaciers than in all of continental
  Europe

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: the atoll is a circular reef that sits
  atop a long-extinct, submerged volcano
  Europa Island and Juan de Nova Island: wildlife sanctuary for
  seabirds and sea turtles
  Glorioso Islands: the islands and rocks are surrounded by an
  extensive reef system
  Tromelin Island: climatologically important location for forecasting
  cyclones in the western Indian Ocean; wildlife sanctuary (seabirds,
  tortoises)

India
  dominates South Asian subcontinent; near important Indian
  Ocean trade routes; Kanchenjunga, third tallest mountain in the
  world, lies on the border with Nepal

Indian Ocean
  major chokepoints include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of
  Hormuz, Strait of Malacca, southern access to the Suez Canal, and
  the Lombok Strait

Indonesia
  archipelago of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited); straddles
  equator; strategic location astride or along major sea lanes from
  Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean

Iran
  strategic location on the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz,
  which are vital maritime pathways for crude oil transport

Iraq
  strategic location on Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of
  the Persian Gulf

Ireland
  strategic location on major air and sea routes between North
  America and northern Europe; over 40% of the population resides
  within 100 km of Dublin

Isle of Man
  one small islet, the Calf of Man, lies to the southwest,
  and is a bird sanctuary

Israel
  there are 242 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites
  in the West Bank, 42 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, 0 in the
  Gaza Strip, and 29 in East Jerusalem (August 2005 est.); Sea of
  Galilee is an important freshwater source

Italy
  strategic location dominating central Mediterranean as well as
  southern sea and air approaches to Western Europe

Jamaica
  strategic location between Cayman Trench and Jamaica
  Channel, the main sea lanes for the Panama Canal

Jan Mayen
  barren volcanic island with some moss and grass

Japan
  strategic location in northeast Asia

Jarvis Island
  sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines, and low-growing
  shrubs; primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for
  seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife

Jersey
  largest and southernmost of Channel Islands; about 30% of
  population concentrated in Saint Helier

Johnston Atoll
  strategic location in the North Pacific Ocean;
  Johnston Island and Sand Island are natural islands, which have been
  expanded by coral dredging; North Island (Akau) and East Island
  (Hikina) are manmade islands formed from coral dredging; the
  egg-shaped reef is 34 km in circumference; closed to the public; a
  former US nuclear weapons test site; site of now-closed Johnston
  Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS); most facilities
  dismantled and cleanup complete in 2004; some low-growing vegetation

Jordan
  strategic location at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba and as
  the Arab country that shares the longest border with Israel and the
  occupied West Bank

Juan de Nova Island
  wildlife sanctuary

Kazakhstan
  landlocked; Russia leases approximately 6,000 sq km of
  territory enclosing the Baykonur Cosmodrome; in January 2004,
  Kazakhstan and Russia extended the lease to 2050

Kenya
  the Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful
  agricultural production regions in Africa; glaciers are found on
  Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak; unique physiography
  supports abundant and varied wildlife of scientific and economic
  value

Kingman Reef
  barren coral atoll with deep interior lagoon; closed to
  the public

Kiribati
  21 of the 33 islands are inhabited; Banaba (Ocean Island)
  in Kiribati is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the
  Pacific Ocean - the others are Makatea in French Polynesia, and Nauru

Korea, North
  strategic location bordering China, South Korea, and
  Russia; mountainous interior is isolated and sparsely populated

Korea, South
  strategic location on Korea Strait

Kuwait
  strategic location at head of Persian Gulf

Kyrgyzstan
  landlocked; entirely mountainous, dominated by the Tien
  Shan range; many tall peaks, glaciers, and high-altitude lakes

Laos
  landlocked; most of the country is mountainous and thickly
  forested; the Mekong River forms a large part of the western
  boundary with Thailand

Latvia
  most of the country is composed of fertile, low-lying plains,
  with some hills in the east

Lebanon
  Nahr el Litani is the only major river in Near East not
  crossing an international boundary; rugged terrain historically
  helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based
  on religion, clan, and ethnicity

Lesotho
  landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa;
  mountainous, more than 80% of the country is 1,800 meters above sea
  level

Liberia
  facing the Atlantic Ocean, the coastline is characterized by
  lagoons, mangrove swamps, and river-deposited sandbars; the inland
  grassy plateau supports limited agriculture

Libya
  more than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert

Liechtenstein
  along with Uzbekistan, one of only two doubly
  landlocked countries in the world; variety of microclimatic
  variations based on elevation

Lithuania
  fertile central plains are separated by hilly uplands that
  are ancient glacial deposits

Luxembourg
  landlocked; the only Grand Duchy in the world

Macau
  essentially urban; an area of land reclaimed from the sea
  measuring 5.2 sq km and known as Cotai now connects the islands of
  Coloane and Taipa; the island area is connected to the mainland
  peninsula by three bridges

Macedonia
  landlocked; major transportation corridor from Western and
  Central Europe to Aegean Sea and Southern Europe to Western Europe

Madagascar
  world's fourth-largest island; strategic location along
  Mozambique Channel

Malawi
  landlocked; Lake Nyasa, some 580 km long, is the country's
  most prominent physical feature

Malaysia
  strategic location along Strait of Malacca and southern
  South China Sea

Maldives
  1,190 coral islands grouped into 26 atolls (200 inhabited
  islands, plus 80 islands with tourist resorts); archipelago with
  strategic location astride and along major sea lanes in Indian Ocean

Mali
  landlocked; divided into three natural zones: the southern,
  cultivated Sudanese; the central, semiarid Sahelian; and the
  northern, arid Saharan

Malta
  the country comprises an archipelago, with only the three
  largest islands (Malta, Ghawdex or Gozo, and Kemmuna or Comino)
  being inhabited; numerous bays provide good harbors; Malta and
  Tunisia are discussing the commercial exploitation of the
  continental shelf between their countries, particularly for oil
  exploration

Marshall Islands
  Bikini and Enewetak are former US nuclear test
  sites; Kwajalein, the famous World War II battleground, is used as a
  US missile test range; island city of Ebeye is the second largest
  settlement in the Marshall Islands, after the capital of Majuro, and
  one of the most densely populated locations in the Pacific

Martinique
  the island is dominated by Mount Pelee, which on 8 May
  1902 erupted and completely destroyed the city of Saint Pierre,
  killing 30,000 inhabitants

Mauritania
  most of the population concentrated in the cities of
  Nouakchott and Nouadhibou and along the Senegal River in the
  southern part of the country

Mauritius
  the main island, from which the country derives its name,
  is of volcanic origin and is almost entirely surrounded by coral
  reefs

Mayotte
  part of Comoro Archipelago; 18 islands

Mexico
  strategic location on southern border of US; corn (maize),
  one of the world's major grain crops, is thought to have originated
  in Mexico

Micronesia, Federated States of
  four major island groups totaling
  607 islands

Midway Islands
  a coral atoll managed as a national wildlife refuge
  and open to the public for wildlife-related recreation in the form
  of wildlife observation and photography, sport fishing, snorkeling,
  and scuba diving; the refuge is temporarily closed for
  reorganization at present (2004)

Moldova
  landlocked; well endowed with various sedimentary rocks and
  minerals including sand, gravel, gypsum, and limestone

Monaco
  second-smallest independent state in the world (after Holy
  See); almost entirely urban

Mongolia
  landlocked; strategic location between China and Russia

Montenegro
  strategic location along the Adriatic coast

Montserrat
  the island is entirely volcanic in origin and comprised
  of three major volcanic centers of differing ages

Morocco
  strategic location along Strait of Gibraltar

Mozambique
  the Zambezi flows through the north-central and most
  fertile part of the country

Namibia
  first country in the world to incorporate the protection of
  the environment into its constitution; some 14% of the land is
  protected, including virtually the entire Namib Desert coastal strip

Nauru
  Nauru is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the
  Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and
  Makatea in French Polynesia; only 53 km south of Equator

Navassa Island
  strategic location 160 km south of the US Naval Base
  at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; mostly exposed rock but with enough
  grassland to support goat herds; dense stands of fig-like trees,
  scattered cactus

Nepal
  landlocked; strategic location between China and India;
  contains eight of world's 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest
  and Kanchenjunga - the world's tallest and third tallest - on the
  borders with China and India respectively

Netherlands
  located at mouths of three major European rivers (Rhine,
  Maas or Meuse, and Schelde)

Netherlands Antilles
  the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles
  are divided geographically into the Leeward Islands (northern) group
  (Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten) and the Windward Islands
  (southern) group (Bonaire and Curacao)

New Caledonia
  consists of the main island of New Caledonia (one of
  the largest in the Pacific Ocean), the archipelago of Iles Loyaute,
  and numerous small, sparsely populated islands and atolls

New Zealand
  about 80% of the population lives in cities; Wellington
  is the southernmost national capital in the world

Nicaragua
  largest country in Central America; contains the largest
  freshwater body in Central America, Lago de Nicaragua

Niger
  landlocked; one of the hottest countries in the world;
  northern four-fifths is desert, southern one-fifth is savanna,
  suitable for livestock and limited agriculture

Nigeria
  the Niger enters the country in the northwest and flows
  southward through tropical rain forests and swamps to its delta in
  the Gulf of Guinea

Niue
  one of world's largest coral islands

Norfolk Island
  most of the 32 km coastline consists of almost
  inaccessible cliffs, but the land slopes down to the sea in one
  small southern area on Sydney Bay, where the capital of Kingston is
  situated

Northern Mariana Islands
  strategic location in the North Pacific
  Ocean

Norway
  about two-thirds mountains; some 50,000 islands off its much
  indented coastline; strategic location adjacent to sea lanes and air
  routes in North Atlantic; one of most rugged and longest coastlines
  in the world

Oman
  strategic location on Musandam Peninsula adjacent to Strait of
  Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil

Pacific Ocean
  the major chokepoints are the Bering Strait, Panama
  Canal, Luzon Strait, and the Singapore Strait; the Equator divides
  the Pacific Ocean into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific
  Ocean; dotted with low coral islands and rugged volcanic islands in
  the southwestern Pacific Ocean

Pakistan
  controls Khyber Pass and Bolan Pass, traditional invasion
  routes between Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent

Palau
  westernmost archipelago in the Caroline chain, consists of six
  island groups totaling more than 300 islands; includes World War II
  battleground of Beliliou (Peleliu) and world-famous rock islands

Palmyra Atoll
  about 50 islets covered with dense vegetation, coconut
  trees, and balsa-like trees up to 30 meters tall

Panama
  strategic location on eastern end of isthmus forming land
  bridge connecting North and South America; controls Panama Canal
  that links North Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea with North Pacific
  Ocean

Papua New Guinea
  shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; one of
  world's largest swamps along southwest coast

Paracel Islands
  composed of 130 small coral islands and reefs
  divided into the northeast Amphitrite Group and the western Crescent
  Group

Paraguay
  landlocked; lies between Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil;
  population concentrated in southern part of country

Peru
  shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable
  lake, with Bolivia; a remote slope of Nevado Mismi, a 5,316 m peak,
  is the ultimate source of the Amazon River

Philippines
  the Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands;
  favorably located in relation to many of Southeast Asia's main water
  bodies: the South China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea,
  and Luzon Strait

Pitcairn Islands
  Britain's most isolated dependency; only the larger
  island of Pitcairn is inhabited but it has no port or natural
  harbor; supplies must be transported by rowed longboat from larger
  ships stationed offshore

Poland
  historically, an area of conflict because of flat terrain and
  the lack of natural barriers on the North European Plain

Portugal
  Azores and Madeira Islands occupy strategic locations along
  western sea approaches to Strait of Gibraltar

Puerto Rico
  important location along the Mona Passage - a key
  shipping lane to the Panama Canal; San Juan is one of the biggest
  and best natural harbors in the Caribbean; many small rivers and
  high central mountains ensure land is well watered; south coast
  relatively dry; fertile coastal plain belt in north

Qatar
  strategic location in central Persian Gulf near major
  petroleum deposits

Reunion
  this mountainous, volcanic island has an active volcano,
  Piton de la Fournaise; there is a tropical cyclone center at
  Saint-Denis, which is the monitoring station for the whole of the
  Indian Ocean

Romania
  controls most easily traversable land route between the
  Balkans, Moldova, and Ukraine

Russia
  largest country in the world in terms of area but unfavorably
  located in relation to major sea lanes of the world; despite its
  size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates (either
  too cold or too dry) for agriculture; Mount El'brus is Europe's
  tallest peak

Rwanda
  landlocked; most of the country is savanna grassland with the
  population predominantly rural

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena harbors at least 40 species of plants
  unknown anywhere else in the world; Ascension is a breeding ground
  for sea turtles and sooty terns; Queen Mary's Peak on Tristan da
  Cunha is the highest island mountain in the South Atlantic and a
  prominent landmark on the sea lanes around southern Africa

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  with coastlines in the shape of a baseball bat
  and ball, the two volcanic islands are separated by a three-km-wide
  channel called The Narrows; on the southern tip of long, baseball
  bat-shaped Saint Kitts lies the Great Salt Pond; Nevis Peak sits in
  the center of its almost circular namesake island and its ball shape
  complements that of its sister island

Saint Lucia
  the twin Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton), striking
  cone-shaped peaks south of Soufriere, are one of the scenic natural
  highlights of the Caribbean

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  vegetation scanty

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  the administration of the islands
  of the Grenadines group is divided between Saint Vincent and the
  Grenadines and Grenada; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is
  comprised of 32 islands and cays

Samoa
  occupies an almost central position within Polynesia

San Marino
  landlocked; smallest independent state in Europe after
  the Holy See and Monaco; dominated by the Apennines

Sao Tome and Principe
  the smallest country in Africa; the two main
  islands form part of a chain of extinct volcanoes and both are
  fairly mountainous

Saudi Arabia
  extensive coastlines on Persian Gulf and Red Sea
  provide great leverage on shipping (especially crude oil) through
  Persian Gulf and Suez Canal

Senegal
  westernmost country on the African continent; The Gambia is
  almost an enclave within Senegal

Serbia
  controls one of the major land routes from Western Europe to
  Turkey and the Near East

Seychelles
  41 granitic and about 75 coralline islands

Sierra Leone
  rainfall along the coast can reach 495 cm (195 inches)
  a year, making it one of the wettest places along coastal, western
  Africa

Singapore
  focal point for Southeast Asian sea routes

Slovakia
  landlocked; most of the country is rugged and mountainous;
  the Tatra Mountains in the north are interspersed with many scenic
  lakes and valleys

Slovenia
  despite its small size, this eastern Alpine country
  controls some of Europe's major transit routes

Solomon Islands
  strategic location on sea routes between the South
  Pacific Ocean, the Solomon Sea, and the Coral Sea

Somalia
  strategic location on Horn of Africa along southern
  approaches to Bab el Mandeb and route through Red Sea and Suez Canal

South Africa
  South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho and almost
  completely surrounds Swaziland

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  the north coast of
  South Georgia has several large bays, which provide good anchorage;
  reindeer, introduced early in the 20th century, live on South Georgia

Southern Ocean
  the major chokepoint is the Drake Passage between
  South America and Antarctica; the Polar Front (Antarctic
  Convergence) is the best natural definition of the northern extent
  of the Southern Ocean; it is a distinct region at the middle of the
  Antarctic Circumpolar Current that separates the very cold polar
  surface waters to the south from the warmer waters to the north; the
  Front and the Current extend entirely around Antarctica, reaching
  south of 60 degrees south near New Zealand and near 48 degrees south
  in the far South Atlantic coinciding with the path of the maximum
  westerly winds

Spain
  strategic location along approaches to Strait of Gibraltar

Spratly Islands
  strategically located near several primary shipping
  lanes in the central South China Sea; includes numerous small
  islands, atolls, shoals, and coral reefs

Sri Lanka
  strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes

Sudan
  largest country in Africa; dominated by the Nile and its
  tributaries

Suriname
  smallest independent country on South American continent;
  mostly tropical rain forest; great diversity of flora and fauna
  that, for the most part, is increasingly threatened by new
  development; relatively small population, mostly along the coast

Svalbard
  northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway; consists of
  nine main islands; glaciers and snowfields cover 60% of the total
  area; site of future seed repository under construction by the
  Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Norwegian Government

Swaziland
  landlocked; almost completely surrounded by South Africa

Sweden
  strategic location along Danish Straits linking Baltic and
  North Seas

Switzerland
  landlocked; crossroads of northern and southern Europe;
  along with southeastern France, northern Italy, and southwestern
  Austria, has the highest elevations in the Alps

Syria
  there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites
  in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (August 2005 est.)

Taiwan
  strategic location adjacent to both the Taiwan Strait and the
  Luzon Strait

Tajikistan
  landlocked; mountainous region dominated by the
  Trans-Alay Range in the north and the Pamirs in the southeast;
  highest point, Qullai Ismoili Somoni (formerly Communism Peak), was
  the tallest mountain in the former USSR

Tanzania
  Kilimanjaro is highest point in Africa; bordered by three
  of the largest lakes on the continent: Lake Victoria (the world's
  second-largest freshwater lake) in the north, Lake Tanganyika (the
  world's second deepest) in the west, and Lake Nyasa in the southwest

Thailand
  controls only land route from Asia to Malaysia and Singapore

Togo
  the country's length allows it to stretch through six distinct
  geographic regions; climate varies from tropical to savanna

Tokelau
  consists of three atolls, each with a lagoon surrounded by a
  number of reef-bound islets of varying length and rising to over
  three meters above sea level

Tonga
  archipelago of 169 islands (36 inhabited)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Pitch Lake, on Trinidad's southwestern coast, is
  the world's largest natural reservoir of asphalt

Tromelin Island
  climatologically important location for forecasting
  cyclones; wildlife sanctuary (seabirds, tortoises)

Tunisia
  strategic location in central Mediterranean; Malta and
  Tunisia are discussing the commercial exploitation of the
  continental shelf between their countries, particularly for oil
  exploration

Turkey
  strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits (Bosporus,
  Sea of Marmara, Dardanelles) that link Black and Aegean Seas; Mount
  Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah's Ark, is in the far
  eastern portion of the country

Turkmenistan
  landlocked; the western and central low-lying, desolate
  portions of the country make up the great Garagum (Kara-Kum) desert,
  which occupies over 80% of the country; eastern part is plateau

Turks and Caicos Islands
  about 40 islands (eight inhabited)

Tuvalu
  one of the smallest and most remote countries on Earth; six
  of the coral atolls - Nanumea, Nui, Vaitupu, Nukufetau, Funafuti,
  and Nukulaelae - have lagoons open to the ocean; Nanumaya and Niutao
  have landlocked lagoons; Niulakita does not have a lagoon

Uganda
  landlocked; fertile, well-watered country with many lakes and
  rivers

Ukraine
  strategic position at the crossroads between Europe and
  Asia; second-largest country in Europe

United Arab Emirates
  strategic location along southern approaches to
  Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil

United Kingdom
  lies near vital North Atlantic sea lanes; only 35 km
  from France and linked by tunnel under the English Channel; because
  of heavily indented coastline, no location is more than 125 km from
  tidal waters

United States
  world's third-largest country by size (after Russia
  and Canada) and by population (after China and India); Mt. McKinley
  is highest point in North America and Death Valley the lowest point
  on the continent

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker, Howland, and
  Jarvis Islands: scattered vegetation consisting of grasses,
  prostrate vines, and low growing shrubs; primarily a nesting,
  roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine
  wildlife
  Johnston Atoll: Johnston Island and Sand Island are natural islands,
  which have been expanded by coral dredging; North Island (Akau) and
  East Island (Hikina) are manmade islands formed from coral dredging;
  the egg-shaped reef is 34 km in circumference
  Kingman Reef: barren coral atoll with deep interior lagoon; closed
  to the public
  Midway Islands: a coral atoll managed as a national wildlife refuge
  and open to the public for wildlife-related recreation in the form
  of wildlife observation and photography
  Palmyra Atoll: the high rainfall and resulting lush vegetation make
  the environment of this atoll unique among the US Pacific Island
  territories; it supports one of the largest remaining undisturbed
  stands of Pisonia beach forest in the Pacific

Uruguay
  second-smallest South American country (after Suriname);
  most of the low-lying landscape (three-quarters of the country) is
  grassland, ideal for cattle and sheep raising

Uzbekistan
  along with Liechtenstein, one of the only two doubly
  landlocked countries in the world

Vanuatu
  a Y-shaped chain of four main islands and 80 smaller
  islands; several of the islands have active volcanoes

Venezuela
  on major sea and air routes linking North and South
  America; Angel Falls in the Guiana Highlands is the world's highest
  waterfall

Vietnam
  extending 1,650 km north to south, the country is only 50 km
  across at its narrowest point

Virgin Islands
  important location along the Anegada Passage - a key
  shipping lane for the Panama Canal; Saint Thomas has one of the best
  natural deepwater harbors in the Caribbean

Wake Island
  strategic location in the North Pacific Ocean; emergency
  landing location for transpacific flights

Wallis and Futuna
  both island groups have fringing reefs

West Bank
  landlocked; highlands are main recharge area for Israel's
  coastal aquifers; there are 242 West Bank settlements and 29 East
  Jerusalem settlements in addition to at least 20 occupied outposts
  (August 2005 est.)

Western Sahara
  the waters off the coast are particularly rich
  fishing areas

World
  the world is now thought to be about 4.55 billion years old,
  just about one-third of the 13-billion-year age estimated for the
  universe

Yemen
  strategic location on Bab el Mandeb, the strait linking the
  Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, one of world's most active shipping
  lanes

Zambia
  landlocked; the Zambezi forms a natural riverine boundary
  with Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe
  landlocked; the Zambezi forms a natural riverine boundary
  with Zambia; in full flood (February-April) the massive Victoria
  Falls on the river forms the world's largest curtain of falling water

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2115  Political pressure groups and leaders


Afghanistan
  Jamiat-e Islami (Society of Islam) [former President
  Burhanuddin RABBANI]; Ittihad-e Islami (Islamic Union for the
  Liberation of Afghanistan) [Abdul Rasul SAYYAF]; there are also
  small monarchist, communist, and democratic groups

Albania
  Citizens Advocacy Office [Kreshnik SPAHIU]; Confederation of
  Trade Unions of Albania or KSSH [Kastriot MUCO]; Front for Albanian
  National Unification or FBKSH [Gafur ADILI]; Mjaft Movement [Erion
  VELIAJ]; Omonia [Jani JANI]; Union of Independent Trade Unions of
  Albania or BSPSH [Gezim KALAJA]

Algeria
  The Algerian Human Rights League or LADH or LADDH [Yahia Ali
  ABDENOUR]; SOS Disparus [Nacera DUTOUR]; Somoud [Ali MERABET]

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda or FLEC
  [N'zita Henriques TIAGO, Antonio Bento BEMBE]
  note: FLEC's small-scale, highly factionalized armed struggle for
  the independence of Cabinda Province has largely ended

Anguilla
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  Antigua Trades and Labor Union or ATLU [William
  ROBINSON]; People's Democratic Movement or PDM [Hugh MARSHALL]

Argentina
  Argentine Association of Pharmaceutical Labs (CILFA);
  Argentine Industrial Union (manufacturers' association); Argentine
  Rural Society (large landowners' association); business
  organizations; Central of Argentine Workers or CTA (a radical union
  for employed and unemployed workers); General Confederation of Labor
  or CGT (Peronist-leaning umbrella labor organization);
  Peronist-dominated labor movement; Piquetero groups (popular protest
  organizations that can be either pro or anti-government); Roman
  Catholic Church; students

Armenia
  Yerkrapah Union [Manvel GRIGORIAN]

Aruba
  NA

Austria
  Austrian Trade Union Federation (nominally independent but
  primarily Socialist) or OeGB; Federal Economic Chamber;
  OeVP-oriented League of Austrian Industrialists or VOeI; Roman
  Catholic Church, including its chief lay organization, Catholic
  Action; three composite leagues of the Austrian People's Party or
  OeVP representing business, labor, and farmers and other
  non-government organizations in the areas of environment and human
  rights

Azerbaijan
  Sadval, Lezgin movement; self-proclaimed Armenian
  Nagorno-Karabakh Republic; Talysh independence movement; Union of
  Pro-Azerbaijani Forces (UPAF)

Bahamas, The
  NA

Bahrain
  Shi'a activists fomented unrest sporadically in 1994-97 and
  have recently engaged in protests and marches, demanding that more
  power be vested in the elected Council of Representatives and that
  the government do more to decrease unemployment; several small,
  clandestine leftist and Islamic fundamentalist groups are active

Bangladesh
  NA

Barbados
  Barbados Workers Union [Leroy TROTMAN]; Clement Payne Labor
  Union [David COMISSIONG]; People's Progressive Movement [Eric
  SEALY]; Worker's Party of Barbados [Dr. George BELLE]

Belarus
  Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs [Sergey MATSKEVICH];
  Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions [Alyaksandr
  YAROSHUK]; Belarusian Helsinki Committee [Tatiana PROTKO];
  Belarusian Organization of Working Women [Irina ZHIKHAR]; Charter 97
  [Andrey SANNIKOV]; Lenin Communist Union of Youth (youth wing of the
  Belarusian Party of Communists or PKB); National Strike Committee of
  Entrepreneurs [Aleksandr VASILYEV, Valery LEVONEVSKY]; Partnership
  NGO [Nikolay ASTREYKA]; Perspektiva kiosk watchdog NGO [Anatol
  SHUMCHENKO]; Vyasna [Ales BYALATSKY]; Women's Independent Democratic
  Movement [Ludmila PETINA]; Youth Front (Malady Front) [Dzmitryy
  DASHKEVICH, Syarhey BAKHUN]; Zubr youth group [Vladimir KOBETS]

Belgium
  Christian, Socialist, and Liberal Trade Unions; Federation
  of Belgian Industries; numerous other associations representing
  bankers, manufacturers, middle-class artisans, and the legal and
  medical professions; various organizations represent the cultural
  interests of Flanders and Wallonia; various peace groups such as Pax
  Christi and groups representing immigrants

Belize
  Society for the Promotion of Education and Research or SPEAR
  [Adele CATZIM]

Benin
  NA

Bermuda
  Bermuda Employer's Union [Eddie SAINTS]; Bermuda Industrial
  Union or BIU [Derrick BURGESS]; Bermuda Public Services Union or
  BPSU [Ed BALL]; Bermuda Union of Teachers [Michael CHARLES]

Bhutan
  Buddhist clergy; ethnic Nepalese organizations leading
  militant antigovernment campaign; Indian merchant community; United
  Front for Democracy (exiled)

Bolivia
  Cocalero groups; indigenous organizations; labor unions;
  Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB [Roman
  LOAYZA]

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  NA

Botswana
  NA

Brazil
  Landless Worker's Movement; labor unions and federations;
  large farmers' associations; religious groups including evangelical
  Christian churches and the Catholic Church

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  NA

Bulgaria
  Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria or
  CITUB; Podkrepa Labor Confederation; numerous regional, ethnic, and
  national interest groups with various agendas

Burkina Faso
  Burkinabe General Confederation of Labor or CGTB;
  Burkinabe Movement for Human Rights or MBDHP; Group of 14 February;
  National Confederation of Burkinabe Workers or CNTB; National
  Organization of Free Unions or ONSL; watchdog/political action
  groups throughout the country in both organizations and communities

Burma
  National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma or NCGUB
  (self-proclaimed government in exile) ["Prime Minister" Dr. SEIN
  WIN] consists of individuals, some legitimately elected to the
  People's Assembly in 1990 (the group fled to a border area and
  joined insurgents in December 1990 to form parallel government in
  exile); Kachin Independence Organization or KIO; Karen National
  Union or KNU; several Shan factions; United Wa State Army or UWSA;
  Union Solidarity and Development Association or USDA (pro-regime, a
  social and political mass-member organization) [HTAY OO, general
  secretary]

Burundi
  none

Cambodia
  NA

Cameroon
  Southern Cameroon National Council [Ayamba Ette OTUN];
  Human Rights Defense Group [Albert MUKONG, president]

Canada
  NA

Cape Verde
  NA

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  NA

Chad
  NA

Chile
  revitalized university student federations at all major
  universities; Roman Catholic Church; United Labor Central or CUT
  includes trade unionists from the country's five largest labor
  confederations

China
  no substantial political opposition groups exist, although the
  government has identified the Falungong spiritual movement and the
  China Democracy Party as subversive groups

Christmas Island
  none

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none

Colombia
  two largest insurgent groups active in Colombia -
  Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC and National
  Liberation Army or ELN; largest illegal paramilitary group, a
  roughly organized umbrella group of disparate paramilitary forces,
  is United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia or AUC

Comoros
  NA

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA

Congo, Republic of the
  Congolese Trade Union Congress or CSC;
  General Union of Congolese Pupils and Students or UGEEC;
  Revolutionary Union of Congolese Women or URFC; Union of Congolese
  Socialist Youth or UJSC

Cook Islands
  NA

Costa Rica
  Authentic Confederation of Democratic Workers or CATD
  (Communist Party affiliate); Chamber of Coffee Growers; Confederated
  Union of Workers or CUT (Communist Party affiliate); Costa Rican
  Confederation of Democratic Workers or CCTD (Liberation Party
  affiliate); Federation of Public Service Workers or FTSP; National
  Association for Economic Development or ANFE; National Association
  of Educators or ANDE; Rerum Novarum or CTRN (PLN affiliate) [Gilbert
  BROWN]

Cote d'Ivoire
  NA

Croatia
  NA

Cuba
  NA

Cyprus
  Confederation of Cypriot Workers or SEK (pro-West);
  Confederation of Revolutionary Labor Unions or Dev-Is; Federation of
  Turkish Cypriot Labor Unions or Turk-Sen; Pan-Cyprian Labor
  Federation or PEO (Communist controlled)

Czech Republic
  Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions or CMKOS
  [Milan STECH]

Denmark
  NA

Djibouti
  Union for Presidential Majority UMP (coalition includes
  RPP, FRUD, PPSD and PND); Union for Democratic Changeover or UAD
  (opposition coalition includes ARD, MRDD, UDJ, and PDD) [Ahmed Dini
  AHMED]

Dominica
  Dominica Liberation Movement or DLM (a small leftist party)

Dominican Republic
  Citizen Participation Group (Participacion
  Ciudadania); Collective of Popular Organizations or COP; Foundation
  for Institution-Building and Justice (FINJUS)

East Timor
  Popular Council for the Defense of the Democratic
  Republic of East Timor or CPD-RDTL [Antonio-Aitahan MATAK] is
  largest political pressure group; dissatisfied veterans of struggle
  against Indonesia, led by one-time government advisor Cornelio GAMA
  (also known as L-7), also play an important role in pressuring
  government

Ecuador
  Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or
  CONAIE [Luis MACAS, president]; Coordinator of Social Movements or
  CMS [F. Napoleon SANTOS]; Federation of Indigenous Evangelists of
  Ecuador or FEINE [Marco MURILLO, president]; National Federation of
  Indigenous Afro-Ecuatorianos and Peasants or FENOCIN [Pedro DE LA
  CRUZ, president]

Egypt
  despite a constitutional ban against religious-based parties,
  the technically illegal Muslim Brotherhood constitutes Hosni
  MUBARAK's potentially most significant political opposition; MUBARAK
  tolerated limited political activity by the Brotherhood for his
  first two terms, but moved more aggressively since then to block its
  influence; civic society groups are sanctioned, but constrained in
  practical terms; trade unions and professional associations are
  officially sanctioned

El Salvador
  labor organizations - Electrical Industry Union of El
  Salvador or SIES; Federation of the Construction Industry, Similar
  Transport and other activities, or FESINCONTRANS; National
  Confederation of Salvadoran Workers or CNTS; National Union of
  Salvadoran Workers or UNTS; Port Industry Union of El Salvador or
  SIPES; Salvadoran Union of Ex-Petrolleros and Peasant Workers or
  USEPOC; Salvadoran Workers Central or CTS; Workers Union of
  Electrical Corporation or STCEL; business organizations - National
  Association of Small Enterprise or ANEP; Salvadoran Assembly
  Industry Association or ASIC; Salvadoran Industrial Association or
  ASI

Equatorial Guinea
  NA

Eritrea
  Eritrean Islamic Jihad or EIJ (also including Eritrean
  Islamic Jihad Movement or EIJM (also known as the Abu Sihel
  Movement)); Eritrean Islamic Salvation or EIS (also known as the
  Arafa Movement); Eritrean Liberation Front or ELF [ABDULLAH
  Muhammed]; Eritrean National Alliance or ENA (a coalition including
  EIJ, EIS, ELF, and a number of ELF factions) [HERUY Tedla Biru];
  Eritrean Public Forum or EPF [ARADOM Iyob]

Estonia
  NA

Ethiopia
  Afar Revolutionary Democratic Union Front or ARDUF; Oromo
  Liberation Front or OLF [DAOUD Ibsa]; Oromo National Liberation
  Front or ONLF

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  NA

France
  historically-Communist labor union (Confederation Generale du
  Travail) or CGT, approximately 700,000 members (claimed);
  left-leaning labor union (Confederation Francaise Democratique du
  Travail) or CFDT, approximately 889,000 members (claimed);
  independent labor union (Confederation Generale du Travail - Force
  Ouvriere) or FO, 300,000 members (est.); independent white-collar
  union (Confederation Generale des Cadres) or CGC, 196,000 members
  (claimed); employers' union (Mouvement des Entreprises de France) or
  MEDEF, 750,000 companies as members (claimed)

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  NA

Gambia, The
  NA

Georgia
  Georgian independent deputies from Abkhaz government in
  exile; separatists in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South
  Ossetia; supporters of former President Zviad GAMSAKHURDYA ousted in
  1991

Germany
  business associations, employers' organizations; expellee,
  refugee, trade unions, and veterans groups

Ghana
  NA

Gibraltar
  Chamber of Commerce; Gibraltar Representatives
  Organization; Women's Association

Greece
  General Confederation of Greek Workers or GSEE [Khristos
  POLYZOGOPOULOS]; Federation of Greek Industries or SEV [Odysseas
  KYRIAKOPOULOS]; Civil Servants Confederation or ADEDY [Spyros
  PAPASPYROS]

Greenland
  NA

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  Christian Movement for the Liberation of Guadeloupe or
  KLPG; General Federation of Guadeloupe Workers or CGT-G; General
  Union of Guadeloupe Workers or UGTG; Movement for Independent
  Guadeloupe or MPGI; The Socialist Renewal Movement

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  Agrarian Owners Group or UNAGRO; Alliance Against Impunity
  or AAI; Committee for Campesino Unity or CUC; Coordinating Committee
  of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Financial Associations
  or CACIF; Mutual Support Group or GAM

Guernsey
  none

Guinea
  Student and teacher unions

Guinea-Bissau
  NA

Guyana
  Amerindian People's Association; Guyana Citizens Initiative;
  Guyana Bar Association; Guyana Human Rights Association; Guyana
  Public Service Union or GPSU; Private Sector Commission; Trades
  Union Congress

Haiti
  Autonomous Organizations of Haitian Workers or CATH [Fignole
  ST-CYR]; Confederation of Haitian Workers or CTH; Federation of
  Workers Trade Unions or FOS; Grand-Anse Resistance Committee, or
  KOREGA; Group of 184 Civil Society Organizations, or G-184 [Andy
  APAID]; National Popular Assembly or APN; Papaye Peasants Movement
  or MPP [Chavannes JEAN-BAPTISTE]; Popular Organizations Gathering
  Power or PROP; Roman Catholic Church; Protestant Federation of Haiti

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none (exclusive of influence exercised by
  church officers)

Honduras
  Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras or
  CODEH; Confederation of Honduran Workers or CTH; Coordinating
  Committee of Popular Organizations or CCOP; General Workers
  Confederation or CGT; Honduran Council of Private Enterprise or
  COHEP; National Association of Honduran Campesinos or ANACH;
  National Union of Campesinos or UNC; Popular Bloc or BP; United
  Confederation of Honduran Workers or CUTH

Hong Kong
  Article 45 Concern Group (pro-democracy); Chinese General
  Chamber of Commerce (pro-China); Chinese Manufacturers' Association
  of Hong Kong; Confederation of Trade Unions or CTU (pro-democracy)
  [LAU Chin-shek, president; LEE Cheuk-yan, general secretary];
  Federation of Hong Kong Industries; Federation of Trade Unions or
  FTU (pro-China) [CHENG Yiu-tong, executive councilor]; Hong Kong
  Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China
  [Szeto WAH, chairman]; Hong Kong and Kowloon Trade Union Council
  (pro-Taiwan); Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce; Hong Kong
  Professional Teachers' Union [CHEUNG Man-kwong, president];
  Neighborhood and Workers' Service Center or NWSC (pro-democracy);
  The Alliance [Bernard CHAN, exco member]

Hungary
  NA

Iceland
  NA

India
  numerous religious or militant/chauvinistic organizations,
  including Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Rashtriya
  Swayamsevak Sangh; various separatist groups seeking greater
  communal and/or regional autonomy, including the All Parties
  Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir Valley and the National Socialist
  Council of Nagaland in the Northeast

Indonesia
  NA

Iran
  political pressure groups conduct most of Iran's political
  activities; groups that generally support the Islamic Republic
  include Ansar-e Hizballah, Muslim Students Following the Line of the
  Imam, Tehran Militant Clergy Association (Ruhaniyat), Islamic
  Coalition Party (Motalefeh), and Islamic Engineers Society; active
  pro-reform student groups include the Office of Strengthening Unity
  (OSU); opposition groups include Freedom Movement of Iran, the
  National Front, Marz-e Por Gohar, and various ethnic and Monarchist
  organizations; armed political groups that have been almost
  completely repressed by the government include Mujahidin-e Khalq
  Organization (MEK), People's Fedayeen, Democratic Party of Iranian
  Kurdistan, and Komala

Iraq
  an insurgency against the Iraqi Transitional Government and
  Coalition forces is primarily concentrated in Baghdad and in areas
  west and north of the capital; the diverse, multigroup insurgency is
  led principally by Sunni Arabs whose only common denominator is a
  shared desire to oust the Coalition and end US influence in Iraq

Ireland
  NA

Isle of Man
  none

Israel
  Israeli nationalists advocating Jewish settlement on the West
  Bank and Gaza Strip; Peace Now supports territorial concessions in
  the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Yesha (settler) Council promotes
  settler interests and opposes territorial compromise; B'Tselem
  monitors human rights abuses

Italy
  Italian manufacturers and merchants associations
  (Confindustria, Confcommercio); organized farm groups
  (Confcoltivatori, Confagricoltura); Roman Catholic Church; three
  major trade union confederations (Confederazione Generale Italiana
  del Lavoro or CGIL [Guglielmo EPIFANI] which is left wing,
  Confederazione Italiana dei Sindacati Lavoratori or CISL [Savino
  PEZZOTTA], which is Roman Catholic centrist, and Unione Italiana del
  Lavoro or UIL [Luigi ANGELETTI] which is lay centrist)

Jamaica
  New Beginnings Movement or NBM; Rastafarians (black
  religious/racial cultists, pan-Africanists)

Japan
  NA

Jersey
  none

Jordan
  Anti-Normalization Committee [Ali Abu SUKKAR, president vice
  chairman]; Jordan Bar Association [Hussein Mujalli, chairman];
  Jordanian Press Association [Sayf al-SHARIF, president]; Muslim
  Brotherhood [Salem AL-FALAHAT, secretary general]

Kazakhstan
  Adil-Soz [Tamara KALEYEVA]; Almaty Helsinki Group [Ninel
  FOKINA]; Confederation of Free Trade Unions [Sergei BELKIN]; For a
  Just Kazakhstan [Bolat ABILOV, Altynbek SARSENBAYEV]; For Fair
  Elections [Yevgeniy ZHOVTIS, Sabit ZHUSUPOV, Sergey DUVANOV, Ibrash
  NUSUPBAYEV]; Kazakhstan International Bureau on Human Rights
  [Yevgeniy ZHOVTIS, executive director]; Pensioners Movement or
  Pokoleniye [Irina SAVOSTINA, chairwoman]; Republican Network of
  International Monitors [Dos KUSHIM]; Transparency International
  [Sergei ZLOTNIKOV]

Kenya
  human rights groups; labor unions; Muslim organizations;
  National Convention Executive Council or NCEC, a proreform coalition
  of political parties and nongovernment organizations [Kivutha
  KIBWANA]; Protestant National Council of Churches of Kenya or NCCK
  [Mutava MUSYIMI]; Roman Catholic and other Christian churches;
  Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims or SUPKEM [Shaykh Abdul Gafur
  al-BUSAIDY]

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  none

Korea, South
  Federation of Korean Industries; Federation of Korean
  Trade Unions; Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; Korean National
  Council of Churches; Korean Traders Association; Korean Veterans'
  Association; National Council of Labor Unions; National Democratic
  Alliance of Korea; National Federation of Farmers' Associations;
  National Federation of Student Associations

Kuwait
  a number of political groups act as de facto parties; several
  legislative blocs operate in the National Assembly: tribal groups,
  merchants, Shi'a activists, Islamists, and secular liberals

Kyrgyzstan
  Council of Free Trade Unions; Kyrgyz Committee on Human
  Rights [Ramazan DYRYLDAYEV]; National Unity Democratic Movement;
  Union of Entrepreneurs

Laos
  noncommunist political groups proscribed; most opposition
  leaders fled the country in 1975

Latvia
  Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools (SHTAB)
  [Aleksandr KAZAKOV]

Lebanon
  none

Lesotho
  NA

Liberia
  NA

Libya
  various Arab nationalist movements with almost negligible
  memberships may be functioning clandestinely, as well as some
  Islamic elements; an anti-QADHAFI Libyan exile movement exists,
  primarily based in London, but has little influence

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  NA

Luxembourg
  ABBL (bankers' association); ALEBA (financial sector
  trade union); Centrale Paysanne (federation of agricultural
  producers); CEP (professional sector chamber); CGFP (trade union
  representing civil service); Chambre de Commerce (Chamber of
  Commerce); Chambre des Metiers (Chamber of Artisans); FEDIL
  (federation of industrialists); Greenpeace (environment protection);
  LCGP (center-right trade union); Mouvement Ecologique (protection of
  ecology); OGBL (center-left trade union)

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  Civic Movement of Macedonia [Gordana SILJANOVSKA]; World
  Macedonian Congress [Todor PETROV]

Madagascar
  Committee for the Defense of Truth and Justice or KMMR;
  Committee for National Reconciliation or CRN [Albert Zafy]; National
  Council of Christian Churches or FFKM

Malawi
  NA

Malaysia
  NA

Maldives
  various unregistered political parties

Mali
  Patriotic Movement of the Ghanda Koye or MPGK; United Movement
  and Fronts of Azawad or MFUA

Malta
  NA

Marshall Islands
  NA

Martinique
  Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance or ARC; Central Union
  for Martinique Workers or CSTM [Marc PULVAR]; Frantz Fanon Circle;
  League of Workers and Peasants; Proletarian Action Group or GAP

Mauritania
  Arab nationalists; Ba'thists; General Confederation of
  Mauritanian Workers or CGTM [Abdallahi Ould MOHAMED, secretary
  general]; Independent Confederation of Mauritanian Workers or CLTM
  [Samory Ould BEYE]; Islamists; Mauritanian Workers Union or UTM
  [Mohamed Ely Ould BRAHIM, secretary general]

Mauritius
  various labor unions

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic or
  COPARMEX; Confederation of Industrial Chambers or CONCAMIN;
  Confederation of Mexican Workers or CTM; Confederation of National
  Chambers of Commerce or CONCANACO; Coordinator for Foreign Trade
  Business Organizations or COECE; Federation of Unions Providing
  Goods and Services or FESEBES; National Chamber of Transformation
  Industries or CANACINTRA; National Peasant Confederation or CNC;
  National Union of Workers or UNT; Regional Confederation of Mexican
  Workers or CROM; Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants
  or CROC; Roman Catholic Church

Moldova
  NA

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  NA

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  Democratic Confederation of Labor or CDT [Noubir AMAOUI];
  General Union of Moroccan Workers or UGTM [Abderrazzak AFILAL];
  Moroccan Employers Association or CGEM [Hassan CHAMI]; National
  Labor Union of Morocco or UNMT [Abdelslam MAATI]; Union of Moroccan
  Workers or UMT [Mahjoub BENSEDDIK]

Mozambique
  Institute for Peace and Democracy (Instituto para Paz e
  Democracia) or IPADE [Raul DOMINGOS, president]; Etica [Abdul CARIMO
  Issa, chairman]; Movement for Peace and Citizenship (Movimento para
  Paz e Cidadania); Mozambican League of Human Rights (Liga
  Mocambicana dos Direitos Humanos) or LDH [Alice MABOTE, president];
  Human Rights and Development (Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento) or
  DHD [Artemisia FRANCO, secretary general]

Namibia
  NA

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  Maoist guerrilla-based insurgency [Pushpa Kamal DAHAL, also
  known as PRACHANDA, chairman; Dr. Baburam BHATTARAI]; numerous
  small, left-leaning student groups in the capital; several small,
  radical Nepalese antimonarchist groups

Netherlands
  Netherlands Trade Union Federation or FNV (consisting of
  a merger of Socialist and Catholic trade unions); Christian Trade
  Union Federation or CNV; Trade Union Federation of Middle and High
  Personnel or MHP; Federation of Catholic and Protestant Employers
  Associations; Interchurch Peace Council or IKV; large multinational
  firms; the nondenominational Federation of Netherlands Enterprises

Netherlands Antilles
  Unions (AVBO) and Employers Association (VBC)

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  NA

Nicaragua
  National Workers Front or FNT is a Sandinista umbrella
  group of eight labor unions including - Farm Workers Association or
  ATC, Health Workers Federation or FETASALUD, Heroes and Martyrs
  Confederation of Professional Associations or CONAPRO, National
  Association of Educators of Nicaragua or ANDEN, National Union of
  Employees or UNE, National Union of Farmers and Ranchers or UNAG,
  Sandinista Workers Central or CST, and Union of Journalists of
  Nicaragua or UPN; Permanent Congress of Workers or CPT is an
  umbrella group of four non-Sandinista labor unions including -
  Autonomous Nicaraguan Workers Central or CTN-A, Confederation of
  Labor Unification or CUS, Independent General Confederation of Labor
  or CGT-I, and Labor Action and Unity Central or CAUS; Nicaraguan
  Workers' Central or CTN is an independent labor union; Superior
  Council of Private Enterprise or COSEP is a confederation of
  business groups

Niger
  Coalition Against a High Cost of Living [Nouhou ARZIKA]

Nigeria
  NA

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  none

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA

Norway
  NA

Oman
  none

Pakistan
  military remains most important political force; ulema
  (clergy), landowners, industrialists, and small merchants also
  influential

Palau
  NA

Panama
  Chamber of Commerce; National Civic Crusade; National Council
  of Organized Workers or CONATO; National Council of Private
  Enterprise or CONEP; National Union of Construction and Similar
  Workers (SUNTRACS); Panamanian Association of Business Executives or
  APEDE; Panamanian Industrialists Society or SIP; Workers
  Confederation of the Republic of Panama or CTRP

Papua New Guinea
  NA

Paraguay
  Ahorristas Estafados or AE; National Coordinating Board of
  Campesino Organizations or MCNOC [Luis AGUAYO]; National Federation
  of Campesinos or FNC [Odilon ESPINOLA]; National Workers Central or
  CNT [Secretary General Juan TORRALES]; Paraguayan Workers
  Confederation or CPT; Roman Catholic Church; Unitary Workers Central
  or CUT [Jorge Guzman ALVARENGA Malgarejo]

Peru
  leftist guerrilla groups include Shining Path [Abimael GUZMAN
  Reynoso (imprisoned), Gabriel MACARIO (top leader at-large)]; Tupac
  Amaru Revolutionary Movement or MRTA [Victor POLAY (imprisoned),
  Hugo AVALLENEDA Valdez (top leader at-large)]

Philippines
  AKBAYAN [Reps. Etta ROSALES, Mario AGUJA, and Risa
  HONTIVEROS-BARAQUIEL]; ALAGAD [Rep. Rodante MARROLITA]; ALIF [Rep.
  Acmad TOMAWIS]; An Waray [Rep. Horencio NOEL]; Anak Mindanao [Mujiv
  HATAMIN]; ANAKPAWIS [Reps. Crispin BELTRAN and Rafael MARIANO]; APEC
  [Reps. Ernesto PABLO, Edgar VALDEZ]; Association of Philippine
  Electric Cooperatives (APEC) [Reps. Edgar VALDEZ, Ernesto PABLO, and
  Sunny Rose MADAMBA]; AVE [Rep. Eulogio MAGSAYSAY]; Bayan Muna [Reps.
  Satur OCAMPO, Joel VIRADOR, and Teodoro CASINO, Jr.]; BUHAY [Reps.
  Rene VELARDE and Hans Christian SENERES]; BUTIL [Rep. Benjamin
  CRUZ]; CIBAC [Rep. Emmanuel Joel VILLANUEVA]; COOP-NATCO [Rep.
  Guillermo CUA]; GABRIELA [Rep. Liza MAZA]; Partido Ng Manggagawa
  [Rep. Renato MAGTUBO]; Veterans Federation of the Philippines [Rep.
  Ernesto GIDAYA] (2006)

Pitcairn Islands
  none

Poland
  All Poland Trade Union Alliance or OPZZ (trade union) [Jan
  GUZ]; Roman Catholic Church [Cardinal Jozef GLEMP]; Solidarity Trade
  Union [Janusz SNIADEK]

Portugal
  NA

Puerto Rico
  Boricua Popular Army or EPB (a revolutionary group also
  known as Los Macheteros); note - the following radical groups are
  considered dormant by Federal law enforcement: Armed Forces for
  National Liberation or FALN, Armed Forces of Popular Resistance,
  Volunteers of the Puerto Rican Revolution

Qatar
  none

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  various human rights and professional associations

Russia
  NA

Rwanda
  IBUKA - association of genocide survivors

Saint Helena
  none

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  NA

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA

Saudi Arabia
  none

Senegal
  labor; Muslim brotherhoods; students; teachers

Seychelles
  Roman Catholic Church; trade unions

Sierra Leone
  trade unions and student unions

Singapore
  NA

Slovakia
  Federation of Employers' Associations of the Slovak
  Republic; Association of Towns and Villages or ZMOS; Confederation
  of Trade Unions or KOZ

Slovenia
  NA

Solomon Islands
  Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM); Malaita Eagle Force
  (MEF); note - these rival armed ethnic factions crippled the Solomon
  Islands in a wave of violence from 1999 to 2003

Somalia
  numerous clan and sub-clan factions are currently vying for
  power

South Africa
  Congress of South African Trade Unions or COSATU
  [Zwelinzima VAVI, general secretary]; South African Communist Party
  or SACP [Blade NZIMANDE, general secretary]; South African National
  Civics Organization or SANCO [Mlungisi HLONGWANE, national
  president]; note - COSATU and SACP are in a formal alliance with the
  ANC

Spain
  business and landowning interests; Catholic Church; free labor
  unions (authorized in April 1977); Socialist General Union of
  Workers or UGT and the smaller independent Workers Syndical Union or
  USO; university students; Trade Union Confederation of Workers'
  Commissions or CC.OO.; Nunca Mas (Galician for "Never Again"; formed
  in response to the oil tanker Prestige oil spill)

Sri Lanka
  Buddhist clergy; labor unions; Liberation Tigers of Tamil
  Eelam or LTTE [Velupillai PRABHAKARAN](insurgent group fighting for
  a separate state); radical chauvinist Sinhalese groups such as the
  National Movement Against Terrorism; Sinhalese Buddhist lay groups

Sudan
  Umma Party [Sadiq al-MAHDI]; Popular Congress Party or PCP
  [Hassan al-TURABI]

Suriname
  Association of Indigenous Village Chiefs [Ricardo PANE];
  Association of Saramaccan Authorities or Maroon [Head Captain WASE];
  Women's Parliament Forum or PVF [Iris GILLIAD]

Swaziland
  NA

Sweden
  NA

Switzerland
  NA

Syria
  Kurdish Democratic Alliance (includes several groups but has
  no designated leader); Kurdish Democratic Front (includes several
  groups but has no designated leader); Muslim Brotherhood (operates
  in exile in London) [Sadr al-Din al-BAYANUNI]; National Democratic
  Front [Hassan Abd al-AZIM]

Taiwan
  Taiwan independence movement, various business and
  environmental groups
  note: debate on Taiwan independence has become acceptable within the
  mainstream of domestic politics on Taiwan; political liberalization
  and the increased representation of opposition parties in Taiwan's
  legislature have opened public debate on the island's national
  identity; a broad popular consensus has developed that Taiwan
  currently enjoys de facto independence and - whatever the ultimate
  outcome regarding reunification or independence - that Taiwan's
  people must have the deciding voice; advocates of Taiwan
  independence oppose the stand that the island will eventually unify
  with mainland China; goals of the Taiwan independence movement
  include establishing a sovereign nation on Taiwan and entering the
  UN; other organizations supporting Taiwan independence include the
  World United Formosans for Independence and the Organization for
  Taiwan Nation Building

Tajikistan
  unregistered political parties: Agrarian Party
  [Hikmatullo NASREDDINOV]; Party of Justice [Abdurahim KARIMOV];
  People's Unity Party [Abdumalik ABDULLOJONOV]; Progressive Party
  [Sulton QUVVATOV]; Socialist Party [Mirhuseyn NAZRIYEV]; note - this
  is the SPT that was disbanded, another pro-government SPT (listed
  above under political parties) replaced it; Unity Party [Hikmatullo
  SAIDOV]

Tanzania
  NA

Thailand
  NA

Togo
  NA

Tokelau
  none

Tonga
  Human Rights and Democracy Movement Tonga or HRDMT [Rev.
  Simote VEA, chairman]; Public Servant's Association [Finau TUTONE]

Trinidad and Tobago
  Jamaat-al Muslimeen [Yasin BAKR]

Tunisia
  the Islamic fundamentalist party, Al Nahda (Renaissance), is
  outlawed

Turkey
  Confederation of Public Sector Unions or KESK [Sami EVREN];
  Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions or DISK [Suleyman
  CELEBI]; Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association
  or MUSIAD [Omer BOLAT]; Moral Rights Workers Union or Hak-Is [Salim
  USLU]; Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions or TISK [Refik
  BAYDUR]; Turkish Confederation of Labor or Turk-Is [Salih KILIC];
  Turkish Confederation of Tradesmen and Craftsmen or TESK [Dervis
  GUNDAY]; Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association or
  TUSIAD [Omer SABANCI]; Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and
  Commodity Exchanges or TOBB [M. Rifat HISARCIKLIOGLU]

Turkmenistan
  NA

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  none

Uganda
  Popular Resistance Against a Life President or PRALP

Ukraine
  Committee of Voters of Ukraine [Ihor POPOV]

United Arab Emirates
  NA

United Kingdom
  Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Confederation of
  British Industry; National Farmers' Union; Trades Union Congress

United States
  NA

Uruguay
  Architect's Society of Uruguay (professional organization);
  Catholic Church; Chamber of Uruguayan Industries (manufacturer's
  association); Chemist and Pharmaceutical Association (professional
  organization); PIT-CNT (powerful federation of Uruguayan unions);
  Rural Association of Uruguay (rancher's association); students;
  Uruguayan Construction League

Uzbekistan
  Agrarian and Entrepreneurs' Party [Marat ZAHIDOV]; Birlik
  (Unity) Movement [Abdurakhim POLAT, chairman]; Erk (Freedom)
  Democratic Party [Muhammad SOLIH, chairman] was banned 9 December
  1992; Ezgulik Human Rights Society [Vasilia INOYATOVA]; Free
  Farmers' Party or Ozod Dehqonlar [Nigara KHIDOYATOVA]; Human Rights
  Society of Uzbekistan [Tolib YAKUBOV, chairman]; Independent Human
  Rights Society of Uzbekistan [Mikhail ARDZINOV, chairman]; Mazlum;
  Sunshine Coalition [Sanjar UMAROV, chairman]

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  FEDECAMARAS, a conservative business group; VECINOS
  groups; Venezuelan Confederation of Workers or CTV (labor
  organization dominated by the Democratic Action)

Vietnam
  none

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

Western Sahara
  none

Yemen
  NA

Zambia
  NA

Zimbabwe
  Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition [Wellington CHIBEBE]; National
  Constitutional Assembly or NCA [Lovemore MADHUKU]; Zimbabwe Congress
  of Trade Unions or ZCTU [Lovemore MATOMBO]

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2116  Economy - overview


Afghanistan
  Afghanistan's economic outlook has improved
  significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 because
  of the infusion of over $8 billion in international assistance,
  recovery of the agricultural sector and growth of the service
  sector, and the reestablishment of market institutions. Real GDP
  growth is estimated to have slowed in the last fiscal year primarily
  because adverse weather conditions cut agricultural production, but
  is expected to rebound over 2005-06 because of foreign donor
  reconstruction and service sector growth. Despite the progress of
  the past few years, Afghanistan remains extremely poor, landlocked,
  and highly dependent on foreign aid, farming, and trade with
  neighboring countries. It will probably take the remainder of the
  decade and continuing donor aid and attention to significantly raise
  Afghanistan's living standards from its current status, among the
  lowest in the world. Much of the population continues to suffer from
  shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and
  jobs, but the Afghan government and international donors remain
  committed to improving access to these basic necessities by
  prioritizing infrastructure development, education, housing
  development, jobs programs, and economic reform over the next year.
  Growing political stability and continued international commitment
  to Afghan reconstruction create an optimistic outlook for continuing
  improvements in the Afghan economy in 2006. Expanding poppy
  cultivation and a growing opium trade may account for one-third of
  GDP and looms as one of Kabul's most serious policy challenges.
  Other long-term challenges include: boosting the supply of skilled
  labor, reducing vulnerability to severe natural disasters, expanding
  health services, and rebuilding a war torn infrastructure.

Akrotiri
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to the
  military and their families located in Akrotiri. All food and
  manufactured goods must be imported.

Albania
  Lagging behind its Balkan neighbors, Albania is making the
  difficult transition to a more modern open-market economy. The
  government has taken measures to curb violent crime and to spur
  economic activity and trade. The economy is bolstered by annual
  remittances from abroad of $600-$800 million, mostly from Greece and
  Italy; this helps offset the towering trade deficit. Agriculture,
  which accounts for about one-quarter of GDP, is held back because of
  frequent drought and the need to modernize equipment, to clarify
  property rights, and to consolidate small plots of land. Energy
  shortages and antiquated and inadequate infrastructure contribute to
  Albania's poor business environment, which make it difficult to
  attract and sustain foreign investment. The planned construction of
  a new thermal power plant near Vlore and improved transmission and
  distribution facilities will help relieve the energy shortages.
  Also, the government is moving slowly to improve the poor national
  road and rail network, a long-standing barrier to sustained economic
  growth. On the positive side: growth was strong in 2003-05 and
  inflation is not a problem.

Algeria
  The hydrocarbons sector is the backbone of the economy,
  accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of GDP, and over
  95% of export earnings. Algeria has the seventh-largest reserves of
  natural gas in the world and is the second-largest gas exporter; it
  ranks 14th in oil reserves. Sustained high oil prices in recent
  years, along with macroeconomic policy reforms supported by the IMF,
  have helped improve Algeria's financial and macroeconomic
  indicators. Algeria is running substantial trade surpluses and
  building up record foreign exchange reserves. Real GDP has risen due
  to higher oil output and increased government spending. The
  government's continued efforts to diversify the economy by
  attracting foreign and domestic investment outside the energy
  sector, however, has had little success in reducing high
  unemployment and improving living standards. The population is
  becoming increasingly restive due to the lack of jobs and housing
  and frequently stages protests, which have resulted in arrests and
  injuries, including some deaths as government forces intervened to
  restore order. Structural reform within the economy, such as
  development of the banking sector and the construction of
  infrastructure, moves ahead slowly hampered by corruption and
  bureaucratic resistance.

American Samoa
  American Samoa has a traditional Polynesian economy
  in which more than 90% of the land is communally owned. Economic
  activity is strongly linked to the US with which American Samoa
  conducts most of its foreign trade. Tuna fishing and tuna processing
  plants are the backbone of the private sector, with canned tuna the
  primary export. Transfers from the US Government add substantially
  to American Samoa's economic well being. Attempts by the government
  to develop a larger and broader economy are restrained by Samoa's
  remote location, its limited transportation, and its devastating
  hurricanes. Tourism is a promising developing sector.

Andorra
  Tourism, the mainstay of Andorra's tiny, well-to-do economy,
  accounts for more than 80% of GDP. An estimated 11.6 million
  tourists visit annually, attracted by Andorra's duty-free status and
  by its summer and winter resorts. Andorra's comparative advantage
  has recently eroded as the economies of neighboring France and Spain
  have been opened up, providing broader availability of goods and
  lower tariffs. The banking sector, with its partial "tax haven"
  status, also contributes substantially to the economy. Agricultural
  production is limited - only 2% of the land is arable - and most
  food has to be imported. The principal livestock activity is sheep
  raising. Manufacturing output consists mainly of cigarettes, cigars,
  and furniture. Andorra is a member of the EU Customs Union and is
  treated as an EU member for trade in manufactured goods (no tariffs)
  and as a non-EU member for agricultural products.

Angola
  Angola's high growth rate is driven by its oil sector, with
  record oil prices and rising petroleum production. Oil production
  and its supporting activities contribute about half of GDP and 90%
  of exports. Increased oil production supported 12% growth in 2004
  and 19% growth in 2005. A postwar reconstruction boom and
  resettlement of displaced persons has led to high rates of growth in
  construction and agriculture as well. Much of the country's
  infrastructure is still damaged or undeveloped from the 27-year-long
  civil war. Remnants of the conflict such as widespread land mines
  still mar the countryside even though an apparently durable peace
  was established after the death of rebel leader Jonas SAVIMBI in
  February 2002. Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood
  for half of the population, but half of the country's food must
  still be imported. In 2005, the government started using a $2
  billion line of credit from China to rebuild Angola's public
  infrastructure, and several large-scale projects are scheduled for
  completion by 2006. The central bank in 2003 implemented an exchange
  rate stabilization program using foreign exchange reserves to buy
  kwanzas out of circulation, a policy that was more sustainable in
  2005 because of strong oil export earnings, and has significantly
  reduced inflation. Consumer inflation declined from 325% in 2000 to
  about 18% in 2005, but the stabilization policy places pressure on
  international net liquidity. To fully take advantage of its rich
  national resources - gold, diamonds, extensive forests, Atlantic
  fisheries, and large oil deposits - Angola will need to continue
  reforming government policies and to reduce corruption. The
  government has made sufficient progress on reforms recommended by
  the IMF such as promoting greater transparency in government
  spending but continues to be without a formal monitoring agreement
  with the institution.

Anguilla
  Anguilla has few natural resources, and the economy depends
  heavily on luxury tourism, offshore banking, lobster fishing, and
  remittances from emigrants. Increased activity in the tourism
  industry, which has spurred the growth of the construction sector,
  has contributed to economic growth. Anguillan officials have put
  substantial effort into developing the offshore financial sector,
  which is small, but growing. In the medium term, prospects for the
  economy will depend largely on the tourism sector and, therefore, on
  revived income growth in the industrialized nations as well as on
  favorable weather conditions.

Antarctica
  Fishing off the coast and tourism, both based abroad,
  account for Antarctica's limited economic activity. Antarctic
  fisheries in 2003-04 (1 July-30 June) reported landing 136,262
  metric tons (estimated fishing from the area covered by the
  Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
  (CCAMLR), which extends slightly beyond the Antarctic Treaty area).
  Unregulated fishing, particularly of Patagonian toothfish, is a
  serious problem. The CCAMLR determines the recommended catch limits
  for marine species. A total of 23,175 tourists visited in the
  2004-05 Antarctic summer, up from the 19,486 visitors the previous
  year. Nearly all of them were passengers on commercial
  (nongovernmental) ships and several yachts that make trips during
  the summer. Most tourist trips last approximately two weeks.

Antigua and Barbuda
  Tourism continues to dominate the economy,
  accounting for more than half of GDP. Weak tourist arrival numbers
  since early 2000 have slowed the economy, however, and pressed the
  government into a tight fiscal corner. The dual-island nation's
  agricultural production is focused on the domestic market and
  constrained by a limited water supply and a labor shortage stemming
  from the lure of higher wages in tourism and construction.
  Manufacturing comprises enclave-type assembly for export with major
  products being bedding, handicrafts, and electronic components.
  Prospects for economic growth in the medium term will continue to
  depend on income growth in the industrialized world, especially in
  the US, which accounts for slightly more than one-third of tourist
  arrivals.

Arctic Ocean
  Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of
  natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.

Argentina
  Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly
  literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a
  diversified industrial base. Over the past decade, however, the
  country has suffered problems of inflation, external debt, capital
  flight, and budget deficits. Growth in 2000 was a negative 0.8%, as
  both domestic and foreign investors remained skeptical of the
  government's ability to pay debts and maintain the peso's fixed
  exchange rate with the US dollar. The economic situation worsened in
  2001 with the widening of spreads on Argentine bonds, massive
  withdrawals from the banks, and a further decline in consumer and
  investor confidence. Government efforts to achieve a "zero deficit,"
  to stabilize the banking system, and to restore economic growth
  proved inadequate in the face of the mounting economic problems. The
  peso's peg to the dollar was abandoned in January 2002, and the peso
  was floated in February. The exchange rate plunged and real GDP fell
  by 10.9% in 2002, but by mid-year the economy had stabilized, albeit
  at a lower level. GDP expanded by about 9% per year from 2003 to
  2005. Growth is being led by a revival in domestic demand, solid
  exports, and favorable external conditions. The government boosted
  spending ahead of the October 2005 midterm congressional elections,
  but strong revenue performance allowed Argentina to maintain a
  budget surplus. Inflation has been rising steadily and reached 12.3
  percent in 2005.

Armenia
  Under the old Soviet central planning system, Armenia had
  developed a modern industrial sector, supplying machine tools,
  textiles, and other manufactured goods to sister republics in
  exchange for raw materials and energy. Since the implosion of the
  USSR in December 1991, Armenia has switched to small-scale
  agriculture away from the large agroindustrial complexes of the
  Soviet era. The agricultural sector has long-term needs for more
  investment and updated technology. The privatization of industry has
  been at a slower pace, but has been given renewed emphasis by the
  current administration. Armenia is a food importer, and its mineral
  deposits (copper, gold, bauxite) are small. The ongoing conflict
  with Azerbaijan over the ethnic Armenian-dominated region of
  Nagorno-Karabakh and the breakup of the centrally directed economic
  system of the former Soviet Union contributed to a severe economic
  decline in the early 1990s. By 1994, however, the Armenian
  Government had launched an ambitious IMF-sponsored economic
  liberalization program that resulted in positive growth rates in
  1995-2005. Armenia joined the WTO in January 2003. Armenia also has
  managed to slash inflation, stabilize its currency, and privatize
  most small- and medium-sized enterprises. Armenia's unemployment
  rate, however, remains high, despite strong economic growth. The
  chronic energy shortages Armenia suffered in the early and mid-1990s
  have been offset by the energy supplied by one of its nuclear power
  plants at Metsamor. Armenia is now a net energy exporter, although
  it does not have sufficient generating capacity to replace Metsamor,
  which is under international pressure to close. The electricity
  distribution system was privatized in 2002. Armenia's severe trade
  imbalance has been offset somewhat by international aid, remittances
  from Armenians working abroad, and foreign direct investment.
  Economic ties with Russia remain close, especially in the energy
  sector. The government made some improvements in tax and customs
  administration in 2005, but anti-corruption measures will be more
  difficult to implement. Investment in the construction and
  industrial sectors is expected to continue in 2006 and will help to
  ensure annual average real GDP growth of about 13.9%.

Aruba
  Tourism is the mainstay of the small, open Aruban economy,
  with offshore banking and oil refining and storage also important.
  The rapid growth of the tourism sector over the last decade has
  resulted in a substantial expansion of other activities. Over 1.5
  million tourists per year visit Aruba, with 75% of those from the
  US. Construction continues to boom, with hotel capacity five times
  the 1985 level. In addition, the reopening of the country's oil
  refinery in 1993, a major source of employment and foreign exchange
  earnings, has further spurred growth. Tourist arrivals have
  rebounded strongly following a dip after the 11 September 2001
  attacks. The island experiences only a brief low season, and hotel
  occupancy in 2004 averaged 80%, compared to 68% throughout the rest
  of the Caribbean. The newly re-elected government has made cutting
  the budget and trade deficits a high priority.

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  no economic activity

Atlantic Ocean
  The Atlantic Ocean provides some of the world's most
  heavily trafficked sea routes, between and within the Eastern and
  Western Hemispheres. Other economic activity includes the
  exploitation of natural resources, e.g., fishing, dredging of
  aragonite sands (The Bahamas), and production of crude oil and
  natural gas (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea).

Australia
  Australia has an enviable Western-style capitalist economy
  with a per capita GDP on par with the four dominant West European
  economies. Rising output in the domestic economy, robust business
  and consumer confidence, and rising exports of raw materials and
  agricultural products are fueling the economy. Australia's emphasis
  on reforms, low inflation, and growing ties with China are other key
  factors behind the economy's strength. The impact of drought, weak
  foreign demand, and strong import demand pushed the trade deficit up
  from $8 billion in 2002, to $18 billion in 2003, $13 billion in
  2004, and nearly $17 billion in 2005. Housing prices probably peaked
  in 2005, diminishing the prospect that interest rates would be
  raised to prevent a speculative bubble. Conservative fiscal policies
  have kept Australia's budget in surplus from 2002 to 2005.

Austria
  Austria, with its well-developed market economy and high
  standard of living, is closely tied to other EU economies,
  especially Germany's. The Austrian economy also benefits greatly
  from strong commercial relations, especially in the banking and
  insurance sectors, with central, eastern, and southeastern Europe.
  The economy features a large service sector, a sound industrial
  sector, and a small, but highly developed agricultural sector.
  Membership in the EU has drawn an influx of foreign investors
  attracted by Austria's access to the single European market and
  proximity to the new EU economies. The current government has
  successfully pursued a comprehensive economic reform program, aimed
  at streamlining government, creating a more competitive business
  environment, further strengthening Austria's attractiveness as an
  investment location, pursuing a balanced budget, and implementing
  effective pension reforms. Weak domestic consumption and slow growth
  in Europe have held the economy to growth rates of 0.4% in 2002,
  1.4% in 2003, 2.4% in 2004, and 1.8% in 2005. To meet increased
  competition from both EU and Central European countries,
  particularly the new EU members, Austria will need to continue
  restructuring, emphasizing knowledge-based sectors of the economy,
  and encouraging greater labor flexibility and greater labor
  participation by its aging population.

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijan's number one export is oil. Azerbaijan's oil
  production declined through 1997, but has registered an increase
  every year since. Negotiation of production-sharing arrangements
  (PSAs) with foreign firms, which have thus far committed $60 billion
  to long-term oilfield development, should generate the funds needed
  to spur future industrial development. Oil production under the
  first of these PSAs, with the Azerbaijan International Operating
  Company, began in November 1997. A consortium of Western oil
  companies is scheduled to begin pumping 1 million barrels a day from
  a large offshore field in early 2006, through a $4 billion pipeline
  it built from Baku to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
  Economists estimate that by 2010 revenues from this project will
  double the country's current GDP. Azerbaijan shares all the
  formidable problems of the former Soviet republics in making the
  transition from a command to a market economy, but its considerable
  energy resources brighten its long-term prospects. Baku has only
  recently begun making progress on economic reform, and old economic
  ties and structures are slowly being replaced. Several other
  obstacles impede Azerbaijan's economic progress: the need for
  stepped up foreign investment in the non-energy sector, the
  continuing conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region,
  and the pervasive corruption. Trade with Russia and the other former
  Soviet republics is declining in importance while trade is building
  with Turkey and the nations of Europe. Long-term prospects will
  depend on world oil prices, the location of new pipelines in the
  region, and Azerbaijan's ability to manage its oil wealth.

Bahamas, The
  The Bahamas is a stable, developing nation with an
  economy heavily dependent on tourism and offshore banking. Tourism
  together with tourism-driven construction and manufacturing accounts
  for approximately 60% of GDP and directly or indirectly employs half
  of the archipelago's labor force. Steady growth in tourism receipts
  and a boom in construction of new hotels, resorts, and residences
  had led to solid GDP growth in recent years, but the slowdown in the
  US economy and the attacks of 11 September 2001 held back growth in
  these sectors in 2001-03. The current government has presided over a
  period of economic recovery and an upturn in large-scale private
  sector investments in tourism. Financial services constitute the
  second-most important sector of the Bahamian economy, accounting for
  about 15% of GDP. However, since December 2000, when the government
  enacted new regulations on the financial sector, many international
  businesses have left The Bahamas. Manufacturing and agriculture
  together contribute approximately a tenth of GDP and show little
  growth, despite government incentives aimed at those sectors.
  Overall growth prospects in the short run rest heavily on the
  fortunes of the tourism sector, which depends on growth in the US,
  the source of more than 80% of the visitors.

Bahrain
  Petroleum production and refining account for about 60% of
  Bahrain's export receipts, 60% of government revenues, and 30% of
  GDP. With its highly developed communication and transport
  facilities, Bahrain is home to numerous multinational firms with
  business in the Gulf. A large share of exports consists of petroleum
  products made from refining imported crude. Construction proceeds on
  several major industrial projects. Unemployment, especially among
  the young, and the depletion of oil and underground water resources
  are major long-term economic problems. In 2005 Bahrain and the US
  ratified a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the first FTA between the US
  and a Gulf state.

Baker Island
  no economic activity

Bangladesh
  Despite sustained domestic and international efforts to
  improve economic and demographic prospects, Bangladesh remains a
  poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although
  half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly
  two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector,
  with rice as the single-most-important product. Major impediments to
  growth include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned
  enterprises, inadequate port facilities, a rapidly growing labor
  force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, delays in exploiting
  energy resources (natural gas), insufficient power supplies, and
  slow implementation of economic reforms. Reform is stalled in many
  instances by political infighting and corruption at all levels of
  government. Progress also has been blocked by opposition from the
  bureaucracy, public sector unions, and other vested interest groups.
  The BNP government, led by Prime Minister Khaleda ZIA, has the
  parliamentary strength to push through needed reforms, but the
  party's political will to do so has been lacking in key areas. One
  encouraging note: growth has been a steady 5% for the past several
  years.

Barbados
  Historically, the Barbadian economy had been dependent on
  sugarcane cultivation and related activities, but production in
  recent years has diversified into light industry and tourism.
  Offshore finance and information services are important foreign
  exchange earners. The government continues its efforts to reduce
  unemployment, to encourage direct foreign investment, and to
  privatize remaining state-owned enterprises. The economy contracted
  in 2002-03 mainly due to a decline in tourism. Growth was positive
  in 2005, as economic conditions in the US and Europe moderately
  improved.

Bassas da India
  no economic activity

Belarus
  Belarus's economy in 2005 posted 8% growth. The government
  has succeeded in lowering inflation over the past several years.
  Trade with Russia - by far its largest single trade partner -
  decreased in 2005, largely as a result of a change in the way the
  Value Added Tax (VAT) on trade was collected. Trade with European
  countries increased. Belarus has seen little structural reform since
  1995, when President LUKASHENKO launched the country on the path of
  "market socialism." In keeping with this policy, LUKASHENKO
  reimposed administrative controls over prices and currency exchange
  rates and expanded the state's right to intervene in the management
  of private enterprises. During 2005, the government re-nationalized
  a number of private companies. In addition, businesses have been
  subject to pressure by central and local governments, e.g.,
  arbitrary changes in regulations, numerous rigorous inspections,
  retroactive application of new business regulations, and arrests of
  "disruptive" businessmen and factory owners. A wide range of
  redistributive policies has helped those at the bottom of the
  ladder; the Gini coefficient is among the lowest in the world.
  Because of these restrictive economic policies, Belarus has had
  trouble attracting foreign investment, which remains low. Growth has
  been strong in recent years, despite the roadblocks in a tough,
  centrally directed economy with a high, but decreasing, rate of
  inflation. Belarus continues to receive heavily discounted oil and
  natural gas from Russia. Much of Belarus' growth can be attributed
  to the re-export of Russian oil at market prices.

Belgium
  This modern, private-enterprise economy has capitalized on
  its central geographic location, highly developed transport network,
  and diversified industrial and commercial base. Industry is
  concentrated mainly in the populous Flemish area in the north. With
  few natural resources, Belgium must import substantial quantities of
  raw materials and export a large volume of manufactures, making its
  economy unusually dependent on the state of world markets. Roughly
  three-quarters of its trade is with other EU countries. Public debt
  is nearly 100% of GDP. On the positive side, the government has
  succeeded in balancing its budget, and income distribution is
  relatively equal. Belgium began circulating the euro currency in
  January 2002. Economic growth in 2001-03 dropped sharply because of
  the global economic slowdown, with moderate recovery in 2004-05.

Belize
  In this small, essentially private-enterprise economy the
  tourism industry is the number one foreign exchange earner followed
  by marine products, citrus, cane sugar, bananas, and garments. The
  government's expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, initiated in
  September 1998, led to sturdy GDP growth averaging nearly 5% in
  1999-2005. Major concerns continue to be the sizable trade deficit
  and foreign debt. A key short-term objective remains the reduction
  of poverty with the help of international donors.

Benin
  The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on
  subsistence agriculture, cotton production, and regional trade.
  Growth in real output has averaged around 5% in the past six years,
  but rapid population growth has offset much of this increase.
  Inflation has subsided over the past several years. In order to
  raise growth still further, Benin plans to attract more foreign
  investment, place more emphasis on tourism, facilitate the
  development of new food processing systems and agricultural
  products, and encourage new information and communication
  technology. Many of these proposals are included in Benin's
  application to receive Millennium Challenge Account funding - for
  which it was a finalist in 2004-05. The 2001 privatization policy
  continues in telecommunications, water, electricity, and agriculture
  in spite of government reluctance. The Paris Club and bilateral
  creditors have eased the external debt situation, with Benin
  benefiting from a G8 debt reduction announced in July 2005, while
  pressing for more rapid structural reforms. Benin continues to be
  hurt by Nigerian trade protection that bans imports of a growing
  list of products from Benin and elsewhere, which has resulted in
  increased smuggling and criminality in the border region.

Bermuda
  Bermuda enjoys the highest per capita income in the world,
  more than 50% higher than that of the US. Its economy is primarily
  based on providing financial services for international business and
  luxury facilities for tourists. A number of reinsurance companies
  relocated to the island following 11 September 2001 and again after
  Hurricane Katrina, contributing to the expansion of an already
  robust international business sector. Bermuda's tourism industry -
  which derives over 80% of its visitors from the US - continues to
  struggle but remains the island's number two industry. Most capital
  equipment and food must be imported. Bermuda's industrial sector is
  small, although construction continues to be important; the average
  cost of a house in June 2003 had risen to $976,000. Agriculture is
  limited with only 20% of the land being arable.

Bhutan
  The economy, one of the world's smallest and least developed,
  is based on agriculture and forestry, which provide the main
  livelihood for more than 90% of the population. Agriculture consists
  largely of subsistence farming and animal husbandry. Rugged
  mountains dominate the terrain and make the building of roads and
  other infrastructure difficult and expensive. The economy is closely
  aligned with India's through strong trade and monetary links and
  dependence on India's financial assistance. The industrial sector is
  technologically backward, with most production of the cottage
  industry type. Most development projects, such as road construction,
  rely on Indian migrant labor. Bhutan's hydropower potential and its
  attraction for tourists are key resources. Model education, social,
  and environment programs are underway with support from multilateral
  development organizations. Each economic program takes into account
  the government's desire to protect the country's environment and
  cultural traditions. For example, the government, in its cautious
  expansion of the tourist sector, encourages visits by upscale,
  environmentally conscientious tourists. Detailed controls and
  uncertain policies in areas like industrial licensing, trade, labor,
  and finance continue to hamper foreign investment.

Bolivia
  Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin
  American countries, reformed its economy after suffering a
  disastrous economic crisis in the early 1980s. The reforms spurred
  real GDP growth, which averaged 4% in the 1990s, and poverty rates
  fell. Economic growth, however, lagged again beginning in 1999
  because of a global slowdown and homegrown factors such as political
  turmoil, civil unrest, and soaring fiscal deficits, all of which
  hurt investor confidence. In 2003, violent protests against the
  pro-foreign investment economic policies of President SANCHEZ DE
  LOZADA led to his resignation and the cancellation of plans to
  export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large
  northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a
  controversial natural gas law that imposes on the oil and gas firms
  significantly higher taxes as well as new contracts that give the
  state control of their operations. Bolivian officials are in the
  process of implementing the law; meanwhile, foreign investors have
  stopped investing and have taken the first legal steps to secure
  their investments. Real GDP growth in 2003-05 - helped by increased
  demand for natural gas in neighboring Brazil - was positive, but
  still below the levels seen during the 1990s. Bolivia's fiscal
  position has improved in recent years, but the country remains
  dependent on foreign aid from multilateral lenders and foreign
  governments to meet budget shortfalls. In 2005, the G8 announced a
  $2 billion debt-forgiveness plan over the next few decades that
  should help reduce some fiscal pressures on the government in the
  near term.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked next to
  Macedonia as the poorest republic in the old Yugoslav federation.
  Although agriculture is almost all in private hands, farms are small
  and inefficient, and the republic traditionally is a net importer of
  food. Industry remains greatly overstaffed, a holdover from the
  socialist economic structure of Yugoslavia. TITO had pushed the
  development of military industries in the republic with the result
  that Bosnia was saddled with a host of industrial firms with little
  commercial potential. The interethnic warfare in Bosnia caused
  production to plummet by 80% from 1992 to 1995 and unemployment to
  soar. With an uneasy peace in place, output recovered in 1996-99 at
  high percentage rates from a low base; but output growth slowed in
  2000-02. Part of the lag in output was made up in 2003-05.
  National-level statistics are limited and do not capture the large
  share of black market activity. The konvertibilna marka (convertible
  mark or BAM)- the national currency introduced in 1998 - is pegged
  to the euro, and confidence in the currency and the banking sector
  has increased. Implementation of privatization, however, has been
  slow, and local entities only reluctantly support national-level
  institutions. Banking reform accelerated in 2001 as all the
  Communist-era payments bureaus were shut down; foreign banks,
  primarily from Western Europe, now control most of the banking
  sector. A sizeable current account deficit and high unemployment
  rate remain the two most serious economic problems. The country
  receives substantial amounts of reconstruction assistance and
  humanitarian aid from the international community but will have to
  prepare for an era of declining assistance.

Botswana
  Botswana has maintained one of the world's highest economic
  growth rates since independence in 1966. Through fiscal discipline
  and sound management, Botswana has transformed itself from one of
  the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a
  per capita GDP of $10,000 in 2005. Two major investment services
  rank Botswana as the best credit risk in Africa. Diamond mining has
  fueled much of the expansion and currently accounts for more than
  one-third of GDP and for 70-80% of export earnings. Tourism,
  financial services, subsistence farming, and cattle raising are
  other key sectors. On the downside, the government must deal with
  high rates of unemployment and poverty. Unemployment officially is
  23.8%, but unofficial estimates place it closer to 40%. HIV/AIDS
  infection rates are the second highest in the world and threaten
  Botswana's impressive economic gains. An expected leveling off in
  diamond mining production overshadows long-term prospects.

Bouvet Island
  no economic activity; declared a nature reserve

Brazil
  Characterized by large and well-developed agricultural,
  mining, manufacturing, and service sectors, Brazil's economy
  outweighs that of all other South American countries and is
  expanding its presence in world markets. From 2001-03 real wages
  fell and Brazil's economy grew, on average only 2.2% per year, as
  the country absorbed a series of domestic and international economic
  shocks. That Brazil absorbed these shocks without financial collapse
  is a tribute to the resiliency of the Brazilian economy and the
  economic program put in place by former President CARDOSO and
  strengthened by President LULA DA SILVA. In 2004, Brazil enjoyed
  more robust growth that yielded increases in employment and real
  wages. The three pillars of the economic program are a floating
  exchange rate, an inflation-targeting regime, and tight fiscal
  policy, all reinforced by a series of IMF programs. The currency
  depreciated sharply in 2001 and 2002, which contributed to a
  dramatic current account adjustment; in 2003 to 2005, Brazil ran
  record trade surpluses and recorded its first current account
  surpluses since 1992. Productivity gains - particularly in
  agriculture - also contributed to the surge in exports, and Brazil
  in 2005 surpassed the previous year's record export level. While
  economic management has been good, there remain important economic
  vulnerabilities. The most significant are debt-related: the
  government's largely domestic debt increased steadily from 1994 to
  2003 - straining government finances - before falling as a
  percentage of GDP in 2005, while Brazil's foreign debt (a mix of
  private and public debt) is large in relation to Brazil's small (but
  growing) export base. Another challenge is maintaining economic
  growth over a period of time to generate employment and make the
  government debt burden more manageable.

British Indian Ocean Territory
  All economic activity is concentrated
  on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US defense
  facilities are located. Construction projects and various services
  needed to support the military installations are done by military
  and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and
  the US. There are no industrial or agricultural activities on the
  islands. When the Ilois return, they plan to reestablish sugarcane
  production and fishing. The country makes money by selling fishing
  licenses and postage stamps.

British Virgin Islands
  The economy, one of the most stable and
  prosperous in the Caribbean, is highly dependent on tourism,
  generating an estimated 45% of the national income. An estimated
  350,000 tourists, mainly from the US, visited the islands in 1998.
  Tourism suffered in 2002 because of the lackluster US economy. In
  the mid-1980s, the government began offering offshore registration
  to companies wishing to incorporate in the islands, and
  incorporation fees now generate substantial revenues. Roughly
  400,000 companies were on the offshore registry by yearend 2000. The
  adoption of a comprehensive insurance law in late 1994, which
  provides a blanket of confidentiality with regulated statutory
  gateways for investigation of criminal offenses, made the British
  Virgin Islands even more attractive to international business.
  Livestock raising is the most important agricultural activity; poor
  soils limit the islands' ability to meet domestic food requirements.
  Because of traditionally close links with the US Virgin Islands, the
  British Virgin Islands has used the US dollar as its currency since
  1959.

Brunei
  This small, well-to-do economy encompasses a mixture of
  foreign and domestic entrepreneurship, government regulation,
  welfare measures, and village tradition. Crude oil and natural gas
  production account for nearly half of GDP and more than 90% of
  government revenues. Per capita GDP is far above most other Third
  World countries, and substantial income from overseas investment
  supplements income from domestic production. The government provides
  for all medical services and free education through the university
  level and subsidizes rice and housing. Brunei's leaders are
  concerned that steadily increased integration in the world economy
  will undermine internal social cohesion, although it became a more
  prominent player by serving as chairman for the 2000 APEC (Asian
  Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum. Plans for the future include
  upgrading the labor force, reducing unemployment, strengthening the
  banking and tourist sectors, and, in general, further widening the
  economic base beyond oil and gas.

Bulgaria
  Bulgaria, a former communist country soon to enter the
  European Union, has experienced macroeconomic stability and strong
  growth since a major economic downturn in 1996 led to the fall of
  the then socialist government. As a result, the government became
  committed to economic reform and responsible fiscal planning.
  Minerals, including coal, copper, and zinc, play an important role
  in industry. In 1997, macroeconomic stability was reinforced by the
  imposition of a fixed exchange rate of the lev against the German
  D-mark - the currency is now fixed against the euro - and the
  negotiation of an IMF standby agreement. Low inflation and steady
  progress on structural reforms improved the business environment;
  Bulgaria has averaged 4% growth since 2000 and has begun to attract
  significant amounts of foreign direct investment. Corruption in the
  public administration, a weak judiciary, and the presence of
  organized crime remain the largest challenges for Bulgaria.

Burkina Faso
  One of the poorest countries in the world, landlocked
  Burkina Faso has few natural resources and a weak industrial base.
  About 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture,
  which is vulnerable to harsh climatic conditions. Cotton is the key
  crop and the government has joined with other cotton producing
  countries in the region to lobby for improved access to Western
  markets. GDP growth has largely been driven by increases in world
  cotton prices. Industry remains dominated by unprofitable
  government-controlled corporations. Following the CFA franc currency
  devaluation in January 1994, the government updated its development
  program in conjunction with international agencies; exports and
  economic growth have increased. The government devolved
  macroeconomic policy and inflation targeting to the West African
  regional central bank (BCEAO), but maintains control over fiscal and
  microeconomic policies, including implementing reforms to encourage
  private investment. The bitter internal crisis in neighboring Cote
  d'Ivoire continues to hurt trade and industrial prospects and
  deepens the need for international assistance.

Burma
  Burma, a resource-rich country, suffers from pervasive
  government controls, inefficient economic policies, and rural
  poverty. The junta took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the
  economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to
  Socialism," but those efforts stalled, and some of the
  liberalization measures were rescinded. Burma does not have monetary
  or fiscal stability, so the economy suffers from serious
  macroeconomic imbalances - including inflation, multiple official
  exchange rates that overvalue the Burmese kyat, and a distorted
  interest rate regime. Most overseas development assistance ceased
  after the junta began to suppress the democracy movement in 1988 and
  subsequently refused to honor the results of the 1990 legislative
  elections. In response to the government of Burma's attack in May
  2003 on AUNG SAN SUU KYI and her convoy, the US imposed new economic
  sanctions against Burma - including a ban on imports of Burmese
  products and a ban on provision of financial services by US persons.
  A poor investment climate further slowed the inflow of foreign
  exchange. The most productive sectors will continue to be in
  extractive industries, especially oil and gas, mining, and timber.
  Other areas, such as manufacturing and services, are struggling with
  inadequate infrastructure, unpredictable import/export policies,
  deteriorating health and education systems, and corruption. A major
  banking crisis in 2003 shuttered the country's 20 private banks and
  disrupted the economy. As of December 2005, the largest private
  banks operate under tight restrictions limiting the private sector's
  access to formal credit. Official statistics are inaccurate.
  Published statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated
  because of the size of the black market and unofficial border trade
  - often estimated to be as large as the official economy. Burma's
  trade with Thailand, China, and India is rising. Though the Burmese
  government has good economic relations with its neighbors, better
  investment and business climates and an improved political situation
  are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism.

Burundi
  Burundi is a landlocked, resource-poor country with an
  underdeveloped manufacturing sector. The economy is predominantly
  agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on
  subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends on coffee and tea
  exports, which account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings. The
  ability to pay for imports, therefore, rests primarily on weather
  conditions and international coffee and tea prices. The Tutsi
  minority, 14% of the population, dominates the government and the
  coffee trade at the expense of the Hutu majority, 85% of the
  population. An ethnic-based war that lasted for over a decade
  resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, forced more than 48,000
  refugees into Tanzania, and displaced 140,000 others internally.
  Only one in two children go to school, and approximately one in 10
  adults has HIV/AIDS. Food, medicine, and electricity remain in short
  supply. Political stability and the end of the civil war have
  improved aid flows and economic activity has increased, but
  underlying weaknesses - a high poverty rate, poor education rates, a
  weak legal system, and low administrative capacity - risk
  undermining planned economic reforms.

Cambodia
  In 1999, the first full year of peace in 30 years, the
  government made progress on economic reforms. The US and Cambodia
  signed a Bilateral Textile Agreement, which gave Cambodia a
  guaranteed quota of US textile imports and established a bonus for
  improving working conditions and enforcing Cambodian labor laws and
  international labor standards in the industry. From 2001 to 2004,
  the economy grew at an average rate of 6.4%, driven largely by an
  expansion in the garment sector and tourism. With the January 2005
  expiration of a WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing,
  Cambodia-based textile producers were forced to compete directly
  with lower-priced producing countries such as China and India.
  Although initial 2005 GDP growth estimates were less than 3%,
  better-than-expected garment sector performance led the IMF to
  forecast 6% growth in 2005. Faced with the possibility that its
  vibrant garment industry, with more than 200,000 jobs, could be in
  serious danger, the Cambodian government has committed itself to a
  policy of continued support for high labor standards in an attempt
  to maintain favor with buyers. The tourism industry continues to
  grow rapidly, with foreign visitors surpassing 1 million for the
  year by September 2005. In 2005, exploitable oil and natural gas
  deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial waters,
  representing a new revenue stream for the government once commercial
  extraction begins in the coming years. The long-term development of
  the economy remains a daunting challenge. The Cambodian government
  continues to work with bilateral and multilateral donors, including
  the World Bank and IMF, to address the country's many pressing
  needs. In December 2004, official donors pledged $504 million in aid
  for 2005 on the condition that the Cambodian government implement
  steps to reduce corruption. The major economic challenge for
  Cambodia over the next decade will be fashioning an economic
  environment in which the private sector can create enough jobs to
  handle Cambodia's demographic imbalance. More than 50% of the
  population is 20 years or younger. The population lacks education
  and productive skills, particularly in the poverty-ridden
  countryside, which suffers from an almost total lack of basic
  infrastructure. Fully 75% of the population remains engaged in
  subsistence farming.

Cameroon
  Because of its oil resources and favorable agricultural
  conditions, Cameroon has one of the best-endowed primary commodity
  economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Still, it faces many of the serious
  problems facing other underdeveloped countries, such as a top-heavy
  civil service and a generally unfavorable climate for business
  enterprise. Since 1990, the government has embarked on various IMF
  and World Bank programs designed to spur business investment,
  increase efficiency in agriculture, improve trade, and recapitalize
  the nation's banks. In June 2000, the government completed an
  IMF-sponsored, three-year structural adjustment program; however,
  the IMF is pressing for more reforms, including increased budget
  transparency, privatization, and poverty reduction programs.
  International oil and cocoa prices have considerable impact on the
  economy.

Canada
  As an affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion
  dollar class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented
  economic system, pattern of production, and affluent living
  standards. Since World War II, the impressive growth of the
  manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the
  nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial
  and urban. The 1989 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the
  1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which includes
  Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic
  integration with the US. Given its great natural resources, skilled
  labor force, and modern capital plant, Canada enjoys solid economic
  prospects. Top-notch fiscal management has produced consecutive
  balanced budgets since 1997, although public debate continues over
  how to manage the rising cost of the publicly funded healthcare
  system. Exports account for roughly a third of GDP. Canada enjoys a
  substantial trade surplus with its principal trading partner, the
  US, which absorbs more than 85% of Canadian exports. Canada is the
  US' largest foreign supplier of energy, including oil, gas, uranium,
  and electric power.

Cape Verde
  This island economy suffers from a poor natural resource
  base, including serious water shortages exacerbated by cycles of
  long-term drought. The economy is service-oriented, with commerce,
  transport, tourism, and public services accounting for 66% of GDP.
  Although nearly 70% of the population lives in rural areas, the
  share of agriculture in GDP in 2004 was only 12%, of which fishing
  accounted for 1.5%. About 82% of food must be imported. The fishing
  potential, mostly lobster and tuna, is not fully exploited. Cape
  Verde annually runs a high trade deficit, financed by foreign aid
  and remittances from emigrants; remittances supplement GDP by more
  than 20%. Economic reforms are aimed at developing the private
  sector and attracting foreign investment to diversify the economy.
  Future prospects depend heavily on the maintenance of aid flows, the
  encouragement of tourism, remittances, and the momentum of the
  government's development program.

Cayman Islands
  With no direct taxation, the islands are a thriving
  offshore financial center. More than 40,000 companies were
  registered in the Cayman Islands as of 1998, including almost 600
  banks and trust companies; banking assets exceed $500 billion. A
  stock exchange was opened in 1997. Tourism is also a mainstay,
  accounting for about 70% of GDP and 75% of foreign currency
  earnings. The tourist industry is aimed at the luxury market and
  caters mainly to visitors from North America. Total tourist arrivals
  exceeded 1.2 million in 1997, with 600,000 from the US. About 90% of
  the islands' food and consumer goods must be imported. The
  Caymanians enjoy one of the highest outputs per capita and one of
  the highest standards of living in the world.

Central African Republic
  Subsistence agriculture, together with
  forestry, remains the backbone of the economy of the Central African
  Republic (CAR), with more than 70% of the population living in
  outlying areas. The agricultural sector generates half of GDP.
  Timber has accounted for about 16% of export earnings and the
  diamond industry, for 40%. Important constraints to economic
  development include the CAR's landlocked position, a poor
  transportation system, a largely unskilled work force, and a legacy
  of misdirected macroeconomic policies. Factional fighting between
  the government and its opponents remains a drag on economic
  revitalization, with GDP growth at only 0.5% in 2004 and 2.5% in
  2005. Distribution of income is extraordinarily unequal. Grants from
  France and the international community can only partially meet
  humanitarian needs.

Chad
  Chad's primarily agricultural economy will continue to be
  boosted by major foreign direct investment projects in the oil
  sector that began in 2000. Over 80% of Chad's population relies on
  subsistence farming and livestock raising for its livelihood. Chad's
  economy has long been handicapped by its landlocked position, high
  energy costs, and a history of instability. Chad relies on foreign
  assistance and foreign capital for most public and private sector
  investment projects. A consortium led by two US companies has been
  investing $3.7 billion to develop oil reserves - estimated at 1
  billion barrels - in southern Chad. The nation's total oil reserves
  has been estimated to be 2 billion barrels. Oil production came on
  stream in late 2003. Chad began to export oil in 2004. Cotton,
  cattle, and gum arabic provide the bulk of Chad's non-oil export
  earnings.

Chile
  Chile has a market-oriented economy characterized by a high
  level of foreign trade. During the early 1990s, Chile's reputation
  as a role model for economic reform was strengthened when the
  democratic government of Patricio AYLWIN - which took over from the
  military in 1990 - deepened the economic reform initiated by the
  military government. Growth in real GDP averaged 8% during 1991-97,
  but fell to half that level in 1998 because of tight monetary
  policies implemented to keep the current account deficit in check
  and because of lower export earnings - the latter a product of the
  global financial crisis. A severe drought exacerbated the recession
  in 1999, reducing crop yields and causing hydroelectric shortfalls
  and electricity rationing, and Chile experienced negative economic
  growth for the first time in more than 15 years. Despite the effects
  of the recession, Chile maintained its reputation for strong
  financial institutions and sound policy that have given it the
  strongest sovereign bond rating in South America. By the end of
  1999, exports and economic activity had begun to recover, and growth
  rebounded to 4.2% in 2000. Growth fell back to 3.1% in 2001 and 2.1%
  in 2002, largely due to lackluster global growth and the devaluation
  of the Argentine peso. Chile's economy began a slow recovery in
  2003, growing 3.2%, and accelerated to 6.1% in 2004-05, while Chile
  maintained a low rate of inflation. GDP growth benefited from high
  copper prices, solid export earnings (particularly forestry,
  fishing, and mining), and stepped-up foreign direct investment.
  Unemployment, however, remains stubbornly high. Chile deepened its
  longstanding commitment to trade liberalization with the signing of
  a free trade agreement with the US, which took effect on 1 January
  2004. Chile signed a free trade agreement with China in November
  2005, and it already has several trade deals signed with other
  nations and blocs, including the European Union, Mercosur, South
  Korea, and Mexico. Record-high copper prices helped to strengthen
  the peso to a 5½-year high, as of December 2005, and will boost GDP
  in 2006.

China
  China's economy during the last quarter century has changed
  from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to
  international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a
  rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global
  economy. Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of
  collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual
  liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased
  autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified
  banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth
  of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and
  investment. China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist
  or piecemeal fashion. The process continues with key moves in 2005
  including the sale of equity in China's largest state banks to
  foreign investors and refinements in foreign exchange and bond
  markets. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency
  gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since
  1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in
  2005 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US,
  although in per capita terms the country is still lower
  middle-income and 150 million Chinese fall below international
  poverty lines. Economic development has generally been more rapid in
  coastal provinces than in the interior, and there are large
  disparities in per capita income between regions. The government has
  struggled to: (a) sustain adequate job growth for tens of millions
  of workers laid off from state-owned enterprises, migrants, and new
  entrants to the work force; (b) reduce corruption and other economic
  crimes; and (c) contain environmental damage and social strife
  related to the economy's rapid transformation. From 100 to 150
  million surplus rural workers are adrift between the villages and
  the cities, many subsisting through part-time, low-paying jobs. One
  demographic consequence of the "one child" policy is that China is
  now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world. Another
  long-term threat to growth is the deterioration in the environment -
  notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the
  water table, especially in the north. China continues to lose arable
  land because of erosion and economic development. China has
  benefited from a huge expansion in computer Internet use, with more
  than 100 million users at the end of 2005. Foreign investment
  remains a strong element in China's remarkable expansion in world
  trade and has been an important factor in the growth of urban jobs.
  In July 2005, China revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US
  dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket
  of currencies. Reports of shortages of electric power in the summer
  of 2005 in southern China receded by September-October and did not
  have a substantial impact on China's economy. More power generating
  capacity is scheduled to come on line in 2006 as large scale
  investments are completed. Thirteen years in construction at a cost
  of $24 billion, the immense Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze
  River will be essentially completed in 2006 and will revolutionize
  electrification and flood control in the area. The Central Committee
  of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2005 approved the draft
  11th Five-Year Plan and the National People's Congress is expected
  to give final approval in March 2006. The plan calls for a 20%
  reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2010 and an
  estimated 45% increase in GDP by 2010. The plan states that
  conserving resources and protecting the environment are basic goals,
  but it lacks details on the policies and reforms necessary to
  achieve these goals.

Christmas Island
  Phosphate mining had been the only significant
  economic activity, but in December 1987 the Australian Government
  closed the mine. In 1991, the mine was reopened. With the support of
  the government, a $34 million casino opened in 1993. The casino
  closed in 1998. The Australian Government in 2001 agreed to support
  the creation of a commercial space-launching site on the island,
  projected to begin operations in the near future.

Clipperton Island
  Although 115 species of fish have been identified
  in the territorial waters of Clipperton Island, the only economic
  activity is tuna fishing.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Grown throughout the islands, coconuts are
  the sole cash crop. Small local gardens and fishing contribute to
  the food supply, but additional food and most other necessities must
  be imported from Australia. There is a small tourist industry.

Colombia
  Colombia's economy has been on a recovery trend during the
  past two years despite a serious armed conflict. The economy
  continues to improve thanks to austere government budgets, focused
  efforts to reduce public debt levels, an export-oriented growth
  strategy, and an improved security situation in the country. Ongoing
  economic problems facing President URIBE range from reforming the
  pension system to reducing high unemployment. New exploration is
  needed to offset declining oil production. On the positive side,
  several international financial institutions have praised the
  economic reforms introduced by URIBE, which succeeded in reducing
  the public-sector deficit below 1.5% of GDP. The government's
  economic policy and democratic security strategy have engendered a
  growing sense of confidence in the economy, particularly within the
  business sector. Coffee prices have recovered from previous lows as
  the Colombian coffee industry pursues greater market shares in
  developed countries such as the United States.

Comoros
  One of the world's poorest countries, Comoros is made up of
  three islands that have inadequate transportation links, a young and
  rapidly increasing population, and few natural resources. The low
  educational level of the labor force contributes to a subsistence
  level of economic activity, high unemployment, and a heavy
  dependence on foreign grants and technical assistance. Agriculture,
  including fishing, hunting, and forestry, contributes 40% to GDP,
  employs 80% of the labor force, and provides most of the exports.
  The country is not self-sufficient in food production; rice, the
  main staple, accounts for the bulk of imports. The government -
  which is hampered by internal political disputes - is struggling to
  upgrade education and technical training, privatize commercial and
  industrial enterprises, improve health services, diversify exports,
  promote tourism, and reduce the high population growth rate.
  Increased foreign support is essential if the goal of 4% annual GDP
  growth is to be met. Remittances from 150,000 Comorans abroad help
  supplement GDP.

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  The economy of the Democratic
  Republic of the Congo - a nation endowed with vast potential wealth
  - has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The war, which began
  in August 1998, dramatically reduced national output and government
  revenue, increased external debt, and resulted in the deaths of
  perhaps 3.5 million people from violence, famine, and disease.
  Foreign businesses curtailed operations due to uncertainty about the
  outcome of the conflict, lack of infrastructure, and the difficult
  operating environment. Conditions improved in late 2002 with the
  withdrawal of a large portion of the invading foreign troops. The
  transitional government has reopened relations with international
  financial institutions and international donors, and President
  KABILA has begun implementing reforms. Much economic activity lies
  outside the GDP data. Economic stability improved in 2003-05,
  although an uncertain legal framework, corruption, and a lack of
  openness in government policy continues to hamper growth. In 2005,
  renewed activity in the mining sector, the source of most exports,
  boosted Kinshasa's fiscal position and GDP growth. Business and
  economic prospects are expected to improve once a new government is
  installed after elections.

Congo, Republic of the
  The economy is a mixture of village
  agriculture and handicrafts, an industrial sector based largely on
  oil, support services, and a government characterized by budget
  problems and overstaffing. Oil has supplanted forestry as the
  mainstay of the economy, providing a major share of government
  revenues and exports. In the early 1980s, rapidly rising oil
  revenues enabled the government to finance large-scale development
  projects with GDP growth averaging 5% annually, one of the highest
  rates in Africa. The government has mortgaged a substantial portion
  of its oil earnings through oil-backed loans that have contributed
  to a growing debt burden and chronic revenue shortfalls. Economic
  reform efforts have been undertaken with the support of
  international organizations, notably the World Bank and the IMF.
  However, the reform program came to a halt in June 1997 when civil
  war erupted. Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO, who returned to power when the
  war ended in October 1997, publicly expressed interest in moving
  forward on economic reforms and privatization and in renewing
  cooperation with international financial institutions. Economic
  progress was badly hurt by slumping oil prices and the resumption of
  armed conflict in December 1998, which worsened the republic's
  budget deficit. The current administration presides over an uneasy
  internal peace and faces difficult economic challenges of
  stimulating recovery and reducing poverty. Recovery of oil prices
  has boosted the economy's GDP and near-term prospects. The Republic
  of Congo may be eligible for an IMF-World Bank heavily indebted poor
  countries (HIPC) initiative in early 2006, provided it meets the
  strict fiscal and monetary targets set out for it under a new
  three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) with the IMF.

Cook Islands
  Like many other South Pacific island nations, the Cook
  Islands' economic development is hindered by the isolation of the
  country from foreign markets, the limited size of domestic markets,
  lack of natural resources, periodic devastation from natural
  disasters, and inadequate infrastructure. Agriculture, employing
  about 70% of the working population, provides the economic base with
  major exports made up of copra and citrus fruit. Black pearls are
  the Cook Island's leading export. Manufacturing activities are
  limited to fruit processing, clothing, and handicrafts. Trade
  deficits are offset by remittances from emigrants and by foreign
  aid, overwhelmingly from New Zealand. In the 1980s and 1990s, the
  country lived beyond its means, maintaining a bloated public service
  and accumulating a large foreign debt. Subsequent reforms, including
  the sale of state assets, the strengthening of economic management,
  the encouragement of tourism, and a debt restructuring agreement,
  have rekindled investment and growth.

Coral Sea Islands
  no economic activity

Costa Rica
  Costa Rica's basically stable economy depends on tourism,
  agriculture, and electronics exports. Poverty has been substantially
  reduced over the past 15 years, and a strong social safety net has
  been put into place. Foreign investors remain attracted by the
  country's political stability and high education levels, and tourism
  continues to bring in foreign exchange. Low prices for coffee and
  bananas have hurt the agricultural sector. The government continues
  to grapple with its large internal and external deficits and sizable
  internal debt. The reduction of inflation remains a difficult
  problem because of rises in the price of imports, labor market
  rigidities, and fiscal deficits. The country also needs to reform
  its tax system and its pattern of public expenditure. Costa Rica is
  the only signatory to the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement
  (CAFTA) that has not ratified it. CAFTA implementation would result
  in economic reforms and an improved investment climate.

Cote d'Ivoire
  Cote d'Ivoire is among the world's largest producers
  and exporters of coffee, cocoa beans, and palm oil. Consequently,
  the economy is highly sensitive to fluctuations in international
  prices for these products and weather conditions. Despite government
  attempts to diversify the economy, it is still heavily dependent on
  agriculture and related activities, engaging roughly 68% of the
  population. Growth was negative in 2000-03 because of the difficulty
  of meeting the conditions of international donors, continued low
  prices of key exports, and severe civil war. In November 2004, the
  situation deteriorated when President GBAGBO's troops attacked and
  killed nine French peacekeeping forces, and the UN imposed an arms
  embargo. Political turmoil damaged the economy in 2005, with fear
  among Ivorians spreading, foreign investment shriveling, French
  businesses and expats fleeing, travel within the country falling,
  and criminal elements that traffic in weapons and diamonds gaining
  ground. The government will continue to survive financially off of
  the sale of cocoa, which represents 90% of foreign exchange
  earnings. Though the 2005 harvest was largely unaffected by past
  fighting, the government will likely lose between 10% and 20% of its
  cocoa harvest to northern rebels, who smuggle the cocoa they control
  to neighboring countries where cocoa prices are higher. The
  government remains hopeful that ongoing exploration of Cote
  d'Ivoire's offshore oil reserves will result in significant
  production that could boost daily crude output from roughly 33,000
  barrels per day (b/d) to over 200,000 b/d by the end of the decade.

Croatia
  Before the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Republic of
  Croatia, after Slovenia, was the most prosperous and industrialized
  area with a per capita output perhaps one-third above the Yugoslav
  average. The economy emerged from a mild recession in 2000 with
  tourism, banking, and public investments leading the way.
  Unemployment remains high, at about 18%, with structural factors
  slowing its decline. While macroeconomic stabilization has largely
  been achieved, structural reforms lag because of deep resistance on
  the part of the public and lack of strong support from politicians.
  Growth, while impressive at about 3% to 4% for the last several
  years, has been stimulated, in part, through high fiscal deficits
  and rapid credit growth. The EU accession process should accelerate
  fiscal and structural reform.

Cuba
  The government continues to balance the need for economic
  loosening against a desire for firm political control. It has rolled
  back limited reforms undertaken in the 1990s to increase enterprise
  efficiency and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods,
  and services. The average Cuban's standard of living remains at a
  lower level than before the downturn of the 1990s, which was caused
  by the loss of Soviet aid and domestic inefficiencies. The
  government in 2005 strengthened its controls over dollars coming
  into the economy from tourism, remittances, and trade. External
  financing has helped growth in the mining, oil, construction, and
  tourism sectors.

Cyprus
  The Republic of Cyprus has a market economy dominated by the
  service sector, which accounts for 76% of GDP. Tourism and financial
  services are the most important sectors; erratic growth rates over
  the past decade reflect the economy's reliance on tourism, which
  often fluctuates with political instability in the region and
  economic conditions in Western Europe. Nevertheless, the economy
  grew a healthy 3.7% per year in 2004 and 2005, well above the EU
  average. Cyprus joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM2)
  in May 2005. The government has initiated an aggressive austerity
  program, which has cut the budget deficit to below 3% but continued
  fiscal discipline is necessary if Cyprus is to meet its goal of
  adopting the euro on 1 January 2008. As in the area administered by
  Turkish Cypriots, water shortages are a perennial problem; a few
  desalination plants are now on line. After 10 years of drought, the
  country received substantial rainfall from 2001-03 alleviating
  immediate concerns. The Turkish Cypriot economy has roughly
  one-third of the per capita GDP of the south, and economic growth
  tends to be volatile, given north Cyprus's relative isolation,
  bloated public sector, reliance on the Turkish lira, and small
  market size. The Turkish Cypriot economy grew 15.4% in 2004, fueled
  by growth in the construction and education sectors, as well as
  increased employment of Turkish Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus.
  The Turkish Cypriots are heavily dependent on transfers from the
  Turkish Government. Under the 2003-06 economic protocol, Ankara
  plans to provide around $550 million to the "TRNC." Agriculture and
  services, together, employ more than half of the work force.

Czech Republic
  The Czech Republic is one of the most stable and
  prosperous of the post-Communist states of Central and Eastern
  Europe. Growth in 2000-05 was supported by exports to the EU,
  primarily to Germany, and a strong recovery of foreign and domestic
  investment. Domestic demand is playing an ever more important role
  in underpinning growth as interest rates drop and the availability
  of credit cards and mortgages increases. The current account deficit
  has declined to around 3% of GDP as demand for Czech products in the
  European Union has increased. Inflation is under control. Recent
  accession to the EU gives further impetus and direction to
  structural reform. In early 2004 the government passed increases in
  the Value Added Tax (VAT) and tightened eligibility for social
  benefits with the intention to bring the public finance gap down to
  4% of GDP by 2006, but more difficult pension and healthcare reforms
  will have to wait until after the next elections. Privatization of
  the state-owned telecommunications firm Cesky Telecom took place in
  2005. Intensified restructuring among large enterprises,
  improvements in the financial sector, and effective use of available
  EU funds should strengthen output growth.

Denmark
  This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech
  agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry,
  extensive government welfare measures, comfortable living standards,
  a stable currency, and high dependence on foreign trade. Denmark is
  a net exporter of food and energy and enjoys a comfortable balance
  of payments surplus. Government objectives include streamlining the
  bureaucracy and further privatization of state assets. The
  government has been successful in meeting, and even exceeding, the
  economic convergence criteria for participating in the third phase
  (a common European currency) of the European Economic and Monetary
  Union (EMU), but Denmark has decided not to join 12 other EU members
  in the euro. Nonetheless, the Danish krone remains pegged to the
  euro. Economic growth gained momentum in 2004 and the upturn
  accelerated through 2005. Because of high GDP per capita, welfare
  benefits, a low Gini index, and political stability, the Danish
  people enjoy living standards topped by no other nation. A major
  long-term issue will be the sharp decline in the ratio of workers to
  retirees.

Dhekelia
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to the
  military and their families located in Dhekelia. All food and
  manufactured goods must be imported.

Djibouti
  The economy is based on service activities connected with
  the country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in
  northeast Africa. Two-thirds of the inhabitants live in the capital
  city; the remainder are mostly nomadic herders. Scanty rainfall
  limits crop production to fruits and vegetables, and most food must
  be imported. Djibouti provides services as both a transit port for
  the region and an international transshipment and refueling center.
  Djibouti has few natural resources and little industry. The nation
  is, therefore, heavily dependent on foreign assistance to help
  support its balance of payments and to finance development projects.
  An unemployment rate of at least 50% continues to be a major
  problem. While inflation is not a concern, due to the fixed tie of
  the Djiboutian franc to the US dollar, the artificially high value
  of the Djiboutian franc adversely affects Djibouti's balance of
  payments. Per capita consumption dropped an estimated 35% over the
  last seven years because of recession, civil war, and a high
  population growth rate (including immigrants and refugees). Faced
  with a multitude of economic difficulties, the government has fallen
  in arrears on long-term external debt and has been struggling to
  meet the stipulations of foreign aid donors.

Dominica
  The Dominican economy depends on agriculture, primarily
  bananas, and remains highly vulnerable to climatic conditions and
  international economic developments. Production of bananas dropped
  precipitously in 2003, a major reason for the 1% decline in GDP.
  Tourism increased in 2003 as the government sought to promote
  Dominica as an "ecotourism" destination. Development of the tourism
  industry remains difficult, however, because of the rugged
  coastline, lack of beaches, and the absence of an international
  airport. The government began a comprehensive restructuring of the
  economy in 2003 - including elimination of price controls,
  privatization of the state banana company, and tax increases - to
  address Dominica's economic crisis and to meet IMF targets. In order
  to diversify the island's production base, the government is
  attempting to develop an offshore financial sector and is planning
  to construct an oil refinery on the eastern part of the island.

Dominican Republic
  The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean
  representative democracy that enjoyed strong GDP growth until 2003.
  Although the country has long been viewed primarily as an exporter
  of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, in recent years the service sector
  has overtaken agriculture as the economy's largest employer due to
  growth in tourism and free trade zones. Growth turned negative in
  2003 with reduced tourism, a major bank fraud, and limited growth in
  the US economy (the source of about 80% of export revenues), but
  recovered in 2004 and 2005. With the help of strict fiscal targets
  agreed in the 2004 renegotiation of an IMF standby loan, President
  FERNANDEZ has stabilized the country's financial situation. Although
  the economy continues to grow at a respectable rate, unemployment
  remains an important challenge. The country suffers from marked
  income inequality; the poorest half of the population receives less
  than one-fifth of GNP, while the richest 10% enjoys nearly 40% of
  national income. The Dominican Republic's development prospects
  improved with the ratification of the Central America-Dominican
  Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) in September 2005.

East Timor
  In late 1999, about 70% of the economic infrastructure of
  East Timor was laid waste by Indonesian troops and anti-independence
  militias, and 300,000 people fled westward. Over the next three
  years, however, a massive international program, manned by 5,000
  peacekeepers (8,000 at peak) and 1,300 police officers, led to
  substantial reconstruction in both urban and rural areas. By the end
  of 2005, all refugees either returned or resettled in Indonesia.
  Non-petroleum GDP growth was held back in 2003 by extensive drought
  and the gradual winding down of the international presence but
  recovered somewhat in 2004. The country faces great challenges in
  continuing the rebuilding of infrastructure, strengthening the
  infant civil administration, and generating jobs for young people
  entering the work force. The development of oil and gas resources in
  nearby waters has begun to supplement government revenues ahead of
  schedule and above expectations - the result of high petroleum
  prices - but the technology-intensive industry does little to create
  jobs for the unemployed, because there are no production facilities
  in Timor and the gas is piped to Australia. The parliament in June
  2005 unanimously approved the creation of a Petroleum Fund to serve
  as a repository for all petroleum revenues and preserve the value of
  East Timor's petroleum wealth for future generations.

Ecuador
  Ecuador has substantial petroleum resources, which have
  accounted for 40% of the country's export earnings and one-third of
  central government budget revenues in recent years. Consequently,
  fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic
  impact. In the late 1990s, Ecuador suffered its worst economic
  crisis, with natural disasters and sharp declines in world petroleum
  prices driving Ecuador's economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP
  contracted by more than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly.
  The banking system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its
  external debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70%
  in 1999, and, on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD government
  announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup, however, ousted
  MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and after a short-lived junta
  failed to garner military support, Vice President Gustavo NOBOA took
  over the presidency. In March 2000, Congress approved a series of
  structural reforms that also provided the framework for the adoption
  of the US dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the
  economy, and growth returned to its pre-crisis levels in the years
  that followed. Under the administration of Lucio GUTIERREZ - January
  2003 to April 2005 - Ecuador benefited from higher world petroleum
  prices. However, the government under Alfredo PALACIO has reversed
  economic reforms that reduced Ecuador's vulnerability to petroleum
  price swings and financial crises, allowing the central government
  greater access to oil windfalls and disbursing surplus retirement
  funds.

Egypt
  Occupying the northeast corner of the African continent, Egypt
  is bisected by the highly fertile Nile valley, where most economic
  activity takes place. In the last 30 years, the government has
  reformed the highly centralized economy it inherited from President
  NASSER. In 2005, Prime Minister Ahmed NAZIF reduced personal and
  corporate tax rates, reduced energy subsidies, and privatized
  several enterprises. The stock market boomed, and GDP grew nearly
  5%. Despite these achievements, the government has failed to raise
  living standards for the average Egyptian, and has had to continue
  providing subsidies for basic necessities. The subsidies have
  contributed to a growing budget deficit - more than 8% of GDP in
  2005 - and represent a significant drain on the economy. Foreign
  direct investment remains low. To achieve higher GDP growth the
  NAZIF government will need to continue its aggressive pursuit of
  reform, especially in the energy sector. Egypt's export sectors -
  particularly natural gas - have bright prospects.

El Salvador
  The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador has
  the third largest economy, but growth has been minimal in recent
  years. Hoping to stimulate the sluggish economy, the government is
  striving to open new export markets, encourage foreign investment,
  and modernize the tax and healthcare systems. Implementation in 2006
  of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement,
  which El Salvador was the first to ratify, is viewed as a key policy
  to help achieve these objectives. The trade deficit has been offset
  by annual remittances from Salvadorans living abroad - 16.6% of GDP
  in 2005 - and external aid. With the adoption of the US dollar as
  its currency in 2001, El Salvador has lost control over monetary
  policy and must concentrate on maintaining a disciplined fiscal
  policy.

Equatorial Guinea
  The discovery and exploitation of large oil
  reserves have contributed to dramatic economic growth in recent
  years. Forestry, farming, and fishing are also major components of
  GDP. Subsistence farming predominates. Although pre-independence
  Equatorial Guinea counted on cocoa production for hard currency
  earnings, the neglect of the rural economy under successive regimes
  has diminished potential for agriculture-led growth (the government
  has stated its intention to reinvest some oil revenue into
  agriculture). A number of aid programs sponsored by the World Bank
  and the IMF have been cut off since 1993, because of corruption and
  mismanagement. No longer eligible for concessional financing because
  of large oil revenues, the government has been trying to agree on a
  "shadow" fiscal management program with the World Bank and IMF.
  Businesses, for the most part, are owned by government officials and
  their family members. Undeveloped natural resources include
  titanium, iron ore, manganese, uranium, and alluvial gold. Growth
  remained strong in 2005, led by oil. Equatorial Guinea now has the
  second highest per capita income in the world, after Luxembourg.

Eritrea
  Since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea has faced
  the economic problems of a small, desperately poor country. Like the
  economies of many African nations, the economy is largely based on
  subsistence agriculture, with 80% of the population involved in
  farming and herding. The Ethiopian-Eritrea war in 1998-2000 severely
  hurt Eritrea's economy. GDP growth fell to zero in 1999 and to
  -12.1% in 2000. The May 2000 Ethiopian offensive into northern
  Eritrea caused some $600 million in property damage and loss,
  including losses of $225 million in livestock and 55,000 homes. The
  attack prevented planting of crops in Eritrea's most productive
  region, causing food production to drop by 62%. Even during the war,
  Eritrea developed its transportation infrastructure, asphalting new
  roads, improving its ports, and repairing war-damaged roads and
  bridges. Since the war ended, the government has maintained a firm
  grip on the economy, expanding the use of the military and
  party-owned businesses to complete Eritrea's development agenda.
  Erratic rainfall and the delayed demobilization of agriculturalists
  from the military kept cereal production well below normal, holding
  down growth in 2002-05. Eritrea's economic future depends upon its
  ability to master social problems such as illiteracy, unemployment,
  and low skills, as well as the willingness to open its economy to
  private enterprise so that the diaspora's money and expertise can
  foster economic growth.

Estonia
  Estonia, as a new member of the World Trade Organization and
  the European Union, has transitioned effectively to a modern market
  economy with strong ties to the West, including the pegging of its
  currency to the euro. The economy benefits from strong electronics
  and telecommunications sectors and is greatly influenced by
  developments in Finland, Sweden, and Germany, three major trading
  partners. The current account deficit remains high; however, the
  state budget is essentially in balance, and public debt is low.

Ethiopia
  Ethiopia's poverty-stricken economy is based on
  agriculture, accounting for half of GDP, 60% of exports, and 80% of
  total employment. The agricultural sector suffers from frequent
  drought and poor cultivation practices. Coffee is critical to the
  Ethiopian economy with exports of some $156 million in 2002, but
  historically low prices have seen many farmers switching to qat to
  supplement income. The war with Eritrea in 1998-2000 and recurrent
  drought have buffeted the economy, in particular coffee production.
  In November 2001, Ethiopia qualified for debt relief from the Highly
  Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, and in December 2005 the
  International Monetary Fund voted to forgive Ethiopia's debt to the
  body. Under Ethiopia's land tenure system, the government owns all
  land and provides long-term leases to the tenants; the system
  continues to hamper growth in the industrial sector as entrepreneurs
  are unable to use land as collateral for loans. Drought struck again
  late in 2002, leading to a 2% decline in GDP in 2003. Normal weather
  patterns late in 2003 helped agricultural and GDP growth recover in
  2004-05.

Europa Island
  no economic activity

European Union
  Domestically, the European Union attempts to lower
  trade barriers, adopt a common currency, and move toward convergence
  of living standards. Internationally, the EU aims to bolster
  Europe's trade position and its political and economic power.
  Because of the great differences in per capita income (from $15,000
  to $56,000) and historic national animosities, the European
  Community faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common
  policies. For example, since 2003 Germany and France have flouted
  the member states' treaty obligation to prevent their national
  budgets from running more than a 3% deficit. In 2004, the EU
  admitted 10 central and eastern European countries that are, in
  general, less advanced technologically and economically than the
  other 15. Twelve EU member states introduced the euro as their
  common currency on 1 January 1999, but the UK, Sweden, and Denmark
  do not participate. The 10 new member states may choose to adopt the
  euro when they meet the EU's fiscal and monetary criteria and the
  other euro states so agree.

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  The economy was formerly based on
  agriculture, mainly sheep farming, but today fishing contributes the
  bulk of economic activity. In 1987 the government began selling
  fishing licenses to foreign trawlers operating within the Falkland
  Islands' exclusive fishing zone. These license fees total more than
  $40 million per year, which goes to support the island's health,
  education, and welfare system. Squid accounts for 75% of the fish
  taken. Dairy farming supports domestic consumption; crops furnish
  winter fodder. Exports feature shipments of high-grade wool to the
  UK and the sale of postage stamps and coins. The islands are now
  self-financing except for defense. The British Geological Survey
  announced a 200-mile oil exploration zone around the islands in
  1993, and early seismic surveys suggest substantial reserves capable
  of producing 500,000 barrels per day; to date, no exploitable site
  has been identified. An agreement between Argentina and the UK in
  1995 seeks to defuse licensing and sovereignty conflicts that would
  dampen foreign interest in exploiting potential oil reserves.
  Tourism, especially eco-tourism, is increasing rapidly, with about
  30,000 visitors in 2001. Another large source of income is interest
  paid on money the government has in the bank. The British military
  presence also provides a sizeable economic boost.

Faroe Islands
  The Faroese economy has had a strong performance since
  1994, mostly as a result of increasing fish landings and high and
  stable export prices. Unemployment is minimal and there are signs of
  labor shortages in several sectors. The positive economic
  development has helped the Faroese Home Rule Government produce
  increasing budget surpluses, which in turn have helped reduce the
  large public debt, most of it owed to Denmark. However, the total
  dependence on fishing makes the Faroese economy extremely
  vulnerable, and the present fishing efforts appear in excess of what
  is a sustainable level of fishing in the long term. Oil finds close
  to the Faroese area give hope for deposits in the immediate Faroese
  area, which may eventually lay the basis for a more diversified
  economy and thus lessen dependence on Danish economic assistance.
  Aided by a substantial annual subsidy (about 15% of GDP) from
  Denmark, the Faroese have a standard of living not far below the
  Danes and other Scandinavians.

Fiji
  Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one
  of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still
  with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports, remittances from
  Fijians working abroad, and a growing tourist industry - with
  300,000 to 400,000 tourists annually - are the major sources of
  foreign exchange. Fiji's sugar has special access to European Union
  markets, but will be harmed by the EU's decision to cut sugar
  subsidies. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial
  activity but is not efficient. Long-term problems include low
  investment, uncertain land ownership rights, and the government's
  ability to manage its budget. Yet, because of a tourist boom,
  short-run economic prospects are good, provided tensions do not
  again erupt between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Overseas
  remittances from Fijians working in Kuwait and Iraq have increased
  significantly.

Finland
  Finland has a highly industrialized, largely free-market
  economy with per capita output roughly that of the UK, France,
  Germany, and Italy. Its key economic sector is manufacturing -
  principally the wood, metals, engineering, telecommunications, and
  electronics industries. Trade is important; exports equal two-fifths
  of GDP. Finland excels in high-tech exports, e.g., mobile phones.
  Except for timber and several minerals, Finland depends on imports
  of raw materials, energy, and some components for manufactured
  goods. Because of the climate, agricultural development is limited
  to maintaining self-sufficiency in basic products. Forestry, an
  important export earner, provides a secondary occupation for the
  rural population. Rapidly increasing integration with Western Europe
  - Finland was one of the 12 countries joining the European Economic
  and Monetary Union (EMU) - will dominate the economic picture over
  the next several years. High unemployment remains a persistent
  problem.

France
  France is in the midst of transition from a well-to-do modern
  economy that has featured extensive government ownership and
  intervention to one that relies more on market mechanisms. The
  government has partially or fully privatized many large companies,
  banks, and insurers. It retains controlling stakes in several
  leading firms, including Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and
  Thales, and is dominant in some sectors, particularly power, public
  transport, and defense industries. The telecommunications sector is
  gradually being opened to competition. France's leaders remain
  committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by
  means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income
  disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and
  welfare. The government has lowered income taxes and introduced
  measures to boost employment and reform the pension system. In
  addition, it is focusing on the problems of the high cost of labor
  and labor market inflexibility resulting from the 35-hour workweek
  and restrictions on lay-offs. The tax burden remains one of the
  highest in Europe (nearly 50% of GDP in 2005). The lingering
  economic slowdown and inflexible budget items have pushed the budget
  deficit above the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP limit; unemployment stands at
  10%.

French Guiana
  The economy is tied closely to the much larger French
  economy through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space
  center at Kourou (which accounts for 25% of GDP), fishing and
  forestry are the most important economic activities. Forest and
  woodland cover 90% of the country. The large reserves of tropical
  hardwoods, not fully exploited, support an expanding sawmill
  industry that provides sawn logs for export. Cultivation of crops is
  limited to the coastal area, where the population is largely
  concentrated; rice and manioc are the major crops. French Guiana is
  heavily dependent on imports of food and energy. Unemployment is a
  serious problem, particularly among younger workers.

French Polynesia
  Since 1962, when France stationed military
  personnel in the region, French Polynesia has changed from a
  subsistence agricultural economy to one in which a high proportion
  of the work force is either employed by the military or supports the
  tourist industry. With the halt of French nuclear testing in 1996,
  the military contribution to the economy fell sharply. Tourism
  accounts for about one-fourth of GDP and is a primary source of hard
  currency earnings. Other sources of income are pearl farming and
  deep-sea commercial fishing. The small manufacturing sector
  primarily processes agricultural products. The territory benefits
  substantially from development agreements with France aimed
  principally at creating new businesses and strengthening social
  services.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  Economic activity is limited to
  servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and
  French and other fishing fleets. The fish catches landed on Iles
  Kerguelen by foreign ships are exported to France and Reunion.

Gabon
  Gabon enjoys a per capita income four times that of most of
  sub-Saharan African nations. This has supported a sharp decline in
  extreme poverty; yet, because of high income inequality, a large
  proportion of the population remains poor. Gabon depended on timber
  and manganese until oil was discovered offshore in the early 1970s.
  The oil sector now accounts for 50% of GDP. Gabon continues to face
  fluctuating prices for its oil, timber, and manganese exports.
  Despite the abundance of natural wealth, poor fiscal management
  hobbles the economy. Devaluation of its currency by 50% in January
  1994 sparked a one-time inflationary surge, to 35%; the rate dropped
  to 6% in 1996. The IMF provided a one-year standby arrangement in
  1994-95, a three-year Enhanced Financing Facility (EFF) at near
  commercial rates beginning in late 1995, and stand-by credit of $119
  million in October 2000. Those agreements mandated progress in
  privatization and fiscal discipline. France provided additional
  financial support in January 1997 after Gabon met IMF targets for
  mid-1996. In 1997, an IMF mission to Gabon criticized the government
  for overspending on off-budget items, overborrowing from the central
  bank, and slipping on its schedule for privatization and
  administrative reform. The rebound of oil prices in 1999-2000 helped
  growth, but drops in production hampered Gabon from fully realizing
  potential gains. In December 2000, Gabon signed a new agreement with
  the Paris Club to reschedule its official debt. A follow-up
  bilateral repayment agreement with the US was signed in December
  2001. Gabon signed a 14-month Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF in
  May 2004, and received Paris Club debt rescheduling later that year.
  Short-term progress depends on an upbeat world economy and fiscal
  and other adjustments in line with IMF policies.

Gambia, The
  The Gambia has no significant mineral or natural
  resource deposits and has a limited agricultural base. About 75% of
  the population depends on crops and livestock for its livelihood.
  Small-scale manufacturing activity features the processing of
  peanuts, fish, and hides. Reexport trade normally constitutes a
  major segment of economic activity, but a 1999 government-imposed
  preshipment inspection plan, and instability of the Gambian dalasi
  (currency) have drawn some of the reexport trade away from The
  Gambia. The government's 1998 seizure of the private peanut firm
  Alimenta eliminated the largest purchaser of Gambian groundnuts.
  Despite an announced program to begin privatizing key parastatals,
  no plans have been made public that would indicate that the
  government intends to follow through on its promises. Unemployment
  and underemployment rates remain extremely high; short-run economic
  progress depends on sustained bilateral and multilateral aid, on
  responsible government economic management, on continued technical
  assistance from the IMF and bilateral donors, and on expected growth
  in the construction sector.

Gaza Strip
  High population density, limited land access, and strict
  internal and external controls have kept economic conditions in the
  Gaza Strip - the smaller of the two areas under the Palestinian
  Authority (PA)- even more degraded than in the West Bank. The
  beginning of the second intifadah in September 2000 sparked an
  economic downturn, largely the result of Israeli closure policies;
  these policies, which were imposed in response to security interests
  in Israel, disrupted labor and commodity relationships with the Gaza
  Strip. In 2001, and even more severely in 2003, Israeli military
  measures in PA areas resulted in the destruction of much capital
  plant, the disruption of administrative structure, and widespread
  business closures. Including the West Bank, the UN estimates that
  more than 100,000 Palestinians out of the 125,000 who used to work
  in Israel or in joint industrial zones have lost their jobs. Half
  the labor force is unemployed. Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza
  Strip in September 2005 offers some medium-term opportunities for
  economic growth, especially given the removal of restrictions on
  internal movement. In addition, recent agreements and continuing
  negotiations on the administration of Gaza's border crossings
  increase the prospects for trade.

Georgia
  Georgia's main economic activities include the cultivation
  of agricultural products such as grapes, citrus fruits, and
  hazelnuts; mining of manganese and copper; and output of a small
  industrial sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages,
  metals, machinery, and chemicals. The country imports the bulk of
  its energy needs, including natural gas and oil products. It has
  sizeable but underdeveloped hydropower capacity. Despite the severe
  damage the economy has suffered due to civil strife, Georgia, with
  the help of the IMF and World Bank, has made substantial economic
  gains since 2000, achieving positive GDP growth and curtailing
  inflation. Georgia had suffered from a chronic failure to collect
  tax revenues; however, the new government is making progress and has
  reformed the tax code, improved tax administration, increased tax
  enforcement, and cracked down on corruption. In addition, the
  reinvigorated privatization process has met with success,
  supplementing government expenditures on infrastructure, defense,
  and poverty reduction. Despite customs and financial (tax)
  enforcement improvements, smuggling is a drain on the economy.
  Georgia also suffers from energy shortages due to aging and badly
  maintained infrastructure, as well as poor management. Due to
  concerted reform efforts, collection rates have improved
  considerably to roughly 60%, both in T'bilisi and throughout the
  regions. Continued reform in the management of state-owned power
  entities is essential to successful privatization and onward
  sustainability in this sector. The country is pinning its hopes for
  long-term growth on its role as a transit state for pipelines and
  trade. The construction on the Baku-T'bilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and
  the Baku-T'bilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline have brought much-needed
  investment and job opportunities. Nevertheless, high energy prices
  in 2006 will compound the pressure on the country's inefficient
  energy sector. Restructuring the sector and finding energy supply
  alternatives to Russia remain major challenges.

Germany
  Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy -
  the fifth largest in the world - has become one of the slowest
  growing economies in the euro zone. A quick turnaround is not in the
  offing in the foreseeable future. Growth in 2001-03 fell short of
  1%, rising to 1.7% in 2004 before falling back to 0.9% in 2005. The
  modernization and integration of the eastern German economy
  continues to be a costly long-term process, with annual transfers
  from west to east amounting to roughly $70 billion. Germany's aging
  population, combined with high unemployment, has pushed social
  security outlays to a level exceeding contributions from workers.
  Structural rigidities in the labor market - including strict
  regulations on laying off workers and the setting of wages on a
  national basis - have made unemployment a chronic problem. Corporate
  restructuring and growing capital markets are setting the
  foundations that could allow Germany to meet the long-term
  challenges of European economic integration and globalization,
  particularly if labor market rigidities are further addressed. In
  the short run, however, the fall in government revenues and the rise
  in expenditures have raised the deficit above the EU's 3% debt limit.

Ghana
  Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has roughly twice
  the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even
  so, Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and
  technical assistance. Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major
  sources of foreign exchange. The domestic economy continues to
  revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34% of
  GDP and employs 60% of the work force, mainly small landholders.
  Ghana opted for debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country
  (HIPC) program in 2002, but was included in a G-8 debt relief
  program decided upon at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005.
  Priorities under its current $38 million Poverty Reduction and
  Growth Facility (PRGF) include tighter monetary and fiscal policies,
  accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services.
  Receipts from the gold sector helped sustain GDP growth in 2005
  along with record high prices for Ghana's largest cocoa crop to
  date. Inflation should ease but remains a major internal problem.
  Ghana also remains a candidate country to benefit from Millennium
  Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding that could assist in
  transforming Ghana's agricultural export sector. A final decision on
  its MCC bid is expected in spring 2006.

Gibraltar
  Self-sufficient Gibraltar benefits from an extensive
  shipping trade, offshore banking, and its position as an
  international conference center. The British military presence has
  been sharply reduced and now contributes about 7% to the local
  economy, compared with 60% in 1984. The financial sector, tourism
  (almost 5 million visitors in 1998), shipping services fees, and
  duties on consumer goods also generate revenue. The financial
  sector, the shipping sector, and tourism each contribute 25%-30% of
  GDP. Telecommunications accounts for another 10%. In recent years,
  Gibraltar has seen major structural change from a public to a
  private sector economy, but changes in government spending still
  have a major impact on the level of employment.

Glorioso Islands
  no economic activity

Greece
  Greece has a capitalist economy with the public sector
  accounting for about 40% of GDP and with per capita GDP at least 75%
  of the leading euro-zone economies. Tourism provides 15% of GDP.
  Immigrants make up nearly one-fifth of the work force, mainly in
  menial jobs. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about
  3.3% of annual GDP. The Greek economy grew by about 4.0% for the
  between 2003 and 2005, largely because of an investment boom and
  infrastructure upgrades for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Economic
  growth slowed to about 3% in 2005. Greece has not met the EU's
  Growth and Stability Pact budget deficit criteria of 3% of GDP since
  2000. Public debt, inflation, and unemployment are above the
  euro-zone average. To overcome these challenges, the Greek
  Government is expected to continue cutting government spending,
  reducing the size of the public sector, and reforming the labor and
  pension systems.

Greenland
  The economy remains critically dependent on exports of
  fish and substantial support from the Danish Government, which
  supplies about half of government revenues. The public sector,
  including publicly-owned enterprises and the municipalities, plays
  the dominant role in the economy. Despite several interesting
  hydrocarbon and mineral exploration activities, it will take a
  number of years before production can materialize. Tourism is the
  only sector offering any near-term potential, and even this is
  limited due to a short season and high costs.

Grenada
  Grenada relies on tourism as its main source of foreign
  exchange, especially since the construction of an international
  airport in 1985. Strong performances in construction and
  manufacturing, together with the development of an offshore
  financial industry, have also contributed to growth in national
  output.

Guadeloupe
  This Caribbean economy depends on agriculture, tourism,
  light industry, and services. It also depends on France for large
  subsidies and imports. Tourism is a key industry, with most tourists
  from the US; an increasingly large number of cruise ships visit the
  islands. The traditional sugarcane crop is slowly being replaced by
  other crops, such as bananas (which now supply about 50% of export
  earnings), eggplant, and flowers. Other vegetables and root crops
  are cultivated for local consumption, although Guadeloupe is still
  dependent on imported food, mainly from France. Light industry
  features sugar and rum production. Most manufactured goods and fuel
  are imported. Unemployment is especially high among the young.
  Hurricanes periodically devastate the economy.

Guam
  The economy depends largely on US military spending and
  tourism. Total US grants, wage payments, and procurement outlays
  amounted to $1.3 billion in 2004. Over the past 30 years, the
  tourist industry has grown to become the largest income source
  following national defense. The Guam economy continues to experience
  expansion in both its tourism and military sectors.

Guatemala
  Guatemala is the largest and most populous of the Central
  American countries with a GDP per capita roughly one-half that of
  Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The agricultural sector accounts for
  about one-fourth of GDP, two-thirds of exports, and half of the
  labor force. Coffee, sugar, and bananas are the main products. The
  1996 signing of peace accords, which ended 36 years of civil war,
  removed a major obstacle to foreign investment, but widespread
  political violence and corruption scandals continue to dampen
  investor confidence. The distribution of income remains highly
  unequal with perhaps 75% of the population below the poverty line.
  Other ongoing challenges include increasing government revenues,
  negotiating further assistance from international donors, upgrading
  both government and private financial operations, curtailing drug
  trafficking, and narrowing the trade deficit.

Guernsey
  Financial services - banking, fund management, insurance -
  account for about 55% of total income in this tiny, prosperous
  Channel Island economy. Tourism, manufacturing, and horticulture,
  mainly tomatoes and cut flowers, have been declining. Light tax and
  death duties make Guernsey a popular tax haven. The evolving
  economic integration of the EU nations is changing the environment
  under which Guernsey operates.

Guinea
  Guinea possesses major mineral, hydropower, and agricultural
  resources, yet remains an underdeveloped nation. The country
  possesses almost half of the world's bauxite reserves and is the
  second-largest bauxite producer. The mining sector accounted for
  over 70% of exports in 2004. Long-run improvements in government
  fiscal arrangements, literacy, and the legal framework are needed if
  the country is to move out of poverty. Fighting along the Sierra
  Leonean and Liberian borders, as well as refugee movements, have
  caused major economic disruptions, aggravating a loss in investor
  confidence. Panic buying has created food shortages and inflation
  and caused riots in local markets. Guinea is not receiving
  multilateral aid; the IMF and World Bank cut off most assistance in
  2003. Growth rose slightly in 2005, primarily due to increases in
  global demand and commodity prices on world markets.

Guinea-Bissau
  One of the 10 poorest countries in the world,
  Guinea-Bissau depends mainly on farming and fishing. Cashew crops
  have increased remarkably in recent years, and the country now ranks
  sixth in cashew production. Guinea-Bissau exports fish and seafood
  along with small amounts of peanuts, palm kernels, and timber. Rice
  is the major crop and staple food. However, intermittent fighting
  between Senegalese-backed government troops and a military junta
  destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and caused widespread
  damage to the economy in 1998; the civil war led to a 28% drop in
  GDP that year, with partial recovery in 1999-2002. Before the war,
  trade reform and price liberalization were the most successful part
  of the country's structural adjustment program under IMF
  sponsorship. The tightening of monetary policy and the development
  of the private sector had also begun to reinvigorate the economy.
  Because of high costs, the development of petroleum, phosphate, and
  other mineral resources is not a near-term prospect. However,
  offshore oil prospecting has begun and could lead to much-needed
  revenue in the long run. The inequality of income distribution is
  one of the most extreme in the world. The government and
  international donors continue to work out plans to forward economic
  development from a lamentably low base. In December 2003, the World
  Bank, IMF, and UNDP were forced to step in to provide emergency
  budgetary support in the amount of $107 million for 2004,
  representing over 80% of the total national budget. Government drift
  and indecision, however, have resulted in continued low growth in
  2002-05.

Guyana
  The Guyanese economy exhibited moderate economic growth in
  2001-02, based on expansion in the agricultural and mining sectors,
  a more favorable atmosphere for business initiatives, a more
  realistic exchange rate, fairly low inflation, and the continued
  support of international organizations. Growth slowed in 2003 and
  came back gradually in 2004, buoyed largely by increased export
  earnings; it slowed again in 2005. Chronic problems include a
  shortage of skilled labor and a deficient infrastructure. The
  government is juggling a sizable external debt against the urgent
  need for expanded public investment. The bauxite mining sector
  should benefit in the near term from restructuring and partial
  privatization. Export earnings from agriculture and mining have
  fallen sharply, while the import bill has risen, driven by higher
  energy prices. Guyana's entrance into the Caricom Single Market and
  Economy (CSME) in January 2006 might broaden the country's export
  market, primarily in the raw materials sector.

Haiti
  In this poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the
  population lives in abject poverty. Two-thirds of all Haitians
  depend on the agriculture sector, mainly small-scale subsistence
  farming, and remain vulnerable to damage from frequent natural
  disasters, exacerbated by the country's widespread deforestation.
  The economy grew 1.5% in 2005, the highest growth rate since 1999.
  Haiti suffers from rampant inflation, a lack of investment, and a
  severe trade deficit. In early 2005, Haiti paid its arrears to the
  World Bank, paving the way for reengagement with the Bank. The
  government is reliant on formal international economic assistance
  for fiscal sustainability. Remittances are the primary source of
  foreign exchange, equaling nearly a quarter of GDP in 2005.

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  No indigenous economic activity,
  but the Australian Government allows limited fishing around the
  islands.

Holy See (Vatican City)
  This unique, noncommercial economy is
  supported financially by an annual contribution from Roman Catholic
  dioceses throughout the world (known as Peter's Pence); by the sale
  of postage stamps, coins, medals, and tourist mementos; by fees for
  admission to museums; and by the sale of publications. Investments
  and real estate income also account for a sizable portion of
  revenue. The incomes and living standards of lay workers are
  comparable to those of counterparts who work in the city of Rome.

Honduras
  Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Western
  Hemisphere with an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income
  and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade under the
  US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and on debt relief
  under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The
  country has met most of its macroeconomic targets, and began a
  three-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PGRF) program
  in February 2004. Growth remains dependent on the economy of the US,
  its largest trading partner, on continued exports of non-traditional
  agricultural products (such as melons, chiles, tilapia, and shrimp),
  and on reduction of the high crime rate.

Hong Kong
  Hong Kong has a free market, entrepot economy, highly
  dependent on international trade. Natural resources are limited, and
  food and raw materials must be imported. Gross imports and exports
  (i.e., including reexports to and from third countries) each exceed
  GDP in dollar value. Even before Hong Kong reverted to Chinese
  administration on 1 July 1997, it had extensive trade and investment
  ties with China. Hong Kong has been further integrating its economy
  with China because China's growing openness to the world economy has
  made manufacturing in China much more cost effective. Hong Kong's
  reexport business to and from China is a major driver of growth. Per
  capita GDP is comparable to that of the four big economies of
  Western Europe. GDP growth averaged a strong 5% from 1989 to 2005,
  but Hong Kong suffered two recessions in the past eight years
  because of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 and the global
  downturn in 2001-2002. Although the Severe Acute Respiratory
  Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 also battered Hong Kong's economy,
  a solid rise in exports, a boom in tourism from the mainland because
  of China's easing of travel restrictions, and a return of consumer
  confidence resulted in the resumption of strong growth from late
  2003 through 2005.

Howland Island
  no economic activity

Hungary
  Hungary has made the transition from a centrally planned to
  a market economy, with a per capita income about 60% of the EU-25
  average. Hungary continues to demonstrate strong economic growth and
  acceded to the EU in May 2004. The private sector accounts for over
  80% of GDP. Foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms
  are widespread, with cumulative foreign direct investment totaling
  more than $34 billion between 1990 and 2003. Several private sector
  analysts and sovereign ratings agencies have expressed concerns over
  Hungary's unsustainable budget and current account deficits.
  Inflation has declined from 14% in 1998 to 3.5% in 2005.
  Unemployment in 2005 rose to 7.1%, its highest point since 1999;
  Hungary's labor force participation rate of 57% is one of the lowest
  in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
  Germany is by far Hungary's largest economic partner. Policy
  challenges include cutting the public sector deficit to 3% of GDP by
  2008, from about 6.1% in 2005, and orchestrating an orderly interest
  rate reduction without sparking capital outflows.

Iceland
  Iceland's Scandinavian-type economy is basically
  capitalistic, yet with an extensive welfare system (including
  generous housing subsidies), low unemployment, and remarkably even
  distribution of income. In the absence of other natural resources
  (except for abundant geothermal power), the economy depends heavily
  on the fishing industry, which provides 70% of export earnings and
  employs 4% of the work force. The economy remains sensitive to
  declining fish stocks as well as to fluctuations in world prices for
  its main exports: fish and fish products, aluminum, and
  ferrosilicon. Government policies include reducing the current
  account deficit, limiting foreign borrowing, containing inflation,
  revising agricultural and fishing policies, and diversifying the
  economy. The government remains opposed to EU membership, primarily
  because of Icelanders' concern about losing control over their
  fishing resources. Iceland's economy has been diversifying into
  manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and new
  developments in software production, biotechnology, and financial
  services are taking place. The tourism sector is also expanding,
  with the recent trends in ecotourism and whale watching. Growth had
  been remarkably steady in 1996-2001 at 3%-5%, but could not be
  sustained in 2002 in an environment of global recession. Growth
  resumed in 2003, and estimates call for strong growth until 2007,
  slowly dropping until the end of the decade.

Iles Eparses
  no economic activity

India
  India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village
  farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern
  industries, and a multitude of services. Services are the major
  source of economic growth, accounting for half of India's output
  with less than one quarter of its labor force. About three-fifths of
  the work-force is in agriculture, leading the UPA government to
  articulate an economic reform program that includes developing basic
  infrastructure to improve the lives of the rural poor and boost
  economic performance. Government controls on foreign trade and
  investment have been reduced in some areas, but high tariffs
  (averaging 20% on non-agricultural items in 2004) and limits on
  foreign direct investment are still in place. The government in 2005
  liberalized investment in the civil aviation, telecom, and
  construction sectors. Privatization of government-owned industries
  essentially came to a halt in 2005, and continues to generate
  political debate; continued social, political, and economic
  rigidities hold back needed initiatives. The economy has posted an
  average growth rate of more than 7% in the decade since 1994,
  reducing poverty by about 10 percentage points. India achieved 7.6%
  GDP growth in 2005, significantly expanding manufacturing. India is
  capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in
  the English language to become a major exporter of software services
  and software workers. Despite strong growth, the World Bank and
  others worry about the combined state and federal budget deficit,
  running at approximately 9% of GDP; government borrowing has kept
  interest rates high. Economic deregulation would help attract
  additional foreign capital and lower interest rates. The huge and
  growing population is the fundamental social, economic, and
  environmental problem.

Indian Ocean
  The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting
  the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas.
  It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum
  products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its
  fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries
  for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia,
  Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly
  for shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped
  in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western
  Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production
  comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and
  offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering
  countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
  and Thailand.

Indonesia
  Indonesia, a vast polyglot nation, has struggled to
  overcome the Asian financial crisis, and still grapples with high
  unemployment, a fragile banking sector, endemic corruption,
  inadequate infrastructure, a poor investment climate, and unequal
  resource distribution among regions. Indonesia became a net oil
  importer in 2004 because of declining production and lack of new
  exploration investment. In late December 2004, the Indian Ocean
  tsunami took 131,000 lives with another 37,000 missing, left some
  570,000 displaced persons, and caused an estimated $4.5 billion in
  damages and losses. The cost of subsidizing domestic fuel placed
  increasing strain on the budget in 2005, and combined with
  indecisive monetary policy, contributed to a run on the currency in
  August 2005, prompting the government to enact a 126% average fuel
  price hike in October. The resulting inflation and interest rate
  hikes dampened growth prospects in 2006. However, in October 2006,
  Jakarta paid off its outstanding IMF debt, incurred during the
  1997-98 Asian financial crisis, four years ahead of schedule. Keys
  to future growth remain internal reform, building up the confidence
  of international and domestic investors, and strong global economic
  growth.

Iran
  Iran's economy is marked by a bloated, inefficient state
  sector, over reliance on the oil sector, and statist policies that
  create major distortions throughout. Most economic activity is
  controlled by the state. Private sector activity is typically
  small-scale - workshops, farming, and services. President Mahmud
  AHMADI-NEJAD has continued to follow the market reform plans of
  former President RAFSANJANI, with limited progress. Relatively high
  oil prices in recent years have enabled Iran to amass some $40
  billion in foreign exchange reserves, but have not eased economic
  hardships such as high unemployment and inflation. The proportion of
  the economy devoted to the development of weapons of mass
  destruction remains a contentious issue with leading Western nations.

Iraq
  Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has
  traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings.
  Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international
  economic sanctions, and damage from military action by an
  international coalition beginning in January 1991 drastically
  reduced economic activity. Although government policies supporting
  large military and internal security forces and allocating resources
  to key supporters of the regime hurt the economy, implementation of
  the UN's oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996, helped
  improve conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. Iraq was allowed
  to export limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and
  some infrastructure spare parts. In December 1999, the UN Security
  Council authorized Iraq to export under the program as much oil as
  required to meet humanitarian needs. Per capita food imports
  increased significantly, while medical supplies and health care
  services steadily improved. Per capita output and living standards
  were still well below the pre-1991 level, but any estimates have a
  wide range of error. The military victory of the US-led coalition in
  March-April 2003 resulted in the shutdown of much of the central
  economic administrative structure. Although a comparatively small
  amount of capital plant was damaged during the hostilities, looting,
  insurgent attacks, and sabotage have undermined efforts to rebuild
  the economy. Attacks on key economic facilities - especially oil
  pipelines and infrastructure - have prevented Iraq from reaching
  projected export volumes, but total government revenues have been
  higher than anticipated due to high oil prices. Despite political
  uncertainty, Iraq has established the institutions needed to
  implement economic policy, has successfully concluded a three-stage
  debt reduction agreement with the Paris Club, and is working toward
  a Standby Arrangement with the IMF. The Standby Arrangement would
  clear the way for continued debt relief from the Paris Club.

Ireland
  Ireland is a small, modern, trade-dependent economy with
  growth averaging a robust 7% in 1995-2004. Agriculture, once the
  most important sector, is now dwarfed by industry and services.
  Industry accounts for 46% of GDP, about 80% of exports, and 29% of
  the labor force. Although exports remain the primary engine for
  Ireland's growth, the economy has also benefited from a rise in
  consumer spending, construction, and business investment. Per capita
  GDP is 10% above that of the four big European economies and the
  second highest in the EU behind Luxembourg. Over the past decade,
  the Irish Government has implemented a series of national economic
  programs designed to curb price and wage inflation, reduce
  government spending, increase labor force skills, and promote
  foreign investment. Ireland joined in circulating the euro on 1
  January 2002 along with 11 other EU nations.

Isle of Man
  Offshore banking, manufacturing, and tourism are key
  sectors of the economy. The government offers incentives to
  high-technology companies and financial institutions to locate on
  the island; this has paid off in expanding employment opportunities
  in high-income industries. As a result, agriculture and fishing,
  once the mainstays of the economy, have declined in their shares of
  GDP. Trade is mostly with the UK. The Isle of Man enjoys free access
  to EU markets.

Israel
  Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with
  substantial government participation. It depends on imports of crude
  oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited
  natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural
  and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports
  substantial quantities of grain, but is largely self-sufficient in
  other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology
  equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the
  leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable current account
  deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad
  and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt
  is owed to the US, which is its major source of economic and
  military aid. The bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict; difficulties
  in the high-technology, construction, and tourist sectors; and
  fiscal austerity in the face of growing inflation led to small
  declines in GDP in 2001 and 2002. The economy rebounded in 2003 and
  2004, growing at a 4% rate each year, as the government tightened
  fiscal policy and implemented structural reforms to boost
  competition and efficiency in the markets. In 2005, rising consumer
  confidence, tourism, and foreign direct investment - as well as
  higher demand for Israeli exports - boosted GDP by 4.7%.

Italy
  Italy has a diversified industrial economy with roughly the
  same total and per capita output as France and the UK. This
  capitalistic economy remains divided into a developed industrial
  north, dominated by private companies, and a less-developed,
  welfare-dependent, agricultural south, with 20% unemployment. Most
  raw materials needed by industry and more than 75% of energy
  requirements are imported. Over the past decade, Italy has pursued a
  tight fiscal policy in order to meet the requirements of the
  Economic and Monetary Unions and has benefited from lower interest
  and inflation rates. The current government has enacted numerous
  short-term reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and long-term
  growth. Italy has moved slowly, however, on implementing needed
  structural reforms, such as lightening the high tax burden and
  overhauling Italy's rigid labor market and over-generous pension
  system, because of the current economic slowdown and opposition from
  labor unions. But the leadership faces a severe economic constraint:
  the budget deficit has breached the 3% EU ceiling. The economy
  experienced almost no growth in 2005, and unemployment remained at a
  high level.

Jamaica
  The Jamaican economy is heavily dependent on services, which
  now account for 60% of GDP. The country continues to derive most of
  its foreign exchange from remittances, tourism, and bauxite/alumina.
  The global economic slowdown, particularly after the terrorist
  attacks in the US on 11 September 2001, stunted economic growth; the
  economy rebounded moderately in 2003-04, with brisk tourist seasons.
  But the economy faces serious long-term problems: high interest
  rates, increased foreign competition, exchange rate instability, a
  sizable merchandise trade deficit, large-scale unemployment and
  underemployment, and a growing stock of internal debt - the result
  of government bailouts to ailing sectors of the economy, most
  notably the financial sector in the mid-1990s. The ratio of debt to
  GDP is 135%. Inflation, previously a bright spot, is expected to
  remain in the double digits. Uncertain economic conditions have led
  to increased civil unrest, including gang violence fueled by the
  drug trade. In 2004, the government faced the difficult prospect of
  having to achieve fiscal discipline in order to maintain debt
  payments while simultaneously attacking a serious and growing crime
  problem that is hampering economic growth. Attempts at deficit
  control were derailed by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, which
  required substantial government spending to repair the damage.
  Despite the hurricane, tourism looks set to enjoy solid growth for
  the foreseeable future.

Jan Mayen
  Jan Mayen is a volcanic island with no exploitable natural
  resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for
  employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations on the
  island.

Japan
  Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery
  of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1%
  of GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank
  of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after
  the US and the third-largest economy in the world after the US and
  China, measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. One
  notable characteristic of the economy is how manufacturers,
  suppliers, and distributors work together in closely-knit groups
  called keiretsu. A second basic feature has been the guarantee of
  lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labor
  force. Both features are now eroding. Japan's industrial sector is
  heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. The tiny
  agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop
  yields among the highest in the world. Usually self sufficient in
  rice, Japan must import about 60% of its food on a caloric basis.
  Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and
  accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades,
  overall real economic growth had been spectacular - a 10% average in
  the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s.
  Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s, averaging just 1.7%, largely
  because of the after effects of overinvestment during the late 1980s
  and contractionary domestic policies intended to wring speculative
  excesses from the stock and real estate markets and to force a
  restructuring of the economy. From 2000 to 2003, government efforts
  to revive economic growth met with little success and were further
  hampered by the slowing of the US, European, and Asian economies. In
  2004 and 2005, growth improved and the lingering fears of deflation
  in prices and economic activity lessened. Japan's huge government
  debt, which totals 170% of GDP, and the aging of the population are
  two major long-run problems. Some fear that a rise in taxes could
  endanger the current economic recovery. Internal conflict over the
  proper way to reform the financial system will continue as Japan
  Post's banking, insurance, and delivery services undergo
  privatization between 2007 and 2017.

Jarvis Island
  no economic activity

Jersey
  Jersey's economy is based on international financial
  services, agriculture, and tourism. In 1996, the finance sector
  accounted for about 60% of the island's output. Potatoes,
  cauliflower, tomatoes, and especially flowers are important export
  crops, shipped mostly to the UK. The Jersey breed of dairy cattle is
  known worldwide and represents an important export income earner.
  Milk products go to the UK and other EU countries. Tourism accounts
  for 24% of GDP. In recent years, the government has encouraged light
  industry to locate in Jersey, with the result that an electronics
  industry has developed alongside the traditional manufacturing of
  knitwear. All raw material and energy requirements are imported, as
  well as a large share of Jersey's food needs. Light taxes and death
  duties make the island a popular tax haven. Living standards come
  close to those of the UK.

Johnston Atoll
  no economic activity

Jordan
  Jordan is a small Arab country with inadequate supplies of
  water and other natural resources such as oil. Debt, poverty, and
  unemployment are fundamental problems, but King ABDALLAH, since
  assuming the throne in 1999, has undertaken some broad economic
  reforms in a long-term effort to improve living standards. 'Amman in
  the past three years has worked closely with the IMF, practiced
  careful monetary policy, and made substantial headway with
  privatization. The government also has liberalized the trade regime
  sufficiently to secure Jordan's membership in the WTO (2000), a free
  trade accord with the US (2001), and an association agreement with
  the EU (2001). These measures have helped improve productivity and
  have put Jordan on the foreign investment map. Jordan imported most
  of its oil from Iraq, but the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 made Jordan
  more dependent on oil from other Gulf nations, forcing the Jordanian
  Government to raise retail petroleum product prices and the sales
  tax base. Jordan's export market, which is heavily dependent on
  exports to Iraq, was also affected by the war but recovered quickly
  while contributing to the Iraq recovery effort. The main challenges
  facing Jordan are reducing dependence on foreign grants, reducing
  the budget deficit, and creating investment incentives to promote
  job creation.

Juan de Nova Island
  Up to 12,000 tons of guano are mined per year.

Kazakhstan
  Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in
  territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves
  and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a
  large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain.
  Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and
  processing of these natural resources and also on a growing
  machine-building sector specializing in construction equipment,
  tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The
  breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for
  Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a
  short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual
  decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government
  program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in
  a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan
  enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 9% or more per year in
  2002-05 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to
  economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. The opening
  of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western
  Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised
  export capacity. Kazakhstan also has begun work on an ambitious
  cooperative construction effort with China to build an oil pipeline
  that will extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the
  Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy
  designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the
  oil sector by developing light industry. The policy aims to reduce
  the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The
  government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil
  companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions
  continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2005
  due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows.

Kenya
  The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya
  has been hampered by corruption and by reliance upon several primary
  goods whose prices have remained low. In 1997, the IMF suspended
  Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program due to the
  government's failure to maintain reforms and curb corruption. A
  severe drought from 1999 to 2000 compounded Kenya's problems,
  causing water and energy rationing and reducing agricultural output.
  As a result, GDP contracted by 0.2% in 2000. The IMF, which had
  resumed loans in 2000 to help Kenya through the drought, again
  halted lending in 2001 when the government failed to institute
  several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of strong rains
  in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and low
  investment limited Kenya's economic growth to 1.2%. Growth lagged at
  1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor confidence,
  meager donor support, and political infighting up to the elections.
  In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's 24-year-old
  reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable
  economic problems facing the nation. In 2003, progress was made in
  rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support. GDP grew more
  than 5% in 2005.

Kingman Reef
  no economic activity

Kiribati
  A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls, Kiribati has
  few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were
  exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in 1979. Copra and
  fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. The economy
  has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic development is
  constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure,
  and remoteness from international markets. Tourism provides more
  than one-fifth of GDP. The financial sector is at an early stage of
  development as is the expansion of private sector initiatives.
  Foreign financial aid from UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and
  China equals about 20% of GDP. Remittances from seamen on merchant
  ships abroad account for more than $5 million each year. Kiribati
  receives around $15 million annually for the government budget from
  an Australian trust fund.

Korea, North
  North Korea, one of the world's most centrally planned
  and isolated economies, faces desperate economic conditions.
  Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of
  years of underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Industrial
  and power output have declined in parallel. Despite an increased
  harvest in 2005 because of more stable weather conditions,
  fertilizer assistance from South Korea, and an extraordinary
  mobilization of the population to help with agricultural production,
  the nation has suffered its 11th year of food shortages because of
  on-going systemic problems, including a lack of arable land,
  collective farming practices, and chronic shortages of tractors and
  fuel. Massive international food aid deliveries have allowed the
  people of North Korea to escape mass starvation since famine
  threatened in 1995, but the population continues to suffer from
  prolonged malnutrition and poor living conditions. Large-scale
  military spending eats up resources needed for investment and
  civilian consumption. In 2004, the regime formalized an arrangement
  whereby private "farmers markets" were allowed to begin selling a
  wider range of goods. It also permitted some private farming on an
  experimental basis in an effort to boost agricultural output. In
  October 2005, the regime reversed some of these policies by
  forbidding private sales of grains and reinstituting a centralized
  food rationing system. In December 2005, the regime confirmed that
  it intended to carry out earlier threats to terminate all
  international humanitarian assistance operations in the DPRK
  (calling instead for developmental assistance only) and to restrict
  the activities of international and non-governmental aid
  organizations such as the World Food Program. Firm political control
  remains the Communist government's overriding concern, which will
  likely inhibit the loosening of economic regulations.

Korea, South
  Since the early 1960s, South Korea has achieved an
  incredible record of growth and integration into the high-tech
  modern world economy. Four decades ago, GDP per capita was
  comparable with levels in the poorer countries of Africa and Asia.
  In 2004, South Korea joined the trillion dollar club of world
  economies. Today its GDP per capita is equal to the lesser economies
  of the EU. This success through the late 1980s was achieved by a
  system of close government/business ties, including directed credit,
  import restrictions, sponsorship of specific industries, and a
  strong labor effort. The government promoted the import of raw
  materials and technology at the expense of consumer goods and
  encouraged savings and investment over consumption. The Asian
  financial crisis of 1997-99 exposed longstanding weaknesses in South
  Korea's development model, including high debt/equity ratios,
  massive foreign borrowing, and an undisciplined financial sector.
  GDP plunged by 6.9% in 1998, then recovered 9.5% in 1999 and 8.5% in
  2000. Growth fell back to 3.3% in 2001 because of the slowing global
  economy, falling exports, and the perception that much-needed
  corporate and financial reforms had stalled. Led by consumer
  spending and exports, growth in 2002 was an impressive 7%, despite
  anemic global growth. Between 2003 and 2005, growth moderated to
  about 4%. A downturn in consumer spending was offset by rapid export
  growth. In 2005, the government proposed labor reform legislation
  and a corporate pension scheme to help make the labor market more
  flexible, and new real estate policies to cool property speculation.
  Moderate inflation, low unemployment, an export surplus, and fairly
  equal distribution of income characterize this solid economy.

Kuwait
  Kuwait is a small, rich, relatively open economy with
  self-reported crude oil reserves of about 96 billion barrels - 10%
  of world reserves. Petroleum accounts for nearly half of GDP, 95% of
  export revenues, and 80% of government income. Kuwait's climate
  limits agricultural development. Consequently, with the exception of
  fish, it depends almost wholly on food imports. About 75% of potable
  water must be distilled or imported. Kuwait continues its
  discussions with foreign oil companies to develop fields in the
  northern part of the country.

Kyrgyzstan
  Kyrgyzstan is a poor, mountainous country with a
  predominantly agricultural economy. Cotton, tobacco, wool, and meat
  are the main agricultural products, although only tobacco and cotton
  are exported in any quantity. Industrial exports include gold,
  mercury, uranium, natural gas, and electricity. Kyrgyzstan has been
  progressive in carrying out market reforms, such as an improved
  regulatory system and land reform. Kyrgyzstan was the first CIS
  country to be accepted into the World Trade Organization. Much of
  the government's stock in enterprises has been sold. Drops in
  production had been severe after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
  December 1991, but by mid-1995, production began to recover and
  exports began to increase. Kyrgyzstan has distinguished itself by
  adopting relatively liberal economic policies. The drop in output at
  the Kumtor gold mine sparked a 0.5% decline in GDP in 2002, but GDP
  growth bounced back in 2003-05. The government has made steady
  strides in controlling its substantial fiscal deficit and reduced
  the deficit to 1% of GDP in 2005. The government and international
  financial institutions have been engaged in a comprehensive
  medium-term poverty reduction and economic growth strategy, and in
  2005 agreed to pursue much-needed tax reform. Progress fighting
  corruption, further restructuring of domestic industry, and success
  in attracting foreign investment are keys to future growth.

Laos
  The government of Laos, one of the few remaining official
  Communist states, began decentralizing control and encouraging
  private enterprise in 1986. The results, starting from an extremely
  low base, were striking - growth averaged 6% in 1988-2004 except
  during the short-lived drop caused by the Asian financial crisis
  beginning in 1997. Despite this high growth rate, Laos remains a
  country with a primitive infrastructure. It has no railroads, a
  rudimentary road system, and limited external and internal
  telecommunications, though the government is sponsoring major
  improvements in the road system with possible support from Japan.
  Electricity is available in only a few urban areas. Subsistence
  agriculture, dominated by rice, accounts for about half of GDP and
  provides 80% of total employment. The economy will continue to
  benefit from aid by the IMF and other international sources and from
  new foreign investment in food processing and mining. Construction
  will be another strong economic driver, especially as hydroelectric
  dam and road projects gain steam. In late 2004, Laos gained Normal
  Trade Relations status with the US, allowing Laos-based producers to
  face lower tariffs on exports. This new status may help spur growth.
  In addition, the European Union has agreed to provide $1 million to
  the Lao Government for technical assistance in preparations for WTO
  membership. If the avian flu worsens and spreads in the region,
  however, prospects for tourism could dim.

Latvia
  Latvia's transitional economy recovered from the 1998 Russian
  financial crisis, largely due to the government's budget stringency
  and a gradual reorientation of exports toward EU countries,
  lessening Latvia's trade dependency on Russia. The majority of
  companies, banks, and real estate have been privatized, although the
  state still holds sizable stakes in a few large enterprises. Latvia
  officially joined the World Trade Organization in February 1999. EU
  membership, a top foreign policy goal, came in May 2004. The current
  account deficit - 11.5% of GDP in 2005 - remains a major concern. A
  growing perception that many of Latvia's banks facilitate illicit
  activity could damage the country's vibrant financial sector.

Lebanon
  The 1975-91 civil war seriously damaged Lebanon's economic
  infrastructure, cut national output by half, and all but ended
  Lebanon's position as a Middle Eastern entrepot and banking hub. In
  the years since, Lebanon has rebuilt much of its war-torn physical
  and financial infrastructure by borrowing heavily - mostly from
  domestic banks. In an attempt to reduce the ballooning national
  debt, the Rafiq HARIRI government began an austerity program,
  reining in government expenditures, increasing revenue collection,
  and privatizing state enterprises. In November 2002, the government
  met with international donors at the Paris II conference to seek
  bilateral assistance in restructuring its massive domestic debt at
  lower interest rates. Substantial receipts from donor nations
  stabilized government finances in 2003, but did little to reduce the
  debt, which stands at nearly 170% of GDP. In 2004 the HARIRI
  government issued Eurobonds in an effort to manage maturing debt.
  The downturn in economic activity that followed the assassination of
  Rafiq al-HARIRI has eased, but has yet to be reversed. Tourism
  remains below the level of 2004. The new Prime Minister, Fuad
  SINIORA, has pledged to push ahead with economic reform, including
  privatization and more efficient government. The Core Group of
  nations has announced plans to hold a Donor's Conference in early
  2006 to assist the government of Lebanon in restructuring its debt
  and increasing foreign investment.

Lesotho
  Small, landlocked, and mountainous, Lesotho relies on
  remittances from miners employed in South Africa and customs duties
  from the Southern Africa Customs Union for the majority of
  government revenue. However, the government has recently
  strengthened its tax system to reduce dependency on customs duties.
  Completion of a major hydropower facility in January 1998 now
  permits the sale of water to South Africa, also generating royalties
  for Lesotho. As the number of mineworkers has declined steadily over
  the past several years, a small manufacturing base has developed
  based on farm products that support the milling, canning, leather,
  and jute industries, as well as a rapidly expanding apparel-assembly
  sector. The latter has grown significantly, mainly due to Lesotho
  qualifying for the trade benefits contained in the Africa Growth and
  Opportunity Act. The economy is still primarily based on subsistence
  agriculture, especially livestock, although drought has decreased
  agricultural activity. The extreme inequality in the distribution of
  income remains a major drawback. Lesotho has signed an Interim
  Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility with the IMF.

Liberia
  Civil war and government mismanagement have destroyed much
  of Liberia's economy, especially the infrastructure in and around
  Monrovia, while continued international sanctions on diamonds and
  timber exports will limit growth prospects for the foreseeable
  future. Many businessmen have fled the country, taking capital and
  expertise with them. Some have returned, but many will not. Richly
  endowed with water, mineral resources, forests, and a climate
  favorable to agriculture, Liberia had been a producer and exporter
  of basic products - primarily raw timber and rubber. Local
  manufacturing, mainly foreign owned, had been small in scope. The
  departure of the former president, Charles TAYLOR, to Nigeria in
  August 2003, the establishment of the all-inclusive Transitional
  Government, and the arrival of a UN mission have helped defuse the
  political crisis, but have done little to encourage economic
  development. Wealthy international donors, who are ready to assist
  reconstruction efforts, are withholding funding until Liberia's
  National Assembly signs onto a Governance and Economic Management
  Action Plan (GEMAP). The Plan was created in October 2005 by the
  International Contact Group for Liberia to help ensure transparent
  revenue collection and allocation - something that was lacking under
  the Transitional Government and that has limited Liberia's economic
  recovery. The reconstruction of infrastructure and the raising of
  incomes in this ravaged economy will largely depend on generous
  financial support and technical assistance from donor countries.

Libya
  The Libyan economy depends primarily upon revenues from the
  oil sector, which contribute about 95% of export earnings, about
  one-quarter of GDP, and 60% of public sector wages. Substantial
  revenues from the energy sector coupled with a small population give
  Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, but little of
  this income flows down to the lower orders of society. Libyan
  officials in the past four years have made progress on economic
  reforms as part of a broader campaign to reintegrate the country
  into the international fold. This effort picked up steam after UN
  sanctions were lifted in September 2003 and as Libya announced that
  it would abandon programs to build weapons of mass destruction in
  December 2003. Almost all US unilateral sanctions against Libya were
  removed in April 2004, helping Libya attract more foreign direct
  investment, mostly in the energy sector. Libya faces a long road
  ahead in liberalizing the socialist-oriented economy, but initial
  steps - including applying for WTO membership, reducing some
  subsidies, and announcing plans for privatization - are laying the
  groundwork for a transition to a more market-based economy. The
  non-oil manufacturing and construction sectors, which account for
  about 20% of GDP, have expanded from processing mostly agricultural
  products to include the production of petrochemicals, iron, steel,
  and aluminum. Climatic conditions and poor soils severely limit
  agricultural output, and Libya imports about 75% of its food.

Liechtenstein
  Despite its small size and limited natural resources,
  Liechtenstein has developed into a prosperous, highly
  industrialized, free-enterprise economy with a vital financial
  service sector and living standards on a par with its large European
  neighbors. The Liechtenstein economy is widely diversified with a
  large number of small businesses. Low business taxes - the maximum
  tax rate is 20% - and easy incorporation rules have induced many
  holding or so-called letter box companies to establish nominal
  offices in Liechtenstein, providing 30% of state revenues. The
  country participates in a customs union with Switzerland and uses
  the Swiss franc as its national currency. It imports more than 90%
  of its energy requirements. Liechtenstein has been a member of the
  European Economic Area (an organization serving as a bridge between
  the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the EU) since May
  1995. The government is working to harmonize its economic policies
  with those of an integrated Europe.

Lithuania
  Lithuania, the Baltic state that has conducted the most
  trade with Russia, has slowly rebounded from the 1998 Russian
  financial crisis. Unemployment dropped from 11% in 2003 to about 8%
  in 2005. Growing domestic consumption and increased investment have
  furthered recovery. Trade has been increasingly oriented toward the
  West. Lithuania has gained membership in the World Trade
  Organization and joined the EU in May 2004. Privatization of the
  large, state-owned utilities, particularly in the energy sector, is
  nearing completion. Overall, more than 80% of enterprises have been
  privatized. Foreign government and business support have helped in
  the transition from the old command economy to a market economy.

Luxembourg
  This stable, high-income economy - benefitting from its
  proximity to France, Belgium, and Germany - features solid growth,
  low inflation, and low unemployment. The industrial sector,
  initially dominated by steel, has become increasingly diversified to
  include chemicals, rubber, and other products. Growth in the
  financial sector, which now accounts for about 28% of GDP, has more
  than compensated for the decline in steel. Most banks are
  foreign-owned and have extensive foreign dealings. Agriculture is
  based on small family-owned farms. The economy depends on foreign
  and cross-border workers for more than 30% of its labor force.
  Although Luxembourg, like all EU members, has suffered from the
  global economic slump, the country enjoys an extraordinarily high
  standard of living - GDP per capita ranks first in the world.

Macau
  Macau's well-to-do economy has remained one of the most open
  in the world since its reversion to China in 1999. Apparel exports
  and tourism are mainstays of the economy. Although the territory was
  hit hard by the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the global
  downturn in 2001, its economy grew 10.1% in 2002, 14.2% in 2003, and
  28.6% in 2004. During the first three quarters of 2005, Macau
  registered year-on-year GDP increases of 6.2%. A rapid rise in the
  number of mainland visitors because of China's easing of travel
  restrictions, increased public works expenditures, and significant
  investment inflows associated with the liberalization of Macau's
  gaming industry drove the four-year recovery. The budget also
  returned to surplus since 2002 because of the surge in visitors from
  China and a hike in taxes on gambling profits, which generated about
  70% of government revenue. The three companies awarded gambling
  licenses have pledged to invest $2.2 billion in the territory, which
  will boost GDP growth. Much of Macau's textile industry may move to
  the mainland as the Multi-Fiber Agreement is phased out. The
  territory may have to rely more on gambling and trade-related
  services to generate growth. Two new casinos were opened by new
  foreign gambling licensees in 2004; development of new
  infrastructure and facilities in preparation for Macau's hosting of
  the 2005 East Asian Games led the construction sector. The Closer
  Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Macau and mainland
  China that came into effect on 1 January 2004 offers many Macau-made
  products tariff-free access to the mainland, and the range of
  products covered by CEPA was expanded on 1 January 2005.

Macedonia
  At independence in September 1991, Macedonia was the least
  developed of the Yugoslav republics, producing a mere 5% of the
  total federal output of goods and services. The collapse of
  Yugoslavia ended transfer payments from the central government and
  eliminated advantages from inclusion in a de facto free trade area.
  An absence of infrastructure, UN sanctions on the downsized
  Yugoslavia, one of its largest markets, and a Greek economic embargo
  over a dispute about the country's constitutional name and flag
  hindered economic growth until 1996. GDP subsequently rose each year
  through 2000. However, the leadership's commitment to economic
  reform, free trade, and regional integration was undermined by the
  ethnic Albanian insurgency of 2001. The economy shrank 4.5% because
  of decreased trade, intermittent border closures, increased deficit
  spending on security needs, and investor uncertainty. Growth barely
  recovered in 2002 to 0.9%, then rose by 3.4% in 2003, 4.1% in 2004,
  and 3.7% in 2005. Macedonia has maintained macroeconomic stability
  with low inflation, but it has lagged the region in attracting
  foreign investment and job growth has been anemic. Macedonia has an
  extensive grey market, estimated to be more than 20 percent of GDP,
  that falls outside official statistics.

Madagascar
  Having discarded past socialist economic policies,
  Madagascar has since the mid 1990s followed a World Bank- and
  IMF-led policy of privatization and liberalization. This strategy
  placed the country on a slow and steady growth path from an
  extremely low level. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is
  a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-fourth of
  GDP and employing 80% of the population. Exports of apparel have
  boomed in recent years primarily due to duty-free access to the
  United States. Deforestation and erosion, aggravated by the use of
  firewood as the primary source of fuel, are serious concerns.
  President RAVALOMANANA has worked aggressively to revive the economy
  following the 2002 political crisis, which triggered a 12% drop in
  GDP that year. Poverty reduction and combating corruption will be
  the centerpieces of economic policy for the next few years.

Malawi
  Landlocked Malawi ranks among the world's least developed
  countries. The economy is predominately agricultural, with about 90%
  of the population living in rural areas. Agriculture accounted for
  nearly 36% of GDP and 80% of export revenues in 2005. The
  performance of the tobacco sector is key to short-term growth as
  tobacco accounts for over 60% of exports. The economy depends on
  substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World
  Bank, and individual donor nations. In late 2000, Malawi was
  approved for relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
  program. The government faces strong challenges, including
  developing a market economy, improving educational facilities,
  facing up to environmental problems, dealing with the rapidly
  growing problem of HIV/AIDS, and satisfying foreign donors that
  fiscal discipline is being tightened. In 2005, President MUTHARIKA
  championed an anticorruption campaign. Malawi's recent fiscal policy
  performance has been very strong, but a serious drought in 2005 and
  2006 will heighten pressure on the government to increase spending.

Malaysia
  Malaysia, a middle-income country, transformed itself from
  1971 through the late 1990s from a producer of raw materials into an
  emerging multi-sector economy. Growth was almost exclusively driven
  by exports - particularly of electronics. As a result, Malaysia was
  hard hit by the global economic downturn and the slump in the
  information technology (IT) sector in 2001 and 2002. GDP in 2001
  grew only 0.5% because of an estimated 11% contraction in exports,
  but a substantial fiscal stimulus package equal to US $1.9 billion
  mitigated the worst of the recession, and the economy rebounded in
  2002 with a 4.1% increase. The economy grew 4.9% in 2003,
  notwithstanding a difficult first half, when external pressures from
  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Iraq War led to
  caution in the business community. Growth topped 7% in 2004 and 5%
  in 2005. As an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia has profited from
  higher world energy prices, although the cost of government
  subsidies for domestic gasoline and diesel fuel has risen and offset
  some of the benefit. Malaysia "unpegged" the ringgit from the US
  dollar in 2005, but so far there has been little movement in the
  exchange rate. Healthy foreign exchange reserves, low inflation, and
  a small external debt are all strengths that make it unlikely that
  Malaysia will experience a financial crisis over the near term
  similar to the one in 1997. The economy remains dependent on
  continued growth in the US, China, and Japan - top export
  destinations and key sources of foreign investment.

Maldives
  Tourism, Maldives' largest industry, accounts for 20% of
  GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts.
  Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and
  tourism-related taxes. Fishing is a second leading sector. The
  Maldivian Government began an economic reform program in 1989
  initially by lifting import quotas and opening some exports to the
  private sector. Subsequently, it has liberalized regulations to
  allow more foreign investment. Agriculture and manufacturing
  continue to play a lesser role in the economy, constrained by the
  limited availability of cultivable land and the shortage of domestic
  labor. Most staple foods must be imported. Industry, which consists
  mainly of garment production, boat building, and handicrafts,
  accounts for about 18% of GDP. Maldivian authorities worry about the
  impact of erosion and possible global warming on their low-lying
  country; 80% of the area is one meter or less above sea level. In
  late December 2004, a major tsunami left more than 100 dead, 12,000
  displaced, and property damage exceeding $300 million. Over the past
  decade, real GDP growth averaged over 7.5% per year. As a result of
  the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 5.5% in 2005.

Mali
  Mali is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of
  its land area desert or semidesert and with a highly unequal
  distribution of income. Economic activity is largely confined to the
  riverine area irrigated by the Niger. About 10% of the population is
  nomadic and some 80% of the labor force is engaged in farming and
  fishing. Industrial activity is concentrated on processing farm
  commodities. Mali is heavily dependent on foreign aid and vulnerable
  to fluctuations in world prices for cotton, its main export, along
  with gold. The government has continued its successful
  implementation of an IMF-recommended structural adjustment program
  that is helping the economy grow, diversify, and attract foreign
  investment. Mali's adherence to economic reform and the 50%
  devaluation of the CFA franc in January 1994 have pushed up economic
  growth to a sturdy 5% average in 1996-2005. Worker remittances and
  external trade routes for the landlocked country have been
  jeopardized by continued unrest in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire.

Malta
  Major resources are limestone, a favorable geographic
  location, and a productive labor force. Malta produces only about
  20% of its food needs, has limited fresh water supplies, and has few
  domestic energy sources. The economy is dependent on foreign trade,
  manufacturing (especially electronics and textiles), and tourism.
  Continued sluggishness in the European economy is holding back
  exports, tourism, and overall growth.

Marshall Islands
  US Government assistance is the mainstay of this
  tiny island economy. Agricultural production, primarily subsistence,
  is concentrated on small farms; the most important commercial crops
  are coconuts and breadfruit. Small-scale industry is limited to
  handicrafts, tuna processing, and copra. The tourist industry, now a
  small source of foreign exchange employing less than 10% of the
  labor force, remains the best hope for future added income. The
  islands have few natural resources, and imports far exceed exports.
  Under the terms of the Amended Compact of Free Association, the US
  will provide millions of dollars per year to the Marshall Islands
  (RMI) through 2023, at which time a Trust Fund made up of US and RMI
  contributions will begin perpetual annual payouts. Government
  downsizing, drought, a drop in construction, the decline in tourism
  and foreign investment due to the Asian financial difficulties, and
  less income from the renewal of fishing vessel licenses have held
  GDP growth to an average of 1% over the past decade.

Martinique
  The economy is based on sugarcane, bananas, tourism, and
  light industry. Agriculture accounts for about 6% of GDP and the
  small industrial sector for 11%. Sugar production has declined, with
  most of the sugarcane now used for the production of rum. Banana
  exports are increasing, going mostly to France. The bulk of meat,
  vegetable, and grain requirements must be imported, contributing to
  a chronic trade deficit that requires large annual transfers of aid
  from France. Tourism, which employs more than 11,000 people, has
  become more important than agricultural exports as a source of
  foreign exchange.

Mauritania
  Half the population still depends on agriculture and
  livestock for a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and
  subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent
  droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. Mauritania has extensive deposits
  of iron ore, which account for nearly 40% of total exports. The
  decline in world demand for this ore, however, has led to cutbacks
  in production. The nation's coastal waters are among the richest
  fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners
  threatens this key source of revenue. The country's first deepwater
  port opened near Nouakchott in 1986. In the past, drought and
  economic mismanagement resulted in a buildup of foreign debt which
  now stands at more than three times the level of annual exports. In
  February 2000, Mauritania qualified for debt relief under the
  Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and in December
  2001 received strong support from donor and lending countries at a
  triennial Consultative Group review. A new investment code approved
  in December 2001 improved the opportunities for direct foreign
  investment. Ongoing negotiations with the IMF involve problems of
  economic reforms and fiscal discipline. In 2001, exploratory oil
  wells in tracts 80 km offshore indicated potential extraction at
  current world oil prices. Mauritania has an estimated 1 billion
  barrels of proved reserves. Substantial oil production and exports
  are scheduled to begin in early 2006 and may average 75,000 barrels
  per day for that year. Meantime the government emphasizes reduction
  of poverty, improvement of health and education, and promoting
  privatization of the economy.

Mauritius
  Since independence in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a
  low-income, agriculturally based economy to a middle-income
  diversified economy with growing industrial, financial, and tourist
  sectors. For most of the period, annual growth has been in the order
  of 5% to 6%. This remarkable achievement has been reflected in more
  equitable income distribution, increased life expectancy, lowered
  infant mortality, and a much-improved infrastructure. Sugarcane is
  grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25%
  of export earnings. The government's development strategy centers on
  expanding local financial institutions and building a domestic
  information telecommunications industry. Mauritius has attracted
  more than 9,000 offshore entities, many aimed at commerce in India
  and South Africa, and investment in the banking sector alone has
  reached over $1 billion. Mauritius, with its strong textile sector,
  has been well poised to take advantage of the Africa Growth and
  Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Mayotte
  Economic activity is based primarily on the agricultural
  sector, including fishing and livestock raising. Mayotte is not
  self-sufficient and must import a large portion of its food
  requirements, mainly from France. The economy and future development
  of the island are heavily dependent on French financial assistance,
  an important supplement to GDP. Mayotte's remote location is an
  obstacle to the development of tourism.

Mexico
  Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the
  trillion dollar class. It contains a mixture of modern and outmoded
  industry and agriculture, increasingly dominated by the private
  sector. Recent administrations have expanded competition in
  seaports, railroads, telecommunications, electricity generation,
  natural gas distribution, and airports. Per capita income is
  one-fourth that of the US; income distribution remains highly
  unequal. Trade with the US and Canada has tripled since the
  implementation of NAFTA in 1994. Mexico has 12 free trade agreements
  with over 40 countries including, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador,
  the European Free Trade Area, and Japan, putting more than 90% of
  trade under free trade agreements. The FOX administration is
  cognizant of the need to upgrade infrastructure, modernize the tax
  system and labor laws, and allow private investment in the energy
  sector, but has been unable to win the support of the opposition-led
  Congress. The next government that takes office in December 2006
  will confront the same challenges of boosting economic growth,
  improving Mexico's international competitiveness, and reducing
  poverty.

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Economic activity consists primarily
  of subsistence farming and fishing. The islands have few mineral
  deposits worth exploiting, except for high-grade phosphate. The
  potential for a tourist industry exists, but the remote location, a
  lack of adequate facilities, and limited air connections hinder
  development. The Amended Compact of Free Association with the US
  guarantees the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) millions of
  dollars in annual aid through 2023, and establishes a Trust Fund
  into which the US and the FSM make annual contributions in order to
  provide annual payouts to the FSM in perpetuity after 2023. The
  country's medium-term economic outlook appears fragile due not only
  to the reduction in US assistance but also to the slow growth of the
  private sector.

Midway Islands
  The economy is based on providing support services
  for the national wildlife refuge activities located on the islands.
  All food and manufactured goods must be imported.

Moldova
  Moldova remains one of the poorest countries in Europe
  despite recent progress from its small economic base. It enjoys a
  favorable climate and good farmland but has no major mineral
  deposits. As a result, the economy depends heavily on agriculture,
  featuring fruits, vegetables, wine, and tobacco. Moldova must import
  almost all of its energy supplies. Energy shortages contributed to
  sharp production declines after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
  December 1991. As part of an ambitious reform effort after
  independence, Moldova introduced a convertible currency, freed
  prices, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises,
  backed steady land privatization, removed export controls, and freed
  interest rates. The government entered into agreements with the
  World Bank and the IMF to promote growth and reduce poverty. The
  economy returned to positive growth in 2000, and has remained at or
  above 6% every year since. Further reforms will come slowly because
  of strong political forces backing government controls. The economy
  remains vulnerable to higher fuel prices, poor agricultural weather,
  and the skepticism of foreign investors.

Monaco
  Monaco, bordering France on the Mediterranean coast, is a
  popular resort, attracting tourists to its casino and pleasant
  climate. In 2001, a major construction project extended the pier
  used by cruise ships in the main harbor. The principality has
  successfully sought to diversify into services and small,
  high-value-added, nonpolluting industries. The state has no income
  tax and low business taxes and thrives as a tax haven both for
  individuals who have established residence and for foreign companies
  that have set up businesses and offices. The state retains
  monopolies in a number of sectors, including tobacco, the telephone
  network, and the postal service. Living standards are high, roughly
  comparable to those in prosperous French metropolitan areas.

Mongolia
  Economic activity in Mongolia has traditionally been based
  on herding and agriculture. Mongolia has extensive mineral deposits.
  Copper, coal, molybdenum, tin, tungsten and gold account for a large
  part of industrial production. Soviet assistance, at its height
  one-third of GDP, disappeared almost overnight in 1990 and 1991 at
  the time of the dismantlement of the USSR. The following decade saw
  Mongolia endure both deep recession due to political inaction and
  natural disasters, as well as economic growth because of
  reform-embracing, free-market economics and extensive privatization
  of the formerly state-run economy. Severe winters and summer
  droughts in 2000-2002 resulted in massive livestock die-off and zero
  or negative GDP growth. This was compounded by falling prices for
  Mongolia's primary sector exports and widespread opposition to
  privatization. Growth was 10.6% in 2004 and 5.5% in 2005, largely
  because of high copper prices and new gold production. Mongolia's
  economy continues to be heavily influenced by its neighbors. For
  example, Mongolia purchases 80% of its petroleum products and a
  substantial amount of electric power from Russia, leaving it
  vulnerable to price increases. China is Mongolia's chief export
  partner and a main source of the "shadow" or "grey" economy. The
  World Bank and other international financial institutions estimate
  the grey economy to be at least equal to that of the official
  economy, but the former's actual size is difficult to calculate
  since the money does not pass through the hands of tax authorities
  or the banking sector. Remittances from Mongolians working abroad
  both legally and illegally are sizeable, and money laundering is a
  growing concern. Mongolia settled its $11 billion debt with Russia
  at the end of 2003 on favorable terms. Mongolia, which joined the
  World Trade Organization in 1997, seeks to expand its participation
  and integration into Asian regional economic and trade regimes.

Montenegro
  The republic of Montenegro severed its economy from
  federal control and from Serbia during the MILOSEVIC era and
  continues to maintain its own central bank, uses the euro instead of
  the Yugoslav dinar as official currency, collects customs tariffs,
  and manages its own budget. The dissolution of the loose political
  union between Serbia and Montenegro in 2006 led to separate
  membership in several international financial institutions, such as
  the IMF, World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
  Development. Montenegro is pursuing its own membership in the World
  Trade Organization as well as negotiating a Stabilization and
  Association agreement with the European Union in anticipation of
  eventual membership. Severe unemployment remains a key political and
  economic problem for this entire region. Montenegro has privatized
  its large aluminum complex - the dominant industry - as well as most
  of its financial sector, and has begun to attract foreign direct
  investment in the tourism sector.

Montserrat
  Severe volcanic activity, which began in July 1995, has
  put a damper on this small, open economy. A catastrophic eruption in
  June 1997 closed the airports and seaports, causing further economic
  and social dislocation. Two-thirds of the 12,000 inhabitants fled
  the island. Some began to return in 1998, but lack of housing
  limited the number. The agriculture sector continued to be affected
  by the lack of suitable land for farming and the destruction of
  crops. Prospects for the economy depend largely on developments in
  relation to the volcanic activity and on public sector construction
  activity. The UK has launched a three-year $122.8 million aid
  program to help reconstruct the economy. Half of the island is
  expected to remain uninhabitable for another decade.

Morocco
  Moroccan economic policies brought macroeconomic stability
  to the country in the early 1990s but have not spurred growth
  sufficient to reduce unemployment that nears 20% in urban areas.
  Poverty has actually increased due to the volatile nature of GDP,
  Morocco's continued dependence on foreign energy, and its inability
  to promote the growth of small and medium size enterprises. Despite
  structural adjustment programs supported by the IMF, the World Bank,
  and the Paris Club, the dirham is only fully convertible for current
  account transactions and Morocco's financial sector is rudimentary.
  Moroccan authorities understand that reducing poverty and providing
  jobs is key to domestic security and development. In 2004, Moroccan
  authorities instituted measures to boost foreign direct investment
  and trade by signing a free trade agreement with the US and selling
  government shares in the state telecommunications company and in the
  largest state-owned bank. The Free Trade agreement went into effect
  in January 2006. In 2005, GDP growth slipped to 1.2% and the budget
  deficit rose sharply - to 7.5% of GDP - because of substantial
  increases in wages and oil subsidies. Long-term challenges include
  preparing the economy for freer trade with the US and European
  Union, improving education and job prospects for Morocco's youth,
  and raising living standards, which the government hopes to achieve
  by increasing tourist arrivals and boosting competitiveness in
  textiles.

Mozambique
  At independence in 1975, Mozambique was one of the
  world's poorest countries. Socialist mismanagement and a brutal
  civil war from 1977-92 exacerbated the situation. In 1987, the
  government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms designed to
  stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance
  and with political stability since the multi-party elections in
  1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth
  rate. Inflation was reduced to single digits during the late 1990s
  although it returned to double digits in 2000-03. Fiscal reforms,
  including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the
  customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection
  abilities. In spite of these gains, Mozambique remains dependent
  upon foreign assistance for much of its annual budget, and the
  majority of the population remains below the poverty line.
  Subsistence agriculture continues to employ the vast majority of the
  country's work force. A substantial trade imbalance persists
  although the opening of the Mozal aluminum smelter, the country's
  largest foreign investment project to date, has increased export
  earnings. In late 2005, and after years of negotiations, the
  government signed an agreement to gain Portugal's majority share of
  the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectricity (HCB) company, a dam that was not
  transferred to Mozambique at independence because of the ensuing
  civil war and unpaid debts. More power is needed for additional
  investment projects in titanium extraction and processing and
  garment manufacturing that could further close the import/export
  gap. Mozambique's once substantial foreign debt has been reduced
  through forgiveness and rescheduling under the IMF's Heavily
  Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Enhanced HIPC initiatives, and is
  now at a manageable level.

Namibia
  The economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and
  processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 20% of GDP.
  Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for
  gem-quality diamonds. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of
  nonfuel minerals in Africa, the world's fifth-largest producer of
  uranium, and the producer of large quantities of lead, zinc, tin,
  silver, and tungsten. The mining sector employs only about 3% of the
  population while about half of the population depends on subsistence
  agriculture for its livelihood. Namibia normally imports about 50%
  of its cereal requirements; in drought years food shortages are a
  major problem in rural areas. A high per capita GDP, relative to the
  region, hides the world's worst inequality of income distribution.
  The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the
  Namibian dollar pegged one-to-one to the South African rand.
  Privatization of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate
  long-run foreign investment. Increased fish production and mining of
  zinc, copper, uranium, and silver spurred growth in 2003-05.

Nauru
  Revenues of this tiny island have traditionally come from
  exports of phosphates, now significantly depleted. An Australian
  company in 2005 entered into an agreement intended to exploit
  remaining supplies. Few other resources exist with most necessities
  being imported, mainly from Australia, its former occupier and later
  major source of support. The rehabilitation of mined land and the
  replacement of income from phosphates are serious long-term
  problems. In anticipation of the exhaustion of Nauru's phosphate
  deposits, substantial amounts of phosphate income were invested in
  trust funds to help cushion the transition and provide for Nauru's
  economic future. As a result of heavy spending from the trust funds,
  the government faces virtual bankruptcy. To cut costs the government
  has frozen wages and reduced overstaffed public service departments.
  In 2005, the deterioration in housing, hospitals, and other capital
  plant continued, and the cost to Australia of keeping the government
  and economy afloat continued to climb. Few comprehensive statistics
  on the Nauru economy exist, with estimates of Nauru's GDP varying
  widely.

Navassa Island
  Subsistence fishing and commercial trawling occur
  within refuge waters.

Nepal
  Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in
  the world with almost one-third of its population living below the
  poverty line. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing
  a livelihood for three-fourths of the population and accounting for
  38% of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of
  agricultural produce including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain.
  Security concerns relating to the Maoist conflict have led to a
  decrease in tourism, a key source of foreign exchange. Nepal has
  considerable scope for exploiting its potential in hydropower and
  tourism, areas of recent foreign investment interest. Prospects for
  foreign trade or investment in other sectors will remain poor,
  however, because of the small size of the economy, its technological
  backwardness, its remoteness, its landlocked geographic location,
  its civil strife, and its susceptibility to natural disaster.

Netherlands
  The Netherlands has a prosperous and open economy, which
  depends heavily on foreign trade. The economy is noted for stable
  industrial relations, moderate unemployment and inflation, a sizable
  current account surplus, and an important role as a European
  transportation hub. Industrial activity is predominantly in food
  processing, chemicals, petroleum refining, and electrical machinery.
  A highly mechanized agricultural sector employs no more than 2% of
  the labor force but provides large surpluses for the food-processing
  industry and for exports. The Netherlands, along with 11 of its EU
  partners, began circulating the euro currency on 1 January 2002. The
  country continues to be one of the leading European nations for
  attracting foreign direct investment. Economic growth slowed
  considerably in 2001-05, as part of the global economic slowdown,
  but for the four years before that, annual growth averaged nearly
  4%, well above the EU average.

Netherlands Antilles
  Tourism, petroleum refining, and offshore
  finance are the mainstays of this small economy, which is closely
  tied to the outside world. Although GDP has declined or grown
  slightly in each of the past eight years, the islands enjoy a high
  per capita income and a well-developed infrastructure compared with
  other countries in the region. Almost all consumer and capital goods
  are imported, the US and Mexico being the major suppliers. Poor
  soils and inadequate water supplies hamper the development of
  agriculture. Budgetary problems hamper reform of the health and
  pension systems of an aging population.

New Caledonia
  New Caledonia has about 25% of the world's known
  nickel resources. Only a small amount of the land is suitable for
  cultivation, and food accounts for about 20% of imports. In addition
  to nickel, substantial financial support from France - equal to more
  than one-fourth of GDP - and tourism are keys to the health of the
  economy. Substantial new investment in the nickel industry, combined
  with the recovery of global nickel prices, brightens the economic
  outlook for the next several years.

New Zealand
  Over the past 20 years the government has transformed
  New Zealand from an agrarian economy dependent on concessionary
  British market access to a more industrialized, free market economy
  that can compete globally. This dynamic growth has boosted real
  incomes (but left behind many at the bottom of the ladder),
  broadened and deepened the technological capabilities of the
  industrial sector, and contained inflationary pressures. Per capita
  income has risen for six consecutive years and was more than $24,000
  in 2005 in purchasing power parity terms. New Zealand is heavily
  dependent on trade - particularly in agricultural products - to
  drive growth. Exports are equal to about 22% of GDP. Thus far the
  economy has been resilient, and the Labor Government promises that
  expenditures on health, education, and pensions will increase
  proportionately to output.

Nicaragua
  Nicaragua, one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest
  countries, has low per capita income, widespread underemployment,
  and a heavy external debt burden. Distribution of income is one of
  the most unequal on the globe. While the country has progressed
  toward macroeconomic stability in the past few years, GDP annual
  growth has been far too low to meet the country's needs, forcing the
  country to rely on international economic assistance to meet fiscal
  and debt financing obligations. Nicaragua qualified in early 2004
  for some $4.5 billion in foreign debt reduction under the Heavily
  Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative because of its earlier
  successful performances under its International Monetary Fund policy
  program and other efforts. In October 2005, Nicaragua ratified the
  US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which will provide
  an opportunity for Nicaragua to attract investment, create jobs, and
  deepen economic development. High oil prices helped drive inflation
  to 9.6% in 2005, leading to a fall in real GDP growth to 4% from
  over 5% in 2004.

Niger
  Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking
  last on the United Nations Development Fund index of human
  development. It is a landlocked, Sub-Saharan nation, whose economy
  centers on subsistence crops, livestock, and some of the world's
  largest uranium deposits. Drought cycles, desertification, a 2.9%
  population growth rate, and the drop in world demand for uranium
  have undercut the economy. Niger shares a common currency, the CFA
  franc, and a common central bank, the Central Bank of West African
  States (BCEAO), with seven other members of the West African
  Monetary Union. In December 2000, Niger qualified for enhanced debt
  relief under the International Monetary Fund program for Highly
  Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and concluded an agreement with the
  Fund on a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). Debt relief
  provided under the enhanced HIPC initiative significantly reduces
  Niger's annual debt service obligations, freeing funds for
  expenditures on basic health care, primary education, HIV/AIDS
  prevention, rural infrastructure, and other programs geared at
  poverty reduction. In December 2005, it was announced that Niger had
  received 100% multilateral debt relief from the IMF, which
  translates into the forgiveness of approximately $86 million USD in
  debts to the IMF, excluding the remaining assistance under HIPC.
  Nearly half of the government's budget is derived from foreign donor
  resources. Future growth may be sustained by exploitation of oil,
  gold, coal, and other mineral resources. Uranium prices have
  recovered somewhat in the last few years. A drought and locust
  infestation in 2005 led to food shortages for as many as 2.5 million
  Nigerians.

Nigeria
  Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability,
  corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor macroeconomic
  management, is undertaking some reforms under a new reform-minded
  administration. Nigeria's former military rulers failed to diversify
  the economy away from its overdependence on the capital-intensive
  oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange
  earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. The largely
  subsistence agricultural sector has failed to keep up with rapid
  population growth - Nigeria is Africa's most populous country - and
  the country, once a large net exporter of food, now must import
  food. Following the signing of an IMF stand-by agreement in August
  2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the Paris Club
  and a $1 billion credit from the IMF, both contingent on economic
  reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after
  failing to meet spending and exchange rate targets, making it
  ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. In
  the last year the government has begun showing the political will to
  implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF, such as to
  modernize the banking system, to curb inflation by blocking
  excessive wage demands, and to resolve regional disputes over the
  distribution of earnings from the oil industry. In 2003, the
  government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the
  privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted
  the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a
  domestically designed and run program modeled on the IMF's Poverty
  Reduction and Growth Facility for fiscal and monetary management.
  GDP rose strongly in 2005, based largely on increased oil exports
  and high global crude prices. In November 2005, Abuja won Paris Club
  approval for a historic debt-relief deal that by March 2006 should
  eliminate $30 billion worth of Nigeria's total $37 billion external
  debt. The deal first requires that Nigeria repay roughly $12 billion
  in arrears to its bilateral creditors. Nigeria would then be allowed
  to buy back its remaining debt stock at a discount. The deal also
  commits Nigeria to more intensified IMF reviews.

Niue
  The economy suffers from the typical Pacific island problems of
  geographic isolation, few resources, and a small population.
  Government expenditures regularly exceed revenues, and the shortfall
  is made up by critically needed grants from New Zealand that are
  used to pay wages to public employees. Niue has cut government
  expenditures by reducing the public service by almost half. The
  agricultural sector consists mainly of subsistence gardening,
  although some cash crops are grown for export. Industry consists
  primarily of small factories to process passion fruit, lime oil,
  honey, and coconut cream. The sale of postage stamps to foreign
  collectors is an important source of revenue. The island in recent
  years has suffered a serious loss of population because of
  emigration to New Zealand. Efforts to increase GDP include the
  promotion of tourism and a financial services industry, although the
  International Banking Repeal Act of 2002 resulted in the termination
  of all offshore banking licenses. Economic aid from New Zealand in
  2002 was about US$2 million. Niue suffered a devastating typhoon in
  January 2004, which decimated nascent economic programs. While in
  the process of rebuilding, Niue has been dependent on foreign aid.

Norfolk Island
  Tourism, the primary economic activity, has steadily
  increased over the years and has brought a level of prosperity
  unusual among inhabitants of the Pacific islands. The agricultural
  sector has become self-sufficient in the production of beef,
  poultry, and eggs.

Northern Mariana Islands
  The economy benefits substantially from
  financial assistance from the US. The rate of funding has declined
  as locally generated government revenues have grown. The key tourist
  industry employs about 50% of the work force and accounts for
  roughly one-fourth of GDP. Japanese tourists predominate. Annual
  tourist entries have exceeded one-half million in recent years, but
  financial difficulties in Japan have caused a temporary slowdown.
  The agricultural sector is made up of cattle ranches and small farms
  producing coconuts, breadfruit, tomatoes, and melons. Garment
  production is by far the most important industry with the employment
  of 17,500 mostly Chinese workers and sizable shipments to the US
  under duty and quota exemptions.

Norway
  The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of welfare
  capitalism, featuring a combination of free market activity and
  government intervention. The government controls key areas such as
  the vital petroleum sector (through large-scale state enterprises).
  The country is richly endowed with natural resources - petroleum,
  hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals - and is highly dependent on
  its oil production and international oil prices, with oil and gas
  accounting for one-third of exports. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia
  export more oil than Norway. Norway opted to stay out of the EU
  during a referendum in November 1994; nonetheless, it contributes
  sizably to the EU budget. The government has moved ahead with
  privatization. Although Norwegian oil production peaked in 2000,
  natural gas production is still rising. Norwegians realize that once
  their gas production peaks they will eventually face declining oil
  and gas revenues; accordingly, Norway has been saving its
  oil-and-gas-boosted budget surpluses in a Government Petroleum Fund,
  which is invested abroad and now is valued at more than $250
  billion. After lackluster growth of 1% in 2002 and 0.5% in 2003, GDP
  growth picked up to 3.3% in 2004 and to 3.7% in 2005.

Oman
  Oman is a middle-income economy in the Middle East with notable
  oil and gas resources, a substantial trade surplus, and low
  inflation. Work on a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility
  progressed in 2005 and will contribute to slightly higher oil and
  gas exports in 2006. Oman continues to liberalize its markets and
  joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2000. To
  reduce unemployment and limit dependence on foreign labor, the
  government is encouraging the replacement of foreign expatriate
  workers with local workers. Training in information technology,
  business management, and English support this objective. Industrial
  development plans focus on gas resources, metal manufacturing,
  petrochemicals, and international transshipment ports. In 2005, Oman
  signed agreements with several foreign investors to boost oil
  reserves, build and operate a power plant, and develop a second
  mobile phone network in the country.

Pacific Ocean
  The Pacific Ocean is a major contributor to the world
  economy and particularly to those nations its waters directly touch.
  It provides low-cost sea transportation between East and West,
  extensive fishing grounds, offshore oil and gas fields, minerals,
  and sand and gravel for the construction industry. In 1996, over 60%
  of the world's fish catch came from the Pacific Ocean. Exploitation
  of offshore oil and gas reserves is playing an ever-increasing role
  in the energy supplies of the US, Australia, NZ, China, and Peru.
  The high cost of recovering offshore oil and gas, combined with the
  wide swings in world prices for oil since 1985, has led to
  fluctuations in new drillings.

Pakistan
  Pakistan, an impoverished and underdeveloped country, has
  suffered from decades of internal political disputes, low levels of
  foreign investment, and a costly, ongoing confrontation with
  neighboring India. However, IMF-approved government policies,
  bolstered by generous foreign assistance and renewed access to
  global markets since 2001, have generated solid macroeconomic
  recovery the last four years. The government has made substantial
  macroeconomic reforms since 2000, although progress on more
  politically sensitive reforms has slowed. For example, in the budget
  for fiscal year 2006, Islamabad did not impose taxes on the
  agriculture or real estate sectors, despite Pakistan's chronically
  low tax-to-GDP ratio. While long-term prospects remain uncertain,
  given Pakistan's low level of development, medium-term prospects for
  job creation and poverty reduction are the best in more than a
  decade. Islamabad has raised development spending from about 2% of
  GDP in the 1990s to 4% in 2003, a necessary step towards reversing
  the broad underdevelopment of its social sector. GDP growth, spurred
  by double-digit gains in industrial production over the past year,
  has become less dependent on agriculture, and remained above 7% in
  2004 and 2005. Inflation remains the biggest threat to the economy,
  jumping to more than 9% in 2005. The World Bank and Asian
  Development Bank announced that they would provide US $1 billion
  each in aid to help Pakistan rebuild areas hit by the October 2005
  earthquake in Kashmir. Foreign exchange reserves continued to reach
  new levels in 2005, supported by steady worker remittances. In the
  near term, growth probably cannot be sustained at the 7% level;
  however, massive international aid, increased government spending,
  lower taxes, and pay increases for government workers will help
  Pakistan maintain strong GDP growth over the longer term.

Palau
  The economy consists primarily of tourism, subsistence
  agriculture, and fishing. The government is the major employer of
  the work force, relying heavily on financial assistance from the US.
  Business and tourist arrivals numbered 63,000 in 2003. The
  population enjoys a per capita income twice that of the Philippines
  and much of Micronesia. Long-run prospects for the key tourist
  sector have been greatly bolstered by the expansion of air travel in
  the Pacific, the rising prosperity of leading East Asian countries,
  and the willingness of foreigners to finance infrastructure
  development.

Palmyra Atoll
  no economic activity

Panama
  Panama's dollarised economy rests primarily on a
  well-developed services sector that accounts for three-fourths of
  GDP. Services include operating the Panama Canal, banking, the Colon
  Free Zone, insurance, container ports, flagship registry, and
  tourism. A slump in the Colon Free Zone and agricultural exports,
  the global slowdown, and the withdrawal of US military forces held
  back economic growth in 2000-03; growth picked up in 2004 and 2005
  led by export-oriented services and a construction boom stimulated
  by tax incentives. The government has implemented tax reforms, as
  well as social security reforms, and backs regional trade agreements
  and development of tourism. Unemployment remains high.

Papua New Guinea
  Papua New Guinea is richly endowed with natural
  resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain and
  the high cost of developing infrastructure. Agriculture provides a
  subsistence livelihood for 85% of the population. Mineral deposits,
  including oil, copper, and gold, account for nearly two-thirds of
  export earnings. The economy has improved over the past three years
  because of high commodity prices following a prolonged period of
  instability. The government of Prime Minister SOMARE has expended
  much of its energy remaining in power and should be the first
  government in decades to serve a full five-year term. The government
  has also brought stability to the national budget thus far, largely
  through expenditure control. Numerous challenges still face the
  government including regaining investor confidence, restoring
  integrity to state institutions, promoting economic efficiency by
  privatizing moribund state institutions, and balancing relations
  with Australia, the former colonial ruler. Other socio-cultural
  challenges include the HIV/Aids epidemic, law and order, and land
  tenure issues. Australia annually supplies $240 million in aid,
  which accounts for nearly 20% of the national budget.

Paracel Islands
  China announced plans in 1997 to open the islands
  for tourism.

Paraguay
  Landlocked Paraguay has a market economy marked by a large
  informal sector. This sector features both reexport of imported
  consumer goods to neighboring countries, as well as the activities
  of thousands of microenterprises and urban street vendors. Because
  of the importance of the informal sector, accurate economic measures
  are difficult to obtain. A large percentage of the population
  derives its living from agricultural activity, often on a
  subsistence basis. The formal economy grew by an average of about 3%
  annually in 1995-97, but averaged near-zero growth in 1998-2001 and
  contracted by 2.3 percent in 2002, in response to regional contagion
  and an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. On a per capita basis,
  real income has stagnated at 1980 levels. Most observers attribute
  Paraguay's poor economic performance to political uncertainty,
  corruption, lack of progress on structural reform, substantial
  internal and external debt, and deficient infrastructure. Aided by a
  firmer exchange rate and perhaps a greater confidence in the
  economic policy of the DUARTE FRUTOS administration, the economy
  rebounded between 2003 and 2005, posting modest growth each year.

Peru
  Peru's economy reflects its varied geography - an arid coastal
  region, the Andes further inland, and tropical lands bordering
  Colombia and Brazil. Abundant mineral resources are found in the
  mountainous areas, and Peru's coastal waters provide excellent
  fishing grounds. However, overdependence on minerals and metals
  subjects the economy to fluctuations in world prices, and a lack of
  infrastructure deters trade and investment. After several years of
  inconsistent economic performance, the Peruvian economy grew by more
  than 4 percent per year during the period 2002-2005, with a stable
  exchange rate and low inflation. Risk premiums on Peruvian bonds on
  secondary markets reached historically low levels in late 2004,
  reflecting investor optimism regarding the government's prudent
  fiscal policies and openness to trade and investment. Despite the
  strong macroeconomic performance, the TOLEDO administration remained
  unpopular in 2005, and unemployment and poverty have stayed
  persistently high. Economic growth will be driven by the Camisea
  natural gas megaproject and by exports of minerals, textiles, and
  agricultural products. Peru is expected to sign a free-trade
  agreement with the United States in early 2006.

Philippines
  The Philippines was less severely affected by the Asian
  financial crisis of 1998 than its neighbors, aided in part by its
  high level of annual remittances from overseas workers, and no
  sustained runup in asset prices or foreign borrowing prior to the
  crisis. From a 0.6% decline in 1998, GDP expanded by 2.4% in 1999,
  and 4.4% in 2000, but slowed to 3.2% in 2001 in the context of a
  global economic slowdown, an export slump, and political and
  security concerns. GDP growth accelerated to about 5% between 2002
  and 2005 reflecting the continued resilience of the service sector,
  and improved exports and agricultural output. Nonetheless, it will
  take a higher, sustained growth path to make appreciable progress in
  the alleviation of poverty given the Philippines' high annual
  population growth rate and unequal distribution of income. The
  Philippines also faces higher oil prices, higher interest rates on
  its dollar borrowings, and higher inflation. Fiscal constraints
  limit Manila's ability to finance infrastructure and social
  spending. The Philippines' consistently large budget deficit has
  produced a high debt level, and this situation has forced Manila to
  spend a large portion of the national government budget on debt
  service. Large unprofitable public enterprises, especially in the
  energy sector, contribute to the government's debt because of slow
  progress on privatization. Credit rating agencies have at times
  expressed concern about the Philippines' ability to service the
  debt, though central bank reserves appear adequate and large
  remittance inflows appear stable. The implementation of the expanded
  Value Added Tax (VAT) in November 2005 boosted confidence in the
  government's fiscal capacity and helped to strengthen the peso,
  which gained 5.7 percent year-on-year, making it East Asia's best
  performing currency in 2005. Investors and credit rating
  institutions will continue to look for effective implementation of
  the new VAT and continued improvement in the government's overall
  fiscal capacity in the coming year.

Pitcairn Islands
  The inhabitants of this tiny isolated economy exist
  on fishing, subsistence farming, handicrafts, and postage stamps.
  The fertile soil of the valleys produces a wide variety of fruits
  and vegetables, including citrus, sugarcane, watermelons, bananas,
  yams, and beans. Bartering is an important part of the economy. The
  major sources of revenue are the sale of postage stamps to
  collectors and the sale of handicrafts to passing ships. In October
  2004, more than one-quarter of Pitcairn's small labor force was
  arrested, putting the economy in a bind, since their services were
  required as lighter crew to load or unload passing ships.

Poland
  Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of economic
  liberalization throughout the 1990s and today stands out as a
  success story among transition economies. Even so, much remains to
  be done, especially in bringing down the unemployment rate -
  currently the highest in the EU. The privatization of small- and
  medium-sized state-owned companies and a liberal law on establishing
  new firms has encouraged the development of the private business
  sector, but legal and bureaucratic obstacles alongside persistent
  corruption are hampering its further development. Poland's
  agricultural sector remains handicapped by surplus labor,
  inefficient small farms, and lack of investment. Restructuring and
  privatization of "sensitive sectors" (e.g., coal, steel, railroads,
  and energy), while recently initiated, have stalled. Reforms in
  health care, education, the pension system, and state administration
  have resulted in larger-than-expected fiscal pressures. Further
  progress in public finance depends mainly on reducing losses in
  Polish state enterprises, restraining entitlements, and overhauling
  the tax code to incorporate the growing gray economy and farmers,
  most of whom pay no tax. The previous Socialist-led government
  introduced a package of social and administrative spending cuts to
  reduce public spending by about $17 billion through 2007, but full
  implementation of the plan was trumped by election-year politics in
  2005. The right-wing Law and Justice party won parliamentary
  elections in September, and Lech KACZYNSKI won the presidential
  election in October 2005, running on a state-interventionist fiscal
  and monetary platform. Poland joined the EU in May 2004, and surging
  exports to the EU contributed to Poland's strong growth in 2004,
  though its competitiveness could be threatened by the zloty's
  appreciation. GDP per capita roughly equals that of the three Baltic
  states. Poland stands to benefit from nearly $23.2 billion in EU
  funds, available through 2006. Farmers have already begun to reap
  the rewards of membership via booming exports, higher food prices,
  and EU agricultural subsidies.

Portugal
  Portugal has become a diversified and increasingly
  service-based economy since joining the European Community in 1986.
  Over the past decade, successive governments have privatized many
  state-controlled firms and liberalized key areas of the economy,
  including the financial and telecommunications sectors. The country
  qualified for the European Monetary Union (EMU) in 1998 and began
  circulating the euro on 1 January 2002 along with 11 other EU member
  economies. Economic growth had been above the EU average for much of
  the past decade, but fell back in 2001-05. GDP per capita stands at
  two-thirds that of the Big Four EU economies. A poor educational
  system, in particular, has been an obstacle to greater productivity
  and growth. Portugal has been increasingly overshadowed by
  lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a target for
  foreign direct investment. The government faces tough choices in its
  attempts to boost Portugal's economic competitiveness while keeping
  the budget deficit within the eurozone's 3%-of-GDP ceiling.

Puerto Rico
  Puerto Rico has one of the most dynamic economies in the
  Caribbean region. A diverse industrial sector has far surpassed
  agriculture as the primary locus of economic activity and income.
  Encouraged by duty-free access to the US and by tax incentives, US
  firms have invested heavily in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. US
  minimum wage laws apply. Sugar production has lost out to dairy
  production and other livestock products as the main source of income
  in the agricultural sector. Tourism has traditionally been an
  important source of income, with estimated arrivals of nearly 5
  million tourists in 2004. Growth fell off in 2001-03, largely due to
  the slowdown in the US economy, and has recovered in 2004-2005.

Qatar
  Oil and gas account for more than 60% of GDP, roughly 85% of
  export earnings, and 70% of government revenues. Oil and gas have
  given Qatar a per capita GDP about 80% of that of the leading West
  European industrial countries. Proved oil reserves of 16 billion
  barrels should ensure continued output at current levels for 23
  years. Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas exceed 25 trillion
  cubic meters, more than 5% of the world total and third largest in
  the world. Qatar has permitted substantial foreign investment in the
  development of its gas fields during the last decade and is expected
  to become the world's top liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter by
  2007. In recent years, Qatar has consistently posted trade surpluses
  largely because of high oil prices and increased natural gas
  exports, becoming one of the world's fastest growing and highest
  per-capita income countries.

Reunion
  The economy has traditionally been based on agriculture, but
  services now dominate. Sugarcane has been the primary crop for more
  than a century, and in some years it accounts for 85% of exports.
  The government has been pushing the development of a tourist
  industry to relieve high unemployment, which amounts to one-third of
  the labor force. The gap in Reunion between the well-off and the
  poor is extraordinary and accounts for the persistent social
  tensions. The white and Indian communities are substantially better
  off than other segments of the population, often approaching
  European standards, whereas minority groups suffer the poverty and
  unemployment typical of the poorer nations of the African continent.
  The outbreak of severe rioting in February 1991 illustrated the
  seriousness of socioeconomic tensions. The economic well-being of
  Reunion depends heavily on continued financial assistance from
  France.

Romania
  Romania began the transition from Communism in 1989 with a
  largely obsolete industrial base and a pattern of output unsuited to
  the country's needs. The country emerged in 2000 from a punishing
  three-year recession thanks to strong demand in EU export markets.
  Despite the global slowdown in 2001-02, strong domestic activity in
  construction, agriculture, and consumption have kept GDP growth
  above 4%. An IMF standby agreement, signed in 2001, has been
  accompanied by slow but palpable gains in privatization, deficit
  reduction, and the curbing of inflation. The IMF Board approved
  Romania's completion of the standby agreement in October 2003, the
  first time Romania has successfully concluded an IMF agreement since
  the 1989 revolution. In July 2004, the executive board of the IMF
  approved a 24-month standby agreement for $367 million. IMF concerns
  about Romania's tax policy and budget deficit led to a breakdown of
  this agreement in 2005. In the past, the IMF has criticized the
  government's fiscal, wage, and monetary policies. Meanwhile,
  macroeconomic gains have only recently started to spur creation of a
  middle class and address Romania's widespread poverty, while
  corruption and red tape continue to handicap the business
  environment. Romanian government confidence in continuing
  disinflation was underscored by its currency revaluation in 2005,
  making 10,000 "old" lei equal 1 "new" leu.

Russia
  Russia ended 2005 with its seventh straight year of growth,
  averaging 6.4% annually since the financial crisis of 1998. Although
  high oil prices and a relatively cheap ruble are important drivers
  of this economic rebound, since 2000 investment and consumer-driven
  demand have played a noticeably increasing role. Real fixed capital
  investments have averaged gains greater than 10% over the last five
  years, and real personal incomes have realized average increases
  over 12%. During this time, poverty has declined steadily and the
  middle class has continued to expand. Russia has also improved its
  international financial position since the 1998 financial crisis,
  with its foreign debt declining from 90% of GDP to around 31%.
  Strong oil export earnings have allowed Russia to increase its
  foreign reserves from only $12 billion to some $180 billion at
  yearend 2005. These achievements, along with a renewed government
  effort to advance structural reforms, have raised business and
  investor confidence in Russia's economic prospects. Nevertheless,
  serious problems persist. Economic growth slowed to 5.9% for 2005
  while inflation remains high. Oil, natural gas, metals, and timber
  account for more than 80% of exports, leaving the country vulnerable
  to swings in world prices. Russia's manufacturing base is
  dilapidated and must be replaced or modernized if the country is to
  achieve broad-based economic growth. Other problems include a weak
  banking system, a poor business climate that discourages both
  domestic and foreign investors, corruption, and widespread lack of
  trust in institutions. In addition, a string of investigations
  launched against a major Russian oil company, culminating with the
  arrest of its CEO in the fall of 2003 and the acquisition of the
  company by a state owned firm, have raised concerns by some
  observers that President PUTIN is granting more influence to forces
  within his government that desire to reassert state control over the
  economy. State control has increased in the past year with a number
  of large acquisitions. Most fundamentally, Russia has made little
  progress in building the rule of law, the bedrock of a modern market
  economy.

Rwanda
  Rwanda is a poor rural country with about 90% of the
  population engaged in (mainly subsistence) agriculture. It is the
  most densely populated country in Africa and is landlocked with few
  natural resources and minimal industry. Primary foreign exchange
  earners are coffee and tea. The 1994 genocide decimated Rwanda's
  fragile economic base, severely impoverished the population,
  particularly women, and eroded the country's ability to attract
  private and external investment. However, Rwanda has made
  substantial progress in stabilizing and rehabilitating its economy
  to pre-1994 levels, although poverty levels are higher now. GDP has
  rebounded and inflation has been curbed. Despite Rwanda's fertile
  ecosystem, food production often does not keep pace with population
  growth, requiring food imports. Rwanda continues to receive
  substantial aid money and obtained IMF-World Bank Heavily Indebted
  Poor Country (HIPC) initiative debt relief in 2005. Kigali's high
  defense expenditures have caused tension between the government and
  international donors and lending agencies. An energy shortage and
  instability in neighboring states may slow growth in 2006, while the
  lack of adequate transportation linkages to other countries
  continues to handicap export growth.

Saint Helena
  The economy depends largely on financial assistance
  from the UK, which amounted to about $5 million in 1997 or almost
  one-half of annual budgetary revenues. The local population earns
  income from fishing, raising livestock, and sales of handicrafts.
  Because there are few jobs, 25% of the work force has left to seek
  employment on Ascension Island, on the Falklands, and in the UK.

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Sugar was the traditional mainstay of the
  Saint Kitts economy until the 1970s. Although the crop still
  dominates the agricultural sector, activities such as tourism,
  export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore banking have assumed
  larger roles in the economy. Tourism revenues are now the chief
  source of the islands' foreign exchange; about 40,000 tourist
  visited Nevis during the 2003-2004 season. Additional tourist
  facilities, including a second cruise ship pier, hotels, and golf
  courses are under construction.

Saint Lucia
  Changes in the EU import preference regime and the
  increased competition from Latin American bananas have made economic
  diversification increasingly important in Saint Lucia. The island
  nation has been able to attract foreign business and investment,
  especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries. The
  manufacturing sector is the most diverse in the Eastern Caribbean
  area, and the government is trying to revitalize the banana
  industry. Economic fundamentals remain solid, even though
  unemployment needs to be cut.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  The inhabitants have traditionally earned
  their livelihood by fishing and by servicing fishing fleets
  operating off the coast of Newfoundland. The economy has been
  declining, however, because of disputes with Canada over fishing
  quotas and a steady decline in the number of ships stopping at Saint
  Pierre. In 1992, an arbitration panel awarded the islands an
  exclusive economic zone of 12,348 sq km to settle a longstanding
  territorial dispute with Canada, although it represents only 25% of
  what France had sought. The islands are heavily subsidized by France
  to the great betterment of living standards. The government hopes an
  expansion of tourism will boost economic prospects. Recent test
  drilling for oil may pave the way for development of the energy
  sector.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Economic growth in this
  lower-middle-income country hinges upon seasonal variations in the
  agricultural and tourism sectors. Tropical storms wiped out
  substantial portions of crops in 1994, 1995, and 2002, and tourism
  in the Eastern Caribbean has suffered low arrivals following 11
  September 2001. Saint Vincent is home to a small offshore banking
  sector and has moved to adopt international regulatory standards.
  Saint Vincent is also a producer of marijuana and is being used as a
  transshipment point for illegal narcotics from South America.

Samoa
  The economy of Samoa has traditionally been dependent on
  development aid, family remittances from overseas, agriculture, and
  fishing. The country is vulnerable to devastating storms.
  Agriculture employs two-thirds of the labor force, and furnishes 90%
  of exports, featuring coconut cream, coconut oil, and copra. The
  manufacturing sector mainly processes agricultural products. The
  decline of fish stocks in the area is a continuing problem. Tourism
  is an expanding sector, accounting for 25% of GDP; about 88,000
  tourists visited the islands in 2001. One factory in the Foreign
  Trade Zone employs 3,000 people to make automobile electrical
  harnesses for an assembly plant in Australia. The Samoan Government
  has called for deregulation of the financial sector, encouragement
  of investment, and continued fiscal discipline, while at the same
  time protecting the environment. Observers point to the flexibility
  of the labor market as a basic strength for future economic
  advances. Foreign reserves are in a relatively healthy state, the
  external debt is stable, and inflation is low.

San Marino
  The tourist sector contributes over 50% of GDP. In 2000
  more than 3 million tourists visited San Marino. The key industries
  are banking, wearing apparel, electronics, and ceramics. Main
  agricultural products are wine and cheeses. The per capita level of
  output and standard of living are comparable to those of the most
  prosperous regions of Italy, which supplies much of its food.

Sao Tome and Principe
  This small, poor island economy has become
  increasingly dependent on cocoa since independence in 1975. Cocoa
  production has substantially declined in recent years because of
  drought and mismanagement, but strengthening prices helped boost
  export earnings in 2003. Sao Tome has to import all fuels, most
  manufactured goods, consumer goods, and a substantial amount of
  food. Over the years, it has had difficulty servicing its external
  debt and has relied heavily on concessional aid and debt
  rescheduling. Sao Tome benefited from $200 million in debt relief in
  December 2000 under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
  program, and is expected to benefit from an additional round of HIPC
  debt relief in early 2006, to help bring down the country's $300
  million debt burden. In August 2005, Sao Tome signed on to a new
  3-year IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) program
  worth $4.3 million. Considerable potential exists for development of
  a tourist industry, and the government has taken steps to expand
  facilities in recent years. The government also has attempted to
  reduce price controls and subsidies. Sao Tome is optimistic about
  the development of petroleum resources in its territorial waters in
  the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, which are being jointly developed in a
  60-40 split with Nigeria. The first production licenses were sold in
  2004, though a dispute over licensing with Nigeria delayed Sao
  Tome's receipt of more than $20 million in signing bonuses for
  almost a year. Real GDP growth reached 6% in 2004, and also probably
  in 2005, as a result of increases in public expenditures and
  oil-related capital investment.

Saudi Arabia
  This is an oil-based economy with strong government
  controls over major economic activities. Saudi Arabia possesses 25%
  of the world's proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest
  exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC. The
  petroleum sector accounts for roughly 75% of budget revenues, 45% of
  GDP, and 90% of export earnings. About 40% of GDP comes from the
  private sector. Roughly 5.5 million foreign workers play an
  important role in the Saudi economy, particularly, in the oil and
  service sectors. The government is encouraging private sector growth
  to lessen the kingdom's dependence on oil and increase employment
  opportunities for the swelling Saudi population. The government has
  begun to permit private sector and foreign investor participation in
  the power generation and telecom sectors. As part of its effort to
  attract foreign investment and diversify the economy, Saudi Arabia
  acceded to the WTO in 2005 after many years of negotiations. With
  high oil revenues enabling the government to post large budget
  surpluses, Riyadh has been able to substantially boost spending on
  job training and education, infrastructure development, and
  government salaries.

Senegal
  In January 1994, Senegal undertook a bold and ambitious
  economic reform program with the support of the international donor
  community. This reform began with a 50% devaluation of Senegal's
  currency, the CFA franc, which was linked at a fixed rate to the
  French franc. Government price controls and subsidies have been
  steadily dismantled. After seeing its economy contract by 2.1% in
  1993, Senegal made an important turnaround, thanks to the reform
  program, with real growth in GDP averaging over 5% annually during
  1995-2004. Annual inflation had been pushed down to the low single
  digits. As a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union
  (WAEMU), Senegal is working toward greater regional integration with
  a unified external tariff and a more stable monetary policy.
  However, Senegal still relies heavily upon outside donor assistance.
  Under the IMF's Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief
  program, Senegal will benefit from eradication of two-thirds of its
  bilateral, multilateral, and private-sector debt.

Serbia
  MILOSEVIC-era mismanagement of the economy, an extended
  period of economic sanctions, and the damage to Yugoslavia's
  infrastructure and industry during the NATO airstrikes in 1999 left
  the economy only half the size it was in 1990. After the ousting of
  former Federal Yugoslav President MILOSEVIC in October 2000, the
  Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition government
  implemented stabilization measures and embarked on a market reform
  program. After renewing its membership in the IMF in December 2000,
  a down-sized Yugoslavia continued to reintegrate into the
  international community by rejoining the World Bank (IBRD) and the
  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). A World
  Bank-European Commission sponsored Donors' Conference held in June
  2001 raised $1.3 billion for economic restructuring. In November
  2001, the Paris Club agreed to reschedule the country's $4.5 billion
  public debt and wrote off 66% of the debt. In July 2004, the London
  Club of private creditors forgave $1.7 billion of debt, just over
  half the total owed. Belgrade has made only minimal progress in
  restructuring and privatizing its holdings in major sectors of the
  economy, including energy and telecommunications. It has made
  halting progress towards EU membership and is currently pursuing a
  Stabilization and Association Agreement with Brussels. Serbia is
  also pursuing membership in the World Trade Organization.
  Unemployment remains an ongoing political and economic problem. The
  Republic of Montenegro severed its economy from Serbia during the
  MILOSEVIC era; therefore, the formal separation of Serbia and
  Montenegro in June 2006 had little real impact on either economy.
  Kosovo's economy continues to transition to a market-based system
  and is largely dependent on the international community and the
  diaspora for financial and technical assistance. The euro and the
  Yugoslav dinar are both accepted currencies in Kosovo. While
  maintaining ultimate oversight, UNMIK continues to work with the EU
  and Kosovo's local provisional government to accelerate economic
  growth, lower unemployment, and attract foreign investment to help
  Kosovo integrate into regional economic structures. The complexity
  of Serbia and Kosovo's political and legal relationships has created
  uncertainty over property rights and hindered the privatization of
  state-owned assets in Kosovo. Most of Kosovo's population lives in
  rural towns outside of the largest city, Pristina. Inefficient,
  near-subsistence farming is common.
  note: economic data for Serbia currently reflects information for
  the former Serbia and Montenegro, unless otherwise noted; data for
  Serbia alone will be added when available

Seychelles
  Since independence in 1976, per capita output in this
  Indian Ocean archipelago has expanded to roughly seven times the old
  near-subsistence level. Growth has been led by the tourist sector,
  which employs about 30% of the labor force and provides more than
  70% of hard currency earnings, and by tuna fishing. In recent years
  the government has encouraged foreign investment in order to upgrade
  hotels and other services. At the same time, the government has
  moved to reduce the dependence on tourism by promoting the
  development of farming, fishing, and small-scale manufacturing.
  Sharp drops illustrated the vulnerability of the tourist sector in
  1991-92 due largely to the Gulf War, and once again following the 11
  September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US. Growth slowed in
  1998-2002, and fell in 2003, due to sluggish tourist and tuna
  sectors, but resumed in 2004, erasing a persistent budget deficit.
  Growth turned negative again in 2005. Tight controls on exchange
  rates and the scarcity of foreign exchange have impaired short-term
  economic prospects. The black-market value of the Seychelles rupee
  is half the official exchange rate; without a devaluation of the
  currency, the tourist sector may remain sluggish as vacationers seek
  cheaper destinations such as Comoros, Mauritius, and Madagascar.

Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone is an extremely poor African nation with
  tremendous inequality in income distribution. While it possesses
  substantial mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources, its
  economic and social infrastructure is not well developed, and
  serious social disorders continue to hamper economic development.
  About two-thirds of the working-age population engages in
  subsistence agriculture. Manufacturing consists mainly of the
  processing of raw materials and of light manufacturing for the
  domestic market. Alluvial diamond mining remains the major source of
  hard currency earnings, accounting for nearly half of Sierra Leone's
  exports. The fate of the economy depends upon the maintenance of
  domestic peace and the continued receipt of substantial aid from
  abroad, which is essential to offset the severe trade imbalance and
  supplement government revenues. The IMF has completed a Poverty
  Reduction and Growth Facility program that helped stabilize economic
  growth and reduce inflation. A recent increase in political
  stability has led to a revival of economic activity, such as the
  rehabilitation of bauxite mining.

Singapore
  Singapore, a highly-developed and successful free-market
  economy, enjoys a remarkably open and corruption-free environment,
  stable prices, and a per capita GDP equal to that of the four
  largest West European countries. The economy depends heavily on
  exports, particularly in electronics and manufacturing. It was hard
  hit in 2001-03 by the global recession, by the slump in the
  technology sector, and by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory
  Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which curbed tourism and consumer spending.
  The government hopes to establish a new growth path that will be
  less vulnerable to the external business cycle and will continue
  efforts to establish Singapore as Southeast Asia's financial and
  high-tech hub. Fiscal stimulus, low interest rates, a surge in
  exports, and internal flexibility led to vigorous growth in 2004,
  with real GDP rising by 8% - by far the economy's best performance
  since 2000 - but growth slowed to 5.7% in 2005.

Slovakia
  Slovakia has mastered much of the difficult transition from
  a centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. The DZURINDA
  government made excellent progress during 2001-04 in macroeconomic
  stabilization and structural reform. Major privatizations are nearly
  complete, the banking sector is almost completely in foreign hands,
  and the government has helped facilitate a foreign investment boom
  with business-friendly policies, such as labor market liberalization
  and a 19% flat tax. Foreign investment in the automotive sector has
  been strong. Slovakia's economic growth exceeded expectations in
  2001-05, despite the general European slowdown. Unemployment, at an
  unacceptable 18% in 2003-04, dropped to 16.4% in 2005, but remains
  the economy's Achilles heel. Slovakia joined the EU on 1 May 2004.

Slovenia
  With its small transition economy and population of
  approximately two million, Slovenia is a model of economic success
  and stability for its neighbors in the former Yugoslavia. The
  country, which joined the EU in 2004, has excellent infrastructure,
  a well-educated work force, and an excellent central location. It
  enjoys a GDP per capita substantially higher than any of the other
  transitioning economies of Central Europe. In March 2004, Slovenia
  became the first transition country to graduate from borrower status
  to donor partner at the World Bank. Slovenia plans to adopt the euro
  by 2007 and has met the EU's Maastricht criteria for inflation.
  Despite its economic success, Slovenia faces growing challenges.
  Much of the economy remains in state hands and foreign direct
  investment (FDI) in Slovenia is one of the lowest in the EU on a per
  capita basis. Taxes are relatively high, the labor market is often
  seen as inflexible, and legacy industries are losing sales to more
  competitive firms in China, India, and elsewhere. The current
  center-right government, elected in October 2004, has pledged to
  accelerate privatization of a number of large state holdings and is
  interested in increasing FDI in Slovenia. In late 2005, the
  government's new Committee for Economic Reforms was elevated to
  cabinet-level status. The Committee's program includes plans for
  lowering the tax burden, privatizing state-controlled firms,
  improving the flexibility of the labor market, and increasing the
  government's efficiency.

Solomon Islands
  The bulk of the population depends on agriculture,
  fishing, and forestry for at least part of its livelihood. Most
  manufactured goods and petroleum products must be imported. The
  islands are rich in undeveloped mineral resources such as lead,
  zinc, nickel, and gold. Prior to the arrival of the Regional
  Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), severe ethnic
  violence, the closing of key businesses, and an empty government
  treasury culminated in economic collapse. RAMSI has enabled a return
  to law and order, a new period of economic stability, and modest
  growth as the economy rebuilds.

Somalia
  Somalia's economic fortunes are driven by its deep political
  divisions. The northwestern area has declared its independence as
  the "Republic of Somaliland"; the northeastern region of Puntland is
  a semi-autonomous state; and the remaining southern portion is
  riddled with the struggles of rival factions. Economic life
  continues, in part because much activity is local and relatively
  easily protected. Agriculture is the most important sector, with
  livestock normally accounting for about 40% of GDP and about 65% of
  export earnings, but Saudi Arabia's ban on Somali livestock, due to
  Rift Valley Fever concerns, has severely hampered the sector. Nomads
  and semi-nomads, who are dependent upon livestock for their
  livelihood, make up a large portion of the population. Livestock,
  hides, fish, charcoal, and bananas are Somalia's principal exports,
  while sugar, sorghum, corn, qat, and machined goods are the
  principal imports. Somalia's small industrial sector, based on the
  processing of agricultural products, has largely been looted and
  sold as scrap metal. Despite the seeming anarchy, Somalia's service
  sector has managed to survive and grow. Telecommunication firms
  provide wireless services in most major cities and offer the lowest
  international call rates on the continent. In the absence of a
  formal banking sector, money exchange services have sprouted
  throughout the country, handling between $500 million and $1 billion
  in remittances annually. Mogadishu's main market offers a variety of
  goods from food to the newest electronic gadgets. Hotels continue to
  operate, and militias provide security. The ongoing civil
  disturbances and clan rivalries, however, have interfered with any
  broad-based economic development and international aid arrangements.
  Somalia's arrears to the IMF continued to grow in 2005. Statistics
  on Somalia's GDP, growth, per capita income, and inflation should be
  viewed skeptically. In late December 2004, a major tsunami caused an
  estimated 150 deaths and resulted in destruction of property in
  coastal areas.

South Africa
  South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with
  an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial,
  legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock
  exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern
  infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to
  major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not
  been strong enough to lower South Africa's high unemployment rate,
  and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era -
  especially poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the
  disadvantaged groups. South African economic policy is fiscally
  conservative, but pragmatic, focusing on targeting inflation and
  liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household
  income.

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  Some fishing takes
  place in adjacent waters. There is a potential source of income from
  harvesting finfish and krill. The islands receive income from
  postage stamps produced in the UK, sale of fishing licenses, and
  harbor and landing fees from tourist vessels. Tourism from
  specialized cruise ships is increasing rapidly.

Southern Ocean
  Fisheries in 2003-04 landed 136,262 metric tons, of
  which 87% (118,166 tons) was krill and 8% (11,182 tons) Patagonian
  toothfish, compared to 142,555 tons in 2002-03 of which 83% (117,728
  tons) was krill and 12% (16,479 tons) Patagonian toothfish
  (estimated fishing from the area covered by the Convention of the
  Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which
  extends slightly beyond the Southern Ocean area). International
  agreements were adopted in late 1999 to reduce illegal, unreported,
  and unregulated fishing, which in the 2000-01 season landed, by one
  estimate, 8,376 metric tons of Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish.
  In the 2004-05 Antarctic summer 28,202 tourists, most of them
  seaborne (approximately 97%), visited the Southern Ocean and
  Antarctica, compared to 14,762 in 1999-2000.

Spain
  The Spanish economy boomed from 1986 to 1990, averaging five
  percent annual growth. After a European-wide recession in the early
  1990s, the Spanish economy resumed moderate growth starting in 1994.
  Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita
  basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies. The
  center-right government of former President AZNAR successfully
  worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching
  the European single currency (the euro) on 1 January 1999. The AZNAR
  administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatization,
  and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to
  that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the AZNAR administration
  but remains high at 10.1%. Growth of 2.5% in 2003, 2.6% in 2004, and
  3.4% in 2005 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering
  European economy. The socialist president, RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO, has
  initiated economic and social reforms that are generally popular
  among the masses of people, but that are anathema to religious and
  other conservative elements. Adjusting to the monetary and other
  economic policies of an integrated Europe, reducing unemployment,
  and absorbing widespread social changes will pose challenges to
  Spain over the next few years.

Spratly Islands
  Economic activity is limited to commercial fishing.
  The proximity to nearby oil- and gas-producing sedimentary basins
  suggests the potential for oil and gas deposits, but the region is
  largely unexplored. There are no reliable estimates of potential
  reserves. Commercial exploitation has yet to be developed.

Sri Lanka
  In 1977, Colombo abandoned statist economic policies and
  its import substitution trade policy for market-oriented policies
  and export-oriented trade. Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors now are
  food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages,
  telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2003, plantation
  crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with 93% in 1970), while
  textiles and garments accounted for 63%. GDP grew at an average
  annual rate of about 5.5% in the 1990s, but 2001 saw the first
  contraction in the country's history, by 1.4%, due to a combination
  of power shortages, severe budgetary problems, the global slowdown,
  and continuing civil strife. Growth recovered to 5% between 2002 and
  2005. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% in the Middle East.
  They send home about $1 billion a year. The struggle by the Tamil
  Tigers of the north and east for a largely independent homeland
  continues to cast a shadow over the economy. In late December 2004,
  a major tsunami took about 31,000 lives, left more than 6,300
  missing and 443,000 displaced, and destroyed an estimated $1.5
  billion worth of property.

Sudan
  Sudan has turned around a struggling economy with sound
  economic policies and infrastructure investments, but it still faces
  formidable economic problems, starting from its low level of per
  capita output. From 1997 to date, Sudan has been implementing IMF
  macroeconomic reforms. In 1999, Sudan began exporting crude oil and
  in the last quarter of 1999 recorded its first trade surplus, which,
  along with monetary policy, has stabilized the exchange rate.
  Increased oil production, revived light industry, and expanded
  export processing zones helped sustain GDP growth at 8.6% in 2004.
  Agricultural production remains Sudan's most important sector,
  employing 80% of the work force, contributing 39% of GDP, and
  accounting for most of GDP growth, but most farms remain rain-fed
  and susceptible to drought. Chronic instability - resulting from the
  long-standing civil war between the Muslim north and the
  Christian/pagan south, adverse weather, and weak world agricultural
  prices - ensure that much of the population will remain at or below
  the poverty line for years.

Suriname
  The economy is dominated by the mining industry, which
  accounts for more than a third of GDP and subjects government
  revenues to mineral price volatility. The short-term economic
  outlook depends on the government's ability to control inflation and
  on the development of projects in the bauxite and gold mining
  sectors. Suriname's economic prospects for the medium term will
  depend on continued commitment to responsible monetary and fiscal
  policies and to the introduction of structural reforms to liberalize
  markets and promote competition. The government of Ronald VENETIAAN,
  in his first term, implemented an austerity program, raised taxes,
  and attempted to control spending. Economic policies are likely to
  remain the same during VENETIAAN's second term. Prospects for local
  onshore oil production are good, as a drilling program is underway.
  Offshore oil drilling was given a boost in 2004 when the State Oil
  Company (Staatsolie) signed exploration agreements with Repsol,
  Mearsk, and Occidental.

Svalbard
  Coal mining is the major economic activity on Svalbard. The
  treaty of 9 February 1920 gives the 41 signatories equal rights to
  exploit mineral deposits, subject to Norwegian regulation. Although
  US, UK, Dutch, and Swedish coal companies have mined in the past,
  the only companies still mining are Norwegian and Russian. The
  settlements on Svalbard are essentially company towns. The Norwegian
  state-owned coal company employs nearly 60% of the Norwegian
  population on the island, runs many of the local services, and
  provides most of the local infrastructure. There is also some
  hunting of seal, reindeer, and fox.

Swaziland
  In this small, landlocked economy, subsistence agriculture
  occupies more than 80% of the population. The manufacturing sector
  has diversified since the mid-1980s. Sugar and wood pulp remain
  important foreign exchange earners. Mining has declined in
  importance in recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines
  remaining active. Surrounded by South Africa, except for a short
  border with Mozambique, Swaziland is heavily dependent on South
  Africa from which it receives about nine-tenths of its imports and
  to which it sends nearly two-thirds of its exports. Customs duties
  from the Southern African Customs Union and worker remittances from
  South Africa substantially supplement domestically earned income.
  The government is trying to improve the atmosphere for foreign
  investment. Overgrazing, soil depletion, drought, and sometimes
  floods persist as problems for the future. More than one-fourth of
  the population needed emergency food aid in 2004-05 because of
  drought, and nearly two-fifths of the adult population has been
  infected by HIV/AIDS.

Sweden
  Aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th
  century, Sweden has achieved an enviable standard of living under a
  mixed system of high-tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits.
  It has a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external
  communications, and a skilled labor force. Timber, hydropower, and
  iron ore constitute the resource base of an economy heavily oriented
  toward foreign trade. Privately owned firms account for about 90% of
  industrial output, of which the engineering sector accounts for 50%
  of output and exports. Agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP and
  of jobs. The government's commitment to fiscal discipline resulted
  in a substantial budgetary surplus in 2001, which was cut by more
  than half in 2002, due to the global economic slowdown, declining
  revenue, and increased spending. The Swedish central bank (the
  Riksbank) focuses on price stability with its inflation target of
  2%. Growth remained sluggish in 2003, but picked up in 2004 and
  2005. Presumably because of generous sick-leave benefits, Swedish
  workers report in sick more often than other Europeans. In September
  2003, Swedish voters turned down entry into the euro system,
  concerned about the impact on democracy and sovereignty.

Switzerland
  Switzerland is a peaceful, prosperous, and stable modern
  market economy with low unemployment, a highly skilled labor force,
  and a per capita GDP larger than that of the big Western European
  economies. The Swiss in recent years have brought their economic
  practices largely into conformity with the EU's to enhance their
  international competitiveness. Switzerland remains a safehaven for
  investors, because it has maintained a degree of bank secrecy and
  has kept up the franc's long-term external value. Reflecting the
  anemic economic conditions of Europe, GDP growth dropped in 2001 to
  about 0.8%, to 0.2% in 2002, and to -0.3% in 2003, with a small rise
  to 1.8% in 2004-05. Even so, unemployment has remained at less than
  half the EU average.

Syria
  The Syrian Government estimates the economy grew by 4.5
  percent in real terms in 2005, led by the petroleum and agricultural
  sectors, which together account for about half of GDP. Economic
  performance and the exchange rate on the informal market were hit by
  international political developments following the assassination in
  February of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-HARIRI and the
  specter of international sanctions. Higher crude oil prices
  countered declining oil production and exports and helped to narrow
  the budget deficit and widen the current account surplus. The
  Government of Syria has implemented modest economic reforms in the
  last few years, including cutting interest rates, opening private
  banks, consolidating some of the multiple exchange rates, and
  raising prices on some subsidized foodstuffs. Nevertheless, the
  economy remains highly controlled by the government. Long-run
  economic constraints include declining oil production and exports,
  increasing pressure on water supplies caused by rapid population
  growth, industrial expansion, and water pollution.

Taiwan
  Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually
  decreasing guidance of investment and foreign trade by government
  authorities. In keeping with this trend, some large,
  government-owned banks and industrial firms are being privatized.
  Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The
  trade surplus is substantial, and foreign reserves are the world's
  third largest. Agriculture contributes less than 2% to GDP, down
  from 32% in 1952. Taiwan is a major investor throughout Southeast
  Asia. China has overtaken the US to become Taiwan's largest export
  market and, in 2005, Taiwan's third-largest source of imports after
  Japan and the US. Taiwan has benefited from cross-Strait economic
  integration and a sharp increase in world demand to achieve
  substantial growth in its export sector and a seven-year-high real
  GDP growth of 6.1% in 2004. However, excess inventory, higher
  international oil prices, and rising interest rates dampened
  consumption in developed markets, and GDP growth dropped to 3.8% in
  2005. The service sector, which accounts for 69% of Taiwan's GDP,
  has continued to expand, while unemployment and inflation rates have
  declined.

Tajikistan
  Tajikistan has one of the lowest per capita GDPs among
  the 15 former Soviet republics. Only 6% of the land area is arable;
  cotton is the most important crop. Mineral resources, varied but
  limited in amount, include silver, gold, uranium, and tungsten.
  Industry consists only of a large aluminum plant, hydropower
  facilities, and small obsolete factories mostly in light industry
  and food processing. The civil war (1992-97) severely damaged the
  already weak economic infrastructure and caused a sharp decline in
  industrial and agricultural production. Even though 64% of its
  people continue to live in abject poverty, Tajikistan has
  experienced steady economic growth since 1997, but experienced a
  slight drop in its growth rate to 8% in 2005 from 10.6% in 2004.
  Continued privatization of medium and large state-owned enterprises
  would further increase productivity. Tajikistan's economic
  situation, however, remains fragile due to uneven implementation of
  structural reforms, weak governance, widespread unemployment, and
  the external debt burden. A debt restructuring agreement was reached
  with Russia in December 2002, including a $250 million write-off of
  Tajikistan's $300 million debt to Russia. Tajikistan ranks third in
  the world in terms of water resources per head. A proposed
  investment to finish the hydropower dams Rogun and Sangtuda would
  substantially add to electricity production. If finished, Rogun will
  be the world's tallest dam.

Tanzania
  Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. The
  economy depends heavily on agriculture, which accounts for almost
  half of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs 80% of the work
  force. Topography and climatic conditions, however, limit cultivated
  crops to only 4% of the land area. Industry traditionally featured
  the processing of agricultural products and light consumer goods.
  The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and bilateral
  donors have provided funds to rehabilitate Tanzania's out-of-date
  economic infrastructure and to alleviate poverty. Long-term growth
  through 2005 featured a pickup in industrial production and a
  substantial increase in output of minerals, led by gold. Recent
  banking reforms have helped increase private-sector growth and
  investment. Continued donor assistance and solid macroeconomic
  policies supported real GDP growth of more than 6% in 2005.

Thailand
  With a well-developed infrastructure, a free-enterprise
  economy, and pro-investment policies, Thailand appears to have fully
  recovered from the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. The country was
  one of East Asia's best performers in 2002-04. Boosted by increased
  consumption and strong export growth, the Thai economy grew 6.9% in
  2003 and 6.1% in 2004 despite a sluggish global economy. Bangkok has
  pursued preferential trade agreements with a variety of partners in
  an effort to boost exports and to maintain high growth. In 2004,
  Thailand and the US began negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement. In
  late December 2004, a major tsunami took 8,500 lives in Thailand and
  caused massive destruction of property in the southern provinces of
  Krabi, Phangnga, and Phuket. Growth slowed to 4.4% in 2005. The
  downturn can be attributed to high oil prices, weaker demand from
  Western markets, severe drought in rural regions, tsunami-related
  declines in tourism, and lower consumer confidence. Moreover, the
  THAKSIN administration's expansionist economic policies, including
  plans for multi-billion-dollar mega-projects in infrastructure and
  social development, has raised concerns about fiscal discipline and
  the health of financial institutions. On the positive side, the Thai
  economy performed well beginning in the third quarter of 2005.
  Export-oriented manufacturing - in particular automobile production
  - and farm output are driving these gains. In 2006, the economy
  should benefit from an influx of investment and a revived tourism
  sector; however, a possible avian flu epidemic could significantly
  harm economic prospects throughout the region.

Togo
  This small, sub-Saharan economy is heavily dependent on both
  commercial and subsistence agriculture, which provides employment
  for 65% of the labor force. Some basic foodstuffs must still be
  imported. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton generate about 40% of export
  earnings, with cotton being the most important cash crop. Togo is
  the world's fourth-largest producer of phosphate. The government's
  decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to
  implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment,
  and bring revenues in line with expenditures has moved slowly.
  Progress depends on follow-through on privatization, increased
  openness in government financial operations, progress toward
  legislative elections, and continued support from foreign donors.
  Togo is working with donors to write a PRGF that could eventually
  lead to a debt reduction plan.

Tokelau
  Tokelau's small size (three villages), isolation, and lack
  of resources greatly restrain economic development and confine
  agriculture to the subsistence level. The people rely heavily on aid
  from New Zealand - about $4 million annually - to maintain public
  services, with annual aid being substantially greater than GDP. The
  principal sources of revenue come from sales of copra, postage
  stamps, souvenir coins, and handicrafts. Money is also remitted to
  families from relatives in New Zealand.

Tonga
  Tonga, a small, open, South Pacific island economy, has a
  narrow export base in agricultural goods. Squash, coconuts, bananas,
  and vanilla beans are the main crops, and agricultural exports make
  up two-thirds of total exports. The country must import a high
  proportion of its food, mainly from New Zealand. The country remains
  dependent on external aid and remittances from Tongan communities
  overseas to offset its trade deficit. Tourism is the second-largest
  source of hard currency earnings following remittances. The
  government is emphasizing the development of the private sector,
  especially the encouragement of investment, and is committing
  increased funds for health and education. Tonga has a reasonably
  sound basic infrastructure and well-developed social services. High
  unemployment among the young, a continuing upturn in inflation,
  pressures for democratic reform, and rising civil service
  expenditures are major issues facing the government.

Trinidad and Tobago
  Trinidad and Tobago, the leading Caribbean
  producer of oil and gas, has earned a reputation as an excellent
  investment site for international businesses. Tourism is a growing
  sector, although not proportionately as important as in many other
  Caribbean islands. The economy benefits from low inflation and a
  growing trade surplus. Prospects for growth in 2006 are good as
  prices for oil, petrochemicals, and liquefied natural gas are
  expected to remain high, and foreign direct investment continues to
  grow to support expanded capacity in the energy sector. The
  government is coping with a rise in violent crime.

Tromelin Island
  no economic activity

Tunisia
  Tunisia has a diverse economy, with important agricultural,
  mining, energy, tourism, and manufacturing sectors. Governmental
  control of economic affairs while still heavy has gradually lessened
  over the past decade with increasing privatization, simplification
  of the tax structure, and a prudent approach to debt. Progressive
  social policies also have helped raise living conditions in Tunisia
  relative to the region. Real growth slowed to a 15-year low of 1.9%
  in 2002 because of agricultural drought and lackluster tourism.
  Better rains in 2003 through 2005, however, helped push GDP growth
  to about 5% for these years. Tourism also recovered after the end of
  combat operations in Iraq. Tunisia is gradually removing barriers to
  trade with the EU. Broader privatization, further liberalization of
  the investment code to increase foreign investment, improvements in
  government efficiency, and reduction of the trade deficit are among
  the challenges ahead.

Turkey
  Turkey's dynamic economy is a complex mix of modern industry
  and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that still
  accounts for more than 35% of employment. It has a strong and
  rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major
  role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication. The
  largest industrial sector is textiles and clothing, which accounts
  for one-third of industrial employment; it faces stiff competition
  in international markets with the end of the global quota system.
  However, other sectors, notably the automotive and electronics
  industries, are rising in importance within Turkey's export mix.
  Real GNP growth has exceeded 6% in many years, but this strong
  expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 1994,
  1999, and 2001. The economy is turning around with the
  implementation of economic reforms, and 2004 GDP growth reached 9%.
  Inflation fell to 7.7% in 2005 - a 30-year low. Despite the strong
  economic gains in 2002-05, which were largely due to renewed
  investor interest in emerging markets, IMF backing, and tighter
  fiscal policy, the economy is still burdened by a high current
  account deficit and high debt. The public sector fiscal deficit
  exceeds 6% of GDP - due in large part to high interest payments,
  which accounted for about 37% of central government spending in
  2004. Prior to 2005, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey
  averaged less than $1 billion annually, but further economic and
  judicial reforms and prospective EU membership are expected to boost
  FDI. Privatization sales are currently approaching $21 billion.

Turkmenistan
  Turkmenistan is a largely desert country with intensive
  agriculture in irrigated oases and large gas and oil resources.
  One-half of its irrigated land is planted in cotton; formerly it was
  the world's tenth-largest producer. Poor harvests in recent years
  have led to an almost 50% decline in cotton exports. With an
  authoritarian ex-Communist regime in power and a tribally based
  social structure, Turkmenistan has taken a cautious approach to
  economic reform, hoping to use gas and cotton sales to sustain its
  inefficient economy. Privatization goals remain limited. In
  1998-2005, Turkmenistan suffered from the continued lack of adequate
  export routes for natural gas and from obligations on extensive
  short-term external debt. At the same time, however, total exports
  rose by 20% to 30% per year in 2003-2005, largely because of higher
  international oil and gas prices. In 2005, Ashgabat sought to raise
  natural gas export prices to its main customers, Russia and Ukraine,
  from $44 per thousand cubic meters (tcm) to $66 per tcm. Overall
  prospects in the near future are discouraging because of widespread
  internal poverty, the burden of foreign debt, the government's
  irrational use of oil and gas revenues, and its unwillingness to
  adopt market-oriented reforms. Turkmenistan's economic statistics
  are state secrets, and GDP and other figures are subject to wide
  margins of error. In particular, the rate of GDP growth is uncertain.

Turks and Caicos Islands
  The Turks and Caicos economy is based on
  tourism, fishing, and offshore financial services. Most capital
  goods and food for domestic consumption are imported. The US is the
  leading source of tourists, accounting for more than half of the
  annual 93,000 visitors in the late 1990s. Major sources of
  government revenue also include fees from offshore financial
  activities and customs receipts.

Tuvalu
  Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scattered group of
  nine coral atolls with poor soil. The country has no known mineral
  resources and few exports. Subsistence farming and fishing are the
  primary economic activities. Fewer than 1,000 tourists, on average,
  visit Tuvalu annually. Government revenues largely come from the
  sale of stamps and coins and remittances from seamen on merchant
  ships abroad. About 1,000 Tuvaluans are being repatriated from
  Nauru, with the decline of phosphate resources there. Substantial
  income is received annually from an international trust fund
  established in 1987 by Australia, NZ, and the UK and supported also
  by Japan and South Korea. Thanks to wise investments and
  conservative withdrawals, this fund has grown from an initial $17
  million to over $35 million in 1999. The US Government is also a
  major revenue source for Tuvalu because of payments from a 1988
  treaty on fisheries. In an effort to reduce its dependence on
  foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms,
  including privatization of some government functions and personnel
  cuts of up to 7%. Tuvalu derives around $1.5 million per year from
  the lease of its ".tv" Internet domain name. With merchandise
  exports only a fraction of merchandise imports, continued reliance
  must be placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees,
  remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and income
  from overseas investments.

Uganda
  Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile
  soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and
  cobalt. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy,
  employing over 80% of the work force. Coffee accounts for the bulk
  of export revenues. Since 1986, the government - with the support of
  foreign countries and international agencies - has acted to
  rehabilitate and stabilize the economy by undertaking currency
  reform, raising producer prices on export crops, increasing prices
  of petroleum products, and improving civil service wages. The policy
  changes are especially aimed at dampening inflation and boosting
  production and export earnings. During 1990-2001, the economy turned
  in a solid performance based on continued investment in the
  rehabilitation of infrastructure, improved incentives for production
  and exports, reduced inflation, gradually improved domestic
  security, and the return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs. In
  2000, Uganda qualified for enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries
  (HIPC) debt relief worth $1.3 billion and Paris Club debt relief
  worth $145 million. These amounts combined with the original HIPC
  debt relief added up to about $2 billion. Growth for 2001-02 was
  solid despite continued decline in the price of coffee, Uganda's
  principal export. Growth in 2003-05 reflected an upturn in Uganda's
  export markets.

Ukraine
  After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the
  most important economic component of the former Soviet Union,
  producing about four times the output of the next-ranking republic.
  Its fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of Soviet
  agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities
  of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics. Likewise,
  its diversified heavy industry supplied the unique equipment (for
  example, large diameter pipes) and raw materials to industrial and
  mining sites (vertical drilling apparatus) in other regions of the
  former USSR. Ukraine depends on imports of energy, especially
  natural gas, to meet some 85% of its annual energy requirements.
  Shortly after independence was ratified in December 1991, the
  Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal
  framework for privatization, but widespread resistance to reform
  within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform
  efforts and led to some backtracking. Output by 1999 had fallen to
  less than 40% of the 1991 level. Loose monetary policies pushed
  inflation to hyperinflationary levels in late 1993. Ukraine's
  dependence on Russia for energy supplies and the lack of significant
  structural reform have made the Ukrainian economy vulnerable to
  external shocks. A dispute with Russia over pricing led to a
  temporary gas cut-off; Ukraine concluded a deal with Russia in
  January 2006, which almost doubled the price Ukraine pays for
  Russian gas, and could cost the Ukrainian economy $1.4-2.2 billion
  and cause GDP growth to fall 3-4%. Ukrainian government officials
  eliminated most tax and customs privileges in a March 2005 budget
  law, bringing more economic activity out of Ukraine's large shadow
  economy, but more improvements are needed, including fighting
  corruption, developing capital markets, and improving the
  legislative framework for businesses. Reforms in the more
  politically sensitive areas of structural reform and land
  privatization are still lagging. Outside institutions - particularly
  the IMF - have encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of
  reforms. GDP growth was 2.4% in 2005, down from 12.4% in 2004. The
  current account surplus reached $2.2 billion in 2005. The
  privatization of the Kryvoryzhstal steelworks in late 2005 produced
  $4.8 billion in windfall revenue for the government. Some of the
  proceeds were used to finance the budget deficit, some to
  recapitalize two state banks, some to retire public debt, and the
  rest may be used to finance future deficits.

United Arab Emirates
  The UAE has an open economy with a high per
  capita income and a sizable annual trade surplus. Its wealth is
  based on oil and gas output (about 30% of GDP), and the fortunes of
  the economy fluctuate with the prices of those commodities. Since
  the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has
  undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of
  small desert principalities to a modern state with a high standard
  of living. At present levels of production, oil and gas reserves
  should last for more than 100 years. The government has increased
  spending on job creation and infrastructure expansion and is opening
  up its utilities to greater private sector involvement. Higher oil
  revenue, strong liquidity, and cheap credit in 2005 led to a surge
  in asset prices (shares and real estate) and consumer inflation. Any
  sharp correction to the UAE's equity markets could damage investor
  and consumer sentiment and affect bank asset quality. In April 2004,
  the UAE signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA)
  with Washington and in November 2004 agreed to undertake
  negotiations toward a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US.

United Kingdom
  The UK, a leading trading power and financial center,
  is one of the quintet of trillion dollar economies of Western
  Europe. Over the past two decades, the government has greatly
  reduced public ownership and contained the growth of social welfare
  programs. Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanized, and efficient
  by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs with less
  than 2% of the labor force. The UK has large coal, natural gas, and
  oil reserves; primary energy production accounts for 10% of GDP, one
  of the highest shares of any industrial nation. Services,
  particularly banking, insurance, and business services, account by
  far for the largest proportion of GDP while industry continues to
  decline in importance. GDP growth slipped in 2001-03 as the global
  downturn, the high value of the pound, and the bursting of the "new
  economy" bubble hurt manufacturing and exports. Output recovered in
  2004, to 3.2% growth, but fell in 2005, to 1.7%. Despite slower
  growth, the economy is one of the strongest in Europe; inflation,
  interest rates, and unemployment remain low. The relatively good
  economic performance has complicated the BLAIR government's efforts
  to make a case for Britain to join the European Economic and
  Monetary Union (EMU). Critics point out that the economy is doing
  well outside of EMU, and public opinion polls show a majority of
  Britons are opposed to the euro. Meantime, the government has been
  speeding up the improvement of education, transport, and health
  services, at a cost in higher taxes and a widening public deficit.

United States
  The US has the largest and most technologically
  powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $42,000. In
  this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms
  make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments
  buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private
  marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their
  counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand
  capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new
  products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their
  rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets. US
  firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances,
  especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military
  equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War
  II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual
  development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the
  bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of
  those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay
  raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975,
  practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top
  20% of households. The response to the terrorist attacks of 11
  September 2001 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy. The
  war in March-April 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq, and the
  subsequent occupation of Iraq, required major shifts in national
  resources to the military. The rise in GDP in 2004 and 2005 was
  undergirded by substantial gains in labor productivity. Hurricane
  Katrina caused extensive damage in the Gulf Coast region in August
  2005, but had a small impact on overall GDP growth for the year.
  Soaring oil prices in 2005 and 2006 threatened inflation and
  unemployment, yet the economy continued to grow through mid-2006.
  Imported oil accounts for about two-thirds of US consumption.
  Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic
  infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging
  population, sizable trade and budget deficits, and stagnation of
  family income in the lower economic groups.

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  no economic activity

Uruguay
  Uruguay's well-to-do economy is characterized by an
  export-oriented agricultural sector, a well-educated work force, and
  high levels of social spending. After averaging growth of 5%
  annually during 1996-98, in 1999-2002 the economy suffered a major
  downturn, stemming largely from the spillover effects of the
  economic problems of its large neighbors, Argentina and Brazil. For
  instance, in 2001-02 Argentina made massive withdrawals of dollars
  deposited in Uruguayan banks, which led to a plunge in the Uruguayan
  peso and a massive rise in unemployment. Total GDP in these four
  years dropped by nearly 20%, with 2002 the worst year due to the
  banking crisis. The unemployment rate rose to nearly 20% in 2002,
  inflation surged, and the burden of external debt doubled.
  Cooperation with the IMF helped stem the damage. A debt swap with
  private-sector creditors in 2003 extended the maturity dates on
  nearly half of Uruguay's then $11.3 billion of public debt and
  helped restore public confidence. The economy grew about 10% in 2004
  as a result of high commodity prices for Uruguayan exports, a
  competitive peso, growth in the region, and low international
  interest rates, but slowed to 6.1% in 2005.

Uzbekistan
  Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country of which 11%
  consists of intensely cultivated, irrigated river valleys. More than
  60% of its population lives in densely populated rural communities.
  Uzbekistan is now the world's second-largest cotton exporter and
  fifth largest producer; it relies heavily on cotton production as
  the major source of export earnings. Other major export earners
  include gold, natural gas, and oil. Following independence in
  September 1991, the government sought to prop up its Soviet-style
  command economy with subsidies and tight controls on production and
  prices. While aware of the need to improve the investment climate,
  the government still sponsors measures that often increase, not
  decrease, its control over business decisions. A sharp increase in
  the inequality of income distribution has hurt the lower ranks of
  society since independence. In 2003, the government accepted the
  obligations of Article VIII under the International Monetary Fund
  (IMF), providing for full currency convertibility. However, strict
  currency controls and tightening of borders have lessened the
  effects of convertibility and have also led to some shortages that
  have further stifled economic activity. The Central Bank often
  delays or restricts convertibility, especially for consumer goods.
  Potential investment by Russia and China in Uzbekistan's gas and oil
  industry would increase economic growth prospects. In November 2005,
  Russian President Vladimir PUTIN and Uzbekistan President KARIMOV
  signed an "alliance" treaty, which included provisions for economic
  and business cooperation. Russian businesses have shown increased
  interest in Uzbekistan, especially in mining, telecom, and oil and
  gas. In December 2005, the Russians opened a "Trade House" to
  support and develop Russian-Uzbek business and economic ties.

Vanuatu
  This South Pacific island economy is based primarily on
  small-scale agriculture, which provides a living for 65% of the
  population. Fishing, offshore financial services, and tourism, with
  about 50,000 visitors in 2004, are other mainstays of the economy.
  Mineral deposits are negligible; the country has no known petroleum
  deposits. A small light industry sector caters to the local market.
  Tax revenues come mainly from import duties. Economic development is
  hindered by dependence on relatively few commodity exports,
  vulnerability to natural disasters, and long distances from main
  markets and between constituent islands. GDP growth rose less than
  3% on average in the 1990s. In response to foreign concerns, the
  government has promised to tighten regulation of its offshore
  financial center. In mid-2002 the government stepped up efforts to
  boost tourism. Agriculture, especially livestock farming, is a
  second target for growth. Australia and New Zealand are the main
  suppliers of tourists and foreign aid.

Venezuela
  Venezuela continues to be highly dependent on the
  petroleum sector, accounting for roughly one-third of GDP, around
  80% of export earnings, and over half of government operating
  revenues. Government revenue also has been bolstered by increased
  tax collection, which has surpassed its 2005 collection goal by
  almost 50%. Tax revenue is the primary source of non-oil revenue,
  which accounts for 53% of the 2006 budget. A disastrous two-month
  national oil strike, from December 2002 to February 2003,
  temporarily halted economic activity. The economy remained in
  depression in 2003, declining by 9.2% after an 8.9% fall in 2002.
  Output recovered strongly in 2004-2005, aided by high oil prices and
  strong consumption growth. Venezuela continues to be an important
  source of crude oil for the US market. Both inflation and
  unemployment remain fundamental problems.

Vietnam
  Vietnam is a densely-populated, developing country that in
  the last 30 years has had to recover from the ravages of war, the
  loss of financial support from the old Soviet Bloc, and the
  rigidities of a centrally-planned economy. Substantial progress was
  achieved from 1986 to 1997 in moving forward from an extremely low
  level of development and significantly reducing poverty. Growth
  averaged around 9% per year from 1993 to 1997. The 1997 Asian
  financial crisis highlighted the problems in the Vietnamese economy
  and temporarily allowed opponents of reform to slow progress toward
  a market-oriented economy. GDP growth averaged 6.8% per year from
  1997 to 2004 even against the background of the Asian financial
  crisis and a global recession, and growth hit 8% in 2005. Since
  2001, however, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their
  commitment to economic liberalization and international integration.
  They have moved to implement the structural reforms needed to
  modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven
  industries. Vietnam's membership in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)
  and entry into force of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in
  December 2001 have led to even more rapid changes in Vietnam's trade
  and economic regime. Vietnam's exports to the US doubled in 2002 and
  again in 2003. Vietnam hopes to become a member of the WTO in 2006.
  Among other benefits, accession would allow Vietnam to take
  advantage of the phase out of the Agreement on Textiles and
  Clothing, which eliminated quotas on textiles and clothing for WTO
  partners on 1 January 2005. Agriculture's share of economic output
  has continued to shrink, from about 25% in 2000 to 21% in 2005. Deep
  poverty, defined as a percent of the population living under $1 per
  day, has declined significantly and is now smaller than that of
  China, India, and the Philippines. Vietnam is working to promote job
  creation to keep up with the country's high population growth rate.
  However, high levels of inflation have prompted Vietnamese
  authorities to tighten monetary and fiscal policies.

Virgin Islands
  Tourism is the primary economic activity, accounting
  for 80% of GDP and employment. The islands normally host 2 million
  visitors a year. The manufacturing sector consists of petroleum
  refining, textiles, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and watch
  assembly. The agricultural sector is small, with most food being
  imported. International business and financial services are small
  but growing components of the economy. One of the world's largest
  petroleum refineries is at Saint Croix. The islands are subject to
  substantial damage from storms. The government is working to improve
  fiscal discipline, to support construction projects in the private
  sector, to expand tourist facilities, to reduce crime, and to
  protect the environment.

Wake Island
  Economic activity is limited to providing services to
  military personnel and contractors located on the island. All food
  and manufactured goods must be imported.

Wallis and Futuna
  The economy is limited to traditional subsistence
  agriculture, with about 80% labor force earnings from agriculture
  (coconuts and vegetables), livestock (mostly pigs), and fishing.
  About 4% of the population is employed in government. Revenues come
  from French Government subsidies, licensing of fishing rights to
  Japan and South Korea, import taxes, and remittances from expatriate
  workers in New Caledonia.

West Bank
  The West Bank - the larger of the two areas under the
  Palestinian Authority (PA)- has experienced a general decline in
  economic growth and a degradation in economic conditions made worse
  since the second intifadah began in September 2000. The downturn has
  been largely the result of the Israeli closure policies - the
  imposition of border closures in response to security incidents in
  Israel - which disrupted labor and commodity market relationships.
  In 2001, and even more severely in 2002, Israeli military measures
  in PA areas resulted in the destruction of much capital plant, the
  disruption of administrative structure, and widespread business
  closures. Including the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates that more than
  100,000 Palestinians out of the 125,000 who used to work in Israeli
  settlements, or in joint industrial zones, have lost their jobs.
  International aid of $2 billion to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in
  2004 prevented the complete collapse of the economy and allowed some
  reforms in the government's financial operations. In 2005, high
  unemployment and limited trade opportunities, due to continued
  closures both within the West Bank and externally, stymied growth.

Western Sahara
  Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing,
  and phosphate mining as the principal sources of income for the
  population. The territory lacks sufficient rainfall for sustainable
  agricultural production, and most of the food for the urban
  population must be imported. All trade and other economic activities
  are controlled by the Moroccan Government. Moroccan energy interests
  in 2001 signed contracts to explore for oil off the coast of Western
  Sahara, which has angered the Polisario. Incomes and standards of
  living in Western Sahara are substantially below the Moroccan level.

World
  Global output rose by 4.4% in 2005, led by China (9.3%), India
  (7.6%), and Russia (5.9%). The other 14 successor nations of the
  USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely
  divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong
  performers, in the 7% range of growth. Growth results posted by the
  major industrial countries varied from no gain for Italy to a strong
  gain by the United States (3.5%). The developing nations also varied
  in their growth results, with many countries facing population
  increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the nation-state,
  as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing
  control over international flows of people, goods, funds, and
  technology. Internally, the central government often finds its
  control over resources slipping as separatist regional movements -
  typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in many of the
  successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the former
  Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada.
  Externally, the central government is losing decisionmaking powers
  to international bodies, notably the EU. In Western Europe,
  governments face the difficult political problem of channeling
  resources away from welfare programs in order to increase investment
  and strengthen incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80
  million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is
  exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification,
  underemployment, epidemics, and famine. Because of their own
  internal problems and priorities, the industrialized countries
  devote insufficient resources to deal effectively with the poorer
  areas of the world, which, at least from an economic point of view,
  are becoming further marginalized. The introduction of the euro as
  the common currency of much of Western Europe in January 1999, while
  paving the way for an integrated economic powerhouse, poses economic
  risks because of varying levels of income and cultural and political
  differences among the participating nations. The terrorist attacks
  on the US on 11 September 2001 accentuated a further growing risk to
  global prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of
  resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The
  opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq
  added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the
  coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high
  economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major
  global problems that continued into 2006.

Yemen
  Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, has
  reported meager growth since 2000. Its economic fortunes depend
  mostly on oil. Oil revenues increased in 2005 due to higher prices.
  Yemen was on an IMF-supported structural adjustment program designed
  to modernize and streamline the economy, which led to substantial
  foreign debt relief and restructuring. However, government
  dedication to the program waned in 2001 for political reasons. Yemen
  is struggling to control excessive spending and rampant corruption.
  The people have grown increasingly upset over the economic
  situation. In July 2005, a reduction in fuel subsidies sparked
  riots; over 20 Yemenis were killed and hundreds were injured.

Zambia
  Despite progress in privatization and budgetary reform,
  Zambia's economic growth remains somewhat below the 6%-7% needed to
  reduce poverty significantly. Privatization of government-owned
  copper mines relieved the government from covering mammoth losses
  generated by the industry and greatly improved the chances for
  copper mining to return to profitability and spur economic growth.
  Copper output has increased steadily since 2004, due to higher
  copper prices and the opening of new mines. The maize harvest was
  again good in 2005, helping boost GDP and agricultural exports.
  Cooperation continues with international bodies on programs to
  reduce poverty, including a new lending arrangement with the IMF in
  the second quarter of 2004. A tighter monetary policy will help cut
  inflation, but Zambia still has a serious problem with high public
  debt.

Zimbabwe
  The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of
  difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable
  fiscal deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and
  bare shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic
  Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of
  dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been
  suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans, which
  it began repaying in 2005. The official annual inflation rate rose
  from 32% in 1998, to 133% at the end of 2004, and 585% at the end of
  2005, although private sector estimates put the figure much higher.
  Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean
  dollars per US dollar in 1998 to 96,000 in mid-January 2006. The
  government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and
  violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the
  traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider
  of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food
  products.

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2117  Pipelines (km)


Afghanistan
  gas 466 km (2006)

Albania
  gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2006)

Algeria
  condensate 1,344 km; gas 85,946 km; liquid petroleum gas
  2,213 km; oil 6,496 km (2005)

Angola
  gas 235 km; liquid petroleum gas 122 km; oil 867 km;
  oil/gas/water 5 km (2006)

Argentina
  gas 29,804 km; liquid petroleum gas 41 km; oil 10,373 km;
  refined products 8,540 km; unknown (oil/water) 13 km (2006)

Armenia
  gas 2,002 km (2006)

Australia
  condensate/gas 546 km; gas 31,323 km; liquid petroleum gas
  240 km; oil 4,808 km; oil/gas/water 110 km (2006)

Austria
  gas 2,722 km; oil 663 km; refined products 149 km (2006)

Azerbaijan
  gas 3,190 km; oil 2,436 km (2006)

Bahrain
  gas 20 km; oil 52 km (2006)

Bangladesh
  gas 2,604 km (2006)

Belarus
  gas 5,223 km; oil 2,321 km; refined products 1,686 km (2006)

Belgium
  gas 1,561 km; oil 158 km; refined products 535 km (2006)

Bolivia
  gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km;
  refined products 1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2006)

Brazil
  condensate/gas 244 km; gas 11,669 km; liquid petroleum gas
  341 km; oil 5,212 km; refined products 4,755 km (2006)

Brunei
  gas 672 km; oil 463 km (2006)

Bulgaria
  gas 2,505 km; oil 339 km; refined products 156 km (2006)

Burma
  gas 2,224 km; oil 558 km (2006)

Cameroon
  gas 70 km; liquid petroleum gas 9 km; oil 1,107 km (2006)

Canada
  crude and reined oil 23,564 km; liquid petroleum gas 74,980
  km (2005)

Chad
  oil 205 km (2006)

Chile
  gas 2,567 km; gas/lpg 42 km; liquid petroleum gas 539 km; oil
  1,003 km; refined products 757 km; unknown (oil/water) 97 km (2006)

China
  gas 22,664 km; oil 15,256 km; refined products 6,106 km (2006)

Colombia
  gas 4,360 km; oil 6,140 km; refined products 3,158 km (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  gas 54 km; oil 78 km (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  gas 89 km; liquid petroleum gas 4 km; oil 744
  km (2006)

Costa Rica
  refined products 242 km (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  condensate 109 km; gas 240 km; oil 112 km (2006)

Croatia
  gas 1,340 km; oil 583 km (2006)

Cuba
  gas 49 km; oil 230 km (2006)

Czech Republic
  gas 7,010 km; oil 547 km; refined products 94 km
  (2006)

Denmark
  condensate 12 km; gas 3,931 km; oil 626 km; oil/gas/water 2
  km (2006)

Ecuador
  extra heavy crude 578 km; gas 71 km; oil 1,386 km; refined
  products 1,185 km (2006)

Egypt
  condensate 464 km; condensate/gas 94 km; gas 6,021 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 897 km; oil 5,120 km; oil/gas/water 36 km; refined
  products 897 km (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  condensate 46 km; condensate/gas 5 km; gas 47 km;
  oil 31 km (2006)

Estonia
  gas 859 km (2006)

Finland
  gas 694 km (2006)

France
  gas 14,588 km; oil 3,024 km; refined products 4,889 km (2006)

Gabon
  gas 272 km; oil 1,354 km (2006)

Georgia
  gas 1,349 km; oil 1,010 km (2006)

Germany
  condensate 37 km; gas 25,035 km; oil 3,546 km; refined
  products 3,827 km (2006)

Ghana
  oil 13 km; refined products 316 km (2006)

Greece
  gas 1,166 km; oil 94 km (2006)

Guatemala
  oil 480 km (2006)

Hungary
  gas 4,397 km; oil 990 km; refined products 335 km (2006)

India
  condensate/gas 8 km; gas 5,184 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,993
  km; oil 6,500 km; refined products 6,152 km (2006)

Indonesia
  condensate 944 km; condensate/gas 135 km; gas 9,175 km;
  oil 7,684 km; oil/gas/water 89 km; refined products 1,367 km (2006)

Iran
  condensate 7 km; condensate/gas 397 km; gas 17,099 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 570 km; oil 8,521 km; refined products 7,808 km (2006)

Iraq
  gas 2,228 km; liquid petroleum gas 918 km; oil 5,506 km;
  refined products 1,637 km (2006)

Ireland
  gas 1,728 km (2006)

Israel
  gas 193 km; oil 442 km; refined products 261 km (2006)

Italy
  gas 17,589 km; oil 1,136 km (2006)

Japan
  gas 8,015 km; oil 170 km; oil/gas/water 60 km (2006)

Jordan
  gas 426 km; oil 49 km (2006)

Kazakhstan
  condensate 658 km; gas 11,019 km; oil 10,338 km; refined
  products 1,095 km (2006)

Kenya
  refined products 894 km (2006)

Korea, North
  oil 154 km (2006)

Korea, South
  gas 1,482 km; refined products 827 km (2006)

Kuwait
  gas 269 km; oil 540 km; refined products 57 km (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  gas 254 km; oil 16 km (2006)

Laos
  refined products 540 km (2006)

Latvia
  gas 1,097 km; oil 82 km; refined products 415 km (2006)

Lebanon
  gas 43 km (2006)

Libya
  condensate 882 km; gas 3,481 km; oil 6,916 km (2006)

Liechtenstein
  gas 20 km (2006)

Lithuania
  gas 1,696 km; oil 228 km; refined products 121 km (2006)

Luxembourg
  gas 155 km (2006)

Macedonia
  gas 268 km; oil 120 km (2006)

Malaysia
  condensate 282 km; gas 5,372 km; oil 1,715 km;
  oil/gas/water 19 km; refined products 114 km (2006)

Mexico
  gas 22,705 km; liquid petroleum gas 1,875 km; oil 8,688 km;
  oil/gas/water 228 km; refined products 6,520 km (2006)

Moldova
  gas 606 km (2006)

Morocco
  gas 715 km; oil 285 km (2006)

Mozambique
  gas 918 km; refined products 294 km (2006)

Netherlands
  condensate 81 km; gas 7,229 km; oil 578 km; refined
  products 716 km (2006)

New Zealand
  condensate 224 km; gas 1,693 km; liquid petroleum gas 45
  km; oil 280 km; refined products 288 km (2006)

Nicaragua
  oil 54 km (2006)

Nigeria
  condensate 126 km; gas 2,812 km; liquid petroleum gas 125
  km; oil 4,278 km; refined products 3,517 km (2006)

Norway
  condensate 508 km; gas 5,910 km; oil 2,557 km; oil/gas/water
  746 km (2006)

Oman
  gas 4,072 km; oil 3,405 km (2006)

Pakistan
  gas 10,257 km; oil 2,001 km (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  oil 264 km (2006)

Peru
  gas 983 km; gas/lpg 61 km; liquid natural gas 106 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 517 km; oil 1,754 km; refined products 13 km (2006)

Philippines
  gas 565 km; oil 135 km; refined products 105 km (2006)

Poland
  gas 13,552 km; oil 1,384 km; refined products 777 km (2006)

Portugal
  gas 1,099 km; oil 8 km; refined products 174 km (2006)

Qatar
  condensate 319 km; condensate/gas 209 km; gas 1,024 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 87 km; oil 844 km (2006)

Romania
  gas 3,508 km; oil 2,427 km (2006)

Russia
  condensate 122 km; gas 156,285 km; oil 72,283 km; refined
  products 13,658 km (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  condensate 212 km; gas 1,880 km; liquid petroleum gas
  1,183 km; oil 4,531 km; refined products 1,150 km (2006)

Senegal
  gas 43 km (2006)

Serbia
  gas 3,177 km; oil 393 km (2006)

Singapore
  gas 139 km; refined products 8 km (2006)

Slovakia
  gas 6,769 km; oil 416 km (2006)

Slovenia
  gas 2,526 km; oil 11 km (2006)

South Africa
  condensate 100 km; gas 1,062 km; oil 966 km; refined
  products 1,354 km (2006)

Spain
  gas 7,962 km; oil 622 km; refined products 3,447 km (2006)

Sudan
  gas 156 km; oil 3,930 km; refined products 1,613 km (2006)

Suriname
  oil 51 km (2006)

Sweden
  gas 798 km (2006)

Switzerland
  gas 1,831 km; oil 94 km; refined products 7 km (2006)

Syria
  gas 2,764 km; oil 2,000 km (2006)

Taiwan
  condensate 25 km; gas 661 km (2006)

Tajikistan
  gas 549 km; oil 38 km (2006)

Tanzania
  gas 254 km; oil 872 km (2006)

Thailand
  gas 3,760 km; refined products 379 km (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  condensate 253 km; gas 1,278 km; oil 571 km
  (2006)

Tunisia
  gas 2,945 km; oil 1,227 km; refined products 351 km (2006)

Turkey
  gas 4,621 km; oil 3,543 km (2006)

Turkmenistan
  gas 6,441 km; oil 1,361 km (2006)

Ukraine
  gas 19,951 km; oil 4,514 km; refined products 4,211 km (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  condensate 520 km; gas 2,580 km; liquid
  petroleum gas 300 km; oil 2,950 km; oil/gas/water 5 km; refined
  products 156 km (2006)

United Kingdom
  condensate 565 km; condensate/gas 6 km; gas 21,575
  km; liquid petroleum gas 59 km; oil 5,094 km; oil/gas/water 161 km;
  refined products 4,444 km (2006)

United States
  petroleum products 244,620 km; natural gas 548,665 km
  (2003)

Uruguay
  gas 257 km; oil 160 km (2006)

Uzbekistan
  gas 9,594 km; oil 868 km (2006)

Venezuela
  extra heavy crude 992 km; gas 5,369 km; oil 7,607 km;
  refined products 1,681 km; unknown (oil/water) 141 km (2006)

Vietnam
  condensate/gas 432 km; gas 163 km; oil 50 km; refined
  products 206 km (2006)

Yemen
  gas 71 km; liquid petroleum gas 22 km; oil 1,284 km (2006)

Zambia
  oil 771 km (2006)

Zimbabwe
  refined products 261 km (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2118  Political parties and leaders


Afghanistan
  note - includes only political parties approved by the
  Ministry of Justice: Afghan Millat [Anwarul Haq AHADI]; De
  Afghanistan De Solay Ghorzang Gond [Shahnawaz TANAI]; De Afghanistan
  De Solay Mili Islami Gond [Shah Mahmood Polal ZAI]; Harakat-e-Islami
  Afghanistan [Mohammad Asif MOHSINEE];
  Hezb-e-Aarman-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Iihaj Saraj-u-din ZAFAREE];
  Hezb-e-Aazadee Afghanistan [Abdul MALIK]; Hezb-e-Adalat-e-Islami
  Afghanistan [Mohammad Kabeer MARZBAN]; Hezb-e-Afghanistan-e-Wahid
  [Mohammad Wasil RAHEEMEE]; Hezb-e-Afghan Watan Islami Gond;
  Hezb-e-Congra-e-Mili Afghanistan [Latif PEDRAM];
  Hezb-e-Falah-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad ZAREEF];
  Hezb-e-Hambastagee Mili Jawanan-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad Jamil
  KARZAI]; Hezb-e-Hamnbatagee-e-Afghanistan [Abdul Khaleq NEMAT];
  Hezb-e-Harakat-e-Mili Wahdat-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad Nadir AATASH];
  Hezb-e-Harak-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ilhaj Said Hssain
  ANWARY]; Hezb-e-Ifazat Az Uqoq-e-Bashar Wa Inkishaf-e-Afghanistan
  [Baryalai NASRATEE]; Hezb-e-Istiqlal-e-Afghanistan [Dr. Gh. Farooq
  NIJZRABEE]; Hezb-e-Jamhoree Khwahan [Sibghatullah SANJAR];
  Hezb-e-Kar Wa Tawsiha-e-Afghanistan [Zulfiar OMID];
  Hezb-e-Libral-e-Aazadee Khwa-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ajmal SOHAIL];
  Hezb-e-Mili Afghanistan [Abdul Rasheed AARYAN]; Hezb-e-Mili
  Wahdat-e-Aqwam-e-Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Shah KHOGYANEE];
  Hezb-e-Nuhzhat-e-Mili Afghanistan [Ahmad Wali MASOUD];
  Hezb-e-Paiwand-e-Mili Afghanistan [Said Mansoor NADIRI];
  Hezb-e-Rastakhaiz-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Said ZAHIR];
  Hezb-e-Refah-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mia Gul WASEEQ];
  Hezb-e-Risalat-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Noor Aqa ROEEN];
  Hezb-e-Sahadat-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Mohammad Zubair PAIROZ];
  Hezb-e-Sahadat-e-Mili Wa Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Usman
  SALIGZADA]; Hezb-e-Sulh-e-Mili Islami Aqwam-e-Afghanistan [Abdul
  Qahir SHARYATEE]; Hezb-e-Sulh Wa Wahdat-e-Mili Afghanistan [Abdul
  Qadir IMAMEE]; Hezb-e-Tafahum-e-Wa Democracy Afghanistan [Ahamad
  SHAHEEN]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Afghanistan [Mohammad Karim
  KHALILI]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan [Ustad
  Mohammad MOHAQQEQ]; Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Mili Afghanistan [Abdul Rasheed
  JALILI]; Jamahat-ul-Dahwat ilal Qurhan-wa-Sunat-ul-Afghanistan
  [Mawlawee Samiullah NAJEEBEE]; Jombesh-e Milli [Abdul Rashid
  DOSTAM]; Mahaz-e-Mili Islami Afghanistan [Said Ahmad GAILANEE];
  Majmah-e-Mili Fahaleen-e-Sulh-e-Afghanistan [Shams ul Haq Noor
  SHAMS]; Nuhzat-e-Aazadee Wa Democracy Afghanistan [Abdul Raqeeb
  Jawid KUHISTANEE]; Nuhzat-e-Hambastagee Mili Afghanistan [Peer Said
  Ishaq GAILANEE]; Sazman-e-Islami Afghanistan-e-Jawan [Siad Jawad
  HUSSAINEE]; Tahreek Wahdat-e-Mili [Sultan Mahmood DHAZI] (30 Sep
  2004)

Albania
  Agrarian Environmentalist Party or PAA [Lufter XHUVELI];
  Christian Democratic Party or PDK [Nikolle LESI]; Communist Party of
  Albania or PKSH [Hysni MILLOSHI]; Democratic Alliance Party or DAP
  [Neritan CEKA]; Democratic Party or PD [Sali BERISHA]; Legality
  Movement Party or PLL [Ekrem SPAHIU]; Liberal Union Party or PBL
  [Arjan STAROVA]; National Front Party (Balli Kombetar) or BNK
  [Adriatik ALIMADHI]; New Democratic Party or PDR [Genc POLLO]; Party
  of National Unity or PUK [Idajet BEQIRI]; Renewed Democratic Party
  or PDRN [Dashamir SHEHI]; Republican Party or PR [Fatmir MEDIU];
  Social Democracy Party or PDS [Paskal MILO]; Social Democratic Party
  or PSD [Skender GJINUSHI]; Socialist Movement for Integration or LSI
  [Ilir META]; Socialist Party or PS [Edi RAMA]; Union for Human
  Rights Party or PBDNj [Vangjel DULE]

Algeria
  Algerian National Front or FNA [Moussa TOUATI]; National
  Democratic Rally (Rassemblement National Democratique) or RND [Ahmed
  OUYAHIA, secretary general]; Islamic Salvation Front or FIS
  (outlawed April 1992) [Ali BELHADJ, Dr. Abassi MADANI, Rabeh KEBIR];
  National Entente Movement or MEN [Ali BOUKHAZNA]; National
  Liberation Front or FLN [Abdelaziz BELKHADEM, secretary general];
  National Reform Movement or Islah (formerly MRN) [Abdellah
  DJABALLAH]; National Renewal Party or PRA [Yacine TERKMANE];
  Progressive Republican Party [Khadir DRISS]; Rally for Culture and
  Democracy or RCD [Said SADI]; Renaissance Movement or EnNahda
  Movement [Fatah RABEI]; Socialist Forces Front or FFS [Hocine Ait
  AHMED, secretary general]; Social Liberal Party or PSL [Ahmed
  KHELIL]; Society of Peace Movement or MSP [Boudjerra SOLTANI];
  Workers Party or PT [Louisa HANOUN]
  note: a law banning political parties based on religion was enacted
  in March 1997

American Samoa
  Democratic Party [Oreta M. TOGAFAU]; Republican Party
  [Tautai A. F. FAALEVAO]

Andorra
  Andorran Democratic Center Party or CDA (formerly Democratic
  Party or PD); Century 21 or S21 [Enric TARRADO]; Liberal Party of
  Andorra or PLA (formerly Liberal Union or UL) [Albert PINTAT];
  Social Democratic Party or PS (formerly part of National Democratic
  Group or AND) [Jaume BARTUMEU CASSANY]

Angola
  Liberal Democratic Party or PLD [Analia de Victoria PEREIRA];
  National Front for the Liberation of Angola or FNLA [disputed
  leadership: Lucas NGONDA, Holden ROBERTO]; National Union for the
  Total Independence of Angola or UNITA [Isaias SAMAKUVA] (largest
  opposition party); Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola or
  MPLA [Jose Eduardo DOS SANTOS] (ruling party in power since 1975);
  Social Renewal Party or PRS [disputed leadership: Eduardo KUANGANA,
  Antonio MUACHICUNGO]
  note: about a dozen minor parties participated in the 1992 elections
  but only won a few seats; they and the other 115 smaller parties
  have little influence in the National Assembly

Anguilla
  Anguilla United Movement or AUM [Hubert HUGHES]; The
  Anguilla United Front or AUF [Osbourne FLEMING, Victor BANKS], a
  coalition of the Anguilla Democratic Party or ADP and the Anguilla
  National Alliance or ANA; Anguilla Progressive Party or APP [Roy
  ROGERS]; Anguilla Strategic Alternative or ANSA [Edison BAIRD]

Antigua and Barbuda
  Antigua Labor Party or ALP [Lester Bryant BIRD];
  Barbuda People's Movement or BPM [Thomas H. FRANK]; National
  Democratic Congress [Tillman THOMAS]; United Progressive Party or
  UPP [Baldwin SPENCER] (a coalition of three opposition parties -
  Antigua Caribbean Liberation Movement or ACLM, Progressive Labor
  Movement or PLM, United National Democratic Party or UNDP)

Argentina
  Alternative for a Republic of Equals or ARI [Elisa
  CARRIO]; Front for Victory or FV [Nestor KIRCHNER]; Interbloque
  Federal or IF (a broad coalition of approximately 12 parties
  including RECREAR); Justicialist Front or FJ [Eduardo DUHALDE];
  Justicialist Party or PJ (Peronist umbrella political organization);
  Radical Civic Union or UCR [Roberto IGLESIAS]; Republican Initiative
  Alliance or PRO (including Federal Recreate Movement or RECREAR
  [Ricardo LOPEZ MURPHY] and Commitment for Change or CPC [Mauricio
  MACRI]); Socialist Party or PS [Ruben GIUSTINIANI]; Union For All
  [Patricia BULLRICH]; several provincial parties

Armenia
  Agro-Industrial Party [Vladimir BADALYAN]; Armenia Party
  [Myasnik MALKHASYAN]; Armenian National Movement or ANM [Alex
  ARZUMANYAN, chairman]; Armenian Ramkavar Liberal Party or HRAK
  [Harutyun MIRZAKHANYAN, chairman]; Armenian Revolutionary Federation
  ("Dashnak" Party) or ARF [Levon MKRTCHYAN]; Democratic Party [Aram
  SARKISYAN]; Justice Bloc (comprised of the Democratic Party,
  National Democratic Party, National Democratic Union, the People's
  Party, and the Republic Party) [Stepan DEMIRCHYAN]; National
  Democratic Party [Shavarsh KOCHARIAN]; National Democratic Union or
  NDU [Vazgen MANUKIAN]; National Revival Party [Albert BAZEYAN];
  National Unity Party [Artashes GEGHAMYAN, chairman]; People's Party
  of Armenia [Stepan DEMIRCHYAN]; Republic Party [Aram SARKISYAN,
  chairman]; Republican Party or RPA [Andranik MARGARYAN]; Rule of Law
  Party [Samvel BALASANYAN]; Union of Constitutional Rights [Hrant
  KHACHATURYAN]; United Labor Party [Gurgen ARSENYAN]

Aruba
  Aliansa/Aruban Social Movement or MSA [Robert WEVER]; Aruban
  Liberal Organization or OLA [Glenbert CROES]; Aruban Patriotic
  Movement or MPA [Monica ARENDS-KOCK]; Aruban Patriotic Party or PPA
  [Benny NISBET]; Aruban People's Party or AVP [Mike EMAN]; People's
  Electoral Movement Party or MEP [Nelson O. ODUBER]; Real Democracy
  or PDR [Andin BIKKER]; RED [Rudy LAMPE]; Workers Political Platform
  or PTT [Gregorio WOLFF]

Australia
  Australian Democrats [Lyn ALLISON]; Australian Greens [Bob
  BROWN]; Australian Labor Party [Kevin RUDD]; Country Liberal Party
  [Jodeen CARNEY]; Family First Party [Steve FIELDING]; Liberal Party
  [John Winston HOWARD]; The Nationals [Mark VAILE]

Austria
  Alliance for the Future of Austria or BZOe [Joerg HAIDER];
  Austrian People's Party or OeVP [Wolfgang SCHUESSEL]; Freedom Party
  of Austria or FPOe [Heinz Christian STRACHE]; Social Democratic
  Party of Austria or SPOe [Alfred GUSENBAUER]; The Greens [Alexander
  VAN DER BELLEN]

Azerbaijan
  Azerbaijan Popular Front or APF [Ali KARIMLI, leader of
  "Reform" faction; Mirmahmud MIRALI-OGLU, leader of "Classic"
  faction]; Civic Solidarity Party or CSP [Sabir RUSTAMKHANLY]; Civic
  Union Party [Ayaz MUTALIBOV]; Communist Party of Azerbaijan or CPA
  [Ramiz AHMADOV]; Compatriot Party [Mais SAFARLI]; Democratic Party
  for Azerbaijan or DPA [Rasul QULIYEV, chairman]; Justice Party
  [Ilyas ISMAILOV]; Liberal Party of Azerbaijan [Lala Shovkat
  HACIYEVA]; Motherland Party; Musavat [Isa GAMBAR, chairman]; Yeni
  Azerbaijan Party; Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan or
  PNIA [Etibar MAMMADLI, chairman]; Social Democratic Party of
  Azerbaijan or SDP [Araz ALIZADE and Ayaz MUTALIBOV]
  note: opposition parties regularly factionalize and form new parties

Bahamas, The
  Free National Movement or FNM [Hubert INGRAHAM];
  Progressive Liberal Party or PLP [Perry CHRISTIE]

Bahrain
  political parties prohibited but political societies were
  legalized per a July 2005 law

Bangladesh
  Awami League or AL [Sheikh HASINA]; Bangladesh Communist
  Party or BCP [Saifuddin Ahmed MANIK]; Bangladesh Nationalist Party
  or BNP [Khaleda ZIA]; Islami Oikya Jote or IOJ [Mufti Fazlul Haq
  AMINI]; Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh or JIB [Motiur Rahman NIZAMI];
  Jatiya Party or JP (Ershad faction) [Hussain Mohammad ERSHAD];
  Jatiya Party (Manzur faction) [Naziur Rahman MANZUR]; Liberal
  Democratic Party or LDP [Badrudozza CHOWDHURY and Oli AHMED]

Barbados
  Barbados Labor Party or BLP [Owen ARTHUR]; Democratic Labor
  Party or DLP [David THOMPSON]

Belarus
  pro-government parties: Agrarian Party or AP [Mikhail
  SHIMANSKY]; Belarusian Communist Party or KPB; Belarusian Patriotic
  Movement (Belarusian Patriotic Party) or BPR [Nikolai ULAKHOVICH,
  chairman]; Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus [Sergei GAYDUKEVICH];
  Party of Labor and Justice [Viktor SOKOLOV]; Social-Sports Party
  [Vladimir ALEXANDROVICH]
  opposition parties: 10 Plus Coalition [Alyaksandr MILINKEVICH],
  includes: Belarusian Party of Communists or PKB [Syarhey KALYAKIN];
  Belarusian Party of Labor (unregistered) [Aleksandr BUKHVOSTOV,
  Leonid LEMESHONAK]; Belarusian Popular Front or BPF [Vintsyuk
  VYACHORKA]; Belarusian Social-Democratic Gramada [Stanislav
  SHUSHKEVICH]; Green Party [Oleg GROMYKO]; Party of Freedom and
  Progress (unregistered) [Vladimir NOVOSYAD]; United Civic Party or
  UCP [Anatol LYABEDKA]; Women's Party "Nadezhda" [Valentina
  MATUSEVICH, chairperson]
  other opposition includes: Belarusian Social-Democratic Party
  Nardonaya Hromada or BSDP NH [Alyaksandr KOZULIN, chairman];
  Christian Conservative BPF [Zyanon PAZNIAK]; Ecological Party of
  Greens [Mikhail KARTASH]; Party of Popular Accord [Sergei YERMAKK];
  Republican Party [Vladimir BELAZOR]

Belgium
  Flemish parties: Christian Democrats and Flemish or CD & V
  [Jo VANDEURZEN]; Flemish Liberal Democrats or VLD [Bart SOMERS];
  GROEN! (formerly AGALEV, Flemish Greens) [Vera DUA]; New Flemish
  Alliance or NVA [Bart DE WEVER]; Social Progressive Alternative or
  SP.A [Johan Vande LANOTTE]; Spirit [Geert LAMBERT] (new party now
  associated with SP.A); Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) or VB [Frank
  VANHECKE]
  Francophone parties: Ecolo (Francophone Greens) [Jean-Michel JAVAUX,
  Isabelle DURANT, Claude BROUIR]; Humanist and Democratic Center of
  CDH [Joelle MILQUET]; National Front or FN [Daniel FERET]; Reform
  Movement or MR [Didier REYNDERS]; Socialist Party or PS [Elio DI
  RUPO]; other minor parties

Belize
  People's United Party or PUP [Said MUSA]; United Democratic
  Party or UDP [Dean BARROW, party leader; Douglas SINGH, party
  chairman]

Benin
  Alliance of Progress Forces or AFP; African Movement for
  Democracy and Progress or MADEP [Sefou FAGBOHOUN]; Democratic
  Renewal Party or PRD [Adrien HOUNGBEDJI]; Impulse for Progress and
  Democracy or IPD; Key Force or FC; Movement for Development and
  Solidarity or MDS; Movement for Development by the Culture-Salute
  Party-Congress of People for Progress Alliance or Alliance
  MDC-PS-CPP; New Alliance or NA; Rally for Democracy and Progress or
  RDP; Renaissance Party du Benin or RB [Nicephore SOGLO]; The Star
  Alliance (Alliance E'toile) [Sacca LAFIA]; Union of Tomorrow's Benin
  or UBF [Bruno AMOUSSOU]
  note: approximately 20 additional minor parties

Bermuda
  Progressive Labor Party or PLP [Ewart BROWN]; United Bermuda
  Party or UBP [Wayne FURBERT]

Bhutan
  no legal parties

Bolivia
  Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB [Romel PANTOJA]; Civic
  Solidarity Union or UCS [Johnny FERNANDEZ]; Free Bolivia Movement or
  MBL [Franz BARRIOS]; Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or
  VIMA [Freddy ZABALA]; Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR
  [Jaime PAZ Zamora]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo
  MORALES Ayma]; Movement Without Fear or MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO];
  National Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA];
  New Republican Force or NFR [Manfred REYES-VILLA]; Pachakuti
  Indigenous Movement or MIP [Felipe QUISPE Huanca]; Poder Democratico
  Nacional or PODEMOS [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Socialist
  Party or PS [Jeres JUSTINIANO]

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Alliance of Independent Social Democrats or
  SNSD [Milorad DODIK]; Bosnian Party or BOSS [Mirnes AJANOVIC]; Civic
  Democratic Party or GDS [Ibrahim SPAHIC]; Croat Christian Democratic
  Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina or HKDU [Marin TOPIC]; Croat Party
  of Rights or HSP [Zvonko JURISIC]; Croat Peasants Party or HSS
  [Marko TADIC]; Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  or HDZ-BH [Dragan COVIC]; Croatian Democratic Union 100 or HDZ100;
  Croatian Peoples Union [Milenko BRKIC]; Democratic National Union or
  DNZ [Rifet DOLIC]; Democratic Peoples Alliance or DNS [Marko PAVIC];
  Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Rasim KADIC]; New Croat Initiative
  or NHI [Kresimir ZUBAK]; Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina or SBiH
  [Haris SILAJDZIC]; Party for Democratic Action or SDA [Sulejman
  TIHIC]; Party of Democratic Progress or PDP [Mladen IVANIC]; Serb
  Democratic Party or SDS [Dragan CAVIC]; Serb Radical Party of the
  Republika Srpska or SRS-RS [Milanko MIHAJLICA]; Serb Radical
  Party-Dr. Vojislav Seselj or SRS-VS [Radislav KANJERIC]; Social
  Democratic Party of BIH or SDP [Zlatko LAGUMDZIJA]; Social
  Democratic Union or SDU [Sejfudin TOKIC]; Socialist Party of
  Republika Srpska or SPRS [Petar DJOKIC]

Botswana
  Botswana Alliance Movement or BAM [Ephraim Lepetu
  SETSHWAELO]; Botswana Congress Party or BCP [Otlaadisa KOOSALETSE];
  Botswana Democratic Party or BDP [Festus G. MOGAE]; Botswana
  National Front or BNF [Otswoletse MOUPO]; Botswana Peoples Party or
  BPP; MELS Movement of Botswana or MELS; New Democratic Front or NDF
  note: a number of minor parties joined forces in 1999 to form the
  BAM but did not capture any parliamentary seats - includes the
  United Action Party [Ephraim Lepetu SETSHWAELO]; the Independence
  Freedom Party or IFP [Motsamai MPHO]; the Botswana Progressive Union
  [D. K. KWELE]

Brazil
  Brazilian Democratic Movement Party or PMDB [Federal Deputy
  Michel TEMER]; Brazilian Labor Party or PTB [Flavio de CASTRO
  MARTINEZ]; Brazilian Renewal Labor Party or PRTB [Jose Levy Fidelix
  DA CRUZ]; Brazilian Republican Party or PRB [Vitor Paulo Araujo DOS
  SANTOS]; Brazilian Social Democracy Party or PSDB [Senator Tasso
  JEREISSATI]; Brazilian Socialist Party or PSB [Federal Deputy
  Eduardo Henrique Accioly CAMPOS]; Communist Party of Brazil or PCdoB
  [Jose Renato RABELO]; Democratic Labor Party or PDT [Carlos Roberto
  LUPI]; Democratic Socialist Party or PSD [Luis Marques MENDES];
  Green Party or PV [Jose Luiz de Franca PENNA]; Humanist Party of
  Solidarity or PHS [leader NA]; Liberal Party or PL [Federal Deputy
  Valdemar COSTA Neto]; National Order Reconstruction Party or PRONA
  [Federal Deputy Dr. Eneas Ferreira CARNEIRO]; Partido Municipalista
  Renovador or PMR [Natal Wellington Rodrigues FURUCHO]; Popular
  Socialist Party or PPS [Federal Deputy Roberto FREIRE]; Progressive
  Party or PP [Federal Deputy Pedro CORREA]; Social Christian Party or
  PSC [Vitor Jorge ABDALA NOSSEIS]; Workers' Party or PT [Ricardo Jose
  Ribeiro BERZOINI]

British Virgin Islands
  Concerned Citizens Movement or CCM [Ethlyn
  SMITH]; National Democratic Party or NDP [Orlando SMITH]; United
  Party or UP [Gregory MADURO]; Virgin Islands Party or VIP [Ralph T.
  O'NEAL]

Brunei
  Brunei Solidarity National Party (PPKB) [Haji Mohd HATTA bin
  Haji Zainal Abidin]; National Development Party (NDP) [YASSIN
  Affendi]; People's Awareness Party (PAKAR) [Awang Haji MAIDIN bin
  Haji Ahmad]
  note: parties are small and have limited activity (2005)

Bulgaria
  ATAKA (Attack Coalition) (coalition of parties headed by
  the Attack National Union); Attack National Union [Volen Siderov];
  Bulgarian Agrarian National Union-People's Union or BANU [Anastasia
  MOZER]; Bulgarian People's Union or BPU (coalition of UFD, IMRO, and
  BANU); Bulgarian Socialist Party or BSP [Sergei STANISHEV];
  Coalition for Bulgaria or CfB (coalition of parties dominated by
  BSP) [Sergei STANISHEV]; Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria or DSB
  [Ivan KOSTOV]; Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or
  IMRO [Krasimir KARAKACHANOV]; Movement for Rights and Freedoms or
  MRF [Ahmed DOGAN]; National Movement for Simeon II or NMS2 [Simeon
  SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA]; New Time [Emil KOSHLUKOV]; Union of Democratic
  Forces or UDF [Petar STOYANOV]; Union of Free Democrats or UFD
  [Stefan SOFIYANSKI]; United Democratic Forces or UtDF (a coalition
  of center-right parties dominated by UDF)

Burkina Faso
  African Democratic Rally-Alliance for Democracy and
  Federation or RDA-ADF [Herman YAMEOGO]; Confederation for Federation
  and Democracy or CFD [Amadou Diemdioda DICKO]; Congress for
  Democracy and Progress or CDP [Roch Marc-Christian KABORE]; Movement
  for Tolerance and Progress or MTP [Nayabtigungou Congo KABORE];
  Party for African Independence or PAI [Philippe OUEDRAOGO]; Party
  for Democracy and Progress or PDP [Joseph KI-ZERBO]; Socialist Party
  or PS; Union of Greens for the Development of Burkina Faso or UVDB
  [Ram OVEDRAGO]

Burma
  National League for Democracy or NLD [AUNG SHWE, chairman,
  AUNG SAN SUU KYI, general secretary]; National Unity Party or NUP
  (pro-regime) [THA KYAW] (at last report); Shan Nationalities League
  for Democracy or SNLD [HKUN HTUN OO]; and other smaller parties

Burundi
  the three national, mainstream, governing parties are:
  Burundi Democratic Front or FRODEBU [Leonce NGENDAKUMANA,
  president]; National Council for the Defense of Democracy, Front for
  the Defense of Democracy or CNDD-FDD [Hussein RADJABU, president];
  Unity for National Progress or UPRONA [Aloys RUBUKA, president]
  note: a multiparty system was introduced after 1998, included are:
  National Council for the Defense of Democracy or CNDD; National
  Resistance Movement for the Rehabilitation of the Citizen or
  MRC-Rurenzangemero [Epitace BANYAGANAKANDI]; Party for National
  Redress or PARENA [Jean-Baptiste BAGAZA]

Cambodia
  Cambodian Pracheachon Party (Cambodian People's Party) or
  CPP [CHEA SIM]; National United Front for an Independent, Neutral,
  Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia or FUNCINPEC [KEV PUT REAKSMEI];
  Sam Rangsi Party or SRP [SAM RANGSI]

Cameroon
  Cameroonian Democratic Union or UDC [Adamou Ndam NJOYA];
  Democratic Rally of the Cameroon People or RDCP [Paul BIYA];
  Movement for the Defense of the Republic or MDR [Dakole DAISSALA];
  Movement for the Liberation and Development of Cameroon or MLDC
  [Marcel YONDO]; Movement for the Youth of Cameroon or MYC [Dieudonne
  TINA]; National Union for Democracy and Progress or UNDP [Maigari
  BELLO BOUBA]; Social Democratic Front or SDF [John FRU NDI]; Union
  of Cameroonian Populations or UPC [Augustin Frederic KODOCK]

Canada
  Bloc Quebecois [Gilles DUCEPPE]; Conservative Party of Canada
  (a merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative
  Party) [Stephen HARPER]; Green Party [Elizabeth MAY]; Liberal Party
  [Stephane DION]; New Democratic Party [Jack LAYTON]

Cape Verde
  African Party for Independence of Cape Verde or PAICV
  [Jose Maria Pereira NEVES, chairman]; Democratic Alliance for Change
  or ADM [Dr. Eurico MONTEIRO] (a coalition of PCD, PTS, and UCID);
  Democratic Christian Party or PDC [Manuel RODRIGUES, chairman];
  Democratic Renovation Party or PRD [Victor FIDALGO, president];
  Democratic and Independent Cape Verdean Union or UCID [Antonio
  MONTEIRO]; Movement for Democracy or MPD [Agostinho LOPES,
  president]; Party for Democratic Convergence or PCD [Dr. Eurico
  MONTEIRO, president]; Party of Work and Solidarity or PTS [Isaias
  RODRIGUES, president]; Social Democratic Party or PSD [Joao ALEM,
  president]

Cayman Islands
  no national teams (loose groupings of political
  organizations) were formed for the 2000 elections; United Democratic
  Party or UDP [leader McKeeva BUSH]; People's Progressive Movement or
  PPM [leader Kurt TIBBETTS]

Central African Republic
  Alliance for Democracy and Progress or ADP
  [Jacques MBOLIEDAS]; Central African Democratic Assembly or RDC
  [Andre KOLINGBA]; Civic Forum or FC [Gen. Timothee MALENDOMA];
  Democratic Forum for Modernity or FODEM [Charles MASSI]; Liberal
  Democratic Party or PLD [Nestor KOMBO-NAGUEMON]; Movement for
  Democracy and Development or MDD [David DACKO]; Movement for the
  Liberation of the Central African People or MLPC [Ange-Felix
  PATASSE] (the party of deposed president); National Convergence or
  KNK; Patriotic Front for Progress or FPP [Abel GOUMBA]; People's
  Union for the Republic or UPR [Pierre Sammy MAKFOY]; National Unity
  Party or PUN [Jean-Paul NGOUPANDE]; Social Democratic Party or PSD
  [Enoch LAKOUE]

Chad
  Federation Action for the Republic or FAR [Ngarledjy YORONGAR];
  National Rally for Development and Progress or RNDP [Delwa Kassire
  COUMAKOYE]; National Union for Democracy and Renewal or UNDR [Saleh
  KEBZABO]; Party for Liberty and Development or PLD [Ibni Oumar
  Mahamat SALEH]; Patriotic Salvation Movement or MPS [Mahamat Saleh
  AHMAT, chairman]; Rally for Democracy and Progress or RDP [Lol
  Mahamat CHOUA]; Union for Democracy and Republic or UDR [Jean
  ALINGUE]; Union for Renewal and Democracy or URD [Gen. Wadal
  Abdelkader KAMOUGUE]

Chile
  Alliance for Chile ("Alianza") or APC (including National
  Renewal or RN [Sergio DIEZ Urzia] and Independent Democratic Union
  or UDI [Jovino NOVOA Vasquez]); Coalition of Parties for Democracy
  ("Concertacion") or CPD (including Christian Democratic Party or PDC
  [Adolfo ZALDIVAR Larrain], Socialist Party or PS [Ricardo NUNEZ],
  Party for Democracy or PPD [Victor BARRUETO], Radical Social
  Democratic Party or PRSD [Jose Antonio GOMEZ Urrutia]); Communist
  Party or PC [Guillermo TEILLIER]

China
  Chinese Communist Party or CCP [HU Jintao]; eight registered
  small parties controlled by CCP

Christmas Island
  none

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none

Colombia
  Clandestine Communist Party of Colombia or PCC [Jaime
  CAICEDO]; Colombian Conservative Party or PC [Carlos HOLGUIN Sardi];
  Alternative Democratic Pole or PDA [Samuel MORENO Rojas]; Liberal
  Party or PL [Cesar GAVIRIA]; Social National Unity Party or PSUN
  [Juan Manuel SANTOS]
  note: Colombia has about 60 formally recognized political parties,
  most of which do not have a presence in either house of Congress

Comoros
  Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros [AZALI Assowmani];
  Camp of the Autonomous Islands (a coalition of parties organized by
  the island Presidents in opposition to the Union President); Front
  National pour la Justice or FNJ [Ahmed RACHID] (Islamic party in
  opposition); Mouvement pour la Democratie et le Progress or MDP-NGDC
  [Abbas DJOUSSOUF]; Parti Comorien pour la Democratie et le Progress
  or PCDP [Ali MROUDJAE]; Rassemblement National pour le Development
  or RND [Omar TAMOU, Abdoulhamid AFFRAITANE]

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Democratic Social Christian Party
  or PDSC [Andre BO-BOLIKO]; Forces for Renovation for Union and
  Solidarity or FONUS [Joseph OLENGHANKOY]; National Congolese
  Lumumbist Movement or MNC [Francois LUMUMBA]; Popular Movement of
  the Revolution or MPR (three factions: MPR-Fait Prive [Catherine
  NZUZI wa Mbombo]; MPR/Vunduawe [Felix VUNDUAWE]; MPR/Mananga
  [MANANGA Dintoka Mpholo]); Unified Lumumbast Party or PALU [Antoine
  GIZENGA]; Union for Democracy and Social Progress or UDPS [Etienne
  TSHISEKEDI wa Mulumba]; Union of Federalists and Independent
  Republicans or UFERI (two factions: UFERI [Lokambo OMOKOKO];
  UFERI/OR [Adolph Kishwe MAYA])

Congo, Republic of the
  the most important of the many parties are
  the Democratic and Patriotic Forces or FDP [Denis SASSOU-NGUESSO,
  president] (an alliance of Convention for Alternative Democracy,
  Congolese Labor Party or PCT, Liberal Republican Party, National
  Union for Democracy and Progress, Patriotic Union for the National
  Reconstruction, and Union for the National Renewal); Congolese
  Movement for Democracy and Integral Development or MCDDI [Michel
  MAMPOUYA]; Pan-African Union for Social Development or UPADS [Martin
  MBERI]; Rally for Democracy and Social Progress or RDPS [Jean-Pierre
  Thystere TCHICAYA, president]; Rally for Democracy and the Republic
  or RDR [Raymond Damasge NGOLLO]; Union for Democracy and Republic or
  UDR; Union of Democratic Forces or UFD [Sebastian EBAO]

Cook Islands
  Cook Islands Party or CIP [Henry PUNA]; Democratic
  Party or Demo [Dr. Terepai MAOATE]

Costa Rica
  Authentic Member from Heredia [Jose SALAS]; Citizen
  Action Party or PAC [Otton SOLIS]; Costa Rican Renovation Party or
  PRC [Gerardo Justo OROZCO Alvarez]; Democratic Force Party or PFD
  [Vladimir DE LA CRUZ]; General Union Party or PUGEN [Carlos Alberto
  FERNANDEZ Vega]; Homeland First or PP [Juan Jose VARGAS Fallas];
  Independent Worker Party or PIO [Jose Alberto CUBERO Carmona];
  Libertarian Movement Party or PML [Otto GUEVARA Guth]; National
  Christian Alliance Party or ANC [Juan Carlos CHAVEZ Mora]; National
  Integration Party or PIN [Walter MUNOZ Cespedes]; National
  Liberation Party or PLN [Francisco Antonio PACHECO]; National
  Patriotic Party or PPN [Daniel Enrique REYNOLDS Vargas]; National
  Restoration Party or PRN [Carlos AVENDANO]; Nationalist Democratic
  Alliance or ADN [Jose Miguel VILLALOBOS Umana]; Patriotic Union or
  UP [Humberto ARCE Salas]; Social Christian Unity Party or PUSC
  [Lorena VASQUEZ Badilla]; Union for Change Party or UPC [Antonio
  ALVAREZ Desanti]; United Leftist Coalition or IU [Humberto VARGAS
  Carbonel]

Cote d'Ivoire
  Citizen's Democratic Union or UDCY [Eg Theodore MEL];
  Democratic Party of Cote d'Ivoire-African Democratic Rally or
  PDCI-RDA [Henri Konan BEDIE]; Ivorian Popular Front or FPI [Laurent
  GBAGBO]; Ivorian Worker's Party or PIT [Francis WODIE]; Rally of the
  Republicans or RDR [Alassane OUATTARA]; Union for Democracy and
  Peace or UDPCI [Paul Akoto YAO]; over 20 smaller parties

Croatia
  Croatian Bloc or HB [Ivic PASALIC]; Croatian Christian
  Democratic Union or HKDU [Anto KOVACEVIC]; Croatian Democratic Union
  or HDZ [Ivo SANADER]; Croatian Party of Rights or HSP [Anto DJAPIC];
  Croatian Peasant Party or HSS [Josip FRISCIC]; Croatian Pensioner
  Party or HSU [Vladimir JORDAN]; Croatian People's Party or HNS
  [Vesna PUSIC] (in 2005 party merged with Libra to become Croatian
  People's Party-Liberal Democrats or NS-LD [Vesna PUSIC]); Croatian
  Social Liberal Party or HSLS [Djurdja ADLESIC]; Croatian True
  Revival Party or HIP [Miroslav TUDJMAN]; Democratic Centre or DC
  [Vesna SKARE-OZBOLT]; Independent Democratic Serb Party or SDSS
  [Vojislav STANIMIROVIC]; Istrian Democratic Assembly or IDS [Ivan
  JAKOVCIC]; Social Democratic Party of Croatia or SDP [Ivica RACAN]

Cuba
  only party - Cuban Communist Party or PCC [Fidel CASTRO Ruz,
  first secretary]

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: Democratic Party or DIKO [Tassos
  PAPADOPOULOS]; Democratic Rally or DISY [Nikos ANASTASIADHIS];
  European Democracy or EURO.DE [Prodromos PRODROMOU] (evolved from
  For Europe which merged with New Horizons); European Party or
  EURO.KO [Demetris SYLLOURIS]; Fighting Democratic Movement or ADIK
  [Dinos MIKHAILIDIS]; Green Party of Cyprus [George PERDIKIS];
  Movement for Social Democracy United Democratic Union of Center or
  KISOS [Yannakis OMIROU]; Progressive Party of the Working People or
  AKEL (Communist Party) [Dimitrios CHRISTOFIAS]; United Democrats
  Movement or EDE [Michalis PAPAPETROU]; north Cyprus: Democratic
  Party or DP [Serder DENKTASH]; National Birth Party or UDP [Enver
  EMIN]; National Unity Party or UBP [Dervis EROGLU]; Our Party or BP
  [Okyay SADIKOGLU]; Patriotic Unity Movement or YBH [Alpay DURDURAN];
  Peace and Democratic Movement [Mustafa AKINCI]; Republican Turkish
  Party or CTP [Mehmet ALI TALAT]

Czech Republic
  Christian Democratic Union-Czechoslovak People's
  Party or KDU-CSL [Jan KASAL, chairman]; Civic Democratic Alliance or
  ODA [Jirina NOVAKOVA, chairwoman]; Civic Democratic Party or ODS
  [Mirek TOPOLANEK, chairman]; Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
  or KSCM [Vojtech FILIP, chairman]; Czech Social Democratic Party or
  CSSD [Jiri PAROUBEK, chairman]; Freedom Union-Democratic Union or
  US-DEU [Jan HADRAVA, chairman]; Green Party [Martin BURSIK,
  chairman]; Independent Democrats (NEZDEM) [Vladimir ZELEZNY,
  chairman]; Party of Open Society (SOS) [Pavel NOVACEK, chairman];
  Path of Change [Jiri LOBKOWITZ, chairman]; SNK-European Democrats or
  SNK-ED [Jana HYBASKOVA, chairman]

Denmark
  Christian Democrats (was Christian People's Party) [Bodil
  KORNBEK]; Conservative Party (sometimes known as Conservative
  People's Party) [Bendt BENDTSEN]; Danish People's Party [Pia
  KJAERSGAARD]; Liberal Party [Anders Fogh RASMUSSEN]; Red-Green Unity
  List (bloc includes Left Socialist Party, Communist Party of
  Denmark, Socialist Workers' Party) [collective leadership]; Social
  Democratic Party [Helle THORNING-SCHMIDT]; Social Liberal Party
  (sometimes called the Radical Left) [Marianne JELVED, leader; Soren
  BALD, chairman]; Socialist People's Party [Villy SOEVNDAL]

Djibouti
  Democratic National Party or PND [ADEN Robleh Awaleh];
  Democratic Renewal Party or PRD [Abdillahi HAMARITEH]; Djibouti
  Development Party or PDD [Mohamed Daoud CHEHEM]; Front pour la
  Restauration de l'Unite Democratique or FRUD [Ali Mohamed DAOUD];
  People's Progress Assembly or RPP [Ismail Omar GUELLEH] (governing
  party); Peoples Social Democratic Party or PPSD [Moumin Bahdon
  FARAH]; Republican Alliance for Democracy or ARD [Ahmed Dini AHMED];
  Union for Democracy and Justice or UDJ

Dominica
  Dominica Freedom Party or DFP [Charles SAVARIN]; Dominica
  Labor Party or DLP [Roosevelt SKERRIT]; Dominica United Workers
  Party or UWP [Earl WILLIAMS]

Dominican Republic
  Dominican Liberation Party or PLD [Leonel
  FERNANDEZ Reyna]; Dominican Revolutionary Party or PRD [Ramon
  ALBURQUERQUE]; National Progressive Front [Vincent CASTILLO,
  Pelegrin CASTILLO]; Social Christian Reformist Party or PRSC
  [Enrique ATUN]

East Timor
  Associacao Social-Democrata Timorense or ASDT [Francisco
  Xavier do AMARAL]; Christian Democratic Party of Timor or PDC
  [Antonio XIMENES]; Christian Democratic Union of Timor or UDC
  [Vicente da Silva GUTERRES]; Democratic Party or PD [Fernando de
  ARAUJO]; People's Party of Timor or PPT [Jacob XAVIER];
  Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor or FRETILIN [Francisco
  Guterres Lu OLO]; Social Democrat Party of East Timor or PSD [Mario
  CARRASCALAO]; Socialist Party of Timor or PST [Pedro da COSTA]; Sons
  of the Mountain Warriors (also known as Association of Timorese
  Heroes) or KOTA [Clementino dos Reis AMARAL]; Timor Democratic Union
  or UDT [Joao CARRASCALAO]; Timor Labor Party or PTT [Paulo Freitas
  DA SILVA]; Timorese Nationalist Party or PNT [Abilio ARAUJO]

Ecuador
  Concentration of Popular Forces or CFP [Averroes BUCARAM];
  Democratic Left or ID [Guillermo LANDAZURI]; National Action
  Institutional Renewal Party or PRIAN [Alvaro NOBOA]; Pachakutik
  Movement [Gilberto TALAHUA]; Patriotic Society Party or PSP [Lucio
  GUTIERREZ Borbua]; Popular Democracy or DP [Dr. Juan Manuel
  FUERTES]; Popular Democratic Movement or MPD [Gustavo TERAN Acosta];
  Radical Alfarista Front or FRA [Fabian ALARCON, director]; Roldosist
  Party or PRE [Abdala BUCARAM Ortiz, director]; Social Christian
  Party or PSC [Leon FEBRES CORDERO]; Socialist Party - Broad Front or
  PS-FA [Victor GRANDA]

Egypt
  National Democratic Party or NDP [Mohammed Hosni MUBARAK
  (governing party)]; National Progressive Unionist Grouping or
  Tagammu [Rifaat EL-SAID]; New Wafd Party or NWP [Mahmoud ABAZA];
  Tomorrow Party [Naji AL-GHATRIFI]
  note: formation of political parties must be approved by the
  government

El Salvador
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Rodolfo PARKER,
  secretary general]; Democratic Convergence or CD (formerly United
  Democratic Center or CDU) [Ruben ZAMORA, secretary general];
  Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front or FMLN [Medardo GONZALEZ,
  coordinator general]; National Conciliation Party or PCN [Ciro CRUZ
  ZEPEDA, president]; National Republican Alliance or ARENA [Elias
  Antonio SACA Gonzalez]; Popular Social Christian Party or PPSC [Rene
  AGUILUZ]; Revolutionary Democratic Front or FDR [Julio Cesar
  HERNANDEZ Carcamo, coordinator general]

Equatorial Guinea
  Convergence Party for Social Democracy or CPDS
  [Placido MIKO Abogo]; Democratic Party for Equatorial Guinea or PDGE
  [Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO] (ruling party); Party for Progress
  of Equatorial Guinea or PPGE [Severo MOTO]; Popular Action of
  Equatorial Guinea or APGE [Miguel Esono EMAN]; Popular Union or UP
  [Andres Moises Bda ADA]; Progressive Democratic Alliance or ADP
  [Victorino Bolekia BONAY]; Union of Independent Democrats of UDI
  [Daniel OYONO]

Eritrea
  People's Front for Democracy and Justice or PFDJ, the only
  party recognized by the government [ISAIAS Afworki]; note - a
  National Assembly committee drafted a law on political parties in
  January 2001, but the full National Assembly has not yet debated or
  voted on it

Estonia
  Center Party of Estonia (Keskerakond) [Edgar SAVISAAR,
  chairman]; Estonian People's Union (Rahvaliit) [Villu REILJAN,
  chairman]; Estonian Reform Party (Reformierakond) [Andrus ANSIP];
  Estonian United Russian People's Party or EUVRP [Yevgeniy TOMBERG,
  chairman]; Social Democratic Party (formerly People's Party Moodukad
  or Moderates) [Ivari PADAR, chairman]; Social Liberals (group of
  eight parliamentarians, former Center Party members) [Peeter
  KREITZBERG]; Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica (Isamaa je Res
  Publica Liit) [Tonis LUKAS and Taavi VESKIMAGI, co-chairman]

Ethiopia
  Afar National Democratic Party or ANDP; Benishangul Gumuz
  People's Democratic Unity Front or BGPDUF [Mulualem BESSE];
  Coalition for Unity and Democracy or CUD [HAILU Shawel]; Ethiopian
  People's Revolutionary Democratic Front or EPRDF [MELES Zenawi] (an
  alliance of Amhara National Democratic Movement or ANDM, Oromo
  People's Democratic Organization or OPDO, the South Ethiopean
  People's Democratic Front or SEPDF, and TigrAyan Peoples' Liberation
  Front or TPLF); Gurage Nationalities' Democratic Movement or GNDM;
  Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement or OFDM [BULCHA Demeksa];
  Somali People's Democratic Party or SPDP; United Ethopian Democratic
  Forces or UEDF [BEYENE Petros]; dozens of small parties

European Union
  Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic
  Green Left or EUL/NGL [Francis WURTZ]; European People's
  Party-European Democrats or EPP-ED [Hans-Gert POETTERING]; Group of
  the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or ALDE [Graham R.
  WATSON]; Group of Greens/European Free Alliance or Greens/EFA
  [Monica FRASSONI and Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT];
  Independence/Democracy Group or IND/DEM [Jens-Peter BONDE and Nigel
  FARAGE]; Socialist Group in the European Parliament or PES [Martin
  SCHULZ]; Union for Europe of the Nations Group or UEN [Brian CROWLEY
  and Cristiana MUSCARDINI]

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none; all independents

Faroe Islands
  Center Party [Jenis A. RANA]; Independence Party [Kari
  P. HOJGAARD]; People's Party [Anfinn KALLSBERG]; Republican Party
  [Hogni HOYDAL]; Social Democratic Party [Joannes EIDESGAARD]; Union
  Party [Kaj Leo JOHANNESEN]

Fiji
  Conservative Alliance Party/Matanitu Vanua or CAMV [Ratu Josefa
  DIMURI]; Dodonu Ni Taukei Party or DNT [Fereti S. DEWA]; Fiji
  Democratic Party or FDP [Filipe BOLE] (a merger of the Christian
  Democrat Alliance or VLV [Poesci Waqalevu BUNE], Fijian Association
  Party or FAP, Fijian Political Party or SVT (primarily Fijian)
  [Sitiveni RABUKA], and New Labor Unity Party or NLUP [Ofa SWANN]);
  Fiji Labor Party or FLP [Mahendra CHAUDHRY]; General Voters Party or
  GVP (became part of United General Party); Girmit Heritage Party or
  GHP; Justice and Freedom Party or AIM; Lio 'On Famor Rotuma Party or
  LFR; National Federation Party or NFP (primarily Indian) [Pramond
  RAE]; Nationalist Vanua Takolavo Party or NVTLP [Saula TELAWA];
  Party of National Unity or PANU [Ponipate LESAVUA]; Party of the
  Truth or POTT; United Fiji Party/Sogosogo Duavata ni Lewenivanua or
  SDL [Laisenia QARASE]; United General Party or UGP [Millis Mick
  BEDDOES]

Finland
  Center Party or Kesk [Matti VANHANEN]; Christian Democrats
  or KD [Paivi RASANEN]; Green League or VIHR [Tarja CRONBERG]; Left
  Alliance or VAS composed of People's Democratic League and
  Democratic Alternative [Martti KORHONEN]; National Coalition
  (conservative) Party or Kok [Jyrki KATAINEN]; Social Democratic
  Party or SDP [Eero HEINALUOMA]; Swedish People's Party or SFP
  [Stefan WALLIN]

France
  Citizen and Republican Movement or MRC [Jean Pierre
  CHEVENEMENT]; Democratic and European Social Rally or RDSE (mainly
  Radical Republican and Socialist Parties, and PRG) [Jacques
  PELLETIER]; French Communist Party or PCF [Marie-George BUFFET];
  Greens [Yan WEHRLING, national secretary]; Left Radical Party or PRG
  (previously Radical Socialist Party or PRS and the Left Radical
  Movement or MRG) [Jean-Michel BAYLET]; Movement for France or MPF
  [Philippe DE VILLIERS]; National Front or FN [Jean-Marie LE PEN];
  Rally for France or RPF [Charles PASQUA]; Socialist Party or PS
  [Francois HOLLANDE]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Francois
  BAYROU]; Union for a Popular Movement or UMP [Nicolas SARKOZY]

French Guiana
  Guyana Democratic Forces or FDG [Georges OTHILY];
  Guyanese Democratic Action or ADG [Andre LECANTE]; Guyanese
  Socialist Party or PSG [Marie-Claude VERDAN]; Popular National
  Guyanese Party or PNPG [Jose DORCY]; Socialist Party or PS [Alix
  LABBE]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Georges HABRAN-MERY];
  Union for a Popular Movement or UMP (includes RPR) [Remi Louis
  DUBOC]; Walwari Committee (aligned with the PRG in France)
  [Christine TAUBIRA-DELANON]

French Polynesia
  Alliance for a New Democracy or ADN [Nicole BOUTEAU
  and Philip SCHYLE](includes the parties The New Star and This
  Country is Yours); Independent Front for the Liberation of Polynesia
  (Tavini Huiraatira) [Oscar TEMARU]; New Fatherland Party (Ai'a Api)
  [Emile VERNAUDON]; People's Rally for the Republic of Polynesia or
  RPR (Tahoeraa Huiraatira) [Gaston FLOSSE]; Union for Democracy or
  UPD [Oscar TEMARU]

Gabon
  Circle of Liberal Reformers or CLR [General Jean Boniface
  ASSELE]; Congress for Democracy and Justice or CDJ [Jules Aristide
  Bourdes OGOULIGUENDE]; Democratic and Republican Alliance or ADERE
  [Divungui-di-Ndinge DIDJOB]; Gabonese Democratic Party or PDG
  [Simplice Nguedet MANZELA] (former sole party); Gabonese Party for
  Progress or PGP [Pierre-Louis AGONDJO-OKAWE]; National Rally of
  Woodcutters or RNB; National Rally of Woodcutters-Rally for Gabon or
  RNB-RPG (Bucherons) [Fr. Paul M'BA-ABESSOLE]; People's Unity Party
  or PUP [Louis Gaston MAYILA]; Rally for Democracy and Progress or
  RDP [Pierre EMBONI]; Social Democratic Party or PSD [Pierre Claver
  MAGANGA-MOUSSAVOU]; Union for Democracy and Social Integration or
  UDIS; Union of Gabonese People or UPG [Pierre MAMBOUNDOU]

Gambia, The
  Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction or
  APRC [Yahya A. J. J. JAMMEH] (the ruling party); Gambian People's
  Party-Progressive People's Party-United Democratic Party or
  GPP-PPP-UDP Coalition [Ousainou DARBOE]; National Convention Party
  or NCP [Sheriff DIBBA]; National Reconciliation Party or NRP [Hamat
  N. K. BAH]; People's Democratic Organization for Independence and
  Socialism or PDOIS [Sidia JATTA]
  note: in August 2001, an independent electoral commission allowed
  the reregistration of the GPP, NCP, and PPP, three parties banned
  since 1996

Georgia
  Burjanadze-Democrats [Nino BURJANADZE]; Georgian People's
  Front [Nodar NATADZE]; Georgian United Communist Party or UCPG
  [Panteleimon GIORGADZE]; Greens [Giorgi GACHECHILADZE]; Industry
  Will Save Georgia (Industrialists) or IWSG [Georgi TOPADZE]; Labor
  Party [Shalva NATELASHVILI]; National Democratic Party or NDP
  [Bachuki KARDAVA]; National Movement Democratic Front [Mikheil
  SAAKASHVILI] bloc composed of National Movement and
  Burjanadze-Democrats; National Movement [Mikheil SAAKASHVILI]; New
  Rights [David GAMKRELIDZE]; Republican Party [David USUPASHVILI];
  Rightist Opposition [David GAMKRELIDZE] bloc composed of
  Industrialists and New Right Party; Socialist Party or SPG [Irakli
  MINDELI]; Traditionalists [Akaki ASATIANI]; Union of National
  Forces-Conservatives [Koba DAVITASHVILI and Zviad DZIDZIGURI]

Germany
  Alliance '90/Greens [Claudia ROTH and Reinhard BUETIKOFER];
  Christian Democratic Union or CDU [Angela MERKEL]; Christian Social
  Union or CSU [Edmund STOIBER, chairman]; Free Democratic Party or
  FDP [Guido WESTERWELLE, chairman]; Left Party (Linkspartei. was
  Party of Democratic Socialism) or PDS [Lothar BISKY]; Social
  Democratic Party or SPD [Kurt BECK]

Ghana
  Convention People's Party or CPP [Nii Noi DOWUONA, general
  secretary]; Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere or EGLE [Owuraku AMOFA,
  chairman]; Great Consolidated Popular Party or GCPP [Dan LARTY];
  National Convention Party or NCP [Sarpong KUMA-KUMA]; National
  Democratic Congress or NDC [Dr. Huudu YAHAYA, general secretary];
  New Patriotic Party or NPP [Samuel Arthur ODOI-SYKES]; People's
  Convention Party or PCP [P. K. DONKOH-AYIFI, acting chairman];
  People's Heritage Party or PHP [Emmanuel Alexander ERSKINE];
  People's National Convention or PNC [Edward MAHAMA]; Reform Party
  [Kyeretwie OPUKU, general secretary]

Gibraltar
  Gibraltar Liberal Party [Joseph GARCIA]; Gibraltar Social
  Democrats or GSD [Peter CARUANA]; Gibraltar Socialist Labor Party or
  GSLP [Joseph John BOSSANO]

Greece
  Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) [Alekos
  ALAVANOS]; Communist Party of Greece or KKE [Aleka PAPARIGA]; New
  Democracy or ND (conservative) [Konstandinos KARAMANLIS];
  Panhellenic Socialist Movement or PASOK [Yiorgos PAPANDREOU];
  Popular Orthodox Rally or LAOS [Yeoryios KARATZAFERIS]

Greenland
  Atassut Party (Solidarity, a conservative party favoring
  continuing close relations with Denmark) [Finn KARLSEN]; Demokratiit
  [Per BERTHELSEN]; Inuit Ataqatigiit or IA (Eskimo Brotherhood, a
  leftist party favoring complete independence from Denmark rather
  than home rule) [Josef MOTZFELDT]; Issituup (Polar Party) [Nicolai
  HEINRICH]; Kattusseqatigiit (Candidate List, an independent
  right-of-center party with no official platform; Siumut (Forward
  Party, a social democratic party advocating more distinct
  Greenlandic identity and greater autonomy from Denmark) [Hans
  ENOKSEN]

Grenada
  Good Old Democracy or GOD [Justin MCBURNIE]; Grenada United
  Labor Party or GULP [Gloria Payne BANFIELD]; National Democratic
  Congress or NDC [Tillman THOMAS]; New National Party or NNP [Keith
  MITCHELL]; People Labor Movement or PLM [Dr. Francis ALEXIS]

Guadeloupe
  Communist Party of Guadeloupe or PCG [Mona CADOCE]; FGPS
  [Dominique LARIFLA]; Left Radical Party or PRG [Flavien FERRANT];
  Progressive Democratic Party or PPDG [Henri BANGOU]; Socialist Party
  or PS [Jules OTTO]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Claudine
  LACAVE]; Union for a Popular Movement or UMP (including
  Rassemblement pour la Republique or RPR) [Gabrielle LOUIS-CARABIN]

Guam
  Democratic Party [leader Michael PHILLIPS]; Republican Party
  (controls the legislature) [leader Philip J. FLORES]

Guatemala
  Authentic Integral Development or DIA [Eduardo SUGER];
  Grand National Alliance or GANA (an alliance of smaller parties)
  [Alfredo VILA Giron, secretary general]; Green Party or LOV [Rodolfo
  ROSALES Garcis-Salaz]; Guatemalan Christian Democracy or DCG
  [Vinicio CEREZO Arevalo]; Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity or
  URNG [Alba ESTELA Maldonado, secretary general]; Guatemalan
  Republican Front or FRG [Efrain RIOS Montt]; Movement for Guatemalan
  Unity or MGU [Jacobo ARBENZ Villanueva]; Movement for Principals and
  Values or MPV [Francisco BIANCHI]; National Advancement Party or PAN
  [Leonel LOPEZ Rodas, secretary general]; National Unity for Hope or
  UNE [Alvarado COLOM Caballeros]; New Nation Alliance or ANN (formed
  by an alliance of DIA, URNG, and several splinter groups most of
  whom subsequently defected) [led by three co-equal partners - Nineth
  Varenca MONTENEGRO Cottom, Rodolfo BAUER Paiz, and Jorge Antonio
  BALSELLS TUT]; Patriot Party or PP [Ret. Gen. Otto PEREZ Molina];
  Progressive Liberator Party or PLP [Acisclo VALLADARES Molina];
  Reform Movement or MR [Alfredo SKINNER-KLEE, secretary general];
  Unionista Party

Guernsey
  none; all independents

Guinea
  Democratic Party of Guinea-African Democratic Rally or
  PDG-RDA [El Hadj Ismael Mohamed Gassim GUSHEIN]; National Union for
  Progress or UPN [Mamadou Bhoye BARRY]; Party for Unity and Progress
  or PUP [Lansana CONTE] (the governing party); People's Party of
  Guinea or PPG [Pascal TOLNO]; Rally for the Guinean People or RPG
  [Alpha CONDE]; Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea or UFDG [Mamadou
  BA]; Union of Republican Forces or UFR [Sidya TOURE]; Union for
  Progress of Guinea or UPG [Jean-Marie DORE, secretary-general];
  Union for Progress and Renewal or UPR [Ousmane BAH]

Guinea-Bissau
  African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau
  and Cape Verde or PAIGC [Carlos GOMES Junior]; Democratic Social
  Front or FDS; Electoral Union or UE; Party for Democratic
  Convergence or PCD [Victor MANDINGA]; Social Renovation Party or PRS
  [Alberto NAMBEIA]; Union for Change or UM [Jorge MANDINGA,
  president, Dr. Anne SAAD, secretary general]; United Platform or UP
  (coalition formed by PCD, FDS, FLING, and RGB-MB); United Popular
  Alliance or APU; United Social Democratic Party or PUSD [Francisco
  Jose FADUL]

Guyana
  Alliance for Change or AFC [Raphael TROTMAN and Khemraj
  RAMJATTAN]; Guyana Action Party or GAP [Paul HARDY]; Justice for All
  Party [C.N. SHARMA]; People's National Congress/Reform or PNC/R
  [Robert Herman Orlando CORBIN]; People's Progressive Party/Civic or
  PPP/C [Bharrat JAGDEO]; Rise, Organize, and Rebuild or ROAR [Ravi
  DEV]; The United Force or TUF [Manzoor NADIR]; The Unity Party [Joey
  JAGAN]; Vision Guyana [Peter RAMSAROOP]; Working People's Alliance
  or WPA [Rupert ROOPNARAINE]

Haiti
  Artibonite in Action or LAAA [Youri LATORTUE]; Assembly of
  Progressive National Democrats or RDNP [Leslie MANIGAT]; Convention
  for Democratic Unity or KID [Evans PAUL]; Cooperative Action to
  Build Haiti or KONBA [Evans LESCOUFALIR]; Democratic Alliance or
  ALYANS (coalition composed of KID and PPRH) [Evans PAUL]; Effort and
  Solidarity to Create an Alternative for the People or ESKAMP [Joseph
  JASME]; For Us All or PONT [Jean-Marie CHERESTAL]; Front for Hope or
  L'ESPWA (alliance of ESKAMP, PLB, and grass-roots organizations
  Grand-Anse Resistance Committee, the Central Plateau Peasants'
  Group, and Kombit Sudest) [Rene PREVAL]; Grand Center Right Front
  coalition (composed of MDN, MRN, and PDCH) [Hubert de RONCERAY];
  Haitian Christian Democratic Party or PDCH [Osner FEVRY and
  Marie-Denise CLAUDE]; Haitian Democratic and Reform Movement or
  MODEREH [Dany TOUSSAINT and Pierre Soncon PRINCE]; Heads Together or
  Tet-Ansanm [Dr. Gerard BLOT]; Independent Movement for National
  Reconciliation or MIRN [Luc FLEURINORD]; Justice for Peace and
  National Development or JPDN [Rigaud DUPLAN]; Fanmi Lavalas or FL
  [Rudy HERIVEAUX]; Liberal Party of Haiti or PLH [Gehy MICHEL];
  Merging of Haitian Social Democratic Parties or FUSION or FPSDH
  (merged Ayiti Capable, Haitian National Revolutionary Party, and
  National Congress of Democratic Movements) [Serge GILLES];
  Mobilization for Haiti's Development or MPH [Samir MOURRA];
  Mobilization for National Development or MDN [Hubert de RONCERAY];
  Movement for National Reconstruction or MRN [Jean Henold BUTEAU];
  Movement for the Installation of Democracy in Haiti or MIDH [Marc
  BAZIN]; National Christian Union for the Reconstruction of Haiti or
  UNCRH [Marie Claude GERMAIN]; National Front for the Reconstruction
  of Haiti or FRN [Guy PHILIPPE]; New Christian Movement for a New
  Haiti or MOCHRENA [Luc MESADIEU]; Open the Gate Party or PLB [Anes
  LUBIN]; Popular Party for the Renewal of Haiti or PPRH [Claude
  ROMAIN and Daniel SUPPLICE]; Struggling People's Organization or OPL
  [Edgard LEBLANC]; Union for Haiti or UPH (coalition of MIDH and FL)
  [Marc BAZIN]; Union of Nationalist and Progressive Haitians or UNITE
  [Edouard FRANCISQUE]

Holy See (Vatican City)
  none

Honduras
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC [Saul ESCOBAR Andrade];
  Democratic Unification Party or PUD [Matias FUNES]; Liberal Party or
  PL [Patricia RODAS]; National Innovation and Unity Party or PINU
  [Olban F. VALLADARES]; National Party of Honduras or PN [Gilberto
  GOLDSTEIN]

Hong Kong
  Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood or ADPL
  [Frederick FUNG Kin-kee]; Citizens Party [Alex CHAN Kai-chung];
  Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong or
  DAB [MA Lik]; Democratic Party [LEE Wing-tat]; Frontier Party [Emily
  LAU Wai-hing]; Liberal Party [James TIEN Pei-chun]
  note: political blocs include: pro-democracy - ADPL, Democratic
  Party, Frontier Party; pro-Beijing - DAB, Liberal Party

Hungary
  Alliance of Free Democrats or SzDSz [Gabor KUNCZE];
  Christian Democratic People's Party or KDNP [Zsolt SEMJEN];
  Hungarian Civic Alliance or Fidesz [Viktor ORBAN, chairman];
  Hungarian Democratic Forum or MDF [Ibolya DAVID]; Hungarian
  Socialist Party or MSzP [Istvan HILLER, chairman]

Iceland
  Independence Party or IP [Geir HAARDE]; Left-Green Movement
  or LGM [Steingrimur SIGFUSSON]; Liberal Party or LP [Gudjon
  KRISTJANSSON]; Progressive Party or PP [Halldor ASGRIMSSON - will
  step down in August 2006]; Social Democratic Alliance (includes
  People's Alliance or PA, Social Democratic Party or SDP, Women's
  List) or SDA [Ingibjorg Solrun GISLADOTTIR]

India
  note - India has dozens of national and regional political
  parties; only parties with four or more seats in the People's
  Assembly are listed; Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP [MAYAWATI];
  Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP [Rajnath SINGH]; Biju Janata Dal or
  BJD [Naveen PATNAIK]; Communist Party of India or CPI [Ardhendu
  Bhushan BARDHAN]; Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M)
  [Prakash KARAT]; Dravida Munnetra Kazagham or DMK [M. KARUNANIDHI];
  Indian National Congress or INC [Sonia GANDHI]; Janata Dal (United)
  or JD(U) [Sharad YADEV]; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM [Shibu
  SOREN]; Lok Jan Shakti Party or LJSP [Ram Vilas PASWAN];
  Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or MDMK [VAIKU]; Nationalist
  Congress Party or NCP [Sharad PAWAR]; Pattali Makkal Katchi or PMK
  [S. RAMADOSS]; Rashtriya Janata Dal or RJD [Laloo Prasad YADAV];
  Samajwadi Party or SP [Mulayam Singh YADAV]; Shiromani Akali Dal or
  SAD [Prakash Singh BADAL]; Shiv Sena or SS [Bal THACKERAY];
  Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS [K. Chandrasekhar RAO]; Telugu
  Desam Party or TDP [Chandrababu NAIDU]

Indonesia
  Crescent Moon and Star Party or PBB [Yusril Ihza
  MAHENDRA]; Democratic Party or PD [Subur BUDHISANTOSO]; Functional
  Groups Party or Golkar [Yusuf KALLA]; Indonesia Democratic
  Party-Struggle or PDI-P [MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri]; National Awakening
  Party or PKB [Alwi SHIHAB]; National Mandate Party or PAN [Sutrisno
  BACHIR]; Prosperous Justice Party or PKS [Tifatul SEMBIRING]; United
  Development Party or PPP [Hamzah HAZ]

Iran
  formal political parties are a relatively new phenomenon in
  Iran and most conservatives still prefer to work through political
  pressure groups rather than parties; a loose pro-reform coalition
  called the 2nd Khordad Front, which includes political parties as
  well as less formal pressure groups and organizations, achieved
  considerable success at elections to the sixth Majles in early 2000;
  groups in the coalition include: Islamic Iran Participation Front
  (IIPF), Executives of Construction Party (Kargozaran), Solidarity
  Party, Islamic Labor Party, Mardom Salari, Mojahedin of the Islamic
  Revolution Organization (MIRO), and Militant Clerics Society
  (Ruhaniyun); the coalition participated in the seventh Majles
  elections in early 2004; following his defeat in the 2005
  presidential elections, former MCS Secretary General Mehdi KARRUBI
  formed the National Trust Party; a new apparently conservative
  group, the Builders of Islamic Iran, took a leading position in the
  new Majles after winning a majority of the seats in February 2004

Iraq
  Al-Sadr Movement [Muqtada Al-SADR]; Assyrian Democratic
  Movement [Yunadim KANNA]; Conference of Iraqi People [Adnan
  al-DULAYMI]; Constitutional Monarchy Movement or CMM [Sharif Ali Bin
  al-HUSAYN]; Da'wa Party [Ibrahim al-JA'FARI]; Independent Iraqi
  Alliance or IIA [Falah al-NAQIB]; Iraqi Communist Party [Hamid
  al-MUSA]; Iraqi Hizballah [Karim Mahud al-MUHAMMADAWI]; Iraqi
  Independent Democrats or IID [Adnan PACHACHI, Mahdi al-HAFIZ]; Iraqi
  Islamic Party or IIP [Muhsin Abd al-HAMID, Hajim al-HASSANI]; Iraqi
  National Accord or INA [Ayad ALLAWI]; Iraqi National Congress or INC
  [Ahmad CHALABI]; Iraqi National Council for Dialogue or INCD [Khalaf
  Ulayan al-Khalifawi al-DULAYMI]; Iraqi National Unity Movement or
  INUM [Ahmad al-KUBAYSI, chairman]; Islamic Action Organization or
  IAO [Ayatollah Muhammad al-MUDARRISI]; Jama'at al Fadilah or JAF
  [Ayatollah Muhammad Ali al-YAQUBI]; Kurdistan Democratic Party or
  KDP [Masud BARZANI]; Muslim Ulama Council or MUC [Harith Sulayman
  al-DARI, secretary general]; National Iraqi Front [Salih al-MUTLAQ];
  National Reconciliation and Liberation Party [Mishan al-JABBURI];
  Patriotic Union of Kurdistan or PUK [Jalal TALABANI]; Supreme
  Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq or SCIRI [Abd al-Aziz
  al-HAKIM]
  note: the Kurdistan Alliance, Iraqi National List, Iraqi Consensus
  Front, Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, and United Iraqi Alliance
  were only electoral slates consisting of the representatives from
  the various Iraqi political parties

Ireland
  Fianna Fail [Bertie AHERN]; Fine Gael [Enda KENNY]; Green
  Party [Trevor SARGENT]; Labor Party [Pat RABITTE]; Progressive
  Democrats [Michael McDOWELL]; Sinn Fein [Gerry ADAMS]; Socialist
  Party [Joe HIGGINS]; The Workers' Party [Sean GARLAND]

Isle of Man
  Alliance for Progressive Government; Man Labor Party;
  Man Nationalist Party (branch of the British National Party)
  note: most members sit as independents

Israel
  Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (HADASH) [Muhammad
  BARAKA]; GIL (Pensioners) [Rafael EITAN]; Kadima [Ehud OLMERT];
  Labor Party [Amir PERETZ]; Likud Party [Binyamin NETANYAHU];
  Meretz-YAHAD [Yossi BEILIN]; National Democratic Assembly (Balad)
  [Azmi BISHARA]; National Union (NU)/National Religious Party (NRP)
  [Binyamin ELON]; SHAS [Eliyahu YISHAI]; Torah and Shabbat Judaism
  [Yaakov LITZMAN]; United Arab List [Ibrahim SARSOUR]; Yisrael
  Beiteinu [Avigdor LIEBERMAN]; Yisrael Ba'Aliya (merged with Likud)

Italy
  Center-Left Union Coalition [Romano PRODI]: Ulivo Alliance
  (including Democrats of the Left or DS [Piero FASSINO];
  Daisy-Democracy is Freedom or DL [Francesco RUTELLI]); Rose in the
  Fist (including Italian Social Democrats or SDI [Enrico BOSELLI];
  Italian Radical Party [Emma BONINO]); Italian Communist Party or
  PdCI [Oliviero DILIBERTO]; Green Federation [Alfonso PECORARO
  SCANIO]; Communist Renewal or RC [Fausto BERTINOTTI]; Italy of
  Values or IdV [Antonio DI PIETRO]; Union of Democrats for Europe or
  UDEUR [Clemente MASTELLA]; Republican European Movement or MRE
  [Luciana SBARBATI]
  Center-Right Freedom House Coalition [Silvio BERLUSCONI]: Forza
  Italia or FI [Silvio BERLUSCONI]; National Alliance or AN
  [Gianfranco FINI]; Union of Christian Democrats of the Center or UDC
  [Pier Ferdinando CASINI]; Northern League or LEGA [Umberto BOSSI];
  Christian Democracy (Per la Autonomie) [Publio FIORI]
  other non-allied parties: New Italian Socialist Party or New PSI
  [Gianni DE MICHELIS]; Italian Republican Party or PRI [Giorgio LA
  MALFA]; Social Alternative [Alessandra MUSSOLINI]; Social
  Movement-Tricolor Flame or MSI-Fiamma [Luca ROMAGNOLI]; Social Idea
  Movement with Rauti or MIS [Pino RAUTI]; South Tyrol People's Party
  or SVP (German speakers) [Elmar Pichler ROLLE]; Union of Valley
  Aosta Region or UV [Guido CESAL]

Jamaica
  Jamaica Labor Party or JLP [Bruce GOLDING]; National
  Democratic Movement or NDM [Hyacinth BENNETT]; People's National
  Party or PNP [Percival James PATTERSON]

Japan
  Democratic Party of Japan or DPJ [Ichiro OZAWA]; Japan
  Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII]; Komeito [Akihoro OTA]; Liberal
  Democratic Party or LDP [Shinzo ABE]; Social Democratic Party or SDP
  [Mizuho FUKUSHIMA]

Jersey
  none; all independents

Jordan
  al-Ahd Party; Arab Islamic Democratic Movement [Yusuf ABU
  BAKR, president]; Arab Land Party [Dr. Ayishah Salih HIJAZAYN,
  secretary general]; Arab Socialist Ba'th Party [Taysir al-HIMSI,
  secretary general]; Ba'th Arab Progressive Party [Fu'ad DABBUR,
  secretary general]; Freedom Party; Future Party; Islamic Action
  Front or IAF [Zaki Sa'ed BANI IRSHEID, secretary general]; Islamic
  Center Party [Marwan al-FAURI, secretary general]; Jordanian Arab
  Ansar Party; Jordanian Arab New Dawn Party; Jordanian Arab Party;
  Jordanian Citizens' Rights Movement; Jordanian Communist Party
  [Munir HAMARINAH, secretary general]; Jordanian Communist Workers
  Party; Jordanian Democratic Left Party [Musa MA'AYTEH, secretary
  general]; Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party [Sa'id Dhiyab Ali
  MUSTAFA, secretary general]; Jordanian Generations Party [Muhammad
  KHALAYLEH, secretary general]; Jordanian Green Party [Muhammad
  BATAYNEH, secretary general]; Jordanian Labor Party [Dr. Mazin
  Sulayman Jiryis HANNA, secretary general]; Jordanian Peace Party;
  Jordanian People's Committees Movement; Jordanian People's
  Democratic Party (Hashd) [Ahmad YUSUF, secretary general]; Jordanian
  Rafah Party; Jordanian Renaissance Party; Mission Party; Nation
  Party [Ahmad al-HANANDEH, secretary general]; National Action Party
  (Haqq) [Tariq al-KAYYALI, secretary general]; National
  Constitutional Party [Abdul Hadi MAJALI, secretary general];
  National Popular Democratic Movement [Mahmud al-NUWAYHI, secretary
  general]; Progressive Party [Fawwaz al-ZUBI, secretary general]

Kazakhstan
  Adilet (Justice) [Maksut NARIKBAYEV, co-chair, Zeynulla
  ALSHIMBAYEV, co-chair, Bakhytbek AKHMETZHAN, co-chair, Yerkin
  ONGARBAYEV, co-chair, Tolegan SYDYKOV, co-chair] (formerly
  Democratic Party of Kazakhstan); Aq Zhol Party (Bright Path)
  [Alikhan BAIMENOV, chairman]; AUL (Village) [Gani KALIYEV,
  chairman]; Communist Party of Kazakhstan or KPK [Serikbolsyn
  ABDILDIN, first secretary]; Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan
  [Vladislav KOSAREV, first secretary]; Otan [Bakhytzhan ZHUMAGULOV,
  acting chairman] (the Agrarian, Asar, and Civic parties merged with
  Otan); Patriots' Party [Gani KASYMOV, chairman]; Rukhaniyat
  (Spirituality) [Altynshash ZHAGANOVA, chairwoman]

Kenya
  Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-People or FORD-People
  [Kimaniwa NYOIKE, chairman]; Kenya African National Union or KANU
  [Uhuru KENYATTA]; National Rainbow Coalition or NARC [Mwai KIBAKI]
  (the governing party)

Kiribati
  Boutokaan Te Koaua Party or BTK [Taberannang TIMEON];
  Maneaban Te Mauri Party or MTM [Teburoro TITO]; Maurin Kiribati Pati
  or MKP; National Progressive Party or NPP [Dr. Harry TONG]
  note: there is no tradition of formally organized political parties
  in Kiribati; they more closely resemble factions or interest groups
  because they have no party headquarters, formal platforms, or party
  structures

Korea, North
  major party - Korean Workers' Party or KWP [KIM Jong
  Il]; minor parties - Chondoist Chongu Party [RYU Mi Yong] (under KWP
  control), Social Democratic Party [KIM Yong Dae] (under KWP control)

Korea, South
  Democratic Labor Party or DLP [MOON Seong-hyun];
  Democratic Party or DP [HAHN Hwa-kap]; Grand National Party or GNP
  [KANG Jae-sup]; People-Centered Party or PCP [SHIN Kook-hwan]; Uri
  Party [KIM Geun-tae]

Kuwait
  none; formation of political parties is illegal

Kyrgyzstan
  Adilet (Justice) Party [Toychubek KASYMOV]; Agrarian
  Labor Party of Kyrgyzstan [Uson SYDYKOV]; Agrarian Party of
  Kyrgyzstan [Erkin ALIYEV]; Alga, Kyrgyzstan (Forward, Kyrgyzstan)
  [Bolot BEGALIYEV]; Ar-Namys (Dignity) Party [Emil ALIYEV]; Asaba
  (Banner National Revival Party) [Azimbek BEKNAZAROV]; Ata-Meken
  (Fatherland) [Omurbek TEKEBAYEV]; Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan
  [Klara ADZHIBEKOVA]; Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan or DDK [Jypar
  JEKSHEYEV]; Erkin Kyrgyzstan Progressive and Democratic Party
  [Bektur ASANOV]; Erkindik (Freedom) Party [Topchubek TURGUNALIYEV];
  Future of Kyrgyzstan [Balbak TULEBAYEV]; Jany Kyrgyzstan (New
  Kyrgyzstan) [Dosbol NUR UULU]; Kairan El [Dooronbek SADYKOV]; Kyrgyz
  National Party [Bakyt BESHIMOV]; Kyrgyzstan Kelechegi [Ruslan
  CHYNYBAYEV]; Manas El (Party of Spiritual Restoration) [Chingiz
  AITMATOV]; Moya Strana (My Country Party of Action) [Joomart
  OTORBAYEV]; Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan or KCP [Bakytbek
  BEKBOYEV]; Party of Justice and Progress [Muratbek IMANALIEV]; Party
  of Peasants [Esengul ISAKOV]

Laos
  Lao People's Revolutionary Party or LPRP [CHOUMMALY Sayasone];
  other parties proscribed

Latvia
  First Party of Latvia or LPP [Juris LUJANS]; For Human Rights
  in a United Latvia or PCTVL [Tatjana ZDANOKA, Jakovs PLINERS]; For
  the Fatherland and Freedom/Latvian National Independence Movement or
  TB/LNNK [Janis STRAUME]; Harmony Center or SC [Sergejs DOLGOPOLOVS];
  Latvian Green Party or ZZS [Indulis EMSIS, Viesturs SILENIEKS,
  Raimonds VEJONIS]; Latvian Farmer's Union or LZS [Augusts
  BRIGMANIS]; Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party (Social
  Democrats) or LSDSP [Juris BOJARS]; Latvian Socialist Party or LSP
  [Alfreds RUBIKS]; Latvia's Way or LC [Ivars GODMANIS]; New Democrats
  or JD [Maris GULBIS]; New Era Party or JL [Einars REPSE]; People's
  Harmony Party or TSP [Aivars DATAVS]; People's Party or TP [Atis
  SLAKTERIS]; Social Democratic Union or SDS [Egils BALDZENS]

Lebanon
  Ba'th Party; Democratic Gathering [Walid JUMBLATT];
  Democratic Left [Ilyas ATALLAH]; Democratic Renewal Movement [Nassib
  LAHUD]; Development and Resistance Bloc [Nabih BERRI, Amal Movement
  leader/Speaker of the National Assembly]; Free Patriotic Movement
  [Michel AWN]; Future Movement Bloc [Sa'ad HARIRI]; Kataeb Party
  [Karim PAKRADONI]; Kataeb Reform Movement [Amine GEMAYAL]; Lebanese
  Forces [Samir JA'JA]; Loyalty to the Resistance [Mohammad RA'AD];
  Metn Bloc [Michel MURR]; Nasserite Popular Movement [Ussama SAAD];
  National Bloc [Carlos EDDE]; Popular Bloc [Elias SKAFF]; Qornet
  Shewan Gathering [a grouping with no individual leader]; Syrian
  National Socialist Party [Ali QANSU]; Tachnaq Party; Tripoli
  Independent Bloc [a grouping with no individual leader]

Lesotho
  Basotholand African Congress or BAC [Khauhelo RALITAPOLE];
  Basotholand Congress Party or BCP [Ntsukunyane MPHANYA]; Basotho
  National Party or BNP [Maj. Gen. Justine Metsing LEKHANYA]; Kopanang
  Basotho Party or KPB [MOSALA]; Lesotho Congress for Democracy or LCD
  [Pakalitha MOSISILI] (the governing party); Lesotho Education Party
  or LEP [Thabo PITSO]; Lesotho People's Congress or LPC [Kelebone
  MAOPE]; Lesotho Workers Party of LWP [Macaefa BILLY]; Marematlou
  Freedom Party or MFP [Vincent MALEBO]; National Independent Party or
  NIP [Anthony MANYELI]; National Progressive Party or NPP [Chief
  Peete Nkoebe PEETE]; Popular Front for Democracy or PFD [Lekhetho
  RAKUOANE]; Sefate Democratic Union or SDU [Bofihla NKUEBE]; Social
  Democratic Party of SDP [Masitise SELESO]; United Democratic Party
  or UDP [C.D. MOFELI]; United Party or UP [Makara SEKAUTU]

Liberia
  Alliance for Peace and Democracy or APD [Togba-na TIPOTEH];
  Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia or COTOL; Congress for
  Democratic Change or CDC [George WEAH]; Liberian Action Party or LAP
  [H. Varney SHERMAN]; Liberty Party or LP [Charles BRUMSKINE];
  National Patriotic Party or NPP [Cyril ALLEN]; Unity Party or UP
  [Charles CLARKE]

Libya
  none

Liechtenstein
  Patriotic Union (was Fatherland Union) or VU [Adolf
  HEEB]; Progressive Citizens' Party or FBP [Otmar HASLER]; The Free
  List or FL

Lithuania
  Civil Democracy Party [Viktor MUNTIANAS, chairman];
  Electoral Action of Lithuanian Poles [Valdemar TOMASZEVSKI,
  chairman]; National Farmer's Union [Kazimiera PRUNSKIENE, chairman];
  Homeland Union/Conservative Party or TS [Andrius KUBILIUS,
  chairman]; Labor Party; Liberal and Center Political Group [Arturas
  ZUOKAS, chairman]; Liberal Democratic Party [Valentinas MAZURONIS,
  chairman]; Liberal Movement; Lithuanian Christian Democrats or LKD
  [Valentinas STUNDYS, chairman]; Lithuanian People's Union for a Fair
  Lithuania; Lithuanian Social Democratic Coalition [Algirdas
  BRAZAUSKAS, chairman] consists of the Lithuanian Democratic Labor
  Party or LDDP and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party or LSDP;
  Social Liberal/New Union [Arturas PAULAUSKAS, chairman]; Social
  Union of Christian Conservatives [Gediminas VAGNORIUS, chairman];
  Young Lithuania and New Nationalists

Luxembourg
  Action Committee for Democracy and Justice or ADR [Gast
  GIBERYEN]; Christian Social People's Party or CSV (also known as
  Christian Social Party or PCS) [Francois BILTGEN]; Democratic Party
  or DP [Claude MEISCH]; Green Party [Francois BAUSCH]; Luxembourg
  Socialist Workers' Party or LSAP [Alex BODRY]; Marxist and Reformed
  Communist Party dei Lenk/la Gauche (the Left) [no formal
  leadership]; other minor parties

Macau
  Civil Service Union [Jose Maria Pereira COUTINHO]; Development
  Union [KWAN Tsui-hang]; Macau Development Alliance [Angela LEONG
  On-kei]; Macau United Citizens' Association [CHAN Meng-kam]; New
  Democratic Macau Association [Antonio NG Kuok-cheong]; United Forces

Macedonia
  Democratic Alliance [Pavle TRAJANOV]; Democratic
  Alternative or DA [Vasil TUPURKOVSKI]; Democratic League of the
  Bosniaks [Rafet MUMINOVIC]; Democratic Party of Albanians or
  PDSH/DPA [Arben XHAFERI]; Democratic Party of Serbs [Ivan
  STOILJKOVIC]; Democratic Party of Turks [Kenan HASIPI]; Democratic
  Renewal of Macedonia [Liljana POPOVSKA]; Democratic Republican Union
  of Macedonia or DRUM [Goran RAFAJLOVSKI]; Democratic Union of Vlachs
  for Macedonia [Mitko KOSTOV]; Democratic Union for Integration or
  DUI [Ali AHMETI]; Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
  Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity or
  VMRO-DPMNE [Nikola GRUEVSKI]; Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
  Organization-Macedonian [Boris STOJMENOV]; Internal Macedonian
  Revolutionary Organization-People's Party or VMRO-Narodna [Vesna
  JANEVSKA, acting]; League for Democracy [Gjorgi MARJANOVIC]; Liberal
  Democratic Party or LDP [Risto PENOV]; Liberal Party [Stojan ANDOV];
  National Alternative [Harun ALIU]; National Democratic Party or PDK
  [Basri HALITI]; National Farmers' Party [Vejljo TANTAROV]; New
  Democratic Forces [Hysni SHAQIRI]; New Social Democratic Party or
  NSDP [Tito PETKOVSKI]; Party for Democratic Future [Alajdin DEMIRI];
  Party for Democratic Prosperity or PPD/PDP [Abduljhadi VEJSELI];
  Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia or SDSM [Vlado BUCKOVSKI];
  Socialist Party of Macedonia or SP [Ljubisav IVANOV-ZINGO]; United
  Party for Emancipation or OPE [Nezdet MUSTAFA]

Madagascar
  Association for the Rebirth of Madagascar or AREMA
  [Pierrot RAJAONARIVO]; Economic Liberalism and Democratic Action for
  National Recovery or LEADER/Fanilo [Herizo RAZAFIMAHALEO]; Fihaonana
  Party or FP [Guy-Willy RAZANAMASY]; I Love Madagascar or TIM [Marc
  RAVALOMANANA]; Renewal of the Social Democratic Party or RPSD
  [Evariste MARSON]

Malawi
  Alliance for Democracy or AFORD [Chakufwa CHIHANA]; Congress
  for National Unity or CONU; Democratic Progressive Party or DPP
  [Bingu wa MUTHARIKA]; Malawi Congress Party or MCP [John TEMBO];
  Malawi Democratic Party or MDP [Kampelo KALUA]; Malawi Forum for
  Unity and Development or MAFUNDE [George MNESA]; Mgwirizano
  Coalition or MC [Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA] (coalition of MAFUNDE, MDP,
  MGODE, NUP, PETRA, PPM, RP); Movement for Genuine Democratic Change
  or MGODE [Sam Kandodo BANDA]; National Democratic Alliance or NDA
  [Brown MPINGANJIRA]; National Unity Party or NUP [Harry CHIUME];
  People's Progressive Movement or PPM [Aleke BANDA]; People's
  Transformation Movement or PETRA [Kamuzu CHIBAMBO]; Republican Party
  or RP [Gwandaguluwe CHAKUAMBA]; United Democratic Front or UDF

Malaysia
  ruling-coalition National Front (Barisan Nasional) or BN,
  consisting of the following parties: Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Party
  or PGRM [LIM Keng Yaik]; Liberal Democratic Party (Parti Liberal
  Demokratik - Sabah) or LDP [LIEW Vui Keong]; Malaysian Chinese
  Association (Persatuan China Malaysia) or MCA [ONG Ka Ting];
  Malaysian Indian Congress (Kongresi India Malaysia) or MIC [S. Samy
  VELLU]; Parti Bersatu Pakyat Sabah or PBRS [Joseph KURUP]; Parti
  Bersatu Sabah or PBS [Joseph PAIRIN Kitingan]; Parti Pesaka
  Bumiputra Bersatu or PBB [Patinggi Haji Abdul TAIB Mahmud]; Parti
  Rakyat Sarawak or PRS [James MASING]; Sabah Progressive Party (Parti
  Progresif Sabah) or SAPP [YONG Teck Lee]; Sarawak United People's
  Party (Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sarawak) or SUPP [George CHAN Hong Nam];
  United Malays National Organization or UMNO [ABDULLAH bin Ahmad
  Badawi]; United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organization
  (Pertubuhan Pasko Momogun Kadazan Dusun Bersatu) or UPKO [Bernard
  DOMPOK]; People's Progressive Party (Parti Progresif Penduduk
  Malaysia) or PPP [M.Keyveas]; Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party
  or SPDP [William MAWANI]; opposition parties: Democratic Action
  Party (Parti Tindakan Demokratik) or DAP [KARPAL Singh]; Islamic
  Party of Malaysia (Parti Islam se Malaysia) or PAS [Abdul HADI
  Awang]; People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) or PKR [WAN
  AZIZAH Wan Ismael]; Sarawak National Party or SNAP [Edwin DUNDANG];
  opposition coalition Alternative Front (Barisan Alternatif) or BA -
  consists of PAS and PKR

Maldives
  political parties were allowed to register in June 2005;
  the first entrants are: Adhaalath (Justice) Party or AP [Abdul
  Majeed Abdul BARI]; Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's
  Party) or DRP [Maumoon Abdul GAYOOM]; Islamic Democratic Party or
  IDP [Omar NASEER]; Maldivian Democratic Party or MDP [Mohamed
  NASHEED]

Mali
  Alliance for Democracy or ADEMA [Diounconda TRAORE, party
  chairman]; Hope 2002 (a coalition of CNID, MPR, RDT, and RPM);
  National Congress for Democratic Initiative or CNID [Mountaga TALL,
  chairman]; Party for Democracy and Progress or PDP [Me Idrissa
  TRAORE]; Party for National Renewal or PARENA [Tiebile DRAME,
  secretary general]; Patriotic Movement for Renewal or MPR [Choguel
  MAIGA]; Rally for Democracy and Labor or RDT; Rally for Mali or RPM
  [Ibrahim Boubacar KEITA, chairman]; Sudanese Union/African
  Democratic Rally or US/RDA [Mamadou Bamou TOURE, secretary general];
  Union for Democracy and Development or UDD [Moussa Balla COULIBALY];
  Union for Republic and Democracy or URD [Soumaila CISSE]

Malta
  Alternativa Demokratika/Alliance for Social Justice or AD
  [Harry VASSALLO]; Malta Labor Party or MLP [Alfred SANT];
  Nationalist Party or PN [Lawrence GONZI]

Marshall Islands
  traditionally there have been no formally organized
  political parties; what has existed more closely resembles factions
  or interest groups because they do not have party headquarters,
  formal platforms, or party structures; the following two "groupings"
  have competed in legislative balloting in recent years - Aelon Kein
  Ad Party [Michael KABUA] and United Democratic Party or UDP [Litokwa
  TOMEING]

Martinique
  Martinique Communist Party or PCM [Georges ERICHOT];
  Martinique Independence Movement or MIM [Alfred MARIE-JEANNE];
  Martinique Progressive Party or PPM [Pierre SUEDILE]; Martinique
  Socialist Party or PMS [Ernest WAN-AJOUHU]; Movement of Democrats
  and Ecologists for a Sovereign Martinique or Modemas [Garcin MALSA];
  Rally for the Republic or RPR [Michel CHARLONE]; Socialist
  Revolution Group or GRS [Philippe PIERRE-CHARLES]; Union for French
  Democracy or UDF [Jean MAREN]

Mauritania
  Action for Change or AC (no longer active) [Messoud Ould
  BOULKHEIR]; Alliance for Justice and Democracy or AJD [Cisse Amadou
  CHEIKHOU]; National Union for Democracy and Development or UNDD
  [Tidjane KOITA]; Party for Liberty, Equality, and Justice or PLEJ
  [Ba Mamdou ALASSANE]; Party of Democratic Convergence or PCD [Cheikh
  Ould HORMA]; Popular Front or FP [Ch'bih Ould CHEIKH MALAININE];
  Popular Progressive Alliance or APP [Messoud Ould BOULKHEIR];
  Progress Force Union or UFP (no longer active) [Mohamed Ould
  MAOULOUD]; Rally of Democratic Forces or RFD [Ahmed Ould DADDAH];
  Rally for Democracy and Unity or RDU [Ahmed Ould SIDI BABA];
  Republican Party for Democracy and Renewal or PRDR (formerly ruling
  Democratic and Social Republican Party or PRDS) [Boullah Ould
  MOGUEYA]; Right Way or SAWAB [Cheikh Ould Sidi Ould HANANA]; Union
  for Democracy and Progress or UDP [Naha Mint MOUKNASS]; Union of
  Forces of Progress or UFP [Mohamed Ould MAOULOUD]
  note: the Party of Democratic Convergence was banned in October 2005
  because it was regarded as Islamist and therefore in breach of
  Mauritanian law

Mauritius
  Alliance Sociale or AS; Hizbullah [Cehl Mohamed
  FAKEEMEEAH]; Mauritian Labor Party or MLP [Navinchandra RAMGOOLAM];
  Mauritian Militant Movement or MMM [Paul BERENGER] (in coalition
  with MSM); Mauritian Social Democrat Party or PMSD [Charles
  Xavier-Luc DUVAL]; Militant Socialist Movement or MSM [Pravind
  JUGNAUTH] (the governing party); Rodrigues Movement or MR [Joseph
  (Nicholas) Von MALLY]; Rodrigues Peoples Organization or OPR [Serge
  CLAIR]

Mayotte
  Democratic Front or FD [Youssouf MOUSSA]; Mahoran Popular
  Movement or MPM [Ahmed MADI]; Federation of Mahorans or RPR (UMP)
  [Mansour KAMARDINE]; Force of the Rally and the Alliance for
  Democracy or FRAP; Movement for Department Status Mayotte or MDM
  [Mouhoutar SALIM]; Renewed Communist Party of Mayotte or MRC [Omar
  SIMBA]; Socialist Party or PS (local branch of French Parti
  Socialiste) [Ibrahim ABUBACAR]; Union for French Democracy or UDF
  [Henri JEAN-BAPTISTE]

Mexico
  Convergence for Democracy or CD [Dante DELGADO Ranauro];
  Institutional Revolutionary Party (Institutional Revolutionary
  Party) or PRI [leader NA]; Mexican Green Ecological Party or PVEM
  [Jorge Emilio GONZALEZ Martinez]; National Action Party (Partido
  Accion Nacional) or PAN [Manuel ESPINO Barrientos]; New Alliance
  Party (Partido Nueva Alianza) or PNA [Miguel Angel JIMENEZ Godines];
  Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolucion
  Democratica) or PRD [Leonel COTA Montano]; Workers Party or PT
  [Alberto ANAYA Gutierrez]

Micronesia, Federated States of
  no formal parties

Moldova
  Braghis Faction [Dumitru BRAGHIS]; Christian Democratic
  People's Party or PPCD [Iurie ROSCA]; Communist Party of the
  Republic of Moldova or PCRM [Vladimir VORONIN, first chairman];
  Democratic Moldova Bloc (comprised of the AMN, Democratic Party, and
  PSL); Democratic Party [Dumitru DIACOV]; Our Moldova Alliance or AMN
  [Serafim URECHEANU]; Social Liberal Party or PSL [Oleg SEREBRIAN]

Monaco
  National and Democratic Union or UND [Guy MAGNAN]; Union for
  Monaco or UPM (including National Union for the Future of Monaco or
  UNAM)

Mongolia
  Citizens' Will Republican Party or CWRP (also called Civil
  Courage Republican Party or CCRP) [Sanjaasurengiin OYUN]; Democratic
  Party or DP [Tsakhiagiyn ELBEGDORJ]; Motherland-Mongolian New
  Socialist Democratic Party or M-MNSDP [Badarchyn ERDENEBAT];
  Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party or MPRP [Miegombyn ENKHBOLD];
  Mongolian Republican Party or MRP [Bazarsadyn JARGALSAIKHAN];
  People's Party or PP [Lamjav GUNDALAI]
  note: DP and M-MNSDP formed Motherland-Democracy Coalition (MDC) in
  2003 and with CWRP contested June 2004 elections as single party;
  MDC's leadership dissolved coalition in December 2004

Montenegro
  Albanian Alternative or AA; Bosniak Party or BS [Rafet
  HUSOVIC]; Coalition for a European Montenegro (Democratic Party of
  Socialists or DPS and Social Democratic Party or SDP) [Milo
  DJUKANOVIC]; Coalition SPP/NS/DSS; Democratic League-Party of
  Democratic Prosperity [Mehmet BARHDI]; Democratic Serbian Party of
  Montenegro or DSS; Democratic Union of Albanians or DUA [Ferhat
  DINOSA]; Liberal Party of Montenegro or LP [Miodrag ZIVKOVIC];
  Movement for Changes or PZP [Nebojsa MEDOJEVIC]; People's Party of
  Montenegro or NS [Predrag POPOVIC]; Serbian People's Party of
  Montenegro or SNS [Andrija MANDIC]; Social Democratic Party or SDP
  [Ranko KRIVOKAPIC]; Social Democratic Party of Montenegro or DPS
  [Milo DJUKANOVIC]; Socialist People's Party or SNP [Predrag
  BULATOVIC]

Montserrat
  Montserrat Democratic Party or MDP [Lowell LEWIS];
  Movement for Change and Prosperity or MCAP [Roselyn CASSELL-SEALY];
  New People's Liberation Movement or NPLM [John A. OSBORNE]

Morocco
  Action Party or PA [Muhammad EL IDRISSI]; Alliance of
  Liberties or ADL [Ali BELHAJ]; Annahj Addimocrati or Annahj
  [Abdellah EL HARIF]; Avant Garde Social Democratic Party or PADS
  [Ahmed BENJELLOUN]; Citizen Forces or FC [Abderrahman LAHJOUJI];
  Citizen's Initiatives for Development [Mohamed BENHAMOU];
  Constitutional Union or UC [Mohamed ABIED (interim)]; Democratic and
  Independence Party or PDI [Abdelwahed MAACH]; Democratic and Social
  Movement or MDS [Mahmoud ARCHANE]; Democratic Socialist Party or PSD
  [Aissa OUARDIGHI]; Democratic Union or UD [Bouazza IKKEN];
  Environment and Development Party or PED [Ahmed EL ALAMI]; Front of
  Democratic Forces or FFD [Thami EL KHYARI]; Istiqlal Party
  (Independence Party) or PI [Abbas El FASSI]; Justice and Development
  Party or PJD [Saad Eddine OTHMANI]; Moroccan Liberal Party or PML
  [Mohamed ZIANE]; National Democratic Party or PND [Abdallah KADIRI];
  National Ittihadi Congress Party or CNI [Abdelmajid BOUZOUBAA];
  National Popular Movement or MNP [Mahjoubi AHERDANE]; National Rally
  of Independents or RNI [Ahmed OSMAN]; National Union of Popular
  Forces or UNFP [Abdellah IBRAHIM]; Parti Al Ahd or Al Ahd [Najib EL
  OUAZZANI, chairman]; Party of Progress and Socialism or PPS [Ismail
  ALAOUI]; Party of Renewal and Equity or PRE [Chakir ACHABAR]; Party
  of the Unified Socialist Left or GSU [Mohamed Ben Said AIT IDDER];
  Popular Movement or MP [Mohamed LAENSER]; Reform and Development
  Party or PRD [Abderrahmane EL KOUHEN]; Social Center Party or PSC
  [Lahcen MADIH]; Socialist Union of Popular Forces or USFP [Mohammed
  El-YAZGHI]

Mozambique
  Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de
  Liberatacao de Mocambique) or FRELIMO [Armando Emilio GUEBUZA,
  president]; Mozambique National Resistance-Electoral Union
  (Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana-Uniao Eleitoral) or RENAMO-UE
  [Afonso DHLAKAMA, president]

Namibia
  Congress of Democrats or COD [Ben ULENGA]; Democratic
  Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia or DTA [Katuutire KAURA, president];
  Monitor Action Group or MAG [Jurie VILJOEN]; South West Africa
  People's Organization or SWAPO [Sam Shafishuna NUJOMA]; United
  Democratic Front or UDF [Justus GAROEB]; Republican Party or RP
  [Henk MUDGE]; National Unity Democratic Organization or NUDO [Kuaima
  RIRUAKO]

Nauru
  loose multiparty system; Democratic Party [Kennan ADEANG];
  Nauru Party (informal); Nauru First (Naoero Amo) Party

Nepal
  Communist Party of Nepal/United Marxist-Leninist or CPN/UML
  [Madhav Kumar NEPAL, general secretary]; National Democratic Party
  or NDP (also called Rastriya Prajantra Party or RPP) [Pashupati
  Shumsher RANA, chairman]; Nepali Congress-Democratic [Sher Bahadur
  DEUBA, president]; Nepali Congress or NC [Girija Prasad KOIRALA,
  party president, Sushil KOIRALA, vice president]; Nepal Sadbhavana
  (Goodwill) Party or NSP - Mandal [Bhadri Prasad MANDAL, party
  president]; Nepal Sadbhavana Party - Ananda Devi [Ananda DEVI,
  president]; Nepal Workers and Peasants Party or NWPP [Narayan Man
  BIJUKCHHE, party chairman]; People's Front Nepal (Rastriya Jana
  Morcha) [Amik SHERCHAN, chairman]; Rastriya Janashakti Party or RJP
  [Surya Bahadur THAPA, chairman]; note - split from RPP in March
  2005; Samyukta Janmorcha Nepal [leader NA]; note - merged with
  People's Front Nepal or PFN in 2002

Netherlands
  Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA [Ernst Hirsch
  BALLIN]; Christian Union Party [Andre ROUVOET]; Democrats 66 or D66
  [Lousewies VAN DER LAAN]; Green Party [Femke HALSEMA]; Labor Party
  or PvdA [Wouter BOS]; List Pim Fortuyn [Ton VAN DILLEN]; Party for
  Freedom [Geert WILDERS]; People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
  (Liberal) or VVD [Pieter WINSEMIUS]; Socialist Party [Jan
  MARIJNISSEN]; plus a few minor parties

Netherlands Antilles
  Bonaire: Democratic Party of Bonaire or PDB
  [Jopi ABRAHAM]; Patriotic Union of Bonaire or UPB [Ramonsito BOOI]
  Curacao: Ban Vota [Norbert GEORGE]; C-93 [Stanley BROWN]; Democratic
  Party of Curacao or DP [Errol HERNANDEZ]; E Mayoria [Aurelio PEDRO];
  Forsa Korsou [Nelson NAVARRO]; Liste Ni'un Paso Atras [Nelson
  PIERRE]; Movemiento Patriotiko Korsou [Reginald LAK]; New Antilles
  Movement or MAN [Charles COOPER]; Partido Akshon Pa Prosperidat I
  Seguridat [Sonja BERKEMEYER]; Partido Laboral Krusada Popular or
  PLKP [Errol COVA]; Party for the Restructured Antilles or PAR [Emily
  de JONGH-ELHAGE]; People's National Party or PNP [Ersilia DE
  LANNOOY]; Pidjin [Jasmin PINEDO]; Pueblo Soberano [Herman WIELS];
  Workers' Liberation Front or FOL [Anthony GODETT]
  Saba: Saba Labor Party [Akilah LEVENSTONE]; Windward Islands
  People's Movement or WIPM [Ray HASSELL]
  Sint Eustatius: Democratic Party of Sint Eustatius or DP-St. E
  [Julian WOODLEY]; Progressive Labor Party [Clyde VAN PUTTEN]; St.
  Eustatius Alliance [Ingrid HOUTMAN-WHITFIELD]
  Sint Maarten: Democratic Party of Sint Maarten or DP-St. M [Sarah
  WESCOTT-WILLIAMS]; Freedom Slate of National Democratic Party
  [Theophilus PRIEST]; National Alliance or NA [William MARLIN];
  People's Progressive Alliance or PPA [Gracita ARRINDELL]; St.
  Maarten People's Party [Johan LEONARD]; United People's Labor Party
  [Bienvenido RICHARDSON]
  note: political parties are indigenous to each island

New Caledonia
  Alliance pour la Caledonie or APLC [Didier LE ROUX];
  Caledonian Union or UC; Federation des Comites de Coordination des
  Independantistes or FCCI [Francois BURCK]; Front National or FN [Guy
  GEORGE]; Front Uni de Liberation Kanak or FULK [Ernest UNE]; Kanak
  Socialist Front for National Liberation or FLNKS [leader NA]
  (includes PALIKA, UNI, UC, and UPM); Parti de Liberation Kanak or
  PALIKA [Paul NEAOUTYINE and Elie POIGOUNE]; Rally for Caledonia in
  the Republic (anti independent) or RPCR-UMP [Jacques LAFLEUR]; The
  Future Together or AE [Harold MARTIN]; Union Nationale pour
  l'Independance or UNI [Paul NEAOUTYINE]; note - may no longer exist,
  but Paul NEAOUTYINE has since become a president of Parti de
  Liberation Kanak or PALIKA; Union Progressiste Melanesienne or UPM
  [Victor TUTUGORO]

New Zealand
  ACT New Zealand [Rodney HIDE]; Green Party [Jeanette
  FITZSIMONS]; Maori Party [Whatarangi WINIATA]; National Party or NP
  [Don BRASH]; New Zealand First Party or NZFP [Winston PETERS]; New
  Zealand Labor Party or NZLP [Helen CLARK]; Progressive Party [James
  (Jim) ANDERTON]; United Future or UF [Peter DUNNE]

Nicaragua
  Alliance for the Republic or APRE [Miguel LOPEZ Baldizon];
  Central American Unionist Party or PUCA [Blanca ROJAS]; Christian
  Alternative Party or AC [Orlando TARDENCILLA Espinoza]; Conservative
  Party or PC [Mario Sebastian RAPPACCIOLI]; Independent Liberal Party
  or PLI [Anibal MARTINEZ Nunez, Pedro REYES Vallejos]; Independent
  Liberal Party for National Unity or PLIUN [Carlos GUERRA Gallardo];
  Liberal Constitutional Party or PLC [Jorge CASTILLO Quant]; Liberal
  Salvation Movement or MSL [Eliseo NUNEZ Hernandez]; New Liberal
  Party or PALI [Adolfo GARCIA Esquivel]; Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance
  or ALN [Eduardo MONTEALEGRE]; Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path
  or PCCN [Guillermo OSORNO Molina]; Nicaraguan Resistance Party or
  PRN [Salvador TALAVERA]; Sandinista National Liberation Front or
  FSLN [Daniel ORTEGA Saavedra]; Sandinista Renovation Movement or MRS
  [Dora Maria TELLEZ]; Unity Alliance or AU

Niger
  Democratic and Social Convention-Rahama or CDS-Rahama
  [Mahamane OUSMANE]; National Movement for a Developing
  Society-Nassara or MNSD-Nassara [Hama AMADOU]; Niger Social
  Democratic Party or PSDN; Nigerien Alliance for Democracy and Social
  Progress-Zaman Lahiya or ANDP-Zaman Lahiya [Moumouni DJERMAKOYE];
  Nigerien Party for Autonomy or PNA-Alouma'a [Sanousi JACKOU];
  Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism or PNDS-Tarrayya [Issifou
  MAHAMADOU]; Nigerien Progressive Party or PPN-RDA [Abdoulaye DIORI];
  Rally for Democracy and Progress or RDP-jama'a [Hamid ALGABID];
  Social and Democratic Rally or RSD-Gaskiyya [Cheiffou AMADOU]

Nigeria
  Alliance for Democracy or AD [Mojisoluwa AKINFENWA]; All
  Nigeria Peoples' Party or ANPP [Don ETIEBET]; All Progressives Grand
  Alliance or APGA [disputed leadership]; National Democratic Party or
  NDP [Aliyu Habu FARI]; Peoples Democratic Party or PDP [Dr. Ahmadu
  ALI]; Peoples Redemption Party or PRP [Abdulkadir Balarabe MUSA];
  Peoples Salvation Party or PSP [Lawal MAITURARE]; United Nigeria
  Peoples Party or UNPP [disputed leadership]

Niue
  Alliance of Independents or AI; Niue People's Action Party or
  NPP [Young VIVIAN]

Norfolk Island
  none

Northern Mariana Islands
  Covenant Party [Benigno R. FITIAL];
  Democratic Party [Dr. Carlos S. CAMACHO]; Republican Party [Juan S.
  REYES]

Norway
  Center Party [Aslaug Marie HAGA]; Christian People's Party
  [Dagfinn HOYBRATEN]; Coastal Party [Roy WAAGE]; Conservative Party
  [Erna SOLBERG]; Labor Party [Jens STOLTENBERG]; Liberal Party [Lars
  SPONHEIM]; Progress Party [Siv JENSEN]; Red Electoral Alliance
  [Torstein DAHLE]; Socialist Left Party [Kristin HALVORSEN]

Oman
  none

Pakistan
  Awami National Party or ANP [Asfandyar Wali KHAN];
  Balochistan National Party/Hayee Group or BNP/H [Dr. Hayee BALUCH];
  Baluch National Party/Awami or BNP/Awami [Moheem Khan BALOCH];
  Baluch National Party-Mengal or BNP/M [Sardar Ataullah MENGAL];
  Jamhoori Watan Party or JWP; Jamiat-al-Hadith or JAH [Sajid MIR];
  Jamiat-i-Islami or JI [Qazi Hussain AHMED]; Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam,
  Fazlur Rehman faction or JUI/F [Fazlur REHMAN]; Jamiat
  Ulema-i-Islam, Sami ul-HAQ faction or JUI/S [Sami ul-HAQ]; Jamiat
  Ulema-i-Pakistan or JUP [Shah Faridul HAQ]; Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
  Pakistan or MMA [Qazi Hussain AHMED]; Muttahida Qaumi Movement,
  Altaf faction or MQM/A [Altaf HUSSAIN]; Muttahida Quami Movement,
  Haqiqi faction or MQM/H [Afaq AHMAD]; National Alliance or NA
  [Ghulam Mustapha JATOI]; Pakhtun Khwa Milli Awami Party or PkMAP
  [Mahmood Khan ACHAKZAI]; Pakhtun Quami Party or PQP [Mohammed Afzal
  KHAN]; Pakistan Awami Tehrik or PAT [Tahir ul QADRI]; Pakistan
  Muslim League, Functional Group or PML/F [Pir PAGARO]; Pakistan
  Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif faction or PML/N [Nawaz SHARIF];
  Pakistan Muslim League or PML [Chaudhry Shujaat HUSSAIN]; note - as
  of May 2004, the PML/Q changed its name to PML and absorbed the
  PML/J, PML/Z, and NA; Pakistan National Party or PNP [Hasil
  BIZENJO]; Pakistan People's Party or PPP [Aftab Ahmed Khan SHERPAO];
  Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians or PPPP [Benazir BHUTTO];
  Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf or PTI [Imran KHAN]; Tehrik-i-Islami
  [Allama Sajid NAQVI]
  note: political alliances in Pakistan can shift frequently

Palau
  none

Panama
  Democratic Change or CD [Ricardo MARTINELLI]; Democratic
  Revolutionary Party or PRD [Hugo GUIRAUD]; National Liberal Party or
  PLN [Anibal GALINDO]; Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement or
  MOLIRENA [Jesus ROSAS]; Panamenista Party or PA (formerly the
  Arnulfista Party) [Marco AMEGLIO]; Popular Party or PP (formerly
  Christian Democratic Party or PDC) [Ricardo ARIAS Calderon];
  Solidarity Party or PS [Jose Raul MULINO]

Papua New Guinea
  Christian Democratic Party [Dr. Banare BUN];
  Melanesian Alliance Party or MAP [Sir Moi AVEL]; National Alliance
  Party or NA [Michael SOMARE]; National Party [Melcher PEP]; Papua
  and Niugini Union Party or PANGU [Rabbie NAMALIU]; Papua New Guinea
  First Party [Cecilking DORUBA]; Papua New Guinea Labor Party [Bob
  DANAYA]; Papua New Guinea Party or PNGP (was People's Democratic
  Movement or PDM) [Sir Mekere MORAUTA]; People's Action Party or PAP
  [Moses MALADINA]; People's Labor Party or PLP [Ekis ROPENU];
  People's National Congress or PNC [Peter O'NEILL]; People's Progress
  Party or PPP [Byron CHAN]; Pipol First Party [Luther WENGE]; United
  Party [Bire KIMASOPA]; United Resources Party or URP [Tim NEVILLE]
  (2005)

Paraguay
  Asociacion Nacional Republicana - Colorado Party or ANR
  [Herminio CACERES, interim president]; Movimiento Union Nacional de
  Ciudadanos Eticos or UNACE [Enrique GONZALEZ Quintana, acting
  chairman]; Patria Querida (Beloved Fatherland Party) or PQ [Pedro
  Nicolas Maraa FADUL Niella]; Partido Encuentro Nacional or PEN [Luis
  TORALES Kennedy]; Partido Liberal Radical Autentico or PLRA [Blas
  LLANO]; Partido Pais Solidario or PPS [Carlos Alberto FILIZZOLA
  Pallares]
  note: Nicanor DUARTE FRUTOS on leave as party leader of the Colorado
  Party or ANR while serving as President of Paraguay; Lino Cesar
  OVIEDO Silva, leader of UNACE, is currently serving a ten-year
  prison term

Peru
  Alliance For Progress (Alianza Para El Progreso) [Cesar ACUNA
  Peralta]; Alliance For The Future (Alianza Por El Futuro) or AF - a
  coalition of pro-FUJIMORI parties including Cambio 90, Nueva
  Mayoria, and Si Cumple [Martha CHAVEZ Cossio]; Centrist Front
  (Frente Del Centro) or FC - a coalition of Accion Popular, Somos
  Peru, and Coordinadora Nacional de Independientes [Valentin PANIAGUA
  Corazoa]; Independent Moralizing Front (Frente Independiente
  Moralizador) or FIM [Fernando OLIVERA Vega]; Nationalist Party
  Uniting Peru (Partido Nacionalista Uniendo al Peru) or UPP - a
  coalition of Union for Peru (UPP) and Peruvian Nationalist Party
  (PNP) [Ollanta HUMALA Tasso]; National Restoration (Restauracion
  Nacional) or RN [Humberto LAY Sun]; National Unity (Unidad Nacional)
  or UN [Lourdes FLORES Nano]; Peru Possible (Peru Posible) or PP
  [David WAISMAN]; Peruvian Aprista Party (Partido Aprista Peruano) or
  PAP - also referred to by its original name Alianza Popular
  Revolucionaria Americana or APRA [Alan GARCIA]

Philippines
  Kabalikat Ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) [Ronaldo PUNO];
  Laban Ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Struggle of Filipino Democrats) or
  LDP [Edgardo ANGARA]; Lakas Ng Edsa (National Union of Christian
  Democrats) or Lakas [Jose DE VENECIA]; Liberal Party or LP [Franklin
  DRILON/Eli QUINTO]; Nacionalista [Manuel VILLAR]; National People's
  Coalition or NPC [Frisco SAN JUAN]; PDP-Laban [Aquilino PIMENTEL];
  People's Reform Party [Miriam Defensor SANTIAGO]; PROMDI [Emilio
  OSMENA]; Pwersa Ng Masang Pilipino (Party of the Philippine Masses)
  or PMP [Joseph ESTRADA]; Reporma [Renato DE VILLA]

Pitcairn Islands
  none

Poland
  Catholic-National Movement or RKN [Antoni MACIEREWICZ]; Civic
  Platform or PO [Donald TUSK]; Conservative Peasants Party or SKL
  [Artur BALASZ]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [Wojciech
  OLEJNICZAK]; Democratic Party or PD [Wladyslaw FRASYNIUK]; Dom
  Ojczysty (Fatherland Home); German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO
  [Henryk KROLL]; Law and Justice or PiS [Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI]; League
  of Polish Families or LPR [Marek KOTLINOWSKI]; Peasant-Democratic
  Party or PLD [Roman JAGIELINSKI]; Polish Accord or PP [Jan
  LOPUSZANSKI]; Polish Peasant Party or PSL [Waldemar PAWLAK]; Ruch
  Patriotyczny or RP [Jan OLSZEWSKI]; Samoobrona or SO [Andrzej
  LEPPER]; Social Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [Marek BOROWSKI];
  Social Movement or RS [Krzysztof PIESIEWICZ]; Union of Labor or UP
  [Andrzej SPYCHALSKI]

Portugal
  Green Ecologist Party or PEV [Heloisa APOLONIA]; Popular
  Party or PP [Jose Ribeiro e CASTRO]; Portuguese Communist Party or
  PCP [Jeronimo de SOUSA]; Portuguese Socialist Party or PS [Jose
  SOCRATES Carvalho Pinto de Sousa]; Social Democratic Party or PSD
  [Luis Marques MENDES]; The Left Bloc or BE [Franciso Anacleto
  LOUCA]; Unitarian Democratic Coalition or CDU (includes PEV and PCP)
  [Jeronimo de SOUSA]

Puerto Rico
  National Democratic Party [Roberto PRATS]; National
  Republican Party of Puerto Rico [Dr. Tiody FERRE]; New Progressive
  Party or PNP (pro-US statehood) [Pedro ROSSELLO]; Popular Democratic
  Party or PPD (pro-commonwealth) [Anibal ACEVEDO-VILA]; Puerto Rican
  Independence Party or PIP (pro-independence) [Ruben BERRIOS Martinez]

Qatar
  none

Reunion
  Communist Party of Reunion or PCR [Elie HOARAU]; Rally for
  the Republic or RPR [Andre Maurice PIHOUEE]; Socialist Party or PS
  [Michel VERGOZ]; Union for French Democracy or UDF [Gilbert GERARD];
  Union for a Popular Movement or UMP

Romania
  Conservative Party or PC [Dan VOICULESCU], formerly Humanist
  Party or PUR; Democratic Party or PD [Emil BOC]; Democratic Union of
  Hungarians in Romania or UDMR [Bela MARKO]; National Liberal Party
  or PNL [Calin Popescu-TARICEANU]; Romania Mare Party (Greater
  Romanian Party) or PRM [Corneliu Vadim TUDOR]; Social Democratic
  Party or PSD [Mircea Dan GEOANA], formerly Party of Social Democracy
  in Romania or PDSR

Russia
  A Just Russia or JR [Sergei MIRONOV] (formed from the merger
  of three small political parties: Motherland Party (Rodina),
  Pensioner's Party, and Party of Life); Communist Party of the
  Russian Federation or CPRF [Gennadiy Andreyevich ZYUGANOV]; Liberal
  Democratic Party of Russia or LDPR [Vladimir Volfovich
  ZHIRINOVSKIY]; People's Party [Gennady RAIKOV]; Union of Right
  Forces or SPS [Nikita BELYKH]; United Russia or UR [Boris
  Vyacheslavovich GRYZLOV]; Yabloko Party [Grigoriy Alekseyevich
  YAVLINSKIY]

Rwanda
  Centrist Democratic Party or PDC [Alfred MUKEZAMFURA];
  Democratic Popular Union of Rwanda or UDPR [Adrien RANGIRA];
  Democratic Republican Movement or MDR [Celestin KABANDA] (officially
  banned); Islamic Democratic Party or PDI [Andre BUMAYA]; Liberal
  Party or PL [Prosper HIGIRO]; Party for Democratic Renewal
  (officially banned); Rwandan Patriotic Front or RPF [Paul KAGAME];
  Social Democratic Party or PSD [Vincent BIRUTA]

Saint Helena
  none

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Concerned Citizens Movement or CCM [Vance
  AMORY]; Nevis Reformation Party or NRP [Joseph PARRY]; People's
  Action Movement or PAM [Lindsey GRANT]; Saint Kitts and Nevis Labor
  Party or SKNLP [Dr. Denzil DOUGLAS]

Saint Lucia
  National Alliance or NA [George ODLUM]; Saint Lucia
  Freedom Party or SFP [Martinus FRANCOIS]; Saint Lucia Labor Party or
  SLP [Kenneth ANTHONY]; Sou Tout Apwe Fete Fini or STAFF [Christopher
  HUNTE]; United Workers Party or UWP [Sir John COMPTON]

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Left Radical Party or PRG; Rassemblement
  pour la Republique or RPR (now UMP); Socialist Party or PS; Union
  pour la Democratie Francaise or UDF

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  New Democratic Party or NDP [Arnhim
  EUSTACE]; Unity Labor Party or ULP [Ralph GONSALVES] (formed by the
  coalition of Saint Vincent Labor Party or SVLP and the Movement for
  National Unity or MNU)

Samoa
  Human Rights Protection Party or HRPP [Sailele Malielegaoi
  TUILA'EPA]; Samoa Christian Party or TCP [Tuala Tiresa MALIETOA];
  Samoa Democratic United Party or SDUP [LE MAMEA Ropati]; Samoa Party
  or SP [Su'a Rimoni Ah CHONG]; Samoa Progressive Political Party or
  SPPP [Toeolesulusulu SIUEVA]

San Marino
  Communist Refoundation or RC [Ivan FOSHI]; Ideas in
  Movement or IM [Alessandro ROSSI]; National Alliance or AN; New
  Socialist Party; Party of Socialists and Democrats [Claudio FELICI];
  San Marino Christian Democratic Party or PDCS [Giovanni LONFERNINI];
  San Marino Popular Alliance of Democrats or APDS [Roberto
  GIORGETTI]; San Marino Socialist Party or PSS [Alberto CECCHETTI];
  Socialists for Reform or SR [Renzo GIARDI]; United Left

Sao Tome and Principe
  Democratic Renovation Party [Armindo GRACA];
  Force for Change Democratic Movement or MDFM; Independent Democratic
  Action or ADI [Carlos NEVES]; Movement for the Liberation of Sao
  Tome and Principe-Social Democratic Party or MLSTP-PSD [Manuel Pinto
  Da COSTA]; Party for Democratic Convergence or PCD [Aldo BANDEIRA];
  Ue-Kedadji coalition; other small parties

Saudi Arabia
  none

Senegal
  African Party for Democracy and Socialism or And Jef (also
  known as PADS/AJ) [Landing SAVANE, secretary general]; African Party
  of Independence [Majhemout DIOP]; Alliance of Forces of Progress or
  AFP [Moustapha NIASSE]; Democratic and Patriotic Convention or CDP
  (also known as Garab-Gi) [Dr. Iba Der THIAM]; Democratic
  League-Labor Party Movement or LD-MPT [Dr. Abdoulaye BATHILY]; Front
  for Socialism and Democracy or FSD [Cheikh Abdoulaye DIEYE]; Gainde
  Centrist Bloc or BGC [Jean-Paul DIAS]; Independence and Labor Party
  or PIT [Amath DANSOKHO]; National Democratic Rally or RND [Madier
  DIOUF]; Senegalese Democratic Party or PDS [Abdoulaye WADE];
  Socialist Party or PS [Ousmane Tanor DIENG]; SOPI Coalition
  [Abdoulaye WADE] (a coalition led by the PDS); Union for Democratic
  Renewal or URD [Djibo Leyti KA]; other small parties

Serbia
  Democratic Party of Serbia or DSS [Vojislav KOSTUNICA];
  Democratic Party or DS [Boris TADIC]; G17 Plus [Mladjan DINKIC is
  acting leader]; Serbian Radical Party or SRS [Vojislav SESELJ, but
  Tomislav NIKOLIC is acting leader]; Socialist Party of Serbia or SPS
  [vacant, but Ivica DACIC is head of the SPS Main Board]; New Serbia
  or NS [Velimir ILIC]; Serbian Renewal Movement or SPO [Vuk DRASKOVIC]

Seychelles
  Democratic Party or DP [James MANCHAM, Daniel BELLE];
  Mouvement Seychellois pour la Democratie [Jacques HODOUL];
  Seychelles National Party or SNP [Wavel RAMKALAWAN] (formerly the
  United Opposition or UO); Seychelles People's Progressive Front or
  SPPF [France Albert RENE, James MICHEL] (the governing party)

Sierra Leone
  All People's Congress or APC [Ben KANU]; Peace and
  Liberation Party or PLP [Darlington MORRISON, interim chairman];
  Sierra Leone People's Party or SLPP [Sama BANYA]; numerous others

Singapore
  People's Action Party or PAP [LEE Hsien Loong]; Singapore
  Democratic Alliance or SDA [CHIAM See Tong]; Singapore Democratic
  Party or SDP [CHEE Soon Juan]; Workers' Party or WP [Sylvia LIM Swee
  Lian]
  note: SDA includes National Solidarity Party or NSP, Singapore
  Justice Party or SJP, Singapore National Malay Organization or PKMS,
  Singapore People's Party or SPP

Slovakia
  Christian Democratic Movement or KDH [Pavol HRUSOVSKY];
  Direction-Social Democracy or Smer-SD [Robert FICO]; Free Forum
  [Zuzana MARTINAKOVA]; Movement for Democracy or HZD [Jozef GRAPA];
  People's Party - Movement for a Democratic Slovakia or LS-HZDS
  [Vladimir MECIAR]; New Citizens Alliance or ANO [Pavol RUSKO]; Party
  of the Hungarian Coalition or SMK [Bela BUGAR]; People's Union or LU
  [Gustav KRAJCI]; Slovak Communist Party or KSS [Vladimir DADO];
  Slovak Democratic and Christian Union or SDKU [Mikulas DZURINDA];
  Slovak National Party or SNS [Jan SLOTA]

Slovenia
  Democratic Party of Retired (Persons) of Slovenia or DeSUS
  [Karl ERJAVEC]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDS [Jelko KACIN]; New
  Slovenia or NSi [Andrej BAJUK]; Slovenian Democratic Party or SDS
  [Janez JANSA]; Slovene National Party or SNS [Zmago JELINCIC];
  Slovene People's Party or SLS [Janez PODOBNIK]; Slovene Youth Party
  or SMS [Darko KRANJC]; Social Democrats or SD [Borut PAHOR]

Solomon Islands
  Association of Independent Members or AIM [Thomas
  CHAN]; Christian Alliance Solomon Islands or CASI [Edward RONIA];
  LAFARI Party [John GARO]; National Party [Francis HILLY]; People's
  Alliance Party or PAP [Sir Allan KEMAKEZA]; Social Credit Party or
  SOCRED [Manasseh Damukana SOGAVARE]; Solomon First Party [David
  QUAN]; Solomon Islands Democratic Party [Gabriel SURI]; Solomon
  Islands Labor Party or SILP [Joses TUHANUKU]; Solomon Islands
  Liberal Party [Bartholomew ULUFA'ALU]; Solomon Islands Party for
  Rural Advancement or SIPRA [Job D. TAUSINGA]; United Party [Sir
  Peter KENILOREA]
  note: in general, Solomon Islands politics is characterized by fluid
  coalitions

Somalia
  none

South Africa
  African Christian Democratic Party or ACDP [Kenneth
  MESHOE, president]; African National Congress or ANC [Thabo MBEKI,
  president]; Democratic Alliance or DA [Anthony LEON] (formed from
  the merger of the Democratic Party or DP and the Freedom Alliance or
  FA); Inkatha Freedom Party or IFP [Mangosuthu BUTHELEZI, president];
  Pan-Africanist Congress or PAC [Stanley MOGOBA, president]; New
  National Party or NNP; United Democratic Movement or UDM [Bantu
  HOLOMISA]

Spain
  Basque Nationalist Party or PNV [Josu Jon IMAZ]; Canarian
  Coalition or CC (a coalition of five parties) [Paulino RIVERO
  Baute]; Convergence and Union or CiU [Artur MAS i Gavarro] (a
  coalition of the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia or CDC [Artur
  MAS i Gavarro] and the Democratic Union of Catalonia or UDC [Josep
  Antoni DURAN y LLEIDA]); Entesa Catalonia de Progress (a Senate
  coalition grouping four Catalan parties - PSC, ERC, ICV, EUA);
  Galician Nationalist Bloc or BNG [Anxo Manuel QUINTANA]; Party of
  Independents from Lanzarote or PIL [Dimas MARTIN Martin]; Popular
  Party or PP [Mariano RAJOY]; Republican Left of Catalonia or ERC
  [Joan Puigcercos BOIXASSA]; Spanish Socialist Workers Party or PSOE
  [Jose Luis RODRIGUEZ ZAPATERO]; United Left or IU (a coalition of
  parties including the PCE and other small parties) [Gaspar
  LLAMAZARES]

Sri Lanka
  All Ceylon Tamil Congress or ACTC [KUMARGURUPARAM]; Ceylon
  Workers Congress or CWC [Arumugam THONDAMAN]; Communist Party or CP
  [D. GUNASEKERA]; Democratic United National (Lalith) Front or DUNLF
  [Shrimani ATULATHMUDALI]; Eelam People's Democratic Party or EPDP
  [Douglas DEVANANDA]; Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
  or EPRLF [Suresh PREMACHANDRAN]; Janatha Vimukthi Perumuna or JVP
  [Somawansa AMARASINGHE]; Lanka Sama Samaja Party or LSSP; Mahajana
  Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) or MEP [D. GUNAWARDENE];
  National Heritage Party or JHU [Tilak KARUNARATNE]; National Unity
  Alliance or NUA [Ferial ASHRAFF]; People's Liberation Organization
  of Tamil Eelam or PLOTE [D. SIDHARTHAN]; Sihala Urumaya or SU; Sri
  Lanka Freedom Party or SLFP [Chandrika Bandaranaike KUMARATUNGA];
  Sri Lanka Muslim Congress or SLMC [Rauff HAKEEM]; Sri Lanka
  Progressive Front or SLPF [P. Nelson PERERA]; Tamil Eelam Liberation
  Organization or TELO [SABARATNAM]; Tamil National Alliance or TNA
  [R. SAMPANTHAN]; Tamil United Liberation Front or TULF [V.
  ANANDASANGAREE]; United National Party or UNP [Ranil
  WICKREMASINGHE]; Up-country People's Front or UPF [P.
  CHANDRASEKARAN]; several ethnic Tamil and Muslim parties,
  represented in either Parliament or provincial councils

Sudan
  political parties in the Government of National Unity include:
  National Congress Party or NCP [Ibrahim Ahmed OMAR]; Sudan People's
  Liberation Movement or SPLM [Salva Mayardit KIIR]; and elements of
  the National Democratic Alliance or NDA including factions of the
  Democratic Union Party [Muhammad Uthman al-MIRGHANI] and Umma Party
  [SADIQ Siddiq al-Mahdi]

Suriname
  Alternative-1 or A-1 (a coalition of Amazone Party of
  Suriname or APS [Kenneth VAN GENDEREN], Democrats of the 21st
  Century or D-21 [Soewarto MOESTADJA], Nieuw Suriname or NS [Radjen
  Nanan PANDAY], Political Wing of the FAL or PVF [Jiwan SITAL],
  Trefpunt 2000 or T-2000 [Arti JESSURUN]); General Interior
  Development Party or ABOP [Ronnie BRUNSWIJK]; National Democratic
  Party or NDP [Desire BOUTERSE]; New Front for Democracy and
  Development or NF (a coalition which includes A-Combination or A-Com
  [leader NA], Democratic Alternative 1991 or DA-91 which split from
  the A-1 before the elections of May 2005 and are an independent,
  business-oriented party [Winston JESSURUN], National Party Suriname
  or NPS [Ronald VENETIAAN], United Reform Party or VHP [Ram SARDJOE],
  Pertjaja Luhur or PL [Salam Paul SOMOHARDJO], Surinamese Labor Party
  or SPA [Siegfried GILDS]); Party for Democracy and Development in
  Unity or DOE [Marten SCHALKWIJK]; People's Alliance for Progress or
  VVV (a coalition of Democratic National Platform 2000 or DNP-2000
  [Jules WIJDENBOSCH], Grassroots Party for Renewal and Democracy or
  BVD [Tjan GOBARDHAN], Party for National Unity and Solidarity of the
  Highest Order or KTPI [Willy SOEMITA], Party for Progression,
  Justice, and Perseverance or PPRS [Renee KAIMAN], Pendawalima or PL
  [Raymond SAPOEN]); Progressive Laborers and Farmers Union or PALU
  [Jim HOK]; Progressive Political Party or PPP [Surinder MUNGRA];
  Seeka [Paul ABENA]; Union of Progressive Surinamers or UPS [Sheoradj
  PANDAY]

Swaziland
  political parties are banned by the government under an
  emergency decree that will be revoked when the new constitution
  takes effect (January 2006)- the following are considered political
  associations; Imbokodvo National Movement or INM; Ngwane National
  Liberatory Congress or NNLC [Obed DLAMINI, president]; People's
  United Democratic Movement or PUDEMO [Mario MASUKU, president]

Sweden
  Center Party [Maud OLOFSSON]; Christian Democratic Party
  [Goran HAGGLUND]; Environment Party the Greens [no formal leader but
  party spokespersons are Maria WETTERSTRAND and Peter ERIKSSON]; Left
  Party or V (formerly Communist) [Lars OHLY]; Moderate Party
  (conservative) [Fredrik REINFELDT]; People's Party [Lars
  LEIJONBORG]; Social Democratic Party [Goran PERSSON]

Switzerland
  Green Party (Grune Partei der Schweiz or Grune, Parti
  Ecologiste Suisse or Les Verts, Partito Ecologista Svizzero or I
  Verdi, Partida Ecologica Svizra or La Verda) [Ruth GENNER];
  Christian Democratic People's Party (Christichdemokratische
  Volkspartei der Schweiz or CVP, Parti Democrate-Chretien Suisse or
  PDC, Partito Democratico-Cristiano Popolare Svizzero or PDC, Partida
  Cristiandemocratica dalla Svizra or PCD) [Doris LEUTHARD,
  president]; Radical Free Democratic Party (Freisinnig-Demokratische
  Partei der Schweiz or FDP, Parti Radical-Democratique Suisse or PRD,
  Partitio Liberal-Radicale Svizzero or PLR) [Marianne
  KLEINER-SCHLAEPFER, president]; Social Democratic Party
  (Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz or SPS, Parti Socialist
  Suisse or PSS, Partito Socialista Svizzero or PSS, Partida
  Socialdemocratica de la Svizra or PSS) [Hans-Juerg FEHR, president];
  Swiss People's Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP, Union
  Democratique du Centre or UDC, Unione Democratica de Centro or UDC,
  Uniun Democratica dal Center or UDC) [Ueli MAURER, president]; and
  other minor parties

Syria
  Arab Socialist Unionist Movement [Ahmed al-AHMED]; National
  Progressive Front or NPF (includes Arab Socialist Renaissance
  (Ba'th) Party; the governing party) [President Bashar al-ASAD,
  secretary general]; Socialist Unionist Democratic Party [Fadlallal
  Nasr Al-DIN]; Syrian Arab Socialist Party or ASP [Safwan QUDSI];
  Syrian Communist Party (two branches) [Wissal Farha BAKDASH, Yuusuf
  Rashid FAYSAL]; Syrian Social National Party [Jubran URAYJI];
  Unionist Socialist Party [Fayez ISMAIL]

Taiwan
  Democratic Progressive Party or DPP [YU Shyi-kun]; Kuomintang
  or KMT (Nationalist Party) [MA Ying-jeou]; People First Party or PFP
  [James SOONG (SOONG Chu-yu)]; Taiwan Solidarity Union or TSU [SU
  Chin-chiang]; other minor parties including the Chinese New Party or
  NP

Tajikistan
  Agrarian Party of Tajikistan or APT [Amir KARAKULOV];
  Democratic Party or DPT [Mahmadruzi ISKANDAROV]; Islamic Revival
  Party [Said Abdullo NURI]; Party of Economic Reform or PER [Olimjon
  BOBOYEV]; People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan or PDPT [Emomali
  RAHMONOV]; Social Democratic Party or SDPT [Rahmatullo ZOYIROV];
  Socialist Party or SPT [Abdualim GHAFFOROV]; Tajik Communist Party
  or CPT [Shodi SHABDOLOV]

Tanzania
  Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Party of Democracy and
  Development) or CHADEMA [Bob MAKANI]; Chama Cha Mapinduzi or CCM
  (Revolutionary Party) [Jakaya Mrisho KIKWETE]; Civic United Front or
  CUF [Ibrahim LIPUMBA]; Democratic Party [Christopher MTIKLA]
  (unregistered); Tanzania Labor Party or TLP [Augustine Lyatonga
  MREME]; United Democratic Party or UDP [John CHEYO]

Thailand
  Democrat Party or DP (Prachathipat Party) [ABHISIT
  Wetchachiwa]; People's Party or PP (Mahachon Party) [ANEK
  Laothamatas]; Thai Nation Party or TNP (Chat Thai Party) [BARNHARN
  SILPA-ARCHA]; Thai Rak Thai Party or TRT [CHATURON Chaisang]

Togo
  Juvento [Monsilia DJATO]; Movement of the Believers of Peace
  and Equality or MOCEP; Rally for the Support for Development and
  Democracy or RSDD [Harry OLYMPIO]; Rally of the Togolese People or
  RPT [Faure GNASSINGBE]; Union for Democracy and Social Progress or
  UDPS [Gagou KOKOU]

Tokelau
  none

Tonga
  People's Democratic Party [Tesina FUKO]

Trinidad and Tobago
  National Alliance for Reconstruction or NAR
  [Lennox SANKERSINGH]; People's National Movement or PNM [Patrick
  MANNING]; Team Unity or TU [Ramesh MAHARAJ]; United National
  Congress or UNC [Basdeo PANDAY]; Democratic Action Committee or DAC
  [Hochoy CHARLES], note - only active in Tobago

Tunisia
  Al-Tajdid Movement [Ali HALOUANI]; Constitutional Democratic
  Rally Party (Rassemblement Constitutionnel Democratique) or RCD
  [President Zine El Abidine BEN ALI (official ruling party)]; Liberal
  Social Party or PSL [Mounir BEJI]; Movement of Socialist Democrats
  or MDS [Ismail BOULAHYA]; Popular Unity Party or PUP [Mohamed
  BOUCHIHA]; Progressive Democratic Party [Nejib CHEBBI]; Unionist
  Democratic Union or UDU [Ahmed INOUBLI]

Turkey
  Anavatan Partisi (once was Motherland Party) or ANAVATAN
  [Erkan MUMCU]; Democratic Left Party or DSP [Mehmet Zeki SEZER];
  Democratic People's Party or DEHAP [Tuncer BAKIRHAN]; Felicity Party
  (sometimes translated as Contentment Party) or SP [Necmettin
  ERBAKAN]; Justice and Development Party or AKP [Recep Tayyip
  ERDOGAN]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP; Nationalist Action Party
  or MHP [Devlet BAHCELI]; People's Rise Party (Halkin Yukselisi
  Partisi) or HYP [Yasr Nuri OZTURK]; Republican People's Party or CHP
  [Deniz BAYKAL]; Social Democratic People's Party or SHP [Murat
  KARAYALCIN]; True Path Party (sometimes translated as Correct Way
  Party) or DYP [Mehmet AGAR]
  note: the parties listed above are some of the more significant of
  the 49 parties that Turkey had on 1 December 2004

Turkmenistan
  Democratic Party of Turkmenistan or DPT [Saparmurat
  NIYAZOV]
  note: formal opposition parties are outlawed; unofficial, small
  opposition movements exist underground or in foreign countries; the
  two most prominent opposition groups-in-exile have been National
  Democratic Movement of Turkmenistan (NDMT) and the United Democratic
  Party of Turkmenistan (UDPT); NDMT was led by former Foreign
  Minister Boris SHIKHMURADOV until his arrest and imprisonment in the
  wake of the 25 November 2002 assassination attempt on President
  NIYAZOV; UDPT is led by former Foreign Minister Abdy KULIEV and is
  based out of Moscow

Turks and Caicos Islands
  People's Democratic Movement or PDM [Derek
  H. TAYLOR]; Progressive National Party or PNP [Michael Eugene MISICK]

Tuvalu
  there are no political parties but members of Parliament
  usually align themselves in informal groupings

Uganda
  Conservative Party or CP [Ken LUKYAMUZI]; Democratic Party or
  DP [Kizito SSEBAANA]; Forum for Democratic Change or FDC [Kizza
  BESIGYE]; Justice Forum or JEEMA [Muhammad Kibirige MAYANJA];
  National Democrats Forum [Chapaa KARUHANGA]; National Resistance
  Movement or NRM [Yoweri MUSEVENI]; Ugandan People's Congress or UPC
  [Miria OBOTE]
  note: a national referendum in July 2005 opened the way for Uganda's
  transition to a multi-party political system

Ukraine
  Communist Party of Ukraine or CPU [Petro SYMONENKO];
  Fatherland Party (Batkivshchyna) [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO]; Lytyvn-led
  People's Bloc group [Ihor SHAROV]; Our Ukraine [Viktor YUSHCHENKO];
  Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs [Anatoliy KINAKH];
  People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) [Borys TARASYUK]; People's Party
  [Volodymyr LYTVYN]; People's Trust group [Anton KISSE]; PORA! (It's
  Time!) party [Vladyslav KASKIV]; Progressive Socialist Party
  [Natalya VITRENKO]; Reforms and Order Party [Viktor PYNZENYK]; Party
  of Regions [Viktor YANUKOVYCH]; Republican Party [Yuriy BOYKO];
  Social Democratic Party (United) or SDPU(o) [Viktor MEDVEDCHUK];
  Socialist Party of Ukraine or SPU [Oleksandr MOROZ, chairman];
  Ukrainian People's Party [Yuriy KOSTENKO]; United Ukraine [Bohdan
  HUBSKYY]; Vidrodzhennya (Revival) [Anton KISSE]

United Arab Emirates
  none

United Kingdom
  Conservative and Unionist Party [David CAMERON];
  Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) [Rev. Ian PAISLEY];
  Labor Party [Anthony (Tony) BLAIR]; Liberal Democrats [Sir Menzies
  CAMPBELL]; Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Dafydd IWAN]; Scottish
  National Party or SNP [Alex SALMOND]; Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland)
  [Gerry ADAMS]; Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern
  Ireland) [Mark DURKAN]; Ulster Unionist Party (Northern Ireland)
  [Sir Reg EMPEY]

United States
  Democratic Party [Howard DEAN]; Green Party;
  Libertarian Party [Steve DAMERELL]; Republican Party [Ken MEHLMAN]

Uruguay
  Colorado Party [Julio Maria SANGUINETTI]; Independent Party
  (Partido Independiente) [Pablo MIERES]; Movement of Popular
  Participation or MPP [Jose MUJICA]; National Party or Blanco [Jorge
  LARRANAGA]; New Sector/Space Coalition (Nuevo Espacio) [Rafael
  MICHELINI]; Progressive Encounter/Broad Front Coalition (Encuentro
  Progresista/Frente Amplio) or EP-FA [Tabare VAZQUEZ]; Socialist
  Party of Uruguay or Socialists [Reinaldo GARGANO]; Uruguayan
  Assembly or Asamblea Uruguay [Danilo ASTORI]

Uzbekistan
  Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party [Dilorom
  TOSHMUHAMMADOVA, chairman]; Democratic National Rebirth Party (Milly
  Tiklanish) or MTP [Xurshid DOSTMUHAMMADOV, chief]; Liberal
  Democratic Party of Uzbekistan or LDPU [Adham SHODMONOV, chairman];
  People's Democratic Party or NDP (formerly Communist Party)
  [Asliddin RUSTAMOV, first secretary]; Self-Sacrificers Party or
  Fidokorlar National Democratic Party [Ahtam TURSUNOV, chief]; note -
  Fatherland Progress Party merged with Self-Sacrificers Party

Vanuatu
  Jon Frum Movement [Song KEASPAI]; Melanesian Progressive
  Party or MPP [Barak SOPE]; National United Party or NUP [Hem LINI];
  Union of Moderate Parties or UMP [Serge VOHOR]; Vanua'aku Pati (Our
  Land Party) or VP [Edward NATAPEI]; Vanuatu Greens Party or VGP
  [Moana CARCASSES]; Vanuatu Republican Party or VRP [Maxime Carlot
  KORMAN]

Venezuela
  Christian Democrats or COPEI [Eduardo FERNANDEZ];
  Democratic Action or AD [Jesus MENDEZ Quijada]; Fatherland for All
  or PPT [Jose ALBORNOZ]; Fifth Republic Movement or MVR [Hugo
  CHAVEZ]; Justice First [Julio BORGES]; Movement Toward Socialism or
  MAS [Hector MUJICA]; Venezuela Project or PV [Henrique SALAS Romer];
  We Can or PODEMOS [Ismael GARCIA]

Vietnam
  only party - Communist Party of Vietnam or CPV [Nong Duc
  MANH]

Virgin Islands
  Democratic Party [Arturo WATLINGTON]; Independent
  Citizens' Movement or ICM [Usie RICHARDS]; Republican Party [Gary
  SPRAUVE]

Wallis and Futuna
  Lua Kae Tahi (Giscardians); Mouvement des Radicaux
  de Gauche or MRG; Rally for the Republic or RPR (UMP) [Clovis
  LOGOLOGOFOLAU]; Socialist Party or PS; Taumu'a Lelei [Soane Muni
  UHILA]; Union Populaire Locale or UPL [Falakiko GATA]; Union Pour la
  Democratie Francaise or UDF

Yemen
  there are more than 12 political parties active in Yemen, some
  of the more prominent are: General People's Congress or GPC
  [President Ali Abdallah SALIH]; Islamic Reform Grouping or Islah
  [Shaykh Abdallah bin Husayn al-AHMAR]; Nasserite Unionist Party
  [Abdal Malik al-MAKHLAFI]; National Arab Socialist Ba'th Party [Dr.
  Qasim SALAM]; Yemeni Socialist Party or YSP [Ali Salih MUQBIL]

Zambia
  Agenda for Zambia or AZ [Inonge MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA]; Forum
  for Democracy and Development or FDD [Christon TEMBO]; Heritage
  Party or HP [Godfrey MIYANDA]; Liberal Progressive Front or LPF
  [Roger CHONGWE, president]; Movement for Multiparty Democracy or MMD
  [Levy MWANAWASA, acting president]; National Leadership for
  Development or NLD [Yobert SHAMAPANDE]; National Party or NP [Dr.
  Sam CHIPUNGU]; Patriotic Front or PF [Michael SATA]; Social
  Democratic Party or SDP [Gwendoline KONIE]; United National
  Independence Party or UNIP [Francis NKHOMA, president]; United Party
  for National Development or UPND [Anderson MAZOKA]; Zambian
  Republican Party or ZRP [Benjamin MWILA]

Zimbabwe
  African National Party or ANP; Movement for Democratic
  Change or MDC [Morgan TSVANGIRAI]; Peace Action is Freedom for All
  or PAFA; United Parties [Abel MUZOREWA]; United People's Party
  [Daniel SHUMBA]; Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga or
  ZANU-Ndonga [Wilson KUMBULA]; Zimbabwe African National
  Union-Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF [Robert Gabriel MUGABE]; Zimbabwe
  African Peoples Union or ZAPU [Agrippa MADLELA]; Zimbabwe Youth in
  Alliance or ZIYA

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2119  Population


Afghanistan
  31,056,997 (July 2006 est.)

Akrotiri
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: approximately 1,300 military personnel are on the base; there
  are another 5,000 British citizens who are families of military
  personnel or civilian staff on both Akrotiri and Dhekelia; Cyprus
  citizens work on the base, but do not live there

Albania
  3,581,655 (July 2006 est.)

Algeria
  32,930,091 (July 2006 est.)

American Samoa
  57,794 (July 2006 est.)

Andorra
  71,201 (July 2006 est.)

Angola
  12,127,071 (July 2006 est.)

Anguilla
  13,477 (July 2006 est.)

Antarctica
  no indigenous inhabitants, but there are both permanent
  and summer-only staffed research stations
  note: 26 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, operate
  through their National Antarctic Program a number of seasonal-only
  (summer) and year-round research stations on the continent and its
  nearby islands south of 60 degrees south latitude (the region
  covered by the Antarctic Treaty); these stations' population of
  persons doing and supporting science or engaged in the management
  and protection of the Antarctic region varies from approximately
  4,000 in summer to 1,000 in winter; in addition, approximately 1,000
  personnel, including ship's crew and scientists doing onboard
  research, are present in the waters of the treaty region; peak
  summer (December-February) population - 3,822 total; Argentina 417,
  Australia 213, Brazil 40, Bulgaria 15, Chile 224, China 70, Ecuador
  22, Finland 20, France 123, Germany 78, India 65, Italy 112, Japan
  150, South Korea 60, NZ 85, Norway 44, Peru 28, Poland 40, Russia
  429, South Africa 80, Spain 28, Sweden 20, Ukraine 24, UK 205, US
  1,170, Uruguay 60 (2005-2006); winter (June-August) station
  population - 1,028 total; Argentina 176, Australia 62, Brazil 12,
  Chile 88, China 29, France 37, Germany 9, India 25, Italy 2, Japan
  40, South Korea 15, NZ 10, Norway 7, Poland 12, Russia 148, South
  Africa 10, Ukraine 12, UK 37, US 288, Uruguay 9 (2005); research
  stations operated within the Antarctic Treaty area (south of 60
  degrees south latitude) by members of the Council of Managers of
  National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP): year-round stations - 37
  total; Argentina 6, Australia 3, Brazil 1, Chile 3, China 2, France
  1, Germany 1, India 1, Japan 1, South Korea 1, NZ 1, Norway 1,
  Poland 1, Russia 5, South Africa 1, Ukraine 1, UK 2, US 3, Uruguay
  1, Italy and France jointly 1 (2005); seasonal-only (summer)
  stations - 15 total; Australia 1, Bulgaria 1, Chile 1, Ecuador 1,
  Finland 1, Germany 1, Italy 1, Japan 1, Norway 1, Peru 1, Russia 1,
  Spain 2, Sweden 1, UK 1 (2005-2006); in addition, during the austral
  summer some nations have numerous occupied locations such as tent
  camps, summer-long temporary facilities, and mobile traverses in
  support of research

Antigua and Barbuda
  69,108 (July 2006 est.)

Argentina
  39,921,833 (July 2006 est.)

Armenia
  2,976,372 (July 2006 est.)

Aruba
  71,891 (July 2006 est.)

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: Indonesian fishermen are allowed access to the lagoon and
  fresh water at Ashmore Reef's West Island (July 2006 est.)

Australia
  20,264,082 (July 2006 est.)

Austria
  8,192,880 (July 2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  7,961,619 (July 2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  303,770
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Bahrain
  698,585
  note: includes 235,108 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Baker Island
  uninhabited
  note: American civilians evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and
  naval attacks during World War II; occupied by US military during
  World War II, but abandoned after the war; public entry is by
  special-use permit from US Fish and Wildlife Service only and
  generally restricted to scientists and educators; a cemetery and
  remnants of structures from early settlement are located near the
  middle of the west coast; visited annually by US Fish and Wildlife
  Service (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  147,365,352 (July 2006 est.)

Barbados
  279,912 (July 2006 est.)

Bassas da India
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Belarus
  10,293,011 (July 2006 est.)

Belgium
  10,379,067 (July 2006 est.)

Belize
  287,730 (July 2006 est.)

Benin
  7,862,944
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Bermuda
  65,773 (July 2006 est.)

Bhutan
  2,279,723
  note: other estimates range as low as 810,000 (July 2006 est.)

Bolivia
  8,989,046 (July 2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  4,498,976 (July 2006 est.)

Botswana
  1,639,833
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Bouvet Island
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Brazil
  188,078,227
  note: Brazil conducted a census in August 2000, which reported a
  population of 169,799,170; that figure was about 3.3% lower than
  projections by the US Census Bureau, and is close to the implied
  underenumeration of 4.6% for the 1991 census; estimates for this
  country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality
  due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant
  mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and
  changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would
  otherwise be expected (July 2006 est.)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: approximately 1,200 former agricultural workers resident in
  the Chagos Archipelago, often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois,
  were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the 1960s and
  1970s; in November 2000 they were granted the right of return by a
  British High Court ruling, though no timetable has been set; in
  November 2004, there were approximately 4,000 UK and US military
  personnel and civilian contractors living on the island of Diego
  Garcia (July 2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  23,098 (July 2006 est.)

Brunei
  379,444 (July 2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  7,385,367 (July 2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  13,902,972
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Burma
  47,382,633
  note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of
  excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
  expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Burundi
  8,090,068
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Cambodia
  13,881,427
  note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of
  excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life
  expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Cameroon
  17,340,702
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Canada
  33,098,932 (July 2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  420,979 (July 2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  45,436
  note: most of the population lives on Grand Cayman (July 2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  4,303,356
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Chad
  9,944,201 (July 2006 est.)

Chile
  16,134,219 (July 2006 est.)

China
  1,313,973,713 (July 2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  1,493 (July 2006 est.)

Clipperton Island
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  574 (July 2006 est.)

Colombia
  43,593,035 (July 2006 est.)

Comoros
  690,948 (July 2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  62,660,551
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  3,702,314
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  21,388 (July 2006 est.)

Coral Sea Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there is a staff of three to four at the meteorological
  station (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  4,075,261 (July 2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  17,654,843
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Croatia
  4,494,749 (July 2006 est.)

Cuba
  11,382,820 (July 2006 est.)

Cyprus
  784,301 (July 2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  10,235,455 (July 2006 est.)

Denmark
  5,450,661 (July 2006 est.)

Dhekelia
  no indigenous personnel
  note: approximately 2,200 military personnel are on the base; there
  are another 5,000 British citizens who are families of military
  personnel or civilian staff on both the bases of Akrotiri and
  Dhekelia; Cyprus citizens work on the base, but do not live there

Djibouti
  486,530 (July 2006 est.)

Dominica
  68,910 (July 2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  9,183,984 (July 2006 est.)

East Timor
  1,062,777
  note: other estimates range as low as 800,000 (July 2006 est.)

Ecuador
  13,547,510 (July 2006 est.)

Egypt
  78,887,007 (July 2006 est.)

El Salvador
  6,822,378 (July 2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  540,109 (July 2006 est.)

Eritrea
  4,786,994 (July 2006 est.)

Estonia
  1,324,333 (July 2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  74,777,981
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Europa Island
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there is a small French military garrison and a few
  meteorologists; visited by scientists (July 2006 est.)

European Union
  456,953,258 (July 2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  2,967 (July 2006 est.)

Faroe Islands
  47,246 (July 2006 est.)

Fiji
  905,949 (July 2006 est.)

Finland
  5,231,372 (July 2006 est.)

France
  60,876,136 (July 2006 est.)

French Guiana
  199,509 (July 2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  274,578 (July 2006 est.)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: in 2002, there were 145 researchers whose numbers vary from
  winter (July) to summer (January) (July 2006 est.)

Gabon
  1,424,906
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  1,641,564 (July 2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  1,428,757 (July 2006 est.)

Georgia
  4,661,473 (July 2006 est.)

Germany
  82,422,299 (July 2006 est.)

Ghana
  22,409,572
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  27,928 (July 2006 est.)

Glorioso Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there is a small French military garrison along with a few
  meteorologists; visited by scientists (July 2006 est.)

Greece
  10,688,058 (July 2006 est.)

Greenland
  56,361 (July 2006 est.)

Grenada
  89,703 (July 2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  452,776 (July 2006 est.)

Guam
  171,019 (July 2006 est.)

Guatemala
  12,293,545 (July 2006 est.)

Guernsey
  65,409 (July 2006 est.)

Guinea
  9,690,222 (July 2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  1,442,029 (July 2006 est.)

Guyana
  767,245
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Haiti
  8,308,504
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  932 (July 2006 est.)

Honduras
  7,326,496
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  6,940,432 (July 2006 est.)

Howland Island
  uninhabited
  note: American civilians evacuated in 1942 after Japanese air and
  naval attacks during World War II; occupied by US military during
  World War II, but abandoned after the war; public entry is by
  special-use permit from US Fish and Wildlife Service only and
  generally restricted to scientists and educators; visited annually
  by US Fish and Wildlife Service (July 2006 est.)

Hungary
  9,981,334 (July 2006 est.)

Iceland
  299,388 (July 2006 est.)

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: uninhabitable
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island: a small French
  military garrison and a few meteorologists on each possession;
  visited by scientists
  Tromelin Island: uninhabited, except for visits by scientists

India
  1,095,351,995 (July 2006 est.)

Indonesia
  245,452,739 (July 2006 est.)

Iran
  68,688,433 (July 2006 est.)

Iraq
  26,783,383 (July 2006 est.)

Ireland
  4,062,235 (July 2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  75,441 (July 2006 est.)

Israel
  6,352,117
  note: includes about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank,
  about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and fewer than
  177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2006 est.)

Italy
  58,133,509 (July 2006 est.)

Jamaica
  2,758,124 (July 2006 est.)

Jan Mayen
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: personnel operate the Long Range Navigation (Loran-C) base and
  the weather and coastal services radio station (July 2006 est.)

Japan
  127,463,611 (July 2006 est.)

Jarvis Island
  uninhabited
  note: Millersville settlement on western side of island occasionally
  used as a weather station from 1935 until World War II, when it was
  abandoned; reoccupied in 1957 during the International Geophysical
  Year by scientists who left in 1958; public entry is by special-use
  permit from US Fish and Wildlife Service only and generally
  restricted to scientists and educators; visited annually by US Fish
  and Wildlife Service (July 2006 est.)

Jersey
  91,084 (July 2006 est.)

Johnston Atoll
  uninhabited
  note: in previous years, there was an average of 1,100 US military
  and civilian contractor personnel present; as of September 2001,
  population had decreased significantly when US Army Chemical
  Activity Pacific (USACAP) departed; as of May 2005 all US government
  personnel had left the island (July 2006 est.)

Jordan
  5,906,760 (July 2006 est.)

Juan de Nova Island
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there is a small French military garrison along with a few
  meteorologists; occasionally visited by scientists (July 2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  15,233,244 (July 2006 est.)

Kenya
  34,707,817
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Kingman Reef
  uninhabited (July 2006 est.)

Kiribati
  105,432 (July 2006 est.)

Korea, North
  23,113,019 (July 2006 est.)

Korea, South
  48,846,823 (July 2006 est.)

Kuwait
  2,418,393
  note: includes 1,291,354 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  5,213,898 (July 2006 est.)

Laos
  6,368,481 (July 2006 est.)

Latvia
  2,274,735 (July 2006 est.)

Lebanon
  3,874,050 (July 2006 est.)

Lesotho
  2,022,331
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Liberia
  3,042,004 (July 2006 est.)

Libya
  5,900,754
  note: includes 166,510 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  33,987 (July 2006 est.)

Lithuania
  3,585,906 (July 2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  474,413 (July 2006 est.)

Macau
  453,125 (July 2006 est.)

Macedonia
  2,050,554 (July 2006 est.)

Madagascar
  18,595,469 (July 2006 est.)

Malawi
  13,013,926
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Malaysia
  24,385,858 (July 2006 est.)

Maldives
  359,008 (July 2006 est.)

Mali
  11,716,829 (July 2006 est.)

Malta
  400,214 (July 2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  60,422 (July 2006 est.)

Martinique
  436,131 (July 2006 est.)

Mauritania
  3,177,388 (July 2006 est.)

Mauritius
  1,240,827 (July 2006 est.)

Mayotte
  201,234 (July 2006 est.)

Mexico
  107,449,525 (July 2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  108,004 (July 2006 est.)

Midway Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants; approximately 40 people
  make up the staff of US Fish and Wildlife Service and their services
  contractor living at the atoll (July 2006 est.)

Moldova
  4,466,706 (July 2006 est.)

Monaco
  32,543 (July 2006 est.)

Mongolia
  2,832,224 (July 2006 est.)

Montenegro
  630,548 (2004)

Montserrat
  9,439
  note: an estimated 8,000 refugees left the island following the
  resumption of volcanic activity in July 1995; some have returned
  (July 2006 est.)

Morocco
  33,241,259 (July 2006 est.)

Mozambique
  19,686,505
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected; the 1997
  Mozambican census reported a population of 16,099,246 (July 2006
  est.)

Namibia
  2,044,147
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Nauru
  13,287 (July 2006 est.)

Navassa Island
  uninhabited
  note: transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on the island
  (July 2006 est.)

Nepal
  28,287,147 (July 2006 est.)

Netherlands
  16,491,461 (July 2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  221,736 (July 2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  219,246 (July 2006 est.)

New Zealand
  4,076,140 (July 2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  5,570,129 (July 2006 est.)

Niger
  12,525,094 (July 2006 est.)

Nigeria
  131,859,731
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Niue
  2,166 (July 2006 est.)

Norfolk Island
  1,828 (July 2006 est.)

Northern Mariana Islands
  82,459 (July 2006 est.)

Norway
  4,610,820 (July 2006 est.)

Oman
  3,102,229
  note: includes 577,293 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Pakistan
  165,803,560 (July 2006 est.)

Palau
  20,579 (July 2006 est.)

Palmyra Atoll
  no indigenous inhabitants; 4 to 20 Nature Conservancy
  staff, US Fish and Wildlife staff (July 2006 est.)

Panama
  3,191,319 (July 2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  5,670,544 (July 2006 est.)

Paracel Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there are scattered Chinese garrisons

Paraguay
  6,506,464 (July 2006 est.)

Peru
  28,302,603 (July 2006 est.)

Philippines
  89,468,677 (July 2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  45 (July 2006 est.)

Poland
  38,536,869 (July 2006 est.)

Portugal
  10,605,870 (July 2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  3,927,188 (July 2006 est.)

Qatar
  885,359 (July 2006 est.)

Reunion
  787,584 (July 2006 est.)

Romania
  22,303,552 (July 2006 est.)

Russia
  142,893,540 (July 2006 est.)

Rwanda
  8,648,248
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  7,502
  note: only Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha islands are
  inhabited (July 2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  39,129 (July 2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  168,458 (July 2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  7,026 (July 2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  117,848 (July 2006 est.)

Samoa
  176,908 (July 2006 est.)

San Marino
  29,251 (July 2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  193,413 (July 2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  27,019,731
  note: includes 5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)

Senegal
  11,987,121 (July 2006 est.)

Serbia
  9,396,411 (2002 census)

Seychelles
  81,541 (July 2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  6,005,250 (July 2006 est.)

Singapore
  4,492,150 (July 2006 est.)

Slovakia
  5,439,448 (July 2006 est.)

Slovenia
  2,010,347 (July 2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  552,438 (July 2006 est.)

Somalia
  8,863,338
  note: this estimate was derived from an official census taken in
  1975 by the Somali Government; population counting in Somalia is
  complicated by the large number of nomads and by refugee movements
  in response to famine and clan warfare (July 2006 est.)

South Africa
  44,187,637
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  no indigenous
  inhabitants
  note: the small military garrison on South Georgia withdrew in March
  2001, to be replaced by a permanent group of scientists of the
  British Antarctic Survey, which also has a biological station on
  Bird Island; the South Sandwich Islands are uninhabited (July 2006
  est.)

Spain
  40,397,842 (July 2006 est.)

Spratly Islands
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: there are scattered garrisons occupied by personnel of several
  claimant states (2004)

Sri Lanka
  20,222,240
  note: since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and
  armed Tamil separatists in the mid-1980s, several hundred thousand
  Tamil civilians have fled the island and more than 200,000 Tamils
  have sought refuge in the West (July 2006 est.)

Sudan
  41,236,378 (July 2006 est.)

Suriname
  439,117 (July 2006 est.)

Svalbard
  2,701 (July 2006 est.)

Swaziland
  1,136,334
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Sweden
  9,016,596 (July 2006 est.)

Switzerland
  7,523,934 (July 2006 est.)

Syria
  18,881,361
  note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied
  Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and
  about 20,000 Israeli settlers (July 2006 est.)

Taiwan
  23,036,087 (July 2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  7,320,815 (July 2006 est.)

Tanzania
  37,445,392
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Thailand
  64,631,595
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Togo
  5,548,702
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Tokelau
  1,392 (July 2006 est.)

Tonga
  114,689 (July 2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  1,065,842 (July 2006 est.)

Tromelin Island
  uninhabited, except for visits by scientists (July
  2006 est.)

Tunisia
  10,175,014 (July 2006 est.)

Turkey
  70,413,958 (July 2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  5,042,920 (July 2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  21,152 (July 2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  11,810 (July 2006 est.)

Uganda
  28,195,754
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Ukraine
  46,710,816 (July 2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  2,602,713 (July 2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  60,609,153 (July 2006 est.)

United States
  298,444,215 (July 2006 est.)

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  no indigenous
  inhabitants
  note: public entry is by special-use permit from US Fish and
  Wildlife Service only and generally restricted to scientists and
  educators; visited annually by US Fish and Wildlife Service
  Johnston Atoll: in previous years, an average of 1,100 US military
  and civilian contractor personnel were present; as of May 2005 all
  US government personnel had left the island
  Midway Islands: approximately 40 people make up the staff of US Fish
  and Wildlife Service and their services contractor living at the
  atoll
  Palmyra Atoll: four to 20 Nature Conservancy and US Fish and
  Wildlife staff

Uruguay
  3,431,932 (July 2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  27,307,134 (July 2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  208,869 (July 2006 est.)

Venezuela
  25,730,435 (July 2006 est.)

Vietnam
  84,402,966 (July 2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  108,605 (July 2006 est.)

Wake Island
  no indigenous inhabitants
  note: US military personnel have left the island, but contractor
  personnel remain; as of October 2001, 200 contractor personnel were
  present (July 2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  16,025 (July 2006 est.)

West Bank
  2,460,492
  note: in addition, there are about 187,000 Israeli settlers in the
  West Bank and fewer than 177,000 in East Jerusalem (July 2004 est.)

Western Sahara
  273,008 (July 2006 est.)

World
  6,525,170,264 (July 2006 est.)

Yemen
  21,456,188 (July 2006 est.)

Zambia
  11,502,010
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  12,236,805
  note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
  effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
  life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
  population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
  population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
  2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2120  Ports and terminals


Afghanistan
  Kheyrabad, Shir Khan

Albania
  Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Algeria
  Algiers, Annaba, Arzew, Bejaia, Djendjene, Jijel,
  Mostaganem, Oran, Skikda

American Samoa
  Pago Pago

Angola
  Cabinda, Luanda, Soyo

Anguilla
  Blowing Point, Road Bay

Antarctica
  there are no developed ports and harbors in Antarctica;
  most coastal stations have offshore anchorages, and supplies are
  transferred from ship to shore by small boats, barges, and
  helicopters; a few stations have a basic wharf facility; US coastal
  stations include McMurdo (77 51 S, 166 40 E), and Palmer (64 43 S,
  64 03 W); government use only except by permit (see Permit Office
  under "Legal System"); all ships at port are subject to inspection
  in accordance with Article 7, Antarctic Treaty; offshore anchorage
  is sparse and intermittent; relevant legal instruments and
  authorization procedures adopted by the states parties to the
  Antarctic Treaty regulating access to the Antarctic Treaty area, to
  all areas between 60 and 90 degrees of latitude south, have to be
  complied with (see "Legal System"); The Hydrographic Committee on
  Antarctica (HCA), a special hydrographic commission of International
  Hydrographic Organization (IHO), is responsible for hydrographic
  surveying and nautical charting matters in Antarctic Treaty area; it
  coordinates and facilitates provision of accurate and appropriate
  charts and other aids to navigation in support of safety of
  navigation in region; membership of HCA is open to any IHO Member
  State whose government has acceded to the Antarctic Treaty and which
  contributes resources and/or data to IHO Chart coverage of the area;
  members of HCA are Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, France,
  Germany, Greece, India, Italy, NZ, Norway, Russia, South Africa,
  Spain, and the UK (2005)

Antigua and Barbuda
  Saint John's

Arctic Ocean
  Churchill (Canada), Murmansk (Russia), Prudhoe Bay (US)

Argentina
  Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Concepcion del Uruguay, La
  Plata, Punta Colorada, Rosario, San Lorenzo-San Martin, San Nicolas

Aruba
  Barcadera, Oranjestad, Sint Nicolaas

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Atlantic Ocean
  Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp
  (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca
  (Morocco), Colon (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar (Senegal),
  Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas
  (Canary Islands, Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon (Portugal),
  London (UK), Marseille (France), Montevideo (Uruguay), Montreal
  (Canada), Naples (Italy), New Orleans (US), New York (US), Oran
  (Algeria), Oslo (Norway), Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Rio de
  Janeiro (Brazil), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Saint Petersburg
  (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden)

Australia
  Brisbane, Dampier, Fremantle, Gladstone, Hay Point,
  Melbourne, Newcastle, Port Hedland, Port Kembla, Port Walcott, Sydney

Austria
  Enns, Krems, Linz, Vienna

Azerbaijan
  Baku (Baki)

Bahamas, The
  Freeport, Nassau, South Riding Point

Bahrain
  Mina' Salman, Sitrah

Baker Island
  none; offshore anchorage only; note - there is one
  small boat landing area along the middle of the west coast

Bangladesh
  Chittagong, Mongla Port

Barbados
  Bridgetown

Bassas da India
  none; offshore anchorage only

Belarus
  Mazyr

Belgium
  Antwerp, Brussels, Gent, Liege, Oostende, Zeebrugge

Belize
  Belize City

Benin
  Cotonou

Bermuda
  Hamilton, Saint George

Bolivia
  Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the
  Bolivia/Brazil border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in
  maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Bosanska Gradiska, Bosanski Brod, Bosanski
  Samac, and Brcko (all inland waterway ports on the Sava), Orasje

Bouvet Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

Brazil
  Gebig, Itaqui, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande, San Sebasttiao,
  Santos, Sepetiba Terminal, Tubarao, Vitoria

British Indian Ocean Territory
  Diego Garcia

British Virgin Islands
  Road Town

Brunei
  Lumut, Muara, Seria

Bulgaria
  Burgas, Varna

Burma
  Moulmein, Rangoon, Sittwe

Burundi
  Bujumbura

Cambodia
  Phnom Penh

Cameroon
  Douala, Limboh Terminal

Canada
  Fraser River Port, Halifax, Montreal, Port Cartier, Quebec,
  Saint John's (Newfoundland), Sept Isles, Vancouver

Cape Verde
  Mindelo, Praia, Tarrafal

Cayman Islands
  Cayman Brac, George Town

Central African Republic
  Bangui, Nola, Salo, Nzinga

Chile
  Antofagasta, Arica, Huasco, Iquique, Lirquen, San Antonio, San
  Vicente, Valparaiso

China
  Dalian, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao,
  Shanghai

Christmas Island
  Flying Fish Cove

Clipperton Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Port Refuge

Colombia
  Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Muelles El Bosque,
  Puerto Bolivar, Santa Marta, Turbo

Comoros
  Mayotte, Moutsamoudou

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Banana, Boma, Bukavu, Bumba, Goma,
  Kalemie, Kindu, Kinshasa, Kisangani, Matadi, Mbandaka

Congo, Republic of the
  Brazzaville, Djeno, Impfondo, Ouesso, Oyo,
  Pointe-Noire

Cook Islands
  Avatiu

Coral Sea Islands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Costa Rica
  Caldera, Puerto Limon

Cote d'Ivoire
  Abidjan, Aboisso, Dabou, San-Pedro

Croatia
  Omisalj, Ploce, Rijeka, Sibenik, Vukovar (on Danube)

Cuba
  Cienfuegos, Havana, Matanzas

Cyprus
  Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol, Vasilikos

Czech Republic
  Decin, Prague, Usti nad Labem

Denmark
  Aalborg, Aarhus, Asnaesvaerkets, Copenhagen, Elsinore,
  Ensted, Esbjerg, Fredericia, Frederikshavn, Kalundborg, Odense,
  Roenne

Djibouti
  Djibouti

Dominica
  Portsmouth, Roseau

Dominican Republic
  Boca Chica, Puerto Plata, Rio Haina, Santo Domingo

East Timor
  Dili

Ecuador
  Esmeraldas, Guayaquil, La Libertad, Manta, Puerto Bolivar

Egypt
  Alexandria, Damietta, El Dekheila, Port Said, Suez, Zeit

El Salvador
  Acajutla, Puerto Cutuco

Equatorial Guinea
  Malabo

Eritrea
  Assab, Massawa

Estonia
  Kopli, Kuivastu, Muuga, Tallinn, Virtsu

Ethiopia
  Ethiopia is landlocked and has used ports of Assab and
  Massawa in Eritrea and port of Djibouti

Europa Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

European Union
  Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Bremen
  (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany),
  Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), Le Havre
  (France), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Naples
  (Italy), Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Rotterdam
  (Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden), Talinn (Estonia)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Stanley

Faroe Islands
  Torshavn

Fiji
  Lambasa, Lautoka, Suva

Finland
  Hamina, Hanko, Helsinki, Kotka, Naantali, Pori, Porvoo,
  Raahe, Rauma, Turku

France
  Bordeaux, Calais, Dunkerque, La Pallice, Le Havre, Marseille,
  Nantes, Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg

French Guiana
  Degrad des Cannes

French Polynesia
  Papeete

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Gabon
  Gamba, Libreville, Lucinda, Owendo, Port-Gentil

Gambia, The
  Banjul

Gaza Strip
  Gaza

Georgia
  Bat'umi, P'ot'i

Germany
  Bremen, Bremerhaven, Brunsbuttel, Duisburg, Frankfurt,
  Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Mainz, Rostock, Wilhemshaven

Ghana
  Takoradi, Tema

Gibraltar
  Gibraltar

Glorioso Islands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Greece
  Agioitheodoroi, Aspropyrgos, Irakleion, Pachi, Piraeus,
  Thessaloniki

Greenland
  Sisimiut

Grenada
  Saint George's

Guadeloupe
  Basse-Terre, Gustavia, Pointe-a-Pitre

Guam
  Apra Harbor

Guatemala
  Puerto Quetzal, Santo Tomas de Castilla

Guernsey
  Saint Peter Port, Saint Sampson

Guinea
  Kamsar

Guinea-Bissau
  Bissau, Buba, Cacheu, Farim

Guyana
  Georgetown

Haiti
  Cap-Haitien

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Honduras
  Puerto Castilla, Puerto Cortes, San Lorenzo, Tela

Hong Kong
  Hong Kong

Howland Island
  none; offshore anchorage only; note - there is one
  small boat landing area along the middle of the west coast

Hungary
  Budapest, Dunaujvaros, Gyor-Gonyu, Csepel, Baja, Mohacs
  (2003)

Iceland
  Grundartangi, Hafnarfjordur, Hornafjordhur, Reykjavik,
  Seydhisfjordhur

Iles Eparses
  none; offshore anchorage only

India
  Chennai, Haldia, Jawaharal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata (Calcutta),
  Mumbai (Bombay), New Mangalore, Vishakhapatnam

Indian Ocean
  Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban
  (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kolkata (Calcutta; India)
  Melbourne (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), Richards Bay (South
  Africa)

Indonesia
  Banjarmasin, Belawan, Ciwandan, Krueg Geukueh, Palembang,
  Panjang, Sungai Pakning, Tanjung Perak, Tanjung Priok

Iran
  Assaluyeh, Bushehr

Iraq
  Al Basrah, Khawr az Zubayr, Umm Qasr

Ireland
  Cork, Dublin, New Ross, Shannon Foynes, Waterford

Isle of Man
  Castletown, Douglas, Ramsey

Israel
  Ashdod, Elat (Eilat), Hadera, Haifa

Italy
  Augusta, Genoa, Livorno, Melilli Oil Terminal, Ravenna,
  Taranto, Trieste, Venice

Jamaica
  Kingston, Port Esquivel, Port Kaiser, Port Rhoades, Rocky
  Point

Jan Mayen
  none; offshore anchorage only

Japan
  Chiba, Kawasaki, Kiire, Kisarazu, Kobe, Mizushima, Nagoya,
  Osaka, Tokyo, Yohohama

Jarvis Island
  none; offshore anchorage only; note - there is one
  small boat landing area in the middle of the west coast and another
  near the southwest corner of the island

Jersey
  Gorey, Saint Aubin, Saint Helier

Johnston Atoll
  Johnston Island

Jordan
  Al 'Aqabah

Juan de Nova Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

Kazakhstan
  Aqtau (Shevchenko), Atyrau (Gur'yev), Oskemen
  (Ust-Kamenogorsk), Pavlodar, Semey (Semipalatinsk)

Kenya
  Mombasa

Kingman Reef
  none; offshore anchorage only

Kiribati
  Betio

Korea, North
  Ch'ongjin, Haeju, Hungnam (Hamhung), Kimch'aek, Kosong,
  Najin, Namp'o, Sinuiju, Songnim, Sonbong (formerly Unggi), Ungsang,
  Wonsan

Korea, South
  Inch'on, Masan, P'ohang, Pusan, Ulsan

Kuwait
  Ash Shu'aybah, Ash Shuwaykh, Az Zawr (Mina' Sa'ud), Mina'
  'Abd Allah, Mina' al Ahmadi

Kyrgyzstan
  Balykchy (Ysyk-Kol or Rybach'ye)

Latvia
  Riga, Ventspils

Lebanon
  Beirut, Chekka, Jounie, Tripoli

Liberia
  Buchanan, Monrovia

Libya
  As Sidrah, Az Zuwaytinah, Marsa al Burayqah, Ra's Lanuf,
  Tripoli, Zawiyah

Liechtenstein
  none

Lithuania
  Klaipeda

Luxembourg
  Mertert

Macau
  Macau

Madagascar
  Antsiranana, Mahajanga, Toamasina, Toliara

Malawi
  Chipoka, Monkey Bay, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Chilumba

Malaysia
  Bintulu, Johor, Labuan, Lahad Datu, Lumut, Miri, George
  Town (Penang), Port Kelang, Tanjung Pelepas

Maldives
  Male

Mali
  Koulikoro

Malta
  Marsaxlokk, Valletta

Marshall Islands
  Majuro

Martinique
  Fort-de-France, La Trinite, Marin

Mauritania
  Nouadhibou, Nouakchott

Mauritius
  Port Louis

Mayotte
  Dzaoudzi

Mexico
  Altamira, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz, Tampico,
  Topolobampo, Veracruz

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Tomil Harbor

Midway Islands
  Sand Island

Monaco
  Monaco

Montenegro
  Bar

Montserrat
  Plymouth

Morocco
  Agadir, Casablanca, Mohammedia, Nador, Safi, Tangier

Mozambique
  Beira, Maputo, Nacala

Namibia
  Luderitz, Walvis Bay

Nauru
  Nauru

Navassa Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

Netherlands
  Amsterdam, Groningen, IJmuiden, Rotterdam, Terneuzen,
  Vlissingen, Zaanstad

Netherlands Antilles
  Bopec Terminal, Fuik Bay, Kralendijk, Willemstad

New Caledonia
  Noumea

New Zealand
  Auckland, Lyttelton, Tauranga, Wellington, Whangarei

Nicaragua
  Bluefields, Corinto, El Bluff

Niger
  none

Nigeria
  Bonny Inshore Terminal, Calabar, Lagos, Port Harcourt

Niue
  none; offshore anchorage only

Norfolk Island
  none; loading jetties at Kingston and Cascade

Northern Mariana Islands
  Saipan, Tinian

Norway
  Borg Havn, Bergen, Mo i Rana, Molde, Mongstad, Narvik, Oslo,
  Sture

Oman
  Mina' Qabus, Salalah

Pacific Ocean
  Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong (China), Kao-hsiung
  (Taiwan), Los Angeles (US), Manila (Philippines), Pusan (South
  Korea), San Francisco (US), Seattle (US), Shanghai (China),
  Singapore, Sydney (Australia), Vladivostok (Russia), Wellington
  (NZ), Yokohama (Japan)

Pakistan
  Karachi, Port Muhammad Bin Qasim

Palau
  Koror

Palmyra Atoll
  West Lagoon

Panama
  Balboa, Colon, Cristobal

Papua New Guinea
  Kimbe, Lae, Rabaul

Paracel Islands
  small Chinese port facilities on Woody Island and
  Duncan Island being expanded

Paraguay
  Asuncion, Villeta, San Antonio, Encarnacion

Peru
  Callao, Iquitos, Matarani, Pucallpa, Yurimaguas; note -
  Iquitos, Pucallpa, and Yurimaguas are on the upper reaches of the
  Amazon and its tributaries

Philippines
  Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iligan, Iloilo, Manila,
  Surigao

Pitcairn Islands
  Adamstown (on Bounty Bay)

Poland
  Gdansk, Gdynia, Swinoujscie, Szczecin

Portugal
  Leixoes, Lisbon, Setubal, Sines

Puerto Rico
  Las Mareas, Mayaguez, San Juan

Qatar
  Doha

Reunion
  Le Port

Romania
  Braila, Constanta, Galati, Tulcea

Russia
  Anapa, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Novorossiysk,
  Rostov-na-Donu, Saint Petersburg, Taganrog, Vanino, Vostochnyy

Rwanda
  Cyangugu, Gisenyi, Kibuye

Saint Helena
  Saint Helena: Jamestown
  Ascension Island: Georgetown
  Tristan da Cunha: Calshot Harbor

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Basseterre, Charlestown

Saint Lucia
  Castries, Cul-de-Sac, Vieux-Fort

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Saint-Pierre

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Kingstown

Samoa
  Apia

Sao Tome and Principe
  Sao Tome

Saudi Arabia
  Ad Dammam, Al Jubayl, Jiddah, Yanbu' al Sinaiyah

Senegal
  Dakar

Seychelles
  Victoria

Sierra Leone
  Freetown, Pepel, Sherbro Islands

Singapore
  Singapore

Slovakia
  Bratislava, Komarno

Slovenia
  Koper

Solomon Islands
  Honiara, Malloco Bay, Shortland Harbor, Viru Harbor,
  Yandina

Somalia
  Boosaaso, Berbera, Chisimayu (Kismaayo), Merca, Mogadishu

South Africa
  Cape Town, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth,
  Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  Grytviken

Southern Ocean
  McMurdo, Palmer, and offshore anchorages in Antarctica
  note: few ports or harbors exist on southern side of Southern Ocean;
  ice conditions limit use of most to short periods in midsummer; even
  then some cannot be entered without icebreaker escort; most
  Antarctic ports are operated by government research stations and,
  except in an emergency, are not open to commercial or private
  vessels; vessels in any port south of 60 degrees south are subject
  to inspection by Antarctic Treaty observers (see Article 7); The
  Hydrographic Committee on Antarctica (HCA), a special hydrographic
  commission of International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), is
  responsible for hydrographic surveying and nautical charting matters
  in Antarctic Treaty area; it coordinates and facilitates provision
  of accurate and appropriate charts and other aids to navigation in
  support of safety of navigation in region; membership of HCA is open
  to any IHO Member State whose government has acceded to the
  Antarctic Treaty and which contributes resources and/or data to IHO
  Chart coverage of the area; members of HCA are Argentina, Australia,
  Chile, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, NZ, Norway,
  Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the UK (2005)

Spain
  Algeciras, Barcelona, Cartagena, Gijon, Huelva, La Coruna,
  Tarragona, Valencia

Spratly Islands
  none; offshore anchorage only

Sri Lanka
  Colombo, Galle

Sudan
  Port Sudan

Suriname
  Paramaribo

Svalbard
  Barentsburg, Longyearbyen, Ny-Alesund, Pyramiden

Sweden
  Goteborg, Helsingborg, Karlshamn, Lulea, Malmo, Oxelosund,
  Stenungsund, Stockholm, Trelleborg

Switzerland
  Basel

Syria
  Baniyas, Latakia

Taiwan
  Chi-lung (Keelung), Hua-lien, Kao-hsiung, Su-ao, T'ai-chung

Tanzania
  Dar es Salaam, Mtwara, Zanzibar City

Thailand
  Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Prachuap Port, Si Racha

Togo
  Kpeme, Lome

Tokelau
  none; offshore anchorage only

Tonga
  Nuku'alofa

Trinidad and Tobago
  Pointe-a-Pierre, Point Lisas, Port-of-Spain

Tromelin Island
  none; offshore anchorage only

Tunisia
  Bizerte, Gabes, La Goulette, Skhira

Turkey
  Aliaga, Ambarli, Eregli, Haydarpasa, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli
  (Izmit), Toros

Turkmenistan
  Turkmenbasy

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Grand Turk, Providenciales

Tuvalu
  Funafuti

Uganda
  Entebbe, Jinja, Port Bell

Ukraine
  Feodosiya, Kerch, Kherson, Mariupol', Mykolayiv, Odesa,
  Reni, Yuzhnyy

United Arab Emirates
  Al Fujayrah, Khawr Fakkan, Mina' Jabal 'Ali,
  Mina' Rashid, Mina' Saqr, Mina' Zayid, Sharjan

United Kingdom
  Hound Point, Immingham, Milford Haven, Liverpool,
  London, Southampton, Sullom Voe, Teesport

United States
  Corpus Christi, Duluth, Hampton Roads, Houston, Long
  Beach, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa,
  Texas City
  note: 13 ports north of New Orleans (South Louisiana Ports) on the
  Mississippi River handle 290,000,000 tons of cargo annually

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Baker, Howland, and
  Jarvis Islands, and Kingman Reef: none; offshore anchorage only
  Johnston Atoll: Johnston Island
  Midway Islands: Sand Island
  Palmyra Atoll: West Lagoon

Uruguay
  Montevideo, Nueva Palmira, Fray Bentos, Colonia, Juan Lacaze

Uzbekistan
  Termiz (Amu Darya)

Vanuatu
  Forari, Port-Vila, Santo (Espiritu Santo)

Venezuela
  Amuay, La Guaira, Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello, Punta Cardon

Vietnam
  Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City

Virgin Islands
  Charlotte Amalie, Limetree Bay

Wake Island
  none; two offshore anchorages for large ships

Wallis and Futuna
  Leava, Mata-Utu

Western Sahara
  Ad Dakhla, Cabo Bojador, Laayoune (El Aaiun)

Yemen
  Aden, Nishtun

Zambia
  Mpulungu

Zimbabwe
  Binga, Kariba

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2121  Railways (km)


Albania
  total: 447 km
  standard gauge: 447 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Algeria
  total: 3,973 km
  standard gauge: 2,888 km 1.435-m gauge (283 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,085 km 1.055-m gauge (2005)

Angola
  total: 2,761 km
  narrow gauge: 2,638 km 1.067-m gauge; 123 km 0.600-m gauge (2005)

Argentina
  total: 31,902 km
  broad gauge: 20,858 km 1.676-m gauge (141 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 2,885 km 1.435-m gauge (26 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 7,922 km 1.000-m gauge; 237 km 0.750-m gauge (2005)

Armenia
  total: 845 km
  broad gauge: 845 km 1.520-m gauge (828 km electrified)
  note: some lines are out of service (2005)

Australia
  total: 47,738 km
  broad gauge: 4,015 km 1.600-m gauge
  standard gauge: 28,662 km 1.435-m gauge (1,397 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 14,831 km 1.067-m gauge (2,462 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 230 km dual gauge (2005)

Austria
  total: 6,011 km
  standard gauge: 5,568 km 1.435-m gauge (3,427 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 21 km 1.000-m gauge; 422 km 0.760-m gauge (109 km
  electrified) (2005)

Azerbaijan
  total: 2,957 km
  broad gauge: 2,957 km 1.520-m gauge (1,278 km electrified) (2005)

Bangladesh
  total: 2,768 km
  broad gauge: 946 km 1.676-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 1,822 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Belarus
  total: 5,512 km
  broad gauge: 5,497 km 1.520-m gauge (874 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 15 km 1.435 m (2005)

Belgium
  total: 3,521 km
  standard gauge: 3,521 km 1.435-m gauge (2,927 km electrified) (2005)

Benin
  total: 578 km
  narrow gauge: 578 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Bolivia
  total: 3,519 km
  narrow gauge: 3,519 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 608 km (777 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 608 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Botswana
  total: 888 km
  narrow gauge: 888 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Brazil
  total: 29,252 km
  broad gauge: 4,877 km 1.600-m gauge (939 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 194 km 1.440-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 23,785 km 1.000-m gauge (581 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 396 km 1.000 m and 1.600-m gauges (three rails) (78 km
  electrified) (2005)

Bulgaria
  total: 4,294 km
  standard gauge: 4,049 km 1.435-m gauge (2,710 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 245 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Burkina Faso
  total: 622 km
  narrow gauge: 622 km 1.000-m gauge
  note:: another 660 km of this railway extends into Cote D'Ivoire
  (2005)

Burma
  total: 3,955 km
  narrow gauge: 3,955 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Cambodia
  total: 602 km
  narrow gauge: 602 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Cameroon
  total: 987 km
  narrow gauge: 987 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Canada
  total: 48,467 km
  standard gauge: 48,467 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Chile
  total: 6,585 km
  broad gauge: 2,831 km 1.676-m gauge (1,317 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 3,754 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

China
  total: 74,408 km
  standard gauge: 74,408 km 1.435-m gauge (19,303 km electrified)
  (2004)

Colombia
  total: 3,304 km
  standard gauge: 150 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 3,154 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 5,138 km
  narrow gauge: 3,987 km 1.067-m gauge (858 km electrified); 125 km
  1.000-m gauge; 1,026 km 0.600-m gauge (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 894 km
  narrow gauge: 894 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Costa Rica
  total: 278 km
  narrow gauge: 278 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 660 km
  narrow gauge: 660 km 1.000 meter gauge
  note: an additional 622 km of this railroad extends into Burkina
  Faso (2005)

Croatia
  total: 2,726 km
  standard gauge: 2,726 km 1.435-m gauge (1,199 km electrified) (2005)

Cuba
  total: 4,226 km
  standard gauge: 4,226 km 1.435-m gauge (140 km electrified)
  note: an additional 7,742 km of track is used by sugar plantations;
  about 65% of this track is standard gauge; the rest is narrow gauge
  (2005)

Czech Republic
  total: 9,572 km
  standard gauge: 9,473 km 1.435-m gauge (2,951 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 99 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Denmark
  total: 2,673 km
  standard gauge: 2,673 km 1.435-m gauge (601 km electrified) (2005)

Djibouti
  total: 100 km (Djibouti segment of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti
  railway)
  narrow gauge: 100 km 1.000-m gauge
  note: railway under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia (2005)

Dominican Republic
  total: 517 km
  standard gauge: 375 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 142 km 0.762-m gauge
  note: additional 1,226 km operated by sugar companies in 1.076 m,
  0.889 m, and 0.762-m gauges (2005)

Ecuador
  total: 966 km
  narrow gauge: 966 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Egypt
  total: 5,063 km
  standard gauge: 5,063 km 1.435-m gauge (62 km electrified) (2005)

El Salvador
  total: 283 km
  narrow gauge: 283 km 0.914-m gauge
  note: length of operational route reduced from 562 km to 283 km by
  disuse and lack of maintenance (2005)

Eritrea
  total: 306 km
  narrow gauge: 306 km 0.950-m gauge (2005)

Estonia
  total: 958 km
  broad gauge: 958 km 1.520 m/1.524-m gauge (2005)

Ethiopia
  total: 681 km (Ethiopian segment of the Addis
  Ababa-Djibouti railroad)
  narrow gauge: 681 km 1.000-m gauge
  note: railway under joint control of Djibouti and Ethiopia (2005)

European Union
  total: 222,293 km
  broad gauge: 28,438 km
  standard gauge: 186,405 km
  narrow gauge: 7,427 km
  other: 23 km (2003)

Fiji
  total: 597 km
  narrow gauge: 597 km 0.600-m gauge
  note: belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation; used
  to haul sugarcane during harvest season (May to December) (2005)

Finland
  total: 5,741 km
  broad gauge: 5,741 km 1.524-m gauge (2,619 km electrified) (2005)

France
  total: 29,085 km
  standard gauge: 28,918 km 1.435-m gauge (14,481 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 167 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Gabon
  total: 814 km
  standard gauge: 814 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Georgia
  total: 1,612 km
  broad gauge: 1,575 km 1.520-m gauge (1,575 electrified)
  narrow gauge: 37 km 0.912-m gauge (37 electrified) (2005)

Germany
  total: 47,201 km
  standard gauge: 46,948 km 1.435-m gauge (19,674 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 229 km 1.000-m gauge (16 km electrified); 24 km
  0.750-m gauge (2005)

Ghana
  total: 953 km
  narrow gauge: 953 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Greece
  total: 2,571 km
  standard gauge: 1,565 km 1.435-m gauge (764 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 961 km 1.000-m gauge; 22 km 0.750-m gauge
  dual gauge: 23 km combined 1.435 m and 1.000-m gauges (three rail
  system) (2005)

Guatemala
  total: 886 km
  narrow gauge: 886 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Guinea
  total: 837 km
  standard gauge: 175 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 662 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Guyana
  total: 187 km
  standard gauge: 139 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 48 km 0.914-m gauge
  note: all dedicated to ore transport (2001 est.)

Honduras
  total: 699 km
  narrow gauge: 279 km 1.067-m gauge; 420 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Hungary
  total: 7,937 km
  broad gauge: 36 km 1.524-m gauge
  standard gauge: 7,682 km 1.435-m gauge (2,628 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 219 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

India
  total: 63,230 km
  broad gauge: 45,718 km 1.676-m gauge (16,528 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 14,406 km 1.000-m gauge (165 km electrified); 3,106 km
  0.762-m gauge and 0.610-m gauge (2005)

Indonesia
  total: 6,458 km
  narrow gauge: 5,961 km 1.067-m gauge (125 km electrified); 497 km
  0.750-m gauge (2005)

Iran
  total: 7,256 km
  broad gauge: 94 km 1.676-m gauge
  standard gauge: 7,162 km 1.435-m gauge (186 km electrified) (2005)

Iraq
  total: 2,200 km
  standard gauge: 2,200 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Ireland
  total: 3,312 km
  broad gauge: 1,947 km 1.600-m gauge (46 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,365 km 0.914-m gauge (operated by the Irish Peat
  Board to transport peat to power stations and briquetting plants)
  (2005)

Isle of Man
  total: 65 km
  standard guage: 7 km 1.067-m guage (7 km electrified)
  narrow guage: 58 km 0.914-m guage (29 km electrified)
  note: primarily summer tourist attractions (2006)

Israel
  total: 853 km
  standard gauge: 853 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Italy
  total: 19,459 km
  standard gauge: 18,037 km 1.435-m gauge (11,354 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 123 km 1.000-m gauge (122 km electrified); 1,299 km
  0.950-m gauge (161 km electrified) (2005)

Jamaica
  total: 272 km
  standard gauge: 272 km 1.435-m gauge
  note: 207 of these km belonging to the Jamaica Railway Corporation
  had been in common carrier service until 1992 but are no longer
  operational; 57 km of the remaining track is privately owned and
  used by ALCAN to transport bauxite (2003)

Japan
  total: 23,556 km
  standard gauge: 3,204 km 1.435-m gauge (3,204 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 77 km 1.372-m gauge (77 km electrified); 20,264 km
  1.067-m gauge (13,280 km electrified); 11 km 0.762-m gauge (11 km
  electrified) (2005)

Jordan
  total: 505 km
  narrow gauge: 505 km 1.050-m gauge (2005)

Kazakhstan
  total: 13,700 km
  broad gauge: 13,700 km 1.520-m gauge (3,700 km electrified) (2005)

Kenya
  total: 2,778 km
  narrow gauge: 2,778 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Korea, North
  total: 5,214 km
  standard gauge: 5,214 km 1.435-m gauge (3,500 km electrified) (2005)

Korea, South
  total: 3,472 km
  standard gauge: 3,472 km 1.435-m gauge (1,361 km electrified) (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 470 km
  broad gauge: 470 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Latvia
  total: 2,303 km
  broad gauge: 2,270 km 1.520-m gauge (257 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 33 km 0.750-m gauge (2005)

Lebanon
  total: 401 km
  standard gauge: 319 km 1.435 m
  narrow gauge: 82 km 1.050 m
  note: rail system became unusable because of damage done during
  fighting in the 1980s and in 2006 (2006)

Liberia
  total: 490 km
  standard gauge: 345 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 145 km 1.067-m gauge
  note: railway is inoperable because of damage suffered during the
  civil war (2005)

Libya
  0 km
  note: Libya is working on seven lines totaling 2,757 km of 1.435-m
  gauge track; it hopes to have trains running by 2008 (2005)

Liechtenstein
  9 km 1.435-m gauge (electrified)
  note: belongs to the Austrian Railway System connecting Austria and
  Switzerland (2006)

Lithuania
  total: 1,771 km
  broad gauge: 1,749 km 1.524-m gauge (122 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 22 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Luxembourg
  total: 274 km
  standard gauge: 274 km 1.435-m gauge (262 km electrified) (2005)

Macedonia
  total: 699 km
  standard gauge: 699 km 1.435-m gauge (233 km electrified) (2005)

Madagascar
  total: 854 km
  narrow gauge: 854 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Malawi
  total: 797 km
  narrow gauge: 797 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Malaysia
  total: 1,890 km
  standard gauge: 57 km 1.435-m gauge (57 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,833 km 1.000-m gauge (150 km electrified) (2005)

Mali
  total: 729 km
  narrow gauge: 729 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Mauritania
  717 km
  standard gauge: 717 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Mexico
  total: 17,562 km
  standard gauge: 17,562 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Moldova
  total: 1,138 km
  broad gauge: 1,124 km 1.520-m gauge
  standard gauge: 14 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Mongolia
  total: 1,810 km
  broad gauge: 1,810 km 1.524-m gauge (2005)

Montenegro
  total: 250 km
  standard gauge: 250 km 1.435-m gauge (electrified 169 km) (2005)

Morocco
  total: 1,907 km
  standard gauge: 1,907 km 1.435-m gauge (1,003 km electrified) (2005)

Mozambique
  total: 3,123 km
  narrow gauge: 2,983 km 1.067-m gauge; 140 km 0.762-m gauge (2005)

Namibia
  total: 2,382 km
  narrow gauge: 2,382 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Nepal
  total: 59 km
  narrow gauge: 59 km 0.762-m gauge (2005)

Netherlands
  total: 2,808 km
  standard gauge: 2,808 km 1.435-m gauge (2,061 km electrified) (2005)

New Zealand
  total: 4,128 km
  narrow gauge: 4,128 km 1.067-m gauge (506 km electrified) (2005)

Nicaragua
  total: 6 km
  narrow gauge: 6 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Nigeria
  total: 3,505 km
  narrow gauge: 3,505 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Norway
  total: 4,077 km
  standard gauge: 4,077 km 1.435-m gauge (2,680 km electrified) (2005)

Pakistan
  total: 8,163 km
  broad gauge: 7,718 km 1.676-m gauge (293 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 445 km 1.000-m gauge (2004)

Panama
  total: 355 km
  standard gauge: 77 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 278 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Paraguay
  total: 36 km
  standard gauge: 36 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Peru
  total: 3,462 km
  standard gauge: 2,962 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 500 km 0.914-m gauge (2005)

Philippines
  total: 897 km
  narrow gauge: 897 km 1.067-m gauge (492 km are in operation) (2005)

Poland
  total: 23,072 km
  broad gauge: 629 km 1.524-m gauge
  standard gauge: 22,443 km 1.435-m gauge (20,555 km operational;
  11,910 km electrified) (2005)

Portugal
  total: 2,850 km
  broad gauge: 2,576 km 1.668-m gauge (623 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 274 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Puerto Rico
  total: 96 km
  narrow gauge: 96 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Romania
  total: 11,385 km
  standard gauge: 10,898 km 1.435-m gauge (3,888 km electrified)
  broad gauge: 60 km 1.524-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 427 km 0.760-m gauge (2005)

Russia
  total: 87,157 km
  broad gauge: 86,200 km 1.520-m gauge (40,300 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 957 km 1.067-m gauge (on Sakhalin Island)
  note: an additional 30,000 km of non-common carrier lines serve
  industries (2005)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 50 km
  narrow gauge: 50 km 0.762-m gauge on Saint Kitts to serve sugarcane
  plantations during harvest season and for tourists (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 1,392 km
  standard gauge: 1,392 km 1.435-m gauge (with branch lines and
  sidings) (2005)

Senegal
  total: 906 km
  narrow gauge: 906 km 1.000 meter gauge (2005)

Serbia
  total: 4,135 km
  standard guage: 4,135 km 1.435-m guage (electrified 1,195 km) (2005)

Slovakia
  total: 3,662 km
  broad gauge: 100 km 1.520-m gauge
  standard gauge: 3,512 km 1.435-m gauge (1,588 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 50 km (1.000-m or 0.750-m gauge) (2005)

Slovenia
  total: 1,229 km
  standard gauge: 1,229 km 1.435-m gauge (504 km electrified) (2005)

South Africa
  total: 20,872 km
  narrow gauge: 20,436 km 1.065-m gauge (8,868 km electrified); 436 km
  0.610-m gauge (2005)

Spain
  total: 14,873 km
  broad gauge: 11,919 km 1.668-m gauge (6,950 km electrified)
  standard gauge: 998 km 1.435-m gauge (998 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,928 km 1.000-m gauge (815 km electrified); 28 km
  0.914-m gauge (28 km electrified) (2005)

Sri Lanka
  total: 1,449 km
  broad gauge: 1,449 km 1.676-m gauge (2005)

Sudan
  total: 5,978 km
  narrow gauge: 4,578 km 1.067-m gauge; 1,400 km 0.600-m gauge for
  cotton plantations (2005)

Swaziland
  total: 301 km
  narrow gauge: 301 km 1.067-m gauge (2005)

Sweden
  total: 11,481 km
  standard gauge: 11,481 km 1.435-m gauge (9,400 km electrified) (2005)

Switzerland
  total: 4,583 km
  standard gauge: 3,234 km 1.435-m gauge (3,223 km electrified)
  narrow gauge: 1,339 km 1.000-m gauge (1,338 km electrified); 10 km
  0.800-m gauge (10 km electrified) (2005)

Syria
  total: 2,711 km
  standard gauge: 2,460 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 251 km 1.050-m gauge (2005)

Taiwan
  total: 2,497 km
  narrow gauge: 1,097 km 1.067-m gauge (685 km electrified)
  note: 1,400 km .762-m gauge (belonging to the Taiwan Sugar
  Corporation and to the Taiwan Forestry Bureau) used to carry
  products and limited numbers of passengers (2005)

Tajikistan
  total: 482 km
  broad gauge: 482 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Tanzania
  total: 3,690 km
  narrow gauge: 969 km 1.067-m gauge; 2,721 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Thailand
  total: 4,071 km
  narrow gauge: 4,071 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Togo
  total: 568 km
  narrow gauge: 568 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Tunisia
  total: 2,153 km
  standard gauge: 471 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 1,674 km 1.000-m gauge (65 km electrified)
  dual gauge: 8 km 1.435 m and 1.000-m gauges (three rails) (2005)

Turkey
  total: 8,697 km
  standard gauge: 8,697 km 1.435-m gauge (2,122 km electrified) (2005)

Turkmenistan
  total: 2,440 km
  broad gauge: 2,440 km 1.520-m gauge (2005)

Uganda
  total: 1,244 km
  narrow gauge: 1,244 km 1.000-m gauge (2005)

Ukraine
  total: 22,473 km
  broad gauge: 22,473 km 1.524-m gauge (9,250 km electrified) (2005)

United Kingdom
  total: 17,156 km
  standard gauge: 16,814 km 1.435-m gauge (5,384 km electrified)
  broad gauge: 342 km 1.600-m gauge (in Northern Ireland) (2005)

United States
  total: 226,605 km
  standard gauge: 226,605 km 1.435-m gauge (2004)

Uruguay
  total: 2,073 km
  standard gauge: 2,073 km 1.435-m gauge
  note: 461 km have been taken out of service and 460 km are in
  partial use (2005)

Uzbekistan
  total: 3,950 km
  broad gauge: 3,950 km 1.520-m gauge (620 km electrified) (2005)

Venezuela
  total: 682 km
  standard gauge: 682 km 1.435-m gauge (2005)

Vietnam
  total: 2,600 km
  standard gauge: 178 km 1.435-m gauge
  narrow gauge: 2,169 km 1.000-m gauge
  dual gauge: 253 km three-rail track combining 1.435 m and 1.000-m
  gauges (2005)

World
  total: 1,115,205 km
  broad gauge: 257,481 km
  standard gauge: 671,413 km
  narrow gauge: 186,311 km (2003)

Zambia
  total: 2,173 km
  narrow gauge: 2,173 km 1.067-m gauge
  note: includes 891 km of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority
  (TAZARA) (2005)

Zimbabwe
  total: 3,077 km
  narrow gauge: 3,077 km 1.067-m gauge (313 km electrified) (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2122  Religions (%)


Afghanistan
  Sunni Muslim 80%, Shi'a Muslim 19%, other 1%

Albania
  Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%
  note: percentages are estimates; there are no available current
  statistics on religious affiliation; all mosques and churches were
  closed in 1967 and religious observances prohibited; in November
  1990, Albania began allowing private religious practice

Algeria
  Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99%, Christian and Jewish 1%

American Samoa
  Christian Congregationalist 50%, Roman Catholic 20%,
  Protestant and other 30%

Andorra
  Roman Catholic (predominant)

Angola
  indigenous beliefs 47%, Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15%
  (1998 est.)

Anguilla
  Anglican 29%, Methodist 23.9%, other Protestant 30.2%,
  Roman Catholic 5.7%, other Christian 1.7%, other 5.2%, none or
  unspecified 4.3% (2001 Census)

Antigua and Barbuda
  Christian (predominantly Anglican with other
  Protestant, and some Roman Catholic)

Argentina
  nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing),
  Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Armenia
  Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi
  (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%

Aruba
  Roman Catholic 82%, Protestant 8%, Hindu, Muslim, Confucian,
  Jewish

Australia
  Catholic 26.4%, Anglican 20.5%, other Christian 20.5%,
  Buddhist 1.9%, Muslim 1.5%, other 1.2%, unspecified 12.7%, none
  15.3% (2001 Census)

Austria
  Roman Catholic 73.6%, Protestant 4.7%, Muslim 4.2%, other
  3.5%, unspecified 2%, none 12% (2001 census)

Azerbaijan
  Muslim 93.4%, Russian Orthodox 2.5%, Armenian Orthodox
  2.3%, other 1.8% (1995 est.)
  note: religious affiliation is still nominal in Azerbaijan;
  percentages for actual practicing adherents are much lower

Bahamas, The
  Baptist 35.4%, Anglican 15.1%, Roman Catholic 13.5%,
  Pentecostal 8.1%, Church of God 4.8%, Methodist 4.2%, other
  Christian 15.2%, none or unspecified 2.9%, other 0.8% (2000 census)

Bahrain
  Muslim (Shi'a and Sunni) 81.2%, Christian 9%, other 9.8%
  (2001 census)

Bangladesh
  Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)

Barbados
  Protestant 67% (Anglican 40%, Pentecostal 8%, Methodist 7%,
  other 12%), Roman Catholic 4%, none 17%, other 12%

Belarus
  Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic,
  Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)

Belgium
  Roman Catholic 75%, Protestant or other 25%

Belize
  Roman Catholic 49.6%, Protestant 27% (Pentecostal 7.4%,
  Anglican 5.3%, Seventh-Day Adventist 5.2%, Mennonite 4.1%, Methodist
  3.5%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.5%), other 14%, none 9.4% (2000)

Benin
  indigenous beliefs 50%, Christian 30%, Muslim 20%

Bermuda
  Anglican 23%, Roman Catholic 15%, African Methodist
  Episcopal 11%, other Protestant 18%, other 12%, unaffiliated 6%,
  unspecified 1%, none 14% (2000 census)

Bhutan
  Lamaistic Buddhist 75%, Indian- and Nepalese-influenced
  Hinduism 25%

Bolivia
  Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Muslim 40%, Orthodox 31%, Roman Catholic 15%,
  other 14%

Botswana
  Christian 71.6%, Badimo 6%, other 1.4%, unspecified 0.4%,
  none 20.6% (2001 census)

Brazil
  Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%, Protestant 15.4%,
  Spiritualist 1.3%, Bantu/voodoo 0.3%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.2%,
  none 7.4% (2000 census)

British Virgin Islands
  Protestant 86% (Methodist 33%, Anglican 17%,
  Church of God 9%, Seventh-Day Adventist 6%, Baptist 4%, Jehovah's
  Witnesses 2%, other 15%), Roman Catholic 10%, none 2%, other 2%
  (1991)

Brunei
  Muslim (official) 67%, Buddhist 13%, Christian 10%,
  indigenous beliefs and other 10%

Bulgaria
  Bulgarian Orthodox 82.6%, Muslim 12.2%, other Christian
  1.2%, other 4% (2001 census)

Burkina Faso
  Muslim 50%, indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian (mainly
  Roman Catholic) 10%

Burma
  Buddhist 89%, Christian 4% (Baptist 3%, Roman Catholic 1%),
  Muslim 4%, animist 1%, other 2%

Burundi
  Christian 67% (Roman Catholic 62%, Protestant 5%),
  indigenous beliefs 23%, Muslim 10%

Cambodia
  Theravada Buddhist 95%, other 5%

Cameroon
  indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%

Canada
  Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3% (including United
  Church 9.5%, Anglican 6.8%, Baptist 2.4%, Lutheran 2%), other
  Christian 4.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other and unspecified 11.8%, none 16%
  (2001 census)

Cape Verde
  Roman Catholic (infused with indigenous beliefs);
  Protestant (mostly Church of the Nazarene)

Cayman Islands
  United Church (Presbyterian and Congregational),
  Anglican, Baptist, Church of God, other Protestant, Roman Catholic

Central African Republic
  indigenous beliefs 35%, Protestant 25%,
  Roman Catholic 25%, Muslim 15%
  note: animistic beliefs and practices strongly influence the
  Christian majority

Chad
  Muslim 51%, Christian 35%, animist 7%, other 7%

Chile
  Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 11%, Jewish NEGL%

China
  Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%, Muslim 1%-2%
  note: officially atheist (2002 est.)

Christmas Island
  Buddhist 36%, Muslim 25%, Christian 18%, other 21%
  (1997)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Sunni Muslim 80%, other 20% (2002 est.)

Colombia
  Roman Catholic 90%, other 10%

Comoros
  Sunni Muslim 98%, Roman Catholic 2%

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant
  20%, Kimbanguist 10%, Muslim 10%, other syncretic sects and
  indigenous beliefs 10%

Congo, Republic of the
  Christian 50%, animist 48%, Muslim 2%

Cook Islands
  Cook Islands Christian Church 55.9%, Roman Catholic
  16.8%, Seventh-Day Adventists 7.9%, Church of Latter Day Saints
  3.8%, other Protestant 5.8%, other 4.2%, unspecified 2.6%, none 3%
  (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  Roman Catholic 76.3%, Evangelical 13.7%, Jehovah's
  Witnesses 1.3%, other Protestant 0.7%, other 4.8%, none 3.2%

Cote d'Ivoire
  Muslim 35-40%, indigenous 25-40%, Christian 20-30%
  (2001)
  note: the majority of foreigners (migratory workers) are Muslim
  (70%) and Christian (20%)

Croatia
  Roman Catholic 87.8%, Orthodox 4.4%, other Christian 0.4%,
  Muslim 1.3%, other and unspecified 0.9%, none 5.2% (2001 census)

Cuba
  nominally 85% Roman Catholic prior to CASTRO assuming power;
  Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, and Santeria are also
  represented

Cyprus
  Greek Orthodox 78%, Muslim 18%, Maronite, Armenian Apostolic,
  and other 4%

Czech Republic
  Roman Catholic 26.8%, Protestant 2.1%, other 3.3%,
  unspecified 8.8%, unaffiliated 59% (2001 census)

Denmark
  Evangelical Lutheran 95%, other Protestant and Roman
  Catholic 3%, Muslim 2%

Djibouti
  Muslim 94%, Christian 6%

Dominica
  Roman Catholic 77%, Protestant 15% (Methodist 5%,
  Pentecostal 3%, Seventh-Day Adventist 3%, Baptist 2%, other 2%),
  other 6%, none 2%

Dominican Republic
  Roman Catholic 95%

East Timor
  Roman Catholic 90%, Muslim 4%, Protestant 3%, Hindu 0.5%,
  Buddhist, Animist (1992 est.)

Ecuador
  Roman Catholic 95%, other 5%

Egypt
  Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Coptic 9%, other Christian 1%

El Salvador
  Roman Catholic 83%, other 17%
  note: there is extensive activity by Protestant groups throughout
  the country; by the end of 1992, there were an estimated 1 million
  Protestant evangelicals in El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea
  nominally Christian and predominantly Roman
  Catholic, pagan practices

Eritrea
  Muslim, Coptic Christian, Roman Catholic, Protestant

Estonia
  Evangelical Lutheran 13.6%, Orthodox 12.8%, other Christian
  (including Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic,
  Pentecostal) 1.4%, unaffiliated 34.1%, other and unspecified 32%,
  none 6.1% (2000 census)

Ethiopia
  Muslim 45%-50%, Ethiopian Orthodox 35%-40%, animist 12%,
  other 3%-8%

European Union
  Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  primarily Anglican, Roman
  Catholic, United Free Church, Evangelist Church, Jehovah's
  Witnesses, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist

Faroe Islands
  Evangelical Lutheran

Fiji
  Christian 52% (Methodist 37%, Roman Catholic 9%), Hindu 38%,
  Muslim 8%, other 2%
  note: Fijians are mainly Christian, Indians are Hindu, and there is
  a Muslim minority

Finland
  Lutheran National Church 84.2%, Greek Orthodox in Finland
  1.1%, other Christian 1.1%, other 0.1%, none 13.5% (2003)

France
  Roman Catholic 83%-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim
  5%-10%, unaffiliated 4%

French Guiana
  Roman Catholic

French Polynesia
  Protestant 54%, Roman Catholic 30%, other 10%, no
  religion 6%

Gabon
  Christian 55%-75%, animist, Muslim less than 1%

Gambia, The
  Muslim 90%, Christian 9%, indigenous beliefs 1%

Gaza Strip
  Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 98.7%, Christian 0.7%,
  Jewish 0.6%

Georgia
  Orthodox Christian 83.9%, Muslim 9.9%, Armenian-Gregorian
  3.9%, Catholic 0.8%, other 0.8%, none 0.7% (2002 census)

Germany
  Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%,
  unaffiliated or other 28.3%

Ghana
  Christian 63%, Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 21%

Gibraltar
  Roman Catholic 78.1%, Church of England 7%, other
  Christian 3.2%, Muslim 4%, Jewish 2.1%, Hindu 1.8%, other or
  unspecified 0.9%, none 2.9% (2001 census)

Greece
  Greek Orthodox 98%, Muslim 1.3%, other 0.7%

Greenland
  Evangelical Lutheran

Grenada
  Roman Catholic 53%, Anglican 13.8%, other Protestant 33.2%

Guadeloupe
  Roman Catholic 95%, Hindu and pagan African 4%,
  Protestant 1%

Guam
  Roman Catholic 85%, other 15% (1999 est.)

Guatemala
  Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan beliefs

Guernsey
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist,
  Congregational, Methodist

Guinea
  Muslim 85%, Christian 8%, indigenous beliefs 7%

Guinea-Bissau
  indigenous beliefs 50%, Muslim 45%, Christian 5%

Guyana
  Christian 50%, Hindu 35%, Muslim 10%, other 5%

Haiti
  Roman Catholic 80%, Protestant 16% (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal
  4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%), none 1%, other 3%
  note: roughly half of the population practices Voodoo

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Roman Catholic

Honduras
  Roman Catholic 97%, Protestant 3%

Hong Kong
  eclectic mixture of local religions 90%, Christian 10%

Hungary
  Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek
  Catholic 2.6%, other Christian 1%, other or unspecified 11.1%,
  unaffiliated 14.5% (2001 census)

Iceland
  Lutheran Church of Iceland 85.5%, Reykjavik Free Church
  2.1%, Roman Catholic Church 2%, Hafnarfjorour Free Church 1.5%,
  other Christian 2.7%, other or unspecified 3.8%, unaffiliated 2.4%
  (2004)

India
  Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other
  1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

Indonesia
  Muslim 88%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 2%,
  Buddhist 1%, other 1% (1998)

Iran
  Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish,
  Christian, and Baha'i 2%

Iraq
  Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

Ireland
  Roman Catholic 88.4%, Church of Ireland 3%, other Christian
  1.6%, other 1.5%, unspecified 2%, none 3.5% (2002 census)

Isle of Man
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist,
  Presbyterian, Society of Friends

Israel
  Jewish 76.4%, Muslim 16%, Arab Christians 1.7%, other
  Christian 0.4%, Druze 1.6%, unspecified 3.9% (2004)

Italy
  approximately 90% Roman Catholic (about one-third regularly
  attend services); mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a
  growing Muslim immigrant community

Jamaica
  Protestant 61.3% (Church of God 21.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist
  9%, Baptist 8.8%, Pentecostal 7.6%, Anglican 5.5%, Methodist 2.7%,
  United Church 2.7%, Jehovah's Witness 1.6%, Brethren 1.1%, Moravian
  1.1%), Roman Catholic 4%, other including some spiritual cults 34.7%

Japan
  observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including
  Christian 0.7%)

Jersey
  Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational New Church,
  Methodist, Presbyterian

Jordan
  Sunni Muslim 92%, Christian 6% (majority Greek Orthodox, but
  some Greek and Roman Catholics, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox,
  Armenian Orthodox, and Protestant denominations), other 2% (several
  small Shi'a Muslim and Druze populations) (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%

Kenya
  Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%,
  Muslim 10%, other 2%
  note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for
  the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous
  beliefs vary widely

Kiribati
  Roman Catholic 52%, Protestant (Congregational) 40%, some
  Seventh-Day Adventist, Muslim, Baha'i, Latter-day Saints, Church of
  God (1999)

Korea, North
  traditionally Buddhist and Confucianist, some Christian
  and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way)
  note: autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent;
  government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of
  religious freedom

Korea, South
  no affiliation 46%, Christian 26%, Buddhist 26%,
  Confucianist 1%, other 1%

Kuwait
  Muslim 85% (Sunni 70%, Shi'a 30%), Christian, Hindu, Parsi,
  and other 15%

Kyrgyzstan
  Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%

Laos
  Buddhist 60%, animist and other 40% (including various
  Christian denominations 1.5%)

Latvia
  Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox

Lebanon
  Muslim 59.7% (Shi'a, Sunni, Druze, Isma'ilite, Alawite or
  Nusayri), Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite
  Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic,
  Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt,
  Protestant), other 1.3%
  note: 17 religious sects recognized

Lesotho
  Christian 80%, indigenous beliefs 20%

Liberia
  indigenous beliefs 40%, Christian 40%, Muslim 20%

Libya
  Sunni Muslim 97%

Liechtenstein
  Roman Catholic 76.2%, Protestant 7%, unknown 10.6%,
  other 6.2% (June 2002)

Lithuania
  Roman Catholic 79%, Russian Orthodox 4.1%, Protestant
  (including Lutheran and Evangelical Christian Baptist) 1.9%, other
  or unspecified 5.5%, none 9.5% (2001 census)

Luxembourg
  87% Roman Catholic, 13% Protestants, Jews, and Muslims
  (2000)

Macau
  Buddhist 50%, Roman Catholic 15%, none and other 35% (1997
  est.)

Macedonia
  Macedonian Orthodox 64.7%, other Christian 0.37%, Muslim
  33.3%, other and unspecified 1.63% (2002 census)

Madagascar
  indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%, Muslim 7%

Malawi
  Christian 79.9%, Muslim 12.8%, other 3%, none 4.3% (1998
  census)

Malaysia
  Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh; note - in
  addition, Shamanism is practiced in East Malaysia

Maldives
  Sunni Muslim

Mali
  Muslim 90%, indigenous beliefs 9%, Christian 1%

Malta
  Roman Catholic 98%

Marshall Islands
  Protestant 54.8%, Assembly of God 25.8%, Roman
  Catholic 8.4%, Bukot nan Jesus 2.8%, Mormon 2.1%, other Christian
  3.6%, other 1%, none 1.5% (1999 census)

Martinique
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 10.5%, Muslim 0.5%, Hindu
  0.5%, other 3.5% (1997)

Mauritania
  Muslim 100%

Mauritius
  Hindu 48%, Roman Catholic 23.6%, other Christian 8.6%,
  Muslim 16.6%, other 2.5%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.4% (2000 census)

Mayotte
  Muslim 97%, Christian (mostly Roman Catholic)

Mexico
  nominally Roman Catholic 89%, Protestant 6%, other 5%

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Roman Catholic 50%, Protestant 47%,
  other 3%

Moldova
  Eastern Orthodox 98%, Jewish 1.5%, Baptist and other 0.5%
  (2000)

Monaco
  Roman Catholic 90%

Mongolia
  Buddhist Lamaist 50%, none 40%, Shamanist and Christian 6%,
  Muslim 4% (2004)

Montenegro
  Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic

Montserrat
  Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal,
  Seventh-Day Adventist, other Christian denominations

Morocco
  Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%

Mozambique
  Catholic 23.8%, Muslim 17.8%, Zionist Christian 17.5%,
  other 17.8%, none 23.1% (1997 census)

Namibia
  Christian 80% to 90% (Lutheran 50% at least), indigenous
  beliefs 10% to 20%

Nauru
  Christian (two-thirds Protestant, one-third Roman Catholic)

Nepal
  Hindu 80.6%, Buddhist 10.7%, Muslim 4.2%, Kirant 3.6%, other
  0.9% (2001 census)
  note: only official Hindu state in the world

Netherlands
  Roman Catholic 31%, Dutch Reformed 13%, Calvinist 7%,
  Muslim 5.5%, other 2.5%, none 41% (2002)

Netherlands Antilles
  Roman Catholic 72%, Pentecostal 4.9%,
  Protestant 3.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 3.1%, Methodist 2.9%,
  Jehovah's Witnesses 1.7%, other Christian 4.2%, Jewish 1.3%, other
  or unspecified 1.2%, none 5.2% (2001 census)

New Caledonia
  Roman Catholic 60%, Protestant 30%, other 10%

New Zealand
  Anglican 14.9%, Roman Catholic 12.4%, Presbyterian
  10.9%, Methodist 2.9%, Pentecostal 1.7%, Baptist 1.3%, other
  Christian 9.4%, other 3.3%, unspecified 17.2%, none 26% (2001 census)

Nicaragua
  Roman Catholic 72.9%, Evangelical 15.1%, Moravian 1.5%,
  Episcopal 0.1%, other 1.9%, none 8.5% (1995 census)

Niger
  Muslim 80%, remainder indigenous beliefs and Christian

Nigeria
  Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%

Niue
  Ekalesia Niue (Niuean Church - a Protestant church closely
  related to the London Missionary Society) 61.1%, Latter-Day Saints
  8.8%, Roman Catholic 7.2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 2.4%, Seventh-Day
  Adventist 1.4%, other 8.4%, unspecified 8.7%, none 1.9% (2001 census)

Norfolk Island
  Anglican 34.9%, Roman Catholic 11.7%, Uniting Church
  in Australia 11.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist 2.8%, Australian Christian
  2.4%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, other 2.7%, unspecified 15.3%, none
  18.1% (2001 census)

Northern Mariana Islands
  Christian (Roman Catholic majority,
  although traditional beliefs and taboos may still be found)

Norway
  Church of Norway 85.7%, Pentecostal 1%, Roman Catholic 1%,
  other Christian 2.4%, Muslim 1.8%, other 8.1% (2004)

Oman
  Ibadhi Muslim 75%, Sunni Muslim, Shi'a Muslim, Hindu

Pakistan
  Muslim 97% (Sunni 77%, Shi'a 20%), Christian, Hindu, and
  other 3%

Palau
  Roman Catholic 41.6%, Protestant 23.3%, Modekngei 8.8%
  (indigenous to Palau), Seventh-Day Adventist 5.3%, Jehovah's Witness
  0.9%, Latter-Day Saints 0.6%, other religion 3.1%, unspecified or
  none 16.4% (2000 census)

Panama
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 15%

Papua New Guinea
  Roman Catholic 22%, Lutheran 16%,
  Presbyterian/Methodist/London Missionary Society 8%, Anglican 5%,
  Evangelical Alliance 4%, Seventh-Day Adventist 1%, other Protestant
  10%, indigenous beliefs 34%

Paraguay
  Roman Catholic 90%, Mennonite and other Protestant 10%

Peru
  Roman Catholic 81%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.4%, other Christian
  0.7%, other 0.6%, unspecified or none 16.3% (2003 est.)

Philippines
  Roman Catholic 80.9%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni
  Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, Muslim 5%, other
  1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census)

Pitcairn Islands
  Seventh-Day Adventist 100%

Poland
  Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox
  1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

Portugal
  Roman Catholic 94%, Protestant (1995)

Puerto Rico
  Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant and other 15%

Qatar
  Muslim 95%

Reunion
  Roman Catholic 86%, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist (1995)

Romania
  Eastern Orthodox (including all sub-denominations) 86.8%,
  Protestant (various denominations including Reformate and
  Pentecostal) 7.5%, Roman Catholic 4.7%, other (mostly Muslim) and
  unspecified 0.9%, none 0.1% (2002 census)

Russia
  Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2%
  (2006 est.)
  note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large
  populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy
  of over seven decades of Soviet rule

Rwanda
  Roman Catholic 56.5%, Protestant 26%, Adventist 11.1%, Muslim
  4.6%, indigenous beliefs 0.1%, none 1.7% (2001)

Saint Helena
  Anglican (majority), Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist,
  Roman Catholic

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Anglican, other Protestant, Roman Catholic

Saint Lucia
  Roman Catholic 67.5%, Seventh Day Adventist 8.5%,
  Pentecostal 5.7%, Anglican 2%, Evangelical 2%, other Christian 5.1%,
  Rastafarian 2.1%, other 1.1%, unspecified 1.5%, none 4.5% (2001
  census)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Roman Catholic 99%

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Anglican 47%, Methodist 28%, Roman
  Catholic 13%, Hindu, Seventh-Day Adventist, other Protestant

Samoa
  Congregationalist 34.8%, Roman Catholic 19.6%, Methodist 15%,
  Latter-Day Saints 12.7%, Assembly of God 6.6%, Seventh-Day Adventist
  3.5%, other Christian 4.5%, Worship Centre 1.3%, other 1.7%,
  unspecified 0.1% (2001 census)

San Marino
  Roman Catholic

Sao Tome and Principe
  Catholic 70.3%, Evangelical 3.4%, New
  Apostolic 2%, Adventist 1.8%, other 3.1%, none 19.4% (2001 census)

Saudi Arabia
  Muslim 100%

Senegal
  Muslim 94%, Christian 5% (mostly Roman Catholic), indigenous
  beliefs 1%

Serbia
  Serbian Orthodox, Muslim, Roman Catholic, Protestant

Seychelles
  Roman Catholic 82.3%, Anglican 6.4%, Seventh Day
  Adventist 1.1%, other Christian 3.4%, Hindu 2.1%, Muslim 1.1%, other
  non-Christian 1.5%, unspecified 1.5%, none 0.6% (2002 census)

Sierra Leone
  Muslim 60%, indigenous beliefs 30%, Christian 10%

Singapore
  Buddhist 42.5%, Muslim 14.9%, Taoist 8.5%, Hindu 4%,
  Catholic 4.8%, other Christian 9.8%, other 0.7%, none 14.8% (2000
  census)

Slovakia
  Roman Catholic 68.9%, Protestant 10.8%, Greek Catholic
  4.1%, other or unspecified 3.2%, none 13% (2001 census)

Slovenia
  Catholic 57.8%, Orthodox 2.3%, other Christian 0.9%, Muslim
  2.4%, unaffiliated 3.5%, other or unspecified 23%, none 10.1% (2002
  census)

Solomon Islands
  Church of Melanesia 32.8%, Roman Catholic 19%, South
  Seas Evangelical 17%, Seventh-Day Adventist 11.2%, United Church
  10.3%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.4%, other Christian 4.4%, other
  2.4%, unspecified 0.3%, none 0.2% (1999 census)

Somalia
  Sunni Muslim

South Africa
  Zion Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%,
  Catholic 7.1%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%,
  other Christian 36%, Islam 1.5%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none
  15.1% (2001 census)

Spain
  Roman Catholic 94%, other 6%

Sri Lanka
  Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%,
  unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)

Sudan
  Sunni Muslim 70% (in north), indigenous beliefs 25%, Christian
  5% (mostly in south and Khartoum)

Suriname
  Hindu 27.4%, Protestant 25.2% (predominantly Moravian),
  Roman Catholic 22.8%, Muslim 19.6%, indigenous beliefs 5%

Swaziland
  Zionist 40% (a blend of Christianity and indigenous
  ancestral worship), Roman Catholic 20%, Muslim 10%, Anglican, Bahai,
  Methodist, Mormon, Jewish and other 30%

Sweden
  Lutheran 87%, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim,
  Jewish, Buddhist

Switzerland
  Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%,
  other Christian 0.4%, Muslim 4.3%, other 1%, unspecified 4.3%, none
  11.1% (2000 census)

Syria
  Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawite, Druze, and other Muslim sects 16%,
  Christian (various sects) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus,
  Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)

Taiwan
  mixture of Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist 93%, Christian
  4.5%, other 2.5%

Tajikistan
  Sunni Muslim 85%, Shi'a Muslim 5%, other 10% (2003 est.)

Tanzania
  mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%, indigenous beliefs
  35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim

Thailand
  Buddhist 94.6%, Muslim 4.6%, Christian 0.7%, other 0.1%
  (2000 census)

Togo
  indigenous beliefs 51%, Christian 29%, Muslim 20%

Tokelau
  Congregational Christian Church 70%, Roman Catholic 28%,
  other 2%
  note: on Atafu, all Congregational Christian Church of Samoa; on
  Nukunonu, all Roman Catholic; on Fakaofo, both denominations, with
  the Congregational Christian Church predominant

Tonga
  Christian (Free Wesleyan Church claims over 30,000 adherents)

Trinidad and Tobago
  Roman Catholic 26%, Hindu 22.5%, Anglican 7.8%,
  Baptist 7.2%, Pentecostal 6.8%, other Christian 5.8%, Muslim 5.8%,
  Seventh Day Adventist 4%, other 10.8%, unspecified 1.4%, none 1.9%
  (2000 census)

Tunisia
  Muslim 98%, Christian 1%, Jewish and other 1%

Turkey
  Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians
  and Jews)

Turkmenistan
  Muslim 89%, Eastern Orthodox 9%, unknown 2%

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Baptist 40%, Anglican 18%, Methodist 16%,
  Church of God 12%, other 14% (1990)

Tuvalu
  Church of Tuvalu (Congregationalist) 97%, Seventh-Day
  Adventist 1.4%, Baha'i 1%, other 0.6%

Uganda
  Roman Catholic 33%, Protestant 33%, Muslim 16%, indigenous
  beliefs 18%

Ukraine
  Ukrainian Orthodox - Kyiv Patriarchate 19%, Orthodox (no
  particular jurisdiction) 16%, Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow
  Patriarchate 9%, Ukrainian Greek Catholic 6%, Ukrainian
  Autocephalous Orthodox 1.7%, Protestant, Jewish, none 38% (2004 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  Muslim 96% (Shi'a 16%), Christian, Hindu, and
  other 4%

United Kingdom
  Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian,
  Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or
  none 23.1% (2001 census)

United States
  Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish
  1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.)

Uruguay
  Roman Catholic 66% (less than half of the adult population
  attends church regularly), Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, nonprofessing
  or other 31%

Uzbekistan
  Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

Vanuatu
  Presbyterian 31.4%, Anglican 13.4%, Roman Catholic 13.1%,
  Seventh-Day Adventist 10.8%, other Christian 13.8%, indigenous
  beliefs 5.6% (including Jon Frum cargo cult), other 9.6%, none 1%,
  unspecified 1.3% (1999 Census)

Venezuela
  nominally Roman Catholic 96%, Protestant 2%, other 2%

Vietnam
  Buddhist 9.3%, Catholic 6.7%, Hoa Hao 1.5%, Cao Dai 1.1%,
  Protestant 0.5%, Muslim 0.1%, none 80.8% (1999 census)

Virgin Islands
  Baptist 42%, Roman Catholic 34%, Episcopalian 17%,
  other 7%

Wallis and Futuna
  Roman Catholic 99%, other 1%

West Bank
  Muslim 75% (predominantly Sunni), Jewish 17%, Christian
  and other 8%

Western Sahara
  Muslim

World
  Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%,
  Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%), Muslims 20.12%,
  Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other
  religions 12.61%, non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)

Yemen
  Muslim including Shaf'i (Sunni) and Zaydi (Shi'a), small
  numbers of Jewish, Christian, and Hindu

Zambia
  Christian 50%-75%, Muslim and Hindu 24%-49%, indigenous
  beliefs 1%

Zimbabwe
  syncretic (part Christian, part indigenous beliefs) 50%,
  Christian 25%, indigenous beliefs 24%, Muslim and other 1%

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2123  Suffrage


Afghanistan
  18 years of age; universal

Albania
  18 years of age; universal

Algeria
  18 years of age; universal

American Samoa
  18 years of age; universal

Andorra
  18 years of age; universal

Angola
  18 years of age; universal

Anguilla
  18 years of age; universal

Antigua and Barbuda
  18 years of age; universal

Argentina
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Armenia
  18 years of age; universal

Aruba
  18 years of age; universal

Australia
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Austria
  18 years of age; universal

Azerbaijan
  18 years of age; universal

Bahamas, The
  18 years of age; universal

Bahrain
  18 years of age; universal

Bangladesh
  18 years of age; universal

Barbados
  18 years of age; universal

Belarus
  18 years of age; universal

Belgium
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Belize
  18 years of age; universal

Benin
  18 years of age; universal

Bermuda
  18 years of age; universal

Bhutan
  each family has one vote in village-level elections; note -
  in late 2003 Bhutan's legislature passed a new election law

Bolivia
  18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21
  years of age, universal and compulsory (single)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  18 years of age, universal

Botswana
  18 years of age; universal

Brazil
  voluntary between 16 and 18 years of age and over 70;
  compulsory over 18 and under 70 years of age; note - military
  conscripts do not vote

British Virgin Islands
  18 years of age; universal

Brunei
  none

Bulgaria
  18 years of age; universal

Burkina Faso
  universal

Burma
  18 years of age; universal

Burundi
  NA years of age; universal adult

Cambodia
  18 years of age; universal

Cameroon
  20 years of age; universal

Canada
  18 years of age; universal

Cape Verde
  18 years of age; universal

Cayman Islands
  18 years of age; universal

Central African Republic
  21 years of age; universal

Chad
  18 years of age; universal

Chile
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

China
  18 years of age; universal

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  18 years of age; universal

Comoros
  18 years of age; universal

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  18 years of age; universal and
  compulsory

Congo, Republic of the
  18 years of age; universal

Cook Islands
  NA years of age; universal adult

Costa Rica
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Cote d'Ivoire
  18 years of age; universal

Croatia
  18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed)

Cuba
  16 years of age; universal

Cyprus
  18 years of age; universal

Czech Republic
  18 years of age; universal

Denmark
  18 years of age; universal

Djibouti
  18 years of age; universal adult

Dominica
  18 years of age; universal

Dominican Republic
  18 years of age, universal and compulsory;
  married persons regardless of age
  note: members of the armed forces and national police cannot vote

East Timor
  17 years of age; universal

Ecuador
  18 years of age; universal, compulsory for literate persons
  ages 18-65, optional for other eligible voters

Egypt
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

El Salvador
  18 years of age; universal

Equatorial Guinea
  18 years of age; universal adult

Eritrea
  18 years of age; universal

Estonia
  18 years of age; universal for all Estonian citizens

Ethiopia
  18 years of age; universal

European Union
  18 years of age; universal

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  18 years of age; universal

Faroe Islands
  18 years of age; universal

Fiji
  21 years of age; universal

Finland
  18 years of age; universal

France
  18 years of age; universal

French Guiana
  18 years of age; universal

French Polynesia
  18 years of age; universal

Gabon
  21 years of age; universal

Gambia, The
  18 years of age; universal

Georgia
  18 years of age; universal

Germany
  18 years of age; universal

Ghana
  18 years of age; universal

Gibraltar
  18 years of age; universal, plus other British citizens
  who have been residents six months or more

Greece
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Greenland
  18 years of age; universal

Grenada
  18 years of age; universal

Guadeloupe
  18 years of age; universal

Guam
  18 years of age; universal; US citizens, but do not vote in US
  presidential elections

Guatemala
  18 years of age; universal (active duty members of the
  armed forces may not vote and are restricted to their barracks on
  election day)

Guernsey
  18 years of age; universal

Guinea
  18 years of age; universal

Guinea-Bissau
  18 years of age; universal

Guyana
  18 years of age; universal

Haiti
  18 years of age; universal

Holy See (Vatican City)
  limited to cardinals less than 80 years old

Honduras
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Hong Kong
  direct election 18 years of age; universal for permanent
  residents living in the territory of Hong Kong for the past seven
  years; indirect election limited to about 200,000 members of
  functional constituencies and an 800-member election committee drawn
  from broad regional groupings, municipal organizations, and central
  government bodies

Hungary
  18 years of age; universal

Iceland
  18 years of age; universal

India
  18 years of age; universal

Indonesia
  17 years of age; universal and married persons regardless
  of age

Iran
  15 years of age; universal

Iraq
  formerly 18 years of age; universal

Ireland
  18 years of age; universal

Isle of Man
  16 years of age; universal

Israel
  18 years of age; universal

Italy
  18 years of age; universal (except in senatorial elections,
  where minimum age is 25)

Jamaica
  18 years of age; universal

Japan
  20 years of age; universal

Jersey
  NA years of age; universal adult

Jordan
  18 years of age; universal

Kazakhstan
  18 years of age; universal

Kenya
  18 years of age; universal

Kiribati
  18 years of age; universal

Korea, North
  17 years of age; universal

Korea, South
  19 years of age; universal

Kuwait
  adult males who are not in the military forces, and adult
  females (as of 16 May 2005); all voters must have been citizens for
  20 years

Kyrgyzstan
  18 years of age; universal

Laos
  18 years of age; universal

Latvia
  18 years of age; universal for Latvian citizens

Lebanon
  21 years of age; compulsory for all males; authorized for
  women at age 21 with elementary education

Lesotho
  18 years of age; universal

Liberia
  18 years of age; universal

Libya
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Liechtenstein
  18 years of age; universal

Lithuania
  18 years of age; universal

Luxembourg
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Macau
  direct election 18 years of age, universal for permanent
  residents living in Macau for the past seven years; indirect
  election limited to organizations registered as "corporate voters"
  (257 are currently registered) and a 300-member Election Committee
  drawn from broad regional groupings, municipal organizations, and
  central government bodies

Macedonia
  18 years of age; universal

Madagascar
  18 years of age; universal

Malawi
  18 years of age; universal

Malaysia
  21 years of age; universal

Maldives
  21 years of age; universal

Mali
  18 years of age; universal

Malta
  18 years of age; universal

Marshall Islands
  18 years of age; universal

Martinique
  18 years of age; universal

Mauritania
  18 years of age; universal

Mauritius
  18 years of age; universal

Mayotte
  18 years of age; universal

Mexico
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory (but not enforced)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  18 years of age; universal

Moldova
  18 years of age; universal

Monaco
  18 years of age; universal

Mongolia
  18 years of age; universal

Montenegro
  18 years of age; universal

Montserrat
  18 years of age; universal

Morocco
  18 years of age; universal (as of January 2003)

Mozambique
  18 years of age; universal

Namibia
  18 years of age; universal

Nauru
  20 years of age; universal and compulsory

Nepal
  18 years of age; universal

Netherlands
  18 years of age; universal

Netherlands Antilles
  18 years of age; universal

New Caledonia
  18 years of age; universal

New Zealand
  18 years of age; universal

Nicaragua
  16 years of age; universal

Niger
  18 years of age; universal

Nigeria
  18 years of age; universal

Niue
  18 years of age; universal

Norfolk Island
  18 years of age; universal

Northern Mariana Islands
  18 years of age; universal; indigenous
  inhabitants are US citizens but do not vote in US presidential
  elections

Norway
  18 years of age; universal

Oman
  in Oman's most recent Majlis al-Shura elections in 2003,
  suffrage was universal for all Omanis over age 21 except for members
  of the military and security forces; the next Majlis al-Shura
  elections are scheduled for 2007

Pakistan
  18 years of age; universal; joint electorates and reserved
  parliamentary seats for women and non-Muslims

Palau
  18 years of age; universal

Panama
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Papua New Guinea
  18 years of age; universal

Paraguay
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory up to age 75

Peru
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory until the age of 70;
  note - members of the military and national police may not vote

Philippines
  18 years of age; universal

Pitcairn Islands
  18 years of age; universal with three years
  residency

Poland
  18 years of age; universal

Portugal
  18 years of age; universal

Puerto Rico
  18 years of age; universal; island residents are US
  citizens but do not vote in US presidential elections

Qatar
  18 years of age; universal

Reunion
  18 years of age; universal

Romania
  18 years of age; universal

Russia
  18 years of age; universal

Rwanda
  18 years of age; universal adult

Saint Helena
  NA years of age

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  18 years of age; universal

Saint Lucia
  18 years of age; universal

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  18 years of age; universal

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  18 years of age; universal

Samoa
  21 years of age; universal

San Marino
  18 years of age; universal

Sao Tome and Principe
  18 years of age; universal

Saudi Arabia
  adult male citizens age 21 or older
  note: voter registration began in November 2004 for partial
  municipal council elections held nationwide from February through
  April 2005

Senegal
  18 years of age; universal

Serbia
  18 universal

Seychelles
  17 years of age; universal

Sierra Leone
  18 years of age; universal

Singapore
  21 years of age; universal and compulsory

Slovakia
  18 years of age; universal

Slovenia
  18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed)

Solomon Islands
  21 years of age; universal

Somalia
  18 years of age; universal

South Africa
  18 years of age; universal

Spain
  18 years of age; universal

Sri Lanka
  18 years of age; universal

Sudan
  17 years of age; universal, but noncompulsory

Suriname
  18 years of age; universal

Swaziland
  18 years of age

Sweden
  18 years of age; universal

Switzerland
  18 years of age; universal

Syria
  18 years of age; universal

Taiwan
  20 years of age; universal

Tajikistan
  18 years of age; universal

Tanzania
  18 years of age; universal

Thailand
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Togo
  NA years of age; universal adult

Tokelau
  21 years of age; universal

Tonga
  21 years of age; universal

Trinidad and Tobago
  18 years of age; universal

Tunisia
  20 years of age; universal

Turkey
  18 years of age; universal

Turkmenistan
  18 years of age; universal

Turks and Caicos Islands
  18 years of age; universal

Tuvalu
  18 years of age; universal

Uganda
  18 years of age; universal

Ukraine
  18 years of age; universal

United Arab Emirates
  none

United Kingdom
  18 years of age; universal

United States
  18 years of age; universal

Uruguay
  18 years of age; universal and compulsory

Uzbekistan
  18 years of age; universal

Vanuatu
  18 years of age; universal

Venezuela
  18 years of age; universal

Vietnam
  18 years of age; universal

Virgin Islands
  18 years of age; universal; island residents are US
  citizens but do not vote in US presidential elections

Wallis and Futuna
  18 years of age; universal

Western Sahara
  none; a UN-sponsored voter identification campaign
  not yet completed

Yemen
  18 years of age; universal

Zambia
  18 years of age; universal

Zimbabwe
  18 years of age; universal

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2124  Telephone system


Afghanistan
  general assessment: very limited telephone and telegraph
  service
  domestic: telephone service is improving with the licensing of four
  wireless telephone service providers by 2005; approximately 4 in 100
  Afghans own a wireless telephone; telephone main lines remain
  limited.
  international: country code - 93; five VSAT's installed in Kabul,
  Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, and Jalalabad provide international
  and domestic voice and data connectivity

Albania
  general assessment: despite new investment in fixed lines,
  the density of main lines remains the lowest in Europe with roughly
  seven lines per 100 people; however, cellular telephone use is
  widespread and generally effective
  domestic: offsetting the shortage of fixed line capacity, mobile
  phone service has been available since 1996; by 2003 two companies
  were providing mobile services at a greater density than some of
  Albania's Balkan neighbors
  international: country code - 355; inadequate fixed main lines;
  adequate cellular connections; international traffic carried by
  fiber optic cable and, when necessary, by microwave radio relay from
  the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece (2003)

Algeria
  general assessment: telephone density in Algeria is very
  low, not exceeding five telephones per 100 persons; the number of
  fixed main lines increased in the last few years to nearly 2.6
  million, but only about two-thirds of these have subscribers; much
  of the infrastructure is outdated and inefficient
  domestic: good service in north but sparse in south; domestic
  satellite system with 12 earth stations (20 additional domestic
  earth stations are planned)
  international: country code - 213; submarine cables - 5; microwave
  radio relay to Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, and Tunisia; coaxial
  cable to Morocco and Tunisia; participant in Medarabtel; satellite
  earth stations - 51 (Intelsat, Intersputnik, and Arabsat) (2005)

American Samoa
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: good telex, telegraph, facsimile and cellular telephone
  services; domestic satellite system with 1 Comsat earth station
  international: country code - 684; satellite earth station - 1
  (Intelsat-Pacific Ocean)

Andorra
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: modern system with microwave radio relay connections
  between exchanges
  international: country code - 376; landline circuits to France and
  Spain

Angola
  general assessment: telephone service limited mostly to
  government and business use; HF radiotelephone used extensively for
  military links
  domestic: limited system of wire, microwave radio relay, and
  tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 244; satellite earth stations - 29;
  fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to
  Europe and Asia (2005)

Anguilla
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: modern internal telephone system
  international: country code - 1-264; microwave radio relay to island
  of Saint Martin (Guadeloupe and Netherlands Antilles)

Antarctica
  general assessment: local systems at some research
  stations
  domestic: commercial cellular networks operating in a small number
  of locations
  international: country code - 672; via satellite (including mobile
  Inmarsat and Iridium systems) from all research stations, ships,
  aircraft, and most field parties

Antigua and Barbuda
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: good automatic telephone system
  international: country code - 1-268; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth station - 2; tropospheric scatter to Saba
  (Netherlands Antilles) and Guadeloupe

Argentina
  general assessment: by opening the telecommunications
  market to competition and foreign investment with the
  "Telecommunications Liberalization Plan of 1998," Argentina
  encouraged the growth of modern telecommunications technology;
  fiber-optic cable trunk lines are being installed between all major
  cities; the major networks are entirely digital and the availability
  of telephone service is improving; however, telephone density is
  presently minimal, and making telephone service universally
  available will take time
  domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber-optic cable, and a domestic
  satellite system with 40 earth stations serve the trunk network;
  more than 110,000 pay telephones are installed and mobile telephone
  use is rapidly expanding
  international: country code - 54; satellite earth stations - 112;
  Atlantis II and Unisur submarine cables; two international gateways
  near Buenos Aires (2005)

Armenia
  general assessment: system inadequate; now 90% privately
  owned and undergoing modernization and expansion
  domestic: the majority of subscribers and the most modern equipment
  are in Yerevan (this includes paging and mobile cellular service)
  international: country code - 374; Yerevan is connected to the
  Trans-Asia-Europe fiber-optic cable through Iran; additional
  international service is available by microwave radio relay and
  landline connections to the other countries of the Commonwealth of
  Independent States and through the Moscow international switch and
  by satellite to the rest of the world; satellite earth stations - 3
  (2005)

Aruba
  general assessment: modern fully automatic telecommunications
  system
  domestic: increased competition through privatization; 3 wireless
  service providers are now licensed
  international: country code - 297; 1 submarine cable to Sint Maarten
  (Netherlands Antilles); extensive interisland microwave radio relay
  links

Australia
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  service
  domestic: domestic satellite system; much use of radiotelephone in
  areas of low population density; rapid growth of mobile cellular
  telephones
  international: country code - 61; submarine cables to New Zealand,
  Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia; satellite earth stations - 19 (10
  Intelsat - 4 Indian Ocean and 6 Pacific Ocean, 2 Inmarsat - Indian
  and Pacific Ocean regions, 2 Globalstar, 5 other) (2005)

Austria
  general assessment: highly developed and efficient
  domestic: there are 45 main lines for every 100 persons; the fiber
  optic net is very extensive; all telephone applications and Internet
  services are available
  international: country code - 43; satellite earth stations - 15; in
  addition, there are about 600 VSAT (very small aperture terminals)
  (2005)

Azerbaijan
  general assessment: inadequate; requires considerable
  expansion and modernization; teledensity of 14 main lines per 100
  persons is low (2002)
  domestic: the majority of telephones are in Baku and other
  industrial centers - about 700 villages still without public
  telephone service; satellite service connects Baku to a modern
  switch in its exclave of Naxcivan
  international: country code - 994; the old Soviet system of cable
  and microwave is still serviceable; satellite earth stations - 2
  (2005)

Bahamas, The
  general assessment: modern facilities
  domestic: totally automatic system; highly developed
  international: country code - 1-242; tropospheric scatter and
  submarine cable to Florida; 3 coaxial submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 2 (2005)

Bahrain
  general assessment: modern system
  domestic: modern fiber-optic integrated services; digital network
  with rapidly growing use of mobile cellular telephones
  international: country code - 973; tropospheric scatter to Qatar and
  UAE; microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia; submarine cable to
  Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia; satellite earth stations - 1 (1997)

Bangladesh
  general assessment: totally inadequate for a modern
  country
  domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems
  include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some
  fiber-optic cable in cities
  international: country code - 880; satellite earth stations - 6;
  international radiotelephone communications and landline service to
  neighboring countries (2005)

Barbados
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: island-wide automatic telephone system
  international: country code - 1-246; satellite earth stations - 1
  (Intelsat -Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Trinidad and
  Saint Lucia

Belarus
  general assessment: Belarus lags behind its neighbors in
  upgrading telecommunications infrastructure; state-owned Beltelcom,
  is the sole provider of fixed line local and long distance service;
  modernization of the network to digital switching progressing slowly
  domestic: fixed line penetration is improving although rural areas
  continue to be underserved; four GSM wireless networks are
  experiencing rapid growth; strict government controls on
  telecommunications technologies
  international: country code - 375; Belarus is a member of the
  Trans-European Line (TEL), Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line,
  and has access to the Trans-Siberia Line (TSL); three fiber-optic
  segments provide connectivity to Latvia, Poland, Russia, and
  Ukraine; worldwide service is available to Belarus through this
  infrastructure; additional analog lines to Russia; Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, and Intersputnik earth stations

Belgium
  general assessment: highly developed, technologically
  advanced, and completely automated domestic and international
  telephone and telegraph facilities
  domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; extensive cable
  network; limited microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 32; submarine cables - 5; satellite
  earth stations - 7 (Intelsat - 3) (2005)

Belize
  general assessment: above-average system
  domestic: trunk network depends primarily on microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 501; satellite earth station - 8
  (Intelsat - 2, unknown - 6) (2005)

Benin
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fair system of open-wire, microwave radio relay, and
  cellular connections
  international: country code - 229; satellite earth station - 7
  (Intelsat-Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Bermuda
  general assessment: good
  domestic: fully automatic digital telephone system; fiber optic
  trunk lines
  international: country code - 1-441; submarine cables - 3 (fiber
  optic); satellite earth stations - 3 (2005)

Bhutan
  general assessment: telecommunications facilities are poor
  domestic: very low teledensity; domestic service is very poor
  especially in rural areas; wireless service available since 2003
  international: country code - 975; international telephone and
  telegraph service via landline and microwave relay through India;
  satellite earth station - 1 (2005)

Bolivia
  general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic
  difficulties; most telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other
  cities; mobile cellular telephone use expanding rapidly
  domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs
  digital microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic
  cable; mobile cellular systems are being expanded
  international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  general assessment: telephone and telegraph
  network needs modernization and expansion; many urban areas are
  below average as contrasted with services in other former Yugoslav
  republics
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 387; no satellite earth stations

Botswana
  general assessment: the system is expanding with the growth
  of mobile cellular service and participation in regional development
  domestic: small system of open-wire lines, microwave radio relay
  links, and a few radiotelephone communication stations; mobile
  cellular service is growing fast
  international: country code - 267; two international exchanges;
  digital microwave radio relay links to Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
  and South Africa; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Brazil
  general assessment: good working system
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay system and a domestic
  satellite system with 64 earth stations
  international: country code - 55; 3 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Inmarsat
  (Atlantic Ocean region east), connected by microwave relay system to
  Mercosur Brazilsat B3 satellite earth station

British Indian Ocean Territory
  general assessment: separate
  facilities for military and public needs are available
  domestic: all commercial telephone services are available, including
  connection to the Internet
  international: international telephone service is carried by
  satellite (2000)

British Virgin Islands
  general assessment: worldwide telephone
  service
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-284; submarine cable to Bermuda

Brunei
  general assessment: service throughout the country is
  excellent; international service is good to East Asia, Europe, and
  the US
  domestic: every service available
  international: country code - 673; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean); digital submarine
  cable links to Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore (2001)

Bulgaria
  general assessment: extensive but antiquated
  domestic: more than two-thirds of the lines are residential;
  telephone service is available in most villages; a fairly modern
  digital cable trunk line now connects switching centers in most of
  the regions, the others are connected by digital microwave radio
  relay
  international: country code - 359; direct dialing to 58 countries;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region); 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions)

Burkina Faso
  general assessment: all services only fair
  domestic: microwave radio relay, open-wire, and radiotelephone
  communication stations
  international: country code - 226; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Burma
  general assessment: barely meets minimum requirements for
  local and intercity service for business and government;
  international service is fair
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 95; satellite earth station - 2,
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean), and ShinSat

Burundi
  general assessment: primitive system
  domestic: sparse system of open-wire, radiotelephone communications,
  and low-capacity microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 257; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Cambodia
  general assessment: adequate landline and/or cellular
  service in Phnom Penh and other provincial cities; mobile phone
  coverage is rapidly expanding in rural areas
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 855; adequate but expensive landline
  and cellular service available to all countries from Phnom Penh and
  major provincial cities; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region)

Cameroon
  general assessment: available only to business and
  government
  domestic: cable, microwave radio relay, and tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 237; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Canada
  general assessment: excellent service provided by modern
  technology
  domestic: domestic satellite system with about 300 earth stations
  international: country code - 1-xxx; 5 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Atlantic Ocean and 1
  Pacific Ocean) and 2 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)

Cape Verde
  general assessment: effective system, extensive
  modernization from 1996-2000 following partial privatization in 1995
  domestic: major service provider is Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT); fiber
  optic ring, completed in 2001, links all islands providing Internet
  access and ISDN services; cellular service introduced in 1998
  international: country code - 238; 2 coaxial submarine cables; HF
  radiotelephone to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau; satellite earth station
  - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Cayman Islands
  general assessment: reasonably good system
  domestic: liberalization of telecom market in 2003 reflected in
  falling prices and improving services
  international: country code - 1-345; 2 submarine fiber optic cables
  (Maya-1, Cayman-Jamaica); satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Atlantic Ocean)

Central African Republic
  general assessment: fair system
  domestic: network consists principally of microwave radio relay and
  low-capacity, low-powered radiotelephone communication
  international: country code - 236; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Chad
  general assessment: primitive system
  domestic: fair system of radiotelephone communication stations
  international: country code - 235; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Chile
  general assessment: modern system based on extensive microwave
  radio relay facilities
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay links; domestic satellite
  system with three earth stations
  international: country code - 56; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

China
  general assessment: domestic and international services are
  increasingly available for private use; unevenly distributed
  domestic system serves principal cities, industrial centers, and
  many towns
  domestic: interprovincial fiber-optic trunk lines and cellular
  telephone systems have been installed; a domestic satellite system
  with 55 earth stations is in place
  international: country code - 86; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region) and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean
  regions); several international fiber-optic links to Japan, South
  Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, and Germany (2000)

Christmas Island
  general assessment: service provided by the
  Australian network
  domestic: GSM mobile telephone service replaced older analog system
  in February 2005
  international: country code - 61-8; satellite earth stations - one
  INTELSAT earth station provides telephone and telex service (2005)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  general assessment: connected within
  Australia's telecommunication system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 61; telephone, telex, and facsimile
  communications with Australia and elsewhere via satellite; 1
  INTELSAT satellite earth station

Colombia
  general assessment: modern system in many respects
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system; domestic
  satellite system with 41 earth stations; fiber-optic network linking
  50 cities
  international: country code - 57; satellite earth stations - 6
  Intelsat, 1 Inmarsat; 3 fully digitalized international switching
  centers; 8 submarine cables

Comoros
  general assessment: sparse system of microwave radio relay
  and HF radiotelephone communication stations
  domestic: HF radiotelephone communications and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 269; HF radiotelephone communications
  to Madagascar and Reunion

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  general assessment: poor
  domestic: barely adequate wire and microwave radio relay service in
  and between urban areas; domestic satellite system with 14 earth
  stations
  international: country code - 243; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Congo, Republic of the
  general assessment: services barely adequate
  for government use; key exchanges are in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire,
  and Loubomo; intercity lines frequently out of order
  domestic: primary network consists of microwave radio relay and
  coaxial cable
  international: country code - 242; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Cook Islands
  general assessment: Telecom Cook Islands offers
  international direct dialing, Internet, email, fax, and Telex
  domestic: the individual islands are connected by a combination of
  satellite earth stations, microwave systems, and VHF and HF
  radiotelephone; within the islands, service is provided by small
  exchanges connected to subscribers by open-wire, cable, and
  fiber-optic cable
  international: country code - 682; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Costa Rica
  general assessment: good domestic telephone service in
  terms of breadth of coverage; restricted cellular telephone service
  domestic: point-to-point and point-to-multi-point microwave,
  fiber-optic, and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is
  available
  international: country code - 506; connected to Central American
  Microwave System; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean); two submarine cables (1999)

Cote d'Ivoire
  general assessment: well developed by African
  standards but operating well below capacity
  domestic: open-wire lines and microwave radio relay; 90% digitalized
  international: country code - 225; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); 2 submarine cables
  (June 1999)

Croatia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: reconstruction plan calls for replacement of all analog
  circuits with digital and enlarging the network; a backup will be
  included in the plan for the main trunk
  international: country code - 385; digital international service is
  provided through the main switch in Zagreb; Croatia participates in
  the Trans-Asia-Europe (TEL) fiber-optic project, which consists of
  two fiber-optic trunk connections with Slovenia and a fiber-optic
  trunk line from Rijeka to Split and Dubrovnik; Croatia is also
  investing in ADRIA 1, a joint fiber-optic project with Germany,
  Albania, and Greece

Cuba
  general assessment: greater investment beginning in 1994 and
  the establishment of a new Ministry of Information Technology and
  Communications in 2000 has resulted in improvements in the system;
  wireless service is expensive and remains restricted to foreigners
  and regime elites, many Cubans procure wireless service illegally
  with the help of foreigners
  domestic: national fiber-optic system under development; 85% of
  switches digitized by end of 2004; telephone line density remains
  low, at less than 10 per 100 inhabitants; domestic cellular service
  expanding
  international: country code - 53; fiber-optic cable laid to but not
  linked to US network; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region)

Cyprus
  general assessment: excellent in both Republic of Cyprus and
  north Cyprus areas
  domestic: open-wire, fiber-optic cable, and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 357 (area administered by Turkish
  Cypriots uses the country code of Turkey - 90); tropospheric
  scatter; 3 coaxial and 5 fiber-optic submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean), 2
  Eutelsat, 2 Intersputnik, and 1 Arabsat

Czech Republic
  general assessment: privatization and modernization
  of the Czech telecommunication system got a late start but is
  advancing steadily; growth in the use of mobile cellular telephones
  is particularly vigorous
  domestic: 86% of exchanges now digital; existing copper subscriber
  systems now being enhanced with Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
  (ADSL) equipment to accommodate Internet and other digital signals;
  trunk systems include fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 420; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intersputnik (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions), 1 Intelsat, 1
  Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat, 1 Globalstar

Denmark
  general assessment: excellent telephone and telegraph
  services
  domestic: buried and submarine cables and microwave radio relay form
  trunk network, 4 cellular mobile communications systems
  international: country code - 45; 18 submarine fiber-optic cables
  linking Denmark with Canada, Faroe Islands, Germany, Iceland,
  Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and UK; satellite earth
  stations - 6 Intelsat, 10 Eutelsat, 1 Orion, 1 Inmarsat
  (Blaavand-Atlantic-East); note - the Nordic countries (Denmark,
  Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) share the Danish earth station
  and the Eik, Norway, station for worldwide Inmarsat access (1997)

Djibouti
  general assessment: telephone facilities in the city of
  Djibouti are adequate, as are the microwave radio relay connections
  to outlying areas of the country
  domestic: microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 253; submarine cable to Jiddah, Suez,
  Sicily, Marseille, Colombo, and Singapore; satellite earth stations
  - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat; Medarabtel regional
  microwave radio relay telephone network

Dominica
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fully automatic network
  international: country code - 1-767; microwave radio relay and SHF
  radiotelephone links to Martinique and Guadeloupe; VHF and UHF
  radiotelephone links to Saint Lucia

Dominican Republic
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: relatively efficient system based on island-wide microwave
  radio relay network
  international: country code - 1-809; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  general assessment: generally elementary but being expanded
  domestic: facilities generally inadequate and unreliable
  international: country code - 593; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Egypt
  general assessment: large system; underwent extensive
  upgrading during 1990s and is reasonably modern; Internet access and
  cellular service are available
  domestic: principal centers at Alexandria, Cairo, Al Mansurah,
  Ismailia, Suez, and Tanta are connected by coaxial cable and
  microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 20; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean), 1 Arabsat, and 1
  Inmarsat; 5 coaxial submarine cables; tropospheric scatter to Sudan;
  microwave radio relay to Israel; a participant in Medarabtel

El Salvador
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system
  international: country code - 503; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave
  System

Equatorial Guinea
  general assessment: poor system with adequate
  government services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 240; international communications from
  Bata and Malabo to African and European countries; satellite earth
  station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Eritrea
  general assessment: inadequate
  domestic: inadequate; most telephones are in Asmara; government is
  seeking international tenders to improve the system (2002)
  international: country code - 291; note - international connections
  exist

Estonia
  general assessment: foreign investment in the form of joint
  business ventures greatly improved telephone service; substantial
  fiber-optic cable systems carry telephone, TV, and radio traffic in
  the digital mode; Internet services are available throughout most of
  the country
  domestic: a wide range of high quality voice, data, and Internet
  services is available throughout the country
  international: country code - 372; fiber-optic cables to Finland,
  Sweden, Latvia, and Russia provide worldwide packet-switched
  service; two international switches are located in Tallinn (2001)

Ethiopia
  general assessment: adequate for government use
  domestic: open-wire; microwave radio relay; radio communication in
  the HF, VHF, and UHF frequencies; two domestic satellites provide
  the national trunk service
  international: country code - 251; open-wire to Sudan and Djibouti;
  microwave radio relay to Kenya and Djibouti; satellite earth
  stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Pacific Ocean)

European Union
  note - see individual country entries of member states

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: government-operated radiotelephone and private VHF/CB
  radiotelephone networks provide effective service to almost all
  points on both islands
  international: country code - 500; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) with links through London to other
  countries

Faroe Islands
  general assessment: good international communications;
  good domestic facilities
  domestic: digitalization was completed in 1998; both NMT (analog)
  and GSM (digital) mobile telephone systems are installed
  international: country code - 298; satellite earth stations - 1
  Orion; 1 fiber-optic submarine cable to the Shetland Islands,
  linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark and Iceland; fiber-optic
  submarine cable connection to Canada-Europe cable

Fiji
  general assessment: modern local, interisland, and
  international (wire/radio integrated) public and special-purpose
  telephone, telegraph, and teleprinter facilities; regional radio
  communications center
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 679; access to important cable links
  between US and Canada as well as between NZ and Australia; 2
  satellite earth stations - 2 INMARSAT (Pacific Ocean)

Finland
  general assessment: modern system with excellent service
  domestic: digital fiber-optic fixed-line network and an extensive
  cellular network provide domestic needs
  international: country code - 358; 1 submarine cable (Finland
  Estonia Connection); satellite earth stations - access to Intelsat
  transmission service via a Swedish satellite earth station, 1
  Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Finland shares
  the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark,
  Iceland, Norway, and Sweden)

France
  general assessment: highly developed
  domestic: extensive cable and microwave radio relay; extensive
  introduction of fiber-optic cable; domestic satellite system
  international: country code - 33; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (with total of 5 antennas - 2 for Indian Ocean and 3 for
  Atlantic Ocean), NA Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region); HF
  radiotelephone communications with more than 20 countries

French Guiana
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: fair open-wire and microwave radio relay system
  international: country code - 594; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

French Polynesia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 689; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Gabon
  general assessment: adequate service by African standards and
  improving with the help of the growing mobile cell system
  domestic: adequate system of cable, microwave radio relay,
  tropospheric scatter, radiotelephone communication stations, and a
  domestic satellite system with 12 earth stations
  international: country code - 241; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); fiber optic submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC)
  provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Gambia, The
  general assessment: adequate; a packet switched data
  network is available
  domestic: adequate network of microwave radio relay and open-wire
  international: country code - 220; microwave radio relay links to
  Senegal and Guinea-Bissau; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Atlantic Ocean)

Gaza Strip
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL
  are responsible for fixed line services in the Gaza Strip; the
  Palestinian JAWAL company provides cellular services
  international: country code - 970

Georgia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: local - T'bilisi and K'ut'aisi have cellular telephone
  networks; urban telephone density is about 20 per 100 people; rural
  telephone density is about 4 per 100 people; intercity facilities
  include a fiber-optic line between T'bilisi and K'ut'aisi;
  nationwide pager service is available
  international: country code - 995; Georgia and Russia are working on
  a fiber-optic line between P'ot'i and Sochi (Russia); present
  international service is available by microwave, landline, and
  satellite through the Moscow switch; international electronic mail
  and telex service are available

Germany
  general assessment: Germany has one of the world's most
  technologically advanced telecommunications systems; as a result of
  intensive capital expenditures since reunification, the formerly
  backward system of the eastern part of the country, dating back to
  World War II, has been modernized and integrated with that of the
  western part
  domestic: Germany is served by an extensive system of automatic
  telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic
  cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic
  satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available,
  expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to many foreign
  countries
  international: country code - 49; Germany's international service is
  excellent worldwide, consisting of extensive land and undersea cable
  facilities as well as earth stations in the Inmarsat, Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, and Intersputnik satellite systems (2001)

Ghana
  general assessment: poor to fair system; Internet accessible;
  many rural communities not yet connected; expansion of services is
  underway
  domestic: primarily microwave radio relay; wireless local loop has
  been installed
  international: country code - 233; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); microwave radio relay link to Panaftel
  system connects Ghana to its neighbors; fiber optic submarine cable
  (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Gibraltar
  general assessment: adequate, automatic domestic system
  and adequate international facilities
  domestic: automatic exchange facilities
  international: country code - 350; radiotelephone; microwave radio
  relay; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Greece
  general assessment: adequate, modern networks reach all
  areas; good mobile telephone and international service
  domestic: microwave radio relay trunk system; extensive open-wire
  connections; submarine cable to offshore islands
  international: country code - 30; tropospheric scatter; 8 submarine
  cables; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and
  1 Indian Ocean), 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)

Greenland
  general assessment: adequate domestic and international
  service provided by satellite, cables and microwave radio relay;
  totally digitalized in 1995
  domestic: microwave radio relay and satellite
  international: country code - 299; satellite earth stations - 12
  Intelsat, 1 Eutelsat, 2 Americom GE-2 (all Atlantic Ocean)

Grenada
  general assessment: automatic, islandwide telephone system
  domestic: interisland VHF and UHF radiotelephone links
  international: country code - 1-473; new SHF radiotelephone links to
  Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Vincent; VHF and UHF radio links to
  Trinidad

Guadeloupe
  general assessment: domestic facilities inadequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 590; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); microwave radio relay to Antigua and
  Barbuda, Dominica, and Martinique

Guam
  general assessment: modern system, integrated with US
  facilities for direct dialing, including free use of 800 numbers
  domestic: modern digital system, including cellular mobile service
  and local access to the Internet
  international: country code - 1-671; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); submarine cables to US and Japan (Guam is
  a trans-Pacific communications hub for MCI, Sprint, AT&T, IT&E, and
  GTE, linking the US and Asia)

Guatemala
  general assessment: fairly modern network centered in the
  city of Guatemala
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 502; connected to Central American
  Microwave System; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean)

Guernsey
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: 1 submarine cable

Guinea
  general assessment: poor to fair system of open-wire lines,
  small radiotelephone communication stations, and new microwave radio
  relay system
  domestic: microwave radio relay and radiotelephone communication
  international: country code - 224; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Guinea-Bissau
  general assessment: small system
  domestic: combination of microwave radio relay, open-wire lines,
  radiotelephone, and cellular communications
  international: country code - 245

Guyana
  general assessment: fair system for long-distance service
  domestic: microwave radio relay network for trunk lines
  international: country code - 592; tropospheric scatter to Trinidad;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Haiti
  general assessment: domestic facilities barely adequate;
  international facilities slightly better
  domestic: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay trunk service
  international: country code - 509; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  general assessment: automatic digital
  exchange
  domestic: connected via fiber optic cable to Telecom Italia network
  international: country code - 39; uses Italian system

Honduras
  general assessment: inadequate system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 504; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave
  System

Hong Kong
  general assessment: modern facilities provide excellent
  domestic and international services
  domestic: microwave radio relay links and extensive fiber-optic
  network
  international: country code - 852; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); coaxial cable to
  Guangzhou, China; access to 5 international submarine cables
  providing connections to ASEAN member nations, Japan, Taiwan,
  Australia, Middle East, and Western Europe

Hungary
  general assessment: the telephone system has been modernized
  and is capable of satisfying all requests for telecommunication
  service
  domestic: the system is digitalized and highly automated; trunk
  services are carried by fiber-optic cable and digital microwave
  radio relay; a program for fiber-optic subscriber connections was
  initiated in 1996; heavy use is made of mobile cellular telephones
  international: country code - 36; Hungary has fiber-optic cable
  connections with all neighboring countries; the international switch
  is in Budapest; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic
  Ocean and Indian Ocean regions), 1 Inmarsat, 1 very small aperture
  terminal (VSAT) system of ground terminals

Iceland
  general assessment: extensive domestic service
  domestic: the trunk network consists of coaxial and fiber-optic
  cables and microwave radio relay links
  international: country code - 354; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean
  regions); note - Iceland shares the Inmarsat earth station with the
  other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden)

India
  general assessment: recent deregulation and liberalization of
  telecommunications laws and policies have prompted rapid change;
  local and long distance service provided throughout all regions of
  the country, with services primarily concentrated in the urban
  areas; steady improvement is taking place with the recent admission
  of private and private-public investors, but telephone density
  remains low at about seven for each 100 persons nationwide but only
  one per 100 persons in rural areas and a national waiting list of
  over 1.7 million; fastest growth is in cellular service with modest
  growth in fixed lines
  domestic: expansion of domestic service, although still weak in
  rural areas, resulted from increased competition and dramatic
  reductions in price led in large part by wireless service; mobile
  cellular service (both CDMA and GSM) introduced in 1994 and
  organized nationwide into four metropolitan cities and 19 telecom
  circles each with about three private service providers and one
  state-owned service provider; in recent years significant trunk
  capacity added in the form of fiber-optic cable and one of the
  world's largest domestic satellite systems, the Indian National
  Satellite system (INSAT), with five satellites supporting 33,000
  very small aperture terminals (VSAT)
  international: country code - 91; satellite earth stations - 8
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region); nine
  gateway exchanges operating from Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, Kolkata
  (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), Jalandhar, Kanpur, Gandhinagar,
  Hyderabad, and Ernakulam; 5 submarine cables, including Sea-Me-We-3
  with landing sites at Cochin and Mumbai (Bombay), Fiber-Optic Link
  Around the Globe (FLAG) with landing site at Mumbai (Bombay), South
  Africa - Far East (SAFE) with landing site at Cochin, i2icn linking
  to Singapore with landing sites at Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai
  (Madras), and Tata Indicom linking Singapore and Chennai (Madras),
  provide a significant increase in the bandwidth available for both
  voice and data traffic (2004)

Indonesia
  general assessment: domestic service fair, international
  service good
  domestic: interisland microwave system and HF radio police net;
  domestic satellite communications system
  international: country code - 62; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean)

Iran
  general assessment: inadequate, but currently being modernized
  and expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and
  increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing
  telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently
  connected
  domestic: as a result of heavy investing in the telephone system
  since 1994, the number of long-distance channels in the microwave
  radio relay trunk has grown substantially; many villages have been
  brought into the net; the number of main lines in the urban systems
  has approximately doubled; thousands of mobile cellular subscribers
  are being served; moreover, the technical level of the system has
  been raised by the installation of thousands of digital switches
  international: country code - 98; HF radio and microwave radio relay
  to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria,
  Kuwait, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; submarine fiber-optic cable to
  UAE with access to Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG);
  Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line runs from Azerbaijan
  through the northern portion of Iran to Turkmenistan with expansion
  to Georgia and Azerbaijan; satellite earth stations - 9 Intelsat and
  4 Inmarsat

Iraq
  general assessment: the 2003 war severely disrupted
  telecommunications throughout Iraq including international
  connections; USAID is overseeing the repair of switching capability
  and the construction of mobile and satellite communication facilities
  domestic: repairs to switches and lines destroyed during the 2003
  war continue, but sabotage remains a problem; additional switching
  capacity is improving access; cellular service is available and
  centered on three regional GSM networks, improving country-wide
  connectivity
  international: country code - 964; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Arabsat (inoperative); coaxial cable
  and microwave radio relay to Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey;
  despite a new satellite gateway, international calls outside of
  Baghdad remain problematic

Ireland
  general assessment: modern digital system using cable and
  microwave radio relay
  domestic: microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 353; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Isle of Man
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: landline, telefax, mobile cellular telephone system
  international: fiber-optic cable, microwave radio relay, satellite
  earth station, submarine cable

Israel
  general assessment: most highly developed system in the
  Middle East although not the largest
  domestic: good system of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay;
  all systems are digital
  international: country code - 972; 3 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Italy
  general assessment: modern, well developed, fast; fully
  automated telephone, telex, and data services
  domestic: high-capacity cable and microwave radio relay trunks
  international: country code - 39; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (with a total of 5 antennas - 3 for Atlantic Ocean and 2
  for Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and NA
  Eutelsat; 21 submarine cables

Jamaica
  general assessment: fully automatic domestic telephone
  network
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-876; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); 3 coaxial submarine cables

Japan
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  service
  domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of
  every kind
  international: country code - 81; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Indian Ocean region), and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean
  regions); submarine cables to China, Philippines, Russia, and US
  (via Guam) (1999)

Jersey
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: 3 submarine cables

Jordan
  general assessment: service has improved recently with
  increased use of digital switching equipment, but better access to
  the telephone system is needed in the rural areas and easier access
  to pay telephones is needed by the urban public
  domestic: microwave radio relay transmission and coaxial and
  fiber-optic cable are employed on trunk lines; considerable use of
  mobile cellular systems; Internet service is available
  international: country code - 962; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat, 1 Arabsat, and 29 land and maritime Inmarsat terminals;
  fiber-optic cable to Saudi Arabia and microwave radio relay link
  with Egypt and Syria; connection to international submarine cable
  FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe); participant in MEDARABTEL;
  international links total about 4,000

Kazakhstan
  general assessment: service is poor; equipment antiquated
  domestic: intercity by landline and microwave radio relay; mobile
  cellular systems are available in most of Kazakhstan
  international: country code - 7; international traffic with other
  former Soviet republics and China carried by landline and microwave
  radio relay and with other countries by satellite and by the
  Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic cable; satellite earth stations
  - 2 Intelsat

Kenya
  general assessment: unreliable; little attempt to modernize
  except for service to business
  domestic: trunks are primarily microwave radio relay; business data
  commonly transferred by a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) system
  international: country code - 254; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat

Kiribati
  general assessment: generally good quality national and
  international service
  domestic: wire line service available on Tarawa and Kiritimati
  (Christmas Island); connections to outer islands by HF/VHF
  radiotelephone; wireless service available in Tarawa since 1999
  international: country code - 686; Kiribati is being linked to the
  Pacific Ocean Cooperative Telecommunications Network, which should
  improve telephone service; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Pacific Ocean)

Korea, North
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 850; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Russian (Indian Ocean region); other
  international connections through Moscow and Beijing

Korea, South
  general assessment: excellent domestic and
  international services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 82; 10 fiber-optic submarine cables -
  1 Korea-Russia-Japan, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong, 3 Korea-Japan-China,
  1 Korea-Japan-China-Europe, 1 Korea-Japan-China-US-Taiwan, 1
  Korea-Japan-China, 1 Korea-Japan-Hong Kong-Taiwan, 1 Korea-Japan;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian
  Ocean) and 3 Inmarsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean)

Kuwait
  general assessment: the quality of service is excellent
  domestic: new telephone exchanges provide a large capacity for new
  subscribers; trunk traffic is carried by microwave radio relay,
  coaxial cable, and open-wire and fiber-optic cable; a cellular
  telephone system operates throughout Kuwait, and the country is well
  supplied with pay telephones
  international: country code - 965; coaxial cable and microwave radio
  relay to Saudi Arabia; linked to Bahrain, Qatar, UAE via the
  Fiber-Optic Gulf (FOG) cable; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat
  (1 Atlantic Ocean, 2 Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean), and
  2 Arabsat

Kyrgyzstan
  general assessment: development of telecommunications
  infrastructure is slow; fixed line penetration remains low and
  concentrated in Bishkek
  domestic: two wireless telephony service providers, but penetration
  remains low
  international: country code - 996; connections with other CIS
  countries by landline or microwave radio relay and with other
  countries by leased connections with Moscow international gateway
  switch and by satellite; satellite earth stations - 1 Intersputnik
  and 1 Intelsat; connected internationally by the Trans-Asia-Europe
  (TAE) fiber-optic line

Laos
  general assessment: service to general public is poor but
  improving; the government relies on a radiotelephone network to
  communicate with remote areas
  domestic: radiotelephone communications
  international: country code - 856; satellite earth station - 1
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region)

Latvia
  general assessment: recent efforts focused on bringing
  competition to the telecommunications sector, beginning in 2003; the
  number of fixed lines is decreasing as wireless telephony expands
  domestic: two wireless service providers in addition to Lattelekom,
  the incumbent monopoly
  international: country code - 371; the Latvian network is now
  connected via fiber optic cable to Estonia, Finland, and Sweden

Lebanon
  general assessment: repair of the telecommunications system,
  severely damaged during the civil war, now complete
  domestic: two commercial wireless networks provide good service;
  political instability hampers privatization and deployment of new
  technologies
  international: country code - 961; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean) (erratic operations);
  coaxial cable to Syria; 3 submarine coaxial cables

Lesotho
  general assessment: rudimentary system
  domestic: consists of a modest but growing number of landlines, a
  small microwave radio relay system, and a minor radiotelephone
  communication system; a cellular mobile telephone system is growing
  international: country code - 266; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Liberia
  general assessment: the limited services available are found
  almost exclusively in the capital Monrovia
  domestic: fully automatic system with very low density of .23 fixed
  main lines per 100 persons; limited wireless service available
  international: country code - 231; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Libya
  general assessment: telecommunications system is being
  modernized; mobile cellular telephone system became operational in
  1996
  domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, cellular,
  tropospheric scatter, and a domestic satellite system with 14 earth
  stations
  international: country code - 218; satellite earth stations - 4
  Intelsat, NA Arabsat, and NA Intersputnik; submarine cables to
  France and Italy; microwave radio relay to Tunisia and Egypt;
  tropospheric scatter to Greece; participant in Medarabtel (1999)

Liechtenstein
  general assessment: automatic telephone system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 423; linked to Swiss networks by cable
  and microwave radio relay

Lithuania
  general assessment: inadequate, but is being modernized to
  provide an improved international capability and better residential
  access
  domestic: a national, fiber-optic cable, interurban, trunk system is
  nearing completion; rural exchanges are being improved and expanded;
  mobile cellular systems are being installed; access to the Internet
  is available; still many unsatisfied telephone subscriber
  applications
  international: country code - 370; landline connections to Latvia
  and Poland; major international connections to Denmark, Sweden, and
  Norway by submarine cable for further transmission by satellite

Luxembourg
  general assessment: highly developed, completely
  automated and efficient system, mainly buried cables
  domestic: nationwide cellular telephone system; buried cable
  international: country code - 352; 3 channels leased on TAT-6
  coaxial submarine cable (Europe to North America)

Macau
  general assessment: fairly modern communication facilities
  maintained for domestic and international services
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 853; HF radiotelephone communication
  facility; access to international communications carriers provided
  via Hong Kong and China; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Indian Ocean)

Macedonia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 389

Madagascar
  general assessment: system is above average for the region
  domestic: open-wire lines, coaxial cables, microwave radio relay,
  and tropospheric scatter links connect regions
  international: country code - 261; submarine cable to Bahrain;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1
  Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region)

Malawi
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: system employs open-wire lines, microwave radio relay
  links, and radiotelephone communications stations
  international: country code - 265; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Malaysia
  general assessment: modern system; international service
  excellent
  domestic: good intercity service provided on Peninsular Malaysia
  mainly by microwave radio relay; adequate intercity microwave radio
  relay network between Sabah and Sarawak via Brunei; domestic
  satellite system with 2 earth stations
  international: country code - 60; submarine cables to India, Hong
  Kong, and Singapore; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian
  Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean) (2001)

Maldives
  general assessment: minimal domestic and international
  facilities
  domestic: interatoll communication through microwave links; all
  inhabited islands are connected with telephone and fax service
  international: country code - 960; satellite earth station - 3
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Mali
  general assessment: domestic system unreliable but improving;
  provides only minimal service
  domestic: network consists of microwave radio relay, open-wire, and
  radiotelephone communications stations; expansion of microwave radio
  relay in progress
  international: country code - 223; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Malta
  general assessment: automatic system satisfies normal
  requirements
  domestic: submarine cable and microwave radio relay between islands
  international: country code - 356; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Marshall Islands
  general assessment: digital switching equipment;
  modern services include telex, cellular, internet, international
  calling, caller ID, and leased data circuits
  domestic: Majuro Atoll and Ebeye and Kwajalein islands have regular,
  seven-digit, direct-dial telephones; other islands interconnected by
  high frequency radiotelephone (used mostly for government purposes)
  and mini-satellite telephones
  international: country code - 692; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); US Government satellite communications
  system on Kwajalein (2001)

Martinique
  general assessment: domestic facilities are adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 596; microwave radio relay to
  Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Saint Lucia; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Mauritania
  general assessment: limited system of cable and open-wire
  lines, minor microwave radio relay links, and radiotelephone
  communications stations (improvements being made)
  domestic: mostly cable and open-wire lines; a recently completed
  domestic satellite telecommunications system links Nouakchott with
  regional capitals
  international: country code - 222; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 2 Arabsat

Mauritius
  general assessment: small system with good service
  domestic: primarily microwave radio relay trunk system
  international: country code - 230; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean); new microwave link to Reunion; HF
  radiotelephone links to several countries; fiber optic submarine
  cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Mayotte
  general assessment: small system administered by French
  Department of Posts and Telecommunications
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 269; microwave radio relay and HF
  radiotelephone communications to Comoros

Mexico
  general assessment: low telephone density with about 18 main
  lines per 100 persons; privatized in December 1990; the opening to
  competition in January 1997 improved prospects for development, but
  Telmex remains dominant
  domestic: adequate telephone service for business and government,
  but the population is poorly served; mobile subscribers far
  outnumber fixed-line subscribers; domestic satellite system with 120
  earth stations; extensive microwave radio relay network;
  considerable use of fiber-optic cable and coaxial cable
  international: country code - 52; satellite earth stations - 32
  Intelsat, 2 Solidaridad (giving Mexico improved access to South
  America, Central America, and much of the US as well as enhancing
  domestic communications), 1 Panamsat, numerous Inmarsat mobile earth
  stations; linked to Central American Microwave System of trunk
  connections; high capacity Columbus-2 fiber-optic submarine cable
  with access to the US, Virgin Islands, Canary Islands, Morocco,
  Spain, and Italy (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: islands interconnected by shortwave radiotelephone (used
  mostly for government purposes), satellite (Intelsat) ground
  stations, and some coaxial and fiber-optic cable; cellular service
  available on Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap
  international: country code - 691; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean) (2002)

Moldova
  general assessment: inadequate, outmoded, poor service
  outside Chisinau; some modernization is under way
  domestic: new subscribers face long wait for service; mobile
  cellular telephone service being introduced
  international: country code - 373; service through Romania and
  Russia via landline; satellite earth stations - Intelsat, Eutelsat,
  and Intersputnik

Monaco
  general assessment: modern automatic telephone system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 377; no satellite earth stations;
  connected by cable into the French communications system

Mongolia
  general assessment: network is improving with international
  direct dialing available in many areas
  domestic: very low density of about 5.5 main lines per 100 persons;
  two wireless providers cover all but two provinces
  international: country code - 976; satellite earth station - 1
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean Region)

Montenegro
  general assessment: modern telecommunications system with
  access to European satellites
  domestic: GSM wireless service, available through two providers with
  national coverage, is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 382 (the old code of 381 used by
  Serbia and Montenegro will also remain in use until Feb 2007); two
  international switches connect the national system

Montserrat
  general assessment: modern and fully digitalized
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-664

Morocco
  general assessment: modern system with all important
  capabilities; however, density is low with only 4 main lines
  available for each 100 persons
  domestic: good system composed of open-wire lines, cables, and
  microwave radio relay links; Internet available but expensive;
  principal switching centers are Casablanca and Rabat; national
  network nearly 100% digital using fiber-optic links; improved rural
  service employs microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 212; 7 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat;
  microwave radio relay to Gibraltar, Spain, and Western Sahara;
  coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Algeria; participant in
  Medarabtel; fiber-optic cable link from Agadir to Algeria and
  Tunisia (1998)

Mozambique
  general assessment: fair system but not available
  generally (extremely low density with less than 1 main line per 100
  persons)
  domestic: the system consists of open-wire lines and trunk
  connection by microwave radio relay and tropospheric scatter
  international: country code - 258; satellite earth stations - 5
  Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean)

Namibia
  general assessment: good system; about 6 telephones for each
  100 persons
  domestic: good urban services; fair rural service; microwave radio
  relay links major towns; connections to other populated places are
  by open wire; 100% digital
  international: country code - 264; fiber-optic cable to South
  Africa, microwave radio relay link to Botswana, direct links to
  other neighboring countries; connected to Africa ONE and South
  African Far East (SAFE) submarine cables through South Africa;
  satellite earth stations - 4 Intelsat (2002)

Nauru
  general assessment: adequate local and international
  radiotelephone communication provided via Australian facilities
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 674; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Nepal
  general assessment: poor telephone and telegraph service; fair
  radiotelephone communication service and mobile cellular telephone
  network
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 977; radiotelephone communications;
  microwave landline to India; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
  (Indian Ocean)

Netherlands
  general assessment: highly developed and well maintained
  domestic: extensive fixed-line fiber-optic network; cellular
  telephone system is one of the largest in Europe with five major
  network operators utilizing the third generation of the Global
  System for Mobile Communications (GSM)
  international: country code - 31; 9 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean), 1
  Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions) (2004)

Netherlands Antilles
  general assessment: generally adequate
  facilities
  domestic: extensive interisland microwave radio relay links
  international: country code - 599; submarine cables - 2; satellite
  earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

New Caledonia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 687; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

New Zealand
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  systems
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 64; submarine cables to Australia and
  Fiji; 8 satellite earth stations - 1 InMarSat (Pacific Ocean), 7
  other

Nicaragua
  general assessment: inadequate system being upgraded by
  foreign investment
  domestic: low-capacity microwave radio relay and wire system being
  expanded; connected to Central American Microwave System
  international: country code - 505; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) and 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Niger
  general assessment: small system of wire, radio telephone
  communications, and microwave radio relay links concentrated in the
  southwestern area of Niger
  domestic: wire, radiotelephone communications, and microwave radio
  relay; domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations and 1 planned
  international: country code - 227; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)

Nigeria
  general assessment: expansion and modernization of the
  fixed-line telephone network has been slow due to faltering efforts
  at privatization
  domestic: the addition of a second fixed-line provider in 2002
  resulted in faster growth in this service; wireless telephony has
  grown rapidly, in part responding to the shortcomings of the
  fixed-line network; four wireless (GSM) service providers operate
  nationally; the combined growth resulted in a sharp increase in
  teledensity reported to be over 18% in March 2006
  international: country code - 234; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); fiber optic
  submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC) provides connectivity to Europe and Asia

Niue
  domestic: single-line telephone system connects all villages on
  island
  international: country code - 683

Norfolk Island
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: free local calls
  international: country code - 672; undersea coaxial cable links with
  Australia, New Zealand, and Canada; satellite earth station

Northern Mariana Islands
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-670; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Norway
  general assessment: modern in all respects; one of the most
  advanced telecommunications networks in Europe
  domestic: Norway has a domestic satellite system; moreover, the
  prevalence of rural areas encourages the wide use of cellular mobile
  systems instead of fixed-wire systems
  international: country code - 47; 2 buried coaxial cable systems; 4
  coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth stations - NA Eutelsat, NA
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean
  regions); note - Norway shares the Inmarsat earth station with the
  other Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden) (1999)

Oman
  general assessment: modern system consisting of open-wire,
  microwave, and radiotelephone communication stations; limited
  coaxial cable
  domestic: open-wire, microwave, radiotelephone communications, and a
  domestic satellite system with 8 earth stations
  international: country code - 968; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat

Pakistan
  general assessment: the domestic system is mediocre, but
  improving; service is adequate for government and business use, in
  part because major businesses have established their own private
  systems; since 1988, the government has promoted investment in the
  national telecommunications system on a priority basis,
  significantly increasing network capacity; despite major
  improvements in trunk and urban systems, telecommunication services
  are still not readily available to the majority of the rural
  population
  domestic: microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable,
  cellular, and satellite networks
  international: country code - 92; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean); 3 operational
  international gateway exchanges (1 at Karachi and 2 at Islamabad);
  microwave radio relay to neighboring countries (1999)

Palau
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 680; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Panama
  general assessment: domestic and international facilities
  well developed
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 507; 1 coaxial submarine cable;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to
  the Central American Microwave System

Papua New Guinea
  general assessment: services are adequate;
  facilities provide radiotelephone and telegraph, coastal radio,
  aeronautical radio, and international radio communication services
  domestic: mostly radiotelephone
  international: country code - 675; submarine cables to Australia and
  Guam; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean);
  international radio communication service

Paraguay
  general assessment: meager telephone service; principal
  switching center is in Asuncion
  domestic: fair microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 595; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Peru
  general assessment: adequate for most requirements
  domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system and a domestic
  satellite system with 12 earth stations
  international: country code - 51; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); Pan American submarine cable

Philippines
  general assessment: good international radiotelephone
  and submarine cable services; domestic and inter-island service
  adequate
  domestic: domestic satellite system with 11 earth stations
  international: country code - 63; 9 international gateways;
  satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Pacific
  Ocean); submarine cables to Hong Kong, Guam, Singapore, Taiwan, and
  Japan

Pitcairn Islands
  general assessment: satellite phone services
  domestic: domestic communication via radio (CB)
  international: country code - 872; satellite earth station (Inmarsat)

Poland
  general assessment: modernization of the telecommunications
  network has accelerated with market based competition finalized in
  2003; fixed-line service, dominated by the former state-owned
  company, is dwarfed by the growth in wireless telephony
  domestic: wireless service, available since 1993 (GSM service
  available since 1996) and provided by three nation-wide networks,
  has grown rapidly in response to the weak fixed-line coverage; third
  generation UMTS service available in urban areas; cellular coverage
  is generally good with more gaps in the east; fixed-line service is
  growing slowly and still lags in rural areas
  international: country code - 48; international direct dialing with
  automated exchanges; satellite earth station - 1 (Intelsat,
  Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik)

Portugal
  general assessment: Portugal's telephone system has
  achieved a state-of-the-art network with broadband, high-speed
  capabilities
  domestic: integrated network of coaxial cables, open-wire, microwave
  radio relay, and domestic satellite earth stations
  international: country code - 351; 6 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean),
  NA Eutelsat; tropospheric scatter to Azores; note - an earth station
  for Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region) is planned

Puerto Rico
  general assessment: modern system integrated with that
  of the US by high-capacity submarine cable and Intelsat with
  high-speed data capability
  domestic: digital telephone system; cellular telephone service
  international: country code - 1-787, 939; satellite earth station -
  1 Intelsat; submarine cable to US

Qatar
  general assessment: modern system centered in Doha
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 974; tropospheric scatter to Bahrain;
  microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia and UAE; submarine cable to
  Bahrain and UAE; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic
  Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat

Reunion
  general assessment: adequate system; principal center is
  Saint-Denis
  domestic: modern open-wire and microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 262; radiotelephone communication to
  Comoros, France, Madagascar; new microwave route to Mauritius;
  satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean); fiber optic
  submarine cable (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE) provides connectivity to Europe
  and Asia

Romania
  general assessment: rapidly improving domestic and
  international service, especially in wireless telephony
  domestic: 90% of telephone network is automatic; liberalization in
  2003 is transforming telecommunications; there has been 20% growth
  in fixed lines with a penetration rate of 58% of households;
  nation-wide wireless service is growing even faster with four major
  providers and a penetration rate of 32%
  international: country code - 40; satellite earth station - 10
  (Intelsat 4); digital, international, direct-dial exchanges operate
  in Bucharest (2005)

Russia
  general assessment: the telephone system underwent
  significant changes in the 1990s; there are more than 1,000
  companies licensed to offer communication services; access to
  digital lines has improved, particularly in urban centers; Internet
  and e-mail services are improving; Russia has made progress toward
  building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a
  market economy; however, a large demand for main line service
  remains unsatisfied
  domestic: cross-country digital trunk lines run from Saint
  Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the
  telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital
  infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and digital, are
  available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services are
  still outdated, inadequate, and low density
  international: country code - 7; Russia is connected internationally
  by three undersea fiber-optic cables; digital switches in several
  cities provide more than 50,000 lines for international calls;
  satellite earth stations provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik,
  Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and Orbita systems

Rwanda
  general assessment: telephone system primarily serves
  business and government
  domestic: the capital, Kigali, is connected to the centers of the
  provinces by microwave radio relay and, recently, by cellular
  telephone service; much of the network depends on wire and HF
  radiotelephone
  international: country code - 250; international connections employ
  microwave radio relay to neighboring countries and satellite
  communications to more distant countries; satellite earth stations -
  1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) in Kigali (includes telex and telefax
  service)

Saint Helena
  general assessment: can communicate worldwide
  domestic: automatic digital network
  international: country code - 290; international direct dialing;
  satellite voice and data communications; satellite earth stations -
  5 (Ascension Island - 4, Saint Helena - 1)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  general assessment: good inter-island and
  international connections
  domestic: inter-island links via Eastern Caribbean Fiber Optic
  cable; construction of enhanced wireless infrastructure launched in
  November 2004
  international: country code - 1-869; international calls are carried
  by submarine cable or Intelsat

Saint Lucia
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: system is automatically switched
  international: country code - 1-758; direct microwave radio relay
  link with Martinique and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines;
  tropospheric scatter to Barbados; international calls beyond these
  countries are carried by Intelsat from Martinique

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 508; radiotelephone communication with
  most countries in the world; 1 earth station in French domestic
  satellite system

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  general assessment: adequate system
  domestic: islandwide, fully automatic telephone system; VHF/UHF
  radiotelephone from Saint Vincent to the other islands of the
  Grenadines
  international: country code - 1-784; VHF/UHF radiotelephone from
  Saint Vincent to Barbados; new SHF radiotelephone to Grenada and to
  Saint Lucia; access to Intelsat earth station in Martinique through
  Saint Lucia

Samoa
  general assessment: adequate
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 685; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

San Marino
  general assessment: adequate connections
  domestic: automatic telephone system completely integrated into
  Italian system
  international: country code - 378; connected to Italian
  international network

Sao Tome and Principe
  general assessment: adequate facilities
  domestic: minimal system
  international: country code - 239; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Saudi Arabia
  general assessment: modern system
  domestic: extensive microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, and
  fiber-optic cable systems
  international: country code - 966; microwave radio relay to Bahrain,
  Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, and Sudan; coaxial cable to
  Kuwait and Jordan; submarine cable to Djibouti, Egypt and Bahrain;
  satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (3 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian
  Ocean), 1 Arabsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)

Senegal
  general assessment: good system
  domestic: above-average urban system; microwave radio relay, coaxial
  cable and fiber-optic cable in trunk system
  international: country code - 221; 4 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Serbia
  general assessment: modernization of the telecommunications
  network has been slow as a result of damage stemming from the 1999
  war and transition to a competitive market-based system; network was
  only 65% digitalized in 2005
  domestic: teledensity remains below the average for neighboring
  states; GSM wireless service, available through two providers with
  national coverage, is growing very rapidly; best telecommunications
  service limited to urban centers
  international: country code - 381

Seychelles
  general assessment: effective system
  domestic: radiotelephone communications between islands in the
  archipelago
  international: country code - 248; direct radiotelephone
  communications with adjacent island countries and African coastal
  countries; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)

Sierra Leone
  general assessment: marginal telephone and telegraph
  service
  domestic: the national microwave radio relay trunk system connects
  Freetown to Bo and Kenema
  international: country code - 232; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Singapore
  general assessment: excellent service
  domestic: excellent domestic facilities; launched 3G wireless
  service in February 2005
  international: country code - 65; 9 submarine cables provide direct
  connection to more than 100 countries; 4 satellite earth stations,
  supplemented by VSAT coverage

Slovakia
  general assessment: a modernization and privatization
  program is increasing accessibility to telephone service, reducing
  the waiting time for new subscribers, and generally improving
  service quality
  domestic: predominantly an analog system that is now receiving
  digital equipment and is being enlarged with fiber-optic cable,
  especially in the larger cities; mobile cellular capability has been
  added
  international: country code - 421; three international exchanges
  (one in Bratislava and two in Banska Bystrica) are available;
  Slovakia is participating in several international
  telecommunications projects that will increase the availability of
  external services

Slovenia
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: 100% digital (2000)
  international: country code - 386

Solomon Islands
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 677; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Somalia
  general assessment: the public telecommunications system was
  almost completely destroyed or dismantled by the civil war factions;
  private wireless companies offer service in most major cities and
  charge the lowest international rates on the continent
  domestic: local cellular telephone systems have been established in
  Mogadishu and in several other population centers
  international: country code - 252; international connections are
  available from Mogadishu by satellite

South Africa
  general assessment: the system is the best developed
  and most modern in Africa
  domestic: consists of carrier-equipped open-wire lines, coaxial
  cables, microwave radio relay links, fiber-optic cable,
  radiotelephone communication stations, and wireless local loops; key
  centers are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port
  Elizabeth, and Pretoria
  international: country code - 27; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: coastal radiotelephone station at Grytviken

Spain
  general assessment: generally adequate, modern facilities;
  teledensity is 45 main lines for each 100 persons
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 34; 22 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian
  Ocean), NA Eutelsat; tropospheric scatter to adjacent countries

Sri Lanka
  general assessment: very inadequate domestic service,
  particularly in rural areas; likely improvement with privatization
  of national telephone company and encouragement to private
  investment; good international service (1999)
  domestic: national trunk network consists mostly of digital
  microwave radio relay; fiber-optic links now in use in Colombo area
  and two fixed wireless local loops have been installed; competition
  is strong in mobile cellular systems; telephone density remains low
  (1999)
  international: country code - 94; submarine cables to Indonesia and
  Djibouti; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) (1999)

Sudan
  general assessment: large, well-equipped system by regional
  standards and being upgraded; cellular communications started in
  1996 and have expanded substantially
  domestic: consists of microwave radio relay, cable, radiotelephone
  communications, tropospheric scatter, and a domestic satellite
  system with 14 earth stations
  international: country code - 249; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat (2000)

Suriname
  general assessment: international facilities are good
  domestic: microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 597; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Svalbard
  general assessment: probably adequate
  domestic: local telephone service
  international: country code - 47-790; satellite earth station - 1 of
  unknown type (for communication with Norwegian mainland only)

Swaziland
  general assessment: a somewhat modern but not an advanced
  system
  domestic: system consists of carrier-equipped, open-wire lines and
  low-capacity, microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 268; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Sweden
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  facilities; automatic system
  domestic: coaxial and multiconductor cables carry most of the voice
  traffic; parallel microwave radio relay systems carry some
  additional telephone channels
  international: country code - 46; 5 submarine coaxial cables;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean), 1 Eutelsat,
  and 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note - Sweden
  shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries
  (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway)

Switzerland
  general assessment: excellent domestic and international
  services
  domestic: extensive cable and microwave radio relay networks
  international: country code - 41; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean)

Syria
  general assessment: fair system currently undergoing
  significant improvement and digital upgrades, including fiber-optic
  technology
  domestic: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 963; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region);
  1 submarine cable; coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Iraq,
  Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey; participant in Medarabtel

Taiwan
  general assessment: provides telecommunications service for
  every business and private need
  domestic: thoroughly modern; completely digitalized
  international: country code - 886; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean); submarine cables to
  Japan (Okinawa), Philippines, Guam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia,
  Australia, Middle East, and Western Europe (1999)

Tajikistan
  general assessment: poorly developed and not well
  maintained; many towns are not linked to the national network
  domestic: cable and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 992; linked by cable and microwave
  radio relay to other CIS republics and by leased connections to the
  Moscow international gateway switch; Dushanbe linked by Intelsat to
  international gateway switch in Ankara (Turkey); satellite earth
  stations - 1 Orbita and 2 Intelsat

Tanzania
  general assessment: fair system operating below capacity
  and being modernized for better service; very small aperture
  terminal (VSAT) system under construction
  domestic: trunk service provided by open-wire, microwave radio
  relay, tropospheric scatter, and fiber-optic cable; some links being
  made digital
  international: country code - 255; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Thailand
  general assessment: high quality system, especially in
  urban areas like Bangkok; WTO requirement for privatization of
  telecom sector is planned to be complete by 2006
  domestic: fixed line system provided by both a government owned and
  commercial provider; wireless service expanding rapidly and
  outpacing fixed lines
  international: country code - 66; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean); landing country for
  APCN submarine cable

Togo
  general assessment: fair system based on a network of microwave
  radio relay routes supplemented by open-wire lines and a mobile
  cellular system
  domestic: microwave radio relay and open-wire lines for conventional
  system
  international: country code - 228; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Symphonie

Tokelau
  general assessment: modern satellite-based communications
  system;
  domestic: radiotelephone service between islands
  international: country code - 690; radiotelephone service to Samoa;
  government-regulated telephone service (TeleTok), with 3 satellite
  earth stations

Tonga
  general assessment: competition between Tonga
  Telecommunications Corporation (TCC) and Shoreline Communications
  Tonga (SCT) is accelerating expansion of telecommunications; SCT
  recently granted authority to develop high-speed digital service for
  telephone, Internet, and television
  domestic: fully automatic switched network
  international: country code - 676; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean) (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  general assessment: excellent international
  service; good local service
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 1-868; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); tropospheric scatter to Barbados and
  Guyana

Tunisia
  general assessment: above the African average and continuing
  to be upgraded; key centers are Sfax, Sousse, Bizerte, and Tunis;
  Internet access available
  domestic: trunk facilities consist of open-wire lines, coaxial
  cable, and microwave radio relay
  international: country code - 216; 5 submarine cables; satellite
  earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Arabsat; coaxial
  cable and microwave radio relay to Algeria and Libya; participant in
  Medarabtel; two international gateway digital switches

Turkey
  general assessment: undergoing rapid modernization and
  expansion, especially with cellular telephones
  domestic: additional digital exchanges are permitting a rapid
  increase in subscribers; the construction of a network of
  technologically advanced intercity trunk lines, using both
  fiber-optic cable and digital microwave radio relay is facilitating
  communication between urban centers; remote areas are reached by a
  domestic satellite system; the number of subscribers to mobile
  cellular telephone service is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 90; international service is provided
  by three submarine fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean and Black
  Seas, linking Turkey with Italy, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania,
  and Russia; also by 12 Intelsat earth stations, and by 328 mobile
  satellite terminals in the Inmarsat and Eutelsat systems (2002)

Turkmenistan
  general assessment: poorly developed
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 993; linked by cable and microwave
  radio relay to other CIS republics and to other countries by leased
  connections to the Moscow international gateway switch; a new
  telephone link from Ashgabat to Iran has been established; a new
  exchange in Ashgabat switches international traffic through Turkey
  via Intelsat; satellite earth stations - 1 Orbita and 1 Intelsat

Turks and Caicos Islands
  general assessment: fully digital system
  with international direct dialing
  domestic: full range of services available; GSM wireless service
  available
  international: country code - 1-649; 2 submarine cables; satellite
  earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Tuvalu
  general assessment: serves particular needs for internal
  communications
  domestic: radiotelephone communications between islands
  international: country code - 688; international calls can be made
  by satellite

Uganda
  general assessment: seriously inadequate; two cellular
  systems have been introduced, but a sharp increase in the number of
  main lines is essential; e-mail and Internet services are available
  domestic: intercity traffic by wire, microwave radio relay, and
  radiotelephone communication stations, fixed and mobile cellular
  systems for short-range traffic
  international: country code - 256; satellite earth stations - 1
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1 Inmarsat; analog links to Kenya and
  Tanzania

Ukraine
  general assessment: Ukraine's telecommunication development
  plan, running through 2005, emphasizes improving domestic trunk
  lines, international connections, and the mobile cellular system
  domestic: at independence in December 1991, Ukraine inherited a
  telephone system that was antiquated, inefficient, and in disrepair;
  more than 3.5 million applications for telephones could not be
  satisfied; telephone density is rising slowly and the domestic trunk
  system is being improved; the mobile cellular telephone system is
  expanding at a high rate
  international: country code - 380; two new domestic trunk lines are
  a part of the fiber-optic Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) system and three
  Ukrainian links have been installed in the fiber-optic
  Trans-European Lines (TEL) project that connects 18 countries;
  additional international service is provided by the
  Italy-Turkey-Ukraine-Russia (ITUR) fiber-optic submarine cable and
  by earth stations in the Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik
  satellite systems

United Arab Emirates
  general assessment: modern fiber-optic
  integrated services; digital network with rapidly growing use of
  mobile cellular telephones; key centers are Abu Dhabi and Dubai
  domestic: microwave radio relay, fiber optic and coaxial cable
  international: country code - 971; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean) and 1 Arabsat;
  submarine cables to Qatar, Bahrain, India, and Pakistan;
  tropospheric scatter to Bahrain; microwave radio relay to Saudi
  Arabia

United Kingdom
  general assessment: technologically advanced domestic
  and international system
  domestic: equal mix of buried cables, microwave radio relay, and
  fiber-optic systems
  international: country code - 44; 40 coaxial submarine cables;
  satellite earth stations - 10 Intelsat (7 Atlantic Ocean and 3
  Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Eutelsat;
  at least 8 large international switching centers

United States
  general assessment: a large, technologically advanced,
  multipurpose communications system
  domestic: a large system of fiber-optic cable, microwave radio
  relay, coaxial cable, and domestic satellites carries every form of
  telephone traffic; a rapidly growing cellular system carries mobile
  telephone traffic throughout the country
  international: country code - 1; 24 ocean cable systems in use;
  satellite earth stations - 61 Intelsat (45 Atlantic Ocean and 16
  Pacific Ocean), 5 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), and 4
  Inmarsat (Pacific and Atlantic Ocean regions) (2000)

Uruguay
  general assessment: fully digitalized
  domestic: most modern facilities concentrated in Montevideo; new
  nationwide microwave radio relay network
  international: country code - 598; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2002)

Uzbekistan
  general assessment: antiquated and inadequate; in serious
  need of modernization
  domestic: the domestic telephone system is being expanded and
  technologically improved, particularly in Tashkent (Toshkent) and
  Samarqand, under contracts with prominent companies in
  industrialized countries; moreover, by 1998, six cellular networks
  had been placed in operation - four of the GSM type (Global System
  for Mobile Communication), one D-AMPS type (Digital Advanced Mobile
  Phone System), and one AMPS type (Advanced Mobile Phone System)
  international: country code - 998; linked by landline or microwave
  radio relay with CIS member states and to other countries by leased
  connection via the Moscow international gateway switch; after the
  completion of the Uzbek link to the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE)
  fiber-optic cable, Uzbekistan will be independent of Russian
  facilities for international communications; Inmarsat also provides
  an international connection, albeit an expensive one; satellite
  earth stations - NA (1998)

Vanuatu
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 678; satellite earth station - 1
  Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)

Venezuela
  general assessment: modern and expanding
  domestic: domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations; recent
  substantial improvement in telephone service in rural areas;
  substantial increase in digitalization of exchanges and trunk lines;
  installation of a national interurban fiber-optic network capable of
  digital multimedia services
  international: country code - 58; 3 submarine coaxial cables;
  satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) and 1
  PanAmSat; participating with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in
  the construction of an international fiber-optic network

Vietnam
  general assessment: Vietnam is putting considerable effort
  into modernization and expansion of its telecommunication system,
  but its performance continues to lag behind that of its more modern
  neighbors
  domestic: all provincial exchanges are digitalized and connected to
  Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City by fiber-optic cable or
  microwave radio relay networks; main lines have been substantially
  increased, and the use of mobile telephones is growing rapidly
  international: country code - 84; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region)

Virgin Islands
  general assessment: modern system with total digital
  switching, uses fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
  domestic: full range of services available
  international: country code - 1-340; 2 submarine cable connections
  (Taino Carib, Americas-1); satellite earth stations - NA

Wake Island
  general assessment: satellite communications; 1 DSN
  circuit off the Overseas Telephone System (OTS)
  domestic: NA
  international: NA

Wallis and Futuna
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 681

West Bank
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL
  are responsible for fixed line services in the Gaza Strip; the
  Palestinian JAWAL company provides cellular services
  international: country code - 970

Western Sahara
  general assessment: sparse and limited system
  domestic: NA
  international: country code - 212; tied into Morocco's system by
  microwave radio relay, tropospheric scatter, and satellite;
  satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) linked to
  Rabat, Morocco

World
  general assessment: NA
  domestic: NA
  international: NA

Yemen
  general assessment: since unification in 1990, efforts have
  been made to create a national telecommunications network
  domestic: the national network consists of microwave radio relay,
  cable, tropospheric scatter, and GSM cellular mobile telephone
  systems
  international: country code - 967; satellite earth stations - 3
  Intelsat (2 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean), 1 Intersputnik
  (Atlantic Ocean region), and 2 Arabsat; microwave radio relay to
  Saudi Arabia and Djibouti

Zambia
  general assessment: facilities are aging but still among the
  best in Sub-Saharan Africa
  domestic: high-capacity microwave radio relay connects most larger
  towns and cities; several cellular telephone services in operation;
  Internet service is widely available; very small aperture terminal
  (VSAT) networks are operated by private firms
  international: country code - 260; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean)

Zimbabwe
  general assessment: system was once one of the best in
  Africa, but now suffers from poor maintenance; more than 100,000
  outstanding requests for connection despite an equally large number
  of installed but unused main lines
  domestic: consists of microwave radio relay links, open-wire lines,
  radiotelephone communication stations, fixed wireless local loop
  installations, and a substantial mobile cellular network; Internet
  connection is available in Harare and planned for all major towns
  and for some of the smaller ones
  international: country code - 263; satellite earth stations - 2
  Intelsat; two international digital gateway exchanges (in Harare and
  Gweru)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2125  Terrain


Afghanistan
  mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

Albania
  mostly mountains and hills; small plains along coast

Algeria
  mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; narrow,
  discontinuous coastal plain

American Samoa
  five volcanic islands with rugged peaks and limited
  coastal plains, two coral atolls (Rose Island, Swains Island)

Andorra
  rugged mountains dissected by narrow valleys

Angola
  narrow coastal plain rises abruptly to vast interior plateau

Anguilla
  flat and low-lying island of coral and limestone

Antarctica
  about 98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% barren rock,
  with average elevations between 2,000 and 4,000 meters; mountain
  ranges up to nearly 5,000 meters; ice-free coastal areas include
  parts of southern Victoria Land, Wilkes Land, the Antarctic
  Peninsula area, and parts of Ross Island on McMurdo Sound; glaciers
  form ice shelves along about half of the coastline, and floating ice
  shelves constitute 11% of the area of the continent

Antigua and Barbuda
  mostly low-lying limestone and coral islands,
  with some higher volcanic areas

Arctic Ocean
  central surface covered by a perennial drifting polar
  icepack that, on average, is about 3 meters thick, although pressure
  ridges may be three times that thickness; clockwise drift pattern in
  the Beaufort Gyral Stream, but nearly straight-line movement from
  the New Siberian Islands (Russia) to Denmark Strait (between
  Greenland and Iceland); the icepack is surrounded by open seas
  during the summer, but more than doubles in size during the winter
  and extends to the encircling landmasses; the ocean floor is about
  50% continental shelf (highest percentage of any ocean) with the
  remainder a central basin interrupted by three submarine ridges
  (Alpha Cordillera, Nansen Cordillera, and Lomonosov Ridge)

Argentina
  rich plains of the Pampas in northern half, flat to
  rolling plateau of Patagonia in south, rugged Andes along western
  border

Armenia
  Armenian Highland with mountains; little forest land; fast
  flowing rivers; good soil in Aras River valley

Aruba
  flat with a few hills; scant vegetation

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  low with sand and coral

Atlantic Ocean
  surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea,
  Denmark Strait, and coastal portions of the Baltic Sea from October
  to June; clockwise warm-water gyre (broad, circular system of
  currents) in the northern Atlantic, counterclockwise warm-water gyre
  in the southern Atlantic; the ocean floor is dominated by the
  Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire
  Atlantic basin

Australia
  mostly low plateau with deserts; fertile plain in southeast

Austria
  in the west and south mostly mountains (Alps); along the
  eastern and northern margins mostly flat or gently sloping

Azerbaijan
  large, flat Kur-Araz Ovaligi (Kura-Araks Lowland) (much
  of it below sea level) with Great Caucasus Mountains to the north,
  Qarabag Yaylasi (Karabakh Upland) in west; Baku lies on Abseron
  Yasaqligi (Apsheron Peninsula) that juts into Caspian Sea

Bahamas, The
  long, flat coral formations with some low rounded hills

Bahrain
  mostly low desert plain rising gently to low central
  escarpment

Baker Island
  low, nearly level coral island surrounded by a narrow
  fringing reef

Bangladesh
  mostly flat alluvial plain; hilly in southeast

Barbados
  relatively flat; rises gently to central highland region

Bassas da India
  volcanic rock

Belarus
  generally flat and contains much marshland

Belgium
  flat coastal plains in northwest, central rolling hills,
  rugged mountains of Ardennes Forest in southeast

Belize
  flat, swampy coastal plain; low mountains in south

Benin
  mostly flat to undulating plain; some hills and low mountains

Bermuda
  low hills separated by fertile depressions

Bhutan
  mostly mountainous with some fertile valleys and savanna

Bolivia
  rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano),
  hills, lowland plains of the Amazon Basin

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  mountains and valleys

Botswana
  predominantly flat to gently rolling tableland; Kalahari
  Desert in southwest

Bouvet Island
  volcanic; coast is mostly inaccessible

Brazil
  mostly flat to rolling lowlands in north; some plains, hills,
  mountains, and narrow coastal belt

British Indian Ocean Territory
  flat and low (most areas do not
  exceed two meters in elevation)

British Virgin Islands
  coral islands relatively flat; volcanic
  islands steep, hilly

Brunei
  flat coastal plain rises to mountains in east; hilly lowland
  in west

Bulgaria
  mostly mountains with lowlands in north and southeast

Burkina Faso
  mostly flat to dissected, undulating plains; hills in
  west and southeast

Burma
  central lowlands ringed by steep, rugged highlands

Burundi
  hilly and mountainous, dropping to a plateau in east, some
  plains

Cambodia
  mostly low, flat plains; mountains in southwest and north

Cameroon
  diverse, with coastal plain in southwest, dissected plateau
  in center, mountains in west, plains in north

Canada
  mostly plains with mountains in west and lowlands in southeast

Cape Verde
  steep, rugged, rocky, volcanic

Cayman Islands
  low-lying limestone base surrounded by coral reefs

Central African Republic
  vast, flat to rolling, monotonous plateau;
  scattered hills in northeast and southwest

Chad
  broad, arid plains in center, desert in north, mountains in
  northwest, lowlands in south

Chile
  low coastal mountains; fertile central valley; rugged Andes in
  east

China
  mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains,
  deltas, and hills in east

Christmas Island
  steep cliffs along coast rise abruptly to central
  plateau

Clipperton Island
  coral atoll

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  flat, low-lying coral atolls

Colombia
  flat coastal lowlands, central highlands, high Andes
  Mountains, eastern lowland plains

Comoros
  volcanic islands, interiors vary from steep mountains to low
  hills

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  vast central basin is a low-lying
  plateau; mountains in east

Congo, Republic of the
  coastal plain, southern basin, central
  plateau, northern basin

Cook Islands
  low coral atolls in north; volcanic, hilly islands in
  south

Coral Sea Islands
  sand and coral reefs and islands (or cays)

Costa Rica
  coastal plains separated by rugged mountains including
  over 100 volcanic cones, of which several are major volcanoes

Cote d'Ivoire
  mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in
  northwest

Croatia
  geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border,
  low mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands

Cuba
  mostly flat to rolling plains, with rugged hills and mountains
  in the southeast

Cyprus
  central plain with mountains to north and south; scattered
  but significant plains along southern coast

Czech Republic
  Bohemia in the west consists of rolling plains,
  hills, and plateaus surrounded by low mountains; Moravia in the east
  consists of very hilly country

Denmark
  low and flat to gently rolling plains

Djibouti
  coastal plain and plateau separated by central mountains

Dominica
  rugged mountains of volcanic origin

Dominican Republic
  rugged highlands and mountains with fertile
  valleys interspersed

East Timor
  mountainous

Ecuador
  coastal plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands
  (sierra), and flat to rolling eastern jungle (oriente)

Egypt
  vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta

El Salvador
  mostly mountains with narrow coastal belt and central
  plateau

Equatorial Guinea
  coastal plains rise to interior hills; islands are
  volcanic

Eritrea
  dominated by extension of Ethiopian north-south trending
  highlands, descending on the east to a coastal desert plain, on the
  northwest to hilly terrain and on the southwest to flat-to-rolling
  plains

Estonia
  marshy, lowlands; flat in the north, hilly in the south

Ethiopia
  high plateau with central mountain range divided by Great
  Rift Valley

Europa Island
  low and flat

European Union
  fairly flat along the Baltic and Atlantic coast;
  mountainous in the central and southern areas

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  rocky, hilly, mountainous with
  some boggy, undulating plains

Faroe Islands
  rugged, rocky, some low peaks; cliffs along most of
  coast

Fiji
  mostly mountains of volcanic origin

Finland
  mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes
  and low hills

France
  mostly flat plains or gently rolling hills in north and west;
  remainder is mountainous, especially Pyrenees in south, Alps in east

French Guiana
  low-lying coastal plains rising to hills and small
  mountains

French Polynesia
  mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with
  reefs

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  volcanic

Gabon
  narrow coastal plain; hilly interior; savanna in east and south

Gambia, The
  flood plain of the Gambia River flanked by some low hills

Gaza Strip
  flat to rolling, sand- and dune-covered coastal plain

Georgia
  largely mountainous with Great Caucasus Mountains in the
  north and Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the south; Kolkhet'is Dablobi
  (Kolkhida Lowland) opens to the Black Sea in the west; Mtkvari River
  Basin in the east; good soils in river valley flood plains,
  foothills of Kolkhida Lowland

Germany
  lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south

Ghana
  mostly low plains with dissected plateau in south-central area

Gibraltar
  a narrow coastal lowland borders the Rock of Gibraltar

Glorioso Islands
  low and flat

Greece
  mostly mountains with ranges extending into the sea as
  peninsulas or chains of islands

Greenland
  flat to gradually sloping icecap covers all but a narrow,
  mountainous, barren, rocky coast

Grenada
  volcanic in origin with central mountains

Guadeloupe
  Basse-Terre is volcanic in origin with interior
  mountains; Grande-Terre is low limestone formation; most of the
  seven other islands are volcanic in origin

Guam
  volcanic origin, surrounded by coral reefs; relatively flat
  coralline limestone plateau (source of most fresh water), with steep
  coastal cliffs and narrow coastal plains in north, low hills in
  center, mountains in south

Guatemala
  mostly mountains with narrow coastal plains and rolling
  limestone plateau

Guernsey
  mostly level with low hills in southwest

Guinea
  generally flat coastal plain, hilly to mountainous interior

Guinea-Bissau
  mostly low coastal plain rising to savanna in east

Guyana
  mostly rolling highlands; low coastal plain; savanna in south

Haiti
  mostly rough and mountainous

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  Heard Island - 80% ice-covered,
  bleak and mountainous, dominated by a large massif (Big Ben) and an
  active volcano (Mawson Peak); McDonald Islands - small and rocky

Holy See (Vatican City)
  urban; low hill

Honduras
  mostly mountains in interior, narrow coastal plains

Hong Kong
  hilly to mountainous with steep slopes; lowlands in north

Howland Island
  low-lying, nearly level, sandy, coral island
  surrounded by a narrow fringing reef; depressed central area

Hungary
  mostly flat to rolling plains; hills and low mountains on
  the Slovakian border

Iceland
  mostly plateau interspersed with mountain peaks, icefields;
  coast deeply indented by bays and fiords

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: atoll, awash at high tide; shallow (15
  m) lagoon
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island: low, flat, and
  sandy
  Tromelin Island: low, flat, sandy; likely volcanic seamount

India
  upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain
  along the Ganges, deserts in west, Himalayas in north

Indian Ocean
  surface dominated by counterclockwise gyre (broad,
  circular system of currents) in the southern Indian Ocean; unique
  reversal of surface currents in the northern Indian Ocean; low
  atmospheric pressure over southwest Asia from hot, rising, summer
  air results in the southwest monsoon and southwest-to-northeast
  winds and currents, while high pressure over northern Asia from
  cold, falling, winter air results in the northeast monsoon and
  northeast-to-southwest winds and currents; ocean floor is dominated
  by the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and subdivided by the Southeast Indian
  Ocean Ridge, Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge, and Ninetyeast Ridge

Indonesia
  mostly coastal lowlands; larger islands have interior
  mountains

Iran
  rugged, mountainous rim; high, central basin with deserts,
  mountains; small, discontinuous plains along both coasts

Iraq
  mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in
  south with large flooded areas; mountains along borders with Iran
  and Turkey

Ireland
  mostly level to rolling interior plain surrounded by rugged
  hills and low mountains; sea cliffs on west coast

Isle of Man
  hills in north and south bisected by central valley

Israel
  Negev desert in the south; low coastal plain; central
  mountains; Jordan Rift Valley

Italy
  mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands

Jamaica
  mostly mountains, with narrow, discontinuous coastal plain

Jan Mayen
  volcanic island, partly covered by glaciers

Japan
  mostly rugged and mountainous

Jarvis Island
  sandy, coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing
  reef

Jersey
  gently rolling plain with low, rugged hills along north coast

Johnston Atoll
  mostly flat

Jordan
  mostly desert plateau in east, highland area in west; Great
  Rift Valley separates East and West Banks of the Jordan River

Juan de Nova Island
  low and flat

Kazakhstan
  extends from the Volga to the Altai Mountains and from
  the plains in western Siberia to oases and desert in Central Asia

Kenya
  low plains rise to central highlands bisected by Great Rift
  Valley; fertile plateau in west

Kingman Reef
  low and nearly level

Kiribati
  mostly low-lying coral atolls surrounded by extensive reefs

Korea, North
  mostly hills and mountains separated by deep, narrow
  valleys; coastal plains wide in west, discontinuous in east

Korea, South
  mostly hills and mountains; wide coastal plains in west
  and south

Kuwait
  flat to slightly undulating desert plain

Kyrgyzstan
  peaks of Tien Shan and associated valleys and basins
  encompass entire nation

Laos
  mostly rugged mountains; some plains and plateaus

Latvia
  low plain

Lebanon
  narrow coastal plain; El Beqaa (Bekaa Valley) separates
  Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains

Lesotho
  mostly highland with plateaus, hills, and mountains

Liberia
  mostly flat to rolling coastal plains rising to rolling
  plateau and low mountains in northeast

Libya
  mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions

Liechtenstein
  mostly mountainous (Alps) with Rhine Valley in western
  third

Lithuania
  lowland, many scattered small lakes, fertile soil

Luxembourg
  mostly gently rolling uplands with broad, shallow
  valleys; uplands to slightly mountainous in the north; steep slope
  down to Moselle flood plain in the southeast

Macau
  generally flat

Macedonia
  mountainous territory covered with deep basins and
  valleys; three large lakes, each divided by a frontier line; country
  bisected by the Vardar River

Madagascar
  narrow coastal plain, high plateau and mountains in center

Malawi
  narrow elongated plateau with rolling plains, rounded hills,
  some mountains

Malaysia
  coastal plains rising to hills and mountains

Maldives
  flat, with white sandy beaches

Mali
  mostly flat to rolling northern plains covered by sand; savanna
  in south, rugged hills in northeast

Malta
  mostly low, rocky, flat to dissected plains; many coastal
  cliffs

Marshall Islands
  low coral limestone and sand islands

Martinique
  mountainous with indented coastline; dormant volcano

Mauritania
  mostly barren, flat plains of the Sahara; some central
  hills

Mauritius
  small coastal plain rising to discontinuous mountains
  encircling central plateau

Mayotte
  generally undulating, with deep ravines and ancient volcanic
  peaks

Mexico
  high, rugged mountains; low coastal plains; high plateaus;
  desert

Micronesia, Federated States of
  islands vary geologically from high
  mountainous islands to low, coral atolls; volcanic outcroppings on
  Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Chuuk

Midway Islands
  low, nearly level

Moldova
  rolling steppe, gradual slope south to Black Sea

Monaco
  hilly, rugged, rocky

Mongolia
  vast semidesert and desert plains, grassy steppe, mountains
  in west and southwest; Gobi Desert in south-central

Montenegro
  highly indented coastline with narrow coastal plain
  backed by rugged high limestone mountains and plateaus

Montserrat
  volcanic island, mostly mountainous, with small coastal
  lowland

Morocco
  northern coast and interior are mountainous with large areas
  of bordering plateaus, intermontane valleys, and rich coastal plains

Mozambique
  mostly coastal lowlands, uplands in center, high plateaus
  in northwest, mountains in west

Namibia
  mostly high plateau; Namib Desert along coast; Kalahari
  Desert in east

Nauru
  sandy beach rises to fertile ring around raised coral reefs
  with phosphate plateau in center

Navassa Island
  raised coral and limestone plateau, flat to
  undulating; ringed by vertical white cliffs (9 to 15 m high)

Nepal
  Tarai or flat river plain of the Ganges in south, central hill
  region, rugged Himalayas in north

Netherlands
  mostly coastal lowland and reclaimed land (polders);
  some hills in southeast

Netherlands Antilles
  generally hilly, volcanic interiors

New Caledonia
  coastal plains with interior mountains

New Zealand
  predominately mountainous with some large coastal plains

Nicaragua
  extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central
  interior mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by
  volcanoes

Niger
  predominately desert plains and sand dunes; flat to rolling
  plains in south; hills in north

Nigeria
  southern lowlands merge into central hills and plateaus;
  mountains in southeast, plains in north

Niue
  steep limestone cliffs along coast, central plateau

Norfolk Island
  volcanic formation with mostly rolling plains

Northern Mariana Islands
  southern islands are limestone with level
  terraces and fringing coral reefs; northern islands are volcanic

Norway
  glaciated; mostly high plateaus and rugged mountains broken
  by fertile valleys; small, scattered plains; coastline deeply
  indented by fjords; arctic tundra in north

Oman
  central desert plain, rugged mountains in north and south

Pacific Ocean
  surface currents in the northern Pacific are dominated
  by a clockwise, warm-water gyre (broad circular system of currents)
  and in the southern Pacific by a counterclockwise, cool-water gyre;
  in the northern Pacific, sea ice forms in the Bering Sea and Sea of
  Okhotsk in winter; in the southern Pacific, sea ice from Antarctica
  reaches its northernmost extent in October; the ocean floor in the
  eastern Pacific is dominated by the East Pacific Rise, while the
  western Pacific is dissected by deep trenches, including the Mariana
  Trench, which is the world's deepest

Pakistan
  flat Indus plain in east; mountains in north and northwest;
  Balochistan plateau in west

Palau
  varying geologically from the high, mountainous main island of
  Babelthuap to low, coral islands usually fringed by large barrier
  reefs

Palmyra Atoll
  very low

Panama
  interior mostly steep, rugged mountains and dissected, upland
  plains; coastal areas largely plains and rolling hills

Papua New Guinea
  mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling
  foothills

Paracel Islands
  mostly low and flat

Paraguay
  grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran
  Chaco region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the
  river, and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere

Peru
  western coastal plain (costa), high and rugged Andes in center
  (sierra), eastern lowland jungle of Amazon Basin (selva)

Philippines
  mostly mountains with narrow to extensive coastal
  lowlands

Pitcairn Islands
  rugged volcanic formation; rocky coastline with
  cliffs

Poland
  mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border

Portugal
  mountainous north of the Tagus River, rolling plains in
  south

Puerto Rico
  mostly mountains with coastal plain belt in north;
  mountains precipitous to sea on west coast; sandy beaches along most
  coastal areas

Qatar
  mostly flat and barren desert covered with loose sand and
  gravel

Reunion
  mostly rugged and mountainous; fertile lowlands along coast

Romania
  central Transylvanian Basin is separated from the Plain of
  Moldavia on the east by the Carpathian Mountains and separated from
  the Walachian Plain on the south by the Transylvanian Alps

Russia
  broad plain with low hills west of Urals; vast coniferous
  forest and tundra in Siberia; uplands and mountains along southern
  border regions

Rwanda
  mostly grassy uplands and hills; relief is mountainous with
  altitude declining from west to east

Saint Helena
  the islands of this group result from volcanic activity
  associated with the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge
  Saint Helena: rugged, volcanic; small scattered plateaus and plains
  Ascension: surface covered by lava flows and cinder cones of 44
  dormant volcanoes; ground rises to the east
  Tristan da Cunha: sheer cliffs line the coastline of the nearly
  circular island; the flanks of the central volcanic peak are deeply
  dissected; narrow coastal plain lies between The Peak and the
  coastal cliffs

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  volcanic with mountainous interiors

Saint Lucia
  volcanic and mountainous with some broad, fertile valleys

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  mostly barren rock

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  volcanic, mountainous

Samoa
  two main islands (Savaii, Upolu) and several smaller islands
  and uninhabited islets; narrow coastal plain with volcanic, rocky,
  rugged mountains in interior

San Marino
  rugged mountains

Sao Tome and Principe
  volcanic, mountainous

Saudi Arabia
  mostly uninhabited, sandy desert

Senegal
  generally low, rolling, plains rising to foothills in
  southeast

Serbia
  extremely varied; to the north, rich fertile plains; to the
  east, limestone ranges and basins; to the southeast, ancient
  mountains and hills

Seychelles
  Mahe Group is granitic, narrow coastal strip, rocky,
  hilly; others are coral, flat, elevated reefs

Sierra Leone
  coastal belt of mangrove swamps, wooded hill country,
  upland plateau, mountains in east

Singapore
  lowland; gently undulating central plateau contains water
  catchment area and nature preserve

Slovakia
  rugged mountains in the central and northern part and
  lowlands in the south

Slovenia
  a short coastal strip on the Adriatic, an alpine mountain
  region adjacent to Italy and Austria, mixed mountains and valleys
  with numerous rivers to the east

Solomon Islands
  mostly rugged mountains with some low coral atolls

Somalia
  mostly flat to undulating plateau rising to hills in north

South Africa
  vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow
  coastal plain

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  most of the islands,
  rising steeply from the sea, are rugged and mountainous; South
  Georgia is largely barren and has steep, glacier-covered mountains;
  the South Sandwich Islands are of volcanic origin with some active
  volcanoes

Southern Ocean
  the Southern Ocean is deep, 4,000 to 5,000 meters
  over most of its extent with only limited areas of shallow water;
  the Antarctic continental shelf is generally narrow and unusually
  deep, its edge lying at depths of 400 to 800 meters (the global mean
  is 133 meters); the Antarctic icepack grows from an average minimum
  of 2.6 million square kilometers in March to about 18.8 million
  square kilometers in September, better than a sixfold increase in
  area; the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (21,000 km in length) moves
  perpetually eastward; it is the world's largest ocean current,
  transporting 130 million cubic meters of water per second - 100
  times the flow of all the world's rivers

Spain
  large, flat to dissected plateau surrounded by rugged hills;
  Pyrenees in north

Spratly Islands
  flat

Sri Lanka
  mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in
  south-central interior

Sudan
  generally flat, featureless plain; mountains in far south,
  northeast and west; desert dominates the north

Suriname
  mostly rolling hills; narrow coastal plain with swamps

Svalbard
  wild, rugged mountains; much of high land ice covered; west
  coast clear of ice about one-half of the year; fjords along west and
  north coasts

Swaziland
  mostly mountains and hills; some moderately sloping plains

Sweden
  mostly flat or gently rolling lowlands; mountains in west

Switzerland
  mostly mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) with
  a central plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes

Syria
  primarily semiarid and desert plateau; narrow coastal plain;
  mountains in west

Taiwan
  eastern two-thirds mostly rugged mountains; flat to gently
  rolling plains in west

Tajikistan
  Pamir and Alay Mountains dominate landscape; western
  Fergana Valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest

Tanzania
  plains along coast; central plateau; highlands in north,
  south

Thailand
  central plain; Khorat Plateau in the east; mountains
  elsewhere

Togo
  gently rolling savanna in north; central hills; southern
  plateau; low coastal plain with extensive lagoons and marshes

Tokelau
  low-lying coral atolls enclosing large lagoons

Tonga
  most islands have limestone base formed from uplifted coral
  formation; others have limestone overlying volcanic base

Trinidad and Tobago
  mostly plains with some hills and low mountains

Tromelin Island
  low, flat, and sandy; likely volcanic

Tunisia
  mountains in north; hot, dry central plain; semiarid south
  merges into the Sahara

Turkey
  high central plateau (Anatolia); narrow coastal plain;
  several mountain ranges

Turkmenistan
  flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes rising to
  mountains in the south; low mountains along border with Iran;
  borders Caspian Sea in west

Turks and Caicos Islands
  low, flat limestone; extensive marshes and
  mangrove swamps

Tuvalu
  very low-lying and narrow coral atolls

Uganda
  mostly plateau with rim of mountains

Ukraine
  most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and
  plateaus, mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians),
  and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south

United Arab Emirates
  flat, barren coastal plain merging into rolling
  sand dunes of vast desert wasteland; mountains in east

United Kingdom
  mostly rugged hills and low mountains; level to
  rolling plains in east and southeast

United States
  vast central plain, mountains in west, hills and low
  mountains in east; rugged mountains and broad river valleys in
  Alaska; rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  low and nearly level
  sandy coral islands with narrow fringing reefs that have developed
  at the top of submerged volcanic mountains, which in most cases rise
  steeply from the ocean floor

Uruguay
  mostly rolling plains and low hills; fertile coastal lowland

Uzbekistan
  mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad,
  flat intensely irrigated river valleys along course of Amu Darya,
  Syr Darya (Sirdaryo), and Zarafshon; Fergana Valley in east
  surrounded by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral
  Sea in west

Vanuatu
  mostly mountainous islands of volcanic origin; narrow
  coastal plains

Venezuela
  Andes Mountains and Maracaibo Lowlands in northwest;
  central plains (llanos); Guiana Highlands in southeast

Vietnam
  low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands;
  hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest

Virgin Islands
  mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little
  level land

Wake Island
  atoll of three low coral islands, Peale, Wake, and
  Wilkes, built up on an underwater volcano; central lagoon is former
  crater, islands are part of the rim

Wallis and Futuna
  volcanic origin; low hills

West Bank
  mostly rugged dissected upland, some vegetation in west,
  but barren in east

Western Sahara
  mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or
  sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast

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

Yemen
  narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged
  mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the
  desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula

Zambia
  mostly high plateau with some hills and mountains

Zimbabwe
  mostly high plateau with higher central plateau (high
  veld); mountains in east

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2127  Total fertility rate (children born/woman)


Afghanistan
  6.69 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Albania
  2.03 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Algeria
  1.89 children born/woman (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  3.16 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Andorra
  1.3 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Angola
  6.35 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  1.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  2.24 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Argentina
  2.16 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Armenia
  1.33 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Aruba
  1.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Australia
  1.76 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Austria
  1.36 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  2.46 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  2.18 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  2.6 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  3.11 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Barbados
  1.65 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Belarus
  1.43 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Belgium
  1.64 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Belize
  3.6 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Benin
  5.2 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  1.89 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  4.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  2.85 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1.22 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Botswana
  2.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Brazil
  1.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  1.72 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Brunei
  2.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  1.38 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  6.47 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Burma
  1.98 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Burundi
  6.55 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  3.37 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  4.39 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Canada
  1.61 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  3.38 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  1.9 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  4.41 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Chad
  6.25 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Chile
  2 children born/woman (2006 est.)

China
  1.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  2.54 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Comoros
  5.03 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  6.45 children born/woman (2006
  est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  6.07 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  3.1 children born/woman (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  2.24 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  4.5 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Croatia
  1.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cuba
  1.66 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  1.82 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  1.21 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Denmark
  1.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  5.31 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Dominica
  1.94 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  2.83 children born/woman (2006 est.)

East Timor
  3.53 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  2.68 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Egypt
  2.83 children born/woman (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  3.12 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  4.55 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  5.08 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Estonia
  1.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  5.22 children born/woman (2006 est.)

European Union
  1.47 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA children born/woman

Faroe Islands
  2.17 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Fiji
  2.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Finland
  1.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)

France
  1.84 children born/woman (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  2.98 children born/woman (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  2.01 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Gabon
  4.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  5.3 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  5.78 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Georgia
  1.42 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Germany
  1.39 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Ghana
  3.99 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  1.65 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Greece
  1.34 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Greenland
  2.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Grenada
  2.34 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  1.9 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guam
  2.58 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  3.82 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  1.39 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guinea
  5.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  4.86 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Guyana
  2.04 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Haiti
  4.94 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Honduras
  3.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  0.95 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Hungary
  1.32 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Iceland
  1.92 children born/woman (2006 est.)

India
  2.73 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  2.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Iran
  1.8 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Iraq
  4.18 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Ireland
  1.86 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  1.65 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Israel
  2.41 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Italy
  1.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  2.41 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Japan
  1.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Jersey
  1.58 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Jordan
  2.63 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  1.89 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Kenya
  4.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  4.16 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  2.1 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  1.27 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  2.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  2.69 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Laos
  4.68 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Latvia
  1.27 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  1.9 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  3.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Liberia
  6.02 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Libya
  3.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  1.51 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  1.2 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  1.78 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Macau
  1.02 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  1.57 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  5.62 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Malawi
  5.92 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  3.04 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Maldives
  4.9 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mali
  7.42 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Malta
  1.5 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  3.85 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Martinique
  1.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  5.86 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  1.95 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  5.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mexico
  2.42 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  3.16 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Moldova
  1.85 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Monaco
  1.76 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  2.25 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  1.77 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Morocco
  2.68 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  4.62 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Namibia
  3.06 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Nauru
  3.11 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Nepal
  4.1 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  1.66 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  1.99 children born/woman (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  2.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  1.79 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  2.75 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Niger
  7.46 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  5.49 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  1.24 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Norway
  1.78 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Oman
  5.77 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Palau
  2.46 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Panama
  2.68 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  3.88 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  3.89 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Peru
  2.51 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Philippines
  3.11 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  1.25 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Portugal
  1.47 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  1.75 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Qatar
  2.81 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Reunion
  2.45 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Romania
  1.37 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Russia
  1.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  5.43 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  1.55 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  2.31 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  2.18 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  2.01 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1.83 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Samoa
  2.94 children born/woman (2006 est.)

San Marino
  1.34 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  5.62 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Senegal
  4.38 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Serbia
  1.78 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Seychelles
  1.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  6.08 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Singapore
  1.06 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  1.33 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  1.25 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  3.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Somalia
  6.76 children born/woman (2006 est.)

South Africa
  2.2 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Spain
  1.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  1.84 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Sudan
  4.72 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Suriname
  2.32 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  3.53 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Sweden
  1.66 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  1.43 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Syria
  3.4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  1.57 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  4 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  4.97 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Thailand
  1.64 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Togo
  4.96 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  3 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  1.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  1.74 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Turkey
  1.92 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  3.37 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  3.05 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  2.98 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Uganda
  6.71 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  1.17 children born/woman (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  2.88 children born/woman (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  1.66 children born/woman (2006 est.)

United States
  2.09 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  1.89 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  2.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  2.7 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  2.23 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  1.91 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  2.17 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  NA children born/woman

West Bank
  4.28 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Western Sahara
  NA children born/woman

World
  2.59 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Yemen
  6.58 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Zambia
  5.39 children born/woman (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  3.13 children born/woman (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2128  Government type


Afghanistan
  Islamic republic

Albania
  emerging democracy

Algeria
  republic

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  parliamentary democracy (since March 1993) that retains as
  its chiefs of state a coprincipality; the two princes are the
  president of France and bishop of Seo de Urgel, Spain, who are
  represented locally by coprinces' representatives

Angola
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Anguilla
  NA

Antarctica
  Antarctic Treaty Summary - the Antarctic Treaty, signed
  on 1 December 1959 and entered into force on 23 June 1961,
  establishes the legal framework for the management of Antarctica;
  the 28th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was held in
  Stockholm, Sweden in June 2005; at these periodic meetings,
  decisions are made by consensus (not by vote) of all consultative
  member nations; at the end of 2005, there were 45 treaty member
  nations: 28 consultative and 17 non-consultative; consultative
  (decision-making) members include the seven nations that claim
  portions of Antarctica as national territory (some claims overlap)
  and 21 non-claimant nations; the US and Russia have reserved the
  right to make claims; the US does not recognize the claims of
  others; Antarctica is administered through meetings of the
  consultative member nations; decisions from these meetings are
  carried out by these member nations (with respect to their own
  nationals and operations) in accordance with their own national
  laws; the years in parentheses indicate when a consultative
  member-nation acceded to the Treaty and when it was accepted as a
  consultative member, while no date indicates the country was an
  original 1959 treaty signatory; claimant nations are - Argentina,
  Australia, Chile, France, NZ, Norway, and the UK. Nonclaimant
  consultative nations are - Belgium, Brazil (1975/1983), Bulgaria
  (1978/1998) China (1983/1985), Ecuador (1987/1990), Finland
  (1984/1989), Germany (1979/1981), India (1983/1983), Italy
  (1981/1987), Japan, South Korea (1986/1989), Netherlands
  (1967/1990), Peru (1981/1989), Poland (1961/1977), Russia, South
  Africa, Spain (1982/1988), Sweden (1984/1988), Ukraine (1992/2004),
  Uruguay (1980/1985), and the US; non-consultative members, with year
  of accession in parentheses, are - Austria (1987), Canada (1988),
  Colombia (1989), Cuba (1984), Czech Republic (1962/1993), Denmark
  (1965), Estonia (2001), Greece (1987), Guatemala (1991), Hungary
  (1984), North Korea (1987), Papua New Guinea (1981), Romania (1971),
  Slovakia (1962/1993), Switzerland (1990), Turkey (1996), and
  Venezuela (1999); note - Czechoslovakia acceded to the Treaty in
  1962 and separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993;
  Article 1 - area to be used for peaceful purposes only; military
  activity, such as weapons testing, is prohibited, but military
  personnel and equipment may be used for scientific research or any
  other peaceful purpose; Article 2 - freedom of scientific
  investigation and cooperation shall continue; Article 3 - free
  exchange of information and personnel, cooperation with the UN and
  other international agencies; Article 4 - does not recognize,
  dispute, or establish territorial claims and no new claims shall be
  asserted while the treaty is in force; Article 5 - prohibits nuclear
  explosions or disposal of radioactive wastes; Article 6 - includes
  under the treaty all land and ice shelves south of 60 degrees 00
  minutes south and reserves high seas rights; Article 7 -
  treaty-state observers have free access, including aerial
  observation, to any area and may inspect all stations,
  installations, and equipment; advance notice of all expeditions and
  of the introduction of military personnel must be given; Article 8 -
  allows for jurisdiction over observers and scientists by their own
  states; Article 9 - frequent consultative meetings take place among
  member nations; Article 10 - treaty states will discourage
  activities by any country in Antarctica that are contrary to the
  treaty; Article 11 - disputes to be settled peacefully by the
  parties concerned or, ultimately, by the ICJ; Articles 12, 13, 14 -
  deal with upholding, interpreting, and amending the treaty among
  involved nations; other agreements - some 200 recommendations
  adopted at treaty consultative meetings and ratified by governments
  include - Agreed Measures for Fauna and Flora (1964) which were
  later incorporated into the Environmental Protocol; Convention for
  the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972); Convention on the
  Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1980); a mineral
  resources agreement was signed in 1988 but remains unratified; the
  Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was
  signed 4 October 1991 and entered into force 14 January 1998; this
  agreement provides for the protection of the Antarctic environment
  through six specific annexes: 1) environmental impact assessment, 2)
  conservation of Antarctic fauna and flora, 3) waste disposal and
  waste management, 4) prevention of marine pollution, 5) area
  protection and management and 6) liability arising from
  environmental emergencies; it prohibits all activities relating to
  mineral resources except scientific research; a permanent Antarctic
  Treaty Secretariat was established in 2004 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Antigua and Barbuda
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Argentina
  republic

Armenia
  republic

Aruba
  parliamentary democracy

Australia
  federal parliamentary democracy

Austria
  federal republic

Azerbaijan
  republic

Bahamas, The
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Bahrain
  constitutional hereditary monarchy

Bangladesh
  parliamentary democracy

Barbados
  parliamentary democracy

Belarus
  republic in name, although in fact a dictatorship

Belgium
  federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional
  monarchy

Belize
  parliamentary democracy

Benin
  republic

Bermuda
  parliamentary; self-governing territory

Bhutan
  monarchy; special treaty relationship with India

Bolivia
  republic

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  emerging federal democratic republic

Botswana
  parliamentary republic

Brazil
  federative republic

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  constitutional sultanate

Bulgaria
  parliamentary democracy

Burkina Faso
  parliamentary republic

Burma
  military junta

Burundi
  republic

Cambodia
  multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy

Cameroon
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Canada
  constitutional monarchy that is also a parliamentary
  democracy and a federation

Cape Verde
  republic

Cayman Islands
  British crown colony

Central African Republic
  republic

Chad
  republic

Chile
  republic

China
  Communist state

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  republic; executive branch dominates government structure

Comoros
  republic

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  transitional government

Congo, Republic of the
  republic

Cook Islands
  self-governing parliamentary democracy

Costa Rica
  democratic republic

Cote d'Ivoire
  republic; multiparty presidential regime established
  1960

Croatia
  presidential/parliamentary democracy

Cuba
  Communist state

Cyprus
  republic
  note: a separation of the two ethnic communities inhabiting the
  island began following the outbreak of communal strife in 1963; this
  separation was further solidified after the Turkish intervention in
  July 1974 that followed a Greek junta-supported coup attempt gave
  the Turkish Cypriots de facto control in the north; Greek Cypriots
  control the only internationally recognized government; on 15
  November 1983 Turkish Cypriot "President" Rauf DENKTASH declared
  independence and the formation of a "Turkish Republic of Northern
  Cyprus" (TRNC), which is recognized only by Turkey

Czech Republic
  parliamentary democracy

Denmark
  constitutional monarchy

Djibouti
  republic

Dominica
  parliamentary democracy

Dominican Republic
  representative democracy

East Timor
  republic

Ecuador
  republic

Egypt
  republic

El Salvador
  republic

Equatorial Guinea
  republic

Eritrea
  transitional government
  note: following a successful referendum on independence for the
  Autonomous Region of Eritrea on 23-25 April 1993, a National
  Assembly, composed entirely of the People's Front for Democracy and
  Justice or PFDJ, was established as a transitional legislature; a
  Constitutional Commission was also established to draft a
  constitution; ISAIAS Afworki was elected president by the
  transitional legislature; the constitution, ratified in May 1997,
  did not enter into effect, pending parliamentary and presidential
  elections; parliamentary elections had been scheduled in December
  2001, but were postponed indefinitely; currently the sole legal
  party is the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)

Estonia
  parliamentary republic

Ethiopia
  federal republic

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  republic

Finland
  republic

France
  republic

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  republic; multiparty presidential regime

Gambia, The
  republic

Georgia
  republic

Germany
  federal republic

Ghana
  constitutional democracy

Gibraltar
  NA

Greece
  parliamentary republic

Greenland
  parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy

Grenada
  parliamentary democracy

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  constitutional democratic republic

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  republic

Guinea-Bissau
  republic

Guyana
  republic

Haiti
  elected government

Holy See (Vatican City)
  ecclesiastical

Honduras
  democratic constitutional republic

Hong Kong
  limited democracy

Hungary
  parliamentary democracy

Iceland
  constitutional republic

India
  federal republic

Indonesia
  republic

Iran
  theocratic republic

Iraq
  transitional democracy

Ireland
  republic, parliamentary democracy

Isle of Man
  parliamentary democracy

Israel
  parliamentary democracy

Italy
  republic

Jamaica
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Japan
  constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government

Jersey
  NA

Jordan
  constitutional monarchy

Kazakhstan
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little
  power outside the executive branch

Kenya
  republic

Kiribati
  republic

Korea, North
  Communist state one-man dictatorship

Korea, South
  republic

Kuwait
  constitutional hereditary emirate

Kyrgyzstan
  republic

Laos
  Communist state

Latvia
  parliamentary democracy

Lebanon
  republic

Lesotho
  parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Liberia
  republic

Libya
  Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the
  populace through local councils; in fact, a military dictatorship

Liechtenstein
  constitutional monarchy

Lithuania
  parliamentary democracy

Luxembourg
  constitutional monarchy

Macau
  limited democracy

Macedonia
  parliamentary democracy

Madagascar
  republic

Malawi
  multiparty democracy

Malaysia
  constitutional monarchy
  note: nominally headed by paramount ruler and a bicameral Parliament
  consisting of a nonelected upper house and an elected lower house;
  all Peninsular Malaysian states have hereditary rulers except Melaka
  and Pulau Pinang (Penang); those two states along with Sabah and
  Sarawak in East Malaysia have governors appointed by government;
  powers of state governments are limited by federal constitution;
  under terms of federation, Sabah and Sarawak retain certain
  constitutional prerogatives (e.g., right to maintain their own
  immigration controls); Sabah holds 25 seats in House of
  Representatives; Sarawak holds 28 seats in House of Representatives

Maldives
  republic

Mali
  republic

Malta
  republic

Marshall Islands
  constitutional government in free association with
  the US; the Compact of Free Association entered into force 21
  October 1986 and the Amended Compact entered into force in May 2004

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  republic

Mauritius
  parliamentary democracy

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  federal republic

Micronesia, Federated States of
  constitutional government in free
  association with the US; the Compact of Free Association entered
  into force 3 November 1986 and the Amended Compact entered into
  force May 2004

Moldova
  republic

Monaco
  constitutional monarchy

Mongolia
  mixed parliamentary/presidential

Montenegro
  republic

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  constitutional monarchy

Mozambique
  republic

Namibia
  republic

Nauru
  republic

Nepal
  parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy

Netherlands
  constitutional monarchy

Netherlands Antilles
  parliamentary

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  parliamentary democracy

Nicaragua
  republic

Niger
  republic

Nigeria
  federal republic

Niue
  self-governing parliamentary democracy

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  commonwealth; self-governing with locally
  elected governor, lieutenant governor, and legislature

Norway
  constitutional monarchy

Oman
  monarchy

Pakistan
  federal republic

Palau
  constitutional government in free association with the US; the
  Compact of Free Association entered into force 1 October 1994

Panama
  constitutional democracy

Papua New Guinea
  constitutional parliamentary democracy

Paraguay
  constitutional republic

Peru
  constitutional republic

Philippines
  republic

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  republic

Portugal
  parliamentary democracy

Puerto Rico
  commonwealth

Qatar
  traditional emirate

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  republic

Russia
  federation

Rwanda
  republic; presidential, multiparty system

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  parliamentary democracy

Saint Lucia
  parliamentary democracy

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  parliamentary democracy

Samoa
  mix of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy

San Marino
  independent republic

Sao Tome and Principe
  republic

Saudi Arabia
  monarchy

Senegal
  republic

Serbia
  republic

Seychelles
  republic

Sierra Leone
  constitutional democracy

Singapore
  parliamentary republic

Slovakia
  parliamentary democracy

Slovenia
  parliamentary republic

Solomon Islands
  parliamentary democracy

Somalia
  no permanent national government; transitional,
  parliamentary federal government

South Africa
  republic

Spain
  parliamentary monarchy

Sri Lanka
  republic

Sudan
  Government of National Unity (GNU) - the National Congress
  Party (NCP) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) formed a
  power-sharing government under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace
  Agreement (CPA); the NCP, which came to power by military coup in
  1989, is the majority partner; the agreement stipulates national
  elections for the 2008 - 2009 timeframe.

Suriname
  constitutional democracy

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  monarchy

Sweden
  constitutional monarchy

Switzerland
  formally a confederation, but similar in structure to a
  federal republic

Syria
  republic under an authoritarian, military-dominated regime

Taiwan
  multiparty democracy

Tajikistan
  republic

Tanzania
  republic

Thailand
  constitutional monarchy

Togo
  republic under transition to multiparty democratic rule

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  constitutional monarchy

Trinidad and Tobago
  parliamentary democracy

Tunisia
  republic

Turkey
  republican parliamentary democracy

Turkmenistan
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little
  power outside the executive branch

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy

Uganda
  republic

Ukraine
  republic

United Arab Emirates
  federation with specified powers delegated to
  the UAE federal government and other powers reserved to member
  emirates

United Kingdom
  constitutional monarchy

United States
  Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic
  tradition

Uruguay
  constitutional republic

Uzbekistan
  republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little
  power outside the executive branch

Vanuatu
  parliamentary republic

Venezuela
  federal republic

Vietnam
  Communist state

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

Western Sahara
  legal status of territory and issue of sovereignty
  unresolved; territory contested by Morocco and Polisario Front
  (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de
  Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed a
  government-in-exile of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR),
  led by President Mohamed ABDELAZIZ; territory partitioned between
  Morocco and Mauritania in April 1976, with Morocco acquiring
  northern two-thirds; Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario
  guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979;
  Morocco moved to occupy that sector shortly thereafter and has since
  asserted administrative control; the Polisario's government-in-exile
  was seated as an Organization of African Unity (OAU) member in 1984;
  guerrilla activities continued sporadically, until a UN-monitored
  cease-fire was implemented 6 September 1991

Yemen
  republic

Zambia
  republic

Zimbabwe
  parliamentary democracy

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2129  Unemployment rate (%)


Afghanistan
  40% (2005 est.)

Albania
  14.3% official rate, but may exceed 30% (2005 est.)

Algeria
  17.1% (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  29.8% (2005)

Andorra
  0% (1996 est.)

Angola
  extensive unemployment and underemployment affecting more
  than half the population (2001 est.)

Anguilla
  8% (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  11% (2001 est.)

Argentina
  11.6% (2005 est.)

Armenia
  31.6% (2004 est.)

Aruba
  6.9% (2005 est.)

Australia
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Austria
  5.2% (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  1.1% official rate (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  10.2% (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  15% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  2.5% (includes underemployment) (2005 est.)

Barbados
  10.7% (2003 est.)

Belarus
  1.6% officially registered unemployed; large number of
  underemployed workers (2005)

Belgium
  8.4% (2005 est.)

Belize
  12.9% (2003)

Benin
  NA%

Bermuda
  2.1% (2004 est.)

Bhutan
  NA%

Bolivia
  8% in urban areas; widespread underemployment (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  45.5% official rate; grey economy may reduce
  actual unemployment to 25-30% (31 December 2004 est.)

Botswana
  23.8% (2004)

Brazil
  9.8% (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  3.6% (1997)

Brunei
  4.8% (2004)

Bulgaria
  9.9% (2005)

Burkina Faso
  NA%

Burma
  5% (2005 est.)

Burundi
  NA%

Cambodia
  2.5% (2000 est.)

Cameroon
  30% (2001 est.)

Canada
  6.8% (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  21% (2000 est.)

Cayman Islands
  4.4% (2004)

Central African Republic
  8% (23% for Bangui) (2001 est.)

Chad
  NA%

Chile
  8.1% (2005 est.)

China
  9% official registered unemployment in urban areas in 2004;
  substantial unemployment and underemployment in rural areas; an
  official Chinese journal estimated overall unemployment (including
  rural areas) for 2003 at 20% (2005 est.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  60% (2000 est.)

Colombia
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Comoros
  20% (1996 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA%

Congo, Republic of the
  NA%

Cook Islands
  13.1% (2005)

Costa Rica
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  13% in urban areas (1998)

Croatia
  18% official rate; labor force surveys indicate unemployment
  around 14% (2005 est.)

Cuba
  1.9% (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 4% (2005 est.); north Cyprus: 5.6% (2004
  est.)

Czech Republic
  7.9% (2005)

Denmark
  5.7% (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  50% (2004 est.)

Dominica
  23% (2000 est.)

Dominican Republic
  17% (2005 est.)

East Timor
  50% estimated; note - unemployment in urban areas reached
  20%; data do not include underemployed (2001 est.)

Ecuador
  10.7% official rate; but underemployment of 47% (2005 est.)

Egypt
  9.5% (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  6.5% official rate; but the economy has much
  underemployment (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  30% (1998 est.)

Eritrea
  NA%

Estonia
  7.8% (2005)

Ethiopia
  NA%

European Union
  9.4% (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  full employment; labor shortage
  (2001)

Faroe Islands
  1% (October 2000)

Fiji
  7.6% (1999)

Finland
  8.4% (2005 est.)

France
  9.9% (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  19.2% (December 2003)

French Polynesia
  11.8% (1994)

Gabon
  21% (1997 est.)

Gambia, The
  NA%

Gaza Strip
  31% (includes West Bank) (January-September 2005 avg.)

Georgia
  12.6% (2004 est.)

Germany
  11.7% (2005 est.)

Ghana
  20% (1997 est.)

Gibraltar
  2% (2001 est.)

Greece
  9.9% (2005 est.)

Greenland
  10% (2000 est.)

Grenada
  12.5% (2000)

Guadeloupe
  26.9% (2003)

Guam
  11.4% (2002 est.)

Guatemala
  7.5% (2003 est.)

Guernsey
  0.5% (1999 est.)

Guinea
  NA%

Guinea-Bissau
  NA%

Guyana
  9.1% (understated) (2000)

Haiti
  widespread unemployment and underemployment; more than
  two-thirds of the labor force do not have formal jobs (2002 est.)

Honduras
  28% (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  5.5% (2005 est.)

Hungary
  7.2% (2005)

Iceland
  2.1% (2005 est.)

India
  8.9% (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  11.8% (2005 est.)

Iran
  11.2% (2004 est.)

Iraq
  25% to 30% (2005 est.)

Ireland
  4.3% (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  0.6% (2004 est.)

Israel
  9% (2005 est.)

Italy
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  11.5% (2005 est.)

Japan
  4.4% (2005 est.)

Jersey
  0.9% (2004 est.)

Jordan
  12.5% official rate; unofficial rate is approximately 30%
  (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  8.1% (2005 est.)

Kenya
  40% (2001 est.)

Kiribati
  2% official rate; underemployment 70% (1992 est.)

Korea, North
  NA%

Korea, South
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  2.2% (2004 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  18% (2004 est.)

Laos
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Latvia
  7.5% (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  18% (1997 est.)

Lesotho
  45% (2002)

Liberia
  85% (2003 est.)

Libya
  30% (2004 est.)

Liechtenstein
  1.3% (September 2002)

Lithuania
  8.2% (2005)

Luxembourg
  4.5% (2005 est.)

Macau
  4.1% (3rd Quarter 2005)

Macedonia
  37.3% (2005 est.)

Malawi
  NA%

Malaysia
  3.6% (2005 est.)

Maldives
  NEGL% (2003 est.)

Mali
  14.6% (2001 est.)

Malta
  7.8% (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  30.9% (2000 est.)

Martinique
  27.2% (1998)

Mauritania
  20% (2004 est.)

Mauritius
  9.6% (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  32.8% (2003)

Mexico
  3.6% plus underemployment of perhaps 25% (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  22% (2000 est.)

Moldova
  8%; note - roughly 25% of working age Moldovans are employed
  abroad (2002 est.)

Monaco
  22% (1999)

Mongolia
  6.7% (2003)

Montenegro
  27.7% (2005)

Montserrat
  6% (1998 est.)

Morocco
  11% (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  21% (1997 est.)

Namibia
  35% (1998)

Nauru
  90% (2004 est.)

Nepal
  42% (2004 est.)

Netherlands
  6.6% (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  17% (2002 est.)

New Caledonia
  17.1% (2004)

New Zealand
  3.7% (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  5.6% plus underemployment of 46.5% (2005 est.)

Niger
  NA%

Nigeria
  2.9% (2005 est.)

Niue
  12% NA%

Norfolk Island
  0%

Northern Mariana Islands
  3.9% NA%

Norway
  4.6% (2005 est.)

Oman
  15% (2004 est.)

Pakistan
  6.6% plus substantial underemployment (2005 est.)

Palau
  4.2% (2005 est.)

Panama
  9.8% (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  2.8% up to 80% in urban areas (2004)

Paraguay
  16% (2005 est.)

Peru
  7.6% in metropolitan Lima; widespread underemployment (2005
  est.)

Philippines
  8.7% (2005 est.)

Poland
  18.2% (2005 est.)

Portugal
  7.6% (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  12% (2002)

Qatar
  2.7% (2001)

Reunion
  31% (2002)

Romania
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Russia
  7.6% plus considerable underemployment (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  NA%

Saint Helena
  14% (1998 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  4.5% (1997)

Saint Lucia
  20% (2003 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  10.3% (1999)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  15% (2001 est.)

Samoa
  NA%

San Marino
  2.6% (2001)

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA%

Saudi Arabia
  13% among Saudi males only (local bank estimate; some
  estimates range as high as 25%) (2004 est.)

Senegal
  48%; note - urban youth 40% (2001 est.)

Serbia
  31.6%
  note: unemployment is approximately 50% in Kosovo (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  NA%

Sierra Leone
  NA%

Singapore
  3.1% (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  16.4% (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  6.3% (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  NA%

Somalia
  NA%

South Africa
  26.6% (2005 est.)

Spain
  9.2% (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  7.7% (2005 est.)

Sudan
  18.7% (2002 est.)

Suriname
  9.5% (2004)

Swaziland
  40% (2005 est.)

Sweden
  5.8% (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  3.8% (2005 est.)

Syria
  12.3% (2004 est.)

Taiwan
  4.1% (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  12% (2004 est.)

Tanzania
  NA%

Thailand
  1.8% (2005 est.)

Togo
  NA%

Tokelau
  NA%

Tonga
  13% (FY03/04 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  8% (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  14.2% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  10.2% plus underemployment of 4% (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  60% (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  10% (1997 est.)

Tuvalu
  NA%

Uganda
  NA%

Ukraine
  3.1% officially registered; large number of unregistered or
  underemployed workers; the International Labor Organization
  calculates that Ukraine's real unemployment level is around 9-10%
  (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  2.4% (2001)

United Kingdom
  4.7% (2005 est.)

United States
  5.1% (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  12.2% (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  0.7% officially, plus another 20% underemployed (2005
  est.)

Vanuatu
  1.7% NA%

Venezuela
  12.2% (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  2.4% (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  6.2% (2004)

Wallis and Futuna
  15.2% NA%

West Bank
  19.9% (includes Gaza Strip) (January-September 2005)

Western Sahara
  NA%

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

Yemen
  35% (2003 est.)

Zambia
  50% (2000 est.)

Zimbabwe
  80% (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2137  Military - note


Akrotiri
  Akrotiri has a full RAF base, Headquarters for British
  Forces on Cyprus, and Episkopi Support Unit

American Samoa
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Andorra
  defense is the responsibility of France and Spain

Anguilla
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Antarctica
  the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any measures of a military
  nature, such as the establishment of military bases and
  fortifications, the carrying out of military maneuvers, or the
  testing of any type of weapon; it permits the use of military
  personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other
  peaceful purposes

Argentina
  the Argentine military is a well-organized force
  constrained by the country's prolonged economic hardship; the
  country has recently experienced a strong recovery, and the military
  is now implementing "Plan 2000," aimed at making the ground forces
  lighter and more responsive (2005)

Aruba
  defense is the responsibility of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  defense is the responsibility of
  Australia; periodic visits by the Royal Australian Navy and Royal
  Australian Air Force

Baker Island
  defense is the responsibility of the US; visited
  annually by the US Coast Guard

Barbados
  the Royal Barbados Defense Force includes a land-based
  Troop Command and a small Coast Guard; the primary role of the land
  element is to defend the island against external aggression; the
  Command consists of a single, part-time battalion with a small
  regular cadre that is deployed throughout the island; it
  increasingly supports the police in patrolling the coastline to
  prevent smuggling and other illicit activities (2005)

Bassas da India
  defense is the responsibility of France

Bermuda
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Bouvet Island
  defense is the responsibility of Norway

British Indian Ocean Territory
  defense is the responsibility of the
  UK; the US lease on Diego Garcia expires in 2016

British Virgin Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Cayman Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Christmas Island
  defense is the responsibility of Australia

Clipperton Island
  defense is the responsibility of France

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  defense is the responsibility of Australia;
  the territory has a five-person police force

Cook Islands
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand, in
  consultation with the Cook Islands and at its request

Coral Sea Islands
  defense is the responsibility of Australia;
  visited regularly by the Royal Australian Navy; Australia has
  control over the activities of visitors

Cuba
  Moscow, for decades the key military supporter and supplier of
  Cuba, cut off almost all military aid by 1993

Dhekelia
  includes Dhekelia Garrison and Ayios Nikolaos Station
  connected by a roadway

Europa Island
  defense is the responsibility of France

European Union
  In November 2004, the European Union heads of
  government signed a "Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe"
  that offers possibilities - with some limits - for increased defense
  and security cooperation. If ratified, in a process that may take
  some two years, this treaty will in effect make operational the
  European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) approved in the 2000
  Nice Treaty. Despite limits of cooperation for some EU members,
  development of a European military planning unit is likely to
  continue. So is creation of a rapid-reaction military force and a
  humanitarian aid system, which the planning unit will support.
  France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy
  continue to press for wider coordination. The five-nation Eurocorps
  - created in 1992 by France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg
  - has already deployed troops and police on peacekeeping missions to
  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Democratic Republic of
  Congo and assumed command of the International Security Assistance
  Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August 2004. Eurocorps directly
  commands the 5,000-man Franco-German Brigade, the Multinational
  Command Support Brigade, and EUFOR, which took over from SFOR in
  Bosnia in December 2004. Other troop contributions are under
  national command - commitments to provide 67,100 troops were made at
  the Helsinki EU session in 2000. Some 56,000 EU troops were actually
  deployed in 2003. In August 2004, the new European Defense Agency,
  tasked with promoting cooperative European defense capabilities,
  began operations. In November 2004, the EU Council of Ministers
  formally committed to creating thirteen 1,500-man "battle groups" by
  the end of 2007, to respond to international crises on a rotating
  basis. Twenty-two of the EU's 25 nations have agreed to supply
  troops. France, Italy, and the UK are to form the first three battle
  groups in 2005, with Spain to follow. In May 2005, Norway, Sweden,
  and Finland agreed to establish one of the battle groups, possibly
  to include Estonian forces. The remaining groups are to be formed by
  2007. (2005)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  defense is the responsibility of
  the UK

Faroe Islands
  defense is the responsibility of Denmark

French Guiana
  defense is the responsibility of France

French Polynesia
  defense is the responsibility of France

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  defense is the responsibility of
  France

Georgia
  a CIS peacekeeping force of Russian troops is deployed in
  the Abkhazia region of Georgia together with a UN military observer
  group; a Russian peacekeeping battalion is deployed in South Ossetia

Gibraltar
  defense is the responsibility of the UK; the last British
  regular infantry forces left Gibraltar in 1992, replaced by the
  Royal Gibraltar Regiment

Glorioso Islands
  defense is the responsibility of France

Greenland
  defense is the responsibility of Denmark

Guadeloupe
  defense is the responsibility of France

Guam
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Guernsey
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  defense is the responsibility of
  Australia; Australia conducts fisheries patrols

Holy See (Vatican City)
  defense is the responsibility of Italy;
  ceremonial and limited security duties performed by Pontifical Swiss
  Guard

Hong Kong
  defense is the responsibility of China

Howland Island
  defense is the responsibility of the US; visited
  annually by the US Coast Guard

Iceland
  under a 1951 bilateral agreement, Iceland's defense was
  provided by a US-manned Icelandic Defense Force (IDF) headquartered
  in Keflavik; in October 2006, all US military forces in Iceland were
  withdrawn; nonetheless, the US and Iceland signed a Joint
  Understanding to strengthen their bilateral defense relationship,
  including regular security consultations, military communications in
  the event of national emergencies, annual bilateral exercises on
  Icelandic territory, and future bilateral and NATO support to four
  Iceland Air Defense System (IADS) radar sites

Iles Eparses
  defense is the responsibility of France

Isle of Man
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Jan Mayen
  defense is the responsibility of Norway

Jarvis Island
  defense is the responsibility of the US; visited
  annually by the US Coast Guard

Jersey
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Johnston Atoll
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Juan de Nova Island
  defense is the responsibility of France

Kingman Reef
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Kiribati
  Kiribati does not have military forces; defense assistance
  is provided by Australia and NZ

Laos
  Laos is one of the world's least developed countries; the Lao
  People's Armed Forces are small, poorly funded, and ineffectively
  resourced; there is little political will to allocate sparse funding
  to the military, and the armed forces' gradual degradation is likely
  to continue; the massive drug production and trafficking industry
  centered in the Golden Triangle makes Laos an important narcotics
  transit country, and armed Wa and Chinese smugglers are active on
  the Lao-Burma border (2005)

Lesotho
  the Lesotho Government in 1999 began an open debate on the
  future structure, size, and role of the armed forces, especially
  considering the Lesotho Defense Force's (LDF) history of intervening
  in political affairs

Liechtenstein
  defense is the responsibility of Switzerland

Macau
  defense is the responsiblity of China

Marshall Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Martinique
  defense is the responsibility of France

Mayotte
  defense is the responsibility of France; small contingent of
  French forces stationed on the island

Micronesia, Federated States of
  defense is the responsibility of the
  US

Midway Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Monaco
  defense is the responsibility of France; the Palace Guard
  performs ceremonial duties (2003)

Montenegro
  Montenegrin plans call for the establishment of a fully
  professional armed forces

Montserrat
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Nauru
  Nauru maintains no defense forces; under an informal
  agreement, defense is the responsibility of Australia

Navassa Island
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Netherlands Antilles
  defense is the responsibility of the Kingdom of
  the Netherlands

New Caledonia
  defense is the responsibility of France

Niue
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand

Norfolk Island
  defense is the responsibility of Australia

Northern Mariana Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Palau
  defense is the responsibility of the US; under a Compact of
  Free Association between Palau and the US, the US military is
  granted access to the islands for 50 years, but it has not stationed
  any military forces there (2005)

Palmyra Atoll
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Panama
  on 10 February 1990, the government of then President ENDARA
  abolished Panama's military and reformed the security apparatus by
  creating the Panamanian Public Forces; in October 1994, Panama's
  Legislative Assembly approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting
  the creation of a standing military force, but allowing the
  temporary establishment of special police units to counter acts of
  "external aggression"

Paracel Islands
  occupied by China

Pitcairn Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Puerto Rico
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Reunion
  defense is the responsibility of France

Saint Helena
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  defense is the responsibility of France

Samoa
  Samoa has no formal defense structure or regular armed forces;
  informal defense ties exist with NZ, which is required to consider
  any Samoan request for assistance under the 1962 Treaty of Friendship

San Marino
  defense is the responsibility of Italy

Sao Tome and Principe
  Sao Tome and Principe's army is a tiny force
  with almost no resources at its disposal and would be wholly
  ineffective operating unilaterally; infantry equipment is considered
  simple to operate and maintain but may require refurbishment or
  replacement after 25 years in tropical climates; poor pay and
  conditions have been a problem in the past, as has alleged nepotism
  in the promotion of officers, as reflected in the 1995 and 2003
  coups; these issues are being addressed with foreign assistance as
  initial steps towards the improvement of the army and its focus on
  realistic security concerns; command is exercised from the
  president, through the Minister of Defense, to the Chief of the
  Armed Forces staff (2005)

South Africa
  with the end of apartheid and the establishment of
  majority rule, former military, black homelands forces, and
  ex-opposition forces were integrated into the South African National
  Defense Force (SANDF); as of 2003 the integration process was
  considered complete

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  defense is the
  responsibility of the UK

Spratly Islands
  Spratly Islands consist of more than 100 small
  islands or reefs, of which about 45 are claimed and occupied by
  China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam

Svalbard
  demilitarized by treaty on 9 February 1920

Tokelau
  defense is the responsibility of New Zealand

Tromelin Island
  defense is the responsibility of France

Turkey
  in the early 1990s, the Turkish Land Force was a large but
  badly equipped infantry force; there were 14 infantry divisions, but
  only one was mechanized, and out of 16 infantry brigades, only six
  were mechanized; the overhaul that has taken place since has
  produced highly mobile forces with greatly enhanced firepower in
  accordance with NATO's new strategic concept (2005)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the UK

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  defense is the
  responsibility of the US

Virgin Islands
  defense is the responsibility of the US

Wake Island
  defense is the responsibility of the US; launch support
  facility is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test
  Site (RTS) administered by US Army Space and Missile Defense Command
  (SMDC)

Wallis and Futuna
  defense is the responsibility of France

Yemen
  a Coast Guard was established in 2002

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2138  Communications - note


Afghanistan
  in March 2003, 'af' was established as Afghanistan's
  domain name; Internet access is growing through Internet cafes as
  well as public "telekiosks" in Kabul (2002)

Bouvet Island
  automatic meteorological station

Coral Sea Islands
  there are automatic weather stations on many of
  the isles and reefs relaying data to the mainland

Europa Island
  1 meteorological station

Glorioso Islands
  1 meteorological station

Iles Eparses
  Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island,
  Tromelin Island: 1 meteorological station on each possession; note -
  meteorological station on Tromelin Island is important for
  forecasting cyclones

Juan de Nova Island
  1 meteorological station

Saint Helena
  South Africa maintains a meteorological station on
  Gough Island

Tromelin Island
  important meteorological station

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2140  Government - note


French Polynesia
  under certain acts of France, French Polynesia has
  acquired autonomy in all areas except those relating to police and
  justice, monetary policy, tertiary education, immigration, and
  defense and foreign affairs; the duties of its president are
  fashioned after those of the French prime minister

Malawi
  the executive exerts considerable influence over the
  legislature

Solomon Islands
  June 2003 Prime Minister Sir Allan KEMAKEZA sought
  the intervention of Australia to aid in restoring order; parliament
  approved the request for intervention in July 2003; troops from
  Australia, NZ, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga arrived 24 July
  2003; by 2006, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon
  Islands (RAMSI) had been scaled back to 259 police officers and 20
  military, in addition to civilian technical advisers; in response to
  rioting that broke out in mid-April 2006, Australia dispatched an
  addtional 220 troops and 70 police officers to help restore order

Somalia
  although an interim government was created in 2004, other
  regional and local governing bodies continue to exist and control
  various cities and regions of the country, including the
  self-declared Republic of Somaliland in northwestern Somalia, the
  semi-autonomous State of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, and
  traditional clan and faction strongholds

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2142  Country name


Afghanistan
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  conventional short form: Afghanistan
  local long form: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Afghanestan
  local short form: Afghanestan
  former: Republic of Afghanistan

Akrotiri
  conventional long form: Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area
  conventional short form: Akrotiri

Albania
  conventional long form: Republic of Albania
  conventional short form: Albania
  local long form: Republika e Shqiperise
  local short form: Shqiperia
  former: People's Socialist Republic of Albania

Algeria
  conventional long form: People's Democratic Republic of
  Algeria
  conventional short form: Algeria
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash
  Sha'biyah
  local short form: Al Jaza'ir

American Samoa
  conventional long form: Territory of American Samoa
  conventional short form: American Samoa
  abbreviation: AS

Andorra
  conventional long form: Principality of Andorra
  conventional short form: Andorra
  local long form: Principat d'Andorra
  local short form: Andorra

Angola
  conventional long form: Republic of Angola
  conventional short form: Angola
  local long form: Republica de Angola
  local short form: Angola
  former: People's Republic of Angola

Anguilla
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Anguilla

Antarctica
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Antarctica

Antigua and Barbuda
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina
  conventional long form: Argentine Republic
  conventional short form: Argentina
  local long form: Republica Argentina
  local short form: Argentina

Armenia
  conventional long form: Republic of Armenia
  conventional short form: Armenia
  local long form: Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun
  local short form: Hayastan
  former: Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic; Armenian Republic

Aruba
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Aruba

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  conventional long form: Territory of
  Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  conventional short form: Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Australia
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Australia
  conventional short form: Australia

Austria
  conventional long form: Republic of Austria
  conventional short form: Austria
  local long form: Republik Oesterreich
  local short form: Oesterreich

Azerbaijan
  conventional long form: Republic of Azerbaijan
  conventional short form: Azerbaijan
  local long form: Azarbaycan Respublikasi
  local short form: Azarbaycan
  former: Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic

Bahamas, The
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of The Bahamas
  conventional short form: The Bahamas

Bahrain
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Bahrain
  conventional short form: Bahrain
  local long form: Mamlakat al Bahrayn
  local short form: Al Bahrayn
  former: Dilmun

Baker Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Baker Island

Bangladesh
  conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh
  conventional short form: Bangladesh
  local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh
  local short form: Banladesh
  former: East Bengal, East Pakistan

Barbados
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Barbados

Bassas da India
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bassas da India

Belarus
  conventional long form: Republic of Belarus
  conventional short form: Belarus
  local long form: Respublika Byelarus'
  local short form: Byelarus'
  former: Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet Socialist Republic

Belgium
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Belgium
  conventional short form: Belgium
  local long form: Royaume de Belgique/Koninkrijk Belgie
  local short form: Belgique/Belgie

Belize
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Belize
  former: British Honduras

Benin
  conventional long form: Republic of Benin
  conventional short form: Benin
  local long form: Republique du Benin
  local short form: Benin
  former: Dahomey

Bermuda
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bermuda
  former: Somers Islands

Bhutan
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Bhutan
  conventional short form: Bhutan
  local long form: Druk Gyalkhap
  local short form: Druk Yul

Bolivia
  conventional long form: Republic of Bolivia
  conventional short form: Bolivia
  local long form: Republica de Bolivia
  local short form: Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  local long form: none
  local short form: Bosna i Hercegovina
  former: People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Socialist
  Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Botswana
  conventional long form: Republic of Botswana
  conventional short form: Botswana
  local long form: Republic of Botswana
  local short form: Botswana
  former: Bechuanaland

Bouvet Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bouvet Island

Brazil
  conventional long form: Federative Republic of Brazil
  conventional short form: Brazil
  local long form: Republica Federativa do Brasil
  local short form: Brasil

British Indian Ocean Territory
  conventional long form: British
  Indian Ocean Territory
  conventional short form: none
  abbreviation: BIOT

British Virgin Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: British Virgin Islands
  abbreviation: BVI

Brunei
  conventional long form: Negara Brunei Darussalam
  conventional short form: Brunei
  local long form: Negara Brunei Darussalam
  local short form: Brunei

Bulgaria
  conventional long form: Republic of Bulgaria
  conventional short form: Bulgaria
  local long form: Republika Balgariya
  local short form: Balgariya

Burkina Faso
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Burkina Faso
  local long form: none
  local short form: Burkina Faso
  former: Upper Volta, Republic of Upper Volta

Burma
  conventional long form: Union of Burma
  conventional short form: Burma
  local long form: Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (translated by the
  US Government as Union of Myanma and by the Burmese as Union of
  Myanmar)
  local short form: Myanma Naingngandaw
  former: Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma
  note: since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the
  name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision
  was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US
  Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the
  Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw

Burundi
  conventional long form: Republic of Burundi
  conventional short form: Burundi
  local long form: Republique du Burundi/Republika y'u Burundi
  local short form: Burundi
  former: Urundi

Cambodia
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Cambodia
  conventional short form: Cambodia
  local long form: Preahreacheanachakr Kampuchea (phonetic
  pronunciation)
  local short form: Kampuchea
  former: Kingdom of Cambodia, Khmer Republic, Democratic Kampuchea,
  People's Republic of Kampuchea, State of Cambodia

Cameroon
  conventional long form: Republic of Cameroon
  conventional short form: Cameroon
  local long form: Republique du Cameroun/Republic of Cameroon
  local short form: Cameroun/Cameroon
  former: French Cameroon, British Cameroon, Federal Republic of
  Cameroon, United Republic of Cameroon

Canada
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Canada

Cape Verde
  conventional long form: Republic of Cape Verde
  conventional short form: Cape Verde
  local long form: Republica de Cabo Verde
  local short form: Cabo Verde

Cayman Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Cayman Islands

Central African Republic
  conventional long form: Central African
  Republic
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Republique Centrafricaine
  local short form: none
  former: Ubangi-Shari, Central African Empire
  abbreviation: CAR

Chad
  conventional long form: Republic of Chad
  conventional short form: Chad
  local long form: Republique du Tchad/Jumhuriyat Tshad
  local short form: Tchad/Tshad

Chile
  conventional long form: Republic of Chile
  conventional short form: Chile
  local long form: Republica de Chile
  local short form: Chile

China
  conventional long form: People's Republic of China
  conventional short form: China
  local long form: Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo
  local short form: Zhongguo
  abbreviation: PRC

Christmas Island
  conventional long form: Territory of Christmas
  Island
  conventional short form: Christmas Island

Clipperton Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Clipperton Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile Clipperton
  former: sometimes called Ile de la Passion

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  conventional long form: Territory of Cocos
  (Keeling) Islands
  conventional short form: Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Colombia
  conventional long form: Republic of Colombia
  conventional short form: Colombia
  local long form: Republica de Colombia
  local short form: Colombia

Comoros
  conventional long form: Union of the Comoros
  conventional short form: Comoros
  local long form: Union des Comores
  local short form: Comores

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  conventional long form: Democratic
  Republic of the Congo
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Republique Democratique du Congo
  local short form: none
  former: Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo/Leopoldville,
  Congo/Kinshasa, Zaire
  abbreviation: DRC

Congo, Republic of the
  conventional long form: Republic of the Congo
  conventional short form: Congo (Brazzaville)
  local long form: Republique du Congo
  local short form: none
  former: Middle Congo, Congo/Brazzaville, Congo

Cook Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Cook Islands
  former: Harvey Islands

Coral Sea Islands
  conventional long form: Coral Sea Islands Territory
  conventional short form: Coral Sea Islands

Costa Rica
  conventional long form: Republic of Costa Rica
  conventional short form: Costa Rica
  local long form: Republica de Costa Rica
  local short form: Costa Rica

Cote d'Ivoire
  conventional long form: Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
  conventional short form: Cote d'Ivoire
  local long form: Republique de Cote d'Ivoire
  local short form: Cote d'Ivoire
  former: Ivory Coast

Croatia
  conventional long form: Republic of Croatia
  conventional short form: Croatia
  local long form: Republika Hrvatska
  local short form: Hrvatska
  former: People's Republic of Croatia, Socialist Republic of Croatia

Cuba
  conventional long form: Republic of Cuba
  conventional short form: Cuba
  local long form: Republica de Cuba
  local short form: Cuba

Cyprus
  conventional long form: Republic of Cyprus
  conventional short form: Cyprus
  local long form: Kypriaki Dimokratia/Kibris Cumhuriyeti
  local short form: Kypros/Kibris
  note: the Turkish Cypriot community (north Cyprus) refers to itself
  as the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC)

Czech Republic
  conventional long form: Czech Republic
  conventional short form: Czech Republic
  local long form: Ceska Republika
  local short form: Cesko

Denmark
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Denmark
  conventional short form: Denmark
  local long form: Kongeriget Danmark
  local short form: Danmark

Dhekelia
  conventional long form: Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area
  conventional short form: Dhekelia

Djibouti
  conventional long form: Republic of Djibouti
  conventional short form: Djibouti
  local long form: Republique de Djibouti/Jumhuriyat Jibuti
  local short form: Djibouti/Jibuti
  former: French Territory of the Afars and Issas, French Somaliland

Dominica
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Dominica
  conventional short form: Dominica

Dominican Republic
  conventional long form: Dominican Republic
  conventional short form: The Dominican
  local long form: Republica Dominicana
  local short form: La Dominicana

East Timor
  conventional long form: Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
  conventional short form: East Timor
  local long form: Republika Demokratika Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum];
  Republica Democratica de Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
  local short form: Timor Lorosa'e [Tetum]; Timor-Leste [Portuguese]
  former: Portuguese Timor

Ecuador
  conventional long form: Republic of Ecuador
  conventional short form: Ecuador
  local long form: Republica del Ecuador
  local short form: Ecuador

Egypt
  conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt
  conventional short form: Egypt
  local long form: Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah
  local short form: Misr
  former: United Arab Republic (with Syria)

El Salvador
  conventional long form: Republic of El Salvador
  conventional short form: El Salvador
  local long form: Republica de El Salvador
  local short form: El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea
  conventional long form: Republic of Equatorial
  Guinea
  conventional short form: Equatorial Guinea
  local long form: Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial/Republique de Guinee
  equatoriale
  local short form: Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinee equatoriale
  former: Spanish Guinea

Eritrea
  conventional long form: State of Eritrea
  conventional short form: Eritrea
  local long form: Hagere Ertra
  local short form: Ertra
  former: Eritrea Autonomous Region in Ethiopia

Estonia
  conventional long form: Republic of Estonia
  conventional short form: Estonia
  local long form: Eesti Vabariik
  local short form: Eesti
  former: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

Ethiopia
  conventional long form: Federal Democratic Republic of
  Ethiopia
  conventional short form: Ethiopia
  local long form: Ityop'iya Federalawi Demokrasiyawi Ripeblik
  local short form: Ityop'iya
  former: Abyssinia, Italian East Africa
  abbreviation: FDRE

Europa Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Europa Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile Europa

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

Faroe Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Faroe Islands
  local long form: none
  local short form: Foroyar

Fiji
  conventional long form: Republic of the Fiji Islands
  conventional short form: Fiji
  local long form: Republic of the Fiji Islands/Matanitu ko Viti
  local short form: Fiji/Viti

Finland
  conventional long form: Republic of Finland
  conventional short form: Finland
  local long form: Suomen tasavalta/Republiken Finland
  local short form: Suomi/Finland

France
  conventional long form: French Republic
  conventional short form: France
  local long form: Republique francaise
  local short form: France

French Guiana
  conventional long form: Department of Guiana
  conventional short form: French Guiana
  local long form: none
  local short form: Guyane

French Polynesia
  conventional long form: Overseas Lands of French
  Polynesia
  conventional short form: French Polynesia
  local long form: Pays d'outre-mer de la Polynesie Francaise
  local short form: Polynesie Francaise
  former: French Colony of Oceania

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  conventional long form:
  Territory of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  conventional short form: French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  local long form: Territoire des Terres Australes et Antarctiques
  Francaises
  local short form: Terres Australes et Antarctiques Francaises
  abbreviation: TAAF

Gabon
  conventional long form: Gabonese Republic
  conventional short form: Gabon
  local long form: Republique gabonaise
  local short form: Gabon

Gambia, The
  conventional long form: Republic of The Gambia
  conventional short form: The Gambia

Gaza Strip
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Gaza Strip
  local long form: none
  local short form: Qita Ghazzah

Georgia
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Georgia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Sak'art'velo
  former: Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

Germany
  conventional long form: Federal Republic of Germany
  conventional short form: Germany
  local long form: Bundesrepublik Deutschland
  local short form: Deutschland
  former: German Empire, German Republic, German Reich

Ghana
  conventional long form: Republic of Ghana
  conventional short form: Ghana
  former: Gold Coast

Gibraltar
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Gibraltar

Glorioso Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Glorioso Islands
  local long form: none
  local short form: Iles Glorieuses

Greece
  conventional long form: Hellenic Republic
  conventional short form: Greece
  local long form: Elliniki Dhimokratia
  local short form: Ellas or Ellada
  former: Kingdom of Greece

Greenland
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Greenland
  local long form: none
  local short form: Kalaallit Nunaat

Grenada
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Grenada

Guadeloupe
  conventional long form: Department of Guadeloupe
  conventional short form: Guadeloupe
  local long form: Departement de la Guadeloupe
  local short form: Guadeloupe

Guam
  conventional long form: Territory of Guam
  conventional short form: Guam
  local long form: Guahan
  local short form: Guahan

Guatemala
  conventional long form: Republic of Guatemala
  conventional short form: Guatemala
  local long form: Republica de Guatemala
  local short form: Guatemala

Guernsey
  conventional long form: Bailiwick of Guernsey
  conventional short form: Guernsey

Guinea
  conventional long form: Republic of Guinea
  conventional short form: Guinea
  local long form: Republique de Guinee
  local short form: Guinee
  former: French Guinea

Guinea-Bissau
  conventional long form: Republic of Guinea-Bissau
  conventional short form: Guinea-Bissau
  local long form: Republica da Guine-Bissau
  local short form: Guine-Bissau
  former: Portuguese Guinea

Guyana
  conventional long form: Cooperative Republic of Guyana
  conventional short form: Guyana
  former: British Guiana

Haiti
  conventional long form: Republic of Haiti
  conventional short form: Haiti
  local long form: Republique d'Haiti/Repiblik d' Ayiti
  local short form: Haiti/Ayiti

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  conventional long form: Territory
  of Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  conventional short form: Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  abbreviation: HIMI

Holy See (Vatican City)
  conventional long form: The Holy See (State
  of the Vatican City)
  conventional short form: Holy See (Vatican City)
  local long form: Santa Sede (Stato della Citta del Vaticano)
  local short form: Santa Sede (Citta del Vaticano)

Honduras
  conventional long form: Republic of Honduras
  conventional short form: Honduras
  local long form: Republica de Honduras
  local short form: Honduras

Hong Kong
  conventional long form: Hong Kong Special Administrative
  Region
  conventional short form: Hong Kong
  local long form: Xianggang Tebie Xingzhengqu
  local short form: Xianggang
  abbreviation: HK

Howland Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Howland Island

Hungary
  conventional long form: Republic of Hungary
  conventional short form: Hungary
  local long form: Magyar Koztarsasag
  local short form: Magyarorszag

Iceland
  conventional long form: Republic of Iceland
  conventional short form: Iceland
  local long form: Lydveldid Island
  local short form: Island

Iles Eparses
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Bassas da India, Europa Island, Glorioso
  Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Bassas da India, Ile Europa, Iles Glorieuses, Ile
  Juan de Nova, Ile Tromelin

India
  conventional long form: Republic of India
  conventional short form: India
  local long form: Republic of India/Bharatiya Ganarajya
  local short form: India/Bharat

Indonesia
  conventional long form: Republic of Indonesia
  conventional short form: Indonesia
  local long form: Republik Indonesia
  local short form: Indonesia
  former: Netherlands East Indies; Dutch East Indies

Iran
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Iran
  conventional short form: Iran
  local long form: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran
  local short form: Iran
  former: Persia

Iraq
  conventional long form: Republic of Iraq
  conventional short form: Iraq
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah
  local short form: Al Iraq

Ireland
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Ireland
  local long form: none
  local short form: Eire

Isle of Man
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Isle of Man

Israel
  conventional long form: State of Israel
  conventional short form: Israel
  local long form: Medinat Yisra'el
  local short form: Yisra'el

Italy
  conventional long form: Italian Republic
  conventional short form: Italy
  local long form: Repubblica Italiana
  local short form: Italia
  former: Kingdom of Italy

Jamaica
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Jamaica

Jan Mayen
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Jan Mayen

Japan
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Japan
  local long form: Nihon-koku/Nippon-koku
  local short form: Nihon/Nippon

Jarvis Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Jarvis Island

Jersey
  conventional long form: Bailiwick of Jersey
  conventional short form: Jersey

Johnston Atoll
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Johnston Atoll

Jordan
  conventional long form: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  conventional short form: Jordan
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Urduniyah al Hashimiyah
  local short form: Al Urdun
  former: Transjordan

Juan de Nova Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Juan de Nova Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile Juan de Nova

Kazakhstan
  conventional long form: Republic of Kazakhstan
  conventional short form: Kazakhstan
  local long form: Qazaqstan Respublikasy
  local short form: Qazaqstan
  former: Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

Kenya
  conventional long form: Republic of Kenya
  conventional short form: Kenya
  local long form: Republic of Kenya/Jamhuri y Kenya
  local short form: Kenya
  former: British East Africa

Kingman Reef
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Kingman Reef

Kiribati
  conventional long form: Republic of Kiribati
  conventional short form: Kiribati
  local long form: Republic of Kiribati
  local short form: Kiribati
  note: pronounced keer-ree-bahss
  former: Gilbert Islands

Korea, North
  conventional long form: Democratic People's Republic of
  Korea
  conventional short form: North Korea
  local long form: Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk
  local short form: Choson
  abbreviation: DPRK

Korea, South
  conventional long form: Republic of Korea
  conventional short form: South Korea
  local long form: Taehan-min'guk
  local short form: Han'guk
  abbreviation: ROK

Kuwait
  conventional long form: State of Kuwait
  conventional short form: Kuwait
  local long form: Dawlat al Kuwayt
  local short form: Al Kuwayt

Kyrgyzstan
  conventional long form: Kyrgyz Republic
  conventional short form: Kyrgyzstan
  local long form: Kyrgyz Respublikasy
  local short form: Kyrgyzstan
  former: Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic

Laos
  conventional long form: Lao People's Democratic Republic
  conventional short form: Laos PDR or Laos
  local long form: Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao
  local short form: none

Latvia
  conventional long form: Republic of Latvia
  conventional short form: Latvia
  local long form: Latvijas Republika
  local short form: Latvija
  former: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

Lebanon
  conventional long form: Lebanese Republic
  conventional short form: Lebanon
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Lubnaniyah
  local short form: Lubnan
  former: Greater Lebanon

Lesotho
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Lesotho
  conventional short form: Lesotho
  local long form: Kingdom of Lesotho
  local short form: Lesotho
  former: Basutoland

Liberia
  conventional long form: Republic of Liberia
  conventional short form: Liberia

Libya
  conventional long form: Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab
  Jamahiriya
  conventional short form: Libya
  local long form: Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah al Libiyah ash Shabiyah
  al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma
  local short form: none

Liechtenstein
  conventional long form: Principality of Liechtenstein
  conventional short form: Liechtenstein
  local long form: Fuerstentum Liechtenstein
  local short form: Liechtenstein

Lithuania
  conventional long form: Republic of Lithuania
  conventional short form: Lithuania
  local long form: Lietuvos Respublika
  local short form: Lietuva
  former: Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic

Luxembourg
  conventional long form: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
  conventional short form: Luxembourg
  local long form: Grand Duche de Luxembourg
  local short form: Luxembourg

Macau
  conventional long form: Macau Special Administrative Region
  conventional short form: Macau
  local long form: Aomen Tebie Xingzhengqu (Chinese); Regiao
  Administrativa Especial de Macau (Portuguese)
  local short form: Aomen (Chinese); Macau (Portuguese)

Macedonia
  conventional long form: Republic of Macedonia
  conventional short form: Macedonia
  local long form: Republika Makedonija
  local short form: Makedonija
  note: the provisional designation used by the UN, EU, and NATO is
  Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
  former: People's Republic of Macedonia, Socialist Republic of
  Macedonia

Madagascar
  conventional long form: Republic of Madagascar
  conventional short form: Madagascar
  local long form: Republique de Madagascar/Repoblikan'i Madagasikara
  local short form: Madagascar/Madagasikara
  former: Malagasy Republic

Malawi
  conventional long form: Republic of Malawi
  conventional short form: Malawi
  local long form: Dziko la Malawi
  local short form: Malawi
  former: British Central African Protectorate, Nyasaland
  Protectorate, Nyasaland

Malaysia
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Malaysia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Malaysia
  former: Federation of Malaysia

Maldives
  conventional long form: Republic of Maldives
  conventional short form: Maldives
  local long form: Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa
  local short form: Dhivehi Raajje

Mali
  conventional long form: Republic of Mali
  conventional short form: Mali
  local long form: Republique de Mali
  local short form: Mali
  former: French Sudan and Sudanese Republic

Malta
  conventional long form: Republic of Malta
  conventional short form: Malta
  local long form: Repubblika ta' Malta
  local short form: Malta

Marshall Islands
  conventional long form: Republic of the Marshall
  Islands
  conventional short form: Marshall Islands
  local long form: Republic of the Marshall Islands
  local short form: Marshall Islands
  abbreviation: RMI
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Marshall Islands
  District

Martinique
  conventional long form: Department of Martinique
  conventional short form: Martinique
  local long form: Departement de la Martinique
  local short form: Martinique

Mauritania
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Mauritania
  conventional short form: Mauritania
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Islamiyah al Muritaniyah
  local short form: Muritaniyah

Mauritius
  conventional long form: Republic of Mauritius
  conventional short form: Mauritius
  local long form: Republic of Mauritius
  local short form: Mauritius

Mayotte
  conventional long form: Territorial Collectivity of Mayotte
  conventional short form: Mayotte

Mexico
  conventional long form: United Mexican States
  conventional short form: Mexico
  local long form: Estados Unidos Mexicanos
  local short form: Mexico

Micronesia, Federated States of
  conventional long form: Federated
  States of Micronesia
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Federated States of Micronesia
  local short form: none
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Ponape, Truk, and
  Yap Districts
  abbreviation: FSM

Midway Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Midway Islands

Moldova
  conventional long form: Republic of Moldova
  conventional short form: Moldova
  local long form: Republica Moldova
  local short form: Moldova
  former: Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic; Moldovan Soviet
  Socialist Republic

Monaco
  conventional long form: Principality of Monaco
  conventional short form: Monaco
  local long form: Principaute de Monaco
  local short form: Monaco

Mongolia
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Mongolia
  local long form: none
  local short form: Mongol Uls
  former: Outer Mongolia

Montenegro
  conventional long form: Republic of Montenegro
  conventional short form: Montenegro
  local long form: Republika Crna Gora
  local short form: Crna Gora
  former: People's Republic of Montenegro, Socialist Republic of
  Montenegro

Montserrat
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Montserrat

Morocco
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Morocco
  conventional short form: Morocco
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah
  local short form: Al Maghrib

Mozambique
  conventional long form: Republic of Mozambique
  conventional short form: Mozambique
  local long form: Republica de Mocambique
  local short form: Mocambique
  former: Portuguese East Africa

Namibia
  conventional long form: Republic of Namibia
  conventional short form: Namibia
  local long form: Republic of Namibia
  local short form: Namibia
  former: German Southwest Africa, South-West Africa

Nauru
  conventional long form: Republic of Nauru
  conventional short form: Nauru
  local long form: Republic of Nauru
  local short form: Nauru
  former: Pleasant Island

Navassa Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Navassa Island

Nepal
  conventional long and short form: Nepal
  local long and short form: Nepal

Netherlands
  conventional long form: Kingdom of the Netherlands
  conventional short form: Netherlands
  local long form: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden
  local short form: Nederland

Netherlands Antilles
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Netherlands Antilles
  local long form: none
  local short form: Nederlandse Antillen
  former: Curacao and Dependencies

New Caledonia
  conventional long form: Territory of New Caledonia and
  Dependencies
  conventional short form: New Caledonia
  local long form: Territoire des Nouvelle-Caledonie et Dependances
  local short form: Nouvelle-Caledonie

New Zealand
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: New Zealand
  abbreviation: NZ

Nicaragua
  conventional long form: Republic of Nicaragua
  conventional short form: Nicaragua
  local long form: Republica de Nicaragua
  local short form: Nicaragua

Niger
  conventional long form: Republic of Niger
  conventional short form: Niger
  local long form: Republique du Niger
  local short form: Niger

Nigeria
  conventional long form: Federal Republic of Nigeria
  conventional short form: Nigeria

Niue
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Niue
  former: Savage Island

Norfolk Island
  conventional long form: Territory of Norfolk Island
  conventional short form: Norfolk Island

Northern Mariana Islands
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of the
  Northern Mariana Islands
  conventional short form: Northern Mariana Islands
  abbreviation: CNMI
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Mariana Islands
  District

Norway
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Norway
  conventional short form: Norway
  local long form: Kongeriket Norge
  local short form: Norge

Oman
  conventional long form: Sultanate of Oman
  conventional short form: Oman
  local long form: Saltanat Uman
  local short form: Uman
  former: Muscat and Oman

Pakistan
  conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Pakistan
  conventional short form: Pakistan
  local long form: Jamhuryat Islami Pakistan
  local short form: Pakistan
  former: West Pakistan

Palau
  conventional long form: Republic of Palau
  conventional short form: Palau
  local long form: Beluu er a Belau
  local short form: Belau
  former: Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Palau District

Palmyra Atoll
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Palmyra Atoll

Panama
  conventional long form: Republic of Panama
  conventional short form: Panama
  local long form: Republica de Panama
  local short form: Panama

Papua New Guinea
  conventional long form: Independent State of Papua
  New Guinea
  conventional short form: Papua New Guinea
  local short form: Papuaniugini
  former: Territory of Papua and New Guinea
  abbreviation: PNG

Paracel Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Paracel Islands

Paraguay
  conventional long form: Republic of Paraguay
  conventional short form: Paraguay
  local long form: Republica del Paraguay
  local short form: Paraguay

Peru
  conventional long form: Republic of Peru
  conventional short form: Peru
  local long form: Republica del Peru
  local short form: Peru

Philippines
  conventional long form: Republic of the Philippines
  conventional short form: Philippines
  local long form: Republika ng Pilipinas
  local short form: Pilipinas

Pitcairn Islands
  conventional long form: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie,
  and Oeno Islands
  conventional short form: Pitcairn Islands

Poland
  conventional long form: Republic of Poland
  conventional short form: Poland
  local long form: Rzeczpospolita Polska
  local short form: Polska

Portugal
  conventional long form: Portuguese Republic
  conventional short form: Portugal
  local long form: Republica Portuguesa
  local short form: Portugal

Puerto Rico
  conventional long form: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
  conventional short form: Puerto Rico

Qatar
  conventional long form: State of Qatar
  conventional short form: Qatar
  local long form: Dawlat Qatar
  local short form: Qatar
  note: closest approximation of the native pronunciation falls
  between cutter and gutter, but not like guitar

Reunion
  conventional long form: Department of Reunion
  conventional short form: Reunion
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile de la Reunion
  former: Bourbon Island

Romania
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Romania
  local long form: none
  local short form: Romania

Russia
  conventional long form: Russian Federation
  conventional short form: Russia
  local long form: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
  local short form: Rossiya
  former: Russian Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Rwanda
  conventional long form: Republic of Rwanda
  conventional short form: Rwanda
  local long form: Republika y'u Rwanda
  local short form: Rwanda
  former: Ruanda, German East Africa

Saint Helena
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Helena

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  conventional long form: Federation of Saint
  Kitts and Nevis
  conventional short form: Saint Kitts and Nevis
  former: Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis

Saint Lucia
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Lucia

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  conventional long form: Territorial
  Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  conventional short form: Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  local long form: Departement de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
  local short form: Saint-Pierre et Miquelon

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Samoa
  conventional long form: Independent State of Samoa
  conventional short form: Samoa
  local long form: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Samoa
  local short form: Samoa
  former: Western Samoa

San Marino
  conventional long form: Republic of San Marino
  conventional short form: San Marino
  local long form: Repubblica di San Marino
  local short form: San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe
  conventional long form: Democratic Republic of
  Sao Tome and Principe
  conventional short form: Sao Tome and Principe
  local long form: Republica Democratica de Sao Tome e Principe
  local short form: Sao Tome e Principe

Saudi Arabia
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
  conventional short form: Saudi Arabia
  local long form: Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah
  local short form: Al Arabiyah as Suudiyah

Senegal
  conventional long form: Republic of Senegal
  conventional short form: Senegal
  local long form: Republique du Senegal
  local short form: Senegal
  former: Senegambia (along with The Gambia); Mali Federation

Serbia
  conventional long form: Republic of Serbia
  conventional short form: Serbia
  local long form: Republika Srbija
  local short form: Srbija
  former: People's Republic of Serbia, Socialist Republic of Serbia

Seychelles
  conventional long form: Republic of Seychelles
  conventional short form: Seychelles
  local long form: Republic of Seychelles
  local short form: Seychelles

Sierra Leone
  conventional long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
  conventional short form: Sierra Leone
  local long form: Republic of Sierra Leone
  local short form: Sierra Leone

Singapore
  conventional long form: Republic of Singapore
  conventional short form: Singapore
  local long form: Republic of Singapore
  local short form: Singapore

Slovakia
  conventional long form: Slovak Republic
  conventional short form: Slovakia
  local long form: Slovenska Republika
  local short form: Slovensko

Slovenia
  conventional long form: Republic of Slovenia
  conventional short form: Slovenia
  local long form: Republika Slovenija
  local short form: Slovenija
  former: People's Republic of Slovenia, Socialist Republic of Slovenia

Solomon Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Solomon Islands
  local long form: none
  local short form: Solomon Islands
  former: British Solomon Islands

Somalia
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Somalia
  local long form: Jamhuuriyada Demuqraadiga Soomaaliyeed
  local short form: Soomaaliya
  former: Somali Republic; Somali Democratic Republic

South Africa
  conventional long form: Republic of South Africa
  conventional short form: South Africa
  former: Union of South Africa
  abbreviation: RSA

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  conventional long form:
  South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  conventional short form: none
  abbreviation: SGSSI

Spain
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Spain
  conventional short form: Spain
  local long form: Reino de Espana
  local short form: Espana

Spratly Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Spratly Islands

Sri Lanka
  conventional long form: Democratic Socialist Republic of
  Sri Lanka
  conventional short form: Sri Lanka
  local long form: Shri Lamka Prajatantrika Samajaya di
  Janarajaya/Ilankai Jananayaka Choshalichak Kutiyarachu
  local short form: Shri Lamka/Ilankai
  former: Serendib, Ceylon

Sudan
  conventional long form: Republic of the Sudan
  conventional short form: Sudan
  local long form: Jumhuriyat as-Sudan
  local short form: As-Sudan
  former: Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Suriname
  conventional long form: Republic of Suriname
  conventional short form: Suriname
  local long form: Republiek Suriname
  local short form: Suriname
  former: Netherlands Guiana, Dutch Guiana

Svalbard
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Svalbard (sometimes referred to as
  Spitzbergen)

Swaziland
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Swaziland
  conventional short form: Swaziland
  local long form: Umbuso weSwatini
  local short form: eSwatini

Sweden
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Sweden
  conventional short form: Sweden
  local long form: Konungariket Sverige
  local short form: Sverige

Switzerland
  conventional long form: Swiss Confederation
  conventional short form: Switzerland
  local long form: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German);
  Confederation Suisse (French); Confederazione Svizzera (Italian)
  local short form: Schweiz (German); Suisse (French); Svizzera
  (Italian)

Syria
  conventional long form: Syrian Arab Republic
  conventional short form: Syria
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Arabiyah as Suriyah
  local short form: Suriyah
  former: United Arab Republic (with Egypt)

Taiwan
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Taiwan
  local long form: none
  local short form: T'ai-wan
  former: Formosa

Tajikistan
  conventional long form: Republic of Tajikistan
  conventional short form: Tajikistan
  local long form: Jumhurii Tojikiston
  local short form: Tojikiston
  former: Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic

Tanzania
  conventional long form: United Republic of Tanzania
  conventional short form: Tanzania
  local long form: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania
  local short form: Tanzania
  former: United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar

Thailand
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Thailand
  conventional short form: Thailand
  local long form: Ratcha Anachak Thai
  local short form: Prathet Thai
  former: Siam

Togo
  conventional long form: Togolese Republic
  conventional short form: Togo
  local long form: Republique togolaise
  local short form: none
  former: French Togoland

Tokelau
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Tokelau

Tonga
  conventional long form: Kingdom of Tonga
  conventional short form: Tonga
  local long form: Pule'anga Tonga
  local short form: Tonga
  former: Friendly Islands

Trinidad and Tobago
  conventional long form: Republic of Trinidad and
  Tobago
  conventional short form: Trinidad and Tobago

Tromelin Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Tromelin Island
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ile Tromelin

Tunisia
  conventional long form: Tunisian Republic
  conventional short form: Tunisia
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah at Tunisiyah
  local short form: Tunis

Turkey
  conventional long form: Republic of Turkey
  conventional short form: Turkey
  local long form: Turkiye Cumhuriyeti
  local short form: Turkiye

Turkmenistan
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Turkmenistan
  local long form: none
  local short form: Turkmenistan
  former: Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

Turks and Caicos Islands
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Turks and Caicos Islands
  abbreviation: TCI

Tuvalu
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Tuvalu
  local long form: none
  local short form: Tuvalu
  former: Ellice Islands
  note: "Tuvalu" means "group of eight," referring to the country's
  eight traditionally inhabited islands

Uganda
  conventional long form: Republic of Uganda
  conventional short form: Uganda

Ukraine
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Ukraine
  local long form: none
  local short form: Ukrayina
  former: Ukrainian National Republic, Ukrainian State, Ukrainian
  Soviet Socialist Republic

United Arab Emirates
  conventional long form: United Arab Emirates
  conventional short form: none
  local long form: Al Imarat al Arabiyah al Muttahidah
  local short form: none
  former: Trucial Oman, Trucial States
  abbreviation: UAE

United Kingdom
  conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great
  Britain and Northern Ireland; note - Great Britain includes England,
  Scotland, and Wales
  conventional short form: United Kingdom
  abbreviation: UK

United States
  conventional long form: United States of America
  conventional short form: United States
  abbreviation: US or USA

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  conventional long
  form: none
  conventional short form: Baker Island; Howland Island; Jarvis
  Island; Johnston Atoll; Kingman Reef; Midway Islands; Palmyra Atoll

Uruguay
  conventional long form: Oriental Republic of Uruguay
  conventional short form: Uruguay
  local long form: Republica Oriental del Uruguay
  local short form: Uruguay
  former: Banda Oriental, Cisplatine Province

Uzbekistan
  conventional long form: Republic of Uzbekistan
  conventional short form: Uzbekistan
  local long form: Ozbekiston Respublikasi
  local short form: Ozbekiston
  former: Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic

Vanuatu
  conventional long form: Republic of Vanuatu
  conventional short form: Vanuatu
  local long form: Ripablik blong Vanuatu
  local short form: Vanuatu
  former: New Hebrides

Venezuela
  conventional long form: Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
  conventional short form: Venezuela
  local long form: Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
  local short form: Venezuela

Vietnam
  conventional long form: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
  conventional short form: Vietnam
  local long form: Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam
  local short form: Viet Nam
  abbreviation: SRV

Virgin Islands
  conventional long form: United States Virgin Islands
  conventional short form: Virgin Islands
  former: Danish West Indies
  abbreviation: USVI

Wake Island
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Wake Island

Wallis and Futuna
  conventional long form: Territory of the Wallis
  and Futuna Islands
  conventional short form: Wallis and Futuna
  local long form: Territoire des Iles Wallis et Futuna
  local short form: Wallis et Futuna

West Bank
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: West Bank

Western Sahara
  conventional long form: none
  conventional short form: Western Sahara
  former: Spanish Sahara

Yemen
  conventional long form: Republic of Yemen
  conventional short form: Yemen
  local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah
  local short form: Al Yaman
  former: Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and
  People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]

Zambia
  conventional long form: Republic of Zambia
  conventional short form: Zambia
  former: Northern Rhodesia

Zimbabwe
  conventional long form: Republic of Zimbabwe
  conventional short form: Zimbabwe
  former: Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2144  Location


Afghanistan
  Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Akrotiri
  peninsula on the southwest coast of Cyprus

Albania
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian
  Sea, between Greece and Serbia and Montenegro

Algeria
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
  Morocco and Tunisia

American Samoa
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean,
  about half way between Hawaii and New Zealand

Andorra
  Southwestern Europe, between France and Spain

Angola
  Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between
  Namibia and Democratic Republic of the Congo

Anguilla
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and North
  Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Antarctica
  continent mostly south of the Antarctic Circle

Antigua and Barbuda
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and
  the North Atlantic Ocean, east-southeast of Puerto Rico

Arctic Ocean
  body of water between Europe, Asia, and North America,
  mostly north of the Arctic Circle

Argentina
  Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic
  Ocean, between Chile and Uruguay

Armenia
  Southwestern Asia, east of Turkey

Aruba
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  Southeastern Asia, islands in the Indian
  Ocean, midway between northwestern Australia and Timor island

Atlantic Ocean
  body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern
  Ocean, and the Western Hemisphere

Australia
  Oceania, continent between the Indian Ocean and the South
  Pacific Ocean

Austria
  Central Europe, north of Italy and Slovenia

Azerbaijan
  Southwestern Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between
  Iran and Russia, with a small European portion north of the Caucasus
  range

Bahamas, The
  Caribbean, chain of islands in the North Atlantic
  Ocean, southeast of Florida, northeast of Cuba

Bahrain
  Middle East, archipelago in the Persian Gulf, east of Saudi
  Arabia

Baker Island
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about half
  way between Hawaii and Australia

Bangladesh
  Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma
  and India

Barbados
  Caribbean, island in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of
  Venezuela

Bassas da India
  Southern Africa, islands in the southern Mozambique
  Channel, about one-half of the way from Madagascar to Mozambique

Belarus
  Eastern Europe, east of Poland

Belgium
  Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between France and
  the Netherlands

Belize
  Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between
  Guatemala and Mexico

Benin
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Nigeria
  and Togo

Bermuda
  North America, group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean,
  east of South Carolina (US)

Bhutan
  Southern Asia, between China and India

Bolivia
  Central South America, southwest of Brazil

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic
  Sea and Croatia

Botswana
  Southern Africa, north of South Africa

Bouvet Island
  island in the South Atlantic Ocean, southwest of the
  Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)

Brazil
  Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean

British Indian Ocean Territory
  archipelago in the Indian Ocean,
  south of India, about one-half the way from Africa to Indonesia

British Virgin Islands
  Caribbean, between the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Brunei
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and Malaysia

Bulgaria
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between
  Romania and Turkey

Burkina Faso
  Western Africa, north of Ghana

Burma
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Bay of
  Bengal, between Bangladesh and Thailand

Burundi
  Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cambodia
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between
  Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos

Cameroon
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra, between
  Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria

Canada
  Northern North America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean on
  the east, North Pacific Ocean on the west, and the Arctic Ocean on
  the north, north of the conterminous US

Cape Verde
  Western Africa, group of islands in the North Atlantic
  Ocean, west of Senegal

Cayman Islands
  Caribbean, three island (Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac,
  Little Cayman) group in Caribbean Sea, 240 km south of Cuba and 268
  km northwest of Jamaica

Central African Republic
  Central Africa, north of Democratic
  Republic of the Congo

Chad
  Central Africa, south of Libya

Chile
  Southern South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean,
  between Argentina and Peru

China
  Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow
  Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam

Christmas Island
  Southeastern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean,
  south of Indonesia

Clipperton Island
  Middle America, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean,
  1,120 km southwest of Mexico

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Southeastern Asia, group of islands in the
  Indian Ocean, southwest of Indonesia, about halfway from Australia
  to Sri Lanka

Colombia
  Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea,
  between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean,
  between Ecuador and Panama

Comoros
  Southern Africa, group of islands at the northern mouth of
  the Mozambique Channel, about two-thirds of the way between northern
  Madagascar and northern Mozambique

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Central Africa, northeast of Angola

Congo, Republic of the
  Western Africa, bordering the South Atlantic
  Ocean, between Angola and Gabon

Cook Islands
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean,
  about one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Coral Sea Islands
  Oceania, islands in the Coral Sea, northeast of
  Australia

Costa Rica
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Pacific Ocean, between Nicaragua and Panama

Cote d'Ivoire
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Ghana and Liberia

Croatia
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea, between
  Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia

Cuba
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Atlantic Ocean, 150 km south of Key West, Florida

Cyprus
  Middle East, island in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey

Czech Republic
  Central Europe, southeast of Germany

Denmark
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea,
  on a peninsula north of Germany (Jutland); also includes two major
  islands (Sjaelland and Fyn)

Dhekelia
  on the southeast coast of Cyprus near Famagusta

Djibouti
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea,
  between Eritrea and Somalia

Dominica
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North
  Atlantic Ocean, about one-half of the way from Puerto Rico to
  Trinidad and Tobago

Dominican Republic
  Caribbean, eastern two-thirds of the island of
  Hispaniola, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean,
  east of Haiti

East Timor
  Southeastern Asia, northwest of Australia in the Lesser
  Sunda Islands at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago; note
  - East Timor includes the eastern half of the island of Timor, the
  Oecussi (Ambeno) region on the northwest portion of the island of
  Timor, and the islands of Pulau Atauro and Pulau Jaco

Ecuador
  Western South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean at the
  Equator, between Colombia and Peru

Egypt
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
  Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and
  includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula

El Salvador
  Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean,
  between Guatemala and Honduras

Equatorial Guinea
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Biafra,
  between Cameroon and Gabon

Eritrea
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and
  Sudan

Estonia
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of
  Finland, between Latvia and Russia

Ethiopia
  Eastern Africa, west of Somalia

Europa Island
  Southern Africa, island in the Mozambique Channel,
  about half way between southern Madagascar and southern Mozambique

European Union
  Europe between Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, southeastern
  Europe, and the North Atlantic Ocean

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  Southern South America, islands in
  the South Atlantic Ocean, east of southern Argentina

Faroe Islands
  Northern Europe, island group between the Norwegian
  Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about one-half of the way from
  Iceland to Norway

Fiji
  Oceania, island group in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Finland
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia,
  and Gulf of Finland, between Sweden and Russia

France
  Western Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay and English
  Channel, between Belgium and Spain, southeast of the UK; bordering
  the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Spain

French Guiana
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic
  Ocean, between Brazil and Suriname

French Polynesia
  Oceania, archipelagoes in the South Pacific Ocean
  about one-half of the way from South America to Australia

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  southeast of Africa, islands in
  the southern Indian Ocean, about equidistant between Africa,
  Antarctica, and Australia; note - French Southern and Antarctic
  Lands include Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul, Iles Crozet, and Iles
  Kerguelen in the southern Indian Ocean, along with the
  French-claimed sector of Antarctica, "Adelie Land"; the US does not
  recognize the French claim to "Adelie Land"

Gabon
  Western Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean at the Equator,
  between Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea

Gambia, The
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and
  Senegal

Gaza Strip
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
  Egypt and Israel

Georgia
  Southwestern Asia, bordering the Black Sea, between Turkey
  and Russia

Germany
  Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea,
  between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark

Ghana
  Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote
  d'Ivoire and Togo

Gibraltar
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the Strait of Gibraltar,
  which links the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, on
  the southern coast of Spain

Glorioso Islands
  Southern Africa, group of islands in the Indian
  Ocean, northwest of Madagascar

Greece
  Southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and
  the Mediterranean Sea, between Albania and Turkey

Greenland
  Northern North America, island between the Arctic Ocean
  and the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada

Grenada
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic
  Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Guadeloupe
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, southeast of Puerto Rico

Guam
  Oceania, island in the North Pacific Ocean, about
  three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines

Guatemala
  Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean,
  between El Salvador and Mexico, and bordering the Gulf of Honduras
  (Caribbean Sea) between Honduras and Belize

Guernsey
  Western Europe, islands in the English Channel, northwest
  of France

Guinea
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone

Guinea-Bissau
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Guinea and Senegal

Guyana
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Suriname and Venezuela

Haiti
  Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola,
  between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, west of the
  Dominican Republic

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  islands in the Indian Ocean, about
  two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Southern Europe, an enclave of Rome (Italy)

Honduras
  Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between
  Guatemala and Nicaragua and bordering the Gulf of Fonseca (North
  Pacific Ocean), between El Salvador and Nicaragua

Hong Kong
  Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China

Howland Island
  Oceania, island in the North Pacific Ocean, about
  half way between Hawaii and Australia

Hungary
  Central Europe, northwest of Romania

Iceland
  Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of the UK

Iles Eparses
  Southern Africa, in the Indian Ocean
  Bassas da India: atoll in the southern Mozambique Channel, about
  half way from Madagascar to Mozambique
  Europa Island: island in the Mozambique Channel, about half way
  between southern Madagascar and southern Mozambique
  Glorioso Islands: group of islands in the Indian Ocean, northwest of
  Madagascar
  Juan de Nova Island: island in the Mozambique Channel, about
  one-third of the way between Madagascar and Mozambique
  Tromelin Island: island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar

India
  Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
  Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan

Indian Ocean
  body of water between Africa, the Southern Ocean, Asia,
  and Australia

Indonesia
  Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Indian Ocean
  and the Pacific Ocean

Iran
  Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, and
  the Caspian Sea, between Iraq and Pakistan

Iraq
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait

Ireland
  Western Europe, occupying five-sixths of the island of
  Ireland in the North Atlantic Ocean, west of Great Britain

Isle of Man
  Western Europe, island in the Irish Sea, between Great
  Britain and Ireland

Israel
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt
  and Lebanon

Italy
  Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
  Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia

Jamaica
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba

Jan Mayen
  Northern Europe, island between the Greenland Sea and the
  Norwegian Sea, northeast of Iceland

Japan
  Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and
  the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula

Jarvis Island
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, about half
  way between Hawaii and the Cook Islands

Jersey
  Western Europe, island in the English Channel, northwest of
  France

Johnston Atoll
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 717 nm
  (1328 km) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, about one-third of the way
  from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands

Jordan
  Middle East, northwest of Saudi Arabia

Juan de Nova Island
  Southern Africa, island in the Mozambique
  Channel, about one-third of the way between Madagascar and Mozambique

Kazakhstan
  Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of
  the Ural River in eastern-most Europe

Kenya
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia
  and Tanzania

Kingman Reef
  Oceania, reef in the North Pacific Ocean, about half
  way between Hawaii and American Samoa

Kiribati
  Oceania, group of 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean,
  straddling the Equator; the capital Tarawa is about one-half of the
  way from Hawaii to Australia; note - on 1 January 1995, Kiribati
  proclaimed that all of its territory lies in the same time zone as
  its Gilbert Islands group (GMT +12) even though the Phoenix Islands
  and the Line Islands under its jurisdiction lie on the other side of
  the International Date Line

Korea, North
  Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula
  bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and
  South Korea

Korea, South
  Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean Peninsula
  bordering the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea

Kuwait
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iraq and
  Saudi Arabia

Kyrgyzstan
  Central Asia, west of China

Laos
  Southeastern Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam

Latvia
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and
  Lithuania

Lebanon
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel
  and Syria

Lesotho
  Southern Africa, an enclave of South Africa

Liberia
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone

Libya
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
  Egypt and Tunisia

Liechtenstein
  Central Europe, between Austria and Switzerland

Lithuania
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Latvia
  and Russia

Luxembourg
  Western Europe, between France and Germany

Macau
  Eastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and China

Macedonia
  Southeastern Europe, north of Greece

Madagascar
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
  Mozambique

Malawi
  Southern Africa, east of Zambia

Malaysia
  Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and
  northern one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia,
  Brunei, and the South China Sea, south of Vietnam

Maldives
  Southern Asia, group of atolls in the Indian Ocean,
  south-southwest of India

Mali
  Western Africa, southwest of Algeria

Malta
  Southern Europe, islands in the Mediterranean Sea, south of
  Sicily (Italy)

Marshall Islands
  Oceania, two archipelagic island chains of 29
  atolls, each made up of many small islets, and five single islands
  in the North Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to
  Australia

Martinique
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North
  Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Mauritania
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Senegal and Western Sahara

Mauritius
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
  Madagascar

Mayotte
  Southern Africa, island in the Mozambique Channel, about
  one-half of the way from northern Madagascar to northern Mozambique

Mexico
  Middle America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of
  Mexico, between Belize and the US and bordering the North Pacific
  Ocean, between Guatemala and the US

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Oceania, island group in the North
  Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to
  Indonesia

Midway Islands
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about
  one-third of the way from Honolulu to Tokyo

Moldova
  Eastern Europe, northeast of Romania

Monaco
  Western Europe, bordering the Mediterranean Sea on the
  southern coast of France, near the border with Italy

Mongolia
  Northern Asia, between China and Russia

Montenegro
  Southeastern Europe, between the Adriatic Sea and Serbia

Montserrat
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, southeast of
  Puerto Rico

Morocco
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and the
  Mediterranean Sea, between Algeria and Western Sahara

Mozambique
  Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel,
  between South Africa and Tanzania

Namibia
  Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, between
  Angola and South Africa

Nauru
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the
  Marshall Islands

Navassa Island
  Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, 35 miles west
  of Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti

Nepal
  Southern Asia, between China and India

Netherlands
  Western Europe, bordering the North Sea, between Belgium
  and Germany

Netherlands Antilles
  Caribbean, two island groups in the Caribbean
  Sea - composed of five islands, Curacao and Bonaire located off the
  coast of Venezuela, and St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius lie
  east of the US Virgin Islands

New Caledonia
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of
  Australia

New Zealand
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast
  of Australia

Nicaragua
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Pacific Ocean, between Costa Rica and Honduras

Niger
  Western Africa, southeast of Algeria

Nigeria
  Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin
  and Cameroon

Niue
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga

Norfolk Island
  Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of
  Australia

Northern Mariana Islands
  Oceania, islands in the North Pacific
  Ocean, about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines

Norway
  Northern Europe, bordering the North Sea and the North
  Atlantic Ocean, west of Sweden

Oman
  Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and
  Persian Gulf, between Yemen and UAE

Pacific Ocean
  body of water between the Southern Ocean, Asia,
  Australia, and the Western Hemisphere

Pakistan
  Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea, between India on
  the east and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the north

Palau
  Oceania, group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean,
  southeast of the Philippines

Palmyra Atoll
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about half
  way between Hawaii and American Samoa

Panama
  Central America, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica

Papua New Guinea
  Oceania, group of islands including the eastern
  half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South
  Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia

Paracel Islands
  Southeastern Asia, group of small islands and reefs
  in the South China Sea, about one-third of the way from central
  Vietnam to the northern Philippines

Paraguay
  Central South America, northeast of Argentina

Peru
  Western South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean,
  between Chile and Ecuador

Philippines
  Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine
  Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam

Pitcairn Islands
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  midway between Peru and New Zealand

Poland
  Central Europe, east of Germany

Portugal
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  west of Spain

Puerto Rico
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic

Qatar
  Middle East, peninsula bordering the Persian Gulf and Saudi
  Arabia

Reunion
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
  Madagascar

Romania
  Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between
  Bulgaria and Ukraine

Russia
  Northern Asia (the area west of the Urals is considered part
  of Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North
  Pacific Ocean

Rwanda
  Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Saint Helena
  islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, about midway
  between South America and Africa; Ascension Island lies 700 nm
  northwest of Saint Helena; Tristan da Cunha lies 2300 nm southwest
  of Saint Helena

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Caribbean, islands in the Caribbean Sea, about
  one-third of the way from Puerto Rico to Trinidad and Tobago

Saint Lucia
  Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North
  Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  Northern North America, islands in the
  North Atlantic Ocean, south of Newfoundland (Canada)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Caribbean, islands between the
  Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago

Samoa
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

San Marino
  Southern Europe, an enclave in central Italy

Sao Tome and Principe
  Western Africa, islands in the Gulf of Guinea,
  straddling the Equator, west of Gabon

Saudi Arabia
  Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red
  Sea, north of Yemen

Senegal
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between
  Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

Serbia
  Southeastern Europe, between Macedonia and Hungary

Seychelles
  archipelago in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar

Sierra Leone
  Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Guinea and Liberia

Singapore
  Southeastern Asia, islands between Malaysia and Indonesia

Slovakia
  Central Europe, south of Poland

Slovenia
  Central Europe, eastern Alps bordering the Adriatic Sea,
  between Austria and Croatia

Solomon Islands
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific
  Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea

Somalia
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian
  Ocean, east of Ethiopia

South Africa
  Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent
  of Africa

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  Southern South America,
  islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, east of the tip of South America

Southern Ocean
  body of water between 60 degrees south latitude and
  Antarctica

Spain
  Southwestern Europe, bordering the Bay of Biscay,
  Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic Ocean, and Pyrenees Mountains,
  southwest of France

Spratly Islands
  Southeastern Asia, group of reefs and islands in the
  South China Sea, about two-thirds of the way from southern Vietnam
  to the southern Philippines

Sri Lanka
  Southern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of India

Sudan
  Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and
  Eritrea

Suriname
  Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between French Guiana and Guyana

Svalbard
  Northern Europe, islands between the Arctic Ocean, Barents
  Sea, Greenland Sea, and Norwegian Sea, north of Norway

Swaziland
  Southern Africa, between Mozambique and South Africa

Sweden
  Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia,
  Kattegat, and Skagerrak, between Finland and Norway

Switzerland
  Central Europe, east of France, north of Italy

Syria
  Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon
  and Turkey

Taiwan
  Eastern Asia, islands bordering the East China Sea,
  Philippine Sea, South China Sea, and Taiwan Strait, north of the
  Philippines, off the southeastern coast of China

Tajikistan
  Central Asia, west of China

Tanzania
  Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya
  and Mozambique

Thailand
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Gulf
  of Thailand, southeast of Burma

Togo
  Western Africa, bordering the Bight of Benin, between Benin and
  Ghana

Tokelau
  Oceania, group of three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean,
  about one-half of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Tonga
  Oceania, archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

Trinidad and Tobago
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and
  the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Venezuela

Tromelin Island
  Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
  Madagascar

Tunisia
  Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between
  Algeria and Libya

Turkey
  Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (that portion of
  Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe),
  bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering
  the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria

Turkmenistan
  Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran
  and Kazakhstan

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Caribbean, two island groups in the North
  Atlantic Ocean, southeast of The Bahamas, north of Haiti

Tuvalu
  Oceania, island group consisting of nine coral atolls in the
  South Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from Hawaii to
  Australia

Uganda
  Eastern Africa, west of Kenya

Ukraine
  Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland,
  Romania, and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east

United Arab Emirates
  Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the
  Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia

United Kingdom
  Western Europe, islands including the northern
  one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean
  and the North Sea, northwest of France

United States
  North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean
  and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Oceania
  Baker Island: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 1,830 nm (3,389 km)
  southwest of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and Australia
  Howland Island: island in the North Pacific Ocean 1,815 nm (3,361
  km) southwest of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and
  Australia
  Jarvis Island: island in the South Pacific Ocean 1,305 nm (2,417 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and the Cook Islands
  Johnston Atoll: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 717 nm (1,328 km)
  southwest of Honolulu, about one-third of the way from Hawaii to the
  Marshall Islands
  Kingman Reef: reef in the North Pacific Ocean 930 nm (1,722 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and American Samoa
  Midway Islands: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 1,260 nm (2,334 km)
  northwest of Honolulu near the end of the Hawaiian Archipelago,
  about one-third of the way from Honolulu to Tokyo
  Palmyra Atoll: atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 960 nm (1,778 km)
  south of Honolulu, about half way between Hawaii and American Samoa

Uruguay
  Southern South America, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean,
  between Argentina and Brazil

Uzbekistan
  Central Asia, north of Afghanistan

Vanuatu
  Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Australia

Venezuela
  Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea and
  the North Atlantic Ocean, between Colombia and Guyana

Vietnam
  Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of
  Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia

Virgin Islands
  Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the
  North Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Wake Island
  Oceania, atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, about
  two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to the Northern Mariana Islands

Wallis and Futuna
  Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about
  two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand

West Bank
  Middle East, west of Jordan

Western Sahara
  Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
  between Mauritania and Morocco

Yemen
  Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red
  Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia

Zambia
  Southern Africa, east of Angola

Zimbabwe
  Southern Africa, between South Africa and Zambia

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2145  Map references


Afghanistan
  Asia

Akrotiri
  Middle East

Albania
  Europe

Algeria
  Africa

American Samoa
  Oceania

Andorra
  Europe

Angola
  Africa

Anguilla
  Central America and the Caribbean

Antarctica
  Antarctic Region

Antigua and Barbuda
  Central America and the Caribbean

Arctic Ocean
  Arctic Region

Argentina
  South America

Armenia
  Asia

Aruba
  Central America and the Caribbean

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  Southeast Asia

Atlantic Ocean
  Political Map of the World

Australia
  Oceania

Austria
  Europe

Azerbaijan
  Asia

Bahamas, The
  Central America and the Caribbean

Bahrain
  Middle East

Baker Island
  Oceania

Bangladesh
  Asia

Barbados
  Central America and the Caribbean

Bassas da India
  Africa

Belarus
  Europe

Belgium
  Europe

Belize
  Central America and the Caribbean

Benin
  Africa

Bermuda
  North America

Bhutan
  Asia

Bolivia
  South America

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Europe

Botswana
  Africa

Bouvet Island
  Antarctic Region

Brazil
  South America

British Indian Ocean Territory
  Political Map of the World

British Virgin Islands
  Central America and the Caribbean

Brunei
  Southeast Asia

Bulgaria
  Europe

Burkina Faso
  Africa

Burma
  Southeast Asia

Burundi
  Africa

Cambodia
  Southeast Asia

Cameroon
  Africa

Canada
  North America

Cape Verde
  Political Map of the World

Cayman Islands
  Central America and the Caribbean

Central African Republic
  Africa

Chad
  Africa

Chile
  South America

China
  Asia

Christmas Island
  Southeast Asia

Clipperton Island
  Political Map of the World

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  Southeast Asia

Colombia
  South America

Comoros
  Africa

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  Africa

Congo, Republic of the
  Africa

Cook Islands
  Oceania

Coral Sea Islands
  Oceania

Costa Rica
  Central America and the Caribbean

Cote d'Ivoire
  Africa

Croatia
  Europe

Cuba
  Central America and the Caribbean

Cyprus
  Middle East

Czech Republic
  Europe

Denmark
  Europe

Dhekelia
  Middle East

Djibouti
  Africa

Dominica
  Central America and the Caribbean

Dominican Republic
  Central America and the Caribbean

East Timor
  Southeast Asia

Ecuador
  South America

Egypt
  Africa

El Salvador
  Central America and the Caribbean

Equatorial Guinea
  Africa

Eritrea
  Africa

Estonia
  Europe

Ethiopia
  Africa

Europa Island
  Africa

European Union
  Europe

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  South America

Faroe Islands
  Europe

Fiji
  Oceania

Finland
  Europe

France
  Europe

French Guiana
  South America

French Polynesia
  Oceania

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  Antarctic Region

Gabon
  Africa

Gambia, The
  Africa

Gaza Strip
  Middle East

Georgia
  Asia

Germany
  Europe

Ghana
  Africa

Gibraltar
  Europe

Glorioso Islands
  Africa

Greece
  Europe

Greenland
  Arctic Region

Grenada
  Central America and the Caribbean

Guadeloupe
  Central America and the Caribbean

Guam
  Oceania

Guatemala
  Central America and the Caribbean

Guernsey
  Europe

Guinea
  Africa

Guinea-Bissau
  Africa

Guyana
  South America

Haiti
  Central America and the Caribbean

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  Antarctic Region

Holy See (Vatican City)
  Europe

Honduras
  Central America and the Caribbean

Hong Kong
  Southeast Asia

Howland Island
  Oceania

Hungary
  Europe

Iceland
  Arctic Region

Iles Eparses
  Africa

India
  Asia

Indian Ocean
  Political Map of the World

Indonesia
  Southeast Asia

Iran
  Middle East

Iraq
  Middle East

Ireland
  Europe

Isle of Man
  Europe

Israel
  Middle East

Italy
  Europe

Jamaica
  Central America and the Caribbean

Jan Mayen
  Arctic Region

Japan
  Asia

Jarvis Island
  Oceania

Jersey
  Europe

Johnston Atoll
  Oceania

Jordan
  Middle East

Juan de Nova Island
  Africa

Kazakhstan
  Asia

Kenya
  Africa

Kingman Reef
  Oceania

Kiribati
  Oceania

Korea, North
  Asia

Korea, South
  Asia

Kuwait
  Middle East

Kyrgyzstan
  Asia

Laos
  Southeast Asia

Latvia
  Europe

Lebanon
  Middle East

Lesotho
  Africa

Liberia
  Africa

Libya
  Africa

Liechtenstein
  Europe

Lithuania
  Europe

Luxembourg
  Europe

Macau
  Southeast Asia

Macedonia
  Europe

Madagascar
  Africa

Malawi
  Africa

Malaysia
  Southeast Asia

Maldives
  Asia

Mali
  Africa

Malta
  Europe

Marshall Islands
  Oceania

Martinique
  Central America and the Caribbean

Mauritania
  Africa

Mauritius
  Political Map of the World

Mayotte
  Africa

Mexico
  North America

Micronesia, Federated States of
  Oceania

Midway Islands
  Oceania

Moldova
  Europe

Monaco
  Europe

Mongolia
  Asia

Montenegro
  Europe

Montserrat
  Central America and the Caribbean

Morocco
  Africa

Mozambique
  Africa

Namibia
  Africa

Nauru
  Oceania

Navassa Island
  Central America and the Caribbean

Nepal
  Asia

Netherlands
  Europe

Netherlands Antilles
  Central America and the Caribbean

New Caledonia
  Oceania

New Zealand
  Oceania

Nicaragua
  Central America and the Caribbean

Niger
  Africa

Nigeria
  Africa

Niue
  Oceania

Norfolk Island
  Oceania

Northern Mariana Islands
  Oceania

Norway
  Europe

Oman
  Middle East

Pacific Ocean
  Political Map of the World

Pakistan
  Asia

Palau
  Oceania

Palmyra Atoll
  Oceania

Panama
  Central America and the Caribbean

Papua New Guinea
  Oceania

Paracel Islands
  Southeast Asia

Paraguay
  South America

Peru
  South America

Philippines
  Southeast Asia

Pitcairn Islands
  Oceania

Poland
  Europe

Portugal
  Europe

Puerto Rico
  Central America and the Caribbean

Qatar
  Middle East

Reunion
  World

Romania
  Europe

Russia
  Asia

Rwanda
  Africa

Saint Helena
  Africa

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Central America and the Caribbean

Saint Lucia
  Central America and the Caribbean

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  North America

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Central America and the Caribbean

Samoa
  Oceania

San Marino
  Europe

Sao Tome and Principe
  Africa

Saudi Arabia
  Middle East

Senegal
  Africa

Serbia
  Europe

Seychelles
  Africa

Sierra Leone
  Africa

Singapore
  Southeast Asia

Slovakia
  Europe

Slovenia
  Europe

Solomon Islands
  Oceania

Somalia
  Africa

South Africa
  Africa

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  Antarctic Region

Southern Ocean
  Antarctic Region

Spain
  Europe

Spratly Islands
  Southeast Asia

Sri Lanka
  Asia

Sudan
  Africa

Suriname
  South America

Svalbard
  Arctic Region

Swaziland
  Africa

Sweden
  Europe

Switzerland
  Europe

Syria
  Middle East

Taiwan
  Southeast Asia

Tajikistan
  Asia

Tanzania
  Africa

Thailand
  Southeast Asia

Togo
  Africa

Tokelau
  Oceania

Tonga
  Oceania

Trinidad and Tobago
  Central America and the Caribbean

Tromelin Island
  Africa

Tunisia
  Africa

Turkey
  Middle East

Turkmenistan
  Asia

Turks and Caicos Islands
  Central America and the Caribbean

Tuvalu
  Oceania

Uganda
  Africa

Ukraine
  Asia, Europe

United Arab Emirates
  Middle East

United Kingdom
  Europe

United States
  North America

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  Oceania

Uruguay
  South America

Uzbekistan
  Asia

Vanuatu
  Oceania

Venezuela
  South America

Vietnam
  Southeast Asia

Virgin Islands
  Central America and the Caribbean

Wake Island
  Oceania

Wallis and Futuna
  Oceania

West Bank
  Middle East

Western Sahara
  Africa

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

Yemen
  Middle East

Zambia
  Africa

Zimbabwe
  Africa

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2146  Irrigated land (sq km)


Afghanistan
  27,200 sq km (2003)

Albania
  3,530 sq km (2003)

Algeria
  5,690 sq km (2003)

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  800 sq km (2003)

Anguilla
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  15,500 sq km (2003)

Armenia
  2,860 sq km (2003)

Aruba
  0.01 sq km (1998 est.)

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  0 sq km

Australia
  25,450 sq km (2003)

Austria
  40 sq km (2003)

Azerbaijan
  14,550 sq km (2003)

Bahamas, The
  10 sq km (2003)

Bahrain
  40 sq km (2003)

Baker Island
  0 sq km

Bangladesh
  47,250 sq km (2003)

Barbados
  50 sq km (2003)

Bassas da India
  0 sq km

Belarus
  1,310 sq km (2003)

Belgium
  400 sq km (2003)

Belize
  30 sq km (2003)

Benin
  120 sq km (2003)

Bermuda
  NA

Bhutan
  400 sq km (2003)

Bolivia
  1,320 sq km (2003)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  30 sq km (2003)

Botswana
  10 sq km (2003)

Bouvet Island
  0 sq km

Brazil
  29,200 sq km (2003)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  0 sq km

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  10 sq km (2003)

Bulgaria
  5,880 sq km (2003)

Burkina Faso
  250 sq km (2003)

Burma
  18,700 sq km (2003)

Burundi
  210 sq km (2003)

Cambodia
  2,700 sq km (2003)

Cameroon
  260 sq km (2003)

Canada
  7,850 sq km (2003)

Cape Verde
  30 sq km (2003)

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  20 sq km (2003)

Chad
  300 sq km (2003)

Chile
  19,000 sq km (2003)

China
  545,960 sq km (2003)

Christmas Island
  NA

Clipperton Island
  0 sq km

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  9,000 sq km (2003)

Comoros
  NA

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  110 sq km (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  20 sq km (2003)

Cook Islands
  NA

Coral Sea Islands
  0 sq km

Costa Rica
  1,080 sq km (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  730 sq km (2003)

Croatia
  110 sq km (2003)

Cuba
  8,700 sq km (2003)

Cyprus
  400 sq km (2003)

Czech Republic
  240 sq km (2003)

Denmark
  4,490 sq km (2003)

Djibouti
  10 sq km (2003)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  2,750 sq km (2003)

East Timor
  1,065 sq km (est.)

Ecuador
  8,650 sq km (2003)

Egypt
  34,220 sq km (2003)

El Salvador
  450 sq km (2003)

Equatorial Guinea
  NA

Eritrea
  210 sq km (2003)

Estonia
  40 sq km (2003)

Ethiopia
  2,900 sq km (2003)

Europa Island
  0 sq km

European Union
  131,250 sq km (2003)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  0 sq km

Fiji
  30 sq km (2003)

Finland
  640 sq km (2003)

France
  26,000 sq km (2003)

French Guiana
  20 sq km (2003)

French Polynesia
  10 sq km (2003)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  0 sq km

Gabon
  70 sq km (2003)

Gambia, The
  20 sq km (2003)

Gaza Strip
  150 sq km; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Georgia
  4,690 sq km (2003)

Germany
  4,850 sq km (2003)

Ghana
  310 sq km (2003)

Gibraltar
  NA

Glorioso Islands
  0 sq km

Greece
  14,530 sq km (2003)

Greenland
  NA

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  60 sq km (2003)

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  1,300 sq km (2003)

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  950 sq km (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  250 sq km (2003)

Guyana
  1,500 sq km (2003)

Haiti
  920 sq km (2003)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  0 sq km

Holy See (Vatican City)
  0 sq km

Honduras
  800 sq km (2003)

Hong Kong
  20 sq km (1998 est.)

Howland Island
  0 sq km

Hungary
  2,300 sq km (2003)

Iceland
  NA

India
  558,080 sq km (2003)

Indonesia
  45,000 sq km (2003)

Iran
  76,500 sq km (2003)

Iraq
  35,250 sq km (2003)

Ireland
  NA

Isle of Man
  0 sq km

Israel
  1,940 sq km (2003)

Italy
  27,500 sq km (2003)

Jamaica
  250 sq km (2002)

Jan Mayen
  0 sq km

Japan
  25,920 sq km (2003)

Jarvis Island
  0 sq km

Jersey
  NA

Johnston Atoll
  0 sq km

Jordan
  750 sq km (2003)

Juan de Nova Island
  0 sq km

Kazakhstan
  35,560 sq km (2003)

Kenya
  1,030 sq km (2003)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  14,600 sq km (2003)

Korea, South
  8,780 sq km (2003)

Kuwait
  130 sq km (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  10,720 sq km (2003)

Laos
  1,750 sq km (2003)

Latvia
  200 sq km
  note: land in Latvia is often too wet, and in need of drainage, not
  irrigation; approximately 16,000 sq km or 85% of agricultural land
  has been improved by drainage (2003)

Lebanon
  1,040 sq km (2003)

Lesotho
  30 sq km (2003)

Liberia
  30 sq km (2003)

Libya
  4,700 sq km (2003)

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  70 sq km (2003)

Luxembourg
  NA

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  550 sq km (2003)

Madagascar
  10,860 sq km (2003)

Malawi
  560 sq km (2003)

Malaysia
  3,650 sq km (2003)

Maldives
  NA

Mali
  2,360 sq km (2003)

Malta
  20 sq km (2003)

Marshall Islands
  0 sq km

Martinique
  70 sq km (2003)

Mauritania
  490 sq km (2002)

Mauritius
  220 sq km (2003)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  63,200 sq km (2003)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA

Midway Islands
  0 sq km

Moldova
  3,000 sq km (2003)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  840 sq km (2003)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  14,450 sq km (2003)

Mozambique
  1,180 sq km (2003)

Namibia
  80 sq km (2003)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  11,700 sq km (2003)

Netherlands
  5,650 sq km (2003)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  100 sq km (2003)

New Zealand
  2,850 sq km (2003)

Nicaragua
  610 sq km (2003)

Niger
  730 sq km (2003)

Nigeria
  2,820 sq km (2003)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA

Norway
  1,270 sq km (2003)

Oman
  720 sq km (2003)

Pakistan
  182,300 sq km (2003)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  430 sq km (2003)

Papua New Guinea
  NA

Paracel Islands
  0 sq km

Paraguay
  670 sq km (2003)

Peru
  12,000 sq km (2003)

Philippines
  15,500 sq km (2003)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  1,000 sq km (2003)

Portugal
  6,500 sq km (2003)

Puerto Rico
  400 sq km (2003)

Qatar
  130 sq km (2002)

Reunion
  120 sq km (2003)

Romania
  30,770 sq km (2003)

Russia
  46,000 sq km (2003)

Rwanda
  90 sq km (2003)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  30 sq km (2003)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  10 sq km (2003)

Samoa
  NA

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  100 sq km (2003)

Saudi Arabia
  16,200 sq km (2003)

Senegal
  1,200 sq km (2003)

Serbia
  NA

Seychelles
  NA

Sierra Leone
  300 sq km (2003)

Singapore
  NA

Slovakia
  1,830 sq km (2003)

Slovenia
  30 sq km (2003)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  2,000 sq km (2003)

South Africa
  14,980 sq km (2003)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  0 sq km

Spain
  37,800 sq km (2003)

Spratly Islands
  0 sq km

Sri Lanka
  7,430 sq km (2003)

Sudan
  18,630 sq km (2003)

Suriname
  510 sq km (2003)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  500 sq km (2003)

Sweden
  1,150 sq km (2003)

Switzerland
  250 sq km (2003)

Syria
  13,330 sq km (2003)

Taiwan
  NA

Tajikistan
  7,220 sq km (2003)

Tanzania
  1,840 sq km (2003)

Thailand
  49,860 sq km (2003)

Togo
  70 sq km (2003)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  40 sq km (2003)

Tromelin Island
  0 sq km

Tunisia
  3,940 sq km (2003)

Turkey
  52,150 sq km (2003)

Turkmenistan
  18,000 sq km (2003)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  90 sq km (2003)

Ukraine
  22,080 sq km (2003)

United Arab Emirates
  760 sq km (2003)

United Kingdom
  1,700 sq km (2003)

United States
  223,850 sq km (2003)

Uruguay
  2,100 sq km (2003)

Uzbekistan
  42,810 sq km (2003)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  5,750 sq km (2003)

Vietnam
  30,000 sq km (2003)

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wake Island
  0 sq km

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  150 sq km; note - includes Gaza Strip (2003)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  2,770,980 sq km (2003)

Yemen
  5,500 sq km (2003)

Zambia
  1,560 sq km (2003)

Zimbabwe
  1,740 sq km (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2147  Area (sq km)


Afghanistan
  total: 647,500 sq km
  land: 647,500 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Akrotiri
  total: 123 sq km
  note: includes a salt lake and wetlands

Albania
  total: 28,748 sq km
  land: 27,398 sq km
  water: 1,350 sq km

Algeria
  total: 2,381,740 sq km
  land: 2,381,740 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

American Samoa
  total: 199 sq km
  land: 199 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Rose Island and Swains Island

Andorra
  total: 468 sq km
  land: 468 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Angola
  total: 1,246,700 sq km
  land: 1,246,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Anguilla
  total: 102 sq km
  land: 102 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Antarctica
  total: 14 million sq km
  land: 14 million sq km (280,000 sq km ice-free, 13.72 million sq km
  ice-covered) (est.)
  note: fifth-largest continent, following Asia, Africa, North
  America, and South America, but larger than Australia and the
  subcontinent of Europe

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 442.6 sq km (Antigua 280 sq km; Barbuda
  161 sq km)
  land: 442.6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Redonda, 1.6 sq km

Arctic Ocean
  total: 14.056 million sq km
  note: includes Baffin Bay, Barents Sea, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea,
  East Siberian Sea, Greenland Sea, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Kara
  Sea, Laptev Sea, Northwest Passage, and other tributary water bodies

Argentina
  total: 2,766,890 sq km
  land: 2,736,690 sq km
  water: 30,200 sq km

Armenia
  total: 29,800 sq km
  land: 28,400 sq km
  water: 1,400 sq km

Aruba
  total: 193 sq km
  land: 193 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  total: 5 sq km
  land: 5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ashmore Reef (West, Middle, and East Islets) and
  Cartier Island

Atlantic Ocean
  total: 76.762 million sq km
  note: includes Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait,
  Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador
  Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the
  Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies

Australia
  total: 7,686,850 sq km
  land: 7,617,930 sq km
  water: 68,920 sq km
  note: includes Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island

Austria
  total: 83,870 sq km
  land: 82,444 sq km
  water: 1,426 sq km

Azerbaijan
  total: 86,600 sq km
  land: 86,100 sq km
  water: 500 sq km
  note: includes the exclave of Naxcivan Autonomous Republic and the
  Nagorno-Karabakh region; the region's autonomy was abolished by
  Azerbaijani Supreme Soviet on 26 November 1991

Bahamas, The
  total: 13,940 sq km
  land: 10,070 sq km
  water: 3,870 sq km

Bahrain
  total: 665 sq km
  land: 665 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Baker Island
  total: 1.4 sq km
  land: 1.4 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Bangladesh
  total: 144,000 sq km
  land: 133,910 sq km
  water: 10,090 sq km

Barbados
  total: 431 sq km
  land: 431 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Bassas da India
  total: 0.2 sq km
  land: 0.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Belarus
  total: 207,600 sq km
  land: 207,600 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Belgium
  total: 30,528 sq km
  land: 30,278 sq km
  water: 250 sq km

Belize
  total: 22,966 sq km
  land: 22,806 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Benin
  total: 112,620 sq km
  land: 110,620 sq km
  water: 2,000 sq km

Bermuda
  total: 53.3 sq km
  land: 53.3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Bhutan
  total: 47,000 sq km
  land: 47,000 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Bolivia
  total: 1,098,580 sq km
  land: 1,084,390 sq km
  water: 14,190 sq km

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 51,129 sq km
  land: 51,129 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Botswana
  total: 600,370 sq km
  land: 585,370 sq km
  water: 15,000 sq km

Bouvet Island
  total: 49 sq km
  land: 49 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Brazil
  total: 8,511,965 sq km
  land: 8,456,510 sq km
  water: 55,455 sq km
  note: includes Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas,
  Ilha da Trindade, Ilhas Martin Vaz, and Penedos de Sao Pedro e Sao
  Paulo

British Indian Ocean Territory
  total: 54,400 sq km
  land: 60 sq km; Diego Garcia 44 sq km
  water: 54,340 sq km
  note: includes the entire Chagos Archipelago of 55 islands

British Virgin Islands
  total: 153 sq km
  land: 153 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: comprised of 16 inhabited and more than 20 uninhabited
  islands; includes the islands of Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda,
  Jost van Dyke

Brunei
  total: 5,770 sq km
  land: 5,270 sq km
  water: 500 sq km

Bulgaria
  total: 110,910 sq km
  land: 110,550 sq km
  water: 360 sq km

Burkina Faso
  total: 274,200 sq km
  land: 273,800 sq km
  water: 400 sq km

Burma
  total: 678,500 sq km
  land: 657,740 sq km
  water: 20,760 sq km

Burundi
  total: 27,830 sq km
  land: 25,650 sq km
  water: 2,180 sq km

Cambodia
  total: 181,040 sq km
  land: 176,520 sq km
  water: 4,520 sq km

Cameroon
  total: 475,440 sq km
  land: 469,440 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

Canada
  total: 9,984,670 sq km
  land: 9,093,507 sq km
  water: 891,163 sq km

Cape Verde
  total: 4,033 sq km
  land: 4,033 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Cayman Islands
  total: 262 sq km
  land: 262 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Central African Republic
  total: 622,984 sq km
  land: 622,984 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Chad
  total: 1.284 million sq km
  land: 1,259,200 sq km
  water: 24,800 sq km

Chile
  total: 756,950 sq km
  land: 748,800 sq km
  water: 8,150 sq km
  note: includes Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) and Isla Sala y Gomez

China
  total: 9,596,960 sq km
  land: 9,326,410 sq km
  water: 270,550 sq km

Christmas Island
  total: 135 sq km
  land: 135 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Clipperton Island
  total: 6 sq km
  land: 6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  total: 14 sq km
  land: 14 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes the two main islands of West Island and Home Island

Colombia
  total: 1,138,910 sq km
  land: 1,038,700 sq km
  water: 100,210 sq km
  note: includes Isla de Malpelo, Roncador Cay, and Serrana Bank

Comoros
  total: 2,170 sq km
  land: 2,170 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 2,345,410 sq km
  land: 2,267,600 sq km
  water: 77,810 sq km

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 342,000 sq km
  land: 341,500 sq km
  water: 500 sq km

Cook Islands
  total: 236.7 sq km
  land: 236.7 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Coral Sea Islands
  total: less than 3 sq km
  land: less than 3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes numerous small islands and reefs scattered over a sea
  area of about 780,000 sq km, with the Willis Islets the most
  important

Costa Rica
  total: 51,100 sq km
  land: 50,660 sq km
  water: 440 sq km
  note: includes Isla del Coco

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 322,460 sq km
  land: 318,000 sq km
  water: 4,460 sq km

Croatia
  total: 56,542 sq km
  land: 56,414 sq km
  water: 128 sq km

Cuba
  total: 110,860 sq km
  land: 110,860 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Cyprus
  total: 9,250 sq km (of which 3,355 sq km are in north Cyprus)
  land: 9,240 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Czech Republic
  total: 78,866 sq km
  land: 77,276 sq km
  water: 1,590 sq km

Denmark
  total: 43,094 sq km
  land: 42,394 sq km
  water: 700 sq km
  note: includes the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea and the rest
  of metropolitan Denmark (the Jutland Peninsula, and the major
  islands of Sjaelland and Fyn), but excludes the Faroe Islands and
  Greenland

Dhekelia
  total: 130.8 sq km
  note: area surrounds three Cypriot enclaves

Djibouti
  total: 23,000 sq km
  land: 22,980 sq km
  water: 20 sq km

Dominica
  total: 754 sq km
  land: 754 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Dominican Republic
  total: 48,730 sq km
  land: 48,380 sq km
  water: 350 sq km

East Timor
  total: 15,007 sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: NA sq km

Ecuador
  total: 283,560 sq km
  land: 276,840 sq km
  water: 6,720 sq km
  note: includes Galapagos Islands

Egypt
  total: 1,001,450 sq km
  land: 995,450 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

El Salvador
  total: 21,040 sq km
  land: 20,720 sq km
  water: 320 sq km

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 28,051 sq km
  land: 28,051 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Eritrea
  total: 121,320 sq km
  land: 121,320 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Estonia
  total: 45,226 sq km
  land: 43,211 sq km
  water: 2,015 sq km
  note: includes 1,520 islands in the Baltic Sea

Ethiopia
  total: 1,127,127 sq km
  land: 1,119,683 sq km
  water: 7,444 sq km

Europa Island
  total: 28 sq km
  land: 28 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

European Union
  total: 3,976,372 sq km

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  total: 12,173 sq km
  land: 12,173 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes the two main islands of East and West Falkland and
  about 200 small islands

Faroe Islands
  total: 1,399 sq km
  land: 1,399 sq km
  water: 0 sq km (some lakes and streams)

Fiji
  total: 18,270 sq km
  land: 18,270 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Finland
  total: 338,145 sq km
  land: 304,473 sq km
  water: 33,672 sq km

France
  total: 547,030 sq km
  land: 545,630 sq km
  water: 1,400 sq km
  note: includes only metropolitan France; excludes the overseas
  administrative divisions

French Guiana
  total: 91,000 sq km
  land: 89,150 sq km
  water: 1,850 sq km

French Polynesia
  total: 4,167 sq km (118 islands and atolls)
  land: 3,660 sq km
  water: 507 sq km

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  total: 7,829 sq km
  land: 7,829 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ile Amsterdam, Ile Saint-Paul, Iles Crozet, and Iles
  Kerguelen; excludes "Adelie Land" claim of about 500,000 sq km in
  Antarctica that is not recognized by the US

Gabon
  total: 267,667 sq km
  land: 257,667 sq km
  water: 10,000 sq km

Gambia, The
  total: 11,300 sq km
  land: 10,000 sq km
  water: 1,300 sq km

Gaza Strip
  total: 360 sq km
  land: 360 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Georgia
  total: 69,700 sq km
  land: 69,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Germany
  total: 357,021 sq km
  land: 349,223 sq km
  water: 7,798 sq km

Ghana
  total: 239,460 sq km
  land: 230,940 sq km
  water: 8,520 sq km

Gibraltar
  total: 6.5 sq km
  land: 6.5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Glorioso Islands
  total: 5 sq km
  land: 5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ile Glorieuse, Ile du Lys, Verte Rocks, Wreck Rock,
  and South Rock

Greece
  total: 131,940 sq km
  land: 130,800 sq km
  water: 1,140 sq km

Greenland
  total: 2,166,086 sq km
  land: 2,166,086 sq km (410,449 sq km ice-free, 1,755,637 sq km
  ice-covered) (2000 est.)

Grenada
  total: 344 sq km
  land: 344 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Guadeloupe
  total: 1,780 sq km
  land: 1,706 sq km
  water: 74 sq km
  note: Guadeloupe is an archipelago of nine inhabited islands,
  including Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Desirade,
  Iles des Saintes (2), Saint-Barthelemy, Iles de la Petite Terre, and
  Saint-Martin (French part of the island of Saint Martin)

Guam
  total: 541.3 sq km
  land: 541.3 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Guatemala
  total: 108,890 sq km
  land: 108,430 sq km
  water: 460 sq km

Guernsey
  total: 78 sq km
  land: 78 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Alderney, Guernsey, Herm, Sark, and some other
  smaller islands

Guinea
  total: 245,857 sq km
  land: 245,857 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 36,120 sq km
  land: 28,000 sq km
  water: 8,120 sq km

Guyana
  total: 214,970 sq km
  land: 196,850 sq km
  water: 18,120 sq km

Haiti
  total: 27,750 sq km
  land: 27,560 sq km
  water: 190 sq km

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  total: 412 sq km
  land: 412 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Holy See (Vatican City)
  total: 0.44 sq km
  land: 0.44 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Honduras
  total: 112,090 sq km
  land: 111,890 sq km
  water: 200 sq km

Hong Kong
  total: 1,092 sq km
  land: 1,042 sq km
  water: 50 sq km

Howland Island
  total: 1.6 sq km
  land: 1.6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Hungary
  total: 93,030 sq km
  land: 92,340 sq km
  water: 690 sq km

Iceland
  total: 103,000 sq km
  land: 100,250 sq km
  water: 2,750 sq km

Iles Eparses
  Bassas da India: total - 80 sq km; land - 0.2 sq km;
  water - 79.8 sq km (lagoon)
  Europa Island: total - 28 sq km; land - 28 sq km; water - 0 sq km
  Glorioso Islands: total - 5 sq km; land - 5 sq km; water - 0 sq km
  Juan de Nova Island: total - 4.4 sq km; land - 4.4 sq km; water - 0
  sq km
  Tromelin Island: total - 1 sq km; land - 1 sq km; water - 0 sq km

India
  total: 3,287,590 sq km
  land: 2,973,190 sq km
  water: 314,400 sq km

Indian Ocean
  total: 68.556 million sq km
  note: includes Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Flores Sea,
  Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Java Sea,
  Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Savu Sea, Strait of
  Malacca, Timor Sea, and other tributary water bodies

Indonesia
  total: 1,919,440 sq km
  land: 1,826,440 sq km
  water: 93,000 sq km

Iran
  total: 1.648 million sq km
  land: 1.636 million sq km
  water: 12,000 sq km

Iraq
  total: 437,072 sq km
  land: 432,162 sq km
  water: 4,910 sq km

Ireland
  total: 70,280 sq km
  land: 68,890 sq km
  water: 1,390 sq km

Isle of Man
  total: 572 sq km
  land: 572 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Israel
  total: 20,770 sq km
  land: 20,330 sq km
  water: 440 sq km

Italy
  total: 301,230 sq km
  land: 294,020 sq km
  water: 7,210 sq km
  note: includes Sardinia and Sicily

Jamaica
  total: 10,991 sq km
  land: 10,831 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Jan Mayen
  total: 377 sq km
  land: 377 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Japan
  total: 377,835 sq km
  land: 374,744 sq km
  water: 3,091 sq km
  note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto,
  Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and
  Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto)

Jarvis Island
  total: 4.5 sq km
  land: 4.5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Jersey
  total: 116 sq km
  land: 116 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Johnston Atoll
  total: 2.63 sq km
  land: 2.63 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Jordan
  total: 92,300 sq km
  land: 91,971 sq km
  water: 329 sq km

Juan de Nova Island
  total: 4.4 sq km
  land: 4.4 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Kazakhstan
  total: 2,717,300 sq km
  land: 2,669,800 sq km
  water: 47,500 sq km

Kenya
  total: 582,650 sq km
  land: 569,250 sq km
  water: 13,400 sq km

Kingman Reef
  total: 1 sq km
  land: 1 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Kiribati
  total: 811 sq km
  land: 811 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes three island groups - Gilbert Islands, Line Islands,
  Phoenix Islands

Korea, North
  total: 120,540 sq km
  land: 120,410 sq km
  water: 130 sq km

Korea, South
  total: 98,480 sq km
  land: 98,190 sq km
  water: 290 sq km

Kuwait
  total: 17,820 sq km
  land: 17,820 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 198,500 sq km
  land: 191,300 sq km
  water: 7,200 sq km

Laos
  total: 236,800 sq km
  land: 230,800 sq km
  water: 6,000 sq km

Latvia
  total: 64,589 sq km
  land: 63,589 sq km
  water: 1,000 sq km

Lebanon
  total: 10,400 sq km
  land: 10,230 sq km
  water: 170 sq km

Lesotho
  total: 30,355 sq km
  land: 30,355 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Liberia
  total: 111,370 sq km
  land: 96,320 sq km
  water: 15,050 sq km

Libya
  total: 1,759,540 sq km
  land: 1,759,540 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Liechtenstein
  total: 160 sq km
  land: 160 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Lithuania
  total: 65,200 sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: NA sq km

Luxembourg
  total: 2,586 sq km
  land: 2,586 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Macau
  total: 28.2 sq km
  land: 28.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Macedonia
  total: 25,333 sq km
  land: 24,856 sq km
  water: 477 sq km

Madagascar
  total: 587,040 sq km
  land: 581,540 sq km
  water: 5,500 sq km

Malawi
  total: 118,480 sq km
  land: 94,080 sq km
  water: 24,400 sq km

Malaysia
  total: 329,750 sq km
  land: 328,550 sq km
  water: 1,200 sq km

Maldives
  total: 300 sq km
  land: 300 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Mali
  total: 1.24 million sq km
  land: 1.22 million sq km
  water: 20,000 sq km

Malta
  total: 316 sq km
  land: 316 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Marshall Islands
  total: 11,854.3 sq km
  land: 181.3 sq km
  water: 11,673 sq km (note - lagoon waters)
  note: includes the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Kwajalein, Majuro,
  Rongelap, and Utirik

Martinique
  total: 1,100 sq km
  land: 1,060 sq km
  water: 40 sq km

Mauritania
  total: 1,030,700 sq km
  land: 1,030,400 sq km
  water: 300 sq km

Mauritius
  total: 2,040 sq km
  land: 2,030 sq km
  water: 10 sq km
  note: includes Agalega Islands, Cargados Carajos Shoals (Saint
  Brandon), and Rodrigues

Mayotte
  total: 374 sq km
  land: 374 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Mexico
  total: 1,972,550 sq km
  land: 1,923,040 sq km
  water: 49,510 sq km

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 702 sq km
  land: 702 sq km
  water: 0 sq km (fresh water only)
  note: includes Pohnpei (Ponape), Chuuk (Truk) Islands, Yap Islands,
  and Kosrae (Kosaie)

Midway Islands
  total: 6.2 sq km
  land: 6.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Eastern Island, Sand Island, and Spit Island

Moldova
  total: 33,843 sq km
  land: 33,371 sq km
  water: 472 sq km

Monaco
  total: 1.95 sq km
  land: 1.95 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Mongolia
  total: 1,564,116 sq km

Montenegro
  total: 14,026 sq km
  land: 13,812 sq km
  water: 214 sq km

Montserrat
  total: 102 sq km
  land: 102 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Morocco
  total: 446,550 sq km
  land: 446,300 sq km
  water: 250 sq km

Mozambique
  total: 801,590 sq km
  land: 784,090 sq km
  water: 17,500 sq km

Namibia
  total: 825,418 sq km
  land: 825,418 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Nauru
  total: 21 sq km
  land: 21 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Navassa Island
  total: 5.4 sq km
  land: 5.4 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Nepal
  total: 147,181 sq km
  land: 143,181 sq km
  water: 4,000 sq km

Netherlands
  total: 41,526 sq km
  land: 33,883 sq km
  water: 7,643 sq km

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 960 sq km
  land: 960 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint
  Maarten (Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin)

New Caledonia
  total: 19,060 sq km
  land: 18,575 sq km
  water: 485 sq km

New Zealand
  total: 268,680 sq km
  land: 268,021 sq km
  water: NA
  note: includes Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands,
  Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands

Nicaragua
  total: 129,494 sq km
  land: 120,254 sq km
  water: 9,240 sq km

Niger
  total: 1.267 million sq km
  land: 1,266,700 sq km
  water: 300 sq km

Nigeria
  total: 923,768 sq km
  land: 910,768 sq km
  water: 13,000 sq km

Niue
  total: 260 sq km
  land: 260 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Norfolk Island
  total: 34.6 sq km
  land: 34.6 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 477 sq km
  land: 477 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes 14 islands including Saipan, Rota, and Tinian

Norway
  total: 323,802 sq km
  land: 307,442 sq km
  water: 16,360 sq km

Oman
  total: 212,460 sq km
  land: 212,460 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Pacific Ocean
  total: 155.557 million sq km
  note: includes Bali Sea, Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Coral Sea, East
  China Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Gulf of Tonkin, Philippine Sea, Sea of
  Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, South China Sea, Tasman Sea, and other
  tributary water bodies

Pakistan
  total: 803,940 sq km
  land: 778,720 sq km
  water: 25,220 sq km

Palau
  total: 458 sq km
  land: 458 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Palmyra Atoll
  total: 11.9 sq km
  land: 11.9 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Panama
  total: 78,200 sq km
  land: 75,990 sq km
  water: 2,210 sq km

Papua New Guinea
  total: 462,840 sq km
  land: 452,860 sq km
  water: 9,980 sq km

Paracel Islands
  total: NA sq km
  land: NA sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Paraguay
  total: 406,750 sq km
  land: 397,300 sq km
  water: 9,450 sq km

Peru
  total: 1,285,220 sq km
  land: 1.28 million sq km
  water: 5,220 sq km

Philippines
  total: 300,000 sq km
  land: 298,170 sq km
  water: 1,830 sq km

Pitcairn Islands
  total: 47 sq km
  land: 47 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Poland
  total: 312,685 sq km
  land: 304,465 sq km
  water: 8,220 sq km

Portugal
  total: 92,391 sq km
  land: 91,951 sq km
  water: 440 sq km
  note: includes Azores and Madeira Islands

Puerto Rico
  total: 13,790 sq km
  land: 8,870 sq km
  water: 4,921 sq km

Qatar
  total: 11,437 sq km
  land: 11,437 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Reunion
  total: 2,517 sq km
  land: 2,507 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Romania
  total: 237,500 sq km
  land: 230,340 sq km
  water: 7,160 sq km

Russia
  total: 17,075,200 sq km
  land: 16,995,800 sq km
  water: 79,400 sq km

Rwanda
  total: 26,338 sq km
  land: 24,948 sq km
  water: 1,390 sq km

Saint Helena
  total: 413 sq km
  land: Saint Helena Island 122 sq km; Ascension Island 90 sq km;
  Tristan da Cunha island group 201 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 261 sq km (Saint Kitts 168 sq km; Nevis
  93 sq km)
  land: 261 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Saint Lucia
  total: 616 sq km
  land: 606 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  total: 242 sq km
  land: 242 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes eight small islands in the Saint Pierre and the
  Miquelon groups

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 389 sq km (Saint Vincent 344
  sq km)
  land: 389 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Samoa
  total: 2,944 sq km
  land: 2,934 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

San Marino
  total: 61.2 sq km
  land: 61.2 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 1,001 sq km
  land: 1,001 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Saudi Arabia
  total: 1,960,582 sq km
  land: 1,960,582 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Senegal
  total: 196,190 sq km
  land: 192,000 sq km
  water: 4,190 sq km

Serbia
  total: 88,361 sq km
  land: 88,361 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Seychelles
  total: 455 sq km
  land: 455 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Sierra Leone
  total: 71,740 sq km
  land: 71,620 sq km
  water: 120 sq km

Singapore
  total: 692.7 sq km
  land: 682.7 sq km
  water: 10 sq km

Slovakia
  total: 48,845 sq km
  land: 48,800 sq km
  water: 45 sq km

Slovenia
  total: 20,273 sq km
  land: 20,151 sq km
  water: 122 sq km

Solomon Islands
  total: 28,450 sq km
  land: 27,540 sq km
  water: 910 sq km

Somalia
  total: 637,657 sq km
  land: 627,337 sq km
  water: 10,320 sq km

South Africa
  total: 1,219,912 sq km
  land: 1,219,912 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Prince Edward Islands (Marion Island and Prince
  Edward Island)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  total: 3,903 sq km
  land: 3,903 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Shag Rocks, Black Rock, Clerke Rocks, South Georgia
  Island, Bird Island, and the South Sandwich Islands, which consist
  of eleven islands

Southern Ocean
  total: 20.327 million sq km
  note: includes Amundsen Sea, Bellingshausen Sea, part of the Drake
  Passage, Ross Sea, a small part of the Scotia Sea, Weddell Sea, and
  other tributary water bodies

Spain
  total: 504,782 sq km
  land: 499,542 sq km
  water: 5,240 sq km
  note: there are 2 autonomous cities - Ceuta and Melilla - and 17
  autonomous communities including Balearic Islands and Canary
  Islands, and three small Spanish possessions off the coast of
  Morocco - Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez
  de la Gomera

Spratly Islands
  total: less than 5 sq km
  land: less than 5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes 100 or so islets, coral reefs, and sea mounts
  scattered over an area of nearly 410,000 sq km of the central South
  China Sea

Sri Lanka
  total: 65,610 sq km
  land: 64,740 sq km
  water: 870 sq km

Sudan
  total: 2,505,810 sq km
  land: 2.376 million sq km
  water: 129,810 sq km

Suriname
  total: 163,270 sq km
  land: 161,470 sq km
  water: 1,800 sq km

Svalbard
  total: 61,020 sq km
  land: 61,020 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Spitsbergen and Bjornoya (Bear Island)

Swaziland
  total: 17,363 sq km
  land: 17,203 sq km
  water: 160 sq km

Sweden
  total: 449,964 sq km
  land: 410,934 sq km
  water: 39,030 sq km

Switzerland
  total: 41,290 sq km
  land: 39,770 sq km
  water: 1,520 sq km

Syria
  total: 185,180 sq km
  land: 184,050 sq km
  water: 1,130 sq km
  note: includes 1,295 sq km of Israeli-occupied territory

Taiwan
  total: 35,980 sq km
  land: 32,260 sq km
  water: 3,720 sq km
  note: includes the Pescadores, Matsu, and Quemoy

Tajikistan
  total: 143,100 sq km
  land: 142,700 sq km
  water: 400 sq km

Tanzania
  total: 945,087 sq km
  land: 886,037 sq km
  water: 59,050 sq km
  note: includes the islands of Mafia, Pemba, and Zanzibar

Thailand
  total: 514,000 sq km
  land: 511,770 sq km
  water: 2,230 sq km

Togo
  total: 56,785 sq km
  land: 54,385 sq km
  water: 2,400 sq km

Tokelau
  total: 10 sq km
  land: 10 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Tonga
  total: 748 sq km
  land: 718 sq km
  water: 30 sq km

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 5,128 sq km
  land: 5,128 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Tromelin Island
  total: 1 sq km
  land: 1 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Tunisia
  total: 163,610 sq km
  land: 155,360 sq km
  water: 8,250 sq km

Turkey
  total: 780,580 sq km
  land: 770,760 sq km
  water: 9,820 sq km

Turkmenistan
  total: 488,100 sq km
  land: 488,100 sq km
  water: NEGL

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 430 sq km
  land: 430 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Tuvalu
  total: 26 sq km
  land: 26 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Uganda
  total: 236,040 sq km
  land: 199,710 sq km
  water: 36,330 sq km

Ukraine
  total: 603,700 sq km
  land: 603,700 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

United Arab Emirates
  total: 82,880 sq km
  land: 82,880 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

United Kingdom
  total: 244,820 sq km
  land: 241,590 sq km
  water: 3,230 sq km
  note: includes Rockall and Shetland Islands

United States
  total: 9,631,420 sq km
  land: 9,161,923 sq km
  water: 469,497 sq km
  note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
  total - 6,959.41 sq
  km; emergent land - 22.41 sq km; submerged - 6,937 sq km
  Baker Island: total - 129 sq km; emergent land - 2.1 sq km;
  submerged - 127 sq km
  Howland Island: total - 139 sq km; emergent land - 2.6 sq km;
  submerged - 136 sq km
  Jarvis Island: total - 152 sq km; emergent land - 5 sq km; submerged
  - 147 sq km
  Johnston Atoll: total - 276.6 sq km; emergent land - 2.6 sq km;
  submerged - 274 sq km
  Kingman Reef: total - 1,958.01 sq km; emergent land - 0.01 sq km;
  submerged - 1,958 sq km
  Midway Islands: total - 2,355.2 sq km; emergent land - 6.2 sq km;
  submerged - 2,349 sq km
  Palmyra Atoll: total - 1,949.9 sq km; emergent land - 3.9 sq km;
  submerged - 1,946 sq km

Uruguay
  total: 176,220 sq km
  land: 173,620 sq km
  water: 2,600 sq km

Uzbekistan
  total: 447,400 sq km
  land: 425,400 sq km
  water: 22,000 sq km

Vanuatu
  total: 12,200 sq km
  land: 12,200 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes more than 80 islands, about 65 of which are inhabited

Venezuela
  total: 912,050 sq km
  land: 882,050 sq km
  water: 30,000 sq km

Vietnam
  total: 329,560 sq km
  land: 325,360 sq km
  water: 4,200 sq km

Virgin Islands
  total: 1,910 sq km
  land: 346 sq km
  water: 1,564 sq km

Wake Island
  total: 6.5 sq km
  land: 6.5 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

Wallis and Futuna
  total: 274 sq km
  land: 274 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Ile Uvea (Wallis Island), Ile Futuna (Futuna Island),
  Ile Alofi, and 20 islets

West Bank
  total: 5,860 sq km
  land: 5,640 sq km
  water: 220 sq km
  note: includes West Bank, Latrun Salient, and the northwest quarter
  of the Dead Sea, but excludes Mt. Scopus; East Jerusalem and
  Jerusalem No Man's Land are also included only as a means of
  depicting the entire area occupied by Israel in 1967

Western Sahara
  total: 266,000 sq km
  land: 266,000 sq km
  water: 0 sq km

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

Yemen
  total: 527,970 sq km
  land: 527,970 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
  note: includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR
  or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of
  Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen)

Zambia
  total: 752,614 sq km
  land: 740,724 sq km
  water: 11,890 sq km

Zimbabwe
  total: 390,580 sq km
  land: 386,670 sq km
  water: 3,910 sq km

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2149  Diplomatic representation in the US


Afghanistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Said Tayeb JAWAD
  chancery: 2341 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] 202-483-6410
  FAX: [1] 202-483-6488
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Akrotiri
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Albania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aleksander SALLABANDA
  chancery: 2100 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-4942
  FAX: [1] (202) 628-7342

Algeria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Amine KHERBI
  chancery: 2118 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-2800
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2174

American Samoa
  none (territory of the US)

Andorra
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Jelena V. PIA-COMELLA
  chancery: 2 United Nations Plaza, 25th Floor, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 750-8064
  FAX: [1] (212) 750-6630

Angola
  chief of mission: Ambassador Josefina Perpetua Pitra DIAKITI
  chancery: 2108 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1156
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1258
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York

Anguilla
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Antigua and Barbuda
  chief of mission: Ambassador Deborah Mae LOVELL
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 362-5122
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-5225
  consulate(s) general: Miami

Argentina
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jose Octavio BORDON
  chancery: 1600 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-6400
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-3171
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York

Armenia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tatoul MARKARIAN
  chancery: 2225 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-1976
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2982
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Aruba
  none (represented by the Kingdom of the Netherlands); note -
  Mr. Henry BAARH, Minister Plenipotentiary for Aruba at the Embassy
  of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Ashmore and Cartier Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Australia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dennis J. RICHARDSON
  chancery: 1601 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-3000
  FAX: [1] (202) 797-3168
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New
  York, San Francisco

Austria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Eva NOWOTNY
  chancery: 3524 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008-3035
  telephone: [1] (202) 895-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 895-6750
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Azerbaijan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Yashar ALIYEV
  chancery: 2741 34th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-3500
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-5911
  Consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Bahamas, The
  chief of mission: vacant
  chancery: 2220 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-2660
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2668
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Bahrain
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nasir bin Muhammad al-BALUSHI
  chancery: 3502 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-1111
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-2192
  consulate(s) general: New York

Bangladesh
  chief of mission: Ambassador Shamsher Mobin CHOWDHURY
  chancery: 3510 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-0183
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-5366
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Barbados
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael Ian KING
  chancery: 2144 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-9200
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-7467
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York
  consulate(s): Los Angeles

Belarus
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mikhail KHVOSTOV
  chancery: 1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-1604
  FAX: [1] (202) 986-1805
  consulate(s) general: New York

Belgium
  chief of mission: Ambassador Franciskus VAN DAELE
  chancery: 3330 Garfield Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-6900
  FAX: [1] (202) 333-3079
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York
  consulate(s): Atlanta

Belize
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lisa M. SHOMAN
  chancery: 2535 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-9636
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6888
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Benin
  chief of mission: Ambassador Cyrille Segbe OGUIN
  chancery: 2124 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-6656
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1996

Bermuda
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Bhutan
  none; note - Bhutan has a Permanent Mission to the UN;
  address: 2 United Nations Plaza, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10017;
  telephone [1] (212) 826-1919; FAX [1] (212) 826-2998; the Bhutanese
  mission to the UN has consular jurisdiction in the US
  consulate(s) general: New York

Bolivia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gustavo GUZMAN Saldana
  chancery: 3014 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4410
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-3712
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Miami, New York, Oklahoma City, San
  Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bisera TURKOVIC
  chancery: 2109 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-1500
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-1502
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Botswana
  chief of mission: Ambassador Lapologang Caesar LEKOA
  chancery: 1531-1533 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-4990
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-4164

Brazil
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roberto P. ABDENUR
  chancery: 3006 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-2700
  FAX: [1] (202) 238-2827
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York, San Francisco

British Indian Ocean Territory
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

British Virgin Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Brunei
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pengiran Anak Dato PUTEH
  chancery: 3520 International Court NW #300, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 237-1838
  FAX: [1] (202) 885-0560

Bulgaria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Elena B. POPTODOROVA
  chancery: 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-0174
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-7973
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Burkina Faso
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tertius ZONGO
  chancery: 2340 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-5577
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-1882

Burma
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires MYINT
  LWIN
  chancery: 2300 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-3344
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-4351
  consulate(s) general: New York

Burundi
  chief of mission: Ambassador Celestin NIYONGABO
  chancery: Suite 212, 2233 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-2574
  FAX: [1] (202) 342-2578

Cambodia
  chief of mission: Ambassador EK SEREYWATH
  chancery: 4530 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-7742
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-8381

Cameroon
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jerome MENDOUGA
  chancery: 2349 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-8790
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-3826

Canada
  chief of mission: Ambassador Michael WILSON
  chancery: 501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001
  telephone: [1] (202) 682-1740
  FAX: [1] (202) 682-7701
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas,
  Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix,
  San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson
  consulate(s): Anchorage, Houston, Philadelphia, Princeton (New
  Jersey), Raleigh, San Jose (California)

Cape Verde
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jose BRITO
  chancery: 3415 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 965-6820
  FAX: [1] (202) 965-1207
  consulate(s) general: Boston

Cayman Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Central African Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador Emmanuel
  TOUABOY
  chancery: 1618 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-7800
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-9893

Chad
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mahamat Adam BECHIR
  chancery: 2002 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-4009
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1937

Chile
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mariano FERNANDEZ
  chancery: 1732 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 530-4104, 530-4106, 530-4107
  FAX: [1] (202) 887-5579
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New
  York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

China
  chief of mission: Ambassador ZHOU Wenzhong
  chancery: 2300 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-2500
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2582
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco

Christmas Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Colombia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carolina BARCO Isakson
  chancery: 2118 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-8338
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-8643
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico),
  Washington, DC

Comoros
  chief of mission: Representative to the US and Ambassador to
  the UN Mahmoud M. ABOUD
  chancery: Mission to the US, 336 East 45th Street (2nd floor), New
  York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 750-1637

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  chief of mission: Ambassador Faida
  MITIFU
  chancery: 1800 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009: note -
  Consular Office at 1726 M Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-7690, 7691
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-2609

Congo, Republic of the
  chief of mission: Ambassador Serge MOMBOULI
  chancery: 4891 Colorado Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-5500
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-1860

Cook Islands
  none (self-governing in free association with New
  Zealand)

Coral Sea Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Costa Rica
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tomas DUENAS
  chancery: 2114 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-2945
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-4795
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Hammond (temporary location
  in Louisiana), Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Juan
  (Puerto Rico), Tampa (temporarily closed), Washington, DC
  consulate(s): San Francisco

Cote d'Ivoire
  chief of mission: Ambassador Daouda DIABATE
  chancery: 3421 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-0300
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-3088

Croatia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Neven JURICA
  chancery: 2343 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-5899
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-8936
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Cuba
  none; note - Cuba has an Interests Section in the Swiss
  Embassy, headed by Principal Officer Bernardo GUANCHE Hernandez;
  address: Cuban Interests Section, Swiss Embassy, 2630 16th Street
  NW, Washington, DC 20009; telephone: [1] (202) 797-8518; FAX: [1]
  (202) 797-8521

Cyprus
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andreas KAKOURIS
  chancery: 2211 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-5772, 462-0873
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-6710
  consulate(s) general: New York
  note: representative of the Turkish Cypriot community in the US is
  Osman ERTUG; office at 1667 K Street NW, Washington, DC; telephone
  [1] (202) 887-6198

Czech Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador Petr KOLAR
  chancery: 3900 Spring of Freedom Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 274-9100
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-8540
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Denmark
  chief of mission: Ambassador Friis Arne PETERSEN
  chancery: 3200 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-4300
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-1470
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Dhekelia
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Djibouti
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roble OLHAYE Oudine
  chancery: Suite 515, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-0270
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-0302

Dominica
  chief of mission: Ambassador Judith Anne ROLLE, Third
  Secretary
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6781
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6791
  consulate(s) general: New York

Dominican Republic
  chief of mission: Ambassador Flavio Dario ESPINAL
  Jacobo
  chancery: 1715 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-6280
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-8057
  consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Boston, Chicago, Mayaguez (Puerto
  Rico), Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto
  Rico)

East Timor
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Constancio PINTO
  chancery: 4201 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: 202 966-3202
  FAX: 202 966-3205
  consulate(s) general: New York

Ecuador
  chief of mission: Ambassador Luis Benigno GALLEGOS Chiriboga
  chancery: 2535 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-7200
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-3482
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Jersey City (New Jersey),
  Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco,
  Washington, DC

Egypt
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nabil FAHMY
  chancery: 3521 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 895-5400
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-4319
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco

El Salvador
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rene Antonio LEON Rodriguez
  chancery: 2308 California Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-9671
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-3834
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Dallas, Elizabeth (New Jersey),
  Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (2), Nogales
  (Arizona), Santa Ana (California), San Francisco, Washington, DC
  consulate(s): Boston

Equatorial Guinea
  chief of mission: Ambassador Purificacion ANGUE
  ONDO
  chancery: 2020 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 518-5700
  FAX: [1] (202) 518-5252

Eritrea
  chief of mission: Ambassador GHIRMAI Ghebremariam
  chancery: 1708 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 319-1991
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-1304
  consulate(s) general: Oakland (California)

Estonia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Juri LUIK
  chancery: 2131 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-0101
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-0108
  consulate(s) general: New York

Ethiopia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samuel ASSEFA
  chancery: 3506 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-1200
  FAX: [1] (202) 587-0195
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles
  consulate(s): New York

European Union
  chief of mission: Ambassador John BRUTON
  chancery: 2300 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 862-9500
  FAX: [1] (202) 429-1766

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  none (overseas territory of the
  UK; also claimed by Argentina)

Faroe Islands
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division
  of Denmark)

Fiji
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jesoni VITUSAGAVULU
  chancery: 2233 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 240, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 337-8320
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-1996

Finland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pekka LINTU
  chancery: 3301 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-5800
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-6030
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

France
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jean-David LEVITTE
  chancery: 4101 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-6000
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-6166
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco

French Guiana
  none (overseas department of France)

French Polynesia
  none (overseas lands of France)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  none (overseas territory of
  France)

Gabon
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jules Marius OGOUEBANDJA
  chancery: Suite 200, 2034 20th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-1000
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-0668
  consulate(s): New York

Gambia, The
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dodou Bammy JAGNE
  chancery: Suite 905, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1379
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1430

Georgia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Vasil SIKHARULIDZE
  chancery: 1101 15th Street NW, Suite 602, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-2390
  FAX: [1] (202) 393-4537

Germany
  chief of mission: Ambassador Klaus SCHARIOTH
  chancery: 4645 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-4000
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-4249
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco

Ghana
  chief of mission: Ambassador Fritz Kwabena POKU
  chancery: 1156 15th St. NW #905, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 785-1379
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-1430
  consulate(s) general: New York

Gibraltar
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Greece
  chief of mission: Ambassador Alexandros P. MALLIAS
  chancery: 2221 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-1300
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-1324
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco, Tampa
  consulate(s): Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans

Greenland
  none (self-governing overseas administrative division of
  Denmark)

Grenada
  chief of mission: Ambassador Denis G. ANTOINE
  chancery: 1701 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-2561
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-2468
  consulate(s) general: New York

Guadeloupe
  none (overseas department of France)

Guam
  none (territory of the US)

Guatemala
  chief of mission: Ambassador Guillermo CASTILLO
  chancery: 2220 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-4952
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-1908
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New York, Providence, San Francisco

Guernsey
  none (British crown dependency)

Guinea
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Ibrihama Sory TRAORE
  chancery: 2112 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-4300
  FAX: [1] (202) 478-3800

Guinea-Bissau
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); note -
  Guinea-Bissau does not have official representation in Washington,
  DC; Guinea-Bissau's representative in Washington is Henrique Adriano
  DA SILVA, P.O. Box 33813, Washington, DC 20033, telephone:
  (301)947-3958

Guyana
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bayney KARRAN
  chancery: 2490 Tracy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-6900
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-1297
  consulate(s) general: New York

Haiti
  chief of mission: Ambassador Raymond JOSEPH (as of October
  2005)
  chancery: 2311 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-4090
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-7215
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York, San Juan
  (Puerto Rico)

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  none (territory of Australia)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  chief of mission: Apostolic Nuncio
  Archbishop Pietro SAMBI
  chancery: 3339 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-7121
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-4036

Honduras
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roberto FLORES Bermudez
  chancery: Suite 4-M, 3007 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-7702
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-9751
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco
  honorary consulate(s): Boston, Detroit, Jacksonville

Hong Kong
  none (special administrative region of China)

Hungary
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andras SIMONYI
  chancery: 3910 Shoemaker Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 362-6730
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-8135
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Iceland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Helgi AGUSTSSON
  chancery: Suite 1200, 1156 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-1704
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-6653
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-6656
  consulate(s) general: New York

India
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ranendra SEN
  chancery: 2107 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008; note -
  Consular Wing located at 2536 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington,
  DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-7000
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-4351
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, New York, San Francisco

Indonesia
  chief of mission: Ambassador SUDJADNAN Parnohadiningrat
  chancery: 2020 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 775-5200
  FAX: [1] (202) 775-5365
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco

Iran
  none; note - Iran has an Interests Section in the Pakistani
  Embassy; address: Iranian Interests Section, Pakistani Embassy, 2209
  Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007; telephone: [1] (202)
  965-4990; FAX [1] (202) 965-1073

Iraq
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samir Shakir al-SUMAYDI
  chancery: 1801 P Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-7500
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-5066

Ireland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Noel FAHEY
  chancery: 2234 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-3939
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-5993
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco

Isle of Man
  none (British crown dependency)

Israel
  chief of mission: Ambassador Salai MERIDOR
  chancery: 3514 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-5500
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-5607
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco

Italy
  chief of mission: Ambassador Giovanni CASTELLANETA
  chancery: 3000 Whitehaven Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 612-4400
  FAX: [1] (202) 518-2151
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, Los
  Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Detroit

Jamaica
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gordon SHIRLEY
  chancery: 1520 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-0660
  FAX: [1] (202) 452-0081
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Japan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ryozo KATO
  chancery: 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 238-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2187
  consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver,
  Detroit, Agana (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New
  Orleans, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Seattle

Jersey
  none (British crown dependency)

Jordan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Karim Tawfiq KAWAR
  chancery: 3504 International Drive NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-2664
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-3110

Kazakhstan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Kanat B. SAUDABAYEV
  chancery: 1401 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-5488
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-5845
  consulate(s): New York

Kenya
  chief of mission: Ambassador Leonard NGAITHE
  chancery: 2249 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-6101
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-3829
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles

Kiribati
  Kiribati does not have an embassy in the US; there is an
  honorary consulate in Honolulu

Korea, North
  none; North Korea has a Permanent Mission to the UN in
  New York

Korea, South
  chief of mission: Ambassador LEE Tae-sik
  chancery: 2450 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-5600
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-0205
  consulate(s) general: Agana (Guam), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
  Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Kuwait
  chief of mission: Ambassador SALIM Abdallah al-Jabir al-Sabah
  chancery: 2940 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 966-0702
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-0517

Kyrgyzstan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zamira SYDYKOVA
  chancery: 2360 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 338-5141
  FAX: [1] (202) 386-7550
  consulate(s): New York

Laos
  chief of mission: Ambassador PHANTHONG Phommahaxay
  chancery: 2222 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-6416
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-4923

Latvia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Maris RIEKSTINS
  chancery: 2306 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-2840
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-2860

Lebanon
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant)
  chancery: 2560 28th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6320
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-6324
  consulate(s) general: Detroit, New York, Los Angeles

Lesotho
  chief of mission: Ambassador Molelekeng E. RAPOLAKI
  chancery: 2511 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 797-5533 through 5536
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-6815

Liberia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Charles A. MINOR
  chancery: 5201 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 723-0437
  FAX: [1] (202) 723-0436
  consulate(s) general: New York

Libya
  chief of mission: ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Ali
  AUJALI
  chancery: 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 705, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-9601
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-9060

Liechtenstein
  chief of mission: Ambassador Claudia FRITSCHE
  chancery: 888 17th Street NW, Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-0590
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-3221

Lithuania
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Kornelija JURGAITIENE
  chancery: 4590 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5860
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-0466
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Luxembourg
  chief of mission: Ambassador Joseph WEYLAND
  chancery: 2200 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-4171/72
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-8270
  consulate(s) general: New York, San Francisco

Macau
  none (special administrative region of China)

Macedonia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ljupco JORDANOVSKI
  chancery: 2129 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-0501
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2131
  consulate(s) general: Southfield (Michigan)

Madagascar
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rajaonarivony NARISOA
  chancery: 2374 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-5525, 5526
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-3034
  consulate(s) general: New York

Malawi
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernard Herbert SANDE
  chancery: 1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 721-0270
  FAX: [1] (202) 721-0288

Malaysia
  chief of mission: Ambassador GHAZZALI bin Sheikh Abdul
  Khalid
  chancery: 3516 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 572-9700
  FAX: [1] (202) 572-9882
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Maldives
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mohamed LATHEEF
  chancery: 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400E, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6195
  FAX: [1] (212) 661-6405

Mali
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abdoulaye DIOP
  chancery: 2130 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-2249, 939-8950
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6603

Malta
  chief of mission: Ambassador John LOWELL
  chancery: 2017 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-3611, 3612
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-5470
  consulate(s): New York

Marshall Islands
  chief of mission: Ambassador Banny DE BRUM
  chancery: 2433 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5414
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-3236
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu

Martinique
  none (overseas department of France)

Mauritania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Tijani Ould Mohamed EL KERIM
  chancery: 2129 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-5700, 5701
  FAX: [1] (202) 319-2623

Mauritius
  chief of mission: Ambassador Usha JEETAH
  chancery: 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 441, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-1491, 1492
  FAX: [1] (202) 966-0983

Mayotte
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Mexico
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos Alberto DE ICAZA Gonzalez
  chancery: 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 728-1600
  FAX: [1] (202) 728-1698
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas,
  Denver, El Paso, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York,
  Nogales (Arizona), Omaha, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio,
  San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Juan (Puerto Rico)
  consulate(s): Albuquerque, Brownsville (Texas), Calexico
  (California), Del Rio (Texas), Detroit, Douglas (Arizona), Eagle
  Pass (Texas), Fresno (California), Indianapolis (Indiana), Kansas
  City (Missouri), Laredo (Texas), Las Vegas, McAllen (Texas), Midland
  (Texas), Oxnard (California), Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon),
  Presidio (Texas), Raleigh, Saint Paul (Minnesota), Salt Lake City,
  San Bernardino, Santa Ana (California), Seattle, Tucson, Yuma
  (Arizona)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jesse
  Bibiano MAREHALAU
  chancery: 1725 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-4383
  FAX: [1] (202) 223-4391
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu, Tamuning (Guam)

Moldova
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nicolae CHIRTOACA
  chancery: 2101 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-1130
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-1204

Monaco
  Monaco does not have an embassy in the US
  consulate(s) general: New York

Mongolia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ravdan BOLD
  chancery: 2833 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-7117
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-9227

Montenegro
  chief of mission: Ambassador Miodrag VLAHOVIC

Montserrat
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Morocco
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aziz MEKOUAR
  chancery: 1601 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 462-7979
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-0161
  consulate(s) general: New York

Mozambique
  chief of mission: Ambassador Armando PANGUENE
  chancery: 1990 M Street NW, Suite 570, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 293-7146
  FAX: [1] (202) 835-0245

Namibia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Patrick NANDAGO
  chancery: 1605 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-0540
  FAX: [1] (202) 986-0443

Nauru
  chief of mission: Ambassador Vinci Niel CLODUMAR
  chancery: 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400 D, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 937-0074
  FAX: [1] (212) 937-0079
  consulate(s): Agana (Guam)

Nepal
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant)
  chancery: 2131 Leroy Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-4550
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-5534
  consulate(s) general: New York

Netherlands
  chief of mission: Ambassador Christiaan Mark Johan KRONER
  chancery: 4200 Linnean Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-5300
  FAX: [1] (202) 362-3430
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York
  consulate(s): Boston

Netherlands Antilles
  none (represented by the Kingdom of the
  Netherlands); note - Mr. Jeffrey CORRION, Minister Plenipotentiary
  for Aruba at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

New Caledonia
  none (overseas territory of France)

New Zealand
  chief of mission: Ambassador Roy N. FERGUSON
  chancery: 37 Observatory Circle NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 328-4800
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-5227
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Nicaragua
  chief of mission: Ambassador Salvador STADTHAGEN
  chancery: 1627 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6570, [1] (202) 939-6573
  FAX: [1] (202) 939-6545
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San
  Francisco

Niger
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aminata Maiga Djibrilla TOURE
  chancery: 2204 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4224 through 4227
  FAX: [1] (202)483-3169

Nigeria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Professor George A. OBIOZOR
  chancery: 3519 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 986-8400
  FAX: [1] (202) 775-1385
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, New York

Niue
  none (self-governing territory in free association with New
  Zealand)

Norfolk Island
  none (territory of Australia)

Norway
  chief of mission: Ambassador Knut VOLLEBAEK
  chancery: 2720 34th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-6000
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-0870
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco

Oman
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hunaina bint Sultan bin Ahmad
  al-MUGHAIRI
  chancery: 2535 Belmont Road, NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 387-1980 through 1981, 1988
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-4933

Pakistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Mahmud Ali DURRANI
  chancery: 3517 International Court, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 243-6500
  FAX: [1] (202) 686-1544
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New
  York, Sunnyvale (California)

Palau
  chief of mission: Ambassador Hersey KYOTA
  chancery: 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC
  20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-6814
  FAX: [1] (202) 452-6281
  consulate(s) general: Honolulu
  consulate(s): Tamuning (Guam)

Panama
  chief of mission: Ambassador Federico HUMBERT Arias
  chancery: 2862 McGill Terrace NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-1407
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-8416
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Houston, Miami, New Orleans, New
  York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Tampa

Papua New Guinea
  chief of mission: Ambassador Evan Jeremy PAKI
  chancery: 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 805, Washington, DC
  20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-3680
  FAX: [1] (202) 745-3679

Paraguay
  chief of mission: Ambassador James SPALDING Hellmers
  chancery: 2400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-6960 through 6962
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-4508
  consulate(s) general: Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York

Peru
  chief of mission: Ambassador Felipe ORTIZ de Zevallos
  chancery: 1700 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 833-9860 through 9869
  FAX: [1] (202) 659-8124
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Hartford, Houston,
  Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paterson (New Jersey), San Francisco,
  Washington, DC

Philippines
  chief of mission: Ambassador Willy C. GAA
  chancery: 1600 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-9300
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-7614
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San
  Francisco, San Jose (Northern Mariana Islands), Tamuning (Guam)

Pitcairn Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Poland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Janusz REITER
  chancery: 2640 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-3800 through 3802
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-6271
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Portugal
  chief of mission: Ambassador Pedro Manuel Dos Reis Alves
  CATARINO
  chancery: 2012 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 350-5400
  FAX: [1] (202) 462-3726
  consulate(s) general: Boston, New York, Newark (New Jersey), San
  Francisco
  consulate(s): New Bedford (Massachusetts), Providence (Rhode Island)

Puerto Rico
  none (territory of the US with commonwealth status)

Qatar
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nasir bin Hamad bin Mubarak
  al-KHALIFA
  chancery: 2555 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 274-1600 and 274-1603
  FAX: [1] (202) 237-0061
  consulate(s) general: Houston

Reunion
  none (overseas department of France)

Romania
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires
  Daniela GITMAN
  chancery: 1607 23rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-4846, 4848, 4851, 4852
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-4748
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Russia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Yuriy Viktorovich USHAKOV
  chancery: 2650 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 298-5700, 5701, 5704, 5708
  FAX: [1] (202) 298-5735
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle

Rwanda
  chief of mission: Ambassador Zac NSENGA
  chancery: 1714 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-2882
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-4544

Saint Helena
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dr. Izben
  Cordinal WILLIAMS
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 686-2636
  FAX: [1] (202) 686-5740
  consulate(s) general: New York

Saint Lucia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Sonia Merlyn JOHNNY
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6792 through 6795
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6723
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  none (territorial collectivity of France)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  chief of mission: Ambassador
  Ellsworth I. A. JOHN
  chancery: 3216 New Mexico Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016
  telephone: [1] (202) 364-6730
  FAX: [1] (202) 364-6736
  consulate(s) general: New York

Samoa
  chief of mission: Ambassador Aliioaiga Feturi ELISAIA
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400D, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6196, 6197
  FAX: [1] (212) 599-0797

San Marino
  San Marino does not have an embassy in the US
  honorary consulate(s) general: New York, Washington, DC
  honorary consulate(s): Detroit, Honolulu

Sao Tome and Principe
  chief of mission: First Secretary Domingos
  Augusto FERREIRA
  chancery: 400 Park Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022
  telephone: [1] (212) 317-0580
  FAX: [1] (212) 935-7348
  consulate(s): Atlanta

Saudi Arabia
  chief of mission: Ambassador TURKI al-Faysal bin Abd
  al-Aziz Al Saud
  chancery: 601 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-3800
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-3113
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Los Angeles, New York

Senegal
  chief of mission: Ambassador Amadou Lamine BA
  chancery: 2112 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-0540
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-6315
  consulate(s) general: Houston, New York

Serbia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ivan VUJACIC
  chancery: 2134 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-0333
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-3933
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York

Seychelles
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jeremie BONNELAME
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400C, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 972-1785
  FAX: [1] (212) 972-1786

Sierra Leone
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ibrahim M. KAMARA
  chancery: 1701 19th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-9261 through 9263
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-1793

Singapore
  chief of mission: Ambassador CHAN Heng Chee
  chancery: 3501 International Place NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 537-3100
  FAX: [1] (202) 537-0876
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco
  consulate(s): New York

Slovakia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Rastislav KACER
  chancery: 3523 International Court NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 237-1054
  FAX: [1] (202) 237-6438
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Slovenia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Samuel ZBOGAR
  chancery: 1525 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 667-5363
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-4563
  consulate(s) general: Cleveland, New York

Solomon Islands
  chief of mission: Ambassador Collin David BECK
  chancery: 800 Second Avenue, Suite 400L, New York, NY 10017
  telephone: [1] (212) 599-6192, 6193
  FAX: [1] (212) 661-8925

Somalia
  Somalia does not have an embassy in the US (ceased
  operations on 8 May 1991); note - the TFG and other factions have
  representatives in Washington and at the United Nations

South Africa
  chief of mission: Ambassador Barbara Joyce Mosima
  MASEKELA
  chancery: 3051 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-4400
  FAX: [1] (202) 265-1607
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  none (overseas
  territory of the UK, also claimed by Argentina)

Spain
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos WESTENDORP
  chancery: 2375 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 452-0100, 728-2340
  FAX: [1] (202) 833-5670
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami,
  New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Sri Lanka
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernard GOONETILLEKE
  chancery: 2148 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4025 (through 4028)
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-7181
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles
  consulate(s): New York

Sudan
  chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires, Ad
  Interim Khidir HAROUN (since April 2001)
  chancery: 2210 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 338-8565
  FAX: [1] (202) 667-2406

Suriname
  chief of mission: Ambassador Henry Lothar ILLES
  chancery: Suite 460, 4301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 244-7488
  FAX: [1] (202) 244-5878
  consulate(s) general: Miami

Swaziland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Ephraim Mandla HLOPHE
  chancery: 1712 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-5002
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-8254

Sweden
  chief of mission: Ambassador Gunnar LUND
  chancery: 902 30th Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-2600
  FAX: [1] (202) 467-2699
  consulate(s) general: Los Angeles, New York

Switzerland
  chief of mission: Ambassador Urs ZISWILER
  chancery: 2900 Cathedral Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 745-7900
  FAX: [1] (202) 387-2564
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New
  York, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Boston

Syria
  chief of mission: Ambassador Imad MUSTAFA
  chancery: 2215 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 232-6313
  FAX: [1] (202) 234-9548

Taiwan
  none; unofficial commercial and cultural relations with the
  people of the US are maintained through an unofficial
  instrumentality, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative
  Office (TECRO) in the US with headquarters in Taipei and field
  offices in Washington and 12 other US cities

Tajikistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Khamrokhon ZARIPOV
  chancery: 1005 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037
  telephone: [1] (202) 223-6090
  FAX: [1] (202) 223-6091

Tanzania
  chief of mission: Ambassador Andrew Mhando DARAJA
  chancery: 2139 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 939-6125
  FAX: [1] (202) 797-7408

Thailand
  chief of mission: Ambassador Virasakdi FUTRAKUL
  chancery: 1024 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Suite 401, Washington, DC
  20007-3681
  telephone: [1] (202) 944-3600
  FAX: [1] (202) 944-3611
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York

Togo
  chief of mission: Ambassador Akoussoulelou BODJONA
  chancery: 2208 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 234-4212
  FAX: [1] (202) 232-3190

Tokelau
  none (territory of New Zealand)

Tonga
  chief of mission: Ambassador Fekitamoeloa 'UTOIKAMANU
  chancery: 250 East 51st Street, New York, NY 10022
  telephone: [1] (917) 369-1025
  FAX: [1] (917) 369-1024
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco

Trinidad and Tobago
  chief of mission: Ambassador Marina Annette
  VALERE
  chancery: 1708 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 467-6490
  FAX: [1] (202) 785-3130
  consulate(s) general: Miami, New York

Tunisia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nejib HACHANA
  chancery: 1515 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005
  telephone: [1] (202) 862-1850
  FAX: [1] (202) 862-1858

Turkey
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nabi SENSOY
  chancery: 2525 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 612-6700
  FAX: [1] (202) 612-6744
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York

Turkmenistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Meret Bairamovich ORAZOV
  chancery: 2207 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-1500
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-0697

Turks and Caicos Islands
  none (overseas territory of the UK)

Tuvalu
  Tuvalu does not have an embassy in the US - the country's
  only diplomatic post is in Fiji - Tuvalu does, however, have a UN
  office located at 800 2nd Avenue, Suite 400D, New York, NY 10017,
  telephone: [1] (212) 490-0534

Uganda
  chief of mission: Ambassador Edith G. SSEMPALA
  chancery: 5911 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20011
  telephone: [1] (202) 726-7100 through 7102, 0416
  FAX: [1] (202) 726-1727

Ukraine
  chief of mission: Ambassador Oleh V. SHAMSHUR
  chancery: 3350 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 333-0606
  FAX: [1] (202) 333-0817
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, New York, San Francisco

United Arab Emirates
  chief of mission: Ambassador Saqr Ghobash Said
  GHOBASH
  chancery: 3522 International Court NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC
  20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 243-2400
  FAX: [1] (202) 243-2432
  consulate(s): New York, Houston

United Kingdom
  chief of mission: Ambassador David G. MANNING
  chancery: 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 588-6500
  FAX: [1] (202) 588-7870
  consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los
  Angeles, New York, San Francisco
  consulate(s): Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando

Uruguay
  chief of mission: Ambassador Carlos Alberto GIANELLI Derois
  chancery: 1913 I Street NW, Washington, DC 20006
  telephone: [1] (202) 331-1313 through 1316
  FAX: [1] (202) 331-8142
  consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York
  consulate(s): San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Uzbekistan
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abdulaziz KAMILOV
  chancery: 1746 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 887-5300
  FAX: [1] (202) 293-6804
  consulate(s) general: New York

Vanuatu
  Vanuatu does not have an embassy in the US; it does,
  however, have a Permanent Mission to the UN

Venezuela
  chief of mission: Ambassador Bernardo ALVAREZ Herrera
  chancery: 1099 30th Street NW, Washington, DC 20007
  telephone: [1] (202) 342-2214
  FAX: [1] (202) 342-6820
  consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, New Orleans,
  New York, San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Vietnam
  chief of mission: Ambassador Nguyen Tam CHIEN
  chancery: 1233 20th Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
  telephone: [1] (202) 861-0737
  FAX: [1] (202) 861-0917
  consulate(s) general: San Francisco

Virgin Islands
  none (territory of the US)

Wallis and Futuna
  none (overseas territory of France)

Western Sahara
  none

Yemen
  chief of mission: Ambassador Abd al-Wahab Abdallah al-HAJRI
  chancery: 2319 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 965-4760
  FAX: [1] (202) 337-2017

Zambia
  chief of mission: Ambassador Inonge MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA
  chancery: 2419 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 265-9717 through 9719
  FAX: [1] (202) 332-0826

Zimbabwe
  chief of mission: Ambassador Dr. Machivenyika T. MAPURANGA
  chancery: 1608 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
  telephone: [1] (202) 332-7100
  FAX: [1] (202) 483-9326

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2150  Telephones - main lines in use


Afghanistan
  100,000 (2005)

Albania
  255,000 (2003)

Algeria
  2.572 million (2005)

American Samoa
  15,000 (2001)

Andorra
  35,400 (2005)

Angola
  94,300 (2005)

Anguilla
  6,200 (2002)

Antarctica
  0; note - information for US bases only (2001)

Antigua and Barbuda
  38,000 (2004)

Argentina
  8.8 million (2005)

Armenia
  582,500 (2004)

Aruba
  37,100 (2002)

Australia
  11.46 million (2005)

Austria
  3.705 million (2005)

Azerbaijan
  1,091,400 (2005)

Bahamas, The
  139,900 (2004)

Bahrain
  196,500 (2005)

Bangladesh
  1.07 million (2005)

Barbados
  134,900 (2005)

Belarus
  3,284,300 (2005)

Belgium
  4.801 million (2004)

Belize
  33,300 (2005)

Benin
  76,300 (2005)

Bermuda
  56,000 (2002)

Bhutan
  32,700 (2005)

Bolivia
  646,300 (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  968,900 (2005)

Botswana
  132,000 (2005)

Brazil
  42.382 million (2004)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  NA

British Virgin Islands
  11,700 (2002)

Brunei
  90,000 (2002)

Bulgaria
  2,483,500 (2005)

Burkina Faso
  97,400 (2005)

Burma
  476,200 (2005)

Burundi
  27,700 (2004)

Cambodia
  36,400 (2003)

Cameroon
  99,400 (2004)

Canada
  18.276 million (2005)

Cape Verde
  71,400 (2005)

Cayman Islands
  38,000 (2002)

Central African Republic
  10,000 (2004)

Chad
  13,000 (2004)

Chile
  3,435,900 (2005)

China
  350.433 million (2005)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  287 (1992)

Colombia
  7,678,800 (2005)

Comoros
  16,900 (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  10,600 (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  13,800 (2004)

Cook Islands
  6,200 (2002)

Costa Rica
  1,388,500 (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  257,900 (2004)

Croatia
  1,889,500 (2005)

Cuba
  849,900 (2005)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 420,000 (2005); north Cyprus: 86,228
  (2002)

Czech Republic
  3,217,300 (2005)

Denmark
  3.35 million (2005)

Djibouti
  11,100 (2004)

Dominica
  21,000 (2004)

Dominican Republic
  894,500 (2005)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  1,701,500 (2005)

Egypt
  10,396,100 (2005)

El Salvador
  971,500 (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  10,000 (2005)

Eritrea
  37,700 (2005)

Estonia
  442,000 (2005)

Ethiopia
  610,300 (2005)

European Union
  238,763,162 (2002)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  2,400 (2002)

Faroe Islands
  23,800 (2005)

Fiji
  102,000 (2003)

Finland
  2.12 million (2005)

France
  35.7 million (2005)

French Guiana
  51,000 (2001)

French Polynesia
  53,400 (2005)

Gabon
  39,100 (2005)

Gambia, The
  44,000 (2005)

Gaza Strip
  349,000 (includes West Bank) (2005)

Georgia
  683,200 (2004)

Germany
  55.046 million (2005)

Ghana
  321,500 (2005)

Gibraltar
  24,512 (2002)

Greece
  6.303 million (2005)

Greenland
  25,300 (2002)

Grenada
  32,700 (2004)

Guadeloupe
  210,000 (2001)

Guam
  84,134 (2001)

Guatemala
  1,132,100 (2004)

Guernsey
  55,100 (2004)

Guinea
  26,200 (2003)

Guinea-Bissau
  10,600 (2003)

Guyana
  110,100 (2005)

Haiti
  140,000 (2004)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  5,120 (2005)

Honduras
  494,400 (2005)

Hong Kong
  3,794,600 (2005)

Hungary
  3.356 million (2005)

Iceland
  193,900 (2005)

India
  49.75 million (2005)

Indonesia
  12.772 million (2005)

Iran
  18.986 million (2005)

Iraq
  1,034,200 (2004)

Ireland
  2.033 million (2005)

Isle of Man
  51,000 (1999)

Israel
  2,936,300 (2005)

Italy
  25.049 million (2005)

Jamaica
  342,000 (2005)

Japan
  58.78 million (2005)

Jersey
  73,900 (2001)

Jordan
  617,300 (2004)

Kazakhstan
  2.5 million (2004)

Kenya
  281,800 (2005)

Kiribati
  4,500 (2002)

Korea, North
  980,000 (2003)

Korea, South
  23.745 million (2005)

Kuwait
  510,300 (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  438,200 (2005)

Laos
  90,067 (2006)

Latvia
  731,000 (2005)

Lebanon
  990,000 (2005)

Lesotho
  48,000 (2005)

Liberia
  6,900 (2002)

Libya
  750,000 (2003)

Liechtenstein
  19,900 (2002)

Lithuania
  801,100 (2005)

Luxembourg
  244,500 (2005)

Macau
  174,400 (2005)

Macedonia
  533,200 (2005)

Madagascar
  66,900 (2005)

Malawi
  102,700 (2005)

Malaysia
  4.366 million (2005)

Maldives
  32,300 (2005)

Mali
  75,000 (2005)

Malta
  202,100 (2005)

Marshall Islands
  5,510 (2004)

Martinique
  172,000 (2001)

Mauritania
  41,000 (2005)

Mauritius
  359,000 (2005)

Mayotte
  10,000 (2002)

Mexico
  19.512 million (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  12,400 (2005)

Moldova
  929,400 (2005)

Monaco
  33,700 (2002)

Mongolia
  156,000 (2005)

Montenegro
  177,663 (2005)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  1,341,200 (2005)

Mozambique
  69,700 (2004)

Namibia
  127,900 (2004)

Nauru
  1,900 (2002)

Nepal
  448,600 (2005)

Netherlands
  7.6 million (2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  81,000 (2001)

New Caledonia
  55,300 (2005)

New Zealand
  1,800,500 (2004)

Nicaragua
  220,900 (2005)

Niger
  24,000 (2005)

Nigeria
  1,223,300 (2005)

Niue
  1,100 est (2002)

Norfolk Island
  2,532; note - a mix of analog (2500) and digital (32)
  circuits (2004)

Northern Mariana Islands
  21,000 (2000)

Norway
  2.129 million (2005)

Oman
  265,200 (2005)

Pakistan
  5,277,500 (2005)

Palau
  6,700 (2002)

Panama
  440,100 (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  62,000 (2002)

Paraguay
  320,300 (2005)

Peru
  2,250,500 (2005)

Philippines
  3,437,500 (2004)

Pitcairn Islands
  1 (there are 17 telephones on one party line);
  (2004)

Poland
  11.803 million (2005)

Portugal
  4.234 million (2005)

Puerto Rico
  1,111,900 (2004)

Qatar
  205,400 (2005)

Reunion
  300,000 (2001)

Romania
  4.391 million (2005)

Russia
  40.1 million (2005)

Rwanda
  23,000 (2004)

Saint Helena
  2,200 (2002)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  25,000 (2004)

Saint Lucia
  51,100 (2002)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  4,800 (2002)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  22,500 (2005)

Samoa
  13,300 (2003)

San Marino
  20,600 (2002)

Sao Tome and Principe
  7,000 (2004)

Saudi Arabia
  3.8 million (2005)

Senegal
  266,600 (2005)

Serbia
  2,685,400 (2004)

Seychelles
  21,400 (2005)

Sierra Leone
  24,000 (2002)

Singapore
  1.848 million (2005)

Slovakia
  1.197 million (2005)

Slovenia
  816,400 (2005)

Solomon Islands
  7,400 (2005)

Somalia
  100,000 (2005)

South Africa
  4.729 million (2005)

Spain
  18.322 million (2005)

Sri Lanka
  1.244 million (2005)

Sudan
  670,000 (2005)

Suriname
  81,100 (2004)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  35,000 (2005)

Sweden
  6.447 million (2004)

Switzerland
  5.123 million (2005)

Syria
  2.903 million (2005)

Taiwan
  13.615 million (2005)

Tajikistan
  245,200 (2004)

Tanzania
  148,400 (2004)

Thailand
  7.035 million (2005)

Togo
  58,600 (2005)

Tokelau
  300 (2002)

Tonga
  11,200 (2002)

Trinidad and Tobago
  323,500 (2005)

Tunisia
  1,257,500 (2005)

Turkey
  18.978 million (2005)

Turkmenistan
  376,100 (2003)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  5,700 (2002)

Tuvalu
  700 (2002)

Uganda
  100,800 (2005)

Ukraine
  12.142 million (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  1.237 million (2005)

United Kingdom
  32.943 million (2005)

United States
  268 million (2003)

Uruguay
  1 million (2004)

Uzbekistan
  1,717,100 (2003)

Vanuatu
  6,800 (2004)

Venezuela
  3,605,500 (2005)

Vietnam
  15.845 million (2005)

Virgin Islands
  70,900 (2004)

Wallis and Futuna
  1,900 (2002)

West Bank
  357,300 (includes Gaza Strip) (2004)

Western Sahara
  about 2,000 (1999 est.)

World
  1,263,367,600 (2005)

Yemen
  798,100 (2004)

Zambia
  94,700 (2005)

Zimbabwe
  328,000 (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2151  Telephones - mobile cellular


Afghanistan
  1.2 million (2005)

Albania
  1.259 million (2004)

Algeria
  13.661 million (2005)

American Samoa
  2,377 (1999)

Andorra
  64,600 (2005)

Angola
  1,094,100 (2005)

Anguilla
  1,800 (2002)

Antarctica
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  54,000 (2004)

Argentina
  22.1 million (2005)

Armenia
  320,000 (2005)

Aruba
  98,400 (2004)

Australia
  18.42 million (2005)

Austria
  8.16 million (2005)

Azerbaijan
  2.242 million (2005)

Bahamas, The
  186,000 (2004)

Bahrain
  748,700 (2005)

Bangladesh
  9 million (2005)

Barbados
  206,200 (2005)

Belarus
  4.098 million (2005)

Belgium
  9.46 million (2005)

Belize
  93,100 (2005)

Benin
  386,700 (2005)

Bermuda
  49,000 (2004)

Bhutan
  37,800 (2005)

Bolivia
  2.421 million (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  1.594 million (2005)

Botswana
  823,100 (2005)

Brazil
  86.21 million (2005)

British Virgin Islands
  8,000 (2002)

Brunei
  205,900 (2004)

Bulgaria
  6.245 million (2005)

Burkina Faso
  572,200 (2005)

Burma
  183,400 (2005)

Burundi
  153,000 (2005)

Cambodia
  1.062 million (2005)

Cameroon
  2.259 million (2005)

Canada
  16.6 million (2005)

Cape Verde
  81,700 (2005)

Cayman Islands
  17,000 (2002)

Central African Republic
  60,000 (2004)

Chad
  210,000 (2005)

Chile
  10.57 million (2005)

China
  393.428 million (2005)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  note - analog cellular service available

Colombia
  21.85 million (2005)

Comoros
  16,100 (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  2.746 million (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  490,000 (2005)

Cook Islands
  1,500 (2002)

Costa Rica
  1.101 million (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  2.19 million (2005)

Croatia
  2.984 million (2005)

Cuba
  134,500 (2005)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 718,800 (2005); north Cyprus: 143,178
  (2002)

Czech Republic
  11.776 million (2005)

Denmark
  5.469 million (2005)

Djibouti
  34,500 (2004)

Dominica
  41,800 (2004)

Dominican Republic
  3.623 million (2005)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  6.246 million (2005)

Egypt
  14,045,134 (2005)

El Salvador
  2.412 million (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  96,900 (2005)

Eritrea
  40,400 (2005)

Estonia
  1.445 million (2005)

Ethiopia
  410,600 (2005)

European Union
  314,644,700 (2002)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 (2001)

Faroe Islands
  42,500 (2005)

Fiji
  142,200 (2004)

Finland
  5.231 million (2005)

France
  48.058 million (2005)

French Guiana
  98,000 (2004)

French Polynesia
  87,000 (2005)

Gabon
  649,800 (2005)

Gambia, The
  247,500 (2005)

Gaza Strip
  1.095 million (includes West Bank) (2005)

Georgia
  1.459 million (2005)

Germany
  79.2 million (2005)

Ghana
  2.842 million (2005)

Gibraltar
  9,797 (2002)

Greece
  10.043 million (2005)

Greenland
  32,200 (2004)

Grenada
  43,300 (2004)

Guadeloupe
  314,700 (2004)

Guam
  98,000 (2004)

Guatemala
  3,168,300 (2004)

Guernsey
  43,800 (2004)

Guinea
  189,000 (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  67,000 (2005)

Guyana
  281,400 (2005)

Haiti
  400,000 (2004)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  1.282 million (2005)

Hong Kong
  8.693 million (2005)

Hungary
  9.32 million (2005)

Iceland
  304,000 (2005)

India
  69,193,321 (2006)

Indonesia
  46.91 million (2005)

Iran
  7.222 million (2005)

Iraq
  574,000 (2004)

Ireland
  4.21 million (2005)

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  7.757 million (2005)

Italy
  72.2 million (2005)

Jamaica
  2.7 million (2005)

Japan
  94.745 million (2005)

Jersey
  83,900 (2004)

Jordan
  1,594,500 (2004)

Kazakhstan
  4.955 million (2005)

Kenya
  4.612 million (2005)

Kiribati
  600 (2004)

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  38.342 million (2005)

Kuwait
  2.38 million (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  541,700 (2005)

Laos
  520,546 (2006)

Latvia
  1.872 million (2005)

Lebanon
  990,000 (2005)

Lesotho
  245,100 (2005)

Liberia
  160,000 (2005)

Libya
  234,800 (2004)

Liechtenstein
  11,400 (2002)

Lithuania
  4.353 million (2005)

Luxembourg
  720,000 (2005)

Macau
  532,800 (2005)

Macedonia
  1.261 million (2005)

Madagascar
  504,700 (2005)

Malawi
  429,300 (2005)

Malaysia
  19.545 million (2005)

Maldives
  153,400 (2005)

Mali
  869,600 (2005)

Malta
  324,000 (2005)

Marshall Islands
  1,198 (2004)

Martinique
  319,900 (2002)

Mauritania
  745,600 (2005)

Mauritius
  713,300 (2005)

Mayotte
  48,100 (2004)

Mexico
  47.462 million (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  14,100 (2005)

Moldova
  1.09 million (2005)

Monaco
  19,300 (2002)

Mongolia
  557,200 (2005)

Montenegro
  543,220 (2005)

Montserrat
  70 (1994)

Morocco
  12.393 million (2005)

Mozambique
  1.22 million (2005)

Namibia
  495,000 (2005)

Nauru
  1,500 (2002)

Nepal
  248,800 (2005)

Netherlands
  15.834 million (2005)

Netherlands Antilles
  200,000 (2004)

New Caledonia
  134,300 (2005)

New Zealand
  3.53 million (2005)

Nicaragua
  1.119 million (2005)

Niger
  299,900 (2005)

Nigeria
  21,571,131 (2006)

Niue
  400 (2002)

Norfolk Island
  0 (proposed cellular service disallowed in August
  2002 island referendum) (2002)

Northern Mariana Islands
  20,500 (2004)

Norway
  4.755 million (2005)

Oman
  1.333 million (2005)

Pakistan
  12.771 million (2005)

Palau
  1,000 (2002)

Panama
  1.352 million (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  26,000 (2005)

Paraguay
  1.887 million (2005)

Peru
  5.583 million (2005)

Philippines
  32.81 million (2005)

Poland
  29,166,400 (2005)

Portugal
  11.448 million (2005)

Puerto Rico
  2.682 million (2004)

Qatar
  716,800 (2005)

Reunion
  579,200 (2004)

Romania
  13.354 million (2005)

Russia
  120 million (2005)

Rwanda
  290,000
  note: Rwanda has mobile cellular service between Kigali and several
  provincial capitals (2005)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  10,000 (2004)

Saint Lucia
  93,000 (2004)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  70,600 (2005)

Samoa
  24,000 (2005)

San Marino
  16,800 (2002)

Sao Tome and Principe
  12,000 (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  13.3 million (2005)

Senegal
  1.73 million (2005)

Serbia
  5.229 million (2005)

Seychelles
  57,000 (2005)

Sierra Leone
  113,200 (2003)

Singapore
  4.385 million (2005)

Slovakia
  4.54 million (2005)

Slovenia
  1.759 million (2005)

Solomon Islands
  6,000 (2005)

Somalia
  500,000 (2005)

South Africa
  33.96 million (2005)

Spain
  41.328 million (2005)

Sri Lanka
  3.362 million (2005)

Sudan
  1.828 million (2005)

Suriname
  232,800 (2005)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  200,000 (2005)

Sweden
  8.436 million (2005)

Switzerland
  6.847 million (2005)

Syria
  2.95 million (2005)

Taiwan
  22.17 million (2005)

Tajikistan
  265,000 (2005)

Tanzania
  1.942 million (2005)

Thailand
  27.379 million (2005)

Togo
  443,600 (2005)

Tokelau
  0 (2001)

Tonga
  16,400 (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  800,000 (2005)

Tunisia
  5.681 million (2005)

Turkey
  43.609 million (2005)

Turkmenistan
  52,000 (2004)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  1,700 (1999)

Tuvalu
  0 (2004)

Uganda
  1.525 million (2005)

Ukraine
  17.214 million (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  4.535 million (2005)

United Kingdom
  61.091 million (2004)

United States
  219.4 million (2005)

Uruguay
  600,000 (2004)

Uzbekistan
  720,000 (2005)

Vanuatu
  12,700 (2005)

Venezuela
  12.496 million (2005)

Vietnam
  9.593 million (2005)

Virgin Islands
  64,200 (2004)

Wallis and Futuna
  0 (1994)

West Bank
  1.095 million (includes Gaza Strip) (2005)

Western Sahara
  0 (1999)

World
  2,168,433,600 (2005)

Yemen
  2 million (2005)

Zambia
  946,600 (2005)

Zimbabwe
  699,000 (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2153  Internet users


Afghanistan
  30,000 (2005)

Albania
  75,000 (2005)

Algeria
  1.92 million (2005)

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  21,900 (2005)

Angola
  172,000 (2005)

Anguilla
  3,000 (2002)

Antigua and Barbuda
  20,000 (2005)

Argentina
  10 million (2005)

Armenia
  150,000 (2005)

Aruba
  24,000 (2002)

Australia
  14,663,622 (2006)

Austria
  4.65 million (2005)

Azerbaijan
  678,800 (2005)

Bahamas, The
  93,000 (2005)

Bahrain
  152,700 (2005)

Bangladesh
  300,000 (2005)

Barbados
  160,000 (2005)

Belarus
  3,394,400 (2005)

Belgium
  5.1 million (2005)

Belize
  35,000 (2005)

Benin
  425,000 (2005)

Bermuda
  39,000 (2005)

Bhutan
  25,000 (2005)

Bolivia
  480,000 (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  806,400 (2005)

Botswana
  60,000 (2002)

Brazil
  25.9 million (2005)

British Virgin Islands
  4,000 (2002)

Brunei
  56,000 (2005)

Bulgaria
  2.2 million (2005)

Burkina Faso
  64,600 (2005)

Burma
  78,000 (2005)

Burundi
  25,000 (2005)

Cambodia
  41,000 (2005)

Cameroon
  167,000 (2005)

Canada
  21.9 million (2005)

Cape Verde
  25,000 (2005)

Cayman Islands
  9,909 (2003)

Central African Republic
  9,000 (2005)

Chad
  35,000 (2005)

Chile
  6.7 million (2005)

China
  123 million (2006)

Christmas Island
  464 (2001)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  4.739 million (2005)

Comoros
  20,000 (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  140,600 (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  36,000 (2005)

Cook Islands
  3,600 (2002)

Costa Rica
  1 million (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  160,000 (2005)

Croatia
  1,451,100 (2005)

Cuba
  190,000
  note: private citizens are prohibited from buying computers or
  accessing the Internet without special authorization; foreigners may
  access the Internet in large hotels but are subject to firewalls;
  some Cubans buy illegal passwords on the black market or take
  advantage of public outlets, to access limited email and the
  government-controlled "intranet" (2005)

Cyprus
  298,000 (2005)

Czech Republic
  5.1 million (2005)

Denmark
  3,762,500 (2005)

Djibouti
  9,000 (2005)

Dominica
  20,500 (2005)

Dominican Republic
  938,300 (2005)

East Timor
  1,000 (2004)

Ecuador
  616,000 (2005)

Egypt
  5 million (2005)

El Salvador
  637,100 (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  5,000 (2005)

Eritrea
  70,000 (2005)

Estonia
  690,000 (2005)

Ethiopia
  113,000 (2005)

European Union
  239,881,917 (2006)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  1,900 (2002)

Faroe Islands
  33,000 (2005)

Fiji
  61,000 (2004)

Finland
  3.286 million (2005)

France
  29.521 million (2006)

French Guiana
  38,000 (2005)

French Polynesia
  55,000 (2005)

Gabon
  67,000 (2005)

Gambia, The
  49,000 (2005)

Gaza Strip
  243,000 (includes West Bank) (2005)

Georgia
  175,600 (2005)

Germany
  50.616 million (2006)

Ghana
  401,300 (2005)

Gibraltar
  6,200 (2002)

Greece
  3.8 million (2005)

Greenland
  38,000 (2005)

Grenada
  19,000 (2005)

Guadeloupe
  79,000 (2005)

Guam
  79,000 (2004)

Guatemala
  756,000 (2005)

Guernsey
  36,000 (2005)

Guinea
  46,000 (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  26,000 (2005)

Guyana
  160,000 (2005)

Haiti
  500,000 (2005)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  93 (2000)

Honduras
  223,000 (2005)

Hong Kong
  4,878,713 (2005)

Hungary
  3.05 million (2005)

Iceland
  258,000 (2005)

India
  60 million (2005)

Indonesia
  16 million (2005)

Iran
  7.5 million (2005)

Iraq
  36,000 (2005)

Ireland
  2.06 million (2005)

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  3.7 million (2006)

Italy
  28.87 million (2005)

Jamaica
  1.067 million (2005)

Japan
  86.3 million (2005)

Jersey
  27,000 (2005)

Jordan
  629,500 (2005)

Kazakhstan
  400,000 (2005)

Kenya
  1,054,900 (2005)

Kiribati
  2,000 (2004)

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  33.9 million (2005)

Kuwait
  700,000 (2005)

Kyrgyzstan
  280,000 (2005)

Laos
  25,000 (2005)

Latvia
  1.03 million (2005)

Lebanon
  700,000 (2005)

Lesotho
  43,000 (2005)

Liberia
  1,000 (2002)

Libya
  205,000 (2005)

Liechtenstein
  20,000 (2002)

Lithuania
  1,221,700 (2005)

Luxembourg
  315,000 (2005)

Macau
  201,000 (2004)

Macedonia
  392,671 (2005)

Madagascar
  90,000 (2005)

Malawi
  52,500 (2005)

Malaysia
  11.016 million (2005)

Maldives
  19,000 (2005)

Mali
  60,000 (2005)

Malta
  127,200 (2005)

Marshall Islands
  2,000 (2005)

Martinique
  107,000 (2005)

Mauritania
  14,000 (2005)

Mauritius
  180,000 (2005)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  18,622,500 (2005)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  14,000 (2005)

Moldova
  406,000 (2005)

Monaco
  16,000 (2002)

Mongolia
  268,300 (2005)

Montenegro
  50,000 (2004)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  4.6 million (2005)

Mozambique
  138,000 (2005)

Namibia
  75,000 (2005)

Nauru
  300 (2002)

Nepal
  175,000 (2005)

Netherlands
  10,806,328 (2004)

Netherlands Antilles
  2,000 (2000)

New Caledonia
  76,000 (2005)

New Zealand
  3.2 million (2005)

Nicaragua
  140,000 (2005)

Niger
  24,000 (2005)

Nigeria
  5 million (2005)

Niue
  900 (2002)

Norfolk Island
  700

Northern Mariana Islands
  10,000 (2003)

Norway
  3.14 million (2005)

Oman
  245,000 (2005)

Pakistan
  10.5 million (2005)

Panama
  300,000 (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  170,000 (2005)

Paraguay
  200,000 (2005)

Peru
  4.6 million (2005)

Philippines
  7.82 million (2005)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  10.6 million (2005)

Portugal
  7,782,700 (2006)

Puerto Rico
  1 million (2005)

Qatar
  219,000 (2005)

Reunion
  200,000 (2005)

Romania
  4.94 million (2005)

Russia
  23.7 million (2005)

Rwanda
  38,000 (2005)

Saint Helena
  1,000 note - includes Ascension Island (2003)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  10,000 (2002)

Saint Lucia
  55,000 (2005)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  8,000 (2005)

Samoa
  6,000 (2004)

San Marino
  14,300 (2002)

Sao Tome and Principe
  20,000 (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  2.54 million (2005)

Senegal
  540,000 (2005)

Serbia
  1.4 million (2006)

Seychelles
  20,000 (2005)

Sierra Leone
  10,000 (2005)

Singapore
  2,421,800 (2005)

Slovakia
  2.5 million (2005)

Slovenia
  1.09 million (2005)

Solomon Islands
  8,400 (2005)

Somalia
  90,000 (2005)

South Africa
  5.1 million (2005)

Spain
  19,204,771 (2006)

Sri Lanka
  280,000 (2005)

Sudan
  2.8 million (2005)

Suriname
  30,000 (2005)

Svalbard
  NA

Swaziland
  36,000 (2005)

Sweden
  6.8 million (2005)

Switzerland
  5,097,822 (2005)

Syria
  1.1 million (2005)

Taiwan
  13.21 million (2005)

Tajikistan
  5,000 (2005)

Tanzania
  333,000 (2005)

Thailand
  8.42 million (2005)

Togo
  300,000 (2005)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  3,000 (2004)

Trinidad and Tobago
  160,000 (2005)

Tunisia
  953,800 (2005)

Turkey
  16 million (2005)

Turkmenistan
  36,000 (2005)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  1,300 (2002)

Uganda
  500,000 (2005)

Ukraine
  5,278,100 (2005)

United Arab Emirates
  1,397,200 (2005)

United Kingdom
  37.6 million (2005)

United States
  205,326,680 (2005)

Uruguay
  680,000 (2005)

Uzbekistan
  880,000 (2005)

Vanuatu
  7,500 (2004)

Venezuela
  3.04 million (2005)

Vietnam
  13.1 million (2006)

Virgin Islands
  30,000 (2002)

Wallis and Futuna
  900 (2002)

West Bank
  243,000 (includes Gaza Strip) (2005)

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  1,018,057,389 (2005)

Yemen
  220,000 (2005)

Zambia
  231,000 (2005)

Zimbabwe
  1 million (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2154  Internet country code


Afghanistan
  .af

Albania
  .al

Algeria
  .dz

American Samoa
  .as

Andorra
  .ad

Angola
  .ao

Anguilla
  .ai

Antarctica
  .aq

Antigua and Barbuda
  .ag

Argentina
  .ar

Armenia
  .am

Aruba
  .aw

Australia
  .au

Austria
  .at

Azerbaijan
  .az

Bahamas, The
  .bs

Bahrain
  .bh

Bangladesh
  .bd

Barbados
  .bb

Belarus
  .by

Belgium
  .be

Belize
  .bz

Benin
  .bj

Bermuda
  .bm

Bhutan
  .bt

Bolivia
  .bo

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  .ba

Botswana
  .bw

Bouvet Island
  .bv

Brazil
  .br

British Indian Ocean Territory
  .io

British Virgin Islands
  .vg

Brunei
  .bn

Bulgaria
  .bg

Burkina Faso
  .bf

Burma
  .mm

Burundi
  .bi

Cambodia
  .kh

Cameroon
  .cm

Canada
  .ca

Cape Verde
  .cv

Cayman Islands
  .ky

Central African Republic
  .cf

Chad
  .td

Chile
  .cl

China
  .cn

Christmas Island
  .cx

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  .cc

Colombia
  .co

Comoros
  .km

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  .cd

Congo, Republic of the
  .cg

Cook Islands
  .ck

Costa Rica
  .cr

Cote d'Ivoire
  .ci

Croatia
  .hr

Cuba
  .cu

Cyprus
  .cy

Czech Republic
  .cz

Denmark
  .dk

Djibouti
  .dj

Dominica
  .dm

Dominican Republic
  .do

East Timor
  .tl; note - ICANN approved the change from .tp in January
  2005

Ecuador
  .ec

Egypt
  .eg

El Salvador
  .sv

Equatorial Guinea
  .gq

Eritrea
  .er

Estonia
  .ee

Ethiopia
  .et

European Union
  .eu (effective 2005); note - see country entries of
  member states for individual country codes

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  .fk

Faroe Islands
  .fo

Fiji
  .fj

Finland
  .fi; note - the IANA has assigned the ccTLD of .ax to the
  Aland Islands

France
  .fr

French Guiana
  .gf

French Polynesia
  .pf

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  .tf

Gabon
  .ga

Gambia, The
  .gm

Gaza Strip
  .ps

Georgia
  .ge

Germany
  .de

Ghana
  .gh

Gibraltar
  .gi

Greece
  .gr

Greenland
  .gl

Grenada
  .gd

Guadeloupe
  .gp

Guam
  .gu

Guatemala
  .gt

Guernsey
  .gg

Guinea
  .gn

Guinea-Bissau
  .gw

Guyana
  .gy

Haiti
  .ht

Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  .hm

Holy See (Vatican City)
  .va

Honduras
  .hn

Hong Kong
  .hk

Hungary
  .hu

Iceland
  .is

India
  .in

Indonesia
  .id

Iran
  .ir

Iraq
  .iq

Ireland
  .ie

Isle of Man
  .im

Israel
  .il

Italy
  .it

Jamaica
  .jm

Japan
  .jp

Jersey
  .je

Jordan
  .jo

Kazakhstan
  .kz

Kenya
  .ke

Kiribati
  .ki

Korea, North
  .kp

Korea, South
  .kr

Kuwait
  .kw

Kyrgyzstan
  .kg

Laos
  .la

Latvia
  .lv

Lebanon
  .lb

Lesotho
  .ls

Liberia
  .lr

Libya
  .ly

Liechtenstein
  .li

Lithuania
  .lt

Luxembourg
  .lu

Macau
  .mo

Macedonia
  .mk

Madagascar
  .mg

Malawi
  .mw

Malaysia
  .my

Maldives
  .mv

Mali
  .ml

Malta
  .mt

Marshall Islands
  .mh

Martinique
  .mq

Mauritania
  .mr

Mauritius
  .mu

Mayotte
  .yt

Mexico
  .mx

Micronesia, Federated States of
  .fm

Moldova
  .md

Monaco
  .mc

Mongolia
  .mn

Montenegro
  .me

Montserrat
  .ms

Morocco
  .ma

Mozambique
  .mz

Namibia
  .na

Nauru
  .nr

Nepal
  .np

Netherlands
  .nl

Netherlands Antilles
  .an

New Caledonia
  .nc

New Zealand
  .nz

Nicaragua
  .ni

Niger
  .ne

Nigeria
  .ng

Niue
  .nu

Norfolk Island
  .nf

Northern Mariana Islands
  .mp

Norway
  .no

Oman
  .om

Pakistan
  .pk

Palau
  .pw

Panama
  .pa

Papua New Guinea
  .pg

Paraguay
  .py

Peru
  .pe

Philippines
  .ph

Pitcairn Islands
  .pn

Poland
  .pl

Portugal
  .pt

Puerto Rico
  .pr

Qatar
  .qa

Reunion
  .re

Romania
  .ro

Russia
  .ru; note - Russia also has responsibility for a legacy
  domain ".su" that was allocated to the Soviet Union, and whose legal
  status and ownership are contested by the Russian Government, ICANN,
  and several Russian commercial entities

Rwanda
  .rw

Saint Helena
  .sh; note - the IANA has assigned .ac as the ccTLD for
  Ascension Island

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  .kn

Saint Lucia
  .lc

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  .pm

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  .vc

Samoa
  .ws

San Marino
  .sm

Sao Tome and Principe
  .st

Saudi Arabia
  .sa

Senegal
  .sn

Serbia
  .rs; note - former ccTLD .yu will remain in service until the
  end of 2006

Seychelles
  .sc

Sierra Leone
  .sl

Singapore
  .sg

Slovakia
  .sk

Slovenia
  .si

Solomon Islands
  .sb

Somalia
  .so

South Africa
  .za

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  .gs

Spain
  .es

Sri Lanka
  .lk

Sudan
  .sd

Suriname
  .sr

Svalbard
  .sj

Swaziland
  .sz

Sweden
  .se

Switzerland
  .ch

Syria
  .sy

Taiwan
  .tw

Tajikistan
  .tj

Tanzania
  .tz

Thailand
  .th

Togo
  .tg

Tokelau
  .tk

Tonga
  .to

Trinidad and Tobago
  .tt

Tunisia
  .tn

Turkey
  .tr

Turkmenistan
  .tm

Turks and Caicos Islands
  .tc

Tuvalu
  .tv

Uganda
  .ug

Ukraine
  .ua

United Arab Emirates
  .ae

United Kingdom
  .uk

United States
  .us

Uruguay
  .uy

Uzbekistan
  .uz

Vanuatu
  .vu

Venezuela
  .ve

Vietnam
  .vn

Virgin Islands
  .vi

Wallis and Futuna
  .wf

West Bank
  .ps

Western Sahara
  .eh

Yemen
  .ye

Zambia
  .zm

Zimbabwe
  .zw

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2155  HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate (%)


Afghanistan
  0.01% (2001 est.)

Albania
  NA

Algeria
  0.1% ; note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  3.9% (2003 est.)

Anguilla
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  0.7% (2001 est.)

Armenia
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Aruba
  NA

Australia
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Austria
  0.3% (2003 est.)

Azerbaijan
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  3% (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Bangladesh
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Barbados
  1.5% (2003 est.)

Belarus
  0.3% (2001 est.)

Belgium
  0.2% (2003 est.)

Belize
  2.4% (2003 est.)

Benin
  1.9% (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  0.297% (2005)

Bhutan
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Bolivia
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Botswana
  37.3% (2003 est.)

Brazil
  0.7% (2003 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Burkina Faso
  4.2% (2003 est.)

Burma
  1.2% (2003 est.)

Burundi
  6% (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  2.6% (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  6.9% (2003 est.)

Canada
  0.3% (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  0.035% (2001 est.)

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  13.5% (2003 est.)

Chad
  4.8% (2003 est.)

Chile
  0.3% (2003 est.)

China
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  0.7% (2003 est.)

Comoros
  0.12% (2001 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  4.2% (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  4.9% (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  NA

Costa Rica
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  7% (2003 est.)

Croatia
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Cuba
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Cyprus
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Denmark
  0.2% (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  2.9% (2003 est.)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  1.7% (2003 est.)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  0.3% (2003 est.)

Egypt
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

El Salvador
  0.7% (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  3.4% (2001 est.)

Eritrea
  2.7% (2003 est.)

Estonia
  1.1% (2001 est.)

Ethiopia
  4.4% (2003 est.)

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Finland
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

France
  0.4% (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  8.1% (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  1.2% (2003 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Germany
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Ghana
  3.1% (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA

Greece
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Greenland
  NA

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  1.1% (2003 est.)

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  3.2% (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  10% (2003 est.)

Guyana
  2.5% (2003 est.)

Haiti
  5.6% (2003 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  1.8% (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Hungary
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Iceland
  0.2% (2001 est.)

India
  0.9% (2001 est.)

Indonesia
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Iran
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Iraq
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Ireland
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Italy
  0.5% (2001 est.)

Jamaica
  1.2% (2003 est.)

Japan
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Jersey
  NA

Jordan
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Kenya
  6.7% (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  0.12% (2001 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Laos
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Latvia
  0.6% (2001 est.)

Lebanon
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Lesotho
  28.9% (2003 est.)

Liberia
  5.9% (2003 est.)

Libya
  0.3% (2001 est.)

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Luxembourg
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Madagascar
  1.7% (2003 est.)

Malawi
  14.2% (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  0.4% (2003 est.)

Maldives
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Mali
  1.9% (2003 est.)

Malta
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Marshall Islands
  NA

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  0.3% (2003 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA

Moldova
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Mozambique
  12.2% (2003 est.)

Namibia
  21.3% (2003 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  0.5% (2001 est.)

Netherlands
  0.2% (2001 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  0.1% (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  0.2% (2003 est.)

Niger
  1.2% (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  5.4% (2003 est.)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA

Norway
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Oman
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Pakistan
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  0.9% (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Paraguay
  0.5% (2003 est.)

Peru
  0.5% (2003 est.)

Philippines
  less than 0.1% (2003 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  0.1% ; note - no country specific models provided (2001 est.)

Portugal
  0.4% (2001 est.)

Puerto Rico
  NA

Qatar
  0.09% (2001 est.)

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Russia
  1.1% (2001 est.)

Rwanda
  5.1% (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  NA

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA

Saudi Arabia
  0.01% (2001 est.)

Senegal
  0.8% (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  NA

Sierra Leone
  7% (2001 est.)

Singapore
  0.2% (2003 est.)

Slovakia
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Slovenia
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  1% (2001 est.)

South Africa
  21.5% (2003 est.)

Spain
  0.7% (2001 est.)

Sri Lanka
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Sudan
  2.3% (2001 est.)

Suriname
  1.7% (2001 est.)

Svalbard
  0% (2001)

Swaziland
  38.8% (2003 est.)

Sweden
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Switzerland
  0.4% (2001 est.)

Syria
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Taiwan
  NA

Tajikistan
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Tanzania
  8.8% (2003 est.)

Thailand
  1.5% (2003 est.)

Togo
  4.1% (2003 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  3.2% (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  less than 0.1% (2005 est.)

Turkey
  less than 0.1% - note - no country specific models provided
  (2001 est.)

Turkmenistan
  less than 0.1% (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  4.1% (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  1.4% (2003 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  0.18% (2001 est.)

United Kingdom
  0.2% (2001 est.)

United States
  0.6% (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  0.3% (2001 est.)

Uzbekistan
  less than 0.1% (2001 est.)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  0.7% - note - no country specific models provided (2001
  est.)

Vietnam
  0.4% (2003 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  NA

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  NA

Yemen
  0.1% (2001 est.)

Zambia
  16.5% (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  24.6% (2001 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2156  HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS


Afghanistan
  NA

Albania
  NA

Algeria
  9,100 (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  240,000 (2003 est.)

Anguilla
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  130,000 (2001 est.)

Armenia
  2,600 (2003 est.)

Aruba
  NA

Australia
  14,000 (2003 est.)

Austria
  10,000 (2003 est.)

Azerbaijan
  1,400 (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  5,600 (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  less than 600 (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  13,000 (2001 est.)

Barbados
  2,500 (2003 est.)

Belarus
  15,000 (2001 est.)

Belgium
  10,000 (2003 est.)

Belize
  3,600 (2003 est.)

Benin
  68,000 (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  163 (2005)

Bhutan
  less than 100 (1999 est.)

Bolivia
  4,900 (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  900 (2003 est.)

Botswana
  350,000 (2003 est.)

Brazil
  660,000 (2003 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  346 (2001 est.)

Burkina Faso
  300,000 (2003 est.)

Burma
  330,000 (2003 est.)

Burundi
  250,000 (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  170,000 (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  560,000 (2003 est.)

Canada
  56,000 (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  775 (2001)

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  260,000 (2003 est.)

Chad
  200,000 (2003 est.)

Chile
  26,000 (2003 est.)

China
  840,000 (2003 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  190,000 (2003 est.)

Comoros
  NA

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1.1 million (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  90,000 (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  NA

Costa Rica
  12,000 (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  570,000 (2003 est.)

Croatia
  200 (2001 est.)

Cuba
  3,300 (2003 est.)

Cyprus
  less than 1,000 (1999 est.)

Czech Republic
  2,500 (2001 est.)

Denmark
  5,000 (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  9,100 (2003 est.)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  88,000 (2003 est.)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  21,000 (2003 est.)

Egypt
  12,000 (2001 est.)

El Salvador
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  5,900 (2001 est.)

Eritrea
  60,000 (2003 est.)

Estonia
  7,800 (2003 est.)

Ethiopia
  1.5 million (2003 est.)

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  600 (2003 est.)

Finland
  1,500 (2003 est.)

France
  120,000 (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  48,000 (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  6,800 (2003 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  3,000 (2003 est.)

Germany
  43,000 (2001 est.)

Ghana
  350,000 (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA

Greece
  9,100 (2001 est.)

Greenland
  100 (1999)

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  78,000 (2003 est.)

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  140,000 (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  17,000 (2001 est.)

Guyana
  11,000 (2003 est.)

Haiti
  280,000 (2003 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  63,000 (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  2,600 (2003 est.)

Hungary
  2,800 (2001 est.)

Iceland
  220 (2001 est.)

India
  5.1 million (2001 est.)

Indonesia
  110,000 (2003 est.)

Iran
  31,000 (2001 est.)

Iraq
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Ireland
  2,800 (2001 est.)

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  3,000 (1999 est.)

Italy
  140,000 (2001 est.)

Jamaica
  22,000 (2003 est.)

Japan
  12,000 (2003 est.)

Jersey
  NA

Jordan
  600 (2003 est.)

Kazakhstan
  16,500 (2001 est.)

Kenya
  1.2 million (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  8,300 (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  NA

Kyrgyzstan
  3,900 (2003 est.)

Laos
  1,700 (2003 est.)

Latvia
  7,600 (2001 est.)

Lebanon
  2,800 (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  320,000 (2003 est.)

Liberia
  100,000 (2003 est.)

Libya
  10,000 (2001 est.)

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  1,300 (2003 est.)

Luxembourg
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Madagascar
  140,000 (2003 est.)

Malawi
  900,000 (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  52,000 (2003 est.)

Maldives
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Mali
  140,000 (2003 est.)

Malta
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Marshall Islands
  NA

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  9,500 (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  700 (2001 est.)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  160,000 (2003 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA

Moldova
  5,500 (2001 est.)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  less than 500 (2003 est)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  15,000 (2001 est.)

Mozambique
  1.3 million (2003 est.)

Namibia
  210,000 (2001 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  61,000 (2001 est.)

Netherlands
  19,000 (2001 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  1,400 (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  6,400 (2003 est.)

Niger
  70,000 (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  3.6 million (2003 est.)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA

Norway
  2,100 (2001 est.)

Oman
  1,300 (2001 est.)

Pakistan
  74,000 (2001 est.)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  16,000 (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  16,000 (2003 est.)

Paraguay
  15,000 (1999 est.)

Peru
  82,000 (2003 est.)

Philippines
  9,000 (2003 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  14,000 (2003 est.)

Portugal
  22,000 (2001 est.)

Puerto Rico
  7,397 (1997)

Qatar
  NA

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  6,500 (2001 est.)

Russia
  860,000 (2001 est.)

Rwanda
  250,000 (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  12

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA

Saudi Arabia
  NA

Senegal
  44,000 (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  NA

Sierra Leone
  170,000 (2001 est.)

Singapore
  4,100 (2003 est.)

Slovakia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Slovenia
  280 (2001 est.)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  43,000 (2001 est.)

South Africa
  5.3 million (2003 est.)

Spain
  140,000 (2001 est.)

Sri Lanka
  3,500 (2001 est.)

Sudan
  400,000 (2001 est.)

Suriname
  5,200 (2001 est.)

Svalbard
  0 (2001)

Swaziland
  220,000 (2003 est.)

Sweden
  3,600 (2001 est.)

Switzerland
  13,000 (2001 est.)

Syria
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  NA

Tajikistan
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Tanzania
  1.6 million (2003 est.)

Thailand
  570,000 (2003 est.)

Togo
  110,000 (2003 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  1,000 (2003 est.)

Turkey
  NA

Turkmenistan
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  530,000 (2001 est.)

Ukraine
  360,000 (2001 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  NA

United Kingdom
  51,000 (2001 est.)

United States
  950,000 (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  6,000 (2001 est.)

Uzbekistan
  11,000 (2003 est.)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  110,000 (1999 est.)

Vietnam
  220,000 (2003 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  NA

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  NA

Yemen
  12,000 (2001 est.)

Zambia
  920,000 (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  1.8 million (2001 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2157  HIV/AIDS - deaths


Afghanistan
  NA

Albania
  NA

Algeria
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  NA

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  21,000 (2003 est.)

Anguilla
  NA

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA

Argentina
  1,500 (2003 est.)

Armenia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Aruba
  NA

Australia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Austria
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Azerbaijan
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Bahamas, The
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  650 (2001 est.)

Barbados
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Belarus
  1,000 (2001 est.)

Belgium
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Belize
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Benin
  5,800 (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  392 (2005)

Bhutan
  NA

Bolivia
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  100 (2001 est.)

Botswana
  33,000 (2003 est.)

Brazil
  15,000 (2003 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  NA

Brunei
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  100 (2001 est.)

Burkina Faso
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Burma
  20,000 (2003 est.)

Burundi
  25,000 (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  15,000 (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  49,000 (2003 est.)

Canada
  1,500 (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  225 (as of 2001)

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  23,000 (2003 est.)

Chad
  18,000 (2003 est.)

Chile
  1,400 (2003 est.)

China
  44,000 (2003 est.)

Christmas Island
  NA

Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  NA

Colombia
  3,600 (2003 est.)

Comoros
  NA

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  100,000 (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  9,700 (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  NA

Costa Rica
  900 (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  47,000 (2003 est.)

Croatia
  less than 10 (2001 est.)

Cuba
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Cyprus
  NA

Czech Republic
  less than 10 (2001 est.)

Denmark
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  690 (2003 est.)

Dominica
  NA

Dominican Republic
  7,900 (2003 est.)

East Timor
  NA

Ecuador
  1,700 (2003 est.)

Egypt
  700 (2003 est.)

El Salvador
  2,200 (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  370 (2001 est.)

Eritrea
  6,300 (2003 est.)

Estonia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Ethiopia
  120,000 (2003 est.)

European Union
  NA

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Finland
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

France
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  3,000 (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  600 (2003 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Germany
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Ghana
  30,000 (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA

Greece
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Greenland
  NA

Grenada
  NA

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  NA

Guatemala
  5,800 (2003 est.)

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  9,000 (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  1,200 (2001 est.)

Guyana
  1,100 (2003 est.)

Haiti
  24,000 (2003 est.)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  NA

Honduras
  4,100 (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Hungary
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Iceland
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

India
  310,000 (2001 est.)

Indonesia
  2,400 (2003 est.)

Iran
  800 (2003 est.)

Iraq
  NA

Ireland
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Isle of Man
  NA

Israel
  100 (2001 est.)

Italy
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  900 (2003 est.)

Japan
  500 (2003 est.)

Jersey
  NA

Jordan
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Kazakhstan
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Kenya
  150,000 (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  NA

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  NA

Kyrgyzstan
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Laos
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Latvia
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Lebanon
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  29,000 (2003 est.)

Liberia
  7,200 (2003 est.)

Libya
  NA

Liechtenstein
  NA

Lithuania
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Luxembourg
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Macau
  NA

Macedonia
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Madagascar
  7,500 (2003 est.)

Malawi
  84,000 (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  2,000 (2003 est.)

Maldives
  NA

Mali
  12,000 (2003 est.)

Malta
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Marshall Islands
  NA

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  5,000 (2003 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  NA

Moldova
  less than 300 (2001 est.)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  NA

Mozambique
  110,000 (2003 est.)

Namibia
  16,000 (2003 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  3,100 (2003 est.)

Netherlands
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Niger
  4,800 (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  310,000 (2003 est.)

Niue
  NA

Norfolk Island
  NA

Northern Mariana Islands
  NA

Norway
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Oman
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Pakistan
  4,900 (2003 est.)

Palau
  NA

Panama
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  600 (2003 est.)

Paraguay
  600 (2003 est.)

Peru
  4,200 (2003 est.)

Philippines
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Pitcairn Islands
  NA

Poland
  100 (2001 est.)

Portugal
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  NA

Qatar
  NA

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  350 (2001 est.)

Russia
  9,000 (2001 est.)

Rwanda
  22,000 (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA

Saint Lucia
  NA

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA

Samoa
  3

San Marino
  NA

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA

Saudi Arabia
  NA

Senegal
  3,500 (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  NA

Sierra Leone
  11,000 (2001 est.)

Singapore
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Slovakia
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Slovenia
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Solomon Islands
  NA

Somalia
  NA

South Africa
  370,000 (2003 est.)

Spain
  less than 1,000 (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Sudan
  23,000 (2003 est.)

Suriname
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Svalbard
  0 (2001)

Swaziland
  17,000 (2003 est.)

Sweden
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  less than 100 (2003 est.)

Syria
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  NA

Tajikistan
  less than 100 (2001 est.)

Tanzania
  160,000 (2003 est.)

Thailand
  58,000 (2003 est.)

Togo
  10,000 (2003 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  NA

Trinidad and Tobago
  1,900 (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  less than 200 (2003 est.)

Turkey
  NA

Turkmenistan
  less than 100 (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  NA

Uganda
  78,000 (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  20,000 (2003 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  NA

United Kingdom
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

United States
  14,000 (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Vanuatu
  NA

Venezuela
  4,100 (2003 est.)

Vietnam
  9,000 (2003 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  NA

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  NA

Yemen
  NA

Zambia
  89,000 (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  170,000 (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2172  Distribution of family income - Gini index


Albania
  28.2 (2002)

Algeria
  35.3 (1995)

Argentina
  52.2 (2001)

Armenia
  41.3 (2004)

Australia
  35.2 (1994)

Austria
  31 (2002)

Azerbaijan
  36.5 (2001)

Bangladesh
  31.8 (2000)

Belarus
  30.4 (2000)

Belgium
  25 (1996)

Bolivia
  60.6 (2002)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  26.2 (2001)

Botswana
  63 (1993)

Brazil
  59.7 (2004)

Bulgaria
  31.9 (2001)

Burkina Faso
  48.2 (1998)

Burundi
  33.3 (1998)

Cambodia
  40 (2004 est.)

Cameroon
  44.6 (2001)

Canada
  33.1 (1998)

Central African Republic
  61.3 (1993)

Chile
  57.1 (2000)

China
  44 (2002)

Colombia
  53.8 (2005)

Costa Rica
  46.5 (2000)

Cote d'Ivoire
  45.2 (1998)

Croatia
  29 (2001)

Czech Republic
  27.3 (2003)

Denmark
  23.2 (2002)

Dominican Republic
  47.4 (1998)

East Timor
  38 (2002 est.)

Ecuador
  42
  note: data are for urban households (2003)

Egypt
  34.4 (2001)

El Salvador
  52.5 (2001)

Estonia
  33 (2003)

Ethiopia
  30 (2000)

European Union
  32 (2003 est.)

Finland
  26.9 (2000)

France
  32.7 (1995)

Georgia
  38 (2003)

Germany
  28.3 (2000)

Ghana
  30 (1999)

Greece
  35.1 (2003)

Guatemala
  48.3 (2000)

Guinea
  40.3 (1994)

Honduras
  55 (1999)

Hong Kong
  43.4 (1996)

Hungary
  24.96 (2002)

India
  32.5 (2000)

Indonesia
  34.3 (2002)

Iran
  43 (1998)

Ireland
  35.9 (1996)

Israel
  34 (2005)

Italy
  36 (2000)

Jamaica
  37.9 (2003)

Japan
  37.9 (2000)

Jordan
  36.4 (1997)

Kazakhstan
  31.5 (2003)

Kenya
  44.5 (1997)

Korea, South
  35.8 (2000)

Kyrgyzstan
  29 (2001)

Laos
  37 (1997)

Latvia
  35 (2003)

Lesotho
  63.2 (1995)

Lithuania
  32.5 (2003)

Macedonia
  28.2 (1998)

Madagascar
  47.5 (2001)

Malawi
  50.3 (1997)

Malaysia
  49.2 (1997)

Mali
  50.5 (1994)

Mauritania
  39 (2000)

Mauritius
  37 (1987 est.)

Mexico
  54.6 (2000)

Moldova
  36.2 (2001)

Mongolia
  44 (1998)

Morocco
  40 (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  39.6 (1996-97)

Namibia
  70.7 (2003)

Nepal
  37.7 (FY04/05)

Netherlands
  30.9 (2005)

New Zealand
  36.2 (1997)

Nicaragua
  55.1 (2001)

Niger
  50.5 (1995)

Nigeria
  50.6 (1996-97)

Norway
  25.8 (2000)

Pakistan
  41 (FY98/99)

Panama
  56.4 (2000)

Papua New Guinea
  50.9 (1996)

Paraguay
  56.8 (1999)

Peru
  49.8 (2000)

Philippines
  46.6 (2003)

Poland
  34.1 (2002)

Portugal
  38.5 (1997)

Romania
  28.8 (2003)

Russia
  40 (2002)

Rwanda
  28.9 (1985)

Senegal
  41.3 (1995)

Sierra Leone
  62.9 (1989)

Singapore
  42.5 (1998)

Slovakia
  25.8 (1996)

Slovenia
  28.4 (1998)

South Africa
  59.3 (1995)

Spain
  32.5 (1990)

Sri Lanka
  34.4 (1995)

Sweden
  25 (2000)

Switzerland
  33.1 (1992)

Tajikistan
  34.7 (1998)

Tanzania
  38.2 (1993)

Thailand
  51.1 (2002)

Tunisia
  40 (2005 est.)

Turkey
  42 (2003)

Turkmenistan
  40.8 (1998)

Uganda
  43 (1999)

Ukraine
  29 (1999)

United Kingdom
  36.8 (1999)

United States
  45 (2004)

Uruguay
  44.6 (2000)

Uzbekistan
  26.8 (2000)

Venezuela
  49.1 (1998)

Vietnam
  36.1 (1998)

Yemen
  33.4 (1998)

Zambia
  52.6 (1998)

Zimbabwe
  56.8 (2003)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2173  Oil - production (bbl/day)


Afghanistan
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Albania
  3,600 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Algeria
  1.373 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Angola
  1.6 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Argentina
  745,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Armenia
  0 bbl/day (2005)

Aruba
  2,363 bbl/day (2003)

Australia
  530,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Austria
  17,810 bbl/day (2004)

Azerbaijan
  477,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Bahrain
  188,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  6,825 bbl/day (2003)

Barbados
  1,000 bbl/day (2003)

Belarus
  36,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Belgium
  13,060 bbl/day (2003)

Belize
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Benin
  400 bbl/day (2003)

Bermuda
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Bhutan
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Bolivia
  42,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Botswana
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Brazil
  2.01 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Brunei
  200,800 bbl/day (2005)

Bulgaria
  1,000 bbl/day (2004)

Burkina Faso
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Burma
  18,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Burundi
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Cambodia
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Cameroon
  82,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Canada
  2.4 million bbl/day (2004)

Cape Verde
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Cayman Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Central African Republic
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Chad
  225,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Chile
  4,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

China
  3.504 million bbl/day (2004)

Colombia
  512,400 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Comoros
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  22,000 bbl/day (2003)

Congo, Republic of the
  267,100 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Costa Rica
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Cote d'Ivoire
  32,900 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Croatia
  20,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Cuba
  72,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  15,240 bbl/day (2005)

Denmark
  376,900 bbl/day (2003)

Djibouti
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Dominica
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Dominican Republic
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Ecuador
  493,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Egypt
  700,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  420,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Estonia
  6,000 bbl/day (2004)

Ethiopia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

European Union
  3.424 million bbl/day (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Fiji
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Finland
  9,013 bbl/day (2003 est.)

France
  76,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Gabon
  268,900 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Georgia
  1,982 bbl/day (2003)

Germany
  158,700 bbl/day (2003)

Ghana
  7,433 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Greece
  5,805 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Greenland
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Grenada
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guadeloupe
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guam
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guatemala
  22,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Guinea
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guyana
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Haiti
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Honduras
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Hungary
  45,190 bbl/day (2005)

Iceland
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

India
  785,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  1.061 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Iran
  3.979 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Iraq
  2.093 million bbl/day; note - prewar production (in 2002) was
  2.03 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Ireland
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Israel
  2,740 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Italy
  136,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Japan
  120,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Jordan
  40 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  1.3 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Kenya
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Korea, North
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Korea, South
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Kuwait
  2.418 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  1,990 bbl/day (2003)

Laos
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Latvia
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Lebanon
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Liberia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Libya
  1.643 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  14,000 bbl/day (2004)

Luxembourg
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Macau
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Macedonia
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  89.27 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malawi
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  770,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Maldives
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mali
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malta
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Martinique
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mexico
  3.42 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Moldova
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mongolia
  548.8 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Morocco
  300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Namibia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nauru
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nepal
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  94,870 bbl/day (2003)

Netherlands Antilles
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  31,740 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  14,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Niger
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  2.451 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Niue
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Norway
  3.22 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oman
  769,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  63,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Panama
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  50,000 bbl/day (January 2006 est.)

Paraguay
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Peru
  120,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Philippines
  14,360 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Poland
  24,530 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Portugal
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  436.1 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Qatar
  790,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Reunion
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Romania
  119,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Russia
  9.15 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Samoa
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  9.475 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Senegal
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Serbia
  14,660 bbl/day (2003)

Seychelles
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sierra Leone
  0.8361 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Singapore
  8,290 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Slovakia
  11,480 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  11.05 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Solomon Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Somalia
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

South Africa
  216,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Spain
  24,540 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sudan
  401,300 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Suriname
  12,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Swaziland
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Sweden
  2,441 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  1,950 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Syria
  403,800 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  8,354 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tajikistan
  354.8 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tanzania
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Thailand
  230,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Togo
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tonga
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  150,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  76,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Turkey
  50,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  203,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Uganda
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  85,660 bbl/day (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  2.396 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  2.393 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

United States
  7.61 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  435 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  152,000 bbl/day (2004)

Vanuatu
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  3.081 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  400,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  14,650 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

World
  79.65 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Yemen
  387,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Zambia
  130.2 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0 bbl/day (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2174  Oil - consumption (bbl/day)


Afghanistan
  5,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Albania
  25,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Algeria
  246,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

American Samoa
  4,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Angola
  46,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  3,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Argentina
  450,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Armenia
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Aruba
  6,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Australia
  875,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Austria
  249,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Azerbaijan
  123,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  23,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  26,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  84,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Barbados
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Belarus
  252,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Belgium
  624,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Belize
  6,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Benin
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  4,658 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  1,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  48,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  21,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Botswana
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Brazil
  1.61 million bbl/day (2004)

British Virgin Islands
  410 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Brunei
  10,770 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  98,000 bbl/day (2004)

Burkina Faso
  8,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Burma
  32,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Burundi
  3,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  3,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  23,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Canada
  2.3 million bbl/day (2004)

Cape Verde
  1,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cayman Islands
  2,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Central African Republic
  2,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Chad
  1,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Chile
  228,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

China
  6.391 million bbl/day (2004)

Colombia
  270,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Comoros
  700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  8,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  5,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Costa Rica
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  20,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Croatia
  90,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cuba
  205,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  202,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Denmark
  188,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Dominica
  800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Dominican Republic
  128,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Ecuador
  155,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Egypt
  566,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

El Salvador
  40,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  1,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Eritrea
  4,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Estonia
  60,000 bbl/day (2004)

Ethiopia
  27,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

European Union
  14.59 million bbl/day (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Faroe Islands
  4,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Fiji
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Finland
  219,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

France
  2.06 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  6,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  4,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Gabon
  12,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  2,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Georgia
  13,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Germany
  2.677 million bbl/day (2003)

Ghana
  39,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  23,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Greece
  435,700 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Greenland
  3,850 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Grenada
  1,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guadeloupe
  13,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guam
  19,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guatemala
  66,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guinea
  8,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  2,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Guyana
  11,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Haiti
  11,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Honduras
  37,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  293,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Hungary
  136,000 bbl/day (2004)

Iceland
  17,280 bbl/day (2003 est.)

India
  2.32 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Indonesia
  1.084 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Iran
  1.425 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Iraq
  351,500 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Ireland
  175,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Israel
  270,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Italy
  1.874 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  69,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Japan
  5.578 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Jordan
  103,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  221,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Kenya
  52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Korea, North
  25,000 bbl/day (2003)

Korea, South
  2.061 million bbl/day (2004)

Kuwait
  305,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  11,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Laos
  2,950 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Latvia
  47,000 bbl/day (2004)

Lebanon
  102,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  1,400 bbl/day (2003)

Liberia
  3,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Libya
  237,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Lithuania
  52,000 bbl/day (2004)

Luxembourg
  55,700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Macau
  12,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Macedonia
  23,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  15,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malawi
  5,450 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  510,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Maldives
  4,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mali
  4,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Malta
  18,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Martinique
  13,800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  24,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  21,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mexico
  1.752 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Moldova
  37,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mongolia
  11,220 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  380 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Morocco
  158,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  11,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Namibia
  16,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nauru
  1,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nepal
  11,980 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  920,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  72,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  151,900 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  25,200 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Niger
  5,400 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  310,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Niue
  20 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Norway
  257,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oman
  62,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Pakistan
  365,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Panama
  78,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  18,000 bbl/day (January 2006 est.)

Paraguay
  25,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Peru
  157,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Philippines
  335,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Poland
  476,200 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Portugal
  326,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  218,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Qatar
  33,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Reunion
  18,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Romania
  212,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Russia
  2.8 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  6,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  700 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  2,520 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  480 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  1,300 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Samoa
  1,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  650 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  1.775 million bbl/day (2003)

Senegal
  31,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Serbia
  85,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  7,600 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sierra Leone
  6,510 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Singapore
  800,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  74,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Slovenia
  52,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Solomon Islands
  1,270 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Somalia
  5,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

South Africa
  484,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Spain
  1.544 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  79,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sudan
  70,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Suriname
  14,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Swaziland
  3,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Sweden
  346,100 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  258,900 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Syria
  240,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Taiwan
  915,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tajikistan
  25,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tanzania
  22,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Thailand
  851,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Togo
  8,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tonga
  800 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  29,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  90,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Turkey
  715,100 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  80,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  80 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Uganda
  10,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  491,700 bbl/day (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  310,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

United Kingdom
  1.722 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

United States
  20.03 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  38,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  120,000 bbl/day (2004)

Vanuatu
  620 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  530,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Vietnam
  216,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Virgin Islands
  105,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  1,750 bbl/day (2003 est.)

World
  80.1 million bbl/day (2003 est.)

Yemen
  80,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Zambia
  12,250 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  22,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2175  Oil - imports (bbl/day)


Afghanistan
  NA bbl/day

Albania
  21,600 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Algeria
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

American Samoa
  NA bbl/day

Angola
  NA bbl/day

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA bbl/day

Argentina
  NA bbl/day

Armenia
  NA bbl/day

Aruba
  NA bbl/day

Australia
  530,800 bbl/day (2001)

Austria
  152,600 bbl/day (2004)

Azerbaijan
  NA bbl/day

Bahamas, The
  NA bbl/day

Bahrain
  NA bbl/day

Bangladesh
  NA bbl/day

Barbados
  NA bbl/day

Belarus
  360,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Belgium
  1.042 million bbl/day (2001)

Belize
  NA bbl/day

Benin
  NA bbl/day

Bermuda
  NA bbl/day

Bhutan
  NA bbl/day

Bolivia
  NA bbl/day

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  NA bbl/day

Botswana
  16,000 bbl/day (2001)

Brazil
  572,600 bbl/day NA bbl/day

British Virgin Islands
  NA bbl/day

Brunei
  NA bbl/day

Bulgaria
  85,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Burkina Faso
  NA bbl/day

Burma
  49,230 bbl/day (2003)

Burundi
  NA bbl/day

Cambodia
  NA bbl/day

Cameroon
  NA bbl/day

Canada
  963,000 bbl/day (2004)

Cape Verde
  NA bbl/day

Cayman Islands
  NA bbl/day

Central African Republic
  NA bbl/day

Chad
  NA bbl/day

Chile
  221,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

China
  3.226 million bbl/day (2004)

Colombia
  NA bbl/day

Comoros
  NA bbl/day

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA bbl/day

Congo, Republic of the
  NA bbl/day

Cook Islands
  NA bbl/day

Costa Rica
  NA bbl/day

Cote d'Ivoire
  NA bbl/day

Croatia
  NA bbl/day

Cuba
  NA bbl/day

Cyprus
  NA bbl/day

Czech Republic
  182,000 bbl/day (2004)

Denmark
  195,000 bbl/day (2001)

Djibouti
  NA bbl/day

Dominica
  NA bbl/day

Dominican Republic
  129,900 bbl/day (2003)

Ecuador
  NA bbl/day

Egypt
  NA bbl/day

El Salvador
  NA bbl/day

Equatorial Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Eritrea
  NA bbl/day

Estonia
  54,000 bbl/day (2004)

Ethiopia
  NA bbl/day

European Union
  15.69 million bbl/day (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA bbl/day

Faroe Islands
  NA bbl/day

Fiji
  NA bbl/day

Finland
  318,300 bbl/day (2001)

France
  2.281 million bbl/day (2001)

French Guiana
  NA bbl/day

French Polynesia
  NA bbl/day

Gabon
  NA bbl/day

Gambia, The
  NA bbl/day

Georgia
  NA bbl/day

Germany
  2.135 million bbl/day (2003)

Ghana
  NA bbl/day

Gibraltar
  NA bbl/day

Greece
  468,300 bbl/day (2001)

Greenland
  NA bbl/day

Grenada
  NA bbl/day

Guadeloupe
  NA bbl/day

Guam
  NA bbl/day

Guatemala
  NA bbl/day

Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Guinea-Bissau
  NA bbl/day

Guyana
  NA bbl/day

Haiti
  NA bbl/day

Honduras
  NA bbl/day

Hong Kong
  NA bbl/day

Hungary
  94,000 bbl/day (2004)

Iceland
  15,470 bbl/day (2001)

India
  2.09 million bbl/day

Indonesia
  345,700 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Iran
  NA bbl/day

Iraq
  NA bbl/day

Ireland
  178,600 bbl/day (2001)

Israel
  NA bbl/day

Italy
  2.158 million bbl/day (2001)

Jamaica
  NA bbl/day

Japan
  5.449 million bbl/day (2001)

Jordan
  100,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  47,000 bbl/day (2003)

Kenya
  NA bbl/day

Kiribati
  NA bbl/day

Korea, North
  22,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Korea, South
  2.263 million bbl/day (2004)

Kuwait
  NA bbl/day

Kyrgyzstan
  NA bbl/day

Laos
  NA bbl/day

Latvia
  47,000 bbl/day (2004)

Lebanon
  NA bbl/day

Lesotho
  NA bbl/day

Liberia
  NA bbl/day

Libya
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Lithuania
  93,000 bbl/day bbl/day (2004)

Luxembourg
  50,700 bbl/day (2001)

Macau
  NA bbl/day

Macedonia
  NA bbl/day

Madagascar
  NA bbl/day

Malawi
  NA bbl/day

Malaysia
  NA bbl/day

Maldives
  NA bbl/day

Mali
  NA bbl/day

Malta
  NEGL (2001)

Martinique
  NA bbl/day

Mauritania
  NA bbl/day

Mauritius
  NA bbl/day

Mexico
  205,000 bbl/day (2004)

Moldova
  NA bbl/day

Mongolia
  11,210 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  NA bbl/day

Morocco
  147,800 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Mozambique
  NA bbl/day

Namibia
  12,770 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Nauru
  NA bbl/day

Nepal
  11,760 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Netherlands
  2.284 million bbl/day (2001)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA bbl/day

New Caledonia
  NA bbl/day

New Zealand
  119,700 bbl/day (2001)

Nicaragua
  15,560 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Niger
  NA bbl/day

Nigeria
  NA bbl/day

Niue
  NA bbl/day

Norway
  88,870 bbl/day (2001)

Oman
  NA bbl/day

Pakistan
  NA bbl/day

Panama
  NA bbl/day; note - imports oil

Papua New Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Paraguay
  NA bbl/day

Peru
  NA bbl/day

Philippines
  312,000 bbl/day (2003)

Poland
  413,700 bbl/day (2001)

Portugal
  357,300 bbl/day (2001)

Puerto Rico
  NA bbl/day

Qatar
  NA bbl/day

Reunion
  NA bbl/day

Romania
  163,000 bbl/day bbl/day (2004)

Russia
  75,000 bbl/day

Rwanda
  NA bbl/day

Saint Helena
  NA bbl/day

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA bbl/day

Saint Lucia
  NA bbl/day

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA bbl/day

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA bbl/day

Samoa
  NA bbl/day

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA bbl/day

Saudi Arabia
  0 bbl/day (2003)

Senegal
  NA bbl/day

Seychelles
  NA bbl/day

Sierra Leone
  NA bbl/day

Singapore
  NA bbl/day

Slovakia
  59,000 bbl/day bbl/day

Slovenia
  NA bbl/day

Solomon Islands
  NA bbl/day

Somalia
  NA bbl/day

South Africa
  NA bbl/day

Spain
  1.582 million bbl/day (2001)

Sri Lanka
  NA bbl/day

Sudan
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Suriname
  1,644 bbl/day (2003)

Swaziland
  NA bbl/day

Sweden
  553,100 bbl/day (2001)

Switzerland
  289,500 bbl/day (2001)

Syria
  NA bbl/day

Taiwan
  NA bbl/day

Tajikistan
  NA bbl/day

Tanzania
  NA bbl/day

Thailand
  NA bbl/day

Togo
  NA bbl/day

Tonga
  NA bbl/day

Trinidad and Tobago
  NA bbl/day

Tunisia
  NA bbl/day

Turkey
  616,500 bbl/day (2001)

Turkmenistan
  NA bbl/day

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA bbl/day

Uganda
  NA bbl/day

Ukraine
  444,600 bbl/day NA bbl/day

United Arab Emirates
  0 bbl/day (2004)

United Kingdom
  1.084 million bbl/day (2003)

United States
  13.15 million bbl/day (2004)

Uruguay
  NA bbl/day

Uzbekistan
  NA bbl/day

Vanuatu
  NA bbl/day

Venezuela
  NA bbl/day

Vietnam
  NA bbl/day

Virgin Islands
  NA bbl/day

Western Sahara
  NA bbl/day

Yemen
  NA bbl/day

Zambia
  NA bbl/day

Zimbabwe
  23,000 bbl/day

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2176  Oil - exports (bbl/day)


Afghanistan
  NA bbl/day

Albania
  0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Algeria
  1.127 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

American Samoa
  NA bbl/day

Angola
  NA bbl/day

Antigua and Barbuda
  NA bbl/day

Argentina
  NA bbl/day

Armenia
  NA bbl/day

Aruba
  NA bbl/day

Australia
  523,400 bbl/day (2001)

Austria
  30,140 bbl/day (2004)

Azerbaijan
  NA bbl/day

Bahamas, The
  transhipments of 29,000 bbl/day (2003)

Bahrain
  NA bbl/day

Bangladesh
  NA bbl/day

Barbados
  NA bbl/day

Belarus
  14,500 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Belgium
  450,000 bbl/day (2001)

Belize
  NA bbl/day

Benin
  NA bbl/day

Bermuda
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Bhutan
  NA bbl/day

Bolivia
  NA bbl/day

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  NA bbl/day

Botswana
  NA bbl/day

Brazil
  241,700 bbl/day NA bbl/day

British Virgin Islands
  NA bbl/day

Brunei
  192,700 bbl/day (2005)

Bulgaria
  NA bbl/day

Burkina Faso
  NA bbl/day

Burma
  3,356 bbl/day (2003)

Burundi
  NA bbl/day

Cambodia
  NA bbl/day

Cameroon
  NA bbl/day

Canada
  1.6 million bbl/day (2004)

Cape Verde
  NA bbl/day

Cayman Islands
  NA bbl/day

Central African Republic
  NA bbl/day

Chad
  NA bbl/day

Chile
  0 bbl/day

China
  340,300 bbl/day (2004)

Colombia
  NA bbl/day

Comoros
  NA bbl/day

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  NA bbl/day

Congo, Republic of the
  NA bbl/day

Cook Islands
  NA bbl/day

Costa Rica
  NA bbl/day

Cote d'Ivoire
  NA bbl/day

Croatia
  NA bbl/day

Cuba
  NA bbl/day

Cyprus
  NA bbl/day

Czech Republic
  26,670 bbl/day (2001)

Denmark
  332,100 bbl/day (2001)

Djibouti
  NA bbl/day

Dominica
  NA bbl/day

Dominican Republic
  NA bbl/day

Ecuador
  387,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Egypt
  134,000 bbl/day NA bbl/day

El Salvador
  NA bbl/day

Equatorial Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Eritrea
  NA bbl/day

Estonia
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Ethiopia
  NA bbl/day

European Union
  5.322 million bbl/day (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA bbl/day

Faroe Islands
  NA bbl/day

Fiji
  NA bbl/day

Finland
  101,000 bbl/day (2001)

France
  409,600 bbl/day (2001)

French Guiana
  NA bbl/day

French Polynesia
  NA bbl/day

Gabon
  NA bbl/day

Gambia, The
  NA bbl/day

Georgia
  NA bbl/day

Germany
  12,990 bbl/day (2003)

Ghana
  NA bbl/day

Gibraltar
  NA bbl/day

Greece
  84,720 bbl/day (2001)

Greenland
  NA bbl/day

Grenada
  NA bbl/day

Guadeloupe
  NA bbl/day

Guam
  NA bbl/day

Guatemala
  3,104 bbl/day (2003)

Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Guinea-Bissau
  NA bbl/day

Guyana
  NA bbl/day

Haiti
  NA bbl/day

Honduras
  NA bbl/day

Hong Kong
  NA bbl/day

Hungary
  47,180 bbl/day (2001)

Iceland
  0 bbl/day (2001)

India
  350,000 bbl/day

Indonesia
  431,500 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Iran
  2.5 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Iraq
  1.42 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Ireland
  27,450 bbl/day (2001)

Israel
  NA bbl/day

Italy
  456,600 bbl/day (2001)

Jamaica
  NA bbl/day

Japan
  93,360 bbl/day (2001)

Jordan
  0 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Kazakhstan
  890,000 bbl/day (2003)

Kenya
  NA bbl/day

Kiribati
  NA bbl/day

Korea, North
  NA bbl/day

Korea, South
  645,200 bbl/day (2004)

Kuwait
  1.97 million bbl/day (2003)

Kyrgyzstan
  NA bbl/day

Laos
  NA bbl/day

Latvia
  0 bbl/day (2004)

Lebanon
  NA bbl/day

Lesotho
  NA bbl/day

Libya
  1.34 million bbl/day NA bbl/day

Lithuania
  NA bbl/day

Luxembourg
  634 bbl/day (2001)

Macau
  NA bbl/day

Macedonia
  NA bbl/day

Madagascar
  NA bbl/day

Malawi
  NA bbl/day

Malaysia
  230,200 bbl/day (2003)

Maldives
  NA bbl/day

Mali
  NA bbl/day

Malta
  NA bbl/day

Martinique
  NA bbl/day

Mauritania
  NA bbl/day

Mauritius
  NA bbl/day

Mexico
  1.863 million bbl/day (2004)

Moldova
  NA bbl/day

Mongolia
  515 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  NA bbl/day

Morocco
  0 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Mozambique
  NA bbl/day

Namibia
  NA bbl/day

Nauru
  NA bbl/day

Nepal
  NA bbl/day

Netherlands
  1.418 million bbl/day (2001)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA bbl/day

New Caledonia
  NA bbl/day

New Zealand
  30,220 bbl/day (2001)

Nicaragua
  758.9 bbl/day (2004)

Niger
  NA bbl/day

Nigeria
  NA bbl/day

Niue
  NA bbl/day

Norway
  3.466 million bbl/day (2001)

Oman
  721,000 bbl/day (2004)

Pakistan
  NA bbl/day

Panama
  NA bbl/day

Papua New Guinea
  NA bbl/day

Paraguay
  NA bbl/day

Peru
  49,000 bbl/day (2004 est.)

Philippines
  0 bbl/day (2001)

Poland
  53,000 bbl/day (2001)

Portugal
  28,830 bbl/day (2001)

Puerto Rico
  NA bbl/day

Qatar
  NA bbl/day

Reunion
  NA bbl/day

Romania
  NA bbl/day

Russia
  5.15 million bbl/day (2004)

Rwanda
  NA bbl/day

Saint Helena
  NA bbl/day

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  NA bbl/day

Saint Lucia
  NA bbl/day

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA bbl/day

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  NA bbl/day

Samoa
  NA bbl/day

Sao Tome and Principe
  NA bbl/day

Saudi Arabia
  7.92 million bbl/day (2003)

Senegal
  NA bbl/day

Seychelles
  NA bbl/day

Sierra Leone
  NA bbl/day

Singapore
  NA bbl/day

Slovakia
  2,160 bbl/day NA bbl/day

Slovenia
  NA bbl/day

Solomon Islands
  NA bbl/day

Somalia
  NA bbl/day

South Africa
  NA bbl/day

Spain
  135,100 bbl/day (2001)

Sri Lanka
  NA bbl/day

Sudan
  275,000 bbl/day (2004)

Suriname
  1,370 bbl/day (2003)

Swaziland
  NA bbl/day

Sweden
  203,700 bbl/day (2001)

Switzerland
  10,420 bbl/day (2001)

Syria
  285,000 bbl/day (2004)

Taiwan
  NA bbl/day

Tajikistan
  NA bbl/day

Tanzania
  NA bbl/day

Thailand
  NA bbl/day

Togo
  NA bbl/day

Tonga
  NA bbl/day

Trinidad and Tobago
  NA bbl/day

Tunisia
  NA bbl/day

Turkey
  46,110 bbl/day (2001)

Turkmenistan
  NA bbl/day

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA bbl/day

Uganda
  NA bbl/day

Ukraine
  8,891 bbl/day NA bbl/day

United Arab Emirates
  2.5 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

United Kingdom
  1.498 million bbl/day (2001)

United States
  1.048 million bbl/day (2004)

Uruguay
  NA bbl/day

Uzbekistan
  NA bbl/day

Vanuatu
  NA bbl/day

Venezuela
  2.1 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Vietnam
  NA bbl/day

Virgin Islands
  NA bbl/day

Western Sahara
  NA bbl/day

Yemen
  370,300 bbl/day (2003)

Zambia
  NA bbl/day

Zimbabwe
  0 bbl/day

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2177  Median age (years)


Afghanistan
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 17.6 years (2006 est.)

Albania
  total: 28.9 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 29.5 years (2006 est.)

Algeria
  total: 24.9 years
  male: 24.7 years
  female: 25.1 years (2006 est.)

American Samoa
  total: 23.2 years
  male: 22.9 years
  female: 23.4 years (2006 est.)

Andorra
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 41.2 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

Angola
  total: 18 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Anguilla
  total: 31.2 years
  male: 31.2 years
  female: 31.1 years (2006 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  total: 30 years
  male: 29.5 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Argentina
  total: 29.7 years
  male: 28.8 years
  female: 30.7 years (2006 est.)

Armenia
  total: 30.4 years
  male: 27.8 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Aruba
  total: 38.5 years
  male: 36.4 years
  female: 40.3 years (2006 est.)

Australia
  total: 36.9 years
  male: 36 years
  female: 37.7 years (2006 est.)

Austria
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.8 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Azerbaijan
  total: 27.7 years
  male: 26.3 years
  female: 29.2 years (2006 est.)

Bahamas, The
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.1 years
  female: 28.6 years (2006 est.)

Bahrain
  total: 29.4 years
  male: 32.4 years
  female: 25.8 years (2006 est.)

Bangladesh
  total: 22.2 years
  male: 22.2 years
  female: 22.2 years (2006 est.)

Barbados
  total: 34.6 years
  male: 33.4 years
  female: 35.6 years (2006 est.)

Belarus
  total: 37.2 years
  male: 34.5 years
  female: 39.9 years (2006 est.)

Belgium
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.6 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Belize
  total: 19.6 years
  male: 19.5 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Benin
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.2 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Bermuda
  total: 40.2 years
  male: 39.3 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Bhutan
  total: 20.4 years
  male: 20.2 years
  female: 20.6 years (2006 est.)

Bolivia
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 21.2 years
  female: 22.5 years (2006 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 37.2 years
  female: 39.5 years (2006 est.)

Botswana
  total: 19.4 years
  male: 18.8 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

Brazil
  total: 28.2 years
  male: 27.5 years
  female: 29 years (2006 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  total: 31.4 years
  male: 31.6 years
  female: 31.2 years (2006 est.)

Brunei
  total: 27.4 years
  male: 28 years
  female: 26.7 years (2006 est.)

Bulgaria
  total: 40.8 years
  male: 38.7 years
  female: 42.9 years (2006 est.)

Burkina Faso
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.3 years
  female: 16.7 years (2006 est.)

Burma
  total: 27 years
  male: 26.4 years
  female: 27.6 years (2006 est.)

Burundi
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.4 years
  female: 16.9 years (2006 est.)

Cambodia
  total: 20.6 years
  male: 19.9 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Cameroon
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 19 years (2006 est.)

Canada
  total: 38.9 years
  male: 37.8 years
  female: 39.9 years (2006 est.)

Cape Verde
  total: 19.8 years
  male: 19 years
  female: 20.7 years (2006 est.)

Cayman Islands
  total: 37.2 years
  male: 36.8 years
  female: 37.5 years (2006 est.)

Central African Republic
  total: 18.4 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Chad
  total: 16 years
  male: 15.3 years
  female: 16.6 years (2006 est.)

Chile
  total: 30.4 years
  male: 29.5 years
  female: 31.4 years (2006 est.)

China
  total: 32.7 years
  male: 32.3 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Colombia
  total: 26.3 years
  male: 25.4 years
  female: 27.2 years (2006 est.)

Comoros
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.9 years (2006 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  total: 16.2 years
  male: 16 years
  female: 16.4 years (2006 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.4 years
  female: 16.9 years (2006 est.)

Cook Islands
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 24.7 years
  female: 25.9 years (2001 census)

Costa Rica
  total: 26.4 years
  male: 26 years
  female: 26.9 years (2006 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  total: 19.2 years
  male: 19.4 years
  female: 18.9 years (2006 est.)

Croatia
  total: 40.3 years
  male: 38.3 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Cuba
  total: 35.9 years
  male: 35.2 years
  female: 36.5 years (2006 est.)

Cyprus
  total: 34.9 years
  male: 33.9 years
  female: 35.9 years (2006 est.)

Czech Republic
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 37.5 years
  female: 41.1 years (2006 est.)

Denmark
  total: 39.8 years
  male: 38.9 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

Djibouti
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Dominica
  total: 30.1 years
  male: 29.8 years
  female: 30.4 years (2006 est.)

Dominican Republic
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 24 years
  female: 24.3 years (2006 est.)

East Timor
  total: 20.8 years
  male: 20.8 years
  female: 20.7 years (2006 est.)

Ecuador
  total: 23.6 years
  male: 23.1 years
  female: 24 years (2006 est.)

Egypt
  total: 24 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 24.3 years (2006 est.)

El Salvador
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 20.7 years
  female: 22.9 years (2006 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  total: 18.8 years
  male: 18.2 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Eritrea
  total: 17.8 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Estonia
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 35.8 years
  female: 42.6 years (2006 est.)

Ethiopia
  total: 17.8 years
  male: 17.7 years
  female: 17.9 years (2006 est.)

European Union
  NA

Faroe Islands
  total: 35 years
  male: 34.7 years
  female: 35.5 years (2006 est.)

Fiji
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 24.1 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Finland
  total: 41.3 years
  male: 39.7 years
  female: 42.8 years (2006 est.)

France
  total: 39.1 years
  male: 37.6 years
  female: 40.7 years (2006 est.)

French Guiana
  total: 28.6 years
  male: 29.6 years
  female: 27.4 years (2006 est.)

French Polynesia
  total: 27.9 years
  male: 28.2 years
  female: 27.5 years (2006 est.)

Gabon
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Gambia, The
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.6 years
  female: 17.8 years (2006 est.)

Gaza Strip
  total: 15.8 years
  male: 15.7 years
  female: 16 years (2006 est.)

Georgia
  total: 37.7 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Germany
  total: 42.6 years
  male: 41.3 years
  female: 43.9 years (2006 est.)

Ghana
  total: 19.9 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20.1 years (2006 est.)

Gibraltar
  total: 39.8 years
  male: 39.4 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Greece
  total: 40.8 years
  male: 39.7 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Greenland
  total: 34 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 32.3 years (2006 est.)

Grenada
  total: 21.7 years
  male: 22.1 years
  female: 21.2 years (2006 est.)

Guadeloupe
  total: 32.2 years
  male: 31.3 years
  female: 33.2 years (2006 est.)

Guam
  total: 28.6 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 28.8 years (2006 est.)

Guatemala
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.5 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Guernsey
  total: 41.3 years
  male: 40.4 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

Guinea
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.4 years
  female: 17.9 years (2006 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  total: 19 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 19.6 years (2006 est.)

Guyana
  total: 27.4 years
  male: 26.9 years
  female: 27.9 years (2006 est.)

Haiti
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.6 years (2006 est.)

Honduras
  total: 19.5 years
  male: 19.1 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Hong Kong
  total: 40.7 years
  male: 40.4 years
  female: 40.9 years (2006 est.)

Hungary
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 36.3 years
  female: 41.4 years (2006 est.)

Iceland
  total: 34.2 years
  male: 33.8 years
  female: 34.7 years (2006 est.)

India
  total: 24.9 years
  male: 24.9 years
  female: 24.9 years (2006 est.)

Indonesia
  total: 26.8 years
  male: 26.4 years
  female: 27.3 years (2006 est.)

Iran
  total: 24.8 years
  male: 24.6 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Iraq
  total: 19.7 years
  male: 19.6 years
  female: 19.8 years (2006 est.)

Ireland
  total: 34 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 34.8 years (2006 est.)

Isle of Man
  total: 39.6 years
  male: 38.4 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Israel
  total: 29.6 years
  male: 28.8 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Italy
  total: 42.2 years
  male: 40.7 years
  female: 43.7 years (2006 est.)

Jamaica
  total: 23 years
  male: 22.4 years
  female: 23.5 years (2006 est.)

Japan
  total: 42.9 years
  male: 41.1 years
  female: 44.7 years (2006 est.)

Jersey
  total: 41.4 years
  male: 40.7 years
  female: 42.1 years (2006 est.)

Jordan
  total: 23 years
  male: 23.7 years
  female: 22.4 years (2006 est.)

Kazakhstan
  total: 28.8 years
  male: 27.2 years
  female: 30.5 years (2006 est.)

Kenya
  total: 18.2 years
  male: 18.1 years
  female: 18.3 years (2006 est.)

Kiribati
  total: 20.2 years
  male: 19.8 years
  female: 20.8 years (2006 est.)

Korea, North
  total: 32 years
  male: 30.7 years
  female: 33.4 years (2006 est.)

Korea, South
  total: 35.2 years
  male: 34.2 years
  female: 36.3 years (2006 est.)

Kuwait
  total: 25.9 years
  male: 28 years
  female: 22.3 years (2006 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  total: 23.6 years
  male: 22.8 years
  female: 24.5 years (2006 est.)

Laos
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.6 years
  female: 19.2 years (2006 est.)

Latvia
  total: 39.4 years
  male: 36.3 years
  female: 42.4 years (2006 est.)

Lebanon
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 26.7 years
  female: 28.9 years (2006 est.)

Lesotho
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 21 years (2006 est.)

Liberia
  total: 18.1 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 18.3 years (2006 est.)

Libya
  total: 23 years
  male: 23.1 years
  female: 22.9 years (2006 est.)

Liechtenstein
  total: 39.6 years
  male: 39.2 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Lithuania
  total: 38.2 years
  male: 35.7 years
  female: 40.8 years (2006 est.)

Luxembourg
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 37.7 years
  female: 39.7 years (2006 est.)

Macau
  total: 36.1 years
  male: 35.7 years
  female: 36.4 years (2006 est.)

Macedonia
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 35.1 years (2006 est.)

Madagascar
  total: 17.5 years
  male: 17.3 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Malawi
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.2 years
  female: 16.8 years (2006 est.)

Malaysia
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 24.8 years (2006 est.)

Maldives
  total: 17.9 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Mali
  total: 15.8 years
  male: 15.4 years
  female: 16.3 years (2006 est.)

Malta
  total: 38.7 years
  male: 37.2 years
  female: 40.1 years (2006 est.)

Marshall Islands
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 20.4 years
  female: 20.3 years (2006 est.)

Martinique
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.4 years
  female: 34.8 years (2006 est.)

Mauritania
  total: 17 years
  male: 16.8 years
  female: 17.3 years (2006 est.)

Mauritius
  total: 30.8 years
  male: 30 years
  female: 31.8 years (2006 est.)

Mayotte
  total: 17 years
  male: 18 years
  female: 16 years (2006 est.)

Mexico
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 24.3 years
  female: 26.2 years (2006 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  total: 20.9 years
  male: 20.5 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Moldova
  total: 32.3 years
  male: 30.3 years
  female: 34.3 years (2006 est.)

Monaco
  total: 45.4 years
  male: 43.3 years
  female: 47.3 years (2006 est.)

Mongolia
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 24.3 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Montserrat
  total: 28.9 years
  male: 28.6 years
  female: 29.2 years (2006 est.)

Morocco
  total: 23.9 years
  male: 23.4 years
  female: 24.5 years (2006 est.)

Mozambique
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Namibia
  total: 20 years
  male: 19.8 years
  female: 20.1 years (2006 est.)

Nauru
  total: 20.6 years
  male: 20 years
  female: 21.2 years (2006 est.)

Nepal
  total: 20.3 years
  male: 20.1 years
  female: 20.4 years (2006 est.)

Netherlands
  total: 39.4 years
  male: 38.6 years
  female: 40.2 years (2006 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  total: 32.8 years
  male: 31.1 years
  female: 34.4 years (2006 est.)

New Caledonia
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.4 years
  female: 28.2 years (2006 est.)

New Zealand
  total: 33.9 years
  male: 33.2 years
  female: 34.7 years (2006 est.)

Nicaragua
  total: 20.9 years
  male: 20.5 years
  female: 21.4 years (2006 est.)

Niger
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.5 years
  female: 16.4 years (2006 est.)

Nigeria
  total: 18.7 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 18.6 years (2006 est.)

Northern Mariana Islands
  total: 29.5 years
  male: 31.7 years
  female: 28.5 years (2006 est.)

Norway
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 37.6 years
  female: 39.3 years (2006 est.)

Oman
  total: 19 years
  male: 21.7 years
  female: 16.5 years (2006 est.)

Pakistan
  total: 19.8 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

Palau
  total: 31.7 years
  male: 32.7 years
  female: 30.7 years (2006 est.)

Panama
  total: 26.1 years
  male: 25.8 years
  female: 26.5 years (2006 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  total: 21.2 years
  male: 21.4 years
  female: 21.1 years (2006 est.)

Paraguay
  total: 21.3 years
  male: 21.1 years
  female: 21.6 years (2006 est.)

Peru
  total: 25.3 years
  male: 25 years
  female: 25.5 years (2006 est.)

Philippines
  total: 22.5 years
  male: 22 years
  female: 23 years (2006 est.)

Poland
  total: 37 years
  male: 35.1 years
  female: 39 years (2006 est.)

Portugal
  total: 38.5 years
  male: 36.4 years
  female: 40.6 years (2006 est.)

Puerto Rico
  total: 34.7 years
  male: 33 years
  female: 36.4 years (2006 est.)

Qatar
  total: 31.7 years
  male: 37.1 years
  female: 22.7 years (2006 est.)

Reunion
  total: 26.9 years
  male: 25.7 years
  female: 28.1 years (2006 est.)

Romania
  total: 36.6 years
  male: 35.3 years
  female: 37.9 years (2006 est.)

Russia
  total: 38.4 years
  male: 35.2 years
  female: 41.3 years (2006 est.)

Rwanda
  total: 18.6 years
  male: 18.4 years
  female: 18.8 years (2006 est.)

Saint Helena
  total: 36 years
  male: 36.2 years
  female: 35.8 years (2006 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.1 years
  female: 28.6 years (2006 est.)

Saint Lucia
  total: 25.2 years
  male: 24.4 years
  female: 26.1 years (2006 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  total: 34.1 years
  male: 33.7 years
  female: 34.5 years (2006 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  total: 26.9 years
  male: 26.7 years
  female: 27.1 years (2006 est.)

Samoa
  total: 25.2 years
  male: 28.1 years
  female: 22 years (2006 est.)

San Marino
  total: 40.6 years
  male: 40.3 years
  female: 41 years (2006 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  total: 16.2 years
  male: 15.6 years
  female: 16.8 years (2006 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  total: 21.4 years
  male: 22.9 years
  female: 19.4 years (2006 est.)

Senegal
  total: 19.1 years
  male: 18.9 years
  female: 19.3 years (2006 est.)

Serbia
  total: 40.4 years
  male: 39.1 years
  female: 41.7 years

Seychelles
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 27 years
  female: 29.1 years (2006 est.)

Sierra Leone
  total: 17.4 years
  male: 17.1 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

Singapore
  total: 37.3 years
  male: 36.9 years
  female: 37.6 years (2006 est.)

Slovakia
  total: 35.8 years
  male: 34.2 years
  female: 37.6 years (2006 est.)

Slovenia
  total: 40.6 years
  male: 39 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

Solomon Islands
  total: 18.9 years
  male: 18.7 years
  female: 19 years (2006 est.)

Somalia
  total: 17.6 years
  male: 17.5 years
  female: 17.7 years (2006 est.)

South Africa
  total: 24.1 years
  male: 23.3 years
  female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Spain
  total: 39.9 years
  male: 38.6 years
  female: 41.3 years (2006 est.)

Sri Lanka
  total: 29.8 years
  male: 28.7 years
  female: 30.9 years (2006 est.)

Sudan
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 18.1 years
  female: 18.5 years (2006 est.)

Suriname
  total: 26.5 years
  male: 26 years
  female: 26.9 years (2006 est.)

Swaziland
  total: 18.5 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 19.2 years (2006 est.)

Sweden
  total: 40.9 years
  male: 39.8 years
  female: 42 years (2006 est.)

Switzerland
  total: 40.1 years
  male: 39 years
  female: 41.1 years (2006 est.)

Syria
  total: 20.7 years
  male: 20.6 years
  female: 20.9 years (2006 est.)

Taiwan
  total: 34.6 years
  male: 34.1 years
  female: 35 years (2006 est.)

Tajikistan
  total: 20 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20.4 years (2006 est.)

Tanzania
  total: 17.7 years
  male: 17.5 years
  female: 18 years (2006 est.)

Thailand
  total: 31.9 years
  male: 31.1 years
  female: 32.8 years (2006 est.)

Togo
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 17.8 years
  female: 18.7 years (2006 est.)

Tonga
  total: 20.7 years
  male: 20.1 years
  female: 21.3 years (2006 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  total: 31.2 years
  male: 30.8 years
  female: 31.7 years (2006 est.)

Tunisia
  total: 27.8 years
  male: 27.3 years
  female: 28.3 years (2006 est.)

Turkey
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 27.9 years
  female: 28.3 years (2006 est.)

Turkmenistan
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 20.9 years
  female: 22.7 years (2006 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  total: 27.5 years
  male: 28.3 years
  female: 26.8 years (2006 est.)

Tuvalu
  total: 24.6 years
  male: 23.6 years
  female: 26 years (2006 est.)

Uganda
  total: 15 years
  male: 14.9 years
  female: 15.1 years (2006 est.)

Ukraine
  total: 39.2 years
  male: 35.9 years
  female: 42.2 years (2006 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  total: 28.1 years
  male: 34.8 years
  female: 23.3 years (2006 est.)

United Kingdom
  total: 39.3 years
  male: 38.2 years
  female: 40.4 years (2006 est.)

United States
  total: 36.5 years
  male: 35.1 years
  female: 37.8 years (2006 est.)

Uruguay
  total: 32.7 years
  male: 31.3 years
  female: 34.2 years (2006 est.)

Uzbekistan
  total: 22.7 years
  male: 22 years
  female: 23.3 years (2006 est.)

Vanuatu
  total: 23 years
  male: 23 years
  female: 23 years (2006 est.)

Venezuela
  total: 26 years
  male: 25.4 years
  female: 26.6 years (2006 est.)

Vietnam
  total: 25.9 years
  male: 24.8 years
  female: 27.1 years (2006 est.)

Virgin Islands
  total: 37.1 years
  male: 36.2 years
  female: 38 years (2006 est.)

West Bank
  total: 18.3 years
  male: 18.2 years
  female: 18.5 years (2006 est.)

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

Yemen
  total: 16.6 years
  male: 16.6 years
  female: 16.6 years (2006 est.)

Zambia
  total: 16.5 years
  male: 16.3 years
  female: 16.7 years (2006 est.)

Zimbabwe
  total: 19.9 years
  male: 19.7 years
  female: 20 years (2006 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2178  Oil - proved reserves (bbl)


Afghanistan
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Albania
  185.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Algeria
  12.46 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Angola
  25 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Argentina
  2.95 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Australia
  3.664 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Austria
  84.3 million bbl (2004)

Azerbaijan
  589 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Bahrain
  124 million bbl (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  28.45 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Barbados
  1.254 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Benin
  4.105 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Bolivia
  458.8 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Brazil
  15.12 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Brunei
  1.255 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Bulgaria
  15 million bbl (1 January 2005)

Burma
  less than 1 billion bbl (2005)

Cameroon
  85 million bbl (2005 est.)

Canada
  178.9 billion bbl
  note: includes oil sands (2004 est.)

Chile
  150 million bbl (1 January 2004)

China
  18.26 billion bbl (2004)

Colombia
  1.492 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1.538 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Congo, Republic of the
  93.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Cote d'Ivoire
  220 million bbl (2005 est.)

Croatia
  93.6 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Cuba
  532 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Czech Republic
  15 million bbl (1 January 2006)

Denmark
  1.23 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Ecuador
  4.512 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Egypt
  2.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  563.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Ethiopia
  214,000 bbl (1 January 2002)

European Union
  7.294 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

France
  144.3 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Gabon
  1.921 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Germany
  395.8 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Ghana
  8.255 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Greece
  4.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Guatemala
  263 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Hungary
  102 million bbl (1 January 2006)

India
  5.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  4.6 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Iran
  133.3 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Iraq
  112.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Ireland
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Israel
  1.92 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Italy
  586.6 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Japan
  29.29 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Jordan
  445,000 bbl (1 January 2002)

Kazakhstan
  26 billion bbl (1 January 2004)

Kuwait
  96.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Libya
  40 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  12 million bbl (2004)

Madagascar
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Malaysia
  3.1 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Mauritania
  1 billion bbl (2005)

Mexico
  33.31 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Morocco
  100 million bbl (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Namibia
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Netherlands
  88.06 million bbl (1 January 2002)

New Zealand
  89.62 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Nigeria
  36 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Norway
  9.859 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Oman
  6.1 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  341.8 million bbl (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  170 million bbl (2005 est.)

Peru
  370 million bbl (2005 est.)

Philippines
  152 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Poland
  142.4 million bbl (December 2004)

Qatar
  16 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Romania
  500 million bbl (yearend 2004)

Russia
  69 billion bbl (2003 est.)

Rwanda
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Saudi Arabia
  262.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Serbia
  38.75 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Slovakia
  9 million bbl (1 January 2006)

Somalia
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

South Africa
  7.84 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Spain
  10.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Sudan
  1.6 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Suriname
  150 million bbl (2005)

Syria
  2.5 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  2.9 million bbl (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  0 bbl (1 January 2002)

Thailand
  583 million bbl (November 2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  990 million bbl (1 January 2004)

Tunisia
  1.7 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Turkey
  288.4 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Turkmenistan
  273 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Ukraine
  395 million bbl (9 November 2004)

United Arab Emirates
  97.8 billion bbl (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  4.5 billion bbl (31 December 2004)

United States
  22.45 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Uzbekistan
  600 million bbl (1 January 2005)

Venezuela
  75.59 billion bbl (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  600 million bbl (2005 est.)

World
  1.349 trillion bbl (1 January 2002 est.)

Yemen
  4.37 billion bbl (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2179  Natural gas - proved reserves (cu m)


Afghanistan
  99.96 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Albania
  2.832 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Algeria
  4.531 trillion cu m (2005)

Angola
  45.87 billion cu m (2005)

Argentina
  663.5 billion cu m (2005)

Australia
  2.549 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Austria
  23.2 billion cu m (2004)

Azerbaijan
  849.5 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Bahrain
  92.03 billion cu m (2005)

Bangladesh
  300.2 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Barbados
  141.6 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Benin
  1.218 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Bolivia
  679.6 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Brazil
  240 billion cu m (2005)

Brunei
  390.8 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Bulgaria
  5.67 billion cu m (1 January 2005)

Burma
  283.2 billion cu m (2005)

Cameroon
  110.4 billion cu m (2005)

Canada
  1.673 trillion cu m (2004)

Chile
  97.98 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

China
  2.53 trillion cu m (2004)

Colombia
  127.6 billion cu m (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  991.1 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Congo, Republic of the
  90.61 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Cote d'Ivoire
  29.73 billion cu m (2005)

Croatia
  24.72 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Cuba
  70.79 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Czech Republic
  3.964 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Denmark
  73.51 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Ecuador
  9.769 billion cu m (2005)

Egypt
  1.9 trillion cu m (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  36.81 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Ethiopia
  24.92 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

European Union
  3.256 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

France
  14.33 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Gabon
  33.98 billion cu m (2005)

Germany
  305.8 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Ghana
  23.79 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Greece
  991.1 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Guatemala
  3.087 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Hungary
  33.98 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

India
  853.5 billion cu m (2005)

Indonesia
  2.557 trillion cu m (2005)

Iran
  26.62 trillion cu m (2005)

Iraq
  3.115 trillion cu m (2005)

Ireland
  19.82 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Israel
  38.94 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Italy
  226.5 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Japan
  39.64 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Jordan
  6.23 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Kazakhstan
  3 trillion cu m (1 January 2004)

Kuwait
  1.572 trillion cu m (2005)

Libya
  1.321 trillion cu m (2005)

Madagascar
  0 cu m (1 January 2002)

Malaysia
  2.124 trillion cu m (2005)

Mauritania
  0 cu m (2005)

Mexico
  424.3 billion cu m (2005)

Morocco
  1.218 billion cu m (2005)

Mozambique
  127.4 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Namibia
  62.3 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Netherlands
  1.756 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

New Zealand
  37.38 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Nigeria
  4.502 trillion cu m (2005)

Norway
  2.118 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Oman
  829.1 billion cu m (2005)

Pakistan
  759.7 billion cu m (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  345.5 billion cu m (2005)

Peru
  247.1 billion cu m (2005)

Philippines
  106.8 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Poland
  154.4 billion cu m (December 2004)

Qatar
  25.77 trillion cu m (2005)

Romania
  300 billion cu m (yearend 2004)

Russia
  47.57 trillion cu m (2003)

Rwanda
  56.63 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Saudi Arabia
  6.544 trillion cu m (2005)

Serbia
  48.14 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Slovakia
  15.01 billion cu m (1 January 2003)

Somalia
  5.663 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

South Africa
  28.32 million cu m (1 January 2002)

Spain
  2.662 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Sudan
  84.95 billion cu m (2005)

Suriname
  0 cu m (2005)

Syria
  240.7 billion cu m (2005)

Taiwan
  76.46 billion cu m (2005)

Tanzania
  22.65 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Thailand
  377.7 billion cu m (November 2003)

Trinidad and Tobago
  733 billion cu m (1 January 2004)

Tunisia
  77.87 billion cu m (2005)

Turkey
  8.495 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Turkmenistan
  2.01 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Ukraine
  1.121 trillion cu m (9 November 2004)

United Arab Emirates
  6.006 trillion cu m (2005)

United Kingdom
  628.6 billion cu m (31 December 2004)

United States
  5.353 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Uzbekistan
  1.875 trillion cu m (1 January 2005)

Venezuela
  4.191 trillion cu m (2005)

Vietnam
  192.6 billion cu m (2005)

World
  174.6 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

Yemen
  478.6 billion cu m (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2180  Natural gas - production (cu m)


Afghanistan
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Albania
  30 million cu m (2003 est.)

Algeria
  82.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Angola
  720 million cu m (2003 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Argentina
  41.04 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Armenia
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Aruba
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Australia
  35.6 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Austria
  1.96 billion cu m (2004)

Azerbaijan
  5.13 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  9.65 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  11.9 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Barbados
  29.17 million cu m (2003 est.)

Belarus
  250 million cu m (2004 est.)

Belgium
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Belize
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Benin
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bhutan
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  6.72 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Botswana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Brazil
  15.79 billion cu m (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Brunei
  11.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  1.13 million cu m (2003)

Burkina Faso
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Burma
  9.98 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Burundi
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Canada
  165.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cayman Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Central African Republic
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Chad
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Chile
  1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

China
  35.02 billion cu m (2003)

Colombia
  6.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Comoros
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Costa Rica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  1.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Croatia
  1.85 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Cuba
  704 million cu m (2004)

Cyprus
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  133 million cu m (2003 est.)

Denmark
  7.965 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Dominica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Dominican Republic
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Ecuador
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Egypt
  27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

El Salvador
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  1.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Eritrea
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Estonia
  0 cu m (2004)

Ethiopia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

European Union
  239.2 billion cu m (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Fiji
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Finland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

France
  1.566 billion cu m (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Gabon
  90 million cu m (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Georgia
  20 million cu m (2003 est.)

Germany
  22.22 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Ghana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Greece
  27 million cu m (2003 est.)

Greenland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Grenada
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guadeloupe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guam
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guatemala
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guinea
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guyana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Haiti
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Honduras
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  0 cu m NA cu m

Hungary
  3.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Iceland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

India
  27.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Indonesia
  83.4 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Iran
  79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Iraq
  1.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Ireland
  673 million cu m (2003 est.)

Israel
  200 million cu m (2003 est.)

Italy
  13.55 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Japan
  2.814 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Jordan
  390 million cu m (2003 est.)

Kazakhstan
  18.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Kenya
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Korea, North
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Korea, South
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  8.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  6 million cu m (2003 est.)

Laos
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Latvia
  0 cu m NA (2003)

Lebanon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Liberia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Libya
  7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Lithuania
  0 cu m (2004)

Luxembourg
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Macau
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Macedonia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Madagascar
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malawi
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  53.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Maldives
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mali
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malta
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Martinique
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mexico
  47.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Moldova
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mongolia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Montserrat
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Morocco
  5 million cu m (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Namibia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nauru
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nepal
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Netherlands
  73.13 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  4.773 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Niger
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  19.2 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Niue
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Norway
  73.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Oman
  16.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Pakistan
  23.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Panama
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  140 million cu m (2003 est.)

Paraguay
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Peru
  560 million cu m (2003 est.)

Philippines
  2.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Poland
  4.33 billion cu m (2004)

Portugal
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Qatar
  30.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Reunion
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Romania
  13.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Russia
  587 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Samoa
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  60.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Senegal
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Serbia
  650 million cu m (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sierra Leone
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Singapore
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Slovakia
  165 million cu m (2004 est.)

Slovenia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Solomon Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Somalia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

South Africa
  2.35 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Spain
  216 million cu m (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sudan
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Suriname
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Swaziland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sweden
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Syria
  6.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  970 million cu m (2003 est.)

Tajikistan
  30 million cu m (2004 est.)

Tanzania
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Thailand
  22.28 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Togo
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Tonga
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  24.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  2.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Turkey
  560 million cu m (2003 est.)

Turkmenistan
  54.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Uganda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  20.3 billion cu m (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  44.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

United Kingdom
  102.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

United States
  539 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  55.8 billion cu m (2004)

Vanuatu
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  29.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Vietnam
  6.342 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

World
  2.674 trillion cu m (2003 est.)

Yemen
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Zambia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2181  Natural gas - consumption (cu m)


Afghanistan
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Albania
  30 million cu m (2003 est.)

Algeria
  21.32 billion cu m (2003 est.)

American Samoa
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Angola
  720 million cu m (2003 est.)

Antigua and Barbuda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Argentina
  34.58 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Armenia
  1.685 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Aruba
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Australia
  25.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Austria
  9.01 billion cu m (2004)

Azerbaijan
  9.2 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bahamas, The
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bahrain
  9.65 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bangladesh
  11.9 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Barbados
  29.17 million cu m (2003 est.)

Belarus
  20.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Belgium
  15.48 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Belize
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Benin
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bermuda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bhutan
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Bolivia
  1.74 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  160 million cu m (2003 est.)

Botswana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Brazil
  21.74 billion cu m (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Brunei
  1.73 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Bulgaria
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Burkina Faso
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Burma
  1.569 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Burundi
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cambodia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Canada
  90.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Cape Verde
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cayman Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Central African Republic
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Chad
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Chile
  7.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

China
  33.44 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Colombia
  6.08 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Comoros
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cook Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Costa Rica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  1.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Croatia
  2.99 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Cuba
  704 million cu m (2004)

Cyprus
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Czech Republic
  9.623 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Denmark
  5.173 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Djibouti
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Dominica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Dominican Republic
  300 million cu m (2003 est.)

Ecuador
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Egypt
  27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

El Salvador
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  1.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Eritrea
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Estonia
  1.42 billion cu m (2004)

Ethiopia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

European Union
  465.6 billion cu m (2001)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Faroe Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Fiji
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Finland
  5.028 billion cu m (2003 est.)

France
  43.74 billion cu m (2003 est.)

French Guiana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

French Polynesia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Gabon
  90 million cu m (2003 est.)

Gambia, The
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Georgia
  1.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Germany
  93.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Ghana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Gibraltar
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Greece
  2.34 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Greenland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Grenada
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guadeloupe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guam
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guatemala
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guinea
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Guyana
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Haiti
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Honduras
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Hong Kong
  692.2 million cu m (2003 est.)

Hungary
  13 billion cu m (2004)

Iceland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

India
  27.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Indonesia
  22.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Iran
  79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Iraq
  1.5 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Ireland
  4.298 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Israel
  200 million cu m (2003 est.)

Italy
  76.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Jamaica
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Japan
  86.51 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Jordan
  390 million cu m (2003 est.)

Kazakhstan
  15.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Kenya
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Kiribati
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Korea, North
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Korea, South
  24.09 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  8.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  1.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Laos
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Latvia
  1.76 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Lebanon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Lesotho
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Liberia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Libya
  6.25 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Lithuania
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Luxembourg
  1.205 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Macau
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Macedonia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Madagascar
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malawi
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malaysia
  28.53 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Maldives
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mali
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Malta
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Martinique
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mauritania
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mauritius
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Mexico
  55.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Moldova
  2.38 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Mongolia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Montserrat
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Morocco
  650 million cu m (2003 est.)

Mozambique
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Namibia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nauru
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nepal
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Netherlands
  50.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

New Caledonia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

New Zealand
  4.773 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Nicaragua
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Niger
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Nigeria
  7.41 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Niue
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Norway
  4.14 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Oman
  7.09 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Pakistan
  23.8 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Panama
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  140 million cu m (2003 est.)

Paraguay
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Peru
  910 million cu m (2004 est.)

Philippines
  2.3 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Poland
  14.97 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Portugal
  2.983 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Puerto Rico
  740 million cu m (2003 est.)

Qatar
  11.61 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Reunion
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Romania
  18.8 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Russia
  402.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Rwanda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Helena
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Lucia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Samoa
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  60.06 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Senegal
  50 million cu m (2003 est.)

Serbia
  2.55 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Seychelles
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sierra Leone
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Singapore
  5.32 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Slovakia
  6.8 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Slovenia
  1.1 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Solomon Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Somalia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

South Africa
  2.35 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Spain
  23.27 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Sri Lanka
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sudan
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Suriname
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Swaziland
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Sweden
  980 million cu m (2003 est.)

Switzerland
  3.209 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Syria
  6.95 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Taiwan
  8.45 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Tajikistan
  1.4 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Tanzania
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Thailand
  29.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Togo
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Tonga
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  12.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  3.84 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Turkey
  22.6 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  15.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Uganda
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Ukraine
  75.8 billion cu m (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  37.88 billion cu m (2003 est.)

United Kingdom
  95.15 billion cu m (2003 est.)

United States
  633.6 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Uruguay
  60 million cu m (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  49.3 billion cu m (2004)

Vanuatu
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Venezuela
  29.7 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Vietnam
  6.342 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Western Sahara
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

World
  2.675 trillion cu m (2003 est.)

Yemen
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Zambia
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Zimbabwe
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2182  Natural gas - imports (cu m)


Afghanistan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Albania
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Algeria
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Angola
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Argentina
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Armenia
  1.685 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Australia
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Austria
  7.05 billion cu m (2004)

Azerbaijan
  1 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Bahrain
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Bangladesh
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Barbados
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Belarus
  20.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Belgium
  15.4 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Bolivia
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  300 million cu m (2001 est.)

Brazil
  5.947 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Brunei
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Bulgaria
  2.9 billion cu m (2004)

Burma
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  0 cu m NA cu m

Canada
  8.73 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Chile
  5.337 billion cu m (2002 est.)

China
  0 cu m (2004)

Colombia
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  0 cu m

Cote d'Ivoire
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Croatia
  1.08 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Cuba
  0 cu m (2004)

Czech Republic
  9.8 billion cu m (2004)

Denmark
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Dominican Republic
  NA cu m

Ecuador
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Egypt
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Estonia
  1.42 billion cu m (2004)

European Union
  297.8 billion cu m (2001)

Finland
  4.567 billion cu m (2001 est.)

France
  40.26 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Gabon
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Georgia
  1.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Germany
  85.02 billion cu m (2003)

Greece
  2.018 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Hong Kong
  71.15 million cu m (2004 est.)

Hungary
  10.95 billion cu m (2004)

India
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Indonesia
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Iran
  4.92 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Iraq
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Ireland
  3.384 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Israel
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Italy
  54.78 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Japan
  77.73 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Jordan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  NA cu m

Korea, South
  21.11 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  1.5 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Latvia
  1.76 billion cu m (2004)

Libya
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Lithuania
  3.1 billion cu m (2004)

Luxembourg
  867 million cu m (2001 est.)

Malaysia
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Mexico
  7.85 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Moldova
  2.05 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Morocco
  NA cu m

Mozambique
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Netherlands
  20.78 billion cu m (2001 est.)

New Zealand
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Nigeria
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Norway
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Oman
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Pakistan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Peru
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Philippines
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Poland
  9.45 billion cu m (2004)

Portugal
  2.553 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Puerto Rico
  630 million cu m (2001 est.)

Qatar
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Romania
  5.9 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Russia
  12 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  0 cu m (2002)

Senegal
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Serbia
  0 cu m

Singapore
  2.5 billion cu m
  note: from Indonesia and Malaysia (2001 est.)

Slovakia
  7.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Slovenia
  963 million cu m (2002)

South Africa
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Spain
  17.26 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Sweden
  968 million cu m (2001 est.)

Switzerland
  3.093 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Syria
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Taiwan
  7.48 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  1.4 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Thailand
  5.2 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Tunisia
  1.58 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Turkey
  15.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Turkmenistan
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Ukraine
  59.8 billion cu m (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

United Kingdom
  2.7 billion cu m (2001 est.)

United States
  114.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Uruguay
  65 million cu m (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  0 cu m (2004)

Venezuela
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Vietnam
  NA cu m

World
  696 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Yemen
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2183  Natural gas - exports (cu m)


Afghanistan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Albania
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Algeria
  57.98 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Angola
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Argentina
  6.05 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Armenia
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Australia
  9.744 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Austria
  0 cu m (2004)

Azerbaijan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Bahrain
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Bangladesh
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Barbados
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Belarus
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Belgium
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Bolivia
  2.9 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Brazil
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Brunei
  9 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Bulgaria
  0 cu m (2003)

Burma
  8.424 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Cameroon
  0 cu m NA cu m

Canada
  91.52 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Chile
  0 cu m (2002)

China
  2.79 billion cu m (2004)

Colombia
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  0 cu m

Cote d'Ivoire
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Croatia
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Cuba
  0 cu m (2004)

Czech Republic
  1 million cu m (2001 est.)

Denmark
  3.1 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Ecuador
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Egypt
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Estonia
  0 cu m (2004)

European Union
  78.1 billion cu m (2001)

Finland
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

France
  1.725 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Gabon
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Georgia
  NA cu m

Germany
  7.731 billion cu m (2003)

Greece
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Hong Kong
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Hungary
  4 million cu m (2001 est.)

India
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Indonesia
  37.5 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Iran
  3.4 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Iraq
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Ireland
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Israel
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Italy
  61 million cu m (2001 est.)

Japan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Jordan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Kazakhstan
  4.1 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Korea, South
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Kuwait
  0 cu m (2002 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Latvia
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Libya
  770 million cu m (2001 est.)

Lithuania
  0 cu m (2004)

Luxembourg
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Malaysia
  22.41 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Mexico
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Moldova
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Morocco
  NA cu m

Mozambique
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Netherlands
  49.28 billion cu m (2001 est.)

New Zealand
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Nigeria
  7.83 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Norway
  50.5 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Oman
  7.43 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Pakistan
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Peru
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Philippines
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Poland
  44 million cu m (2004)

Portugal
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Puerto Rico
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Qatar
  18.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Romania
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Russia
  157.2 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  0 cu m (2002)

Senegal
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Serbia
  0 cu m

Singapore
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Slovakia
  1 million cu m (2004 est.)

Slovenia
  0 cu m (2003)

South Africa
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Spain
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Sweden
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Switzerland
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Syria
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Taiwan
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Thailand
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  11.79 billion cu m (2003 est.)

Tunisia
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Turkey
  0 cu m (2001 est.)

Turkmenistan
  38.6 billion cu m (2004 est.)

Ukraine
  3.9 billion cu m (2004)

United Arab Emirates
  7.19 billion cu m (2003 est.)

United Kingdom
  15.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)

United States
  24.19 billion cu m (2004)

Uruguay
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
  6.5 billion cu m (2004)

Venezuela
  0 cu m (2004 est.)

Vietnam
  0 cu m (2005 est.)

World
  667.6 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Yemen
  0 cu m (2003 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2184  Internet hosts


Afghanistan
  22 (2006)

Albania
  430 (2006)

Algeria
  1,202 (2006)

American Samoa
  1,456 (2006)

Andorra
  14,944 (2006)

Angola
  2,525 (2006)

Anguilla
  403 (2006)

Antarctica
  7,757 (2006)

Antigua and Barbuda
  2,231 (2006)

Argentina
  1,612,423 (2006)

Armenia
  8,163 (2006)

Aruba
  11,548 (2006)

Australia
  7,772,888 (2006)

Austria
  2,062,035 (2006)

Azerbaijan
  880 (2006)

Bahamas, The
  591 (2006)

Bahrain
  2,165 (2006)

Bangladesh
  469 (2006)

Barbados
  282 (2006)

Belarus
  33,641 (2006)

Belgium
  2,870,770 (2006)

Belize
  3,905 (2006)

Benin
  867 (2006)

Bermuda
  8,114 (2006)

Bhutan
  7,567 (2006)

Bolivia
  20,085 (2006)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  31,490 (2006)

Botswana
  5,499 (2006)

Bouvet Island
  6 (2006)

Brazil
  6,508,431 (2006)

British Indian Ocean Territory
  65 (2006)

British Virgin Islands
  525 (2006)

Brunei
  27 (2005)

Bulgaria
  184,975 (2006)

Burkina Faso
  399 (2006)

Burma
  42 (2006)

Burundi
  160 (2006)

Cambodia
  1,378 (2006)

Cameroon
  39 (2006)

Canada
  3,934,223 (2006)

Cape Verde
  234 (2006)

Cayman Islands
  8,611 (2006)

Central African Republic
  10 (2006)

Chad
  9 (2006)

Chile
  506,055 (2006)

China
  232,780 (2006)

Christmas Island
  2,368 (2006)

Colombia
  581,877 (2006)

Comoros
  5 (2006)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  1,778 (2006)

Congo, Republic of the
  46 (2004)

Cook Islands
  1,456 (2006)

Costa Rica
  12,751 (2006)

Cote d'Ivoire
  2,534 (2006)

Croatia
  18,825 (2006)

Cuba
  2,234 (2006)

Cyprus
  67,589 (2006)

Czech Republic
  1,267,265 (2006)

Denmark
  2,415,530 (2006)

Djibouti
  1,540 (2006)

Dominica
  263 (2006)

Dominican Republic
  91,895 (2006)

East Timor
  68 (2006)

Ecuador
  19,027 (2006)

Egypt
  2,254 (2006)

El Salvador
  4,682 (2006)

Equatorial Guinea
  19 (2006)

Eritrea
  1,088 (2006)

Estonia
  52,241 (2006)

Ethiopia
  88 (2006)

European Union
  22,000,414 (2004); note - sum of individual country
  Internet hosts

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  103 (2006)

Faroe Islands
  6,915 (2006)

Fiji
  8,987 (2006)

Finland
  1,633,614 (2006)

France
  3,148,379 (2006)

French Guiana
  106 (2006)

French Polynesia
  14,047 (2006)

French Southern and Antarctic Lands
  38 (2006)

Gabon
  322 (2006)

Gambia, The
  14 (2006)

Georgia
  10,752 (2006)

Germany
  11,859,131 (2006)

Ghana
  380 (2006)

Gibraltar
  641 (2006)

Greece
  587,717 (2006)

Greenland
  8,851 (2006)

Grenada
  17 (2006)

Guadeloupe
  422 (2006)

Guam
  76 (2006)

Guatemala
  49,026 (2006)

Guernsey
  1,245 (2006)

Guinea
  367 (2006)

Guinea-Bissau
  5 (2006)

Guyana
  1,046 (2006)

Haiti
  6 (2006)

Holy See (Vatican City)
  45 (2006)

Honduras
  3,973 (2006)

Hong Kong
  800,834 (2006)

Hungary
  608,085 (2006)

Iceland
  212,897 (2006)

India
  1,543,289 (2006)

Indonesia
  170,834 (2006)

Iran
  5,242 (2006)

Iraq
  5 (2006)

Ireland
  238,191 (2006)

Isle of Man
  290 (2006)

Israel
  1,251,881 (2006)

Italy
  1,731,165 (2006)

Jamaica
  1,402 (2006)

Japan
  28,321,846 (2006)

Jersey
  1,240 (2006)

Jordan
  3,441 (2006)

Kazakhstan
  21,187 (2006)

Kenya
  13,274 (2006)

Kiribati
  42 (2006)

Korea, South
  5,433,591 (2005)

Kuwait
  2,310 (2006)

Kyrgyzstan
  18,928 (2006)

Laos
  1,108 (2006)

Latvia
  65,858 (2006)

Lebanon
  3,307 (2006)

Lesotho
  168 (2006)

Liberia
  8 (2006)

Libya
  31 (2006)

Liechtenstein
  4,697 (2006)

Lithuania
  148,675 (2006)

Luxembourg
  88,661 (2006)

Macau
  108 (2006)

Macedonia
  3,716 (2006)

Madagascar
  1,504 (2006)

Malawi
  377 (2006)

Malaysia
  158,650 (2006)

Maldives
  1,357 (2006)

Mali
  278 (2006)

Malta
  14,025 (2006)

Marshall Islands
  6 (2006)

Martinique
  72 (2006)

Mauritania
  32 (2006)

Mauritius
  4,997 (2006)

Mayotte
  1 (2006)

Mexico
  3,426,680 (2006)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  550 (2006)

Moldova
  58,886 (2006)

Monaco
  12,720 (2006)

Mongolia
  272 (2006)

Montserrat
  386 (2006)

Morocco
  3,218 (2006)

Mozambique
  6,985 (2006)

Namibia
  3,527 (2006)

Nauru
  52 (2006)

Nepal
  17,789 (2006)

Netherlands
  8,363,158 (2006)

Netherlands Antilles
  19,204 (2006)

New Caledonia
  13,962 (2006)

New Zealand
  1,050,197 (2006)

Nicaragua
  24,452 (2006)

Niger
  189 (2006)

Nigeria
  1,549 (2006)

Norfolk Island
  100 (2006)

Northern Mariana Islands
  20 (2005)

Norway
  1,364,448 (2006)

Oman
  3,555 (2006)

Pakistan
  72,765 (2006)

Palau
  3 (2006)

Panama
  7,149 (2006)

Papua New Guinea
  1,573 (2006)

Paraguay
  13,178 (2006)

Peru
  269,981 (2006)

Philippines
  111,262 (2006)

Pitcairn Islands
  8 (2006)

Poland
  358,476 (2006)

Portugal
  845,980 (2005)

Puerto Rico
  404 (2006)

Qatar
  301 (2006)

Reunion
  29 (2006)

Romania
  57,470 (2006)

Russia
  1,979,924 (2006)

Rwanda
  1,590 (2006)

Saint Helena
  329 (2006)

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  50 (2006)

Saint Lucia
  21 (2006)

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  0 (2006)

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  94 (2006)

Samoa
  10,680 (2006)

San Marino
  3,140 (2006)

Sao Tome and Principe
  735 (2006)

Saudi Arabia
  10,931 (2006)

Senegal
  412 (2006)

Serbia
  NA

Seychelles
  72 (2006)

Sierra Leone
  20 (2006)

Singapore
  898,762 (2006)

Slovakia
  210,758 (2006)

Slovenia
  61,735 (2006)

Solomon Islands
  2,658 (2006)

Somalia
  3 (2006)

South Africa
  645,179 (2006)

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
  271 (2006)

Spain
  2,520,711 (2006)

Sri Lanka
  6,526 (2006)

Sudan
  16 (2006)

Suriname
  126 (2006)

Swaziland
  2,472 (2006)

Sweden
  2,958,435 (2006)

Switzerland
  2,442,659 (2006)

Syria
  66 (2006)

Taiwan
  4,320,310 (2006)

Tajikistan
  98 (2006)

Tanzania
  8,609 (2006)

Thailand
  938,784 (2006)

Togo
  520 (2006)

Tokelau
  298 (2006)

Tonga
  18,775 (2006)

Trinidad and Tobago
  30,732 (2006)

Tunisia
  428 (2006)

Turkey
  1,313,135 (2006)

Turkmenistan
  585 (2006)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  2,735 (2006)

Uganda
  1,365 (2006)

Ukraine
  229,110 (2006)

United Arab Emirates
  337,092 (2006)

United Kingdom
  6,064,860 (2006)

United States
  195,138,696 (2005)

Uruguay
  145,774 (2006)

Uzbekistan
  9,058 (2006)

Vanuatu
  413 (2006)

Venezuela
  51,968 (2006)

Vietnam
  12,114 (2006)

Virgin Islands
  3,855 (2006)

Wallis and Futuna
  1 (2006)

Yemen
  171 (2006)

Zambia
  3,227 (2006)

Zimbabwe
  7,954 (2006)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2185  Investment (gross fixed) (% of GDP)


Albania
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Algeria
  22.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Angola
  30.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Argentina
  21.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Armenia
  21.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Australia
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Austria
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  54.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  19.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Belarus
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Belgium
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Belize
  17.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Benin
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  12.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Botswana
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Brazil
  19.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  23.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  20.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Burma
  11.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Burundi
  11.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  23.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  17.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Canada
  20.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Chad
  18.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Chile
  22.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

China
  44.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Colombia
  18.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  21.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  8.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Croatia
  28.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cuba
  11.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  26.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Denmark
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  24.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Egypt
  17.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  15.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  39.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  25.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Estonia
  29.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

European Union
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Finland
  19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

France
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Gabon
  24.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Georgia
  24% of GDP (2005 est.)

Germany
  17.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ghana
  23.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Greece
  24.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  15.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Guinea
  17.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Guyana
  34.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Haiti
  27.4% of GDP (2004 est.)

Honduras
  23.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  20.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Hungary
  23.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Iceland
  28.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

India
  28.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  22% of GDP (2005 est.)

Iran
  30.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ireland
  27% of GDP (2005 est.)

Israel
  17.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Italy
  20.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  32.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Japan
  23.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Jordan
  20.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  26.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kenya
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  29.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  14.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  12.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Latvia
  27.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  18.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  29.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Libya
  11.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  21.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  18.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  26.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Malawi
  10.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Malta
  22.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  21.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mexico
  19.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Moldova
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  % of GDP NA

Morocco
  23.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  29.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Namibia
  24.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  19.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  23.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  27% of GDP (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Norway
  18.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Oman
  14.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  15.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Panama
  16.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  19.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  19.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Peru
  18.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Philippines
  15.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Poland
  18.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Portugal
  21.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Qatar
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Romania
  24.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Russia
  18.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  18.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sao Tome and Principe
  32.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  16.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Senegal
  20.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Serbia
  14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  42% of GDP (2005 est.)

Singapore
  21.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  26% of GDP (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  24.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

South Africa
  16.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Spain
  29.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  26.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sudan
  16.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  10.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sweden
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Syria
  21.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  20.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  19.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  18.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Thailand
  29% of GDP (2005 est.)

Togo
  21.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  22.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Turkey
  19.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  35.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Uganda
  23.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  20.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  20.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  16.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

United States
  16.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  12.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  19% of GDP (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  33.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Yemen
  14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Zambia
  27.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  7.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2186  Public debt (% of GDP)


Algeria
  30.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Angola
  38.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Argentina
  72.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Aruba
  46.3% of GDP

Australia
  16.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Austria
  65.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  11.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  33.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  44.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Belgium
  94.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bhutan
  81.4% of GDP

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  29% of GDP

Botswana
  6.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Brazil
  51.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  31.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  65.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Canada
  69.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Chile
  7.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

China
  24.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Colombia
  49.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  56.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  64.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Croatia
  49.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: 70.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Denmark
  37% of GDP (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  45.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  40.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Egypt
  104.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  46.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  6.4% of GDP

Estonia
  4.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  106.2% of GDP

Finland
  39.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

France
  66.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Gabon
  33.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Germany
  67.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ghana
  75.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Greece
  106.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  25.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Honduras
  68.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  1.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Hungary
  58.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Iceland
  31.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

India
  53.8% of GDP (federal and state debt combined) (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  49.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Iran
  28.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ireland
  26.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Israel
  99.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Italy
  108.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  128.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Japan
  158% of GDP (2005 est.)

Jordan
  79.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  10.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kenya
  50.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  20% of GDP (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  12.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Latvia
  10.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  180.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Libya
  8.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  18.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  33.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Malawi
  195.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  46.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  67.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mexico
  17.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Moldova
  79.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  % of GDP NA

Morocco
  72% of GDP (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  21% of GDP

Namibia
  32.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  52.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  21.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  82.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  11% of GDP (2005 est.)

Norway
  50.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Oman
  8.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  53.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Panama
  64.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  42.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  36% of GDP (2005 est.)

Peru
  38% of GDP (2005 est.)

Philippines
  72.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Poland
  47.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Portugal
  63.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Qatar
  35.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Romania
  20.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Russia
  12.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  44.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Senegal
  46% of GDP (2005 est.)

Serbia
  53.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  167% of GDP (2005 est.)

Singapore
  102.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  42.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  28.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

South Africa
  35.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Spain
  42.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  92.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sudan
  107% of GDP (2005 est.)

Sweden
  50.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  52% of GDP (2005 est.)

Syria
  40.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  33.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  65.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

Thailand
  47.6% of GDP (2005 est.)

Trinidad and Tobago
  43% of GDP (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  59.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Turkey
  68% of GDP (2005 est.)

Uganda
  64.3% of GDP (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  17% of GDP (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  17.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  43.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

United States
  64.7% of GDP (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  81.9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  36.1% of GDP (2005 est.)

Venezuela
  34.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  48.2% of GDP (2005 est.)

Wallis and Futuna
  5.6% of GDP

Yemen
  34.4% of GDP (2005 est.)

Zambia
  71.5% of GDP (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  109.8% of GDP (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2187  Current account balance


Albania
  $-416 million (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $18.79 billion (2005 est.)

Angola
  $4.054 billion (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $-42.87 million

Antigua and Barbuda
  $-83.4 million

Argentina
  $5.448 billion (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $-118 million (2005 est.)

Australia
  $-42.09 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $1.467 billion (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $167.3 million (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  $1.531 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $37 million (2005 est.)

Belarus
  $852 million (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $6.305 billion (2005 est.)

Belize
  $-180 million (2005 est.)

Benin
  $-400 million (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  $462 million (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $-2.087 billion (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $1.584 billion (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $14.19 billion (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $134.3 million

Bulgaria
  $-3.919 billion (2005)

Burkina Faso
  $-460 million (2005 est.)

Burma
  $700 million (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $-29 million (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $-166 million (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $39 million (2005 est.)

Canada
  $24.96 billion (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $-82 million (2005 est.)

Chad
  $-602 million (2005 est.)

Chile
  $702.7 million (2005 est.)

China
  $160.8 billion (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $-1.931 billion (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $-17 million (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $493 million (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $26.67 million

Costa Rica
  $-955 million (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $-193 million (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $-2.541 billion (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $49 million (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $-962.3 million (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  $-2.496 billion (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $7.753 billion (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $-143 million (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  $-566 million (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $2.207 billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $-778 million (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $264 million (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $-291 million (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $-1.375 billion (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $-844 million (2005 est.)

European Union
  $NA

Fiji
  $-465.8 million

Finland
  $5.043 billion (2005 est.)

France
  $-38.78 billion (2005 est.)

Gabon
  $675 million (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $-53 million (2005 est.)

Georgia
  $-625 million (2005 est.)

Germany
  $115.5 billion (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $-790 million (2005 est.)

Greece
  $-17.86 billion (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  $-1.341 billion (2005 est.)

Guinea
  $-268.4 million (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $-112 million (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $23 million (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $-42.3 million (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $19.7 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $-7.963 billion (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $-2.607 billion (2005 est.)

India
  $-12.95 billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $2.016 billion (2005 est.)

Iran
  $13.27 billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $-9.447 billion (2004 est.)

Ireland
  $-3.833 billion (2005 est.)

Israel
  $2.385 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $-26.38 billion (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $-974 million (2005 est.)

Japan
  $165.6 billion (2005 est.)

Jordan
  $-1.613 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $-485.7 million (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $-1.543 billion (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $-19.87 million

Korea, South
  $16.56 billion (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $26.92 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $-134 million (2005 est.)

Laos
  $-134 million (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $-1.959 billion (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $-4.239 billion (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $-92 million (2005 est.)

Libya
  $10.73 billion (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  $-1.771 billion (2005)

Luxembourg
  $3.56 billion

Macedonia
  $-81.1 million (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $-438 million (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $-218 million (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $14.06 billion (2005 est.)

Malta
  $-598 million (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $-342 million (2005 est.)

Mexico
  $-5.708 billion (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $-34.3 million

Moldova
  $-285 million (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Morocco
  $1.255 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $-639 million (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $509.2 million (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $39.95 billion (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  $-9.688 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $-835 million (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $5.597 billion (2005 est.)

Norway
  $49.49 billion (2005 est.)

Oman
  $4.796 billion (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $-1.109 billion (2005 est.)

Palau
  $15.09 million

Panama
  $-705.7 million (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $482.1 million (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $-255 million (2005 est.)

Peru
  $1.03 billion (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $2.354 billion (2005 est.)

Poland
  $-4.364 billion (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $-17.1 billion (2005 est.)

Qatar
  $9.27 billion (2005 est.)

Romania
  $-8.2 billion (2005)

Russia
  $84.25 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $-166 million (2005 est.)

Samoa
  $-2.428 million

Sao Tome and Principe
  $-20 million (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $90.73 billion (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $-848 million (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $-2.451 billion (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $-32 million (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $32.74 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $-4.066 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $-303 million (2005 est.)

South Africa
  $-11.08 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $-83.14 billion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $-776 million (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $-3.013 billion (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  $7 million (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $25.62 billion (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $58.24 billion (2005 est.)

Syria
  $1.097 billion (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $16.22 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $-44 million (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $-558 million (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $-3.689 billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  $-199 million (2005 est.)

Tonga
  $-4.321 million

Trinidad and Tobago
  $2.88 billion (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $-359.2 million (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $-23.08 billion (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $236 million (2005 est.)

Tuvalu
  $2.323 million

Uganda
  $-355 million (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $2.531 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $18.54 billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $-57.61 billion (2005 est.)

United States
  $-829.1 billion (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $-87.9 million (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $1.082 billion (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $-28.35 million

Venezuela
  $25.36 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $-309 million (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $1.224 billion (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $-420 million (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $-519 million (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2188  Reserves of foreign exchange and gold


Albania
  $1.461 billion (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $56.58 billion (2005 est.)

Angola
  $3.197 billion (2005 est.)

Argentina
  $28.09 billion (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $754.9 million (2005 est.)

Australia
  $43.26 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $11.83 billion (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $1.192 billion (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  $2.432 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $2.825 billion (2005 est.)

Belarus
  $1.215 billion (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $12 billion (2005 est.)

Belize
  $87 million (2005 est.)

Benin
  $676 million (2005 est.)

Bolivia
  $1.798 billion (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $2.531 billion (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $6.309 billion (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $53.8 billion (2005 est.)

Bulgaria
  $8.695 billion (2005)

Burkina Faso
  $764 million (2005 est.)

Burma
  $763 million (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $105 million (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $1.145 billion (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $964.8 million (2005 est.)

Canada
  $33.02 billion (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $150 million (2005 est.)

Chad
  $297 million (2005 est.)

Chile
  $16.93 billion (2005 est.)

China
  $825.6 billion (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $14.96 billion (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $273 million (2005 est.)

Costa Rica
  $2.313 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $1.42 billion (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $8.8 billion (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $2.618 billion (2005 est.)

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $4.429 billion; north Cyprus $NA (2005
  est.)

Czech Republic
  $29.36 billion (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $34.03 billion (2005 est.)

Dominican Republic
  $1.853 billion (2005 est.)

Ecuador
  $2.148 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $21.39 billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $1.833 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $2.103 billion (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $30 million (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $1.948 billion (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $1.226 billion (2005 est.)

European Union
  $NA

Finland
  $11.4 billion (2005 est.)

France
  $74.36 billion (2005 est.)

Gabon
  $675.2 million (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $82 million (2005 est.)

Georgia
  $474.2 million (2005 est.)

Germany
  $101.7 billion (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $1.897 billion (2005 est.)

Greece
  $2.287 billion (2005 est.)

Guatemala
  $3.673 billion (2005 est.)

Guinea
  $69.83 million (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $261 million (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $100 million (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $2.339 billion (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $124.3 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $18.59 billion (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $1.069 billion (2005 est.)

India
  $136 billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $34.58 billion (2005 est.)

Iran
  $45.46 billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $9.161 billion (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $869.3 million (2005 est.)

Israel
  $28.06 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $65.95 billion (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $2.17 billion (2005 est.)

Japan
  $835.5 billion (2005 est.)

Jordan
  $5.463 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $7.07 billion (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $1.799 billion (2005 est.)

Korea, South
  $210.4 billion (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $8.972 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $612.3 million (2005 est.)

Laos
  $249 million (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $2.361 billion (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $16.62 billion (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $573 million (2005 est.)

Libya
  $39.7 billion (2005 est.)

Lithuania
  $3.815 billion (2005)

Luxembourg
  $279.1 million (2005 est.)

Macedonia
  $1.341 billion (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $572 million (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $151 million (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $70.23 billion (2005 est.)

Malta
  $2.579 billion (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $1.366 billion (2005 est.)

Mexico
  $74.1 billion (2005 est.)

Moldova
  $597.5 million (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  NA

Morocco
  $16.47 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $1.051 billion (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $312.1 million (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $20.54 billion (2005 est.)

New Zealand
  $8.893 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $727.8 million (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $28.28 billion (2005 est.)

Norway
  $46.99 billion (2005 est.)

Oman
  $4.358 billion (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $10.95 billion (2005 est.)

Panama
  $1.211 billion (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $748.8 million (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $1.297 billion (2005 est.)

Peru
  $14.18 billion (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $18.5 billion (2005 est.)

Poland
  $42.56 billion (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $10.36 billion (2005 est.)

Qatar
  $4.552 billion (2005 est.)

Romania
  $21.6 billion (2005 est.)

Russia
  $182.2 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $357 million (2005 est.)

Samoa
  $70.15 million

Sao Tome and Principe
  $20 million (2005 est.)

Saudi Arabia
  $26.76 billion (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $1.191 billion (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $5.35 billion

Seychelles
  $41 million (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $115.8 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $14.97 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $8.16 billion (2005 est.)

South Africa
  $20.63 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $17.23 billion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $2.737 billion (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $2.45 billion (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  $311 million (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $22.33 billion (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $57.64 billion (2005 est.)

Syria
  $5.363 billion (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $258 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $186.8 million (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $2.074 billion (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $52.07 billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  $318 million (2005 est.)

Tonga
  $40.83 million

Trinidad and Tobago
  $4.888 billion (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $4.375 billion (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $52.49 billion (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $2.963 billion (2005 est.)

Uganda
  $1.286 billion (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $19.39 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $23.53 billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $48.66 billion (2005 est.)

United States
  $86.94 billion (2004 est.)

Uruguay
  $3.079 billion (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $2.681 billion (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $40.54 million

Venezuela
  $29.64 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $8.863 billion (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $6.143 billion (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $559.8 million (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $160 million (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2193  Major infectious diseases


Afghanistan
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk countrywide below 2,000
  meters from March through November
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Algeria
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: cutaneous leishmaniasis is a high risk in some
  locations (2005)

Angola
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping
  sickness) are high risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Bangladesh
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Benin
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, yellow fever, and others are high
  risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Botswana
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Burkina Faso
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Burma
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Burundi
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Cambodia
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese
  encephalitis are high risks in some locations
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US citizens who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Cameroon
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Central African Republic
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Chad
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, plague, and African trypanosomiasis
  (sleeping sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, yellow fever, and others are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact: schistosomiasis (2005)

Djibouti
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Equatorial Guinea
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Eritrea
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations (2005)

Ethiopia
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and hepatitis E
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis are high
  risks in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Gabon
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Gambia, The
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Crimean-Congo
  hemorrhagic fever, yellow fever are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Ghana
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Guinea
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Guinea-Bissau
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

India
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and Japanese
  encephalitis are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Indonesia
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and chikungunya are
  high risks in some locations
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US citizens who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Kenya
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Liberia
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Libya
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through October)
  (2005)

Madagascar
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Malawi
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Malaysia
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Mali
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Mauritania
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and Rift Valley fever are high risks
  in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Morocco
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Mozambique
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Namibia
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Niger
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria is a high risk in some locations
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Nigeria
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: one of the most highly
  endemic areas for Lassa fever (2005)

Pakistan
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E,
  and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, and cutaneous
  leishmaniasis are high risks depending on location
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Papua New Guinea
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations (2005)

Philippines
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in
  some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Rwanda
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Sao Tome and Principe
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne disease: malaria (2005)

Senegal
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever,
  Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Rift Valley fever are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Sierra Leone
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  aerosolized dust or soil contact disease: Lassa fever (2005)

Somalia
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and dengue fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  animal contact disease: rabies (2005)

Sudan
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, African trypanosomiasis
  (sleeping sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Tanzania
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria, Rift Valley fever and plague are high
  risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Thailand
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis,
  and plague are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US personnel who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Togo
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and yellow fever are high risks in
  some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis
  respiratory disease: meningococcal meningitis (2005)

Tunisia
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea and hepatitis A
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Uganda
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and African trypanosomiasis (sleeping
  sickness) are high risks in some locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Vietnam
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis,
  and plague are high risks in some locations
  animal contact disease: rabies
  water contact disease: leptospirosis
  note: at present, H5N1 avian influenza poses a minimal risk; during
  outbreaks among birds, rare cases could occur among US personnel who
  have close contact with infected birds or poultry (2005)

Western Sahara
  degree of risk: intermediate
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea,
  hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: may be a significant risk in some locations
  during the transmission season (typically April through November)
  (2005)

Zambia
  degree of risk: very high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid fever
  vectorborne diseases: malaria and plague are high risks in some
  locations
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

Zimbabwe
  degree of risk: high
  food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and
  typhoid
  vectorborne disease: malaria
  water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2194  Refugees and internally displaced persons


Afghanistan
  IDPs: 200,000-300,000 (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis
  displaced in south and west due to drought and instability) (2005)

Algeria
  refugees (country of origin): 102,000 (Western Saharan
  Sahrawi, mostly living in Algerian-sponsored camps in the
  southwestern Algerian town of Tindouf)
  IDPs: 400,000-600,000 (conflict between government forces, Islamic
  insurgents) (2005)

Angola
  refugees (country of origin): 13,510 (Democratic Republic of
  Congo)
  IDPs: 40,000-60,000 (27-year civil war ending in 2002; 4 million
  IDPs already have returned) (2005)

Armenia
  refugees (country of origin): 235,101 (Azerbaijan)
  IDPs: 50,000 (conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh) (2005)

Azerbaijan
  refugees (country of origin): 8,367 (Russia)
  IDPs: 528,000 (conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh) (2005)

Bangladesh
  refugees (country of origin): 20,402 (Burma)
  IDPs: 61,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2005)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  refugees (country of origin): 19,213 (Croatia)
  IDPs: 309,200 (Bosnian Croats, Serbs, and Muslims displaced in
  1992-95 war) (2005)

Burma
  IDPs: 550,000-1,000,000 (government offensives against ethnic
  insurgent groups near borders; most IDPs are ethnic Karen, Karenni,
  Shan, Tavoyan, and Mon) (2005)

Burundi
  refugees (country of origin): 48,424 (Democratic Republic of
  the Congo)
  IDPs: 145,000 (armed conflict between government and rebels; most
  IDPs in northern and western Burundi) (2005)

Cameroon
  refugees (country of origin): 39,290 (Chad) 16,686
  (Nigeria) 9,634 (Cote d'Ivoire) (2005)

Central African Republic
  refugees (country of origin): 19,470
  (Sudan) 1,864 (Chad) 6,484 (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  IDPs: 200,000 (unrest following coup in 2003) (2005)

Chad
  refugees (country of origin): 224,924 (Sudan), 29,683 (Central
  African Republic) (2005)

China
  refugees (country of origin): 299,287 (Vietnam) estimated
  30,000-50,000 (North Korea) (2005)

Colombia
  IDPs: 2,900,000 - 3,400,000 (conflict between government
  and FARC; drug wars) (2004)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  refugees (country of origin):
  5,277 (Republic of Congo) 11,816 (Rwanda) 18,953 (Uganda) 19,400
  (Burundi) 45,226 (Sudan) 98,383 (Angola)
  IDPs: 2.33 million (fighting between government forces and rebels
  since mid-1990s; most IDPs are in eastern provinces) (2005)

Congo, Republic of the
  refugees (country of origin): 53,834
  (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  IDPs: 60,000 (multiple civil wars since 1992; most IDPs are ethnic
  Lari) (2005)

Costa Rica
  refugees (country of origin): 8,266 (Colombia) (2005)

Cote d'Ivoire
  refugees (country of origin): 70,402 (Liberia)
  IDPs: 500,000-800,000 (2002 coup; most IDPs are in western regions)
  (2005)

Croatia
  IDPs: 12,600 (Croats and Serbs displaced in 1992-95 war)
  (2005)

Cyprus
  IDPs: 265,000 (both Turkish and Greek Cypriots; many
  displaced for over 30 years) (2005)

Djibouti
  refugees (country of origin): 17,331 (Somalia) (2005)

Ecuador
  refugees (country of origin): 8,270 (Colombia) (2005)

Egypt
  refugees (country of origin): 70,245 (Palestinian Territories)
  14,904 (Sudan) (2005)

Eritrea
  IDPs: 59,000 (border war with Ethiopia from 1998-2000; most
  IDPs are near the central border region) (2005)

Ethiopia
  refugees (country of origin): 90,451 (Sudan) 16,470
  (Somalia) 8,719 (Eritrea)
  IDPs: 132,000 (border war with Eritrea from 1998-2000 and ethnic
  clashes in Gambela; most IDPs are in Tigray and Gambela Provinces)
  (2005)

Gaza Strip
  refugees (country of origin): 986,034 (Palestinian
  Refugees (UNRWA)) (2005)

Georgia
  IDPs: 260,000 (displaced from Abkhazia and South Ossetia)
  (2005)

Ghana
  refugees (country of origin): 40,853 (Liberia) (2005)

Guatemala
  IDPs: 250,000 (government's scorched-earth offensive in
  1980s against indigenous people) 30,000 (Hurricane "Stan" October
  2005) (2005)

Guinea
  refugees (country of origin): 127,256 (Liberia) 7,165 (Sierra
  Leone) 7,064 (Cote d'Ivoire)
  IDPs: 82,000 (cross-border incursions from Liberia, Sierra Leone,
  Cote d'Ivoire) (2005)

India
  refugees (country of origin): 92,394 (Tibet/China) 57,274 (Sri
  Lanka) 9,761 (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: 600,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunami); 500,000
  (Jammu and Kashmir conflicts; most IDPs are Kashmiri Hindus) (2005)

Indonesia
  IDPs: 570,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunami)
  500,000 (government offensives against rebels in Aceh; most IDPs in
  Aceh, Central Kalimantan, Maluku, and Central Sulawesi Provinces);
  (2005)

Iran
  refugees (country of origin): 952,802 (Afghanistan) 93,173
  (Iraq) (2005)

Iraq
  refugees (country of origin): 22,711 (Palestinian Territories)
  IDPs: 1 million (ongoing US-led war and Kurds' subsequent return)
  (2005)

Israel
  IDPs: 276,000 (Arab villagers displaced from homes in
  northern Israel) (2005)

Jordan
  refugees (country of origin): 1,827,877 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA))
  IDPs: 168,000 (1967 Arab-Israeli War) (2005)

Kazakhstan
  refugees (country of origin): 13,684 (Russia) (2005)

Kenya
  refugees (country of origin): 153,627 (Somalia) 12,595
  (Ethiopia) 67,556 (Sudan)
  IDPs: 360,000 (KANU attacks on opposition tribal groups in 1990s)
  (2005)

Korea, North
  IDPs: 50,000-250,000 (government repression and famine)
  (2005)

Lebanon
  refugees (country of origin): 404,170 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA))
  IDPs: 300,000 (1975-90 civil war, Israeli invasions) (2005)

Liberia
  refugees (country of origin): 13,941 (Sierra Leone) 12,408
  (Cote d'Ivoire)
  IDPs: 464,000 (civil war from 1990-2004; IDP resettlement began in
  November 2004) (2005)

Macedonia
  IDPs: 2,678 (ethnic conflict in 2001) (2005)

Malaysia
  refugees (country of origin): 15,181 (Indonesia) 9,601
  (Burma) (2005)

Maldives
  IDPs: 11,000 (December 2004 tsunami victims) (2005)

Mali
  refugees (country of origin): 6,185 (Mauritania) (2005)

Mexico
  IDPs: 12,000 (government's quashing of Zapatista uprising in
  1994 in eastern Chiapas Region) (2005)

Moldova
  IDPs: 1,000 (internal secessionist uprising in Transnistrian
  region in 1991) (2005)

Namibia
  refugees (country of origin): 12,618 (Angola) (2005)

Nepal
  refugees (country of origin): 104,915 (Bhutan)
  IDPs: 100,000-200,000 (ongoing conflict between government forces
  and Maoist rebels; displacement spread across the country) (2005)

Nigeria
  IDPs: 200,000 - 250,000 (communal violence between
  Christians and Muslims since President OBASANJO's election in 1999)
  (2005)

Pakistan
  refugees (country of origin): 960,041 (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: undetermined (government strikes on Islamic militants in South
  Waziristan); 3 million (October 2005 earthquake) (2005)

Peru
  IDPs: 60,000 (civil war from 1980-2000; most IDPs are
  indigenous peasants in Andean and Amazonian regions) (2005)

Philippines
  IDPs: 150,000 (fighting between government troops and
  MILF and Abu Sayyaf groups) (2005)

Russia
  IDPs: 339,000 (displacement from Chechnya and North Ossetia)
  (2005)

Rwanda
  refugees (country of origin): 45,460 (Democratic Republic of
  the Congo)
  IDPs: 4,158 (incursions by Hutu rebels from Democratic Republic of
  the Congo, 1997-99; most IDPs in northwest) (2005)

Saudi Arabia
  refugees (country of origin): 240,000 (Palestinian
  Territories) (2005)

Senegal
  refugees (country of origin): 19,778 (Mauritania)
  IDPs: 17,000 (clashes between government troops and separatists in
  Casamance region) (2005)

Serbia
  refugees (country of origin): 180,117 (Croatia); 95,297
  (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  IDPs: 225,000 - 251,000 (mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma who fled
  Kosovo in 1999) (2005)

Sierra Leone
  refugees (country of origin): 65,433 (Liberia) (2005)

Somalia
  IDPs: 400,000 (civil war since 1988, clan-based competition
  for resources) 5,000 (26 December 2004 tsunami) (2005)

South Africa
  refugees (country of origin): 5,774 (Angola) 9,516
  (Democratic Republic of Congo) 7,118 (Somalia) (2005)

Sri Lanka
  IDPs: 353,000 (both Tamils and non-Tamils displaced due to
  Tamil conflict); 450,000 (resulting from 2004 tsunami) (2005)

Sudan
  refugees (country of origin): 110,927 (Eritrea) 5,023 (Chad)
  7,983 (Uganda) 14,812 (Ethiopia)
  IDPs: 5,300,000 - 6,200,000 (internal conflict since 1980s; ongoing
  genocide) (2005)

Syria
  refugees (country of origin): 432,048 (Palestinian Refugees
  (UNRWA)) 14,391 (Iraq)
  IDPs: 170,000 (most displaced from Golan Heights during 1967
  Arab-Israeli War) (2005)

Tanzania
  refugees (country of origin): 443,706 (Burundi) 153,474
  (Democratic Republic of the Congo) 3,036 (Somalia) (2005)

Thailand
  refugees (country of origin): 120,814 (Burma)
  IDPs: 6,000 (26 December 2004 tsunami) (2005)

Turkey
  IDPs: 350,000-1,000,000 (fighting from 1984-99 between
  Kurdish PKK and Turkish military; most IDPs in southeastern
  provinces) (2005)

Turkmenistan
  refugees (country of origin): 12,085 (Tajikistan) (2005)

Uganda
  refugees (country of origin): 214,673 (Sudan) 18,902 (Rwanda)
  14,982 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  IDPs: 1,330,000-2,000,000 note - ongoing Lord's Resistance Army
  (LRA) rebellion, mainly in the north; LRA frequently attacks IDP
  camps (2005)

United States
  refugees (country of origin): the US admitted 52,868
  refugees during FY03/04 including: 13,331 (Somalia), 6,000 (Laos),
  3,482 (Ukraine), 2,959 (Cuba), 1,787 (Iran); note - 32,229 refugees
  had been admitted as of 30 June 2005

Uzbekistan
  refugees (country of origin): 39,202 (Tajikistan) 5,238
  (Afghanistan)
  IDPs: 3,000 (forced population transfers by government from villages
  near Tajikistan border) (2005)

West Bank
  refugees (country of origin): 699,817 (Palestinian
  Refugees (UNRWA)) (2005)

World
  the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  estimated that in December 2004 there was a global population of 9.2
  million refugees, the lowest number in 25 years, and as many as 25
  million IDPs in over 49 countries (2005)

Yemen
  refugees (country of origin): 63,511 (Somalia) (2005)

Zambia
  refugees (country of origin): 88,842 (Angola) 66,248
  (Democratic Republic of the Congo) 5,791 (Rwanda) (2005)

Zimbabwe
  IDPs: 400,000-450,000 (MUGABE-led political violence, human
  rights violations, land reform, and economic collapse) (2005)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2195  GDP (official exchange rate)


Afghanistan
  $7.095 billion

Albania
  $8.657 billion (2005 est.)

Algeria
  $85.31 billion (2005 est.)

American Samoa
  $333.8 million

Andorra
  NA

Angola
  $24.35 billion (2005 est.)

Anguilla
  $108.9 million

Antigua and Barbuda
  $905 million

Argentina
  $182 billion (2005 est.)

Armenia
  $4.868 billion (2005 est.)

Aruba
  $2.258 billion

Australia
  $612.8 billion (2005 est.)

Austria
  $293.4 billion (2005 est.)

Azerbaijan
  $10.4 billion (2005 est.)

Bahamas, The
  $5.783 billion (2005 est.)

Bahrain
  $11.01 billion (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
  $63.56 billion (2005 est.)

Barbados
  $2.964 billion (2005 est.)

Belarus
  $26.69 billion (2005 est.)

Belgium
  $350.3 billion (2005 est.)

Belize
  $908 million (2005 est.)

Benin
  $4.34 billion (2005 est.)

Bermuda
  NA

Bhutan
  $840.5 million

Bolivia
  $9.657 billion (2005 est.)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
  $8.495 billion (2005 est.)

Botswana
  $9.046 billion (2005 est.)

Brazil
  $619.7 billion (2005 est.)

British Virgin Islands
  $839.7 million

Brunei
  $5.486 billion

Bulgaria
  $25.79 billion (2005 est.)

Burkina Faso
  $5.405 billion (2005 est.)

Burma
  $7.464 billion (2005 est.)

Burundi
  $730 million (2005 est.)

Cambodia
  $4.729 billion (2005 est.)

Cameroon
  $15.35 billion (2005 est.)

Canada
  $1.035 trillion (2005 est.)

Cape Verde
  $1.128 billion (2005 est.)

Cayman Islands
  NA

Central African Republic
  $1.462 billion (2005 est.)

Chad
  $4.799 billion (2005 est.)

Chile
  $115.6 billion (2005 est.)

China
  $2.225 trillion (2005 est.)

Colombia
  $97.73 billion (2005 est.)

Comoros
  $402 million (2005 est.)

Congo, Democratic Republic of the
  $7.328 billion (2005 est.)

Congo, Republic of the
  $4.694 billion (2005 est.)

Cook Islands
  $183.2 million

Costa Rica
  $19.38 billion (2005 est.)

Cote d'Ivoire
  $16.57 billion (2005 est.)

Croatia
  $34.94 billion (2005 est.)

Cuba
  $39.51 billion

Cyprus
  Republic of Cyprus: $15.4 billion (2005 est.)

Czech Republic
  $109.4 billion (2005 est.)

Denmark
  $243.4 billion (2005 est.)

Djibouti
  $702 million

Dominica
  $279 million

Dominican Republic
  $18.15 billion (2005 est.)

East Timor
  $349 million

Ecuador
  $30.7 billion (2005 est.)

Egypt
  $92.6 billion (2005 est.)

El Salvador
  $16.52 billion (2005 est.)

Equatorial Guinea
  $7.644 billion (2005 est.)

Eritrea
  $1.244 billion (2005 est.)

Estonia
  $12.19 billion (2005 est.)

Ethiopia
  $8.819 billion (2005 est.)

European Union
  $13.31 trillion (2005 est.)

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
  NA

Faroe Islands
  NA

Fiji
  $2.81 billion (2005 est.)

Finland
  $184.2 billion (2005 est.)

France
  $2.055 trillion (2005 est.)

French Guiana
  NA

French Polynesia
  NA

Gabon
  $6.697 billion (2005 est.)

Gambia, The
  $429 million (2005 est.)

Gaza Strip
  NA

Georgia
  $6.4 billion (2005 est.)

Germany
  $2.73 trillion (2005 est.)

Ghana
  $9.413 billion (2005 est.)

Gibraltar
  NA

Greece
  $209.7 billion (2005 est.)

Greenland
  NA

Grenada
  $454 million

Guadeloupe
  NA

Guam
  $2.773 billion

Guatemala
  $26.98 billion (2005 est.)

Guernsey
  NA

Guinea
  $3.576 billion (2005 est.)

Guinea-Bissau
  $280 million (2005 est.)

Guyana
  $782 million (2005 est.)

Haiti
  $4.321 billion (2005 est.)

Honduras
  $7.812 billion (2005 est.)

Hong Kong
  $172.6 billion (2005 est.)

Hungary
  $106.4 billion (2005 est.)

Iceland
  $13.05 billion (2005 est.)

India
  $719.8 billion (2005 est.)

Indonesia
  $270 billion (2005 est.)

Iran
  $181.2 billion (2005 est.)

Iraq
  $46.5 billion (2005 est.)

Ireland
  $188.4 billion (2005 est.)

Isle of Man
  $2.26 billion

Israel
  $114.3 billion (2005 est.)

Italy
  $1.71 trillion (2005 est.)

Jamaica
  $9.127 billion (2005 est.)

Japan
  $4.664 trillion (2005 est.)

Jersey
  NA

Jordan
  $11.51 billion (2005 est.)

Kazakhstan
  $47.39 billion (2005 est.)

Kenya
  $16.11 billion (2005 est.)

Kiribati
  $76.4 million

Korea, North
  NA

Korea, South
  $801.2 billion (2005 est.)

Kuwait
  $52.76 billion (2005 est.)

Kyrgyzstan
  $2.144 billion (2005 est.)

Laos
  $2.523 billion (2005 est.)

Latvia
  $14.43 billion (2005 est.)

Lebanon
  $20.7 billion (2005 est.)

Lesotho
  $1.362 billion (2005 est.)

Liberia
  $902.9 million

Libya
  $31.49 billion (2005 est.)

Liechtenstein
  $2.487 billion

Lithuania
  $23.5 billion (2005 est.)

Luxembourg
  $31.76 billion (2005 est.)

Macau
  $10.05 billion (2004)

Macedonia
  $5.304 billion (2005 est.)

Madagascar
  $4.719 billion (2005 est.)

Malawi
  $1.984 billion (2005 est.)

Malaysia
  $122 billion (2005 est.)

Maldives
  $817 million

Mali
  $5.434 billion (2005 est.)

Malta
  $5.193 billion (2005 est.)

Marshall Islands
  $144 million

Martinique
  NA

Mauritania
  $1.346 billion (2005 est.)

Mauritius
  $6.681 billion (2005 est.)

Mayotte
  NA

Mexico
  $693 billion (2005 est.)

Micronesia, Federated States of
  $232 million

Moldova
  $2.416 billion (2005 est.)

Monaco
  NA

Mongolia
  $1.4 billion (2005 est.)

Montenegro
  $1.125 billion (2005 est.)

Montserrat
  NA

Morocco
  $51.94 billion (2005 est.)

Mozambique
  $5.727 billion (2005 est.)

Namibia
  $4.976 billion (2005 est.)

Nauru
  NA

Nepal
  $6.655 billion (2005 est.)

Netherlands
  $581.3 billion (2005 est.)

Netherlands Antilles
  NA

New Caledonia
  NA

New Zealand
  $94.6 billion (2005 est.)

Nicaragua
  $5.03 billion (2005 est.)

Niger
  $3.432 billion (2005 est.)

Nigeria
  $77.33 billion (2005 est.)

Niue
  $10.01 million

Northern Mariana Islands
  $633.4 million

Norway
  $246.9 billion (2005 est.)

Oman
  $24.98 billion (2005 est.)

Pakistan
  $89.55 billion (2005 est.)

Palau
  $145 million

Panama
  $14.89 billion (2005 est.)

Papua New Guinea
  $3.924 billion (2005 est.)

Paraguay
  $7.281 billion (2005 est.)

Peru
  $69.81 billion (2005 est.)

Philippines
  $91.36 billion (2005 est.)

Poland
  $246.2 billion (2005 est.)

Portugal
  $170.3 billion (2005 est.)

Puerto Rico
  NA

Qatar
  $28.07 billion (2005 est.)

Reunion
  NA

Romania
  $72.7 billion (2005 est.)

Russia
  $740.7 billion (2005 est.)

Rwanda
  $1.817 billion (2005 est.)

Saint Helena
  NA

Saint Kitts and Nevis
  $453 million

Saint Lucia
  $825 million

Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  NA

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  $428 million

Samoa
  $399 million

San Marino
  $880 million

Sao Tome and Principe
  $71.38 million

Saudi Arabia
  $264 billion (2005 est.)

Senegal
  $7.972 billion (2005 est.)

Serbia
  $19.19 billion for Serbia alone (excluding Kosovo) (2005 est.)

Seychelles
  $722 million (2005 est.)

Sierra Leone
  $1.128 billion (2005 est.)

Singapore
  $110.6 billion (2005 est.)

Slovakia
  $43.07 billion (2005 est.)

Slovenia
  $35.21 billion (2005 est.)

Solomon Islands
  $286 million

Somalia
  $2.483 billion

South Africa
  $187.3 billion (2005 est.)

Spain
  $1.019 trillion (2005 est.)

Sri Lanka
  $21.62 billion (2005 est.)

Sudan
  $22.75 billion (2005 est.)

Suriname
  $1.3 billion (2005 est.)

Swaziland
  $2.117 billion (2005 est.)

Sweden
  $348.1 billion (2005 est.)

Switzerland
  $367 billion (2005 est.)

Syria
  $25.84 billion (2005 est.)

Taiwan
  $323.4 billion (2005 est.)

Tajikistan
  $1.887 billion (2005 est.)

Tanzania
  $12.12 billion (2005 est.)

Thailand
  $183.9 billion (2005 est.)

Togo
  $1.999 billion (2005 est.)

Tokelau
  NA

Tonga
  $244 million

Trinidad and Tobago
  $13.02 billion (2005 est.)

Tunisia
  $30.94 billion (2005 est.)

Turkey
  $332.5 billion (2005 est.)

Turkmenistan
  $13.99 billion (2005 est.)

Turks and Caicos Islands
  NA

Tuvalu
  $14.94 million

Uganda
  $7.909 billion (2005 est.)

Ukraine
  $75.14 billion (2005 est.)

United Arab Emirates
  $98.1 billion (2005 est.)

United Kingdom
  $2.228 trillion (2005 est.)

United States
  $12.49 trillion (2005 est.)

Uruguay
  $13.24 billion (2005 est.)

Uzbekistan
  $9.86 billion (2005 est.)

Vanuatu
  $341 million

Venezuela
  $106.1 billion (2005 est.)

Vietnam
  $43.75 billion (2005 est.)

Virgin Islands
  NA

Wallis and Futuna
  NA

West Bank
  $3.45 billion

Western Sahara
  NA

World
  $43.07 trillion (2005 est.)

Yemen
  $14.34 billion (2005 est.)

Zambia
  $5.351 billion (2005 est.)

Zimbabwe
  $3.207 billion (2005 est.)

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




@2196  Trafficking in persons


Algeria
  current situation: Algeria is a transit and destination
  country for men, women, and children from sub-Saharan Africa and
  Asia trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; many
  victims willingly migrate to Algeria en route to European countries
  with the help of smugglers, where they are often forced into
  prostitution, labor, and begging to pay off their smuggling debt;
  armed militants reportedly traffic women for sexual exploitation and
  involuntary servitude, and children may be trafficked for forced
  labor as domestic servants or street vendors
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Algeria took no steps to assess the
  scope of trafficking in the country and reported no investigations
  or prosecutions for trafficking offenses this year

Argentina
  current situation: Argentina is primarily a destination
  country for women and children trafficked for sexual and labor
  exploitation with most victims trafficked internally, from rural to
  urban areas, for exploitation in prostitution; foreign women and
  children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation come
  primarily from Paraguay, but also from Bolivia, Brazil, the
  Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Chile; Bolivians are trafficked
  for forced labor; Argentine women and girls are also trafficked to
  neighboring countries for sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Argentina failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to combat trafficking particularly in the key
  area of prosecutions; government efforts to improve interagency
  anti-trafficking coordination did not achieve significant progress
  in moving cases against traffickers through the judicial system; the
  government made progress in other areas, by submitting
  anti-trafficking legislation to Congress in August 2005 and
  sensitizing provincial and municipal government officials to the
  trafficking problem

Armenia
  current situation: Armenia is a major source and, to a
  lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls
  trafficked for sexual exploitation largely to the UAE and Turkey;
  traffickers, many of them women, route victims directly into Dubai
  or through Moscow; profits derived from the trafficking of Armenian
  victims reportedly increased dramatically from 2005
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Armenia has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts, particularly in the areas of enforcement,
  trafficking-related corruption, and victim protection; the
  government increased implementation of its anti-trafficking law, but
  failed to impose significant penalties for convicted traffickers and
  failed to vigorously investigate and prosecute ongoing and
  widespread allegations of public officials' complicity in
  trafficking; victim protection efforts remain in early, formative
  stages and a lack of sensitivity for victims remains a problem,
  particularly in the judiciary

Bahrain
  current situation: Bahrain is a destination country for men
  and women from South and Southeast Asia who migrate willingly to
  work as laborers or domestic servants, but may be subjected to
  conditions of involuntary servitude when faced with exorbitant
  recruitment and transportation fees, withholding of their passports,
  restrictions on their movement, non-payment of wages, and physical
  or sexual abuse; Eastern European women are also believed to be
  trafficked to Bahrain for the purpose of commercial sexual
  exploitation or forced labor
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Bahrain's efforts to address
  trafficking in persons are based largely on pledges of future
  efforts; the government did not enact a comprehensive
  anti-trafficking law extending labor protection to domestic workers

Belize
  current situation: Belize is a source, transit, and
  destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
  purposes of labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are
  trafficked mainly from Central America, and exploited in
  prostitution; children are trafficked to Belize for labor
  exploitation; Belize's largely unmonitored borders with Guatemala,
  Honduras, and Mexico facilitate the movement of illegal migrants who
  are vulnerable to traffickers; girls are trafficked within the
  country for sexual exploitation, sometimes with the consent and
  complicity of their close relatives; there are unconfirmed reports
  that Indian and Chinese migrants are trafficked for involuntary
  servitude in homes and shops
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Belize has failed to show evidence of
  significant law enforcement or victim protection efforts

Bolivia
  current situation: Bolivia is a source and transit country
  for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of labor
  and sexual exploitation to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, as well as
  to Spain; children are trafficked internally for sexual
  exploitation, forced mining, and agricultural labor; illegal
  migrants from Asia transiting Bolivia are vulnerable as trafficking
  victims
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Bolivia has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in the areas of
  prosecutions and victim protection

Brazil
  current situation: Brazil is a source and destination country
  for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation within Brazil
  and to destinations in South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe,
  Japan, the US, and the Middle East, and for men trafficked within
  the country for forced agricultural labor; child sex tourism is a
  problem within the country, particularly in the resort areas and
  coastal cities of Brazil's northeast; foreign victims from Bolivia,
  Peru, China, and Korea are trafficked to Brazil for labor
  exploitation in factories
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Brazil has failed to show evidence
  of increasing efforts to fight trafficking, specifically for its
  failure to apply effective criminal penalties against traffickers
  who exploit forced labor

Burma
  current situation: Burma is a source country for men, women,
  and children trafficked to East and Southeast Asia for sexual
  exploitation, domestic service, and forced commercial labor; a
  significant number of victims are economic migrants who wind up in
  forced or bonded labor and forced prostitution; to a lesser extent,
  Burma is a country of transit and destination for women trafficked
  from China for sexual exploitation; internal trafficking of persons
  occurs primarily for labor in industrial zones and agricultural
  estates; internal trafficking of women and girls for sexual
  exploitation occurs from villages to urban centers and other areas;
  the military junta's economic mismanagement, human rights abuses,
  and policy of using forced labor are driving factors behind Burma's
  large trafficking problem
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Burma does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Cambodia
  current situation: Cambodia is a source, destination, and
  transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
  purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; a significant
  number of women and children are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia
  for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; men are
  trafficked primarily to Thailand for forced labor in the
  construction and agricultural sectors, particularly the fishing
  industry, while women and girls are trafficked for factory and
  domestic work; children are trafficked to Vietnam and Thailand for
  the purpose of forced begging; Cambodia is a transit and destination
  point for women from Vietnam trafficked for sexual exploitation;
  trafficking for sexual exploitation also occurs within Cambodia's
  borders, from rural areas to the cities
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Cambodia does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,
  it is committed to making significant efforts to sustain progress
  over the coming year

Central African Republic
  current situation: Central African Republic
  is a source and destination country for children trafficked for
  domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, and forced labor in shops
  and commercial labor activities; while the majority of child victims
  are trafficked within the country, some are also trafficked to and
  from Cameroon and Nigeria
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - the Central African Republic failed
  to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in
  persons during 2005, specifically its inadequate law enforcement
  response to trafficking crimes

China
  current situation: China is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women, men, and children trafficked for purposes of
  sexual exploitation and forced labor; the majority of trafficking in
  China is internal, but there is also international trafficking of
  Chinese citizens; women are lured through false promises of
  legitimate employment into commercial sexual exploitation in Taiwan,
  Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan; Chinese men and women are smuggled to
  countries throughout the world at enormous personal expense and then
  forced into commercial sexual exploitation or exploitative labor to
  repay debts to traffickers; women and children are trafficked into
  China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam for
  forced labor, marriage, and sexual slavery; most North Koreans enter
  northeastern China voluntarily, but others reportedly are trafficked
  into China from North Korea; domestic trafficking remains the most
  significant problem in China, with an estimated minimum of
  10,000-20,000 victims trafficked each year; the actual number of
  victims could be much greater; some experts believe that the serious
  and prolonged imbalance in the male-female birth ratio may now be
  contributing to Chinese and foreign girls and women being trafficked
  as potential brides
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - China failed to show evidence of
  increasing efforts to address transnational trafficking; while the
  government provides reasonable protection to internal victims of
  trafficking, protection for Chinese and foreign victims of
  transnational trafficking remain inadequate

Cuba
  current situation: Cuba is a source country for women and
  children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and
  forced child labor; Cuba is a major destination for sex tourism,
  which largely caters to European, Canadian, and Latin American
  tourists and involves large numbers of minors; there are reports
  that Cuban women have been trafficked to Mexico for sexual
  exploitation; forced labor victims also include children coerced
  into working in commercial agriculture
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Cyprus
  current situation: Cyprus is primarily a destination country
  for a large number of women trafficked from Eastern and Central
  Europe, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic for the purpose
  of sexual exploitation; traffickers continued to fraudulently
  recruit victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on
  short-term "artiste" visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment
  visas, or for illegal work on tourist or student visas; there were
  credible reports of female domestic workers from India, Sri Lanka,
  and the Philippines forced to work excessively long hours and denied
  proper compensation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Cyprus does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and failed
  to show evidence of increasing efforts to address its serious
  trafficking for sexual exploitation problem; however, it is making
  significant efforts to do so

Djibouti
  current situation: Djibouti is a source, transit, and
  destination country for women and children trafficked for the
  purposes of sexual exploitation and possibly forced labor; small
  numbers are trafficked from Ethiopia and Somalia for sexual
  exploitation; economic migrants from these countries also fall
  victim to trafficking upon reaching Djibouti City or the
  Ethiopia-Djibouti trucking corridor; women and children from
  neighboring countries reportedly transit Djibouti to Arab countries
  and Somalia for ultimate use in forced labor or sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Djibouti does not fully comply with
  the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however,
  it is making significant efforts to do so based partly on the
  government's commitments to undertake future action

Egypt
  current situation: Egypt is a transit country for women
  trafficked from Eastern Europe to Israel for the purpose of sexual
  exploitation; these women generally arrive as tourists and are
  subsequently trafficked through the Sinai Desert by Bedouin tribes;
  men and women from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are believed to be
  trafficked through the Sinai Desert to Israel and Europe for labor
  exploitation; some Egyptian children from rural areas are trafficked
  within the country to work as domestic servants or laborers in the
  agriculture industry
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Egypt is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to
  address trafficking over the past year, particularly in the area of
  law enforcement

Equatorial Guinea
  current situation: Equatorial Guinea is a transit
  and destination country for women and children trafficked for forced
  labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and commercial sexual
  exploitation from surrounding countries - primarily Benin, Nigeria,
  Mali, and Cameroon; victims work in the agricultural and commercial
  sectors of Malabo and Bata, where demand is high due to a booming
  oil sector; children work as farmhands, street vendors, or household
  servants; girls and women are also trafficked for commercial sexual
  exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Equatorial Guinea is placed on the
  Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide adequate evidence of
  concrete measures to address trafficking over the past year

India
  current situation: India is a source, destination, and transit
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
  forced or bonded labor and commercial sexual exploitation; the large
  population of men, women, and children - numbering in the millions -
  in debt bondage face involuntary servitude in brick kilns, rice
  mills, and embroidery factories, while some children endure
  involuntary servitude as domestic servants; internal trafficking of
  women and girls for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation
  and forced marriage also occurs; the government estimates that 90
  percent of India's sex trafficking is internal; India is also a
  destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked
  for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; boys from
  Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are trafficked through India
  to the Gulf states for involuntary servitude as child camel jockeys;
  Indian men and women migrate willingly to the Persian Gulf region
  for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers, but some
  later find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude
  including extended working hours, nonpayment of wages, restrictions
  on their movement by withholding of their passports or confinement
  to the home, and physical or sexual abuse
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - India has been on the Tier 2 Watch
  List since 2004 for its failure to show evidence of increasing
  efforts to address trafficking in persons

Indonesia
  current situation: Indonesia is a source, transit, and
  destination country for women, children and men trafficked for the
  purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; Indonesian victims
  are trafficked to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Hong Kong,
  Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore; a significant number of
  Indonesian women who go overseas each year to work as domestic
  servants or "cultural performers" are subjected to conditions of
  involuntary servitude and commercial sexual exploitation; to a
  minimal extent, Indonesia is a destination for women from East Asia,
  Europe, and South America who are trafficked for sexual
  exploitation; there is extensive trafficking within Indonesia from
  rural to urban metropolitan areas particularly for sexual
  exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Indonesia is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
  to combat trafficking

Iran
  current situation: Iran is a source, transit, and destination
  country for women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and involuntary servitude; according to foreign
  observers, women and girls are trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, the
  Persian Gulf, and Europe for sexual exploitation, while boys from
  Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are trafficked through Iran en
  route to Persian Gulf states where they are ultimately forced to
  work as camel jockeys, beggars, or laborers; Afghan women and girls
  are trafficked to the country for forced marriages and sexual
  exploitation; women and children are also trafficked internally for
  the purposes of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, and
  involuntary servitude
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Iran is downgraded to Tier 3 after persistent,
  credible reports of Iranian authorities punishing victims of
  trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution

Israel
  current situation: Israel is a destination country for
  low-skilled workers from Eastern Europe and Asia who migrate
  voluntarily for contract labor in the construction, agriculture, and
  health care industries, some of whom are subsequently subjected to
  conditions of involuntary servitude; many labor recruitment agencies
  in source countries and in Israel require workers to pay large
  up-front fees that often lead to debt bondage and vulnerability to
  forced labor; Israel is also a destination country for women
  trafficked from Eastern Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Israel is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
  to address trafficking, namely the conditions of involuntary
  servitude allegedly facing thousands of foreign migrant workers

Jamaica
  current situation: Jamaica is a source country for men,
  women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and labor; information suggests that women from the
  Dominican Republic and Eastern Europe are also trafficked to Jamaica
  for sexual exploitation; women and children are trafficked
  internally from rural to urban and tourist areas for sexual
  exploitation; there may also be trafficking for domestic servitude
  and forced labor
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Jamaica is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List based on the determination that it is making significant
  efforts to undertake future action

Kenya
  current situation: Kenya is a source, transit, and destination
  country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and
  sexual exploitation; children are trafficked within the country for
  domestic servitude, street vending, agricultural labor, and sexual
  exploitation; men, women, and girls are trafficked to the Middle
  East, other African nations, Western Europe, and North America for
  domestic servitude, enslavement in massage parlors and brothels, and
  manual labor; Chinese women trafficked for sexual exploitation
  reportedly transit Nairobi and Bangladeshis may transit Kenya for
  forced labor in other countries
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Kenya is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List due to a lack of evidence of increasing efforts to combat
  severe forms of trafficking

Korea, North
  current situation: North Korea is a source country for
  men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor
  and sexual exploitation; North Korea's own system of political
  repression includes forced labor in a network of prison camps where
  an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 persons are incarcerated; the
  illegal status of North Koreans in China and other countries
  increases their vulnerability to trafficking schemes and sexual and
  physical abuse; North Koreans forcibly returned from China may be
  subject to hard labor in prison camps operated by the government
  tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Kuwait
  current situation: Kuwait is a destination country for men
  and women who migrate legally from South and Southeast Asia for
  domestic or low-skilled labor, but are subjected to conditions of
  involuntary servitude by employers in Kuwait including conditions of
  physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, confinement to the
  home, and withholding of passports to restrict their freedom of
  movement; Kuwait is reportedly a transit point for South and East
  Asian workers recruited for low-skilled work in Iraq; some of these
  workers are deceived as to the true location and nature of this
  work, and others are subjected to conditions of involuntary
  servitude in Iraq; in past years, Kuwait was also a destination
  country for children exploited as camel jockeys, but this form of
  trafficking appears to have ceased
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Kuwait is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List because its efforts are based largely on pledges of
  future actions

Laos
  current situation: Laos is a source country for men and women
  trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation;
  a significant number are economic migrants who are subjected to
  commercial sexual exploitation or conditions of forced or bonded
  labor in Thailand; to a lesser extent, Laos is a transit and
  destination country for women who are trafficked for sexual
  exploitation including a small number of victims from China and
  Vietnam trafficked to work as street vendors and for sexual
  exploitation in prostitution
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Laos does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Libya
  current situation: Libya is a transit and destination country
  for men, women, and children from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
  trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; many victims
  willingly migrate to Libya en route to Europe with the help of
  smugglers, but may be forced into prostitution or work as laborers
  and beggars to pay off their $800-$1,200 smuggling debt; laborers
  from Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia are reportedly trafficked to Libya
  for the purpose of labor exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Libya is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its lack of evidence of increasing efforts to address
  trafficking since 2004

Macau
  current situation: Macau is a transit and destination
  territory for women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual
  exploitation; most females in Macau's sizeable sex industry come
  from the interior regions of China or Mongolia, though a significant
  number also come from Russia, Eastern Europe, Thailand, and Vietnam;
  the majority of women in Macau's prostitution trade appear to have
  entered Macau and the sex trade voluntarily, though there is
  evidence that some are deceived or coerced into sexual servitude,
  often through the use of debt bondage; organized criminal syndicates
  are reportedly involved in bringing women to Macau, and fear of
  reprisals from these groups may prevent some women from seeking help
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Macau is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failing to show evidence of increasing efforts to address
  trafficking since 2004

Malaysia
  current situation: Malaysia is a destination and, to a
  lesser extent, a source and transit country for men and women
  trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor;
  foreign victims, mostly women and girls from China, Indonesia,
  Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, are trafficked to Malaysia
  for commercial sexual exploitation; economic migrants from countries
  in the region who work as domestic servants or laborers in the
  construction and agricultural sectors face exploitative conditions
  in Malaysia that meet the definition of involuntary servitude; some
  Malaysian women, primarily of Chinese ethnicity, are trafficked
  abroad for sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Malaysia is placed on Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to
  combat trafficking, particularly its failure to provide protection
  for victims of trafficking

Mauritania
  current situation: Mauritania is a source and destination
  country for children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor,
  begging, and domestic servitude; adults and children are subjected
  to slavery-related practices rooted in ancestral master-slave
  relationships in isolated parts of the country where a barter
  economy exists
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mauritania is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to show evidence of increased efforts to
  combat trafficking, particularly in the area of law enforcement

Mexico
  current situation: Mexico is a source, transit, and
  destination country for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation
  and labor; while the vast majority of victims are Central Americans
  trafficked along Mexico's southern border, other source regions
  include South America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa, and
  Asia; women and children are trafficked from rural regions to urban
  centers and tourist areas for sexual exploitation, often through
  fraudulent offers of employment or through threats of physical
  violence; the Mexican trafficking problem is often conflated with
  alien smuggling, and frequently the same criminal networks are
  involved; pervasive corruption among state and local law enforcement
  often impedes investigations
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Mexico remains on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for the third consecutive year based on future commitments to
  undertake additional efforts in prosecution, protection, and
  prevention of trafficking in persons, and the failure of the
  government to provide critical law enforcement data

Oman
  current situation: Oman is a destination country for men and
  women primarily from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India who migrate
  willingly, but may subsequently become victims of trafficking when
  subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude as domestic workers
  and laborers; there have been occasional reports that expatriate
  children engaged in camel racing may transit or reside in Omani
  territory
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Oman is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List because of a lack of evidence of increasing efforts to combat
  severe forms of trafficking in persons in 2005

Peru
  current situation: Peru is primarily a source country for women
  and children trafficked internally for the purposes of sexual
  exploitation and forced domestic labor; most victims are girls and
  young women moved internally from rural to urban areas, or from city
  to city, and lured or coerced into prostitution in nightclubs, bars,
  and brothels; Peruvians have also been trafficked for sexual
  exploitation to Spain, Japan, the United States, and Venezuela; the
  government acknowledges that sex tourism occurs, particularly in the
  Amazon region of the country
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Peru is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to eliminate
  trafficking in 2005

Qatar
  current situation: Qatar is a destination country for men and
  women from South and Southeast Asia who migrate willingly, but are
  subsequently trafficked into involuntary servitude as domestic
  workers and laborers; the problem of trafficking of foreign children
  as camel jockeys was thoroughly addressed by government action in
  2005, but independent confirmation of the problem's complete
  elimination is not yet available
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Qatar has made noticeable progress
  in rescuing and repatriating child camel jockeys, establishing a
  shelter for abused domestic workers, and creating hotlines to
  register complaints; however, Qatar is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to provide sufficient evidence of increasing
  efforts to combat trafficking in persons in 2005, particularly with
  regard to labor exploitation

Russia
  current situation: Russia is a source, transit, and
  destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
  various purposes; it remains a significant source of women
  trafficked to over 50 countries for commercial sexual exploitation;
  Russia is also a transit and destination country for men and women
  trafficked from Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and North Korea to
  Central and Western Europe and the Middle East for purposes of
  forced labor and sexual exploitation; internal trafficking remains a
  problem in Russia with women trafficked from rural areas to urban
  centers for commercial sexual exploitation, and men are trafficked
  internally and from Central Asia for forced labor in the
  construction and agricultural industries; debt bondage is common
  among trafficking victims, and child sex tourism remains a concern
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Russia is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for a third consecutive year for its continued failure to
  show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking,
  particularly in the area of victim protection and assistance

Saudi Arabia
  current situation: Saudi Arabia is a destination
  country for workers from South and Southeast Asia who are subjected
  to conditions that constitute involuntary servitude including being
  subjected to physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages,
  confinement, and withholding of passports as a restriction on their
  movement; domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because some
  are confined to the house in which they work, unable to seek help;
  Saudi Arabia is also a destination country for Nigerian, Yemeni,
  Pakistani, Afghan, Somali, Malian, and Sudanese children trafficked
  for forced begging and involuntary servitude as street vendors; some
  Nigerian women were reportedly trafficked into Saudi Arabia for
  commercial sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

South Africa
  current situation: South Africa is a source, transit,
  and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
  forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked
  internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for
  sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are
  trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe
  for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from
  neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and
  Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for
  debt-bonded sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is placed on the Tier
  2 Watch List for its failure to show increasing efforts to address
  trafficking in 2005

Sudan
  current situation: Sudan is a source country for men, women,
  and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; Sudan may also be a transit and destination country
  for Ethiopian women trafficked for domestic servitude; boys are
  trafficked to the Middle East, particularly Qatar and the United
  Arab Emirates, for use as camel jockeys; small numbers of girls are
  reportedly trafficked within Sudan for domestic servitude, as well
  as for commercial sexual exploitation in small brothels in
  internally displaced persons (IDP) camps; the terrorist rebel
  organization "Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) continues to abduct and
  forcibly conscript small numbers of children in Southern Sudan for
  use as cooks, porters, and combatants in its ongoing war against
  Uganda; some of these children are then trafficked across borders
  into Uganda or possibly the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
  children are utilized by rebel groups and the Sudanese Armed Forces
  and associated militias in the ongoing conflict in Darfur; during
  the decades of civil war, thousands of Dinka women and children were
  enslaved by members of Baggara tribes and subjected to various forms
  of forced labor without remuneration, as well as physical and sexual
  abuse; with the cessation of the North-South conflict and the
  ongoing peace process, there were no known new abductions of Dinka
  by Baggara tribes during 2005; however, inter-tribal abductions of a
  different nature continue in Southern Sudan and warrant further
  investigation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Sudan does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Syria
  current situation: Syria is a destination country for women
  from South and Southeast Asia and Africa for domestic servitude and
  from Eastern Europe and Iraq for sexual exploitation; women are
  recruited for work in Syria as domestic servants, but some face
  conditions of exploitation and involuntary servitude including long
  hours, non-payment of wages, withholding of passports and other
  restrictions on movement, and physical and sexual abuse; Eastern
  European women recruited for work in Syria as cabaret dancers are
  not permitted to leave their work premises without permission and
  have their passports withheld; some displaced Iraqi women and
  children are reportedly forced into sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Syria does not fully comply with the minimum
  standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making
  significant efforts to do so

Taiwan
  current situation: Taiwan is primarily a destination for men,
  women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual
  exploitation; women from China and Southeast Asian countries are
  trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor; women and
  children, primarily from Vietnam, are trafficked through the use of
  fraudulent marriages, deceptive employment offers, and illegal
  smuggling for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; a
  significant share of foreign workers - primarily from Vietnam,
  Thailand, and the Philippines - are recruited legally for
  low-skilled jobs, and are subjected to forced labor or involuntary
  servitude by labor agencies or employers upon arrival in Taiwan; to
  a much lesser extent, there is internal trafficking of children for
  sexual exploitation and trafficking of a small and declining number
  of Taiwanese women to Japan for commercial sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Taiwan is placed on the Tier 2
  Watch List for its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts
  over the past year to address trafficking, despite ample resources
  to do so, particularly the serious level of forced labor and sexual
  servitude among legally migrating Southeast Asian contract workers
  and brides

Togo
  current situation: Togo is a source, transit, and destination
  country for children, women, and men trafficked for forced labor and
  sexual exploitation; the majority of victims are children, and
  trafficking within the country is more prevalent than international
  trafficking; children are trafficked to work as domestic servants,
  produce porters, roadside sellers, agricultural laborers, and for
  sexual exploitation; Togolese women may be trafficked to Europe for
  forced labor and sexual exploitation
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Togo is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for failure to show evidence of increased efforts to combat
  trafficking over the past year, particularly in the areas of
  prosecution and protection

United Arab Emirates
  current situation: the United Arab Emirates is
  a destination country for men, women, and children trafficked from
  South and East Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for
  involuntary servitude and for sexual exploitation; an estimated
  10,000 women from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and East
  Asia, Iraq, Iran, and Morocco may be victims of sex trafficking in
  the UAE; women also migrate from Africa, and South and Southeast
  Asia to work as domestic servants, but may have their passports
  confiscated, be denied permission to leave the place of employment
  in the home, or face sexual or physical abuse by their employers;
  men from South Asia come to the UAE to work in the construction
  industry, but may be subjected to conditions of involuntary
  servitude as they are coerced to pay off recruitment and travel
  costs, sometimes having their wages denied for months at a time;
  victims of child camel jockey trafficking may still remain in the
  UAE, despite a July 2005 law banning the practice; while all
  identified victims were repatriated at the government's expense to
  their home countries, questions persist as to the effectiveness of
  the ban and the true number of victims
  tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - UAE is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
  List for its failure to show increased efforts to combat trafficking
  in 2005, particularly in its efforts to address the large-scale
  trafficking of foreign girls and women for commercial sexual
  exploitation

Uzbekistan
  current situation: Uzbekistan is a source and, to a
  lesser extent, a transit country for women trafficked to Asia and
  the Middle East for the purpose of sexual exploitation; women from
  other Central Asian countries and China are trafficked through
  Uzbekistan; men are trafficked for purposes of forced labor in the
  construction and agricultural industries to Ukraine, Russia,
  Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan; men and women are also trafficked within
  the country
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Uzbekistan is placed on Tier 3 because it
  failed to fulfill commitments by the country to take additional
  steps during 2005, including the adoption of comprehensive
  anti-trafficking legislation, criminal code amendments to raise
  trafficking penalties, support to the country's first trafficking
  shelter, and approval of a national action plan

Venezuela
  current situation: Venezuela is a source, transit, and
  destination country for women and children trafficked for the
  purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor; women and children
  from Colombia, China, Peru, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic are
  trafficked to and through Venezuela and subjected to commercial
  sexual exploitation or forced labor; Venezuelans are trafficked
  internally and to Western Europe, particularly Spain and the
  Netherlands, and to countries in the Caribbean region for commercial
  sexual exploitation; Venezuela is a transit country for illegal
  migrants from other countries in the region and for Asian nationals,
  some are believed to be trafficking victims
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Venezuela does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

World
  current situation: about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly
  women and children, are trafficked annually across national borders,
  not including millions trafficked within their own countries; at
  least 80% of the victims are female; 75% of all victims are
  trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation; roughly two-thirds
  of the global victims are trafficked intra-regionally within East
  Asia and the Pacific (260,000 to 280,000 people) and Europe and
  Eurasia (170,000 to 210,000 people)

Zimbabwe
  current situation: Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and
  destination country for women and children trafficked for forced
  labor and sexual exploitation; children may be trafficked internally
  for forced agricultural labor, domestic servitude, and sexual
  exploitation; women and girls are lured out of the country to South
  Africa, China, Egypt, and Zambia with false job or scholarship
  promises that result in domestic servitude or commercial sexual
  exploitation; there are reports of South African employers demanding
  sex from undocumented Zimbabwean workers under threat of
  deportation; women and children from Malawi, Zambia, and the
  Democratic Republic of the Congo transit Zimbabwe en route to South
  Africa; small numbers of South African girls are trafficked to
  Zimbabwe for domestic labor
  tier rating: Tier 3 - Zimbabwe does not fully comply with the
  minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not
  making significant efforts to do so

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



======================================================================




Rank code: @2001

Rank   Country                           GDP (purchasing power parity)  Date of Information

1      World                             $   60,630,000,000,000  2005 est.
2      United States                     $   12,310,000,000,000  2005 est.
3      European Union                    $   12,180,000,000,000  2005 est.
4      China                             $    8,883,000,000,000  2005 est.
5      Japan                             $    4,025,000,000,000  2005 est.
6      India                             $    3,666,000,000,000  2005 est.
7      Germany                           $    2,480,000,000,000  2005 est.
8      United Kingdom                    $    1,818,000,000,000  2005 est.
9      France                            $    1,794,000,000,000  2005 est.
10     Italy                             $    1,667,000,000,000  2005 est.
11     Russia                            $    1,584,000,000,000  2005 est.
12     Brazil                            $    1,536,000,000,000  2005 est.
13     Canada                            $    1,111,000,000,000  2005 est.
14     Korea, South                      $    1,101,000,000,000  2005 est.
15     Mexico                            $    1,064,000,000,000  2005 est.
16     Spain                             $    1,033,000,000,000  2005 est.
17     Indonesia                         $     869,700,000,000  2005 est.
18     Australia                         $     635,500,000,000  2005 est.
19     Taiwan                            $     630,000,000,000  2005 est.
20     Turkey                            $     584,500,000,000  2005 est.
21     Iran                              $     569,900,000,000  2005 est.
22     Thailand                          $     550,200,000,000  2005 est.
23     Argentina                         $     543,400,000,000  2005 est.
24     South Africa                      $     540,800,000,000  2005 est.
25     Poland                            $     505,200,000,000  2005 est.
26     Netherlands                       $     497,900,000,000  2005 est.
27     Philippines                       $     412,500,000,000  2005 est.
28     Pakistan                          $     395,200,000,000  2005 est.
29     Saudi Arabia                      $     346,300,000,000  2005 est.
30     Colombia                          $     341,100,000,000  2005 est.
31     Ukraine                           $     329,100,000,000  2005 est.
32     Belgium                           $     322,300,000,000  2005 est.
33     Bangladesh                        $     305,900,000,000  2005 est.
34     Egypt                             $     304,300,000,000  2005 est.
35     Malaysia                          $     287,000,000,000  2005 est.
36     Sweden                            $     268,300,000,000  2005 est.
37     Austria                           $     265,800,000,000  2005 est.
38     Switzerland                       $     240,900,000,000  2005 est.
39     Greece                            $     238,200,000,000  2005 est.
40     Algeria                           $     235,500,000,000  2005 est.
41     Vietnam                           $     235,200,000,000  2005 est.
42     Hong Kong                         $     234,300,000,000  2005 est.
43     Czech Republic                    $     204,400,000,000  2005 est.
44     Portugal                          $     200,600,000,000  2005 est.
45     Norway                            $     196,400,000,000  2005 est.
46     Chile                             $     189,900,000,000  2005 est.
47     Denmark                           $     189,300,000,000  2005 est.
48     Romania                           $     181,800,000,000  2005 est.
49     Nigeria                           $     175,500,000,000  2005 est.
50     Peru                              $     167,300,000,000  2005 est.
51     Ireland                           $     165,100,000,000  2005 est.
52     Hungary                           $     163,100,000,000  2005 est.
53     Venezuela                         $     162,100,000,000  2005 est.
54     Finland                           $     161,900,000,000  2005 est.
55     Israel                            $     156,900,000,000  2005 est.
56     Morocco                           $     135,100,000,000  2005 est.
57     Singapore                         $     126,500,000,000  2005 est.
58     Kazakhstan                        $     125,300,000,000  2005 est.
59     United Arab Emirates              $     115,800,000,000  2005 est.
60     New Zealand                       $     102,000,000,000  2005 est.
61     Iraq                              $      94,100,000,000  2005 est.
62     Slovakia                          $      88,780,000,000  2005 est.
63     Sri Lanka                         $      86,070,000,000  2005 est.
64     Sudan                             $      85,890,000,000  2005 est.
65     Tunisia                           $      82,850,000,000  2005 est.
66     Burma                             $      80,110,000,000  2005 est.
67     Puerto Rico                       $      73,270,000,000  2005 est.
68     Belarus                           $      73,090,000,000  2005 est.
69     Bulgaria                          $      71,670,000,000  2005 est.
70     Syria                             $      71,420,000,000  2005 est.
71     Libya                             $      68,000,000,000  2005 est.
72     Dominican Republic                $      67,440,000,000  2005 est.
73     Ethiopia                          $      64,730,000,000  2005 est.
74     Ecuador                           $      57,230,000,000  2005 est.
75     Guatemala                         $      56,860,000,000  2005 est.
76     Croatia                           $      55,790,000,000  2005 est.
77     Ghana                             $      54,860,000,000  2005 est.
78     Uzbekistan                        $      50,310,000,000  2005 est.
79     Lithuania                         $      49,410,000,000  2005 est.
80     Uganda                            $      47,760,000,000  2005 est.
81     Kuwait                            $      47,360,000,000  2005 est.
82     Costa Rica                        $      45,670,000,000  2005 est.
83     Angola                            $      45,320,000,000  2005 est.
84     Slovenia                          $      43,270,000,000  2005 est.
85     Azerbaijan                        $      42,990,000,000  2005 est.
86     Serbia                            $      41,150,000,000  2005 est.
87     Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $      40,670,000,000  2005 est.
88     Oman                              $      40,390,000,000  2005 est.
89     Cuba                              $      40,060,000,000  2005 est.
90     Korea, North                      $      40,000,000,000  2005 est.
91     Cameroon                          $      39,750,000,000  2005 est.
92     Nepal                             $      39,140,000,000  2005 est.
93     Turkmenistan                      $      39,140,000,000  2005 est.
94     Kenya                             $      37,890,000,000  2005 est.
95     Cambodia                          $      34,080,000,000  2005 est.
96     Uruguay                           $      33,980,000,000  2005 est.
97     Latvia                            $      31,460,000,000  2005 est.
98     El Salvador                       $      31,300,000,000  2005 est.
99     Luxembourg                        $      30,900,000,000  2005 est.
100    Paraguay                          $      29,110,000,000  2005 est.
101    Cote d'Ivoire                     $      27,580,000,000  2005 est.
102    Tanzania                          $      27,110,000,000  2005 est.
103    Jordan                            $      26,850,000,000  2005 est.
104    Mozambique                        $      26,180,000,000  2005 est.
105    Bolivia                           $      25,820,000,000  2005 est.
106    Equatorial Guinea                 $      25,690,000,000  2005 est.
107    Zimbabwe                          $      25,690,000,000  2005 est.
108    Qatar                             $      24,460,000,000  2005 est.
109    Estonia                           $      23,340,000,000  2005 est.
110    Panama                            $      23,330,000,000  2005 est.
111    Bosnia and Herzegovina            $      23,090,000,000  2005 est.
112    Lebanon                           $      22,780,000,000  2005 est.
113    Afghanistan                       $      21,500,000,000  2004 est.
114    Honduras                          $      20,610,000,000  2005 est.
115    Senegal                           $      20,570,000,000  2005 est.
116    Yemen                             $      19,360,000,000  2005 est.
117    Albania                           $      18,870,000,000  2005 est.
118    Guinea                            $      18,650,000,000  2005 est.
119    Trinidad and Tobago               $      18,110,000,000  2005 est.
120    Botswana                          $      17,530,000,000  2005 est.
121    Cyprus                            $      16,810,000,000  2005 est.
122    Burkina Faso                      $      16,660,000,000  2005 est.
123    Nicaragua                         $      16,100,000,000  2005 est.
124    Madagascar                        $      16,050,000,000  2005 est.
125    Georgia                           $      16,030,000,000  2005 est.
126    Macedonia                         $      15,940,000,000  2005 est.
127    Bahrain                           $      15,900,000,000  2005 est.
128    Mauritius                         $      15,730,000,000  2005 est.
129    Armenia                           $      14,450,000,000  2005 est.
130    Papua New Guinea                  $      14,370,000,000  2005 est.
131    Namibia                           $      14,160,000,000  2005 est.
132    Chad                              $      13,980,000,000  2005 est.
133    Haiti                             $      13,970,000,000  2005 est.
134    Mali                              $      13,610,000,000  2005 est.
135    Rwanda                            $      12,540,000,000  2005 est.
136    Laos                              $      12,290,000,000  2005 est.
137    Jamaica                           $      12,180,000,000  2005 est.
138    Niger                             $      11,590,000,000  2005 est.
139    Zambia                            $      10,630,000,000  2005 est.
140    Iceland                           $      10,590,000,000  2005 est.
141    Kyrgyzstan                        $      10,080,000,000  2005 est.
142    Macau                             $      10,000,000,000  2004
143    Gabon                             $       9,739,000,000  2005 est.
144    Togo                              $       8,802,000,000  2005 est.
145    Tajikistan                        $       8,617,000,000  2005 est.
146    Benin                             $       8,419,000,000  2005 est.
147    Moldova                           $       8,410,000,000  2005 est.
148    Malta                             $       7,861,000,000  2005 est.
149    Malawi                            $       7,364,000,000  2005 est.
150    Mauritania                        $       6,901,000,000  2005 est.
151    Brunei                            $       6,842,000,000  2003 est.
152    Martinique                        $       6,117,000,000  2003 est.
153    Bahamas, The                      $       6,105,000,000  2005 est.
154    Swaziland                         $       5,680,000,000  2005 est.
155    Burundi                           $       5,404,000,000  2005 est.
156    Mongolia                          $       5,272,000,000  2005 est.
157    Fiji                              $       5,255,000,000  2005 est.
158    Lesotho                           $       5,008,000,000  2005 est.
159    Sierra Leone                      $       4,939,000,000  2005 est.
160    Barbados                          $       4,815,000,000  2005 est.
161    Somalia                           $       4,809,000,000  2005 est.
162    Reunion                           $       4,790,000,000  2005 est.
163    Central African Republic          $       4,677,000,000  2005 est.
164    Congo, Republic of the            $       4,585,000,000  2005 est.
165    French Polynesia                  $       4,580,000,000  2003 est.
166    Cyprus                            $       4,540,000,000  2005 est.
167    Bermuda                           $       4,500,000,000  2004 est.
168    Eritrea                           $       4,471,000,000  2005 est.
169    Jersey                            $       3,600,000,000  2003 est.
170    Guadeloupe                        $       3,513,000,000  2003 est.
171    Guyana                            $       3,439,000,000  2005 est.
172    New Caledonia                     $       3,158,000,000  2003 est.
173    Gambia, The                       $       3,034,000,000  2005 est.
174    Cape Verde                        $       2,990,000,000  2005 est.
175    Bhutan                            $       2,900,000,000  2003 est.
176    Suriname                          $       2,893,000,000  2005 est.
177    Netherlands Antilles              $       2,800,000,000  2004 est.
178    Liberia                           $       2,643,000,000  2005 est.
179    Guernsey                          $       2,590,000,000  2003 est.
180    Guam                              $       2,500,000,000  2005 est.
181    Montenegro                        $       2,412,000,000  2005 est.
182    Aruba                             $       2,258,000,000  2005 est.
183    Isle of Man                       $       2,113,000,000  2003 est.
184    Cayman Islands                    $       1,939,000,000  2004 est.
185    Andorra                           $       1,840,000,000  2004
186    West Bank                         $       1,800,000,000  2003 est.
187    Liechtenstein                     $       1,786,000,000  2001 est.
188    Belize                            $       1,778,000,000  2004 est.
189    Virgin Islands                    $       1,577,000,000  2004 est.
190    French Guiana                     $       1,551,000,000  2003 est.
191    Maldives                          $       1,250,000,000  2002 est.
192    Guinea-Bissau                     $       1,171,000,000  2005 est.
193    Greenland                         $       1,100,000,000  2001 est.
194    Faroe Islands                     $       1,000,000,000  2001 est.
195    Samoa                             $       1,000,000,000  2002 est.
196    San Marino                        $        940,000,000  2001 est.
197    Northern Mariana Islands          $        900,000,000  2000 est.
198    Monaco                            $        870,000,000  2000 est.
199    Saint Lucia                       $        866,000,000  2002 est.
200    British Virgin Islands            $        853,400,000  2004 est.
201    Solomon Islands                   $        800,000,000  2002 est.
202    Gibraltar                         $        769,000,000  2000 est.
203    Gaza Strip                        $        768,000,000  2003 est.
204    Antigua and Barbuda               $        750,000,000  2002 est.
205    Seychelles                        $        626,000,000  2002 est.
206    Djibouti                          $        619,000,000  2002 est.
207    American Samoa                    $        510,100,000  2003 est.
208    Mayotte                           $        466,800,000  2003 est.
209    Comoros                           $        441,000,000  2002 est.
210    Grenada                           $        440,000,000  2002 est.
211    Dominica                          $        384,000,000  2003 est.
212    East Timor                        $        370,000,000  2004 est.
213    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  $        342,000,000  2002 est.
214    Saint Kitts and Nevis             $        339,000,000  2002 est.
215    Micronesia, Federated States of   $        277,000,000  2002 est.
216    Vanuatu                           $        276,300,000  2003 est.
217    Turks and Caicos Islands          $        216,000,000  2002 est.
218    Sao Tome and Principe             $        214,000,000  2003 est.
219    Cook Islands                      $        183,200,000  2005 est.
220    Tonga                             $        178,500,000  2004 est.
221    Kiribati                          $        142,900,000  2004 est.
222    Palau                             $        124,500,000  2004 est.
223    Marshall Islands                  $        115,000,000  2001 est.
224    Anguilla                          $        108,900,000  2004 est.
225    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)  $         75,000,000  2002 est.
226    Nauru                             $         60,000,000  2005 est.
227    Wallis and Futuna                 $         60,000,000  2004 est.
228    Saint Pierre and Miquelon         $         48,300,000  2003 est.
229    Montserrat                        $         29,000,000  2002 est.
230    Saint Helena                      $         18,000,000  1998 est.
231    Tuvalu                            $         14,940,000  2002 est.
232    Niue                              $          7,600,000  2000 est.
233    Tokelau                           $          1,500,000  1993 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2003

Rank   Country                           GDP - real growth rate(%)  Date of Information

1      Azerbaijan                                  26.40     2005 est.
2      Angola                                      19.90     2005 est.
3      Equatorial Guinea                           18.60     2005 est.
4      Afghanistan                                 14.00     2005 est.
5      Armenia                                     13.90     2005 est.
6      Cambodia                                    13.40     2005 est.
7      Liechtenstein                               11.00     1999 est.
8      Cyprus                                      10.60     2005 est.
9      Estonia                                     10.50     2005 est.
10     Anguilla                                    10.20     2004 est.
11     Latvia                                      10.20     2005 est.
12     China                                       10.20     2005 est.
13     Faroe Islands                               10.00     2001 est.
14     Liberia                                      9.80     2005 est.
15     Kazakhstan                                   9.50     2005 est.
16     Dominican Republic                           9.30     2005 est.
17     Georgia                                      9.30     2005 est.
18     Venezuela                                    9.30     2005 est.
19     Argentina                                    9.20     2005 est.
20     Belarus                                      9.20     2005 est.
21     Ethiopia                                     8.90     2005 est.
22     United Arab Emirates                         8.80     2005 est.
23     Qatar                                        8.80     2005 est.
24     Vietnam                                      8.50     2005 est.
25     India                                        8.40     2005 est.
26     Libya                                        8.40     2005 est.
27     Kuwait                                       8.30     2005 est.
28     Congo, Republic of the                       8.20     2005 est.
29     Cuba                                         8.00     2005 est.
30     Sudan                                        8.00     2005 est.
31     Lithuania                                    7.50     2005 est.
32     Mozambique                                   7.50     2005 est.
33     Sierra Leone                                 7.50     2005 est.
34     Turkey                                       7.40     2005 est.
35     Hong Kong                                    7.30     2005 est.
36     Laos                                         7.30     2005 est.
37     Congo, Democratic Republic of the             7.10    2005 est.
38     Moldova                                      7.10     2005 est.
39     Niger                                        7.00     2005 est.
40     Uzbekistan                                   7.00     2005 est.
41     Trinidad and Tobago                          7.00     2005 est.
42     Iran                                         6.90     2005 est.
43     Nigeria                                      6.90     2005 est.
44     Vanuatu                                      6.80     2005 est.
45     Tanzania                                     6.80     2005 est.
46     Uruguay                                      6.80     2005 est.
47     Tajikistan                                   6.70     2005 est.
48     Pakistan                                     6.60     2005 est.
49     Saudi Arabia                                 6.50     2005 est.
50     Bangladesh                                   6.40     2005 est.
51     Singapore                                    6.40     2005 est.
52     Russia                                       6.40     2005 est.
53     Panama                                       6.40     2005 est.
54     Peru                                         6.40     2005 est.
55     Chile                                        6.30     2005 est.
56     Isle of Man                                  6.30
57     Mongolia                                     6.20     2005 est.
58     Niue                                         6.20
59     West Bank                                    6.20     2004 est.
60     Czech Republic                               6.10     2005 est.
61     Senegal                                      6.10     2005 est.
62     Mali                                         6.10     2005 est.
63     Chad                                         6.00     2005 est.
64     Turkmenistan                                 6.00     2005 est.
65     Sao Tome and Principe                        6.00     2004 est.
66     Slovakia                                     6.00     2005 est.
67     Sri Lanka                                    6.00     2005 est.
68     Bahrain                                      5.90     2005 est.
69     Ghana                                        5.90     2005 est.
70     Costa Rica                                   5.90     2005 est.
71     Bhutan                                       5.90     2005 est.
72     Serbia                                       5.90     2005 est.
73     Jordan                                       5.80     2005 est.
74     Kenya                                        5.80     2005 est.
75     Iceland                                      5.60     2005 est.
76     Indonesia                                    5.60     2005 est.
77     Oman                                         5.60     2005 est.
78     Algeria                                      5.50     2005 est.
79     Samoa                                        5.50     2005 est.
80     Palau                                        5.50     2005 est.
81     Mauritania                                   5.50     2005 est.
82     Gambia, The                                  5.50     2005 est.
83     Ireland                                      5.50     2005 est.
84     Cape Verde                                   5.50     2005 est.
85     Bulgaria                                     5.50     2005 est.
86     Botswana                                     5.50     2005 est.
87     Albania                                      5.50     2005 est.
88     Burma                                        5.20     2005 est.
89     Israel                                       5.20     2005 est.
90     Malaysia                                     5.20     2005 est.
91     Rwanda                                       5.20     2005 est.
92     Colombia                                     5.20     2005 est.
93     Madagascar                                   5.10     2005 est.
94     Saint Lucia                                  5.10     2005 est.
95     Bosnia and Herzegovina                       5.00     2005 est.
96     Zambia                                       5.00     2005 est.
97     Suriname                                     5.00     2005 est.
98     Egypt                                        4.90     2005 est.
99     South Africa                                 4.90     2005 est.
100    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines             4.90     2005 est.
101    Turks and Caicos Islands                     4.90     2000 est.
102    Saint Kitts and Nevis                        4.90     2005 est.
103    Philippines                                  4.80     2005 est.
104    Ecuador                                      4.70     2005 est.
105    World                                        4.70     2005 est.
106    Bermuda                                      4.60     2004 est.
107    Gaza Strip                                   4.50     2003 est.
108    Thailand                                     4.50     2005 est.
109    Solomon Islands                              4.40     2005 est.
110    Croatia                                      4.30     2005 est.
111    Honduras                                     4.20     2005 est.
112    Tunisia                                      4.20     2005 est.
113    Barbados                                     4.10     2005 est.
114    Romania                                      4.10     2005 est.
115    Hungary                                      4.10     2005 est.
116    Bolivia                                      4.10     2005 est.
117    Andorra                                      4.00     2004 est.
118    Norway                                       4.00     2005 est.
119    Taiwan                                       4.00     2005 est.
120    Uganda                                       4.00     2005 est.
121    Slovenia                                     4.00     2005 est.
122    Nicaragua                                    4.00     2005 est.
123    Macedonia                                    4.00     2005 est.
124    Korea, South                                 4.00     2005 est.
125    Luxembourg                                   4.00     2005 est.
126    Antigua and Barbuda                          3.80     2005 est.
127    Cyprus                                       3.80     2005 est.
128    Belize                                       3.80     2005 est.
129    Bahamas, The                                 3.70     2005 est.
130    Greece                                       3.70     2005 est.
131    Benin                                        3.50     2005 est.
132    Marshall Islands                             3.50     2005 est.
133    Spain                                        3.50     2005 est.
134    Burkina Faso                                 3.50     2005 est.
135    Poland                                       3.40     2005 est.
136    Denmark                                      3.20     2005 est.
137    Djibouti                                     3.20     2005 est.
138    Namibia                                      3.20     2005 est.
139    United States                                3.20     2005 est.
140    Guatemala                                    3.20     2005 est.
141    Dominica                                     3.10     2005 est.
142    American Samoa                               3.00
143    Papua New Guinea                             3.00     2005 est.
144    Mexico                                       3.00     2005 est.
145    Finland                                      3.00     2005 est.
146    Guernsey                                     3.00     2003 est.
147    Comoros                                      3.00     2005 est.
148    Canada                                       2.90     2005 est.
149    Gabon                                        2.90     2005 est.
150    El Salvador                                  2.80     2005 est.
151    Yemen                                        2.80     2005 est.
152    Syria                                        2.80     2005 est.
153    Macau                                        2.80     3rd Quarter 2005
154    Australia                                    2.70     2005 est.
155    Nepal                                        2.70     2005 est.
156    Paraguay                                     2.70     2005 est.
157    Sweden                                       2.70     2005 est.
158    Japan                                        2.60     2005 est.
159    Ukraine                                      2.60     2005 est.
160    Mauritius                                    2.50     2005 est.
161    Puerto Rico                                  2.50     2005 est.
162    Reunion                                      2.50     2005 est.
163    Aruba                                        2.40     2005 est.
164    Tonga                                        2.40     2005 est.
165    Somalia                                      2.40     2005 est.
166    Cameroon                                     2.40     2005 est.
167    Brazil                                       2.30     2005 est.
168    New Zealand                                  2.30     2005 est.
169    San Marino                                   2.30     2002 est.
170    Guinea-Bissau                                2.30     2005 est.
171    Central African Republic                     2.20     2005 est.
172    Eritrea                                      2.00     2005 est.
173    Guinea                                       2.00     2005 est.
174    Virgin Islands                               2.00     2002 est.
175    Malawi                                       1.90     2005 est.
176    Switzerland                                  1.90     2005 est.
177    United Kingdom                               1.90     2005 est.
178    Austria                                      1.80     2005 est.
179    Greenland                                    1.80     2001 est.
180    Swaziland                                    1.80     2005 est.
181    East Timor                                   1.80     2005 est.
182    Haiti                                        1.80     2005 est.
183    Jamaica                                      1.80     2005 est.
184    Brunei                                       1.70     2004 est.
185    Fiji                                         1.70     2005 est.
186    European Union                               1.70     2005 est.
187    Morocco                                      1.70     2005 est.
188    Belgium                                      1.50     2005 est.
189    Netherlands                                  1.50     2005 est.
190    France                                       1.20     2005 est.
191    Lesotho                                      1.20     2005 est.
192    Tuvalu                                       1.20     2002 est.
193    Burundi                                      1.10     2005 est.
194    Cote d'Ivoire                                1.00     2005 est.
195    Korea, North                                 1.00     2005 est.
196    Malta                                        1.00     2005 est.
197    Netherlands Antilles                         1.00     2004 est.
198    British Virgin Islands                       1.00     2002 est.
199    Togo                                         1.00     2005 est.
200    Cayman Islands                               0.90     2004 est.
201    Germany                                      0.90     2005 est.
202    Grenada                                      0.90     2005 est.
203    Monaco                                       0.90     2000 est.
204    Portugal                                     0.40     2005 est.
205    Micronesia, Federated States of              0.30     2005 est.
206    Kiribati                                     0.30     2005
207    Cook Islands                                 0.10     2005 est.
208    Italy                                        0.10     2005 est.
209    Lebanon                                      0.10     2005 est.
210    Kyrgyzstan                                  -0.60     2005 est.
211    Montserrat                                  -1.00     2002 est.
212    Guyana                                      -3.00     2005 est.
213    Seychelles                                  -3.00     2005 est.
214    Iraq                                        -3.00     2005 est.
215    Maldives                                    -3.60     2005 est.
216    Zimbabwe                                    -7.70     2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2004

Rank   Country                           GDP - per capita (PPP)  Date of Information

1      Bermuda                           $            69,900  2004 est.
2      Luxembourg                        $            65,900  2005 est.
3      Equatorial Guinea                 $            50,200  2005 est.
4      United Arab Emirates              $            45,200  2005 est.
5      Cayman Islands                    $            43,800  2004 est.
6      Norway                            $            42,800  2005 est.
7      United States                     $            41,600  2005 est.
8      Ireland                           $            41,100  2005 est.
9      Guernsey                          $            40,000  2003 est.
10     Jersey                            $            40,000  2003 est.
11     British Virgin Islands            $            38,500  2004 est.
12     Iceland                           $            35,700  2005 est.
13     Denmark                           $            34,800  2005 est.
14     San Marino                        $            34,600  2001 est.
15     Hong Kong                         $            34,000  2005 est.
16     Canada                            $            33,900  2005 est.
17     Austria                           $            32,500  2005 est.
18     Switzerland                       $            32,200  2005 est.
19     Australia                         $            31,600  2005 est.
20     Japan                             $            31,600  2005 est.
21     Belgium                           $            31,100  2005 est.
22     Finland                           $            31,000  2005 est.
23     Netherlands                       $            30,300  2005 est.
24     Germany                           $            30,100  2005 est.
25     United Kingdom                    $            30,100  2005 est.
26     Sweden                            $            29,800  2005 est.
27     France                            $            29,600  2005 est.
28     Italy                             $            28,700  2005 est.
29     Singapore                         $            28,600  2005 est.
30     Qatar                             $            28,300  2005 est.
31     European Union                    $            28,100  2005 est.
32     Gibraltar                         $            27,900  2000 est.
33     Isle of Man                       $            27,800  2003 est.
34     Taiwan                            $            27,500  2005 est.
35     Monaco                            $            27,000  2000 est.
36     Spain                             $            25,600  2005 est.
37     New Zealand                       $            25,300  2005 est.
38     Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)  $            25,000  2002 est.
39     Israel                            $            25,000  2005 est.
40     Liechtenstein                     $            25,000  1999 est.
41     Andorra                           $            24,000  2004
42     Brunei                            $            23,600  2003 est.
43     Bahrain                           $            23,100  2005 est.
44     Korea, South                      $            22,600  2005 est.
45     Greece                            $            22,300  2005 est.
46     Faroe Islands                     $            22,000  2001 est.
47     Macau                             $            22,000  2004
48     Aruba                             $            21,800  2004 est.
49     Cyprus                            $            21,600
50     Slovenia                          $            21,500  2005 est.
51     Kuwait                            $            20,300  2005 est.
52     Bahamas, The                      $            20,200  2005 est.
53     Czech Republic                    $            20,000  2005 est.
54     Greenland                         $            20,000  2001 est.
55     Malta                             $            19,700  2005 est.
56     Portugal                          $            19,000  2005 est.
57     Puerto Rico                       $            18,700  2005 est.
58     Estonia                           $            17,500  2005 est.
59     French Polynesia                  $            17,500  2003 est.
60     Barbados                          $            17,300  2005 est.
61     Trinidad and Tobago               $            16,800  2005 est.
62     Hungary                           $            16,300  2005 est.
63     Slovakia                          $            16,300  2005 est.
64     Netherlands Antilles              $            16,000  2004 est.
65     Guam                              $            15,000  2005 est.
66     New Caledonia                     $            15,000  2003 est.
67     Virgin Islands                    $            14,500  2004 est.
68     Martinique                        $            14,400  2003 est.
69     Lithuania                         $            14,100  2005 est.
70     Argentina                         $            13,700  2005 est.
71     Latvia                            $            13,700  2005 est.
72     Oman                              $            13,500  2005 est.
73     Poland                            $            13,100  2005 est.
74     Saudi Arabia                      $            13,100  2005 est.
75     Mauritius                         $            12,800  2005 est.
76     Northern Mariana Islands          $            12,500  2000 est.
77     Croatia                           $            12,400  2005 est.
78     South Africa                      $            12,200  2005 est.
79     Malaysia                          $            12,000  2005 est.
80     Chile                             $            11,900  2005 est.
81     Libya                             $            11,800  2005 est.
82     Turks and Caicos Islands          $            11,500  2002 est.
83     Costa Rica                        $            11,400  2005 est.
84     Russia                            $            11,000  2005 est.
85     Antigua and Barbuda               $            10,900  2005 est.
86     Botswana                          $            10,700  2005 est.
87     Mexico                            $            10,000  2005 est.
88     Uruguay                           $             9,900  2005 est.
89     Bulgaria                          $             9,600  2005 est.
90     World                             $             9,500  2005 est.
91     Cook Islands                      $             9,100  2005 est.
92     Anguilla                          $             8,800  2004 est.
93     Thailand                          $             8,600  2005 est.
94     Iran                              $             8,400  2005 est.
95     Turkey                            $             8,400  2005 est.
96     Brazil                            $             8,300  2005 est.
97     Kazakhstan                        $             8,300  2005 est.
98     French Guiana                     $             8,300  2003 est.
99     Saint Kitts and Nevis             $             8,200  2005 est.
100    Tunisia                           $             8,200  2005 est.
101    Romania                           $             8,100  2005 est.
102    Colombia                          $             7,900  2005 est.
103    Guadeloupe                        $             7,900  2003 est.
104    Turkmenistan                      $             7,900  2005 est.
105    Macedonia                         $             7,800  2005 est.
106    Seychelles                        $             7,800  2002 est.
107    Palau                             $             7,600  2005 est.
108    Dominican Republic                $             7,500  2005 est.
109    Panama                            $             7,400  2005 est.
110    Algeria                           $             7,200  2005 est.
111    Cyprus                            $             7,135
112    Belarus                           $             7,100  2005 est.
113    Gabon                             $             7,000  2005 est.
114    Namibia                           $             7,000  2005 est.
115    Ukraine                           $             7,000  2005 est.
116    Saint Pierre and Miquelon         $             7,000  2001 est.
117    Belize                            $             6,800  2005 est.
118    China                             $             6,800  2005 est.
119    Suriname                          $             6,600  2005 est.
120    Venezuela                         $             6,400  2005 est.
121    Cape Verde                        $             6,200  2005 est.
122    Reunion                           $             6,200  2005 est.
123    Lebanon                           $             6,000  2005 est.
124    Peru                              $             6,000  2005 est.
125    Fiji                              $             5,900  2005 est.
126    American Samoa                    $             5,800  2005 est.
127    Niue                              $             5,800  2003 est.
128    Azerbaijan                        $             5,400  2005 est.
129    Albania                           $             5,300  2005 est.
130    Bosnia and Herzegovina            $             5,200  2005 est.
131    Nauru                             $             5,000  2005 est.
132    Swaziland                         $             5,000  2005 est.
133    Armenia                           $             4,800  2005 est.
134    Saint Lucia                       $             4,800  2005 est.
135    El Salvador                       $             4,700  2005 est.
136    Jordan                            $             4,700  2005 est.
137    Philippines                       $             4,700  2005 est.
138    Guatemala                         $             4,700  2005 est.
139    Paraguay                          $             4,600  2005 est.
140    Guyana                            $             4,500  2005 est.
141    Jamaica                           $             4,500  2005 est.
142    Serbia                            $             4,400  2005 est.
143    Sri Lanka                         $             4,300  2005 est.
144    Ecuador                           $             4,300  2005 est.
145    Morocco                           $             4,100  2005 est.
146    Egypt                             $             3,900  2005 est.
147    Grenada                           $             3,900  2005 est.
148    Syria                             $             3,900  2005 est.
149    Maldives                          $             3,900  2002 est.
150    Angola                            $             3,800  2005 est.
151    Wallis and Futuna                 $             3,800  2004 est.
152    Dominica                          $             3,800  2005 est.
153    Montenegro                        $             3,800  2005 est.
154    Indonesia                         $             3,600  2005 est.
155    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  $             3,600  2005 est.
156    Cuba                              $             3,500  2005 est.
157    Georgia                           $             3,400  2005 est.
158    Montserrat                        $             3,400  2002 est.
159    India                             $             3,400  2005 est.
160    Bolivia                           $             2,900  2005 est.
161    Nicaragua                         $             2,900  2005 est.
162    Marshall Islands                  $             2,900  2005 est.
163    Vanuatu                           $             2,900  2003 est.
164    Honduras                          $             2,900  2005 est.
165    Vietnam                           $             2,800  2005 est.
166    Mayotte                           $             2,600  2003 est.
167    Papua New Guinea                  $             2,600  2005 est.
168    Cambodia                          $             2,500  2005 est.
169    Lesotho                           $             2,500  2005 est.
170    Saint Helena                      $             2,500  1998 est.
171    Ghana                             $             2,500  2005 est.
172    Pakistan                          $             2,400  2005 est.
173    Cameroon                          $             2,300  2005 est.
174    Micronesia, Federated States of   $             2,300  2005 est.
175    Mauritania                        $             2,200  2005 est.
176    Tonga                             $             2,200  2005 est.
177    Bangladesh                        $             2,100  2005 est.
178    Zimbabwe                          $             2,100  2005 est.
179    Samoa                             $             2,100  2005 est.
180    Sudan                             $             2,100  2005 est.
181    Guinea                            $             2,000  2005 est.
182    Kyrgyzstan                        $             2,000  2005 est.
183    Laos                              $             2,000  2005 est.
184    Gambia, The                       $             1,900  2005 est.
185    Kiribati                          $             1,900  2004 est.
186    Moldova                           $             1,900  2005 est.
187    Mongolia                          $             1,900  2005 est.
188    Uzbekistan                        $             1,900  2005 est.
189    Iraq                              $             1,800  2005 est.
190    Senegal                           $             1,800  2005 est.
191    Uganda                            $             1,800  2005 est.
192    Burma                             $             1,700  2005 est.
193    Haiti                             $             1,700  2005 est.
194    Korea, North                      $             1,700  2005 est.
195    Cote d'Ivoire                     $             1,600  2005 est.
196    Togo                              $             1,600  2005 est.
197    Tuvalu                            $             1,600  2002 est.
198    Rwanda                            $             1,500  2005 est.
199    Bhutan                            $             1,400  2003 est.
200    Nepal                             $             1,400  2005 est.
201    Nigeria                           $             1,400  2005 est.
202    Chad                              $             1,400  2005 est.
203    Congo, Republic of the            $             1,300  2005 est.
204    Mozambique                        $             1,300  2005 est.
205    Mali                              $             1,200  2005 est.
206    Burkina Faso                      $             1,200  2005 est.
207    Sao Tome and Principe             $             1,200  2003 est.
208    Tajikistan                        $             1,200  2005 est.
209    Benin                             $             1,100  2005 est.
210    Kenya                             $             1,100  2005 est.
211    West Bank                         $             1,100  2003 est.
212    Central African Republic          $             1,100  2005 est.
213    Djibouti                          $             1,000  2005 est.
214    Eritrea                           $             1,000  2005 est.
215    Tokelau                           $             1,000  1993 est.
216    Niger                             $             1,000  2005 est.
217    Ethiopia                          $              900  2005 est.
218    Zambia                            $              900  2005 est.
219    Yemen                             $              900  2005 est.
220    Liberia                           $              900  2005 est.
221    Madagascar                        $              900  2005 est.
222    Afghanistan                       $              800  2004 est.
223    East Timor                        $              800  2005 est.
224    Sierra Leone                      $              800  2005 est.
225    Guinea-Bissau                     $              800  2005 est.
226    Burundi                           $              700  2005 est.
227    Tanzania                          $              700  2005 est.
228    Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $              700  2005 est.
229    Solomon Islands                   $              600  2005 est.
230    Comoros                           $              600  2005 est.
231    Somalia                           $              600  2005 est.
232    Malawi                            $              600  2005 est.
233    Gaza Strip                        $              600  2003 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2034

Rank   Country                           Military expenditures - percent of GDP(%)  Date of Information

1      Eritrea                               17.70           2005 est.
2      Jordan                                11.40           2005 est.
3      Oman                                  11.40           2003
4      Qatar                                 10.00
5      Saudi Arabia                          10.00           2002
6      Angola                                 8.80           2005 est.
7      Israel                                 7.70           2005 est.
8      Liberia                                7.50           2005 est.
9      Madagascar                             7.20           2005 est.
10     Armenia                                6.50           FY01
11     Yemen                                  6.40           2005 est.
12     Macedonia                              6.00
13     Syria                                  5.90
14     Burundi                                5.60           2005 est.
15     Maldives                               5.50           2005 est.
16     Turkey                                 5.30           2003
17     Brunei                                 5.10           2003 est.
18     Morocco                                5.00           2003 est.
19     Bahrain                                4.90           2005 est.
20     Singapore                              4.90
21     Bosnia and Herzegovina                 4.50
22     China                                  4.30           2005 est.
23     Djibouti                               4.30           2005 est.
24     Greece                                 4.30           2003
25     Kuwait                                 4.20           2005 est.
26     United States                          4.06           2005 est.
27     Zimbabwe                               4.00           2005 est.
28     Libya                                  3.90
29     Tajikistan                             3.90           FY01
30     Pakistan                               3.90           2005 est.
31     Cyprus                                 3.80
32     Chile                                  3.50           2005 est.
33     Botswana                               3.40           2005 est.
34     Ethiopia                               3.40           2005 est.
35     Gabon                                  3.40           2005 est.
36     Egypt                                  3.40           2004
37     Turkmenistan                           3.40
38     Colombia                               3.40           FY01
39     Iran                                   3.30           2003 est.
40     Algeria                                3.20           2005 est.
41     United Arab Emirates                   3.10
42     Guinea-Bissau                          3.10           2005 est.
43     Lebanon                                3.10           2004
44     Cambodia                               3.00
45     Comoros                                3.00           2005 est.
46     Sudan                                  3.00           2004
47     Indonesia                              3.00           2004
48     Guinea                                 2.90           2005 est.
49     Rwanda                                 2.90           2005 est.
50     Australia                              2.70           2005 est.
51     Azerbaijan                             2.60
52     Korea, South                           2.60           2005 est.
53     Sri Lanka                              2.60           2005 est.
54     France                                 2.60           2005 est.
55     Bulgaria                               2.60           2003
56     Honduras                               2.55           2005 est.
57     India                                  2.50           2005 est.
58     Vietnam                                2.50
59     Romania                                2.47           2002
60     Taiwan                                 2.40           2005 est.
61     United Kingdom                         2.40           2003
62     Croatia                                2.39           2002 est.
63     Benin                                  2.30           2005 est.
64     Namibia                                2.30           2005 est.
65     Portugal                               2.30           2003
66     Fiji                                   2.20           FY02
67     Uganda                                 2.20           2005 est.
68     Mongolia                               2.20           FY02
69     Burma                                  2.10
70     Uruguay                                2.10           2005 est.
71     Seychelles                             2.10           2005 est.
72     Lesotho                                2.10           2005 est.
73     Equatorial Guinea                      2.10           2005 est.
74     Malaysia                               2.03
75     Ecuador                                2.00           2005 est.
76     World                                  2.00
77     Uzbekistan                             2.00
78     Finland                                2.00           FY98/99
79     Estonia                                2.00           2002 est.
80     Lithuania                              1.90           FY01
81     Mali                                   1.90           2005 est.
82     Norway                                 1.90           2003
83     Slovakia                               1.87           2005
84     Czech Republic                         1.81
85     Bangladesh                             1.80           2005 est.
86     Zambia                                 1.80           2005 est.
87     Thailand                               1.80           2003
88     Italy                                  1.80           2004
89     Cuba                                   1.80           2005 est.
90     Hungary                                1.75           2002 est.
91     Poland                                 1.71           2002
92     Afghanistan                            1.70           2005 est.
93     Sierra Leone                           1.70           2005 est.
94     Slovenia                               1.70           FY00
95     Belize                                 1.70           2005 est.
96     Cote d'Ivoire                          1.60           2005 est.
97     Togo                                   1.60           2005 est.
98     Netherlands                            1.60           2004
99     Kenya                                  1.60           2005 est.
100    Congo, Democratic Republic of the       1.50          2005 est.
101    Tunisia                                1.50
102    Sweden                                 1.50           2005 est.
103    South Africa                           1.50           2005 est.
104    Nepal                                  1.50           2005 est.
105    Cameroon                               1.50           2005 est.
106    Germany                                1.50           2003
107    Denmark                                1.50           2004
108    Albania                                1.49           FY02
109    Bolivia                                1.40           2005 est.
110    Senegal                                1.40           2005 est.
111    Swaziland                              1.40           2005 est.
112    Ukraine                                1.40           FY02
113    Papua New Guinea                       1.40           FY02
114    Peru                                   1.40           2003 est.
115    Niger                                  1.40           2005 est.
116    Belarus                                1.40           FY02
117    Kyrgyzstan                             1.40           FY01
118    Mauritania                             1.40           2005 est.
119    Congo, Republic of the                 1.40           2005 est.
120    Argentina                              1.30           FY00
121    Burkina Faso                           1.30           2005 est.
122    Mozambique                             1.30           2005 est.
123    Belgium                                1.30           2003
124    Brazil                                 1.30           2005 est.
125    Latvia                                 1.20           FY01
126    Spain                                  1.20           2003
127    Venezuela                              1.20           2005 est.
128    Canada                                 1.10           2003
129    Bhutan                                 1.00           2005 est.
130    Switzerland                            1.00           FY01
131    Panama                                 1.00           2005 est.
132    New Zealand                            1.00           FY02
133    Malta                                  1.00           2005 est.
134    Japan                                  1.00           2005 est.
135    Central African Republic               1.00           2005 est.
136    Chad                                   1.00           2005 est.
137    El Salvador                            1.00           2005 est.
138    Austria                                0.90           2004
139    Somalia                                0.90           2005 est.
140    Philippines                            0.90           2005 est.
141    Paraguay                               0.90           2003 est.
142    Luxembourg                             0.90           2003
143    Kazakhstan                             0.90           FY02
144    Haiti                                  0.90           2003 est.
145    Guyana                                 0.90           2003 est.
146    Ireland                                0.90           FY00/01
147    Ghana                                  0.80           2005 est.
148    Sao Tome and Principe                  0.80           2005 est.
149    Malawi                                 0.80           2005 est.
150    Mexico                                 0.80           2005 est.
151    Nigeria                                0.80           2005 est.
152    Cape Verde                             0.70           2005 est.
153    Nicaragua                              0.70           2005 est.
154    Suriname                               0.70           2003 est.
155    Trinidad and Tobago                    0.60           2003 est.
156    Georgia                                0.59
157    Guatemala                              0.50           2005 est.
158    Costa Rica                             0.40           2005 est.
159    Jamaica                                0.40           2003 est.
160    Gambia, The                            0.40           2005 est.
161    Laos                                   0.40           2005 est.
162    Moldova                                0.40           FY02
163    Mauritius                              0.20           2005 est.
164    Tanzania                               0.20           2005 est.
165    Bermuda                                0.11
166    Dominican Republic                     0.00           2002 est.
167    Iceland                                0.00

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2038

Rank   Country                           Electricity - production(kWh)  Date of Information

1      World                              16,540,000,000,000  2003 est.
2      United States                       3,892,000,000,000  2003
3      European Union                      2,925,000,000,000  2002 est.
4      China                               2,190,000,000,000  2004
5      Japan                               1,017,000,000,000  2003
6      Russia                               931,000,000,000  2004
7      Canada                               566,300,000,000  2003
8      Germany                              558,100,000,000  2003
9      India                                556,800,000,000  2003
10     France                               536,900,000,000  2003
11     Brazil                               387,500,000,000  2004
12     United Kingdom                       369,900,000,000  2003
13     Korea, South                         342,100,000,000  2004
14     Italy                                270,100,000,000  2003
15     Spain                                247,300,000,000  2003
16     Australia                            237,000,000,000  2004
17     Taiwan                               218,300,000,000  2004
18     South Africa                         215,900,000,000  2003
19     Mexico                               209,200,000,000  2003
20     Ukraine                              181,300,000,000  2004
21     Poland                               150,800,000,000  2004
22     Saudi Arabia                         145,100,000,000  2003
23     Iran                                 142,300,000,000  2003
24     Turkey                               133,600,000,000  2003
25     Sweden                               127,900,000,000  2003
26     Indonesia                            120,200,000,000  2004
27     Thailand                             114,700,000,000  2003
28     Norway                               105,600,000,000  2003
29     Netherlands                           95,000,000,000  2004
30     Venezuela                             87,440,000,000  2003
31     Argentina                             87,160,000,000  2004
32     Czech Republic                        84,330,000,000  2004
33     Egypt                                 84,260,000,000  2003
34     Finland                               79,610,000,000  2003
35     Malaysia                              79,280,000,000  2003
36     Belgium                               78,770,000,000  2003
37     Pakistan                              76,920,000,000  2003
38     Austria                               63,690,000,000  2004
39     Switzerland                           63,400,000,000  2003
40     Kazakhstan                            60,330,000,000  2003
41     Romania                               57,000,000,000  2004
42     Greece                                54,560,000,000  2003
43     Paraguay                              51,290,000,000  2003
44     Colombia                              50,430,000,000  2003
45     Philippines                           47,820,000,000  2003
46     Uzbekistan                            46,520,000,000  2003
47     Vietnam                               46,200,000,000  2004
48     Chile                                 45,300,000,000  2003
49     United Arab Emirates                  45,120,000,000  2004
50     Bulgaria                              45,000,000,000  2004
51     Portugal                              44,320,000,000  2003
52     Israel                                44,240,000,000  2003
53     Denmark                               43,320,000,000  2003
54     New Zealand                           39,820,000,000  2003
55     Kuwait                                38,190,000,000  2003
56     Hong Kong                             37,300,000,000  2004
57     Singapore                             36,800,000,000  2004
58     Serbia                                33,870,000,000  2004
59     Hungary                               32,210,000,000  2003
60     Iraq                                  31,700,000,000  2005
61     Slovakia                              30,570,000,000  2004
62     Belarus                               30,000,000,000  2004
63     Syria                                 29,530,000,000  2003 est.
64     Algeria                               26,990,000,000  2003 est.
65     Ireland                               23,410,000,000  2003
66     Puerto Rico                           23,030,000,000  2003
67     Peru                                  22,680,000,000  2003 est.
68     Azerbaijan                            20,000,000,000  2003
69     Lithuania                             19,000,000,000  2004
70     Korea, North                          18,750,000,000  2003
71     Bangladesh                            17,420,000,000  2003
72     Morocco                               17,350,000,000  2003
73     Tajikistan                            16,500,000,000  2004
74     Cuba                                  15,650,000,000  2004
75     Nigeria                               15,590,000,000  2003
76     Mozambique                            15,140,000,000  2003
77     Libya                                 14,400,000,000  2003
78     Slovenia                              14,020,000,000  2003
79     Kyrgyzstan                            13,770,000,000  2003
80     Dominican Republic                    12,600,000,000  2003
81     Tunisia                               11,560,000,000  2003
82     Turkmenistan                          11,410,000,000  2004 est.
83     Ecuador                               11,270,000,000  2003
84     Croatia                               11,150,000,000  2003
85     Lebanon                               10,670,000,000  2003
86     Bosnia and Herzegovina                10,510,000,000  2003
87     Estonia                               10,304,000,000  2004
88     Oman                                  10,300,000,000  2003
89     Qatar                                  9,735,000,000  2003
90     Zimbabwe                               8,877,000,000  2003
91     Georgia                                8,634,000,000  2003
92     Iceland                                8,619,000,000  2004
93     Uruguay                                8,611,000,000  2003
94     Zambia                                 8,347,000,000  2003
95     Costa Rica                             7,726,000,000  2003
96     Jordan                                 7,517,000,000  2003
97     Burma                                  7,393,000,000  2003
98     Bahrain                                7,345,000,000  2003
99     Sri Lanka                              7,308,000,000  2003
100    Guatemala                              6,898,000,000  2003
101    Armenia                                6,317,000,000  2005
102    Macedonia                              6,271,000,000  2005
103    Trinidad and Tobago                    6,076,000,000  2003
104    Congo, Democratic Republic of the       6,036,000,000  2003
105    Albania                                5,680,000,000  2004
106    Panama                                 5,398,000,000  2003
107    Ghana                                  5,356,000,000  2003
108    Cote d'Ivoire                          5,127,000,000  2003
109    Kenya                                  4,342,000,000  2003
110    Honduras                               4,338,000,000  2003
111    Bolivia                                4,250,000,000  2003
112    El Salvador                            4,158,000,000  2004
113    Latvia                                 3,970,000,000  2003
114    Yemen                                  3,848,000,000  2003 est.
115    Cyprus                                 3,801,000,000  2003
116    Laos                                   3,767,000,000  2003
117    Jamaica                                3,717,000,000  2004
118    Mongolia                               3,240,000,000  2005 est.
119    Luxembourg                             3,203,000,000  2005 est.
120    Sudan                                  3,165,000,000  2003
121    Tanzania                               3,152,000,000  2003
122    Cameroon                               2,988,000,000  2003
123    Moldova                                2,942,000,000  2003
124    Brunei                                 2,906,000,000  2004
125    Nicaragua                              2,887,000,000  2004
126    Montenegro                             2,864,000,000  2005 est.
127    Nepal                                  2,565,000,000  2005
128    Angola                                 2,240,000,000  2004
129    Malta                                  2,082,000,000  2003
130    Ethiopia                               2,058,000,000  2003
131    Suriname                               2,014,000,000  2003
132    Mauritius                              1,941,000,000  2003
133    Macau                                  1,893,000,000  2004
134    Bhutan                                 1,882,000,000  2003
135    Bahamas, The                           1,810,000,000  2003
136    Uganda                                 1,729,000,000  2003
137    Papua New Guinea                       1,592,000,000  2003
138    New Caledonia                          1,581,000,000  2003
139    Gabon                                  1,487,000,000  2003
140    Namibia                                1,464,000,000  2003
141    Senegal                                1,332,000,000  2003
142    Malawi                                 1,296,000,000  2003
143    Martinique                             1,205,000,000  2003
144    Reunion                                1,190,000,000  2003
145    Guadeloupe                             1,165,000,000  2003
146    Virgin Islands                         1,040,000,000  2003
147    Netherlands Antilles                   1,017,000,000  2003
148    Afghanistan                             905,000,000   2003
149    Botswana                                891,000,000   2004
150    Guam                                    840,100,000   2003
151    Madagascar                              825,400,000   2003
152    Mali                                    820,000,000   2003
153    Barbados                                819,000,000   2003
154    Guyana                                  779,000,000   2003
155    Fiji                                    775,700,000   2003
156    Guinea                                  775,000,000   2003
157    Aruba                                   770,000,000   2003
158    Bermuda                                 682,500,000   2005
159    Haiti                                   546,000,000   2003
160    Liberia                                 509,400,000   2003
161    French Polynesia                        493,700,000   2003
162    French Guiana                           465,200,000   2003
163    Cayman Islands                          441,900,000   2003
164    Swaziland                               392,000,000   2003
165    Burkina Faso                            375,600,000   2003
166    Lesotho                                 350,000,000   2003
167    Congo, Republic of the                  343,000,000   2003
168    Saint Lucia                             281,000,000   2003
169    Eritrea                                 270,900,000   2003
170    Sierra Leone                            260,600,000   2003
171    Faroe Islands                           260,200,000   2003
172    Greenland                               242,200,000   2003
173    Seychelles                              241,300,000   2003
174    Djibouti                                240,000,000   2003
175    Somalia                                 235,600,000   2003
176    Niger                                   230,000,000   2003
177    Micronesia, Federated States of         192,000,000   2002
178    Mauritania                              185,600,000   2003
179    Togo                                    165,900,000   2003
180    Grenada                                 159,800,000   2003
181    Burundi                                 141,300,000   2003
182    Gambia, The                             140,000,000   2003
183    Maldives                                135,000,000   2003
184    American Samoa                          130,000,000   2003
185    Cambodia                                123,700,000   2003
186    Belize                                  120,000,000   2003
187    Chad                                    120,000,000   2003
188    Samoa                                   116,000,000   2003
189    Saint Kitts and Nevis                   111,700,000   2003
190    Gibraltar                               106,100,000   2003
191    Central African Republic                106,000,000   2003
192    Antigua and Barbuda                     100,000,000   2003
193    Rwanda                                   98,000,000   2003
194    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines         95,000,000   2003
195    Western Sahara                           85,000,000   2003
196    Dominica                                 69,980,000   2003
197    Benin                                    69,000,000   2003
198    Guinea-Bissau                            56,000,000   2003
199    Solomon Islands                          55,000,000   2003
200    Cape Verde                               44,150,000   2003
201    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                44,150,000   2003
202    Vanuatu                                  41,000,000   2003
203    British Virgin Islands                   34,550,000   2003
204    Tonga                                    34,000,000   2003
205    Equatorial Guinea                        29,430,000   2003
206    Cook Islands                             28,000,000   2003
207    Nauru                                    23,000,000   2003
208    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)         22,230,000  2003
209    Comoros                                  18,000,000   2003
210    Sao Tome and Principe                    15,000,000   2003
211    Kiribati                                 12,000,000   2003
212    Saint Helena                              5,000,000   2003
213    Turks and Caicos Islands                  5,000,000   2003
214    Niue                                      3,000,000   2003
215    Montserrat                                2,000,000   2003

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2042

Rank   Country                           Electricity - consumption(kWh)  Date of Information

1      World                              15,450,000,000,000  2003 est.
2      United States                       3,656,000,000,000  2003
3      European Union                      2,711,000,000,000  2002 est.
4      China                               2,170,000,000,000  2004
5      Japan                                946,300,000,000  2003
6      Russia                               811,500,000,000  2004
7      Canada                               520,900,000,000  2003
8      India                                519,000,000,000  2003
9      Germany                              510,400,000,000  2003
10     France                               433,300,000,000  2003
11     Brazil                               359,600,000,000  2004
12     United Kingdom                       346,100,000,000  2003
13     Korea, South                         321,100,000,000  2004
14     Italy                                302,200,000,000  2003
15     Spain                                231,200,000,000  2003
16     Australia                            221,000,000,000  2004
17     Taiwan                               206,100,000,000  2004
18     South Africa                         197,400,000,000  2003
19     Mexico                               193,900,000,000  2003
20     Ukraine                              176,000,000,000  2004
21     Turkey                               140,300,000,000  2005
22     Saudi Arabia                         134,900,000,000  2003
23     Iran                                 132,100,000,000  2003
24     Sweden                               131,800,000,000  2003
25     Poland                               121,300,000,000  2004
26     Thailand                             107,300,000,000  2003
27     Norway                               106,100,000,000  2003
28     Indonesia                            105,400,000,000  2004
29     Netherlands                          101,600,000,000  2003
30     Argentina                             82,970,000,000  2004
31     Venezuela                             81,320,000,000  2003
32     Belgium                               79,660,000,000  2003
33     Finland                               78,940,000,000  2003
34     Egypt                                 78,160,000,000  2003
35     Malaysia                              73,630,000,000  2003
36     Pakistan                              71,540,000,000  2003
37     Austria                               64,780,000,000  2004
38     Czech Republic                        57,120,000,000  2004
39     Switzerland                           55,860,000,000  2003
40     Greece                                53,500,000,000  2005 est.
41     Kazakhstan                            52,550,000,000  2003
42     Vietnam                               52,000,000,000  2004
43     Colombia                              48,830,000,000  2003
44     Uzbekistan                            48,450,000,000  2003
45     Philippines                           44,480,000,000  2003
46     Chile                                 44,130,000,000  2003
47     Portugal                              44,010,000,000  2003
48     Israel                                39,670,000,000  2003
49     Hong Kong                             39,220,000,000  2004
50     United Arab Emirates                  38,320,000,000  2002
51     Romania                               37,500,000,000  2003
52     New Zealand                           37,030,000,000  2003
53     Hungary                               36,960,000,000  2003
54     Kuwait                                35,520,000,000  2003
55     Belarus                               34,300,000,000  2004
56     Iraq                                  33,300,000,000  2005
57     Singapore                             33,200,000,000  2004
58     Denmark                               31,680,000,000  2003
59     Syria                                 28,260,000,000  2003 est.
60     Bulgaria                              25,100,000,000  2004
61     Algeria                               24,900,000,000  2003 est.
62     Slovakia                              24,800,000,000  2004
63     Ireland                               22,970,000,000  2003
64     Puerto Rico                           21,420,000,000  2003
65     Peru                                  21,090,000,000  2003
66     Azerbaijan                            20,250,000,000  2003
67     Morocco                               17,580,000,000  2003
68     Korea, North                          17,430,000,000  2003
69     Bangladesh                            16,200,000,000  2003
70     Croatia                               15,810,000,000  2003
71     Tajikistan                            15,050,000,000  2003
72     Nigeria                               14,460,000,000  2003
73     Libya                                 13,390,000,000  2003
74     Cuba                                  13,270,000,000  2004
75     Slovenia                              12,520,000,000  2003
76     Lithuania                             12,079,000,000  2004
77     Dominican Republic                    11,710,000,000  2003
78     Zimbabwe                              11,220,000,000  2003
79     Tunisia                               10,760,000,000  2003
80     Lebanon                               10,670,000,000  2003
81     Ecuador                               10,550,000,000  2003
82     Mozambique                            10,460,000,000  2003
83     Georgia                                9,800,000,000  2005
84     Oman                                   9,582,000,000  2003
85     Qatar                                  9,053,000,000  2003
86     Bosnia and Herzegovina                 8,849,000,000  2003
87     Turkmenistan                           8,847,000,000  2002
88     Kyrgyzstan                             8,783,000,000  2003
89     Iceland                                8,619,000,000  2004
90     Jordan                                 7,959,000,000  2003
91     Macedonia                              7,933,000,000  2005
92     Uruguay                                7,762,000,000  2003
93     Costa Rica                             7,120,000,000  2003
94     Burma                                  6,875,000,000  2003
95     Bahrain                                6,830,000,000  2003
96     Sri Lanka                              6,796,000,000  2003
97     Albania                                6,760,000,000  2004
98     Estonia                                6,260,000,000  2004
99     Luxembourg                             6,140,000,000  2005 est.
100    Guatemala                              6,025,000,000  2003
101    Latvia                                 5,839,000,000  2003
102    Trinidad and Tobago                    5,651,000,000  2003
103    Zambia                                 5,345,000,000  2003
104    Ghana                                  5,081,000,000  2003
105    Panama                                 4,870,000,000  2003
106    El Salvador                            4,450,000,000  2004
107    Armenia                                4,374,000,000  2005
108    Honduras                               4,369,000,000  2003
109    Congo, Democratic Republic of the       4,324,000,000  2003
110    Kenya                                  4,238,000,000  2003
111    Bolivia                                3,963,000,000  2003
112    Cyprus                                 3,535,000,000  2003
113    Paraguay                               3,528,000,000  2003
114    Cote d'Ivoire                          3,418,000,000  2003
115    Mongolia                               3,370,000,000  2005 est.
116    Laos                                   3,298,000,000  2003
117    Moldova                                3,036,000,000  2003
118    Jamaica                                2,974,000,000  2004
119    Tanzania                               2,959,000,000  2003
120    Sudan                                  2,943,000,000  2003
121    Yemen                                  2,827,000,000  2003 est.
122    Cameroon                               2,779,000,000  2003
123    Brunei                                 2,726,000,000  2004
124    Botswana                               2,641,000,000  2004
125    Namibia                                2,372,000,000  2003
126    Malta                                  1,936,000,000  2003
127    Ethiopia                               1,914,000,000  2003
128    Angola                                 1,900,000,000  2004
129    Macau                                  1,899,000,000  2004
130    Suriname                               1,873,000,000  2003
131    Nepal                                  1,850,000,000  2005
132    Nicaragua                              1,848,000,000  2004
133    Mauritius                              1,805,000,000  2003
134    Bahamas, The                           1,683,000,000  2003
135    Papua New Guinea                       1,481,000,000  2003
136    New Caledonia                          1,470,000,000  2003
137    Uganda                                 1,448,000,000  2003
138    Gabon                                  1,383,000,000  2003
139    Senegal                                1,239,000,000  2003
140    Malawi                                 1,206,000,000  2003
141    Swaziland                              1,161,000,000  2003
142    Martinique                             1,120,000,000  2003
143    Reunion                                1,107,000,000  2003
144    Guadeloupe                             1,084,000,000  2003
145    Afghanistan                            1,042,000,000  2003
146    Virgin Islands                          967,300,000   2003
147    Netherlands Antilles                    945,800,000   2003
148    Guam                                    781,300,000   2003
149    Madagascar                              767,700,000   2003
150    Mali                                    762,600,000   2003
151    Barbados                                761,700,000   2003
152    Guyana                                  724,500,000   2003
153    Fiji                                    721,400,000   2003
154    Guinea                                  720,800,000   2003
155    Aruba                                   716,100,000   2003
156    Togo                                    654,300,000   2003
157    Jersey                                  630,100,000   2004 est.
158    Congo, Republic of the                  619,000,000   2003
159    Bermuda                                 616,700,000   2005
160    Benin                                   538,200,000   2003
161    Haiti                                   507,800,000   2003
162    Liberia                                 473,800,000   2003
163    French Polynesia                        459,200,000   2003
164    French Guiana                           432,600,000   2003
165    Cayman Islands                          411,000,000   2003
166    Lesotho                                 363,500,000   2003
167    Burkina Faso                            349,300,000   2003
168    Niger                                   263,900,000   2003
169    Saint Lucia                             261,400,000   2003
170    Eritrea                                 251,900,000   2003
171    Bhutan                                  250,300,000   2003
172    Sierra Leone                            242,400,000   2003
173    Faroe Islands                           242,000,000   2003
174    Greenland                               225,300,000   2003
175    Seychelles                              224,400,000   2003
176    Djibouti                                223,200,000   2003
177    Somalia                                 219,100,000   2003
178    Micronesia, Federated States of         178,600,000   2002
179    Mauritania                              172,600,000   2003
180    Grenada                                 148,600,000   2003
181    Burundi                                 141,400,000   2003
182    Gambia, The                             130,200,000   2003
183    Maldives                                125,600,000   2003
184    Rwanda                                  121,100,000   2003
185    American Samoa                          120,900,000   2003
186    Cambodia                                115,000,000   2003
187    Belize                                  111,600,000   2003
188    Chad                                    111,600,000   2003
189    Samoa                                   107,900,000   2003
190    Saint Kitts and Nevis                   103,900,000   2003
191    Gibraltar                                98,690,000   2003
192    Central African Republic                 98,580,000   2003
193    Antigua and Barbuda                      93,000,000   2003
194    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines         88,350,000   2003
195    Mayotte                                  87,790,000
196    Western Sahara                           83,700,000   2003
197    Dominica                                 65,090,000   2003
198    Guinea-Bissau                            52,080,000   2003
199    Solomon Islands                          51,150,000   2003
200    Anguilla                                 42,600,000
201    Cape Verde                               41,060,000   2003
202    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                41,060,000   2003
203    Vanuatu                                  38,130,000   2003
204    Cook Islands                             34,460,000   2005 est.
205    British Virgin Islands                   32,130,000   2003
206    Tonga                                    31,620,000   2003
207    Equatorial Guinea                        27,370,000   2003
208    Nauru                                    21,390,000   2003
209    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)         20,680,000  2003
210    Comoros                                  16,740,000   2003
211    Sao Tome and Principe                    13,950,000   2003
212    Kiribati                                 11,160,000   2003
213    Saint Helena                              4,650,000   2003
214    Turks and Caicos Islands                  4,650,000   2003
215    Niue                                      2,790,000   2003
216    Montserrat                                1,860,000   2003

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2053

Rank   Country                           Airports            Date of Information

1      World                                       49,024    2006
2      United States                               14,858    2006
3      Brazil                                       4,276    2006
4      Mexico                                       1,839    2006
5      Russia                                       1,623    2006
6      Argentina                                    1,381    2006
7      Canada                                       1,337    2006
8      Bolivia                                      1,084    2006
9      Colombia                                      984     2006
10     Paraguay                                      881     2006
11     South Africa                                  731     2006
12     Indonesia                                     662     2006
13     Papua New Guinea                              582     2006
14     Germany                                       554     2006
15     Ukraine                                       499     2006
16     China                                         486     2006
17     France                                        477     2006
18     United Kingdom                                471     2006
19     Australia                                     455     2006
20     Guatemala                                     450     2006
21     Zimbabwe                                      403     2006
22     Venezuela                                     375     2006
23     Chile                                         363     2006
24     Ecuador                                       359     2006
25     India                                         341     2006
26     Iran                                          321     2006
27     Peru                                          268     2006
28     Philippines                                   256     2006
29     Sweden                                        255     2006
30     Angola                                        244     2006
31     Congo, Democratic Republic of the              234    2006
32     Kenya                                         225     2006
33     Bulgaria                                      217     2006
34     Saudi Arabia                                  208     2006
35     Nicaragua                                     176     2006
36     Japan                                         175     2006
37     Cuba                                          170     2006
38     Mozambique                                    158     2006
39     Costa Rica                                    157     2006
40     Spain                                         157     2006
41     Kazakhstan                                    150     2006
42     Finland                                       148     2006
43     Algeria                                       142     2006
44     Libya                                         141     2006
45     Pakistan                                      139     2006
46     Oman                                          137     2006
47     Namibia                                       137     2006
48     Italy                                         133     2006
49     Tanzania                                      124     2006
50     Poland                                        122     2006
51     Czech Republic                                121     2006
52     New Zealand                                   118     2006
53     Malaysia                                      117     2006
54     Panama                                        117     2006
55     Turkey                                        117     2006
56     Honduras                                      116     2006
57     Madagascar                                    116     2006
58     Zambia                                        111     2006
59     Iraq                                          110     2006
60     Thailand                                      108     2006
61     Korea, South                                  107     2006
62     Norway                                         99     2006
63     Iceland                                        98     2006
64     Denmark                                        92     2006
65     Syria                                          92     2006
66     Lithuania                                      91     2006
67     Guyana                                         90     2006
68     Egypt                                          88     2006
69     Sudan                                          88     2006
70     Belarus                                        86     2006
71     Botswana                                       85     2006
72     Burma                                          85     2006
73     Ethiopia                                       84     2006
74     Greece                                         82     2006
75     Korea, North                                   77     2006
76     El Salvador                                    75     2006
77     Nigeria                                        69     2006
78     Croatia                                        68     2006
79     Portugal                                       66     2006
80     Somalia                                        65     2006
81     Switzerland                                    65     2006
82     Bahamas, The                                   64     2006
83     Uruguay                                        64     2006
84     Romania                                        61     2006
85     Uzbekistan                                     61     2006
86     Morocco                                        60     2006
87     Gabon                                          56     2006
88     Austria                                        55     2006
89     Israel                                         53     2006
90     Liberia                                        53     2006
91     Chad                                           52     2006
92     French Polynesia                               51     2006
93     Central African Republic                       50     2006
94     Nepal                                          48     2006
95     Cameroon                                       47     2006
96     Suriname                                       47     2006
97     Afghanistan                                    46     2006
98     Latvia                                         46     2006
99     Yemen                                          46     2006
100    Hungary                                        46     2006
101    Laos                                           44     2006
102    Mongolia                                       44     2006
103    Belgium                                        43     2006
104    Belize                                         43     2006
105    Malawi                                         42     2006
106    Taiwan                                         42     2006
107    Tajikistan                                     40     2006
108    Serbia                                         39     2006
109    United Arab Emirates                           37     2006
110    Kyrgyzstan                                     37     2006
111    Azerbaijan                                     36     2006
112    Ireland                                        36     2006
113    Slovakia                                       36     2006
114    Solomon Islands                                35     2006
115    Cote d'Ivoire                                  35     2006
116    Jamaica                                        35     2006
117    Burkina Faso                                   34     2006
118    Dominican Republic                             33     2006
119    Congo, Republic of the                         32     2006
120    Vietnam                                        32     2006
121    Vanuatu                                        31     2006
122    Uganda                                         31     2006
123    Puerto Rico                                    30     2006
124    Tunisia                                        30     2006
125    Mali                                           29     2006
126    Turkmenistan                                   29     2006
127    Bosnia and Herzegovina                         28     2006
128    Fiji                                           28     2006
129    Lesotho                                        28     2006
130    Guinea-Bissau                                  28     2006
131    Niger                                          28     2006
132    Netherlands                                    27     2006
133    Mauritania                                     25     2006
134    New Caledonia                                  25     2006
135    Estonia                                        24     2006
136    Georgia                                        23     2006
137    Antarctica                                     20     2006
138    Senegal                                        20     2006
139    Cambodia                                       20     2006
140    Kiribati                                       19     2006
141    Swaziland                                      18     2006
142    Eritrea                                        17     2006
143    Macedonia                                      17     2006
144    Jordan                                         17     2006
145    Bangladesh                                     16     2006
146    Sri Lanka                                      16     2006
147    Cyprus                                         16     2006
148    Guinea                                         16     2006
149    Marshall Islands                               15     2006
150    Seychelles                                     15     2006
151    Greenland                                      14     2006
152    Slovenia                                       14     2006
153    Armenia                                        13     2006
154    Djibouti                                       13     2006
155    Ghana                                          12     2006
156    Haiti                                          12     2006
157    Moldova                                        12     2006
158    Albania                                        11     2006
159    Western Sahara                                 11     2006
160    French Guiana                                  11     2006
161    Sierra Leone                                   10     2006
162    Cook Islands                                    9     2006
163    Rwanda                                          9     2006
164    Guadeloupe                                      9     2006
165    Singapore                                       9     2006
166    Togo                                            9     2006
167    Burundi                                         8     2006
168    East Timor                                      8     2006
169    Turks and Caicos Islands                        8     2006
170    Cape Verde                                      7     2006
171    Lebanon                                         7     2006
172    Kuwait                                          7     2006
173    Micronesia, Federated States of                 6     2006
174    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines                6     2006
175    Tonga                                           6     2006
176    Trinidad and Tobago                             6     2006
177    Mauritius                                       6     2006
178    Benin                                           5     2006
179    Northern Mariana Islands                        5     2006
180    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)                5    2006
181    Maldives                                        5     2006
182    Qatar                                           5     2006
183    Netherlands Antilles                            5     2006
184    Montenegro                                      5     2006
185    Guam                                            5     2006
186    Comoros                                         4     2006
187    Equatorial Guinea                               4     2006
188    Samoa                                           4     2006
189    Svalbard                                        4     2006
190    Antigua and Barbuda                             3     2006
191    West Bank                                       3     2006
192    British Virgin Islands                          3     2006
193    Palau                                           3     2006
194    Spratly Islands                                 3     2006
195    Midway Islands                                  3     2006
196    Hong Kong                                       3     2006
197    Grenada                                         3     2006
198    Bahrain                                         3     2006
199    Anguilla                                        3     2006
200    American Samoa                                  3     2006
201    Cayman Islands                                  3     2006
202    Bhutan                                          2     2006
203    Montserrat                                      2     2006
204    Wallis and Futuna                               2     2006
205    Virgin Islands                                  2     2006
206    Sao Tome and Principe                           2     2006
207    Saint Lucia                                     2     2006
208    Saint Kitts and Nevis                           2     2006
209    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                       2     2006
210    Reunion                                         2     2006
211    Martinique                                      2     2006
212    Brunei                                          2     2006
213    Dominica                                        2     2006
214    Gaza Strip                                      2     2006
215    Luxembourg                                      2     2006
216    Guernsey                                        2     2006
217    Aruba                                           1     2006
218    Barbados                                        1     2006
219    Wake Island                                     1     2006
220    Tuvalu                                          1     2006
221    Tromelin Island                                 1     2006
222    Saint Helena                                    1     2006
223    Paracel Islands                                 1     2006
224    Mayotte                                         1     2006
225    Macau                                           1     2006
226    Palmyra Atoll                                   1     2006
227    Christmas Island                                1     2006
228    Juan de Nova Island                             1     2006
229    Johnston Atoll                                  1     2006
230    Jan Mayen                                       1     2006
231    Jersey                                          1     2006
232    British Indian Ocean Territory                  1     2006
233    Isle of Man                                     1     2006
234    Nauru                                           1     2006
235    Norfolk Island                                  1     2006
236    Niue                                            1     2006
237    Malta                                           1     2006
238    Glorioso Islands                                1     2006
239    Gibraltar                                       1     2006
240    Gambia, The                                     1     2006
241    Faroe Islands                                   1     2006
242    Europa Island                                   1     2006
243    Cocos (Keeling) Islands                         1     2006
244    Bermuda                                         1     2006

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2054

Rank   Country                           Birth rate(births/1,000 population)  Date of Information

1      Niger                                 50.73           2006 est.
2      Mali                                  49.82           2006 est.
3      Uganda                                47.35           2006 est.
4      Afghanistan                           46.60           2006 est.
5      Sierra Leone                          45.76           2006 est.
6      Chad                                  45.73           2006 est.
7      Burkina Faso                          45.62           2006 est.
8      Somalia                               45.13           2006 est.
9      Angola                                45.11           2006 est.
10     Liberia                               44.77           2006 est.
11     Congo, Democratic Republic of the      43.69          2006 est.
12     Malawi                                43.13           2006 est.
13     Yemen                                 42.89           2006 est.
14     Congo, Republic of the                42.57           2006 est.
15     Burundi                               42.22           2006 est.
16     Guinea                                41.76           2006 est.
17     Madagascar                            41.41           2006 est.
18     Zambia                                41.00           2006 est.
19     Mauritania                            40.99           2006 est.
20     Mayotte                               40.95           2006 est.
21     Nigeria                               40.43           2006 est.
22     Rwanda                                40.37           2006 est.
23     Sao Tome and Principe                 40.25           2006 est.
24     Kenya                                 39.72           2006 est.
25     Djibouti                              39.53           2006 est.
26     Gaza Strip                            39.45           2006 est.
27     Gambia, The                           39.37           2006 est.
28     Benin                                 38.85           2006 est.
29     Ethiopia                              37.98           2006 est.
30     Tanzania                              37.71           2006 est.
31     Guinea-Bissau                         37.22           2006 est.
32     Togo                                  37.01           2006 est.
33     Comoros                               36.93           2006 est.
34     Haiti                                 36.44           2006 est.
35     Oman                                  36.24           2006 est.
36     Gabon                                 36.16           2006 est.
37     Equatorial Guinea                     35.59           2006 est.
38     Laos                                  35.49           2006 est.
39     Mozambique                            35.18           2006 est.
40     Cote d'Ivoire                         35.11           2006 est.
41     Maldives                              34.81           2006 est.
42     Sudan                                 34.53           2006 est.
43     Eritrea                               34.33           2006 est.
44     Central African Republic              33.91           2006 est.
45     Cameroon                              33.89           2006 est.
46     Bhutan                                33.65           2006 est.
47     Marshall Islands                      33.05           2006 est.
48     Senegal                               32.78           2006 est.
49     Tajikistan                            32.65           2006 est.
50     Iraq                                  31.98           2006 est.
51     West Bank                             31.67           2006 est.
52     Nepal                                 30.98           2006 est.
53     Kiribati                              30.65           2006 est.
54     Ghana                                 30.52           2006 est.
55     Solomon Islands                       30.01           2006 est.
56     Guatemala                             29.88           2006 est.
57     Bangladesh                            29.80           2006 est.
58     Pakistan                              29.74           2006 est.
59     Papua New Guinea                      29.36           2006 est.
60     Saudi Arabia                          29.34           2006 est.
61     Paraguay                              29.10           2006 est.
62     Belize                                28.84           2006 est.
63     Honduras                              28.24           2006 est.
64     Zimbabwe                              28.01           2006 est.
65     Syria                                 27.76           2006 est.
66     Turkmenistan                          27.61           2006 est.
67     Swaziland                             27.41           2006 est.
68     East Timor                            26.99           2006 est.
69     Cambodia                              26.90           2006 est.
70     El Salvador                           26.61           2006 est.
71     Libya                                 26.49           2006 est.
72     Uzbekistan                            26.36           2006 est.
73     Tonga                                 25.37           2006 est.
74     Philippines                           24.89           2006 est.
75     Cape Verde                            24.87           2006 est.
76     Nauru                                 24.76           2006 est.
77     Lesotho                               24.75           2006 est.
78     Micronesia, Federated States of       24.68           2006 est.
79     Nicaragua                             24.51           2006 est.
80     Namibia                               24.32           2006 est.
81     Bolivia                               23.30           2006 est.
82     Dominican Republic                    23.22           2006 est.
83     Botswana                              23.08           2006 est.
84     Egypt                                 22.94           2006 est.
85     Malaysia                              22.86           2006 est.
86     Kyrgyzstan                            22.80           2006 est.
87     Vanuatu                               22.72           2006 est.
88     Fiji                                  22.55           2006 est.
89     American Samoa                        22.46           2006 est.
90     Ecuador                               22.29           2006 est.
91     Tuvalu                                22.18           2006 est.
92     Grenada                               22.08           2006 est.
93     India                                 22.01           2006 est.
94     Morocco                               21.98           2006 est.
95     Kuwait                                21.94           2006 est.
96     Turks and Caicos Islands              21.84           2006 est.
97     Panama                                21.74           2006 est.
98     Mongolia                              21.59           2006 est.
99     Jordan                                21.25           2006 est.
100    Cook Islands                          21.00           2001 census
101    Jamaica                               20.82           2006 est.
102    Azerbaijan                            20.74           2006 est.
103    Mexico                                20.69           2006 est.
104    Colombia                              20.48           2006 est.
105    Peru                                  20.48           2006 est.
106    French Guiana                         20.46           2006 est.
107    Indonesia                             20.34           2006 est.
108    World                                 20.05           2006 est.
109    Saint Lucia                           19.68           2006 est.
110    Northern Mariana Islands              19.43           2006 est.
111    United Arab Emirates                  18.96           2006 est.
112    Reunion                               18.90           2006 est.
113    Brunei                                18.79           2006 est.
114    Guam                                  18.79           2006 est.
115    Venezuela                             18.71           2006 est.
116    Lebanon                               18.52           2006 est.
117    Costa Rica                            18.32           2006 est.
118    Guyana                                18.28           2006 est.
119    South Africa                          18.20           2006 est.
120    New Caledonia                         18.11           2006 est.
121    Palau                                 18.03           2006 est.
122    Suriname                              18.02           2006 est.
123    Saint Kitts and Nevis                 18.02           2006 est.
124    Israel                                17.97           2006 est.
125    Burma                                 17.91           2006 est.
126    Bahrain                               17.80           2006 est.
127    Montserrat                            17.59           2006 est.
128    Bahamas, The                          17.57           2006 est.
129    Algeria                               17.14           2006 est.
130    Iran                                  17.00           2006 est.
131    Antigua and Barbuda                   16.93           2006 est.
132    Vietnam                               16.86           2006 est.
133    Argentina                             16.73           2006 est.
134    French Polynesia                      16.68           2006 est.
135    Turkey                                16.62           2006 est.
136    Brazil                                16.56           2006 est.
137    Samoa                                 16.43           2006 est.
138    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines      16.18           2006 est.
139    Seychelles                            16.03           2006 est.
140    Kazakhstan                            16.00           2006 est.
141    Greenland                             15.93           2006 est.
142    Moldova                               15.70           2006 est.
143    Qatar                                 15.56           2006 est.
144    Korea, North                          15.54           2006 est.
145    Tunisia                               15.52           2006 est.
146    Sri Lanka                             15.51           2006 est.
147    Mauritius                             15.43           2006 est.
148    Dominica                              15.27           2006 est.
149    Chile                                 15.23           2006 est.
150    Albania                               15.11           2006 est.
151    Guadeloupe                            15.05           2006 est.
152    British Virgin Islands                14.89           2006 est.
153    Netherlands Antilles                  14.78           2006 est.
154    Ireland                               14.45           2006 est.
155    Anguilla                              14.17           2006 est.
156    United States                         14.14           2006 est.
157    Faroe Islands                         14.05           2006 est.
158    Virgin Islands                        13.96           2006 est.
159    Uruguay                               13.91           2006 est.
160    Thailand                              13.87           2006 est.
161    New Zealand                           13.76           2006 est.
162    Martinique                            13.74           2006 est.
163    Iceland                               13.64           2006 est.
164    Saint Pierre and Miquelon             13.52           2006 est.
165    China                                 13.25           2006 est.
166    Trinidad and Tobago                   12.90           2006 est.
167    Puerto Rico                           12.77           2006 est.
168    Cayman Islands                        12.74           2006 est.
169    Barbados                              12.71           2006 est.
170    Montenegro                            12.60           2004
171    Cyprus                                12.56           2006 est.
172    Taiwan                                12.56           2006 est.
173    Australia                             12.14           2006 est.
174    Saint Helena                          12.13           2006 est.
175    Armenia                               12.07           2006 est.
176    Macedonia                             12.02           2006 est.
177    France                                11.99           2006 est.
178    Luxembourg                            11.94           2006 est.
179    Cuba                                  11.89           2006 est.
180    Norway                                11.46           2006 est.
181    Bermuda                               11.40           2006 est.
182    Belarus                               11.16           2006 est.
183    Denmark                               11.13           2006 est.
184    Isle of Man                           11.05           2006 est.
185    Aruba                                 11.03           2006 est.
186    Netherlands                           10.90           2006 est.
187    Canada                                10.78           2006 est.
188    Gibraltar                             10.74           2006 est.
189    Portugal                              10.72           2006 est.
190    United Kingdom                        10.71           2006 est.
191    Romania                               10.70           2006 est.
192    Slovakia                              10.65           2006 est.
193    Finland                               10.45           2006 est.
194    Georgia                               10.41           2006 est.
195    Belgium                               10.38           2006 est.
196    Sweden                                10.27           2006 est.
197    Malta                                 10.22           2006 est.
198    Liechtenstein                         10.21           2006 est.
199    Spain                                 10.06           2006 est.
200    Estonia                               10.04           2006 est.
201    San Marino                            10.02           2006 est.
202    European Union                        10.00           2006 est.
203    Korea, South                          10.00           2006 est.
204    Russia                                 9.95           2006 est.
205    Poland                                 9.85           2006 est.
206    Hungary                                9.72           2006 est.
207    Switzerland                            9.71           2006 est.
208    Greece                                 9.68           2006 est.
209    Bulgaria                               9.65           2006 est.
210    Croatia                                9.61           2006 est.
211    Japan                                  9.37           2006 est.
212    Singapore                              9.34           2006 est.
213    Jersey                                 9.30           2006 est.
214    Latvia                                 9.24           2006 est.
215    Monaco                                 9.19           2006 est.
216    Czech Republic                         9.02           2006 est.
217    Slovenia                               8.98           2006 est.
218    Ukraine                                8.82           2006 est.
219    Guernsey                               8.81           2006 est.
220    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 8.77           2006 est.
221    Lithuania                              8.75           2006 est.
222    Austria                                8.74           2006 est.
223    Italy                                  8.72           2006 est.
224    Andorra                                8.71           2006 est.
225    Macau                                  8.48           2006 est.
226    Germany                                8.25           2006 est.
227    Hong Kong                              7.29           2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2066

Rank   Country                           Death rate(deaths/1,000 population)  Date of Information

1      Swaziland                             29.74           2006 est.
2      Botswana                              29.50           2006 est.
3      Lesotho                               28.71           2006 est.
4      Angola                                24.20           2006 est.
5      Liberia                               23.10           2006 est.
6      Sierra Leone                          23.03           2006 est.
7      South Africa                          22.00           2006 est.
8      Zimbabwe                              21.84           2006 est.
9      Mozambique                            21.35           2006 est.
10     Niger                                 20.91           2006 est.
11     Afghanistan                           20.34           2006 est.
12     Zambia                                19.93           2006 est.
13     Malawi                                19.33           2006 est.
14     Djibouti                              19.31           2006 est.
15     Namibia                               18.86           2006 est.
16     Central African Republic              18.65           2006 est.
17     Nigeria                               16.94           2006 est.
18     Mali                                  16.89           2006 est.
19     Somalia                               16.63           2006 est.
20     Guinea-Bissau                         16.53           2006 est.
21     Tanzania                              16.39           2006 est.
22     Chad                                  16.38           2006 est.
23     Rwanda                                16.09           2006 est.
24     Burkina Faso                          15.60           2006 est.
25     Guinea                                15.48           2006 est.
26     Equatorial Guinea                     15.06           2006 est.
27     Ethiopia                              14.86           2006 est.
28     Cote d'Ivoire                         14.84           2006 est.
29     Russia                                14.65           2006 est.
30     Ukraine                               14.39           2006 est.
31     Bulgaria                              14.27           2006 est.
32     Belarus                               14.02           2006 est.
33     Kenya                                 14.02           2006 est.
34     Latvia                                13.66           2006 est.
35     Cameroon                              13.47           2006 est.
36     Burundi                               13.46           2006 est.
37     Congo, Democratic Republic of the      13.27          2006 est.
38     Estonia                               13.25           2006 est.
39     Hungary                               13.11           2006 est.
40     Congo, Republic of the                12.93           2006 est.
41     Monaco                                12.91           2006 est.
42     Bhutan                                12.70           2006 est.
43     Moldova                               12.64           2006 est.
44     Gambia, The                           12.25           2006 est.
45     Gabon                                 12.25           2006 est.
46     Uganda                                12.24           2006 est.
47     Benin                                 12.22           2006 est.
48     Haiti                                 12.17           2006 est.
49     Mauritania                            12.16           2006 est.
50     Romania                               11.77           2006 est.
51     Laos                                  11.55           2006 est.
52     Croatia                               11.48           2006 est.
53     Isle of Man                           11.19           2006 est.
54     Madagascar                            11.11           2006 est.
55     Lithuania                             10.98           2006 est.
56     Germany                               10.62           2006 est.
57     Czech Republic                        10.59           2006 est.
58     Trinidad and Tobago                   10.57           2006 est.
59     Portugal                              10.50           2006 est.
60     Italy                                 10.40           2006 est.
61     Denmark                               10.36           2006 est.
62     Slovenia                              10.31           2006 est.
63     Sweden                                10.31           2006 est.
64     Belgium                               10.27           2006 est.
65     Greece                                10.24           2006 est.
66     United Kingdom                        10.13           2006 est.
67     European Union                        10.10           2006 est.
68     Guernsey                              10.01           2006 est.
69     Poland                                 9.89           2006 est.
70     Finland                                9.86           2006 est.
71     Burma                                  9.83           2006 est.
72     Togo                                   9.83           2006 est.
73     Austria                                9.76           2006 est.
74     Azerbaijan                             9.75           2006 est.
75     Ghana                                  9.72           2006 est.
76     Spain                                  9.72           2006 est.
77     Eritrea                                9.60           2006 est.
78     Slovakia                               9.45           2006 est.
79     Kazakhstan                             9.42           2006 est.
80     Senegal                                9.42           2006 est.
81     Norway                                 9.40           2006 est.
82     Gibraltar                              9.31           2006 est.
83     Nepal                                  9.31           2006 est.
84     Jersey                                 9.28           2006 est.
85     Georgia                                9.23           2006 est.
86     Montenegro                             9.20           2004
87     Japan                                  9.16           2006 est.
88     France                                 9.14           2006 est.
89     Cambodia                               9.06           2006 est.
90     Bahamas, The                           9.05           2006 est.
91     Uruguay                                9.05           2006 est.
92     Sudan                                  8.97           2006 est.
93     Macedonia                              8.77           2006 est.
94     Faroe Islands                          8.70           2006 est.
95     Netherlands                            8.68           2006 est.
96     Barbados                               8.67           2006 est.
97     World                                  8.67           2006 est.
98     Turkmenistan                           8.60           2006 est.
99     Switzerland                            8.49           2006 est.
100    Luxembourg                             8.41           2006 est.
101    Saint Kitts and Nevis                  8.33           2006 est.
102    Yemen                                  8.30           2006 est.
103    Guyana                                 8.28           2006 est.
104    Bangladesh                             8.27           2006 est.
105    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 8.27           2006 est.
106    Kiribati                               8.26           2006 est.
107    United States                          8.26           2006 est.
108    Tajikistan                             8.25           2006 est.
109    Armenia                                8.23           2006 est.
110    Pakistan                               8.23           2006 est.
111    Comoros                                8.20           2006 est.
112    India                                  8.18           2006 est.
113    San Marino                             8.17           2006 est.
114    Malta                                  8.10           2006 est.
115    Greenland                              7.84           2006 est.
116    Uzbekistan                             7.84           2006 est.
117    Ireland                                7.82           2006 est.
118    Vanuatu                                7.82           2006 est.
119    Canada                                 7.80           2006 est.
120    Bermuda                                7.74           2006 est.
121    Mayotte                                7.70           2006 est.
122    Cyprus                                 7.68           2006 est.
123    Puerto Rico                            7.65           2006 est.
124    Argentina                              7.55           2006 est.
125    Bolivia                                7.53           2006 est.
126    New Zealand                            7.53           2006 est.
127    Australia                              7.51           2006 est.
128    Suriname                               7.27           2006 est.
129    Papua New Guinea                       7.25           2006 est.
130    Cuba                                   7.22           2006 est.
131    Liechtenstein                          7.18           2006 est.
132    Korea, North                           7.13           2006 est.
133    Tuvalu                                 7.11           2006 est.
134    Montserrat                             7.10           2006 est.
135    Kyrgyzstan                             7.08           2006 est.
136    Maldives                               7.06           2006 est.
137    Thailand                               7.04           2006 est.
138    China                                  6.97           2006 est.
139    Mongolia                               6.95           2006 est.
140    Grenada                                6.88           2006 est.
141    Mauritius                              6.86           2006 est.
142    Saint Pierre and Miquelon              6.83           2006 est.
143    Palau                                  6.80           2006 est.
144    Dominica                               6.73           2006 est.
145    Iceland                                6.72           2006 est.
146    Nauru                                  6.70           2006 est.
147    Aruba                                  6.68           2006 est.
148    Samoa                                  6.62           2006 est.
149    Cape Verde                             6.55           2006 est.
150    Saint Helena                           6.53           2006 est.
151    Sri Lanka                              6.52           2006 est.
152    Jamaica                                6.52           2006 est.
153    Martinique                             6.48           2006 est.
154    Taiwan                                 6.48           2006 est.
155    Sao Tome and Principe                  6.47           2006 est.
156    Netherlands Antilles                   6.45           2006 est.
157    Virgin Islands                         6.43           2006 est.
158    Hong Kong                              6.29           2006 est.
159    Seychelles                             6.29           2006 est.
160    Andorra                                6.25           2006 est.
161    Indonesia                              6.25           2006 est.
162    East Timor                             6.24           2006 est.
163    Peru                                   6.23           2006 est.
164    Vietnam                                6.22           2006 est.
165    Lebanon                                6.21           2006 est.
166    Israel                                 6.18           2006 est.
167    Brazil                                 6.17           2006 est.
168    Guadeloupe                             6.09           2006 est.
169    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines       5.98           2006 est.
170    Turkey                                 5.97           2006 est.
171    Korea, South                           5.85           2006 est.
172    Chile                                  5.81           2006 est.
173    El Salvador                            5.78           2006 est.
174    Dominican Republic                     5.73           2006 est.
175    Belize                                 5.72           2006 est.
176    New Caledonia                          5.69           2006 est.
177    Fiji                                   5.65           2006 est.
178    Colombia                               5.58           2006 est.
179    Morocco                                5.58           2006 est.
180    Iran                                   5.55           2006 est.
181    Reunion                                5.49           2006 est.
182    Philippines                            5.41           2006 est.
183    Antigua and Barbuda                    5.37           2006 est.
184    Iraq                                   5.37           2006 est.
185    Panama                                 5.36           2006 est.
186    Anguilla                               5.34           2006 est.
187    Honduras                               5.28           2006 est.
188    Tonga                                  5.28           2006 est.
189    Egypt                                  5.23           2006 est.
190    Albania                                5.22           2006 est.
191    Guatemala                              5.20           2006 est.
192    Tunisia                                5.13           2006 est.
193    Saint Lucia                            5.08           2006 est.
194    Malaysia                               5.05           2006 est.
195    Venezuela                              4.92           2006 est.
196    Cayman Islands                         4.89           2006 est.
197    French Guiana                          4.88           2006 est.
198    Syria                                  4.81           2006 est.
199    Marshall Islands                       4.78           2006 est.
200    Micronesia, Federated States of        4.75           2006 est.
201    Mexico                                 4.74           2006 est.
202    Qatar                                  4.72           2006 est.
203    French Polynesia                       4.69           2006 est.
204    Algeria                                4.61           2006 est.
205    Paraguay                               4.49           2006 est.
206    Guam                                   4.48           2006 est.
207    Macau                                  4.47           2006 est.
208    Nicaragua                              4.45           2006 est.
209    British Virgin Islands                 4.42           2006 est.
210    United Arab Emirates                   4.40           2006 est.
211    Costa Rica                             4.36           2006 est.
212    Singapore                              4.28           2006 est.
213    Ecuador                                4.23           2006 est.
214    Turks and Caicos Islands               4.21           2006 est.
215    Bahrain                                4.14           2006 est.
216    Solomon Islands                        3.92           2006 est.
217    West Bank                              3.92           2006 est.
218    Oman                                   3.81           2006 est.
219    Gaza Strip                             3.80           2006 est.
220    Libya                                  3.48           2006 est.
221    Brunei                                 3.45           2006 est.
222    American Samoa                         3.27           2006 est.
223    Jordan                                 2.65           2006 est.
224    Saudi Arabia                           2.58           2006 est.
225    Kuwait                                 2.41           2006 est.
226    Northern Mariana Islands               2.29           2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2067

Rank   Country                           Military expenditures - dollar figure  Date of Information

1      United States                     $     518,100,000,000  2005 est.
2      China                             $      81,480,000,000  2005 est.
3      France                            $      45,000,000,000  2005
4      Japan                             $      44,310,000,000  2005 est.
5      United Kingdom                    $      42,836,500,000  2003
6      Germany                           $      35,063,000,000  2003
7      Italy                             $      28,182,800,000  2003
8      Korea, South                      $      21,060,000,000  2005 est.
9      India                             $      19,040,000,000  2005 est.
10     Saudi Arabia                      $      18,000,000,000  2002
11     Australia                         $      17,840,000,000  2005 est.
12     Turkey                            $      12,155,000,000  2003
13     Brazil                            $       9,940,000,000  2005 est.
14     Spain                             $       9,906,500,000  2003
15     Canada                            $       9,801,700,000  2003
16     Israel                            $       9,450,000,000  2005 est.
17     Netherlands                       $       9,408,000,000  2004
18     Taiwan                            $       7,930,000,000  2005 est.
19     Mexico                            $       6,070,000,000  2005 est.
20     Greece                            $       5,890,000,000  2004
21     Sweden                            $       5,510,000,000  2005 est.
22     Svalbard                          $       5,501,000,000
23     Korea, North                      $       5,217,400,000  FY02
24     Singapore                         $       4,470,000,000
25     Argentina                         $       4,300,000,000
26     Iran                              $       4,300,000,000  2003 est.
27     Pakistan                          $       4,260,000,000  2005 est.
28     Norway                            $       4,033,500,000  2003
29     Belgium                           $       3,999,000,000  2003
30     Chile                             $       3,910,000,000  2005 est.
31     South Africa                      $       3,550,000,000  2005 est.
32     Poland                            $       3,500,000,000  2002
33     Portugal                          $       3,497,800,000  2003
34     Colombia                          $       3,300,000,000
35     Denmark                           $       3,271,600,000  2003
36     Kuwait                            $       3,010,000,000  2005 est.
37     Algeria                           $       3,000,000,000  2005 est.
38     Switzerland                       $       2,548,000,000  FY01
39     Egypt                             $       2,440,000,000  2003
40     Morocco                           $       2,310,000,000  2003 est.
41     Montenegro                        $       2,306,000,000
42     Czech Republic                    $       2,170,000,000  2004
43     Angola                            $       2,000,000,000  2005 est.
44     Finland                           $       1,800,000,000  FY98/99
45     Thailand                          $       1,775,000,000
46     Malaysia                          $       1,690,000,000
47     Venezuela                         $       1,610,000,000  2005 est.
48     United Arab Emirates              $       1,600,000,000
49     Austria                           $       1,497,000,000  FY01/02
50     Jordan                            $       1,400,000,000  2005 est.
51     Iraq                              $       1,340,000,000  2005 est.
52     Indonesia                         $       1,300,000,000  2004
53     Libya                             $       1,300,000,000
54     New Zealand                       $       1,147,000,000  FY03/04
55     Hungary                           $       1,080,000,000  2002 est.
56     Bangladesh                        $       1,010,000,000  2005 est.
57     Western Sahara                    $        992,200,000
58     Yemen                             $        992,200,000  2005 est.
59     Romania                           $        985,000,000  2002
60     Syria                             $        858,000,000
61     Philippines                       $        836,900,000  2005 est.
62     Peru                              $        829,300,000  2003 est.
63     Nigeria                           $        737,600,000  2005 est.
64     Qatar                             $        723,000,000
65     Ireland                           $        700,000,000  FY00/01
66     Cuba                              $        694,000,000  2005 est.
67     Ecuador                           $        650,000,000  2005 est.
68     Vietnam                           $        650,000,000
69     Bahrain                           $        627,700,000  2005 est.
70     Croatia                           $        620,000,000  2004
71     Ukraine                           $        617,900,000  FY02
72     Sri Lanka                         $        606,200,000  2005 est.
73     Sudan                             $        587,000,000  2004
74     Lebanon                           $        540,600,000  2004
75     Belarus                           $        420,500,000  2006
76     Slovakia                          $        406,000,000  2002
77     Cyprus                            $        384,000,000
78     Uruguay                           $        371,200,000  2005 est.
79     Slovenia                          $        370,000,000  FY00
80     Bulgaria                          $        356,000,000  FY02
81     Tunisia                           $        356,000,000
82     Madagascar                        $        329,000,000  2005 est.
83     Botswana                          $        325,500,000  2005 est.
84     Ethiopia                          $        295,900,000  2005 est.
85     Brunei                            $        290,700,000  2003 est.
86     Kenya                             $        280,500,000  2005 est.
87     Gabon                             $        253,500,000  2005 est.
88     Oman                              $        252,990,000  2004
89     Cote d'Ivoire                     $        246,600,000  2005 est.
90     Bosnia and Herzegovina            $        234,300,000
91     Luxembourg                        $        231,600,000  2003
92     Lithuania                         $        230,800,000  FY01
93     Cameroon                          $        230,200,000  2005 est.
94     Kazakhstan                        $        221,800,000  FY02
95     Eritrea                           $        220,100,000  2005 est.
96     Macedonia                         $        200,000,000
97     Uzbekistan                        $        200,000,000
98     Turks and Caicos Islands          $        192,800,000
99     Uganda                            $        192,800,000  2005 est.
100    Guatemala                         $        169,800,000  2005 est.
101    El Salvador                       $        161,700,000  2005 est.
102    Estonia                           $        155,000,000  2002 est.
103    Equatorial Guinea                 $        152,200,000  2005 est.
104    Panama                            $        150,000,000  2005 est.
105    Namibia                           $        149,500,000  2005 est.
106    Armenia                           $        135,000,000  FY01
107    Bolivia                           $        130,000,000  2005 est.
108    Zimbabwe                          $        124,700,000  2005 est.
109    Afghanistan                       $        122,400,000  2005 est.
110    Zambia                            $        121,700,000  2005 est.
111    Azerbaijan                        $        121,000,000
112    Guinea                            $        119,700,000  2005 est.
113    Senegal                           $        117,300,000  2005 est.
114    Cambodia                          $        112,000,000
115    Mali                              $        106,300,000  2005 est.
116    Nepal                             $        104,900,000  2005 est.
117    Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $        103,700,000  2005 est.
118    Benin                             $        100,900,000  2005 est.
119    Turkmenistan                      $         90,000,000
120    Latvia                            $         87,000,000  FY01
121    Congo, Republic of the            $         85,220,000  2005 est.
122    Ghana                             $         83,650,000  2005 est.
123    Costa Rica                        $         83,460,000  2005 est.
124    Mozambique                        $         78,030,000  2005 est.
125    Burkina Faso                      $         74,830,000  2005 est.
126    Chad                              $         68,950,000  2005 est.
127    Liberia                           $         67,400,000  2005 est.
128    Trinidad and Tobago               $         66,720,000  2003 est.
129    Tokelau                           $         66,720,000
130    Albania                           $         56,500,000  FY02
131    Rwanda                            $         53,660,000  2005 est.
132    Paraguay                          $         53,100,000  2003 est.
133    Honduras                          $         52,800,000  2005 est.
134    Maldives                          $         45,070,000  2005 est.
135    Niger                             $         44,780,000  2005 est.
136    Burundi                           $         43,900,000  2005 est.
137    Swaziland                         $         41,600,000  2005 est.
138    Lesotho                           $         41,100,000  2005 est.
139    Burma                             $         39,000,000
140    Malta                             $         38,168,000  2005 est.
141    Fiji                              $         36,000,000  2004
142    Tajikistan                        $         35,400,000  FY01
143    Nicaragua                         $         32,270,000  2005 est.
144    Jamaica                           $         31,170,000  2003 est.
145    Togo                              $         29,980,000  2005 est.
146    Djibouti                          $         29,050,000  2005 est.
147    Haiti                             $         25,960,000  2003 est.
148    Mongolia                          $         23,100,000  FY02
149    Georgia                           $         23,000,000
150    Somalia                           $         22,340,000  2005 est.
151    Tanzania                          $         21,200,000  2005 est.
152    Mauritania                        $         19,320,000  2005 est.
153    Kyrgyzstan                        $         19,200,000  FY01
154    Belize                            $         19,000,000  2005 est.
155    Papua New Guinea                  $         16,900,000  2003
156    Central African Republic          $         16,370,000  2005 est.
157    Malawi                            $         15,810,000  2005 est.
158    Serbia                            $         14,850,000
159    Seychelles                        $         14,850,000  2005 est.
160    Sierra Leone                      $         14,250,000  2005 est.
161    Comoros                           $         12,870,000  2005 est.
162    Mauritius                         $         12,040,000  2005 est.
163    Laos                              $         11,040,000  2005 est.
164    Guinea-Bissau                     $          9,460,000  2005 est.
165    Moldova                           $          8,700,000  2004
166    Bhutan                            $          8,290,000  2005 est.
167    Suriname                          $          7,500,000  2003 est.
168    Cape Verde                        $          7,180,000  2005 est.
169    Guyana                            $          6,480,000  2003 est.
170    East Timor                        $          4,400,000  FY03
171    Bermuda                           $          4,030,000  2001
172    Gambia, The                       $          1,550,000  2005 est.
173    San Marino                        $           700,000  FY00/01
174    Sao Tome and Principe             $           581,729  2005 est.
175    Dominican Republic                $                0  2002 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2078

Rank   Country                           Exports             Date of Information

1      World                             $   10,330,000,000,000  2004 est.
2      European Union                    $    1,318,000,000,000  2004
3      Germany                           $    1,016,000,000,000  2005 est.
4      United States                     $     927,500,000,000  2005 est.
5      China                             $     752,200,000,000  2005 est.
6      Japan                             $     550,500,000,000  2005 est.
7      France                            $     443,400,000,000  2005 est.
8      United Kingdom                    $     372,700,000,000  2005 est.
9      Italy                             $     371,900,000,000  2005 est.
10     Netherlands                       $     365,100,000,000  2005 est.
11     Canada                            $     364,800,000,000  2005 est.
12     Korea, South                      $     288,200,000,000  2005 est.
13     Hong Kong                         $     286,300,000,000  2005 est.
14     Belgium                           $     269,600,000,000  2005 est.
15     Russia                            $     245,000,000,000  2005 est.
16     Mexico                            $     213,700,000,000  2005 est.
17     Singapore                         $     204,800,000,000  2005 est.
18     Spain                             $     194,300,000,000  2005 est.
19     Taiwan                            $     189,400,000,000  2005 est.
20     Saudi Arabia                      $     165,000,000,000  2005 est.
21     Switzerland                       $     148,600,000,000  2005 est.
22     Malaysia                          $     147,100,000,000  2005 est.
23     Sweden                            $     126,600,000,000  2005 est.
24     Austria                           $     122,500,000,000  2005 est.
25     Brazil                            $     115,100,000,000  2005 est.
26     Norway                            $     111,200,000,000  2005 est.
27     Thailand                          $     105,800,000,000  2005 est.
28     United Arab Emirates              $     103,100,000,000  2005 est.
29     Australia                         $     103,000,000,000  2005 est.
30     Ireland                           $     102,000,000,000  2005 est.
31     Poland                            $      92,720,000,000  2005 est.
32     Denmark                           $      84,950,000,000  2005 est.
33     Indonesia                         $      83,640,000,000  2005 est.
34     Czech Republic                    $      78,370,000,000  2005 est.
35     India                             $      76,230,000,000  2005 est.
36     Turkey                            $      72,490,000,000  2005 est.
37     Finland                           $      67,880,000,000  2005 est.
38     Hungary                           $      61,750,000,000  2005 est.
39     Iran                              $      55,420,000,000  2005 est.
40     Venezuela                         $      52,730,000,000  2005 est.
41     Nigeria                           $      52,160,000,000  2005 est.
42     South Africa                      $      50,910,000,000  2005 est.
43     Algeria                           $      49,590,000,000  2005 est.
44     Puerto Rico                       $      46,900,000,000  2001
45     Kuwait                            $      44,430,000,000  2005 est.
46     Philippines                       $      41,250,000,000  2005 est.
47     Israel                            $      40,140,000,000  2005 est.
48     Argentina                         $      40,000,000,000  2005 est.
49     Portugal                          $      38,800,000,000  2005 est.
50     Ukraine                           $      38,220,000,000  2005 est.
51     Chile                             $      38,030,000,000  2005 est.
52     Vietnam                           $      32,230,000,000  2005 est.
53     Romania                           $      31,200,000,000  2005
54     Libya                             $      30,790,000,000  2005 est.
55     Slovakia                          $      30,700,000,000  2005 est.
56     Kazakhstan                        $      30,090,000,000  2005 est.
57     Angola                            $      26,800,000,000  2005 est.
58     Qatar                             $      24,900,000,000  2005 est.
59     New Zealand                       $      22,210,000,000  2005 est.
60     Colombia                          $      19,300,000,000  2005 est.
61     Oman                              $      19,010,000,000  2005 est.
62     Greece                            $      18,540,000,000  2005 est.
63     Slovenia                          $      18,530,000,000  2005 est.
64     Iraq                              $      17,780,000,000  2004
65     Belarus                           $      16,140,000,000  2005 est.
66     Peru                              $      15,950,000,000  2005 est.
67     Pakistan                          $      14,850,000,000  2005 est.
68     Egypt                             $      14,330,000,000  2005 est.
69     Luxembourg                        $      13,390,000,000  2005 est.
70     Lithuania                         $      11,800,000,000  2005 est.
71     Bulgaria                          $      11,670,000,000  2005 est.
72     Bahrain                           $      11,170,000,000  2005 est.
73     Croatia                           $      10,300,000,000  2005 est.
74     Tunisia                           $      10,300,000,000  2005 est.
75     Morocco                           $       9,472,000,000  2005 est.
76     Bangladesh                        $       9,372,000,000  2005 est.
77     Ecuador                           $       9,224,000,000  2005 est.
78     Trinidad and Tobago               $       9,161,000,000  2005 est.
79     Panama                            $       7,481,000,000  2005 est.
80     Estonia                           $       7,439,000,000  2005 est.
81     Costa Rica                        $       7,005,000,000  2005 est.
82     Sudan                             $       6,989,000,000  2005 est.
83     Equatorial Guinea                 $       6,727,000,000  2005 est.
84     Cote d'Ivoire                     $       6,490,000,000  2005 est.
85     Sri Lanka                         $       6,442,000,000  2005 est.
86     Yemen                             $       6,387,000,000  2005 est.
87     Syria                             $       6,344,000,000  2005 est.
88     Azerbaijan                        $       6,117,000,000  2005 est.
89     Dominican Republic                $       5,818,000,000  2005 est.
90     Gabon                             $       5,813,000,000  2005 est.
91     Uzbekistan                        $       5,000,000,000  2005 est.
92     Latvia                            $       4,860,000,000  2005 est.
93     Turkmenistan                      $       4,700,000,000  2005 est.
94     Serbia                            $       4,553,000,000  2005 est.
95     Brunei                            $       4,514,000,000  2004 est.
96     Virgin Islands                    $       4,234,000,000
97     Jordan                            $       4,226,000,000  2005 est.
98     Guatemala                         $       3,940,000,000  2005 est.
99     Botswana                          $       3,680,000,000  2005 est.
100    El Salvador                       $       3,586,000,000  2005 est.
101    Uruguay                           $       3,550,000,000  2005 est.
102    Macau                             $       3,465,000,000  2004
103    Cameroon                          $       3,236,000,000  2005 est.
104    Iceland                           $       3,215,000,000  2005 est.
105    Kenya                             $       3,173,000,000  2005 est.
106    Paraguay                          $       3,130,000,000  2005 est.
107    Burma                             $       3,111,000,000  2004
108    Chad                              $       3,016,000,000  2005 est.
109    Ghana                             $       2,911,000,000  2005 est.
110    Papua New Guinea                  $       2,833,000,000  2005 est.
111    Malta                             $       2,744,000,000  2005 est.
112    Bosnia and Herzegovina            $       2,700,000,000  2005 est.
113    Cambodia                          $       2,663,000,000  2005 est.
114    Liechtenstein                     $       2,470,000,000  1996
115    Cuba                              $       2,388,000,000  2005 est.
116    Bolivia                           $       2,371,000,000  2005 est.
117    Congo, Republic of the            $       2,209,000,000  2005 est.
118    Netherlands Antilles              $       2,076,000,000  2004 est.
119    Macedonia                         $       2,047,000,000  2005 est.
120    Namibia                           $       2,040,000,000  2005 est.
121    Swaziland                         $       1,991,000,000  2005 est.
122    Mauritius                         $       1,949,000,000  2005 est.
123    Zambia                            $       1,947,000,000  2005 est.
124    Lebanon                           $       1,782,000,000  2005 est.
125    Honduras                          $       1,726,000,000  2005 est.
126    Mozambique                        $       1,690,000,000  2005 est.
127    Zimbabwe                          $       1,644,000,000  2005 est.
128    Jamaica                           $       1,608,000,000  2004 est.
129    Tanzania                          $       1,581,000,000  2005 est.
130    Nicaragua                         $       1,550,000,000  2005 est.
131    Senegal                           $       1,526,000,000  2005 est.
132    Bermuda                           $       1,469,000,000  2004 est.
133    Georgia                           $       1,400,000,000  2005 est.
134    Korea, North                      $       1,275,000,000  2004 est.
135    Cyprus                            $       1,237,000,000  2005 est.
136    Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $       1,108,000,000  2004 est.
137    Moldova                           $       1,040,000,000  2005 est.
138    New Caledonia                     $        999,000,000  2004 est.
139    Madagascar                        $        951,000,000  2005 est.
140    Tajikistan                        $        950,000,000  2005 est.
141    Liberia                           $        910,000,000  2004 est.
142    Suriname                          $        881,000,000  2004 est.
143    Mongolia                          $        852,000,000  2004 est.
144    Benin                             $        826,900,000  2005 est.
145    Nepal                             $        822,000,000  2005 est.
146    Armenia                           $        800,000,000  2005 est.
147    Mauritania                        $        784,000,000  2004 est.
148    Togo                              $        768,000,000  2005 est.
149    Uganda                            $        768,000,000  2005 est.
150    Kyrgyzstan                        $        759,000,000  2005 est.
151    Fiji                              $        719,600,000  2005
152    Monaco                            $        656,500,000
153    Albania                           $        650,100,000  2005 est.
154    Guinea                            $        612,100,000  2005 est.
155    Ethiopia                          $        612,000,000  2005 est.
156    Lesotho                           $        602,800,000  2005 est.
157    Guyana                            $        587,200,000  2005 est.
158    Faroe Islands                     $        533,000,000  2004 est.
159    Greenland                         $        480,000,000  2004 est.
160    Afghanistan                       $        471,000,000  2005 est.
161    Bahamas, The                      $        469,300,000  2004 est.
162    American Samoa                    $        445,600,000  FY04 est.
163    Martinique                        $        404,200,000  2002
164    Burkina Faso                      $        395,000,000  2005 est.
165    Haiti                             $        390,700,000  2005 est.
166    Laos                              $        379,000,000  2005 est.
167    Malawi                            $        364,000,000  2005 est.
168    Belize                            $        349,900,000  2005 est.
169    Mali                              $        323,000,000  2004 est.
170    Seychelles                        $        312,100,000  2005 est.
171    Gibraltar                         $        271,000,000  2004 est.
172    Gaza Strip                        $        270,000,000  2003
173    West Bank                         $        270,000,000  2003
174    Djibouti                          $        250,000,000  2004 est.
175    Reunion                           $        248,500,000  2002
176    Somalia                           $        241,000,000  2004 est.
177    Niger                             $        222,000,000  2004 est.
178    French Polynesia                  $        211,000,000  2005 est.
179    Barbados                          $        209,000,000  2004 est.
180    Sierra Leone                      $        185,000,000  2004 est.
181    Montenegro                        $        171,300,000  2003
182    Solomon Islands                   $        171,000,000  2004 est.
183    Turks and Caicos Islands          $        169,200,000  2000
184    Bhutan                            $        154,000,000  2000 est.
185    Guadeloupe                        $        147,800,000  2002
186    Andorra                           $        145,000,000  2004
187    Gambia, The                       $        140,300,000  2005 est.
188    French Guiana                     $        137,500,000  2003
189    Central African Republic          $        131,000,000  2004 est.
190    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)  $        125,000,000  2004 est.
191    Maldives                          $        123,000,000  2004 est.
192    Guinea-Bissau                     $        116,000,000  2004 est.
193    Rwanda                            $         98,000,000  2005 est.
194    Samoa                             $         94,000,000  2004 est.
195    Saint Lucia                       $         82,000,000  2004 est.
196    Aruba                             $         80,000,000  2004 est.
197    Dominica                          $         74,000,000  2004 est.
198    Cape Verde                        $         73,350,000  2005 est.
199    Saint Kitts and Nevis             $         70,000,000  2004 est.
200    Cyprus                            $         69,000,000  2005 est.
201    Burundi                           $         52,000,000  2005 est.
202    Antigua and Barbuda               $         46,810,000  2004 est.
203    Guam                              $         45,000,000  2004 est.
204    Grenada                           $         40,000,000  2004 est.
205    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  $         37,000,000  2004 est.
206    Vanuatu                           $         34,110,000  2004 est.
207    Comoros                           $         34,000,000  2004 est.
208    Tonga                             $         34,000,000  2004 est.
209    Eritrea                           $         33,580,000  2005 est.
210    British Virgin Islands            $         25,300,000  2002
211    Saint Helena                      $         19,000,000  2004 est.
212    Kiribati                          $         17,000,000  2004 est.
213    Anguilla                          $         14,560,000  2005 est.
214    Micronesia, Federated States of   $         14,000,000  2004 est.
215    East Timor                        $         10,000,000  2005 est.
216    Marshall Islands                  $          9,100,000  2000
217    Sao Tome and Principe             $          8,000,000  2005 est.
218    Saint Pierre and Miquelon         $          7,000,000  2004 est.
219    Palau                             $          5,882,000  2004 est.
220    Cook Islands                      $          5,222,000  2005
221    Mayotte                           $          4,850,000  2004
222    Cayman Islands                    $          2,520,000  2004
223    Norfolk Island                    $          1,500,000  FY91/92
224    Tuvalu                            $          1,000,000  2004 est.
225    Montserrat                        $           700,000  2001
226    Niue                              $           201,400  2004
227    Nauru                             $            64,000  2005 est.
228    Wallis and Futuna                 $            47,450  2004
229    Tokelau                           $                0  2002

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2079

Rank   Country                           Debt - external     Date of Information

1      World                             $   36,890,000,000,000  2004 est.
2      United States                     $    8,837,000,000,000  30 June 2005 est.
3      United Kingdom                    $    7,107,000,000,000  30 June 2005
4      Germany                           $    3,626,000,000,000  30 June 2005
5      France                            $    2,826,000,000,000  30 June 2005
6      Netherlands                       $    1,645,000,000,000  30 June 2005
7      Japan                             $    1,545,000,000,000  31 December 2004
8      Ireland                           $    1,049,000,000,000  30 June 2005
9      Belgium                           $     980,100,000,000  30 June 2005 est.
10     Spain                             $     970,700,000,000  2005 est.
11     Italy                             $     922,500,000,000  2005 est.
12     Switzerland                       $     856,000,000,000  30 June 2005
13     Sweden                            $     516,100,000,000  30 June 2005
14     Austria                           $     510,600,000,000  30 June 2005 est.
15     Canada                            $     439,800,000,000  30 November 2005
16     Denmark                           $     352,900,000,000  30 June 2005
17     Australia                         $     323,400,000,000  2005 est.
18     Portugal                          $     287,800,000,000  2005 est.
19     Norway                            $     281,000,000,000  30 June 2005
20     China                             $     252,800,000,000  2005 est.
21     Russia                            $     215,300,000,000  2005 est.
22     Finland                           $     211,700,000,000  30 June 2005
23     Brazil                            $     188,000,000,000  2005 est.
24     Turkey                            $     170,100,000,000  2005 est.
25     Korea, South                      $     153,900,000,000  2005 est.
26     Mexico                            $     137,200,000,000  2005 est.
27     Indonesia                         $     135,000,000,000  2005 est.
28     India                             $     125,500,000,000  2005 est.
29     Argentina                         $     118,200,000,000  2005 est.
30     Poland                            $     101,500,000,000  2005 est.
31     Iraq                              $      92,330,000,000  2005 est.
32     Taiwan                            $      87,500,000,000  2005 est.
33     Israel                            $      75,550,000,000  2005 est.
34     Greece                            $      75,180,000,000  2005 est.
35     Hong Kong                         $      72,040,000,000  2005 est.
36     Hungary                           $      66,220,000,000  2005 est.
37     Philippines                       $      65,710,000,000  2005 est.
38     Thailand                          $      52,460,000,000  2005 est.
39     Malaysia                          $      52,000,000,000  2005 est.
40     Czech Republic                    $      49,140,000,000  2005 est.
41     Chile                             $      47,450,000,000  2005 est.
42     New Zealand                       $      42,840,000,000  2005 est.
43     Kazakhstan                        $      41,660,000,000  2005 est.
44     Venezuela                         $      41,510,000,000  2005 est.
45     Pakistan                          $      38,800,000,000  2005 est.
46     Saudi Arabia                      $      36,780,000,000  2005 est.
47     Romania                           $      35,680,000,000  2005 est.
48     Egypt                             $      35,260,000,000  2005 est.
49     United Arab Emirates              $      34,470,000,000  2005 est.
50     Nigeria                           $      32,450,000,000  2005 est.
51     Colombia                          $      32,350,000,000  2005 est.
52     Peru                              $      30,940,000,000  2005 est.
53     Croatia                           $      30,620,000,000  2005 est.
54     South Africa                      $      29,970,000,000  2005 est.
55     Sudan                             $      27,340,000,000  2005 est.
56     Slovakia                          $      26,940,000,000  2005 est.
57     Lebanon                           $      26,000,000,000  2005 est.
58     Ukraine                           $      23,930,000,000  2005 est.
59     Singapore                         $      23,760,000,000  2005 est.
60     Qatar                             $      21,130,000,000  2005 est.
61     Bangladesh                        $      20,630,000,000  2005 est.
62     Vietnam                           $      20,160,000,000  2005 est.
63     Algeria                           $      19,450,000,000  2005 est.
64     Iran                              $      19,060,000,000  2005 est.
65     Slovenia                          $      18,970,000,000  2005 est.
66     Ecuador                           $      18,090,000,000  2005 est.
67     Monaco                            $      18,000,000,000  2000 est.
68     Kuwait                            $      16,120,000,000  2005 est.
69     Tunisia                           $      16,090,000,000  2005 est.
70     Morocco                           $      15,610,000,000  2005 est.
71     Serbia                            $      15,430,000,000  2005 est.
72     Bulgaria                          $      15,320,000,000  2005 est.
73     Cote d'Ivoire                     $      13,430,000,000  2005 est.
74     Uruguay                           $      13,240,000,000  2005 est.
75     Cuba                              $      12,560,000,000  2005 est.
76     Korea, North                      $      12,000,000,000  1996 est.
77     Lithuania                         $      11,700,000,000  2 February 2006
78     Sri Lanka                         $      11,050,000,000  2005 est.
79     Estonia                           $      11,030,000,000  2005 est.
80     Latvia                            $      10,800,000,000  1 January 2006
81     Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $      10,600,000,000  2003 est.
82     Cyprus                            $      10,530,000,000  2005 est.
83     Panama                            $       9,758,000,000  2005 est.
84     Angola                            $       9,401,000,000  2005 est.
85     Cameroon                          $       9,168,000,000  2005 est.
86     Syria                             $       8,566,000,000  2005 est.
87     Jordan                            $       8,528,000,000  2005 est.
88     Tanzania                          $       8,178,000,000  2005 est.
89     El Salvador                       $       8,087,000,000  2005 est.
90     Afghanistan                       $       8,000,000,000  2004
91     Dominican Republic                $       7,687,000,000  2005 est.
92     Kenya                             $       7,391,000,000  2005 est.
93     Jamaica                           $       7,162,000,000  2005 est.
94     Ghana                             $       6,999,000,000  2005 est.
95     Burma                             $       6,990,000,000  2005 est.
96     Bahrain                           $       6,814,000,000  2005 est.
97     Bolivia                           $       6,309,000,000  2005 est.
98     Honduras                          $       5,795,000,000  2005 est.
99     Guatemala                         $       5,503,000,000  2005 est.
100    Mozambique                        $       5,456,000,000  2005 est.
101    Yemen                             $       5,347,000,000  2005 est.
102    Zimbabwe                          $       5,216,000,000  2005 est.
103    Ethiopia                          $       5,101,000,000  2005 est.
104    Costa Rica                        $       5,049,000,000  2005 est.
105    Uzbekistan                        $       5,032,000,000  2005 est.
106    Congo, Republic of the            $       5,000,000,000  2000 est.
107    Uganda                            $       4,973,000,000  2005 est.
108    Belarus                           $       4,662,000,000  30 June 2005 est.
109    Zambia                            $       4,641,000,000  2005 est.
110    Madagascar                        $       4,600,000,000  2002
111    Oman                              $       4,361,000,000  2005 est.
112    Libya                             $       4,267,000,000  2005 est.
113    Gabon                             $       3,903,000,000  2005 est.
114    Senegal                           $       3,529,000,000  2005 est.
115    Guinea                            $       3,460,000,000  2003 est.
116    Paraguay                          $       3,450,000,000  2005 est.
117    Nepal                             $       3,340,000,000  March 2005
118    Malawi                            $       3,287,000,000  2005 est.
119    Mauritius                         $       3,246,000,000  2005 est.
120    Liberia                           $       3,200,000,000  2005 est.
121    Nicaragua                         $       3,188,000,000  2005 est.
122    Bosnia and Herzegovina            $       3,116,000,000  2005 est.
123    Macau                             $       3,100,000,000  2004
124    Iceland                           $       3,073,000,000  2002
125    Somalia                           $       3,000,000,000  2001 est.
126    Mali                              $       2,800,000,000  2002
127    Trinidad and Tobago               $       2,767,000,000  2005 est.
128    Netherlands Antilles              $       2,680,000,000  2004
129    Mauritania                        $       2,500,000,000  2000
130    Laos                              $       2,490,000,000  2001
131    Kyrgyzstan                        $       2,428,000,000  31 December 2004 est.
132    Turkmenistan                      $       2,400,000,000  2001 est.
133    Macedonia                         $       2,190,000,000  2005 est.
134    Niger                             $       2,100,000,000  2003 est.
135    Georgia                           $       2,040,000,000  2004
136    Togo                              $       2,000,000,000  2005
137    Moldova                           $       1,986,000,000  2005 est.
138    Papua New Guinea                  $       1,882,000,000  2005 est.
139    Azerbaijan                        $       1,873,000,000  2005 est.
140    Burkina Faso                      $       1,850,000,000  2003
141    Armenia                           $       1,819,000,000  20 September 2005
142    Sierra Leone                      $       1,610,000,000  2003 est.
143    Benin                             $       1,600,000,000  2000
144    Albania                           $       1,550,000,000  2004
145    Chad                              $       1,500,000,000  2003 est.
146    Rwanda                            $       1,400,000,000  2004 est.
147    Belize                            $       1,362,000,000  June 2004 est.
148    Mongolia                          $       1,360,000,000  2004
149    Haiti                             $       1,313,000,000  2005 est.
150    Burundi                           $       1,200,000,000  2003
151    Guyana                            $       1,200,000,000  2002
152    Central African Republic          $       1,060,000,000  2002 est.
153    Guinea-Bissau                     $        941,500,000  2000 est.
154    Tajikistan                        $        888,000,000  2004 est.
155    French Guiana                     $        800,300,000  2003
156    Cambodia                          $        800,000,000  2003 est.
157    Lesotho                           $        735,000,000  2002
158    Namibia                           $        712,900,000  2005 est.
159    Barbados                          $        668,000,000  2003
160    Gambia, The                       $        628,800,000  2003 est.
161    Bhutan                            $        593,000,000  2004
162    Botswana                          $        519,000,000  2005 est.
163    Seychelles                        $        508,000,000  2005 est.
164    Suriname                          $        504,300,000  2005 est.
165    Aruba                             $        478,600,000  2005 est.
166    Antigua and Barbuda               $        427,300,000  2000
167    Djibouti                          $        394,000,000  2004 est.
168    Swaziland                         $        357,000,000  2003 est.
169    Equatorial Guinea                 $        353,000,000  2005 est.
170    Grenada                           $        347,000,000  2004
171    Bahamas, The                      $        342,600,000  2004 est.
172    Cape Verde                        $        325,000,000  2002
173    Sao Tome and Principe             $        318,000,000  2002
174    Saint Kitts and Nevis             $        314,000,000  2004
175    Eritrea                           $        311,000,000  2000 est.
176    Maldives                          $        304,000,000  2004 est.
177    Saint Lucia                       $        257,000,000  2004
178    Comoros                           $        232,000,000  2000 est.
179    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  $        223,000,000  2004
180    Dominica                          $        213,000,000  2004
181    Malta                             $        188,800,000  2005
182    Martinique                        $        180,000,000  1994
183    Samoa                             $        177,000,000  2004
184    Solomon Islands                   $        166,000,000  2004
185    Bermuda                           $        160,000,000  FY99/00
186    Cook Islands                      $        141,000,000  1996 est.
187    Fiji                              $        127,000,000  2004 est.
188    Marshall Islands                  $         86,500,000  FY99/00 est.
189    Vanuatu                           $         81,200,000  2004
190    Tonga                             $         80,700,000  2004
191    New Caledonia                     $         79,000,000  1998 est.
192    Cayman Islands                    $         70,000,000  1996
193    Faroe Islands                     $         64,000,000  1999
194    Micronesia, Federated States of   $         60,800,000  FY05 est.
195    British Virgin Islands            $         36,100,000  1997
196    Nauru                             $         33,300,000  2002
197    Greenland                         $         25,000,000  1999
198    Kiribati                          $         10,000,000  1999 est.
199    Montserrat                        $          8,900,000  1997
200    Anguilla                          $          8,800,000  1998
201    Wallis and Futuna                 $          3,670,000
202    Niue                              $           418,000  2002 est.
203    Brunei                            $                0
204    Palau                             $                0  FY99/00
205    Tokelau                           $                0
206    West Bank                         $                0  2002
207    East Timor                        $                0
208    Gaza Strip                        $                0  2002
209    Liechtenstein                     $                0  2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2085

Rank   Country                           Roadways(km)        Date of Information

1      World                                    32,345,165   2002
2      United States                             6,407,637   2004
3      European Union                            4,634,810   1999-2000
4      India                                     3,851,440   2002
5      China                                     1,809,829   2003
6      Brazil                                    1,724,929   2000
7      Japan                                     1,183,000   2003
8      Canada                                    1,042,300   2005
9      France                                     891,290    2003
10     Russia                                     871,000    2004
11     Australia                                  810,641    2004
12     Spain                                      666,292    2003
13     Italy                                      479,688    2004
14     Sweden                                     424,981    2003
15     Poland                                     423,997    2004
16     United Kingdom                             387,674    2004
17     Indonesia                                  368,360    2002
18     South Africa                               362,099    2002
19     Mexico                                     349,038    2003
20     Turkey                                     347,553    2004
21     Kazakhstan                                 258,029    2003
22     Pakistan                                   255,856    2004
23     Bangladesh                                 239,226    2003
24     Germany                                    231,581    2005
25     Argentina                                  229,144    2004
26     Vietnam                                    222,179    2004
27     Philippines                                200,037    2003
28     Romania                                    198,817    2003
29     Nigeria                                    194,394    1999
30     Iran                                       178,152    2002
31     Ukraine                                    169,447    2004
32     Hungary                                    159,568    2005
33     Congo, Democratic Republic of the           157,000   1999
34     Saudi Arabia                               152,044    2000
35     Belgium                                    149,757    2003
36     Netherlands                                134,000    2004
37     Austria                                    133,718    2003
38     Czech Republic                             127,747    2003
39     Greece                                     116,470    1999
40     Colombia                                   110,000    2000
41     Algeria                                    104,000    1999
42     Bulgaria                                   102,016    2003
43     Zimbabwe                                    97,440    2002
44     Sri Lanka                                   97,287    2003
45     Korea, South                                97,252    2004
46     Venezuela                                   96,155    1999
47     Ireland                                     95,736    2002
48     Belarus                                     93,055    2003
49     New Zealand                                 92,662    2003
50     Norway                                      92,513    2005
51     Syria                                       91,795    2003
52     Zambia                                      91,440    2001
53     Libya                                       83,200    1999
54     Uzbekistan                                  81,600    1999
55     Cameroon                                    80,932    2002
56     Cote d'Ivoire                               80,000    2006
57     Chile                                       79,605    2001
58     Lithuania                                   79,497    2005
59     Tanzania                                    78,891    2003
60     Peru                                        78,672    2003
61     Finland                                     78,189    2006
62     Uruguay                                     77,732    2004
63     Portugal                                    72,600    2002
64     Denmark                                     72,257    2005
65     Malaysia                                    71,814    2001
66     Yemen                                       71,300    2005
67     Switzerland                                 71,297    2004
68     Uganda                                      70,746    2003
69     Latvia                                      69,919    2003
70     Egypt                                       64,000    1999
71     Kenya                                       63,000    2004
72     Cuba                                        60,858    1999
73     Bolivia                                     60,762    2003
74     Morocco                                     57,694    2002
75     Thailand                                    57,403    2000
76     Estonia                                     56,849    2003
77     Angola                                      51,429    2001
78     Madagascar                                  49,827    1999
79     Mongolia                                    49,250    2002
80     Iraq                                        45,550    1999
81     Guinea                                      44,348    2003
82     Ecuador                                     43,197    2003
83     Slovakia                                    42,993    2003
84     Ghana                                       42,623    2004
85     Namibia                                     42,237    2002
86     Slovenia                                    38,400    2003
87     Serbia                                      37,887    2002
88     Taiwan                                      37,299    2002
89     Costa Rica                                  35,889    2003
90     Oman                                        34,965    2001
91     Afghanistan                                 34,789    2003
92     Ethiopia                                    33,856    2003
93     Chad                                        33,400    1999
94     Laos                                        32,620    2002
95     Gabon                                       32,333    2003
96     Korea, North                                31,200    1999 est.
97     Mozambique                                  30,400    1999
98     Paraguay                                    29,500    1999
99     Malawi                                      28,400    1999
100    Croatia                                     28,344    2004
101    Tajikistan                                  27,767    2000
102    Azerbaijan                                  27,016    2003
103    Burma                                       27,000    2005
104    Puerto Rico                                 25,645    2004
105    Botswana                                    25,233    2003
106    Turkmenistan                                24,000    1999
107    Central African Republic                    23,810    1999
108    Somalia                                     22,100    1999
109    Bosnia and Herzegovina                      21,846    2005
110    Georgia                                     20,247    2003
111    Papua New Guinea                            19,600    1999
112    Nicaragua                                   19,036    2005
113    Tunisia                                     18,997    2001
114    Jamaica                                     18,700    1999
115    Kyrgyzstan                                  18,500    1999
116    Albania                                     18,000    2002
117    Israel                                      17,364    2004
118    Benin                                       16,000    2005
119    Nepal                                       15,905    2003
120    Mali                                        15,100    1999
121    Cyprus                                      14,496    2005/1996 est.
122    Burundi                                     14,480    1999
123    Guatemala                                   14,095    1999
124    Honduras                                    13,603    1999
125    Senegal                                     13,576    2003
126    Iceland                                     13,028    2005
127    Congo, Republic of the                      12,800    1999
128    Moldova                                     12,730    2003
129    Dominican Republic                          12,600    1999
130    Burkina Faso                                12,506    1999
131    Cambodia                                    12,323    2000
132    Rwanda                                      12,000    1999
133    Sudan                                       11,900    1999
134    Panama                                      11,643    2000
135    Sierra Leone                                11,300    2002
136    Liberia                                     10,600    1999
137    Niger                                       10,100    1999
138    El Salvador                                 10,029    1999
139    Macedonia                                    8,684    1999
140    Trinidad and Tobago                          8,320    1999
141    Bhutan                                       8,050    2003
142    Guyana                                       7,970    1999
143    Mauritania                                   7,660    1999
144    Armenia                                      7,633    2003
145    Togo                                         7,520    1999
146    Jordan                                       7,364    2003
147    Montenegro                                   7,353    2005
148    Lebanon                                      7,300    1999
149    Lesotho                                      5,940    1999
150    New Caledonia                                5,432    2000
151    Luxembourg                                   5,210    2002
152    East Timor                                   5,000    2005
153    Suriname                                     4,492    2002
154    Kuwait                                       4,450    1999
155    Guinea-Bissau                                4,400    1999
156    Haiti                                        4,160    1999
157    West Bank                                    4,158    2003
158    Eritrea                                      4,010    1999
159    Gambia, The                                  3,742    2003
160    Swaziland                                    3,594    2002
161    Bahrain                                      3,498    2003
162    Fiji                                         3,440    1999
163    Singapore                                    3,234    2005
164    Djibouti                                     2,890    1999
165    Equatorial Guinea                            2,880    1999
166    Belize                                       2,872    1999
167    Bahamas, The                                 2,693    1999
168    French Polynesia                             2,590    1999
169    Brunei                                       2,525    2000
170    Malta                                        2,227    2004
171    Martinique                                   2,105    2000
172    Mauritius                                    2,020    2005
173    Hong Kong                                    1,955    2005
174    Barbados                                     1,600    2003
175    Solomon Islands                              1,360    1999
176    Cape Verde                                   1,350    2000
177    Virgin Islands                               1,257    2004
178    Qatar                                        1,230    1999
179    Reunion                                      1,214    2001
180    Antigua and Barbuda                          1,165    2002
181    Grenada                                      1,127    1999
182    United Arab Emirates                         1,088    1999
183    Vanuatu                                      1,070    1999
184    Guam                                          977     2004
185    Guadeloupe                                    947     2002
186    Saint Lucia                                   910     2000
187    Comoros                                       880     1999
188    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines              829     2003
189    French Guiana                                 817     1998
190    Isle of Man                                   800     1999
191    Samoa                                         790     1999
192    Cayman Islands                                785     2002
193    Dominica                                      780     1999
194    Tonga                                         680     1999
195    Kiribati                                      670     1999
196    Northern Mariana Islands                      536     2004
197    Faroe Islands                                 458     2003
198    Seychelles                                    458     2003
199    Bermuda                                       447     2002
200    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)              440    2003
201    Macau                                         368     2005
202    Cook Islands                                  320     2003
203    Sao Tome and Principe                         320     1999
204    Saint Kitts and Nevis                         320     1999 est
205    Andorra                                       269
206    Micronesia, Federated States of               240     1999
207    Niue                                          234     2001
208    Montserrat                                    227     2003
209    Saint Helena                                  198     2002
210    American Samoa                                185     2004
211    British Virgin Islands                        177     2002
212    Christmas Island                              142     2006
213    Turks and Caicos Islands                      121     2003
214    Anguilla                                      105     2002
215    San Marino                                    104     2003
216    Maldives                                       88     2006
217    Norfolk Island                                 80     2002
218    Marshall Islands                               65     2002
219    Monaco                                         50     1999
220    Gibraltar                                      29     2002
221    Cocos (Keeling) Islands                        22     2006
222    Tuvalu                                          8     2002

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2087

Rank   Country                           Imports             Date of Information

1      World                             $   10,300,000,000,000  2004 est.
2      United States                     $    1,727,000,000,000  2005 est.
3      European Union                    $    1,402,000,000,000  2004
4      Germany                           $     801,000,000,000  2005 est.
5      China                             $     631,800,000,000  2005 est.
6      United Kingdom                    $     483,700,000,000  2005 est.
7      France                            $     473,300,000,000  2005 est.
8      Japan                             $     451,100,000,000  2005 est.
9      Italy                             $     369,200,000,000  2005 est.
10     Netherlands                       $     326,600,000,000  2005 est.
11     Canada                            $     317,700,000,000  2005 est.
12     Hong Kong                         $     291,600,000,000  2005 est.
13     Spain                             $     271,800,000,000  2005 est.
14     Belgium                           $     264,500,000,000  2005 est.
15     Korea, South                      $     256,000,000,000  2005 est.
16     Mexico                            $     223,700,000,000  2005 est.
17     Singapore                         $     188,300,000,000  2005 est.
18     Taiwan                            $     181,600,000,000  2005 est.
19     Switzerland                       $     135,000,000,000  2005 est.
20     Russia                            $     125,000,000,000  2005 est.
21     Australia                         $     119,600,000,000  2005 est.
22     Austria                           $     118,800,000,000  2005 est.
23     Malaysia                          $     118,700,000,000  2005 est.
24     India                             $     113,100,000,000  2005 est.
25     Thailand                          $     107,000,000,000  2005 est.
26     Sweden                            $     104,400,000,000  2005 est.
27     Turkey                            $     101,200,000,000  2005 est.
28     Poland                            $      95,670,000,000  2005 est.
29     Brazil                            $      78,020,000,000  2005 est.
30     Czech Republic                    $      76,590,000,000  2005 est.
31     Denmark                           $      74,690,000,000  2005 est.
32     Ireland                           $      65,470,000,000  2005 est.
33     Hungary                           $      64,830,000,000  2005 est.
34     Indonesia                         $      62,020,000,000  2005 est.
35     Portugal                          $      60,350,000,000  2005 est.
36     United Arab Emirates              $      60,150,000,000  2005 est.
37     Norway                            $      58,120,000,000  2005 est.
38     Finland                           $      56,450,000,000  2005 est.
39     South Africa                      $      52,970,000,000  2005 est.
40     Greece                            $      48,200,000,000  2005 est.
41     Saudi Arabia                      $      44,930,000,000  2005 est.
42     Israel                            $      43,190,000,000  2005 est.
43     Philippines                       $      42,660,000,000  2005 est.
44     Iran                              $      42,500,000,000  2005 est.
45     Romania                           $      41,000,000,000  2005
46     Ukraine                           $      37,180,000,000  2005 est.
47     Vietnam                           $      36,880,000,000  2005 est.
48     Slovakia                          $      32,900,000,000  2005 est.
49     Chile                             $      30,090,000,000  2005 est.
50     Puerto Rico                       $      29,100,000,000  2001
51     Argentina                         $      28,800,000,000  2005 est.
52     Nigeria                           $      25,950,000,000  2005 est.
53     Venezuela                         $      24,630,000,000  2005 est.
54     New Zealand                       $      24,570,000,000  2005 est.
55     Egypt                             $      24,100,000,000  2005 est.
56     Algeria                           $      22,530,000,000  2005 est.
57     Pakistan                          $      21,260,000,000  2005 est.
58     Slovenia                          $      19,620,000,000  2005 est.
59     Iraq                              $      19,570,000,000  2004
60     Croatia                           $      18,930,000,000  2005 est.
61     Luxembourg                        $      18,740,000,000  2005 est.
62     Morocco                           $      18,150,000,000  2005 est.
63     Colombia                          $      18,000,000,000  2005 est.
64     Kazakhstan                        $      17,510,000,000  2005 est.
65     Belarus                           $      16,940,000,000  2005 est.
66     Bulgaria                          $      16,780,000,000  2005
67     Lithuania                         $      15,500,000,000  2005 est.
68     Bangladesh                        $      12,970,000,000  2005 est.
69     Tunisia                           $      12,860,000,000  2005 est.
70     Kuwait                            $      12,230,000,000  2005 est.
71     Peru                              $      12,150,000,000  2005 est.
72     Libya                             $      10,820,000,000  2005 est.
73     Serbia                            $      10,580,000,000  2005 est.
74     Dominican Republic                $       9,747,000,000  2005 est.
75     Costa Rica                        $       9,690,000,000  2005 est.
76     Estonia                           $       9,189,000,000  2005 est.
77     Lebanon                           $       8,855,000,000  2005 est.
78     Panama                            $       8,734,000,000  2005 est.
79     Oman                              $       8,709,000,000  2005 est.
80     Jordan                            $       8,681,000,000  2005 est.
81     Ecuador                           $       8,436,000,000  2005 est.
82     Sri Lanka                         $       8,370,000,000  2005 est.
83     Latvia                            $       8,190,000,000  2005
84     Angola                            $       8,165,000,000  2005 est.
85     Bahrain                           $       7,830,000,000  2005 est.
86     Guatemala                         $       7,744,000,000  2005 est.
87     Cuba                              $       6,916,000,000  2005 est.
88     Bosnia and Herzegovina            $       6,800,000,000  2005 est.
89     Qatar                             $       6,706,000,000  2005 est.
90     El Salvador                       $       6,678,000,000  2005 est.
91     Trinidad and Tobago               $       6,011,000,000  2005 est.
92     Syria                             $       5,973,000,000  2005 est.
93     Cyprus                            $       5,552,000,000  2005 est.
94     Kenya                             $       5,126,000,000  2005 est.
95     Sudan                             $       5,028,000,000  2005 est.
96     Liberia                           $       4,839,000,000  2004 est.
97     Cote d'Ivoire                     $       4,759,000,000  2005 est.
98     Azerbaijan                        $       4,656,000,000  2005 est.
99     Virgin Islands                    $       4,609,000,000
100    Iceland                           $       4,582,000,000  2005 est.
101    Netherlands Antilles              $       4,383,000,000  2004 est.
102    Ghana                             $       4,273,000,000  2005 est.
103    Yemen                             $       4,190,000,000  2005 est.
104    Turkmenistan                      $       4,175,000,000  2005 est.
105    Honduras                          $       4,161,000,000  2005 est.
106    Jamaica                           $       4,093,000,000  2004 est.
107    Afghanistan                       $       3,870,000,000  2005 est.
108    Malta                             $       3,859,000,000  2005 est.
109    Paraguay                          $       3,832,000,000  2005 est.
110    Uzbekistan                        $       3,800,000,000  2005 est.
111    Uruguay                           $       3,540,000,000  2005 est.
112    Cambodia                          $       3,538,000,000  2005 est.
113    Macau                             $       3,478,000,000  2004
114    Burma                             $       3,454,000,000  2004
115    Botswana                          $       3,370,000,000  2005 est.
116    Reunion                           $       3,306,000,000  2002
117    Macedonia                         $       3,196,000,000  2005 est.
118    Gibraltar                         $       2,967,000,000  2004 est.
119    Nicaragua                         $       2,865,000,000  2005 est.
120    Korea, North                      $       2,819,000,000  2004 est.
121    Ethiopia                          $       2,722,000,000  2005 est.
122    Cameroon                          $       2,514,000,000  2005 est.
123    Mauritius                         $       2,507,000,000  2005 est.
124    Georgia                           $       2,500,000,000  2005 est.
125    Albania                           $       2,473,000,000  2005 est.
126    Senegal                           $       2,405,000,000  2005 est.
127    Tanzania                          $       2,391,000,000  2005 est.
128    Namibia                           $       2,350,000,000  2005 est.
129    Martinique                        $       2,307,000,000  2002
130    Moldova                           $       2,230,000,000  2005 est.
131    Swaziland                         $       2,149,000,000  2005 est.
132    Zimbabwe                          $       2,059,000,000  2005 est.
133    Mozambique                        $       2,041,000,000  2005 est.
134    Nepal                             $       2,000,000,000  2005 est.
135    Gaza Strip                        $       1,952,000,000  2003
136    West Bank                         $       1,952,000,000  2003
137    Zambia                            $       1,934,000,000  2005 est.
138    Equatorial Guinea                 $       1,864,000,000  2005 est.
139    Mali                              $       1,858,000,000  2004 est.
140    Bolivia                           $       1,845,000,000  2005 est.
141    Bahamas, The                      $       1,820,000,000  2004 est.
142    Guadeloupe                        $       1,766,000,000  2002
143    French Polynesia                  $       1,706,000,000  2005 est.
144    Papua New Guinea                  $       1,651,000,000  2005 est.
145    Brunei                            $       1,641,000,000  2004 est.
146    New Caledonia                     $       1,636,000,000  2004 est.
147    Uganda                            $       1,608,000,000  2005 est.
148    Gabon                             $       1,533,000,000  2005 est.
149    Armenia                           $       1,500,000,000  2005 est.
150    Barbados                          $       1,476,000,000  2004 est.
151    Haiti                             $       1,471,000,000  2005 est.
152    Fiji                              $       1,462,000,000  2005
153    Madagascar                        $       1,400,000,000  2005 est.
154    Congo, Democratic Republic of the  $       1,319,000,000  2004 est.
155    Tajikistan                        $       1,250,000,000  2005 est.
156    Lesotho                           $       1,166,000,000  2005 est.
157    Mauritania                        $       1,124,000,000  2004 est.
158    Andorra                           $       1,077,000,000  1998
159    Togo                              $       1,047,000,000  2005 est.
160    Benin                             $       1,043,000,000  2005 est.
161    Mongolia                          $       1,011,000,000  2004 est.
162    Burkina Faso                      $        992,000,000  2005 est.
163    Djibouti                          $        987,000,000  2004 est.
164    Bermuda                           $        982,000,000  2004 est.
165    Kyrgyzstan                        $        937,400,000  2005 est.
166    Liechtenstein                     $        917,300,000  1996
167    Aruba                             $        875,000,000  2004 est.
168    Cayman Islands                    $        866,900,000  2004
169    Congo, Republic of the            $        806,500,000  2005 est.
170    Suriname                          $        750,000,000  2004 est.
171    Chad                              $        749,100,000  2005 est.
172    Guam                              $        701,000,000  2004 est.
173    Guyana                            $        681,600,000  2005 est.
174    Guinea                            $        680,000,000  2005 est.
175    Eritrea                           $        676,500,000  2005 est.
176    Malawi                            $        645,000,000  2005 est.
177    Faroe Islands                     $        639,000,000  2004 est.
178    Monaco                            $        636,600,000
179    French Guiana                     $        625,000,000  2002 est.
180    Belize                            $        622,400,000  2005 est.
181    Montenegro                        $        601,700,000  2003
182    Greenland                         $        601,000,000  2004 est.
183    Niger                             $        588,000,000  2004 est.
184    Somalia                           $        576,000,000  2004 est.
185    Maldives                          $        567,000,000  2004 est.
186    Laos                              $        541,000,000  2005 est.
187    Sierra Leone                      $        531,000,000  2004 est.
188    Cape Verde                        $        500,000,000  2005 est.
189    Seychelles                        $        459,900,000  2005 est.
190    Cyprus                            $        415,200,000  2005 est.
191    Saint Lucia                       $        410,000,000  2004 est.
192    Saint Kitts and Nevis             $        405,000,000  2004 est.
193    Antigua and Barbuda               $        378,000,000  2004 est.
194    American Samoa                    $        308,800,000  FY04 est.
195    Samoa                             $        285,000,000  2004 est.
196    Grenada                           $        276,000,000  2004 est.
197    Mayotte                           $        256,700,000  2004
198    Rwanda                            $        243,000,000  2005 est.
199    Dominica                          $        234,000,000  2004 est.
200    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  $        225,000,000  2004 est.
201    Northern Mariana Islands          $        214,400,000
202    Central African Republic          $        203,000,000  2004 est.
203    East Timor                        $        202,000,000  2004 est.
204    Burundi                           $        200,000,000  2005 est.
205    Gambia, The                       $        197,000,000  2005 est.
206    Bhutan                            $        196,000,000  2000 est.
207    British Virgin Islands            $        187,000,000  2002 est.
208    Guinea-Bissau                     $        176,000,000  2004 est.
209    Turks and Caicos Islands          $        175,600,000  2000
210    Solomon Islands                   $        159,000,000  2004 est.
211    Micronesia, Federated States of   $        132,700,000  2004
212    Anguilla                          $        129,900,000  2005 est.
213    Tonga                             $        122,000,000  2004 est.
214    Vanuatu                           $        117,100,000  2004 est.
215    Comoros                           $        115,000,000  2004 est.
216    Palau                             $        107,300,000  2004 est.
217    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)  $         90,000,000  2004 est.
218    Cook Islands                      $         81,040,000  2005
219    Saint Pierre and Miquelon         $         70,000,000  2004 est.
220    Kiribati                          $         62,000,000  2004 est.
221    Wallis and Futuna                 $         61,170,000  2004
222    Marshall Islands                  $         54,700,000  2000
223    Saint Helena                      $         45,000,000  2004 est.
224    Sao Tome and Principe             $         38,000,000  2005 est.
225    Nauru                             $         20,000,000  2004 est.
226    Norfolk Island                    $         17,900,000  FY91/92
227    Montserrat                        $         17,000,000  2001
228    Tuvalu                            $          9,186,000  2004 est.
229    Niue                              $          9,038,000  2004
230    Tokelau                           $           969,200  2002

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2089

Rank   Country                           Industrial production growth rate(%)  Date of Information

1      Azerbaijan                                  40.00     2005 est.
2      Equatorial Guinea                           30.00     2002 est.
3      China                                       29.50     2005 est.
4      Cambodia                                    22.00     2002 est.
5      Turkmenistan                                22.00     2003 est.
6      Burundi                                     18.00     2001
7      Vietnam                                     17.20     2005 est.
8      Moldova                                     17.00     2003 est.
9      Belarus                                     15.60     2005 est.
10     Lesotho                                     15.50     1999
11     Cote d'Ivoire                               15.00     1998 est.
12     Iceland                                     14.20     2005 est.
13     Burkina Faso                                14.00     2001 est.
14     Angola                                      13.50     2004
15     Kuwait                                      13.10     2005 est.
16     Laos                                        13.00     2005 est.
17     Pakistan                                    10.70     2005 est.
18     Qatar                                       10.00     2003 est.
19     Estonia                                      9.70     2005 est.
20     Singapore                                    9.50     2005 est.
21     Bhutan                                       9.30     1996 est.
22     Thailand                                     9.10     2005 est.
23     Trinidad and Tobago                          9.00     2005 est.
24     Uganda                                       9.00     2005 est.
25     Sudan                                        8.50     1999 est.
26     East Timor                                   8.50
27     Uruguay                                      8.50     2005 est.
28     Tanzania                                     8.40     1999 est.
29     Benin                                        8.30     2001 est.
30     Sri Lanka                                    8.20     2005 est.
31     Tajikistan                                   8.20     2002 est.
32     Algeria                                      8.00     2005 est.
33     Mauritius                                    8.00     2000 est.
34     Faroe Islands                                8.00     1999 est.
35     Bulgaria                                     7.90     2005
36     Malawi                                       7.90     2005 est.
37     Zambia                                       7.90     2005 est.
38     India                                        7.90     2005 est.
39     Argentina                                    7.70     2005 est.
40     Uzbekistan                                   7.70     2005 est.
41     Honduras                                     7.70     2003 est.
42     Armenia                                      7.50     2005 est.
43     Jordan                                       7.50     2005 est.
44     Botswana                                     7.50     2005 est.
45     Brunei                                       7.30     2003 est.
46     Hungary                                      7.30     2005 est.
47     Lithuania                                    7.30     2005 est.
48     Venezuela                                    7.20     2005 est.
49     Kyrgyzstan                                   7.10     2004 est.
50     Rwanda                                       7.00     2001 est.
51     Syria                                        7.00     2002 est.
52     Peru                                         6.90     2005 est.
53     Macedonia                                    6.80     2005 est.
54     Bangladesh                                   6.70     2005 est.
55     Ethiopia                                     6.70     2001 est.
56     Suriname                                     6.50     1994 est.
57     Antigua and Barbuda                          6.00     1997 est.
58     San Marino                                   6.00     1997 est.
59     Korea, South                                 5.90     2005 est.
60     Turkey                                       5.90     2005 est.
61     Bolivia                                      5.70     2004 est.
62     Costa Rica                                   5.70     2005 est.
63     Czech Republic                               5.70     2005
64     Latvia                                       5.60     2005 est.
65     Bosnia and Herzegovina                       5.50     2003 est.
66     Saudi Arabia                                 5.30     2005 est.
67     Cuba                                         5.10     2005 est.
68     Niger                                        5.10     2003 est.
69     Croatia                                      5.10     2005 est.
70     Chad                                         5.00     1995
71     Egypt                                        5.00     2005 est.
72     Indonesia                                    4.80     2005 est.
73     Austria                                      4.70     2005 est.
74     Guinea-Bissau                                4.70     2003 est.
75     Belize                                       4.60     1999
76     Kazakhstan                                   4.60     2005 est.
77     Kenya                                        4.60     2005 est.
78     Luxembourg                                   4.50     2005 est.
79     Cameroon                                     4.20     1999 est.
80     Guatemala                                    4.10     1999
81     Oman                                         4.10     2005 est.
82     Taiwan                                       4.10     2005 est.
83     Malaysia                                     4.10     2005 est.
84     Mongolia                                     4.10     2002 est.
85     United Arab Emirates                         4.00     2000
86     Russia                                       4.00     2005 est.
87     Morocco                                      4.00
88     Ghana                                        3.80     2000 est.
89     Nepal                                        3.80     FY04/05
90     Nigeria                                      3.80     2005 est.
91     Slovakia                                     3.80     2005 est.
92     Colombia                                     3.70     2005 est.
93     Poland                                       3.70     2005 est.
94     Swaziland                                    3.70     FY95/96
95     South Africa                                 3.60     2005 est.
96     Zimbabwe                                     3.60     2005 est.
97     Brazil                                       3.40     2005 est.
98     Chile                                        3.40     2005 est.
99     Mozambique                                   3.40     2000
100    Isle of Man                                  3.20     FY96/97
101    Ukraine                                      3.20     2005 est.
102    United States                                3.20     2005 est.
103    Albania                                      3.10     2004 est.
104    Anguilla                                     3.10     1997 est.
105    Slovenia                                     3.10     2005 est.
106    Senegal                                      3.10     2005 est.
107    Central African Republic                     3.00     2002
108    Djibouti                                     3.00     1996 est.
109    Ireland                                      3.00     2005 est.
110    Iran                                         3.00     2005 est.
111    Madagascar                                   3.00     2000 est.
112    Switzerland                                  3.00     2005 est.
113    Yemen                                        3.00     2003 est.
114    World                                        3.00     2003 est.
115    Georgia                                      3.00     2000
116    Germany                                      2.90     2005 est.
117    Israel                                       2.80     2005 est.
118    Samoa                                        2.80     2000
119    Canada                                       2.60     2005 est.
120    Nicaragua                                    2.40     2005 est.
121    Philippines                                  2.20     2005 est.
122    Ecuador                                      2.10     2005 est.
123    Bahrain                                      2.00     2000 est.
124    Dominican Republic                           2.00     2001 est.
125    Mauritania                                   2.00     2000 est.
126    Mexico                                       1.90     2005 est.
127    Romania                                      1.90     2005 est.
128    Panama                                       1.70     2005 est.
129    Denmark                                      1.60     2005 est.
130    Sweden                                       1.60     2005 est.
131    Gabon                                        1.60     2002 est.
132    El Salvador                                  1.50     2005 est.
133    Japan                                        1.50     2005 est.
134    Serbia                                       1.40     2006 est.
135    European Union                               1.30     2005 est.
136    Australia                                    1.10     2005 est.
137    Cook Islands                                 1.00     2002
138    Tonga                                        1.00     2003 est.
139    Vanuatu                                      1.00     1997 est.
140    Tunisia                                      0.90     2005 est.
141    Grenada                                      0.70     1997 est.
142    Spain                                        0.70     2005 est.
143    Kiribati                                     0.70     1991 est.
144    Cyprus                                       0.40
145    France                                       0.20     2005 est.
146    Congo, Republic of the                       0.00     2002 est.
147    Paraguay                                     0.00     2000 est.
148    Portugal                                     0.00     2005 est.
149    Belgium                                     -0.20     2005 est.
150    Cyprus                                      -0.30
151    Greece                                      -0.30     2005 est.
152    Norway                                      -0.50     2005 est.
153    Hong Kong                                   -0.60     2005 est.
154    New Caledonia                               -0.60     1996
155    Maldives                                    -0.90     2004 est.
156    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines            -0.90     1997 est.
157    Italy                                       -1.00     2005 est.
158    Netherlands                                 -1.40     2005 est.
159    United Kingdom                              -1.90     2005 est.
160    Comoros                                     -2.00     1999 est.
161    Finland                                     -2.00     2005 est.
162    Jamaica                                     -2.00     2000 est.
163    New Zealand                                 -2.50     2005 est.
164    Barbados                                    -3.20     2000 est.
165    Saint Lucia                                 -8.90     1997 est.
166    Dominica                                   -10.00     1997 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2091

Rank   Country                           Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births)  Date of Information

1      Angola                               185.36           2006 est.
2      Sierra Leone                         160.39           2006 est.
3      Afghanistan                          160.23           2006 est.
4      Liberia                              155.76           2006 est.
5      Mozambique                           129.24           2006 est.
6      Niger                                118.25           2006 est.
7      Somalia                              114.89           2006 est.
8      Mali                                 107.58           2006 est.
9      Tajikistan                           106.49           2006 est.
10     Guinea-Bissau                        105.21           2006 est.
11     Djibouti                             102.44           2006 est.
12     Bhutan                                98.41           2006 est.
13     Nigeria                               97.14           2006 est.
14     Tanzania                              96.48           2006 est.
15     Malawi                                94.37           2006 est.
16     Ethiopia                              93.62           2006 est.
17     Chad                                  91.45           2006 est.
18     Burkina Faso                          91.35           2006 est.
19     Guinea                                90.00           2006 est.
20     Rwanda                                89.61           2006 est.
21     Equatorial Guinea                     89.21           2006 est.
22     Cote d'Ivoire                         89.11           2006 est.
23     Congo, Democratic Republic of the      88.62          2006 est.
24     Lesotho                               87.24           2006 est.
25     Zambia                                86.84           2006 est.
26     Central African Republic              85.63           2006 est.
27     Congo, Republic of the                85.29           2006 est.
28     Laos                                  83.31           2006 est.
29     Benin                                 79.56           2006 est.
30     Azerbaijan                            79.00           2006 est.
31     Madagascar                            75.21           2006 est.
32     Comoros                               72.85           2006 est.
33     Turkmenistan                          72.56           2006 est.
34     Swaziland                             71.85           2006 est.
35     Haiti                                 71.65           2006 est.
36     Gambia, The                           71.58           2006 est.
37     Pakistan                              70.45           2006 est.
38     Uzbekistan                            69.99           2006 est.
39     Mauritania                            69.48           2006 est.
40     Cambodia                              68.78           2006 est.
41     Uganda                                66.15           2006 est.
42     Nepal                                 65.32           2006 est.
43     Cameroon                              63.52           2006 est.
44     Burundi                               63.13           2006 est.
45     Burma                                 61.85           2006 est.
46     Sudan                                 61.05           2006 est.
47     Bangladesh                            60.83           2006 est.
48     Mayotte                               60.76           2006 est.
49     South Africa                          60.66           2006 est.
50     Togo                                  60.63           2006 est.
51     Yemen                                 59.88           2006 est.
52     Kenya                                 59.26           2006 est.
53     Ghana                                 55.02           2006 est.
54     Maldives                              54.89           2006 est.
55     India                                 54.63           2006 est.
56     Gabon                                 54.51           2006 est.
57     Vanuatu                               53.80           2006 est.
58     Botswana                              53.70           2006 est.
59     Senegal                               52.94           2006 est.
60     Mongolia                              52.12           2006 est.
61     Bolivia                               51.77           2006 est.
62     Zimbabwe                              51.71           2006 est.
63     Papua New Guinea                      49.96           2006 est.
64     World                                 48.87           2006 est.
65     Iraq                                  48.64           2006 est.
66     Namibia                               48.10           2006 est.
67     Kiribati                              47.27           2006 est.
68     Cape Verde                            46.52           2006 est.
69     Eritrea                               46.30           2006 est.
70     East Timor                            45.89           2006 est.
71     Sao Tome and Principe                 41.83           2006 est.
72     Iran                                  40.30           2006 est.
73     Morocco                               40.24           2006 est.
74     Turkey                                39.69           2006 est.
75     Moldova                               38.38           2006 est.
76     Kyrgyzstan                            34.49           2006 est.
77     Indonesia                             34.39           2006 est.
78     Guyana                                32.19           2006 est.
79     Egypt                                 31.33           2006 est.
80     Guatemala                             30.94           2006 est.
81     Peru                                  30.94           2006 est.
82     Algeria                               29.87           2006 est.
83     Micronesia, Federated States of       29.16           2006 est.
84     Syria                                 28.61           2006 est.
85     Brazil                                28.60           2006 est.
86     Marshall Islands                      28.43           2006 est.
87     Kazakhstan                            28.30           2006 est.
88     Dominican Republic                    28.25           2006 est.
89     Nicaragua                             28.11           2006 est.
90     Samoa                                 26.85           2006 est.
91     Honduras                              25.82           2006 est.
92     Romania                               25.50           2006 est.
93     Vietnam                               25.14           2006 est.
94     Trinidad and Tobago                   25.05           2006 est.
95     Belize                                24.89           2006 est.
96     Paraguay                              24.78           2006 est.
97     Bahamas, The                          24.68           2006 est.
98     El Salvador                           24.39           2006 est.
99     Tunisia                               23.84           2006 est.
100    Lebanon                               23.72           2006 est.
101    Libya                                 23.71           2006 est.
102    Korea, North                          23.29           2006 est.
103    China                                 23.12           2006 est.
104    Suriname                              23.02           2006 est.
105    Ecuador                               22.87           2006 est.
106    Philippines                           22.81           2006 est.
107    Armenia                               22.47           2006 est.
108    Gaza Strip                            22.40           2006 est.
109    Venezuela                             21.54           2006 est.
110    Albania                               20.75           2006 est.
111    Solomon Islands                       20.63           2006 est.
112    Colombia                              20.35           2006 est.
113    Anguilla                              20.32           2006 est.
114    Mexico                                20.26           2006 est.
115    Bulgaria                              19.85           2006 est.
116    Thailand                              19.49           2006 est.
117    Tuvalu                                19.47           2006 est.
118    West Bank                             19.15           2006 est.
119    Oman                                  18.89           2006 est.
120    Antigua and Barbuda                   18.86           2006 est.
121    Saint Helena                          18.34           2006 est.
122    Qatar                                 18.04           2006 est.
123    Georgia                               17.97           2006 est.
124    Malaysia                              17.16           2006 est.
125    Bahrain                               16.80           2006 est.
126    Jordan                                16.76           2006 est.
127    British Virgin Islands                16.72           2006 est.
128    Panama                                16.37           2006 est.
129    Jamaica                               15.98           2006 est.
130    Greenland                             15.40           2006 est.
131    Turks and Caicos Islands              15.18           2006 est.
132    Seychelles                            15.14           2006 est.
133    Russia                                15.13           2006 est.
134    Argentina                             14.73           2006 est.
135    Mauritius                             14.59           2006 est.
136    Palau                                 14.46           2006 est.
137    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines      14.40           2006 est.
138    Grenada                               14.27           2006 est.
139    Saint Kitts and Nevis                 14.12           2006 est.
140    United Arab Emirates                  14.09           2006 est.
141    Sri Lanka                             13.97           2006 est.
142    Dominica                              13.71           2006 est.
143    Saint Lucia                           13.17           2006 est.
144    Belarus                               13.00           2006 est.
145    Saudi Arabia                          12.81           2006 est.
146    Fiji                                  12.30           2006 est.
147    Tonga                                 12.30           2006 est.
148    Brunei                                12.25           2006 est.
149    Barbados                              11.77           2006 est.
150    French Guiana                         11.76           2006 est.
151    Uruguay                               11.61           2006 est.
152    Ukraine                                9.90           2006 est.
153    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 9.82           2006 est.
154    Macedonia                              9.81           2006 est.
155    Nauru                                  9.78           2006 est.
156    Netherlands Antilles                   9.76           2006 est.
157    Kuwait                                 9.71           2006 est.
158    Costa Rica                             9.70           2006 est.
159    Latvia                                 9.35           2006 est.
160    Puerto Rico                            9.14           2006 est.
161    American Samoa                         9.07           2006 est.
162    Chile                                  8.58           2006 est.
163    Guadeloupe                             8.41           2006 est.
164    Hungary                                8.39           2006 est.
165    Bermuda                                8.30           2006 est.
166    French Polynesia                       8.29           2006 est.
167    Cayman Islands                         8.00           2006 est.
168    Virgin Islands                         7.86           2006 est.
169    Estonia                                7.73           2006 est.
170    Reunion                                7.63           2006 est.
171    New Caledonia                          7.57           2006 est.
172    Saint Pierre and Miquelon              7.38           2006 est.
173    Slovakia                               7.26           2006 est.
174    Poland                                 7.22           2006 est.
175    Montserrat                             7.19           2006 est.
176    Cyprus                                 7.04           2006 est.
177    Northern Mariana Islands               6.98           2006 est.
178    Martinique                             6.95           2006 est.
179    Israel                                 6.89           2006 est.
180    Guam                                   6.81           2006 est.
181    Lithuania                              6.78           2006 est.
182    Croatia                                6.72           2006 est.
183    United States                          6.43           2006 est.
184    Taiwan                                 6.29           2006 est.
185    Cuba                                   6.22           2006 est.
186    Korea, South                           6.16           2006 est.
187    Faroe Islands                          6.12           2006 est.
188    Italy                                  5.83           2006 est.
189    Isle of Man                            5.82           2006 est.
190    Aruba                                  5.79           2006 est.
191    New Zealand                            5.76           2006 est.
192    San Marino                             5.63           2006 est.
193    Greece                                 5.43           2006 est.
194    Monaco                                 5.35           2006 est.
195    Ireland                                5.31           2006 est.
196    Jersey                                 5.16           2006 est.
197    European Union                         5.10           2006 est.
198    United Kingdom                         5.08           2006 est.
199    Gibraltar                              5.06           2006 est.
200    Portugal                               4.98           2006 est.
201    Netherlands                            4.96           2006 est.
202    Luxembourg                             4.74           2006 est.
203    Canada                                 4.69           2006 est.
204    Guernsey                               4.65           2006 est.
205    Liechtenstein                          4.64           2006 est.
206    Australia                              4.63           2006 est.
207    Belgium                                4.62           2006 est.
208    Austria                                4.60           2006 est.
209    Denmark                                4.51           2006 est.
210    Slovenia                               4.40           2006 est.
211    Spain                                  4.37           2006 est.
212    Macau                                  4.35           2006 est.
213    Switzerland                            4.34           2006 est.
214    France                                 4.21           2006 est.
215    Germany                                4.12           2006 est.
216    Andorra                                4.04           2006 est.
217    Czech Republic                         3.89           2006 est.
218    Malta                                  3.86           2006 est.
219    Norway                                 3.67           2006 est.
220    Finland                                3.55           2006 est.
221    Iceland                                3.29           2006 est.
222    Japan                                  3.24           2006 est.
223    Hong Kong                              2.95           2006 est.
224    Sweden                                 2.76           2006 est.
225    Singapore                              2.29           2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2092

Rank   Country                           Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%)  Date of Information

1      Nauru                                 -3.60           1993
2      San Marino                            -1.70           2001
3      Vanuatu                               -1.60           2005 est.
4      Northern Mariana Islands              -0.80           2000
5      New Caledonia                         -0.60           2000 est.
6      Barbados                              -0.50           2003 est.
7      Japan                                 -0.30           2005 est.
8      Dominica                              -0.10           2005 est.
9      Gabon                                 -0.10           2005 est.
10     Macedonia                              0.00           2005 est.
11     Niger                                  0.20           2004 est.
12     Cape Verde                             0.40           2005 est.
13     Singapore                              0.40           2005 est.
14     Saudi Arabia                           0.40           2005 est.
15     Kiribati                               0.50           2005 est.
16     Sweden                                 0.50           2005 est.
17     Armenia                                0.60           2005 est.
18     Antigua and Barbuda                    0.90           2005 est.
19     Brunei                                 0.90           2004
20     Hong Kong                              0.90           2005 est.
21     Finland                                0.90           2005 est.
22     French Guiana                          1.00           2003
23     Morocco                                1.00           2005 est.
24     Liechtenstein                          1.00           2001
25     Sierra Leone                           1.00           2002 est.
26     Saint Vincent and the Grenadines       1.00           2005 est.
27     French Polynesia                       1.10           2006 est.
28     Bahamas, The                           1.20            2004
29     Switzerland                            1.20           2005 est.
30     Oman                                   1.20           2005 est.
31     Israel                                 1.30           2005 est.
32     East Timor                             1.40           2005
33     Gibraltar                              1.50           1998
34     Greenland                              1.60           1999 est.
35     Norway                                 1.60           2005 est.
36     Peru                                   1.60           2005 est.
37     Seychelles                             1.60           2005 est.
38     France                                 1.70           2005 est.
39     Papua New Guinea                       1.70           2005 est.
40     Senegal                                1.70           2005 est.
41     Netherlands                            1.70           2005 est.
42     China                                  1.80           2005 est.
43     Denmark                                1.80           2005 est.
44     Algeria                                1.90           2005 est.
45     Czech Republic                         1.90           2005 est.
46     Monaco                                 1.90           2000
47     Cameroon                               2.00           2005 est.
48     Germany                                2.00           2005 est.
49     British Virgin Islands                 2.00           2005
50     Italy                                  2.00           2005 est.
51     Cook Islands                           2.10           2005 est.
52     United Kingdom                         2.10           2005 est.
53     Tunisia                                2.10           2005 est.
54     Saint Pierre and Miquelon              2.10           1991-96 average
55     Ecuador                                2.10           2005 est.
56     Netherlands Antilles                   2.10           2003 est.
57     Canada                                 2.20           2005 est.
58     Poland                                 2.20           2005 est.
59     European Union                         2.20           2005 est.
60     Virgin Islands                         2.20           2003
61     Micronesia, Federated States of        2.20           2005
62     Congo, Republic of the                 2.20           2005 est.
63     Austria                                2.30           2005 est.
64     Namibia                                2.30           2005 est.
65     Taiwan                                 2.30           2005 est.
66     Portugal                               2.30           2005 est.
67     Albania                                2.40           2005 est.
68     Ireland                                2.40           2005 est.
69     Lebanon                                2.40           2005 est.
70     Guam                                   2.50           2005 est.
71     Luxembourg                             2.50           2005 est.
72     Slovenia                               2.50           2005 est.
73     Cyprus                                 2.60
74     Montserrat                             2.60           2002 est.
75     Australia                              2.70           2005 est.
76     Bahrain                                2.70           2005 est.
77     Isle of Man                            2.70           2003 est.
78     Palau                                  2.70           2005 est.
79     Slovakia                               2.70           2005 est.
80     Lithuania                              2.70           2005
81     Bermuda                                2.80           November 2005
82     Belgium                                2.80           2005 est.
83     Wallis and Futuna                      2.80
84     Korea, South                           2.80           2005 est.
85     Panama                                 2.90           2005 est.
86     Saint Lucia                            2.90           2005 est.
87     Belize                                 3.00           2005 est.
88     Chad                                   3.00           2005 est.
89     Djibouti                               3.00           2005 est.
90     Fiji                                   3.00           2005
91     Malaysia                               3.00           2005 est.
92     Marshall Islands                       3.00           2005 est.
93     New Zealand                            3.00           2005 est.
94     Malta                                  3.00           2005 est.
95     Grenada                                3.00           2005 est.
96     Comoros                                3.00           2005 est.
97     Chile                                  3.10           2005 est.
98     Saint Helena                           3.20           1997 est.
99     United States                          3.20           2005 est.
100    Croatia                                3.30           2005 est.
101    Samoa                                  3.30           2005
102    Aruba                                  3.40           2005
103    Spain                                  3.40           2005 est.
104    Montenegro                             3.40           2004
105    Libya                                  3.40           2005 est.
106    Andorra                                3.40           2004
107    Benin                                  3.50           2005 est.
108    Greece                                 3.50           2005 est.
109    Central African Republic               3.60           2001 est.
110    Hungary                                3.60           2005 est.
111    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)       3.60          1998
112    Tuvalu                                 3.70           2003 est.
113    Macau                                  3.80           2nd quarter, 2005
114    Cote d'Ivoire                          3.90           2005 est.
115    Iceland                                4.00           2005 est.
116    Guinea-Bissau                          4.00           2002 est.
117    Niue                                   4.00           2005
118    Mexico                                 4.00           2005 est.
119    South Africa                           4.00           2005 est.
120    Turks and Caicos Islands               4.00           1995
121    Swaziland                              4.00           2005 est.
122    Estonia                                4.10           2005 est.
123    Kuwait                                 4.10           2005 est.
124    Dominican Republic                     4.20           2005 est.
125    India                                  4.20           2005 est.
126    Tanzania                               4.30           2005 est.
127    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 4.40           2005 est.
128    Cayman Islands                         4.40           2004
129    Jordan                                 4.50           2005 est.
130    Thailand                               4.50           2005 est.
131    Mali                                   4.50           2002 est.
132    El Salvador                            4.70           2005 est.
133    Lesotho                                4.70           2005 est.
134    Uruguay                                4.70           2005 est.
135    Egypt                                  4.90           2005 est.
136    Guernsey                               4.90           2004 est.
137    Bulgaria                               5.00           2005
138    Equatorial Guinea                      5.00           2005 est.
139    Colombia                               5.00           2005 est.
140    Mauritius                              5.00           2005 est.
141    Syria                                  5.00           2005 est.
142    Faroe Islands                          5.10           1999
143    Kyrgyzstan                             5.20           2005 est.
144    Anguilla                               5.30
145    Jersey                                 5.30           2004
146    Bolivia                                5.40           2005 est.
147    Cambodia                               5.80           2005 est.
148    Maldives                               6.00           2005 est.
149    Togo                                   6.00           2005 est.
150    Burkina Faso                           6.40           2005 est.
151    Mozambique                             6.50           2005 est.
152    Puerto Rico                            6.50           2003 est.
153    Solomon Islands                        6.60           2005 est.
154    Latvia                                 6.80           2005 est.
155    Paraguay                               6.80           2005 est.
156    Brazil                                 6.90           2005 est.
157    Guyana                                 6.90           2005 est.
158    Uzbekistan                             6.90           2005 est.
159    Trinidad and Tobago                    6.90           2005 est.
160    Bangladesh                             7.00           2005 est.
161    West Bank                              7.00           2003 est.
162    Cuba                                   7.00           2005 est.
163    Bhutan                                 7.00           2005 est.
164    Gaza Strip                             7.00           2003
165    Mauritania                             7.00           2003 est.
166    Laos                                   7.00           2005 est.
167    Tajikistan                             7.10           2005 est.
168    Kazakhstan                             7.60           2005 est.
169    Philippines                            7.60           2005 est.
170    Nepal                                  7.80           October 2005 est.
171    Rwanda                                 8.00           2005 est.
172    Uganda                                 8.10           2005 est.
173    Georgia                                8.20           2005 est.
174    Turkey                                 8.20           2005 est.
175    Vietnam                                8.30           2005 est.
176    Botswana                               8.60           2005 est.
177    Saint Kitts and Nevis                  8.70           2005 est.
178    Gambia, The                            8.80           2005 est.
179    Honduras                               8.80           2005 est.
180    Qatar                                  8.80           2005 est.
181    Congo, Democratic Republic of the       9.00          2004 est.
182    Sudan                                  9.00           2005 est.
183    Romania                                9.00           2005
184    Cyprus                                 9.10
185    Guatemala                              9.10           2005 est.
186    Pakistan                               9.10           2005 est.
187    Mongolia                               9.50           2005 est.
188    Suriname                               9.50           2005 est.
189    Azerbaijan                             9.60           2005 est.
190    Argentina                              9.60           2005 est.
191    Nicaragua                              9.60           2005 est.
192    Belarus                               10.30           2005 est.
193    Kenya                                 10.30           2005 est.
194    United Arab Emirates                  10.50           2005 est.
195    Indonesia                             10.50           2005 est.
196    Turkmenistan                          10.50           2005 est.
197    Tonga                                 11.10           2005 est.
198    Sri Lanka                             11.60           2005 est.
199    Ethiopia                              11.60           2005 est.
200    Yemen                                 11.80           2005 est.
201    Moldova                               11.90           2005 est.
202    Russia                                12.70           2005 est.
203    Iran                                  13.50           2005 est.
204    Nigeria                               13.50           2005 est.
205    Ukraine                               13.50           2005 est.
206    Costa Rica                            13.80           2005 est.
207    Eritrea                               15.00           2005 est.
208    Liberia                               15.00           2003 est.
209    Madagascar                            15.00           2005 est.
210    Ghana                                 15.10           2005 est.
211    Sao Tome and Principe                 15.20           2005 est.
212    Jamaica                               15.30           2005 est.
213    Malawi                                15.40           2005 est.
214    Serbia                                15.50           2005 est.
215    Haiti                                 15.70           2005 est.
216    Burundi                               16.00           2005 est.
217    Venezuela                             16.00           2005 est.
218    Afghanistan                           16.30           2005 est.
219    Zambia                                18.30           2005 est.
220    Burma                                 20.20           2005 est.
221    Angola                                23.00           2005 est.
222    Guinea                                25.00           2005 est.
223    Iraq                                  33.00           2005 est.
224    Zimbabwe                             266.80           2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2093

Rank   Country                           Waterways(km)       Date of Information

1      World                                      671,886    2004
2      China                                      123,964    2003
3      Russia                                     102,000    2005
4      European Union                              53,512
5      Brazil                                      50,000    2005
6      United States                               41,009    2004
7      Indonesia                                   21,579    2005
8      Colombia                                    18,000    2005
9      Vietnam                                     17,702    2005
10     Congo, Democratic Republic of the            15,000   2005
11     India                                       14,500    2005
12     Burma                                       12,800    2005
13     Argentina                                   11,000    2005
14     Papua New Guinea                            10,940    2003
15     Bolivia                                     10,000    2005
16     Peru                                         8,808    2005
17     Nigeria                                      8,600    2005
18     France                                       8,500    2000
19     Bangladesh                                   8,372    2005
20     Finland                                      7,842    2005
21     Germany                                      7,467    2005
22     Malaysia                                     7,200    2005
23     Venezuela                                    7,100    2005
24     Netherlands                                  6,183    2005
25     Iraq                                         5,279    2004
26     Laos                                         4,600    2005
27     Congo, Republic of the                       4,385    2005
28     Sudan                                        4,068    2005
29     Kazakhstan                                   4,000    2005
30     Thailand                                     4,000    2005
31     Poland                                       3,997    2005
32     French Guiana                                3,760    2003
33     Egypt                                        3,500    2005
34     Philippines                                  3,219    2005
35     United Kingdom                               3,200    2003
36     Paraguay                                     3,100    2005
37     Mexico                                       2,900    2005
38     Central African Republic                     2,800    2005
39     Belarus                                      2,500    2003
40     Cambodia                                     2,400    2005
41     Italy                                        2,400    2004
42     Ukraine                                      2,253    2006
43     Korea, North                                 2,250    2006
44     Zambia                                       2,250    2005
45     Nicaragua                                    2,220    2005
46     Sweden                                       2,052    2005
47     Belgium                                      2,043    2003
48     Australia                                    2,000    2002
49     Mali                                         1,815    2005
50     Japan                                        1,770    2006
51     Romania                                      1,731    2005
52     Hungary                                      1,622    2006
53     Korea, South                                 1,608    2006
54     Gabon                                        1,600    2005
55     Uruguay                                      1,600    2005
56     Norway                                       1,577    2002
57     Ecuador                                      1,500    2005
58     Angola                                       1,300    2005
59     Turkmenistan                                 1,300    2006
60     Guinea                                       1,300    2005
61     Ghana                                        1,293    2005
62     Afghanistan                                  1,200    2005
63     Turkey                                       1,200    2005
64     Suriname                                     1,200    2005
65     Uzbekistan                                   1,100    2006
66     Senegal                                      1,000    2005
67     Spain                                        1,000    2003
68     Guatemala                                     990     2004
69     Cote d'Ivoire                                 980     2005
70     Syria                                         900     2005
71     Iran                                          850     2006
72     Belize                                        825     2005
73     Panama                                        800     2005
74     Sierra Leone                                  800     2005
75     Croatia                                       785     2006
76     Ireland                                       753     2005
77     Costa Rica                                    730     2005
78     Malawi                                        700     2006
79     Czech Republic                                664     2005
80     Canada                                        631     2003
81     Kyrgyzstan                                    600     2006
82     Madagascar                                    600     2005
83     Serbia                                        587     2005
84     Mongolia                                      580     2004
85     Estonia                                       500     2005
86     Bulgaria                                      470     2006
87     Honduras                                      465     2005
88     Mozambique                                    460     2002
89     Lithuania                                     425     2005
90     Moldova                                       424     2005
91     Denmark                                       400     2001
92     Gambia, The                                   390     2004
93     Austria                                       358     2003
94     Latvia                                        300     2005
95     Niger                                         300     2005
96     Cuba                                          240     2005
97     Portugal                                      210     2003
98     Brunei                                        209     2005
99     Fiji                                          203     2004
100    Tajikistan                                    200     2006
101    Slovakia                                      172     2005
102    Sri Lanka                                     160     2005
103    Benin                                         150     2005
104    Switzerland                                    65     2003
105    Togo                                           50     2005
106    Albania                                        43     2006
107    Luxembourg                                     37     2003
108    Liechtenstein                                  28     2005
109    Greece                                          6     2006
110    Kiribati                                        5     2003

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2095

Rank   Country                           Labor force         Date of Information

1      World                                  3,001,000,000  2005 est.
2      China                                   791,400,000   2005 est.
3      India                                   496,400,000   2005 est.
4      European Union                          218,500,000   2005 est.
5      United States                           149,300,000   2005 est.
6      Indonesia                                94,200,000   2005 est.
7      Brazil                                   90,410,000   2005 est.
8      Russia                                   74,220,000   2005 est.
9      Bangladesh                               66,600,000   2005 est.
10     Japan                                    66,400,000   2005 est.
11     Nigeria                                  57,210,000   2005 est.
12     Pakistan                                 46,840,000   2005 est.
13     Vietnam                                  44,390,000   2005 est.
14     Mexico                                   43,400,000   2005 est.
15     Germany                                  43,320,000   2005 est.
16     Philippines                              36,730,000   2005 est.
17     Thailand                                 35,360,000   2005 est.
18     United Kingdom                           30,070,000   2005 est.
19     Burma                                    27,750,000   2005 est.
20     France                                   27,720,000   2005 est.
21     Ethiopia                                 27,270,000
22     Turkey                                   24,700,000   2005 est.
23     Italy                                    24,490,000   2005 est.
24     Iran                                     23,680,000   2005 est.
25     Korea, South                             23,530,000   2005 est.
26     Ukraine                                  22,670,000   2005 est.
27     Egypt                                    21,340,000   2005 est.
28     Spain                                    20,670,000   2005 est.
29     Colombia                                 20,520,000   2005
30     Tanzania                                 19,220,000   2005 est.
31     Poland                                   17,100,000   2005 est.
32     Canada                                   16,300,000   December 2005
33     Argentina                                15,340,000   2005 est.
34     South Africa                             15,230,000   2005 est.
35     Afghanistan                              15,000,000   2004 est.
36     Congo, Democratic Republic of the         14,510,000
37     Uzbekistan                               14,260,000   2005 est.
38     Uganda                                   13,170,000   2005 est.
39     Venezuela                                12,310,000   2005 est.
40     Kenya                                    11,850,000   2005 est.
41     Morocco                                  11,190,000   2005 est.
42     Malaysia                                 10,670,000   2005 est.
43     Ghana                                    10,620,000   2005 est.
44     Taiwan                                   10,600,000   2005 est.
45     Australia                                10,420,000   2005 est.
46     Nepal                                    10,400,000   2004 est.
47     Algeria                                  10,150,000   2005 est.
48     Korea, North                              9,600,000
49     Romania                                   9,310,000   2005 est.
50     Mozambique                                9,200,000   2000 est.
51     Peru                                      9,060,000   2005 est.
52     Sri Lanka                                 8,080,000   2005 est.
53     Kazakhstan                                7,850,000   2005 est.
54     Netherlands                               7,530,000   2005 est.
55     Sudan                                     7,415,000   1996 est.
56     Iraq                                      7,400,000   2004 est.
57     Madagascar                                7,300,000   2000
58     Cambodia                                  7,000,000   2003 est.
59     Cote d'Ivoire                             6,950,000   2005 est.
60     Cameroon                                  6,860,000   2005 est.
61     Saudi Arabia                              6,760,000   2005 est.
62     Chile                                     6,300,000   2005 est.
63     Yemen                                     5,830,000   2005 est.
64     Angola                                    5,580,000   2005 est.
65     Portugal                                  5,520,000   2005 est.
66     Azerbaijan                                5,450,000   2005 est.
67     Czech Republic                            5,270,000   2005 est.
68     Syria                                     5,120,000   2004 est.
69     Burkina Faso                              5,000,000   2003
70     Senegal                                   4,820,000   2005 est.
71     Zambia                                    4,800,000   2005 est.
72     Belgium                                   4,770,000   2005 est.
73     Greece                                    4,720,000   2005 est.
74     Cuba                                      4,600,000   2005 est.
75     Rwanda                                    4,600,000   2000
76     Ecuador                                   4,600,000   2005 est.
77     Malawi                                    4,500,000   2001 est.
78     Sweden                                    4,490,000   2005 est.
79     Belarus                                   4,300,000   31 December 2005
80     Bolivia                                   4,220,000   2005 est.
81     Hungary                                   4,180,000   2005 est.
82     Zimbabwe                                  3,940,000   2005 est.
83     Mali                                      3,930,000   2001 est.
84     Switzerland                               3,800,000   2005 est.
85     Guatemala                                 3,760,000   2005 est.
86     Somalia                                   3,700,000
87     Tajikistan                                3,700,000   2003
88     Hong Kong                                 3,610,000   October 2005
89     Haiti                                     3,600,000   1995
90     Austria                                   3,490,000   2005 est.
91     Tunisia                                   3,410,000   2005 est.
92     Bulgaria                                  3,340,000   2005 est.
93     Benin                                     3,211,000
94     Guinea                                    3,000,000   1999
95     Burundi                                   2,990,000   2002
96     Serbia                                    2,961,000   2002 est.
97     Denmark                                   2,900,000   2005 est.
98     El Salvador                               2,810,000   2005 est.
99     United Arab Emirates                      2,800,000   2005 est.
100    Laos                                      2,800,000   2002 est.
101    Chad                                      2,719,000
102    Kyrgyzstan                                2,700,000   2000
103    Paraguay                                  2,680,000   2005 est.
104    Finland                                   2,610,000   2005 est.
105    Lebanon                                   2,600,000   2001 est.
106    Honduras                                  2,540,000   2005 est.
107    Israel                                    2,420,000   2005 est.
108    Papua New Guinea                          2,413,000   2004
109    Norway                                    2,400,000   2005 est.
110    Turkmenistan                              2,320,000   2003 est.
111    Singapore                                 2,280,000   September 2005 est.
112    Slovakia                                  2,240,000   30 September 2005 est.
113    New Zealand                               2,130,000   2005 est.
114    Georgia                                   2,040,000   2004 est.
115    Ireland                                   2,030,000   2005 est.
116    Nicaragua                                 2,010,000   2005 est.
117    Costa Rica                                1,820,000   2005 est.
118    Croatia                                   1,710,000   2005 est.
119    Kuwait                                    1,670,000   2005 est.
120    Libya                                     1,640,000   2005 est.
121    Lithuania                                 1,610,000   2005 est.
122    Uruguay                                   1,520,000   2005 est.
123    Mongolia                                  1,488,000   2003
124    Jordan                                    1,460,000   2005 est.
125    Panama                                    1,390,000   2005 est.
126    Sierra Leone                              1,369,000   1981 est.
127    Moldova                                   1,340,000   2005 est.
128    Togo                                      1,302,000   1998
129    Puerto Rico                               1,300,000   2000
130    Armenia                                   1,200,000   2005
131    Jamaica                                   1,200,000   2005 est.
132    Latvia                                    1,110,000   2005 est.
133    Albania                                   1,090,000   2004 est.
134    Bosnia and Herzegovina                    1,026,000   2001
135    Oman                                       920,000    2002 est.
136    Slovenia                                   920,000    2005 est.
137    Macedonia                                  855,000    2004 est.
138    Lesotho                                    838,000    2000
139    Namibia                                    820,000    2005 est.
140    Mauritania                                 786,000    2001
141    Estonia                                    670,000    2005 est.
142    Gabon                                      640,000    2005 est.
143    Trinidad and Tobago                        620,000    2005 est.
144    West Bank                                  614,000    April-June 2005
145    Mauritius                                  570,000    2005 est.
146    Guinea-Bissau                              480,000    1999
147    Qatar                                      440,000    2005 est.
148    Guyana                                     418,000    2001 est.
149    Gambia, The                                400,000    1996
150    Bahrain                                    380,000    2005 est.
151    Cyprus                                     370,000    2005 est.
152    Luxembourg                                 316,500    2005 est.
153    Reunion                                    299,000    2002
154    Botswana                                   288,400    2004
155    Djibouti                                   282,000    2000
156    Gaza Strip                                 278,000    April-June 2005
157    Montenegro                                 259,100    2004
158    Macau                                      251,200    3rd Quarter, 2005
159    Solomon Islands                            249,200    1999
160    Guadeloupe                                 191,400    1999
161    Bahamas, The                               176,300    2004
162    Iceland                                    165,900    2005 est.
163    Martinique                                 165,900    1998
164    Malta                                      160,000    2005 est.
165    Suriname                                   156,700    2004
166    Swaziland                                  155,700    2003
167    Brunei                                     146,300    2003 est.
168    Comoros                                    144,500    1996 est.
169    Fiji                                       137,000    1999
170    Barbados                                   128,500    2001 est.
171    Cape Verde                                 120,600
172    Cyprus                                      95,025    2005 est.
173    Belize                                      90,000    2001 est.
174    Samoa                                       90,000    2000 est.
175    Maldives                                    88,000    2000
176    Netherlands Antilles                        83,600    2005
177    New Caledonia                               78,990    2004
178    Vanuatu                                     76,410
179    Niger                                       70,000    2002 est.
180    French Polynesia                            65,870    December 2005
181    French Guiana                               62,630    1999
182    Guam                                        62,050    2002 est.
183    Jersey                                      52,790    2004
184    Andorra                                     48,740    2004
185    Mayotte                                     44,560    2002
186    Northern Mariana Islands                    44,470    2000
187    Virgin Islands                              43,980    2004 est.
188    Saint Lucia                                 43,800    2001 est.
189    Grenada                                     42,300    1996
190    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines            41,680    1991 est.
191    Aruba                                       41,500    2004 est.
192    Monaco                                      41,110    2004
193    Isle of Man                                 39,690    2001
194    Bermuda                                     38,360    2004
195    Micronesia, Federated States of             37,410
196    Sao Tome and Principe                       35,050
197    Tonga                                       33,910    2003
198    Guernsey                                    32,290    2001
199    Seychelles                                  30,900    1996
200    Antigua and Barbuda                         30,000
201    Liechtenstein                               29,500    31 December 2001
202    Dominica                                    25,000    1999 est.
203    Greenland                                   24,500    1999 est.
204    Faroe Islands                               24,250    October 2000
205    Cayman Islands                              23,450    2004
206    San Marino                                  19,970    2003
207    Saint Kitts and Nevis                       18,170    June 1995
208    American Samoa                              17,630    2005
209    Marshall Islands                            14,680    2000
210    British Virgin Islands                      12,770    2004
211    Gibraltar                                   12,690    2001
212    Western Sahara                              12,000
213    Palau                                        9,777    2005
214    Kiribati                                     7,870    2001 est.
215    Cook Islands                                 6,820    2001
216    Anguilla                                     6,049    2001
217    Turks and Caicos Islands                     4,848    1990 est.
218    Montserrat                                   4,521    2000 est.
219    Tuvalu                                       3,615    2004 est.
220    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                    3,261    1999
221    Wallis and Futuna                            3,104
222    Saint Helena                                 2,486    1998 est.
223    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)             1,724
224    Norfolk Island                               1,345
225    Niue                                          663
226    Tokelau                                       440
227    Pitcairn Islands                               15     2004

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2102

Rank   Country                           Life expectancy at birth(years)  Date of Information

1      Andorra                               83.51           2006 est.
2      Macau                                 82.19           2006 est.
3      San Marino                            81.71           2006 est.
4      Singapore                             81.71           2006 est.
5      Hong Kong                             81.59           2006 est.
6      Japan                                 81.25           2006 est.
7      Sweden                                80.51           2006 est.
8      Switzerland                           80.51           2006 est.
9      Australia                             80.50           2006 est.
10     Guernsey                              80.42           2006 est.
11     Iceland                               80.31           2006 est.
12     Canada                                80.22           2006 est.
13     Cayman Islands                        80.07           2006 est.
14     Italy                                 79.81           2006 est.
15     Gibraltar                             79.80           2006 est.
16     France                                79.73           2006 est.
17     Monaco                                79.69           2006 est.
18     Liechtenstein                         79.68           2006 est.
19     Spain                                 79.65           2006 est.
20     Norway                                79.54           2006 est.
21     Israel                                79.46           2006 est.
22     Jersey                                79.38           2006 est.
23     Faroe Islands                         79.35           2006 est.
24     Aruba                                 79.28           2006 est.
25     Greece                                79.24           2006 est.
26     Martinique                            79.18           2006 est.
27     Austria                               79.07           2006 est.
28     Virgin Islands                        79.05           2006 est.
29     Malta                                 79.01           2006 est.
30     Netherlands                           78.96           2006 est.
31     Luxembourg                            78.89           2006 est.
32     Montserrat                            78.85           2006 est.
33     New Zealand                           78.81           2006 est.
34     Germany                               78.80           2006 est.
35     Belgium                               78.77           2006 est.
36     Saint Pierre and Miquelon             78.61           2006 est.
37     Guam                                  78.58           2006 est.
38     United Kingdom                        78.54           2006 est.
39     Finland                               78.50           2006 est.
40     Isle of Man                           78.49           2006 est.
41     Jordan                                78.40           2006 est.
42     Puerto Rico                           78.40           2006 est.
43     European Union                        78.30           2006 est.
44     Guadeloupe                            78.06           2006 est.
45     Bosnia and Herzegovina                78.00           2006 est.
46     Bermuda                               77.96           2006 est.
47     Saint Helena                          77.93           2006 est.
48     United States                         77.85           2006 est.
49     Cyprus                                77.82           2006 est.
50     Denmark                               77.79           2006 est.
51     Ireland                               77.73           2006 est.
52     Portugal                              77.70           2006 est.
53     Albania                               77.43           2006 est.
54     Taiwan                                77.43           2006 est.
55     Cuba                                  77.41           2006 est.
56     Anguilla                              77.28           2006 est.
57     French Guiana                         77.27           2006 est.
58     Kuwait                                77.20           2006 est.
59     Korea, South                          77.04           2006 est.
60     Costa Rica                            77.02           2006 est.
61     Chile                                 76.77           2006 est.
62     Libya                                 76.69           2006 est.
63     British Virgin Islands                76.68           2006 est.
64     Ecuador                               76.42           2006 est.
65     Slovenia                              76.33           2006 est.
66     Uruguay                               76.33           2006 est.
67     Czech Republic                        76.22           2006 est.
68     Argentina                             76.12           2006 est.
69     French Polynesia                      76.10           2006 est.
70     Northern Mariana Islands              76.09           2006 est.
71     Georgia                               76.09           2006 est.
72     American Samoa                        76.05           2006 est.
73     Netherlands Antilles                  76.03           2006 est.
74     Saudi Arabia                          75.67           2006 est.
75     United Arab Emirates                  75.44           2006 est.
76     Mexico                                75.41           2006 est.
77     Panama                                75.22           2006 est.
78     Tunisia                               75.12           2006 est.
79     Paraguay                              75.10           2006 est.
80     Brunei                                75.01           2006 est.
81     Poland                                74.97           2006 est.
82     Dominica                              74.87           2006 est.
83     Slovakia                              74.73           2006 est.
84     Turks and Caicos Islands              74.73           2006 est.
85     Croatia                               74.68           2006 est.
86     Venezuela                             74.54           2006 est.
87     Bahrain                               74.45           2006 est.
88     New Caledonia                         74.27           2006 est.
89     Lithuania                             74.20           2006 est.
90     Reunion                               74.18           2006 est.
91     Serbia                                74.00
92     Macedonia                             73.97           2006 est.
93     Qatar                                 73.90           2006 est.
94     Saint Vincent and the Grenadines      73.85           2006 est.
95     Saint Lucia                           73.84           2006 est.
96     Sri Lanka                             73.41           2006 est.
97     Oman                                  73.37           2006 est.
98     West Bank                             73.27           2006 est.
99     Algeria                               73.26           2006 est.
100    Jamaica                               73.24           2006 est.
101    Solomon Islands                       72.91           2006 est.
102    Lebanon                               72.88           2006 est.
103    Barbados                              72.79           2006 est.
104    Hungary                               72.66           2006 est.
105    Mauritius                             72.63           2006 est.
106    Turkey                                72.62           2006 est.
107    China                                 72.58           2006 est.
108    Malaysia                              72.50           2006 est.
109    Saint Kitts and Nevis                 72.40           2006 est.
110    Bulgaria                              72.30           2006 est.
111    Thailand                              72.25           2006 est.
112    Antigua and Barbuda                   72.16           2006 est.
113    Seychelles                            72.08           2006 est.
114    Estonia                               72.04           2006 est.
115    Colombia                              71.99           2006 est.
116    Brazil                                71.97           2006 est.
117    Gaza Strip                            71.97           2006 est.
118    Armenia                               71.84           2006 est.
119    Dominican Republic                    71.73           2006 est.
120    Korea, North                          71.65           2006 est.
121    Romania                               71.63           2006 est.
122    El Salvador                           71.49           2006 est.
123    Latvia                                71.33           2006 est.
124    Egypt                                 71.29           2006 est.
125    Samoa                                 71.00           2006 est.
126    Morocco                               70.94           2006 est.
127    Vietnam                               70.85           2006 est.
128    Cape Verde                            70.73           2006 est.
129    Nicaragua                             70.63           2006 est.
130    Palau                                 70.42           2006 est.
131    Syria                                 70.32           2006 est.
132    Marshall Islands                      70.31           2006 est.
133    Iran                                  70.26           2006 est.
134    Philippines                           70.21           2006 est.
135    Micronesia, Federated States of       70.05           2006 est.
136    Ukraine                               69.98           2006 est.
137    Greenland                             69.94           2006 est.
138    Indonesia                             69.87           2006 est.
139    Peru                                  69.84           2006 est.
140    Fiji                                  69.82           2006 est.
141    Tonga                                 69.82           2006 est.
142    Guatemala                             69.38           2006 est.
143    Honduras                              69.33           2006 est.
144    Belarus                               69.08           2006 est.
145    Iraq                                  69.01           2006 est.
146    Suriname                              69.01           2006 est.
147    Kyrgyzstan                            68.49           2006 est.
148    Tuvalu                                68.32           2006 est.
149    Belize                                68.30           2006 est.
150    Sao Tome and Principe                 67.31           2006 est.
151    Russia                                67.08           2006 est.
152    Kazakhstan                            66.89           2006 est.
153    Trinidad and Tobago                   66.76           2006 est.
154    East Timor                            66.26           2006 est.
155    Guyana                                65.86           2006 est.
156    Bolivia                               65.84           2006 est.
157    Moldova                               65.65           2006 est.
158    Bahamas, The                          65.60           2006 est.
159    Papua New Guinea                      65.28           2006 est.
160    Tajikistan                            64.94           2006 est.
161    Mongolia                              64.89           2006 est.
162    Grenada                               64.87           2006 est.
163    World                                 64.77           2006 est.
164    India                                 64.71           2006 est.
165    Uzbekistan                            64.58           2006 est.
166    Maldives                              64.41           2006 est.
167    Azerbaijan                            63.85           2006 est.
168    Pakistan                              63.39           2006 est.
169    Nauru                                 63.08           2006 est.
170    Vanuatu                               62.85           2006 est.
171    Bangladesh                            62.46           2006 est.
172    Comoros                               62.33           2006 est.
173    Yemen                                 62.12           2006 est.
174    Kiribati                              62.08           2006 est.
175    Turkmenistan                          61.83           2006 est.
176    Mayotte                               61.76           2006 est.
177    Burma                                 60.97           2006 est.
178    Nepal                                 60.18           2006 est.
179    Cambodia                              59.29           2006 est.
180    Senegal                               59.25           2006 est.
181    Eritrea                               59.03           2006 est.
182    Sudan                                 58.92           2006 est.
183    Ghana                                 58.87           2006 est.
184    Togo                                  57.42           2006 est.
185    Madagascar                            57.34           2006 est.
186    Laos                                  55.49           2006 est.
187    Bhutan                                54.78           2006 est.
188    Gabon                                 54.49           2006 est.
189    Gambia, The                           54.14           2006 est.
190    Haiti                                 53.23           2006 est.
191    Mauritania                            53.12           2006 est.
192    Benin                                 53.04           2006 est.
193    Congo, Republic of the                52.80           2006 est.
194    Uganda                                52.67           2006 est.
195    Congo, Democratic Republic of the      51.46          2006 est.
196    Cameroon                              51.16           2006 est.
197    Burundi                               50.81           2006 est.
198    Equatorial Guinea                     49.54           2006 est.
199    Guinea                                49.50           2006 est.
200    Ethiopia                              49.03           2006 est.
201    Mali                                  49.00           2006 est.
202    Kenya                                 48.93           2006 est.
203    Burkina Faso                          48.85           2006 est.
204    Cote d'Ivoire                         48.82           2006 est.
205    Somalia                               48.47           2006 est.
206    Chad                                  47.52           2006 est.
207    Rwanda                                47.30           2006 est.
208    Nigeria                               47.08           2006 est.
209    Guinea-Bissau                         46.87           2006 est.
210    Tanzania                              45.64           2006 est.
211    Niger                                 43.76           2006 est.
212    Central African Republic              43.54           2006 est.
213    Namibia                               43.39           2006 est.
214    Afghanistan                           43.34           2006 est.
215    Djibouti                              43.17           2006 est.
216    South Africa                          42.73           2006 est.
217    Malawi                                41.70           2006 est.
218    Sierra Leone                          40.22           2006 est.
219    Zambia                                40.03           2006 est.
220    Mozambique                            39.82           2006 est.
221    Liberia                               39.65           2006 est.
222    Zimbabwe                              39.29           2006 est.
223    Angola                                38.62           2006 est.
224    Lesotho                               34.40           2006 est.
225    Botswana                              33.74           2006 est.
226    Swaziland                             32.62           2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2108

Rank   Country                           Merchant marine     Date of Information

1      World                                       33,222    2006
2      Panama                                       5,473    2006
3      China                                        1,723    2006
4      Liberia                                      1,687    2006
5      Malta                                        1,220    2006
6      Russia                                       1,178    2006
7      Bahamas, The                                 1,177    2006
8      Singapore                                    1,063    2006
9      Antigua and Barbuda                          1,011    2006
10     Hong Kong                                     924     2006
11     Cyprus                                        884     2006
12     Indonesia                                     824     2006
13     Greece                                        817     2006
14     Marshall Islands                              795     2006
15     Norway                                        724     2006
16     Japan                                         683     2006
17     Korea, South                                  669     2006
18     Italy                                         591     2006
19     Saint Vincent and the Grenadines              589     2006
20     Netherlands                                   558     2006
21     Turkey                                        545     2006
22     Cambodia                                      544     2006
23     United States                                 465     2006
24     United Kingdom                                449     2006
25     Philippines                                   403     2006
26     Thailand                                      400     2006
27     Germany                                       394     2006
28     India                                         316     2006
29     Malaysia                                      312     2006
30     Isle of Man                                   305     2006
31     Denmark                                       293     2006
32     Belize                                        285     2006
33     Vietnam                                       267     2006
34     Korea, North                                  232     2006
35     Georgia                                       222     2006
36     Ukraine                                       202     2006
37     Sweden                                        198     2006
38     Gibraltar                                     180     2006
39     Canada                                        173     2006
40     Spain                                         169     2006
41     Netherlands Antilles                          152     2006
42     Iran                                          141     2006
43     Brazil                                        137     2006
44     Honduras                                      136     2006
45     Bermuda                                       132     2006
46     Cayman Islands                                132     2006
47     Comoros                                       121     2006
48     Taiwan                                        112     2006
49     Portugal                                      111     2006
50     Syria                                         108     2006
51     Finland                                        87     2006
52     Azerbaijan                                     84     2006
53     French Southern and Antarctic Lands               77  2006
54     Monaco                                         77     2006
55     Egypt                                          76     2006
56     Bulgaria                                       75     2006
57     Croatia                                        72     2006
58     Belgium                                        66     2006
59     France                                         61     2006
60     Mongolia                                       61     2006
61     Saudi Arabia                                   60     2006
62     United Arab Emirates                           58     2006
63     Barbados                                       58     2006
64     Mexico                                         56     2006
65     Venezuela                                      56     2006
66     Sierra Leone                                   54     2006
67     Australia                                      53     2006
68     Nigeria                                        52     2006
69     Tuvalu                                         52     2006
70     Vanuatu                                        51     2006
71     Saint Kitts and Nevis                          50     2006
72     Lithuania                                      49     2006
73     Dominica                                       48     2006
74     Chile                                          46     2006
75     Slovakia                                       43     2006
76     Bangladesh                                     42     2006
77     Luxembourg                                     42     2006
78     Algeria                                        41     2006
79     Argentina                                      41     2006
80     Morocco                                        41     2006
81     Lebanon                                        39     2006
82     Kuwait                                         38     2006
83     Estonia                                        35     2006
84     Burma                                          34     2006
85     Ecuador                                        31     2006
86     Switzerland                                    27     2006
87     Slovenia                                       26     2006
88     Jordan                                         25     2006
89     Albania                                        24     2006
90     Bolivia                                        24     2006
91     Papua New Guinea                               24     2006
92     Ireland                                        23     2006
93     Romania                                        23     2006
94     Qatar                                          23     2006
95     Sri Lanka                                      22     2006
96     Latvia                                         21     2006
97     Paraguay                                       21     2006
98     Faroe Islands                                  18     2006
99     Israel                                         18     2006
100    Libya                                          18     2006
101    Colombia                                       17     2006
102    Maldives                                       17     2006
103    Pakistan                                       16     2006
104    Tonga                                          16     2006
105    French Polynesia                               13     2006
106    Uruguay                                        13     2006
107    New Zealand                                    13     2006
108    Iraq                                           13     2006
109    Cuba                                           11     2006
110    Poland                                         11     2006
111    Jamaica                                        10     2006
112    Madagascar                                      9     2006
113    Tunisia                                         9     2006
114    Tanzania                                        9     2006
115    Austria                                         8     2006
116    Wallis and Futuna                               8     2006
117    Turkmenistan                                    8     2006
118    Sao Tome and Principe                           8     2006
119    Trinidad and Tobago                             8     2006
120    Ethiopia                                        8     2006
121    Bahrain                                         8     2006
122    Brunei                                          8     2006
123    Cape Verde                                      7     2006
124    Fiji                                            7     2006
125    Moldova                                         7     2006
126    Guyana                                          7     2006
127    Cook Islands                                    6     2006
128    Mauritius                                       6     2006
129    Kazakhstan                                      6     2006
130    Eritrea                                         6     2006
131    Gambia, The                                     5     2006
132    Seychelles                                      5     2006
133    Angola                                          4     2006
134    Peru                                            4     2006
135    Yemen                                           4     2006
136    Montenegro                                      4     2006
137    Ghana                                           4     2006
138    Greenland                                       3     2006
139    South Africa                                    3     2006
140    Kenya                                           3     2006
141    Puerto Rico                                     3     2006
142    Costa Rica                                      2     2006
143    Togo                                            2     2006
144    Sudan                                           2     2006
145    New Caledonia                                   2     2006
146    Mozambique                                      2     2006
147    Kiribati                                        2     2006
148    Gabon                                           2     2006
149    Micronesia, Federated States of                 2     2006
150    Anguilla                                        1     2006
151    Cameroon                                        1     2006
152    Djibouti                                        1     2006
153    Laos                                            1     2006
154    Samoa                                           1     2006
155    Namibia                                         1     2006
156    British Virgin Islands                          1     2006
157    Somalia                                         1     2006
158    Reunion                                         1     2006
159    Suriname                                        1     2006
160    Oman                                            1     2006
161    Iceland                                         1     2006
162    Dominican Republic                              1     2006
163    Czech Republic                                  1     2006
164    Equatorial Guinea                               1     2006
165    Congo, Republic of the                          1     2006
166    Congo, Democratic Republic of the                1    2006

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2119

Rank   Country                           Population          Date of Information

1      World                                  6,525,170,264  July 2006 est.
2      China                                  1,313,973,713  July 2006 est.
3      India                                  1,095,351,995  July 2006 est.
4      European Union                          456,953,258   July 2006 est.
5      United States                           298,444,215   July 2006 est.
6      Indonesia                               245,452,739   July 2006 est.
7      Brazil                                  188,078,227   July 2006 est.
8      Pakistan                                165,803,560   July 2006 est.
9      Bangladesh                              147,365,352   July 2006 est.
10     Russia                                  142,893,540   July 2006 est.
11     Nigeria                                 131,859,731   July 2006 est.
12     Japan                                   127,463,611   July 2006 est.
13     Mexico                                  107,449,525   July 2006 est.
14     Philippines                              89,468,677   July 2006 est.
15     Vietnam                                  84,402,966   July 2006 est.
16     Germany                                  82,422,299   July 2006 est.
17     Egypt                                    78,887,007   July 2006 est.
18     Ethiopia                                 74,777,981   July 2006 est.
19     Turkey                                   70,413,958   July 2006 est.
20     Iran                                     68,688,433   July 2006 est.
21     Thailand                                 64,631,595   July 2006 est.
22     Congo, Democratic Republic of the         62,660,551  July 2006 est.
23     France                                   60,876,136   July 2006 est.
24     United Kingdom                           60,609,153   July 2006 est.
25     Italy                                    58,133,509   July 2006 est.
26     Korea, South                             48,846,823   July 2006 est.
27     Burma                                    47,382,633   July 2006 est.
28     Ukraine                                  46,710,816   July 2006 est.
29     South Africa                             44,187,637   July 2006 est.
30     Colombia                                 43,593,035   July 2006 est.
31     Sudan                                    41,236,378   July 2006 est.
32     Spain                                    40,397,842   July 2006 est.
33     Argentina                                39,921,833   July 2006 est.
34     Poland                                   38,536,869   July 2006 est.
35     Tanzania                                 37,445,392   July 2006 est.
36     Kenya                                    34,707,817   July 2006 est.
37     Morocco                                  33,241,259   July 2006 est.
38     Canada                                   33,098,932   July 2006 est.
39     Algeria                                  32,930,091   July 2006 est.
40     Afghanistan                              31,056,997   July 2006 est.
41     Peru                                     28,302,603   July 2006 est.
42     Nepal                                    28,287,147   July 2006 est.
43     Uganda                                   28,195,754   July 2006 est.
44     Uzbekistan                               27,307,134   July 2006 est.
45     Saudi Arabia                             27,019,731   July 2006 est.
46     Iraq                                     26,783,383   July 2006 est.
47     Venezuela                                25,730,435   July 2006 est.
48     Malaysia                                 24,385,858   July 2006 est.
49     Korea, North                             23,113,019   July 2006 est.
50     Taiwan                                   23,036,087   July 2006 est.
51     Ghana                                    22,409,572   July 2006 est.
52     Romania                                  22,303,552   July 2006 est.
53     Yemen                                    21,456,188   July 2006 est.
54     Australia                                20,264,082   July 2006 est.
55     Sri Lanka                                20,222,240   July 2006 est.
56     Mozambique                               19,686,505   July 2006 est.
57     Syria                                    18,881,361   July 2006 est.
58     Madagascar                               18,595,469   July 2006 est.
59     Cote d'Ivoire                            17,654,843   July 2006 est.
60     Cameroon                                 17,340,702   July 2006 est.
61     Netherlands                              16,491,461   July 2006 est.
62     Chile                                    16,134,219   July 2006 est.
63     Kazakhstan                               15,233,244   July 2006 est.
64     Burkina Faso                             13,902,972   July 2006 est.
65     Cambodia                                 13,881,427   July 2006 est.
66     Ecuador                                  13,547,510   July 2006 est.
67     Malawi                                   13,013,926   July 2006 est.
68     Niger                                    12,525,094   July 2006 est.
69     Guatemala                                12,293,545   July 2006 est.
70     Zimbabwe                                 12,236,805   July 2006 est.
71     Angola                                   12,127,071   July 2006 est.
72     Senegal                                  11,987,121   July 2006 est.
73     Mali                                     11,716,829   July 2006 est.
74     Zambia                                   11,502,010   July 2006 est.
75     Cuba                                     11,382,820   July 2006 est.
76     Greece                                   10,688,058   July 2006 est.
77     Portugal                                 10,605,870   July 2006 est.
78     Belgium                                  10,379,067   July 2006 est.
79     Belarus                                  10,293,011   July 2006 est.
80     Czech Republic                           10,235,455   July 2006 est.
81     Tunisia                                  10,175,014   July 2006 est.
82     Hungary                                   9,981,334   July 2006 est.
83     Chad                                      9,944,201   July 2006 est.
84     Guinea                                    9,690,222   July 2006 est.
85     Serbia                                    9,396,411   2002 census
86     Dominican Republic                        9,183,984   July 2006 est.
87     Sweden                                    9,016,596   July 2006 est.
88     Bolivia                                   8,989,046   July 2006 est.
89     Somalia                                   8,863,338   July 2006 est.
90     Rwanda                                    8,648,248   July 2006 est.
91     Haiti                                     8,308,504   July 2006 est.
92     Austria                                   8,192,880   July 2006 est.
93     Burundi                                   8,090,068   July 2006 est.
94     Azerbaijan                                7,961,619   July 2006 est.
95     Benin                                     7,862,944   July 2006 est.
96     Switzerland                               7,523,934   July 2006 est.
97     Bulgaria                                  7,385,367   July 2006 est.
98     Honduras                                  7,326,496   July 2006 est.
99     Tajikistan                                7,320,815   July 2006 est.
100    Hong Kong                                 6,940,432   July 2006 est.
101    El Salvador                               6,822,378   July 2006 est.
102    Paraguay                                  6,506,464   July 2006 est.
103    Laos                                      6,368,481   July 2006 est.
104    Israel                                    6,352,117   July 2006 est.
105    Sierra Leone                              6,005,250   July 2006 est.
106    Jordan                                    5,906,760   July 2006 est.
107    Libya                                     5,900,754   July 2006 est.
108    Papua New Guinea                          5,670,544   July 2006 est.
109    Nicaragua                                 5,570,129   July 2006 est.
110    Togo                                      5,548,702   July 2006 est.
111    Denmark                                   5,450,661   July 2006 est.
112    Slovakia                                  5,439,448   July 2006 est.
113    Finland                                   5,231,372   July 2006 est.
114    Kyrgyzstan                                5,213,898   July 2006 est.
115    Turkmenistan                              5,042,920   July 2006 est.
116    Eritrea                                   4,786,994   July 2006 est.
117    Georgia                                   4,661,473   July 2006 est.
118    Norway                                    4,610,820   July 2006 est.
119    Bosnia and Herzegovina                    4,498,976   July 2006 est.
120    Croatia                                   4,494,749   July 2006 est.
121    Singapore                                 4,492,150   July 2006 est.
122    Moldova                                   4,466,706   July 2006 est.
123    Central African Republic                  4,303,356   July 2006 est.
124    New Zealand                               4,076,140   July 2006 est.
125    Costa Rica                                4,075,261   July 2006 est.
126    Ireland                                   4,062,235   July 2006 est.
127    Puerto Rico                               3,927,188   July 2006 est.
128    Lebanon                                   3,874,050   July 2006 est.
129    Congo, Republic of the                    3,702,314   July 2006 est.
130    Lithuania                                 3,585,906   July 2006 est.
131    Albania                                   3,581,655   July 2006 est.
132    Uruguay                                   3,431,932   July 2006 est.
133    Panama                                    3,191,319   July 2006 est.
134    Mauritania                                3,177,388   July 2006 est.
135    Oman                                      3,102,229   July 2006 est.
136    Liberia                                   3,042,004   July 2006 est.
137    Armenia                                   2,976,372   July 2006 est.
138    Mongolia                                  2,832,224   July 2006 est.
139    Jamaica                                   2,758,124   July 2006 est.
140    United Arab Emirates                      2,602,713   July 2006 est.
141    West Bank                                 2,460,492
142    Kuwait                                    2,418,393   July 2006 est.
143    Bhutan                                    2,279,723   July 2006 est.
144    Latvia                                    2,274,735   July 2006 est.
145    Macedonia                                 2,050,554   July 2006 est.
146    Namibia                                   2,044,147   July 2006 est.
147    Lesotho                                   2,022,331   July 2006 est.
148    Slovenia                                  2,010,347   July 2006 est.
149    Gambia, The                               1,641,564   July 2006 est.
150    Botswana                                  1,639,833   July 2006 est.
151    Guinea-Bissau                             1,442,029   July 2006 est.
152    Gaza Strip                                1,428,757   July 2006 est.
153    Gabon                                     1,424,906   July 2006 est.
154    Estonia                                   1,324,333   July 2006 est.
155    Mauritius                                 1,240,827   July 2006 est.
156    Swaziland                                 1,136,334   July 2006 est.
157    Trinidad and Tobago                       1,065,842   July 2006 est.
158    East Timor                                1,062,777   July 2006 est.
159    Fiji                                       905,949    July 2006 est.
160    Qatar                                      885,359    July 2006 est.
161    Reunion                                    787,584    July 2006 est.
162    Cyprus                                     784,301    July 2006 est.
163    Guyana                                     767,245    July 2006 est.
164    Bahrain                                    698,585    July 2006 est.
165    Comoros                                    690,948    July 2006 est.
166    Montenegro                                 630,548    2004
167    Solomon Islands                            552,438    July 2006 est.
168    Equatorial Guinea                          540,109    July 2006 est.
169    Djibouti                                   486,530    July 2006 est.
170    Luxembourg                                 474,413    July 2006 est.
171    Macau                                      453,125    July 2006 est.
172    Guadeloupe                                 452,776    July 2006 est.
173    Suriname                                   439,117    July 2006 est.
174    Martinique                                 436,131    July 2006 est.
175    Cape Verde                                 420,979    July 2006 est.
176    Malta                                      400,214    July 2006 est.
177    Brunei                                     379,444    July 2006 est.
178    Maldives                                   359,008    July 2006 est.
179    Bahamas, The                               303,770    July 2006 est.
180    Iceland                                    299,388    July 2006 est.
181    Belize                                     287,730    July 2006 est.
182    Barbados                                   279,912    July 2006 est.
183    French Polynesia                           274,578    July 2006 est.
184    Western Sahara                             273,008    July 2006 est.
185    Netherlands Antilles                       221,736    July 2006 est.
186    New Caledonia                              219,246    July 2006 est.
187    Vanuatu                                    208,869    July 2006 est.
188    Mayotte                                    201,234    July 2006 est.
189    French Guiana                              199,509    July 2006 est.
190    Sao Tome and Principe                      193,413    July 2006 est.
191    Samoa                                      176,908    July 2006 est.
192    Guam                                       171,019    July 2006 est.
193    Saint Lucia                                168,458    July 2006 est.
194    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines           117,848    July 2006 est.
195    Tonga                                      114,689    July 2006 est.
196    Virgin Islands                             108,605    July 2006 est.
197    Micronesia, Federated States of            108,004    July 2006 est.
198    Kiribati                                   105,432    July 2006 est.
199    Jersey                                      91,084    July 2006 est.
200    Grenada                                     89,703    July 2006 est.
201    Northern Mariana Islands                    82,459    July 2006 est.
202    Seychelles                                  81,541    July 2006 est.
203    Isle of Man                                 75,441    July 2006 est.
204    Aruba                                       71,891    July 2006 est.
205    Andorra                                     71,201    July 2006 est.
206    Antigua and Barbuda                         69,108    July 2006 est.
207    Dominica                                    68,910    July 2006 est.
208    Bermuda                                     65,773    July 2006 est.
209    Guernsey                                    65,409    July 2006 est.
210    Marshall Islands                            60,422    July 2006 est.
211    American Samoa                              57,794    July 2006 est.
212    Greenland                                   56,361    July 2006 est.
213    Faroe Islands                               47,246    July 2006 est.
214    Cayman Islands                              45,436    July 2006 est.
215    Saint Kitts and Nevis                       39,129    July 2006 est.
216    Liechtenstein                               33,987    July 2006 est.
217    Monaco                                      32,543    July 2006 est.
218    San Marino                                  29,251    July 2006 est.
219    Gibraltar                                   27,928    July 2006 est.
220    British Virgin Islands                      23,098    July 2006 est.
221    Cook Islands                                21,388    July 2006 est.
222    Turks and Caicos Islands                    21,152    July 2006 est.
223    Palau                                       20,579    July 2006 est.
224    Wallis and Futuna                           16,025    July 2006 est.
225    Anguilla                                    13,477    July 2006 est.
226    Nauru                                       13,287    July 2006 est.
227    Tuvalu                                      11,810    July 2006 est.
228    Montserrat                                   9,439    July 2006 est.
229    Saint Helena                                 7,502    July 2006 est.
230    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                    7,026    July 2006 est.
231    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)             2,967   July 2006 est.
232    Svalbard                                     2,701    July 2006 est.
233    Niue                                         2,166    July 2006 est.
234    Norfolk Island                               1,828    July 2006 est.
235    Christmas Island                             1,493
236    Tokelau                                      1,392    July 2006 est.
237    Holy See (Vatican City)                       932     July 2006 est.
238    Cocos (Keeling) Islands                       574     July 2006 est.
239    Pitcairn Islands                               45     July 2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2121

Rank   Country                           Railways(km)        Date of Information

1      World                                     1,115,205   2003
2      United States                              226,605    2004
3      European Union                             222,293    2003
4      Russia                                      87,157    2005
5      China                                       74,408    2004
6      India                                       63,230    2005
7      Canada                                      48,467    2005
8      Australia                                   47,738    2005
9      Germany                                     47,201    2005
10     Argentina                                   31,902    2005
11     Brazil                                      29,252    2005
12     France                                      29,085    2005
13     Japan                                       23,556    2005
14     Poland                                      23,072    2005
15     Ukraine                                     22,473    2005
16     South Africa                                20,872    2005
17     Italy                                       19,459    2005
18     Mexico                                      17,562    2005
19     United Kingdom                              17,156    2005
20     Spain                                       14,873    2005
21     Kazakhstan                                  13,700    2005
22     Sweden                                      11,481    2005
23     Romania                                     11,385    2005
24     Czech Republic                               9,572    2005
25     Turkey                                       8,697    2005
26     Pakistan                                     8,163    2004
27     Hungary                                      7,937    2005
28     Iran                                         7,256    2005
29     Chile                                        6,585    2005
30     Indonesia                                    6,458    2005
31     Austria                                      6,011    2005
32     Sudan                                        5,978    2005
33     Finland                                      5,741    2005
34     Belarus                                      5,512    2005
35     Korea, North                                 5,214    2005
36     Congo, Democratic Republic of the             5,138   2005
37     Egypt                                        5,063    2005
38     Switzerland                                  4,583    2005
39     Bulgaria                                     4,294    2005
40     Cuba                                         4,226    2005
41     Serbia                                       4,135    2005
42     New Zealand                                  4,128    2005
43     Norway                                       4,077    2005
44     Thailand                                     4,071    2005
45     Algeria                                      3,973    2005
46     Burma                                        3,955    2005
47     Uzbekistan                                   3,950    2005
48     Tanzania                                     3,690    2005
49     Slovakia                                     3,662    2005
50     Belgium                                      3,521    2005
51     Bolivia                                      3,519    2005
52     Nigeria                                      3,505    2005
53     Korea, South                                 3,472    2005
54     Peru                                         3,462    2005
55     Ireland                                      3,312    2005
56     Colombia                                     3,304    2005
57     Mozambique                                   3,123    2005
58     Zimbabwe                                     3,077    2005
59     Azerbaijan                                   2,957    2005
60     Portugal                                     2,850    2005
61     Netherlands                                  2,808    2005
62     Kenya                                        2,778    2005
63     Bangladesh                                   2,768    2005
64     Angola                                       2,761    2005
65     Croatia                                      2,726    2005
66     Syria                                        2,711    2005
67     Denmark                                      2,673    2005
68     Vietnam                                      2,600    2005
69     Greece                                       2,571    2005
70     Taiwan                                       2,497    2005
71     Turkmenistan                                 2,440    2005
72     Namibia                                      2,382    2005
73     Latvia                                       2,303    2005
74     Iraq                                         2,200    2005
75     Zambia                                       2,173    2005
76     Tunisia                                      2,153    2005
77     Uruguay                                      2,073    2005
78     Morocco                                      1,907    2005
79     Malaysia                                     1,890    2005
80     Mongolia                                     1,810    2005
81     Lithuania                                    1,771    2005
82     Georgia                                      1,612    2005
83     Sri Lanka                                    1,449    2005
84     Saudi Arabia                                 1,392    2005
85     Uganda                                       1,244    2005
86     Slovenia                                     1,229    2005
87     Moldova                                      1,138    2005
88     Cameroon                                      987     2005
89     Ecuador                                       966     2005
90     Estonia                                       958     2005
91     Ghana                                         953     2005
92     Senegal                                       906     2005
93     Philippines                                   897     2005
94     Congo, Republic of the                        894     2005
95     Botswana                                      888     2005
96     Guatemala                                     886     2005
97     Madagascar                                    854     2005
98     Israel                                        853     2005
99     Armenia                                       845     2005
100    Guinea                                        837     2005
101    Gabon                                         814     2005
102    Malawi                                        797     2005
103    Mali                                          729     2005
104    Honduras                                      699     2005
105    Macedonia                                     699     2005
106    Venezuela                                     682     2005
107    Ethiopia                                      681     2005
108    Cote d'Ivoire                                 660     2005
109    Burkina Faso                                  622     2005
110    Bosnia and Herzegovina                        608     2005
111    Cambodia                                      602     2005
112    Fiji                                          597     2005
113    Benin                                         578     2005
114    Togo                                          568     2005
115    Dominican Republic                            517     2005
116    Jordan                                        505     2005
117    Liberia                                       490     2005
118    Tajikistan                                    482     2005
119    Kyrgyzstan                                    470     2005
120    Albania                                       447     2005
121    Lebanon                                       401     2006
122    Panama                                        355     2005
123    Eritrea                                       306     2005
124    Swaziland                                     301     2005
125    El Salvador                                   283     2005
126    Costa Rica                                    278     2005
127    Luxembourg                                    274     2005
128    Jamaica                                       272     2003
129    Montenegro                                    250     2005
130    Guyana                                        187     2001 est.
131    Djibouti                                      100     2005
132    Puerto Rico                                    96     2005
133    Isle of Man                                    65     2006
134    Nepal                                          59     2005
135    Saint Kitts and Nevis                          50     2005
136    Paraguay                                       36     2005
137    Nicaragua                                       6     2005

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2127

Rank   Country                           Total fertility rate(children born/woman)  Date of Information

1      Niger                                  7.46           2006 est.
2      Mali                                   7.42           2006 est.
3      Somalia                                6.76           2006 est.
4      Uganda                                 6.71           2006 est.
5      Afghanistan                            6.69           2006 est.
6      Yemen                                  6.58           2006 est.
7      Burundi                                6.55           2006 est.
8      Burkina Faso                           6.47           2006 est.
9      Congo, Democratic Republic of the       6.45          2006 est.
10     Angola                                 6.35           2006 est.
11     Chad                                   6.25           2006 est.
12     Sierra Leone                           6.08           2006 est.
13     Congo, Republic of the                 6.07           2006 est.
14     Liberia                                6.02           2006 est.
15     Malawi                                 5.92           2006 est.
16     Mauritania                             5.86           2006 est.
17     Guinea                                 5.79           2006 est.
18     Mayotte                                5.79           2006 est.
19     Gaza Strip                             5.78           2006 est.
20     Oman                                   5.77           2006 est.
21     Madagascar                             5.62           2006 est.
22     Sao Tome and Principe                  5.62           2006 est.
23     Nigeria                                5.49           2006 est.
24     Rwanda                                 5.43           2006 est.
25     Zambia                                 5.39           2006 est.
26     Djibouti                               5.31           2006 est.
27     Gambia, The                            5.30           2006 est.
28     Ethiopia                               5.22           2006 est.
29     Benin                                  5.20           2006 est.
30     Eritrea                                5.08           2006 est.
31     Comoros                                5.03           2006 est.
32     Tanzania                               4.97           2006 est.
33     Togo                                   4.96           2006 est.
34     Haiti                                  4.94           2006 est.
35     Kenya                                  4.91           2006 est.
36     Maldives                               4.90           2006 est.
37     Guinea-Bissau                          4.86           2006 est.
38     Bhutan                                 4.74           2006 est.
39     Gabon                                  4.74           2006 est.
40     Sudan                                  4.72           2006 est.
41     Laos                                   4.68           2006 est.
42     Mozambique                             4.62           2006 est.
43     Equatorial Guinea                      4.55           2006 est.
44     Cote d'Ivoire                          4.50           2006 est.
45     Central African Republic               4.41           2006 est.
46     Cameroon                               4.39           2006 est.
47     Senegal                                4.38           2006 est.
48     West Bank                              4.28           2006 est.
49     Iraq                                   4.18           2006 est.
50     Kiribati                               4.16           2006 est.
51     Nepal                                  4.10           2006 est.
52     Pakistan                               4.00           2006 est.
53     Saudi Arabia                           4.00           2006 est.
54     Tajikistan                             4.00           2006 est.
55     Ghana                                  3.99           2006 est.
56     Solomon Islands                        3.91           2006 est.
57     Paraguay                               3.89           2006 est.
58     Papua New Guinea                       3.88           2006 est.
59     Marshall Islands                       3.85           2006 est.
60     Guatemala                              3.82           2006 est.
61     Belize                                 3.60           2006 est.
62     Honduras                               3.59           2006 est.
63     East Timor                             3.53           2006 est.
64     Swaziland                              3.53           2006 est.
65     Syria                                  3.40           2006 est.
66     Cape Verde                             3.38           2006 est.
67     Cambodia                               3.37           2006 est.
68     Turkmenistan                           3.37           2006 est.
69     Lesotho                                3.28           2006 est.
70     Libya                                  3.28           2006 est.
71     American Samoa                         3.16           2006 est.
72     Micronesia, Federated States of        3.16           2006 est.
73     Zimbabwe                               3.13           2006 est.
74     El Salvador                            3.12           2006 est.
75     Bangladesh                             3.11           2006 est.
76     Philippines                            3.11           2006 est.
77     Nauru                                  3.11           2006 est.
78     Namibia                                3.06           2006 est.
79     Turks and Caicos Islands               3.05           2006 est.
80     Malaysia                               3.04           2006 est.
81     Tonga                                  3.00           2006 est.
82     French Guiana                          2.98           2006 est.
83     Tuvalu                                 2.98           2006 est.
84     Samoa                                  2.94           2006 est.
85     Kuwait                                 2.91           2006 est.
86     Uzbekistan                             2.91           2006 est.
87     United Arab Emirates                   2.88           2006 est.
88     Bolivia                                2.85           2006 est.
89     Dominican Republic                     2.83           2006 est.
90     Egypt                                  2.83           2006 est.
91     Qatar                                  2.81           2006 est.
92     Botswana                               2.79           2006 est.
93     Nicaragua                              2.75           2006 est.
94     Fiji                                   2.73           2006 est.
95     India                                  2.73           2006 est.
96     Vanuatu                                2.70           2006 est.
97     Kyrgyzstan                             2.69           2006 est.
98     Ecuador                                2.68           2006 est.
99     Morocco                                2.68           2006 est.
100    Panama                                 2.68           2006 est.
101    Jordan                                 2.63           2006 est.
102    Bahrain                                2.60           2006 est.
103    World                                  2.59           2006 est.
104    Guam                                   2.58           2006 est.
105    Colombia                               2.54           2006 est.
106    Peru                                   2.51           2006 est.
107    Azerbaijan                             2.46           2006 est.
108    Palau                                  2.46           2006 est.
109    Reunion                                2.45           2006 est.
110    Mexico                                 2.42           2006 est.
111    Israel                                 2.41           2006 est.
112    Jamaica                                2.41           2006 est.
113    Greenland                              2.40           2006 est.
114    Indonesia                              2.40           2006 est.
115    Grenada                                2.34           2006 est.
116    Suriname                               2.32           2006 est.
117    Saint Kitts and Nevis                  2.31           2006 est.
118    Brunei                                 2.28           2006 est.
119    New Caledonia                          2.28           2006 est.
120    Mongolia                               2.25           2006 est.
121    Antigua and Barbuda                    2.24           2006 est.
122    Costa Rica                             2.24           2006 est.
123    Venezuela                              2.23           2006 est.
124    South Africa                           2.20           2006 est.
125    Bahamas, The                           2.18           2006 est.
126    Saint Lucia                            2.18           2006 est.
127    Faroe Islands                          2.17           2006 est.
128    Virgin Islands                         2.17           2006 est.
129    Argentina                              2.16           2006 est.
130    Korea, North                           2.10           2006 est.
131    United States                          2.09           2006 est.
132    Guyana                                 2.04           2006 est.
133    Albania                                2.03           2006 est.
134    French Polynesia                       2.01           2006 est.
135    Saint Pierre and Miquelon              2.01           2006 est.
136    Chile                                  2.00           2006 est.
137    Netherlands Antilles                   1.99           2006 est.
138    Burma                                  1.98           2006 est.
139    Mauritius                              1.95           2006 est.
140    Dominica                               1.94           2006 est.
141    Iceland                                1.92           2006 est.
142    Turkey                                 1.92           2006 est.
143    Brazil                                 1.91           2006 est.
144    Vietnam                                1.91           2006 est.
145    Cayman Islands                         1.90           2006 est.
146    Guadeloupe                             1.90           2006 est.
147    Lebanon                                1.90           2006 est.
148    Algeria                                1.89           2006 est.
149    Kazakhstan                             1.89           2006 est.
150    Uruguay                                1.89           2006 est.
151    Bermuda                                1.89           2006 est.
152    Ireland                                1.86           2006 est.
153    Moldova                                1.85           2006 est.
154    Sri Lanka                              1.84           2006 est.
155    France                                 1.84           2006 est.
156    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines       1.83           2006 est.
157    Cyprus                                 1.82           2006 est.
158    Iran                                   1.80           2006 est.
159    Aruba                                  1.79           2006 est.
160    New Zealand                            1.79           2006 est.
161    Martinique                             1.79           2006 est.
162    Luxembourg                             1.78           2006 est.
163    Norway                                 1.78           2006 est.
164    Serbia                                 1.78           2006 est.
165    Montserrat                             1.77           2006 est.
166    Australia                              1.76           2006 est.
167    Monaco                                 1.76           2006 est.
168    Puerto Rico                            1.75           2006 est.
169    Denmark                                1.74           2006 est.
170    Tunisia                                1.74           2006 est.
171    Seychelles                             1.74           2006 est.
172    Trinidad and Tobago                    1.74           2006 est.
173    Anguilla                               1.73           2006 est.
174    China                                  1.73           2006 est.
175    Finland                                1.73           2006 est.
176    British Virgin Islands                 1.72           2006 est.
177    Cuba                                   1.66           2006 est.
178    United Kingdom                         1.66           2006 est.
179    Sweden                                 1.66           2006 est.
180    Netherlands                            1.66           2006 est.
181    Barbados                               1.65           2006 est.
182    Isle of Man                            1.65           2006 est.
183    Gibraltar                              1.65           2006 est.
184    Belgium                                1.64           2006 est.
185    Thailand                               1.64           2006 est.
186    Canada                                 1.61           2006 est.
187    Jersey                                 1.58           2006 est.
188    Macedonia                              1.57           2006 est.
189    Taiwan                                 1.57           2006 est.
190    Saint Helena                           1.55           2006 est.
191    Liechtenstein                          1.51           2006 est.
192    Malta                                  1.50           2006 est.
193    European Union                         1.47           2006 est.
194    Portugal                               1.47           2006 est.
195    Belarus                                1.43           2006 est.
196    Switzerland                            1.43           2006 est.
197    Georgia                                1.42           2006 est.
198    Estonia                                1.40           2006 est.
199    Japan                                  1.40           2006 est.
200    Croatia                                1.40           2006 est.
201    Guernsey                               1.39           2006 est.
202    Germany                                1.39           2006 est.
203    Bulgaria                               1.38           2006 est.
204    Romania                                1.37           2006 est.
205    Austria                                1.36           2006 est.
206    Greece                                 1.34           2006 est.
207    San Marino                             1.34           2006 est.
208    Armenia                                1.33           2006 est.
209    Slovakia                               1.33           2006 est.
210    Hungary                                1.32           2006 est.
211    Andorra                                1.30           2006 est.
212    Italy                                  1.28           2006 est.
213    Spain                                  1.28           2006 est.
214    Russia                                 1.28           2006 est.
215    Korea, South                           1.27           2006 est.
216    Latvia                                 1.27           2006 est.
217    Poland                                 1.25           2006 est.
218    Slovenia                               1.25           2006 est.
219    Northern Mariana Islands               1.24           2006 est.
220    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 1.22           2006 est.
221    Czech Republic                         1.21           2006 est.
222    Lithuania                              1.20           2006 est.
223    Ukraine                                1.17           2006 est.
224    Singapore                              1.06           2006 est.
225    Macau                                  1.02           2006 est.
226    Hong Kong                              0.95           2006 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2129

Rank   Country                           Unemployment rate(%)  Date of Information

1      Andorra                                0.00           1996 est.
2      Norfolk Island                         0.00
3      Guernsey                               0.50           1999 est.
4      Isle of Man                            0.60           2004 est.
5      Uzbekistan                             0.70           2005 est.
6      Jersey                                 0.90           2004 est.
7      Faroe Islands                          1.00           October 2000
8      Azerbaijan                             1.10           2005 est.
9      Liechtenstein                          1.30           September 2002
10     Belarus                                1.60           2005
11     Vanuatu                                1.70
12     Thailand                               1.80           2005 est.
13     Cuba                                   1.90           2005 est.
14     Gibraltar                              2.00           2001 est.
15     Kiribati                               2.00           1992 est.
16     Bermuda                                2.10           2004 est.
17     Iceland                                2.10           2005 est.
18     Kuwait                                 2.20           2004 est.
19     United Arab Emirates                   2.40           2001
20     Laos                                   2.40           2005 est.
21     Vietnam                                2.40           2005 est.
22     Bangladesh                             2.50           2005 est.
23     Cambodia                               2.50           2000 est.
24     San Marino                             2.60           2001
25     Qatar                                  2.70           2001
26     Papua New Guinea                       2.80           2004
27     Nigeria                                2.90           2005 est.
28     Singapore                              3.10           2005 est.
29     Ukraine                                3.10           2005 est.
30     Mexico                                 3.60           2005 est.
31     British Virgin Islands                 3.60           1997
32     Malaysia                               3.60           2005 est.
33     Korea, South                           3.70           2005 est.
34     New Zealand                            3.70           2005 est.
35     Switzerland                            3.80           2005 est.
36     Northern Mariana Islands               3.90
37     Cyprus                                 4.00
38     Macau                                  4.10           3rd Quarter 2005
39     Taiwan                                 4.10           2005 est.
40     Palau                                  4.20           2005 est.
41     Ireland                                4.30           2005 est.
42     Cayman Islands                         4.40           2004
43     Japan                                  4.40           2005 est.
44     Luxembourg                             4.50           2005 est.
45     Saint Kitts and Nevis                  4.50           1997
46     Norway                                 4.60           2005 est.
47     United Kingdom                         4.70           2005 est.
48     Brunei                                 4.80           2004
49     Burma                                  5.00           2005 est.
50     Australia                              5.10           2005 est.
51     United States                          5.10           2005 est.
52     Austria                                5.20           2005 est.
53     Hong Kong                              5.50           2005 est.
54     Cyprus                                 5.60
55     Nicaragua                              5.60           2005 est.
56     Denmark                                5.70           2005 est.
57     Sweden                                 5.80           2005 est.
58     Montserrat                             6.00           1998 est.
59     Virgin Islands                         6.20           2004
60     Slovenia                               6.30           2005 est.
61     El Salvador                            6.50           2005 est.
62     Costa Rica                             6.60           2005 est.
63     Netherlands                            6.60           2005 est.
64     Pakistan                               6.60           2005 est.
65     Mongolia                               6.70           2003
66     Canada                                 6.80           2005 est.
67     Aruba                                  6.90           2005 est.
68     Hungary                                7.20           2005
69     Guatemala                              7.50           2003 est.
70     Latvia                                 7.50           2005 est.
71     Fiji                                   7.60           1999
72     Russia                                 7.60           2005 est.
73     Portugal                               7.60           2005 est.
74     Peru                                   7.60           2005 est.
75     Sri Lanka                              7.70           2005 est.
76     Romania                                7.70           2005 est.
77     Italy                                  7.70           2005 est.
78     Estonia                                7.80           2005
79     Malta                                  7.80           2005 est.
80     Czech Republic                         7.90           2005
81     Anguilla                               8.00           2002
82     Central African Republic               8.00           2001 est.
83     Bolivia                                8.00           2005 est.
84     Trinidad and Tobago                    8.00           2005 est.
85     Moldova                                8.00           2002 est.
86     Chile                                  8.10           2005 est.
87     Kazakhstan                             8.10           2005 est.
88     Lithuania                              8.20           2005
89     Belgium                                8.40           2005 est.
90     Finland                                8.40           2005 est.
91     Philippines                            8.70           2005 est.
92     India                                  8.90           2005 est.
93     China                                  9.00           2005 est.
94     Israel                                 9.00           2005 est.
95     Spain                                  9.20           2005 est.
96     European Union                         9.40           2005 est.
97     Egypt                                  9.50           2005 est.
98     Suriname                               9.50           2004
99     Mauritius                              9.60           2005 est.
100    Brazil                                 9.80           2005 est.
101    Panama                                 9.80           2005 est.
102    Bulgaria                               9.90           2005
103    France                                 9.90           2005 est.
104    Greece                                 9.90           2005 est.
105    Greenland                             10.00           2000 est.
106    Turks and Caicos Islands              10.00           1997 est.
107    Bahamas, The                          10.20           2005 est.
108    Turkey                                10.20           2005 est.
109    Saint Pierre and Miquelon             10.30           1999
110    Barbados                              10.70           2003 est.
111    Ecuador                               10.70           2005 est.
112    Antigua and Barbuda                   11.00           2001 est.
113    Morocco                               11.00           2005 est.
114    Iran                                  11.20           2004 est.
115    Guam                                  11.40           2002 est.
116    Jamaica                               11.50           2005 est.
117    Argentina                             11.60           2005 est.
118    Germany                               11.70           2005 est.
119    Colombia                              11.80           2005 est.
120    Indonesia                             11.80           2005 est.
121    French Polynesia                      11.80           1994
122    Niue                                  12.00
123    Tajikistan                            12.00           2004 est.
124    Puerto Rico                           12.00           2002
125    Uruguay                               12.20           2005 est.
126    Venezuela                             12.20           2005 est.
127    Syria                                 12.30           2004 est.
128    Grenada                               12.50           2000
129    Jordan                                12.50           2004 est.
130    Georgia                               12.60           2004 est.
131    Belize                                12.90           2003
132    Cote d'Ivoire                         13.00           1998
133    Saudi Arabia                          13.00           2004 est.
134    Tonga                                 13.00           FY03/04 est.
135    Cook Islands                          13.10           2005
136    Saint Helena                          14.00           1998 est.
137    Tunisia                               14.20           2005 est.
138    Albania                               14.30           2005 est.
139    Mali                                  14.60           2001 est.
140    Bahrain                               15.00           2005 est.
141    Oman                                  15.00           2004 est.
142    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines      15.00           2001 est.
143    Wallis and Futuna                     15.20
144    Paraguay                              16.00           2005 est.
145    Slovakia                              16.40           2005 est.
146    Dominican Republic                    17.00           2005 est.
147    Netherlands Antilles                  17.00           2002 est.
148    Algeria                               17.10           2005 est.
149    New Caledonia                         17.10           2004
150    Croatia                               18.00           2005 est.
151    Lebanon                               18.00           1997 est.
152    Kyrgyzstan                            18.00           2004 est.
153    Poland                                18.20           2005 est.
154    Sudan                                 18.70           2002 est.
155    French Guiana                         19.20           December 2003
156    West Bank                             19.90           January-September 2005
157    Comoros                               20.00           1996 est.
158    Ghana                                 20.00           1997 est.
159    Saint Lucia                           20.00           2003 est.
160    Mauritania                            20.00           2004 est.
161    Cape Verde                            21.00           2000 est.
162    Mozambique                            21.00           1997 est.
163    Gabon                                 21.00           1997 est.
164    Micronesia, Federated States of       22.00           2000 est.
165    Monaco                                22.00           1999
166    Dominica                              23.00           2000 est.
167    Botswana                              23.80           2004
168    Iraq                                  25.00           2005 est.
169    South Africa                          26.60           2005 est.
170    Guadeloupe                            26.90           2003
171    Martinique                            27.20           1998
172    Montenegro                            27.70           2005
173    Honduras                              28.00           2005 est.
174    American Samoa                        29.80           2005
175    Cameroon                              30.00           2001 est.
176    World                                 30.00
177    Libya                                 30.00           2004 est.
178    Equatorial Guinea                     30.00           1998 est.
179    Marshall Islands                      30.90           2000 est.
180    Gaza Strip                            31.00           January-September 2005 avg.
181    Reunion                               31.00           2002
182    Armenia                               31.60           2004 est.
183    Serbia                                31.60           2005 est.
184    Mayotte                               32.80           2003
185    Namibia                               35.00           1998
186    Yemen                                 35.00           2003 est.
187    Macedonia                             37.30           2005 est.
188    Afghanistan                           40.00           2005 est.
189    Kenya                                 40.00           2001 est.
190    Swaziland                             40.00           2005 est.
191    Nepal                                 42.00           2004 est.
192    Lesotho                               45.00           2002
193    Bosnia and Herzegovina                45.50           31 December 2004 est.
194    Senegal                               48.00           2001 est.
195    Djibouti                              50.00           2004 est.
196    Zambia                                50.00           2000 est.
197    East Timor                            50.00           2001 est.
198    Cocos (Keeling) Islands               60.00           2000 est.
199    Turkmenistan                          60.00           2004 est.
200    Zimbabwe                              80.00           2005 est.
201    Liberia                               85.00           2003 est.
202    Nauru                                 90.00           2004 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2147

Rank   Country                           Area(sq km)         Date of Information

1      World                                   510,072,000
2      Pacific Ocean                           155,557,000
3      Atlantic Ocean                           76,762,000
4      Indian Ocean                             68,556,000
5      Southern Ocean                           20,327,000
6      Russia                                   17,075,200
7      Arctic Ocean                             14,056,000
8      Antarctica                               14,000,000
9      Canada                                    9,984,670
10     United States                             9,631,420
11     China                                     9,596,960
12     Brazil                                    8,511,965
13     Australia                                 7,686,850
14     European Union                            3,976,372
15     India                                     3,287,590
16     Argentina                                 2,766,890
17     Kazakhstan                                2,717,300
18     Sudan                                     2,505,810
19     Algeria                                   2,381,740
20     Congo, Democratic Republic of the          2,345,410
21     Greenland                                 2,166,086
22     Mexico                                    1,972,550
23     Saudi Arabia                              1,960,582
24     Indonesia                                 1,919,440
25     Libya                                     1,759,540
26     Iran                                      1,648,000
27     Mongolia                                  1,564,116
28     Peru                                      1,285,220
29     Chad                                      1,284,000
30     Niger                                     1,267,000
31     Angola                                    1,246,700
32     Mali                                      1,240,000
33     South Africa                              1,219,912
34     Colombia                                  1,138,910
35     Ethiopia                                  1,127,127
36     Bolivia                                   1,098,580
37     Mauritania                                1,030,700
38     Egypt                                     1,001,450
39     Tanzania                                   945,087
40     Nigeria                                    923,768
41     Venezuela                                  912,050
42     Namibia                                    825,418
43     Pakistan                                   803,940
44     Mozambique                                 801,590
45     Turkey                                     780,580
46     Chile                                      756,950
47     Zambia                                     752,614
48     Burma                                      678,500
49     Afghanistan                                647,500
50     Somalia                                    637,657
51     Central African Republic                   622,984
52     Ukraine                                    603,700
53     Botswana                                   600,370
54     Madagascar                                 587,040
55     Kenya                                      582,650
56     France                                     547,030
57     Yemen                                      527,970
58     Thailand                                   514,000
59     Spain                                      504,782
60     Turkmenistan                               488,100
61     Cameroon                                   475,440
62     Papua New Guinea                           462,840
63     Sweden                                     449,964
64     Uzbekistan                                 447,400
65     Morocco                                    446,550
66     Iraq                                       437,072
67     Paraguay                                   406,750
68     Zimbabwe                                   390,580
69     Japan                                      377,835
70     Germany                                    357,021
71     Congo, Republic of the                     342,000
72     Finland                                    338,145
73     Malaysia                                   329,750
74     Vietnam                                    329,560
75     Norway                                     323,802
76     Cote d'Ivoire                              322,460
77     Poland                                     312,685
78     Italy                                      301,230
79     Philippines                                300,000
80     Ecuador                                    283,560
81     Burkina Faso                               274,200
82     New Zealand                                268,680
83     Gabon                                      267,667
84     Western Sahara                             266,000
85     Guinea                                     245,857
86     United Kingdom                             244,820
87     Ghana                                      239,460
88     Romania                                    237,500
89     Laos                                       236,800
90     Uganda                                     236,040
91     Guyana                                     214,970
92     Oman                                       212,460
93     Belarus                                    207,600
94     Kyrgyzstan                                 198,500
95     Senegal                                    196,190
96     Syria                                      185,180
97     Cambodia                                   181,040
98     Uruguay                                    176,220
99     Tunisia                                    163,610
100    Suriname                                   163,270
101    Nepal                                      147,181
102    Bangladesh                                 144,000
103    Tajikistan                                 143,100
104    Greece                                     131,940
105    Nicaragua                                  129,494
106    Eritrea                                    121,320
107    Korea, North                               120,540
108    Malawi                                     118,480
109    Benin                                      112,620
110    Honduras                                   112,090
111    Liberia                                    111,370
112    Bulgaria                                   110,910
113    Cuba                                       110,860
114    Guatemala                                  108,890
115    Iceland                                    103,000
116    Korea, South                                98,480
117    Hungary                                     93,030
118    Portugal                                    92,391
119    Jordan                                      92,300
120    French Guiana                               91,000
121    Serbia                                      88,361
122    Azerbaijan                                  86,600
123    Austria                                     83,870
124    United Arab Emirates                        82,880
125    Czech Republic                              78,866
126    Panama                                      78,200
127    Sierra Leone                                71,740
128    Ireland                                     70,280
129    Georgia                                     69,700
130    Sri Lanka                                   65,610
131    Lithuania                                   65,200
132    Latvia                                      64,589
133    Svalbard                                    61,020
134    Togo                                        56,785
135    Croatia                                     56,542
136    British Indian Ocean Territory              54,400
137    Bosnia and Herzegovina                      51,129
138    Costa Rica                                  51,100
139    Slovakia                                    48,845
140    Dominican Republic                          48,730
141    Bhutan                                      47,000
142    Estonia                                     45,226
143    Denmark                                     43,094
144    Netherlands                                 41,526
145    Switzerland                                 41,290
146    Guinea-Bissau                               36,120
147    Taiwan                                      35,980
148    Moldova                                     33,843
149    Belgium                                     30,528
150    Lesotho                                     30,355
151    Armenia                                     29,800
152    Albania                                     28,748
153    Solomon Islands                             28,450
154    Equatorial Guinea                           28,051
155    Burundi                                     27,830
156    Haiti                                       27,750
157    Rwanda                                      26,338
158    Macedonia                                   25,333
159    Djibouti                                    23,000
160    Belize                                      22,966
161    El Salvador                                 21,040
162    Israel                                      20,770
163    Slovenia                                    20,273
164    New Caledonia                               19,060
165    Fiji                                        18,270
166    Kuwait                                      17,820
167    Swaziland                                   17,363
168    East Timor                                  15,007
169    Montenegro                                  14,026
170    Bahamas, The                                13,940
171    Puerto Rico                                 13,790
172    Vanuatu                                     12,200
173    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)            12,173
174    Marshall Islands                            11,854
175    Qatar                                       11,437
176    Gambia, The                                 11,300
177    Jamaica                                     10,991
178    Lebanon                                     10,400
179    Cyprus                                       9,250
180    French Southern and Antarctic Lands             7,829
181    West Bank                                    5,860
182    Brunei                                       5,770
183    Trinidad and Tobago                          5,128
184    French Polynesia                             4,167
185    Cape Verde                                   4,033
186    South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands             3,903
187    Samoa                                        2,944
188    Luxembourg                                   2,586
189    Reunion                                      2,517
190    Comoros                                      2,170
191    Mauritius                                    2,040
192    Virgin Islands                               1,910
193    Guadeloupe                                   1,780
194    Faroe Islands                                1,399
195    Martinique                                   1,100
196    Hong Kong                                    1,092
197    Sao Tome and Principe                        1,001
198    Netherlands Antilles                          960
199    Kiribati                                      811
200    Dominica                                      754
201    Tonga                                         748
202    Micronesia, Federated States of               702
203    Singapore                                     693
204    Bahrain                                       665
205    Saint Lucia                                   616
206    Isle of Man                                   572
207    Guam                                          541
208    Northern Mariana Islands                      477
209    Andorra                                       468
210    Palau                                         458
211    Seychelles                                    455
212    Antigua and Barbuda                           443
213    Barbados                                      431
214    Turks and Caicos Islands                      430
215    Saint Helena                                  413
216    Heard Island and McDonald Islands              412
217    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines              389
218    Jan Mayen                                     377
219    Mayotte                                       374
220    Gaza Strip                                    360
221    Grenada                                       344
222    Malta                                         316
223    Maldives                                      300
224    Wallis and Futuna                             274
225    Cayman Islands                                262
226    Saint Kitts and Nevis                         261
227    Niue                                          260
228    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                     242
229    Cook Islands                                  237
230    American Samoa                                199
231    Aruba                                         193
232    Liechtenstein                                 160
233    British Virgin Islands                        153
234    Christmas Island                              135
235    Dhekelia                                      131
236    Akrotiri                                      123
237    Jersey                                        116
238    Anguilla                                      102
239    Montserrat                                    102
240    Iles Eparses                                   80
241    Guernsey                                       78
242    San Marino                                     61
243    Bermuda                                        53
244    Bouvet Island                                  49
245    Pitcairn Islands                               47
246    Norfolk Island                                 35
247    Macau                                          28
248    Europa Island                                  28
249    Tuvalu                                         26
250    United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges               22
251    Nauru                                          21
252    Cocos (Keeling) Islands                        14
253    Palmyra Atoll                                  12
254    Tokelau                                        10
255    Gibraltar                                       7
256    Wake Island                                     7
257    Midway Islands                                  6
258    Clipperton Island                               6
259    Navassa Island                                  5
260    Ashmore and Cartier Islands                     5
261    Glorioso Islands                                5
262    Spratly Islands                                 5
263    Jarvis Island                                   5
264    Juan de Nova Island                             4
265    Coral Sea Islands                               3
266    Johnston Atoll                                  3
267    Monaco                                          2
268    Howland Island                                  2
269    Baker Island                                    1
270    Kingman Reef                                    1
271    Tromelin Island                                 1
272    Holy See (Vatican City)                         0
273    Bassas da India                                 0

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2150

Rank   Country                           Telephones - main lines in use  Date of Information

1      World                                  1,263,367,600  2005
2      China                                   350,433,000   2005
3      United States                           268,000,000   2003
4      European Union                          238,763,162   2002
5      Japan                                    58,780,000   2005
6      Germany                                  55,046,000   2005
7      India                                    49,750,000   2005
8      Brazil                                   42,382,000   2004
9      Russia                                   40,100,000   2005
10     France                                   35,700,000   2005
11     United Kingdom                           32,943,000   2005
12     Italy                                    25,049,000   2005
13     Korea, South                             23,745,000   2005
14     Mexico                                   19,512,000   2005
15     Iran                                     18,986,000   2005
16     Turkey                                   18,978,000   2005
17     Spain                                    18,322,000   2005
18     Canada                                   18,276,000   2005
19     Vietnam                                  15,845,000   2005
20     Taiwan                                   13,615,000   2005
21     Indonesia                                12,772,000   2005
22     Ukraine                                  12,142,000   2004
23     Poland                                   11,803,000   2005
24     Australia                                11,460,000   2005
25     Egypt                                    10,396,100   2005
26     Argentina                                 8,800,000   2005
27     Colombia                                  7,678,800   2005
28     Netherlands                               7,600,000   2005
29     Thailand                                  7,035,000   2005
30     Sweden                                    6,447,000   2004
31     Greece                                    6,303,000   2005
32     Pakistan                                  5,277,500   2005
33     Switzerland                               5,123,000   2005
34     Belgium                                   4,801,000   2004
35     South Africa                              4,729,000   2005
36     Romania                                   4,391,000   2005
37     Malaysia                                  4,366,000   2005
38     Portugal                                  4,234,000   2005
39     Saudi Arabia                              3,800,000   2005
40     Hong Kong                                 3,794,600   2005
41     Austria                                   3,705,000   2005
42     Venezuela                                 3,605,500   2005
43     Philippines                               3,437,500   2004
44     Chile                                     3,435,900   2005
45     Hungary                                   3,356,000   2005
46     Denmark                                   3,350,000   2005
47     Belarus                                   3,284,300   2005
48     Czech Republic                            3,217,300   2005
49     Israel                                    2,936,300   2005
50     Syria                                     2,903,000   2005
51     Serbia                                    2,685,400   2004
52     Algeria                                   2,572,000   2005
53     Kazakhstan                                2,500,000   2004
54     Bulgaria                                  2,483,500   2005
55     Peru                                      2,250,500   2005
56     Norway                                    2,129,000   2005
57     Finland                                   2,120,000   2005
58     Ireland                                   2,033,000   2005
59     Croatia                                   1,889,500   2005
60     Singapore                                 1,848,000   2005
61     New Zealand                               1,800,500   2004
62     Uzbekistan                                1,717,100   2003
63     Ecuador                                   1,701,500   2005
64     Costa Rica                                1,388,500   2005
65     Morocco                                   1,341,200   2005
66     Tunisia                                   1,257,500   2005
67     Sri Lanka                                 1,244,000   2005
68     United Arab Emirates                      1,237,000   2005
69     Nigeria                                   1,223,300   2005
70     Slovakia                                  1,197,000   2005
71     Guatemala                                 1,132,100   2004
72     Puerto Rico                               1,111,900   2004
73     Azerbaijan                                1,091,400   2005
74     Bangladesh                                1,070,000   2005
75     Iraq                                      1,034,200   2004
76     Uruguay                                   1,000,000   2004
77     Lebanon                                    990,000    2005
78     Korea, North                               980,000    2003
79     El Salvador                                971,500    2005
80     Bosnia and Herzegovina                     968,900    2005
81     Moldova                                    929,400    2005
82     Dominican Republic                         894,500    2005
83     Cuba                                       849,900    2005
84     Slovenia                                   816,400    2005
85     Lithuania                                  801,100    2005
86     Yemen                                      798,100    2004
87     Libya                                      750,000    2003
88     Latvia                                     731,000    2005
89     Georgia                                    683,200    2004
90     Sudan                                      670,000    2005
91     Bolivia                                    646,300    2005
92     Jordan                                     617,300    2004
93     Ethiopia                                   610,300    2005
94     Armenia                                    582,500    2004
95     Macedonia                                  533,200    2005
96     Kuwait                                     510,300    2005
97     Honduras                                   494,400    2005
98     Burma                                      476,200    2005
99     Nepal                                      448,600    2005
100    Estonia                                    442,000    2005
101    Panama                                     440,100    2005
102    Kyrgyzstan                                 438,200    2005
103    Cyprus                                     420,000
104    Turkmenistan                               376,100    2003
105    Mauritius                                  359,000    2005
106    West Bank                                  357,300    2004
107    Gaza Strip                                 349,000    2005
108    Jamaica                                    342,000    2005
109    Zimbabwe                                   328,000    2005
110    Trinidad and Tobago                        323,500    2005
111    Ghana                                      321,500    2005
112    Paraguay                                   320,300    2005
113    Reunion                                    300,000    2001
114    Kenya                                      281,800    2005
115    Senegal                                    266,600    2005
116    Oman                                       265,200    2005
117    Cote d'Ivoire                              257,900    2004
118    Albania                                    255,000    2003
119    Tajikistan                                 245,200    2004
120    Luxembourg                                 244,500    2005
121    Nicaragua                                  220,900    2005
122    Guadeloupe                                 210,000    2001
123    Qatar                                      205,400    2005
124    Malta                                      202,100    2005
125    Bahrain                                    196,500    2005
126    Iceland                                    193,900    2005
127    Montenegro                                 177,663    2005
128    Macau                                      174,400    2005
129    Martinique                                 172,000    2001
130    Mongolia                                   156,000    2005
131    Tanzania                                   148,400    2004
132    Haiti                                      140,000    2004
133    Bahamas, The                               139,900    2004
134    Barbados                                   134,900    2005
135    Botswana                                   132,000    2005
136    Namibia                                    127,900    2004
137    Guyana                                     110,100    2005
138    Malawi                                     102,700    2005
139    Fiji                                       102,000    2003
140    Uganda                                     100,800    2005
141    Afghanistan                                100,000    2005
142    Somalia                                    100,000    2005
143    Cameroon                                    99,400    2004
144    Burkina Faso                                97,400    2005
145    Zambia                                      94,700    2005
146    Angola                                      94,300    2005
147    Laos                                        90,067    2006
148    Brunei                                      90,000    2002
149    Cyprus                                      86,228
150    Guam                                        84,134    2001
151    Suriname                                    81,100    2004
152    Netherlands Antilles                        81,000    2001
153    Benin                                       76,300    2005
154    Mali                                        75,000    2005
155    Jersey                                      73,900    2001
156    Cape Verde                                  71,400    2005
157    Virgin Islands                              70,900    2004
158    Mozambique                                  69,700    2004
159    Madagascar                                  66,900    2005
160    Papua New Guinea                            62,000    2002
161    Togo                                        58,600    2005
162    Bermuda                                     56,000    2002
163    New Caledonia                               55,300    2005
164    Guernsey                                    55,100    2004
165    French Polynesia                            53,400    2005
166    Saint Lucia                                 51,100    2002
167    French Guiana                               51,000    2001
168    Isle of Man                                 51,000    1999
169    Lesotho                                     48,000    2005
170    Gambia, The                                 44,000    2005
171    Mauritania                                  41,000    2005
172    Gabon                                       39,100    2005
173    Antigua and Barbuda                         38,000    2004
174    Cayman Islands                              38,000    2002
175    Eritrea                                     37,700    2005
176    Aruba                                       37,100    2002
177    Cambodia                                    36,400    2003
178    Andorra                                     35,400    2005
179    Swaziland                                   35,000    2005
180    Monaco                                      33,700    2002
181    Belize                                      33,300    2005
182    Bhutan                                      32,700    2005
183    Grenada                                     32,700    2004
184    Maldives                                    32,300    2005
185    Burundi                                     27,700    2004
186    Guinea                                      26,200    2003
187    Greenland                                   25,300    2002
188    Saint Kitts and Nevis                       25,000    2004
189    Gibraltar                                   24,512    2002
190    Niger                                       24,000    2005
191    Sierra Leone                                24,000    2002
192    Faroe Islands                               23,800    2005
193    Rwanda                                      23,000    2004
194    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines            22,500    2005
195    Seychelles                                  21,400    2005
196    Northern Mariana Islands                    21,000    2000
197    Dominica                                    21,000    2004
198    San Marino                                  20,600    2002
199    Liechtenstein                               19,900    2002
200    Comoros                                     16,900    2005
201    American Samoa                              15,000    2001
202    Congo, Republic of the                      13,800    2004
203    Samoa                                       13,300    2003
204    Chad                                        13,000    2004
205    Micronesia, Federated States of             12,400    2005
206    British Virgin Islands                      11,700    2002
207    Tonga                                       11,200    2002
208    Djibouti                                    11,100    2004
209    Congo, Democratic Republic of the            10,600   2005
210    Guinea-Bissau                               10,600    2003
211    Central African Republic                    10,000    2004
212    Equatorial Guinea                           10,000    2005
213    Mayotte                                     10,000    2002
214    Solomon Islands                              7,400    2005
215    Sao Tome and Principe                        7,000    2004
216    Liberia                                      6,900    2002
217    Vanuatu                                      6,800    2004
218    Palau                                        6,700    2002
219    Anguilla                                     6,200    2002
220    Cook Islands                                 6,200    2002
221    Turks and Caicos Islands                     5,700    2002
222    Marshall Islands                             5,510    2004
223    Holy See (Vatican City)                      5,120    2005
224    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                    4,800    2002
225    Kiribati                                     4,500    2002
226    Norfolk Island                               2,532    2004
227    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)             2,400   2002
228    Saint Helena                                 2,200    2002
229    Nauru                                        1,900    2002
230    Wallis and Futuna                            1,900    2002
231    Niue                                         1,100    2002
232    Tuvalu                                        700     2002
233    Tokelau                                       300     2002
234    Cocos (Keeling) Islands                       287     1992
235    Pitcairn Islands                                1     2004
236    Antarctica                                      0     2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2151

Rank   Country                           Telephones - mobile cellular  Date of Information

1      World                                  2,168,433,600  2005
2      China                                   393,428,000   2005
3      European Union                          314,644,700   2002
4      United States                           219,400,000   2005
5      Russia                                  120,000,000   2005
6      Japan                                    94,745,000   2005
7      Brazil                                   86,210,000   2005
8      Germany                                  79,200,000   2005
9      Italy                                    72,200,000   2005
10     India                                    69,193,321   2006
11     United Kingdom                           61,091,000   2004
12     France                                   48,058,000   2005
13     Mexico                                   47,462,000   2005
14     Indonesia                                46,910,000   2005
15     Turkey                                   43,609,000   2005
16     Spain                                    41,328,000   2005
17     Korea, South                             38,342,000   2005
18     South Africa                             33,960,000   2005
19     Philippines                              32,810,000   2005
20     Poland                                   29,166,400   2005
21     Thailand                                 27,379,000   2005
22     Taiwan                                   22,170,000   2005
23     Argentina                                22,100,000   2005
24     Colombia                                 21,850,000   2005
25     Nigeria                                  21,571,131   2006
26     Malaysia                                 19,545,000   2005
27     Australia                                18,420,000   2005
28     Ukraine                                  17,214,000   2005
29     Canada                                   16,600,000   2005
30     Netherlands                              15,834,000   2005
31     Egypt                                    14,045,134   2005
32     Algeria                                  13,661,000   2005
33     Romania                                  13,354,000   2005
34     Saudi Arabia                             13,300,000   2005
35     Pakistan                                 12,771,000   2005
36     Venezuela                                12,496,000   2005
37     Morocco                                  12,393,000   2005
38     Czech Republic                           11,776,000   2005
39     Portugal                                 11,448,000   2005
40     Chile                                    10,570,000   2005
41     Greece                                   10,043,000   2005
42     Vietnam                                   9,593,000   2005
43     Belgium                                   9,460,000   2005
44     Hungary                                   9,320,000   2005
45     Bangladesh                                9,000,000   2005
46     Hong Kong                                 8,693,000   2005
47     Sweden                                    8,436,000   2005
48     Austria                                   8,160,000   2005
49     Israel                                    7,757,000   2005
50     Iran                                      7,222,000   2005
51     Switzerland                               6,847,000   2005
52     Ecuador                                   6,246,000   2005
53     Bulgaria                                  6,245,000   2005
54     Tunisia                                   5,681,000   2005
55     Peru                                      5,583,000   2005
56     Denmark                                   5,469,000   2005
57     Finland                                   5,231,000   2005
58     Serbia                                    5,229,000   2005
59     Kazakhstan                                4,955,000   2005
60     Norway                                    4,755,000   2005
61     Kenya                                     4,612,000   2005
62     Slovakia                                  4,540,000   2005
63     United Arab Emirates                      4,535,000   2005
64     Singapore                                 4,385,000   2005
65     Lithuania                                 4,353,000   2005
66     Ireland                                   4,210,000   2005
67     Belarus                                   4,098,000   2005
68     Dominican Republic                        3,623,000   2005
69     New Zealand                               3,530,000   2005
70     Sri Lanka                                 3,362,000   2005
71     Guatemala                                 3,168,300   2004
72     Croatia                                   2,984,000   2005
73     Syria                                     2,950,000   2005
74     Ghana                                     2,842,000   2005
75     Congo, Democratic Republic of the          2,746,000  2005
76     Jamaica                                   2,700,000   2005
77     Puerto Rico                               2,682,000   2004
78     Bolivia                                   2,421,000   2005
79     El Salvador                               2,412,000   2005
80     Kuwait                                    2,380,000   2005
81     Cameroon                                  2,259,000   2005
82     Azerbaijan                                2,242,000   2005
83     Cote d'Ivoire                             2,190,000   2005
84     Yemen                                     2,000,000   2005
85     Tanzania                                  1,942,000   2005
86     Paraguay                                  1,887,000   2005
87     Latvia                                    1,872,000   2005
88     Sudan                                     1,828,000   2005
89     Slovenia                                  1,759,000   2005
90     Senegal                                   1,730,000   2005
91     Jordan                                    1,594,500   2004
92     Bosnia and Herzegovina                    1,594,000   2005
93     Uganda                                    1,525,000   2005
94     Georgia                                   1,459,000   2005
95     Estonia                                   1,445,000   2005
96     Panama                                    1,352,000   2005
97     Oman                                      1,333,000   2005
98     Honduras                                  1,282,000   2005
99     Macedonia                                 1,261,000   2005
100    Albania                                   1,259,000   2004
101    Mozambique                                1,220,000   2005
102    Afghanistan                               1,200,000   2005
103    Nicaragua                                 1,119,000   2005
104    Costa Rica                                1,101,000   2005
105    Gaza Strip                                1,095,000   2005
106    West Bank                                 1,095,000   2005
107    Angola                                    1,094,100   2005
108    Moldova                                   1,090,000   2005
109    Cambodia                                  1,062,000   2005
110    Lebanon                                    990,000    2005
111    Zambia                                     946,600    2005
112    Mali                                       869,600    2005
113    Botswana                                   823,100    2005
114    Trinidad and Tobago                        800,000    2005
115    Bahrain                                    748,700    2005
116    Mauritania                                 745,600    2005
117    Luxembourg                                 720,000    2005
118    Uzbekistan                                 720,000    2005
119    Cyprus                                     718,800
120    Qatar                                      716,800    2005
121    Mauritius                                  713,300    2005
122    Zimbabwe                                   699,000    2005
123    Gabon                                      649,800    2005
124    Uruguay                                    600,000    2004
125    Reunion                                    579,200    2004
126    Iraq                                       574,000    2004
127    Burkina Faso                               572,200    2005
128    Mongolia                                   557,200    2005
129    Montenegro                                 543,220    2005
130    Kyrgyzstan                                 541,700    2005
131    Macau                                      532,800    2005
132    Laos                                       520,546    2006
133    Madagascar                                 504,700    2005
134    Somalia                                    500,000    2005
135    Namibia                                    495,000    2005
136    Congo, Republic of the                     490,000    2005
137    Togo                                       443,600    2005
138    Malawi                                     429,300    2005
139    Ethiopia                                   410,600    2005
140    Haiti                                      400,000    2004
141    Benin                                      386,700    2005
142    Malta                                      324,000    2005
143    Armenia                                    320,000    2005
144    Martinique                                 319,900    2002
145    Guadeloupe                                 314,700    2004
146    Iceland                                    304,000    2005
147    Niger                                      299,900    2005
148    Rwanda                                     290,000    2005
149    Guyana                                     281,400    2005
150    Tajikistan                                 265,000    2005
151    Nepal                                      248,800    2005
152    Gambia, The                                247,500    2005
153    Lesotho                                    245,100    2005
154    Libya                                      234,800    2004
155    Suriname                                   232,800    2005
156    Chad                                       210,000    2005
157    Barbados                                   206,200    2005
158    Brunei                                     205,900    2004
159    Netherlands Antilles                       200,000    2004
160    Swaziland                                  200,000    2005
161    Guinea                                     189,000    2005
162    Bahamas, The                               186,000    2004
163    Burma                                      183,400    2005
164    Liberia                                    160,000    2005
165    Maldives                                   153,400    2005
166    Burundi                                    153,000    2005
167    Cyprus                                     143,178
168    Fiji                                       142,200    2004
169    Cuba                                       134,500    2005
170    New Caledonia                              134,300    2005
171    Sierra Leone                               113,200    2003
172    Aruba                                       98,400    2004
173    French Guiana                               98,000    2004
174    Guam                                        98,000    2004
175    Equatorial Guinea                           96,900    2005
176    Belize                                      93,100    2005
177    Saint Lucia                                 93,000    2004
178    French Polynesia                            87,000    2005
179    Jersey                                      83,900    2004
180    Cape Verde                                  81,700    2005
181    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines            70,600    2005
182    Guinea-Bissau                               67,000    2005
183    Andorra                                     64,600    2005
184    Virgin Islands                              64,200    2004
185    Central African Republic                    60,000    2004
186    Seychelles                                  57,000    2005
187    Antigua and Barbuda                         54,000    2004
188    Turkmenistan                                52,000    2004
189    Bermuda                                     49,000    2004
190    Mayotte                                     48,100    2004
191    Guernsey                                    43,800    2004
192    Grenada                                     43,300    2004
193    Faroe Islands                               42,500    2005
194    Dominica                                    41,800    2004
195    Eritrea                                     40,400    2005
196    Bhutan                                      37,800    2005
197    Djibouti                                    34,500    2004
198    Greenland                                   32,200    2004
199    Papua New Guinea                            26,000    2005
200    Samoa                                       24,000    2005
201    Northern Mariana Islands                    20,500    2004
202    Monaco                                      19,300    2002
203    Cayman Islands                              17,000    2002
204    San Marino                                  16,800    2002
205    Tonga                                       16,400    2004
206    Comoros                                     16,100    2005
207    Micronesia, Federated States of             14,100    2005
208    Vanuatu                                     12,700    2005
209    Sao Tome and Principe                       12,000    2005
210    Liechtenstein                               11,400    2002
211    Saint Kitts and Nevis                       10,000    2004
212    Gibraltar                                    9,797    2002
213    British Virgin Islands                       8,000    2002
214    Solomon Islands                              6,000    2005
215    American Samoa                               2,377    1999
216    Anguilla                                     1,800    2002
217    Turks and Caicos Islands                     1,700    1999
218    Cook Islands                                 1,500    2002
219    Nauru                                        1,500    2002
220    Marshall Islands                             1,198    2004
221    Palau                                        1,000    2002
222    Kiribati                                      600     2004
223    Niue                                          400     2002
224    Montserrat                                     70     1994
225    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)                0    2001
226    Western Sahara                                  0     1999
227    Wallis and Futuna                               0     1994
228    Norfolk Island                                  0     2002
229    Tuvalu                                          0     2004
230    Tokelau                                         0     2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2153

Rank   Country                           Internet users      Date of Information

1      World                                  1,018,057,389  2005
2      European Union                          239,881,917   2006
3      United States                           205,326,680   2005
4      China                                   123,000,000   2006
5      Japan                                    86,300,000   2005
6      India                                    60,000,000   2005
7      Germany                                  50,616,000   2006
8      United Kingdom                           37,600,000   2005
9      Korea, South                             33,900,000   2005
10     France                                   29,521,000   2006
11     Italy                                    28,870,000   2005
12     Brazil                                   25,900,000   2005
13     Russia                                   23,700,000   2005
14     Canada                                   21,900,000   2005
15     Spain                                    19,204,771   2006
16     Mexico                                   18,622,500   2005
17     Indonesia                                16,000,000   2005
18     Turkey                                   16,000,000   2005
19     Australia                                14,663,622   2006
20     Taiwan                                   13,210,000   2005
21     Vietnam                                  13,100,000   2006
22     Malaysia                                 11,016,000   2005
23     Netherlands                              10,806,328   2004
24     Poland                                   10,600,000   2005
25     Pakistan                                 10,500,000   2005
26     Argentina                                10,000,000   2005
27     Thailand                                  8,420,000   2005
28     Philippines                               7,820,000   2005
29     Portugal                                  7,782,700   2006
30     Iran                                      7,500,000   2005
31     Sweden                                    6,800,000   2005
32     Chile                                     6,700,000   2005
33     Ukraine                                   5,278,100   2005
34     Belgium                                   5,100,000   2005
35     South Africa                              5,100,000   2005
36     Czech Republic                            5,100,000   2005
37     Switzerland                               5,097,822   2005
38     Egypt                                     5,000,000   2005
39     Nigeria                                   5,000,000   2005
40     Romania                                   4,940,000   2005
41     Hong Kong                                 4,878,713   2005
42     Colombia                                  4,739,000   2005
43     Austria                                   4,650,000   2005
44     Morocco                                   4,600,000   2005
45     Peru                                      4,600,000   2005
46     Greece                                    3,800,000   2005
47     Denmark                                   3,762,500   2005
48     Israel                                    3,700,000   2006
49     Belarus                                   3,394,400   2005
50     Finland                                   3,286,000   2005
51     New Zealand                               3,200,000   2005
52     Norway                                    3,140,000   2005
53     Hungary                                   3,050,000   2005
54     Venezuela                                 3,040,000   2005
55     Sudan                                     2,800,000   2005
56     Saudi Arabia                              2,540,000   2005
57     Slovakia                                  2,500,000   2005
58     Singapore                                 2,421,800   2005
59     Bulgaria                                  2,200,000   2005
60     Ireland                                   2,060,000   2005
61     Algeria                                   1,920,000   2005
62     Croatia                                   1,451,100   2005
63     Serbia                                    1,400,000   2006
64     United Arab Emirates                      1,397,200   2005
65     Lithuania                                 1,221,700   2005
66     Syria                                     1,100,000   2005
67     Slovenia                                  1,090,000   2005
68     Jamaica                                   1,067,000   2005
69     Kenya                                     1,054,900   2005
70     Latvia                                    1,030,000   2005
71     Costa Rica                                1,000,000   2005
72     Zimbabwe                                  1,000,000   2005
73     Puerto Rico                               1,000,000   2005
74     Tunisia                                    953,800    2005
75     Dominican Republic                         938,300    2005
76     Uzbekistan                                 880,000    2005
77     Bosnia and Herzegovina                     806,400    2005
78     Guatemala                                  756,000    2005
79     Kuwait                                     700,000    2005
80     Lebanon                                    700,000    2005
81     Estonia                                    690,000    2005
82     Uruguay                                    680,000    2005
83     Azerbaijan                                 678,800    2005
84     El Salvador                                637,100    2005
85     Jordan                                     629,500    2005
86     Ecuador                                    616,000    2005
87     Senegal                                    540,000    2005
88     Haiti                                      500,000    2005
89     Uganda                                     500,000    2005
90     Bolivia                                    480,000    2005
91     Benin                                      425,000    2005
92     Moldova                                    406,000    2005
93     Ghana                                      401,300    2005
94     Kazakhstan                                 400,000    2005
95     Macedonia                                  392,671    2005
96     Tanzania                                   333,000    2005
97     Luxembourg                                 315,000    2005
98     Bangladesh                                 300,000    2005
99     Panama                                     300,000    2005
100    Togo                                       300,000    2005
101    Cyprus                                     298,000    2005
102    Sri Lanka                                  280,000    2005
103    Kyrgyzstan                                 280,000    2005
104    Mongolia                                   268,300    2005
105    Iceland                                    258,000    2005
106    Oman                                       245,000    2005
107    Gaza Strip                                 243,000    2005
108    West Bank                                  243,000    2005
109    Zambia                                     231,000    2005
110    Honduras                                   223,000    2005
111    Yemen                                      220,000    2005
112    Qatar                                      219,000    2005
113    Libya                                      205,000    2005
114    Macau                                      201,000    2004
115    Paraguay                                   200,000    2005
116    Reunion                                    200,000    2005
117    Cuba                                       190,000    2005
118    Mauritius                                  180,000    2005
119    Georgia                                    175,600    2005
120    Nepal                                      175,000    2005
121    Angola                                     172,000    2005
122    Papua New Guinea                           170,000    2005
123    Cameroon                                   167,000    2005
124    Barbados                                   160,000    2005
125    Guyana                                     160,000    2005
126    Trinidad and Tobago                        160,000    2005
127    Cote d'Ivoire                              160,000    2005
128    Bahrain                                    152,700    2005
129    Armenia                                    150,000    2005
130    Congo, Democratic Republic of the           140,600   2005
131    Nicaragua                                  140,000    2005
132    Mozambique                                 138,000    2005
133    Malta                                      127,200    2005
134    Ethiopia                                   113,000    2005
135    Martinique                                 107,000    2005
136    Bahamas, The                                93,000    2005
137    Madagascar                                  90,000    2005
138    Somalia                                     90,000    2005
139    Guadeloupe                                  79,000    2005
140    Guam                                        79,000    2004
141    Burma                                       78,000    2005
142    New Caledonia                               76,000    2005
143    Albania                                     75,000    2005
144    Namibia                                     75,000    2005
145    Eritrea                                     70,000    2005
146    Gabon                                       67,000    2005
147    Burkina Faso                                64,600    2005
148    Fiji                                        61,000    2004
149    Botswana                                    60,000    2002
150    Mali                                        60,000    2005
151    Brunei                                      56,000    2005
152    French Polynesia                            55,000    2005
153    Saint Lucia                                 55,000    2005
154    Malawi                                      52,500    2005
155    Montenegro                                  50,000    2004
156    Gambia, The                                 49,000    2005
157    Guinea                                      46,000    2005
158    Lesotho                                     43,000    2005
159    Cambodia                                    41,000    2005
160    Bermuda                                     39,000    2005
161    French Guiana                               38,000    2005
162    Greenland                                   38,000    2005
163    Rwanda                                      38,000    2005
164    Congo, Republic of the                      36,000    2005
165    Guernsey                                    36,000    2005
166    Turkmenistan                                36,000    2005
167    Swaziland                                   36,000    2005
168    Iraq                                        36,000    2005
169    Belize                                      35,000    2005
170    Chad                                        35,000    2005
171    Faroe Islands                               33,000    2005
172    Afghanistan                                 30,000    2005
173    Virgin Islands                              30,000    2002
174    Suriname                                    30,000    2005
175    Jersey                                      27,000    2005
176    Guinea-Bissau                               26,000    2005
177    Bhutan                                      25,000    2005
178    Laos                                        25,000    2005
179    Cape Verde                                  25,000    2005
180    Burundi                                     25,000    2005
181    Aruba                                       24,000    2002
182    Niger                                       24,000    2005
183    Andorra                                     21,900    2005
184    Dominica                                    20,500    2005
185    Antigua and Barbuda                         20,000    2005
186    Sao Tome and Principe                       20,000    2005
187    Seychelles                                  20,000    2005
188    Liechtenstein                               20,000    2002
189    Comoros                                     20,000    2005
190    Grenada                                     19,000    2005
191    Maldives                                    19,000    2005
192    Monaco                                      16,000    2002
193    San Marino                                  14,300    2002
194    Micronesia, Federated States of             14,000    2005
195    Mauritania                                  14,000    2005
196    Northern Mariana Islands                    10,000    2003
197    Sierra Leone                                10,000    2005
198    Saint Kitts and Nevis                       10,000    2002
199    Cayman Islands                               9,909    2003
200    Central African Republic                     9,000    2005
201    Djibouti                                     9,000    2005
202    Solomon Islands                              8,400    2005
203    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines             8,000    2005
204    Vanuatu                                      7,500    2004
205    Gibraltar                                    6,200    2002
206    Samoa                                        6,000    2004
207    Equatorial Guinea                            5,000    2005
208    Tajikistan                                   5,000    2005
209    British Virgin Islands                       4,000    2002
210    Cook Islands                                 3,600    2002
211    Anguilla                                     3,000    2002
212    Tonga                                        3,000    2004
213    Kiribati                                     2,000    2004
214    Netherlands Antilles                         2,000    2000
215    Marshall Islands                             2,000    2005
216    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)             1,900   2002
217    Tuvalu                                       1,300    2002
218    Liberia                                      1,000    2002
219    East Timor                                   1,000    2004
220    Saint Helena                                 1,000    2003
221    Niue                                          900     2002
222    Wallis and Futuna                             900     2002
223    Norfolk Island                                700
224    Christmas Island                              464     2001
225    Nauru                                         300     2002
226    Holy See (Vatican City)                        93     2000

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2155

Rank   Country                           HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%)  Date of Information

1      Swaziland                             38.80           2003 est.
2      Botswana                              37.30           2003 est.
3      Lesotho                               28.90           2003 est.
4      Zimbabwe                              24.60           2001 est.
5      South Africa                          21.50           2003 est.
6      Namibia                               21.30           2003 est.
7      Zambia                                16.50           2003 est.
8      Malawi                                14.20           2003 est.
9      Central African Republic              13.50           2003 est.
10     Mozambique                            12.20           2003 est.
11     Guinea-Bissau                         10.00           2003 est.
12     Tanzania                               8.80           2003 est.
13     Gabon                                  8.10           2003 est.
14     Cote d'Ivoire                          7.00           2003 est.
15     Sierra Leone                           7.00           2001 est.
16     Cameroon                               6.90           2003 est.
17     Kenya                                  6.70           2003 est.
18     Burundi                                6.00           2003 est.
19     Liberia                                5.90           2003 est.
20     Haiti                                  5.60           2003 est.
21     Nigeria                                5.40           2003 est.
22     Rwanda                                 5.10           2003 est.
23     Congo, Republic of the                 4.90           2003 est.
24     Chad                                   4.80           2003 est.
25     Ethiopia                               4.40           2003 est.
26     Congo, Democratic Republic of the       4.20          2003 est.
27     Burkina Faso                           4.20           2003 est.
28     Togo                                   4.10           2003 est.
29     Uganda                                 4.10           2003 est.
30     Angola                                 3.90           2003 est.
31     Equatorial Guinea                      3.40           2001 est.
32     Guinea                                 3.20           2003 est.
33     Trinidad and Tobago                    3.20           2003 est.
34     Ghana                                  3.10           2003 est.
35     Bahamas, The                           3.00           2003 est.
36     Djibouti                               2.90           2003 est.
37     Eritrea                                2.70           2003 est.
38     Cambodia                               2.60           2003 est.
39     Guyana                                 2.50           2003 est.
40     Belize                                 2.40           2003 est.
41     Sudan                                  2.30           2001 est.
42     Benin                                  1.90           2003 est.
43     Mali                                   1.90           2003 est.
44     Honduras                               1.80           2003 est.
45     Dominican Republic                     1.70           2003 est.
46     Madagascar                             1.70           2003 est.
47     Suriname                               1.70           2001 est.
48     Barbados                               1.50           2003 est.
49     Thailand                               1.50           2003 est.
50     Ukraine                                1.40           2003 est.
51     Burma                                  1.20           2003 est.
52     Niger                                  1.20           2003 est.
53     Jamaica                                1.20           2003 est.
54     Gambia, The                            1.20           2003 est.
55     Estonia                                1.10           2001 est.
56     Russia                                 1.10           2001 est.
57     Guatemala                              1.10           2003 est.
58     Somalia                                1.00           2001 est.
59     India                                  0.90           2001 est.
60     Panama                                 0.90           2003 est.
61     Senegal                                0.80           2003 est.
62     Argentina                              0.70           2001 est.
63     Brazil                                 0.70           2003 est.
64     Venezuela                              0.70           2001 est.
65     Spain                                  0.70           2001 est.
66     El Salvador                            0.70           2003 est.
67     Colombia                               0.70           2003 est.
68     Costa Rica                             0.60           2003 est.
69     Mauritania                             0.60           2003 est.
70     Latvia                                 0.60           2001 est.
71     United States                          0.60           2003 est.
72     Papua New Guinea                       0.60           2003 est.
73     Italy                                  0.50           2001 est.
74     Paraguay                               0.50           2003 est.
75     Peru                                   0.50           2003 est.
76     Nepal                                  0.50           2001 est.
77     France                                 0.40           2003 est.
78     Vietnam                                0.40           2003 est.
79     Switzerland                            0.40           2001 est.
80     Portugal                               0.40           2001 est.
81     Malaysia                               0.40           2003 est.
82     Austria                                0.30           2003 est.
83     Ecuador                                0.30           2003 est.
84     Belarus                                0.30           2001 est.
85     Uruguay                                0.30           2001 est.
86     Chile                                  0.30           2003 est.
87     Mexico                                 0.30           2003 est.
88     Libya                                  0.30           2001 est.
89     Canada                                 0.30           2003 est.
90     Bermuda                                0.30           2005
91     Bahrain                                0.20           2001 est.
92     Belgium                                0.20           2003 est.
93     United Kingdom                         0.20           2001 est.
94     Singapore                              0.20           2003 est.
95     Nicaragua                              0.20           2003 est.
96     Netherlands                            0.20           2001 est.
97     Malta                                  0.20           2001 est.
98     Moldova                                0.20           2001 est.
99     Luxembourg                             0.20           2001 est.
100    Kazakhstan                             0.20           2001 est.
101    Iceland                                0.20           2001 est.
102    Greece                                 0.20           2001 est.
103    Denmark                                0.20           2003 est.
104    United Arab Emirates                   0.18           2001 est.
105    Comoros                                0.12           2001 est.
106    Kuwait                                 0.12           2001 est.
107    Algeria                                0.10           2001 est.
108    Australia                              0.10           2003 est.
109    Bangladesh                             0.10           2001 est.
110    Bolivia                                0.10           2003 est.
111    Bulgaria                               0.10           2001 est.
112    Sri Lanka                              0.10           2001 est.
113    Maldives                               0.10           2001 est.
114    Oman                                   0.10           2001 est.
115    Mauritius                              0.10           2001 est.
116    Morocco                                0.10           2001 est.
117    Macedonia                              0.10           2001 est.
118    Georgia                                0.10           2001 est.
119    Fiji                                   0.10           2003 est.
120    Finland                                0.10           2003 est.
121    Czech Republic                         0.10           2001 est.
122    Ireland                                0.10           2001 est.
123    Egypt                                  0.10           2001 est.
124    Cyprus                                 0.10           2003 est.
125    Cuba                                   0.10           2003 est.
126    China                                  0.10           2003 est.
127    Tajikistan                             0.10           2001 est.
128    Syria                                  0.10           2001 est.
129    Sweden                                 0.10           2001 est.
130    Slovenia                               0.10           2001 est.
131    Philippines                            0.10           2003 est.
132    Romania                                0.10           2001 est.
133    Poland                                 0.10           2001 est.
134    Pakistan                               0.10           2001 est.
135    Mongolia                               0.10           2003 est.
136    Yemen                                  0.10           2001 est.
137    Uzbekistan                             0.10           2001 est.
138    Turkmenistan                           0.10           2004 est.
139    Turkey                                 0.10           2001 est.
140    Tunisia                                0.10           2005 est.
141    Slovakia                               0.10           2001 est.
142    Lithuania                              0.10           2001 est.
143    Lebanon                                0.10           2001 est.
144    Laos                                   0.10           2003 est.
145    Korea, South                           0.10           2003 est.
146    Kyrgyzstan                             0.10           2001 est.
147    Jordan                                 0.10           2001 est.
148    Japan                                  0.10           2003 est.
149    New Zealand                            0.10           2003 est.
150    Norway                                 0.10           2001 est.
151    Iraq                                   0.10           2001 est.
152    Israel                                 0.10           2001 est.
153    Iran                                   0.10           2001 est.
154    Indonesia                              0.10           2003 est.
155    Hungary                                0.10           2001 est.
156    Croatia                                0.10           2001 est.
157    Hong Kong                              0.10           2003 est.
158    Germany                                0.10           2001 est.
159    Brunei                                 0.10           2003 est.
160    Bhutan                                 0.10           2001 est.
161    Bosnia and Herzegovina                 0.10           2001 est.
162    Azerbaijan                             0.10           2003 est.
163    Armenia                                0.10           2003 est.
164    Qatar                                  0.09           2001 est.
165    Cape Verde                             0.04
166    Afghanistan                            0.01           2001 est.
167    Saudi Arabia                           0.01           2001 est.
168    Svalbard                               0.00           2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2156

Rank   Country                           HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS  Date of Information

1      South Africa                              5,300,000   2003 est.
2      India                                     5,100,000   2001 est.
3      Nigeria                                   3,600,000   2003 est.
4      Zimbabwe                                  1,800,000   2001 est.
5      Tanzania                                  1,600,000   2003 est.
6      Ethiopia                                  1,500,000   2003 est.
7      Mozambique                                1,300,000   2003 est.
8      Kenya                                     1,200,000   2003 est.
9      Congo, Democratic Republic of the          1,100,000  2003 est.
10     United States                              950,000    2003 est.
11     Zambia                                     920,000    2003 est.
12     Malawi                                     900,000    2003 est.
13     Russia                                     860,000    2001 est.
14     China                                      840,000    2003 est.
15     Brazil                                     660,000    2003 est.
16     Cote d'Ivoire                              570,000    2003 est.
17     Thailand                                   570,000    2003 est.
18     Cameroon                                   560,000    2003 est.
19     Uganda                                     530,000    2001 est.
20     Sudan                                      400,000    2001 est.
21     Ukraine                                    360,000    2001 est.
22     Botswana                                   350,000    2003 est.
23     Ghana                                      350,000    2003 est.
24     Burma                                      330,000    2003 est.
25     Lesotho                                    320,000    2003 est.
26     Burkina Faso                               300,000    2003 est.
27     Haiti                                      280,000    2003 est.
28     Central African Republic                   260,000    2003 est.
29     Burundi                                    250,000    2003 est.
30     Rwanda                                     250,000    2003 est.
31     Angola                                     240,000    2003 est.
32     Vietnam                                    220,000    2003 est.
33     Swaziland                                  220,000    2003 est.
34     Namibia                                    210,000    2001 est.
35     Chad                                       200,000    2003 est.
36     Colombia                                   190,000    2003 est.
37     Cambodia                                   170,000    2003 est.
38     Sierra Leone                               170,000    2001 est.
39     Mexico                                     160,000    2003 est.
40     Guinea                                     140,000    2003 est.
41     Madagascar                                 140,000    2003 est.
42     Italy                                      140,000    2001 est.
43     Mali                                       140,000    2003 est.
44     Spain                                      140,000    2001 est.
45     Argentina                                  130,000    2001 est.
46     France                                     120,000    2003 est.
47     Indonesia                                  110,000    2003 est.
48     Togo                                       110,000    2003 est.
49     Venezuela                                  110,000    1999 est.
50     Liberia                                    100,000    2003 est.
51     Congo, Republic of the                      90,000    2003 est.
52     Dominican Republic                          88,000    2003 est.
53     Peru                                        82,000    2003 est.
54     Guatemala                                   78,000    2003 est.
55     Pakistan                                    74,000    2001 est.
56     Niger                                       70,000    2003 est.
57     Benin                                       68,000    2003 est.
58     Honduras                                    63,000    2003 est.
59     Nepal                                       61,000    2001 est.
60     Eritrea                                     60,000    2003 est.
61     Canada                                      56,000    2003 est.
62     Malaysia                                    52,000    2003 est.
63     United Kingdom                              51,000    2001 est.
64     Gabon                                       48,000    2003 est.
65     Senegal                                     44,000    2003 est.
66     Germany                                     43,000    2001 est.
67     Somalia                                     43,000    2001 est.
68     Iran                                        31,000    2001 est.
69     El Salvador                                 29,000    2003 est.
70     Trinidad and Tobago                         29,000    2003 est.
71     Chile                                       26,000    2003 est.
72     Jamaica                                     22,000    2003 est.
73     Portugal                                    22,000    2001 est.
74     Ecuador                                     21,000    2003 est.
75     Netherlands                                 19,000    2001 est.
76     Guinea-Bissau                               17,000    2001 est.
77     Kazakhstan                                  16,500    2001 est.
78     Panama                                      16,000    2003 est.
79     Papua New Guinea                            16,000    2003 est.
80     Belarus                                     15,000    2001 est.
81     Morocco                                     15,000    2001 est.
82     Paraguay                                    15,000    1999 est.
83     Australia                                   14,000    2003 est.
84     Poland                                      14,000    2003 est.
85     Bangladesh                                  13,000    2001 est.
86     Switzerland                                 13,000    2001 est.
87     Costa Rica                                  12,000    2003 est.
88     Yemen                                       12,000    2001 est.
89     Japan                                       12,000    2003 est.
90     Egypt                                       12,000    2001 est.
91     Guyana                                      11,000    2003 est.
92     Uzbekistan                                  11,000    2003 est.
93     Austria                                     10,000    2003 est.
94     Belgium                                     10,000    2003 est.
95     Libya                                       10,000    2001 est.
96     Mauritania                                   9,500    2003 est.
97     Algeria                                      9,100    2003 est.
98     Greece                                       9,100    2001 est.
99     Djibouti                                     9,100    2003 est.
100    Philippines                                  9,000    2003 est.
101    Korea, South                                 8,300    2003 est.
102    Estonia                                      7,800    2003 est.
103    Latvia                                       7,600    2001 est.
104    Puerto Rico                                  7,397
105    Gambia, The                                  6,800    2003 est.
106    Romania                                      6,500    2001 est.
107    Nicaragua                                    6,400    2003 est.
108    Uruguay                                      6,000    2001 est.
109    Equatorial Guinea                            5,900    2001 est.
110    Bahamas, The                                 5,600    2003 est.
111    Moldova                                      5,500    2001 est.
112    Suriname                                     5,200    2001 est.
113    Denmark                                      5,000    2003 est.
114    Bolivia                                      4,900    2003 est.
115    Singapore                                    4,100    2003 est.
116    Kyrgyzstan                                   3,900    2003 est.
117    Belize                                       3,600    2003 est.
118    Sweden                                       3,600    2001 est.
119    Sri Lanka                                    3,500    2001 est.
120    Cuba                                         3,300    2003 est.
121    Georgia                                      3,000    2003 est.
122    Israel                                       3,000    1999 est.
123    Ireland                                      2,800    2001 est.
124    Lebanon                                      2,800    2003 est.
125    Hungary                                      2,800    2001 est.
126    Armenia                                      2,600    2003 est.
127    Hong Kong                                    2,600    2003 est.
128    Barbados                                     2,500    2003 est.
129    Czech Republic                               2,500    2001 est.
130    Norway                                       2,100    2001 est.
131    Laos                                         1,700    2003 est.
132    Finland                                      1,500    2003 est.
133    Azerbaijan                                   1,400    2003 est.
134    New Zealand                                  1,400    2003 est.
135    Lithuania                                    1,300    2003 est.
136    Oman                                         1,300    2001 est.
137    Cyprus                                       1,000    1999 est.
138    Tunisia                                      1,000    2003 est.
139    Bosnia and Herzegovina                        900     2003 est.
140    Cape Verde                                    775
141    Mauritius                                     700     2001 est.
142    Bahrain                                       600     2003 est.
143    Jordan                                        600     2003 est.
144    Fiji                                          600     2003 est.
145    Iraq                                          500     2003 est.
146    Mongolia                                      500     2003 est
147    Syria                                         500     2003 est.
148    Malta                                         500     2003 est.
149    Luxembourg                                    500     2003 est.
150    Bulgaria                                      346     2001 est.
151    Slovenia                                      280     2001 est.
152    Iceland                                       220     2001 est.
153    Brunei                                        200     2003 est.
154    Slovakia                                      200     2003 est.
155    Croatia                                       200     2001 est.
156    Macedonia                                     200     2003 est.
157    Turkmenistan                                  200     2003 est.
158    Tajikistan                                    200     2003 est.
159    Bermuda                                       163     2005
160    Bhutan                                        100     1999 est.
161    Maldives                                      100     2001 est.
162    Greenland                                     100
163    Samoa                                          12
164    Svalbard                                        0     2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2157

Rank   Country                           HIV/AIDS - deaths   Date of Information

1      South Africa                               370,000    2003 est.
2      India                                      310,000    2001 est.
3      Nigeria                                    310,000    2003 est.
4      Zimbabwe                                   170,000    2003 est.
5      Tanzania                                   160,000    2003 est.
6      Kenya                                      150,000    2003 est.
7      Ethiopia                                   120,000    2003 est.
8      Mozambique                                 110,000    2003 est.
9      Congo, Democratic Republic of the           100,000   2003 est.
10     Zambia                                      89,000    2003 est.
11     Malawi                                      84,000    2003 est.
12     Uganda                                      78,000    2003 est.
13     Thailand                                    58,000    2003 est.
14     Cameroon                                    49,000    2003 est.
15     Cote d'Ivoire                               47,000    2003 est.
16     China                                       44,000    2003 est.
17     Botswana                                    33,000    2003 est.
18     Ghana                                       30,000    2003 est.
19     Lesotho                                     29,000    2003 est.
20     Burkina Faso                                29,000    2003 est.
21     Burundi                                     25,000    2003 est.
22     Haiti                                       24,000    2003 est.
23     Central African Republic                    23,000    2003 est.
24     Sudan                                       23,000    2003 est.
25     Rwanda                                      22,000    2003 est.
26     Angola                                      21,000    2003 est.
27     Burma                                       20,000    2003 est.
28     Ukraine                                     20,000    2003 est.
29     Chad                                        18,000    2003 est.
30     Swaziland                                   17,000    2003 est.
31     Namibia                                     16,000    2003 est.
32     Brazil                                      15,000    2003 est.
33     Cambodia                                    15,000    2003 est.
34     United States                               14,000    2003 est.
35     Mali                                        12,000    2003 est.
36     Sierra Leone                                11,000    2001 est.
37     Togo                                        10,000    2003 est.
38     Congo, Republic of the                       9,700    2003 est.
39     Guinea                                       9,000    2003 est.
40     Russia                                       9,000    2001 est.
41     Vietnam                                      9,000    2003 est.
42     Dominican Republic                           7,900    2003 est.
43     Madagascar                                   7,500    2003 est.
44     Liberia                                      7,200    2003 est.
45     Eritrea                                      6,300    2003 est.
46     Benin                                        5,800    2003 est.
47     Guatemala                                    5,800    2003 est.
48     Mexico                                       5,000    2003 est.
49     Pakistan                                     4,900    2003 est.
50     Niger                                        4,800    2003 est.
51     Peru                                         4,200    2003 est.
52     Honduras                                     4,100    2003 est.
53     Venezuela                                    4,100    2003 est.
54     Colombia                                     3,600    2003 est.
55     Senegal                                      3,500    2003 est.
56     Nepal                                        3,100    2003 est.
57     Gabon                                        3,000    2003 est.
58     Indonesia                                    2,400    2003 est.
59     El Salvador                                  2,200    2003 est.
60     Malaysia                                     2,000    2003 est.
61     Trinidad and Tobago                          1,900    2003 est.
62     Ecuador                                      1,700    2003 est.
63     Argentina                                    1,500    2003 est.
64     Canada                                       1,500    2003 est.
65     Chile                                        1,400    2003 est.
66     Guinea-Bissau                                1,200    2001 est.
67     Guyana                                       1,100    2003 est.
68     Belarus                                      1,000    2001 est.
69     Spain                                        1,000    2003 est.
70     Portugal                                     1,000    2003 est.
71     Italy                                        1,000    2003 est.
72     Germany                                      1,000    2003 est.
73     France                                       1,000    2003 est.
74     Costa Rica                                    900     2003 est.
75     Jamaica                                       900     2003 est.
76     Iran                                          800     2003 est.
77     Egypt                                         700     2003 est.
78     Djibouti                                      690     2003 est.
79     Bangladesh                                    650     2001 est.
80     Gambia, The                                   600     2003 est.
81     Paraguay                                      600     2003 est.
82     Papua New Guinea                              600     2003 est.
83     Algeria                                       500     2003 est.
84     Japan                                         500     2003 est.
85     Latvia                                        500     2003 est.
86     Philippines                                   500     2003 est.
87     Uzbekistan                                    500     2003 est.
88     Uruguay                                       500     2003 est.
89     United Kingdom                                500     2003 est.
90     Suriname                                      500     2003 est.
91     Jordan                                        500     2003 est.
92     Bermuda                                       392     2005
93     Equatorial Guinea                             370     2001 est.
94     Romania                                       350     2001 est.
95     Moldova                                       300     2001 est.
96     Cape Verde                                    225
97     Armenia                                       200     2003 est.
98     Lithuania                                     200     2003 est.
99     Lebanon                                       200     2003 est.
100    Laos                                          200     2003 est.
101    Kazakhstan                                    200     2003 est.
102    Korea, South                                  200     2003 est.
103    Kyrgyzstan                                    200     2003 est.
104    Hong Kong                                     200     2003 est.
105    Georgia                                       200     2003 est.
106    Fiji                                          200     2003 est.
107    Tunisia                                       200     2003 est.
108    Syria                                         200     2003 est.
109    Singapore                                     200     2003 est.
110    New Zealand                                   200     2003 est.
111    Oman                                          200     2003 est.
112    Mongolia                                      200     2003 est.
113    Estonia                                       200     2003 est.
114    Cuba                                          200     2003 est.
115    Sri Lanka                                     200     2003 est.
116    Brunei                                        200     2003 est.
117    Bahamas, The                                  200     2003 est.
118    Barbados                                      200     2003 est.
119    Bahrain                                       200     2003 est.
120    Azerbaijan                                    100     2001 est.
121    Turkmenistan                                  100     2004 est.
122    Tajikistan                                    100     2001 est.
123    Switzerland                                   100     2003 est.
124    Sweden                                        100     2003 est.
125    Slovenia                                      100     2003 est.
126    Poland                                        100     2001 est.
127    Norway                                        100     2003 est.
128    Netherlands                                   100     2003 est.
129    Malta                                         100     2003 est.
130    Mauritius                                     100     2001 est.
131    Macedonia                                     100     2003 est.
132    Luxembourg                                    100     2003 est.
133    Slovakia                                      100     2001 est.
134    Israel                                        100     2001 est.
135    Iceland                                       100     2003 est.
136    Hungary                                       100     2001 est.
137    Greece                                        100     2003 est.
138    Finland                                       100     2003 est.
139    Bulgaria                                      100     2001 est.
140    Bosnia and Herzegovina                        100     2001 est.
141    Denmark                                       100     2003 est.
142    Ireland                                       100     2003 est.
143    Belgium                                       100     2003 est.
144    Austria                                       100     2003 est.
145    Czech Republic                                 10     2001 est.
146    Croatia                                        10     2001 est.
147    Samoa                                           3
148    Svalbard                                        0     2001

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2173

Rank   Country                           Oil - production(bbl/day)  Date of Information

1      World                                    79,650,000   2003 est.
2      Saudi Arabia                              9,475,000   2005 est.
3      Russia                                    9,150,000   2005 est.
4      United States                             7,610,000   2005 est.
5      Iran                                      3,979,000   2005 est.
6      China                                     3,504,000   2004
7      European Union                            3,424,000   2001
8      Mexico                                    3,420,000   2005 est.
9      Norway                                    3,220,000   2005 est.
10     Venezuela                                 3,081,000   2005 est.
11     Nigeria                                   2,451,000   2005 est.
12     Kuwait                                    2,418,000   2005 est.
13     Canada                                    2,400,000   2004
14     United Arab Emirates                      2,396,000   2005 est.
15     United Kingdom                            2,393,000   2003 est.
16     Iraq                                      2,093,000   2005 est.
17     Brazil                                    2,010,000   2005 est.
18     Libya                                     1,643,000   2005 est.
19     Angola                                    1,600,000   2005 est.
20     Algeria                                   1,373,000   2005 est.
21     Kazakhstan                                1,300,000   2005 est.
22     Indonesia                                 1,061,000   2005 est.
23     Qatar                                      790,500    2005 est.
24     India                                      785,000    2005 est.
25     Malaysia                                   770,000    2005 est.
26     Oman                                       769,000    2005 est.
27     Argentina                                  745,000    2005 est.
28     Egypt                                      700,000    2005 est.
29     Australia                                  530,000    2005 est.
30     Colombia                                   512,400    2005 est.
31     Ecuador                                    493,200    2005 est.
32     Azerbaijan                                 477,000    2005 est.
33     Equatorial Guinea                          420,000    2005 est.
34     Syria                                      403,800    2005 est.
35     Sudan                                      401,300    2005 est.
36     Vietnam                                    400,000    2005 est.
37     Yemen                                      387,500    2005 est.
38     Denmark                                    376,900    2003
39     Gabon                                      268,900    2005 est.
40     Congo, Republic of the                     267,100    2005 est.
41     Thailand                                   230,000    2005 est.
42     Chad                                       225,000    2005 est.
43     South Africa                               216,700    2003 est.
44     Turkmenistan                               203,400    2003 est.
45     Brunei                                     200,800    2005
46     Bahrain                                    188,300    2005 est.
47     Germany                                    158,700    2003
48     Uzbekistan                                 152,000    2004
49     Trinidad and Tobago                        150,000    2005 est.
50     Italy                                      136,200    2003 est.
51     Japan                                      120,700    2003 est.
52     Peru                                       120,000    2005 est.
53     Romania                                    119,000    2005 est.
54     Netherlands                                 94,870    2003
55     Ukraine                                     85,660    2004
56     Cameroon                                    82,300    2005 est.
57     France                                      76,300    2003 est.
58     Tunisia                                     76,000    2004 est.
59     Cuba                                        72,000    2005 est.
60     Pakistan                                    63,000    2005 est.
61     Papua New Guinea                            50,000    January 2006 est.
62     Turkey                                      50,000    2005 est.
63     Hungary                                     45,190    2005
64     Bolivia                                     42,000    2005 est.
65     Belarus                                     36,000    2004 est.
66     Cote d'Ivoire                               32,900    2005 est.
67     New Zealand                                 31,740    2003 est.
68     Spain                                       24,540    2003 est.
69     Poland                                      24,530    2003 est.
70     Guatemala                                   22,300    2005 est.
71     Congo, Democratic Republic of the            22,000   2003
72     Croatia                                     20,500    2005 est.
73     Burma                                       18,500    2005 est.
74     Austria                                     17,810    2004
75     Czech Republic                              15,240    2005
76     Serbia                                      14,660    2003
77     Virgin Islands                              14,650    2003 est.
78     Philippines                                 14,360    2003 est.
79     Nicaragua                                   14,300    2005 est.
80     Lithuania                                   14,000    2004
81     Belgium                                     13,060    2003
82     Suriname                                    12,000    2004 est.
83     Slovakia                                    11,480    2005 est.
84     Finland                                      9,013    2003 est.
85     Taiwan                                       8,354    2003 est.
86     Singapore                                    8,290    2003 est.
87     Ghana                                        7,433    2003 est.
88     Bangladesh                                   6,825    2003
89     Estonia                                      6,000    2004
90     Greece                                       5,805    2003 est.
91     Chile                                        4,000    2005 est.
92     Albania                                      3,600    2005 est.
93     Israel                                       2,740    2003 est.
94     Sweden                                       2,441    2003 est.
95     Aruba                                        2,363    2003
96     Kyrgyzstan                                   1,990    2003
97     Georgia                                      1,982    2003
98     Switzerland                                  1,950    2003 est.
99     Barbados                                     1,000    2003
100    Bulgaria                                     1,000    2004
101    Mongolia                                      549     2005 est.
102    Puerto Rico                                   436     2003 est.
103    Uruguay                                       435     2003 est.
104    Benin                                         400     2003
105    Tajikistan                                    355     2003 est.
106    Cyprus                                        300     2005 est.
107    Morocco                                       300     2005 est.
108    Zambia                                        130     2003 est.
109    Madagascar                                     89     2003 est.
110    Jordan                                         40     2004 est.
111    Slovenia                                       11     2003 est.
112    Sierra Leone                                    1     2003 est.
113    Antigua and Barbuda                             0     2003
114    Botswana                                        0     2003
115    Bahamas, The                                    0     2003
116    Solomon Islands                                 0     2003 est.
117    Liberia                                         0     2003 est.
118    Latvia                                          0     2004
119    Lebanon                                         0     2003 est.
120    Laos                                            0     2003 est.
121    Korea, South                                    0     2004
122    Kiribati                                        0     2003 est.
123    Korea, North                                    0     2004 est.
124    Kenya                                           0     2003 est.
125    Jamaica                                         0     2003 est.
126    Zimbabwe                                        0     2003 est.
127    Swaziland                                       0     2004 est.
128    Samoa                                           0     2003 est.
129    Western Sahara                                  0     2003 est.
130    Namibia                                         0     2003 est.
131    British Virgin Islands                          0     2003
132    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines                0     2003 est.
133    Burkina Faso                                    0     2003
134    Uganda                                          0     2003 est.
135    Tanzania                                        0     2003 est.
136    Sao Tome and Principe                           0     2003 est.
137    Togo                                            0     2003 est.
138    Tonga                                           0     2003 est.
139    Turks and Caicos Islands                        0     2003 est.
140    Saint Lucia                                     0     2003 est.
141    Somalia                                         0     2003 est.
142    Saint Helena                                    0     2003 est.
143    Senegal                                         0     2003 est.
144    Seychelles                                      0     2003 est.
145    Saint Kitts and Nevis                           0     2003 est.
146    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                       0     2003 est.
147    Rwanda                                          0     2003 est.
148    Reunion                                         0     2003 est.
149    Guinea-Bissau                                   0     2003 est.
150    Portugal                                        0     2003 est.
151    Panama                                          0     2004 est.
152    Paraguay                                        0     2003 est.
153    Netherlands Antilles                            0     2003 est.
154    Nauru                                           0     2003 est.
155    Nepal                                           0     2005 est.
156    Vanuatu                                         0     2003 est.
157    Niger                                           0     2003 est.
158    Niue                                            0     2003 est.
159    New Caledonia                                   0     2003 est.
160    Mozambique                                      0     2003 est.
161    Maldives                                        0     2003 est.
162    Malta                                           0     2003 est.
163    Mauritania                                      0     2005 est.
164    Mauritius                                       0     2003 est.
165    Mali                                            0     2003 est.
166    Macedonia                                       0     2005 est.
167    Malawi                                          0     2003 est.
168    Montserrat                                      0     2003 est.
169    Moldova                                         0     2003 est.
170    Macau                                           0     2004 est.
171    Martinique                                      0     2003 est.
172    Luxembourg                                      0     2003 est.
173    Lesotho                                         0     2003 est.
174    Iceland                                         0     2003 est.
175    Honduras                                        0     2003 est.
176    Hong Kong                                       0     2003 est.
177    Ireland                                         0     2003 est.
178    Dominican Republic                              0     2003
179    Dominica                                        0     2003
180    Djibouti                                        0     2003
181    Cook Islands                                    0     2003
182    Cape Verde                                      0     2003
183    Central African Republic                        0     2003
184    Costa Rica                                      0     2003
185    Comoros                                         0     2003
186    Cayman Islands                                  0     2003
187    Sri Lanka                                       0     2003 est.
188    Cambodia                                        0     2003
189    Burundi                                         0     2003
190    Haiti                                           0     2003 est.
191    Guyana                                          0     2003 est.
192    Guinea                                          0     2003 est.
193    Guam                                            0     2003 est.
194    Guadeloupe                                      0     2003 est.
195    Greenland                                       0     2003 est.
196    Grenada                                         0     2003 est.
197    Gibraltar                                       0     2003 est.
198    Gambia, The                                     0     2003 est.
199    French Polynesia                                0     2003 est.
200    Faroe Islands                                   0     2003 est.
201    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)                0    2003 est.
202    Fiji                                            0     2003 est.
203    French Guiana                                   0     2003 est.
204    Ethiopia                                        0     2003 est.
205    El Salvador                                     0     2003 est.
206    Eritrea                                         0     2003 est.
207    Bhutan                                          0     2003
208    Bosnia and Herzegovina                          0     2003
209    Belize                                          0     2003
210    Bermuda                                         0     2003
211    Armenia                                         0     2005
212    American Samoa                                  0     2003
213    Afghanistan                                     0     2003

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2174

Rank   Country                           Oil - consumption(bbl/day)  Date of Information

1      World                                    80,100,000   2003 est.
2      United States                            20,030,000   2003 est.
3      European Union                           14,590,000   2001
4      China                                     6,391,000   2004
5      Japan                                     5,578,000   2003 est.
6      Russia                                    2,800,000   2005 est.
7      Germany                                   2,677,000   2003
8      India                                     2,320,000   2003 est.
9      Canada                                    2,300,000   2004
10     Korea, South                              2,061,000   2004
11     France                                    2,060,000   2003 est.
12     Italy                                     1,874,000   2003 est.
13     Saudi Arabia                              1,775,000   2003
14     Mexico                                    1,752,000   2004 est.
15     United Kingdom                            1,722,000   2003 est.
16     Brazil                                    1,610,000   2004
17     Spain                                     1,544,000   2003 est.
18     Iran                                      1,425,000   2003 est.
19     Indonesia                                 1,084,000   2005 est.
20     Netherlands                                920,000    2003 est.
21     Taiwan                                     915,000    2003 est.
22     Australia                                  875,600    2003 est.
23     Thailand                                   851,000    2004 est.
24     Singapore                                  800,000    2005 est.
25     Turkey                                     715,100    2005 est.
26     Belgium                                    624,200    2003 est.
27     Egypt                                      566,000    2003 est.
28     Venezuela                                  530,000    2003 est.
29     Malaysia                                   510,000    2003 est.
30     Ukraine                                    491,700    2004
31     South Africa                               484,000    2003 est.
32     Poland                                     476,200    2003 est.
33     Argentina                                  450,000    2001 est.
34     Greece                                     435,700    2005 est.
35     Pakistan                                   365,000    2004 est.
36     Iraq                                       351,500    2005 est.
37     Sweden                                     346,100    2003 est.
38     Philippines                                335,000    2003 est.
39     Portugal                                   326,500    2003 est.
40     United Arab Emirates                       310,000    2004 est.
41     Nigeria                                    310,000    2003 est.
42     Kuwait                                     305,000    2003 est.
43     Hong Kong                                  293,000    2004 est.
44     Israel                                     270,100    2003 est.
45     Colombia                                   270,000    2003 est.
46     Switzerland                                258,900    2003 est.
47     Norway                                     257,200    2003 est.
48     Belarus                                    252,000    2003 est.
49     Austria                                    249,000    2004 est.
50     Algeria                                    246,000    2004 est.
51     Syria                                      240,000    2004 est.
52     Libya                                      237,000    2004 est.
53     Chile                                      228,000    2003 est.
54     Kazakhstan                                 221,000    2003 est.
55     Finland                                    219,700    2003 est.
56     Puerto Rico                                218,000    2003 est.
57     Vietnam                                    216,000    2003 est.
58     Romania                                    212,000    2004 est.
59     Cuba                                       205,000    2003 est.
60     Czech Republic                             202,000    2004 est.
61     Denmark                                    188,300    2003 est.
62     Ireland                                    175,600    2003 est.
63     Morocco                                    158,000    2003 est.
64     Peru                                       157,000    2003 est.
65     Ecuador                                    155,000    2003 est.
66     New Zealand                                151,900    2003 est.
67     Hungary                                    136,000    2004
68     Dominican Republic                         128,000    2003 est.
69     Azerbaijan                                 123,000    2003 est.
70     Uzbekistan                                 120,000    2004
71     Virgin Islands                             105,000    2003 est.
72     Jordan                                     103,000    2004 est.
73     Lebanon                                    102,000    2003 est.
74     Bulgaria                                    98,000    2004
75     Croatia                                     90,000    2003 est.
76     Tunisia                                     90,000    2003 est.
77     Serbia                                      85,000    2003 est.
78     Bangladesh                                  84,000    2003 est.
79     Turkmenistan                                80,000    2003 est.
80     Yemen                                       80,000    2003 est.
81     Sri Lanka                                   79,000    2003 est.
82     Panama                                      78,000    2003 est.
83     Slovakia                                    74,000    2004 est.
84     Netherlands Antilles                        72,500    2003 est.
85     Sudan                                       70,000    2004 est.
86     Jamaica                                     69,000    2003 est.
87     Guatemala                                   66,000    2003 est.
88     Oman                                        62,000    2003 est.
89     Estonia                                     60,000    2004
90     Luxembourg                                  55,700    2003 est.
91     Cyprus                                      52,000    2003 est.
92     Kenya                                       52,000    2003 est.
93     Slovenia                                    52,000    2003 est.
94     Lithuania                                   52,000    2004
95     Bolivia                                     48,000    2003 est.
96     Latvia                                      47,000    2004
97     Angola                                      46,000    2003 est.
98     Armenia                                     40,000    2003 est.
99     Costa Rica                                  40,000    2003 est.
100    El Salvador                                 40,000    2003 est.
101    Ghana                                       39,000    2003 est.
102    Uruguay                                     38,000    2003 est.
103    Honduras                                    37,000    2003 est.
104    Moldova                                     37,000    2003 est.
105    Qatar                                       33,000    2003 est.
106    Burma                                       32,000    2003 est.
107    Senegal                                     31,000    2003 est.
108    Trinidad and Tobago                         29,000    2003 est.
109    Ethiopia                                    27,000    2003 est.
110    Bahrain                                     26,000    2003 est.
111    Albania                                     25,200    2005 est.
112    Nicaragua                                   25,200    2005 est.
113    Korea, North                                25,000    2003
114    Tajikistan                                  25,000    2003 est.
115    Paraguay                                    25,000    2003 est.
116    Mauritania                                  24,000    2003 est.
117    Gibraltar                                   23,500    2003 est.
118    Bahamas, The                                23,000    2003 est.
119    Cameroon                                    23,000    2001 est.
120    Macedonia                                   23,000    2005 est.
121    Zimbabwe                                    22,500    2003 est.
122    Tanzania                                    22,000    2003 est.
123    Bosnia and Herzegovina                      21,000    2003 est.
124    Mauritius                                   21,000    2003 est.
125    Cote d'Ivoire                               20,000    2003 est.
126    Guam                                        19,000    2003 est.
127    Reunion                                     18,500    2003 est.
128    Malta                                       18,000    2003 est.
129    Papua New Guinea                            18,000    January 2006 est.
130    Iceland                                     17,280    2003 est.
131    Namibia                                     16,000    2003 est.
132    Madagascar                                  15,000    2003 est.
133    Suriname                                    14,000    2004 est.
134    Martinique                                  13,800    2003 est.
135    Georgia                                     13,000    2003 est.
136    Guadeloupe                                  13,000    2003 est.
137    Gabon                                       12,250    2003 est.
138    Zambia                                      12,250    2003 est.
139    Botswana                                    12,000    2003 est.
140    Macau                                       12,000    2003 est.
141    Djibouti                                    12,000    2003 est.
142    Benin                                       12,000    2003 est.
143    Nepal                                       11,980    2005 est.
144    Haiti                                       11,800    2003 est.
145    Guyana                                      11,300    2003 est.
146    Mongolia                                    11,220    2005 est.
147    Kyrgyzstan                                  11,000    2003 est.
148    Mozambique                                  11,000    2003 est.
149    Brunei                                      10,770    2005 est.
150    Barbados                                    10,000    2003 est.
151    Uganda                                      10,000    2003 est.
152    Fiji                                        10,000    2003 est.
153    New Caledonia                               10,000    2003 est.
154    Togo                                         8,500    2003 est.
155    Guinea                                       8,400    2003 est.
156    Congo, Democratic Republic of the             8,300   2003 est.
157    Burkina Faso                                 8,000    2003 est.
158    Seychelles                                   7,600    2003 est.
159    French Guiana                                6,600    2003 est.
160    Sierra Leone                                 6,510    2003 est.
161    Aruba                                        6,500    2003 est.
162    Belize                                       6,000    2003 est.
163    Rwanda                                       6,000    2003 est.
164    Malawi                                       5,450    2003 est.
165    Niger                                        5,400    2003 est.
166    Congo, Republic of the                       5,200    2003 est.
167    Afghanistan                                  5,000    2003 est.
168    Somalia                                      5,000    2003 est.
169    French Polynesia                             4,800    2003 est.
170    Bermuda                                      4,658    2005 est.
171    Eritrea                                      4,600    2003 est.
172    Faroe Islands                                4,500    2003 est.
173    Mali                                         4,250    2003 est.
174    American Samoa                               4,000    2003 est.
175    Maldives                                     4,000    2003 est.
176    Greenland                                    3,850    2003 est.
177    Cambodia                                     3,700    2003 est.
178    Antigua and Barbuda                          3,600    2003 est.
179    Swaziland                                    3,500    2003 est.
180    Liberia                                      3,400    2003 est.
181    Burundi                                      3,000    2003 est.
182    Laos                                         2,950    2003 est.
183    Saint Lucia                                  2,520    2003 est.
184    Cayman Islands                               2,450    2003 est.
185    Guinea-Bissau                                2,450    2003 est.
186    Central African Republic                     2,400    2003 est.
187    Gambia, The                                  2,000    2003 est.
188    Grenada                                      1,800    2003 est.
189    Western Sahara                               1,750    2003 est.
190    Chad                                         1,450    2003 est.
191    Lesotho                                      1,400    2003
192    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines             1,300    2003 est.
193    Solomon Islands                              1,270    2003 est.
194    Cape Verde                                   1,200    2003 est.
195    Equatorial Guinea                            1,200    2003 est.
196    Bhutan                                       1,100    2003 est.
197    Nauru                                        1,000    2003 est.
198    Samoa                                        1,000    2003 est.
199    Dominica                                      800     2003 est.
200    Tonga                                         800     2003 est.
201    Comoros                                       700     2003 est.
202    Saint Kitts and Nevis                         700     2003 est.
203    Sao Tome and Principe                         650     2003 est.
204    Vanuatu                                       620     2003 est.
205    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                     480     2003 est.
206    British Virgin Islands                        410     2003 est.
207    Cook Islands                                  400     2003 est.
208    Montserrat                                    380     2003 est.
209    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)              200    2003 est.
210    Kiribati                                      200     2003 est.
211    Saint Helena                                  100     2003 est.
212    Turks and Caicos Islands                       80     2003 est.
213    Niue                                           20     2003 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2175

Rank   Country                           Oil - imports(bbl/day)  Date of Information

1      European Union                           15,690,000   2001
2      United States                            13,150,000   2004
3      Japan                                     5,449,000   2001
4      China                                     3,226,000   2004
5      Netherlands                               2,284,000   2001
6      France                                    2,281,000   2001
7      Korea, South                              2,263,000   2004
8      Italy                                     2,158,000   2001
9      Germany                                   2,135,000   2003
10     India                                     2,090,000
11     Spain                                     1,582,000   2001
12     United Kingdom                            1,084,000   2003
13     Belgium                                   1,042,000   2001
14     Canada                                     963,000    2004
15     Turkey                                     616,500    2001
16     Brazil                                     572,600
17     Sweden                                     553,100    2001
18     Australia                                  530,800    2001
19     Greece                                     468,300    2001
20     Ukraine                                    444,600
21     Poland                                     413,700    2001
22     Belarus                                    360,000    2004 est.
23     Portugal                                   357,300    2001
24     Indonesia                                  345,700    2005 est.
25     Finland                                    318,300    2001
26     Philippines                                312,000    2003
27     Switzerland                                289,500    2001
28     Chile                                      221,500    2003 est.
29     Mexico                                     205,000    2004
30     Denmark                                    195,000    2001
31     Czech Republic                             182,000    2004
32     Ireland                                    178,600    2001
33     Romania                                    163,000    2004
34     Austria                                    152,600    2004
35     Morocco                                    147,800
36     Dominican Republic                         129,900    2003
37     New Zealand                                119,700    2001
38     Jordan                                     100,000    2004 est.
39     Hungary                                     94,000    2004
40     Lithuania                                   93,000    2004
41     Norway                                      88,870    2001
42     Bulgaria                                    85,000    2004 est.
43     Russia                                      75,000
44     Slovakia                                    59,000
45     Estonia                                     54,000    2004
46     Luxembourg                                  50,700    2001
47     Burma                                       49,230    2003
48     Kazakhstan                                  47,000    2003
49     Latvia                                      47,000    2004
50     Zimbabwe                                    23,000
51     Korea, North                                22,000    2004 est.
52     Albania                                     21,600    2005 est.
53     Botswana                                    16,000    2001
54     Nicaragua                                   15,560    2005 est.
55     Iceland                                     15,470    2001
56     Namibia                                     12,770
57     Nepal                                       11,760
58     Mongolia                                    11,210    2005 est.
59     Suriname                                     1,644    2003
60     United Arab Emirates                            0     2004
61     Saudi Arabia                                    0     2003
62     Sudan                                           0     2004
63     Libya                                           0
64     Algeria                                         0     2004 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2176

Rank   Country                           Oil - exports(bbl/day)  Date of Information

1      Saudi Arabia                              7,920,000   2003
2      European Union                            5,322,000   2001
3      Russia                                    5,150,000   2004
4      Norway                                    3,466,000   2001
5      United Arab Emirates                      2,500,000   2004 est.
6      Iran                                      2,500,000   2004 est.
7      Venezuela                                 2,100,000   2004 est.
8      Kuwait                                    1,970,000   2003
9      Mexico                                    1,863,000   2004
10     Canada                                    1,600,000   2004
11     United Kingdom                            1,498,000   2001
12     Iraq                                      1,420,000   2005 est.
13     Netherlands                               1,418,000   2001
14     Libya                                     1,340,000
15     Algeria                                   1,127,000   2004 est.
16     United States                             1,048,000   2004
17     Kazakhstan                                 890,000    2003
18     Oman                                       721,000    2004
19     Korea, South                               645,200    2004
20     Australia                                  523,400    2001
21     Italy                                      456,600    2001
22     Belgium                                    450,000    2001
23     Indonesia                                  431,500    2004 est.
24     France                                     409,600    2001
25     Ecuador                                    387,000    2004 est.
26     Yemen                                      370,300    2003
27     India                                      350,000
28     China                                      340,300    2004
29     Denmark                                    332,100    2001
30     Syria                                      285,000    2004
31     Sudan                                      275,000    2004
32     Brazil                                     241,700
33     Malaysia                                   230,200    2003
34     Sweden                                     203,700    2001
35     Brunei                                     192,700    2005
36     Spain                                      135,100    2001
37     Egypt                                      134,000
38     Finland                                    101,000    2001
39     Japan                                       93,360    2001
40     Greece                                      84,720    2001
41     Poland                                      53,000    2001
42     Peru                                        49,000    2004 est.
43     Hungary                                     47,180    2001
44     Turkey                                      46,110    2001
45     New Zealand                                 30,220    2001
46     Austria                                     30,140    2004
47     Bahamas, The                                29,000    2003
48     Portugal                                    28,830    2001
49     Ireland                                     27,450    2001
50     Czech Republic                              26,670    2001
51     Belarus                                     14,500    2003 est.
52     Germany                                     12,990    2003
53     Switzerland                                 10,420    2001
54     Ukraine                                      8,891
55     Burma                                        3,356    2003
56     Guatemala                                    3,104    2003
57     Slovakia                                     2,160
58     Suriname                                     1,370    2003
59     Nicaragua                                     759     2004
60     Luxembourg                                    634     2001
61     Mongolia                                      515     2005 est.
62     Albania                                         0     2005 est.
63     Zimbabwe                                        0
64     Philippines                                     0     2001
65     Morocco                                         0
66     Jordan                                          0     2004 est.
67     Latvia                                          0     2004
68     Iceland                                         0     2001
69     Bermuda                                         0
70     Estonia                                         0     2004
71     Chile                                           0

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2178

Rank   Country                           Oil - proved reserves(bbl)  Date of Information

1      World                               1,349,000,000,000  1 January 2002 est.
2      Saudi Arabia                         262,700,000,000  2005 est.
3      Canada                               178,900,000,000  2004 est.
4      Iran                                 133,300,000,000  2005 est.
5      Iraq                                 112,500,000,000  2005 est.
6      United Arab Emirates                  97,800,000,000  2005 est.
7      Kuwait                                96,500,000,000  2005 est.
8      Venezuela                             75,590,000,000  2005 est.
9      Russia                                69,000,000,000  2003 est.
10     Libya                                 40,000,000,000  2005 est.
11     Nigeria                               36,000,000,000  2005 est.
12     Mexico                                33,310,000,000  2005 est.
13     Kazakhstan                            26,000,000,000  1 January 2004
14     Angola                                25,000,000,000  2005 est.
15     United States                         22,450,000,000  1 January 2002
16     China                                 18,260,000,000  2004
17     Qatar                                 16,000,000,000  2005 est.
18     Brazil                                15,120,000,000  2005 est.
19     Algeria                               12,460,000,000  2005 est.
20     Norway                                 9,859,000,000  1 January 2002
21     European Union                         7,294,000,000  1 January 2002
22     Oman                                   6,100,000,000  2005 est.
23     India                                  5,700,000,000  2005 est.
24     Indonesia                              4,600,000,000  2005 est.
25     Ecuador                                4,512,000,000  2005 est.
26     United Kingdom                         4,500,000,000  31 December 2004
27     Yemen                                  4,370,000,000  2005 est.
28     Australia                              3,664,000,000  1 January 2002
29     Malaysia                               3,100,000,000  2005 est.
30     Argentina                              2,950,000,000  2005 est.
31     Egypt                                  2,700,000,000  2005 est.
32     Syria                                  2,500,000,000  2005 est.
33     Gabon                                  1,921,000,000  2005 est.
34     Tunisia                                1,700,000,000  2005 est.
35     Sudan                                  1,600,000,000  2005 est.
36     Congo, Democratic Republic of the       1,538,000,000  1 January 2002
37     Colombia                               1,492,000,000  2005 est.
38     Brunei                                 1,255,000,000  1 January 2002
39     Denmark                                1,230,000,000  1 January 2002
40     Burma                                  1,000,000,000  2005
41     Mauritania                             1,000,000,000  2005
42     Trinidad and Tobago                     990,000,000   1 January 2004
43     Uzbekistan                              600,000,000   1 January 2005
44     Vietnam                                 600,000,000   2005 est.
45     Azerbaijan                              589,000,000   1 January 2002
46     Italy                                   586,600,000   1 January 2002
47     Thailand                                583,000,000   November 2003
48     Equatorial Guinea                       563,500,000   1 January 2002
49     Cuba                                    532,000,000   1 January 2002
50     Romania                                 500,000,000   yearend 2004
51     Bolivia                                 458,800,000   1 January 2002
52     Germany                                 395,800,000   1 January 2004
53     Ukraine                                 395,000,000   9 November 2004
54     Peru                                    370,000,000   2005 est.
55     Pakistan                                341,800,000   2005 est.
56     Turkey                                  288,400,000   1 January 2002
57     Turkmenistan                            273,000,000   1 January 2002
58     Guatemala                               263,000,000   1 January 2002
59     Cote d'Ivoire                           220,000,000   2005 est.
60     Albania                                 185,500,000   1 January 2002
61     Papua New Guinea                        170,000,000   2005 est.
62     Philippines                             152,000,000   1 January 2004
63     Chile                                   150,000,000   1 January 2004
64     Suriname                                150,000,000   2005
65     France                                  144,300,000   1 January 2002
66     Poland                                  142,400,000   December 2004
67     Bahrain                                 124,000,000   2005 est.
68     Hungary                                 102,000,000   1 January 2006
69     Morocco                                 100,000,000   2005 est.
70     Croatia                                  93,600,000   1 January 2002
71     Congo, Republic of the                   93,500,000   1 January 2002
72     New Zealand                              89,620,000   1 January 2002
73     Netherlands                              88,060,000   1 January 2002
74     Cameroon                                 85,000,000   2005 est.
75     Austria                                  84,300,000   2004
76     Serbia                                   38,750,000   1 January 2002
77     Japan                                    29,290,000   1 January 2002
78     Bangladesh                               28,450,000   1 January 2002
79     Bulgaria                                 15,000,000   1 January 2005
80     Czech Republic                           15,000,000   1 January 2006
81     Lithuania                                12,000,000   2004
82     Spain                                    10,500,000   1 January 2002
83     Slovakia                                  9,000,000   1 January 2006
84     Ghana                                     8,255,000   1 January 2002
85     South Africa                              7,840,000   1 January 2002
86     Greece                                    4,500,000   1 January 2002
87     Benin                                     4,105,000   1 January 2002
88     Taiwan                                    2,900,000   2005 est.
89     Israel                                    1,920,000   1 January 2002
90     Barbados                                  1,254,000   1 January 2002
91     Jordan                                     445,000    1 January 2002
92     Ethiopia                                   214,000    1 January 2002
93     Afghanistan                                     0     1 January 2002
94     Somalia                                         0     1 January 2002
95     Namibia                                         0     1 January 2002
96     Tanzania                                        0     1 January 2002
97     Rwanda                                          0     1 January 2002
98     Ireland                                         0     1 January 2002
99     Mozambique                                      0     1 January 2002
100    Madagascar                                      0     1 January 2002

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2179

Rank   Country                           Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m)  Date of Information

1      World                             174,600,000,000,000  1 January 2002
2      Russia                             47,570,000,000,000  2003
3      Iran                               26,620,000,000,000  2005
4      Qatar                              25,770,000,000,000  2005
5      Saudi Arabia                        6,544,000,000,000  2005
6      United Arab Emirates                6,006,000,000,000  2005
7      United States                       5,353,000,000,000  1 January 2002
8      Algeria                             4,531,000,000,000  2005
9      Nigeria                             4,502,000,000,000  2005
10     Venezuela                           4,191,000,000,000  2005
11     European Union                      3,256,000,000,000  1 January 2002
12     Iraq                                3,115,000,000,000  2005
13     Kazakhstan                          3,000,000,000,000  1 January 2004
14     Indonesia                           2,557,000,000,000  2005
15     Australia                           2,549,000,000,000  1 January 2002
16     China                               2,530,000,000,000  2004
17     Malaysia                            2,124,000,000,000  2005
18     Norway                              2,118,000,000,000  1 January 2002
19     Turkmenistan                        2,010,000,000,000  1 January 2002
20     Egypt                               1,900,000,000,000  2005
21     Uzbekistan                          1,875,000,000,000  1 January 2005
22     Netherlands                         1,756,000,000,000  1 January 2002
23     Canada                              1,673,000,000,000  2004
24     Kuwait                              1,572,000,000,000  2005
25     Libya                               1,321,000,000,000  2005
26     Ukraine                             1,121,000,000,000  9 November 2004
27     India                                853,500,000,000  2005
28     Azerbaijan                           849,500,000,000  1 January 2002
29     Oman                                 829,100,000,000  2005
30     Pakistan                             759,700,000,000  2005
31     Trinidad and Tobago                  733,000,000,000  1 January 2004
32     Bolivia                              679,600,000,000  1 January 2002
33     Argentina                            663,500,000,000  2005
34     United Kingdom                       628,600,000,000  31 December 2004
35     Yemen                                478,600,000,000  2005
36     Mexico                               424,300,000,000  2005
37     Brunei                               390,800,000,000  1 January 2002
38     Thailand                             377,700,000,000  November 2003
39     Papua New Guinea                     345,500,000,000  2005
40     Germany                              305,800,000,000  1 January 2004
41     Bangladesh                           300,200,000,000  1 January 2002
42     Romania                              300,000,000,000  yearend 2004
43     Burma                                283,200,000,000  2005
44     Peru                                 247,100,000,000  2005
45     Syria                                240,700,000,000  2005
46     Brazil                               240,000,000,000  2005
47     Italy                                226,500,000,000  1 January 2002
48     Vietnam                              192,600,000,000  2005
49     Poland                               154,400,000,000  December 2004
50     Colombia                             127,600,000,000  2005
51     Mozambique                           127,400,000,000  1 January 2002
52     Cameroon                             110,400,000,000  2005
53     Philippines                          106,800,000,000  1 January 2004
54     Afghanistan                           99,960,000,000  1 January 2002
55     Chile                                 97,980,000,000  1 January 2004
56     Bahrain                               92,030,000,000  2005
57     Congo, Republic of the                90,610,000,000  1 January 2002
58     Sudan                                 84,950,000,000  2005
59     Tunisia                               77,870,000,000  2005
60     Taiwan                                76,460,000,000  2005
61     Denmark                               73,510,000,000  1 January 2002
62     Cuba                                  70,790,000,000  1 January 2002
63     Namibia                               62,300,000,000  1 January 2002
64     Rwanda                                56,630,000,000  1 January 2002
65     Serbia                                48,140,000,000  1 January 2002
66     Angola                                45,870,000,000  2005
67     Japan                                 39,640,000,000  1 January 2002
68     Israel                                38,940,000,000  1 January 2002
69     New Zealand                           37,380,000,000  1 January 2002
70     Equatorial Guinea                     36,810,000,000  1 January 2002
71     Gabon                                 33,980,000,000  2005
72     Hungary                               33,980,000,000  1 January 2003
73     Cote d'Ivoire                         29,730,000,000  2005
74     Ethiopia                              24,920,000,000  1 January 2002
75     Croatia                               24,720,000,000  1 January 2002
76     Ghana                                 23,790,000,000  1 January 2002
77     Austria                               23,200,000,000  2004
78     Tanzania                              22,650,000,000  1 January 2002
79     Ireland                               19,820,000,000  1 January 2002
80     Slovakia                              15,010,000,000  1 January 2003
81     France                                14,330,000,000  1 January 2002
82     Ecuador                                9,769,000,000  2005
83     Turkey                                 8,495,000,000  1 January 2002
84     Jordan                                 6,230,000,000  1 January 2002
85     Bulgaria                               5,670,000,000  1 January 2005
86     Somalia                                5,663,000,000  1 January 2002
87     Czech Republic                         3,964,000,000  1 January 2003
88     Guatemala                              3,087,000,000  1 January 2002
89     Albania                                2,832,000,000  1 January 2002
90     Spain                                  2,662,000,000  1 January 2002
91     Benin                                  1,218,000,000  1 January 2002
92     Morocco                                1,218,000,000  2005
93     Congo, Democratic Republic of the        991,100,000  1 January 2002
94     Greece                                  991,100,000   1 January 2002
95     Barbados                                141,600,000   1 January 2002
96     South Africa                             28,320,000   1 January 2002
97     Madagascar                                      0     1 January 2002
98     Mauritania                                      0     2005
99     Suriname                                        0     2005

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2180

Rank   Country                           Natural gas - production(cu m)  Date of Information

1      World                               2,674,000,000,000  2003 est.
2      Russia                               587,000,000,000  2005 est.
3      United States                        539,000,000,000  2003 est.
4      European Union                       239,200,000,000  2001
5      Canada                               165,800,000,000  2003 est.
6      United Kingdom                       102,800,000,000  2003 est.
7      Indonesia                             83,400,000,000  2005 est.
8      Algeria                               82,400,000,000  2003 est.
9      Iran                                  79,000,000,000  2003 est.
10     Norway                                73,400,000,000  2003 est.
11     Netherlands                           73,130,000,000  2003 est.
12     Saudi Arabia                          60,060,000,000  2003 est.
13     Uzbekistan                            55,800,000,000  2004
14     Turkmenistan                          54,600,000,000  2004 est.
15     Malaysia                              53,500,000,000  2003 est.
16     Mexico                                47,300,000,000  2004 est.
17     United Arab Emirates                  44,790,000,000  2003 est.
18     Argentina                             41,040,000,000  2003 est.
19     Australia                             35,600,000,000  2003 est.
20     China                                 35,020,000,000  2003
21     Qatar                                 30,800,000,000  2003 est.
22     Venezuela                             29,700,000,000  2003 est.
23     India                                 27,100,000,000  2003 est.
24     Egypt                                 27,000,000,000  2003 est.
25     Trinidad and Tobago                   24,700,000,000  2003 est.
26     Pakistan                              23,800,000,000  2003 est.
27     Thailand                              22,280,000,000  2003 est.
28     Germany                               22,220,000,000  2003 est.
29     Ukraine                               20,300,000,000  2004
30     Nigeria                               19,200,000,000  2003 est.
31     Kazakhstan                            18,500,000,000  2004 est.
32     Oman                                  16,500,000,000  2003 est.
33     Brazil                                15,790,000,000  2005 est.
34     Italy                                 13,550,000,000  2003 est.
35     Romania                               13,200,000,000  2004 est.
36     Bangladesh                            11,900,000,000  2003 est.
37     Brunei                                11,400,000,000  2003 est.
38     Burma                                  9,980,000,000  2003 est.
39     Bahrain                                9,650,000,000  2003 est.
40     Kuwait                                 8,300,000,000  2003 est.
41     Denmark                                7,965,000,000  2003 est.
42     Libya                                  7,000,000,000  2003 est.
43     Syria                                  6,950,000,000  2003 est.
44     Bolivia                                6,720,000,000  2003 est.
45     Vietnam                                6,342,000,000  2005 est.
46     Colombia                               6,080,000,000  2003 est.
47     Azerbaijan                             5,130,000,000  2003 est.
48     New Zealand                            4,773,000,000  2003 est.
49     Poland                                 4,330,000,000  2004
50     Hungary                                3,100,000,000  2003 est.
51     Japan                                  2,814,000,000  2003 est.
52     South Africa                           2,350,000,000  2003 est.
53     Philippines                            2,300,000,000  2003 est.
54     Tunisia                                2,150,000,000  2003 est.
55     Austria                                1,960,000,000  2004
56     Croatia                                1,850,000,000  2003 est.
57     France                                 1,566,000,000  2003 est.
58     Iraq                                   1,500,000,000  2003 est.
59     Cote d'Ivoire                          1,300,000,000  2003 est.
60     Equatorial Guinea                      1,270,000,000  2003 est.
61     Chile                                  1,000,000,000  2003 est.
62     Taiwan                                  970,000,000   2003 est.
63     Angola                                  720,000,000   2003 est.
64     Cuba                                    704,000,000   2004
65     Ireland                                 673,000,000   2003 est.
66     Serbia                                  650,000,000   2003 est.
67     Peru                                    560,000,000   2003 est.
68     Turkey                                  560,000,000   2003 est.
69     Jordan                                  390,000,000   2003 est.
70     Belarus                                 250,000,000   2004 est.
71     Spain                                   216,000,000   2003 est.
72     Israel                                  200,000,000   2003 est.
73     Slovakia                                165,000,000   2004 est.
74     Papua New Guinea                        140,000,000   2003 est.
75     Czech Republic                          133,000,000   2003 est.
76     Gabon                                    90,000,000   2003 est.
77     Mozambique                               60,000,000   2003 est.
78     Afghanistan                              50,000,000   2003 est.
79     Senegal                                  50,000,000   2003 est.
80     Ecuador                                  50,000,000   2003 est.
81     Albania                                  30,000,000   2003 est.
82     Tajikistan                               30,000,000   2004 est.
83     Barbados                                 29,170,000   2003 est.
84     Greece                                   27,000,000   2003 est.
85     Georgia                                  20,000,000   2003 est.
86     Kyrgyzstan                                6,000,000   2003 est.
87     Morocco                                   5,000,000   2003 est.
88     Bulgaria                                  1,130,000   2003
89     Aruba                                           0     2003 est.
90     Botswana                                        0     2003 est.
91     Belgium                                         0     2003 est.
92     Belize                                          0     2003 est.
93     Benin                                           0     2003 est.
94     Bhutan                                          0     2003 est.
95     Guinea                                          0     2003 est.
96     Guatemala                                       0     2003 est.
97     Guam                                            0     2003 est.
98     Guadeloupe                                      0     2003 est.
99     Greenland                                       0     2003 est.
100    Grenada                                         0     2003 est.
101    Gibraltar                                       0     2003 est.
102    Ghana                                           0     2003 est.
103    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)                0    2003 est.
104    Luxembourg                                      0     2003 est.
105    Lesotho                                         0     2003 est.
106    Liberia                                         0     2003 est.
107    Lithuania                                       0     2004
108    Latvia                                          0     2003
109    Lebanon                                         0     2003 est.
110    Laos                                            0     2003 est.
111    Korea, South                                    0     2003 est.
112    Kiribati                                        0     2003 est.
113    Zimbabwe                                        0     2003 est.
114    Zambia                                          0     2003 est.
115    Yemen                                           0     2003 est.
116    Swaziland                                       0     2003 est.
117    Samoa                                           0     2003 est.
118    Western Sahara                                  0     2003 est.
119    Namibia                                         0     2003 est.
120    Virgin Islands                                  0     2003 est.
121    British Virgin Islands                          0     2003 est.
122    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines                0     2003 est.
123    Uruguay                                         0     2003 est.
124    Burkina Faso                                    0     2003 est.
125    Uganda                                          0     2003 est.
126    Tanzania                                        0     2003 est.
127    Sao Tome and Principe                           0     2003 est.
128    Togo                                            0     2003 est.
129    Tonga                                           0     2003 est.
130    Turks and Caicos Islands                        0     2003 est.
131    Switzerland                                     0     2003 est.
132    Sweden                                          0     2003 est.
133    Sudan                                           0     2003 est.
134    Saint Lucia                                     0     2003 est.
135    Somalia                                         0     2003 est.
136    Singapore                                       0     2004 est.
137    Sierra Leone                                    0     2003 est.
138    Slovenia                                        0     2003 est.
139    Saint Helena                                    0     2003 est.
140    Seychelles                                      0     2003 est.
141    Saint Kitts and Nevis                           0     2003 est.
142    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                       0     2003 est.
143    Rwanda                                          0     2003 est.
144    Puerto Rico                                     0     2003 est.
145    Reunion                                         0     2003 est.
146    Guinea-Bissau                                   0     2003 est.
147    Portugal                                        0     2003 est.
148    Panama                                          0     2003 est.
149    Paraguay                                        0     2003 est.
150    Nicaragua                                       0     2003 est.
151    Netherlands Antilles                            0     2003 est.
152    Suriname                                        0     2003 est.
153    Nauru                                           0     2003 est.
154    Nepal                                           0     2003 est.
155    Vanuatu                                         0     2003 est.
156    Niger                                           0     2003 est.
157    Niue                                            0     2003 est.
158    New Caledonia                                   0     2003 est.
159    Maldives                                        0     2003 est.
160    Malta                                           0     2003 est.
161    Mauritania                                      0     2003 est.
162    Mauritius                                       0     2003 est.
163    Mali                                            0     2003 est.
164    Macedonia                                       0     2003 est.
165    Malawi                                          0     2003 est.
166    Montserrat                                      0     2003 est.
167    Mongolia                                        0     2003 est.
168    Moldova                                         0     2003 est.
169    Macau                                           0     2003 est.
170    Martinique                                      0     2003 est.
171    Madagascar                                      0     2003 est.
172    Korea, North                                    0     2003 est.
173    Kenya                                           0     2003 est.
174    Jamaica                                         0     2003 est.
175    Iceland                                         0     2003 est.
176    Honduras                                        0     2003 est.
177    Hong Kong                                       0
178    Haiti                                           0     2003 est.
179    Guyana                                          0     2003 est.
180    Fiji                                            0     2003 est.
181    Finland                                         0     2003 est.
182    French Guiana                                   0     2003 est.
183    Ethiopia                                        0     2003 est.
184    El Salvador                                     0     2003 est.
185    Eritrea                                         0     2003 est.
186    Estonia                                         0     2004
187    Dominican Republic                              0     2003 est.
188    Gambia, The                                     0     2003 est.
189    French Polynesia                                0     2003 est.
190    Faroe Islands                                   0     2003 est.
191    Dominica                                        0     2003 est.
192    Djibouti                                        0     2003 est.
193    Cyprus                                          0     2003 est.
194    Cook Islands                                    0     2003 est.
195    Cape Verde                                      0     2003 est.
196    Central African Republic                        0     2003 est.
197    Costa Rica                                      0     2003 est.
198    Comoros                                         0     2003 est.
199    Cameroon                                        0     2003 est.
200    Cayman Islands                                  0     2003 est.
201    Congo, Democratic Republic of the                0    2003 est.
202    Congo, Republic of the                          0     2003 est.
203    Sri Lanka                                       0     2003 est.
204    Chad                                            0     2003 est.
205    Cambodia                                        0     2003 est.
206    Burundi                                         0     2003 est.
207    Solomon Islands                                 0     2003 est.
208    Bosnia and Herzegovina                          0     2003 est.
209    Bahamas, The                                    0     2003 est.
210    Bermuda                                         0     2003 est.
211    Armenia                                         0     2005 est.
212    American Samoa                                  0     2003 est.
213    Antigua and Barbuda                             0     2003 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2181

Rank   Country                           Natural gas - consumption(cu m)  Date of Information

1      World                               2,675,000,000,000  2003 est.
2      United States                        633,600,000,000  2003 est.
3      European Union                       465,600,000,000  2001
4      Russia                               402,100,000,000  2004 est.
5      United Kingdom                        95,150,000,000  2003 est.
6      Germany                               93,880,000,000  2003 est.
7      Canada                                90,950,000,000  2003 est.
8      Japan                                 86,510,000,000  2003 est.
9      Iran                                  79,000,000,000  2003 est.
10     Italy                                 76,880,000,000  2003 est.
11     Ukraine                               75,800,000,000  2004
12     Saudi Arabia                          60,060,000,000  2003 est.
13     Mexico                                55,100,000,000  2004 est.
14     Netherlands                           50,400,000,000  2003 est.
15     Uzbekistan                            49,300,000,000  2004
16     France                                43,740,000,000  2003 est.
17     United Arab Emirates                  37,880,000,000  2003 est.
18     Argentina                             34,580,000,000  2003 est.
19     China                                 33,440,000,000  2003 est.
20     Venezuela                             29,700,000,000  2003 est.
21     Thailand                              29,150,000,000  2003 est.
22     Malaysia                              28,530,000,000  2003 est.
23     India                                 27,100,000,000  2003 est.
24     Egypt                                 27,000,000,000  2003 est.
25     Australia                             25,080,000,000  2003 est.
26     Korea, South                          24,090,000,000  2003 est.
27     Pakistan                              23,800,000,000  2003 est.
28     Spain                                 23,270,000,000  2003 est.
29     Turkey                                22,600,000,000  2005 est.
30     Indonesia                             22,500,000,000  2005 est.
31     Brazil                                21,740,000,000  2005 est.
32     Algeria                               21,320,000,000  2003 est.
33     Belarus                               20,500,000,000  2005 est.
34     Romania                               18,800,000,000  2004 est.
35     Turkmenistan                          15,500,000,000  2004 est.
36     Belgium                               15,480,000,000  2003 est.
37     Kazakhstan                            15,200,000,000  2004 est.
38     Poland                                14,970,000,000  2003 est.
39     Hungary                               13,000,000,000  2004
40     Trinidad and Tobago                   12,790,000,000  2003 est.
41     Bangladesh                            11,900,000,000  2003 est.
42     Qatar                                 11,610,000,000  2003 est.
43     Bahrain                                9,650,000,000  2003 est.
44     Czech Republic                         9,623,000,000  2003 est.
45     Azerbaijan                             9,200,000,000  2003 est.
46     Austria                                9,010,000,000  2004
47     Taiwan                                 8,450,000,000  2003 est.
48     Kuwait                                 8,300,000,000  2003 est.
49     Nigeria                                7,410,000,000  2003 est.
50     Oman                                   7,090,000,000  2003 est.
51     Chile                                  7,060,000,000  2003 est.
52     Syria                                  6,950,000,000  2003 est.
53     Slovakia                               6,800,000,000  2004 est.
54     Vietnam                                6,342,000,000  2005 est.
55     Libya                                  6,250,000,000  2003 est.
56     Colombia                               6,080,000,000  2003 est.
57     Singapore                              5,320,000,000  2003 est.
58     Denmark                                5,173,000,000  2003 est.
59     Finland                                5,028,000,000  2003 est.
60     New Zealand                            4,773,000,000  2003 est.
61     Ireland                                4,298,000,000  2003 est.
62     Norway                                 4,140,000,000  2003 est.
63     Tunisia                                3,840,000,000  2003 est.
64     Switzerland                            3,209,000,000  2003 est.
65     Bulgaria                               3,100,000,000  2004
66     Lithuania                              3,100,000,000  2004
67     Croatia                                2,990,000,000  2003 est.
68     Portugal                               2,983,000,000  2003 est.
69     Serbia                                 2,550,000,000  2003 est.
70     Moldova                                2,380,000,000  2003 est.
71     South Africa                           2,350,000,000  2003 est.
72     Greece                                 2,340,000,000  2005 est.
73     Philippines                            2,300,000,000  2003 est.
74     Latvia                                 1,760,000,000  2004 est.
75     Bolivia                                1,740,000,000  2003 est.
76     Brunei                                 1,730,000,000  2003 est.
77     Armenia                                1,685,000,000  2005 est.
78     Burma                                  1,569,000,000  2003 est.
79     Georgia                                1,500,000,000  2005 est.
80     Kyrgyzstan                             1,500,000,000  2004 est.
81     Iraq                                   1,500,000,000  2003 est.
82     Estonia                                1,420,000,000  2004
83     Tajikistan                             1,400,000,000  2004 est.
84     Cote d'Ivoire                          1,300,000,000  2003 est.
85     Equatorial Guinea                      1,270,000,000  2003 est.
86     Luxembourg                             1,205,000,000  2003 est.
87     Slovenia                               1,100,000,000  2003 est.
88     Sweden                                  980,000,000   2003 est.
89     Peru                                    910,000,000   2004 est.
90     Puerto Rico                             740,000,000   2003 est.
91     Angola                                  720,000,000   2003 est.
92     Cuba                                    704,000,000   2004
93     Hong Kong                               692,200,000   2003 est.
94     Morocco                                 650,000,000   2003 est.
95     Jordan                                  390,000,000   2003 est.
96     Dominican Republic                      300,000,000   2003 est.
97     Israel                                  200,000,000   2003 est.
98     Bosnia and Herzegovina                  160,000,000   2003 est.
99     Papua New Guinea                        140,000,000   2003 est.
100    Gabon                                    90,000,000   2003 est.
101    Mozambique                               60,000,000   2003 est.
102    Uruguay                                  60,000,000   2003 est.
103    Afghanistan                              50,000,000   2003 est.
104    Senegal                                  50,000,000   2003 est.
105    Ecuador                                  50,000,000   2003 est.
106    Albania                                  30,000,000   2003 est.
107    Barbados                                 29,170,000   2003 est.
108    Aruba                                           0     2003 est.
109    Bahamas, The                                    0     2003 est.
110    Solomon Islands                                 0     2003 est.
111    Burundi                                         0     2003 est.
112    Zimbabwe                                        0     2003 est.
113    Zambia                                          0     2003 est.
114    Yemen                                           0     2003 est.
115    Swaziland                                       0     2003 est.
116    Samoa                                           0     2003 est.
117    Western Sahara                                  0     2003 est.
118    Namibia                                         0     2003 est.
119    Virgin Islands                                  0     2003 est.
120    British Virgin Islands                          0     2003 est.
121    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines                0     2003 est.
122    Burkina Faso                                    0     2003 est.
123    Uganda                                          0     2003 est.
124    Tanzania                                        0     2003 est.
125    Sao Tome and Principe                           0     2003 est.
126    Togo                                            0     2003 est.
127    Tonga                                           0     2003 est.
128    Turks and Caicos Islands                        0     2003 est.
129    Sudan                                           0     2003 est.
130    Saint Lucia                                     0     2003 est.
131    Somalia                                         0     2003 est.
132    Sierra Leone                                    0     2003 est.
133    Saint Helena                                    0     2003 est.
134    Seychelles                                      0     2003 est.
135    Saint Kitts and Nevis                           0     2003 est.
136    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                       0     2003 est.
137    Netherlands Antilles                            0     2003 est.
138    Suriname                                        0     2003 est.
139    Nauru                                           0     2003 est.
140    Nepal                                           0     2003 est.
141    Vanuatu                                         0     2003 est.
142    Niger                                           0     2003 est.
143    Niue                                            0     2003 est.
144    New Caledonia                                   0     2003 est.
145    Mali                                            0     2003 est.
146    Rwanda                                          0     2003 est.
147    Reunion                                         0     2003 est.
148    Guinea-Bissau                                   0     2003 est.
149    Panama                                          0     2003 est.
150    Paraguay                                        0     2003 est.
151    Nicaragua                                       0     2003 est.
152    Macedonia                                       0     2003 est.
153    Malawi                                          0     2003 est.
154    Montserrat                                      0     2003 est.
155    Mongolia                                        0     2003 est.
156    Macau                                           0     2003 est.
157    Martinique                                      0     2003 est.
158    Madagascar                                      0     2003 est.
159    Lesotho                                         0     2003 est.
160    Maldives                                        0     2003 est.
161    Malta                                           0     2003 est.
162    Mauritania                                      0     2003 est.
163    Mauritius                                       0     2003 est.
164    Liberia                                         0     2003 est.
165    Lebanon                                         0     2003 est.
166    Laos                                            0     2003 est.
167    Kiribati                                        0     2003 est.
168    Korea, North                                    0     2003 est.
169    Kenya                                           0     2003 est.
170    Jamaica                                         0     2003 est.
171    Guyana                                          0     2003 est.
172    Guinea                                          0     2003 est.
173    Guatemala                                       0     2003 est.
174    Guam                                            0     2003 est.
175    Guadeloupe                                      0     2003 est.
176    Greenland                                       0     2003 est.
177    Grenada                                         0     2003 est.
178    Gibraltar                                       0     2003 est.
179    Ghana                                           0     2003 est.
180    Iceland                                         0     2003 est.
181    Honduras                                        0     2003 est.
182    Haiti                                           0     2003 est.
183    Gambia, The                                     0     2003 est.
184    French Polynesia                                0     2003 est.
185    Faroe Islands                                   0     2003 est.
186    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)                0    2003 est.
187    Fiji                                            0     2003 est.
188    French Guiana                                   0     2003 est.
189    Ethiopia                                        0     2003 est.
190    El Salvador                                     0     2003 est.
191    Eritrea                                         0     2003 est.
192    Dominica                                        0     2003 est.
193    Djibouti                                        0     2003 est.
194    Cyprus                                          0     2003 est.
195    Cook Islands                                    0     2003 est.
196    Cape Verde                                      0     2003 est.
197    Central African Republic                        0     2003 est.
198    Costa Rica                                      0     2003 est.
199    Comoros                                         0     2003 est.
200    Cameroon                                        0     2003 est.
201    Cayman Islands                                  0     2003 est.
202    Congo, Democratic Republic of the                0    2003 est.
203    Congo, Republic of the                          0     2003 est.
204    Sri Lanka                                       0     2003 est.
205    Chad                                            0     2003 est.
206    Cambodia                                        0     2003 est.
207    Bhutan                                          0     2003 est.
208    Benin                                           0     2003 est.
209    Belize                                          0     2003 est.
210    Bermuda                                         0     2003 est.
211    American Samoa                                  0     2003 est.
212    Botswana                                        0     2003 est.
213    Antigua and Barbuda                             0     2003 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2182

Rank   Country                           Natural gas - imports(cu m)  Date of Information

1      World                                696,000,000,000  2001 est.
2      European Union                       297,800,000,000  2001
3      United States                        114,100,000,000  2004 est.
4      Germany                               85,020,000,000  2003
5      Japan                                 77,730,000,000  2001 est.
6      Ukraine                               59,800,000,000  2004
7      Italy                                 54,780,000,000  2001 est.
8      France                                40,260,000,000  2001 est.
9      Korea, South                          21,110,000,000  2003 est.
10     Netherlands                           20,780,000,000  2001 est.
11     Belarus                               20,500,000,000  2005 est.
12     Spain                                 17,260,000,000  2001 est.
13     Turkey                                15,750,000,000  2001 est.
14     Belgium                               15,400,000,000  2001 est.
15     Russia                                12,000,000,000  2004 est.
16     Hungary                               10,950,000,000  2004
17     Czech Republic                         9,800,000,000  2004
18     Poland                                 9,450,000,000  2004
19     Canada                                 8,730,000,000  2003 est.
20     Mexico                                 7,850,000,000  2004 est.
21     Taiwan                                 7,480,000,000  2005 est.
22     Slovakia                               7,300,000,000  2004 est.
23     Austria                                7,050,000,000  2004
24     Brazil                                 5,947,000,000  2005 est.
25     Romania                                5,900,000,000  2004 est.
26     Chile                                  5,337,000,000  2002 est.
27     Thailand                               5,200,000,000  2001 est.
28     Iran                                   4,920,000,000  2003 est.
29     Finland                                4,567,000,000  2001 est.
30     Ireland                                3,384,000,000  2001 est.
31     Lithuania                              3,100,000,000  2004
32     Switzerland                            3,093,000,000  2001 est.
33     Bulgaria                               2,900,000,000  2004
34     United Kingdom                         2,700,000,000  2001 est.
35     Portugal                               2,553,000,000  2001 est.
36     Singapore                              2,500,000,000  2001 est.
37     Moldova                                2,050,000,000  2001 est.
38     Greece                                 2,018,000,000  2001 est.
39     Latvia                                 1,760,000,000  2004
40     Armenia                                1,685,000,000  2005 est.
41     Tunisia                                1,580,000,000  2001 est.
42     Georgia                                1,500,000,000  2005 est.
43     Kyrgyzstan                             1,500,000,000  2004 est.
44     Estonia                                1,420,000,000  2004
45     Tajikistan                             1,400,000,000  2004 est.
46     Croatia                                1,080,000,000  2001 est.
47     Azerbaijan                             1,000,000,000  2001 est.
48     Sweden                                  968,000,000   2001 est.
49     Slovenia                                963,000,000   2002
50     Luxembourg                              867,000,000   2001 est.
51     Puerto Rico                             630,000,000   2001 est.
52     Bosnia and Herzegovina                  300,000,000   2001 est.
53     Hong Kong                                71,150,000   2004 est.
54     Uruguay                                  65,000,000   2003 est.
55     United Arab Emirates                            0     2003 est.
56     Afghanistan                                     0     2001 est.
57     Argentina                                       0     2001 est.
58     Bolivia                                         0     2001 est.
59     Syria                                           0     2001 est.
60     Senegal                                         0     2001 est.
61     South Africa                                    0     2001 est.
62     Saudi Arabia                                    0     2002
63     Philippines                                     0     2004 est.
64     Serbia                                          0
65     Qatar                                           0     2001 est.
66     Papua New Guinea                                0     2001 est.
67     Peru                                            0     2004 est.
68     Yemen                                           0     2003 est.
69     Venezuela                                       0     2004 est.
70     Uzbekistan                                      0     2004
71     Turkmenistan                                    0     2004 est.
72     Trinidad and Tobago                             0     2001 est.
73     New Zealand                                     0     2001 est.
74     Norway                                          0     2001 est.
75     Nigeria                                         0     2001 est.
76     Mozambique                                      0     2001 est.
77     Malaysia                                        0     2001 est.
78     Oman                                            0     2001 est.
79     Libya                                           0     2001 est.
80     Kuwait                                          0     2002 est.
81     Pakistan                                        0     2001 est.
82     Jordan                                          0     2001 est.
83     Iraq                                            0     2004 est.
84     Cote d'Ivoire                                   0     2001 est.
85     Israel                                          0     2001 est.
86     India                                           0     2001 est.
87     Indonesia                                       0     2005 est.
88     Gabon                                           0     2001 est.
89     Ecuador                                         0     2001 est.
90     Denmark                                         0     2001 est.
91     Cuba                                            0     2004
92     Colombia                                        0     2004 est.
93     Cameroon                                        0
94     China                                           0     2004
95     Congo, Republic of the                          0
96     Brunei                                          0     2001 est.
97     Burma                                           0     2003 est.
98     Equatorial Guinea                               0     2001 est.
99     Egypt                                           0     2001 est.
100    Bangladesh                                      0     2001 est.
101    Barbados                                        0     2001 est.
102    Bahrain                                         0     2002 est.
103    Australia                                       0     2001 est.
104    Angola                                          0     2001 est.
105    Albania                                         0     2001 est.
106    Algeria                                         0     2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2183

Rank   Country                           Natural gas - exports(cu m)  Date of Information

1      World                                667,600,000,000  2001 est.
2      Russia                               157,200,000,000  2004 est.
3      Canada                                91,520,000,000  2003 est.
4      European Union                        78,100,000,000  2001
5      Algeria                               57,980,000,000  2001 est.
6      Norway                                50,500,000,000  2001 est.
7      Netherlands                           49,280,000,000  2001 est.
8      Turkmenistan                          38,600,000,000  2004 est.
9      Indonesia                             37,500,000,000  2005 est.
10     United States                         24,190,000,000  2004
11     Malaysia                              22,410,000,000  2001 est.
12     Qatar                                 18,200,000,000  2004 est.
13     United Kingdom                        15,750,000,000  2001 est.
14     Trinidad and Tobago                   11,790,000,000  2003 est.
15     Australia                              9,744,000,000  2001 est.
16     Brunei                                 9,000,000,000  2001 est.
17     Burma                                  8,424,000,000  2003 est.
18     Nigeria                                7,830,000,000  2001 est.
19     Germany                                7,731,000,000  2003
20     Oman                                   7,430,000,000  2001 est.
21     United Arab Emirates                   7,190,000,000  2003 est.
22     Uzbekistan                             6,500,000,000  2004
23     Argentina                              6,050,000,000  2001 est.
24     Kazakhstan                             4,100,000,000  2004 est.
25     Ukraine                                3,900,000,000  2004
26     Iran                                   3,400,000,000  2003 est.
27     Denmark                                3,100,000,000  2001 est.
28     Bolivia                                2,900,000,000  2001 est.
29     China                                  2,790,000,000  2004
30     France                                 1,725,000,000  2001 est.
31     Libya                                   770,000,000   2001 est.
32     Italy                                    61,000,000   2001 est.
33     Poland                                   44,000,000   2004
34     Hungary                                   4,000,000   2001 est.
35     Czech Republic                            1,000,000   2001 est.
36     Slovakia                                  1,000,000   2004 est.
37     Afghanistan                                     0     2001 est.
38     Austria                                         0     2004
39     Barbados                                        0     2001 est.
40     Bangladesh                                      0     2001 est.
41     Japan                                           0     2001 est.
42     Iraq                                            0     2004 est.
43     Cote d'Ivoire                                   0     2001 est.
44     Israel                                          0     2001 est.
45     India                                           0     2001 est.
46     Croatia                                         0     2001 est.
47     Hong Kong                                       0     2004 est.
48     Greece                                          0     2001 est.
49     Ecuador                                         0     2001 est.
50     Spain                                           0     2001 est.
51     Singapore                                       0     2001 est.
52     Slovenia                                        0     2003
53     Senegal                                         0     2001 est.
54     South Africa                                    0     2001 est.
55     Saudi Arabia                                    0     2002
56     Puerto Rico                                     0     2001 est.
57     Philippines                                     0     2004 est.
58     Romania                                         0     2003 est.
59     Yemen                                           0     2003 est.
60     Vietnam                                         0     2005 est.
61     Venezuela                                       0     2004 est.
62     Uruguay                                         0     2003 est.
63     Taiwan                                          0     2005 est.
64     Turkey                                          0     2001 est.
65     Tunisia                                         0     2001 est.
66     Tajikistan                                      0     2004 est.
67     Thailand                                        0     2001 est.
68     Switzerland                                     0     2001 est.
69     Syria                                           0     2001 est.
70     Sweden                                          0     2001 est.
71     Serbia                                          0
72     Papua New Guinea                                0     2001 est.
73     Portugal                                        0     2001 est.
74     Pakistan                                        0     2001 est.
75     Peru                                            0     2004 est.
76     New Zealand                                     0     2001 est.
77     Mozambique                                      0     2001 est.
78     Mexico                                          0     2004 est.
79     Moldova                                         0     2001 est.
80     Luxembourg                                      0     2001 est.
81     Lithuania                                       0     2004
82     Latvia                                          0     2004 est.
83     Kuwait                                          0     2002 est.
84     Korea, South                                    0     2003 est.
85     Kyrgyzstan                                      0     2004 est.
86     Jordan                                          0     2001 est.
87     Cuba                                            0     2004
88     Colombia                                        0     2004 est.
89     Cameroon                                        0
90     Chile                                           0     2002
91     Congo, Republic of the                          0
92     Bulgaria                                        0     2003
93     Brazil                                          0     2005 est.
94     Belarus                                         0     2004 est.
95     Gabon                                           0     2001 est.
96     Finland                                         0     2001 est.
97     Estonia                                         0     2004
98     Equatorial Guinea                               0     2001 est.
99     Ireland                                         0     2001 est.
100    Egypt                                           0     2001 est.
101    Bosnia and Herzegovina                          0     2001 est.
102    Belgium                                         0     2001 est.
103    Bahrain                                         0     2002 est.
104    Azerbaijan                                      0     2001 est.
105    Albania                                         0     2001 est.
106    Armenia                                         0     2005 est.
107    Angola                                          0     2001 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2184

Rank   Country                           Internet hosts      Date of Information

1      United States                           195,138,696   2005
2      Japan                                    28,321,846   2006
3      European Union                           22,000,414
4      Germany                                  11,859,131   2006
5      Netherlands                               8,363,158   2006
6      Australia                                 7,772,888   2006
7      Brazil                                    6,508,431   2006
8      United Kingdom                            6,064,860   2006
9      Korea, South                              5,433,591   2005
10     Taiwan                                    4,320,310   2006
11     Canada                                    3,934,223   2006
12     Mexico                                    3,426,680   2006
13     France                                    3,148,379   2006
14     Sweden                                    2,958,435   2006
15     Belgium                                   2,870,770   2006
16     Spain                                     2,520,711   2006
17     Switzerland                               2,442,659   2006
18     Denmark                                   2,415,530   2006
19     Austria                                   2,062,035   2006
20     Russia                                    1,979,924   2006
21     Italy                                     1,731,165   2006
22     Finland                                   1,633,614   2006
23     Argentina                                 1,612,423   2006
24     India                                     1,543,289   2006
25     Norway                                    1,364,448   2006
26     Turkey                                    1,313,135   2006
27     Czech Republic                            1,267,265   2006
28     Israel                                    1,251,881   2006
29     New Zealand                               1,050,197   2006
30     Thailand                                   938,784    2006
31     Singapore                                  898,762    2006
32     Portugal                                   845,980    2005
33     Hong Kong                                  800,834    2006
34     South Africa                               645,179    2006
35     Hungary                                    608,085    2006
36     Greece                                     587,717    2006
37     Colombia                                   581,877    2006
38     Chile                                      506,055    2006
39     Poland                                     358,476    2006
40     United Arab Emirates                       337,092    2006
41     Peru                                       269,981    2006
42     Ireland                                    238,191    2006
43     China                                      232,780    2006
44     Ukraine                                    229,110    2006
45     Iceland                                    212,897    2006
46     Slovakia                                   210,758    2006
47     Bulgaria                                   184,975    2006
48     Indonesia                                  170,834    2006
49     Malaysia                                   158,650    2006
50     Lithuania                                  148,675    2006
51     Uruguay                                    145,774    2006
52     Philippines                                111,262    2006
53     Dominican Republic                          91,895    2006
54     Luxembourg                                  88,661    2006
55     Pakistan                                    72,765    2006
56     Cyprus                                      67,589    2006
57     Latvia                                      65,858    2006
58     Slovenia                                    61,735    2006
59     Moldova                                     58,886    2006
60     Romania                                     57,470    2006
61     Estonia                                     52,241    2006
62     Venezuela                                   51,968    2006
63     Guatemala                                   49,026    2006
64     Belarus                                     33,641    2006
65     Bosnia and Herzegovina                      31,490    2006
66     Trinidad and Tobago                         30,732    2006
67     Nicaragua                                   24,452    2006
68     Kazakhstan                                  21,187    2006
69     Bolivia                                     20,085    2006
70     Netherlands Antilles                        19,204    2006
71     Ecuador                                     19,027    2006
72     Kyrgyzstan                                  18,928    2006
73     Croatia                                     18,825    2006
74     Tonga                                       18,775    2006
75     Nepal                                       17,789    2006
76     Andorra                                     14,944    2006
77     French Polynesia                            14,047    2006
78     Malta                                       14,025    2006
79     New Caledonia                               13,962    2006
80     Kenya                                       13,274    2006
81     Paraguay                                    13,178    2006
82     Costa Rica                                  12,751    2006
83     Monaco                                      12,720    2006
84     Vietnam                                     12,114    2006
85     Aruba                                       11,548    2006
86     Saudi Arabia                                10,931    2006
87     Georgia                                     10,752    2006
88     Samoa                                       10,680    2006
89     Uzbekistan                                   9,058    2006
90     Fiji                                         8,987    2006
91     Greenland                                    8,851    2006
92     Cayman Islands                               8,611    2006
93     Tanzania                                     8,609    2006
94     Armenia                                      8,163    2006
95     Bermuda                                      8,114    2006
96     Zimbabwe                                     7,954    2006
97     Antarctica                                   7,757    2006
98     Bhutan                                       7,567    2006
99     Panama                                       7,149    2006
100    Mozambique                                   6,985    2006
101    Faroe Islands                                6,915    2006
102    Sri Lanka                                    6,526    2006
103    Botswana                                     5,499    2006
104    Iran                                         5,242    2006
105    Mauritius                                    4,997    2006
106    Liechtenstein                                4,697    2006
107    El Salvador                                  4,682    2006
108    Honduras                                     3,973    2006
109    Belize                                       3,905    2006
110    Virgin Islands                               3,855    2006
111    Macedonia                                    3,716    2006
112    Oman                                         3,555    2006
113    Namibia                                      3,527    2006
114    Jordan                                       3,441    2006
115    Lebanon                                      3,307    2006
116    Zambia                                       3,227    2006
117    Morocco                                      3,218    2006
118    San Marino                                   3,140    2006
119    Turks and Caicos Islands                     2,735    2006
120    Solomon Islands                              2,658    2006
121    Cote d'Ivoire                                2,534    2006
122    Angola                                       2,525    2006
123    Swaziland                                    2,472    2006
124    Christmas Island                             2,368    2006
125    Kuwait                                       2,310    2006
126    Egypt                                        2,254    2006
127    Cuba                                         2,234    2006
128    Antigua and Barbuda                          2,231    2006
129    Bahrain                                      2,165    2006
130    Congo, Democratic Republic of the             1,778   2006
131    Rwanda                                       1,590    2006
132    Papua New Guinea                             1,573    2006
133    Nigeria                                      1,549    2006
134    Djibouti                                     1,540    2006
135    Madagascar                                   1,504    2006
136    American Samoa                               1,456    2006
137    Cook Islands                                 1,456    2006
138    Jamaica                                      1,402    2006
139    Cambodia                                     1,378    2006
140    Uganda                                       1,365    2006
141    Maldives                                     1,357    2006
142    Guernsey                                     1,245    2006
143    Jersey                                       1,240    2006
144    Algeria                                      1,202    2006
145    Laos                                         1,108    2006
146    Eritrea                                      1,088    2006
147    Guyana                                       1,046    2006
148    Azerbaijan                                    880     2006
149    Benin                                         867     2006
150    Sao Tome and Principe                         735     2006
151    Gibraltar                                     641     2006
152    Bahamas, The                                  591     2006
153    Turkmenistan                                  585     2006
154    Micronesia, Federated States of               550     2006
155    British Virgin Islands                        525     2006
156    Togo                                          520     2006
157    Bangladesh                                    469     2006
158    Albania                                       430     2006
159    Tunisia                                       428     2006
160    Guadeloupe                                    422     2006
161    Vanuatu                                       413     2006
162    Senegal                                       412     2006
163    Puerto Rico                                   404     2006
164    Anguilla                                      403     2006
165    Burkina Faso                                  399     2006
166    Montserrat                                    386     2006
167    Ghana                                         380     2006
168    Malawi                                        377     2006
169    Guinea                                        367     2006
170    Saint Helena                                  329     2006
171    Gabon                                         322     2006
172    Qatar                                         301     2006
173    Tokelau                                       298     2006
174    Isle of Man                                   290     2006
175    Barbados                                      282     2006
176    Mali                                          278     2006
177    Mongolia                                      272     2006
178    South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands              271  2006
179    Dominica                                      263     2006
180    Cape Verde                                    234     2006
181    Niger                                         189     2006
182    Yemen                                         171     2006
183    Lesotho                                       168     2006
184    Burundi                                       160     2006
185    Suriname                                      126     2006
186    Macau                                         108     2006
187    French Guiana                                 106     2006
188    Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)              103    2006
189    Norfolk Island                                100     2006
190    Tajikistan                                     98     2006
191    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines               94     2006
192    Ethiopia                                       88     2006
193    Guam                                           76     2006
194    Martinique                                     72     2006
195    Seychelles                                     72     2006
196    East Timor                                     68     2006
197    Syria                                          66     2006
198    British Indian Ocean Territory                 65     2006
199    Nauru                                          52     2006
200    Saint Kitts and Nevis                          50     2006
201    Congo, Republic of the                         46     2004
202    Holy See (Vatican City)                        45     2006
203    Burma                                          42     2006
204    Kiribati                                       42     2006
205    Cameroon                                       39     2006
206    French Southern and Antarctic Lands               38  2006
207    Mauritania                                     32     2006
208    Libya                                          31     2006
209    Reunion                                        29     2006
210    Brunei                                         27     2005
211    Afghanistan                                    22     2006
212    Saint Lucia                                    21     2006
213    Northern Mariana Islands                       20     2005
214    Sierra Leone                                   20     2006
215    Equatorial Guinea                              19     2006
216    Grenada                                        17     2006
217    Sudan                                          16     2006
218    Gambia, The                                    14     2006
219    Central African Republic                       10     2006
220    Chad                                            9     2006
221    Liberia                                         8     2006
222    Pitcairn Islands                                8     2006
223    Bouvet Island                                   6     2006
224    Marshall Islands                                6     2006
225    Haiti                                           6     2006
226    Comoros                                         5     2006
227    Iraq                                            5     2006
228    Guinea-Bissau                                   5     2006
229    Palau                                           3     2006
230    Somalia                                         3     2006
231    Mayotte                                         1     2006
232    Wallis and Futuna                               1     2006
233    Saint Pierre and Miquelon                       0     2006

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2185

Rank   Country                           Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP)  Date of Information

1      Azerbaijan                            54.40           2005 est.
2      China                                 44.40           2005 est.
3      Seychelles                            42.00           2005 est.
4      Equatorial Guinea                     39.90           2005 est.
5      Turkmenistan                          35.60           2005 est.
6      Guyana                                34.40           2005 est.
7      Vietnam                               33.10           2005 est.
8      Jamaica                               32.40           2005 est.
9      Sao Tome and Principe                 32.20           2005 est.
10     Angola                                30.30           2005 est.
11     Iran                                  30.10           2005 est.
12     Lesotho                               29.90           2005 est.
13     Mozambique                            29.60           2005 est.
14     Spain                                 29.40           2005 est.
15     Korea, South                          29.30           2005 est.
16     Estonia                               29.10           2005 est.
17     Thailand                              29.00           2005 est.
18     Iceland                               28.70           2005 est.
19     Croatia                               28.60           2005 est.
20     India                                 28.10           2005 est.
21     Latvia                                27.80           2005 est.
22     Haiti                                 27.40           2004 est.
23     Zambia                                27.10           2005 est.
24     Ireland                               27.00           2005 est.
25     Nicaragua                             27.00           2005 est.
26     Kazakhstan                            26.50           2005 est.
27     Czech Republic                        26.40           2005 est.
28     Madagascar                            26.40           2005 est.
29     Sri Lanka                             26.10           2005 est.
30     Slovakia                              26.00           2005 est.
31     Australia                             25.90           2005 est.
32     Eritrea                               25.10           2005 est.
33     Belarus                               24.80           2005 est.
34     Slovenia                              24.80           2005 est.
35     Cape Verde                            24.80           2005 est.
36     Gabon                                 24.70           2005 est.
37     Greece                                24.60           2005 est.
38     Bangladesh                            24.40           2005 est.
39     Moldova                               24.40           2005 est.
40     Romania                               24.30           2005 est.
41     Namibia                               24.30           2005 est.
42     Dominican Republic                    24.10           2005 est.
43     Georgia                               24.00           2005 est.
44     Bulgaria                              23.80           2005 est.
45     New Zealand                           23.80           2005 est.
46     Morocco                               23.70           2005 est.
47     Uganda                                23.40           2005 est.
48     Cambodia                              23.30           2005 est.
49     Ghana                                 23.30           2005 est.
50     Honduras                              23.20           2005 est.
51     Japan                                 23.20           2005 est.
52     Hungary                               23.10           2005 est.
53     Algeria                               22.60           2005 est.
54     Malta                                 22.60           2005 est.
55     Albania                               22.40           2005 est.
56     Ecuador                               22.40           2005 est.
57     Tunisia                               22.40           2005 est.
58     Chile                                 22.10           2005 est.
59     Indonesia                             22.00           2005 est.
60     Ethiopia                              21.90           2005 est.
61     Syria                                 21.90           2005 est.
62     Qatar                                 21.90           2005 est.
63     Lithuania                             21.80           2005 est.
64     Singapore                             21.80           2005 est.
65     Portugal                              21.60           2005 est.
66     Togo                                  21.60           2005 est.
67     Argentina                             21.50           2005 est.
68     Congo, Republic of the                21.50           2005 est.
69     Armenia                               21.40           2005 est.
70     Nigeria                               21.30           2005 est.
71     Switzerland                           21.30           2005 est.
72     Mauritius                             21.20           2005 est.
73     Ukraine                               20.90           2005 est.
74     Austria                               20.80           2005 est.
75     Hong Kong                             20.80           2005 est.
76     Denmark                               20.80           2005 est.
77     United Arab Emirates                  20.70           2005 est.
78     Burkina Faso                          20.70           2005 est.
79     Italy                                 20.60           2005 est.
80     Canada                                20.50           2005 est.
81     Taiwan                                20.40           2005 est.
82     Botswana                              20.30           2005 est.
83     Luxembourg                            20.30           2005 est.
84     Jordan                                20.20           2005 est.
85     Senegal                               20.10           2005 est.
86     Gambia, The                           20.00           2005 est.
87     Malaysia                              20.00           2005 est.
88     Belgium                               19.90           2005 est.
89     Benin                                 19.90           2005 est.
90     Brazil                                19.90           2005 est.
91     Costa Rica                            19.60           2005 est.
92     France                                19.60           2005 est.
93     Turkey                                19.60           2005 est.
94     Trinidad and Tobago                   19.60           2005 est.
95     European Union                        19.60           2005 est.
96     Bahrain                               19.50           2005 est.
97     Netherlands                           19.50           2005 est.
98     Paraguay                              19.40           2005 est.
99     Tajikistan                            19.40           2005 est.
100    Mexico                                19.30           2005 est.
101    Cyprus                                19.20           2005 est.
102    Papua New Guinea                      19.20           2005 est.
103    Finland                               19.20           2005 est.
104    Venezuela                             19.00           2005 est.
105    Peru                                  18.90           2005 est.
106    Norway                                18.70           2005 est.
107    Colombia                              18.60           2005 est.
108    Tanzania                              18.60           2005 est.
109    Lebanon                               18.40           2005 est.
110    Macedonia                             18.30           2005 est.
111    Chad                                  18.20           2005 est.
112    Poland                                18.20           2005 est.
113    Russia                                18.10           2005 est.
114    Rwanda                                18.10           2005 est.
115    Belize                                17.80           2005 est.
116    Israel                                17.50           2005 est.
117    Cameroon                              17.30           2005 est.
118    Guinea                                17.30           2005 est.
119    Egypt                                 17.20           2005 est.
120    Germany                               17.10           2005 est.
121    Kenya                                 17.00           2005 est.
122    Sweden                                17.00           2005 est.
123    South Africa                          16.80           2005 est.
124    United States                         16.70           2005 est.
125    United Kingdom                        16.60           2005 est.
126    Panama                                16.50           2005 est.
127    Saudi Arabia                          16.30           2005 est.
128    Sudan                                 16.30           2005 est.
129    El Salvador                           15.80           2005 est.
130    Guatemala                             15.60           2005 est.
131    Philippines                           15.50           2005 est.
132    Pakistan                              15.30           2005 est.
133    Oman                                  14.80           2005 est.
134    Kuwait                                14.30           2005 est.
135    Serbia                                14.20           2005 est.
136    Yemen                                 14.20           2005 est.
137    Uruguay                               12.90           2005 est.
138    Kyrgyzstan                            12.60           2005 est.
139    Bolivia                               12.50           2005 est.
140    Burundi                               11.60           2005 est.
141    Burma                                 11.50           2005 est.
142    Cuba                                  11.50           2005 est.
143    Libya                                 11.40           2005 est.
144    Swaziland                             10.60           2005 est.
145    Malawi                                10.20           2005 est.
146    Cote d'Ivoire                          8.60           2005 est.
147    Zimbabwe                               7.90           2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2186

Rank   Country                           Public debt(% of GDP)  Date of Information

1      Malawi                               195.90           2005 est.
2      Lebanon                              180.50           2005 est.
3      Seychelles                           167.00           2005 est.
4      Japan                                158.00           2005 est.
5      Jamaica                              128.70           2005 est.
6      Zimbabwe                             109.80           2005 est.
7      Italy                                108.80           2005 est.
8      Sudan                                107.00           2005 est.
9      Greece                               106.80           2005 est.
10     Ethiopia                             106.20
11     Egypt                                104.70           2005 est.
12     Singapore                            102.90           2005 est.
13     Israel                                99.70           2005 est.
14     Belgium                               94.30           2005 est.
15     Sri Lanka                             92.80           2005 est.
16     Nicaragua                             82.30           2005 est.
17     Uruguay                               81.90           2005 est.
18     Bhutan                                81.40
19     Moldova                               79.60           2005 est.
20     Jordan                                79.10           2005 est.
21     Ghana                                 75.90           2005 est.
22     Argentina                             72.50           2005 est.
23     Philippines                           72.30           2005 est.
24     Morocco                               72.00           2005 est.
25     Zambia                                71.50           2005 est.
26     Cyprus                                70.30           2005 est.
27     Canada                                69.60           2005 est.
28     Honduras                              68.40           2005 est.
29     Turkey                                68.00           2005 est.
30     Mauritius                             67.50           2005 est.
31     Germany                               67.30           2005 est.
32     France                                66.20           2005 est.
33     Cameroon                              65.90           2005 est.
34     Tanzania                              65.80           2005 est.
35     Austria                               65.10           2005 est.
36     Panama                                64.90           2005 est.
37     United States                         64.70           2005 est.
38     Cote d'Ivoire                         64.50           2005 est.
39     Uganda                                64.30           2005 est.
40     Portugal                              63.90           2005 est.
41     Tunisia                               59.10           2005 est.
42     Hungary                               58.90           2005 est.
43     Costa Rica                            56.80           2005 est.
44     India                                 53.80           2005 est.
45     Pakistan                              53.80           2005 est.
46     Serbia                                53.10           2005 est.
47     Netherlands                           52.70           2005 est.
48     Switzerland                           52.00           2005 est.
49     Brazil                                51.60           2005 est.
50     Sweden                                50.40           2005 est.
51     Kenya                                 50.20           2005 est.
52     Norway                                50.10           2005 est.
53     Indonesia                             49.90           2005 est.
54     Croatia                               49.70           2005 est.
55     Colombia                              49.50           2005 est.
56     Vietnam                               48.20           2005 est.
57     Poland                                47.70           2005 est.
58     Thailand                              47.60           2005 est.
59     El Salvador                           46.70           2005 est.
60     Aruba                                 46.30
61     Malaysia                              46.20           2005 est.
62     Senegal                               46.00           2005 est.
63     Dominican Republic                    45.50           2005 est.
64     Bangladesh                            44.50           2005 est.
65     Saudi Arabia                          44.20           2005 est.
66     United Kingdom                        43.10           2005 est.
67     Trinidad and Tobago                   43.00           2005 est.
68     Papua New Guinea                      42.90           2005 est.
69     Spain                                 42.90           2005 est.
70     Slovakia                              42.50           2005 est.
71     Ecuador                               40.10           2005 est.
72     Syria                                 40.10           2005 est.
73     Finland                               39.60           2005 est.
74     Angola                                38.30           2005 est.
75     Peru                                  38.00           2005 est.
76     Denmark                               37.00           2005 est.
77     Uzbekistan                            36.10           2005 est.
78     Paraguay                              36.00           2005 est.
79     South Africa                          35.80           2005 est.
80     Qatar                                 35.60           2005 est.
81     Yemen                                 34.40           2005 est.
82     Venezuela                             34.20           2005 est.
83     Macedonia                             33.70           2005 est.
84     Gabon                                 33.60           2005 est.
85     Taiwan                                33.60           2005 est.
86     Bahrain                               33.50           2005 est.
87     Namibia                               32.70           2005 est.
88     Bulgaria                              31.90           2005 est.
89     Iceland                               31.60           2005 est.
90     Algeria                               30.20           2005 est.
91     Bosnia and Herzegovina                29.00
92     Iran                                  28.90           2005 est.
93     Slovenia                              28.50           2005 est.
94     Ireland                               26.70           2005 est.
95     Czech Republic                        25.90           2005 est.
96     Guatemala                             25.90           2005 est.
97     China                                 24.40           2005 est.
98     New Zealand                           21.30           2005 est.
99     Mozambique                            21.00
100    Romania                               20.30           2005 est.
101    Korea, South                          20.00           2005 est.
102    Lithuania                             18.70           2005 est.
103    United Arab Emirates                  17.50           2005 est.
104    Mexico                                17.40           2005 est.
105    Ukraine                               17.00           2005 est.
106    Australia                             16.10           2005 est.
107    Russia                                12.90           2005 est.
108    Kuwait                                12.10           2005 est.
109    Azerbaijan                            11.30           2005 est.
110    Nigeria                               11.00           2005 est.
111    Latvia                                10.90           2005 est.
112    Kazakhstan                            10.50           2005 est.
113    Libya                                  8.20           2005 est.
114    Oman                                   8.10           2005 est.
115    Chile                                  7.50           2005 est.
116    Equatorial Guinea                      6.40
117    Botswana                               6.20           2005 est.
118    Wallis and Futuna                      5.60
119    Estonia                                4.80           2005 est.
120    Hong Kong                              1.80           2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2187

Rank   Country                           Current account balance  Date of Information

1      Japan                             $     165,600,000,000  2005 est.
2      China                             $     160,800,000,000  2005 est.
3      Germany                           $     115,500,000,000  2005 est.
4      Saudi Arabia                      $      90,730,000,000  2005 est.
5      Russia                            $      84,250,000,000  2005 est.
6      Switzerland                       $      58,240,000,000  2005 est.
7      Norway                            $      49,490,000,000  2005 est.
8      Netherlands                       $      39,950,000,000  2005 est.
9      Singapore                         $      32,740,000,000  2005 est.
10     Kuwait                            $      26,920,000,000  2005 est.
11     Sweden                            $      25,620,000,000  2005 est.
12     Venezuela                         $      25,360,000,000  2005 est.
13     Canada                            $      24,960,000,000  2005 est.
14     Hong Kong                         $      19,700,000,000  2005 est.
15     Algeria                           $      18,790,000,000  2005 est.
16     United Arab Emirates              $      18,540,000,000  2005 est.
17     Korea, South                      $      16,560,000,000  2005 est.
18     Taiwan                            $      16,220,000,000  2005 est.
19     Brazil                            $      14,190,000,000  2005 est.
20     Malaysia                          $      14,060,000,000  2005 est.
21     Iran                              $      13,270,000,000  2005 est.
22     Libya                             $      10,730,000,000  2005 est.
23     Qatar                             $       9,270,000,000  2005 est.
24     Denmark                           $       7,753,000,000  2005 est.
25     Belgium                           $       6,305,000,000  2005 est.
26     Nigeria                           $       5,597,000,000  2005 est.
27     Argentina                         $       5,448,000,000  2005 est.
28     Finland                           $       5,043,000,000  2005 est.
29     Oman                              $       4,796,000,000  2005 est.
30     Angola                            $       4,054,000,000  2005 est.
31     Luxembourg                        $       3,560,000,000
32     Trinidad and Tobago               $       2,880,000,000  2005 est.
33     Ukraine                           $       2,531,000,000  2005 est.
34     Israel                            $       2,385,000,000  2005 est.
35     Philippines                       $       2,354,000,000  2005 est.
36     Egypt                             $       2,207,000,000  2005 est.
37     Indonesia                         $       2,016,000,000  2005 est.
38     Botswana                          $       1,584,000,000  2005 est.
39     Bahrain                           $       1,531,000,000  2005 est.
40     Austria                           $       1,467,000,000  2005 est.
41     Morocco                           $       1,255,000,000  2005 est.
42     Yemen                             $       1,224,000,000  2005 est.
43     Syria                             $       1,097,000,000  2005 est.
44     Uzbekistan                        $       1,082,000,000  2005 est.
45     Peru                              $       1,030,000,000  2005 est.
46     Belarus                           $        852,000,000  2005 est.
47     Chile                             $        702,700,000  2005 est.
48     Burma                             $        700,000,000  2005 est.
49     Gabon                             $        675,000,000  2005 est.
50     Namibia                           $        509,200,000  2005 est.
51     Congo, Republic of the            $        493,000,000  2005 est.
52     Papua New Guinea                  $        482,100,000  2005 est.
53     Bolivia                           $        462,000,000  2005 est.
54     Equatorial Guinea                 $        264,000,000  2005 est.
55     Turkmenistan                      $        236,000,000  2005 est.
56     Azerbaijan                        $        167,300,000  2005 est.
57     British Virgin Islands            $        134,300,000
58     Cuba                              $         49,000,000  2005 est.
59     Cameroon                          $         39,000,000  2005 est.
60     Bangladesh                        $         37,000,000  2005 est.
61     Cook Islands                      $         26,670,000
62     Haiti                             $         23,000,000  2005 est.
63     Palau                             $         15,090,000
64     Swaziland                         $          7,000,000  2005 est.
65     Tuvalu                            $          2,323,000
66     Samoa                             $         -2,428,000
67     Tonga                             $         -4,321,000
68     Comoros                           $        -17,000,000  2005 est.
69     Kiribati                          $        -19,870,000
70     Sao Tome and Principe             $        -20,000,000  2005 est.
71     Vanuatu                           $        -28,350,000
72     Burundi                           $        -29,000,000  2005 est.
73     Seychelles                        $        -32,000,000  2005 est.
74     Micronesia, Federated States of   $        -34,300,000
75     Honduras                          $        -42,300,000  2005 est.
76     Anguilla                          $        -42,870,000
77     Tajikistan                        $        -44,000,000  2005 est.
78     Gambia, The                       $        -53,000,000  2005 est.
79     Macedonia                         $        -81,100,000  2005 est.
80     Cape Verde                        $        -82,000,000  2005 est.
81     Antigua and Barbuda               $        -83,400,000
82     Uruguay                           $        -87,900,000  2005 est.
83     Lesotho                           $        -92,000,000  2005 est.
84     Guyana                            $       -112,000,000  2005 est.
85     Armenia                           $       -118,000,000  2005 est.
86     Kyrgyzstan                        $       -134,000,000  2005 est.
87     Laos                              $       -134,000,000  2005 est.
88     Dominican Republic                $       -143,000,000  2005 est.
89     Cambodia                          $       -166,000,000  2005 est.
90     Rwanda                            $       -166,000,000  2005 est.
91     Belize                            $       -180,000,000  2005 est.
92     Cote d'Ivoire                     $       -193,000,000  2005 est.
93     Togo                              $       -199,000,000  2005 est.
94     Malawi                            $       -218,000,000  2005 est.
95     Paraguay                          $       -255,000,000  2005 est.
96     Guinea                            $       -268,400,000  2005 est.
97     Moldova                           $       -285,000,000  2005 est.
98     Eritrea                           $       -291,000,000  2005 est.
99     Slovenia                          $       -303,000,000  2005 est.
100    Vietnam                           $       -309,000,000  2005 est.
101    Mauritius                         $       -342,000,000  2005 est.
102    Uganda                            $       -355,000,000  2005 est.
103    Tunisia                           $       -359,200,000  2005 est.
104    Benin                             $       -400,000,000  2005 est.
105    Albania                           $       -416,000,000  2005 est.
106    Zambia                            $       -420,000,000  2005 est.
107    Madagascar                        $       -438,000,000  2005 est.
108    Burkina Faso                      $       -460,000,000  2005 est.
109    Fiji                              $       -465,800,000
110    Kazakhstan                        $       -485,700,000  2005 est.
111    Zimbabwe                          $       -519,000,000  2005 est.
112    Tanzania                          $       -558,000,000  2005 est.
113    Ecuador                           $       -566,000,000  2005 est.
114    Malta                             $       -598,000,000  2005 est.
115    Chad                              $       -602,000,000  2005 est.
116    Georgia                           $       -625,000,000  2005 est.
117    Mozambique                        $       -639,000,000  2005 est.
118    Panama                            $       -705,700,000  2005 est.
119    Sri Lanka                         $       -776,000,000  2005 est.
120    El Salvador                       $       -778,000,000  2005 est.
121    Ghana                             $       -790,000,000  2005 est.
122    Nicaragua                         $       -835,000,000  2005 est.
123    Ethiopia                          $       -844,000,000  2005 est.
124    Senegal                           $       -848,000,000  2005 est.
125    Costa Rica                        $       -955,000,000  2005 est.
126    Cyprus                            $       -962,300,000  2005 est.
127    Jamaica                           $       -974,000,000  2005 est.
128    Pakistan                          $      -1,109,000,000  2005 est.
129    Guatemala                         $      -1,341,000,000  2005 est.
130    Estonia                           $      -1,375,000,000  2005 est.
131    Kenya                             $      -1,543,000,000  2005 est.
132    Jordan                            $      -1,613,000,000  2005 est.
133    Lithuania                         $      -1,771,000,000  2005
134    Colombia                          $      -1,931,000,000  2005 est.
135    Latvia                            $      -1,959,000,000  2005 est.
136    Bosnia and Herzegovina            $      -2,087,000,000  2005 est.
137    Serbia                            $      -2,451,000,000  2005 est.
138    Czech Republic                    $      -2,496,000,000  2005 est.
139    Croatia                           $      -2,541,000,000  2005 est.
140    Iceland                           $      -2,607,000,000  2005 est.
141    Sudan                             $      -3,013,000,000  2005 est.
142    Thailand                          $      -3,689,000,000  2005 est.
143    Ireland                           $      -3,833,000,000  2005 est.
144    Bulgaria                          $      -3,919,000,000  2005
145    Slovakia                          $      -4,066,000,000  2005 est.
146    Lebanon                           $      -4,239,000,000  2005 est.
147    Poland                            $      -4,364,000,000  2005 est.
148    Mexico                            $      -5,708,000,000  2005 est.
149    Hungary                           $      -7,963,000,000  2005 est.
150    Romania                           $      -8,200,000,000  2005
151    Iraq                              $      -9,447,000,000  2004 est.
152    New Zealand                       $      -9,688,000,000  2005 est.
153    South Africa                      $     -11,080,000,000  2005 est.
154    India                             $     -12,950,000,000  2005 est.
155    Portugal                          $     -17,100,000,000  2005 est.
156    Greece                            $     -17,860,000,000  2005 est.
157    Turkey                            $     -23,080,000,000  2005 est.
158    Italy                             $     -26,380,000,000  2005 est.
159    France                            $     -38,780,000,000  2005 est.
160    Australia                         $     -42,090,000,000  2005 est.
161    United Kingdom                    $     -57,610,000,000  2005 est.
162    Spain                             $     -83,140,000,000  2005 est.
163    United States                     $    -829,100,000,000  2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Rank code: @2188

Rank   Country                           Reserves of foreign exchange and gold  Date of Information

1      Japan                             $     835,500,000,000  2005 est.
2      China                             $     825,600,000,000  2005 est.
3      Taiwan                            $     258,000,000,000  2005 est.
4      Korea, South                      $     210,400,000,000  2005 est.
5      Russia                            $     182,200,000,000  2005 est.
6      India                             $     136,000,000,000  2005 est.
7      Hong Kong                         $     124,300,000,000  2005 est.
8      Singapore                         $     115,800,000,000  2005 est.
9      Germany                           $     101,700,000,000  2005 est.
10     United States                     $      86,940,000,000  2004 est.
11     France                            $      74,360,000,000  2005 est.
12     Mexico                            $      74,100,000,000  2005 est.
13     Malaysia                          $      70,230,000,000  2005 est.
14     Italy                             $      65,950,000,000  2005 est.
15     Switzerland                       $      57,640,000,000  2005 est.
16     Algeria                           $      56,580,000,000  2005 est.
17     Brazil                            $      53,800,000,000  2005 est.
18     Turkey                            $      52,490,000,000  2005 est.
19     Thailand                          $      52,070,000,000  2005 est.
20     United Kingdom                    $      48,660,000,000  2005 est.
21     Norway                            $      46,990,000,000  2005 est.
22     Iran                              $      45,460,000,000  2005 est.
23     Australia                         $      43,260,000,000  2005 est.
24     Poland                            $      42,560,000,000  2005 est.
25     Libya                             $      39,700,000,000  2005 est.
26     Indonesia                         $      34,580,000,000  2005 est.
27     Denmark                           $      34,030,000,000  2005 est.
28     Canada                            $      33,020,000,000  2005 est.
29     Venezuela                         $      29,640,000,000  2005 est.
30     Czech Republic                    $      29,360,000,000  2005 est.
31     Nigeria                           $      28,280,000,000  2005 est.
32     Argentina                         $      28,090,000,000  2005 est.
33     Israel                            $      28,060,000,000  2005 est.
34     Saudi Arabia                      $      26,760,000,000  2005 est.
35     United Arab Emirates              $      23,530,000,000  2005 est.
36     Sweden                            $      22,330,000,000  2005 est.
37     Romania                           $      21,600,000,000  2005 est.
38     Egypt                             $      21,390,000,000  2005 est.
39     South Africa                      $      20,630,000,000  2005 est.
40     Netherlands                       $      20,540,000,000  2005 est.
41     Ukraine                           $      19,390,000,000  2005 est.
42     Hungary                           $      18,590,000,000  2005 est.
43     Philippines                       $      18,500,000,000  2005 est.
44     Spain                             $      17,230,000,000  2005 est.
45     Chile                             $      16,930,000,000  2005 est.
46     Lebanon                           $      16,620,000,000  2005 est.
47     Morocco                           $      16,470,000,000  2005 est.
48     Slovakia                          $      14,970,000,000  2005 est.
49     Colombia                          $      14,960,000,000  2005 est.
50     Peru                              $      14,180,000,000  2005 est.
51     Belgium                           $      12,000,000,000  2005 est.
52     Austria                           $      11,830,000,000  2005 est.
53     Finland                           $      11,400,000,000  2005 est.
54     Pakistan                          $      10,950,000,000  2005 est.
55     Portugal                          $      10,360,000,000  2005 est.
56     Iraq                              $       9,161,000,000  2005 est.
57     Kuwait                            $       8,972,000,000  2005 est.
58     New Zealand                       $       8,893,000,000  2005 est.
59     Vietnam                           $       8,863,000,000  2005 est.
60     Croatia                           $       8,800,000,000  2005 est.
61     Bulgaria                          $       8,695,000,000  2005
62     Slovenia                          $       8,160,000,000  2005 est.
63     Kazakhstan                        $       7,070,000,000  2005 est.
64     Botswana                          $       6,309,000,000  2005 est.
65     Yemen                             $       6,143,000,000  2005 est.
66     Jordan                            $       5,463,000,000  2005 est.
67     Syria                             $       5,363,000,000  2005 est.
68     Serbia                            $       5,350,000,000
69     Trinidad and Tobago               $       4,888,000,000  2005 est.
70     Qatar                             $       4,552,000,000  2005 est.
71     Cyprus                            $       4,429,000,000  2005 est.
72     Tunisia                           $       4,375,000,000  2005 est.
73     Oman                              $       4,358,000,000  2005 est.
74     Lithuania                         $       3,815,000,000  2005
75     Guatemala                         $       3,673,000,000  2005 est.
76     Angola                            $       3,197,000,000  2005 est.
77     Uruguay                           $       3,079,000,000  2005 est.
78     Turkmenistan                      $       2,963,000,000  2005 est.
79     Bangladesh                        $       2,825,000,000  2005 est.
80     Sri Lanka                         $       2,737,000,000  2005 est.
81     Uzbekistan                        $       2,681,000,000  2005 est.
82     Cuba                              $       2,618,000,000  2005 est.
83     Malta                             $       2,579,000,000  2005 est.
84     Bosnia and Herzegovina            $       2,531,000,000  2005 est.
85     Sudan                             $       2,450,000,000  2005 est.
86     Bahrain                           $       2,432,000,000  2005 est.
87     Latvia                            $       2,361,000,000  2005 est.
88     Honduras                          $       2,339,000,000  2005 est.
89     Costa Rica                        $       2,313,000,000  2005 est.
90     Greece                            $       2,287,000,000  2005 est.
91     Jamaica                           $       2,170,000,000  2005 est.
92     Ecuador                           $       2,148,000,000  2005 est.
93     Equatorial Guinea                 $       2,103,000,000  2005 est.
94     Tanzania                          $       2,074,000,000  2005 est.
95     Estonia                           $       1,948,000,000  2005 est.
96     Ghana                             $       1,897,000,000  2005 est.
97     Dominican Republic                $       1,853,000,000  2005 est.
98     El Salvador                       $       1,833,000,000  2005 est.
99     Kenya                             $       1,799,000,000  2005 est.
100    Bolivia                           $       1,798,000,000  2005 est.
101    Albania                           $       1,461,000,000  2005 est.
102    Cote d'Ivoire                     $       1,420,000,000  2005 est.
103    Mauritius                         $       1,366,000,000  2005 est.
104    Macedonia                         $       1,341,000,000  2005 est.
105    Paraguay                          $       1,297,000,000  2005 est.
106    Uganda                            $       1,286,000,000  2005 est.
107    Ethiopia                          $       1,226,000,000  2005 est.
108    Belarus                           $       1,215,000,000  2005 est.
109    Panama                            $       1,211,000,000  2005 est.
110    Azerbaijan                        $       1,192,000,000  2005 est.
111    Senegal                           $       1,191,000,000  2005 est.
112    Cambodia                          $       1,145,000,000  2005 est.
113    Iceland                           $       1,069,000,000  2005 est.
114    Mozambique                        $       1,051,000,000  2005 est.
115    Cameroon                          $        964,800,000  2005 est.
116    Ireland                           $        869,300,000  2005 est.
117    Burkina Faso                      $        764,000,000  2005 est.
118    Burma                             $        763,000,000  2005 est.
119    Armenia                           $        754,900,000  2005 est.
120    Papua New Guinea                  $        748,800,000  2005 est.
121    Nicaragua                         $        727,800,000  2005 est.
122    Benin                             $        676,000,000  2005 est.
123    Gabon                             $        675,200,000  2005 est.
124    Kyrgyzstan                        $        612,300,000  2005 est.
125    Moldova                           $        597,500,000  2005 est.
126    Lesotho                           $        573,000,000  2005 est.
127    Madagascar                        $        572,000,000  2005 est.
128    Zambia                            $        559,800,000  2005 est.
129    Georgia                           $        474,200,000  2005 est.
130    Rwanda                            $        357,000,000  2005 est.
131    Togo                              $        318,000,000  2005 est.
132    Namibia                           $        312,100,000  2005 est.
133    Swaziland                         $        311,000,000  2005 est.
134    Chad                              $        297,000,000  2005 est.
135    Luxembourg                        $        279,100,000  2005 est.
136    Congo, Republic of the            $        273,000,000  2005 est.
137    Guyana                            $        261,000,000  2005 est.
138    Laos                              $        249,000,000  2005 est.
139    Tajikistan                        $        186,800,000  2005 est.
140    Zimbabwe                          $        160,000,000  2005 est.
141    Malawi                            $        151,000,000  2005 est.
142    Cape Verde                        $        150,000,000  2005 est.
143    Burundi                           $        105,000,000  2005 est.
144    Haiti                             $        100,000,000  2005 est.
145    Belize                            $         87,000,000  2005 est.
146    Gambia, The                       $         82,000,000  2005 est.
147    Samoa                             $         70,150,000
148    Guinea                            $         69,830,000  2005 est.
149    Seychelles                        $         41,000,000  2005 est.
150    Tonga                             $         40,830,000
151    Vanuatu                           $         40,540,000
152    Eritrea                           $         30,000,000  2005 est.
153    Sao Tome and Principe             $         20,000,000  2005 est.

 This file was last updated on 19 December, 2006




======================================================================




Appendix A - Abbreviations


ABEDA:  Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa

ACCT:  Agency for the French-Speaking Community (see International
Organization of the French-speaking World)

ACP Group:  African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States

AfDB:  African Development Bank

AFESD:  Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development

Air Pollution:  Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution

Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides:  Protocol to the 1979 Convention on
Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution Concerning the Control of
Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides or Their Transboundary Fluxes

Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants:  Protocol to the 1979
Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent
Organic Pollutants

Air Pollution-Sulphur 85:  Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-
Range Transboundary Air Pollution on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions
or Their Transboundary Fluxes by at Least 30%

Air Pollution-Sulphur 94:  Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-
Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Further Reduction of Sulphur
Emissions

Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds:  Protocol to the 1979
Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution Concerning the
Control of Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds or Their
Transboundary Fluxes

AMF:  Arab Monetary Fund

AMU:  Arab Maghreb Union

Antarctic-Environmental Protocol:  Protocol on Environmental Protection
to the Antarctic Treaty

Antarctic Marine Living Resources:  Convention on the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources

Antarctic Seals:  Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals

ANZUS:  Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty

APEC:  Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Arabsat:  Arab Satellite Communications Organization

ARF:  ASEAN Regional Forum

AsDB:  Asian Development Bank

ASEAN:  Association of Southeast Asian Nations

AU:  African Union

Autodin:  Automatic Digital Network

BA:  Baltic Assembly

bbl/day:  barrels per day

BCIE:  Central American Bank for Economic Integration

BDEAC:  Central African States Development Bank

Benelux:  Benelux Economic Union

BIMSTEC:  Bay of Bengal Iniative for Multisectoral Technical and
Economic Cooperation

Biodiversity:  Convention on Biological Diversity

BGN:  United States Board on Geographic Names

BIS:  Bank for International Settlements

BSEC:  Black Sea Economic Cooperation Zone

C:  Commonwealth

c.i.f.:  cost, insurance, and freight

CACM:  Central American Common Market

CAEU:  Council of Arab Economic Unity

CAN:  Andean Community of Nations

Caricom:  Caribbean Community and Common Market

CB:  citizen's band mobile radio communications

CBSS:  Council of the Baltic Sea States

CCC:  Customs Cooperation Council

CDB:  Caribbean Development Bank

CE:  Council of Europe

CEI:  Central European Initiative

CEMAC:  Monetary and Economic Community of Central Africa

CEPGL:  Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries

CERN:  European Organization for Nuclear Research

CEPT:  Conference Europeanne des Poste et Telecommunications

CIS:  Commonwealth of Independent States

CITES:  see Endangered Species

Climate Change:  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol:  Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change

COCOM:  Coordinating Committee on Export Controls

Comsat:  Communications Satellite Corporation

COMESA:  Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

CP:  Colombo Plan

CY:  calendar year

DC:  developed country

Desertification:  United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification,
Particularly in Africa

DDT:  dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane

DIA:  United States Defense Intelligence Agency

DSN:  Defense Switched Network

DWT:  deadweight ton

EADB:  East African Development Bank

EAPC:  Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council

EBRD:  European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

EC:  European Community

ECA:  Economic Commission for Africa

ECE:  Economic Commission for Europe

ECLAC:  Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

ECO:  Economic Cooperation Organization

ECOSOC:  Economic and Social Council

ECOWAS:  Economic Community of West African States

ECSC:  European Coal and Steel Community

EEC:  European Economic Community

EFTA:  European Free Trade Association

EEZ:  exclusive economic zone

EIB:  European Investment Bank

EMU:  European Monetary Union

Endangered Species:  Convention on the International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES)

Entente:  Council of the Entente

Environmental Modification:  Convention on the Prohibition of Military
or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques

ESA:  European Space Agency

ESCAP:  Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

ESCWA:  Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia

est.:  estimate

EU:  European Union

Euratom:  European Atomic Energy Community

Eutelsat:  European Telecommunications Satellite Organization

Ex-Im:  Export-Import Bank of the United States

f.o.b.:  free on board

FAO:  Food and Agriculture Organization

FAX:  facsimile

FLS:  Front Line States

FOC:  flags of convenience

FSU:  former Soviet Union

FY:  fiscal year

FZ:  Franc Zone

G-2:  Group of 2

G-3:  Group of 3

G-5:  Group of 5

G-6:  Group of 6

G-7:  Group of 7

G-8:  Group of 8

G-9:  Group of 9

G-10:  Group of 10

G-15:  Group of 15

G-11:  Group of 11

G-24:  Group of 24

G-77:  Group of 77

GATT:  General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; now WTO

GCC:  Gulf Cooperation Council

GDP:  gross domestic product

GMT:  Greenwich Mean Time

GNP:  gross national product

GRT:  gross register ton

GSM:  global system for mobile cellular communications

GUAM:  acronym for member states - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan,
Moldova

GWP:  gross world product

Hazardous Wastes:  Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal

HF:  high-frequency

HIV/AIDS:  human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency
syndrome

IADB:  Inter-American Development Bank

IAEA:  International Atomic Energy Agency

IANA:  Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IBRD:  International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World
Bank)

ICAO:  International Civil Aviation Organization

ICC:  International Chamber of Commerce

ICCt:  International Criminal Court

ICFTU:  International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

ICJ:  International Court of Justice (World Court)

ICRC:  International Committee of the Red Cross

ICRM:  International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

ICSID:  International Center for Secretariat of Investment Disputes

ICTR:  International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

ICTY:  International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

IDA:  International Development Association

IDB:  Islamic Development Bank

IDP:  internally displaced person

IEA:  International Energy Agency

IFAD:  International Fund for Agricultural Development

IFC:  International Finance Corporation

IFRCS:  International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies

IGAD:  Inter-Governmental Authority on Development

IHO:  International Hydrographic Organization

ILO:  International Labor Organization

IMF:  International Monetary Fund

IMO:  International Maritime Organization

Inmarsat:  International Maritime Satellite Organization

InOC:  Indian Ocean Commission

INSTRAW:  International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women

Intelsat:  International Telecommunications Satellite Organization

Interpol:  International Criminal Police Organization

Intersputnik:  International Organization of Space Communications

IOC:  International Olympic Committee

IOM:  International Organization for Migration

IPU:  Inter-parliamentary Union

ISO:  International Organization for Standardization

ISP:  Internet Service Provider

ITU:  International Telecommunication Union

kHz:  kilohertz

km:  kilometer

kW:  kilowatt

kWh:  kilowatt-hour

LAES:  Latin American Economic System

LAIA:  Latin American Integration Association

LAS:  League of Arab States

Law of the Sea:  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS)

LDC:  less developed country

LLDC:  least developed country

London Convention:  see Marine Dumping

LOS:  see Law of the Sea

m:  meter

Marecs:  Maritime European Communications Satellite

Marine Dumping:  Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by
Dumping Wastes and Other Matter

Marine Life Conservation:  Convention on Fishing and Conservation of
Living Resources of the High Seas

MARPOL:  see Ship Pollution

Medarabtel:  Middle East Telecommunications Project of the
International Telecommunications Union

Mercosur:  Southern Cone Common Market

MHz:  megahertz

MICAH:  International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti

MINURSO:  United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara

MIGA:  Multilateral Investment Geographic Agency

MINUSTAH:  United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

MONUC:  United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo

NA:  not available

NAFTA:  North American Free Trade Agreement

NAM:  Nonaligned Movement

NATO:  North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NC:  Nordic Council

NEA:  Nuclear Energy Agency

NEGL:  negligible

NGA:  National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

NIB:  Nordic Investment Bank

NIC:  newly industrializing country

NIE:  newly industrializing economy

NIS:  new independent states

nm:  nautical mile

NMT:  Nordic Mobile Telephone

NSG:  Nuclear Suppliers Group

Nuclear Test Ban:  Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the
Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water

NZ:  New Zealand

OAPEC:  Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries

OAS:  Organization of American States

OAU:  Organization of African Unity; see African Union

ODA:  official development assistance

OECD:  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OECS:  Organization of Eastern Caribbean States

OHCHR:  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

OIC:  Organization of the Islamic Conference

OIF:  International Organization of the French-speaking World

ONUB:  United Nations Operation in Burundi

OOF:  other official flows

OPANAL:  Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America
and the Caribbean

OPCW:  Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

OPEC:  Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

OSCE:  Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Ozone Layer Protection:  Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete
the Ozone Layer

PCA:  Permanent Court of Arbitration

PFP:  Partnership for Peace

PIF:  Pacific Islands Forum

PPP:  purchasing power parity

Ramsar:  see Wetlands

RG:  Rio Group

SAARC:  South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

SACU:  Southern African Customs Union

SACEP:  South Asia Co-opeative Environment Programme

SADC:  Southern African Development Community

SCO:  Shanghai Cooperative Organization

SAFE:  South African Far East Cable

SECI:  Southeast European Cooperative Initiative

SHF:  super-high-frequency

Ship Pollution:  Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International
Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships, 1973 (MARPOL)

Sparteca:  South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation
Agreement

SPC:  Secretariat of the Pacific Communities

SPF:  South Pacific Forum

sq km:  square kilometer

sq mi:  square mile

TAT:  Trans-Atlantic Telephone

Tropical Timber 83:  International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1983

Tropical Timber 94:  International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994

UAE:  United Arab Emirates

UDEAC:  Central African Customs and Economic Union

UHF:  ultra-high-frequency

UK:  United Kingdom

UN:  United Nations

UNAMSIL:  United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone

UNCLOS:  United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also know as
LOS

UNCTAD:  United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNDCP:  United Nations Drug Control Program

UNDOF:  United Nations Disengagement Observer Force

UNDP:  United Nations Development Program

UNEP:  United Nations Environment Program

UNESCO:  United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization

UNFICYP:  United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus

UNFPA:  United Nations Population Fund

UNHCR:  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

UNICEF:  United Nations Children's Fund

UNICRI:  United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research
Institute

UNIDIR:  United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research

UNIDO:  United Nations Industrial Development Organization

UNIFIL:  United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

UNITAR:  United Nations Institute for Training and Research

UNMEE:  United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

UNMIK:  United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

UNMIL:  United Nations Mission in Liberia

UNMOGIP:  United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan

UNMOVIC:  United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection
Commission

UNOCI:  United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire

UNOMIG:  United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia

UNOPS:  United Nations Office of Project Services

UNRISD:  United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

UNRWA:  United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
in the Near East

UNSC:  United Nations Security Council

UNSSC:  Untied Nations System Staff College

UNTSO:  United Nations Truce Supervision Organization

UNU:  United Nations University

UPU:  Universal Postal Union

US:  United States

USSR:  Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union); used for
information dated before 25 December 1991

UTC:  Coordinated Universal Time

UV:  ultra violet

VHF:  very-high-frequency

VSAT:  very small aperture terminal

WADB:  West African Development Bank

WAEMU:  West African Economic and Monetary Union

WCL:  World Confederation of Labor

WCO:  World Customs Organization

Wetlands:  Convention on Wetlands of International Importance
Especially As Waterfowl Habitat

WEU:  Western European Union

WFP:  World Food Program

WFTU:  World Federation of Trade Unions

Whaling:  International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling

WHO:  World Health Organization

WIPO:  World Intellectual Property Organization

WMO:  World Meteorological Organization

WP:  Warsaw Pact

WTO:  World Trade Organization note - see WToO for World Tourism
Organization

WToO:  World Tourism Organization

ZC:  Zangger Committee

This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================



Appendix B - International Organizations and Groups


advanced developing countries:  another term for those less developed
countries (LDCs) with particularly rapid industrial development; see
newly industrializing economies (NIEs)

advanced economies:  a term used by the International Monetary FUND
(IMF) for the top group in its hierarchy of advanced economies,
countries in transition, and developing countries; it includes the
following 28 advanced economies: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, NZ, Norway,
Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, US; note -
this group would presumably also cover the following seven smaller
countries of Andorra, Bermuda, Faroe Islands, Holy See, Liechtenstein,
Monaco, and San Marino that are included in the more comprehensive
group of "developed countries"

African Development Bank (AfDB):  note - its predecessor was
Organization of African Unity (OAU)

established - 9 September 1999

aim - to promote economic and social development

regional members - (53) Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire,
Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

nonregional members - (24) Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, Kuwait, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US

African Union (AU):  note - replaces Organization of African Unity
(OAU)

established - 8 July 2001

aim - to achieve greater unity among African States; to defend states'
integrity and independence; to accelerate political, social, and
economic integration; to encourage international cooperation; to
promote democratic principles and institutions

members - (53) Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire,
Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,
Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western
Sahara), Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia,
Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group):
established - 6 June 1975

aim - to manage their preferential economic and aid relationship with
the EU

members - (79) Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde,
Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba,
Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho,
Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Federated States of Micronesia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru,
Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome
and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands,
Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo,
Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the
Caribbean (OPANAL):  note - acronym from Organismo para la Proscripcion
de las Armas Nucleares en la America Latina y el Caribe (OPANAL)

established - 14 February 1967 under the Treaty of Tlatelolco;
effective - 25 April 1969 on the 11th ratification

aim - to encourage the peaceful uses of atomic energy and prohibit
nuclear weapons

members - (33) Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela

Andean Community of Nations (CAN):  note - formerly known as the Andean
Group (AG), the Andean Parliament, and most recently as the Andean
Common Market (Ancom)

established - 26 May 1969; present name established 1 October 1992;
effective - 16 October 1969

aim - to promote harmonious development through economic integration

members - (5) Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela

associate members - (5) Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

observers - (2) Mexico, Panama

Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (ABEDA):  note - also
known as Banque Arabe de Developpement Economique en Afrique (BADEA)

established - 18 February 1974; effective - 16 September 1974

aim - to promote economic development

members - (17 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Algeria,
Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania,
Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE,
Palestine Liberation Organization; note - these are all the members of
the Arab League excluding Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia, Yemen

Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD):  established -
16 May 1968

aim - to promote economic and social development

members - (20 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Algeria,
Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq (suspended 1993), Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia
(suspended 1993), Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, Palestine
Liberation Organization

Arab Maghreb Union (AMU):  established - 17 February 1989

aim - to promote cooperation and integration among the Arab states of
northern Africa

members - (5) Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia

Arab Monetary Fund (AMF):  established - 27 April 1976; effective - 2
February 1977

aim - to promote Arab cooperation, development, and integration in
monetary and economic affairs

members - (21 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Algeria,
Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, Palestine Liberation Organization

Arctic Council:  established - 18 September 1996

aim - to address the common concerns and challenges faced by Arctic
governments and the people of the Arctic; to protect the Arctic
environment

members - (8) Canada, Denmark (Greenland, Faroe Islands), Finland,
Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, US

permanent participants - (6) Aleut International Association, Arctic
Athabaskan Council, Gurch'in Council International, Inuit Circumpolar
Conference, Russian Association of Indigenous People of the North,
Saami Council

observers - (5) France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, UK

ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF):  established - 25 July 1994

aim - to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and
security issues of common interest and concern

members - (26) Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Canada,
China, East Timor, EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, South
Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, NZ, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, US, Vietnam

Asian Development Bank (AsDB):  established - 19 December 1966

aim - to promote regional economic cooperation

members - (47) Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, East Timor, Fiji,
Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, South Korea,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Federated
States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru, Nepal, NZ, Pakistan, Palau,
Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri
Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam

nonregional members - (19) Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC):  established - 7 November
1989

aim - to promote trade and investment in the Pacific basin

members - (21) Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, NZ, Papua New Guinea,
Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, US, Vietnam

observers - (3) Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Pacific
Economic Cooperation Council, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN):  established - 8 August
1967

aim - to encourage regional economic, social, and cultural cooperation
among the non-Communist countries of Southeast Asia

members - (10) Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

dialogue partners - (12) Australia, Canada, China, EU, India, Japan,
South Korea, NZ, Pakistan, Russia, US, UNDP

observers - (1) Papua New Guinea

Australia Group:  established - June 1985

aim - to consult on and coordinate export controls related to chemical
and biological weapons

members - (40) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Commission,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands,
NZ, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US

Australia-New Zealand-United States Security Treaty (ANZUS):
established - 1 September 1951; effective - 29 April 1952

aim - to implement a trilateral mutual security agreement, although the
US suspended security obligations to NZ on 11 August 1986; Australia
and the US continue to hold annual meetings

members - (3) Australia, NZ, US

Baltic Assembly (BA):  established - 12 May 1990

aim - to thoroughly discuss various cooperation issues between Baltic
states

members - (3) Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Bay of Bengal Iniative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic
Coopertion (BIMSTEC):  established - June 1997

aim - to foster socio-economic cooperation among members

members - (7) Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
Thailand

Bank for International Settlements (BIS):  established - 20 January
1930; effective - 17 March 1930

aim - to promote cooperation among central banks in international
financial settlements

members - (55) Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Central Bank, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania,
Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore,
Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand,
Turkey, UK, US; note - Serbia and Montenegro have separate central
banks; their links with BIS are currently under review

Benelux Economic Union (Benelux):  note - acronym from Belgium,
Netherlands, and Luxembourg

established - 3 February 1958; effective - 1 November 1960

aim - to develop closer economic cooperation and integration

members - (3) Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands

Big Seven:  note - membership is the same as the Group of 7

established - 1975

aim - to discuss and coordinate major economic policies

members - (7) Big Six (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK) plus
the US

Black Sea Economic Cooperation Zone (BSEC):  established - 25 June 1992

aim - to enhance regional stability through economic cooperation

members - (12) Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece,
Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine; note - Macedonia is
in the process of joining

observers - (16) Austria, Belarus, Black Sea Commission, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Egypt, Energy Charter Secretariat, France, Germany,
International Black Sea Club, Israel, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Tunisia,
US; note - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia have applied for
observer status

Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom):  established - 4 July
1973; effective - 1 August 1973

aim - to promote economic integration and development, especially among
the less developed countries

members - (15) Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize,
Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname,
Trinidad and Tobago

associate members - (5) Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands,
Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands

Caribbean Development Bank (CDB):  established - 18 October 1969;
effective - 26 January 1970

aim - to promote economic development and cooperation

regional members - (20) Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas,
Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia,
Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and
Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Venezuela

nonregional members - (5) Canada, China, Germany, Italy, UK

Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC):  see Monetary and
Economic Community of Central Africa (CEMAC)

Central African States Development Bank (BDEAC):  note - acronym from
Banque de Developpement des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale

established - 3 December 1975

aim - to provide loans for economic development

members - (10) African Development Bank (AfDB), Cameroon, Central
African States Bank (BEAC), Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of
the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Kuwait

Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE):  note - acronym
from Banco Centroamericano de Integracion Economico

established - 13 December 1960 signature of Articles of Agreement; 31
May 1961 began operations

aim - to promote economic integration and development

members - (5) Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

nonregional members - (5) Argentina, China, Colombia, Mexico, Spain

Central American Common Market (CACM):  established - 13 December 1960,
collapsed in 1969, reinstated in 1991

aim - to promote establishment of a Central American Common Market

members - (5) Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua;
note - Panama, although not a member, pursues full regional cooperation

Central European Initiative (CEI):  note - evolved from the
Quadrilateral Initiative and the Hexagonal Initiative

established - 11 November 1989 as the Quadrilateral Initiative, 27 July
1991 became the Hexagonal Initiative, July 1992 its present name was
adopted

aim - to form an economic and political cooperation group for the
region between the Adriatic and the Baltic Seas

members - (18) Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova,
Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine

centrally planned economies:  a term applied mainly to the
traditionally Communist states that looked to the former USSR for
leadership; most are now evolving toward more democratic and market-
oriented systems; also known formerly as the Second World or as as the
Communist countries; through the 1980s, this group included Albania,
Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic
Republic, Hungary, North Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland,
Romania, Serbia, USSR, Vietnam

Colombo Plan (CP):  established - May 1950 proposal was adopted; 1 July
1951 commenced full operations

aim - to promote economic and social development in Asia and the
Pacific

members - (25) Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Fiji,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives,
Mongolia, Nepal, NZ, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, US, Vietnam

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA):  note -
formerly known as Preferential Trade Area for Eastern and Southern
Africa (PTA)

established - 5 November 1993

aim - recognizing, promoting and protecting fundamental human rights,
commitment to the principles of liberty and rule of law, maintaining
peace and stability through the promotion and strengthening of good
neighborliness, commitment to peaceful settlement of disputes among
member states

members - (20) Angola, Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda,
Zambia, Zimbabwe

Commonwealth (C):  note - also known as Commonwealth of Nations

established - 31 December 1931

aim - to foster multinational cooperation and assistance, as a
voluntary association that evolved from the British Empire

members - (53) Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh,
Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica,
Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya,
Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, NZ, Nigeria, Pakistan (suspended), Papua
New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon
Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad
and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, UK, Vanuatu, Zambia; note - on 7 December
2003 Zimbabwe withdrew its membership from the Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS):  established - 8 December
1991; effective - 21 December 1991

aim - to coordinate intercommonwealth relations and to provide a
mechanism for the orderly dissolution of the USSR

members - (12) Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan

Communist countries:  traditionally the Marxist-Leninist states with
authoritarian governments and command economies based on the Soviet
model; most of the original and the successor states are no longer
Communist; see centrally planned economies

Coordinating Committee on Export Controls (COCOM):  established in 1949
to control the export of strategic products and technical data from
member countries to proscribed destinations; members were: Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK, US;
abolished 31 March 1994; COCOM members established a new organization,
the Wassenaar Arrangement, with expanded membership on 12 July 1996
that focuses on nonproliferation export controls as opposed to East-
West control of advanced technology

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEMA):  note - also known as
CMEA or Comecon

established 25 January 1949 to promote the development of socialist
economies and abolished 1 January 1991; members included Afghanistan
(observer), Albania (had not participated since 1961 break with USSR),
Angola (observer), Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia (observer),
GDR, Hungary, Laos (observer), Mongolia, Mozambique (observer),
Nicaragua (observer), Poland, Romania, USSR, Vietnam, Yemen (observer),
Yugoslavia (associate)

Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU):  established - 3 June 1957;
effective - 30 May 1964

aim - to promote economic integration among Arab nations

members - (10 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Egypt, Iraq,
Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen,
Palestine Liberation Organization

Council of Europe (CE):  established - 5 May 1949; effective - 3 August
1949

aim - to promote increased unity and quality of life in Europe

members - (46) Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK

observers - (5) Canada, Holy See, Japan, Mexico, US

Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS):  established - 6 March 1992

aim - to promote cooperation among the Baltic Sea states in the areas
of aid to new democratic institutions, economic development,
humanitarian aid, energy and the environment, cultural programs and
education, and transportation and communication

members - (12) Denmark, Estonia, EC, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden

observers - (7) France, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Ukraine, UK, US

Council of the Entente (Entente):  established - 29 May 1959

aim - to promote economic, social, and political coordination

members - (5) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Togo

countries in transition:  a term used by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) for the middle group in its hierarchy of advanced economies,
countries in transition, and developing countries; IMF statistics
include the following 28 countries in transition: Albania, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania,
Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan; note - this group is identical to the group traditionally
referred to as the "former USSR/Eastern Europe" except for the addition
of Mongolia

Customs Cooperation Council (CCC):  note - see World Customs
Organization (WCO)

developed countries (DCs):  the top group in the hierarchy of developed
countries (DCs), former USSR/Eastern Europe (former USSR/EE), and less
developed countries (LDCs); includes the market-oriented economies of
the mainly democratic nations in the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), Bermuda, Israel, South Africa, and
the European ministates; also known as the First World, high-income
countries, the North, industrial countries; generally have a per capita
GDP in excess of $10,000 although four OECD countries and South Africa
have figures well under $10,000 and two of the excluded OPEC countries
have figures of more than $10,000; the 34 DCs are: Andorra, Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, NZ,
Norway, Portugal, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey, UK, US; note - similar to the new International Monetary Fund
(IMF) term "advanced economies" that adds Hong Kong, South Korea,
Singapore, and Taiwan but drops Malta, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey

developing countries:  a term used by the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) for the bottom group in its hierarchy of advanced economies,
countries in transition, and developing countries; IMF statistics
include the following 126 developing countries: Afghanistan, Algeria,
Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil,
Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central
African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, The
Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya,
Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman,
Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar,
Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe; note - this category would
presumably also cover the following 46 other countries that are
traditionally included in the more comprehensive group of "less
developed countries": American Samoa, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands,
Brunei, Cayman Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Cook Islands,
Cuba, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gaza
Strip, Gibraltar, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guernsey, Isle
of Man, Jersey, North Korea, Macau, Martinique, Mayotte, Montserrat,
Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands,
Palau, Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint
Pierre and Miquelon, Tokelau, Tonga, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu,
Virgin Islands, Wallis and Futuna, West Bank, Western Sahara

East African Development Bank (EADB):  established - 6 June 1967;
effective - 1 December 1967

aim - to promote economic development

members - (3) Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

East Asia Summit (EAS):  established - 14 December 2005

aim - to promote cooperation in political and security issues; to
promote development, financial stability, energy security, economic
integration and growth; to eradicate poverty and narrow the development
gap in East Asia, and to promote deeper cultural understanding

members - (16) Australia, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, India,
Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, NZ, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU):  note - an integral part of the
European Union; also known as the European Economic and Monetary Union

established - 1-2 December 1969 (proposed at summit conference of heads
of government; 7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed)

aim - to promote a single market by creating a single currency, the
euro; timetable - 2 May 1998: European exchange rates fixed for 1
January 1999; 1 January 1999: all banks and stock exchanges begin using
euros; 1 January 2002: the euro goes into circulation; 1 July 2002
local currencies no longer accepted

members - (12) Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain

Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC):  note - was
formerly the Central African Customs and Economic Union (UDEAC)

established - 8 December 1964; effective - 1 January 1966

aim - to promote the establishment of a Central African Common Market

members - (6) Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the
Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC):  established - 26 June 1945;
effective - 24 October 1945

aim - to coordinate the economic and social work of the UN; includes
five regional commissions (Economic Commission for Africa, Economic
Commission for Europe, Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia) and nine functional
commissions (Commission for Social Development, Commission on Human
Rights, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Commission on the Status of
Women, Commission on Population and Development, Statistical
Commission, Commission on Science and Technology for Development,
Commission on Sustainable Development, and Commission on Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice)

members - (54) selected on a rotating basis from all regions

Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL):  note -
acronym from Communaute Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs

established - 20 September 1976

aim - to promote regional economic cooperation and integration

members - (3) Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda; note -
organization collapsed because of fighting in 1998; reactivated in 2006

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS):  established - 28
May 1975

aim - to promote regional economic cooperation

members - (15) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO):  established - 27-29 January
1985

aim - to promote regional cooperation in trade, transportation,
communications, tourism, cultural affairs, and economic development

members - (10) Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC):  note - began as the North
Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC); an extension of NATO

established - 8 November 1991; effective - 20 December 1991

aim - to discuss cooperation on mutual political and security issues

members - (46) Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, UK, US, Uzbekistan

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD):  established -
8-9 January 1990 (proposals made); 15 April 1991 (bank inaugurated)

aim - to facilitate the transition of seven centrally planned economies
in Europe (Bulgaria, former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
former USSR, and former Yugoslavia) to market economies by committing
60% of its loans to privatization

members - (63) Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, EC, European Investment Bank
(EIB), Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, NZ,
Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
UK, US, Uzbekistan

European Community (or European Communities, EC):  established 8 April
1965 to integrate the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic
Community (EEC or Common Market), and to establish a completely
integrated common market and an eventual federation of Europe; merged
into the European Union (EU) on 7 February 1992; member states at the
time of merger were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK

European Free Trade Association (EFTA):  established - 4 January 1960;
effective - 3 May 1960

aim - to promote expansion of free trade

members - (4) Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland

European Investment Bank (EIB):  established - 25 March 1957; effective
- 1 January 1958

aim - to promote economic development of the EU and its predecessors,
the EEC and the EC

members - (25) Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK

European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN):  note - acronym
retained from the predecessor organization Conseil Europeenne pour la
Recherche Nucleaire

established - 1 July 1953; effective - 29 September 1954

aim - to foster nuclear research for peaceful purposes only

members - (20) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK

observers - (8) European Commission, India, Israel, Japan, Russia,
Turkey, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), US

European Space Agency (ESA):  established - 31 May 1975

aim - to promote peaceful cooperation in space research and technology

members - (17) Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK

cooperating states - (4) Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania

European Union (EU):  note - see European Union entry at the end of the
"country" listings

First World:  another term for countries with advanced, industrialized
economies; this term is fading from use; see developed countries (DCs)

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):  established - 16 October 1945

aim - to raise living standards and increase availability of
agricultural products; a UN specialized agency

members - (190) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Brunei, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, and Singapore (187 total); plus Cook
Islands, EC, and Niue

former Soviet Union (FSU):  former term often used to identify as a
group the successor nations to the Soviet Union or USSR; this group of
15 countries consists of: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

former USSR/Eastern Europe (former USSR/EE):  the middle group in the
hierarchy of developed countries (DCs), former USSR/Eastern Europe
(former USSR/EE), and less developed countries (LDCs); these countries
are in political and economic transition and may well be grouped
differently in the near future; this group of 27 countries consists of:
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland,
Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia; this group is identical to the IMF group
"countries in transition" except for the IMF's inclusion of Mongolia

Four Dragons:  the four small Asian less developed countries (LDCs)
that have experienced unusually rapid economic growth; also known as
the Four Tigers; this group consists of Hong Kong, South Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan; these countries are included in the IMF's "advanced
economies" group

Franc Zone (FZ):  note - also known as Conference des Ministres des
Finances des Pays de la Zone Franc

established - 1964

aim - to form a monetary union among countries whose currencies
were0000000 linked to the French franc

members - (16) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea,
France, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo

Front Line States (FLS):  established to achieve black majority rule in
South Africa; has since gone out of existence; members included Angola,
Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT):  see the World Trade
Organization (WTO)

Group of 2 (G-2):  informal term that came into use about 1986; to
facilitate bilateral economic cooperation between the two most powerful
economic giants; members were Japan, US

Group of 3 (G-3):  established - September 1990

aim - mechanism for policy coordination

members - (3) Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela

Group of 5 (G-5):  established - 22 September 1985

aim - to coordinate the economic policies of five major noncommunist
economic powers

members - (5) France, Germany, Japan, UK, US

Group of 6 (G-6):  note - also known as Groupe des Six Sur le
Desarmement; not to be confused with the Big Six

established - 22 May 1984

aim - to achieve nuclear disarmament

members - (6) Argentina, Greece, India, Mexico, Sweden, Tanzania

Group of 7 (G-7):  note - membership is the same as the Big Seven

established - 22 September 1985

aim - to facilitate economic cooperation among the seven major
noncommunist economic powers

members - (7) Group of 5 (France, Germany, Japan, UK, US) plus Canada
and Italy

Group of 8 (G-8):  established - October 1975

aim - to facilitate economic cooperation among the developed countries
(DCs) that participated in the Conference on International Economic
Cooperation (CIEC), held in several sessions between December 1975 and
3 June 1977

members - (8) Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, US

Group of 9 (G-9):  established - NA

aim - to discuss matters of mutual interest on an informal basis

members - (9) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary,
Romania, Serbia, Sweden

Group of 10 (G-10):  note - also known as the Paris Club; includes the
wealthiest members of the IMF who provide most of the money to be
loaned and act as the informal steering committee; name persists
despite increased membership

established - October 1962

aim - to coordinate credit policy

members - (11) Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US

observers - (4) BIS, EU, IMF, OECD

Group of 11 (G-11):  note - also known as the Cartagena Group

established in 21-22 June 1984, in Cartagena, Colombia, aim was to
provide a forum for largest debtor nations in Latin America; members
were: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Group of 15 (G-15):  note - byproduct of the Nonaligned Movement; name
persists despite increased membership

established - September 1989

aim - to promote economic cooperation among developing nations; to act
as the main political organ for the Nonaligned Movement

members - (19) Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria,
Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

Group of 24 (G-24):  established - 1 August 1989

aim - to promote the interests of developing countries in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America within the IMF

members - (24) Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana,
Guatemala, India, Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru,
Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago,
Venezuela

observers - (1) China

Group of 77 (G-77):  established - 15 June1964; October 1967 first
ministerial meeting

aim - to promote economic cooperation among developing countries; name
persists in spite of increased membership

members - (130 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile,
China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial
Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada,
Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, North Korea, Kuwait,
Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Federated
States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome
and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan,
Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad
and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, UAE, Uruguay, Vanuatu,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Palestine Liberation
Organization

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC):  note - also known as the Cooperation
Council for the Arab States of the Gulf

established - 25 May 1981

aim - to promote regional cooperation in economic, social, political,
and military affairs

members - (6) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM):  note-
acronym standing for the member countries, Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan, Moldova; formerly known as GUUAM before Uzbekistan withdrew
in 5 May 2005

established - 7 June 2001

aim - commits the countries to cooperation and assistance in social and
economic development, the strengthening and broadening of trade and
economic relations, and the development and effective use of transport
and communications, highways, and related infrastructure crossing the
boundaries of the member states

members - (4) Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine

high income countries:  another term for the industrialized countries
with high per capita GDPs; see developed countries (DCs)

Indian Ocean Commission (InOC):  established - 21 December 1982

aim - to organize and promote regional cooperation in all sectors,
especially economic

members - (5) Comoros, France (for Reunion), Madagascar, Mauritius,
Seychelles

industrial countries:  another term for the developed countries; see
developed countries (DCs)

Inter-American Development Bank (IADB):  note - also known as Banco
Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID)

established - 8 April 1959; effective - 30 December 1959

aim - to promote economic and social development in Latin America

members - (47) Argentina, Austria, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium,
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia,
Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France,
Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden,
Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela

Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD):  note - formerly
known as Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and Development
(IGADD)

established - 15-16 January 1986 as the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Drought and Development; revitalized - 21 March 1996 as the Inter-
Governmental Authority on Development

aim - to promote a social, economic, and scientific community among its
members

members - (7) Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan,
Uganda

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU):  established - 1889

aim - fosters contacts among parliamentarians, considers and expresses
views of international interest and concern with the purpose of
bringing about action by parliaments and parliamentarians, contributes
to the defense and promotion of human rights, contributes to better
knowledge of representative institutions

members - (148) Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia,
Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium,
Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile,
China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazahstan,
Kenya, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius,
Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway,
Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, Samoa, San
Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan,
Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Tajikistan, Thailand,
Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, Uruguay, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

associate members - (7) Andean Parliament, Central American Parliament,
Community Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States,
East African Legislative Assembly, European Parliament, Latin American
Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA):  established - 26 October
1956; effective - 29 July 1957

aim - to promote peaceful uses of atomic energy

members - (145) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium,
Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cameroon, Canada, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South
Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria,
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine,
UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia,
Zimbabwe

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD):  note -
also known as the World Bank

established - 22 July 1944; effective - 27 December 1945

aim - to provide economic development loans; a UN specialized agency

members - (184) includes all UN member countries except Andorra, Cuba,
North Korea, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, and Tuvalu

International Chamber of Commerce (ICC):  established - 1919

aim - to promote free trade and private enterprise and to represent
business interests at national and international levels

members - (91 national committees) Algeria, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon,
Canada, Caribbean, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El
Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala,
Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Nepal,
Netherlands, NZ, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia,
Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO):  established - 7
December 1944; effective - 4 April 1947

aim - to promote international cooperation in civil aviation; a UN
specialized agency

members - (189) includes all UN member countries except Dominica,
Liechtenstein, Montenegro, and Tuvalu (188 total); plus Cook Islands

International Civilian Support Mission in Haiti (MICAH):  established
17 December 1999 to promote respect for human rights; members included
Argentina, Benin, Canada, France, India, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo,
Tunisia, US; closed 2001

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):  established - 17
February 1863

aim - to provide humanitarian aid in wartime

members - (15-25 individuals) all Swiss nationals

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU):  established
- December 1949

aim - to promote the trade union movement

members - (241 affiliated organizations in the following 155 countries
plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Albania, Algeria, Angola,
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The
Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire,
Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia,
Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Guyana, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati,
South Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand,
Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UK,
US, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Palestine Liberation
Organization

International Court of Justice (ICJ):  note - also known as the World
Court

established - 3 February 1946 superseded Permanent Court of
International Justice

aim - primary judicial organ of the UN

members - (15 judges) elected by the UN General Assembly and Security
Council to represent all principal legal systems

International Criminal Court (ICCt):  established - 11 April 2002

aim - to hold all individuals and countries accountable to
international laws of conduct; to specify international standards of
conduct; to provide an important mechanism for implementing these
standards; to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice

members (countries that have ratified the treaty) - (102) Afghanistan,
Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada,
Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark,
Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Estonia,
Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana,
Greece, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Malta, Marshall
Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, NZ,
Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania,
Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, UK, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia; note -
Comoros and Saint Kitts and Nevis became full members on 1 November
2006

signatory states (countries that have signed, but not ratified, the
treaty) - (40) Algeria, Angola, Armenia, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire, Czech
Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iran, Jamaica, Kuwait,
Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Oman,
Philippines, Russia, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles,
Solomon Islands, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Ukraine, UAE, Uzbekistan,
Yemen, Zimbabwe

International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol):  established -
September 1923 set up as the International Criminal Police Commission;
13 June 1956 constitution modified and present name adopted

aim - to promote international cooperation among police authorities in
fighting crime

members - (186) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua
and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil,
Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia,
Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho,
Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands
Antilles, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan,
Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland,
Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Sao Tome and
Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan,
Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

subbureaus - (11) American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin
Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Macau, Montserrat,
Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands

International Development Association (IDA):  established - 26 January
1960; effective - 24 September 1960

aim - to provide economic loans for low-income countries; UN
specialized agency and IBRD affiliate

members - (166)

Part I - (27 developed countries) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Kuwait, Luxembourg, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Portugal, Russia, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK, US

Part II - (139 less developed countries) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria,
Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize,
Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil,
Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central
African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial
Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana,
Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti,
Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi,
Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco,
Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau,
Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Rwanda,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra
Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri
Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

International Energy Agency (IEA):  established - 15 November 1974

aim - to promote cooperation on energy matters, especially emergency
oil sharing and relations between oil consumers and oil producers;
established by the OECD

members - (27) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Portugal,
Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRCS):  note - formerly known as League of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (LORCS)

established - 5 May 1919

aim - to organize, coordinate, and direct international relief actions;
to promote humanitarian activities; to represent and encourage the
development of National Societies; to bring help to victims of armed
conflicts, refugees, and displaced people; to reduce the vulnerability
of people through development programs

members - (185 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso,
Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial
Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia,
Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kenya, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,
Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova,
Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ,
Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New
Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania,
Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan,
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,
Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Palestine Liberation Organization

observers - (2) Eritrea and Tuvalu

International Finance Corporation (IFC):  established - 25 May 1955;
effective - 24 July 1956

aim - to support private enterprise in international economic
development; a UN specialized agency and IBRD affiliate

members - (177) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Brunei, Cuba, Guinea, North Korea, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro,
Nauru, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Sao Tome
and Principe, Suriname, Tuvalu

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):  established -
November 1974

aim - to promote agricultural development; a UN specialized agency

members - (165)

Category I - (23 industrialized aid contributors) Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US

Category II - (12 petroleum-exporting aid contributors) Algeria, Gabon,
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
UAE, Venezuela

Category III - (130 aid recipients) Afghanistan, Albania, Angola,
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh,
Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia,
Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook
Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana,
Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras,
India, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, North
Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua
New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao
Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia (suspended since 1992), Seychelles,
Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan,
Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam,
Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

International Hydrographic Organization (IHO):  note - name changed
from International Hydrographic Bureau on 22 September 1970

established - June 1919; effective - June 1921

aim - to train hydrographic surveyors and nautical cartographers to
achieve standardization in nautical charts and electronic chart
displays; to provide advice on nautical cartography and hydrography; to
develop the sciences in the field of hydrography and techniques used
for descriptive oceanograrphy

members - (76) Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
Belgium, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile, China (including Hong Kong and
Macau), Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (suspended),
Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic (suspended),
Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Guatemala, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan,
North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico,
Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, NZ, Nigeria, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Suriname (suspended), Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and
Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela

International Labor Organization (ILO):  established - 28 June 1919 set
up as part of Treaty of Versailles; 11 April 1919 became operative; 14
December 1946 affiliated with the UN

aim - to deal with world labor issues; a UN specialized agency

members - (179) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Bhutan, Brunei, North Korea, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Marshall Islands,
Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and
Tuvalu; note - includes the following dependencies: Netherlands
(Netherlands Antilles and Aruba)

International Maritime Organization (IMO):  note - name changed from
Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) on 22 May
1982

established - 6 March 1948 set up as the Inter-Governmental Maritime
Consultative Organization; effective - 17 March 1958

aim - to deal with international maritime affairs; a UN specialized
agency

members - (167) includes all UN member countries except Afghanistan,
Andorra, Armenia, Belarus, Bhutan, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Central African Republic, Chad, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho,
Liechtenstein, Mali, Federated States of Micronesia, Montenegro, Nauru,
Niger, Palau, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Zambia

associate members - (3) Faroe Islands, Hong Kong, Macau

International Monetary Fund (IMF):  established - 22 July 1944;
effective - 27 December 1945

aim - to promote world monetary stability and economic development; a
UN specialized agency

members - (184) includes all UN member countries except Andorra, Cuba,
North Korea, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu; note - includes the
following dependencies or areas of special interest: China (Hong Kong
and Macau), Netherlands (Netherlands Antilles and Aruba)

International Olympic Committee (IOC):  established - 23 June 1894

aim - to promote the Olympic ideals and administer the Olympic games:
2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,
China; 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada; 2012 Summer Olympics
in London, UK

National Olympic Committees - (201 and the Palestine Liberation
Organization) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra,
Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados,
Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei,
Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada,
Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile,
China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican
Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia,
Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi,
Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco,
Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands,
Netherlands Antilles, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa,
San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon
Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname,
Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania,
Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan,
Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Palestine Liberation Organization

International Organization for Migration (IOM):  note - established as
Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants
from Europe; renamed Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration
(ICEM) on 15 November 1952; renamed Intergovernmental Committee for
Migration (ICM) in November 1980; current name adopted 14 November 1989

established - 5 December 1951

aim - to facilitate orderly international emigration and immigration

members - (118) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bangladesh,
Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde,
Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia,
Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece,
Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iran,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova,
Morocco, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda,
Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain,
Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand,
Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela,
Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

observers - (20) Bhutan, Burundi, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Guyana, Holy
See, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New
Guinea, Russia, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia,
Turkmenistan, Vietnam

International Organization for Standardization (ISO):  established -
February 1947

aim - to promote the development of international standards with a view
to facilitating international exchange of goods and services and to
developing cooperation in the sphere of intellectual, scientific,
technological and economic activity

members - (103 national standards organizations) Algeria, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados,
Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa
Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana,
Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, North Korea,
South Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia,
Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, NZ, Nigeria,
Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar,
Romania, Russia, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore,
Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden,
Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia,
Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Zimbabwe

correspondent members - (43 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization)
Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brunei, Burkina
Faso, Burma, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia,
Georgia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Moldova,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Swaziland, Togo,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Palestine Liberation Organization

subscriber members - (9) Antigua and Barbuda, Burundi, Cambodia,
Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Honduras, Lesotho, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines

International Organization of the French-speaking World (OIF):  note -
name changed from Agency of Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT)
in 1997

established - 20 March 1970

aim - founded around a common language to promote and spread the
cultures of its members and to reinforce cultural and technical
cooperation between them

members - (55) Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Bulgaria, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Canada - New Brunswick,
Canada - Quebec, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus,
Djibouti, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Community
of Belgium, Gabon, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos,
Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Moldova, Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Romania, Rwanda, Saint
Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo,
Tunisia, Vanuatu, Vietnam

observers - (13) Armenia, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia,
Hungary, Lithuania, Mozambique, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Ukraine

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRM):  established
- 1928

aim - to promote worldwide humanitarian aid through the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in wartime, and International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS; formerly
League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies or LORCS) in peacetime

National Societies - (182 countries); note - same as membership for
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRCS)

International Telecommunication Union (ITU):  established - 17 May 1865
set up as the International Telegraph Union; 9 December 1932 adopted
present name; effective - 1 January 1934; affiliated with the UN - 15
November 1947

aim - to deal with world telecommunications issues; a UN specialized
agency

members - (191) includes all UN member countries except East Timor,
Palau (190 total); plus Holy See

Islamic Development Bank (IDB):  established - 15 December 1973 by
declaration of intent; effective - 12 August 1974

aim - to promote Islamic economic aid and social development

members - (55 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt,
Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Oman,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan,
Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan,
Uganda, UAE, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Palestine Liberation Organization

Latin American Economic System (LAES):  note - also known as Sistema
Economico Latinoamericana (SELA)

established - 17 October 1975

aim - to promote economic and social development through regional
cooperation

members - (27) Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago,
Uruguay, Venezuela

Latin American Integration Association (LAIA):  note - also known as
Asociacion Latinoamericana de Integracion (ALADI)

established - 12 August 1980; effective - 18 March 1981

aim - to promote freer regional trade

members - (12) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

observers - (26) China, Corporacion Andina de Fomento, Costa Rica,
Dominican Republic, EC, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Inter-
American Development Bank, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on
Agriculture, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latin America Economic System,
Nicaragua, Organization of American States, Panama, Pan-American Health
Organization, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine,
United Nations Development Program, United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean

League of Arab States (LAS):  note - also known as Arab League (AL)

established - 22 March 1945

aim - aim - to promote economic, social, political, and military
cooperation

members - (21 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Algeria,
Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, Palestine Liberation Organization

least developed countries (LLDCs):  that subgroup of the less developed
countries (LDCs) initially identified by the UN General Assembly in
1971 as having no significant economic growth, per capita GDPs normally
less than $1,000, and low literacy rates; also known as the undeveloped
countries; the 42 LLDCs are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan,
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African
Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos,
Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger,
Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan,
Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Yemen

less developed countries (LDCs):  the bottom group in the hierarchy of
developed countries (DCs), former USSR/Eastern Europe (former USSR/EE),
and less developed countries (LDCs); mainly countries and dependent
areas with low levels of output, living standards, and technology; per
capita GDPs are generally below $5,000 and often less than $1,500;
however, the group also includes a number of countries with high per
capita incomes, areas of advanced technology, and rapid rates of
growth; includes the advanced developing countries, developing
countries, Four Dragons (Four Tigers), least developed countries
(LLDCs), low-income countries, middle-income countries, newly
industrializing economies (NIEs), the South, Third World,
underdeveloped countries, undeveloped countries; the 172 LDCs are:
Afghanistan, Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and
Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados,
Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin
Islands, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape
Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China,
Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Falkland Islands, Fiji, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, The
Gambia, Gaza Strip, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe,
Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti,
Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man,
Jamaica, Jersey, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea,
Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macau, Madagascar,
Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Martinique,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Federated States of Micronesia,
Mongolia, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal,
Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue,
Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Palau, Pakistan,
Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn
Islands, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts
and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri
Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand,
Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turks and Caicos
Islands, Tuvalu, UAE, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Virgin Islands, Wallis and Futuna, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen,
Zambia, Zimbabwe; note - similar to the new International Monetary Fund
(IMF) term "developing countries" which adds Malta, Mexico, South
Africa, and Turkey but omits in its recently published statistics
American Samoa, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman
Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, Cook Islands, Cuba, Eritrea,
Falkland Islands, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gaza Strip,
Gibraltar, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guernsey, Isle of Man,
Jersey, North Korea, Macau, Martinique, Mayotte, Montserrat, Nauru, New
Caledonia, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau,
Pitcairn Islands, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Helena, Saint Pierre and
Miquelon, Tokelau, Tonga, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Virgin
Islands, Wallis and Futuna, West Bank, Western Sahara

low-income countries:  another term for those less developed countries
with below-average per capita GDPs; see less developed countries (LDCs)

middle-income countries:  another term for those less developed
countries with above-average per capita GDPs; see less developed
countries (LDCs)

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA):  established - 12
April 1988

aim - encourages flow of foreign direct investment among member
countries by offering investment insurance, consultation, and
negotiation on conditions for foreign investment and technical
assistance; a UN specialized agency

members - (168) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Bhutan, Brunei, Burma, Comoros, Cuba, Djibouti, Iraq, Kirabati, North
Korea, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Monaco,
Montenegro, Nauru, NZ, Niger, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe,
Somalia, Tonga, Tuvalu

Near Abroad:  Russian term for the 14 non-Russian successor states of
the USSR, in which 25 million ethnic Russians live and in which Moscow
has expressed a strong national security interest; the 14 countries are
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan

new independent states (NIS):  a term referring to all the countries of
the FSU except the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)

newly industrializing countries (NICs):  former term for the newly
industrializing economies; see newly industrializing economies (NIEs)

newly industrializing economies (NIEs):  that subgroup of the less
developed countries (LDCs) that has experienced particularly rapid
industrialization of their economies; formerly known as the newly
industrializing countries (NICs); also known as advanced developing
countries; usually includes the Four Dragons (Hong Kong, South Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan), and Brazil

Nonaligned Movement (NAM):  established - 1-6 September 1961

aim - to establish political and military cooperation apart from the
traditional East or West blocs

members - (114 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Algeria, Angola, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus,
Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma,
Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic,
Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon,
The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, North
Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines,
Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South
Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Tanzania,
Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda,
UAE, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Palestine Liberation Organization

observers - (15) Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil,
China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominica, El Salvadore, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Paraguay, Ukraine, Uruguay

guests - (24) Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary,
Italy, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland

Nordic Council (NC):  established - 16 March 1952; effective - 12
February 1953

aim - to promote regional economic, cultural, and environmental
cooperation

members - (5) Denmark (including Faroe Islands and Greenland), Finland
(including Aland Islands), Iceland, Norway, Sweden

observers - (3) the Sami (Lapp) local parliaments of Finland, Norway,
and Sweden

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB):  established - 4 December 1975; effective
- 1 June 1976

aim - to promote economic cooperation and development

members - (8) Denmark (including Faroe Islands and Greenland), Estonia,
Finland (including Aland Islands), Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,
Sweden

North:  a popular term for the rich industrialized countries generally
located in the northern portion of the Northern Hemisphere; the
counterpart of the South; see developed countries (DCs)

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA):  established - 17 December
1992

aim - to eliminate trade barriers, promote fair competition, increase
investment opportunities, provide protection of intellectual property
rights, and create procedures to settle disputes

members - (3) Canada, Mexico, US

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO):  established - 4 April 1949

aim - to promote mutual defense and cooperation

members - (26) Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, UK, US

Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA):  note - also known as OECD Nuclear Energy
Agency

established - 1 February 1958

aim - to promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy; associated with
OECD

members - (28) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway,
Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US

Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG):  note - also known as the London
Suppliers Group or the London Group

established - 1974; effective - 1975

aim - to establish guidelines for exports of nuclear materials,
processing equipment for uranium enrichment, and technical information
to countries of proliferation concern and regions of conflict and
instability

members - (45) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia,
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine,
UK, US

observer - (1) European Commission (a policy-planning body for the EU)

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD):
established - 14 December 1960; effective - 30 September 1961

aim - to promote economic cooperation and development

members - (30) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, NZ, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US

special member - (1) EC

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE):  note -
formerly the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE)
established 3 July 1975

established - 1 January 1995

aim - to foster the implementation of human rights, fundamental
freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law; to act as an instrument of
early warning, conflict prevention, and crisis management; and to serve
as a framework for conventional arms control and confidence building
measures

members - (56) Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany,
Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
UK, US, Uzbekistan

partners for cooperation - (11) Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Israel,
Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Mongolia, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW):
established - 29 April 1997

aim - to enforce the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their
Destruction; to provide a forum for consultation and cooperation among
the signatories of the Convention

members (countries that have ratified the Convention) - (180)
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus,
Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia,
Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile,
China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cook
Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Djibouti, East Timor, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland,
France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada,
Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,
Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta,
Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of
Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway,
Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa,
San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon
Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland,
Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga,
Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda,
Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

signatory states (countries that have signed, but not ratified, the
Convention) - (6) The Bahamas, Burma, Republic of the Congo, Dominican
Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Israel

Organization of African Unity (OAU):  see African Union

Organization of American States (OAS):  established - 14 April 1890 as
the International Union of American Republics; 30 April 1948 adopted
present charter; effective - 13 December 1951

aim - to promote regional peace and security as well as economic and
social development

members - (35) Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, The Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba
(excluded from formal participation since 1962), Dominica, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti,
Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, US, Uruguay, Venezuela

observers - (60) Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, EU,
Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Holy See, Hungary,
India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia,
Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland,
Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, Yemen

Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC):
established - 9 January 1968

aim - to promote cooperation in the petroleum industry

members - (11) Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia (suspended), UAE

Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS):  established - 18 June
1981; effective - 4 July 1981

aim - to promote political, economic, and defense cooperation

members - (7) Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

associate member - (2) Anguilla, British Virgin Islands

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC):  established - 14
September 1960

aim - to coordinate petroleum policies

members - (11) Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Venezuela

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC):  established - 22-25
September 1969

aim - to promote Islamic solidarity in economic, social, cultural, and
political affairs

members - (56 plus the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt,
Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran,
Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Oman,
Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan,
Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan,
Uganda, UAE, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Palestine Liberation Organization

observers - (11) AU, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic,
ECO, LAS, Moro National Liberation Front, NAM, Russia, Thailand,
Turkish Muslim Community of Kibris, UN

Pacific Community (SPC):  note - formerly known as the South Pacific
Commission (SPC)

established - 6 February 1947; effective - 29 July 1948

aim - to promote regional cooperation in economic and social matters

members - (26) American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, France,
French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of
Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, NZ, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands,
Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands,
Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, US, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna; note - UK
withdrew in January 2005

Pacific Islands Forum (PIF):  note - formerly known as South Pacific
Forum (SPF)

established - 5 August 1971

aim - to promote regional cooperation in political matters

members - (16) Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall
Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, NZ, Niue, Palau, Papua
New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

observers - (4) East Timor, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Tokelau

Paris Club:  established - 1956

aim - to provide a forum for debtor countries to negotiate rescheduling
of debt service payments or loans extended by governments or official
agencies of participating countries; to help restore normal trade and
project finance to debtor countries

members - (19) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US

Partnership for Peace (PFP):  established - 10-11 January 1994

aim - to expand and intensify political and military cooperation
throughout Europe, increase stability, diminish threats to peace, and
build relationships by promoting the spirit of practical cooperation
and commitment to democratic principles that underpin NATO; program
under the auspices of NATO

members - (20) Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia,
Finland, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova,
Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan; note - a nation that becomes a member of NATO is no longer
a member of PFP

Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA):  established - 29 July 1899

aim - to facilitate the settlement of international disputes

members - (105) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium,
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa
Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia,
Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti,
Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, NZ,
Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan,
Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Turkey,
Uganda, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Rio Group (RG):  note - formerly known as Grupo de los Ocho,
established NA December 1986; composed of the Contadora Group and the
Lima Group

established - 1988

aim - to consult on regional Latin American issues

members - (20) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, CARICOM, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay,
Venezuela

Second World:  another term for the traditionally Marxist-Leninist
states of the USSR and Eastern Europe, with authoritarian governments
and command economies based on the Soviet model; the term is fading
from use; see centrally planned economies

Secretariat of the Pacific Communities (SPC):  established - 6 February
1947

aim - to serve island development in 22 Pacific countries; to develop
technical assistance and professional, scientific, and research
support; to build planning and management capability

members - (26) America Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, France,
French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of
Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, NZ,
Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands,
Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, US, Wallis and Futuna

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO):  established - 15 June 1901

aim - to combat terrorism, extremism, and separatism; to safeguard
regional security through mutual trust, disarmament, and cooperative
security; and to increase cooperation in political, trade, economic,
scientific and technological, cultural, and educational fields

members - (6) China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan

observer - (4) India, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan

socialist countries:  in general, countries in which the government
owns and plans the use of the major factors of production; note - the
term is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for Communist countries

South:  a popular term for the poorer, less industrialized countries
generally located south of the developed countries; the counterpart of
the North; see less developed countries (LDCs)

South American Community of Nations (CSN):  established - 9 December
2004

aim - to coordinate common policies regarding multilateral
organizations, to integrate physical infrastructure, and to consolidate
the merger of CAN and Mercosur

members - (12) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador,
Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela

observers - (2) Mexico, Panama

South Asia Co-operative Environment Program (SACEP):  established -
January 1983

aim - to promote regional cooperation in South Asia in the field of
environment, both natural and human, and on issues of economic and
social development; to support conservation and management of natural
resources of the region

members - (7) Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC):  established
- 8 December 1985

aim - to promote economic, social, and cultural cooperation

members - (8) Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka

observers - (2) China, Japan

South Pacific Forum (SPF):  note - see Pacific Island Forum

South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement
(Sparteca):  established - 1981

aim - to redress unequal trade relationships of Australia and New
Zealand with small island economies in the Pacific region

members - (16) Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall
Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, NZ, Niue, Palau, Papua
New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI):  established - 6
December 1996

aim - to encourage cooperation among participating states and to
facilitate their integration into European structures

members - (12) Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey

observers - (15) Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, France, Georgia,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, UK, US

Southern African Customs Union (SACU):  established - 11 December 1969

aim - to promote free trade and cooperation in customs matters

members - (5) Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland

Southern African Development Community (SADC):  note - evolved from the
Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC)

established - 17 August 1992

aim - to promote regional economic development and integration

members - (14) Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South
Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) or Southern Common Market:  note
- also known as Mercado Comun del Cono Sur (Mercosur)

established - 26 March 1991

aim - to increase regional economic cooperation

members - (5) Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela

associate members - (5) Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru; note -
Mexico is to become an associate member by the end of 2006

Third World:  another term for the less developed countries; the term
is obsolescent; see less developed countries (LDCs)

underdeveloped countries:  refers to those less developed countries
with the potential for above-average economic growth; see less
developed countries (LDCs)

undeveloped countries:  refers to those extremely poor less developed
countries (LDCs) with little prospect for economic growth; see least
developed countries (LLDCs)

United Nations (UN):  established - 26 June 1945; effective - 24
October 1945

aim - to maintain international peace and security and to promote
cooperation involving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian
problems

constituent organizations - the UN is composed of six principal organs
and numerous subordinate agencies and bodies as follows:

1) Secretariat

2) General Assembly: Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UN
AIDS), International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Preparation Commission for the Nuclear-Ban-
Treaty Operation ((CTBTU), United Nations Center for Human Settlements
(UN-Habitat), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Drug Control Program
(UNDCP), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Institute for
Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), United Nations Institute for Training
and Research (UNITAR), United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice
Research Institute (UNICRI), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),
United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS), United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
(UNRISD), United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC), United Nations
University (UNU), World Food Program (WFP)

3) Security Council: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY), International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
United Nations Compensation Commission, United Nations Disengagement
Observer Force (UNDOF), United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-
Leste (UNMIT), United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), United
Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), United Nations Military Observer
Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), United Nations Operation in
Burundi (ONUB), United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI),
United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO),
United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), United Nations
Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), United Nations Monitoring and
Verification Commission (UNMOVIC), United Nations Observer Mission in
Georgia (UNOMIG), United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (MONUC), United Nations Peace-Keeping Force in
Cyprus (UNFICYP), United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH), and United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

4) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): Commission for Social
Development, Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,
Commission on Narcotics Drugs, Commission on Population and
Development, Commission on Science and Technology for Development,
Commission on Sustainable Development, Commission on the Status of
Women, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE),
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD), International Center for Secretariat of Investment
Disputes (ICSID), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
International Development Association (IDA), International Finance
Corporation (IFC), International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD), International Labor Organization (ILO), International Maritime
Organization (IMO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), Multilateral Investment Geographic
Agency (MIGA), Statistical Commission, United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Forum on
Forests, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO),
Universal Postal Union (UPU), World Health Organization (WHO), World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), World Tourism Organization (WToO), and World Trade
Organization (WTO)

5) Trusteeship Council (inactive; no trusteeships at this time)

6) International Court of Justice (ICJ)

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):  note - acronym retained from
the predecessor organization, UN International Children's Emergency
Fund

established - 11 December 1946

aim - to help establish child health and welfare services

members - (36) selected on a rotating basis from all regions

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD):
established - 30 December 1964

aim - to promote international trade

members - (193) all UN members plus Holy See

United Nations Development Program (UNDP):  established - 22 November
1965

aim - to provide technical assistance to stimulate economic and social
development

members (executive board) - (36) selected on a rotating basis from all
regions

United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF):  established - 31
May 1974

aim - to observe the 1973 Arab-Israeli cease-fire; established by the
UN Security Council

members - (7) Austria, Canada, India, Japan, Nepal, Poland, Slovakia

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO):  established - 16 November 1945; effective - 4 November 1946

aim - to promote cooperation in education, science, and culture

members - (191) includes all UN member countries except Liechtenstein,
Montenegro, and Singapore (188 total); plus Cook Islands and Niue

associate members - (6) Aruba, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands,
Macau, Netherlands Antilles, Tokelau

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP):  established - 15 December
1972

aim - to promote international cooperation on all environmental matters

members - (58) selected on a rotating basis from all regions

United Nations General Assembly:  established - 26 June 1945; effective
- 24 October 1945

aim - to function as the primary deliberative organ of the UN

members - (192) all UN members are represented in the General Assembly

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):  established - 3
December 1949; effective - 1 January 1951

aim - to ensure the humanitarian treatment of refugees and find
permanent solutions to refugee problems

members (executive committee) - (70) Algeria, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Denmark,
Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece,
Guinea, Holy See, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Lebanon, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mexico,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Nigeria,
Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland,
Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UK, US, Venezuela, Yemen,
Zambia

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO):
established - 17 November 1966; effective - 1 January 1967

aim - UN specialized agency that promotes industrial development
especially among the members

members - (171) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Estonia, Iceland,
Kiribati, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Federated States of
Micronesia, Montenegro, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore,
Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, US

United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR):
established - 11 December 1963 adoption of the resolution establishing
the Institute; effective - 24 March 1965

aim - to help the UN become more effective through training and
research

members (Board of Trustees) - (18) Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech
Republic, Egypt, France, Ghana, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, US; note - the UN
Secretary General can appoint up to 30 members

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK):
established - 10 June 1999

aim - to promote the establishment of substantial autonomy and self-
government in Kosovo; to perform basic civilian administrative
functions; to support the reconstruction of key infrastructure and
humanitarian and disaster relief

note - gives civilian support only; works closely with NATO Kosovo
Force (KFOR)

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):  established - 19
March 1978

aim - to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and assist in
reestablishing Lebanese authority in southern Lebanon; established by
the UN Security Council

members - (11) Belgium, China, Finland, France, Ghana, India, Ireland,
Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain

United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP):
established - 24 January 1949

aim - to observe the 1949 India-Pakistan cease-fire; established by the
UN Security Council

members - (8) Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, South Korea,
Sweden, Uruguay

United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO):
established - 29 April 1991

aim - to supervise the cease-fire and conduct a referendum in Western
Sahara; established by the UN Security Council

members - (25) Argentina, Austria, Bangladesh, China, Croatia, Denmark,
Egypt, El Slavador, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Honduras, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland,
Russia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay

United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE):  established -
31 July 2000

aim - to monitor the cessation of hostilities

members - (39) Algeria, Austria, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, India, Iran, Jordan, Kenya,
Malaysia, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland,
Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania,
Tunisia, Ukraine, US, Uruguay, Zambia

United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL):  established - 19 September
2003

aim - to support the cease-fire agreement and peace process, protect UN
facilities and people, support humanitarian activities, and assist in
national security reform

Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland,
France, The Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya,
South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia,
Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Sweden, Togo, Ukraine, UK,
US, Zambia

United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL):  established on 22
October 1999; aim was to to cooperate with the Government of Sierra
Leone and the other parties to the Peace Agreement in the
implementation of the agreement; to monitor the military and security
situation in Sierra Leone; to monitor the disarmament and
demobilization of combatants and members of the Civil Defense Forces
(CFD); to assist in monitoring respect for international humanitarian
law; mandate ended 31 December 2005; members were Bangladesh, Bolivia,
China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Egypt, The Gambia, Germany, Ghana,
Guinea, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, UK,
Uruguay, Zambia

United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS):  established - March 2005

aim - to support implementation of the comprehensive Peace Agreement by
Monitoring and verifying the implementation of the Cease Fire
Agreement, by observing and monitoring movements of armed groups, and
by helping disarm, demobilizing and reintegrating armed bands

members - (59) Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil,
Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador,
Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Guatemala,
Guinea, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan,
Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal,
Netherland, NZ, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand,
Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET):  established
on 17 May 2002 to provide assistance to structures critical to public
security and to assist in the development of law enforcement agencies;
to contribute to extenal security; members were Australia, Bangladesh,
Bolivia, Brazil, Denmark, Fiji, Jordan, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nepal,
NZ, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Sweden; completed its
mandate 20 May 2005

United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC):  note - formerly known as United Nations Special Commission
for the Elimination of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (UNSCOM)

established - December 1999

aim - to identify, account for, and eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction and the capacity to produce them

commissioners - (16) Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, UN Department
for Disarmament Affairs, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico,
Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Ukraine, UK, US

United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB):  established - 21 May 2004

aim - to support and help implement the efforts undertaken by
Burundians to restore lasting peace and bring about national
reconciliation

members - (30) Algeria, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt,
Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Jordan, Kenya, South
Korea, Malawi, Mali, Nambia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, Togo,
Tunisia, Yemen

United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG):  established - 24
August 1993

aim - to verify compliance with the cease-fire agreement, to monitor
weapons exclusion zone, and to supervise CIS peacekeeping force for
Abkhazia; established by the UN Security Council

members - (26) Albania, Austria, Bangladesh, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia,
Jordan, South Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden,
Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay

United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (MONUC):  established - 30 November 1999

aim - to establish contacts with the signatories to the cease-fire
agreement and to plan for the observation of the cease-fire and
disengagement of forces

members - (51) Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, China, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Egypt, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco,
Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay,
Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Spain,
Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, UK, Uruguay,
Zambia

United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI):  established - 27
February 2004

aim - to facilitate the implementation by the Ivorian parties of the
peace agreement signed by them in January 2003

members - (41) Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Chad, China,
Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France,
The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya,
Moldova, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay,
Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Tanzania,
Togo, Turkey, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Yemen

United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP):  established -
4 March 1964

aim - to serve as a peacekeeping force between Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus; established by the UN Security Council

members - (7) Argentina, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, UK,
Uruguay

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):  note - acronym retained from
predecessor organization UN Fund for Population Activities

established - July 1967

aim - to assist both developed and developing countries to deal with
their population problems

members (executive board ) - (36) selected on a rotating basis from all
regions

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA):  established - 8 December 1949

aim - to provide assistance to Palestinian refugees

members (advisory commission) - (22) Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, EC, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon,
Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria,
Turkey, UK, US

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD):
established - 1963

aim - to conduct research into the problems of economic development
during different phases of economic growth

members - no country members, but a Board of Directors consisting of a
chairman appointed by the UN secretary general and 10 individual
members

United Nations Secretariat:  established - 26 June 1945; effective - 24
October 1945

aim - to serve as the primary administrative organ of the UN; a
Secretary General is appointed for a five-year term by the General
Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council

members - the UN Secretary General and staff

United Nations Security Council (UNSC):  established - 26 June 1945;
effective - 24 October 1945

aim - to maintain international peace and security

permanent members - (5) China, France, Russia, UK, US

nonpermanent members - (10) elected for two-year terms by the UN
General Assembly; Argentina (2005-06), Republic of the Congo (2006-07),
Denmark (2005-06), Ghana (2006-07), Greece (2005-06), Japan (2005-06),
Peru (2006-07), Qatar (2006-07), Slovakia (2006-07), Tanzania (2005-06)

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH):  established
- 30 April 2004

aim - to stabilize Haiti in many areas for at least six months

members - (19) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia,
Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Paraguay,
Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, US, Uruguay

United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO):  established -
June 1948

aim - to supervise the 1948 Arab-Israeli cease-fire; currently supports
timely deployment of reinforcements to other peacekeeping operations in
the region as needed; initially established by the UN Security Council

members - (23) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile,
China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Nepal,
Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden,
Switzerland, US

United Nations Trusteeship Council:  established on 26 June 1945,
effective on 24 October 1945, to supervise the administration of the 11
UN trust territories; members were China, France, Russia, UK, US; it
formally suspended operations 1 November 1995 after the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands (Palau) became the Republic of Palau, a
constitutional government in free association with the US; the
Trusteeship Council was not dissolved

United Nations University (UNU):  established - 3 December 1973

aim - to conduct research in development, welfare, and human survival
and to train scholars

members - (24 members of UNU Council and the Rector are appointed by
the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Director General of
UNESCO)

Universal Postal Union (UPU):  established - 9 October 1874, affiliated
with the UN 15 November 1947; effective - 1 July 1948

aim - to promote international postal cooperation; a UN specialized
agency

members - (189) includes all UN member countries except Andorra,
Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau (188
total); plus Holy See; note - includes the following dependencies or
areas of special interest: Australia (Norfolk Island), China (Hong
Kong, Macau), Denmark (Faroe Islands, Greenland), France (French
Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands,
Guadeloupe, Iles Eparses, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Reunion,
Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna), Netherlands (Aruba,
Netherlands Antilles), NZ (Cook Island, Niue, Tokelau), UK (Guernsey,
Isle of Man, Jersey; Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar,
Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Turks and Caicos), US (American
Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands, Virgin Islands)

Warsaw Pact (WP):  established 14 May 1955 to promote mutual defense;
members met 1 July 1991 to dissolve the alliance; member states at the
time of dissolution were: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, and the USSR; earlier members included German Democratic
Republic (GDR) and Albania

West African Development Bank (WADB):  note - also known as Banque
Ouest-Africaine de Developpement (BOAD); is a financial institution of
WAEMU

established - 14 November 1973

aim - to promote regional economic development and integration

regional members - (9) Central Bank of West African States, Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo

international/nonregional members - (6) African Development Bank,
Belgium, European Investment Bank, France, Germany, People's Bank of
China

West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU):  note - also known as
Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA)

established - 1 August 1994

aim - to increase competitiveness of members' economic markets; to
create a common market

members - (8) Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali,
Niger, Senegal, Togo

Western European Union (WEU):  established - 23 October 1954; effective
- 6 May 1955

aim - to provide mutual defense and to move toward political
unification

members - (10) Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK

associate members - (6) Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, Norway,
Poland, Turkey

associate partners - (7) Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia

observers - (5) Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden

World Bank Group:  includes International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA),
International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment
Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

World Confederation of Labor (WCL):  established - 19 June 1920 as the
International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (IFCTU), renamed 4
October 1968

aim - to promote the trade union movement

members - (105 national organizations) Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Aruba, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic,
Chad, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France,
French Guiana, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta,
Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal,
Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania,
Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and
Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South
Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand,
Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, US, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Zambia, Zimbabwe

World Customs Organization (WCO):  note - began as the Customs
Cooperation Council (CCC)

established - 15 December 1950

aim - to promote international cooperation in customs matters

members - (168) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bermuda,
Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso,
Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia,
Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, East Timor,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland,
France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala,
Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon,
Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay,
Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda,
Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra
Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania,
Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU):  established - 3 October 1945

aim - to promote the trade union movement

members - (125 and the Palestine Liberation Organization) Afghanistan,
Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Benin,
Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Canada, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, The Gambia, Ghana,
Greece, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti,
Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon,
Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali,
Martinique, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, New Caledonia, NZ,
Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Reunion, Romania, Russia,
Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Solomon
Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria,
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia,
Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Palestine Liberation Organization

World Food Program (WFP):  established - 24 November 1961

aim - to provide food aid in support of economic development or
disaster relief; an ECOSOC organization

members - (36) selected on a rotating basis from all regions

World Health Organization (WHO):  established - 22 July 1946; effective
- 7 April 1948

aim - to deal with health matters worldwide; a UN specialized agency

members - (193) includes all UN member countries except Liechtenstein
(191 total); plus Cook Islands and Niue

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO):  established - 14 July
1967; effective - 26 April 1970

aim - to furnish protection for literary, artistic, and scientific
works; a UN specialized agency

members - (183) includes all UN member countries except East Timor,
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Montenegro,
Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu (182 total); plus Holy
See

World Meteorological Organization (WMO):  established - 11 October
1947; effective - 4 April 1951

aim - to sponsor meteorological cooperation; a UN specialized agency

members - (188) includes all UN member countries except Andorra, East
Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Grenada, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands,
Montenegro, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, San Marino, Tuvalu (179 total); plus Aruba, British
Caribbean Territories, Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Hong Kong,
Macau, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, and Niue

World Tourism Organization (WToO):  established - 2 January 1975

aim - to promote tourism as a means of contributing to economic
development, international understanding, and peace

members - (150) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad,
Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of
the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, El
Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gabon,
The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel,
Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, North Korea, South
Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali,
Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, San
Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri
Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Uruguay,
Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

associate members - (7) Aruba, Flanders, Hong Kong, Macau, Madeira
Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico

observers - (1 plus Palestine Liberation Organization) Holy See,
Palestine Liberation Organization

World Trade Organization (WTO):  note - succeeded General Agreement on
Tariff and Trade (GATT)

established - 15 April 1994; effective - 1 January 1995

aim - to provide a forum to resolve trade conflicts between members and
to carry on negotiations with the goal of further lowering and/or
eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers

members - (149) Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium,
Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina
Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, EC, Fiji, Finland,
France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada,
Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong,
Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lesotho,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar,
Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico,
Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands,
NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua
New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar,
Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand,
Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UAE, UK, US,
Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe

observers - (32) Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Azerbaijan, The
Bahamas, Belarus, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde,
Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Holy See, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos,
Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Russia, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe,
Serbia, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen; note - with the exception of the Holy See, an
observer must start accession negotiations within five years of
becoming observers; Montenegro and Serbia each sent observers

Zangger Committee (ZC):  established - early 1970s

aim - to establish guidelines for the export control provisions of the
Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT)

members - (36) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
Ukraine, UK, US

observers - (1) EC


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================



Appendix C - Selected International Environmental Agreements


Air Pollution

see Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution


Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides

see Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution Concerning the Control of Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides or
Their Transboundary Fluxes


Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants

see Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants


Air Pollution-Sulphur 85

see Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions or Their Transboundary
Fluxes by at least 30%


Air Pollution-Sulphur 94

see Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on Further Reduction of Sulphur Emissions


Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds

see Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution Concerning the Control of Emissions of Volatile Organic
Compounds or Their Transboundary Fluxes


Antarctic - Environmental Protocol

see Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty


Antarctic Treaty

opened for signature - 1 December 1959


entered into force - 23 June 1961


objective - to ensure that Antarctica is used for peaceful purposes
only (such as international cooperation in scientific research); to
defer the question of territorial claims asserted by some nations and
not recognized by others; to provide an international forum for
management of the region; applies to land and ice shelves south of 60
degrees south latitude


parties - (45) Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala,
Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Netherlands,
NZ, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US,
Uruguay, Venezuela


Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous
Wastes and Their Disposal

note - abbreviated as Hazardous Wastes


opened for signature - 22 March 1989


entered into force - 5 May 1992


objective - to reduce transboundary movements of wastes subject to the
Convention to a minimum consistent with the environmentally sound and
efficient management of such wastes; to minimize the amount and
toxicity of wastes generated and ensure their environmentally sound
management as closely as possible to the source of generation; and to
assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and
other wastes they generate


parties - (149) Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin,
Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, EU,
Finland, France, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala,
Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea,
Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States
of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri
Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and
Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK,
Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (3) Afghanistan,
Haiti, US


Biodiversity

see Convention on Biological Diversity


Climate Change

see United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change


Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol

see Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change


Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals

note - abbreviated as Antarctic Seals


opened for signature - 1 June 1972


entered into force - 11 March 1978


objective - to promote and achieve the protection, scientific study,
and rational use of Antarctic seals, and to maintain a satisfactory
balance within the ecological system of Antarctica


parties - (16) Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa,
UK, US


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (1) NZ


Convention on Biological Diversity

note - abbreviated as Biodiversity


opened for signature - 5 June 1992


entered into force - 29 December 1993


objective - to develop national strategies for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity


parties - (182) Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan,
Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad,
Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire,
Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The
Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan,
Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico,
Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia,
Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia,
Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname,
Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo,
Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda,
Ukraine, UAE, UK, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam,
Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (6) Afghanistan,
Kuwait, Serbia, Thailand, Tuvalu, US


Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High
Seas

note - abbreviated as Marine Life Conservation


opened for signature - 29 April 1958


entered into force - 20 March 1966


objective - to solve through international cooperation the problems
involved in the conservation of living resources of the high seas,
considering that because of the development of modern technology some
of these resources are in danger of being overexploited


parties - (37) Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina
Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Finland,
France, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia,
Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, Serbia,
Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland,
Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, UK, US, Venezuela


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (21) Afghanistan,
Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ghana, Iceland,
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, NZ,
Pakistan, Panama, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay


Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution


opened for signature - 13 November 1979


entered into force - 16 March 1983


objective - to protect the human environment against air pollution and
to gradually reduce and prevent air pollution, including long-range
transboundary air pollution


parties - (48) Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, EU, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova,
Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, US


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (2) Holy See, San
Marino


Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as
Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar)

note - abbreviated as Wetlands


opened for signature - 2 February 1971


entered into force - 21 December 1975


objective - to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of
wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological
functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and
recreational value


parties - (125) Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus,
Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic,
Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon,
The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Latvia,
Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar,
Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco,
Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra
Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname,
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and
Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan,
Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia


Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

note - abbreviated as Antarctic-Marine Living Resources


opened for signature - 5 May 1980


entered into force - 7 April 1982


objective - to safeguard the environment and protect the integrity of
the ecosystem of the seas surrounding Antarctica, and to conserve
Antarctic marine living resources


parties - (31) Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada,
Chile, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, Namibia, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Vanuatu


Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Flora and Fauna (CITES)

note - abbreviated as Endangered Species


opened for signature - 3 March 1973


entered into force - 1 July 1975


objective - to protect certain endangered species from overexploitation
by means of a system of import/export permits


parties - (156) Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados,
Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei,
Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada,
Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica,
Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France,
Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kenya, South Korea, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria,
Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao
Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand,
Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK,
US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia,
Zimbabwe


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (3) Ireland, Kuwait,
Lesotho


Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes and
Other Matter (London Convention)

note - abbreviated as Marine Dumping


opened for signature - 29 December 1972


entered into force - 30 August 1975


objective - to control pollution of the sea by dumping and to encourage
regional agreements supplementary to the Convention


parties - (78) Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia,
Azerbaijan, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde,
Chile, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt,
Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
Hong Kong (associate member), Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy,
Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Libya,
Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Nauru, Netherlands, NZ,
Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saint Lucia, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia,
Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland,
Tonga, Tunisia, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Vanuatu


Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of
Environmental Modification Techniques

note - abbreviated as Environmental Modification


opened for signature - 10 December 1976


entered into force - 5 October 1978


objective - to prohibit the military or other hostile use of
environmental modification techniques in order to further world peace
and trust among nations


parties - (66) Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece,
Guatemala, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, North Korea, South
Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malawi, Mauritius, Mongolia, Netherlands, NZ,
Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe,
Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland,
Tajikistan, Tunisia, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam,
Yemen


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (17) Bolivia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Holy See, Iceland, Iran,
Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nicaragua, Portugal,
Sierra Leone, Syria, Turkey, Uganda


Desertification

see United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those
Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification,
Particularly in Africa


Endangered Species

see Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Flora and Fauna (CITES)


Environmental Modification

see Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use
of Environmental Modification Techniques


Hazardous Wastes

see Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal


International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling

note - abbreviated as Whaling


opened for signature - 2 December 1946


entered into force - 10 November 1948


objective - to protect all species of whales from overhunting; to
establish a system of international regulation for the whale fisheries
to ensure proper conservation and development of whale stocks; and to
safeguard for future generations the great natural resources
represented by whale stocks


parties - (42) Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica, Finland, France,
Germany, Grenada, Guinea, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South
Korea, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Oman, Panama,
Peru, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Senegal, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, UK, US


International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1983

note - abbreviated as Tropical Timber 83


opened for signature - 18 November 1983


entered into force - 1 April 1985; this agreement expired when the
International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994, went into force


objective - to provide an effective framework for cooperation between
tropical timber producers and consumers and to encourage the
development of national policies aimed at sustainable utilization and
conservation of tropical forests and their genetic resources


parties - (54) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma,
Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, EU,
Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Honduras,
India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Liberia,
Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Panama, Papua New
Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, US, Venezuela


International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994

note - abbreviated as Tropical Timber 94


opened for signature - 26 January 1994


entered into force - 1 January 1997


objective - to ensure that by the year 2000 exports of tropical timber
originate from sustainably managed sources; to establish a fund to
assist tropical timber producers in obtaining the resources necessary
to reach this objective


parties - (58) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire,
Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, South Korea, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands,
NZ, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal,
Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and
Tobago, UK, US, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (1) Ireland


Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change

note - abbreviated as Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol


opened for signature - 16 March 1998


entered into force - 23 February 2005


objective - to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enhancing the
national programs of developed countries aimed at this goal and by
establishing percentage reduction targets for the developed countries


parties - (144) Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium,
Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma,
Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook
Island, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial
Guinea, Estonia, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, The Gambia, Georgia,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras,
Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia,
Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger,
Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia,
Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi
Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South
Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania,
Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu,
Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela,
Vietnam, Yemen


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (6) Australia,
Croatia, Kazakhstan, Monaco, US, Zambia


Law of the Sea

see United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS)


Marine Dumping

see Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes
and Other Matter (London Convention)


Marine Life Conservation

see Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the
High Seas


Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer

< I>note - abbreviated as Ozone Layer Protection


opened for signature - 16 September 1987


entered into force - 1 January 1989


objective - to protect the ozone layer by controlling emissions of
substances that deplete it


parties - (183) Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin,
Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria,
Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde,
Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica,
Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Estonia, Ethiopia, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia,
Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati,
North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon,
Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta,
Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of
Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome
and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa,
Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland,
Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and
Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE,
UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen,
Zambia, Zimbabwe


Nuclear Test Ban

see Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer
Space, and Under Water


Ozone Layer Protection

see Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer


Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution From Ships, 1973 (MARPOL)

note - abbreviated as Ship Pollution


opened for signature - 17 February 1978


entered into force - 2 October 1983


objective - to preserve the marine environment through the complete
elimination of pollution by oil and other harmful substances and the
minimization of accidental discharge of such substances


parties - (119) Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burma, Cambodia, Canada,
Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, The
Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras,
Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lebanon,
Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Marshall
Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands,
NZ, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis,
Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe,
Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden,
Switzerland, Syria, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey,
Tuvalu, Ukraine, UK, US, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam


Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty

note - abbreviated as Antarctic-Environmental Protocol


opened for signature - 4 October 1991


entered into force - 14 January 1998


objective - to provide for comprehensive protection of the Antarctic
environment and dependent and associated ecosystems; applies to the
area covered by the Antarctic Treaty


consultative parties - (27) Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, Chile, China, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, India,
Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Peru, Poland,
Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, US, Uruguay


non consultative parties - (16) Austria, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, North Korea, Papua New
Guinea, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine


Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution Concerning the Control of Emissions of Nitrogen Oxides or
Their Transboundary Fluxes

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides


opened for signature - 31 October 1988


entered into force - 14 February 1991


objective - to provide for the control or reduction of nitrogen oxides
and their transboundary fluxes


parties - (28) Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK, US


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (1) Poland


Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution Concerning the Control of Emissions of Volatile Organic
Compounds or Their Transboundary Fluxes

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds


opened for signature - 18 November 1991


entered into force - 29 September 1997


objective - to provide for the control and reduction of emissions of
volatile organic compounds in order to reduce their transboundary
fluxes so as to protect human health and the environment from adverse
effects


parties - (21) Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, UK


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (6) Canada, EU,
Greece, Portugal, Ukraine, US


Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on Further Reduction of Sulphur Emissions

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution-Sulphur 94


opened for signature - 14 June 1994


entered into force - 5 August 1998


objective - to provide for a further reduction in sulfur emissions or
transboundary fluxes


parties - (23) Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (5) Bulgaria,
Hungary, Poland, Russia, Ukraine


Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants


opened for signature - 24 June 1998


entered into force - 23 October 2003


objective - to provide for the control and reduction of emissions of
persistent organic pollutants in order to reduce their transboundary
fluxes so as to protect human health and the environment from adverse
effects


parties - (22) Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Denmark, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Romania,
Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (14) Armenia,
Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal,
Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, UK, US


Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions or Their Transboundary
Fluxes by at Least 30%

note - abbreviated as Air Pollution-Sulphur 85


opened for signature - 8 July 1985


entered into force - 2 September 1987


objective - to provide for a 30% reduction in sulfur emissions or
transboundary fluxes by 1993


parties - (22) Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovakia,
Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine


Ship Pollution

see Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution From Ships, 1973 (MARPOL)


Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space,
and Under Water

note - abbreviated as Nuclear Test Ban


opened for signature - 5 August 1963


entered into force - 10 October 1963


objective - to obtain an agreement on general and complete disarmament
under strict international control in accordance with the objectives of
the United Nations; to put an end to the armaments race and eliminate
incentives for the production and testing of all kinds of weapons,
including nuclear weapons


parties - (113) Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia,
Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan,
Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma,
Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El
Salvador, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, The Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece,
Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea,
Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi,
Malaysia, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal,
Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New
Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, San
Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland,
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,
Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, UK, US, Venezuela, Zambia


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (17) Algeria,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, Ethiopia, Haiti, Libya, Mali,
Pakistan, Paraguay, Portugal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uruguay, Vietnam,
Yemen


Tropical Timber 83

see International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1983


Tropical Timber 94

see International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994


United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS)

note - abbreviated as Law of the Sea


opened for signature - 10 December 1982


entered into force - 16 November 1994


objective - to set up a comprehensive new legal regime for the sea and
oceans; to include rules concerning environmental standards as well as
enforcement provisions dealing with pollution of the marine environment


parties - (148) Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bahrain,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma,
Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Comoros, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire,
Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica,
Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia,
Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, South
Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia,
Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco,
Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ,
Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New
Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania,
Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan,
Suriname, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia,
Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia,
Zimbabwe


countries that have signed, but not yet ratified - (29) Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African
Republic, Chad, Colombia, Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El
Salvador, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,
Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Niue, Rwanda,
Swaziland, Switzerland, Thailand, UAE


United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries
Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in
Africa

note - abbreviated as Desertification


opened for signature - 14 October 1994


entered into force - 26 December 1996


objective - to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of
drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term
strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership
arrangements


parties - (178) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and
Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The
Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma,
Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African
Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote
d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial
Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The
Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos,
Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg,
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova,
Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal,
Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman,
Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint
Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome
and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain,
Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria,
Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,
Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay,
Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe


United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

note - abbreviated as Climate Change


opened for signature - 9 May 1992


entered into force - 21 March 1994


objective - to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations
in the atmosphere at a low enough level to prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system


parties - (189) Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and
Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The
Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize,
Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil,
Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon,
Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China,
Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the
Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia,
Ethiopia, EU, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia,
Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Kiribati, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia,
Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg,
Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta,
Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of
Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, NZ, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway,
Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa,
San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon
Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland,
Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu,
Uganda, Ukraine, UAE, UK, US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela,
Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe


Wetlands

see Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially As
Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar)


Whaling

see International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================


Appendix D - Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes


FIPS 10: Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and
Their Principal Administrative Divisions (FIPS 10) is maintained by
the Office of Targeting and Transnational Issues, National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and published by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (Department of Commerce).
FIPS 10 codes are intended for general use throughout the US
Government, especially in activities associated with the mission
of the Department of State and national defense programs.

ISO 3166: Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries
(ISO 3166) is prepared by the International Organization for
Standardization. ISO 3166 includes two- and three-character
alphabetic codes and three-digit numeric codes that may be needed
for activities involving exchange of data with international
organizations that have adopted that standard. Except for the numeric
codes, ISO 3166 codes have been adopted in the US as FIPS 104-1:
American National Standard Codes for the Representation of Names
of Countries, Dependencies, and Areas of Special Sovereignty for
Information Interchange.

Internet: The Internet country code is the two-letter digraph
maintained by the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) in the ISO 3166 Alpha-2 list and used by the Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA) to establish country-coded top-level
domains (ccTLDs).




Entity              FIPS 10      ISO 3166         Internet   Comment

Afghanistan         AF        AF    AFG   004     .af
Albania             AL        AL    ALB   008     .al
Algeria             AG        DZ    DZA   012     .dz
American Samoa      AQ        AS    ASM   016     .as
Andorra             AN        AD    AND   020     .ad
Angola              AO        AO    AGO   024     .ao
Anguilla            AV        AI    AIA   660     .ai
Antarctica          AY        AQ    ATA   010     .aq
  ISO defines as the territory south of 60 degrees south latitude

Antigua and Barbuda AC        AG    ATG   028     .ag
Argentina           AR        AR    ARG   032     .ar
Armenia             AM        AM    ARM   051     .am
Aruba               AA        AW    ABW   533     .aw
Ashmore and
Cartier Islands     AT        -     -             -
  ISO includes with Australia

Australia           AS        AU    AUS   036     .au
  ISO includes Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Coral Sea Islands

Austria             AU        AT    AUT   040     .at
Azerbaijan          AJ        AZ    AZE   031     .az
Bahamas, The        BF        BS    BHS   044     .bs
Bahrain             BA        BH    BHR   048     .bh
Baker Island        FQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Bangladesh          BG        BD    BGD   050     .bd
Barbados            BB        BB    BRB   052     .bb
Bassas da India     BS        -     -     -       -
  administered as part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands;
  no ISO codes assigned

Belarus             BO        BY    BLR   112     .by
Belgium             BE        BE    BEL   056     .be
Belize              BH        BZ    BLZ   084     .bz
Benin               BN        BJ    BEN   204     .bj
Bermuda             BD        BM    BMU   060     .bm
Bhutan              BT        BT    BTN   064     .bt
Bolivia             BL        BO    BOL   068     .bo
Bosnia and
  Herzegovina       BK        BA    BIH   070     .ba
Botswana            BC        BW    BWA   072     .bw
Bouvet Island       BV        BV    BVT   074     .bv
Brazil              BR        BR    BRA   076     .br
British Indian
  Ocean Territory   IO        IO    IOT   086     .io
British Virgin
  Islands           VI        VG    VGB   092     .vg
Brunei              BX        BN    BRN   096     .bn
Bulgaria            BU        BG    BGR   100     .bg
Burkina Faso        UV        BF    BFA   854     .bf
Burma               BM        MM    MMR   104     .mm
  ISO uses the name Myanmar

Burundi             BY        BI    BDI   108     .bi
Cambodia            CB        KH    KHM   116     .kh
Cameroon            CM        CM    CMR   120     .cm
Canada              CA        CA    CAN   124     .ca
Cape Verde          CV        CV    CPV   132     .cv
Cayman Islands      CJ        KY    CYM   136     .ky
Central African
  Republic          CT        CF    CAF   140     .cf
Chad                CD        TD    TCD   148     .td
Chile               CI        CL    CHL   152     .cl
China               CH        CN    CHN   156     .cn
  see also Taiwan

Christmas Island    KT        CX    CXR   162     .cx
Clipperton Island   IP        -     -             -
  ISO includes with French Polynesia

Cocos (Keeling) IslandsCK     CC    CCK   166     .cc
Colombia            CO        CO    COL   170     .co
Comoros             CN        KM    COM   174     .km
Congo, Democratic
  Republic of the   CG        CD    COD   180     .cd
  formerly Zaire

Congo, Republic of theCF      CG    COG   178     .cg
Cook Islands        CW        CK    COK   184     .ck
Coral Sea Islands   CR        -     -             -
  ISO includes with Australia

Costa Rica          CS        CR    CRI   188     .cr
Cote d'Ivoire       IV        CI    CIV   384     .ci
Croatia             HR        HR    HRV   191     .hr
Cuba                CU        CU    CUB   192     .cu
Cyprus              CY        CY    CYP   196     .cy
Czech Republic      EZ        CZ    CZE   203     .cz
Denmark             DA        DK    DNK   208     .dk
Djibouti            DJ        DJ    DJI   262     .dj
Dominica            DO        DM    DMA   212     .dm
Dominican Republic  DR        DO    DOM   214     .do
East Timor          TT        TL    TLS   626     .tl
Ecuador             EC        EC    ECU   218     .ec
Egypt               EG        EG    EGY   818     .eg
El Salvador         ES        SV    SLV   222     .sv
Equatorial Guinea   EK        GQ    GNQ   226     .gq
Eritrea             ER        ER    ERI   232     .er
Estonia             EN        EE    EST   233     .ee
Ethiopia            ET        ET    ETH   231     .et
Europa Island       EU        -     -     -       -
  administered as part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands;
  no ISO codes assigned

Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)FKFKFLK  238     .fk
Faroe Islands       FO        FO    FRO   234     .fo
Fiji                FJ        FJ    FJI   242     .fj
Finland             FI        FI    FIN   246     .fi
France              FR        FR    FRA   250     .fr
France, Metropolitan-         FX    FXX   249     .fx
  ISO limits to the European part of France, excluding French
  Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands,
  Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Reunion, Saint
  Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna

French Guiana       FG        GF    GUF   254     .gf
French Polynesia    FP        PF    PYF   258     .pf
  ISO includes Clipperton Island

French Southern and Antarctic LandsFSTFATF260     .tf
  FIPS 10-4 does not include the French-claimed portion of
  Antarctica (Terre Adelie)

Gabon               GB        GA    GAB   266     .ga
Gambia, The         GA        GM    GMB   270     .gm
Gaza Strip          GZ        PS    PSE   275     .ps
  ISO identifies as Occupied Palestinian Territory

Georgia             GG        GE    GEO   268     .ge
Germany             GM        DE    DEU   276     .de
Ghana               GH        GH    GHA   288     .gh
Gibraltar           GI        GI    GIB   292     .gi
Glorioso Islands    GO        -     -     -       -
  administered as part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands;
  no ISO codes assigned

Greece              GR        GR    GRC   300     .gr
Greenland           GL        GL    GRL   304     .gl
Grenada             GJ        GD    GRD   308     .gd
Guadeloupe          GP        GP    GLP   312     .gp
Guam                GQ        GU    GUM   316     .gu
Guatemala           GT        GT    GTM   320     .gt
Guernsey            GK        GG    GGY   831     .gg
Guinea              GV        GN    GIN   324     .gn
Guinea-Bissau       PU        GW    GNB   624     .gw
Guyana              GY        GY    GUY   328     .gy
Haiti               HA        HT    HTI   332     .ht
Heard Island and
  McDonald Islands  HM        HM    HMD   334     .hm
Holy See
  (Vatican City)    VT        VA    VAT   336     .va
Honduras            HO        HN    HND   340     .hn
Hong Kong           HK        HK    HKG   344     .hk
Howland Island      HQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Hungary             HU        HU    HUN   348     .hu
Iceland             IC        IS    ISL   352     .is
India               IN        IN    IND   356     .in
Indonesia           ID        ID    IDN   360     .id
Iran                IR        IR    IRN   364     .ir
Iraq                IZ        IQ    IRQ   368     .iq
Ireland             EI        IE    IRL   372     .ie
Isle of Man         IM        IM    IMN   833     .im
Israel              IS        IL    ISR   376     .il
Italy               IT        IT    ITA   380     .it
Jamaica             JM        JM    JAM   388     .jm
Jan Mayen           JN        -     -             -
  ISO includes with Svalbard

Japan               JA        JP    JPN   392     .jp
Jarvis Island       DQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Jersey              JE        JE    JEY   832     .je
Johnston Atoll      JQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Jordan              JO        JO    JOR   400     .jo
Juan de Nova Island JU        -     -     -       -
  administered as part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands;
  no ISO codes assigned

Kazakhstan          KZ        KZ    KAZ   398     .kz
Kenya               KE        KE    KEN   404     .ke
Kingman Reef        KQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Kiribati            KR        KI    KIR   296     .ki
Korea, North        KN        KP    PRK   408     .kp
Korea, South        KS        KR    KOR   410     .kr
Kuwait              KU        KW    KWT   414     .kw
Kyrgyzstan          KG        KG    KGZ   417     .kg
Laos                LA        LA    LAO   418     .la
Latvia              LG        LV    LVA   428     .lv
Lebanon             LE        LB    LBN   422     .lb
Lesotho             LT        LS    LSO   426     .ls
Liberia             LI        LR    LBR   430     .lr
Libya               LY        LY    LBY   434     .ly
Liechtenstein       LS        LI    LIE   438     .li
Lithuania           LH        LT    LTU   440     .lt
Luxembourg          LU        LU    LUX   442     .lu
Macau               MC        MO    MAC   446     .mo
Macedonia           MK        MK    MKD   807     .mk
Madagascar          MA        MG    MDG   450     .mg
Malawi              MI        MW    MWI   454     .mw
Malaysia            MY        MY    MYS   458     .my
Maldives            MV        MV    MDV   462     .mv
Mali                ML        ML    MLI   466     .ml
Malta               MT        MT    MLT   470     .mt
Marshall Islands    RM        MH    MHL   584     .mh
Martinique          MB        MQ    MTQ   474     .mq
Mauritania          MR        MR    MRT   478     .mr
Mauritius           MP        MU    MUS   480     .mu
Mayotte             MF        YT    MYT   175     .yt
Mexico              MX        MX    MEX   484     .mx
Micronesia,
  Federated
  States of         FM        FM    FSM   583     .fm
Midway Islands      MQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Moldova             MD        MD    MDA   498     .md
Monaco              MN        MC    MCO   492     .mc
Mongolia            MG        MN    MNG   496     .mn
Montenegro          MJ        ME    MNE   499     .me
  new ccTLD takes effect in 2007, in the interim .cg.yu remains current

Montserrat          MH        MS    MSR   500     .ms
Morocco             MO        MA    MAR   504     .ma
Mozambique          MZ        MZ    MOZ   508     .mz
Myanmar             -         -     -             -
  see Burma

Namibia             WA        NA    NAM   516     .na
Nauru               NR        NR    NRU   520     .nr
Navassa Island      BQ        -     -     -       -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Nepal               NP        NP    NPL   524     .np
Netherlands         NL        NL    NLD   528     .nl
Netherlands
  Antilles          NT        AN    ANT   530     .an
New Caledonia       NC        NC    NCL   540     .nc
New Zealand         NZ        NZ    NZL   554     .nz
Nicaragua           NU        NI    NIC   558     .ni
Niger               NG        NE    NER   562     .ne
Nigeria             NI        NG    NGA   566     .ng
Niue                NE        NU    NIU   570     .nu
Norfolk Island      NF        NF    NFK   574     .nf
Northern Mariana
  Islands           CQ        MP    MNP   580     .mp
Norway              NO        NO    NOR   578     .no
Oman                MU        OM    OMN   512     .om
Pakistan            PK        PK    PAK   586     .pk
Palau               PS        PW    PLW   585     .pw
Palmyra Atoll       LQ        -     -             -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Panama              PM        PA    PAN   591     .pa
Papua New Guinea    PP        PG    PNG   598     .pg
Paracel Islands     PF        -     -             -
Paraguay            PA        PY    PRY   600     .py
Peru                PE        PE    PER   604     .pe
Philippines         RP        PH    PHL   608     .ph
Pitcairn Islands    PC        PN    PCN   612     .pn
Poland              PL        PL    POL   616     .pl
Portugal            PO        PT    PRT   620     .pt
Puerto Rico         RQ        PR    PRI   630     .pr
Qatar               QA        QA    QAT   634     .qa
Reunion             RE        RE    REU   638     .re
Romania             RO        RO    ROU   642     .ro
Russia              RS        RU    RUS   643     .ru
Rwanda              RW        RW    RWA   646     .rw
Saint Helena        SH        SH    SHN   654     .sh
Saint Kitts
  and Nevis         SC        KN    KNA   659     .kn
Saint Lucia         ST        LC    LCA   662     .lc
Saint Pierre
  and Miquelon      SB        PM    SPM   666     .pm
Saint Vincent and
  the Grenadines    VC        VC    VCT   670     .vc
Samoa               WS        WS    WSM   882     .ws
San Marino          SM        SM    SMR   674     .sm
Sao Tome and
  Principe          TP        ST    STP   678     .st
Saudi Arabia        SA        SA    SAU   682     .sa
Senegal             SG        SN    SEN   686     .sn
Serbia              RB        RS    SRB   688     .rs
  .yu remains in service until the end of 2006

Seychelles          SE        SC    SYC   690     .sc
Sierra Leone        SL        SL    SLE   694     .sl
Singapore           SN        SG    SGP   702     .sg
Slovakia            LO        SK    SVK   703     .sk
Slovenia            SI        SI    SVN   705     .si
Solomon Islands     BP        SB    SLB   090     .sb
Somalia             SO        SO    SOM   706     .so
South Africa        SF        ZA    ZAF   710     .za
South Georgia and
  the Islands       SX        GS    SGS   239     .gs
Spain               SP        ES    ESP   724     .es
Spratly Islands     PG        -     -             -
Sri Lanka           CE        LK    LKA   144     .lk
Sudan               SU        SD    SDN   736     .sd
Suriname            NS        SR    SUR   740     .sr
Svalbard            SV        SJ    SJM   744     .sj
  ISO includes Jan Mayen

Swaziland           WZ        SZ    SWZ   748     .sz
Sweden              SW        SE    SWE   752     .se
Switzerland         SZ        CH    CHE   756     .ch
Syria               SY        SY    SYR   760     .sy
Taiwan              TW        TW    TWN   158     .tw
Tajikistan          TI        TJ    TJK   762     .tj
Tanzania            TZ        TZ    TZA   834     .tz
Thailand            TH        TH    THA   764     .th
Togo                TO        TG    TGO   768     .tg
Tokelau             TL        TK    TKL   772     .tk
Tonga               TN        TO    TON   776     .to
Trinidad and Tobago TD        TT    TTO   780     .tt
Tromelin Island     TE        -     -     -       -
  administered as part of French Southern and Antarctic Lands;
  no ISO codes assigned

Tunisia             TS        TN    TUN   788     .tn
Turkey              TU        TR    TUR   792     .tr
Turkmenistan        TX        TM    TKM   795     .tm
Turks and Caicos IslandsTK    TC    TCA   796     .tc
Tuvalu              TV        TV    TUV   798     .tv
Uganda              UG        UG    UGA   800     .ug
Ukraine             UP        UA    UKR   804     .ua
United Arab EmiratesAE        AE    ARE   784     .ae
United Kingdom      UK        GB    GBR   826     .uk
United States       US        US    USA   840     .us
United States
  Minor Outlying
  Islands           -         UM    UMI   581     .um
  ISO includes Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island,
  Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island,
  Palmyra Atoll, Wake Island

Uruguay             UY        UY    URY   858     .uy
Uzbekistan          UZ        UZ    UZB   860     .uz
Vanuatu             NH        VU    VUT   548     .vu
Venezuela           VE        VE    VEN   862     .ve
Vietnam             VM        VN    VNM   704     .vn
Virgin Islands      VQ        VI    VIR   850     .vi
Virgin Islands (UK) -         -     -             .vg
  see British Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands (US) -         -     -             .vi
  see Virgin Islands

Wake Island         WQ        -     -     -       -
  ISO includes with the US Minor Outlying Islands

Wallis and Futuna   WF        WF    WLF   876     .wf
West Bank           WE        PS    PSE   275     .ps
  ISO identifies as Occupied Palestinian Territory

Western Sahara      WI        EH    ESH   732     .eh
Western Samoa       -         -     -             .ws
  see Samoa

World               -         -     -             -
  the Factbook uses the W data code from DIAM 65-18 Geopolitical
  Data Elements and Related Features, Data Standard No. 3,
  December 1994, published by the Defense Intelligence Agency

Yemen               YM        YE    YEM   887     .ye
Zaire               -         -     -             -
  see Democratic Republic of the Congo

Zambia              ZA        ZM    ZMB   894     .zm
Zimbabwe            ZI        ZW    ZWE   716     .zw


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================



Appendix E - Cross-Reference List of Hydrographic Data Codes


IHO 23-4th:  Limits of Oceans and Seas, Special Publication 23, Draft
4th Edition 1986, published by the International Hydrographic Bureau of
the International Hydrographic Organization

IHO 23-3rd:  Limits of Oceans and Seas, Special Publication 23, 3rd
Edition 1953, published by the International Hydrographic Organization

ACIC M 49-1:  Chart of Limits of Seas and Oceans, revised January 1958,
published by the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (ACIC),
United States Air Force; note - ACIC is now part of the National
Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)

DIAM 65-18:  Geopolitical Data Elements and Related Features, Data
Standard No. 4, Defense Intelligence Agency Manual 65-18, December
1994, published by the Defense Intelligence Agency

The US Government has not yet adopted a standard for hydrographic codes
similar to the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 10-4
country codes. The names and limits of the following oceans and seas
are not always directly comparable because of differences in the
customers, needs, and requirements of the individual organizations.
Even the number of principal water bodies varies from organization to
organization. Factbook users, for example, find the Atlantic Ocean and
Pacific Ocean entries useful, but none of the following standards
include those oceans in their entirety. Nor is there any provision for
combining codes or overcodes to aggregate water bodies. The recently
delimited Southern Ocean is not included.


  Principal Oceans and Seas of the World
  With Hydrographic Codes by Institution

                            IHO 23-4th  IHO 23-3rd*  ACIC M 49-1  DIAM 65-18

  Arctic Ocean              9            17            A             5A
  Atlantic Ocean            -            -             -             -
  Baltic Sea                2            1             B26           7B
  Eastern Mediterranean     3.1.2        28 B          -             8E
  Indian Ocean              5            45            F             6A
  Mediterranean Sea         3.1          28            B11           -
  North Atlantic Ocean      1            23            B             1A
  North Pacific Ocean       7            57            D             3A
  Pacific Ocean             -            -             -             -
  South Atlantic Ocean      4            32            C             2A
  South China and Eastern
    Archipelagic Seas       6            49, 48        D18 plus      3U plus
                                                       others        others
  South Pacific Ocean       8            61            E             4A
  Western Mediterranean     3.1.1        28 A          -             8W

*The letters after the numbers are subdivisions, not footnotes.


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================



Appendix F - Cross-Reference List of Geographic Names


Name                          Entry in The         Latitude   Longitude
                              World Factbook       (deg min)  (deg min)

Abidjan (capital)             Cote d'Ivoire        5 19 N     4 02 W
Abkhazia (region)             Georgia              43 00 N    41 00 E
Abu Dhabi (capital)           United Arab Emirates 24 28 N    54 22 E
Abu Musa (island)             Iran                 25 52 N    55 03 E
Abuja (capital)               Nigeria              9 12 N     7 11 E
Abyssinia (former name for    Ethiopia             8 00 N     38 00 E
Ethiopia)
Acapulco (city)               Mexico               16 51 N    99 55 W
Accra (capital)               Ghana                5 33 N     0 13 W
Adamstown (capital)           Pitcairn Islands     25 04 S    130 05 W
Addis Ababa (capital)         Ethiopia             9 02 N     38 42 E
Adelie Land (claimed by       Antarctica           66 30 S    139 00 E
France; also Terre Adelie)
Aden (city)                   Yemen                12 46 N    45 01 E
Aden, Gulf of                 Indian Ocean         12 30 N    48 00 E
Admiralty Island              United States        57 44 N    134 20 W
                              (Alaska)
Admiralty Islands             Papua New Guinea     2 10 S     147 00 E
Adriatic Sea                  Atlantic Ocean       42 30 N    16 00 E
Adygey (region)               Russia               44 30 N    40 10 E
Aegean Islands                Greece               38 00 N    25 00 E
Aegean Sea                    Atlantic Ocean       38 30 N    25 00 E
Afars and Issas, French       Djibouti             11 30 N    43 00 E
Territory of the (or FTAI;
former name for Djibouti)
Afghanestan (local name for   Afghanistan          33 00 N    65 00 E
Afghanistan)
Agalega Islands               Mauritius            10 25 S    56 40 E
Agana (city; former name for  Guam                 13 28 N    144 45 E
Hagatna)
Ajaccio (city)                France (Corsica)     41 55 N    8 44 E
Ajaria (region)               Georgia              41 45 N    42 10 E
Akmola (city; former name for Kazakhstan           51 10 N    71 30 E
Astana)
Aksai Chin (region)           China (de facto),    35 00 N    79 00 E
                              India (claimed)
Al Arabiyah as Suudiyah       Saudi Arabia         25 00 N    45 00 E
(local name for Saudi Arabia)
Al Bahrayn (local name for    Bahrain              26 00 N    50 33 E
Bahrain)
Al Imarat al Arabiyah al      United Arab Emirates 24 00 N    54 00 E
Muttahidah (local name for
the United Arab Emirates)
Al Iraq (local name for Iraq) Iraq                 33 00 N    44 00 E
Al Jaza'ir (local name for    Algeria              28 00 N    3 00 E
Algeria)
Al Kuwayt (local name for     Kuwait               29 30 N    45 45 E
Kuwait)
Al Maghrib (local name for    Morocco              32 00 N    5 00 W
Morocco)
Al Urdun (local name for      Jordan               31 00 N    36 00 E
Jordan)
Al Yaman (local name for      Yemen                15 00 N    48 00 E
Yemen)
Aland Islands                 Finland              60 15 N    20 00 E
Alaska (state)                United States        65 00 N    153 00 W
Alaska, Gulf of               Pacific Ocean        58 00 N    145 00 W
Alboran Sea                   Atlantic Ocean       36 00 N    2 30 W
Aldabra Islands (Groupe       Seychelles           9 25 S     46 22 E
d'Aldabra)
Alderney (island)             Guernsey             49 43 N    2 12 W
Aleutian Islands              United States        52 00 N    176 00 W
                              (Alaska)
Alexander Archipelago (island United States        57 00 N    134 00 W
group)                        (Alaska)
Alexander Island              Antarctica           71 00 S    70 00 W
Alexandretta (region; former  Turkey               36 34 N    36 08 E
name for Iskenderun)
Alexandria (city)             Egypt                31 12 N    29 54 E
Algiers (capital)             Algeria              36 47 N    2 03 E
Alhucemas, Penon de (island   Spain                35 13 N    3 53 W
group)
Alma-Ata (city; former name   Kazakhstan           43 15 N    76 57 E
for Almaty)
Almaty (former capital)       Kazakhstan           43 15 N    76 57 E
Alofi (capital)               Niue                 19 01 S    169 55 W
Alphonse Island               Seychelles           7 01 S     52 45 E
Alsace (region)               France               48 30 N    7 20 E
Amami Strait                  Pacific Ocean        28 40 N    129 30 E
Amindivi Islands (former name India                11 30 N    72 30 E
for Laccadive Islands)
Amirante Isles (island group; Seychelles           6 00 S     53 10 E
also Les Amirantes)
Amman (capital)               Jordan               31 57 N    35 56 E
Amsterdam (capital)           Netherlands          52 23 N    4 54 E
Amsterdam Island (Ile         French Southern and  37 52 S    77 32 E
Amsterdam)                    Antarctic Lands
Amundsen Sea                  Southern Ocean       72 30 S    112 00 W
Amur River                    China, Russia        52 56 N    141 10 E
Amurskiy Liman (strait)       Pacific Ocean        53 00 N    141 30 E
Anadyrskiy Zaliv (gulf)       Pacific Ocean        64 00 N    177 00 E
Anatolia (region)             Turkey               39 00 N    35 00 E
Andaman Islands               India                12 00 N    92 45 E
Andaman Sea                   Indian Ocean         10 00 N    95 00 E
Andorra la Vella (capital)    Andorra              42 30 N    1 30 E
Andros (island)               Greece               37 45 N    24 42 E
Andros Island                 The Bahamas          24 26 N    77 57 W
Anegada Passage               Atlantic Ocean       18 30 N    63 40 W
Angkor Wat (ruins)            Cambodia             13 26 N    103 50 E
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (former  Sudan                15 00 N    30 00 E
name for Sudan)
Anjouan (island)              Comoros              12 15 S    44 25 E
Ankara (capital)              Turkey               39 56 N    32 52 E
Annobon (island)              Equatorial Guinea    1 25 S     5 36 E
Antananarivo (capital)        Madagascar           18 52 S    47 30 E
Antigua (island)              Antigua and Barbuda  14 34 N    90 44 W
Antipodes Islands             New Zealand          49 41 S    178 43 E
Antwerp (city)                Belgium              51 13 N    4 25 E
Aomen (local Chinese short-   Macau                22 10 N    113 33 E
form name for Macau)
Aozou Strip (region)          Chad                 22 00 N    18 00 E
Apia (capital)                Samoa                13 50 S    171 45W
Aqaba, Gulf of                Indian Ocean         29 00 N    34 30 E
Arab, Shatt al (river)        Iran, Iraq           29 57 N    48 34 E
Arabian Sea                   Indian Ocean         15 00 N    65 00 E
Arafura Sea                   Pacific Ocean        9 00 S     133 00 E
Aral Sea                      Kazakhstan,          45 00 N    60 00 E
                              Uzbekistan
Argun River                   China, Russia        53 20 N    121 28 E
Aru Sea                       Pacific Ocean        6 15 S     135 00 E
As-Sudan (local name for      Sudan                15 00 N    30 00 E
Sudan)
Ascension Island              Saint Helena         7 57 S     14 22 W
Ashgabat, Ashkhabad (capital) Turkmenistan         37 57 N    58 23 E
Asmara, Asmera (capital)      Eritrea              15 20 N    38 53 E
Assumption Island             Seychelles           9 46 S     46 34 E
Astana (capital; formerly     Kazakhstan           51 10 N    71 30 E
Akmola)
Asuncion (capital)            Paraguay             25 16 S    57 40 W
Asuncion Island               Northern Mariana     19 40 N    145 24 E
                              Islands
Atacama (desert)              Chile                23 00 S    70 10 W
Atacama (region)              Chile                24 30 S    69 15 W
Athens (capital)              Greece               37 59 N    23 44 E
Attu Island                   United States        52 55 N    172 57 E
Auckland (city)               New Zealand          36 52 S    174 46 E
Auckland Islands              New Zealand          51 00 S    166 30 E
Australes, Iles (island       French Polynesia     23 20 S    151 00 W
group; also Iles Tubuai)
Avarua (capital)              Cook Islands         21 12 S    159 46 W
Axel Heiberg Island           Canada               79 30 N    90 00 W
Azad Kashmir (region)         Pakistan             34 30 N    74 00 E
Azarbaycan, Azerbaidzhan      Azerbaijan           40 30 N    47 30 E
(local name for Azerbaijan)
Azores (islands)              Portugal             38 30 N    28 00 W
Azov, Sea of                  Atlantic Ocean       49 00 N    36 00 E
Bab el Mandeb (strait)        Indian Ocean         12 40 N    43 20 E
Babuyan Channel               Pacific Ocean        18 44 N    121 40 E
Babuyan Islands               Philippines          19 10 N    121 40 E
Baffin Bay                    Arctic Ocean         73 00 N    66 00 W
Baffin Island                 Canada               68 00 N    70 00 W
Baghdad (capital)             Iraq                 33 21 N    44 25 E
Baku (capital; also Baki,     Azerbaijan           40 23 N    49 51 E
Baky)
Balabac Strait                Pacific Ocean        7 35 N     117 00 E
Balearic Islands              Spain                39 30 N    3 00 E
Balearic Sea (Iberian Sea)    Atlantic Ocean       40 30 N    2 00 E
Bali (island)                 Indonesia            8 20 S     115 00 E
Bali Sea                      Indian Ocean         7 45 S     115 30 E
Balintang Channel             Pacific Ocean        19 49 N    121 40 E
Balintang Islands             Philippines          19 55 N    122 10 E
Balkan Peninsula              Albania, Bosnia and  42 00 N    23 00 E
                              Herzegovina,
                              Bulgaria, Croatia,
                              Greece, Macedonia,
                              Montenegro, Romania,
                              Serbia, Slovenia,
                              Turkey (European
                              part)
Balleny Islands               Antarctica           67 00 S    163 00 E
Balochistan (region)          Pakistan             28 00 N    63 00 E
Baltic Sea                    Atlantic Ocean       57 00 N    19 00 E
Bamako (capital)              Mali                 12 39 N    8 00 W
Banaba (Ocean Island)         Kiribati             0 52 S     169 35 E
Banat (region)                Hungary, Romania,    45 30 N    21 00 E
                              Serbia
Banda Sea                     Pacific Ocean        5 00 S     128 00 E
Bandar Seri Begawan (capital) Brunei               4 52 S     114 55 E
Bangka (island)               Indonesia            2 30 S     106 00 E
Bangkok (capital)             Thailand             13 45 N    100 31 E
Bangui (capital)              Central African      4 22 N     18 35 E
                              Republic
Banjul (capital)              The Gambia           13 28 N    16 39 W
Banks Island                  Australia            10 12 S    142 16 E
Banks Island                  Canada               75 15 N    121 30 W
Banks Islands (Iles Banks)    Vanuatu              14 00 S    167 30 E
Barbuda (island)              Antigua and Barbuda  17 38 N    61 48 W
Barcelona (city)              Spain                41 25 N    2 13 E
Barents Sea                   Arctic Ocean         74 00 N    36 00 E
Barranquilla (city)           Colombia             10 59 N    74 48 W
Bashi Channel                 Pacific Ocean        22 00 N    121 00 E
Basilan Strait                Pacific Ocean        6 49 N     122 05 E
Basque Provinces              Spain                43 00 N    2 30 W
Bass Strait                   Pacific Ocean        39 20 S    145 30 E
Basse-Terre (capital)         Guadeloupe           16 00 N    61 44 W
Basseterre (capital)          Saint Kitts and      17 18 N    62 43 W
                              Nevis
Bastia (city)                 France (Corsica)     42 42 N    9 27 E
Basutoland (former name for   Lesotho              29 30 S    28 30 E
Lesotho)
Batan Islands                 Philippines          20 30 N    121 50 E
Bavaria (region; also Bayern) Germany              48 30 N    11 30 E
Beagle Channel                Atlantic Ocean       54 53 S    68 10 W
Bear Island (see Bjornoya)    Svalbard             74 26 N    19 05 E
Beaufort Sea                  Arctic Ocean         73 00 N    140 00 W
Bechuanaland (former name for Botswana             22 00 S    24 00 E
Botswana)
Beijing (capital)             China                39 56 N    116 24 E
Beirut (capital)              Lebanon              33 53 N    35 30 E
Bekaa Valley                  Lebanon              34 00 N    36 05 E
Belau (Palau Islands)         Palau                7 30 N     134 30 E
Belep Islands (Iles Belep)    New Caledonia        19 45 S    163 40 E
Belfast (city)                United Kingdom       54 36 N    5 55 W
Belgian Congo (former name    Democratic Republic  0 00 N     25 00 E
for Democratic Republic of    of the Congo
the Congo)
Belgie, Belgique (local name  Belgium              50 50 N    4 00 E
for Belgium)
Belgrade (capital)            Serbia               44 50 N    20 30 E
Belize City                   Belize               17 30 N    88 12 W
Belle Isle, Strait of         Atlantic Ocean       51 35 N    56 30 W
Bellingshausen Sea            Southern Ocean       71 00 S    85 00 W
Belmopan (capital)            Belize               17 15 N    88 46 W
Belorussia (former name for   Belarus              53 00 N    28 00 E
Belarus)
Benadir (region; former name  Somalia              4 00 N     46 00 E
of Italian Somaliland)
Bengal, Bay of                Indian Ocean         15 00 N    90 00 E
Berau, Gulf of                Pacific Ocean        2 30 S     132 30 E
Bering Island                 Russia               55 00 N    166 30 E
Bering Sea                    Pacific Ocean        60 00 N    175 00 W
Bering Strait                 Pacific Ocean        65 30 N    169 00 W
Berkner Island                Antarctica           79 30 S    49 30 W
Berlin (capital)              Germany              52 31 N    13 24 E
Berlin, East (former name for Germany              52 30 N    13 33 E
eastern sector of Berlin)
Berlin, West (former name for Germany              52 30 N    13 20 E
western sector of Berlin)
Bern (capital)                Switzerland          46 57 N    7 26 E
Bessarabia (region)           Moldova, Romania,    47 00 N    28 30 E
                              Ukraine
Bharat (local name for India) India                20 00 N    77 00 E
Bhopal (city)                 India                23 16 N    77 24 E
Biafra (region)               Nigeria              5 30 N     7 30 E
Big Diomede Island            Russia               65 46 N    169 06 W
Bijagos, Arquipelago dos      Guinea-Bissau        11 25 N    16 20 W
(island group)
Bikini Atoll                  Marshall Islands     11 35 N    165 23 E
Bilbao (city)                 Spain                43 15 N    2 58 W
Bioko (island)                Equatorial Guinea    3 30 N     8 42 E
Biscay, Bay of                Atlantic Ocean       44 00 N    4 00 W
Bishkek (capital)             Kyrgyzstan           42 54 N    74 36 E
Bishop Rock                   United Kingdom       49 52 N    6 27 W
Bismarck Archipelago (island  Papua New Guinea     5 00 S     150 00 E
group)
Bismarck Sea                  Pacific Ocean        4 00 S     148 00 E
Bissau (capital)              Guinea-Bissau        11 51 N    15 35 W
Bjornoya (Bear Island)        Svalbard             74 26 N    19 05 E
Black Forest (region)         Germany              48 00 N    8 15 E
Black Rock (island)           South Georgia and    53 39 S    41 48 W
                              the South Sandwich
                              Islands
Black Sea                     Atlantic Ocean       43 00 N    35 00 E
Bloemfontein (judicial        South Africa         29 12 S    26 07 E
capital)
Bo Hai (gulf)                 Pacific Ocean        38 00 N    120 00 E
Boa Vista (island)            Cape Verde           16 05 N    22 50 W
Bogota (capital)              Colombia             4 36 N     74 05 W
Bohemia (region)              Czech Republic       50 00 N    14 30 E
Bombay (city; see Mumbai)     India                18 58 N    72 50 E
Bonaire (island)              Netherlands Antilles 12 10 N    68 15 W
Bonifacio, Strait of          Atlantic Ocean       41 01 N    14 00 E
Bonin Islands                 Japan                27 00 N    142 10 E
Bonn (former capital)         Germany              50 44 N    7 05 E
Bophuthatswana (region;       South Africa         26 30 S    25 30 E
enclave)
Bora-Bora (island)            French Polynesia     16 30 S    151 45 W
Bordeaux (city)               France               44 50 N    0 34 W
Borneo (island)               Brunei, Indonesia,   0 30 N     114 00 E
                              Malaysia
Bornholm (island)             Denmark              55 10 N    15 00 E
Bosna i Hercegovina (local    Bosnia and           44 00 N    18 00 E
name for Bosnia and           Herzegovina
Herzegovina)
Bosnia (political region)     Bosnia and           44 00 N    18 00 E
                              Herzegovina
Bosporus (strait)             Atlantic Ocean       41 00 N    29 00 E
Bothnia, Gulf of              Atlantic Ocean       63 00 N    20 00 E
Bougainville (island)         Papua New Guinea     6 00 S     155 00 E
Bougainville Strait           Pacific Ocean        6 40 S     156 10 E
Bounty Islands                New Zealand          47 43 S    174 00 E
Bourbon Island (former name   Reunion              21 06 S    55 36 E
of Reunion)
Brasilia (capital)            Brazil               15 47 S    47 55 W
Bratislava (capital)          Slovakia             48 09 N    17 07 E
Brazzaville (capital)         Republic of the      4 16 S     15 17 E
                              Congo
Bridgetown (capital)          Barbados             13 06 N    59 37 W
Brisbane (city)               Australia            27 28 S    153 02 E
Bristol Bay                   Pacific Ocean        57 00 N    160 00 W
Bristol Channel               Atlantic Ocean       51 18 N    3 30 W
Britain (see Great Britain)   United Kingdom       54 00 N    2 00 W
British Bechuanaland (region; South Africa         27 30 S    23 30 E
former name for northwest
South Africa)
British Central African       Malawi               13 30 S    34 00 E
Protectorate (former name of
Nyasaland)
British East Africa (former   Kenya, Tanzania,     1 00 N     38 00 E
name for British possessions  Uganda
in eastern Africa)
British Guiana (former name   Guyana               5 00 N     59 00 W
for Guyana)
British Honduras (former name Belize               17 15 N    88 45 W
for Belize)
British Solomon Islands       Solomon Islands      8 00 S     159 00 E
(former name for Solomon
Islands)
British Somaliland (former    Somalia              10 00 N    49 00 E
name for northern Somalia)
Brussels (capital)            Belgium              50 50 N    4 20 E
Bubiyan (island)              Kuwait               29 47 N    48 10 E
Bucharest (capital)           Romania              44 26 N    26 06 E
Budapest (capital)            Hungary              47 30 N    19 05 E
Buenos Aires (capital)        Argentina            34 36 S    58 27 W
Bujumbura (capital)           Burundi              3 23 S     29 22 E
Bukovina (region)             Romania, Ukraine     48 00 N    26 00 E
Byelarus (local name for      Belarus              53 00 N    28 00 E
Belarus)
Byelorussia (former name for  Belarus              53 00 N    28 00 E
Belarus)
Cabinda (province)            Angola               5 33 S     12 12 E
Cabo Verde (local name for    Cape Verde           16 00 N    24 00 W
Cape Verde)
Cabot Strait                  Atlantic Ocean       47 20 N    59 30 W
Caicos Islands                Turks and Caicos     21 56 N    71 58 W
                              Islands
Cairo (capital)               Egypt                30 03 N    31 15 E
Calcutta (city)               India                22 32 N    88 21 E
Calgary (city)                Canada               51 02 N    114 04 W
California, Gulf of           Pacific Ocean        28 00 N    112 00 W
Cameroun (local name for      Cameroon             6 00 N     12 00 E
Cameroon)
Campbell Island               New Zealand          52 33 S    169 09 E
Campeche, Bay of              Atlantic Ocean       20 00 N    94 00 W
Canal Zone (former name for   Panama               9 00 N     79 45 W
US possessions in Panama)
Canarias Sea                  Atlantic Ocean       28 00 N    16 00 W
Canary Islands                Spain                28 00 N    15 30 W
Canberra (capital)            Australia            35 17 S    149 08 E
Cancun (city)                 Mexico               21 10 N    86 50 W
Canton (city; now Guangzhou)  China                23 06 N    113 16 E
Canton Island (Kanton Island) Kiribati             2 49 S     171 40 W
Cape Juby (region; former     Morocco              27 53 N    12 58 W
name for Southern Morocco)
Cape Province (region; former South Africa         31 30 S    22 30 E
name for Northern, Western,
and Eastern Cape Provinces of
South Africa)
Cape Town (legislative        South Africa         33 57 S    18 25 E
capital)
Cape of Good Hope (cape; also South Africa         34 15 S    18 20 E
alternate name for Cape
Province of South Africa)
Caracas (capital)             Venezuela            10 30 N    66 56 W
Cargados Carajos Shoals       Mauritius            16 25 S    59 38 E
Caribbean Sea                 Atlantic Ocean       15 00 N    73 00 W
Caroline Islands              Federated States of  7 30 N     148 00 E
                              Micronesia, Palau
Carpatho-Ukraine (region;     Ukraine              48 22 N    23 32 E
former name for Zakarpats'ka
oblast')
Carpentaria, Gulf of          Pacific Ocean        14 00 S    139 00 E
Casablanca (city)             Morocco              33 35 N    7 34 W
Castries (capital)            Saint Lucia          14 01 N    61 00 W
Catalonia (region)            Spain                42 00 N    2 00 E
Cato Island                   Australia            23 15 S    155 32 E
Caucasus (region)             Russia               42 00 N    45 00 E
Cayenne (capital)             French Guiana        4 56 N     52 20 W
Celebes (island)              Indonesia            2 00 S     121 00 E
Celebes Sea                   Pacific Ocean        3 00 N     122 00 E
Celtic Sea                    Atlantic Ocean       51 00 N    6 30 W
Central African Empire        Central African      7 00 N     21 00 E
(former name for Central      Republic
African Republic)
Ceram (Seram) Sea             Pacific Ocean        2 30 S     129 30 E
Ceska Republika (local name   Czech Republic       49 45 N    15 30 E
for Czech Republic)
Ceskoslovensko (former local  Czech Republic,      49 00 N    17 30 E
name for Czechoslovakia)      Slovakia
Cetinje (capital city)        Montenegro           42 24 N    18 55 E
Ceuta (city)                  Spain                35 53 N    5 19 W
Ceylon (former name for Sri   Sri Lanka            7 00 N     81 00 E
Lanka)
Chafarinas, Islas (island)    Spain                35 12 N    2 26 W
Chagos Archipelago (Oil       British Indian Ocean 6 00 S     71 30 E
Islands)                      Territory
Challenger Deep (Mariana      Pacific Ocean        11 22 N    142 36 E
Trench)
Channel Islands               Guernsey, Jersey     49 20 N    2 20 W
Charlotte Amalie (capital)    Virgin Islands       18 21 N    64 56 W
Chatham Islands               New Zealand          44 00 S    176 30 W
Chechnya (region; also        Russia               43 15 N    45 40 E
Chechnia)
Cheju Strait                  Pacific Ocean        34 00 N    126 30 E
Cheju-do (island)             Korea, South         33 20 N    126 30 E
Chengdu (city)                China                30 43 N    104 04 E
Chennai (city; also Madras)   India                13 04 N    80 16 E
Chesterfield Islands (Iles    New Caledonia        19 52 S    158 15 E
Chesterfield)
Chihli, Gulf of (see Bo Hai)  Pacific Ocean        38 30 N    120 00 E
Chiloe (island)               Chile                42 50 S    74 00 W
China, People's Republic of   China                35 00 N    105 00 E
China, Republic of            Taiwan               23 30 N    121 00 E
Chisinau (capital; also       Moldova              47 00 N    28 50 E
Kishinev)
Choiseul (island)             Solomon Islands      7 05 S     121 00 E
Choson (local name for North  North Korea          40 00 N    127 00 E
Korea)
Christmas Island (Indian      Australia            10 25 S    105 39 E
Ocean)
Christmas Island (Pacific     Kiribati             1 52 N     157 20 W
Ocean; also Kiritimati)
Chukchi Sea                   Arctic Ocean         69 00 N    171 00 W
Chuuk Islands (Truk Islands)  Federated States of  7 25 N     151 47 W
                              Micronesia
Cilicia (region)              Turkey               36 50 N    34 30 E
Ciskei (enclave)              South Africa         33 00 S    27 00 E
Citta del Vaticano (local     Holy See             41 54 N    12 27 E
name for Vatican City)
Cochin China (region)         Vietnam              11 00 N    107 00 E
Coco, Isla del (island)       Costa Rica           5 32 N     87 04 W
Cocos Islands                 Cocos (Keeling)      12 30 S    96 50 E
                              Islands
Colombo (capital)             Sri Lanka            6 56 N     79 51 E
Colon, Archipielago de        Ecuador              0 00 N     90 30 W
(Galapagos Islands)
Commander Islands             Russia               55 00 N    167 00 E
(Komandorskiye Ostrova)
Comores (local name for       Comoros              12 10 S    44 15 E
Comoros)
Con Son (islands)             Vietnam              8 43 N     106 36 E
Conakry (capital)             Guinea               9 31 N     13 43 W
Confederatio Helvetica (local Switzerland          47 00 N    8 00 E
name for Switzerland)
Congo (Brazzaville) (former   Republic of the      1 00 S     15 00 E
name for Republic of the      Congo
Congo)
Congo (Leopoldville) (former  Democratic Republic  0 00 N     25 00 E
name for the Democratic       of the Congo
Republic of the Congo)
Constantinople (city; former  Turkey               41 01 N    28 58 E
name for Istanbul)
Cook Strait                   Pacific Ocean        41 15 S    174 30 E
Copenhagen (capital)          Denmark              55 40 N    12 35 E
Coral Sea                     Pacific Ocean        15 00 S    150 00 E
Corfu (island)                Greece               39 40 N    19 45 E
Corinth (region)              Greece               37 56 N    22 56 E
Corisco (island)              Equatorial Guinea    0 55 N     9 19 E
Corn Islands (Islas del Maiz) Nicaragua            12 15 N    83 00 W
Corocoro Island               Guyana, Venezuela    3 38 N     66 50 W
Corsica (island; also Corse)  France               42 00 N    9 00 E
Cosmoledo Group (island       Seychelles           9 43 S     47 35 E
group; also Atoll de
Cosmoledo)
Cotonou (former capital)      Benin                6 21 N     2 26 E
Cotopaxi (volcano)            Ecuador              0 39 S     78 26 W
Courantyne River              Guyana, Suriname     5 57 N     57 06 W
Cozumel (island)              Mexico               20 30 N    86 55 W
Crete (island)                Greece               35 15 N    24 45 E
Crimea (region)               Ukraine              45 00 N    34 00 E
Crimean Peninsula             Ukraine              45 00 N    34 00 E
Crooked Island Passage        Atlantic Ocean       22 55 N    74 35 W
Crozet Islands (Iles Crozet)  French Southern and  46 30 S    51 00 E
                              Antarctic Lands
Cyclades (island group)       Greece               37 00 N    25 10 E
Cyrenaica (region)            Libya                31 00 N    22 00 E
Czechoslovakia (former name   Czech Republic,      49 00 N    18 00 E
for the entity that           Slovakia
subsequently split into the
Czech Republic and Slovakia)
D'Entrecasteaux Islands       Papua New Guinea     9 30 S     150 40 E
Dagestan (region)             Russia               43 00 N    47 00 E
Dahomey (former name for      Benin                9 30 N     2 15 E
Benin)
Daito Islands                 Japan                43 00 N    17 00 E
Dakar (capital)               Senegal              14 40 N    17 26 W
Dalmatia (region)             Croatia              43 00 N    17 00 E
Daman (city; also Damao)      India                20 10 N    73 00 E
Damascus (capital)            Syria                33 30 N    36 18 E
Danger Islands (see Pukapuka  Cook Islands         10 53 S    165 49 W
Atoll)
Danish Straits                Atlantic Ocean       58 00 N    11 00 E
Danish West Indies (former    Virgin Islands       18 20 N    64 50 W
name for the Virgin Islands)
Danmark (local name)          Denmark              56 00 N    10 00 E
Danzig (city; former name for Poland               54 23 N    18 40 E
Gdansk)
Dao Bach Long Vi (island)     Vietnam              20 08 N    107 44 E
Dar es Salaam (capital)       Tanzania             6 48 S     39 17 E
Dardanelles (strait)          Atlantic Ocean       40 15 N    26 25 E
Davis Strait                  Atlantic Ocean       67 00 N    57 00 W
Dead Sea                      Israel, Jordan, West 32 30 N    35 30 E
                              Bank
Deception Island              Antarctica           62 56 S    60 34 W
Denmark Strait                Atlantic Ocean       67 00 N    24 00 W
Desolation Islands (Isles     French Southern and  49 30 S    69 30 E
Kerguelen)                    Antarctic Lands
Deutschland (local name for   Germany              51 00 N    9 00 E
Germany)
Devils Island (Ile du Diable) French Guiana        5 17 N     52 35 W
Devon Island                  Canada               76 00 N    87 00 W
Dhaka (capital)               Bangladesh           23 43 N    90 25 E
Dhivehi Raajje (local name    Maldives             3 15 N     73 00 E
for Maldives)
Dhofar (region)               Oman                 17 00 N    54 10 E
Diego Garcia (island)         British Indian Ocean 7 20 S     72 25 E
                              Territory
Diego Ramirez (islands)       Chile                56 30 S    68 43 W
Dili (capital)                East Timor           8 35 S     125 36 E
Dilmun (former name for       Bahrain              7 00 N     81 00 E
Bahrain)
Diomede Islands               Russia (Big          65 47 N    169 00 W
                              Diomede), United
                              States (Little
                              Diomede)
Diu (region)                  India                20 42 N    70 59 E
Djibouti (capital)            Djibouti             11 30 N    43 15 E
Dnieper (river)               Belarus, Russia,     46 30 N    32 18 E
                              Ukraine (Dnyapro,
                              Dnepr, Dnipro)
Dniester (river)              Moldova, Ukraine     46 18 N    30 17 E
                              (Nistru, Dnister)
Dobruja (region)              Bulgaria, Romania    43 30 N    28 00 E
Dodecanese (island group)     Greece               36 00 N    27 05 E
Dodoma (city)                 Tanzania             6 11 S     35 45 E
Doha (capital)                Qatar                25 17 N    51 32 E
Donets Basin                  Russia, Ukraine      48 15 N    38 30 E
Douala (city)                 Cameroon             4 03 N     9 42 E
Douglas (capital)             Man, Isle of         54 09 N    4 28 W
Dover, Strait of              Atlantic Ocean       51 00 N    1 30 E
Drake Passage                 Atlantic Ocean,      60 00 S    60 00 W
                              Southern Ocean
Druk Yul (local name for      Bhutan               27 30 N    90 30 E
Bhutan)
Dubai, Dubayy (city)          United Arab Emirates 25 18 N    55 18 E
Dublin (capital)              Ireland              53 20 N    6 15 W
Duesseldorf (city)            Germany              51 13 N    6 47 E
Durban (city)                 South Africa         29 51 S    31 02 E
Dushanbe (capital)            Tajikistan           38 35 N    68 48 E
Dutch Antilles (former name   Netherlands Antilles 12 10 N    68 30 W
for the Netherlands Antilles)
Dutch East Indies (former     Indonesia            5 00 S     120 00 E
name for Indonesia)
Dutch Guiana (former name for Suriname             4 00 N     56 00 W
Suriname)
Dutch West Indies (former     Netherlands Antilles 12 10 N    68 30 W
name for the Netherlands
Antilles)
Dzungarian Gate (valley)      China, Kazakhstan    45 25 N    82 25 E
East China Sea                Pacific Ocean        30 00 N    126 00 E
East Frisian Islands          Germany              53 44 N    7 25 E
East Germany (German          Germany              52 00 N    13 00 E
Democratic Republic; former
name for eastern portion of
Germany)
East Korea Strait (Eastern    Pacific Ocean        34 00 N    129 00 E
Channel or Tsushima Strait)
East Pakistan (former name    Bangladesh           24 00 N    90 00 E
for Bangladesh)
East Siberian Sea             Arctic Ocean         74 00 N    166 00 E
Easter Island (Isla de        Chile                27 07 S    109 22 W
Pascua)
Eastern Channel (East Korea   Pacific Ocean        34 00 N    129 00 E
Strait or Tsushima Strait)
Eastern Samoa (former name    American Samoa       14 20 S    170 00 W
for American Samoa)
Edinburgh (city)              United Kingdom       55 57 N    3 11 W
Eesti (local name for         Estonia              59 00 N    26 00 E
Estonia)
Eire (local name for Ireland) Ireland              53 00 N    8 00 W
Elba (island)                 Italy                42 46 N    10 17 E
Elemi Triangle (region)       Ethiopia (claimed),  5 00 N     35 30 E
                              Kenya (de facto),
                              Sudan (claimed)
Ellada, Ellas (local name for Greece               39 00 N    22 00 E
Greece)
Ellef Ringnes Island          Canada               78 00 N    103 00 W
Ellesmere Island              Canada               81 00 N    80 00 W
Ellice Islands                Tuvalu               8 00 S     178 00 E
Ellsworth Land (region)       Antarctica           75 00 S    92 00 W
Elobey, Islas de (island      Equatorial Guinea    0 59 N     9 33 E
group)
Enderbury Island              Kiribati             3 08 S     171 05 W
Enewetak Atoll (Eniwetok      Marshall Islands     11 30 N    162 15 E
Atoll)
England (region)              United Kingdom       52 30 N    1 30 W
English Channel               Atlantic Ocean       50 20 N    1 00 W
Eniwetok Atoll (see Enewetak  Marshall Islands     11 30 N    162 15 E
Atoll)
Eolie, Isole (island group)   Italy                38 30 N    15 00 E
Epirus, Northern (region)     Albania, Greece      40 00 N    20 30 E
Episkopi Cantonment (capital) Akrotiri, Dhekelia   34 40 N    32 51 E
Ertra (local name for         Eritrea              15 00 N    39 00 E
Eritrea)
Espana                        Spain                40 00 N    4 00 W
Essequibo (region; claimed by Guyana               6 59 N     58 23 W
Venezuela)
Etorofu (island; also Iturup) Russia (de facto)    44 55 N    147 40 E
Farquhar Group (island group; Seychelles           10 10 S    51 10 E
also Atoll de Farquhar)
Fergana Valley                Kyrgyzstan,          41 00 N    72 00 E
                              Tajikistan,
                              Uzbekistan
Fernando Po (island; see      Equatorial Guinea    3 30 N     8 42 E
Bioko)
Fernando de Noronha (island   Brazil               3 51 S     32 25 W
group)
Filipinas (local name for the Philippines          13 00 N    122 00 E
Philippines; also Pilipinas)
Finland, Gulf of              Atlantic Ocean       60 00 N    27 00 E
Florence (city)               Italy                43 46 N    11 16 E
Flores (island)               Indonesia            8 45 S     121 00 E
Flores Sea                    Pacific Ocean        7 40 S     119 45 E
Florida, Straits of           Atlantic Ocean       25 00 N    79 45 W
Fongafale (largest island of  Tuvalu               8 30 S     179 12 E
Funafuti)
Former Soviet Union (FSU)     Armenia, Azerbaijan,
                              Belarus, Estonia,
                              Georgia, Kazakhstan,
                              Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
                              Lithuania, Moldova,
                              Russia, Tajikistan,
                              Turkmenistan,
                              Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Formosa (island)              Taiwan               23 30 N    121 00 E
Formosa Strait (see Taiwan    Pacific Ocean        24 00 N    119 00 E
Strait)
Foroyar (local name for Faroe Faroe Islands        62 00 N    7 00 W
Islands)
Fort-de-France (capital)      Martinique           14 36 N    61 05 W
Frankfurt am Main (city)      Germany              50 07 N    8 41 E
Franz Josef Land (island      Russia               81 00 N    55 00 E
group)
Freetown (capital)            Sierra Leone         8 30 N     13 15 W
French Cameroon (former name  Cameroon             6 00 N     12 00 E
for Cameroon)
French Guinea (former name    Guinea               11 00 N    10 00 W
for Guinea)
French Indochina (former name Cambodia, Laos,      15 00 N    107 00 E
for French possessions in     Vietnam
southeast Asia)
French Morocco (former name   Morocco              32 00 N    5 00 W
for Morocco)
French Somaliland (former     Djibouti             11 30 N    43 00 E
name for Djibouti)
French Sudan (former name for Mali                 17 00 N    4 00 W
Mali)
French Territory of the Afars Djibouti             11 30 N    43 00 E
and Issas (or FTAI; former
name for Djibouti)
French Togoland (former name  Togo                 8 00 N     1 10 E
for Togo)
French West Indies (former    Guadeloupe,          16 30 N    62 00 W
name for French possessions   Martinique
in the West Indies)
Friendly Islands              Tonga                20 00 S    175 00 W
Frisian Islands               Denmark, Germany,    53 35 N    6 40 E
                              Netherlands
Frunze (city; former name for Kyrgyzstan           42 54 N    74 36 E
Bishkek)
Funafuti (capital, atoll)     Tuvalu               8 30 S     179 12 E
Fundy, Bay of                 Atlantic Ocean       45 00 N    66 00 W
Futuna Islands (Hoorn         Wallis and Futuna    14 19 S    178 05 W
Islands/Iles de Horne)
Fyn (island)                  Denmark              55 20 N    10 25 E
Gaborone (capital)            Botswana             24 45 S    25 55 E
Galapagos Islands             Ecuador              0 00 N     90 30 W
(Archipielago de Colon)
Galicia (region)              Poland, Ukraine      49 30 N    23 00 E
Galicia (region)              Spain                42 45 N    8 10 E
Galilee (region)              Israel               32 54 N    35 20 E
Galleons Passage              Atlantic Ocean       11 00 N    60 55 W
Gambier Islands (Iles         French Polynesia     23 09 S    134 58 W
Gambier)
Gaspar Strait                 Pacific Ocean        3 00 S     107 00 E
Gdansk (city; formerly        Poland               54 23 N    18 40 E
Danzig)
Geneva (city)                 Switzerland          46 12 N    6 10 E
Genoa (city)                  Italy                44 25 N    8 57 E
George Town (capital)         Cayman Islands       19 20 N    81 23 W
George Town (city)            Malaysia             5 26 N     100 16 E
George Town (city)            The Bahamas          23 30 N    75 46 W
Georgetown (capital)          Guyana               6 48 N     58 10 W
Georgetown (city)             The Gambia           13 30 N    14 47 W
German Democratic Republic    Germany              52 00 N    13 00 E
(East Germany; former name
for eastern portion of
Germany)
German Southwest Africa       Namibia              22 00 S    17 00 E
(former name for Namibia)
Germany, Federal Republic of  Germany              51 00 N    9 00 E
Gibraltar (city, peninsula)   Gibraltar            36 11 N    5 22 W
Gibraltar, Strait of          Atlantic Ocean       35 57 N    5 36 W
Gidi Pass                     Egypt                30 13 N    33 09 E
Gilbert Islands               Kiribati             1 25 N     173 00 E
Goa (state)                   India                15 20 N    74 00 E
Gobi (desert)                 China, Mongolia      42 30 N    107 00 E
Godthab (capital; also Nuuk)  Greenland            64 11 N    51 44 W
Golan Heights (region)        Syria                33 00 N    35 45 E
Gold Coast (former name for   Ghana                8 00 N     2 00 W
Ghana)
Golfo San Jorge (gulf)        Atlantic Ocean       46 00 S    66 00 W
Golfo San Matias (gulf)       Atlantic Ocean       41 30 S    64 00 W
Good Hope, Cape of            South Africa         34 24 S    18 30 E
Goteborg (city)               Sweden               57 43 N    11 58 E
Gotland (island)              Sweden               57 30 N    18 33 E
Gough Island                  Saint Helena         40 20 S    9 55 W
Graham Land (region)          Antarctica           65 00 S    64 00 W
Gran Chaco (region)           Argentina, Paraguay  24 00 S    60 00 W
Grand Bahama (island)         The Bahamas          26 40 N    78 35 W
Grand Banks (fishing ground)  Atlantic Ocean       47 06 N    55 48 W
Grand Cayman (island)         Cayman Islands       19 20 N    81 20 W
Grand Turk (capital; also     Turks and Caicos     21 28 N    71 08 W
Cockburn Town)                Islands
Great Australian Bight        Indian Ocean         35 00 S    130 00 E
Great Belt (strait; also      Atlantic Ocean       55 30 N    11 00 E
Store Baelt)
Great Bitter Lake             Egypt                30 20 N    32 23 E
Great Britain (island)        United Kingdom       54 00 N    2 00 W
Great Channel                 Indian Ocean         6 25 N     94 20 E
Great Inagua (island)         The Bahamas          21 00 N    73 20 W
Great Rift Valley             Ethiopia, Kenya      0 30 N     36 00 E
Greater Sunda Islands         Brunei, Indonesia,   2 00 S     110 00 E
                              Malaysia
Green Islands                 Papua New Guinea     4 30 S     154 10 E
Greenland Sea                 Arctic Ocean         79 00 N    5 00 W
Grenadines, Northern (island  Saint Vincent and    13 15 N    61 12 W
group)                        the Grenadines
Grenadines, Southern (island  Grenada              12 07 N    61 40 W
group)
Grytviken (town; on South     South Georgia and    54 15 S    36 45 W
Georgia)                      the South Sandwich
                              Islands
Guadalahara (city)            Mexico               20 40 N    103 24 W
Guadalcanal (island)          Solomon Islands      9 32 S     160 12 E
Guadalupe, Isla de (island)   Mexico               29 11 N    118 17 W
Guangzhou (city; also Canton) China                23 09 N    113 21 E
Guantanamo Bay (US Naval      Cuba                 20 00 N    75 08 W
Base)
Guatemala (capital)           Guatemala            14 38 N    90 31 W
Guine-Bissau (local name for  Guinea-Bissau        12 00 N    15 00 W
Guinea-Bissau)
Guinea Ecuatorial (local name Equatorial Guinea    2 00 N     10 00 E
for Equatorial Guinea)
Guinea, Gulf of               Atlantic Ocean       3 00 N     2 30 E
Guinee (local name for        Guinea               11 00 N    10 00 W
Guinea)
Guyane Francaise (local name  French Guiana        4 00 N     53 00 W
for French Guiana)
Ha'apai Group (island group)  Tonga                19 42 S    174 29 W
Habomai Islands               Russia (de facto)    43 30 N    146 10 E
Hadhramaut (region)           Yemen                15 00 N    50 00 E
Hagatna (capital; formerly    Guam                 13 28 N    144 45 E
Agana)
Hague, The (seat of           Netherlands          52 05 N    4 18 E
government)
Haifa (city)                  Israel               32 50 N    35 00 E
Hainan Dao (island)           China                19 00 N    109 30 E
Haiphong (city)               Vietnam              20 52 N    106 41 E
Hala'ib Triangle (region)     Egypt (claimed),     22 30 N    35 00 E
                              Sudan (de facto)
Halifax (city)                Canada               44 39 N    63 36 W
Halmahera (island)            Indonesia            1 00 N     128 00 E
Halmahera Sea                 Pacific Ocean        0 30 S     129 00 E
Hamburg (city)                Germany              53 34 N    9 59 E
Hamilton (capital)            Bermuda              32 17 N    64 46 W
Han-guk (local name for South South Korea          37 00 N    127 30 E
Korea
Hanoi (capital)               Vietnam              21 02 N    105 51 E
Harare (capital)              Zimbabwe             17 50 S    31 03 E
Harvey Islands (former name   Cook Islands         21 14 S    159 46 W
for Cook Islands)
Hatay (province)              Turkey               36 30 N    36 15 E
Havana (capital)              Cuba                 23 08 N    82 22 W
Hawaii (island)               United States        19 45 N    155 45 W
Hawaiian Islands              United States        21 00 N    157 45 W
Hawar (island)                Bahrain              25 40 N    50 47 E
Hayastan (local name for      Armenia              40 00 N    45 00 E
Armenia)
Heard Island                  Heard Island and     53 06 S    73 30 E
                              McDonald Islands
Hejaz (region)                Saudi Arabia         24 30 N    38 30 E
Helsinki (capital)            Finland              60 10 N    24 58 E
Herzegovina (political        Bosnia and           44 00 N    18 00 E
region)                       Herzegovina
Hiiumaa (island)              Estonia              58 50 N    22 30 E
Hispaniola (island)           Dominican Republic,  18 45 N    71 00 W
                              Haiti
Ho Chi Minh City (formerly    Vietnam              10 45 N    106 40 E
Saigon)
Hokkaido (island)             Japan                44 00 N    143 00 E
Holland (region)              Netherlands          52 30 N    5 45 E
Hong Kong (special            Hong Kong            22 15 N    114 10 E
administrative region)
Honiara (capital)             Solomon Islands      9 26 S     159 57 E
Honshu (island)               Japan                36 00 N    138 00 E
Hormuz, Strait of             Indian Ocean         26 34 N    56 15 E
Horn of Africa (region)       Djibouti, Eritrea,   8 00 N     48 00 E
                              Ethiopia, Somalia
Horn, Cape (Cabo de Hornos)   Chile                55 59 S    67 16 W
Horne, Iles de (island group) Wallis and Futuna    14 19 S    178 05 W
Hrvatska (local name for      Croatia              45 10 N    15 30 E
Croatia)
Hudson Bay                    Arctic Ocean         60 00 N    86 00 W
Hudson Strait                 Arctic Ocean         62 00 N    71 00 W
Hunter Island                 New Caledonia,       22 24 S    172 06 E
                              Vanuatu
Iberian Peninsula             Portugal, Spain      40 00 N    5 00 W
Iceland Sea                   Arctic Ocean         68 00 N    20 00 W
Ifni (region; former name of  Morocco              29 22 N    10 09 W
part of Spanish West Africa)
Inaccessible Island           Saint Helena         37 17 S    12 40 W
Indochina (region)            Cambodia, Laos,      15 00 N    107 00 E
                              Vietnam
Ingushetia (region)           Russia               43 15 N    45 00 E
Inhambane (region)            Mozambique           22 30 S    34 30 E
Inini (former name for French French Guiana        4 00 N     53 00 W
Guiana)
Inland Sea                    Japan                34 20 N    133 30 E
Inner Hebrides (islands)      United Kingdom       56 30 N    6 20 W
Inner Mongolia (region; also  China                42 00 N    113 00 E
Nei Mongol)
Ionian Islands                Greece               38 30 N    20 30 E
Ionian Sea                    Atlantic Ocean       38 30 N    18 00 E
Irian Jaya (province)         Indonesia            5 00 S     138 00 E
Irish Sea                     Atlantic Ocean       53 30 N    5 20 W
Iron Gate (river gorge)       Romania, Serbia and  44 41 N    22 31 E
                              Montenegro
Iskenderun (region; formerly  Turkey               36 34 N    36 08 E
Alexandretta)
Islamabad (capital)           Pakistan             33 42 N    73 10 E
Island (local name for        Iceland              65 00 N    18 00 W
Iceland)
Islas Malvinas (island group) Falkland Islands     51 45 S    59 00 W
                              (Islas Malvinas)
Istanbul (city)               Turkey               41 01 N    28 58 E
Istrian Peninsula             Croatia, Slovenia    45 00 N    14 00 E
Italia (local name for Italy) Italy                42 50 N    12 50 E
Italian East Africa (former   Eritrea, Ethiopia,   8 00 N     38 00 E
name for Italian possessions  Somalia
in eastern Africa)
Italian Somaliland (former    Somalia              10 00 N    49 00 E
name for southern Somalia)
Ittihad al-Imarat al-Arabiyah United Arab Emirates 24 00 N    54 00 E
(local name for the United
Arab Emirates)
Iturup (island; see Etorofu)  Russia (de facto)    44 55 N    147 40 E
Ityop'iya (local name for     Ethiopia             8 00 N     38 00 E
Ethiopia)
Ivory Coast (former name for  Cote d'Ivoire        8 00 N     5 00 W
Cote d'Ivoire)
Iwo Jima (island)             Japan                24 47 N    141 20 E
Izmir (region)                Turkey               38 25 N    27 10 E
Jakarta (capital)             Indonesia            6 10 S     106 48 E
James Bay                     Arctic Ocean         54 00 N    80 00 W
Jamestown (capital)           Saint Helena         15 56 S    5 44 W
Jammu (city)                  India                32 42 N    74 52 E
Jammu and Kashmir (region)    India, Pakistan      34 00 N    76 00 E
Japan, Sea of                 Pacific Ocean        40 00 N    135 00 E
Jars, Plain of                Laos                 19 27 N    103 10 E
Java (island)                 Indonesia            7 30 S     110 00 E
Java Sea                      Pacific Ocean        5 00 S     110 00 E
Jerusalem (capital,           Israel, West Bank    31 47 N    35 14 E
proclaimed)
Jiddah, Jeddah (city)         Saudi Arabia         21 30 N    39 12 E
Johannesburg (city)           South Africa         26 15 S    28 00 E
Joseph Bonaparte Gulf         Pacific Ocean        14 00 S    128 45 E
Juan Fernandez, Islas de      Chile                33 00 S    80 00 W
(island group)
Juan de Fuca, Strait of       Pacific Ocean        48 18 N    124 00 W
Jubal, Strait of              Indian Ocean         27 40 N    33 55 E
Judaea (region)               Israel, West Bank    31 35 N    35 00 E
Jugoslavia, Jugoslavija       Bosnia and           43 00 N    21 00 E
(local names for Yugoslavia,  Herzegovina,
a former Balkan federation)   Croatia, Macedonia,
                              Serbia and
                              Montenegro, Slovenia
Jutland (region)              Denmark              56 00 N    9 15 E
Juventud, Isla de la (Isle of Cuba                 21 40 N    82 50 W
Youth)
Kabardino-Balkaria (region)   Russia               43 30 N    43 30 E
Kabul (capital)               Afghanistan          34 31 N    69 12 E
Kaduna (city)                 Nigeria              10 33 N    7 27 E
Kailas Range                  China, India         30 00 N    82 00 E
Kalaallit Nunaat (local name  Greenland            72 00 N    40 00 W
for Greenland)
Kalahari (desert)             Botswana, Namibia    24 30 S    21 00 E
Kalimantan (region)           Indonesia            0 00 N     115 00 E
Kaliningrad (region; formerly Russia               54 30 N    21 00 E
part of East Prussia)
Kamaran (island)              Yemen                15 21 N    42 34 E
Kamchatka Peninsula           Russia               56 00 N    160 00 E
(Poluostrov Kamchatka)
Kampala (capital)             Uganda               0 19 N     32 25 E
Kampuchea (former name for    Cambodia             13 00 N    105 00 E
Cambodia)
Kane Basin (portion of        Arctic Ocean         79 30 N    68 00 W
channel)
Kanton Island                 Kiribati             2 49 S     171 40 W
Kara Sea                      Arctic Ocean         76 00 N    80 00 E
Karachevo-Cherkessia (region) Russia               43 40 N    41 50 E
Karachi (city)                Pakistan             24 51 N    67 03 E
Karafuto (island; former name Russia               50 00 N    143 00 E
for southern Sakhalin Island)
Karakoram Pass                China, India         35 30 N    77 50 E
Karelia, Kareliya (region)    Finland, Russia      63 15 N    30 48 E
Karelian Isthmus              Russia               60 25 N    30 00 E
Karimata Strait               Pacific Ocean        2 05 S     108 40 E
Kashmir (region)              India, Pakistan      34 00 N    76 00 E
Katanga (region)              Democratic Republic  10 00 S    26 00 E
                              of the Congo
Kathmandu (capital)           Nepal                27 43 N    85 19 E
Kattegat (strait)             Atlantic Ocean       57 00 N    11 00 E
Kauai Channel                 Pacific Ocean        21 45 N    158 50 W
Kazakstan (former name for    Kazakhstan           48 00 N    68 00 E
Kazakhstan)
Keeling Islands               Cocos (Keeling)      12 30 S    96 50 E
                              Islands
Kerguelen, Iles (island       French Southern and  49 30 S    69 30 E
group)                        Antarctic Lands
Kermadec Islands              New Zealand          29 50 S    178 15 W
Kerulen River                 China, Mongolia      48 48 N    117 00 E
Khabarovsk (city)             Russia               48 27 N    135 06 E
Khanka, Lake                  China, Russia        45 00 N    132 24 E
Khartoum (capital)            Sudan                15 36 N    32 32 E
Khios (island)                Greece               38 22 N    26 04 E
Khmer Republic (former name   Cambodia             13 00 N    105 00 E
for Cambodia)
Khuriya Muriya Islands (Kuria Oman                 17 30 N    56 00 E
Muria Islands)
Khyber Pass                   Afghanistan,         34 05 N    71 10 E
                              Pakistan
Kibris (Turkish local name    Cyprus               35 00 N    33 00 E
for Cyprus)
Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee       Atlantic Ocean       53 53 N    9 08 E
Kanal)
Kiev (capital)                Ukraine              50 26 N    30 31 E
Kigali (capital)              Rwanda               1 57 S     30 04 E
Kingston (capital)            Jamaica              18 00 N    76 48 W
Kingston (capital)            Norfolk Island       29 03 S    167 58 E
Kingstown (capital)           Saint Vincent and    13 09 N    61 14 W
                              the Grenadines
Kinshasa (capital)            Democratic Republic  4 18 S     15 18 E
                              of the Congo
Kipros (Greek local name for  Cyprus               35 00 N    33 00 E
Cyprus)
Kirghiziya, Kirgizia (former  Kyrgyzstan           41 00 N    75 00 E
name for Kyrgyzstan)
Kirguizstan (local name for   Kyrgyzstan           41 00 N    75 00 E
Kyrgyzstan)
Kiritimati (Christmas Island) Kiribati             1 52 N     157 20 W
Kishinev (see Chisinau)       Moldova              47 00 N    28 50 E
Kithira Strait                Atlantic Ocean       36 00 N    23 00 E
Kobe (city)                   Japan                34 41 N    135 10 E
Kodiak Island                 United States        57 49 N    152 23 W
Kola Peninsula (Kol'skiy      Russia               67 20 N    37 00 E
Poluostrov)
Kolonia (town; former         Federated States of  6 58 N     158 13 E
capital; changed to Palikir)  Micronesia
Korea Bay                     Pacific Ocean        39 00 N    124 00 E
Korea Strait                  Pacific Ocean        34 00 N    129 00 E
Korea, Democratic People's    North Korea          40 00 N    127 00 E
Republic of
Korea, Republic of            South Korea          37 00 N    127 30 E
Koror (capital)               Palau                7 20 N     134 29 E
Kosovo (region)               Serbia               42 30 N    21 00 E
Kosrae (island)               Federated States of  5 20 N     163 00 E
                              Micronesia
Kowloon (city)                Hong Kong            22 18 N    114 10 E
Kra, Isthmus of               Burma, Thailand      10 20 N    99 00 E
Krakatoa (volcano)            Indonesia            6 07 S     105 24 E
Krakow (city)                 Poland               50 03 N    19 56 E
Kuala Lumpur (capital)        Malaysia             3 10 N     101 42 E
Kunashiri (island; also       Russia (de facto)    44 20 N    146 00 E
Kunashir)
Kunlun Mountains              China                36 00 N    84 00 E
Kuril Islands                 Russia (de facto)    46 10 N    152 00 E
Kuwait (capital)              Kuwait               29 20 N    47 59 E
Kuznetsk Basin                Russia               54 00 N    86 00 E
Kwajalein Atoll               Marshall Islands     9 05 N     167 20 E
Kyiv, Kyyiv (see Kiev)        Ukraine              50 26 N    30 31 E
Kyushu (island)               Japan                33 00 N    131 00 E
La Paz (administrative        Bolivia              16 30 S    68 09 W
capital)
La Perouse Strait             Pacific Ocean        45 45 N    142 00 E
Labrador (peninsula, region)  Canada               54 00 N    62 00 W
Labrador Sea                  Atlantic Ocean       60 00 N    55 00 W
Laccadive Islands             India                10 00 N    73 00 E
Laccadive Sea                 Indian Ocean         7 00 N     76 00 E
Lagos (former capital)        Nigeria              6 27 N     3 24 E
Lahore (city)                 Pakistan             31 33 N    74 23 E
Lake Erie                     Atlantic Ocean       42 30 N    81 00 W
Lake Huron                    Atlantic Ocean       45 00 N    83 00 W
Lake Michigan                 Atlantic Ocean       43 30 N    87 30 W
Lake Ontario                  Atlantic Ocean       43 30 N    78 00 W
Lake Superior                 Atlantic Ocean       48 00 N    88 00 W
Lakshadweep (Laccadive        India                10 00 N    73 00 E
Islands)
Lantau Island                 Hong Kong            22 15 N    113 55 E
Lao (local name for Laos)     Laos                 18 00 N    105 00 E
Laptev Sea                    Arctic Ocean         76 00 N    126 00 E
Las Palmas (city)             Spain (Canary        28 06 N    15 24 W
                              Islands)
Latakia (region)              Syria                36 00 N    35 50 E
Latvija (local name for       Latvia               57 00 N    25 00 E
Latvia)
Lau Group (island group)      Fiji                 18 20 S    178 30 E
Lefkosa (see Nicosia)         Cyprus               35 10 N    33 22 E
Leipzig (city)                Germany              51 21 N    12 23 E
Lemnos (island)               Greece               39 54 N    25 21 E
Leningrad (city; former name  Russia               59 55 N    30 15 E
for Saint Petersburg)
Lesser Sunda Islands          Indonesia            9 00 S     120 00 E
Lesvos (island)               Greece               39 15 N    26 15 E
Leyte (island)                Philippines          10 50 N    124 50 E
Liancourt Rocks (claimed by   South Korea          37 15 N    131 50 E
Japan)
Liaodong Wan (gulf)           Pacific Ocean        40 30 N    121 20 E
Liban (local name for         Lebanon              33 50 N    36 50 E
Lebanon)
Libreville (capital)          Gabon                0 23 N     9 27 E
Lietuva (local name for       Lithuania            56 00 N    24 00 E
Lithuania)
Ligurian Sea                  Atlantic Ocean       43 30 N    9 00 E
Lilongwe (capital)            Malawi               13 59 S    33 44 E
Lima (capital)                Peru                 12 03 S    77 03 W
Lincoln Sea                   Arctic Ocean         83 00 N    56 00 W
Line Islands                  Jarvis Island,       0 05 N     157 00 W
                              Kingman Reef,
                              Kiribati, Palmyra
                              Atoll
Lion, Gulf of                 Atlantic Ocean       43 20 N    4 00 E
Lisbon (capital)              Portugal             38 43 N    9 08 W
Little Belt (strait; also     Atlantic Ocean       55 05 N    9 55 E
Lille Baelt)
Ljubljana (capital)           Slovenia             46 03 N    14 31 E
Llanos (region)               Venezuela            8 00 N     68 00 W
Lobamba (city)                Swaziland            26 27 S    31 12 E
Lombok (island)               Indonesia            8 28 S     116 40 E
Lombok Strait                 Indian Ocean         8 30 S     115 50 E
Lome (capital)                Togo                 6 08 N     1 13 E
London (capital)              United Kingdom       51 30 N    0 10 W
Longyearbyen (capital)        Svalbard             78 13 N    15 33 E
Lord Howe Island              Australia            31 30 S    159 00 E
Lorraine (region)             France               48 42 N    6 11 E
Louisiade Archipelago         Papua New Guinea     11 00 S    153 00 E
Lourenco Marques (city;       Mozambique           25 56 S    32 34 E
former name for Maputo)
Loyalty Islands (Iles         New Caledonia        21 00 S    167 00 E
Loyaute)
Luanda (capital)              Angola               8 48 S     13 14 E
Lubnan (local name for        Lebanon              33 50 N    36 50 E
Lebanon)
Lubumbashi (city)             Democratic Republic  11 40 S    27 28 E
                              of the Congo
Lusaka (capital)              Zambia               15 25 S    28 17 E
Luxembourg (capital)          Luxembourg           49 45 N    6 10 E
Luzon (island)                Philippines          16 00 N    121 00 E
Luzon Strait                  Pacific Ocean        20 30 N    121 00 E
Lyakhov Islands               Russia               73 45 N    138 00 E
Macao                         Macau                22 10 N    113 33 E
Macau (special administrative China                22 10 N    113 33 E
region)
Macquarie Island              Australia            54 36 S    158 54 E
Madagasikara (local name for  Madagascar           20 00 S    47 00 E
Madagascar)
Maddalena, Isola              Italy                41 13 N    09 24 E
Madeira Islands               Portugal             32 40 N    16 45 W
Madras (city; see Chennai)    India                13 04 N    80 16 E
Madrid (capital)              Spain                40 24 N    3 41 W
Magellan, Strait of           Atlantic Ocean       54 00 S    71 00 W
Maghreb (region)              Algeria, Libya,      34 00 N    3 00 E
                              Mauritania, Morocco,
                              Tunisia
Magreb (local name for        Morocco              32 00 N    5 00 W
Morocco)
Magyarorszag (local name for  Hungary              47 00 N    20 00 E
Hungary)
Mahe Island                   Seychelles           4 41 S     55 30 E
Maiz, Islas del (Corn         Nicaragua            12 15 N    83 00 W
Islands)
Majorca Island (Isla de       Spain                39 30 N    3 00 E
Mallorca)
Majuro (capital)              Marshall Islands     7 05 N     171 08 E
Makassar Strait               Pacific Ocean        2 00 S     117 30 E
Makedonija (local name for    Macedonia            41 50 N    22 00 E
Macedonia)
Malabo (capital)              Equatorial Guinea    3 45 N     8 47 E
Malacca, Strait of            Indian Ocean         2 30 N     101 20 E
Malagasy Republic             Madagascar           20 00 S    47 00 E
Malay Archipelago             Brunei, Indonesia,   2 30 N     120 00 E
                              Malaysia, Papua New
                              Guinea, Philippines
Malay Peninsula               Malaysia, Thailand   7 10 N     100 35 E
Male (capital)                Maldives             4 10 N     73 31 E
Mallorca, Isla de (island;    Spain                39 30 N    3 00 E
also Majorca)
Malmady (region)              Belgium              50 26 N    6 02 E
Malpelo, Isla de (island)     Colombia             4 00 N     90 30 W
Malta Channel                 Atlantic Ocean       56 44 N    26 53 E
Malvinas, Islas (island       Falkland Islands     51 45 S    59 00 W
group)                        (Islas Malvinas)
Mamoutzou (capital)           Mayotte              12 47 S    45 14 E
Managua (capital)             Nicaragua            12 09 N    86 17 W
Manama (capital)              Bahrain              26 13 N    50 35 E
Manchukuo (former state)      China                44 00 N    124 00 E
Manchuria (region)            China                44 00 N    124 00 E
Manila (capital)              Philippines          14 35 N    121 00 E
Manipa Strait                 Pacific Ocean        3 20 S     127 23 E
Mannar, Gulf of               Indian Ocean         8 30 N     79 00 E
Manua Islands                 American Samoa       14 13 S    169 35 W
Maputo (capital)              Mozambique           25 58 S    32 35 E
Marcus Island (Minami-tori-   Japan                24 16 N    154 00 E
shima)
Margarita, Isla (island)      Venezuela            10 00 N    64 00 W
Mariana Islands               Guam, Northern       16 00 N    145 30 E
                              Mariana Islands
Marie Byrd Land (region)      Antarctica           77 00 S    130 00 W
Marion Island                 South Africa         46 51 S    37 52 E
Marmara, Sea of               Atlantic Ocean       40 40 N    28 15 E
Marquesas Islands (Iles       French Polynesia     9 00 S     139 30 W
Marquises)
Marseille (city)              France               43 18 N    5 23 E
Martin Vaz, Ilhas (island     Brazil               20 30 S    28 51 W
group)
Mas a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Chile                33 38 S    78 52 W
Island)
Mascarene Islands             Mauritius, Reunion   21 00 S    57 00 E
Maseru (capital)              Lesotho              29 28 S    27 30 E
Mata-Utu (capital)            Wallis and Futuna    13 57 S    171 56 W
Matsu (island)                Taiwan               26 13 N    119 56 E
Matthew Island                New Caledonia,       22 20 S    171 20 E
                              Vanuatu
Mauritanie (local name for    Mauritania           20 00 N    12 00 W
Mauritania)
Mazatlan (city)               Mexico               23 13 N    106 25 W
Mbabane (capital)             Swaziland            26 18 S    31 06 E
McDonald Islands              Heard Island and     53 06 S    73 30 E
                              McDonald Islands
Mecca (city)                  Saudi Arabia         21 27 N    39 49 E
Mediterranean Sea             Atlantic Ocean       36 00 N    15 00 E
Melbourne (city)              Australia            37 49 S    144 58 E
Melilla (exclave)             Spain                35 19 N    2 58 W
Memel (region)                Lithuania            55 43 N    21 30 E
Mesopotamia (region)          Iraq                 33 00 N    44 00 E
Messina, Strait of            Atlantic Ocean       38 15 N    15 35 E
Mexico City (capital)         Mexico               19 24 N    99 09 W
Mexico, Gulf of               Atlantic Ocean       25 00 N    90 00 W
Middle Congo (former name for Republic of the      1 00 S     15 00 E
Republic of the Congo)        Congo
Milan (city)                  Italy                45 28 N    9 11 E
Milwaukee Deep (Puerto Rico   Atlantic Ocean       19 55 N    65 27 W
Trench)
Minami-tori-shima (Marcus     Japan                24 16 N    154 00 E
Island)
Mindanao (island)             Philippines          8 00 N     125 00 E
Mindanao Sea                  Pacific Ocean        9 15 N     124 30 E
Mindoro (island)              Philippines          12 50 N    121 05 E
Mindoro Strait                Pacific Ocean        12 20 N    120 40 E
Mingrelia (region)            Georgia              42 30 N    41 52 E
Minicoy Island                India                8 17 N     73 02 E
Minorca Island (Isla de       Spain                40 00 N    4 00 E
Menorca)
Minsk (capital)               Belarus              53 54 N    27 34 E
Misr (local name for Egypt)   Egypt                27 00 N    30 00 E
Mitla Pass                    Egypt                30 02 N    32 54 E
Mocambique (local name for    Mozambique           18 15 S    35 00 E
Mozambique)
Mogadishu (capital)           Somalia              2 04 N     45 22 E
Moldavia (region)             Moldova, Romania     47 00 N    29 00 E
Molucca Sea                   Pacific Ocean        2 00 N     127 00 E
Moluccas (Spice Islands)      Indonesia            2 00 S     128 00 E
Mombasa (city)                Kenya                4 03 S     39 40 E
Mona Passage                  Atlantic Ocean       18 30 N    67 45 W
Monaco (capital)              Monaco               43 44 N    7 25 E
Mongol Uls (local name for    Mongolia             46 00 N    105 00 E
Mongolia)
Monrovia (capital)            Liberia              6 18 N     10 47 W
Monterrey (city)              Mexico               25 40 N    100 19 W
Montevideo (capital)          Uruguay              34 53 S    56 11 W
Montreal (city)               Canada               45 31 N    73 34 W
Moravia (region)              Czech Republic       49 30 N    17 00 E
Moravian Gate (pass)          Czech Republic       49 35 N    17 50 E
Moroni (capital)              Comoros              11 41 S    43 16 E
Mortlock Islands (Nomoi       Federated States of  5 30 N     153 40 E
Islands)                      Micronesia
Moscow (capital)              Russia               55 45 N    37 35 E
Mount Pinatubo (volcano)      Philippines          15 08 N    120 21 E
Mozambique Channel            Indian Ocean         19 00 S    41 00 E
Mumbai (city; also Bombay)    India                18 58 N    72 50 E
Munich, Muenchen (city)       Germany              48 08 N    11 35 E
Muritaniyah (local name for   Mauritania           20 00 N    12 00 W
Mauritania)
Musandam Peninsula            Oman, United Arab    26 18 N    56 24 E
                              Emirates
Muscat (capital)              Oman                 23 37 N    58 35 E
Muscat and Oman (former name  Oman                 21 00 N    57 00 E
for Oman)
Myanma, Myanmar               Burma                22 00 N    98 00 E
N'Djamena (capital)           Chad                 12 07 N    15 03 E
Nagorno-Karabakh (region)     Azerbaijan           40 00 N    46 40 E
Nairobi (capital)             Kenya                1 17 S     36 49 E
Namib (desert)                Namibia              24 00 S    15 00 E
Nampo-shoto (island group)    Japan                30 00 N    140 00 E
Nan Madol (ruins)             Federated States of  6 85 N     158 35 E
                              Micronesia
Naples (city)                 Italy                40 51 N    14 15 E
Nassau (capital)              The Bahamas          25 05 N    77 21 W
Natal (region)                South Africa         29 00 S    30 25 E
Natuna Besar Islands          Indonesia            3 30 N     102 30 E
Natuna Sea                    Pacific Ocean        3 30 N     108 00 E
Naxcivan (region)             Azerbaijan           39 20 N    45 20 E
Naxos (island)                Greece               37 05 N    25 30 E
Nederland (local name for the Netherlands          52 30 N    5 45 E
Netherlands)
Nederlandse Antillen (local   Netherlands Antilles 12 15 N    68 45 W
name for the Netherlands
Antilles)
Negev (region)                Israel               30 30 N    34 55 E
Negros (island)               Philippines          10 00 N    123 00 E
Nejd (region)                 Saudi Arabia         24 05 N    45 15 E
Netherlands East Indies       Indonesia            5 00 S     120 00 E
(former name for Indonesia)
Netherlands Guiana (former    Suriname             4 00 N     56 00 W
name for Suriname)
Nevis (island)                Saint Kitts and      17 09 N    62 35 W
                              Nevis
New Britain (island)          Papua New Guinea     6 00 S     150 00 E
New Delhi (capital)           India                28 36 N    77 12 E
New Guinea (island)           Indonesia, Papua New 5 00 S     140 00 E
                              Guinea
New Hebrides (island group)   Vanuatu              16 00 S    167 00 E
New Ireland (island)          Papua New Guinea     3 20 N     152 00 E
New Siberian Islands          Russia               75 00 N    142 00 E
New Territories (mainland     Hong Kong            22 24 N    114 10 E
region)
Newfoundland (island, with    Canada               52 00 N    56 00 W
mainland area, and a
province)
Niamey (capital)              Niger                13 31 N    2 07 E
Nicobar Islands               India                8 00 N     93 30 E
Nicosia (capital; also        Cyprus               35 10 N    33 22 E
Lefkosia)
Nightingale Island            Saint Helena         37 25 S    12 30 W
Nihon, Nippon (local name for Japan                36 00 N    138 00 E
Japan)
Nomoi Islands (Mortlock       Federated States of  5 30 N     153 40 E
Islands)                      Micronesia
Norge (local name for Norway) Norway               62 00 N    10 00 E
Norman Isles (Channel         Guernsey, Jersey     49 20 N    2 20 W
Islands)
North Atlantic Ocean          Atlantic Ocean       30 00 N    45 00 W
North Channel                 Atlantic Ocean       55 10 N    5 40 W
North Frisian Islands         Denmark, Germany     54 50 N    8 12 E
North Greenland Sea           Arctic Ocean         78 00 N    5 00 W
North Island                  New Zealand          39 00 S    176 00 E
North Ossetia (region)        Russia               43 00 N    44 10 E
North Pacific Ocean           Pacific Ocean        30 00 N    165 00 W
North Sea                     Atlantic Ocean       56 00 N    4 00 E
North Vietnam (former name    Vietnam              23 00 N    106 00 E
for northern portion of
Vietnam)
North Yemen (Yemen Arab       Yemen                15 00 N    44 00 E
Republic; now part of Yemen)
Northeast Providence Channel  Atlantic Ocean       25 40 N    77 09 W
Northern Areas                Pakistan             36 0 N     75 0 E
Northern Cyprus (region)      Cyprus               35 15 N    33 44 E
Northern Epirus (region)      Albania, Greece      40 00 N    20 30 E
Northern Grenadines           Saint Vincent and    12 45 N    61 15 W
(political region)            the Grenadines
Northern Ireland              United Kingdom       54 40 N    6 45 W
Northern Rhodesia (former     Zambia               15 00 S    30 00 E
name for Zambia)
Northwest Passages            Arctic Ocean         74 40 N    100 00 W
Norwegian Sea                 Atlantic Ocean       66 00 N    6 00 E
Nouakchott (capital)          Mauritania           18 06 N    15 57 W
Noumea (capital)              New Caledonia        22 16 S    166 27 E
Nouvelle-Caledonie (local     New Caledonia        21 30 S    165 30 E
name for New Caledonia)
Nouvelles Hebrides (former    Vanuatu              16 00 S    167 00 E
name for Vanuatu)
Novaya Zemlya (islands)       Russia               74 00 N    57 00 E
Nubia (region)                Egypt, Sudan         20 30 N    33 00 E
Nuku'alofa (capital)          Tonga                21 08 S    175 12 W
Nunavut (region)              Canada               72 00 N    90 00 W
Nuuk (capital; also Godthab)  Greenland            64 11 N    51 44 W
Nyasaland (former name for    Malawi               13 30 S    34 00 E
Malawi)
Nyassa (region)               Mozambique           13 30 S    37 00 E
Oahu (island)                 United States        21 30 N    158 00 W
                              (Hawaii)
Ocean Island (Banaba)         Kiribati             0 52 S     169 35 E
Ocean Island (Kure Island)    United States        28 25 N    178 20 W
Oesterreich (local name for   Austria              47 20 N    13 20 E
Austria)
Ogaden (region)               Ethiopia, Somalia    7 00 N     46 00 E
Oil Islands (Chagos           British Indian Ocean 6 00 S     71 30 E
Archipelago)                  Territory
Okhotsk, Sea of               Pacific Ocean        53 00 N    150 00 E
Okinawa (island group)        Japan                26 30 N    128 00 E
Oland (island)                Sweden               56 45 N    16 40 E
Oman, Gulf of                 Indian Ocean         24 30 N    58 30 E
Ombai Strait                  Pacific Ocean        8 30 S     125 00 E
Oran (city)                   Algeria              35 43 N    0 43 W
Orange River Colony (region;  South Africa         28 20 S    26 40 E
former name of Free State
Province of South Africa)
Oranjestad (capital)          Aruba                12 33 N    70 06 W
Oresund (The Sound) (strait)  Atlantic Ocean       55 50 N    12 40 E
Orkney Islands                United Kingdom       59 00 N    3 00 W
Osaka (city)                  Japan                34 42 N    135 30 E
Oslo (capital)                Norway               59 55 N    10 45 E
Osumi Strait (Van Diemen      Pacific Ocean        31 00 N    131 00 E
Strait)
Otranto, Strait of            Atlantic Ocean       40 00 N    19 00 E
Ottawa (capital)              Canada               45 25 N    75 40 W
Ouagadougou (capital)         Burkina Faso         12 22 N    1 31 W
Outer Hebrides (islands)      United Kingdom       57 45 N    7 00 W
Outer Mongolia (region)       Mongolia             46 00 N    105 00 E
P'yongyang (capital)          North Korea          39 01 N    125 45 E
Pacific Islands, Trust        Marshall Islands,    10 00 N    155 00 E
Territory of the (former name Federated States of
of a large area of the        Micronesia, Northern
western North Pacific Ocean)  Mariana Islands,
                              Palau
Pagan (island)                Northern Mariana     18 08 N    145 47 E
                              Islands
Pago Pago (capital)           American Samoa       14 16 S    170 42 W
Palawan (island)              Philippines          9 30 N     118 30 E
Palermo (city)                Italy                38 07 N    13 21 E
Palestine (region)            Israel, West Bank    32 00 N    35 15 E
Palikir (capital)             Federated States of  6 55 N     158 08 E
                              Micronesia
Palk Strait                   Indian Ocean         10 00 N    79 45 E
Pamirs (mountains)            China, Tajikistan    38 00 N    73 00 E
Pampas (region)               Argentina            35 00 S    63 00 W
Panama (capital)              Panama               8 58 N     79 32 W
Panama Canal                  Panama               9 00 N     79 45 W
Panama, Gulf of               Pacific Ocean        8 00 N     79 30 W
Panay (island)                Philippines          11 15 N    122 30 E
Pantelleria, Isola di         Italy                36 47 N    12 00 E
(island)
Papeete (capital)             French Polynesia     17 32 S    149 34 W
Paramaribo (capital)          Suriname             5 50 N     55 10 W
Parece Vela (island)          Japan                20 20 N    136 00 E
Paris (capital)               France               48 52 N    2 20 E
Pascua, Isla de (Easter       Chile                27 07 S    109 22 W
Island)
Pashtunistan (region)         Afghanistan,         32 00 N    69 00 E
                              Pakistan
Passion, Ile de la (island)   Clipperton Island    10 17 N    109 13 W
Patagonia (region)            Argentina            48 00 S    61 00 W
Peking (see Beijing)          China                39 56 N    116 24 E
Pelagian Islands (Isole       Italy                35 40 N    12 40 E
Pelagie)
Peleliu (Beliliou) (island)   Palau                7 01 N     134 15 E
Peloponnese (peninsula)       Greece               37 30 N    22 25 E
Pemba Island                  Tanzania             5 20 S     39 45 E
Penang Island                 Malaysia             5 23 N     100 15 E
Pentland Firth (channel)      Atlantic Ocean       58 44 N    3 13 W
Perim (island)                Yemen                12 39 N    43 25 E
Perouse Strait, La            Pacific Ocean        44 45 N    142 00 E
Persia (former name for Iran) Iran                 32 00 N    53 00 E
Persian Gulf                  Indian Ocean         27 00 N    51 00 E
Perth (city)                  Australia            31 56 S    115 50 E
Pescadores (islands)          Taiwan               23 30 N    119 30 E
Peshawar (city)               Pakistan             34 01 N    71 40 E
Peter I Island                Antarctica           68 48 S    90 35 W
Petrograd (city; former name  Russia               59 55 N    30 15 E
for Saint Petersburg)
Philip Island                 Norfolk Island       29 08 S    167 57 E
Philippine Sea                Pacific Ocean        20 00 N    134 00 E
Phnom Penh (capital)          Cambodia             11 33 N    104 55 E
Phoenix Islands               Kiribati             3 30 S     172 00 W
Pinatubo, Mount (volcano)     Philippines          15 08 N    120 21 E
Pines, Isle of (island;       Cuba                 21 40 N    82 50 W
former name for Isla de la
Juventud)
Pleasant Island               Nauru                0 32 S     166 55 E
Plymouth (capital)            Montserrat           16 44 N    62 14 W
Podgorica (administrative     Montenegro           42 26 N    19 16 E
capital)
Polska (local name)           Poland               52 00 N    20 00 E
Polynesie Francaise (local    French Polynesia     15 00 S    140 00 W
name for French Polynesia)
Pomerania (region)            Germany, Poland      53 40 N    15 35 E
Ponape (Pohnpei) (island)     Federated States of  6 55 N     158 15 E
                              Micronesia
Port Louis (capital)          Mauritius            20 10 S    57 30 E
Port Moresby (capital)        Papua New Guinea     9 30 S     147 10 E
Port-Vila (capital)           Vanuatu              17 44 S    168 19 E
Port-au-Prince (capital)      Haiti                18 32 N    72 20 W
Port-of-Spain (capital)       Trinidad and Tobago  10 39 N    61 31 W
Porto-Novo (capital)          Benin                6 29 N     2 37 E
Portuguese East Africa        Mozambique           18 15 S    35 00 E
(former name for Mozambique)
Portuguese Guinea (former     Guinea-Bissau        12 00 N    15 00 W
name for Guinea-Bissau)
Portuguese Timor (former name East Timor           9 00 S     126 00 E
for East Timor)
Poznan (city)                 Poland               52 25 N    16 55 E
Prague (capital)              Czech Republic       40 55 N    21 00 E
Praia (capital)               Cape Verde           14 55 N    23 31 W
Prathet Thai (local name for  Thailand             15 00 N    100 00 E
Thailand)
Pretoria (administrative      South Africa         25 45 S    28 10 E
capital)
Prevlaka peninsula            Croatia              42 24 N    18 31 E
Pribilof Islands              United States        57 00 N    170 00 W
Prince Edward Island          Canada               46 20 N    63 20 W
Prince Edward Islands         South Africa         46 35 S    38 00 E
Prince Patrick Island         Canada               76 30 N    119 00 W
Principe (island)             Sao Tome and         1 38 N     7 25 E
                              Principe
Prussia (region)              Germany, Poland,     53 00 N    14 00 E
                              Russia
Pukapuka Atoll                Cook Islands         10 53 S    165 49 W
Punjab (region)               India, Pakistan      30 50 N    73 30 E
Puntland (region)             Somalia              8 21 N     49 08 E
Qazaqstan (local name for     Kazakhstan           48 00 N    68 00 E
Kazakhstan)
Qita Ghazzah (local name Gaza Gaza Strip           31 25 N    34 20 E
Strip)
Quebec (city)                 Canada               46 48 N    71 15 W
Queen Charlotte Islands       Canada               53 00 N    132 00 W
Queen Elizabeth Islands       Canada               78 00 N    95 00 W
Queen Maud Land (claimed by   Antarctica           73 30 S    12 00 E
Norway)
Quemoy (island)               Taiwan               24 27 N    118 23 E
Quito (capital)               Ecuador              0 13 S     78 30 W
Rabat (capital)               Morocco              34 02 N    6 51 W
Ralik Chain (island group)    Marshall Islands     8 00 N     167 00 E
Rangoon (capital; also        Burma                16 47 N    96 10 E
Yangon)
Rapa Nui (Easter Island)      Chile                27 07 S    109 22 W
Ratak Chain (island group)    Marshall Islands     9 00 N     171 00 E
Red Sea                       Indian Ocean         20 00 N    38 00 E
Redonda (island)              Antigua and Barbuda  16 55 N    62 19 W
Republica Dominicana (local   Dominican Republic   19 00 N    70 40 W
name for Dominican Republic)
Republique Centrafricain      Central African      7 00 N     21 00 E
(local name for Central       Republic
African Republic)
Republique Francaise (local   France               46 00 N    2 00 E
name for France)
Republique Gabonaise (local   Gabon                1 00 S     11 45 E
name for Gabon)
Republique Rwandaise (local   Rwanda               2 00 S     30 00 E
name for Rwanda)
Republique Togolaise (local   Togo                 8 00 N     1 10 E
name for Togo)
Revillagigedo Island          United States        55 35 N    131 06 W
                              (Alaska)
Revillagigedo Islands         Mexico               19 00 N    112 45 W
Reykjavik (capital)           Iceland              64 09 N    21 57 W
Rhodes (island)               Greece               36 10 N    28 00 E
Rhodesia, Northern (former    Zambia               15 00 S    30 00 E
name for Zambia)
Rhodesia, Southern (former    Zimbabwe             20 00 S    30 00 E
name for Zimbabwe)
Riga (capital)                Latvia               56 57 N    24 06 E
Riga, Gulf of                 Atlantic Ocean       57 30 N    23 30 E
Rio Muni (mainland region)    Equatorial Guinea    1 30 N     10 00 E
Rio de Janiero (city)         Brazil               22 55 S    43 17 W
Rio de Oro (region)           Western Sahara       23 45 N    15 45 W
Rio de la Plata (gulf)        Atlantic Ocean       35 00 S    59 00 W
Riyadh (capital)              Saudi Arabia         24 38 N    46 43 E
Road Town (capital)           British Virgin       18 27 N    64 37 W
                              Islands
Robinson Crusoe Island (Mas a Chile                33 38 S    78 52 W
Tierra)
Rocas, Atol das (island)      Brazil               3 51 S     33 49 W
Rockall (island)              United Kingdom       57 35 N    13 48 W
Rodrigues (island)            Mauritius            19 42 S    63 25 E
Rome (capital)                Italy                41 54 N    12 29 E
Roncador Cay (island)         Colombia             13 32 N    80 03 W
Roosevelt Island              Antarctica           79 30 S    162 00 W
Roseau (capital)              Dominica             15 18 N    61 24 W
Ross Dependency (claimed by   Antarctica           80 00 S    180 00 E
New Zealand)
Ross Island                   Antarctica           81 30 S    175 00 W
Ross Sea                      Antarctica, Southern 76 00 S    175 00 W
                              Ocean
Rossiya (local name for       Russia               60 00 N    100 00 E
Russia)
Rota (island)                 Northern Mariana     14 10 N    145 12 E
                              Islands
Rotuma (island)               Fiji                 12 30 S    177 05 E
Ruanda (former name for       Rwanda               2 00 S     30 00 E
Rwanda)
Rub al Khali (desert)         Saudi Arabia         19 30 N    49 00 E
Rumelia (region)              Albania, Bulgaria,   42 00 N    22 30 E
                              Macedonia
Ruthenia (region; former name Ukraine              48 22 N    23 32 E
for Carpatho-Ukraine)
Ryukyu Islands                Japan                26 30 N    128 00 E
Saar (region)                 Germany              49 25 N    7 00 E
Saaremaa (island)             Estonia              58 25 N    22 30 E
Saba (island)                 Netherlands Antilles 17 38 N    63 10 W
Sabah (state)                 Malaysia             5 20 N     117 10 E
Sable Island                  Canada               43 55 N    59 50 W
Safety Islands (Iles du       French Guiana        5 20 N     52 37 W
Salut)
Sahara Occidental (former     Western Sahara       24 30 N    13 00 W
name for Western Sahara)
Sahel (region)                Burkina Faso, Chad,  15 00 N    8 00 W
                              The Gambia, Guinea-
                              Bissau, Mali,
                              Mauritania, Niger,
                              Senegal
Saigon (city; former name for Vietnam              10 45 N    106 40 E
Ho Chi Minh City)
Saint Barthelemy (island;     Guadeloupe           17 55 N    62 52 W
also Saint Bart's)
Saint Brandon (Cargados       Mauritius            16 25 S    59 38 E
Carajos Shoals)
Saint Christopher (island)    Saint Kitts and      17 20 N    62 45 W
                              Nevis
Saint Christopher and Nevis   Saint Kitts and      17 20 N    62 45 W
                              Nevis
Saint Eustatius (island)      Netherlands Antilles 17 30 N    63 00 W
Saint George's (capital)      Grenada              12 03 N    61 45 W
Saint George's Channel        Atlantic Ocean       52 00 N    6 00 W
Saint Helena Island           Saint Helena         15 57 S    5 42 W
Saint Helens, Mount (volcano) United States        46 15 N    122 12 W
Saint Helier (capital)        Jersey               49 12 N    2 07 W
Saint John (city)             Canada (New          45 16 N    66 04 W
                              Brunswick)
Saint John's (capital)        Antigua and Barbuda  17 06 N    61 51 W
Saint Lawrence Island         United States        49 30 N    67 00 W
Saint Lawrence Seaway         Atlantic Ocean       49 15 N    67 00 W
Saint Lawrence, Gulf of       Atlantic Ocean       48 00 N    62 00 W
Saint Paul Island             Canada               47 12 N    60 09 W
Saint Paul Island             United States        57 11 N    170 16 W
Saint Paul Island (Ile Saint- French Southern and  38 43 S    77 29 E
Paul)                         Antarctic Lands
Saint Peter Port (capital)    Guernsey             49 27 N    2 32 W
Saint Peter and Saint Paul    Brazil               0 23 N     29 23 W
Rocks (Penedos de Sao Pedro e
Sao Paulo)
Saint Petersburg (city;       Russia               59 55 N    30 15 E
former capital)
Saint Thomas (island)         Virgin Islands       18 21 N    64 55 W
Saint Vincent Passage         Atlantic Ocean       13 30 N    61 00 W
Saint-Denis (capital)         Reunion              20 52 S    55 28 E
Saint-Martin (island; also    Guadeloupe           18 04 N    63 04 W
Sint Maarten)
Saint-Pierre (capital)        Saint Pierre and     46 46 N    56 11 W
                              Miquelon
Saipan (island)               Northern Mariana     15 12 N    145 45 E
                              Islands
Sak'art'velo (local name for  Georgia              42 00 N    43 30 E
Georgia)
Sakhalin Island (Ostrov       Russia               51 00 N    143 00 E
Sakhalin)
Sakishima Islands             Japan                24 30 N    124 00 E
Sala y Gomez, Isla (island)   Chile                26 28 S    105 00 W
Salisbury (city; former name  Zimbabwe             17 50 S    105 00 W
for Harare)
Salzburg (city)               Austria              47 48 N    13 02 E
Samar (island)                Philippines          12 00 N    125 00 E
Samaria (region)              West Bank            32 15 N    35 10 E
Samoa Islands                 American Samoa,      14 00 S    171 00 W
                              Samoa
Samos (island)                Greece               37 48 N    26 44 E
San Ambrosio, Isla (island)   Chile                26 21 S    79 52 W
San Andres y Providencia,     Colombia             13 00 N    81 30 W
Archipielago (island group)
San Bernardino Strait         Pacific Ocean        12 32 N    124 10 E
San Felix, Isla (island)      Chile                26 17 S    80 05 W
San Jose (capital)            Costa Rica           9 56 N     84 05 W
San Juan (capital)            Puerto Rico          18 28 N    66 07 W
San Marino (capital)          San Marino           43 56 N    12 25 E
San Salvador (capital)        El Salvador          13 42 N    89 12 W
Sanaa (capital)               Yemen                15 21 N    44 12 E
Sandzak (region)              Montenegro, Serbia   43 05 N    19 45 E
Santa Cruz (city)             Bolivia              17 48 S    63 10 W
Santa Cruz Islands            Solomon Islands      11 00 S    166 15 E
Santa Sede (local name for    Holy See             41 54 N    12 27 E
the Holy See)
Santiago (capital)            Chile                33 27 S    70 40 W
Santo Antao (island)          Cape Verde           17 05 N    25 10 W
Santo Domingo (capital)       Dominican Republic   18 28 N    69 54 W
Sao Paulo (city)              Brazil               23 35 S    46 43 W
Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo,        Brazil               0 23 N     29 23 W
Penedos de (rocks)
Sao Tiago (island)            Cape Verde           15 05 N    23 40 W
Sao Tome (island)             Sao Tome and         0 12 N     6 39 E
                              Principe
Sapporo (city)                Japan                43 04 N    141 20 E
Sapudi Strait                 Pacific Ocean        7 05 S     114 10 E
Sarajevo (capital)            Bosnia and           43 52 N    18 25 E
                              Herzegovina
Sarawak (state)               Malaysia             2 30 N     113 30 E
Sardinia (island)             Italy                40 00 N    9 00 E
Sargasso Sea (region)         Atlantic Ocean       30 00 N    55 00 W
Sark (island)                 Guernsey             49 26 N    2 21 W
Savage Island (former name    Niue                 19 02 S    169 52 W
for Niue)
Savu Sea                      Pacific Ocean        9 30 S     122 00 E
Saxony (region)               Germany              51 00 N    13 00 E
Schleswig-Holstein (region)   Germany              54 31 N    9 33 E
Schweiz (local German name    Switzerland          47 00 N    8 00 E
for Switzerland)
Scopus, Mount                 Israel, West Bank    31 48 N    35 14 E
Scotia Sea                    Atlantic Ocean,      56 00 S    40 00 W
                              Southern Ocean
Scotland (region)             United Kingdom       57 00 N    4 00 W
Scott Island                  Antarctica           67 24 S    179 55 W
Senegambia (region; former    The Gambia, Senegal  13 50 N    15 25 W
name of confederation of
Senegal and The Gambia)
Senyavin Islands              Federated States of  6 55 N     158 00 E
                              Micronesia
Seoul (capital)               South Korea          37 34 N    127 00 E
Serendib (former name for Sri Sri Lanka            7 00 N     81 00 E
Lanka)
Serrana Bank (shoal)          Colombia             14 25 N    80 16 W
Serranilla Bank (shoal)       Colombia             15 51 N    79 46 W
Settlement, The (capital)     Christmas Island     18 44 N    64 19 W
Severnaya Zemlya (island      Russia               79 30 N    98 00 E
group; also Northland)
Shaba (region)                Democratic Republic  8 00 S     27 00 E
                              of the Congo
Shag Island                   Heard Island and     53 00 S    72 30 E
                              McDonald Islands
Shag Rocks                    South Georgia and    53 33 S    42 02 W
                              the South Sandwich
                              Islands
Shanghai (city)               China                31 14 N    121 30 E
Shenyang (city; also Mukden)  China                41 46 N    123 24 E
Shetland Islands              United Kingdom       60 30 N    1 30 W
Shikoku (island)              Japan                33 45 N    133 30 E
Shikotan (island)             Russia (de facto)    43 47 N    146 45 E
Shqiperia (local name for     Albania              41 00 N    20 00 E
Albania)
Siam (former name for         Thailand             15 00 N    100 00 E
Thailand)
Siberia (region)              Russia               60 00 N    100 00 E
Sibutu Passage                Pacific Ocean        4 50 N     119 35 E
Sicily (island)               Italy                37 30 N    14 00 E
Sicily, Strait of             Atlantic Ocean       37 20 N    11 20 E
Sidra, Gulf of                Atlantic Ocean       31 30 N    18 00 E
Sikkim (state)                India                27 50 N    88 30 E
Silesia (region)              Czech Republic,      51 00 N    17 00 E
                              Germany, Poland
Sinai Peninsula               Egypt                29 30 N    34 00 E
Singapore (capital)           Singapore            1 17 N     103 51 E
Singapore Strait              Pacific Ocean        1 15 N     104 00 E
Sinkiang (autonomous region;  China                42 00 N    86 00 E
also Xinjiang)
Sint Eustatius (island)       Netherlands Antilles 17 29 N    62 58 W
Sint Maarten (island; also    Netherlands Antilles 18 04 N    63 04 W
Saint-Martin)
Sjaelland (island)            Denmark              55 30 N    12 00 E
Skagerrak (strait)            Atlantic Ocean       57 45 N    9 00 E
Skopje (capital)              Macedonia            41 59 N    21 26 E
Slavonia (region)             Croatia              45 27 N    18 00 E
Slovenija (local name for     Slovenia             46 00 N    15 00 E
Slovenia)
Slovensko (local name for     Slovakia             48 40 N    19 30 E
Slovakia)
Smyrna (region; former name   Turkey               38 25 N    27 10 E
for Izmir)
Society Islands (Iles de la   French Polynesia     17 00 S    150 00 W
Societe)
Socotra (island)              Yemen                12 30 N    54 00 E
Sofia (capital)               Bulgaria             42 41 N    23 19 E
Solomon Islands, northern     Papua New Guinea     6 00 S     155 00 E
Solomon Islands, southern     Solomon Islands      8 00 S     159 00 E
Solomon Sea                   Pacific Ocean        8 00 S     153 00 E
Somaliland (region)           Somalia              9 30 N     46 00 E
Somers Islands (former name   Bermuda              32 20 N    64 45 W
for Bermuda)
Songkhla (city)               Thailand             7 12 N     100 36 E
Sound, The (strait; also      Atlantic Ocean       55 50 N    12 40 E
Oresund)
South Atlantic Ocean          Atlantic Ocean       30 00 S    15 00 W
South China Sea               Pacific Ocean        10 00 N    113 00 E
South Georgia (island)        South Georgia and    54 15 S    36 45 W
                              the South Sandwich
                              Islands
South Island                  New Zealand          43 00 S    171 00 E
South Korea                   South Korea          37 00 N    127 30 E
South Orkney Islands          Antarctica           61 00 S    45 00 W
South Ossetia (region)        Georgia              42 20 N    44 00 E
South Pacific Ocean           Pacific Ocean        30 00 S    130 00 W
South Sandwich Islands        South Georgia and    57 45 S    26 30 W
                              the South Sandwich
                              Islands
South Shetland Islands        Antarctica           62 00 S    59 00 W
South Tyrol (region)          Italy                46 30 N    10 30 E
South Vietnam (former name    Vietnam              12 00 N    108 00 E
for the southern portion of
Vietnam)
South Yemen (People's         Yemen                14 00 N    48 00 E
Democratic Republic of Yemen;
now part of Yemen)
South-West Africa (former     Namibia              22 00 S    17 00 E
name for Namibia)
Southern Grenadines (island   Grenada              12 20 N    61 30 W
group)
Southern Rhodesia (former     Zimbabwe             20 00 S    30 00 E
name for Zimbabwe)
Soviet Union (former name of  Armenia, Azerbaijan,
a large Eurasian empire,      Belarus, Estonia,
roughly coequal with the      Georgia, Kazakhstan,
former Russian Empire)        Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
                              Lithuania, Moldova,
                              Russia, Tajikistan,
                              Turkmenistan,
                              Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Spanish Guinea (former name   Equatorial Guinea    2 00 N     10 00 E
for Equatorial Guinea)
Spanish Morocco (former name  Morocco              32 00 N    7 00 W
for northern Morocco)
Spanish North Africa          Spain (Ceuta, Islas  35 15 N    4 00 W
(exclaves)                    Chafarinas, Melilla,
                              Penon de Alhucemas,
                              Penon de Velez de la
                              Gomera)
Spanish Sahara (former name)  Western Sahara       24 30 N    13 00 W
Spanish West Africa (former   Morocco, Western     25 00 N    13 00 W
name for Ifni and Spanish     Sahara
Sahara)
Spice Islands (Moluccas)      Indonesia            2 00 S     28 00 E
Spitsbergen (island)          Svalbard             78 00 N    20 00 E
St. John's (city)             Canada               47 34 N    52 43 W
                              (Newfoundland)
Stanley (capital)             Falkland Islands     51 42 S    57 41 W
                              (Islas Malvinas)
Stockholm (capital)           Sweden               59 20 N    18 03 E
Strasbourg (city)             France               48 35 N    7 44 E
Stuttgart (city)              Germany              48 46 N    9 11 E
Sucre (constitutional         Bolivia              19 02 S    65 17 W
capital)
Suez Canal                    Egypt                29 55 N    32 33 E
Suez, Gulf of                 Indian Ocean         28 10 N    33 27 E
Suisse (local French name for Switzerland          47 00 N    8 00 E
Switzerland)
Sulawesi (island; Celebes)    Indonesia            2 00 S     121 00 E
Sulawesi Sea                  Pacific Ocean        3 00 N     122 00 E
Sulu Archipelago (island      Philippines          6 00 N     121 00 E
group)
Sulu Sea                      Pacific Ocean        8 00 N     120 00 E
Sumatra (island)              Indonesia            0 00 N     102 00 E
Sumba (island)                Indonesia            10 00 S    120 00 E
Sumba Strait                  Pacific Ocean        9 10 S     120 00 E
Sumbawa (island)              Indonesia            8 30 S     118 00 E
Sunda Islands (Soenda Isles)  Indonesia, Malaysia  2 00 S     110 00 E
Sunda Strait                  Indian Ocean         6 00 S     105 45 E
Suomi (local name for         Finland              64 00 N    26 00 E
Finland)
Surabaya (city)               Indonesia            7 13 S     112 45 E
Surigao Strait                Pacific Ocean        10 15 N    125 23 E
Surinam (former name for      Suriname             4 00 N     56 00 W
Suriname)
Suriyah (local name for       Syria                35 00 N    38 00 E
Syria)
Surtsey (volcanic island)     Iceland              63 17 N    20 40 W
Suva (capital)                Fiji                 18 08 S    178 25 E
Sverdlovsk (city; also        Russia               56 50 N    60 39 E
Yekaterinburg)
Sverige (local name for       Sweden               62 00 N    15 00 E
Sweden)
Svizzera (local Italian name  Switzerland          47 00 N    8 00 E
for Switzerland)
Swains Island                 American Samoa       11 03 S    171 15 W
Swan Islands                  Honduras             17 25 S    83 56 W
Sydney (city)                 Australia            33 53 S    151 13 E
T'bilisi (capital)            Georgia              41 43 N    44 49 E
Tadzhikistan (former name for Tajikistan           39 00 N    71 00 E
Tajikistan)
Tahiti (island)               French Polynesia     17 37 S    149 27 W
Taipei (capital)              Taiwan               25 03 N    121 30 E
Taiwan Strait                 Pacific Ocean        24 00 N    119 00 E
Tallinn (capital)             Estonia              59 25 N    24 45 E
Tanganyika (former name for   Tanzania             6 00 S     35 00 E
the mainland portion of
Tanzania)
Tangier (city)                Morocco              35 48 N    5 45 W
Tannu-Tuva (region)           Russia               51 25 N    94 45 E
Tarawa (island)               Kiribati             1 25 N     173 00 E
Tartary, Gulf of              Pacific Ocean        50 00 N    141 00 E
Tashkent (capital)            Uzbekistan           41 20 N    69 18 E
Tasman Sea                    Pacific Ocean        4 30 S     168 00 E
Tasmania (island)             Australia            43 00 S    147 00 E
Tatar Strait                  Pacific Ocean        50 00 N    141 00 E
Taymyr Peninsula (Poluostrov  Russia               76 00 N    104 00 E
Taymyr)
Tchad (local name for Chad)   Chad                 15 00 N    19 00 E
Tegucigalpa (capital)         Honduras             14 06 N    87 13 W
Tehran (capital)              Iran                 35 40 N    51 26 E
Tel Aviv (capital, de facto)  Israel               32 05 N    34 48 E
Teluk Bone (gulf)             Pacific Ocean        4 00 S     120 45 E
Teluk Tomini (gulf)           Pacific Ocean        0 30 S     121 00 E
Terre Adelie (claimed by      Antarctica           66 30 S    139 00 E
France; also Adelie Land)
Terres Australes et           French Southern and  43 00 S    67 00 E
Antarctiques Francaises       Antarctic Lands
(local name for the French
Southern and Antarctic Lands)
Thailand, Gulf of             Pacific Ocean        10 00 N    101 00 E
The Former Yugoslav Republic  Macedonia            41 50 N    22 00 E
of Macedonia
Thessaloniki (city; also      Greece               40 38 N    22 57 E
Salonika)
Thimphu (capital)             Bhutan               27 28 N    89 39 E
Thuringia (region)            Germany              51 00 N    11 00 E
Thurston Island               Antarctica           72 20 S    99 00 W
Tiberias, Lake                Israel               32 48 N    35 35 E
Tibet (autonomous region;     China                32 00 N    90 00 E
also Xizang)
Tibilisi (see T'bilisi)       Georgia              41 43 N    44 49 E
Tien Shan (mountains)         China, Kyrgyzstan    42 00 N    80 00 E
Tierra del Fuego (island,     Argentina, Chile     54 00 S    69 00 W
island group)
Timor (island)                East Timor,          9 00 S     125 00 E
                              Indonesia
Timor Sea                     Pacific Ocean        11 00 S    128 00 E
Timor-Leste, Timor Lorosa'e   East Timor           9 00 N     126 00 E
(local names for East Timor)
Tinian (island)               Northern Mariana     15 00 N    145 38 E
                              Islands
Tiran, Strait of              Indian Ocean         28 00 N    34 27 E
Tirana, Tirane (capital)      Albania              41 20 N    19 50 E
Tirol, Tyrol (region)         Austria, Italy       47 00 N    11 00 E
Tobago (island)               Trinidad and Tobago  11 15 N    60 40 W
Tokyo (capital)               Japan                35 42 N    139 46 E
Tonkin, Gulf of               Pacific Ocean        20 00 N    108 00 E
Toronto (city)                Canada               43 40 N    79 23 W
Torres Strait                 Pacific Ocean        10 25 S    142 10 E
Torshavn (capital)            Faroe Islands        62 01 N    6 46 W
Toshkent (see Tashkent)       Uzbekistan           41 20 N    69 18 E
Transcarpathia (region;       Ukraine              48 22 N    23 32 E
alternate name for Carpatho-
Ukraine)
Transjordan (former name for  Jordan               31 00 N    36 00 E
Jordan)
Transkei (enclave)            South Africa         32 15 S    28 15 E
Transvaal (region; former     South Africa         25 10 S    29 25 E
name for northeastern South
Africa)
Transylvania (region)         Romania              46 30 N    24 00 E
Trindade, Ilha de (island)    Brazil               20 31 S    29 20 W
Trinidad (island)             Trinidad and Tobago  10 22 N    61 15 W
Tripoli (capital)             Libya                32 54 N    13 11 E
Tripoli (city)                Lebanon              34 26 N    35 51 E
Tripolitania (region)         Libya                31 00 N    14 00 E
Tristan da Cunha Group        Saint Helena         37 15 S    12 30 W
(island group)
Trobriand Islands             Papua New Guinea     8 38 S     151 04 E
Trucial Coast (former name    United Arab Emirates 24 00 N    54 00 E
for the United Arab Emirates)
Trucial Oman (former name for United Arab Emirates 24 00 N    54 00 E
the United Arab Emirates)
Trucial States (former name   United Arab Emirates 24 00 N    54 00 E
for the United Arab Emirates)
Truk Islands (former name for Federated States of  7 25 N     151 47 E
the Chuuk Islands)            Micronesia
Tsugaru Strait                Pacific Ocean        41 35 N    141 00 E
Tuamotu Islands (Iles         French Polynesia     19 00 S    142 00 W
Tuamotu)
Tubuai Islands (Iles Tubuai)  French Polynesia     23 00 S    150 00 W
Tunb al Kubra (island)        Iran                 26 14 N    55 19 E
Tunb as Sughra (island)       Iran                 26 14 N    55 09 E
Tunis (capital)               Tunisia              36 48 N    10 11 E
Turin (city)                  Italy                45 04 N    7 40 E
Turkish Straits (see Bosporus Atlantic Ocean       40 40 N    28 00 E
and Dardenelles)
Turkiye (local name for       Turkey               39 00 N    35 00 E
Turkey)
Turkmenia, Turkmeniya (former Turkmenistan         40 00 N    60 00 E
name for Turkmenistan)
Turks Island Passage          Atlantic Ocean       21 40 N    71 00 W
Tuscany (region)              Italy                43 25 N    11 00 E
Tutuila (island)              American Samoa       14 18 S    170 42 W
Tyrrhenian Sea                Atlantic Ocean       40 00 N    12 00 E
Ubangi-Shari (former name for Central African      6 38 N     20 33 E
the Central African Republic  Republic
Ukrayina (local name for      Ukraine              49 00 N    32 00 E
Ukraine)
Ulaanbaatar (capital)         Mongolia             47 55 N    106 53 E
Ullung-do (island)            South Korea          37 29 N    130 52 E
Ulster (region)               Ireland, United      54 35 N    7 00 W
                              Kingdom
Uman (local name for Oman)    Oman                 21 00 N    57 00 E
Unimak Pass (strait)          Pacific Ocean        54 20 N    164 50 W
Union of Soviet Socialist     Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Republics or USSR (former     Belarus, Estonia,
name of a large Eurasian      Georgia, Kazakhstan,
empire, roughly coequal with  Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
the former Russian Empire)    Lithuania, Moldova,
                              Russia, Tajikistan,
                              Turkmenistan,
                              Ukraine, Uzbekistan
United Arab Republic or UAR   Egypt, Syria
(former name for a federation
between Egypt and Syria)
Upper Volta (former name for  Burkina Faso         13 00 N    2 00 W
Burkina Faso)
Ural Mountains                Kazakhstan, Russia   60 00 N    60 00 E
Urdunn (local name for        Jordan               31 00 N    36 00 E
Jordan)
Urundi (former name for       Burundi              3 30 S     30 00 E
Burundi)
Ussuri River                  China, Russia        48 28 N    135 02 E
Vaduz (capital)               Liechtenstein        47 09 N    9 31 E
Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor)      Afghanistan          37 00 N    73 00 E
Valletta (capital)            Malta                35 54 N    14 31 E
Valley, The (capital)         Anguilla             18 13 N    63 04 W
Van Diemen Strait (Osumi      Pacific Ocean        31 00 N    131 00 E
Strait)
Vancouver (city)              Canada               49 16 N    123 08 W
Vancouver Island              Canada               49 45 N    126 00 W
Vatican City (capital)        Holy See             41 54 N    12 27 E
Velez de la Gomera, Penon de  Spain                35 11 N    4 18 W
(island)
Venda (enclave)               South Africa         23 00 S    31 00 E
Verde Island Passage          Pacific Ocean        13 34 N    120 51 E
Victoria (capital)            Seychelles           4 38 S     55 27 E
Victoria (island)             Canada               71 00 N    110 00 W
Victoria Land (region)        Antarctica           72 00 S    155 00 E
Vienna (capital)              Austria              48 12 N    16 22 E
Vientiane (capital)           Laos                 17 58 N    102 36 E
Vilnius (capital)             Lithuania            54 41 N    25 19 E
Viti Levu (island)            Fiji                 18 00 S    178 00 E
Vladivostok (city)            Russia               43 10 N    131 56 E
Vojvodina (region)            Serbia               45 35 N    20 00 E
Volcano Islands               Japan                25 00 N    141 00 E
Vostok Island                 Kiribati             10 06 S    152 23 W
Wake Atoll                    Wake Island          19 17 N    166 39 E
Wakhan Corridor (see Vakhan)  Afghanistan          37 00 N    73 00 E
Walachia (region)             Romania              44 45 N    26 05 E
Wales (region)                United Kingdom       52 30 N    3 30 W
Wallis Islands                Wallis and Futuna    13 17 S    176 10 W
Walvis Bay (city; former      Namibia              22 59 S    14 31 E
exclave)
Warsaw (capital)              Poland               52 15 N    21 00 E
Washington, DC (capital)      United States        38 53 N    77 02 W
Weddell Sea                   Southern Ocean       72 00 S    45 00 W
Wellington (capital)          New Zealand          41 28 S    174 51 E
West Frisian Islands          Netherlands          53 26 N    5 30 E
West Germany (Federal         Germany              53 22 N    5 20 E
Republic of Germany; former
name for western portion of
Germany)
West Island (capital)         Cocos (Keeling)      12 10 S    96 55 E
                              Islands
West Korea Strait (Western    Pacific Ocean        34 40 N    129 00 E
Channel)
West Pakistan (former name    Pakistan             30 00 N    70 00 E
for present-day Pakistan)
West Siberian Plain           Russia               60 00 N    75 00 E
Western Channel (West Korea   Pacific Ocean        34 40 N    129 00 E
Strait)
Western Samoa (former name    Samoa                13 35 S    172 20 W
for Samoa)
Wetar Strait                  Pacific Ocean        8 20 S     126 30 E
White Sea                     Arctic Ocean         65 30 N    38 00 E
Wilkes Land (region)          Antarctica           71 00 S    120 00 E
Willemstad (capital)          Netherlands Antilles 12 06 N    68 56 W
Windhoek (capital)            Namibia              22 34 S    17 06 E
Windward Passage              Atlantic Ocean       20 00 N    73 50 W
Winnipeg (city)               Canada               49 53 N    97 10 W
Wrangel Island (Ostrov        Russia               71 14 N    179 36 W
Vrangelya)
Xianggang (local name for     Hong Kong            22 15 N    114 10 E
Hong Kong)
Y'israel (local name for      Israel               31 30 N    34 45 E
Israel)
Yaitopya (local name for      Ethiopia             8 00 N     38 00 E
Ethiopia)
Yalu River                    China, North Korea   39 55 N    124 20 E
Yamoussoukro (capital)        Cote d'Ivoire        6 49 N     5 17 W
Yangon (see Rangoon)          Burma                16 47 N    96 10 E
Yaounde (capital)             Cameroon             3 52 N     11 31 E
Yap Islands                   Federated States of  9 30 N     138 00 E
                              Micronesia
Yaren (governmental center)   Nauru                0 32 S     166 55 E
Yekaterinburg (city; formerly Russia               56 50 N    60 39 E
Sverdlovsk)
Yellow Sea                    Pacific Ocean        36 00 N    123 00 E
Yemen Arab Republic (also     Yemen                15 00 N    44 00 E
Yemen (Sanaa); former name
for northern portion of
Yemen)
Yemen, People's Democratic    Yemen                14 00 N    46 00 E
Republic of (also Yemen
(Aden); former name for
southern portion of Yemen)
Yerevan (capital)             Armenia              40 11 N    44 30 E
Yokohama (city)               Japan                35 26 N    139 37 E
Youth, Isle of (Isla de la    Cuba                 21 40 N    82 50 W
Juventud)
Yucatan Channel               Atlantic Ocean       21 45 N    85 45 W
Yucatan Peninsula             Mexico               19 30 N    89 00 W
Yugoslavia (former name for a Montenegro, Serbia   43 00 N    21 00 E
federation of Serbia and
Montenegro)
Yugoslavia, Kingdom of        Bosnia and           43 00 N    19 00 E
(former name for a Balkan     Herzegovina,
federation)                   Croatia, Macedonia,
                              Montenegro, Serbia,
                              Slovenia
Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Bosnia and           43 00 N    19 00 E
Republic of (former name for  Herzegovina,
a Balkan federation)          Croatia, Macedonia,
                              Montenegro, Serbia,
                              Slovenia
Zagreb (capital)              Croatia              45 48 N    15 58 E
Zaire (former name for the    Democratic Republic  15 00 S    30 00 E
Democratic Republic of the    of the Congo
Congo)
Zakhalinskiy Zaliv (bay)      Pacific Ocean        54 00 N    142 00 E
Zaliv Shelikhova (bay)        Pacific Ocean        60 00 N    157 30 E
Zambezia (region)             Mozambique           16 00 S    37 00 E
Zanzibar (island)             Tanzania             6 10 S     39 11 E
Zhong Guo, Zhonghua (local    China                35 00 N    105 00 E
name for China)
Zion, Mount (locale in        Israel, West Bank    31 46 N    35 14 E
Jerusalem)
Zurich (city)                 Switzerland          47 23 N    8 32 E


This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006



=====================================================================



Appendix G - Weights and Measures


Note: At this time, only three countries - Burma, Liberia, and the US -
have not adopted the International System of Units (SI, or metric
system) as their official system of weights and measures. Although use
of the metric system has been sanctioned by law in the US since 1866,
it has been slow in displacing the American adaptation of the British
Imperial System known as the US Customary System. The US is the only
industrialized nation that does not mainly use the metric system in its
commercial and standards activities, but there is increasing acceptance
in science, medicine, government, and many sectors of industry.


  Mathematical Notation

  Mathematical Power                           Name

  10^18 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000           one quintillion
  10^15 or 1,000,000,000,000,000               one quadrillion
  10^12 or 1,000,000,000,000                   one trillion
  10^9 or 1,000,000,000                        one billion
  10^6 or 1,000,000                            one million
  10^3 or 1,000                                one thousand
  10^2 or 100                                  one hundred
  10^1 or 10                                   ten
  10^0 or 1                                    one
  10^-1 or 0.1                                 one-tenth
  10^-2 or 0.01                                one-hundredth
  10^-3 or 0.001                               one-thousandth
  10^-6 or 0.000 001                           one-millionth
  10^-9 or 0.000 000 001                       one-billionth
  10^-12 or 0.000 000 000 001                  one-trillionth
  10^-15 or 0.000 000 000 000 001              one-quadrillionth
  10^-18 or 0.000 000 000 000 000 001          one-quintillionth


  Metric Interrelationships

  Prefix       Symbol    Length, weight,      Area          Volume
                         or capacity

  exa          E         10^18                10^36         10^54
  peta         P         10^15                10^30         10^45
  tera         T         10^12                10^24         10^36
  giga         G         10^9                 10^18         10^27
  mega         M         10^6                 10^12         10^18
  hectokilo    hk        10^5                 10^10         10^15
  myria        ma        10^4                 10^8          10^12
  kilo         k         10^3                 10^6          10^9
  hecto        h         10^2                 10^4          10^6
  basic unit   -         1 meter, 1 gram,     1 meter^2     1 meter^3
                         1 liter
  deci         d         10^-1                10^-2         10^-3
  centi        c         10^-2                10^-4         10^-6
  milli        m         10^-3                10^-6         10^-9
  decimilli    dm        10^-4                10^-8         10^-12
  centimilli   cm        10^-5                10^-10        10^-15
  micro        u         10^-6                10^-12        10^-18
  nano         n         10^-9                10^-18        10^-27
  pico         p         10^-12               10^-24        10^-36
  femto        f         10^-15               10^-30        10^-45
  atto         a         10^-18               10^-36        10^-54


Conversion Factors

To Convert From             To                          Multiply By

acres                       ares                        40.468 564 224
acres                       hectares                    0.404 685 642 24
acres                       square feet                 43,560
acres                       square kilometers           0.004 046 856 422 4
acres                       square meters               4,046.856 422 4
acres                       square miles (statute)      0.001 562 50
acres                       square yards                4,840
ares                        square meters               100
ares                        square yards                119.599
barrels, US beer            gallons                     31
barrels, US beer            liters                      117.347 77
barrels, US petroleum       gallons (British)           34.97
barrels, US petroleum       gallons (US)                42
barrels, US petroleum       liters                      158.987 29
barrels, US proof spirits   gallons                     40
barrels, US proof spirits   liters                      151.416 47
bushels (US)                bushels (British)           0.968 9
bushels (US)                cubic feet                  1.244 456
bushels (US)                cubic inches                2,150.42
bushels (US)                cubic meters                0.035 239 07
bushels (US)                cubic yards                 0.046 090 96
bushels (US)                dekaliters                  3.523 907
bushels (US)                dry pints                   64
bushels (US)                dry quarts                  32
bushels (US)                liters                      35.239 070 17
bushels (US)                pecks                       4
cables                      fathoms                     120
cables                      meters                      219.456
cables                      yards                       240
carat                       milligrams                  200
centimeters                 feet                        0.032 808 40
centimeters                 inches                      0.393 700 8
centimeters                 meters                      0.01
centimeters                 yards                       0.010 936 13
centimeters, cubic          cubic inches                0.061 023 744
centimeters, square         square feet                 0.001 076 39
centimeters, square         square inches               0.155 000 31
centimeters, square         square meters               0.000 1
centimeters, square         square yards                0.000 119 599
chains, square surveyor's   ares                        4.046 86
chains, square surveyor's   square feet                 4,356
chains, surveyor's          feet                        66
chains, surveyor's          meters                      20.116 8
chains, surveyor's          rods                        4
cords of wood               cubic feet                  128
cords of wood               cubic meters                3.624 556
cords of wood               cubic yards                 4.740 7
cups                        liquid ounces (US)          8
cups                        liters                      0.236 588 2
degrees Celsius             degrees Fahrenheit          multiply by 1.8
                                                          and add 32
degrees Fahrenheit          degrees Celsius             subtract 32 and
                                                          divide by 1.8
dekaliters                  bushels                     0.283 775 9
dekaliters                  cubic feet                  0.353 146 7
dekaliters                  cubic inches                610.237 4
dekaliters                  dry pints                   18.161 66
dekaliters                  dry quarts                  9.080 829 8
dekaliters                  liters                      10
dekaliters                  pecks                       1.135 104
drams, avoirdupois          avoirdupois ounces          0.062 55
drams, avoirdupois          grains                      27.344
drams, avoirdupois          grams                       1.771 845 2
drams, troy                 grains                      60
drams, troy                 grams                       3.887 934 6
drams, troy                 scruples                    3
drams, troy                 troy ounces                 0.125
drams, liquid (US)          cubic inches                0.226
drams, liquid (US)          liquid drams (British)      1.041
drams, liquid (US)          liquid ounces               0.125
drams, liquid (US)          milliliters                 3.696 69
drams, liquid (US)          minims                      60
fathoms                     feet                        6
fathoms                     meters                      1.828 8
feet                        centimeters                 30.48
feet                        inches                      12
feet                        kilometers                  0.000 304 8
feet                        meters                      0.304 8
feet                        statute miles               0.000 189 39
feet                        yards                       0.333 333 3
feet, cubic                 bushels                     0.803 563 95
feet, cubic                 cubic decimeters            28.316 847
feet, cubic                 cubic inches                1,728
feet, cubic                 cubic meters                0.028 316 846 592
feet, cubic                 cubic yards                 0.037 037 04
feet, cubic                 dry pints                   51.428 09
feet, cubic                 dry quarts                  25.714 05
feet, cubic                 gallons                     7.480 519
feet, cubic                 gills                       239.376 6
feet, cubic                 liquid ounces               957.506 5
feet, cubic                 liquid pints                59.844 16
feet, cubic                 liquid quarts               29.922 08
feet, cubic                 liters                      28.316 846 592
feet, cubic                 pecks                       3.214 256
feet, square                acres                       0.000 022 956 8
feet, square                square centimeters          929.030 4
feet, square                square decimeters           9.290 304
feet, square                square inches               144
feet, square                square meters               0.092 903 04
feet, square                square yards                0.111 111 1
furlongs                    feet                        660
furlongs                    inches                      7,920
furlongs                    meters                      201.168
furlongs                    statute miles               0.125
furlongs                    yards                       220
gallons, liquid (US)        cubic feet                  0.133 680 6
gallons, liquid (US)        cubic inches                231
gallons, liquid (US)        cubic meters                0.003 785 411 784
gallons, liquid (US)        cubic yards                 0.004 951 13
gallons, liquid (US)        gills (US)                  32
gallons, liquid (US)        liquid gallons (British)    0.832 67
gallons, liquid (US)        liquid ounces               128
gallons, liquid (US)        liquid pints                8
gallons, liquid (US)        liquid quarts               4
gallons, liquid (US)        liters                      3.785 411 784
gallons, liquid (US)        milliliters                 3,785.411 784
gallons, liquid (US)        minims                      61,440
gills (US)                  centiliters                 11.829 4
gills (US)                  cubic feet                  0.004 177 517
gills (US)                  cubic inches                7.218 75
gills (US)                  gallons                     0.031 25
gills (US)                  gills (British)             0.832 67
gills (US)                  liquid ounces               4
gills (US)                  liquid pints                0.25
gills (US)                  liquid quarts               0.125
gills (US)                  liters                      0.118 294 118 25
gills (US)                  milliliters                 118.294 118 25
gills (US)                  minims                      1,920
grains                      avoirdupois drams           0.036 571 43
grains                      avoirdupois ounces          0.002 285 71
grains                      avoirdupois pounds          0.000 142 86
grains                      grams                       0.064 798 91
grains                      kilograms                   0.000 064 798 91
grains                      milligrams                  64.798 910
grains                      pennyweights                0.042
grains                      scruples                    0.05
grains                      troy drams                  0.016 6
grains                      troy ounces                 0.002 083 33
grains                      troy pounds                 0.000 173 61
grams                       avoirdupois drams           0.564 383 39
grams                       avoirdupois ounces          0.035 273 961
grams                       avoirdupois pounds          0.002 204 622 6
grams                       grains                      15.432 361
grams                       kilograms                   0.001
grams                       milligrams                  1,000
grams                       troy ounces                 0.032 150 746 6
grams                       troy pounds                 0.002 679 23
hands (height of horse)     centimeters                 10.16
hands (height of horse)     inches                      4
hectares                    acres                       2.471 053 8
hectares                    square feet                 107,639.1
hectares                    square kilometers           0.01
hectares                    square meters               10,000
hectares                    square miles                0.003 861 02
hectares                    square yards                11,959.90
hundredweights, long        avoirdupois pounds          112
hundredweights, long        kilograms                   50.802 345
hundredweights, long        long tons                   0.05
hundredweights, long        metric tons                 0.050 802 345
hundredweights, long        short tons                  0.056
hundredweights, short       avoirdupois pounds          100
hundredweights, short       kilograms                   45.359 237
hundredweights, short       long tons                   0.044 642 86
hundredweights, short       metric tons                 0.045 359 237
hundredweights, short       short tons                  0.05
inches                      centimeters                 2.54
inches                      feet                        0.083 333 33
inches                      meters                      0.025 4
inches                      millimeters                 25.4
inches                      yards                       0.027 777 78
inches, cubic               bushels                     0.000 465 025
inches, cubic               cubic centimeters           16.387 064
inches, cubic               cubic feet                  0.000 578 703 7
inches, cubic               cubic meters                0.000 016 387 064
inches, cubic               cubic yards                 0.000 021 433 47
inches, cubic               dry pints                   0.029 761 6
inches, cubic               dry quarts                  0.014 880 8
inches, cubic               gallons                     0.004 329 0
inches, cubic               gills                       0.138 528 1
inches, cubic               liquid ounces               0.554 112 6
inches, cubic               liquid pints                0.034 632 03
inches, cubic               liquid quarts               0.017 316 02
inches, cubic               liters                      0.016 387 064
inches, cubic               milliliters                 16.387 064
inches, cubic               minims (US)                 265.974 0
inches, cubic               pecks                       0.001 860 10
inches, square              square centimeters          6.451 600
inches, square              square feet                 0.006 944 44
inches, square              square meters               0.000 645 16
inches, square              square yards                0.000 771 605
kilograms                   avoirdupois drams           564.383 4
kilograms                   avoirdupois ounces          35.273 962
kilograms                   avoirdupois pounds          2.204 622 622
kilograms                   grains                      15,432.36
kilograms                   grams                       1,000
kilograms                   long tons                   0.000 984 2
kilograms                   metric tons                 0.001
kilograms                   short hundredweights        0.022 046 23
kilograms                   short tons                  0.001 102 31
kilograms                   troy ounces                 32.150 75
kilograms                   troy pounds                 2.679 229
kilometers                  meters                      1,000
kilometers                  statute miles               0.621 371 192
kilometers, square          acres                       247.105 38
kilometers, square          hectares                    100
kilometers, square          square meters               1,000,000
kilometers, square          statute miles               0.386 102 16
knots (nautical mi/hr)      kilometers/hour             1.852
knots (nautical mi/hr)      statute miles/hour          1.151
leagues, nautical           kilometers                  5.556
leagues, nautical           nautical miles              3
leagues, statute            kilometers                  4.828 032
leagues, statute            statute miles               3
links, square surveyor's    square centimeters          404.686
links, square surveyor's    square inches               62.726 4
links, surveyor's           centimeters                 20.116 8
links, surveyor's           chains                      0.01
links, surveyor's           inches                      7.92
liters                      bushels                     0.028 377 59
liters                      cubic feet                  0.035 314 67
liters                      cubic inches                61.023 74
liters                      cubic meters                0.001
liters                      cubic yards                 0.001 307 95
liters                      dekaliters                  0.1
liters                      dry pints                   1.816 166
liters                      dry quarts                  0.908 082 98
liters                      gallons                     0.264 172 052
liters                      gills (US)                  8.453 506
liters                      liquid ounces               33.814 02
liters                      liquid pints                2.113 376
liters                      liquid quarts               1.056 688 2
liters                      milliliters                 1,000
liters                      pecks                       0.113 510 4
meters                      centimeters                 100
meters                      feet                        3.280 839 895
meters                      inches                      39.370 079
meters                      kilometers                  0.001
meters                      millimeters                 1,000
meters                      statute miles               0.000 621 371
meters                      yards                       1.093 613 298
meters, cubic               bushels                     28.377 59
meters, cubic               cubic feet                  35.314 666 7
meters, cubic               cubic inches                61,023.744
meters, cubic               cubic yards                 1.307 950 619
meters, cubic               gallons                     264.172 05
meters, cubic               liters                      1,000
meters, cubic               pecks                       113.510 4
meters, square              acres                       0.000 247 105 38
meters, square              hectares                    0.000 1
meters, square              square centimeters          10,000
meters, square              square feet                 10.763 910 4
meters, square              square inches               1,550.003 1
meters, square              square yards                1.195 990 046
microns                     meters                      0.000 001
microns                     inches                      0.000 039 4
mils                        inches                      0.001
mils                        millimeters                 0.025 4
miles, nautical             kilometers                  1.852 0
miles, nautical             statute miles               1.150 779 4
miles, statute              centimeters                 160,934.4
miles, statute              feet                        5,280
miles, statute              furlongs                    8
miles, statute              inches                      63,360
miles, statute              kilometers                  1.609 344
miles, statute              meters                      1,609.344
miles, statute              rods                        320
miles, statute              yards                       1,760
miles, square nautical      square kilometers           3.429 904
miles, square nautical      square statute miles        1.325
miles, square statute       acres                       640
miles, square statute       hectares                    258.998 811 033 6
miles, square statute       sections                    1
miles, square statute       square kilometers           2.589 988 110 336
miles, square statute       square nautical miles       0.755 miles
miles, square statute       square rods                 102,400
milligrams                  grains                      0.015 432 358 35
milliliters                 cubic inches                0.061 023 744
milliliters                 gallons                     0.000 264 17
milliliters                 gills (US)                  0.008 453 5
milliliters                 liquid ounces               0.033 814 02
milliliters                 liquid pints                0.002 113 4
milliliters                 liquid quarts               0.001 056 7
milliliters                 liters                      0.001
milliliters                 minims                      16.230 73
millimeters                 inches                      0.039 370 078 7
minims (US)                 cubic inches                0.003 759 77
minims (US)                 gills (US)                  0.000 520 83
minims (US)                 liquid ounces               0.002 083 33
minims (US)                 milliliters                 0.061 611 52
minims (US)                 minims (British)            1.041
ounces, avoirdupois         avoirdupois drams           16
ounces, avoirdupois         avoirdupois pounds          0.062 5
ounces, avoirdupois         grains                      437.5
ounces, avoirdupois         grams                       28.349 523 125
ounces, avoirdupois         kilograms                   0.028 349 523 125
ounces, avoirdupois         troy ounces                 0.911 458 3
ounces, avoirdupois         troy pounds                 0.075 954 86
ounces, liquid (US)         cubic feet                  0.001 044 38
ounces, liquid (US)         centiliters                 2.957 35
ounces, liquid (US)         cubic inches                1.804 687 5
ounces, liquid (US)         gallons                     0.007 812 5
ounces, liquid (US)         gills (US)                  0.25
ounces, liquid (US)         liquid drams                8
ounces, liquid (US)         liquid ounces (British)     1.041
ounces, liquid (US)         liquid pints                0.062 5
ounces, liquid (US)         liquid quarts               0.031 25
ounces, liquid (US)         liters                      0.029 573 53
ounces, liquid (US)         milliliters                 29.573 529 6
ounces, liquid (US)         minims                      480
ounces, troy                avoirdupois drams           17.554 29
ounces, troy                avoirdupois ounces          1.097 143
ounces, troy                avoirdupois pounds          0.068 571 43
ounces, troy                grains                      480
ounces, troy                grams                       31.103 476 8
ounces, troy                pennyweights                20
ounces, troy                troy drams                  8
ounces, troy                troy pounds                 0.083 333 3
paces (US)                  centimeters                 76.2
paces (US)                  inches                      30
pecks (US)                  bushels                     0.25
pecks (US)                  cubic feet                  0.311 114
pecks (US)                  cubic inches                537.605
pecks (US)                  cubic meters                0.008 809 77
pecks (US)                  cubic yards                 0.011 522 74
pecks (US)                  dekaliters                  0.880 976 75
pecks (US)                  dry pints                   16
pecks (US)                  dry quarts                  8
pecks (US)                  liters                      8.809 767 5
pecks (US)                  pecks (British)             0.968 9
pennyweights                grains                      24
pennyweights                grams                       1.555 173 84
pennyweights                troy ounces                 0.05
pints, dry (US)             bushels                     0.015 625
pints, dry (US)             cubic feet                  0.019 444 63
pints, dry (US)             cubic inches                33.600 312 5
pints, dry (US)             dekaliters                  0.055 061 05
pints, dry (US)             dry pints (British)         0.968 9
pints, dry (US)             dry quarts                  0.5
pints, dry (US)             liters                      0.550 610 47
pints, liquid (US)          cubic feet                  0.016 710 07
pints, liquid (US)          cubic inches                28.875
pints, liquid (US)          deciliters                  4.731 76
pints, liquid (US)          gallons                     0.125
pints, liquid (US)          gills (US)                  4
pints, liquid (US)          liquid ounces               16
pints, liquid (US)          liquid pints (British)      0.832 67
pints, liquid (US)          liquid quarts               0.5
pints, liquid (US)          liters                      0.473 176 473
pints, liquid (US)          milliliters                 473.176 473
pints, liquid (US)          minims                      7,680
points (typographical)      inches                      0.013 837
points (typographical)      millimeters                 0.351 459 8
pounds, avoirdupois         avoirdupois drams           256
pounds, avoirdupois         avoirdupois ounces          16
pounds, avoirdupois         grains                      7,000
pounds, avoirdupois         grams                       453.592 37
pounds, avoirdupois         kilograms                   0.453 592 37
pounds, avoirdupois         long tons                   0.000 446 428 6
pounds, avoirdupois         metric tons                 0.000 453 592 37
pounds, avoirdupois         quintals                    0.004 535 92
pounds, avoirdupois         short tons                  0.000 5
pounds, avoirdupois         troy ounces                 14.583 33
pounds, avoirdupois         troy pounds                 1.215 278
pounds, troy                avoirdupois drams           210.651 4
pounds, troy                avoirdupois ounces          13.165 71
pounds, troy                avoirdupois pounds          0.822 857 1
pounds, troy                grains                      5,760
pounds, troy                grams                       373.241 721 6
pounds, troy                kilograms                   0.373 241 721 6
pounds, troy                pennyweights                240
pounds, troy                troy ounces                 12
quarts, dry (US)            bushels                     0.031 25
quarts, dry (US)            cubic feet                  0.038 889 25
quarts, dry (US)            cubic inches                67.200 625
quarts, dry (US)            dekaliters                  0.110 122 1
quarts, dry (US)            dry pints                   2
quarts, dry (US)            dry quarts (British)        0.968 9
quarts, dry (US)            liters                      1.101 221
quarts, dry (US)            pecks                       0.125
quarts, dry (US)            pints, dry (US)             2
quarts, liquid (US)         cubic feet                  0.033 420 14
quarts, liquid (US)         cubic inches                57.75
quarts, liquid (US)         deciliters                  9.463 53
quarts, liquid (US)         gallons                     0.25
quarts, liquid (US)         gills (US)                  8
quarts, liquid (US)         liquid ounces               32
quarts, liquid (US)         liquid pints (US)           2
quarts, liquid (US)         liquid quarts (British)     0.832 67
quarts, liquid (US)         liters                      0.946 352 946
quarts, liquid (US)         milliliters                 946.352 946
quarts, liquid (US)         minims                      15,360
quintals                    avoirdupois pounds          220.462 26
quintals                    kilograms                   100
quintals                    metric tons                 0.1
rods                        feet                        16.5
rods                        meters                      5.029 2
rods                        yards                       5.5
rods, square                acres                       0.006 25
rods, square                square meters               25.292 85
rods, square                square yards                30.25
scruples                    grains                      20
scruples                    grams                       1.295 978 2
scruples                    troy drams                  0.333
sections (US)               square kilometers           2.589 988 1
sections (US)               square statute miles        1
spans                       centimeters                 22.86
spans                       inches                      9
steres                      cubic meters                1
steres                      cubic yards                 1.307 95
tablespoons                 milliliters                 14.786 76
tablespoons                 teaspoons                   3
teaspoons                   milliliters                 4.928 922
teaspoons                   tablespoons                 0.333 333
ton-miles, long             metric ton-kilometers       1.635 169
ton-miles, short            metric ton-kilometers       1.459 972
tons, gross register        cubic feet of permanently   100
                              enclosed space
tons, gross register        cubic meters of             2.831 684 7
                              permanently enclosed
                              space
tons, long (deadweight)     avoirdupois ounces          35,840
tons, long (deadweight)     avoirdupois pounds          2,240
tons, long (deadweight)     kilograms                   1,016.046 909 8
tons, long (deadweight)     long hundredweights         20
tons, long (deadweight)     metric tons                 1.016 046 908 8
tons, long (deadweight)     short hundredweights        22.4
tons, long (deadweight)     short tons                  1.12
tons, metric                avoirdupois pounds          2,204.623
tons, metric                kilograms                   1,000
tons, metric                long hundredweights         19.684 130 3
tons, metric                long tons                   0.984 206 5
tons, metric                quintals                    10
tons, metric                short hundredweights        22.046 23
tons, metric                short tons                  1.102 311 3
tons, metric                troy ounces                 32,150.75
tons, net register          cubic feet of permanently   100
                              enclosed space for cargo
                              and passengers
tons, net register          cubic meters of             2.831 684 7
                              permanently enclosed
                              space for cargo and
                              passengers
tons, shipping              cubic feet of permanently   42
                              enclosed cargo space

tons, shipping              cubic meters of             1.189 307 574
                              permanently enclosed
                              cargo space

tons, short                 avoirdupois pounds          2,000
tons, short                 kilograms                   907.184 74
tons, short                 long hundredweights         17.857 14
tons, short                 long tons                   0.892 857 1
tons, short                 metric tons                 0.907 184 74
tons, short                 short hundredweights        20
townships (US)              sections                    36
townships (US)              square kilometers           93.239 572
townships (US)              square statute miles        36
miles, square statute       acres                       640
miles, square statute       hectares                    258.998 811 033 6
miles, square statute       square feet                 27,878,400
miles, square statute       square meters               2,589,988.110 336
miles, square statute       square yards                3,097,600
yards                       centimeters                 91.44
yards                       feet                        3
yards                       inches                      36
yards                       meters                      0.914 4
yards                       miles                       0.000 568 18
yards, cubic                bushels                     21.696 227
yards, cubic                cubic feet                  27
yards, cubic                cubic inches                46,656
yards, cubic                cubic meters                0.764 554 857 984
yards, cubic                gallons                     201.974 0
yards, cubic                liters                      764.554 857 984
yards, cubic                pecks                       86.784 91
yards, square               acres                       0.000 206 611 6
yards, square               hectares                    0.000 083 612 736
yards, square               square centimeters          8,361.273 6
yards, square               square feet                 9
yards, square               square inches               1,296
yards, square               square meters               0.836 127 36
yards, square               square miles                0.000 000 322 830 6


This page was last updated on 11 July, 2006



=====================================================================








End of Project Gutenberg's The 2006 CIA World Factbook, by United States

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE 2006 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ***

***** This file should be named 27509.txt or 27509.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/5/0/27509/

Produced by Al Haines

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.



*** START: FULL LICENSE ***

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.net/license).


Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works

1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.  See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.

1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.

1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.

1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.

1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.

1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that

- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."

- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
     License.  You must require such a user to return or
     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
     Project Gutenberg-tm works.

- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
     of receipt of the work.

- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.

1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.

1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.


Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm

Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.


Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.

The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at http://pglaf.org

For additional contact information:
     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
     Chief Executive and Director
     gbnewby@pglaf.org


Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit http://pglaf.org

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations.  To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate


Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.

Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.


Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.


Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:

     http://www.gutenberg.net

This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
